Adalyn is here!

Adalyn was born July 7, 2011 at 2:42 p.m. She was 6 lb 8 oz and 19 inches long. Clark and I went into the hospital Thursday morning at 9:00 to be induced. The doctor broke my water and an hour later, started me on the not-so-wonderful Pitocin. At 11:00 I was a 4 and the anesthesiologist came in and told me he had 4 other surgeries scheduled that afternoon so it would be best to get the epidural right then. That was great by me! The contractions were coming every 1 1/2 minutes and more painful each one. It took the anesthesiologist almost 20 minutes to get it in. He blamed it on my scholiosis, but Clark said he seemed a bit inexperienced. Anyway, after that, I was feeling much better. At 2 p.m. I told Clark, "You better get the nurse. I feel the urge to push!" Clark ran to get the nurse and she checked me. I was at an 8 so she said we would wait a little bit more. At 2:30, I REALLY felt the urge to push, so Clark got the nurse and she checked me and said I was ready to go. She paged my doctor (who was at a tball game) and told me to try to wait. He arrived in my room minutes later and after 3 pushes, Adalyn was born. The nurse immediately put her on my chest and let me hold her for a minute. Then she took Adalyn away to get cleaned up, weighed, and checked out. She told me she would bring her back to me in 20 minutes. Well 30 minutes went by and she still wasn't back in my room. I had Clark go into the nursery to see what was taking so long. Clark told me they had to keep her a while since she had a lot of amniotic fluid in her lungs. They kept her in the nursery, on oxygen until 11:00 p.m. Then they brought her into us looking wide awake and happy. We took pictures and then tried to get some rest.

The kids have immediately taken to her. Will keeps saying how cute and little she is.

Rosie loves to be my special helper. She loves to throw away the diapers and cover Adalyn up with blankets.

We are so glad she is part of our family!

The Vandura and swim lessons

Now that blogger is letting me post again, I want to take advantage and update y'all on our summer. We went to the Evanston Rodeo last weekend. The kids loved the chicken chase and the saddle bronc riding. Rosie said she wanted to see Dad ride the wild bronc, but I was happy he was in the stands with us instead! Rosie also insisted on wearing her "cowgirl jeans and jean jacket" to look authentic. She was so cute!

We got a van! For months now we have been looking for a bigger vehicle since our little Honda Accord would be quite tight with 3 little ones in the back. Clark said he would really love to find an old van with curtains and comfy seating. Then just yesterday I was browsing online when I came across a 1990 GMC Vandura with only 79 thousand miles on it. I quickly called the lady and we drove over last night to look at it. I started cracking up when I saw it. It is hilarious! It's super comfy and very roomy. Will noticed it barely fits in a parking spot. The kids both hopped in and buckled themselves without any help and I knew it was the car for us. Here's to hopefully many more miles in our new ride.

Will just finished swim lessons today. He took them for 3 weeks at the local pool and he did so well. He passed off two levels and now feels comfortable swimming underwater, floating on his back, and even doing flips in the water. I was so proud of him!

Here's just a cute picture of the kids. They found Clark's ear muffs for when he goes out shooting his loud guns. They were pretending they were listening to music. Rosie's were too big for her and they kept squeezing her cheeks.

Here I am, 38 weeks along! I have an appt next Tuesday and hopefully the doctor will still suggest I get induced. At my appt last week, he offered to break my water, since things were already progressing. I realized I wasn't ready then to get induced, but now I am ready!

puppy and Will's birthday

We got a puppy! Her name is Pepper. She is a border collie/blue heeler mix. She wandered off a bit too much once and our neighbors two streets down took good care of her. She was missing for 3 days when Will said to me, "Mom I hear Pepper." Clark went over to their house and asked if they had seen a black and white dog. They brought Pepper to the door and said they were so glad we found her. They gave her all her newborn immunizations and dewormer. We were joking we need to have her wander off again so they can get her spayed. She has been living in the garage lately until Clark can finish our fence in the backyard.

Will turned 5 last month! He still loves sports, especially basketball. He requested a basketball cake for his birthday. He is such a sweet boy. He wanted all of his local cousins to come to his party so we had almost 30 people at our house for cake and ice cream. Lately he has been into "adventures" and pirates and swords and ships. He will be starting kindergarten in the fall and it makes us all a little sad.

Here I am, almost 36 weeks along. Next week I go to the doctor for one more ultrasound to make sure things are ready for delivery. I have been measuring 2 weeks ahead of shedule so the baby may come early. I am crossing my fingers, but my past tells me I will probably go overdue. I can't wait to meet this little one!

San Francisco

Clark had a work conference in San Francisco last week and he invited me to come with him. A week long date in California? How could I refuse? We left Sunday morning, drove to Salt Lake City, took a plane to Long Beach, CA and then another plane to San Francisco. These pictures are out of order so I'll just explain them as I go. On our flight to San Francisco we watched "The Best Thing You Ever Ate: Bacon". We were pleasantly surprised that two of the favorite bacon entrees came from San Francisco so we thought we had to try them out while we were there. The first was "Dynamo Donuts" Maple Bacon Donut. It's a local shop which makes all it's dough by hand and includes bacon and apples in the dough. Then after the donut gets fried, it's topped with a maple glaze and bacon bits. It was tasty, although it was $3 a piece! The other entree was at a store called "Boccalone" where they serve sliced meat in a cone. Clark got a few different varities of pork, but we weren't too impressed with it. There was a cupcake shop just down the road from our hotel. It was the cutest shop I had ever seen. The walls were painted brown with pink polka dots. There were 40 different cupcakes to choose from. They were also $3 each.

Clark's conference was Monday through Thursday so it left us Friday to do most of our sightseeing. We went to Alcatraz Friday morning. We were surprised with all the history that happened on the little island. It was a military prison, federal penitentary, home to a thousand American Indians in 1969, and now it's a national park.

Here we are on a ship on our way to Sausalito. It's a small island about a few miles from San Francisco. We enjoyed a nice dinner there with Clark's co-workers.

We took the cable car a few times for the experience. We found it was more expensive than a bus or a taxi. We went to the Cable Car Museum which described how they run and how they are repaired. In the 70's they tried to rid the city of them because they aren't very efficient, but the townspeople fought them and they got to keep their cable cars.

We also walked up Lombard Street, the crookedest street in America. We took a picture of it, but it didn't do the street justice. It is a one-way street with 8 very sharp turns, all down hill.

Our last night in San Francisco we went to the beach. There was a Safeway across the road where we got french bread, turkey, cheese, and chips. We had a picnic and watched the sunset. It was a wonderful trip. Towards the end, we both got quite home sick and antsy to see our kids again, but I'm so glad we got to spend the week together.

Finally a new post

Where to begin? We moved into a house and LOVE it! It is an older home so there are lots of projects that will keep us busy. We visited Laramie last weekend to see Steph & Ryan and their family, my family and some good friends. While we were there we went bowling. I had to laugh because it seems like the same guys have worked at the bowling alley since I first went there 20 years ago! There was a ramp the kids could put their balls on and then push them down the lane.

Will, being the competitive boy that he was kept asking, "Who has the high score?" Unfortunately, he did not, but he still had a good time. Our brother-in-law Ryan tore it up with a 186!

Here is Will and Porter playing on Sunday.

Since we have moved to Mountain View we have loved having so many relatives nearby. Rosie has a cousin Delaney who is her same age and they are so cute together. They love playing dress-ups. Luckily I had the same dress, in two different colors that they wore. Sometimes a fight will break out if I don't have two of the same thing. Girls!

This last picture is mostly for my sister Carolyn. I told her I was much bigger with this 3rd child and here's the pic to prove it. I was 22 weeks here. I am now almost 24 weeks, but who is counting right? I went to the doctor and he said everything looks great. We wanted to be surprised with the gender and fortunately during our ultrasound, our little baby was all curled up and we couldn't see any "parts". Looks like we'll be surprised when it comes.

Oh and I have to mention the color of the wall. I took this picture in our bedroom and I love the walls! The previous tenants painted them a deep red with the walls on the opposite sides a light brown. I never would have thought to do that, but I love it!