Boston's Blessing

We Blessed our tiny little man November 1st.  Josh did an amazing job, I love that he honors his priesthood and is able to perform that wonderful ordinance.  He is a wonderful daddy and husband.  Here are a few pictures from the day.

We are glad that so much of our family was able to make it down to share in his special day!

haPPy haLLowEEn

Braxton's first horseback riding experience.  He was just thrilled that he got to ride Joe.  He was so cute chillin' all by himself....as Joe started to walk he wasn't so sure, so momma jumped up and went for a ride too!

After the Horsey ride we carved our pumpkins......Braxton really seemed to enjoy himself! He really wanted to cut the pumpkin on his own too.....maybe in a year or two! :)

I was just messing around taking some 3 month pics of Boston and since it was Halloween I made them festive.

 Braxton and daddy all dressed up for trick-or-treating!  We had a blast, Braxton was such a trooper we took both kids out in the strollers and hit more than half our ward!  Braxton made a haul!!  He was upset when I had to dump some of the candy out of the cauldron so he could get more....but as soon as he got more candy at the next house all was well!

 Momma and Braxton, momma was a hick, or what ever you want to say.....just all dressed up in random weirdness!

Boston, Momma, and Braxton  Showing off the candy pile!

Jesus

Tonight while the home teachers were here Braxton picked up this picture off of the t.v. stand and said Jesus.  It filled my heart with love and joy......my little man knows who Jesus is, and probably better than you and I as the veil is still so thin since he's only been away from our Father in heaven for a short 20 months......... I'm a very proud mommy. (What a good job they are doing in nursery too!)

3 months old

I Have been a major blog slacker, so much has been going on.....I will do better, promise!

Boston is 3 months old today!!!  I can't believe that all the craziness was 3 months ago, feels like last week~

 Boston with frankie!

Since it's so close to Halloween I thought I would capture the day with a little bit of festivity!

Just a little update on him.  He weighs 11.4lbs  He is smiling and reacting to people talking to him.  He loves his big brother and is very loved by Braxton too!!  He doesn't quite fit into the 3 months clothes....but newborns are getting a little tight :)   He's a little fussier than Braxton was but he will take a Binky so that helps a ton (Braxton would have nothing to do with a Binky!)
Look for another post with the rest of the family update! :)

Busy, Busy, Lives!!

 Not much has been happening lately, I have been busy with school, and Leslie has been busy teaching school, and going to school, thank goodness she will be done this December, she is pretty stoked about it all, and so am I, I get frustrated when she is stressed. Leslie has also loving her extra curricular job of coaching the Hurricane High drill team, it gets her back into dancing and back in shape, and the girls are happy they have a full time coach, they have not had one for a couple years, the bad thing is is that they won't do any competitions this year but will participate in them next year. The boys are doing well, Braxton is starting to pick up on little words here and there, and little habits, for example, I had a couple of my deacons over for ice cream on Saturday afternoon and one of my deacons kept wiping his mouth with his shirt, needless to say we had to change his shirt after Braxton finished his ice cream cone, not exactly the habit we want him to have, but it was cute to see him copy everything he did, Les thought it was hilarious too. Boston is growing up so well, he is now a little over 9 lbs, Les knows the exact weight, I have trouble remembering at times. He is such a bundle of joy, both our kids are!!! And, I have a good wife that is happy with her three handsome boys, I know because she told me. Leslie is the glue of this spectacular family, God knew what he was doing when he made woman, men are lost without them. Cherish your wives, even though at times things are stressful and not so good, you can always cherish them, they do so much for you and your kids. There should be more days throughout the year to honor them, besides Mothers Day!! Love you Les, your the bestest!! Anyways here are a few photos of our kids! Enjoy!

 Aunt Nicole, holding Boston, on her Birthday,(Well, the day beforeher Birthday.), Happy birthday Aunt Nicole!

 Braxton Loves his back pack, he carries it around all the time, it's a little big and heavy for him at times, but he'll grow into it.

 Braxton was so tired, he fell a sleep eating his lunch, funny kiddo!!

 Zzzzzzzzzz!

 Braxton caring for his little brother when he fusses, or is in reaching level!

 Ahhh! Kisses from big brother!

 I guess he is in protection mode, no one touch or mess with my Bro!!

 Boston really tired! He loves sleeping on his boppy!

 Dad repositioned some sprinklers in the back yard, and Braxton decided to help out with the dirt. (As soon as the planter box is not in use I will make a sand box for him, he'll love that.)

           Boston chilling in the sun, while daddy is working on the sprinklers, mommy was helping daddy and Braxton, so he slept in the rays!!

My Story.......

This is my story of why I decided to come a month early!  Well everything had basically been going smooth while I was in mommy's belly.  First they thought she had placenta previa, so she got to have an extra ultrasound where they determined that she didn't have placenta previa, and that I was big for my gestational age. Well that was good news for mommy because it meant that Dr. Thompson would be willing to start her early!  Well things kept progressing and she took her gestational diabetes test, and her number was too high so she had to go back in and take a 3 hour fasting test where they drew her blood 4 times.  The results were in our favor and all was well.  So then at the beginning of July mom started swelling up, nothing too bad, and it would be gone in the morning after she was off her feet......Well it kept getting worse and worse, at her Dr's apt on July 21st her blood pressure was up just a little bit, and she had proteins in her urine.  Well that was not good, they told her to come back on the 23rd and they were going to take her blood pressure and protein count again.  So Thursday night mommy asked daddy to give her a priesthood blessing.  She could just tell that things weren't going to go as planed.  The Lord assured her that even though things weren't going as planned that everyone and everything would be fine.  That gave mommy lots of confidence as she went in to the Dr's on Friday.  Well her blood pressure was 160/115 or so which is really high and her proteins were out of control high too, so they told her and daddy that they needed to go over to the hospital and they would do a stress test for me, to make sure I was ok and then see what the next step would be.
    Well they dropped of Braxton with Grandpa Jeff, and headed to the hospital, when they got there they hooked mommy up to all the monitors and I passed my stress test, I was doing great :)  They took an ultrasound to make sure fluid levels were ok, as well as everything else.  This is when Mommy and daddy started to realize that everything wasn't alright.  I was measuring like I should be due at the end of September, well my due date was August 20th.  So that was a bit of a fright....but they saw that my lungs were functioning and so that was reassuring.  Well with all the information they gathered they said that Mommy was going to have a baby today!!  She was really excited yet it was still kinda surreal. 
    I'll let mommy tell you about what happened next!  So when I went in I was dialated to a 2, they started me on the Pitocin and because my blood pressure was so high they had to start me on Magnesium too, which meant I had to have a catheter.   The risk of the magnesium is that it passes to the baby, which can shallow their breathing.  Well I didn't have too many options so we signed all the papers and were ready to have a baby.  Dr. Thompson came over about noon and broke my water to get things moving.  I had the epidural about 2ish.  They had me laying kinda on my side, something to do with the magnesium and my lower back was killing, so I asked the nurse if I could adjust and she said " oh that's prob. the baby crowning....let me check well sure enough it was and I was like a 9 and 1/2 she said it'll be no time know.  Then I threw up just enough to push him the rest of the way.  She said that Dr. Thompson was on his way but that they were going to have everything ready because Boston  was coming really soon!   So they got me all situated, all the nurses came in as well as like 6 people from the NICU.  This was a precautionary thing as they didn't know what was going to happen.
  Well Dr. Thompson walked in got his gown on and told me to hold my breath and count to three, and suddenly we had a baby....The nurse told me to look down, and there he was. The Dr said stop pushing......now just a little push and he was out. He could barley reach to be put on my belly his umbilical cord was very short.....and his placenta was tiny.   He was breathing fine on his own and so after they evaluated him the NICU staff left.  I got to hold him and love him!  He was a perfect little package weighing in at 4 lbs 14 oz.  

I wish this was the end of the story but it's not.  They couldn't get mommy's blood pressure to drop so she had to stay on the magnesium which makes you feel awful.....she couldn't keep any food down and  would throw up the pain meds too.  So they had to put them in her I.V. it made her feel better.  This finally stopped on Saturday night...no more I.V.  Then Sunday she was supposed to be discharged but her blood pressure was still really high that morning, they were talking about making her stay......she was not happy about this.  So when Dr. Thompson came by and said that we could go that evening she was extactic!!

I had to pass a car seat test before they would let me go, 90 minutes sitting in the car seat......I passed with flying colors! :)

Daddy and Braxton came to the hospital to pick us up.....as we were walking out we got lots of comments on how cute our little family was! :)