Natural Childbirth = CHECK

So he is here! Yes, a BOY, born on Dec. 26th. We are so excited / shocked. Marty and myself had totally banked on it being a girl for some reason and we even had it narrowed down to 2 good girl names. We really didn't have many boy names running around in our head...so we took a little extra time to determine his.

Meet Charles Henry Wright...Charlie weighed in at 8 lbs. 11 oz.! Our biggest baby yet.Doing a natural birth was the most excruciating thing I've have EVER experienced and I don't know if I'll do it again...well that's what I thought immediately following his delivery. But now that it's been a couple of days and I see the way I feel and have healed and look back to how neat the whole experience was....I may just do it that way again for our next child. The contractions weren't the hard part really. I was a 9 when I arrived at the hospital. The 'burning ring of fire' really hit when I was pushing him out. That is when I screamed and cried out and felt an anxiety attack coming on. But I got thru it - I only had to push thru 3 contractions- which at the time seemed like eternity. It was so special when he came out though. My mom, Marty and I were all emotionally drained/involved and it was really awesome to get him here after all that hard work.

Secrets with a 4 year old....

So, Marty took Ruby shopping for my christmas presents...not a good idea I thought. But he insisted it would be fun and that she could keep the secret of where they went and what he bought. When they got home she didn't say anything and Marty reminded her that it is a SECRET. The next day after her shower I pulled out the blowdryer to do her hair and she exclaimed with big wide eyes...."YOU SHOULD USE YOUR NEW ONE!" Ha, I couldn't stop laughing, and instead of just acting surprised on xmas morning I had to tell Marty cuz it was such an innocent and funny moment. She realized right after that she'd slipped up. There are still other gifts that I can get surprised about and luckily this was my "need" gift from our categories...so I'm not too bummed about finding out. So even if there are good intentions...4 year olds can still get excited about something and lose all sense of obligation/duty.!

Smiles

Amiss the 'waiting for baby anxiety' and feeling really uncomfortable and BIG, there have been some things that have made me smile lately...

Getting together with these great 'old' friends is such a blessing and treat. I am so glad we stay in touch...it is rejuvenating to be with these girls!I love this dear little boy...he will soon be a 'big brother' and I hope he can handle it well, he's such a snuggle bug and I hope he copes!

I love girls days out with my sisters...we all went to New Moon and lunch afterwards.

I love this cheesy little face...Ruby is such a great girl; I'm so proud of her in the relationship she has with Liam. It is the most precious thing to watch them play together.

I love love love that my mom-in-law came out for Thanksgiving. She was here a whole week and we had such a great time. The kids gobbled her up and couldn't get enough of 'Gramma DIane'.

giving loves to Liam...

making pies ...

chillin...with knitting in hand, a movie for the kids and cheddar cheese slices to munch on...

Thanksgiving day....

Twas delicious!

We went on 'opening night' to the Temple Square lights...bad idea...but it was so pretty. Thanks for coming here to 'coldville' Diane...we miss and love you! Thanks for making us ALL smile.

Countdown

yes i have officially exploded...belly and all (this picture proves it)(way cute pic of my sis though)... I still have 5 weeks left! As time is drawing nearer I am getting a little scared to picture 3 kids! I have all kinds of doubts and fears...AND it's hard to picture going back to the baby stage again....Liam is a very independent little dude for the most part and sleeps like a freakin rock...he's always been a good sleeper. He'll sleep in till nearly nine most mornings and goes down around 8 or 8:30 at night; and he still takes 2 hour naps. What do I do with a newborn!? Sleep is something I need to avoid major awnryness. I really hate maternity clothes- esp. pants; so in a way I'm kind of wishing the baby here to just be comfortable again and wear normal clothes and jeans! The whole tucking in / yanking up thing ain't working anymore for me. I CANNOT complain about the ability to birth and rear children though because I know it's a major blessing that not everyone can experience, so I am done with my rant. Anyways- how can I not be geared up for another one when I get to see a face like this everyday!

p.s. any suggestions on natural childbirth...it would save me a load of money NOT to get an epidural since I am paying outta pocket for the birth. I know it's possible ...but HOW? Am I strong enough!? HA!

A daunting task... this is only a quarter of the leaves that still have yet to fall. The leaves are massive in size though which makes it a wee bit easier to gather and bag.

The nightly ritual of 'I need a glass of water'....really, ....are you really all of a sudden so thirsty.?

Marty and I hired a babysitter and went on a gorgeous hike...it was nice to actually hike at a good pace and be free of stragglers....although we do love hiking with our kids too...

And then we ended on this note - hiking out of the canyon... Utah can produce some pretty scenery thats for sure...

We went to Logan last week to the 'pumpkin walk'...a tradition now of 3 years. It is a free event and pretty fun esp. cause we meet up with my brother and his family...
-Diane, Liam is sport'n the hat you knitted. thanks!

The little rugrats...before our ward party...the scary thing -Liam looks so natural with a 'stache'...

Merry and Lee came for some pumpkin carving...

The kids wanted nothing to do with it...they thought it was disgusting to pull out the guts and then we didn't really trust them with the knives so it ended up being a father- son competition.

Who won?

So Many Reasons to LOVE fall.

We went on a excellent vacation a couple weeks ago. My parents 'time-share' a cabin in the Unitahs and it is the perfect get-away! I love it. Especially in the fall when all the leaves are changed. It is only a little over an hours drive to get there and you get no reception on cell phones...so you are UN-reachable... My cousin and her family came up for two nights with us. We are so glad they did ...it was such a great time! -Ruby with my cousins little girl, Samantha.

Liam loves them rocks...hours of play time right there.

There is so much beautiful nature around, right outside the cabin door.

We hiked to Ruth Lake, it was gorgeous. Ruby and Samantha were little troopers and hiked the whole way, with only a little complaining. Ruby is used to being hauled around in the backpack so it is time to let her start bearing her own weight-even though she and Liam aren't far apart in pounds.

Marty was trying to be cool and 'surf' the log...actually he did fine the first time but I made him get back on for a picture and right after this he fell and landed right on his wrist and thigh. He got a killer bruise! I feel so bad...

This does not do justice for the beauty of the leaves! I wish I could have captured it better.

We got to use this 6 seater ATV. It was a blast and the kids loved it. After a while it put them right to sleep.

We loved having Ben and Kimby with us! Thanks guys!Nothing beats hiking in the fall. We went to this great place and hiked for family night last week. We go hiking here every fall because it's got awesome leaves.

The Zoo is free for me with my Tracy Aviary pass every 1st. Thursday of the month. My sis's all have a pass too so we went last week. It was a little chilly but it made the animals more active and 'visible'. Plus, there were lots of newborn animals in the different exhibits. Here is the load of kids we took -talk about 'hard to keep track of everyone!!!' It was a nightmare at times.

There was a baby elephant and it was precious- just 7 weeks old.

Black Island Farms is such a fun(a little pricey) place to go in fall. My kids LOVED the slides and all the other things to do there. It was a great night. Marty was a sport and did the slides countless times over with them. He's such an interactive - gREAt dad. I would have actually enjoyed doing more that night but my big 'bump' makes it a little awkward.

There was so much to do and see there- we wished we'd had more daylight and that we'd eaten before we came. We were famished by 8:30 and rushed off to Carl's Jr. where we all ate like little piggy's.!!