Blessings

Today was an amazingly spiritual day. We had the privilege of blessing our 3rd child, Lincoln, at church today. As I sat there and watch all the men stand in the circle, Josh, his dad, my dad, Josh's brother, Nick, and our brother-in-law, Reed, it brought tears to my eyes. I am so grateful for a wonderful husband who honors his priesthood and tries to live worthily of his priesthood duties. He has an amazing example from his dad and looks up to him a LOT! It makes me so thankful to my Heavenly Father for the blessings he gives us each and everyday. Being a mom is one of my greatest blessings and sometimes I take it for granted. I am so thankful to Heavenly Father for entrusting me with his precious children. To help raise them up in the gospel and to help teach them His plan for them.
I am so thankful for the gospel in our family and for the comfort it brings to me to know that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, despite our downfalls. I am so grateful for the temple and for the chance we have to be a forever family, if we live worthily. I am so thankful for the opportunity to read from the scriptures each and everyday. I am so thankful for the lessons my children teach me from doing our daily family scripture study and prayers.
I am thankful for Joseph Smith and for his willingness to listen to the promptings he received and for translating the Book of Mormon for us. I am thankful for our current prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. I know he was called by God and that he is our true and living prophet. I am so thankful for the counsel he gives us.
I know with my whole heart that this is true church and the only way to enjoy true happiness. I am so thankful for my blessings and for the joys I get to experience because of the gospel.

*I'll add pics once I get them uploaded to the computer.

A baby story

If you don't like birth stories then skip this post...

We have had lots of family events lately. We had a niece who got baptized June 30th, my sister got married July 4th, my brother came home from the Marines, and my sister-in-law is getting married July 20th. I really wanted to have the baby in time that I could be able to go to these events, especially my sisters wedding. Heavenly Father and I were not on the same page unfortunately. I'm okay with it now cuz I have a beautiful baby to love on but I'm still sad I missed the wedding.

The weekend before (baptism weekend) my sister called me and said they were in town cuz David went skydiving (it was a wedding gift from my brother) and they wanted to go to dinner. We planned the place and time. We went to Texas Roadhouse. When we got there my brother was with them! It was a super awesome surprise and it was fun to have dinner with all 3 of us siblings, plus a few. It's been a while since we've all been together. That helped me with the whole fact that I had to miss the wedding.

Needless to say we still had no baby! On the 4th of July we didn't really have any plans because we didn't know when the baby was coming. We had talked about going to the fireworks at the speedway but that was about it. I woke up about 6 am that morning feeling so sick. I was throwing up and had diarrhea. I was a little mad cuz it was a holiday and Josh was off and I was excited to spend time with him and enjoy the holiday. Who wants to be sick on a holiday! I lounged around all morning. Throwing up every hour or so. I was laying on the couch and about 11:30 am my water broke! We debated whether we should go to the hospital or wait around for a bit. We headed to the hospital and got there around noon.

We got checked in and my contractions were about 6 min apart. Nothing too painful yet and when they checked me I was at a 3. I hadn't showered yet for the day because I was feeling sick and didn't have the energy. After they got me checked I hopped in the shower and they were getting the jacuzzi ready for me. I hopped in there for about 40 min. It was so nice and makes me really want my own. :)
After that I had to get my IV in so that I was able to get the fluids in me I had to have in order to get my epidural. Josh and I just watched TV (which was a luxury to watch cable since all we have is locals) and relaxed while we could. After I got my fluids in I got the epidural. Josh hadn't eaten all day and his mom was just getting to the hospital with some food for him so I made him leave the room while they did my epidural so he didn't faint. :) The anesthesiologist who did my epidural was Lisa. She was AMAZING! The easiest best epidural I have ever had (out of my 3). She was quick and it wasn't very painful either. Just the little poke.

After this it was about 4:30 and we just hung out and chatted with his mom for a bit. I was at a 7 at this point and so we figured things would get going soon. I said between 5 and 6 he would be born but Lincoln thought otherwise. We really wanted to deliver while our nurse, Amanda, was still there. She was such an AWESOME nurse! Shift change was at 7 so we were getting short on time. They gave me pitocin cuz my contractions were still far enough apart that we wanted to get this show done. And I wanted to be done because I was STARVING and wanted to eat. The doctor (Lisa Minge) came in about 6:30pm and checked me. We were ready to go! She got gowned up and they called NICU in (I had meconium in my water) and we got started.

The nurse and Josh had to hold my legs. I was so numb I couldn't control them AT ALL! I had been having some pain on my right side and it didn't seem to matter how I was laying it wouldn't go away so they gave me some extra type of meds and I didn't feel ANYTHING. Josh's mom was at my head. I started pushing at 6:40 pm and I pushed 3 or 4 times and he was here at 6:53 pm. He pretty much slid out on his own. The doc turned to grab something off the cart and when she turned back around she said oh my gosh this kid is sliding out all on his own.  Which made it easier for me. :)

 Our first pic together.

Baby Lincoln being all checked out. He weighed 8 lbs 3 oz (our biggest baby yet) was 21 3/4 in and has a TON of dark hair and we are in LOVE with it.

The kids got to come see Lincoln about 30 min after he was born. Hunter loved him! McKenna wasn't so fond of him. She glared at him and pushed him away. Before they left for the night she warmed up and held him and was okay with it all.

 Don't mind the ice cream on the face. They came from McDonald's with Aunt Krystal and didn't care about getting cleaned up they just wanted to see their brother. :)

 Check out that glare! (this could someday be used for black mail) :)

 She was still a little nervous about it but was much better.

After delivery they changed shifts. I was so glad we had Amanda for our delivery cuz the next nurse, Nancy wasn't our favorite. She seems kinda grouchy and was in a hurry, not very friendly. We did find out she was in a hurry cuz she had a transport coming that she had to take care of. She got Lincoln all bathed and ready to go to our new room. We got all settled into our room and Josh ran home to get his pj's since we didn't think about grabbing his stuff before we left. He got back and we settled in to bed. We sent Lincoln with the nurse for the night so we could sleep. (Yes, I send my kids away at the hospital)

Thursday morning my doc came in and checked me and asked if I wanted to go home. Well, DUH! Who wants to stay in the hospital if they don't have to. I wanted to sleep in my own bed! She said okay, you can go home as long as the pediatrician says it's okay. The peds doc came in and suggested we stay another day cuz he needs a newborn check done the next day (Fri) and his circumcision done. Our pediatrician doesn't have rights at St. Al's so he said if we could get an appt for Fri. with her then he would let us go as long as Lincoln passed his bili check at 25 hours old. We called and got an appt for 10:30 Fri morning. We did his bili check at 8:00 pm and by 8:30 pm we were on our way home. It was the shortest stay we've ever had with our kids at the hospital but that was fine by me! We came home and the kids were anxiously waiting for us on the front step. They were so excited to have their brother and mom home.

Our first family photo with all 5 of us

My fears of delivering at St. Al's were all for nothing. We had an AMAZING experience and loved all of the staff, even the grouchy one, and decided that we liked it better than St. Luke's. If I could have my old OB and deliver at St. Al's it would be the ultimate dream delivery next time. :)

Seattle-Saturday/Sunday

 There were so many guitars on here and even a few other things like a keyboard and such.

 One of our views from the top of the Space Needle

The Seattle temple.

Saturday morning we woke up and ate our delicious bagels we got and a mango we purchased at Pike's Market. They had every kind of fresh fruit available. The better part was you could sample things at some of the places. These were the BEST mangos I've ever had. They were called champagne mangos. After we ate we got ready and headed out for the day. It was snowing! We took the light rail to the monorail which took us downtown Seattle.

We stopped at the EMP museum first. It was pretty cool. They had guitars of every kind there. Some that were like the first guitars ever made and then modern ones too. They had an area where you could learn to play the drums, guitars, and the piano. You just put the headphones on and it told you what to do. They also have a stage set up for a real band. You and you group can go and pick a song you want to play and then they put you in front of an "audience" for you to play. It sounds like you are really playing the song even if you're not. :)

After the EMP we went to the Space Needle. It was cool to see all around Seattle like that. I don't know that it was cool enough to do it again but it's nice to say I've done it at least.

Next was the Pacific Science Center. This was pretty cool, especially compared to our little Discovery Center here in Boise. There was so much to do there. We want to go back and take the kids there. They would have loved it. There was so much for them to do. We wanted to see the laser light show that they had but we didn't want to stay for another 2 hours cuz we had other things planned.

We headed back over to Pike's place area over to the piers. We ate fish and chips. (I think I mentioned this in another post too) We waited forever! Placing our order was fast and we had a bowl of clam chowder that we split so that helped with the time. The workers for got to drop our fish so we had waited over 20 min for it. They asked us if we still wanted it but didn't offer to refund us or give us something else. Luckily for them the fish was really good or I would have probably been a little more mean.

We headed back to the hotel for a little cat nap (for the pregnant one) and a little sports (for the manly one)

We went back and wandered downtown Seattle a little bit trying to figure out what we wanted to eat and explored some of the shops there. We couldn't find much that sounded too appealing for dinner so we headed back to the hotel. By the time we got there we were so  tired we didn't even care what we ate so we got a Roast Beef sandwich from the hotel lobby. (lame I know, but we just didn't care at that point)

Sunday we had bagels and mangos for breakfast again. Then we drove to the temple to say we've seen it. It would have been even more fun to say we did a session there but since it was Sunday we couldn't accomplish that goal. :) To get to the temple we drove over these floating bridges. I wish I had a pic. They were literally floating on the water. It kind of reminded me of a dock, but it was stationary. Dave, Josh's boss, told him about them and said we should check them out. When they originally built the bridges someone forgot to lock something underneath that kept it floating and needless to say it didn't last long, it sunk. :( They just built a new bridge on top of it so the old one still remains there. It was a little nerve racking at first to realize you are that close to the water but I survived.

We found a mall and wandered around for a bit. We found some flip flops and sunglasses for the kids and they love them! After the mall we went back to Claim Jumper for lunch. We should have only ordered one things since their portions are so big but we got two things. We started with their tri tip dip appetizers. They were so good. I've never had tri tip that was so good before. And then we ordered a club sandwich. The thing was huge. We couldn't eat it all so we brought it home and mom, krystal, and reed enjoyed the rest.

We didn't have too much time after lunch so we headed to the airport and just hung out there until our flight left.

We had a FANTASTIC trip and can't wait to go on another one. I'm so grateful for Josh and all that he does for me and our kids. It was totally worth the wait for a honeymoon!

Seattle-Friday

Friday morning we lounged around in bed and just relaxed and enjoyed sleeping in. We got in the shower and were in for quite the surprise! The water was either scorching hot or freezing cold NO in between. Needless to say we learned to shower super super fast. We got ready and headed to find breakfast. Sadly we resulted with McDonald's. But we did try their new caramel hot cocoa which was really really good. After that we thought we should find a grocery store since we had a little fridge in our room. We knew we could get something for breakfasts for the next two mornings instead of having to eat out every morning. We found a Safeway and got bagels. They were HUGE! We got a cheese one and then jalapeno and they were delicious. (we're having technical difficulties again and I'm too lazy to figure out what the problem is) After we took our groceries to our hotel room we took the hotel bus to the lightrail and rode over to pike's place/aquarium/harbor. We wandered the shops that were on the pier and then we stopped at the famous Ivar's for lunch. It was a tad bit more spendy than we were wanting to pay for lunch so we each had a bowl of clam chowder and then shared a dish of salted caramel ice cream (heavenly!)

 This was our view during lunch at Ivar's.

 One of the many views from the harbor tour

 Seals! There was a ton of them on that thing.

 Josh touching the star fish

 This was a bridge type thing that had jellyfish all over in it. It was pretty cool.

After lunch at Ivar's we took a harbor tour cruise. It was a 60 min narrated tour of Seattle. We got to see lots of the different views. You could see the space needle, Safeco Field, CenturyLink Arena, and boats, and seals and tons of stuff. There were these huge barges that held these crates that looked like the size of train cars. They were stacked hundreds deep too. They said that usually they didn't lose any when they were traveling but occasionally it does happen. One time they lost one that held rubber ducks in it. :) Josh and I really enjoyed the tour and the site seeing it offered.

After the tour we went to the aquarium. They had tons and tons of fish to see. Some snakes, which I happily skipped. :) They even had an under water dome that you got to go in. I thought we took pics of it but I can't find them. It was pretty cool to see all the fish above you. We were able to touch star fish and several other sea anemia (sp?)

After the aquarium we wandered the shops some more and then headed back to the hotel for a little rest. We decided on dinner at a place called Azteca, which is a mexican place. It was pretty good. We split a burrito and boy was a I glad when they brought it out. It was the size of the plate! It was ginourmous! (I have a pic but it's on Josh's phone) And we split a virgin margarita too. It was all really good food but we were stuffed at the end. After dinner we went to another mall and wandered around and found Josh a watch at Fossil. McKenna broke his on accident and so he has been without one for a while so it was due time for a new one.  After that we headed back to our hotel and relaxed for a bit and then went to bed.

Seattle-Thursday

 This is a view of glass outside the glass museum in Tacoma, WA

 We were able to watch them make glass (which was amazing). The fire behind them can range anywhere from 2100-4500 degrees

 This is what they were making. It was a children's creation that they were recreating for a special museum exhibit they were going to be hosting.

 This is an outdoor ceiling of glass. It's the glass bridge and has pretty creations like this on the ceiling and each side of you as well.

 The Museum of Flight. There were so many planes to see. You even got to go outside and walk through some of the real planes.  Even an Air Force 1 plane!

Here's us at the Museum of Flight.

I can't get my pics and words how I want them so this will be a little backwards but it is what it is. At least I'm blogging about it. :)

Josh went to Chile for 6 weeks right after Christmas. It was the LONGEST 6 weeks of my life. ( I don't know how military women/men do it) Having 2 kids and 1 on the way and running the house for 6 weeks was a lot of work. When he was on his way home he called and told me he had a surprise. (keep in mind that while he was in Chile all he had was skype and my ipod so he could text those with an iphone) I was just excited to see him so I didn't really care what the surprise was. He told me he had it all arranged with his mom and Krystal and that we would be going to Seattle for a few days in March. I was SO excited. We never had a honeymoon and had never been on a trip without our kids before.

We left here Thursday, March 15 at 7 am. The flight was pretty good. The landing not so much. It was extremely bumpy. We were swaying back and forth and our wheels would touch and then we'd be off the ground again. It was horrible and I was glad when the plane came to a stop.

We got our bags and headed to get the rental car. We were hungry so we found some breakfast. We stopped at this place called the Pancake Chef. It was pretty good. We shared the plate cuz it was so much food but it was delicious and some of the best gravy I've ever had for biscuits and gravy. We had an omlet, hashbrowns, and biscuits & gravy. It was a cute little place.

We borrowed Krystal's GPS so we didn't get as lost. :) We started laughing so hard at the things she was saying to us. I don't know what kind of voice she had but it was CRAZY. We laughed and laughed about it all weekend.

After breakfast we headed to Tacoma to the Museum of Glass. We had a blast here. There was a thing called a hot shop. This is where they made all the things out of glass. (imagine that, making glass in a glass shop) They could mold the glass into pretty much anything and could make it any color. The fire they use to melt/mold the glass gets anywhere between 2100-4500 degrees. We were quite aways away from the flames and could still feel the heat. I don't know how they work with it everyday. We really enjoyed the glass museum and all of the designs/creations and what not.

After the glass museum we headed to the Museum of Flight. There was so so so much to do/see here. We could have spent a few more hours there. It was fun to see how the planes have evolved over time and definitely become better. They had some that you could sit in too. We even got to walk through some of them that were outside. They had an Air Force 1 plane open that day too. I can't remember which presidents it was that used that plane but some of the stuff they had on that plane was insane. I can only imagine what Pres. Obama's plane looks like on the inside.

After the Museum of Flight it was lunch time. We didn't know the area so we thought since we had the GPS we would see what the suggestions were for eating. We found one that said gyro & falafel. We selected it and got started. Let me tell you, if you ever get on Martin Luther King Dr. in Seattle, get off as fast as you can. We finally found it but let's just say I was a little nervous to eat there. It not only had bars on the windows but bars around the whole cement building! I was pretty sure we would die if we ate there so I said let's pick a different place. We then picked panini inc from the GPS choices. It lead us to some subdivision type area. I told Josh he should pick a house and knock on their door and tell them our GPS said you are Panini Inc and we would like a sandwich. :) He wouldn't go for it. We decided to find our hotel and check in and get food around there. We ended up just skipping lunch and had a little bit earlier dinner.

We stayed at the Red Lion Hotel by the airport. It was a nice hotel but we were told with our paperwork that they provided continental breakfast. When we checked in we found out otherwise. They had "continental breakfast" but you had to pay $7.95/person/day. We decided on other breakfast options. (see friday post)

After checking in we went to dinner. Josh's boss is from the Seattle area and told him a few things to check out while we were there. Claim Jumper was one of them. It was an amazing restaurant! We started with an appetizer, Southwest Egg Rolls. They were amazing! Then we decided we really wanted to try the 3 cheese potato cakes. I had never had potato cakes before but I came home craving them. We then had the entree. I was stuffed at this point and really shouldn't have eaten any more but what the heck, we were on vacation. We had Hickory Chicken w/ mushrooms, cheese, and their homemade bbq sauce. It was to die for! We loved this place so much that we went back another time. ( See Sunday post)

After dinner we wandered the southcenter mall to work off all those calories we just consumed. :)

Then headed to the hotel for a much needed rest.

Behind again...

I'm behind again and quite frankly I don't know that I will ever catch up. I did want to note a few things while I'm thinking about them. The holidays were fast but good. We were able to enjoy time with both sides of our families which was nice. 3 days after Christmas Josh had the opportunity to go to Chile for 6 weeks and basically run the company that they own there. It was an amazing career opportunity for him but we are sure glad we have him back. Six weeks without a daddy is a long time!
We are super excited to announce that we are adding another member to the family. We found out on Halloween night. We are having a little boy and he is due around July 8th. We are so excited and nervous all at the same time. We are still trying to decide on names. The kids are excited about having a baby, especially Hunter. He will share his room with the baby and can't hardly wait.
Since I survived six weeks as a single mom (w/ the help of Krystal) Josh decided that he would surprise me with a trip. :) We never have had a honeymoon because we couldn't afford it. He received a little bonus for going to Chile so some of that money will be used for a vacation for him and I. Grandma Alvey & Krystal are splitting up duties and taking care of the kids while we are away. Josh is so wonderful and arranged all of this while in Chile and only being able to text them. We're going to Seattle. He's been a few time but I never have so it will be lots of fun. He's such a great husband!
We just switch things to big kid style around our house this weekend. (sat 18th) We have been telling Hunter for a while that if he stops peeing the bed he could get a new mattress. Well (knock on wood) he has been doing great! We purchased a new mattress for him and he gave his old one to McKenna. She was still in the crib. We wanted to transition her into a big girl bed before the new baby comes so she doesn't freak out as much when we put the baby in the crib. The first night I had to go in about 3 or 4 times to tell her to stop playing with her toys and go to bed and then she woke up at 3 am having diaper issues. I fixed her diaper for her and she went back to bed with no problems. Sunday for her first nap was a little more work. Hunter kept trying to lay with her and she thought it was play time. Once Hunter got out and left her alone she went to sleep. That night I had no problems with her going to bed. She went in and laid down and I didn't hear from her til morning. She has been doing amazingly well since the first bed/nap. She loves her bed and loves that she gets to sleep in her princess bed. Hunter loves his sports set too. He even went in and took a nap Sunday all on his very own. :)
That's the basic updates for now. Hopefully I will do better at updating.

Newport Beach, California, Part 2

While we were here we went to church. It was fast & Testimony meeting because the week before was General Conference. I've never been to another church that I was visiting family at so I was a little nervous. I know the Gospel is always the same so that helped. I was more nervous about how Hunter would do going to Primary with people he didn't know, but he did great!

Testimony meeting was quite entertaining. There was a kid passing the sacrament and right in the middle of passing he got a text so he pulled his phone out and checked his text...all while passing the sacrament.

The executive secretary (I think), jumped over the pew instead of walking around to get in and out of his seat. It was very odd.

The funniest thing though was this lady bearing her testimony. Her testimony wasn't funny but while she is in the middle of a sentence she spots someone in the audience and says, Dan is that you? and is pointing to someone in the audience. Then she proceeds to have a conversation with this man. They apparently had both recently lost their dads and she talked about how heaven gained to spiritual giants. Maybe this is a California kind of thing to do but in Idaho, we don't have conversations over the pulpit. The funnier thing was...she was visiting from I think Texas.