Alizabeth Jayne - March 29th

On March 29th, 2011, we welcomed a new little person into our family. Although I tried - unsuccessfully - to encourage her arrival a little earlier, she made her entrance just as scheduled. (I was a little irritated that I didn't get the day that I wanted, but we survived)

The night before, we took our three other kids to spend the night at a friend's house, and then my husband and I went home to try to sleep. I was surprised that I actually managed to sleep at all. The alarm went off at 4:00am and we showered and headed off to the hospital.
We got checked in, and got ready. A nurse came in and asked a bazillion questions, and then put in an IV to get me hydrated, since I wasn't allowed to have anything to eat or drink. I'm not sure why she stuck it in the side of my arm. It hurt... a lot...
And then, we waited.
For me, the WORST part of the whole c-section process is the waiting... and knowing what is coming next... Somehow, Brandon was able to sleep while we waited. I just tried not to freak out too much.
This is me - ready to have a baby

Daddy - ready to watch

Then, they took us down the hall to the operating room. Brandon had to wait outside until they had everything ready. They had me sit on the table while the anesthesiologist put the spinal in. That was the part that I was really dreading, but it wasn't as bad as I remembered it being. But, before they could do much else, the anesthesiologist looked at my IV and said that it wasn't put in right, and I needed a new one in. Then he started yelling at the nurses because apparently there weren't any IV kits in the OR. He used a rubber glove as a tourniquet and ANGERLY put a new IV in my other hand. OUCH. He mumbled about the IV for the rest of the surgery. Nice.
Once everything was set, they called Brandon in and got started.
A c-section is a really strange thing to experience. I can't see what's going on - thankfully - and I can't really feel much more than tugging and moving on the lower half of my body. At one point, I asked Brandon if they had started. I thought they were still cleaning the area. He told me they were almost done cutting. Wow.
Then, when it's time for the baby to come out, they push REALLY hard on my belly. And pull her out. They held her up so I could see. She was crying and I couldn't help but cry too. (Brandon took VIDEO of her coming out. I'm not going to post it, because it's rather... icky...)
At 8:02am, Alizabeth Jayne had arrived! Brandon went with her while the doctors sewed me up.
She was a tiny little thing - only 6lbs, 3oz




One of the things that I really don't like about the giving birth process - and I don't know if this is just with a c-section or not - is the SHAKING that happens afterwards. As soon as she was out, my whole body started shaking uncontrollably. Like I was really cold. They covered me (at least the part of me that wasn't cut open) with warm blankets, but it didn't really make a difference. I didn't even want to hold the baby, because I was shaking so bad I thought I might drop her. Finally, in the recovery room, they gave me something to help with the shaking. And, since I'm allergic to the morphine that was in my spinal, they gave something for that too. But of course it all made me feel pretty dopey. I don't remember a whole lot of the next few hours. I know that I was able to feed the baby. And they took me upstairs to my room. And our friends Hillari and Keith stopped by to visit. (Thank you!) I must have been pretty drugged up because I really don't remember anything that was said. (Sorry if I said anything too crazy, guys!)

Ready for her first bath after getting her footprints taken


First bath





After the baby and I were situated, Brandon went home to get the kids. He took Ady to her dance class, picked Zander up from school, and then came back to the hospital so that they could meet their new baby sister.






We are so excited to have her in our family!

SuperMoon

The Supermoon was all over the news. I guess it's a phenomenon that only happens like once every 18 years - or something like that. So, we thought it would be fun to see it. We put the mattress from the camp trailer in the back of the truck, and drove down the street where we could get a better view. Unfortunately, it was a little bit cloudy, so we didn't get a great view of the moon, but we tried.


We hung out for 20 minutes or so. And just had a nice little evening together.

Luke Days

Since the girls got to have some fun with Dad, the next day, he thought it would be fun to take the boy for some boy fun. So, they went to a gun show that was being held at the Cardinal's Stadium. But, on the way there, Brandon saw a sign announcing an air show, and he realized that it was the bi-annual "Luke Days" at Luke Air Force Base. So he called me and asked if I wanted to go. I was a little hesitant, but agreed. So, the girls and I met the boys at the stadium (after daddy bought his 6-year old boy a LARGE pocket knife. Seriously. I don't know what he was thinking.) And we drove to the show.
That is, we tried to.
Luke Days is a BIG DEAL. There were TONS of people there. Traffic was crazy. Parking was worse.
We finally found a place to park AT LEAST a mile from the entrance. We followed the crowd of people and slowly made our way. We had to wait in a LONG line just to get in as they were doing security screenings as you walked in. It took about an hour from when we parked to actually getting on the base. And then we had to walk MORE to get to where the planes were on display. But, at least we got to watch some neat planes doing tricks in the air while we walked and waited.

There were all kinds of airplanes on display. The kids had fun looking at them.



Ady liked the PINK fire trucks


Daddy was excited to show the kids a C-130 - the type of plane that he flew on when he was in the Air Force.




Then we sat and watched the air show.



They announced that the Thunderbirds would be flying soon, so we decided to wait. The kids played with the camera while we were waiting. Zander is a pretty good photographer. I thought these turned out pretty cool.




After waiting, and waiting, and WAITING.... we decided it wasn't worth it and started the trek back to the car. They were in the air more than an HOUR after they had originally said they would be. At least we got to see them fly over us a couple of times as we were walking. The kids liked that.
We were very TIRED by the time we were done! But it was a fun day, I'm glad we went.

A Daddy Daughter Date

Our favorite restaurant - Chick-Fil-A - had a fun event: A Daddy Daughter Date. They recommended that you had a reservation. So, Brandon took the girls for a date!

They got dressed up and went for some fun!

I told Brandon to take pictures, but this is all I got. Bummer.


But, they had fun. They had candles and flowers on the tables, and the food was served to them. They had some fun little crafts for the girls to do, and they had fun spending time together!
Zander and I hung out together at home.

Spring Break 2011

For obvious reasons, we didn't go anywhere for Spring Break this year. But, I still wanted to get the kids out of the house and have some fun, so we tried to find some things to do.
The week before the break, Zander's class went on a field trip to the Arizona Mining Mineral Museum. He couldn't stop talking about how great it was, and asked if we could go back there. I told him that I would look into it. So, I found their website, and discovered just how inexpensive it is. Only $2 for adults, and kids under 18 are FREE. So, I figured, why not?
For some reason, I didn't take any pictures inside the museum. But here's some from outside.




It was pretty neat. They had all kinds of rocks and minerals on display. And there were some really inexpensive things in the gift shop - starting with polished rocks for $.25. So, I let the kids each pick something out. They thought it was a fun time.

When we were done, we walked across the street to the state capital mall. I thought I had remembered there being picnic benches where we could eat, but I couldn't find any. But we did find a place to sit in the shade for a little lunch that I had packed. Brandon met us there and we had a nice time.
We could hear shouts coming from the capital, and we wondered what was going on, but we didn't want to get close enough to find out.
As we were getting ready to leave, a news reporter stopped us and asked if she could ask us a few questions. We weren't sure what to expect, but we agreed. She asked if we were involved in the protest at all. We told her we had been to the museum and were just there for lunch. She said that she wanted to talk to someone with kids who wasn't involved... then she asked if we thought that people should involve their kids - as young as 1st graders - in politics. Of course, we told her "no". Brandon's "sound bite" was "politics is a nasty business. Why involve kids in something that's nasty?"
Anyway, we ended up on the evening news. Apparently, the protesters brought in busloads of kids to protest immigration and education reform. Or something like that. It was kind of silly how they made it sound like we were upset about it or something. We didn't even know what was going on. Oh well. It was fun anyway.

The next day, we had some more fun. I had my doctor's appointment in Scottsdale, so we drove all the way out there. Earlier in the week, we had gone to the library and gotten a culture pass for the Arizona Museum for Youth. Since we were on that side of town, I thought we would use it. The museum is less than a mile from the temple, so we went there first. They have a really neat art display in the visitor's center. It is Book of Mormon Images by Walter Rane. I thought the kids would like it. We spent some time looking at them, and the kids each picked their favorite. Zander's was the one of Nephi and Laban. Ady and Ainzlee liked the ones with Jesus. My favorite is Captain Moroni.

After the temple, we had some lunch, and then went to the museum.
It had been at least a year since I'd been there, and they've completely remolded since then. They have some really neat things. There's a whole section right now about Fairy Tales. The kids got to dress up as different Fairy Tale stories, and make different crafts to go along with it. (I should mention that this was St. Patrick's day - that's why the kids are in green. Ady picked the camo shirt because, it's green, of course ;)

Puppet shows



Little Red Riding Hood




Mad Hatter Hats



Princesses (check out the SHOES!)


Frogs and Fairies




3 Little Pigs


Baseball



PLAY TIME




All in all, it was a great time. They have lots of fun, hands on things for kids to do. And with the culture pass, I only paid $7 for us to get it. Can't beat that!