What have we been up to?

It has been months since we have posted, so here are a few updates.
This picture was taken today of our cute, chubby little Asher, he is getting so big. He is 4 months today. During the day he is a very pleasant baby that loves smiling and chatting with his brothers and reaching out and grabbing things. Night time is still a big struggle, we are desperately trying to get him to sleep. He usually wakes up 6 to 7 times a night and sometimes it takes me an hour or so to get him back to sleep.

Here is Tristan loving on Asher. He is surprisingly very sweet with his little brother. He is also trying to grow up big just like his big brothers. He is their little pantomime. He is constantly repeating everything they say and do. He also loves animals and bugs. He will sit forever and watch a spider or ants crawling on the sidewalk, and is always pretending to be some kind of animal. Some of his favorites imitations include a dog, a horse or a frog.

Here is our latest fire station tour. Tristan LOVED the fire trucks, just like any little boy.

This is Parker on April Fools Day. For dinner we did "cupcakes" (meatloaf with mashed potato icing) and for dessert we did "mashed potatoes with carrots and corn" (ice cream with caramel sauce and a side of yellow and orange candy). The boys laughed forever about our backwards dinner and still talk about it. They are so funny. Parker is also growing so fast. He will be starting kindergarten after the summer and I know I will miss him very much, he has always been my little buddy. He is very good at reading and loves to play games on the computer, he would play all day long if we would let him.
Although all the boys really love Asher, Parker is really the most doting on him. I know I can always count on Parker to keep Asher entertained, and Asher's face lights up any time Parker is around.

This is us at Carona del Mar on family night. Although we just went to look at the water, Carter walked back to the car soaked from head to toe. Carter loves playing at the beach. He also loves all things Star Wars. I am not really sure how his obsession started but he is a Star Wars fanatic! He loves reading books about Star Wars, he loves drawing pictures of Star Wars characters, playing with his Star Wars legos and going outside so he can play Star Wars with his friends.

Andrew has been working like a madman, he recently got a paper accepted for publication. Yay! He is now almost done with his second and third paper and then on to his dissertation! He is planning on defending in August and then who knows where life will take us. Stay tuned for more updates.

As for me, I am still adjusting to life with four kids. This has been the biggest adjustment so far, I think it has been hard because I am just so very tired from staying up with Asher the night before. But four months later I can now say I feel like life is returning to normal somewhat. I only have one more month of work until I am done and although I know I will miss the job and have greatly appreciated the extra income, I am anxious to focus more of my time and energy to my family.

And last but not least this is a picture of Parker's last day of preschool. He has loved having friends over for preschool and now it's on the next phase of life.

Do children make "you" happy?

I recently read this article in Deseret News and I quite enjoyed it, see what you think.

Blessing Day

Isn't he beautiful?

When we were in Utah a few weeks ago we were able to bless Asher. It was so nice to be surrounded by family for this blessed occasion and we are grateful for all those who were able to be there. I really loved the blessing Andrew gave Asher and thought there was a wonderful spirit there. Asher truly is a special son of our Heavenly Father and I could feel His love for him.

I feel really bad. We spent a ton of time taking pictures with my family and by the time we were done every one was ready to eat. So we thought we would try and take pictures with Andrew's family after dinner but half of Andrew's family was gone by the time we thought about it again. I am sad we missed out on the opportunity to take pictures with them considering a lot of Andrew's siblings were there.

Asher Love

I already uploaded most of these pictures on facebook but I realized that some of you don't follow facebook much so I posted them here as well.

A big THANKS to all of you that helped us out when Asher was born. Including Andrew's mom who put up with us for two whole weeks! My mom, dad and sister who were able to come for a week and help, and for all those who have brought us meals or treats or have taken the kids so we could have a little break. We have felt so very blessed over the past few weeks to have such great family and friends. We love you all!

Birth Story

We are sitting in the hospital right now waiting to be discharged and so I thought I would take some time to tell the story of how baby Asher was born. Sunday morning I woke up around 6 am with contractions around 15 to 20 minutes apart, but I was not alarmed because I had been having contractions just about every night for a week. It was my last day being on call for the month and I had a few calls to take care of in the morning and continued to notice contractions but was not hopeful that it was the real thing. At 1:00 we were off to church, during sacrament meeting my contractions were coming about every 6-8 minutes and I told Andrew we should probably leave after sacrament and not stay for the other meetings. I then remembered that Parker had the scripture and prayer in Primary and knew he would be sad if he missed it so we decided to stay for that. After sacrament my contractions slowed down again so we decided to stay for the rest of the meetings. I was really feeling quite strong contractions during the last hour of church and about 10 minutes before church was out I was really ready to leave. We rushed to get the kids after class and tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. I sure do hope that I didn't offend anyone during church who tried talking to me, I really wasn't myself during those three hours!
We ran home and finished packing our hospital bag and called the doctor, then we said goodbye to the boys. Luckily Andrew's mom had flown in that Wednesday before and was there to stay with them while we were gone. My contractions were so strong and frequent during the ride to the hospital I thought we would be having this baby sooner rather than later. Little did I know what a "strong" contraction felt like....but I would soon find out. When I checked into the hospital around 5:30pm I was dilated to a 5. Oh, how I thought it would be more. My friend and doula, Bridget arrived at the hospital about 20 minutes after us and was very helpful all throughout my labor, both Andrew and I were very glad to have her there. Thanks Bridget!! The doctor came in around 8:00pm and at that point my contractions were very strong but still manageable, he checked me and I was very disappointed to hear that I was only a 6. All that time and pain and I had only dilated 1 cm! The doctor then broke my water and my contractions got to where I felt I could no longer calmly manage them and I was feeling discouraged that the baby would not come for hours yet. At that point I told Andrew that I wanted an epidural and that I didn't want him to argue with me about it.....at all. He told me that they were going to get me an epidural and I think that the thought that I would not be in pain much longer helped me to calm down. Shortly after that I started feeling a lot of pressure and the urge to push. When I felt the pressure I knew the baby was coming soon and that I could deliver this baby without an epidural. They checked me and I was at a 9 and fully effaced. They had the doctor come in and they were getting ready for the baby to come. Shortly after they came in I told them I needed to push and that I was pushing. The doctor asked my not to push because he was still gowning up. I guess I didn't care because I was pushing anyway! The baby's head came out with one push just as the doctor was slipping on his gloves and then one more push and he was born at 8:51pm! I have to say there is nothing like holding your newborn baby in your arms. They are so precious.

So although I was asking for an epidural I still delivered the baby all natural as planned!! Shortly after delivery I was asked if I would do it naturally again and I was doubtful, but the longer it has been since the delivery the more I think I would probably do it again. My recovery seems to be so much better than with any of my other births which I don't know if I can credit to a natural birth but it has still been nice. :)
We are so happy to welcome baby Asher into our family!