Happy Anniversary!?!

So... when we found out that my due date was 5 days after our wedding anniversary we knew that our celebration wouldn't be very exciting or elaborate this year. (We were just hoping that I wouldn't be in labor on our anniversary... we'd had that experience with Matthew. Thankfully, Calvin was born 11 days earlier and so he has his "own" birthday and we get to keep our special day to ourselves.)

Yesterday pretty much stunk though... It was like a normal, non-special day, only crappier... I had weird health problems and passed out, Jeremy had to work on the farm, Will ruined my make-up (and destroyed the house), I saw the sad state of our budget, etc... We did pick up take out from Stockman's Grill and enjoyed a delicious, but not hot by the time got it home, steak and shrimp dinner.

In spite of the way the day transpired, I still had time to reflect on the day we were married and I feel like the luckiest girl ever to be eternally attached to Jeremy. I love to be around him... he makes me laugh like no one else can. He is such a good dad... I love to watch him interact with our kids. He makes their lives fun and happy. And he is so good to me! I am so, so, so grateful I get to be with forever.

Ashton

Ashton is a funny kid. He comes up with the funniest ideas and says the most hilarious things. Like in the picture above... The other day he decided to use some rock climbing clips to hook him and Will together. They then ran (literally ran) around the house hooked together for about 20 minutes. At one point they stopped for a rest and Will jumped up, ready to run some more, before Ashton was ready. Ashton said very exasperated, "Hold on Jose!" Kiersten and I couldn't stop laughing.

The next day, he had Jeremy cut out arm holes in empty Usborne boxes so he and Will could be Transformers. Later, they used the same rock climbing clips to hook their boxes together so they could be a train. Again, they ran around the house hooked together for 20 minutes or so. At one point, I heard arguing about which direction the hotel was... not sure what that was about.

Since Cal existed we've seen a different side of Ashton. When I was pregnant, he would often come up and stroke my tummy and say things like "Our new baby is going to be so cute." He also confessed to Jeremy that he had a secret toy he like to play with... a baby doll he received for Christmas a couple of years ago.

Since we've had Calvin home, Ashton has been so cute! He is always coming up with cute nicknames for him (like Calvin the Chipmunk and Cutie-pie). He loves to hold him and for a couple of days he asked how and when he could feed him. So, one day Jeremy helped Ashton feed the baby a bootle and then burp him. Ashton's happy face in the picture below is pure delight when he got Cal to burp. It is so fun to see this other side of Ashton.

Yellow Baby

For the 5th time... we went through the daily blood draws and hassle of bili-lights last week. I do have to say, little Cal didn't have it nearly as bad as some of his siblings. For one thing, he had the bili-bed and bili-blanket so he didn't have to wear "sunglasses" and lay in a tanning suitcase. Also, because we were oh so familiar with babies getting jaundice we caught it fast and stayed ahead of it so he was only on the lights for a few days.

Still... it is always such a relief to be done with the daily trips to the hospital. I'm sure Baby is glad too.

Welcome Baby

Our new little guy, Calvin Michael Ray Cox was born Tuesday at 1:31 am. We were excited when the clock struck midnight and we realized his birthday would be 11-10-09. It goes quite nicely with Katie's birthday 01-02-03. At 2 1/2 weeks early, he weighed 7 lbs. 4 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long.

The 1/2 hour before his birth and the 1/2 hour after were a stressful time to say the least. It was very fast. I went from 5 cm. dilated to completely delivered in 1 hour and 15 min. My blood pressure was too high. His heart rate was unstable. I had to labor in one position on one side which meant that the epidural settled in one leg and didn't actually block pain (but that one leg was nice and numb for HOURS). I had a placental abruption which is very dangerous for mom and baby. And the cord was tightly wrapped around his neck twice (which probably caused the abruption and the heart rate problems). He swallowed quite a bit of blood from the abruption.

The NICU team was ready and waiting when he was born and after working on getting him stabilized they took him away. We LOVE NICU teams!! His cord was also immediately taken away for labs so they could determine how much oxygen he had missed out on and if he was going to be okay. Although it was nerve wracking, I felt surprisingly peaceful while Jer was in the NICU with Calvin and I waited for the test results.

We were so, so, so blessed in the way things turned out. If my epidural would have numbed me the way I wanted I wouldn't have been to get him out so fast. After he was born the doctor told us several times that it was good that everything happened so fast and that if labor had taken any longer Calvin would not have survived. He also said that my health (and possibly my life) was spared because it was so fast. We are so grateful my water didn't break at home, but in the hospital were they were monitoring him and could take steps to save his life. We are so grateful we were in Provo so we didn't have to be separated from him the way were from Ashton and that there were experts there ready to help him. We saw the hand of the Lord so many times in that critical, scary hour. And now that we know how things turned out we can see His guiding hand in so many other things. Why don't we trust Him more? We feel so blessed and grateful that Calvin and I are both here and alive and pretty darn healthy.

Because of H1N1 and the hospital rules about visitors, the kids were just able to meet Calvin for the first time today. To say he is adored is truly an understatement. Katie, Ashton and Kiersten spent quite a bit of time arguing over whose turn it was to hold him. Matthew said, "I just can't stop looking at him." And so far Will has only shown affection for his new little brother (crossing fingers). Katie read story after story to him and did all of her homework with baby on her lap today.

We feel so grateful for our sweet little ones (especially the littlest) and family and wonderful friends who have already offered so much support. We are so blessed!

What Happens When Instincts Take Over

Sorry I have to record this here or I'll forget it later and I don't want to forget it...

Today Will and Ashton wanted to go the farm with Jer and they were so cute about it he took them. I also think Jer was hoping I would have a nice relaxing day at home. It was not relaxing... I am driven... driven by instincts I can't control.... Instincts that force me to push and bend in spite of extreme back and joint pain. Here was my day:

7:30 am... Help kids get ready for school, remind to brush teeth, comb Katie's hair, etc.
8 am... Check emails, reply to urgent Usborne emails, online banking, pick up living room
9 am... Watch Jer research how much different jobs pay in Utah vs. the United States.
9:30 am... Jer and boys leave. My instincts to clean take over! I start sweeping.
9:45 am... Mop kitchen, entry way and bathrooms
10:15 am... Clean kids bathroom and all of mine, but the shower
10:45 am... Clean stairs with carpet cleaner, Start on family room
11:45 am... Eat quesadillas, grapes and crushed ice while I talk on the phone to JoDee
12 pm... Continue on carpets, discover carpet cleaner is not suctioning properly, call Jer, he will come home and look at it.
12:37 pm... I troubleshoot the carpet cleaner myself!! Call Jer back and tell him not to come home, I've figured it out!
1 pm... Sick of carpet cleaning, my back KILLS but I can not stop. Wash walls, door frame and baseboards in my bedroom, hallway, and entry way.
1:30 pm... Must finish the basement carpet cleaning!
2 pm... Basement is done! Set up fans to speed up the drying process... hopefully before kids get home from school and want to play down there.
2:05 pm... Scrub my shower. To do this I have to climb the shower and get on my hands and knees. My tummy is too big and my back to weak to clean it any other way.
2:15 pm... Shower and dress... for some reason I feel more exhausted than refreshed.
2:30 pm... Break out the pedicure stuff my friend Rachel gave me for Christmas last year. My whole body hurts, but my swollen, swollen feet especially need some TLC. Watch the end of Biggest Loser online with Kiersten. That show is so inspiring. I always get emotional when some sacrifices themselves for their friends.
2:45 pm... Start the dishwasher before kids get home so we have dishes to eat off tonight.
3 pm... Reply to the emails that have accumulated in my in box.
3:15 pm.. Kids home from school! Time to focus on homework, piano practice, etc. and figure out what I can make for dinner that won't mess up my clean house.

Halloween... Harry Potter Style

This year Jeremy and the kids were the Weasley family from Harry Potter. My friend Tiffini made the kids' awesome Gryffindor costumes. They looked so cute! Here is her website.

We had a fabulous time at the school Halloween carnival, Grandma Craguns for scary movies, chili and breadstick dinner at church, followed by trunk or treating in the church parking lot. The kids made a haul!!The kids were very excited to go into the Spook Alley. Here they are waiting in line. When the time came though they started to get a little nervous and clinging to each other. (See below)Here we are at the ward party. I've been hiding from the camera for awhile... 8 months pregnant isn't a good look for me. :)

Jeremy wanted to decorate our trunk with a Harry Potter theme to match the costumes, but of course he was delayed on the farm so the kids and I threw it together a half an hour before we had to leave. Sometimes I think that my creative juices do not flow until crunch time because although I'd been thinking about it for a couple of days it wasn't until I realized I was going to have to do it myself that I got some decent ideas. And HOORAY!! our trunk won 3rd place!!! The kids were so excited (especially since they had helped so much... with the ideas and the actual decorating).

Our award winning trunk... Harry Potter & Ron Weasley's room with Gryffindor posters, a picture of Mrs. Weasley, a quidditch game out the window and potions class assignment brewing.