Family Resemblance?

Samuel ~ 12 days old

Eliza ~ 5 days old

Benjamin ~ 6 days old

Grandma came to visit!

My Mom came to visit over the weekend. It was so fun to be with her!

She read a million books to Eliza and Benjamin. Little Sam got lots of Grandma cuddle time. And I was able to hang out and enjoy my mom.

We went shopping together one day for some new clothes for me. Thanks Mom! We also got to go shopping at a Mom2Mom sale on Saturday morning. It was a blast, as always, and I'm happy I got to show my mom just how exhilarating it is! :) We both bought lots of cute baby/kid clothes. :)

This was too funny! We were trying to get a picture of her with the three kids before she left, and it was quite the experience! Benjamin wouldn't stop blowing the whistle Grandma gave him, and then Eliza decided to put her finger up her nose! It was so funny! I said, "Wave to the camera, Eliza!" to try to get her to stop, but she just started waving with her other hand. Mom and I were both laughing, and so she started giggling and thinking she was so funny! Oh my! Finally we got a decent picture. :)

Mom let me take a little nap with Sam while she played with the kids. Cuddling that little boy is so fun! She made him that adorable BYU blanky. Isn't it cute?!

Mom brought a big bubble wand for Benjamin. A few hours before she had to go, we went outside and played with the bubbles.

Eliza loves holding her Baby Sam!

Pictures of Sam ~ 9 days old

Meeting Baby Sam

Proud Big Brother:Proud Big Sister:
These two pictures were taken the afternoon before I went into labor.

The day we got home from the hospital, Jed dropped Sam and I off at home and then went and picked up the kids. He took them to the store to buy baby Sam a present (the pink teething toy) and then came home so they could meet him. When they came in the door, I was sitting on the couch, and I heard Jed helping them wash their hands. Benjamin was very anxious to see us, and kept trying to go ahead of Jed and Eliza...

Jed said, "Wait for us, Ben, and we'll all go in to see him together."

And he would say, "Okay. Well, I'm just going to peek."

"No, wait just a moment, and we'll go together."

"Okay. Well, I'm just going to give him this present."

"Just a moment, wait for Eliza too."

So funny!

When they came in to the living room, they were so cute! They both said, "Ooooh!" and had such cute expressions when they walked up to baby Sam. Jed started videotaping soon after. It's a cute little video. The funniest part was when Ben was trying to lift up my shirt so he could see what my tummy looked like now. Umm, we'll wait til we are off camera to look at my tummy! :) It was also cute how Eliza was so anxious to hold the baby that she was prepared to reach over and steal him right out of Ben's arms. And she was quite reluctant to give him up to me, too!

Enjoying our new baby the first few days home...

Samuel has arrived!

Our baby has arrived!

Samuel Jedediah Walker

was born on Wednesday, March 10 at 11:40pm. He was 8 lb 2 oz and 20 ½ inches long.

I typed up Sam’s birth story to put in my journal, and I’ll include it here too. This is very lengthy, and I do not expect many people to be interested in all the tiny details except perhaps a few select family members, so this is my disclaimer: You may find this very boring. Consider passing on reading this post and just skip to the pictures. :)

I went in for my OB appointment on Wed morning (March 10th) and was told that I was 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced. My doctor stripped my membranes and said, “I’ll see you at the hospital tonight. And if not tonight, then tomorrow!” He had already told me in recent visits that I would deliver fast and that he wanted to monitor me in labor since I was a VBac, and we had agreed that I would go to the hospital when my contractions were 5 minutes apart.

Within a couple hours after my appointment I was having back pain and I knew right away that my doctor was right about me going into labor that night. I already had my bags packed, Jed had given me a priesthood blessing the week before, we had arrangements for Ben and Eliza, my house was clean… so I felt pretty prepared. :) The only thing to do was take a picture of me at 40 weeks and then wait for labor! Around 4pm I noticed regular but not painful contractions, every 15 or so minutes. Between 6 and 7:30pm I sat on the couch and timed my contractions (10 min apart, 30 seconds long, and getting painful) while Jed wrestled with Ben and Eliza in the front room. Then Jed took the kids to our friends house to go to bed and when he got back home I laid on the bed while he sat in the armchair next to me, and we talked while I worked through the contractions, still about 10 minutes apart. I wasn’t working really hard, just had to concentrate and breathe through the contractions, but it wasn’t very bad. Maybe around 9:00pm they started to get more difficult, but still 9 minutes apart and only 40-50 seconds long. Jed and I still talked between contractions, deciding on the name Samuel for our baby and talking about all kinds of other things. :) We talked about how wonderful it was going to be to have our baby, and hold him and enjoy him. Ah, so exciting! And yet, at the same time, I felt like I had a lot to endure between now and then, and for some reason talking about the prize at the end was slightly depressing. I felt like I still had to “walk through-” and Jed finished for me “the valley of the shadow of death?” and I smiled “yes,” even though that sounded so dramatic.

Around 10pm I started to have a few contractions that were 7 minutes apart, and right about then I started to feel worn down and very uncomfortable. I told Jed we should call my doctor and tell him that I was in labor. We decided to time five or six more contractions so that we could give him a good estimate of where I was in labor. The next couple contractions were 7 minutes apart and 45-60 seconds long. The 60-second long contractions were so awful I wanted to scream, but I worked through them like the others, with relaxation, breathing, and mental imagery-- and repeating to myself, “Oh good, it’s almost over. Oh good, it’s almost over…” when they were half done. J At this point (~10:30pm) I told Jed, “Let’s go to the hospital. I’m feeling like I’m in a lot of pain and if I haven’t progressed much, I just might get an epidural.” Jed was very surprised I wanted to go to the hospital already because I had been very firm that I would not go before the contractions were 5 minutes apart and regularly 50-60 seconds long. (And of course he was probably surprised about me considering an epidural too. J) Jed called my OB and said we were heading to the hospital, and my OB said he would have the resident call him once we arrived to see how far I was progressed.

I was nervous about the car ride to the hospital – if I had contractions like the ones I had been having at home just beforehand, it could be a horrible trip. But I only had a few contractions on the ride there (25 minute trip) and they were only about 35 seconds long. We arrived at the Labor and Delivery Unit sometime after 11:00pm and the nurses said, “She doesn’t need to go to triage, her doctor already called her in a room.” At this point I was feeling pretty good when I was in-between contractions. But when I laid down in the bed, my contractions suddenly started coming 2 ½ minutes apart, and I told Jed, “Get a nurse in here to check me because someone has got to call my doctor right now!” Luckily my doctor was already there – he decided to leave for the hospital when we called him. He came in and checked me and said, “Well, you’re complete. You can start pushing any time.” Wow! I couldn’t believe that I was dilated to a 10 and my contractions never got close together! Although I could believe I was dilated to a 10 by the way I was feeling. It just goes to show that timing contractions is very helpful, but the way I feel and my intuition may be more important when it comes to getting to the hospital! (And it makes me wonder if I was dilated to a 10 for the whole car trip to the hospital when I was in labor with Eliza…)

My OB got everything ready for delivery in the next few minutes and then I started to push. Phase 2 of Labor: Pushing….. Let’s just say that the pushing part of this delivery was the most excruciating and agonizing thing I have ever, or will ever, experience in this life. There. It’s the truth. I don’t take it back. After 15 minutes I started to tell Jed and my doctor, “I can’t do this anymore! I’m going to die!” Luckily I was nearing the end, and they were able to give me a goal for an end in sight. When I said, “How many more? How many more, do you think?” my doctor said, “Only 3 or 4 more.” And then after a few more, “How many more contractions? How many?” and he said, “You are right there. Maybe only 2 or 3 more.” I said, “TWO. Two is the goal. Only two more.” That happened a few times, but it sure did help to have an ending goal in sight – something to work toward. Finally little Samuel was born, and I think I could have passed out with relief! I only pushed for 20 minutes, which is a rather short pushing stage. I can’t fathom having had to push for a minute longer, though! I told Jed and my doctor that next time I'm getting an epidural. I've proved to myself two times, with Eliza and Sam, that I can deliver a baby, and now I think I'm okay with trying out an epidural again. :) My doctor said I better arrive a little earlier next time, then. J (By the way, I don't remember it being so painful with Eliza's delivery, so I don't mean to turn anyone off from a natural childbirth. Hers seemed to be an easier experience.)

Seeing Samuel for the first time was amazing and happy. They immediately laid him down on top of me, and it was incredible to know that this was my tiny sweet baby. I was overcome with awe and gratitude. He was here. He was safe. He was adorable. And I loved him.

Jed cut the cord while I held him for that moment, and then they took him to get weighed and all that while my OB sewed me up (I had about a 2^nd degree tear). That seemed to take a loooong time, and later Jed teased me because I kept telling my doctor, “Oh, I really don’t feel good down there. How much longer do you think? Oh, that does not feel good. Are you almost done?” They offered me a shot of Demerol, which I immediately and thankfully accepted. I knew I was being a baby about a little bit of pain and discomfort after just having delivered a baby naturally, so I joked, “I’ll do pain during delivery, but now that he’s born, I don’t want any pain at all. I’ll take anything you’ve got.” :)

When they brought Sam back, I got to cuddle him and I felt so happy to have him here finally! I had ‘walked through the valley of the shadow of death’ like Jed and I had been talking about, and I was on the other side and I was SO THANKFUL! So so so thankful that was behind me and now I could fully enjoy our prize at the end!

Samuel is so darling. He is so sweet and innocent. A precious little boy that has been sent to us. Jed and I just loved holding him and looking at him in the hospital. It seemed such a waste to have him laying in the bassinet when I could be holding him, so he spent a lot of our hospital stay being held and snuggled. :)

Although he definitely has the look of our babies, he also seems to have his own look, too. (More so than Eliza did; Eliza looked a lot like Benjamin.) Jed and I need to pull our Ben and Eliza’s baby books to compare newborn pictures. Sam might have just a tiny bit more hair than they had…. Anyway, he sure is adorable!

Here is Sam with me just after delivery. I could have cropped out my psycho hair even more than I already have, but when I look at those crazy bangs it makes me feel thankful for my sweet and caring husband who tenderly molded them that way as he comforted me in labor. :)

Here is the proud Daddy holding our sweet baby! (Jed still has the remains of his black eyes from his skiing incident two weeks prior. Like my brother pointed out, he looks more banged up than the newborn baby! :) )

Heading home with baby Sam.

40 weeks

Okay, here I am. Brittany and my other sweet sisters really wanted a picture of me and my tummy. :) Tomorrow is my due date, but I think I'm going to go into labor tonight. We'll see! Maybe the next post will be of a baby boy! :)

snow snow snow!

We had a big snow storm a while back and the other day it was all starting to melt, so Jed and Ben hurried outside and built a snowman before the snow disappeared. Well, a couple days later we got dumped on! We had soooo much snow! And the crazy thing is, it was great packing snow even as it was falling! So we all went out and played in the snow that afternoon....
Above - Benjamin is throwing a snowball at his sweet, innocent, poor mother... (at point blank range!) That glimmer of mischief in his eye reminds me of someone..... oh, yeah - it's JED!!

Here he is rolling a snowball for our snowman... or rolling on it.... :)
Jed and I built two humungous snowmen. They were awesome! We were laughing about how the kids were all running around (we had Ben's friend over and a neighbor boy also joined us) and the two adults were toiling on the snowman. :)

Our Masterpiece! He had a twin right next to him, but he didn't have any eyes or buttons or hat or anything. I told Jed I want him to make me a couple sets of eyes and buttons because our other big snowman needed some features! (Benjamin is the one standing up, on the right side.)

(Sad news, though - all three of our friendly snowmen were knocked over Saturday night. :( We have bad luck with hooligans destroying our snow friends!)

We came inside afterward for a cupcake and hot chocolate. Mmmmmmm- mmmmm!

got busted

In case you can't recognize him, this is my husband, Jed.

Yep. Wondering how he busted up his face? Everyone who sees him reacts the same, "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!!"

Well, on Tuesday he went skiing. Going off jumps, and then one of them went wrong. His ski caught on a 'keep out' fence (yeah), he did a complete flip in the air, and landed with his face in his knee. I don't think that felt so great! In his defense, he wasn't being THAT reckless, but still. :)

The picture above is after 48 hours. (And you can't tell very well, but his eyes, forehead and nose are all still quite swollen and puffy.)

Anyway, he came home looking like this:

He had a hemotoma that was sticking out of his forehead a full inch. I am NOT exaggerating; it was freaky looking. You can kind of see the lump in the picture, but these pictures do not convey the gruesomeness of his smashed up and swollen face. I was horror struck when he came home! In addition, he broke his nose and broke out one of his veneer front teeth. (He has veneers from when he got in that big accident on his mission, when he was in a coma for a while - I know, he has a knack for this!) All the blood from his forehead has settled around his eyes and now he looks pretty bad!

Good thing he has a few days off because he would definitely scare away all his patients!!!

*Update - I just have to add this! He went in to the dentist today to get his veneer put back in (keep in mind he looked like the top picture), and the dentist actually said to him, "Now, did this get knocked out or did it just fall out?" Um. Hmm. Are you serious? Jed looked at him and was like, "It got knocked out." When Jed told me this when he got home, I couldn't believe it! So funny!

Valentines Day activities

Benjamin is showing off the crafts that we did at our home preschool the Monday before Valentines.

Earlier in the month, for a Family Home Evening activity, we decorated Valentines cards for all his aunts and uncles and cousins. That was really fun! And Eliza was a big helper too!

Jed got a remote for my new camera in the mail, so this is a picture of us trying it out.

We went on a fun Valentines date out to dinner on Saturday the 13th. It was really fun to spend some time together!

Valentines Day Party!

We invited over four other families and had a really fun Valentines Party on Friday the 12th. We decorated Valentines boxes (for them to collect their Valentines in), played simple games together, decorated cookies and cupcakes, and then exchanged Valentines. Fun fun fun!
Showing off his well decorated Valentines box...

11 kids milling around exchanging Valentines. This was a very exciting part of the party!

This and That - January & February

My friend, Jen, and I took our kids to the Henry Ford Museum in January. The kids enjoyed the excursion. It was a great winter day activity!I just had to get a picture of Eliza wearing this cute little dress. I bought it at a Mom2Mom sale when I was pregnant with her, and it seemed like the day would never come when she would actually be big enough to fit into it...
This is what I have to do in order to take a shower around here. The kids freak out if I say I'm going to take a shower, and I've discovered that one way to appease them is to tell them how exciting it will be to snuggle up with blankets on the couch and look at books while I take a quick shower. :) I've used this incentive with Benjamin since he was a little boy. I'm glad it works for Eliza too. :)
Ben and Eliza in their 'fort'... complete with boxes, pillows, board games, all our coats that were left out, a toy firetruck, bball hoop and slide. It was one beautiful mess.
This picture is SO TYPICAL! I love it! This is Eliza displaying just to what extent she is willing to stoop when it comes to scavengering everyone else's clothes... Notice my dirty pair of fluff-socks covering up her cute tights, and Benjamin's pair of black crocs. With an old black beenie to complete the picture she looks positively homeless. Jed was laughing, pointing out how other little girls will dress up in their princess playclothes, but since we don't have much of that, she goes for the hobo look. He said she only needed a bottle in a brown paper bag to make it complete. :) haha!

By the way, I took her hobo beenie off and gave her her own cute knit beenie to play with, and she had a complete melt-down. She did NOT want her cute hat, she wanted that OTHER hat!
Last of all, Jed and I thought this little scene was adorable. A few Sundays ago, we put on The Testament: Of One Fold and One Shepherd for Ben to watch. When Eliza woke up, she joined him, just at the part when Jesus was ministering to the people. Benjamin was being so tender and sweet to her. (Talking about Jesus often makes him super sweet and loving - it's pretty cute.) He had his arm around her and was tenderly patting her head and telling her about what Jesus was doing in the movie. It was just adorable watching them!

This is what a Daddy is for...

Teaching Benjamin how to ride a bike in the middle of January. They were taking advantage of having all the snow melted and the sidewalks clear!While I'm making dinner, building towers out of the masses of cereal boxes I brought home when I found a great deal...
Enjoying a roller coaster ride at a Stake Party...
Pushing his luck by asking Eliza to go get herself a tissue.... She had a little bit of a runny nose, so Jed asked her to go get a tissue and bring it to him. Here she came.... As you can see, the toilet paper is still connected to the roll in the bathroom! It was trailing all the way through the kitchen and around the corner! hahaha!
Planning AWESOME Family Home Evening Activities! Jed made a fun "Treasure Hunt" for our activity, complete with a colored treasure map where X marked the spot, and multiple notes along the trail, one of them including a key to the treasure chest... The treasure was found in his metal briefcase and it was our yummy FHE dessert! :) Talk about exciting!
Washing the car in the dead of winter... What a good Daddy to get the kids all dressed up so that they could all hang out and "help" while he gives the cars a washdown. :)

We Love You, Daddy!