Something to celebrate...

These pictures were taken when he was 2 weeks old! Wow... he has grown!

#1-  DATE NIGHTS - Thanks to Jason's parents, and his younger, wonderful sister CASSI we have been able to go out on a few dates since little Jacob was born! Yay! Scott and Lisa went to Hawaii and brought back these cute Hawaiian outfits for the girls!

#2- JACOB NEAL BAIRD  was blessed on Sunday, April 3rd, before conference at our church.  It was wonderful and very special to just be there with family and be apart of that special event.  I am so grateful to be a mommy.

#3-  JACOB SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT!! HOORAY!   LiFE IS GOOD!
              His 2 month stats :    13.8 lbs (90%)  90% for height too.  He is my chubby love.

#4-  Don't you just LOVE General conference? Don't you feel RENEWED? REFRESHED? Listening to all the talks that inspire me to be a better wife/mother/sister/neighbor/friend and disciple of Christ! I am so grateful for living prophets and apostles on the earth today!

# 5- POTTY TRAINING THE GRACE ster!  It should be fun! :-) This week we started because I CANT stand buying two sizes of diapers for two kids! She's ready... let's hope.  Wish me luck! :-) 

#6- WE celebrated our 9th ANNIVERSARY! Holy Schmoley! That's what I said.. i can't be married for THAT long already, have 3 kids, and one entering school next year!?? WHAT?? Where has the time gone? We look like BABIES in these pictures! haha.  Life is good.  It's an adventure, but I'm so GLAD I can take my best friend along! Love my hubs! :-)

#7- Last but not LEAST... i am adjusting so far to having three kids.  I SURVIVED 2 business trips so far without JASON! That's been 8 days TOTAL! Thanks to my family who keep me company and help with adult conversations...  I will survive! haha.  You get a WHOLE new appreciation for single mothers or fathers.  My heart goes out to them.  They are amazing!

Our new baby boy!

jacob neal you ready for this? 10 lbs. 2 oz. 20.5 in.

FINALLY!!! I know it's been 2 weeks since he was born and I am JUST NOW getting around to posting his arrival... but life is starting to normalize now (is that a word)?

BIRTH STORY 

My only requests when I was to give birth:

*NO inducing   * No epidural 

DIDN'T HAPPEN... gratefully...

Yes, so with both of the girls I wanted to go into labor on my own and enjoyed that very much.  With Grace, I went into labor on my own 6 days late, and had her natural, no epidural and wanted to do the same with this baby! Although you have to be patient, that is the hard part.  Well, we were on our way with this baby and he was 2 DAYS overdue.. nothing happening. I woke up in the middle of the night with a TERRIBLE pain on my right side.  It was horrible and nothing would soothe it. I was worried it was my appendix.  So after several hours, we decided around 6 am to head to the hospital and get checked out.  They tried to run some tests, but couldn't do much because there is a full term baby in the way!! So, my doctor told me it was up to me but she would recommend getting induced and getting the baby out so we can figure out where the pain is coming from.  This was also January 28th, which is my little sister, Rachel's 18th birthday.  We were going to have a party for her that night and have fun! I didn't really want to have a baby on HER birthday! Plus i knew all my sisters would come to my birth and my mom and I didn't want to take it away from her birthday! Then, after a much needed blessing, I made the decision to get induced! 

The doctor broke my water, first, and then I got up and Jason and I walked and walked the hospital floor! The contractions were NOTHING compared to this horrible pain! It was SO painful and terrible I didn't know how I was going to go through labor like this.  

THEN... the blessed nurse reminded me that if I got an epidural, it would ALSO numb the PAIN in my side! YAY!! Once they started me on pitocin... It didn't take me long to decide to do that!

           5pm- got the epidural and finally was able to RELAX- around 4cm dilated

6pm- 5 cm dilated - my sisters decided to go grab dinner downstairs

TEN minutes LATER = felt pressure down there... had the nurse check me - 7 CM!

TEN MINUTES LATER= felt more pressure- 9 1/2 cm! Frantically calling my sisters to get back up here!

The nurses frantically called the doctor... she just 'HAPPENED' to be driving my the hospital! 

TEN MIN LATER= starting pushing out this baby!

TEN MIN LATER= head is out and his shoulders were stuck... at this point, the doctor knows this baby is gonna be a big boy!! The doctor stretches me for a few min. and literally reaches in and gently helps pull his shoulders out! 

7 pm- WE HAVE A BABY BOY! 

My doctor is SO wonderful! I can't say enough good about her! I didn't even barely tear AT ALL! I was not ONE BIT sore down there either! It was amazing. Just my back hurt, which I think was from the epidural.  That's it for soreness! NICE.. i'll take it! 

THINGS I LEARNED:

 *So the pain mysteriously went away after he was born.  The doctor as well as I am convinced it was just a blessing from Heavenly Father to get this baby out! He knew the only way I was going to get induced was under these circumstances! :-) stubborn girl I am! 

The doctor said had he gone another day or two, I might have needed an emergency C section because of his SIZE! It would have been dangerous! 

SO THANKFUL HEAVENLY FATHER KNOWS WAY MORE THAN WE DO! WE JUST HAVE TO TRUST HIM.

My birth team... Heather, my mom, Carrie, Jen, Rachel, and Cassi (my sis in law was there too)! I just love them ALL! They are wonderful! 

There's the proof... 10 lbs. 2 oz.

Can you tell someone is a little happy to have a baby BOY??

Meeting my baby JACOB. He nursed right away! It was awesome!

I love this picture! It looks like he's flexing.. and holding onto Daddy's little finger! cute!

Grandpa Scott (Jason's father) excited about another grandson!

Grace meeting Jacob for the FIRST TIME! In her princess dress and all!

Jade adores him! She loves helping me take care of him

10 lb baby = BETTER SLEEPER! He totally is a GREAT baby!

PRECIOUS! I just love this little man! 

Jade loves to take care of him.  She washes her hands like twenty times a day just to be sure she won't get germs on him! She is such a cutie!

Jack n' Jill & a whole lotta fun!

Doesn't this look DIVINE? I made chocolate zucchini cake with zucchini from my garden! We got so many it was fun to come up with new recipes! 

                                    
                                                    HALLOWEEN party #1 @ the Bairds

 This is Jason's parents having a party with the grandkids! They had a great time playing games, making crafts, and eating donuts! They love being together. We are SO lucky to live by our cousins and grandparents! 

PARTY #2 -My mom is so DARN CREATIVE! She made this playhouse for the kids to perform halloween plays for us.  So cute! They had a great time.

Did I mention my mom was creative??? Yes, this cake was for my brother Mike cause we celebrated his belated birthday on halloween night!  We have a tradition in our family where we all get together on halloween and make soups and then go out and trick or treat. The kids love getting together!!

The 'JACK and JILL' of all jack and jills! They are SOOO cute together. Carrie's little boy JACK and Grace are about 6 months apart and are trouble together! :-) We thought this costume idea was PERFECT for the pair of them! IT was!! 

Okay.. and the CUTEST Dorthy ever... i must say! She had it all, but the long braided hair :-) Maybe one day I'll have her be Annie, or shirley Temple. 

Baths at our house are always exciting! They dig for treasures, swim underwater, and pretend they are mermaids... and sometimes get along and have fun :-)

Any time of day you come to my house... this is the ATTIRE for the day! Full on princess dress-ups. They change about 6 times a day though too.  Sound and look familiar to anyone else?

Yep... that's how we roll! 

Here they are just sittin' on the driveway playing princess together.  Awaiting their  'prince' (Jason) to come home from work! 

The 'whole family' pictures!

 WOW... it's been awhile since I blogged! Now I have to play catch up over the last few months.  Well, this was a fun highlight for sure! Joel and Bonnie came back from Virginia to visit us and it was A BLAST having them here! We had to snag a few family pics with the whole family together.  Although in JAnuary, it will change ... again.  I guess this means we will need to update family pics yearly! It's already such a struggle to get everyone together and coordinated! GLAD they are DONE!

The whole Andrews Clan-

This was my personal favorite! I just love my siblings! We have 

fun when we're together! 

My cute little Jade! She looked like an indian at the end of summer.

And my sweetheart... wish we hadn't taken family pics when i was preggo.. but oh well. that's life.

Jade and Gracie 

Family picture- 

My cute parents. awww. 

My Gracie- poor girl, she got my lips... 

ULTRASOUND RESULTS!!

So I just logged on to my blog and realized it's been FOREVER since my last post... and well, I've know this exciting news for about 3 weeks now!! GEEZ, I'm almost 6 months!  I'd thought I'd share the exciting news! We're HAVING A...


cute little ...

adorable...

happy....

BOY! Yes, it was true! I had to ask her about three times to check and be sure, but there were no mistakes about that! He had his legs spread wide open!  I looked at Jade and said, 'Jade, it's a boy'! She looked at me kinda funny like 'duh, mom... that's what I've been saying'! She was not surprised at all.  Jason is super happy and we are ready to welcome a new baby boy to our family! I hope he will add some testosterone to the mix and be ready to play soccer cause Jason is anxiously awaiting :)  

We're Expecting...

... ANOTHER BABY the end of JANUARY! 


I know. I mentioned it in the other post, but it deserves a post of it's own! :-) We are very excited. Jade and Grace pray at each prayer for the baby that it will 'gow healfy' (in Grace's language). We will find out the gender sometime the end of August. I am about 14 weeks along right now.  I have felt fairly good... it goes off and on. I am a lot more tired though! Working out is much, much harder and takes a lot of effort. I just get exhausted by the end of the day! I'm glad I have such a great husband who takes care of me.  Here's to a better 2nd trimester! Yipee! Bring it on!

JULY fun!

It's not a surprise that i LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the 4th of July! It's like one of my favorite holidays of the year!! I love the time of year, the barbeques, the flags everywhere, people saying the pledge of alliance at every event, the songs, the togetherness i feel with other Americans, and I love how they DO IT IN PROVO!! The patriotic service was absolutely FANTASTIC! I love it.  I look forward to it every year. Then the Stadium of Fire was amazing with Carrie Underwood... and then the FABULOUS PARADE! It means a lot to me.  I love America. I love all the serviceman and woman who currently serve our county and those who have.  Such a blessing to live here!!

So this has been a tradition of ours for YEARS now to run the Freedom Run! It also has a special place in my heart because Jason did it for the first time one YEAR after his cancer treatments and ran a 5k! I was so proud of him because of all the struggles he had to go through and to see him running again healthy and happy... so glad!! LOVE that guy!! So here we are with TWO kiddos and one on the way (3 months along) running again together! :-)

My little Gracie modeling her patriotic attire!! 

weird picture of JAde... but she was being silly and wouldn't let me get a good one of her! She and Grace were TWINS in their little outfits! They LOVE the parade too!

Grace chillin' on Jason... she was a little (ok a LOT) afraid of all loud noises, which was pretty much the whole parade! 

So this is where she ended up sitting... hoping to get farther away from the loud noises! Grandma Jo's lap! :-)

...And the way home from the parade... they CRASHED. 

6:15 AM was WAY too early for those girls! Being pushed in the stroller... exhausting!

.... And Grace... Crashed. Fully decked out still... what a woman!

OUR FIRST GARDEN!!!! Yes, we planted our garden this year and we are very excited! Looks nice huh? Well.... take a look at the next picture....

I don't know how farmers do it!?!? It was so much work getting it ready.  We had to pull out trees, roots, TONS of grass, weeds, leaves, rocks! Lots of work! But hopefully we will reap the REWARDS! 

Thanks to my Dad for coming and teaching us how to plant... we're set! sort of...

The girls with their shovels... destroying (i mean helping) to plant too! We planted BEANS, ZUCCHINI, BELL PEPPERS, TOMATOES, CHERRY TOMATOES, CucumbERS, Carrots, and red onions! Plus some cilantro and basil! Hopefully we'll get something from it!! :-)

AND JULY 8th... GRACE TURNED "2"

Did I mention this was how i found the birthday girl when I came upstairs from unloading the dryer? A WHOLE TWO minutes i was gone and this is what she did... found my black mac makeup and brush and decorated herself 'so prewtty'.  Oh, how could i get mad? I had to get my camera! crazy girl!

What a cutie! I can't believe she's only two! She acts so much older and she's so dang smart that it seems like she should be four! She keeps me on my toes and I am SO blessed to her mommy.  I love her spunk and her personality and flare! She has a love of life and people and it's so contagious to be around her! She absolutely LOVES Jade and follows her everywhere! Oh, LOVE that sweet girl! 

It was a LAST min. birthday party.  We just invited the grandparents and the Baird side of the family, cause my mom was out of town and we'll do an 'Andrews one' later... BUT most couldn't come, I made all this food and texted my sister about an hour before and said... COME over... i have so much food. It worked out. Here she is saying THANKS for her cute present! 

Grace with her  new bubble mower.  (don't waste 20$ ladies, it doesn't work very well) :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE ELIZABETH!