Chaz is born!

I was scheduled to be induced on Monday, October 13. The night before the induction Chad said, 'tomorrow is Columbus day'. At first I didn't make the connection & wondered why he would be mentioning this.  I remembered the next morning. Our family has this holiday theme thing going on.  Let me explain.

Chad asked my dad's permission to marry me on Christmas day.
We got engaged on New Year's Day.
We were married on Valentine's day.
We had Liam on Ground Hog's day.
Max's birthday falls on Easter.
And now this baby…another holiday continuation!

This is how Chaz's birth story played out.

5:30 am- I reported to the hospital & begin to get hooked up to an IV. I'm dilated to a 4 & about 50% effaced (not a ton of progress from my appointment the previous Monday- (dilated to a 3 & 50% effaced)).
Pitocin is started.
Contractions begin coming about every 2 min & are getting more painful.
7:45ish- I get an epidural.
8:34 am- Dr. Meents breaks my water. (I'm still dilated to a 4).
9:06 am- Dilated to a 7. Still feeling contractions on the left side. They call the anesthesiologist & he gives me another bolus of pain meds & has me lay on my left side.
9:20ish- The epidural seems to be working great now!
9:26 am- I'm a 10! The doctor is called & we're allowing the baby to labor down further into the birth canal.
9:30ish- I feel lots of pressure in my bum & tell Chad to go tell Rindi our nurse.  Chad thinks it's no big deal, but Rindi agrees that that's something she needs to hear & she begins to prepare the room. The doctor arrives a few minutes later.
9:38 am- Chaz is born!  9 pounds, 22 1/4 inches.

Both boys were so excited to see the new baby!  Max came bounding in the room and announced "Baby in my tummy!".  (I'd been trying to prep Max, but I was actually surprised that he made the connection that this was what had been hiding out in my stomach.  Now we just have to work on his use of pronouns such as "my").   Liam would not let the baby out of his sight and kept asking for turns to hold the Chaz.

Max transitioned to just mostly wanting to play.

…and Liam had to hold Chaz some more.

I have the best nurse in the world- Rindi!  She was in the deliverary with Max and I just had to have her again... so much so that I even mentioned it in a few prayers ;)

General Conference Pics

This has never ever happened! Not even with one kid!

We went to take our semi-annual "general conference" pictures this afternoon (yes, we did have a one year lapse. I was sick the last 2 general conferences). We got all set up and then I realized I forgot my remote to trigger the camera!! Ugh! I guess I'd just have to do the click and run thing with the self timer.

Then, like a miracle, we nailed it on the 2nd picture! We didn't know what to do with ourselves! Did we actually just get a keeper?! In disbelief at our good fortune we took more (just in case the screen on the back of my camera was deceiving me). I'm proud to say we got at least 3 decent pictures (decent meaning everyone is looking in the direction of the camera and has a semblance of a smile)! Hurray!



As for favorite talks…there were so many!  Here's a few of my favs with my humble one-liner synopsis.

Lynn G. Robbins - the direction we face is important

Chi Hong (Sam) Wong - very cool perspective on the man sick with the palsy that was healed by the Savior after friends lowered him through the roof.

Dallin H. Oaks - how to better love our neighbor

Jorg Klebingat - spiritual confidence before God & overcoming shortcomings

Dieter F. Uchtdorf - cool perspective on the last supper and the disciples' question- "Lord, is it I?"

And the next sermons that I loved do not have the links up yet to watch or listen to them because they were just given today.  I imagine they'll be up tomorrow.  But links for all the talks can be found here - October 2014 LDS General Conference

Richard G. Scott - the blessing of opposition and how prayer, scripture study, weekly family night, & going to the temple help us

Carlos A. Godoy - how to make correct choices & differentiating between good and better

Larry Kacher - cool story about getting caught in a riptide and likening it to the currents in life that can lead us astray

David A. Bednar- why people of the LDS faith are so anxious to share their faith with others

Bass Pro date

So occasionally we try to mix things up and not do the traditional dinner and a movie date.  Last night we tripled with my sister and our friends the Jacobs to do something a little more creative for date night.

It involved a trip to Bass Pro and three themes (open for interpretation) that each couple had to capture with a cell phone picture.  The topics were as follows...

Any Man of Mine.

Love the strange man with glasses that's apparently hanging out with Bradley…or maybe also spying on Sheena and her mystery man.

Man vs. Wild

 I hope that squirrel has a license!

When we asked what Sheena and Bradley were supposed to be doing in the picture on the right, they explained that Bradley was hiding and Sheena is punching the wolf.  Thought you guys might need an explanation as well :)

Gangsta Paradise

Which, I admittedly do not know how to flash a gang sign.  I literally had to have Chad coach me…which he did a HORRIBLE job of in the 1st pic!  Lol!  My "east side" looks more like paws or I'm shaking my hands dry.  I look like I belong more with Barney, the Teletubbies, and Mickey Mouse rather than an east side anywhere!!

Then we split up and did boys vs. girls. The topics were…

When Nature Calls
Should've known the boys would do something involving a bathroom.  (And of coarse, they had to flash the "Michelle" gang sign).

I wonder what they were talking about?

Best Selfie

I don't know how the boys thought this was a selfie!  When we questioned it Mike said, "Well, actually it just started out with me seeing if I could get Bradley in girl clothes…"

Us girls did all the stereotypical selfie pics. We did fierce...but with a bear! How do you get more fierce than that? (Well, maybe not have a creeper in the corner of your pic and/or chop off majority of the bear in the shot. In our defense, he was quite tall).

We did kissy lips (which Sheena & me obviously don't know how to do! haha That, or Karen's lucious lips put us to shame!) and Charlie's Angels (which Sheena didn't seem to get the memo on that one.  You like my one finger gun?)

If all else fails, try on an assortment of head gear.

 

 

And he shall be called...

This is probably the last of the home improvements that I will be posting for awhile. We actually did these ones before Max's surgery. Just getting around to blogging them.
We hung crown molding in our master bedroom. Sorry! These were the best before pictures that I had. (Note to self: Must remember to take decent before pictures!). We wanted to make our crown molding a little chunkier, so we consulted my uncle Ty for help. He suggested we could drywall over the orange peel texture, paint it and then sandwich that between 2 pieces of crown molding for a thicker look. Make sense?  (You can see our drywall mud up in the left pic).


Again…not the best before. This is actually our master bedroom from a few years ago, but you get the basic idea.

 


Placed a little more art work,etc. in the nursery.


(Got the cutest blanket from my sister in law Ashley! She's so good at giving gifts and tasteful ones at that. Wish I shared that gift.)

 


Notice anything specific? Maybe like, the letter C? Yes, this "C" indicates that we have decided on a name! And the baby shall be called….


Chaz James Guerra.
Chaz.
We seem to have a tradition going where the 1st name is something we think is cute. We both liked Chaz. And as an added plus, it's a derivative of Charles & Chad (Chad is named after his grandpa Charles Guerra).

The middle name we like to have more meaning behind it.
James.
Chad's grandpa Smith was named James. He served his country in World War II. He died while Ashley and me were on our mission in Spain. It was a heartbreaking time for Ashley and the rest of the family. He was adored by all of Chad's family.
James also has meaning on my side of the family. James Wilkins was my great great (I'm not sure exactly how many greats actually) grandpa who was the first Mormon convert on my Wilkins side. He joined the LDS faith during the Nauvoo era of the church and later made the trek out west and became a early Mormon settler out there.