Abundant Recompense Copy

 We revisited a fave from last year, Beus Canyon, two weekends ago. We all really enjoyed it. Addison has always loved hiking and liked being the leader for most of it. Beforehand, he made a treasure map for each of us and during the hike was constantly searching for "clues." Bryn seems to have forgotten that last year the whole reason she went on hikes was for the snacks. She was a great sport and walked almost the whole time. Leah was 12 days old and ate at the beginning of the hike and then slept in the front pack the rest of the way. I'd say this year might turn out to be a golden one for family hikes. The pictures tell the story of the hike pretty well, I think. Enjoy! Butterflies!

"Nate! My water broke!" "When?" "Just now! Get some towels!" I tried (and succeeded somewhat) to protect our bed and carpet from the sudden tidal wave as Nate stared stupidly at the linen closet (his words, not mine.) What seemed like 45 minutes later he finally handed me a bath towel which was soaked within seconds, followed by another one, and then a third. I'll cut him some slack, though - it was 1:00 on the dot on Monday morning, May 7th, and it'd been a pretty rough night. False labor contractions had been bothering me all Sunday afternoon and as the night progressed they remained painful and inconsistent. Ugh. Luckily, "The Happiest Millionaire" was on KBYU, and it really was as good as I remember it being from my childhood. I might have even guffawed a few times when they found the pet alligators frozen in the conservatory,  in spite of my 3-days-overdue-gouging-my-eyes-out attitude. Nate and I debated on whether to go to the hospi...

Birth story post still to come. In the meantime, here are a few things of note from the past few days. Chickens They eat cat food. Who knew? Also, one of them started crowing. It's very unfortunate, because it was Addison's favorite, Buzz Lightyear. We had a date all lined up to turn him into a freezer meal, and then at the last minute a friend's brother just happened to need a rooster for his new farm, where I'm sure Buzz is now enjoying his choice of the ladies. Bryn and Buzz Addison The poor boy has been throwing up (and down) for the past two days. Thank heavens for friends who will run to the store and get Gatorade and pull-ups for us. He is also currently fascinated by ocean life. Bryn Cut her hair yesterday all by herself. I'm still saying prayers of gratitude that she bypassed the gorgeous foot-long ringlet pigtails and just went for a little bit in the front. Either way, scissors are off-limits for a little while. She is very proud to be a big sister and re...

We need to sit down and document the whole birth story, but the idea is awfully daunting for a pair of sleep-deprived, worn-out parents at 10:00 at night. So, let's just say that little Leah ViAnn came Monday morning, May 7, at 7:26 a.m., 20 inches long, 7 lb 14 oz. And she's perfect. Enjoy the pictures.    

Well, May third, here we are. No baby yet. Yep. For your edification, a few happy thoughts that I keep forcing myself to think: First off, there's an older lady in our ward named Brenda who has seven children. I guess back in her day they wouldn't induce labor because they couldn't tell if the lungs were developed, etc. She was overdue with every one of them. And one of them was A WHOLE MONTH overdue. Happy thought #1: It's May third, not June third. Last Sunday someone stopped me in the hall at church to talk about the fact that I was still pregnant. In the course of our conversation she educated me on elephants, who apparently carry their babies for three years before giving birth. Happy thought #2: I am not an elephant. A few days ago a friend called me and said that she'd just gotten back from taking her daughter to the doctor and on the way out she'd seen an extremely pregnant woman in the elevator with handcuffs on being escorted by two police officers to ...