Cousins

Andrew and his family came to visit for the Fourth: Layne, McKenzie, Rowan, Justin, Eden

. . . and Gavin!

We did a lot of swimming . . .

and just hangin' out . . .

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Grandma-great

Grannie Adams came to live with mom and dad for the past 6 weeks. It was a bit confusing at first with two grandma's in the same house. The kids have had a good time getting to know her.

Swimming

Justin had a couple weeks of lessons this year which really helped to boost his confidence. Now one of his favorite activities is seeing how long he can hold his breathe while checking out the bottom of the pool. McKenzie is half fish. She already matches Justin stroke for stroke and tries to escape her floaty anytime we turn our head. She's fearless. Swim teams are big around here so next year, they'll both get a chance to compete.

A prelude to a dive . . .

Beautiful form . . .

Like father . . .

Like son . . .

Josie Eastman - June 28, 2009

Here she is!

8.1 oz. 18 1/2 in.

For someone who was scared to death of going into labor (I know that sounds ridiculous considering I already have two kids), this delivery couldn't have been more perfect. I wasn't scared of the labor pains, just not being able to recognize them in time to get to the hospital. With Justin, my water broke and I essentially had to be induced - they said when I got to the hospital that I was having contractions, but I couldn't feel anything. With McKenzie, I had a planned induction and actually got to a 9 before getting an epidural - that wasn't so bad, but I didn't know how far along I was so somehow the not knowing took off the edge . . .

With Josie, I slept as comfortably as possible Saturday night until around 6 AM when I started feeling consistent pain, but nothing worthy of getting out of bed. At 7 AM I got up and told Alex this could be it (I was feeling contractions every three minutes) but that I was going to take a warm bath first and see if that helped. 7:10AM - it didn't so I called the doctor's office and by the time the doctor called back, the pain was every two minutes. We loaded everyone into the car and raced grandma to the hospital.

They checked me out and I had dilated to a 6 - the baby's coming! Where's the epidural? 7 - finally, an epidural! 8, 9 hurry up and wait. A catnap here, petocin there, 10 and PUSH! About 20 minutes later we had our beautiful baby girl!

She has very dark brown hair, blond eyebrows and eye lashes, round cheeks, a "cute button nose" (says McKenzie) and a nice set of lungs - she came out screaming! and hungry!

Justin keeps giving her kisses and is very protective of her already. McKenzie thinks everything about her is cute and wants baby Josie to watch "her big sister" do everything - a title she has no problem adopting.

What to do if you're not having a baby

Go to the ballgame, of course!

A little pre-game trivia: We drove through Wendy's on the way to the game then decided that Alex would go get tickets while I waited in the car for the kids to finish eating. (Kenzie had fallen asleep on the way so we let her sleep as long as possible.) If he got through the line quickly, he'd come back to the car. If not, I'd meet him at the entrance with the kids, his glove, and the garbage. I wake McKenzie and two bites into her chicken nuggets, she announces that she needs to go to the bathroom. (Reminder - I'm 40 weeks pregnant.) Me: "Can you hold it? We can't just run up to the bathroom . . ." Mc: "It's coming!" What would you do?

Answer: Luckily, I had the new Bold Buffalo Chicken (spicy food!) which came in a plastic container: or port-a-pot when you're in a bind.

Chick-Fil-A was the sponsor. They each came home with a couple of cows. McKenzie's actually terrified of the famous restaurant mascot, but these little ones were pretty cute!

Sprite! A special treat for a special ocassion!

Chopper is our mascot and the kids love him and his antics.

The San Diego Chicken also made anappearance. I didn't realize he was so famous or I would've made more of an effort to get a decent shot of his front side. He was very funny and the kids especially liked his posse.

I love the expressions on Justin and McKenzie's faces in this picture! Yeah, we're chillin' at the game - WORD!