Moms

I feel like the luckiest mom in the world to have such sweet little boys. On Mother's Day, Cole gave me a letter he had been working on with Clay. This is one of my favorite pages from it. After he gave me the letter he hugged me super tightly and said, "All this love will never come to an end." Clay gave me a card and one of the greatest gifts of all...ice cream.
And I must mention that I have the best mom in the world!!!! She is the greatest, sweetest lady ever and I want to grow up to be just like her!
This weekend we went to Los Angeles and looked in the South Pasadena area for an apartment. Thanks to a tip from some people in the ward, we found a great apartment that's in a really nice area for less rent than we're paying now. So our trip was successful. Hooray!

Cousins

One of my biggest concerns about having another baby was that Cole would feel neglected. But so far, in my opinion, his life is still pretty great. Right now he's at the ward's father's and son's campout, cooking hot dogs, roasting marshmellows, bikeriding, and playing by the pond.

Cousins are such a blessing in his life. He had so much fun last week playing with Emily's girls on their new slip n slide. He also loved cousin Blake's 1st birthday party! He loved playing on the bounce house, the swing set, in the sand box, and running around with cousin Sage. We also got a nice picture of cousins Luke and Calla together with their dads.

And congratulations to Doug and Rebecca, the parents of Cole and Luke's newest cousin, Olivia!

A little update

One of Cole's favorite things to do is place Luke's little teddy bear rattle in Luke's hand or by his head so that it looks like he's snuggling with it. We all love our little Luke so much. He's a very easy baby and very sweet.

Cole gave his first talk in Primary last Sunday about their theme, "I can follow the prophet." He did a great job and wasn't nervous at all. When we pulled up to the church that day, he said he was so excited to give his talk. I hope he always feels that way about public speaking.

In case anyone didn't know, Clay has decided to go to USC starting in the fall. We'll be moving to LA sometime this summer. We'll know more once we find housing.

Another bit of great news is that my sister Emily is expecting. She is 25, has been married for 6 years, and this will be her 5th baby! When the baby is born in December, she will have a 5 year old, 4 year old, 3 year old, 1 year old, and a newborn! She is utterly amazing!

Twin Cousins

"It's baby day, it's baby day!
Hip hip hooray!
Let's throw some confetti!"

This is the little song that Cole thought up on Saturday and sang on the way to the hospital, and down the halls of the hospital, all the way up to the labor and delivery unit. But let me start from the beginning...

Last Friday my sister Amanda was admitted to the hospital to be induced since she was 4 days overdue and her blood pressure was quite high. Labor progressed very slowly for her and by Saturday morning she was still waiting and waiting for some action. Meanwhile, I woke up that morning wondering what time I should go to the hospital to visit her, when I had a couple of really strong contractions. They started coming every two minutes so we called the doctor and headed down to the hospital, not as visitors for my sister, but to be admitted.

A lot of my family was already there, and Clay's parents came too. It was so much fun and so unexpected since I wasn't due for 11 more days. After being at the hospital for just a half hour or so, I was wheeled in to the O.R. I was given a spinal block and about 20 minutes later, our baby was born.

Luke Anthony was born at 10:44 am on April 5th. He weighed 8 lbs, 15 oz. and was 22 in. long. He has dark hair and eyes, and a little stork bite on his forehead. (In the first picture, he is the baby on the right.) After a little time in the nursery, Clay brought him into our room that we would be sharing with my sister once she delivered. The room was perfect; very large with two beds for the mommies, and two beds for the daddies.

My sister had her baby, Connor James, at 7:00 that evening. She joined us a couple hours later. The party in room no. 434 could finally begin. It was wonderful getting to share a room and this whole experience with her. And it was great that our family could visit us both at the same time.

Amanda and I were discharged on Monday. Life with Luke has been wonderful! I cannot put into words how much I love him. He completely has my heart! Clay and Cole think he's pretty great too. Clay is soooo wonderful! He is the greatest support and help and I don't know what I would do without him. Cole is a great helper too. He love's to sing to Luke and hold him and give kisses and rub his face against his. I love my 3 boys so much!

On Tuesday, our sister-in-law Sara, had her baby girl, Calla Jane. Clay noted that at only 3 days old, our baby was not the youngest on either side of the family. Congratulations to Sara and Thayne!

My Little Lamb

We had lots of wonderful Easter fun this last weekend. Clay and Cole went to Grandma Suzanne's house on Saturday for an easter egg hunt, some egg-dying and of coarse, some swimming. (I was feeling under the weather so I missed out.)

On Easter Sunday, Cole had his first experience with singing in Sacrament Meeting with the Primary children. I wasn't sure if he would really go up on the stand and do it, but he did! We are so proud of our little man! I love the words to one of the songs the primary sang called, "Jesus is My Shepherd":

Jesus is my Shepherd.
I'm His precious Lamb.
Tenderly He guides me,
With His gentle hand.
Calm are waters where He leads,
Green are pastures where He feeds me.
Jesus is my shepherd,
He love's me.

I had fun waddling up to the piano to accompany the kids, sensing what a spectacle I was with my big belly. I could tell people were nervous that I wouldn't fit through the small space in between the piano and the organ, but luckily, I cleared it. My mom spoke afterwards and did an amazing job! My sister Emily and her kids came to our ward too that day, so it was great to get some pictures of Cole with his cousins in their Easter best (especially since I am so crazy about taking pictures; I think it's become something of a sickness.)

After church we went to my aunt Kyle and uncle Larry's house for dinner. The food was wonderful and Cole got to participate in another egg hunt that my grandpa puts together for the grandkids every year. It's so wonderful to be with family!

Clay's 31st birthday was on Monday. Happy Birthday Clay! He spent his day relaxing, reading, and watching the Pirates of the Carribean trilogy. The birthday gift he really wanted was an MP3 player (one that plays secured WMA's) and after much searching he finally found it on the internet, so hopefully he can start enjoying that soon. Cole and I love him so much! He was offered a scholarship this week from BYU and found out that he's been accepted to Kansas. We feel very blessed. He needs to decide where to go soon though. Each place has it's advantages and disadvantages, so I guess we have a lot to think about.

Kiss me, I'm...Cole!

Here's a picture of Cole sporting his green shamrock cheeks and a St. Patrick's Day inspired painting of a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end.

Spring Break is here! Clay is very happy to get a vacation from the crazy kids in his class. So far he's spent his break applying for scholarships to BYU. He got an acceptance letter from them last week but scholarships are a separate process. Hopefully he'll get in some relaxing over the next two weeks too.

We all had a good time in Orange County last week at Sara's baby shower (Clay's brother Thayne's wife.) It was pink and brown polka dots everywhere and lots of fun! Clay and Cole went on a hike during the shower with Thayne and another brother, Steve so they had a great time too. We were able to meet up with yet another brother, Bruce, for dinner afterwards at an Italian restaurant. The food was great and Cole enjoyed eating all the sausage off of one of the pasta dishes.

We also had a little birthday celebration last week at my sister Emily's house for all the March birthday's in my family: my dad, my grandpa, my brother-in-law Todd, and of coarse, my Clay. Our new brother-in-law, Brandon also happens to be a March birthday-- but he's in Idaho. Family parties are always fun and Cole love's doing anything that involves cousins!

I went to the doctor today and got another ultrasound done. It showed that the baby currently weighs 8 lbs. 2 oz. So, we're expecting another 9-pounder since I have a little less than 4 weeks to go. I also got my c-section officially scheduled today for April 14th at 7:30 am. We are all soooo excited!!!!!!

Showered with Blessings

My sister Amanda and I had a combined baby shower on Saturday. There was a good turn-out which is always my biggest concern. It was sooo nice to share the spotlight with Amanda instead of having all eyes on me. We both got so many nice things and our babies now have considerably larger wardrobes than we do.

I'm sure everyone already got Clay's email about USC. I am so proud of him. He feels so happy and relieved, but is still waiting to hear back from other schools to make any final decisions.

Cole really admires Clay. Sometimes he'll say to Clay, "Daddy, how do you know so much about the world?" Other times when he asks me a question that I don't know the answer to, I'll offer a few suggestions, and then he'll reply, "Maybe this is a good 'daddy question'". I agree.
While I'm talking about Cole quotes, he said something the other day when we were playing dinosaurs that made me laugh. All the dinosaurs were hiding under the bed from the T-Rex and Cole was explaining to me what was going on. His explanation went on for a while and I was left quite confused by the time he stopped talking. I didn't know what to have any of my dinosaurs do or say, so I said to Cole, "So what should happen next?" He responded, "You're the expert."

I love him soooo much! I love his daddy soooo much too.