Christmas Day part 1

Aaron in his new Cardinals chair
Kaden playing with his train set from Santa

The boys in their Christmas Eve pajamas

I got a new camera for Christmas and took the rest of the pictures on that. I have yet to download them and will post more pics of Christmas day later.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we were with my mom's side of the family. We had dinner and did the traditional white elephant game. We were not allowed to spend money this year on white elephant gifts so we had to come up with stuff around the house to give away. The hot items this year was a Christmas tree box filled with candy (Aaron ended up with that), my dad's homeade cinnamon raisin bread and apricot jam, and the bun and thigh roller (that has been sitting in our garage for years). It was a fun evening.

Shumway Family Christmas

We had Christmas with my parents on the Sunday before Christmas. We had a nice thought from my Dad and opened presents. When Kaden was opening his presents he kept saying "it's my birthday party, it's my birthday party." It was so funny. We ate a delicious meal prepared by my mom and dad. My mom decorates the table really nice each year and it always turns out so beautiful. It has been a tradition for the past several years to hunt for the pickle ornament on the tree. We all decide an appropriate time and get out of the room while my mom hides the pickle ornament. We then race to find it. The first one to find it gets a treat and an ornament to hang on the tree that declares them the winner for that year. It is fun. Sarah won this year. She is officially a Shumway. We always go Christmas caroling to families that my dad home teaches so we did that as well. It was a long day, but very fun. I love Christmas time!

Christmas Sunday

The Postons

Quite a few posts ago I talked about being in Utah for a week and seeing some friends, the Postons. Ashley and I were due a few days apart from each other and we got belly shots of us in September. They came down to visit family for Christmas and we were able to get pictures of the kids post-womb.

Their little girl, Addison, is so long!! They are both very tall and she is definitely going to be tall as well. She is so cute! I hope I am blessed with a little girl someday.

Curiosity killed the cat

Well, as you can see, my son is very very creative. This is the epitomy of my life with this child. I was in the bathroom for less than 5 minutes and this is what he accomplished. I had been burning the candle for a few hours. He climbed up the cupboards with no assistance (no chair or box of any kind in sight) and onto the stove. You have to hand it to him though, I would have never thought to put a wire wisk and a fire starter in together. Maybe he will like eclectic art someday...

Seeing Santa

Aaron's aunt does a preschool in her home. They had their Christmas program today. I took Kaden and Brendon and met some of Aaron's family there. Santa came. Kaden had already sat on santa's lap this season so he was prepared to be brave on his own this time around. He asked for a train. I love Christmas time. It is a crazy busy time of year, but always filled with lots of fun memories to cherish for years to come.

A good time

We went with some friends to a park nearby that was putting on a winter wonderland celebration. They had snow and games and a train ride. Kaden loved the snow.

More pics of the boys

Kaden absolutely adores Brendon. He is such a good big brother. He is always willing to help. He loves to talk to him. Kaden always says "him loves me, mom." Brendon is very aware when Kaden is around. You can tell he already knows and loves his big brother.

Okay so there were some pictures that I missed posting because of the arrival of Brendon. Here they are now...Enjoy!

Natalie Montez (http://photosbynatalie.blogspot.com) took our Shumway family pictures on October 18th. Here are some of my favorites:

(two weeks 'til delivery)

We took Kaden to the park for his birthday. Yes, the turtles are "wrestling." Kaden at Peter Piper Pizza with his friends on his birthday. Kaden's family birthday party.
Kaden was a monkey on Halloween.

Update

I have survived this new challenge of being a mother of two thus far. Thank you for all your comments and support. We are doing well. Kaden is doing much better this week with the adjustment. Last week was full of disobedience and tantrums. We are back on a little bit of a schedule and he has just mom and dad telling him what to do so he is doing much better. I have had a fever off and on this week and so have been really really taking it easy. Aaron's mom had Kaden for a couple days and that helped out a lot (thanks Shelley!). I am so excited for this new adventure of two boys. Kaden absolutely loves his little brother and is constantly worried about his comfort. We press forward to see what the future holds for us.

The Story

Okay. I finally have a little time to update this thing and hopefully do a journal entry about the experience of Brendon coming into this world. Words will not be able to adequately express the events that happened. I think only I can truly feel the spirits of the many angels who were watching out for me that day. I am truly grateful for them. Here it goes...

Oh another little preface...Aaron had been planning a dirt bike ride for a little bit. I had a doctors appointment on the 31st and was only dilated to a one. I had 8 days left until my due date. On Saturday when Aaron got home I was going to go get a mani/pedi to prepare and be cute for when the baby came. I had tons of little things I was going to do to finish preparing for The Day. Aaron had said that he would be home between 10 and 11. Earlier in the week he joked by saying "just watch, at 7 in the morning you will start contracting and it will be right where I can't get cell phone service." Little did he know... (oh and just a warning, I am a little honest and don't mind talking about female stuff, so I apologize)

November 1, 2008

• 4:30 am- Aaron leaves to go riding up to Crown King


• 7:00 am- I wake up to a really bad low cramp. I tried to roll over and change position but it just wasn't going away. I figured it was probably because I had to pee. I got up and went to the bathroom but it was still lingering. Kaden was still asleep (not sure how that happened, he is a 5:30am riser) but I decided I had slept enough and needed to get started on my little projects for the day. I ate breakfast and Kaden woke up. I had taken the baby car seat apart the night before so that I could wash it and get it ready. We took the pieces outside to hose them down and I still was getting these cramps. I had been having contractions prior to this, but these were just different.


• 8:00 am- I call my mom and tell her the situation. In the back of my mind I just have this gut feeling that the baby is coming today. We decide that it would be best if we both showered and got ready for the day and then she would call back in about an hour to check on me to see if I was still having these pains. If so, she would come in and help with Kaden until Aaron got home. So that is what I do. I get in the shower and start getting ready. The contractions are coming about 5 minutes apart at this point in time


• 9:00 am- I call my mom and tell her to start driving. The contractions are starting to come closer together, about 4 minutes and I am in such pain, I want to be at the hospital right now, but I knew I couldn't drive (the hospital is about 40 minutes away), plus I had Kaden. I call Aaron and leave a message on his phone that I thought the baby was coming today and he needed to call me as soon as he got the message.


• 9:30 am- The contractions are between 3 and 4 minutes apart and lasting about a minute. I was having the hardest time focusing on anything in the spare minute and a half that I had between contractions. I was trying to finish packing my bag and getting one ready for Kaden. I called my mom and said "you better be driving fast." She tells me she has not even left the house yet (for those of you who don't know, my mom lives an hour away.) she said she found some bills that she hadn't paid that were due and she had to get that done. I told her we weren't going to make it because she had to drive an hour to me and then we would have to drive the 40 minutes to the hospital. She said she knew that I was uncomfortable but I still probably had about 6 more hours of labor to go through. She asked if there was anyone she could call for me to have pick me up and meet her at the hospital or part way there. I gave her numbers to two friends who were close. At this point it was really difficult to talk on the phone. I called Aaron and left another message stating my mom was on her way to come get me and that we would go to the hospital and he needed to meet us there when the ride was done.


• 9:40 am- Those two friends were unavailable, but one got a hold of one of my visiting teachers and she was going to try to get to the house. This whole time I am trying to pick things up in the house and get bags packed and the camera ready and I am contracting every 3 minutes.


• 10:00 am-Text from the friend saying the VT was going to be there soon.


• I am not sure when Kayla (my VT) got there, but helped me finish gathering my bags and getting Kaden in the car. We started heading towards my mom. My mom had called my uncle who was going to rendevous with us to get Kaden and have him for the day.


• 11:00 ish- We get to my mom, my uncle is still not there. We are waiting around and I am just pacing back and forth doing my labor breathing so as to not scream my head off because of the pain. After about 10 minutes or so, Kayla says "wait, you start heading to the hospital, I can wait with Kaden until your uncle gets here, you get to the hospital." Good point. I load up with my mom and we start driving the last 20 minutes to the hospital.


• 11:27 am- I get into Labor and Delivery triage room. My first question was if my friend from school was working today (she is an L&D nurse), they said yes and I told them to tell her I was here and to come see me. I get changed into the hospital gown. I go into the bathroom to leave my urine and I am bleeding down there all over. In the back of my mind I freak out, I am not supposed to bleeding, especially if I have a lot of labor still to go through. My water hadn't broken yet. My worries went to the baby and all the things that could go wrong. My friend, Yvonne, comes in and says she rearranged things so that she could be my nurse for my labor -YEAH! some good news. She asks if I want an epidural. I tell her yes as soon as freaking possible PLEASE!


• 11:35 am- I get settled and Yvonne does my vag exam and states "you are at a 9 with a bulging bag of waters." WHAT!!! A FREAKING 9, are you kidding me, no wonder I am in so much pain. She says "let me go get another nurse to make sure." She finds another nurse who checks me and agrees. My water breaks with the next contraction. The nurse says "we need a bed and a doctor right away and honey, I don't think we have time for an epidural."


• At the beginning of all of this my brother had been given the assignment to keep trying Aaron on the cell phone. To call every 5 minutes if he had to, but to get a hold of him and tell him to get to the hospital. He must have gotten a hold of him because right about the time my water broke my mom got a call from Aaron and she told him to get there right away. He says he is on his way, but still about 1/2 hour away.


• I get wheeled into the Labor and Delivery suite. One nurse is trying to get an IV in my arm, while the other is bringing in the sterile cart for the doctor. With each contraction I want to push so badly, but they told me I needed to wait because I still had a lip of my cervix that was holding me back from being dilated completely. Yvonne said she thought I could push past it, but she wanted to wait for the doctor.


• Dr. Brooks (the on-site doctor) shows up and asks some questions about previous labor and such and we give him the run-down about that and also about the events of the day.


• to make a long story short (too late, I know) I acted like one of the ladies in the movies who is like screaming her head off while she is pushing. I keep saying "I can't do this...It hurts too bad..." The doctor looks at me and says "all that energy is being wasted, channel that energy into your push and get this kid out." From then, it was all business...A couple more pushes and...


• 11:57 am- Brendon comes into this world. The doctor asks if I want to cut the cord since I am doing all the work anyway (we had told him previously where Aaron was and why the father of the baby wasn't here). Let me just point out that there was only a half hour window of time when they got me into triage and the baby was born. That is not a lot of minutes to spare.


• Not another 5 minutes later Aaron gets there. I felt so bad. Who would have freaking thought that this would happen today and so fast! He felt so bad. He kept asking what he could have done in his day to shave 10 minutes off so he could have been there for the birth. Unforseen circumstances. That is for sure.


• When all was said and done I was laying there with my mind reeling. I went into labor with Kaden a week early, but Kaden's labor had been 20 + hours and over an hour of pushing. How could this baby have come so fast and 8 days early. I just don't even know. But there were so many points along the way that could have held us up to where I could have had the baby in the car or even at home. If my mom would have had to come all the way to my house, we would have never made it. I was so grateful to those who acted quickly and were willing to serve that day. There are so many other little details about what happened which I won't share because this is already long enough and probably pretty boring to those outside the circumstances. But that is that in a nutshell. Lots of fun huh?!

Brendon is here!

Brendon made his entrance into the world on November 1st (8 days early) at 11:57 am. It is quite the story which I will post later. He weighed 6 lbs 14 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. We are so glad he is here.

5 Things About Me

This is my first response ever to a tag (it's cuz I love you so much, Sarah)

What I was doing 10 years ago
1. Driving with a permit
2. Going to church dances
3. In my sophomore year of high school
4. Playing volleyball
5. Working at Sundance Pizza

Things on my to-do list
1. Slice veggies for burgers for Kaden's b-day party today
2. take a nap
3. Finish decorating baby's room
4. Finish Halloween decoration I started yesterday
5. Finish my Super Saturday projects

Snacks that I enjoy
1. ICE CREAM
2. piece of toast with my Aunt Steph's strawberry jelly
3. crisp gala apple
4. cookie dough
5. almonds

Things I would do if I were a millionaire
1. Be a stay at home mom
2. Take lots of fun classes (like a photography class)
3. Pay off debts
4. Buy a house somewhere else in the valley
5. Invest

Places I have lived
1. Wickenburg, AZ
2. Provo, UT
3. Peoria, AZ
4. Glendale, AZ
5. Avondale, AZ

Jobs I have had
1. Sundance Pizza and Tastee Freeze (Wickenburg)
2. Janitor at Marriott Center (Provo)
3. Multiple jobs in the food department at MTC (Provo)
4. Stewart Hardware (Wickenburg)
5. CNA and now RN (Sun City West)

The Countdown

Okay, so I am not sure if anyone else is paying attention to the little baby ticker over there, but it is going a little too fast for me. It is amazing the amount of emotions that can run over you in the same moment. I am so anxious and scared and excited and freaked out all at the same time. It is just around the corner!!! Heaven help me with two little boys! :)

Helping papa

I went to visit my parents for a day this week when Aaron was out of town. My dad was doing some yard work and Kaden decided to help. He was walking right along side my dad and was mimicking practically every move he made. My dad loved it and it kept Kaden preoccupied for quite some time. We are so grateful to have family close.

Celebrating Fall

We wanted to find a fun place to take Kaden to celebrate fall. I went online to look for a place that was close and not too expensive. I found this place called Tomalchoff Farms. We had never heard of it, but it sounded like fun. It turned out to be just the perfect place for a busy boy like Kaden. It had a train ride, a petting zoo, a bounce house, a big box full of corn to play in, 3 different mazes, bikes for the kids to ride around, a pumpkin patch, and many other things. It was a lot of fun and we will definitely visit them again.

Riding on the "train" with dad
Playing with the pumpkins.
Learning about corn.
Eating the corn as a snack as we got lost over and over in the maze.
Trying to figure out the maze from a higher location.Mom and Kaden on the train. Aaron was a afraid I wouldn't fit. :)Kaden on the train ride.The petting zoo.I am all about pictures and made Kaden go stand by this sign. I didn't see the sign until it was almost dark so it's not the greatest picture.
Dad and Kaden posing for the camera.

Kaden looked and looked and finally found the perfect pumpkin to call his own.

Cara and the Temple

We were able to enjoy a lovely evening with Cara and the family at the temple as she went through for the first time. The session was packed. There were 4 other girls going through for the first time. We had Mexican food afterward. Yummy!! We are so proud of her and the time is getting so close to when she reports. We are going to miss her.