Family of 3!

Our sweet little Evelyn Hope joined our happy family on Monday!! We cannot believe how beautiful and perfect she is! I still look at her and can't believe she is mine! I never knew I was capable of loving this much! Our hearts are full of love and gratitude and just pure Joy! Jarom is the cutest dad EVER! Seriously, it warms my heart to see him look at her with so much love! He is a natural at everything and adjusting to this new lifestyle (so far) very well! I am too, it's just more fun to watch him be with her! He can't stop telling her how beautiful and perfect she is and how grateful he is to have her and how blessed we are! TENDER! I love my family SO much! I feel like I am in a dream and we are just playing "house" with this perfect little doll! It truly is a dream come true! We have waited so long for this! She is a perfect little eater and sleeper and pooper :) All the doctors and nurses are impressed with how well she is doing and how beautiful and pink her skin is! We got to bring her home today and we are feeling complete and absolute bliss! Everything I ever hoped for or imagined has come true! I could sit and watch Jarom hold her all day! He is Super Dad! And Super Husband! Anyway, Here are some pictures of our beauty and the birth story!

On Monday morning I woke up with a couple of painful contractions. They weren't frequent and didn't last for very long so I didn't think much of it. I got up and took a shower and got ready for the day. At about 9:30 I noticed that they were getting stronger and pretty painful so I decided to time them for an hour before I told Jarom. I didn't want to make him worry or get his hopes up, just in case it wasn't time. They were about 3-5 minutes apart, lasting about 50 seconds to a minute long. I called Jarom and told him that I was pretty sure I was in labor but I wasn't positive and didn't want to be wrong. So I called the Doctor and they gave me the go ahead to go to Labor and Delivery. I called Jarom and told him the big news and he rushed right home. We got everything together and packed up and said "when we come home, we will be a family of 3!" CRAZY! When we checked in to the Hospital I still wasn't sure if I was in labor or if they would keep us there. The nurse checked me and I was already at a 4.5 to 5 Cm Dilated! Saweeeet! So they let us stay. They got the IV in and checked me again an hour later and I was at a 6! Pretty fast! We were excited but thought that we would still have a while to wait. The contractions got pretty intense so I asked for an epidural when I was about 7 Cm. They got that in and taken care of and the nurse came in to check me shortly after and found that my water had broken! AWESOME! We were very pleased at my progress! A little while later ( and I really mean a LITTLE while) I could feel my contractions as if I didn't have an epidural or any pain medication, for that matter. YOWSA!!! So I told the nurse and she said "let me check you. Sometimes when you start to feel contractions with an epidural in means that you are fully dilated." I thought WOA! That's crazy! I don't think we will be that lucky. Sure enough, I was at a TEN!! WHAAAAAT?!?!?!! Are you serious? I felt like we had JUST gotten there! The anesthesiologist then came in to give me another dose of the epidural before I had to start pushing! The nurse went to tell my Doctor that I was ready to push. He said that for first time mom's he usually wants them to wait a little while and rest once they hit a 10 because they can usually be pushing for quite a while. The doctor came in to check on me right after that and the baby's head was pretty much right there and her heart rate was going down with every contraction so he said "this baby is not going to wait for us!" Seconds later, a big team of nurses and doctors came in and got everything ready for her to come out. They told me to start pushing and I pushed through 2 contractions and she was HERE!!! I still can't believe how fast everything went! We got to the hospital at about 12:30 Pm and she was born at 4:19 Pm! I feel incredibly blessed!!! She weighed 8 lbs (well technically she weighed 7 lbs 15 oz. but they just rounded up) and is 20 in. long and perfect in every single way! She is a champ at nursing and latched on with hardly any struggle! I am amazed at how perfect this little baby is! We love her more than words can explain! I am so grateful that things have been going so well and just hope that they continue to do so! Evelyn is doing great! I am realllllllly sore and tired but other than that, doing great! Jarom is just a champ all around! Taking care of both his girls! We are so lucky! Here are LOTS of pictures! They are all way out of order. Oh well.

This is one of his favorite things to do! Such a cute little Daddy!

Heaven!

Our first family picture!

My first time holding here (besides right after she was born and they put her on my belly)

Brand new!

About to get ready to start pushing!

Ready to go home! Great Grandma Lance made that blanket for her! We love it!

Cute!

Everett wasn't sure what to think of her! He'll warm up to her soon!

Getting some love from Aunt Jenni!

CUTE hat from Aunt Whitney!

Aunt Courtenay LOVES snuggle time with Evelyn! Who wouldn't!

Fall Fun!

We have had a fun weekend, full of Fall Festivities!

Fall is my favorite time of year. Besides Christmas time. I love The weather, the colors, the smell, the start of all the Holiday fun, the food, everything! We're trying to soak it all in before this baby comes. We fit in a lot of good stuff this weekend! We went to the pumpkin patch and picked out some pumpkins and went on a hayride and went through the corn maze.

On Sunday, we had friends over to carve pumpkins and decorate sugar cookies. We had a blast and I am so glad we got to fit it all in! These are our special confused looks. The Corn Maze was really confusing. We had a hard time getting through it.

We thought it was going to be a spooky corn maze. It wasn't.

This is our pumpkin. If you can't tell, it's Jarom, Me and Evelyn. Along with a spooky tree, moon, and Cat.

Look at those pumpkins! And that BELLY! It's huge!

Carving pumpkins is serious business!

Jenni's traditional triangle face Pumpkin!

I also made a Jack-O-Lantern pizza for dinner. For fun. :)

Happy Fall, everyone!

Remembering...

A year ago right now I was in the hospital having the Twins. I can't believe it has already been a year! I never thought this day would come! Honestly! I remember being so ready for a year to pass and to put it all behind us! Little did I know that I would probably never really "get over it". I think about them everyday and how our lives would be different with them here.

Sometimes I will just sit in our living room and imagine 2 little babies playing on the floor.

Whenever we go out, I imagine bringing them along and how much longer it would take us to do things and how much harder it would be but how much fun it would be at the same time.

I imagine Jarom coming home from work and school to all 3 of us.

During holidays, I imagine what it would be like with them, taking them trick-or-treating and dressing them up in something so cute and girly!

I imagine what they would look like and wonder if they would be chubby or skinny. Probably Chubby :)

Sometimes I sit in Sacrament meeting (Church) and wish we were holding them and passing them around to the people on our bench (mostly just Jenni and Michael)

Even when times are hard, I think about them. When Jarom had his seizure, I thought about how much more crazy it would be if they were here but how happy they could make us.

I imagine going on walks while strolling them along.

I imagine how CRAZY life would be but also how happy and fun it would be. I think of all the milestones that they would be going through and all the things they would be learning.

I imagine Jarom holding them and playing with them and loving them so much, he wouldn't know what to do with himself.

And today I can't get the picture of them out of my head. Holding their tiny little body's and loving them so much! Watching Jarom hold them both and look at them with the kind love I have never seen before. Crying together and telling them how much we love them. Kissing their cold skin and having to say goodbye to them. Nothing has ever seemed so hard or has strengthened us so much. We have grown closer together as a couple because of this and learned to rely on the Lord more than we could ever imagine! Through all the tears and memories of them, we are so blessed to be looking forward to the arrival of our sweet little Evelyn, now! Now I get to look forward to, and imagine doing all these things with her!! A year ago, I would have never guessed that we would be where we are today! I thought that we would never be able to have a baby again (Irrational thinking at that time). We are getting closer and closer to her arrival and I am getting so antsy to see what she looks like and hold her and kiss her and love her and know that she is Okay! Thinking of her has made this day a lot easier! I kind of knew it would! I will never forget our twins, or the day we had to say goodbye to them. I guess October 13 will always be a hard day for us. For now at least.