Merry Christmas?

So I know that it is 90 degrees here in Arizona and about as feeling most definitely like summer but I have some great Christmas pictures and so 4 months later I am going to get them posted. I definitely missed getting to see my family since this was the first Christmas we didn't get to see both sides of our family at some point during the season, but it was also really nice to have Christmas morning in our own house and start our own traditions.

The Nativity Reenactments:

We participated in two reenactments this year. One with Tyler's Mom and his siblings and another with His Grandparents and all his aunts, uncles, cousins and their kids. As you might have guessed Katelyn was an angel for both. I mean really, this is Katelyn we're talking about what else could she be? :)

Here she is in the cast at Grandma Rapier's (Tyler's mom) house. You may notice that Tyler also played a part in this one as a shepherd. He was excellent. Jackson was supposed to be baby Jesus but as you may notice he wanted to be held in a way that only Daddy can do. 

This is Katelyn at Grandma LeBaron's house in her angel costume. It was super fun seeing her being a part of all the Christmas activities.

So I know this picture is a bit blurry but I thought it was still pretty cute. 

Sugar Cookies:

A few days before Christmas Grandma Rapier had all the grand kids over to make sugar cookies. Katelyn had a blast hanging out with her cousins and making a mess all over. :)

 

Having lots of fun!

Jackson also came to hang out and can't you tell what a wonderful time he is having? :)

Putting on the sprinkles. Katelyn actually wasn't all that interested in eating the cookies in the end. (I know I don't understand either) but she had a great time getting them all together.

Christmas Eve:

The morning of Christmas Eve we went over to Grandma LeBaron's to open presents. Usually this would take place on Christmas but since Christmas was on a Sunday it was easier to do it the day before. Each age group gets the same present. This is Katelyn who got grouped with some of her older girl cousins (she is getting so big!) 

All the girls got adorable little toddler disney dolls. Katelyn got the Belle doll and was in love right away. :)

Okay, so Tyler will laugh when he realizes I posted this picture, but it was a pretty exciting moment for me so I wanted to document it. :) So for my family, Christmas Eve was the day when we got together in the evening and had a nice dinner, read the nativity and had our together time. The opposite is true for Tyler's family so I decided that we would have our own little family Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. When we got married Tyler and I were given a really nice set of China that I love but until we moved into this house we've never had room to store it so it has been waiting in Arizona for us. So needless to say, when I decided to do our Christmas Eve dinner I also decided to give our China it's maiden voyage. I can't say Tyler or Katelyn appreciated it quite as much as I did :) but it was still very fun to do.

All ready for bed in their Christmas jammies. 

Aww, sibling love.

Christmas:

Christmas morning. So I must admit I was surprised how late we were up getting things ready considering how little we had to do. I'm thinking we'll need to get an earlier start in years to come. 

Opening presents. So I didn't get a great picture to show but Katelyn was so excited about this whole part of Christmas this year. It was fun to see her get in to the whole thing.

Opening presents at Grandma Rapier's house. 

By the end of the day Katelyn was getting pretty exhausted from all the excitement. She got dress-up dresses from Grandma Rapier and when her cousin Liza offered to help her get in them she laid down and let her put them on but that was about all the fun she could manage. :)

We had such a great Christmas this year and were so grateful that we got to be with family to enjoy the whole season for once. I'm grateful to have such wonderful family and to be starting Christmas traditions with my own little ones.

Jackson's Blessing and A Visit from Grammy and Papa

We had a few extra things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Jackson was blessed and we got a visit from Grammy and Papa (aka my mom and dad :). First off, it was so nice to be near family for Jackson's blessing so that so many people could join us. Tyler gave Jackson a beautiful blessing and I was once again so grateful to have such a worthy priesthood holder leading our home. What a blessing the gospel is in our lives.

Here is everyone that came (minus Dave and Grandma Lebaron) we were so glad so many people could be with us

Here are all the men (again minus Dave) who participated in the blessing.

The other fun thing this weekend was getting to spend time with my parents. Katelyn especially was excited to have them staying with us as she is completely in love with them. :)

We went one night to bass pro shops where they had free carousel rides. 

We also went to see the beautiful lights at the Mesa temple. Katelyn had a good time this Christmas season seeing all the lights.

So this picture doesn't have anything specific to do with my parents' visit other than that it happened while they were there but I think it is both pretty darn funny and also very representative. :)

Papa with his little football legend.

Thanks so much for coming to visit us Grammy and Papa! We hope we get to see you again soon!

1 Month Old!

So I don't have any stats to post from Jackson's one month since they don't do appointment's here at that time. But I do have some cute pictures. His Aunt Allison got him some cute tie stickers that each say, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, etc. and some white onsies to put them also. So each month he gets dressed up in his little tie and I take his picture. She also gave me some cute fabric for a background and a little teddy bear to give an idea of his size and how much he is growing. So here is his in his first go round. :)

This is a picture of Jackson and his adorable cousin Jane who was born just a few weeks after him. I'm not sure exactly what they're looking at but I'm sure they're having a great time. :)

And here is my sweet little Jack Jack (Katelyn was the first one to call him that) we're so lucky to have him.

Big Sis and Lil Bro

So there isn't much to say for this post just that I two pretty cute kids (I think :) and though they can't do too much together yet it is still fun to see them interact and think about all the good times they will have. So without any more comment here are the two kiddos hanging out together.

My Big Two Year Old

So I know this is way overdue but I wanted to make sure Katelyn's birthday didn't get forgotten. Also, this is the first of several overdue posts so be prepared. :)

On October 4th of last year our little Katelyn turned two. We had just recently moved into our new house so we got to have a little family party for her here. We love our little Katelyn and are so grateful to have her in our family. She is so much fun and always wanting to play with anyone (and everyone :) she meets. She is a great friend, and now big sister, and loves to give people hugs. She is learning to talk quickly and always has something fun to say. I hope we'll have Katelynisms in future posts. What a wonderful little girl we have!

This is just a cute picture of her from just before her birthday.

Here is her farm cake. Katelyn loves all things animals, particularly baby animals and at the time some of her main words were, "baa", "moo", and "neigh", so she was pretty excited about this cake even though the roof is fairly lopsided. :)

Cute Katelyn with her cake.

Happy Birthday to Katelyn!

  

 

Jackson Tyler Lloyd

I know I am a little late but here finally is a post to welcome our wonderful little guy to our family and to tell his birth story.

Jackson Tyler Lloyd was born November 5, 2011 at 11:53 pm. He was born here in Gilbert, AZ and weighed 6 lbs 8 oz. and measured 20 inches long.

Jackson came to us much easier than his older sister (thank goodness! :). I had already decided before hand that I wanted to try to do a VBAC and if possible to do it naturally since the epidural seemed to slow me down last time and I had a time limit on how long I got to be in labor before I needed to have a C-section. So before the time came, Tyler and I watched a natural birth class on DVD and got as prepared as we could since we were too late to actually take a class once I started looking into it.

Well as before my due date came and went and I hadn't yet really felt anything to make me believe that this baby was coming anytime soon. I had pretty much accepted that my time was going to run out and that I would end up in a C-Section. (After having a C-Section I wasn't allowed to be induced into labor) So the day after my due date, a Saturday, Tyler and I decided to get in one more trip to the temple. While we were sitting in a session, around 1 pm, I realized that I was starting to feel what seemed like some regular contractions. They weren't really very painful or super close together yet so while I mentioned it to Tyler I tried not to get my hopes up.

After the Temple we went to Tyler's Dad's house to pick up Katelyn and stayed to watch some of an ASU football game. I still seemed to be having somewhat regular contractions so I'll admit it, I got my hopes up. :) Next, around 7 pm, we went to Tyler's Mom's house and I decided it was time to start timing them. They were definitely regular and were coming at about 6 minutes apart. (wahoo!) Tyler's Mom said she would be happy to have Katelyn sleep at her house while we went to the hospital but we hadn't brought any of her or our stuff with us so we went home first and then brought Katelyn back.

At this point my contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart and starting to get painful. I felt like I could probably wait still a little but Tyler's Mom thought we ought to call Tyler's Uncle who is my OB. (I think I probably owe her one for this) So Tyler gave him a call and he said we ought to head in right away. When we got there we sat in registration for about 20 minutes and then headed in to triage to decided whether we got to stay or not.

So as we're waiting, Tyler and I are using all our coping methods and such that we had practiced. That lasted all of about 2 contractions and then my water broke. When I very first came in to triage I  was dilated to a 5 or 6. About 15 minutes later after my water broke I was easily at a 7. The nurses started getting me ready and moving me as fast as they could to get me to a labor and delivery room. As for me, as soon as my water broke the contractions got 10 times as painful and started coming one right on top of another. I was not prepared for how much it was going to hurt. I was also not prepared for the fact that i was going to feel like I needed to push as soon as I got to seven and not be able to stop myself no matter how many times the nurses told me it wasn't time yet. I started asking Tyler for an epidural, which I had previously told not to let me have even if I asked. Poor guy tried to help me through it and tell me I could do it but I was having a really hard time, especially trying to keep from pushing too soon.

Well when we got into the labor and delivery room they tried to put an epidural in but my contractions were coming too close together and I couldn't hold still enough. Then during one short break when I was already at a nine they did get it in but at that point it was too late for it to really do anything. At one point they weren't even sure my OB was going to make it and the nurse told me she was going to deliver my baby. But just as it was time to actually push for real he got there. I started pushing (which was actually a bit of a relief since I had been trying to fight it for so long) and pushed for about 20 minutes when they realized the cord was wrapped around Jackson's neck not once but twice and his heart was getting very distressed. My doctor decided that I would need a little help to get him out faster and get the cord off him so he gave me an episiotomy and used the vacuum to pull him out quickly. He came out fast after that and was just fine once they got the cord off of him.

I can't tell you how wonderful it was to actually get to hold him afterwords. And even though I had a little healing to do from the episiotomy it was a million times easier than after the C-Section. I feel very blessed that everything went so well (and so fast!). Jackson is such a beautiful and wonderful little baby and we are so grateful to have him in our family. And now without further ado here are more pictures of our little guy.

Daddy and his little man.

Grandma Rapier 

Katelyn meeting her brother for the first time.

Getting to hold baby brother.

Katelyn loves her little brother, sometimes a little too much. :)

Grammy Lovinger

Loving his first bath. :)

Going home!

We think this one looks like a pretty cool action shot. :)

We love you Jackson!