Mayla Lynn

A true dream. That is what I will remember when I think about my first moments with our new. daughter. She is a beautiful blessing and our little rainbow...

But let me back up a bit and share how she came into our arms.

First I have to say that I didn't think she was ever going to come. I never thought I would go into labor and I was sure that we were going to need an induction. So when I woke up at 1:30 in the morning with my first contraction I didn't think much about it. Back to bed I went.

About 10 or 15 minutes later, there was another. Then another. Finally I started to get a clue and decided to get up and take a bath. After being in the tub for about 30 minutes I realized that we might be going to the hospital soon. BUT the problem was that we didn't really have anything ready! So I quietly packed our bag, put together some clothes for our children, emptied our camera, got the video ready, and brought the car seat down.

By 3:00 am I felt that we needed to go to the hospital. So I woke up daddy-to-be. He really thought that how I woke him up was really funny. I woke him up at 3 am and he just looked at me for a minute. "What?" he asked. No response. "What??" he asked again. "Why would I be standing in front of you at 3:00 in the morning fully dressed?". Ding Ding Ding!!!! He jumps out of bed and dresses in record time...

Then he thought I was even funnier when he got to the bottom of the stairs to see bags packed and the car seat ready.

So about 3:30 my mom arrives and we decide to go to the hospital. By this time my contractions are still rather irregular between 5 and 8 minutes apart and only moderately painful but since I was at high risk for placenta abruption we decided it would be safer to be at the hospital then at home.

I was a little surprised when we arrived at the hospital at about 4:00 and were already 5 cm! By about 5:00 we had an epidural and I was 8 cm. We really wanted our very special Dr Shope to be our delivering doctor but unfortunately he wasn't on call. The on call Dr was wonderful. She agreed to wait until 6:00 am and call him to see if he would come and deliver for us! And as promised she made the call and he was on his way instantly.

I believe that he arrived at about 6:40 quickly ruptured my membranes and told me that we should deliver in the next little bit.

Have I ever told anyone how much I love epidurals? I love epidurals!!! They ROCK! The only reason that we were able to wait for our awesome Dr Shope was because of that wonderful epidural. In fact he said that without it we would have delivered over an hour earlier...crazy.

Anyway... he came back into the room and announced that we were about to have our daughter in our arms. The room was quiet and without the normal hustle and bustle of a quick birth. The bed wasn't taken apart, and everyone was extremely relaxed. Dr Shope sat at the edge of the bed and within a couple of pushes she had arrived. At 6:58 am our little Mayla Lynn took her first breath and let out her first cry. 8 pounds 2.5 ounces and 6 days early! I'm lucky we didn't go 5 days late like we did with her big brother.

My husband would be disappointed if I didn't share one last part of her birth story...

As the Dr told me is was time to push, I quickly asked Kevin to hand me our camera. Without thinking or asking me why he just did as I asked. So the entire room was SHOCKED when, after my first push, as I saw her tiny head appear... I snapped my first picture of her. Both the nurse and Dr stopped what they were doing (in the middle of her birth...I might add), looked at me in awe and said they had NEVER in their entire career watched a mother that is PUSHING her baby out taking her own pictures. I just laughed and continued to take pictures as she arrived. I guess that's what happens when you have had 5 babies!

Flipper!

Water fun is definitely a family favorite activity! This weekend was awesome! I'm amazed by these kids.

First Austin and Emma both learned how to snorkel. I didn't even think that a 7 year old could snorkel. But Austin has been asking (begging) for snorkel gear for a while now. I finally gave in and bought some for both him and Emma. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that they could actually DO it. We started by practicing in the bath tub and they seems to do okay, so off to the pool we went.

CHECK THIS OUT!

THEN...

Austin just had to keep amazing me. He decided that today was the day to learn how to swim. He took off his water wings and took off. He was so excited that he wanted to try with his flippers on. I told him that they would make it harder to swim but boy was I wrong. They help! When he has the flippers on he doesn't have to work so hard and they keep him up out of the water better then with out them. The only problem is if they fall off...which one did in this video but as you can see he is still able to keep swimming and does really well.

AND...

Just for the fun of it.

first fish and first driving test

Grandpa has an old fishing pole that he lets the kids use...just for the fun of it. They have a short attention span and have never caught anything...until today! After finding a worm in the yard Emma cast out and had her first fish within minutes. I think that Grandpa was just as shocked as she was. She was so amazed that all she did was stare at that fish. It was about 3-4 inches long and as we were getting ready to let it go Austin was quick to say "Hey, Aren't we going to eat it??"



He was off to find a worm and it was his turn. He was able to catch a fish quickly too and thought it was really "cool"!



Yes, the fish were small but we didn't tell them that. They thought that they had caught huge fish "As big as Emma's hand!!!"

But more exciting then the fish was his drivers test. While talking to Grandpa today he asked if he could take the boat out on his own. Grandpa was quick to say NO...NO...NO!!! But grandpa must have a soft heart because it didn't take long before they were out on that boat together with Austin as the acting Captain.

Grandpa set a very strict route (away from the dock around the log and straight back) and Austin practiced about 15 times with out any help. He was even responsible for docking the boat every time on his own. Then under Grandpa's watchful eye he was allowing to go out all by himself. (He has already swam this route and it isn't far from the dock). He did amazing and it wasn't long before he was able to take his sister with him.

Our little boy is growing up!

Fourth of July!

We had the BEST 4th of July this year! The Finnestads invited us to their neighborhood block party. WOW! They sure know how to have a party.

The action began with a parade with the kids decked out in red, white and blue while carrying flags and singing patriotic songs. Then there was an obstacle course that included fishing for bugs, batting a ball into a basket, hippity hop, bean bag toss,going down a slide into a pool where they found a pair of goggles to put on, adding a life jacket, jumping into a pool of bubbles, carrying a water-balloon with a spoon, jumping into an inflatable boat and sliding down the monster slip and slide. Whew! They loved it!!


Of course the night ended with pop it's and watching from afar as the responsible adults set off fire works for us to enjoy.

kick off

We decided to kick off our 3 day weekend by going back to Seahurst park to play on the beach. Austin had his field trip there and couldn't wait to show his brother, sister and dad all the fun. We were especially excited because Mrs. Wagner and Gabe were able to join us.

After spending hours at the beach, wading in the water, our wonderful children really wanted to swim. So we packed them up and took them to grandma and grandpa's house. It was a very exciting day because Austin decided it was time to start jumping off the dock in to the deep water. He was doing cannon balls and diving. Emma also joined in the fun and started jumping off the dock as well. Not the deep end yet...but her time is coming! Just check out Kadin and Daddy!

Finnestad fun... and not so fun.

Just minutes before Josiah fell off the monkey bars and broke his arm we were having a great time hiking through the woods and climbing trees.

Josiah is one tough kid. I don't think that even a broken arm will be able to slow him down!