Swim Lessons & Jones Family Reunion

Swim Lessons at Ogden High


Jones Family Reunion (burying the cousins in the sand)

Jackson Tournament

So apparantly the city is now Jackson as opposed to Jackson Hole, WY...who would have thought. We drove up with Matt for the soccer tournament. They won 2 and lost 1 of their games. Not too shabby. The girls and I read the Bearenstein Bears Scout book on the way up. We decided to camp on the side of the road with our under 3 month old. She did great by the way. The girls thought it was great to sleep with Prince Phillip (daddy) and the valiant steed (uncle Matt). They were good sports and we got a hotel room for the second night.

Abigail's Baby Blessing/4th of July

Well as luck would have it the only time we could get all of my family and almost all of Nate's family in town on the same fast sunday landed on the 4th of July and the same weekend as my 10 year reunion. Needless to say it was busy but the day was very nice. Uncle Marc ran the grill at the after party and we assembled shish-kabobs for the meal. Isn't she a cutie!



Abby's 1st piece of mail (a reminder check up appt for the pediatrician's office)

Splash Pad

Another Happy Day at the Splash Pad. My girls have so much more fun at the picnic table than in the water. Not a big hit but I like them for the safety factor...

Nate's 31

Blowing out candles...

Nate's Birthday IceCream Cake (Indiana Jones theme of course)



Nate specifically requested no fanfare for his 30th birthday last year. So the 4 of us went to Chuck-E-Cheese. He seemed a little disappointed that night...and so I decided to throw a big bash for his 31st. I made it a surprise party with friends, family, and neighbors and it was great. Nate had no clue it was coming and was way excited even though he was a little shy about the attention. Happy Birthday!

Content

Today was a very good day. We started with a trip to the park for playgroup and ended up in our backyard. We spent 6+ hours out there today. I was weeding/planting and the girls played. We have four backyards that touch and the neighborhood kids kept bouncing from one fenced yard to the next (we have a ladder against the fence that the kids can jump around on their own). I just counted all the families that were over and we had 6 different neighborhood families of kids in our yard today. We pulled out Otterpops and they built sand castles for all the princess figures. All in all it was pure heaven. Even some of the 5 year old neighborhood kids jumped in and helped me pull weeds. It was great!
At one point I set up our little play tent with the baby bouncy seat in the doorway. We dubbed Abbie the Queen (but a good one like Aurora's mommy) and Katelyn and Sarah were her princesses. I was the Pink Fairy to protect the Queen. Pretty much Abbie slept the whole time in her "castle" on her "throne" with a few breaks for meals.
It seems so long ago that we were so far away from home but now we are so far away from our other family. My awesome mother-in-law lent me this book made from a friend. It is a compilation of nearly every talk given by Sis. Beck (I just love her talks!). I read over 8 of them on Memorial Day and I felt truly empowered with my roll as a mother. I am very grateful for my girls though everyday isn't always easy. As I read through her messages of building strong families I thought how much I have been influenced for good from these families away from home. Thanks for being such truly wonderful people for me to look up to. So many tiny everyday moments remind me of one special friend or another. Anyway today I felt very very thankful and happy with my life. I hope you have such peace in your heart today.
I didn't have my camera out there but this is pretty much the full heart of joy feeling I had today:

Abigail Baby Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Newborn Shoot by Amy Call Photography

ABIGAIL
Peek-A-Boo

Vintage Pearls & Diamonds



Family Shots


Sisterly Loves


Girls


Aren't they so sweet? This was such a fun day getting the girls dressed as princesses and posing them. Thanks Ames for all your hard work!

Knitted Hat & Swaddling Sac with Sweet Baby Toes

(Amy DeWaal made this darling knit hat. She's so talented!)


Check out other offers and portfolio at www.amycallphotography.blogspot.com

Abigail's Birth Story

As most of you know, all my babies have been born via cesarean. After two it's pretty much decided that all future births will be c-section as well. So Abigail was scheduled for early on Sunday morning so that we could have my OB/GYN for the surgery as well as our first pick for the anesthesiologist. The nurses set up a mirror in the corner so I was able to watch the surgery (and catch first glimpses of Abigail) like we did with Sarah. Though my OB doesn't mess around. It was 5 minutes flat from getting numb to hearing Abigail's sweet cries. A little surprise kicker was that Miss Acrobat Abigail had managed a rather large knot in the umbilical cord and had I gone into active labor contractions we would have been in an emergency c-section rather than just a planned one. We feel very grateful for modern medicine and the prayers of our friends and family members.

It's rather different having a baby around family. Everyone at the hospital seemed to have a connection to my family or Nate's. The nurse cleaning baby Abigail happened to be Nate's cousin's wife Crystal. The anesthesiologist is a good friend of my mom's. The first hour was painful and full of nausea but once we got the right cocktail together I have felt great ever since. In fact I was supposed to stay in the hospital until Thursday morning but on Tuesday we were ready to go home so we did.

Abigail means source of joy and we decided to pick that name out of our three main ones because as soon as I heard her little cries my eyes welled up with tears of joy. She's been eating well and growing and sleeping for two 4 hour blocks at night. I say this and now she wont be sleeping at all...

Abigail Starley

Abigail Starley was born Sunday May 2, 2010 at 9:26am. She was 6lbs 15oz and 20inches long. Here are some cute photos from the hospital (not all because my camera lost battery power) and I will get you a recount on the experience in a bit:

Catchin' a ride home

Post Op Room

Katelyn holding Abigail and Sarah practicing holding her hands out

Sarah holding Abigail

Katelyn and Matt Holding Abigail

The Three Muskateers

Sweet Moments

Loves From Great Grandpa

The Geese at the Hospital Reflecting Pond were a great distraction for the girls

Mom getting Abigail ready for the car

Cute Sticker on her stats chart