Edwards Haps and Mishaps

We have had a BUSY few weeks! Busy and exciting. I will start with our trip to The Dalles, OR. Probably one of the fastest trips we have taken…and maybe felt like one of the LONGEST at the same time :) With 3 kids packed into the back of our Corolla on an 11 hour drive…which ended up taking way longer than anticipated. We left on a Saturday actually got to The Dalles on Sunday night. Left the Dalles Monday night to go to Portland and drove home from Portland on Tuesday.  I am glad we went though. One of our friends is an awesome painter, Alisha Whitman, and she was putting on an art show and needed some others to do it with her so I decided to take her up on it. I learned a lot and it is kind of fun to say that I have some photos up in an art gallery! We also got to visit a bunch of friends and family along the way and of course stop in Rice Hill for the traditional ice cream cone. So even though it was a short/long trip, we had fun!

Some of our stops: Mt. Shasta and some other random place in Oregon.

Sandra, Grandma and grandpa Edwards and Jessica with the kiddos.

Dallin and his future arranged wife, Grace. (They were both born on the same day!)

One of my photos!

A couple more…and cute Preston playing hide and seek with the Whitman girls.

Rice Hill.

Pulling into Sacramento…so close to home!!!

Here are just a few random pictures from the past few weeks.

Making cookies with mom.

Dallin at Tyler and Wyatte’s reception…Sadly one of the only pictures I took there!!

The kids celebrating one of the first really warm days out here!

Ada listening to daddy’s music “helping” him study.

Dallin’s cute little smiles. He loves Preston and that’s who he is smiling at :)

We started the journey with one…

And here we are almost three years later with three…

Today was Shaun’s VERY LAST class in law school! We went down to campus to celebrate today and take some pictures. I found that top picture of Preston a few weeks ago when looking through old photos and that was taken at an orientation meeting when Shaun first started law school. We were pretty much the only ones with a child and we, of course, ended up outside running around. So, when we were on campus today I decided to take another picture in the same spot at the end…my how we have all changed…and grown!

Then we went and played around for awhile and the kids found a friend…a squirrel who has been conditioned to believe everyone has food for him. At one point he was about a foot from Preston’s head!

While Shaun’s time isn’t completely over at McGeorge (he is taking a Bar Prep course there this summer) it is still a little sad to see the end. But let’s face it, it’s not THAT sad :)

He still has one final and then he is DONE! In recent posts I have talked about the end of law school a lot…and there will probably be several more in the near future…last final, graduation, last day of bar prep class, taking the bar, finished the bar…haha, ok, I will try not to go overboard!

While Grandma was here we decorated eggs as we tried to get ready for Easter. With Ada it wasn’t as clean and easy as I had hoped but I think she had fun…Also, if your Easter egg dye kit comes with pop up cups…just use your own cups! That’s what I learned from all of this. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

And this little guy turned one month old on the 13th!! Wow, already a month?! Crazy!

I was reading through some old blog posts showing Preston videos of himself as a tiny baby and then I went back to when we first started a blog in April 2006. We had been married about 6 months, no kids (obviously,) and Shaun’s brother Christer talked us into starting a blog. I had  no idea that anyone actually read blogs  and I didn’t think anyone would ever read ours…and no one did really…ok, and not like our audience has expanded all that much since then but we started writing. One day I figured out how to post pictures and I thought it was SO awesome that I could post my 1 inch by 1 inch photos…Later I realized I could make them bigger. At that time Shaun also wrote on the blog with me, which he has since stopped…has family blogging become a girl thing over the years? It seems so. I’ll have Shaun make some guest appearances soon.

I am glad Christer talked us into starting a blog because even if no one ever reads it we have dated journal entries with pictures included that document most of our married lives and I think that is priceless!

And for our loyal fans (haha) here is one of the first posts, 6 years ago,  which I think deserves a re-post:

“I just need to write this story…its something pretty interesting in my opinion. Something that doesn’t happen every day. So i was out and about dropping flyers off for the girls i do activity days with when i passed a girl holding a handicapped girl in her late teens. All the sudden another handicapped girl came out of the apartment and started yelling something. Then she started running away so the “care taker” who was about my age, started running after her and the handicapped girl (Heather) started attacking her!! I couldn’t just keep walking right by like nothing was going on so i asked if i could help. She asked if i would call someone for her. So i went inside and paged this guy for her and when i came back out there were a couple neighbors (who belong to the same organization helping handicapped) and they were trying to pin down Heather. She was out of control and so i ran over and started to help pin her down.

She had one girl by the hair and would not let go and so i reached over to try and release her hand and she BIT my bicep! I thought she would never let go…but she finally did…and after kicking and punching wildly for awhile she calmed down and they took her in the house.

Well, since i wasn’t a staff member…just a random girl trying to help…they had to call the police and paramedics to check my arm (which was black and blue, literally). Then they “strongly encouraged” me to press charges so that Heather can learn there are consequinces for her actions. I did the police cuffed her and took her away because she had “assaulted 4 people!”

It was one crazy night and i have a pretty nice battle wound to show for it. I went to the urgent care this morning and got some medicine to prevent infection…so i should be ok…but this was one story worth sharing!”

Shaun’s mom came to town last week and it was LOVELY! The kids loved having grandma there to watch them, play with them, read to them and tickle them! I loved having her here too! The dishes were done, the laundry folded, dinner cooked, someone grown up to talk to…and when Preston got the stomach flu she took care of him and cleaned up his messes and quarantined me and the baby to my bedroom (which you’d think would be pretty boring…but it was actually quite nice reading, watching some conference talks, watching a little Say yes to the Dress…don’t ask why I watch that show. I have no idea why.) We were sad to see her go but luckily we will see grandma again really soon for Shaun’s GRADUATION!!!! Yes, he is finally graduating from law school next month! His last week of classes is next week and his last final, the week after that. We really can’t believe it.

Well, here are a couple pictures with grandma. Out of about 20…none of them came out perfect, just real :)

I’ll post some Easter pictures soon. Hope you all had a great one!

I should have put up some information awhile ago but yes, we did have the baby finally! He came on the 13th of March at 3:30 in the morning. And here is the story.

In my head I kept thinking the baby’s due date was the 29th of February…as I have said on here before…and I just kept thinking the doctor was wrong about the 9th of March…well, the 29th came and went…then the 9th came and went. At that point I was getting a little frustrated.  I had walked and walked, eaten every food that was thought to help labor along, tried whatever the doctor suggested and still no baby. On the 11th I walked over 7 miles all together that day. Contractions would come as I walked but then go away when I stopped. Monday I thought that something might be going on but the contractions were not all that regular and they were coming about 10 or more minutes apart. Still not good enough to go into the hospital. Finally around 5 that evening i was getting tired of these contractions that I knew were labor contractions but weren’t getting much closer, just stronger so I thought we could go into the hospital just to see if anything was happening. We got there and apparently everyone else decided that it was a good day to have a baby because they were so full that people didn’t have rooms and they were having to sit in operation rooms until something opened up. I was dialated to a 3 but nothing happened in the hour I was there so they sent me home and told me to come back at 10 the next morning and they would induce me. I didn’t think I would make it that long (at least I hoped) so I went home and we just hung out for a few hours.

Shaun fell asleep but I could feel my contractions getting stronger. Finally around midnight I told him we should go back in. When we got there things had died down so they checked me and I was at 5-6cm dilated! HOORAY! Since I made it all the way with Ada without an epidural I decided to see how far I could make it without one this time. Plus I didn’t want anything slowing down the process I was just ready to get this kid out! It was hard becuase my mom had the kids so she wasn’t there and Shaun doesn’t do well in a hospital setting…he gets a little queasy when he sees people in pain so I was trying really hard to not look like I was in pain…mostly near the end during transition. I kept thinking, “where is that urge to push?!” Because i knew once I felt that I was almost done. Finally I felt like I was ready and the nurse said I was ALMOST there so she would come back in 15 minutes…longest 15 minutes ever.

With Ada it was one push and she was out so I expected that with this one…I should know not to compare labors…this time pushing was a lot harder! I just kept saying, “Come out kid! just come out!” He ended up being quite a bit bigger than any of my other kids so that may have been the reason for him taking a little bit longer. He was finally born on Tuesday march 13th (Same day as his cousin Marielle!) around 3:30 am and weighed 8lb 4oz and was 20.5 inches long. Everything went really well and I was so excited to have a healthy baby and to not be pregnant anymore!!

Now it has been 2 weeks since his birth and he now weighs 10 lb 1 oz! He is obviously eating well :) We named him Dallin Timothy Edwards and as with the other kids, that wasn’t the name we had gone into the hospital thinking we were going to name him but we like it! He is a little doll and the other kids love him…ok, Preston loved him from the start but Ada has taken her time to decide she likes the little guy. I’m not totally sure if she does but at least she isn’t trying to terrorize the poor kid!

So, that’s the story. We are all doing well! Lots of pictures below…Lots.

I had a doctor appointment this morning and after looking at my ultrasounds she said she was pretty confident about March 9th being the due date but they will induce me next weekend if the baby isn’t here by then. SO…at least I know that I only have 10 days left, MAX, if this baby doesn’t come out before then! Now I at least have an end in sight! Hooray! Though I really hope that my body kicks it into gear before I need to be induced! We will keep praying.

I went into the backyard and decided I needed to document at least one picture of me pregnant during this baby…I feel bad because I took pictures pretty much every month with Preston, then I took a few with Ada…and I think I have taken one other with this poor baby. I don’t think I am really even in any pictures at all…i am usually behind the camera…which is where i like to stay :) So, as much as I don’t want to be photographed when I am pregnant I felt it was necessary. So here I am. Somewhere around 39 weeks. Ready to be done. So let’s all pray that this little guy decides he is done in there soon!

This year is going to be such a busy one! Already, we have had a lot of things happen in our families and there is much more on its way!

So far we have had TWO new babies born into our families, little Henrik on Shaun’s side and Finn on my side.

Soon one more little guy!

My little brother was sealed to his love, Wyatte, back in January…so another new addition to the fam!

Shaun’s brother comes home from his mission to Africa in TOMORROW!!

Shaun will graduate from law school in May!!

He will take the Bar in July.

Preston turns FIVE and starts kindergarten in the fall!!

…and I am sure there is more…

So many exciting, new things are happening in 2012 and I am excited yet nervous to see how all will pan out! Mostly having three kids mixed in with finishing law school and all that but I am sure we will survive it!

Lately we haven’t been up to a whole lot…just waiting for baby! I mean, i know I am not due for another couple weeks but it is getting hard to wrangle the kids…especially a cute little girl I know with a sudden mind of her own…when we are out and about so a lot of the time we stay in and have to come up with creative ways to stay sane :) Lots of backyard time seems to help. Walks, where everyone is strapped into a stroller…also very handy. Basically, anything where the kids are contained and I don’t have to go chasing anyone around.

I think we pretty much have everything ready for the baby now! So he is welcome to come anytime! I was originally due on the 29th of this month and they changed it to the 9th of March awhile back so really I could be due anytime within the month. That just sounds depressing so I like to say “a couple weeks.” Everything has gone well so far with the pregnancy so I guess in the end all I can hope and pray for is that everything continues to go well and we are all healthy!

We are still debating over a name so we figure, like with the others, by the time we leave the hospital we will have a named child!

We will keep you updated on the baby situation, and until then here is our exciting backyard life!