Delivery Story....It's a good one!

For those of you who haven't heard the exciting story behind Avynlea's birth....this blog is for you. And if you have heard it, enjoy! lol

On March 19th at my Doctor's appointment, I had my membranes stripped in hopes that I could go into labor on my own and try for another "natural" birth. I went to my friends house to pick up Emmitt and Savanna and noticed that my contractions were pretty regular and growing in pain! So my friend came over and helped me get my house in some sort of order and my bags packed in case I was going to the hospital. At around 5:30pm I called Joseph (who was in parent teacher conferences) to let him now he needed to come home. We dropped our kids off at our friends house around 6:15pm and arrived at the hospital and were admitted around 6:30pm. Now I know this sounds very uneventful! But keep reading! lol I was dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced. So they hooked me up to the monitors and watched me for two hours. At which nothing had changed. So, they sent us home around 8:30pm!!!
A little side note: We had a half hour at the hospital before Savanna was born...no IV, no drugs...nothing. Completely natural!
So I was crying and upset that we were being sent home. We stopped and got some food and went to check on the kids. Emmitt wanted to come home and Savanna wanted to stay. And all the while my contractions are getting harder and closer! But I'd had so many false alarms that I didn't want to go back just yet. We get home and I get into the shower and tub for about 45 min to an hour. When I got out, I was thinking that maybe I would be at a 5 or 6 and the contractions were really hard to breath through. I told Joseph that we need to go back to the hospital and that I wanted an epidural and that I didn't think I could make it all the way. We dropped Emmitt off and remembered that we forgot our phone list (since we don't have cells anymore).
On the way back to our house....I was pushing! AHHHH! I couldn't stop it! Luckily our hospital is only 8 minutes away. But that 8 minutes felt forever. I had two more really hard contractions that I was scream and pushing through! Poor Joseph was speeding and hoping there was not cop to stop us and telling me all the same to "DON'T PUSH!! BREATH THROUGH IT!!!" The last contraction before the we got to the hospital, I could feeling her crowing!
We pulled up to the hospital and walked pass the registration desk, who was trying to stop us from going upstairs. All I knew was that I had about 3 to 4 minutes to get to the 2nd floor from the car before another contraction would come and I would start screaming (like I had NEVER screamed before!)
We made it to the elevator and as I stepped out of the elevator another contraction came along with me screaming and pushing! The nurses ran up and got a wheelchair and raced me down the hall. We passed the "Family Waiting Room" and there was a 14 yr old boy with his mouth just gaping open in utter shock! lol
They got me to the delivery room and stripped my pants and shirt off and got me on the bed, just in time for me to push her head all the way out and then her body! The nurses figured I had been at the hospital for about 5 minutes! Also Avynlea was "born in the caul" which means that my water never broke and the amniotic sac was still in tacked and covering her face (which was face up and the doctor said if she was face down, we would have had her in the car!) with her eyes open and staring at the doctor!
There are a few legends that talk about how babies born in the caul is a sign of good luck and an omen that the child is destine for greatness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caul
So all in all, I got my wish of another natural birth, but next time we will insist that we not be sent home and camp out at the hospital! lol

Avynlea Joyce Stevenson has arrived!

Avnylea Joyce was born on Thursday, March 19th at 10:55pm, weighing in at 6lb 8oz!

Rock-A-By Baby Song

I was so happy to catch this on video! It is completely priceless! Emmitt is such a wonderful little boy and loves Avynlea so much!

The Stevenson's Christmas Letter

Joseph, Shannon, Emmitt, Savanna and Baby Girl

Emmitt (5), Shannon, Savanna (2), Joseph in a bunk that the LDS Pioneers slept in coming over from Europe. It was one bunk per family! Crowded!

Savanna (2), Oma-great Joyce (Grandma in Dutch), Grandma Stevenson and Emmitt (5) this summer. Boy the kids love having grandmas to come!

Joseph, Savanna, Shannon, Emmitt
Good Old Western Family

This is our baby girl due on April 1st. She will be named Avynlea Joyce Stevenson. We are all so excited for her arrival!

We hope that this finds everyone in good health and good cheer. May you all have a Very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Christmas 2008

We Are Having A....

Little Girl!!! I just found out today that we are having another little girl! After looking really hard and having to walk the halls to get her to move, we saw what we were waiting very impatiently for! We will be calling her Avynlea Joyce Stevenson and she will come around April 1st! I hope that she will come during Spring Break which is the last weekend in March! Wish us luck!!

Joseph Was Sleepless in Seattle

Joseph spent a week in Tacoma (Suburb of Seattle) taking a class training him to become an Advanced Placement (AP) English Teacher.

While he was there, he and a group of fellow teachers were able to go to Tacoma's water front and eat at a yummy restaurant that jutted out over the water. How cool is that?

He stayed in the dorms on Pacific Lutheran University which were small, cramped and creaky! All of the classes that he was taking were at the other end of the campus. His dorms were at the bottom of campus which was set on a big hill. Happy Hiking!

But the campus was beautiful and made the hiking nice!

The kids and I stayed home and hung out and go our selves ready for Vacation, the Quarterly Primary Activity and Kacie's Baby Shower... Wow what a week! We were sooo glad to have our daddy back! Emmitt and Savanna stayed awake during the late drive to the airport to get Joseph. They were soo excited to see him!

Shannon's 29th Birthday

For my birthday, I wanted to have fun with some friends and have good food. So since I had never been to the Texas Road House for ribs, that's were we went! Then afterwards we went to Boondocks for an evening of fun and fun and fun and fun.... lol

Arron, Joseph, Mike, Jody and Jennifer waiting in line to ride the go-carts!

Me and Joseph. I think we make such a cute couple!

Jody, Arron (with his tough in Jody's ear....hummm), Mike, Jennifer, Joseph and me after getting completely soaked at the bumper boats!

All in all it was an awesome birthday with awesome people to be with! It was one of the best birthdays! Thanks you guys for loving me and spending that special day with me!

ps. My Birthday was July 12th! I'm very behind in my blogging! lol

Fruit Pizza's

My undertaking this summer was to make Fruit Pizza! I had it one time when I was in young women's and loved it. I knew how it all worked and what not, but I had never made it for myself. I was going to make it for Kacie's baby shower and needed some practice. I thought it would be the perfect time to try it out when Joseph's mom was here for the 4th of July.

Here is attempt number one:

So it looks okay and yummy. I didn't have too much fruit on hand. There was kiwi, plums and mandarin oranges....it did taste good, but the next one for the baby shower is my crowing achievement!!! lol

Here is attempt number 2:

Doesn't that just look soo yummy!!! This one had strawberries, bananas, blueberries, kiwi and mango! Definitely the best combos! It was a hit and was just soo yummy! I think I want another!

Androcles and the Lion Play

For part of Joseph's Theater Tech Internship this summer, he had to work on the play sets and learn how to work the lighting and some sound. So the kids and I were able to see the play for free! And boy did the kids LOVE it! Here are some pictures.

The kids were laughing and having so much fun. Savanna loved the Lion, but was too shy to say anything after the play was over. In between the two showings, the actors were so nice to Emmitt and Savanna and let them come up on the stage and play around on the mat. Everyone was so nice and did a fabulous job with the play!!

Zoo Trip with Cousins

We also decided to head out to the zoo while we were together. The cousins had fun exploring the aminals together. But the icing on the cake was the merri-go-round that almost closed...it took some begging to do one more ride since that was the main attraction for the yonger ones!

Me, Savanna and Emmitt

Kayin

Noah

They had fun going to the different plastic animals for pictures:

Noah, Emmitt (in the turtle shell), Maya

Emmitt

Savanna

Grandma McDonald's

My brother-in-law's parents house is where we gathered after my niece Maya was baptized. There was lots of yummy food and a big blowup slide in the backyard for the kids. And games galore to play. It was a day of reverance and joy; food and play. But the funniest part was when I was telling Emmitt and Savanna that we were going to Grandma McDonald's House. They were really excited to go and when we got there, Emmitt turns to me and says, "Mom, this is NOT McDonalds...." lol I said no this in GRANDMA McDonald's...needless to say he was a little disappointed. lol But they had fun anyway.

Maya and Savanna (it's Maya leading around a little Maya...they look sooo much alike!)

Kayin and Emmitt

And I finally caught Noah.

"Papa's Park" with Cousins!

My sister and her family came out to visit in June. They had soo much fun playing in "Papa's Park"

Kayin, Noah, Emmitt, Maya (on the swing) and Savanna on the structure.Emmitt, Noah, Maya, Kayin.......

.....and Savanna who didn't want to come down for a picture!

Finally I'm catching up with Summer Fun!

I have been so bad this summer, but now I'm finally back to some normalcy and will be posting like crazy to get all of our busy summer fun time caught up! So keep checking back to see all the fun things we have been doing, because it's a lot!

I'm just so happy....

Emmitt's 5th Birthday

Emmitt turned 5 on June 8th! He has grown and grown so much since that little baby boy that I brought home from the hospital. The past five years have been full of fun, sadness, laughter and tears! I'm so glad that Emmitt came into our lives! What a joy he is. Here are some pictures from his birthday. First we started with swimming at the YMCA (which there are no pictures of since I was wet too.) Jody helped me chaperon the 6 boys! She brought water balls which turned into a war...boys against the to women adults! It was a blast.

After opening all the fun and exciting new toys, we thought food would be an excellent choice!

And of course, we had the birthday boy blow out is candle on his chocolate cupcake!

All in all it was a very fun birthday!

Joseph's 29th Birthday

Here are some pictures that I took of Joseph with his birthday cakes...yes he got 2! lol The first one wasn't supose to be like that...well it was but not really! The second cake was suppose to be the first...lol I had left the whipped cream in the car over night so I just make a sheet cake, which was awesome. So the next weekend I made him his yummy black forest cherry cake. And boy was it yummy!

Cake #1

Cake #2

I think that cake number 2 looks soo yummy right now! I want to eat it!