The Holidays of 2011

The Holidays this year have been great so far. We spent Thanksgiving with Logan's family. We had dinner at Cindy's house with lots of family there. It was great to spend time doing crafts and such with the girls. :) We then had to go to Twin Falls on Friday night because one of our vehicles needed the timing belt changed, and Tracie's sister-in-law's baby shower was on Saturday. Logan was sad that he didn't get to spend as much time with his family, but was glad we were able to save a lot of money by having my dad help him out with fixing the car.

Christmas was crazy! We spent Christmas with Tracie's family and boy did we get spoiled! We had lots of fun. We traveled to Twin Falls the morning of Christmas Eve and spent the day getting settled, visiting with family that stopped by, and playing games. My family also does a gift exchange where we draw names and get them a gift. We exchanged those gifts on Christmas Eve, because it is tradition in my family to open a gift on Christmas Eve and we thought those would be good ones to open. The next morning, Christmas morning, we woke up to a surprise from Santa ;). We must have been on the nice list because we got plenty! Even Jake got plenty to last him a while! My dad had Jake's name for gift exchange and he looked all over town to find his gift and fortunatly, was able to get the last one in town! He got Jake a little rocking horse that talks and sings. It was so cute putting him on it! I have a video of him on it, if I can get it to upload. Logan spoiled me this year and got me a sewing machine, and I got him (but let him pick it out) a home theatre system.

Anyway, we love our families and are very grateful for the spirit and meaning of the holidays. We want to thank everyone for your support and gifts you have given us for Christmas and throughout the year. We love you all and wish you a Happy New Year!

My Cute and handsome boys!

Our gifts from Santa!

Jake opening his present!

Me and my cutie!-just after his haircut

Jake on his rocking horse for the first time!

My, How He's Grown!

Well it has been a while since my last post and thought I would update. We have been so busy with the holidays and Logan finishing school, and me going back to work, that it has been hard to find time to update.
Logan finished his first semester of College with some B's and C's and is proud but knows he needs to up his game if he wants to get into Dental School. He finally finished registering for this next semester and is excited about some of his classes.
Tracie stopped nursing Jake since she went back to work and has been having a hard time losing the extra weight that she gained while pregnant. So she started dieting the 1st of November and lost 20 pounds in the month of November.
Jake, who is the highlight of our life, is learning so many new things. He is doing better with sitting up, has found out he has a voice and uses it, giggles, and is learning to grab things. He is just as cute as can be and we love having him in our life.
Here is a few pics of Jake as of late:

SSSSSSSOOOOOO CUTE!!!!

His Second haircut in 3 & 1/2 Months!!!

Baby Update!

have been so busy enjoying Jake that I haven't blogged in a while. At the end of September, Jake and I went down to Twin Falls for a couple days to stay with my family. We had lots of fun going to watch my sister play volleyball and hanging out with my mom and sisters.
We blessed Jake the week after Conference on October 9th, and he needed a hair cut before the blessing. So Logan held Jake while I tried my best to get his hair even.

The hair we cut off!

Jake's 5th Generation Picture. Great Grandpa Merrill (to the Left of me) is the only living great-grandparent both Logan and I have. It was nice to have him able to attend and be able to take such a rare picture!
Jake weighed in at 11 lbs at his one month WIC appointment and is growing so well! It seems he learns something new everyday! The latest one that I am enjoying is he sleeps all night! Between 6-8 hours, with only a few night here and there that he wakes up every 3 or 4 hours-but it has been really nice to sleep!

He loves to bath, shower, and be in the water-the second he hears the water turn on, he quiets down and is so content. (See video below-his funny shower face!)

I love the little things he does, such as, eating his fist when he starts getting hungry. He has started using his tongue more too, so we like to play with him a little and have him lick an "invisible popcicle".

He has also become more vocal over the last couple weeks and will "talk" with me. I love it cause he smiles so much more and just seems so happy! (See video below.)

The last week or 2, I have been trying to get out and exercise more and decided we needed a stroller so I could go walking whenever I wanted to. So since we got it, Jake and I have been walking up to the school to meet Logan just when he finishes his classes for the day and then walks home with us. It is nice cause it gives me about an hour of exercise and Jake either sleeps the whole time or sits so contently and enjoys being outside.

Oh the Many Faces

Over the last couple of weeks Logan and I have noticed that Jake is very animated with his face. Here are some of the faces he makes...Hanging out

Focused on something

A Cute little smile

Lifting his head to see what is above mommy's head

He does not like his car seat

Big Yawn

Showing off his mullet

He loves to move his hands! Even more by his face

Waking up!

I'm Hungary still...

His poop face

"I'm done eating and ready to sleep" look

He has been so much fun and we just love watching him!

Jake's First Bath!!

Jake's bellybutton finally fell off on saturday so we decided to give him his first bath. He seemed to really like it! The only time he would really start fussing is when we had him out of the water for too long and he would get cold.

After he was all clean we pulled him out and wrapped him up! He just laid there and looked around waiting for what was next. What a sweetie!!

We just love this little boy!!

Cute Little Guy!

Here is a short clip I made of Jake one day when he and I were hanging out in bed all day. I had been up all night the night before with food poisoning. So, here he is, you kind of get a good taste of how mellow this little guy is. He would sleep all night without waking up if I didn't wake him up to feed him. He doesn't cry much, except when he's super hungry and fusses when he is trying to poop. He sleeps so calmly and will sleep through pretty much anything!!! We love him so much!! Enjoy!

Jake Logan Thompson

Jake came into our lives at 12:38 am on August 31,2011. He weighed 7 lbs, and was 20 inches long!

We have enjoyed this guy tremendously!!!!!!!!! He is a joy to have and feel very blessed to have such a sweet spirit in our life.

The Birth Story:

My doctor let me do an elective induction, so a week in advance, we scheduled the induction for the morning of August 30th. He told me to call the night before to get any special instructions. So the evening before I called in and they told me to be here at 6 am and to call 30 minutes before to make sure they had a bed for me. We went to bed-and could hardly sleep-and got up at 5am to get ready. I called in at 5:30 and they told me that it was not going to happen and that they would call me later if they could get me in. We were pretty disappointed and went back to bed for an hour or so. At about 10am we still hadn't heard anything and so called them again-again the same answer with no hint as to when would be a closer time. So we sat around and waited some more. In the mean time, I called my doctor to see if he wanted me to come in for a checkup if they couldn't get me in and they said they would call me back. So I called the hospital again at 12...they must have thought we were a nag cause they told me they were still waiting on a few girls to deliver. FINALLY at 12:30 pm they called us and said to get there within 45 min!! So we jumped in the car and got over there as soon as possible just in case they changed their mind! :)

We admitted me and went up to labor and delivery to get started. They started me on the oxytocin for contractions at about 1:30pm. After talking to the nurse she said that my doctor called in upset that they didn't get me in sooner and that they were going to get me started on things quickly.

A few hours went by and I was dialated to a 4 and they came in to check the position of the baby with an ultrasound and he was in perfect position.

So they gave me the choice to get my epidural and then break my water or vice versa. Let's just say that i'm glad I chose to get the epidural first, because an hour after they broke my water, I was dialated to a 9 and his head was engaged.

Finally it was time to push and with the help of my mom, Cindy, and Logan, he came out quickly.

We are so happy to have this little guy and are excited to watch him grow! He has already captured our love and admiration cause we think he is just SSSSSOOOOOO cute!

By the way, I am recovering very quickly, in fact it's only been 9 days and I can hardly feel the soreness anymore!! Makes it much easier to go things around the house!!! I am still a little emotional if you talk to me about specific subjects, but I'm hoping my hormones will level out soon. Logan has been a good help to me the last week and we are so thankful to Cindy for cooking us dinner several nights this last week!! I hope that as soon as Jake and I can figure out breastfeeding better that I will have more time to get things done throughout the day!

Baby Yet?

So yesterday I took Castor Oil and waited to see what happens, hoping that it would put me into labor early. Last night at one point I had some very painful contractions but then stopped after about an hour or so. Then this morning my pants were soaked when I got up and so we decided to go in to Labor and Deliver to get checked. They took a swab test, (that came back negative) and did a scope to look at my cervix and see if there is extra fluid. There was extra fluid, and they took a sample of it to look under a microscope and it came back positive for "ferning". (Which I guess is what amniotic fluid looks like when it dries.) So because one test was positive and the other negative they wanted to do another swab test that was a little more sensitive. Because that came back negative, they did an ultrasound to check the amount of fluid left. Seems that I have a lot of fluid left cause they said before they sent me home, that if I get a gush of water-and I should have water running down my leg and puddling on the floor- to come back in.

So, unfortunately, we don't have a baby yet, but it is getting closer to my inducement date, Tuesday. They will be starting me at about 6am so it will be a LONG day!

Camping at Leadore

Last week we spent the whole week up at Big 8 Mile Campground in Leadore. It was nice an cool with a few warm days and lots of rain! We had a good week spending it with family.

Logan and I stayed in a tent but we slept well thanks to the gift Cindy and John gave us that is a double high queen air bed. It was super nice to be able to get up out of bed without too much effort!
Logan enjoyed going on rides with his brothers. He rode so much his bottom got sore. :) He even enjoyed teaching me how to ride a dirt bike!
Logan also went to many of the lakes that surround our campground to go fishing. He didn't get to catch anything but loved spending the time visiting with his brothers.
On Friday, the last day, Logan, Cory, and Greg went on a hard ride up to the Patterson Lodge.

Greg came up the last few days of the week and I got to watch sweet little Vella! :) She loved being outside and was really good about taking naps and playing in her play pen!
She even was good about letting me know when she was cold by grabbing her blanket and holding it up so I could wrap her up!

The Next Step in Life

It has been a long while since I have blogged. We have had a lot go on the last month or so and it's time to update! So I am now at 30 Weeks and am SSSSOOOOOO excited to be in the last weeks! I can definitely feel the baby growing due to the muscle cramping and stretching soreness, and he seems to be sitting lower or more on my bladder because I am going to the bathroom WAY too many times in one day.

So, lately, Logan and I have moved in to a new apartment in Pocatello, and we are finally unpacked. On the weekends, Logan likes to either go dirt biking or fishing. So one weekend we went to American Falls Reservoir. Where we stopped, there was an older gentleman who had been there hours before us, and hadn't caught anything. So Logan decided to try anyway just for fun. We had been there for about and hour or so, and then suddenly, Logan realized he caught a fish! It was quite a fight getting that fish on shore, and this is what we found.

It was a Carp fish, which make Logan a little sad, but he loved his big fish story anyway.

He was so happy to have caught a big fish, what a cute guy!

So, I have neglected putting pictures up of my belly, so here are a few...

This was taken today, so 30 weeks and 3 days!

This was taken at 30 weeks!

This is at 27 weeks!

We are loving being in our own place and are so excited to welcome our new baby in the world! We hope everyone is doing well and love our family so much!