Not your normal Halloween night...

I don't think I mentioned how smoothly everything went with the kids when I went into labor. Liz (my awesome next door neighbor) came over in the morning and took care of the kids. Then my awesome friend Beckie came and got Luke and Emma and took them to Luke's baseball game. Meanwhile I texted my family to tell them I was in labor. I got a reply immediately from my awesome little sister that she and her family were actually IN ORLANDO for the day going to Disney with her sister-in-law! So again being the awesome sister and brother-in-law that they are, they rearranged their plans (ie. playing piano and helping with their primary program practice the next day) and they stayed the night at my house and watched the kids all day Sunday! What a relief! AND she cleaned and had my house all put together when I came home!!!!!! THANKS KIM!

Anyway, leading up to Halloween I had been dreading the fact that Halloween was on Sunday! In Utah it's a no brainer and everyone just trick-or-treats on Saturday night! Well here they might think I lost my mind and they wouldn't be prepared for trick-or-treaters. So I told my kids this year was going to be different and that the ward party on Friday night and the neighborhood party on Saturday was their Halloween. (Thus the nice part of me being the neighborhood party planner ;) I was soooo impressed because the kids didn't even complain ONE BIT! True they had a great distraction having little Eva make her arrival :) So instead Matt had bought "How to Train a Dragon" and we watched it together in my hospital room. It's kind of our tradition. When Emma was born Luke came and watched tv in my room, and when Gavin was born we watched Bambi in my room. It was a fun and VERY different Halloween!

Annual Neighborhood Halloween Party

I almost cried when Matt came to the hospital with this picture...

How sweet and thoughtful is this????? Liz had everyone holding a little Happy Birthday Eva sign. I love my neighborhood, but most especially my awesome friend LIZ!

Eva meet Luke, Emma, and Gavin

It was soooooo fun to watch the kids come in and meet Eva for the first time! There was so much going on that day that they had to wait until about 6:30 to finally meet her. They had to go to Luke's baseball game, and the neighborhood party and so when they finally came they were anxious to hold and love her!

It was so cute because Luke's little baseball team were all excited about Eva and every good play they made they dedicated to her. If one of them got a good hit they would yell out "For Eva!" When they got someone out they would yell "For Eva!" And then at the end of the game they all ran to the pitcher's mound and started yelling "For Eva!" altogether! How cute is that????

Liz told me that first thing in the morning Emma got up and was making cards and notes for Eva, although at the time she didn't know her name yet, so here is her poster she made her:

They came running into my hospital room with this beautiful flower arrangement and were very excited to give it to Eva.

This pretty one is from my family! Thanks FAM!

I loved how the kids sat and examined Eva. Luke won the rock-paper-scissors war in the car so he got to hold her first.

Nothing better then having my cute little family in the room with me...but when they started to get hyper and starting putting on her little hat then it was time for them to leave and me to rest :)

Yes even Matt joined in on the fun...(I'm sure he is going to kill me when he sees this cute picture of him on the blog :)

Welcome to the world Eva Louise Rose!!!!

What a miracle! It was the most perfect day ever! After a very fun, but tiring night at the ward Halloween party I woke up around 4 a.m. feeling some slightly painful contractions. They occurred every 15 minutes or so and then subsided. I had been feeling some strong contractions all week, so I ignored these and went back to sleep. I was just sure that this baby would wait until Friday Nov. 5th for our induction date. Then my mom would be here and all would go as planned. I forgot the small detail that babies come not on our time table, but the Lord's! So when I woke at 6:00 a.m. feeling STRONG contractions I was in denial. Matt woke up to me breathing through the contraction and he started to panic. I told him it was a false alarm. Soon he started to time the contractions and they were consistently about 7-9 minutes apart. Again I was in denial. I didn't want to wake my neighbor up at 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. AND I didn't want to get to the hospital and tell them this was my 4th baby, only to have them check me to find I was being a wimp and was only dilated to 1. I didn't want to look like an idiot. Finally I gave in and finished packing my bag (luckily the kids were off school the day before so we could wash baby clothes, pack bags, etc.). Liz (my wonderful neighbor who is a Labor and Delivery nurse) came over and when she saw that I couldn't talk through the contractions and she saw how frequent they were she said "You better go to the hospital NOW or I will be delivering this baby and you will have to name her Liz"! So we were off. To my relief when they got me into triage I was dilated to 6!!!! Yea it wasn't a false alarm and I didn't look like an idiot! By the time they got me to the delivery room I was really in pain and I was dilated to 9!!!! Yikes! I REALLY wanted an epidural and was trying to make that clear to every nurse that passed by. By the time the anesthesiologist got there I was in a world of hurt but very glad to see her! The only problem is that she wanted me to sit up and I was in so much pain I couldn't move. So the nurses said that's ok we can do it without....NEVER mind that made me move :) I got the beloved epidural and then life started to become good again :)

I was pain free and able to start sending out texts that I was in the hospital and on my way to having this baby with no name. Yes we STILL didn't have a name for this poor little girl. We were still toying with Brooklyn, Riley, Addison, Molly, and the latest addition to our list Eva. I came up with it at the temple Tuesday night and both Matt and I liked it. We were laughing that since it was Halloween Eve we should name her something Halloweeny like Elvira, Halley, or Eva :) That really is not how she got her name, but it was fun to laugh about. So there we sat in the delivery room waiting for my water to break. The ironic thing is that I had a neighborhood party planned. I was in charge of it, sent out the invites, made the food assignments, etc. but it was in Liz's driveway and I didn't have MY food assignment ready prior to today! What kind of friend am I to invite everyone to Liz's house and then don't show up or do anything for it???? Ha ha! So there I am in the delivery room getting texts from neighbors about their assignments, etc. I was sending off texts to Liz about who was bringing buns, etc. She texted back "Will you just concentrate on pushing!!!!" :)

Shortly after my water broke and after 3 pushes Eva Louise Rose came into this world! It was such a beautiful miracle! I LOVED looking over at Matt with the nurses checking on his new baby girl. She weighs 8 lbs. and is 20 inches long. I thought I was in for another crying colic baby because she really made sure everyone knew she was here. All the nurses and doctors commented on "what great lungs" she had. I was having flashbacks of the Luke in the hospital as a newborn and they were saying the same thing about his "great lungs". Oh no am I in for 4 months of non-stop CRYING!??? But I am glad to say she has mellowed out and she is a sweet, sweet baby :)

Halloween festivities...

So with Halloween being on a Sunday this year we celebrated in different ways...thanks to the Hawkes family for sharing their property with us, the ward had a WONDERFUL ward party at their "farm", as my kids call it. They had a great chili, baked potato, and macaroni and cheese spread, and great desserts. Then the Young Women provided the games. We had fishing for prizes, face painting, donut on a string eating contest, bean bag toss, and musical chairs. THEN we went to the barn for the funnest little spook alley amidst a maze of hay bails. After exiting the haunted barn you came upon a cute little cemetery that had ward members there handing out candy. It was a great night. My kids were so proud of themselves that they were brave enough to go through the haunted house, and seemed to walk a little taller after that night :) What a fun way to celebrate Halloween!!! (and of course me and my unorganized self forgot my camera so I will have to get my friends picture she took of all 3 of my kids!)

Pumpkin carving...

Today the kids had a much needed day off from school and we got a lot of things done. The best was carving pumpkins. Luke was very proud of himself for carving his face on his own.

Gavin's first School Halloween party!

This was Gavin's first little school Halloween party with our little mom's preschool and he was so proud! He was excited to be Batman and in the weeks leading up to it had worn the costume often, so when the real day came he was READY! My friend Andrea had cute little games for them, they got to decorate cookies, and they played hard. Look at the cute little class...

Circle Yes or No

I just found this CUTE little note that Emma made for Luke. Do you remember the days of asking questions in a note to someone and then giving them the option of circling Yes or No????? Oh man that brings back memories :) I thought this was an adorable little letter :) I love the days that they love each other!!!!

Beautiful to Him

Tonight we had our YW in Excellence. This is an annual activity where the teenage girls get to share the projects they have been working on through the year in the Personal Progress program. We chose the theme "Beautiful to Him" and used a beautiful EFY song with that title. The girls came up with the idea for the program and it turned out great. Usually the girls go up one by one and present what they have been doing. At times they get very shy and timid and get up and sit down as fast as they can. This year 2 of the girls came up with the idea of making it a talk show and the two "interviewed" their guests and asked them how their project helped them come closer to Christ and become beautiful to Him. They spoke about how the world views beauty on the outside appearance vs. how our Heavenly Father views each of us as beautiful.

A couple of weeks ago we had taken the YW to the temple for a "temple pondering" trip. So instead of going in and doing baptisms like we usually do, they brought their journals and scriptures and we gave them time to reflect, set goals, and pray. We took pictures of them and we also would questions. A few of the questions we asked were:

1. How does the Young Women’s program help you in your life?
2. Who is Joseph Smith and how do you feel about him?
3. Who do you know that has lifted themselves or others during a challenging time in their life?
4. What are some things you do to show that you know Pres. Monson is a Prophet today?
5. How do you feel about the Savior?
6. How do you feel about the Book of Mormon?
7. How do you remain unspotted from the world?
8. Share a testimony building moment from Scripture reading, Girl's Camp, EFY, Seminary, etc.
9. What does a Temple Marriage mean to you?
10. How does your understanding of the Atonement help you in your daily life?
11. How have you grown closer to the Savior during a trial in your life?

We took that video footage and the pictures and made a video for them to watch at YW in Excellence tonight. One of the YW were supposed to help us put the video together but at the beginning of this week she let us know how stressed and busy she was and that she was not going to be able to do the video. I was stressing out BIG TIME...then our Personal Progress leader said her college age daughter, who is currently without a job, would like to work on it for us. Talk about a LIFE SAVER! We also gave each of the YW a little mirror with the words "Beautiful to Him" in the center and we had a little flower hair clip on the side of it. This same leader's daughter and her other 2 daughters also painted the mirrors for us!!!! Talk about going above and beyond! They turned out so cute and I think the YW loved them. It turned out to be a great night. Now that I have that behind me I don't care WHEN I go into labor :)

The Sandall's came to visit!

I love that Matt's Aunt Christie and her family LOVE Disney because then we get to see them out here every couple of years for the visit to see Mickey Mouse :) AND...it was really fun because it was Chrystal's 21st birthday so we got to celebrate with them! We met them at Planet Hollywood and had a great dinner! We love you guys! Thanks for making time in your busy vacation to hang out with us!

Pinewood Derby 2010

Luke had his first Pinewood Derby today and I think it was a GREAT success! It was an amazing little event with the finest in Pinewood Derby technology. My favorite part was watching all the dads. You know how usually it's the moms taking pictures of their boys doing whatever it is they are doing...this time it was the dad's with their cameras out. :) Luke and Matt worked hard on Luke's car. It was actually a family affair...Luke sanded it and painted it and then Matt helped getting it to the right weight, Gavin's job was to sit and spin the wheels over and over until Luke got home from school. I had to make a run to the Scout Store (an hour away) for more weight, and Emma, hmmm, well Emma came and watched the races.

When we first got there and they did the official weigh ins the car was a tiny bit lighter then Matt and Luke wanted and so they took it back and glued a dime to it to make it JUST the RIGHT weight.

It was so fun because Luke was in the VERY first heat. So this video is the very first race of the day and who do you think won????? LUKE! It was SOOOOOOOO fun to watch his reaction. I think you will see what I mean when you watch the video...

Luke ended up taking 5th place out of about 13 Wolves. Pretty darn good for our first time. Now he and Matt are plotting and trying to figure out what needs to be done by the February Derby! Great job Luke and Matt!