A Blessing

We blessed Rhett last Sunday. Ben gave a lovely blessing! We were grateful for all the people who came to support. It's so hard to believe a little under 3 months ago I was so worried about this little guy. He has just amazed us all since the day he was born. On Monday (a.k.a - laundry day) I washed the blessing outfit and Sages dress (seen above) together and now the blessing outfit is slightly pink. I can't believe I did that, so silly!

Cute Family Pictures

Pulling off family pictures is always harder than it looks! PLEASE enjoy!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart

Happy Birthday Ben!

I can be almost certain that I do not give my husband enough credit on this blog. He is wonderful!! I wish I had more time to dote over him more, but I just don't. I feel so blessed to have him as my husband. I'm so glad that his parents raised him to be such a great person. He really is the best dad ever. Our kids don't have a clue how good they have it. If they don't have his full attention whenever they want it, they don't know how to react.

Ben - I hope you had as great of a birthday as you made mine. I love you!

Where to begin?

I don't even know where to begin so I'm just going to go off the cuff here.


We went to Mexico for Thanksgiving this year. It was a fun time, as usual. The kids enjoy the sand and the change of scenery. Traveling with three kids is a bit tricky. With 7 hours of travel each way, car sickness, nursing in the car and entertaining there is never a dull moment.
Rhett is growing really fast. At his appointment yesterday he weighed in at 11 lbs. 4 oz. He is 2 1/2 months now, hard to believe. I haven't been able to get him to crack a smile yet. He's a serious one. We are all excited for Christmas around here. I was out last night with Wes and Sage and I decided to run in really quick to the temple lights since we were right there. A choir was just getting ready to sing and the lights were twinkling brighter than ever. It was just beautiful. After being there about 15 minutes, I got a call that a certain baby was hungry and we were off and running.


Here is to a non-stressful next couple of weeks......

Finally.. a new post

Life is crazy with three kids! It's amazing how hardly anything gets done, but we never leave the house. It never used to be like that.

Halloween was great. Sage has started being very sensitive. She gets scared very easily. Funny but sad at the same time. We started off at Grandma and Grandpa Shumway's house and then made it over to Grandma and Grandpa Howe's house. We were all done at the end of the night.

(Ben thought this random guys costume was great so he got a picture)

I had the best birthday last week! Ben did a great job! He had the kids get me gifts, made me breakfast, took the day off work, took me shopping, took me to lunch and gave me a pedicure (I hope he doesn't mind me spilling the beans on that one). 27 wasn't so bad after all!

The baby is growing like crazy. He is weighing in at about 9 lbs! He is sleeping and eating great! I just love this little guy. I obviously love all my beautiful children but I feel a little different about this baby. I don't feel any feelings of frustration with him, which I can't say about my other 2. I'm sure it's his temperament but I don't mind doing any thing for him! Such a sweet boy.

Halloween fun

Westin's preschool class did a cute little costume parade and sang a few songs today. He was so cute to watch. He was all smiles, the whole time. I was pretty lame when it came to my kids Halloween costumes this year. I opened our dress up box and told them to pick something they wanted to be. The good thing about this is that at the two different parties/occasions we have had to get dressed up, Westin has been something different each time. I've always kind of thought it was the mom's responsibility to make a homemade costume every year. Even better would be a scary homemade costume. As with everything in my life, my opinion has changed. Now it's all about what a mom can manage to pull off!!

Happy Birthday - a little late

Westin had a birthday last week. He made out like a bandit. That morning, he let me sleep in a little (which was so nice) and then he came in to tell me he was hungry. I gave him a big smile and I said "Happy Birthday!". He was so excited, he had totally forgot from us reminding him the night before. I know that will never happen again. Ben's family had a tradition of making every ones birthday just like Christmas. All the presents get opened first thing when you wake up in the morning. We have tried to do the same thing. If your not careful, it would be easy to mix up the pictures of birthday and Christmas, they look the same.

On another note...

I've heard a couple of people say they are printing their blog into a book so that it truly is a journal, not just a journal you can read online. I think that is a great idea. If I have any plans of doing that I need to become a better blogger.

Up to the Minute News

I just took these pictures and I thought they were so cute I just had to share.

Rhett is 4 weeks old today

The Run Down

What I have been up to -

nursing, sleeping, nursing, pooping and nursing

What I have been up to -

making messes, getting into anything I can get my grubby little hands into, learning to deal without a pacifier, and loving/smothering my little brother.

What I have been up to -

celebrating my early birthday with cousins, loving preschool, wanting more brothers and sisters (crazy), and wanting to do big kid things.

What I have been up to -

nursing, disciplining, nursing, thinking about politics, nursing, changing diapers, nursing, lining children out with projects, and nursing.

What I have been up to -

Being super dad, working, lining children out with fun outdoor activities, being a much needed lending ear to his wife, and working

Triumph

Westin learned to ride his bike without training wheels. He is so awesome!

Of course there are still graceful falls...

But for the most part, it's just so fun and exciting to see him learn something new!

He's Home

After a long six days in the NICU we finally have our little boy home. I got discharged from the hospital last Thursday so I've been going back and forth to the hospital three times a day. It is so nice to have my whole family under one roof! Rhett did so much better than anyone would have ever thought. He gained weight the whole time there. We are so grateful for all of the prayers on his behalf, we have felt them. Our family and friends have been so good to help us out. We love and appreciate you all!

He made it here

safe and sound

Yesterday my doctor came into my room and said that he was ready to induce labor. He didn't feel like the baby was in any great danger but that it was probably time to get him out. A few hours later the contractions started. By 4:50 yesterday evening he made his grand entrance. We got to hold him for about an hour and then they took him to the NICU for observation. He has been there ever since and he is showing all the right signs of a normal healthy baby considering he was born 6 weeks premature.

Details:

Rhett Kempton Shumway

5lbs. 3 oz. 19 in.

September 23, 2008 4:50 pm

Interesting side note: All of our kids have been born on the 23rd of their month. Westin - October 23rd, Sage - August 23rd, and Rhett - September 23rd. What are the chances??

Here I sit......

This baby has decided to rear it's head a little too early this time. I started leaking amniotic fluid last week. By the time I made it to the hospital I had almost none. Since then we have been on antibiotics and had steroid shots to strengthen his lungs. He is still hanging out inside my belly and doing great. I also am doing just fine. We of course, just want this little guy to be healthy and perfect so we are willing to do what we are told by the doctors and nurses. They are taking really good care of us and we feel blessed. We will update as we have more info!

I'm Famous

In and attempt to help the Nielson family, there are many people out there trying to raise money for all their crazy expensive medical bills. I thought it was worth it to post a link to this little auction. Wendy B. makes beautiful jewelry. I know I don't have very high rolling friends but it's worth a shot. (sorry if that is a shock to any of you!)

What a long week!

It feels like such an eventful week we had last week. On Tuesday, Westin started preschool and has loved every minute of it. Considering that the boy has prayed to go to preschool for the last 10 months, I knew this would be a great day for him. He tells me everyday that he has the greatest time but that he keeps forgetting to make friends. I'm not too sure what that means but I hardly believe it from "Mister Chatter Box".

On Wednesday we sold our car and bought a new one on Thursday. It is so nice to have the extra space. We made the plunge to a minivan. In high school I would have never thought I would own one. I'm just too practical not to.

Thursday night we left for a little family camping trip. We had the best of intentions to go for 4 nights but we gave in at 3. We found ourselves not being able to talk about anything else except for how much we love our house. That's how we knew it was time.

The kids did so great. They slept great, played and eat lots of junk food. We camped next to a little creek. They had a lot of fun with that!Ben built Westin (and himself) a swing. They played on that forever.

Proof I was there....
Ben and I built a little fort for our kids. I remember making these when I was a kid growing up on camping trips. All in all it was a lot of fun.

A fun surprise on Saturday was that Ben's sister Sarah and her family came and joined us for the night! Thanks for coming and joining us, we had a great time!

Happy Birthday Sage!

My little girl turned two on Saturday. It was a great day. Sage is all into everything being pink so her birthday was no exception. There were pink balloons, pink cake with pink frosting and lots of pink girly presents. I think we all had a great time. She was pretty tired as the evening wore on. She was kicked back when it came time for presents.

Thank you everyone who came and endured my hot little house with lots of people jammed inside! We love and appreciate you all!

On a totally different note, I must share something that has been on my mind a lot lately!! Since I have started blogging, I was introduced to this amazing, mother, wife, daughter, and woman. I have never met her but I feel like I know her so well because of her blog. She lives in Mesa and truly blogs every day of the work week. Anyways, Nie, her husband and her husbands flight instructor, Doug Kinneard, were in a plane crash last Saturday just outside St. Johns. Since the plane crash the flight instructor has passed away. Nie and her husband are in critical but stable condition with severe burns. I have not been able to stop thinking about all of this this last week. I know that they will be watched over and protected, as will their children who have been lovingly taken in by their aunts and uncles. Her sister Jane is giving updates on their condition.....

Update on the Family

I took some cute pictures of my kids today so I thought I would share some of what they are doing and into these days.

Sage is going to be 2 next month! I can't believe how fast she is growing! Her vocab is growing so much every day especially since we have taken her pacifier away except for sleeping. She is so into being a princess lately. What a girly, girl! She sings this song and does a dance that basically says, "I'm a Princess!!!". She can drive me crazy and the next second she has stolen my heart again. Maybe that is girls, I have no clue!

Little Westin is growing up so fast too, but in a different way. He is maturing so much and I'm starting to see why everyone say "they grow up so fast!". He loves to have a part in primary. If it were up to him he would give the prayer, talk and scripture every Sunday. He is also becoming such a good helper to me. He loves to ask me what I want him to do for me. I often wonder if his good nature can be blamed on Ben and I at all or are we just extremely lucky! He is ecstatic for his baby brother to come. He says he wants to hold him all day long

This past week, all four of us have had the flu and it has been no fun!! Ben even had to miss his own Grandpas funeral because he was so miserable. We are all glad to be feeling better and back to our normal stuff now.

Happy Anniversary!

Ben and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary this last weekend by going to Las Vegas. What is a trip to Las Vegas with out a stop at the Hoover Dam. If you ever manage to go to a dam with any of the Shumway boys, you will know that the "Dam" jokes don't pass as quick as the dam itself. Any excuse to safely cuss.

Vegas was about what I thought it would be. The architecture is amazing. Outside of that, you begin to see why it is called the city of sin. I'll just leave it at that because I could go on and on and I'm sure everyone gets the point.

One really fun thing we did was take a Gondola ride at the Venitien. It was really fun and beautiful. It's amazing what they can do inside a building!

Saturday we went to the Las Vegas Temple. I was never so happy to go to the temple. My mom watched our kids so we could go and I'm so thankful for that!! Thank you so much Mom, we love you so much. Now she can go back to sleeping in and taking showers, 2 things that never happen with children!