Avery Rae

Last night as Megan and I were watching the live East Coast broadcast of 30 Rock, she leaned over to me and said, "I've had 2 contractions in the last 30 minutes." Since all of our other children were at least 1 week early, and since this was 2 days before the official due date, we figured it was about time...

Megan had sporadic contractions throughout the night--but just enough to ensure that she didn't get a good night's sleep. The contractions continued after we woke up, and when Kaitlyn ran out to catch the school bus she was already yelling, "My mom might have Ava today!"

By around 10:00 a.m. or so this morning the contractions were starting to get fairly intense. When Kaitlyn was born we had gone to the hospital but were sent home because Megan wasn't close enough--which was pretty demoralizing. Not wanting to repeat the same experience, Megan called her doctor and Max and I drove Megan to see her doctor at noon where she found out that she was at a 4 or a 5, and was directed straight to the hospital.

We walked in the hospital doors at around 1:15 p.m. and our good friend and neighbor, Amy, was kind enough to come pick up Max from the hospital (and get Alison and Kaitlyn off the school bus--thank you!). By a little after 3:00 p.m. Megan had an epidural in and things were going great. Megan's mom and sister were finally allowed by the nurse to come in to the room to witness the birth (at Megan's prior invitation).

Just before 5:00 p.m. they checked Megan to see how things were progressing and the nurse almost literally ran out to get the doctor! One push later...Avery Rae was out. The 2 loops of her umbilical cord around her neck which were quickly removed, and she immediately began showing off her ability to look sad with a puffy lower lip.

Official stats--
Time of Birth: 5:01 p.m.
Weight: 7 pounds
Height: 19.5 inches
Diagnosis: Adorable

Megan and Ava are doing great, and we both commented how this labor and delivery seemed to go off the easiest of any of the children!

After making sure that everything was under control I left to pick up the kids from Amy and Todd's house so they could meet their new little sister!

Now...behold the Day 1 pics:

Top 10 Reasons We Haven't Blogged...

10. We returned from our June trip out west to 3-4 inches of standing water in our fully finished basement.

9. We had to clear out, rip out, and refinish our 1500 sq.ft. basement.

8. We headed back to Utah for vacation just 4 weeks after we got back.

7. The day we returned home from vacation, Nathan accepted a job at Bank of America in North Carolina. FYI, this was not sought after or planned, but we're very excited.

6. We suddenly had to prepare to sell our home, and of course we were still putting back together the basement. I had it on the market 1 week after we got home, thank you very much.

5. Nathan, of course, is still traveling every week with Accenture; he was in Switzerland last week (brought me back some yummy chocolates!)

4. I'm working to keep my home pristine, since at any moment I could have to show it.

3. I decided to take on sewing: burp cloths, carseat cover, crib bedding, etc. Why not?!

2. Let's not forget back-to-school craziness.

1. Oh yeah, I'm going to have a baby in a few weeks!

So, here's a picture from the girls' first day of school, just so I can say I've got pictures on my blog.

The Age of Accountability

Well...it's official. We now have 1 more member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in our family. While we were in Utah last month for Megan's family reunion, Alison was baptized.

First of all, that meant wearing a "girly" dress for before and after (instead of a pair of basketball shorts, in which Ali would have been much more comfortable). Despite it's "girliness", Ali looked very grown-up and very adorable.



Kaitlyn (who has significant experience in the "being girly" department) was very supportive by recommending twirls, spins and runway-walks that Ali could use. Probably.



A whole host of family and friends came from all over Utah, Arizona, Indianapolis and even Provo to witness the event. (Pictured below from L to R: a whole host of people who love Alison).


Ali's friend Ashton (whose father conducted the meeting--thanks Barry!) supported Ali by giving her a nice card and baptism present. He also gave her tips on how to go under without having a foot, arm, piece of hair or other appendage come up out of the water requiring the ordinance to be performed again. Probably.


Max was supportive by failing at potty training in his khaki pants immediately before the meeting started, so we had to change him into a diaper and shorts. He was also supportive by eating as much as possible at the luncheon following the baptism.


I was supportive by performing the baptism and confirmation and wearing a white jumpsuit that looked like flood pants / highwaters. (I did take the black shoes off before going into the font.)


Our fathers, brothers-in-law and grandparents were supportive by standing in the circle for the confirmation.


My sisters were supportive by singing a duet during the program and by not letting Alison change out of her white dress before approximately 56 more pictures.


My parents were supportive by flying up to Utah to from Arizona to witness the event. (My dad also accompanied my sisters' musical number.)


Megan's parents were supportive by scheduling the baptism during the reunion.


Grandpa Scott was supportive by taking time out of his busy schedule to attend and taking time to talk to Alison individually. (Thank you!)


Megan's siblings were supportive by arriving on time to give talks, conducting music, and coordinating the luncheon.


We're so proud of you Alison, and will continue to support you throughout your life as you continue to make these good choices! We love you!

Paint Brushes in Bags Aren't Safe; 2-year Brothers Make Good Scape Goats; Older Sisters Make Good Witnesses

Now that we know that #4 is going to be a baby girl, we've decided that we ought to consider getting Max's room in order. We just bought him a new sports-themed bedding set and are also considering some new furniture for his room. Additionally, we have been trying to figure out paint colors to tie the whole thing together.

This afternoon we quickly painted a very small section of wall with paint samples from Home Depot to compare two different colors of blue. Afterwards, we put the used disposable brushes in a bag with some other trash, tied it up, and put it up on the changing table--seemingly out-of-sight, out-of-mind, and out-of-reach.

A few hours later we heard Alison call down to us, "Max and Kaitlyn are painting the walls!"

I wondered how that could be? Where did they get paint? It turns out that the brushes in the trash were still wet enough to paint with and Kate and Max had painted on 1 wall in Max's room (which was fine because, as I mentioned, we were going to be painting it anyway), 1 wall in the hallway and 2 walls in Kaitlyn's room (which was not fine because we have already painted thos walls a nice non-Blue color).

Both kids heard us come running up the stairs and took off and hid. They knew they were in trouble. Fortunately, since the paint was still wet, we were able to get it off of 2 of the 3 walls where they had painted.

Oh yeah, one of the reasons we had decided to paint the walls in Max's room was because Max and Kaitlyn had, a few weeks ago, already taken pencil to the walls in there. (Hint: it doesn't erase as easily as you might think when it's done on flat paint.)

It's a good thing that these partners in crime are so stinkin' cute. I wonder which one of them was the mastermind of the whole plot?

Eruption and The Trike-a-Thon

Recently, Alison's class at school has been studying Mexico. Ali has been especially intrigued by the volcanic activity in Mexico after reading a short story in class that recounted an eye-witness account of the formation of a volcano. So, when the class was given an assignment to produce their first research paper about Mexico, Ali's chosen topic came quite easily.

What didn't come quite as easily, however, was convincing Ali that a full volcanic science demonstration was not required as a visual aid. I think Ali has been reading our copy of "Getting to Yes" because she somehow negotiated her way into our doing it.

We tried our best to design a mountain structure that could withstand the intense heat of molten lava, but unfortunately construction paper, old Pepsi bottles, poster board and paint aren't as heat-resistant as you might think. Rather than re-engineer a new volcano which could withstand the lava, we instead opted to use a baking soda and vinegar lava-substitute and soak, not melt, the plastic figurines we decorated the volcano with.

(Note Ali's missing teeth. This was not an unfortunate consequence of some volcano malfunction. She's just missing 5 teeth--including the four in front!")

Megan was able to fill her role in the whole ordeal...I mean "experience"...by attending Ali's oral presentation and eruption demonstration at school and capturing these pictures. (They did not have the Van Halen song "Eruption" playing the background, unfortunately.)

Max contributed by accompanying Megan to Ali's class and trying to destroy everything he could get his hands on. Probably.

Kaitlyn, recently had a Trike-a-Thon at her school. She was one of two riders who successfully completed the 50-lap course (and did it on just two wheels to boot). Kaitlyn was able to keep up with her friend Collin (son of our good friends George and Brittany, and the other 50-lap completer) the whole time, although she opted to ride with her eyes open most of the time.

On an unrelated note, Kaitlyn was talking to Megan the other day and Megan suggested that Kailtyn do something (exactly what we can't remember...let's say it was 'clean her room'). Kaitlyn's response was classic: she looked at Megan in the eyes, put her hands on her hips and shifted her weight to one side and said, "Mom, that is so 1999!"

Max's Prayer

It was Max's turn to say our dinner prayer tonight and this is how it went...

"Dear Heavenly Father,
I ride my bike today, bless that we have pizza later, I don't like this fork. Amen."

Conseco Fieldhouse

We've been to Conseco Fieldhouse quite a few times in the past couple of weeks.

First, Megan and I went together on a date to see Carrie Underwood in concert. Not only was the concert entertaining, but it was very family friendly. We saw people of all ages. Our girls (especially Kaitlyn) would have loved it! We enjoyed her segue of her song "Jesus Take the Wheel" into a (fairly rockin') version of "How Great Thou Art."


The whole show was chock full of effects and props including a giant swing on a giant tree branch, an electronic LCD dress, and a blue pickup truck that 'rode' through the air over the whole arena.


It was very enjoyable and we'd definitely recommend it.

Megan's mom was able to procure 5 free tickets to the last Pacer's game of the season so we took all the kids...to Conseco Fieldhouse. (If you could see the scoreboard you'd see that the Pacers were down 20 in the 1st half).

We got 3 large buckets of popcorn and soda in re-usable cups that they were trying to get rid of. Max promptly spilled 1/2 of one of the buckets. But, fortunately he recovered by eating the other half so he could look cute by wearing the bucket as a hat.

Alison rooted for Dwight Howard, Vince Carter and the rest of the Orlando Magic and did her best to rub the score in my face at every possible moment. (She also refused to be photographed.)

Kaitlyn and I enjoyed yelling at the top of our lungs for the Magic to miss at every free throw opportunity.

Although Home Depot isn't Conseco Fieldhouse, we took our kids there too. (Mostly because this picture shows off our kids' respective personalities--Ali climbed to the highest possible spot she could, Kaitlyn (a.k.a. Vana White) showing off the product, and Max refusing to be outdone by his older siblings.

We've got a great 3.5 kids!