Jude vs Gidget

Gidget has been trying to adjust to the new little man in the home. She has done this by taking over all of the items he spends time on. She also insist on sitting on the lap of whomever is feeding Jude. (And yes, I sanitize everything she gets on and they don't share the cradle)

Gidget agreed to let Jude have the crib if she got to sleep in the cradle.

Back to the Future Part 1: Annual Pond Pics

I know, I know. I have an obession with taking pics of my plants. I wanted to show some pics of the growth that my new plants had this summer. Can't wait to work on it more next summer.

I fertilized my pond plants for the first time this summer and the growth was unreal. Every time I turned around I had to climb in the pond to trim the lilies.

The other result of fertilizing my plants for the first time, is my Thalia grew flowers. I didn't even know it had flowers to grow.

The flowers are my favorite. They sit on a stem that is about 3-4 feet tall and last all summer.

My cute hubby picking up the slack since I couldn't help out much this summer with the clean up.

I did manage to get my 9 month pregnant body into the pond to cut the lilies down. Check out how scary all the octopus stems are. The crazy thing is it was only 2 plants that created that many lilies. I might back off on the fertilizing next year.

Back to the Future Part 2: Garner Baby Shower

Cherie and Amelia got together and through Jake and I a family BBQ baby shower. It was such a fun way to celebrate Jude with our family and friends on the Garner side. (Super cute invitations right.)


Cherie went all out with cute decoractions and

one of her adorable cakes!

We had about 60 people come. What a party to organize and feed! They did such an amazing job!! Thank you so much!!!!!! We feel so blessed to be surrounded by such a loving family.

I made Cherie take the "classic" pregnancy shot. I could hardly stop laughing but we finally got a shot. Hee hee.

Introducing...

As is traditional fashion with this pregnancy, Becky and I have enjoyed introducing major events through videos and music. Well, the trend continues. I promise we won't do this for every major event of this child's life, but it's fun watching several of you squirm in anticipation. Love you all, thanks for the support!

~ Jake

Labor and Delivery

10/17/2011
10:30am
See Becky go to Doctors appointment
See Doctor strip Becky’s membrane without warning her
Yelp Becky yelp!

Doctor plans for induction on Sunday if Becky doesn’t go into labor during the week
See Becky KNOW that she will not go into labor and Sunday will be the day

11:30pm
See Becky contract
Contract Becky contract

11:30pm
See Jake sleep
Sleep Jake sleep

11:30pm –
7:30am
See Becky contract
...all night long

Becky thinks it’s false labor and takes 3 baths,
lays on the floor in the blue room, nearly pukes,
reads up on false labor,
finds weird positions to alleviate labor pain
and tries to not have a nervous break down

Sleep Jake sleep

10/18/2011
8:00 –
9:30am
See Jake get ready for work
See Becky call hospital to find out when “false” labor pain should stop
Nurse says it sounds like false labor but Becky could come in and get checked
See Jake text work “I’ll be in an hour late”

DRIVE JAKE DRIVE!!

10:30 –
12:30pm
See nurse check Becky
Becky gets admitted as she’s dilated to a 4!
Becky nearly hugs her nurse as she realizes she can get an epidural

See Jake text work
“I’ll be more than an hour late”

Anesthesiologist is stuck in a c-section
Cry Becky Cry

2 hours pass
and Becky dilates from a 4 to an 8
Scream Becky Scream!

12:30pm –
3:20pm

See anesthesiologist give Becky epidural
See Becky thank baby Jesus
Becky wonders why women would ever have a natural birth

3:20pm –
3:43pm
See Becky push
PUSH Becky PUSH!!

3:43pm
See Becky’s cake taken out of the oven
Cry cake cry!
Cake weighs 8. 1 lbs and is 19 ½ inches long and has a good set of lungs

Sleep Becky sleep

Could It Be Accurate?

Only 6 weeks to go and I'm counting down every minute of it. I told Jake I want the baby out and I then I want to give it away. But alas, for some reason he thinks we should keep it. This has led me to pondering about what my baby boy could possibly look like.

I came across this awesome pic the other day. Jake and I had it done in Vegas on our honey moon in 2001. Could it be accurate? After all of these years, it will be fun to find out.

Does anybody else think he looks like Liam?

In Loving Memory

I'm so sad to say the Mysha has left our home and passed on to a better place. After 14 years, her kidneys and liver suddenly shut down and she declined rapidly. We made the decision to release her to the big dog bone in the sky as she had stopped eating and was throwing up multiple times a day. There is a big empty hole in our home right now as she will be dearly missed.

Jake and I brought Mysha home with us in August of 1997. We were just 17 years old and had taken a road trip to Springville to stay with Jake's Aunt Teresa and find us a new puppy to bring home. The first time I met Mysha she was a tiny white poof ball. She ran in front of me, smiled, pee'd, and ran off to play with her sisters. I immedietly knew she was mine.

Mysha brought a lot of joy to our lives. She saw me through the worst times of my lives licking the tears from my face, snuggling close when I needed comfort and making me smile when I thought I had no more smiles left.

She had no interest in playing fetch or learning to sit, but she loved to race! Although she always cheated to insure her win. My favorite story of her is when we moved to the trailor. I couldn't find her one day so I called mom to see if she if she had run back home. Mom said, "I haven't seen her but let me check the front yard. No I don't........oh....whoop...whoop....oh dear!" All of this was followed by a huge crash and hysterical laughing. Once mom finally calmed herself she explained to me that as she opened the front door she saw Mysha racing up the dirt hill & heading straight for the front door. She didn't slow down until she burst through the front door & tried to hit the skids before she slammed into the back door. My baby girl loved to run.

Here are a few of her favorite things.

1. Wrestling with her kitties.

Mysha & Nikita used to play "King of the Mountain" when we stayed in the trailor. Mysha would get on top of the bed (while I was still in it) and run from corner to corner to guard Nikita from getting on the bed. Another common favorite was chasing Nikita up & down the hallways tipping over garbage cans & sliding on rugs.


Mysha & Gidget loved to wrestle too. Up until Mysha's last couple of weeks she would go over to Gidget & nudge her in the belly to start playing with her. I would also find them cuddled up together sleeping.

2. Yard work

Mysha loved nothing more then going out in the spring & doing yard work with me. She would dig holes in the dirt while I pulled weeds & planted flowers.

Her favorite day of the week was Saturday. She especially loved going out with Jake to mow the lawn. It's been hard to not have her out there with us.

3. Bed time

I can't tell you how many pictures I have of Mysha, Nikita & I all in bed together taking naps. Jake can't help himself. Up until a few years ago Mysha's nightly ritual was to jump on the bed and get 20 minutes of scratches and loves before tucking herself down by my feet.

3. Snow

As much as she loved summer days outside, she loved snow more. She loved to bury her nose in fresh powder, toss it in the air, and catch it in her mouth. That & "sun" bathing on top of the snow.

4. Her puppies

She was a great mom. She gave birth to two batches of puppies. Both births nearly cost her life as she had a bad habit of mating with bigger dogs, but she made the cutest puppies and was a very loving mom.

Her Dislikes

1. Dressing up

Oh how she hated dressing up, but I couldn't help myself. She made the cutest witch at Halloween.

2. Baths

She HATED baths. Bath and brushings.

3. Fire works: I don't have a picture, but the first time a fire work went off she literally climbed all the way up my body and tried to sit on my head.

It's been such a hard transition. I miss coming home to her, watching her spin circles to go outside, watching her play with Gidget and roll in the grass. I miss her happy smile. I really miss having my buddy outside to garden with me or lick my nose to say goodnight. But I'm grateful she's out of pain.

We will miss you baby girl.

Rock 'n' Roll Baby Shower

Julie went all out and threw me the rockin baby shower. (Please note the stressed out smile of the host)

It was complete with a "You Rock" diaper cake,

rock 'n' roll decorations

and back stage passes for entry to see the.......

VIP. (Very Impregnated Person)

Seth was feeling the mood of the event and practicing his fist pump.

The shower was co-ed and complete with games for the boys.

The prizes were awesome! Rosie won the inflatable guitar & microphones for collecting the most back stage passes. Any time someone said the word "baby," someone could steal their backstage pass. Rosie scored 8 of them!

Maren won a guitar cheese grater for coming up with the most songs with the word "baby" in it.

Other prizes included a guitar spatchula, microphone tongs, and drumming stirring spoons.

Jake & I also scored some awesome guitar shapes ice cube trays! Which I now must throw a party so I can use them because they are awesome!

My family completely spoiled me with baby gifts!!

Never fear, Baby G was fully supplied with his first rock items from his Aunts & Uncles.

Julie also suprised me with this awesome cd. It is lullabye renditions of Metallica music and it's seriously pretty cool. And as you can see......effective.

Very effective.

Thank you Julie for throwing me such a fun baby shower!! And thank you to all of my family for all of the wonderful gifts!! Love you guys!

Harry Potter Picnic

Jake's company went all out this year and sponsered a Harry Potter Picnic.



Upon arrival we gave our train tickets to the ticket takers & were pointed in the direction of Gringotts bank to get some galleons.


Our galleons purchased us lots of fun activities including dinner and a spending spree down Diagon Alley.


Getting sorted into our prospective houses. Jake was sorted into Slytherin.



Gryffindor. Woot!


Slytherin



Slytherin

Ravenclaw

Little meet & greet with Dumbledore

We were given a Marauder's Map to guide us around the various activities.

The map led us to Moaning Mertle's Water Park where kids could play in blow up swimming pools and bouncy houses, Diagon Alley for shopping, the Quidditch field, the Great Hall, Hagrids Hut. You could even go practice defense against the dark arts in a video game hut in Hogmeade Village.

Of course we picked our wands at Ollivanders Wand Shop.

Which we then followed by a stop at Honey Duke's for some jelly beans. Jake unfortunately ate a rotton egg flavored jelly bean. I lucked out and got peach.

A picture of all of our fun swag. Jake even got a Ravenclaw t-shirt out of it. It's so nice to finally work for a company that knows how to treat their employees. They spent buko bucks on this event.