Clara's new born pictures

One of the advantages of having a photography hobby is you can and should have lots of pictures of your kids. That is until they get older and then they run or make crazy pictures smiles for you... The Sunday after Clara was born was the Primary program at church. I had to go, it was Riley's last one EVER! How on Earth did he get so old? So I went to Sacrament meeting and then my parents took me and Clara home. I knew I had to take advantage of the time and do her newborn pictures. If I didn't it would happen.

I was so happy with how they turned out!

Our little Clara Rose

Poor sad blog! It's been a LONG LONG time! What a year we had: moved into our first home, started a new job, got into a car accident that resulted in having to get a new van. The biggest event however was the addition of our little Clara Rose to our family!

I am not sure there has ever been a little boy more excited to become a big brother than Eprham! He would sing/talk/kiss to my baby belly all the time. He has been so sweet about helping me with his new sister. It's been amazing!

In August, we had an amazing photo session with one of my favorite photographers Amy Rhodes! I wanted to capture the last time I was doing this pregnancy thing! The results are amazing!

Clara was born on September 16 at 5:59AM. I had a doctor's appointment the day before. Dr. Kelly checked me to see if I was dilated further. I was. She said I was close to 5 cm! Then she asked if I was set on having the baby the following Monday (this was Thursday and I was scheduled to be induced on Monday) and if I was planning on having an epidural.  I told her I was really hoping to have one and no over the weekend would be much better for our family. She called over to the hospital and they had an opening for 4 AM the next morning. As I was leaving she caught me and said that there was an opening for midnight! She advice me to take the midnight one. That way I would have my nurse from the beginning of her shift and things are allot quieter at midnight!

So, I left the appointment with Ephram and got on the phone. Mom was going to have the older three kids. They would spend the night at her house and she would take them to school and pick them up from school. Allen's dad and mom would take Ephram to their house. Allen's dad ended up picking up Allen too. The new to us van had been having trouble (ugh) and when Allen went to start it to head home... it wouldn't start! UGH!!! We went 3 weeks without having two cars!

A little before midnight we arrived at the hospital. We were early and had to wait in the waiting room. This was fine by me. I was so nervous and calm all at the same time. It's never been so peaceful before. I told my nurse about my fear that the epidural would only work on one side like it did with Ephram. She assured me that the anesthesiologist that was coming was the best, and he was! He placed the epidural with no fuss and it worked great! Both sides were good and numb and it worked the whole time. The only hiccup I had was as soon as the meds started working my blood pressure dropped. My ears started ringing and I felt funny. The room was closing in. My nurse put an oxygen mask on me and things got better.

My sweet nurse came and checked on me every hour. She would help me to roll to the other side and bring me ice and water. At about 5:30 she asked how I was feeling. I told her I was feeling allot of pressure. She got the doctor of call and an intern. The intern was assisting. The nursery nurse came in too. They got me all set up and two pushes latter here was Clara. She swallowed some gunk on the way out. They handed her to me, but she was having a little trouble so the nurse took her and got her cleaned up and breathing. She had a lot of stuff in her throat. Then they handed her back to me.

Little girl still didn't have a name.... We just couldn't come up with one we liked.  Honestly, Beka had been campaigning for the name Clara for months. She would draw family pictures with everyone's name on it including the new baby. They were taped all over the house!

I finally told Allen that I thought we knew that the baby's name was going to be Clara we just didn't want to admit that the 6 year old had picked the name. Just before we checked out of the hospital we finally settled on the name of Clara Rose Leavitt.

Clara's big brothers and sisters came and brought their grandparents to meet her for the first time!

 Clara is the sweetest baby! What a welcome addition to our family!

Baby Brother's Wedding

After leaving Baja, we drove to Temeculafor Soren and Heather's wedding. After two weeks of being in Mexico we were happy to have some good old fashion American fast food. We stopped at In and Out for lunch. .

Mom and I had arranged to rent a house for the weekend. It worked out GREAT! The house was amazing. We really enjoyed how relaxed it was to have a place just to ourselves... Of course ourselves was quite the group! There was my family, Demya and her family, my parents, grandparents and my uncle Terry. It was so much fun to sit around a chat!

Of course, there must be a good story. Every wedding/family gathering has one. After the we got into town and after the rehearsal I went shopping with Mom, Dad, and Grandpa. We were feeding a bunch of people and nonacholic drinks were needed for the wedding. So off to Costco we go. Costco was increadilby busy. So we desided to split up. Grandpa and I went to order the pizzas, Mom and Dad to get the groceries. Grandpa and I ordered the pizzas. We were told that it would be about 45 minutes... For COSTCO PIZZA. But I figured we had shopping to do, so no big deal. 

About 45 minutes later we go to pick it up... We walk up to the pick counter and are told we need to stand in line. A line that is at least 10 people deep. I asked them what was going on. That I had ordered and paid for the pizzas almost an hour before. (Again for the record this is COSTCO pizza, not some gourmet place) The girl said I needed to stand in line and wait my turn. By this time, Mom come. She could not believe what was going on. The line was now at least 20 people deep, plus another line of people wanting to order! She went in and talked to the manager. This was obviously a problem. Mom explained to the manager that we were from out of town, had several people coming from all over the country today. We were there for a wedding and we had people that we needed to feed. To wait for pizza for 45 minutes is bad, but to be told that it was going to be another 30 minutes was not OK. The manager agreed. She picked up the phone and took care of it. We had our pizzas within 10 minutes! Oh this whole shopping trip was crazy. (20 minutes to get gas) By the way, during all of this, my phone was just about dead! We couldn't even communicate with our phones!

All end well, we got the pizzas for free. Which is pretty funny too. Mom came back for talking with the manager and told Grandpa she needed him. The go to customer service and the manager takes Grandpa's card. She tells him she putting money back on his card to which he said "I've been waiting a long time for that" 

The next day was wedding day! We woke up to an amazing sigh

 

 

My crazy nature girl Beka. She was amazed by the "strange pine cones"

My favorite part was sitting around the little fire! It was amazing!

Finally, it was time to get ready. We got Riley ready first so he could leave with Mom and Dad. He looked AMAZING! I was so proud of him. 

 

We were so blessed, Ephram fell asleep on the way down to the wedding and he slept through the whole ceremony!

It was a fun wedding. Hats off to Heather and Soren for planing such a fun night for us all!

I didn't take too many pictures, I let the people who where being paid do the job. They did great! But I have a few I would like to share!

 

The next morning we had to leave! Vacation was over! But the kids still enjoyed exploring the beautiful place! Emma and Lyla were buddies the whole week. The were just so cute together!

 Emma wanted this pictures of the Christmas cactus outside our door! It was so beautiful and huge!!

Final picture of this post. The evening after we got home, we had dinner at Mom and Dad's. Dad had made a fire pit and we all sat around chatting. It was amazing!  I love family!