~Christmas

Christmas this year was a bit different. Usually we spend the holidays with the Connolly's or my family, but because we're so far away, the usual Christmas traditions were left up to Adam and I. Earlier in the month we talked about things we wanted to do to make Christmas special. We ended up not doing everything we talked about, but what we did do, made some great memories.

We have met some wonderful people here in North Pole. Cheryl and Kerry Fuller invited us over on Christmas Eve. They are great friends. We ate pizza and made cookies for Santa. It was such a fun evening. Thanks Fullers!

This couple is Eric and Becky Bruntz. We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas Day with them. As you can see, Eric is hilarious, always being silly and Becky is super sweet and very thoughtful. They have really welcomed us to the ward and made us feel comfortable. Christmas Day Becky made prime rib for dinner and then we played games afterward. They have a great family.
A few pictures from the holiday. Santa came and spoiled the boys rotten, plus they had tons of presents under the tree. You have never seen two boys more excited than Noah and Simon on Christmas morning. It was so fun.

Simon got a drum set from Santa. Just the right size and exactly what he wanted. Everyone in the family has tried it out. Playing the drums is kind of fun.

Christmas Eve we went to see Santa at his house. He was so nice and took a few minutes out of his busy day to chat with the boys. After telling Santa what we wanted for Christmas, we let the boys pick out an ornament for their tree. Simon picked a camouflage boot. Noah liked a train ornament and Jett got a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament.

I did miss my family and friends, but I wouldn't have changed a thing! This was a great Christmas.

~2009 Christmas Pictures

My scanner is terrible, sorry, but I wanted to share. Other than Jett looking kind of funny in our family picture, most of them turned out pretty good. My boys are so cute...all of them. Doesn't Adam look built? Alaska life suits him.

~Ouch, Cool Hat, 2 month checkup and Weather

This is Noah's chin after he fell down the stairs at the beginning of the month. Even though it's been a few weeks, you can still see the pink skin where his ouchie has healed. Noah has also been blessed with the "Lee" nostrils. He is so lucky!
Papa and Granny mailed us a package that had lots of fun winter stuff in it. Simon is modeling his favorites from the box. Papa gave each of the boys a hat. They are all red and white. Thanks Papa! (by-the-way, Papa is recovering from his accident...thank heavens)

Jett had his 2 month check up. At the beginning of the month he weighed 11 pounds, 8 ounces and measured 22 inches long. His breathing is totally normal and the dr. said he's a very healthy boy. That's what we like to hear. Keep on growin' Jett!!

Adam has been working hard on the house still trying to get it ready for the cold weather...even though the cold weather is already here. Today has been the coldest, topping out at 37 degrees below zero. It did warm up to around 29 below by the end of the day.

We have also realized that washing machines are sensetive to the cold. We have now gone through 2 washers only to find that once they thaw out, they work just fine. Adam has a solution though and he'll be working on that tomorrow.

I'm pretty obsessed with the weather since this Arizona girl has never lived anywhere this cold. The amount of daylight is decreasing also. Today the sun came up at 9:42 a.m. and sunset was at 3:27 p.m. The length of daylight is 5 hours and 44 minutes. We are losing 6 minutes and 10 seconds of daylight a day.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

~Tears and Prayers

This is my Papa and Granny. Last week my Papa was in a terrible accident. On his morning walk, he tripped and got ran over by a small truck. He had multiple broken ribs, open skull fracture, multiple cracked vertebrae, internal bleeding and a collapsed lung... he was in pretty bad shape.

He was flown from Eagar to St. Jo's hospital in Phoenix. After surgery to clear a blocked artery, a tube inserted into his lung, a back brace and lots of medication, he is starting to heal. He is such a great example of strength and endurance. He's not giving up yet!

So many prayers have been offered for his man, but I know that none of them have had the power and strength than that of my Grannys prayers. She loves her life-long mate. I have never known them to be apart, always standing side by side, holding hands.

I was privileged to grow-up just blocks away from these two special people. So many wonderful life lessons were learned from them. I miss them tremendously and pray for them both.

~Spot, the little Lion and the Baby

Noah the Lion

Simon-Spot the Dog

Jett the Baby

see Spot frown, hear Lion roar
Aren't they cute little animals?

It was pretty cold on Halloween, so we ditched the idea of trick-or-treating and went to the school carnival. The boys played lots of games, ate tasty cupcakes and got some yummy candy.

~ThE boYs loVe tHe SnOw

Sledding is hard work!

Noah trying to be helpful...Simon not liking it!
Silly faces on the old couch
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"Faster mom!"

Isn't this a cute picture!?!

~Jett

Almost two months old and doing great!

~Sim Sim

Lately we've been getting a kick out of

Simon and his words.

All of his "f" sounds come out as "sh" sounds.

He says things like:

• Shench Shies - French Fries
• Shone - Phone
• Shiretruck - Firetruck
• Shootball - Football
• "Daddy hurt my sheelings" - translation - "Daddy hurt my feelings"
• "I want shoggy cereal" - translation - "I want froggy cereal (Honey Smacks)"
• "I want some shood" - translation - "I want some food"
• "I can't shind my journal" - translation - "I can't find my journal"
• "mommy, that was shun" - translation - "mommy, that was fun"
• Adam's Favorite "my shoe "sh"its - translation - "my shoe fits"

so shunny!!

~Noah had a good day

Noah learned how to ride a bike without training wheels.

Thanks Dad!!

GO NOAH!

After trying taekwon do, we decided that it wasn't the best fit for Noah. Gymnastics was next on our list. Noah started a KinderGym class today. He did great.

Good instructors with lots of praise. Perfect for Noah.

Look at that form...he's a natural

~things that make us smile!

U2 or Grandma Slade?

Last night Adam and I were chatting and I mentioned that U2 is going to be in concert in Phoenix at the end of the month.

Noah had been listening to our conversation and was asking about "the concert". I explained to him that it's a place where you go to hear people play music and sing songs. He replied with, "So we're going to Phoenix to see Grandma Slade?"

Noah kind of missed the "U2" part, but Adam and I had a good laugh. Yes, Grandma Slade does play music and sing songs.

I think we should get Grandma Slade and U2 together for one big show. I bet Grandma could teach them a thing or two!

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For Family Home Evening on Monday night we talked about Ammon and King Lamoni. We read from the Book of Mormon about how the bad Lamanites kept scattering the sheep of the king. Then about when Ammon cut off the arms of the wicked Lamanites
when they tried to kill him.

For our activity we made swords out of cardboard and tinfoil. Adam was a bad Lamanite with his club and Noah and Simon took turns being Ammon. They had a great time trying to cut off dad's arms!

~Happy Birthday Noah and Simon

September is birthday month at our house!

Jett (Sept 1st), Noah (Sept 21st) Simon (Sept 25th)

Let's Party!

~I love being from a small town...

This morning I called The Flower Box in Eagar and Gladys Pena answered. This is how the conversation went...

Me: Hi Gladys. This is Michelle, Tina Slade's daughter. I want to order some flowers for my Granny. It was her birthday yesterday.

G: Ok great. What do you want and how much do you want to spend?

Me: Something nice and about $20

G: What do you want on the card and how do you want to pay?

Me: I want the card to say, "Happy Birthday! Love, Michelle" and my card number is...

G: Ok, we'll get that to her this afternoon. Thanks Michelle

Me: Great! Thanks Gladys

I love being from a small town. Where else can you call the local flower shop and say you want flowers for your Granny...you don't have to give them her real name, number or address, they just say, "ok, we'll get that to her this afternoon."

Awesome!

~Jett's Blessing Day

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect baby today as Adam blessed Jett. I was reminded of when Noah and Simon were blessed. Their blessings were so different. I remember at Noah's blessing, looking at the circle of men that surrounded him, and I felt the strength of the priesthood. It was the same for Simon. Eleven men stood around him as they gave him a name and a blessing.

Since we've moved up to Alaska, we have tried to make our lives more simple. We've tried to get back to the basics of what is important. We've learned to rely on each other. As Adam took Jett into his arms and walked to the front of the chapel, I looked at Noah and Simon sitting next to me and again I felt so much love. There were no distractions today. No need to impress. No expections. Only Adam's parents were there. I felt love for my little family. Love for Adam and gratefulness that we were married in the temple. Love for the Lord and his marvelous plan...that we can have an eternal family and that the priesthood is the same whether there are eleven men to help bless our baby or two.

Grandpa and Grandma Connolly

They worked so hard on the house and gave lots of love

to Noah and Simon.

I heard from my mom and my siblings today, (well all except one) and I could feel their love and support. I know they all would have been here if it were possible.

~This and That...

This is just a fun picture I took of Adam and the boys.

Because it was stake conference today and there is a breakout of the Swine Flu, we decided to ditch church and have a family day. We packed up lunch and headed out to Delta Junction to see the beautiful trees and their fall colors. I didn't really get a picture of the trees, but we sort of got a family picture when we stopped at Birch Lake to eat lunch. (Yes, I'm still fat, but I'm hoping that will go away soon :)

Simon checking out the lake.

As for Jett...honestly he's doing just fine. The only problem he has is baby acne! Occasionally I still count his breathing and take his temperature just to be sure. A few days ago at his last appointment, his breathing was great and he was back to his birth weight.

Life is good!

~A week ago yesterday

So I thought I'd tell the story of little Jett's arrival.
**WARNING** This is kind of long!

Around 2:30 a.m. last Tuesday morning I started to have strong contractions. The previous day, Monday, I had contractions, but they weren't consistent and honestly, I didn't think anything of them. Anyway, back to Tuesday. I timed the contractions for 4 hours and they were anywhere from 6-12 minutes apart. I woke Adam up about 6 a.m. to help me do some cleaning. I really wanted some advice on whether I should go to the hospital to get checked but Adam didn't know what to do either. This was a whole new thing for us. I've never gone into labor on my own and with two previous c-sections I wasn't sure about the whole thing. So...I called my mom. In the meantime Adam went to work. My mom and I decided that maybe I should wait another hour to see if they might get closer together. After waiting the hour, it kind of seemed like they were slowing down so I decided to go to Wal-Mart to get a new book that was just released. I was mostly trying to keep my mind busy. At Wal-Mart I started having contractions again and they were closer together and a lot stronger. I loaded the boys into the car and headed to the hospital.

I decided not to call Adam at this point because I thought they might send me home and I didn't want him to have to leave work. We got to the hospital room and I got the boys settled watching some cartoons in the room. The nurse had got them some apple juice and crackers. They were happy campers, and I might add, being little angels!!

At this point I got hooked up to the monitors and the nurse checked me. I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes lasting anywhere from 45-60 seconds. Yes, I was in labor but only dilated to a 3. The nurse called my dr. and he agreed that I needed to have the c-section soon. We couldn't wait til Friday. After some other phone calls, we found out that the anesthesiologist couldn't get to me for a few hours (apparently Fairbanks has only 1 anesthesiologist). That meant that I would have to endure the pain for about 3 hours. I called Adam and gave him the update. Within 20 minutes he was at the hospital. I was so happy to see him.

The next challenge was that my mom wasn't arriving until the next day, Wednesday, so that meant we had no one to watch the boys. I tried to call a few people from the ward, but no one was answering their phones. Adam and I decided that he would stay with the boys in my hospital room while I was in surgery and then we'd all meet back together after everything was over. I felt very calm at this point and had the feeling that everything would workout. One last attempt to get someone to watch the boys and Sister Clifford answered and gladly said she would keep the boys. Thank you Sister Clifford!!!

Adam went to drop off the boys and I was left with the nurse to work through my contractions. At one point I couldn't sit in the bed any longer. I unhooked myself from the monitors and started to walk around the room. During one really strong contraction I felt the need to squat and push. As I went to squat the nurse walked in and saw me and realized that things were progressing. I had to get back into bed and concentrate on staying calm. That was hard...kudos to all you people who do that without pain medication.

Adam cut it close, making it back to the hospital 15 minutes before my surgery. Everything went well during the surgery. The cord was wrapped around Jett's neck and he had a cone head from being in the birth canal, but other than that...things were pretty good.

A day after Jett was born, we found that his respiratory count was too high. The dr.'s were concerned so we had to stay in the hospital longer than expected. After tests and lots of monitoring they let us go home with strick instructions to track Jett's breathing and temperature. We're still seeing the dr. every few days. If he's not better a month from his birth, then they will start extensive testing on his heart. I feel like he just needs some time to adjust. It might seem like a small thing that he's just breathing too fast, but as a mother, you want to have a perfect healthy baby and to me it's not small. I'm so thankful for the many prayers and fasting that have been on behalf of our little babe.

We love Jett!!

He's here!!

Originally I was scheduled to have a c-section on Friday, but this little guy decided that he didn't want to wait that long. Yesterday at 2:30 p.m. baby boy number 3 arrived weighing 7 pounds and 12 ounces, 21 inches long. We haven't decided on a name yet, but he's cute as can be!

~Rain + Simon = FUN!!

It rained all day yesterday and through the night. It's starting to get really cold, but Simon doesn't care.

I caught him jumping in the puddles and

laughing to himself. It was adorable.

At least he put his rain boots on...

I had to add this picture of Cooper

because it's just so...Cooper.

He was just sitting there looking at me.

~State Fair and the HUGE Goose Egg

We went to the state fair a couple of weeks ago. It was much smaller than the Arizona State Fair, but it was just right for the boys. We all know how Noah is and we thought he might have a hard time with the rides, but he was a dare devil! This was the first ride he wanted to go on. He barely met the height requirements.

Of course, I couldn't go on any of the rides and Adam wanted to take Simon to play some games so Noah rode this alone. The big shocker was that he actually wanted to ride by himself. I was a bit nervous, but he had so much fun.

Simon's prize stuffed animals, a whale and a dolphin. He even won something for his brother. How sweet!



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So this didn't happen at the state fair, but I thought it was worthy to be blogged about. Look at this GOOSE EGG! Sim was messing around on the bed and hit his head (I think on the foot board). I actually didn't see it happen, but he was a tough little guy and only cried for a second. I think he could have won a prize at the state fair for this one though. Seriously, it was HUGE!