~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!