Pioneer Day

We started our Pioneer day off with our Stake's breakfast celebration. It was good food and nice to not have to cook :) Then we played on the playground next to the breakfast and came home for some respite from the outside world and for me to feed Connor. Then we headed Pioneer park for their Pioneer day festivities. This year we waited in the INCREDIBLY long line for a turn to sit on an old school fire truck! 

Hunter was determined to be a fire dog in all of the pictures

right before we got to the real fir truck they had this small fire truck for the kids to sit in.

The engine had a loud bell and siren

After the fire truck we waited in the other INCREDIBLY long line for the pony rides. Thankfully, Bryant's parents were with us and they pushed Connor around in his stroller and brought us some lunch while we were waiting for our turn. 

Gunnar had to watch Tucker, Hunter, and Brylee have their turns before he was willing to get on one of the ponies. He has recently fallen in love with horses (from a distance). We have a neighbor next to us with a horse in his backyard that Gunnar loves to watch. We used to have a neighbor across the street that had two horses and he loved to stand by the fence when they were close and watch them too. But just like his love of dogs, being close to the real thing scares him. Thankfully he got over the concern enough to ride on the pony. He didn't last for his entire turn, the pony rather did scare him when it breathed out heavily but he was very proud of himself for riding the pony. After the pony rides we went to a table to make a craft and the person manning the booth asked the kids if they were having fun and Gunnar was quick to tell her that he rode a horsie!

As we were leaving Hunter decided to have a picture taken with this NOT storm trooper but bike rider (or something, I don't know the real name)

Next year we have plans to wait in the INCREDIBLY long line to saw a wood circle off of a log with a double handle saw and have it engraved. It is something Hunter thought looked cool last year and really wanted to do this year so we will have to do it next year, and maybe Pioneer day will fall on a day Bryant doesn't have work so that we can make that happen :)

July 4th

I thought it would be fun to go out and do the crafts and walk around the city center on July 4th. Bryant wasn't so sure it was such a great idea, but because he loves me agreed to go along with it. We didn't tell the kids what we were up to. Each of them really just wanted to go play at the park. Well as we were heading down the road we noticed that cars were parked almost in our neighborhood for the parade that went by the city center and as we traveled closer we realized that there were no close parking areas and with the sun warming things up it was just going to be hot so we turned around grabbed some picnic lunch food and went to Hobble Creek in Springville for a picnic, some park fun, and ultimately creek fun! It was a much better way to spend the fourth as a family and the kids all had lots of fun!

They had lots of fun throwing rocks in the creek.

I didn't get the best video but Gunnar would exclaim "Big Rock" with almost every rock he picked up.

Even Bryant had fun showing off his manly skills and threw some rocks. 

As we were leaving Bryant caught this grasshopper for the kids to see :)

We finished the 4th off by hanging out with my Grandmother that lives in Provo. We enjoyed the Stadium of Fire Fireworks show from her front yard. As we were packing up and heading to the van, I gave the kids the direction to head over to Dad and get your shoes on, then go get in the van. Well Brylee put her shoes on and then proceeded to follow someone she thought was Dad up the street. Well Bryant had not moved, as he was getting Connor in his carseat and I was packing up the camping chairs. When I showed up at the van, everyone was there except Brylee. After a check through my grandma's house and backyard, Bryant went down the street towards the stadium (because our car was that direction) and I went up the street. I found her crying in a woman's arms that was on the phone with the police reporting a lost child. Brylee was super distraught. She had followed the man up the street at least 15 cars before he got into a car and drove away. Thankfully, the woman that found her was in her house and heard her crying and came to see what was happening. Needless to say, we were all thankful that she was safe and that we had started packing up before the grand finale firework display so that there were not so many people heading to their cars making it impossible to have found her!

Baby Connor

To help avoid having a 4th of July baby I decided to be induced. I was originally planning on going to the hospital on the morning of the 1st but at my appointment on June 30th my doctor stated he preferred to start the induction at night. Well I had lots to accomplish before the evening as a result, including the finishing of Gunnar's birthday blanket (because I knew I would not work on it after Connor was born)

Here is the final baby bump picture :) and maybe the only intentional one the whole pregnancy.

This was by far my easiest labor and delivery. It was only 4 hours of labor from the time I was hooked up to the time of birth! I did have to push a little more as the cord was wrapped around Connor's neck three times and under his arm. It took him a few seconds to start breathing (approx. 30 seconds), which was stressful for me of course. It was a great relief to hear him cry! He arrived at 1:47 am and I was certainly exhausted by the time I got to my new room and to sleep by 5:00 am

Here he is after a little cleaning

and on the scale which ultimately balanced at 8 lbs 8 oz and he was 21 inches long.

Here is Bryant with the new little one :)

Here he is in the nursery awaiting his full bath. This is the first time I have ever been taken to the nursery. My nurse brought me down stairs in a wheel chair holding Connor and I got to deliver him to the nursery before heading to my room. It was a nice change.

Here he is flexing his strong muscles :)

I love this picture of him. He is so serene, which really matches his personality thus far. 

We got a surprise visit from my father! He was on his way home to Arizona from Idaho and stopped at our house, which was empty of course :) Due to his traveling around he didn't get the memo that we were in the hospital so after a phone call he came over and got to be the first person to meet Connor, which is pretty cool since he is not likely to see him until we come down in October :) It makes me smile to watch my dad holding an infant

That afternoon, all the kids came to meet their littlest brother! Tucker had lots of fun holding him and talking to him.

Brylee's maternal instincts kicked in and she didn't want to give Connor up!

Hunter really likes to rub Connor's feet. He thinks it is cool that Connor calms down with a nice foot rub :)

Gunnar's response to seeing Connor was "Baby, Mine!" Thankfully, no jealousy and just automatic instinct to claim his brother as his and love him to pieces

And of course everyone wanted a second turn to hold him!

Brylee and Gunnar decided this rocking chair made the perfect horse

Here he is all ready to go home :)

All of the kids have been great about washing their hands with soap before touching or holding the baby. We'll see how long it takes for Connor to get "sick" ;)

Here he is on his first day outside. Every time we do something, everyone exclaims that it is Connor's first time doing such and such. It is really cute.

Brylee learned how to scale the clothesline this day too. I really wish I had a place to store the clothesline so my kids would stop sitting on top of it.

Here is Brylee being a great big sister. I was working on dinner and Connor was not happy about being on the floor any longer so Brylee found his pacifier and started rubbing his cheek and telling him everything was okay. It was super helpful!

Gunnar has learned Connor's name and now says "My Connor!"

We were graced with the presence of my Mother, brother Jared, sister Natalie, and two of her friends from July 6 to July 12. Natalie and her two friends were attending a stay-at-home EFY in Orem so I only saw them for a few minutes in the morning and night. Jared was great at playing with my children. He learned he doesn't have a limitless supply of energy unlike my kids and I had to teach him that it was okay to tell them that he needed a break. Going from a life of solitude and quiet to a visit with my rambunctious children can be quite the shock to the system :) They all have fond memories of getting ice cream from the ice cream truck and wish that Uncle Jared and Grandma Wendy were here to buy them ice cream again whenever the truck pulls into the circle. (I don't know why the ice cream truck thinks that 8 pm is a good time to drive around but it gives me the ability to tell my kids that they are already ready for bed). Tucker is also constantly talking about MarioKart 7 that Uncle Jared had on his Nintendo 3DS. It was great to have family here with a couple of extra hands. 

And it turns out that Connor was really good at helping fold all the laundry after the guests left :)