Erin and Tommy's Wedding

Erin and Tommy were married on August 18, 2012.  So excited to finally have the wedding portraits to share!  It was a wonderful day watching my baby sister agree to spend the rest of her life with the perfect man for her.  We were surrounded by our wonderful family and friends to celebrate this special time.  Sweet baby Gavin was only three weeks old, so it was a crazy time as well.  Definitely a weekend full of amazing memories.  So glad this time was documented with great photographs, so we will always remember.  Ok, well maybe I won't want to remember the pictures of me, but I keep reminding myself I had a baby three weeks before :) I shall use them as motivation!  I will let the pictures tell most of the story for this awesome day.  So proud and happy for you Mr. and Mrs. Reed! 

Erin's side of the family!

I do.  Me too!

Bridesmaids and Groomsmaid

Stunning Bride!!

Possibly my favorite picture of the day.  Wedding magazine?!

Posing like the Bridesmaid movie cover lol.

Let's just say someone in this picutre may or may not have coughed up a bug!

Josey made the catch!

So special.  Nana helping Josey with his flower.  He was thrilled :)

Praying for a blessed marriage.

Love this picture with Erin.  Her nephews love her so much!

Our family of four in the photo booth.  We were exhausted and a mess at this point!

 

 

Thank you to Erin and Tommy for letting us be a part of their special day.  Everything was just perfect.  I know they will share a lifetime of happiness and love together. 

May God bless their marriage!

Halloween 2012

We had a wonderful first Halloween with our two boys!  We watched the movie Gnomeo and Juliette the night we brought Gavin home from the hospital and Josey decided right then that he would be the "bad" red gnome and Gavin needed to be the blue Gnomeo.  I figured he forgot about it and he decided to be a doctor with a scary pumpkin face mask, funny choice I know.  We went to get things for Gavin to be Gnomeo and Josey insisted that he had to be a gnome too if Gavin was going to be, so with a few days to spare I began making two gnome costumes.  I think they turned out alright, although putting the beard on Gavin only lasted a few minutes.  Fuzzy stuff everywhere on him!  We did the Goblin parade downtown like always and it was fun!  Then we stopped off at Grandma's church trunk-or-treat.  Then off to trick-or-treat with cousins.  It was a nice evening and of course we got WAY more candy than anyone could ever eat!  Can't wait until next year when Gavin will be old enough to walk around too :)

Tybalt, the red garden gnome, getting into character.

Learning that it isn't always easy to get two boys to smile for a picture. 

 Gavin cracked me up in this one!

 

Josey and Daddy loved scaring people with the chainsaw :)  Not sure that cousin Taryn loved it!

Definitely a successful Halloween!

Gavin is two months old?!

Gavin had his two month checkup and weighed in at 10 pounds 4 ounces, which is in the 29th percentile.  His height was 20 1/2 inches putting him in the 10th percentile.  I am pretty sure my baby must have been switched or something :)  Josey has always been in the 80th or above for his height.  With my Dad being 6 feet 7 inches tall and Mike and I both being tall, it is kind of funny that one of our kids would ever see the 10th percentile.  I know he will catch up, he is just taking his time :)  He is still fitting into newborn clothes but finally a few 0-3 months.  He is starting to smile and make some cute little noises.  The doctor was actually concerned about his hearing because he is so calm that loud noises don't disturb him.  Everything seems to be ok though, he is just a super laid back boy!  Just like his big brother. 

After getting home from his check-up and shots...but still a happy, smiley boy! 

The boys started daycare/preschool when I went back to work on September 24th.  The first week was hard...on me!  They are adjusting just fine.  Josey is having some wonderful experiences and doesn't seem to mind that he is away from family ALL day for the first time ever.  He is full of stories everyday!  Gavin seems to be well taken care of, so I am getting used to him being a daycare baby.  Nana is hard at work beating breast cancer, so she may be able to watch Gavin after a few months if she feels up to it.  We all miss going to Nana and Pawpaw's everyday.  So thankful for the four years they watched Josey! 

Branson vacation

The weekend of September 15th we decided to take the boys to Branson for a couple of days before I went back to work.  It was cold and rainy all weekend, but we had a great, restful time.  I will let the pictures tell the story :)

We ate at an "ok" restaurant just because it had a huge chicken in front of it.  Josey was super excited!

We had Krispy Kreme for breakfast.  Our first time to take Daddy there with us! 

After dodging the rain at the Branson Landing we had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack.  Josey and Daddy loved the crab legs :)

Josey won lots of tickets playing all sorts of games. 

Absolutely wonderful weekend away with my precious boys.  This picture just makes my heart swell with happiness and love.  What a wonderful little family we have been blessed with. 

Gavin is six weeks old!

Gavin is six weeks old already!  Can't believe it.  He is such a good baby.  He eats about every three hours and is a pretty good sleeper.  The last few days he has wanted to be held more often, but usually he loves his swing and is pretty content wherever he is.  He is becoming so much more alert, it so exciting to interact with him!  Josey loves his brother so much.  He is always helping me with him.  He loves to talk to his baby brother, sing to him, and always tells me when the baby "needs" something.  It is so amazingly sweet to see them together.  My dream for so long has been for Josey to have a sibling, somedays it is unreal that he actually does.  I love both my boys so much!

I had my six week checkup today and everything went well.  We definitely want to keep the option of having more kids, so I won't be having any corrective procedures at this point.  I should be able to carry another baby.  I will just have to go through the same surgery and obstacles as I did with Gavin.  After we are done having kids I will have to have a hysterectomy and corrective surgery done to fix all the damage to my uterus and pelvic muscles.  Although it sounds crazy to even think about enduring another pregancy at this point, I still feel young and don't want to rule it out.  Who knows...maybe we will be blessed again someday :)  Right now we are so happy and excited to have our beautiful little family.  We are soaking up every minute of this phase.  Something about knowing what a miracle Gavin is really helps me to get through the middle of the night feedings, crying spells, and exhausted days.  I probably look ridiculous sitting up at 2am just smiling at my sweet baby, but I just can't help it.  My heart is full of so much joy.  I wish these sweet moments could last forever. 

Gavin Michael Smith

 Finally our family of four!

 Terrible picture of me, but here was how it felt to hold him finally.  Pure joy and relief.

Rockstar is an understatement.  He fought so hard to be with us! 

Our beautiful little blessing is finally here!  Gavin Michael Smith was born on July 25, 2012 at 3:35pm weighing 7lbs. 2oz. and 18 inches long.  Here's the delivery story...I went to my checkup on Tuesday morning, July 24.  I was just feeling kind of "off" that day.  I was so excited to know that I was dilated to a 4 and a half or so.  I thought I may not be progressing at all because I really wasn't having many contractions.  The doctor said if I didn't have him in the next few days we would most likely deliver him the following Monday.  I came home and began having some contractions the rest of the day.  I wan't uncomfortable and the contractions were just hit or miss, no pattern.  The doctor told me to make sure I didn't wait too long to come in because my cervix was very soft and he thought it would happen quick when labor started.  I absolutely hated trying to decide if I should go in or just go to bed.  We sat around and debated going in until about 9:00 pm.  I was cleaning, packing, and organizing things while I tried to decide what to do.  Finally, we decided we may as well go in and get checked.  We took Josey to Laura's house and I was contracting about every 10 minutes.  When we got to the hospital they put me on the monitor and my contractions promptly slowed down to maybe two an hour or so.  I figured they would just send us home, but of course with my history and being dilated to a four already it was a tricky call.  They decided to keep us and just wait until my doctor came on at 7:00am to see what he wanted to do.  They checked me at one point and said I was for sure dilated to 5.  My doctor got in touch around 6am and of course said to admit me.  He came in around 8:15am and I was dilated to a 7.  Still in no pain and only contracting every once in a while.  My family came to be with us and we just hung out all day until the doctor got done with all his surgeries at about 1:45.  It was his surgery day and he didn't want to miss the delivery, so he didn't want to break my water until he could be there.  Love our doctor, so we were totally fine with this!  I was dilated to an 8 and the nurses and doctor kinda laughed about the fact that I was an 8 and in no pain at all and really just kind of bored waiting all day to get things going.  One nurse commented that it was funny that I was contracting every 42 minutes and still dilating on my own.  Just my weird pain tolerance thing and my strange cervix I guess.  So at 1:50pm the doctor broke my water and started me on pitocin to strengthen the contractions.  I went from total boredom and no pain to full on labor in about 15 minutes!!  Wow, it was crazy!  I was contracting about every 3-4 minutes and in serious pain.  The nurse came in to check me and said I was dilated to a 9 but the scar on my cervix was stopping me from being complete.  Something we knew might happen with all the damage and the cerclage procedure.  She said something like ok, maybe 20 or 30 more minutes.  I looked at her like she was crazy, I knew he was ready to come out!  She walked out of the room and the next contraction I needed to push.  They called her back in and thank goodness the doctor came in right behind her eventhough the nurse hadn't paged him yet.  She said he is a mind-reader.  I pushed with the first contraction then it seemed like a full minute I didn't have another contraction.  The doctor didn't even sit down and we were all just kind of looking at eachother.  Another contraction came and on the second push our miracle baby came right out!  I couldn't believe it, less than 5 minutes from ok let's push to he's here!  So after only 1 hour and 45 minutes of actual discomfort I delivered a healthy baby boy!  I am so thankful for such an easy delivery.  Although the contractions were seriously painful, I didn't suffer long at all.  I wanted to have him naturally just like Josey, so I was overjoyed I did it without pain medicine.  The nurse said "oh wow, you did that after having pitocin and no epidural?!"  Pretty sure she thought I was crazy.  I just remember thinking "thank you God for this baby" when he came out.  He screamed for about 10 minutes non-stop.  My mom said he was literally crying before he was all the way out.  The nurse kept calling him "Rowdy" so Daddy has decided that's his permanent knickname!  I spent the next few minutes nursing him and just in disbelief that he was finally here with us.  Our family got to come in and see him before he went to the nursery for a little bit.  He passed all his tests with flying colors.  Words simply cannot describe what it is like to have him with us finally.  A few times during labor I thought of the triplets and how I know they are watching over their little brother.  Laura said Gavin's birthday is special because Johnny was born on July 20th and Jaxsen and Asher on August 5th.  So put them together and July 25th is symbolic.  I like that!  We were busy of course the next few hours and kept debating his name.  Finally at 9:20 we decided that Gavin Michael was perfect.  I was insistent on Michael because who better to be named after than the most amazing man on Earth, his Daddy :)  I don't even know what else to say about our little man.  He is a gift.  He is perfect.  He is ours.  Love him more than words.  Thank you Lord. 

Miserably happy :)

We had our 36 week check-up today.  I have been extremely uncomfortable since the stitches came out last week.  Like unable to walk to the bathroom without wanting to cry kinda pain.  I haven't had many contractions, but thought surely with that discomfort something was progressing.  Everytime the baby moves or stretches out I get a sharp pain in my cervix.  Apparently this is all just from the scar tissue because I am still dilated to a 1!  The doctor put me on the monitor and the baby had a great heartbeat and I showed no contractions at all.  I was shocked when he said I was still a 1 but that's just because all along I thought we wouldn't get this far.  I can't believe I am now anxiously awaiting his arrival instead of praying for him not to come early :)  I feel silly because I thought for sure we might have a baby by this weekend and I was getting really excited.  I go back on Tuesday to have an ultrasound to check baby's growth and to have another check-up.  I think he is probably huge!  If I make it to Tuesday I will be one day further than I was when I delivered Josey at 37 weeks.  I was dilated to a 5 with Josey by 36 weeks, so we never got to the point of waiting impatiently for him to come.  I am thankful to be this far, but definitely excited to meet this precious little guy!!