Alex is One Week Old

Here's some cute pictures of our new little guy at One week old.

Big Brothers

Alex entertained Ben and Erik with his hiccups the other night! You can see by the way they look at him that they think he is the most wonderful thing in the world. We'll see how long that lasts!

June 21, 2008...Alex is here!

The First Day of Summer was very exciting for us! Ben, being very interested meteorology lately, was already looking forward to this day for weeks and weeks. Who knew it would also be the day that Alex would finally join our family!

I woke up at 3:30am feeling some contractions. I walked/sat/laid around the house trying to decide if they were the real thing or not until about 7am when I decided they were definitely not going away. I called my mom at 7:15 to ask them to make the 40 minute trip from Tremonton to pick up the kids. "Don't need to hurry too much," I said. Within ten minutes of talking to her, I changed my mind and we went to Plan B...taking the kids over to Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Russ who live just one block away to wait for Grandma and Grandpa. The contractions were intensifying very quickly and (with flashbacks of Erik nearly being born in the car) I decided we had better not wait any longer!

We arrived at the hospital just before 8am. I had enough time to get a very nice epidural and Alex William Petersen was born just half an hour after that at 9:37. Perfect timing in my opinion! He was 7 lbs and 19 1/2 inches long.

After months and months of anticipation, Ben and Erik are so excited to finally meet Alex. Erik, who can sometimes be shy in new situations, has surprised us with how eager he is to hold him while also being very gentle and protective at the same time. Ben can't wait until Alex is a tiny bit older and can appreciate how good Ben is at playing peek-a-boo. In the mean time, he is a great mommy's helper and loves to help keep track of Alex's feeding and diaper changes on a chart. What a scientist!

Here's some pictures...

We're Employed!!

We are so excited to announce that after 8 or so long years of school, Shaun has officially accepted a full-time job as a Physician Assistant with Dr Terry Finlayson at Alpine Orthopaedic Specialists in North Logan, Utah!

We are waiting for the results of his NCCPA exam, his state license and a bunch of hospital credentialing, so it will still be a while before he actually starts in the new job, but we are super excited anyway!

Photos from our move to Utah...

OK, so there's no baby yet (which is a good thing) so I'm getting caught up on my blogging. I've discovered the magic of Picasa web albums (which work with my Mac's iPhoto quite seamlessly, I might add). I know the rest of you probably had this years ago, but I'm excited with my new thing.

Anyway, here's some photos from the move. As mentioned in another post, it was hectic. (Is moving ever not hectic?) But, surprisingly the drive through Wyoming wasn't too bad. We went all the way to Rock Springs before stopping for the night. I was expecting to be very uncomfortable, but thanks to the magic of comfy stretchy pants, it wasn't too bad! Shaun drove the moving truck with Erik and Ben taking turns as co-pilot. Grandpa Steve and Grandpa Mike drove the Prizm, and me and my mom drove the Minivan with Grandma Linda. The kids watched movies when not in the moving van...Garfield cartoons and Charlie and Lola...over and over again!

Super Big THANK YOU to Grandma Joy, Grandpa Steve, Grandpa Mike and Grandma Linda for all their help and hard work to get us moved. We couldn't have done it without all of you!

Erik's Preschool Graduation

May 20th was Erik's preschool graduation. I just have to share these photos because they make us smile. Erik went to preschool at the Beck Recreation Center in Aurora. His teachers were Miss Shila and Miss Stacey. They did a great job and he really liked preschool (sometimes even trying new foods at snack time!)

For their little graduation celebration, the teachers planned a presentation where the kids sang songs with lots of actions. It was a 50s Ice Cream Shop theme, and so all the boys wore white t-shirts with jeans and the girls wore dresses. The teachers were wearing poodle skirts.

Anyway, Erik is not one for lots of singing and dancing. Most of the other kids were into it, but this picture pretty much sums up what Erik thought of the program:

Yes, he seemed bewildered yet simultaneously bored by it all. He was really looking forward to the ice cream and cake that were to follow, so he was probably wondering how much more of this insanity he would have to sit through in order to get his "plain vanilla" ice cream. Honestly, have we not all felt like this at times?

Lara's Going Away Party

I'm catching up on our posts here... Some friends were so sweet to throw me a little going away get-together in May about a week before we moved. We met at Mimi's Cafe and had a great time talking and eating! Thanks for coming everybody and thanks for the gifts for me and baby! I honestly miss seeing you guys already!

Shaun's Graduation

Shaun graduated from the University of Colorado Denver CHA/PA program on May 22, 2008. We are so glad to finally be done with school! It was great to have Shaun's parents and my parents fly out to celebrate with us. The weather was great...not too hot, not too windy, and it didn't actually rain on us (just a minor sprinkle).

Way to go Shaun! We are so proud of you! Its been a very long road and we're so glad you stuck with it!

Our First Trip to Labor and Delivery

Saturday morning I woke up feeling a bit "off." Then I noticed I was having some contractions, and after a while I figured it was definitely more than 4 an hour (a magic number for preterm labor) and getting a bit painful. Luckily my mom and dad were already on their way over to Logan, so when they arrived they were able to stay with Ben and Erik while Shaun took me to the hospital to see what was going on. It was actually validating to see the contractions on the monitor...I thought at first it was just in my head since I just turned 35 weeks on Saturday and Erik was born quite suddenly at 35 weeks and a few days. But they were real and at first they weren't going away. They were coming every 3 minutes for a while, but finally after a few doses of Procardia they stopped, and they sent me on my way 6 hours later.

Baby's heartbeat was strong the whole time, so now we wait...