NOT RECOMMENDED...

How to take off the 'baby weight'....and FAST!!

Just Follow this simple, step-by-step plan

NOTE: Its important to start this within the first 7 days of giving birth to your 3rd child

Have your 2 toddlers get sick.

Get sick yourself.
Have your throat swell up so much you can't really eat.
End up in the ER (due to lack of urgent care centers, or any other doctor open on Saturday)-
Get a shot in the hip and some intensive antibiotics.

Keep this regime up and in a few short days you'll be amazed at the numbers dropping from the scale!

NOTE: In order to not wither away and perish, be sure you are living in an area with extremely generous and loving people who provide the most delectible dinners for post-baby-delivering. You can really 'stock' up on the good food/desserts/calories in the days prior to beginning this exclusive diet.




Editors Note: Funny how this happens when I really and truly don't care about rushing back to 'pre-baby' size. When I was totally content to take it easy and my body have a rest. Oh well.

My Boy is Three!!

My sweet, sweet Bubbies turned three. Not really sure how I feel about this.


He was born on Christmas Day, so celebrating his birthday has been quite the trick. We still aren't sure how to go about it (and will happily take ANY suggestions), but we're doing our best to help our little guy feel special.

This year we decided to join with Nate, Molly, Cannon, and Noah (and Evie) for a 'So Special Lightening McQueen Birthday Party With Cannon and Nate and Molly and Baby Newah and Uncle Evan and Mommy and Daddy and Baby Channing' (so named by Christian himself. And yes, he used the entire title nearly every time we referred to said birthday party).

At his request, I made a 'Red Lightening McQueen Birthday Party Cake That's Red Like Lightening McQueen' (he's into big titles.. :) )


He was pretty dang excited to see the finished product the next morning. I was pretty proud of it myself. (and no cake molds were used. :) ) Makes me excited to have a kid old enough to appreciate and actually get excited about birthday stuff.

We drove up to Provo on Sat. (mid December) and started the birthday festivities by playing cars in cannon's basement and running around without pants, (okay, that was just the little kids) dancing to loud music, and making candy houses. Later we went to Pirate Island Pizza (a better-tasting, cooler atmosphere, pirate-themed version of Chuckie Cheese) with N&M & fam and Ev.


We topped off the night with the Lightening McQueen cake and some presents from Cannon.


We really tried to emphasize to Christian that this was for his birthday, it was a special birthday party just for him, etc. I think he got it. (Here's some more cake pictures just for fun.) :)

(He still talks about this cake. Just tonight he requested a Chick cake and a King cake for a partybration. (celebration AND a party..) He even suggested we could 'borrow' them.

Love it. :)

Curly Sue Summerhays is ONE WEEK OLD!!!

so, this is standard mom-talk, but...

I cant belive our angel is one week! Thursday afternoon i watched the clock, thinking: 'it was one week ago right now that i was calling the grocery store trying to get P to come home...'

'it was one week ago right now they were hooking me up in the bed..'

'it was one week ago right now...'

and of course bawling the whole time.

I simply cant believe how very, very blessed we are. Two of the sweetest boys are now two of the best big brothers to one of the most perfect little girls. A little girl who so many times we didn't know if she would make it here okay. But she did. And she is perfect. I find myself so often in awe of our blessings. Our beautiful home. My wonderful husband who is such an awesome daddy. My sweet boys who giggle and run around non-stop, and are best friends. My perfect new baby girl.

Well, im not quite up for the emotions that would present themselves were I to continue on in this manner- so...I shall cease for now, and with further ado, Present:

One week Summerhays Curly McSue

SHE'S HERE!!!

Anna Marie Summerhays

Born: January 14, 2010, 8:14 pm
Height: 19.5"
Weight: 7 lbs. 6 oz.

Well, it has been an eventful week for us as you can see. Tawna began having contractions in the middle of the night on Wednesday. They were not frequent or regular, but they were strong enough to keep her awake. At about 4 o'clock am, she decided enough was enough, it was time to pack the bags. Meanwhile, I rolled over and tried to get some more sleep so I would be fresh for the 2 minute drive to the hospital. :) By 6 am, the contractions came to a halt and only 2 or 3 more came during the day.

At 3 pm the engine revved back up and contractions were coming harder and faster, but not too bad yet. I was on the way home and stopped off at the market to hit up the breakfast sale. Thanks to my notoriously poor cell phone reception, Tawna became very nervous when things were progressing and she couldn't contact me at the store. She called the store to have them page me so I could hurry home, but I was already gone by the time the message came. We packed the car as soon as I got home and dropped the kids off with our friends in the ward the Hatch family (THANK YOU AGAIN Jake and Becky!).


We got to the hospital minutes later and everything was a go. There was no turning back. Tawna's doctor is the one who administered the epidural, and it was a slow process due to his care and thoroughness. He made sure to talk Tawna and I through the whole process, much to the annoyance of Tawna: "Will you just do it already!"

After she was hooked up, she was in better spirits and made sure to bear her testimony about Heavenly Father's hand in the developments of science and modern medicine. She progressed to the pushing stages without further incident and then it was on! It was time to push for Tawna, and for me it was time to count--yes! I am quite proficient in counting and was anxious to play my role well. After some great pushes and some superb counting, Anna came. She was born posterior, but it didn't slow labor much. I cut the cord and then the photo shoot was began. Without further ado:

Are we Ready?

Going through some pictures this morning caused me to pause and ask myself: Are we ready to bring another sweet little baby home to....







This?



And this?



And This?



And this?

(note- these are only a SMALL sampling...)





And then I answered myself:

Yes.

Because I love moments like


This:
And This:
And This:

And This:

And This:




Baby Sister- Your brothers are SO excited to meet you and have you come play with them! Christian tells me daily the things he's going to teach you (namely, "how to watch Lightening McQueen on the TV" ...lovely...)

Life is going to change drastically in the next few days. Things will be a handful. Our house will probably be destroyed during nursing sessions. P and I will be outnumbered. We can no longer simply Divide and Conquer. Heaven only knows how we will survive Sacrament meetings. Our car will be packed. We'll have 2 in diapers again. It will take close to forever to get ready to actually go anywhere. People will probably be more hesitant to invite us (along with 3 kids) to do stuff. Sleep will be limited. Life will be more expensive. We've been 'warned' by loads of people that this will be rough.

And you know what? Im Thrilled. I kept meaning to post about this, but never did- This pregnancy has had quite a few scares. Critically low amniotic fluid, measuring super small, low heart rates, minimal fetal movement, etc. I received a blessing a while back and things have improved. A few days ago, after a tearful plea to my Heavenly Father, I finally felt at peace. I was blessed with a deep love for this little girl- and peace that everything will be alright.

We are so happy to have the opportunity to bring another babe into our home, chaotic as it may be. I love watching my boys play together. I love hearing their giggles turn into hysterical laughter behind closed doors. I love the hugs they give one another (and to me and daddy). I love the way they are each so eager and excited for the other one to wake up from a nap. I love our Kiss Sandwiches. I love the way Christian sticks up for Channing if ever anyone picks on him. I love their water messes during Bubble Baths. I love the way Christian can get Channing to say almost anything, and the way he calls him ChanMan.

I love they way they are excited about mommy's projects for Baby Sister. And how they have waited so patiently for her to grow Bigger and Bigger in mommy's tummy so that she could come play.

We know life will change. We know times will be hard.

And we couldn't feel more blessed.

Ramblings/thoughts

Random, No-pictures-included-post-of-a-few-thoughts-i-want-to-remember:

Saturday P and I went out on a hot date. He took me to a fantastic(!) chinese restaurant in Richfield (the biggest city nearby) and then we went bowling.

Faithful readers may recall that the last time i went bowling I did AWESOME. as in...22 points AWESOME. (blah).

I am pleased to announce that while not a shining score, i bowled a 94 the first game. And felt like i was pulling my tooshie muscles by the 7th roll...

I think Baby Sister was trying to make up for the last game before she makes her big debut.

Then we went to walmart and got some CURTAIN RODS!!! Yes, I am totally thrilled. (It doesn't take much to make this girl happy. :) )

-Today Christian and I started Special Christian School. He knows all his letters and their sounds (the Uppercase ones) and almost has all the lowercase ones down, too. He's pretty fantastic at counting, too. I have a few workbooks that we started on today, and he was super excited. I plan on starting up a preschool this fall- and today got me pretty excited. Hopefully we can keep this up every day during Channing's naptime.... (famous last words....)

-P and I stayed up till 1 am last night finishing our 500+page book we've been reading forever now. It was fantastic. I love reading with him. Its been a great time-passer as we travel to and from civilization in the car. But, I was counting on the excitement of this last book to get us through labor...oh well...

-Channing is a total parrot. He can say almost anything now, especially when Christian tell him too. Love it. Christian has also been calling him ChanMan (which we call Channing sometimes) which is Super Cute. Love It.

-In other news, despite the lack of stores and closeness of family, I am really starting to love our town. The people are amazing and we've made some great friends. I love that a nurse from the hospital will stop me in walmart (true story- happened saturday) and remember my due date. (I don't even remember seeing this nurse before! She may have helped me like ONCE on a non-stress-test..) I love the quiet, the space, the contentment.

Lucky Girl

Lots to post about: Christmas, Christian's birthday, Blessings, Thoughts on the New Year, and baby update (still pregnant...)

but- those will all take a little more time than I have at the moment.

This past sunday was Christian's first day of Primary and Sunbeams! (the church class for 3 year olds) It was pretty hard on his mama- (he just wanted to go to nursery with his little brother)- My sweet angel is growing up!!

We got a couple of pictures before we headed out for church- My handsome boys in their suits. (Thanks mom and dad for Christian's suit!)

Annnnd- they kiss me ANYtime i ask. *sigh*

Talk about one lucky girl!