He made it here

safe and sound

Yesterday my doctor came into my room and said that he was ready to induce labor. He didn't feel like the baby was in any great danger but that it was probably time to get him out. A few hours later the contractions started. By 4:50 yesterday evening he made his grand entrance. We got to hold him for about an hour and then they took him to the NICU for observation. He has been there ever since and he is showing all the right signs of a normal healthy baby considering he was born 6 weeks premature.

Details:

Rhett Kempton Shumway

5lbs. 3 oz. 19 in.

September 23, 2008 4:50 pm

Interesting side note: All of our kids have been born on the 23rd of their month. Westin - October 23rd, Sage - August 23rd, and Rhett - September 23rd. What are the chances??

Here I sit......

This baby has decided to rear it's head a little too early this time. I started leaking amniotic fluid last week. By the time I made it to the hospital I had almost none. Since then we have been on antibiotics and had steroid shots to strengthen his lungs. He is still hanging out inside my belly and doing great. I also am doing just fine. We of course, just want this little guy to be healthy and perfect so we are willing to do what we are told by the doctors and nurses. They are taking really good care of us and we feel blessed. We will update as we have more info!

I'm Famous

In and attempt to help the Nielson family, there are many people out there trying to raise money for all their crazy expensive medical bills. I thought it was worth it to post a link to this little auction. Wendy B. makes beautiful jewelry. I know I don't have very high rolling friends but it's worth a shot. (sorry if that is a shock to any of you!)

What a long week!

It feels like such an eventful week we had last week. On Tuesday, Westin started preschool and has loved every minute of it. Considering that the boy has prayed to go to preschool for the last 10 months, I knew this would be a great day for him. He tells me everyday that he has the greatest time but that he keeps forgetting to make friends. I'm not too sure what that means but I hardly believe it from "Mister Chatter Box".

On Wednesday we sold our car and bought a new one on Thursday. It is so nice to have the extra space. We made the plunge to a minivan. In high school I would have never thought I would own one. I'm just too practical not to.

Thursday night we left for a little family camping trip. We had the best of intentions to go for 4 nights but we gave in at 3. We found ourselves not being able to talk about anything else except for how much we love our house. That's how we knew it was time.

The kids did so great. They slept great, played and eat lots of junk food. We camped next to a little creek. They had a lot of fun with that!Ben built Westin (and himself) a swing. They played on that forever.

Proof I was there....
Ben and I built a little fort for our kids. I remember making these when I was a kid growing up on camping trips. All in all it was a lot of fun.

A fun surprise on Saturday was that Ben's sister Sarah and her family came and joined us for the night! Thanks for coming and joining us, we had a great time!

Happy Birthday Sage!

My little girl turned two on Saturday. It was a great day. Sage is all into everything being pink so her birthday was no exception. There were pink balloons, pink cake with pink frosting and lots of pink girly presents. I think we all had a great time. She was pretty tired as the evening wore on. She was kicked back when it came time for presents.

Thank you everyone who came and endured my hot little house with lots of people jammed inside! We love and appreciate you all!

On a totally different note, I must share something that has been on my mind a lot lately!! Since I have started blogging, I was introduced to this amazing, mother, wife, daughter, and woman. I have never met her but I feel like I know her so well because of her blog. She lives in Mesa and truly blogs every day of the work week. Anyways, Nie, her husband and her husbands flight instructor, Doug Kinneard, were in a plane crash last Saturday just outside St. Johns. Since the plane crash the flight instructor has passed away. Nie and her husband are in critical but stable condition with severe burns. I have not been able to stop thinking about all of this this last week. I know that they will be watched over and protected, as will their children who have been lovingly taken in by their aunts and uncles. Her sister Jane is giving updates on their condition.....

Update on the Family

I took some cute pictures of my kids today so I thought I would share some of what they are doing and into these days.

Sage is going to be 2 next month! I can't believe how fast she is growing! Her vocab is growing so much every day especially since we have taken her pacifier away except for sleeping. She is so into being a princess lately. What a girly, girl! She sings this song and does a dance that basically says, "I'm a Princess!!!". She can drive me crazy and the next second she has stolen my heart again. Maybe that is girls, I have no clue!

Little Westin is growing up so fast too, but in a different way. He is maturing so much and I'm starting to see why everyone say "they grow up so fast!". He loves to have a part in primary. If it were up to him he would give the prayer, talk and scripture every Sunday. He is also becoming such a good helper to me. He loves to ask me what I want him to do for me. I often wonder if his good nature can be blamed on Ben and I at all or are we just extremely lucky! He is ecstatic for his baby brother to come. He says he wants to hold him all day long

This past week, all four of us have had the flu and it has been no fun!! Ben even had to miss his own Grandpas funeral because he was so miserable. We are all glad to be feeling better and back to our normal stuff now.

Happy Anniversary!

Ben and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary this last weekend by going to Las Vegas. What is a trip to Las Vegas with out a stop at the Hoover Dam. If you ever manage to go to a dam with any of the Shumway boys, you will know that the "Dam" jokes don't pass as quick as the dam itself. Any excuse to safely cuss.

Vegas was about what I thought it would be. The architecture is amazing. Outside of that, you begin to see why it is called the city of sin. I'll just leave it at that because I could go on and on and I'm sure everyone gets the point.

One really fun thing we did was take a Gondola ride at the Venitien. It was really fun and beautiful. It's amazing what they can do inside a building!

Saturday we went to the Las Vegas Temple. I was never so happy to go to the temple. My mom watched our kids so we could go and I'm so thankful for that!! Thank you so much Mom, we love you so much. Now she can go back to sleeping in and taking showers, 2 things that never happen with children!

Another Thursday Night

Thursday nights are always so boring to me. Ben has school so we are left to fin for ourselves. Last week I was brave and I took the kids to the mall all by myself with no stroller. When I walked in the doors, I thought "What am I thinking?" but surprisingly it was great. They each held onto one of my hands and we walked the whole bottom and the whole top with playing in the kids area in between. I was so proud of my little ones.

Tonight I didn't try anything fancy, just got them ready for bed and had them down by 7:30pm, which is nice. Now I've been tracking some of my stuff I have for sale on ebay (if you need any white scrubs, I'm your hook up) and checking email. But lets be honest now, what I will always end up doing is indulging in my nightly bowl of sweetness. It's just better when I know someone is doing it with me.

We got the kids a bunk bed this last weekend. They really seem to like them so I guess that is all that really matters. Having Sage in a twin bed has really messed up all our sleeping schedules but I'm sure that will level out as the newness wears off.

We are having a...

Little boy!

We are all so excited! Everything looks great with him. We (I guess mostly just me) are just settling in for the long haul ahead! By the way, Ben and I have the hardest time coming up with names so if you think of a name and you want to share it with us, we would REALLY appreciate it!

We hope everyone is having a great Fathers day! Happy Fathers day to all the great fathers in my life!! I love you guys!

Memorial Day in Mexico

We went to Mexico for Memorial day and of course we had a great time. Ben's parents have a little house right on the beach of La Salina which is a few minutes north of Ensenada. Occasionally, we get the chance to tag along with them as they drive over there. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Shumway for taking us, your the best!

The first day was rainy and cold.
Westin and Sage being sweet for a second.
We were so glad that the weather was so beautiful the rest of the time. Not quite warm enough to get in the water but warm enough to play around it.
Grandma drew pictures in the sand of whatever Westin asked her to.

This is the best we could do for a family picture. The sunset is nice though.

Sage loved the sand, more than I ever thought she would. She was covered head to toe, if you know what I mean....

I love Mexico!!!!!

My kids need a pool!

Family Camping

This last weekend we went camping as a little family. We had so much fun!

We found a lake that we could fish in. We didn't end up catching anything but we had fun trying. The kids found mud and were playing in it and throwing rocks in the lake.

I'm pretty sure some even made it in Sage's mouth. Westin is a pretty good little fisherman. He knows how to cast his line and reel it in, it's so cute to watch him.

We were trying to get a picture of the view behind us, it was so beautiful. We camped right on the rim so you could see forever.

I was so worried about my kids being cold, I probably over did it but oh-well.

Westins love was with the dead trees laying on the ground and walking them like a balance beam. He could have done it all day!

Sage and Mom

Dad and Wes

Baby #3 is on it's way!!

We are so excited! Sometime at the beginning of November we will be having another one of these bundles of joy. Westin really wants a little brother. Everything he grows out of he says he is going to save for his little brother. Lets all cross our fingers that we don't have to disappoint him!!!

Dramatic Play

I watched my sisters kids one day during spring break and Morgan found the wigs...

Morgan
Sage
Colton

Everyone had to have a turn except Wes. He wouldn't have anything to do with it.

Sage came to me with this Buzz Lightyear costume dying for me to put it on her. She did not want to take it off for bed. I have such great and darling kids!

The last little while

If you have wondered or cared what we have been up to, get ready to be bored to tears....

We have been loving the beautiful weather. We are usually in the back yard, across the street at the park or inside with all the doors and windows open.

Ben dug Wes a tunnel under ground. Westin thought it was the coolest thing to dig with a shovel.

A few weeks ago, my siblings and I threw my Mom a 50th birthday party. It was a lot of fun and it turned out really cute. It was a Hawaiian theme because my Mom loves Hawaii.

I had the biggest nightmare getting my kids pictures taken the other day. Between the studio double booking, kids melting down, juggling both kids at the same time, getting them to smile and none of them turning out, it really sucked! I was determined to get some pictures since it is a huge hassle to get them all gussied up so this the best I got after working at it all morning.

Yard saleing on Saturday was the best. I found this great headboard and footboard still in the box for $80. It's perfect for us!

Raise your hand if you like my new Kathy Van purse. I've asked my family like 15 times already. Westin always raises his hand. I've been searching for a great one and I finally found it, for a great deal of course.

Sage is such a girl, I thought these pictures were so funny!