Carolyne baby blessing February 2013

Austin is still making sure Carolyne is never alone.Tom had taken 5 weeks of FMLA off of work and the Friday before he was to return to work, he received a phone call. The phone call let him know that after 9 years of working for University of Phoenix, he was being layed off. We had survived two layoffs and thought we were in the clear. Pretty emotional since he worked for UOP so long and we had just had a baby. We are enjoying the gift of time during this crazy time and were grateful so much family came into town for the blessing. Very comforting to be surrounded by our family and feel their support.

Austin in the bear cave at Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas. On the drive out, Keri looked in the back seat and noticed Axel had blood all over his face and clothes. The inside lip bite re-opened. We pulled over and Tom held Axel and tried to clot the bleeding. Axel looked so pale from losing so much blood. Tom looked like he had fought a grizzly bear and lost due to the blood all over his clothes. When we arrived to the park, Axel starting throwing up blood clots. It was such a large amount of blood clots. It landed inside the car and made a mountain. It was so scary but we later found out that saliva mixed with blood made it look like it was far more blood than it actually was. Axel was really mellow and just laid on Tom while we were at the park.

As aunt Tera said, "It's not easy saving the world in one night". Austin fell asleep in the car with his mask on-so cute!

Axel stayed on daddy's shoulders after losing so much blood.

Axel showing off his Arkansas Hawg pride!

Axel kept putting on aunt Tera's boots and walking around-so adorable!

Tom, Axel, me, Austin, Jenny with Carolyne, and Keri inside bear cave.

Baby Carolyne on blessing day! Carolyne pooped right before sacrament meeting so I went to change her diaper and she decided to go pee pee while I was changing her diaper so it got on her dress. Timing is everything right?

Carolyne looking out of the baby carrier-inside view.

We were so blessed to have so much family come even though Arkansas was not close to where anyone lived. Grandma and granpa Mead, Keri, Tera, Hancock family, grandpa Eliason, and Jenny. They all made a lot of effort to be here!

Petit Jean waterfall hike

Daddy swears this was the weekend all of your aunties got you boys addicted to iPads and iTouch machines!

Aunt Tera was a rockin' horse!

Went back to Arkansas

Austin built this play dough tower all by himself and was really proud!

I guess this new baby stuff is making us all tired;)

A couple of days before everyone came into town for Carolyne's blessing, Axel fell off the bed in the middle of the night and tore open the inside of his lip. He was bleeding so much and it was difficult to stop the bleeding since the inside of the mouth is moist. When daddy went into the bedroom, Axel had blood all over his head. We were relieved to find it was only one cut inside his mouth. This cut re-opened a few days later when we were all driving to Petit Jean State Park.

Axel and Austin love their cheap skateboards. They were happy to come home and start riding those skateboards in the house again;)

Austin makes sure that Carolyne is never alone. So cute to watch him be so concerned for Carolyne.

Straight to Texas from Hospital

We celebrated grandma Katie Mead's birthday after arriving to San Antonio, TX from Houston-Aunt Alisa's house.



Carolyne snuggled with her cousin Gregory and grandpa Mead on the couch. Gregory was so excited to hold her!



Carolyne and grandpa Mead are the same speed;)

Big brothers wanted to kiss her!

Snuggling with mommy.

Austin kept wanting to hold Carolyne and it was hard to figure out the right position since she is so small.

He kept trying!

Carolyne arrives!

This looks like a beautiful snow storm picture. It happened on Christmas Day in Little Rock, Arkansas. This is the day it kept snowing......and the electricity went out on Christmas night......little did we know it would last 5 days! Grandma and grandpa Mead were staying with us since Carolyne was due any day and going to be induced if she had not arrived already. We woke up to temperatures in the 20's. Luckily we had gas and were able to make toast and warm some food up in the fireplace. Austin kept saying it was the Best Christmas ever! Tom had a big snowball fight with the boys. It was a stressful time and we are grateful Carolyne didn't come early since the roads were iced over.

Induced at 5am and received an epidural when I was dialated to a 4. My blood pressure kept dropping and they had to keep laying me down flat or I was going to blackout. They took out my epidural and didn't turn it back on until I was dialated to a 9. I pretty much had a natural delivery! I was screaming and moving my head side to side. Dad thought I looked like a crazy person but screaming and shaking my head gave me some relief.

Carolyne Kay Mead came on December 30, 2012 at 8pm weighting 8 lbs. 13 ounces and was 22.75 inches long. One of the nurses said she was the longest baby she had ever seen delivered.

Carolyne was sucking her finger right after delivery;)

We left the hospital on New Year's Day. We decided to drive straight to Houston, TX to stay with Alisa and her family since our electricity was out on the day of delivery and it was freezing outside and the inside of our house was not much warmer. On the drive we got a flat tire. Luckily the boys were at grandma and grandpa's house. We got lucky to find a used tire shop open on New Year's Day.

Carolyne is only 4 days old and was smiling already! Looks like she is saying "Peace" to everyone!

Carolyne came to this earth with such a happy countenance. It is amazing how much this little girl smiles and lights up a room! We are all in LOVE!

Surprise Baby Shower for Carolyne!

Sara Shin-Tom's coworker arranged a surprise baby shower with me. Tom was shocked when he opened the door to the conference room and saw me and the boys and a beautiful baby shower! These are diaper cakes! It's May and we are still using the diapers from these cakes and shower. We haven't purchased a single diaper!

Mardi Gras theme. The baby on that diaper cake is Axel's favorite. It is such a big doll and freaks us out since it looks like a real baby. Tom likes to wrap it up in a blanket and throw it at people and watch them freak out when they think it is really baby Carolyne and Tom just throws her to them without warning.

They bought the boys coloring books and crayons which the boys loved. They loved the hats and noisemakers too!

Family pictures 2012

Almost ready for baby Carolyne to arrive!

Got lucky this Pinterest pose turned out.

I can hear their little voices saying Hi Baby Carolyne!

About to be outnumbered!

Brothers!

Absolutely amazing Jen Johnston got this picture of Axel-he was running everywhere!

Austin is such a big boy!

December happenings 2012

Austin and Axel building a gingerbread house with grandma and grandpa Mead. Axel kept eating the candy:)

Actually got a little crafty this year and made homemade ornaments. The reindeer noses were bells. We gave these to everyone in Austin's preschool class and Ms. Eubanks loved them for music time. We gave some to our friends and signed the back. Hope to keep this tradition going!

November 2012

Austin finished another soccer season and received a medal. He was so proud!

We made a Thanksgiving tree and wrote things we were grateful for. It peaked Austin's interest in writing letters.

This is Adam and Austin. Adam was Austin's best friend in Little Rock. These are the leaves in our backyard. We put 30 bags on the curb one day and were only halfway through the yard clean up!