Disneyland 2014

After Hudson's big first day, he was not able to go back to school, because we had a HUGE surprise for him!!!
Shane and I planned a trip to Disneyland:) In the nick of time we were able to get all of our documents and go to the happiest place on Earth with Joel and Amy and their family, Jan, and Cherie and Jaime.

Nice picture Fletchy-haha

For such a long time Hudson has been begging us to take him to Disneyland, and we were finally able to make it happen. We woke the boys up last Sunday morning and told them the big news. They were pretty tired but once it registered the boys were excited! Hudson kept pinching himself saying, "is this a dream"-haha!
We met Auntie Cherie and Jaime at the airport, and were grateful for their helping hands. The boys were tired, but so excited to fly. They all did great, however, a MAJOR shout out needs to go out to baby Fletch for being the absolute best traveler!
We were super lucky and everything went very smoothly with our short layover and transfer. The boys wrestling on the airport ground got me a few dirty looks, but other than that they were pretty big champs.
The day we arrived the weather was super hot, so we hung out at the pool and ordered pizza and had an early night.

Fletch workin on his tan:)

The next morning Hudson was so so excited he could barely contain himself. He was up and dressed in his diy mickey mouse shirt super early.I will never forget Hudson barging in my room and announcing "Lets go to Disneyland". We stayed at the Residence Inn(Marriott) and it was AMAZING. I loved the pool, the breakfast was unreal, and they even upgraded our room for free. The room was so great. We will definitely stay there again!

 When we were all ready to go everyone left for the park, and I stayed behind to see if my new stroller would arrive. I met up with everyone about an hour later. The kids went to Fantasyland and went on the dumbo ride, peter pan, the matterhorn- 4 times, the tea cups and it's a small world, all in about 2 hours. There were no lines at all. We then ripped over to Tommorowland. This was where Hudson was able to ride his favorite ride, Star Tours. He went back on that ride several times. We went on a few different rides, like Buzz Lightyear (which I sucked at) before stopping for lunch. I found the amazing baby center, and had a delicious corndog, all things I read about online (very helpful tips:)

Cooper and Auntie Cherie

After lunch we went over to Adventureland and went on Indiana Jones, and the safari ride, Pirates of the Caribbean,. The first day was a big success. Lots of rides, very few lines, but it was CRAZY hot, and our feet were super sore, even with my good shoes. The first day our SUUUUUUPER awesome stroller did not arrive on time, so I just rented a stroller. It made SUCH  a huge difference having a good stroller the following days. Poor Fletcher got a small sunburn on his cheeks, but again was a major champ. It was so much better for him when we got our new stroller.

The awesomest little traveller!!!

Day one we all wore our Mickey Mouse shirts, and it really did make it so so much fun having them. Everyone commented on them. I will make more next time we go for sure. It also made it so easy to find people in our very large group! We liked them so much we all washed them and wore them again on Friday.

Tuesday, I felt was also a very smooth day. We started out in California Adventure and went to Carsland. For all of the hype, I have to say I was not disappointed. I loved the Radiator Springs ride, and when we were staying behind with Cooper and Jade, we saw Mater, Lightning McQueen and  the Firetruck. We lined up and waited not very long, then got fast passes and rider swap passes and were able to all ride the ride a couple times without waiting.

Lightning McQueen

The Firetruck!

Mater:)

 Early in the morning Cherie also got us Fast Passes for World of Color which was SERIOUSLY worth the trip alone!
I loved every minute of it. I wanted to cry when it was over:)Typically we brought the boys home for their bedtimes but that night we stayed late as I had shown Hudson youtube videos of World of Color and he wanted to see it. About halfway through the show he sat himself in the stroller and fell asleep. haha


Our second day we also went and saw the Aladdin show. Again, I LOVED it. Disney is so smart. They have air conditioned shows for kids and parents:) I really loved that show:) The boys went on the Tower of Terror and California Screamin as well as the Toy Story ride, and then we ran into Donald Duck. Hudson was too short for the California Screamin ride which is a huge rollercoaster, and he cried for about 20 minutes because he wanted to ride it so bad-ha! I told him it just meant we will have to go back again one day:)

We met Donald. Cooper insisted on ruining the photo. Our Donald was really funny:)

We also rode another favorite ride, soarin over California. It was such a neat ride and totally made me want to move to CA. :)Again, I feel like we were pretty lucky as we just walked on to those rides, and the people who wanted to got to ride as much as they wanted.

That night for dinner we went to the Rainforest Cafe. I am not sure what was going on, but Cooper was insane! The atmosphere was fun, but holy moly my kids were NUTS!!

Cute Linky and Cole

 On Wednesday we took the day off. It was nice to relax and hang around the hotel. We went back to downtown Disney and took the boys shopping at the Ginormous Disney store and to the Lego store. Hudson wanted "ears" so we let him pick some out. It was nice to just spend time as the 5 of us and move at a slower pace. We also enjoyed some yummy pretzels and ice cream.

Ears!

Cute Happy Boys

The Lego store

One small meltdown(of many)-The happiest place on earth...right?

Thursday we started out back at Disneyland and used out early magic morning pass. It ended up being kind of a bust as most of the rides had longer lines than normal haha. Again it was scorching out, but we came a bit more prepared with lots of frozen drinks. The kids went back on the matterhorn, the tea cups and I got to go on the Peter Pan ride. We also went back and did Indiana Jones and planned on doing all of the wet rides. Splash  Mountain was closed, so awesome Aunt Amy, took the boys to the Jedi Training Academy. I honestly did not think that Hudson would even care about it, but he recognized Darth Vadar from the Star Wars Angry Birds-haha, and ended up LOVING it. It was honestly the cutest thing ever. Cole and Lincoln and Hudson all got chosen for the academy. It again, was the CUTEST!!

Hudson and Darth

Jedi Training

After lunch we planned on heading back over to California Adventure and going on the Grizzly River Run(another wet ride). That is where our trip Drama happened. We had just taken a double decker trolley bus ride and left disneyland, and the ticket checker into CA was suuuuper slow. In one of the lines Cooper got off the stroller, but we did not realize until we were all getting ready to get on the grizzly ride.
Me and Shane started running back to the gate to see if we could find him. It had been at least 5-10 minutes. I talked to someone at the entrance of Disney and they said they had a missing 2 year old, but that he kept saying his name was Kevin and his brother's name was Jake. The trolley driver's name was Kevin, and we had all just said Thank you Kevin.  They made me trek it over to the missing childrens place instead of seeing Cooper aka Kevin. During that time thankfully Shane was reunited with Cooper, and he had gone back to meet up with the rest of our party, but he had my park tickets so when I tried to get back  they would not allow me back in the park. The whole ordeal was really stressful. Damn Cooper:)
After that ride we ended up taking in a couple shows. We went to the Disney Junior Show and the Crush Turtle Talk show. The boys LOVED the Disney junior show and at one point Cooper got so excited he head butted Shane in the mouth and gave Shane a bruised and bloody lip-ha! Shane bought himself a turkey leg, and we bought Fletchy a new outfit as he needed to be refreshed.

The Disney Jr. Show

Show war wounds:)

The cutest, sweetest baby Buzz!!!!

We ended the day by taking the boys on a bunch of quick rides in Bug's Land and came home and passed out

Bug's Land

Friday we decided to all wear our shirts again. We lined up first thing and were able to get our picture with Mickey Mouse. The kids loved it. If you ask Cooper who he saw at Disneyland, he will tell you " Mickey", and that he gave Mickey a hug. So cute!!

The Whole group

Cooper getting his hug.

Space Mountain re-opened on Friday, so we literally RAN to the front of the line and rode it first. It was all done up for Halloween, and it was super creepy. Hudson LOVED it. We then ran over and did the Haunted Mansion, Pirates again and Splash Mountain. After Splash, I was drenched. The boys rode the rides a couple more times, and Cherie and I took the little kids to Toon Town. Amy and Micah had a date at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, so we stopped in there on the way to Toon Town. Honestly, it was the cutest thing ever. Micah was so adorable! The older kids went over to the innovations show and Jaime got to meet Thor and Captain America( as they were good looking:)

Splash Mountain

Princess Micah and Jade Post Boutique

Later on, with Micah all dressed up everyone had lunch with the Princesses at Ariels Grotto. My boys were not too interested so we just ate in Disneyland, then went over to C.A. and rode a ton of rides. We went on Monsters inc about 3-4 times, the Ferris Wheel, the Goofy Pilot roller coaster, the jumping Jelly Fish and a few others. We were SOOOO HOT, so we decided to go back to the Pool and cool off. It happened to be Dapper Day in the park, and despite it being 37 degrees Celcius so many people were dressed up. It was so much fun to see.  There really was no lines at all, but it was just so hot! We saw some more characters and Cooper even got some autographs.The kids really were so cute with the characters. They would just get so star struck. I loved it!

Jesse!

 

The kids really did so well. It was very chaotic at times, but I am so thankful for the memories we made. I think we will wait another 4-5 years and go back when Fletchy can ride all of the rides. I love my family and feel so blessed that we were able to have this fun experience:)

School Boy

Oi! I have to start somewhere, so I will start and hopefully some of my ramblings will make sense.
So many big moments have been happening around here.

2 weeks ago our biggest boy started kindergarden. I can't believe it. Hudson was so super excited. He has been counting down the days for so long. I think we were all a bit nervous. Hudson was up early, and got all dressed, packed his snack and had his back pack on before 8 am. He was adorable. He kept asking me how long until we could go.
Shane came home for lunch and we walked him over. He looked so adorable with his backpack on. We met his teacher Mrs. Nikolaou and she seemed so sweet and great. Cooper sure missed his brother. Hudson was pretty excited when we picked him up. Hudson's teacher was able to recognize his high activity level right away, which was hard, but good. I love my boy so much and am so thankful he has a good teacher. I hope she will love him and help him( and me):)

We are sure proud of our big boy. We will miss having him all to ourselves, but are so excited for all of the experiences he is going to have. We LOVE you big guy!!!

Fletcher's Blessing

 I so wish that I could sit down everyday and blog about all of the fun things we are doing and hilarious things my kids do, but it seems to just never happen. I am hoping to do an epic catch up post one of these days, but for now I will blog my sweet baby's blessing.

Fletch was blessed in church about 2 weeks ago. So many people came for his special day, we felt so supported and loved.
Grandma Jan, Grandpa Pete, Papa and Gram, Auntie Rudi, Auntie Jodie, Cody, Cass and Camille, Auntie Leanne, Griff, Kenn and Porter, Aunt Cherie and Uncle Clint, their kids, Jeff and Jessica and their kids, and Joel and Amy and their family all attended.
Our little guy sure is loved.
Shane blessed our baby, but both Grandpa's, Uncle Clint, and Jeff, Cody, Vance Siakuluk, and Jason Harvey assisted in the circle.
As Fletcher's blessing was given I remember feeling that this sweet baby had a hard job ahead of him, as Shane spoke of all of the troubles in the world.  Fletcher was blessed to be a choice person among these challenges.
He was blessed to grow in strength and body, mind and spirit.

Fletchy in his sweet blessing outfit

He was blessed to live a Christ-like life and have an appreciation for this life and the blessings of the gospel.
He was told he would be an example to his brothers and that they would look to him for advice. He was also told he would be blessed with a love for the scriptures and that he would find guidance and strength in them. He was told he would have the ability to follow his righteous leaders and have a testimony of the gospel. Shane did a great job pronouncing the blessing and Fletchy was calm and adorable.

Before Church-Note: First (and prob last) time we ever made it to 9:00 church on time:)

Afterwards we had a wonderful lunch and all of the family came. The day was PERFECT. It was relaxing and calm, with perfect weather and a slight breeze. Everyone stayed long and just had great visits. The kids LOVED having all of their cousins there!!! It was one of those once in a million type days where everything just works out perfectly.

We Love our Fletcher, and are just so thankful for the miracle that he is:)

Grandpa Pete and Coopy

2 beauties, inside and out

Grandma Jan enjoying snuggles

Hudson and his sweet cousins Camille, Kennedy and Hannah- Good Grief I love Hudson

My Mom  and all of my sisters

Joel, Jacob, Shane and Jarom enjoying some lunch

My Gorgeous Baby

Baby Fletcher had his baby photo shoot this past week. I am so so in love with his pictures. They are perfect. I love this boy so much.

Talia did such a great job capturing my sweetheart. These pictures are treasures to us. Thank you so much for taking the time to fit us in!!!!

Here is Fletchy's Birth announcement

Baby Fletcher

Eek, I KNOW I need to do this now, or it simply will not get done(like most everything in my life right now)

My gorgeous, wonderful little sweetheart baby was born May 16, 2014. I am beyond smitten.  I will do my best to recap his traumatizing entry into the world.

FLETCHER JENSEN HEATH

First let me start by my usual complaining. The last month of pregnancy was so so so so horrible. We had a couple major scares, with my amniotic fluid levels and some findings on an ultrasound regarding the baby's heart. I endured about a million extra examinations and was constantly in fear.
My back, pelvis and hip pain was out of control. I did not sleep, and my heartburn made  it almost impossible to eat anything but ice water. I was a true joy to be around.

May 16th I was 39 weeks pregnant. I had decided to just plan on the little guy being late. Nothing special happened during the day, but while I was snuggling Hudson in his bed(top bunk). I felt my water break. It was such a weird, but kind of cool feeling. I ripped into the bathroom and drained and then told Shane, who was snuggling Cooper. That happened at 7:40. Shane called our sister in law Cherie to come and watch the boys, while I packed a bag, and made our bed, and we tidied up a bit. My contractions started pretty quickly, and there was pretty much no lead in to them. They came and were at a 10. I knew then things were going to move quickly.

Fletch has the best hair and 2 adorable little dimples. He is such a cutie!!

Thankfully, Cherie was able to come really quickly. Shane and I drove like maniacs to the hospital. By this point, I was pretty sure that I would not be able to get an epidural, because the contractions were so fast, maybe 1.5 minutes apart, and they lasted a minute, so there was only a very short break between them and they were so strong.

We made it to the hospital and I checked in at Emerg at 8:30. I waited for the porter and tried not to make a scene in Emerg,  as the contractions were so painful. I started to tear up on the ride upstairs as I knew I was on my own and that there was not going to be enough time for an epidural. Once upstairs we waited a minute or two for the nurse, who quickly checked me and had me change in the bathroom. As I was changing I knew I needed to push. I was scared.

The unit was super busy, so there was only a couple rooms that were rarely used at the far end of the unit. Both Shane and I were nervous as we thought we were going to have the baby in Piper's delivery room(which is also at the end of the hall, where you don't have to hear all of the other babies crying). They didn't even have a wheelchair to push me in, so the nurse grabbed my arm and pulled me down the hall, while Shane pushed my back.

In the room the nurse managed putting the monitor on me, and I literally started pushing.  NO EPIDURAL:( I can honestly say there has been nothing ever in my life so painful as this experience. I had NO control over my body. My body just took over and did it's thing. I was scream grunting so loud, but again, I could not control it. I remember thinking, I am so embarrassed because a young nurse kept telling me to stop screaming. At the point of the baby's head coming out they asked me to stop pushing to unwrap the cord from the baby's neck, which again, I had no control over. My legs were shaking, and I am pretty sure I was asking God to let me die. Finally he was all out, and they placed him on my stomach. It was only 8:38. I had only been at the hospital for 18 minutes!!!! A delivery this quick is very rare, and is called a precipitous labour.
My first impressions were, whoa, that baby is GREY, like really really grey. He did not cry or move and he felt limp on  me. I knew he was not okay, and I just wanted him off me so they could help him get air. Shane was cutting his cord.

They took him over to the side and started working on him, then I heard them decide to call a code pink(which is like a baby code blue). The nurse was so funny, as she explained to me that many people would come running in the room frantically but that everything was okay. My nurse was a total gem. She was about 68. I totally made her work!

By this point the doctor came in and they helped me deliver the placenta and did some"repair work". Holy Moly, that was also very very uncomfortable! The med student or resident, took forever.

Shane and the baby were taken away, as well as my nurse, and I basically hung out in my L&D room by myself and worried. I just kept thinking about the looks on Shane's face while they were working on our baby. He looked seriously frightened.

I got to shower, and get cleaned up, then I finally got to go to the nicu to see Shane and my boy. Shane was doing kangaroo care with Fletcher, and then he told me what actually happened.
The doctor figured that the umbilical cord was clamped between my pelvis and the baby and limited the oxygen to the baby. Fletcher's Apgar scores were 3 immediately, then 5, after 5 minutes, then 8. All which are very low. His oxygen stats were 9%, and the SP02 in his cord were 15%. The neonatologist told Shane if he had been born even 2 minutes later, he would have been born dead and needed a full resuscitation.
When Shane told me that, I knew exactly why he needed to come so quickly and immediately knew how lucky we were, and that Heavenly Father was really watching over us.

They then told me that Fletch was
8 pounds 9 oz. and he was almost 21 inches long. HUGE!!!!
I must admit, I was feeling pretty proud/sorry for myself-haha.

snuggles with Dad

First bath at 3 days old(not to mention at 1 am)

The Doctors decided to keep Fletcher in the NICU for the next 4 days. He had quite a few drops in his Oxygen and they were worried about tremors/seizures and jaundice. I was discharged on the second day, so I had to sleep on a bench on Fletcher's room. It was a bit crazy. Poor Shane was at home taking care of the boys. We really did not know too much of what was going on, and we were truly just hoping our sweet little guy was going to be okay. When they discharged us we found out that Shane was correct with his internet diagnosis and that Fletcher had TTN(Transient Tachypnea of Newborn). This TTN was likely caused due to the fast delivery, but had nothing to do with the compressed cord. Thankfully there are no lasting effects and our sweetheart is doing really well right now.

I still can't believe that I had a precipitous labor, compressed cord and the baby had TTN. And that folks is why I am an advocate of having your baby at the HOSPITAL!!! I am truly overwhelmed with gratitude that everything is okay. So many things could have changed the outcome.

Tuesday May 20th we brought our baby home. He did struggle with jaundice for the first 3 days, making him so so sleepy, but now he is eating better and hopefully in the next little bit we can get on some sort of a schedule.

All ready to go home in his homecoming outfit.

Hudson and Cooper are absolutely over the moon with their baby brother. They are obsessed. Cooper will walk around and say in his raspy voice, baby is awesome. Hudson on the other hand just helps himself to holding his baby whenever he wants. He just loves him SO MUCH!
On Wednesday when the nurse came over, Shane and I were talking to her, and Fletcher was upstairs sleeping on our bed. All of the sudden Hudson comes walking down the stairs holding the baby. I almost died(of being scared and of embarrassment). Hudson announced that he was trying to help as we said we would go get the baby but then didn't. It was nuts.

Obsessed with the rubber gloves at the hospital haha.

checking out baby

Brother Loves

Hudson with his black eye and fat lip holding his baby.

Sharing spiderbear with Fletch!

Bed time stories with baby bro!

Now that our baby has been with us for a week, we are so completely and fully in LOVE with him. I love having him around and I am so glad that I am not pregnant anymore:)

We LOVE YOU Fletch! You are a gift from God to our family and you complete us!