Cambria is 7!

I was not nervous to deliver Cambria. Even though I had no idea what would happen or how much pain I would be in, I was more excited to not be pregnant anymore. We had to be at the hospital at 4 in the morning to be induced when I was 39 weeks. It is a little dumb, but I chose to be induced because my mom and Corey were coming the next day and I wanted them to be able to spend as much time with the baby as they could. It was a LONG day. They started me on pitocin around 6:30  in the morning and she wasn't born until 7:25 at night. My epidural didn't work all the way, my Dr's wife also went into labor that day and he had to deliver their baby, and the nurses left the room during a few contractions and told me to just keep pushing. I think they were nervous that the dr wouldn't make it, so they were going in the hall to look for him or something. Aaron almost passed out. When I saw that my little baby had dark skin and long BLACK hair I was shocked! I was wondering where my baby was. She didn't look anything like I had imagined. Nurses came in our room all day to see the pretty baby with the dark hair and to brush it. She was 8 lbs 1 oz! I thought I was going to have a small baby. When I was around 6 months they measured her head, legs, arms and torso because the dr said she was measuring small and they wanted to make sure she was developing correctly. In the hospital I stayed up until about 3 in the morning while Aaron snored. I was watching fireworks out the window and just staring at her. It was weird thinking that she was ours and we got to take her home the next day.

From the beginning she was an easy baby. She hardly ever cried, and I never had to rock her to sleep. She would eat and then was already asleep by the time I laid her down. I think she only woke up once or twice a night to eat and go right back to sleep.

 She was 14 months when we moved back to Idaho. She always says she misses Las Vegas and that we should move back, but when I remind her how hot it is there she says never mind. In Blackfoot we spent our days wandering around walmart, walking down the street to look at the horses, and watching lots of cartoons. She was always smiling and people always commented on how happy she always was. Her first words were thank you. She would say it to people all the time so everyone said she was so smart and polite.

When we moved to the apartment in Idaho Falls she had the time of her life. We had unpacked toys she didn't even remember so it was like Christmas, she owned the tv in the family room, and there was a balcony for her to stand on and watch all the people in the parking lot.

One of her favorite things to do was sit on Papa's boat. Sometimes she would get to help drive, but mainly she liked to sit up front.

She has always liked to dress up like a princess. This polka dotted dress was her favorite until it wouldn't fit anymore. She wore it almost every day over her regular clothes. It was called her "cute dress". She always had to have a cute dress and a crown.

 She has always loved to dress herself.

 She was watching the little mermaid, so she wanted to be in her swim suit too.

 For some reason she loves to try on my clothes. She wants me to take pictures of all her "fashions". This dress looks cuter on her than it does on me!

 I remember thinking she looks really grown up in this picture and she was only 4.

 She went through a cowgirl phase. She was obsessed with Toy Story, but not the first one, only the ones with Jessie. She wore these boots and this hat for a long time, and always with a skirt.

First day of Kindergarten. She was so excited. I used to wish she would want to stay with me instead, but I am glad she is so confident and likes to do new things. She makes friend easily and had a fun year.

We went a little crazy for her kinder graduation. It was a fun night. We had the graduation, and then went out to dinner. She wore this hat to the restaurant, and she loved all the attention.

Cambria has always been very emotional. She says that she can feel the Holy Ghost because that's what makes her cry at baby blessings and baptisms and sometimes at church. She is never afraid to talk about what she believes in, and she always remembers things she learns. When we moved in to our house a few people thought she was 2 years older than she really was. She has always acted and talked so grown up. I have had so many people tell me I need to write down all the funny things she says, she is hilarious. She is a fantastic big sister. Even after having Jett for over a year she still begs to get him up from a nap as soon as she hears him because she is so excited to see him. Cambria puts him in his highchair and feeds him. She helps give him baths and dress him. She has tried to start teaching Ashlynn some of the alphabet so she will be ready for pre school. I saw her in the bathroom brushing Ashynn's hair one day, and they love to play together.

Some of her favorite things are swimming, dancing, singing, drawing, reading, making crafts, hot dogs, peppermint patties, her scooter, makeup, chap stick, creating "fashions", and having sleepovers in the family room. It seems like forever since she has been a baby, and I wish I could slow down time so she wouldn't grow up so fast, but we love the person she is, and she is just getting better and smarter and funnier. Happy 7th Birthday Cambria!

White Sands

We have never been to El Paso in the summer, and this summer we got to spend 2 whole weeks there. We had so much fun. I have a lot of pictures but today is just going to be about white sands. I had told the girls we were going to go play on giant hills of sand, but I don't think they knew it was going to be so tall and have so much sand. They jumped out of the car and stood still long enough for sun screen and then took off up the hill.

  The temperature was pretty good until we had been there about 4 hours and then the sand got hot.

 Justin burying the boys.

 Cambria sledding down the hill.

 The Miller's.

 The Boyntons

 Our set up

 The cool pirate ship kite

 The other cool kites, we had cars stopping to take pictures of them, it was weird.

 yippee!

I was a little tired of writing and the girls are begging me for lunch, but I think you get the point, lots of sand, sun and fun!

Birthday Post

It is a day late, but I wanted to do a post all about Ashlynn for her birthday. She was my hardest pregnancy. I was sick the entire time. I was not gaining enough weight, I ate strawberry pop tarts for months, and I once went almost 2 weeks without showering. It was awful, but the day she was born everything was fantastic. I got my epidural before any real pains started, I watched The Price is Right and Friends, and when the Dr. told me to start pushing "just to get the baby to drop down more" her head popped out! She came out looking like Cambria's twin. The nurses all commented on the dark skinned baby with all the hair, and came by her room to see her, just like with Cambria. They even asked Aaron what race the mother was! She was a very pretty baby and I always had people telling me they loved her dark hair and blue eyes. I had to wash her hair more than normal because everyone liked to run their fingers through it. She was always very awake and alert. She never even slept during church. She liked to watch what was going on.

 She was not a good sleeper. I had to rock her to sleep for naps and bedtime, which took about 20 minutes. Then when I would put her down she would usually wake up again. I slept holding her for a while because I was going crazy from being so tired. I propped pillows all around me so that she couldn't roll and I couldn't move either. It was a slow first 8 months.

 

 At first she was a quiet baby and we thought she would turn out so different from Cambria. We were wrong! She is loud, funny and sassy. She does NOT like to be told what to do. She plugs her ears and says " I can't hear you". She has been a little harder to control because she knows what she wants and she is a bit wild sometimes, but those are all the things we love about our crazy Ash!

 We call her Ashy but she couldn't say that for a long time, she called herself Hattie, so we called her that for a while. I had a few months to stay home with her while Cambria was at school and before Jett was born, and I am sad that she will start pre-school this year. We would pull weeds in the garden, go for walks, go to the mall, clean the house and watch movies. After Jett was born she helped out a lot. She always would ask if we could get him up from his naps so he could play with her.

 

 The lady at the library always tells her how pretty she is and that she should be a model. She can be very thoughtful and she tells us she loves us several times a day. She also loves to give hugs.

Some of her favorite things right now are The Princess and the Popstar, Winx club, swimming, chicken nuggets, ice cream, roller skating, wearing dresses, playing with her brother and sister, staying in a hotel, and slumber parties in the family room with Cambria.

Happy 4th Birthday Ashlynn Vayda!

 

 

I was out of town for Jett's birthday and I missed posting about him, so I am going to do it now while he is taking a nap. It was a pretty easy pregnancy except my back was killing me, and my lower back would click when I walked, but at least I felt good. I ate a lot. I would take the girls to the mall so we could walk around the whole time I was pregnant. I had a bad scare around 11 weeks when I started bleeding and it didn't stop for 2 months, but we got to have a lot of ultrasounds and every time we went they would tell us the baby looked great. I wasn't so sure he was a he, so I didn't take any tags off of the baby clothes until he was born.

The delivery was scary because the cord was around his neck so we could see his heart rate drop during every contraction. They told me as long as it came back up between contractions then it was ok, but I could tell that there were more people in the room than normal and they seemed a bit nervous. The nurse had to help me get dilated quicker because the Dr. said the baby needed to come out. Thankfully everything turned out ok. I was in quite a lot of pain when Jett came into the world SCREAMING! He had a very loud cry and when the nurses would come into the room they would always comment on his high pitched screeching cry. The nurses told me they loved his big eyes and dark hair (even though he didn't have as much as the girls it was still pretty dark). He loved having Aaron wash his hair in the hospital, he put his head back and fell asleep.

We had these pictures taken by Joslyn McNair (her husband is friends with Aaron) when Jett was a week old. He was such a good baby. It was easy to get him to fall asleep for the pictures because he was a pretty sleepy baby all the time.

I really wanted a picture of him on the skateboard but it took a while because he would move a tiny bit and we were afraid he would fall off.

He loved to be held and would sleep for hours, but in his bed he would only sleep for 2 or 3. It was rough. He would wake up after 3 hours and was still tired and not hungry so it was hard to get him to fall asleep again. He is a light sleeper like me so there were many times we would just walk in the room and he would wake up.

Sarah took this picture of him when they were all in town for his baby blessing. He laid there for a long time and she got a lot of good pictures.

He is always smiling. It has always been so easy to make him laugh. When he was really little I would just look at him and he would giggle. I could never make the girls laugh so this was exciting for me.

 He makes the best faces. We have hundreds of pictures of him making silly faces. He loves it because it makes us all laugh.

This is the face he likes makes the most. Jett has turned out just as loud and silly as the girls. He screams and follows them around all day. Cambria once told me that he screams like a girl, and I told her it was because he was trying to copy them.

Some of his favorite things are Rio, he loves the beginning song with the birds, pizza, string cheese,  hot dogs, running around outside and picking up rocks, throwing stuff, yelling, watching the birds in our backyard, balloons, and taking naps. 

 Jett loves to be held. He prefers me more than the girls did. Some days he follows me around crying and pulling on my leg until I pick him up. He always gives hugs. When I change his diaper and he stands up he gives me a hug. When I get his out of bed he hugs me. He leans over and hugs me when he is in his high chair, and if I am sitting on the ground he always comes over for a hug. I love it. He walks around saying mom mom mom mom. When he cries he still rolls his tongue, we get some weird looks at the store. He loves people. It doesn't matter who, he even wanted the dentist to pick him up the other day. We went to the Rexburg splash park on Saturday and he didn't like the cold water so he walked around to talk to everyone. He has no fear of strangers.

Aaron took this picture of him a few months after his birthday. He is always happy. He is the perfect addition to our family, and the girls still get excited and yell "Jett's awake" when he gets up. They always want to hold his hand or try to pick him up. Happy late 1st birthday Jett Sixtus!