Winter in AZ

Usually winter in Arizona looks like this. Photo taken Saturday. (ASHPHOTOGRAPHY)

Sometimes it looks like this.

It almost never looks like this. Taken February 2007.

Today,the day after Christmas......it looked like this!!!!!!!

Look close, it is there. Yep, it is SNOW!!!

Merry Christmas to All

On Christmas eve we went over to our friends, Todd & Suzann's house for dinner and to reenact the nativity. We also did a fun thing called Christmas pie where everyone has a string that is attached to a present inside of one big present. Everyone pulls their string together and they come out of the big package at once.

When we got home the kids opened their Christmas jammies, then went outside to feed the reindeer special reindeer food (oats with glitter).

Then the kids hung the magical key for Santa to get into our house because we don't have a fireplace.

Eli woke up at 7:30, which is late for him. He ran into our room and said "Santa came! Santa came!" "Did you peek?" "Ummm." Then Spencer had to go get Kenzi out of bed but she was excited once she was fully awake. We ran into the family room and left Gavin sleeping soundly in his bed. It was a ton of fun seeing the kids react to what Santa left for them. It was probably the best reaction yet! We spent all morning opening presents and playing with all of the new toys.

In the afternoon we went and saw The Tales of Despereaux. When it got dark outside the kids got their jammies on and we drove around and looked at Christmas lights while sipping hot cocolate and listening to Christmas music.

We hope you had a great Christmas too! And to all a good night!!!

Gavin 4 months

Gavin is such a happy baby. He always has a smile for anyone who will stop and talk to him. He is figuring out that he has hands. He knows that he makes splashes in the tub when he kicks his right leg and he is exploring the new noises that he can make. This month I included the book that my mom sent. She has sent each of my kids a new book every month until they are one. It is a fun tradition.

Makenzi's Birthday!

Eli, Christmas Decorater

The manger would be a parking garage,

The Christmas tree ornaments woud consist only of swords,

and ninjas would watch the sheep while the shepards are visiting the baby Jesus.

Gavin is 3 Months

If you haven't figured it out by now, my friend Jenn gave me the blue teddy bear so that I could take Gavin's picture with it each month to see how much he has grown. I thought that since he just got back from Germany, I would put him in his Germany outfit, his almost strumpfhosen & hat, only modified for hot Tucson.

Our Trip to Germany

We had the opportunity to visit some friends that have been living in Germany for over a year now. They are there for Devin, the husbands work. They were so nice and not only did they let us stay at their house but they let us have the master bedroom. Thanks guy for being great hosts, we had a wonderful time!

Here we are at Neuschwanstein. Does it look familiar? The Disney castles are pattered after this beautiful castle that was King Ludwig II's hunting lodge.

This is the Ulmer Munster which is the tallest church in the world. During World War II this beautiful gothic style cathedral was only hit with one bomb. Ulm is where my grandpa was stationed after WWII so it was neat to think about what may have changed since he had been there. Around this cathedral is a shopping area, like a giant outdoor mall.

The Germans are pretty particular about the cold. Allison and I were shopping and Spencer and Gavin went to look for Einstein's birthplace. While Spencer was waiting to meet back up with us girls, he was holding Gavin outside of a store and a lady walked up and told him in german that the baby needed to have his hat on. Spencer explained to her that he didn't speak german so she got her husband to translate. The man told him that it was important to keep a hat on the baby! We brought a hat for Gavin, in fact we brought two. However, I couldn't resist this adorable little german hat!

This is Allison and me in front of "The Christmas Store" in Rothenburg. It is hard for me to wrap my brain around how old this old city is. It is surrounded by a city wall. Allison and I both bought a "hand carved" Mary and Joseph figurine with Mary on a donkey's back and Joseph is leading. It is neat because Mary has a pregnant tummy and her hands are out reading a book or you can change out the book and put a baby Jesus figurine in her arms.

Trip To Germany Part II

Spencer and I headed to the Rhine River Valley for a night. We booked this hotel on a discount website before leaving. Once we got there Gavin and I waited in the rental car while Spencer checked us in. When Spencer showed us the room I asked him if this was really our room and if all of the rooms were like this one. Then I asked him if he upgraded us. He said that when he checked in the guy showed him this room and asked if it was okay. We think that we got lucky and got the sweet because Spencer said that he peaked into another room when it was being cleaned and it wasn't as nice. It was the closest that I've been to feeling like a princess. A mural of a castle was painted on the wall behind the bed and you could draw the curtains. We left the twinkling stars on all night for the night light so that I could see when I got up with Gavin. It was the nicest room that we have stayed in since our honeymoon!

This is the Marksburg castle. We toured this castle after spending the night at the hotel. We were hoping to tour a lot of castles however, we got there the day that the winter hours started so this was the only one that was open on a Monday.


This is in Munich where the Olympics were held in 1972.

This is the museum at the Dochou concentration camp. This is the origional building where the prisioners were processed and tortured among other things. The whole area is a memorial. It was sad to think about what the "prisioners" had to go through and how scary it must have been.



This is the Pratt's and us at dinner. It was fun just to see the everyday places that people went to and learn about all of the differences in the ways of living.


This is Gavin on the airplane on the way home. He is such a great baby. He has now been spoken to in at least 3 different languages. Of course all of the flight attendants had to stop and talk to him and make him smile!
Thanks mom and dad for keeping Kenzi and Eli so that we could run off to Germany!!!

Happy Halloween

Kenzi was all about being a cowgirl, she even wanted her pumpkin carved like a cowgirl.

Eli was really into being a ninja!



The kids had a great time carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating!

Pssst...Don't Tell!

We are starting them out early!

Gavin 2 Months

Wow, it seems like two months have gone by fast. We are having fun with a baby in the house.
Things I love about Gavin:
His big smiles.
His sweet baby noises.
The way he snuggles on my shoulder.
How his legs stick straight out when he is eating.
When he thinks that he is so neat because he can kick his legs and punch his fists.
The way he smiles at things right over my shoulder.
The way his forehead wrinkles when he opens his eyes really big.
The Spock-like hair on the back of his tiny ears.
When he sleeps for 4-5-6 hours straight during the night.

Name Change Part II

I thought that I'd fill you in on the other part of having a name changed leagelly. That would be changing the name on the issued Social Security card. Just in case you are wondering what kind of a process that is, let me tell you. Well, me and the 3 kids walked into the Social Security office at 11:45. I thought that this might be a good time because people would be eating lunch so the line is going to be shorter right? I was wrong. Way wrong. There weren't even any seats available for us to sit down. Kenzi and Eli both had to go to the bathroom so I took them there first hoping that a seat would open up by the time we came out. Lucky us, two seats were available. I nudged the kids in that direction and we sat down. Kenzi and Eli sharing a chair. There were probably about 80 people there waiting. Do you know what kind of people you see waiting in the Social Security office? If you ever want to go people watching, this might be the place for you! There are the "mature" kind, you know the ones that are nearing the age of collecting there benefits. Then you have the newlyweds that are practically making out by the door with their sparkling new wedding bands. Like us, there are brand new babies. Some trying to apply for a card (since the baby was born in the US) we are close to the border. Or because their crazy mother decided to change the poor things name! You would think that that would cover it right? Wrong! Finally you have the obvious man dressed in a gold silky top wearing a skirt and wait...the final touch...purple mardi gras beads! I just prayed that the kids didn't start asking questions!
I thought that for the circumstances that my kids were relatively well behaved,well for the first hour then it was all downhill. I even found myself laughing just to keep from having a breakdown and crying. Finally it was our turn at the window, number B54 was my saving grace I thought, then Eli started eating someone else's gum off of the floor and licking his dirty grimey hands!We'll keep you posted on if he contracted Hepititis C.
On the way home I thought that I'd be up for taking the kids to do a little shopping since I was on that side of town. Shopping is like therapy for me. However, not 5min had passed once we had gotten in the car and all 3 kids were sound asleep. I decided to not wake the mouths up so I headed home. I won't be making any trips to the Social Security office anytime soon and I can't say that I recommend you do either.

Lost and Finding

YEAH!!! Today Gavin's umbilical cord finally fell off! He is only 5 weeks and 3 days old. The larger part that was still attached started disintigrating leaving brown gunk on all of his clothes. It will be great to give him a "real" bath!
On the other hand I'm still trying to find my belly button. Before I had babies I had a very deep innie. With each pregnancy the back of my belly button has become more visable. As my tummy grows my belly button dissapears. It never pops out it just becomes completely flat like I never had a belly button. Ever so slowly it is reappearing!

This picture is just in case you were wondering if Gavin was getting enough attention!

Gavin 1 month

Gavin is a ton of fun! He is growing well. I took him to the doctor on Thursday because his umbilical cord hasn't fallen off yet. He weighs 8lbs. 8oz.! Eli's umbilical cord didn't want to come off either so the pediatrician ended up putting silver nitrate on it. Gavin's is still so attached that they didn't want to put that much silver nitrate on it. So we are stuck with it for a few more weeks.

We love having a baby in the house! I have to apologize to my little brother and sister for smothering them with kisses until they cried, jostling them around while I was holding them on my lap, and only being able to talk to them with our noses almost touching so they would go cross eyed. Isn't great to have a big sister!

How Precious

The other day Eli asked if he could hold Gavin. I helped Eli get all set up and placed Gavin into Eli's arms. After sitting there for a few seconds Eli asked if we could say a prayer. I said sure! This was Eli's prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for this beautiful baby. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen. This definately pulled at my heartstrings! I'm so lucky to have such great kids!

Change is good?

Do you notice anything different???
Well...after we had the baby home for a few days and we kept calling Eli, Levi and Levi, Eli we decided that we were going to change the baby's name. We didn't want to always be calling the boys by the wrong name. Oh, man, we decided on the name in the hospital to try and avoid the complicated process of naming the baby later. How much work was this going to be? Well, as it turns out, it really isn't that big of a deal to change a baby's name. We made an appointment with the vital records office and we went down there, spoke to a really nice lady and wrote in the new name, simple as that!

Week One

Yesterday my friend Ashley came over and took some darling pictures!

Remembering the good old days on the inside!

We went to the first doctors appointment. Everything went well. We had to go back today for a weight check so on Tuesday he weighed 6lbs 2oz and today he weighs
6lbs 3oz!

He's Here!!!

Here is the story.........

We arrived at the hospital at the scheduled time. We checked in and the ladies at the front desk said that it was going to be awhile because they had had an eventful morning. One lady had her baby in the hallway and another had come in with no prenatal care and ended up delivering twins. We waited in the lobby for awhile then they called us back, much sooner than we expected. I got a 2hr operation prep in about 30 minutes including epidural and all. The specialist that was going to be preforming the c-section needed to stay on schedule so I got to go in before my doctor's first scheduled c-section. The worst part of the prep was getting the IV's started in both arms because I was at risk for bleeding due to the adhesion's. Putting in the epidural was a snap although when they got everything set up in the OR and started the incision I could feel everything. Don't worry I told them! It took awhile for the epidual to take especially on the left side so the specialist just went ahead and used a ton of lidacaine. It took about 30 minutes for them to get through the adhesion's and get the baby out. He did really well. His first apgar score was an 8 and the second a 10. He setteled down very quickly so when Spencer first brought him over to me I told him to take him back because I wanted to hear him cry more!

He was born at 11:17am. He weighed 6lbs. 9oz. and was 18" long.

I got to hold him and admire him all of the way to recovery. Wow, baby number 3.

The kids absolutely love him. Kenzi is so excited to be a big sister again. She doesn't want to give anyone else a turn holding him. She will make a great mom someday! Eli is excited too, he likes to hold his baby brother and be right by him. After awhile though he thought that is was pretty fun to explore the hosiptal rooom.

Levi LaMonte is the name that we finally decided on. LaMonte is after my Pappy Newhouse. We hope that Levi has the courage, strength, and dedication that his Great Pappy has. As you can see, Levi has been practicing playing Superman so that he can keep up with his big brother!

We finally got to come home Friday afternoon! We are both doing great!

Only a few more days!

It is official, the c-section is scheduled for August 19,2008. The 19th will be his birthday unless I go into labor before then. I highly doubt that I will! So much for having 8-18-08 be his birthday because the bladder/bowel specialist operating day is only on Tuesdays. The bladder/bowel specialist will be doing the surgery and my OBGYN will be assisting. They are planning on putting in some mesh-like material to hopefully prevent some of the adhesion's from reforming. It's right around the corner!

What Do You Think?

When I first started seeing the OBGYN for this pregnancy I told her that when the Dr. was taking out Eli she said that I would need to have a c-section if I was going to be having any more babies because of adhesion's. Adhesion's are scar tissue that is spiderweb like. So she sent for the operative report. A few visits later she said that she may want to do an amnio at 37 weeks to see if the baby's lungs were ready and if they were then she would take him out at that point. Well, later when we were talking about scheduling a c-section she told me that she couldn't schedule it any earlier than one week before he was due. I reminded her about the whole 37 week thing and she said that she didn't think that taking him that early was necessary any more. Then, on Wednesday she called and said that after reviewing my chart she was going to need a bladder/bowel specialist in the OR with her and she would be assisting them during the c-section because my adhesion's were so extensive. She also said that she was going to schedule an amnio for Thursday. I really didn't want to go the amnio route because I have heard about the possible complications but, I thought that if she was recommending it then the benefits must outweigh the risks. So yesterday at 8:30am we went in for a NST then the amnio and then another NST and everything went fine. I was told that I should have the results within a few hours. At 4pm I was calling my doctor to see if she had the results. I was told that the nurse was on the other line trying to get the information from the hospital. My doctor called at 5pm and said that the baby's lungs are quite ready so we are going to have to wait for now and possibly do another amnio in about a week. So we are back to the same waiting game as everyone else!

Eli's Birthday

Eli's first picture
He is one
Here he is at two
Oh, he is three

Eli turns 4 today! I can't believe how fast he has grown into a little maniac..., I mean man. He melts my heart when out of the blue he will come up to me just to tell me that he loves me. Right now he really likes robots,cars, and transformers. For awhile now he has been able to say the sounds that the letters make and he can recognize the whole alphabet. He can also write his own name. We are so glad that he is a part of our family, we wouldn't know what we would do without him!