Happy 10th Anniversary To Us!

     I'm having to catch up to tell about our anniversary since I didn't get it done before Nathan was born 3 days later.
     Daren and I celebrated our tenth anniversary on June 24, 2010.  We were so close to having 5 kids by the time we were married 10 years.  Oh well, close enough. :)  Due to the fact that I was 8 months pregnant, we couldn't do anything too big to celebrate our tenth, and we decided we'll have to put off a big romantic getaway for another year.  For Father's Day we gave Daren a fishing license, so we decided a day trip to Lake Isabella wouldn't be too far away in case I went into labor.  Fishing and swimming was the plan for some family fun.  After that, we would drop the kids off at my parent's house and have a night to ourselves to play some Band Hero.  Since we didn't get to do something big for our anniversary, we decided to buy ourselves the Band Hero game for our gift to each other.
     Unfortunately, the trip to Lake Isabella wasn't quite what we'd hoped.  It didn't seem windy at all until we finally got down to the lake.  But down by the shore, it was SO windy!  I was sort of miserable.  We brought a shade structure but it kept getting blown around.  I finally put some chairs around the legs to try to anchor it, but even the chairs fell over once.  One of the legs ended up getting bent, which was sad since it's a brand new shade structure.  And since the ground was sloped, it was sort of uncomfortable to be sitting in a folding chair 8 months pregnant.  The fishing wasn't very good for Daren since he was trying to cast into the wind.  But we held out for awhile since Daren and the girls were having so much fun fishing and swimming.  Even when we said it was time to go, the girls were really disappointed.  I'm glad they had so much fun.
     After we got back from the lake, we took a LONG nap.  When we got up, we fed the girls some macaroni and cheese, then took them to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Then Daren and I got some takeout from Bernadino's.  They make the most amazing taco salads-I got the chicken and Daren got the steak.  We took our salads home to eat, and then played Band Hero for a few hours.  We are both getting pretty good on the easy setting.  It has been a fun toy for the whole family.  The girls really love playing it and I have to say, it is REALLY fun to watch them play.  Haylee especially can get into it when she's on guitar.  I think she might be trying to imitate her avatar.
     Being 8 months pregnant doesn't make for the most exciting anniversary, but I loved having some alone time with Daren.  It's been a wonderful ten years that has blessed us with 5 beautiful children.

Natalee was a huge help with Kelsey.  Kelsey kept wanting to play in the water but since I didn't have a swimsuit and Daren was fishing, Natalee ended up holding her in the water.

Daddy and his girls

It's Been One Week

Nathan was smiling in his sleep last night and luckily I had the camera right next to me.  I missed the really big one but this one is still pretty cute.  I love baby smiles.

     Nathan was one week old yesterday, on the 4th of July.  It was a Sunday so we didn't participate in the usual 4th of July celebrations.  Nathan and I stayed home while Daren took all the girls to church.  Each of the girls brought a picture of herself holding her new baby brother to show to her class.  Grandma Poetschlag told me that Kelsey held on to her picture all through Sacrament Meeting.  Nathan and I spent the morning sound asleep!  It felt so good to catch up.  I didn't even need a nap later in the day.

     In the evening, my mom and dad and grandma came over for dinner.  We had meatloaf with baked potatoes and Daren made a patriotic jello cake for dessert.  After topping it with the cool whip, he put sliced strawberries and blueberries all over the top.  It was Yummy!  It was pretty low key for 4th of July but a nice Sabbath way to celebrate with family.

     After dinner, we got a call from the Byerly's that they were going to come pick up their keys.  Daren and the girls had taken care of their animals a couple of days for them.  The girls immediately ran outside to wait for them, figuring they would be there any second since they live so close.  They decided to ride their bikes over so it took a little longer than the girls thought.  But then the sprinklers came on so Mackenzie comes in a little wet.  She said Haylee made her get wet.  Before I knew it, Mackenzie and Haylee had both changed into swimsuits and were headed out the front door for the sprinklers.  I stopped them right away-no running through the sprinklers on the Sabbath-go take off your swimsuits and get real clothes on right now!  But Mackenzie couldn't just leave it alone.  In her cute little red, white, and blue swimsuit, she comes over, "But why Mommy?  Why can't we just go play in the water?"  So I told her, "Today is the Sabbath Day and we try to be reverent on Sundays."  Next FHE lesson topic: Reverence.  Mackenzie's very logical response was, "Well we won't talk..."  So I need to teach my kids that being reverent isn't just not talking, although they haven't exactly mastered that part of reverence yet during Sacrament Meeting.

     I think the first week that a baby is home is usually the hardest.  I might change my mind when Daren goes back to work.  But having him home during this time has been so wonderful.  I don't know why I never planned for a summer baby before!  It's been really great to have him here to take care of the kids so I could just focus on taking care of Nathan and myself.  My mom has been a huge help too.  She's been cooking for us, cleaning up and sitting with the kids during naptimes so that they'll keep quieter while we get some rest.

     I still can hardly believe that we have a little boy now.  But I'm so glad that we do!

Kelsey got a little tired during dinner since she wouldn't take a nap after church.

A few pictures taken during the first week:

One of his rare awake moments.  The girls get so excited when his eyes are open.

Haylee adores her baby brother

Sound asleep in the bassinet.  I couldn't decide which picture was cuter so I just had to put them both in even though they are almost exactly the same.

Bringing Nathan Home

     We brought Nathan home the next day (June 28) in the evening.  We were sad to find out that his blood test showed that his platelet count was low (normal is 250,000, his were 80,000).  Dr. Kitty, our pediatrician, said that it could be related a bad cold virus that I had a few weeks earlier, and that it could recover on its own.  But there was a chance that it was something more serious.  He got his blood retested yesterday and his platelets were up much higher to 144,000.  So we'll test him again tomorrow, but it looks like they'll be back to normal all on their own.  Yay!
     The girls were so happy to have their baby brother home with them.  They couldn't wait to hold him again so we took a bunch more pictures of the girls with their little brother.

The First Day at Home

Kelsey wouldn't get in the picture unless she got to hold Nathan

Nathan gets a kiss from each of his sisters.  They are convinced he's not going to let them kiss him when he's older.  They're probably right.  :)

More Pictures at the Hospital

     Most of the time it was just Daren and me at the hospital with Nathan.  We took some pretty cute pictures in our free time.  The hospital really downgraded their TV service since Kelsey was born.  They didn't even have cable anymore.  Just the basic 7 local channels.  It was pretty boring.  Last time we watched USA and enjoyed watching Psych and Monk during our stay.  I will say that they improved their food though.  Last time I couldn't even choke down the food they brought me and Daren went out and bought me fast food.  This time it was pretty good.  I just wish they would give me a menu so I could choose.  They finally brought me one Monday so I could pick for Tuesday.  Well, we were going home Monday evening so that was no help. 

Welcome Nathan!

Nathan William Hardy

June 27, 2010, 10:34 a.m.

6 lbs. 15 oz.

20 inches

     He made it!  Nathan decided he'd like to come just as early as Kelsey did.  I was 36 1/2 weeks pregnant, but I was sure I was going to make it to July.  Sunday morning, I woke up thinking I might have felt a little something.  I wasn't sure though, so I kept getting everything ready for church.  Especially since I was in charge of sharing time.  Luckily we had a game plan for this.  Sandi Dickey and Rachel Huber (my counselors) are both out of town.  Sandi had arranged for Sandi Collins to fill in for me if I went into labor.  By 7:30 or 8:00, I knew I was in labor and I just needed to get everything together so I could get to the hospital.  We called my mom and decided to finish getting the kids ready for church, then drop them off at the church building and head for the hospital.  We got to the church and got the kids situated with my mom, the sharing time stuff to Sandi, and my dad and Daren gave me a blessing.

     We made it to the hospital just after 9:00.  It didn't take very long.  I really wanted the epidural, but unfortunately, he was coming too fast again.  Dr. Miller was off, so Dr. Carroll was the one who delivered Nathan.  He made his arrival only an hour and a half after we got to the hospital.  Apparently, some people at church thought that I'd come to Sacrament Meeting and then gone into labor and rushed to the hospital only to barely make it.  But as close as it was, I didn't almost deliver in the parking lot or anything like that.

     The girls were very excited to be able to come over straight after church to visit their new baby brother.  We gave Kelsey her new doll.  But she was pretty interested in the real baby too.  She said his name right away and she tells us that she loves him.

     We are so glad that Nathan is here!  We love him so much and the girls are being such big helpers.  They are so happy to have a baby brother.  Our family wouldn't be complete without him.

The Hardy Boys (sounds better than the Hardy Boy, doesn't it?)

Our whole family together.  Five kids! Wow!

Grandpa Moffitt

Grandma Moffitt

Great-Grandma Poetschlag

Natalee

Haylee

Mackenzie

Kelsey

This is Kelsey's new doll.  We told her its name was Emily since that was our back-up name if Nathan came out a girl.

     All of the girls got a sticker that said, "I'm a Big Sister" from the hospital.  One thing that was disappointing was that Mackenzie was giving a talk in primary and we had to miss it.  But my mom was there to help her.  Here she is holding the pencil that she picked out for giving her talk.  She chose to talk about Nephi and the brass plates.