Catching some ZZZ's

So I don't know what it is about having a baby but I find myself taking pictures all the time. I think that everything about him is just absolutely adorable. So when I came downstairs today and found my two favorite boys snoozing together I just couldn't help myself :)

Such a fun Christmas!

This Christmas was the best ever! Talk about an amazing Christmas gift to finally have our little man here with us. He is SO loved! I don't know what we ever did without him!

Grandpa's Galore!

Papa came down and we took some pictures with Cash and Grandpa and Great-Papa. Cash is one spoiled little buddy. He's the first grandchild and first great-grandchild. His grandpas just adore him!

Merry Christmas

Grandma Hansen got Cash some Christmas jammies that are just adorable. I had to take some pictures. I feel like he is changing and growing so fast too! So I figured pictures would be a good thing. Oh... funny side note. He does that monster growl thing (in the first picture) with his hands all the time. It totally makes me laugh! He came with it. When I had him and they took him to dry him off he started it. I think he was trying to scare the nurse into leaving him alone :)

Cute buddy!

A few new pics! I got these off of Sandy's Facebook. I CANNOT wait to see them all! Cute buddy!

The big arrival!

Cash Matthew was born December 5th 2008 at 9:43am. Hey weighed 6 lbs 6 oz and was 19 inches long.

What a surprise! It all started Thursday night: 

6:30pm... Dinner with Matt's Parents and the Larsens.

7:00pm... Not feeling good, walking around the restaurant to try to get the contractions to go away.

9:30pm... Riding home from Matt's parents reclined in the passenger seat... Still not feeling good.

11:00pm... Matt goes to bed. I stayed up to finish some charting for work... Still not feeling good.

12:30am... Conversation goes like this

Amber: "Honey, I'm really not feeling good. I think this might be it. Do you think this is 

it?"

Matt: "No hon, I don't think this is it. Why don't you come to bed?"

1:00am... pacing around the house.

2:00am... Amber: "I really think this is it babe. I'm calling the hospital."

2:30am... Into the hospital. Hooked up to monitors. No progression since my last doctor's appointment. Awesome! Just what I wanted to hear. They hooked me up to monitors for an evaluation but were planning on sending me home in an hour.

3:00am... We heard a big BOOM! on the monitor and I was pretty sure it was my water breaking or I had just peed my pants.

3:30am... Amber: "I need an epidural NOW!" I found out what real contractions were and going to my "happy place" was a bunch of bull crap. There IS no happy place when you're in that much pain.

4:00am... I have never been so elated to see a complete stranger than when the nurse anesthetist walked in. I think I might have told him that I loved him but I'm not sure. All I know is that Matt was laughing at me.

4:15-9:00am... Calling all the family to bear my testimony of epidurals... oh! and to let them know we were in labor. 

915am... Calling my work to let them know I wouldn't be in today while taking a quick breather for a contraction. I'm at a nine.

9:20am... Nurses calling the doctor to tell him to get his butt to the hospital because I was progressing a lot quicker than they thought I would and I was ready to push. (Although, the pressure pushing down on me was so strong that I was pretty sure if I so much as put my legs in the stirrups he was going to fly across the room.)

9:30am... Doctor arrives (in the nick of time). I displayed my olympic style pushing (That's what they said anyway. But I'm pretty sure buddy just wanted out.)

9:40am... There's a head with TONS of hair. Oh wait... There's a head AND a hand up by his head too. OUCH! Yup, there's definitely an elbow sticking out at the same time his head comes out. Matt's pretty sure he's crawling his way out.

9:43am... Complete Bliss! 

Bowl full of jelly!

So to commemorate the end of my pregnancy we took a few belly pics! It's getting absolutely HUGE! We cannot wait for little buddy to be here. I'm so anxious! We had a false alarm this last Tuesday and the doctor had us go in to the hospital. They told me I was having great contractions every 5 minutes but no progress. AH MAN! So home we went. I guess that took care of us having to pre-register though. We can't wait to meet him. I have a feeling that he's huge though. I'm sure all mom's feel that way toward the end of the prego experience but there is a history of big babies with big heads in my family. Oh joy! Pray for me! I'll probably need it!

saying goodbye to the boy

So it's taken me a little bit. Ty went into the MTC on November 12 and I'm just barely blogging about it. I'm a bad blogger, I know.

Anyway... Ty is doing great! It was way hard to say goodbye to the boy. We were all gushing tears! He's the only boy so this is our only missionary and it was kind of hard! People say that it gets easier but we're only doing it once so I guess we'll never know.

He sure keeps us entertained though! His letters are super funny. Tyler will be Tyler :) In his last letter he told us that he was honored that we would have Cash's middle name be Tyler. Uh... Even though it's always been Cash Matthew. He says that this is the first time he's actually had to study. Which for him is a big deal. He's a super smart kid! It's funny though because his english is starting to slip a little bit. It will be interesting to see how his english is in the end of his mission :)

Love and miss you buddy!

Family Pictures

Ty's leaving on his mission next week so my parents wanted to take family pictures before he goes. Rude, I know. Of course they had to wait until I'm at the popping point :) but luckily we know the photographer and she was gracious enough and told me that she'd take some weight off for me. So we'll see what those look like when she gets done. These are just a few that we took.

Matt was really proud of himself because he dressed me. He said that he should do it more often!

I hope they call me on a mission...

So Ty-Boy is getting ready to go on his mission. We went through the temple with him on Saturday. It was really cool to have the whole family there. Who would have thought that within a year we'd all be there together. It was a cool moment. Afterward we went to breakfast at IHOP. We took some pictures and I thought I'd put them up since I've been avoiding pictures for the last few months! :) (Oh... and Britt was being a real dork!)

We love you Dougee...

It has been a really rough week for our family. A week ago I was talking to my Nana about my step-grandpa Doug and she was telling me that he hasn't been doing so well lately and that she had an appointment for him to go to the doctor in a week. They ended up going to the 49'rs game that weekend and Doug was so sick that he had an ambulance waiting for him at the airport on the way home. 

He didn't want to go to the hospital and so they went home and went to his appointment a few days later. The doctor said he was so sick that he needed to go to the hospital right then. Nana called us and told us that the skin cancer had spread throughout his whole body and the doctors didn't think he would be able to come home again, and they didn't know how long he had left. 

It ended up that Dougee didn't have very long. He passed away this last Saturday morning. It has been a heartbreaking blow. We love him dearly and are so grateful that he was a part of our lives. He has been such a great example to all of us by showing us how to overcome life's trials without letting them get the best of you. He endured so much but it was always with a smile on his face. He loved us all so freely. He treated us like we were his own when he really didn't have to... and, most importantly... he loved my Nana.

We love you and will miss you Dougee!

An Explanation :)

I got home from work a couple days ago and checked our blog. The politics thing was Matt's first blog. :) I said "honey you know no one will believe I put that on there right???" He's transitioned into being old, talk radio is ALWAYS on in his car these days. He's not a fan of left wing democrats (if you can't tell!) He is his father's son :)

Politics and The Economy

Our Lives... An Update

So things have been kind of crazy lately. I have a tendency to have a high stress level too so its a good thing I have Matt to calm me down. The company that I work for has been having some financial struggles. So because of this there have been some problems with our health insurance getting paid and our paychecks going through. So... me being me, I have a tendency to FREAK out! I was so worried that I wouldn't find a place to hire me because I'm so close to having the baby. We were so blessed because I found a great company to work for and because of my situation they are going to cover me with health insurance right away. WOW, what a relief! 

I can't believe that its getting so close to Cash being here too. We're so excited! Matt wants to be a good daddy so he's been doing his research and got online to buy some parenting books. Tonight when I got home he was cuddled up on the couch with his nose buried in one of them. SO CUTE!

"Honey... I did a bad thing..."

So it all starts out like this.... About a month ago Matt's dad was getting rid of this old rocking chair that used to be Matt's grandpa's. I saved it from the garbage deciding that it would be perfect to re-upholster and use in the baby's room for his rocker. I stripped it down with the help of my niece and father-in-law. We saved all the fabric so I would know how to cut the pieces of new fabric. Then I went and bought the cutest fabric to redo it with. Then this last Thursday I took a day off of work and spent the whole day getting it ready to go. I sanded down all the wood parts that would show and I painted them with three or four coats and antiqued them. I had it the garage set out to dry. Then I went to a church volleyball game.... (This is where it takes a turn for the worst) I called Matt to come walk me home and that's when he confessed his sins. He said "Honey, I did a really bonehead thing... but I think I can fix it!" Oh man! So he takes me by the hand and walks me out into the garage. I look down and see my chair crumpled in on itself. He looks at me again and says... "Don't worry because I think I can fix it..." (He had backed into it without even noticing until he couldn't get his truck all the way in the garage.) Then the saddest/funniest part was when he went to lift it into the back of his truck... It collapsed into splinters in his hands. So needless to say we spent the night in mourning and then Matt, being the sweetheart that he is, bought me a new rocking chair courtesy of RC Willey the next day. 

My ten favorites

Things I love:

1. The weather cooling down to offset my internal heater.

2. Having a constant buddy to go everywhere with me.

3. An absolutely great husband who loves me despite my craziness. 

4. A good deal/ discounts/ money off.

5. Pina Coladas 

6. Bagels

7. Getting good gas mileage. 

8. A short work day.

9. Family hang out time. 

10. Dippidee's heavenly pieces (cookies)

So I'm a bad blogger. I feel like I don't have anything to write about lately. But when I think about it I think I can come up with five over the past few weeks, so here we go:

1. I'm getting bigger and BIGger and BIGGER by the day. Some days I forget I'm carrying the baby in my tummy because I'm pretty sure my butt is growing faster than my tummy.

2. Little buddy loves to "shake his tail feather" right as I start to fall asleep at night. (I think he's  getting me ready for the "no sleep" thing. So cute though! I find myself talking to my tummy!

3. I'm ready to spray round-up all over my overgrown garden. I swear, its the mutant garden! The tomatoes are collapsing the cages, the squash are growing up the fence and into the neighbors yard, and the corn are 8 feet tall. I feel like I step into a different realm when I walk into my  backyard.

4. We got some awesome baby furniture that retails for $3,500 bucks and we only paid $500 for all of it (armoire, nightstand, crib, and chest of drawers). Yeah... It was pretty much better than Christmas!

5. Matt is sure he's a great white hunter lately and is convinced that he needs to bring home an elk to feed the family because we're sure to starve without the meat of his kill. So we've been spending every weekend up in Strawberry waiting for him to prove his manhood!

 

Britt and Jeff's Wedding Luncheon

Brittany and Jeff's wedding day was absolutely beautiful. It ended up being amazing. They're the cutest couple! I'm so excited for them.

The big belly contest

We went to dinner with some friends for Traci's Birthday. Malea and I are both prego and about a week apart. I don't have any pictures of my big belly yet so we figured we'd start. This picture is at 20 weeks. I'm so excited for little buddy to be here. Malea is having a girl so we've decided that they need to grow up and get married!

Breaking Dawn

I've been looking forward to the release of "Breaking Dawn" for about 3 months now. I've been so pumped to read it. So when it came out August 1st at midnight I was so there, and Matt was sweet enough to be "so there" with me :)  My brother and his girlfriend met us there too. Not for her but for him. Although, if you were to ask him he'd say he was there to support her (even though she hasn't read any of the books). It took me two days to finish it but Ty beat me... he had the book finished by 6:00pm the next night. Oh so good!

This blog is a little late but I figure better late than never. It was my mom's birthday in the end of July. To understand the significance of the present we got her you have to understand my mom's devotion to her dog. She loves that dog like one of her kids. All of us are leaving and my parents are going to be "empty nesters" and my mom feels like all she has left is her dog. 

Okay... so back to the story... The dog tore her ACL and could barely walk and my parents thought we were going to have to put her down because the surgery was almost $2000. So for my mom's birthday we surprised her and we all pitched in and my dad scheduled the surgery. We went to Olive Garden for dinner and each of us gave her an envelope with a piece of the puzzle/note that told her what we were doing. She was so happy that she started crying. If you know my mom, you know that's a big deal. I think I can count the number of times she's cried on one hand. Anyway... It was pretty cool to give her something that really mattered. Happy Birthday Mama!

The day daddy met little buddy

So today is a day that both Matt and I have been looking forward to ever since i started to feel Cash kick. Matt has wanted to feel him kick so bad so when he did today it was such a fun thing. The story starts like this...

I was reading in my pregnancy book that you can hear the baby's heartbeat with a stethoscope after 18 weeks, so now that I am almost 20 I thought I'd be able to hear it. I was lying on the floor and Matt was trying to find his heartbeat with the stethoscope and all of a sudden we SAW him kick the stethoscope! You'd think that he was too small to move like that but he must have been real mad we were squishing him. So really if you want to be technical I guess Matt saw a kick before he felt it! Then after that he kicked probably 7 or 8 more times. I had fruity pebbles for breakfast and I'm thinking he was feeling the sugar high!

So the moral of the story is... If you want to see your baby's athletic ability give him the breakfast of champions!

The need for big mama pants

So I've been having a really large struggle (literally) with my growing figure. I love the belly part but I CANNOT for the life of me bring myself to buy maternity jeans. I've worked up to it a few times and gone shopping but that's as far as it goes. I see the jeans with the elastic waistbands and I just can't bring myself to even try them on. I just look at them and I turn around and walk out of the store. It is a sad sad situation! So I've resorted to wearing my regular jeans with really long shirts to cover up the fact that they are ALL THE WAY undone underneath! The rubber-band trick has been working thus far but I'm seriously concerned about when I'm too big for that trick. I've heard that belly bands are a glorious thing. Anyone have any advice???

BONA FIDE NURSE!

It is official! I found out tonight that I passed my boards! Done with the NCLEX once and for all! YAY! Now Matt says I can take all the unneeded stress out of my life and concentrate on my pregnancy! It will be so stinking nice to be done with studying and to just have work to concentrate on. OH JOY!!!

I think Cash was a happy boy too! He's been kicking more and more lately. It's been a really cool feeling. I don't know if its just because I recognize it now or because he's getting bigger and I'm more able to feel it.

OH HAPPY DAY!

Sheri's Birthday

Sheri's birthday was in the end of June and we all got together to celebrate. Oh my gosh, we had so much fun! We headed up to Rock Port and went boating. We spent the day hanging out on the beach making burgers and eating cake. It is so much fun to spend time with everyone. It has been so neat because all the boys have been friends since elementary school, and now all the girls have become friends too in the process!

Jessica's Wedding

So our camera ran out of batteries before I was able to download these pictures and then we realized our battery charger was left in Lake Powell... soo.... that is why I'm a little behind on these next few blogs.

Matt has some good friends from college that he spent a bunch of time with. There were three girls and three boys and we went to one of "the girls" weddings in the end of June. It was so fun to see everyone. Now 5 out of the 6 are married and the last one is on a mission. It was really fun for Matt to be able to see his buddies again. It seems like life gets so busy sometimes! So far just one of the couples has a baby (who is absolutely adorable) and we'll be next with little Cash! 

IT'S A BOY!!

Daddy got his wish! We went and had our ultrasound today and little buddy wasn't modest in the least. He spread his legs wide open for us to see (not only once but at lots of different angles, almost like he was showing off!) and... IT'S A BOY! Matt got an ear-to-ear smile. It was amazing to see his little feet, hands and body. In part of the ultrasound it even looked like he was sucking his little thumb. It was really fun for me too because I was able to see him kick and feel it at the same time. I had thought that what I was feeling was kicking but I wasn't sure until today. I suppose he wanted to inform me because he curled up both legs and kicked with all his might! Oh my gosh! I CANNOT wait for him to be here! Seeing him today made it so much more real. Time to go shopping :) I think we're going to go with Cash Matthew Hansen. Matt says he's going to teach him to spell his name like the symbol "$" I told him the kindergarten teachers would really appreciate that! Yay for little buddy!!!

So I don't blog as often as I should and I've come to the conclusion that its because I feel like I have to have pictures to blog on. I'm trying to get over that mindset so I can blog more regularly. Things are going good. Life at the Hansen home has just been crazy (to put it lightly) Matt and I are both working hard at our new jobs, but loving it as we go. Matt's mom comes home from the hospital tomorrow so Matt has been busy with helping to get the house wheelchair ready. YAY for hospital Discharges! We're excited to have her home and I think she'll be glad if she never steps foot in another hospital the rest of her life! Its been a long 2 months, but we're so grateful because it could have been so much worse! 

No more morning sickness for me! YAY! Although I've started to have ligament pain which is something I was never warned about, and I'm not a fan of. BUT.... I'm starting to show so its worth it. It makes me feel like there really is a baby in there. Matt is so excited. He comes home from work and rubs my growing belly :) He's going to be a great daddy I can hardly wait! We're also excited because we find out what it is in 3 and a 1/2 weeks (July 21st). Matt has been having dreams about it being a boy but I know he'd be thrilled with either. If it was a girl she'd be his princess. I'll be excited for whatever comes our way. I just want a healthy baby :)

Oh... and one last thought. We're HUGE "So You Think You Can Dance" Junkies! I don't know how to put youtube videos on my blog but here's the address. OH GOSH! SO GOOD!!!! Check this dance out... It was incredible!

So this last week was one that we've been looking forward to for quite some time! We planned a few trips to Lake Powell this summer and went on our first one last week. It was awesome! Although not as hot as it usually is down there (So much for global warming!) We spent the week wake boarding, surfing and tubing. There was also a wakeboard competition going on that we watched. There were a bunch of pro's from all over the US that no one knew but Matt (of course!) Gotta love boating though, Oh such fun!