Introducing: Benson Evan Bradford Skidmore

Brad, Hyrum, and I are so excited to introduce our newest addition to our family, Benson Evan Bradford Skidmore.

Benson was born on Thursday Jan 20th at 5:10pm by C-section. He weighed 8lbs 4.5oz and was 19inches long.

He is a great sleeper and extremely mellow. Hyrum loves him (as long as daddy isn't holding Benson) and calls him babybabybaby. We have had some adjusting but are really loving life and feel extremely blessed. Hopefully I will feel up to blogging his birth story soon, but until then, here are some pictures!

Mommy and Baby Update

Life has been really crazy lately, especially this past week. On Tuesday, I got a really bad headache but waited it out since I had an apt that afternoon. When I got to Dr. Brown's office, my headache had worsened and my blood  pressure had gone up. With a trip to the hospital and a couple of hours, they were able to get my blood pressure back down but couldn't get rid of the headache.  All test came back fine so they sent me home.

After two days, the headache had only gotten worse, so I called Dr. Brown and got instructions to go straight to the hospital. When I got there, all test were normal again and my blood pressure was fine. After lots of medication and an afternoon on the OB floor with no relief, they decided I needed a neuro consult. So down to the ER I went to get one. After some more meds and a CT scan, they found that I had something on the left hemisphere of my brain that was most likely swelling. They now needed a MRI. While waiting for my turn, the medicine started to help and my headache started to decrease. When the MRI came back, I was all clear. The swelling they had seen on the CT had gone down and with my headache getting better, they decide to send me home. There is no clear answer on why I develop swelling on the brain, we only know that I do.

They baby is doing great and is super healthy. Dr. Brown feels like this has nothing to do with the baby while the ER doctor felt like it had to have something to do with the baby since this is the second time this has happened (both at the end of my pregnancies). So for now I am on strict rest from Brad. Too much activity or excitment makes my headache worsened. I have another apt. with Dr. Brown on Tuesday and hope to make a plan then.

Through this all, I am grateful for friends and family support and love/care. I am grateful for wonderful nurses and doctors and their care. Both my OB doc and ER doc called to check back up on my yesterday. I had a great expereince in the ER and felt like they really cared (this was a new one for me). Most of all I am grateful for Brad and his love, patience, and understanding!

We are all hanging in there and await Benson's arrival!

A day at the Park

Hyrum **LOVES** outside. It is a battle everyday to keep him distracted from outside. I think he would live outside if I would let him. A couple of Friday's ago, Brad and I decided that a top priority was taking Hyrum to the park and playing with him. We were there around an hour and a half and Hyrum was still sad when we left. Here are some fun pictures to get you to my next post (which is soon, I PROMISE) about Christmas.

 He can't get enough of sliding!

 Brad and Hyrum heading to the BIG slide! (Brad barely fit)

He LOVES to swing!

Look for my next post!

Our First Snow

On Monday night we had our first snow of the year. Although Hyrum had seen snow last year, this was the first time he could actually realize what was going on and play in it. Saying that the LOVED it would be an understatement. If Brad even turned him in the direction of the door he would start crying. He DID NOT want to come inside. At first we just let him out in his pjs and snow boots but he started freezing, so we geared him up in his snow clothes and off he went. Brad walked him all around the house and down the street. The next morning when I went to get Hyrum up, he was standing in his bed pointing at his snow boots and hat in the floor. He still remembered about the snow the night before. He is crazy! I don't know what I am going to do when winter really gets here.

Here are some fun pictures.

 Putting his boots on

 Trying to walk in his "knee high" boots

 In his snow clothes

Hyrum and I head to Texas on Friday! We are way excited. We wish you all a happy Thanksgiving!

Shutterfly Christmas Cards

So Shutterfly is doing a promotion on their adorable Christmas cards right now. You can check it out here, http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/ , if you are interested.

Christmas cards are kind of new to me. I don't ever remember my mom sending them out. The only real memory I have of them, is the huge collection that my grandmother would get. She would put them on the back of her front door. As a kid I always loved looking at all of the different cards that she would get from friends and family.
We didn't send out Christmas cards last year. I didn't really know what to do and I felt like we were to poor to do it. This year it is a must! With a one year old and a baby on the way, I feel like we need to grow up and start this fun tradition in our family.  I mean you can only be "poor college kids" for so long, right?
When I started talking to my sister she told me to check out shutterfly. Shutterfly pricing is wonderful and you get beautiful cards. I am so excited about their designs. They are amazing! There are so many to choose from. I could spend days (and probably will) trying to pick the perfect one. Some cards that stuck out to me are:
Family wall red: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/family-wall-red-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93476

With love chartreuse: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/with-love-chartreuse-christmas-5x7-folded-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93476

All of us: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/all-of-us-christmas-5x7-folded-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93476

You have to go take a look at their website if you are thinking of doing Christmas cards.
There are so many options to make it unique and your own. They offer a variety of different cards:

  Christmas cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards
Greeting cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery
Christmas photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

I can't wait until my sister, Arena, can take some family photos for us over Thanksgiving. I hope that you are all looking forward to the Holiday season. It just can't come fast enough for us!!

Jet

Fall/ Halloween!

We have been keeping *SUPER busy the last couple of weeks and I am sure things will continue to stay at this pace as we head into the holiday season. I know I have mentioned how fun it is to live in a small town before, but I am constantly reminded at every holiday. Two weekends ago we went on a hayride. It was so fun and Hyrum really loved it. This past weekend we went to trick-or-treat main st, a halloween party I threw with a couple friends, and our ward halloween party. Then we ended the weekend handing out candy to a ton of trick-or-treaters. It was a blast. Here are some of our pictures from our activities.

 Our fun invites to our party. They had a molded finger inside. sorry they were hard to photograph! I didn't get any other pictures from our party because I was so busy but I made string cheese fingers, mummy hot dogs, and then I brought pumpkin bowling to play. It was a huge hit!

 One of the wreaths I made for Halloween

The other wreath!

 Pumpkin carving for FHE

Isn't he the cutest little robot you have ever seen?! He loved his costume! He also loved all of the halloween festivities. Brad thinks it was all the colors and people, but what ever it was he loved. He would just walk around weaving in and out of people, just as happy as can be. Another really cute thing he would do was everytime he would see a pumpkin, real or fake, he would say "BOO"! So fun!

Hyrum is growing up so fast. He is an amazing walker and gets better every day. He also LOVES anything with balls, esp. Basketball. Here he is walking and playing some ball.

 This is the face he makes *EVERY TIME* he wants to play ball!

We hope you are all doing well and are looking forward to time with family as the Holidays approach. They can't come fast enough for us. Love and miss you all!

Happy Birthday Aunt Steph!

Today is the birthday of a *VERY* special lady! Steph is so amazing and we love her. She has a very special way with Hyrum and can always make him smile! Christmas break can't come fast enough, so that we can see her!

HAPPY 20TH AUNT STEPH!