Happy Bday Nana!

Here are some pictures I took of McKay a week ago (when he was 3 weeks old). I go back to work in less than a month and I'm trying to enjoy every minute I have to be home with McKay. Time sure does fly when you don't want it to.

Also, today is my mom's birthday!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! We had such a great time when she was here helping out and we miss her TONS! My parents, Becca, and Lillia will be coming here the beginning of April - that's 106 days in case you were wondering...I can't wait!

Baby Story

We've been home for two weeks now, and I can't believe how quickly it's gone by. I've been meaning to post an update, but it feels like I never have a free minute. McKay's sleeping right now so I thought I should take advantage of it.

Okay so here's my story of his birth. On November 15th at 1:30am I woke up with a horrible pain stretching across the top of my stomach (not a contraction). I thought it was just a stomach ache so I tried eating and that didn't help so I tried to throw up and that didn't help. I laid on the couch and tried to go back to sleep, but I the pain was so intense that I ended up just crying for an hour. Sean woke up to see what was going on and he convinced me to call my doctor. I spoke to the dr.'s assistant who told me I should probably head to the hospital. So we ended up driving to Idaho Falls around 4:30am. Let me tell you, it was the longest 30 minute drive of my life because of the pain.

When I got to the hospital I was rushed into a labor and delivery room where they told me I was dilated to a 6 and that the pain I was having was actually my liver. I had HELLP syndrome ( H -- hemolysis; EL -- elevated liver enzymes; LP -- low platelet count) which meant I needed to deliver right away. It was only one day before my due date (and my dad's 60th bday) so I was more than ready to have the baby. Anyways I was put on pitocin around 6am, got an epidural at 7 (which was amazing!!!), and was ready to push around 11. McKay was born at 12:17pm. The rest is history.

I did end up having to stay in the hospital for 6 days because they were monitoring the HELLP syndrome and was on medicine that made me a little loopy, but I've been doing well since we've been home. I'm loving spending time getting to know McKay and I still think he's perfect (even though he gets very pleased with himself whenever he pees on me while I'm changing him).

Here are a couple of pictures taken on Thanksgiving.

11 days old and very sleepy after screaming all through Thanksgiving dinner :o)

Kent McKay Edwards

Our biggest news for the year is that our baby McKay was born on November 15, 2009 at 12:17pm. He weighed 6 lbs 5 oz and was 20 inches long. We spent almost 6 days in the hospital (because of complications with me - not McKay) but we are now home with my parents and are very happy to be here. I love to just sit and stare at my beautiful boy and think he's the best thing ever (but hey, I'm biased!). Anyways I'll try to update more later and include the story of his birth and all that. For now though, please enjoy the pictures :o)

Happy Halloween!

From Sean, Rachel, and the baby pumpkin (who will be here in 2 weeks!)

Milla!

Sean's sister, Tani, had her baby girl on Saturday the 24th. Milla weighed 6lbs 10 oz and was 20" long. She looks absolutely beautiful and perfect and we can't wait to meet her in person!

Beautiful Milla (with a TON of hair!)

Baby and Mommy

Milan, Tani, Baby Milla, and Great Uncle Kent (AKA Big Guy)

Rexburg's Finest

Last Saturday my friends Amy and Lynette hosted a baby shower for me. I was so thankful for my good friends who came and "showered" me with awesome gifts. I got some really cute baby clothes and a lot of helpful items. It was nice to just sit and chat and have a bunch of my friends all in the same room. I had a great time - BIG thanks to Amy and Lynette and everyone who came :o)

**Whitney - Sorry we took pictures after you left!

Alisa, me, and Jamie

How great are these cupcakes (can you tell they're little birds on them?)!? They were really yummy too!

Some of my favorite gals - Lynette, Susan, me, Marilyn, and Janeese

My beautiful hosts - Lynette and Amy

Okay so this next picture has absolutely nothing to do with my shower, but I love it and have to share. Here's a pic of my sister's baby, Lillia, and it was taken about a month ago, but I just can't get over how great it is! Those eyes and her expression! Oh, I miss my niece Lillia!

Go Sean!

So I thought I should post something other than just pictures of my belly, so here we go. Sean has recently taken on a new position at his school. So now he's not just the AP English teacher or the only Spanish teacher, he's now also the Driver's Ed teacher!!! How crazy / scary is that? Well, he's not scared, but I'd be scared to be driving with a bunch of 16 year olds.

Anyways so before he can actually start teaching he has to be certified as a driver's ed teacher. Turns out it's a lot harder than you'd think. He's taking an online course and has to complete all kinds of assignments. For his last assignment he had to make this model course to demonstrate different situations to his students. Since I was on Spud Harvest (so was Sean) I offered to help out. Sean and I have very different work habits so we don't often work together on projects. If I had to do this assignment I probably would've just made my course by using a poster board and some markers. Not Sean. He went all out and really put a lot of work and time into it. He used a canvas fabric, paint, and sharpie paint pens - along with a lot of measuring, taping off sections, and more paint.

Long story short - it turned out great! His teacher also loved it and is going to use it as an example for future classes. Way to go Sean! Your hard work definitely paid off.

Bird's eye view

How cute are these signs? It kinda makes me wish I still had my Barbies and the convertable car to drive around with.

To scale and everything!

34 weeks

42 more days to go! Also, this picture was taken on October 5th, which was the first time it SNOWED here in Rexburg. ugh!

32 weeks

8 more weeks to go! Tums are my best friend since I get heart burn ALL the time. Oh well - I can't wait to meet our little guy!

31 weeks

Note to self: Maybe the white shirt against the white wall wasn't the best choice...it's a little hard to see the difference.

30 weeks

Emily and Ryan's Wedding!

I flew to Indianapolis for my friend Emily's wedding on Aug. 15th. My family drove out to meet me and we spent the night and part of Saturday together. It was so fun to see them again. Plus Becca and I took Lillia swimming in the hotel pool. Then we met up with Kristin and Jen and all had lunch together. The wedding was absolutely beautiful and Emily looked amazing. We got to spend time with Loretta at the reception and the four of us had fun reminiscing. It was a great little reunion and I'm glad we were all there for Em's special day.

California

So I've been seriously slacking when it comes to our blog! So I thought the easiest way for me to catch up on our summer vacations is just to post some pictures. Really when I look at blogs thats what I mainly just look at. But let me say - we had a really nice time in San Luis. We went to the beach 3 times, ate some seriously great food, loved spending time with family, and enjoyed the perfect California weather. So here are some of the picture highlights:

Our Stay in Vegas

Our favorite place to stay when we go to Las Vegas is at the Paris Hotel. Not that we've stayed many other places (maybe two others?) but the last four or five times there we go to the Paris. We like it because the rooms are great, the rates are pretty decent, it's right on the strip, and best of all - it's right across from the Bellagio where we LOVE the buffet (it's a pregnant girls dream I tell you!).

So anyways we didn't get to Vegas until about 8:30pm because I had a doctors appointment that day. When we checked in for our reserved room (which was the least expensive of the rooms there) we found out that all those rooms were full so they let us stay in one of their luxury suites for the night. When we walked into our room we couldn't stop laughing because this room was absolutely HUGE and beautiful! It was on the second to highest floor and was totally amazing. Turns out this room normally cost $500 (on a week night!!) to stay in - but don't worry we only had to pay for the room we reserved.

To celebrate this awesome upgrade we went down to the restaurants there and I got a nice, big chocolate eclair. Here are a couple pictures of the room so you can all be jealous.

Vacation - Part 1

We had a great time in Ohio. It was so nice to spend some relaxing, quality time with family. We really didn't do a ton. I babysat Becca's little girl, Lillia, and LOVED being with my newest niece. We also spent a day in Kirtland seeing the sights. We did some shopping, hung out with my grandparents who flew in from AZ, ate yummy Graeter's ice cream, and enjoyed sitting on the porch in the wonderful weather. It was so much fun and I was very sad to leave. :o(

me and Sean in Kirtland

Happy Baby Lillia

me, Sarah, and Matt

Kristin, Baby Edwards, and me

Becca and me attempting to feed Lillia rice cereal

4 generations. me, Nana, Becca, Lillia, and Mom

After spending one day at home in Idaho running errands, we just got into San Luis Obispo, CA late last night. Oh, we also had an awesome stay at our night in Vegas, but I think I'll save that story for later!

P.S. I am 6 months along now. Feeling great, even though my bump is still way tiny. I've gained 6 pounds but I'm doing well and enjoying feeling all the tiny kicks!

At the moment

Lately I've been craving nectarines and frosties (is that the plural for "frosty"?) from Wendy's.

Yum...just typing it makes me want them.

I have one more week of summer school and then next Saturday we'll begin our cross country trip. Wish us luck! Oh, and I hope everyone has a fun, safe 4th of July!

BOY!!!!

Baby Boy Edwards will be joining our family in November. The name we're planning on is Kent McKay Edwards and then calling him McKay after Sean's brother. He was so very active during the ultrasound yesterday. Hopefully I'll be able to start feeling him pretty soon!

Some News

It's time for Sean and me to finally make our big announcement....We're going to have a BABY in November right before Thanksgiving. I'm 16 weeks along and we'll find out if it's a boy or a girl in two weeks! Any guesses? 

It's been a rough pregnancy so far. Lots and lots of morning sickness. By the way, the "morning" part of morning sickness is the biggest lie EVER. Talk about all the time sickness. Anyways it's starting to go away now and I'm feeling much better. I'm still planning on teaching next year and we're already found a great sitter that we're excited about. So, yeah, that's our happy news! Yay for us!