December 2012: Myles' 4th Birthday!

Myles turned 4 on December 10th! 

I can't believe he's getting so old. Childhood just goes way too fast.

For his birthday he was very specific.  

He wanted a bright green (his favorite color) Mercedes made out of mini cupcakes.

We tried our best!

He had lots of people at his party.

Our friends the Browns came. His Auntie Krista came with cousins, Christian and Eden.  And Grandma and Grandpa Ludwig came too.  

Daddy got him a Mercedes emblem.  

Wyn eating ice cream. :)

Auntie Krista and cousin Eden.

We love our little Myles Man.  

Life wouldn't be so fun and interesting without him.  I'm not ready for him to get so old, but I guess parents never are.

November 2012: Another 30 year old and Thanksgiving!!

November brought another birthday in our family and another holiday of course! We love the holidays!!

We also got a new camera in November and Kenny was trying it out on the kids before church one Sunday.

Kenny turned 30!! 

Myles and Wyn were pretty excited to see the table all decorated 

in the morning. And Myles couldn't wait for Daddy to open his present, because he got him a

hot wheels car that he (Myles) really wanted. :) Wyn got him a nerf gun.

In honor of his age we got him 30 presents! There was lots of candy involved. 

Wyn on the morning of Daddy's birthday.

And finally Daddy made it out to see his birthday surprise.

Opening presents.

The party after Kenny got home from work.

Kenny's favorite kind of cake is the confetti cake with rainbow chip frosting.

The kids and I decided to spice it up a bit with adding different colors to the frosting.

And the big card in the back is from the kids.  They did such a good job making it!

Some random pictures taken in November.

Myles loves to make his food into pictures.

Here is a "house" he made. :)

I love it when I find my kids doing this!!

Wyn and a messy cookie? 

I can't tell and don't remember what she's eating here.

Thanksgiving!!!

Who doesn't LOVE Thanksgiving?! Okay, so Kenny doesn't, but he is good about enjoying it with me

even though he's not a turkey or ham fan.

This year we had visitors come! My sister Ylfe and her family came. 

It was so fun! We just love those guys!!

A tea party!

Wyn's older cousins, Jessi and Meri, are so good at playing with her, 

and she loves them to pieces!

Here's everybody eating.  

Sorry for the darkness of the picture.

The Teare family.

In back: Zac, Shawn, Ylfe, Brayton, and Ethan.

Up front: Jessi, Meri, and Orion.

Such a sweet family. Love you guys!!

Setting up for Christmas!!

Christmas is always such a fun time.

As the kids have gotten a little older they are loving it more

and more each year.

Not sure what happened to this picture, but Wyn looks cute.

And out comes the Christmas train. 

Myles loves this thing!

October 2012: Fall Fun and Wyn turns 2!!

Fall is probably my favorite season.  Just so many fun things to do and make! Plus, Wyn's birthday also falls amongst the fun.

Carving pumpkins!

This is one of my favorite pictures!!

Whenever the kids see it they say, "That's Daddy saying 'No more candy!'" 

And he really was saying that. See his hands in motion! He was using them to get his point across! :)

This is when we made our haunted graham cracker houses.

Myles did a really great job this year.  He actually got into it and wasn't just in it for the candy.

Wyn was in it for the candy.

Architect Kenny.

Myles' house.

Pregnant me with my house.

Our finished houses.

Notice there's only like one piece of candy on her house.

I wonder where all the rest went!! :)

Wyn's birthday is on the 25th of October.

She turned 2! Can't believe it!

We got to meet Daddy in town on her birthday and have lunch with him.

It was super fun!

Here's a random picture of my pregnant belly I took in October.

Back to Wyn's birthday.

She wanted cupcakes.

So we made minis and put it into a butterfly formation.

This girl loves her treats!

I'm so glad she actually wore that crown!!

Halloween!!

We went as the Incredibles this year.  It was Myles' idea.

So fun!!

Kenny and Myles' hair was supposed to turn out yellow like the Mr. Incredible and Dash, but it looks more green. 

We went to the ward trunk-or-treat and then came home and the kids took a bath in the dark with glow sticks in the water.  It was fun!

Mr. and Mrs. Incredible

Kind of a creepy looking Mr. Incredible. :)

 All of us together!

Wyn's hair we sprayed black for Violet's hair.  

She loved that!

At the trunk-or-treat.

 This picture was right before I took the kids to the library
story hour Halloween party. They were so cute and had so
much fun!                                                                                

October was a fun month for us!!

September 2012: Somebody Turned 30! And Preschool!!

At the beginning of September I turned 30.  It's honestly still weird for me to think that I'm 30.  It always used to sound so old, but now that I'm here it doesn't feel that way.

Kenny made me a mint chocolate cake with marshmallow creme filling.  It was amazing!!

 Here I am in denial apparently since I'm only blowing out 3 candles instead of 30. :)

A couple weeks into September, the kids and I started preschool. 

It has been really fun.  Around November I got a little lazy with it, but we are now picking it back up again. The kids really love it and I always feel better after we do it.  We have a number and letter of the week and do activities from there.

This first activity is with the letter 'A' and we did apple painting.  I got an edible finger paint recipe from Pinterest and the kids loved it!  We dipped apples cut into different shapes and then painted with them.  The best part was the kids could lick their fingers!!

After the finger painting the kids really needed a bath. 

I just love their sweet faces!!

A break from catching up: I had a baby! :)

Introducing:

Piece Even (pronounced Evan. It's a long story.) Ludwig

January 15, 2013

7:54 am

8 lbs. 13.4 oz. 

20 1/2 in

Four weeks ago today our little man, Pierce, was born.  I don't think I want to write down every last detail for the blogging world to read, but I will write the gist of Pierce's rocky entrance into this world.

While I was blogging about Sister Time in SLC, I was actually in labor.  I had had many false starts with this little guy, so when I felt the contractions start at 5 pm, I just slowed down so I could really concentrate on them and if they were continuing.
By 8pm I was blogging and still having steady contractions.  By 9pm Kenny called his parents to come stay with the kids and we were off to the hospital.
At my last doctor's appointment I was already at a 5 and effaced to 90%, so I was assuming this would go quickly.  I was wrong.
When they checked me in I was at a 7.  I got my epidural around midnight and then tried to sleep.  Pierce's little feet were sticking up into my ribs (just like Myles' did), so that made it hard to breathe and sleep.  
I am grateful for epidurals, but unfortunately this one slowed my labor way down.  However, I also feel that if the nurses would've just broken my water things would've progressed faster.
For some reason though they didn't break my water till around 7:30 am.  And wouldn't ya know he was born at 7:54 am. :)  It was awesome that he literally took like 5 minutes to push out.
I got to touch his arm right after he came out then they whisked him off to get cleaned up.
They noticed right away that he wasn't breathing at his best, but they let me nurse him and hold him for maybe half an hour or so before they came back to check on him.
They took him away and shortly after came to tell us that he was on oxygen and that he had some fluid in his lungs.  They said he was just having a hard time transitioning, which is pretty common.
So I took a nap.
I don't remember how long I slept, but I felt super guilty waking up and realizing that I still wasn't holding my baby.  I went down to the nursery to hold him and feed him, but he wasn't allowed to go back to my room yet.
By that night he was still on oxygen.  I fell asleep at 9pm and at 11pm Kenny woke me up with the news that the doctor felt Pierce needed to be life-flighted to the University of Utah hospital for better care, because he still wasn't breathing well and they were worried he may have an infection in his lungs.  We live in a teensie town that is four hours away from any major city.  After praying and talking Kenny and I decided we would go ahead and life-flight him as long as one of us could go with him.  Thankfully, I was very blessed that my doctor discharged me so I could go with Pierce.
The life-flight team was awesome and so nice.
Then we got to the U of U hospital and they were even nicer.  Pierce was admitted to the NICU where I couldn't hold or touch him.  Not fun.
Kenny got there the following day and to make a long story short, we spent he rest of the week in the hospital with him.  Pierce got better and better every day though and soon all of his wires and IV's were taken off of him and we got to take him home with us.

He was treated for Jaundice.  

The only cute thing about it was that he looked like

he was in a tanning bed. 

 Sorry, this is kind of a horrible picture because he has an IV in his head, 

but we thought it was cute because he was holding his bink in his mouth.

He was treated for a few different things while we were there, but overcame them all.  YAY!  That week was very much like living in a nightmare, because every time I woke up we were still living in this crazy, scary situation.  We had never left Myles and Wyn before either and I think that was one of the hardest things for us.  Even though we knew they were being taken care of, we were still aching for them.
Myles warmed up to Pierce right away.  Wyn took a little longer, but now likes him and is learning to share. :)
We know that so many people were praying for us and our little Pierce during this whole ordeal and we can't thank you enough. We are so grateful for prayer, and blessings, and the power of the Priesthood.

Just an update on Pierce.  He is doing great! He is a good, calm baby for the most part.  He's pretty gassy though and likes to grunt about it every morning at 3am. :)  He is sweet though.  I've really enjoyed the newborn stage with him.  I have with all our kids, but with him I am really trying to go slow and take things one at a time.
It's such a blessing to have such a sweet little spirit in our home.  We are so grateful for our little Pierce!