Carving of the pumpkins

This year we carved pumpkins in Cedar City with our cousins. Everyone had lots of fun carving, painting, and power drilling! Matt got the drill out to use on his pumpkin and it quickly became the favorite tool, I think every pumpkin ended up with a ton of perfectly round holes!

Here is everyone hard at work.

This was Matt's pumpkin with nasty cockroaches climbing all over it!

It really grosses me out every time I look at it.

Ella always gets so into this kind of thing, she could have painted all night.

Kash was more interested in driving the wiggle car around. Here he is getting a ride from Julia.

Sydney, Lauren, Madeline

Lauren's finished product.

If Kash wasn't riding the car, he was using the drill!

All the kids:

We love hanging out with these guys! Although next year we will have to do it in St. George because Cedar is already freezing! (I used Evie as my excuse to stay inside)

So loved

You are loved baby Evie! This little girl has had so many visitors and been held by so many people that love her. I have been such an awful picture taker so I have unfortunately only captured a few of these sweet moments.






I guess its true what they say...your first born has their entire life chronicled day by day and with every additional kid you get the camera out less and less. At least this has been the case for me. I feel so guilty, I need to try to be better.

Their Reactions

I was worried about how Ella and Kash would react to the new baby, especially when they came to the hospital to see her for the first time. I just kept remembering when I had Kash and my mom brought little 15 month Ella to come see us. She wouldn't go near the baby, and worse, she wouldn't come near me! It broke my heart. She would cling to my mom and would hardly acknowledge me.

Well, this time Ella was absolutely ecstatic. I could hear her coming from down the hall. She was so giddy, jumping up and down and clapping her hands. The first thing she said when she first saw the baby was, "Mom, IT is SO cute!" She quickly climbed into the bed with me and wanted to hold her. It was fun to see her so excited. She is always talking about how we are such a big family now, and how there are THREE girls and ONLY two boys.

I had to throw this picture in to talk about Ella's hair (which she did herself). She has been pinning her bangs back any way she can telling me that she doesn't want bangs anymore! I have been hiding the scissors and living in fear that she will chop them off herself! For those of you who know my beautiful daughter know the size of her forehead and therefore know she MUST have bangs:)

Anyways. Kash had a slightly different reaction. He came right to my side and said, "Mom, are you going to be ok, now?" He seemed so concerned about me! It was the cutest thing. He pulled up a chair and sat right by me and kept asking me if I was okay. The next day when I came home he rushed over to me and asked again if I was ok, if I felt better, and then, "are you hungry, Mom?"
At the hospital he stared at Evie through the plastic bassinet and when we asked if he wanted to hold her he said, "NO!" and quickly backed himself into the corner. He kept his distance and wanted nothing to do with her. Even once we were home we would try to get him to hold her or kiss her head and he wouldn't. He wasn't ever mean about it, he just stayed away. After about 2 weeks Whitney rushed into my room to tell me that Kash was holding Ella! He just decided he was ready I guess. He is always very concerned when she is crying and will run to find me and inform me about it. He will give her the binkie and is very proud of himself when she stops crying. I think he will be a protective big brother.

I had gifts for them at the hospital from Baby Evie that they had fun opening. And it was cute because they had brought cards that they had made for her.

So far no one has killed anyone so we are doing pretty good! We are adjusting to this life with 3 kids the best we can. It has actually gone a lot more smoothly then I thought it would. I just keep having nightmares about trying to take all 3 of them to Walmart...I don't think we will be trying that anytime soon.

She is here

Evie Lyn McLaws

Our sweet little girl arrived October 2, 2010 at 11:43 am. She weighed 7 lbs 1 0z (my biggest baby yet!) and was 20 inches.
The Story:

The labor went really fast-she was here in 4 short hours! Everything went really well except for the epideral. For some reason I kept holding off on getting it thinking I could handle the pain for a little longer. Why did I do this you might ask?? I don't know! I knew I would eventually get it so why suffer? I am such a wierdo. So by the time my creepy anesthesiologist came I was at an 8 and that is when the scariest part of the whole ordeal happened. He took forever to find the spot to put the needle and when he did he actually hit a nerve. My whole right side went tingly and then I had the most painful electric shocks start shooting down my body. They were so powerful that I couldn't control my leg kicking straight out and hitting Matt! The pain actually made me scream out loud. I started panicking thinking I would be paralyzed while Matt tried to calm me down. Through out all this my contractions were getting stronger and stronger. The Dr. kept saying, "hmmm this is odd....hmmm I don't think I feel comfortable with this....this is unusual...." HELLO! Get it out of my back!! He finally threw everything away and started over. To shorten the story he finally got it in when I was fully dilated and ready to push. I probably had it for about 20 minutes (what a waste of $1200) and the numbness kicked in AFTER I had the baby.
My sister Whitney who is pregnant with her first decided to come to the delivery so she would know what to expect. Luckily she wasn't there for the epideral part:) She was thinking this labor thing wasn't too bad because everything happened so fast. The only part that scared her was when she saw that little Evie was blue and the cord was wrapped around her neck. She quickly rushed to my side to not be "down there" and gave me the thumbs up sign and a really nervous smile trying not to freak me out. I heard the dr. say to give him the scissors but I didn't really know what was going on. He quickly snipped the cord and finished the delivery. They gave her to me and she was completely BLUE but crying. I kept wondering why they were not rushing her off to work on her....umm excuse me I'm not sure if you noticed that my baby is blue? But she was completely healthy and her color kept getting better and better.

She has been such an angel. She is really such a good baby (she is still in the sleepy newborn stage so we'll see if things change) but she only cries when she is hungry and she is always so mellow and content. My prayers were definitely answered! I was so nervous that she would have colic and I would turn into a crazy lady with 3 kids.

The Name:
Evie is pronounced EV, not like Evelyn. It actually came from Whitney. She reluctantly told me her girl name that she liked, and I fell in love with it, much to her dismay:) I knew I couldn't have it so I forced myself to not think about it but a few months later she told me that her husband didn't like it and they were not going to use it so I could have it! Matt and I literally did not come up with a single name so I guess it was meant to be. Her middle name is Lyn, after my Mom, Stacey Lyn. I am still trying to get used to it but when Ella and Kash say it it is the cutest thing. Ella sweetly calls her Baby Evie and Kash says BeeBee E-B.

We are just so grateful for her and feel so blessed. She just fits right in and I couldn't imagine our lives without her!