Pictures, pictures, pictures!

Nicki gave me a disc with some pictures of Seth and from further back this summer...Here's Seth in the hospital on Sunday, sleepy little guy.
Joseph was pretty excited to meet Baby, we were all a little wary of what he was going to do, but he didn't do anything too scary in his explorations.
Felicity posing with Seth.
Mom got this one of Seth smiling, he's a cutie!
Finally, home at last and both of us in regular clothes instead of hospital stuff.

4th of July with all the Newey cousins.

Mom and Dad took Caleb and Lissy home for a week this summer, and on their way they stopped at Cabelas. I think Felicity would like to take this moose home.
Nicki's famous zebra.

Joseph sleeping at Aunt Ellen's house.

Felicity with her girl Newey cousins. They all spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Newey's house and had a lot of fun running through the sprinklers.

Baby Seth Gavid came as fast as he could

Yup, he's here! Seth was born at 3:54 on Conference Sunday morning. He's our little giant, and it's a good thing he didn't wait for his due date, he weighed 8 pds, 15 oz, so he's alot bigger than the other kids (Lissy was the biggest before, at 7 pds, 6 1/2 oz). He not only came about 2 weeks early, he came really fast. I woke up a little after two with contractions, timed them for about a half an hour, and they were ten minutes apart. I wasn't too worried, this had happened before and they just stopped. But this time they quickly got closer together. Mom, Dad, Melissa, and Nicki were all staying with us so we let them know we were on the way and Mom looked at the clock when we pulled out of our driveway: 3:14. We drove very fast to the hospital, and when they got me into a room the nurses started hustling around, I must have looked like I meant business. Our doctor knows my record and drove fast, too, (she said at that time of day, all lights are green). It must be the perfect kind of birth for her, show up, deliver baby, go home, no dilly-dalling around. And I'm pleased with her, she said Seth is perfect, which of course, he is. He's a cutie with reddish-blonde hair, and a little chunkier than our usual babies. We were still thinking about names, and still thinking about names, and still thinking about names. But on Monday morning Farris called from home with a name he had thought of the night before, and Seth seemed to fit like none on the other names we had tried did. But the middle name was another challenge. We were trying to figure out how to combine the names of the grandpas, Gary and David, and I came up with Gavid, like Gavin but with a d instead of a n. We hemmed and hawed a little bit longer while we packed up the room and got everything ready to go and then we had to fill out the baby certificate paperwork, with just one word left to fill in, so we went with Gavid. And now we're home and he's doing good, entertaining his siblings and trying to find out how to avoid the pokes from curious brothers. We'll put some pictures on here soon so you can see what a cuties he is. And Happy Birthday Robert!

Reflections of Christ

My sister-in-law, Stacey, emailed this to me and I thought I would post it here. It's beautiful!

"For many years the Mesa Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mesa, Arizona) has had exhibits on the temple grounds during the Easter season. This year, there was also a
'Reflections of Christ' photography exhibit in the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center. The photographer was given permission to photograph Pageant cast members for the exhibit. They traveled to various locations in Arizona that the photographer felt looked like the places in Israel where the events took place and recreated the scenes.

The photographer worked with a few other individuals to put together a 5 minute slideshow which includes every image from the exhibit set to the hymn 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.'

Just remember when you're watching the video that the photographs are real, they aren't paintings… Incredible!"




If you want more info, here's the website:
http://www.reflectionsofchrist.org/

Further news in the name game

No, we still have not settled on a name, but Felicity has become amazingly grownup about it. I was teasing her and asked if we should name the baby Shrek, but we decided that would be silly. Then she said (and she was in very serious mode) that if we named the baby Tenderheart Bear, people might laugh at him, so "let's name him John." I think they must have talked about John the Baptist in primary on Sunday. I thought it was a pretty normal choice for her, and I'm not so worried about my future grandkids any more. Yes, I would still love my grandkids even if they are named after cartoon characters, but...
Other news, I finished Caleb's quilt top last night, hurrah! Now I just have to finish it. Caleb can write his whole name now, but we're working on writing the number two right-side up. Joseph's dancing ability astounds us, if you want some entertainment, come to our house, he's pretty...um...good. Felicity is in the after school 4H program in the Young Artist class. Last week they pretended to be Michelangelo and taped paper to the underside of the table and then drew pictures. She had fun even though she doesn't know anything about and didn't seem that interested in the Sistine Chapel. Farris is working through the six or seven bushels of pears he picked, he tries to dry a batch every night. We'll be good with pear chips for a long time. And I'd better go now, Caleb is wanting a bottle to put the small pieces of paper he just ripped up into. And as I would rather have them in a bottle then on the floor, even though I don't understand what he is making, I will get him one.

Sorry, Missy, I borrowed your idea for a Top Ten List

Ok, I'm getting to the point where I'm getting really tired of this whole beach ball (and like a Spring Break sized beach ball, not the little ones you get at walmart for your two year old)attached to my body and hips creaking with every step and braxton-hicks and having to find a bathroom every two hours. I know I don't have much time left, and really I am truly grateful for this opportunity I have to be a mother. So to keep my perspective right I'm going to borrow a page from my friend Missy's book (or blog, as the case was) and figure out a Top Ten list on the good things about being pregnant.

10. Really makes you grateful for the day pants actually fit you again and don't have a stretchy belly pouch that doesn't work that great.
9. The whole time you are pregnant you don't have to say no to the baby, or chase down the street after him or find him in the snack drawer fifteen minutes before lunch or clean up glue off the carpet (huh, Tasha!) or tell him to stop eating grass (ok, that might just be my Caleb) or any number of other things you'll be telling him relatively soon after he's not inside any more.
8. When the line is long at a public bathroom, you just have to get a desperate look on your face and people will let you cut to the front. Almost as good as having a three year old that's wailing "I have to go now!"
7. You can cry about anything and people will understand. I'm not just talking Hallmark commercials, but like when Farris came home and found me crying on the bathroom floor because Joseph had peed all over the floor again and then spilled bubble mix everywhere he was very understanding and helpful and never told me to grow up.
6. My fingernails grow fast. I know, that seems trivial, but it's nice because fingernails don't last very long in a world with little boys.
5. Naps. Enough said.
4. Growing a baby is an excellent excuse for ice cream every night.
3. Temple attendance, while a little harder, is even better. It puts eternity all into perspective. And all the little old ladies just light up when they see you waddling down the hall.
2. I love feeling the baby moving and watching my belly jump and having my kids faces light up when they finally feel him kick their hand. Even the rib kicking and bladder punching are great (well, they're not too bad) because you know he's doing good and growing.
1. I know how I am extremely blest to have this chance to not only have three healthy, intelligent (except for the whole walking into walls thing) kids but to have another one coming. I'm not sure why Heavenly Father decided I should get this opportunity, but I do thank Him for it every day.

Other news

Besides the nightly struggle to get Joseph asleep, everything is going good. Things have slowed down for Farris at work now that the semester has been going for a couple weeks, the first day of the semster 102 students came into the office for him and the other advisor. He can actually eat a lunch now and he's getting home much closer to his regular time. Felicity does like school (despite homework every night, and learning about boring things like the number 17), especially recess. Well, who can blame her? Caleb is doing the ABC Kids program at the library once a week. He was a little nervous at first, but had a lot of fun the first day because they did the letter C. He's learning how to write his middle and last name now, too. He calls it his paper work. I've been busy trying to keep the house from falling apart, but sweeping and mopping doesn't really appeal to me right now. I've also almost finished a halloween costume for the baby (he's going to be a caterpillar. Farris shakes his head and says "poor kid". But he'll be really cute. He just might not appreciate the pictures when he's 15) and I've been working on Caleb's quilt that has trucks and cars and tractors and planes so he loves it already. We've been working on baby names and appreciate all the suggestions given. Except for maybe Felicity's. She has wanted to name him Ice Cream, Sunshine Bear or Tenderheart Bear, Diego and many others that I don't think he'd survive the first grade with. Well, Diego wouldn't be too bad, but it was a second choice for her because she couldn't name a boy Dora. When I was telling her some of the names we had thought of, like Aaron, Jackson, Mckay, Logan, she laughed and told me they were silly. Caleb thought Joseph would be a good name until I pointed out he already has a brother named Joseph. We'd better get cracking on all these baby things, because I'm NOT waiting until the 21st. I'll find a trampoline first.

How to not go to sleep, By Joseph H. Child

Repeat these several times each, as loud as you need to get adults attention.
"Sing Popcorn Tree."
"MILK! Want MILK!"
"Where's baby doll?"
"Pillow in living room."
"Sing Child of God."
"Where's Daddy's basketball?"
"I want Daddy's football."
"I need to go potty."
"I get candy!"
"Wake up Caleb buddy sleepy head!"
"There's a big alligator in my room."
"I need to go potty."
"No, poop."
"Hug? Kiss?"
Stretch all of these over an hour period, plus much running around and crawling into every other bed in the house but your own. Be as cute as possible to tone down any anger from adults. Eventually go to sleep, you'll need the energy for tomorrow night.