Great Experiences

I've never posted before, I am usually just involved by helping Emma decide upon pictures or how to phrase something. I decided that I should finally write something about this weekend and our new son.

I think one of my greatest experiences happened this weekend. I am still trying to take it all in and enjoy it. I was able to deliver my son, I was able to watch my wife dedicate herself to bring him into this world and I was able to see my daughter give him hugs and kisses and yell, "Hermanito!" - those are some great moments.

Oddly, the most personal and profound experience I had this weekend was during a short phone call to my brother-in-law. I was not prepared for his reaction, I hadn't really considered what naming a child after someone encompassed.

I had just called my parents for the second time, this time to tell them the name we decided upon. I asked my father to relay this information to my brother since they were visiting, and that I would call my sisters to let them know as well. As proud grandparents, they dialed my sisters anyway - who can blame them??? Luckily I dialed Barbie first, while my parents were dialing Kathie....that was a close call!

Anyway, I dialed my sister Barbie, and mistakenly got Kevin's cell phone instead - I had not wanted to disturb him at the hospital. Kevin answered and we shared greetings and I spoke my son's name - Kevin Ezequiel Dison.... My brother-in-law, the strong, successful father and amazing physician was speechless, full of gratitude, love, humility and awe. He has been my role-model as long as I can recall. I remember seeing anatomy models in his apartment on a visit to San Diego while he was in medical school. It is no great stretch to see that I am following in his footsteps, working my way through medical school as well. Surprisingly (or not), I am in love with surgery and hope to find a family friendly specialty as he did.

My best friend, Kevin Arbon Collier, passed away in 2001. I had been determined to name my first son after him. As my brother-in-law has had his health in question, I realized that my son's name had to be Kevin. There are two great men my son now has to look up to, to base his life upon and to honor these men of great strength, intelligence, faith and love.

I can honestly say that this short phone call to my brother-in-law has impacted me far more than I imagined. I find myself reflecting upon it constantly - a short phone call where few words were exchanged has strengthened my testimony of eternal families and the importance of leading a worthy life.
-Dan

Kevin Ezequiel Dison

He's here and he's adorable! Kevin looks a lot like newborn Elena - except chubbier. :) He was born at 5:55pm on Sunday June 28th. He weighs 8 lbs. 5oz. and is 21 1/2 inches. He's so sweet and we love him! He is named after some amazing people. "Kevin" is our brother-in-law who is an amazing man and has been a wonderful role model and example to Dan all his life. "Kevin" is also the name of Dan's best friend who passed away in 2001. "Ezequiel" is a young man that Dan taught and baptized on his mission in Mexico; he has an amazing conversion story and a very strong testimony of the gospel.
We couldn't be happier about our son's name and the significance that it holds for us. He is lucky to have such strong male role models right from the beginning (including his father and grandfathers of course).
I'll blog about the whole birth experience (Dan got to help deliver him!) and post more pictures later on today, but for now: I'm going back to sleep. :)

Happy Update

I went to the doctor today and Baby Boy is head-down and ready! Yay! That was the main good news. The other good news is that I'm 3 cm dilated and 70% effaced, so hopefully we'll get to meet him really soon. I am super excited about the fact that I'm already 3 cm. With Elena, I wasn't 3 cm until after I'd been on Pitocin for a couple of hours, and I was already asking for an epidural because I was miserable. This time I arrived at this point virtually pain free. Don't worry, I'm sure enough pain is on the way to make up for it.

The doctor said that I should have him in the next week, but I'm choosing to believe that he'll come in the next few days. We'll keep you posted!

Baby Shower

My sweet friend Yvette in the Spanish branch (church) threw a baby shower for me last week. It was so fun to get together with the women and the girls that I work with at church. I had a great time and enjoyed some good food and a fabulous cake made by Elizabeth.

One of the games: "How Big is My Mommy?"
The whole gang:
Looking at all these pics really highlights how tired I look. I think I'll go take a nap right now. :)

Reese and Elena

Our friends Brian and Becky have a neighborhood pool and they are so nice to invite us whenever they go. We've had a lot of fun there recently. Thanks for the inner tube, Shelby! She loves it. I just wanted to include some pictures of Elena and Reese (B and B's daughter). By the way - Becky is right next to Elena in this first picture. I didn't hop out of the pool and leave her all by her lonesome in case anyone was worried about that.
It makes going to nursery (at church) so much better now that Reese is old enough and Elena has a friend in there. When Ella Joy first moved away, there was a nursery adjustment period.

Good Times

We were so lucky to have Dan around this weekend because he took a big test on Wednesday and doesn't start his next rotation (OB) until tomorrow. I'm pretty psyched that he'll be on his OB rotation when I have this baby. If Baby Boy comes in the next two weeks (cross your fingers for me), Dan will actually be scheduled to work at the hospital where he'll be born. So, even if he can't get any days off, he'll be able to drop in and see us.

Needless to say, I am eager and willing to go into labor at any minute. I hope that the baby is on the same wavelength. I also hope that he'll be head-down when he decides to come. At my appointment two weeks ago he was transverse (like this but with his back up and feet down):
and last week he had his head down, but was "unstable". Unstable meaning that he's still moving around a ton and not engaged in the birth canal. In fact, I felt him go sideways again a couple of days ago. What a stinker. I can't believe that he still has that much room. We are grateful that he seems to be spending most of his time head-down lately (including right now, I think) and we'll see what the doctor says at my next appointment on Wednesday. We are super excited to welcome a healthy boy into the family and I'd like to do it now please. :) I thought that I would do some posts today and tomorrow so that I will be all caught up in case he comes this week.

Without further ado, here are some pictures from last Thursday at the Children's Museum. Dan asked Elena what she wanted to make in one of the Build-It rooms and she said a helicopter, so he looked a little photo example and made it happen. I was a doubter, but it ended up being fun.
This picture is pretty much the same as the one above except that in this one, Dan is flying beside her.Dan actually was able to coax her up two steps in the beanstalk. It leads to the second floor. She quickly changed her mind, but at least I got a pic first. The third leaf is the hardest to get onto and so she lost her nerve. Maybe next time...

Lame

Okay, so I know that I am not the most popular person in the world, but I also figure that more than 3 people have looked at this blog in the last 5 days.

Don't be scared to sign up for the "Chain of Love" people! (Right below "Hot, Hot, Hot!") It's a lot of fun. I promise that you won't hate what I send you and there are a million different possibilities of what you could send when you "pass it on". It doesn't even have to be homemade - there are no real rules.

It's just about connecting with each other more than our usual voyeurism. It's an opportunity to serve one another rather than just reading blogs about everyone's lives and checking facebook for updates. It'll be fun, honest. There's only 2 spots left - don't miss out! :)

Hot, Hot, Hot!

We have been so lucky to have a mild spring...until this past week. I feel likeI'm becoming a hermit because I am pretty much only leaving the house in the mornings. It's just too stinking hot after lunch. As a disclaimer, I usually love the East Coast humidity and heat, but being pregnant in the summer is a whole new thing. I think that I will be doing a lot of swimming in the next couple of weeks. :) Here are some pics of Elena having some water fun of her own.

Thesefirst two photos are her and Caleb running through the sprinkler. I'm so glad that she got to see him run through it over and over because it helped her to finally get her nerve up. In the past, she would only stick her head or her hand in the spray. **Yes, I realize the grass/weeds are pretty long, but Dan will mow the lawn this week he has promised. :)**
We also got to spend a couple of days playing in the super cute pool that the Condon's neighbors have. The little dolphin spits water! Elena had a blast playing with Laurel, and Michael mostly wanted his mama. :) We are sad that the Condon's are moving this summer, but glad that they are going to be living less than 30 minutes from my parents! Yay!

Chain of Love

My friend Amy posted this on her blog and I participated with the promise that I would keep the chain going. That was a couple of months ago, but yesterday I got a cool package from her in the mail and it reminded that I needed to post this ASAP. Here I go:

The first five people to comment on this post will get something (homemade) in the mail from me. I'm not sure what it will be yet, but I have ideas. I suppose it will depend on the person. I also can't promise when it will get made and sent, but don't worry - it'll happen. :)

The catch is that if you are one of the five commenters, you then have to post a "Chain of Love" on your blog. This keeps us all busy and thinking of others for a while. Hope you can participate. I'm getting kind of excited thinking of the different things I could make!

Fun With Arthur

When I was taking this video of Elena, I was struck by how old she seemed to be. She's growing up so fast all of a sudden! She was following instructions, looking around at the kids for cues, and not screaming and running away from the man in the Arthur suit like she did in April. (I wish I had that on video - it was hilarious. She was completely terrified - poor thing.) This time she walked up to him and gave him a high five.
We were at the local children's museum and they read "DW Flips" for storytime. Then they warmed up (that's what the video is of) and did some gymnastics with a couple of people from a nearby gym who has brought tumbling mats. She had such a blast!

The Second Half of May

Strawberry picking: It was a family tradition growing up to get up stinking early one Saturday in late May and go to Pungo to pick strawberries for hours. I guess it's still is a tradition for my dad and Bethany. When they get home, he and my mom will make pies and jam and deliver them all over town.

This year we went with playgroup and it was much nicer to go at 10 am and pick one small basket. :) We had a great time and we were glad that Shelley, Aiden, and Liam were able to join us. We used the strawberries to make a super delicious pie (if I do say so myself) and the rest we ate plain with a little bit of sugar. Yum!

Photographic evidence that I do wear my hair down sometimes:

Here is Shelley with her boys:This is as good as it gets when you ask two year-olds who are busy picking and eating strawberries to smile for the camera.When I showed Dan the picture below, I said, "Isn't that adorable?"

He disagreed and said that he and Aiden would need to "have a talk." :)

Saying goodbye to the Jacobs: Jenny has been a friend of mine since the first moved here, but we really got close when we started attending the Spanish branch together about 2 years ago. We are always the last to leave Book Club, Girl's Night Out, Enrichment, etc. It was so great to have friends who lived just down the street. Elena will definite miss Noah, Ella Joy, and Baby Julia. Have fun in Miami and come back to visit soon!

I included two photos of the kids since the first one is a better picture overall, but really fuzzy. I was really shocked to see that I hadn't made Jenny get in one of the pics - I really thought that I had.

Saying goodbye to my first computer: Here it is: my Toshiba Portege 660CDT. I loved this little laptop. I got it from my parents in 2000/2001 and I used it (along with Dan) to write applications, essays, and so many papers! There were documents on it called "Dan is hot" and "I love Emma" from our newlywed days. My parents bought it used at one of BYU's big computer sales, so I think that the laptop is actually from 1997 or something like that.
Despite all of it's flaws and neolithic ways, I was sad to part with it. I've actually had it in my closet for 4 years and I hadn't touched it in all that time, so I decided it was time to say goodbye. I'm not really a pack rat or anything, but I do have a hard time letting things go sometimes. I ended up recycling it at Best Buy earlier this week. I have to admit that it felt good to hand it off to someone else. Plus recycling it helps me to feel like it will live on in some capacity. :)

Final Trip Home Before Baby

Erin's Bridal Shower: Last month, Elena and I went to my parents' for a quick weekend trip. Erin has been my best friend since I was 5 and she is getting married soon! Erin and I were so lucky to grow up across the street from each other and even luckier that our parents still live in the same houses! She is definitely family to me. We grew up together. She was a constant in my life during all those awful times when you're trying to figure out where you fit in. We did almost everything together back when we both lived at home. When I left for college, we had to sort through our closets to try to remember which clothes were mine and which were hers.
Erin has such a good heart and is such an fun yet genuine person. I'm so glad to know that she will always be a part of my life no matter where we live/what else is going on/how old we get. :)
Erin is marrying Bami (who is a great, great guy) in July and I was so happy to be able to make the drive for her shower. My doctor gave me the okay the morning I left. He had told me not to travel by plane anymore back in April and I was worried that he wouldn't want me to drive home again even though it's only about 4 hours, but he said it was okay. The shower was very well attended and the bride-to-be looked so happy and beautiful. It was a wonderful afternoon.

The beach: No trip home in the spring, summer, or early fall is complete without going to the beach. I always take the camera too because I love documenting how much Elena loves it - hopefully baby boy will feel the same way. I have even put Elena to sleep listening to a cd of waves since she was a baby. I have always LOVED the ocean.

Buried in the sand:

The water was warmer this time then our last trip in April. We compared it to August in Santa Cruz. :)
This is a pic of my sister Bethany and Elena:

Buried with Granddad:

Hanging out with family: With Adam home from college, it feels like a family reunion to go home now that Bethany lives so close to Mom and Dad. If only Andy and Shiree were closer...

Granny playing with Elena:

Uncle Adam giving flying lessons: