Adam and Heather Hayes

Well since Heather is still in the hospital with our newest addition, I'm the one that gets to give everyone the big news. We had our baby, and it was a girl. We named her Clara Jane. She was 9 pounds 6.5 ounces and 20 and 3/4 inches long.

She and Heather are doing quite well. This c-section was so much different from our other children! Normally they are delivered, the doctor holds them up for 2 seconds, says congratulations, and they run them off to put them on oxygen, pump them full of sugar, stab them a thousand times to check their blood sugar, and try a million and one places to put an IV in that they won't pull out.

However, today was the complete opposite. She came out screaming pretty well. They did the basic tests and then just casually brought her over and said that I could hold her until we were ready to move out of surgery. Her blood sugar was a little on the low side, which we have come to expect with our babies, but it picked up after we got a little food in her tummy (It is still just a tad low for "normal" kids (60s instead of 70s), but we were absolutely fine with the levels compared to what we went through with the others).

Heather should be out of the hospital with Clara by Saturday. Thank you to everyone for their prayers during the pregnancy.

More pictures in the image gallery .

Day 6: California Adventure

We didn't get to bed till super late Tuesday night, so we had a late start Wednesday morning.  (Plus I felt like we should take it slow so Adam could have his daily health issue.  But, he didn't have any more problems that trip!)

Wednesday was the coldest day of the trip.  We had shorts and short sleeves thinking, it's hot in California.  But alas it was windy, overcast and sprinkled on us a couple times!  We should have brought some warmer things!

We started out in It's a Bug's Life and rode Flik's Flyer.

We let Andrew take the camera for a while, it's nice to see us all together.  It was kind of cool to see what it's like to be tiny like a bug.  I'm used to the opposite, too tall to see the underside of things.

We did the spinning ladybugs next, and like I said, Andrew had the camera.

Adam, Clara, and I chose to be together so we wouldn't have to spin more than necessary.  Ugh.

Our girls were terribly impatient to drive the bug bumper cars.  They all feel it empowering to be the driver.

Wonderful Drew stayed out with Clara who was too short and took pictures.

The rides seemed a bit short and non thrilling after the wild night we'd just had, but this vacation was for the kids. 

I didn't go to Disneyland till I was 18 for my senior trip and I wanted my kids to have some fun kid memories. 

The Heimlich ride was more a ride for your senses than anything.  We traveled through a watermelon rind that smelled and felt wet and juicey, and an animal cracker box that smelled like some of my favorite childhood snacks.  Like I said, not thrilling but creative.

This bug land place had SO many fun places to take pictures.  We didn't put a dent in the possibilites. 

They had a fun 3D bug show with a stinky stink bug, black widdows coming down from the ceiling, and wiggley maggots.  I love 3D shows like that.

Wade joined us and brought us lunch.  Clara had a tradition of falling asleep through every meal.  It was so cute to see Vi share the stroller and hug her till they both fell asleep.

Oops, I forgot to flip that pic.  After lunch we went to the forest rangery part. 

They had a cave to tell you what your inner animal was.(Adam was a skunk!) rope bridges, tire swings and Clara's favorite: rock slides!

Poor Vi barely made the height measurement at the bottom of the swings, walked all the way up the rope bridges to the swing ride just to be told she was too short to ride.  She cried and cried and said, "That lady thinks I'm little and I'm not, I'm a big girl, waaaaaaa!"  Gotta love it!

Adam took Vi back down and while he was comforting her, she decided she wanted to get a picture with Brother Bear.  Good idea Vi!

The lines at California Adventure averaged about 30 minutes except the next two: Mickey's Fun Wheel and Toy Story Mania, those were looooong. (probably an hour)

The fun wheel was way too high for Adam's taste, I was afraid he might toss his cookies for the third time on that one!  It's a huge feris wheel with most cars on rollers.  Vi and Clara put on their brave faces.  Andrew, Wade, Jerica, Erith, and Tric were making theirs rock and roll like crazy!

Toy Story was a shootem up video game ride, I was terrible, Andrew and Wade smoked us.  Then we went to the tortilla factory for free tortillas and the sourdough bread bakery for free sour dough.  Then we ran into these green army guy musicians.  That was pretty cool.

We went to a super cool Aladdin live production.  Who knew you could get a 45 minute Broadway show at California Adventure at no extra cost!? We then had dinner in the brr cold and split into groups again.  The big kid group did Soarin' Over California (which is VERY cool, if you're on the front row you don't have feet dangling above you and it really feels like your're flying into the green screen!) and California Screamin'.

Screamin' is pretty intense!  It was Erith and Tricy's first upside down rollercoaster!  Erith said she was too scared to scream, Tric asked, "Did we go upside down yet?" Yep! (Get Fast Passes to both, like we did!)

Yeah right Wade, even a ride pro like you couldn't fall asleep on screamin'!  Then the boys took off to play stake volleyball.  I'm not sure where Ryal and Cory took the little ones while we were gone.  I believe they did King Triton's carousel more than once.  We girls met up with them and watched the electrical parade, then the second it was over Ryal, Erith, Tric, me, and yes Vi, did Hollywood Tower of Terror! Sleeping Clara stayed with Aunt Cory.

Remember Where's Waldo?  Where's Viola?  It was a pretty scary story line (Twilight Zone) and it is probably too much for an almost 4 year old, but I didn't think she would behave for Cory while we went, so I took her, and she did it!  I told her it was all pretend and she was extremely proud of this picture. "HER picture".

Vi threw a huge fit on the way to the car.  She wanted me to carry her, not Ryal, not the stroller, give me a break kid, you're heavy and I'm tired!  Another late night, got kids to bed and did 2 loads of laundry.

Day 7: Drive to San Diego to see Trevor at Camp Pendleton

My brother has been at Camp Pendleton since last summer when he went to do marine boot camp to join the marine reserves.  He tore the cartilage off his hip while doing the usual drills and whatever and was declared physically unfit enough to finish. (2 weeks before his graduation no less) He has been sitting in the the hospital wing for 5 months waiting for his discharge papers to come home.  It's very depressing and he longs for company, so we came to visit.

He can't leave the base, he got leave to have this visit with us, and they have an awesome rec center to play and eat in, so we played and ate.

We bowled 2 games at the bowling alley and then had lunch, hamburgers and pizza. (There were about 4 choices on the menu)  Vi wailed on her big sisters at bowling! (Bumper buddies and a ramp helped!)

Then we hit the free arcade.  Trevor's favorite game is this shoot deer and elk game, I think he liked having a gamer like Adam for competition.

I couldn't pry the sunglasses off Erith's face this trip!  That was a dark room!

Tric loved the basketball hoops game, Clara loved the one thing she could climb on by herself and reach the controls!  Vi had too short an attention span to do much of anything.

I had to give them my driver's license to get the air hockey puck and paddles, so muscle men, don't hit the puck hard enough to jump the table and lose it!

Speaking of losing things, Clara lost one of her shoes and it took forever to find.  Guess where it was? Behind the propped open door, that tiny triangle of space was the last place I thought to look!

We got Trev back a tad late for his 4:00 cut off, oops, bad shoe.  We're glad we could see him.  We zipped back to LA without too much traffic trouble and then climbed in the passenger van for an Angels game!

Praise to Andrew again for the tickets and chicken burgers hot and ready in the van when we got there just in time to leave.

This is our family's first major league baseball game. 

We didn't have as much red as the average fan.  But I did buy a t-shirt before we left.  I know, I am a junkie for vacation suveniers!

The angels did not win I'm afraid.  They lost to the San Diego Padres 5-2.  The whole experience was awesome though, being able to buy hotdogs and peanuts from your seat, the great american pasttime.  I have to say though, Adam playing here at Tauphaus Park moved tons faster! (no raking the dirt!)

Surprise Tricity!  When we got back from the game this was waiting for us!  Andrew is magic, I'm telling you!  Tricity's surprise princess birthday party!

Day 8: We drive 11 hours to Andi's in Ogden Utah, goodbye California, Wheelers, Trevor, we love you!

Only a cool sister like Andi would let 6 people crash her one bedroom apartment at 12:30 AM!  Thank goodness she did because we were having a hard time getting that far, all the way home would have been misserable!

Day 9: Conference, birthday presents, meeting the infamous Mike, and Fat Cats.

We finally got to meet Andi's best friend she's been hanging out with for 3 years.  We met up for a between sessions lunch.  I liked him a lot, we need tall men in this world like him!

This Fat Cats place had a ton of fun things to do, but we just didn't have enough time to do all we wanted before conference started, so we settled for Jazzi style bumper cars and ice ball. (skee ball)

It was a fun ending to a fun vacation, I'm very glad we went.  I'll write about Tric's birthday later, and that's all she wrote!

Well, now that we've got Clara paid for (or at least her doctor bills, hospital bills, etc.) we're starting to get some money so we can do things I should have done earlier. The first project on the list was to insulate above the new office.

I ran into Home Depot and got 10 bags of "natural" cellulose insulation and rented a insulation blower. I also saw a slide while I was there that I got for the upcoming swingset project. Unfortunately, my eyes were bigger than my car. It took a bit of pushing, shoving, and manhandling to get the insulation, blower, 8' slide, and all the other stuff that was still in the car (3 car seats, a playpen, and a stroller) to fit. I'll just say it was a very very very tight fit and I'm really glad I didn't buy two extra bags of insulation or I would have been up a creek.

Well, I got home with all of the said stuff just in time to run off to softball. I got back home around 9:30, got the kids in bed by about 10:10 and then we decided to blow the insulation. It took both Heather and I to do it. I took the hose up in the attic and Heather manned the blower. After fiddling around with the machine, we finally found how to open the trap door at the bottom to actually let the insulation go through the machine. After we figured that out, it was just a matter of trying to navigate around in a attic that is not lit and fairly short.

We finished up right before midnight. I came out of the attic very hot, sweaty, and covered from head to toe in dust, dirt, and insulation (good thing it wasn't the fiberglass kind). I think it worked because the office is MUCH cooler today than yesterday so I hope that it was money well spent.

Clara is officially one now.  I can't believe my newborn fresh from the hospital baby is one already. 

She is jabbering and screaming a lot now, no quiet time here anymore.  She's taking a step or two but no serious walking yet. 

She is so cute and curious.  She can climb out of her high chair onto the tray, and climb completely out of her walker.  She loves climbing from the recliner to the piano bench and lately, standing on the keys!  Trouble!

Clara opened Tric's gift early right after an ug Mom got back from walking and lifting weights.  They were cute socks Tric bought from the dollar store with her own money. We waited till our late cake and ice cream party to open the rest.  We had an extended party the next day with the Purser side.

I am sorry I haven't been up to writing lately, but Baby Clara is worth every minute!

She is absolutely beautiful! I have to say that even though I've had 4 girls now, each one is unique and I fall in love with each one each time.  Clara is great baby, very easy to fall in love with.  She's a good eater, a good sleeper, doesn't puke much, and has a happy disposition.

Her big sisters are great helpers.  They entertain her a lot, and she loves every minute of it, even if Vi is a little rough!  Speaking of Vi, she has had the hardest time.  She does all kinds of aggravating things to get some attention. Most of them happen in the bathroom and involve toilet paper.  She seems to be getting better as the days go by though.

I wouldn't trade Clara for a hundred boys, she is an angel and I love her!  Our family feels more complete and we all love each other all the more.  I couldn't be any happier!