2 weeks in pics

I do have excuses for not blogging, but they aren't great,

so I will just cut to the chase and let the pics do the talking.

A ton has happened over the past 2 weeks!

On June 21, Bryan left for the AZ mission trip with his parents and our youth group kids at 5 am.

After saying goodbye to them, Cayden, Macie and I packed up and headed to Salem

for dinner with the Lutes and then stayed with my mom.

Saturday, June 23rd, we had a good time at Nelson park with Grandma.

Lots of smiles!

A rare picture of me...I do exist!

If you've ever been to Nelson Park, you know that there's a lot of huge hills.

Cayden decided it would be really fun to take off down one of them at a run...luckily I caught her, but she continued to roll down the hill, but then had to climb all the way back up.

That's what she's doing in the pic below.

That kid always finds the water fountains at the park!

Sunday, the three of us checked out my grandparents' new church in Dallas.

Conveniently, they were having a huge BBQ afterwards, which made for great food, and Cayden running all over the place I didn't even think about getting out my camera! After church we headed to my grandparents' house to visit.

That evening, as my mom and I were driving back to Salem, the texts and voice mails started rolling in.

There is no cell phone coverage at my grandparents' house, and I had failed to check my phone after church, and apparently, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were at the hospital...possibly having their baby 3 weeks early!

I frantically called Jason back, and it turns out they were just at the hospital as a precaution, so I didn't need to speed back right away. Cayden and I did finally get to the hospital around 8pm to see Jason and the still very pregnant Lauren. She was having small contractions that she couldn't even feel (at the time) and they had to stay overnight to monitor her blood pressure. Cayden had a good time patting Lauren's belly and dropping fishy crackers all over the hospital floor.

As I mentioned before, Bryan, his dad and mom had all just arrived in AZ the day before all this hoopla went down, and since the baby seemed to be coming, Bryan's mom was on the first flight home, to arrive around midnight that night. Cayden and I headed home while Jason and Lauren waited.

She started feeling the contractions not long after we left.

Cayden slept upstairs in the crib in my mom's room, in case I got calls about the baby in the night.

Around 5am, I got a message that Bryan's mom, Julie was headed to the hospital because the baby was gonna be born today! Poor Cayden was not feeling well in the morning. She was really snuggly, and during her bath, I noticed a white film on her lips. We thought it might just be because she was sucking on her bottle while she slept, but she just wasn't her normal happy self.

I had to head to the hospital, so I left Cayden with my mom, hoping she would be well enough to meet her new cousin later in the day.

I arrived at the hospital around 10:30am Monday morning, picking up some preemie outfits and diapers on the way so the little guy would have something to wear when he arrived. I also brought some blankets because Julie, Carrie, and Jess (Carrie's friend) were freezing in the waiting room! :)

While we were waiting, I talked to my mom a few times.

Cayden had a temperature, and I called our pediatrician's office to ask about the white stuff on her lips and if I needed to bring her in. The on call nurse didn't seem too worried, so we decided to wait it out and see if her fever would just break in the night.

Blake didn't keep us waiting TOO long, arriving at 12:54pm, 6 pounds, 6 oz, 19 inches.

For more details, you can see his momma's blog: here.

I left the hospital around 4:30pm or so, arriving home to a very sick baby.

The next day, I was supposed to work, but I cancelled everything and took Cayden down to the Corvallis Clinic to get her checked out. Her fever had spiked to 103.7 in the night, and wasn't really going below 102 all morning. Of course, when they took her temp at the doctor's office, she was normal! My doctor said she just had a major cold sore and that it would probably take 7-10 days to get out of her system.

AWESOME.

So Cayden did a lot of this all day long, all week long.

Lots of snuggling, not a lot of eating, and lots more sleeping...

It took all 10 of those days until we got another smile this big.

She did eventually get better, but is still taking longer naps than usual. Not the worst side effect, huh?

I went to visit Jason and Lauren again on Thursday (June 28) to take a few more pics of the little family and to get to hold Blake for a little bit.

Finally, Bryan and his dad (and the rest of the team) arrived home on Sunday and Bryan got to meet his nephew on Monday night. Cayden was really thrilled about Blake's binky, until grandma took it away.