These 2 little boys...

...sure keep me BUSY, but I LOVE it!

These last few months have been the hardest, most trying, sweetest, fun-filled, crazy, stressful, beautiful, frustrating, difficult, tiresome, and exciting months of my entire life.

Casey graduated, we had baby #2 (and all of the fun that comes with that...little snuggles, late night feedings, recovery, little ears and toes, nursing struggles, infections, more snuggling, etc.), went to 2 family reunions, Casey went on our stake trek (my 1st time really alone with a two year old and 4 week old...yikes!), found an apartment to move to 1 1/2 weeks before we were to be out of our Provo home, found a couple to take over our Provo contract 1 week before moving, packed and moved to a new state, spent time at the NH Ranch with Heap family, spent time in Peoria with Ames family, Kamrie came with us to Mexico for almost a week with some of the Heap family, celebrated the 24th of July in St. Johns, Casey gave Kyler a name and blessing in St. Johns with both of our families there, Casey started medical school at the University of Arizona School of Medicine, had his White Coat Ceremony (it's official!), had a super fun surprise visit from Jacie, went to Peoria while Casey studied for his first test, had the Ames family here with us in Tucson for Labor Day weekend (it was a houseful of fun!) and went for some adventures on Mt. Lemmon, went to Mesa to visit Casey's family, Casey drew blood for the first time and gave shots, and he has already had his first 2 exams! And, of course, all of this has been with a 2 year old and a newborn...CRAZY and FUN are two words that sum it all up!

I'm just glad that I didn't try to throw potty training into the mix, I'm not quite ready for that :)

Holy moly, that all happened in a little over 4 months! Congratulations if you made it through that list...

I have been stretched to the limit (and then some) and I have been at the end of my rope lots of days. But as my mom wisely said to me recently, you just have to tie a knot and hang on!

The adjustment to having a new baby and moving and Casey starting medical school all happening at once has been quite an adjustment for me. I have had quite a rough time with it, but I am starting to feel like I am actually alive again and not just in survival mode.

But I wouldn't trade any of the harder times from the last few months for anything because I have these three boys to love (and I know that they love me):

Isn't this just the cutest thing EVER? Brigden did that all on his own- no prompting or posing here...He wants to be just like Daddy...They give the BEST concerts I've ever seen :)

Casey taught him to come up to me, lower his sweet sunglasses, and say, "Hey ba-be!"

Kyler is seriously the sweetest little boy...I am so grateful for his calm and easy-going personality.

Kyler (with his calmness) and Brigden (with his craziness) balance each other out very well!

At the end of the roughest and toughest days, my heart still is bursting with love for these boys who keep me on my toes all day long because they are helping me to become the mother and wife and person that I need to become. They teach me more than I ever thought possible. They are helping me to overcome my faults and insecurities. I hope and pray that I can teach them even a small fraction of what they are teaching me.

I love watching them sleep and thinking about the day that I just got to have with them, for better and for worse, because I couldn't be luckier to be the mommy of these sweet boys!

He had to have his trains lined up in just the right way before he could fall asleep :)

And that is what I should be doing- sleeping and gearing up for what tomorrow will bring! Good night!

P.S. More on Casey later...he is my hero!

Special Delivery...Kyler James Heap

This day seems like it was so long ago! Kyler is now almost 4 months old. I will do an update on that sweet little boy soon, but, for now, let's reminisce on the day he was born...
On May 14, we got up early to be at Timpanogos Regional Hospital at 7 am. Of course, I had gotten very little sleep the night before as I was excited and a little nervous for the following day. My mom and Casey's mom flew in on the same flight the night before and my Mom watched Brigden in the morning while we went to the hospital. They took us to our room and we met our nurse, Debbie. She was such a great nurse to have there with us all of that day. I changed into the hospital gown and she got my IV started and gave me the 1st dose of Pitocin to get labor going more. That was at 8 am. Dr. Saunders, who I loved having as a doctor, came in around 9 am to break my water. The doctors from that clinic were GREAT and I would recommend them to anyone. Dr. Parker delivered Brigden and both doctors are top notch. I am sad that we will not be in Utah when we have other babies because we love them.
After breaking the water, contractions obviously came more often and lots stronger. I learned my lesson when I was in labor with Brigden and made sure this time to request the epidural long before the pain was too intense--with Brig, I asked for the epidural after the labor pain was way intense and it took 40 minutes, that seemed like hours, to actually get it. This time I planned ahead :) and got the epidural right at the perfect time. Getting the epidural was probably the worst part of the whole day, not because it hurt or anything, it was actually a breeze, but because I get so dang nervous as it is being given! I got shaking sooo bad and kept shaking for a few mintures after I got it. The anesthesiologist even said, "You REALLY don't like needles, do you?" Nope, I sure don't. Anyways, the epidural was heaven-sent. I know that there are lots of differing views out there, but for me- I am sold on epidurals. It was so fun to sit and talk to Casey and laugh and joke with Debbie, our nurse, and Dr. Saunders.
My Mom came a while later and she was the photographer for the event. It was great to have her there. She has a way of making me feel so calm and reassured. After getting the epidural, Debbie came to check my progression a few times and I didn't seem to be progressing very quickly. But then she came in again and i was a 5, then 7, then 9. I was relieved to see the progression because it was a little frustrating not seeing it at first. Dr. Saunders came in to check and i was still a 9, so he just sat down and chatted with us for a while as we waited for it to be time to push. He checked my progression a little while later and I was at a 10 and ready to go!
As they were getting everything ready for me to push, nurse Debbie jokingly said to Casey, "Well you could just gown up yourself and deliver this baby!" As we had been waiting that morning, they had been talking about Casey's plans for medical school. She was joking about it, but Dr. Saunders said, "Yeah, why not?" Seriously the look on Casey's face was priceless. I loved seeing that excited look in his eyes- he was going to get to help deliver his little boy!

Earlier in the day, Debbie had been telling me how this labor would be different from my first. She said that labor time would be cut in half and that I would only push a few times. I thought, "no way." With Brig, I was in labor for about 12 hours and was pushing for 2 1/2 hours! There was no way it was going to be that easy. But, it was! And what a blessing that it was. Once I started pushing, I only pushed about 7 times and he was out! So it was about 7 hours.
Kyler James Heap was born at 3:02 pm. And what a special delivery it was. Casey got to do a lot, which was really cool for him. He suctioned out his mouth and pulled him out and "caught" him.


Kyler, who wasn't named at this point (actually not until the next day), started crying right away. They bundled him up and we got to snuggle for a few minutes. I love this time with new precious babies. There are no words adequate to describe all of the emotions that you feel as you are holding a new little one straight from heaven. I just LOVE it. It is such a beautiful moment. I felt an immediate bond with this little baby, which was one of the things that was said in the blessing Casey gave me the night before- that I would feel an immediate bond with this new little one. I could definitely feel his special little spirit.

We were expecting another small baby since Brigden was quite little. (When Brig was born, he weighed 6 lbs 2 oz even being a week late) Kyler was a week early and weighed 8 lbs 9 oz! And he was 20 1/2 in. We were so surprised that he was so much bigger. I loved that he even came out with a little chub on his cheeks.

Casey's mom came with Brigden once we were transferred to our other room and I don't think he really knew what to think about this new little baby. You could almost sense that he knew that his world was about to change a whole lot. But he was so sweet with Kyler and loved pointing to all of his body parts, like his little nose and ears and fingers. He loved giving baby Kyler the present he picked for him (a cute little giraffe) and also loved opening the present "from" baby Kyler (some fun dinosaurs).

Overall, I feel very blessed to have had such a great delivery and to have 2 healthy little boys. Recovery was not so great, but we'll stick to the positive for this post :)

We sure do LOVE this little boy. He is the most perfect addition to our family. We love being a family of 4!

We are still here!

I bet you were surprised to see that I have a new post! I am too actually! ha!
But my family is here visiting for the weekend and I just got home from an early morning bike ride with my dad and brother, Jordan. My dad is still off riding, he is too intense of a cyclist for my out of shape body. Everyone else here at home is still peacefully asleep, so I decided to post one of my many started, but unfinished and unposted posts...enjoy! Maybe, just maybe, I'll keep the blogging up...