More Baby Pictures

Babies change so much in just the first few days! Here are some more recent ones we took this evening of Brecken.

Brecken Joseph has arrived!

Pictures of Blaine and Brecken

What a great couple of days we had together for Brecken's arrival! Here are a few of our now famous family members :) Blaine is doing great, and as hard as it was, he was ready to go back and continue to kick butt. He says hello to everyone and thanks for all the support you are giving him and all of us here at home. You will have to watch the show in January to see the few moments they will air of the whole exciting event! It was sooooooooooooooooooo great to get to spend even the few moments with him that we did, but I totally know that's where he needs to be. He's back to his energetic and happy self, and that's so wonderful to see the difference in him in just this little bit of time.

Holding until Tuesday

I went to the Dr. today thinking that maybe I would have at least progressed a little bit since my last appt. two weeks ago, but such is my life- nothing. I'm still not really even dilated to a one! Technically I'm still 14 days early so that shouldn't be so surprising, but the days are dragging by so slowly that I (being like every other pregnant woman in the world) am wishing that there's that chance that I would surprisingly jump into full labor and have the baby early. I know that sounds strange being that I have been waiting this whole time for Blaine to be able to be home when I have the baby, but then I think about how little time we will get to spend with him when he's here and more and more I am wishing I won't be stuck in a bed the whole time. Right now all I've heard is that he's getting here sometime on Monday afternoon or evening and then returning to CA either Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. I know that the time is just going to fly by and he's only going to get to be with all of us just a few hours really, and that makes me so sad. I am trying hard to focus on the fact that it's such a blessing to get to see him at all during those special moments.

His last letter was really positive. He wrote it on General Conf. Sunday and I only finally received it yesterday, the 16th so it's like two weeks old already. He had just found out that he was going to get to come home for the baby and he said it was such a motivation for him to work really hard and he's already lost a lot of weight. He does feel bad that the kids, especially Jaylee and Ethan don't understand why he has had to be gone this whole time. All of the kids are really excited to see him though, I keep trying to prepare them for how short of a visit it really will be though. I hope it's not hard for them to send him off again. I'm hopeful for them, but really, I know it's going to be a rough couple of days again for me, just because I know myself. I am hoping that I can hold off the blues until he's gone at least. Thank goodness for all our family-- in advance....sorry I'm such an emotional person everyone!

Nothing Like a Phone Call

Yesterday afternoon, I was surprised to find out that Blaine earned the right to call home. He called last night and it was SO GREAT to talk to him! He sounds like he's doing really well, and that he's happy. He is off all of his meds. already and so he must be doing something right and trying to work really hard. I can imagine that after the "week 2 slow down" it must have been a rough week for him, but I hope that getting to call home was the boost he needed to keep on pushing along. I got my long awaited answer that YES, I will have a husband present for the birth of our baby. I do have to re-schedule my c-section for a few days later if possible and stay pregnant a little longer, but man, is it worth it. Yippee! Go Blaine- way to win that call home!

Yeah, our first lettter!!

Okay so I've been a little anxious to hear from Blaine, as if you couldn't tell. Anyway, I finally got his first letter and it was so great to hear from him. He said that things are going well, but definitely harder than he tried to prepare himself for. At first he was having a little bit of a hard time, but he said after getting all the results of his testing back it really made him change how he felt about everything and has really been re-motivating for him. He realizes how badly he needs to make these changes and get healthy. He is very excited about a couple of break-through's that he has made, although he can't tell me about them at all (details, details!). He is missing the kids like crazy of 'course, but that too is kind of helping him keep his focus on the goals ahead. He said the food is really good, but it's actually even kind of hard to eat all the calories that they are supposed to. Dane and him are still doing well together and they're getting really close, which makes me happy he's got someone there to lean on. He sounds like he's hanging in there, and I'm soooooo proud of him!!!
He hasn't really asked for anything I can send him except his bike riding gear (shoes, gloves, etc.) which he already has....I'm guessing he is on the bike a lot because of his knees. But one thing he did ask for was his passport- yikes! I don't like the sound of that. I really wish I knew when he was in or out of the country! Still don't know if we will see him for the baby- we'll have to wait and see!

"Are you lost, little boy?"

Okay, so some of you have heard this, but I still have to write it for posterity. Our big macho man, our big famous movie star forgot his own address and therefore could not write his patient, sacrificial wife a letter!
I was waiting and waiting to hear anything at all from Blaine thinking... oh, I'm sure that he's going to write me something as soon as he gets there, he wouldn't make me wait long. Well, yesterday I got a call from our little liason, go-between girl at BL and she said Blaine didn't know his own home address! Not only that, but he didn't even know a phone number to give her to call me- I understand that we all use the memory keys on our phones so we don't memorize phone numbers, but come on! They had to go and dig his cell phone out of the security box to get my cell phone number off of it to call me and get our address. "You're one pathetic loser!...No offense." Love you tons honey!