Swine Flu Vaccine Scare

I am not usually one to discuss such a touchy subject, but as the Swine Flu scare escalates I feel it very important to write a brief post and urge all who may read this to get the facts and educate themselves on this issue. With a possible mandatory vaccine order in the works PLEASE do your homework as to what this will mean for you and your family! Whether you vaccinate or not please educate yourself on the dangers of this particular vaccine not to mention our rights that will be revoked should this mandatory vaccine order pass! The media is not the best place to get the "facts" on this subject or on any subject for that matter. There is loads of information on the web and here are just a few websites I find helpful.

http://drtenpenny.com
http://mercola.com
http://homefirst.com
http://nvic.org

The information obviously doesn't stop there! I hope I do not come across as trying to sway anyone one way or another, I am just pleading with you to educated youself before making any decisions and/or allowing the government to take away our rights . I personally feel that the government should NOT have the power to tell me what is best for me and my family and force me to comply!

Karissa's Birth Story

I know there are many of you who have been eager to hear about Karissa’s birth story. Well, I am only three weeks late, but I am finally getting back to my blogging.

Karissa was originally due on August 1st, 2009. Well, apparently she had other plans. On July 14th, I was awakened at around 4:00 AM by contractions. I didn’t think too much of them since they were about 10 minutes apart and not very strong. Most of the morning continued with no real changes and by about 10:30 that morning the contractions had stopped. Of course I hadn’t got to washing all the baby clothes yet, I thought I still had two and a half weeks to get that done. That was my first task to get done that day just in case. By 3:00 PM the contractions had started back up but they were still 10 minutes apart. By that time I really got into the “nesting” mode and cleaned almost everything. It was a good thing too!

The rest of the evening continued with no changes. I kept my midwife, Chris informed throughout the day and by 9:30 PM I decided to try and get some sleep. Well, that didn’t happen. I honestly don’t see how anyone can sleep through contractions. Anyway, by 11:00 PM the contractions were getting somewhat stronger and by 11:30 they suddenly accelerated to 2 minutes apart and were very intense! At that point I had Ben call Chris to let her know of the change. She immediately called her partner, Melissa, who lives in Sandy, and asked her to head over to our house. (Chris lives in North Ogden and was on call with another laboring mother not too far from her). I did my best to try to see if I could slow things down a bit, but honestly when you feel the urge to push there is no stopping it! I was moving between the bathroom and bedroom when at 11:56 PM a major contraction hit and my water broke, right on the bedroom floor. Not the most ideal place in the world, but when you’re in labor you don’t care too much. I couldn’t make onto the bed. I reached down shortly there after and felt the baby’s head and at that moment I have to say I was a little worried since Melissa hadn’t arrived yet. Ben was on the phone to Chris reporting all that was happening. He was by my side when he was instructed to tell me to push, and with little effort at all Karissa was born with Ben catching her. It was exactly two minutes from the time my water broke to having her in Ben’s arms. He handed her to me; grabbed some clean towels and we wrapped her up. Ben’s latest nicknames have been “catcher” Ben or “doctor” Ben, but through all that happened he stayed totally calm and collected. What a guy! Not too many dads have bragging rights to delivering their own baby. She was absolutely perfect! The whole experience was amazing! I had no idea that I would have such a quick laboring period, but you won’t here me complaining! Exactly four minutes after Karissa’s birth is when Melissa arrived. She took over everything from there and did a great job! I even got to cut the cord since Ben delivered Karissa.

Once the baby and I got situated we wanted Tyson to be the first to meet his new sister. Ben brought him in but he was pretty groggy and was more interested in going back to sleep. Needless to say their official, coherent introduction waited until later that morning. He was pretty surprised to see the baby. He turned to me pointing at Karissa and said; “baby” then patted my tummy and said, “another baby”. Kids can be brutally honest, but then again he was just calling it like he saw it.

With all the commotion here in the basement, Ben’s parents and his sister and brother-in-law, who were all upstairs, didn’t have a clue as to what just took place. When Ben woke up his mom at 1:00 AM to give her the news she thought he was joking. Ben does like to joke around at times but doesn’t usually make a habit of it in the middle of the night, thank goodness!

By the time Karissa and I were taken care of and tucked into bed it was about 3:00AM when Melissa left. I didn’t sleep much the rest of the night due to the excitement to have our little girl here, not to mention the recovering process but what a night it had been! I honestly didn’t think I was going to have her that night…boy was I wrong!

Looking back I honestly couldn’t have asked for more amazing and spiritual experiences than those of the births of my children! I know there are those out there who may think that I am crazy, but there was never any doubt in my mind that having my children at home was the best decision I could have made for me and my kids!

Pictures of Karissa

I haven't had a whole lot of free time to blog so it has taken me a while to get these on here. What free time I do get I usually choose to take a nap. I am still planning on blogging about her birth so stay tuned.


Tyson loves his baby sister. He asked if she could lay by him during nap time.











I absolutley ADORE my children and I LOVE being a mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Birth of our precious angel!

Karissa Bailey
Born: July 14th, 2009 at 11:58 PM
Weight: 5 lbs. 15 oz.
Length: 19 1/4 inches






More pictures and her birth story to come! We are so excited she is here!

First Family Campout

Our first family camp out and at eight and a half months pregnant I'm not quite sure what I was thinking. We went up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Tanner's Flat campground. It sure was beautiful! Originally I was just going to go up to have dinner with Ben and Tyson, head home to sleep in my own bed then go back up the next morning. Well, I thought I would be adventurous and stay overnight. Ben took the air mattress up for me just in case but our air pump was broken. Being the sweet hubby he is he tried to blow it up for me. I knew he would be there for hours so instead we took the two pads he had for he and Tyson and layered them up for me. Ben slept on the "slightly" blown up air mattress and we folded an extra blanket up for Tyson's padding. Tyson sure didn't have any problem sleeping but Ben and I sure did. We made it through though. I only had to get up once to use the bathroom in the night which is amazing for me at this point. Ben was sure to ask for a campsite that was close to the bathroom for my sake, thanks Honey!

As uncomfortable as I was trying to sleep I am glad that I stuck it out to be with my family! Tyson was excited to have both mom and dad there. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and played in the tent. The next morning Tyson was up at 6:00am and ready to go. The only thing Tyson wanted to do was go down to the water to throw rocks in. We had to let daddy wake up some first, have breakfast and pack things up but once it was time to see the water Tyson was all excited. I was surprised when after only about 20 minutes of rock throwing he told us that he wanted to go home. Ben and I were okay with that so we were home by 9:00am. For our first family camping trip we had a good time together!


Mom and Tyson enjoying our hot dogs. Wow, I can really see the baby weight.


My adorable little boy hammin' it up.



My sweetie trying to blow up the air mattress so I would be more comfortable. What a great hubby I have!


RRRAAAAHHHRRR!!!



Good morning!


Tyson must have his bear when he sleeps, too cute!


Playing by the water.


The beautiful scenery!


Dad and Tyson playing by the water.

Play date with the ducks!

I decided this morning that today would be the perfect day to have a little play date with the ducks at Daybreak. I love to be around the water as does Tyson plus he loves to see the ducks. So, I packed up what older bread and buns I had and off we went. Tyson thought it was pretty funny watching the ducks dart for and fight over the pieces of bread. He has a pretty good arm too, and managed to pelt several of them in the head. He probably could have sat there all day throwing bread at them.

Once the bread was gone we went on a walk and discovered lots of things. We saw all the geese, the various different kinds of wild flowers in bloom, several dragonflies, a butterfly and we found some mud birds nests around the lights in the tunnels. Tyson loved to see the little birds poking their heads out as we walked underneath them. Unfortunately walking isn't something I do too well these days so we didn't go too far, but it sure was nice to be outside! It was a beautiful day and what made it even better was to have a special outing with my favorite little boy!






You can't see them too well, but there are several mud nests around each of the lights.

July 4th

We had a relaxing 4th of July this year. Ben and I decided to celebrate our anniversary early so that we could have a little overnight getaway just the two of us. (Thank you so much Doug and Sue for taking such great care of Tyson for us!!!!!!!!!!) Friday night we went to dinner and a movie and then stayed at the Little America in downtown Salt Lake. It was so nice to have some time with just Ben!

I have to say that the breakfast we had delivered to our room the next morning was amazing. I had heard that the food at that hotel was good and it was! You don't find too many restaurants anymore who make their own Hollandaise Sauce for their Eggs Benedict...YUMMY!!! Not to mention the pastries and the muffins, WOW! Okay, so it wasn't a low calorie breakfast but well worth it!

After breakfast we headed up to Park City to shop the outlets. I saw some of the cutest baby girl clothes, but resisted the urge to buy anything. I kept telling myself that if I just wait another month they will be marked down even further. I am kicking myself now for not buying at least one adorable outfit. At least the outlets aren't too far away! The only thing we came away with was a shirt for Ben. I loved looking at all the clothes for me but being eight months pregnant I obviously can't try anything on but maternity clothes and I won't have much use for those in another month or so. I will just have to be patient and reward myself with some new clothes once I lose some of the baby weight. Something to shoot for anyway!

Ben and I were home by mid afternoon and we spent the rest of the day with Tyson. We only bought a few fireworks this year since Tyson freaked out at them last year. His favorites were the little poppers you throw on the ground, but he preferred to stomp on them. He was having a great time.

We avoided the noisy fireworks this year, I can't say I enjoy the super loud ones like the Whistling Petes...I hate those! Anyway, we had our own little display with grandma and grandpa. We couldn't have asked for better weather outside, it was so pleasant. For the 24th we will have to expand our selection of fireworks since Tyson liked them so much!