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Maddie's Birth Story (by Mommy)

I fell in love for the second time on July 10, 2012. Maddox was born on a Tuesday at 5:13 pm via emergency C-Section. We had arrived at the hospital that morning at around 7:30 to be induced. However, I was not progressing and my blood pressure was rising to dangerous levels. The doctors began the surgery at 5:00 and 13 minutes later, our little angel appeared from behind the curtain. I remember feeling incredibly sleepy from the epidural but when the anesthesiologist told me I would see my baby soon I kept my eyes open and tried my best to stay awake and lucid. First, I heard him cry. Immediately, tears came to my eyes and an overwhelming feeling of love, relief and anticipation came over me. A second later, I saw my son for the first time. He was beautiful and I loved him instantaneously. They took him to a table behind me to clean him up and check him which took about 5 minutes. The table seemed to be miles away and those five minutes seemed like hours. I couldn't wait to hold and kiss him. I remember Maddie's legs being outstretched and up in the air while he was laying on his back. It was so funny. Finally, Allan carried him over to me and we cried and kissed our little son. During our stay in the hospital, Maddox proved to be the perfect baby. He loved to be held and never cried. He would only fuss a little when he was hungry and he would make the cutest little squawking noises instead of cry. Most nights, he slept in my arms. I have never slept so peacefully. When he was circumcised, the doctor said he slept right through it. He nursed well and took a bottle well. We knew that we had been blessed with a special baby. We believed that Heavenly Father blessed us with an easy baby to help us make it through the trials we faced right after his birth. Maddox was a miracle to us because in spite of all the pregnancy-related complications I experienced, he was perfectly healthy and we never had to worry about him. I remember my doctor telling me that sometimes, babies learn to thrive and become even stronger than they would be otherwise when their mothers have preeclampsia. I knew that this was the case with Maddox. He thrived when I struggled. He was strong when I was weak. I know that my ability to recover was in large part due to his existence and resilience.

Christmas is coming...

Since we don't have kids and I have been trying to update our blog more regularly, I decided to post pictures of our dog and our Christmas tree. Both the dog outfit and the Christmas tree are from Becky and Jared...thanks guys! We had to move the big love sac to make room for the Christmas tree so Cuni has a new favorite spot. Merry Christmas everyone!

Hawaii

We went to Oahu for the first time and it was beautiful! It was probably our favorite vacation yet. We did so much and went all over the island but also spent a lot of time relaxing on the beach. We stayed in Waikiki but basically only slept there. Our favorite part of the island was definitely North Shore.

We went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay but our favorite spot was Waimea Bay where we swam with turtles.

We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and had a lot of fun. Scott, my brother-in-law's brother, works there and came with us to the night show. He was so sweet and got us an awesome discount! We went to the Luau and as shown above, had a pork dinner. Above was before...

And this is after. Yum!

We went to the temple grounds and the visitors center.

We had perfect weather and saw lots of rainbows but no double rainbows. :)

We went to Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial.

We hiked the Maunawili trail to this waterfall.

In addition to everything above, we also visited the BYU Hawaii Campus, the Dole Plantation, Kailua Beach, Lanikai Beach with Derrick, Allan's brother, and his wife, Kate, drove up to Mount Tantalus, Sunset Beach (North Shore), ate the shaved ice at Matsumoto's, and saw Kualoa Ranch where Jurassic Park was filmed. We would love to go back and do everything again! It was so much fun!

The last year...

We're still Cards fans.

Brent and Marina came to visit us for Allan's birthday.

We've been to San Diego a lot to visit my parents.

Tasha and Ryan and their kids came to visit us in Arizona.

We went to Idaho for Mayan's baby blessing.

So...

I know I am averaging one post per year but I am really going to try harder to be more consistent. Basically, everything is the same with us. Allan is in his 2nd year of law school at ASU, I'm still a banker, and we have one dog and no kids. Life is good though. :)