New York Part 1

Mark and I took our family back to Rochester, New York to go see his parents who are serving as mission presidents there for the LDS church. It was a week long vacation and so fun. This is a picture that I have been meaning to post for a long time now. It is not in New York but it is two things I can't live with out. Andrew and our fabulous hoody towels. My mom's aunt has made one of these for each of my boys. We LOVE them. Andrew is two weeks old in this picture. I think he is so precious!
We flew in to Rochester and got there around 3. My boys all had these shirts on that say My Grandpa Rules. Andrew's shirt said I love my Grandpa. It was fun to see Mike and LeeAnn again. It had been way too long. I got a little teary eyed as I watched Ethan run up to Mike and give him a HUGE hug. They sure miss their grandparents.



The first day we went to the museum of play. It was so fun. We didn't get out of the house until 1:30 and we stayed there until close. We still didn't get a chance to see everything. It was amazing. We even happened to get on the news that night. They were doing a story about 10 toys that had been nominated to go into the toy hall of fame. So there was a guy there with a camera and a news reporter. They were filming the boys and I gave them a weird look. The reporter then told me it was for the news and wondered if I minded. I said no. So we watched the news that night and in the background of the report you could see me and Lee Ann sitting at a table. Then they did a wider shot and you could see that rest of our family playing. It all lasted about 30 seconds and we were really excited.

Here is Ryan playing with the chickens and eggs. I guess he takes after his dad.

Jake playing in the "sand" pile. This wasn't really sand. It looked more like teeny tiny beads. Jake and Ryan played here for a while. I sat on a bench (with Andrew in my snugli) and got a lot of comments about having three boys with red hair and sooo young. The people in New York all thought I was crazy. I guess they would get along with Mark! :)

Here is Ethan at the old fashioned radio station.

We also went to the one of the great lakes. I think it was Lake Ontario. It was fun to walk around. It was pretty cold. Both of my boys were pretty excited when they saw all of the sand. I felt bad we could stay and play longer. I think Ethan would have gone swimming if Mark hadn't threatened him with his life. (We didn't bring a change of clothes or towels, it would have been a long ride home with wet children)

Mark and Me with the lake.

Me, Andrew (in sungli, under blanket) Mike, Jannifer, and Ethan. It was so fun to have Jannifer there the same time as us. More to come on that in later posts.

Two Weeks

Andrew is now two weeks. Wow! I think the first two weeks of a baby's life goes by so much quicker than the last two weeks of pregnancy. I am still in shock that this little guy came early. I am so glad he did. We sure love him. I had one friend say she loves the feeling of "you've always been a part of our family" that comes with the birth of each new child. It has been true for us every time. Here are Andrew's two week stats

Height 19 3/4 in 23%

weight 7 lbs. 14 oz. 23%
Head 35 1/2 cm. 23%

Dinner Last Night

So yesterday after church we didn't put Ryan down for a nap because we were going to eat and then go visit my grandparents in Spanish Fork and Mapleton. We figured he could sleep on the way. We didn't realize he was so tired. I guess nursery wore him out. He just had to rest his little head.

First Day of School and More

Ethan's first day of School was Thursday. My mom always had red, yellow and blue balloons for us to take our first day of school pictures by so it just wouldn't feel like the first day of school for me if I didn't get the balloons. Thank you to Emily and Matthew for picking up the balloons and taking all the great pictures and then taking Ethan to school.

I love this close up of Ethan.

So here is the story. Sorry its kind of long and there are lots of pictures of our cute little guy. My sister Emily and her husband Matthew flew into Salt Lake early Thursday morning (I think around 1:00 AM) They had a friend drop them off at our house. I started having contractions around 2:00 AM nothing really painful or consistent. Around 3:30 they were beginning to be every 3 minutes and a little uncomfortable. I woke Mark up at 4. He said we needed to go right away. I was a little concerned about going since with Ryan I had contractions every 3 min for two hours and then they stopped. I told Mark I would call the hospital. They had a hard time assessing me over the phone. So I got up and packed Ethan's lunch and wrote down some notes for Emily and Matthew. I then went downstairs to tell them we needed to go to the hospital. They were a little sleep deprived to say the least. Emily thought they needed to go to the hospital b/c her in-laws had been in a car accident. She asked if everything was ok. I said I thought I was in labor. Matthew then got really excited and said, "Ok what do we need to grab, lets go!" Emily quickly helped him realize that we (Mark and I) were going to the hospital and they were staying with our kids. I have been laughing about it ever since. We got to the hospital I was still at a 3 1/2 so they made me wait in the side room for an hour. In the mean time my contractions slowed down to every 6 min. I was pretty frustrated and thought they were going to send me home for sure. When they came to check me again I was at a 5 plus! So we were admitted! The Doctor came and broke my water around 8:00AM. My contractions never really picked up. I thought we were going to be there all day so we walked around from 9-9:20ish. WE came back to the room I had about 5 more really strong contractions and then started to throw up. Mark grabbed the trash can and called the nurse. She came in and checked me and told Mark to push the call button again. She then told them to get respiratory in my room and have Dr. Haskett come. I looked and Mark and told him "this was a bad idea, I am done!" Within 7 min. Andrew was born, no Dr. Haskett. Mark was a huge help through every contraction. I really couldn't have done it with out him. Thank you Mark. So now that you may or may not have read my really long story here are all our pictures.
Andrew Ralph Hemingway
6 lbs. 15 oz
19 in long
10:15 AM
(We think the hair looks reddish)



Ethan with Andrew

Jake with Andrew

Ryan and Emily with Andrew

This is Andrew and his little cousin Mason. They are 15 days apart. So Sweet!

Becky, Mason, Me and Andrew

Just about Ready

About a week ago I finally went through all my baby stuff. I got my bassinet, car seat, swing all out and cleaned. I also got all the little baby clothes out. I had gotten a bunch of cloth diapers from a lady in my ward and I was planning on using them and when I did a count I realized I didn't quite have enough. I have spent the last week making these cute little things.

I think they are about the same size of a size one diaper. I am so excited how they turned out. I used this website for my pattern. http://goodnessgraciousdiaper.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/11/ They weren't too hard to make either. I made 11 diapers for about $30 I think. So I will be saving LOTS of money in a few weeks:) I would highly recommend cloth to anyone! Hopefully my little guy comes soon!

AZ Trip

On Wednesday we drove down to AZ. On Thursday we went and saw Wicked. LOVED IT! Thanks Mom and Dad. Here you go Tanya, This is me 35 weeks prego.

Saturday we went to some museum in Phoenix and there were free crafts for the kids to do. The boys had fun with the little projects.

Ethan making a beaded necklace.

Jake making his necklace.


Spencer didn't get in until 9:00 at night. It was pretty late. On the way to the airport Mark and I were a little tired. Jake is our nonstop chatterbox. Our ears were a little tired to say the least. Mark suggested that we play the quiet game. After about 30 seconds Jake said, "Dad this game is really hard."

This is Ethan waiting for Spencer. In the background are Kellie, Emily and then Sean and Jon-Eric (two of Spencer's buddies)

This is Ethan hugging Spencer while on top of grandpa. Side note: We didn't get a picture of Spencer trying to shake my hand instead of giving me a hug.


No trip to Grandma's would be complete with out turning on the cotton candy machine. Here a a few pictures of the boys enjoying the cotton candy!

We were supposed to drive back on Wednesday since my doctor told me not to travel after 36 weeks but Mark had a deadline that was due Thursday morning so we ended up driving back on Thursday, sorry Dr. Watabe. All in all we had a nice time. I always feel like I don't get a summer living in Utah so it was nice to finally be in some weather that was up in the 100's!

Ethan's birthday

Well these pictures are a little out of order but here they go. Ethan's birthday was on July 21. He turned 6. We started the morning by opening presents.
Jake was so excited to have Ethan open his present. We got it the week before and for an entire week Jake would say, "Ethan I didn't get you the Ben 10 watch for your birthday" which is what he really got him.

We went to Radio Disney Days at the Gallivan Plaza. Everything is pretty much free but the train ride. Since it was Ethan's birthday I decided to splurge and spend the $5 for the three boys to ride. They loved it.

At night we went swimming and then had cake. The next morning Mark and I got up early and headed to AZ for our summer vacation and to see Spencer!