This is Nate... We've had a busy these past 2 weekends. Thought I'd pick up the blogging slack on behalf of our family. Love you Tashina. :) Keeping this simple, we went to Idaho see my best bud Steve Stone marry the girl of his dreams, Margie. Wedding and reception were amazing. We are so happy to see them HAPPY. I was reminded of how awesome summer is in Idaho. Weather was amazing. We had a good time feeding the ducks with Brevik, visiting Dad/Grandpa Birch, checking out the falls, and well..... I TURNED THE BIG 3-0! Tashina hooked me up with a special day and the Stones took Brevik so we could have dinner together. Awesome. And, I am old! The following weekend we went to Southen California for a quick visit to Disney and a day at the beach! So fun getting to hang with my brother Doug's family here from Hawaii, Sandee's family, and the greatest Mom on earth! What a fun time. After breaking the land speed record today, we are home. All vacationed out! Till July 4th that is, then back to Idaho. SoCal again in August! Over and out!

random pics of my view everyday...our little bug.

Being a stay at home mom has sure opened my eyes, and has made me realize whats truly important in this life....and thats this little guy. I feel blessed to be his mother. He's a mini version of his dad and I love it more and more with every stage, I swear he has a little of me in him...i just havent found it yet!

6 year and counting....

Nate and I celebrated our 6 yr anniversary! Yep, I still love him....even more than I did 6yrs ago when we were sealed for all time and eternity. Its so incredible to think that we have only been married 6 yrs...I feel like I have never been without him. Nate surprised me and took me to the Compass Room to enjoy a delicious steak dinner and a slice of heaven aka tiramisu, my fav. He's my best friend and everyday is an adventure/comedy show in our house...here's to many more years sweetheart ;)

better late than becoming an extinct blogger...

Here we go!
Christmas: Brevik's 1st christmas...a blast, he played with paper, while attempting to single handily tearing all the ornaments off the tree, thanks for the help buddy...good times:)
New Years: Bring on 2012...we spent the early evening with my family, singing red solo cup...a classic in the Louden household. Later that night we lit off fireworks with Nates sister and her kids...i even got a smooch from this good looking blue eyed boy ;) great way to start the year! Ive set my goals and am more focused than ever, im guessing it has something to do with having a baby...i dont fly by the seat of my pants anymore, everything is planned and scheduled in advance!
my 26th: feeling old, and loving it! Mr. B even allowed me a shopping spree at LuLuLemon...signal the fireworks...seriously love this man for trying to understand my obsession:)

Lets talk ginger.

Its been MONTHS since I posted last, but its something that I think about doing on a daily basis! The fact that Im waaaay behind has been a mountain that i havent wanted to climb...so here I am at the bottom trying to figure a way to the top. So chances are, since I am a new mom and all...i'll most likely just post a bunch of pics.
First a general update-
Brevik Dean is now 6.5months
-crawling like bug
-eating solids
-kicking and fighting every diaper change...so fun, right.
-4 teeth
-chubby thighs and a killer smile
-loves the puppies, laughs at them if he sees them, hilarious.
-looks just like his daddy:)
-we shaved his head, do to the grandpa appearance he was starting to develop...sweet do, but we had to rid him of it.
He now looks like a bald old man instead of a balding oldman.

Happy 3 weeks Brevik Dean...

The last 3 weeks have the most emotional, exhausting, challenging, loving, rewarding, blessed time of my life...all because this little boy came into our world. He is the slice of heaven that I have prayed for my whole life.

...LoVe...

I am one LUCKY girl... I get them for eternity :)

The gift of Life...plus some :)

"Push Gift" - I had never heard of such a thing...but I am sure glad I did :)
Defnition: a present a new parent gives a new mother when she gives birth to their child.
A client brought it up one day and asked me what I was wanting for my push present...ummmm, apparently this is a tradition that I almost let slip by the wayside...good thing I was informed :) I came home that night and told Nate, and I am pretty sure that he thought I was making it up. Now why in the world would I make something like that up.... :) weird... Good thing I have a super sweet husband who loves me and tries really hard to make me happy...by the way, he does an excellent job, and when it came to surprising me with a gift, he sure blew it out of the water!! I was expecting flowers and instead i got this...

And in return I got him this... (He's been dying for this watch)

AND the BeSt gift that we both could ever recieve...of course...

Brevik's BIRTHday!

July 15th was the day that our little boy decided to join us! It all started the night before around 11:30pm, Nate and I were up late talking and hanging out, I had just hopped out of the bathtub and decided to run into the kitchen to eat some delicious chips and salsa. I went into the pantry to grab the bag of chips and before I had even put it into my mouth, my water broke all over the kitchen floor! Craziest feeling! At first I doubted it and tried to convince myself that I had just peed my pants (its not like that would've been far fetched), the longer I stood there thinking about it the more I knew that it was my water. I yelled for Nate to come, looking at me with confusion standing a puddle of water, he asked me what happened. I explained to him that I didnt pee my pants and that we needed to go to the hospital. He kinda looked at me, eyes glazed over, and said "I need to vacuum the house." What!?!? What a funny man..you could tell he was nervous and wanted everything to be perfect with the house. I just started to laugh, and told him that I would start the dishwasher and switch the clothes in the washer to the dryer, and load my bag in the car. I didn't have any contractions, so we were able to take a little bit of time to take a shower and tie up any loose ends before heading off to the hospital.

1:30 am - admitted into Banner Gateway Labor and Delivery. Still no contractions
4:00 am - started on pitocin
8:00 am - Dr. Layton came to check on me...3cm 70% effaced.
2:00 pm - Dr. came to check again. Still hadn't dilated. Told the nurses to up to 24, which was the most that he wanted to give me.
Started to feel pretty strong contractions.
2:30 pm - Epidural :) Dr. came to check again...still did not dilate!!! He pulled me off of all the medicine and ordered everyone out so that I could sleep and give my body a chance to dilate on its own.
3:30 pm - Nurse come in to check me...I went from a 3 to an 8 in about an hour!
3:35 pm - I am now 10cm and 100% effaced. The Dr. is called (he was at home preparing to go on his family vacation).
4:00 pm - started pushing, pushing every 4 contractions.
5:00 pm - DR. ARRIVES!
5:22 pm - Baby Brevik enters the world and we finally get to meet him! The spirit in the room has never been so strong.

I felt maybe a total of 15 minutes of pain!! I thought it was a great labor and delivery!
And ever since then...Nate and I have been madly in love with our son...all the crying,pooping, and peeing. We love being parents! Words cannot describe how blessed we feel to have him in our lives...this experience was truly magical!
Brevik Dean Birch
July 15,2011
6lbs 9oz, 20 inches long

Meeting dad for the first time!

Meeting mom for the first time!

Brevik Dean Birch

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Brevik Dean Birch

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Coming Soon...hopefully...

I sure love this little man already! But I think I would love him EVEN MORE if he would make his GRAND entrance!

..A lot has changed..

I am not the best blogger in the world, in fact, I am surprised that I even remembered my password to get into blogger! Considering everything that has happened this past year, i figured this would be prime time to start blogging again...so we will see how long this "urge" will last and run with it while it does!
I will try and turn a looooong potentially drawn out story to a sweet and shorten version...
After around 6 months of marriage Nate and I decided to start a family...after many surgeries, reflexologist, accupunturists, needles, ultrasounds, dr visits, several different doctors/specialist, prayers and finally IVF, we were blessed with the news last october that we would be welcoming a little bundle of joy into our world July '11. Without all the crazy pregnancy details that would probably just bore whoever still reads this blog...it has been an AMAZING pregnancy! Not one ounce of sickness, crazy cravings, heartburn, stretch marks, bloating, or other side effects that I read when aimlessly reading forum after forum. I feel truly blessed, he has been healthy, and not one scare or concern ever came across our Dr.'s desk. In fact I worked out as usual, running anywhere from 3-7 miles a day, without a bit of pain. Now with saying all of this, I will add that I am in my 39th week and I AM READY FOR IT TO BE OVER! Despite the fact that this pregnancy has been somewhat blissful, I am mentally and physically exhausted! I have pretty much done everything that I could to try and get this cute little Birch boy out and nothing...even an accupressurist tried today, still hoping that it works within the next couple of days, but I am not holding my breath. SO... I am going to relax, all the cleaning and bleaching of the house has been done for the past week, laundry, dishes, dusting are completely finished. Bags are packed and in the car, snacks for the hubs, movies downloaded on the iPad, as well as our new current favorite game, Tetris. Dinner and breakfast meals are frozen, and grocery shopping is done. Even though I am satisfied with everything being checked off my To Do List, I HATE the fact that I am bored out of my mind!! I even found myself staring at the ceiling fan yesterday...I think I am going crazy! In the meantime, I guess I will be blogging and giving updates, if not for anyone else, myself. I journal every night, but figured that this would be a good 2nd journal that I could print out that included pictures for documenting purposes. So on with the pictures...

39th week pregnant, this picture was taken before my run this morning!

The morning that we found out we were pregnant!

Waiting to put the little fertilized eggs in!

ARMS, about to go in to see Dr. Johnson, right outside of ARMS, this is where all the fun/miracles go down!

The start of the whole process! 5 shots a day for 3 weeks. I had to get over my fear of needles!

Nate's Triathlon in Tempe!

Nate and Jared decided that they were going to do The Tempe sprint Triathlon at the beginning of the year! Everyday was mapped out with a workout whether swimming, running or biking, these boys never missed a day! I have never been on the other side of the finish line, it was a blast to cheer Nate on and watch him accomplish what he set out to do! Way to go honey! Cant wait until next year!

Pictures from our Maui trip that we took back in April :)