March pictures

A couple of good pictures from the camera that I want to share from the month of March.

I told Nathan that he could not get the trash can from the curb on his bike. After ten minutes of trying to hook it on somehow....

He decided to drag it this way: It just made me laugh. What a boy thing to do.
This is our only St. Patricks Day picture. Steven asked his teacher if he could color on his face with green marker, and she said Yes. I was a little surprised that she gave him permission, because Steven colored all over his face. But in her defense, she probably didn't expect him to go this far. Steven is a very messy person. If he can make a mess of himself or anything else, he will.
Also, a couple of weeks ago, Brooklet had dress up week like they do for Homecoming week in High School. One day they were supposed to dress up in clothes showing a profession they wanted to do when they grow up. What do you think of Steven's idea. :-0
This seems to be Mom's favorite activity whenever she comes to my house. I ALWAYS have unfolded laundry waiting for attention in my laundry room and Mom is just so efficient at getting it folded and even out of the family room. I am always so grateful when she does this service for me. I Love You Mom!
Steve had his spring break the week after I got back from Bakersfield. He wanted to take the family to Stone Mountain for his break. I blogged about this place last year when we went for Jacob's birthday. We really enjoy going there.

Daddy with the babe

Nathan on top of Stone Mtn.
We rode the cable car to get up the mountain, but decided to walk the path to get down. Here are the boys on our hike down.
Steve was practicing with the panoramic feature on our camera.

Baby Alexander

{This picture was taken at the beginning of March, not recently, but it is so cute and I don't feel like finding the cord to download the recent pictures right now. :-)

As most of you know who read my blog....my sweet baby Alex is not the easiest of the Hughes boys. He was a PERFECT baby for the first two weeks, and then something went wrong! So, we dealt with it and got frustrated but just assumed that it was our turn to have a difficult baby. Well, he got really bad this week and I was so relieved that I had a Dr.'s appt today for his two month check up. After talking to a couple of friends this week I started to wonder if my sweet child may have this acid reflux that seems to be a lot more common in babies now. As I was telling the Dr. that when Alex cries for more than 15 to 20 minutes he spits up a really curdled, slimy spit up, the Dr. told me that if he is crying for that long he has either got acid reflux or colic. So, he gave me Zantac for reflux to see if we can solve the problem. He got his first two doses today and is such a better baby! It is amazing what medicine can do. Why didn't I get this back in February. I just kept thinking about when Laura was pregnant, and sick and they finally gave her medicine that stopped her from throwing up when she was towards the end of her fourth pregnancy. I just hope that this is not a fluke and he doesn't wake up tomorrow crying again. But for now he is a lovable, baby who is sleeping well once again.

At the Dr. today he weighed 11lbs. 10 oz. and was 24.5 inches. And he is as adorable as ever.

Another Great Weekend!

I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Bakersfield recently for Bryce's wedding. He is the fifth child in our family to be married. I am so happy for he and Serena.

My trip started out similar to all my other flying experiences and my flight was delayed two hours. I really can't win with the airlines. This time it turned out fine though. It was just me and baby Alex flying, which I was worried about because he is such a cry baby. He did really well on the plane though, it wasn't until the two hour drive from the airport to home that we ran into a problem.

The weekend was so enjoyable for me. All of my siblings were there for the wedding and it was wonderful to be with them. And I must say, as much as I LOVE my husband and children, it was kind of nice not to have to chase kids around and get them dressed up and make them food. I just got to hold my little baby and watch my sisters and sister-in-law run after their kids. Steve would have been fun to have around though. :-)

So, I got to Bako on Thursday evening, and Friday was their wedding reception. They decided to do the reception before the actual wedding so they could head out after the wedding was over.
(My niece Brielle with Alexander and I at the reception)
(The food counter. They had ice cream sundaes and a chocolate fountain with lots of fruit. Very Good)

On Saturday morning we drove to the Redlands, CA temple to see their sealing. It was such a nice day to be in the temple with them and so much of my family. Aunts, Uncles, cousins and Grandma came too.
(These are the Allred side grandkids minus my boys.)

(I LOVE this picture.)
Sunday was spent at Mom and Dads for a nice family dinner, and then I headed back home Monday. Flight was delayed into Savannah two hours by the way, so I landed at 1am instead of 11pm. I just didn't want you to think that I had smooth sailing on my way home. :-)

Our wonderful weekend

Alexander is asleep next to me on the bed, and Brandon is playing the DSI in Steven's room. I have to get the house cleaned up for Fran and Lyle to come today and get to Walmart to prepare for scouts tonight. Do I dare take a minute and write about our wonderful weekend. I think I will!


Nathan Roger turned eight last Thursday and had the privilege of being baptized this weekend. In our ward they do family baptisms, so basically we choose the day and time, and it is a baptism just for Nathan. I really enjoy that because it personalizes it, but it also is more work for me. :-) It all came together though and was very nice. Mom spoke on baptism, and Steve spoke on the Holy Ghost.

My Mom and Dad and Fran and Lyle were all able to come for the weekend, and it was such a blessing to me to have them here.

As part of the baptism program, we had the boys sing "I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." I loved it.

After the baptism, we headed out to eat at Ryan's which is a southern style food buffet. It was a very nice evening.


Then on Sunday morning, we got our newest little one all in white for him to be blessed. Now, I will tell you something. Alexander is a CRY baby! He is a wonderful sleeper, but when he is awake, he loves to hear himself cry. So, I was concerned about the blessing and trying to keep him quiet. But, for some reason he woke up Sunday morning in such a calm and happy mood. He was smiling at people and happy and quiet. I was amazed.

Steve gave him a wonderful blessing which included protection from his four older brothers. I loved the blessing. Alexander squawked a couple of times during the blessing, but not enough to bother anyone.

Once again, all the grandparents were able to be there for Alexander and it was so wonderful. I bore my testimony on those special experiences we have in our lives that help us feel closer to the Savior. From blessings as a baby, baptisms at eight, and the temple wedding that I will go to for Bryce next weekend. To possibly serving a mission as a couple. All wonderful events that are or may be happening in our family.

What a blessing family is and the gospel. It was a wonderful and memorable weekend.

Alexander Scott Hughes

Baby Alexander Scott Hughes was born on Jan. 25th 2011 at 5:05pm. He weighed 10lbs 1oz and was 23inches long. He is a beautiful baby boy and we are so happy he is here.

Evan brought the boys to see their new brother at about 6:30pm, so they saw him very soon after he was born. They were all really excited to see him of course and it was all fun and exciting for about 15 minutes. Then they got restless and wild, and having all those people in the delivery room got crazy, so they left and got some Taco Bell for dinner with Evan.

Everyone has said that Alexander looks exactly like Brandon. And I totally agree, but Brandon did not look like him as a baby. What do you think?
{Alexander 1 day old ^}

{Brandon 1 day old ^}
{Brandon 3 weeks old. I think Alexander looks more like Brandon after Brandon got a little older. They do look alike to me in this picture, but not the top one.}

I stayed in the hospital 48 hours this time and in the past I have only stayed 24. I loved being in the hospital. In our small little town with such a quaint little hospital I had visitors all day both days and I thought it was so fun. Alexander would open his eyes for a quick second to see who came in the room and then he went back to sleep so people could hold him. And all of the visitors said, he didn't look nearly as big in person as those pictures made him look. A10lbs person is still a pretty small person.
{My Laurels}


I just went for his 2 week check up and he is now only 9lbs 15oz. He is supposed to be above the birth weight at the two week check up, but he is just not as aggressive of an eater as my other kids have been. He is fine going 4 or sometimes 5 hours without eating. I don't think Any of the other boys did that. I have to take him back next week to check his weight just to make sure he is gaining.

Labor and Delivery

The end of this pregnancy was so different than the other 4, and I am so happy it all turned out OK. First of all, I have a friend in my ward who was due the same day as me. She is in real pain at the end of her pregnancies, so she decided to get induced on the 13th. Well, without me realizing it, that totally threw me off. On the 13th I started panicking thinking I was going to have this baby Any Day. Even though all nine months I had been telling people "All my pregnancies have been boys, they are all 9.5lbs. and they all come within 3 days of my due date." So, why did I start stressing at 10 days early? I was so anxious to get Evan here so he could take over while I was gone. Well, as you know Evan came, but the baby didn't, so we all kind of sat around and waited.
{This was taken on my due date 1/22. Evan and I took the boys out to a state park to go on a hike.}

I had a sore throat and a cough, so I guess it was better that little Alexander was waiting. Well, of course I went to ward council and church the day after my due date because I had no reason not to and the ward was shocked that I was there. I told everyone, I have an appt. with the Dr. tomorrow morning and I am going to see about being induced since all this baby is doing is gaining weight at this point.
The only other pregnancy that I interfered with the birthdate was Steven. I was two days overdue and I had been dilated to a 4 for like three weeks, so I went in and they broke my water. The rest of the boys came when they were ready, so I was very apprehensive about being induced. At the Dr. appointment she told me I am barely dilated to a 2 and in her opinion it would still be a couple of days, so we made an appt for the next morning to induce me. Well, when I left the Dr. office I started crying. Like full on crying and I wasn't sure why. I called Steve and he said maybe I should come home and take a nap since neither of us could figure out why I was crying about being induced when I was three days overdue. After talking to Steve I decided I needed to call my sisters or Mom and they would help me figure this out. Laura was the one I got a hold of and she did just what she was supposed to. She told me she was induced with Kea and it was her best delivery and it just feels weird to take this decision into your own hands and that was so true.{Taken on the day of the Dr. appt. Wow! I didn't feel as big as I looked. }

So, Steve and I went to the hospital at 6am the next morning leaving Evan to get the kids off to school. They broke my water at 8 and started pitocin shortly after.



Everything was going smoothly, but it was really starting to hurt. I have decided that going through labor while you are walking and standing is so much easier than when you are on your back in a bed. So, after some time I got an epidural. OK, so remember my last three pregnancies, I have gone in to labor on my own and have not used an epidural, so I was going with all the latest technology this time. The epidural was AAmazing! Within a short time it took all the pain away and I was totally comfortable. Right after I got the epidural the nurse told me to roll on to my back so she could check me and as she was doing that, she all of a sudden couldn't find the babies heartbeat. She sounded panicked, but I wasn't sure how serious this was. She got a heart monitor onto the babies head and his heartbeat was back, but it was a stressed heartbeat. It would beat at 60 and then shoot up to 170 then go back down to 80 and then shoot up to 150. The nurses and Dr. didn't like the sound of that at all and told me they were going to prep me for a C-section. Well, I lost it at that point. I Did Not Want a C-section at all. I was so mad at myself for forcing this baby to come and getting all these drugs and now I was going to end up on an operating table. I started bawling in the room with all those people around me. I just couldn't help it. I was so frustrated.
{They put this oxygen mask on me and said it would help Alexander get more oxygen and get his heart beat back to normal. It is funny how putting an oxygen mask on someone makes them immediately look like they are at death's door.}

Luckily the nurse said the baby seemed to be calming down and they were going to give him some time to have a normal heartbeat and then we would proceed as normal. I was shocked to see that it was like 1:00pm at this point. I had planned on having the baby within 4 to 5 hours like I had with the other boys. This was taking forever. So, now I just laid on the bed for a couple of hours while we let little Alexander rest. Finally they turned the pitocin back on and we finished the job. My epidural medicine was just running out when it was time to push, but I still couldn't feel a thing when I was supposed to be pushing. I have decided that if the epidural was a perfect science they would leave you just enough feeling to be able to feel when to push. I think I could have been a lot more effective. As it was I pushed for 45minutes and with the others I swear it was less than 15. The urge is just so strong to get that baby out.
With the pushing though, there is one thing I will never forget. Alexander's head came out and then shoulders and you know how at that point most babies just fall the rest of the way out? Well, not him. He was so fat his stomach was stuck. So I still had to give a couple more hard pushes to get his stomach and the rest of his body out. And I remember sitting up to push and seeing the Dr. just pulling the baby out like he was in a tug of war contest. It was crazy.
I am so grateful that this delivery story turned out the way I wanted. And I also learned a lot from the nurse after he was born. I was telling her I feel like I shouldn't have interfered with the birth date and she totally disagreed. She said a uterus is meant to live 39 to 40 weeks, after that amount of time it starts to break down. So, it is not as strong. And after 40 weeks your chance for meconium to get in the water goes way up which can be dangerous because it can get in the babies lungs. She said she would rather be a part of a 36week delivery than a 41 week. That totally surprised me and made me feel totally better about my decision. She said me being 40 weeks and 3 days was the longest she thinks any Mom should go. Very interesting. By the way....my labor and delivery nurse has a son in my tiger den and I totally loved her. She was the best!