wait, whose birthday is it?

My little Miss Kater turned 2 this week! Daylen wanted to celebrate it more than Kate. He has been talking about his birthday since Brad's birthday in March. Poor kid still has to wait until August, however, he didn't mind sharing in Kate's festivities. Here is a quick shot we took before church on Sunday. Man I love these kids!

Kate opening her first present...

a new Sunday dress and squeaky shoes...ever heard of them? I always know where Kate is and she loves them...a little TOO much! (They squeak with every step.)


Daylen insisted that he had a birthday present, too, and he HAD to open it. Smart dad then proceeded to put Daylen's church clothes in Kate's gift bag and let him open them. He was super excited even if it wasn't anything new...just opening a present made him happy!

While Kate was napping, Brad put together her second birthday present...a table and stools from IKEA. We went to put them in her room at the end of her nap, she was thrilled as you can tell from the look on her face.

Despite the face, she really does love the table, as does Daylen. There has been a lot more drawing at our house this last week.

Brownies and ice cream came later, Rachel, Tyler, and Austin joined us for this fun. We are going to have cake when we go home to Washington this next week, both my family and Brad's family will be there, we are so excited to see everyone!

Once again Daylen had to have a candle in his brownie, too. This kid is birthday crazy!

I still can't believe Kate is 2! She is the cutest little stinker ever! She may be destructive and careless and a little too independent, but her personality keeps us entertained. Three phrases we hear a LOT at our house right now out of her lips are, "All myself!" (Do it all by myself) "Look at me!" as she does some trick or sticks her finger up her nose, and "Ah man!" when something doesn't go quite right. She is hilarious, and super sweet when she wants to be and I just can't imagine life without her! We love you Kate!

Happenings...

When Mandy and Ivan came to stay with us last month Daylen LOVED riding Ivan's little 2-wheeler bike. So a couple of weeks ago Brad found this bike at a yard sale for $2! The training wheels cost more the bike itself. Daylen calls it his "cool bike" and the neighbor kids have all picked it up from him and call it "Daylen's cool bike" as well. Now he can keep up a little better with the other kids and ride these hills a little easier.

(This picture is supposed to be with the barbaque below.)

Just a fun picture.

What's Memorial Day without a barbaque? We of course had to enjoy the beautiful weather we are finally having and invited Tyler, Rachel, and Austin over to enjoy some home barbaqued hamburgers, yum! We also made use of our deck finally and ate outside, I think it's about time for some deck furnature...

Kate and Daylen blew bubbles for us, Kate needs to work on her blowing technique as you can see, but this picture cracks me up, the crazy hair really adds to the effect.

Austin enjoyed being outside and entertained us with his contagious huge smile!

Kate mothering Brooks which she does as much as possible. Anytime she hears him start crying she comes running to help. "Oh no cry Brooks" or "no cry baby" are common phrases heard from her lips.

Miss Helpful Kate

Kate loves to help her little brother out, put his binky in his mouth, make sure his blanket is covering him. We took a little video of her tonight holding Brooks and "helping" him suck on his binky in her oh so helpful way. The video is mostly for grandparents to enjoy since they haven't met their newest grandson yet, but you're welcome to watch it as well.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game!

We took Brooks on his first family outing to the BYU Baseball game on Saturday. I think he enjoyed it...he didn't even realize he had left the house, he slept the whole time. He was all snug in his sling, no point in opening his eyes. We met Rachel, Tyler, and Austin there and enjoyed an exciting game, BYU coming back from behind to beat San Diego State, Go Cougars! Daylen especially enjoyed the popcorn...after the game we decided to make a night of it and go eat dinner at the Olive Garden, yum! We don't ever take our kids out to eat unless we are out of town, they did great!

Brooks Casey Gasaway

Brooks Casey Gasaway

Born May 8, 2010

6 lbs 13 oz

19 in

We are so happy to announce the birth of our little guy, I am especially relieved he finally decided to show us his sweet face and that his daddy was here to witness it. I was very worried that he may decide to come while Brad was in China, but luckily he made it back in time. Although absolutely nothing about his labor and delivery went as I had planned, we are glad he is here and well. Had things gone as I planned them, my water would have broken, (as it did with the first 2) we would have gone to the hospital, and Brooks would have shown up about 2 hours later. Sounds like a good plan huh? I was convinced after my first 2 experiences that this is exactly how it would go. What really happened was I went to the hospital not even being in labor, but to check out bleeding that had just begun. After being monintored for a few hours, going back and forth as to whether or not they would send us home, I started contracting more, dialating a bit more, so Brad and I walked the hospital "track" for an hour to get more contractions coming. It worked, just not as quickly as I would have liked. My doctor ended up breaking my water to get the process going faster. After a painful hour and half or so I got the epidural (I debated whether or not to go natural this time, but now I'm glad I didn't). Once I was dialated to an 8 baby's heart rate started dropping with each contraction and soon it wasn't coming back up at all. The nurse checked me again, thinking it would be time to push, but no I was still at an 8. Another nurse came in, they called my doctor up, gave me oxygen, I tried switching sides to see if baby would like that, it didn't help. My doctor came in and "helped" me get to a 10 so I could push (thankful I had my epidural at that point). My doctor told me the baby needed to come out now, so I needed to push him out fast, or he would have to do a C-Section. Boy was I motivated to push! As soon as I started pushing, baby's heart rate went up thankfully. Unlike most babies, he liked the pushing, so I was able to push him out pretty fast to find there was a knot in his cord that must have been tightening with each contraction. He was finally here and healthy and I was so glad to have that part behind me! He has been such a sweet baby so far, we love him so much and are so thankful to have him with us now!

So tiny! Coming home from the hospital!

Rachel came and stayed with me for a few days since my mom wasn't able to come at all. It was so nice having someone else there to help out with the kids and dishes and cleaning, and just to have some companionship. Her little Austin doesn't look so little anymore compared to Brooks.

I still think it's a little crazy to see my 3 kids together!

Fun Times

I am being so spoiled right now by my sis-in-law, Mandy. I know she doesn't think she is spoiling me, but really she is. She and Ivan are staying with us while Brad is in China to keep us company and to help me out so I can rest as much as possible so this baby doesn't come until his daddy gets home. So far it's working, lets just hope we can last until Tuesday. I'm almost afraid that my resting will cause this baby to come late and I don't think I will be able to handle that. Daylen and Kate have loved being able to play with their cousin every day and I'm afraid I'm getting a little too used to not having to clean up after every meal.

Aunt Mandy has lots of fun crafts and games for the kids to do.

And who knows where and what these kiddos find to play.

Mandy made Kate the cutest little tutu. I think her older brother's superman pjs really add to the outfit.

Family Fun and Easter

Sorry Rach, I really didn't mean to leave Austin out. Here are a couple of pictures of my cute new nephew!

My family came to visit the week before Easter since it was their Spring break, unfortunately there wasn't much of "Spring" in the forecast. Jamie hopped in the suburban with her kids as they were driving through Cauldwell to join in on the fun. We had a fun filled week, Daylen and Kate loved playing with their cousins, Daylen and Nathen I think especially had fun despite the 2 1/2 year age difference. We all got worn out as you can see from grandpa and Kate.

Wednesday we went to Temple Square while my mom went to a training meeting with the General Relief Society Presidency. While she was in her meeting the rest of us took a tour of Temple Square, in the freezing cold and snow. After mom's meeting we all took a tour of the Conference Center. Fun day, but we all came down with colds after that, not so fun.

The kids had fun coloring easter eggs.

Since it looked like this outside, we had out easter egg hunt inside.

Luckily the kids didn't care where the hunt was held, they just had fun looking for eggs.

Can you tell no none really got ready this day?

Jamie and I had to take a pregnant picture together seeing as we are due a day apart. Our belly shapes are VERY different as you can see. We are 34 1/2 weeks in this picture.

The kids having fun with balloons.

Daylen and Kate had double fun as their cousin, Ivan, came to visit as well. Mandy and Tyrel stopped by for a short visit on their way back to Rexburg after living in Arizona while Tyrel did his student teaching. The snow was a rude awakening from their nice, warm weather! We, of course, had to have another easter egg hunt with Ivan.

Playing Kate's favorite game, "Ashes" as she calls it.

Thanks for the fun week, we love our family!