Last belly shot and Ked's first days

Last belly shot before Ked was born. Not sure exactly what we were doing here, but this was Sunday evening (birth was early Tues. morning), when I'd been having painful contractions all day and Sam had been applying "counter pressure" (pushing on my lower back) to ease some of the pain. It really helped, except that by Monday in the hospital, my back surface was too tender to take it anymore.

The conehead.

Leaving the hospital. So tiny in his carseat! It took Mom and I awhile to figure out how to adjust it small enough.

Great doctors and nurses (and food), but I was sure glad to get us home!

I remember telling Monica (my sister-in-law) several years ago that after having so many nieces and nephews, I was afraid the novelty of newborns had worn off. I preferred the ones a little older and didn't really care to hold newborns. She told me it would be different with my own. She was right. I can hold and stare at this kid for hours, thoroughly enjoying every moment. Especially when he's this peaceful. . .

I'd been feeding Ked under a sheet. It wasn't until after I burped him and removed the sheet that I saw what position he fell asleep in. Poor kid.

Introducing Kedrik Asa

Kedrik Asa was born at 2:54 AM. He weighted 6 pounds 14.5 ounces, 19.5 inches long. You can't see it, but he has lots of dark hair, his mother's good looks, and his father's style. We will be adding more pictures just as soon as life gets back to the tranquil, pre-baby days. -Sam

Here's Ked in the pajamas Sam wore when he was a baby.

Ked and Sam with the doctor that delivered him. Wish I had a picture with the nurse too. They were both great.

Around 4am, just after he'd been cleaned up a little and dressed. I was a pretty happy camper at this point, besides just being overjoyed to see and hold our son. Saturday night and Sunday night I'd lacked sleep from painful contractions (back labor) and agonized through a day and a half until we were admitted Monday afternoon. But it just got worse at the hospital. I had slow progression throughout that afternoon and evening, though the pain and shaking and nausea increased. (I guess I couldn't get away with never throwing up from pregnancy.) Finally being able to get an epidural at 11pm was one of the sweetest mercies I've ever experienced. (And that was only after a little help from the nurse.)

Where his name came from:

Sam has been good friends with a guy named Kedrik since they became roommates when Sam started at BYU. He was still Sam's roommate when Sam and I started dating. I also think really highly of him--a good guy and a good friend (and fun and adventurous), and we both really liked the name. Here's a picture of Sam and Ked from the spring of 2009.

Asa was the name of one of Sam's bishops at BYU--also a man he really respected and admired. It is also a name from the Bible; a man who "did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord" and whose "heart was perfect with the Lord all his days." -Amber

Sam at Work

This is Sam hard at work doing research with rammed aggregate piers (Geopiers) at his lab at Virginia Tech. (He does stuff indoors as well.) I don't totally understand what he does, but basically he plays with sand, gravel, metal piping, and water. Kind of like a sandbox for grownups. And he puts stuff in big ovens and weighs sand and gravel on scales.

His other research is all computer-based, which is nice for it's flexibility and so he can work from home. As long as I don't bug him--like here when I distracted him.

Wendy's Endowment, May 15, 2009

Right after the family reunion, Wendy went through the Los Angeles Temple for the first time. I was grateful she could do it when so many of us could be there with her.

We were still missing a few siblings, and of course, we were all missing Ginger, but felt her presence there as well. I loved what the assistant to the matron said in that regard; that the temple is a gathering of families on both sides of the veil. I've always known that, but the significance of it hit me much more profoundly.

Afterwards, we were also able to do some temple work for Grampa Clarke's father and grandparents, which was also a really neat experience.

37 Weeks and Contracting

This was me at 37 weeks (Aug. 8, 2009). A few days later my doctor said the baby's heart rate was dropping and gave me an ultrasound. It was so cool to see our baby's cute little profile and head of hair and little fingers. Wished we could have spent a few more minutes there. When the doctor showed me his beating heart, I was totally oblivious that the heart rate had dropped again. Next thing I knew, Sam and I were driving to the hospital for a non-stress test. After being hooked up to monitors for a while, the nurse told me that I was contracting more (more than 5-6 an hour and longer than a minute) than the patient that was actually in labor, and that was why the baby's heart rate kept dropping, which was fine. But apparently I was no where near labor and they sent us home. Sam was disappointed we weren't having it right then. I was a little disappointed, but mostly relieved.

But now my bags are packed, and I'm ready to go! 39 weeks (Aug. 20) along and counting.

Dismal Falls, Aug. 1, 2009

Dismal Falls is about an hour away and just a short walk down to it. The falls were small, but it was fun because you could climb up them. (Carefully--it was slippery!) We had fun doing that and wading in the water and swimming in the small swimming hole at the base of the falls.

Sam apparently thought he should draw attention to my belly (36 weeks).

We saw some little fish and a small snake. As much as I love finding snakes on land, I do NOT like seeing them in the water while I'm in it. Especially when I have no idea what kind they are and whether or not they are poisonous.

Sam did a little cliff jumping, which scared me, because I was afraid he'd hit a rock.

M+M Visit, July 30, 2009

Morgan and Melissa made a detour on their way to the coast to come visit us. We were excited to have family visitors way out in Virginia.

Josh and Sam

We decided to check out the frisbee golf course and played just a couple of rounds. I can't ever play disc golf very well anyway, and especially now that I'm large with child, but besides that, I have to admit that my biggest goal was to avoid poison ivy. I seem to have acquired a patch or two on every outting we've gone on out here. So I never threw it anywhere near the woods. Sam and Morgan went hunting in the woods a couple of times. Of course, their rounds were 2 and 3s where mine were 6 and 7s.

Eli found a little toad. He also impressed us with his frisbee skills--throwing and skipping.

We unintentionally (at least most of us) had a blue theme that morning.

Poison Ivy

So I don't really know what it is for sure--some say it's poison ivy; others say they're spider bites. But since our first week here, I've frequently had new itchy rashes show up on my arms and legs. These are just a few of them. (Sam's also had his share, but in different forms.) We've been outside and in the woods a lot, and poison ivy seems to be everywhere. I thought I was being careful, but now I'm really careful. And paranoid of any unfamiliar plant.

Pandampas Pond, July 27, 2009

Summer's family invited me along for a little outing. We walked down to Pandampas Pond for a picnic lunch. There were little turtles, fish, and salamanders to see.

Paige, Clint, Summer, Kaden, Lindy

(Lindy had been fully dressed when we started the excursion--long story.)

What I wish I'd gotten on video: While we were still on the boardwalk, we saw some geese (?) coming down the path a ways off. We decided to go feed them, but Kaden couldn't wait for the rest of us and took off running down the path with his bagged sandwich in his hand. As soon as he got a little close to them, he threw a couple pieces of bread towards them. As soon as the geese took one step towards him (and maybe made some noise), Kaden dropped his bag of food, turned around, and ran yelling back towards us. You can see in the picture he was still pretty hesitant. I can't really blame him--they were pretty bold and feisty.

Pioneer Day Ward Campout

For Pioneer Day, our ward had a big campout. We shared four or five campsites, and there were several families in each campsite. We hung out at the campfire, had a little fireside talk (finally, a literal fireside!) about the pioneers and ate s'mores. Sam and I did what we could to make sure there weren't many leftovers. We had a great time, and it was nice having a chance to get to know more of the people from church.

Pioneer Day was for me a bittersweet day, remembering Ginger's funeral exactly a year earlier. It was kind of comforting to be sleeping in the tent she gave us for our wedding just a few weeks before she passed away.

Sam and our bishop and his wife.

The "Virginia Walk" hike was only about a mile, but you actually cross into West Virginia and back.

There was a cool stream that ran through our campgrounds. The kids caught crawdads.

Cascade Falls, July 19, 2009

We took a beautiful two mile hike (one way) to Cascade Falls. Sam was very patient with my slow pace and frequent rests.

I was pretty excited to see begonias growing in the wild. (And I just love the moss and the trees.) Sam pretended to share my enthusiasm.

Belly shot: 34 weeks along

The trail had a lot of stone trails and stone steps and followed the river the whole time. Really a thoroughly enjoyable hike.

The falls are 66 feet high. You could get pretty close to them without getting too wet.

Sam contemplating a swim. Right beyond the shelf was a deep swimming hole. We'd planned to go swimming, but I wimped out because it was little chilly and I was already a bit uncomfortable. There was also a place where some people were sliding down the gently slanted slippery rock that looked pretty fun.

Beautiful wild rhododendrons. There's another reason I took this picture, but I'll leave it at that.

We made it!

Virginia is beautiful, it seems out in the country but with all you need nearby, the people are friendly, and Virginia Tech seems like it'll be great for Sam, but what I've loved most is having my sister and her family so close by.

I love having all the kids around, but Paige is making me especially excited to have a little one of my own. She is one of the most easy-going babies I've known, and I can't get enough of her. Sam appears to feel the same way. Sometimes we're a little jealous over who gets to hold her.

The day we got our apartment was my birthday. We'd arrived the night before and stayed with Summer. We spent some time cleaning our apartment, then Summer helped Sam move some furniture they had for us while I played with the kids (Clint was out in El Salvador, and once again, I wasn't much help lifting things), fed us meals and gave me a little birthday party. Sam gave me the Children's Songbook, which I've been wanting for a long time.

Kaden, Paige, Summer, Lindy, Amber

Kaden has really taken to Uncle Sam. Here Sam is teaching Kaden how to do the dishes.

The worst part about our apartment was that it had apparently been smoked in. A lot. Even with new carpet, it was really bad. We've spent a lot of time attempting to get the smell out. It is definitely better than it was, but it's too absorbed in the walls to ever really go away.
I thought Sam had a good idea with the goggles, but decided to take it a step further with a mask.

Ingenious Sam

I came home one day (in Provo) wondering what all the blue tape marks on the floor were. Sam explained that he'd mapped out the container we were going to use to ship our stuff out to Virginia. He then measured and mapped out each major piece of furniture we were moving (which wasn't much--we didn't even have a couch and left the desk--but the container was only 6'x7'x8'), allowing us to see what space we'd have for everything else. I was pretty happy to have such a smart husband, and it eased my concerns about everything fitting. Though I was still a little unsure. . .
Sam was quite the Tetris-master fitting everything in. We filled it pretty much up to the very top. Apparently, we also went way over weight, but they didn't charge us extra. When the forklift operator was delivering it to our new apartment in Virginia, he commented on how heavy it was, took one look at me, and said, "What you got in here--baby stuff?" Here's the container when it was mostly emptied. (I promise it was much more impressive when it was full.)

We were grateful for a lot of help, both from our old ward and our new ward in moving all the boxes and furniture in and out of the container.

Trip to Virginia

On our drive moving out to Virginia, we spent two days in Iowa with Sam's family. We were just in time to get some of their famous rhubarb pie.
Ginny, Amy, Mama L, Gordon

Doris and Estel came for a visit. Here with Josh, Melissa, and Morgan.

He probably just wanted my pillow, but I was flattered that Eli wanted to come be next to us. I fell asleep watching home videos, and the next think I knew, I was the only one on the floor and their home teacher was in the middle of giving a lesson. Kind of embarrassing. . . I'm not usually such a heavy sleeper.

We went to check out a train that had derailed. Sam, Guy, and Gordon had fun climbing on top and jumping from car to car. I was a little jealous I couldn't join them. (And a little nervous about some of their jumps.)


The day we left Iowa, we stayed the night in Kentucky with Brandi and Alan and Alan's family. That was a treat as well. Too bad I didn't get any pictures.

Elder Z

Though Derek hadn't gotten his call yet, I knew this would be the last time I would see him. We took him out to dinner the day before his birthday. It was pretty exciting to get his phone call a couple of weeks later to announce he'll be serving in the Morristown, New Jersey Mission--Spanish Speaking, leaving in September.

I Love to See the Temple...

Sam, Beth, their cousin Jen and I went through the open house tour of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was neat going through, and pretty amazing to be able to see other temples (Jordan River and Draper) from this one.

Just a few days before we left, my friend Veronica invited me to go with her to the Provo Temple one last time. I will sure miss this temple and the service and experiences I've enjoyed there (and all the people I love there). I've sure grown in so many ways since first attending there six years ago, attending it with Sam our first year of marriage, and being an ordinance worker there for the last three. I will especially miss that. I wish I'd gotten a picture of it in the daytime. It's especially beautiful in the spring and with the mountains behind. Here you can just barely make out the spires.