It's official

So, It's official. His name is Cooper William Judd. Welcome to the world little buddy.

The smile on her face is not for the camera. She is a wonderful mom.

The little guy with binky for size reference.

What a crew! We now require a 7-seat vehicle which puts us squarely out of the pick-up truck market completely. I resisted just long enough, and now I don't have to even think about it. I do wonder what a 4-door Jeep would be like for commuting though.

It could've been worse

Well, he's finally here. Can't believe it, nor how it all came about. Ridiculous really. So many things could have gone wrong. Tiff is resting well, finally. Able to breath, no one kicking her in the spinal column. I am amazed at her strength. I've not felt as much like a spectator in any of our births as this one.

Name? Not yet. He's lying in his crib next to me grunting in his sleep. Cute little bug. Big hands, dimples, sparse brown hair, 7.14 and 21". Perfect. Tiff knows what she's doing.

So here's my story... to be published before Tiff wakes up and has a chance to smack me for the embellishments. Truth is, more than just the backbone is accurate. The blessings for our family are numerous and I thank God. I thank God.

So, the alarm sounded normally at 5:15 a.m. Ellie had been in our room early in the morning and forced to sleep on the heater vent instead of unleashing the entirety of her wrath on our sleep by climbing into our bed. I got ready for work, gave Tiff a kiss, asked how she was doing, and left about 5:35.

I had just settled into the work day, working on the process for the weekly report, mapping out how the day was going to shape up, not giving a thought to Tiff going into labor. She'd been having contractions off and on for quite a while, so we knew he who shall soon be named would be coming.

I got a call from Tiff about 6:45 and knew before I answered it was time to go. Tiff confirmed it and requested I drive the 25 mins back to home to get her and drive the 35 minutes back into SLC to the hospital. I called her crazy for choosing LDS hospital a long time ago due to the distance and navigational prowess required to get here. We didn't leave the house until 7:50 after Tiff had piddled around the house at her leisure - I left the urgency up to her to evaluate. I could tell it was time to get moving as she was starting to have to lean against the wall during the contractions. She was still being slow.

I finally got her in the car and began navigating the morning rush hour traffic to the hospital. The contractions were 1-2 mins apart, and based on her history, the baby was coming now! We passed a police car on the shoulder, and I had half a moment wondering if I should pull over behind him and ask for an escort. We passed by. Tiff telling me to drive faster. Me telling Tiff to focus on her issues and leave the driving to me. I'm keeping an eye on aggressive drivers, my speed, and my laboring wife - trying to do what I can to help her through the obviously difficult contractions.

We made it to downtown SLC, settling nicely into the morning traffic. Turned up the road leading to the hospital, stopping at every intersection since the cross traffic has the right-of-way at each one, and smiling as I smoothly dodged the larger pot-holes while trying to minimize the change in velocity.

Pulled into the rotunda, signed for a wheelchair, carted Tiff up to the proper floor, got her changed and on her bed, and literally 4 minutes later the birth was over. The nurse was annoyed, the on-call mid-wife still trying to gather herself. Tiff was not responding well to instructions not to push. Nature wasn't calling, no video chat, text, or IM. Nature was there in the room, demanding to be satisfied.

It's all over and I witness the physical change in Tiff's face as the relief sets in and she's holding her new boy close to her heart - where he will now remain. She loves her kids so much and it never amazes me how quickly her disposition turns from agony to ecstasy as she snuggles her newborn.

I love her. I love him.

The good times are actually rollin'

Crazy. Thats what it is. We've been back here in Utah for 2 complete years now. Double the time we spent in Oregon. Begs the question... why were there so many blog posts from our time in Oregon vs. Utah? Did we have more fun in Oregon? The answer is a resounding NO. We have loved being closer to family and not being the factor that everyone else alters their plans around when we happen to blow through town. We're grateful for the relationships the kids have been able to develop with their Grandparents, Aunts/Uncles, and Cousins. What a blessing to have such loving and supportive friends and family no matter which direction we travel. We hope you all know how much we appreciate and love you and hope this season finds you well.

Well, instead of trying to decide on which of our recent photos to include here, I just snapped come clips together to help bring back some of the good times. Hope you enjoy.

"Autumn is a second spring..."

"... when every leaf is a flower." -- Albert Camus

Love the fall. Things start cooling down, the colors are vibrant, the air seems crisper. We've had a good summer full of fun and family. There's a bunch of stuff we need to give a shout-out for, so like all good procrastinators, we'll save that for a future post.

Finally got some updated Fam Pics... Presenting Judds 2010.

Some of the recent festivities... Ellie turned 3 (and finally starting the potty training process). We had the most wonderful princess party I could ever imagine.

And not to be out done was Stew turning 5 and his choice to take the whole fam out for some serious laser tagging. Just for future reference, Ellie was not the perfect teammate.

They might be giants...

Well, I suppose it's time to put some info back out on the blog. Can't believe we've gone all summer without posting anything. We're still here, doin good. Life keeps ticking away. For those who don't know, we're expecting our 5th tricycle motor... pretty excited. Only down side is now the possibility of buying a 6-seat truck is out of the realm of possibilities for us.

We've had quite the summer. Here's some digital representations of some of our memories...

First of all, congrats go out to Sam and Kaela for nailing the biggest event of the year for the fam. Kaela - welcome to the fam/madness. p.s. we'll get your wedding pics to you someday :)

The kids all got to go crawdad fishing in between festivities which is always a treat.

Not everyone was entirely impressed with the results.

Ahhhhwwwwww. Who chased Cam with one of those crazy looking creatures?

We totally got to take the boys on their first real overnight backpacking trip down Coyote Gulch. Even Super Stew got to go. They were all real troopers. Prolly G&G Judd's last trip too, so it was cool to be part of that.

Just a pic to illustrate the photo editing skills we're building. OOB is sweet!

Well, hopefully we'll get some stuff on here at a closer interval than this one. We're doing well. Kids are happy (when we yell at them long enough), job is good, love being back in Utah. Got tons more pics, so we'll have to choose some winners for the next entry.

Sneaker wave - revisited

Suppose it's time to put a little something out on the 'ol blog. Nothing too earth shattering going on, so decided to just upload one of our favorite family clips.

Here's the setup.

Cannon Beach, OR. Just a really nice day. It was the middle of October, so we figured we'd take advantage of the 70 deg weather out on the coast. The beach is a really long, flat beach and the waves roll up the beach a long way. Because it's so flat, once in a while a wave can roll significantly farther up beach than most. It's really not that big of a deal - you could potentially be in 2-3 inches of water as the wave crawls up the beach, but they're difficult to see coming, so they could surprise you. Of course Braden and Chris loved being chased by the waves, but Stewie took all the warnings from Mom and Dad to heart and was a little nervous being close to the water. This was right about the time Stew turned 3. Anyway he finally got up the gumption to go stand by Mom down to where most of the waves died out. We pick up the action right after a sneaker wave rolls in. Here's the result.



Okay, well we got too many complaints that we would just stand there and watch the poor little guy laughing at him, so this is proof we caught up with him and tried to make him feel better.



When we finally got him calmed down, we took the kids over to the back side of Haystack rock to look for starfish. When a sneaker wave would roll in there, it was really gradual and would just fill in the holes around the scattered rocks on the beach. Stew wasn't as scared, but he still wasn't impressed.



Isn't it funny that no one ever mentions the bad part about playing at the beach? The salty/sandy water does wonders for removing dead skin, but there are other side effects too...

Conversations With Stew

A couple of weeks ago:

Stewart to me: "Mom, can Becky come pway today?"
Me: "Sure, you're in luck! Becky and her mom are coming over in just a few minutes so we can do pears."
Stew: "Pairs of what?"
Me: "You know, those pears that are in the pantry. The ones in the big brown box. We're going to can them."
Stew, as he runs to the pantry and holds up two pears: "You mean dese ones?"
Me: "Yep, those pears."
Stew: "So, we need two of 'em?"


Today, as I was making my bed:

Stew: "Mom, where does Jesus wive?"
Me: "Up in Heaven, with Heavenly Father."
Stew: "Does he get hit wiff da rain?"
Me (trying not to laugh TOO loud): "I'm not sure. What do you think?"
Stew: "I sink He does."
Me: "Does He like it?"
Stew: "Yeah. He wuvs it."