Catching Up

It has been so long since we updated, I just wanted to upload some pictures and brief updates to show a bit of what has been happening in the Woods family for the past 5 or so months:

First, this picture of Emma and Daniel was taken the day he came home from the hospital. I didn't find it until a few months ago and had to post it!

Halloween 2011

Matthew was a construction cone, of all things. We went through a terrible time trying to find something he liked, and finally my friend Mindy said, "Oh, just make him a construction cone." I showed him a picture, and he loved it. A few hours later, with the help of orange posterboard and orange duct tape, he was ready to go.

Emma knew she wanted to be a witch for months before Halloween. She had a great time casting spells on people and raking in the candy.

Daniel was the Frog Prince, by default. My mom sent us this costume from Cracker Barrel, so that's what he wore!

This was Daniel's first time sitting in the high chair. He was waiting while Daddy mashed up a banana.

We went through a phase where the kids wanted to be wrapped like Daniel.

Setting up the Christmas tree! This is the first year the ornaments stayed on the tree. They didn't necessarily stay in the same place, but they did stay on the tree! Progress.

Christmas Eve: Matthew found out Santa wouldn't be coming until he was fast asleep. I tucked him in, and he was out literally 5 minutes later. What a good boy :)

Mike had a great Christmas and got everything he wanted. That's what he kept muttering to himself all day...

Daniel, all ready to open presents. He looks kind of shell-shocked.

This lion has never failed to make Daniel smile. It's safe to say this was his favorite Christmas present.

We were too tired to get Matthew dressed Christmas morning. He was still happy to pose for pictures!

Emma tried to show off as many presents as possible in one shot. She was sad she had to take off the mittens to play the guitar.

Right after Christmas, my brother Nathan and his wife Holly came to visit. We rang in the new year together. We loved having them, although we didn't get as many pictures as we wanted. It was just fun to hang out again!

In January, Emma asked if she could make cinnamon rolls. Mike helped with rolling the dough and using the oven, but she did a lot of the work herself.

How Emma spent her days after school this winter!

Happy baby!

January 16th: Emma's 6th birthday! We didn't remember to take pictures, unfortunately, but it was a fun day. We went to get her fingers and toes painted, and she got a CD player/alarm clock to help her wake up for school. She spent a lot of time on the phone and felt very loved!

At the end of January, my dad came for a visit. He had some time off and chose to spend it with us! He was here when Emma came home with these crazy Yoda suckers, and he helped the kids build a train station, with Daniel in the middle. He was also good enough to watch all 3 kids for 10 hours, while Mike and I went to Columbia for a temple trip and date for our anniversary. I love my Dad!

The beginning of February started out with dress ups. Even the boys joined in the fun.

Daniel is the perfect baby brother!

Matthew's dainty slippers were the talk of the town, and his crown drew some compliments as well.

February 21st was Matthew's birthday. He requested a Lightning McQueen cake for the occasion.

Matthew invited his friend Ryker to celebrate his birthday. Ryker found the presents early and started opening them before anyone could stop him. We realized what was happening when we heard Ryker shout, "YEAH!" at a Cars coloring book he had opened. Matthew was not amused.

The rest of the present opening was perfectly uneventful.

The kids joined a soccer team at the end of February, and started playing games March 5th. They are having a blast being on the same team!

That is the short summary of the last 5 months in pictures. Stay tuned for a few videos and more regular posts in the future! :)

Princess Camp

The week after Daniel was born, Emma went to Princess Camp. This was at a local dance studio from 9-Noon, M-F of one week. She spent time making crafts, learning princess manners, and dancing to princess music. It was basically like preschool for a week, and she loved getting out of the house for awhile and spending time with kids her own age.

At the end of the week, the princesses put on a performance for their families. Emma was so excited! Even though she had been practicing it was really hard for her to focus on the dance she had learned because we were there to watch her. She turned her body toward us instead of toward the front of the room, and I thought it was so cute she was performing just for us! By the end of the dance the excitement wore off and she was focusing more on the dance and really doing well. It was a lot of fun to watch her, she is really growing up!

Daniel Lynn Woods

Baby Daniel has arrived! He was born at 2:28am on June 19, 2011. He was 6 lbs. 9 oz. and 19 3/4 inches long. He was pretty impatient to make his entrance into this world, but he did a great job of waiting for his Daddy to make it home from Finland. He did an even better job of timing his birth to be a Father's Day gift!

Mike arrived home from his business trip late at night on June 17. We went to pick him up from the airport, and I was extremely worried because I was having regular contractions all the way to the airport. I was able to pull over and walk around a bit and was relieved when the contractions stopped. Once we picked up Mike and made it home, I was able to completely relax and not worry about the baby coming too soon.

The next day we slept in, relaxed, hung around the house, gave Mike his Father's Day presents and at about 4:00pm I started having labor pains, which turned into contractions every 5 minutes. I really wasn't interested in giving birth at that point, I just wanted to hang out with Mike. I talked him out of going to the hospital and into going to get pizza for dinner. Not 5 minutes after we left a huge thunderstorm hit and after picking up our pizza, we headed home in a downpour so thick our windshield wipers just couldn't keep up. At that point I realized I probably wasn't going to be able to stop the labor, this baby wanted out! We waited another hour before heading up to the hospital to have me checked.

Once we got there, they informed me I wasn't dilated enough to be admitted, but they were worried about sending me home. So I sat there for another hour before they decided to admit me. At that point we called the amazing family in our ward who had offered to help when I went into labor. Mike went home and put the kids to bed, the family came to stay the night, and he came back to the hospital. Pretty quickly after that I was given an epidural, we waited a couple of hours or so and since progress had slowed they gave me a level 1 of pitocin. Within 20 minutes I felt a strange pop and asked them to check me. I had dilated the last 4 cm and was ready to push! Shortly after, Daniel was born. We took lots of pictures, Daniel had his bath and nursed, and we were taken to our room. It was 5am before we were able to get to sleep. Luckily Mike was able to spend Sunday night at home and got over 10 hours of sleep, which really helped with his jet lag. He was able to take great care of me when I came home Monday morning.

Needless to say it was a very rough Father's Day for Mike, but one full of blessings. We are very excited to have Daniel in our family and we are loving having a new baby again.

Swim Lessons

The last two weeks of my pregnancy we enrolled the kids in swim lessons at an aquatic center in Gainesville. Coincidentally Mike was in Finland for the whole thing, so my friend Mindy who came to stay while Mike was gone, helped me juggle the kids since I was supposed to be in the water with Matthew. In all actuality I only ended up going to one of Matthew's lessons because holding him put so much pressure on my belly that I didn't dare keep doing it. He was somewhat disappointed, but it worked out and he will be getting another chance this summer to finish his lessons.

When we first moved to Georgia, I took the kids to the pool at our apartment complex, and Matthew fell head first into the pool. I fished him out, but he was pretty upset and wouldn't go near the water. The lesson was hard for him and I really had to talk him into going in the water, but he tried even though he was scared, and by the end of the lesson he was having a great time. He is much more willing to go in the water now, so even one lesson was a success in my opinion.

Emma's lessons went very well, and she made a lot of progress. She can float, kick her legs, put her face in the water and blow bubbles, all very good beginning progress. She loved being in the water and can't wait to learn more. She was really nervous the first couple of times we went, but she got more and more excited every time we went and ended up having a great time. Every time she succeeded in doing what the instructor asked she would find me from wherever I was watching and wave so I could give her a thumbs up and way to go. All in all the lessons were a huge success.

The house we are renting in SC

Here is the house we will be renting once we move to SC. Mike will be your tour guide.

After a Month

We have been living in Georgia for almost a month now. I have a little bit of time at the moment, so I thought that I would bring you up to date on the things that are going on. My work is getting really interesting. I'm going through training right now on our computer systems and I will be going to Finland for more training next Saturday. I'm not looking forward to it to be honest, but it necessary for my training. My shoulder still gives me some grief from time to time. It doesn't yet feel normal but I have a full range of motion in it. We are still working on a way to pay for the emergency room bill without insurance. Blah....

We are working more on our family. Things out here are more difficult religious wise. I had no idea that people could swear so much in one sentence and have it be completely acceptable socially. It's crazy!! No one seems to care. We are working more on basics like FHE, scriptures, prayer, and lessons on Sunday to try to keep the bad things out of the house.

The South is good through. Everyone is so much more friendly then they are in Utah. I hate to say it, but there you go. The waffle house ROCKS! We have been there several times already. All in all we are enjoying our stay here, but miss the people at home a lot! Erin's family is making a trip out here this weekend. They will be staying for the holiday weekend. It promises to be a lot of fun!

Erin is doing well. The baby is attempting to push its own way out through Erin's ribs. She is handling it exceptionally well! She is mostly just bored without any school to keep her going. She got her associates degree in behavioral sciences with honors. She was also on the Dean's list this last semester. Needless to say....I'm a little jealous.

Emma and Matthew have settled in really well. Better then expected. Emma just wants to go and meet everyone that she can. She loves people. She misses Utah though. I'm happy that she has stopped asking us to go back home there. We hope to have them both in swimming lessons soon. That will give them something to do at least.

Matthew is talking up a storm! He is now working on his manipulation skills. Soon he will be able to persuade me to give him anything that he wants. It's funny actually.

Well, work is calling so I have to go. I will write again soon. I hope.

Back in the saddle again!

We have STUFF again! Yeah! Yesterday brought us our stuff again. Matthew was so excited that he couldn't even wait for it to be unpacked. Him and Emma went through their bedroom boxes and pulled out as much as they could get their hands on. It is nice to see them not sleeping on the floor. It's also amazing how having familiar items around really helps to ease the pains of leaving home. We are officially moved to Georgia. This is move number 9 for us in the 6 years we have been married. Just in case anyone is counting. We ate at a table for the first time in weeks last night. Granted it was a dinner of Pizza hut pizza (We haven't unpacked the kitchen yet) but otherwise it was great. We were also able to meet with the Bishop last night. He asked a bunch of getting to know you questions. I think we might be in the primary again when he decides where to put us. I'm hoping for ward greeter this time around. We'll see I guess.
Work is going well. I was supposed to take a plant trip to watch the professionals at work, but because our stuff was so late it was canceled. The next trip that I will have will be Finland in June. I can't tell you how not excited I am for a 10 hour plane ride. I hope that it will be a good experience for a business trip. I will be sure to keep you informed.
Everyone is doing well now. Erin is pregnant still and is not showing signs of stopping. She is due on June 30. Her first Dr appointment in Georgia will be next week. More to come regarding that i'm sure. The kids are finding friends with the ward members and our neighbors. Everything is looking up.