We had a BABY!

Baby Andy is here! Hurray! Being pregnant has never been easy, and this time around proved to be no exception. Our baby boy #4 was due on December 19th, however, we had a c-section scheduled for December 12th. (12-12-12). However, by the time we got to Thanksgiving, I was... beyond uncomfortable. I saw the doctor a week later and he saw some red flags. It looked like pre-eclampsia was an issue here. I went right from my doctor's appointment to labor and delivery. We spent a few hours there when they determined it was safe for me to go home and we would do some more labs. After getting the results, a few long days later, the doctor said it was time to have a baby. I was sad not to have him on 12-12-12, but not really... did I mention I felt horrible!?! Could a women's feet be more swollen? When you can leave finger prints in your swollen calves IT'S TIME TO HAVE YOUR BABY!
And so, on December 4, 2012 we headed to the hospital to be delivered.
 

At the hospital about to go up to L&D.
The only shoes my feet would fit in were my snow boots and Ryan's slippers. *sniffle*

Yuck. But, it has now been documented.
 

My hero! Ryan, ready to head into the O.R.
 

 

Here he is! Andrew arrived at 10:53 am (or close to that!) weighing 7lbs 7oz.

Our tiniest baby yet!

Immediately after birth the doctors noticed a strange rash all over his upper body. He then had breathing problems. The plan was for him to spend several days in NICU, but as the nurse said, "he snapped out of it." So no NICU for him. Such good news!

First bath. Thanks Daddy!
 

First hair-do!

The big brothers were so EXCITED to meet him.
 

My boys. Precious.
 

Look at all that hair!?!
 

What a sweet Christmas gift. That's something to smile about!
 

We had a lot of "fun" at the hospital, but on December 8th, it was time to take this little bundle home.

Our Thanksgiving Feast

We spent Thanksgiving at HOME for the first time. Being VERY pregnant, I was happy not to be packing suitcases and traveling. My sister Lynda and also Wendy and Chris came over for the festivities, and we appreciated all they added to the day! The meal not only tasted fabulous, but looked beautiful too!
 

 
 Appetizers.

I made place markers!

Our first Thanksgiving table.
 

Okay, I guess I will have a picture of me in here. A very pregnant me.
 

The manly men carving the bird.
 

Yum... stuffing.
 

Wendy helped Lynda make fabulous mashed potatoes.
 

A must have - Green Bean Casserol.
 

We couldn't have Thanksgiving without the Cranberry-Ice!

Jared checking out the feast.

Time to set down the camera Ryan, and EAT!
 

It was a beautiful day, AND a beautiful night.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2012!

Going Home

It's Monday morning, time to GO HOME. But before we hit the subways to get to our bus to take us to the airport to catch our plane (yes, it would be a long trip home) we had to leave our mark on the world. We were off to ABC.

I just wanted to see where they film Good Morning America. . .

This is where they tape each morning, outside.
 

This is Sam Champion and the crew on t.v, with us in the shot! We were actually ON Good Morning America! Best part, Joshy saw us at home waving to him on t.v.
 

La Guardia airport has some not so nice parts. This is one of the nice parts though. Free iPads for everyone to use! Looks like our journey home would be more pleasant than we thought.

We made it! Look who we found waiting for us at the airport. They loved the prizes we brought them, but I think they might have loved seeing us more, maybe. ;)
 

Our Last Full Day in NYC

It was a beautiful morning in upper Manhattan.  We were lovin' this view down Park Ave. on our way to the next museum.

We saved the best for last;
the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
 

We had several hours to spend here, but that could never be enough time to see everything. Time to study the map, pick and choose, and make a plan!
 

We ended up having a great time enjoying as many little details as we could!
 

We saw Rembrandt,
 

Caravagggio,
 

Degas,
 

Monet,
 

Serat,
 

Van gogh,
 

Pollack.
 

This is a painting Ryan's mom hung in there home and he has looked at a thousand times. Nice to see the original!
 

There was so much fun stuff to see!
 

Obligatory pregnancy shot. ;)
 

"Cat". Hmm, interesting.

I seriously walked by this three times before I realized it was an ear.
 

Close up of the ear, you can see how I was confused.
Sometimes we just need to step back in life and get some perspective.
 

Okay, maybe it's time to go, we are getting silly!
 

Back to the subway. Don't let this picture fool you. There are rats down there, I promise!
 

When we came up the steps out of the subway that evening, this is what we saw.
The Manhattan Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 It's nice to feel at home, when you are so far from home.

 

We covered a lot of area on our last day. I'm pretty sure we clocked like 10 miles by foot. The end of the day found us making our way to the World Trade Center Site.

 

While  finding our way there we stopped on a bench to rest and have a little snack. It was a lovely view looking west over the river.

 

We found the Freedom Tower. Wow. We were able to watch a little video about the events of September 11th as well. We hadn't originally planned on coming down to Lower Manhattan and and stopping here. I'm so glad we did.  

 

While making our way back to Times Square we found another cup cake shop. Crumbs. It was closed by the time we got there. Oh well.

We spent our last night in the heart of Times Square at the Double Tree hotel. Yes, we could see the jumbo-trans out our hotel window. 

 It was almost midnight by the time we finished dinner at the Olive Garden in Times Square and worked our way across the street to our hotel. (It's literally right out the window behind Ryan in this picture). It sure didn't look like things were winding down at Olive Garden though, or Times Square, for hours to come