Precious Girl

One of my friends has an awesome camera and did a little photo shoot with Ashlin yesterday.

Riley Came to Visit

And Kami and Levi did too. It was so much fun!



Ashlin and Riley

Ashlin is growing so fast. She's now a week old, and her umbilical chord fell off 2 nights ago in a diaper change. Now she can take a real bath. That night she went through 2 pair of pajamas, and I had to wash my sheets. She's taking really good naps in the day; we just need to switch her clock about 12 hours.

Pre-Ashlin Party

This was the Saturday before Ashlin was born, so a week ago today. Shayden and Gavon love to have fun. Last night we got a bunch of diapers from a Walgreens online sale, and they had so much fun stacking them and knocking them over, and lining them up to walk on.

Labor Story with Ashlin Rated PG-18 at least.

Monday I had my 38 week apt. with my doctor. I was 3 1/2 cm dilated and 75% effaced. I waited for a long time to be seen and I tried to do a little bit of Christmas shopping, and pick up some cheese (Our family can't live without milk or cheese.) so I was away from home for almost 3 hours. I made it home finally and got the kids some chicken nuggets before bed. We all were so exhausted. Paul and I were asleep by 8:30. At 11:00 I woke up having contractions that hurt. That was what happened last week, so I just tried to deal with it. When they kept coming, I started to time them. They were 7 or 8 minutes apart. I think I went to the bathroom 3 or 4 times. They started to get more painful so I woke Paul up. He fell asleep for a while. When I woke him again he said we should go to the hospital. I had to throw up after that, so we called Cody to come over and sleep with the kids since he was going to come over in the morning anyway for work. The contractions all of a sudden got really bad, so we decided we had to go right away. Our neighbor across the street came over to sleep while we took off. 12:20 am. I had 2 contractions that hurt real bad on the way. When we got out and started to walk in I fell over and threw up in the grass. Paul said, "Do you want me to carry you?" I just had to get over that contraction to walk, and then we made it up the elevator to the second floor. 12:35 am. I was crying, and had peed my pants throwing up. You would think going to the bathroom so much before would stop that. The nurses were asking me to lay on the bed to check me, but I was kneeling at the bed having another contraction, so I couldn't move and was screaming, and grunting. They finally got me to lay on the bed and took my basketball shorts and garments off. I was at a nine. All the nurses were getting all the delivery stuff out. The main nurse said she was going to give me an IV for petocin, but I told her, "No!" She seemed surprised, and said, "She's refusing an IV!" Some doctor on call came in and was waiting to deliver when my doctor came in. I was in a lot of pain, but the doctor was getting his gloves on when I was ready to push. Everyone was saying "Wait! The doctor needs his gloves on." but she was ready to come. 12:57 am, she was born. They put her on my tummy right after she was born. I didn't need stitches. The chord was wrapped over her shoulder and across her chest. 8 and 9 APGAR score. The doctor told the nurse to give me a petocin shot in my leg. She nursed perfectly 30 minutes after delivery. Everyone was commenting on her long eyelashes. She looked a lot like Shayden did; lots of dark hair, and the same nose. I was wide awake, and starving. I didn't have to ride in a wheelchair the whole time I was there. They let me walk to the Postpartum room pushing Ashlin, and I was able to sleep for a little. Miracle! I was ready to go home as soon as possible. Some guy came in saying I had to do blood work to see if I needed a rhogam shot. I told the guy I was A+, and that he didn't need to do it, but he just stumbled over his words saying he had to get it. Finally I gave in, but I should have told him no way. Ashlin's bilirubin came back with flying colors, and we were discharged that next morning. Paul did a great job holding my hand, and cheering me on. He did great the whole time even being tired and sick. Ashlin doesn't cry a lot, but when she does cry, it's an end-of-the-world type scream. She really is a good baby, and she's super cute.

Ashlin Roe Mantz

Shayden loves her new sister.
Made it home.
Just before check out at the hospital. It snowed good and hard the night before we left.
Hanging out in the bouncer
In the middle of the night, it seemed like a great time for a photo shoot.
My toes are sticking out the side. Those hospital socks are so comfy.
She's finally here!
Proud daddy.


This video was soon after we got home Wednesday morning. I wish I had a video of Shayden with Ashlin because she is sooo cute with her. She always wants to be by her, and she says the cutest things. "She is the cutest girl ever!" She's pretty good to be careful. Once Shayden picked her up all by herself off the floor, but I got her in the same second. Gavon loves to help too. When we got home I got the scissors to cut her leg tags off. After they were off, Gavon tried to the same thing. Yikes! He likes to stroke her hair.

Pregnancy Stats

Sometimes I forget to write this down, and then years down the road I wonder.

Stats for this pregnancy so far:

36 weeks: Dialated 2 cm, 50% Effaced
Contractions, but no pain.

37 weeks: Dialated 3 cm, 60% Effaced
Contractions that hurt, hard to move.


Shayden is super excited for the baby to come. She is always hugging my tummy and giving her kisses. She says, "I will close my eyes when the baby comes, like this." (I told her she'd have to stay while I had the baby at the hospital, because it would hurt me real bad.) "I can hold her, and rock her really slow. I won't bonk her head." "I can give her a binky. She can suck on it." "She will look so cute!"

Gavon Turns Two!

Once he got this sucker, he didn't care about opening any other presents. Maybe Santa should just give him a sucker?
Lightening McQueen stickers from Grandma!
Thanks Trisa, for all the ideas on how to do cakes.
I got pants!

We had pizza and cake and ice cream after helping Cody and Lisa move. Gavon played in the morning with Grandpa, so life couldn't get better really. Gavon loved blowing the candles out, and was so happy....just need to get over this runny nose and cough.

Getting Ready for Christmas

We went sledding and had a blast!
"Can I have this candy cane...PLEEEAASE." All the candy canes half way and under are gone. Gavon has been the biggest culprit.
On Thanksgiving morning we made these cute little turkeys and wrote down things that they were grateful for. They were both so proud. We drove down to Tooelle to have Thanksgiving with Paul's mom and sisters. It was a pretty quick trip.
A huge blizzard hit two days before Thanksgiving. We played in it for just a split second. Gavon lost his Lightening McQueen car out there, the poor guy.



When we went sledding, we played at the park for a while. The big twirly slide was the biggest hit, because they slid down so fast we had to catch them before flew too far.

Baby Shower

Last weekend my running friend threw a big shower for me. She was amazing to put things together, and it turned out perfect. It was so fun!



Crystal gave me learning links! These will keep us all busy for hours.
Sheila and Alisa gave me some super cute books.
My mom gave me a beautiful blanket.
Krista and Jill came. Yay!
Alisa, what are you doing?



We got split into groups and decorated onsies.
Mom and Karen Cootey.

Thank you Janelle!

For Dillon

Shayden wanted this for Dillon. Here ya go!

35 Weeks

Tired, can't move very well. Relief Society arms? I'd better get a better pregnancy picture, huh.

Walking with Shayden

I told Shayden she'd get a flat tire if she rode her bike on the rocks by the side walk. Shayden walks on those same rocks and says, "I'm going to get a flat shoe!" She's been asking to take her training wheels off, lately.

It's been tough the past little while. Shayden has started a high pitched tantrum throwing stage, and has adopted my "I'm too tired" or "I can't do that" phrase. When I tried to go for a walk last week, she made it 0.1 miles on her bike and then was screaming bloody murder. Gavon dropped his toy car, and when I bent down to pick it up, he kicked me in the face on accident. I barely made it home from that one without getting too stressed out.

Shayden was trying to put roller blades on Gavon and started an 'it's the end of the world' type scream when he wouldn't listen to her. She absolutely refuses naps, so we're trying to go to bed super early. Since the time change, we go to bed ridiculously early; about 7:00, sometimes 6:30.

I feel like we go into survival mode with a new baby, so we're trying to prep for that. I'm 35 weeks, and the time is flying by.

Family Update

This last weekend Paul had his November Drill--a bunch of class like training. He was told that his unit will be deploying March 2012. For soldiers that are going to be finishing their contract terms (Paul will have his 6 years October 2011) they gave them the option of leaving the guard 120 days early to make room for soldiers that need to be trained for deployment. He might be done with the guard this coming summer. He is actually very excited to have his annual training this March; a whole three weeks in the Dominican Republic. He wants to spend some time away from the guard to see what's it's like, and has thought about maybe doing M.I. We'll look at our options over the next year here.

I'm almost 34 weeks. It feels like my body just remembered as good as ever what it was like to be big, so it went right to huge instead of somewhere in between for the 8th month. We're excited and counting down until this little girl is here. We are trying to decide between Ashlyn or Maylyn...maybe something completely different? Those are just the ones we like.

This last week was Fast Sunday, and it felt like I handled things pretty good with Paul being gone. Both Shayden and Gavon are healthy...Finally!...and were able to go to nursery. Gavon just had a good diaper during Sunday School, and then in Sacrament they got away from me once. Overall, it was pretty good. Right at the end of Sacrament Meeting Shayden told me she wanted to bear her testimony. I thought that would be a good idea, but that she had to do it all by herself. She said, "Okay," and marched right up. After waiting for a while she came back, but the bishop saw that she wanted to bear her testimony. The person finished, and the time was up, but the bishop looked at me as if to say, "Do you want her to go?" I wanted her to say something short and sweet like she always says, "Jesus loves me," or something like that. When she got up there she said, "Gavon broke his leg. It got better; the Dr. took his cast off. I went poop on the potty and washed my hands." Except it was more drawn out, so I ran up there and told her to say, "Jesus made him feel better. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Everyone was smiling or laughing, and I was pretty embarrassed. The guy next to me said it was okay, because everyone would leave church smiling. She is definitely not afraid to do things.

Halloween Report

Shayden wanted to be a cat, and Gavon smiled when I showed him to himself in the mirror. He seemed happy to be anything, and we had this costume from Ryan and Bridget, so it worked great! I thought for a split second to make him a cowboy with some chaps and a belt buckle the size of a post card. I'm all about quick and easy this time around, though. Maybe next year.

One of Paul's favorite traditions is to decorate sugar cookies on Halloween. We took some to neighbors, and taught Shay and Gavon how to leave them on the door and run. Shayden threw the first bag and broke them all into pieces, and Gavon ran away saying, "Hide! Hide!" It was so cute; one of the funnest Family Home Evenings we've ever had.
Here we are at the Homecoming Parade. Paul was a trooper and came, even though he isn't the biggest fan of parades.

Grandpa!
She's at it again! Gavon seems to handle all sorts of stuff without getting too upset. He only gets really mad if Shayden takes his favorite thing at the moment. Lately that has been a little Lightening Mcqueen car. He plays with it all the time.
Trying on hats at Khol's

Such a silly boy. He kept putting diapers on his head just for the fun of it.

For Crystal Part 1

We went to the Pumpkin Walk this week, and I wanted Crystal to see all the cool scenes since she didn't get to see it when she came up before. Here goes!



Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
VeggieTales! Why is Larry on a golden toilet?
The entrance...dum duh duh...
A Bugs Life
Toy Story!
Pooh Bear