Aggie Pride

Utah State Hey Aggies All The Way! Go Aggies, Go Aggies HEY HEY HEY!!! USU plays BYU tonight in basketball at the Spectrum. We all have our game day shirts on and are ready to cheer on those Aggies! Drake won't be going to the game, but he still is showing his Aggie pride! Come on Aggies, beat those Cougars!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. This year is extra special and the list is never ending. One of the main reasons I love Thanksgiving, is because of all of the great food. This year I feel different. I am excited for the food, but the list of things I am thankful for will be in my mind all day, and that is what I want to focus on this Thanksgiving.

-I am thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ and his Atonement. I am so thankful for the plan of salvation and the knowledge we have that families are eternal.

-I am thankful for my wonderful husband. I kneel in prayer and thank Heavenly Father for him everyday. There are so many things in life that are easier when you have a spouse to go through them with you. Josh is always right by my side, and supports me at all times. I am thankful he is a worthy priesthood holder. When we were in the hospital with Drake and he was in the NICU, Josh was able to give him a blessing. The spirit we felt at this time was so strong and we knew we were being watched over.

-I am thankful I get to be a stay at home mom. Growing up, I knew this is what I always wanted to be. Even though it can be hard, I am so thankful for this opportunity. I know it will be one of the best decisions Josh and I will ever make.

-I am thankful for my family. I am thankful for the help they give to us. I am thankful for the way they raised me and the parents they were, because it is a great example of how I want to raise and teach my family. I am thankful I can talk to them about anything and for their support in all that my family and I do. I am thankful for the unconditional love they have always shown to me. They are all my best friends and I love them so much. I am thankful for my little sister. She is in High School and is making so many good decisions. She has good friends and stands up for what she believes in, and I am so proud of her. I am thankful I have her as my best friend. I will always be there for her as she goes through life.

-I am thankful for my in-laws. They are very supportive of everything Josh and I do. They are there to help whenever we need them. They are good grandparents, aunts and uncles. I am thankful for the way they raised their family, and the example they have been to Josh of good parents. They should be so proud of themselves for the great son they raised. They are so thoughtful. They were here yesterday and gave me a gift. There were lots of fun things inside that were just for me. Although these things are fun things for myself, the best part about all of it, was the kind note that was written and the feeling I felt of knowing they love me like a daughter and are so grateful for their new grandson.

-I am thankful for my brother serving a mission in the Dominican Republic. He has been gone 10 months. He absolutely loves his mission and loves serving our Heavenly Father. He has been so blessed on his mission because of how obedient he is. He loves the people of the Dominican Republic and truly wants what is best for them. I look forward to starting my week every monday with his emails. Our family has been blessed by him serving a mission and I am so thankful for him and love him so much.

-I am thankful for all of the good friends we have. I am thankful we have them to go through these fun times in life with. They are always there for us, and we know how much we are loved by all of them.

-I am thankful for my sweet son Drake. Words cannot express how much I love him. I am so thankful that he was sent to us. I hope to be a good mom and teach him all that I can in the part of his life that he will live with us and be under our care. I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to be a mom to Drake. He is such a sweet boy and I know he knows how much we all love him. I am so thankful he is part of our family!

The list goes on and on. I challenge all of you to remember those things you are thankful for as you go about your day. Enjoy all of the yummy food, and spending time with those you love.

Drake Joseph Wood

November 15, 2009 - 8:32 p.m. - 8 lbs. 7 oz. - 20 1/2 inches long

We are so excited to have this little guy be a part of our family. He makes us smile everyday. My water broke on Saturday Nov. 14th at 11:30 p.m. I have never been so excited in my whole life, and either has Josh. The look on his face was priceless. He did not panic, but stayed very calm and helped me get my things ready as well as his own. We got to the hospital about an hour later and they got me all hooked up on monitors. That was a LONG sleepless night. They started me on Pitocin about 2 hours into us being there. Then the contractions really started. Because I wasn't dilating at all, they were hesitant on giving me an epidural. Finally at 10:30 the next morning I got an epidural. I felt fabulous after that! Thank goodness for modern day medicine! The rest of the day went on and I progressed very slowly and then stopped and didn't progress any further. Dr. Norda was the Dr. on call for the weekend and was so awesome. He came in for another check up at 7:30 p.m. and I hadn't done a thing. He told us we could wait a couple hours and see where I was at, or I could go in for a c-section. At this point the baby was still looking good, and there were no complications. I asked him what he would do if it was his wife or daughter, and that helped our decision. They started prepping me for a c-section right away. Josh and I both were so scared. I didn't know what to expect, but I got it real quick when they wheeled me into the operating room and put me on the operating table. They made me hold my arms out to my side, put me on oxygen, gave me some more anesthetic and they started. It was amazing how fast it all went. Within 10 minutes that baby was out. Hearing him cry for the first time made the last 9 months totally worth it. They brought him to my side so I could see him. He was so beautiful. Of course I couldn't help but cry. I was so happy to have him finally here and to see that sweet little face. Josh went over with him while they cleaned him up and weighed him. Once they got me put back together, I was able to hold him for a few minutes. Dr. Norda did a fantastic job! He was so good with me, Josh and Drake.

While we were in the hospital Drake was in the NICU. He had a slight infection and they put him on antibiotics. I was pretty scared at first, but when his lab test came back the next day looking better, I felt better! He fought off that infection so quick and was able to come home with us Wednesday night when I was released from the hospital.

We have been busy with visitors and getting a hang of our new life. We have been staying at my moms and she has been so much help. I am so grateful she lives so close and is willing to help me so much. She had all of her babies c-section and so she knows how she can really help.

Josh is such an awesome dad! Drake loves him and gets a little smile on his face when he hears his voice! Josh is getting really good at changing those stinky diapers! I am so grateful I have such a good husband to go through all of this with. He was right by my side the whole time I was in labor and comforted me when I went in for surgery. He walked with me to the NICU and helped me feed Drake. He has comforted me the last few days, and been right by my side thanking me for being a good wife and mom. I am a lucky girl and Drake is a lucky little boy. He has two parents that love him so much! I had no idea how much you can love a child until you have your own. Welcome to the family Drake!

On our way to the hospital

The start of a very long labor

Proud daddy

Drake 1 hour old

Drake and Mommy

Josh with Drake in the NICU

My mom was the only other visitor allowed in the hospital due to the swine flu. She was pretty excited and absolutely loves her new grandson. My dad left out of town for work on Saturday and didn't get home until yesterday (the following saturday). We don't have any pictures of Drake and grandpa yet. My dad was so excited to get home and see him.

Love those cheeks!

Going home

Grandpa and Grandma Wood

Drake's first bath at home

We are ready for Drake!

Hey everyone, it's Josh. As you can see from the last few posts, things have been pretty crazy for the Wood clan over the last few weeks as we have tried to get moved in-time to welcome the lil' dude. Ashley has been an absolute superhero through this whole thing, and we're now ready for life to get really crazy once Drake arrives.

One of the biggest things we are excited to have completed is the nursery. After we got all of our stuff moved into the new place, we went to work getting Drake's room ready. The first task was to set up the crib and changing table that were graciously provided by Grandma and Grandpa Rohwer. It was a little daunting at first (the boxes were about the size of a Ford F-150), but fortunately we had a lot of help to get it done (both sets of grandparents were on-hand to help). Despite my initial fears that there were too many chiefs and not enough indians, the tribe proved me wrong and everyone worked together as we powered through it. As you can see from the pictures, it turned out awesome!

Ash has spent the last 8-9 months accumulating a bunch of cute things for the nursery, and it was awesome to finally see it all come together. I'm so glad I have a wife that is amazing at putting her own personal touch on a house to make it a home. In fact, if Ashley were to ever serve time in prison (heaven forbid), I have no doubt in my mind she would have the cutest/coziest cell in the entire D-Block). Let's all pray that doesn't happen, because Drake and I would be in serious T-R-O-U-B-L-E, but I believe it to be true nonetheless.

We love how the room turned out, and we can't wait to hear baby cries coming from it! Thanks again to all of you who helped out on the big move, and especially thank you Ashley for being the greatest thing to ever happen to me. I am so blessed to have you as my wife, and I couldn't hand-pick a better person to be a Mom to Drake. I love you.

The Quiet Book

I got pregnant just in time. Check out this darling quiet book I made with my friends (the sewing circle). Hayley was doing this project with two other girls in her ward. They were not far into it when I was able to join the group and make a quiet book of my very own. This is something I would never have done, if Hayley didn't push me to do it with them. I am so glad I did it for a couple of reasons..... I was introduced to Jaime and Mari-Catherine, who are now very good friends of mine, and I now have this dang cute book for my kids to play with. This was the first of my sewing projects and there are lots more to come. Sitting down at a sewing machine is fun, relaxing and it allows me to create and then get that great feeling of accomplishment. This book took a pretty long time to make, and I spent lots of time unpicking and re-sewing, but it was all worth it. This isn't going to be used for a while, but I am so happy it is done! We did an ABC quiet book and every page is so cute, but I am going to just show a few of my favorite pages.

A is for Apple

C is for Car

D is for Dog

F is for Flower

H is for Hair

J is for Jack-In-The-Box

L is for Lion

N is for Nest

P is for Puzzle

S is for Shoe

V is for Volcano

W is for Watch

X is for X-Ray

A whole different perspective on service.

This post is long and might be very boring to some. This blog acts as a journal for our family and this is something we want to remember. I just feel so grateful and blessed and want to share my feelings. So two weeks ago I blogged that I was 37 weeks and moving. Well that was a bit of a lie! We ended up not moving that week and in fact moved this past weekend. Wow was it stressful. I was expecting my water to break at any minute, but it didn't and I am in fact still pregnant. We have known for a while that we were going to be moving soon, but didn't know the exact date. I boxed everything up with help from my mom and Hayley, so when the moving time came we would be good to go. We found out on Thursday, and by Thursday night I had cleaned the apartment and had a load of boxes brought in. The next day Hayley came over and we unloaded the kitchen! That night Josh and John brought another load over and my mom, Hayley and I stayed there unpacking and ordered some pizza. At this point I was pretty overwhelmed, but able to stay calm. Well Saturday hit and I sort of had a mental breakdown. Ok, so I didn't sort of have one, I did have one! I think it was a mixture of stress, hormones, moving out of our house and ward, and being so grateful for all of the people that were helping us. It is really easy to serve other people, but receiving it is hard. I would rather do things on my own than feel that I am inconveniencing others. But, with us moving and me being a week away from having a baby, I didn't have a choice! I saw the other side of service and the way that a person feels when they receive it. I am so grateful for the good friends and family that were there to help. Here is what I am talking about......Wayne Dodd let us borrow his big trailer. The Elder's Quorum, my dad, John, Ted, Josh and Wayne loaded everything into the trailer and then unloaded it at our new place. All of that was done in 2 hours, it was awesome. Then my dad, John and Ted went back out to the house and got all of our clothes and food (something I thought I was going to have to do). When all of that was unloaded into our tiny apartment, the feelings of frustration just kept a comin. My body hurt, and the thought of unpacking this stuff was more than I could handle. So..... I went to my parents house to shower and take a break. While I was there Hayley, my mom, and my mother in-law unpacked all of our boxes, cleaned stuff and put clothes and food away. My father in-law and Josh put shelves up in our garage and in our laundry room for more storage. When I walked in a few hours later, it was a whole different place! If I hadn't already shed some tears I would have burst into tears right then and there. I couldn't believe all that had been done. Everything was organized and in its place, there were clean sheets on the bed and the shelves were done. Then when I thought enough had been done for me, my Aunt Holly called and invited everyone that had been moving all day to come to her house for dinner. It was so nice to have a good meal and for those that had been working all day to sit down and relax for a bit. Then we went back to our place and my dad, my father in-law and Josh put together the crib and changing table. After everyone had left, my sweet mom stayed until midnight helping me clean. I went to bed that night in a place that felt like home, and it is because of all those hard working people that were there to help. I want to thank all of you that helped with the move and have helped in other ways in the last few days. We appreciate it so much. It was a bad time for us to move, but something that had to be done and we couldn't have done it with out all of your help. One day we will return the favor I promise. Thanks for putting up with a hormonal pregnant girl that wasn't a lot of help. Josh, I love you and am so grateful for your support and the hard work that you put into this move. I am so happy we made this decision, so I can stay at home with Drake. I know we will be blessed and I get to be what I have always wanted to be when I grow up...... a mom!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Growing up, carving pumpkins was always something I looked forward to. The excitement started in about mid September and did not leave until we had finished this project, which always occurred the Sunday before Halloween. The hardest part about carving pumpkins was trying to decide what I was going to carve. With my dad's help, I always came out with a pretty cool pumpkin. This tradition still remains alive and last night our family carved pumpkins! Even at my age, I still get that same exciting feeling I have experienced since the age of 2. After convincing my dad to clean out my pumpkin (Which happens every year) and about an hour trying to decide what to do on my pumpkin, I finally made my decision.

Dad

Mom

Josh

James

Lauren

and......

Ashley

The Rohwer Family Pumpkins