Joseph Keith Marriott

Our newest family member finally arrived this last Tuesday, September 20th at 9:33 am. We are so grateful he finally decided to come (6 days late!) and are so thankful for a relatively seamless labor and delivery. One of my big worries was that he would come so quickly, that there would be no time for an epidural or even worse, that there would a delivery in the car! :) Thankfully, I woke up to contractions at about 3 in the morning and by 4 am we were on our way to the hospital, thanks to a quick early morning response from Daniel's mom to come watch our kids.

We arrived at the hospital and they found me to be dilated to a "4". They called for the anesthesiologist right away, and he responded so quickly that he had to wait in the doorway while the nurse finished with my IV. It was so nice to have my epidural so early on (the last two I have been in soo much pain before getting it) and Daniel and I were both able to sleep for about an hour and we essentially waited for my doctor to get to the hospital. By about 9:15 I was pushing, and ten minutes later, our little Joseph was born. He was positioned posterior, but was able to turn and finally exit.

An interesting aside, the next day I had been scheduled for an induction, and the doctor was planning on breaking my water to induce labor. I had resisted being induced, and had cancelled an earlier induction date, but had relented when I was getting to be so overdue. As the doctor examined the placenta and everything, she showed me how the umbilical cord had been more or less enmeshed with the membrane lining (the bag of water lining). She commented on how it may have created stress for the baby if she would have broken my water and then proceeded to have several hours of labor, possibly compromising the umbilical cord and blood supply to the baby during labor. I thought that was so interesting and I was so grateful that he had been born without that having to happen.

He was born healthy and calmly, weighing 8 lbs. 2 ozs. and 20-1/2 inches long. We were immediately taken with his newness and perfection and so grateful to finally be able to hold him. We feel blessed to have him in our family and can't express how much we love him. After some deliberation :) we named him Joseph Keith Marriott. Joseph for several reasons, it being Daniel's preferred name over the last few years and few boys :) and Keith for my wonderful father. Now for the pictures...

Holding the new new baby Joseph

Right after he was born, we saw a lot of similarities to Grant and James

Proud daddy and great labor supporter, go Daniel!

The boys check out their new brother

Proud big brother George


Tender big brother Grant

Joyful new big brother James

The prize for 9-months of mom's suffering

Peaceful, sweet perfect Joseph

Now we're seeing a bit more George in him, but really just a perfect Joseph :)

We're so grateful for all the love and support we have felt from our family, friends and neighbors. Thank you for helping this experience be such a wonderful one and we're so grateful to share our lives with yours. We're keeping our fingers crossed that some long stretches of sleep are coming our way one day soon, but for now we're deliriously sleep deprived and in love with our newest little son.

Halloween and Cute James

Some recent pictures from the last couple of weeks. We took the picture above of James as he hurried to sit under the radio after we had turned it on. The funny thing is that when we turned to radio on, it was woman singing opera, but nonetheless it drew James in and he sat underneath there for a few minutes, listening to the music. He loves music and won't let me sit alone at the piano bench. No matter where he is in the house, he immediately gravitates to the piano when I begin to play.

This is at David and Neill's house, Halloween night. Our favorite costume is "Thing 1 and Thing 2"...particularly because we have been reading Cat in the Hat to the boys recently--nice work Cannon and Emily. James couldn't see out from under his alligator teeth hat, so he'd just trust us when we were shoveling food into his mouth.

The big plan was to have James be Robin...but in interest of sleeping a couple of hours and making sure Mom maintained sanity, we went with the standby gator suit. Notice Grant throwing his gangster signs in his batman getup. Oh isn't Halloween so fun with children around? This is truly a child's holiday, so much fun going door to door with Dad. We have these great neighbors that made homemade doughnuts and had hot cocoa at their doorstep! Yummm!

This is George the morning of his Halloween parade at school. They weren't allowed to wear masks, but he was very concerned to appear like the true Ironman, so we decided we would paint his face. I had found red paint at the store, but had not been able to find yellow paint anywhere. I explained that to George the night before, and being very concerned, he included in his prayer, "Please help us to find yellow paint for my costume parade tomorrow." My first reaction was eeks! and to get on the phone and call a couple of more costume shops and see if they were still open that night. As I went to look up the phone numbers, I had the thought that in our holiday decorations box I had some yellow paint from a purchase I had made last year. Sure enough, I went downstairs and found the yellow face paint that George had prayed about! It was fun to share that experience with him the next morning and oh how grateful I am that Heavenly Father hear's all of our prayers!

Numbers 3, 4, and 5

I wanted to add to my list of things I love about Utah, and reassure anyone who reads this blog that this list is not written in any order of importance. I'm just rattling things off as I think of them. Today being Sunday and just having had Saturday, I realized another thing I love about Utah.

3. The radio programming out here! On Saturday nights, one of the local stations devotes their entire evening to Broadway showtunes! They call it Showtune Saturday night and it's so much fun to have on and hear what they play. This may not appeal to everyone I understand :) but I do love me a good showtune! The other programming that I enjoy is on Sunday mornings, KBYU, which is the local classical station, does "Music for a Sunday Morning". They play the requisite Mormon Tabernacle Choir numbers, as well as songs from BYU and U of U choirs, but also they play classical sacred pieces, and it is so uplifting to have that playing while getting ready for church.

4. Okay, I'm stating the obvious here, but it must be stated so everyone doesn't worry that I'm taking for granted all that we are blessed with here. I am grateful to have so many temples within an hour drive; there are 4 alone in the valley where we live. Also there are so many neat things that we are able to participate in due to the fact that we live so close to the church's headquarters: the Conference Center and Temple Square which holds many free events throughout the year (including this year's Christmas concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and David Archuleta!!) and the Church History Museum and Family History Library...you get the idea. Wonderful things just outside our door! I remember as a child we would drive from Minnesota to Utah and we viewed Temple Square almost like a Disneyland! It's a great blessing! (Just like it would be a great blessing to live by Disneyland!) :)

5. I'd better write this as Daniel is looking over my shoulder, one of the greatest blessings of living in Utah is living only a couple of blocks from his parents and his good brother Cannon and his family. Not to mention 3 other brothers down at BYU, and soon to be Caroline, his sister who is returning to go to the University of Utah next fall. It is nice to be surrounded by family whilst so far away from my own!

Wonderful Fall Time

What a beautiful time of year! It almost seems like the world slows down a bit, as the colors change and the air gets a bit chillier and I still get excited thinking about Halloween costumes and parties, and cozy things like warm soups and wearing sweaters...Just wanted to share a picture from a recent excursion to a pumpkin patch up in Farmington, UT about 30 minutes from where we live. This is probably our third year going and it's just a beautiful place. You get to take a wagon out in the pumpkin patch and choose from hundreds of pumpkins and amongst many different kinds. They also have this pint-sized haystack maze that my kids just loved.

What to love about Utah

Okay, I'm not a native Utahn, and never actually dreamed that I would live here post college. But I practically married Mr. Utah :) and we don't have any current plans to leave (despite horrendous begging and nagging on my part to return to the motherland). I'll be honest, there are many times that I have a poor attitude about living so far from my family and from where I grew up. I have been trying to work on this and in my mind have started to keep a mental list of things that I do love about Utah. I want to document this growing list, so I'm going to keep track of the things that I love about Utah as I think about them on the blog. These are not in any order.

Number one: I love the mountains. When I first moved here to go to BYU 14 years ago (I'm that old???), my first reaction to the mountains were that they were in the way and I couldn't see my beloved horizon. Tonight we went up Millcreek Canyon to see the leaves and it was so green and the leaves had begun to turn colors, and lush and there was a gurgling stream. I have soo missed the green surrounds of Minnesota and don't get to see much of that here in Salt Lake, but going up into the canyon provided me with a small respite of green, and I was so grateful. I bought a season pass and hope to frequent it more with hikes, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, running and more.

Number two: NPS. It's this junky, flea market type setting where you can find the most amazing deals. Apparently they are a "freight salvage" store, meaning they get their products from any misdirected freight. Okay, what does that mean? I'm not sure, but truly they get major name brands, Pottery Barn, name brand clothing and shoe lines, you name it they've got it. Everything is priced at about half it's retail value, and then they'll regularly have things advertised at 40% off that price. It's amazing, my heart starts pumping just writing about it. :) It's a pretty dangerous place, I try not to go there too much, I've got a budget to stick to! That will have to be it for tonight, but I will continue on as there are already many things that I do love about Utah.

Summer Vacation Part 1

We are still here! I really didn't mean to take an 8 month break, but hopefully we're back. Next week George starts kindergarten (!) and Grant soon after will start up preschool twice a week. We've had a busy summer and would love to share little by little. We ended our summer with a trip back to Minnesota, but this time changed it up by driving through Independence, Missouri and surrounding church history sites and spending a couple of days in Nauvoo, IL before heading up to Minnesota. Kevin and MariAnne and their sweet girls joined us in Missouri, and my parents joined us all in Nauvoo. This picture was taken at the Liberty Jail visitor's center. More to come...

Grandma and Grandpa Curtis

I found out yesterday that my Grandpa Curtis has had a stroke, leaving his face partially paralyzed and not able to speak very clearly or coherently. Thankfully my mom has been out there visiting them for the last couple of weeks (originally tending to my grandma who has had pneumonia) and has been able to be there to support them. She is being so strong as she's had to watch her parents' health dwindle, and especially over these last couple of weeks. I am so grateful to have been able to visit with them a couple of years ago when I was visiting San Francisco with Daniel's mother and sisters. This picture is from that trip.

Interestingly enough, yesterday I was flipping through a little journal that I've kept mainly for scripture reading, and happened upon this entry: "Dec. 13, 2005, I woke up at 5:09 am to go feed George and I had been woken from a dream about my Curtis grandparents' failing health--I need to reach out to them more often and consistently..I had tears in my eyes as I imagined what I would say to my grandparents... just about how much I love them, look up to them for all their goodness, how grateful I am for the daughter they raised that became my mother, and what heritage they've passed on to me through different gifts and talents and then also our pioneer heritage that is so special to me. I've had several dreams about them in the last few months and feel I need to be more active in showing my love towards them and even in honoring more fully." I was so grateful to have found that entry and to have been able to feel all those feelings again. I'm so grateful for my grandparents and grateful that we are eternally linked, come what may.