Lincoln Arthur Webster

He's finally here! Born on Feb. 17, he weighed 9lbs 3oz and 21 inches. We named him Lincoln because not only is he a great president, but I am related to him on my mom's side. He came a little early, which I didn't anticipate. Here's a brief rundown of the story:

So Thursday night I went to a baby shower for someone in my church ward. I was joking around about having the baby sometime next week. However, I had been having small contractions all evening, but nothing major. I went to pick up my parents from the airport at 8:30. When we got home, I also joked with them about how now that they were here, I guess the baby could come any time.

I started having harder and more regular contractions at about 11 that night and didn't sleep at all. I knew then that it was real labor and I wanted to make it to the morning so that Cory and my parents could get a good night's rest. So picture this- I'm freaking out a little because I know I will have to leave my parents with the kids even though they know nothing about their schedules. So in the bathroom by the light of my Kindle Fire, I start writing down their daily schedule and info about the apartment building, etc. pausing every five-ten minutes to breathe through a contraction. I make it until about 4 and wake Cory up to go to the hospital.

Once we get there, I find out I am dilated to a 3 and decide to get an epidural so that I can rest. Then Cory and I enjoy our morning together and I start pushing just before noon. I tried all pregnancy to visualize an easy delivery because my past two have been miserable. But alas, it looks like I am doomed to it:-) He was completely posterior, stuck under my bone, large head, and a big baby. After a half hour of pushing and no progress, they have to use a vacuum to get him out and it still takes lots of effort. Am I glad that is over!

Since his birth, we have been able to do some fun things together and I am so grateful that my parents were here. It was fun to have my dad here (Arthur Jay Porter, where we got Lincoln's middle name). Ethan and Annalisa enjoyed spending time with their grandparents. Enough chatter- here's some pictures:

Most recent picture-he looks so much like Ethan
With daddy at the hospital

Red hair

First picture

First bath- I love his chubbiness (now that I'm done pushing him out:)

My two cute kids

Annalisa with her braid crown, thanks to Grandma

We squeezed in a bday celebration for Cory on Monday

His ears have to be taped for the first few days because they got squashed during delivery

At the pier while I was in the hospital

I can't believe I have three kids!!!

Vancouver

We had a great time last week on a family trip to Vancouver, British Columbia. We went to go see a close friend, Melissa Leonard, get married and the wedding was great. Then we spent Halloween there. We got to do some sightseeing in the city and the trees were so beautiful. I sometimes miss the change of seasons, so visiting somewhere where it actually felt like fall was a nice change. By the end of the cold and rainy week, however, I was ready to be back in SoCal. Here are lots of pictures:

At the Vancouver Aquarium looking at belugas Some dolpins... ...who were actually my kids:-) In a bubble looking at frogs Notice Ethan's hand under Annalisa's chin, trying to lift her head up for the picture Ethan looking at the jellyfish Turtles On a boat ride looking at the city Granville Island Public Island, where we ate a great lunchThe beautiful cityAt the Maritime Museum- notice that Ethan wanted to wear his pirate costume, even though this was the day AFTER Halloween- we thought it fit the day's activities... Captain steering the ship with his hook They had an actual boat dry-docked inside the museum Exploring the boat
Just outside the Maritime MuseumBig anchor with Vancouver in the background Our friend Reuben was a skeleton jesterHis dad Chris and his random costume Our little pirate princess outside of the Leonard's houseCaptain Hook and a pirate princess Inside a building in Ft. Langley, the first British trading center in Canada She liked the little rocking chair

We are now looking forward to Thanksgiving in St. George and then Salt Lake city for the week after that. I love vacations!

Cupcakes

Being pregnant has really made me lazy with my posting. We also just got back from a trip to Vancouver, which I will post about once I have all the pictures downloaded.

For now, here is something fun that we did to find out the sex of the baby. Now, let me just say that Cory wanted to wait the entire nine months to find out. Although that MIGHT have been fun, I'm just not that type of person. I NEED to know so I can mentally prepare. Boys and girls are very different...

Anyway, so I had the ultrasound technician write down on a slip of paper what the baby was and put it in a sealed envelope. Then I went to a local bakery and gave them the envelope. I told them to put either blue or pink frosting inside the cupcakes depending on what was written. Then we all went to a park and found out together that it is a...

Taking a bite

And the frosting inside was...

BLUE!!! We're having a boy!

The before shot. They were really good cupcakes...

Ethan's 4th Birthday

Let me preface this post by saying that I am not a crafty or artistic person. I like to do them when someone else does all the preparing and tells me exactly how to do it. I really don't feel like there are too many crafts that I enjoy or that I feel are worth my time. With that being said, for each one of the birthdays, my mom made me a birthday cake. I really appreciated it and looked forward to it every year. I couldn't even tell you what most of the cakes were decorated like, but I remember feeling very special on my special day. So when I started having kids, I wanted to continue that tradition, regardless of my craft deficiencies.

This year for Ethan's birthday, I wanted to make him a Lightning McQueen cake. I had originally planned to just do an outline of a car. However, I was intrigued by an online tutorial that showed how to make a 3-D cake. I thought to myself, "I can do this...I watch Ace of Cakes and it looks easy enough...I don't have fondant so frosting will have to make do, but this is going to be awesome." I also had the dilemma of figuring out the red frosting. I kept having thoughts of a pink McQueen...so I opted for red sprinkles instead.

Here is the final result- you can tell I'm not a professional, but I was SO excited to show Ethan:

I felt pretty good about the finished result. And Ethan loved it! He even said later that night, "Thank you for my Lightning, Mommy." Totally worth the 3 hours I spent! Here are some more pictures of the big day and activities later in the week:

Eating at Giggles N' Hugs, a fun kids restaurant

Annalisa had fun too

Blowing out the candles

Look at that face

As Ethan said, "I'm eating his Ka-Chow"

One of his presents

At the Natural History Museum and Butterfly Pavillion

Annalisa looking really small

Looking at the butterflies

Ethan pointing at one of the big butterflies

Sitting for a picture

With friends Korven and Westin

Dinosaur bones

More bones, bad lighting on the kids...

At the Peterson Automotive Museum with Dad

Riding in a real race car