INTRODUCING.....

My little monkey Rivers McKean Shepherd!!!!

These photos don't do him justice for how cute he really is! Here he is a week old on Halloween, as a little monkey.

Here Rivers is with his Daddy trying to karate chop him.

and here he is with his Mommy being just too cute!

And here he is just seconds after birth, weighing in at 7lbs 8oz, and 20.5 inches long. Since birth he has lost his .5 inches and a few ounces, which is completely normal.

Here he is with his Grandma Hulse, who waited all night at the hospital for him to be born (I'll go into those details later).

And with Grandpa Hulse, who had to go to the E.R. for an infection in his leg while waiting in the hospital all night for him to be born.

And this is one of mommy's favorite pictures of Rivers with his Grandma and Grandpa Shepherd. I have so many cuter and better pictures on my phone, but I haven't quite figured out how to upload them from my new phone.

So here is Rivers birth story:

On October 23, at about 4:30 in the morning I started having contractions, but silly me I thought it was just gas. Well, about 3 minutes into that I had the thought that maybe I was having contractions, so I laid there in bed counting how long they were (it was 4:30 in the morning and I couldn't really remember what the doc said about timing contractions). Well after about an hour of that I decided to wake Scott up and ask him what the doctor said, since the were getting stronger and more painful. Well we laid in bed for about another hour timing the contractions, with Scott asking me if we should go to the hospital. I had a terrible fear of this not being labor and still being pregnant and having to go in to work that night that I waited. Well we head to the hospital, and check in to Labor and delivery, and they hook me up to the monitors. I was in labor!! They monitor for a while, but my contractions aren't getting stronger, and I'm still only dilated to a one (which I'd been at for over 2 weeks at the point) but my blood pressure is higher than they liked. Well they unhook me and send me home with a loratab and instructions to rest and come back if labor pains get worse, or my water breaks.
So I called into work, which I had been scheduled in positions that I could leave if I went into labor. So I sat at home all day, while Scott slept because he was planning on working that night. Well I was still in labor with nothing happening. So I took a nap. Scott's boss told him to stay home with me, which Scott decided meant watch football all day, well around 5 o'clock, during my contraction filled nap, my water broke!! That was the weirdest thing I've ever felt!! So, I changed and headed back to the hospital. They hook me up again, and I ask for an epidural. That's right, why be in pain if you don't have to be, this was advice I got from my dad. after that labor was a breeze.

I started to progress (finally) after the epidural. Finally the nurse comes in and informs me that I'm going to start pushing at 2 am. Well, this is where the story turns for me, I push and push and push, and little Rivers is stuck. Taking after his father and grandfather, he has a rather large head, and it was stuck on my pelvic bone. After about 3 hours of pushing my doctor tells me that she's only going to let me do this for another 15 minutes and if I can't get him unstuck on my own, I'm going to have to have a C-section. Now I was very stern that I did NOT want a C-section. So somehow, despite being completely exhausted and having been awake for 24 hours now, I found some strength and pushed harder. I got him unstuck in two parts, and finally push his huge head out!! Rivers was born with the biggest alien conehead I have ever seen!! Which tilted slightly to the left, because when my water broke he was on the left side of the uterus causing him to come out on the left side instead of straight up and down. But he was perfect!! Completely healthy and right on time. Being born at 5:39 on October 24, 2010. Right on time! By the time we left the hospital his head was perfectly normal, and he just got cuter and cuter.

I love my little man, who really has been so text book his entire existence. I still can't believe he's a week old now. Everyday all I think is I'm never going to get this time back in either of our lives.

Scott is the best daddy ever, taking care of me and Rivers in every way and I am so grateful for the sacrifices he makes for our family. I am so blessed. I am so loved, and so is my little man. I feel the Saviors love every time I look and this amazing little blessing that I was given. What more could anyone want?

Moved!!

So, I regret to inform my loyal followers that I no longer have access to free Internet, resulting in a lack of blogging, and photo uploads. Which is really quite sad because I look awesome with my giant swollen belly.
We have the greatest apartment!! So for a time I will suffer with lack of Internet and cable to be able to afford our great place. It's not way expensive or anything, but I will be out of work for 12 weeks, and we just can get by on Scott's paycheck at this time. We hope that one day this will not always be the case.
We were able to move into a great 4-plex with neighbors who are all active in our wonderful McKay ward, which is a huge blessing itself. We are right by Liberty Park and I love my 7 minute commute to work :)
We finally got unpacked and decorated this week, and we put up the baby's crib and dresser and washed all his clothes and blankets, and we are now just waiting for his arrival. We only have about 4 1/2 weeks until the due date, and I feel great, well let me re-phrase that, I feel like every other pregnant lady, tired and uncomfortable. I have heartburn and trouble sleeping, and get frustrated when my clothes don't fit, but again this is normal for most pregnant ladies.
Scott and I are at a very happy place in our lives and I am grateful for all the support and love we get from so many around us. We can't wait for our little guy to get here, but we want him to stay in there at least until after conference, that's big money for me and that will be very helpful right before the baby comes.
When we get Internet again I will post lots of pictures, and everyone will be so happy I just know it. Until then, have a great October :)

Summer

So it has been brought to my attention that I haven't blogged for a while. After this post you will see why, Scott and I have been very busy!! This post will be mostly pictures, so enjoy!
Keeping with tradition we yet again attended the Pioneer day Parade in Salt Lake. Scott even slept overnight on the parade route to ensure we got a good spot. Here we have my cousin Josh, Tyler (Nephew), Scott and Riley (other Nephew) in the ever wonderful umbrella hats. I love the Parade, this year we went all out and brought our camping canopy. The parade wasn't as great as years past, but we had a lot of fun. A bunch of our friends also spent the evening with Scott, so it was a good time and we were exhausted after the parade.

This is the best picture on here! We LOVE the zoo, and Scott is always trying to get me to pretend to be the animals. Here I am, 28 weeks pregnant, acting like a big horn sheep, this picture was just too funny not to post.

We got a great view of the mama tiger sleeping, the animals kept getting startled by the thunder and lightening. But she looks so peaceful here.

I would make a great Asian lady right?

Scott makes a terrible Asian lady :)

The baby elephant was so so so cute, here she is playing in the mud. I also have other pictures of her nursing with her mama. I could have sat there and watched her for hours.

Also just last week Scott and his brother Nathan ran the Black Ridge Triathlon in Herriman. I thought I had a picture of them both before the race, but it's not here....

Here the guys are entering the water at the start of the race. I can totally see Scott can't you?

Transition one, move from swimming attire to biking attire. I also have a great picture of Scott on his bike that didn't post either... Oh well...

Just after transition two, from bike to run. Look how cute he is...

Here Scott is at the finish line, I had made posters for him and his parents and Sugaru (more on him later) were there to cheer him on, along with Nathan, who finished before Scott... Go Nathan!!

Here he is my triathlete! I'm so proud of him, he set out to reach a goal, and he did it!! He was all sweaty and gross at the end, but I still gave him a big hug and kiss!

So I asked Scott what he wanted to do to celebrate his race day, and he asked if I would go to a demolition derby with him. Well being the wonderful wife that I am, I agreed. Apparently part of the deal was also to dress up... Here is Scott and I in our matching redneck attire...

Tie Dye shirts, orange trucker hats, me in overalls, and Scott in badly cut cut-off shorts.... too funny.

Near the end of the night we got a group shot, including our foreign exchange student Sugaru, who I just loved!! He was from Japan, so on occasion Scott and his dad got to practice their Japanese. He was so fun, and polite, and I'm so glad I got to meet him.

As for me and baby, we're doing well. I'm on track weight wise, and haven't had any problems after the kidney stones. Baby is growing great, right on track weight in weight, and has a good strong heart beat. He is also practicing to be a soccer player or a boxer. My guts are getting squished, but I guess he just needs more room. On a final note, we move into our new apartment on September 1st. I'm excited to pull out all me own stuff again, and be able to walk around in my underwear.

I want candy!

I love candy! I mean I really love candy, more than anything else in the world next to Scott, who doesn't get put in the same category as candy. I hide candy so I can find it later, and I get very possessive of my candy, I don't want to share! There are days where candy is all I can think about. Since becoming pregnant I've tried really hard to stay away from candy because I don't think it's good for the baby. I don't think it's good for me either, but I am trying to be a good mommy.
Yesterday was one of those days that I NEEDED candy.
I got Kidney stones, which is the worse thing I've ever been through in my whole life!!
I tried very hard to be brave and not cry or complain, but I didn't know what was going on, and given my family history of delivering early I was certain I was in preterm labor. We went to the ER at about 12:45 Monday morning and didn't get home until 9:00. I felt so bad for Scott because no one would work for him and the poor guy had to go into work after having no sleep. This is why Scott can't be categorized with candy, which would have just made me go through this whole mess alone.
I slept all day Monday, and Tuesday went to work, how else am I going to pay off that trip to the ER? After work I went to a Urologist, who basically told me that I just have to wait this out until after the baby comes, and gave me a prescription for an x-ray after the baby comes. He was a nice guy, but a total waste of time in my opinion.
While driving home, having not taken any pain meds for over 8 hours so I could drive home, I got sad, and started feeling sorry for myself. What kind of mommy lets herself get sick like this? How am I going to take care of this little guy when every month something else seems to be wrong with me? Maybe our decision to have a baby was a mistake. But I don't believe that. This is when I turn to my one sweet friend who never lets me down, but does rot my teeth, candy. I stopped and spent $8 on candy, $8 I could have saved for the ER bill, or baby stuff. Having that guilt again I sat in bed all night still not taking any pain pills so I could pick up my husband from the train, eating candy and reading, praying that I could pass this stone.
That night as I snuggled with my hubby, doped up on Percaset, I started to feel some relief, and by morning I think I moved the stone to my bladder. I'm still sore, and guilty of eating candy, and mad at myself for giving in, but I know that the Lord has heard my cries, and is letting this thing pass sooner rather than later.
I know my love affair with candy isn't good for me, but it has yet again gotten me through rough patch.

Over it!

I'm kinda over this whole pregnancy thing, I just want the baby here already. We have nothing for the little guy, but I am just not enjoying being pregnant. I'm glad I'm not an elephant.

Independence Day!!

So Fourth of July weekend just isn't the place for cameras! We had a super busy weekend, and I only managed to take 2 pictures.
Our weekend started on the 3rd with the annual Shepherd family party. Every other year the family rents out a pool, and the other years they rent a bounce slide in which family members try to kill themselves and each other on. This year they tired to go safer by adding a jump guard at the top, so the only way to fix this was clearly with Pam cooking spray. My wonderful husband got the idea to spray down one side of a pool float toy and slide down the hosed off slide. Surprisingly no one was injured.

We came home sleepy and sun burnt, but it was all worth it!

On the Fourth itself we had a quite day, we went to church, had a BBQ with my folks and nephew, and did some illegal fireworks. My parents go to Mexico every year in March and buy some, No one died don't worry.

On the 5th we were blessed to have it off work, so we spent it at the mall like any good America should! Scott broke his flip flops playing Volley ball at the family party and we needed to spend a good 3 hours shopping for new ones. After some success, we went and registered for baby gear at Babies R Us. That night we did some more fireworks with Scott's family and ate some more BBQ!

It was a great weekend and I was sad to see it end, but the best part of Utah is we get to do it all over again for Pioneer day, which also includes sleeping over night for a parade on the streets of Salt Lake City! Baby will love this!!

Shaelynn and Ali's Wedding

So, watching your best friend fall in love is a fun thing. Over the past year I got the opportunity to watch just that thing happen. Ali is a great guy, and I have been joking about them getting married for a while now, and it was so great to see it happen. Shaelynn hasn't always had the best taste in guys, but I think she would choose guys she knew she wouldn't get too serious with. Ali certainly was a catch and I love seeing how much he loves her back! They are a super cute couple, and I'm excited to have Ali in the "family."

Here is the happy couple on June 24th exiting the Salt Lake temple, they were so happy and the sealing was beautiful :).

Awwww!!

Shaelynn looked incredible, I don't miss planning my own wedding, but watching her make plans for her wedding was really fun, I picked out the colors long before I ever met Ali, I just want to add that :)

So, Ali is the only boy in his family, he has 3 sisters, and Shae has one brother and 2 sisters, and those sisters have had babies which have all been girls (5 total) and Ali's one sister has 2 girls of her own... Ali is the lone gun men her with all these girls around (Shae's brother happens to live in Nebraska... Away from all the girls). I hope for the Harash sake that Shaelynn at some point, for Ali, will bless him with a son. But the odds just aren't in his favor...

They looked so stunning, I'm so happy that I got to be a part of their wedding, and I know Shae and I talked about having our babies at the same time, but Ali just didn't make it quick enough to the party, maybe next time. I love them both very much, and I look forward to the memories that the 4 of us can make with our own growing families. I wish them much happiness love, like Scott and I have found!