Mom's 50th!!!!

yosemite, here we come!

my mom turned 50 on the 22nd and so we all headed south for the weekend. gabe was the only one in the family that had ever been, and the rest of us were pretty excited to see the majestic landscapes. and yosemite didn't disappoint!

i drove down mid-day on friday to get checked in to the house and get everything set up, but more importantly, to get cooper down and asleep before everyone else came. i was able to find a pet friendly house, so the dogs came too. alexi had a softball game and gabe had to work, so the rest of the gang didn't get there until about 10.30.

up bright and early the next morning though, mom wanted to see the sights and hike to where we could at this time of year. no sooner do we get in the cars and head off further into the park,  the sky opens up and just starts dumping on us! it even started to hail! mom insisted that we weren't going to melt, not even cooper, and we were going on!

here we are with el capitan and bridal veil falls in the background. clouds were covering half dome the whole time we were there.

did i mention it was raining? this was us on the walk to bridal veil falls. somehow, we managed to keep cooper dry and warm. he loved all the water. he just stared.

later in the day checking out the lower yosemite falls. and raining again!

this was later that night after we had all drowned. back at the house for mom's birthday dinner. everyone had their party hats, even coop.

we knew that there was a chance of snow for that night. the rain wasn't letting up, but we didn't really think that we would wake up....

to this! about 3 inches at 7 am. cooper's first snow. the deer were out around the house and everything was so pretty. 

except for the fact that it didn't stop snowing the whole morning. by the time we left at 10 am, there was about 7-8 inches. roads were closed and the only one they were plowing was the one through the park! so, after waiting for a bit and getting chains on brennon's truck, we set out for home. and we got there, 6 1/2 hours later! it was pretty funny...i showed up in sandals and a t-shirt and left in multiple layers and fur lined boots!

it was a great trip though and i hope it was the b-day that my mom wanted. happy birthday mom!

Abby & Cooper

the nova's came up from fresno a couple of weekends ago and, as always, it was great to see them. their little girl, abby, will be 2 in june. she is getting so big!

she thought coop's car was just as great as he does. she was pushing him around the house like he was her baby doll. it was so cute. the bottom pic actually looks like he is steering too. so funny!

our little McCutie

Cooper's first St. Patty's Day!

Thanks to Aunt Rach, his little shirt says

'I'm a McCutie'.

Pretty adorable.

food. yeah!!!!

good stuff, mom!

it took a little bit, but he actually got the hang of it. we tried this on thursday night, not knowing how it would turn out. he loved it! by the end of the feeding, he was lurching toward the spoon, mouth open, hands going everywhere. quite funny. glad we got it on video.

he is now sitting!

Yep, that's right. Every day he is doing something new. This week, sitting. It started out with just a few seconds, but he will sit there for a minute or two before falling on his face :)

Here's a recent one

Here he is at about 4 months with Uncle Brennon. DOing his favorite thing of late, blowing raspberries! The more spit he can get out the better. He thinks he is pretty funny. All boy!

The big day

October 21, the night before. Right after Gabe took this picture we went to PF Chang's and had dinner. I thought for sure I would make it to my next Dr appt., which was 2 days away. Little did I know that at about 1:52 Am my water would break and I would wind up having this baby!

This is about 3ish in the morning. I didn't have my epidural yet, but the contractions were still bearable. It was just Gabe and I at this point. We figured it was no use calling everyone in the middle of the night, when we were going to be there for a while. In fact, we were the first ones to check in that day. We decided to call the delivery room crew once I had gotten my epidural, except for my mom, of course. Thankfully she was there when they were attempting to give me my epidural because she remembered some pertinent info from my back surgery that I was in no condition to recollect. It took a few tries, but they managed to get through and all was well. Or so I thought...

This was mid-day, after they gave me a super boost of my epidural. It was wearing off and i was starting to feel pain in my right hip area. So, the anesthesiologist came and gave me a mega-dose. I was only dilated to a 6 at the last check, so they figured it wouldn't hurt anything. That killed all pain and i got to relax a little. At least until the nurse came in 20 minutes later and checked me again. This time I was a 9! No wonder i was starting to feel some pressure. Although, I couldn't figure out why all the pain in my hip and back, until..... they told me he was sunny side up! Babies are supposed to come out face down. Well, Cooper wanted to see the world right off the bat. He was face up. So, we were spine on spine and that would be where the pain was coming from. From here, things got a little hairy. Heart beats dropping, nurses everywhere, contractions not doing what they were supposed to be doing. They even were throwing around the word C-Section. At this point I had been in labor for 13 hours. Had been dilated to a 9 for 3 hours, I was going to kill someone if they were going to do a C-Section. So much commotion was in my room. They were paging my doctor, holding an O.R. waiting to see if that was what she wanted to do. Meanwhile, Gabe is holding my hand, running his hand through my hair and talking me through each contraction, which I can feel with full force. I am not sure what the dialogue was between him and my mom at this time, or if there was any. I just remember chaos. Then Dr. Ho sweeping in at the nick of time. Calling off the O.R. and reassuring me that we were going to deliver this baby the old fashion way. And she stayed with me for the next 2 hours until i pushed him down far enough that she could get the vacuum on his little head and get him out of that birth canal. She warned me sometime during that last hour that he had pooped in the womb and they weren't going to let him breath until they got his airway cleared, so I wasn't going to hear him cry right off the bat and her was going to be purple, but he was fine. Ok, I thought. I can handle that, just get him out. Well, she did just that and she was right, he was a shade of purple that I had never seen before. It scared the hell out of me. And even though I know they were doing it for a reason, I just wanted to hear a little cry to know that he was alright. He did start making little noises and told em he was good, but had inhaled some of that poop and they were taking him to the NICU to watch him. Gabe went with Cooper and my mom, Alexi and Denise stayed with me. 

The picture on the left, he is still in the room with me, but the one on the right is him in the NICU with Gabe. Everyone got to go in and see him there. Thankfully they came back to me with reports because I didn't get to see him again for 3 hours. But, when he came back, all was fine and he was healthy and hungry! 

By the time we got up to our room upstairs, we were the last ones there. First ones in, last ones out.

yes, we are still alive!

Hello out there! I know that it has been a WHILE since I have been on here. So, let me bring you up to date. Thank you Rachel for posting the announcement of Cooper! Without her, some of you might be wondering if that kid ever came out of me. And, believe me, by the end, I was wondering the same thing! I will bring everyone up to speed on the life of Cooper Johnson Michael.

This was take

n September 

21. With only one mor

e week of work to go, I thou

ght I was pretty close. Hah!

These were on the 17 of October. I think that was a Friday night. Oh so ready. Let me tell you that in the last 2 weeks of being pregnant, I walked for hours trying to get that kid out of me. Just hoping that pounding the pavement was going to kick start something.