8 is great!

happy 8th birthday to my sweet jared!

8 years ago i was finishing out a week of bedrest at park plaza. i was 34 weeks pregnant. the nurse came in to get my vitals and to hook me up to the monitors. i was having contractions, but they weren't painful at all. the nurse decided to check me. she informs me that i'm probably going to give birth today. you were going to be born at 34 weeks. i was freaking out because dr. t was out of town on vacation. several of my friends stopped by the hospital while i was in active labor which helped me deal with the pain. at 6:23 p.m., you made your entrance into this world. i remember being scared to death that i was REALLY responsible now for another human being. but even more scared when i realized you were not doing well. the nurses came over and let me hold you for a few minutes, take a few pictures, and then they rushed you off to the nursery. you were making these awful grunting noises. a few hours later i went to see you in the nursery and you were under this oxygen hood. the doctors hoped that would help, but they were concerned about the dandy walker syndrome that you had been diagnosed with in utero. seeing you lying there so helpless turned something on inside me. made me want to do right by you.

lauren and brandon adore you (most of the time). we are always reminding you that you are to set a good example for them. you love them so much and you're such a great helper.

before birthday celebration number 3, i went to lauren's school to watch the st. jude's trike-a-thon. the kids have so much fun riding around the parking lot in circles. this is lauren's class. and yes, i have them trained to look at the camera!!!

love that sweet smile! and love that she has a big wheel! reminds me of my smurfs big wheel i had living on glenn lakes lane!

after trike-a-thon, i went up to kroger and picked up a cupcake for jared and mcdonald's. that's what he requested for his birthday lunch at school.

me and jared

after school i realized that lauren had her ballet recital rehearsal & pictures. we rushed to get her up to the studio and even though her pictures were taken professionally, i wanted a few of my own.

still haven't figured out how james and i created such a beautiful little girl! she's so cute and sassy! and i LOVE her big blue eyes!

after the rehearsal, we rushed over to red robin for jared's fourth birthday celebration. is this birthday boy lucky or what?

thumbs up for all these birthday celebrations!

yum! birthday sundae!!!
jared with three of his biggest fans (the fourth is taking the picture!)

after dinner we were supposed to go home and have a baseball cookie cake and open presents, but jared was too full from dinner to eat anything else. so we decided to save the cookie cake for his baseball team tomorrow night and just open presents. here is is with his loot.

looks like this 8 year old had a great birthday!