Audree's Name

We here at our house are doing well with our new addition to our family. The adjustment of going from one kid to two has been a little bit of a roller coaster as many of you other parents know. With that being said, Dalan has been doing surprising well. These past three days have been the hardest...everyone went back to work and I was alone. Even though I call these "hard" days, overall I think they have actually been pretty good. I can tell Dalan is wanting more attention, but he hasn't been doing purposfully naugthy things or telling Audree to go away, etc.

And on to the reason for this post. I have had several people ask where we got Audree's name and middle name. The name Audree has been picked for several years...within the first year of Kalab and my marriage. One evening we decided to go out to dinner (I remember it was a big deal because we were dirt poor!!). We decided to go to Ruby Tuesday (I could do a whole blog on our bad experiences we have had with eating at Ruby Tuesday!) and had a waitress named Audrey. Kalab asked out of the blue if I liked the name for a girl. I thought about it... and I did...a lot actually. There was no changing Kalab's mind after that point about our future baby girl's name (assuming at that point we would get a girl). When we became pregnant with Dalan, Kalab hoped for a girl at first just so we could use the name. Of course we were happy when we found out we were having a boy, but had no names what so ever! The only good thing that has ever come out of our dining experiencing at Ruby Tuesday's was our daughter's name...at least it was something!

Audree's middles name, Clair, is purely my decision. I'm not sure what triggered me to consider using it as a name for my daughter, but none the less, I LOVE it. Kalab is okay with the name, but has never loved it. Kalab's dad's name is Kelly and we thought about using that as her middle name. Although I like the name Kelly and it has family meaning, I was worried about not getting another girl down the road (assuming we even have more children...right now, the out look is dim! You'll have to ask me again in at least a year!). Plus, I would love to use the name Kelly for a boy middle name as well. I think Kalab eventually gave in when I pointed out that he picked and held FIRMLY to with both Dalan's first and middle name and Audree's first name. I'm guessing he firgured it was time for me to get the name I really, really wanted (I wanted to give Dalan the middle name of Carter...I was over ruled the last week of my pregnancy with Dalan).

Enjoy the pics!! I was inspired by a friend Katrina who just has a baby girl a week or so before us and had taken some ADORABLE pictures of their little girl and posted them on their blog (by the way Lund's, your daughter is beautiful!!!). I don't have a very good camera so my pics didn't turn out anything like my inspiration of Katrina, but at least I tried and I have some pictures.

NYNY North Mission Reunion with Stoker

Hey everyone, I wanted to let you know that I have been in contact with President Stoker and we are looking at doing a Reunion with him sometime between April and the first part of June. I proposed to have the reunion in two parts. The first part would be on Friday night as an adult only devotional with President and Sister Stoker as the speakers followed by a pot luck dessert social. The second part will be Saturday late morning and this will be for our families. I would like to have some fun activities that the kids and adults will enjoy. Things like three legged races, gunny sack races ect. It might be fun to have a big blow up slide or a jump house for the kids as well. I also had the thought of doing a BBQ on Saturday as well. I would like to know what every thinks about have it over two days or if you would prefer one day. I just know that catching up with each other isn't easy when we are chasing kids around. So if you know of other missionaries who have blogs please send them to my blog for details of the up coming reunion. Please help me by getting the word out about the Reunion and check back for the date, time and location. I am just waiting on President Stoker to let me know when he can come in from CA.

Kalab Stokes

Audree Clair Stokes

Audree Clair Stokes was born at 7:01 pm on January 12, 2009. She wieghed 7 lbs 7 oz and was 22.5 inches long.

The day started off by the hospital calling us at 8:00 AM and asking us to come to the hospital because they were ready to start the enduction. We arrived around 8:15 and spent the next 30 mins getting Emilee started with IV's. One of the reasons Emilee was in Labor almost 12 hours is that Emilee tested positive for Strep B so she had to be on antibiotics for 4 hours before we could have the baby. They started Emilee on the the anitbiotics around 9:00 and then about 9:30 they started her on pitocin. When we arrived to the hospital she was dialated to a 3 and didn't really change until after they broke her water then she went from a 3 to a 4 with in seconds. They broke Emilee's water at 1:30. Emilee got her Epideral around 1:45 and that was the best thing for her. We waited several more hours and Emilee only dialated to a 5 around 5:00 pm. Our doctor was a little worried because she wasn't progressing very fast. So they inserted an internal monitor to see how storng the contractions were. With in the next hour she went to a 6 and by 6:45 Em was a 10 and the baby was right there ready to come. Our doctor came rushing in and with in just a few minuets she was born. Emilee only had to push 4 times before Audree was born.

I went home last night and spent the night at home to be with Dalan and this morning when I got back to the hospital Emilee told me that Audree slept through the night. She only woke up when Emilee needed to feed her. We are doing great today and so is Audree. We are so excited and happy that Audree is finally here at last.

Accidents Happen Unfortunately!!

Audree is coming tomorrow and we are counting our blessings that Emilee and Audree are okay and eveything is ready to go for tomorrow. Friday, Emilee had a competition with her Drill Team she coaches. I was planning on picking Emilee up from the competition that night, so her Assistant coach picked her up that morning. The night before, a storm came in. The weather was warm enough that it rained. Later that night, the tempuratures dropped and it began to snow. Of course, the rain freezed and made the roads sheets of ice. While driving to the school that morning, Emilee's assistant hit some black ice and fish tailed for several feet and ended up hitting an electiric pole head on. Both of them were okay, but I was very concerned when Emilee called me (of course I was still asleep in bed!). Emilee complained her sternum hurt from the seat belt and was instantly concerned about Audree. Our Dr. sent us to the hospital to have Audree checked out. Luckily, she responded just fine and everything came back great. Emilee has very tender seat belt bruises across her shoulder blade/upper chest area, her sternum, across the side of her belly, and down by her hips were the lap belt crosses. It was a nerve racking morning, but Emilee is fine except for the tender bruises and a little stiffness. We will keep you updated on the delivery tomorrow. We are very excited...Emilee can't wait to sleep on her stomach again. She has been talking about it for a long time!