Daxton Joshua Zaugg

It's official, he is ours! We went to Logan yesterday to pick up Daxton from the hospital. We talked for a while with his amazing birth mom and her family. Then she placed Daxton in my arms and he was ours. We can't say how thankful we are to her for choosing us to be Daxton's parents.

We drove home (he slept all the way, good boy!) and introduced him to his new big sister. She was so excited to finally meet him. She softly touched his head and gave him a little kiss. She couldn't wait to "Hold you" (hold him). She is doing a great job of being a good big sister so far, and has helped us change his diaper and feed him his bottle, too.

Daxton met his new grandparents and his new aunt Val yesterday too. We are looking forward to introducing him to more of his family and friends soon. He is eating well, but is a little jaundiced so we are keeping an eye on that.

We are so glad to have him, but we didn't sleep much last night, so I am off to try and take a nap.

Daxton is home

Just wanted to let everyone know that Daxton is home safe and sound! We brought him home from the hospital this evening, and got home around 8:00 p.m. He is eating well, and seems to be doing great! We are looking forward to our first all-nighter with Daxton tonight. I will post more with pictures tomorrow! Thanks to everyone for your support!!!

Baby Update (NOW WITH PICTURES)!

OUR BABY HAS BEEN BORN!

Daxton Joshua Zaugg was born late last night at around 11:00 p.m. His birthmom was having some high blood pressure issues, so they kind of rushed her in and decided to take him early, it was very sudden! He had some trouble breathing at first but he is doing fine in that department now. He weighed 7 pounds and 8 ounces. He is still not eating very well and is having a little trouble digesting, but he sure is beautiful:
According to our case worker, Katy, our birth mom is going to sign her paperwork on Tuesday, and then they are scheduled to be released from the hospital on Wednesday morning. We are supposed to meet them at the hospital on Wednesday and and that is when we are supposed to meet him and pick him up to bring him home. Needless to say, we are very excited but also really stressed out! We hope everything goes ok, and we will keep you updated!!!

Where!?!

As many of you know, Preston's parents returned from a 2-year mission to China in December. They enjoyed their time there, but they weren't able to do very much "proselyting" because of all of the laws against it there. Nearly all of their time was spent teaching English and doing humanitarian work. They wanted to go on another mission where they could be more involved in actual missionary work. Through discussions with different people, felt pretty sure (I think I heard "80% sure") that they would be called to oversee some sister missionaries at Temple Square. They finally got their official papers yesterday, and they will be reporting to their new mission in August....to New Delhi, India!!!

Here is a picture of their reaction:

The picture was so funny, I couldn't resist doing a post! We are so happy for them, but we will miss them again while they are gone for 18 months!! I am glad that they will at least get to meet the new baby before they leave this time. They left for China about a month before Arden was born and didn't get to meet her in person until she was almost 2 years old. And, I am sure they are happy that English is spoken in India.

Hello Summertime

Sorry I am slow doing an update. Things went really well at our birthmom's doctor appointment last week. Everything is looking good, and she is dilated to a 3 already (I had to look up exactly what this means because I am ignorant about most of this pregnancy/labor stuff.) She isn't due until June 7th, and she still could last until the due date. Or, she could go into labor pretty much any time. Hopefully, labor will go a little easier since she is already dilated a little. It was good to get to talk with her more on the drive, she seems like a really sweet girl.

Anyway, we painted the baby's room (blue) and happily avoided any painting mishaps with Arden this time. We are just about ready for the little guy to come, and I am starting to sleep with my cell phone under my pillow just in case. :) Unfortunately, Preston is leaving on a business trip tomorrow and isn't back until late Friday, so I hope that nothing happens until he gets back!! I am going to be stressing out a lot over the next couple of weeks until the baby is born, and it will be even worse for the day or two after he is born! So, I apologize in advance for any crazy or weird behavior.

But, back to our everyday lives. The weather has been so nice, it feels like summer! We have been doing summery things this last weekend. We went to a BBQ on Friday, here is a picture of Arden after I let her lick the bowl for the brownies we made:

Then on Saturday, we neglected our yard work (again) and decided to take Arden to the zoo. We had a great time, the weather was sooo warm. Arden says she likes the "montees" (monkeys) and "grrraaffs" (giraffes) best. I personally liked the bird show this time. I had seen the show a couple of years ago, but this version exceeded my wildest expectations. None of the birds wanted to do what they were supposed to do. It was hilarious. They had hawks and parrots flying into trees and not coming down, and the trainers were so funny trying to ad lib while they were frantically trying to convince the birds to come down. Then, at the "end" of the show, they couldn't get a little falcon to come down out of his box. They tried and tried and tried (and tried), but he wasn't coming out. The trainers didn't want to go on with the show because they were going to have some doves or pigeons or something come out next, and they were worried the falcon would decide to finally come down if he saw some nice pigeon he could eat for lunch. I personally would have liked to see the falcon in action, it would have been very educational. They had to eventually just let us all leave, I am not sure if they ever got the little sucker down. Best bird show EVER. Anyway, here is a picture of Arden and Preston by the giraffes:
On a side note, I am really sad that the Jazz lost and are now out of the playoffs! The game on Friday night almost killed me! They were losing so badly through most of the game, and then made this AMAZING comeback, only to miss two shots in the final seconds that would have tied the game. Brutal! My hands were shaking after the game, I was so wound up. Total bummer! Now what am I supposed to watch on TV?? Oh well, there is always next year.

Dr. Jeckyl and Miss Hyde

So I am sitting here watching the Jazz game (Goooooo Jazz!) and thought I would post a quick update for everyone.

We are slowly checking things off of our "getting ready for baby" list. We have got his crib and changing table set up, and we already had a bassinet, car seat, and Baby Bjorn from when Arden was little. We went and got a few little clothes for him, and my good ol' brother BJ picked us up a bunch of onesies from Kohls, where he works (thanks Beej!) I went to my cousin Jayme's baby shower on Saturday, she is having a baby boy too, he is due June 2nd. It was fun to see her unwrapping all of that cute baby boy stuff! It made me even more excited for our little guy to come (and to go buy more cute little boy stuff!).

That night we went to the Salt Lake Bees baseball game with my cousin Troy, his family and Amanda and Matt. Troy and Tiff brought their three girls, the youngest of which is Aeva, who is about 10 months old. We have been talking to Arden a LOT about "Baby Brother" these past couple of weeks and how you have to be soft and gentle with babies etc. etc. etc. Arden was more than ready to try out her big sister moves on Aeva. She softly touched Aeva's hands. She let Aeva grab her face and didn't even mind. She helped Aeva eat Cheerios and soft pieces of popcorn. She gave Aeva lots and lots of hugs and kisses. She even wanted to hold Aeva in her lap (with my help of course). She didn't mind in the least when Preston or I held Aeva. "Wow," I thought, "she is pretty good at this big sister thing! What have I been worried about??" The game went pretty late, so we didn't get home until after 10:00 p.m. Here is a picture of Arden and "baby" Aeva:

The next day was Mothers Day. The day started out great with Preston and Arden bringing me pancakes with strawberries and whip cream for breakfast in bed (Arden wanted to help me eat them and we got strawberries on the sheets within about 10 seconds, so we quickly decided to have breakfast at the table instead).

Off we went to church, where I had agreed to substitute in nursery. Here is where Miss Hyde showed up. Arden quickly decided that I was HER mommy and that no one else was allowed to be held by me/sit in my lap/play with me. It was not pretty. It all started when I tried to take another baby who needed a diaper change almost as soon as nursery started to her mom. Arden started crying when I tried to leave nursery without her, which she NEVER does. Then, when I got back, any time one of the other kids tried to sit on my lap, Arden would run from whatever part of the room she was in and try and push them off. She even pushed one of her best friends down when I went in the closet to get a book for her. I am just hoping that it was all due to sleep deprivation, and that she won't be trying to push the new baby off of my lap every day. :)

The rest of Mothers Day was really good, though. We visited Preston's Mom (had sandwiches and cake), met my mom at my Grandma Wilson's (had cake), and then we all went to my Grandma Haun's (more cake). I am very lucky to have all of them, they are all wonderful!!

Anyway, as a side note, we finished painting our bathroom a while ago, and we still have 3/4 of a gallon of paint left. If anyone wants it, let me know! Here is a picture or two to show you what color it is:

Arden is talking NONSTOP lately, and is starting to say everything I say. She even calls Preston "Presson" about half the time. The other day she couldn't get her shoes on and yelled out "STUPID SHOES!" It was so funny! Then I read on my sister in law Alison's blog that "Stupid" is a bad word at their house. Uh-oh, I didn't know that....I guess I will have to start watching what I say.

Finally, tomorrow I am driving our birth mom to her doctor's appointment, so hopefully I will get to hear about how things are going with the pregnancy! I will try and post some news on how everything is going sometime after that. Only 23 more days until the due date!

Gooooo Jazz!

Touch the Sky

Compared to the past couple of weeks, this week has been pretty uneventful. We have been scrambling around a little trying to figure out everything that we have to get ready before the baby comes. I just wish I had about a million dollars to buy all of the stuff I want to get!!! Oh well, all a baby really needs is love, food and diapers, right? Everything else is just gravy!

We have also been working on explaining the whole little brother thing to Arden. If those of you out there who have had babies thought it was hard to explain to toddlers where babies come from, try being an adoptive mom! Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions about how to get Arden excited and happy about being a big sister, let me know! I really want her to love her little brother, and not just look at him as someone who is taking up too much of mom and dad's time. Let me know if you have any ideas!!

When I started this blog I wanted to use it to help me remember some of the things that were going on in my every day life, so here is a little story about something Arden said yesterday. We got home from the store, and while I was carrying the groceries into the house, Arden grabbed a broom handle that we had taken out of the broom for some reason. She ran out to the driveway, pointed it up in the air and lifted it up as high as she could. It kept falling down, but she kept pointing one end up in the air and then lifting it up as high as she could. I had no idea what she was trying to do, so I asked her:

Me: Arden, what are you trying to do with that stick?
Arden: TOUCH A SKY!
Me: You are trying to touch the sky?
Arden: Yeah.
Me: Hmmmm. Oh, okay.

What do you say to that?? I didn't have the heart to tell her she couldn't reach the sky! Go ahead, little girl, reach for the sky!

She is such a sweet little thing, and is very "huggy" lately. I can't get enough hugs!


Anyway, I hope that everyone has a great week. And, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to everyone!(Love you, Mom!)