A few more pics from Mikey

Thanks to Mike coming down from school for a weekend and bringing some of his gear, we were able to monkey around with some construction paper and get a few shots of the fam. Mike uses film and a very old, very vintage camera to take his pics.

Austin- First 4 weeks of Life

Some say I resemble a little old man :)

I was so quiet when I arrived! I was just tricking my mom for a minute~

Those beautiful blue eyes finally opened today!

Now that's a proud grandpa Curtis

I get a lot of gas, and it makes me smile.

Our (Rachel's) beautiful angel, baby Molly!

Oh, the first month has gone by so fast little Austin! You surprised us right away with some awesome sleeping from 12-6ish every night! And your fussing at night is not too intense (especially compared to your older brother at that age), and very short-lived. After spending the first two weeks with grandma F, grandma H, and then grandpa H, we took a week to enjoy you all to ourselves before heading up to Utah County to meet baby Molly. You were great while we were there, and met the Phillips, great-grandma Joann, grandpa F, Jesse's family, and Nichole's family for the first time. I also got to show you off to sweet Tanya from the KL while we met together for too short of time. She brought baby Tiger and we enjoyed our yearly chat. You have spent your first month completely melting our hearts Aussie! Even Max is adoring you. The joy and gratitude that you've brought to my heart is unspeakable. The spirit in our home has been so strong since your arrival. You are so well taken care of by your daddy and big brother. They both get an absolute kick out of you and your gas smiles! You love being out in the smoldering evening heat by the pool. You are the noisiest little guy i've ever heard- grunting and pushing and hiccuping all through the day and night! You burp loud, and you poop loud. The nurses at the hospital called you the "singing baby" because you sighed with every breathe for your first 48 hours!

I have spent the first 4 weeks adapting to the new sleep schedule and gaining confidence in my abilities as the mommy of a fresh little baby- it seems as though I have forgotten everything! I thank the Lord every day for you and your healthy arrival into our lives. And almost every day, I get to proudly show you off to company or passer-bys at the store. I love dressing you, giving you baths, cleaning up your spit-up, and bouncing you around the house. Thank you Aussie for blessing my life! 

All about our little Austin

Boy oh boy, do I have a long list of entries to catch up on! I have a lot of typing and picture pasting to do before I can send my blog to print for my family albums. But lets start with the most exciting news, and then i'll spend the rest of the summer days working backwards! The best news ever is that the big basketball pictured here is now in our arms and sooo much more fun out of the belly!

Austin Douglas Harker greeted us at 8:02 p.m. on Thursday, July 1st. Yes folks, our baby was born on Canada Day! I had been welcoming contractions, good ones, for weeks. I was walking many steep hills, jumping a bit on the tramp, and bouncing on the boat and surfboard that 38th week to see if I could get the ball rolling faster. My body was playing tricks on me every day. I had been a 4 and fully effaced since week 37. By early Wednesday morning, I was sure that the contractions were now real labor. But the hospital sent us home  because I wasn't progressing. I contracted and labored throughout that entire day. I went back in the next morning and was now a 5, but still stuck in prodomal labor (snail-paced labor). I went in again that afternoon and was miraculously going into active labor. So my doc, being that he was leaving town, broke my water. Four hours later, little Austin soared right out. Good thing daddy had gone to McDonalds for lunch or he would have missed the whole thing- it happened so quickly at the end! The labor was quite painless :-) Little boy was not making any noise when he arrived, so the nurses had to briefly get him going. Then he was back in my arms, melting my heart and nursing for the next 4 hours- no joke! He is continuing in that pattern of wanting to nurse all the time.


Oh boy. The most precious, beautiful moments in my life have been the first time I held and kissed my two little boys. Austin's birth was everything i've been looking forward to for several years. I feel so amazed and grateful that we finally got our little baby after so much waiting and dreaming and hoping! He weighed 6 lbs. 6 oz, 19 1/2 in tall, and is perfectly healthy.

             ............Our lives have been completely changed forever now that we have our new little angel to add to the family. We are all so in awe over him and really dig the idea of having a new member of the family. We no longer get bored in the evenings. Instead, the boys really have to pitch in to keep Austin happy and me sane! I had totally, completely forgotten how much work a new babe is! But being busy has been a great change. Logan is a beamingly proud big brother. He may have had his grass mowed a bit at the beginning, but both grandma Tammy and Val made absolute sure to let him know how special he still is. Logan was completely indulged by his grandmas- no, spoiled is the operative word there. He had to face a harsh reality the day that each of them left!

 Grandma Tammy came the night Austin was born, and left 1 week later so that she could go home to dad for a few days before heading to Rachel's for Molly's birth! Baby Molly ended up coming 2 weeks after Austin. What a beautiful girl she is! Having my mom come to stay for a week is almost reason enough to have a baby for my sisters and I. She gets into worker bee mode, and nothing stops her from running around at full speed. We ate soo well, and she took care of everything and everyone.  Here's a pic of Logan not letting grandma lay out!

After she left, Logan ran upstairs and packed a suitcase because he was moving to Rexburg. Grandma Val flew down to stay a few days after mom left! We were soooo glad to have her. Logan decided very quickly that he didn't need to move after all.  He went with grandma Val on several great expeditions around town. And as always, grandma spent a lot of time with Logan playing games and reading stories. We love our parents so very much. Grandpa Orin also flew down the next week for 2 days to spend time with us and meet Austin.