Happy Easter!

We had so much fun this Easter. We loved the egg decorating, Stake Conference, and Easter dinner. On Saturday we attended our ward's easter egg hunt. Steven got to give a quick devotional before the hunt that really made an impression on me that I wanted to share.

He likened the apostles running to the tomb to look for the Savior, to the children running looking for their eggs. He spoke of how when we are done with our treats and our eggs are empty we can remember that the tomb was empty, and how important that is. He went on to talk about other Easter similarities, but the image he presented will always stay with me. I was asked to play the piano for the devotional, so he gave his talk holding the baby, which was a really special thing for me too.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend, you'll have to forgive me, I'm a little baby obsessed.

Egg decorating...

This picture was taken moments before Tori started decorating her hands too...

Daddy and Coop taking a Sunday nap.

Thanks to Randi and Staci for convincing me to get a moses basket, it is my favorite!

Tori has been such a fun cousin for Cooper. She's always helping, talking to him and patting his tummy. Thanks Tori!

Here are the guys at Stake Conference, Cooper's first Sunday!


(These next pictures are a shout-out to Naki)

Sleeping like a normal person...

Sleeping like a Davis.

Things I've Learned From Tim

Recently, Steven and I were running errands with my younger brother Tim. At some point during the trip, Tim decided to tell us we were losers in very creative ways. I thought that they were way too creative to not share them, so here they are.

Here we have the classic well known "Loser" sign.

Here we have the "L7 Loser" sign. I think that this is from the movie Sandlot, but in the movie this sign turns from "L7" into a "W" which stands for "Weenie". I don't know if Tim knows this or if he was just told that word was inappropriate when he was little, and it's stayed with him.

Here we have the "Lieutenant Loser". Which starts with the Loser sign on his forehead and coming at you like a salute. (Memorable, believe me...)

Here we have the "Peace, loser" sign. (I don't know...)

By far my favorite...drum roll please....the "Bermuda Triangle" loser sign!

Tim is such an awesome guy. I'm so glad that we get to be close to him, and that he teaches us new things every time we're together. Love you Tim!

Adjusting

Okay! We've been doing great. Cooper is the EASIEST guy. He only wakes up once each night, and only cries if he needs to burp. He hates the bathtub, but we are working on that one. Steven had his first pee mishap this morning, Cooper peed through his diaper and clothes onto our bed. It was awesome because he was on the phone and trying to get me to help by making wild hand gestures that I did not understand. (He is making wild hand gestures half the time, how was I supposed to know anything was different?)

Here are a few of pictures from the last couple of days.

Grandma Davis has been a huge help. It has been so awesome to be able to ask her virtually any question and get a straight forward, logical answer. We had so much fun having her with us the last few days.

I took this picture because I wanted to show what an awesome job Steven is doing. He has been so helpful and attentive. Even though in this picture he is actually doing dishes at Candy's house...

My new favorite activity. All these years I have loved sleeping with the different neices and nephews, but it is a completely different feeling to get to sleep with your own. We are having such an awesome time. Thanks to everyone that is helping or has sent your support our way. We feel so grateful to have so many friends and family who love us.

Sorry We Haven't Written, We Fell In Love...

We had our boy! Cooper B Daines arrived on Tuesday, March 18th, at 4:27 pm. The delivery was astoundingly easy after we got the epidural. (Why would anyone not?!) Overall labor and delivery was about 9 hours, and a really fun experience. Cooper weighed 9 lbs, and is 22 inches long. He passed all his tests with flying colors, and we were able to come about 24 hours after labor started. We are so grateful he's healthy, happy, and not kicking me anymore.

The evening before...so excited!

Some of the support group. It was actually very reassuring to have Mom tending to business and Tim playing away. He made the time pass with lots of fun moments, but that might be a later blog.

I was so glad that Marsha was able to come be part of the experience. She'll never look at me the same way!

This is Tim passed out, right after telling me he hoped he never had to be woman..

Cooper's first bath with Grandma Davis...for anyone who wasn't at the shower, the blue shirt Cooper has on is the same shirt that Steven came home from the hospital in.

Not strangling him...

Tori hanging around with all the adults..decimating strawberries.

My favorite picture by far! I didn't realize that I managed to get his eyes open for the picture. You can begin to tell in this picture that he looks EXACTLY like his Daddy. He is so sweet and tries so hard. We love him and can't wait for him to meet everyone!

Nothing Yet...

Yesterday Candy and I had the opportunity to go to "Time Out For Women". It was a great expereince to be able to go and spend some special time with Candy. When I say special I mean giggle and eat contraband treats in the Spokane Opera House. We enjoyed getting to hear from Mary Ellen Edmunds and a few other amazing presenters. For sure the most memorable moment for me was when Hillary Weeks sang a song that made me bawl. I really mean bawl. It's been awhile since I've cried that hard. The song isn't recorded yet, so I will watch for it, and when it is available I want everyone to hear it. We had a wonderful day and I'm so grateful we had the opportunity to go.

Still pregnant! Since my previous post Steven and I have anxiously been experiencing each normal day. I have to say that waiting to go into labor is very exhausting. I don't think that I have ever been so aware of every little movement or moments of uncomfortableness. I had thought I decided months ago that when we got closer to the delivery I wasn't going to have the doctor check to see how things were progressing because I knew that I would not be patient enough to not think about it every waking moment. So, of course, I let them check and now I am dissapointed every new morning I wake up.

If I wasn't so closely involved I might think that this whole experience was very entertaining. It's almost turned into a never-ending "Christmas Eve" sort of feeling where every night we go to bed excited and hoping that something very exciting is going to happen that night. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights we did experience some contractions, but nothing ever consistant enough to go in. One of my favorite side effects is that the waiting has made Steven so excited. I love that he is calling from work to ask if we should go to the hospital, and especially that he wakes up everytime I have to go to the bathroom at night hoping that the moment has come. (Some small amount of revenge for all the times I would wake up and be mad that he was still sleeping so well) So, tomorrow we are going to the doctor to hopefully put an expiration date on the waiting.

In the meantime, we have been walking, and walking. We found a very cool park here in Post Falls called Falls Park. It has lookouts over the waterfalls, and a very cute playground. Here are a few pictures of our last walk.

Wish us luck for tomorrow!

Lately...

We've had so much fun lately! Steven has finally learned that my favorite date is going grocery shopping with him. Sadly, he has also learned that he detests these dates. He is such a good sport and this last time when we went together we got to take Sammy too! We had fun fielding all the,
"Oh, he's so adorable..." sort of comments. I told Candy that I will never take my child anywhere with hers, there is no way they could compete! Of course we were fully aware that people were puzzled as far as his origins were concerned..but we had such a fun time with the one-tooth wonder.

Sadly this last picture is the by-product of Costco ice cream overdose...

I think my favorite quote of the day was definetly an elderly woman who stopped us and told Sammy he was beautiful and then she turned to Steven and I and said, "Where did he come from?"

Just a few other things...

We are really enjoying Steven's calling as Ward Misson leader. We are learning so much about our ward and why the church is run the way it is. We are trying to think of ward-strengthening ideas and I thought I might open that up for discussion. We talked about putting together a play group for some of the younger mothers, and single ones, challenging people to have at least one family over for dinner they don't know...etc. We had a great experience on Sunday when a man Steven has been fellowshipping came to church all on his own. It was an awesome feeling and we are anxious for other ideas to keep the missionary ball rolling!

Also, a few posts ago I wrote about a young man in our ward who is very much like Tim in a lot of different ways. This week his older brother (who is also like the Timster) spoke in our ward. His talk was awesome and very inspirational. He spoke of how when we do all we can, Heavenly Father will make up the difference. Our favorite part was a story he told about playing with his bebe gun in the backyard. He was throwing things into the air and trying to shoot them while they were still midair. He however missed, and shot the back sliding door instead, breaking it.(Steven leaned over at this point and said, "Does that mean he was shooting toward the house...." His dad said that after he had given all the money he had to fix it, he would chip in the rest. I thought the images of the story were funny enough on their own, but Steven later told me that in Preisthood Ammon admitted he was actually practicing so he could be more like Annie Oakley. Awesome.

WARNING! PREGNANCY STUFF AHEAD...DIVERT IF NOT INTERESTED!

I went to the doctor today, and they told me that I am 4 centimeters dialated and 50% effaced. They estimated that if we had the baby today he would weigh about 7 pounds. I am so excited! Throughout the pregnancy there have been some problems with my blood pressure readings, and they told me today that if I don't have the baby on my own this week, they will probably induce me next week! We are so excited.

We hope everyone else is doing well!

Spring Cleaning

Anyone want to venture a guess as to what that weird thing is growing up my pantry wall? Well, for those of you who keep your pantry organized, you would never recognize it as an onion that was hidden behind all the tall baking stuff. I have to say that when I first saw it totally freaked me out. Time for some spring cleaning!

(By the way, please don't think we are total pigs...I promise that if I ever feed you or bring dinner it's safe!)

For Jackie...

I promised Jackie that I would try to take some pictures while the family was here this weekend for Kaden's baptism. So here are a few from recent weeks...

Steven's parents were having some trouble with cats in their backyard so Steven took the Troopster over to their house to hopefully trick the kitties into thinking there was a dog there. From what I heard it sounded like Trooper did a better job chasing children then cats, but he seemed to really enjoy himself.

A few weeks ago I took Candy's daughter Tori to play with our niece on Steven's side, Kora. They had a great time together, but I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the two. Visually they are completely different, but their personalities couldn't be more similar.

We had such a fun time with all the family here! I noticed after I uploaded all my pictures that I don't have any of the Brousseau's. The house was so crazy that I didn't get any taken. But just imagine them in spirit...

We were so excited to go see Tim in his role of "Team Manager" for the NIC basketball team. Way to go Tim!

Line wasn't feeling the greatest at the game, she fell asleep on Uncle Steve's arm.

Sammy had a really full day. Look at that face....

Crazed children...

A few days later...the Maile girls did the hula for a few of us...

Uncle Tyler came over and helped with reading duty. So nice to have him over...(hint hint Tyler.) Reading time was so much fun, and quiet...

I hope that this was what you were hoping for Jackie! We love and miss you guys.