Brayden Cruz Harvey

Well, he is finally here. Brayden Cruz Harvey was born via c-section on June 16, 2011. Brayden He is the first to be born in Canada and the first to stay with me in the hospital room the whole time I recovered.

Here he is minutes after birth. It was nice to hear his little cry. Philip and I were overcome with tears of joy to see our healthy baby boy. Many memories flooded our minds as we were there in the OR welcoming our second son. We could not have asked for anything more perfect.

Here he is being weighed. He came in at 3.58 kilograms which converted to pounds is 7 lbs 14 0z. He was 20 inches long or 50.8 centimeters. Fortunately they did the conversions for me because otherwise I would have been in the OR doing math to figure it out.

Finally after cleaning, weighing, and all other things they finally brought him to me and layed him across my chest. This was such a wonderful moment.

Next Philip and Brayden went to the nursery for father son time while I went to the recovery room for what seemed like forever. I was there for about 2 hours when finally I could move my toes and they let me go to my room to hold and feed the baby.

A few moments later Summer's little feet entered the room and she was smiling from ear to ear. She was so excited to see her new baby brother. She loved holding him for the first time, and even had natural instincts to bounce the baby when he cried.

Brayden got his first bath in the hospital. I already know he does not like baths, getting his diaper changed, or getting undressed. He likes his clothes to stay put. He really reminds me of Summer when she was a baby. Summer thinks he looks just like Scott. I took out her baby pictures and I think they look very similar.

Finally at home! We were so ready to finally come home and have a comfortable bed along with comfortable couches and better food. I am grateful however to all the nurses for the help they were. It is always nice to ask them all my questions while I am there. It has been so long since having a baby at home that I was full of questions to ask.

We had to keep socks on his hands because he kept scratching his face and I never made the effort to buy little mittens.

Here he is sleeping.

Still Sleeping.

Again still sleeping.

In fact he sleeps great until about 1:00 am when he finally decides it is time to wake up and stay up for a while. I am finally getting use to him waking up and needing to be fed. Somehow mothers are blessed to make it through the next day with little sleep. I love life with my kids and I am so happy that our baby is finally here. There is so much joy that comes from a tiny little baby. I hope to take it all in and spend as much time with him as possible before he grows too much.

Philip, Summer, and I could not be more happy than we are right now.

Summer Turns Six/ Cake Boss (or not)

To start off Summer's birthday we woke her up early before Philip left for work and gave her breakfast in bed. She was tired, but very grateful since she love breakfast in bed.

Later that day Philip planned to leave work early so we could take Summer out to dinner and spend time with her. Well, he did leave early only to get stuck on the train that broke down in between stations. So, Summer went outside and waited for him anxiously while playing on the playground.

Finally after waiting for two hours on the train Philip informed us that it was moving again and that we should meet him at the train station so he did not have to take a bus to get home.

After picking him up we went for a late dinner at Red Robin. Summer likes that place so she was happy. Philip explained to our waitress about the interesting experience on the train and on Summer's birthday.

Later they came out and sang happy birthday to her. As you can see she is very shy and doesn't like attention. She was looking away the whole time.

After they left this is the look on her face when she saw what they had brought her. A huge ice cream cake. She later explained to her grandma that it was as big as her head. She was in ice cream heaven.

Just before going to bed she finally got to open a few gifts. She has been wanting a gum ball machine for some time now so we finally got her one.

We also upgraded her to a bigger bike. Unfortunately it wasn't put together, however, she seemed pleased with it.

Since Summer's birthday was on a weeknight we decided to celebrate with the family on Saturday. Her favorite food is spaghetti and meatballs so that is what we served. This was her first birthday outside of Texas and outside of the US. The first one near family too.

Summer and Abby making a birds nest outside. They have a lot of fun together.

Everyone enjoying themselves.

Grandma Harvey enjoying her grandchildren.

On to the Cake!

About three years ago while I was pregnant and about to have Scott I tried to cover a cake in fondant for Summer's birthday. It was a nightmare and I decided that I would stick to cupcakes from then on. Well there must be something about being pregnant because this year I got ambitious and decided we should try making a Tangled cake. I love watching the Cake Boss and he makes everything look so easy. So I thought I would give it a whirl. Well it turned into a whirlwind. Here is my process.

First Summer and I went to the cake shop and picked out a bunch of candies and sprinkles for the cake. That was fun. I also bought two round pans that are super nice and I love. So, Friday I began by baking and baking cakes all day.

Well then I prepared the bottom of the cake, then the tower, and finally the top of the tower where Repunzel like to look out of the window. Each piece started taking shape and for a first timer I thought I had done fairly well.

Philip surprised me that night with tickets to see Wicked. I was so excited, but unfortunately the cake had to be put on hold.

The next morning is when I actually decorated the tower and the top tower. I was getting so excited to finally be done and to have a Cake Boss master piece.

I got about this far with the tower attached to the bottom of the cake. I then tried putting the top part on and right away realized it was not going to stay. I thought and thought of what to do. So I finally figured it out and put the top on. It stayed and I went to wash my hands off. I was so excited until I returned to the cake to find that the top and a huge chunk of the tower had fallen off. All that work! Well I salvaged the tower and tried to salvage the top by redoing the roof. It doesn't look nearly as good, but at this point I didn't care. Oh, and if you look below I made sure to give Repunzel some Utah hair nice and big.

So I set the top on a separate plate to display the cake part way finished. When it was time to sing we then put the top on and I held it in place while we got a few pictures and sang to Summer.

So, some lessons I have learned are:

1. I am not the Cake Boss nor do I think he would ever hire me.

2. I think I liked making the bottom round part so much I want to make my own birthday cake next month.

3. I love the cake pans I purchased.

4. Although it was time consuming and the cake never stood on its own longer than 3 minutes I will not give up and stick to cupcakes only.

5. Maybe I will take a cake class.

It was a good birthday and we are so proud to have Summer in our family. I can't believe she is six. It kind of makes me feel old. Now we can count down four more days to celebrate the birth of our new baby boy, and the day after that Scott's 3rd birthday.