A surprise, then another surprise, then the reason our three year old son will need years of therapy

After Trevor and Sariah drove away to begin their new life together, we started with the clean up of the reception.
My boys were all carrying the wedding gifts out to our van (we were bringing them to our house to store them until they returned from their honeymoon) My visiting teachers were in the kitchen washing all of the plastic ware, and I was wiping down the plastic tablecloths on the tables then folding them up to be used again.
Trevor's mother came up to me and asked me what I was doing. I told her that the Relief Society would love to use these tablecloths for their Christmas dinner or the Birthday Social. She rolled her eyes and told me that we should just throw them away because that's why they're called disposable and that she was sure that my ward Relief Society could spring for a few new ones if they needed them. I started to tell her that she didn't have a very frugal attitude when she grabbed the stack of tablecloths and wadded them up, I reached over to get them from her and BAM! I had a huge contraction.
I doubled over in pain. I must have scared her because she came over to hold me up, then it happened. My water broke. All over her new custom-dyed-to-match-her-dress shoes.
I wasn't sure which one of us was more surprised. I still had several weeks until my due date, and I always went past my due date.
Trevor's mother screamed, which caused everyone to come running into the cultural hall to see what was going on. I started to tell LaMar that my water had just broken (strange that I felt the need to mention that as at this point it was pretty obvious) when I was hit with another contraction.
After being present for the birth of most of our children he recognized what was going on and told one of the boys to bring the car around to the front door of the church.
I really wish he would have specified that he wanted one of our boys who actually had their driver's license to bring the car around. Oh well, I guess that's why we have car insurance.

LaMar held onto me until the contraction stopped then tried to help me walk to the door. He asked me if I'd had any other contractions today and I informed him that I had been having them all day. It was only then that I realized that they had been getting closer all night. I guess I was just so busy with the wedding that I didn't want to admit that I was having that many, but I wasn't worried because I always go past my due date and........
BAM!
I had another contraction. I told LaMar that we weren't going to make it to the hospital, in fact, I didn't think we were going to make it to the car!
We were right next to the Relief Society room, so LaMar helped me inside.
By now, quite a crowd had gathered. I heard Trevor's dad tell Trevor's mom to go inside and help me. She said "What in the world do you think I would do?" and he said "You're a woman, you should know what to do!" And she screamed back at him "Our kids were born C-Section you ninny! I have no clue how to help her!"
She came walking in anyway, still carrying the wad of plastic tablecloths. By then, all the ladies from the kitchen had heard the commotion and came in to see what was going on.
All I could say was "Baby! Now!" It was time to push. I was rather befuddled as none of my labors had ever progressed this quickly before.
One of my visiting teachers grabbed the tablecloths and laid them under me on the floor. I heard someone calling for an ambulance on their cell phone.
The next thing I knew, a sweet lady came in and said that she was a retired midwife and could she help? I had been through this many times before, but I will say that it was certainly a blessing that she was there.
Now, I won't get into all of the details here, but all I will say is that this was the fastest I had ever delivered a baby. Someone had grabbed a set of towels from the wedding gifts and Jo the midwife wrapped up the baby when he was born, and handed him to me.
Right then, we heard a small voice say "Wow mom! That was cool! Can you do that again!" we turned to look at three year old Mosiah standing in the doorway. I guess he saw the whole thing. Jo looked at Mosiah, and said "She's a beautiful baby! Your mom a great job!"
I looked down at our sweet little baby Sam and it took me a moment for her words to sink in.
"Um, no" I told her, He's a boy.
Jo laughed and said that most boys she delivered had.............well, you know what they have, and that she was most definitely a girl.

I took a peek myself, and sure enough, no boy parts.
I said "HOLY CRAP LAMAR! HE'S A GIRL!"
Just then, I heard the ambulance drive into the church parking lot. This was a good thing because LaMar had turned pale and looked as if he was about to faint. This whole thing was such a shock to him. Not the fact that the baby was a girl, but this was the first time he had heard me use that strong of language. (and in the church, no less!)
I was feeling great and just wanted to take the baby and go home, but the paramedics strongly suggested that we go to the hospital to get checked out and so I relented and LaMar rode with me and the baby in the ambulance. I will admit that it was kind of nice not to have to finish helping with the clean up of the wedding.
After the boys all got to meet their new sister, we left to go to the hospital.
On the way LaMar pointed out that we couldn't very well name our new daughter Sam and I agreed. We finally came up with a name we agreed on, and after an overnight stay at the hospital, we brought home our sweet little Emma Eve Pearson.

So much to tell!

I haven't been around the blog world for a while because I've been so busy with everything. I will probably need to spend the next several posts just catching up.
First of all, the wedding.
The ceremony wasn't until 1:00 p.m so I decided to take advantage of the early morning day after Thanksgiving sales. I got up bright and early and managed to get to Target right as it opened, most of what I needed on my list and then went to Wal Mart to get the rest and then back home by 9:00 a.m. All it takes is organization, and one can accomplish anything! (If it wasn't for those pesky contractions coming every 9 minutes or so, it would have been a perfect shopping trip)
The wedding was wonderful! Sariah was a vision of lovlieness. We even managed to get all of our crew standing still for a moment outside of the Temple to get a family portrait.
Well, at least we thought we had all of our crew. When we looked at the pictures later, Mosiah was missing. Is there anyone out there who might be willing to Photoshop him into the wedding picture? While you're at it, maybe you could Photoshop him out of the wedding picture of the other bride and groom. He somehow got mixed up and ended up with the wrong wedding party.
The wedding luncheon was quite nice. It was held at a nice restaurant, and I think Trevor's parents spent way too much. The main problem was that there wasn't enough room for our boy's singing group to sing at the luncheon as they had planned. The group had been practicing a two hour program of love songs through the ages, and all were disappointed that they weren't able entertain us.
It turned out OK because they were able to sing at the reception! Trevor's mom wanted to hire a harpist to come and play for the reception, but with the singing group available I didn't see the need.
My visiting teachers had come in earlier in the day and decorated the cultural hall so beautifully! The hand crocheted centerpieces on the tables were a big hit, and color coordinating the balloons with the tablecloths was pure genius.
We only ran into a few problems. Someone forgot to chill the sprite before making the Sprite and sherbet drinks, and the kitchen was covered with a sticky mess. The ladies in the kitchen made the best of it and just handed out extra napkins. I was glad that we ordered extra napkins that were stamped with Trevor and Sariah's names and the "Today I will marry my friend" poem.
The next problem we had was when we discovered someone had put the trays of Temple mints (remember the ones I spent hours making) on the stove in the church kitchen and then someone accidentally turned on the oven, and the bottom tray melted into globs of pink chocolate. Luckily, someone smelled the chocolate melting and saved the remaining mints just in time! I'm just so glad that it wasn't the Jell-O!
As we were standing in the reception line, greeting the wedding guests, Trevor's mother kept telling us that we didn't need to stand in the reception line for the entire reception. I thought she was a bit daft because duh! this is a reception, what else are we supposed to do?
The children's singing group was spectacular! They sang the entire time. They had even choreographed some dance moves with their songs. After the first 45 minutes, they did need to start their program over from the start because little Ashton Fredrickson's grandparents came late. The songs were just as good the second time around.
During the singing group's second break, we had quite the surprise. Just as Trevor's mother was going to get an aspirin from her purse, a man in a pink leotard and tights, a red tu tu, high top sneakers and fairy wings came dancing in and began singing to the bride and groom! It seems that my boys had all chipped in their lawn mowing/paper route money and bought a singing telegram for their sister and new brother in law!
I just found it so incredibly sweet! Trevor's mother didn't feel the same way, and she came over and started to tell me how they were being humiliated in front of some very important friends of theirs when Trevor and his father came over and gently guided her into another room to cool off.
Some people just don't appreciate a good singing telegram.

There were some other surprises at the reception, but I'll write about those later, right now I hear the baby crying and I'm making a special Jell-O for tomorrow's New Year's eve party.

Showers

We've had such a busy week, I just haven't had much time to get on the computer.
I'll just give you the highlights.

Saturday, our ward Relief Society gave Sariah her first Bridal shower!

Sister Jensen made the most lovely decorations with balloons and curly ribbon all over the Relief Society room. I've asked her to help me with decorating the cultural hall for the reception. She does amazing things with craft foam and glitter.

At the shower, they played such fun games! I LOVE SHOWER GAMES!

They played that memory game where Sariah walked around with a tray full of items and then she left the room and we had to remember everything on the tray.
Then they pulled out several rolls of toilet paper and made her a wedding dress. The ladies did an amazingly good job, considering the materials they had to work with.
Except for sister Simpson, who tried to convince everyone that the sleeves should be shorter. She even made a few inappropriate comments to Sariah concerning their "after the reception" activities.
I can certainly see why her girls dress and act the way that they do.
She brought the most bizarre gift too. It was a perfectly lovely candy dish filled with green m&ms. So strange because Sariah doesn't really like m&ms and green is not one of her favorite colors.

Sariah received such lovely gifts! It was a kitchen/grocery shower and some of the ladies made one of those really cute "Broom ladies" Where they put a face on the broom and put it in a bucket then dress it with an apron and rubber gloves and then fill the bucket with cleaning products.
I was a little concerned about the fact that the only Jell-O mold she received was from me. I will need to make sure that they have registered for at least a few, or I might just get her a few more myself.
The refreshments were delightful. The ladies outdid themselves with their attention to detail.
Trevor's mother managed to make it to the shower. She was pleasant enough, I guess, but I'm pretty sure I caught her rolling her eyes several times.

She has continued to be difficult concerning wedding plans. She tried to convince the kids to get married in the Salt Lake Temple instead of Mt. Timpanogos because they wanted to host the wedding breakfast at The Smith building.
Sariah has had her heart set on being married in the Mt. Timpanogos temple ever since it was built.
And besides, I already made all of the candy mints for the reception in the shape of the Timpanogos temple.
I suggested that they just have the breakfast at our Stake center. I told her that our RS could probably handle that too, but she declined.

Sunday evening, she had Trevor and Sariah to their house in Salt Lake for dinner. According to Sariah, she spent the entire time telling Sariah that everything we were doing for the wedding was wrong and that she should stand up to me and tell me that the wedding should be done the way the bride wants it, not the bride's mother.

The nerve!!

I guess Sariah was very close to tears when she told her future mother in law that the wedding was exactly what she wanted, and Trevor's mom got angry and said "couldn't possibly want all the silly things we had planned and that she should really stand up to her mother!"

Then Trevor told her she should stay the heck out of the wedding plans and leave Sariah alone!
(Even though I don't approve of his strong language, I was so proud of him!)

He took Sariah by the hand and put her coat on her and led her to the door. As they were leaving, Trevor's mother said "What are you doing?"
And Trevor said, "I'm standing up to my mother and planning the wedding the way the bride wants it!"

He's such a fine young man!

Good news, bad news and two angels

I feel so bad that I haven't updated this blog more recently, but we've had a most unfortunate run of events lately.
The good news is that we have managed to keep track of Mosiah for the last few days! We haven't lost him since that incident at the mall.
Whew!
The bad news is that Wednesday morning I started having some pretty strong contractions. I went to my Doctor and he checked me out and said that I wasn't dilated at all so I was not in labor. He told me I needed to take it easy for a few days and put me on bed rest.
I told my doctor that this was not a good time for me to be "resting"
I have a wedding to organize!
He threatened to put me in the hospital, so I stopped arguing. Besides I was able to pull the laptop in bed with me and managed to get the wedding invitations designed and the guest list finalized.
This may have just been a blessing in disguise.
Since I missed the Enrichment activity Wednesday night the Relief Society President found out about my condition and arranged for dinners to be brought to us for a few days.
I felt so bad that I wasn't able to make matching Halloween costumes for all of my kids this year. One year I dressed my kids as Snow White and the seven dwarfs.
I like theme costumes.
The boys told me that I didn't need to worry about me making them costumes, (they were practically begging! They are such sweet boys, I know they were only concerned about my welfare) but I came up with a great idea that wouldn't take much work.
I sent one of the boys down to the storage room to get a box of black Hefty garbage bags, then I had another get their bow ties from that time I forced them to they begged to join that children's performing group. (I just LOVE children's singing groups! )
I cut arm holes and holes for their heads, put bow ties and sunglasses on them and they went trick-r-treating as the California raisins!
LaMar even dressed up as the head raisin. The older boys pretended to be embarrassed but I know that deep down inside they really enjoyed the family activity.
Since I was still supposed to be resting, Sariah and Trevor came over to help hand out candy. They dressed as Ken and Barbie. (modest Barbie of course)
SO CUTE!!
I guess Trevor told his mom that I had been put on bed rest because Saturday afternoon she showed up and basically told me that she was taking over the wedding plans because I was in "no condition to pull this thing off!"
Well! I never........
She said that she had already arranged for the clubhouse at their Country Club for the reception and had a caterer who said that they would be willing to take care of the wedding at this late date.
I told her that we already had everything under control and while I appreciated her concern (not really, I just said that to be nice) everything was set and besides, we had just printed the invitations from our home computer that morning, and it would be a shame to waste all that paper.
She then told me that they had many important friends that will be inconvenienced by having to come all the way down to Pleasant Grove from their palaces homes on the east side of Salt Lake, and it would just make more sense to have the reception up there, and then I told her that I would prefer to not subject my family to the evil influences of the big city any more times than necessary, besides our friends and family all live in this area and Sariah and Trevor's friends all go to BYU here in UTAH COUNTY and..............
Just then the doorbell rang. It was two angels of mercy in the form of my visiting teachers!!
They were bringing us dinner.
When I introduced them to Trevor's mom, she explained to them what her plans were, and couldn't they "convince me that I shouldn't be taking on all the stress of this wedding?"
They laughed and told her that they would take care of anything that I couldn't handle.
See?
Angels.

Does anyone know where I can find a candy mold of the Timpanogos temple? I'm going to make temple mints for the reception this week.

Wedding plans!

Oh my! I've had such a busy week that I haven't had time to write anything here. I have a few minutes right now, so I'll give a quick report on the last few days.

Monday evening we had the pleasure of meeting our daughter's future in-laws. They are very lovely people, although Trevor's mom seems a bit uptight. She feels that we should be having the wedding reception at some place like the Joseph Smith Building, The McCune Mansion, the Rice Eccles Stadium Tower, or the 23rd floor of the Wells Fargo building in downtown Salt Lake.
I think I might have offended her a bit when I said that I couldn't see the point in spending so much money when we can get the church building for free.
She then offered to pay for the reception. I told her that it wasn't a matter of having enough money, but more a matter of being frugal. Why spend all that money on one day?

I told her that we can get the church and rent a few backdrops, and if we can't find any backdrops, we can just hang crepe paper from the basketball hoop and call it good. Right about then, Trevor's mom made a funny choking noise and the veins in her neck started to pop out.
She managed to take a deep breath and offered to find a caterer for the food. I told her that we had that all covered because one of my visiting teachers used to work for a caterer and between her and the other ladies in the ward, we would make some nice refreshments.
Besides, I used to be a Pampered Chef consultant, and I have a few tricks that I learned from doing that.
Then Trevor's mom raised an eyebrow looked at my enormous belly and said "I really don't think that you should be taking on such a project in your..........current condition!"
I told her that I was "perfectly capable of such a project, thank you very much!"

The other issue that we were having was the date of the wedding. Trevor's younger brother Easton will be leaving for his mission the second week of December, and Trevor really wants his brother to be there. Right now, we have the wedding tentatively set for the day after Thanksgiving. We will have some family in town that week, so that will be perfect! Plus, it will still be a month before the baby is due. I usually go at least a week past my due date anyway.

The only problem with the wedding being so soon is that I will only have time to make Sariah's dress. I would have liked to make the bridesmaids dresses for her three best friends too, but after discussing this with Sariah, we have decided to buy the dresses instead. This afternoon, we will venture north of the point of the mountain into Salt Lake county to look for bridesmaid dresses. While we are there, we will go buy the fabric for her dress too.

I almost forgot about what else happened Monday. One of the boys came and told me that there was something wrong with the toilet. When I went to investigate, sure enough, there was a huge glob of something white in the toilet. I got a bucket and started scooping it out because I was pretty sure that it wasn't going to flush down.
Then, I noticed the empty can of potato pearls sitting behind the bathroom door. It seems that one of my darling boys raided the food storage and dumped an entire can of instant potatoes in the toilet.
I scooped out as much as I could but the toilet still wouldn't flush. I finally called our home teacher Brother Jeppson who is a plumber and he came over to look at it. He tried all of his nifty plumber tricks then decided that the best way to fix the clog would be to remove the toilet. When he got it off, along with the mashed potatoes he found a stash of legos and toy cars hiding inside.
Anyway, because of that, I didn't have much time to make dinner. We had ham, green bean casserole and Jell-O salad. (I had planned on making mashed potatoes too, but after that afternoon, it will be along time before I eat mashed potatoes again) I wasn't able to make anything really fancy with the Jell-O. That's probably why Trevor's mom felt that I couldn't handle a catering project.
This was the Jell-O salad that I made.




Take a can of pineapple and drain off the juice. Mix in one package of Jell-O with the pineapple until it's dissolved, then fold in a tub of cool whip. You can add a can or two of mandarin oranges and mini marshmallows if you want too, but I decided to keep it simple.

Yummy!!

Thank you to those of you who suggested that I make the jell-O in the shape of a Temple. I think I will save that for the wedding.
I'm considering making the wedding cake out of Jell-O. What do you think?
I could make several tiers and frost them with cool whip.
I'm open for suggestions.

As for the name of our baby, we were thinking about Sam Teancum Pearson, however, we are open to suggestions for that too.