Family, family, family

Our families (minus Amanda and her kids who were already in the car)

So this Sunday was Carson's blessing and we had lots of family in town. It was so much fun for everyone to meet Carson and spend so much time with our families. Almost Aaron's entire family was here which was so much fun and crazy. So many kids but seriously it was a blast. We spent a lot of time on the lake that is just about 7 minutes from our house and the kids loved it. It was fun to have some of our first guests stay in our new house. Although we don't have much in our house (everyone slept on air mattresses) I loved hosting people. Carson's blessing was beautiful, it was such a neat experience for me and Aaron. Here are a few pictures of Carson meeting some of his family and all the fun.

John Merris (although not family he is the one who set me and Aaron up so he is responsible for this little guy:)

Sweet Claire loving on CarsonHis cousin Abby who wanted to hold the baby all by herself.

Celebrating all of the July birthdays (me, Aaron, Joshua, and Kellie)Gotta love the birthday hatsAll of the men in the blessing, minus CharlesThen after a busy day, Carson hanging out with his Uncle Stephen and cousin Abby

Happy Happy

Well today is my Angel's birthday and I thought that deserved just my second lifetime blog post.

Haley and I met about 2 1/2 years ago on a blind date at BYU. There were lots of things I loved about Haley as we started dating, but one of the things I loved most about her was how much she looked forward to being a mother. I am so close to my own mother, and always looked when I was dating for someone that would be as great of a mother to my kids. Well I knew that Haley would be that when we got married.

I have loved her more in the last 2 weeks than I ever thought I could. The way she loves and cares for our sweet baby makes me feel so unbelievably lucky that she was willing to marry me. She seems like she was born to do this, and our kids are going to be so lucky to have her in their lives. And so am I. I love you Haley Bear.

One Week Later...

I still can't believe my sweet little boy was born a whole week ago. I was supposed to get induced today and I can't imagine not having a little baby. He is just the greatest, cutest thing in the whole world. :) Things are going well, I got to leave the hospital pretty quickly and am just resting and recovering. Luckily this usually just means holding Carson, starring at Carson, rocking Carson - and of course feeding him, ALL the time. He is a quite the eater (which he could've gotten from either Aaron or me). He looks just like Aaron to me and I wouldn't have it any other way. I am so lucky that Aaron has had so much time off and my Mom and Dad came and have helped a ton.
So far Carson really loves his vibrating swing, being held on your chest, and Coldstone ice cream. Seriously, you should've seen this boy chow down after I ate that. :) I mean hey you've gotta give a baby what he wants right?? :) He is wearing preemie clothes and if it were up to me he would stay like this forever.

And a little more on the labor because I'm sure you're all dying to hear the whole story. I went to the doctor for my 39 week appointment. I was at a 3 but still hadn't had any contractions or anything so we mostly just talked about how I would be induced the following Monday. Then on the drive home at about the half way mark I had a contraction. I knew exactly what it was and it hurt. So I start timing they are about ten minutes apart and I call my mom (Aaron's cell phone is dead mind you). My mom tells me to turn around and come back so she can time them but I have no way to tell Aaron what is going on and my hospital bag was at my house and I thought ten minutes apart, I still have lots of time. Then about ten minutes from my house my water broke, my mom is freaking out that I'm driving during all of this. I tell her I will call my doctor, go home, wait for Aaron and leave as soon as he gets there. So I did just that and when Aaron made it home, about 15 or 20 minutes later, I threw bags at him, told him to get in the car that we were having a baby. At this point I'm 5 minutes apart. Of course we are leaving the house at 5:20, horrible traffic. Aaron is driving on shoulders on the highway, this is making me more nervous. Contractions are getting faster. Then we have no gas (I know it was crazy). So my mom met us on the highway, we jumped in her car and the Spitzers came and got our car, with Josie inside, and took it for us. By the time we got to the hospital it was about 6:45ish and my contractions are about 3 minutes apart. I got all checked in, signed a ton of forms, there was major confusion with my maiden name and finally resolved with this baby being called baby Carroll the whole time. (This did not make Aaron happy). Then they took me upstairs and it was epidural time. Oh epidural, how blessed you are. After that I was laughing, we started a show, life was great. Then shortly after that it was time to push. Then he was here at 10:15pm and he was so beautiful. I was lucky that my doctor was on call that night. Its amazing how you go through so much pain and all that but seriously after the baby is there you're like, oh it wasn't that bad. :) I remember saying several times, "I can't do this, I can't do this." but then on the way home from the hospital I was like, "I could do it again."

Carson Aaron Pierson

(Haley is making me (Aaron) post this. Man, she has one little baby and thinks she can boss me around) Well, little Carson made his debut a week early on Monday night. Haley's water broke after I had left work and my cell phone had died. So my poor wife had to sit at the house and wait for me to get home. As soon as I walked in the door she was coming at me at a million miles an hour with our bag over her shoulder yelling "We're having the baby!" So we sped off in the car only to hit 5:30 rush hour traffic. For those of you who don't know, we live about an hour away from the hospital we were delivering at without traffic. So as Haley's contractions went from 10 minutes apart to 5 minutes apart to 2 minutes apart, I was flying past cars on the shoulder and doubling speed limits, all while my gas gauge went below 'E'. It was 10 or 15 minutes before I thought about the fact that our dog had jumped in the backseat and I had no idea what we were going to do with her. But thankfully we made it to the hospital, and about 3 and 1/2 hours later little Carson was here. He is a wonderful baby and we couldn't feel more blessed.

Haley promises she will resume her normal blogging duties soon with more details and updates.