Cooper Devin Ball

Wow I don't even know where to start. For those of you that don't know Devin and I welcomed our beautiful baby boy into the world on September 5 at 9:38 pm. He was 3 pounds 3 ounces and 161/2 inches long. We named him Cooper Devin Ball. It was quite a surprise to have a baby 9 weeks early but we are so thankful he is so healthy and doing so good. On the day Cooper was born I was on bedrest so I was reading, talking on the phone, and I even updated my blog that day. At about 3 in the afternoon I started getting a really bad migraine, a migraine is a symptom of Preeclampsia and so my Dr. told me that if I got another one to go into the hospital. I decided to rest instead. Devin got home from school about a half hour later and that is when I started feeling worse. The migraine was getting to be unbearable but more than that I had this horrible pain from my ribs down. Devin finally convinced me to go into the hospital and see what was wrong. We got in there and they took my blood pressure- it was really high, which is another really bad sign that the preeclampsia was getting worse. The nurse left to call my Dr. and by the time she got back I was in such bad pain I was sobbing. My Dr. was in provo that day and so they told me that another Dr. was going to come in and have a look at me. I couldn't stop crying, I hurt so bad and I was so scared my baby wasn't going to be okay. The Dr. finally got in there and checked me, they decided something was definately wrong and since it was still 9 weeks before my due date that they would be sending me to provo in an ambulance. When the ambulance people got there they told me it was a liability thing and Devin couldn't go with me in the ambulance. I went hysterical. I was so scared to go alone, I needed my husband. The Dr. turned to the ambulance driver and said this is a special situation and her husband will be going with you. As soon as we got to Utah Valley Medical Center they got me right in and the nurse looked at me and said I think she is abrupting, get the Dr. in here. He was in the room within minutes and introduced himself to me and said Well lets have a birthday party! I instantly liked him, his attitude was so calming. The next thing I knew the epidural guy was there telling me to lay on my side, I hate needles but I wasn't scared at all I was in so much pain that I loved getting the epidural. Within minutes my pain was gone and I was in a very relaxed state. I looked over at Devin and he was all dressed up in a white suit with a face mask signing papers to let them give me an emergency c-section. All my pregnancy I had told Devin that having a c-section was my worst fear and here I was having a c-section. But honestly in the situation I was so scared my baby wasn't going to be okay that I would have let them cut me open anywhere to get him out. They wheeled me in the operating room and no kidding like 4 minutes later showed me our sweet baby and then whisked him away to the NICU. It was all very surreal to me. Now, looking back, I am so thankful that we were being watched over and that we got here just in time to get our baby here and that he is thriving and healthy. My placenta was abrupting when they delivered him and it was already 60 percent abrupted. If we had waited any longer we wouldn't have sweet baby Cooper here with us today. Cooper is just over three weeks old and I can't believe how much my life has changed in that time. I love being Cooper's Mommy, it is such an honor to be a mom and I love my sweet baby so much. Cooper is still in the NICU at Utah valley but is doing so good and growing like a weed. Last night they weighed him and he is 4 pounds 7 ounces. He is starting to eat really good and once he gets the feeding down he will be coming home! I can't wait to bring him home! I pretty much live at the hospital right now so I haven't had time to get pictures up but I will as soon as my life slows down a little bit! Thanks for all the prayers and love from family and friends. It means so much to have wonderful people behind us!

Baby update!

Belly Shot- 31 weeks along
New Haircut!
Update on us and baby update! Dev started Nursing school and is gone from 8-4 and then once he gets home he studies most of the night. It is going to be one busy year for him I can already tell. But I'm so proud of him for working so hard and studying his brains out. I have been trying to get stuff ready for us to move into our new house, once they have the carpet laid and the last touchups done we will be able to move in. Last weekend we moved all our stuff up from our storage unit in Cedar and it is now in the garage of our house just waiting to get it all moved in. As far as the pregnancy goes I was feeling really sick on tuesday and made an appt to see my doctor. We did some blood tests and it turns out that I have preclampsia and am now on strict bed rest until this baby comes. We had a scare because my levels were so high that we might have had to enduce me this weekend but thanks to lots of prayers from family and a priesthood blessing from my sweet Husband I am looking better and am just on a strict watch to make sure they don't go back up. It is pretty much week to week of when our baby will be here but we are really hoping that I can carry him until 37 weeks. Thanks to everyone for the prayers and support. I am so thankful I have such a good doctor that is so attentive to me and my needs and even realized there was a problem. Thanks to my family for the regular phone calls that keep me going. And to my wonderful Husband that eventhough he is so busy with school he takes such good care of me! It's going to be a long couple of weeks but I can't wait to be a mommy and to have my sweet baby!

Fish Lake!

This is Jan'l giving us a gripping rendition of one of her stories. Look how mezmorized we all are!

Here is the three girls modeling their oversized sunglasses.
Here is Jan'l, Davin and Kaeden. Doesn't Kaeden look really Happy :).
Here is us sitting on the picnic table.
All the cousins sitting around the fire. It was harder than it looked to get them all to sit there long enough for us to get a good picture of them but it sure is cute.
Twins?
Here is our fishing bait. ha ha
These are us on the fishing boat that we rented for the day. It was alot of fun to hang out on the lake all day.
Dottie is checking out the lake thinking maybe its time for a swim!
After Lake Powell with the Ball family we headed to fish lake to spend with the Petersen Clan camping. We had a lot of fun spending a couple days together in the mountains. We rented a big fishing boat and spent a whole day on the boat fishing and hanging out. We had a great time staying up late around the campfire telling stories and roasting marshmellows. Our last night there we stayed up playing phase 10 and laughing cause we all had what Dev calls the TJ's (tired jollies). It was our first camping trip since getting married and it was a lot of fun! I love family! it is so good to be home! It was a perfect ending to our summer to get to spend the weekend with both families! Now its back to school...

Lake Powell

Dev waterskiing!
Me and Dev on the boat- look at the view behind us!

We have been super busy since getting back to Utah. The next day after we got back Devin had his nursing school orientation and then afterwards we drove down to Lake Powell. We only had 2 days to spend there but we had a fun time anyway. We went waterskiing, boat tours, and rode the wave runners. The boys made a golf course in the sand and started up the Powellisade golf tournament as well as a horse shoe competition (which Devin won=). We had fun staying up late playing games and telling stories! It was great to get to see family right after being gone for so long!

On the Move... AGAIN!!

And we are on the move again! Heading back home to Utah. We are SO excited! I am so relieved that we survived another "alarm" summer. It is hard and Devin works his butt off all summer long. We left Utah the end of March and Devin has been working hard since then. It takes a lot to stay motivated all summer to work. Especially when family at home are going camping, boating, BBQ's and all the other fun summer stuff we miss out on. We are glad we came out here this summer and have had a lot of fun experiences, but are so ready to be home in Utah again. It is amazing that after being away from home for 5 months I realize more and more all the reasons why I love living in Utah so much. I love being near family, I love being able to go to Sunday dinners at our parents homes, birthday parties, or just spending the weekend with them. I love the Mountains! I love the red dirt. I love the dry mountain air with no humidity, it is so awesome to not feel moist all over your body all day long. I love the people, just random strangers smiling at you in the grocery store. It will be nice to have people look at my pregnant belly with a smile and think that I am old enough to be married and pregnant instead of out here the way the look on their face says, "teen pregnancy!" because they just can't fathom that I would actually choose to marry at my age. I love not having to pay a toll for everywhere we want to go! I love being surrounded by people with my same values. I am so excited to live in a small town. I am really looking forward to living in Gunnison, away from traffic and the big obnoxious city, just a down to earth slow paced life where people know the meaning of life and live it to the fullest. That is where I fit in and where I am really meant to be. I love so many things about living in Utah I can't even begin to name them all. But being away has been a great adventure for us and I have enjoyed our time here and am thankful that it made me love my home that much more! Here's to home to Utah and to getting there soon!

Washington DC

The WWII memorial with the Washington Monument in the background! Beautiful! Devin at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery
Lincoln Memorial
The South side of the White House
Me and Dev in front of the main entrance to the White house
We went to Washington DC this last weekend with our friends James and Travis! That was the last place on our list of things we wanted to see while living in Philly this summer. It was a fun day in DC though it is hard to see everything in one day we were able to see a lot. We went to the Washington Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, WWII memorial, and saw the White house and the Capital Building. We also went inside the National Archives Museum and saw the original Declaration of Independence and United Stated Constitution. Then we rode the Metro to Arlington Cemetery to see the tomb of the unknown soldier. That was one of my all time favorite parts.. on the tomb it says the words,"Here Rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier known but to God." It is always guarded and it is one of the highest honors to be a guard for the tomb. We got to watch a changing of the guard Ceremony, it was very humbling and made me feel extremely grateful for those that died for our freedom. I love Washington DC, it was so awesome to see everything and to see the monuments honoring the great leaders of our country and the men that died serving our country. It makes me very proud to be an American!

Girl's Day to the Amish Country!

Me and my cute friend Carson
Amish women in horse and buggy!
All of us prego's posing in front of the pregnant goat! (you can't see it very well but the poor thing was so big! )
On our Buggy ride!

Me and some of the other wives that are out here (Carson, Ligia, and Jennilyn) all went to the Amish Country! When we got there we went to a bunch of the little shops with homemade stuff the amish people made. There was a lot of crafty things and I wanted to buy it all but knew we wouldn't have room in our car to take it home to Utah! They had some amazing smelling candles and beautiful quilts! We also went on a buggy ride through the Amish neighborhoods. My favorite was all the little kids, they were so cute riding through town on their bike/scooters and driving mini buggy's pulled by pony's! The Amish people really work hard and it was kinda cool to see how they live. We went to a Buffet for dinner and stayed for like 2 hours talking and eating! and the best part was they had this amazing homemade peanut butter and a really good peanut butter pie dessert. Overall we had a really fun girl's day out!