Halloween = Happiness :)

I was finally able to come home after a 2 week stay in Utah. To say I was excited is an understatement. Usually I spend most of October Decorating my home and making baked goods that I wouldn't usually make during the warm summer months. Due to my long absence I was surprised to come home to an apartment decorated with pumpkins, orange lights and spiderwebs. Thank you Jake :)

Avery Grace

We decided this would be the best way to tell everyone we had our baby. Avery Grace Cefalo was born Wednesday Oct 6th. She was stillborn. The first thing we want to do is thank family, friends, and all of the healthcare providers that helped us during this difficult time.

There were several events that lead up to her birth. Feel free to skip the next part if you don't want to hear about this experence. I am willing to tell what happend I just don't prefer to have to repeat it over and over.

Monday evening into Tuesday morning I notice some light bleeding. Most people wouldn't be concerned but this was very unusual for me. I called my doctor and he had me come into his office to ease my worries. The doctor gave me an ultrasound where I saw the baby moving . She was completely healthy. During the ultrasound the doctor noticed that the baby's feet were sticking through my cervix. Also there was a small pouch of fluid that was slowly moving out of my uterus through my cervix. My doctor proceded to tell me that we needed to go to Utah to get care for this. In many situations the doctor can put the patient on a bed tilted back and use gravity to help things moved back into the uterus. Once everything is in place they then put a stitch in your cervix and with bedrest and proper care you can have a full term baby. Being a small town physician my doctor felt that it would be best to have this procedure done by doctors that deal with high risk situations. Within an hour Jake, Nathan and I were on the road to Utah. I had to keep myself laying flat with my bottom elevated. Not going to lie...it was the longest drive of my life. We dropped off Nathan with Jakes parents and we were met at the University of Utah emergency room drive up with a gurney. Within minutes I was in a room on a bed tilted back with several doctors monitoring the situation. The doctors were wonderful and they were very honest with us. Unfortunately during the car ride I had continued to dialate and by the time we reached the hospital I was at a 6. By this point it was no longer possible to save the baby. The doctors prepared Jake and I for what was to come. I was going to deliever the baby and sadly she would be born alive. Due to her extreme prematurity the baby would not survive very long outside of the womb. Tuesday night was a very emotional night for Jake and I. We decided on a name. With the baby being born alive we prepared to give her a name and a blessing. Wednesday morning the doctors gave me some medication to help things move along a little faster. Jake and I spent the morning preparing for the baby. By mid morning I was in a lot more pain than expected. I had planned on not having a epidural but with the increase in pain I decided that I would want to be comfortable so I would have energy once the baby was here. This turned out to be a HUGE blessing. Shortly after 11:00 a.m. my water broke. When my water broke the placenta separeted and I started to hemmorage. Within 2 minutes I lost 2 1/2 liters of blood and I was in an operating room. The only way to save me was to get the baby out.

The hospital staff was wonderful. As Jake and I have looked back at the events of the last 2 days we have felt the Lords hand in so many situations. Had I not come to Utah for care, had I not had the epidural at the exact time I did. Because of the swiftness of the birth, the baby was not born alive. Though I wanted the experience of holding my live baby I have to admit I don't know if I could have handled it. The Lord knows us and we have felt his comforting spirit though these past few days. We had the chance to see Avery for a few wonderful minutes. She was born perfect. I will always keep the image of her body in my arms a sweet memory.

As of right now we are doing fine. We have both shed many tears but not all of them have been of sorrow. We get to come home to a sweet little boy who we love with all of our hearts. Once again thanks to everyone who has supported us during this experience. We love you.

Kristy, Jake, and Nathan

Nate is 2 and other stuff

Alright this post is a month late but I don't care. Last month we went to Salt Lake to celebrate our anniversary and Nathan's 2nd birthday. Here is a quick recap by way of pictures.

Have to start with this one. Isn't he stinking cute. Shortly before Nathan's family birthday party we took some family pictures. Nate is so stinking cute in this one. I already have it printed and framed :)

Next are the many wonderful moments of the fabulous fire engine being destroyed. Sadly I had planned on a fire engine themed party with cute decorations and fun pictures. Unfortunately the wind had other ideas. We couldn't set up anything without it being blown away. It was a miracle we were able to light the candles for the first WORD of the Happy Birthday Song. Oh well. I don't think the kids cared. There was plenty of candy and food to keep everyone happy:)

If you are looking for any pics of Jake and I during our anniversary getaway well. There are not any :) I was pretty sick during most of it and we ended up spending most of our time just being

lazy. It was really nice to spend a couple of days together without a little boy to keep us on our feet. It was much needed.

Pretty much that is everything that has happend this past month that you would want to see. Sadly every other week of this past month I have been super sick. My mom and my sister both made trips out to Nevada to help me out for a few days. I have to say no matter how much I hate being pregnant I am thankful that I can be. I know that this little person is going to be worth all of the bad days.

I will finish up with a few funny pictures of Nate. Just so you know I am not trying to win an award with the quality of these images. I was just cleaning my camera and had it out and Nate kept making faces at me. It was dark and he wiggles a lot.

One last shout out to my little sister Courtney. She is getting home from her mission in Spain. I am so proud of her. I know that my mission is something that I cherish. The experiences and lessons I learned have been such a blessing in my life. I am thankful that Courtney had this chance to serve the Lord. I cannot wait to see her and hear all of her boring mission stories. Love you sis.

Hello World

Hello. My name is Baby Cefalo at least that is what my parents call me. I am the soon to be brother/sister of Nathan. My family seems to be pretty cool.

Right now I am snug and comfortable in my mommas tummy. I am a little nervous about meeting them. They seem to like to blame me for all of their problems. Kristy likes to complain a lot and say that I make her sick. I think she is just trying to get out of a little house work :o) She seems to like to tell Jake (my dad) what to do a lot. He thinks she is crabby and calls her a crazy pregnant lady... once again I am being blamed. Other than that they seem pretty cool. From what I can hear they are really excited for me to come.

Nate is a stud. When my parents ask him where the baby is he will come up to mom's tummy and give it a kiss. He then proceeds to tap on it over and over again and call me baby. I think we are going to get along great.

I don't have much to say right now. I need to sit back and relax so I can prepare for these crazy people. I will make my big entrance some time in Early March. Can't wait to meet all of you.

Baby

Paints and Pools

This past week we have had a lot of fun with Nate. Last week while I was at the store I found some finger paints. I decided that we should let Nathan have a go at it. For family home evening we pulled them out and stripped him down. As you can see Nathan wasn't the only one having fun.

These next 2 pics are for grandpa Ball ;)

A couple of days later we invited Nathans friend Franklin over. The finger panted together and then we pulled out the pool to help with the clean up :)

Look where we moved...

So I have saved this post for a little bit. Jake and I have been very lucky since we moved to Elko. We have made a few good friends and had the chance to go out and discover a few places. About a week after we moved to Elko some friends that we made invited us to go to the biker rally that is a big yearly event here in town. My favorite part of the invite was their disclaimer that they only go to this for people watching. I think you might understand why.

This really isn't even half of it. I took so many pictures that night. I will have to do another post. I just thought you might enjoy some of what we saw :)

Long time no see

Well we are almost through our first month in the land of Elko. We have had some ups and downs. Thankfully mostly ups. I have several posts to show you but I will start with my favorite thing that has happened in Elko so far.

Nathan is obsessed with trucks and tractors. His favorite thing in the world right now is to read his truck book and make the noises that we have taught him. In the last month or two while we are driving we will hear him get all excited if we drive by a bus or a fire engine.

Right outside our front window is a grassy field. It is used for soccer practice for a lot of kids that live around here. We are really lucky because we have nothing obstructing our view of the desert. Last Friday right outside our front window Jake and I saw a fire engine pull in. We were worried there was a brush fire near by. Thankfully they were just doing exercises. We watched out the front window and kept saying how we wished Nathan was awake. Well 30 minutes later they were still out there and they were shooting water 50 feet into the air. They were also letting neighborhood kids run through it. At this point I was telling Jake to go and wake up Nathan. What follows was so fun.

Jake and Nate running through

Nate angry that his shirt is wet...

He is still angry about his shirt...

Happy that we lost the shirt...

Fisting it with the fireman

Playing with the water hose...

The highlight was sitting in the truck and getting stickers

On a final note. I love the sunsets out here. These were taken on my back porch.

I think we have got it pretty good here :)