Darrek's 3 Month Photo Shoot by Aunt Rachel

Rachel called a few a weeks ago and asked to borrow Darrek for some pictures. Heck ya- who wouldn't enjoy some good pictures of their baby! Rachel is getting quite good and I am quite jealous! They were all so good, but I could only choose a few to post because it takes forever to load pictures and I hate waiting! Thanks Rachel for these beautiful pictures.

So I decided to just add a slide show because it is way faster and I could post all the pictures I wanted!

Harvest Time and Updates

I have a hard time getting to the computer these days. I just find that if I get on the computer, I waste precious time I could be spending with my children. Then by the time they get in bed, Darren is home and I like to spend the time with him.






Darren is busy picking! Darrek and I take him lunch every day and spend about 2 hours riding with him. Darrek usually smiles, laughs, and talks to him during the first 5 minutes and then falls asleep for the rest of the ride. This has put a wrench into the whole schedule, but it really is necessary. If we didn't go ride with him for these few hours a day, Darren wouldn't get to see, or maybe I should say Darrek wouldn't get to see Darren at all. Darrek is usually still sleeping when Darren leaves in the morning and is already in bed before he gets home. Darrek and Darren are the best of buddies. It really is quite extraordinary to see Darrek light up when Darren walks into the room and talks to him. He gives him the biggest smiles.
Darren, Darrek, and I went for a ride around the mountain yesterday. It was too windy to pick so they stopped around 1:00 and Darren called home to ask me if I wanted to go for a ride. It was a beautiful ride. I love to get to spend time with my best friend. Darrek just slept the whole time. He loves to be in the car!


Matthew is doing well. Darren took him hunting a couple of weeks ago. They saw 15 bucks total and he ended up shooting his first white tail, but second deer. This was the first night Darren was away from Darrek. He missed us both, but it was for a good cause. Darren loves to spend time with his boys when he gets the chance. Matthew is such a good kid, or teenager and does really well hanging out with all of the younger kids. We took a weekend trip up to Nutrioso to help Uncle Verle and he was so kind to play with all the kids. Jensen loves it when Matthew comes to town!



Garrett is doing fantastic as well. He is such a smart little whip! All of his core classes are honors classes and he is getting straight A's. I think he spends all of his time doing homework to get such good grades as he does. He is also such a hard worker. He loves to drive the gator around up at the cabin to help Verle out. Verle said that if they could give out licences for Gators, he would make sure that Garrett had one.


Rylee is still as cute as ever. All she wants to do and talk about is getting to Thatcher to ride in the cotton picker with Dad. She enjoys school and we understand she is quite the social butterfly!


Morgan is growing up! She has been babysitting for our Bishop and making more money than I do (of course)! She has picked up volleyball lately and loves it. I got a volleyball for her and she carries it with her everywhere. She is getting all A's and is doing well in school. Her friends talked her into trying out for the choir and she was just told that she made it. She has a really pretty voice and I am so proud of her for trying out. She is a great big sister to both of her brothers. She is always kind to Jensen (we will take it while it lasts) and such a great help to me with Darrek. He absolutely knows who his brothers and sisters are. I had a good time taking her shopping last weekend. My little girl is growing up. She got new jeans, and hoody, and some perfume at Aeropostle, and new black vans from Journeys. We just had a really good time spending some time together. While we were shopping, Grandma and Grandpa Evans watched Darrek. When we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's I took the kids swimming down to the pool. Needless to say it was too cold and the trip lasted only ten minutes.



Jensen is loving school as always and getting straight A's. He is such a sweetie and I love it when he walks in from school. He is always so happy to see me. He can't wait for Halloween, or as we call it around here, Darren's Birthday! He is going to be some guy with a pumpkin on his head. I think he got it from a book cover that he read. He loves to read books. Both Morgan and Jensen got the H1N1 flu shot last week. Jensen does not like needles! He got hives when he had to get his shots for kindergarten! He didn't know he was getting a shot until I told him to get on to the table. It worked-he didn't have time to stress about it.



Darrek is doing so well I can't even believe it. He is such a dream baby. He is so well natured and doesn't cry very much at all. He just grunts when he is unhappy, hungry, or tired. He is now officially sleeping through the night. He is wanting to fall asleep around 7:00 at night and wakes up to eat around 5:00 in the morning. He loves his daddy, loves his baths, and loves to go for rides in the car. I can't wait to see how much he weighs next month for his 4 month check up.



And last, but certainly not least- I am so happy with my life I can't even tell you. I just feel that for the first time in my life I am completely at peace and happy. I am married to the most wonderful man who loves me and his children with all that he has. He goes to work each day and earns a good living to provide the necessities of life for us. My children are so happy and all great examples to me. They love Christ and it shows in their everyday actions with others, but most importantly they love each other and for that I am truly grateful. I am so thankful that they are all healthy. They mean the world to me. I am grateful for my parents. They always claim not to be perfect, but I think they are perfect for me. They both try really hard to still make their children's lives easier. I enjoyed getting to go through a temple session with them and with all, but one, of my siblings. That was a day I will never forget; Getting to hug everybody in the Celestial room and to see how happy it made my parents to see all of us there with them. I love my Father in Heaven, my Savior Jesus Christ, and am thankful to them for all that is so good in my life. My life is wonderful!!!!

TMC

Well, I thought that I would take the time to sit down and add more to the story of Darrek's first week of life. I would have loved to have added pictures of his way out of Safford in his helicopter ride but, the pictures are being held captive by Curtis and Chantel's computer (that darn thing). Anyway, the flight team arrived and got him all transfered over to their machines and wisked him away over the Mountain to Tucson. Darren and my dad actually arrived to TMC before Darrek did, so they were waiting for him when he got there. I arrived the next morning with my mom. I am so thankful to have such wonderful and supportive parents. They are really awesome considering all that they have going on in their lives.

Darrek stayed in a clear box until he was able to breathe enough on his own for the canula. He also couldn't nurse or take a bottle until he was able to do that. This picture is when we came in and the nurse had him out of his box and feeding him. We were so happy. I started to nurse him every four hours after that.



The nurses and doctors where so awesome. I appreciate their abilities to know how to care for such sweet little things. Darrek was a giant in the NICU compared to all the other babies. There were some babies that would fit in your hand. The experience I think really made Darren and me appreciate our baby so much more. We were so happy to bring him home a week later on my birthday. I told the nurses that the best birthday gift I could ask for would be to take my baby home. I think they really tried hard to wheen him off of the oxygen after I told them that.

This is the helicopter that he rode in.



These are just some his visiters in the NICU. The kids were really excited to see him.

Rylee and Garrett



Matthew



Grandpa Paul



Morgan and Jensen finally arrived from New Mexico. Darrek had some jaundice and he is in a billi-blanket or as Darren called it, The Glow Worm. I love his eye mask!


His last day! My birthday Present!!



We are finally Home! His first photos at home.

He Has Arrived!

I know it has been a month since our little joy arrived, but I have been busy okay! I also have been trying to wait for pictures to come from Garrett because we had his camera at the birth. Needless to say, we haven't seen the Evans kids for a whole month and they are coming tonight! And just so this doesn't happen again we have broken down and invested in our very own camera! Morgan and Garrett are pleased. So here is the story of how Darrek McCoy Evans, aka Jr., came to our family.

Monday July 20- 3:00 p.m.
I go to my regular scheduled Dr. visit to find out that once again I was going to be sent to Labor and Delivery because of high blood pressure. I was also contracting every 8 min. and dilated to 2cm. so the doctor said that she probably wasn't going to let me go home even if my blood pressure came down. As I was headed over to the hospital, I called Darren immediately because he has been very clear that Jr. was going to come on the 20th of July. Darren had a dream a few months before that we were at the hospital on the 20th. He really didn't believe me when I told him. He just kept saying, "Are you serious?" I made a few more phone calls to my mom and to April.

When I got to Labor and Delivery they got me all hooked up to everything and the waiting game began. My mom arrived first because Darren had to finish up some things on the farm and then he went home to take a shower. My mom told me that Chantel, Curtis' wife, had been contracting all day as well and was trying to decide whether or not to come in. Thirty minutes later, we were blessed with her presence! They hooked her up to everything and then later on in the evening we walked the halls together. All of the staff thought that it was pretty funny that we were in there together. It was fun to be able to walk the hall with her, it definitely made the time go by faster. It also made me try to walk faster, I am very competitive you know! April also arrived two and a half hours after I called her. She is awesome!


While we were walking we saw the next best thing to the Savior, the anesthesiologist! I kept making jokes that he better not go far and when I called for him, he had better make it snappy. I even offered him a $20 bill. Darren thought that was funny because he was probably making that every minute he was there. I always knew that I was going to have an epidural. I just know my body and my pain tolerance and I believe in having a nice experience during birth instead of screaming and pushing the baby out uncontrollably. My nurse had told me that he was getting ready to go home for the night, but that he would come back when I needed him. Oh NO he wasn't! I was not about to let him leave and then come back when it was too late. So even though I really was not in need of any pain medication yet and didn't want to slow the process down, I told him to give me the epidural before he left. Darren opted to step out of the room while I got poked while April stayed in to let me lean on her during the process. Even though it did slow the dilation process down quite a bit, I was glad that I did not experience any pain. The only down side to getting it was that it made me itch all night long which was a bummer because I was really looking forward to sleeping. I also wished that I could have had more control over my legs during labor. They kept flopping everywhere and mom and April kept laughing at me. It is also really weird to push as hard as you can, but still not be able to feel anything.

The funniest thing about the whole hospital thing was that Chantel and I were just right on with each other. She would dilate to a 5 and then I would. We went on like that all night long. We also had the same doctor delivering us and we both dilated to a ten at the same time. The doctor looked a little frantic, but handled it well. She decided to deliver Chantel's baby first because the baby's heart rate had dropped slightly. While she was delivering Chantel's baby, April graciously got me pretty with her makeup. You have to look pretty for the little one (and pictures)so you don't scare him/her!




Darren has been telling me the whole time that he was not going to be in the room during the birth. You see, he doesn't do well with blood, needles, etc. Well, he was a trooper and stayed the entire time and even did the videoing of it. He only fell to his knees once. I am very thankful that he stayed in there. It was nice to keep looking up at him, it made me feel stronger. April and mom were also in the room with me and helped me push, literally. April pushed my back up every time I pushed. Mom gave me a lot of coaching and moral support. She even cut the umbilical cord because Darren couldn't stomach it. I am very thankful for both of them.

Tuesday July 21, 2009
Finally after pushing for twenty minutes, Darrek McCoy plopped out at 7lbs. 2oz. at 9:49 a.m! He really did plop out. A little too fast they think. The nurse (Becky Householder) didn't like the way he looked and the way he was breathing. She just kept saying, "I don't like the way he sounds". After I held him for about 2 minutes I started handing him off to everyone. He was with us long enough for Darren, mom, April, and dad to hold him. Then they took him to the nursury to get his shots and things they usually do while I cleaned up to go to my recovery room. When I got to my recovery room is when Darren told me that they were keeping him in the nursery to watch him because of his breathing. It was very frustrating not being able to hold my baby. Finally, they decided to wheel him down to me. I was so excited. Matthew, Garrett, and Rylee were also in the room and really excited to see him as well. He was only in my arms for a few seconds before Becky started to get worried about his breathing again. She yanked off some tubing off the wall and hooked him up to the oxygen. I got worried, started cying, the kids started flipping out, especially Rylee. Darren called in Curtis to give him a priesthood blessing. He still didn't sound very good with the canula in so Becky took him back down to the nursery and put him in an oxygen tent. That is when my night truly became one of the worst nights of my life!









Darrek in the oxygen tent at Mt. Graham Hospital

Back Blogging- gotta love insomnia sometimes!

Couldn't sleep tonight so I am doing some updating. I commend all of you mothers who find the time to keep up on this stuff. It is really time consuming. I started working on the Lake Powell Blog at about 12:45 am and it is already 3:00 am.
Anyway, Morgan wanted to play softball again this summer before she left for New Mexico. She got to play one whole game. She did really good.

Annual Lake Powell Trip

Well, another Lake Powell trip down! We had such a great time and didn't even get sunburned this year. The three younger kids all tried to wake board this year. I am so proud of them for trying every day. I have some really good video of them and I will have to find the time to upload it. Matthew is getting really good on the wake board- he is catching some air now when he jumps the wake. Garrett is also good at wake boarding, but he likes to spend a lot of the time fishing when he can. Darren only got to get in the water (to wake board) once this whole trip. I felt bad for him. He has to do all the driving for everybody else. I only got to wake board a few times. Darren was scared the entire time so I would only go about fifty feet and then throw the rope. We usually share a houseboat with the whole Palmer family, but this year we were lucky enough to have our own (Thanks to Dennis and Mogie). There was only one day that we really couldn't go out and enjoy the smooth water, so that day we did some tubing and played a lot of cards. I would have to say that the most improved Lake Powell Goer award goes to Jensen. I can still remember our first trip and Jensen wore a shirt the whole time and just about had a break down if he got a drop of water on him. This year he was the first one out of the boat! He did such a great job trying to wake board and didn't whine. He was out in the water whenever he got the chance whether it was to slide down the slide, swim across the cove, wake boarding, knee boarding, or jet ski rides with mom. We are lucky to have great opportunities like Lake Powell. The kids will always remember what fun trips they were.


Darren taking us out to Padre Bay. He asked to borrow Jensen's earphones so he could feel more like a captain.