Baby Noah!

It’s been a little while, but news this big calls for a blog post!  On Sunday Morning, May 29 Dayna went into labor and we headed to the hospital in Encinitas.  We arrived at about 6:30 and by 10:05 am, we had a new little boy in our family.  Because Dayna had a previous C-section, the delivery was considered “high-risk” and so there was some nervousness and some extra precautions taken by the doctors and nurses.  But everything went well and so there we were holding this little boy. 

Unlike our other four kids, we had the hardest time thinking of a name for this little guy and we didn’t even have much of a short list before he was born.  I think we were hoping that he would be born and either the heavens would open and a heavenly messenger would come down and tell us the name or that he would be able to speak for the first half hour and be able to tell us his own name.  Unfortunately, neither occurred.  So we talked it over and even had the nurse bring in a baby name book that we went through.  Even in the end when we decided to go with Noah McKay Woolley, we didn’t have an overwhelming feeling that it was right, but we had no feeling that it was wrong either, so there it is. 

 

After about a week of calling him Noah, Dayna started to reconsider and wondered if we should call him McKay.  That was on the next Sunday morning.  So we decided to try an experiment and call him McKay for the week.  But at church, about 50 people told us how they loved the name Noah and how it fit him perfectly.  (Yes, you read that right, Dayna and Noah both attend church the next Sunday… She’s a trooper).  So we abandoned the name-change plan and we’ve decided to stick with Noah.  It’s grown on me and I like it a lot now.

We’re going through the normal newborn stuff with laundry every day and lack of sleep, but we feel tremendously blessed to have a happy and healthy baby boy.

Springtime at the Woolleys

We’ve had a great few weeks here at the Woolleys.  On May the Fourth, we celebrated Star Wars day with Star Wars Pancakes complete with an action figure centerpiece provided by Isaac.

We had a great Mother’s Day, especially since Dayna is only about two weeks from becoming a mother for the fifth time.  Everything has gone well for this pregnancy and we’re excited to add another little boy to the family.  We’re still working on names though.

The boys and I went on the ward Fathers' and Sons’ outing.  We camped up on Palomar mountain, about an hour and a half away from here.  We had a lot of fun.  In the morning, it was beautiful because we were up above the cloud layer.  So while we had a wonderful sunny morning, everyone down below was under the “May Gray”.  After we had taken down the camp, we went to the large telescope they have on that mountain.  It is run by Cal Tech and was really cool to see.  I’ll try posting some video sometime later.

Tonight I was reminded one of the reasons it is fun to have family home evening with young kids.  We let each one of our kids have a job for FHE, like conducting, prayers, songs, etc.. like many families.  Well tonight, our song-chooser selected Away in a Manger and Stars Were Gleaming.  Christmas songs in May.  Awesome…

Easter

We had a pretty good Easter today.  Unfortunately, it was cold and overcast and a little bit sprinkly today here in Southern California.  We had enough of a break that we decided to go take some pictures of the family with the kids in their nice new Easter clothes.  We went to a local park.  The pictures turned out pretty good (Amelia is a pretty good winker apparently).  We hope that Easter was good for all of you as well.

Spiritual Feasting

We’ve had a great month at the Woolley home.  On Saturday, March 12, Hyrum was baptized.  It was a wonderful blessing as Grandma Gayle and Grandpa Gordon as well as Grandma and Grandpa Watt were able to attend. Plus Uncle Dave and Aunt Rachel and Mason, and also Uncle Joe and Aunt Chantelle all were able to come.  We had a wonderful visit.  The highlight of the weekend was the baptism.  We are so proud of Hyrum for his choice and we are grateful to be his parents.

Just a couple of weeks later, we were able to have Uncle Chris and Aunt Christie with their four kids come join us for a couple of days.  They were down on a bit of a spring break vacation and took some time to come hang out here.  We all had a lot of fun and the kids loved seeing some of their cousins.  Kimball’s origami skills inspired our children to really give it a try for a couple of days.  That is, until we couldn’t figure out how to make the flapping bird work. 

Then last weekend was a wonderful General Conference.  It is so great to live in a time when we can watch conference live our computer.  Technology is certainly being used to forward the work of the Lord. 

Till next time…

Hyrum’s Birthday Party

We celebrated Hyrum’s eighth birthday yesterday.  It was a busy week with something scheduled for every night of the week.  But it was fun to have a celebration yesterday.  He had a few friends over and they had some good fun.  I’ve posted some pictures below:

 

(*Isaac did not have too much to drink in the picture above.)

I must also mention that the BYU cougars came down here to San Diego and left victorious.  It must have been disappointing for SDSU fans after an entire week of buildup for the game.  Go Cougars!

Bad Week for Cell Phones

It's been a bit of a tough week for cell phones in our house.  On Tuesday night, I plugged my phone in to charge it up and set it on the counter like usual.  Unfortunately our dish drainer leaked some water that night and it left my phone in a puddle of standing water on the counter.  The next morning it wouldn't turn on at all.  I took the battery out and left it all morning to try and dry.  Later in the morning I put the battery back in and nothing happened for about an hour.  All of the sudden, my phone started making this terrible noise and vibrating non-stop for about 3 minutes.  Then it stopped.  It happened again later in the afternoon.  After it stopped that time, nothing.  Just silence.  I figure those must be the death-throes of of a cell phone.  I lost all of my contacts and previous text messages, but I was able to get the phone replaced on Thursday.

Then Friday night, Dayna was sending a text message and her phone basically disintegrated in her hands.  It basically broke in half at the hinge.  The worst part about it is that her phone is not dead yet.  The display is toast, but the part with the keypad still emits noises once in a while, even receiving text messages that we cannot read nor reply to.  We're hoping that the Verizon people can get her contacts and other stuff off the phone and put it on her new one whenever we get it.

Funny to how all of this cell phone drama has prompted Emma to assert that many of her 9 year old friends have their own cell phones and that she thinks it would be a splendid idea, if not downright necessary, for her to get one as well.  It's not going to happen.

Well, we saw this commercial online earlier this week.  It was shown during the Superbowl today.  We laugh out loud each time we see it because it reminds us of all our kids and Isaac in particular.  After we watched it, Dayna told me that our kids have been pretending to use the "Force" to open the automatic doors at the grocery store lately and even our automatic sliding doors on our van.  Too much Lego Star Wars on the Wii I guess.

Mormon Battalion and The New Car

We finally picked up the replacement for the Stratus last Wednesday night.  It is a 2002 Toyota Camry with 102000 miles on it.  It drives nice, but it has just a few quirks that take a little while to get used to.

I’ve decided that relationships with cars of this age and mileage are kind of like dating someone new back in college when you’re not a very confident person and you’re dating someone out of your league.  In a situation like that you find yourself being extra sensitive to every little word and expression that the other person makes, just waiting for them to dash your hopes and dreams.  It’s kind of like that with the car.  I find myself wondering about every little noise and rattle.  “Oh great, here it comes, the car is going to fall apart or catch on fire or something”.  I just don’t trust the car yet.  It will come in time, but let’s just say that right now our relationship is tenuous and guarded.

We also went to the Mormon Battalion commemoration event on Saturday.  It was a lot of fun with booths featuring fun activities for the kids like panning for gold, rope making, doll making, biscuit on a stick and others.  The commemoration is fun, but I recommend making a visit to the Mormon Battalion Visitor’s Center even if it is not the one day a year where there is the event.  They’ve recently remodeled it and it is a really great experience.  It’s down in Old Town San Diego.  We took a few pictures.