Happy birthday Julia!

We are so glad that Julia is in our family. She is such a sweet, cheerful, and enthusiastic girl. Julia frequently declares "this is the best day of my whole life", and she is so excited about everything in life! I have a difficult time trying to find a notebook in our house because Julia confiscates them all, she loves to write and to draw. She loves playing with Ethan and his friends. Recently she got a new Bakugan toy, Ethan convinced her to trade him for a week. What did she get in return? She got to wear any of his church clothes that she wanted, lol. She told me that it was "a sweet deal". Whenever she plays with friends she is always the dad or the brother, and she likes to pretend to be a boy... or a dog. I guess this is what happens when her only sibling is a brother!

She does like girl stuff too, I am very glad to say, she loves playing with her babies and stuffed animals, and loves playing with her toy kitchen and dollhouse. She doesn't like to wear dresses, but the dress she wants to wear to church every week is her pink one.

I'ved enjoyed reading the birth stories on Heather's and Christa's blogs, and Esther's blog too, so I will share Julia's birth story too:

On July 22nd, 2002, I had a doctor's appointment. I was 37 1/2 weeks along and feeling huge. The doctor told me that I was dilated to a 3, effaced 80%, and her head was really low. He told me I could go at any time. The next day I had a follow-up ultrasound to make sure that the placenta wasn't blocking my cervix, at my 20 week ultrasound it was really close and they had wanted to check me again before delivery. They told me that she weighed around 7 lbs, 11 oz. Ethan was 7 lbs 8 oz when he was born and the doctor had told me that I could go into labor soon, so I was really hoping she would hurry up and come! I cleaned my house and packed my hospital bag, and waited, and waited...



On July 27th I had steady contractions for about 2 hours, and then they stopped. On July 29th I had another doctor's appointment and I was still dilated to a 3 and effaced 80%. Again he told me that I could go at any time. We started going on long walks each night hoping that it would start my labor. No such luck.

On August 5th I had another doctor's appointment, I was dilated to a 4 and effaced 90%. The doctor stripped my membranes and I was hoping to go into labor that night, but again nothing. The next day I had contractions all day that were about 10 minutes apart, all day. I kept hoping they'd get closer together but they didn't. I found out that my cousin Shannon was in labor with her first baby that day, at Utah Valley Hospital. I kept hoping that my labor would go a little faster and that our babies could have the same birthday, but Carston was born on August 6th-- we didn't quite make it. I cleaned the house and made sure that my bag was ready to go.

Here I am 9 months pregnant with Julia.

My family came over that night before we put Ethan to bed. Kristen did pedicures for all of us, it was so fun. Then we all went on a long walk and my contractions started coming a little faster. They were about 5 minutes apart but I did not want to get sent home from the hospital so I didn't go in yet. My sisters slept over just in case we needed to leave. I finally decided that since I wasn't going to get any sleep anyway that we might as well go in so I could get checked, so we went to the hospital at 2am. I was dilated to a 6, and effaced 100%. They decided to keep me, yay! Unfortunately we hadn't pre-registered at the hospital so we had to fill out paperwork for quite a while in the middle of the night. At 4am I decided to get an epidural because the contractions were coming much stronger, and I really wanted to get a little sleep before she was born. By then I was dilated to an 8. At 7am the doctor came in and I was at a 9, he broke my water and 25 minutes later I was at a 10. At 7:35 the nurses had me start pushing, it went much faster than with Ethan and they had me stop pushing soon after and went to get the doctor. The doctor finally came back around 8:00 and Julia was born at 8:06. Eight must be her lucky number because she was born on 8/7 at 8:06 and weighed 8lbs, 5 oz. I was expecting a little baby, and she already looked big to me. My mom and dad came over pretty quickly after she was born and got to see her. My sisters brought Ethan over a little while after that to see her. His first response was "Did they take her out of your tummy? She's so little! She's so cute!" He got to hold her for a minute and then pushed her away. It took him a while to get used to having a sibling! (When she was 4 days old he asked "Can the baby go back in your tummy?")

Later that day my family came back and brought my Grandma Hill and we took a picture with 4 generations of women-- Grandma, my mom, me, and Julia (who was named after Grandma Hill).

On August 8th my sister Robyn came home from her mission! My family picked her up that night and brought her straight to the hospital so she could meet her new niece.

It took a while to get adjusted to 2 kids, it was harder than I thought it would be, even though Julia was a better sleeper than Ethan.



We are so grateful for our sweet Julia and we're glad she came to our family!

This is the day Julia was blessed.

Her first Halloween.

Her first Christmas.

First time eating cereal.

First time at the beach.

With her cousin Jake, who is 2 1/2 weeks younger than her. People asked us if they were twins.

Her first Easter.

Her first birthday!

Her second birthday.

With Ethan and her cousins Sanja and Amie (she was 2).

On her 3rd birthday.

She was a little nervous about being the flower girl at Quentin and Sharisse's wedding. :)

Her fourth birthday.



She has to sleep with a "friend" every night.

Her first day of preschool, at age 4.

First day of Kindergarten, age 5.

Here she is right after turning 6 this morning.

And enjoying her "birthday ice cream" at Cold Stone.

Happy 6th birthday Julia, we love you!!!