The Official Name is....

Colter Jay Tippets

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The Boys Return Home, and a New Boy Finds a Home!

The day finally came, Tanner and Dallin got back from visiting their Dad. We took them to our friends birthday party for their one-year-old. Andrea was complaining of some contractions and by the time that we had gotten home from the party, Andrea felt it was time to go to the hospital. So we had seen the boys for a good 3 hours, and we found ourselves leaving them again.

We arrived at the hospital, and they checked Andrea out. They weren't sure if this was it or not, so they monitored her for an hour to see if there was any progression. At this point she was at the same stage, so they told her she would have to go for a walk around the labor and delivery unit for an hour, at which point they would re-evaluate her. So we did this and Andrea was in a lot of pain and was having regular contractions. After about 45 minutes of walking she had to lay back down because of the pain. They again re-evaluated her, but this time they thought that she would continue to progress. This being my first time I thought this meant we would be waiting at least a few more hours, but they gave her an epidural, and then checked her about 45 minutes later. This time, she was dialated fully, and the head was ready to come out. Within minutes, at around 1:15 a.m., we had our new addition. He weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces, and was 19 inches long.

There was some worry because their was some maconium (poop) present in the womb, and they thought that the odds were good that he would inhale this and get it in his lungs (not sure if this is all technically accurate, but to my understanding this is what I got out of it), which could cause complications. They immediatly evaluated him upon delivery and whisked him away to the ICU for closer observation, because he wasn't fully breathing properly.

Fortunately, I got to accompany him, and he recovered quickly-within one hour he was taken to the well-baby nursery, and a couple hours later we were able to hold him. He has really long feet and he bends them upward, kinda like a frog would. We think he's adorable, and he seems to be healthy in every way. He's tiny, because he's two-weeks early, but all his pieces are of sufficient size (if you know what I mean... afterall, he is a Tippets).

Tanner and Dallin came and visited him early this morning. Tanner immediatly fell in love with him, Dallin on the other hand seems a little more skeptical, he says "he has a tiny brain." We've spent our first day with our new baby visiting with family and friends, and we all realize what a blessing it is to have him in our lives.

Only Five More Days Til the Boys Return!!!

Tanner and Dallin have been gone visiting there Dad in Arizona for over a week now, and will be returning in five more days. I will be so happy to get them back. I 've really missed them. Chris and I keep their bedroom door shut so that we don't look into check on them at night. Which seems to be a lot for me right now, considering all the potty breaks I get up for during the night.

Finally! We Got a Crib!

Okay, after much consternation, and even more searching for the perfect crib for our upcoming arrival; we finally made the purchase. We had found a crib and armoir combo at Burlington that we wanted, but the armoir was discontinued and was the floor model. After several visits to Burlington with "Big Mark" (aka: Grandpa Tippets), we finally negotiated a fair deal on the set. Thank Goodness our lengthy search finally came to an end (Chris may say that Andrea's search finally came to an end). It's a good thing that Chris is so patient and can deal with a wife who can't make decisions easily.

Oh, but wait that was not our last visit to Burlington. We had to go back on Friday to pick up the car seat and stroller that I had been waiting to come in for over a month. We also decided to pick out the crib bedding. I had my eye on a blue turtle set, but still had trouble making the decision. I left the decision up to Chris, I thought it would be easier for him to make the decision, and he seemed to really enjoy looking at the bedding. However, he had a hard time deciding on one himself. We narrowed it down to a few sets, and then took the sets and held them up to the crib. Wendy (Grandma Tippets) was with us, and she went as far has asking other customers what they thought.

We finally decided on one that would match best in our bedroom since the baby's nursery will be in our room for a while. Oh, and of course it has a sports theme. Who would have quessed that Chris would pick a sports themed bedding set (haha). Anyways, it looks absolutely adorable.

The big armoir was able to hold all the wonderful gifts from the baby shower that Kayelyn, Dana, Wendy, and my Visting Teachers threw for me (pictures will come soon I need to get them from my cousin Kayelyn).

Mark and Chris spent Saturday setting up the crib, as I cleaned and organized my little heart out until I could barely move anymore (I was hoping it would put me into labor, but no such luck). Then, we rearranged our bedroom to make it fit. It's a good thing that we have a really big bedroom. We are so excited to place our "little guy" in his crib. He is already spoiled, and doesn't even know it.

Our Engagement

Sticking with the theme of using this a historical family journal of sorts, we are moving from how we met--to our engagement. This was a very tricky time in our relationship because of several factors. Those of you who know us well know that convincing someone to go out on a date with me (Chris) more than once was tricky enough, let alone convincing someone to marry and spend the rest of their life with me. Not only was this an obstacle, but to compound this issue, Andrea takes years to make the tiniest of decisions, like what cell phone plan to choose (this took two-weeks). So when choosing someone to marry, you can understand how difficult of a decision this was for her to make. Lucky for me, I had my wicked-awesome body to throw into the package which I think is ultimately what sealed the deal, and as I already mentioned I didn't really care what Andrea was like, I was hooked from the time I saw her (for other obvious reasons--"curves").

All joking aside, we both took the matter very seriously, and because of her situation (2 children to take care of), I didn't want to lead her along. So the first couple months were spent feeling out if this could work between us. I think from the very beginning we both liked and respected each other, but how do you ever really know that it's right. I knew I was attracted to her, and I knew in time she could learn to be attracted to me, but how can you make a decision of this magnitude with four peoples futures on the line?

We both being spiritual people, sought spiritual confirmation. Very early in the process I got my witness and knew that this was the right thing to do. I was "all in." Andrea took a little longer...she prayed and read her scriptures and was unable to come to any difinitive conclusions. She then met with her Bishop at the time and he said that everyone receives their answers in different ways. He said that "her answer was going to come from the bishop, and that she should marry him." This oddly enough did the trick, she felt immediatly at ease, and she never looked back...even when she found out the exact dollar amount I had in my bank account (not pretty-but also not in the negative).

I always envisioned my engagement as being a surprise to my future wife. I'm huge on surprises. I love to surprise people...Andrea does not. She has to know every little detail or she won't be settled or satisfied. This made my desire for a surprise very complicated. We went and looked at rings for hours. This process lasted a couple of weeks. Andrea wanted to pick out exactly what she wanted. I on the other hand wanted it to be a surprise, so we spent a lot of time looking so that I would have a good enough idea of what she wanted. When the process was complete I informed her thatI had bought the ring and that the engagement band was going to be made by a neighbor of my Grandmother's and that he told me it would be at least a week before it would be completed. I informed her that I would probably ask her to marry me sometime after that, when I felt comfortable. This gave me the one week window I needed to surprise her.

On Friday the 25th of January, 2005, Andrea and I were going out on a date. I asked her if she could help my sister Breanne out by being a waiter with me at our house for her dinner-dance date. My sister had a date for a girls-choice dance and she had one of our second cousins who was a chef prepare a meal for her group of friends and their dates. She wasn't super excited, but at the time she was actually in love with me so she enjoyed being around me. This was actually a pretty good hypothesis for this theory because it did sound kinda boring.

We started the night as waiters, and we served and cleaned up after my sister and her friends. When this part of our date finally ended, we were both pooped, my cousin offered us each a plate of the meal he had prepared, I said we could take it downstairs and eat and then go pick up the kids from the babysitters. She agreed, as we started down the stairs, I stopped her and explained that because she had been a good sport and accompanied on this date, even though it wasn't that exciting I had bought her a small gift. I warned her "it's not a ring, and it's nothing great, but I do want you to know how I feel about you." We went downstairs and in the center of the family room I had set up a round table. On the table was a huge flower arrangement that my Aunt Lori had picked out for me, and a photo album, with the temple on it. I explained that, "I know I can't ask you to marry me yet, because the ring was not done, but I did want her to know how I feel about her." She opened the album and in it were some pictures that my Aunt Lori had taken. Also, there was a metal bookmark, with a long ribbon attached to it. She pulled on the ribbon which went all the way down to the floor on the other side of the table. When she got to the end, she found the ring attached. The look on her face was priceless, and I felt satisfied with the way my surpise had been pulled off. I got down on my knee and asked her to marry me, she immediatly said "yes"and I read a letter that I had written to her.

The Toothless Wonder!!

We wondered if Tanner was ever going to start losing his teeth, but sure enough they all seemed to come out at the same time. He even managed to lose a tooth on his 9th birthday. We love our toothless wonder!