The Bori Family

I am dedicating this post to the Bori Family. They are friends of ours who abandoned us here in Florida to go live in Utah. How CRAZY is that! Who would want to leave the Sunshine State? (Just Kidding) We miss you and our kids miss your kids........we are having Bori withdrawals. :)The good thing is that we know you all are doing well and loving life out west.

Boating with the Bori Family, May 2006-FUN TIMES!

Michelle was not so sure if she liked the tubing or not, but she was a real trooper. I was 6 months pregnant with Tison on this outing so you will not see pictures of me flying on the tube on the water (though I was wanting to be out there really bad).

George with Elianna, Michelle, Gabrielle, and Nicole. Look at the expressions on each of their faces, all so different (hilarious)

George and Veronica swimming around. Even though I didn't water ski or tube I did swim, but there were no pics taken.

The kids playing around in the boat. It started to rain on the way back so we put the cover on and the kids played under there.

Home Improvements

Paul July 2005 working in the kids bathroom. He is a hard worker!

One of his finished projects, the beautiful crown molding in the kids bathroom.

The latest news in our house are the projects that we have been tackling around here. I will be sending pictures in the near future (with some before and afters) of what we have done to the house. We have been having fun making each room the way we would like it.
I tackled a project this weekend with Paul's help. He taught me how to build casing around Tison's bedroom window and I had so much fun doing it. He built the sill (I helped some with that) and then I built the casing.
Our home is an on going project for us, but we will get it done just the way we would like eventually.

The Past 2 Years

So much has happened in the past 2 years for our family........Chris and Rachelle's Wedding (April 2005), Paul graduated from the University of Florida (May 2005) with a degree in Construction Management ( I have no clue why I don't have any graduation pictures of his on my computer. Hello Family--- If there are any floating around out there I would love copies :) ), Paul started his 1st job out of college with J. Richard Watson Construction building custom homes in Orlando (beginning May 2005), We bought our first home and moved to Orlando (end of May 2005), We visited Alaska on a cruise, toured Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia (WOW-what beautiful places)-(beginning May 2005), Tison came into our family (September 2006). We rented a large home in Big Canoe, Georgia with a portion of Paul's family (December 2006/January 2007) . Oh-and I can't forget...Nicole started Pre-K in January 2007 at one of the Elementary schools nearby. She is so excited about being in school and I miss having her at home (Michelle does too!) She will start kindergarten this fall. Following are pictures of some of the events listed above:

(Me, Rachelle, and Lacy)

Chris and Rachelle's Wedding, April 2005

My beautiful sisters-in-law!

Chris and Rachelle pictured with Rachelle's little cousin and our daughter Nicole

Our 1st home!

Me and Paul in Vancouver, BC, May 2005!

Nicole, Michelle, and Paul riding on the bus in Vancouver, BC

Lacy, Joe, Me, Paul, and Michelle on the cruise ship watching a night time show!

Seeing the sites and beautiful architecture in Victoria, British Columbia

Butchart Gardens (Victoria, BC)--what a beautiful place

(Dad, Nicole, Me, Mom, Michelle, and Paul)

One of our stops in Alaska posing for a cruise picture

The beautiful scenery of Alaska!-(picture courtesy of Rachelle)

January 2007, Tison with his big sister Michelle

Michelle and Nicole

Nicole's 1st day of Pre-K (our girls are growing up too fast!)

(Camille-4, Michelle-3, Audrey-4, and Nicole-5)

Cousins having fun on the porch swing in Big Canoe, Georgia

Can you believe that this is only half of the bunch of cousins? (From top to bottom and left to right--Jackson, Adam, Nicholas, Mitchell, Sadie, Taryn, Kyle, Nicole, Russell, Michelle, Seth, Camille, and Audrey)

They were all wearing their New Year's Day shirts they made!

Where It All Began

I thought I would begin where it all began........We (Paul and Gladys) were married on May 5, 2000 in the Orlando Florida Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We could not have had more beautiful spring weather...........AND who would have thought that a year and a half later November 14, 2001 we would have been so richly blessed with...........

........Nicole Diane Waters. My pregnancy with her was a breeze. I gained 31 lbs. She was born 5 days early. Labor was another story. I had about 12 hrs of labor with about an hour and a half of pushing. She decided that she was going to come out face up (posterior-"loved the back labor" :)) with her head against her shoulder. So I ended up with an epidural at 7 cm and a 2nd degree tear. IT WAS ALL WORTH IT THOUGH. She didn't take to nursing even though I was producing plenty of milk (her pediatrician called me a cow), so I pumped for a month and a half.





Nicole , November 2002

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!!










Here is Nicole (left) (almost 5 years old) all grown up last September 2006 with her baby sister Michelle (right), who was our 2nd blessing. They were playing on my hospital bed the morning after I gave birth to Tison.







Michelle Aileen Waters, born October 11, 2003. She was born 11 days early. My pregnancy with her was not as easy. I was sick for the first 4 months. I gained 33lbs. My labor with her was completely different. I arrived to the hospital and had her within an hour of arriving. When we made it to the hospital I was 3 cm dialated. The nurse said that I would deliver in 5 hours. Yeah Right? 45 minutes later I was 8 cm and she was scrambling to call my OBGYN. The pain was horrible, it was like one long contraction for that full hour with no time for air inbetween. They had me on oxygen and I was unable to get an epidural (which was fine) because of how quickly the labor progressed. For both pregnancies I was Strep B positive. She came so quickly that they couldn't administer the antibiotics, so on top of her having to stay over night in the NICU because she wasn't breathing well she had to stay a total of 9 days to recieve atibiotics. The nurses said that her high white blood cell counts must have been a fluke because she was perfectly healthy.




Michelle, October 2004!


HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!!










January 2005, with my 2 beautiful girls!

This picture was taken by our friend Natalie Copeland, outside her home.
One year and a half later we were blessed with our 3rd blessing.........







........Tison Layne Waters. He was born September 5, 2006. I gained 30 lbs. He came 13 days early. When I was 4 cm dialated my midwife decided to induce labor. She feared me not getting to the hospital in time to get the antibiotics for the Strep B and she was also afraid that I would be having him on the side of the highway because of how quick my 2nd labor was. She gave me a little bit of pitocin. My body started doing what it needed to and he was born in 3 hours. NO EPIDURAL! It killed but my recovery is so much better without the epidurals. Paul is a great partner to have during labor. All my labors have given me back pain and he applied a good amount of counter pressure on my lower back which helped a great deal during the contractions.

So now it is March 2007... Our family has been almost 7 years in the making and we couldn't be happier!

Learning my way around

This whole thing is still very foreign to me. I hope to have our blog up and running within the next couple of weeks with pics of family and friends.