Announcing!!!

This is the email that Jon sent out to family announcing our new little baby. Sophie Jane. He sums it up pretty well. It's a long read, just a warning.

Hi all,

We are happy to announce the arrival of Sophie Jane Laudie!  She came this morning at 8:55 AM and is a beautiful little thing.  6 pounds, 11 ounces, and 20 inches long.  Carrie did amazing and the whole process was very short.  Baby and Mama are doing great and Shayla is the proudest big sister I've ever seen.  

First the name. 

We first started thinking of names last summer and Shayla was determined to name this baby Kate after her best friend.  We tried to shoot that one down and proposed a few other names to distract her from the Kate option, one of which was Sophie.  She grabbed onto that name (Sophie) and wouldn't let go.  Carrie and I weren't so sure of the name initially but Shayla was dead set on it.  Over time we added and removed many other names from our "official" list (the list where Shayla's vote didn't really count...) but Sophie always stayed on.  We grew to really like the name and today when we met her and thought about the 3 names we had on our "official" list, Sophie seemed absolutely right.  Shayla can always know that she was a big reason that her baby sister is named Sophie and hopefully that will be something fun for both of them.  We love the name Jane.  I have two sisters with the name (Amy Jane and Jane Anne) and wanted to bring that into our family.  Sophie almost shares a birthday with little Amy Jane who was a Valentine's baby born on Feb. 14 and we thought that it would be special for Sophie to know she shares a name with her aunt who's birthday is so close to hers and that she also shares a name with her aunt Jane Anne.  With Mike and Lindsey's Andrew having a birthday on February 13 and Sophie now having a birthday on February 15 I'm starting to think Amy might be up there pulling whatever strings she can to make sure that she gets to keep her day all to herself!

Now the delivery story.

Carrie woke up around 4:00 with contractions that were slightly more intense than the braxton hicks contractions she had been feeling for the last few weeks.  It was keeping her up so she went out to the living room and turned on the TV to watch a show while starting to track her contractions.  At about 7:00 Shayla and I were waking up and Carrie thought she was most likely in labor.  She wasn’t sure it was the real thing until about 7:30 when it started to get really intense.  I was sitting with Shayla while she ate breakfast and Carrie told me I better get ready fast.  So I jumped in the shower, got Shayla ready, and headed out the door to drop her at a friend’s house for the day while we went over to the hospital to check things out.  I got Shayla dropped off but in true bay area fashion ran into a bit of morning traffic on the 101 and it took a bit longer for me to get home.  About 8:25 Carrie called me and told me to hurry because this was happening fast.  She felt like she needed to push and the contractions were super painful.  I finally got out of the traffic and sped the rest of the way home (90 in a 45 – can’t usually justify that speed… glad no police were out).  When I walked in the door Carrie was just heading into another contraction and pointed at the bags for me to throw in the car.  I loaded that up, got her in the car, and we were out the door in a matter of seconds.  The contractions were so intense at this point that Carrie was pretty shaky and it was taking all she had to make it through them while I was speeding along.  Rushing to the hospital was not the ideal relaxed environment we were hoping to create for her so I was impressed with how well she did.  I remember reaching out to hold her hand a few times and she took it at the beginning but after 5 or 10 minutes (we live about 15 minutes from the hospital) she wanted nothing to do with me anymore – my focus was to be on the road and getting there as fast as I could.  Luckily the traffic wasn’t at a complete standstill on the road we needed so we made decent time and only ran one red light.  We made it to the last light, hospital in sight, when Carrie said she didn’t know if we were going to make it.  That was a bad sign considering how close we were.  It was the longest red light of my life!  We got through and as we turned into the parking lot she felt her water break.  I parked the car in the middle of the road outside the door, ran inside to the front desk and told them my wife was having a baby, like REALLYhaving a baby RIGHT NOW.  They showed me a wheelchair and then a few wide-eyed interns ran with me through the halls as I raced with Carrie in the wheelchair to labor and delivery.  Some of the faces we got from the people along the way were priceless.  We ran into labor and delivery and almost instantly we had 10 or so nurses in a room grabbing blankets, pads, etc. while Carrie got up in the bed.  Within 5 minutes Sophie was here.  Phew, I’m tired just thinking about it again.  Good times.  Carrie did an amazing job.

So, all is well, Carrie and baby are doing great.  I’m actually impressed with how well Carrie is doing.  She’s been up all afternoon/ evening and seems to be doing great.  Hopefully she continues with little pain throughout the recovery process. 

I picked up Shayla this afternoon from her friend’s house and brought her to the hospital.  She was so excited to meet her sister – it was like Christmas for her.  She held her and told her all about the fun things they’re going to do together.  I think she’ll be a great big sister.

We left Carrie in the hospital to fend for herself tonight and I brought Shayla home at bedtime.  We’ll head over tomorrow and spend a good chunk of the day before bringing Carrie home either tomorrow night or Sunday morning.

Thanks for your prayers and well wishes!

Lots of love,

Jon, Carrie, Shayla, and Sophie

In a Nutshell

So it's been 3 months since I really posted anything other than about our Guatemala trip. I feel like I should catch everyone up on all of our happenings. All of the things that could get a post of their own, will get a bullet point. Oh well. We can't be perfect all the time.

- 2 weeks after getting back from Guatemala I found out I was pregnant with baby #2. I'm now 15 weeks. (As you can tell I'm not big into the whole fancy announcement thing)
-I found out at girls camp because I started gagging when brushing my teeth.
-Shay is COMPLETELY potty trained. Including night training. We only had one big accident. Unfortunately it was all over a bench at church... We haven't had an accident since.
-Shay turned 3!! We did not have a party for her because this Mama was not doing well.
-Jon has a new job at Netflix. He put his two weeks notice in at Duff and Phelps in July . We spent a week and a half with family in Utah between jobs. He is loving his new job! And he's home around 6:30 each night, so we actually get to eat dinner as a family.
-We are moving to a 3 bedroom house in Santa Clara. That means I will have a washer and dryer and a yard!!! We're moving in 2 weeks.
-It also means we're leaving our ward. Something we aren't super excited about. But we're staying at this ward through October since I'm the member of the primary presidency who is writing the primary program.

Well I think that is us in a nutshell right now. Now I can maybe update this blog as everything happens.

Tikal... This is it folks.

Oh Tikal. We had a fabulous time there. We had to wake up around 4 am to make our flight to these beautiful ruins.

Breathtaking, eh? Don't worry this is one of the worst pictures. The night before we were talking to Jon's Mom and she found out I had been stung by a scorpion. She told me to wear 2 pairs of garments for extra protection. I chose to wear none. Judge not, lest you be judged people.

This is the plane we flew out there in. Propellers, people. Propellers.

 Oh and don't forget not to feed the crocodiles while you are there.

Doesn't it seem like my life was in imminent danger a lot while we were there? It probably was. But we made it back safe and sound for all of you to read about.

There isn't a whole lot to tell about the day. Pictures are worth a thousand words. I think we hiked 3 of the temples and we basically walked around for 6 hours.

 How do like this panoramic view? We were (for the millionth time that trip) quite literally in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town was an hour away.

 A lot of the ruins haven't been uncovered. There were so many times you would be walking around and realize you were walking on ruins that were still covered. Or that the grassy hill wasn't actually a hill. It was a Mayan structure of some sort.

We had a really knowledgeable guide. I wish I could say I remember anything he told us. I really don't.

I think Jon has been waiting for 3 months for me to post this picture.

Why yes. That is a tarantula in his hands. No I didn't hold it. But I was really brave and took a good picture of it.

Don't we look so outdoorsy? And quite disheveled by this point of the day? 

 There he is folks! Flying through the jungle! The pictures of me have been purposely omitted out of vanity. Just take my word for it. I did it. It scared me half to death at first but I was actually a little better at it than Jon. (Don't tell him I told you) There was a time when I was adventurous. While we were there, whenever we would meet people they were always surprised at two things. 1. that we were so young and married (and had been married for 4 years) and 2. That we had a 3 year old at home. We look young. What can I say. Did I mention I'll be pushing 30 this year? Yikes!

We had a fun 9 day getaway and it was a great thing for our marriage. We have a happy marriage, but there were so many times when I just looked at Jon and thought, "Oh yeah, this is why I fell in love with this guy." I highly recommend going. Scorpion sting, and all. At this point it seems like it happened a lifetime ago. What  a beautiful little slice of paradise.

Guatemala Continued-- The Coast

So I realize it's been almost 2 months since we got back from Guatemala. I have a really good reason for being so delayed... I promise... Anyway I've forgotten a lot, so this will be pretty short.

We drove down the very windy road all the way from Xela to Malacatan. Driving in Guatemala is a different experience. It is one of the most mentally draining things I've ever done. You will be driving down a 2 lane highway, through the mountains, dodging buses and trucks that are trying to pass someone in your lane, also dodging the people on the side of the road and sometimes walking or standing in the middle of the road selling goods, dodging potholes and speed bumps that are BLACK and of varying sizes that you can't see until you are right about to go over them ( A slight miracle our rental car came back in one piece, no?) and then you throw in rain like this:

That is what it looked like with the wipers on high. We were sure we would be involved in a serious accident and possibly not come back alive on many occasions. It didn't help that we had experiences like the scorpion and Jon's allergies.

We arrived though and stayed in a decent little hotel. It was honestly the nicest one around. What would be considered a dive in the States was our nicest hotel in the area. The real kicker for the hotel was that it had air conditioning. A huge plus when you are in a place that is near a 100 degrees and 100% humidity. We had a good time. Visited some of the families that Jon knew on his mission. The other nice thing about our hotel was that it had a little restaurant on site. It was one of the few places that Jon and I ate where we didn't end up with a serious case of what the missionaries down there refer to as boo. So we stayed there both nights because of the air conditioning and the great, sanitary cook. (TMI?)

We arrived in the evening that first day and ate dinner, found a little store where we bought a whole bunch of candy (Most of which is sitting in my cupboard as we speak) and laid low for the night. We had just come from the temple that morning. Jon gave me a car tour of Malacatan and we found the LDS chapel. It was one of the largest buildings in the city, so pretty hard to miss!

The next day we drove down to the beach, it was about a 45 minute drive. It was HOT, HOT, HOT, I have never been somewhere so hot in my life. It was a black sand beach so the water looked grey but when you got in the water it was so warm.

Look at us, aren't we hot:

I'm actually a little shocked we didn't get roasted there. It was melt your face off hot. (How many times can I say hot in one blog post? Don't worry more to come. There is just no way to adequately describe how hot it is, other than to say hot. If we were talking I would be saying hot with an emphasis.)

Here are some pictures of the beach. It was kind of dumpy, very third world, but beautiful in it's own way.

We ran into some missionaries there, walking the road, looking hot and miserable. We offered them a ride and they took us up on it. We were actually seeing if they had keys to a church building so we could use a sanitary toilet. Those are hard to come by when you are out in the middle of no where! So they helped us out and then had us drive them around for a bit. I don't know that they had anywhere to go really, but they were so grateful for our air conditioned car in the middle of day in Tecun Uman (sp?) You should just be impressed I've been able to spell everything else correctly so far! Actually one of the missionaries was stung by a scorpion while we were with them. I'm pretty sure the scorpions were all out to get me that trip. Needless to say I was a little freaked out.

We headed to Coatepeque after the beach and visited some of Jon's favorite people he taught there. We were glad we did, because their family is facing some serious trials right now and I think it meant a lot to them to see Elder Laudie and have someone care about what they were going through.

This is Lucy and her Dog. She sat on my foot and wouldn't let me leave when we tried to go. She also would switch between Jon and I having us scratch her ears. She loved to be loved! She was a great guard dog too. Every time someone came by the place she was on full alert until they were safely past and she knew her home was safe.

This is her daughter Wendy and some of her family. We were able to visit with them for awhile as well. Wendy met her husband, who was a member of the church, after Jon had baptized her. They are the upper class in this town and were living a happy life until he was diagnosed with cancer. The prognosis is a little bleak, but they are hopeful he will pull through.

Back in Malacatan we went through an outside market looking for goods to bring home and walked away with some clay serving dishes that I had seen and fallen in love with at one of the restaurants we ate at. Perfect for serving salsa and guacamole in a stylish way. I love them. We also walked away with a lot of other cool  souvenirs including a mask that Shayla refers to as the monster mask. She loves to put it on and roar at me. It was an interesting experience and I love so many of the souvenirs that we looked at. One thing I didn't love so much was dodging men carrying large slabs of raw meat on their backs. It was different than it is in the U.S. It was also blasted hot under the tents and Jon and I had to just get used to being sweaty the whole time we were there!

This was our only ride in a tuk-tuk during our trip. a little cab that is attached to a motorcycle looking thing. It was an experience!

Again we are so hot... I know I said this would be short. I lied. Oh well. I'm sure you're dying to hear about Tikal! After this we found our rental car (We took it to a mechanic to have him glue a plastic piece back on... darn speed bumps. I guess we almost made it back with it in one piece.) and drove back to the capital, Guatemala City, so that we could catch a plane the next day to Tikal. Oh the adventures!

Mommy Wow!!

I obviously do not have time to write the long novel blogposts about our time in Guatemala right now. Don't worry those are coming. They are really so that Jon and I remember everything... But I interrupt those posts to tell you Shayla is a big girl. And I quite possibly have the easiest child in the world.

Tonight Shayla disappeared telling me she needed to go to the bathroom. Not thinking anything of it I continued to NOT pay attention to my child as I tried to get a million things done today. The next thing I knew she walked out with out a diaper or her pants on and said "Mommy! I went peepee in the potty!"

Sure enough she had taken the initiative to potty train herself and had gone in her little potty. We'll see how the next few days go... I leave for girls camp on Monday... timing is not ideal....

She was rewarded by getting to wear her cinderella panties. She is currently proudly sporting them around with only a shirt on. Ah to be almost 3 in the summer. What a girl!