We're Coming Home....

Can you imagine flying with 2 kids, 2 carseats, and 2 bags? Sounds like a nightmare right? Well it did to me too. So I asked my parents to help me get back to the Caribbean. Thank goodness too, because 2 bags (a carry on and a check on) turned into 4 bags (3 check on and 1 carry on). With all that luggage, kids, their luggage, and 2 car seats we still struggled a little bit. We started our journey back on May 28th at 12:45 am. We caught the red eye. Our flight consisted of 2 layovers. One in Charlotte N.C. for 3 or so hours, and another in Miami, Florida for 4.5 hours or so that turned into something like 6 because of a tire with low tread. They had to go find the tire and then change it out. We finally made it back to the Caribbean around 10:30 that night. It was an extremely long day of flying. 

Sunday we got up and took my parents to church. We liked being able to show them were we attended church. My mom was able to meet Vernice, a friend of my aunt Shawntels that lives on the island from when Shawntel and Vernice lived in Holland. Crazy how the world is so small that even people from complete other countries can know family and friends that you know. 

After church we took my parents to AUC so they could see where Aaron attends school. It was probably they're favorite place to visit because it is always so cold in that building. Its one of the only buildings on this island that I know of that actually has AC run through vents rather than through big bulky fans that are on the outside of the wall. 

Then we went to a beach I had never been to before, Long Beach. We just enjoyed the pristine water, and the sand. My dad loved it so much he decided to take a nap. 

Monday we went to go on an "Island Hopping" adventure. Aaron had school so he couldn't come. It was quiet the adventure trying to find these islands I am sure we drove all over the Dutch side of saint Martin tryin to find them. We made a wrong turn and ended up at the Westin Dawn Beach Club. There was a ton of Iguanas out there. They would come running up to the car and were not afraid of people whatsoever. My dad was getting out of the car to ask the security guard a question, and then jumped back in the car due to the Iguanas chasing him. They are all over this island. Anyway, we took a lot of pictures of iguanas and then took off again to the islands. The "island hopping adventure" is basically 3 different islands that you can walk to or wade too. When we got there though, it looked like it got pretty deep, plus there was sea urchins and we didn't have good shoes so we figured with kids and all we wouldn't walk to the islands. We decided to  walk around looking at the water and what was in it and we found a Sea Urchin in the water. My dad picked it up and an Islander saw us. He came down and grabbed another sea urchin out of the water, a sea star, a conk, and a sand dollar. Apparently he's gone out and found these things and uses them for a "show" when tourists come by and then asks for tips. He pulled each of these things out, and had their skeletons too. He told us information about each organism (I haven't been in biology for a while I think that is what you call them)

White Sea Urchin

The islander showed us the sea Urchins. Sea Urchins suck the food up inside and have big teeth that that use to eat their food. 

This poor little sea star lost a leg. There are star fish, and Sea Stars. This is a sea star. 

Holding the conk. They use that sharp point part to dig. Squid usually are the ones to eat Conk. They wrap their tentacles around the conk and suffocate it so the conk uses that pointy thing to break a hole to escape out and then the squid eats the conk. 

Wearing the Sea Star on my neck, with the sea urchins 

Addison holding a sea urchin. 

Mom holding the sea urchin. 

Sand Dollar (live)
After we looked at all the sea creatures we continued to walk around in the water and see if we could find more sea urchins or sea stars. We did find another sea star but it escaped into the water. There was plenty of sea urchins to find though. Because we had just held them we felt pretty confident picking them up and holding them. Well dad did anyway. So my dad decided to get brave and try and pick up a pretty big one and it got him pretty good. His finger was bleeding and you could see a little black in his finger. He decided he wasn't going to pick anymore up haha. My parents took a sea urchin skeleton home with some teeth to show my siblings that we found here.

After our little adventure we went to Cost U Less to get some food and show my parents where we did our regular shopping. Aaron had been living very humbly while I was gone. He mostly ate sandwiches, cheese crisps, and chicken sandwiches. We had a lot of fun on this little adventure. :) 

Tynans Birth Story

Tynan R Higgins was born May 2nd, 2016 at 2:22pm. 

Tynans birth was the complete opposite of Addisons. There was no NICU stays, no emergency transports, and we didn't stay in separate hospitals. It was as close to the perfect birth as it could have been considering I had cesarean. (you can read Addisons birth story here)

I think it got the most exciting when I decided to eat a pop tart on the way to the hospital that morning. As we were getting ready to leave and I grabbed my pop tart I thought to myself, "maybe I shouldn't eat. They didn't say anything though when we scheduled it. Maybe its okay. but maybe I shouldn't just in case. Okay, i'll just eat it. " So on our way to the hospital I ate maybe 1/4 of the pop tart. I really wasn't all that hungry. I was just eating to eat because that is what you do in the morning when you get up. Plus I figured I'd be sitting in a hospital all day and I really didn't want to be hungry. BAD IDEA. I got there and they asked me if I ate. I told them yes and immediately they were like well, we are probably going to have to wait 6 hours till you have an empty stomach. They were afraid I would throw up from all the medicine they gave me to get me ready for the c section and that I would gag on it.

So I did not even eat enough to fill my tummy. 2 rolled around and I was starving. I jokingly told Aaron and the nurses that I should have eaten a full meal from Ihop or something for it to be even worth it because the pop tart was not worth waiting till 2 for.

So 2 rolled around and they got me ready to go into the OR. When I had my c section with Addison they wheeled me in. With Tynan they had me walk in. That was a bad idea. I saw all the tools they'd be using, I suddenly wanted to turn around and wait till he came on his own. It was obviously too late though, and I really wanted Aaron to be there for the birth. That was the whole reason we were doing a c section anyway. I wanted Aaron to be there.

At 2:22 we heard his first cry. He came out crying just like we had hoped and imagined he would. He was pink and breathing on his own. He did swallow some amniotic fluid but it wasn't anything to be concerned about. They cleaned him up and Aaron got to cut the umbilical cord (he didn't get to cut Addisons). Aaron held him and then they brought him over to let me hold him for a few moments while I was still on the operating table and we took a quick picture. Aaron and Tynan left the room and they stitched me up. When I got to the recovery room I got to hold Tynan again, and do skin to skin. Tynan was struggling breathing just a little bit. He didn't know how to regulate it so they hoped that by doing skin to skin he would learn how to regulate it better. Within 5 mins his breathing was regulated. I could have stayed in that moment forever. He latched to eat immediately with no problems.

When we got wheeled back into our room Aaron went and got Addison from my mom and dad. We brought her in and introduced her to her new little brother. We had a lot of visitors that day and the next. Aaron had to leave early Wednesday morning to get back to school for class.

The experience of having Tynan and Addison was night and day. In a perfect world I would not have had Tynan via cesarean but it was more important to me that Aaron was able to to be there for the birth than me get the birth experience I wanted.

I am so grateful that I am able to have children and bring them into this world. I'm grateful for healthy beautiful babies and a wonderful husband that gets to be there daddy.

We are so blessed.

The nurse only got Aaron with his eyes closed. haha

Easter Weekend

I think this has been one of the best weekends on the island. We started out with Thursday night getting a date in. Thanks to Stephanie Wride for watching Addison so that we could do it. We dropped Addison off and then Aaron and I went to see Zootopia at the movie theatre here on the island. If you haven't seen Zootopia yet, go see it. It's amazing. It may be a cartoon, but we loved it. It had a great story line and really kept us engaged. Aaron has been saying he just wants to go buy it as soon as he can.

Saturday I took Addison to the Easter Activity at the school. They had egg coloring...

She got to build a graham cracker house, or at least we started a graham cracker house...

She got to even go on an Easter Egg Hunt...

After the Easter activity at the school we went home and got Aaron (he was studying). We packed up our things and we went to Le Gallion Beach, Aaron hadn't been with us the week before and we wanted to do something fun with Addison. So we decided there would be the perfect place.

Addison got to play in the water with her daddy and also play in the sand which is one of her favorite things to do when we go to the beach. I really think I'll be finding sand in her hair for years to come no matter how much scrub. On our way home we stopped at McDonalds, Addison loves their french fries.

Sunday we went to church and had a great fast and testimony meeting. After we came home Addison was playing out on the front porch with the sea shells we have collected since being here. We left the door open so we could hear Addison through the screen door. We went to go change and then I heard someone say my name, so I went out to see who was at the door and it was one of our neighbors. She had Addison in her arms. I wondered why she'd picked her up considering Addison was just out on the porch playing with her sea shells. Then she told me Addison was out in the parking lot (which is right by our apartment) running around. We are so lucky she picked her up and knew she was ours and that she didn't get hit by a car or anything. Shes a quick one, and she loves to be able to just run around and play and just wander. I'm constantly chasing her around. We are so lucky that our neighbor brought her back to us!

I can't get her to smile for pictures these days. She must be sick of my taking her picture, she still is so cute though with her little scowl haha.

Sunday right before Dinner we got our Easter Baskets. Our Easter baskets were super Ghetto this year, we used the 1 Gallon ice cream buckets from the Blue Bunny Ice cream. This looks like we probably eat a lot of ice cream.

Easter was pretty humble this year. My friend Stephanie went back to Utah for a couple weeks so I asked her to pick up a lift the flap bible book so that Addison could have it in her Easter basket. I am hoping it becomes a good source of entertainment during Sacrament Meeting. I would have done more for her but money is tight as a med student and I wasn't sure what else to do for her since I didn't have tons of options to choose from here on the island. So she got the book and some candy. Aaron and I just got candy, which I think is all we needed.

Today we went to Little Divi Bay and attended the annual Underwater Easter Egg Hunt that the nature foundation put on. You pay $10 dollars to participate and they drop a ton of hard boiled Easter Eggs down at the bottom of the ocean in a closed off area. Just Aaron participated and I watched Addison, and Kate for Stephanie and Austin. Aaron found 6 eggs, but lost all but 1 after he found out that he had a hole in his bag. He said at some points when he was diving he dove about 14 feet. He hasn't felt to good since. He isn't used to diving that low. After you get the eggs you take the to the ticket tent and they give you a raffle ticket. We ended up with 3 tickets because they give you one for registering, and one for each egg, which Aaron and Addison found another one later on so we snagged up 3 tickets. We did get two "Sun Bum" hats that we decided was worth our 10 dollars since we didn't end up winning anything with the raffle. Aaron said he knows what to do next year so that we have way more eggs and better chances at winning a raffle. The raffle prizes are pretty big. Some of the prizes were valued at about $250+. They were for different fun things you could do around the island that were valued at that price. It was a bummer we didn't win anything but we had fun none the less.

Aaron had both Friday and Monday off of school so he was able to study all day Friday and then play a little Saturday, and today. It was a great Easter weekend, and I'm grateful that we were able to spend it together before Addison and I leave to go back to the states on Thursday.

I am grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I am grateful that because of Him I can start again, I can have a clean slate, and a new beginning. Because of Him I can be with my family forever.