Welcome Joel Isaiah Lyons...

It's a Boy! 

The big surprise of finding out what we are having is here. 

We welcome... Joel Isaiah Lyons to our family born Saturday, May 27th at 10:13am.  He weighs 8lb. 15 oz. and is 22 inches long. 

 Erin began having sporadic contractions around 5:30am yesterday.  So she got up and organized school books across the hall.  Then we decided to go strawberry picking with friends, we thought it might speed the process a long.  The rest of the day I had sporadic contractions at times, nothing too intense.  Last night, Michael hosted a Community Group Leader's picnic at church.  I went to bed and around 3:00am started feeling stronger contractions that kept me from sleeping.  I got up and walked in the basement some and tried to rest and got a shower and tried to let the household sleep as long as she could.  Around 5:30, I woke up Michael and we started timing contractions that were coming less than 5 minutes a part.  My doctor from church was still in California, so called the guy on call and he told me maybe to wait a little longer.  After a half hour, I was ready to go- I was worried I would wait too long.  When we got to the hospital they admitted me and I was 6-7 centimeters and they hooked me up and gave me the epidural.  The guy did it so well, I was really numb this time, more numb than I remember with the others- really numb.  My legs felt like jelly- they all said- oh, you had one of Ron's epidurals.  I was worried I would not know how to push right which I did with the others.  And it did take about 20 minutes to get the little guy out as he is much bigger than all our other children.  I guess there was a reason I felt huge to begin with toward the end here.  The doctor on call was really encouraging and I was thankful for all the staff in labor and delivery!  So thankful to be done and have a healthy little guy!

Happy Birthday little Joel!  We love you already!