MaTai Allen Kynaston

That is my son's name.
Holy crap.

Colton loved the name Tai. Which means "big." I wanted my son to have a more formal name. So we came up with Ma'Tai. It means "gift from god" and is the Polynesian name for Matthew. It is also the title for Polynesian royalty. This all fit together, as my brother is in Samoa on a mission, my family is Polynesian, and he is carrying the name of my very best friend, Matthew Watts. Tai's middle name is Allen, which is passed down the Kynaston line several generations. Since Colton is the end of the Kynaston line, we got stuck with it :)

Let me just tell you. From day 1, Colton has been super dad.

He is at every appointment. "...She also throws up a lot."
He asks all the questions. "She is craving chocolate..and apples. Is this normal?"
He reads all the baby books, "The book says that you should eat breakfast in bed, so I made you bacon."
He buys the stretch mark lotions, pregnancy pillows and baby books.
And he makes all the decisions. Friend: "Are you guys having a shower?"
Me: "Well I don't..."
Colton: "Yes we are, and our babies colors are green and black."

(Our baby has colors?)

When we went to find out the sex of the baby, he played angry birds in the room. He called baby a "he" from the beginning, barely glancing or reacting to the ultrasound technicians announcement that it was a boy. She zoomed up on the babys legs and Colton said "told ya, that's a weiner." He also took the photos off of our fridge, calling them "an embarrassment to Tai."

In fact he called him Tai before we even knew if he was a boy.

So pretty much I was out of luck. This is HIS son. "I will raise him myself if you don't want to join me."

Like I said, he is super dad.

And Tai loves him. He kicks whenever he hears his dad's voice. Something Colton soaks up, and tortures me with at 2 am. He pokes my stomach, Tai pokes him back. I am in for it.

He also has Tae Kwon Do lessons pre-scheduled, "first i'll teach him how to kick. He is already good at it. That way he can defend his little sister."

Yup. Super dad now predicts the future.

Either way I am super grateful for him. Super grateful that he loves his son so much. Super thankful for his sacrifices, for working two jobs so I can stay home and rest, for making me three meals a day and letting me have all six pillows and the window open when it's snowing.

He is a great man.

Grateful. Seriously Grateful.

I grew up in an LDS family. I knew wrong from right. I knew what was expected of me.I was always the easy child. I came home two hours before curfew, preferred being at home to going out, and always kept track of my own life. Scholarship, jobs, housing, rent. From the moment I graduated I was on top of it. I made it through my associates degree on a full ride academic scholarship, housing scholarship, leadership scholarship and pageant scholarships. I literally got paid to go to school.

I had started dating Colton in March of 2009, when I was a freshman in college. He was a little rough around the edges. A non-member music major (which I rank right up there with Art majors as a "what the hell can you do with that major", majors) with a couple tattoos, a love of death metal, MMA, and electric guitar. He was a great friend to me, we talked a lot. And then love happened. Oh Crap.

This goes back to what they tell you in Sunday School. You marry who you date. Best advice I could ever give. You don't fall for a guy, realize he can't take you to the temple and then dump him. Not easily at least. If you do end it for religion, its hard as HELL. If you don't, it's hard as HELL. Not when you are head over heels. That is the biggest heartbreak you can go through. You either don't start, or you finish differently then you ever planned. That's the only thing you can plan on.

Long story short, when you love someone, and you are LDS, and you know they can't take you to the temple, its tough. You end up dating, and dating, and dating...and never going anywhere because the pressure to do it "the right way" is too hard. And then you end up screwing up even more.

And then babies happen. :)

When I told my parents I was pregnant, my little brother had just left on a mission to Samoa. We are talking a few DAYS before. My dad especially was really missing him, and was already going through a hard time. So this little number was definitely a land mine.

A big one.

It was a lot to deal with. But my parents were amazing through it all. My mom was amazingly supportive, making doctors appointments and making sure I was eating right. My dad took...awhile. But never made me feel like he was angry at me. He just was quiet, and thoughtful. He was scared to death of the what if's. He is finally starting to come around, mostly because he has seen how supportive and dedicated Colton is to his son, and to me. We are really, really blessed.