Happy Birthday, Big Brother!!!

My baby turned 4 years old a few weeks ago.  Four.  Yikes.  Four years has gone by so fast, yet so much has happened in that time.  We decided not to do a big friend party this year because we were in Texas and because we had 2 celebrations in Texas (not to mention a party for my brother and one for me as well), one on his actual birthday and one at school a few days later.  Five separate parties to celebrate four years of age seemed a tiny bit excessive, so we will save a friend party for next year.  I don't even want to think about five yet though!!!

(these pictures are all out of order -- sorry, blogger has a mind of its own)

this bounce house was one of the best gifts -- he and his bro have used it daily! 

I love the confusion on all of the adults faces.  

Trying to figure out how to put the marble run together..

checking out the bounce house while her brothers sleep

Ryan let Owen help him open all of his gifts.  Such a sweet brother! 

pretty girl!

excited to see the bounce house going up!

my loves! 

the birthday boy on his birthday! 

looks like she is going for a cupcake.  :) 

trying out his new bike! 

love

you have got to be kidding me with this hat..lol

Happy Birthday!!!

Thanksgiving Performance!

I great big huge heart Ryan's school.  Moving him to that school last year was one of the best decisions I have ever made.  His teachers this year are outstanding!  He loves them all, including his music and spanish teachers.  He is learning so much every single day.  He comes home saying things in spanish and asking me how to say certain things in spanish.  It is cute.  He only has his spanish class once a week, but he is learning SO much!  

A couple of weeks ago,  his school put on a Thanksgiving performance.  He usually isn't one to sing a whole lot, but he had practiced his song and knew it word for word.  He did sing a little up on the stage.  He also turned his back around so all you could see was the back of his head about half way through their song.  When they were done, he was so proud that he clapped excitedly for himself.  He was so proud and so were we.  :) 

he loved the performance and wanted his picture taken as well!

TWO!!!

My little man is 2 years old!  I feel like a broken record since I say this all the time, but time is going by too fast!  Little Brother is such a sweet, sweet boy.  He loves to give hugs and kisses.  If he starts giving one of us hugs and kisses then he makes sure to make the rounds and give everyone in our little family hugs and kisses.  He is my caretaker.  He makes sure that everyone is always ok and makes sure I know when sister is crying.  He loves his pacifier more than any other object (we seriously need to work on this addiction).  He loves to say "nope" and shake his head side to side like crazy.  He is strong-willed, active (oh my word is he active), curious and a problem solver.  He loves to climb and explore.  He loves to do everything that his big brother does.  He talks non-stop (but you can only understand about half of what he says).  He gets so excited about the littlest things (like locating our van in the parking lot).  He is almost always happy, smiling and giggling but he can go to the complete opposite end of the spectrum in the drop of a hat.  He has lots of opinions and is not afraid to let you know when he is NOT happy about something.

Most importantly he is such a blessing in our family.  We are so proud of this little boy and so happy that he is a part of our family.  Even on the hardest days, when my patience is completely used up and I am exhausted, he is able to make me smile.  He gets me with a big silly grin (still with a few missing teeth) or an unexpected hug and kiss and melts my heart.

Sweet little man, we love you so much!!! We had so much fun celebrating your second year of life and cannot wait to see what this world has in store for you! :)

When I close my eyes and think of Owen, this is the exact image that comes to mind.  

Happy 1/2 Birthday!!!

I saw this idea on a blog somewhere but I honestly cannot remember where.  It is a celebration for your child's 1/2 birthday.  I thought it would be so much fun to start this tradition and something that our kids would love and look forward to in the future.  For Big Brothers 3 1/2 birthday we made one half of a chocolate cake and had pizza -- his choice.  He was super excited and everyone enjoyed the indulgence!  No gifts, no party, just fun times as a family, celebrating his life!

A few things that have started recently:
1.  Negotiations - he always tries to negotiate a few more minutes of tv, his favorite game, time at the playground, etc.  If you say we are leaving in 3 minutes, he chirps back "how 'bout six minutes"
2.  "I think I love you a bunch." This has to be one of the sweetest things I have ever heard!
3.  He insists on wearing khaki pants at all times.  I am not sure if his jeans or any other pants will get any use this fall.
4.  He loves to run and has to be wearing his super fast shoes.  He calls Little Brother's shoes "super slow shoes" since LB can't keep up just yet.
5.  He gives kisses to his sister every night before bed.

Introducing...

Welcome Emily Kate!  

9/3/2011 - 11:58AM

6lbs 15oz - 19.5in

First of all let me say that life is fantastic!  Emily is such a good baby and the boys are adjusting so well to her being here.  She has only been here a week but it seems like she has always been a part of our family.  :)  Here is her birth story. 

On Saturday morning we headed to the hospital at 7:15 for my induction.  When we arrived the sun was shining and it looked like it was going to be a very pretty day.  Got inside, hooked up to my IV, answered a million questions and finally started on the pitocin.  My nurse, Laura, was absolutely wonderful.  We basically just sat around waiting for my doctor to arrive and decide what she wanted to do as I was already over 4cm dilated when we got to the hospital.  

Around 10:15 my doctor showed up.  She wanted to break my water immediately but I knew based on the experience I had with both Ryan and Owen that I wanted the epidural first.  While we were waiting on the anesthesiologist to show up we heard some loud crashes outside.  I thought it was the garbage man but in reality it was huge thunder claps.  Next thing you know the power went out.  The anesthesiologist arrives around 10:40 or so and there is minimal light for him to work in while putting in the epidural.  He gets it in within a few moments I start feeling numb --- on my right side.  They have me lay on my left side and say gravity will take over.  Around 11:15 my doctor shows up again and I am still not numb on the right side.  Mr. Anesthesiologist was quite busy that morning and wasn't able to come back.  Around 11:25 my doctor checks me -- still 4cm and decides to break my water and heads out again. 

11:30 Laura, the fabulous nurse, gets me all comfy and says press the call button if I feel any pressure and heads out of the room.  11:35 - OMG holy moly my left side is killing me.  I have an uncontrollable urge to push.  The pain on my left side was something I had never felt in my life.  I really thought I was going to have the baby before the nurse even came back into the room.  I push call --- Laura comes running back in the room and can't quite believe what I am telling her.  She checks and says I am over 9cm and starts scrambling trying to find someone to give me some more drugs and trying to get my doctor back into the room.  She tells me just to breathe and no matter what do not push.  For the next 15 minutes I breathe through contractions and focus on anything other than the urge to push.  Finally another anesthesiologist comes in and gives me some sort of magical drug.  I don't know what it was --- but it caused me to lose all feeling in my lower body almost immediately, feeling that didn't come back for almost 6 hours.  

It is sometime around 11:50 and I have relief.  My doctor is rushing to get her delivery gear on and they are trying to find someone from pediatrics to come in and turn on the baby warmer.  11:57 -- everyone is ready and my doctor tells me to push.  I push two times and she is totally out.  Jeff quickly cuts the cord, I realize that we indeed have a beautiful (and tiny) baby girl!  OMG!!!  They take her over to the warmer to do whatever all it is that they do and weigh her.  I am in disbelief that we had a child less than 7 pounds!  I am in disbelief that she came so quickly.  I am in awe at the amazing blessings that God has given us.  

so thankful that both of our Moms were able to be here!!!!

we are home!!! our little party of 5! 

little brother absolutely adores his sister.  He is always right by her side. 

I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet...

So the other day while I was in the middle of writing a blog post, I felt a little tremor.  At first I thought that I was having some sort of convulsion.  Then I noticed the entire bed was shaking.  Since the boys were napping, my first thought was that one of them was up, shaking my bed and I just didn't hear them come into the room.  Then I see the rest of the furniture in the room shaking like crazy and it hit me -- OMG Earthquake!!! What the heck am I supposed to do when there is an earthquake?!?!  Doorway, right?  But I have 2 kids and I don't exactly move fast at 38 weeks pregnant!  The shaking stops and the boys were fine -- they woke up from all the shaking, which is saying a lot because they can sleep through pretty much anything.  They say it was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake, which may not seem like much, but to those of us who have never experienced an earthquake, it was a lot -- and SCARY!  The Mr. was working in the big city that day and his first thought was that there was an attack.  He didn't think it was his building but nearby.  I cannot imagine how scared so many people were at first.  Luckily, it appears that everyone was safe and there were no major injuries or damages.

Next up -- Hurricane Irene.  I guess we don't get a break around here this week!