He's HERE!

Alex Joseph that is, our third little boy arrived Monday morning May 2nd by scheduled C-section at 8:50 am.  He weighed 7# 6 oz. and 19 inches. 

I was a bit concerned about the spinal because they had such a hard time getting the spinal in with Carson's birth and then I ended up with a bad spinal headache and had to have a blood patch.  But this time it went really well.  The CRNA said that the spaces in my back are really tight and he could see why they had such trouble but this time it went relatively well.

While I was taken to recovery, Chad went with Alex up to the nursery.  There they assessed him and gave him his first bath.  To me it seemed like they were gone forever.  I had only had glimpses of Alex when we were in the OR.  Here I am holding Alex for the first time in the recovery room.

My first day in the hospital seems like a bit of a blur.  The CRNA gave me some duramorph through my spinal that was supposed to give me some longer lasting pain relief after the C-section, which I'm sure it did but it also gave me horrible waves of nausea and vomiting.  And then my nurse gave me some Compazine which totally snowed me.  I was trying so hard to keep my eyes open that evening but it just wasn't working!

My parents were with Andrew & Carson and brought them down to the hospital that afternoon.  They were so sweet and so excited to see their new little brother.  Several times during our hospital stay when Andrew was there visiting, he would say "Is this a dream?"

 

My Dad & Mom holding Alex for the first time.

My parents took Andrew & Carson out for supper and to Target where they were able to pick out a little toy for Alex and they also sent up a flower arrangement for us. 

 

Chad's parents meeting Alex for the first time.

 While in the hospital this little guy was really very content.  He hardly cried.  Just slept and ate.  Chad stayed with my Monday night and during the day on Tuesday.  My parents brought the boys back to the hospital on Tuesday afternoon and then Chad took the boys home.  Chad and the boys did come back Wed. morning for a visit.  Though I missed them, it was really sort of nice being in the hospital...I was feeling pretty good by then and just enjoyed my time with only Alex.

 Me and my three sons in one hospital bed. 

Our family of five. 

 Getting ready to head home.

More to come on this sweet little one and his big brothers.

T-Ball

Saturday April 30th was the first T-ball game of Andrew's that I really was able to see.  These little 5 & 6 year olds look so cute in their little uniforms.  All decked out with ball gloves, bat, baseball hat, helmet & bag to carry it all in.  (a bit much really if you ask me!)  Here are some pics from that day.

Andrew hitting off the T.

Andrew talking to his coach on first base.

Andrew, #6, running to second base.

Andrew coming in to homeplate.

They don't really play by the rules, if a runner is thrown out, (which I don't think happens very often) they usually get to stay on their base.  Each player bats each inning.  The last batter up, all runners on bases run to home and the team in the outfield gets the ball to home and tries to tag the players "out".  Score is not kept, it's a tie each game.  But at least they start to learn the basics, where to run from base to base, where the play is at - which base, and to have fun!  I enjoy hearing Chad tell Andrew that it doesn't matter if you win or lose but it's that you did your best and you had fun....because I know he is super competitve and doesn't usually feel this way himself.

Here's one photo from his game this past weekend, May 7th.

Preparations

I had been meaning to post about the preparations we have been making for babio #3, but just didn't get around to it.

Here is a picture Andrew took of me at 37 1/2 weeks pregnant.

Below is the Pack-n-play set up in our room and my hospital bag (not packed yet)  We decided that the baby would sleep in our room until I am a bit more recovered from the C-section.

The crib in the nursery/guest room; linens all washed and the Brutus the Buckeye mobile installed on the crib.  Chad got that when we were expecting Andrew.

Also the baby car seat

Preparing for baby I got the baby clothes tote out of the basement and washed all the infant clothing.  I forgot how all those snaps & zippers sound in the dryer!  We have lots of baby clothes from when Andrew & Carson were infants, plus when Carson was a baby a friend of a friend gave us her baby's clothing.  Most of our 0-3 month clothing is winter clothing, so we have had friends and family let us borrow some summer clothing.  We are set.

On this old pie safe we have baskets of socks, baby care items, diapers, onsies, burp cloths and hats all washed and ready.

Baby equipment brought out of storage, fabrics washed and plastics cleaned.

Chad cleaned the interior of the van, moved the boys booster seats to the back row, removed one of the captain chairs from the middle row for easy entry for the boys to the back row and installed the infant car seat.

In lieu of a baby shower for us, we had a girls night out with my friends here.  We went to see Water for Elephants - really good- and afterwards went to a restaurant for appetizers, desserts and girl time chatting.  My friends have arranged for us to have meals delivered every other day for the next several weeks.  I'm sure this will be greatly appreciated!  So nice to have such a great group of friends, we feel blessed.  My friend Kim made this bouquet out of baby wash cloth. So creative.

My friend Liz made us this diaper cake.

Here I am at 38 1/2 weeks pregnant.  Only 5 days to go!

The week prior to my scheduled C-section I had an appointment for a haircut one afternoon and another afternoon I scheduled a pedicure.  I had a gift certificate for a pedicure given to me from my sister-in-law Kristy for Christmas.  What a special treat to have done when 38 1/2 weeks pregnant!

We are ready!!

T-Ball

Here is Andrew before his first T-ball game, April 17th.  He has had two games so far & I have yet to see much of either one.  This first game was on a busy day for us.  The game was supposed to be on Saturday afternoon but it was pouring the fields were in poor condition, so it was postponed until Sunday.  That Sunday morning, Chad ran his third ever 1/2 marathon here in town.  The boys and I stopped along the 1/2 marathon route a few different places to cheer on Chad.  It was a very windy day, which made it feel a lot cooler.  By the end of the 1/2 marathon, Carson was starting to meltdown.

From there, we went to the church where the boys are in a children's choir.  They were to sing that morning.  Carson refused to join the choir and sing.  He was crying and refusing to put on the choir robe.  So be it.  On the way home from church Carson fell asleep.

By the time it we were needing to go to Andrew's game, we decided that Carson would be miserable at the game due to the windy cool weather.  So he and I stayed home.

The next T-ball, Carson fell asleep in the van on the way to the game.  We parked the van so I could still view the game.  Carson woke up with about 15 minutes left in the game but refused to go to the stands to watch the game.  Aaugh!  So maybe tomorrow I will actually get to watch a little more of the game! 

Andrew has so much fun.  He is still until the ball is hit and then he dances around on the field as he watches whoever the ball is hit to attempt to make a play.

Andrew's First Spring Soccer Game

Here are some photos from Andrew's first soccer game this spring on Saturday April 9th.  The league he is in is with Mount Vernon Nazarene University and run by the university coaches and soccer players.  Such a positive environment and they are definitely learning some great soccer skills. 

Andrew kicking the ball in

Andrew taking it down the field

water break at half time

Andrew taking it down the field...

and SCORE!!

Andrew is really enjoying soccer.  This game they played 4 on 4 and Andrew ran the entire time (almost an hour) with no subs.  Still at the end of the match he asked why it couldn't be longer!  He has had a few devastating days when soccer practices and games have been cancelled due to this very VERY wet spring weather we have been having!

Carson at the soccer match.  He was having a bit of a rough morning this day.  Meltdown, followed by meltdown.  That seems to be the trend around here these days.  :(  He would like to be out there playing soccer too but this league they have to be 5 years old.  Next year!

Kids Breakfast Club

Our little town just started a Kids Breakfast Club a few months back.  It is the first Saturday of each month.  We went to the first one back in Feb.  It was Belle from Beauty & the Beast.  The boys were hoping to see the Beast but it was only Belle.  They still enjoyed it.  On that Saturday we learned that April's characters would be Buzz & Woody from Toy Story.  Oh the anticipation!

At the Kids Breakfast Club, the children gather and meet the characters, listen to stories with the characters acting them out, sing songs, do some other activities and of course have a little breakfast.  The characters there this time were Buzz, Woody, a ballerina and a toy soldier.  They played music and the children had specific dance moves based on the character that went with the particular music.  (some western music they had to gallop and swing an imaginary lasso)  Andrew was really into this, Carson tends to hang close by me.

Here are some photos with their favorite characters.  Carson is snapping, something he recently learned to do.  He is really pretty good at it and can snap quite loudly.

 Andrew wearing Woody's hat and playing with his cowboy gun.

 Before and after the breakfast club meeting, there were various activities set up at tables in another room.  Here is Carson playing with the potato heads.  They had a table with Slinky's, one to make a pin wheel, Buzz and Woody action figures, etc.  There is a group of women hoping to start a science center in our county, similar to Cosi only on a much smaller scale, and these women set up these stations for the children.

I was glad the boys and I had this activity to do.  Andrew was supposed to have his first soccer game of this spring that morning but it was cancelled due to weather.  He was so devastated!  Really nice to have something else to brighten his day.

Columbus Crew

Saturday March 26th the four of us headed to Columbus for a Columbus Crew soccer game.  Our friends had won these four tickets to the game and then were not able to attend due to illness and offered us the tickets.  We all had a lot of fun, despite the chilly weather.

When we stepped out of the fan, we saw this cute little puppy in the parked van next to us.  The puppy had on an adorable little purple sweater and was jumping up to see us and whimpering.  Andrew would have loved to get the puppy out!  I felt really bad for the poor puppy, stuck inside a cold van for hours!!

Here is Chad, Carson and Andrew all bundled up at the soccer game.  It was free Columbus Crew beanie hat day, which was kind of exciting!!  The weather was really chilly.  Carson kept saying "I want to go home now!"  But we did make it through the entire game.  We had hats, gloves, winter coats, blankets and then warmed up with a little hot chocolate as well. (4 hot chocolates = $12!  And before that we had hot dogs, brats, water and Gatorade for something over $30.  Crazy over priced food!)

 Here is a picture of players, so you know we were really at the soccer match.  The game did have some exciting moments but ended with the score of 0 - 0.  :(

This was my first soccer game at this level and it's been a while since I was at a public sporting event.  We did go to a Reds baseball game last fall but this was different.  Our seats were close to a large section of very vocal Crew fans.  Maybe it was because it's been a while since I have been to a game or the fact that the boys were with us, but I was shocked by the crude language in their cheers and the way the fans of the Crew and the opposing team would attack each other verbally just because they were fans of the other team.   It definitely took away from my experience for this family outing.

Poetry reading

Back on March 24, Andrew and the two kindergarten classes did a poetry reading for the rest of the grade school and any parents or other family members who could attend.  Both kindergarten classes were at school all day this day to prepare for the afternoon reading.  I picked Carson up a bit early from preschool so he could be there too. 

The poetry reading was so sweet.  The children did a great job and was so interesting to hear the poems read, even if it was a repeat of a poem done earlier, because each child read it so uniquely. 

Here is a photo of Andrew & his two friends reading the poem Color Monsters.

Color Monsters

Red, red

forgot his head

Blue, blue

is sick with flu

Green, green

is a dancing queen

Yellow, yellow

sat in jello

Orange, orange

squished an orange

Brown, brown

your pants fell down

Pink, pink

has feet that stink

White, white

bites at night

Black, black

plays quarterback

(these colors might be out of sequence from how he actually read it, but this is how he recited it to me just now.  This poem was very popular with the kids.  Some read the whole poem, others only read about one particular color.  Most had to gigle when saying Brown, brown your pants fell down and Green, green is a dancing queen.)

Forts

Carson is super into making forts recently.  He removes every cushion in our living room, 2 pillows from the boys' bedroom and 2 pillows from their play room and builds these fun forts.  Blankets are also a requirement.  Often he builds them on the floor but this particular day it was on top of the couch cushions.  The forts don't always last real long but they sure are fun.

 Andrew climbed in too and played a little Nintendo DS inside the fort.

I saw these cool Crazy Forts while browsing at Barnes & Noble.  I might need to get this for him sometime.  That way we can still have a place to sit in the living room!

Weekend Away

Back on February 12th, we met our good friends The Steiner Family at Kalahari Resort in Sandusky.  We had such a fun time with them at this great resort.  I made a huge sacrifice for my boys.  ;)  The thing I looked forward to the most in this pregnancy was that I am pregnant all during the Fall, Winter and Spring.  No need for a bathing suit!  Right?  Wrong! 

Of course the big attraction at Kalahari is the indoor water park, the largest indoor water park in the US.  It. was. HUGE.   It was amazing and tons of fun.  Andrew & Carson's favorite part of the water park was the wave pool.  It would have waves for approximately 15 minutes and then those would shut off and just be calm still water for approx. 15 minutes.  There were large inter tubes to float on as well.

The boys weren't tall enough to go on some of the slides and Carson didn't really want to anyways.  Andrew did go down some of the slides with Rob, Jonah & Isaac.  He thought they were pretty fun.  The boys were at a pretty good age to enjoy this place.  They are old enough that they know they need to stay with either Chad or I and they are OK with that.  In a few years it might be a different story!

After we were done swimming on Sunday the boys enjoyed this tree top play area.  Lots of fun. 

 We ate lunch at the resort and then played a round of miniature golf.  The course was pretty dark inside and light colored clothing kind of glowed. 

He never looks at the camera!

It would have been nice to have some pictures of the boys at the water park but I didn't want to take our camera in there and then not really have a safe place for it.

Sunday morning Chad and I walked the four oldest boys, (ages 7, 6, 5, & 4) down to the water park while Rob & Sarah were packing up some things.  I looked at Chad and said "People probably think we are crazy with these 4 boys and my obviously very pregnant belly."  Chad replied "Especially since you look like you are 16!"  Ha Ha!  (he doesn't think I look that young but people have been known to think that I am much younger than I actually am.)

Our Bedroom

I am not a decorator.  I wish it came naturally to me.  We moved into our current house in July of 2007, 3 1/2 years ago.  At that time all the rooms in our home were painted the same color, a really really light tan / off white.  I'm thankful that it was a nice neutral color.  We painted the kitchen and living room just prior to moving in and then Chad painted Andrew's room a few years ago and the basement after it was finished.  We had been wanting to paint our bedroom but we weren't really sure what we wanted.  This Fall Chad painted our bedroom.  Here is what we came up with.  (I don't really have a before picture, shucks!)

And another angle.  (I guess it was a very sunny day when I took these pictures and most likely the ground was covered in bright white snow....not anymore!)

The paint colors we chose were from Sherwin Williams...love it when your little brother can get you a discount!  The colors were from an Arts & Crafts brochure; 3 walls are in Twilight Gray & one accent wall Library Pewter.  We were thinking a light gray color and a dark brownish color to go with the new bedding..  It didn't exactly turn out the way I hoped, but I am happy with it.  I think the gray color looks more taupe than gray and the darker wall looks more like a dark greenish than brown.  We also got bedside tables this Fall and the Arts & Crafts style lamps that are on the tables.

 For a while now (YEARS) we have had a very mismatched linen set on our bed.  We wanted to get something new but it was really difficult for us to find something we liked.  We found these linens on Macy's website.  I also saw them on Ebay but was a bit afraid we wouldn't like them and then not be able to return them.  So we got them from Macy's, found we liked them, returned part of the order and got the rest off of Ebay for a good deal.  Here is a shot so you can have a better look at them.  We didn't get the sheets that matched the set (expensive) but found a nice enough light gray set at Home Goods as well as the down comforter that is inside this duvet cover.  We love it.

We do need some wall art or more decorative items, not too much but the room needs a little something something.  I like these cut metal wall hangings from Ten Thousand Villages.  Those might be a good possibility for the room  Right now there is a mirror on one wall and I framed 3 of our 4x6 proofs we had taken this fall.

The night Chad finished painting our bedroom he decided we also needed an updated TV in our bedroom.  The TV that was in there we got the week after our wedding back in 1999.  So hopefully our dresser won't be so top heavy anymore.  (in that link you can also sort of see a before picture of our room.)

The below picture is our guest bedroom in our lower level.  We took the linens that were previously on our bed (mismatched as they may be) and put them on the bed down there.  I liked these pillows but just got tired of moving them every evening and morning!  This room could also use some wall art.

Now I feel both rooms are more complete.