Savannah Caroline

And then there were five!

Savannah Caroline

7 lbs 2 oz.

19 in.

August 1st at 3:06 pm

Can you believe we have so many children? Me neither.

Let me back up a little...

Being pregnant is a miracle, truly. It's wonderfully beautiful to grow and feel a little baby growing and moving inside your being. Their eyes form, their fingers and toes separate. They grow fingernails and even sometimes suck their thumbs. It's just amazing. God is in the details!

That being said. That I love growing babies and being pregnant and such... I was just so over pregnancy about a month before baby girl joined us. It might have been the whole moving/house situation. Could have been the heat (though we've had a mild summer.) I'm just going to go with that I was so darn excited to meet her and hold her on the outside!

We had just a few things going on the first half of August. Matt's brother got married on August 3rd, so his parents were going to be in town for 12 days and desperately wanted to meet this little girl! Because of the wedding, several of Matt's extended family were going to be in town as well and it's harder to get down to see them. Also going on was a trip for my dad, two of my brothers moving for college, and my mom starting school.

So this is the story of Jackson and this is the story of Graham. Both labors and deliveries were rather fast so I could only imagine little Savannah wouldn't be too different.

We really wanted to avoid an emergency situation this time. No ambulance. No pushing in the car. Just a little more peace. A regular drive to the hospital would be nice. Plus, we weren't able to use our favorite doula this time... and she kept us sane and safe with both of the boys' quick births!

Because we were trying to get to the hospital just a tad bit earlier, I think I was paying much more attention to my body looking for signs of labor. So Saturday night before she was born we actually took a little field trip up to L&D from 3-6 am. It was fun. It was unproductive. We came home without a baby. Turns out baby girl was just tuning up...

Fast forward a few days (with contractions during the night, every night). Since I was awakened by contractions in active labor with both boys I was very aware of my nightly uterus activity.

My dad got back in town from his trip on Monday. Matt's parents arrived in town on Wednesday. We had a lovely dinner with them Wednesday night. So everyone is here. Just hoping baby girl joins us before too long! I woke up Thursday morning around 6:30 with a contraction. Then another. They were anywhere from 4-10 minutes apart. I figured as soon as I got out of bed and got the day started they would go away. They didn't though. I told Matt that maybe this was the day. We both got really excited and then remembered that we should practice "labor denial" a little longer...

So Matt went to work and I went to Target. I do that often. Go to Target just to entertain the boys in the toy isle. I did secretly load my stuff in the car before we left though in case something crazy happened while we were there. We just did our thing rearranging the toys and eating snacks that we'd pay for at check-out. I talked to a few friends... One friend strongly encouraged me to go home and call Matt to come home. She was right. I somehow thought that I could just meet him at the hospital. What in the world was I thinking?

All along the contractions are about 3-7 minutes apart but I had no trouble talking and behaving normally through them. I'd been texting with my doctor so she knew what was going on and kept checking in with me. I think around 11:30 I decided to head home and called Matt and asked him to head home when he could.

I got home, fed the boys and tried to hide my contractions from my brother and the twins' babysitter. Matt got home around 12:30, had a little lunch and put Jackson down for a nap. Then we left (G with the sitter and brother - and my parents were headed home from an appointment). We called all the parents from the car. They were beyond thrilled.

We arrived at the hospital at about 1:30, sped through the labor evaluation where they determined I was already 7 cm dilated and were ushered up to L&D. My doctor met us at the door and got us settled in our room. I have to say that laboring at the hospital isn't so fun. Lots of nurses asking questions. Lots of walking around. And lots of time in between contractions where I felt like a watched kettle. I did appreciate that the residents and my doctor seemed to understand the need for quiet and to leave me alone. The nurses didn't get that memo. Their job required more from me than breathing.

I'm not sure of the time, but at some point I really started to get tired. I started whining. I was uncomfortable, my back hurt, and I was hungry. That's when Dr. suggested I get checked to see how labor was going. Once I lay down I felt much better, and the good news was that I was already 10 cm and ready to go. I got pretty emotional at that point with the excitement of getting to meet baby girl and with the anxiety of the end of labor (i.e. pushing).

After several "I can't do this" and "I just want her out" moments, a few yells (ok, screams), and many comforting words of affirmation from Matt and Dr. we met our sweet sweet Savannah at 3:06.

She was immediately put on my chest and the two of us were covered to rest and recover. It was such a miraculous moment. All cares in the world were lost. I shed a few tears of overwhelming joy and relief. We thanked our heavenly Father. And Matt and I just talked to and gazed at her. She immediately found her thumb and tried to look around. And in that instant, I couldn't imagine life without this precious little one.

With my favorite doctor!

We very quickly had a flood of visitors. Both of Matt's brothers followed by his mom, aunt, grandmother, and a close family friend. His dad had gone to pick up G and J. And not long after they all left, my whole family came to visit. I so wish I had gotten a picture of everyone together. G&J had already met and held her (the first picture) and when the twins got there they were just the cutest showing her off. T&C haven't seen a newborn before and still love checking her out and asking questions about her. I loved that everyone got to meet her on the day of her birth! This little girl is covered in family love!

The boys were very intrigued at her little check-up the next day. Taking notes, I'm sure, for when they get their doctor kits out of storage...  And check out their little watches! I found them each Lego watches (from Savannah) that they loved. Nothing says "mature big brother" like a watch right?

Daddy and his daughter. Love.

So protective of her already.

He is always asking to hold her. My heart swells...

About to head home.

(hospital pictures)

My new favorite picture.

All of my loves.

Welcome to our family precious little Savannah! We promise though we may be loud and crazy and you'll probably have to play pirates and knights one day - we can't imagine our family without you!

And a huge thank you to both families for the visits and for so much help watching and feeding the boys. We know they felt very loved through this transition!

October 2012

As I start this post - I realize how the blog accidentally took a long break...

This was a hard month for our family. It's not something I've kept a secret but neither is it easy to just bring up in conversation or I knew how to blog about.... We lost our third little baby this month. I was just 10 weeks along when we saw on the ultrasound that our baby had stopped developing. We had some warning signs that things weren't quite right - and I had been praying to be prepared - but it was still heart wrenching. We had already told the boys and some friends and family. Though such a sad time, we felt very surrounded, loved, and supported. My heart breaks for other mommas who have lost babies. No matter how early or later in pregnancy, a baby and family member was lost. We look forward to heaven to meet our sweet baby and rest in the knowledge that our heavenly Father had a reason for gathering him or her in His arms before we met.

We didn't really do a big birthday celebration for Graham because we had celebrated in September. But it is still so fun to look back and acknowledge the milestones and fun things about each year as the boys get older. Graham is just so grown up these days... He's not taking naps anymore but instead takes a rest time. Basically he has to stay in the playroom and play with his toys and watch a movie while J sleeps. (and I get some time alone!) I just love seeing him set up his toys and see what his little imagination creates for his alone time! It's also so sweet when he accidentally falls asleep despite his best efforts. We just love watching him grow up and realize more and more of his own little personality!

Both boys, but especially J, are SUPER into dress up. Boots (matching or not), a hat, and some sort of eye-wear are a must at all times. If you notice in the picture below how J is holding his hook... They love the movie Hook and this is how he recreates Captain Hook's hook with his ruffled sleeve. He holds the hook through his lovey. I just love their little imaginations!

These next two are from their friend Will's 4th Circus birthday party.

 We took many many walks around our neighborhood. The boys were absolutely in love with the crunching leaves under their feet and how the wind swirled them in the streets.

A breakfast bagel date.

 More dress up...

 Thomson and Caleb's (cousins) birthday is October 30. 

We celebrated by going to the pumpkin patch!

I love my brothers!

Sister and her birthday boys. They're the cutest!

The whole family...

The birthday boys. We loved celebrating their 3 years!

Jackson turnes 2!

Look at this sweet little guy. He is truly such a treasure to us and a delight in our life! I am so thankful God has put him in our family - we love watching him grow!

Since I've taken my sweet time getting the blog caught up - he has definitely gotten the short end of the blogging stick. I mean, I've just ignored documenting his little milestones completely. Mom fail. I'm pretty sure he'll forgive me though.

In the spirit of remembering some of the details, here are his 2 yr stats:
Weight: 24 lbs (8th percentile)
Height: 34.5 in (53rd percentile)  We knew we had a string bean on our hands, ha!
Head circumference: 19.02 in (40th percentile)

What he's eating these days... Cereal for breakfast. Yogurt with raw oatmeal in it for lunch along with some goldfish and maybe an apple if I'm lucky. He loves goldfish. He also eats kids cliff bars, apple sauce pouches, almonds, lentil soup, loves green beans, pizza, french fries, lemonade, kefir, chocolate milk, and steamed broccoli.  He is pretty much the most inconsistent eater ever. I mean ever. There are totally days where he eats cereal and goldfish and might drink some milk. But three cheers for the green veggies!

He is a total chatterbox. He went from saying no words at all to basically being G's little parrot. He tells us everything that he wants and is a very successful tattler. We laugh at his voice though, he has this very rough and raspy voice most of the time and his yell/cry has more in common with a foghorn than a human voice. But when he talks to you it is literally the most sweet and angelic thing you've ever heard.  He is way more articulate than G was at this age.

Some of his more unique phrases are :  "no do dat guys", "find wovey bink" (lovey and bink), "watch muppey pi'tes" (muppet pirates),  "holp ee" (help me), "bubba take way" (brother took it away), "watch Hook", and "chocky molk" (chocolate milk).

And since I mention Hook and pirates. To say that my boys love pirates is a huge understatement. They live and breathe pirates. First thing they do in the morning is put on their hats and boots and locate their swords and plastic hook hand cuffs. We're totally having a joint pirate birthday party for them.

 I love my little two year old!

"Cheeeeese!"

Look at these two. Sometimes they don't even look related.

 See, J and my dad share a birthday. I completely forgot to get a picture of them together which is a bummer. But we were able to celebrate together with a little family dinner. My mom made a cobbler for the grownups but these guys loved their pink lemonade cake. I promise Caleb was having fun despite that face.

 He was so proud to be able to blow it out himself. We'd been practicing.

 Don't be fooled. This kid won't touch cake to his mouth. 

I think T or C might have finished his piece off, ha!

And we can't forget Graham! He loved celebrating his little brother and insisted singing to him all day long.
And he loves cake. Well, maybe just the icing...

And happy happy birthday Dad! We very much enjoyed celebrating you and another year of memories, laughter, stories, road trips, AU games, Haiti updates, dog pictures, DDP runs, good conversations, and  tender Papa moments. Love you thiiiiis much daddy!

11.11.11

I turned 29 this year. Which isn't the most exciting birthday. But it fell on 11.11.11 which made it awesome!

Matt and I had big plans for a dinner out to one of our favorite places in St. Louis.  I had no idea that he had been planning and plotting a surprise for months.

He ordered this seriously amazing cake pops from a friend. And she sent instructions to have them grouped in sets of three to read 11.11.11 in their glasses. Aren't they beautiful? Let me assure you, they tasted like little bites of dark chocolate heaven.

Some friends came and surprised me, my mom brought a tiara, and G told me I was a princess for the following week. He begged me to wear the tiara every day, not kidding.

I was so thoroughly surprised that I didn't even clean the bathroom. I always clean the bathroom if people are coming over. Matt really out did himself for me. I'm a lucky lady for sure.

Thanks friends and family for blessing me, thank you family for helping with all the details, and thank you Love for loving me through another year. I hope this next year is full of as many laughs and hopefully less tears than the last!  XO

Twin 2 Year Olds

T and C turned 2 at the end of October. And they love trains. Not just any train, they LOVE Thomas the Train.

So what better way to celebrate them then to go ride a little train? It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon to ride through the colorful mid-west fall woods.

They were in heaven for the entire 45 minute trip. Watching each wheel turn over the tracks, watching the conductors and the steam engine.

We love you T and C and are so thankful for your smiling faces and sweet little voices! They're talking so much now and how they say my name and Graham (they call him Gwup) would make anyone melt.

Happy birthday you two!

3 Years Old!

Who's ready to have a PARTY!

We had G's third birthday party at The City Garden in downtown. We had hoped to have it there but were hesitant to plan it because you know, his birthday is in October.  We lucked out though with warm weather and gorgeous sunshine.

G spent most of the time sprinting through the fountains. Every picture but this one was just a blur of him.

When did he get so big? He was even mature enough to stand next to his cake while we all sang Happy Birthday to him.

And he blew out the candle all by himself. (We had been practicing all week!)

We are so in love with our little Graham. He has more personality and emotions than a room full of teenagers.

He would eat yogurt (only from Trader Joes), cheesits, and an apple for every meal. He never puts down his little police man guy - not even in his sleep. He prefers to stay in his pj's most days and always asks to "dress in B clothes" if I tell him we have to get dressed. "B clothes" are jeans, a plaid button down, and his brown chucks. This kid cries buckets if I make him wear a regular long sleeve shirt. So most/all days he is all dapper in a plaid button down.

And I saved the best for last - this little guy is wearing undies. That's right. As of the beginning of December he's been consistently using the bathroom. Can you believe? Join me in my shock and major excitement! It all started on our long road trip in November (pics coming) where he realized how disgusting it was to use his diaper in his carseat. He hated it. The next week he was all about the pull-up and then he wanted to go big. His motivation wasn't the candy we were bribing him with, or the toys, it's to be a "big boy" by the time B gets home from the army. G loves him some B. Plus, who wouldn't be excited about Pixar undies?

We love you sweet Graham. Your tender heart, your passion, your intense focus. We know that God has big plans for you. And we are so excited to see Him work in your life, even at this young age!