First Day of School

Well Tyler was more than a little excited to go to school today. His school starts at 11:45 and he has been asking when school starts since he got up at 8:30. Yeah needless to say we were one of the first kids there. He also wanted his hair into a faux-hawk but mom failed so spiky is how it ended up. The boy had a very hard time picking out his clothes this morning. Yesterday there was an open house and he knew just what to wear, a Toy Story shirt that put his head on Woody's body, today it took 15 minutes for him to pick. He insisted on a Batman backpack which we searched for weeks to find, and finally as a last resort we looked at Kmart in Jackson while we were there for a funeral this weekend, and they had 1 batman backpack, so that's why it's bigger than he is.
This is what Connor did while Tyler was at school.

Connor had a TOTAL meltdown this morning when he realized he did not get to school today. To the point he ended up in his room for over half an hour screaming this morning so I told him we would do letter practice and read and he was then content to stay home and start school next week.

Baby Blessing

Well on the 25th of July, right before my Bear Lake reunion we blessed Bailey. most of my siblings were able to make it. Brian's mom and sister were there and his best friend Dallas, his wife and parents were also able to make it. This is the bet picture we got as a family that day, yeah 2 kids was hard, 3 is pretty much impossible to get good pictures of. Oh and the boys had spent the day before at the Air Show and were REALLY sun burnt.

He likes her I swear

See

He was just cute

She likes him I swear :)

Hair bow by Shannon(sister), Blanket by Jessica(SIL), Dress by Lori Ann(cousin)

My cousin made me this dress more than 10 years ago when I was still in high school. After 2 boys we were beginning to believe it may hang unused in my closet forever. Since Bailey is SO little the dress was a little big on her but still beautiful! She did well and the blessing was nice. And Brian was really glad that the microphone was missing so only our family could hear what he was saying since he hates public speaking.

Family Reunion 2010

This year we had a family reunion at Bear Lake. My dad's family has a reunion here every other year and this was the year. My siblings were all together with all our kids and it's been like 4 years since that happened last. We stayed all together in one big cabin, which we have since vowed to NEVER do again. But it went pretty well, other than ther always being someone sick so at least 1 of the 3 bathrooms was always off limits to everyone else. (38 people, 3 bathrooms total, not OK)
We did crafts played games and just sat around and talked a lot. Here are just a few pictures of some of what we did...

Danielle OcklerChristian Kidd

Just a few of the boys playing Rock BandEhren rocking it out! bow making

Kids crafting on the deck

My brother and sister-in-law doing the ironing of the crafts,

with a few kids waiting for their turn for their craft to be ironed

more bow making (we did it almost every day)

more crafting on the deck

Bailey's 1st time in the pool

more poolshe actually really liked it and I was SHOCKED

here is her very first attempt at the pool

cousins watching Bailey's 1st pool adventure

It was really fun and there were no real injuries or fights or anything. Pretty amazing I thought. The kids had a lot of fun playing with all their cousins, 22 total at the time (23 now but that's another post). There was a lot of Geo-cashing, swimming, beach going, running, screaming, laughing, and late night talking. We were glad to come home and be able to sleep and shower and do laundry whenever we want. Bailey did not enjoy the reunion for the most part. We had never given her a bottle and when it gets noisy she REFUSED to eat so I would have to shut us in a closet (the only quiet one was the one in our room that connor had also decided should be his urinal so it didn't smell so hot in there) and calm her for like 30 minutes every time she wanted to eat. Needless to say I was more than exhausted by the time we got home.

So many firsts

Well it has been a month of firsts. Of course many of them were Bailey's. Her first Doctor's appointment (and second and third), her first trip to Wyoming, her first trip to grandma's and many many others.

I have noticed I did not get any better at picture taking with the 3rd, even though she is a girl, than I ever was with the boys so there are few pictures of any of these events, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

At the most recent doctor's appointment she weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs. Yeah at 1 month old my smallest boy was 11 lbs so this is new territory for us having a child in the 30%s not the 90+. Yeah she still fits in all her newborn clothes and drowns in most her 0-3 month clothes.

When I was looking into getting Tyler on a soccer team for the summer I came across a firefighter day camp. Anyone who spends much time with Tyler knows he is obsessed with firefighters and being one when he grows up. So he was more than a little excited to participate in the firefighter camp. It lasted a 4 days and was only a few hours in the morning but he got to do lots of fun things, like shoot the fire hose, use the radios, ride in the fire truck, wear the clothes(which are called turnouts I learned), and run an obstacle course of firefighter skills. The video below is from the all camp competition he competed in to see who would be riding the fire truck in the local 4th of July parade. He didn't win but did receive the sportsmanship award which gave him a gift certificate to a local laser tag, mini golf, arcade, and fun zone.

At the final competition, as we were setting up the chairs to watch Ty I noticed his mouth looked a little funny. I looked a little closer and we realized he has a loose tooth, yet another first. He has been telling me it hurt to eat corn and apples and other similar food but I thought, it's almost time for another dentist trip so maybe he just has a cavity but after seeing the tooth wiggle the genius part of my mom brain kicked in and discovered a loose tooth on the bottom. But he is really nervous about losing his first tooth so doesn't want to wiggle it much so who knows when it will actually come out.

Potty training, yet another first. Tyler required no effort at all, literally. So when it was time for Connor to potty train I had no idea where to start. We have been trying for about a year to potty train him to no avail. Well the birth of Bailey served as motivation enough for him to decide he cared and wanted to go potty on his own. It hasn't been perfect but so much closer than we were a month ago for sure. He never has more than 1 accident a day so we may just make it to potty trained before preschool in September.

Bailey Lyn

She's here!! 7 lbs 14 oz 20 inches long. Born at 9:31pm June 5. Right after her first bath

First Bow

All toasty after her first bath

Daddy Holding her after her first bath

She's here. We love her. So far she is super easy. She cries when she's hungry or poopy, and that's about it. She sleeps 3-4 hours at a time She eats like a champ, surprising even the nurses. We did have a little choking, lips turning blue spell or 2 but after I convinced the stupid nurse it wasn't that I was a new mom and just worried too much they cleaned her out and she hasn't done it since. This happened with Connor too so I knew what needed to happen even if the nurse thought I was too stupid to know. She even made Brian mad, which if you know him is pretty hard to do. She talked to me as if I was 8 or had NO idea what a baby was and how to handle it. Oh well, she never told me her name in the 12 hours she was my nurse so I couldn't tell anyone who she was anyway.

We came home Monday morning and have had it pretty easy. She seems able to sleep through her brothers quite well and lets me sleep for like 6 hours at night (not at one time but still pretty good). The boys seem to have adjusted really well. Maybe now Connor will be able to potty train, yeah right but it's a nice thought anyway.

WE are doing well and so far even thinking it isn't that much harder with 3 than 2, but Brian goes back to work next week so we'll see how I do for 4 days a week without him.

Bailey's birth

Well the baby arrived. We were scheduled to be induced Friday June 4th but of course this being Rexburg, the hospital was full so they delayed it to Saturday. The boys were really excited to have the baby and were really glad the hospital had time to get the baby out on Saturday. We checked in a little after 11 and after waiting for the doctor for quite a while the nurse just put in my IV and started the fluids. Lets just say I am a hard stick and ended up with the IV right on top of the bone in my right wrist, not a convenient or comfortable place. At 1 the doctor finally came in and said we were good to start the induction. After some more waiting they finally started the medicine. I ended up having my blood drawn twice in the next 2 hours because the doctor ordered the wrong test the 1st time. Yeah this was not exactly the doctor I had hoped for the 2 I like were not on that weekend of course.

The doctor told me if I hadn't made good progress he was sending me home, never what you want to hear. Well luckily I had made enough progress that he didn't send me home. We waited 3 more hours and after much effort from the anesthesiologist, finally got the epidural in. I guess my back is really tight, which they always say is a sign of a healthy back but that doesn't make the 40+ minutes it took to get it in any more enjoyable or the recovery from where they put it any less painful. By a little after 7 the epidural was in and working great. I started feeling lots of pressure and by 930 the baby was here. That means 5 hours off my last induction (18, 13, and this one was 8).

So a few bumps in the road but over all a smooth entrance into the world. She eats and sleeps really well and poops like a champ. Like within an hour of birth, when the nurse was getting ready to bather her she pooped on the nurse. Yeah we found it highly entertaining. I had to wait what seemed like forever for the removal of my IV and epidural once again because of strange doctor's orders. So I could do nothing for like 3 hours after she was born.

The boys got to come the next morning and LOVED her. They fought over who got to hold her and how long they got to hold her for and who she looked like. They were very said that they couldn't take her home when they left but they were able to come back later that night with my parents and were really glad to know we would all be home together Monday.

HOLY CRAP!!!

The title of this post has oh so many meanings. First, our family has all had the flu which means lots of barfing, sleeping and well, you can guess what else. This is Connor on one such flu stricken day. This kid never holds still or takes naps so this should tell you just how ill he was feeling. Tyler was equally sick and lethargic for a day but Connor was down for an entire week again. I even got to be sick for about 2 days. I thought we were all over it when my aunt with downs syndrome that I am taking care of while my parents are out of town got it for 2 days. But now I think it has actually finally completely run its course through my sisters kids too.
On the last day of Connor's sickness when he was done throwing up and just really tired he asked if we could go baby shopping because he'd delayed it multiple times due to the sickness. We did make it to the mall and got a lot of shopping done in the store after spending one of the sick days online shopping. So now I think we actually are almost totally outfitted for the baby. After the mall we went to feed the ducks on the green belt and that's what the 2 pictures below are from. This is the only time I let Connor walk at all, I had made him ride in the cart or stroller the entire time. After this we went to a fabric store and Connor asked if we could be done so he could take a nap. See very odd since he HATES naps. He took a 4 1/2 hour nap as soon as we left the store. He fell asleep within 2 blocks of the store and continued to sleep until nearly bed time. Got up ate, and went to bed for the night.

Brian had been asking me for an updated belly pic and so this is the best I have, it's almost a month old now. Yes I know you can't see my face and that is on purpose. I can handle the fat belly but the swollen face is not my favorite part of pregnancy.

In other news we are moving for Brian to go back to school. This means the next 2 weekends I will be in Jackson packing like crazy so that we can actually live in the apartment by May 15th because Brian will be home around May 20th. We are SO SO SO excited for him to finally come home. He has been gone for almost 6 months and we are not loving being without him. Tyler and I have been looking at he calendar quite regularly to see how many days til daddy gets home and how many days til the baby comes. It seems weird that the baby is due in 5 weeks because there is so much craziness happening between now and then. It seems like with my other pregnancies the baby gets all the attention and that's what all the excitement builds up to but this baby is the end to 9 months of craziness so as of yet I'm not too anxious for her to get here but I'm sure once Brian gets home I'll be more than ready to get her here. Oh and we do officially know it is a girl. The boys came with me to a doctors appointment and when the nurse discovered we didn't know for sure she got the ultrasound tech to do a quick check and she was much less shy this time.