The New Arrival - It's A Boy

Well, our little boy is finally here!!! He was born October 21st (one day before his due date) at 3:12am, weighing 7lbs. 11 oz and measuring 20 1/2 inches. I was so ready to meet this baby and have him out of me. That last month really gets you ready for labor. You just want to be done. 

This picture was taken about two hours before I went into labor. I have gone into labor within an half  hour of laying down for bed with all three of my kids.

I was so excited when they told me his weight. All three of my kids weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. I think that's so cool!!

Dad is enjoying giving The Chief (that name is hubby's idea we'll see if it sticks) a bath.

I can't believe I have three kids now.

We're coming home. I'm always in a big hurry to get out of the hospital.

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz...

There is a gal at Matthew's work who is really into mustaches, and she gave The Chief this cute binkie. I wonder where she found it. 

So you may be wondering how the other kiddos are adjusting to the new arrival. Lizard thinks he's great and enjoys holding him and Little Bird is adjusting pretty well. She is struggling a little with getting less attention, but thinks the baby is pretty neat. 

Just this morning while I was changing his diaper she heard him crying and she grabbed the pacifier from her dad, walked up the stairs and put it in his mouth. Later on she came up from the basement saying "baby, baby," but could find him. She walked around the entire house, up and down the stairs calling for the baby. I think she's going to be a great big sister if she doesn't poke his eyes out first. :)

Baby Shower in a Box

My sister is amazing. She is constantly serving both her family (she has four kids!) and others. She takes meals, sews curtains, babysits, and if she finds out you're not having a baby shower, she'll do that too. Well, she found out I wasn't having one so when my parents came to visit from California she sent them with a "shower in a box." My mom, dad and Lizard helped decorate and set up the games (while I was in the basement) and then we had a party. It was so much fun and came just in time. Three hours after the party ended I went into labor.

 Lizard set up all the games and I was told she really enjoyed herself.

 One of the games was guess how many Skittles are in the bottle. Mom mom ended up winning that one. The yarn was for guessing the size of my tummy. Dad beat out hubby on this one by an inch.

 My sister cut out and glued on every circle of those cute hanging decorations. She also made the cute baby banner that's on the fireplace.

Hubby's job was to sneak getting a cake. Lizard took care of the decorating.

This was a fun game. You put the paper plates on your head and have 30 seconds to draw a baby. The one on the right is my dad's (I thought he was looking), the one on the left is my mom's, and the one above is hubby's. He ended up winning because I thought it was cute.

Guess the baby food game. The boys took this very seriously. My dad ate almost half a jar trying to figure out the mango flavor. Nobody liked the green beans. In the end it was a three way tie and my dad won when he guessed the number closest to the one in my head.

I played this game and actually won. Little Bird is still young so the baby items are fresh in my mind. The boys had a hard time with this one.

Put the cotton balls in the bowl blindfolded game. This one was a draw.

In the end it was the boys who won most of the games and my mom said that's why they're not invited to baby showers. I thought it was fun to see them have the shower experience. Thanks to my awesome sister for throwing such a great party. I wish she could have been here!!

Fall Fun

Our tree doesn't drop a lot of leaves at once, so it took raking almost the entire yard just to get this little pile, but it was worth the effort. The girls had so much fun.

 

Every so often you can see in a photo just how blue Lizard's eyes are.

Birthdays - Not One But Two

Hubby and I both have October birthdays...in fact I am exactly one year and three days older than him. I also share my birthday with my grandma and out of my 34 years of existence we have celebrated all but three of those birthdays together. We missed one while I was in college (she went to New York City), another while I was on my mission in Japan, and this past birthday because I'm in Omaha and can't fly. :( 

Here are some of the highlights from our birthday celebrations.

I thought it would be fun to make cupcakes this year. Hubby and I are both huge fans of coconut and German Chocolate Cake is one of our favorites. 

 Lizard went shopping with her dad and picked out her own presents and card this year. There is a note in the picture frame saying "Put Picture of Baby in Here." She did such a good job.

Here is something else you might not know about me: I really like Pez containers. I've been collecting them for over 20 years and I think they are so fun. My dream is to one day have a wall of Pez. For my birthday my mom gave me a box of Pez Presidents  (old school like Washington, Adams, etc.). Definitely a great addition to my collection.

Besides the cupcakes, I also made a mini cake to put candles on.

 

 The table all set up for Hubby's big day.

Little Bird helped pick this present out for her daddy.

Some presents from the Lizard. She used her own money to buy presents for her dad too.

Since we already had a cake three days earlier I decided to make hubby's favorite Seven Layer Bars. Little Bird thinks they look good.

Ready for the Cold

In a previous post I shared a pic of Little Bird looking very cold and grumpy. Well, we've addressed the problem and here is the result.

She actually keeps the hat and mittens on (for the most part) because she thinks they are cats and she is a big fan of cats. I'm not going to tell her otherwise.

Costumes from Halloween's Past

One of the best parts about Halloween are the costumes. My favorite thing to do as a family is coordinate our costumes, though hubby isn't to into that so it's usually me and the kids...or kid as it was for a few years. I am probably just indulging myself, but I thought I would post some photos of costumes from previous Halloweens.

Lizard was destined to be a fan of Halloween. Here she is at 3 months.

The poor girl was sweating like crazy in this costume. It was an unseasonably warm night and she couldn't keep the head of her chicken on because it was just too hot. (Not sure why dad was in a jacket, I guess he gets cold easily.) That year Halloween was on a Sunday so we had a multi-ward trunk or treat on Saturday that was a lot of fun.

It was total luck that Lizard and I coordinated so well. I bought her costume the year before on clearance and found mine on sale the following year at Old Navy. It was meant to be.

 

This is Lizard as Little Miss Muffet. The dress was her Sunday Easter dress and I sewed the petty coat and bloomers out of pillow cushions and eyelet trim.

It's a little hard to tell in this photo, but I was the spider who sat down beside her. I sewed stuffed dress socks to a turtle neck for my extra six arms. I ran fishing line through all of them so they would move when my arms moved.

These are some costumes I sewed for pumpkins I entered into hubby's work party contest. They didn't win anything, but I did have fun making them.

They weren't allowed to dress up at Lizard's school so as a way around it the kindergartners were all allowed to dress up as scarecrows. I bought the shirt at Goodwill and added flannel to look like straw. It is a little thick, but at least it isn't scratchy.

I was the witch one more time and Lizard was my black cat. I think this was one of her favorite costumes. She loves pretending to be an animal.

 In first grade you could dress up by choosing a "career." She wasn't so sure about this costume I suggested, but when she got to school and everyone wanted to play with her net she decided it was pretty cool after all.

 The coolest part about these costumes are the toe socks...only your big toe is separated so you can wear the flip flop like Japanese shoes.

This costume actually was on loan from her aunt who received it when my parents went on a trip to Holland. I had big plans to be a windmill with her, but it didn't quite come together.

 

This was for our ward trunk or treat last year. I wouldn't let her wear her "real" costume because I was saving it for the big day. She makes a cute cowgirl.

 

I had bought the Dumbo costume on super duper clearance at a Disney store when Lizard was probably 2 years old hoping that someday I would get to use it. Little Bird happened to be just the right size for it and so her costume became the inspiration for our costumes.

 

So the peanut hat didn't last long, but I really enjoyed making this costume. Lizard was a good sport to be a vintage bag of peanuts in order to match her sister. The back of the costume has red stripes on it. 

 

At some point in the evening Little Bird managed to kick off her elephant feet and though I scoured the neighborhood I could never find them. I'm surprised she kept the head on. 

As you can see I decided to be a clown. I made the skirt out of various colors of tulle and the bow tie out of felt.

October = Halloween = Happiness

Some of you might not know this about me, but I LOVE Halloween. While I am a fan of all the holidays, Halloween is definitely my favorite. It is so much fun. Here are some pictures of my house (the photos aren't that great) all decorated up. If you can believe it I actually cut back on decorations this year...I am about to have a baby after all. :)

 

 I am a huge fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas. In High School I made a Sally costume for one of my Young Women's goals. I have a "Jack" cover for my phone, I made my ringtone from one of the songs in the movie, my checks are Nightmare Before Christmas...you get the idea.

 These decorations are all on top of the piano in the living room.

 Cobwebs are important. Lizard even got into the act and put cobwebs all over her room.

 More of Nightmare.

 The guy on the left is from hubby's side of the family.

 I love these spiders that I found at the dollar store. The bats and other window decor I cut myself.

 I collected some dead branches from the back yard and placed them in a tall vase I usually have bamboo in. It is my Halloween Tree. The photo is pretty bad and it looks better in person.

 As you can see from my decor I'm really into the "happy" part of Happy Halloween.

 Are you diggin' the cool 1970's fireplace?

Lizard keeps trying to talk me into buying a blow up for the front yard but I haven't caved yet.