Slacker

I know I'm a slacker. But really, I think I have a good excuse :) Adjusting to having baby # 3 has been a little harder than I thought it would be. Lance is a really good baby, but he wants to eat every hour and is not the best at napping. We did solve his colic problem, I had to stop eating chocolate. I'm not terribly thrilled about that, but he's a much happier baby now. I'm so glad Emma's in school all day long, but I still miss her tons. She's a really good helper. There are a lot of times when Lance will start crying and I'm in the middle of doing something, so Emma will go and pick him up to help out. She will usually sing to him or try and burp him. She's such a good girl. Maggie doesn't care much for his crying, she just covers her ears and tries her best to ignore him. It's pretty funny. But she's a good help too, she wants so much to carry him around like Emma does, but he's almost as big as her. That's kind of a problem for me. We love having Lance here. He's such a sweet baby! He grunts all the time, especially while he's eating. It makes me laugh. He's growing so fast. He's 12.6 lbs and I'm not sure how long right now. He's grown out of most of his 0-3 month onesies and some outfits and now is on to 3-6 months. It makes me a little sad, he shouldn't be growing this fast! He's most likely my last baby and I want him to stay that way for a while.We've been trying to be careful about taking him out. I'm a little paranoid about RSV, I won't lie. I'm not sure I would be so much, but I had a friend who lost their baby boy to RSV last April, he would have been a year old just this last December. That has put some serious fear in me. I'm not sure I could survive that. So those of you who haven't seen us for a while, you probably won't for a while more. I went to church once with Lance, and then he got sick, so that won't be happening again for a couple months. We'll see how it goes. I know that I can't stay cooped up here for too much longer, it is killing me. But in the end, it's all worth it right? Overall, we've been doing pretty good. Nick is an amazing husband. He's been so good to do my grocery shopping and help me wherever he can. Lance has a lot of late nights, so Nick has been the one to get up and get Emma ready for school in the morning. That's not always an easy task. But he still does it. I'm not sure I could survive this without his help. Thanks Nick, you really are the best, and I appreciate what you've been doing for our family! Love you!!

The New Arrival

He's finally here! After a lot of anticipation, our cute little boy was born on Tuesday, December 1st. I started having contractions that morning around 4 am. They were far enough apart that I could sleep in between them. But around 6 am they started getting a lot closer. So Nick got up and started getting things ready. We were pretty much ready to go, but just a few little things we needed to get together. I was really hoping that we wouldn't have to leave real soon, the girls were sleeping and I knew once we got them in the car they were awake for good. But around 7:00 am we packed them in and headed to Grandma & Grandpa Powell's house. Emma realized what was going on and was thrilled beyond belief. She was so cute, while we were on the way, I was having a bad contraction. She sits right behind the passenger side, so she reached up as far as she could and started rubbing my shoulders and reminding me to breathe. It was so sweet! So we got the girls dropped off and headed to the hospital, fortunately right next to the grandparents house! We got checked in and by 8 am they were getting my epidural in. How do people not want those??? After that I was feeling great! My dad and mom both went into work, but left early. Dad showed up around 9:30 and then mom showed up at 10:30. She just barely made it on time, they had me start pushing around 11:00 and our sweet little Lance got here at 11:07. He weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz and 20 inches long. He's got big hands and big feet, I love it!
He's been such a good baby! We brought him home from the hospital on Thursday and since then my girls have been my shadow. They follow me everywhere I go, as long as I'm carrying Lance. They love holding him and watching him. They think this is pretty wonderful. They want to hold him all the time, I have to remind them that he's here for good, there's plenty of time to hold him. Nick and I are pretty excited to have our little boy! Nick has been awesome. He took the week off of work and has had the girls entertained and taken care of. I feel so lucky to have such a good support here at home with me. He's already been pee'd on and hasn't decided he's done changing diapers yet. It's much appreciated! Thanks Nick for everything, you're the best!

Pumpkin Patch/Parent teacher conference

Yesterday was Emma's parent teacher conference. I'm proud to report that she's doing excellent. She's always been a smart little fart, and her grades are showing it. She's jumped up to a 3rd grade level in reading and above grade level on everything else. The teacher says her only concern is her reading comprehension in the level she's at. I'm not terribly stressed about this as she's still above her grade level, but we have already started working on it. I know Emma loves school and enjoys doing her school work, I've been in the school a lot to help and have seen it first hand. My biggest concern was her respecting the teacher, but the teacher says she's never had disciplinary problems with Emma. I wish I could say the same for at home! But overall, both Nick and I are very proud of Emma and her willingness to work hard. So as a reward we took Emma & Maggie to the Pumpkin Patch. Our girls love going, and so do I. It's just a fun thing! It didn't take the girls very long to pick out the pumpkins they liked, so after we played in the corn maze and took pictures on the tractors.

Honesty

Yesterday after Nick got off of work, he went and got a hair cut. It was getting a little long and shabby, so it was about time. When he got home, it was the first thing Maggie noticed. Maggie says, "Hi dad! Did you get a hair cut?" Dad, "Yes I did." Then I pipe in and say, "It looks so good, doesn't it Maggie?" Her response...."No it doesn't!" I just love kids' honesty. Most days her honesty isn't so harsh. She usually tells Nick, "You're a good guy dad!" Luckily we know that she still loves him.

Maggie the Pumpkin Fairy

About a week ago my neighbor called me about having Maggie wear a costume from her website on Studio 5. She said she needed a little girl who wouldn't freak out when we needed them to stand in front of the camera for a minute or two. So we said sure. Maggie's not a shy little girl and we thought she'd do okay. So Sherry, my neighbor, made the cute little costume for Maggie. She got to be a pumpkin fairy. We get to the studio on friday around 10 am and they have us do a walk through so the kids know what they're doing. On our first walk through, Maggie freaked out. She didn't want to stand on the little X and did not want to stand with the other little boy, Traver. Every time we tried to talk to her about it she flipped out. The other little girl, Rachel, who's the same age as Maggie, had zero problems in the walk through. She was excited to do it, so we thought. Well, luckily, I brought Nick with me. It came time to have the kids go out, and Rachel wouldn't go out without her mom, and we had to carry Maggie out, but she was fine after about 5 seconds, thanks to Nick. He stood behind the camera and danced the whole time to get her to laugh and smile. All the people on the set were watching Nick and laughing. It was pretty funny. He was a life saver. So, check out the link to the video.
http://studio5.ksl.com/?nid=71&sid=8333818

Root Beer Floats

On Tuesday afternoon, I was looking through the weekly ads and saw ice cream on sale. I was telling Nick that I'd been craving a root beer float for weeks. The only reason I hadn't gone to get the ice cream and root beer is because I knew it wouldn't make just one and I didn't want to get addicted to having one every night. After that explanation I got a strange look from Nick and was told I'm weird. Thanks, I knew that. So we go through our day and I headed off to my YW activity around 6:30. I got home around 8:30, and this is exactly what I saw when I walked inside....
There it is....just what I'd been craving. Ice Cream, my favorite mug and a can of root beer (with a lot more in the fridge). What a good husband I have!!! My girls have been more than willing to help me work through the extras in my fridge, but I won't lie....I have had one every day. It was one of those aahhhh... moments. You know, when I look at Nick and say, aahhh..... What a good husband I have!!! Thank you Nick, and I love you lots!

Back in business

Good news, we finally have a new computer and now I can get my blogging up to date! I don't have any pictures on this computer yet, so stay tuned. There will be a large post, or couple of posts coming your way soon!