Lots of Birthdays

Ethan opening gifts
Finn wanting Ethan's gifts:(

Isn't she beautiful!

Mark's birthday is in a week, but he opened his gifts too.

My kids are crazy because neither one of them wanted cake or ice cream!

It was a fun time, I can't believe my first baby is turning 4! Everyday this week he has woke up and asked, "Am I 4 now?" Happy Birthday sweetie!

On a different note, I'm home today with a sick little Finn. He doesn't have a fever anymore, but lots of kids at church have been sick lately, so I stayed home with him so he doesn't infect anyone else.

This coming week is bringing lots of changes at our house. I'll post more about it later on. I will tell you that it involves a house and a lot of paperwork and borrowing money.....

To be serious, we are excited about the changes coming but it is scary and causes me a little anxiety. I'm trying to balance work (which I love) and 3 kids (which I love even more) and now we will soon be packing boxes. It is a relief somewhat that our town is small so the boxes will only be going a few blocks, but I can't help but wish this was happening during the summertime. It is teaching me more about God's timing and not my own. However, I hope God's timing also consists of more sleep for me and the laundry getting done:)

Birthday Party

Today we had a birthday party for Ethan, my dad, and Mark since their birthdays are so close together. More pictures to come, but here is a sneak at the fun we all had.....

Our Big Boy

Beckett was born at 7 lbs 13 ounces, and is now over 10 pounds!

He is our chunky cutie!

Toy Story

We own a total of 3 kids movies. I'm not sure where 2 of them are, but I know they are somewhere?! The one movie that the boys are allowed to watch is Toy Story. My soon to be 4 year old loves that movie. I've been working out a system where he only gets to watch it on certain weekends and if he follows certain rules, like picking up his toys.

Since both the boys love it so much, I've tried to figure out ways they can interact with the characters without actually watching it since I'm sort of a tv nazi. I bought the boys Buzz and Woody dolls. Well, they aren't really dolls...more like action figures...:)

I've been looking around for other toys or board games that are "toy story". They love playing candyland, so I'm hoping to find something like that. I haven't found much yet, but I'm still on the hunt. We are having Ethan's birthday party Saturday and I'm determined to find Toy Story plates/napkins/etc, along with a few toys that are related to the movie. He will certainly be excited when Toy Story 3 comes out this summer...to be honest, I'm really looking forward to it also!

Weekend

We left Friday afternoon for Lincoln to go to Lemon Days at the mall. They have a huge mall wide sale every year with 75% off lots of items. We did shopping Friday night and then went to our favorite place, Braeda, to eat dinner. We had plans to spend the night in Lincoln with all the boys, which was really fun and I think they loved it. We stayed at Country Inn and Suites for an amazing rate of $80 for the 5 of us...gotta love the "kids stay free" thing!

Saturday we got up and had breakfast there at the hotel. Then left to do a little more shopping at the mall. We got some great deals, for example, I got 3 pairs of dress pants from The Limited for $25 total, LOVE it! The boys did great, better then I expected actually. Except Finn almost lost it by lunchtime on Saturday because he wanted to run around the mall, but a quick stop at the cookie place calmed things down. We ate lunch and drove back home.

I had to be back in town by 1:00 for the "Knowledge Bowl" I helped sponsor on campus. We made it back in time and Mark took the boys home for naps. Poor Ethan wouldn't wake up to go to Beth's birthday party he was invited to...he didn't wake up till 4:30. So we got him and Finn ready instead for the "parents night out" babysitting at the church. It was a fundraiser for the youth mission team, so we gladly dropped off Ethan and Finn along with some money for the night. It started at 5:00 and went till 9:30, so Mark and I just spent a relaxing night with Beckett while Ethan/Finn played games, ate snacks, made crafts, etc. at the church.

This morning we went to church class and church. Finn didn't do too well during church. Beckett was given a few more gifts from church friends, we are so blessed with our church family. Our normal class teacher left last week for Haiti to help with medical issues there. He is an amazing man of God and Mark and I think of him daily now as he does what he can to help heal the Haitian people. I don't think I have the gift of foreign mission work, but I can give money and my daily prayers to those that do!

I'm spending most the day today working and getting ready for the week with lesson plans, etc. All three boys are currently taking their naps:) Have a great start of the week! I have a million pictures I need to do through and hopefully will post some soon.

Here we are

The other day Mark and I went to the store with all the boys to get groceries. We were walking from the car to the store, Mark was carrying Beckett in the car seat. I was walking with Finn holding his hand and Ethan was walking by Mark holding his hand. I looked at the sight of us and had one of those "I can't believe we have three kids" moments. I can't imagine my life without them! I also can't remember what life was really like before them.

There has been dirty laundry in the basket everyday all week and we never seem to get caught up on the cleaning or dishes. But the boys always get their nap in and dinner has been a home cooked meal every night for awhile (okay, that is mostly because I refuse to take three boys out to eat due to the chaos). I consider myself doing pretty well just getting those things accomplished.

I will admit that I'm running on a lack of sleep, but then again, I haven't really had a good nights sleep since my almost 4 year old was born. Speaking of him, Ethan turns 4 in about 10 days. We haven't decided yet what we are doing for it. My dad's birthday, Ethan's birthday, and Mark's birthday are all within 2 weeks of each other, so we may do a combined party or something. I'm constantly surprised by how often people say Ethan is "well behaved". Everytime I pick him up from church class or preschool, the teacher says how he is such a great helper and listens so well. I gotta say that he doesn't act perfectly at home, but at least he acts well outside of home:)

Last weekend Mark's mom came for a visit. It went fast but I think she enjoyed seeing Beckett and getting to know him. The boys get a little crazy when we have people sleep over or stay with us, but it is nice to have people stay anyway. We did some shopping last weekend and Ethan got to buy a new toy story game for our Wii. We are working out a "earning game time" schedule this week where he does certain things around the house to earn time on the Wii. Finn is fighting his sleep schedule lately, but it has been better the last 2 days. And Beckett is just wonderful....did I mention he is perfect:)

Birth Story

Beckett is one month old already. I love him more everyday and I even miss him while he is sleeping! Below is part of my birth story (no gross stuff included:)

I was due December 25th. I wasn't looking forward to being in the hospital over Christmas, but really didn't want him to come super early. Both Ethan and Finn came pretty much on their due date. I had a few contractions 2-3 weeks before I actually went into labor, but nothing super painful. In the very early morning of the 18th, I woke up around 12:45/1:00 a.m. with some pains. They were similar to the contractions I had already had a few weeks prior, so I kinda ignored them. At around 1:30 a.m. I woke up Mark and said we should probably call my parents and tell them to come over. We arrived at the hospital at 2:00 a.m., they checked us in quickly and then checked me. I wasn't in too much pain yet and thought maybe I was around 3-4 cm. The nurse looked at me in concern and said "You're at 6". She called my doctor (who happened to be on call in the ER next door). They gave me an epidural right away. At 3:00 they checked me again and I was at 8. The doctor prepared himself and the nurses got the room ready. They checked me at 3:30 and I was at 10! I felt like everything was going too fast and I really wasn't ready for it all. The doctor broke my water at that point. Then he checked the baby and that is when we realized he was breech. My water had been blocking everyone else when they checked so nobody knew he was breech. At that point they decided to have an emergency c-section. It all happened really quickly after that. Beckett was born via c-section at 5:03 a.m. I got to see him right away and we have some amazing pictures of Mark holding Beckett next to me. I went from being home in bed to being in the surgery room in 4 hours...which for me was just a lot in a little time.

Beckett was perfect when he was born, he didn't cry much and I cherish the time I got with him in the hospital. I was only in the hospital for 36 hours when I had Finn because I wanted to be home. They made me stay at the hospital longer this time since it was my first c-section, which turned out to be wonderful. Mostly because I got to spend 4 days with Beckett where it was just me and him. Mark was there on and off and visitors came and went, but for the most part, it was the two of us. I'll never forget those few days! My favorite part was the early morning. I didn't sleep much while in the hosptial, just because it wasn't my own bed and it is noisy there. So I would be awake around 4 or 5 a.m. with Beckett and we would just lay there and watch the sunrise every morning. If only life were just that simple everyday!

My mornings are different now since I've been home with three kids, but I guess they are just wonderful in a different way.

Bunk Beds

We are now in the Bunk Bed era of life. I've never been a real big fan of them but our boys want to sleep in the same room. We bought a set of bunk beds today and Mark goes to pick them up tomorrow with his truck. So today we're getting things taken down and getting things ready for the new beds. Hopefully they like them!

Early Morning with Beckett

Oh Boys

I'm afraid this blogging thing might be winding down for me....now that Beckett is here our life is full of time with the kids. I am glad to report that yesterday was my first day alone with all three for the whole day and it actually went rather well.

Beckett also had his 2 week checkup with my doctor yesterday. He did great and everything looks good.

School starts up again this weekend and then the semester is off and running. I'm thinking I may not be a good blogger in the coming months but I'm sure most people would rather hold their newborn then blog about it:)

If I get behind on the posts, then check my facebook. I usually post pics there also!