Four Months Old

I was dusting the other day when I realized how labor-intensive this chore is because of CJ's imagination. There are clutter fests of toys in every room, on every surface. And each one tells a story, and if I move any on of the 500+ items from any given "scene," he recognizes it immediately. They are carefully thought-out cities, battles, parking lots, combat zones.

Drew was blessed the day after Christmas and it was such a special event for us. We felt so blessed to have both of our dads, my grandpas and all of our brothers there to participate in his blessing. There was something so sweet about having a baby at Christmas time, especially as we sang one of my very favorite Christmas hymns "Away in a Manger."

Christmas 2010

We spent this year in Utah with all of our relatives and had such a fun time. It was the baby's big debut meeting everyone which made it all the more special. I just loved having a baby at Christmas time!
Christmas morning after opening all the presents.
This toy is literally made for one year-olds but Trey's favorite thing to do is drive! He walks around the house with the steering wheel from Mario Kart on the Wii and pretends it's his car so we bought him this little steering wheel toy and he loved it!
He also loves anything with an on and off switch and a motor. So he was in heaven with the pretend leaf blower he got from his grandparents.
We got CJ an iPod touch.

My nephews got this sweet little puppy from Santa. And my boys were in love with her.

They were also in love with the money they earned at my mom's house during BINGO-for-cash-sleep-over-night. Each grandchild won over $20 bucks!



Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

My sweet niece Anna recently came to visit and made Drew this cute little hat, in Utah colors, of course.

Thanksgiving!

I didn't realize that CJ had made some sweet signs that he taped on our front door to greet our Thanksgiving guests.

Trey is addicted to Just Dance 2
My niece is the cutest girl in the world and my boys LOVE her. I mean, LOVE her. When she comes to visit the boys are in heaven and they both cry when she leaves. Literally, heartbroken cries. It's terrible.
This one is spoiled and won't sleep during the day unless he's being held. So it's awesome when all the relatives leave after snuggling him all weekend and I can't get anything done because he's screaming to be held.
We had so much fun hosting Thanksgiving in the new house. It was a lot of work getting everything ready, but we loved it. So mom, thanks for all the work you put into all of the holidays - I have a new appreciation!

Lucky

Halloween 2010
A pumpkin who hated his hat, a sweet little trash can and an army guy who wouldn't let me camouflage paint his face. But they had a great time in our new neighborhood where there were tons of kids and decorated houses. I didn't get the yearly picture of Lucy in her hot dog costume, but as usual, she was a hit.

Drew Harrison - 8 pounds, 2 ounces, 21" long

Today was my due date. I was supposed to be moved into my new house and all settled in before having Mr. Drew. Rewind to 22 days ago when my mom was up here helping me pack my house. I was feeling miserably pregnant and was totally worthless, while my mom did her turbo-charged thing and literally packed almost my whole house.

And in return, she had a heart attack. Literally. So I take her to the emergency room and while they're yadaydaing about all the horrible scary stuff she's got to go through to figure out what caused the heart attack, I go into labor.

So as soon as they put my mom out to do an angiogram, I headed upstairs to labor and delivery and sure enough, I was at a five and ready to go! Besides my mom suffering downstairs, the problem was that my doctor only delivers at the downtown hospital and we were at the closer hospital to my house. And hilariously, the cardiologist told me they could transfer my mom once she was stable enough - like we were going to be bedded up next to each other. Wouldn't that have been awesome - her heart could have started firing on all pistons just watching me have contractions!

So, I went home, had a miserable night while we waited for my dad and brother and sister-in-law to arrive and headed to the downtown hospital the next day. I checked in already measuring at a seven and because he was posterior, the sent me walking around the halls. I have no shame - I headed down to the main gift shop (gown and all) to make Chad buy me some penny candy. He told me to do lunges in the hallway and I tried one and about died. Then we laughed, and then we had a baby. And he is beautiful. I wished for a dark-haired baby and I got one - finally! And then my mom and I cried a lot on the phone - she in one hospital bed, I in another, across town. And then we discussed what was good on the room service menu (the peanut butter cookies and that was it).

And, because that wasn't exciting enough, our movers showed up the next day and my poor husband moved us in the midst of TOTAL chaos. I didn't see him again until it was time for me to go home and he had to come pick us up at the hospital. But, because I couldn't do anything else, I thoroughly enjoyed those two days with Drew. There's something I love about being in the hospital because it's the only time it's just me and my baby and no craziness around. I just held him and loved on him the entire time while watching general conference. It was lovely.

And then I came home - to a new (although very lovely) home, it was crazy. We had family here helping with the move, I was totally emotional, couldn't even find the diapers or baby blankets in all the boxes and so I cried. And then my awesome brother Ryan who I know without a doubt was inspired, called me and I was crying and he got on a flight the next day to help us. This is the same brother who had already driven up with my dad and spent the weekend watching our boys and packing the rest of my house. He literally went home from our house and turned around and came back up. I knew he was worn out, but he was so helpful. Isn't family the best?

So, to recap: Mom - heart attack. Me - early labor. Chad - moves our entire house WHILE taking his MBA finals. I leave one night to take my mom to the ER and come home to a new house with a new baby. All within three days.

I had prayed this whole pregnancy that I would be blessed to go into labor when family was here to take care of my boys because when I had Trey, the opposite happened and it was so stressful. So my prayer was definitely answered - we had plenty of family around and going between hospitals! Thankfully, everyone is doing great and my mom is on the mend. They're not sure what caused the heart attack (all tests showed a "pristine" heart and arteries), they suspect a virus attacked the heart.

I'm in love with my three boys and enjoying every minute of the newborn phase. I look at him today and think I'm lucky that I got three extra weeks of him here on this earth (and that he didn't wait until today because the doctor said he would have easily weighed 1o pounds).

My little home body started preschool and was convinced that school was going to be "stupid and dumb" and he just wanted to "stay home with mommy." You could take him to Disneyland and after an hour he'd ask how long it was going to be before he and I could go home and hang out together. I love that he wants to be with me all the time because he's such an easy-going child but I knew he needed to get out and get socialized so preschool was a must! And here's how excited he was on the first day...

I am happy to report that two weeks later, he has decided he likes it and doesn't cry at all when I drop him off anymore. He just asks me if I'm going to wait on the preschool porch for him the entire time he's in there.

On Sunday I set the camera on the BBQ to get a self-timed picture of our family -  the last one as a family of four!

Le Nursery
Again, just documenting what's got to be taken down and moved in the next few weeks. I wanted bright, fun colors and pretty much repurposed stuff I already had, except for buying a new crib and painting the walls.

The white dresser was mine when I was a little girl and the old scooter belonged to my mom. I gave the dresser a fresh coat of white paint and replaced the old wooden knobs.



Even though this will be baby boy #3, I wanted to do new crib bedding. I bought inexpensive, plain white bumper pads from Ikea and covered them in the scooter fabric and then made a new crib skirt.