Will I name him the same thing?

Okay, I took care of his diaper. When I finished Macy said the darnedest thing.

To Braden: "If you choke on something you will die. Then you will live again"

To Me: "Right mom? Will you name him the same thing?"

Accidents do happen...

... but hopefully they will be exceptionally rare and Macy will learn to listen to her mother.

There is this ongoing battle at our house. Macy thinks she can do more than her mom thinks she can do. She also thinks she knows a whole lot more than her mom knows. Braden has been caught in the middle of this battle and has received the harm. He has now fallen 2 times in 2 days.

Macy thinks he is her baby doll (he will have 2 mothers for the rest of his life) and thus she carries him and lays him down all over the house against her mother's wishes. Yesterday I was on the phone with Qwest and before I knew it she was in his room with him. Of course the rocking chair's footstool seemed like the perfect size and spot for him. That is until Kelsey pushed the rocking footstool and he fell off.

This morning I was out of the room and again he was swooped up. Next thing I heard was a small thud and a loud cry. I am still not entirely sure what really happened.

I have to go now. According to Macy, Kelsey has taken Braden's diaper off because it is full. She says to hurry because he is going to poop on the blanket. I am not sure who actually took the diaper off (another issue in our house) but Macy is the one grabbing diapers and wipes.

Wish Braden luck and pray that we have no more drops.

In the midst of all this...

Our family is moving back to Utah. Brian has accepted a position with his old company from there. It is a little more stable, especially since Centex and Pulte are merging.

Braden Update

This guy is great. He may be loved a little too much by his sisters, if that is possible. His cheeks might get worn out from all the kisses they give him. They never seem to stop. I get a little clausterphobic when I am feeding him his bottle and they kiss him over and over again. I wonder when the novelty will wear off. Besides kisses, Kelsey likes to come up to him and scream "hey baby". I hope he doesn't loose his hearing because of this. Hopefully this trick is coming to an end. Macy loves to hold him and she is a great helper. She is a little confident in her ability to hold him and move him around but I think she can do it.

The results are in and Brian and I think he is a spitting image of Macy. Brian about fell over when I showed him a picture of Macy at about 2 weeks old. He is a little bigger. I measured his feet to Macy's hospital footprints and he has her by at least a fourth an inch. He is quickly filling out in his face and thighs. The scale at his 2 week check up helped solidify our observations because he was 8 lbs. 11 oz.

He is a decent little sleeper. He doesn't have a set bedtime or even a relatively consistent bedtime, but he always gets up at about 1 AM and 4 AM. He eats and is back to sleep in about 30 minutes time. He generally wakes up for the day at 7 AM and is awake for a hour or two.

I think his right eye has a little bit of a clogged tear duct, but of course I forgot to mention this to the doctor. Next appointment I will mention this.

He only likes to poop in clean diapers. The following situation has occurred at least 3 times. I will change his diaper and before he is all dressed again I can smell something funny. I have to change his diaper again and in the midst of the second change he poops some more. I will wait a bit to make sure he is finished. I put on the second clean diaper. And then I will hear or smell something and he will have pooped again. I try not to think of the money he is wasting. He must think it is funny to do this stuff already.

He is a very gasy guy. The first couple of nights he spent in our room and he was always passing gas while he slept. Yesterday I showed him to a friend of mine when I picked up the girls from a friend's home. All the kids were cooing at him while he was in his car seat asleep. Out of no where he farts and all the kids start giggling. My friend had to ask if that was him. He is always burping too. I hope this is not a foreshadowing of things to come.

Family Fun

I bet you all thought that for these past two weeks I was trying to figure out how to be the mother of three adorable children. Well it wasn't exactly like that. In fact it was yesterday (Monday) that I had to face reality on my own. Instead during those two weeks our family was able to spend time with my family and Brian's family.

My mom flew down a couple of days before Braden was born. The girls had a great time playing with grandma. We did some shopping, cleaning, swimming (it was warm while grandma was here without the rest of the posse) and of course some spoiling. We had to make flower hair clips because grandma purchased one for each girl to match their Easter dresses. Well Macy lost hers before Easter came and she was devastated so it was off to craft stores to get the supplies. Now I have a drawer full of flower clips. You will see some of our work in several of the pictures. Before Braden was born I took my mom to a nail salon and we both got pedicures. It was her first one ever.

The Monday after Braden was born Brian took the day off. He was able to play with us and even did some swimming with the girls (it was like 93 that day).

When Braden was a week old the rest of my family came down to join my mom and do a little vacationing and a lot of bonding. It was my brother's spring break and of course he wanted to do some swimming but it cooled off just for them. We even had rain.

The first night they were here we went to the Easter Pageant. The next day we dyed Easter eggs. That same morning Brian and Jake played golf for $80 a person. That was with a discount. It is peak season right now for that sort of thing. In the summer you can get a steal on a round of golf. Can you guess why?


Then Macy and Kelsey talked them into swimming. It wasn't extremely warm that day. In fact it was only in the 70s and the wind was blowing. Only my sisters, Stefanie and Calee, and my brother, Jeff, braved the water.

Don't they look cold. Yes, they are using hippopotamus floats.

That night for dinner we made our way to Joe's BBQ. Mmmm... Delicious!

The next morning was the community Easter Egg Hunt and it was raining. I think my dad brings the colder weather when he comes.

Here is Macy and her best friend Elodie after the hunt. Does it look like we live in Arizona?

After the Easter Egg hunt, I took my sisters to see the great and spacious building, aka the Scottsdale Fashion Mall. It is under construction to add even more shops so it didn't seem as impressive. It was too crowded for my taste. Because of the weather everyone had the same idea as us.

After the mall it was off to a Diamondback game. Brian and I switched places. I stayed home with the baby and he went to play (he didn't go to the mall). The girls made out with the goods there. Kelsey came home with a new shirt and Macy had a new hat. I was told that Macy ate so much junk that she should have been sick. They said that she couldn't be filled up with pizza, hot dogs, nachos, kettle corn and whatever else. Glad she didn't get sick, of course that night she slept at grandma and grandpa's so I wouldn't have had to deal with it.

Saturday night was the last night for a sleepover at grandma and grandpa's place (they rented a house for this visit). And then Sunday brought Easter. The girls were real excited for their Easter baskets. The Easter bunny made a few mistakes. She got the coloring books mixed up and that has been a bit of a fiasco. She also didn't realize how small the baskets were. I didn't buy tons of stuff but the items I did purchase were just a little too large to allow room for the candy.

My parents brought down their dogs so the kids could love/torture them a bit.

Kelsey just can't get enough of these dogs. I hope she gets her fill of dogs with these ones because I don't foresee dogs in our future. I have plenty to keep me busy.

Early Monday morning my family made their way back home and then Brian's parents made their way down that same evening. I am glad they did because they gave Brian and I the chance to get the temple, which sorely needed.

While they were Macy got to do some birthday shopping with grandma. I was afraid she was going to buy out the entire Old Navy girls section. I lost miserably at hearts, again. I don't know why I agree to play. I guess I like to play. We played a some Sequence, which is more of my thing (I can win at this game).

PS I need to mention here that during these 2 weeks Brian and I played Ticket to Ride 3 times and I beat him 3 times in a row. Finally, victory!

Brian took Friday off so we spent a leisurely day eating at the Farmhouse Restaurant, playing in the fountain behind the eatery (Brian's parents got the really nice weather) and checking out their accommodations. Macy thought it was a playhouse and never wanted to leave. She washed clean cups over and over again.

Saturday I ran errands while the rest went to Freestone Park and rode the train and other amusement rides.

Then I caught up with them while they went swimming at the condo's heated pool. Of course I couldn't get in, so I just tried to get a little color and do some reading.

This picture was just too cute to pass up. It was taken on Sunday. This was the last day to play with grandma and grandpa for a couple of weeks.

Introducing...

... Braden!

And our family is excited to have him hear. I know for many of you the name may be in a shock because it was not even on the radar. Brian made me sit down with him the night before the little guy came and come up with a name. Carter wasn't sitting right with him and Ethan was a little too popular. So I started throwing out some more names I liked. Two I really liked were Braden and Kaden, but our cousin already had a Kaden. So we decided to go with the first.

He weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz. and a height of 20 3/4 inches. The labor was not so bad especially because I had an epidural and was induced (I love knowing the end date). From start to finish labor was about 5 1/2 hours. Brian and I were expecting it to go a little faster, but the first time I saw my doctor was 30 minutes before Braden joined us. That was when he broke my water and soon after a healthy, content baby was born.

Here he is getting his first bath/shower. See that smile. He let the doctors and nurses do everything to him with so much as a whisper during the entire hospital stay. The one exception was the circumcision, but who can blame him for that one. Every nurse commented on his easiness. Hopefully he stays that way. So far he hasn't let us down.

Here he is all warm and snugly after his bath.

The girls were very excited to see their new brother and all through the day they would ask "when is our brother coming?" They couldn't wait to get to the hospital. When their Macy couldn't stop holding him and that still hasn't worn off. We only stayed 24 hours because the girls never wanted to leave, but they hated staying couped up in the hospital room. Since the hospital practiced what is called "couplet care" (meaning the baby never leaves you so you can take care of them) I thought what is the difference between the hospital and home. Comfort!

Here he is all ready for the ride home.

Here is the proud big sister. She is such a good helper.

Here is my other big helper. Her favorite thing to say is "what's his name again?" I guess we confused them too. However, now it is a fun game to play.

And of course the proud daddy.

I, myself am doing great. I am feeling good and healing well. Sometimes I wish it could be a little faster along with getting back into my pants. (I am a little worried with the heat fast approaching and no "fat" shorts in the closet.) I am also wishing my chest would return to normal a little faster. Hopefully in the next couple of days. At that time I am looking forward to a long, warm, relaxing shower.

Busy Beavers

So I finally finished my other post from last week when I realized another week has gone by. Much has been accomplished.

1. I finished all my "needs" shopping for the baby.
2. My house is clean.
3. My sugar snap peas grown from seeds sprouted. I have never been successful with seeds but thought I should try since the transplants provided were not sugar snap. (This was a Relief Society project.)
4. I played most of the day yesterday. First it was to the gym and then off to lunch with friends. Then a small amount of prep for a party at my house. And finally a get together with some of our friends from Brian's MBA class, without kids. We were actually able to talk and hear one another.
5. Today I cleaned up the pool from the massive wind storm on Thursday (I think). I took a nap and painted Macy and Kelsey's fingernails and toenails. I did a little more cleaning before my mom gets here. I helped Macy write and practice her talk for Primary tomorrow. She seems confident and like she wants to do it. We will see what tomorrow brings. She has not given a talk yet. I have given two.
6. Thursday the doctor thought I would have the baby this weekend and got my hopes up. I told him not to cancel the induction date because it never works that way for me. I don't go into labor on my own.

Brian also has been a busy beaver.

1. He has spent time looking at for boats and cars. He has done a 180 since he was able to keep a job, but there are no promises that anything will come about. See the next line.
2. He has also considered buying a rental property. Home prices have fallen so bad here that he figures we should have some cash flow from it.
3. He helped some friends pack their moving truck.
4. He played tennis this morning. It has been a few weeks.
5. He finished painting our old bar stools black.
6. He trimmed our palm trees.
7. He did our taxes. It looks like we are getting a little bit back. We may owe Arizona a couple of bucks.
8. He hung my new wall hanging we won at his companies employee auction. It was an item from a model home. I think he wanted to curse for buying this because it was a pain to hang and get it level. It took longer than he thought.
9. Numbers 3 through 8 were done today. Number 3 was also done on Thursday night.

Here are my auction purchases. The top picture was Brian's project tonight.

PS: I claim no photography skills. My new decor are cages with fake plants in them.

I need to make a note here for remembrance sake. A few weeks back I was released from my calling as Laurel advisor. I was sad to give this up, but feel at peace with what the Lord wants. I thought I would have a break from service because of the baby, but that is not how the Lord works. A week later I was called to the Enrichment committee. Not a big deal. I like to be involved, but this is something new for me. I am not even sure of everything the Enrichment committee does. I have spent most of my married life in YWs. My two other callings (the only ones I can recall) were cub scout leader and ward literacy specialist. These totaled maybe a year.