Welcome baby!

After another FAST homebirth, we became a family of five! I went into labor early in the morning on my due date (November 27th) and a little while later we welcomed this guy to our family...

He weighed in at a whopping 9 lb. 12 oz. and measured 21 1/4" long.

The story (the short version)...
Just before 1 a.m. my labor began. It was rather sudden... contractions less than 5 minutes apart. Things were happening just like when I was in labor with Z. I woke Troy up at 1 a.m. and asked him to call my midwife. She lives nearby and knowing my history came over right away. She arrived and got all of her supplies ready. Troy filled the birth tub. Labor went well and soon it was time to push. About an hour and half after it all began, we welcomed our third son into the world!

The boys slept through it all, so they were quite surprised and excited to meet their brother when they woke up. Biggest Bro was smiling ear to ear and decided he LOVES the baby's soft hair. Z just kept laughing at how his baby bro can't talk yet. We all cuddled for a bit and talked about our new baby.

Later that day, my family stopped by.


November 28th - Happy Thanksgiving from our little butterball

Proud Papa


November 29th - Fast asleep
 

November 30th - Check out those chubby cheeks!

 Aunt Rileigh stopped by

Big brothers returned from spending a few nights at Grandpa & Grandma Rhonda's house. They were happy to get to hold  their baby brother.
 

December 1st -warm and cozy

Z and Baby Ro checking each other out

Grandma GG came over to meet her newest grandson


December 2nd - It has been so nice to get to take it easy and bond with Baby Ro. Troy and the boys have taken such good care of me and baby! The weather was beautiful  so we decided to go on our first family outing. I really enjoyed getting some fresh air & sunshine! We went to one of our favorite parks. I sat on a bench snuggling baby while Troy & the boys played. Beautiful weather, content baby, lots of laughter... I am so blessed.

The boys had so much fun with daddy!
 


December 3rd - Looking around! We can't wait to see what color his eyes will be. For now they are just a dark gray.

Checking each other out


Baby Ro is now 1 week old. So far, he is an easy to please baby. He doesn't cry often... mostly at diaper changes. He sleeps pretty well at night for a newborn - usually waking just 2-4 times for a quick diaper change and for milk. He is nursing well. Each day he has a few periods of awake time and is content to look around and have us talk to him. We are glad we didn't buy many newborn sized clothes because they just barely fit. It will be fun to watch him grow, but for now I am happy to snuggle my little baby (and my big boys) without worrying about anything else.

"The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep."

excerpt from Song For a Fith Child, by Ruth Hamilton. 1958

November... so far

With my estimated due date only 5 days away, we have busy around the house. One of the projects was to paint the "pink room" a more suitable color for baby boy #3. 
 

  



I settled on a very neutral color. 2 coats of primer & a thick coat of paint later...

...also decided to paint the boys' bedroom a fun teal color.

We (ok, mostly Troy) put up ceiling fans in both of the kid rooms. After replacing windows, we hung new curtains. I even made curtains for the baby's room. Not the most fun project ever, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I've also been busy, busy, busy with organizing and cleaning. Whew... glad to have all of that done.

Also...
Until yesterday, the weather has been really nice lately. Last weekend we enjoyed spending the evening at one of our favorite places (and where Troy proposed to me 9 years ago)... the Myriad Gardens.
 

 

 

October

In mid-October we went with family to a pumpkin patch. The kids had a LOT of fun!

Z with daddy-


Z and (very pregnant) me on the slide-


Checking out the animals-


The boys with Hannah & Bradyn-


Pumpkin!


On the 30th, we finally remembered to paint our little pumkins from the pumpkin patch.


The boys had fun trick-or-treating with our neighbors. Z talked about it for... well, he still talks about it now!

Vacation, moving and so much more

The last few months have been... hmm, what's the word? Eventful!

 In May we vacationed in Orlando, FL. We had a great time visiting 2 of our dear friends. Hopefully it won't be another 6 years before we see them again.
 

We went to Wekiva State Park one day. The boys had fun on the canoe we rented

and didn't seem to mind the VERY cold pond there where we went swimming.

One afternoon was spent at Cape Canaveral Seashore. Z was not impressed, but BigBro loved every second of our time at the beach and did not want to leave. He enjoyed running in to the waves & collecting seashells.


Since our trip overlapped my family's vacation there, we also enjoyed a lot of time with them.

The boys had a blast at the Magic Kingdom. BigBro LOVED riding the Dumbo ride with Hannah. And the boys have been singing the song It's a Small World since our trip.






At Hollywood Studios (special Star Wars weekend) we saw many of the Star Wars characters. BigBro stood in stunned silence when Darth Vader walked right by us.
 
And we all really enjoyed the Toy Story ride.


Animal Kingdom was a lot of fun, too. The safari was a big hit with the kids.

Fun rides, meeting Disney characters and yummy food all made for a great day at Epcot.
 
 


 
 


The boys (Troy included, of course) had a great time at the Lego store. I had to drag them out of there more than once.


One evening we enjoyed a good meal with awesome scenery at the T-Rex restaurant with our family.


No Disney trip is complete without Mickey ears!

We had a wonderful time on our vacation! It was so hard to say goodbye to family and head back home.

Back in Colorado...
Enjoying time with Daddy on Father's Day!


Just before our vacation, we spoke with our close family friend & real estate agent about selling our home. It was a tough decision... we love Colorado. It is an amazingly beautiful place to live... and my best friend/cousin (Kasey) & her family live there. But, the pull to be back near our parents was very strong. Our agent got our home listed for us quickly. Not long after returning from our vacation we got an offer on our house. It was under contract in a very short amount of time! We started packing and preparing to move. We took a short trip to OKC to look for homes. We saw several and then put in an offer on one of them. Also, during that time we found out our third child will be another BOY!

At the end of July we sold our house. It was hard saying goodbye to the place we'd called home for 5 years... the home where Z was born... where we'd spent so much time with my mom... the mountain home we'd dreamed of... but we knew life was taking us in a different direction.

We spent a few nights at Kasey's house before heading to Oklahoma. It was so nice spending time with her and her beautiful family. 

BigBro was very sad to be moving away from his best friend, Parker. We will still (hopefully) see them a few times of year here in Oklahoma when they come to visit parents/grandparents/etc. And who knows, maybe we'll be able to travel back out to Colorado from time to time to see them!

My dad & step-mom were very gracious to let us live with them while we waited to close on our new home. On August 1st, we began moving in...

We really like our neighborhood. The playgrounds & walking trails are fun for the kids. Our house backs up to a pond and the boys have enjoyed feeding the geese with their new friends (our next door neighbors).

We really like living near Lake Hefner and have made many trips over there already. There are some fun playgrounds and lots of open space for the kids to run wild. And it's a GREAT place for Troy to go enjoy his favorite hobby (kiting). One morning we rode over to the lake on our bikes (boys in the bike trailer). There is a nice trail around the entire lake, so we rode on that for awhile. We stopped a few times for the boys to get out and play. We even got invited in to the fire station that sits along the trail so that the boys could go in and check out the fire trucks!




Big Bro's first day of (home)school was on August 19. How did my little baby boy become this big kindergartener?

He is excelling at math & reading.

He enjoys the books I read aloud to him and LOVES the science projects we do together.  We have joined a local homeschool group. He is excited to make more friends & to join in the group activities planned.

August 25th marked a big day for Troy. He started his new job at ODOT after leaving his work-from-home job. We all miss having him at home with us, that's for sure!

My pregnancy is going well. Here I am at 29 weeks. It's hard to imagine that my belly has 2 more months of expanding to do. I found a homebirth midwife here (referred to me by one of my cousin's close friends) and had my first appointment with her last week. Baby is moving well & has a nice, strong heartbeat.


The boys have spent some time with their Grandma GG (Troy's mom) since we've been here. They even went swimming with her recently and had a great time! They also LOVE going to Grandpa & Grandma's house... they are just a teeny bit spoiled there. A few weekends ago, both boys spent the night at their house. It's was Z's first night away from home with us... seems like such a big deal for our little boy.

Last weekend I got the opportunity to go to an OU football game with my dad. It was a lot of fun... and the day was made even better by eating lunch at the awesome Greek restaurant we always go to (family tradition).

BigBro hopes to go to a game with Grandpa this season, too.

We are finally settling into our new routines here in Oklahoma City. We are trying to take it easy & de-stress a bit. We have a few house projects lined up - replacement windows, adding insulation, painting one of the bedrooms (it's currently PINK) and replacing some of the flooring. I am excited to make more changes over time... to make this place feel like our home.