Simple pleasures: something in the mail

It's so fun to get things in the mail, especially fun things (not just bills).  This is how we did all of our Christmas shopping because I was very pregnant this last Christmas, and had no desire to be waddling across the store and through crowds.  The week before Christmas we had a box on our doorstep everyday.  It was so nice to have everything delivered right to our doorstep!  The kids probably wouldn't have gotten much otherwise.  It was also fun to shop with my Hubby right from the comfort of our own home.   But, it doesn't just have to be a package, I love getting letters and cards in the mail too!  Some days, that's the highlight of our day, going to see what's in the mailbox.  In fact, I think the kids hope for something every day, and usually one of the first things April asks me after school is "have you checked the mail yet?"  The kids love getting things in the mail.

All the Christmas packages stacked up, smiley faces out, because that's how I feel when I get something fun in the mail.

I'm linking this up with Chocolate on my Cranium's simple pleasure post today, hop over there to see what Cocoa's and other's simple pleasure's are. 

4th grade pictures

April takes a great picture!

Here are her 4th grade pictures, and we didn't even have to do re-takes!

On the flip side, Aaron's preschool pictures didn't come out good at all.  I ended up not buying any at all, I think I'll do it myself later or take him in.  I want to get all 4 kids in one picture this Spring hopefully!

Tot school and Raising Rock Stars Preschool

We are back into some preschool action here at home.  My boys need and love this time, and I love to plan these kinds of activities for them.  We have had movies on a lot the past 3 weeks, and they are really getting quite bored.  I was able to pull a few things together last week, but not very much.  Aaron is also starting Carisa's Raising Rock Stars Preschool curriculum.  It is a preschool curriculum based on a different scripture and letter each week.  No, I'm not teaching my preschooler to be a "Rock Star"!  This is a Rock Star in the sense that we are building a solid "rock" foundation on the teachings of Jesus, and shining like a "star" during some of our preschool time.  The scriptures she used to come up with this title are in Matthew 7:24, and Philippians 2:15. 


First the tot school...

Aric is 30 months old

This is the start of our Valentine's sensory bin.  I still have to add more stuff, but this is what we have so far.  Some hearts that I found at Target dollar spot, valentine erasers from Target, and the buckets are from Target dollar spot too.

Aric dumping the erasers from bucket to bucket

I can't wait to add more as I find more interesting Valentine's things.

The erasers fit perfectly into the little hearts, so here Aric is putting some inside the hearts to hide them.

Wii Fun!

Aric doing the Diego boat rowing activity.  If he could spend his whole life with just his diaper, I think he would :-)

We got the Wii Nickelodeon Fit game for Christmas so the little boys could play the Wii fit more.  It has Characters like Dora and Diego on it so my boys loved it, and it is easy enough that my 2 year old can actually do it.  I love seeing him in action.

Will Phil the groundhog see his Shadow on February 2?...

Or will he come out and enjoy nice weather?...

April is hoping for an early Spring.  She liked this Groundhog's Spring getup.

Aric and April had fun making these paper bag groundhog's, the directions are here along with some other fun Groundhog's day crafts.

Raising rock stars preschool-Letter L

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in Heaven."  Matthew 5:16

This is the scripture we worked on for the first week of RRSP.  I have to say that it was a good start with Aaron.  I didn't get pictures of everything, he wasn't always very willing, but this week he's doing better so the next RRSP post will be a little bit better.

We lit some candles to remind us what it means to have a light shining that is beautiful and humble.

He cut out the scripture strips and I helped him put them together in order.

These are the concepts we reviewed (or tried to) each day.  The word see, #1, letter L, and the candles were something that he held when we said the scripture.

This is the candle craft that we made at the end.  I have boys that don't really like to color so I colored both of theirs while they sat with me. 

We also sang the song "I am like a star" from the Children's Songbook.  Here are the words:

“I Am like a Star,” Children’s Songbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 163

Cheerfully

I am like a star shining brightly,
Smiling for the whole world to see.
I can do and say happy things each day,
For I know Heav’nly Father loves me.

 
Words and music: Patricia Kelsey Graham, b. 1940. © 1981 IRI
Matthew 5:16

Mommy's Favorite:
 

Aaron's preschool had a pajama day where everyone came dressed up in pajamas and brought their favorite animal or I guess pillow in Aaron's case.  He loves pillows and that pillow case on the pillow he's holding is his favorite one.  Here he is all ready to go to pajama day, and I love how he and Aric are wearing their matching Star wars slippers.

Sweet baby boy, oh joy!

Alexander is 3 weeks old today!

I am finding myself wanting to capture every moment of life right now because everything is going by so fast.  He is already growing so fast.

Part of me wants him to just stay little like this for a very long time.

The other part of me is so excited to see him grow.

Of course I have no choice, he will grow, and it will be wonderful.

So, for now, I will just savor every moment.

Wordless Wednesday

Baby Burrito=Very Cute!

absolutely dreamy

Thought you could use a few new pictures to look at.  I can't get enough of this little guy, he's absolutely perfect.  I will be back to blogging someday, but for now I am just savoring every moment I can with Alexander.  He's already 2 weeks old, it's already going by way too fast!  He has already had his 2 week check up, and he was up to 8lbs. 11oz!  He's almost back up to his birth weight. 



I absolutely love how his announcements turned out!  I had a different plan for them, but when the hospital picture came out this cute, I decided to just order the announcements through the hospital photographer.  Can you believe that's a hospital picture?  I also got April a shirt with that picture on it, she was so excited.  I'll get a picture of her wearing it soon!

We all sure are loving this sweet baby!!  The kids love to hold him at least once a day, and of course I'd love to just sit and hold him all day too!  We are keeping up okay.  I am healing really fast, thankfully.  I actually have a lot more energy than I ever had while being pregnant, and I feel oh so much better. 

A baby story

There are so many parts to this story that it's hard to know where to start.  I guess I'll start by saying that he's here!  Our baby boy has finally arrived after 9 long months.  He did come a little early, born December 30.  My C-section was scheduled for Jan. 9th which would have been this coming Sunday.  I'm thankful he's already here...

Alexander George
9lbs 4oz.
19.5 inches long

5 days old:

Big Brother Aric holding him.

Aric absolutely loves his new baby brother.  He keeps forgetting his name, and every once in a while he'll ask what his name is again.  It's pretty funny, and so cute.  He's also always keeping check on baby Alexander.  If Aric hasn't seen him in a while he will ask where his baby brother is, or he'll say "I lost baby brother, I can't find him".  Usually he's just in the bouncer sleeping or in someone's arms.  He wants to hold baby a lot, and uses the phrase "I'm gentling" (I'm being gentle) when he touches him.

Big Brother Aaron holding him

 Aaron is so happy to have a baby brother.  He has been so sweet and just loves to be next to him and hear his little sounds.  He likes to help feed him a bottle too.  I love that he is such a proud big brother, and loves to be next to me and the baby whenever he can.  My favorite quote from him while I was in the hospital to Daddy was "why do you and Mommy want to live at the hospital now?"  I think he was a little afraid we weren't coming home again.  He wanted to come visit everyday, and was very excited to go see us.

Big Sister April holding him

She is just like a little Mommy.  She loves to hear his little noises he makes while eating, and loves to pick out his cute outfits.  She helped me sort and organize more baby clothes and stuff when we got home from the hospital, and boy was I glad to have her help!  She also got to come to the hospital for a few hours the morning before we went home.  She really liked that special time with just us and the baby.

 

The hospital stay

This is the view from my hospital room.

I was in the hospital for a total of 5 days, including the day of my c-section.  For 4 of those 5 days baby Alexander was in the NICU.  It was hard not being able to see him whenever I wanted, but it made for some pretty restful nights. Being in the hospital was bliss.  I was just so thankful the whole time that my baby was finally here, I had my wonderful Husband to spend each day and night with (no distractions), and I had great nurses taking care of me and my baby.  

Here we are waiting to go home.  We had to wait for a while because the Dr. needed to come check out baby one more time and give us the okay to go.  We were all packed up and ready to go.

Family and friends

The kids came with Grandma and Grandpa every day to visit at the hospital, except for the day that April wasn't feeling well.  I also had a visit from my neighbor Emily and her Mom.  It meant a lot to me for her to come visit, she is the most wonderful neighbor.  Now that we are home Grandma and Grandpa had to go back home, but we thank them so very much for all the time that they spent here watching our kids and helping around the house.  It was very nice to come home to a clean house!

Baby Alexander with Grandpa

Alexander in the NICU

Little Alexander had a rough start.  When Alexander was born he had a hard time breathing, but even more than that right when he came out his heart beat was pretty low.  They said he looked pretty floppy and he took a few minutes to let out his first cry.  Once they started rubbing him and getting him to breathe more he started getting some more color and crying.  It was music to my ears, even one of the nurses even said to me "isn't that the most wonderful sound?"  It sure was!!  I'm glad that I couldn't see anything because I probably would have been worried to see him when he first came out.  After a while they noticed that he was having a real hard time breathing.  I was taken to the recovery room and baby was taken to the NICU, but before they took him down to the NICU they brought him to the recovery room so I could see him for the first time.  What a moment that was!  He was beautiful, but I could tell that he was having a hard time breathing, I could hear the little whisle and grunting he was making with each breath.  The Dr.'s said it was basically because he still had a little fluid in his lungs that needed to be worked out.

I didn't get to see him until the next morning when I was able to get up and be wheeled down to the NICU, I was so ready.  It was hard to not have him with me in my room, but Daddy got to be down there with him a lot .  

Top left:  Baby Alexander on the CPAP machine.   Top right:  Baby being weighed right after birth. Bottom left:  Mommy holding baby Alexander for the first time in the recovery room before he was whisked away to NICU.  Bottom right:  Baby being rubbed and stimulated right after he was born.

He was on the CPAP machine for about a day, and then he had to be put under the blue lights for Jaundice.  At this point though, he was doing wonderful.  I was able to go down for most of his feedings and he was finally off the IV.  He was getting ready to come up to my room for our last day in the hospital, I was so glad!

Where it all started

It all began on Thursday morning, December 30.  I know this story and pictures are way out of order, but I wanted to start with the best parts first.  I didn't want to put all the NICU pictures up before the cute ones.  So, to finish this story, here is the beginning:

I had been having pretty hard contractions all night, and finally in the morning I decided it was probably time to call the Dr.  I called the Dr. and they said to go ahead and go in to get evaluated.  On the drive there I was worried that the contractions might be starting to fizzle out because they got a little farther apart than they had been.  This had been happening quite often for the past 2 months so I thought it would be the case this morning too.  Well, I got to the hospital and the contractions picked up!  They started getting harder and closer together making enough of a change in the labor process that the Dr. said we needed to go ahead with the C-section that day!  So, they started making the preparations, getting my IV in, getting my belly ready, and all the paperwork.  It was a big joke with all the nurses that we were getting our "big tax break" since he was going to be born just before the new year.

This is me on the bed while everything was being prepared.  This is the bed that they had me in the whole time, and by this time I was getting mighty uncomfortable.

At this point I was truly scared.  I have been worried about having surgery again throughout the whole pregnancy, but when it finally came to the time I really just wanted to run away despite my smile here.  The nurses and my Hubby could tell I was a little scared too.  I don't know why I got so scared, but I did especially as I got closer and closer to the surgery room.  I walked myself there, and was literally shaking by the time I got there.  But, I'm so thankful, and was probably praying the whole time that everything would be okay, and it was.  I knew I was in God's hands, and remember just feeling so happy after the baby came out.

Baby Alexander is such a joy to have in our family, and I know that he is truly meant to be with us.  We had a hard time deciding his name too, so he spent most of the days in the hospital as Baby Boy W.  When we finally figured out he was an Alexander it just fit him.  Welcome baby Alexander!!