Merry Christmas 2011!

2011 Christmas was a good one for us. We celebrated with all of our traditional stuff: going to see lights (this year we went with our friends, Heidi and Noah, to a house where they open up their front and back yard for people to see the displays...very fun and entertaining!), making Christmas cookies and delivering them to our neighbors, reading The Night Before Christmas and the story of Jesus birth in the bible before the boys go to bed on Christmas Eve, cookies for Santa, and of course the Perkins coffee cake (also known as floor cake b/c one year John's mom dropped it on the the floor and they still ate it) along with breakfast casserole for Christmas morning breakfast.

The boys had a blast, and Santa got Eli's letters that he wrote and sent in the mail. Eli wrote three letters to Santa telling him what gifts to bring to our house. He wrote one for himself, one for Jed, and one for Max. I love that he thought of his brothers when it came to the Santa letters.

This year we went up to Dallas to see family after having Christmas at our house. We left Christmas afternoon, which was the way to do it because we had no traffic. The boys were great travelers...Max slept most of the way there, and on the way home, he slept the whole way home! It made for a stress-free trip.

I am thankful for my little family this Christmas, especially our newest addition. It's weird to think that last year we had no clue we'd have a baby for this Christmas!

Jed's Christmas program

Jed's preschool had their Christmas program last week. He did great! Jed's teacher told me he and two others were the best singers in the 2 year old class. This doesn't surprise me. Jed has been practicing and singing the songs at home, in the car, etc. He is a singer! I'm glad that we have many more Christmas programs to attend at Faith Preschool in the years to come. They do a great job and are so cute! John said he could sit there and watch the kids sing all day, and I agree.

He spotted us

Santa made an appearance in the classroom after the program!

All the kids got Santa pillows made bt the teachers.

Eli's Christmas program

Eli's school, Sunsey Valley Elementary, had their Winter Performance last week. Each kid in Eli's class got to choose which character they wanted to be. Eli chose to be an elf, which I was thankful for because the teacher provided those outfits. For the performance, each of the five kinder classes took turns singing one song on the stage in addition to a few songs together on the risers. They did great! Eli looked like he was either bored or about to fall asleep for most of the time, except when they were on stage. Of course I got some pictures and video!

Eli's in the back row, middle

cheeeese!

Max is two months old!

And he's still huge! Michele, my midwife, weighed him last week (Max was 7 wks old) and he was 15 lbs, 6 oz. and 25 in. long! To give you an idea of his size, he is now outgrowing his 6 month size clothes. In fact, the other day, Max wore a 12 month size outfit and it fit fine. I can't believe how large my baby boy is. He still acts like a newborn and does newborn things, but he looks like he's at least 6 months old. Amazing! Max is the biggest of the three boys at this age by about 2 or 3 lbs. He's a happy and healthy baby boy and we are thankful!
Here are some recent photos:

lookin' cute in his pearl snap shirt

This is the 12 mo. size outfit I mentioned

Max takes a bottle!

Their heads are almost the same size!...yes, Jed drew on his face w/ a pen

Jed is reading a monster truck book to Max and teaching him about all the trucks.

Here's Max w/ his new cousin, Quinn. He's only 6 weeks older than her!

Looking cute, all dressed up for a Christmas party

This is Michele, my midwife. She says Max wins the award for biggest 7 week old she's seen!

Max is now smiling for us!

More smiles!

Santa's messages

Santa has personally sent a video message to each of the boys this year!  Check them out:

For Eli
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/gHhrK8b1KBBq1_LBfdDZejA

For Jed
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/gxGQhUZvn8G15dnSDPD1FxQ

For Max
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/gPeB0a8xY4CJiVHZQJ6oxXw

Max's first month

Wow, the last month flew by! The transition to a family of five has been smooth so far. I think that has to do with the fact that Max is in the stage where he sleeps most of the time and can sleep through just about anything. I hope that doesn't change, but I have a feeling it might. We had family stay with us to help out off and on for the first three weeks, which helped a ton as we got settled as a family of five.

Eli and Jed have been great with their new brother, too.  They love having him around so far.  They're always checking on him, bringing him his blankets, and wanting to hold him.  Eli is also pretty good at calming him down by either distracting him in some way or sticking the pacifier in his mouth. Very helpful!

Max is doing great and getting bigger and bigger!  At two weeks, he weighed 11 lbs. 10 oz. and then a week later, he was 13 lbs. 8 oz.!  The boy is the biggest Perkins boy yet.  That says a lot since Eli and Jed were big babies, too!. Max is wearing 3-6 month size clothes, mostly 6 months, and he's only 6 weeks old! Amazing!  I think we may have another blue-eyed boy because Max's eyes are getting lighter and lighter blue. Eli is hoping for blue because he doesn't want to be the only one with blue eyes in the family. Max's hair is a mystery. It seems to have a red tint to it, like an auburn color, and I can't tell if he's going to loose or keep the hair he has since he's more bald in the front and thicker hair in the back. Oh, and I won't talk about the long hair that he still has on his ears.

Max is just now starting to be more aware of the world when he's awake.  We're also starting to get some coos and other "talking" from him when he sees us or gets excited about something he sees, like the thing that turns on the swing or ceiling fans. 

I feel bad for not posting many photos of Max lately.  I dropped my camera in the dirt at Eli's last soccer game mid-November and my camera stopped working after that.  So, I went a couple weeks without a camera.  Max changes daily, so I felt like I missed several photo opportunities.  I'm playing catch up now though. 

Here are some of my favorites from the month or so...

at 1 week old in one of my favorite onesies

1 wk old, w/ Gramma Ninny

about 2 wks old

he looks little to me!

love

he's almost too big for this tub!

love this

and this

funny face

Can you see the blue eyes?

I tried to capture a smile

Santa letters

Eli has written letters to Santa, not only for him, but for Jed and Max, too!  I guess he wanted to make sure everyone was taken care of for Christmas morning.  I took pictures of the second letter he wrote for himself to Santa.  Translation, "Oh, I forgot to mention that I want an AT AT Lego set, Eli", and the back says, "Oh and I want a dinosaur Wuggle pet".  The one he wrote for Max said, "I want a rattle and car seat toys, love Max" and he signed it for Max.  I'm sure Santa received all the letters and the gifts will be delivered!  I love to see Eli's writing and the way he's sounding out words.  His reading, writing, and spelling are coming along!

decorating the tree

Thanksgiving 2011

This was the first year we didn't travel for Thanksgiving...maybe the first year we didn't travel since we've been married. It was nice to avoid I-35 Thanksgiving traffic this year, especialy with a one month old, which is the very reason we stayed home. Grandpa and Gramma Ninny came to our house and brought all of the food to make here for our Thanksgiving meal. They did so much work, and the meal was amazing as usual! Thanksgiving for us was perfect...an amazing meal, a relaxing (as relaxing as you can get w/ 3 boys under 5) day with family, and watching some good football, of course! We loved having Grandpa and Gramma Ninny here, and a good time was had by all. We have so much to be thankful for!

pulling the wishbone; Eli and Grandpa always seem to have closed or squinty eyes in pictures 

Eli requested the turkey leg and actually ate the whole thing!

Gramma Ninny and Max

showing off some Thanksgiving crafts they made at school

more soccer pics

The YMCA didn't do professional photos this year, they left it up to parents. I thought it was a good idea...cheaper!  It was a fun season, especially with John as the coach!  We saw the kids go from being clueless about the game to actually turning the ball, attempting to pass it, playing some defense, and making goals!  Here are the pics I got of coach John and The Cheetahs:

tough face

goofy

Halloween 2011

We had an eventful, fun Halloween here. Eli dressed up as Captain Cody (a clone trooper), Jed was Spiderman (of course), and little Max was a baby Yoda. I had no idea who Captain Cody was when Eli specified who he wanted to be, and I was a worried I wouldn't be able to find him a costume. But, apparently Captain Cody is very popular. I think it's from Lego Star Wars. As for Max, I didn't want him to be left out so we came up with baby Yoda. My friend happened to have a newborn size Yoda costume we could borrow, so I took her up on it. He was the most adorable baby Yoda ever!

Eli's school had a fall festival on Friday night, so John took the boys there while Max and I stayed home. On Monday, the day of Halloween, Jed's preschool had a fall fest with activities and a jumpy house. My favorite part is when the kids all sing their Halloween songs for the parents. I've been hearing the songs here at home, so it was fun to hear them sung by all the kids.  I couldn't see Jed very well because he was sitting behind a few tall girls and just short enough to be hidden. I tried to get some video, but you have to look hard to see him.

Jed's fall fest was Max's first outing! The night before, I had to get packed up with all the baby gear and get the car seat ready. It takes a lot of effort! Max did great and slept the whole time. He looked a little confused when we first put him in his car seat and when he first got in the car, but then he was out in no time. Jed was excited to bring his new brother to his school for the fall fest.

Gramma Ninny was here during all the Halloween festivities as well. She stayed for 4 days and was a huge help!  The boys and Gramma Ninny got to put together and decorate a Halloween House made out of cookies, icing , and candy. Jed got the Halloween House kit for his birthday, and they've been wanting to decorate it ever since. It was a fun project for all of them. I don't think it tasted as good as it looked though. I was a little sceptical about that.

Of course we also went trick-or-treating. Needless to say, the boys were hyped up and excited about the trick-or-treating part. Max and I only lasted a little while, but John and the big boys went longer. As usual, we have way too much candy, but it was worth all the fun!

Look behind the little witch hat


Look behind the Minnie Mouse ears

Baby Max is here!

In case you haven't heard, our baby boy has arrived! Max Thomas was born on Oct. 23rd, Sunday evening at 11:37 pm, weighing in at 10 lbs. 6 oz. and 23 1/2 in. long!

We had a beautiful home birth with three amazing midwives. I am still amazed at what I accomplished and what my body can do!

Here's the short version of my birth story...yes, "short". (I'll spare you the long version with little details you probably don't care about) Feel free to skip over this part!

My labor started out very slow.  It was one day after my due date when I woke up around 6:00 am with contractions about 10 min. apart. They stayed that way until the afternoon, with some starting to get closer together. In fact, all day, I kept wondering if I was really in labor. Honestly, I think it was because when I went into labor, I was afraid of the pain that was to come and was holding back and not letting myself let go for most of the day. Then Brynn and my midwife called me out on my fear and reluctance that evening after several hours of contractions. They told me to stop fearing the pain, let go, and get out of the way. I was not wanting to go through the effort of labor and the hard contractions to come, even though I knew we'd have a baby in the end. I'd done this before and I was fearing the pain that I was going to have to experience.

After a good cry and encouraging words from my midwife and sister, I let go of the fear and knew I just had to do it. My midwife then checked me and I was at 7 cm, which confused me because I was still walking around, smiling, and just pausing briefly to breath through contractions. I realized that my body was doing this and it wasn't too painful...I didn't have to fear this. We discussed breaking my water to get things moving faster, which made me nervous again. I thought, why would I want to bring on the pain when I already at 7 cm and not hurting? However, after checking my blood pressure and discovering it was high, Michele said she didn't like that and had no choice but to break my water so that we could get this baby out quicker.

Slowly, I went into active labor (transition), but still able to be calm, focused, relaxed, and breath/vocalize through each contraction one at a time. When each contraction came, I kept telling myself that I could do this one and after it was over, I'd be done with it and never have to feel that one again.  After about three hours of transition and 19 min. of pushing, I gave birth to our baby boy! I pushed with all my might because I wanted to get our baby out, like I was sprinting toward the finish line. It was amazing and empowering, even the third time around!  I am a birthing goddess!

John was amazing through the whole labor. He was my coach, my encourager, my support, my strength.  Brynn was able to be with us as well. Her and Mammy got here about 2 pm.  Mammy took Eli and Jed to play and get them out of the house, which was a big help!  Brynn stayed with us, which was a big help for me.  Just her being with me during labor is encouraging. She's been with me for all three births! She knew just what to say and what to do for me. Not to mention the labor photos she takes that we'll be seeing soon!  Mammy ended up coming back to our house after dropping the boys off at Rex and Jen's house so they could sleep there. (Thank you Rex and Jen for taking the boys last minute!)  So, Mammy was here at the end and was able to see Max being born.  I had no clue she was here until after he was born, but I'm glad she got to be here.

Max is a great baby.  I know it's only 4 days in, but he seems to go with the flow and not mind his loud brothers at all.  Eli and Jed have loved having Max around. They say sweet things to him and love it when he makes funny faces and noises. They like to hold him, check on him, draw him pictures, and bring him toys. They picked out some toys for him to welcome him into the family, and they also got toys from Max after he was born. Jed got a Spiderman blanket and Eli got some football and baseball cards from Max. Max was cool from the beginning since he knew just what they had been wanting!  Eli also made Max a card, which says "I luv yoow", "I lik Maks. I lik yoow" and "I lik yoo. Mom".  Melts my heart!

"I LUV YOOW"

"I LIK MAKS. I LIK YOOW" "I LIK YOO MOM."

"FUM ELI"

All in all, we are doing well as a family of 5 and getting used to our new normal.  I'm thankful for my family and my three big, healthy boys!