First Day of School 2014

I swear the summer flew by and here we are back to school. The kids have adjusted well to the new baby, but I think it will be good for them to get into a routine and have some more focused learning and interaction. Ella was so excited to start school as she TOTALLY loves it. Cavin is always excited about the things Ella is excited about and although he is much quieter, he too was counting the hours until it began. 

Ella started 3rd grade and has Mrs. Stinson and Ms. Polous as she switches classrooms. She was pretty excited to have 2 teachers this year. She really wanted to do her hair "crimpy" for the first day ;)

Cavin is now in 1st grade and has Ms. Carpenter. She is new to the school so we don't know much about her but he seems excited regardless.

And their silly face pose!
 
As you can see in these pictures Ella and Cavin are about the same height/size! They look like they should be in the same grade! It won't be long til Ella will have her brother towering over her!

And...we can't leave out cute little Channing in the pictures! She definitely has enough sass to think she is in school...but thankfully I get her for 2 more years. I sure do miss these kiddos when they are gone. Once they hit school age, I feel like time flies by!

Family Camp-In

Ella has a little obsession with reading a church magazine our church sends out once a month called "The Friend". Each month she reads it cover to cover several times. I sometimes dread when it comes because I know that almost every idea that it contains she is going to want to try. So as in usual fashion, this month they had a Family Home Evening idea of a "Camp-In". Since we have a newborn baby I was not looking to go camping, not to mention that it is August in Houston, so we entertained the idea and gave it a try in the house. We were supposed to have our camp in on Monday night but we had had a rough day, so after a few days we finally made it happen. 

We started with dinner and smores and as you can tell Cavin got more on his face and hands!

 Ella seemed to enjoy hers as well!

And...here is the difference in my children. Channing did not want to eat hers because it was too messy...so she opted for just a marshmallow! Oh I love my o.c.d child!

 Then off to games, songs, and books in the tent!

 Of course Deacon joined in for some fun!

Ragnar and I and of course Deacon did not spend the night in the tent...when you are only getting a few hours of sleep at a time...they are precious, so we stayed in the "tent" until the kids went to sleep and then happily went to our own bed. We are glad they are little and things like this are still a highlight in their life. I wish they would stay little forever!

Ella's Ballet Class!

Ella has loved dancing since I can remember. She always is dancing through the house, playing "Just Dance" on the wii, and is pretty good at picking up choreography if someone else is doing something. It has been fun to watch her. With that said...I knew that once we started dance we would likely never leave the dance studio, so I made her wait. We did gymnastics for a couple years to improve her strength and flexibility and now here we are in her first official ballet class. She began at a little studio called Define Dance and so far loved the first class.

 She has been practicing the names and poses and will actually really get to learn them now ;)

We love our little dancer and hope she succeeds and most importantly enjoys herself!

Introducing Deacon Ryan Hartzheim

It has been a long 9 months to say the least. I have always had pretty good pregnancies and so the complications with this pregnancy have been a little "inconvenient" for me. Although I have always felt fine, I have spent a fair amount of time in doctors offices to "monitor" much of the last few months of my pregnancy. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at about 22 weeks and had to monitor my blood sugar levels every day and I had to prick my finger and go to what felt like endless Dr. appointments. Then, my blood platelet levels dropped at the end of my pregnancy so I had to get blood work done every week to determine where they were. Essentially this is why they decided to take Deacon early. My platelets kept dropping and they wanted to safely get him here. The only frustrating part was after each blood test I never was quite sure what day they would induce me, so it was a frustrating waiting game for someone like me who likes to be prepared! All in all, I know I have nothing to complain about, if having to eat basically only meat and cheese and go to the Dr. a lot is the worst I know I shouldn't be grumpy, but I am however not sad that the pregnancy is over and our little boy safely arrived here! I have never really taken a pregnancy picture, because let's face it, most of us DO NOT feel attractive while pregnant and I didn't really think that needed to be flaunted any more than it had to, but I decided I should probably document my last (hopefully) day of being pregnant.

Deacons birth started in the morning of July 29th when I got a call from the nurse at my Dr.'s office that my platelets had dropped and they were going to induce me that evening. After a few phone calls of possible inductions, I really did not think she would call and tell me that today was the day. We had a play date planned, so we left and went and then I had to take Cavin in to the Dr. because he had a fever and his bug bites on his leg looked infected, so I wanted to be sure. It was an infection and the Dr. took forever, so all in all I was starting to stress out. Then the Dr. called and said I needed to be into the hospital at 5 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. So needless to say the floors didn't get mopped but I got most of the other cleaning done. My mom kindly came and picked up the kids and we left for Children's Memorial Hospital downtown. It was a stormy day as most of the summer has been. I got to the hospital and the patient waiting began. It took over an hour and a half to even get admitted which supposedly the didn't know I was waiting still and there was miscommunication, but I am sure it was a little prep of what was to come ;) They admitted me and I went to my room and they were supposed to put me on a cervix softener over night and wait to induce me til the morning, but I was already dilated to a 3 and soft, so they just had me try and "sleep". Ragnar got this awesome bed which he loved ;)

Honestly I would have preferred it to my bed which was split in the middle to be able to pull apart when labor began. Anyway, they started my pitocin at 5 a.m. and the waiting began. My contractions were good and I was dilating but they kept taking my blood to check where my platelets were. My final blood was drawn to determine if I could get an epidural and of course my platelets were the lowest they had been my whole pregnancy. I was NOT prepared to go natural. I know women do it everyday, but add pitocin and the fear of bleeding out, I was not mentally prepared! So a tender mercy from Heavenly Father was that the Chief Anesthesiologist was on the floor and he ordered my platelets to be analyzed to see the size and functionality of them. So we waited...

5 hours of contractions later they determined I would be able to get an epidural because they were high functioning platelets even though they were few, so they broke my water and a couple hours later Mr. Deacon was here! He arrived at 1:01 p.m.

Doctor Cook delivered my baby and out of 4 pregnancies, that is the first time my Doctor has been there to deliver me. It was a nice change. He put Deacon right on my chest when he was born and I wasn't expecting that as I think he quickly gathered as they took him off and weighed and measured him.  

 He looks pretty blue in this picture!

 He had a good set of lungs!

So the conversion to pounds we originally got wrong, but he was 7lbs and 11 ozs. and 20.75 inches long. 

My first view...counting fingers and toes ;)

 Relief!

Proud daddy!

We thought we might have another thumb sucker, but he hasn't really sucked his thumb since this picture

I'm so happy!!!

 Hello world!

Channing has been fighting for months telling everyone she gets to hold the baby first ;) She sure loves him!

Cavin is looking pretty droopy...he hadn't been feeling well and had a fever 24 hours earlier, so we made him wear a mask.

Big sister Ella ready to take control!

Brotherly love!

Grandpa Speers and his 13th grandchild!

 Channing watching over Grandma because she had to make sure everyone held him right!

 Aunt Natalie and Deacon

There were 3 and now there are......4

The kids loved coming to meet him and I was sad to have them gone for a few days. 

Deacon is a sleeper! All he does is sleep, so I have had to try pretty hard to wake him up enough to eat. I have never had such a sleepy eater! 

This picture makes me laugh..this is the look I get when I try and wake him up to eat! Unlike my other son, food is not as appealing as sleeping!

Ready to go home! We had to stay an extra day because my platelets hadn't risen, so I was so ready to leave on Friday morning!

He looks so small!
Here are a few pictures since we have been home. The kids are loving him and we are doing well!

 I love the phase when the binkie is like the size of their head!

 His first prayer ;)

 Our son in a nutshell!

Channing has claimed territory over her brother!

We are so lucky to have 4 healthy, happy children and we are excited to see who they become. We chose the name Deacon because Ragnar served a mission in Greece and in Greek Deacon means "servant/messenger". It also helped that we liked the names Deacon and Ryan ;) We love him a bunch already and are so glad he is a part of our family!