What we've been up to.

July has been a crazy month... The days have been filled with lots of activities and the weekends have been full of road trips and enjoying our days as a family of four. A little sampling of some of the things we've been up to: last week Cal had music camp every morning (big thanks to my mom for coming with us to class & helping with the kids), swim lessons, the kids and I visited Ian for the first time at work, B/my mom/me paid a visit to Nordstrom for the sale, I've sadly started packing up some of Bennett's 0-3 month clothes (tear ;), we went to the Ephrata water park for some fun and to see Luke's last swim meet, visits with friends that have been in town, watching Bennett grow like a little weed, lots of walks, and much more.

a visit to Ian's work Touring the fish ladder at the dam and seeing the fish being tagged. music classwading in the riverand all this makes us so sleepy.

Bennett's birth story

For the sake of remembering how B's birthday went since our blog is essentially the kids' baby books and for sharing for the story with those that are interested, I thought I'd share a tid-bit about how this very special day went down.

I was scheduled to be induced on June 30 however after calling labor & delivery in the morning to make sure they had room for us (if they are too busy they bump any scheduled inductions), we found out they were too full, so they eventually re-scheduled me for the next morning. I was actually thrilled, this gave me one more day of hopefully going into labor on my own and I liked the idea of a July 1 birthday.

So July 1 we head into the hospital, get situated in our room, and get hooked up to pitocin (sp?) to hopefully get things underway. After a couple hours and some not very strong, somewhat irregular contractions my dr. decided to break my water (12:50 p.m.). From previous experience I was thinking after my doc broke my water, I'd get my epidural, have several hours to relax, read some magazines, visit with fam , etc. and my doc would be back later in the day to deliver our baby boy (which my doc also thought was the case since he left the hospital). Well, not so much this time around.... I went into active labor at 1 p.m. and it hit like a ton of bricks. I went from 4 cm to 9 in about 40 minutes and next thing I know a bunch of nurses are filling the room, telling me they are going to delivery my baby since my doc (and no other OB's for that matter) were around. Lovely. We didn't even have time to call our families to say it was time. Fortunately, my OB flew into the room at the knick of time right as I was starting to push and a couple minutes of pushing later at 2:03 p.m., our precious baby boy entered the world!

One minute he's in. and the next he was out.

fun with makeup

Cal spent an afternoon a week or so ago at Gram & Pop and this is what he looked like when he got home. Him and Gram did their makeup together...

Decisions, decisions.

My question to Cal: "What do you want for breakfast?"

Check it out!

Click HERE. Scroll down to page 4. We're so proud of our little Cougar!

And the contest even made King5 news.

Pics from Bennett's 2nd week of life

sleeping pretty and this is me trying to get some pics of Bennett... big bro wanted in on the fun. and the man-child giving some brotherly love (B looks scared)
this is what you get when you have a big brother... a bulldozer grazing your head (VERY gently)

big yawn

Baby #1 & baby #2

My baby was swaddled and in his swing so of course Cal's baby had to be swaddled and in the chair (he actually wanted to give Bennett the boot and put baby in the swing instead so we compromised and his baby got the chair).

Happy b-day to our princess

Poor Suzie's 5th b-day got a little lost in the craziness of July but we did manage to have a little celebration to acknowledge our lady's special day on July 12.

celebrating with a b-day cheeseburger

and presentsgiving a little b-day howl and just looking pretty

2 week check-up

Last week Bennett had his 2 week check-up and he passed his exam with flying colors. He's a healthy & rapidly growing baby boy. The dr. said it's great for babies to gain an ounce a day and our little guy is packing on the pounds with more than 2 ounces a day. He's still got some catching up to do if we wants to be the linebacker his brother is cause at two weeks Cal was already 11 lbs. 23 inches.

B's 2 week stats:
9 lbs. 11 oz (86%)
21 3/4 inches long (89%)

waiting for the doc

Little fish

Cal has REALLY taken to swimming this summer - he's a total fish and has zero fear of the water which is a little scary. His latest trick is juming off the side of the pool over and over again (and he's willing to do it regardless of whether or not someone's there to catch him)... while the rest of the kids are doing Humpty Dumpty off the wall sitting, this is what our Evel Knievel is up to for most of his swim lessons.

nickname?

Several folks have asked what we're going to call Bennett for short. Most that know me, know that a pre-req for us picking a name is that it has to have a good nickname. Well, we're still working on Bennett's... The obvious would be Ben, however while I like the name, it's a little too mainstream for us. Originally, we thought he'd go by Benny for short, but so far Benny hasn't stuck. Right now he's our Bennett, B, lil' B, Benihana, B Money, B Mellow, B Bear and Benjamin Button to name a few. Therefore, official nickname is yet to come...

And while I'm on the computer...

... I may as well post some more pics of my darling kids & other happenings.

fire season in Wenatchee is here. We were sitting out back yesterday and saw this just over the mountain. I was about ready to go inside and start packing my evacuation bags but turns out the fire looks a lot closer than it actually is. Luke & Lo got Cal the cutest little kids skateboard and he LOVES it (have I mentioned he's obsessed wtih all things skateboarding). I'll have to get a video of his skateboard moves. Pretty sure we now need to up our health insurance policy... getting ready for Solstice festival 2011 Bennett chillin with Jenni & Lars When we got Cal his bike helmet, I was certain we'd have to force it on it. Not the case. He loves wearing it, so much that he'll keep it on for long after he's done biking or skateboarding.Ian's had his eye on this pool at Costco for some time and once the temp broke 100 degrees he was able to convince me that we need it. well worth the money! cooling down with some popsicles with Lo

4th of July

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I like it so much that I was really hoping Little B's b-day would fall on it. But since it didn't and he came a couple days earlier we enjoyed a nice, low-key 4th this year. Cal spent the afternoon with Gram & Pop, Jenni & fam and rode his bike in Jenni's neighborhood's parade, skateboarded with Luke, BBQ'd with fam and then were paid an overnight visit from Grammie & Pa (Ian's folks). All-in-all a great way to spend the day and our little man's first 4th.

the best part of the parade... getting popsicles at the end

A couple more pics from the hospital

I've been stealing pics off of my mom's camera since I've been a little preoccupied to take them. Here are a couple more pics from the hospital that I thought were pretty darn cute. Still waiting on my sister's pictures (hint, hint)...

checking out brother for the first time

our lil' Benjamin Button