The King Cake

So I decided that since I am inside all day I would make a king cake for Mardi Gras this year.
It turned out great! The hardest part was finding purple sprinkles. Thank goodness for Barbie, otherwise it would have been a Gold and Green cake.
I cut it up and gave some to my neighbors. However, Nate got the baby, so it looks like I'll be stuck making it again next year!

Brother Bonding time

Liam really loves Owen. Sometimes too much. He wants to hold him and help bathe him and now even lifts his shirt to feed him... (not sure what to do about that??) This is just a short clip of them together.

A happy bath

From our previous posts, you saw how much Owen disliked his "sponge bath" Our friend who works in the NICU said that they wrap the babies in a damp towel while bathing them until the umbilical cord falls off and they can have a real bath.
We tried it and it worked. A much better experience as you can tell.

Bompa

Nate's dad was able to come in for the weekend to meet Owen and spend time with us. We were happy to have him. And really sad to see him leave.

Meet Mister Irresistible and Prince Charming

Marie brought the boys Valentines outfits. We dressed them up and did a "photo shoot" Liam was a little less than charming at times, but they looked adorable.

A little piece of Chocolate

We had to do a run to chocolate world while Nate's parents were here. Liam was thrilled, I got my chocolate fix, and Owen found a comfy place to rest.

Nana

So Nate's mom came in the day my Dad left to help with the troops. It was so nice to have her here. I was able to feed Owen and give him the attention he needs, while she entertained Liam and gave him what he needed.
I'm sure it will take her a week to catch up on her sleep after all the playing she did with Liam. He made up a game where they had to run around a circular rug screaming faster, faster, faster, then falling down in exhaustion.
He also made her crawl around pretending they were all sorts of animals.
And there wasn't a day that he didn't get a homemade cookie.
But after we put Liam down Nan would get some cuddle time with Owen.
Thanks Nana.

It's a jungle in here.

Being a big brother is hard work!

Liam has been such a great helper these last two weeks. One night it showed. He loves to sit in his Tow Mater chair and catch a quick movie, well this night it was a few winks.
I love that he makes the chair recline. What a good sport.

Comparison of Brothers

Everyone keeps asking me if Liam and Owen looked alike at birth. This is Liam a few days old...




And here is Owen. You decide

So BIG

 

I just wanted to say how proud we are of Liam. He is being such a great BIG brother. He wants to hold the baby and is so concerned everytime he cries. He too has his camera at the ready for any photo ops.

Weeks full of Firsts

Oh the first couple of days at home. It's a time full of firsts. There is the first night of sleeping at home, that is invariably full of crying and feeding and crying and feeding. There is the first time you get pee'ed on by your child. There are first smiles and first messes and so on and so on.

Among the firsts is the first bath. Bath time is a big deal around our house. When we had Liam we decided that we were going to bathe him every night. It was going to be our way to signal to him that it was time to sleep.

Liam HATED his first bath. He screamed bloody murder the entire time. Naturally we thought it was adorable. Despite his intial reaction, as the year went by it became his favorite time of the day. He was always the most relaxed and happy in the bathtub.

So we decided that with Owen's arrival we would record and share his first bath with everyone. Naturally there is some nudity involved so viewer discretion is advised. I would probably rate it TV-14.

Just some fun pics

This is how I look everytime I try to sit up. You don't realize how much you need stomach muscles for EVERYTHING!

















I love this picture. Liam is so proud of how big he is. Mom is happy cause she is on percocet and Owen is not so sure

Just a few flowers from friends to make the dungeon room seem liveable.

Brunette

 

Before all this hair falls out and he turns blonde, I wanted to have some proof that I had a dark haired baby. It's already getting lighter :( But I doubt will ever be as light as big brothers!

One Final Picture

I can't believe how fast that week went. Thanks Dad and Corinne! We love you

Proud Papa

 

My dad and Corinne were the first "troops" to arrive and help for the big day. Here is my Dad so proud to be a grandpa of 7 Grandchildren now! The boys are now pulling ahead of the girls in numbers. Come on Rick and Saysa bring us another girl. Only Y chromosomes here.

 

Here is a pic of Corinne. Kinda her "first" Grandbaby since she and my dad got married. He loves her already.

A Video is worth a thousand pictures

Here are a couple of short snippets of Owen's first few minutes of life. Remember the sound of his screaming the next time you wake up at 2 a.m. It will bond you with us because it's likely what we are hearing at that exact moment.



And here is the big moment where we learned Owen's size. I have really never understood the importance of weight with birth, but it's like the big piece of info that everyone wants to know. So you spend the first day or two of you life getting you weight broadcasted, then try to divert anyone knowing that information for the rest of your life. Sometimes I feel like I am telling a story about a fish I caught "That's right, 8 pounds 2 ounces, and 21 inches long to boot. With a profile like that I would be crazy to throw him back."

Welcome Owen to the World

We'll after 9 months and a whole bottle of Tums taken for heartburn our little one has finally graced us with his arrival. Here are a few pictures of the events with more details to follow, mostly because its now 11:33 on teh east coast I can barely type I am so tired

Here we are getting ready to leave and mostly scared to death. Even though this is our second brith I was even more nervous this time somehow, and I am not even the one having my belly cut open to yank a wiggling baby boy



So we got Jen all wrapped up after the spinal was done by one of my favorite attendings. This picture was taken just before incision and Jen was as ready as she was going to get. She was gripping my hand pretty tight but it was hard to tell which hand was more sweaty






Well Dr. Thomas got Jen open quickly and before you could count to ten there was a baby head popping out of Jen's abdomen, a head full of dark hair. Soon there was a whole baby out who was crying and screaming at us for disturbing his peaceful slumber.



Well after he was out they put him on the table and got him all cleaned up so he could be presentable on his birthday. They wiped him down and poked him and examined him head to toe and pronouced him medically sound and then they handed him over to me.









Here we are meeting our baby.



More tomorrow. We love you all.

The final Belly shots

Merry Christmas 2007

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Although we missed our families and all the fun activities that we do together during the Holidays. (and not to mention all the snow Utah got and we didn't. All I ask is if I have to live in a cold climate that there is SNOW on Christmas.)
We had a great time spending it as our little family, and with all our friends out here who have become our family.
Here's to another year and a new addition to the family.

No Coal for us!

Because our families are the best, we actually had a Christmas this year. Being a "doctors wife", still hasn't brought in the "big bucks." So thanks to family who made Christmas 2007 possible. Oh and The big Jolly Fat guy too. As you can see, Liam LOVES animals.

Christmas Eve

Miracles of Miracles, Nate had both Christmas Eve and Day off! There really is a Santa, cause that's what I asked for.
We have the Best neighbors. They too were having a quiet Christmas away from family, so we joined our families and make an awesome Christmas eve feast. I wanted to keep some of our family traditions in effect so I tackled the Poulson family tradtion of homemade orange rolls. I've never made bread from scratch so this was a whole new thing for me. All in all it was a success! They weren't as "pretty" as Marie's, but tasted the same. It was a lot of work and I can see why she only brings the recipe out once a year. Next year will get the presentation down too.
Sam and Liam got to open their gifts from each other and were both very happy with their new toys.