Our Baby Boy is Here!

This is Shar, posting for Nicole & Jeff, who are happily hanging at the hospital holding their newest baby boy!

Here are Baby's stats:
born Wednesday, May 14 - 3:26 am
7lbs 8oz - 20 inches

he has beautiful, soft, light brown hair,
those brand-new baby blue/gray eyes,
good-sized hands and feet,
and DIMPLES in his cheeks!

None of us can believe how different he looks from Weston as a baby.

And his name, you ask? Well, they're still deciding. If you come up with any sudden name ideas before Friday morning (when they leave the hosptial), CALL and tell them! They're determined to name him before they go home. We're all excited to hear...

Nicole was awesome and did a great job bringing this baby here. She is doing really well, and I think feeling lots better than the first time around. Though she's still really tired and needing some good recovery time (i.e., they would still love to have some dinners brought. I'm doing lasagna for Friday. :o)

West has already met his little brother, and loves to give him lots of hugs and kisses. We'll see if it continues when they go home. ha ha!

Sadly, no pictures yet. I forgot to take some on my camera, and Nicole & Jeff have theirs at the hospital. So I - or they - will post some pics VERY soon!

Due Date

This is what I looked like on baby's due date:

You will notice that he is on the wrong side of the belly still. But I am still smiling, maybe a little tiredly, but it's there. :)
Love you all

By the way...apparently the babystrology ticker doesn't know how to deal with overdue babies. So I'm assuming it's going to start climbing upward now? Weird....

39 1/2 weeks: Still No Baby

Just a quick update:

I am still pregnant. He doesn't look like he's coming today. I'm just hoping for the weekend at this point. However, I AM dilated to a 2.5 ish. So that is VERY exciting for me. :)
Thanks, everyone, for your emails and comments. You make a 9 month prego person feel very good.
Just so you know: we will be sending out an email to all of you to let you know when he gets here and to check out the blog. Unless he is super late, I probably won't be posting more until then. I'm just tired. That is all. :)

Love you all!

Happy Happy Birthday Trav!!!!

Trav,
We hope your special day is awesome and that this year is your best yet!! You definitely deserve it. You are such an incredible brother-in-law. We love that you always make us feel important and part of your life and that you take time to do things with us. We love how much energy and excitement you have for life and that you share some of that with us! And we LOVE how much we get to hang out and have fun together. You are an incredible father, husband, uncle, brother, artist, and person. We feel so lucky to have you in our family!

Happy Birthday!

Love,
Jeff & Nicole


DeAr UnKl ChAvs,

i LuV yOo. i am sO glAd I giT too liv by yoO. i reAlllly LiKe plAyInG wiTh yOo, spEciAllY wen yoO thRow me ArOunD. thAt iS sOoooo fUn. yOo maKe Me laff a LoT.
i LuV yoO soOO mucH. haPpY biRthDaY!!!

lUv,
wEsT

38 1/2 Weeks

A few more days!!

Well...we're almost there! We are getting more and more excited by the minute. We cannot wait to meet this little guy! The stats haven't changed much...but that doesn't mean a whole lot.
The Dr. said I could go into labor tonight and it should be faster than before. YAY!

Here they are:
Dilated to 1+
75% effaced

And I was thrilled, shocked, and very very happy to weigh 2 lbs LESS.
So go figure: the week I TRY to eat healthy I gain 2 lbs...the week I have lots of party food from all the celebrating I lose 2 lbs. I'll take it!
(in all fairness, I think being so busy AND the fact that I didn't wear my denim jacket contributed to this phenomenon. BUT at least I wasn't MORE!)

And baby is kicking/moving like CrAzY!!! He pokes his little foot/elbow/knee out ALL the time. and gets the hiccups often. LOVE him already!

Happy 2nd Birthday Syanne!!!

What a Party!

Our sweet little niece turned 2 on Monday! We celebrated while both my parents were in town for Trav's graduation. We had so much fun...Chels & Rob put on a great party! :)

Chelsea curled Syanne's hair and she looked SO darn adorable! LOVE HER!
Chelsea & Syanne...I couldn't get her to smile for my camera...but I got a really cute one on Chelsea's. She's a doll no matter what, though. :)

The three cute cousins: Syanne, Kapria, & Weston. It was so cute to see them play and interact together. Syanne was so sweet with Kapria and Weston is holding her hand. How precious! I love getting together with BOTH of my sisters! and their kiddos

Weston playing with Endo (the puppy) and Grandpa. My dad is such an awesome Grandpa, I love seeing him play with the kids.
Quick story...just to show you that Grandparents really get to have FUN with grandkids...
Weston kept asking for chocolate covered cinnamon bears. He had already had 2 and so I told him 'no more' and that we were all done. When we got to Shar and Trav's house he goes into a bedroom and all of a sudden comes running out with a huge grin on his face to show me his special treat: a cinnamon bear. And WHO was the guilty culprit??? My DAD of course! It was pretty hilarious and the rest of the weekend Weston definitely knew who he could get treats, soda sips, and ANYTHING from! I don't mind. That's what Grandparents are for, right?!
Love you Dad!

Syanne checking out her cool pinata. She was so excited!

Weston taking a swing. He was more interested in playing then in swinging. Oh well...

So sweet!!

Mom & Dad with their three grandkiddos. I love my parents and miss them so much! You are both just awesome grandparents...we miss you so much!
A few pics of Trav's Graduation coming SOON!!!!

Happy Graduation Amy!!!!

What a fun weekend!!!

We celebrated Amy's AND Travis's graduations this past weekend. It was so fun to see so much family!!! We already miss everyone tons! I am blaming my lack of picture taking on the pregnancy and being tired...so I really need to get pictures from everyone else. I only have pictures from Amy's party and NONE from Trav's! (so Shar please send some!!!)


Here are the girls celebrating Amy's big day:
Mom, Nicole, Amy, & Amanda . I just love our family!

All of the boys, We missed you Joe & Dad!!:
Jonathan, Cole, James, Jeff, & Weston

The little guys having fun with Grandma!

Congrats on such a great accomplishment Amy! We are so proud of you and VERY excited for all you get to do now! Love ya!

Days 2-3 of Spring Break

Spring Break Blast!!!

We had so much fun with Jeff taking a few days off for Spring Break. It definitely went by way too fast. We tried to give Weston a lot of quality time with us since it won't be that easy much longer!! We had a great few days.

First we did haircuts:
After seeing how cute is longish hair was, we were both really sad we cut it. We hadn't intended to at all...Weston was SO interested in Jeff's haircut while I was doing it and really really wanted me to use the clippers on him. (just like Daddy) So...we did. He's still a cutie but we want to grow his hair again. :)

We had lots of fun 'hang out' time where we just played and goofed off and did whatever Weston wanted. Which most of the time meant wrestling with Dad, that's his new favorite thing to do! I love seeing my boys have so much fun together!!

Thanksgiving Point

We went to Thanksgiving Point on Jeff's last day off. Shar & Kapria came with us! It was so much fun and we couldn't have planned the weather more perfectly. It was a gorgeous day and we were able to not only see, but also feed, tons of the animals. Weston was in heaven!! We fed the goats, chickens, ponys, and sheep. Then we got to pet and feed a HUGE horse, go on a wagon ride and a pony ride. We definitely recommend this place to anyone coming to the area!! We had a blast!

Weston riding Chief.

His face doesn't show it right now, but he LOVED the pony ride. He kept asking for "more" after we finished. It was tons of fun and so worth it!!!

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?!

Weston's A: STUNTMAN

We have known for a little while that Weston LOVES to perform 'tricks'. He gets so proud of himself when he climbs on things. He will find the most precarious place to climb to, then he will clap for himself while trying not to fall. It's great. And scary for a mom.

He has recently discovered that chairs are really cool to climb onto. And stools. And the table. In these next 3 pics, he had climbed onto the chair and was clapping for himself. But THAT was not enough. oh no. He had to balance on the edge of the table while kicking his legs up because, of course, that is SO much cooler. I see many hospital trips in the future. And maybe some gold medals in some kind of extreme sport. Or maybe a stuntman for the movies. Whatever it is, I'm sure it will cause a thrill for our little guy. He sure gets a kick out of stuff like this!

Bean Museum

Day One of Spring Break!

We took Weston to the Monte L. Bean museum on Tuesday. It was fun to get out and show him some cool animals up close. I have been to this museum countless times with Giant Steps and I am always a litle sad that these animals are all dead and stuffed. I was this time too. It's kind of bizarre to walk around with all these animals that could kill you in the wild. I really don't like when they make them look vicious and mean, like the wolf is growling at YOU and ready to bite. Kind of freaky. Luckily Weston doesn't know that these WERE alive and now are not. He just thought they were cool. And hey, it's free, so why not enjoy a little bit of nature, right?!

For those who've never been, this cool butterfly collage is made of real butterflies. It was my favorite part of the museum!

This was Weston's favorite part: the FISH and shells of course!

Here he is roaring at the lion. What a cute kid we have!! Overall, the day was very fun!

36 1/2 weeks

How things are going

This pregnancy hasn't seemed to fly by...until NOW. I cannot believe I will have another adorable little kiddo here in less than 4 weeks. Weird. Crazy. and incredibly Awesome too. Things are going really well. Jeff has spring break this week so we are trying to do some really fun things with Weston before his little bro. takes some attention from him. We are loving every precious moment with our sweet sweet Weston. I will post some pics of him sometime later today!

For those who know what this means- the stats from the checkup:
I'm dilated to a 1
(this is a GOOD thing, even though it's not a lot...after 10 hours of heavy labor I still wasn't to this point with Weston, so I am happy!)
I'm 75% effaced.
Another good thing...this labor SHOULD be easiER and fastER
(note that this does NOT mean easy and fast, just better than the first, haha)
He is in the 'right' position.
Looking great and just where he needs to be.
Unfortunately for me that means LOTS of pressure. oh yay.
And, I weigh more than I want to.
Blah. Oh well..this kiddo is getting big. not me. right. ;)
Otherwise, feeling good and having fun!

I've been TAGGED!!!

Before I start this tag, all I have to say is: Has anyone else noticed that I am now in the 20's for my baby countdown! I'm kind of freaking out here. Where did the last 9 months go?!


MY FAVORITE THINGS around the house

My favorite thing in the kitchen is... the dishwasher. Whoever invented the dishwasher is the most wonderful person EVER!!!! It saves SO much time and my life is that much better (and more time efficient) for having it! ahh...

My favorite thing in the bathroom is... My makeup. I'll admit, I am vain. I like feeling put together in the morning and that is what does it.

My favorite thing in the bedroom is... the WHOLE thing. I love walking into our room and feeling like it is my little haven from chaos. It's just perfect!

My favorite thing in the bedroom closet is... my THIN clothes. I absolutely cannot wait to fit in them again!!! and next are my books. Books Books BOOKS. I LOVE them!

My favorite thing in the living room is... Our love sack. Whether it's snuggling with Jeff while we watch a good movie or wrestling with Weston while hearing that adorable laugh, it holds the greatest memories!

My favorite thing in the pantry is... our food storage. I am so excited to have space!!! The bottom shelf is becoming oh-so-beautiful as I add more and more cans to it each grocery shopping trip. I LOVE feeling like I'm *getting* organized. (It is a LIFELONG project!)

My favorite thing in the "office" is... the computer and the eliptical machine. I mean, come on, how can I chose just ONE?! The one is good for my body, the other is good for my mind (and my sanity!)

My favorite thing in the baby's room is... My glider. Somehow those late nights rocking and singing to Weston (yes, they STILL occur, this week more than usual!) are the most precious memories. My glider makes the late late hour not quite so difficult and of course holding my little boy close is so special. Just last week he started asking me for certain songs. Oh how I love this little boy.

Now I need to see these people do it: TAG you're it!! SHAR,DESI, LORI, ANNIE O., STEPH, EMILY E, okay I could keep going. Really I just want to see what ALL of you out there have to say, so if you feel like doing this, YOU'RE TAGGED! Love you all!

Last weeks favorites!!!

It's been a crazy week!

This week has been very busy. So busy we haven't taken any pictures. Or taken the time to make our blog private. That really is going to happen, but in the meantime I am going to do this post so I don't get too far behind! These are all from last week!!!

Caught in the act: Weston absolutely LOVES helping now. His favorite job is setting the table. He is just so darn cute when he runs and puts everything in its place. As he puts down the plates, napkins, and each utensil he says whose it is. So there's mommy's, daddy's and then 'Weston' sounds kind of garbled. Well, you can't really understand what he's saying at all but it is SO cute!!! Here's him in action.

Weston's latest favorite thing is to go over to the cd player in our room and start singing "lalalala" when he wants me to turn on the music. Then we blast it and he dances all over our room. It is SO fun. This day he had to wear Dad's tie to dance. What a cutie!

Watching Kapria is always a favorite thing to do! Weston and Kapria LOVE playing together and it is so cute to see them interact. I just learned this week that "Bap" means Kapria. When we drove to their house one day West kept saying "Bap" over and over and over. I just nodded my head like I knew what he was talking about. Then when we got to Shar and Trav's he just ran over to her and smiling said "Bap" So now we know! We got to watch her while Shar & Trav went out one night. It was so fun! We love this little girl!!!
Here are Jeff, West, and Kapria watching some march madness.

Last Sat. I also was able to go to a friend's baby shower! It was so fun to see cute cute Lori and her adorable belly!!! She is due May 1st but is going to have the baby on April 19th because that is my prediction! :) (right Lori?!) It was great to catch up with my cute friend Ginny, as well, whose little boy is due in July. Yay for babies and good friends. I love excuses to get together!!

This is Weston's favorite hangout in the house.

We made cookies last Sunday and Weston LOVED it!! He was so fascinated by all of it and was thrilled to help measure, dump, mix and OF COURSE taste the dough. He wanted that more than the cookies!!! (who can blame him really?!)

Ahhh....snickerdoodles. I don't know who came up with that name, but isn't it perfect. They are just the perfect cookie with a glass of milk. LOVE them!
While Amanda is baking her awesome veggie muffins, I am making these.
Think thin, think thin. haha.
I'll think thin once this kiddo has made his entrance!

Love you all!!

Just to be SAFE

Hi family and friends!!!
Within the next week we are going to make our blog only available to family and friends. This is done by sending invites out to everyone. I don't want to miss anyone who wants to stay updated on our blog so please leave a comment or email us with your email address so I can get invites out to everyone when we do the switch.
We hope hope hope you still stop by to visit our lives on blogger!!!!
We've just decided that we don't want so much of our personal info available to anyone who happens to find our site!
So please please let us know if you would like an invite!!!
jndrysdale@gmail.com

Love you all!
Jeff, Nicole, West, & baby boy???