4 months!

Tanner just had his 4 month check-up... Growing very nicely and is just content as can be. Tristen of course came to be with his baby brother and when they gave him his shots you should have seen Tristens eyes, Tanner of course screamed initially and Tristens eyes bugged out and was looking at the gal like what have you done to Tanner! Once I picked him up he stopped crying and then Tristen was better. Tanner is getting better at using his hands and grabbing things and of course then it goes straight to his mouth! Here are his his numbers: Weight: 15lbs (40%) Height: 25.5 inches (60%) Head: 16 3/4 inches (50-75) I love to look back and see where Tristen was at that age, Tanner has him beat in all the categories..... it will be interesing to see if that keeps up! Playing catch up on some pictures.... My co-worker got married last week so Hayden and I got to get dressed up and go out for the evening! I love my hands! Fathers Day picnic with the boys.... Tristen was ready to go swimming with his rain boots on.... Sliding fun at a friends house! Happy 4 months buddy! Nothing else can beat seeing these smiles daily....

Summer already!

Time is flying! We have just returned from our family trip down to Texas so see family and friends. I got to meet my new niece and it was a blast with all the kiddos. Tanner took his first flight and did awesome and Tristen was an old pro! Tanners latest.... He will be 4 months old next week! He is a super easy baby, so happy and content. He loves to stand up and do his legs and has found his hands and loves to chew on them. He started sleeping through the night a couple weeks ago which is really nice, but I still find myself waking up and thinking what the heck time is it and then I look over at the video monitor and love that I can see him right there. He started rolling over at 3 months but hasnt done it too much lately.... I love hearing his little giggles and he smiles all the time, especially around Tristen. He just sits there and watches him and loves him so much. Tristen has been so great with him as well.. loves on him and talks to him. Tristen is constantly saying things that just make us look at each other and laugh, the other night Hayden and I were talking about something that I cant even remember at the dinner table and Tristen just blurts out... "I have NO IDEA what you are talking about" It was just classic!

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I owe it to my lil Tan Man....

Well it has been two months since Tanner John came into our world, I have been horrible at keeping this blog, but have had the intentions to update it... So here goes.... Going back to February.... I was quite impatient being that Tristen was 16 days early, so I thought Tanner would come early too, well not really.... I went in for my checkup and was dialated to a 4 and my doctor thought it could be any moment and later they all tell me that they were surprised that it didnt happen that day, well I walked around and exercised my tush off to only go back the next Tuesday and I was a 5.... So my wonderful doctor said to me "Gretch, you ready to do this, I am ready...." Lets get you up there today if you want.... so he said I will just break your water.... you are so ready...So H and I ran home and grabbed a snack and gave kisses to my Tman and left him with Grandpa and ReeRee -- I checked in and Dr. Gibbens broke my water at 1pm -- the rest was pretty typical... I didnt need any drugs to get things going, I was contracting so quickly they couldnt have given me anything even if they wanted the nurse said, I got my epidural at like a 7 which was plenty of pain for me to experience and then I went from an 8 to a 10 in a matter of 10 minutes. I only pushed 20ish minutes and then Dr. Gibbens did something awesome.... He told me that I needed to just barely push and then I knew his head was out.... he told me, Ok I need you to lean forward and both hands (at this point I am thinking what the heck I thought I was done!) He said to me... Ok, grab him! He let me pull Tanner out.. I will never forget that, it was such an overwhelming moment that I could have never imagined... it was awesome! So Tanner was here at 4:59 pm on Feb. 21st still 6 days early! :) 7lbs 5oz and 20 inches... I knew right away that he was smaller than Tristen but he has sure change since then. He took to breastfeeding like a champ, was a little pig as they called him and he now at his 8 week checkup was at 12 lbs 3 oz. and 24 inches. I compared Tristens 2 mo checkup and Tanner is 2 inches longer and 1lb heavier! He has been such a good lil baby, really easy going and a lil snuggler, he likes to be held and at 8 weeks he really started to be engaged, smiles all the time and just locks you in with his eyes. He and Tristen have a lot of similarities in their looks at this age, Tanner just has darker hair, we wonder if he will turn blonde too? As far as our first little guy, what a trooper he has been, he has loved Tanner since the first time he saw him, he is very sweet with him and I can not wait till they are able to play together. Tristen of course is still 3 years old and can be a challenge in the listening department but overall he has done a great job adjusting. Hayden made sure that they got to do some special things together since Tanner is needing me so often, so that has helped. Hayden has been in season since January and I knew that it was going to be crazy with his travels and matches and having a newborn.... it hasnt been horrible, just definitley busy thats for sure, I guess its best just to jump right in, right! There is the update for now, I will work on keeping more up to date from now on....

37 Weeks....

Well here we are with less that three weeks from my due date... and if you ask me I dont think he is going to be staying in that long any way! My DR is coming back from vacation tomorrow evening and then I am basically ready whenever! If he follows the same pattern Tristen did he could be born as soon as late this week or weekend... I would be ok with that! The house is pretty much ready... it gets cleaned up and then it also easily gets to be a mess real quickly! We have had a wonderful winter leading up to this past weekend, we got a snowstorm that dropped 11 inches so I guess it was inevitable!

This is my last picture that was taken right before Tristen was born and then my current 37 week picture... Its hard to compare....

Christmas!

This year was so much fun, I think I enjoyed watching Tristen go through and get excited about Santa this year then any other year I can remember....We had a very busy December, we took Tristen to the zoo for a Winter Zoobilee when there was still snow on the ground and he got to ride the Polar Express... he loved it but then got so cold at the end and then it was no fun! Grandpa Marty came up for a visit to spend some time with us and then Grandpa and Ree Ree came up for Christmas.... we baked cookies, watched some Christmas videos and went to the Childrens Museum.... The New Year was spent with two other couples and their kids as a tradition we have done this for the past few years, the kids run around and play then Tristen goes to sleep and the adults get to play!

Lastly... I have been horrible at taking belly pics and updating the progress of the other little guy thats about to come into our family... I will be 33 weeks this weekend and its a little crazy to think I am getting so close.... the weather here has been so warm that I really cant believe its January! So I am still not technically due till Feb 26th but based on Tristens early arrival there is a chance that baby brother could be here by mid February... thats not too long from now.... So I am getting things organized and pulling all the baby stuff back out!

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This is just over 32 weeks....

Back tracking a few months!

October was filled with great fall weather, so..... trips to the zoo before it closed, the pumpkin patch, Tristens birthday and Halloween! Grandpa came up to finish a bedroom down in the basement and now Tristen and baby brother have a nice play room in the back of the basement! Here are a few slideshows to condense it all a bit...

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We had a very simple party for Tristen on his birthday, he had his two best buds from daycare come over for some pizza and cupcakes, Grandpa and Ree Ree came and our neighbors stopped by. He enjoyed it and we decided that next year it will be somewhere other than our house!

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Tristen at his 3 yr checkup...


This was our first stop on Halloween, the football stadium had all the departments handing out candy, Tristen really enjoyed it.


Part of the playroom, still work in progress and easily messed up as you can see!


His "other" costume... he was Thomas one day and then an elephant the next...


Just a random picture, Tristen got into the band-aids and came to me and said in a pathetic voice... I have a boo-boo... so he needed Scooby... HA!

Tristen is going to have a BABY BROTHER!

Well I had my ultrasound earlier this week and it confirmed what Hayden had said from day 1... BOY! I am not gonna lie and say that I wasnt a tiny bit sad that it wasnt a girl, it would have been cool to have one of each, but I pretty much had a feeling it was going to be a boy. I have always thought that I would be the one to have all boys and I am really excited for Tristen to have a little brother to play around with and a few years down the road I can only imagine the destruction they might get into!:) As my Dad said, well just another lil guy for Tristen to go out and pee in the grass with since he randomly does that! HA!

Overall we were really just focused on making sure that baby was healthy and all looked good no matter what the gender and that was confirmed.... its amazing to see all the testing that they do these days esp on the heart, I was able to see all four chambers of the heart, the valves.... its just so neat! So now we are trying to get some name options... we had our girl name and couldnt figure out a boy name but now that its set the countdown begins! Here are a couple of images of Peanut....





He was face down and didnt really want to roll over for a better 3D picture but it was still neat to see some more of his face.... Will he look like Tristen?