First Trip to the Dentist

Kolby was so scared to go to the dentist, but I've been telling him that it was time for him to go get his teeth checked out and that the dentist office would have video games and toys for him to play with and movies to watch. Geoff took him last week for his first official check up and cleaning appt. I am happy to say it went so well that he is excited to go back and Eliza even wants to go to the dentist. Dr. Peterson is our friend and has fixed both Kolby and Eliza's teeth at our home when we have had teeth accidents so I am sure that helped out. But it was so fun to see Kolby come home and be so excited to explain to me what they did and how they did it. He was so very proud of himself and loves to brush and floss his teeth with his new toothbrush, toothpaste and flossers. Thanks to Dr. Peterson and the nice hygienist for making it such a positive experience. My only regret...I didn't send the camera with Geoff to capture the moment!

Sharing a Room

This past week we finally got Carson's bed set up. We decided to paint the white crib black to go with the black dresser in Kolby's room. I had great intentions of making him some really cute bedding, but found this bedding at Target which already matches Kolby's sports-themed room and decided that I would much rather spend the money and save myself a lot of time and hassle. Kolby is so excited that he gets to share his room. I hope the excitement lasts. Carson still isn't sleeping in there yet, but Kolby asks me every night if I can put Carson in his bed so he can watch over him while he sleeps. Hopefully someday soon, but for now, Carson seems to prefer sleeping strapped into his car seat or snuggled up right next to me.

The Cutest Book...

Some friends stopped by last Sunday with a gift for Carson and part of the gift was this book, titled "You're All My Favorites" by Sam McBratney. It is the cutest book for a family with 3 kids...I would highly recommend it. It is about 3 little bears who begin to wonder how their parents can love them each equally when they are so different from each other. Of course the parents explain how it is possible for them to love each one of them so much. Our kids love the book and i love the sweet message.

The First 11 Days

I really do think about updating the blog often. Getting to it is another thing, as you can tell. We have been busy spending lots of family time together. Last Sunday was the greatest day ever when Kolby and Eliza came home from Grandma and Grandpa's house. We were so happy to see them and they were happy to be home. They had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and their cousins, though and we are so thankful they were able to spend time with them. Grandpa met Carson for the first time on Sunday and Grandma got to spend a lot of quality time holding him. It was so nice!
It has been great having Geoff home from work...the kids are in heaven because they get to go to the park anytime they want and play outside with their favorite playmate, their Dad. Our big family outing for the week was to the Big Fresno Fair. The kids had a great time watching piggy races, the animal follies show, the big cherry Icee, playing in the humongous play structure and of course checking out all of the fair rides and games. We only let Kolby ride one ride, though and he chose to do the carnival version of Splash Mountain. We were shocked that he would choose that one because he usually isn't much of a daredevil but this time the hills seemed really exciting to him. Geoff stayed with Eliza and Carson while i went with Kolby and it was so much fun. Kolby loved the first hill but on the way down from the second, taller hill he said, "Mom, I don't like this ride." And there was a little tremor in his voice. However, when it was all said and done he was giving us high fives and telling us how great the ride was and how brave he is.
Friday night was another big outing...Carson's first trip to Costco. In our small town, Costco is definitely the place to be so we wanted him to see it firsthand. We enjoyed our hot dog and churro dinner and can't wait for our new and improved Costco to open at the end of the month.
Friday morning was spent doing mad cleaning throughout the house. That was brought on by Geoff asking me, "So when is cleaning day around here anyway?" My reply, "Any day you want to start." So we did it that morning and our house looked great for a few hours while the kids were napping and ever since then, we keep looking at our house and then looking at each other, asking, "Did we really just clean this place up? How can it look like this already." Welcome to the world of 3 kids...
Kolby and Eliza are loving their little brother. They think he is the best baby ever and to my chagrin, can't get enough of him, and of course decide that they really really want to play with all of his limbs just as he is dozing off to sleep. They really are so cute with him, though and I think both of them are doing pretty well adjusting to a new baby in the family.
Carson is growing like a weed...8 ounces in just 4 days! At this rate, he will be as chubby as Kolby was in no time. Thursday was a sad day for him because he was circumcised (we have no idea why they made us wait til he was a week old, but that's the way they do it in our town). So so sad to see him in so much pain, but he is recovering well and we know he will thank us for it someday. I'll attach some photos now and stop the rambling. Until next time...

And His Name Is...

...Carson Bryant Howard. Hope you enjoyed Geoff's blogging...he'll be back a lot over the next few weeks. We are home from the hospital and Carson is being a great little baby. He has such a sweet little temperament. As you can see in the photos, his big brother and sister adore him and were so glad to show up with some gifts they bought with Grandma and they wanted to dress him up. Kolby was super thoughtful by bringing one of his old baby blankets to the hospital today so that Carson wouldn't be cold. It was so sweet.
Kolby and Eliza went home with Grandma to Valencia for the weekend so we are just enjoying a nice quiet house, time to bond with Carson and time to rest up to be able to take care of a family of five starting on Sunday. Thank you, Mom, Dad & Ashley for taking care of the kids. We know they are going to have a great time!

It's a Boy!!

So here's Geoff's first blog attempt. It seems to me that many of the Blog readers are of the lady type, so I am going to write for two audiences: dudes and bloggie bloggettes.

Dude Audience: Big Daddy is proud to introduce Kolby's replacement for starting QB at the BYU! He came out with a bunch of goop on him this morning but turned out fine by the end of the day. He cried a lot at first but has mellowed out since. Older siblings seem to like him and haven't dropped him on his head, yet. The hospital pizza was decent, but the bakery cinammon roll was better.

Bloggettes: Lorile was concerned that her body would not be ready for the birth process today; however, things seemed to fall in place over night. She was dilated to a 3 this morning and 50% effaced. Doc broke water at 7:30 a.m. Pitocin drip began at 8:20 a.m. Some extra painkillers were requested at 9:30 a.m., and the epideral lady finally arrived after 10 a.m. Doc came in for a check at 11:30 a.m., and Lorile told him how she really felt: uncomfortable and lots of pressure on the tailbone. He took a look and said, "what if I told you that you were effaced to a 10"? Pushed for about 10 minutes and little baby boy was born at 11:27 a.m.
The baby was placed in mom's lap within one minute after birth for the first time; the other two had some distress at birth, so they were rushed over to the baby table. He tried to feed for about an hour at first and seemed to cry a bit. We hope he's not colicky like Kolby.
Mom's excited to have the big basketball out of her belly...although she thinks her belly should be flat as a board by morning or she will be mad.

Details:
Boy
8 lbs 5 oz
20.5 in
Born at 11:27 a.m.

Little Boy Growing Up

I had to post this quickly about my little 3 year old boy growing up. He loves going outside every day to play with the neighborhood kids and yesterday I was a little busy and couldn't go out with him, but a neighbor friend said she would be out there and would watch him. Perfect. Well, a few minutes later Kolby reappeared extremely animated, almost yelling, "Mom, I need you to put my helmet on and get my scooter cuz Justin has his cool ramp out on the sidewalk and I need to go over it on my scooter." I was laughing and thought it was so cute he wanted to be such a big boy. For a minute i was a little scared about his safety but glad he was insistent on wearing his helmet. So here is the picture I captured from his Big Boy moment...

And yes, tomorrow is the big day to be induced. Check back then to see if it's a boy or a girl...