Welcome, Nathan Paul!

Early on Saturday, November 15, Kim started having some contractions that made her wonder, "Could THIS be the day that we meet our newest son?!?" We texted Jon & Chelsea, asking them to be on stand-by to watch our boys. But, though the contractions continued the entire day, the contractions didn't get closer together or fall at regular intervals ... so we just waited at home. Since Kim was induced with Ian and Ryan, Kim kept wondering if she would know if or when it was time to go to the hospital. Finally, late Saturday afternoon, we called Jon and Chelsea to ask them if they would mind coming over to play some games with us after the boys went to bed and then plan to spend the night in case we'd have to go to the hospital quickly. Thankfully, they agreed ... By the time they arrived around 7:30 p.m., Kim's contractions were much more intense and regular. In fact, just moments after Jon & Chelsea walked in the door, we headed out for the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital around 8:00. After getting checked by the triage nurse and finding out Kim was already dilated to 6 cm, Kim was in a delivery room between 9:00 and 9:30 p.m.

The labor progressed smoothly, and Kim got an epidural around 11:00 p.m. The anesthesiologist did a "60% epidural," which meant that Kim was actually able to move her legs around while not feeling any pain ... perfect! Interestingly, Kim's contractions got much more intense but never got much closer together than 5 minutes apart. After just four or five big pushes, Nathan Paul arrived at 1:48 a.m. on Sunday, November 16. He gave a strong, healthy cry right away.

Seeing our sweet boy for the first time brought tears to our eyes and joy to our hearts! We thanked our amazing Creator-God for blessing us so abundantly through this new little one and for granting Kim a smooth, easy delivery!

Matt was able to cut Nathan's umbilical cord. (Thankfully, our friendly, sweet nurse was a million times better at her nursing job than at photography.) :)

What a handsome boy!

Here was our fabulous "delivery crew." Dr. Berryhill (2nd from left) delivered Nathan. Though he's not our regular OB, we thought he was just fantastic, as was our dear nurse, Jennyfer (far right).

We were surprised that Nathan weighed in at 8 lb., 14 oz. after our ultrasound tech and OB guessed he'd be just 8 lb.

Nurse Stacey was Nathan's nurse. She measured him (he was 21 inches long)

and monitored his temperature for a while.

Daddy Matt lovingly looked on. :)

Soon afterward, it was time for all of Nathan's pretty brown hair to be washed

and for him to receive his first sponge bath. He wasn't a huge fan.

Here's our handsome boy, all clean! :)

What a blessing for these proud parents to cuddle our new, mellow, adorable baby!

Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of sweet baby Nathan!

2 1/2 weeks and counting ...

It's hard to believe that we're down to only two weeks or so until we hold our precious baby!

At our appointment last week, we had an ultrasound. At 36 weeks, Nathan was measuring 6 lb. 12 oz. (much smaller than Ryan was at the same point and slightly smaller than Ian was). So, Nathan may well be our smallest baby yet! We're okay with that! :)  Nathan was head down and was measuring exactly (to the day) what he should be measuring.

None of the ultrasound pictures was super clear; he's sort of squished at this point. But the ultrasound tech WAS able to confirm that he IS still a boy! :)

We're mainly feeling ready. We have the pack 'n' play set up in our room and all of the clothes washed and put away. One of our final tasks is to put the new car seats in the backseat so we can fit three kids across our Honda Accord. We'd like it if he would wait another 1.5 weeks to be born so that my mom will be here. If he comes early though, we're grateful that Jon and Chelsea and a few friends are willing to help us out.

I am still feeling alright but am feeling much more tired and achy at this point. I'm having an increasing amount of uncomfortable Braxton Hicks contractions.  At our appointment a few days ago, I was 70% effaced and 3 cm dilated. So, we're making progress!

We're very excited to meet Nathan soon!

Livng close to family!

 We love having family living close to us! Jon & Chelsea have now been in the Houston area for almost five months. It's been really fun to help them get settled, to watch them interact with Ian and Ryan so often, and to celebrate their new addition on the way ...

Recently, we were excited to help take their gender reveal pictures.

 Were we ever excited to find out that God is sending them a BOY! :) We love boys. :)

 We rarely take pictures of our regular "hang out" times. But, we usually spend at least some time with them every week. Usually, Jon and Chelsea come over to our house for lunch after church on Sundays (after we sit together in church!). This past Sunday, Ian wanted to read Uncle Jon and Aunt Chelsea his "home readers" for kindergarten. He made them sign a paper three times, just like Matt or I have to after hearing Ian read the book three times.

 By the time Ian read to Aunt Chelsea, he was getting pretty silly. He was holding the book upside down and reading the words backwards so the story didn't make sense. Thankfully, Chelsea has a good sense of humor. :)

We love you guys!

Halloween

We celebrated Halloween in a few different ways this year! The day before Halloween, the librarian that leads Toddler Time asked all of the kiddos to come dressed in their costumes.

Sammy the pizza slice and Ryan the cowboy

After the typical listening to books and singing songs, the kids went on a "costume parade" throughout the library.

That afternoon, after Ian and Matt came home from school, we worked on our family pumpkin. After looking at a few designs on the computer, Ian chose an Elsa (from Frozen) pattern that he thought looked really cool.

The boys happily helped scrape out seeds with their long spoons.

Ian and Matt did some of the carving, and then I finished up.  It turned out okay and looked especially good from a distance. :)

On Halloween Day, Ian wore orange to school and participated in a "Pumpkin Party" in the afternoon. Matt came home to enjoy some English muffin pumpkin pizzas for dinner with us before he had to go back to school to supervise a football game.

 The boys were happy to help ... and especially happy to sample all of the ingredients! :)

Aunt Chelsea came over to go trick-or-treating with Ian, Ryan, and me. Here are our adorable cowboy and pirate!

The boys enjoyed the trick-or-treating experience. Even Ryan was good at saying "trick or treat" and "thank you." I should have gotten a picture of Aunt Chelsea pulling a wagon mainly for Ian. (Ryan usually wanted to help Aunt Chelsea pull Ian in the wagon, though he rode occasionally as well.) After 15 houses or so, the boys asked if they could please come home to hand out candy to the other kids.

Ian took his job VERY seriously and carefully parceled out two pieces of candy to each trick-or-treater.

Ryan was content to watch out the windows for trick-or-treaters, to help open the door, and to share random facts with people who came to the door. ("I'm eating a Ring Pop!!")

What a fun evening! Thanks, Aunt Chelsea, for coming over to help and to celebrate with us! :)

Fifties Day

Ian's kindergarten has a fun way to celebrate the 50th day of school ... with "Fifties Day." Each child is encouraged to dress like someone from the 50's. The guys have it easy with rolled up jeans and white t-shirts. :) Doesn't Ian look handsome (and SO grown up?!?!)?

Ian and his buddy, Caleb

When Ian got to school, Mrs. Brandenburg had a record of 50's music playing. The children cut out two circles which they glued together to form a nametag that looked like a record. Mrs. Brandenburg then took pictures of each student with the "50th Day of School" sign ... and of groups of students together.

the kindergarten guys -- Drayton, Ian, Nic, Matthew, Boston, Andres, Luke Ben, and Parker

Ian, Parker, and Ava

Meanwhile, many kindergarten mommas (and siblings) were busy decorating the lunchroom to look like a 50's diner. Ryan loved hanging the "wheels" (records) on the wall. When all three kindergarten classes arrived to the lunchroom, it was time for more pictures (of course!).

Ian and Caleb

Mrs. Brandenburg's class (click to enlarge)

another one ... aren't the poodle skirts super cute?!?

final one of Mrs. Brandenburg's class

Then, it was time for the kindergartners to show off the 50's-style dances they had been practicing in P.E. Ian told me he liked all of the dances ("The Twist," "The Mashed Potato," "The Freeze Dance," and "The Hand Jive") except for "The Pony."

 

"The Twist"








pretending to "swim"



After the kids danced, they all got to sit in the "diner" (the cafeteria tables) to enjoy a root beer float in REAL glass glasses(!). Even after Ian insisted on the way to school that he did NOT like root beet floats, he slurped it down in just a matter of minutes and certainly didn't seem to mind it too much. :)

The teachers and aides paused to take a picture as well. Ms. Tina (the aide in Ian's class) and Mrs. Brandenburg (Ian's teacher) are the ones farthest on the left.

After the root beer floats, the kids went outside for hula hooping and bubble-gum blowing contests and for recess. Even though watching and helping with the 50's Day activities was really fun, watching Ian at recess was even more fun. We still don't hear many details about school, so it's just fun to see him in action. All of the boys in his class got together at recess time to look for acorns that had holes in them. When they found "holey acorns," they stepped on them to remove the grub worms that are inside. They spent most of the rest of recess playing with the grub worms and other assorted bugs that they found. Ian also did a great job of checking in on Ryan and making sure that he was having fun on the playground, too.

Ryan and Sammy had a great time on the playground

Some other, non-50's Day pictures of Ian. The block center seems to be one of his favorites, though we'll occasionally hear about the computer center or LEGO center.

Ian has told me before that Ben "is the best builder in the world. He really is!"

 

We're so thankful that Ian is enjoying kindergarten and that he has learned so much even in the first 50 days! :)