Summer highlights for Tyson

This boy of ours is getting big!  I can't believe he turned 8 years old this summer and was baptized.  He is such an intelligent little guy, asking questions, working things over in his mind, thinking, always thinking.  He read through almost the entire Lemony Snicket series this summer and earned almost $25 doing our "penny a page" reading program.  We made a checklist of things to do this summer and I think we got through almost all of them.

Some of our summer list:
see the Greenshow
make homemade strawberry lemonade
ride bikes in the kid-car-wash
make smores out back
sleep outside
watch fireworks
going swimming a bunch
visit Star Valley
make rocket balloons
eat humbugs

I think we did all of them!

This was his last day of school in Cedar.  Such a cute little first grader.

 

Since we only do friend parties when the kids are 5, 8, 12, and 16, it was a year for a friend party!  Tyson choose to do a small one up at the aquatic center.  Man, these pictures makes me miss Cedar so badly!  Dusty was the person in the pool, and I stayed out in case we had to deal with an emergency.

Tyson is getting really confident in the deep-end.

Can you find Jackie?

It was nice to have a little get-together for Tyson before we moved.  It was just the day before this that we had decided to accept Dusty's job offer.

We baptized Tyson up in Star Valley because it was easier to get our families together.
We had been talking about baptism for quite a while and Tyson was excited for it.

Afterwards we had a little luncheon in the pavilion with our families.  It was a little chaotic at first because my mind was so scattered with the details of my upended life, but thankfully the moms helped me out and we got it all together.

Is this proof that Will truly does love his sisters?

This is a cute one of the cousins bonding yet again over electronics.

The day we moved, I asked the boys where they wanted to take pictures and they told me, in front of the tree-house.

We had so many great times in this backyard.  My heart aches to think that we won't ever play in it again.  But onward and upward!

Dusty took Tyson to the local skate park a couple of times this summer.  Tyson got to be a little bit braver on his bike and scooter.  It's not the environment I want my kids to hang out in though, so I was glad that Dusty was there to monitor.

Tyson really had fun with his cousins in Star Valley this summer.  I am glad that they are finally getting to know each other.

This was the first day of second grade here in Worland.  Tyson did great!  We had already met his teacher and he knew a few kids in his class so he wasn't nervous at all!  He has done so great with this move and I can only think of one time that he had a sad moment. 

Ruby: First few weeks

This little baby girl.  She is an angel baby.  She brings a smile to every single one of us in this family.  Having a girl after two boys has been fun.  Dusty mentioned that he just might be falling in love with little girl clothes.  (gasp!)  Me too!



Ruby has really long toes.  Perhaps there is some height in her future?

Here are a few little snippets of her early days.

Ruby is a good baby for us.  She sleeps well at night, only waking up a couple of times to eat.  She doesn't cry much, and when she does it is more a whimper than anything.  She falls asleep in the carseat right away and sleeps most of the time when we are driving.  She smiled very early, about three weeks.  Real smiles, looking in our eyes.  Her brothers dote on her. She can usually put herself to sleep if she needs to and play on the floor or in her crib quietly.  She is a lovely sweet pea and we are so glad she is ours.

Ruby Kate

 I am not going to share the entire birth story/pregnancy here, but I did want to document that I really wanted to have little Ruby naturally and unmedicated.  I had been induced/ & had epidurals with the boys and felt that something had been missing in their births.  A connection at birth maybe?  They had both seemed sleepy and my deliveries sort of anti-climatic and out of my control.  I wasn't sure if there would be a difference, but I really wanted this baby girl to come on her own.  Sadly, she didn't seem to be in a hurry to arrive.

Here I am at 42 weeks, relentlessly bouncing on my yoga ball, insisting that this baby needed to come out!  My doctor had scheduled an induction for the following morning.  Holy cow, I looked ginormous!

After being induced at 5:00 am, little Ruby arrived at 10:29 am in quick fashion!  I was able to get through the pitocin contractions and have her unmedicated. Only during transition, when I felt out of control with everything was it too hard and then fifteen minutes later she was born. 

She nursed right away for about an hour.  It was a special moment for me.  Neither boys, for different reasons, had been able to eat right away. 

We were so grateful she was finally here and perfectly healthy!  My Mom and Jack arrived about an hour after she was born and Jack took on the role of caretaker to me.  Rubbing my arms and asking me if I was OK.



Her feet were super dry because she was so full-term, but she looked so healthy and strong.

Our first photo as a family, after Tyson arrived from school.

Dusty gave Ruby her first bath in the recovery room, and the nurse picked out this bow for her.

I think the boys couldn't believe she was actually here!  Tyson just kept grinning and grinning!  Jack would pat her and give her tiny kisses.

About three hours after her birth she really woke up and started looking around for the first time.

She slept pretty good through the night at the hospital.  Dusty slept on the floor near me in the room, and did I sleep?  Not really-- I kept checking on my new little one who was already so dear to my heart.

After jumping through all the hoops to get discharged from the hospital it was finally time to go home.  We got Ruby all ready to go.

It was a team effort!

At home, we had her bassinet all ready for her.  Newborn babies are so deliciously sleepy and it's so fun to watch them sleep through all the chaos.

My Mom gave Ruby her first bath at home. 

Poor little girl had to be on the bili-lights after her birth.  I wasn't that worried about her jaundice because she was nursing so well.  Crazily enough, we had a freak spring snow storm that knocked out the power the day after she was born and she couldn't be on the lights anyway for most of the day.

The boys went to church on Sunday (Mother's Day) when Ruby was two days old, looking dapper.

Meanwhile, my Mom took good care of me.  Letting me rest on the couch and do nothing but sleep, hold my baby, and enjoy being home and not pregnant anymore!