More Little Nate

Beware to all my friends who think they are "done" having children. Do not come to my house and see Nathan. You will fall in love instantly and will find it hard to resist the urge to add another baby to your family. He already has everyone of us wrapped around his finger.

Nate has the sweetest spirit. He is the most perfect little person. After every feeding he wakes up and looks around bright eyed and quizzically. I've never had a newborn that looked around as much as he does. When you talk to him you can tell he gets excited and that his cute little mouth is trying very hard to smile. He is so peaceful and has been easy going so far. He endures being passed constantly from one person to another and is not the least bit phased by the chaos of it all. I already don't know what our family would do without this special little one.

Nathan eats like a champ. There will be no discreet feedings with him as he gulps every taste down like it may be his last feeding. My mom could even hear him eating while I was talking to her on the phone. I love a good fast eater.

I want to share this bundle of joy with everyone I love. It makes me miss living by family. It makes me miss the fact that I have a nephew and a niece that I've never even met, and that my parents and Scott's parents get no more than mere glimpses into the lives of my kids when we see them. I want them to be able to hold and smell and love and snuggle our little Nate and feel the joy he's brought into our family.

Our Baby is Born by Brynn

On Thanksgiving morning Ellie and Jared ran in mine and Kaitlyn’s room. They asked us if we were awake. We said yeah. They told us Mom had the baby! I got out of bed and I kissed Ellie! We went downstairs and saw a picture of him. They baby’s whole name is Nathan Porter Esplin.

We couldn't go see him in the hospital because it is flu season and kids aren't allowed in the hospital.

Thanksgiving Day Addition

We have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day as we welcomed Nathan Porter Esplin into our family early this morning. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 11 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

Sarah was amazing. The labor lasted only two hours or so -- short enough that Sarah didn't have time to get an epidural. She seems pretty happy about that feat now but not so much this morning just before 12:14am.

The picture above shows Nathan already flexing his muscles just after I taught him how to do his first push-ups. There is no doubt he is a perfect fit for our family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thoughts from a VERY Pregnant Woman!

Today is my due date.

There is still hope...the day is young!

These are the flowers my sweet friend Amber brought over this morning to cheer me up. She said she'd still been pregnant on her due date and knew what it felt like. I'm so thankful for such a great friend.

Every night I feel contractions and feel crummy all over. I always have a glimmer of hope that maybe the baby will come, but I always wake up still pregnant!

Sometimes I wonder if this little one is waiting to come because we haven't decided on a name. Well, I think Scott and the kids feel pretty decided on a name, but I don't. For the record, here are the names I like that have been shot down: Cason, McKay, and Micah.

Jared ran to me and put his face to my tummy and exclaimed, "Don't worry baby! I won't let Mom name you Micah!" He was very serious about it.

My parents come to visit tomorrow and my mom is staying for only an extra week. This baby HAS to come soon! Wish us luck!

If I'm still pregant on Sunday I may stay home from church. I'm not sure I could handle another "You haven't had that baby yet!" comment.

Forgotten!

Scott took the kids swimming at his work last week. I appreciate when he does this. The kids love it, and it gives me a chance to get other things done while they are gone. I'm always a little uneasy though until they are home safely. Kaitlyn and Brynn are great swimmers, but Jared and Ellie need constant supervision. Scott is a great dad, but sometimes when you're not used to dragging four kids along you don't realize the effort it takes to keep track of everyone. And keeping track of everyone at the pool is essential.

So, when they all arrived safely home I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I heard the story of the forgotten little girl. Another family joined our crew this time so there were more kids than usual as they clamored out of the cars and rode the elevator to the swimming pool. Luckily this is as far as they got when Scott realized there was no Ellie around. He quickly turned around and rode back down to find Ellie crying, still in the van. Someone had unbuckled her already, but she didn't make it out of the van before the doors shut on her. When I asked her what she did she told me she honked the horn. I don't know whether that is true or not, but Scott did say she was sitting in the drivers seat.

Apparently Ellie has not completely forgiven Scott for this mistake. Several times she has brought up the fact that "Daddy, forgot Ellie!" I'm just grateful he remembered her so quickly after she was forgotten!

Let it Snow!

We received a package in a HUGE box. Scott and I laughed when we realized that the huge box was filled with two smaller boxes and TONS of packing peanuts. We filled up three garbage bags full of the peanuts! Ellie and Jared had a blast burying themselves in the box. I didn't think much about it until about twenty minutes later when I came down and saw little pieces of packing peanuts ALL OVER the floor.

I don't have a picture of the mess. Just imagine a blanket of snow inside. I tried to sweep up the stuff on the tile but the static made it jump out of my dustpan before I got it to the garbage. The mess got bigger the more I tried to clean it up. I finally brought in the shop-vac from the garage which did the trick. It took me about an hour to get it all cleaned up!

Candy Fest 2009

Another Halloween with LOTS of candy. It makes me sick to look at it! We carved pumpkins from our own garden this year...none of them were very big but worked great for the little people carving them! I had to drag Scott down with us...he had snuck away to read the paper. Of course once he came he created the very cool star-eyed/sun mouth jack o' lantern.

Brynn was a witch. She has been a witch for several years in a row and loves it. This year we sprayed her hair orange. That spray stuff is a mess!

Meet the Jar-Bot. Jared wanted to be a robot. I got a box and spray painted it silver and then had no idea what to do next. I left it in Scott's hands and once again his creativity pulled through...pie tins around the arm holes, spray painted pvc pipe, a remote control, old cords and some other random things from the garage completed the costume. The blue thing in the middle was a light that blinked. Jared loved that and the flashlight on the top.

Jared got more comments about his costume than anyone. Everyone thought it was so cute, and Jared loved hearing it! Sometimes the cheapest things are the best!

Kaitlyn was a ballerina. We made her tu-tu. She mostly wanted to be a ballerina so she could wear make-up and loved putting it on!

Ellie was a pumpkin. We have several costumes that would fit her and I wasn't sure until the last minute which one she would wear. Today at dinner she was saying that Jared was a boy. We have this conversation frequently. Jared is a boy, but she is a girl (often she insists she is a boy too). Today after I affirmed that Jared was a boy I asked her what Ellie was. "Ellie's a pumpkin!" she said.

No one take my candy!

Ellie LOVED trick or treating. We took the stroller in case she got tired but she insisted on riding it from house to house and then jumped out at each drive-way as quickly as she could. After we did the couple of streets in our neighborhood I asked if anyone was ready to go home. Ellie was the loudest, "No, nope, no!"