Boys Being Boys!

If you would have told me I was going to have 3 little boys in a row, I wouldn't have believed you. But I look at these little faces and they just make my heart melt. One night Isaac and Dax both put on their batman pj's, complete with their capes. As I took their picture I didn't realize I captured their sign in the background... "Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a Superhero!" How fitting for these two in their little superhero pj's!

And then they were off to fight crime... or whatever they had planned!!

The new thing at our house is building forts in the basement. They really can't get enough of making the biggest and most elaborate forts they can think of! (They enlist their daddy's help and he can make them some pretty awesome forts!)

This little one was like a cave they could watch movies in. Did I mention Nancy and LaMonte came to watch them for us while Brett and I went to his fancy work party. LaMonte is such a sweet man, he sat all cramped inside this fort with Dax and watched Tom and Jerry. What a great Grandpa these boys have!

See it's roomy enough! (For a 3 and 6 year old!!!)

Sadly we had to do away with crazy for building. My boys were great never to pull on the blankets. They understood if you did it would all come crashing down and the things that were holding them up (such as books... and an occasional dumbbell weight) would hit them on the head. The little neighbor boy who is just a few months younger then Dax, didn't get this concept. He tugged and the fort came crashing down! (I'm so grateful the weight didn't hit they little neighbor boy. It did hit the TV and it quite working for a short period of time, but at least the neighbor was okay!) Now if you get Daxton's side to this story, he was ticked. He looked at Zach (the little neighbor boy), he didn't care if he was okay, he yelled, "YOU BROKE MY FORT!!!!" After that I told Brett we couldn't leave these up for the neighbor kids to get squished in. Too bad cause all of Isaac's friends thought they were awesome. 

Here's my 3 boys. Being crazy I'm sure... it usually ends with with one of them in tears. But they are the 3 of the 4 joys in my life!!! (My 4th boy is my husband who I love and am so thankful for!)

Tanners Tales - 3 Months Old

My sweet baby Tanner is such a perfect little baby. He's so calm. I'm surprised he is with how crazy our house is.  His biggest accomplishment is he started sleeping long stretches at night!!! YAY!!!  He will sleep 7 hours, once 9 1/2 hours! It's nice to get a little bit more sleep. Tanner sleeps through most things. When he is tired the boys can be screaming through the house and he will just keep on sleeping. Like I said, what a sweet baby!

He's really starting to smile now. I love when their littler personalities come through when they see you. It's nice to see the love in their little eyes when they look at you. Babies are so pure... they have such a sweet spirit about them. I love watching him smile and now he coo's at you!!! What is cuter then a baby cooing?

Tanner loves his brothers. They love him just as much. He lights up when they walk by him and give him attention. Daxton loves to be by him at any given moment.

Isaac is so good to him. He really wants to carry him... we've let him once in a while, but it makes me very nervous. They kiss him, mall him, hold him, and just love him.

Tanner started loosing his fuzzy little hair on one side... he pretty much has a little mow-hawk now.

He's growing so much we finally stopped bathing him in the sink and moved him to the baby tub, though I don't think it will last long... Tanner boy loves to splash!!! When I put him in the little tub (maybe he was excited about having more room to move around) he splashed so much the first time I was soaking wet as well as my mirror, bathroom counter, the rug on the floor and the towels we used to mop up! He had a good time though and that's all that matters!

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

The first week home with a new baby is always an adjustment. You are very tired, excited, frustrated (at least I get that way cause I want to feel normal) but then still so tired, it's hard to do much. None of that matters though when you look at Tanner's sweet little face... you just fall in love with him all over again!

Tanner still scrunches his legs up into a little ball. When you get him to spread out, you realize he is so long! I've never been a fan of just wearing a onezie as an outfit... but I got over that quick when I realized Tan didn't fit into anything but that! I was grateful we had some cute ones my friend had given me as a present.

The boys love their brother. Maybe a little too much. But I would rather have them adore him then not.

I can't help but snap a picture every time they want to hold Tanner. I just love watching them eww and aww over him!

This is typical of Dax... he's still learning what "being gentle" means. He's good at taking his binki and trying to shove it back into his mouth again.

Tanner is adjusting to bath time. Some days he loves it other days he screams!

On a side note, his umbilical cord fell off exactly one week from when he was born. After his bath I was drying him and it came off. Yay! I love when you can see their cute little belly!

Brett stayed home with me and worked from home for a few days. It was so nice having him home. He played with Dax, fed me, let me sleep, cleaned. So great! He's really the best. But eventually he had to go back to work. He sent his mom to help me. I was so thankful she could come. She was here for 2 days just taking care of everything. It was nice to have the company. Our ward members were super nice. So many of our friends brought us meals. I begin to feel guilty but that didn't stop them. They are really so kind and it was much appreciated.

We snapped some pictures of Tanner and Grandma Nancy on her quilt she made him. I love how it turned out. It makes his room so bright. It was really so sweet of her to make it and I love that he will have that memory of her forever.

I can't get over the fact that I have 3 boys. THREE! I mean, I was used to two... but three is really different. You run out of hands and have to figure out who really needs you first. But I can't complain, I am so in love with all three of my boys. They are so stinkin' cute!

Great Grandma Dansie and Aunt Sandra (LaMonte's mom and sister) came out to see Tanner.  

Nancy brought her mom, Great Grandma Mona (Dorothy) to see Tanner.  

I was excited to get this picture of my three boys with their Grandma Nancy and their Great Great Grandma Mona.

We started getting used to life with our sweet newborn and I even ventured out for a minute to the grocery store with Isaac. As I was leaving my mom called me and couldn't believe I had left my house. She was calling all of her kids to warn them of a huge storm rolling in and we were advised to take cover. I didn't think much of it and I told her I was fine and would be home in 5 minutes. (She for sure thought she wouldn't have to worry about me and that I would have been home!) I'm so thankful she called. Within seconds of me pulling into my garage, a downpour it! I mean tons of rain and crazy quarter size balls of hail. Brett and I were really worried it was going to break a window! After it calmed down Isaac couldn't help but run outside and collect bowls of hail.

I'm so glad I got home when I did. That storm though it was short caused a lot of damage with the mountains that burned behind us earlier this Summer. It caused a mudslide that ran into 11 homes, flooding their basement with mud - ruining everything. It ran through their streets (this is only a couple miles from my home) and caused mud to flood Redwood Road. For hours cars weren't able to get home and I can't imagine if I couldn't get home to my newborn baby. It was really sad what happened to so many friends. Here are a couple of pictures of what their neighborhood looked like after the flood.

This happened over a weekend and the church was so great to step in and help. The stake took turns sending ward members to help scoop mud from the houses. This was over a few days. Church was cancelled so everyone could help. "Sunday Service" took on a new meaning that day. So many volunteers came from around Saratoga. It was amazing to see the community pull together, helping, cleaning, gathering food, and distributing sack lunches to those working.

We are all hoping Saratoga has had it's fare share of natural disasters. 

We took Tanner out of the house for his first real outing. The boys were feeling a bit cooped out so we had a family day and went bowling. Tanner slept through the whole thing.

Dax would drop his ball down the ally and watch it roll. Then if he would hit any pins, he would throw his arms high in the air and scream, "I DID IT!!!! I WIN!!!"

 Isaac's getting to be a good little bowler. 

It was fun to watch them all compete with each other. I couldn't lift a ball yet because of my stitches, but it was fun to watch them all bowl.

 It was a successful outing! I love when the boys get so warn out... they go right to sleep!

Brothers Meeting Brothers

Bright and Early the next morning, Brett went and got the boys to come and meet their new baby brother. They walked in eager to meet him. As they looked around they became quickly disappointed as Tanner was getting some tests done. So we waited and waited and waited. We had brought some "gifts" for the boys from Tanner so they opened that while they were waiting. It was good thing, it gave them something else to think about.

I had some snacks in their bag, a pez machine, and a little toy. Dax loved his train. He loved it so much he forgot all bout the reason he came to the hospital! When the baby came in he didn't pay any attention to him. He was too busy driving his train around the room. Isaac on the other hand wanted to meet his new brother. He was so sweet holding him. He looks so old! I can't believe 6 years ago he was the little baby at the hospital. You could already tell he was excited to be a big brother again!

Daxton finally decided he would peek at his baby brother. He wanted to hold him.

He got really excited to hold him. I love this picture!!! He looks so excited anticipating holding his little brother.

And then my favorite picture. Daxton looks so interested in this new little person.

I loved the boys meeting Tanner!!! They fell in love with him just as fast as I did.

And it's time to get ready...

It's almost time for our little one to arrive! I'm not sure how 3 kids is going to be... but I'm anxious for my baby to come. We have spent a lot of time getting ready for him. We moved the office downstairs and we started building in the basement. We still have carpet, door frames, and doors... but that will come eventually! I can tell by the end of it all we are getting a bit tired, but I know it will all come together.

My domestic skills kicked in... if you know me, you know I don't iron... and I don't own an ironing board. So I created one with the ledge to my steps. It actually worked great and I'm sure I'll be using it again!

I was in love with this owl fabric I found and made a blanket and two burp clothes. I also made a new nursing cover and eventually will make this new baby a hooded towel.

But our biggest transformation that I am so in love with is the babies room!!! We moved the office - it was plain white and very dull. Liz and I bought a warm color to paint the walls and my talented little sister, Mckenzie came in and sketched with chalk (in like 15 minutes!) this darling tree on the wall. Then she proceeded to paint it, freehand! The girl seriously has mad skills. I would have never got such a straight line!

She was there most of the day and well into the night. We were a little slap happy by the end of it all, but I love how the tree turned out!

Liz scanned in my fabric from my quilt that Brett's mom made the baby and we cut out these darling owls out of vinyl. Everyone had a color. I'm red. Baby is blue. Dax is yellow (and now he is yellow everything! It's like his color now.) and Isaac is green. Brett requested to be a blue owl, with big ol' wings. He wanted to look puffed up. (like his bulky self!) He also requested to have grumpy eyes. Liz did such a great job creating it! He looked so good!!!

Here is the over all wall. I will post another picture later when we finish the entire thing. She also painted grass at the base of the tree. So darling!

I have the best sisters in the world! They have all helped me get ready for this little bundle and we can't wait till he gets here!