Fun Times with Grandpa

"It's always fun when Grandpa comes, when Grandpa comes, hooray!"

Actually, Grandma brought these ring pops for the kids. They of course pretended they were pacifiers and all cried like babies. Connor thought it was HILARIOUS.Today Grandpa took the kids to Pump It Up, a place full of jumping castles and slides. They have been so bored the last few weeks and were so excited to do something fun. They said that Grandpa even went down the slide a bunch and jumped with them (although I don't have the pictures to prove it since he was the one taking pictures).

Jacob and Zach wouldn't slow down for many pictures...

Jacob & Savannah on the obstacle course.

Connor has voluntarily put himself down for a nap the last couple of days. Grandma & Grandpa know how to wear him out good.

Landon's First Week

It's been a great first week with our sweet baby boy. (Well technically he'll be a week old tomorrow.) So far he is such a calm, peaceful baby. He does a lot of sleeping...We've had a couple of friends bring dinner for us. One night our dessert was a birthday "cupcake" for Landon. The kids thought it was so cool.He had his first bath at home. He wasn't too peaceful during that though.

"Mom, stop taking pictures and get my clothes on already!!!"

He's been a lot more alert since Sunday and it's fun to have him just stare up at you while you talk to him.

He's done some sunbathing. He was borderline jaundice so we put him in the sun. We're supposed to do it again but we haven't really had sun the last couple of days.

More sleeping. He loves to sleep on his side. We have a little foam wedge thing that he just snuggles right into.

Making cute faces for Mommy...

And best of all...Grandma got here on Sunday! She'll be here for almost 3 weeks and all the kids are so excited. It's already been so nice to have her here since Dallin went back to work on Monday.

Baby Landon

So here is the story...

I was having lots of contractions and nausea off and on for almost a week before he was born. FINALLY on Wednesday morning I woke up at 1:00am with a very painful contraction. Within about 15 minutes they were coming every 2-3 minutes, very painful. So I woke up Dallin and we dropped the kids off at my friend Erin's house about 2:00am. Erin and her family are AWESOME! We got to the hospital and I had an IV and pain medicine by about 2:30 or so. I was dilated to 4 centimeters. The medicine knocked me out and made me so, so loopy. I got my epidural around 3:30 I think. I honestly can't remember. I was actually able to sleep on and off until about 7:00am. At 7:30 I was at 6 centimeters, so they broke my water. By 8:15 I was ready to push. They got everything ready and I pushed 3 times and he was out. He only cried a little bit and then just laid there all calm and wanted to sleep. Landon and Mommy just minutes after birth.Landon slept for the entire first day. I didn't hear him cry or see him with his eyes open until about 7:30pm. He just ate his bottles while he was asleep.

Dallin brought the kids to visit that afternoon. Both days when they came to visit he wouldn't open his eyes either. They finally saw him awake this afternoon when we came home.

Connor doesn't want to hold him, but he loves to give him kisses.

Jacob is so excited and loves to hold him and help out with him.

Zach didn't want to hold him at first, but when he finally did he was loving it. Landon looks a lot like Zach did as a baby.

Landon's favorite spot on Mommy...

Savannah is in heaven. She doesn't like dolls, but she loves real babies. She's had a great time holding him and feeding him and trying to get him open his eyes.

We came home today after lunch. It's so nice to finally be home and have him here! Our family is complete. We are so blessed with such a sweet little boy.

Landon is here!

Landon Davis Strong
born on Wednesday, July 21 at 8:32am
7 lbs. 9 oz. & 20 inches long
(born 3 weeks early!)

Sorry these pictures are sideways...I'm doing this post from Dallin's work computer at the hospital. This is Landon just seconds after birth.

The kids were SO excited to meet their new baby brother.

We'll be at the hospital until Friday. I'll post more when I get home.

Baby Update

Today at my doctor's appointment I was dilated 3-4 centimeters and 50% effaced. 6 days ago I was only 2 centimeters and not effaced at all. So this baby is definitely getting ready to come! I'm a little nervous since I'm only technically 36 weeks along today. Hopefully I can at least make it to 37 weeks (or what is considered full term). I also had high blood pressure at my appointment and they ended up sending me across the street to the hospital to be monitored and have some lab work done. Thankfully my blood pressure was totally fine there and everything looked good. So I'm not on bed rest. I don't know quite how that would work anyways with 4 kids. But I have been told to "take it easy and don't do anything." So I will be doing a lot of reading and hanging out with the kids. I go back to be checked again on Monday morning. Hopefully he stays put until then!

35 weeks

This picture was taken on Sunday, at 34 1/2 weeks along. I'll be induced on Aug. 4, but the doctor doubts I'll make it until then. 4 weeks or less! We're getting excited to see our little guy.

Fun Times

We have had so much fun having Justin & Tanya here! We will miss them when they leave tomorrow. Here the kids (and Dallin) are checking out something from Youtube on Justin's cool phone.We put Trenton in the walker so he could look all around and he actually moved himself all the way from our family to the playroom.
Yesterday Dallin took the day off work and he went with Jacob, Zach, Justin, Tanya, and Trenton into Austin. They went on a tour of the UT football stadium and to the State Capitol building. This is in the giftshop...

The boys said they liked the trophy room the best. Zach loved this golden hat.

They couldn't take pictures inside the stadium because the team was practicing at the time.

5th of July Swim

We headed to the pool on Monday afternoon to cool off for a while. Luckily the weather forecast has been completely wrong. We were "supposed" to have rain and thunderstorms all week, but I haven't seen any rain since Friday. The kids had a BLAST having both Dallin and Uncle Justin to hang all over. My favorite part (that I didn't get a picture of) was watching Justin swim laps with Savannah on his back. As he swam she dumped water all over his head with a watering can.Trenton only lasted a few minutes in the water. He was tired and didn't love the sun too much. He sure looked cute though!Connor had a big crying fit any time we told him we were taking a break from the waterslide. He would do that non-stop if we let him. The problem is that he doesn't always wait until the person in front of him is all the way down...and the lifeguard yells at him and us.

Family & Fireworks

We have visitors! We're so excited to have Dallin's brother Justin, wife Tanya, and their baby Trenton here for a few days. They drove here on Friday from Arizona. Trenton is just over 3 months old, and the kids are loving having a baby around. It's good preparation for them.The kids being chased by Justin in some game. They thought it was so much fun, whatever it was they were doing.

Anytime Trenton is near the ground he gets swarmed by kids. Luckily he likes the attention for the most part.

We did our own little fireworks in the backyard last night. The kids got to stay up late (I took pictures when it was still light though so they would turn out better). Dallin & Justin had fun putting on the show I think. This is a "bee" one that would fly up in the air. It was really loud and Zach was not happy with it. He eventually ended up watching inside because of these little fireworks.

Savannah, Tanya, & Trenton. He's not asleep...yet. Just had his eyes closed.
Connor is definitely our little pyro. He was always a willing volunteer and would shout "MEEEEEE!" and raise his hand anytime a sparkler was ready.

Zach spent most of his time outside hiding behind someone.

But I eventually got him to hold one sparkler and he liked it!

...as long as it was as far away as he could reach.

Right after this picture was taken Trenton fell asleep sitting up. It was a fun night!