Christmas

This year for Christmas we decided at the last minute to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa Welch's house. So we left a note for Santa, packed up all of our presents, and made the journey to their new house in Cove.

On Christmas Eve Grandma had us all open a present from her. Matching pajamas for everyone!

Here's Alex on Christmas morning. He got a train table from Santa, and he was telling me to go away so it was hard to get a good picture.

Grandma and Grandpa got their grandkids a cool plasma car and Alex loved it!

My favorite present was one that Mark got for Daisy, a pink Snuggie. She looks so cute in it, and she can use her paws for other things, like reading a book.

Santa

Max got to meet Santa for the first time and you could tell he really liked him. This was also the first time that Alex sat on Santa's lap without crying. He asked for trains (I have been telling him to ask for that for a month). It was very fun!

Newborn Pics

My friend Chanthoeun took some newborn pictures of Max and they are so cute! She took some of Alex too, and she did such a good job. I have a link to her blog, visual bliss photography, on my side bar if you want to see other awesome pictures.

Blessing Day for Max

Today was Max's blessing. He looked so cute in his little tuxedo. Alex wore it too, but I lost the bow tie. Oh well at least it will be easier to tell them apart in pictures!

This blanket is the same one that Mark used on his blessing day.

The blesser and the blessee.

Brothers

Happy Thanksgiving!

Big Bro

Alex is such a good brother. He is very sweet with Max, and loves to give him his binky when he is crying. He also likes to "hold him up". I wish he was as nice to me as he is to Max. Alex has been quite a stinker lately! He likes to take of his diaper and pee everywhere (luckily I bought a carpet cleaner). I started taping his diaper on, and then he painted me a picture with his poo. He is having a hard time doing what he is told, and I am having a hard time not yelling at him all day long. Hopefully we can work out our differences soon. It's a good thing he is cute.

One Month

Max is one month old and I can't believe it! It seems like time is going by way too fast :( He is still a chunky guy, and he has almost grown out of the 0 to 3 month clothes! We love having him around he is so sweet. He is a really good sleeper too, and we are glad for that as well.

Halloween

This year was Alex's first year trick or treating, and we went with the Gilberts. It was lots of fun! Alex was a monkey this year and Max was a banana.

Home At Last

We finally got to bring Max home from the hospital. It is so good to have him home. He is such a sweet boy, and he is very cuddly. Alex is doing great with him; however, our dog Daisy is very jealous :)

Going Home Tomorrow, YAY!

So we found out that Max got a bad infection. Somehow my placenta was infected and so he had sepsis (an infection in his blood). He was a very sick little boy, and we were very fortunate that his nurse the first night noticed that something wasn't quite right. So he has been staying in the NICU this week and getting i.v. antibiotics to treat his infection. His doctor let me know that tomorrow morning he will finish up his antibiotics and then he will get to come home. He is such a hungry kid and he has been gaining weight like crazy. He already weighs two ounces more than when he was born! We are so excited for him to come home (and a little nervous too). I have been staying at the hospital so that I can feed him and snuggle with him. I am so glad that the hospital has a hotel stay program for only $15 a night, what a deal! We have been lucky to have so much help this week with taking care of Alex and other things. Mark has had Alex for the last two days and I think he is the most ready for Max and me to come home :)

Mark is such a cute dad. Max was crying until he took over. (The nurse was doing it before, not me!)

I can't wait to get rid of all of the wires and tubes! The i.v. in the head is never fun.

Max Has Arrived!

Max is here! He was born on Wednesday, October 14th at 8:36 p.m. He is sooooo big! He weighed 9lbs 3oz and he is 20.5 inches long. Everything happened pretty fast it seemed. Around 1 in the afternoon I started having some contractions while Alex and I were out buying ingredients to make cupcakes for Ashley's birthday. So we went home and I started making the cupcakes because last time I was in labor for 27 hours. Well at 3 it seemed like the contractions were very regular and strong so I called Mark and my dad to come watch Alex. I took a bath and started getting ready, and then we headed to the hospital. We got checked into labor and delivery at 5:30 and I was dilated to 4.5 centimeters. I wanted my epidural right away, but the anesthesiologist was just going into a c-section so I had to wait for an hour. During that hour my contractions started freaking hurting! They had to try four times to put in my i.v., and then they gave me some drugs to help until I got my epidural. Finally the c-section was over and I got my epidural and the doctor came in a broke my water at 7:30. I was only dilated to 5 then. When the doctor broke my water there was some meconium in the fluid so that wasn't good :( About 30 minutes later I felt a lot of pressure and when I was checked I was 8+ centimeters! 10 minutes after that I had here check me again and I was ready! They called the doctor and we had to wait 15 more minutes for him to come. Then we got him right out of there! He has lots of long, blonde, curly hair and tons of cute fat rolls. He is currently in the NICU fighting an infection. I will post more about that later.

Junk Drawer and More

Mark is home, yay! He came back last Tuesday, and we love having him home. To welcome him home I made him some creepy cupcakes, and we roasted some hotdogs and marshmallows in our fire pit with the Gilberts, and some of my family. We were having too much fun at the cook out to take pictures so all you get to see is the cupcakes :)

Alex was having fun going through the junk drawer today, and we got some nice pictures of the junk that he put to use.

3D glasses that we got when we went to the movie, Up. He is also wearing the timer that I use when I am giving IQ tests.

Here are some lovely teeth, looking good right?

These are the glasses that I had to wear while I was sleeping after my eye surgery. Now I use them when I cut up onions so it doesn't make me cry.

Trout and Berry Days

Today we went to Trout and Berry Days in Paradise, Utah. We arrived just as the parade was winding down, but Alex still got to pick up some candy and wave to a few people on the floats so not a total loss :)

They had some fun blow up toys and rides set up that the kids got to ride on for free. They were really fun. However, since they were free the lines were a bit long.

Finally the fish scramble. Thanks to Brady for being Alex's "parent", and helping him catch his fish. I can't bend very well at the moment so I probably wouldn't have been very helpful.

Home Again!

Alex and I came back to Utah two weeks ago. I was pretty nervous about our five hour flight together so I bought some episodes of the Little Einsteins and put them on my Ipod. Alex was so excited and he was mesmerized for the entire flight! It was amazing and even the flight attendants were impressed.

Here is the happy traveler himself!

This week Mark came to visit us, and it was so much fun. He has to stay in Philadelphia until the end of September, but decided to take a week off to come play with us. Alex and Mark went on quite a few rides in Grandpa's Razer while he was here.

Crayola Factory

So a while ago we went to the Crayola Factory with April, Ava, and Miles and Brandy and Logan. It was pretty fun, except for the fact that Alex hadn't had a nap for three days, so there were a few melt downs.

Here is Alex coloring his modeling clay and actually having a good time.

They had a place for young kids to play, and that is where we spent most of our time while the other kids were doing crafts.

Here is Alex and Ava playing in a dirt box thing that was supposed to be something like concrete I guess...

A Visit from Grandma and Grandpa Welch!

Well Grandma and Grandpa Welch came to visit us in Philadelphia and it was lots of fun. We have been looking forward to having them visit all summer! We went to do lots of fun things. When they left we were exhausted, but very glad that they came!

The first day they were here, we went to see the sights in Philadelphia. We ate at a delicious Italian restaurant and then walked around for a while. Here is the Liberty Bell.

After walking for a bit we decided to hop on a tour bus to see the rest of the city. Alex's favorite part of the tour was Grandma almost getting hit in the head by branches, and of course Grandma laughed really loud when the tour guide got hit in the back of the head by a branch!

The next day we went to Gettysburg and then on the way home we drove through Lancaster, PA so we could see Amish country. It was pretty fun, and Grandpa loved all of the farms.

Next we went to Atlantic City, and Mark joined us for some fun in the sun.

Alex loves the beach! He asks if we are going every day.

Unfortunately only Alex made it into his swimming suit, so Mark and Grandpa got pretty wet!

Making Cookies

Alex and I made cookies today, and I actually let him help. He was very excited. When he asked what the baking sheets were, I told him they were cookie sheets. He must have heard cookie sheeps because he kept asking me if I was making cookie sheeps when I was putting the dough on. They taste pretty good, so good job Alex!

My New Best Friend

So I just wanted to give a shout out to my new BF, my antacid. I just ate some grapes and now I have wicked heart burn, yeah you read that correctly, grapes. One of the reasons why being pregnant is so much fun :)

Dutch Wonderland!

Last week Alex and I went on a really fun trip with some friends in our office. April, Ava, and Miles joined us as well. We went to an amusement park called Dutch Wonderland. It is such a fun place for kids (and parents, but more for parents who aren't pregnant)
Alex and Ava really liked this jumping frog ride, and it was made in Logan, Utah, so we though that was pretty cool too!

Alex and I saw this ride online before we left and he thought it was a tractor. The entire drive there he kept saying "ride tractor mom?"

It rained quite a bit, so all of the mom's had really cute hair by the end of the day. Here we are riding on a train around the park.

This is their version of Splash Mountain. Unfortunately some of the funnest rides were no preggos allowed rides. We were lucky to have some unpregnant adults there to ride with the kids.

I think that this was Alex's favorite ride. He giggled almost the entire time it was going!

We spent the night nearby, and the next day we rode on the Strasburg Railroad, a really cool old train.. We also went and looked around at some Amish stuff too, and we went shopping at a huge outlet mall. It was super fun!