Thank goodness for Daddy!

Drew took the week off work just after we came home from the hospital with Trevor. THANK GOODNESS! Without my mom around to help, I really needed him to take care of Scott and Charlotte so I could continue to recover from the c-section and worry about the baby. So to try to make the week exciting for Scott and Charlotte, we made a little calendar and came up with fun things to do each day. Drew was truly Super Dad that week, keeping the kids entertained and being EXTRA patient with them as they at times struggled to adjust to the new baby... Here are some of their adventures during the week.

Fairytale Land, or as Charlotte called it - Candyland:

Miniature Golf at Sunsplash:

Bubble baths are a HUGE treat!

Petsmart - Who knew the birds were SO hilarious!

Chuck E. Cheese - Always a sure winner!

Classes at the Little Gym:

With friends like mine...

While I was in the hospital, my mom left on a long 3+ week vacation to Utah for a wedding, Colorado for granddaughter Laney's blessing, and New Hampshire to help Cindy move into a new house and prepare for grandson #3 arriving any day. She said she wasn't worried about leaving me to recover at home with the new baby and Scott and Charlotte because she knows my friends. She had no doubt that they would be there to help with ANYTHING I could possibly need. And she was SO right...

I have the most amazing friends. And this picture illustrates just ONE example of that:

Wednesday this week was a challenging day as I woke up with mastitis. Not fun. But about 8:45pm, there was a knock on the door, and there was Laurie C., bringing me what must have been a triple-scoop of Coppa Mista gelato, the most amazing food ever created on this earth. I didn't have to ask her to go get it for me... She knew I needed it - right then.

But that is just one of MANY examples of my special friends here. I love that they go above and beyond just saying, "Call me if you need me." Instead they say, "I'll be at your house at 5 with dinner" or "I'll pick up Scott after preschool and bring him back later in the afternoon" or "Bring Charlotte by on your way to the doctor, and then go to Target afterwards by yourself." I don't even have an opportunity to say "No". This gift to sense a need and fill it is a trait I wish I had, as I am more of the "Just let me know if you need anything" type of person.

So thanks SO much to all my incredible friends here in Roseville... And I know that had I been in a similar situation back in my BYU or Stanford days, that my dear friends who lived by me then would have responded just the same way. I have always been blessed to be surrounded by amazing women who I love and who love me like sisters.

Inspirational FHE

Does playing Rock Band together count as a wholesome family activity? Hope your Family Home Evening last night was as inspirational as ours! Hey, at least we weren't playing the AC/DC version.

Baby Trevor's arrival!

We've been home for just over 24 hours, so it is about time for me to post about the beautiful and shall we say, challenging events since Wednesday! Of course I didn't sleep much leading up to our 5:30am arrival at the hospital for the scheduled c-section. Part of it was anxiousness, and the other part was a cute but very emotional 3-year-old girl in our family who knew something big was about to change in her world. Poor Baby C. With the scheduled surgery, I loved that I was able to do my hair and makeup so I wouldn't look quite so ghastly in the first photos with baby! We arrived at the hospital on time, and here was the last tummy shot: After a couple of hours of paperwork and prep stuff, they walked me into the surgery room. The anesthesiologist worked his magic and I was soon completely numb from the chest down. And about 20 minutes later, 7:54am to be exact, my secret was revealed! It was a boy! Drew was of course shocked. And even though it was a scheduled birth, it still was absolutely sacred and beautiful and memorable as anything I can imagine. So as they put me all back together, I was able to watch the nurses do all of the basic stuff to check the baby and let me hold him as best I could. Our little baby boy was beautiful! 8 lbs, 2 oz and 20" long. I had to spend the entire day in bed as I recovered. And my dad was there shortly after the birth to come hold baby grandson #2. A highlight of the day was Scott and Charlotte and my mom coming to see the new baby. Scott was really excited that he had a baby brother (I don't think he realized there was even an alternative) and just just kept saying, "I like my baby brother!" over and over again. Charlotte, on the other hand, was a bit freaked out by the whole thing. As you can see in the pictures, she was very unsure about what was going on and wasn't crazy about touching or looking at the new baby. But the baby was SUPER nice and did bring with him presents for his big brother and sister: Shifty Drug Launcher (a toy from the movie Cars) for Scott and a tiny Sleeping Beauty doll for Charlotte. How thoughful of the baby! The next day I was SLOWLY and CAREFULLY walking around a bit. Scott and Charlotte did visit again, and Charlotte was warming up to the idea of the new baby. She kept saying, "It is not a boy. It is a baby." She is still insisting upon this 3 days later... But she did bring a hat for the baby to wear, and Scott was happy to share his new car, Shifty Drug, with him. Here are a couple of cute pictures and videos:

Then there was the issue of a name... Since I have known for months it was going to be a boy, I had decided in my mind that Patrick would be the name. After the birth, Drew liked it, but of course had to analyze it to death. On Thursday afternoon, I made him promise we would have a name by the time he left that night. We were pretty much decided on Patrick Ryan when he left to grab dinner. But when he came back, he said he kept thinking more about Trevor. I really liked Trevor, but didn't like changing the name I had picked in my mind 4 months ago. So reluctantly I agreed to think about it that night and decide in the morning. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but as I was able to spend time with the baby during the night while he fed, I looked at him and just felt that Trevor fit him. It was the right name and it didn't bother me at all to give up Patrick. So that morning, we started spreading the news that Trevor Ryan was our cute baby's name! Scott was quite upset that we didn't name him Nate, like Zach's baby brother, so we told him he could call the baby Trevor Nate if he likes. We hope eventually Scott will like it! Saturday came and as much as I LOVED staying at the hospital (seriously) I was ready to come home. After a relaxing morning, the rest of the family came to get me. My window faced the parking lot, and one of my favorite sights ever was watching Drew carry Charlotte and Scott push the stroller with the car seat, just behind Daddy. It was one of those precious little moments that I will not forget. We got all packed up, took a few pictures and walked out to the car to drive home to our new adventure with THREE kids!

He has a name!

Baby Boy's real name has been chosen.

Trevor Ryan Syphus

Plaxico was a close second, I'm sure.

It's a BOY!

Hello from guest poster Laurie C.  Stacey asked me to post the good news and here it is!

To the great surprise of everyone that Stacey tricked with her trickery, Drew and Stacey welcomed a new baby B-O-Y this morning.  

For those of you who don't remember the story, Stacey found out the baby's gender several months ago.  Drew wanted the gender to be a surprise until delivery day so they made a deal.  Stacey could find out only if she told NO ONE what they were having.  

If anyone want to tell Stacey a secret, you can be sure she will not tell.  We thought she had slipped several times and accidently let the secret out.  She sold the train table, she bought "cute" bedding, some of us swear she referred to the baby as "she".  Stacey thought she HAD slipped but that were were teasing her by pretending she was having a girl but really knowing it was a boy.  She had us fooled.  

Here are the details - stay tuned - more to come!

Plaxico Ocho Cinco Syphus

(this is not really his name but merely a good suggestion)

March 18, 2009

7:54 am

8 lbs, 2 oz, 20 inches

Stacey, Drew, Scott, Charlotte and POCS are all doing well.

CONGRATULATIONS!

The baby can now come...

Sadly, I am sick at home today while Drew and the kids are at church. 3 days before a c-section is NOT the best time to get a cough and cold...

My burst of energy is now over, but I am proud to say that all of the "important" home improvement projects are done! Here are some of the results:

Scott and Charlotte's new room:



Valance in the kitchen:


New light in the front room:


Drapes in the living room:


Scott and Charlotte's closet:


The baby room:


Did you actually think I would show you?

Just call me "Tweety"

During the last few weeks of all my pregnancies, I have experienced a serious case of "Nesting Instinct". I knew it was coming on a couple of weeks ago when I opened the refrigerator and was totally disgusted with how dirty it was. It hadn't bothered me for the rest of my pregnancy, but all of the sudden on that particular day, everything had to be dropped so that I could spend the entire afternoon cleaning the fridge and freezer. It was so clean when I was done it could have even passed the old Riviera cleaning inspections. So now, here is the list of things I hope to accomplish before this baby comes in 10 days!

- Move furniture around to get Charlotte settled in Scott's room (done)
- Install a lower closet rung in Scot and Charlotte's closet so they can reach their own clothes (done)
- Paint Scott & Charlotte's new shared room (tomorrow's project)
- Sell anything on eBay or Craigslist that we no longer need (ongoing)
- Hang valances that my mom made forever ago above the kitchen windows (Wednesday?)
- Hang curtains that my mom also made (aren't I lucky?) in the living room
- Find a solution to the annoying bird that hangs out and poops outside of the baby room window (Wednesday I have someone coming to clean and hopefully put something up to keep the bird away)

Those are just a few of the things I hope to finish! I won't even mention how badly I would like to attack the garage and throw away 90% of the junk that exists in there...

Dear Amazon Guy...

Scott LOVES getting on Amazon.com and looking for his favorite toys/movies. Some of you may remember the infamous one-click purchasing episode where Scott found a couple of Baby Einstein movies he thought looked cool and ordered them for himself... Well, since one-click purchasing is turned off, now he just adds things to my cart. I think there were about 25 items (all related to the movie Cars) last time I checked.

This past year was the first Christmas where Scott really understood the whole Santa thing and how we write letters to him. So he thought for his birthday it made sense to write letters to the "Amazon Guy" to give him a wish list. Makes sense to a 4-year-old, right? We had to have a few conversations about how you just can't ask the Amazon Guy for whatever you want and expect it to appear in a box on the doorstep in a couple of days... Wow. How different is this generation from ours??? Here are a couple of his letters:
By the way, Scott is very into changing his name to whatever sounds interesting for the day. Apparently "Race-o-rama", one of the Cars characters, was the name of choice for the day he was writing his notes.

Scott is 5 years old!

My little boy is now 5! We have been counting down the days to February 26th for an awfully long time... Actually, over 3 months ago Scott wrote a birthday invitation and gave it to Zach without me knowing about it. But thanks to Annette's RSVP back in November, I learned that Scott's party was to be at Strikes bowling alley and would go from 4:50 to 5:25pm. Good to know...


We may be cruel parents, but we are going with the plan of alternating friend parties and family parties every year. So this year was a family party, but we let him include 2 friends, Tanner and Zach. We had some minor drama when we discovered Strikes was booked for bowling leagues on the 26th, so we would have to celebrate on the 25th. Took a while, but he got over that and the party was everything I think he hoped for! He did win the bowling game with a score of 90, which I thought was not too shabby:



Then we headed back to our house for presents and the long-awaited Lightning McQueen cake from Baskin Robbins. And of course he was wearing the infamous Lightning McQueen sticker t-shirt, along with a new hat and watch. Funny thing... Jeff (my brother) at the same age was just as obsessed with the Dukes of Hazzard. I am glad that this generation of boys has a new car to revere.



So even though we had the main event on the 25th, I still think Scott was happy! I just can't believe my little guy is now 5. But I have already used his new age quite frequently with him now, like when I say, "You are now 5 years old. 5-year-olds don't whine like that."

I have been waiting for this day...

Back in high school, I was the french braid queen. I could do my own hair, and would do fancy braids for my mom and friends, especially while sitting around at volleyball or basketball tournaments waiting for our turn to play.

Charlotte's hair is finally long enough, and every once in a while (with sufficient bribes) she will hold still long enough to do "pretty princess hair". Here is one of the first few attempts. The best part was she was so proud of her pretty princess hair...



So on a good day, that is what she looks like. On a normal day, she wants to dress and accessorize herself... The only thing missing from this picture is usually the outfit includes her Princess purse and a bathing suit rather than the princess jammies. Stunning.

The GOOD things about being pregnant!

In an effort to have a positive attitude during my last month of pregnancy, I thought I should document the things I enjoy about being pregnant:

1) My hair looks GREAT! It is super thick and feels SO healthy. I can't remember the last time I ran my fingers through my hair and one came out...

2) I have an instant conversation starter with nice people I don't know who are just curious how far along I am, how many kids I have, etc.

3) I eat all the time, whatever I want, and don't feel one bit guilty about it.

4) My skin also feels fabulous and no cruel adult acne...

5) My Gap maternity jeans. Love 'em.

6) I have very crazy, often entertaining dreams that I can usually remember when I wake up.

7) I do not feel guilty when I am so tired in the afternoon that I just lay on the couch while Scott plays the Wii.

8) The hair on my legs completely stops growing.

9) How could I forget... I am going to be able to stay in the hospital for 4 days! I LOVE the hospital!

10) Friends and family are genuinely excited and interested in this wonderful event in our family.

Now just pray for me that I can go to bed and get a decent night sleep :)