Grandma Hilton

We're loving our time with Grandma Hilton.  She flew in Sunday night and has been a life saver all week.  I feel pretty good, but keeping up with all three boys on very little sleep is tough.  Heaven help us next week when she heads home.

Braddock's First Bath

Saturday, August 25th Braddock had his first check up.  We got up and got him all bathed, and clean, and ready to go.  Their first few baths always make me anxious for their umbilical cord to fall off so they can actually be nice and warm IN the water.  But Braddock took it like a champ.  And of course we had to document it...

His check up went great and he had only lost 2oz since birth.  We're excited to have a healthy baby and a healthy momma this time around.  Who knew that things could be this good!?

Big Brothers

In preparation for the big adjustment that I knew would be coming with Braddock's arrival, I wanted to do a little something for Tanner and Landon to make them feel special.  I put together some little "big brother gifts" to give them when we got home from the hospital.  Just some simple, cheap things, but they've definitely helped keep them occupied while I'm busy with Braddock.  And of course they were both SUPER excited about the whole thing.  A win win in my book.

Bubbles, glow sticks, snacks, alphabet cookie cutters, coloring stencils,  and big brother shirts

Braddock's pretty stoked about his little brother shirts.  Can't you tell??  I made Big Brother shirts for Tanner and Landon as well.  When Braddock can actually fit in his I'll have to get a picture of the three of them.

Tanner was so excited about his surprise he could hardly contain himself.  

Can you tell what Landon cares the most about??  The FOOD!

Coming Home

On Thursday, August 23rd we checked out of the hospital. Our stay there was nice, but there's just nothing quite like home. Tanner and Landon were very excited to get us back as well.  And I have to brag a bit about Dean.  He spent the second night we were in the hospital at home with the big boys.  I thought he'd probably just go to be early after sleeping in a hospital chair all night the night before, but I came home to a house that was immaculate.  He had swept and mopped the kitchen.  Done the dishes.  Took apart the boys car seats and washed them (they've needed it BAD since our drive to UT and back). Washed our bedding and put together the air bed for my Mom's arrival (she flew in last night!).  Picked up and vacuumed the whole house.  Cleaned the bathroom.  Got the pack-n-play all put together and ready for Braddock to sleep in.  And had Tanner and Landon bathed, fed, and dressed before he came to pick me up at the hospital.  I am one super spoiled girl!

Getting dressed and ready to go

First time in the car seat.  It's amazing how tiny they start out.

All packed up and ready to head home.

I had Braddock fed, changed, and sleeping soundly by about 10pm and thought I was going to get a little sleep after all.  I snapped this peaceful shot about 30 minutes before he decided to be awake ALL NIGHT LONG!

Braddock's first night at home.

Hospital Visitors

Wednesday, August 22nd Grandpa brought the boys to the hospital to meet their new baby brother. They were absolutely ADORABLE!  Tanner held Braddock for probably 20 minutes.  I'm sure his little arms were tired from supporting Braddock's head but every time I asked if he was done he'd say, "No!  Mom, I'm 4 so I can hold babies for a lot longer now!"  Ha!  He also asked if he could sing him the song I used to sing to Landon when he was a baby.  I wasn't sure what song he was even talking about but he proceeded to sing "Rock A By Baby."  It was hands down the sweetest thing I've ever seen.  Then Landon of course had to do the same when he held him and then decided he was done and kinda threw Braddock.  Ha!  Yikes.  We'll definitely be keeping our eyes on Braddock at ALL times. ;)

Grandpa Nelson

Proud big brother

That big grin never left Tanner's face.

Singing to Braddock

First shot of our family of FIVE.

After the boys left Great Grandma and PapPap Furin came for a visit too.  Braddock slept peacefully in Grandma's arms the whole time and they spoiled us with some candies and chocolates.

Great Grandma Furin

PapPap

Braddock Dee Nelson

On Tuesday, August 21st I had my last scheduled doctor's appointment.  I was 3cm dilated the week before and anxious for Braddock to arrive.  The nurse practitioner took it upon herself to get things moving along so she stripped my membranes and basically sent me into labor.  My appointment was at 2:30pm and I immediately felt some signs of labor coming on.  We had plans to meet up with Dean's old roommate Matt Martin and his wife and in-laws that night for dinner.  We haven't seen him since we lived in Utah and they were coming through town on a move to Chicago.  I didn't want to miss seeing them and things hadn't picked up enough to go to the hospital yet so we decided to go.  We got to Primanti Brothers and heard from Matt that they were stuck in traffic and would be about 20 minutes late.  As we sat waiting for them my contractions started getting worse and were every three minutes on the dot.  We decided it would probably not be the best idea to hang around for dinner so we waited for them to get there, said a quick hello, and decided to head to the hospital instead.

Mica, Matt, Tanner, Dean, Landon, and Andrea

We rushed home, dropped the boys off with Dad, and checked in to the hospital at about 6pm.  I was dilated to a 6 when we got there and I immediately got my epidural.  Soon after that they broke my water and it was time to start pushing.  My epidural really wasn't working at all and I was having a LOT of pain in my back.  I pushed and pushed and was struggling to get him out when they finally realized that he was coming out posterior.  Then it all clicked.  Tanner came out the same way and it HURTS!  After what seemed like forever I finally pushed him out and Braddock Dee Nelson arrived at 8:16pm on Tuesday, August 21, 2012.  He was 7lbs. 8oz. and 20.5 inches long.  Dean and I got to keep him with us in our room for an hour or so after delivery and it was heaven!  We're so excited to have him here, safe and sound.

First moments with Mom.

Meeting Dad.

He's a blondie, but not quite as light as Tanner's.

We adore him already!

Backyard BBQ

Wednesday Dean decided he wanted to BBQ. It's been too hot to really want to eat outside for a lot of the summer, but this week the weather was perfect. When Dean sets his mind to something he really goes all out. I came out in the kitchen to find this . . .

Yes, that is a swan carved out of a honeydew rind.

He also vacuumed, mopped, and prepared oven fries, hamburgers, grilled garlic and parmasan zuchini, corn on the cob, and of course the fruit display. It was DELICIOUS!  And we invited the family over to help us eat all that food.

Everyone enjoying their dinner.  (Mom is in Colorado to help with the arrival of our new niece!!  Congrats Geoff and Dianne!  We can't wait to meet her!)

Kids Table

The master chef

Boys Room Reveal

This is going to be a long one, but we put a LOT of work into the boys new room in preparation for the baby's arrival, and we're finally ready to show it off.  There's a couple things I'll change/add when the baby finally comes, like a big picture of the three of them together, but that's kinda hard to come by until he gets here. ;)  Here's what their room looked like before.  And here it is now. . .

Chalkboard door for our Physics prodigies to do their work. ;)  And notice the new paint??  It's Valspar's "Sleek Gray."  I love how much it brightens up the room.

The big boy's bunk beds.  The new bedding is from Target.

We replaced the old closet doors with these from Lowes.  It's much easier to access everything inside now.

Dean painted the crib and I made the crib sheet to match the big boy's bedding.  We also replaced the old curtains that came with the house with new, white blinds.  I love the simple, more modern look.

Dean painted the old dresser to match the new color scheme.  And replaced the hardware.

And here's some close ups of the little details and work we put into it . . .

We added bookshelves in the bunk beds.  This is a BIG space saver and the boys love it.  The shelves came from Ikea and Dean added the metal bars to keep the books from falling off.

I found the green bins at Big Lots.  They fit perfect, match the color scheme, and make for LOTS of needed storage space.

Dean installed the lights on the wall in the boy's beds.  Now Landon doesn't have to feel like he's in a dark, dungeon anymore.  We ordered these off of Amazon, he added the pull chords, and hard wired them in.

I made this to add some color to that side of the room.  It's just some tissue paper pom poms and some Dollar Store paper lanterns hung with fishing line, but I love the impact it has.

In keeping with the circle theme in their bedding I made this mobile for the baby's crib.  I LOVE how it turned out and it was all made with stuff I had around the house.  It's just some white string soaked in some watered down Elmers glue and paint in the colors I was going for that I wrapped around some balloons until it dried.  Pop the balloons and you have these great string balls.

We switched out the ceiling fan for a new light from Ikea.  I've been super nervous about the fan ever since we got the bunk beds and the boys could reach it.  Dean rewired things so the light fixture holds two light bulbs instead of one, and with the lighter paint color on the walls it puts off plenty of light.

I've had this Dignitet wire curtain hanger from Ikea sitting around for over a year and I'm excited we finally put it to use.  I love how easy it will be to switch out photos without worrying about frames.

Dean completely overhauled the closet.  It used to have one rod and no shelving.  We used the Expedit shelf from Ikea and added four shorter rods.  It makes for much more efficient storage space.  The green bins at the bottom came from Big Lots too and are perfect for the boy's shoes.  The same week we bought the shelf I found the cloth drawers at Aldi for WAY cheaper than Ikea sells them and they fit perfect.  LOVE that!

I took a little inspiration from things I've seen around blog land and made up some LDS graphic prints.  The bottom one was a free printable from here.  And I snagged the green frames on clearance for $2.50 a piece at Target.

And last but definitely not least is their growth chart.  I've seen a bunch of similar ones that I love, but I pretty much followed this tutorial here.  I LOVE how it turned out.  Now I just need to get around to measuring and marking the boy's heights.  I love that even if we move someday we can take this with us instead of marking it on a wall somewhere that can't be relocated.

Whew! Glad that's done and now the baby can feel free to come any time now. ;) And I mean ANYTIME . . . as in this afternoon would be nice!  Ha!