Preschool Graduation and Andrew's Latest Pics

Our not-so-little-anymore girl Marin graduated from preschool last night and her class put on a cute little program. Marin has absolutely loved preschool this year. She loves her teacher (I love her teacher too), and every day when I pick her up she comes running out to the car with this huge grin on her face. It's been so great and she has learned a ton. Each kid did a talent during the graduation program. Marin read (memorized) a story, "Russel and the Lost Treasure." She was so cute doing it and was very brave! Here are a few pictures:

Her award was "The Best Outdoor Girl" because apparently she always asked if they got to go outside and play, regardless of the weather. She's her daddy's girl all right!

Here is Kate the Great



And here are a few pictures of Andrew. He'll be 4 weeks tomorrow, I can't believe it!

Here's the story...

Okay now that it has been almost a month since Andrew was born, I will tell his birth story. I am morbidly fascinated with others' birth stories, so if any of you are like me, here you go. If not, just skip this post. But I promise it's pretty mild and I won't give too much gross information all right?

So luckily for me, I had a doctor appointment on the day he was born (side note: I have just happened to have a doctor appointment on the day all 3 of my children were born, and as you read on you'll realize how lucky that really has been). So I went in, and lo and behold, I was dilated to a 6! No labor pains all day, no way I would have thought I was in labor. I swear if I have any more kids they'll be born at home because there is something wrong with me! So my doctor tells me he better send me over to the hospital because at a 6 I won't last much longer. Although, due to a staffing shortage there, they did have me wait 1 hour to check in.

What did I do in the meantime? Well of course I headed over to Firehouse Pizza to watch my sweet brother-in-law Matt take on the 32 inch pizza challenge. I also helped myself to some focaccia bread and salad. Mitch and a whole bunch of other Jones Simkins employees (slow day at work?) were there eating lunch and watching the event. At this point, I did start having a few contractions. But nothing painful, nothing that I would think "Huh, I better go to the hospital."

So I waited my hour and checked into the hospital. Then I waited awhile for Mitch to drop Marin at my sister Avree's (Kate was already there). Then my doctor came in and we chatted for awhile. When he checked me again, I was at an 8. Seriously still not feeling my labor pains at this point, can you believe that? So I thought I had better get my epidural and so I got that. In retrospect I should have saved my $300 anesthesiologist fee because it didn't really work. Around 7:00 p.m. I started feeling some intense contractions. Like the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. I kept clicking my little epidural thingy that gives more meds until I maxed it out and it wouldn't give me any more. I was still feeling contractions, one on top of the other. I was trying to be tough, but dang! I've never felt those pains before and I told Mitch to get my nurse stat! She came in, sure enough it was time to push. The doctor came in, chatted with Mitch for awhile (I was ready to KILL HIM at that point) and then I started pushing. Oh heavens, was I motivated to get him out of me! I've never felt that part of labor before, having always had epidurals that actually worked. So luckily, I only pushed about 10 times before he was born or I swear I would have turned into that crazy lady you see on TV that is screaming profanities at her husband!

And then there he was. My sweet little boy. They brought him to me and I just snuggled him (I'm crying as I type this) and I was just overwhelmed with how much I loved him already. He is the sweetest little addition to our family and I can feel his sweet little personality already. He is such a good baby so far and is really chunking out. I just kiss his chubby cheeks all the time and I can't wait for him to start smiling (oh, and sleeping through the night). So although 3 kids has been HARD, and I'm sleep deprived, he's OH SO WORTH IT! So there's the story of Andrew James Moncur's birth.

(Sorry Jaren, I know this kind of thing grosses you out, but that is what babies look like a few seconds after they're born)

Just In Case...

...you were wondering what Andrew looks like at 1 week (you know you were):

The Best Easter Present Ever

Our little man, Andrew James, was born Friday April 22. He weighed 7 lbs, 15 oz. When I have 2 hands to type, I may get around to telling more of the story. As you can see from the picture, Marin is thrilled and Kate is not quite sure what to think of him. His hair looks lighter than it really is in this picture, it's actually pretty dark. Oh how we love him already!

Happy Birthday Marvin!

No, "Marvin" is not a typo. More about that later. I am posting like crazy this week. But it's our birthday bash week and I don't want to miss posting about it (since someday I really will have this blog printed into a book, really, I will...) Yesterday was Marin's first friend party. She wanted a Tangled party, which was convenient because of course there are a million Tangled things out there and I could get most of it at good ol' Walmart. It was actually a lot of fun. We kept it simple and only invited a few girls from our immediate neighborhood. Marin was in heaven the whole time.

Here is our little Reepunzel (not a typo either, that is how Marin pronounces it). We braided ribbons into her hair and she wore that dress all day long.



We decorated paper lanterns.


Then played a little "Pin the Frying Pan on Flynn"


Next we blew out candles and ate some cake. The situation with the cake was the highlight of my day. All of my Facebook friends already know this, but when we got to the bakery to pick up the cake it said, "Happy Birthday Marvin." They hurried and changed it, but I was laughing hysterically in the grocery store and pretty much the rest of the day every time I thought about it.


Then we opened presents (Marin's favorite part, she later told me).


And finally, we went on a little treasure hunt to get our party favors.


What a fun time!

This picture also illustrates how tall our little Marin is! Oh, and Sara, if you're wondering where Allie is in all of these pictures, she spent most of the party in Marin's room playing with her princess dolls. Next up, family party. I can't believe how fast my little bald baby grew up into this darling 5 year old that I love to pieces!

Happy DAD birthday!

Mitch had the birthday most any 32 year old can only dream of, ha ha. He worked from 5 a.m. to 6:45, which is not fun but necessary when your birthday falls during tax season, but we did have fun when he got home. We had pizza, ate cheesecake, opened presents, and then watched Tangled. This is the kind of rockin' party you have when you're a true DAD. I let our girls go to the Dollar store and pick out any 3 things they wanted to get Mitch. Kate didn't get it, so Marin picked them out. I tried to let her have total freedom. This is what she chose:

1. A hula hoop. (When I asked her if she thought daddy would really want a hula hoop she replied, "Yes, it's yellow. It's a boy color so he'll like it." And she really was excited to give it to him.)
2. Squirt guns.
3. A robot shield.

Here is a picture of "him" opening his presents.


I know Mitch is closing his eyes and looks funny, but Marin's face was so cute I had to post this. This is Mitch's raspberry cheesecake.


And here they are eating popcorn and watching Tangled (which by the way is a really cute show Mitch and I thought!)


So happy DAD birthday Mitch!

Nursery Room Tour

I absolutely love nursery room tours, or kids room tours, or living room tours, or any room tours....you get the point. I like to see what other people's houses look like. I'm nosy. I've debated on whether to put this on my blog because it's not even that cool. It's not vintage or some amazing thrift store find that I transformed or anything else special. It's definitely not what I would do if my budget were unlimited. It probably cost less than $100 for everything I did. With that said, I still love my little guy's nursery. I've had it done for several weeks now and I like to sit in the rocking chair after my girls are asleep and just get excited for the fact that I'm having a little boy. No pink in this room. So here goes:


Here is a close up of my fabric thingies (I don't know what to call them) The pictures don't do the fabric justice. It's so cute and boyish.

Here is the cute bedding that my sister Avree gave me. It used to be her little boy's. In all honesty, I definitely would have splurged and bought my own crib bedding or had some made or something if I didn't always LOVE this bedding. It's so hard to find boy crib bedding I think!


Here is a close-up of the Etsy prints I got. They match the bedding perfectly and again, the pictures don't do them justice. They're so cute!


And here are my shelves of death... not because they are not properly hung and will fall on our heads while we rock, but because it took me 2 hours to hang them just right. They had to be level, even lengths from the corner, etc. It took all of my spacial brain capacity to do it. And seriously, it took 2 hours while Marin was at preschool and Kate played with the hammer (just kidding, but she threw several tantrums because she wanted to).

The end.