Introducing... Tyson James Williams

Tyson James Williams was born Monday November 8th, 2010 at 12:50 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 6 oz and was 20.5 inches long. His birth day was pretty uneventful (besides his arrival, of course) which doesn't make for a super interesting blog post, but it sure made for a nice delivery and recovery! :) We had a scheduled induction for Monday morning (the doctor said he was measuring really big, so we wanted to get him out of there before he weighed 11 pounds! :) Thank goodness he was "only" 8 lbs 6oz!) So, the induction was scheduled for 5:30 am, so I had to call at 4:30 am to make sure they had a bed for me. That seemed really early at the time, but I am glad we had that early slot, because the nurse told us they were having a busy day, and they had to turn away scheduled inductions later in the day. So, we got to the hospital at 5:30, and they got me in a bed and hooked up to the monitors. Before they even started a pitocin drip, the monitor showed us that I was starting to have pretty regular contractions! They still started the pitocin to help things along, but it looks like Tyson would have been born that day regardless of scheduling an induction. (Which Devin really liked, since he wasn't a huge fan of the whole induction thing in the first place!) Then, (my favorite part) I was able to get my epidural a little on the early side, because the anesthesiologists were needed in a couple of c-sections that were starting soon... so I had the most pleasant labor known to man. I have decided that Texas has a better mix of drugs than Utah did, because in Utah I was a little bit loopy with my epidural (Devin has video to prove it) and I felt quite a bit more discomfort. This time around, I wasn't acting quite as "special" and I was totally pain free the whole time. I gave myself one little boost of the drugs at the very end, and about 6 1/2 hours after we got settled in Tyson arrived! It is amazing how much less time it takes to recover from a 6 hour labor versus a 17 hour labor! I love Julia, don't get me wrong, but I love 6 hour labor more than 17 hour labor!! :) I felt great almost immediately, and besides puking up my lunch right afterward, (is anyone surprised that I ate too fast after 14 hours of fasting?) it was smooth sailing from there on out!

Welcome to the world baby Tyson!!

Footprints on Daddy's shirt... a cute tradition at the hospital. (Yes, Tyson has huge feet!)

First bath was not Tyson's favorite moment. The hospital (I'm pretty sure the best hospital for delivering a baby on the planet... more reasons to come later...) keeps your baby in your room the entire time. They bring this little bath to your room, and he gets clean right there. Besides his circumcision and his blood draw there was no time that he had to leave our room. We chose to send him to the nursery in the middle of the night so we could get a few hours of sleep (don't judge me) but other than that he got to stay with us. It was nice.

So sweet...

Julia really likes her little brother. She kept telling us "he's so nice!" because he brought her a present. It's amazing how a Belle Barbie doll can win over a two-year-old who is obsessed with Princesses! Good thinking Tyson! ;)

Our new 4-member family!

Tyson is a super sweet and super cuddly baby. He is totally easy-going and only really cries when he is hungry. Thanks little man!!

I think this face means "please stop taking pictures of me!!"

Julia thoroughly enjoyed getting to wear doctor gloves. We thoroughly enjoyed her not getting her germs all over Tyson!

Another reason this hospital is amazing... aside from the fact that it looks like the Ritz-Carlton and not a hospital... a steak and lobster dinner on your last night. Yes, yes... real steak and real lobster. The food was amazing every single meal (I'll admit... part of me didn't want to leave!) but the steak and lobster definitely took the cake. (The giant piece of chocolate cake at the end didn't hurt the way I felt about the meal either!) And no, Devin isn't holding up my plate... they feed the husbands at every meal too. Best hospital ever!

Apparently our onesie is not as comfortable as the hospital's onesies. But, I definitely think he is Handsome like his Daddy!!

On our way home. Yes, we are wearing short sleeves in November... have I convinced anyone to move to Frisco yet? You can have your babies at the Ritz-Carlton!! :)

First sponge bath at home. During...

And after. Oh, to be that relaxed!

Daddy and Tyson at the Doctor for a weigh-in. They want babies to be back up to their birth weight by two weeks. Tyson was born 8 lbs 6oz. He left the hospital 7 lbs 13 oz. On Friday Nov 12, at 4 days old... 8 lbs 8 oz. Way to hustle buddy. No waiting 2 weeks for you!

I think this is around the point where Julia started wondering if this baby was a permanent addition... and was maybe not so sure about this guy after all... (Don't worry, she came around and really loves her brother. She is taking out her anger... manifested in disobedience, diapers, and yelling... on us in stead!! Better us than the baby!!)

Tyson smiles and laughs in his sleep all the time! It is my favorite thing. There must be somebody in his dreams telling some really hilarious jokes! Nobody can tell me he is belly-laughing because of gas!!

Anybody remember who else used to make this face all the time as a baby? Yup, Julia! Guess they are siblings after all.

Not sure how he feels about something... that is a wary look if I ever saw one!

Daddy and Tyson. He loves sleeping like this. And we love it too!

Welcome to the family buddy. We are so happy that Tyson made it here safe and sound, and that he is happy and healthy. We are so grateful for all of the Grandparents who took their time and money to come to Texas and help us with Julia, with cooking, and with holding Tyson. Thank you all so very much! We love being a family of four, and we have also been incredibly blessed to have Devin home for 3 whole weeks of paternity leave. Tomorrow is the first day I will have to do it alone, and I'm just a bit nervous, to say the least!! But Tyson is an easy baby, and Julia is a great helper, so I really couldn't be luckier.

So... here begin our adventures as a family of Four!!

Drumsticks and Blue Sticks

I realized that I need to do a better job of recording the things that I want to remember about Julia. She is so full of personality, and she says and does the funniest things, and I just want to remember!

So, one of my favorite things about Julia right now is her taste in movies. She LOVES old musicals. They are seriously her favorite, and I promise it's not from me pushing it on her! It really must be in the genes! It all started with "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" that came in a box set of movie musicals from Linda. We put it on one day thinking she might like it, and it started a phenomenon!

"Singing in the Rain" is one of the favorites. We often "play" Kathy and Don. She sits in the "car" and screams because I apparently have just jumped in next to her and scared her. She gets her princess umbrella and dances along with Gene Kelly, or gets one of her pink dress-up skirts and pulls it up under her armpits and dances with Kathy and the girls to "All I Do is Dream of You." She also has a pair of little Mary Janes that she has decided are her tap shoes, and she "tap dances" while singing "Moses Supposes." Good thing I don't mind watching this movie over and over again!

I can never quite believe it when my 2 year old wakes up in the morning and asks to watch "Homa-Homa." (Although she's saying it correctly more often now, which is probably a good thing, but not quite as cute!) Devin is not sure how he feels about his daughter walking around the house singing, "I'm just a girl who can't say no," but we've decided we'll let it slide for a few years. The other day we tried on EVERY single dress in her closet (which thanks to her cousin Claire is a LOT of dresses) going through church dresses, play dresses, and even the princess dress-up dresses, trying to find a dress that "twirled" well enough for her to dance along with the girls in "the Farmer and the Cowman." Maybe this movie is causing more problems than it's worth! Also, you know the dream ballet that is really long and weird that almost everyone fast forwards through? She loves it. She always leaves or plays with something else during the boring (speaking) parts, but the dance sequences, she is glued to the television!

This is one of the other original "Julia Musicals." After I had watched this and "Chitty Chitty" one too many times we started branching out to some of the others, but this remains a favorite. Spoons now all contain either "Strawberry, mmm" or "Rum Punch." Daddy's tape measure tells us that everything measures "extremely stubborn and suspicious." Apparently she sings "Jolly Holiday" throughout the hours in nursery. Many days she asks me, "where did Michael go?" (apparently on those days I am Mary Poppins and she is Jane.) The other day we tried to watch "The Sound of Music" for a minute (she was totally bored) but don't you worry... "It's Mary Poppins!!"

This is one of my personal favorite Julia obsessions. It's a good thing too, because this is definitely frequently watched! Julia loves to pretend to be Giselle. She'll put a stool next to the wall and reach up and knock on the wall and say "Hello! I'm ready to go home now! Someone let me in!" (for those of you not familiar, she is knocking on the billboard trying to get into the fake castle.) She then of course has to hang off of things and pretend she is about to fall, and "the Daddy" needs to catch her. (Every leading man in every movie is "the Daddy" which is a whole other incredibly cute thing entirely!!) She also will often "fall asleep" after eating an apple and can only be awakened by "true love's kiss," (good thing mine usually work.) The other day I was the "old man" and had to take her crown from her several times (not my most flattering character assignment from my daughter.) The other favorite is re-enacting the scene where she asks, "where does the water come from?" complete with every single Giselle action, and all of the lines word for word. Hilarious.

Next, we have "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" aka "Drumsticks and Blue sticks." Ok, I grew up loving this movie. Watching it now, however... it is really weird! It's really dark and scary, and the whole "witchcraft" thing is kind of bizarre! I think it's hilarious that I liked this movie so much! Anyway... Julia only watches about 15 minutes of this movie. We start on scene 13, where they go to the Island of Naboombu, watch the parts where the cartoons are there, and then stop it as soon as they get back to the real world. Hey, she's the one who still wants to watch it, even knowing that it means only 15 minutes of a movie!

And last but not least, we have the one that started it all: "Chitt Chitty Bang Bang." I cannot tell you how often I get addressed as "Truly" in my home. At that point I am, of course, conversing with "Jemima." One night we got Julia to eat her entire plate of green beans (she is currently on a hunger strike) by pretending they were "Toot sweets." Many other toys, food items, pen lids, etc. also all become "toot sweets." We are a little worried because her favorite place to start in the movie is "the part with the bad guy." In this movie the "bad guy" is the freaky child snatcher who lures the kids out of the basement with candy, and then kidnaps them. We try to use it as a teaching tool not to take candy from strangers! Thankfully there are lots of other less weird parts she likes to re-enact also, such as singing "You two" to Devin and I (although she thinks it's allowable to wipe her hands on her shirt after we wash them, "like in You Two!"), crying out for help because she has just driven her car into the mud, calling Devin "papa" and like I said, me "Truly," and my personal favorite, the music box part, complete with Julia singing all the words and doing a pseudo-robot/doll dance just like the lady in the movie.

Ok, so now I'm realizing that this post makes it seem like we watch a TON of TV at our house. We really don't! I promise! These movies are just what she chooses to watch in stead of PBS or Disney, or whatever normal kids her age like to watch. Apparently she is genetically programmed to be a musical theater nerd! :) And the good thing is that the time we do spend watching these movies has led to many active hours of wanting me to do ballet and tap dances with her, and she always wants to "dance with my king" who is of course, Daddy.

New Family Picture

Here is the new Family Picture! Thank you Emily for your mad scanning skills, and thank goodness I finally figured out how to steal your pictures from Facebook...I have a feeling that might be happening quite a bit now! :)
We had such a great time seeing all of these people!
Loves to Everyone!

Camera-Shy Trip to Utah

Well, we took a trip to Utah in August, so I guess it's about time I wrote about it!

The problem with the post for this little trip is that I am pregnant... Therefore, I avoid having my picture taken at all costs, therefore, I hardly ever have my camera out, therefore there are hardly any pictures of this particular adventure! Of the 10 pictures in existence, 5 of them are on the airplane. I know... super exciting. I guess I fail the awesome mom test on this one. Even worse... I totally fail the awesome aunt/sister-in-law/daughter-in-law test, because I didn't take any pictures of Julia with any of her cousins or many other wonderful relatives we saw. I seriously blame it all on being pregnant. And that is the catch-all excuse, and I only get to use it for a few more weeks, so I am cashing in!! :)

So here's what we've got:

This picture has a story that needs telling. We scheduled a late flight (I think we left Texas at 9:30pm) so that Devin could work on Tuesday, and we assumed Julia would sleep on the plane. Well, we assumed wrong. She was as wide awake as she could possibly be for the entire flight. We tried everything we could think of to get her to sleep. She was actually pretty good, and had the flight been at 4:00 in the afternoon we wouldn't have thought anything of it. But, it was super late for her and we really wanted her to sleep, because the whole time we were thinking about how her going to bed at midnight would ruin the rest of the week for everyone. Anyway... alas, no sleeping for the entire flight. And then we started our final descent. We handed her a coloring book and crayon for the descent, and 30 seconds later the above picture was taken! She fell asleep during the bumpy, loud descent, and stayed asleep through the landing and everyone noisily deplaning. There are no words for the non-understanding of how children work... :)

Devin and I got to escape for a couple of days to Salt Lake for a belated anniversary celebration. We stayed in a really nice Marriott downtown. (Thank you Deloitte, for making my husband spend a ridiculous number of weeks in Philadelphia, thereby buying our vacation with Marriott points and American Airlines miles!) We got to stay on the concierge level (again, thank you Gold status) which means free hot breakfast in the morning and dessert at night. We were ok with that. We went to the Salt Lake Temple (I had never done a session there) and went to the church history museum. We also got to see a movie in the theater, and enjoy dinner at a restaurant by ourselves! The simplest things seem so luxurious once you have a child! :) Finally, this picture is at "The Roof" restaurant in Temple Square. I had never been, and the view was amazing. We got there just before sunset and got to watch the lights come on on the temple, all from the best table in the whole restaurant. It was really quite beautiful, and the dessert buffet was a pregnant woman's dream!!

4-Wheeling with Grandpa Don, Grandma Tonya, Uncle Ross and all the cousins! I obviously was in no condition to participate, but Devin and Julia had a good time.

Perfect Fit!

Look! I'm in a picture! (the shadow, if you can't tell...) Let's be honest though... I really hate being super dirty, but the view up there was beautiful.

We learned that Julia is definitely my daughter. She really wanted to ride with Daddy, but once she got on and started going, she said, "I don't like it! I don't like the bumps!" I'm ok with her not being a daredevil!

This picture was cute enough of Julia and Devin to be worth cropping even though the corner of my face is still present. My 4 chins were not allowed to make an appearance.

Safety First!

Julia was fascinated by the safety precautions for the airplane. She seriously spent 30 minutes studying the emergency plans. Hopefully she would have been able to explain what to do if we had had an emergency landing!

Overall we had a wonderful trip. We stayed at Linda's house with Russ and his family, and Julia loved being around her cousins. We got to see great friends and family, and let Julia visit BYU for the first time. In the bookstore she shouted, "I'm a BYU girl!" at the top of her lungs. Everyone who heard (which was a lot of people... we made the mistake of visiting the bookstore during Education Week) thought that was pretty cute. We were sad to leave, because we had such a great time, but we are just grateful we could get one last trip in before November. Next time we are in Utah it will be with 2 children... Weird!!! :)

Julia's Two Year Pictures!

I am really, really happy with how her pictures turned out. Not too shabby for JCPenney!! I love her curls, and I love her scrunch-nose smile. This child of mine, however, was having WAY too much fun at her photo shoot! She was working the camera like you wouldn't believe. And don't even worry... the one where her hand is under her chin... she posed like that all by her little self! No help needed there to strike a pose! My mom and I were dying, as well as cracking up. Not only is she already a little model-diva, but at the end, the photographer said "Ok, one last pose," and Julia replied... "No... I'm done." I am SO going to have my hands full! :)

Fun with Grandma, Grandpa and Michael!

We had a great time these past two weeks with Grandma, Grandpa and Michael here in Texas! Mom and Michael got to be here for a full two weeks and Grandpa joined us for the second week. We mostly just got to relax and enjoy having people here to dote on (and help take care of) Julia. But we did a bunch of really fun things as well.

We went to the Forth Worth Stockyards again with Michael and Dad. We're pretty sure this is what people think our neighborhood is like here in Texas, but I promise we have to drive for an hour to see cowboys and longhorns!

Uncle Michael was a big help with little miss Julia. We tried not to let him get too bored out of his mind while he was here. I think the Wii, the DS, the iPod touch and texting are pretty universal forms of teenage summer entertainment, and thank goodness they all travel to Texas pretty easily! I know Julia really loved having him here though, so I'm glad he suffered through a couple of days with nothing to do for the chance for us to spend some time with him!

Grandmas are wonderful for many, many reasons, but I think one of Julia's favorite things about Grandma was the fact that we often returned home from shopping with a "special surprise." It got to the point where she would meet us at the door and ask "did you bring me a surprise?" The most exciting surprise of the week was the Disney Princess tent. These tents apparently come in two sizes... too small for a two-year-old to fit in, and gigantic. Between those two options, grandma of course selected gigantic! :) Ok, ok... I voted for gigantic as well. It is big enough for us to play in with her, which is of course wonderful and terrible all at the same time! haha. But no, I'm teasing... Julia is in LOVE with her Princess tent, and we have put it up every single day since it was purchased. The other day we both had to get our purses and shoes on and go grocery shopping inside of it. She has a great imagination, and anything that will help support and encourage that is ok by me! (Even if I have to take it down and put it back up every single day because it takes up half of my living room!! :))

Julia sleeps with many friends in her bed. (Her "girl-girl bed" as she calls it, which means "big-girl bed.") I'm pretty sure this photo has been staged for grandma, however, because she doesn't usually sleep in her Cinderella dress... nor does she ever look that happy to be put to bed!!

Grandma and Julia at Storytime at the Library. I have to admit... it was pretty nice to have Grandma sit on the floor while I sat on the bench in the back!!

Grandpa's here!!

We went out for some real Texas Barbecue. Good stuff!

We spent a day at Hawaiian Falls Waterpark. There's nothing like having visitors come to town to help you discover the fun things to do that are only 10 minutes from your house! I'm pretty sure a season pass is in the cards for next summer, because Julia was in heaven!

This child is completely fearless. I'm pretty sure she went on this water slide at least 30 times in a row.

I hate to say that she is cutest when she's sleeping (because she has plenty of wonderful times when she is awake too) but this was a pretty sweet half hour of my life! She asked to go on the "river" again, and she promptly fell asleep in my lap. So we went around a few more times and this is where Julia took her nap that day!

And here is one of the differences between women and men: The boys went and did some fun things as well, but of course there are no pictures to show for them!! :) But they did get to go to a Ranger's baseball game, and Dad and Devin got to golf at Shady Oaks CC and The Colonial, which are two of the nicest golf courses in all of DFW. Devin will probably never have the chance to golf on them again (I guess until Dad comes back...) and Dad had never played them either, so I think they were both soaking that up. Why they would volunteer to stand outside in 95 degrees with humidity for 4 hours is completely beyond me, but they had a good time, and that's what matters!! :)

Thank you Mom and Dad and Michael for coming all the way to Texas to hang out with us for a couple of weeks! We loved having you here, and can't wait until you come back!