More Tanner!

This last month has gone by so fast! We have been busy taking care of Tanner, keeping up with Ivy and Porter, and getting ready for Christmas! The week that Tanner was born, my Mom decided to make a last minute trip out to Indiana. She was here until the day after he was born, and the day after my sister Monica arrived for her scheduled visit. Monica (with my nephew Swensen in tow) stayed for a week, and stocked my freezer with yummy food, played with the kids, and provided good emotional support for me! After Monica left, John and I were only on our own for 3 days before my Mom and Dad came back to spend Thanksgiving with us. So it was a very busy month, and we're just now getting used to being a family of 5. I actually cooked my first real meal (other that Thanksgiving Dinner) yesterday! We have been so impressed by what fantastic friends we have here in Indiana. We are so grateful for all of the meals and support that we've been given. Okay, I think that's all of the mushy stuff I have for today. Now on to the baby update:
Tanner is now 1 month old, and is weighing in at 9 pounds, 11 ounces and is 21" long. It is amazing to see how fast he is growing and changing! He is trying to grow out of his newborn size clothes (sad!), and if there was anything I could do to prevent that, I'd be doing it. At least he has lots of cute 3 month clothes to grow into- that makes me feel a little better! Here are a few pictures of our little chunk!

 We cant' believe how strong he is! He is holding up his head so well - I don't know if this is normal for a 1-month-old or not, but I'm going to stick to the idea that our child is amazing in every way.

 Tanner loves attention, and will occasionally get really into conversations by moving his hands a lot, and tracking us with his eyes. Fun!

I tried to be kind-of artsy with my point-and-shoot the other day, and the pictures didn't really turn out too great. Darn lighting. But, Tanner still looks cute, and so very tiny under the tree.

Tanner's first two weeks

We are loving our little boy! He is so chubby, and cuddly, and adorable! Tanner is a very good baby who loves to be held and talked to. Whenever he's not sleeping or eating he's looking around with his great big eyes, and listening to everything going on around him. He's such a sweetie! Here are a few more pictures. Enjoy!



Tanner meets the Family

 Ivy was so happy to meet her new baby brother!

 My sister Monica and her son Swensen arrived in Indianapolis the night Tanner was born, so they came to the hospital the next morning with my Mom, Ivy and Porter.

 Our first photo as a family of 5!

Staci and Laura came to meet Tanner too. 

He's Here!

Tanner August Wennergren was born on November 10, 2011. He made his big arrival at 9:32pm, and was 8 pounds 3 ounces, 20 inches long. We are so happy to have him here! He is such a handsome little guy. We love having a baby in our home again! Ivy and Porter adore him, and John and I think he is completely wonderful and perfect!

Not the best lighting in this shot of John and I, but I wanted a picture of the 2 of us when we got to the hospital. I was so nervous and excited! We couldn't wait to meet our little guy. John was a lot calmer than I was at this point, but I was trying hard to appear relaxed.

And here's the last documentation I have of my pregnant self! I was 38 weeks along. Can you believe that I was dilated to a 6 at this point?

I went to my doctor's appointment at 10:30 that morning, and when the nurse practitioner checked my cervix she found out how far I was dilated and called the Doctor to find out if I should go in to the hospital. Of course the doctor said yes, so after a quick trip to the grocery store, some lunch, and saying goodbye to the kids and my Mom off we went! We got to the hospital around 3:00. At this point I wasn't feeling much pain with contractions so I half expected them to send me back home, but I figured I'd be a good sport and see how things played out for a while. They monitored my contractions while John and I hung out and talked, and watched tv. I started feeling stronger contractions around 8:45 that night. Finally by about 9:15 the contractions were really strong, so John called the nurse in. She checked me, and I was at a 9! I was ready to push, but nothing was ready! The doctor wasn't there, and the room was not set up for delivery yet. The nurse said that the doctor would be there in about 10 minutes, and I think my heart sunk at that point. I knew this baby wasn't going to wait 10 more minutes. Before I knew it I was pushing. Our sweet baby boy arrived safe and sound, and was caught just in time by a great nurse ~ who just happened to have recently completed her Certified Nurse-Midwife boards. Convenient, huh! The baby was perfectly pink, and screaming! We fell in love right away!

 Our 8 pound little guy! He was chubby already!

He spent quite a while after he was born really awake and alert! It was such a fun time.

We love his chubby cheeks and arched eyebrows!

Tanner and his proud Papa!

37 Weeks

 We had a little extra time before church this morning, so since we were all dressed up (something that doesn't happen very often these days), I decided to take a few pictures. I am at 37 weeks, and feeling ready to go!

 I love how Porter's head is tilted to accomidate my huge belly :)

Ivy was the photographer for this one. She did pretty good! Apparently Porter wasn't very happy here though. haha!

This is not a good picture, but I wanted to add it because shows off my tummy better than the other picture with the kids. Wowsers!

34 Weeks!

Honestly, now the time is flying by! I still have things I want to get done, but I am feeling very ready for this baby boy to come! I am getting BIG, and my back might never be the same as it was before! Also, Baby has decided that my rib-cage makes a good home for little bony body parts. I am still loving this pregnancy though, and am very thankful to be able to add another little one to our crew.  Ivy and Porter are very excited, and I'm sure the days and weeks feel really long for them. We're going to just try to enjoy these last few weeks, and accomplish as much as we can. I'm going to have to try hard to not dwell on how excited I am to hold a tiny new baby. I'm sure Ivy won't want to share with me anyway once he's finally here!

Kelsay Farms

We always try to find a farm to visit in the fall, and this year we went to one just down the street from our house called Kelsay Farms. I give it a 2 Star rating, but the kids still had fun! There was a haystack mountain for them to climb on, tractors and cows to see, a corn maze and a hay ride. The kids each got to buy a pumpkin too, which was probably their highlight. We might have stayed longer, but it was actually really hot that day (who called for the 80 degree weather in October?), and this very pregnant Mommy was done after just a couple of hours. All in all, it was really nice to spend an afternoon together as a family! Also, Ivy has decided that she never wants to have cows as a pets because they're stinky. That's true.

31 Weeks

We're getting closer! I have narrowed down my list of things to do before the baby comes, and I think it might actually be attainable. Well, maybe. I am still feeling good, and loving all of the movement in my belly! This is one active little boy. The movements are much stronger now, and there are times that I think I can tell which body part is poking out! So fun.
*Photo taken 9/22/2011

Porter's First School-Day

Porter Started Preschool today! He has been waiting patiently since Ivy started school, so he was really excited that today was the day! He had his new transformers backpack, and his new "Super-shoes" , and he was off! When I was getting ready to leave the classroom, he didn't even look up at me. He was already busy playing, and doing all of that big kid stuff that they do at preschool! I hope he enjoyed his first day! Porter is such a great kid and I know he'll do just fine.

Celebrating Ivy's Birthday

Ivy had a really fun birthday! We started out in the morning with the requested breakfast of pancakes and chocolate milk, complete with candles in the pancakes.

 That evening we had a family party with pizza, presents, balloons, and cake.

(I just put this picture in so I could remember how long her hair was! I love it)

 Ivy made a good haul for her birthday this year. This is her new fashion design kit from Nann and Grandpa Dewey.

John loves his kids :) Daddy brought Ivy flowers on his way home from work (actually the Party Planner bought them, and had them sitting in the garage so he could just grab them on his way in the door, but Ivy doesn't need to know that :), and Porter picked out her balloons so they were there when she got home from school.

 Cuties!

 A couple of weeks after her actual birthday we had some friends over for cupcakes. We had a pinata, and the kids had fun playing with the parachute and just running around together! Here's the party crew! You try getting that many kids to look at the camera :)

Here's the birthday girl with her cupcakes. Ready to dig in!

Ivy's Birthday - the big number 5!

I really can't believe this little girl is already 5! I have caught myself a number of times thinking that she's still 4. I'm not quite used to it yet. But she is so happy to be a big kid now, because apparently 5 is lots bigger than 4. Here's what Ivy's up to these days:

Ivy's favorite pastime is art! She loves drawing, coloring, cutting and gluing- anything creative.

She loves dancing.

She loves dolls - babies, and Barbies.

Wants to be a fashion designer and a Mommy when she grows up.

Just started kindergarten and loves it! She is a very good student.

Is super friendly and sweet. She says "hi" to everyone she sees, and makes friends wherever she goes.

Favorite color is Pink

She is a great big sister and loves to play with Porter, as long as she gets to boss him around. She's also super excited to be Mommy's helper with the new baby - I'm sure I'll have so much help I won't know what to do with it all!

Loves to play games, especially those she has invented herself.

Has a great sense of humor - she loves to make people laugh and pretty much always has something silly to say.

Ivy's favorite person in the whole world is her Daddy! She gets so excited for him to get home at night!

Her favorite book/tv show right now is "Pinky Dinky Doo".

Ivy is very wise for her age, and usually has something clever to say. She is also a little bit of a know-it-all. Don't try to tell her that's a bad thing though.

Still around the 50th percentile for her weight, and 97th for her height, so she's our tall skinny girl!

If you were to pop in at our house, Ivy would most likely be drawing, riding her bike, looking for bugs outside, "decorating" something in our house, or making a mess in the kitchen with the art supplies.

She is very tender-hearted and loves her family.

Ivy girl we love you too! This will be a great year!

Ivy's first day of School!

 This is Ivy's teacher- Mrs. Hinderliter

 Porter really wanted to be in a picture, but he didn't want to be hugged! This picture cracks me up!

 What a pretty little girl!

Wow! Yesterday was a really hard day for me! I am having a hard time adjusting to the idea of having a school-aged child, even though this is what I thought I wanted! I'm sure I will get used to it, I just missed having Ivy around yesterday afternoon. My baby girl is growing up, and I am going to have to just get used to the idea that she's not always going to be under my constant care. It's kind-of hard though! Since Ivy's birthday isn't until the 19th, we had to apply for early admittance for her to even get to go to school this year, and I have wrestled with myself over making that decision, wondering if it was the right one. It was also a hard day because my car is in the shop, so I had to beg a ride off of a friend to get her to school, since she's in afternoon kindergarten (she rides the bus home). I hate not being able to be independent.

Okay though, I'll be done whining now and talk about what a fun day it was for Ivy! She has been so excited to start school, and her first day did not disappoint! Ivy seems to really like her teacher (and I do too), and she is so excited to go to school to "learn lots of things." I'm sure she will be a great student! She said she made 1 new friend, but forgot to ask her name, and she loved playing with the blocks that were " square shaped, and lots of different colors, not like the ones we have". Congratulations Ivy! You are a wonderful kid, and you will have a great school year!

Here she is getting off the bus. Notice, she doesn't have her backpack on? If I hadn't been busy messing with my camera, I would have noticed sooner and been able to save it from the bus! I ran after the bus in all my unbalanced pregnant glory, but couldn't catch the driver's attention. Hopefully it will still be there Monday afternoon!

More visitors!

John's brother David and his wife Demarie came to visit for a week, and they were super fun to have around! The kids love them, and John was so excited to hang out with his "bro" - it had been a long time! John hadn't even had a chance to meet Dem yet, so it was much needed and we loved having them. One of the highlights for me was our double date to "Dralion" by Cirque de Soleil and out to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. We also went to the Children's Museum, Dem and I went shopping, we watched lots of movies, we went to Chuck-e-Cheese, played playstation games, and Dem let the kids play a ton of games on her ipod (she will most likely hide it the next time she comes). Come again soon guys!