The Reason For Blogging

10. Ok, the previous 9 posts were obviously done in a hurry so I could get to this post. On April 27th at 12:54pm, we welcomed Emerson David Spendlove to the world. He weighed 9lbs 12 oz and measured 22.5 inches. He came out with a head full of dark hair that is still around, but starting to lighten a little. He's been nothing but a joy from day one.
So he's almost 6 weeks old now and we're getting used to being a family of five now. Most frequently asked question, "Is this easier than having twins?" A BIG resounding YES!! It's so nice to only have one baby to feed, hold and put to sleep. And because he was 2.5 lbs heavier than the biggest of boys, he's just more content overall. He sleeps and eats good and just seems content in general.

Of course that means I have two three-year-olds adjusting to life with a baby around. They love him though and want to constantly "hold" him. Now if we could only get the other ways they're acting out under control, life would be good. There's a lot of crying, screaming and whining here and it isn't coming from Emerson.

But here are a few more up to date photos of the newest family member. He's pretty darn awesome... I think we'll keep him.

Five Years

9. On April 8th we celebrated our 5th anniversary. We were really lucky that April 8th, 2006 was a lovely sunny day in the high 60s, low 70s. April 8th, 2011 looked like this:
Luckily we were able to use some connections to stay in an awesome suite up at Stein Erikson lodge. When people asked us what we were doing while we were up there, I'd answer, "Hoping to go skiing." Yeah, I was obviously VERY pregnant at the time. Five years:
Almost 3 kids
3 job changes
1MBA degree
Some wonderful vacations: Hawaii, Alaska, Peru, British Virgin Islands, etc
Not Bad!!
not too bad.

Out With the Old

8. And in with the new... Car that is. With the addition of #3, we decided a new car, mini-van to be exact was in store. So we saved for awhile and picked out the one we wanted. And she's wonderful!!!

Of course that meant saying goodbye to my CR-V... the only car I've ever owned. I bought it right after I got my first post-college job. She's been a great car and I rarely had a problem with her. I miss her, but I really like the automatic doors!

Dark Ages

7. So I frequently get bored with my hair. I've been known to randomly cut fringe bangs in the middle of the day on a whim (I did it last week in fact). In December I started thinking that I wanted to dye my hair darker. It just seemed like the up keep would be easier. I love having highlighted blond hair, but I hate seeing roots after a few weeks. And my natural color is pretty blah, dirty blond. So dark I decided to go. With my BFF's help, I went dark on Jan 2nd... She did a great job even though she didn't want me to go dark. I've had it dyed one more time since then so it is still this dark. No, Shawn isn't the biggest fan of it and neither is my mother. But that's okay because my boys think I look like Rapunzel.

Big Boys

6. Obviously kids grow up. In some ways I want to keep my twins little forever. But in other ways, I'm happy to see them get older.

I wasn't terribly happy to switch them out of cribs into big boy beds. We almost did it last summer when Austin jumped so much in his crib that he broke some of the metal pieces on the mattress support piece. Yes, this skill should translate into some athletic ability, I'm just not sure what. But luckily a neighbor welded it back together for us. Then in October he started climbing out of his crib and climbing into Isaac's crib. Isaac wouldn't climb out of his crib. So I'd just hear him yelling, "Get out!" Get out!" Even twins need their space. So we gave up and put them in beds. Gone were the days of waking up at 9am. But it was nice while it lasted.

We were however, very happy to stop purchasing and using size 6 diapers this past winter. I kept telling them that there weren't diapers in larger sizes so they really needed to start using the potty. After a grueling week or so, they started to get the idea of using the potty. We had quite a few setbacks... #2 didn't like going #2 in the potty. So I'd have to literally hold him on the potty to get him to go. Or there's the lovely story where they destroyed books, slippers, cars, flooded our bathroom, smeared poop all over their bedding and the carpet in two separate bedrooms, all while I was on a conference call doing a sales demo for work. I was trying so hard not to cry as I heard them flushing over and over and over for 40 minutes straight. (They were supposed to be taking a nap) In the end, through tears, some yelling unfortunately, and a lot of prizes and treats, I would say they're potty-trained.... just in time for us to start changing someone else's diaper.

Floored

5. We've always known there were issues with our kitchen floor but we didn't know how large those issues were. We decided last fall to tackle it, or I should say I decided we should and made Shawn do it. He is a good man to do it. It was a huge amount of work that was started in late September and more or less finished before Christmas. During that time we could be found eating out A LOT, eating in our make shift kitchen (that is really a guest room) and storing our fridge and oven in the living room. Basically there was a floor joist that was more than an inch higher that the other floor joists. We had two layers of vinyl on the floor and we wanted to replace it with tile. To do that, it needed to be leveled. That involved removing the vinyl, cutting a huge hole in the floor boards and shaving down the floor joist. Then came the self-leveling compound that was applied three different times I think. And when that was all done came the actual work of tiling. When Shawn would tell people what he was doing at Home Depot they would say, "That's a job for a professional." And they were right. Luckily, we have some very handy neighbors that have a lot of tiling experience and they spend a lot of time at our house during those months. Shawn learned a lot throughout this. And I think we can both agree that we don't want to do anything like this every again!

My Three Sons

4. I've actually seen reruns of "My Three Sons" on TV. I never thought it would be my life, but in August 2010 we found out we were pregnant and in November we found out it was another boy. So here are some random shots of the twins from last year. Adding one more to this mix has been interesting.