FOR KIM

Remember how you thought Josh was shoving grass in your grill? I think he's been to my house too.
On closer inspection.....maybe not!



It's a good thing it's our old unused grill!

6 WEEKS OLD....LAST FRIDAY

I can hardly believe that Tate is already 6 weeks old. It has been a whirlwind experience! Since he was born I've celebrated a birthday, an anniversary, Easter, and Mother's Day. I took a quick trip to Utah with the 4 kids all by myself to introduce him to my family. We've had tons of friends and neighbors bring us meals and gifts welcoming him. We blessed him on Mother's Day at home. And we've been wonderfully spoiled by visits from all the Grandma's and Grandpa's.

OUR BABY HAS ARRIVED!!!

So this is a little be-lated, but I have loved, loved, LOVED spending the last 11 days just snuggling, oohing, aahing, and otherwise spoiling our new little baby boy!

Tate Alden Courtney joined our family on April Fools Day at 10:25pm. He weighed in at 7lbs 10oz and was 19in long. Pretty good size for coming 2 weeks early.

With that said, his birth was an "unplanned planned" experience. Meaning....my doctor was going out of town and wanted to have the baby more than I did!!! I had a regular visit scheduled with the Doc that Friday morning. When he checked me, I was at 5cm. (The previous week I was a 4 and the week before that I was a 3. Typical pattern for me.) I tried to tell him that I was sure that I would hold on until he came home from his trip the next week, but he wasn't so sure so he asked us to meet him at the hospital at 6:30 that evening.

(*These doctor office pics are for you Kim and Bailey who have had some weird thought that it would be fun seeing me all big and prego! I'm a brave woman putting them on here!!!)

After waiting a short time for the doc, he came in and broke my water around 7:30. That was all it took to get me started. (No brainer I guess since I was already half way done anyway!) I let myself labor for about an hour knowing that as soon as I got an epidural I would be ready to deliver within 30 minutes. I guess I wasn't feeling "ready" to have him yet., but since there was no turning back at this point, I asked for an epidural. That was in and going around 9:00 and I was complete 45 minutes later.

Normally I push twice and the kiddo is here....HOWEVER.....this time I guess I couldn't remember what the heck I was doing OR my little man wasn't ready to join us yet either because it took me about 35 minutes to have him. But he is here and healthy and whole and we are all so very happy! We love his sweet little dimples, soft downy blonde hair and yummy new baby smell.

The past 11 days have been a whirlwind adventure. I'm still trying to figure out what our new "normal" will be and don't expect to have that figured out for awhile yet. I have felt like a new mom all over again...worrying more this time than even that first time about little things. "Did you wash your hands? Where's your mask? Do you think he looks too jaundice? Does he sleep too much?" And most pressing....bowel movements. Why do we obsess over our babies bowel movements??? I mean really. 5 days isn't TOO long to go without a BM is it?! Then as they get older (to my other kids ages now) you wish they would get over the humor somehow discovered in the discussion of a good BM and just stop talking about them altogether. And finally when we are old and decrepid, it's apparently a right of age to start obsessing about frequency and consistency all over again.

(*Steven and Meilia were just getting over nasty coughs and Wyatt was just getting one. They donned masks for the first week of Tate's life.)

But ANYWAY.......Tate is a little angel in our home. He is quiet and content. He sleeps well and seldom cries. The children love to take turns holding him and gazing in wonder at his tiny little ears, hands, and nose. I love to see their eyes light up when his open. And I love to see my big handsome manly man husband get all ooey and gooey over this tiny new little guy. It's another beautiful reason I love being a mom. I am so grateful to have this opportunity to have this new little guy in our home. I love you Tate!!! Welcome to our home and family.

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P.S. Holy crap! It only took 9 days but he finally started pooping. :-)

LIVING ROOM WISH

So here it is....the furniture I want for my living room. Oh how sweet it is to make believe that I will actually achieve this dream!

I would LOVE for my hubby to construct this bookshelf for me along my LR big wall. (Who wants to help?!) Imagine all the pretties I could put on there!

This rug mixes my colors BEEEEUTIFULLY!

See how pretty these accent chairs would be next to that?! Oh-La-La! I can just imagine a pair of these sitting next to my pretty little cream-colored round end table.
And finally the loveseat. A nice crisp white leather that I can throw ANY pillow on for each season to bring in a splash of color. Red for the Christmas holidays. Orange for Fall. Vivid Spring pinks or greens. Yellows or teals for Summer. Mmmmmmm.......
So here's to SOMEDAY!

UPDATE

Took a sneak peek at the little man again and it looks like he has FLIPPED!!!!! Yay! Now let's hope he stays like that.

PREGNANCY WK 34

Our little guy is being a bit uncooperative right now. He has decided he really likes to sit in the breech position. Hopefully he'll turn on his own in the next little bit or my Dr. will have to try to turn him. I have to admit I am terrified of having a C-section. I watched one on You-Tube and all I can say is "No thank you!" and "Why one earth do some ladies ELECT to do that??"

I have also watched some rather "interesting" videos on how women try to turn their babies through different inverted maternal positionings, chiropractor alignments, and some weird thing involving an incense stick and accupuncture points. I think it was called moxibustion. WEIRD!

One benefit of little mans' uncooperative state of being has been that I am not so fixated on the fact that we still don't know what we are going to name him. So here are my current favorite names for our little bambino...in no particular order.

*Tate Alden Courtney
*Joseph Alden Courtney
*Andrew Joseph Courtney
*Carson Tate Courtney

I LOVE BLACK AND WHITE

It seems that I am daydreaming about decorating my house almost daily. It mostly involves a base of traditional/cottage style black and white and creams with splashes of fun bright colors to change with the seasons. In my mini web-wandering session of the day, I ran across this great blog all about black and white. Whoever started it does my web wandering for me and has put a huge collection of gorgeous things together on one site with links to the sites where they were found. Aaahhhh....I love you Person! What makes it even cooler is that it has links to other sites designated to other fabulous colors like turquiose, greens, blues, browns, reds....whatever your heart desires! So I thought I'd share with you this fun blog just in case you are like me and enjoy daydreaming daily about your dream home.
http://www.blackandwhitedelight.com/