Cruising through Costco

Yes his pants were beyond filthy and yes I know good and well that this will now happen every time I ever take him to Costco again, but I don't care.

I LOVE raising this boy!

Anti-aging exercise

Church Mice Spreading the Gospel

Babysitters in Training! :)

So I have SO MUCH to blog about and tell the world about our lives with Ari (chillest, cutest, easiest baby in the world...I didn't even know they came this way!) and about new baby life, BUT my time has been limited (imagine that). But to tide the family over I wanted to post a couple of recent photos. Ari has meet two of her cousins so far and both have been very cautious and sweet with her.

Here is Alexis feeding her and giving her a little kiss! She was really good to listen intently to all the instructions about feeding a baby (ie- wash hands, hold her head careful, keep the bottle tipped so she doesn't suck air, etc) and she did a PERFECT job. Ari quite enjoyed her lunch date with Alexis.

And then my sister Jill came down with her daughter Morgan for the weekend (which is whole slice of heaven in and of itself having my sister here. Mark has accurately dubbed her Jilly-Poppins! But that will be another post). Morgan is a bit more timid about handling Ari. However, she LOVES to comb her hair in all sorts of styles if you are holding her. It took a little convincing but we finally got her to hold Ari on the couch.

Then after a couple of minutes she was ready to be done but we asked if she wouldn't mind giving her a little kiss for one last photo. Just as Morgan was leaning in for the smooch Ari tooted a fairly impressive toot, which is RIGHT when I snapped this shot and got that look on Morgan's face. Morgan said "UH....what was that?" then Jill explained that she was probably filling her diaper and Morgan said "OK...get her off me right now please!". It was hilarious.

I love my life and family! I am so blessed! Much much more to come in small increments as I slowly rejoin the real world.

In case you still wanted more photos of Ari...

We really like her.

Staple, staple whose got the staple (Mark's got the staple, woot! woot! (or hoo! hoo! if your name is Jill))

For anyone who knows me (Mark), you know that blood, guts and poop are synonyms for "SCIENCE." In other words, things which would normally be considered gross or unappealing are interesting and fun to me. Such was the case when the nurse came to remove Cathy's staples and I asked if I could help. Long story short, I removed all but two staples (staples clearly shown in picture) and then got to apply the steri-strips to seal the incision. Cathy was really cool about the whole thing and coached me on my technique. I definitely picked the right lady. I highly recommend trying this out if you get the chance (but try it out on your own family, I've got dibs on any future opportunities with Cathy or Taj or Ari). Rad!

Ari Nicole is here!

Ari Nicole was born this morning at 8:44 am at Summerlin Hospital. She weighed 7 lbs 8 ounces and was 19 inches long. Both she and Cathy are doing great. She has a full thick head of dark hair (almost long enough to style). Too bad it will all fall out soon probably. We are really stoked to have her as part of our family. Taj is going to love his new little sister.

A Sinking Sensation

So I have always sort of prided myself on never babying my baby too much. Truthfully he has always been a really tough little kid but even when he was a newborn I was able to let him cry it out in his crib, stick to the routine, etc. But I can tell now that I know that this new baby is coming and Taj has no idea how much his whole world will change that I am turning into a BIG SOFTIE! Being 8.5 months pregnant doesn't help my defenses either. You should see me chase this kid down for a diaper change...its ridiculous.

One good example of this was Sunday night. I was doing the dishes and Taj wanted to help so I let him sit up on the counter with me and he was sticking his feet in the sink under the warm water going "Oh....that's Niiiiiccceee" which slowly involved to the pictures above. It was fun. He makes me so happy.