A whole new world!

You know what I love most?

Weekends with our favorite friends!

PLAYING with my babies, taking pictures, gossiping with Kelci, and watching my man work.

And most importantly, not doing a darn thing!

The minute we see a blue sky and it's warm enough to be outside in a hoodie, we deem it officially "BBQ season". I love BBQ season.

BBQ season = Boys cooks dinner.

This spring has been a complete 180 of last year. Last year, I tried taking Tristan to the park a few times and he either didn't like the grass or he stood there wondering what I expected him to do. We were a pathetic duo. I was too pregnant to care that me and my first born were practically translucent from lack of sun, and Tristan was too young to care about anything other than Barney and my household cleaning products.

This year, WW3 breaks out when it's time to come inside. Tristan now loves to be outside, doing anything. Standing on the doorstep, hanging out in the garage, playing in his new sandbox on the deck, chasing the dogs in the grass, playing in the Green's driveway, riding in their Jeep, eating lollipops. To little T Man, outside = where all the fun is. It's like he's discovered, there's this whole new world out there...

Hunter was such a nice friend to let Tristan ride in the Jeep!

Today, the UPS guy rang the doorbell, and I attempted to quickly grab my package and shut the door before Tristan noticed. As soon as the door shut Tristan yelled, "Noooooo Nooooooooooo" and threw himself at my feet. Oy. Being a toddler is so hard.

Last weekend, the big boys (Eric and Justin) had a project to work on, so Tristan was in heaven playing in the Green's yard with Carson and Hunter, and pretending to help Kelci weed. I think he was assisting her with "dirt spreading".

Ryan, of course being the perfect baby that he is, loved the grass. He didn't even cry when the grass tickled his legs. I was able to have a mini photoshoot with my angelic child, but he was quite distracted by what the older boys were doing, so I did the best I could :)

Tristan picked me a beautiful Tulip from Kelci's garden :)

I love that we live under 10 minutes from our bestest friends now!

It's going to be a great summer :)

My life - 4/21-4/27

Baby fever

I understand now how Ryan came about so shortly after Tristan.

When you have an adorable 6-9 month old, things seem perfect. It's like baby bliss.

They're not totally leeched to your body, but they still want to snuggle. They typically sleep through the night and take a couple naps a day. They're not totally mobile and running around crazy, but they hold interest in toys for a decent span of time. And they can't talk and don't care to.

So while your adorable baby giggles and coos and grabs his cute chubby toes, you think... Yeah, I totally want another one of these.

I mean, who wouldn't want a million of these?

And husband is so smitten with wonder baby that he agrees.

...and then, a few months pass.

And wonder baby turns into whiney toddler. and you start to realize why your friends brother is 4 years older than her. but it's too late. #2 is already on the way.

I'm trying to keep that into perspective as I stroll past the adorable tutu's and soft pink blankies... I can feel all my mommy parts aching. And then I remind myself that in order to receive said baby girl, one must create her with one's body, and I quickly regain what little self control I posess, and steer myself to the monster trucks and tool sets.

I did indulge a little bit this weekend.
I made my mom buy this adorable tutu.
She said if I don't have a girl, I have to pay her back.
Better have that girl next...

My little Peanut's big debut, 2010

In honor of my big 2 year old,  I thought I'd share my birth story.

Don't worry though, I'll save the gory details for the Hubs, since he's so good at telling random strangers personal things about my delivery ;)

April 23rd, 2010:

I woke up feeling like today was the day. It was Eric's mom's birthday, and I had really wanted to deliver on that day. For one, I wanted the baby out like a week ago, and for two, I thought it would be kinda cool. Harmony passed away in 2006, before the Hubs and I even knew each other so my kids won't have any real recollection of her...although I'm quite sure they were hanging out with her up in heaven and she was telling them stories about how terrible their Dad was...you know, pointers for earth living.

Noonish:

So, Eric and his sisters and I are all getting ready to drive out to Tacoma to visit the gravesite, and then I had my 39 week appointment to get to. As we're getting ready, Eric's sister is telling me her friends theory on getting the baby out. At this point, I had tried pretty much everything I deemed safe, including Castor Oil. I had already had a false alarm that week, and I could tell the baby was really low. He was ready, I was sure. He just needed a little nudge. So the theory goes like this: jump off the toilet. So, I did. Twice for good measure.

3pmish:

I'm going to skip a few details for readers sake, in case you're eating while you read this. The point is, once I got to my appointment, things started changing. Like, fast. My doctor helped me out by scraping my membranes (sorry, gory detail) and then told me NOT to deliver until Monday because she'd be out of town. Umm... okay, I did tell you what was going on below the belt, right?? I had seen the movies where people freaked out that they couldn't get a hold of their doctors. Well, it's a good thing I didn't care who delivered my baby, as long as he got out. Spoiler alert* she didn't deliver Tristan and she also didn't deliver Ryan, even though she was my OB for both. Oh well, it's less awkward this way.

Eric had come to my appointments with me like a dutiful husband-to-be up until this one. I had already made him come home from work once that week, and we didn't want to push it with having him show up late. Of course. I got stuck in traffic on my way home, and started sweating bullets when I realized I was having painful contractions. I started to panic, imagining having to deliver my baby on the side of the road. Thinking awesome ideas irrational thoughts like, all pregnant woman should have sirens on their cars so they can get out of traffic. I finally made it home, and proceeded to flop on my bed and cry. I called Eric crying, telling him I didn't want to do it and I thought I was going to die. He told me to take a bath and call him if I still had contractions. So I took a bath and they stopped. I slept through some painless ones for a few hours, and then decided I could not slack. I had to get walking. We were going to get this baby out now.

8pmish

So I called the one person who wanted this baby out as bad as I did. Kristen. My faithful redheaded friend. She was so excited, she said she'd be there in 10 minutes. (she lived about 25 minutes away). I had her meet me at Target for good luck. Whenever I was wandering in Target, I got contractions. I was still having contractions but I could fully function during them. I picked up a few last minute baby items and then tried to decide whether we should go to the hospital or not. By this point, I had been having pretty painless contractions for a few hours; they were not consistent though- anywhere from 10 to 15 to 7 minutes apart. Finally we sat in the car and timed them for 1/2 hour. They were about 7-10 minutes apart. We decided that it couldn't hurt to go to the hospital. If they admitted me, then we'd call Eric. By the time we reached the hospital they were closer to 5 minutes apart but still not too painful.

1030pmish.

We get to the hospital. Doctors are trying to decide whether or not to admit me. They make us walk for 45 minutes. I got too lazy after 30 and came back. Nothing. They tell me I probably won't see my baby till sometime the next night, and that I should go home and sleep. For some reason, she still decided to ask the other nurse whether they should keep me or not. As they're discussing this, I peed all over their uncomfortable "bed". I've never been so glad to pee my pants. Ok, really this was my water breaking but that's exactly what it felt like. I'm pretty sure Kristen was disgusted but she was excited that this meant we got to stay so I think it was okay. I can remember about 5 minutes from this point clearly, and then things get really hazy. (My water broke at about midnight- I think- and I was dilated to a 2 when that happened).


1amish
Things I remember:

Telling Kristen to call Eric.
Texting Justin that my water broke and that they better get here NOW. (Justin is Eric's best friend who was giving him a ride to the hospital)
Justin asking me if I was sure my water broke or if I peed my pants. Not responding to that text.
Trying to text JayC, but I might have appeared drunk because I don't remember how I gave her directions to the hospital.
Barfing.
Kristen yelling for the nurses that I needed them NOW. (She is normally very polite and patient, so this was awesome.)
Being insistent on getting "drugs". "Where are my drugs"
Needing to take a bath.
Eric doing a wheelchair wheelie. Yelling at Eric.
Realizing that at least he had made it to the hospital.
Realizing I still didn't have an epidural.

3:15amish

All of a sudden, I felt like I was going to die. or poop. either one. I yelled some obscenities at everyone to get out. For some reason, I was dead set on not having anyone in the room except Eric when I delivered. Justin bolted as soon as he heard I needed to push, I think Kristen was scared to leave me with Eric bc he was panicked and thought I said I need to puke, JayC was yelling for the nurses, telling me to wait. At this point, I had not been given the glorious epidural that I so desperately had wanted, nobody had checked me since my water broke and I was not even checked in. The doctor came in slowly, getting ready to check me. As soon as she did, I heard, "Oh there he is" and a sudden rush to get things ready. I was told to wait for a second, and I remember saying, "I can't, I'm going to die". Thankfully the nurse said I could push. I think I pushed twice and then my little boy was born. easy, right? :)

Tristan Daniel Thompson
April 24, 2010
3:25 am
6lbs 15.5 oz
19 inches

T's Mickey Mouse Bouncy House Party

My not so much of a baby anymore is turning 2. 

So naturally, I rented a bouncy house for his birthday party. 

Last year, we threw Tristan a big Cookie Monster birthday party and decided that it was a great success, but that we would only celebrate 1st birthdays like that. I truly had good intention when we agreed upon that. But I'm a stay at home mommy who likes loves the internet, shopping, and of course, parties. Since I can't, or should I say, choose not to attend raging keggers anymore, I have to resort to 2 year olds birthday parties to get it out of my system. Right? This sounds like a valid justification for ordering a 2 year old a bouncy house when we're "trying to get out of debt". Thankfully, the Hubs also likes to have a good time and agreed (it's a good thing too because I kinda reserved it before I even told him!).

First of all, I would like to say THANK YOU and I'M SORRY to the Hubs, my mother, my brother, and Alex. For putting up with me on Friday, and helping pull everything together. I got all Mom-zilla on Friday after a haircut gone wrong the night before T's bday. I've forgiven the Hubs, but I still don't want to talk about it. You'll see why when you see my beautiful birthday boys missing hair. Anyways...moving on.

These 4 amazing people stayed up till 2 in the morning the night before with me, helping me finish last minute things that I insisted could not wait until morning. What can I say, I have a bit of OCD and I take it out on perfecting my party decor. I tried really really hard to not go overboard but even the littlest things take a lot of time. Here was my big DIY project that I opted to do instead of going crazy with a ton of decor:

When I found this project, it said it was FUN and took a few hours. The most fun I had doing this project was ordering my Martha Stewart fringe scissors. That was it. Otherwise it was long and tedious, and it took me about 10 hours over the course of a week because it was so boring I couldn't sit there and just finish it. I'll post tomorrow with a link to the tutorial and my experiences creating it.

Besides our little haircut mishap, the day could not have gone any better! I woke up Saturday morning around 8 and everyone was still sleeping! So I snuck out of the house, picked up the balloons and when I got back everyone was working. My mom finished the cupcakes, Clint entertained Tristan, Eric and Alex tackled the yard, and then Alex assisted me with decorating.

The day before the party, the guys from the rental company called me to ask if it was okay to drop off early!(which fyi if you're wondering I rented from Astro Jump and they have an array of character bouncy houses for a decent price! Cheapest ones I found out there) We were more than okay with that. It worked out perfect. Lots of family showed up a little early to finish helping so it was great to send the kids off to the bouncy house!

The party was great. The weather was perfect, nobody got terribly injured, there was more than enough food, and T scored a ton of great gifts. Thanks to all who showed up and made the drive out to our house. We know it's kinda far now so we appreciate the effort!!