Time's a Flyin'

We've had a LOT going on lately with a new baby in the house, the warmer weather, Trevor's new work schedule, Canadian visitors, etc. Here's a brief overview of our last month or so.

Mother's Day

Jace had an incredibly cute Mother's Day program at school. They sang and danced. Here he is with one of his best school friends.

Jace did so good with all of his parts. His teacher does such a great job with the kids. We're so excited for Sissy to start next year.

Me & Jace. This was about 6 days days after I had the baby. I feel bad because the original date for the Mother's Day Program was on the day I was supposed to have Cole, so she moved it up a couple of days, but obviously that didn't all work out! Luckily Grandma & Grandpa came over to watch Cole so we didn't have to bring the babe.

Cole is still a BIG hit! The kids want to hold him all the time! They are so sweet and gentle with him. Pay attention to Brooklyn's hair because she had her first major hair cut!

Rylan came and stayed a couple of nights with us a couple of weeks ago and we LOVED it! Trevor has been working late and I get lonely, so it was perfect to have him come and stay! He is such a sweetheart and the kids LOVE playing with him! I think he asked me how he could help out about 50 times while he was here!

Cole and Logan are besties! They're getting so big and are so much fun! They especially like it when we dress them as twinners ;o)

Grammy and Papa came to visit us for a week the first part of June and Cole got spoiled with lots of loves and a beautiful quilt from Grammy.

Papa had the magic touch! When Cole was fussy, Papa would pick him up and Cole would cuddle right into his neck.

Cole is in his new elephant onesie Grammy and Papa brought for him. Grammy loves elephants!

We took the kids to the Dinosaur Park while they were in town and they loved it!

Here is Brooklyn sporting her new little bob. I definitely cut it shorter than I wanted (than had to have my stylist fix it!) but I'm loving it!!

Grammy and Sis. I'm not digging her new "cheese" whenever I take pictures. I have to tell her not to smile now so that she looks like herself in the pictures!

More fun at the dinosaur park!

Grammy and Papa with the babe. It was so sad to see them leave. Jace just sat there and sobbed saying he didn't want them to go. We love them so much!

We've had a great month and are loving the changes to our little family. It's definitely been challenging....my house is never quite clean, and the kids don't get bathed as much as they should, but we're enjoying our family of 5!

Happy Father's Day

Loving Cole

We have been LOVIN' us some Cole! The kids are constantly arguing about who's turn it is to hold him and wake up every morning so excited and surprised that he's here. They can't leave the house or go to bed without giving him multiple kisses and hugs. They especially love his hair! They are constantly rubbing it, flattening it, or making it into a Mohawk, etc. In fact, Brooklyn will ask me if I can put Cole in his bouncer so she can "pet" him!

Here is Jace cuddling Cole. He has been so sweet with his little brother. He told me one night while I was tucking him in that "if Cole doesn't want any milk, or his binkie, than you should bring him to me, because he might want some 'Jace Time'". Now he's always saying that the baby needs some "Jace Time".

Brooklyn with the babe. They're both really good with him. A lot of the time I will give them the baby and they will put him to sleep in just a few minutes. (Except when he "accidentally" fell off the couch!)

We gave Cole his first bath which was a huge hit with the kids! They were very "helpful".

Cole LOVES to get his hair washed!

He wasn't too sure about the bath part, but didn't cry until we got him out and got him dressed.

Being a baby is exhausting!!! (Although I wish he was a little more 'exhausted' in the middle of the night!!)

Cole's Story

I know a lot of you either know a lot of this already or don't care, but I'm sharing anyway because I love hearing/reading birth stories...

Background: I'm a good baby baker. So good that my babies don't seem to want to ever come out (unless forced). I carry high so I don't dilate or really efface much. I went 6 days over my due date before we evicted Jace, and Brooklyn we scheduled 6 days before her due date. Both babies were born on the 4th of the month (August 4th and October 4th), so when we went to our first appointment with this pregnancy and were told our due date was May 4th we knew that would be the day.

Fast forward 7-8 months to April 26th. I woke up in the early morning with painful contractions. Now I've had Braxton Hicks contractions throughout all of my pregnancies but these suckers HURT!! I tried to sleep through them and eventually got up to take a bath and drink water to try to get those babies to go away. I know it probably sounds crazy, but I really didn't want to have my baby until our induction date. I still had a lot to do, and we'd figured out arrangements for the bigger babes, etc. Anyway, I wasn't ready. I timed the contractions after all of my attempts at stopping them failed and they were consistently 3-5 minutes apart for 2 + hours. When my OB's office opened I called to see if I could go in and get checked, but my doctor was in surgery all day. They said I needed to go to the hospital to get monitored. Ugh.

After I got off the phone, I think I was so taken back that I scared the contractions away! They were still consistent, but not all of them were painful. I kept telling Trevor he should go down and work on the basement (we were hoping to have the kids' rooms finished down there before the wee little one arrived). Every time I told him that, I'd have another painful contraction. We finally decided to go up to the hospital just so we could see what was going on. We dropped the kids at my sister's and reluctantly went to the hospital.

When we got there, my contractions slowed down . Of course. I kind of felt dumb, but oh well. There were still some painful ones, but nothing too bad. The nurse checked my dilation and I was a 1+. I know that doesn't sound impressive to most, but that's the most I've dilated on my own, ever. We told her we'd prefer to wait to be induced but if they could give me something for the pain and make the contractions go away, I'd happily be on my way. They gave me a lortab and we left. We didn't even make it to the parking lot when they started getting really painful again. I was doubled over in pain. I didn't want to go back (I already felt stupid) so we went back home, leaving the kiddos at my sister's just in case. I took another bath. Didn't help. Not even close. By this time I didn't care when we had our baby, just so long as the contractions stopped and the pain went away. I yelled at Trevor nearly the whole way to the hospital that that he was driving too fast over bumps ;o).

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When we got back to the hospital about 5:30ish I was at a 3+. They started fluids and admitted me. I got my epidural, the doctor broke my water, and at 10:28 p.m (without any pitocin and pushing through 2 sets of contractions) we had our sweet precious boy. It was such an awesome experience!! He was perfect!! The other really neat thing is that even though things didn't go as planned, he was born on April 26th which just so happened to be his Uncle Jeremy's birthday.

Welcome to the world Cole Jeremy Zezula!!

Cole's first picture. 7 lbs, 2 oz and 20 1/2 inches of perfection!

Still a little shocked. So were we!! It still hadn't really "hit" me that we were having a baby. I thought I had another week to prepare myself!

Our first picture. We're so happy and instantly in love.

Grandpa and his newest grandbaby.

Jace with his brand new baby brother. He was a little reluctant at first, but still wanted to hold him. (Although when we asked him if he wanted to take him home, he said he'd rather bring Logan home [his cousin who's 11 days older than Cole]).

Our first picture with the whole family. (Thanks for telling me how crazy my hair looked, Tara!!)

Grandma Barnes with Cole.

Daddy and his boy.

Jace and Brooklyn were a lot more excited with the idea of Cole second visit to the hospital. Brooklyn even got off the iPhone to come give him loves, although she didn't really want to hold him quite yet.

All ready to go home!! It still boggles me at how tiny they are in their car seats!

We have almost survived the first month with Cole in our home! We've had some ups and downs, but it has been so wonderful having a newborn around. The kids have adjusted well and love their little brother a little too much sometimes! The recovery and adjustments have been much easier the third time around. We just love this little guy so much, and even though he keeps us a little sleep deprived (okay, sometimes A LOT) we couldn't imagine our family without him!!

Easter!!!

I know, I know...who wants to hear about Easter when it's been 2 1/2 weeks and I haven't posted about the baby yet? Well, I had this post just about ready to go but the wee little one had other plans in mind. Late...but not forgotten...here is what we did for Easter...

Lucky for us, the Easter Bunny visited us Saturday morning since Daddy had to work Sunday morning. Here is Brooklyn with her Tinkerbell flip slops!

The Easter Bunny hid eggs around the house and the kids LOVED finding them!

Even better was that they had candy and toys in them!!

Next was a trip to Barnes Park for Grandma and Grandpa's annual Easter egg hunt.

They got spoiled rotten with toys, treats, and even money!! (Even though Ry and Ky hit the jackpot on that one!!!)

Here they are Easter morning in their Sunday Best (making goofy faces).

Awwww...they do love each other!

Huge cheesers!!

More goofy faces!

We had a great Easter!! I'm glad the Easter bunny came on Saturday so we were able to focus on the true meaning of Easter on Sunday. We're so grateful for the Savior and his atonement and resurrection. It's fun being able to teach these special things to our children.

It's about time!!

So I'm a crappy blogger. I know. I can honestly say that these past few months have been the most stressful of my life! Work has been really busy and I've tried to pick up some extra visits when I can, Trevor has been busy with school (he has 3 semesters after nursing school to get his BSN) and finding a job (which has been tough....every employer wants nursing experience, but no one wants to give it to you!!). On top of it all, I'm hugely pregnant with everything that comes along with it. Enough of the complaining, I'm now on maternity leave from work, Trevor has a job, and he's done with his spring semester (with straight A's!!!). Life is good.

With work being so busy, and Trevor not working (also, school hasn't been quite as tough this semester as it was in the nursing program), he's been able to spend more time with the kiddos. He's become quite the "Mr. Mom"! Here he is blow-drying Brooklyn's hair after bath-time so she doesn't have to go to bed with wet hair. What a cute dad!

Jace and Brooklyn are two little peas in a pod. They "help" me clean and want to be involved in whatever I'm doing. They play so well together, and it's so fun to hear their conversations and role playing. I am SO blessed to have had such a wonderful surprise 14 months after Jace was born!

Best buddies. LOVE them!

We had our first experience with the kids cutting their hair. Luckily, it was Jace's and not Brooklyn's! If you ask Jace, he'll tell you "I cut my hair without asking". What a little stinker! I buzzed his hair and it's kind of been nice not having to do it the past few weeks!

Here is Tara and I the day before she had Logan (a week and a half ago). I realized as I was coming back from seeing a patient that we hadn't had any pregnancy pictures together AT ALL and since she was having her baby the next day it was pretty much the last shot we had. Don't judge, this was very impromptu and we were both tired and dragging at the end of the day... (Sorry, Tara. All of the pictures we had were ugh. I thought we told Wes to take good pictures of us!!). Now Tara's tummy is flat, and mine is even bigger!!

Behold, the baby bump. Although I think calling it a "bump" is being WAY too nice! I'm 37 weeks here. I'll probably have Tara take some more pictures of the belly and kids in the next week since this is probably our caboose.... I definitely think I've been more tired, sore, exhausted, etc with this pregnancy, but I can't complain too much! Now that I'm done with work and have more time to "nest" life is much less stressful. We're excited to meet this little guy and welcome him to our family!!!

Surviving the Winter

After the passing of the holidays, we've been trying to keep ourselves out of the "Winter Blues". Considering that the weather has been decent for this time of the year, it hasn't been too bad, but we still struggle through these long months until spring.

We actually have had a couple of snow storms, requiring Trev to get out the snow blower (although I think he's secretly disappointed that he hasn't had the opportunity to use it more! )

The kids love to play in the snow, and are anxious for some more accumulation. We have hardly any snow, and the snow we do get, usually melts in a couple of hours.

The kids have been having a lot of "Daddy Time". Trevor's going to school this semester to get his bachelors in nursing but his schedule requires a LOT less time at school, so the kids get plenty of time to play with him! Also, I'm still working on-call Monday-Thursday nights and have been picking up extra visits to pay off some Christmas/basement debt. I'm very much looking forward to Trevor getting a job!! (He takes his boards next Monday, and hopefully will be able to get a job easier once he has his actual RN license.)

The kids love to play pillow fights and wrestle Daddy any time they get. They double team him but Daddy still manages to tickle torture them every time!

Last week Trevor decided to have a little camp fire in the back yard and roast hot dogs and marshmallows with the kids (while I was working). Doesn't seem like something you'd do in January, but the kids LOVED it! I'm happy they had a good time (even if it was without me) but I'm sure not a big fan of the whole house smelling like a camp fire when I got home!

Life is good, and we're surviving the winter. I need to take some pictures of the bedrooms downstairs that we're working on ("we're" meaning mostly Trevor, although I do help, doing all of the crappy jobs, if you ask me.). Hopefully we can get the rooms done downstairs done soon, so Jace and Brooklyn can move down there before the baby arrives! Time is going by way too fast though, and there's too much to do! I guess that's good though, it's nice to be busy this time of the year! It will be spring before we know it!!