A bygone birthday

Ten days ago Nina joined the 5 year-old club. We even celebrated it. She had a low key party where she and a few friends decorated cupcakes and made valentines. The thing I liked the best was the fact that she invited 2 nine year-old girls who pretty much rocked. They supervised the younger girls during the crafts while I cleaned up messes, got new crafts ready and what not. We had a crazy cousin party for all the January and February birthdays (6). We put together a scavenger hunt to find her stash of presents. We got her the obligatory Krispy Kremes and we took her to get her ears pierced. I think we did a fair job celebrating. We even let her wear this out in public.












I am reassuring myself that I'm not completely forgetful, just sort of. We did a lot of fun things for Nina's birthday, I just forgot to put up a post about it. And I forgot to make her a birthday cake. And I forgot to take a picture of her newly pierced ears. And I forgot to make her the birthday dinner she requested. That might be all.

Basketball fans

Having a baby in January had 2 disadvantages that I want to complain about. The first is that Rex was more susceptible to getting RSV. Check. The second is that it would make it really hard for me to attend some cool basketball games. Check. But Matt and the boys got to enjoy some games in January.

Matt, Donovan and Howie met my brother Chris and his two boys and ventured down to Colorado Springs to watch BYU have a little fun with Air Force.





Of course Jimmer was the highlight of the evening. I was told the boys gave Jimmer a high five, but I think Matt was a little slow on the click.




Matt is going to be slightly disappointed with this part of the post because I can't remember 2 key pieces of information.
1. Who the Nuggets played
2. Which Nugget player's sweaty headband Howie caught



A super-nice couple invited Howie to stand in front of their seats so he could reach the players as they walked into the locker room. He got to give Nene a high five.




Those were some pretty sweet seats guys. Go team!

Brothers

We gathered our 4 boys together for a few snaps.






And they graciously allowed Nina to sit in on one shot.

Celebrating 1 month

Rex wasn't feeling too good over the weekend and on Monday we ended up taking him to the ER. Turns out the little guy had RSV. After a couple of days in the hospital, he looked and sounded a ton better. Aside from that little episode, the past month has been quite enjoyable as we bond with our new baby.

Two weeks later

and so far we think we're going to keep this little guy. We feel like he's brought a measure of peace and love into our home even though sometimes things get loud and crazy. Everyone here loves Rex and he is usually being held by someone. Rex is like any other 2 week old baby. He eats frequently, sleeps sporadically and is flying through diapers. He even gained a whopping 9 ounces. I find it hard to take pictures of him, especially compared to all the pictures we took of Donovan when he was a baby. We will work on that. So here's what we have for now:

Roller Derby

As if life isn't crazy enough at our house, the kids have started playing this new game. It's nice and safe and super quiet. They roll around our house trying to catch each other. The boys use their rollerblades and Nina uses her skates. They also roll around to get food out of the kitchen, to use the bathroom, answer the door and it gets better (and safer). They go up and down the stairs in this sturdy footwear too. So far the injuries have been minimal and I hope it stays that way.

Baby Rex is here!

We had a nice little surprise Sunday night. Matt was at a meeting and I had just sat down to relax after putting the kids to bed when my water broke. That has never happened before and I kind of didn't know what to do. Once Matt got home we threw together some things and headed to the hospital. Our wonderful friend Rachelle came and held down the fort for us. A few hours later the tiny little guy was born. 5 lb 3 oz and 18 inches long. So he keeps in line with the other small babies we've had, but holds the record for the smallest. We are excited that he's here!