Spring!

Happy Spring!! We are so excited to have such B E A U T I F U L weather lately!! It has been so fun to get out of the house and enjoy things with our sweet boy. We have made a few trips to the Saturday Markets around town, it is fun to walk around and see all the things people are selling and to show Thatcher all the fun sights and sounds. 

 Spring also means LOTS of yard work. Being pregnant in the fall meant that we didn't get the yard as ready for winter and spring- so now we get to make up for it. UGH. I love to see the yard coming together and getting more green every day. We have planted our lovely garden boxes with tomatoes, peas, beans, lettuce, herbs, and onions. The potato box was over run with ants last year so we decided to take a year off from potatoes and try to evict the little monsters. We have also borrowed some garden space at Grandpa and Grandma Beals to plant some squash and pumpkins (with visions of making them into baby food!). We started some raspberries at our house too- hopefully they will like where we put them and next summer we will have a great little patch of raspberries.

Doing yard work with an infant has been a bit of an adjustment. We try to do as much as we can between feedings and luckily the lil guy likes being outside. We just bundle him up in a few blankets and put him in the stroller to help keep the sun off of him and he usually falls asleep, or he will just lay there and coo and jabber while watching us work.

Going Green in March!

Well, it is just about April and I thought I would share a quick update! We had a very fun St. Patricks day with our Beal aunts, uncles, and cousins. They were here from Utah and Washington for a quick visit before Grandpa and Grandma head off on their mission to New York. We spent the day playing games, hanging out, and we even had a "surprise party" for Grandpa's birthday (it was a few days prior but it was fun to celebrate with everyone else). Hopefully we will get to see all of them again soon, even though Grandpa and Grandma are going to be in New York for the next year. :) 

We also did a quick paint project :) I have wanted to paint a wall in our room green for almost a year! I saw a picture in an IKEA catalog (a lot of things are inspired by that wonderful catalog). I don't know how well the color actually translates on the computer, but imagine a bright granny smith apple green! We have lovely grey curtains for the windows and hopefully soon we can paint the walls white instead of the beige/cream they have been since we moved in.

 We are looking forward to two big trips in April and can't wait to share those pictures. Spring is right around the corner and we are getting so excited to head out to the parks and work in the yard.

Blessing Day

Thatcher was blessed on Sunday March 4th. We were joined by family and friends to give our sweet boy a name and a blessing. Aaron did a beautiful job, it was an emotional day for us as we reflected on the things that have brought us to this point in our lives. We are feeling so blessed and are so grateful for the love and support of those around us.

Newborn photo shoot

We did Thatcher's newborn pictures in two sessions so we could get his birth announcements ordered and mailed before he was too old. We asked two very talented friends to help us with our photos. (Thanks Mary and Angeca!) I love how the pictures turned out! We can't wait to order prints and get them in frames. For the most part he was cooperative and had some cute faces. 

Thatcher and dads tie

Thatcher wearing one of Grandpa Campbell's favorite ties

Grandpa's hat and boots

Grandpa Campbell's hat, boots,and CTR ring

Thatcher pictures

I am sure this is the first of many posts that we will be calling "Thatcher pictures"... we can't help it... he is so photogenic and stinkin' cute! (We aren't biased or anything) These are just a few of our favorite pictures the past few weeks :)

Cleo checking out the baby from a safe distance



Jack helping mommy feed Thatcher




Thatcher's first sponge bath at home



Thatcher and Mommy snuggling with our "Grandpa Campbell" blanket (my mom made us kids a blanket for Christmas out of my dads shirts)

Thatcher on Valentines Day- complete with red "tennis socks"

Thatcher at Build a Bear with his new (and only) bear from Mommy and Daddy

He is here!

Ok, so technically our lil man has been "here" for about three weeks... but this is the first chance I have had to sit down and share some pictures, so sorry for the delay. We are loving his cute little face and feeling so blessed to have him in our home!


A little about Thatcher's birthday... My blood pressure had been creeping up rather steadily (even with added BP meds) over the past few weeks, so we did some lab work and they came back awful. So at 38 weeks exactly we were scheduled for a c-section. I wasn't too thrilled about the c-section but it was the safest way to get the lil man here. We arrived at the hospital about 6:00 am Thursday morning and started getting prepped for surgery. At 7:46 Thatcher was born, 21 in long 9 lbs 11 oz. The NICU team was in the room with us "just in case" as they were introducing themselves to me I said I was glad they were there but I didn't think we would need them. Sure enough, they took his vitals and measurements and their job was done (thank goodness!). Over the next 24 hours we worked to keep his blood sugars stable, luckily he didn't need much formula because I was able to produce enough for him. :) I was so grateful for the nursing staff and my doctor- I couldn't have asked for a better health care team to make this day even more special. I feel so blessed that I didn't have any major complications, it is still hard to believe that I can hold this lil guy in my arms and know that he is ours forever!




Thatcher and Daddy waiting for Mommy to meet them in the recovery room



Thatcher after getting his footprints done

Thatcher snuggling with mommy

Thatcher and daddy reading daddy's favorite magazine

All bundled up to go home!

We are enjoying getting to know our lil guy and his already blooming personality. We love to see the little changes everyday and cant wait to see what is in store for the three of us as he grows. We are so grateful for the love and support from family and friends... it was quite the journey to get where we are today and we wouldn't have made it without you!

Love,

Kira, Aaron and Thatcher

Our almost free staycation/baby moon

If anyone has ready pregnancy books/blogs you might have come across the term "babymoon" essentially its a vacation before the munchkin makes their debut... Last summer we house sat/dog sat for our friends down the street and they in turn gave us a night stay at the beautiful Grove Hotel in downtown! (We watched their dogs almost every other weekend all summer). It was super nice of them and we wanted to save our "night out" for sometime special so we put the gift certificate away and almost forgot about it. A few times we thought about calling in our reservation but we never did. Well when we came across it a few weeks ago we noticed that it expired in February! That is just right around the corner and the lil man will be here then too... so Aaron called in our reservation last minute and they had a room available! We packed our bags and headed out for a night on the town! (not surprisingly we forgot the camera at home- it is safely packed in the "hospital bag" so some of the images I stole from the Grove Hotel website) :)

This looks just like the room we stayed in... Our view was of the roof top and part of downtown :)

I have always loved the "river" they put on the front of the building- it is so beautiful , especially at night

Our night started off with a quick visit to the maternity ward to visit our friends and their new baby girl (she is baby four for them... the other three are boys). The nurses looked at us kinda funny as we came walking down the hall... we assured them that we were just visiting a friend but we would be back in a few weeks. We enjoyed holding the baby, visiting with our friends and getting the "scoop" on all the things we should know- like what not to order from food service, don't wait too long at home or you wont get to the hospital in time to get the drugs, what to expect during our stay and so on. After the hospital visit we were off to dinner at Red Lobster (So. Very. Yummy!! and FREE because we had a gift card from Christmas!) Then a little shopping at the mall (the "belly" is growing out of the shirts I have, I hate to spend money when I will only wear them for a few weeks but it was becoming a problem). After shopping we headed back to the hotel because this mommy was very sleepy. Aaron enjoyed the sauna and hot tub while I hung out pool side in my sweats playing on the ipad. We then headed back up to our room and crawled in bed (so exciting aren't we?) I was dozing in and out and flipping channels on the TV (way exciting for us because we don't have TV at our house). We came across an episode of Friends, some older movies, and the Saturday night British comedies- (I used to watch them with my dad) The Red Green Show was our favorite so I made Aaron watch part of it :) "the handy man's secret weapon... duct tape"

The next morning we ordered room service for breakfast, slept in a little, packed up our little suit case and headed to pick up Jack from my moms. When we got there mom's chocolate lab was sound asleep- she didn't even hear us come in! We went to Jacks crate and he was zonked out too! They must have stayed up late partying! (I later asked my mom about this because Jack came home and slept most of the day- apparently they all stayed up until about 1 am and she let Jack sleep in her bed! No wonder he was still tired!)

So that was our little stay-cation/baby moon. :) It is still hard to believe that in just a few short weeks our lives will be changed forever! We are so excited but it still isn't feeling "real" quite yet... I don't think it will truly sink in until we have been home from the hospital for a week. Oh- here is a belly shot from today (just about 37 weeks)...