Nolan LOVES his US puzzle. He has all the states and capitals memorized and can identify the shapes of the states too!
Nathan with his toy dog, which was quickly discovered to be a great bath "squirt" toy.
And finally, Nicholas with his 1st Christmas bear.
Yesterday, school was cancelled due to snow. I thought Nolan would be disappointed, but he was actually pleased to stay home, and begged to go out and play in the snow. I finally gave in, but told him I couldn't go outside with him because I had to stay inside with Nicholas. Nolan went out in the backyard for about 10 minutes, which was sufficient enough for him. He got to eat a little snow, make a snow angel, and "clean " the sliding glass door with some snow.
Nolan's snow boots are too small from last year, and I haven't had the chance to get new boots for the kids. So he wore his camo boots instead, and they seemed to keep his feet dry. I really need to hurry up and get new boots, cause Natalie too has been asking about her snow boots, and I can't seem to get across to her that she needs new ones. I'll have to find Dora boots for her, cause that's her favorite. As for Natalie and Nathan, they went to Charleston with Matt, and are staying at Matt's parents' house until Matt is finished with his training sometime today. They'll probably be home late this evening, and I'm looking forward to seeing them!
So my new little boy decided that Tuesday wasn't going to work for him, so he decided to come into the world on Friday instead. I was at home with all 3 kids, and started to have minor contractions around 10:30 that morning. I called my neighbor around noon to see if she would let Nolan and Natalie come over for a bit so I could try and time the contractions and figure out if I was truly in labor. When the contractions didn't quit, I decided to go ahead and go to the hospital. I was admitted at about 4:00, hooked up to pitocin at 7:00, water broken around 10:00, and Nicholas was born at 11:00. I decided that for this last baby, I would go drug free. It wasn't that bad until the 10 minutes it took to go from 6cm to 10 cm. My doctor left the room after he examined me at 6 cm....five minutes later, he came and checked me again, and I was at 8 cm....he tried to leave the room (thought I would be at least 15 more minutes), but I told him there was NO WAY I couldn't be ready, and I was right....it was time to push. Pushing without an epidural was quite different as well.....MUCH more painful than I could have imagined. But all in all, I'm glad I did it naturally for the final baby.
He doesn't look too thrilled, huh?
Happy to see new baby brother.
Trick or treat this year was wonderful! I thought we would only hit up our street for candy, but the kids did so well that we made a lap around the next street as well. Nolan and Natalie were both into it full force this year....especially Natalie. She was SO determined to get her candy. When she would see someone sitting out in front of a house with candy, she would take off in a sprint to the person and say "trick or treat". Her candy bucket was quite heavy after a while, and she would switch hands occasionally and flex her fists to get the blood circulating again.....but anytime I asked her if she was tired or if I could hold her bucket, she replied with a convincing "NO." Nathan didn't hit up as many houses as the other two, but still managed to rack up a lot of candy....he was content to eat a sucker or two along the way and would occasionally get an extra piece of candy from his brother and sister.
Just an idea of how many "outsiders" bring their kids to our subdivision for trick or treat. Cars were lined up on the main road as well as on the street inside the subdivision.
