For those who think I only dress my daughter in pink

Here is what she wore yesterday. (And no, I didn't dress her in red just for this picture.)

And I went back through my photos and found some more adorable Becca pictures with little to no pink:

Love the outdoors

We have been loving the outdoors with the great weather we have been having! The boys play so nicely (most of the time :)) and Becca usually naps in her carseat or carrier. I'm sure that by the end of the summer the boys will be sick of their outside toys just like we are sick of the inside stuff right now, but for now I'm going to enjoy the great times. Here are some pics from our trip to the park yesterday:









More on our flick site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tchaig/

Sports Stacking World Championships

We are back and had a great weekend! Here is the low down.

We left on Friday and flew through Milwaukee to Denver. As we were walking through the airport with three kids in tow I could just imagine the thoughts of the passengers waiting for their planes: "Oh, please don't let them be on my flight!" However. the kids had a fun time on the plane and all did very well. Jon was a bit squirmy on Tim's lap but loved sitting and looking out the window. Michael talked a mile a minute the whole way and wanted to know everything about all the emergency regulations in the seat pocket brochure. Becca ate and slept basically the whole way, only crying for like a minute on one of the return flights.


On Saturday we attended the tournament and Tim and Michael competed in their prelims, both doing very well. The qualified in everything except parent/child doubles where we think they were probably sixth (only the top 5 qualify) with an amazing time for them.

Then on Sunday they competed in the finals. Michael got first places in everything and lowered two of his world records. Tim also did fabulous getting a ton of first and second place finishes and setting five USA records I believe.

My favorite was probably Michael's relay team About To Stack. There were four kids: Michael, Elizabeth who came with a stacking team from her school, Kevin who is a younger brother of a stacker on team USA, and Neils who came with his family from Germany. They competed in the 6 and under division. They got first place in the timed 3-6-3 relay and in the head to head 3-3-3 relay. In the 3-6-3 head to head relay the finals were saved for Sunday afternoon on stage during the Stack of Champions. The kids were so cute walking up on stage and competing and Michael had quite the cheering section from all the friends he is making in the stack world. Tim was invited to the media booth to tape the relay and here is the footage:


Here are some more photos from the weekend:

Easter Sunday

We had a busy but great Easter Sunday! It started with a "get everyone fed and dressed quick" frenzy. But then we managed to get a great picture of the kids in their adorable Easter outfits before leaving for church.


Then we were off to church rehearsal. Tim was playing drums and I was signing. The boys did great just playing and running around and Becca slept through the whole thing. Church went well and after they had an egg hunt for the kids. Michael was so excited and remembered past year's egg hunts. Jon on the other hand participated in picking up eggs but didn't get really excited about it all until Tim showed him how to open them and he found some candy!











Next we headed off for Grandpa DeJong's house for Easter dinner! While we were there we took a family photo too:


Finally, back at home we colored Easter eggs. I know that this is usually done prior to Easter and we had the eggs boiled a couple of days ago, but well, the days got away from us.... The party started with Jon eating one of the coloring tablets but ended with some great looking eggs!

Sleep

Why do I always forget about how little sleep mom gets with a newborn and how well I don't handle lack of sleep? Oh, yah, because if I didn't forget I'd probably not had more kids.... lol

We are in the middle of it again. I had two nights with no more than an hour or two at a time which was really hard. Last night however, I got three hours straight. And of course my body was so refreshed by it I couldn't fall back asleep. Oh well.

Not much point to this post except that we had a pretty good night with Becca last night and I want to document it!

Jon on the other hand did not sleep well last night. I tried putting him down early at the advice of all the sleep books. So he went down at 7:30 and started fussing off and on. I put Michael down at 8:00 and resettled Jon for the third time. Then by 9:00 and after a few more tries at trying to get him to lay down, Jon was still up playing in bed and Michael was becoming very frustrated with him. I ended up getting Jon up so Michael could fall asleep. Imagine Tim's surprise when he came home at 9:30 to find Jon happily playing in the living room. We put him down again and he didn't fall asleep until 10:00. Then he was awake at 4:30. When I went in he gave me a big smile and said "Up!" indicating he was ready to get up for the day. AHHHHHHHH!

Oh, well, here is why it is all worth it:

New pictures

I've had requests by many people to get pictures up so here they are. Enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tchaig

Welcome Rebecca

I finally have a couple of free minutes without kids and am excited to post about our new baby girl!

For three weeks I was having fairly regular contractions that would come every 10 minutes for an hour or two and then fade away. So on Saturday when they started in the afternoon I didn't pay much attention to them. Around 3:30 after much prodding from Tim I started keeping track of the times. I think he could tell they were getting stronger because he kept asking me about them and telling me we should get ready to call my dad to come and take the boys. By 4:30 they were definitely coming closer together so I gave in and agreed that we could take the boys to dad's house and if they were still strong there I would call the doctor.

Sure enough, by the time we got there the contractions were coming every 5 minutes but I was pretty sure they were going to disappear like every other day. However, I called the doctor and we were sent to the hospital.

Upon arriving at the hospital, I signed in with the information desk while Tim parked the car and was asked if I wanted a wheel chair. I said that would be great for when they need to bring me up and so the lady brought one over and insisted I sit down. I informed her that my contraction were easier if I was standing and I'd wait to sit if that was ok only to be told by her that it was hospital policy that I sit in the chair. Now I'm not usually a confrontational person and if this was my first labor I probably would have just sat down, but this is my third and I know what I want. I kindly said again that I am much more comfortable standing and that I would just stand by the chair and wait for my escort. Again, she insisted I sit down. I should let you know that during this back and forth time I'm of course having to pause for a contraction. In the end I won out. I guess I'm a pretty stubborn pregnant woman when in labor!

So we stood by the chair waiting for someone to come and take us to labor and delivery. My contractions kept coming closer and closer. After 15 minutes or so they were about 2 minutes apart and the guy at the emergency desk offered to call up and see what was taking so long. I think he was afraid he might end up delivering the baby! Turns out our favorite lady from the information booth failed to call up and let them know we were waiting.

Finally someone takes us up to labor and delivery triage where I'm put on monitors and the nurse checks me right away only to find out that I'm already 7-8 cm dilated. So they hook me up to an IV (I was strep B positive this time) and immediately take me up to a delivery room. I meet the nurse there and she quickly goes to call the doctor who is about 45 minutes away. The nurse starts setting everything up and when the doctor walks in the door I'm at 10 cm and ready to push. It was another super quick labor for me - yah!!

Our little girl was sunny side up and giving me tons of back pain that made it almost impossible to push, but after about 45 minutes and the doctor working to turn her, she was born. They cleaned her off a bit and put her on my chest for some snuggle time which was great! After about 10 minutes it occurred to me that no one had said anything about gender, so I had to ask, "It is a girl right? I didn't check!" With happy reassurance I was told yes, we had our little girl.

Then when they took her to bath her and check her over, they brought me paper work. Turns out I was suppose to sign it all upon arrival but things progressed so quickly they didn't have time. So after the fact I was signing the permission slips for them to treat me. lol They put her on the scale and announced that she was 7 lbs 3 oz and 19 inches long. I knew there had to be a mistake - I make 8 lb babies. "What?" I asked. The nurse repeated the numbers and I simply couldn't believe it. When my first was born at 8lb 1oz he was considered small in my family.

We ended up staying in the hospital for two nights and came home Monday. I feel great physically now and Rebecca is doing well. We don't have very many clothes small enough for her so she mostly swims in 0-3 month sleepers and is just adorable as can be. Here are some pictures from the last 5 days!