Announcing Blakely Ann Kelsey

This is Nathan. Ashley has decided since I wrote the blog post for Blair's birth announcement that I needed another shot to post correctly for our new girl.  Blakely Ann arrived about 10:40AM on Thursday.  You are probably just here for cute pictures, so I will lead with those.  The fairly vanilla birth story and stats are at the end.

Brand new and really happy to be here...

Two hot ladies...

Ready for my close-up...

She looks a little nervous...

"Hip hip hooray!!!!"

Yeah!

"Her head is hecka small..." 

Or ours are rather large...

Ashley was having hourly contractions on Wednesday, so she warned me it would likely be that night.  At 1:30AM she had contractions every ten minutes.  She woke me up at 2:30 and we were at the hospital by 3:30AM.  Thanks to Valerie for watching the kids!  Ash was worried that she would deliver quickly and not have an epidural (like with Dyer) but things went fine.  Several hours and 1 and 1/2 pushes later Blakely was born. 

Stats: 7 lbs 12 oz, 21 inches long.  Brown eyes?  Fine brown hair.  She has long fingers and toes.

Welcome little girl!  We are so excited you are here!

Easton scores a goal!!!

It's hard to tell who kicked it in, but it looks like Easton scored and even Easton says that he was the one who kicked it in!  It looks like I owe him some ice cream!

Video of Easton's first goal:

The Two Oldest Strike Again!!!

I told Nathan that I need to stop praying for patience because I'm not sure how much more testing I can handle!  I feel like I'm failing miserably (hence the reason I've been praying for patience) but apparently I need to be careful for what I pray for.  God has definitely been testing me a lot with my kids and I feel like I'm taking several steps back instead of forward and it has been discouraging.  I was hoping God would help me have more patience with my kids with everyday things they do (not listening to me, fighting with each other, yelling, etc.) but instead I feel like God has been giving me crazy trials and I'm not handling them very well.  If you missed my last crazy post feel free to read it (What else could go wrong?)  I guess it is kind of ironic that I would use that as the title of my post because now I know the answer....

Remember these pictures when I started decorating Blair's room....We added a black toddler bed frame and a little night stand since then, but this basically gives you an idea of what it used to look like....

Well all of that now looks like this.....

Paint everywhere-walls, bed, bedding, nightstand, carpet, clothes, toys!  Ribbon off her B.

No valence or book holder!  Broken lamp!

Would you believe that her room was clean the night before!

Picture frames missing?!?  Easton and her trashed the place!

-We threw away three kitchen size garbage bags full of toys!  

-I had a full load and half a load of clothes that I tried to save.  Her bedding's okay for the most part and a couple of clothes but I would say a full load of clothes are trashed (including her brand new dress that she was painting in!)

-We will definitely have to paint the walls and we are trying to decide what to do about the carpet...

Honestly I don't feel like the pictures do it justice, especially the carpet, but you get an idea of what we are dealing with.

In case you were wondering we have tornadoes on the far right and a shooting star on the far left.  There are a lot of other shooting stars throughout the room too!  I should have taken a video of Easton explaining what his pictures were because it was actually pretty funny and cute but we won't tell him that!  

Video of Dyer:

Blair's First Day of Pre-K!

Blair started her second year of preschool and was very excited to see all her friends again!

I'm definitely going to miss this dress!  This was only the second time she wore this (once to church) before she totally ruined it.  You'll find out how in the next post!

Dyer's First Day of Preschool

Even though Dyer is only two he's going to preschool this year.  Valerie is watching another two year old and wanted Dyer with him so he wouldn't be alone.  That definitely works for me with the new baby coming in (hopefully) less than two weeks!  Of course Dyer is in heaven and has loved the two days he has gone so far.  Blair and Dyer will be going different days so it will be nice to have a little one on one with each of them.  Blair was a little lost the first day Dyer wasn't at home and I think it is because she has NEVER been by herself before.  She has always had either Easton or Dyer there with her.  She did better the second day so I'm sure it won't take her long to figure out what to do.  I'm actually glad that Dyer is going early so he will for sure get two years of preschool with Valerie before we have to move.

I wanted to get pictures of all the kids together but Blair was refusing to get up that morning so I didn't have time to get her ready and take pictures.  Plus Dyer was done after just two pictures!

Train Museum and Gold Rush Days

We went up to Sacramento to go to the Train Museum.  Once we got up there we realized they were having Gold Rush Days at Old Town Sacramento.  The kids got to do some extra things we weren't expecting to do.  Unfortunately we didn't get to do the train ride like we promised them but they did get to take a wagon ride!  The kids also got some free candy from the candy store and they also enjoyed bowling!

Ready for the wagon ride.

The horses 

We rode in a similar wagon

Family picture

Train museum

Dyer really wanted me to take his picture.

Easton then wanted me to take his picture.  Not sure why both boys are posing with their mouths wide open.

Handcart train

Video:

Heading back

Waiting to see the inside of the front of a train.

Playing with Thomas trains.  This was definitely a hit and the kids wanted to stay longer and play.

Panning for gold!

Blair bowling!

Easton bowling!

Dyer bowling!

Gymnastics

Video of Blair doing front kicks on balance beam:

Video on balance beam:

Video of Blair doing beginning handstand:

Video of Blair doing beginning cartwheel:

Cartwheel:

somersault:

Video of Blair doing somersault:

Another somersault:

I like how she has to get off the mat before she will do her ending pose.

Blair gets her ears pierced

Blair has been begging me to get earrings for a while.  While we were out shopping for some new school clothes for her she brought it up again.  I told her we could do it that day but I warned her that it would probably hurt (like getting shots).  She told me she didn't care and that she really wanted them.  I took her to Claire's and she picked out pink flowers that she wanted.  We went up to the check out desk and asked if they could pierce her ears.  The lady said that she was the only one working that day and with young kids they prefer having two people so they can pierce the ears at the same time.  She said that she would still do it if I could guarantee that Blair would sit through the second ear.  I explained it to Blair and she really wanted to do it.  I didn't think Blair would have much of a problem since she takes her shots like a champ.  The lady did the first ear and Blair's eyes got really big and she flinched a little but she was fine.  She just sat there and did nothing for the second ear.  Blair was sooo excited and all smiles when she finally saw her earrings in the mirror.  The only thing she said was, "It hurt, just a little bit."  The lady was shocked.  She asked me how old Blair was and then went on to say that Blair was probably the best customer she has ever had.  She said most kids are either crying or screaming.

First ear getting pierced.

All done!

A closer look!

Blair looks really cute with her new earrings.  The only down side is she thinks she is a lot more grown now.

Easton's first soccer game!

Easton was pretty excited about his first game!  He got close to scoring a goal and he even saved a goal!  We need to work on not drinking a lot of water and using the bathroom when he is sitting out.  The last two times he subbed in he ran up to me about 20 seconds in and told me he had to use the bathroom.  Annoying!  Even though his team (Lightning) technically lost 2-4 they still did a great job!  Easton was definitely cute to watch and I'm excited for more games.  

Anxiously waiting for the game to start. 

About to kick the ball!

Fans cheering for him!  Dyer getting a ride on Valerie's foot.

Blair showing off her new earrings!

They must be tired!

Holding up their sign and cheering on their teammates.

Video of Easton:

Easton's first day of 1st grade!

Aug. 22nd was Easton's first day of 1st grade!  His teacher, Ms. Martinez, is amazing!  She is so upbeat, energetic, and fun!  I was really hoping he would get Ms. Martinez because I think she makes learning fun and exciting and that is exactly what Easton needs!  Her famous quote is "Happy (fill in the day of the week)!"

Easton

He wanted me to take a picture of his backpack.  It still looks big on him.

Dyer, Easton, and Blair

Easton and Alex

Alex walks to and from school with us everyday!  He is pretty good at motivating Easton to walk (unlike last year where he rode in the stroller most days) and to keep up.