Horseback Riding

Last week my sweet in-laws took the boys for the whole week. It was so nice...I was able to try and get things "back to normal" and get a schedule down with Connor. One day they all went Horseback Riding!! They went with their cousins, Molly and Will, Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Wendy and Uncle Jon. A huge thanks to Wendy for taking all the pictures and letting me steal them from her blog;)

I guess Caden and Noah loved being on the horse! I thought they would have been scared out of their mind and went kicking and screaming! Not so! Way to go boys!
Here is Grandpa leading Caden and Noah's horse










All the Cowboys and Cowgirls. Looks like they had a blast! The boys had such a fun time! They are still talking about riding on the horse!

Connor at 2 weeks

Connor is now 2 weeks old! I can't believe how quickly it is already going by!

He went for his 2 week check up yesterday and here are the stats:

Weight: 8 lbs. 5 oz. (50th%)

Height: 21" (50th%)

Head: 14" (25th%)

Who Does Connor Look Like?

Caden

Noah

Connor

The Bassinet

This bassinet is a family heirloom. I believe Ben's, Mom's, Dad made it and Ben and all of his 5 brothers used it. Now that their are grandkids, all the grandkids have used it. Connor makes grandbaby #7 and Ben's mom wanted to make some new bedding. We went to JoAnn's and had to pick some fabric that could go boy or girl. This is what we came up with. I am totally in love with it! She did such an AMAZING job on it! Thanks so much!

Mini Chocolate Mint Brownies

I have been wanting to make these little cuties for quite sometime now and finally made them for a friend. I got this really cute mini cheesecake pan from William-Sonoma and I must say...worth every penny:) This is the BYU chocolate mint brownie recipe that has been passed around for as long as I can remember. But, if you need a short-cut, just use box brownies, using the cakier brownie instead of fudgy (basically add one extra egg). I found the idea on a blog called Satisfying My Sweet Tooth.
Chocolate Mint Brownies

1 C sugar
1 1/2 C butter, softened and divided
4 eggs
16 oz canned chocolate syrup
1 C flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 C powdered sugar
1 T milk
1 tsp peppermint extract
2-3 drops green food coloring
6 oz chocolate chips

Combine sugar and 1/2 C butter; blend in eggs, chocolate syrup, flour, and baking powder. Pour batter into a greased 9x13 pan or jelly roll pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Place in refrigerator until cool. Blend in another 1/2 C butter and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl. Add milk, peppermint extract, and food coloring. Mix well and spread over chocolate brownie layer. Refrigerate until firm. Melt chocolate chips and remaining 1/2 C butter and stir until well mixed. Pour over mint layer and refrigerate until firm. Cut into squares and keep in fridge until served.

Our 1st Week with Connor

I just wanted to share a few pictures of Connor's first week of being home. My mom was amazing and stayed with us for a little over a week helping me with the boys. I am forever grateful for her help! Hopefully she's not too sleep deprived!!

First Day home from the hospital...Grandma and Grandpa Thatcher were waiting for us!
Grandma with Connor.

Here is Connor...3 days old.
The boys want to be by him every second of every day.
Mimi and Connor.
Connor's first bath.
Noah just loves on Connor all the time. The second he wakes up he wants to hold him. He also wants a picture with Connor every time he holds him.
Diane and Weldon (family friends for as long as I can remember) came for a visit and brought gifts and some amazing sugar cookies and thumbprint cookies...we couldn't get enough of them!
My Dad and Connor...such a sweet picture. My Dad came to visit at the hospital and to drop my Mom off to help me. Then he came back on Friday (July 3) morning and stayed thru Sunday. We had so much fun.
Connor at 12 days old. All my boys have done this cute little "O" with their mouth...I just love it! It's also our tribute to Michael Jackson...we are sporting the one glove thing.
What a BIG yawn!!

4th of July

I love the 4th of July! I love being with family and friends and having a nice big BBQ. The past few years we have gone to a Texas Rangers Baseball game and watch the fireworks after the game. This year we went over to our friends, the Wilde's, home and had a big party there...swimming, BBQ and fireworks. So much fun. The best part is we got to do some fireworks! The boys have never done any before...they loved every second of it! Thanks Wildes for a great time!

Caden, doing sparklers for the first time.
All the kids mesmorized watching the "snakes" grow bigger and bigger...so gross.
Noah shooting off some fireworks.
Mommy and Connor...he was such a good sport. He just slept through the whole thing.
Ben and I...Connor is in the backpack.
Caden, Noah and Popie.
Noah with the sparklers. It worries me a bit that there was absolutely NO FEAR of all the fire and loud noises;)

Big Brother, Little Brother

I found these adorable shirts for the boys (Big Brother and Little Brother) and I had to have a little photo shoot of them before Connor got too big for his onesie! My Dad brought up his amazing camera and we put some sheets up in the garage and just snapped away! Connor just slept the whole time:) Caden made up most of the poses and Noah fought them the whole time. At least I was able to get these pictures!! No judging on the pictures...totally new at this!!

Connor's 5-Day Old Photo Shoot

I just had to post the link to see Connor's photo shoot! My friend Ambyr took them and she did an AMAZING job! I have to keep going back to look at them! Let me know what you think!! Thanks Ambyr!

Ambyr Porter Photography

Baby Name Change...Say What???

Meet:

CONNOR DANIELS THATCHER

Not Ethan. Why the change?? On Saturday night when I was with him, I just couldn't call him Ethan. It just wouldn't come out! When my mom and Ben came to the hospital on Sunday morning, Ben was saying the same thing...he was calling him Evan and other things. My Mom was also having a hard time calling him Ethan. Well...when Mommy and Daddy are having a hard time calling their son his own name...it just can't be right. So, we starred at him and starred at him and finally decided on Connor. Which was always at the top of our list (Ben was still pushing for Sawyer...never gonna happen:) After we decided on the name change, we all felt so much better! It easily came out. Phew!

Now the hard part...changing the name!! I had already signed the Birth Certificate and it had been submitted! We were just hoping it hadn't been certified yet. So this morning I was able to call and hopefully nothing had happened...so we were safe! It is oficial...his name is Connor. It just fits him better.
Here is Connor...2 days old, getting ready to go home!

Daddy and Connor

Mommy and Connor

In his car seat, ready to go home.

My 3 Sons...all together:)

The boys LOVE their brother! They just want to hold him all the time! For the most part they are doing very well with him. They like to share their stuffed animals and smother him with kisses. Noah likes to throw t-shirts on his face and stuffed animals on his face. I'm really going to have to watch him!!
Connor looks just like his older 2 brothers...in the eyes and mouth. His nose is his own:) He is changing so much everyday!

First night home went really well! I am REALLY hoping he stays on this schedule! He only woke up TWICE! He was up every 3.5-4 hours. That was last night...we all know how newborns are!!

Now...for my records, I just want to write down all the details of his birth. Don't feel like you have to read it...It's all for the 2009 blog book!!

On Thursday I was moping and whining and grumpy that I was still pregnant...I even blogged about it!

Thursday night @ 11:30 pm I started up on my first contractions...they were every 15 minutes. They started getting stronger and STRONGER!! Ouch.

An hour later they were every 8-10 minutes. We were just waiting and wondering if we were going to have to wake up my neighbor!

At about 1:30 am on Friday morning the contractions were 2-4 minutes apart and very painful! That was when we decided to book it! We called my neighbor, Shannon, who lives 4 doors down had been on baby watch for us that whole past week. So we called and dropped the boys off and made the 30 minute drive to the hospital.

We got to the hospital the contractions of course started to slow down...I was freaking out because I did not want to go home! Thank goodness they checked me and I was at a 5 and 90% effaced. They asked tons of questions, got all the wrist bands put on, got lots of sympathy because I am allergic to Ibuprofin, Vicodin and Hydrocodone, and got my IV in. Then just waited patiently for my epidural.

At 5:30 am I got the epidural...and unfortunately it took the guy TWO times before it finally got into place. I was dying. Not cool to do: ) By now with all the IV and epidural my contractions REALLY slowed down to about every 15 minutes.

The nurses called the on-call Dr. to see what he wanted to happen...start me on pitosin or what. He told them to just let us sleep and wait for my Doctor, Dr. White, to come in and deliver the baby. Which I am glad it happened that way, I love my Doctor.

So we decided to take a nap and call family and let them know what was going on. Ben was FREEZING the whole time and walked around with blankets on...since we both had no sleep, we were both just cracking jokes and laughing the whole time.

My Doctor made it into the room at 7:30 am, checked me...I was at a 6. He informed us that he was going out of town at noon, so he wanted to get the baby out ASAP...which was fine with me! He said it was going to happen quickly and I would have him by 10. He broke my water and they started me on Pitosin. The contractions started right away to every 4 minutes, then right away to 2 minutes.

At 10am, they checked me and I was at a 9 and 98% effaced. The nurse told me to push and BAM! that made me a 10 and ready to start pushing! They called Dr. White in and got everything ready for him to come!

I started to puch at 10:10, pushed 2 times and he was here at 10:14 am on Friday, June 26, 2009. I also want to add that this date is my older brother, Eric's Birthday! How fun is that!

Ben got to cut the umbilical cord, they cleaned off Connor and then I got to hold the sweet thing for awhile and nurse him before they took him away to give him a bath. He nursed right away with no problems! Yeah!

We got into the recovery room after that...I have to say that I had an amazing room. The nurses call it the VIP room. It is at the very end of the hall, away from the nurses station and ice machine and everything else and it had tons of windows that faced pretty scenery...not the parking garage:) I guess it is the coveted room!! Lucky me!

We had lots and lots of visitors the first day:

Caden

Noah

Grandma Thatcher (Ben's mom, who picked the boys up from my neighbor)

Logan

Phil, Jennie, Landen and Nathan

Pam Sears

Sharla Wilde

Mom and Dad

Curt and Whitney

Ann Santos

Chris, Ashley and McKenna

Funny story...

Ben's mom took the boys to JCPenney to pick out an outfit for Connor. Everyone was still waiting to see if the baby was here yet and the boys were so excited! While they were there, Ben called his mom to let her know we had the baby and Noah yelled, " Has the baby popped out yet?" Tons of people around just laughing. I thought that was cute.

Anyway...Thats the story! Sorry so long, but I don't want to forget anything!

Baby video clips at the hospital

Bienvenue to Ethan Daniels...

Yes - It is true. A day after Summer was complaining on this very blog that she was still pregnant, our little guy decided to make nice and "pop out" as Noah says. So yesterday, June 26, our third little boy was born at 10:14. He weighed in at 7 lbs. and 4.8 oz, and is 20" long. He is a very calm, peaceful, and quite baby - not crying very much at all. It has taken Summer until this morning to decide on a name, and after much debate and analysis of pros and cons (which included the whiteboard in Summer's hospital room, and a last minute push by me to persuade Summer on the name Sawyer) we have chosen to call him Ethan Daniels. So here are a few pictures from yesterday.

The boys are quite excited to be a big brother, especially Noah.

It only took Summer 4-5 minutes of actual labor before Ethan "popped out"

Summer's doctor and nurse.