Photo Blog

I'm starting up my photo blog again -- if interested in joining I need your email. See week by week photo link on side bar to see what I'm talking about. I was a major slacker and after a few months of starting it the last time I stopped -- kudos to those of you that kept it going a little while longer -- I promise to do better this time around.

Hoppy Easter or Christmas?

Well Mr. Cottontail did make it to our house (despite a little girl being a very big poop head the day before). A new activity gym for brother and a new (much anticipated) bike for Reese.

He even nibbled on the carrots we left out for him.

She doesn't have a clue how to ride it but it's just as fun being a big girl and being able to sit on one.

Checking out the rest of her basket.

Some candy and sidewalk chalk (sadly everything she got requires the weather to cooperate).

New shirts for dad! Todd and I got matching shirts to wear to the Jazz game next week. Todd also got a new shirt for school and a Sam's Club size pack of gum (and other candy). I got a new bottle of Moroccan Oil for my hair (since I dropped my last one on the bathroom floor and broke it), New Moon, and some candy.

Maybe with all the snow Santa thought it was Christmas and made an extra delivery.

Testing out the new bike. The best part is the the baby seat up front. She loves it.
Boston loves his new Easter present too! He layed on the mat and just wiggled and wiggled and even hit the rattle around (I'm sure by accident, but we'll pretend it was on purpose).

After we dug into our baskets we had a nice french toast breakfast with some bacon too! Yum!

Easter Egg hunt

Doesn't look much like April? Luckily the Easter Egg hunt we were headed to was indoors. We slept in a little this morning (8 AM) - the hunt started at 9 AM and it was a mad rush to get kids fed and dressed and loaded in the car. Then there was the dang snow slowing us down too -- the roads weren't plowed at all and it was very slippery and the snow was coming down like mad. Luckily we made it to Rexburg's movie theatre (where the Egg hunt was) without an accident and with about 1 minute to spare before the hunt started. There wasn't much competition for eggs in the 0-2 age bracket -- Reese pretty much had her own section to work without any interference (probably due to the horrible weather). She filled her entire bag to the brim with eggs. Boston chose to nap instead (Reese gathered enough eggs for the both of them). I'm glad we made it to the hunt in time I was so worried since they usually last about 2 minutes at the most. Reese had a grand ole' time opening up her eggs, and since she isn't really into candy Todd and I were able to partake of the goods.

Egg-cellent Easter Monsters

We did a little egg decorating today... Todd had a few free hours between classes and work (probably the only free hours this week). We picked up a kit yesterday at the store -- out of all the kits available Reese decided on the Monster kit.

Reese was so excited to begin decorating!

We let her drop all the eggs in the dye.

Waiting for the eggs to dry.

Picking out the perfect face. Reese handled the decisions on all the features while Todd and I did the gluing.

Don't mind me looking like a grease ball.

Showing off one of her eggs (I think this one in particular had about 4 sets of eyes and a few mouths).

Scary Monsters!

The finished product.

Lazy Sunday

So I don't really have anything to post -- things were pretty chill today. Went to church (which I should have taken pics of the kids in their new Easter/Spring outfits-but we were in such a mad rush to get out the door on time that it didn't even cross my mind). After church had some lunch and then Reese, Boston and I all took a nap. Todd unfortunately had to work on his 10 page paper due tomorrow and the worst thing possible happened-- he had it pretty much done and was just going to go through and fine tune it when he noticed it didn't get saved from the last time he worked on it - so he had so redo all the work he'd done on Thursday (5 pages)!! Poor guy!

Home Teachers came over, then we had some dinner and then Reese, Boston and I chilled on the floor and watched Cars. I was trying to take a cute pic of those two but Reese was acting silly and wouldn't pose for the camera.

Our little guy is growing, growing, growing... he's already out grown a lot of his 3 month clothes and is on to some 6 months -- the pj's he's wearing here are 6 months! Hello he's not even 2 months old yet!!!

Our happy funny boy. He just loves when you talk to him.

Reese is getting really excited for Easter. For some reason she thinks she is getting a new bike! A few weeks ago we were down to my grandma's and all the neighbor kids had little trikes and she was pretty jealous and ever since then it's been non-stop bike talk. I guess we'll just have to see what the Easter bunny brings (the Easter bunny may have one already picked out and hiding in the trunk). We'll need to do some egg coloring sometime this week too, and then there is the city egg hunt on Saturday morning. It's at 9 AM so hopefully we can get our lazy butts up and out the door to make it to the hunt in time -- I would be so mad at myself if we missed it.

Funny Boy

6 Weeks!

A few funny faces. Thank you SLR camera for not having a delay -- this was a lot more difficult with my regular point and shoot when I had Reese!

He is 'cooing' right here. He's quite the little talker when you get him going.

Not too much going on lately. Everyone is doing well. Starting to count down the days until Todd and I have a mini getaway at the end of the semester. I am in much need of a vacation.

One Month

So it's actually been nearly 6 weeks since we brought little Boston home. He had his one month checkup this past week and he's already up to a whopping 12lbs 3oz (8lbs 11oz at birth). He's in the 90th percentile for both weight and height (so was Reese at every appointment). I guess we just grow em' big. He's starting to smile and coo when you talk to him. He's a wiggly little guy and it always trying to climb or push off you with his little legs. He also has quite the appetite! He just eats and eats and eats (which probably explains his size). Like Reese he spits up a lot - I know what you're thinking -- he's probably got too much in his tummy -- well you try and take the bottle away from him! So we just have a couple clothing changes throughout the day. For the most part he's pretty easy going throughout the day -except around 10 or 11 at night he's really grumpy for an hour or so (fighting sleep I think) and is only comforted by being held while walking around the house. He still doesn't quite have days and nights figured out. Every other night he usually wakes up and 2 in the morning and thinks it's time to be awake. Todd and I are doing our best to share the night time shift so we can both get a few consecutive hours of sleep. He refuses to sleep in his bed in our room, so we are usually cuddling up with him on the couch or he sleeps in his little bouncer. I'll be glad when the sleeping madness is over. It was almost the exact same with Reese. She refused to sleep in her bassinet at first and would only sleep in the bouncer. I think by 2 months she was sleeping through the night and in our room -- so hopefully it works out the same with Boston.

Not too much else going on in the Welch household. I need to get going on potty training Reese. I'm not going to lie - I'm avoiding it. I just need to get going on it. We have taken her binkie away. We still allow her to have it at night to go to sleep, but at least she's not having it in her mouth all day. We tried taking it away at night first and just have her go cold turkey but that was a nightmare (and I felt really sorry for our neighbors) -- so hopefully we'll just be able to ease it away from her at night. We should have taken it away a long time ago! I suppose the first child is the guinea pig... right? Well it's way past my bedtime so I'm off to bed.

Boston's Blessing Day

Yes I realize it's been nearly a month since my last post. Believe it or not I just haven't had a spare minute to sit down and upload pictures. Somebody in this house seems to always be in need of something. March 7th was Boston's Blessing Day and after much deliberation we decided to just have it here in Rexburg. We knew by doing this that it would limit who would be able to come but we had it here anyways. On Saturday most of my family actually came up and stayed in a hotel so they wouldn't have to get up early Sunday morning to be here by 9:30. My mom made sure to get a hotel with a pool so we could all go swimming. Reese loves to go swimming and I practically had to drag her out of the pool. The Olympic pool was pretty chilly and I kept trying to convince Reese that we should go over to the hot tub. Lost that battle.

{All the kids Ethan, Mason, Brooklynn and Reese}

Blessing Day. We are lucky to live in a complex that has a nice clubhouse - so we didn't have to all cram in our tiny apartment (which would have been impossible). We had a nice lunch -- it was actually quite a feast! BBQ shredded pork sandwiches, numerous salads, funeral potatoes, Oreo cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, and lots of other goodies. {Todd and his parents with Reese and Boston}

{Todd and his brothers: Thomas and Tim}

{A nice open mouth kiss from big sister!}

{My grandma Nan and my mom}

{My big boy and I}

{Father and Son}

{The Happy Family}

{My Big Boy!}

It turned out to be a really great day and we are very grateful to our friends and family that were able to make it and celebrate with us.

2 1/2 weeks

We've survived 2 1/2 weeks so far! I consider that quite an accomplishment! It's been an adjustment - my previous day-to-day routine, before adding another child, has completely flown out the window. I used to be able to get all my housework done before lunch and now I'm lucky to even get a few things accomplished before the days end. It's not that it's really hard having another child at home - it's just more difficult meeting every one's needs throughout the day. Reese has a hard time with this -- she was used to being able to get whatever she needed right away and now I find myself constantly telling her: "just a minute, hold on a sec, or after I finish feeding baby brother." She's still taking it all pretty well - minus the few tantrums tossed into my day, but I can't tell if that's out of frustration with the new baby gobbling up all her attention or just Reese being a 2 year old. It's not too bad though.

Todd and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary this week. Well not so much celebrated but our 4 year anniversary was this week (the 16th). We just sat at home the whole night and pretty much told each other Happy Anniversary! We'll actually do something for it in April when Todd is off from school and we can go stay a night or two in SLC and go to a jazz game (like we do most every year).

Not much else going on... next Wednesday Todd goes back to work. Ugh! Not looking forward to that at all. I don't remember if I posted this yet, but we did find out Todd will be doing his student teaching in Pocatello this fall! Yeah we get to move back -- I kind of miss Pocatello. It will be nice being surrounded by the familiar again and all our old friends. It will be nice being that much closer to family.

Well that's about it... no upcoming events that I can think of. I still need to take some more pictures of Boston. I tried to take a bunch the other day but he was being way to grumpy and wiggly -- so only the one posted above worked out. I need to be working on his birth announcement so I better get pictures done soon. I also really need to re-vamp my blog layout -- it's been the same for way too long! We need a new family picture and more recent pictures of Reese. I just need to get it done!

First week for the family of four...

Hard to believe we've already been home for a whole week. Boston is such a good little baby. I had my doubts the first few hours of his life when all he did was scream at the top of his lungs. He spends most of the day sleeping and snuggling. He also has a man's appetite -- almost like clock work every two hours he is ready to eat, actually it's more like he demands to eat! When he's hungry he's hungry. I enjoy those precious times during the day when he's awake and alert... not so precious when it's at 3 AM (which is usually every night-hopefully he'll get his days and nights figured out soon).

I've already been initiated into the "Mother of a boy" club! It's quite the accomplishment to change his diaper and neither of us needing a change of clothes afterwards. It just catches you by surprise every time!

Reese has done really well with the new addition. She loves to help mom by fetching diapers, and making sure brother's bottle and binkie are within arms reach. She has been a little wilder than usual, no doubt to snag a little extra attention, but overall she's handling the change pretty well. She loves to kiss little brother (who she calls buddy) wave little toys in front of his face and tickle him.

My mom was here the last few days which was a wonderful blessing. It was nice to have an extra set of hands. Especially when we decided to take a little shopping trip to Idaho Falls to wander around the mall and pick up some groceries. Oh my is all I can say. I don't know when I'll dare venture a shopping trip by myself. Reese has a problem with taking off running at any chance her feet hit the ground and what they heck are you supposed to do when you have a baby in tow? She is so FAST! It actually makes me really nervous - especially in parking lots and large stores. So I'll be holding off on solo trips until that is under more control. Thanks mom for doing all the chasing!

So that pretty much sums up the excitement of our first week. My to do list for the remainder of the week includes taking some more pictures of him and getting them posted. I already feel like a bad mom for not being as camera happy this time around -- so I need to get on that.