He's here!

Cole Beckham was born at 9:51 Friday morning. A perfect induced labor. Everything went smoothly, and everyone is healthy. Beckham is such a sweet, fuzzy, peaceful little thing. He weighed 9 lbs. 1 oz. and was 21 1/4 inches long. Somehow he still seems so tiny to me. A little angel. Here he is, enjoy!

Our new complete family

The excited big sisters!

Check, Check and Double Check

• house cleaned
• bags packed
• girls bathed
• camera and video camera charged and packed
• cross word puzzles ready
• hospital toes ready

Now we're ready to kiss this tummy goodbye =0).(pictures taken today, 40 weeks...hopefully this little man will do what his mom tells him and be out to greet us by tomorrow!)

Look Mom, no puffers!

Yeah Liv! Watching our kids learn new tricks is definately one of my favorite things in life =0).

Sugar Land

Live Music. Dancing. A Borrowed Porche. Cowboy Boots. Incredible Entertainment. Just me and my hubby. On my top 10 list. All planned by BR. Thank You for a FUN, FUN night...I'm still dancing around the house =0).

P.S. There is something about live music that makes me so happy, and these guys were seriously incredible. I've always enjoyed their music, but now I will LOVE it. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go listen to them on my ipod =0).

Concoctions

Lately Liv has been coming up with recipes that she wants to try. Just recently she told me that she had a great idea for what she could eat for lunch, and proceeded to give me very detailed instructions:

1st- You take a tomato. (Liv would eat tomatoes all day long)

2nd- you take a knife and cut out all of the inside.

3rd- you fill the hole with cottage cheese.

4th- you put sprinkles on top.

Monday I made sure to get all of the ingredients and she helped me make it for her for lunch. She ate it just like an apple and enjoyed every minute =0). What a fun girl.

-Today I asked Liv how much she thought I loved her, and she said, "I think you love me so much. . . as much as a mommy can love. . . all the way to the moon and back and forever." Yep, that's right!

Vacationing near Maine: Part 2

In the middle of the week, we decided to take a trip down to New Hampshire so we could take the girls to Santa's Village, a cute little amusement park near North Conway. We drove down Thursday afternoon, took the girls to an old style candy store where we all picked out our own selection of treats, and then went back to the hotel to go swimming. The next morning we drove over to Santa's Village and spent the day there. We all had a blast, I love the look on Brad's face. It captures the fun we all had. I really love going somewhere for the sole purpose of entertaining the girls. And I really love getting away with just our little family. I find it rejuvenating.

Liv outside Chutters, home of the world's longest candy counter.....yum =0).

This little ride was a race. Liv raced Brad and Gwen. The look on her face here is because she was SO excited that she won. (I didn't tell her it was because the man at the starting line had a hard time lifting Brad out of the shoot.)

The Girls LOVED meeting Santa and seeing his "summer home" Judging by the picture he was feeling tired. We were the last ones to see him before his afternoon nap. Liv asked him for a mermaid barbie and a polly pocket and Gwen asked him for a mermaid barbie.

The girls finding their elfabet alphabet

Brad took each of the girls on the bumper cars and thought it was the best part of the whole park. I had fun just watching how much fun he had at it =0).

Getting Closer

Here is the 38 week belly. I can tell that he is dropping, getting ready for the big day. I've been organizing and de-junking trying to do my part to be ready as well =0).
Some of my pregnancy stats:
Both girls were born on their due dates....one induced...one on her own
Yes I'm hot.....but isn't everyone??
Largest baby: 8 lbs. 8 oz.
Smallest baby: 7 lbs. 14 oz.
Longest labor: 3 hours
Shortest labor: 2 hours 15 minutes
Epidural?? One with and One without.....this time-- Undecided.
The Doctor says: "this will be our biggest baby yet" (the first thing he said as he walked through the door at my last appointment...after seeing my ultrasound results.)....
my guess 8 lbs. 12 oz.

Cousins

Their all girl status is going to be disrupted by little man at the end of this month. These two may look innocent. . .partners in crime would be more accurate

Vacationing in Maine: Part 1

Brad had the first week in August off, which is always the best week to vacation in Maine. We stuck around and and enjoyed the best of our little piece of the country. The first few days were the hottest and we spent them down at camp and enjoyed the sun, friends, 4-wheeling to the rock slides, picking wild raspberries, tubing, wake boarding, skiing (even Liv), the rope swing, floating in our life jackets (mostly me), jumping off chunk-of-pork (not me!), and exercising our brain with crossword puzzles. We were excited that Glen had one of the days off and so the Hymas family was able to come down and spend one of the days with us. They never let us down for good times and good food!

Watching Glen and Brad tube was one of the most entertaining things I have seen in a long time. Brad laughed the entire time. His dad did a great job of whipping them around =0). this is BR going over the top of Glen, the skill part includes them both staying on, the rest was a complete accident.

(If you enlarge this, you can see their faces, Brad-Laughing so hard it hurts, and Glen-in shock =0)...)

Good Morning =0)!

The newest haircut

I feel really funny taking, and posting pictures of just myself, but since I have sisters who live far away and can't see my newest, shortest ever haircut.....here it is. I was a little shocked with the length, and pile of hair on the ground at first, but really like it now. It's definitely the easiest haircut I've ever had.

Gwen has decided that all of these books are a requirement for sleep

This little girl

Is getting so grown up. She suddenly looks a lot like a big girl, and has lost all of her baby girl chub, and in just a month she leaves me for all day kindergarten. I'm pretty sure she is ready for it (she asks me all the time when she gets to go back to school, and we found out last week that she is going to have the teacher we requested), but I know I'm not ready for it. We have had such a fun summer together. We have spent a lot of special afternoons together while Gwen naps. I love spending time with her, and in a way consider her a good friend. Today we enjoyed a cup of cherries (my all time favorite fruit) while she asked me about the house that I lived in when I was a kid. I love to look at her, an old soul in conversation, but still a child with cherry juice all over her beautiful little face. Afterwards, I pushed her on the swing and then swung next to her while she giggled about flying like a bird. Next she helped me pick lettuce out of our garden. She was thrilled about how her red lettuce looked just like a bouquet of flowers and before we knew it, she had picked every single leaf from two different plants.....we probably had too many plants anyway. . . (I wish I could bottle up these moments and keep them forever.)

Flash Back: May 2009

I had these pictures from May that I was too busy to post, but I didn't want to miss them, so here they are. One not so significant event (our first summer trip to camp), and one more significant event (Liv's birthday tea party).

Here we are at camp. The girls all fed the fish with Nana (a daily must) for the first time of the season, and Liv helped all the guys put the finishing touches on the play house. We had a really girly tea party in our back yard for Liv's 5th birthday party. I had a great time, and I think the girls did too =0).

The End. Thank you for endulging me and all of my pictures =0).

Saunders Triathlon 2009

One of my favorite traditions is our yearly triathlon, put on by Brad's sister and her husband. It gets better and better every year. It is a great low key way to complete a triathlon. This year we woke up to rain, but luckily not much wind. The triathlon consists of a half mile swim, 13 mile bike ride and a 5k run. I was really pleased with how well it went. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from myself and my very pregnant state. I really wanted to be able to complete the whole thing, and actually felt pretty darn good throughout it. I was really proud of Brad and his race. The course overlapped itself this year, so I had fun seeing him breifly on his 5k and cheering him on. He did an awesome job. Way to go babe! Here are a few pictures of the festivities.

Bridgette and me with our permanant marker numbers right before the race....and just to clear up any confusion, yes we are flexing.

Brad, Bridgette and Kip signing up with our head volunteer, Dick....under the tarp out of the rain.Brad and me in our excited/dry before picture.

The cheering section

Annie, just as she passed the finish line, greeted by her daughter Natalie Brad and me in our happy/wet after photo =0). (enjoying our endorphins =0)..)

I'm already looking forward to triathlon 2010!