Our family of five

On Monday October 28, 2013, our family went from four to five in just the blink of an eye. 

The even bigger news is we added a BOY! 

Lincoln Ryan was born at 3:28pm weighing 9 lbs 6 oz. 

He is one. big. boy. 

 

Ryan was so shocked to hear "it's a boy!", that he literally didn't have a reaction.
Stunned. 

I reached my arm out from the side of my bed to touch him and make sure he was still alive and said "you got your boy!".

Priceless 

We are all so very much in love with this bundle of joy

I had some fun in the hospital taking pictures next to the large window. Lincoln placed his finger in his mouth and gave us a double chin just as I snapped this photo. 

The girls are loving him up and all we hear is "when can I hold him?" minute after minute as they fight over whose turn it is to hold him. 

All in all he's a pretty lucky, special little boy and we are all so happy he is here!

Como in the fall

Ryan enjoyed one more day of golf today today. And I waddled my way through Como today with the girls; though slightly concerned that I was going to go into labor at any moment! 

We made it and boy was I glad to have had all day with the girls :) 

We had the entire Sunken Garden to ourselves. That has never happened! 

It was so much fun to stop and smell the flowers, take some pictures and not have to fight a small crowd. 

Regan climbed up on this brick wall, and waited for me to come by to take this adorable picture. Oh these girls melt my heart! 

Pumpkin carving 2013

We dug out the guts of our pumpkins and carved 'em this weekend. Ok, I'll be honest, Ryan does the carving, and me/girls do the gutting. It works out well and the girls have really started to get into over the last year. 

Just look at that face! 

We'll have to wait until later this week for a picture of his final work....

Update-baby

Here we are, 39 weeks pregnant. Yes, still pregnant. Funny thing is I really do love being pregnant. Most people call me crazy for saying that, or look at me like I've lost my mind. Maybe I have :) But I really do love this most amazing and unique experience. Sure I'm uncomfortable at this stage of the game, there's sciatica pain that makes me stumble when I stand up, crazy belly button pain explained away by muscles being pulled in all directions, heart burn that doesn't burn but rather feels like a giant gobstopper stuck in my throat and feet that are mildly swollen each evening. I haven't seen my toes in weeks, maybe months, but my lovely husband painted them orange recently....perfect for the season. It's comedy hour watching me try to get off the couch or roll out of bed in the morning. It's slim pickins' when it comes to clothing, not much fits around this belly anymore, and there's no way I'm spending any money at this stage. So I may be wearing the same pair of pants until baby is born!

And yet, I still love having this gigantic belly staring at me in the mirror each day. Right now, though, we are all very excited to meet this new one, and super hoping s/he will make his/her debut this weekend. Because at the end of the day, we are ready. 

Life lately-in the fall

We are plugging along and keeping busy this fall. 

Regan's been working hard on adding minutes to her daily reading as she participates in the school's Read-A-Thon. She does quite well (most days) and has finished more chapter books than I can count. Her preferred books lately are the 'Bad Kitty' series and she even convinced Grandma Jan to buy her a new one last week instead of waiting on one to be available at the local library. 

She still enjoys arts and crafts over any toy in the house. Together we enjoy playing board games and she's become a wiz on the school-related websites for learning. Anything to motivate more learning!

Our determined Sidney has recently mastered the monkey bars, from end to end. And her "I can do it by myself" attitude shines from morning to night in every aspect of her day. Don't bother trying to help this girl because she's just going to tell you to "get lost", usually in a much more tactful manner :)

Lately she's been talking about anything and everything "online". I think it's a term she picked up and can't get enough of. And I can't help but laugh, thinking I was pushing 16 years old before I even knew what that word meant. 

As for me and Ryan, we are soaking in the love from these two cuties. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of drama when you have 2 little girls. But when one or the other asks you to snuggle in bed, or listen to them read a story, we can't help but take the time out of our busy evening to love them up. Life is busy, and about to get even more busy as we approach our due date. Each of us are so very excited for this growing family. 

Pumpkin

The girls painted this "pumpkin" today.....

that is one special pumpkin :) 

Fall photo shoot 2013

We missed the mark on this year's fall photo shoot, by one weekend. But today I took the girls to the annual spot and thankfully we found a gorgeous spot for a few pictures. I was a bit saddened because the usual tree had already dropped all of its leaves, but thankful we found this one to use instead. Plus I liked the pond in the background. 

It was a bit chilly, and SUPER windy, so we got just a few shots but I think they'll make some amazing photos and I know the memories we create each fall at this park are something we will all cherish. 

Gosh they are growing up way too fast! Click HERE (2012), and then HERE, to find the link to 2007-2011.  

See the fall colors 2013

Each year, we venture to a local ski hill and ride up the chair lifts to see the fall colors (click here , here,  here and here for previous years). And each year, we comment that they've missed the mark by about 7-10 days in terms of "peak" color. But nonetheless, we keep going back and have a really great time. 

There was a break in the rain/hail tonight, so we made a bee line for the hill in hopes we wouldn't get soaked. 

Turned out to be great timing.

We know that the girls' favorite part of the evening is always the ride up to the top; and who can blame them!

Once on top it was bon fires, s'mores, music and fun. Sidney impressed Ryan with her hoola abilities; something he hadn't seen her doing yet. She's pretty awesome at it and can go for quite a long time; clearly taking after her big sis.

We headed over to the raptor center viewing just in time....dinner time that it! This owl was given a dead mouse (yea gross, but pretty cool at the same time). She looked around for a minute and then in 3 quick bites, it was gone. Ewwww! 

We ran into some family friends who offered to take a family picture, as she put it, one more picture as a family of 4! 

And we grow, and grow, and grow

Ryan commented, as he took the 36 week picture, that it might be the last one we take before slapping on the "born" picture (which by the way I had to tell him goes on BABY, not on my belly). While we'd like baby to stay inside for a few weeks yet, we all know it's not necessarily our doing. Regan was born at 36 weeks, and Sidney at 39. So sometime in the next 3 weeks, we anticipate baby's debut and we could not be more excited! 

I'm starting to dilate, though this is really just par for the course at this stage of the game. Loads of contractions and I've been timing them regularly just in case. 

I'm feeling awfully pregnant now. My belly is much further out front as compared to the girls when I was round in every aspect of the word. My big belly makes everything challenging, from walking, to sitting, to laying. 

Yet each day I am so in love with being pregnant and feeling all the jabs and rolls and kicks, which makes all those uncomfortable feelings all worth it.

Ryan still thinks this one is a boy; and he has many reasons for saying so.
The girls mostly say it's a boy too, though I'm guessing they each want a girl. 

So either way, we are all going to be very happy! 

And here I am, at 'roughly' 36 weeks with all 3. 

Regan, then Sidney and now baby