An Eventful First Week...Gobble, Gobble!

It has been a busy week for our first week home with our new little man. Not that we thought it would be any different, but busy nonetheless. Esaias has appreciated the brought in meals, well I should clarify that, the brought in treats. I'm not sure the last time we had this many brownies and cookies in our house at one time. So Cookie Monster has been hard at work this first week as a new big brother. Esaias has done very well adjusting so far. Occasionally he asks if Oslin can be put back in, but I don't think that's because he really wants him to go away, just that he's curious if he comes "out" and "in"? He also has put a couple plastic toys up his shirt and said, "baby" and then pulls them out and says, "baby out." Wow! Aren't they smart?

Danny gets to be home with us for 2 weeks! It's great to have him here to help out. I think Esaias might have the hardest time when Daddy and Mommy aren't home together all the time. He's been very spoiled with attention from both of us being home.

 It's always amazing how quickly your body can recover from giving birth. Or maybe it's just me, that's so happy to not be pregnant anymore, that anything feels better. I don't know, but each day, I notice some improvement. Of course there are the few minor set backs with my milk coming in, and a few tears that sometimes accompany that overwhelming feeling of change and the tasks of raising children, but those come and go...and eventually we (Moms) embrace it! But by day 4, I was giving my boys haircuts. I think I was expecting myself to do a little more, because I found myself feeling a little disappointed at the end of the day that I couldn't do more. But in hind site, I think that was a pretty good feat for the day.

And of course by day 6 & 7 we were celebrating Thanksgiving with family and headed into a night and a day full of shopping....Yes, Danny & I made it to Wal-mart for Black Friday (well, Thursday night)...and a few other stores on Friday. We are all doing great for the first week.

 Auntie Marisa bought Oslin this little Turkey Day outfit. It only made a couple hours before he peed out and had to be changed. Good thing we got some pictures first.

Oslin met some new cousins and spent some time being held by several of them. Lilli is always a favorite choice.

Oslin has been doing well. He eats about every 4 hours, although he will some times go up to 6 or 7 hours at a time, if we let him. He only gets up one time at night. However, the problem is that he wants to be awake for 2-3 hours. That's been a little rough. But Danny & I are working together and managing. Thank heavens for partnerships in this parenting deal. Last night, he was only awake for 30 minutes...I hate to get to excited yet, but wouldn't it be nice to think we had resolved that issue?

It's been a good first week. The next few weeks only seem to be just as busy and daunting, but if I can survive this week, the rest should get better. And although, we didn't get to host our traditional Thanksgiving at our house...I am very happy and grateful our little man came before Thanksgiving day, so that he could share in the family festivities. I love having a little baby around this time of year.

Wow That's a Big Boy!

Happy Day, Oslin finally arrived!

My water broke around 1:30 am waking me up. Having experienced this a couple weeks ago, I was hesitant to respond to quickly and wanted to make sure it was really "the time." I called my mom around 2:30am asking her to come and stay with the other kids while we went to the hospital.

Auntie Marisa met us at the hospital and the had us admitted and in the labor & delivery room shortly after 4 am.

Although I was having contractions they were still irregular, but progressing. After getting the epideral and working with best anesthesiologist ever to manage my natural tendency to drop blood pressure and throw up, the nurse wanted to give my irregular contractions a little boost, and gave me 2 ml of pitosin.

That did it, by 8:45 am she said, let's just check, maybe we will do a practice push. Then she said very mater of factly, "No, no practice push. Let's wait for the doctor." They all came in, and I mean all, as it was teaching day at the hospital, we had every student nurse and doctor possible in the room. About 2 contractions/pushes and 1 "slow-down only half a push, and wow that's a big head," and Oslin was here.

3 boys...Boy Power!

 & our only girl!

 Thanks G'ma Layne for helping us out. 

Esaias very excited to have "Baby Oslin out."

 Grandpa & Grandma Mortensen made it to the hospital on the first day to say hello!

 Auntie Marisa, Uncle Marcus & the cousins made it to welcome Oslin as well. Lafai was very excited to meet his new boy cousin.

 So, this is Danny & I trying to capture a moment as we left the hospital.  I wanted a picture of me taking the ride out of the hospital by wheelchair along with Oslin so that I could post, "Baby's first ride" and Mommy's last ride." Danny was to weighted down with bags to get the picture of me in the wheelchair...oh well.

All the waiting, and he's finally here. When they placed him on my tummy immediately following delivery, I couldn't believe how much he weighed. I could feel how dense he was. There he was healthy, strong, and dark hair. Just like Isaac had ordered, and all the heartburn told. While he resembled a Sandoval, Marisa & Danny both think they see some resemblance to Grandpa Martin. Wouldn't that be fitting for his name sake? He does look a little different from my other 3 kids. He has not been as photogenic as Marina & Esaias, but he's still a looker. And who can miss those sweet fat cheeks?

Welcome to our home Oslin. We are all very grateful for this wonderful surprise that Heavenly Father has given us. It's official 2 + 2 = 4. Happy days ahead!

Halloween Festivities

 So, I'm thrilled to say that Halloween went off with a bang! Although, I have been in the early stages of labor since this weekend, and not sure if I would make it to Halloween....we did it! I even managed to do the "trendy" thing and help the kids decorate their pumpkins instead of carving them. Esaias took a good long nap giving the older 2 my undivided attention for a fun afternoon of decorating. I even think they turned out pretty good.

 Marina wanted to create the spooky scene. And Isaac...

 Wanted to pull off Mike from Monster's Inc. You tell me what you think? Did we pull it off?

 After decorating pumpkins, we went straight to work on decorating ourselves. So that we could meet Daddy at work for CCA's Fall Festival.

 These 2 have definitely been raised on the street. Sesame Street that is. They both love it...so what better way to demonstrate their love and devotion to the long time PBS show, and come together in brotherly love (even 10 years apart in age)...Sport Elmo and Cookie Monster costumes!

 Marina was always more of a Barney fan...and just couldn't get into picking a Sesame Street costume. So, when we came across a Monster High Doll costume online...she was all over that. I tried to get her to be Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street, instead she opted for Abbie-abominable. So she got to wear fur leg and arm warmers, with silver glitter in hair. What more could a girl want? When I did her make-up with aqua eyeshadow, and with her new beautifully white straight teeth (she just got her braces off last week) Isaac took one look at his sister, and said..."scary!" I responded with that's not very nice. And he further explained that he didn't like his sister looking so grown up, and "diva" like. I could tell that he just didn't like that she looked very beautiful. While she went to put things away, Isaac and I had a conversation about how to be a good big brother. I.e. protecting her from his friends, or friends brothers, always complimenting her and being good to her. He was fine with this conversation, but he did tell me he didn't like that she would end up being pretty. Too funny! 

Dad even joined in on the fun. His office/dept. at work dressed up as Skittles. Of course, he would be the orange Skittle. I wore an orange which at this stage in the pregnancy isn't hard to imagine a pumpkin on the front of me. In fact, when the kids carried their pumpkins outside for pictures, they were complaining about how heavy they were. I commented that's what I've been carrying around for the last few months. Marina said, "OOOh I don't want to do that!" Anyway, the clan set off to trick-or-treating about 6:00pm on a warm Halloween night, filled our bags, stopped by our friends Jen & Chad's. Halloween wouldn't be complete without seeing our festive friends. All in all, it was a good evening. So much so, that the first things out of Esaias' mouth this morning was "candy, Elmo, & Cookie Monster!" And then I thought, "How do you tell him it's all over?"