Baby Gramps

Hey everyone. I am no longer pregnant! Yay! So Baby Gramps has arrived. Okay, okay, we didn't end up naming him Graham Paul (although, that woulda been funny and cute...) We went through about 8 name books this time, and even scoured the dictionary for names. It was rough, lemme tell ya. The good news is that he has a name, unlike Jacob who was "Baby Boy" for about a week after his birth. We decided on the name Haven Elias Bates. He was born on his due date 11/11/11 at 12:27pm. He was 8lbs. 12oz. and 21 inches. Biggest baby of ours so far. The babies get progressively bigger with each pregnancy. Coincidentally I get bigger with each pregnancy too, psh.

So right now Mike and Vessel are at church and I just got Jacob and Haven down for naps, AT THE SAME TIME, no less. Nice work, mama. I am pretty brain dead on account of Haven not sleeping a wink last night. First night in the hospital he was a dream. Slept well, ate well, and barely made a peep. Last night Mike and I took turns holding him, rocking him, changing him, and feeding him. Well, Mike didn't do much in that last department, actually. :) This kid just wants to eat a lot. I'm sure he'll be happy when my milk comes in. TMI? I think he's gonna be the one baby of ours who takes to the pacifier like a fish takes to water. The others did not want to be pacified. Haven, apparently does. He's got a pretty bad oral fixation, I'll give him that. He's cute though. I can see he resembles the others a little, while still maintaining his own look. He's got a nice round noggin' and a little bit of dark brown hair on top. Big cheeks and the "Bates nose." So far, Jacob has not been so thrilled about baby Haven being here. He's curious, of course, but also very ambivalent and jealous and not wanting to share his mama. :( Vessel, on the other hand, has been super excited and very helpful.

So I've got a ton more to tell you all. Like the particulars of the birth and delivery, cos I know you all want to hear the juicy details (no pun intended.) I also have a name post lined up to publish soon. Right now I better get some rest of my own, while the 2 little hooligans are asleep. Here are some pictures to wrap this up:

SQUASH!

It was Halloween night and we had just gotten done trick-or-treating when Vessel reminded us that we never got a pumpkin to carve. We had planned to get one before Halloween, but with so much going on the week before, we never got around to it. So, we headed to the store to get a pumpkin for Vessel. After all, every kid needs to carve a jack-o-lantern for Halloween, right? But when we got to the store we soon found out that all the pumpkins were gone. So we had to improvise. We'd have to get a gourd of some kind, something big enough to carve. The only thing available that seemed big enough was this spaghetti squash. So we convinced Vessel it was way cooler than a pumpkin, and took it up front to purchase it. Well, we didn't end up carving it that night since it was so late by the time we got home. And the next day was pretty busy as well. Okay, to be honest, we didn't carve the thing until 4 days into November. I know, talk about crappy parent, huh? Well, at least we carved it. And it was difficult! The flesh of the squash was a lot harder. We broke 2 knives trying to cut it open and carve it's face. Scooping the guts out proved to be equally difficult because the top was so narrow I could barely get my hand in. But we did it. And Vessel was pleased as punch, which is all that really matters.

Broken knives

Halloween

My two superheroes.

Vessel's Birthday

This year we made a big deal of Vessel's birthday. He was so excited about it that he wouldn't stop talking about it several months prior to his actual birthday. At the beginning of October I made a chain from construction paper that he could cut a loop off of everyday to count down the days until the big day. It's the first year he's actually been excited about it, so we decided to throw him a 5 year birthday party. He wanted to have his party at the local arcade, Galaxy Games. So we invited his preschool pals and some of his other friends to have pizza and play games at the arcade. What could be more fun than playing video games, loading up on pizza and sugar, and having a costume contest?

Here is Vessel's cake. He wanted it to be Halloween-y.

The kids all gathered 'round to watch the cutting o' the cake.

Digging in!

This kid is such a "gamer," seriously.

Here he is with all his loot. He pretty much hit the jackpot this year when it comes to gifts.

If you look real closely you can see his milk mustache.

Lame Randomosity.

I'm really having a frustrating night and I've got so much going on in my brain I can't sleep. Plus I have clothes in the dryer still, so I can't go to bed until they're done anyway. I guess I better liven up this post with some randomosity. For starters, I might as well mention I'm wearing the ugliest shirt ever. It's a shirt Mike got during college and it's bright red and says something about U of U Finance on it. I basically took it over because it's ginormous. And since nothing else fits this pregnant body anymore, I like to wear it to bed or around the house. I recently spilled some bleach on it while doing the laundry, but that didn't stop me from keeping it. Mike thought I might finally get rid of it. He was pretty bummed to realize I wanted to hold on to it. Hey, desperate times, desperate measures. It's like one of the few t-shirts that actually covers me up. Mike doesn't hesitate to let me know how hideous he thinks the shirt is. Sexy? No. Comfortable? Yes. And at this point in my life, I'll go for comfort over hot. Pretty sad, right? I feel apathy setting in. I'm just getting so exhausted. Yes, pregnancy blah blah blah blah. You've heard it from me before. I hate it. I am so tired, so swollen, so fat, so hormonal, so achy, and all that other garbage. But mostly I am just mentally not with it. My brain feels like it's in a frying pan half the time. It's worse when I have a night like tonight. Blah.
Hey, you know what annoys me, even more than pregnancy? Waking up to find that my almost 5 year old son missed the mark when he got out of bed in the middle of the night to use toilet. It happens all the time, in fact. Is he too sleepy or unconscious to aim that thing? Perhaps. But mopping up the floor every morning is beginning to be a joke.
So I was thinking tonight.... Remember how being single was so easy? Nobody to account for. Nobody to answer to. Nobody to make decisions with and fight with over said decisions. Being able to do what I want when I want. Spending money how I want. No responsibility for anyone but myself. Oh, what am I saying? I must be more tired than I thought. Marriage is great, even though it's hard. Yes, it's hard. It's so freaking hard sometimes. But it's good. It's more good than bad. Right? You married people agree? Don't you? DON'T YOU?!?!?
So....I don't want to start a new day tomorrow. Blah. Same thing, different day. I'm being such a pessimist right now, geez. I need a good night sleep. Oh my heck, it's so hot in here. It always feels hot to me. I leave the window open at night and Mike freezes under the blankets while I can't seem to cool off. Must be that extra layer of fat. Oh, and the hormones. Did I mention how tired of pregnancy I am? And as tired as I am of it, I don't want to have this baby early. And here's why. First off, this week is packed. Appointments, appointments, errands, Trunk or Treat, ward Halloween party and chili cook-off (which I signed up for, for some reason), Vessel's birthday party, stake conference, stake conference (with Dallin H. Oaks!!!), Halloween.....Then next week Mike will be working LONG hours because of earnings season, and I don't want to have the baby when he won't be able to take any time off. Plus, I'd really like to have this baby on my due date. It would be the coolest birthday ever. So, I guess I'll just complain about being pregnant until it's over with. Then I can complain about how difficult life is with 3 children. :) Something for you to enjoy. Ha, I'm really in a bad mood right now. I think I should stop writing before I type more things I'll probably regret. Here's hoping for a better day when I wake up in the morning. Or I should say, get woken up by my crying 16 month old or my early rising 5 year old. One of those. :)

Dave and Karen's Visit Part II (the black and white version)

Riverside Railyard

We saw some graffiti that read "Hardcore Parkour" and so this is what we did.

Loved this shot of Karen, Dave, and Vessel.

Dave and Karen's Visit Part I

At Gibson Park feeding the birds.

The Riverside Railyard, the skate park at Gibson Park.

Dave has mad climbing skillz.


While driving home we saw what we think might the exact car we used to have before I wrecked it. Perhaps the fixed it up and resold it..... Burple, is this you?

I know this might sound lame, but we kind of have a bucket list of Great Falls. There are some things we needed to cross off that list before moving to Portland, and one of those things included going to the "Sip n' Dip" bar & lounge. It's supposedly one of the most famous bars in America, so we pretty much had to go there (to see the mermaids of course.) We just went in, got pictures of the mermaids and left. To be honest, the place was a big let down. I thought it would've been much, much cooler.

New Rig

With the upcoming expansion of our family unit, we decided we needed a bigger rig. So we consigned ourselves to owning a minivan. Meet our "new" 2005 Gold Dodge Grand Caravan, otherwise known as "the Nugget."

Gibson Park in the Fall

Notice the dirt on his upper lip?