Kory

My first time holding Kory.

All my babies liked to be swaddled- but he was my worst.  He had to be wrapped soooo tight ALL the time.  I should have kept track of how many times I wrapped that kid up- it would have been an insanely high number. 

He was a cute little duck for Halloween.  This picture doesn't even do this costume justice- it was sooo cute on him. 

I do have to admit that Rob is Kory's favorite.  He loves his Daddy.  Everynight when Rob come home from work, Kory will come crawling from where ever he is, as fast as he can, so Rob can pick him up.  It's so sweet.   

Kory is not a skinny baby.  He is solid.  I keep saying he will be our football player cause he is heavy and he is thick.  His chubby cheeks are so cute. 

Easter 2012.  I love this kid's hair.  He has had a full thick head of hair since he was only a couple months old.  It's so fun to style it. 

Kory's first birthday about a week ago.  The year went by sooo fast!  That kind of makes me sad. 

Kory is my sweet little 1 year old.  Everything about Kory (so far) has been such a wonderful experience.  When I was diagnosed with Lupus, the doctor's told me I probably would not be healthy enough to have any more children.  This devastated me.  I knew I wanted more than two kids.  So when I did get healthy again and then found out I was pregnant- I had never been happier.  The pregnancy was a little crazy- ok, a lot crazy.  I was considered extremely high risk because of my Lupus.  I had blood and urine tests every two weeks the whole pregnancy and then once a week at the end.  I had appointments with the high-risk OB every two weeks for the first 4 months and then once a month until the end.  I had monthly appointments with my regular OB for the first 5 months and then non-stress tests and ultrasounds, twice a week, for the last 4 months.  The doctor's were constantly reminding me of all the horrible things that could happen.  Well, either the doctor's were overly-concerned or I was incredibly blessed, because not one bad thing happened.  My only complaint was that the doctor's wanted to end the pregnancy as soon as possible and wanted to take him at 38 weeks at the latest.  Since I had a previous C-section, they would not induce me, so I did have to have him by C-section. 
The second he was born I was overwhelmed with a huge feeling of gratitude.  Gratitude that he was here healthy and gratitude that I had been able to have him at all.  The next couple of days in the hospital- I was giddy.  I had never been so happy to have a newborn.  With Natalie I was excited, but also scared and nervous because I had no idea what I was doing.  With Kyler- it was a total blur.  He was born 13 months after Natalie, so I think I was just completely overwhelmed and in a state of shock.  So with Kory, it was awesome to be totally ready for another baby, and to be so happy he was here.  I have loved every minute of the last year, which is probably why it has gone by so fast.  I think it also helps he is the best baby in the world.  He is always so happy, so content.  By far he has been my easiest baby. 
Of course our one bump in the road has been his seizures.  At about 7 months he started having drop seizures (I didn't know they were seizures at the time) where he would go completely limp for anywhere from 1 min. to 5 min.  I was starting to worry about this, when all of a sudden, when he was 9 months, he had a full on stop breathing, eyes rolled back, lips turned blue, foaming at the mouth seizure.  Within three days of that we had him down at Primary Children's in Utah where they did and MRI and an EEG which both came back normal.  The doctor's are saying that sometimes children have unexplained seizures and hopefully he will grow out of them someday.  He is on a high dose of the medicine they gave us, which finally started working and he has been seizure free for a month and a half.  We are crossing our fingers and hoping it stays this way. 
He is definitely on the slower end of the scale with his development.  He didn't sit on his own until 7 months, he started army crawling at about 9 months.  And he just barely started crawling on all fours about a month ago.  He is just starting to pull himself up on the furniture.  So it looks like he will be my latest walker, but I don't mind.  He can stay a baby as long as he wants. 
But he's not staying a baby.  It's been amazing- the past three weeks he has completely changed from a little baby who did very little, to a 1 year old who is communicating more, (he just said his first word, "Dadda", of course!) likes to feed himself, wants to play with Natalie and Kyler, tries to tell me what he wants.  He is growing up.  How grateful I am for him and the wonderful, sweet spirit he brings to our home.  I love him very much.

Kyler

Sorry for the "graphic" picture.  Rob told me that I shouldn't put this picture here, but I figure most of the people reading my blog will be women who have seen worse than this before!  Kyler was my only vaginal birth-and my only birth with no pain killers. They got the epidural in at the last second, but he came so fast I am pretty sure I gave birth to him before it kicked in. That was really, really painful! But the crazy thing is, I would do it again in a second. It was a special experience to give birth naturally and without a surgery. Because I had Natalie by C-section, the only way I could have Kyler vaginally was to go into labor on my own- they would not induce me. So I prayed the whole pregnancy that my body would cooperate and I would go into labor. Sure enough I went into labor 10 days early. Thank you Kyler for coming early and giving me that experience.

Six months old.

Cute little baby sleeping. All my kids love their blankets and always did weird things with them when they were sleeping. Kyler always had his blanket on his head.

Kyler's 3!

Wearing new clothes, and sporting the Toy Story backpack Daddy bought him.

Easter 2012. So handsome.

If I had to pick one word to describe Kyler it would be...exhausting. I think the mixture of being a unique little boy and being 3 is...exhausting. He is teaching me so much about patience, long-suffering, and creative mothering. But there are so many things that I love about this kid. He has a passion for things. He is very loving. At least 3 times a day he will come up to me, wrap his arms around me and say "I love you so much Mommy, I give you hugs and kisses." This makes all the rest of the stressful day worth it! He has a passion for things he's interested in. He loves Disney movies. Ok, loves might be an understatement. He is OBSESSED with Disney movies.   He loves Cars, Toy Story, Meet the Robinsons, the old classic Disney cartoons like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Chip and Dale. He can act out word for word, several minute long scenes from these movies. Almost everything he sees in everyday life, he associates with a movie. For example, the other day Natalie brought me a flower from outside, Kyler grabbed it and acted out a scene from a Chip and Dale cartoon that has a flower in it.  He is incredibly creative and imaginative.  He will pretend his toy airplane is a time machine and the other day he put a clear plastic cup on the head of his stuffed Buzz Lightear, so Buzz would have a helmet, just like in the movie.  I love Kyler's laugh.  He has an awesome sense of humor.  That's because he got MY sense of humor! :)  We are working on Rob's sense of humor- he definitely does not think many things are very funny. :)  Kyler knows when something is funny and he laughs- loud.  I love it.  Kyler loves riding his bike, and going on the 4-wheeler with Daddy.  I did an interview with him and here are his answers.

What is your favorite?

Food:  Pizza
Dessert:  Cookies
Color:  Blue
Book:  The Incredibles Book
Movie:  Meet the Robinsons
T.V. show:  Super Why
Friend:  Emily
Toy:  Mr. Potato Head
Animal:  Dinosaur
What is your favorite thing to do?  Play outside
If you could have anything in the world what would you want?  A Cars Toy
What do you want to be when you grow up?  Peter Pan

Too often I find myself wishing Kyler would grow up faster.  I know once he is grown up I will wish he was little again.  Kyler is definitely a special member of our family.  He is Natalie's friend and play-mate, he is Daddy's little helper, and he is my sweet little boy who tells me he loves me probably more often than I deserve it.  He's so forgiving.  He gets in trouble alot, but he will always come apologize afterwards and tell me he loves me.  He is a good example to me.  I love him very much.  

Natalie

My first time holding her.

Asleep in Daddy's truck.

She started walking at 10 months and was into everything!  Here she is emptying out my lid drawer.

For awhile Natalie never fell asleep in her bed.  We would find her asleep in random places all over her room.  Mostly she would fall asleep right by the door. 

Her first day of pre-school.  She was so ready and so excited. 

Easter 2012.  She looked so pretty.

I haven't been very good about keeping a journal of the things my kids are doing.  I have a notebook somewhere where I wrote down some things about Natalie and Kyler's first year.  When they crawled or when they walked and what their favorite things were.  I've written down nothing about Kory.  :(  So besides those few things, I've written down nothing about their milestones, or things they are doing.  Hopefully I can start that now. 
Natalie is a beautiful, smart, kind, almost 5 year old.  Her birthday is in a couple of weeks.  She is the "good kid" in our family.  She rarely gets into trouble and she is very good about listening to and obeying me and Rob.  She is a fabulous helper with Kory.  Without even having to ask her, she will play with him and entertain him.  Kory loves her.  I can tell by her interaction and creativity with him that she will be a great Mom someday.  She is also very good friends with Kyler and they play together all day long, almost always with no fighting.  She has been going to pre-school all year and loves it.  She has been learning alot and is definitely ready for Kindergarten.  She loves both sets of grandparents and is always asking to go over to their houses.  She still loves to cuddle, which I'm afraid will end soon.  Ever since the weather got warmer, I cannot keep that girl inside.  She wants to play ouside all day long, riding her bike and playing with her friends.  She changes her outfit at least 5 times a day.  She loves wearing different things.  She is so patient when I do her hair, and like I said, she is beautiful.  I did a little interview with her and here are her answers.

What is your favorite?
Food:  hotdogs (yes, without fail, she asks for a hotdog every day) 
Dessert:  Cookies
Color:  pink
Animal:  giraffe
Book:  Sesame Street book
T.V. show:  Dinosaur Train
Movie:  Tangled
Friend:  Megan
Toy:  There's a funny story that goes with this one.  During Family Night this week, we were playing "school" for the game.  Rob and Natalie were taking turns being the teacher.  When Rob was the teacher, he was asking Natalie what her favorite things were.  He said, "Natalie, what is your favorite toy?"  She thought for about 1 sec.  and then shouted at the top of her lungs, "Daddy!"  It's true, she loves playing with her Daddy.  They have a great, wild, LOUD time almost everynight.  Sometimes Rob is exhausted by how much she wants to play with him.  It's his own fault though, he's just so darn fun!  Everynight when he comes home from work Natalie says, "Daddy can I play with you?"  They have a special relationship. 
What is your favorite thing to do?  Ride the 4-wheeler with Daddy. 
If you could have anything in the world, what would you want?  Candy
What do you want to be when you grow up?  A mom

She is definitely growing up.  I can tell she's starting to watch me more, see what I'm doing, see how she should act as a girl.  Whenever I paint my fingernails, she wants me to paint her nails the same color.  She notices when we are both wearing skirts and says "Look Mom, we're matching!  Because you're a girl and I'm a girl."  She wants to help with the dishes and cooking.  She wants to wear make-up like me and loves wearing cute girly outfits.  She's so fun!  I'm so glad I have a daughter and I love her very much.