The menace

Here is a small glimpse of what Tanner goes through all day, everyday. He is such a good natured, chill baby! (Who, by the way, is now sleeping 8 hours at night!!!) As evidenced here, Tate LOVES bothering him! I loves these pictures, and how in a matter of 1 minute Tate bothers him in nearly every way imaginable!

This is Tate's personal favorite, "honking" Tanner's nose

Bless his heart! (Tanner's)

Tanner's blessing

We blessed Tanner on the last Sunday in March. Chris has done a fabulous job with both of the boys blessings. All the boys looked especially handsome in their suit coats! Tate would not take his jacket off the entire day, until he went to bed and we had to force him to take it off. It saddens me that this is the best family picture that we got! The family support. It stressed me out trying to get everyone to gather for the picture. Everyone came together fine, but then everyone wanted to be in charge about what way we needed to face so that there were no shadows on faces. We seriously changed the direction we were facing like 3 times! By that time I was done with trying to get more pictures, but now I wish that I had more! (This is why I don't have a better one of us 4)

Tanner was so cute. He is the absolute best baby. His suit was one that my mom made for Tate when he was blessed. It is totally 80's and I love it! Tanner is a few weeks older than Tate was when he wore it, so it was a bit of a struggle getting the pants on, but we did it!

Random Little Things

I feel like Tate and I have become little buddies recently. Chris has been gone a lot too, so that leaves plenty of time with the boys. I try and do fun stuff so that I don't get too bored being home alone. (Well, if you don't count two other people I am home alone :) ) Here's a random series of pictures. I guess random little things like these are what has made up my days and evenings lately.


Our neighbors across the street have 5 boys, and Tate is constantly wandering into their yard. There is always something fun over there. One day he found all of these little cars, and then he hauled them all back across the street onto the sidewalk in front of our house. I think it is so crazy that he just naturally is drawn to all this "little boy" stuff.


For some reason he decided to play on his belly???

Everyone has probably had pizookie (pizza + cookie) before, but in case you haven't you should. It is just a big mushy cookie with ice cream on top. The best one I have ever had is at Oregano's. I loved this little picture with Tate's tongue licking the leftovers on his lips.

I was under great pressure to get into position and look natural before the camera took the picture. It didn't really work. I never have myself in the pictures, and I figure I should probably start being in a few that I take of the boys.

As for Tanner, he basically eats, sleeps, and, well, that's about it. Actually he is starting to smile and coo. It is amazing how that tiny smile can make me so happy!

Happy St. Patty's Day

I had to get a picture in our green shirts. I have been staying busy with the boys and Chris has been staying busy with a new business that we started in November. Actually Chris is staying busy with more than one new business, in typical Christopher fashion! :) He is a true entrepreneur!! Tanner is getting huge. He is an awesome baby. I was worried that since Tate was so good that I would be in for a surprise with Tanner, but he is really good. I am hoping that any day now he will sleep through the night...we'll see.

Happy, Happy Birthday...

Happy Birthday to Chris, happy birthday to Chris...and Tanner

Tanner Clark

January 25, 2009

1026am

6 lb 30z , 19 in long

Chris had a special visitor come on his birthday...and he's here to stay for quite a long time. I still had 10 days until my due date, so we weren't quite expecting him, but I think we were mostly ready. Tanner is named after Chris' brother who passed away, and Clark is my dad's middle name, named after Caleb Clark Baldwin, who was is Liberty Jail with Joseph Smith.

Here's "the story": I had not even had too many regular contractions until Sunday morning, when at about 3am I woke up and noticed that my contractions seemed to be occuring pretty regularly, and they were starting to hurt a bit. At 530 or so I got out of bed and decided to pack a bag for the hospital, just in case. So I packed a bag, and then woke Chris up and told him that I thought the baby might want to share a birthday with him. I did NOT want to go the the hospital just to be sent home and told to come back later, so we hung out at the house for a bit until Tate woke up, and then we left to take him to my mom's house, and then head to the hospital. By this time it is almost 900, and the contractions were hurting really bad, but all I had to compare them to was when I was induced with Tate. With the induction it seemed that they hurt worse, and occured much more frequent, with virtually no resting between contractions. So maybe that is what I was anticipating?? So anyway, we check in and then go to triage. The nurse is asking all the questions, and then I have a hard contraction, and my water breaks while I am sitting in the bed. So she says, "well, at least now you know you get to be admitted." And then she says, " I better check you." So she checks me and gets this really suprised look on her face and says, "you're 9cm!" So they take me to L&D pretty fast, and they ask if I want an epidural. I secretly have always wanted to give birth without one, and I figure since I am already 9cm, it probably can't get much worse. They call my OB and he says he doesn't think he can make it in time, so they call the on call guy from the group. So I labor for about 1/2 hour of ridiculous contactions, the whole time I am thinking about my refused epidural. I tell the nurse I feel like I need to push, they page the on call Dr. to come...while I am waiting I push through 3 contractions or so, the Dr. gets there and I push through 1 contraction, and he's born! For the last 7 or 8 contractions I was wondering what kind of huge mistake I had made by not getting the epidural, but when it all was said and done, I was glad. Now I can say that I did it, and next time...we'll see. Maybe it will be a been there, done that...give me the epidural now kind of thing. I escaped with out a tear or a stitch, and as I am typing this I am realizing that I think I lucked out. It happened so fast, I can't believe that he's here, and I can't believe that I forgot how much work babies are at first. It's an adjustment, for sure. Luckily my mom has been able to help out a ton with Tate, since the feeding of the wee babe takes literally 1/3 of my day right now. Chris has been great, too. I think Tanner is already filling out a little bit, but we'll see tomorrow at his Dr. appt. Little babies make you feel such gratitude. I am so grateful that he is here and that he is healthy, and for the chance and the blessing that I have to raise a little family!

At first Tate didn't know what to think of him and he just kind of ignored him for the most part.

Tate now likes to hold him and won't let him go. He's a little rough. Tonight he tried to pick a booger out of Tanner's nose. Poor Tanner.

I am now way outnumbered, but I am ok with that. Doesn't Tate all of the sudden look HUGE?Here's my 3 boys: