The Big Day

Tuesday, Dec. 4th was Marty's Birthday, here's how it all went down:

 

Beautiful Jill, all ready to go. Isn't it amazing how she wakes up all put-together like that?

 



 

Here's a thumbs up shot for Taylor. (it's Taylor's new thing) Jill was ready to get this baby out!

 

 

 

Before we knew it, Jill had spinal anesthesia (that worked this time!) and we heard a new, LOUD voice. Here he is in all his glory, all 8 lbs of it.

 

Here he is with Mom and Dad, all wrapped up. It's probably good that they can't see well at first. The blue hair and masks on everyone would definitely freak me out...

 

 

 

Look at all of that hair!

 

 

Here he is with Dad,who was still well-rested at that point.

 

 

Matthew came straight from school to see his new brother, he was really happy and wanted to have the longest turn holding the baby. He did pretty well and only needed a bit of help to keep Marty's head up.

 

Here was the most excited person in the place all day (at least the most outwardly excited). Taylor had been making up songs for Marty all day and finally got to sing them to him. I think one had to do with his halloween costume next, year. What a great big sister!

 

 



 

Marty even woke up to see everybody! I'm sure it was hard to sleep with all of the excitement in the room!

 

 

Looking up at Mommy. She's the best to look at with the dark hair and eyes. Dad is just a blonde-white blur that doesn't seem to help out at all when he's hungry and makes him cold during diaper changes.

 

 

There is Marty with his proud Gram. We don't know how we'd make it without her help.

 

 

Matthew found some new toys in the hospital. Look at that set of lungs! Dad needs to take him to the hospital to show the post-op patients how to deep-breathe.

 

 

Pretty happy about his snazzy new socks.

 

 

 

A rare moment where he's not hungry, needing a diaper change or crying. What a cute guy!

 

 

We are so happy to have Marty in our family! We love him so much already. Thanks to everyone who did all the little and big things to help get him here in the last 9 months. To everyone who watched the kids during appointments, gave encouraging phone calls, brought a meal when Jill didn't even ask for it and helped out in any other way I am currently forgetting, Thank you so much!

The Arrival

Here he is!

Marty Alexander Lau

The stats:
- 8lbs.
- 20 inches long.
- Extremely good looking and well-behaved

Jill did really well, and now we get to enjoy the baby and let her recover for a while. Thank you all for your prayers and support! More pictures to come...

Sweet kids and only 4 more days!!!!! (new posts below...almost caught up)

 There are days where it seems that when Matthew gets home from school that I am just breaking up fights the rest of the day. Somedays however they play so nicely and can be so sweet to each other. I was doing dishes when I overheard Taylor first reading her own version of a book. It was very sweet and Matthew sat there and just listened. Matthew then told his version of the story but as you can tell from the picture they both were talking at the same time. This talking at the same time thing can be such a problem but I guess this day they were fine with the dual story telling.
       I really can not believe that we are about to add another little person into our family. There are only 4 more chains on our countdown chain to pull off. Marty will be here Tuesday morning!! I remember those feelings of being a little sad before having Taylor thinking that I wouldn't be able to give enough attention to Matthew. She fit right in though and only made things better. I really don't have much of those feelings this time; I think we are all just ready for a baby in our home. I realize things will be different and trust me Glen and I sometimes wonder if we are ready for the sleepless nights, crying, and having to bring a diaper bag around. It has been a long time since the diaper phase for us and it has been so easy to go and do things with Matthew and Taylor. We couldn't be more excited though and I know Marty will be one lucky little guy with Taylor and Matthew as his sister and brother. What is he going to look like? What kind of personality is he going to have? We can't wait!! I really was hoping I could just go into labor today and have him now; it would be perfect. Glen's Mom comes tomorrow and Glen is officially on vacation after tonight so we have a lot to look forward to.

Thanksgiving Break

 We had a great Thanksgiving break and were able to have Kirstin and Jeremiah visit us. It was the first time we have done Thanksgiving in our own home and I think it turned out pretty well. I hardly cooked at all which was awesome and the food all tasted amazing. My feet were swelling like crazy but thankfully it only lasted a few days and now I have ankles again! We had a fun few days playing games, going to the zoo, eating barbecue and riding bikes in the park. The kids loved having visitors and were followed around constantly. Hopefully they didn't mind but it sure was a nice break for me. Thanks to Kirstin and Jeremiah for letting Glen and I go on a date one night too!!

 Matthew loves playing frisbee and is pretty good at it!

He is just so cute. I can't get enough of kissing his soft cheeks. I will be the sad the day his face gets a little more structure but his Dad (below) is pretty cute so it will be okay if he looks like that.

Taylor made it around the long bike loop around the park

We went to the zoo the day after Thanksgiving and it was great. The weather was perfect, it wasn't too crowded, and the animals all gave us a good show.

I have so much to be thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Before Church

 Adorable Taylor

Matthew showing off his missing tooth that he had to get pulled. He hit his mouth on the wood floor months ago and it didn't even seem that bad when it happened. It was a little loose and eventually his gums got infected and the tooth died so it had to be pulled.

Happy Birthday Matthew

 Matthew's birthday was on the 21st which was the day before Thanksgiving. He had to wear his birthday hat from school and the feather hat he made at school too for the picture. His police costume from Gram and Grandad was a huge hit; he didn't want to take it off all day. I told him a long time ago that we would let him have a party with friends since he never really has. I planned on lots of friends and doing a theme but as his birthday got closer and closer I saw it wasn't going to happen. I guess my excuse is that I am almost ready to have a baby. So I threw something together last minute and Matthew only asked for a few friends which was perfect. I am glad he seemed to have no expectations and was happy with a low key party. We did a lot of relays with balloons and here the kids were trying to pop them all. We sure love our Matthew man; I can't believe he is 6! Later in the day we met up with the Haucks at the park and tried out their rocket launcher. It was pretty amazing how high these rockets would go and Matthew stuck with it for a long time; he thought it was the greatest thing ever. It was a great day!

 I kind of suggested that Matthew didn't have to have a cake for his birthday and that he could have any dessert. Luckily, Matthew remembered I had a cheesecake for mine and said he wanted pumpkin cheesecake. PERFECT!!! Cake is good but other desserts are sure better don't you think? I have also decided that the cute kid cakes are just not my best talent so I will keep encouraging the kids to pick other things!

Rewind back to July: Swim lessons

 I know it seems funny to post these now but since the blog is my scrapbook I have to get these on here. I guess I should move them to the right spot eventually. Matthew and Taylor took swimming lessons from a lady who does it at her home. They were in the same class but their teacher really pushed them all according to where they were at so it was great for me to not have to sit through two different lessons. The kids did great!! Both have always been so brave in the water; Matthew could swim the whole length of the pool by the end. Taylor dove for rings and swam quite a ways by herself. She could jump off the diving board and swim by herself to the ladder. It was fun to watch them and they loved it!!

Racing the swimming dog. Matthew and Taylor are the two on the right with their heads in the water. The dog was pretty fast.

The whole class. The three girls around Matthew and Taylor are sisters and are in our ward and are such fun girls and I like their Mom too!!

Oh the things we do for fun

 I wish I could remember who decided to do this one evening.  One of the kids insisted that I take pictures of it too. First we spelled Taylor's name and then we had to do the letters we did not do already to finish Matthew's name. It was pretty funny watching these 3 and we all laughed through the whole thing.

T



A

Y

L

O

R

 And now the missing letters for Matthew's name below....

M

H

E

W