Sucker.

On Christmas Eve, I found this guy doing this....

I'm a sucker for a thumb sucker. I love that he figured out how to do this.

White Christmas

Mother nature knew what I wanted for Christmas. Last night we got a load of white dumped on us and I love it! I really do. I'm so excited to have a white Christmas! Kade loves it too. This morning he immediately asked if we could go build a snowman! Sad day because his gloves are in Dad's car at work.

Until the snowman building can commence, we'll just cuddle with lots of blankets and watch Christmas movies. Perfect day.

(Also super glad yesterday wasn't like this, Aaron and I were in Salt Lake and Lindon all day shooting a wedding!)

Thanksgiving

Now that the semester is over and things are a little slower with business (it's a blessing I promise) I decided it's time to catch up on the blog. There's a lot to post. SO much has happened since Tadd was born and I haven't documented much of it. 2nd child syndrome? Maybe.

This Thanksgiving we were happy to have Aaron's parent's and brother and sister here with us! We also had one of Serena's friends from her ward. In my adult life, I've found, I absolutely love being a hostess. I love throwing parties. I should throw more of them. Would you come?

Needless to say we had a very fun Thanksgiving!

For a lot of Thanksgiving day, Kade did this...

Dressing the table was probably my favorite part.

And then eating. I can't explain to you how happy I was to be able to eat on Thanksgiving. I was thankful for that in and of itself. During my pregnancy I ate due to necessity and hated every bite. How happy I was to have a holiday celebrated by eating a lot of good food.

Yeah, I took pictures of the food.

This is how Tadd spent his first Thanksgiving dinner.

After dinner we played games and ate pie. I didn't take a picture of the pies. Just had a slice. Let me tell you what, you wish you could have had a slice.

Do I look tired? I was. It's a whollatta work for a 20 minute meal. Perhaps that's why we only do it once a year?

Also: Worth it.

I think my header looks ridiculous atop all these Christmas related photos...I vote I change it.

Snow!

It's snowing! I'm so happy! I love snow at Christmas-time! Kade loves it too. He got so excited when he saw it was snowing. The picture of our house with lights is pretty dark. I'll take one tomorrow before it gets too dark! Yay snow! Also, lucky you for me posting two days in a row! You. Are. Welcome.

Santa's Reindeer

Santa's reindeer are scoping out house tonight apparently. Well not really, they were just deer. Aaron was cleaning up some of Kade's toys tonight and through the window of his toy room he saw two deer! IN OUR FRONT YARD! Yes I all-caps-ed that because it was that crazy! Holy cow. I can't even believe it! I wish we could have retrieved the video camera quickly enough. The battery was dead and Aaron was trying to get the spare in but they started walking away and then they were gone. Holy smokes. Coolest 1:15 am experience to date. For me at least.

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...?

Yesterday for a good portion of the day I was wondering why on earth people think this is the most wonderful time of the year. The traffic is worse, stores are CRAZY busy, and most people are fairly inconsiderate. Yes, that seems truly wonderful.

However, we saw Santa. Kade sure thought it was the most wonderful day of his life. He just wanted to stay and hang out with him.

Tadd...not so much. He was hungry.

(side note: I know it's the most wonderful time of the year because we are celebrating the birth of our Savior. The "world's" Christmas though.....Also, I do actually LOVE Christmas. I'm extremely excited for it this year. Ask Aaron, I tell him every day. Kade understands it this year and that makes it even more exciting! I'm just not a lover of Christmas shopping....or traffic.....or inconsiderate people...)

Temple Lights

Aaron's parents and brother came to our house for Thanksgiving this year. Serena lives here so she usually spends Thanksgiving with us anyway. It was a very fun week. While they were here we decided to have them join us for our annual Salt Lake Temple lights trip. We love doing this every year to kick off the Christmas season. We get all bundled up and Aaron makes his famous hot chocolate. I'm sad this year because I felt so sick most of the night. BUT it was still fun and thanks to Brandon we have some pictures of it! Tadd was very bundled in his stroller. You'll see a picture. If he wasn't in his stroller he was strapped to me.

So far this Christmas season has been our most exciting! Kade is SO into it and it's so fun to watch him get into it. Every time we're in the car at night he points out every house with lights and says "MAMA! Yook, yights! YOOK, yight dare!" or "MAMA! Yook! Kiss-yass tee!" I can't wait for Christmas morning!

Halloween

Halloween kind of fell through the cracks this year at our house since I was in the hospital with a new baby. But thanks to my mom, Kade still got to go trick-or -treating. Sadly his costume fell through the cracks too. I had purchased the fabric to make his costume and just never to to making it. Luckily my mom found this giraffe costume at Target on Halloween.

From what I hear, he was a little bored of the idea of knocking on doors until he realized they were giving him candy to for doing so.....

All of the pictures taken during trick-or treating were taken on my mom's phone camera. I don't know why I didn't think to have her take my back up camera. Oh well.

After trick-or-treating Kade and my mom came to the hospital so Kade could show us his costume. He looked so cute. I loved that the costume had big hips. I also love that one of the nurses thought he was a girl.

Awesome.

He's currently in training to be Aaron's back up for filming weddings.

Thanks Nana for taking Kade trick-or-treating!

As Promised....

I didn't get around to taking the updated picture of his bald spot until today. You can see how much bigger it's gotten! You can also see a little of his rat tail. So gross. I shaved his head today and we've started putting the cream on. Hopefully we'll start seeing an improvement in the next few weeks.

(just in case you didn't figure it out already, the photo on the left was taken when we first discovered it. The photo on the right was taken today.)

It All Started With A Buzz Cut...

A few weeks before Tadd was born, Kade needed a haircut. He needed a haircut SO bad. The way his hair grows creates a rat tail in the back. It's awful. Anyway, I decided I couldn't put it off any longer or I might barf. I got out the clippers and started buzzing away. I started on with a 3 guard on the clippers. It wasn't going to be too short, but short enough to keep my lunch down for a few more days.

He was OK with me cutting it because he got to play "Yario Kart"...

Whilst cutting his hair. I found something. It looked like I messed up and cut a spot too short but I knew I hadn't. It was pretty obvious so I cut the hair shorter hoping it would become less obvious...it helped but only a little. He had this bald spot. A bald spot that hadn't been there the last time his hair was cut like 6 ish weeks before....

He happened to have a doctors appointment that same day. The doctor told us to keep an eye on it and see what happens. So we did and it grew. (I'll take a picture of it when he wakes up from his nap) We took him to the doctor again and he referred us to a dermatologist. We had that appointment today and it turns out he has Alopecia Areata. Basically it's hair loss in a circle shape.

Alopecia areata is a type of hair loss that occurs when your immune system mistakenly attacks hair follicles which is where hair growth starts. -Web MD

They don't know what causes it and the doctor told us that it usually reverses itself but with a steroid cream applied three times a day it will help it grow back more quickly. He also said he sees a few other spots on his head where it might be starting to fall out. So he could soon have a few other bald circles on his head. I'll probably just cut his hair really short and start putting the cream on those spots as well....Crazy! Apparently it's fairly common. It's just so weird!

We've always joked about his "receding hairline" and that he'll probably go bald early in life...just didn't think it would be this early!!

theNKOTB

On Friday October 29th I headed to the doctor so she could give me a better idea of when this baby would be here. After a few words from the doctor and an exam, she sent me to the hospital to do a non-stress test.

At the hospital they hooked me up to all the machines to do the test. They would be monitoring the baby's heart beat and my heart beat for 30 min. 30 min turned into 90 min. My doctor came in (she hadn't been there before) and said I couldn't wait any longer. (A little back story: Kade was born via c-section and I was trying to not have a c-section this time. Due to high risk, inductions can't be done after a previous c-section. So we were basically on a waiting game.) The baby's heart was decelerating. He was in distress and he needed to come out. Translation: c-section....forever.

I will now always have to have c-sections to have my kids. It makes me sad. I'll never experience "giving birth". I know most women will say that I'm not missing out on anything but I am. I feel like I am. But I'd rather have my babies here healthy and safe.

I had been fasting as per request from the doctor's office as a "just in case" for the anesthesiologist. But when I went to their office they had me drink orange juice

before the non-stress test so that the results would be more accurate. The test was at 2:20 ish and we were finished at the hospital at 4. Because I had had the oj they made me wait until 6:30 to come in and get prepped for the birth! Meaning more time of not eating. Let's just say I was starving! By the time the baby was born I hadn't had anything to eat in 21.5 hours! Blast that oj!

Needing to wait to come back actually ended up working out pretty well though. It gave Aaron enough time to get off of work and come home to help me get everything ready to go. And then we left our house. Kade stayed back with my mom, and we left our only child for the last time. He would no longer be our only child, or only boy. Honestly that was harder than I expected.

Kade and I were best buds. I couldn't imagine loving another child as much as I love him and I was worried about him and how he'd feel about everything. After a million hugs and kisses to Kade, we left.

We drove to the hospital. We were surprisingly calm. Especially for the ridiculous amount of traffic we hit. It normally takes us 15 minutes to get to the hospital. That day, it took 40.

There was a pretty sunset.

We got to the hospital and checked in.

Took the elevator up to labor and delivery.

We were escorted to the room I'd be prepped in, where we found this sassy number for me to put on.

And then we waited.

Aaron texted and called family and friends.

After three attempts and a blown vein they got my IV in and drew some blood. I was obviously dehydrated from the forever fasting that had taken place that day. Therefore, my veins weren't super cooperative.

Aaron slipped into HIS sassy number and insisted on taking pictures with me. P.S. my mom took these. Just in case you were wondering.

Surgery started and finished. This guy was born. Tadd was born at 8:44 pm. The nurses ever so kindly let me rest my head against his for a minute before they took him to his first bath. (I'm being serious about the kindly thing. When Kade was born I barely got to see his face before they took him to clean him off. It's another disadvantage to c-section. You're completely numb and laying on a table not really able to move so you can't instantly hold the baby. Sad face.) These are also courtesy of my mom.

After being taken to recovery and watched for an hour they finally took me down to mother/baby so I could hold my sweet little boy.

Instant love that cannot be described. Only felt.

He looks so different from Kade, but then there are times that he looks so similar. Weirdness.

He slept in my room. I'm not afraid of what goes on in the nursery. I just don't like being away from my new baby for that long! I want to soak up every second of the tiny-ness.

This is random but I was feeding him in the hospital and his little foot found it's way out of my gown through the pocket. I love baby feet.

Daddy was in love too.

See! Tiny baby feet are so cute!

Because he was born so late in the evening, Kade didn't get to meet him until the next day. Yes I look incredible. Don't judge. Though I think he was a little disappointed that Tadd wasn't an instant playmate, he sure loves his little brother.

He wanted "baby Tadd" to sit by him while he watched a movie in my room.

And he loves holding baby brother's hand.

Aaron slept like a King on this fancy bed.

It turned out to be a pretty eventful hospital stay. Monday morning at around 6 I woke up with chest pain and I couldn't take a deep breath. The nurse came in and checked my vitals. They called the doctor. Then it was decided that I needed a CT scan. Everything started happening so quickly that I can't remember it all but for some reason I needed another IV. It took four nurses and three more pokes.

Awesome.

They took me down to do my scan. The hospital at that time of day is so empty. It was pretty eerie to be rolled around the hospital in my wheelchair and not see another person the whole way to radiology. And to be honest I was freaking out about the whole situation anyway. Everything turned out to be great though! We found out that it was actually just an unexpected side effect from one of my thyroid medications. Good times. Oh and Aaron slept through pretty much the whole thing. He didn't wake up until right before they got the successful IV poke.

Luckily everything scary happened and the scan results came back before the doctor made his rounds in the morning and he cleared me to go home that same day. Thank goodness. I wanted to be in my own bed and home with my family again!

Because of the CT scan I had to "pump and dump" for 24 hours. Tadd had to have bottles of formula for that time. Kade loved feeding him!

I love this boy. I was preparing myself for the most difficult baby on the planet. He is a sweet surprise! We got lucky enough to have another really easy, mellow baby. He is just as calm and content as Kade was. The only difference so far is that Tadd's stomach is more sensitive so he's had a couple of rough days.

We have done some of his newborn pictures. But I've been doing them slowly.

I'm SO SO SO happy to no longer be pregnant! Tadd has been so fun to have around and Kade absolutely adores him! I'm so lucky to have three cute boys in my life!

The end. Holy cow if you read the whole thing. And 50 bonus points if you can tell me what the title of this post means. Also, I'm still claiming pregnancy brain, so you shouldn't judge my massive grammar and spelling issues today ok?

Also again! Happy Birthday to my mother in law today! Hope you had a great birthday Debbie! We love you!