Living proof I will give in to peer pressure

This post is dedicated to all you nay-sayers out there that accuse me of never taking pictures.

You know who you are.

You who say my children will never know what they looked like as kids.
You who say they will think they're adopted because I have no pictures of them as little people.
You who say my kiddos will think I was in jail and grandma raised them, because all of their lovely photos are at grandma's house and snapped by someone other than myself.

Well, ha, joke's on you.

I've given into peer pressure.

I PRESENT: Cold, hard evidence that I have taken a photo or two.

............................................................................................................


Or at least had someone else do it.

Either way.

Allow me to ramble whilst presenting my proof. Pull up a chair and grab a steaming cup o' cocoa, extra marshmallows.
Or ice cold lemonade. How am I supposed to know what the weather is like where you live? For me, it's currently a balmy 13 degrees outside, so hot chocolate is what I'll be having. The good stuff.

It's been a mere four months since the last time I updated my 'journal,' er, blog. It's been an exciting time. A crazy time. A difficult time.

The first longish story short: the cutest and sweetest little baby was born on November 18th.



I had to have another c-section due to my two previous ones...



...but the positive thing about that is at least it is scheduled so as to guarantee a person a grand total of 22 minutes of sleep the night before.


Oh! And I was able to persuade my darling sister-in-law to come and snap a few photos of the whole shebang. I was really, really grateful.

(Small shoutout: If you live in the Idaho Falls area and are ever in need of a photographer, look her up. She's spectacular.)


WARNING: IF YOU FAINT AT THE SIGHT OF BLOOD, MAYBE LOOK AWAY.

Just scroll down without peeking. I won't judge.





Presenting: BABY!

That's as graphic as it's going to get. Gotta keep things G-rated.


The pictures are so nice for me because then I can better remember the moments that are pretty hazy due to being under the influence of some serious painkillers...



...and see the moments I'm not able to witness in person due to being sewn back up..












My perfect little baby BOY!




You will remember that even with my seventy-five hundred ultrasounds, we went into the surgery not knowing if this sweet person was a girl or boy.

And he was a boy.

Awesomesauce.

(Did I just say that?

Eh.

I'm definitely not getting wittier and/or improving my vocabulary as I'm getting older. Bummer.)








Sure love that cute little mug. Well, both of those mugs.

He was nameless for a mere four days until we finally settled on the name of Porter Kenneth. And by "we finally settled" I actually mean that I gave up in exasperation of trying to agree on something and told Jackson he had the honor of choosing the name.


But I think he did a pretty good job.


So for the next several days I was fortunate enough to experience the comfy-ness of a hospital bed and some pretty cute visitors.







Jackson was a champ taking care of the ol' homefront.

And I have to say a BIG THANK YOU to all of our family and friends that were soooooo helpful and nice to our family while we were adjusting to minion número tres being around. You, the ones who watched the other yahoos, brought meals, helped me clean things around the house, and on and on...

You people are terrific.





Now for the best part. Remember all the stress surrounding this baby's heart prior to him being born? Unprecedented mystery and all that? Well, the little man's heart resumed back to a "normal" rate about two weeks after he was born.



We had various tests done, and everything came back looking good. Relief, anyone? So best guesses for now is that my body initiates some sort of an autoimmune response to pregnancies....but not all of them....and for some unknown reason.

A conundrum. Perhaps something for House to find the solution to after 45 minutes of wrong guesses by all the other doctors.


In the meantime, our little buddy has been growing:

(Some pictures are a little fuzzy, but, hey, I'm a novice to this picture-taking thingamabob, remember?)



















Brylee-boo turned the big 04




Don't laugh. She wanted a Mickey cake, and I can't afford Cake Boss to make her one. Plus she's a 4-year-old....so.....there ya go.


Fine. Laugh if you want. It's not the most glorious cake, I know.








The girls have been cute little things (as usual) over the past couple of months...























They're the best of friends.


And at the end of January we said goodbye to our family and friends





and embarked on a longish journey off to the wintry iceland of North Dakota.


Which has been interesting.


But we've survived the frozen tundra for almost three months now! Hooray!


But more on that next time. For now, I'm off to take more pictures!



Just kidding. I'm actually going to bed.



Thanks for reading.