Christmas (finally), P's bday, V-day, etc.

I realized I never did post some of our Christmas stuff (hee-hee). So here's a bit of what we did. We did the traditional Christmas Eve out at my Grandpa's house, including a pinata (a candle this year).

Christmas morning by the tree

Opening presents

Jared in his santa outfit (thanks Gma H!)

Here's some random pictures from the month of January (Jared around 4mo old):

Madisyn loves to "help" with Jared. But she also likes to stuff random things around him. Here he is getting buried in his swing. :)

I found Jared in the laundry basket one Sunday when we getting ready to leave. I asked Ben why he put the baby there and he replies, "Well, I had to put him down somewhere, and I figured that was a safe place to put him. " Very true I guess. :)

My three little munchkins: Jared (4mo), Madisyn (3), and Parker (almost 5)

Maddie finally let her hair grow long enough that I could do some french braids! Yeah!

Jared, almost 4 mo old here

Parker loved pushing Jared around in his dump truck. hee-hee

The kids like to play "tent" with Jared under one of his floor toys. He actually enjoys it too... most of the time.

Maddie is such a good big sister. Here she is 'reading' him a book.

Parker turned 5 on January 22. Crazy that he is that old! So I made him a cake and we had friends over for a party and did some fun party games. It was crazy trying to have an indoor party in our apartment with so many kids, but Parker had fun and that's what was important. Too bad he wasn't born during the summer though.

his dinosaur cake

Parker with his cake

Jared had his first baby food a week before he turned 5 mo. He actually did really well and liked it...at first. Now he won't have anything to do with the stuff. sigh. But I've actually found other things that he can and will eat, mostly crackers, bananas, and other soft things. He's real low on the weight scale (2nd percentile), so I've been trying to feed him anything and everything that he will eat. We'll find out in a week and a half if it's working.

For Valentine's day we made sugar cookies, then meet with some friends to decorate them and make valentines.

Cutting out the sugar cookies

Madisyn's valentine to Daddy, made with an elephant on the front.

More pictures from February:

Jared on his 5 mo birthday

My three arm baby!

Jared LOVES LOVES LOVES his Johnny Jumper!

In January, Parker got a really bad kidney infection. Then a few weeks later he got a bladder infection. Boys rarely get those kind of things, especially young/little boys. So they had to do some tests on him to see if they could figure out why he got the infections. So here he is getting an ultrasound on his kidneys and bladder.

Madisyn coloring

Parker and Maddie colored their own place mats. I was really impressed with how persistent Parker was in getting his done all the way. Good job Parker!

Parker & Jared together; my two little boys :)

Jared loves to play with his toes and grabs them any chance he gets when I'm changing him

And one more pic of my baby, tuckered out after a day of hard play. :)

M's bday, Halloween, & Thanksgiving

October 13th was Maddie's third birthday. What a big girl she has become!! We had a little party for her and I made her a caterpillar cake at her request. Thanks heavens my sister Lisa was here visiting when I made it, and she helped cover the five half balls with stars. Otherwise it would have taken me forever by myself! It turned out cute and Maddie loved it!

My little ballerina girl :)
(she still walks on her tiptoes all the time; has since she started walking)

Halloween was a lot of fun with the kids this year. We went to a pumpkin farm and they enjoyed carving pumpkins with us (well, they helped with the gutting out part).

At the pumpkin farm (Jared is 1 mo here)

Parker was actually pretty squimish about the pumpkin inners, but Maddie wasn't. She loved it. :)

Then we also went to "Boo at the Zoo" at our local zoo. It was pretty cool. They had tons of lights all over and a ton of carved pumpkins too, and games and hay mazes and things like that for the kids. I think that might be a new tradition.

Maddie and Parker with our friend Giddeon

Our little cub (6wks old)

We actually didn't have our first snow until almost halfway through November. That is practically un-heard of here in Idaho. The kids had quite a grand time building a small snowman.


For Thanksgiving we drove to Portland OR to visit Ben's family. Ben is #4 of 10 kids, and everyone was there for the holiday. And they all got to meet Jared for the first time. :) He was actually at the perfect age to travel with too. He slept most of the time, but was happy and content the time he was awake. He had just gotten to that really smiley age, so that made it more fun for everyone to meet him. Here's Ben, Maddie, Jared, and I with Ben's Mom.

Cousin Hailey and Maddie helping me make rolls for Thanksgiving

Hailey and Maddie playing with Jared

Aunt Michelle and cousin Tyler with Jared

We stayed at Ben's sister's house, and she has three boys. So they have a LOT of nerf stuff and Parker had a blast with it. We actually got him some nerf stuff for Christmas because he had so much fun with them.

Cousin Porter and Parker with Jared

Jared has grown SOOO fast! I can't believe he's already three months old. He is still such a content baby and hardly cries. He's just happy pretty much all of the time (I'm so lucky!). He sleeps pretty much through the night (wakes up around 5am to eat, but that's it), and is easy to get to sleep. He has been showing his personality so much more, and getting so active. The kids love that he is interacting with them now. They love to talk to him and get him to smile and laugh. Maddie is actually the first one who got Jared to laugh out loud instead of just chuckle. Who knows what she was doing (she didn't really know herself), but it was so cute!

My little smiley boy (12wks). LOVE HIM!!

We made Santa graham crackers at my Aunt's house with some of the cousins. They were sooo easy and the kids had fun.


We hope you all had a great Christmas, and I'll be putting a Christmas post up soon. Love to all!

He's here!

Jared Ray Lewis has arrived! Jared was born Sept 17th at 7:42am, weighing 7lbs 11oz.


Jared Ray Lewis was born Friday, Sept 17th at 7:42am. The cesarean went well, Jared was born healthy, and he is all we could have wished for! I went into the hospital at 5:30am, and the surgery started at 7:30am. Everything went pretty well. The hardest part was getting my i.v. in. :( Two nurses blew 4 veins trying (yeah, my arms are a rainbow of colors), then they had to call in the anesthesiologist and he got it in on his second try. I had a little problem when the anesthesiologist first did the epidural, but other than that the rest went great. I was actually surprised at how fast they were in getting in and getting Jared out. It took my doc in Oregon a half hour to get Maddie out, but only 12 minutes for Jared. Wow.

Our little guy is the most content baby I've seen (knock on wood). He hardly ever cries, and just eats and sleeps and looks around while he's awake. Parker and Maddie both love him, and Maddie especially loves him up and wants to hold him all the time (hence why we have a ton of pics of Maddie holding Jared and only a few of Parker).

Here I am before the surgery

Ben and I waiting

Surgery.... fun....

Finally get to hold my little guy for the first time in the post-op room

The three of us in the post-op room (yes, I was stoned at that time-lol)

Ben and Baby J

The first time the kids came to see me and Jared at the hospital

Madisyn is constantly kissing Jared, asking to hold him, and saying she wants to "pet" him (rub his head)

Baby J, 8 1/2 hours old

My wonderful mother who is out here helping for a few weeks. Thank heavens for mothers!!!

Jared, 3 days old

3 days old

Getting ready to come home from the hospital

All tucked in and ready

The kids, of course, had to help carry the baby out.

All three squished in our car. We can't wait til Ben graduates in December and we can hopefully get a van!! (never thought I'd be saying that-lol)

Jared 4 days old

Maddie helping feed Jared his first bottle. Thank heavens for pumps!

We are so blessed to have this little guy in our family. We love him so much!!