Simon Harrison

September 13, 2010, 2:31 pm * 6 lbs, 14 oz * 19 inches

Welcome to the world, Simon!

Work Day With Daddy

Sawyer got a special treat on Friday morning when he got the opportunity to go to work with Mitch for a couple of hours. They picked up a rental tractor and delivered it to Granddad on one of his "work-jobs."



Granddad is in the process of digging out and renovating an existing basement, a real rarity in our area!




Peek-a-boo!

Mitch said that the grin on Sawyer's face was about a million miles wide! He was thrilled that he got to check out the jobsite and visit his Granddad on the job :)

Waiting...

Not much new to report here, but it's been over a week since I posted anything so I figured I owed y'all an update :)

We went for an ultrasound yesterday morning to get an estimate of how big the baby is since my OB was concerned that my gestational diabetes might lead to a big baby. Fortunately, the little guy is measuring in at a petite 6.5 lbs (just about average), likely because my own diet has been so limited lately as well. I'm having a tough time finding things that I want to eat that don't spike my bloodsugar too badly, but for now I'm doing really well controlling the diabetes through diet alone (yay for not having to give myself insulin shots!). I'm down almost 5 pounds in the past month, but the doctor said it's normal on a severely carbohydrate restriced diet, and she isn't worried about it. As of last week's checkup I was dialated to 4 cm and 60% effaced (sorry if that's too much info LOL!), so it will be interesting to see if I've made any more progress when I go for my next checkup tomorrow.

The induction is still scheduled for the 21st since baby is doing well, staying normal sized, and there isn't any other medical reason to induce me earlier - though I'm not quite sure that my state of constant terrified paranoia about accidentally delivering another baby at home wouldn't qualify me for some sort of psychological pass! In case you somehow missed that story, my last birth was less than an hour from first contraction (about five contractions total!) until accidental homebirth via paramedics - yikes! Don't get me wrong, I think that homebirths are a great option for some women - when you're expecting and planning for them - but with all the complications I've had I definitely want to make it to the hospital for my delivery this time around! I'm getting incredibly anxious and can't wait to meet the new addition to our family - VERY soon!

Super Saturday

We've been having a great weekend! It's hard to believe that today was a full 30 degrees cooler than the heat wave that hit us early last week! The clouds and wind meant that our pool area stayed locked up and abandoned, and we had to break out our long sleeved shirts in the morning and evening hours. It definitely makes me excited to know that Fall is around the corner!


Sawyer & his friends picked me an entire container of flowers from around the neighborhood - so pretty! I could only fit a little more than half of them into my largest display bowl!


(showing off his new haircut)

Our neighbors moved out of state last weekend, and one of the things they left behind (out of sheer lack of room in their U-Haul!) was a Radio Flyer go-kart-type bike. It was faded beyond belief, so Mitch decided to give it a makeover. He's not done with it yet, so he'll probably be bummed that I posted pictures of it already, but I couldn't NOT share them...too cute!

The boys LOVE this thing!

Brain Freeze!

There's no better way to beat a 106 degree heat wave than a late night trip to get some frozen yogurt with your pals!

(London, Sawyer, Deacon & Sutton)

Proud Mommy Moment

Sutton: "I can do my name all by myself!"



Not too shabby for his very first time doing it completely on his own! ♥

Back to School!

The boys went back to school today, and luckily for me they were both really excited to be back (no tears, yay!)! I didn't take any pictures this morning because we were scrambling to get out of the house on time, but I don't think they would have been able to sit still for the five seconds it would have taken me to take one anyway! Looking at their new class list, it seems that a bunch of their old buddies have moved on to kindergarten, and there are thirteen new kids in the class. I'm sure they're going to be a little disappointed when they realize that some of their favorite friends aren't there anymore, but I suppose it will just give them a chance to hang out and bond a little more until they branch out and start meeting the new kids. Hopefully when I pick them up later they will have had a fantastic day...until then, I'm going to take advantage of the quiet house and try to catch up on some of the sleep that seemed to be avoiding me last night!

Sutton Ranger

We were lucky to get some new hand-me-down costumes from Aunt Jolie's boys this weekend, which is totally awesome because Sawyer & Sutton are SO into dressing up these days (not to mention that the costume stash we have is getting to be too small for them both!). Despite the fact that it was in the mid 90's yesterday, and the boys spent the day running around and jumping on the neighbor's trampoline, Sutton absolutely refused to wear anything other than this Red Power Ranger costume all day long! He called himself a "Sutton Ranger," and I wasn't able to peel the costume away from his sweaty little body until he finally crashed out on Daddy's lap, worn out from an exhaustingly fun day :)



Too cute! Thanks Aunt Jolie!

"Date Night" Home Improvement

Clearly "nesting" has hit me hard this past week. Last night the boys spent the night at Gigi and Granddad's house, and Mitch and I were supposed to go out to dinner and rent a movie for our date night. Earlier in the day Mitch had gone to visit his sister, Jolie, to pick up some bunkbeds that she had for the boys. For some reason, between the time that he started to unload bed pieces and the time we were supposed to go out to dinner, our date night morphed into me saying "You know, if we set up the bunkbeds we're never going to move them again, and this room is never going to get painted. Wouldn't it be so cool to paint the room and set up bunkbeds to surprise the boys when they get home tomorrow?" Luckily for me, I have the most incredible husband in the world (who also happens to like DIY projects), so he humored me and agreed to stay home painting and redecorating until 1:30 a.m. instead of our original plans. ♥


Voila! A fresh coat of dark blue-teal paint and new bunkbeds!

The boys were so excited to see their new room. Sawyer talked about it non-stop for the entire 30 minute car ride home from his grandparent's house. Luckily the room was an instant hit!


Sawyer raced up the stairs ahead of me, so I couldn't capture his initial reaction, but Sutton gave it an enthusiastic two thumbs up! They're both really thrilled with their new space. We installed a low bulletin board so that they can pin up photos and artwork in their room since they're really interested in displaying pictures of themselves and their family these days.


Sutton was super excited about some of the toys that Aunt Jolie sent home with Mitch. They're both thrilled with this lightsaber! (Also, their new dresser is in the background)


We still have some final decorating to complete. I'd like to install some decorative paper or fabric to the background of the bulletin board, and we're going to look through Mitch's skateboard collection and choose a few cool ones to hang up on the walls. The beginnings of this room were a definitely a huge hit though! I love how fresh, clean and organized the space feels...unfortunately, I don't think this room makeover satisfied my nesting urge. I now have a whole list of projects that I'd like to accomplish in the next few weeks...if I can find some time and energy! :)

Nursery Sneak Peek

The nursery is finally baby-ready! I sort of feel like we cheated since we didn't do much to the room, and we most definitely didn't go overboard with the painting and decorating like we did with our other two boys' nurseries - they both had decorative chair rail moulding and two tone paint schemes. This time around I haven't had the energy to do very much at all, so we decided to keep the room the neutral tan color that it was already painted, and we chose to save ourselves some money by reusing all of the bedding and decor that was in Sawyer's baby room. Part of me is sort of bummed that we didn't go all out and create the rocket ship themed room that I had envisioned, but honestly I'm really grateful that it was so much easier and cheaper to put this all together. I can always save the rockets for his "big boy" room :)


I used scrapbook paper and WallPops! wallpaper dots to personalize his space.


Mitch built this new oversized bookcase to hold all the baby toys and a few of our favorite baby books. We reused the beach wall art and the surfboard that we made for his big brother's room. The only misfit piece is our totally out-of-place striped rocker - it matched our old living room perfectly!

Mitch also built this blue diaper storage cabinet a few years ago, and I painted on the palm trees and surfboards to match the rest of the theme.

One of my most favorite things of all is this gorgeous crocheted blankie that Holly made for Simon. ♥

So, now all we have to do is sit back and wait for the new addition to make his arrival...five and a half weeks at most!

My Upcycled Montessori-Style Crayon Holder from our craft blog, Mom's Crafty Space, is being featured today at Somewhat Simple. Come check me out, and be sure to look around Steph's site at all the other great ideas she has posted! :)

Sunday...The Boy Version

So, you might have been wondering..."What were the boys up to yesterday while Mom was busy opening baby presents?" Well, here's your answer:



They were having a special "Boys Only" day with Daddy, complete with a trip to the toy store and a carousel-popcorn-and-Orange-Julius-filled spin through the mall (where they took these great photo booth pictures just to show me how much fun I missed out on) ♥

Surprise "Sprinkle"

Once every few weeks my three sisters, my cousins and I get together for lunch or some sort of fun outing, and today we were supposed to be going out to lunch together...or so I thought! These wonderful (and sneaky!) ladies were actually planning a little surprise luncheon for me to celebrate the new baby! They invited my mom and a few of my aunts and cousins that I haven't seen in awhile to join us for lunch, cupcakes and presents. It was SO nice and so much fun!!!

My sisters, Mom & I (Kari, Jessica, Rhonda, Krista & Me)

Jess, Kari, Kelley & Krista - Thank you for such a special day!

I heard that these super cute cupcakes were delicious! Since I'm on a sugar-restricted diet these days I had my own special sugar-free cupcake...not quite as delicious, but still just as pretty!

Baby Simon got lots of adorable new things to wear, a new mobile and some much needed necessities - changing pad covers, crib sheets, blankets (Kari's mother-in-law crocheted the "It's a Boy" blanket for us!), socks and other goodies.

I had a fantastic time at my "baby sprinkle," and now I really can't wait for Simon to get here! ♥

Shaving Cream Painting

Good, messy outdoor fun! Read more about it HERE :)

Folsom Lake

It was another hot day here today, so we decided to take the boys to the lake to cool off for awhile. We've taken them to Lake Tahoe (about 2 hours away), but we've never actually taken them to the lake that's a mere 20 minutes away from us. I'm not sure why we've never been there before, but I'm glad we went because they loved it! I'm pretty sure that the rest of our summer will be filled with more visits to the lake :)

Sutton even managed to snap a couple of pictures of me baring my big white belly (it was too hot to keep covered up today!) :)

7 more weeks to go!