Tyus Paul has arrived

This is one of my favorite pregnancy pictures, taken about a week and a half before Tyus was born.

This is the last maternity picture I took before Tyus was born.

Tyus Paul was born on Monday at 7:00 pm April 23rd.  My entire pregnancy and delivery were wonderful.  It took me five pregnancies to get it exactly the way I wanted to do it.  I stayed in better shape through this pregnancy and I felt great.  It was awesome.  Then I had decided early on that I wanted to delivery naturally; I had done so previously when I delivered Mollie, but I just felt like I hadn't done it the way I wanted to, so this time was going to be different, and it was. 

I had my 38 week check up on Monday at 4:00pm with Dr. Smith. I had been having contractions all weekend, but didn't want another doctor to deliver, so I relaxed and took it really easy, so I didn't go in to labor since Dr. Smith was out of town until Monday.  Well, all day Monday I was having really mild contractions, but they were pretty consistent.  So, Tyler and I went in for the appt, and when he checked me, I was dilated to a 5.  He asked if I was ready to have this baby and we figured, ya, let's do it.  

I was admitted at 5:30 and had to be given the antibiotic for Group B Strep, While this was happening, Tyler headed home to grab our overnight bag.  Once the antibiotic was in, Dr. Smith suggested I walk around as I was only at about a 6 at this point.  So, I did, anxiously awaiting Tyler coming back to the hospital.  He arrived back to the hospital around 6:30 and my contractions were getting harder and harder, so we headed back into the delivery room.  At 6:40, I was at about an 8, so Dr. Smith decided to break my water, and Tyus was born a little before 7:00.  

I can honestly say this delivery was perfect.  I stayed relaxed and Tyler was the perfect coach. It went so fast and so smoothly, when I think back on it, pain is not something I remember.  It was a dream delivery, I loved it.

We waited until delivery to find out the sex of the baby and when the nurse said it was a boy, I was thrilled.  I think on a cerebral level, Tyler and I both knew he was a boy.  I cried, I was so happy, Reagan has a brother.  

His delivery was so fast, he came out very bruised on his face as can be seen in these pictures

He weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 19 inches long

Ya, I'm pretty happy! 

Check out the mugging and the blue face.  

I think I was still in shock that he was a boy. 

He looked just like all of the other kids when he was born, such a handsome little Larsen

Tyler was pretty excited, as he always is. What a great dad to my kids, I'm the luckiest lady ever. 

Perfect!!!

Within minutes he was sucking on his fingers, a habit he continues to enjoy. 

Happy mom, even if I don't have a smile on  my face, LOL

Adorable

Seriously, so perfect!

We didn't tell the kids if the baby was a boy or a girl until they got to the hospital, they were all thrilled. And the masks were just for fun, they weren't sick, but they love the hospital masks.

Reagan was giddy, I think he was pretty worried it might be another sister.  Elise loves her little brother

Mollie was instantly in love.  Actually when he was a newborn he looked most like Mollie, and Ashtynn adored him.

Hahahahaha, Ashtynn rocks!

The one comment everyone made was how blond he is, a rarity in newborns apparently. 

Bleh!!

What a wonderful blessing. 

Best day ever!  Snuggling with my newborns.

Aunt Jacque and Aunt Melanie drove up from Utah the day Tyus was born, awesome, so much fun to hang out with them.

We stayed at the hospital for 2 days and then brought the little man home.  

2 days old

Tyus had a rough first week. He was losing weight (not nursing so well) and he was janudice.  His numbers continued to rise, so he was put on the bili blanket, like Reagan, but he had it for a week.  We had to go to the hospital 7 different times that week to have his blood checked.  Every time, they poked his heel, it was heart wrenching. 

What a good little sleeper though.

You can see the jaundice skin color here really clearly. 

The blanket, as you can see glowing in the back, didn't bother him at all.  Kept him warm and toasty.

He was a skinny little guy.

One of the many visits to the doctors office.  As you can see, we were pretty worn out. 

Visit with Santa

The kids got the chance to visit with Santa the other night at our ward Christmas party.

Twin Falls Great Adventure Race

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine mentioned she was putting together a team to compete in the Twin Falls "Amazing Race", and I mentioned I was interested. I was on the team and had no idea what I was in for. She put this together on Friday afternoon and the race was Saturday morning.

There were 4 of us and we were the only team of all women. So, we met at CSI at 8:00, got our first clue and we headed out. It was so much fun and so crazy. It made me realize how crazy insane the real Amazing Race must be.

So here is what we did (And these are in no particular order):
1. Had to locate this particular t-shirt in a t-shirt shop. (It was pretty easy to find)

2. Ate the hottest wings, Blazing Wings Sauce, served at Buffalo Wild Wings. (Seriously love that place and actually ordered wings from there for dinner that night.)

3. Climbed the rock wall at the CSI ropes course. Um ya... that's me way up there!


4. Played some random bucket head game



5. Kayaked on the Snake River


6. Did this, I don't even know what it is called and really glad it was a task only one person had to do.


7. Had to solve this puzzle after finding all of the pieces hidden throughout the brush at the Shoshone Falls parking lot.

8. Ate Jalapeno Poppers from La Fiesta, without using our hands



9. Rode a bike so small, no decent self respecting woman or man would do that to themselves. Notice the seat adjustments, around an obstacle course; it hurt so bad!


10. Had to create and name a drink at Jamba Juice from a secret menu and then drink it. Ours included soy milk, acai berry, mango, banana, and a couple of other things. GAG!!! It was not so very good.

There were a few other things such as

11. Identified yogurt flavors at Kiwi Loco (good thing the owner was on our team, wink wink)
12. Played 2 holes on a frisbee golf course
13. Played real golf
14. Returned to CSI

And guess what, we didn't win, but we came in 2nd place which we were all very impressed with. Nice job ladies, it was awesome.

Hey, Phil, put me on the show, I'm so ready now!

4th of July

It's a nice quiet Sunday afternoon and I decided it was perhaps time to update my blog as I have missed way too many things happening and since this is my "journal" of sorts, I would hate to not have record of these memories. (Maybe one day I'll start scrap booking again).

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays and tradition has set in that we always attend the CSI fireworks. I love them, and I love going a little early for a picnic, Frisbee and just hanging out with everyone. Some years we have gone with Tyler's family, some years my family, and there have been a few times both families have been together. This year it turned out was the Morgan crew.; Paula and Carl, mom and dad, Jacque and Mark and us all got together for some Patriotic celebrating. It was a gorgeous day, and the kids had such a great time.



Side Note: my sister Rachel introduced me to the coolest App for my phone, Instagram, so all of these pictures are edited with Instagram, I love the antiquated look of them.

Wicked

This weekend we went to Wicked in Boise. Tyler and I went in Los Angeles a couple of years ago and promised if we got the chance we would take the kids. When we found out the show was coming to Boise this Spring we jumped all over it. Got 4 tickets so we could take Reagan and Elise, and no regrets at all. They LOVED it. Elise would randomly grab my arm and just giggle throughout the entire play. She was mesmerized. Reagan, who has been listening to the CD, was very familiar with the story through the music and loved it, and a few times, he would giggle out loud and repeat the funny line. We had to remind him he needed to whisper, but it was priceless.

We were lucky enough to get to go with some of my family as well. Mom and Dad and Jacque and Mark also got tickets and we went together. We headed up to Boise early in the afternoon so we had time to stop in and see my cute little new niece Isla, Tyler's sister Britani and her husband Garth live up there. So much fun to hold that sweet little baby.

Our plan was to then meet up with the rest of the group and head to Red Lobster for dinner, but alas with an almost 2 hour wait we nixed that idea and headed over to Fudruckers and got ourselves a burger. Not quite as fancy as we had planned, but there wasn't a wait and it was pretty good.

My little Elise who has now decided she wants to be in a play and sing and dance.

I love these guys!

What a good looking couple, if I do say so myself.

These 2 aren't so bad either. Love that both of their shirts match the flowers on the tree behind them, very metro. These are my parents, btw

And another good looking couple. My sister Jacque and her husband Mark

Another family kodak moment

..and another. Obviously this one is in the theater, kids were so excited.

She doesn't look super thrilled, but she was.

Bedroom Makeover

We have been living at my parent's house for a year and a half. When we moved in I painted the girls room because it was a light blue color, so we went with neutral. Other than that I haven't done any decorating until last week. Our bedroom was a dark green color, which was fine, but I was getting a little tired of it and needed something a bit brighter, so I went with yellow. I love the way it turned out.


Of course the girls had to jump in and help. Mollie painted with me all day long, I was so impressed with her hard work. Ashtynn didn't last as long, but that was because she wanted to paint more with her hands than her brush. Yikes.


I also made a headboard and window treatment in black and white and I love how it turned out. There are still a few things I kind of want to do with it, but we'll see if those happen. I need some throw pillows on the bed.

Bear Lake

Tyler surprised me this last weekend with a getaway, JUST THE TWO OF US, to Bear Lake. It was so much fun, so relaxing and so needed. Our lives, like so many other people, is insanely busy. So, to get 2 days, uninterrupted with Tyler was perfection! He arranged with his mom to keep the kids, packed their bags, took care of my church responsibilities, packed our luggage and made all of the plans. I had no idea.

He asked me to go to dinner with him on Friday and of course, I thought that would be great. We dropped the kids off with my MIL's and headed to dinner, or so I thought, but we just kept driving. He made up a bunch of nonsense about a restaurant in a neighboring town, but then we drove past that town and I started getting suspicious, so he fessed up.

It was AWESOME!!!

This was the view from our condo, gorgeous!

We took a drive up on the mountain and looking down we could see the resort, our building is the one, directly in the middle with the maroon trim.

I'm so sad this picture didn't work, because this was one of my favorite parts of the weekend. We took a walk down to the Marina and climbed down the rocks to the water. The water was so cold, but so beautiful. We set the camera up on a rock with the timer, but alas, not such good quality.

Look at the lake, what a gorgeous color.

There's Bear Lake

There were deer everywhere, it was cool, gotta be honest, I just don't get how people can shoot them.

We had to get this picture of the Totem pole because Reagan is building a Totem pole in school for their current literature unit.

Tyler packed our bags so well, I was very impressed, and most impressed that he brought all of my running clothes, so of course, we went running together, loved that!!!!

On our drive home, we had to stop to get a picture of the snow. Look how high the snow is, crazy!!

Such a fun weekend, definitely going to have to go away again sometime.