And one of Keenan with Braylon at the hospital.

Last, but certainly not least, one of Keenan holding his brand new brother at the hospital. I think baby was only about 3 hours old. Awwww.

Even More!!1

More!

First Photos of Braylon Marley!!!

In his bassinette at the hospital- about 18 hours old

Getting bigger...

Braylon had his 2 month check up yesterday and "won the prize" for biggest 2 month old of the day. He still seems tiny to us though. He is 11.2 pounds and 22 inches long. He had to get 3 shots and was pretty mad the whole day about that. He's feeling a little better today, but isn't quite his normal happy self.

Both Maveric and Keenan got black eyes last weekend. Mavi's was courtesy of Keenan's stick. We ended up taking him to the ER on Sunday morning because he woke up with his eye swollen shut and told us he couldn't see. After finding out there were no pieces of stick in his eye, the dr.'s told us it was "just a shiner". WTF! A few days later Keenan fell off of our kitchen bench and got a black eye also. Best lesson on kharma so far.

I'm going to go through pictures tonight and will try to convince Eric to help me post some. Keep your fingers crossed!!

I have tried several several several times to upload a blog to no avail. Eric got a new system in place right before I had Braylon, so I have had NO time to try and figure out how to do this. Alas, pictures may take a few more weeks. Or at least until the maid/nanny/chef return to work. ;) Braylon Marley was born February 22 at 3:40 pm. He was 7lbs 9 oz and 20.5 inches long. It wasn't a long labor but was very INTENSE and PAINFUL. I stayed in the hospital about 24 hours and came home to the craziness. Eric stayed home the first week and my mom visited the next one. It is definitely a challenge doing anything with a 4 year old, 3 year old, and newborn. Mavi is being pretty helpful and Keenan is being Keenan. If you know him, you know what I mean. Braylon is about 8 1/2 pounds now and is an angel. He eats, sleeps, and gets diaper changes. He rarely cries, loves his brothers and his baths, and loves his food! He sleeps for about a 4-5 hour stretch at night. We are happy but tired and are totally in love with our new little guy!

Quick catchup

Well, I know most of you tune in here for pictures, but since we have been building a room for the BABY that should be arriving momentarily (not really, but you never know) the hard drive is MIA. I only know how to put pictures on from the hard drive so no pictures this post. But the kids basically look the same with longer hair. Mavi is about an inch or two taller than he was in my last post which is a pain in the ass since I can't really go out and shop for new pj's for him, but it's just pj's so who cares, right? If you'd like to see what my belly looks like, head over to my sister in law's blog and check out her belly. Mine's pretty similar. Just imagine her with brown hair/eyes and pretend it's me. If you squint it's easy. We've been holed up in the house for about 6 weeks now, going out to take Mavi to school and that's about it. I've been trying to do "bedrest" without killing the kids/dog, and so far it's been successful. I've kinda given up on the bedrest and am shooting for sitting on the couch while refereeing fights, getting snacks/meals, wiping butts, changing diapers, picking up dog poop, and mentally listing all of the crap I'm going to make Eric do when he gets home. Keenan and Mavi had an amazing Christmas and loved every thing they got. Especially the spiderman stuff. Which was most of it. My favorite parts of the day were when Keenan put on his cowboy hat and boots and rode on his scooter singing "Captain Chipmunk is my naaa-aame!" Hilarious. That boy is a character. The other fave part was when Eric made Christmas dinner. That's right- ERIC made it. Because I was just getting sick with the flu (that lasted 10 freakin' days!). We had grilled cheese sandwiches. Because apparently the grocery store and delivery places are closed on Christmas. Who knew? Anyway, it was fun and we all enjoyed our gifts.

Thanks

Just a quick post of what we (mostly me) are thankful for this year. In the car, on the way to Darlene and Jim's house, I asked the kids what they were thankful for. "Purple Venom," said Mavi. "Purple Venom," said Keenan. "Purple Venom," said Eric. I, on the other hand, came up with a few other things besides the motherf@&^ing purple venom. Yes, I still am NOT thankful for spiderman crap. I think it's just going to be that way. I AM thankful for: my husband my boys (including the one squirming and kicking me constantly) my sasha our families and friends our health (and health insurance!) our house our opportunities the fact that we have more than enough food to eat all the laughter and last, but not least, puppy chow (I could eat the whole batch)

Trick or Treat Night

Getting ready to leave for safe street.

Keenan slinging his web.

Mavi's turn.

Happy after some candy!

Give me more!

We took the boys to "safe street" to trick or treat with some friends and to meet up with some other friends. This place was CRAZY. It was really cool, but totally packed and a little overwhelming. After safe street, we came home and trick or treated a little in our neighborhood. The boys really just liked eating candy. Keenan likes peanut m & m's and tootsie rolls. Mavi loved the rice krispie treats. Anway, it was a fun night, despite the 3 million inches of snow we got 2 days earlier.

No extra estrogen around here...

20 weeks pregnant

Happy birthday

I know it's difficult to gauge the theme of the birthday, so I'll let you all in on the secret- my boys REALLY like spiderman and venom.

Yes, this year we decided to celebrate MaveLic's birthday.

Using the cake topper as a hat.

Opening more spidey gifts.

Getting fingerfuls of frosting.

Awww, we CAN all be friends.

Snow day. This is Keenan's daddy hat.

Apparently Maveric does NOT have my snow hatred gene.

But Keenan has it!

Well, in case anyone doesn't know, we won't be adding any estrogen to the household any time soon. Unless it's in the form of a dog. But we won't be getting another dog any time soon either. Baby is officially a BOY and we are all excited. Looks like Barbies and My Little Ponies will be sent to my brother's house. I'm doing a bunch of pictures (I hope). Some are Mavi's birthday, some are more spidey shots and some are from the snowstorm we are currently having. Enjoy!

Belly shot

Here's a shot of me at 19 weeks.

Twice in One Week!

Eric and the kids went to the zoo yesterday, so I figured I'd do a little post on that and on how the boys are doing. I've seen some blogs that do a little snapshot of their kids likes/dislikes/achievements at certain ages, so I figure I'll try that.

This is Keenan (at age 2 1/2) :

He loves loves loves spiderman.

He is very picky about his clothes.

He only wants to wear his "tie shoes".

He does just about anything Mavi does.

He will sit and do watercolors for an hour at a time.

His favorite show is Caillou or Spectacular Spiderman.

His fave songs are Thriller and Pick another Daisy, which he performs awesomely.

He thinks he should be in preschool.

He throws HORRIBLE tantrums, complete with flailing limbs.

He is a terrific sleeper.

He will always eat chicken nuggets.

He doesn't eat fruit (much) or veggies.

He is a snuggly, lovey little bug.

Mavi (at almost 4!):

He loves spiderman, of course.

He picks out a venom pic every day to color (he only uses markers).

He plays in the sandbox daily.

He loves school and loves his teacher, Amber.

His fave song is "Apple Bottom Jeans".

He randomly makes up stories for us.

He LOVES the game Operation.

He likes playing with Keenan and is trying to teach him to share.

He is likes having friends over (our neighbors).

His fave show is Spectacular Spiderman.

He still loves books, but doesn't read quite as often.

Still needs a nap, but hardly ever takes one.

Is not a terrific sleeper.

Asks a TON of questions!

Is a sweet, gentle, imaginative boy!

So there's the boys in fall of 09. They are both very excited about the baby and seem to be genuinely interested in this whole pregnancy process. I took a cue from my beautiful SIL, Cari, and decided to do a belly shot which will be posted next. Here's a few zoo pics.

Happy birthday mom and jami!

Blurry Mavi pic

Spiderman

Goofball

Mavi's first day of school

The pictures

This was our trip to the zoo last week. We unexpectedly got to hook up with Ben and Amy too! Eric took the photo shoot I did of them last week with him on the camera to CA, but more to come next weekend!

Once again, I am a blog slacker...

I've searched through our pictures and found that I haven't really taken much since Easter. Yes, we had Mavi's preschool program, but all of the photos are dark and none really have the kids in them. I really don't take the camera often because I'm wrangling 3 little ones and who has time to pose them all, find the camera, turn it on, focus it and take a picture? Really... I think I need to just hire a photographer to follow us around. Cari, are you busy this summer? ;) We've been hanging out at home, gathering worms and bugs, and playing outside a lot. I'm putting Mav and D in a swimming lesson once a week starting next week at our neighborhood pool. I'm excited to see how that goes. Poor Keenan is still just a few months too young to join in and I'm sure I will have a sad boy on my hands while Mav and D are in swim class. Keenan is growing up sooooo fast and is constantly telling me "I'm the big boy and Mavi's the baby." We have tried potty training, but this basically consists of him sitting on the potty chair, getting up and peeing on the floor. Boo. We'll keep trying, but in the meantime I need to get some good carpet cleaner. Mavi is loving summertime and not having to go to school. Occasionally he'll ask if he has to go to school, but doesn't seem to miss it too much. He is finally pedaling his Diego bike and his two wheeler, but sometimes gets confused because it has pedal brakes and he just stops. We have a couple of big trips planned for July. One in the beginning to go to Iowa. This one will be just me and the little guys. On a plane for the first time for Keenan. Mavi has only been on a plane once before as a baby. We'll see how it goes. I think they'll love it! I just need to get a helper to carry carseats. The second trip is a family vaca to San Antonio, TX. We're going to meet monkey and his wife, and Ben and his family. Should be a good time. Sea World and the zoo are our major excursions. I will take some photos TODAY and put them up at naptime.

Easter

Our Easter consisted of eating tons of candy and playing inside a lot. We also ate TONS of ham. Or maybe that was just me. I do love me some ham. The kids hunted for eggs inside and Mavi really go into it this year. Keenan enjoyed it, but really just like eating candy. We went over to Darlene's house and had a great lunch followed by a LONG nap.

More photos- HOLY COW!

I know I haven't been doing the best job keeping up the blog this year. I am really frustrated with the format and not having the knowledge to do certain things with it. I'm going to give Cari a call and see if we can get this figured out. Cari, if you are reading this, call me! I need a tutorial on how to upload a video and how to move stuff around on here! On to the photos... And no, Mavi is not flipping us off- he's doing "go web go!"