Our first week home with Max

Max is 6 days old today. I wanted to jot down a few things from our first week home with him. So far he is awesome! I couldn't ask for a better baby. Since that first night, he has continued to sleep rather well for a newborn. I got up once with him last night. And by "got up" I mean rolled over and let him nurse while I continued to sleep. It's been really nice having him in the co-sleeper right next to my side of the bed. We're all sleeping pretty great this week, even the bigger boys.

Speaking of Briggs and Finn, they are in love with their new baby. Briggs is especially proud of Max, and volunteers to hold him on the couch while I get Finn dressed or help him in the bathroom. Both boys have been going to preschool this whole week, and going out to different places around town with Grammy Carolyn.

I haven't had much time to practice my fiddle, but I did learn Mary Had a Little Lamb and Twinkle Twinkle yesterday. I'm not so much worrying about playing the correct beat as I am with just hitting the correct notes and playing a nice strong sound. I've been getting better playing the A string, which was giving me trouble last week. For some reason I had a hard time not hitting the D string with the bow at the same time.

Ted has made lots of progress on his thesis these last few days. He had many meetings with his advisor and other faculty on his committee. Sounds like things are going well, and everything is right on track to where it should be.

Ted's dad, Scott, arrived this morning. We're going to fire up the grill this afternoon and cook steaks since it's so darn nice out! Even my chickens must think it's spring, as one is laying every day again. I have a hunch that it is my young Silver Laced Wyandotte, Pretzel.

Hope to keep this blog a little bit more up-to-date this year. I noticed that the last entry besides Max's birth was from 2013! Oh my...sorry everyone.

Fare Thee Well, (I decided that this is my new farewell)
Jaylyn

Max Wren Morehouse

Our third son was born on Saturday morning, January 10th. We waited so long for this little guy to get here! Here's his story:
On Friday night, I crawled into bed feeling frustrated with my situation. I was hours away from being 42 weeks pregnant.  Like the past 3 weeks, I went to bed having contractions but didn't think much of them. It was 2am when I woke up feeling pretty uncomfortable. I laid there for an hour trying to fall back asleep, but no luck. So I got in the bathtub and thought about what I should do. Something told me this time was different than all the other false alarms. I got out, woke Ted up, and told him that we should call our babysitter.
Danielle got to the house ten minutes later (She's so great!) We grabbed the suitcase and drove to the hospital. It was 4am when we checked in. I kind of felt like we may have come too early, but it worked out okay because it took awhile to get upstairs to a room.
The nurse checked to see how far I was dilated at 4:45am. I was between a 3-4, so the same as I had been earlier in the week. By that time though, I was starting to have the urge to hold my breath when a contraction hit, so I had hope that we would be staying! She said she wanted to check me again in a few hours to see if anything had progressed. In the meantime, I got in the bathtub and Ted got the 70's folk music playing. The contractions at this point weren't too bad. Just being in hot water and floating around really made it seem like I was just having bad period cramps. Sure enough, by 7am, I was dilated to a 6. My doctor gave the go ahead to stay. I tried the birthing ball for awhile, but felt too squished. I mostly stayed in the tub and had Ted in charge of filling it with hot water. I got super tired and somehow, even though the contractions were getting intense, I was able to almost sleep in between them.
I decided I had had enough tub time and wanted to get things going. Ted reminded me that the more upright I could be, the quicker things would happen. So I tried standing beside the bed, held the rails, and just tried rocking my hips back and forth. The nurse came in around 9:15am and I asked her if she could check for progress. I was between a 7-8 and having a lot of bloody show. (Sorry for the mental image, but this is a birth story after all) Boy, did that stir things up though. I immediately felt the contractions hitting harder and I had Ted run out to the hall after her because I felt like I was going into the transition phase. I didn't think it was time to push exactly, but I felt like it was going to be very very close to that time. I told the nurse to call my doctor because I just wanted to get this thing over with!

Contraction beginning...

Dr. Kimuri walked in the room at 10:00. She told me, "As soon as I break your water the baby is going to be right there and you can push him out". I said, "Do it!" So my water was broke at 10:04. I felt a gush of fluid and everything move downward. The baby's head was right there. I guess his pulse dropped really fast and the nurse was saying something to the doctor about it and I got really scared. I made it through 2 hard contractions that were no longer cushioned by that bag of water before saying, "Okay, I'm pushing now!" They weren't even ready with all their gear that they're supposed to put on, but they yelled across the room that it was fine to start pushing.
All that I remember during these next few minutes was that Ted somehow had moved to the other side of me, I looked down at my stomach and it was deflating like a balloon, and someone saying that the baby was crowning. I guess I pushed 4 times total, and I looked down and saw our baby and said, "YAY HE'S OUT!!"
The doctor immediately put him on my chest. He took a little while to take his first breath, but then started crying. His hands and feet were really purple- black colored. (Poor circulation like his mom) After he started warming up and his cord had been clipped/clamped by Ted, everyone was taking guesses on his weight. I guessed over 9 lbs, Dr. Kimuri guessed 7 1/2 lbs. The nurse put him on the scale and we were both wrong.

Max Wren Morehouse
Born 10:12am on Saturday, January 10th, 2015
Weighing 8lbs. 10 oz
Measuring 20 1/2 inches long

He has just captured our hearts these last 2 days. Such a sweet baby. He looks so much like Briggs right now with his little mouth and narrow lips. He has cheeks like Finn had too. Max's hair is looking strawberry blonde right now. I'm crossing my fingers that he's going to be my red-haired baby that I long for!
We came home yesterday afternoon. My parent's and Jared's family came to visit us. Last night Max slept for 6 hours straight, giving us a nice long stretch of sleep too!

Summer bounty

I am pretty excited to say that this year's garden has been the most productive thus far! Not only did the rainy spring help to establish deep root systems, but we haven't had to worry about drought this late in the summer either! Lots of rain and cooler temps in August is putting me in the fall mood for sure. I've been busy cooking away my tomatoes, peppers, and beans in practically every dish. We consumed all of the onion harvest (which wasn't too hard, as my onions did poorly again this summer). I've also been leaving boxes of small tomatoes outside by the egg fridge in case anyone would like to take some away. Every 3 days I usually just take them all and put them in the dehydrator for sun-dried tomatoes. So we'll be able to enjoy them at a later time!
5 chickens lay eggs at this time. Although, when we got back from vacation, one hen had gone broody. The isolated chick cage became known as the "Broody Buster". It took about 3 days to bust her of that mood, but she's back to normal again. Also, a few months ago one of the sisters I got from Oersheln's flew over the fence, wasn't able to get in the coop that night, and was attacked by some animal. So as for the chicken count, I'm at 6.
July was a crazy month. Ted went on a weekend trip with a buddy to hike a 14-er mountain in C.O. Was home for a few days, then left for a work trip to N.M. to do lidar work with his boss for a week and a half. He was back another few days, then left once again for his Exxon short course, which was another week long. We reunited in M.T. (Billings) at the end of the month, did some hiking and outdoorsy things at Red Lodge, visited with family, and witnessed the beautiful wedding of my cousin, Troy, and his wife, Breeann.

Day hiking trip at Red Lodge

 From there, we flew to upstate N.Y. to the lake house, and spent another week with more family. We spent many hours on the pontoon boat, relaxed and played some fun games in the new cabin, and got to ride around in the top-less, door-less, windshield-less Bronco!

Yearly picture

Finn's turn!

This week Briggs started pre-school! He ABSOLUTLY loves it. The teachers are great, there's a cool playground equipped with a treehouse and miniature 2 story house outside, and their classroom even has a pet bunny! On Saturday, my first baby turns 3 years old. All I can say is "Wow"!

1st day of school

Slacking in the blog department

Yah..so it's been awhile since I've updated this page. I actually forgot that I had a blog. Our computer was re-set and so my little tab at the top of the page was erased and it was always what reminded me to write on this thing! So, let me recap the last couple months (since january it looks like..)

Feb and March I was frantically getting seeds started in trays inside the house. My living room transformed into a greenhouse. Over spring break Ted was in Spain doing some carbonate class for school. We got to skype several times, and he showed me around by webcam. I picked up a new hobby while he was gone; Smoothie making, which eventually turned into juicing. (I know what you're thinking...I turned into one of "those people"...but REALLY it's only because I was spending way too much $ at Juice Stop downtown. And does carrot juice really have to cost ten bucks? Not when I can make it myself, thank you!)

Okay so on to April. We were blessed to be able to get the whole family together (and I mean whole fam as in us 4, Scott/Carolyn, Dave/Shirley) and vacationed in Puerto Rico for an entire week! What a trip! As beautiful as I remember from the first time. Not only did we reminisce our old adventures we had there, but we made a ton of new memories and got to spend a lot more time with the "cousins" we have in Culebra.

May. So far, everything that we can squeeze into the garden is in the ground and thriving like crazy! We've been getting lots of rain, and I heard we are officially OUT of drought! We've also been firing up the hot tub, because although it's staying pretty warm out (in the 60s at night) we still enjoy boiling our skin off every now and then. The hot tub is super efficient in heating up now that the copper coil design has been altered. It takes about 2 hours of (surprisingly a small amount of) wood burning to get it nice and toasty. I planted some cannas around it to give it a tropical feel.

Another important milestone that happened this month: Ted's graduation! Officially a college graduate now:) We had a bunch of family out last weekend to help us celebrate. The party was a hit, and I'm so happy that Ted's sis and her hubby got to visit us and see where we live.

Briggs has had a language explosion over the last few weeks. His "word book" is filling up so fast that I can't keep up with it anymore. Finn is so close to walking. If I remember right, Briggs started taking steps by himself after 11 months, and Finn is 11 months as of yesterday! Those boys sure are great. I love watching them play and laugh at each other. Briggs likes to make sure "baby" is playing with the proper toys for his age, NOT the big kid toys! We're learning a lot about sharing lately...

11 months

2 years 9 months

I love being their mom

One last update..I can't forget about the chickens! Today, another hen started laying so that makes 4 hens laying per day! A new record around here!! If we're lucky enough to not have another attack happen, we might make it to all 7 girls by the end of the summer...crossing fingers..So I've actually had to start selling my eggs now so that my fridge doesn't get cluttered with egg cartons, which is really exciting!

Jan 2013

The spring bug is biting me pretty bad as of late. Yesterday we were basking in the 75 degree weather, and today it looks like snow will start falling any time now. Booo hooo! I just want to get my seeds planted (or at least started in trays) and sleep with the windows open at night.

An afternoon wing craving at BWW's

Finnelstix is 7 months old! He had been scooting on his tummy and butt for awhile, but finally last week he started crawling normally. We find him in the strangest places around the house. He really likes to crawl into the bathroom. Probably because it's bright and warm in there. And like Brigham used to, he also gets stuck on the vent/grate thing in the front room, and cries until we pick him up and redirect his path.

Briggs turns 2 and a half in February. He's been practicing talking more, and is learning to recognize letters of the alphabet. We've been spending a lot of time at the playground ("pleee-geee!") and an indoor play place downtown on cold days. He's almost completely potty trained, which is super nice.

Grammy Carolyn is coming to visit around Valentine's day so Ted and I can have a night out of the house sans kiddos. That will be fun!

February is looking pretty busy already. The library programs get started up again mid-month. But I'm most excited about:
1. The annual Seed Fair
2. Valentine's Day date
3. My first facial
4. Possible girls weekend with college friends

Meet Oaklee

Oaklee Morehouse

For those of you who haven't heard, our beloved Milo has been gone for over a month :( Our animals have been having a rough time lately. After Milo disappeared, we had a hen that was attacked by a wild animal, then another hen turned out to be a rooster. (Best chicken salad I've ever tasted by the way) So now we have a new female in the house:) This is our new kitty, Oaklee. She is very friendly just like Milo, but doesn't seem to have an addiction to earwax. We're hoping she will learn to like it, hahah! We adopted her from the Lawrence Humane Society, and were thrilled to find out she was de-clawed already. Some of her favorite things to do are: play with feather toys, chase laser dots, and sleep on your chest at night. She's a little smaller than Milo, but she's still pretty young; Only 8 months old or so.

Both boys getting a ride

What else have we been up to you ask? Well, let's see....yesterday we dropped off our friend at the airport. Then we visited the Kansas City Zoo. B loved it of course:) We really enjoyed finding some rocking chairs that overlooked the kangaroo meadow, where they were all grazing and basking in the sun. We watched them as we ate our lunch that consisted of hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, and pistachio nuts, oh and Boston Lagers:) We came home and were all ready for naps.



A few weeks ago we hosted an Indian party. Ted and I started cooking at 2:30 in the afternoon and didn't stop until people arrived that evening. I had some Indian jewerly/bindis/tattos that I set out for the girls to wear. (The guys weren't into dressing up so much) We had pork vindaloo, and chicken garam masala with basmati rice. Ted learned how to make naan bread. Our guests supplied the beers, samosas, and a rice pudding for dessert. Everything was great! We even found Indian themed music on Pandora that we had playing in the background.

Showing off the tats and bindi from the party

Hunting with a hammer and saw?

 Ted and Zeets have managed to build a new duck blind this season, made of wood found on the river bank and grasses to disguise it from above. There is a huge pit dug in the sand inside the blind so that at least 2 or 3 people would be able to crouch down comfortably in there. (Looks warm too, so I might even like it)


The weather has been wonderful these last few days. I was not expecting to see the sun again for 3 months after those couple nights of frost. But we have been busy working outside today. We planted some of our last year's crop of heirloom garlic, and got some more garlic that we bought from the store. I'm letting Ted have 2 of the huge garden beds reserved just for his garlic. I'm guessing we will have to dig up some more yard so I have room for my tomatoes next summer. I've been reading Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and it's been quite an inspiration for my plans in the garden next year.

Organically grown kale $2/bunch

I have been harvesting kale and using it in everything I can think of:) I made a pasta and kale salad that had feta and olives for the girl's night that I hosted. We added kale in our mini omelette/frittata things last night. And kale chips are always delicious. I think the frost really helped to sweeten the flavor because I've never really liked fresh kale until this week!

Next week we're hosting Thanksgiving at our house. We're thinking BBQ sandwiches rather than a huge turkey that can't fit in our fridge. If you've ever been in our tiny kitchen, you can see why making a "traditional Thanksgiving meal" would be overwhelming. Ted's parents are coming for a visit, so we'll have lots of help with the boys:)

Eggs!

Hello all! What a summer:) Now it's already October. Finn is 3 months old...ugghhh time needs to slow down! Let me try to catch you all up on the happenings around here:

June 22nd through July- Spent most of our time adjusting to a newborn in the house. Hosted lots of grill-outs and had friends over to visit. Sometime in this period, Hattie, our eldest chicken started laying light brown eggs, yay! We also found a new church that we really like, so have been going there since.

August- We went on our first big trip with all 4 of us to the cottage in New York for a week. While there, we saw all the family, admired the guest cottage being built, went boating, went to the county fair and watched a demo derby, (Briggs is STILL talking about the demo derby to this day, and crashes all of his trucks like they did) celebrated Lucy and Jason's wedding by having a very fun reception that included gnomes, gingerbread people, and toasts followed by blowing on organ pipes, haha!

Once we were back, it was time to celebrate Brigham's 2nd (really?!) birthday. We met up with my family in Manhattan, and spent the day at the Flint Hills Discovery Center, (neat place!) followed by a pizza party/present opening. One of the gifts Briggs received was a trike with a long handle for mom/dad to push him around until he's old enough to go on his own. So we've been taking walks around the block almost daily so he can practice riding. He's got the steering and feet on the pedal thing down, he's just not strong enough to really pedal himself along unless it's downhill. 

September- Ted's back in school mode, I'm back in my weekly routine of things. Books and Babies started back up again at the library so we do that at least once a week. I started baking again for the geology department's weekly colloquium. Ted had a few interviews with oil companies looking for interns in the future.
Ted flew to Cali, bought his parents' van, and drove it all the way back to Kansas. So we're a van family now!
Another one of our hens, Kiko, (our Americana) started laying! We thought she might lay green/blue colored eggs, but no such luck. Instead she has speckled darkish brown eggs, which is just as interesting!
I also took a watercolor class at the Lawrence Arts Center, which I loved and will take it again if they offer it. In class, we focused mostly on still-lifes. Some that I did at home included a tree across the park that was just gorgeous, as its leaves were turning from green to yellow and orange and red. I tried my best to paint Finn (I'd like to get to the point of being comfortable with faces), and I'm currently working on a chicken series featuring all 5 of our girls outside.

October- It's only the 3rd today, but lots to talk about. Over the weekend, Ted took Briggs camping overnight on a trail by Clinton Lake. He loved it! Meanwhile, Finn and I were busy helping decorate t-shirts for the Color Run that is coming up this weekend. A whole group of geology related people are on our team. It's going to be a blast:)

Carolyn is coming out to visit us this weekend, so Ted and I are busy planning on what to do while we have a designated babysitter:) Tomorrow night is the Zombie Walk downtown, which we will probably to see. Friday is the geology picnic. And then the 5K on Saturday. 

The other night we heard Finn laugh for the first time. Now he laughs almost every time we make funny sounds up close by his face. Brigham even got him to laugh by tickling his tummy with raspberry blows/fart sounds.
We took both boys bike riding with us last night. I'm so glad that we can finally all go. Gives us more options for family outings.Ted's going to have really strong legs with all that baby weight he has to carry:) I actually used to have the trailer attached to my bike, and would take Brigs to go get groceries and haul them back to the house. I remember huffing and puffing pretty good, so I know what it's like!

Today, I saw that another one of our hens must be laying. I still have to spy on them to see which one it is, but someone is laying a cream colored/light brown egg similar to Hattie's.

And October 10th will mark our 3rd anniversary of being married:) Not sure what we're doing for that yet. I told Ted that I want a reason to wear a dress/ wear heels, haha.