Welcome Gavin!

As most of you know from Facebook, we welcomed Gavin Kent Caywood on June 12, 2012 at 2:35pm. He weighed 9 lbs and was 22 1/2 inches long. I did have to get induced but it went well, I started pitocin around 9:30am so 5 hours isn't too bad. I want to record the birth story at some point but now I am off to bed. 

We like big babies! 

Our attempt at a family picture.

 Meeting cousin Keiryn. Huge thanks to our friends the Andersons for watching the boys and then Uncle Steven and Aunt Melissa for taking over.

Big Brothers.

Love the hat - thanks Shayna!

We are home!!

Cupcake Smash!

We were over at a friends house for dinner last night and she had cupcakes for dessert so we went ahead and celebrated Jacob's birthday a little early. To be honest I didn't really feel like making a cake for the 4 of us. He didn't nap well that day and was super tired but I would say he still enjoyed it!

Look at those tired eyes!

I would say he likes it!

Getting cleaned off and going straight to the bath!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Jacob is 1!! This boy has brought so much joy to our family! He is so happy and smiley. We love that he is a little chunk. His rolls on his legs are adorable. He's not the best sleeper but doesn't complain when we make him stay in his crib till 7am. He eats great and loves being outside and exploring. He's doing well at fulfilling his little brother role and loves grabbing Chase's toys and stuff. Its hard now but I know they will grow up to be buds. He loves daddy. When Brad comes home from work he gets so excited, kicking his legs and smiling so big. He's cruising more along the furniture and can hold steady for a few second standing up. 

 We love you so much Jacob!

Monday

So we are still waiting patiently for this little boy to make his entrance. I've progressed each week and have walked a marathon but he is not ready to come out yet. My mom has come and gone. Which is sad she won't be here for the birth but I couldn't have survived the past weekish without her here. I started thinking induction because I have big babies and am tired of being pregnant and wanted to have him while she was here. I first had an induction schedule for last Friday but as soon as I left the office I knew I would cancel. I pushed it back to Monday, hoping my mom could meet the little guy before she left. In my mind I was thinking that surely he would come over the weekend. The weekend was very emotional for me. Brad would make a comment about how we shouldn't induce and I would get upset. Then I wouldn't have peace about it and Brad would immediately check the schedule to see if he could fly Monday, which made me more upset. My mom would get sad that she wouldn't be here to help out during the birth and I would feel bad, etc. We went back and forth with different ideas trying to come up with a plan for the boys. We finally decided that we would go to the hospital but talk to the doctor before we got anything started. 

So we went in yesterday morning and got admitted and went up to the room. I had to hold them off from doing anything...taking blood, hooking up the IV, etc. Thank goodness the nurse was very understanding. They did start monitoring the baby and taking my blood pressure though. The doctor checked me and I didn't progress much from the week before so we went over pros and cons of inducing.  I had a very uneasy feeling and I wasn't sure if it was because I was getting induced or just having to go through labor. The doctor did a sonogram and checked all the fluid levels and said everything looked good so we decided to hold off.  A couple people made comments about us walking out of the hospital and I was surprised that I could actually do it. We texted everyone to let them know. We have amazing support from our families, our church and military friends. 

Brad's work was also very supportive and allowed him to take a day of personal leave. We already had a babysitter booked till 12 so Brad and I went to breakfast and went shopping. I told him that I wanted to do something fun in the afternoon to get mind off everything so we took the boys up to Raleigh to go to Pullen Park. 

The first thing we had to do was ride the train. Chase was super excited. You can't tell in this picture because when I stepped off to take a picture Chase freaked out. I guess I am glad he wanted me on the train ride!

For a dollar its a pretty good train ride. We got to go over bridges and go through tunnels, etc. Just like Thomas!

Waiting to watch the train go over the bridge.

We had a great day as a family and I definitely feel the Lord's peace about our decision. I can tend to worry about who will watch the boys, etc. but I just need to give it to the Lord. As we were going to bed last night I was a little sad that I wasn't holding my baby boy. We are still just praying he will come on his own and I won't have to end up being induced next week.

First Haircut

Brad has been bugging me to give Jacob a haircut lately. I liked his long hair and wanted to wait until he was at least a year. But I finally gave in yesterday. Of course, he looks so much older to me now.

An idea of how long his hair was on the sides.

He did not like the haircut so Chase and I were busy distracting him with songs. So no pictures during, but here he is afterwards. We were hoping to get a little more off the top, but Jacob was done. So we left it like this.

Haircut buddies, Chase has just gotten one the day before. 

Yes, I know this isn't the news everyone was looking for :) I'll keep you posted when that happens!

Music N Motion aka Dance Class

Brad can call it whatever he wants to feel better about his son taking it....Chase loved it! We've been going to dance class once a week during the school year.  Instead of doing the big recital with the dance studio the class decided to turn the last day of class into a little recital. The song they were doing was "Talk Like a Pirate" so they all had to find pirate outfits. So glad I didn't have to spend $50+ on a outfit they will wear for 2 minutes. Chase does not like dress up and I had to bribe him with candy to put the outfit on and had to bribe him to do the dance with ice cream afterwards. The scowl on his face is not him pretending to be a pirate - its his bad attitude!

With his buddies, Asher, Micaiah and Noah!

Doing a little warm up for us.

Walking the plank.

The class lined up ready to do the dance.

Didn't get any great pictures of the dance. We did take some video but I don't feel like trying to get it upload.  My computer is waiting for a new battery so I am on the Mac.

Running

There were a couple runs on base Saturday that the boys decided to do. Chase was one of the youngest to run the 1/2 mile but we wanted to see how he would do.  Brad ran the 5K but I had to go let Jacob nap so we didn't get to cheer him on.

 He was one of the slowest but he ran the whole time! 

Crossing the finish line. I was so proud. Of course, then I saw some friends of friends and their 3 year old smoked Chase. Oh well!

If anyone is not my facebook friend here is the photo I posted on my page. 39 weeks and ready!

End of Year Celebrations

As I mentioned in my post yesterday (yes I know my posts come in bunches) we've had some end of the year celebrations. Last night was the AWANA awards night. Chase got a cubbie bear for finish his first year. The kids memorized 35 verses throughout the year. Towards the end of the year he was saying that he didn't want to go but he always seemed to come home happy from it, telling me what they did. It also got hard picking him up at night since Brad seemed to be always working and Jacob goes to bed before its done. Grateful for friends who would drop him off!

With his buddies Will and Abi. They are excited to go get ice cream!

Today was the end of the year picnic for the Wee Wings program. I thought the program was great (especially for being free). We are taking a little step up in preschool next year and he will go 3 days a week for 3 hours a day. Here's a few pictures of Chase with his teachers, Ms. Sophia..

and Ms. Haley.

His class. 

We know a few of them through daddy's work so hopefully we can keep in touch over the summer.

11 Months!

I'm proud of myself for getting this post up before my sweet baby becomes my middle child. He's been a little under the weather lately but still my happy boy. We took him to the doctors on Saturday so I know he weighs almost 24 lbs. He's getting into everything...the dog water dish, the steps, the pantry, cabinets, toilets, etc. A lot of childproofing when on this past weekend. He has 8 teeth and I think we are on a break from teething, which is a relief. I'm still not quite ready to move him to Chase's room. We will play that by ear when the baby gets here.

 

Showing his new trick - peek a boo. We are now working on waving bye bye and blowing kisses. 

All of Chase's activities are winding down for the summer. I like the routine but am looking forward to not having to run out and drop him off places, especially when Jacob is sleeping. We had his AWANA awards night tonight and have his Wee Wings end of the year picnic tomorrow.

Chase has been a klutz lately and gets a ton of boo-boo's. 

He talks about them all the time and  has them all labeled...

here's his train station boo-boo....

and his street boo-boo...

and his nose boo-boo...

thank goodness his steps boo-boo and park boo-boo are feeling better!