Bringing Benson home and settling into life with THREE kids.

 Life with three kids was about to start... because in the hospital, it's like FAKE life.  In REAL life, no one is coming around bringing me delicious meals, making sure I take all my medications, and taking the baby when I need a break.  :)  At least that doesn't happen in MY real life.  hA!

So, we were about to head home, but decided to snap a few photos with our favorite Benny Boy while still at the hotel hospital.

I love this shot of him with his sleepy eyes looking so mini in his big car seat.

 happy are we. happy are we.

 Gotta love that they wheeled me down to the car.  Check out those swollen cankles!  Woot! Woot! 

 I think this is such a funny shot of Benson waiting in the elevator.  Just chillin'.  No blankie.  Where are his parents?!

 Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the kids were enjoying the HUGE cardboard boxes that housed our patio furniture.  Tillie was a fan of her new stage, as you can see.

For some reason, I have no pictures of our homecoming, but Becca had helped Tillie hang up a little garland, and had bought a pot of yellow mums with a sign that said, "Welcome home, mum!"  Clever.  Very clever.  And, my mom had a delicious chicken and potato meal ready and waiting.  Maybe life at home WAS just as luxurious as the hospital!!  It was awesome having them there to help in the transition.

Here's the man of the hour, settling in quite nicely at home.  I think he really enjoyed wearing something other than the hospital onesies.  I have a mother's intuition about these things.  hA!

 Here are some pictures of Calvin wearing that same outfit when he was brand spanking new too.

 He already loves the swing.  Boo yah! 

Calvin loves his brother.  You can tell by this face.

::: The next day was Sunday and everyone went to church (except me and the baby, duh!).  Afterward, we decided to watch The Sound of Music.  Classic.  Aunty Emmy gave them a pop-up book of the story, so they knew all of the songs (thanks to Becca and I reenacting them all).  They loved watching the movie, just as we suspected! 

::: My mom only had a few days left before she needed to be back, so she got into her project mode (which she does so well) and got the last things settled in our home.  She is such a winner!!  Here she is organizing my make up and hair doo-dads while I help determine which things I use on a regular basis. 

She always makes sure everything has a place.  So great!

::: This boy was adjusting just swimmingly to his new surroundings.  He was a great sleeper, great eater, pooped and peeped with every diaper---what more could you ask for?!  

Here he is accepting all our applause!

::: More photos, yes?  Great.  I'll oblige.

I love when they are always so curled up like this.

I love a good yawn face.  Be still my heart.

::: Okay, now, I'm not trying to be rude, but so many times when I'd study this baby's face while feeding him, or rocking him to sleep, I would keep thinking of this guy: (you know, he's on Ever After (the snitch guy) and also the guard on Les Miserables (the one with Claire Danes and Liam Neeson)

 or, I would think that Benson reminded me of this guy (hello, Princess Bride. "Inconceivable!").

 Here are several different facial expressions Benson pulled at the tender age of 7 days old...

YOU be the judge. 

  

 Those eyebrows kill me.  He totally reminds me of his older brother, Cal, at his age. 

 I apologized to Benson when I told him who I sometimes associated his face with---he forgave me and then flashed me a peace sign.  Apparently, it's all good. 

::: Remember the project mania?  Operation Throw Pillows.  Remember all this fabric we'd found at JoAnn's a while back?  Well, it was finally PILLOW time!  My mom was determined to help me finish those before she left.  Here she is sewing late into the night.  She KILLS me!  What a woman!!

We realized that I needed a little bit more fabric (always!), so we popped on into JoAnn's before she had to head the airport! hA!  Good thing they had a wheelchair for this postpartum woman.  I loved feeling the breeze through my hair as my mom raced me up and down the aisles.

::: Before she left back to Utah, I wanted to get a few shots of the woman of the hour and the AWESOME quilt she created for Benson! I helped her pick out the fabrics this past spring, and she made this gem!  I requested it to be big so he can use it for the long haul, and it is just that!  And, the backside is the most lovely grey/blue minky I found on the fabric trip that I took with my friends last year to the LA fabric district.  SCORE!  In my opinion, it turned out great.  Such a labor or love.

close up shot so you can see the fun honeycomb quilting!

 Thank you, darling mother for coming, yet again, to save the day.  I don't know how we would have survived and settled in so fast without you!!

  Tillie does this funny thing where every time she puts her head next to Benson's head, she closes her eyes.  ha!

 more shots with ALL of her grandkids.

 we love Nana 'Nise!!

::: After my mom left, things went surprisingly smooth... thanks to the fact that Aaron had those two days off!  hA!!  

Calvin-Malvin still loves puzzles and found this gem.  Love that cock-eyed-grin!

Benson was a little jaundice-y and we had him sunbath.  His eyebrows showed me that he really loved it.

::: Aaron opted to mow the lawn again.  I love that his little lawn mower has a cord.  It's like he's vacuuming but not.  Here he is training Tillie to be our new mower.  Just kidding.  Kind of.  Really, she just walked about 100 yards with him and then decided she was over it.  hA!

 

 This little one decided that he really liked my new hospital mug.  Thankfully, the nurse gave me TWO!  He was walking around the yard acting like he owned the place... mug in tow.  I love his sweaty head here.  He must have been parched!

 And this little one slept right through it all.  Sigh.  He's a sweet baby. 

::: This is what I normally wear when I do housework.  Don't you?

 ::: Tillie ADORES her baby brother and especially loves to kiss him ALL day long.  She gets super excited when I tell her she can hold him. I love how freaked out Benson's face is here.  He told me that he was nervous/stressed she would drop him.  Luckily, I was right there to catch him in case that happened.

 ::: Look what the Frosted Mini Wheat did created... RASPBERRY filled kind!  These are the closest thing I've found to my favorite cereal back in the day---remember Strawberry Mini Wheats?  No frosting, just filled with strawberry goodness?  It was expensive and my mom would buy it for me on my birthdays, but it was discontinued years and years ago.  This new raspberry thing comes pretty close.  It's delicious.  This is coming from someone who KNOWS her cereal.

::: Sun bathing to get rid of those green filled eyes!  He loved it, as you can see here.

::: I love watching him sleep.  Those cheeks are perfect for kissing.

::: While I was laid up, Aaron took upon himself the shopping.  Way to go, Id-a-ho!

He was so funny, b/c he would text me several pictures while there to make sure he was getting the right thing.  For example, we have a tall wire shelf unit in our little laundry room, and we were trying to find laundry baskets that would fit between the posts, so he brought his handy-dandy measuring tape and set out to find some.  Here are the pictures he texted me.  So funny.

Thank you for being so thorough, Aaron.

 ::: Ahhh, the other two kids we have.  :)  Sorry, these posts are pretty centered around Benson thus far, eh?  It was funny, one of Aaron's friends asked him how we were doing now with THREE kids.  Aaron summed it up perfectly when he said, "Well, we spend a lot of time with the baby, and leave Cal and Tillie up to their own devices.  We figure that we have taught them correct principles and now they can govern themselves."  hA!  Funny, but kind of true!  Luckily, those two peas in a pod have been great and keep themselves pretty entertained.  They just open the back door and romp around, and come in occasionally to tell me if one of them has wronged the other---but after a minute, they are back at it.  Notice the boxes have now been crunched and munched---but that meant they made perfect slides.  Awesome. 

 Speaking of slides, one morning when Aaron was off work, he saw how much they loved sliding down the huge boxes, so he got out some scrap wood and they helped him make a little slide with a ladder!  Tricky, no?  Then they grabbed the markers to decorate their creation.  It was pretty darling and kept them entertained for HOURS!

 Unfortunately, the slide fell apart the next day (hey, Aaron is a dentist, not a carpenter!).  

So, the kids spent all day with the rolly-pollies.  Disgusting, I know, but a ton of them live near the fence in the back and the kids would grab them and bring them up to the patio to examine them.  Ahhh, to be a kid again...  

 Here they are playing in the mini spiderman pool that Aaron found for them in the Clearance section at Target.  Notice the SLIDE theme we have going on.  One day we might get them a LEGIT slide... until then, these will do.

And, here's another shot of Cal collecting rolly-pollies (potato bugs) by the back fence during an awesome sunset.  Can we just say how much we LOVE our backyard?  Okay, I said it.

 We love being in this house with our happy little family.  

I love this last picture that Aaron took where the rainbow ends on our house. Kind of like we've got the pot of gold or something.  

It's fitting, I think.  

It really is a special place and we feel so lucky.