Out of Africa

For a family Christmas present, Justin's parents gave all their kids and grand kids tickets to Out of Africa.

This is a great place with animals you can see, touch & even feed! We all had a blast being together. It was our last "trip" before Bode was born so we lived it up. :-) I took tons of pictures so sit back and enjoy!

Our first stop was inside a caged area with lots of friendly reptiles. The boys loved this.

Caleb brought his own dinosaur and I think was trying to introduce him to this big guy.

Some of the family. ;-)

My sweet in-laws. They are so fun!

Next we boarded the bus to see & feed the animals like the giraffe and camel. They gave us all carrots to feed the giraffe. I sat next to this cute guy. 

Breezy and Daddy had a good time being together.

Our first stop was the giraffe. I forget his name but I remember there were 2 of them and they had to be kept in different spaces because they fought over an imaginary girl giraffe. That's a man for ya! 

What happened next was funny. As we pull up, all of the kids on the bus start waving their carrots around excitedly thinking this giraffe would come right over. 

Little did we know that the giraffe was sleeping with his eyes open. So our tour guide got out of the bus and tried to wake him him by throwing carrots at him! It was great entertainment!

Finally when Mr. Giraffe woke up he realized we were all yelling at him to come and eat the carrots so he came right over. The cool thing to do was feed the giraffe by putting your carrot in your mouth then he would give you a big wet slobbery kiss. 

Gunner was pretty brave and got his ready. 

I didn't have my shutter speed set fast enough so I missed the tongue-to-the-face shot but this was taken just after Gunner got a big fat kiss! He loved it!

Krista (or Aunt Kissa as Bree calls her) definitely got a good kiss. My bro in law, Ryan is a goof. He kept teasing the giraffe with the carrot and putting it over his wife's face so she would get licked over and over. It was so funny. 

 Me & my boy!

One of the next feeding spots was the camel. It wasn't quite as cool as the giraffe, but fun nonetheless. Caleb loved him!

Awww, how sweet. I love her chunky little face.

Gunner definitely had a great time. 

After our bus tour ended we headed over to the white tiger show. They do lots of tricks with the tigers. It's crazy that they really are just very large cats that like to play the same as house cats...only they could take your head off with one swipe of their claws!

Action shot!

After the white tigers, we walked around and looked at some of the wildlife just hanging out. I made sure that fence was sturdy before letting my children wander so close to these animals!

The next stop we made was at the reptile show. They brought out lots of reptiles including this very large, very scary looking python. They invited groups of people in to come hold it and touch it. The guide told everyone they could touch anywhere on the python except for his head. 

What happened next was classic Caleb. He sits right down to touch it and I guess Mr. Python's head was getting too close or Caleb thought he might want to eat his play dinosaur so he decided to give him a good bop on the head!

As soon as he did that everyone around him gasped and some kids started to back up. You can see the scared look on everyone's faces.... Mr. Python, however, just raised his head up tall wondering what just happened. He was very gracious not to strike back at my child for smacking him in the face :-)

We decided it'd be best if Caleb stayed closer to his mid-section instead of his head. 

The last show of the day for us was the hyenas. It was neat to learn about them and hear their "laugh."

I love this last picture. Bree had enough and crashed on Grandma. So sweet.

All in all, it was a fun trip as an entire family. Thanks Mom & Dad for a great time and great memories!!

Backing up a bit

Since this blog is a record of what our family has been doing, I need to go back in time a bit to remember a few things from January. 

On the second day back into school after Christmas break, Gunner's face smashed into another boy's head during a game of ball. It got ugly. Not really, the two boys just rammed into each other. The nurse at school was so impressed that Gunner didn't cry since his eye was so swollen. He didn't cry until he saw me, and saw the expression on my face with how bad his eye looked. :) But, I reassured him that black eyes and scars were cool and he'd be the talk of the town over the next week. 

After all, chicks dig scars right?

Every person that saw him would greet him with "Wow, buddy, what happened to your face?!" After a while he got sick of explaining the story so I just told him to say, "You should see the other guy!"

Lil miss Breezy got a dress up chest for Christmas. It had all sorts of dresses, tiaras, shoes and jewelry in it for playing "dress-up." She wanted to dress in this get up one day and I couldn't help but take lots of pictures of her. Justin was showing her how to do a curtsey (sp?) and this was her rendition. More of a squat, but still cute right?

Over Christmas and New Years break Gunner had the opportunity to play flag football for the first time and loved every second of it. He didn't understand too much in the beginning of the season, but by the end, he was a pretty good little player. 

One of my favorite things about Gunner playing football is he would get so excited for his games. His team was the Cardinals and each week his coach would tell them, it's us VS the Colts or Chargers, etc. So pretty soon, Gunner took it quite literally and would ask me, "Mom, who are we versing this week?" 

As a mom, I'm always a little aprehensive about my kids playing such physical sports. I know it's flag football and they don't get hurt (or at least they're not supposed to) but I just get so nervous watching from the sidelines. Boys will be boys though, even if mom is nervous!

Last of all, I had to throw this picture in because I love Caleb's hair. It got so long and we finally cut it off. I'm jealous of how fast his hair grows. I love that he's my surfer boy!

Peace out!

1 month already

This boy of ours is such a sweet piece of heaven. We are all completely in love with him. I can't believe he's already 1 month old. How fast time goes. I SOOO wish I could slow down these moments when my kids are little newborns. I love the sweet sounds and smells when they are so new and so fresh from heaven.

Here's a few things that he's doing at 1 month:
- snuggles in to my neck when he's tired
- he calms down at the sounds of my voice
- eats every 2-3 hours (he's so hungry!)
- sleeps ALL the time...except at night!
- makes lots of squeaky noises when he eats (it's so cute!)

We LOVE this little man!

First week of life

Here's a few pictures of Bode's first week home. 

He had lots of visitors, lots of cuddling with his brothers and sister and lots of pictures. His mama wished she got lots of sleep, but alas, that didn't happen. 

This was the day we left the hospital. I love how they do the names of the babies. So fancy, yet masculine!

I know I'm a fatso, but I LOVE this picture!

All packed up and ready to go home!

Caleb couldn't wait to hold Bode. He immediately sat on the couch and put a pillow on his lap and held out his arms as if he were saying "Okay, Mom, I'm ready, give me the baby!"

Breezy, of course, loved to baby him!

We printed this picture so Gunner could show his class his new baby brother. He was so proud!

He had lots of visitors. This is his Great Grandma (Gam-la mor) Steverson. She's 91 and is amazing. She still does water aerobics, goes shopping and drives her own car. Like I said, Amazing!

Aunt Kissa and Uncle Ryan came over for a visit too. 

Sweet Anna banana. She's so grown up!

 He took lots of naps...Oh, how envious I was that he could sleep so much! haha

How I love the gas smiles!

Justin's already training him on the finer things in life...

When he was exactly 1 week old, I took some pictures of him all cuddled up in his favorite blanket. What a sweet little man he is!

Tiny little feet...

Tiny little hands...

Oh that face!

I had fun making his birth announcement. 

Front:

 Back:

We love our sweet baby boy!

The Birth Story

Just to clarify, we named our last baby Bode. And I've been getting a lot of the same question, "So how do you pronounce it?" It's pronounced "Bodie" but we spelled it differently because we thought the "i" looked too feminine. My apologies to any Moms out there that spelled it the right way, I don't mean to offend, it was just a personal preference. Hope you still like me! ;-D

Anyhow, on to our little guy. Here's the story. On February 3rd, I had gone out to dinner with a few girlfriends in hopes of getting one last girls night in before Bode entered this world. We had mexican food and it was so delish. I was sad I couldn't finish my meal (seeing as I was still prego, my stomach was about the size of a quarter since Bode's little body was taking up all the room in my tummy, I couldn't hold any more food... oh, you get the idea). After our wonderful meal, these friends of mine surprised me with a baby shower. Cute girls. As we visited and I opened some presents, I started getting a few contractions here and there. I didn't think much about them because I have never gone into labor by myself. My doctor has usually had to induce me or has to strip my membranes for my body to begin the labor process.

Anyway, once I got home, I told Justin that I was having some contractions. He suggested I time them. I sat at the counter and started to write some thank you notes and thought, "this really can't be labor, I'm a week early...I have plans with my kids this Saturday... I'm not mentally ready yet...these aren't real contractions, are they?" etc, etc etc...Once I started timing them, they were about 10 minutes apart and kept coming consistently. And it was midnight. Great.

So, I got my bag packed and tried to get some sleep. Sleep was non-existent that night. My sweet Mom came over around 1:30am in case this was the real thing so she could get the boys off to school the next day. I was in so much pain by 2am and my contractions were coming every 8 minutes. By 4am, they were 5 minutes apart and so we decided to head to the hospital. We got there by 5am and waited in triage for about 30 minutes. They checked me and I was dilated to 4 cm and 80% effaced. They checked me in, started an IV and ordered my epidural. The nurses notified my doctor and by 7:30am, my epidural was in full effect and so they advised me to get some sleep if I could. Unfortunately that didn't happen. My epidural was so good that I couldn't feel my legs or back at all and I felt like a dead fish from my waist down. It was so embarrassing that they had to help move me just to turn on to my side. My legs were dead weight and I was so uncomfortable. By 9:30am, my doctor still wasn't there so I asked my nurse to break my water. She declined because she said only a doctor could do that. I knew that if my water broke I would deliver very fast. That's how I roll. My water breaks and then my babies come out quick. Once our nurse left the room, I jokingly (and seriously) asked Justin if he would break my water. What can I say, I was desperate and very much ready to get this baby out! I know he didn't like to see me in pain, but Justin wouldn't break my water either. So there I lay for another hour & a half to wait it out.

By 11:15am, my doctor finally came to my rescue! He broke my water and the nurses begin the process of getting the room ready for the baby. This is always such an emotional stage for me because I know what's about to happen. A new baby is going to be born. A sweet little one from our Heavenly Father is going to be given to me and Justin and it's always such a moment of anticipation mixed with fear and joy. I'm about to meet my son and I'm overcome with tears. The tears don't last long because the next step is to actually push him out! By 11:45am, they give me the "ok" to start pushing. 5 pushes and he was out!

This perfect little boy was here! 7 pounds 13 ounces and 21-1/2 inches long. 

Perfect. Little. Boy.

When he came out he had to be suctioned out because he swallowed a bunch of amniotic fluid. He needed a few puffs of oxygen to help him breathe normally again. He grabbed the face mask and it was so sweet. The nurses decided that putting him next to me would help him more than anything else at that moment. So the nurse put him on my chest to help him calm down and breathe regularly. 

This was by far my favorite moment. The connection between mommy & baby is almost indescribable. The fact that he knew my smell, knew my voice and just being next to me could calm him down was so special and I'll never forget that sweet moment. 

We are so happy to have this little boy join our family! 

Family of SIX!

It's true! Our beautiful baby boy was born to our family on February 4th, 2011. He is perfect in every way. He was born at 11:50am. He weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and was 21-1/2 inches long. We named him Bode Michael Cook. He is the sweetest baby and his brothers and sister are completely in love with him. Here's some pictures for your enjoyment. :)

Gunner was so excited to meet his new baby brother. One of the best things he said was "Mom, this is better than Christmas presents! I love him so much!" Well put, Buddy!

Breezy was equally excited to meet Bode. She kept giving him kisses and the first thing she did when she held him was sing to him. So precious!

Caleb was definitely on pins and needles. He ADORES little babies so much we were a little apprehensive about how he'd do meeting Bode because he loves to smother little babies with his hugs and kisses. But, he actually did very well. He definitely kissed him a bunch, but was very gentle when he held him. So sweet.

It's official, we have 4, count them, F-O-U-R kids. Gotta love it!

Our first family picture at the hospital as a family of six!

All is well with us. I will post his birth story here soon. Life is hectic and chaotic but I'm so glad to have the opportunity to slow down and enjoy this little man. I love the sounds & squeaks he makes, I love the "littleness" of tiny babies. They are so close to God it's amazing. We love our little Bode and are so thankful he's come to our family.