Here a little, there a little

Hi Mom! Do you want cereal for breakfast too? This is Mary and baby Jesus. Mary got tired so she crawled in the manager with baby Jesus.
We have cousin Lucy to thank for the shot below. After seeing so many fun shots and videos of her with her Johnny Jump-up, I remembered that we have one too! So I got it out for Luke. He quite literally wore himself out. Absolutey loves the thing!
You will not be able to appreciate the following shot. We went to the Rio Grande Nature Center and had a great time seeing the beautiful ducks and Canadian Geese and walking around the garden paths. Allie found this HUGE dead tree limb and put it on her head and said "Look- I am a moose!" and tried to make moose sounds. This maybe just one of those photos that as parents we look at and laugh while everyone else thinks "um...ok".
Below photo- Allie did not want to go to bed.

Cuddling with Wesley.
I love the following photo. These are "the boys" wrestling. They were having a GREAT time. If you look closely you will notice something interesting about Luke's diaper. Do you see what it is? Yep, it is on backwards. Another option in case you run out of duct tape (Ha kid! Your parents are more clever than you gave them credit for)!So one day I went into the laundry room and Luke had colored all over the washing machine with a marker. I quickly pulled him down and took him into another room thus spoiling his fun. Later I wondered how it was he had even got there in the first place. Some how I had missed that. Well I followed him one day and saw how he pulled the buckets (wheat and flour) over and stategically placed them like step stairs. Ok, so he is rather clever too.

"I just growed up!"

When asked how she got to be so big, that is how she responded "I just growed up!" Happy Birthday Allie!!! (We have been working on wrapping our hair in a towel after bathing. The "chomper" clips help). This is the castle cake and the only angle I would allow Jason to take a photo from. Do you see the tall skewer in the back with the banner that says "Happy Birthday Allie"? That was strategically placed to keep that corner of the cake from completely braking off and sliding to the floor. We told Allie the castle had received some structural damage from a dragon attack. Also the other little triangle flags were actually tall skinny candles. When we lit the candles most of the flags caught on fire- further damaging the castle (we could not stop laughing). She had to blow out these 4" flames at the top of the flag poles. We hope the poor princess who lived in this sorry thing made it out alive!
Luke's favorite birthday gift that Allie received- a pretend microphone that echos.
Allie is holding a little dog that barks and walks when you push the button at the end of a leash. When she started to open the gift I told her to be careful and not get bit. She saw the black fur and then asked me to open it the rest of the way.
This is her mermaid dress-up dress.

Not a flattering shot but still a precious moment (which is why I decided to include it). Aaahh "Quiet Time". This is why the answering machine picks up anywhere between noon and 4pm-ish.

Per Request

So here are a few more shots of Wesley. I love this one below because I think he looks like a little old man. Nap time for the boys (and mom soon followed).
"Hanging out" with mom.

As soon as Grandma Poppins left it was time to pull out the sling. Jenny, did you ever get it figured out?

Happiness is

Finally figuring out how to defeat the zipper (good thing this is a private blog)
Coloring for at least 4 hours a day
Snoozing with your sister

One of these "things" is not like the others...

Jay mentioned that he thought Wes looked like our other kids. I thought that would be an interesting comparison. So in no particular order here are our three babies, all within a week of being born. Can you guess who is who? I guess I would have to agree... this is just what a Jason/Joy baby looks like. Not too much variation. Is it because Jason and I look similar?

His NAME is...

This afternoon we welcomed home Wesley Banks Payne! We had been thinking of Austin Banks Payne in honor of Grandpa Payne and the Dr. he is named after but Austin just didn't seem to fit. Since Grandpa is kind of a miracle baby and that is how we feel about our little guy, well it just seemed fitting. Every child is special but after all we have been through with this little one, well he is a miracle to us. Since nothing was normal about this pregnancy I sort of suspected that something abnormal about his birth would also be the case. Being labor for only about 11 or 12 hours- TOTALLY abnormal for me. And then I wasn't surprised by his little double thumb. Just seemed par for the course. We are totally ok with it by the way. It will make a great story for the "Two Truths and a Lie" game when he grows up! :) It sounds like they will do the surgery when he is more like a year old instead of 6 months.

So here are a few more shots: The Proud Papa
The big sister!The big brother! Maureen asked if Luke was aware or cared what was happening. Can you tell who is the most excited about having a baby brother! He just doesn't want to leave him alone! He even says "baby" now- one of the 6 words or so that he knows.The proud grandma who arrived just in time! Actually Friday night after she got off the plane and we were relaxing (she gave Jason a massage which helped him be prepared to be the "dude-la"), she asked me if I wanted to try some Chia energy thing to put me in labor. Sure, why not?! So she touched these "energy spots" by my knees and then by my ankles. Whether that is what did it or not, three hours later the contractions began! THANK Y-O-U Grandma!!!
So after flying in, fixing Jason up, putting me into labor and sending us out the door, she cleaned our entire house, cooked, did laundry, played with the kids and made cookies. We are going to buy her an umbrella for a Thank You gift because we now call her "Grandma Poppins." Thank You Grandma!

He's here!

I wish I were half the writer Joy is. Little baby x was born this afternoon at 12:25. Joy began labor at about 1:00 this morning. Thankfully this labor was nowhere near as long as that of Luke or Allie. Here is our little family right before we left for the hospital at 9:00:

Our nurse was a midwife for about 6 years before going to nursing school and was very comfortable with Joy's desire to deliver without all of the IV and monitoring equipment preventing her from moving around. (The hospital did get some wireless fetal monitors that we used and liked). We walked up and down the hall quite a few times, returned to our room and Joy delivered on hands and knees. Our Dr. popped the water sack while Joy was pushing and noticed some light meconium. The Dr. stepped out for a bit then came back just in time to see the baby pushed out. After a little suctioning, he scored 8-9 Apgar and began to nurse. He is a chunky little guy.Joy was up after a nice cup of Cherrios and Rasin Bran to assure the little guy that she still loves him even though he weighed 8 pounds, 7.8 oz. He was 20.5 inches long.

Nest it was off to the recovery room in a wheelchair built for a 400 pound man (they must have heard he was a pudge).
Settled in it was time for a good bath and his first fake and bake---
If you look carefully you will see that he has a split thumb on his right hand. The two little tips each have a fingernail and probably bone as well. He'll likely undergo a surgury to pick one about 6 months from now. Split thumbs sometimes accompany other issues, but no other abnormalities were exposed in all of the normal exams babies undergo. Here is a zoomed in version of his thumb(s). If you care to web surf, the medical term is pre-axial polydactyly and the probability of occurance is 1:1000.I came home about 7:30 and relived a very worn out grandma. Joy made a little video for Allie and Luke that I showed to them before bedtime. With any luck, all will go home tomorrow!
Oh, the name? You want to know the name? Well, let me call Joy. Well we're down to two finalists. We have the middle name. We'll post the results tomorrow...