Thursday, July 29, 2010

play date at the pool

today was the perfect day for a play date at miss bev's house. so karissa favazza and i packed up the kids and headed over to bev's pool. cobian and greysen were great little swimmers and hayden loved playing with cobian. talan pretty much played on the step, as usual.
after awhile, karrisa headed home but we decided to stay awhile longer. jess and justin stopped over to hang out for awhile and then talan started becoming a bit adventurous. he put some floaties on and ventured off of the top step, allowing justin and myself to hold him in the water. he became even braver and was having a blast letting justin spin him around in the water. and then, i was able to let go of him and he swam on his own for a few seconds. and then that was enough of that. baby steps.
we had a great time with the favazza's and then with the cox's. the pool is hayden's most favorite place to be and we're so thankful that bev let's us come over to use hers!

cobian and hayden:

cobian, hayden and talan:
greysen taking a break:
brave talan taking a ride on justin:


london and jessica:
this is what baby oil is for, right?! jessica showin' london how it's done:
yeehaw!:
hayden having fun with diving masks:

talan had enough of the swimming lesson with justin:

talan swimming by himself!:

justin and london:
little puppy read to go home:

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

the five kids

it was a short trip, but we had to get going back home. we hung out for most of the day and even had an all kids photo shoot.
talan keeps forgetting gunnar's name and when asked what it was he said "squirter" it was awesome and i hope it sticks!
we are planning on coming back out in about 2 weeks to spend some time at the beach and to see fireflight play in muskegon. don't grow too much while we're away, gunnar!!!

hayden and gunnar:


talan and squirter:

the boys and their new baby BOY cousin!:
oh great. now there are FIVE kids we need to have looking at the camera?! this is what happens:




i know this is a bad picture, but it cracks me up:
talan wanted to hold london:
justin and jessica's photo op with gunnar before they head home:

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

welcome, baby gunnar!

after spending a week in the hospital and then almost a week on bed rest, jenn's baby decided enough was enough and it was time to come out no matter what anyone else thought.
i got a call from mom around 12:30am on july 26th saying that jenn's water had broken and they were on the way to the hospital. she ended up having to leave a message on the machine because dave didn't wake up quick enough to grab the phone. on the message she had said to call jenn's phone and so, i called jenn's cell phone. so jenn answers the phone and says "mom called you?!" all upset that she woke me up. i was completely confused and didn't realize until later when mom explained it that jenn and don were on the way to the hospital and mom was at jenn's house staying with rainah.
after hanging up with jenn, i then talked to mom for a bit. at that point, i couldn't fall asleep so i hung out on facebook for awhile. at one point mom posted something saying the dr. had told don her guess would be the baby would come somewhere between 6-8 hours.
i'm sure jenn was grateful that the baby didn't listen and came much quicker than that. at 3:52am on july 26th, gunnar tate was born 5 weeks early...but perfectly healthy! he didn't even have to go to the nicu! however, at that time he didn't have a name. actually, he didn't have a name until jenn was just about ready to leave the hospital today!!
mom was already in grand rapids, and dad drove back out in the morning, as did jessica and justin. i decided it would be best to wait until they all came home from the hospital before we went to meet gunnar. having all 3 kids in a tiny hospital room wouldn't be fun for ANYONE. i was so sad not to be with the rest of the family and to meet gunnar hours after he was born, but i knew it was for the best. so this morning, we packed everything up and headed out to jenn's house.
we got there a couple of hours before jenn got home. so we helped to pick up and decorate a bit before they came. then, a bit later, we were all there to welcome home little baby gunnar. at 5 weeks early he was still able to come home the very next day!
we put london, just 5 months older, next to gunnar, she looked like a toddler! it's crazy how quickly they grow!
we're so happy he's here and that he is healthy! welcome to the family, gunnar! we love you already!

while waiting for baby gunnar to come home, talan made us all a snack:

rainah feeding her baby brother:


it didn't take long before the kids were bored with gunnar and asked for the adults to break out the ipods and iphones:
london going to eat gunnar:
london and gunnar what a difference 5 months makes:

i finally got some shots with gunnar's eyes open:




Sunday, July 25, 2010

happy birthday, tiger

our rained out tiger game from the other nite was postponed until tonite, which was also dad's birthday.
mom is still in grand rapids staying with jenn who is on bedrest but jessica and justin just got into town, so we had a little birthday gathering before the tiger game. we all took dad out to dinner at red robin and then headed back to our house where he opened some presents. everyone was still stuffed from dinner so we decided to wait to eat the cake until after we got home from the game.
justin was actually a bit disappointed in the cake, as he wanted me to make a giant mustache cake. but instead it was just a round chocolate cake with mom's white icing.
after the birthday party, dad, dave, hayden and i all headed over to detroit to try to catch a ballgame while justica stayed at our place to watch talan and london.
it turned out to be a beautiful, perfect nite for a baseball game and we had great seats. hayden was most excited about all of the food options he had and thought he could pretty much have whatever he wanted. he ended up eating a frozen lemonade, peanuts, a hot dog, nachos....the list goes on. he actually did get pretty into the game which surprised me. i figured he'd be bored within about 10 minutes. he liked trash talking the other team which was funny stuff.
hayden was bummed that the firework display that was set for the original game didn't happen tonite, but the tigers ended up winning which partly made up for it.
it was a fun evening out and we were glad we were able to celebrate dad's birthday as well.
happy birthday, dad!!!


after everyone was full from red robin (and the birthday sundae they brought out to dad...minus the singing) everyone came back to our place so dad could open his gifts:
new stuff for his new gas grill:
talan and dad:
the tiger game. take 2:
hayden:

hayden and dad: