Graham James Wilbur!

On Wednesday November 23rd, Graham James Wilbur was born. He was 7 lbs 8 oz and 21 inches. Here is Jen as we were heading to the hospital the night before.

When we got to the hospital we had to wait for about 30 minutes for a room to open up. They had 19 labor and delivery rooms and I think that they were full all day and all the next day.

Jen was up all night dealing with contraction and then at 9:30 they called the doctor and he arrived at around 9:45 and Jen pushed for about 10 minutes. Here is Graham.

Too little hair to see if there is any red yet. We think he looks a lot like Tyler but I will do a baby pcture comparison on another day. He doesn't like being cold in any way, he loves being warm and snug. So far he has been happy just to be bundled up and warm. He also didn't like light very much. The first day he didn't open his eyes but for a few precious moments, usually when it was darker.

The hospital does a skin to skin time where they place the baby on the mother's chest for an hour for bonding time. This made it difficult to get tasteful pictures with Graham and Jen right after. There are some later though.

The kids love him so much. Kate just sat and stared at him. Ty was interested for a minute or two and then went and explored the room jumping off beds and looking out in the hall at nurses and babies.

It seems he has a red birthmark on his right side. The nurses  thought it was a stork bite but it hasn't yet gone away so we will see.

The timing was great, we had all of our siblings, less Mike and Jen, in town for Thanksgiving. Plus, I only missed one day of work. And we were able to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner as well. Pluses all around.

This is us waiting for Greg to come with the car. We were surprised by the nurse telling us we could be discharged. Jen had tested positive for Strep B and got anti-biotics all night. The rule of thumb is to stay 48 hours which meant missing Thanksgiving dinner.

Fortunately, Jen's doctor said that Graham's vitals were great and that we could go home. We had to wait a while because our doctor didn't see the second sheet of patients to visit and left before seeing us and had to ask another doctor to check Graham out for us. That doctor came after his rounds and then said that his group hold firm on the 48 hours but Graham looked good and if our doctor was ok with us going home, we could. We waited to hear from someone about what our doctor said when the nurse came in and started to discharge us. She said our doctor had already given the ok if the other doctor thought Graham looked ok.

Going home!

We came home about 10 minutes before they were going to have Thanksgiving dinner. We walked in and sat down to Thanksgiving dinner. Pretty good timing if you ask me.

Graham likes to suck it seems. He sucked his fingers during the skin to skin time. Here is Kate and Graham bonding though finger sucking time.

Jen and Graham are doing great. He hasn't been too bad at night. He is a very calm baby. At least so far, we'll see! We are excited for the addition to our family.

Growing kids

Labor day weekend was a weekend of growing up. The kids got bunk beds.

Ty turned 3.

Jen made pirate ship cakes.

And Kate started Kindergarten.

It was a busy weekend, especially with both of them recovering from being sick.

Look Ma, No Hands!

So Katie has been riding with her training wheels and a few months ago we tried to take them off. She had trouble keeping balanced and we put the wheels back on. We then got her a Razor for her birthday and she zips around on that. I think she learned how to balance well on that thing. So last night we tried again and here are the results.

When do they stop growing up so fast. I mean kindergarten is just a couple weeks away. Where is that kid pause button. In the video, Katie went slower than she had been before because I was exhausted. I had been needing to sprint to keep up. When did I grow so old?

Trek to Utah

I had some time off work a while back and we decided to take the time to travel up to Utah to see some family and friends. As Jen is pregnant, we need to take frequent stops and so we planned the trip into stages. We were able then to see many of the people that we hoped to see and it lessened the time in the car as the stops were at people's homes and we had a day or two break.

Our first stop was in Las Vegas at Dan and Casi's home. We went by the M&M store. The kids loved selecting their own M&M's.

We spent a lot of time swimming there. Kate is a fish and very comfortable in the water. Tyler is gaining a healthy fear of the water and is a little more cautious. He would jump in without making sure it was ok before so I like he isn't terrified of the water but it is scary that he had no fear.

We went to Hoover Dam. I went as a kid and remember the water much higher. Kate was exhausted after a few minutes and had to be carried.

The next day we went to Provo on the way stopping and seeing Joan and stayed with my Grandpa Campbell and Grandma Nancy. It was so much fun being able to talk to my Grandpa and hear his stories. I wrote down as many as I could remember and hope to start collecting them all. I have begun to get the Family History bug and have started doing a little work. I feel that most of the finding has been done but I want to get to know more about the people and get their stories as best I can. I think that it rained every afternoon we were there. We again were able to swim and see a few friends as well. Jen met with Summer and her children at a park. We saw Wes who was a councilor at EFY and ate Gelato atCostco in Orem with him. Ya, they have 3 very large scoops for $1.50. Good thing that wasn't there when we lived there. Toured BYU campus and saw some familiar sights. We stopped by the temple and the "Y".

It seemed extra green while we were there. They said that there was extra snowpack this year giving a lot more water for the mountains. Here is Timp.

So hard to say goodbye. I have no idea when I will be able to take this much time off and see the family. We had so much fun in Provo seeing old sights, friends, and family.

We then went up to Salt Lake and Sandy to stay with Jen's Aunt Teresa and to see her Grandma Barnes. One of the days we went up to Logan for a few hours. We stopped by the hospital Ty was born in. You can see in this first picture that they are watching Mary Poppins. Kate and Jen saw the musical right before the trip and kids watched the movie maybe a dozen time on the trip. This is Tyler looking at the hospital.

We went and saw our old neighbors, the Millers. Lyndie and her sons Casen, Treg, and Teague. We went to the Zoo and fed the ducks. The boys had a new sister that was born while we were away, Cambrie. They are active boys and play rough together but they are the softest, kind boys when it came to their sister. I was impressed.

Kate discovered Teresa's trampoline and Jen sprayed a hose on it to make it more fun. The kids loved it. Kate had fun showing us jumping and landing in a sitting position and bouncing back up to her feet.

We spent time right before we left with Grandma Barnes and we were able to get a few good pictures.

We stopped down in Cedar City and stay with the Goldthorpes. Nathan is Kevin little boy and he was a happy one.

We stopped at Circus Circus and played some games with Jen's parents had stopped by to see Dan and Casi for the weekend.

Um ya, I won.

We ate and the Steak n Shake at South Pointe before heading back home.

We really did have an amazing time. I could not have hoped for a better vacation. We were exhausted by the end and happy to sleep in our own beds instead of a new one every other night but we were overwhelmed by the kindness and hospitality we were shown. Thank you to everyone that opened up their homes and for making time to see us as we made our trek through Utah.