TEE BALL!!!
Thursday, April 26, 2012 - Posted by Sunny - 2 comments
Tonight Hyrum had his first tee ball practice. When Derek's family came down they brought the bats and glove that Derek and David ( his brother ) used in Tee ball when they were tiny. The glove didn't work for Hyrum so all the boys (minus Elijah ) headed off together to get Hyrum a glove.


They came back with a pretty one ( If mitts can be pretty)

The day of practice hyrum couldn't wait to go. But a storm was brewing set to open the skies at 5 o'clock, just when his practice was set to begin. I went back and forth about whether Elijah and I would go. When the time came to go we decided to take separate cars ( to the park a half mile away- pathetic!) and if it got bad I'd just take little man home. He was dressed for Hyrum's first practice anyway.


The boys were out practicing throwing the balls around when it started to rain a little


But it didn't last long and we were under the pavilion so practice continued and we stayed. Noah couldn't be left out of the fun. He was dangerous with that bat so it was quickly taken from him and he soon ran off to play on the park toys.


When everyone got there they had a team huddle. Watching their rapt attention I understood better how coaches have a special place in boys lives.


Hyrum's coach is a man in our ward who was in the previous bishopric with Derek and he is soo good with the kids. ( I keep wanting to say boys since I live in boy town but there are three girls on Hyrum's team) He'd called around trying to recruit kids from the neighborhood for his team so there are seven boys from the neighborhood on the team.

They started off just running the bases all together as a team and then they took turns running to the bases and advancing etc with the batting helmets on.


Then he tried putting them in defensive positions but that is still a bit over thier heads so he had the dads play the defense positions and had them each get up to hit.


Hyrum is the only left handed hitter on the team. Derek thought he threw left handed too but I thought he used both. They got him a left handed mitt but now he sees that he throws with both hands. Not real sure what we'll do about that.


Hyrum loved it!


At the end coach had them line up and then he rolled a ball to them which they were suppose to pick up and throw to Derek. We had a few wild pitches. Hyrum was attempting the across the body side winder toss in this one.


Do you see the boy behind him "throwing" as well?

Then after practice was done they got their uniforms. They are the Pirates!


And Hyrum is number 8!


I told him it was great to be eight and he said " Yeah that's when I get baptised!" Smart kid! He just looks like a baseball player to me now.


The "other" babies
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - Posted by Sunny - 0 comments
As you might recall there has been another slightly less fascinating attraction in our house.

The ladybug larvae.

They started their time here like this.


When they first arrived we thought there were 7 or maybe 8 larvae but as time went on we counted more and more. A couple times we found some of them on the outside of the plastic and feared a break out but the more we found extra in Ladybug Land the more we wondered if they were in fact recruiting.

The day before we we had our little Elijah we noticed that the larvae had begun to turn into pupae. By then we were counting 10.


By the time we brought our little man home they were all in the pupae stage and being immobile we were able to count 11.

Then today we peered into Ladybug Land to find a real live LADYBUG!


We're so excited!


The Third Musketeer
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 - Posted by Sunny - 4 comments
As the days got closer to when Elijah would make his appearance Hyrum was getting so excited. But Noah who had been so cute about the coming baby kissing my belly and saying "I love you, baby" all the time seemed to take an indifferent stance. He used to insist on his babies sleeping with him. Putting them on the pillow pet beside him. But as the days got closer I would ask him if he loved the baby and he'd say "Uuum, no" Once when he said it Hyrum was nearby and replied emphatically "But wait till you see him!" I began to get nervous about how Noah would react to this third wheel. This newcomer.

They weren't able to com to the hospital to see him until Saturday ( when we left ) because they were fighting runny noses and coughs but Saturday they were doing a lot better. I wish I'd known exactly when they were coming so that I could have had a video camera or at least a still camera to capture each of their first reactions to seeing him.

I was lucky enough to get Hyrum's reaction because the look on his face didn't change for probably 5 minutes. He was SOOOOOO very excited.


We dressed him in the Spider-man onsie that my good friend had gotten him knowing my boys affinity for Spider-man and all things super hero. ( and Star Wars but Derek thought it a little much to dress him in a Star Wars shirt to go home seeing his names connection to the popular movie)

Noah's reaction was quite a bit more subtle, but he shared Hyrum's amazement if not excitement. (This picture doesn't really capture his reaction but it was the closest I could find to it)


After a few minutes I knew everything would be alright. The boys LOVE Elijah or "baby Eli" as he's most often referred to in the house. They can't give him enough kisses.



Noah found something else he loved at the hospital


the "transformer bed"

On the way home Noah said "Take baby home...my house....yup...that's right" Hyrum was itching to take him home as soon as they got to the hospital.

They are always clamoring to see him. Hyrum is always saying "I want to see that cute baby!" I'm kind of shocked it took a whole day for Hyrum to ask to hold him. But immediately Elijah sneezed on him and he wasn't so excited to hold him anymore ( for the rest of the day anyway). So we didn't get a picture of the first time Hyrum held Eli but we got a picture of the second.


And of course Noah could NOT be left out of that action.


I love that my boys are friends.




Elijah Luke Tangren
Thursday, April 19, 2012 - Posted by Sunny - 6 comments
On Sunday the hospital called to confirm our induction on Monday. I told her that we'd had an inversion scheduled for Monday if he was still head up but that he'd turned so we had an induction date for the 19th. She told me that it had been canceled since they had scheduled the other date. I asked her to change it back so I could have all of my ducks in a row. It wasn't until Wednesday night that I began to worry that I'd been moved to the back of the list.

But when they called they told us that we were first on the list for induction but that we'd be called in the morning as early as six and would be given an hour to come in. So we'd need to be ready at 6 but we wouldn't be necessarily on our way to the hospital then. When I put the boys to bed I fell asleep on the floor. I dared to hope that I'd actually get some sleep before having this one. But when we finally headed for bed around 11 I didn't fall asleep for a long while and woke up before the alarm clock went off at 5:30. So much for a full nights rest. 6 o'clock came and went without a phone call. Around 7:30 Hyrum wandered into our room and asked rubbing his eyes." Where's the new baby?" I told him that he was still in Momma's belly but we might be going to the hospital before too long. Then Noah wandered in behind him. I was hoping that we'd have left before he'd woken up to reduce trauma. Throughout the morning he was really huggy and it made me worried how things would go when I had to leave. But when the hospital called at 8 and we got ready to go he was fine. Derek told him that we were going to have the baby and he just said "Bye!"

We left for the hospital with memories of Noah's induction, passing three hospitals on our way to American Fork Hospital our home away from home for a couple of days. On the way, due I'm sure in no small part to lack of sleep and pregnancy hormones, Derek got me laughing and I COULD NOT STOP. The ugly, tear streaming, strange noise making, not sure if I'm crying or laughing kind of laugh attack. For seriously10 minutes solid, at least. Most of the way to the hospital I was laughing. Derek wanted to get video of me but I was really glad he was driving so he couldn't. It was all about portable stirrups. We know a labor and delivery nurse at American Fork hospital and Derek was saying that if he knew she'd answer the phone on the labor and delivery floor that he'd say that we had a crowning baby and cause a stir. Saying that they'd probably come running with portable stirrups and try to deliver me by the elevator. It's not really all that funny now but I was DYING in the car and every time I thought about it after during labor.


We got into the room around 8:45.

And got the IV placed around 9. I was sure to have some kind of breakfast this morning remembering my fainting spell last time after not having had anything but despite my added nourishment I got light headed and was on my way to pass out after the IV was in. After I was a little more coherent the nurse looked at the monitor and asked. "Are you feeling that contraction?" I asked "I'm having a contraction?" After she left me with my millions of papers to sign I started to notice that I was in fact having contractions. More or less 6 minutes apart. So chances are if I hadn't been called in I would have been in the hospital today anyway. Around 10 they brought in the pitocin and antibiotics. Ironically I felt the contractions less once they put me on the pit. At 10:30 my doctor broke my water and they upped my pitocin level. I definitely started feeling them more after that. By 11;30 they were getting pretty strong, so I decided to get an epidural for lunch. It was moving much faster than with Noah. I figure it was because I'd probably had started into labor on my own before they started me.

(Derek's view from our room. I was facing the opposite way and could see the roofs of buildings...not as pretty)

I don' t know why but for some reason, once they gave me the epidural I hit the wall with tiredness and just tried to sleep for two hours. Then the nurse came in around 2 and discovered we were ready to go. So she called my doctor who was just finishing up with a patient and got everything ready.


We watched her walk across the parking lot from the office to come deliver little Eli. A few minutes later he was here.


7lbs 10 oz
19 inches
born at 2:26 pm
April 19, 2012

A little about his name. We've typically named our boys with a biblical name and family name. Elijah we just liked which fufilled our biblical name then we tossed a few family names around like Henry, James, and Rex. But in my searching I decided to look for a name that referenced light. The only one that I found even worth considering was Luke or Lucas. Lucas means "Light , illumination" And "Luke" means "light giver". I quickly dismissed it because there wasn't Luke's or Lucases in the family and of course there was the not so subtle link to Star Wars. But the more I thought about it the more I liked it. I was bugged that it wasn't a family name until I thought "Well maybe we could just say he was named after me "Sunny" Then today it started off rainy and dreary and by the time he got here it had cleared up and was quite sunny and bright. He sort of brought the light. :)


Just some pictures of our cute little man.



We forgot to ask one of the three nurses in the room when we delivered to take a picture of us so we tried it on our own...not great but it will do.


We love him already.


Self Portrait
Monday, April 16, 2012 - Posted by Sunny - 0 comments
This is what happens when your two year old gets a hold of the camera with greasy chicken fingers.

You get pictures like this


And this

Then it's hard to stop laughing long enough to be mad at him.


Special Delivery
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - Posted by Sunny - 0 comments
My mother in law got a lady bug land for the boys last year and I never got around to getting the lady bug larvae. But this year Hyrum found the order slip and begged me to get them at least every day. So the other night thinking of what was coming for him with the new baby and all I figured that having a diversion would be a good thing and my mother in law was coming too. :) Plus they are talking about nature in preschool as well. I ordered them and we waited for them to come.

Today they came


And Hyrum can't get enough of them.


I happen to love the look on his face in this picture. I hope they survive.


Easter
Monday, April 09, 2012 - Posted by Sunny - 0 comments
We woke up Easter Saturday morning to Hyrum bursting in the door telling us what he found in the hall way...JELLY BEANS and a basket! It was an excruciating 15 minutes for Hyrum to wait before I let him go wake up Noah to get the show on the road. Noah would have nothing of it so Hyrum got started without him


Eventually Noah woke up and got in on the action


...slowly

Hyrum who was just so excited to get to the end of the trail helped Noah gather the jelly beans to his basket telling him that he was almost to "Moroni".

The Easter bunny was good enough to get each of the boys a Book of Mormon figure ( Moroni for Hyrum and King Noah for Noah- they had to have some bad guys eventually) and a Bible story puzzle for putting together on Sundays. Noah was also given Bible Go fish, Bible Memory Match and Bible trivia cards ( Hyrum already had some cards similar to these). Hyrum couldn't wait to dig into the trivia cards. He has learned almost all of them already.



Of course the toys weren't the only draw at Easter


Hyrum was soo excited to get to the end of the trail that he didn't notice the plastic eggs dotting the way. Hyrum was careful to make sure his little brother got a relatively equal amount of eggs too since he was still gathering his jelly bean trail when Hyrum started into the plastic eggs. What a good big brother.

We also woke up to this outside.


We were surprised since this kind of thing doesn't happen much in Utah. I'd known that the temperature was suppose to get down to 28 and I was worried about our nectarines and when I saw this I hoped that the ice would have insulated the blossoms. We were so glad for the rain that saved our nectarines. Then later that day we realized that it was not rain but our sprinklers that we'd turned on the previous weekend to test them (and thought we'd turned off again) that had actually coated our trees, garden and grass with ice.

Easter Sunday was nice since Derek didn't have any morning meetings and we got to drive together to church. He had some things after church but not as many as he usually does. We tried to take our annual family Easter pictures but didn't get many and none that were great because it was bright


And we had boys who are budding photographers and wanted to be behind the camera instead of in front of it


But it was a great Easter Sunday. We went to a friends house for Easter dinner and it was a feast. Then there was Skypeing with my parents and off to bed. We are so grateful for the Savior and what he did for us, that our family can be together forever.