This little man is happy as can be on a cold snowy windy bitter day!! Melts my heart....now if that smile could only melt the snow?!?!?! :)

my three goofy kiddos

after a nightmare-ish last 24 hours of high fevers (combined total of
307 degrees between these three!) and sick kids, we (meaning the
kiddos...not mom and dad unfortunately!) are on the mend...thankful
for happy hearts and chipper attitudes from these kiddos and the good
cooperating and getting along they have been doing! here's a good
snapshot to capture the silliness these two big kids exude day in and
day out!

Breven - 3 months old!

a few snapshots of our sweet 3-month old Breven....he wasn't very smiley at all while we took these (and he is normally a VERY smiley, responsive baby) - photographer wasn't quite ready to capture those smiles when mama got them going.  hmmph.

but here's a few to share...

 

 

 

 

 

and a few mama captured on her own... :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

sweet Breven, I can't believe you are THREE MONTHS OLD already!!  it has been a whirlwind of events since you have been born!  you are super smiley, super responsive, super dramatic when you aren't getting something you want (**wink**), and just super loveable and super cuddly! 

You have teased us a few times with sleeping through the night, but I wouldn't call it the "norm" yet...we're still working on being consistent and mama is going to be soooo excited once that stretch hits. :)  I'm excited for you to start sharing a bedroom with your big brother but not until you are sleeping good!  You are typically up about 3 am for a feeding, diaper change, and to get all bundled back in your swaddle wrap...I think you are squirmy enough and strong enough now that you try to escape and that is what is waking you up!  You still sleep in the cradle (in our closet, haha!), eat about 6x a day, either nursing or bottle, have officially had 1 full normal week at daycare and have adjusted well! 

 

Your awesome awesome head of hair has not changed since you have been born....it may be beginning to lighten up but time will tell.  the volume has remained the same though and that is the first comments we hear about you is "look at all that hair!".  I love it.  It's nice and dark right now but based on history of your older siblings, it's bound to lighten up and become a tow-headed blondie!

 

You LOVE to take naps on your tummy.  good good naps.  pop in that monkey binkie and you snooze good.  you take a good morning nap and and even better afternoon nap.  bedtime is about 9:00 and aside from your 3 am wakeup, you have shown us you CAN sleep straight until 6:30 or 7!  You also snuggle so good on my chest...nestle right in and you can get a good snooze in that way too.  my favorite thing to do with you, I wish I could bottle up that feeling of your soft breathing, sound of your sighs and grunts, smell of your sweet skin and breath, sight of your beautiful face and freeze that all in time forever.  It's going way way to fast.  I was lucky and fortunate and blessed to have a great maternity leave with you.  Lucky that my work was able to let me have some time off and lucky that I was able to help out and work part-part time from home.  I had a good 9 weeks with you, and then a few half weeks while Daddy was on Xmas break.  We spent lots of time snuggling, watching some movies, taking pictures, shuffling your big sister back-and-forth to preschool, and just reminding myself to take the time and ENJOY.  I think even more so with you than your big brother and sister, did I take the time to remind myself how fast this phase goes.  and truly truly trying to treasure it all.  You had a crazy/exciting/whirlwind first few weeks of life. 7 days old and we hit the road for a Nashville road trip for your Uncle Joel and Aunt Andrea's wedding!  What an adventure, what a wonderful time, what an exhausting memorable crazy jumbled emotional time it was.  wouldn't have missed it for the world, it will be a great story to look back on someday. :)

 

At 7 weeks old, you got a new cousin, Jackson Oscar!  Will be so fun to see you boys grow up together and go through all the milestones at the same time!  Xmas was fun and crazy at the Stickrods with two new grandkids in the picture!  Also, at 7 weeks old, you had surgery in Iowa City to help clear out those kidney concerns....you were a champ and did so well and recovered quickly.  Praying we don't have to put you through something like that again, it's scary for mama to see her baby all fragile and innocent and taped up with cords and IVs and monitors and to feel so helpless.  But you are doing remarkably well and we're so so incredibly thankful for you.  I didn't realize how incomplete our family truly was until you joined us, you have just fit in so well and filled in a missing puzzle piece that no one knew was missing! 

 

You are wearing 0-3 month clothes (finally!), you had a nice long stretch of newborn outfits and actually can still wear a few.  You have been a little peanut from the beginning, but are finally starting to chunk up a bit and can tell by your roly-poly legs.  We will probably be breaking out big brothers 3-6 month tub of clothes soon though. :)  Size 1 diapers, and have been known to spray mama a time or two during a diaper change :)  You weigh 12 lbs 3 oz now, I'm not sure what that %ile is, will take you back at 4 months and find out!

You flail your arms and legs like something exciting is going on, you react to your playmat lights, and your squealy voice full of "goos" and "ahs" are sounds I just wish I could keep you doing forever!  that throaty gulp, the "ahs", the excited squeals, the squinty silent grin you give just melt my heart and warms my soul.  indescribable.

 

Your big bro and big sis love you more than words can explain.  It makes my heart ache with joy to see the three of you together, and especially now that you are starting to react to voices, faces, movements, etc.  I cannot wait to see what the future holds for your relationships with each other.

 

So my sweet Breven William, my little B-man....happy 3 months baby boy, love you more and more every day. :)

Our 5 year old! :)

some snapshots of our beautiful 5-year old Chloe Luelle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

3-month comparison pictures

 

 

 

here's our three bundles of joy at 3 months old....how can Chloe be 5
now, Landon be almost 3 1/2, and Breven already be at this stage?!?

who looks the most alike?!  I still think Chloe and Breven....

Merry Christmas from the Smiths!

Here is our Christmas Card for this year....our family of FIVE!! :)

Breven William Smith - birth announcement

newborn comparison

a Halloween of Disney characters...imagine that after our amazing trip this summer! :)

 

Chloe was Rapunzel from "Tangled"...

 

Landon was Jake from "Jake and the Neverland Pirates"...

 

 

and our sweet 15 day old was the cutest itty bitty Mickey Mouse :)

 

Happy Halloween!

Breven two week stats:
Head circumference 14"- 44%ile
7 lbs 1 oz (yay!). (10%ile)
20.5 inches (49%ile)
Back on Friday for another weight check, they say he's gaining good but just want to keep an eye on it the next couple weeks. :). Everything else looks great!

Breven William - details on his name

so we have had many inquiries about Breven's name, since we have always done something fun/unique/creative with coming up with the other kids names....(Chloe Luelle - Luelle is a combo of Grandma Jane and Grandma Jody's middle names, Lou and Ellen to create Luelle.....Landon is a rearrangement of Spencer's middle name, Noland, and Jacob is after Shannon Jacob)....

now with baby #3, we obviously wanted to continue the tradition and make it special for this little guy too. :)

Breven has been named after his Grandpas and Great Grandpas.....

My dad is Dean Robert
Spencer's dad is Steven Lynn

we took 3 letters from Robert (B-R-E) and 3 letters from Steven (V-E-N) to create Breven....also, Robert is my Grandpa Jack's middle name (who passed away this past June), and Spencer's Grandpa's name, and my brother Jeff's middle name, so Robert was what we used to inspire the name Breven. And Spencer's brother Steven too is included with this. :)

For his middle name.....William.....this is after my Grandpa Oscar whose middle name was William.  Spencer's grandpa was Wilbur as well, so William was just fitting for a middle name.  Plus.....it's my brother Joel's middle name, and him and Breven just HAPPEN to share a birthday, so it was perfect!

So there we go.....our sweet Breven William Smith.  Perfect in every way!

Breven William Smith

it's a BOY!!!

Breven William Smith, born at 4:44 pm

7 pounds 10 ounces
20 inches long

and a head full of hair!!!

He is doing wonderful so far, such a perfect perfect little boy and the perfect addition to our family!

So we finally made it to the hospital after a little delay this morning. The hospital was pretty full, so they had us wait to come in at 11:15 instead of 7:30 this morning. Of course, we were all showered and ready to go by 6:15:)

They admitted us at 11:20 and had Jill all hooked up and monitored by 11:30. They started the IV at 12:30, 3 cm at 12:45, pitocin at 12:50, and broke her water at 2:05. Things are starting to move pretty quick and the contractions are getting stronger. More info to come later:)

Family/Maternity Pix - Baby #3

We had a beautiful evening to go out and get some snapshots of our growing family....here's a few sneak peaks to enjoy!

 

Can't wait for this little one to join our family in such a short time!!!  Anxious to find out if it's a boy or a girl, anxious to see who he/she looks like and what his/her personality will be like....and so excited for my heart to continue expanding yet again to love this precious little miracle!!!  Will keep things updated as we know more about Baby Smith #3!!!

 

As of now, we're scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, October 16th (my brother Joel's birthday, how special!), so stay tuned!  Baby was measuring about 7 lbs 6 oz as of last Thursday (38 weeks, 1 day), fluids were good, growth is good, it's getting close!  c'mon baby, we can't wait to meet you!

it's official!! Disney...here we come!

Look what arrived in our mailbox today?!  Disney Magical Express tickets....it's official....

 

we're off to see the Mouse in just over a MONTH!!

FWD: snow fun!

Crazy!! May 3rd filled full of snowtime fun and building family snowmen!!