A week with Finn

We have had a great week with baby Finn. He is growing and we are all recovering and starting to get into a rhythm. I am sure that rhythm is due to change at any second, but at least we are figuring life out a little. Just a few thing that have happened and a few cute photos.

Finn's first bath at home (and yes, Dad and Finn both closed their eyes from the flash)

 Just a bit cozy in the super soft towel.

 Lots of love from the brothers. Henry just adores sitting and watching Finn sleep, so he is even more excited when he gets to be near him for the times he is awake and alert.

So cute.

 What a wrinkly little guy.

 A couple of days after Grandma and Papa left to head back to Iowa, Nana, Vatti and Bridgett arrived for to hang out with us and have some fun. Finn has been glad for the extra arms to hold him.

Wyatt turns 2!

Wyatt turned 2 this week. We happened to be headed home from the hospital on the day of his actual birthday, so the party was postponed until the next day. One of the great things about being 2 is that you don't really care what day it is, as long as you get to have a party.

Libbie was even sweet enough to share her party with Wyatt. She is really the greatest cousin, and I still can't believe she is 11.

 The kids all had a great time. We ate pizza and had 2 cakes and plenty of crazy noise.

These 2 were at it again. Laughing their heads off and generally acting wild.

 Wyatt was very excited about his presents, though he kept asking Gavin for help with the paper. As soon as the paper would come off he would take the toy to an adult and yell, "Open it. Open it." And jump around waiting for it to be taken from the packaging.

Finn was excited about the party too, and about meeting his cousins. Jaren is wearing his super excited smile at the idea of being able to hold Finn.

Grandma decorated a cake for Wyatt. The idea was monkeys in a tree, but Caleb may have thought they were dog, and Wyatt looked a little skeptical when she told him they were monkeys. Good thing she is such a good sport, and we are all grateful for the attempt. He asked Caleb to light the candles a few extra times so that he and Jaren could take turns blowing them out.

 Just a little blackmail photo for when Jaren is 16. I am sure with 4 sisters there will be plenty of these floating around. He is sporting Libbie's new shirt as a dress and loving it.

Finn William Cardon joins our family

He finally arrived. On Tuesday, July 10, 2012 at 9:54pm, Finn William Cardon decided to join our family. He weighed 7lbs 7oz and is 21 inches long.

Last Monday before he was born, I started to have some concerns because my usually very active guy hadn't been moving much all day. Since this was my fourth time being pregnant, I didn't call the doctor, but did what I knew they could tell me and tried to be still and count fetal movements. I did finally feel him move a few times and went about the evening just thinking he would pick back up. At 11pm, I almost went to the hospital to check on him, but then finally got a couple of good movements out of him and decided to wait for my 9am appointment. When I got to the doctor I still wasn't feel much if any movement from him and she was surprised that he didn't kick back at the heart monitor like he usually does. Then his heart rate was a little lower than normal, so she decided to send me up to have him monitored for a while.

After going to call upstairs to Labor and Delivery about monitoring, the doctor came back and said she just seemed concerned. She felt that since I usually don't have any concerns about this baby or my others and I have had enough babies to know when something is different, she felt like we should just induce early and get him here. There was a lot going on in Labor and Delivery and they told her it would be a couple of hours before they would have a room, she sent me to the OB special care to monitor him. Caleb arrived a bit later and we waited. His heart rate stayed constant, but he still wasn't moving around. Finally around 2pm, the doctor came in and said that things were crazy and that they might not have a room for me until 6pm or so, but she wasn't comfortable sending me home. So we waited. Finally at 6 we went to Labor and Delivery and started the induction by 7pm. Within 3 hours we had a beautiful baby boy. It turns out that he was pretty tangled up in the umbilical cord and took a fair bit of unwinding on the way out, and the doctor and nurses said that was most likely what was keeping him from being able to move. Fortunately, after he cried out for a while, he went from being bluish purple to more a pink little bundle.

We finally picked a name for him the next afternoon, and feel like it suits him and our family perfectly. He is such a cute tiny guy.

Gavin adores him and wants to hold him whenever he can.

Wyatt is also slightly amazed and excited about "Baby. Finn." He keeps pointing him out to everyone when he remembers to take a break from playing to notice him.

Henry wasn't too excited to hold Finn at the hospital, but has spent lots of time getting to know him since.

Grandma and Papa stayed in town after the reunion to help with the boys and get a chance to meet Finn in his early days. The boys have loved having them around and I am sure they will be sad to see them head back to Iowa.

The Loos even came up to pay the little guy a visit. Finn and Auntie Rena.

Hanging out with my boys at the hospital.

Here he is getting ready to come home. He wasn't super excited about the car seat, but adjusted to it fine. Luckily he won't have to go anywhere in it again too soon.

Cardon Reunion 2012- Victor, ID

A couple of week ago we headed to Victor, Idaho for the Cardon Family Reunion. It felt like a long drive for a very pregnant person, but it was a beautiful little spot in the Teton Valley. I would highly recommend it if ever you are looking for a quite place to be. There are lots of people who have vacation homes there and we stayed in one that was big enough for all of us.

The first day, everyone except the pregnant women and 2 year olds went on a rafting/floating trip down the Snake River. I didn't go, so I don't have photos of them, but the boys had a great time. Back at the house, Mara and I had a wild time watching these 3 crazies.

Wyatt, Jade and Jaren

These two were maniacs running all over the house and yard and finding anything they could to get into or throw.

Jade took a little longer to decide that the boys were safe to be around, but she did plenty of exploring once she warmed up to us.

Showing off his wood chips before he throws them.

The next day was a bit of a rough adventure for Wyatt and I. We all loaded into 4 cars and drove several hours to Yellowstone, where we then drove around for the day, and then drove several more hours home. It turns out that kids 2 and under do not like to be in the car all day, and like it even less when they can get out for a while and then have to get back in. There was one kid of car hating age in almost every car. It did not make for the best day of seeing Yellowstone and I think we would all have skipped it if we had known how nuts it would be. We did get to see some cool things while we were there, and hopefully will get to see and enjoy them again some day in the future.

There was quite a bit of wind around Old Faithful, which Wyatt hated, so he refused to walk anywhere. But here we are before we waited to see it erupt.

A cool looking sulfur bed.

Brennan and Tatum near one of the pools. Yes, we realized after this photo that her hat had fallen onto her face.

Wyatt hiding from the wind, with Caleb near a very colorful pool.

Henry looks very thrilled near this huge geyser.

Very picturesque colors.

Looking over at the falls.

Just hanging out with Grandma.

A group of kids and parents hiked down to look over the lower falls. A cute group of cousins in all of their bright gear.

Hiking back up the 600 ft incline. They were all very tough.

Just a cute shot of all of the cousins.

Claire and Tatum. These two could be found sitting together a lot during the weekend. Very cute.

Since I didn't get out on all of the adventures, I don't have as many photos of them as normal, but at least I can get more later from everyone else who did take their cameras out.

Dirty Dash and Piglet Plunge

All of the Cardon kids had a great time running the Piglet Plunge together, right after some of the parents ran the Dirty Dash. Here are a few of the highlights.

Wyatt and Jaren hanging out under a tree with some snacks, waiting for the parents to get back from their race.

 Gavin and Henry showing off their tatoos that were their ticket into the Piglet Plunge. And they are still clean at this point.

 Stacy is one tough chick to run and get filthy with all of the men while her pregnant friends sat in the stands.

 Luckily, the kids got to take parents with them on their one mile race. They did an amazing job. They all were great runners and didn't leave anyone behind. They had a great time too.

 All of our kids. The Cardon cousins, a few of Libbie and Mia's friends, and a couple of kids of Nathan's business partner. They were a good group.

 Mallory, Henry and Gavin

 All the dirty folks who were linked with the DBN tax team... these guys are the accountants for the Dirty Dash founders.

 A very dirty hug.

 Tackling Dad in a muddy hug.

 Very muddy Libbie, she had the messiest face of all.