I’m gonna just do a little wrap up of our summer. It was super packed full of work/fun/play & here we go……So at the beginning of summer May 9th to be exact we added baby #3 to the mix. Artisan Wesley Harris arrived not too long after having my water broken. I did an all natural delivery and it has been my FAVORITE thus far…..no epiderals for me EVER again!
We got to the hospital bright and early in the morning….
Jeff sitting around waiting for them to come break my water….for baby “3”
kickin back waiting to get popped. Meanwhile I kept myself busy by taking pictures of all the annoying machines you have to be tied to….
I got to labor in a warm tub, it was AMAZING! Although once I reached an 8 I had to hop out because no delivering babies in the tub allowed!
Wasn’t long before I was ready to push and in 2 pushes this precious little guy was here!
I actually got to hold him for a bit, heck I even breastfed him and hung out for a while before they decided to look at him closer because he was big surprise grunting…..
I’m not one of those women who looks like they just came off the runway after popping out a baby, and that’s okay!
Proud daddy!
This little guy was just like my others and landed his first week and a half of life in the NICU.
Yes that is blood this was just 3 or so hours after I had him. They were pricking him a lot, running his numbers, and he wasn’t liking it. He was quite rambunctious, and made a bit of a mess! This is just a couple hours before he was transported to a NICU at a hospital in Salt Lake.
Grandma and PopPop came to see their new little grandbaby!
It’s always so hard seeing your baby hooked up to all this junk, and sitting there with your eyes glued to their stats on the screen. You’d think it would get easier, and it doesn’t but you do learn to just trust in your Heavenly Father! Perhaps one day i’ll get that dream delivery experience, where I spend my hours after delivery just snuggling/feeding my little one, and get to take them with me when i get discharged! Heck and that kind of hospital bill would be chump change in comparison to what we get to dish out every time. They’re worth it though!
You like Jeff’s get up? The last couple days Artisan was in the NICU there had been some severe cases of RSV, so everyone who went in NICU had to wear these when handling babies, and if you were touching babies you had to wear gloves. No skin to skin contact. Wow breastfeeding him in one of these was a LOT of fun!
I guess we just love having expensive babies…..ah well. This makes their newborn shoot lots of fun, because we miss that little window of “baby sleeps through anything” phase. Not to mention this little guy came home on oxygen so I also waited till that was no longer needed and he thought it would be funny to have explosive diahrrea after only getting a couple shots, so I came back a couple days later to finish his shoot…
These are from shoot number 2, and by this point my kids are all rolling over and difficult to capture. He was rolling out of position, throwing his head around, and throwing punches like a mad man. That’s the point though, isn’t it? - capturing who they are, and this kid NEVER stops moving so it was perfect, and he is PERFECT!
Talynn and Kal immediately fell inlove with this little man!
We all did!
Here’s an adorable video of Kal feeding Artisan a few days after he came home!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgQHJsFWzOc
A few months after we had Artisan we went to Colorado for the 4th of July and visited with Jeff’s sister and brother in law. The kiddos warmed up quickly to their aunt Davina and uncle Brian!
While we were back in Colorado we did a little “hiking”, rock climbing, shooting….I had a few photoshoots I did for some old friends while we were there as well.
We got to see our AFALAVAS!
Jeff’s mom flew out to see us. So Taly got to meet her Gammi finally at 19 months old, and she got to snuggle the new grandbaby Artisan…
On the actual 4th we took the kids to a splash pad, but it was a little chilly, they got to play on the playground though and when we went home, we did bubbles, watched local fireworks, and grilled some yummy food!
It was a fun trip, and the kids (especially Artisan only being 8 weeks) did WONDERFUL on the road! We’re excited that some of Jeff’s family is closer now.
A month or so after our trip Ginger had her 4th and last litter of puppies!
The kids had so much fun watching the whole process, and watching them grow and develop!
Then we finally got around to doing Artisan’s baby blessing!
It was a special day with family and friends!
I tried filling the hot summer days with fun OUTDOOR activities for the kids because the cold days seem to come along all too soon!
Lots of chalk days!
Water Days….
and water balloon fights.
trampoline fun-
Walks…
Here’s a video taken on a family walk with Kal riding his strider-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX-h3DU4OHw
Our chickens started laying so not only were the kids helping feed/water the chickens but we had the fun task of searching for their eggs every day!
Trips to the local reservoir with the dogs!
Trips to the Zoo with friends….
Watching and helping with Daddy’s projects…
And for the days that were just too unbearably hot we would have playdoh parties, movies in bed, smoothies, build forts out of pillows, and make shadow puppets….
I managed to get some decent pictures of all three kids one day…
Talynn is always so willing to pose for me when I pull out the camera…
Kalvin has gotten to be a really great helper, and one of his favorite areas to help out is cooking. We did a few baking days this summer where he got to choose a treat for us to make together. He often chooses cookies! If Talynn isn’t napping during our fun she gets to join in….
This of course is their favorite part!
Since summer had been so busy and hectic, and my Grandma had moved out of my parents and in with my uncle she hadn’t met Artisan yet….so we mad a trip down to Orem for my aunt Connie’s b-day party and Artisan got to meet Great Grandma Dorothy before she died in September!
We look forward to the cooler weather that is now upon us,fall activities, the holidays, memories made and time spent with family and loved ones! Kalvin can’t wait to build a snowman so I have a feeling we’ll be building lots of Olafs this year!
