My helpers

The "baby brother" novelty hasn't worn off just yet.

 
 
 
And a bonus bit of cuteness.
 

Ball Pit!!

Reid was kind enough to pick up a ball pit for Claire & Hayden on his way home from the hospital. Apparently he wanted to make a good impression with those who are really in charge...or, at least, with those who will be responsible for the the majority of his tormenting in a few years. As you can see, they appreciated his thoughtfulness, although Hayden can't understand why Reid can't get in and play, too.

 
 
 

Just pictures...

I need to download a bunch off the camera, but here are a few new pictures to tide everyone over.

 
 
 

Ten years ago today...

 
...I married the boy I've loved since I was 17.

Party of FIVE

 

Here we are...officially outnumbered by our children. So far, the adjustment to three kids has been easier than the adjustment was to two, but since we're only on Reid's sixth day of life, I won't put that in stone just yet. We also have Nana and Papa Tom here for a few more days, so we aren't quite getting a true taste of our new reality.

For those of you who want the details, Reid came FAST. On Wednesday afternoon, I thought, "Gee, my stomach hurts." Then I thought, "Hmm....my stomach is only hurting for about a minute at a time in four minute intervals. Strange." It finally dawned on me that these were contractions, and luckily, Justin came home from work about that time. I timed the contractions on the contraction master web site (isn't technology awesome??), and realized it was probably time to head to the hospital. We got there and discovered that I was fully dilated and Reid was ready to be born. Well, sort of ready to be born. He ended up being posterior, or face up, which made his birth a bit more difficult. My doctor told me later that posterior births are much more difficult for the mom (especially without drugs!) and they often end up as cesareans.

Besides being ridiculously cute, Reid's also a great baby. The first two days we had him home, he had his days and nights confused. We went to bed on Saturday night at 10:00 and Reid decided that, no, bedtime should be 4:00 Sunday morning. Fun! The last few nights have been MUCH better, though, and he's actually been sleeping a somewhat normal schedule. If we could only get Claire and Hayden to not get up at sunrise, we might actually lose the dark circles from under our eyes.

 

We Are Home.

We left the hospital yesterday (6/13) afternoon! Lauren & Reid (and everyone else) are doing well. Claire is a great little helper and Hayden (as you can see in the picture) is warming up nicely to Reid. He loves to point out his body parts. Nana is making our transistion so much easier and would couldn't have done it without her. After one night home, it is safe to say that the little man is on Japanese time (days are nights and nights are day). This doesn't go over so well with mom and dad while Claire and Hayden can't understand why mommy and daddy are acting like zombies.  
 
 
 

Introducing Reid Evans Sumner

Our newest addition was born at 9:12pm last night (June 11th). Reid Evans Sumner weighs in at 7 lbs 6 oz and was 20 inches long. He and mom are doing great. Her labor was ridiculously quick (we didn't go into the hospital until 7:30pm). She is quite a trooper as, just like with Hayden, she had no drugs. Lauren will post more when she has some time...so give us 20 years or so :) Claire thinks he is "cute" and is excited to help while Hayden is not sure what to think. We are now officially outnumbered by the kids...YIKES. There are more pics but Lauren made me promise not to put any of her on the blog (although she is just as beautiful as the first day I met her...which was almost 15 years ago!!).  
 
 

Building a Bear for Baby

Nana and I took the kids to Build a Bear Workshop today to build a Smokey his first teddy bear. Hayden LOVES stuffed animals so we thought he'd love it, but we were wrong. Claire has never been a big fan of stuffed animals and she LOVED it. Go figure. They made themselves a bear (named Honey Bear, after the Berenstain Bears' baby sister) and a monkey (named George, of course), and they picked out another bear for Smokey. We recorded messages in Smokey's bear that will scare him to death one day, and we dubbed him "Clayden," after his big brother and sister.

Hayden and his monkey carcass await stuffing
 
Claire inspects the fluffing job on Honey Bear and Clayden
 
Totally skeptical about this process
 
Showing off Honey Bear
 
Hugs for Honey Bear and Clayden
 
Hayden holds tight to George
 

Little Man

...isn't really so little anymore.

 
 

Justin is old

This weekend we celebrated Justin's 32nd birthday, and unfortunately, no one else's actual birth day. I had hoped Smokey would arrive on Justin's birthday, just because I wanted his birthday to be 06.07.08, but apparently Smokey's not into sharing. That's okay, though, because neither is his daddy. Nana arrived on Saturday morning, so Smokey is officially allowed to arrive anytime he feels like it. We probably would've kept him if he'd come earlier, but taking Claire and Hayden to the hospital with us just wasn't part of my ideal birth experience.

Justin opens his presents with his helper
 
YUM!
 
Our pool party
 
Hooray for Nana!
 

Come over & bring a spoon!

 

Being >39 weeks pregnant and hungry is a bad time to go to the grocery store. Count them with me...2 boxes of Skinny Cow fudge bars, one box of ice cream sandwiches, two cartons of ice cream, and one pint of Ben & Jerry's. I...uh...have another freezer for the healthy stuff. Yeah.

Hooray for the park!

You know you're in for a long day when it's 8 a.m. and you find yourself looking at the clock and thinking, "Only 12 hours until bedtime." The kids were crazy this morning so we decided to go to the park in our neighborhood and burn off some energy. We came home two hours later with one skinned knee and two soaking wet kids, but we were bleeding, wet, and HAPPY.

I love this picture...
 
Even though this is a more accurate depiction of their relationship
 
This would've been so cute if I could've gotten Hayden to remove that cracker from his mouth
 
Blowing dandelions
 
Oh no! There's one stuck to me!
 
Bionic 3 year old
 
The park has a great inlet where the kids got soaking wet
 
I'm biased, but what a handsome boy