{NINE} Years and {ONE} month

{pictures by Gibson}

It's true what they say "the days drag on but the weeks fly by" or something like that. It's been NINE years since I married my sweetheart. NINE years since we started our life together.

I can still remember our wedding day. It was glorious.

I remember setting up "house" in our first one bedroom apartment. Such simpler times back then.

Since then, we have lived in 3 other states. We have moved 7 times.

3 boys we have welcomed into our family.

Student Loans, A Mortgage, Car Payments, etc. Life has definitely happened over the past nine years.

I love him more each and every day. He makes me laugh. He comforts me. He's a great dad. He works hard and I feel very lucky that he's mine, all mine.

I love you Jared.

As for Creed

He's one month old today!! Wow, where did that time go.

He's a GREAT baby. He LOVES to be held. He loves to be cuddled with the blanket wrapped around his head and tight around his chin. He likes to be swaddled but his hands have to be near his chin. He loves to sleep on your chest and he nestles his head right under your chin. He just started wearing size 1 diapers and I've packed away all his "newborn" clothes and he's officially wearing size 0-3 month clothes.

He's a big eater and drinks almost 6 ounces every 2 1/2 hours.

He has started to focus on us and turns his head as we talk. He's smiling and enjoys looking around.

He hates to be naked and to get his diaper changed.

He's sporting a double chin and makes us proud with his burps!

Love, love, love this boy and we feel so blessed to be the parents of three boys!

Secret Weapon

{Easton}

I have found the secret weapon. you know, the thing that will occupy the attention span of a two year old for longer than, well, two minutes...

Playdough.

Not the kind you buy at the store that has a funny smell to it and dries out quickly if you leave it out of the container. Nope, homemade playdough!

Give Easton some playdough and a few figurines to bury and he's in heaven. He'll sit at the counter and play for over an hour. I can use it as a bribe to get him to do something for me.  He loves it and I love it because it's cheap and easy to make and stores easy and cleans up easy.

Here's my recipe.

{I love this recipe because it doesn't call for Cream of tarter or Alum which I never seem to have}

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

3 T veg. oil

1 pkg kool-aid {smells yummy and colors are bright}

Mix together with 1 cup boiling water

Stir and knead until there aren't any lumps. 

{CREED}

is cute.

{GIBSON}

loves Creed and is such a big help. 

Easter Fun

We celebrated Easter on Saturday with most of the Condie cousins.  The rain that was falling and the chill in the air didn't stop the kids from having a great hunt! With hundreds of eggs spread across grandma's back yard, each kid received their fair share of the goods!

Easton's idea of an Easter egg hunt didn't change too much from last year. He'd find an egg, put it in his basket, take a step and then stop and grab that egg again and open it up and eat whatever was inside.

His Easter basket consisted of empty wrappers and opened plastic eggs. It was too funny trying to watch him process the whole situation.

This picture of the two boys is as good as it gets......I didn't even get one of them in their Easter Sunday clothes. Oh wait, that's because I didn't buy them Easter clothes...woops. It's a good thing too since they didn't make it through church. Easton's aversion to nursery started again so Jared just threw in the towel and brought the clingy, crying child home for a nap.

As everyone was playing we realized that we couldn't find Easton. We searched and found him here. Eating cake. Plates and forks are over-rated!

He was only interested in the frosting and made a huge mess in the process!

I don't even know {or want to know} if his hands were clean before he started!  No wonder we've all been sick for weeks.

Creed did a lot of this while we enjoyed the festivities. I think he may have been a bit overwhelmed. I can see why, being the 29th grandchild on the Condie side, it tends to be loud when we all get together!

We had a great Saturday filled with eggs, candy and cousins and we were able to enjoy Sunday and reflect on the resurrection of our Savior.  

Time Flies

I am currently making a German Chocolate Cake...from scratch..... to celebrate the existance of an amazing man.

My Dad.

Today is his 60th birthday! Woah. Is he really that old? As I think of his 60 years and I subtract my 30 years, I realize that my dad was my age when I was born. Which means, I'll be his age when Creed's my age. 

Stopping to reflect on that math. I wonder what I'll be like at age 60. Will I be as successful and happy as my dad? Will Creed be married and have children of his own?

Life is a funny thing. It's one of those things that sometimes I just live. Other times I stop and think and reflect and it's at these moments that I'm often brought to tears or have a large smile spread across my face as I remember the past or imagine what the future will hold.

Life has been happening for the past three weeks. A few of the days I honestly just survived. Adjustments with three kids is, well, an adjustment. Throw in illness and SNOW and well, we just made it through the days.

So today, as I bake a cake for my wonderful dad. I feel like I'm living life once again. Amazing how getting back into a routine and doing what I enjoy makes me happy. Good health really does equal happiness.  Feeling like "me" once again makes me want to take care of myself and, perhaps even shower and dress into something that doesn't have an elastic waist band.

When I feel good I seem to have more patience with the kiddos and most importantly, myself. I'm learning that I have to cut myself some slack and celebrate the simple victories like getting a 4 hour stretch of sleep or taking the kids to the park- even if we are in elastic waist band pants!

I look at my dad and I'm so grateful he's mine. I'm so grateful that he's married to my mom. The two of them are like peas and carrots. They just go together.  I'm so grateful that he's the grandpa to my children and that I can see by the way he interacts with them how much he loves them. {He took a day off work after I had Creed so he could watch Gibson and Easton for me....now that's love. He also has stopped over after work just to hold Creed for a minute before heading home}

So with homemade German Chocolate Cake nearly completed and a fun and exciting present ready to be presented. I'm ready to celebrate this big milestone of a man that I adore and want to wish a very happy, happy birthday! I love you dad. 

I've been sick for the past 5 days.

Not sure what I have but I'm lucky to be alive.

I mean, I've almost coughed up a lung more than once.

The downside of having a cough is that it's worse at night and especially when laying down. So, that puts me sleeping on a stack of 4 pillows or in a very uncomfortable chair.  I usually choose the stack of pillows, it makes me feel like I'm a princess and I'm unable to sleep because there is a pea under the stack.

Needless to say, I'm sleep deprived. Newborn + Cough = Sleep Deprivation

Today, being day 5 I had to accomplish something. My children were desperate for a mom who said something other than "I don't feel good" and they needed a lot more stimulation than Noggin could provide.

So, I played a game.....I named it "IF, THEN"

It goes like this.

"IF you clean the toilet, THEN you can lay on the couch like a dead woman for 15 minutes"

"IF you empty the dishwasher AND load it, THEN you can take a shower"

"IF you fold one load of laundry that you washed last week, THEN you can raid the kids Easter baskets while they are outside."

You get it.....

Sad thing. The game works. 

{update: after taking all 3 boys to the Dr. and waiting 1.5 hours, I found out I have a sinus infection! Antibiotics were prescribed and I'm on the mend......happy, productive mom coming soon}

WICKED!

I finally got to see Wicked. After years of being jealous of everyone who has seen it, I finally got my turn.

It almost didn't happen since I've been sick but I loaded my purse with cough drops and water and tried to hold my coughs in until there was applause and I {think}I made it through without terribly bothering anyone.

I loved it. I would say the only thing I didn't love was the large head two rows in front of us and the 30 minute wait to use the restroom!

We purchased the tickets long, long ago- before we even knew Creed was on his way. Thankfully he takes a bottle and thankfully Aunt Emilee was willing to watch all three boys for the night so we could use our tickets!

So much fun!!

2 weeks already

{picture by Kati Price}

7 lbs 10 oz

21 inches long 

Drinks 6 oz of milk every 3 hours

Sleeps 5-6 hour stretches at night

Loves to be wrapped in a soft blanket. It has to cover his head and be tight around his body.

Loves a binkie

Loves being sung to

{These past two weeks have flown by. They certainly didn't go that fast while I was pregnant!}

Creed's Arrival

A morning in Sept. 2004, I made my way down the hall to find Jared to tell him that I didn't think he should go to school that day. I got out the words "Hey Jare, I don't think......." when my water broke. 

14 long, painful hours later, Gibson was born.

I sent him to the nursery so that I could recover from his birth and he never rejoined me in my recovery room. It was quickly learned that Gibson had Group B Strep and was sent to the NICU to be placed on IV antibiotics for the next 14 days.

It was a horrible experience to be so far from family {we were in Cleveland} and yet, even if we were near family, there wasn't much anyone could do. I spent the next 14 days sleeping on a plastic sofa holding my newborn who was attached to a bounty of monitors. He had endured 3 spinal taps, countless pricks and IV's in his head, arm and legs. 

My history of Group B Strep allows me to set up being induced since I have to have antibiotics in my system for 4 hours before I can deliver.

With Easton we were given a day that my doctor had a light schedule and could induce me. Easton was one of two babies born that day. It was a quiet day in the hospital and his birth was so much easier than that of Gibson's.

So with the upcoming arrival of Creed, I once again was able to set up an induction date. We picked Friday, March 27th mainly because of Jared's schedule and also because it was easier to get help with the boys over the weekend.

So, here it is....The story of Creed's arrival.

I was told a few days before that I was all set for the 27th and that the hospital would call me in the morning and tell me what time to be there. When 10:30 rolled around and I still had not received a call, I was panicked.  I called the hospital and was told that I was still on the list but that there were no available rooms. I was told that if one came available they'd call me, otherwise, I'd be bumped to MONDAY!

The water works turned on and I started to get really grumpy. Of course everything was planned for me to have the baby THAT day. Jared took the day off work, I had babysitters arranged for the next 4 days and mentally, I didn't think I could make it through the weekend.

We took Gibson to school, walked around main street stopping to get ice cream and popcorn and then we took a drive. At about 2:30 I got the call I had been waiting on and was told that if I could be there in 30 minutes, I could be induced!

We dropped the kids off at Emilee's, ran home to get the camera and we were off.

I was hooked up to the antibiotics at 4 p.m.-  Pitocin was started around 6:00 and the Dr. broke my water around 7:30. I got my epidural a little before 8 and Creed was born at 10:33 p.m. 

I was ready to push around 10 but my Dr. was down the hall delivering another baby so I got to wait for about 35 minutes to push. I pushed through 2 contractions, a total of 4 pushes and he was born.

It was an easy delivery and so far an easy recovery. Creed is a great baby and a great sleeper!

His Apgar scores were 9/9 and the instant we held him, we fell in love once again. He looks just like Gibson did when Gibson was born.  He's a cutie.

My doctor delivered more than 7 babies that day. It was a popular day to be born here in Utah Valley!

{I started writing this post nearly two weeks ago. Between the three kids and illness, I'm hoping other posts don't take nearly as long!}

The Makings of a Good Day

I had a few minutes with both hands.

Easton and Creed took a nap at the same time while Gibson was at school. 

{yes, I snuck in a little shut eye too}

and I got lotion "rubbed" on my feet.

It's amazing how it's the simple things these days that make a good day!