Happy Halloween!

At our ward Halloween carnival

Halloween was a lot of fun.  We certainly didn't run out Halloween festivities and couldn't help but be happy the day was finally over.
We have always had fairly easy costumes in the past, but this year Gavin wanted to be a Wild Thing from Where the Wild Things Are.  I stressed and stressed about how I was going to come up with a costume.  With a LOT of help from my dear friend Lynda, I think we pulled it off.  She pretty much sewed the mask/hat all by herself with out a pattern, just a picture.  Gavin, however, was being very difficult.  He insisted that the monster had a yellow striped shirt and not orange.  We orginally sewed orange stripes.  I told him he had to fix it if he wanted it different.  So, he cut out the yellow stripes and taped it over the orange stripes.

Eli started out as a ghost, but ended up a bear (Gavin's costume from 2 years ago).  Boyd was a Bishop chess piece (haha).  I was a bat.  Joshua was a dragon for our indoor events and Pooh for our outdoor events.

Our Halloween activies included carving pumpkins

Pumpkin Festival and pumpkin picking where Gavin and Eli got to play in hay

School parade and carnival

and of course, trick-or-treating!

End of the school year

Gavin had a great Kindergarten year in Ms. Alicea's class and celebrated with an end of the year program.Overall, we feel Gavin had a positive first year of school. 

Grandma Miggy came for Gavin's Birthday and for the end of the school year.

Brooklyn Cyclone game to end Gavin's baseball season.

Eli had a great year at Book Buddies.  They had an end of the year party and put on a little performance.  We love Ms. Amy

Where do I begin?

If I wait til I have time to catch up, I will never start blogging again.  Our life has been crazy over the last couple of months and I just haven't felt like blogging.  But, this week is a week of new beginnings and it's time to update the blog.  I am going to start with our most recent events and then I might have a few catch up posts because there really were some big events that can't be missed.  Let's start with Joshua. Here are some pictures that my friend Lesley took and that I am excited to have of him.

  He had his first bath (it took forever for his cord to fall off), he started smiling, and he is just starting to be a little more aware.  His brothers absolutely adore him.   They are constantly talking to him, patting him, kissing him.

He was blessed and luckily Grandma Miggy was here for that.  We were happy to have her here to help!

And now onto Eli who is growing up too fast.  He turned 4 September 10th.  We had nice family party with Grandma Miggy as our special guest.  We had a friend birthday at Gate Hill Day Camp a week later.  Eli continues to amaze us.  A few of his favorite things are  race cars, especially an Bugatti.  He loves lego duplos and building them into space ships.  He plays and plays with Gavin.  I love watching their little friendship grow.  Often at parks now they choose to play together even if they are there with other friends.  He adores Joshua.  He can't kiss, touch hug, talk to him enough.  He is my helper in the kitchen.

Gavin started 1st grade and his new teacher is Ms. Baldwin.  His favorite part of the day is still recess even if he can't participate much because of his arm (more on that later).  He also adores in little brother. He has changed more than anyone in the last little bit.  I want my boys to stay babies and they just won't! 

Most of my time is dedicated to the boys and to my my apartment, but I did get to go to a free Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion concert in Central Park.  It was quite the experience, but glad I got to go.

Boyd continues to work and work some more. :)  So, that is a quick update as to what is going on now.. I hope to do a few catch up posts, but if not, at least you know what we're up to these days!

Introducing..

Joshua Boyd Nelson
Born August 17, 2011
8:30 PM
8 LBS 5 OZ and 22 1/2 inches long

Wow, what a wild 24 hours. We are so happy that Joshua is here. He has already won our hearts.

Yesterday morning at around 3:30 AM I woke up with slight contractions and continued to contract every 10 or 15 minutes. They were uncomfortable. But, because I had done something similar a week or so ago and it turned out to be false labor, I didn't think much of it.

The contractions continued to weaken and I was able to go back to sleep. I probably wouldn't have gone in except that I already had an appointment with my midwife. So, my mom (Thankfully, my mom and dad arrived the night before) and I went to my appointment to learn that I was already 5cm dilated.

Because of my history of extremely fast labors combined with the fact that I needed to be put on antibiotics because I was Strep B positive, the midwife decided to have me meet her at the hospital 3 hours later. So, my mom and I went shopping, grabbed some lunch and some pinkberry, and then went home to grab my bag. We then went back to the birthing center at the hospital.

I was put on antibiotics. They didn't want to start laboring any more if possible until I had received my medication for 4 hours. We took a nap and hung out. At 5:00 they did a few things to help further labor along. I will spare you the details. Then at 6:00, they broke my water.

I thought I would start contracting right away, but It took a about 1/2 hour and then I was contracting 5 minutes apart for about an hour. So, at about 7:30, things started to get more intense. The pain started to be pretty unbearable. I was checked at 8:00 and they told me I was at 7CM. I was pretty discouraged, but remembered that with Gavin, when I was at a 7, I went to a 10 in 5 minutes.

Sure enough as we were talking about ways we could move the labor along, I started having contractions right on top of one another. I started feeling like pushing. I don't think my midwife believed me entirely. Sure enough, while standing next to the bed pushing down, the baby came sliding out, with just enough time for the midwife to catch the baby while Boyd was calling for the nurse.

It was all over and I had the most beautiful little boy in front of me crying. It was a beautiful moment. I was so glad it was over too.

The night was a little rough. He had a hard time settling in, so we were up most of the night until about 4 when he finally settled down.


We really struggled with naming Joshua. Joshua has been on our list since Gavin. We had chosen Gavin, Eli, and Joshua when we were pregnant with Gavin. We liked all the names, but chose them based on how we felt when we saw them. We were still considering Joshua with this baby. But, it never settled with us completely. About 3 weeks ago, Oliver was added to the list after I saw it on a birth announcement at my midwives office. I really felt attached to it. We thought we might name him Oliver. At the end of the day, we just didn't feel it would be his name. We had 3 names picked out at the start of our child rearing and it turns out we had 3 boys. Plus, Oliver would be a tongue twister with Eli. As, we put the name on the birth certificate, I was still hesitating, but now that we are home with him, Joshua feels so right even if I still feel a bit attached to the name Oliver.

The boys were so excited to meet him at the hospital. Boyd went home and picked them all up, including Grandma and Grandpa, where they met Joshua for the first time. I can tell they will be extra helpful. .

Because we gave birth at the birthing center, we were discharged this morning.

Boyd made a celebratory meal of king crab legs, roasted veggies, and cous cous.

We are so happy, but I admit I am nervous about being a mother of 3. Luckily, I have help for a the next few weeks. Thank goodness because we are moving to our new apartment upstairs in a week..

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Made my day

This is currently hanging up outside Gavin's classroom.I needed this today.

The Patch and Lucas

Many of you have asked why Gavin is wearing an eye patch in so many pictures. Gavin has amblyopia. A very basic explanation is he uses one eye more than the other and because of that he stopped using his slightly worse eye making it even worse. If intervention was not made, he could eventually go blind in that eye. The eye patch and glasses force him to use is bad eye, making it stronger. It is reversible up to 7-8. Gavin has been really good about wearing it and is confident when people ask him why he wears it. He gives a great response. I think he feels a little sensitive about it now, but still does ok.

I love this picture because Gavin's best friend often insists on wearing a patch when Gavin has his on and it makes me happy.

Gavin loves Lucas. Many of his school projects reflect this. Here is a picture from early on in the school year. He most recent project on the board is a poem that Gavin wrote about Lucas.

Gavin and Eli's winter photo dump

Well, I wish I had done a better job recording this past winter, but I didn't, so I am just going to do a little update post on Gavin and Eli and things that stand out from our winter.
GAVIN-

Piano-Gavin started piano and has loved it.  He has his dad's ear for music.  It comes naturally to him, which makes me glad because it didn't ever come naturally to me.  Within the first weeks he figured out how to play his favorite song "Dynamite" with a little help from daddy.

Speaking of Dynamite, Gavin is picking up on some pop music from school and comes home singing his new favorite songs.  His absolute favorite was Dynamite.  He has it completely memorized.  He has a little dance for it.  He also likes Taylor Swift.

Hula Hoop-  I ask him what he does at recess or gym every day and he says "hulu hoop"  He has gotten pretty good at it!

He continues to love school.  He has been on a few field trips. He had a Bollywood Dance performance!

He is so excited for this baby.  He will rub my belly and say "I can't wait for August (my due date)."

He loves to make books. He switches types all the time.  He was making cook books for a while.  He made this bird a while back.  He also came up with direction on how to make a push up flower.  I didn't prompt him. He just came to me with it.

Both Eli and Gavin took some fun classes to help us through the winter!

ELI-

Eli is also very excited for the baby.  He is surprisingly loving and gentle with babies.  Hopefully, he will be just as loving with his new baby brother.

He LOVES puzzles.  Sometimes with very little help he will put together 5-6 large puzzles mostly by himself all at once.  For our special time alone together he often requests that we do a "tricky puzzle."

He continues to adore Ms. Amy and Book Buddies (his preschool). I know he is learning a lot each week and that more importantly he is having fun.   Here is a picture of us on a "field trip" to the fire station. 

I love my time with him.  I am glad we will have some one on one time before the baby comes.  He melts my heart a lot of the time and he makes me want to pull my hair out the rest of the time.

BOOK BUDDIES!

book buddy field trip to firehouse

A warm Saturday spent with friends

Gav's field trip to Victory Theater

Gav's class on subway for fieldtrip

One of Gav's many projects he creates by himself

class at NY sports club

Valentines Day

Transit Museum

After Gav's Bollywood perfromance

Eli's and Brandon

Eli and Lillian

Gavin at piano