Charlotte is 5!

Our baby girl turned five last week and we took a family trip to the ZOO in Columbia, SC to celebrate. We were really impressed with this zoo. It was small-ish, but had some enormous exhibits and lots of space for the animals. And no animals escaped. While we were there. At least, that we know of. ;)

Our very own 3 little monkeys.

I loved this family of giraffes. They were so beautiful.

Our visit wouldn't be complete without a ride on the carousel.

And a long time spent watching these amazing creatures.

Back at home, we enjoyed Charlotte's birthday cake that I made to her very exact instructions. (Chocolate cake, strawberries, pink frosting, chocolate hearts- NOT frosting, but real chocolate, and so on. She even made me a drawing to look at... but I improvised anyway: 2 tiers, not 3. I'm a rebel like that.)

Happy birthday Bubba!

Charlotte has her own flair for drama and love of life. She loves to laugh and dance and adds so much energy to our home. She is a great sister to her brothers and looks out for them when we are with other kids or in unfamiliar situations. She is my mini-me... and yet she is completely her own person. We love you Charlotte. :)

Charlotte's birthday interview:

What's your favorite color? Pink

What's your favorite movie? Rapunzel (Tangled)

What's your favorite song? Hmm, that's hard. My favorite song is Sunbeams. (Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam.)

What's your favorite food? Macaroni shells and popcorn and strawberries and treats. I love treats.

What's your favorite thing to do with Toby? Play with him in my dollhouse and my kitchen.

What's your favorite thing to do with Jacob? Talk to him.

What's your favorite thing to do with mommy? Fold laundry. (LOL)

What's your favorite thing to do with daddy? Play 'big ball' with him.

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a cooker.

What makes you feel happy? Sunshine makes me happy! (laughs- she has a shirt that says that.) I laugh when Jacob moves around his hands and does silly things. I like that.

Jacob at 2 months

Jacob is already 10 weeks old! At his 2 month check-up last week, we learned that he is in the 95th percentile for height and weight. He was 24 1/2 inches long and 14 lbs. 6 oz. so he is a BIG baby. Just for the sake of a reference point though- Toby was that same length at 1 month old.

We've been getting to know Jakey more and more each week...

He is a cuddler. (And therefore spends a lot of time in the sling pictured above.)

He will only sleep on his tummy or side.

He's quick to smile, but slow to laugh.

He studies Charlotte and Toby like there will be a test tomorrow on how to be a big kid.
He is the cooing-est baby I have ever met. (I have a video of this, but it wouldn't upload.)

He looks so much like Toby that I mix their names up daily.

Every night I sing "Row your boat," the alternative "Glub, glub, glub your boat, gently down the stream, ha, ha, ha, I fooled you, I'm a submarine," and "Three little ducks" to him.

He does NOT like it when I eat: broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, cabbage, onions, garlic, or salad. (I eat them anyway and just get less sleep.)

He despises the bouncy seat.

And finally, he loves his mommy. :)

the art of doing nothing

Last Monday my spontaneous spouse and I made the decision to go to Hilton Head Island for a couple of days to visit with Rob's cousin Nathan who was there on vacation with his family. On our way home we detoured to the Columbia, SC airport to pick up my sister Pam and her son Connor who were coming to visit through today. So this week has ended up involving a lot of driving, eating out, lounging on the beach, more driving, watching movies, going for walks, playing Scrabble, more eating out, and spending time together. Also, Rob & I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary.

In other words, it's been a pretty awesome week. :)

Nothing says October like warming up after a swim in the pool.

This is what happens when you wear a regular diaper in the hot tub.

Thanks for the Public Service Announcement, Wyatt! ;)

I don't know why Toby poses like this, but he sure was cute with his poofy hair. (I've since had it cut quite short again.)

Nothing says 'vacation' like digging a moat boys!

(Can you tell that Nate got the short Nichols gene? He's only a smidge taller than Rob, poor guy.)

Emily helped me keep Jakey out of the sun and wind. I kept him in the sling all day because the wind was UNREAL. Thankfully they had this fabulous umbrella to help block it, but still the blanket just about disappeared under all of the blowing sand.

Back home with Aunt Pam, we spent a lot of time chit-chatting and enjoying the beautiful weather. This seems to be a favorite spot for rocking the baby. And what a big boy he is already! I can't wait to hear how big he is at his 2 month check-up soon. He spends most of his time eating, sleeping, and growing, though he is gracing us with a few more smiles these days. (I'll try to capture one this week.)

On Saturday we went over to the Fall Fest behind the Library.

Charlotte, Toby, and Connor rode a couple of rides.

Cowboy Toby.

I always feel bad for the ponies at these type of things, but these ones seemed exceptionally clean and well fed. They also were rotated out and got to take breaks in the shade.

Connor at the wheel... potter's wheel that is.

He loved doing this so much he did it twice. I wonder if it had anything to do with the very pretty pottery teacher??

And Charlotte had her face painted as a butterfly, and struck a pose to show it off.

It was great fun. And greatly relaxing. And Rob and I even got to have dinner out at P.F. Chang's while the kiddos stayed with Aunt Pam. But alas, now the company is gone, the laundry is calling, and it's back to work tomorrow for all. :)

babies are a blessing

Dear Jacob,

Today was a special day for you. It's a tradition in our church to give new babies a name for the church records and a blessing in front of the congregation, and today your daddy gave you yours. You are too little yet to remember it, so I'll do my best to record the event so some day you will see these pictures and read these words and know what an important little person you are to our family already.

Love, Mom

Rob with Jacob this morning.

Jacob wore these little shoes today.

They were Rob's when he was a baby, and Rob's mom recently gave them to us, so I wanted to use them on this special day. I'm glad Jacob's feet weren't any bigger! They just fit him.

Oh dear. We tried to get a good family photo.

This was the best of the bunch.

Rob gave the following blessing and was joined by Chris Henley, Danny Devine, and our Bishopric.

Our Father in Heaven, by the power of the Melchizedek Priesthood and in the name of Jesus Christ, we come before Thee to give this baby a name and a blessing. The name by which he shall be known is Jacob Murray Anderson.

Jacob, you have come into this world in a time of strong confusion and chaos, when many will seek to mislead you. We wish to bless you with a desire to know the good things of the gospel. We bless you with a desire to study the scriptures and the words of the prophets. We bless you with a desire to learn the gospel and share it with others. We bless you to have a desire to serve a mission and to be prepared to go to the temple and be endowed with power from on high. We bless you, that when the time comes, you will seek a wife and be married for time and all eternity. Jacob, we bless you that you will seek to be a peacemaker and to be an example to your family.

We bless you with these, and all other blessings which your Father in Heaven might bestow upon you, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

This post is brought to you by the number 3.

Toby turned three this weekend!

He is still my beautiful boy with the big brown eyes.

He asked for a blue cake with fish on it.

I made this to (try) to look like an aquarium. Toby really liked it, so I guess it was a success.

We had just a couple of Toby's new little friends over for dinner and cake. And we got Toby 3 goldfish for his present. He gave them all names that start with T, (his favorite letter,) Tiny, Tubby, and Todd. So far they are all still alive. :)

3 little monkeys.

Birthday interview with Toby:

What is your favorite color? Blue.
What is your favorite food? A hot dog. And corn on the cob too.
What do you like to play? Balls.
What's your favorite animal? Fishy.
What's your favorite movie? A monster movie. (Monsters vs. Aliens)
What's your favorite song? Lullaby. (After some digging I found he means "Rockabye baby...")
What do you want to be when you grow up? I wanna build bridges.
What's your favorite thing to do with Charlotte? When Charlotte plays in my room.
What's your favorite thing to do with Jacob? Getting his pacifier for him.

We are so glad to have Toby as part of our family. He is very loving, gentle, kind, and polite. He can recognize most of the letters of the alphabet now and can almost write his name. (The letter B is arch nemesis at the moment, so he skips it and writes T-O-Y instead.) He spends HOURS building things and always wants to help dad work in the yard. Our Little Man wants to do anything that is 'grown-up' and can be quite stubborn about it.

We love you Tobs. ;)

time flies

I wish I could say that I haven't blogged in the past three weeks because I have been lounging around and soaking in all the newborn cuddles... but the truth is that life is rarely that simple, is it? Take a deep breath and sit back and relax, because here are just a few photos and explanations of what we have been up to since our bouncing baby boy was born.

Charlotte started ballet at Columbia County Ballet.

She loves going to class every week and coming home to show me what she has learned every day until she has class again. She has dreamed of doing something like this and I am thrilled to see her so happy. :)

Not to be outdone- Toby is a budding engineer.

He was trying to build a 'bridge' across the legs of the highchair, but the magnets were too weak, so he came up with the idea of building this support structure. lol He is really very clever with mechanical projects and will spend buckets of time building and tinkering.

I started using a produce co-op called Bountiful Baskets.

The first week I came home with broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, carrots, sweet potatoes, honey dew, pears, oranges, and bananas. The next week was a completely different assortment. I can't wait to see what's next! We are eating a LOT of fruits and veggies these days!

Of course there has been bonding time with baby Jacob.

And Toby has embraced his big brother-hood and had his first diaper free day today!

Rob's mom came for a week long visit and we all enjoyed being a little spoiled by "Grandma" as she cooked, cleaned, babysat, and helped make life easier in a million small ways.

Also, the day Jacob was born, Rob's Grandpa Anderson (in Atlanta) fell and hit his head. He was not taken to the hospital that evening, and by the next morning was in a coma that he never awoke from. He passed away on August 30th and the past weeks have been a bittersweet time of visiting with family and celebrating a kind, generous family man's life, and of course of mourning for his loss. We did enjoy the time we had with Rob's dad (above with Jakey and Rob,) sisters, brother, in-laws, and a few of his 80-something (I'm estimating) cousins, and are glad we happen to be living just a few hours away at this time.

Also, Rob threw his back out and needed an MRI and a bit of downtime himself, and Monday would have been my mom's 69th birthday, had she not passed away 3 years ago. So... we've had a few things on our plates. It's completely dorky, but many times lately I have thought of a quote from Ferris Bueller's Day Off-- "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." So, here's to taking a deep breath, and pausing to appreciate all of our many, many blessings. :)

on the catwalk

Just after Jacob was born we had a phone call from Nicole Bolinger. We had met a few weeks previously at church, and her family is new to the area as well. She asked if she could come by and take some photos of Jacob for practice shooting infants. "Sweet! Free photos!" ;) So here are a few of my favorite 1 week old shots of Jacob- our 'model' baby.

All about Jacob

Okay folks, here is the story of how baby Jacob came into the world! :) If you're not into reading birth stories, feel free to scroll down to the photos below.

On Friday, I decided it was time to have this baby. I've never been so ready to not be pregnant anymore! So we ordered out spicy Indian food for dinner, then I went for a long walk, and finally Rob gave me a great foot rub. (Gotta love those old wives' tales.) Around 11 pm my water broke. I actually wasn't positive that's what had happened (it's never broken with my other babies,) until about 2 am when I started having contractions. They were only coming every 20-30 minutes, so I let everyone sleep until about 5:30, when I got Rob up to get ready. We woke the kids up at 6, and when they heard why they were woken up they were really excited and so cooperative. We all had some toast and juice and took the kiddos to the home of a new friend in our new ward (aka church congregation.)

Let me just digress here to say how incredibly kind and welcoming our new ward has been. I was thrown a baby shower last week, have had multiple offers of babysitters, and we have dinner coming every night this week! People often ask how it is that we can move while pregnant, and I honestly don't think we could do it-- if it weren't for the loving service of near strangers... that then become wonderful friends. We are extremely thankful to all of you! (And that means you too my Germany girls and Westminster friends.)

We arrived at the hospital at 7 am and stayed for monitoring in the OB triage area until about 10:30. My contractions were not very strong and still 10 minutes apart, and I was only dilated to 2 cm. And my doctor was away for the weekend. (Aren't they always?!?) So his brother, the other Dr. McDonough, came to take care of me and was very nice. (Apparently their father was also an OB/gyn... talk about the 'family business.')

You may remember that I had been planning on having a natural (drug-free) childbirth. I had been concerned that the doctors and nurses at the hospital would pressure me to have an epidural and had been preparing myself to be stubborn. However, I also knew that with my water being broken, they would not want me to labor very much longer, due to higher risk of infection. So I wasn't surprised when they said we really needed to start Pitocin to strengthen the contractions.

So at 11 am I was moved to a room and we started the Pitocin. I am going to be completely honest here... this is the only point throughout the day when I was upset. I was on an IV, with a blood pressure cuff on, and not allowed to get out of bed-- exactly what I did not want. And also, with the aid of the Pitocin, I was now having very strong contractions every few minutes. After about an hour of this (by noon,) I was ready to talk to the nurse about pain 'management.' The contractions were so intense I was having a really hard time breathing through them. Although they weren't registering as much of anything on the monitor. (It apparently wasn't working.) To my surprise, the nurse said, "Let's go ahead and check you first and then you'll have a better idea of where you are at and can think about it."

So she checked and I was at 6 cm and moving fast! No wonder I was in so much pain! She immediately called the doctor in and they very quickly prepped for delivery while I did my best not to push. (I'm not a loud sort of person but this was a very loud time for me. Although Rob says not as bad as with Toby, I'm pretty sure I scared any pregnant women within earshot out of having a natural delivery.) Then at 12:29 pm our baby boy was born! He weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long. He had the cord around his neck and up over his head, but was quickly taken care of. He also had ingested some fluid and his first cries sounded a bit like a broken squeaker toy, but he recovered quickly and was perfectly healthy. :)

Rob had been thinking about names for this little guy and really liked 'Jacob.' For once, I fully agreed. ;) 'Murray' was picked as a middle name after Rob's grandfather, Murray Nichols, who passed away earlier this year.

So far Jacob is a very mellow little dude. The only time he really yells is when having his diaper changed. He loves being held and cuddled, and there are no shortage of arms in our house willing to hold him, so he is already becoming quite spoiled. Here are a few photos from his first hours- I'll post more of him with Charlotte and Toby soon. :)

About 20 minutes old with daddy.

We were so happy to meet him face to face.

Jacob Murray

I had a dream

I've been debating whether or not to share this experience on the blog for some time. Up until now I've only shared it with a few individuals when the time seemed right. But I've decided to go ahead and write it here, if only so that I will always remember it. :)

Shortly after Rob and I were married we were expecting our first child. We had dated for one month, been engaged for three months, and then married for three months at the time... and I was feeling a little anxious. Okay, I was feeling a LOT anxious. I had no doubts about Rob and I's current love for and dedication to each other, but I couldn't stop worrying about what the future might hold and how our marriage would hold up when faced with life's challenges over the years. I was really concerned about this baby's (who turned out to be Charlotte) future. And I was losing sleep over it.

Then one night I had a dream where I saw Rob and I, many years down the road, with a grown daughter and three sons. It was an extremely vivid and calming thought. It was exactly what I needed at the time to chase away my unfounded fears and move on with hope for the future. And I never forgot it.

So fast forward to 3-4 months ago when the doctor in Germany told us that this baby was a girl. I was perplexed. But who am I to argue with the doctor? And also, as Rob pointed out, sometimes a dream is just a dream. And so I thought, well, I guess it just served it's purpose at that time in providing the comfort that I needed to have confidence for the future. End of story, right?

Nope. On Tuesday we had an ultrasound here in Augusta. Before leaving I said to Rob, "I halfway expect to hear that we are having a boy. " And so it was! Our German doctor was definitely mistaken. The ultrasound tech couldn't believe that we thought we were having a girl and made sure to show us the proof that we are having a BOY!

So I guess I will just say to take from this what you will. I'm sure everyone will have their own opinion about what my dream "meant." But to me, it means that Heavenly Father knows me. He offered me support and comfort when I needed it most and continues to remind me of His love and presence in small ways every day. And I am so thankful for his tender care.

PS. He knows and loves you too. ;)

Play us a song...

...you're the piano man. ;)

I've had that going through my head ever since we bought this used piano last week. Rob is the only one in the house who really plays the piano (I took 2 semesters at BYU, but that is barely anything.) So anyway, he has been entertaining all of our requests to the best of his ability-- which will be about a thousand times easier when we get him some sheet music. Maybe in January Charlotte will begin to take lessons? We'll see... maybe we'll wait a year. For now, we are all loving listening to Rob play for us.

Today I borrowed a copy of the Children's Songbook from our church so Rob has some music to practice with until we buy some of our own. (Also, any re-upholstering tips for the gold colored seat cushion? I'm not sure we can handle its awesomeness long term.)

Another project while we waited for our furniture this past week was this tether ball pole in the backyard. The kids are a little clueless yet, but had tons of fun out there with Rob- who was only missing his "Vote for Pedro" t-shirt.

And finally this is me at 36 weeks-- with all my babies.

This was just after nap, and Toby is choosing to be clothing-free for the photo. I also considered taking the photo of me barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen for maximum effect, but wanted to show you the fireplace instead and the vase Rob picked out and filled with eucalyptus clippings from our yard. He's so cute. :)

catch up collage

June was a BIG month for us. Here are just a few snapshots of what our lives have been like.

The day we moved out of our house in Germany, Charlotte's school had their Sommerfest. Among the activities was this crazy kiddo version of walking on hot coals. Charlotte and Toby both jumped at the chance to walk barefoot across tires filled with gravel, corks, rocks, sticks, and pine cones. So weird.

Charlotte's class had a little farewell party for her on her last school day. She loved the sparklers and being the center of attention sitting with her best "Erde Gruppe" buddies Paula and Martyna. She especially loves the scrapbook they gave her with photos and memories from her year in German Kindergarten. She also enjoyed giving her teachers a book about Charlotte the sheep (in German) as a gift for the classroom.

Toby fit in too well with Charlotte's classmates. He loves doing anything that is for "big kids."

A week or so after that we flew to Augusta, GA. I took this picture of Charlotte in the rental car after 17 hours or so of traveling. A picture is worth a thousand words, no?

This is my mellow man in the rental car too. He's awesome.

We spent a week or so looking at houses and cars, filling out many, many forms and trying to find our way around our new city. THEN we ran away to the Outer Banks and spent a week visiting with some of our family members. This photo is Rob and the kiddos heading down to the water with Grandma Anderson. At dusk all of these little "ghost crabs" come out and run all over the sand. The kids had a great time chasing them and splashing in the waves.

Toby relaxing with Pop-pop at the beach house.

I think the trip worked out great... we got to spend a lot more time with the people who were able to make the trip than we would have if we tried to travel to everyone. And we all got to have a beach vacation to boot! (We did go through a shocking amount of steak, bacon, and brownies with 25 people in the house though!)

Charlotte and cousin Savannah hit it off fabulously and shared their love of stuffed animals, books, dress-up, and drawing.

They can't wait to get together again soon.

And finally, we have found a house to move into as soon as our furniture arrives from Germany. I look forward to seeing a lot more of this view out my kitchen window.

Or from my seat on this shady swing with a glass of lemonade in hand.

Soon. :)