Getting Used to the Family of Four

Our schedule has naturally changed a little having a new born baby in the house now, but we are figuring things out and having lots of fun with our little family!

Rachel goes to a weekly playgroup with a bunch of friends from church, and a few weeks ago they coordinated a trip to tour the local fire station. Tyler was still on paternity leave so he came along.

We got to see the shiny fire pole the fire fighters slide down when they get a call

We took a look inside an ambulance

Andrew was kind of shy and wanted to be held most of the time

Got to see just how big a fire truck's tires are (1 fire truck tire = 1.2 Andrews)

While this firefighter was showing us the gear they wear to fight fires, a call came on the radio to respond to an accident! They were out the door in less than a minute. Here's a video:

It was fun and cool to see how a fire station operates and how they train to save people's lives!

We also took the chance to enjoy the warmer weather by taking a walk around some little fishing ponds near our house

Andrew liked splashing in the water

And throwing rocks in the water

And playing with daddy in near the water

Sylvia is almost 8 weeks old now. We love having her cute face in our family!

She love snuggling mommy

And playing with big brother Andrew

Andrew recently started going to nursery at church. He is sad and shy when we first drop him off, but he soon warms up and has fun playing with the other kids

Her is getting slightly better... but still mostly terrified of vacuum cleaners. Here he is barricaded underneath his high chair when we vacuumed the living room carpet 

He likes to climb and play. Here he is using daddy's head as a stepping stool

And looking out the door as mommy went to get the mail

Playing with his super fun pirate hat

Eating a snack in his big boy chair

Playing outside (it snowed 0.3 Andrews)

And helping clean up the snow too

We also recently went to a birthday party for one of Andrew's friends. He turned 3 years old making him officially twice as old as Andrew is!

That's all for now, we'll keep you updated with more fun stuff we do!

Sylvia's First Month

Baby Sylvia is now one month old!  She is starting to understand night and day (she has slept for 5 hours in a row for a few nights now).  And she is growing and becoming a chunky cute baby.  Sylvia is a good eater but spits up more than Andrew ever did.  She still has blue eyes and red-ish hair, we will see if that changes as the months go by.  Sylvia loves to be held and snuggled while she naps during the day.  This sometimes is a problem because Andrew needs attention too.  Luckily, most of this first month, we have had lots of help and Tyler just started work again after 14 days of paternity leave.  It was fun to have Daddy home for so long!

We love our sweet baby girl.

She slept a lot her first month, but is starting to have longer awake periods during the day.

Sleepy little one nestled in our bed.

Here is another picture from the one month photo shoot

 Andrew is enthralled by his little baby sister and loves to hold her and give her kisses.  It is very cute. 

Sylvia's first bath with big brother! She liked the warm water. 

We turned the computer room into Sylvia's nursery. 

Baby Sylvia

We welcomed the newest addition to our family on Saturday, 24 January 2015! Baby Sylvia Danielle Carson was born at 2:11 AM, weighed 7lbs 1oz and was 20 3/4" long.

Rachel had a routine appointment with the doctors on Friday morning, 23 January where they performed a procedure that would induce labor within 24 hours. Sure enough, she felt weak contractions a few hours later, and by 2 PM that day was having stronger contractions about 20 minutes apart. We were pretty prepared for Sylvia being born. Andrew came a few weeks early, and was our first child so we didn't do a whole lot of planning other than having a hospital bag packed. This time around we had a bit more to plan out, such as someone to stay with Andrew overnight if needed. Tyler anxiously checked text messages at work from Rachel as she kept him updated as to time between contractions and their intensity. He came home, we had dinner as a family, said a prayer and gave Rachel a blessing, then put Andrew down to sleep at around 7 PM. At 10 PM a young woman from the ward who lived near by came over to spend the night in our newly finished basement guest room to take care of Andrew and we left for the hospital.  Rachel felt determined to have the baby by morning, so she was walking around a lot and trying to get labor to progress.  She was 5 cm dilated when they checked into the hospital around 11 PM.  She continued to walk to halls and contractions were about 5 minutes apart.  Tyler started feeling a little queasy and we think he had food poisoning because he ended up throwing up a couple times during the night.  But he was there for Rachel when she needed him.  The contractions became very intense quickly and around 2 AM Rachel started pushing.  Her water broke a few minutes before Sylvia was born!  Rachel didn't get an epidural but she did get one dose of I.V. medicine.  (She wanted more, but the nurse said it would make the baby sleepy).  Sylvia was born at 2:11 AM; a perfect little angel and it was a beautiful moment to finally have her in our arms.  We count our blessings because Sylvia had a knot in her umbilical cord, but thankfully it never tightened.  

Andrew at the hospital meeting Sylvia on Saturday morning. 

He really loves her and likes to give her hugs and kisses.

Rachel's parents had already booked a flight as soon as Rachel started having contractions. They got into town Saturday night and visited Rachel and Sylvia in the hospital Sunday morning. Here they are with grandchild #2! 

Here they are with both of their grandchildren.

They stayed for a couple days and were a huge help taking care of Andrew, and very helpful around the house in general. 

Andrew had a great time playing with his grandma and grandpa Judd.

And Sylvia was glad to meet them too!

Andrew looking lovingly at Sylvia

He loves holding her. He is so sweet and nice to her, the perfect big brother!

Grandma Carson meeting Sylvia for the first time. 

Tyler's mom came out to visit for 10 days. She met Sylvia, took care of Andrew and some of the house chores.

She was here for Tyler's 28th birthday also on 4 February.

We were to lucky and blessed to have so much help with transitioning to a second child!

Because we had so much grandparent support, Tyler didn't take any time off work until the middle of February. Here he is taking a nap with Sylvia after a long day's work. (Fort Carson is currently doing a reverse schedule, instead of having PT in the morning they do it at the end of the day when its light out and the weather is a warmer.)

Sylvia sleeping on daddy take two.

Burrito baby!

Here are a couple of pictures from Sylvia's newborn photoshoot

Our sweet baby girl!

 We are grateful for all the help we received from family, friends, neighbors, members of the church, and people from work! Thanks for making our transition to a family of four so smooth!

Andrew 18 Months

Our tiny baby Andrew just turned 18 months old! We can't believe how fast time has flown by, and how much our cute little guy has grown up and learned in such a short amount of time. 

There's still room to grow into his suit, but he looks so fancy in it!

He loves playing outside and can even go down the big boy slide all by himself.  

 

There are countless adventures to be had in the back yard,

regardless of temperature.

He is a big help around the house. He shovels the driveway when it snows, 

helps make dinner,

and crunches numbers to balance the checkbook. 

He loves to draw and color on paper,

and the bath tub.

We had to buy him his own razor because he had grown a full mustache. 

He eats anything we put in front of him. (until he gets full, then he starts to throw it on the ground)

and likes to sit in the big boy chairs. 

He even started nursery this week at church. 

Most recently he became a big brother! He was eagerly awaiting the arrival of his baby sister. 

He loves being near her watching over her, 

and giving her nice big hugs!

We love our sweet little guy and are excited for all the future has in store for him. He will be a great example to his little brothers and sisters! Here are a few videos of him showing off some of his tricks, and just being cute. 

Exercising

Talking 1

Talking 2

Eating Ice Cream