Monday, September 28, 2015

Archer's Newborn Photo Shoot

We have been so extremely lucky to have good friends that are amazing photographers.  Our friend Sarah Severson (check our her website here: http://www.sarahseversonphotography.com/) came over about a week after Archer was born with loads of props and wrap and backdrops and put together some really stunning pictures for us.  Here are some of our favorites:



I just love Sam's half-smile in this one.  :)












Sunday, September 27, 2015

Ellis' Lego Party

We had scheduled to have Ellis' birthday party September 5th, a full 10 days before Archer's due date.  Seemed safe enough.  But, Archer had other plans, and there was just no way we could do a birthday party with a 3-day old newborn!

Ellis was such a good sport about his birthday celebrations being messed up and shifted around.  He pretty much just viewed Archer as his special birthday present!

Luckily, the big Lego Birthday party was only postponed a couple of weeks, not cancelled.  In typical Jenn fashion, and with plenty of support from her parents, it was a smashing success!  Here is what we did:


First off: would you look at that cake?!?  Pure genius.  The Lego pieces on top are molded from died white chocolate, so you can imagine it was pretty rich to eat.  Not that the kids minded.



Lego-themed party favors 



The Lego-head-shaped plates were a special touch from Grandpa Dave.


As each kid arrived, they go their name tag and then got to do Lego coloring pages as we waited for all the guests to arrive.


Of course we had to have a few treats before we got started as well.  These are Rice Krispie Treats with white chocolate and M&M's on top.


We then sorted the kids into 3 groups by having them draw a red, black, or blue Lego piece from the bag.  Each group went to a different station for various activities.


Lego Bingo 



Build your own mini-figure (which they then got to take home!)


Lego memory


Lego, Lego, who's go the Lego?


Hot potato (winner got to keep the Lego set)


The "bop-'em-on-the-head-new-name" game


And, of course, more snacks!



Notice that each plate has a custom face? 



Followed by cake




We CANNOT believe that Ellis is 7!  He's such a delight and is chock full of personality and determination.  He knows the names of every kid in 1st grade, and most of the rest of his school to boot.  He never lacks for friends and loves to be with people.  

To be perfectly honest, his best birthday present really was Archer.  Ellis is always the first jump up and pop in a binky, give him "3 hugs and a kiss", or anything else he can do to help the baby.  It's been so fun watching Ellis and Archer interact, and we're so lucky to have a big 7-year-old around to lend a helping hand.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Adjusting to baby life

Now that we're on our fourth kid, you'd think that we're experts and know exactly what we're doing.  Well, here's what we know:  While you're in the hospital you sleep as much as possible, you rely on friends and family to manage everything, and you just hold that new baby and treasure the miracle of it all.  But, eventually, that hospital stay comes to an end, and everyone has to put on their regular clothes and go home.


And then, it's time to figure out how to survive for the next three months until some sort of regular schedule can again be established.  Those first few days and weeks are just a weird blur of odd bits of sleep, many feedings, many, many diapers, and wonderful people coming from nowhere to bring you food.  But the real life-saver for us has always been: Grandmothers!  Because Archer failed to comply with our timeline and showed up 2 weeks early, we were caught way off-guard in terms of having help around to keep our house afloat.  We are so grateful that Grandma Iverson and Grandma Lori both made unplanned, last-minute trips to help us manage those first 7 days.  Of course, we let them have as much Archer time as they wanted:



In fact, we all made sure to take lots of time to just cuddle him:


This picture was a good reminder that Sam is no longer the baby!






Look-alikes!  Clockwise, from top left: Henry, Ellis, Archer, Sam





I love how much the older brothers adore Archer.  They can't get enough of him!


Having a newborn around is a major shock to the system.  But, life still had to happen!  Here are some other things we crammed into those first couple of weeks:

Yummy Peach Dessert!  Grandma Lori made sure this was made a couple of times while she was here.  :)


Ellis' 7th birthday!  We had to postpone his birthday party (blog post on that is forthcoming), but we made sure he got a special treat on his special day.


Okay, actually we made sure we all got a special treat on his special day.


First day of preschool for Sam


A newborn photo shoot


Refinishing this chair we picked up at a rummage sale (with help from Grandpa Dave, of course!)

Not bad for juggling a FOUR boys for the first time!