Kassidy and Kaleb

I was looking through pictures this morning when I came across some from early March of Kassidy and Kaleb playing and helping daddy wash the car. A few days later Karson was born and these pics were forgotten about. So...better late than never, right?! Since the grass is starting to grow again, Kaleb figured he'd cut it for us:)

Notice the chair behind Kassidy? She's not tall enough to reach the rings herself and I was sick of lifting her up every time (with a pregnant belly) so we solved that problem:)

Kaleb's favorite swing!!!

Jack loves to grab the sticks and play fetch! He always grabs the big ones.

Here the kids are checking to see if the blueberry bush has any blueberries yet...it doesn't:(
Kassidy picked flowers just for me...so sweet!

This one of Jack just cracks me up! I snapped the pic just in time to catch his tongue out!

That's a better one. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good pic of Daisy, our other dog.

Look closely at this one...Kaleb is showing you the really big stick he found! This was after a few days of non-stop rain and lots of strong winds. There were sticks everywhere.

These next few are of the kids helping Daddy wash the car. Notice only one child was interested in actually helping with that task. And, she did a pretty good job of it, too:) The other one was too interested in putting the golf clubs in the tree. I guess you can only expect so much from a 3 yr old!Daddy even showed Kassidy how to make the water spray harder..watch out daddy!

***One more note...I've added a list of blogs I follow on the L side. Check 'em out:)

Karson is 2 wks old! ! !

I cannot believe it's been 2 whole weeks since our son was born! What a busy 2 weeks we've had!!! First Mama Hauser was in town, then Grandma Montemagno, then my best friend Kim and her husband, and lots of friends coming to meet Karson, play with Kassidy and Kaleb, and bring us dinner. We are so grateful for all the help we've received. It really has helped us settle in.

Grandma Montemagno

John and Kim

Haley

Karson has been such a great little boy so far:) At one week old he suprised us and slept all the way through the night! It was great to get some much needed sleep, but of course I was too worried about him to sleep the whole time (and I had to pump). I kept checking to make sure he was ok, that the blanket wasn't over his face (we swaddle him) and that the monitor was on so I could hear him if he cried. I know what you're thinking, a third-time mom shouldn't be that nervous, but I was:) Anyway, he slept through the night again (which I forgot to mention was 11pm-7am) once or twice which was great to catch up on sleep. Lately he sleeps from about 11pm-3:30 or 5:30am, eats a quick meal, back to sleep, then up to eat again around 7:30 or 8:30am.

One cool thing that Karson managed to do already was to roll over! That's right...he rolled over! And not just once, he did it about 6 more times in the next 2 days. I know it was probably an accident but he is really strong and just kicks and kicks his little legs so hard it flips him over. Kassidy and Kaleb really got a kick out of it and kept having me try to get him to do it again. Then Kaleb said I can roll over and climbed onto the couch to show us...too cute!

Another cool thing that Karson did just for his mommy was give me a huge smile one morning:) And no, he wasn't sleeping, it was an actual smile...2 times in a row! I managed to grab a pic the second time he smiled with my cell phone and it is just precious:) A huge grin showing his tongue. Hopefully the next time I'll have my camera handy.

Before Karson's belly button healed we gave him his first bath at home. Of course big sis and big brother had to help, too! They could only help with washing his feet and hands since we couldn't get water on his tummy yet. But they had a ball! You can see from pics below that the bath started out fine, but when we actually washed him he did not like it very much! We went as fast as we could then wrapped him up all nice and warm and he was calm again:) It's nice to have two helpers who can grab wash cloths, towels, etc when I need them to!

Breastfeeding is going pretty good:) I'm really excited about that because it never went real well for the other two kiddos. With Kassidy it took both Keith and I just to get her to latch on!!! This time I can actually do it all by myself...weird huh? It is hard to keep Karson awake enough to eat a lot, but it's getting better. He now weighs 8 lbs on the nose and hopefully he continues to gain just like he should:)

Well, that's about it for updates on Karson. Enjoy the pics, I really enjoy taking them:) Hopefully in the next few weeks we'll get a move on birth announcements and thank you notes, but it's so hard finding time with a new baby around. I forgot how time consuming a newborn is! Love and kisses to everyone!!!

Just in case you think he never cries...

Couldn't leave you with a crying baby...sleep tight:) We love you so much Karson! ! !

*On a different note...Please pray for us next week. Keith leaves Tuesday around noon for Las Vegas. He has a huge work convention and will be gone until Sunday night. Please pray that he has a safe plane ride, gets a lot of ideas for his business, and that his business runs smoothly without him. Also, please pray for me that I can manage all 3 kiddos on my own for the first time! I'll need to make sure Karson is up and fed before the older 2 get up and fed then do the school drop off/pick up, etc. I'm sure we'll be just fine, I'll just need to do some planning ahead to be on time. Please also pray that I can get some sleep while Keith is gone! Thanks so much:)

The newest addition to our family!!!

Introducing Karson James Gailey! ! !

March 10, 2009

12:05 am

7 lbs. 14 oz.

20 in.

I was lucky enough to have my husband, daughter, son, sister, mother, and two close family friends at the birth of our newest son. It all started around 3 pm March 9th. I felt regular contractions every 4-5 min but nothing too strong. We decided to head in anyway and were admitted right away. I got an epidural pretty quickly and then just waited for the Dr. to be done with an emergency c-section and some other more urgent deliveries. We sat around and enjoyed watching Dancing with the Stars until the Dr. was ready. She broke my water and things moved real fast and I was ready to push in no time. During the pushing the Dr. said she thought this baby was much bigger than the other two (both were in the 5 lb range) and boy was she right! I thought surely he wouldn't be bigger than 6 or 6 1/2 lbs but when Keith told me the scale said 7 lbs 14 oz I could not believe it!!! We tried to deliver him by midnight because it was Grandpa Gailey's birthday on the 9th, but just couldn't make it. Instead he was born 5 min after midnight on the 10th, 1 day before my birthday. What a great birthday gift, huh? I couldn't possibly think of another gift that would be greater than my new little boy:) We thank God for such a healthy baby, all the family/friends who have helped along the way and spoiled us with gifts and food, and such a wonderful big brother and sister who love their little brother so much! We knew we would name him Karson before he was born but wanted to keep his middle name a suprise until the birth. He's named after my dad whose name is Jim. We want Karson to know how much his Papa means to us and how much we love him!!!

These past 5 days have been pretty good. My mom who was in town from Ohio was a HUGE help! Karson had his first Dr. appt Friday and he lost some weight (was 7 lbs 6 oz.)and was still a little jaundice. He'll go back tomorrow to double check his weight. I bet he's gained his weight back by now.

Kassidy and Kaleb have been SO good with their little brother. Kassidy loves holding him and actually does a really good job! She even knows to bounce him a little is he fusses, so cute:) Kaleb loves giving him kisses on his head, usually several at a time. Karson loves to sleep, especially at night. I really hope this continues:)

I'll be busy posting new pics in the next few days but here's some to get you started. Enjoy!

SNOW! ! !

That's right! We even get snow sometimes in South Carolina! Hard to believe for you up in Ohio I know. We had a big snow storm with 4-5 inches, huge snowflakes, and very cold temps (in the 20s). We even had a small tree in the backyard break in half from all the weight of the snow:( Our snow here is not light and fluffy but heavy and wet and real icy. Of course schools were closed for 2 days, some more because they were without power. In our area the snow didn't start coming down until 5 or so at night, and once Keith got home from work it was really coming down in huge chunks! So, we bundled up the kiddos as best we could (at least we had rain boots!) and out they went to play and build a snowman. I mostly watched because it's just too hard to bend down to make a snowball with my big belly:) This weekend it's supposed to be almost 75 outside which is MUCH better!!! Just hard to believe we can go from 20-70 degrees in one week!

Yes, Kaleb has on Kassidy's purple mittens! Poor thing lost his hat and mittens at school!

Can you see what hat they chose? Go Indians!!!