Newborn pics

I met a wonderful photographer who was trying to expand her portfolio to include hospital births, so she was going to meet us at the hospital and take pictures of Kolby being born, which I was super excited about. We called her as soon as we left for the hospital and she said she was in Denver and on her way. She ended up texting Kevin at 10:15 asking if she could come on over to the hospital and Kevin had to tell her that he was already here :( Since she missed the birth she offered to take some newborn pics at home for us. She came over and spent a good 2 hours taking some pictures and Kolby just refused to go to sleep for her. They were adorable pics but we couldn't really mold him into the positions that we were going for because he wouldn't go to sleep :) Of course right when she was leaving, he was out for the count! So since he was out, I figured he'd let me take some of my own pics :) I was really happy with how they turned out and over the next couple days we did lots of different little photo shoots :) I am absolutely obsessed with this baby :)

Similar?

Everyone has always said that all my kids look alike, my dr says that I had triplets that were all 2 years apart :) I agree, I think they all look very similar. I can never tell what comes from me and what comes from Kevin, I'm terrible at that, but I can definitely tell they look like each other :) When Kolby was born everyone said that he looked different. Maybe it was the DARK head of beautiful hair that he had (which surprised everyone!). But I would disagree, I sure think they all look very very similar!! Here's all 4 of them right after they were born (I wish they didn't have the hats on in these pics so you could see all the hair - or lack there of :) )

HE is here!!

I think he knew that this was my last pregnancy so he tried his best to stay in there as long as possible, knowing that I would get sad and miss it :) And, I had never known what it felt like to get to my due date before, so he made that happen for me as well :) I drove myself crazy for about 2-3 weeks. At the beginning of May I remember turning the calendar and saying to the kids "Baby is coming this month!!" thinking that it would be anytime. I was having contractions daily that never seemed to amount to anything. There was one time around 36 weeks that I was really nervous something was happening and it was too early, but the consistent contractions bothered me every 5-10 min for a couple hours then went away. Then May came and I started to think it was any day and I should have a plan. Everyday I would wake up and think, "OK, if it happens today I will get so-n-so to pick up Bradley from school, and I will call so-n-so to come watch the kids at this time..." then that night I would think, "OK, nothing happened, tomorrow is a different day with different things going on, so new plan..." and it went on and on like that for weeks! When finally I realized that's what was making me go insane! I stopped trying to plan it all out and figured it would all work out when it happened. He was already super low and measuring big in mid April. On May 30th I was certain baby was coming and in the morning I was telling the kids how I was obviously wrong and Gracie said, "Wow Mom - it must be awesome in your tummy! I bet baby is going to stay in there until next Easter!"
At my dr apt right before 38 weeks McCreery checked me and I was 1 1/2 cm, she was going out of town that weekend so I was hoping to not go into labor so I tried to take it easy all weekend, thinking that something was going to happen any time. My next apt ended up being about a week and a half later on the 28th and I was certain that I would be further along because I had been having serious contractions daily and a lot of them. She checked me and I was 'maybe' 2. I asked her to strip my membranes - I remember she did that with Bradley and I went into labor that night and it was so easy - this was SO painful! Baby was super super low but my cervix was WAY far back, so trying to get to it was super difficult and SUPER painful. She said she did the best she could but she thought it would still be over a week. I remember leaving the apt and crying in the car :) I was trying my very hardest to enjoy every last second I had being pregnant because I was in the mindset that this was my last pregnancy and I would never again get to feel the miracle of a baby moving around in my tummy. But in my mind I was already weeks past due - which of course was my own fault! My sciatica was way worse this time and baby was so big that most movements were pretty painful.
So I made it to my due date - June 1st. That night we had taco bell for dinner and I remember talking to Kevin about the week ahead since it was a sunday and he was telling me his plans and I said, "It HAS to be SOMETIME this week, doesn't it?!?!" :) I was having contractions that night but didn't think anything of it since that happened every night. I woke up at 1 to go to the bathroom because my stomach felt like it was going to be sick, it was fine, so I went back to bed. Woke up again at 4 with the same feeling, went to the bathroom, it was fine, went back to bed. Didn't get fully back to sleep when I felt like it was going to be sick again and for the first time in my sleepy state I thought, "Wait a second... maybe it's contractions :)" so I stayed up and paid closer attention. They started getting harder and I was even scared to take a shower like I normally did because usually that made it way worse and I was a little scared of things going so fast that I didn't get to the hospital since it was fourth baby. I took a really quick shower and we called in help for the kiddos and took off. We got to the hospital about 6, I was checked at 6:20 and was already 5 cm. Then started the whole discussion of epidural. I had no faith in myself. Everyone else thought I could do it without, it was going fast enough and they give me such problems. But I was just too scared. Even though I have so many issues with them, eventually they did kick in enough to provide a tiny bit of relief. They offered me a tens (sp?) unit and said I'll know right away if that will be enough or not. I tried it for a while but it was not helping at all, it just added a weird, crazy vibrating feeling to all my pain. So I decided to go for the epidural. Once again - many many issues and one really stumped, confused anesthesiologist. My body just does not like it. All the nurses were telling him how it went in so great, that was the best one they've ever seen, and he came more and more annoyed at me with every passing contraction that I would say felt the same or worse, not getting better at all. So he kept pumping me full of medicine, waiting, more medicine, more waiting and it went on like that for a long time. I have never once in all my laboring shed a tear, not until my babies were layed on my chest. For the first time I cried, partly because of pain and partly because of frustration about it not working and feeling like I had made the wrong choice. So I just asked my dr if she could go ahead and break my water and make it go faster, so that's what we did. Looking back I wish that I had just skipped the epidural, it caused me more frustration than anything else. After we broke my water the epidural started to finally take effect (starting at my toes and working it's way up, so it was a while until it was where it needed to be). I pushed a couple times and took a little break, then it was a few more pushes and HE was here. The whole thing seemed to take forever, but it really did go by pretty quickly. I kept up with my pattern I had going - from the time we got to the hospital to baby being born - with Bradley it was 10 hours, Gracie was 8, Sammie was 6, and baby Kolby was only 4. This time seemed the hardest though, it might have had something to do with the fact that he is definitely my biggest baby! He layed on my chest for a long time before the nurses took him to clean him up and weigh him - 8 pounds 6 ounces! And he was also 'sunny side up' when he came out, just like Sammie, which makes everything harder. I am so blessed that I was able to have 4 great labor and deliveries and have 4 amazing, healthy children. I thank God everyday. All I ever wanted to be was a Mom, I feel like that's why I'm here. And to think back on those 2 1/2 years of trying before Bradley came along and how many times we thought we wouldn't be able to have any children - I count my blessings every day, over and over. I don't take any of it for granted.
We are so so blessed to welcome Kolby Scott Kerr to our family. Kolby - you have made us complete!! :)

End of the school year

Like I said before, I was certain that baby was coming sometime in May and with school coming to a close I was worried that I wouldn't be there for their last day. I even ended up taking Bradley's "last day of kindergarten" pics the morning before I went to the dr on May 28th. His last day wasn't actually until the next day but I was sure that when the dr checked me that day that something would get going and I would go into labor that night :) Haha! Joke was on me! Anyway - he ended up getting 'last day' pictures 2 days in a row :) Here are some comparison shots of the two of them at the beginning of the year and at the end - what a difference a school year makes!! They look SO much older!

Garden

I wanted to do a garden this year because I do like doing it, I didn't want to do a garden this year because I was tired :) and so not motivated. But I forced myself to get it done (which actually means I made Kevin do most of the work :) ) We usually plant around Memorial Day and this year that was May 26th. Baby #4 was due June 1st and I was ABSOLUTELY SURE that baby was going to be early and be born sometime in May (hmpf!). This year we got peppers, onions, tomatoes, and zucchini. We also planted some sunflower seeds again which are my favorite - it's the only thing we plant from seed and it's always so much fun to see them get so big! Unfortunately, about 2 days after we planted the garden I went outside to see what the girls were doing and they were making mud pie - with the dirt on the very end of the garden where it LOOKED like no plants were - but the seeds were there, emphasis on WERE. So - no sunflowers this year. But at least we did some potted flowers, and those actually lived the longest :) I should have known with the timing that if I wasn't even motivated to plant in the beginning that watering every day to keep everything alive was going to be difficult as well. I didn't keep up on it like I should and we barely got anything out of it this year - my zucchini didn't even grow, which has never failed me before! :( Gracie was definitely the most into it this year, she helped the whole time. Sammie got bored and Bradley was only interested in the flowers :)

Easter

I love Easter :) We did our normal Easter Egg Hunt at the preschool which is always fun and not frustrating like all the other public ones I've been to - why oh why do I keep doing them?? :) After the preschool one we went to another one put on by a church at a park. We had gone to this one in years past and it wasn't terrible, so we thought we'd try again. BUT I think once and for all I'm done with them. I think the issue is when they offer nice prizes for the adults in some of the eggs, which I didn't know they were doing at this one until we got there. That's what seems to make the adults go crazy and the idea of them getting a gift card or TV trumps the kids having fun and the adults take over. Sammie was in her own area for the little kids and that one wasn't as bad. Gracie and Bradley were in the bigger kid area and pretty much got pushed out of the way by parents shoving their kids ahead of everyone else and then grabbing eggs themselves. And on top of the prizes, they didn't even have an egg limit so by the time we shuffled in there was nothing left. There is no reason at all for parents to even go in the egg area with older kids like that - they shouldn't even be allowed in there. We did our best to brush it off but it's a hard medium to find between sticking up for your kids and saying something to the parents that are pushing and shoving - and just keeping your mouth shut and talking to your kids about how that's wrong and we don't do that. Kevin is better at confrontation than I am and he and another dad had some words with one of the mean parents, and we just used it as a learning example about being kind and not greedy :) I'm so proud of my kids because we've gone to several of those throughout the years where you see kids and parents acting like that and never once have my kids pushed back or ran and fought for an egg. They always seem super confused about that behavior and they are always so kind.
On Easter morning we had a hunt here at the house, then we headed up the mountain and had lunch and another hunt up at Dad and Jan's house -which is always SO much fun!!! In my very pregnant and uncomfortable state I had to take lots of breaks and sit down on rocks and look around for eggs - but I made it work :) there's no way I was going to miss out :) I didn't even whip out my camera I was so on a mission to find some eggs :)

 This was my most favorite moment at the public egg hunt. Remember me saying that Bradley has a soft spot in his heart for any and all living things? We were walking away from the park and he saw this tree that was dead and it just made him so sad, he hugged it for a very long time. He's just such a sweetheart!

 Bradley drew a note to the Easter Bunny all by himself and it was adorable, so I had Gracie and Sammie do one too and they were the labels for the easter baskets this year :)

 Bradley is still super into his markers and he got window markers in his basket and went right to work. We still had stems left on the windows from the girls' party so he added some flowers :)

 They went outside and found a rolly :) and put it in an easter bucket and brought it inside and everyone gathered around to watch him walk around in circles :)