No More Waiting

We finally have our baby Brud #4, Hudson John Brudnicki. He was born on Thursday, March 21st 2013 at precisely 11:59 pm, weighing in at 8 lbs and stretching out at 21". He has really cute light brown hair, what are sure to be blue eyes, and he looks very much like his big brother Jensen.

Once he decided to come it didn't take long for him to get here. They admitted me into the hospital around 8 in the evening and the doctor broke my water sometime between 10 and 11 (I'm not really sure when that happened.) When we did that we discovered he had had a bowl movement already, so the clock began ticking to get him out. Because I was laboring without an epidural again, I was all for getting him out quick! Things went really quickly once I started pushing, to which the doctors and nurses were relieved because his heart rate was dropping really low with every contraction. I only remember pushing 6 or 7 times (but I pushed so hard that I have broken capillaries on my face) and then everyone told me to open my eyes to get my first look at my boy. He did have a little trouble breathing at first, due to the meconium in utero, but once he nursed he didn't seem to have any more problems.

The boys, of course, absolutely adore him. They are constantly asking to hold him, see him, kiss him, sit by him, you name it.

Don't let the smiles fool you, though. They are still adjusting to all the changes. 

 Here's some proof that Dustin has actually held the baby. Until we got home last night, I'm pretty sure the boys had spent more time snuggling with Hudson than Dustin had!

And our first family photo.  

Dustin keeps wondering, "How did we end up with all these kids?!!!"

Anticipation

Anticipation can be one of those things that can totally enhance an experience. Like Christmas! 

Or it can be one of those things that makes it worse. Like being 9 months pregnant.

I really thought this little guy was on his way this past Friday. Before that, I really hadn't worried too much about it, which was keeping me sane. But all weekend I felt a little let down. The anticipation is working against me now. I decided to quit worrying about when he was going to come and just distract myself with other things. Anything. Everything! 

Thankfully we had an awesome (although entirely too short) visit from some of our dear friends, the Neeley's on Sunday. I needed it. Plus, I have my mom here to help me tackle projects, like re-upolstering our dinning room chairs. Today was laundry day. It's not that great of a distraction, but who knows, maybe folding, ironing and bed making will help convince this little guy that now would be a good time to join the rest of us.

Or he might just really be "in" to this whole anticipation thing. -Sigh-

What a Day

Last month I took the boys to the dentist for their 6 month cleanings. Jensen had a tooth on the bottom that was a little wiggly. He also has two of his 6 year molars in. Anyway, he's been busy wiggling that tooth and today it was looking crazy loose! I thought I better get a shot of it before it fell out.

 It didn't take long, because just a couple of hours later as they finished eating lunch he was showing it to Carson. Carson said,"Just pull it out!" So Jensen stuck his fingers in his mouth and pulled it out.

 He was pretty happy about it. And even though my kids totally know that I play the part of the tooth fairy, he was stoked to put his tooth under his pillow tonight in order for the "tooth fairy" to leave him something in return. (Sheesh, he's so big now!)

On another note, today is Dustin's birthday. He spent the day fishing in a bass club tournament, and the kids didn't even get to see him. (But we did enjoy going out to dinner last night. And we plan to have a yummy family dinner tomorrow night- chocolate silk pie included!)

On yet another side note, today was my Grandpa Jensen's funeral. He passed away on Monday, March 4th. I was very sad that I couldn't travel to Utah due to the impending birth of my 4th baby, but I was also bummed, because I had always planned to play "Claire De Lune" for his funeral. Fortunately, I know some very tech savvy people who helped me make a recording of the song on the piano and send it to my parents, who were then able to play it at at the funeral today. Technology can be so, so great. I thought about him and my family all day today. I wish I could have gone, but I know that he understands. Besides, I was able to play his favorite song for him on more than one occasion while he was still living, which is probably way more meaningful anyway. And I'm so very happy that he can finally be with Grandma Jensen (who passed away 3 years ago when I was pregnant with Mason.) I know he missed her so much and it was hard for him to be separated from her. Now they'll never be apart. And that makes me very, very happy.

Negley 1K

Dustin, Carson and Jensen participated in the Negley PTA 1K again this year. We felt bad, because they didn't get ANY training time in this year prior to the race. But they all did just fine, so it turned out alright. Carson especially enjoyed running this year with so many friends. Here they are as they were lining up to start.

Carson took off ahead of Dustin and Jensen, just like last year. 

Dustin and Jensen ran the race together. Dustin was super impressed with Jensen, especially when he kept going and passed lots of other people.

I got to cheer on the sidelines with this cute little face. I told him that he could race with the big boys next year. :)

Carson made me laugh when he got to the finish line.  He stopped running and casually just walked through. Funny kid. He told me that he was glad to stop running, since his back and knees hurt. But it didn't take long to feel better.

Jensen had high expectations to "win" this year. He ran so well, and we were so proud of his race, but he was let down. He felt better about it later, though.

 Carson loved seeing his friends there and racing with them. Here he is with 2 of his best friends, Lusia and Trace. They all did great!

Learning the Hard Way

This is how we spend our evenings when we create mud in the backyard and then track it through the house.

At first I second-guessed my ability to be a mother of so many boys with such a high dislike/low tolerance for mud. (I seriously hate it!) And then I remembered, "I'm raising men, not boys. And these men will know how to clean up after themselves."

And they did a pretty good job. :)

Presidents Day

On Presidents Day we decided that we would drive down towards San Antonio and go to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. We went there a few years ago and had a great time. We wanted something that we could do together as a family, and since I'm not up for much walking around, and the boys ages limit us, this was a good fit. They were super excited when we told them we were going to go and drive through the park and see lots of big animals. 

Big animals we saw. Lots. Especially these kinds of animals, with horns. There were some with curved horns, some with long straight horns, and some with twisted horns. The boys had fun looking through the catalog Dustin bought so that they could identify which animal we were seeing. 

We also got a bag of food to throw out the window. I was amazed at how many people we saw feeding the animals out of their hands. I realize that these animals are used to people doing this, but come on, they're still WILD ANIMALS! They will still bite you!!!

Check out this buffalo. It was so big!!! The boys were excited when we went by this big furry fellow.

Actually, they were pretty excited about most of the animals we saw. Because you have to drive so slowly through the park, the boys were able to enjoy not being belted in, and they were allowed to sit so that they could view the animals.

 The zebras are a huge attraction. They are very friendly, so they get up close and personal. But we didn't enjoy them as much as we did last time, because of this car in front of us. To be honest, it was more than one car in front of us. But this lady felt the need to literally park her vehicle for 10 minutes so that her kids could hand feed the zebras (which they specifically warn you not to do because they really will bite) and take pictures of them from every possible angle. I was fuming at the ears. Eventually we rolled down our windows and threw food at the zebras to get them away from her car so that she would move on. At that point, we were so tired of waiting that we didn't stop very long for the kids to get a more personal look at them.

 The ostriches weren't big fans of coming too close. 

 We were all dying at the adorable babies with this mama bird. Aren't they cute?! We saw lots of tiny ones with their families as we drove through the ranch. Must be baby time for a lot of animals.

 Once we finally got through the park (it took us much longer than we thought, due to the traffic, and annoying patrons who had no respect for the line of 15 cars behind them) the boys got to get out and actually pet some critters.

 Because we'd been here before, I saved some of our animal food for the boys to feed to the goats. Jensen was really the only one who had the patience to let them eat out of his hand. I think Carson was too afraid, and Mason wouldn't hold the food long enough in his hand for them. There were quite a few baby goats as well, and Mason was so cute. At one point he was kinda surrounded by 3 or 4 goats and he happily said, "Hey guys!"

This was the one video I shot of us seeing some Italian donkeys. I'm sad I didn't start recording sooner, because Mason was screaming with delight when we first saw them. At any rate, you can still tell he had a good time. We all did.

Jensen's 5th Birthday

So, today is actually not Jensen's 5th birthday. It is, however, my awesome mom's 65th birthday! Jensen's birthday is tomorrow. We celebrated it today, nonetheless. 

It was a perfect, no frills, fun party. We played with his friends at the park, and the weather was wonderful.

I convinced Jensen to have his birthday party at the park by saying we could get a piñata. He was immediately sold.

We also opened presents. Jensen was awesome at opening gifts, because he got so excited with each one. You know it's a good birthday when everything is "Just what I wanted!!!" It's also a good indication that you're 5. :)

The kids happily ate vegetables and pizza. My awesome mother-in-law was kind enough to pick the pizza up for us, so it was hot and just in time for all those little hungry tummies.

We also had cake. Jensen really wanted a Batman birthday party. (He has probably only ever seen a cartoon of Batman once. At a friends house. I'm pretty sure he knows next to nothing about Batman. But he thinks he's cool, so whatever.) I made the cake the night before, and the boys thought it was great. 

The best part about blowing out the candles was that we had to light them outside- always tricky because of the wind. So as soon as I got all 5 candles lit, and we were in the middle of singing "Happy Birthday to You" Jensen just blew them out. :) Then he proceeded to go and tell all his friends what his wish was…but not any of the moms. 

 It was such a fun morning. Very low stress for me, which made it all the better. I can hardly believe my funny little "Baby J" is 5. Where did that last year go? I'm sure I'll be saying the same thing next year…

Happy Birthday Jensen!!!!!