Tamales and Homecoming

Mike and his mom are extra ambitious, so on Saturday they made 10 dozen pork tamales! And they were delicious! But they have been tired for the next two days after working so hard! The bottom pic is making the tamales, the one above is Apple "fishing" with her dad when they were done :) Sassy had homecoming on Saturday, too, and had a great time. She looked so beautiful!

The first few days

First Bath

Baby boy had his first bath right in our room, and Courtney got to wash his hair and Sunshine got to brush it. The girls styled it into a little faux-hawk!

Visitors

As soon he was born Sassy brought up all the sisters to see him, and they were in love! Mike stayed the night at the hospital with me and the hardest part was getting Apple to go home without her baby brother! My mom, Nikki and Melissa were also there for the birth, and it was really neat to have everybody there! Mike's mom flew into town the next day and got to come with him to take Joseph and I home from the hospital. She has been such a big help with the house and the girls and is staying for 2 weeks.

Baby Boy is finally here!

Baby boy arrived on Sep. 19, 2011 @ 2:50 pm! They broke my water a little before 1:00 and he arrived just 2 hours later. I had already had my epidural so it wasn't too bad. He weighed 8 lbs. 10 oz., and 21" long which is huge for me because all my other babies were only 6 or 7 pounds. The first thing I noticed is his huge hands, then his big mouth and feet. He is just a big boy. We thought he would look just like the girls, and he does look similar but he is definitely his own litte person. Dad is really in love with him, the first night we brought him home he kept waking up just to give him little kisses, and he bought a huge banner and sign and balloons to put outside the house. He has a very quiet, observant spirit, he just looks around taking everything in. He will be awake for 45 min. several times a day just looking aroung at everything. We are just so in love with him and feel so lucky to have him in our family!

The hardest part of camping is the packing up, but we made pretty short work of it this time. Apple and I were great supervisors ;) and we cut our cabin cleaning time in half by bringing our own bedding this time!

Fishing

The little girls went fishing almost every morning with their dad, although they didn't catch anything! They got a lot of bites though, and also tried out their homemade stick fishing poles.

Labor Day at the Cabin

We had a lovely laid back Labor Day at Dad's cabin this past weekend. Mike was originally just going to take the girls camping, but thought of the great idea to camp at the cabin so I could come too. So Mike and the 3 younger girls camped outside for two nights, and the two older girls and I camped inside! One of the nights we all slept inside. The girls had fun playing in the little stream in front of the cabin, walking on the "great wall" of sandbags still up from this summer's flooding, roasting marshmallows and hot dogs, and eating outside.

The Kitty

The kitty is still alive after 1 1/2 weeks. The kids are all loving it, and hopefully soon it will be eating cat food and living in the garage!