Beau Video

I wanted to see if I could load a video on here from my camera. This clip is just of Beau kicking and smiling. I wanted you to see how much he can move his cast. He's going to have one muscular glute after all this is done! Oh, and please try to ignore my annoying mommy/movie voice...hmmm, I'll have to work on that!

Ahh! I'm so in love with this baby!

...And since I'm waiting for it to upload, I just want to say that I'm feeling very blessed these days because Beau is almost 8 weeks old and I am still nursing him! That's a huge accomplishment for me! I lasted 2 weeks with Bekah and barely six weeks with Jacob, and here I am now at eight weeks with no intention of stopping. YAY! Heavenly Father does answer prayers!

Thumbs Up or Down?

Okay, so I've never had a thumb-sucker before. Bekah was strictly a binker-baby, and Jacob didn't have any vices at all. I've been catching Beau sucking on his thumb, falling asleep, and I can't help but think it's the cutest thing in the world! I can't lose his thumb like I lose his binkers (pacifiers) all the time! Hmmm, I guess I probably won't think it's so cute when he's four or five with his thumb stuck in his mouth, but still...

(Gotta love the messy room in the background, huh! Oh well, it'll still be there when I wake up tomorrow, which is both reassuring and depressing at the same time.)

Take a Hike, Paynes!

I've been wanting to post these pictures but haven't found the time. The only "free" time I really have is when all the kids are taking naps, and I usually choose to take a nap with them. I find I like my kids better when I'm not so tired. :) So, here's a quick picture post:
Rus with Beau...we went on a hike yesterday. Fun, fun! I've really missed being able to go on hikes, and the weather was beautiful, and the kids did great.Bekah walking quietly so that she wouldn't scare the bears away. She really wanted to see one. Jacob looking for a bear. Notice his hand up there, helping him look.

Me and Jacob, Explorers!
Jacob jumping off a rock. He walked a full mile. Way to go, my typically lazy boy!
Bekah could have walked another mile. She was awesome!
Beau loves his bouncer! He likes to smile and talk to his toys. Oh, and hello, monstrosity of a cast! Only 2 1/2 more weeks to go! Let's try not to get poop on it this time, okay, bud!

Love to see him smile!Umm, this happened somewhere between going to the bathroom and coming to me to help him pull up his pants. Oh, yeah, he's got style! I chose not to post the picture of him scratching his naked bum.


Another smile to end this post on. Like catching a shooting star, finding the last cookie in the cookie jar, or ten bucks hidden in an old pair of jeans. It's a beautiful thing!

Having Three Children Means...

Three piles of laundry
Three kids screaming at once
Three beautiful smiles
It's a miracle when three sleep at the same time for nap time, which actually does happen on a regular basis...
Baby toys + big boy toys + big girl toys = permanent mess
Everybody will be hungry at the same time, Beau and Bekah and Jacob (How do you nurse a baby and fix a PB&J sandwich?)
It's guaranteed at least one child will be unhappy at any given moment
Getting out the door takes 15 minutes longer than you think it should
I can't buy more food than will fit in my grocery cart with two children
Interruptions are common...whoops! There's Beau, gotta go!

Beau at One Month

Wow, time flies when you're too busy taking care of kids to get out of your pajamas. Just kidding, I do try to get dressed every day. And I have to on days like today and yesterday when I get to take Beau to his dr appointments. Yesterday he got a new cast, his third, and he did great! He's been crying less and turning less purple every time. And I'm happy to report that the cast doesn't seem to bother him. At all. Really. The first one did for that first day, and now he seems to be fine with it. He's getting stronger and can kick it around pretty good. His foot has been improving with each cast and the doctor says if he continues like this then they might only have to do four casts instead of five or six. YAY! So I give thanks to my Heavenly Father for making this the best club foot experience I could ever have.

Today Beau had his one month check up and weighed in at 12 lbs, 6 oz. The cast-nurse said that the casts usually weigh about 4 oz, so we can figure he really weighs somewhere around 12 lbs 2 oz. He is HUGE. In the 95th percentile on everything. Killing me to lug around everywhere. He can be a pretty determined fuss-bucket and most days I feel like I'm holding him all the time. His dr recommended some medicine for acid-reflux, so I'm hoping that will help him be happy when I'm not holding him, rocking him, jiggling him, burping him, or shushing him. Cross your fingers.

And here's a fun pic to finish up with. He can smile! And it's so cute, it makes up for how bone weary I feel sometimes taking care of him and Bekah and Jacob. I love being a mom, but three kids is really hard. It is impossible to keep them all happy, and it is inevitable that they will all be crying at the same time at least once a day. If I just plan on that happening it's easier to step back and find the humor in those situations, like the other day when I answered the door for my friend who is pregnant with her third, and all my kids were crying. Beau was hungry, Jacob was mad because I "broke" his granola bar, and Bekah was mad because I didn't let her open the door. Who knew. On the flip side, Beau was taking a nap on the floor (because he fell asleep there when I was swaddling him and I didn't dare try to move him), and Bekah and Jacob went and got their pillows and blankets and curled up next to him. It was really cute. So there are plenty of good moments, too. :)

Grandpa Hansen's 88th Birthday

This past weekend Rus and I and the kids were able to make the four and a half hour drive to Flagstaff (in six hours) to celebrate my Grandpa's 88th birthday with my brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles. It was so fun! Here are my grandparents and my mom and three of her four brothers (Bill, Casey, and Jerry).
Tyler was in charge of making the birthday cake(s), and he did a FANTASTIC, DELICIOUS job! I thought he was brilliant to use bundt and angel food cake pans to make the "88". You're looking at two angel food cakes (one covered in a chocolate ganache), a citrus chiffon cake, and a triple chocolate bundt cake. omigosh. Amazing.My sister Amy was so wonderful to completely lend her home for the weekend. I think there were about forty of us total. One of the nights we wound up having dinner in her backyard and decided to see who weighed more...my nieces and nephews or my cousins. I think it was a tie. My kids are in yellow, Amy's boys are in purple, and Amanda's kids are in red. I was so happy at how well all the kids played together. Bekah and Jacob were entertained the entire time. And my cousins loved playing with all the little kids. My uncle Bill with Beau. I haven't been able to spend time with my uncles for a couple years now at least, so after they got done rubbing that in, they were a lot of fun to hang out with. ;) And their wives kept stealing my baby, so I was good with that. :)
My cousins Matt, Alex, and Nick brought an air compressor and generator to the park and launched rockets for us. It was awesome! Rus would have to give you the details of how it all worked, but basically the rockets were made of 1 or 2 liter soda bottles with fins glued on, and they went..um..really high, and the kids loved to try and catch them when they came down. Here's a fun pic of the actual launch.
Rus and I were happy to be able to stay and Clay and Mary Hartman's home there in Flag. Clay and Mary are Rus's uncle and aunt and we are their adopted son and daughter, and thus our children are always welcome in their home. We're glad they put up with us too. ;)
Rus is now convinced that we need a zip line in our backyard, because Amy has one in her's and Jacob and Bekah both loved it. Jacob completely monopolized it whenever he could. He'd scare off the other kids by grunting at them if they got too close.
Here is my Grandma Hansen and Amy's Sarah holding Beau. I mentioned that our drive took a little longer than it was supposed to, and that's due to Jacob having to pee twice "in the grass!" (on the side of the road), Beau needing to eat twice, and having to stop for lunch. Needless to say, Beau was happy to get out of his carseat and be held by a doting grandma.

Okay. And here was the BEST part of the whole weekend. Check out my dad's face...
And my Mom's face...
And that's because JAMES came! We were all totally, completely, and happily surprised to see James just show up in the doorway of Amy's house. Amy and I had matching little shrieks. "Ahh!" He said that he got the invite for Grandpa's party and booked his flight that day. I was so impressed that he would do that for our Grandpa. So here's a blurry me and James.
Ahhh..so here's to a great weekend, and to my awesome grandparents who started it all!

Beau's First Cast

Okay, so here's the update you've probably been wondering about. Beau got his first cast on Friday. Yep, that's right, I said cast, singular, because it turns out that only one of his feet needs the cast, and the other one is fine. The first thing the nurse did when we got to the appointment was rate his feet. She looked at six different things, like the crease above his heal, the crease in the middle of the foot, the line of the outside of the foot (is it straight or curved), the rigidity of his ankle, etc., and all of these things together told her how severe the club foot-ness was. So on a scale of 1 to 6, 6 being severe, Beau's left foot was a 4.5, and his right foot was really low, like a 1 or 2. He'll need anywhere from four to six weeks of casts on his left foot, followed by the surgery to cut his tendon and then three more weeks of casts, and then he'll be in his "magic shoes".

So you might be wondering how he enjoyed the whole process, and...well...he hated it. He screamed bloody murder the whole time they were casting him and then fell into a much needed sleep as they finished up the cast. The rest of the day he was either sleeping or crying or nursing. Finally the next afternoon (Saturday, yesterday) he had about 20 minutes of being awake and happy and that's when I finally let out a deep breath and realized we'd be okay. And today he seems fine and back on his regular schedule. So he gets his next cast on Wednesday and I wonder if we'll go through the same thing all over again or if it will get better or worse. I don't think he's necessarily in pain, but I think I'd compare it to having braces on your teeth and getting them tightened. It doesn't feel good for the first little while, and then you adjust and it's okay. Plus the cast weighs a lot and he can't stretch that leg out, and I'd imagine it'd feel a little claustrophobic.

Anyways, I am so grateful that it's just one cast and that he seems to be doing okay. I'm coming up with ideas of things to tell those inquisitive people who ask me what happened to my baby's leg. "Skiing accident." "Skateboarding." You'll have to let me know if you think of anything good.
I hope you enjoy the slideshow. I'm not really a fan of slideshows, but it was the only way to show the whole process of how they put on his cast. Thanks to my mom for taking all the pictures. I didn't put it to music, but you can just imagine a baby screaming the whole time, and that will really bring it to life. :)

Make a Smilebox slideshow Of course I had to draw on his cast...A blank canvas! I just couldn't help myself!