Easter Fun

Dear Kate and Riley,
In addition to being spiritually uplifted, we also got to have some secular fun for Easter. A few days before Easter we went with Will to the "Easter Train" which was surprisingly similar to the Halloween Train and the Christmas Train. We rode the train and when we found out it was $10 to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap, we decided to wave at him instead. The bounce house was a much better deal than sitting on a creepy bunny's lap!
On Saturday we had a little informal ward egg hunt on Saturday and on Sunday we had the Bowens over for yummy dinner and some egg dying. Two year olds and food coloring make me a little nervous but we managed with no major catastrophes.

I was excited for my first chance to dress the boys in matchy outfits. They may not go for it for long but while I still have control over the wardrobe choices they can match!

Matching! This was the Sunday before Easter. Getting a picture of these two turned out to be pretty impossible

Like I said, almost impossible

Waiting for the Easter Train

So excited to hold his own ticket for the train

I don't know what he was pointing at but I can hear the "WOOK WIWL!" (that's look will for those of you who don't speak Zachary)

The bounce house and a proud mom moment, my kid actually came OUT of the bounce house without someone having to go in after him. Didn't mean we didn't have a 20 min tantrum afterward, but hey we count every success here.



Brady was really in to the ward egg hunt

Zach getting ready

in pursuit

Checking out the loot
(let's get tax season over with so Dad can get some sun on those legs! wow!)

Easter Basket. I took a video so the pictures were scarce. He got Mater and Doc (from "Cars") and was VERY excited

"Happy Easter" (it was cuter on the video, doesn't quite translate here!)

Brady might kill me for this outfit when he's 16 but it was a gift and it was so cute we couldn't pass it up!

Easter Eggs, the whisk keeps hands out of the dye. It was a brilliant idea!

Our photographer was having some issues but I guess the moms were too nervous to back away enough to get a picture of the two of them

It was a fun-filled week!

Love,
Mom

"My soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain"

(we forgot the camera so dad's phone had to do in a pinch, the quality is really bad)

Dear Kate and Riley,
I think you know by now that since losing you Easter has become one of my favorite holidays. The promise of the atonement and resurrection are so much more real and powerful in my life than they ever were before you.

This year we had general conference on Easter where we get to stay home and listen to all of the church leaders give talks on TV. I have to admit that at first I was a little disappointed. I like going to church on Easter Sunday. I was excited to dress the boys up in cute little matching outfits, to sing "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and to listen to the choir sing. But it turned out to be a wonderful blessing to still sing, to listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing (no disrespect to the ward choir, but come on, can you compare!?) and to listen to the apostles and prophets of the Lord share powerful testimonies of Christ and His atonement and resurrection.

Even though its hard to concentrate on conference with a noisy and active two year old and a needy infant, I was able to enjoy some of the talks and hope to be able to read the rest in the coming weeks. One talk in particular struck me with such power. Elder Hallstrom spoke of a woman who lost a baby in childbirth. He talked about this couple and their family and the anger they felt (I could relate) and how their inability to let go of the anger, hurt and resentment caused them to ultimately leave the church and affect four generations to come. How sad for that family. He then spoke of another family who lost not only twins but the mother as well as a result of childbirth but how their faith remained strong and that their faith and obedience to the Lord had positively affected four generations to come. It made me so grateful that I fell into the second category. There were times I was angry when we lost you but we were able to keep our faith and to understand the principal of opposition.

Elder Hallstrom continued and talked about the concept of opposition being a divine principle which I have come to have a very strong testimony of. He said that the promises that "Men are that they might have joy" ( 2 Nephi 2:25) and "there is an opposition in all things" (2 Nephi 2:11) are complimentary and not contradictory. He also reminded us of Alma and his declaration that "...yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!" (Alma 36:20) Oh how true that statement rang in my heart! I sat on that couch and thought of our pain of the past and our joy in the present as tears streamed down my face. I can truly say that I have felt joy as exceeding as was my pain. And that the pain that I felt is one of the REASONS that I have felt the exceeding joy that I feel. I am so thankful to have the gospel to put these things in perspective for me. I am so grateful to have the joy in our lives that we have today and for the promise that we can be together as a family again and that we will feel even more joy as we are reunited as an eternal family some day.

I hope you enjoyed your Easter celebrations.
How sweet the joy this sentence gives-- I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES!

Love,
Mom

6 weeks and lots of firsts

Dear Kate and Riley,
The weeks are flying by over here. We are really adjusting and getting into our groove. Brady is sleeping pretty well most nights. Mom is trying to get back into shape, we got a double joggger and have gone running a couple times.

At his 6 week checkup Brady was 10 lbs 14 oz and 21 in, so short and chunky, just how I like him. He's so opposite of Zachary. We have seen some pretty cute smiles but he's still a little stingy with them.

We got a nice little heat wave here, my favorite thing that sometimes happens in March so we got to let Brady have a lot of firsts. First day at the beach, first night at Disneyland and first visit down to Uncle Adam's in San Diego. We had a busy week! For Brady, the days are all pretty much the same and as determined as I am to take more pictures, Brady sleeping in the front pack in 20 different places just doesn't seem that exciting!

First beach day. Basking in the sun. He really spent 99% of the time under the umbrella with a paranoid mom trying to keep every ray off of that lily white skin!

Zach even braved the water!

And contemplated life


First Disneyland Trip

See, he's not always asleep
(why is blogger underlining this for no reason!?)

The boys intently watching the parade

Zach's lollipop which was the highlight of his night. We didn't tell him that mom was holding it later and it stuck to some passing man's pants. I really considered chasing after the man and asking for the lollipop that was stuck to his pants but decided against it.

Uncle Adam's House
We headed down to San Diego to watch some basketball on the big TV but it ended up being a PERFECT day so Zach and I spent our time out by the pool. I think everyone was 100% happy--Zach and I by the pool, Brady sleeping on Dad while watching basketball.

Zach loved watching the big boys jump in to the pool off the rocks. He decided to try to copy them in the shallow end. Thankfully, he had a watchful cousin, Maddie to help him make his big jumps.

Zach spent about an hour pouring water into the buckets and cups

Brady and Dad joined us when it cooled off a little. Brady learned the fine art of hanging out by the pool drinking Diet Coke, my kind of Saturday.

Brady and Dad watching some pretty sad basketball

Much to Dad's displeasure, Zach got a manicure AND pedicure from Maddie

He was very pleased with himself and was pretty upset when I took it off before church (I left it on his toes though-- don't tell dad!)

Love,
Mom

Brady--One Month!

Dear Kate and Riley,

I can't belive a month has passed. It went SO fast. Brady is already looking different and getting so big.

At one month Brady--

• loves to EAT and screams like you wouldn't believe if I try to hold him off at all
• is really awake for a few hours every morning and a few hours every evening, otherwise he mostly still sleeps
• is starting to track things and people with his eyes--especially his big brother
• is sleeping a little better at night but still wakes to eat every 2-3 hours. No long stretches yet (except the occasional fluke)
• is outgrowing his newborn size clothes and has moved up to size one diapers
• is turning into a big spitter-upper like big brother Zach was
• hates the carseat and screams most of the time he is in the car
  
• loves to sleep on his side
• has a mullet of baby hair we hope will fall out!

Love,
Mom

Not a big fan of tummy time

Very big fan of the front pack

often the victim of a little too much love from big brother

check out the hair-- business in the front...

party in the back!

Poor Brady

Dear Kate and Riley,
Poor Brady gets no attention, I don't sit at home all day taking pictures of him like I did of Zach, the poor kid is going to wonder if we loved him! We do, very much but its a little different this time around. Zach keeps us busy and poor Brady spends a LOT of time in his swing, bouncer and car seat. He's pretty easy going and only demands to be held a few times a day (and a lot at night). But I didn't want more time to pass without some kind of update. Here are some pictures from his first week home, while Grandma Janice was still here and I actually thought to get the camera out more. I can't believe he's almost a month old and I promise to do better about taking pictures of him (or at least try to do better!)

Sleeping in the bouncer, what he does a lot of the day! He's a side sleeper and doesn't like to be swaddled, such a change from Zachary I almost didn't know what to do with him! I kept trying to swaddle him and he kept screaming like we were trying to kill him, well ok, fine then!

First bath in the baby bath. Unfortunately this kid gets bathed MUCH less often than Zachary did but my excuse is that his skin is dry and its probably not good for him!

Grandma Janice made sure the tradition of Valentine's sugar cookies didn't go unfulfilled and mom made sure my love of frosting and cookies didn't go unfulfilled! Zach was eating them as fast as we could frost them.


Grandma Janice also revived an old tradition that I had kind of forgotten about-- doorbell ditching valentine's at the front door. Zach loved it (especially because it included presents for him!) Zach got a dump truck and Brady got a monkey (you can tell Brady was REALLY excited about his present!).

Love,
Mom

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dear Kate and Riley,

Well Valentine's is kind of a bust this year since I have been really sick all week and poor grandma and dad have had to do everything. I am starting to feel better so hopefully I can make up Valentine's to Dad another day.

But despite the fact that we couldn't go out or do anything Dad didn't drop the ball at all, poor guy probably set the standard too high early on and now he has to live up to it every year! Even if we couldn't do anything, I'm happy to have my three boys here and its fun to have Grandma here still, we're going to miss her SO much when she leaves next week.

So, this is cheesy and bordering on a Seriously So Blessed type post, but a few months ago I got the new Carrie Underwood cd. I was listening to it for the first time at the gym, rocking out on the treadmill and then this slow song came on. I feel sorry for everyone around me who had to watch the sad display of the pregnant woman CRYING on the treadmill because the song was so touching and just totally made me think of Dad. I know my parents spent plenty of time stressing about who I would end up with and this song just puts it perfectly-- "don't you worry about me". I love that the main line is "he is good, so good" that is one thing I've always thought about Dad, he's just a GOOD guy. I appreciate all he does for me and for our family.

Love,

Mom

ok, I'm technically challenged so the song is in its own post below!

Carrie Underwood-Mama's Song

Baby Brady is Here!

Brady Frank O'Farrell 7lbs 3 oz 20.5 in

Feb 3, 2010 6:45 pm

Dear Kate and Riley,

Well, I did NOT catch up on all of my blogging before baby Brady came but I do want you to know that we did celebrate his pending arrival and that we did do some preparation! If you looked at this blog I don't think you would even know we were having another baby! But since its been almost a week I decided to give up on trying to catch up and focus on his arrival.

Last Wed., Feb 3rd we headed to Hoag hospital in the morning for me to be induced. My induction with Zach was SO fast and SO easy that I didn't hesitate to do another induction and even though I hadn't progressed nearly as far as I had with Zach I still (naively!) thought that this induction would go equally fast.

We lucked out that Grandma Janice was arriving at noon that same day. So we dropped Zach off at his buddy, Will's at 6:30 and they took him to playgroup later that morning. Megan picked up Grandma from the airport and they picked Zach up from playgroup so that all went pretty smoothly and was hopefully not too crazy for Zach.

In the meantime we had a late start. Got to the hospital late, they had lost my early admission information so we had to re-do all of that, got in a room which had a broken computer so we had to move, and we had a student nurse shadowing ours so everything seemed to take about 10 times longer. Sometime around 8:30 or so they started me on pitocen which, in my expert labor and delivery opinion, was not enough! It didn't do anything so eventually they came in and broke my water. Still not much was happening so we kept upping the pitocen every half hour. Dad and I tried to pass the time by reading, napping and watching tv shows on hulu. You can tell that if I was doing all of that I wasn't in true labor at all.

Finally around one things got moving-- a little. I got a great epidural, man I am SO grateful that it was a good one considering how much time I had left ahead of me. I took a nap, my blood pressure got kind of low, I had to go on oxygen, all the while we're just trying to get me to progress. Poor dad was going stir crazy with nothing to do. FINALLY around six I was almost ready. We did a practice push and baby was ready. We called the doctor and waited what seemed like a long time. It was really amazing how calm and laid back this delivery was. We were joking around with the doctor and nurses, it was just so relaxed (again, thanks to a good epidural!). I actually watched the birth with the help of a mirror which seemed really weird but was actually really cool! His hand was up by his face so he had a little bit of a hard time getting out but after about 30 min of pushing he was here!

He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 20.5 in long. He was SO perfect and pink the nurses were all talking about how perfect he was, they wanted to give him a 10 on the apgar but I guess no one gets 10's so they didn't do it. (I don't really know what that means, just that he was really healthy!). Dad called Grandma as soon as he was born so she could come up with Zach. They arrived after about an hour and got to meet Brady. Zach was really nervous and didn't want to touch him or anything, it was really funny.

Brady has been easy and laid back. He caught on to nursing right away and that has made things 100 times less stressful than they were with Zach. I feel like I got to really enjoy my time with him at the hospital and that I'm getting to enjoy newborn time which was hard for me to do with Zach since I was always so stressed about nursing. I am SO thankful that Grandma Janice is here to help out since my recovery seems to be taking longer than I remember and I really need her help in dealing with Zach.

We are so thankful to add another little boy to this family. I know Zach will love having a brother even if he is a little jealous right now. I know that you girls were watching over him and helped him to get here safely.

Love,

Mom