Timothy, Timothy

I am so completely in love with this boy.

Our Tiny Tim was born on November 15, 2010 at 4:46 PM. He weighed 9 pounds 6 ounces, just one ounce shy of his older brother Luke's birth weight. Did he come on time? OF COURSE NOT!!!! NINE DAYS after his due date he finally entered the world. Dr. Malany had me come in to the hospital on the evening of Sunday the 14th. I was induced and just waited the night and following day out for Timothy to make his grand entrance. I was able to avoid another c-section once again and have him in Helena instead of traveling to Great Falls like I did when I had Rebecca. Somehow my doctor worked it out. I never really understood how he managed it because even as I checked in I had nurses telling me that the hospital didn't do VBACs. Confusing, but we got him here safe and sound!

I flirted with the idea of no drugs during labor, but got to a point where I WAS DONE with the pain. I got an intrathecal and relaxed. Sadly, intrathecals wear off and I had to get another one done before the baby showed up. Oh, well.

He had more hair than any of the other kids. (And that's saying a lot because they all were born with quite a head of hair!) He has been strong and happy since birth. He has two darling dimples and freely gives smiles. It's hard to get him to giggle for very long, but he'll charm you so much with his little grin.

I was so happy to have him finally here! I remember the feeling and smile on my face when he was born. He is such a blessing to us and I can't imagine not having number 5 as a part of our family.

Dr. Tom checking baby Timothy out

My tiny boy (I don't care what you say. A nine pound person is not big!)

His first bath. Perhaps not his favorite moment...

Resting comfortably

Oldest meets youngest

Logan and Timothy

Luke and Timothy

Rebecca is a big sister now!

Papa Lay holding grandchild number 22

Not our best picture (especially me), but it's us!


Samantha with a 6 day old Timothy

Logan and Timothy at 12 days

Hallowe'en 2010

BOO!
Our Halloween festivities for 2010 included attending the Helena 3rd Ward Halloween Party on the 29th. It was also a chili contest again this year. Ross whipped up a batch of our Creamy White Chili that won the "Best in Show" award the year before. We even brought back the silver spray painted trophy that had been kicking around our house. We were looking forward to passing it on to another deserving family. (To be honest, Ross was totally frustrated I'd kept it for so long. The bowl kept coming off the pedestal and really, where do you keep a chili trophy???)

We were surprised when a woman in our ward stopped us as we came into the gymnasium at the church and asked if we'd brought the same recipe this year. I guess it was memorable! (We know we love, love, love it!) The judging happened and then the announcement of the awards. There were different judges this year than last, and despite of or maybe because of that, our yummy chili won the top honor for the second year in a row! We laughed. We'd just wanted to share our good food again, but I guess a delicious recipe stands out. ;o) Much to my husband's chagrin, the silver chili bowl trophy came home with us for another year.

After dinner, it was time for the kids to get into their costumes and participate in the Halloween carnival and trick or treating put on by the youth in the ward. Sadly, Samantha and I realized we had left her costume at home and we'd need to leave the party to get it. Happily, we only live about 6 minutes from the church.

Rebecca and Luke having fun trick-or-treating door to door downstairs in the spider hats they made with the big kids.

I take a lot of pictures of my kids saying, "LOOK AT THE CAMERA!!!" And still this is often the best we get. Cute kids though. (The cute little boy in the back is Lukey's friend Jed. He was Underdog. I love it!)

My "costume"
I was silly enough to run out that day and buy myself a black maternity shirt and some orange electrician's tape. Then I spent way more time that I should have cutting letters out (not as easy a task as you'd think) and sticking them on the belly. It was pretty much worth it, however. It got some laughs and probably deterred a few people from asking me how much longer to go or commenting on the size my huge pregnant belly. (For the record, I was then 8 days from my due date and 17 days from actually having my baby.)

Ross got as dressed up as putting on his Superman t-shirt and his fake glasses. I'm pretty sure he's about to fly Logan right up the basket here.

Our whole family
Logan is holding our trophy. It now resides in a place of honor on our storage room shelf! Ha ha.

The next night we went to the Trunk or Treat at the church. There weren't as many people there this year because most of the people in our ward were at a Halloween Party at the Montana City school, but it was lots of fun to see the 1st ward folks including my brothers and their families. I wore my t-shirt again and the kids loaded up on candy.

We had some repeat costumes from years past. That's a nice thing when the kids want to do that. Cheaper is usually nice, right?

Super Girl Samantha

Bumblebee Logan

Thomas the Train Luke

Little Red Riding Hood Rebecca

I think our Halloween day activities included going to church and answering the door for trick or treaters that came to our door that night. It was a fun few days of dressing up and gorging ourselves on candy. Happy Halloween 2010!

Logan turns 6!

It's been a fun ride with our little Logan. He had his 6th birthday and we all had a lot of fun celebrating this wonderful boy. He got a new Superman shirt and had a great day at school. He was also so very, very excited when I showed up with chocolate chip cookies for him to share with his Kindergarten class!

We gave him his presents from the family that night.

He got some new clothes and a Transformer and this Alvin toy he was pretty excited about.

The next day there was no school and so we had his friend party at our home. He loves, loves, loves to read our Calvin and Hobbes comic books. He jumped at the idea of having a Calvin and Hobbes party!

This sign greeted guests as they got to our front door. (I found a downloadable Calvin and Hobbes font! Score!)

For party games, we decided to play the old favorite, "Stick the tail on Hobbes". :o)

He is also a very BIG Super Mario Brothers fan. This was one of his favorite gifts.

Here he is with his fun cake. I love easy. It occurred to me that I didn't have to draw on Calvin & Hobbes with frosting and that tiger stripes to represent Hobbes would be darling. My talented sister-in-law Kathy did a quick decorating job for me and it turned out so cute.

He was so happy throughout all the celebrations. It's been a lot of fun to have him in our family.

These are some of my favorite baby pictures of Logan Dennis:

My tummy before I had my little 6 pound 12 ounce baby boy. Yep, he was my smallest baby, but somehow still the baby I had to have a c-section for. (Silly knot in his umbilical cord!)

Our sweet sleeping newborn

He was all of 6 days old here when we took him to the Monument Valley High School Halloween Carnival to be Sully to Samantha's Boo from Monster's Inc.

My purple lipped boy thanks to a thrush infection and the Gentian Violet we had to use to treat it. :o(

On his blessing day in California

I posed him for a picture in the doll cradle that my Grandpa Lay made me in 1978. He probably wasn't very comfy, but it does make for an adorable picture!

Logan with his cousin Isaac. They are cute little buddies.

Bath time!

The outfit Logan is wearing here used to be his daddy's. I loved it when Ross's mom gave me all these old baby clothes. They are awesome!

My Aunt Arlene bought this shirt for Logan when they visited us in Monument Valley. MVHS's school colors are purple and yellow, so we put Logan in the shirt for a football game even though it was a size 2-4. The funny thing is that it fit him well enough to wear to school this year on a day they wanted the kids to wear purple or pink. He's still little!

Somebody got into Grandma Lay's cereal cupboard....

Love that sweet face!

Birthday #4 for Luke!

Happy 4th Birthday to Lukey!

He started off with a birthday lunch to Burger King with Grandma and Grandpa Lay. Here they are back at Grandpa's office.

I never know what to do for birthday cakes for my kids. I'm all about simple, but cute. Found inspiration for this one online (gotta love the internet for ideas!) and whipped it out without too much hassle. Hooray! We just used Luke's Thomas toy (very cleaned up first) and a few plastic trees and rocks from our toy animal set. No big deal for Mommy and one happy little boy!

Presents, presents, and more presents!
We invited the Helena Lay cousins and Grandma and Grandpa Lay over for a fun party that night.

Luke was very excited for his birthday card and money from Grandma and Grandpa Wilkins!!!

My personal favorite present that we gave Luke was a BYU t-shirt. He'd been saying all summer long that Samantha was going to 3rd grade, Logan was going to Kindergarten and "I'n goin' ta BYU!"

And now, a few of my favorite baby pictures of Luke:

Me the day I went into the hospital to have a 9 pound 7 ounce baby boy
I've posted this one before, but I love his beautiful open eyes here.
On his blessing day in his daddy's blessing outfit
Babies eating toes is seriously one of my favorite things ever!
Bathtime
Just after we moved into our house