More baby yawns that I love...

And Kali has added more photos to her site of my little Hunter man. Check 'em out, and help me pick a favorite to use for his announcements!

Hunter's First Photo Session

My friend Kali Leenstra is a very talented photographer. She did my little sister Janni's wedding last fall and does awesome work! We'd been wanting to get our kids together for a while now (we were pregnant with our first children together, and she just had her 2nd a few weeks before Hunter was born). So we scheduled a play date/photo session and it was lots of fun. Hunter was so mellow and relaxed; we took advantage and posed him in all of the embarrassingly naked ways that mothers of newborns think are cute. Here are a few photos of Hunter to share from Kali's web-site! More to come soon...

10 Days Old

Can't believe that this little guy is 10 days old already! While I know he's fresh from heaven, it also feels like he's been here forever. He eats and sleeps well and seems to have a mellow personality. And so far-- I've survived the transition to 3 kids, (I dreaded the idea of 3 boys- 3 yrs old and under and all in diapers!). But I'm happy to report that I'm still alive and mostly sane, I think, though I find that I stay close to home for the most part! We're doing well-- while Mason still seems disinterested in Hunter, Cole has been a big helper and is always asking to hold his brother and trying to look out for him and be involved. It's sweet and melts my heart. What a blessing it is to be a mom and to share these moments with my kids!



I just LOVE baby yawns!

Baby Hunter

We are so very blessed...
Hunter Christopher Raban is now a part of our family.
Born: April 4, 2009 @ 8:30 pm
Weighing: 8 lbs, 8 oz. (He is my smallest baby so far!)
Labor and delivery went well, and we are all home and doing great.
So far-- Cole is very interested in Hunter and wants to love and help,

and Mason seems content to ignore and carry on with life as he was.

Aren't babies fun?

We all have a desire to CREATE!

I loved these words when I first heard them, and I was happy to find this video as a reminder! What an inspired "pick me up" for all of us, no matter where we are in our lives!! HERE

Still Pregnant...

And here's proof:

I am due in about a week, but sure won't object for sooner than that (ummm, like today!). As for now, I'm still hanging in there and feeling ready to have this little guy any day.

Best Friends/Worst Enemies

As brothers, I think Cole and Mason are doomed to constantly be in this cycle of being friends and then enemies, and often this changes from one minute to the next. I'm sure all siblings are this way to some extent. Well, they are only 17 months apart and one blessing of having them close in age is that they are growing up together. Usually, they get along well and keep one another entertained. But there are other days.... Let's just say that these days/episodes can drive me crazy! Often Cole will bug Mason to the point of tears or be aggressive with him and then when he wants to apologize and give Mason a "love", it is not well-received (for obvious reasons; can't blame Mason for not wanting him close). Cole gets offended that "he's not letting me love him", and then we usually have 2 criers on our hands. Yikes! Well more recently, I think it's funny that when Mason gets hurt and is looking for me to whine to, Cole tries to console him and will say: "It's okay Mason, I'm right here". Ummm yeah, that is the problem!! (As if Mason is turning to Cole for consolation after the abuse he's just received.) I've been trying to explain (uneffectively, I'm afraid) to Cole that he can't hurt Mason one minute and then think that Mason will turn to him for support or be open to his affection right away. I guess it's good that Cole is not adverse to a quick make-up, but Mason appears to be more of my grudge-holder (though I guess I can't blame him at this point). They sure have distinct personalities already! Wonder how baby boy #3 will add a new twist this this scene....??

Birthday Moms

This last week was both mine and Rusty's mom's birthdays. My mom, Cherie Ann turned the big 60 on March 11th and Rusty's mom, Gena turned 55 on March 14th. It was fun to celebrate with them! We feel so blessed to have come from goodly parents and to live near both sets so that our boys have plenty of opportunities for grandparent time. We are grateful for them and love them tons!

Lynnea's parents: Cherie Ann and Jack Christensen

Rusty's parents: Gena and Bob Raban

Loving my boys today!

Out-smarted by my 3 year old!

Cole uses words to rationalize and reason what he is asked to do/not do and sometimes it just amazes me how his mind works this way. He's always out-smarting the situation and thinking literally. If you know him, you've seen or heard him do this. For example if he's holding something in his hand and I ask him to help me pick up some toys, he can be heard to say that he can't help because his hands are already full of something else. Well yes, they are (technically)-- Another example is when I once threatened to spank his bum and he said "Mom, you can't, I'm sitting down". Well, I guess he's right, I couldn't do it until he stood up and I could then reach his back end. One frequent example of twisting my words is how he likes to wear his boots around the house, but my rule is no shoes on the carpet. Well, obviously "they aren't shoes". And if I catch him walking around, he will quickly drop to his knees and show that he's "crawling" and not walking. We recently went thru this and when I knew he was headed towards the tiled entry to find his boots, I reminded him that I didn't want him walking on the carpet with his boots. Obviously, he found a way around that by not walking on them the conventional way...

I guess I need to choose my words more carefully so that my 3 year old does not continue to out-smart me!! It's starting to get embarrassing, but thank goodness for the humor in the situations; he keeps me entertained!!

A bunch of Crazies!

Cole and Wesley were born on the same day and have fun getting together. We had Wesley over to play today and crazy was sure the word to describe these two! Put them together with their tag-a-long Mason and it was sure a sight to watch them entertain me and one another.

His own sense of style

Just had to laugh when Cole emerged from his room-- obviously having rummaged through drawers of both summer and winter things wearing these items with his jammies. His own sense of style I suppose, which would not have been completely without that bow-tie!

What are your kids doing at 5:30am?

Hopefully sleeping, right?? Well, this is Mason chowing down on a banana at this crazy hour! What the heck?? I just hope that this doesn't get to be a frequent thing --- about once a week or so, Mason is wide awake way too early for my liking. I'm usually not sleeping deeply (something about struggling to get comfy with a big belly full of active baby and frequent b-room trips, I presume). So I get him out of bed, so he won't wake up Cole (yes, Mason's still stuck in a bed he can't get out of himself-- it's great). Perhaps he'd eventually go back to sleep after he'd sang and chatted himself and everyone else in the house to death, but to keep Cole sleeping is a major priority for me. So, here is Mason in between Rusty and I in bed and we're both trying to shush him up, quite unsuccessfully. So then when tired Rusty gets up himself around 6am or so, there is Mason-- following his every movement around the house and doing so with way toooo much energy and bounce in his step, being quite the chatty kid. It is unreal to me. So around 7am, I stuff him full of a banana (we all sleep better on a full tummy, right) and I'm determined that he needs more sleep (or maybe that's just me who does!). But then as we're headed down the hall to bed again, who would appear? ... Cole! Luckily, Cole was content to crawl into my bed and keep sleeping for another hour or so, and eventually Mason must've run out of songs to sing or things to chat about because he did give into more zzzzzz's and slept for a few more hours. Yea! Here's to hoping that this 5:30am nonsense does not continue for all of our sakes!!

Outside Work

Yesterday was such a beautiful, sunny day and I knew we couldn't waste it inside. The boys and I have been pretty stir-crazy so I told them that we'd go outside to work-- thinking the yard could use some post-winter clean-up. As I was getting ready to go out, apparently Cole was too. He came to me saying, "I'm ready to work!" He was so cute and I had to take his picture; it makes me laugh. I don't know what work he was thinking we'd do, but he came prepared with his boots, hunting hat and gloves (which he pretty much wears constantly indoors and out anyway), but also a fake phone in his front pocket along with 5 or 6 other tools shoved into other available pockets. I guess no boy is complete without his hammer, saw, and screwdriver, oh- and I guess the goggles were a must for work, too. But they were all soon forgotten as the trampoline had finally dried out enough for some good jumping, which allowed for work to be done on my part. Beneficial day for all!

Rusty's B-day Curse

What a cute little boy, huh! Jan. 29th, Rusty turned 30. I am 3 months older than him, so he likes to joke that I've robbed the cradle, or something to that effect. The boys and I made a cake and some b-day signs for him. We had a fun time enjoying it together and we had a good evening as a family. For his gift, I knew what he wanted-- a chainsaw. Top of everyone's wish list, I know. What man is complete without one, apparently. He's funny about it because as we talked about our budget for one and which one he was going to get and how appalled I was at how pricey the one he wanted was-- all he could say is that it wasn't really a b-day gift, but more of a curse. Umm, excuse me? I didn't get it. Well, he put in a wood stove in our house at Thanksgiving time so we could save money by not heating with our gas fireplace. Since then, he is continually hunting for wood and downed trees to chop up. And now he says that this chainsaw is devoted to this purpose and will keep him working. True. So I guess I can't call it "fun" for him, even though his enjoyment of the dang thing is crystal clear!! But he has been staying busy. He spent much of the afternoon on Saturday cutting up some fallen trees that were offered him. When he got home at dark with a full truck of wood, I made him stand by for a photo so I could document his curse. What an unhappy b-day boy!