Life at Home

The last few weeks have gone by so fast!  I can’t believe that Owen is already approaching three weeks old.  I think no matter how many kids you have each one teaches you something new about being a parent.  This is the first baby we’ve had while Brett has been out of school and working in the ‘real world’.  Life is less crazy now in a lot of ways and I am so glad to be where we are.  With our other boys I followed the ‘nurse when they make any noise’ rule.  They were great babies, but really had no routine and I always felt like I couldn’t do anything, because my schedule was so unpredictable (sometimes I would nurse every hour, sometimes every two).  This time I decided to follow the Baby Wise technique and I have been loving it!  Owen is such a GREAT baby so far.  He always has a four hour stretch and then a two and a half hour stretch of sleep at night.  I don’t need to rock or nurse him to sleep at night either.  It’s great!  I’m actually very optimistic that he will sleep through the night before too long.  Anyway, the last couple of weeks have been full of fun.

 

Grandma Rushton came and stayed with us for two weeks.  She was my right hand, left hand, and everything else too.  We were very grateful that she could come and be the fill-in Mom for the boys while I was gone and when I couldn’t get around very well.  The boys really miss her and still ask when she’s coming back.  I was so glad that Owen came when he did, but I must admit that I had planned on doing some canning and ran out of time.  My mom was kind enough to offer her help so that I could get my yearly canning in ( I really love canning).  We now happily have 26 quarts of delicious peaches and 14 pints of sweet applesauce.  My mom ended up doing almost the entirety of applesauce herself, because we started the process just as some crazy boys got home from camping. 

Brett wins Dad of the year when he took the boys camping.  It was a great experience for them.  What I hear from the boys is that they melted big marshmallows and went on a hike.  They also had story time together where Brett told the kids about the Restoration and then Hyrum made up a story about the Squirrels and the Fly Kings. . .he has quite the imagination.

Another highlight was BYU’s win.

We were also very happy to have some of the Partridges visit us just after my mom went home. Owen has a cute little cousin that he got to hang out with.  She’s just a few weeks older than Owen and they look like little twins together in their cute unplanned coordinating outfits.  It’s great having cousins so close in age.

Oh, and Hyrum and Noah are loving their little brother. Hyrum loves holding and snuggling Owen.  He can sit on the couch and hold him for about 15 minutes without getting fidgety.  They both love giving him kisses and cuddling.  Earlier this week Owen was squeaking a little bit and Noah ran to him and kept shoving his blankie's tag in his face saying, "Tag! Tag! Here's your tag!"  He started getting frustrated until I explained that Owen doesn't know how to use his tag yet.  Noah, in his cute way, then explained to Owen how to use it. I can't remember his exact words, but he explained how he could suck on the tag or twist it with your finger inside.  I am loving how well things are going with their transition of three boys.