1st Weeks

oops this is a post I worked on last week and forgot that I didn't post it.



I just might be that crazy mom that takes at least one picture of her baby every day. Ha ha! I can't help it! everything about her is cute!
Here are the moments that I have captured:

Don't you love the whole "scrunched up" little body

Garrett learning how to swaddle, don't worry he is using "baby LuLu" for practice.

Daddy gets to feed Maren

I don't know what it is about how peaceful and sweet they look when they are sleeping, but there is something.

Big Brother sure loves Maren.

Big Sister sure loves Maren.

Ah! she's going down!

Brad caught this one. Mommy is sure tired.

She is changing every day!

I have taken a zillion pictures of all my kids, heck who am I kidding I still take a ton of pictures of them.

Maren's first night home

Going on with tradition I like to break in my babies first night home by thoroughly traumatizing them. Ok, well not really, but I usually have to clip their nails first thing because I HATE them scratching their faces all up. So Maren got her nails clipped.

Then she got her first sponge bath from me. Which she didn't like, but they never do.

Ahhh! the relief of the towel.

Finally some peace.

See her poor little face was so scratched up.

We Have a Baby!

WELCOME

MAREN REESE CALLAHAN


Baby's story:
I did not go into labor on my own like I thought I would. So on Monday, August 8th 2011 I went into the hospital to be induced. Got there at 8am and got things started. At first things seemed like they would be going slow. I'd had my water broken and been put on the petosin and a few hours later not much had changed. Then in a very short amount of time I'm thinking the space of an hour our baby was suddenly ready!
It's pretty amazing how quickly she came, I am still surprised. Having had to push for a long time with my other two children I was ready to be there for the long haul.
This little baby came out in 6 pushes! Wow!

Weighing in at 7lbs. 6 oz. and 18.5 In.

There is a resemblance to both brother and sister as far as the "newborn look" but we think she looks more like Garrett did. She has more hair than he did, but she is thinner in the face than Embrie was. (She is supposed to be a couple oz bigger than Embrie was and she is a little shorter so we don't know where she is hiding it because she seems so thin to us.)

We were naturally worried about how her health would be because of our experience with our other two. At first she seemed to be a little gurgly and wasn't crying, which is similar to how Embrie was but Embrie had come out blue, and this little one seemed to have a good color and the nurses seemed to think she would come out of it with a little time. So I was able to hold her and feed her within the hour. She was so sweet and beautiful!
She was making a grunting sound with each breath that was a little concerning, but they said they would give her a few hours to try and work it out.
Later on they hooked her up to the pulse/ox to check her breathing and she did really well. So far so good . . .

Brad got to hold her too and family came in to see her. Garrett and Embrie met their baby sister for the first time! - On a side note it was funny that when the kids first got to the hospital and came into the delivery room Garrett immediately was looking around and said "Where is the baby?" I had to laugh. I told him the baby was still inside but getting ready to come out. I guess from what we told him he thought she'd pop right out when we got there.-

Garrett and Embrie had a gift for the baby. A little stuffed seal. They were very excited to present it to her. Although for the next few days it was shoved in her face every moment they were there and I think Embrie loves the thing more than anyone else at this point.

It took us about 5 hours to pin down a name for this little baby. We finally decided on one.
Maren Reese
We like to have middle names with a meaning so she was named after my grandpa:
Clyde Reese Niederhauser

We knew before she was born who she'd be named after. We love grandpa Clyde so much and he has been such an importance influence in my life and Brad's as well.

Grandpa Mark and Grandma Peggy

G.G. with all the kids. Embrie jumped right in and wanted to hold her.

Grandma Sheri.

Now a family of 5

Throughout the next few days she was continued her grunting sounds. She seemed to be fine, but Brad and I continued to hold our breath sort of. Not to say that we weren't enjoying her, but we knew that it had been days before we discovered problems with Garrett and so we were prepared to look for signs.
They checked her a couple more times with the monitors while we were there and she did good every time. The nurses and pediatricians were very nice and helpful in answering our questions and understanding our concerns. It seemed that everything was going to be just fine.

2 days later we brought Maren home from the hospital.

(Without any oxygen tanks or monitors!)

Today she is a week old and so precious! Yesterday marks the day when we would have taken Garrett back to the hospital to be checked out and find out there was something wrong.
My heart is so full that Maren has been so peaceful. She still seems to be perfectly healthy. I can't believe what a blessing that has been! I can't help but still hold my breath a little bit and still keep an eye out for signs of trouble, but we don't have the stress looming over us this time. She is doing so good!
Man we love this little baby!

Welcome to the family Maren

Rainy Day

I let loose and let the kids play in the rain in their clothes the other day after church. They had a blast. Unfortunately Embrie thinks she has to undress whenever she gets wet if she is not in a swimming suit. So by the time all was said and done we found her around the corner completely naked. Brad had to herd her back into the house :)

As you can tell by this huge puddle (which we had to empty and fix) it was quite the rain storm.

Supervisor

This was too funny! Garrett just parked his chair out there and watched the guy mowing the lawn. The guy thought it was pretty funny as well.

GARRETT

Garrett Bradley Callahan turned 5 years old on June 5th 2011.

My goodness how the time has flown by! It seems like just yesterday I was becoming a mom for the first time and looking down and his adorable little face. And now I am still looking down at his adorable little face, but it has changed so much over the last 5 years. He is turning into quite the little man.

1

This year brings a lot of changes for Garrett. He finished up preschool doing great and is excited to start kindergarten soon. ( I am pretty sure I will tear up as I watch him go to class that first day.)

2

He has learned to ride his bike without training wheels and has begun to read a little bit.
He also learned that he is going to be a big brother again to another little sister, although he had hoped it would be a boy he took the news really well and is now excited for a sister.

3

He has had a hard time getting along with the Embrie sometimes. But more and more they play together and have fun together. He is very helpful in getting things for her. She'll even occasionally ask for him by name to help her with something or if she is sad and just needs a hug.

4

He is becoming Mr. Independent. I am having to learn to give him a little bit more freedom as he gets older. But what is too much? He wants to ride his bike around the block by himself, but will he search the driveways for cars backing up? Can he be trusted to play outside by himself in our un-fenced yard? Hmmm. He is so ready to break free from mom, but I think we have a little way to go before we can trust him too much.

5

We hear a lot of roaring at our house. I don't know why, I think it must be his favorite sound to make and there are so many different reactions to be had from it.

6

I love to see Garrett get excited. He has the best smile, his eyes light up and he starts talking non-stop.

7

Keeping with the trend, he is still the most mischievous little boy!
I don't know how he comes up with some of the things he does. He sure knows how to get into trouble sometimes! and he'll do anything to try and get out of being in trouble.

8

Some of his favorite things to do are play the Wii, play in the water, still loves playing with his cars and stuffed animals, but is starting to like transformers and super heroes too. And he loves playing with friends. He is definitely all boy, rough and tumble and all that. I will say that if there is something he is not too fond of it's bugs. He doesn't freak out about them, but he is not one to go pick one up either. This year he tried out T-ball/Coach Pitch. It turned out to be a lot of fun. He also took the next level of swimming lessons.

9

He is also a good helper to me (when he wants to be of course). He'll help set the table, make his bed, and picks up his toys really well.

10

When I asked him if we should bring anything for him to use in his pictures he said he wanted to bring 'Lightening'. Well I confess that Lightening McQueen was not exactly the prop I had in mind, but on 2nd thought I realized how much he loves that stuffed pillow and what a memory it will be. In the long run we ended up with a bag full of his favorite little stuffed buddies.

11

It is so fun to see his imagination at work when he plays. He can turn anything into something else for the sake of pretend.

12

He got his Lightening McQueen pillow about 2 1/2 or 3 years ago for Christmas. Ever since then it has pretty much been his best friend so to speak. He takes him a lot of places and sleeps with him almost every night, but he is always good about it if Lightening can't come or has to stay in the car and if we can't find him at bed time or he is having a "bath" he is ok to sleep with another animal.

13

I can't count the number of times lightening has been thrown up on. As you can tell by his ever fading paint job he has been washed a lot. He did at one time have eyes, decals and windows. He sure has been a well loved toy. I hope he survives so that we can still have him one day and look back at this time!

14

They say an elephant never forgets, well neither does Garrett! He has a great memory just like his daddy. He is so smart and learns so quickly. I hope he always keeps his love for learning.

15

He has a thing for asking me these days, while we're riding in the car and listening to the radio, "mom what is this person singing about?" (he has Embrie doing it too). This always makes me take a second look at the lyrics of the songs and remember to make sure we're listening to appropriate stuff. He is such a good example to me and makes me want to be better.

16

He loves primary too. Brad and I are primary teachers for his age class CTR4, but we are not his teachers. However, in sharing time when we are all together it is amazing to hear him answer the questions sometimes. Often Brad and I just look at each other with raised eyebrows and smiles, thinking to ourselves, "where did he learn that?" or "how did he remember that, we thought he wasn't listening." It makes us pretty proud of him and sometimes we're pretty sure we have little to do with it. It's all him!

17

We are so proud of Garrett. He is a very special boy. He is so handsome, smart, energetic and sweet. He knows how to make us mad one second and melt our hearts the next. We are grateful for each day we've have had him in our lives.