Brooklyn Celebrates Her 6th Birthday!

For Brooklyn's birthday this year, my sister and her two girls and my mom came down to party it up with us.  At school, of course we had to bring cupcakes and muffins. (Anyone looking for an excuse to use pumpkin and chocolate together?)

Then when dad came home, the first order of business was SWIMMING!  Stephen is so great about that.  He takes the kids out to swim as often as possible after work.  They love it and so do I!  It's my alone time (plus Jack) for fixing/finishing dinner.

Next we cleaned up and went to the Corvette Diner.  It was a fun 50's-themed restaurant with lots of action!  There was a game room where the kids played with Stephen while we waited to be seated.  They had a few arcade-type games along with old-school stuff like skeeball, a timed basketball shooting game, etc. and those little photo-booths.  There was also lots of 50's music played by a live D.J. and also some crowd-pleasing singing and dancing by the waiters and waitresses.  When it was time to order, the kids had a long list of milk shakes and malts to choose from.  They did not pass up that opportunity to sugar-out while waiting for the rest of the meal!

Here's my sister Pip with her two flower girls, Daisy and Lilly.  Daisy did a little table-top action for us!

The waitresses all had puffy hair that was just too hilarious.  Here they are singing the hot dog song to Ian.  This was a special  bonus that came with his order.  He didn't quite know what to do with all the attention. 

Here's me and my big 6-year old.

Yummy milk shakes

We had a rockin' good time.  Thanks for joining us Mom and Pip!

Month Two with Jack

 Since February was "Museum Month" here in San Diego, Stephen took the kids to the Science Center one beautiful Saturday.  Although the kids aren't looking at the camera, I like the blue sky, water fountain, and fancy big museum in the background.

 Here's Brooklyn and her teacher at a monthly super star assembly at Doyle Elementary where she was recognized among many other students for being a good citizen. 

 Naptime!

 Here are some awesome puppets that my friend Lindsay made for her kids this past Christmas. 

She is amazingly creative and talented!

 Jack doing tummy time

 The brothers

Ian saved the day by comforting Jack with a pacifier when the baby woke up while I showered.

Jack got his first massage while I took him with me on a girls-only (plus Jack) overnight getaway in Carlsbad.  Too bad that we were having too much fun that I didn't capture anything else on camera!

Here's Dad and Brooklyn getting Jack ready for church.

Jack had to get some blood drawn, so they put this little warming pack on his tiny foot. So cute!  But I felt so bad that he was so happy and content, not knowing that we were about to poke him!

The kids got hold of the camera and this shot was taken by Ian.

Brooklyn made little love notes for the family on Valentine's Day.

The two month photo shoot

Snuggling up for a nap

Welcome Home and Jack's First Month

 Brooklyn and Ian went to a birthday party with inflatable bounce houses.  I don't think we've seen this many bounce houses since Jen and Derek's wedding! 

 Stephen spoiled me by taking three weeks off work to help ease the adjustment of being a mother of three.  He also did a great job having daily learning times with Ian and taking him on fun adventures.  Ian's favorite memory of all was going miniature golfing with dad. 

 Doesn't he look cozy?

 I know this is obnoxious of me to occasionally sneak pictures of dinner in the blog, but this meal really excited me and it was my first time making this unique combo.  I thought the colors were pretty minus the charcoal-colored brussle sprouts!  It was lean philly cheese-steak sandwiches with sides of roasted brussel sprouts and also some barley with a ready-made lentil dish.  The brussel sprouts were a little extra toasty, but still not too bad for a first try!

 Here's Jack's 1-month photo shoot.  His look is so unique compared to 

his two siblings as babies!

 I think he looks a lot like his daddy...lucky guy!

More Hospital Pictures with Jack

 These are the beautiful tulips that my friend Heidi brought us.  So lovely!  :)

Introducing Jack Stephen Badger

We welcomed Jack to our family on Saturday, January 21st @ 6:27 AM. He weighed 9 lbs, 7 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long.
So here's the scoop. Caution: Do not try this at home! Results may vary.
It was Friday night and a day past the baby's projected delivery date when the family went out to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. I decided to walk the mile and a half journey home hoping to induce labor. By the time I arrived home, I was exhausted, cramping, and happy to have detected at least one true contraction was strong enough to stopped me in my tracks. When I arrived home, I watched a movie while Stephen massaged my aching lower back and the kids slept in their beds. Stephen and I turned into bed around midnight. Three hours later, I awoke from a strong contraction. I got out of bed and was unable to return to rest because the contractions would not subside. Around 4 AM, Stephen got out of bed, unable to sleep from the commotion of my "enduring" through each contraction. At this point, I knew it was ''the real deal," but didn't want to spread the word and wake up family and friends unnecessarily. Finally around 5 AM, Stephen started making phone calls between rubbing my lower back through each contraction and packing my hospital bag between the contractions. My mom in L.A. was phoned, but judged by the sounds she heard coming out of me that she wouldn't make it to San Diego in time to see the delivery. Our friend and designated on-call childcare-taker Rachel arrived at about 5:45 and shortly thereafter, we drove off to the hospital.

On the way to the hospital, I feared that I might not be dilated enough because all the pain was manifest in my lower back. I did not allow Stephen to leave my side though as we checked into the hospital, and the car was left parked on the front curbside of the hospital entrance. We arrived around 6 AM or just before.
As I finally got into the gown and my status was checked, I was happy to hear that I was dilated to a 9. Not long after that, I felt the urge to push. The doctor made me wait while she put on her gloves and broke my bag of water -GUSH! A couple of hard pushes later, he was out. I couldn't believe how fast it all went. Really, even though he was 2 days late, my thoughts at that moment were, "He's already HERE? How did that happen?"
Life is good. I can't believe we are now parents of 3 children!

*Sorry this took so long to post. I've attempted twice to upload pictures, but because we used a higher resolution camera, it didn't work to load a bunch at a time. I finally figured it out and have barely finished this overdue project now that he's only about 3 months old! More pic's and posts to come! :)