Owen Mitchell

Owen Mitchell Sanderson was born yesterday at 3:14 am. I went into labor all on my own!!! I had been having contractions for about 4 days, but they weren't very regular. Sunday night at about 9:30 pm we started noticing that they were a little more regular, but not painful at all. They were about 5 min apart. I fell asleep at 10:30 to contractions that were still regular, but not at all painful. I woke up at 11:15 to harder contractions. I woke up Jason at 11:30 and we decided about Midnight that we had better head to the hospital. We checked into the hospital at 12:15 am and Owen was born 3 hours later. It was fun to actually go into labor rather than be induced! I ended up having a natural birth, although that wasn't necessarily my intention. It just seemed that it went fast and there wasn't a lot of time. I pushed for about 1/2 hour, and the pushing wasn't nearly as unbearable as it had been for my first 2! Owen was born weighing 7 lbs 15.5 oz and was 20 in long. He is very healthy and cute!! :) He has a dimple in his left cheek that he shows off when he cries! :) He didn't have a name for the first 12 hours of his life, we were just calling him Noname Yet Sanderson. We were discharged from the hospital this morning and are very excited to be home with our 3 boys!!! I will put some pictures up from our day, and hopefully will get some more up soon.

Current Conversation

The boys are supposed to be laying quietly going to sleep. This is what I hear from their bedroom.

W: Bye, bye water.

T: Bye, bye play-doh.

hahahahhahahahahaha

W: Bye bye shoe.

hahahhahahahhahahaha

T: Bye bye diaper

hahahahhahaha

W: Bye bye poo poo diaper

hahahhahahahahahha

T: Bye bye puppy

hahahhahahahhahaha

W: Bye bye poo poo puppy

hahahhahahahahaha

T: Bye bye Daddy

hahahhahahahahaha

W: Bye bye pocket

hahahhahahahhaha

Ok, you get the idea...guess I'd better intervene soon.

February News

Daddy and Tristan putting together a race car from the erector set. Tristan looks puzzled.

We love when Dakota comes to visit!

Daddy used all the track pieces for a giant train track! (This picture was taken while construction was still underway.)

Daddy has been home a lot lately, and the boys are loving it!!!!

Decorating Valentine cupcakes! They were almost decorated before they were eaten. :)

I had to do the rest myself so that we would actually have some to give away as Valentines! Auntie Leah came to town, and she watched the boys so that Jason and I could go out for dinner. Thank you Leah!!!!

This picture is for you, Danika! :) 38 weeks 2 days pregnant. And it surely doesn't qualify as a baby "bump" anymore. This thing is a monstrosity!!!

We hiked down into the gorge behind our house. There is a dam coming off of Lake Chelan that feeds into this river that runs into the Columbia River a couple of miles away. There is not really a good way to get down into the gorge, because it is sooo steep. Last week, though, Jason found a place with guide wires that you can hold on to and work your way down. We went down it on Saturday to throw rocks in the water and get a little exercise. On the way down, a small (maybe 3 inches in diameter) rock was kicked loose and tumbled down and hit me in the ankle. The force of it was enough to sit me down, swell up my ankle, and leave a bruise. I'm just telling you this so that you know how steep this gorge was! On the way back up, there were some kids at the top. I don't know if they didn't see us climbing back up or if they didn't think about what they were doing, but they sprung a huge rock loose and sent it down at us. It was about 1.5-2 feet in diameter. The rock passed Wade and Jason on the right and was headed straight down at me at about 40 mph. My instinct was focused on Tristan right behind me. The boulder was headed down on my right, but then got caught in a rut that started sending it over to my left side. Of course all of this is happening in a split second! I was going to jump left then I was going to jump right. Also going through my head was somehow pushing it off course to protect Tristan and Leah behind me (obviously that would not have worked.) It was coming fast enough and it was heavy enough it would have blasted through our legs like toothpicks. And hitting another part of our body would probably have killed us. Somehow the rut brought the rock far enough to my left that it missed me by inches. We were pretty shaken up after that. The kids of course took off running when they saw what they had almost done. We made it the rest of the way up just fine, and were very glad to all be ok. I'm not sure we'll be making anymore trips into the gorge, especially on days when those kids aren't in school!!

Nice rack, Leah!

On Valentine's Day Jason surprised me with a nice card and chocolate bar. We have always gotten each other more humorous cards...nothing too sappy...and then written our own thoughtful message in them. So, I wasn't too surprised when I opened the envelope and saw that the card was written in Spanish. We laughed about that and I read the nice message that he wrote and everyone had warm fuzzies. Leah was looking at the card and noticed on the back there was an English translation, so she read it out-loud to us. When she was done, we couldn't stop laughing for 15 minutes!!!! I guess Jason's Spanish is not what it used to be! :) Here's what the card said:

The gift of time,

The gift of listening,

The gift of love....

These are the most

valuable gifts

a father can give.

Thank you so much.

Happy Valentine's Day!

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA (ok, so maybe you had to have been there)

Another funny story this week.... I was a substitute teacher on Wednesday in the preschool. There was an aide in there as well, so when I got there I introduced myself. When the kids started coming, one asked me my name. I turned to the aide and asked her whether the kids call their teacher by first name or last name.

"Should they call me Sarah or Mrs. Sanderson," I asked.

"Ummm...how about Mrs. Duos," she responded.

.....ok...I don't know where that came from. The whole class spoke Spanish, so I thought maybe Duos had a Spanish meaning that I didn't know. Maybe it meant teacher or something. So she kept referring to me as Mrs. Duos all day. I wasn't sure whether to correct her or ask her what it meant or what. At one point, a student was calling "Mrs. Duos, Mrs. Duos, Mrs. Duos." And of course I wasn't recognizing my new name, so I wasn't responding. Finally I turned just because of the insistence in the child's voice and realized that she was talking to me! I was still very confused and wasn't sure if I should tell the aide again what my name was.

Later the aide came up to me and asked me what my husband's name was.
"Jason Sanderson," I said.

"Hmm..I guess I don't know him," she replied.

Still later she came up and said, "Are you related to Richard Duos? I've been trying to think all morning which Duos I know."

"No, I'm not related to Richard Duos," I said, deciding it was too late in the day to correct her once again. So, I left it at that. Just don't expect me to start responding to Mrs. Duos anytime soon!

Alles ist Verlassen

I tackled the shed today for my missing box. Some of you teachers out there, or former teachers, might appreciate how much stuff teachers accumulate. Packing up a classroom and moving it into a shed results in lots and lots of boxes. I went into the shed determined to find my missing clothing tub! I tackled each tower of boxes, each neatly labeled and color coded. Blue writing meant it was teaching things that I would not need at all unless I was back in the classroom. Red writing meant that it was things that I could use, maybe, someday, even without being in a classroom. Green writing meant that even though it was for teaching, I would like to be able to access it for personal use. But somewhere in this organized system is a missing 0-3 month box, so where to begin.

I unstacked the front-right tower...mostly fragile kitchen items that I don't have room for in my current kitchen (crystal, fancy serving dishes, etc.). Lo and behold, the tower behind it has an unidentified green tub at the very bottom of the pile! There it is!!! Woohoo!! Now I just have to get past the 7 boxes stacked on top of it. The first couple are pretty lightweight teaching file boxes. Then we get into the heavyweights. 2-2ft x 3ft teaching book boxes. Underneath that, 2-2ft x 4ft boxes labeled "Novels". I used to measure how many books I had in my classroom by the 6 bookcases they filled. Now I measure how many books I have by how many pounds they weigh! Those were a struggle to unload, but I finally reached the mystery green tub. I pried open the cover..... A labyrinth, marble set, Mancala game, and other various games I used in my classroom... NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I would have given up and come inside and finished my quest another day, but I couldn't get out! Those big boxes were now totally trapping me inside the shed! The only way out was to stack them all so nicely and neatly back where they were. So, I began again! And lifting those big boxes onto the pile was a lot harder than letting them slide down the pile in the first place. I figured the worst thing that would happen is that it would send me into labor, which wouldn't be such a bad thing.

When I finally finished my towers, there was still no baby box. I had looked at every single box out there. So, I'm not sure what happened. We have moved since I used that box last, and I can't remember where it ended up. We only have bedroom closets and the shed, so it might be gone for good! I feel as though my search has been pretty thorough.

At least I know where to find my big class-size box of rulers, protractors, and compasses should the need for them arise.

Nesting

Has anyone seen my 0-3 month baby boy tub? I found the Newborn box and the 3-6 month box, but I'm missing the one in the middle. It maybe wouldn't be a problem (if we end up having a girl), but it does have my baby sleep positioner, all my receiving blankets (burp cloths), and my cushion for the car seat. Hmmm....I looked pretty thoroughly through the shed, but I guess my next step is to take everything out and try to find it that way. Ugh!

I also dug out the swing, bouncy seat, and car seat. I washed all the material and scrubbed the frames down. Of course the boys were very excited! They had to try everything out and put their stuffed bears in them. They've been pretending to be babies all evening. This had potential to get very annoying, but then I remembered everything has buckles!!! So, they each got buckled in, and poof no more trouble. If they are going to be babies, they have to spend a lot of time buckled into various places, right? :)

I picked out a baby outfit in each gender to take to the hospital. I found the baby towels and washcloths. Now, just for that missing box...

Oh, yeah, and the BABY! :)

Boy Update

We are doing well here. I haven't given a newsy update lately, and I guess that's because there hasn't been much news! We are all awaiting the arrival of our little one which is less than 3 weeks away now (hopefully). The boys days are spent playing, going to story time at the library, crying, fighting, etc. My days are spent working, cleaning up after the boys, preparing the house for a new baby, and being lazy. :) I am starting to have some carpal tunnel symptoms, which I had when I was pregnant with Wade as well. So, this is about the time I start thinking the care and feeding of a little tiny baby will be less troublesome than being pregnant, so bring on the baby! :)

Jason and his brothers have been waiting for subs on the house they are building, so they haven't been working much. Unfortunately, this slow time in work has been occurring about a month early, and I'm sure that as soon as the baby comes they will be swamped!

We have been really enjoying our boys. Tristan has been practicing being a big 3-year-old. He has been learning to get himself completely dressed and undressed, his own shoes on, setting the table, clearing the table, mopping the floor, etc. He has been a "dawdler" which I think is pretty typical of boys his age. He enjoys practicing writing the letters of the alphabet. He plays basketball about half the day. He has just developed a huge appetite. He is always hungry!

Wade still loves to sing. I really need to take some more videos of it! We are amazed at his ability to hear a song and sing along right away, then later we will catch him singing the song on his own. His vocabulary expands daily, and he can tell you anything he needs to in complete sentences. He loves to play basketball as well! He loves to do and have everything that big brother does. He has shown me that he is really good around babies, so we are excited to see him interact with the new one when it comes.

We are looking forward to lots of excitement over the next couple of months. Leah comes to visit for almost a week next week, and then she'll return again for 4 days over my due date. My mom is coming for two weeks, Cammy and Dad are both coming for a week, and Garrett is hoping to make an appearance as well. Julie hopes to be here over my due date, and other Sandersons are planning on coming for the birth of the baby as well. A month after the baby comes is Julie's wedding, so that will surely be a great kick-off to Spring!!

Lydia Jane

Congratulations Mike, Tawn, and Gwyndolyn on the beautiful new addition to your family! She is so precious! We can't wait for her to meet our new baby! She was born 2/3/10. Weighed 9 lbs 1 oz and was 20 inches long.