Lincoln's here... surprise!

Our little guy came to our family on Friday March 12th at 3:11 pm. Lincoln Henry weighed 8 lb 3 oz, and was 21 in long. Surprised? We were too! We actually had plans to go to Bear Lake over the weekend, one last little family vacation with the 3 of us, but we ended up getting our baby instead! Thursday I had been having contractions but nothing major, then during the night they kept coming but they weren't painful. Then at about 5am they started getting pretty regular and some pain. So Aaron kept asking me are we having a baby today or are we going to Bear Lake?? After 2 hours of showering, cleaning, packing a bag for Tatton and packing our hospital bag we dropped Tatton off with Aaron's sister and we went to the hospital. They monitored me for hours and I thought for sure they were going to send me home since they weren't painful and I wasn't progressing. But the contractions just kept coming and my Dr didn't want me to progress too much anyway with having a c-section. So by 2 in the afternoon it was official that we'd be having our baby soon, we were in line for surgery. It was kind of crazy, we really didn't think we'd end up having our little guy on Friday, but we did! Lincoln is just the spitting image of Tatton. He is just a happy little sleeper and eater and we love having him here. Tatton has been such a good big brother and loves giving Lincoln kisses. We're finally home and it's so nice just to relax and cuddle with Lincoln. I've completely forgot how litttle they are and how much they just sleep. I love to just hold him and watch his face, he's just adorable. My mom has Tatton at her house for a few days so that I can recover and I have to say I feel a little guilty but it's so nice. Here are some pictures from the last few days.

My Day So Far...

1. Mail package at Post Office. End up paying for package and an unused large, torn shipping envelope due to Tatton...
2. Registration at DMV (yes, we finally got a car, but that's a different story). Try and clean up smashed Smarties all over the floor from Tatton and apologize a million times for Tatton pulling a computer plug out of the wall.
3. After going potty at the grocery store Tatton decided last second to throw in his sticker down the toilet which at first he thought was funny, but later realized was not so funny since it was gone and threw a fit.
4. While fixing lunch Tatton proceeded to take off his pants and underwear, climb up to the kitchen chair and pee all over it.
5. During my attempt to clean up said urine, Tatton climbed up to the table, grabbed the bottle of Lysol cleaner ad squirted who knows how much into his mouth.
6. After lunch while cleaning up the dishes, Tatton decided to squat in the middle of the living room floor and relieve himself of his poop.

Naptime... check.
Doing absolutely nothing but taking some breather time for myself... check.

Potty Break

Just one of the many "potty breaks" we have during the day. But this one was

too cute to not capture. Tatton is actually reading the book to Aaron.

The Car

So when we were prego with Tatton, we had all the time in the world to get his room done, buy all the baby stuff, decorate his room, pack our hospital bag... it was like a fairytale looking back. Today, it's a frantic, ah crap we only have 2 weeks to get everything done before the little guy comes. It's not so much a fairytale this time. But the most difficult part or stressing part of it is that on top of just the "getting everything for baby ready" we also are desperately trying to find a new car. Why you ask? About two weeks ago on my way to work on a snowy morning, I slid around a corner on good old Morgan Valley Drive. I realized I was going wherever the car wanted to go, I had no control anymore and I knew I was headed right for a house. Luckily I hit their big pile up of snow from shoveling their driveway. But it was pure ice and so when I hit it head on, the air bags deployed, since I hit it so hard, and it launched the car into the air, not stopping it like I had hoped. So I flew my car across 15 ft in the air until it landed in these poor people's yard and slid for about another 10 ft (bonus points for taking out their garbage can too!) It didn't feel like I was going to stop anytime soon and I was headed toward a huge pinetree in their yard. Due to the landing though and probably hitting the ice bank, both of the front tires had just broken off so I finally stopped sliding 3 ft from hitting the tree. Accidents such as this are no bueno for a then 35 week old pregnant girl. From that point I was just in panick mode. I called Aaron sobbing, I had to call 911 sobbing, I had to talk to the sheriff sobbing, and sit in the ambulance sobbing. Everything seemed to be ok, but I had to go to the hospital for fetal monitoring just to make sure the baby was alright. So again, a car ride with Aaron consuling me while I sobbed, and laughed, but mostly sobbed. We got to spend the day in the hospital, Aaron drinking "hospital grape juice" while I was hooked up to monitors and watched movies. Everything is just fine, our little baby wasn't bothered at all by my dukes of hazzard moves, and I was just sore and tired for a few days. But the car was not suprisingly totalled and so now we have been on a car hunt, ugh. It's just a little added stress that we weren't expecting. There is a lot of pressure to make sure we find a good, reliable car, or suv or mini van (oh yeah) so that we can bring our baby home in our car, and not one that we're borrowing or renting. It's just a pain. But anywho, so last weekend when we found out our car was totalled for sure we started some serious shopping, going from car lot to car lot, and ksl.com people trying to find something. But nothing yet. Along with our car hunt we've tried to get every little last thing on the list for the baby, slightly redone Tatton's room, and celebrated Aaron's 26th Birthday..... we've been busy. So needless to say, one of my favorite parts of the day is when this happens:

Just some cuddling with Tatton. I was very fortunate to actually get furloughed 2 days after my accident which is very odd for this time of year at the IRS. But I couldn't have asked for a more perfect time to just be home with Tatton and somewhat resting when I can. It's a sneek peek of life after the baby comes because (shh don't tell my work) but I'm planning on quitting after the baby. I'm so looking forward to just staying home with my two little boys, well three when Aaron gets home work... Until then, the chaos will continue but only for two more weeks!

We're Alive!

The pictures I promised that coordinate with this post, in no particular order...

Tatton and I down at Temple Square.
The "I Am a Child of God" floor, labor and delivery play area. It's a good thing Tatton liked the babies and was really cute with them...

Tatton on the "train ride" He stayed pretty much like this all the way to Salt Lake.

Tatton on Christmas Eve looking thrilled and sitting on the presents.

The outdoors. I just love his face in this picture.

Birthday balloons, he could have been content with just these.

Tatton eating his Birthday Cake.

Tatton really is obsessed with trains so my Mom got him a little train engineer hat and overalls so that he can be a train driver when he plays. It's pretty cute.

I can't believe it's been before Christmas since I last blogged. So to keep you from reading a ridiculously long post, I'll try and make it short and sweet to catch up on all the happenings.

Christmas & Winter:

Good times, Tatton I think understood the whole Santa thing. He loves his train that he got.

We went to see the Temple Square Lights with the Tatton Clan, minus Aaron due to work. It was a ton of fun, but freezing. We rode the "train" down to SLC and then the trax, Tatton was in heaven. And we also took the kids over to one of the church buildings that has the "I Am a Child of God" center on the top floor. They all loved that. Tatton was very cute with the babies.

Aaron and I took Tatton to the Zoo Lights, they were alright. It was again freezing and I think it's a bit overated, but Tatton still enjoyed it. There's obviously not a lot of animals out and lights are only so fun for a short period of time.

We've been playing in the snow and sledding, a classic past time of winter. When the family was up here a lot, the cousins had fun sledding together and going for rides on Grandpa's sleigh behind the horse.

Potty Training:

Everyone keeps saying that we're so ambitious to start a 2 year old boy on the potty training but it kind of happened by accident. Gma Gold sent a littly potty over and Aaron and I were just planning on storing it for awhile, maybe after the baby came, but Tatton saw it and was all over it. He started that day and has been doing really good since. I wasn't a fan of a little potty though. It grossed me out having to dump it's contents into the regular toilet and then wash it everytime. So luckily it doubles as a step stool and Tatton just uses the stool to get up the real toilet, or stands. it's much easier, and cleaner for me anyway. He loves his McQueen undies, stays dry all day even during naps, but we struggle still with pooping. He's doing better but it's always kind of a hit and miss. We've tried all the bribery possible so I'm thinking it's just something that takes a little time. We'll see. Washing some dirty undies here and there still beats changing diapers all day so I'm ok with it. If you have any suggestions, ideas or advice, we're game!

Tatton's 2nd Birthday:

Yes, our little guy is 2 already. Maybe it's just me but I can't believe it. Getting the baby stuff out lately and holding up little outfits that Tatton once wore, and then having Tatton come running in and start talking about baby brother makes it just seem even more crazy that just 2 years ago he was the baby. Now he's the big brother that's talking and testing out all the baby stuff. Anyway, Tatton loves trains so of course I made him a little cake with a train on it. My favorite part about his birthday was Tatton realizing that when we were singing Happy Birthday, we were singing to him. When we said his name he had the biggest smile on his face and started pointing to himself. It was so funny. Anyway, he blew his two little candles out and enjoyed his cake and presents.

Baby Update:

Well technically I'm only 35 weeks prego right now. My due date is March 22nd, but at our last appointment, the doc discussed that if I haven't had the baby by 39 weeks, we could pick a day during my 39th week to have him. So we've decided on March 16th, a Tuesday, a good even number, and not on St. Patty's Day. So even though I'm 35 weeks, I hopefully only have 4 weeks left. I feel like a hippo and am in a lot of pain. The baby is sitting breech right now too which doesn't help. Tatton was breech as well for awhile but I got him to flip thanks to my sister's expertise. I'm not having the same luck with this one though. I've been doing the same thing but he's still refusing to flip. So due to having to have a c-section with Tatton, the baby being breech right now, and my small heart shaped pelvis, I'm most likely going to have to have another c-section, but we'll see. Either way, we cannot wait for the new little guy to come. This pregnancy has gone by fast, but also really slow. Now I'm just to the point where I feel like I'm done. 4 weeks seems like it won't come fast enough! I think Tatton is maybe gripping the concept that baby brother is coming. He's been a big helper getting all the baby stuff out and setting up his room. He loves to give baby brother kisses and hugs and keeps saying "baby come" because that's when he gets to play more with the baby toys... i.e. the swing and bouncer have got him green with envy. He's excited to bath the baby, and thinks he's going to burp him. I was washing all the burp clothes one day and so I was showing him how they go on your shoulder. He wore burp clothes on his shoulder the rest of the day saying "burp baby." It'll be a little crazy I think with Tatton helping but we're excited.

Pictures to come...

Getting Ready for Christmas

So what happens at our house when we get ready for Christmas? Eggnog is purchased. Aaron and I can drink eggnog if it's watered down a bit with some regular milk, and in small portions. But it's something that's a must need in the home this time of year. Tatton has been introduced to this beverage and is now addicted. He can tank down eggnog like no other. I thought it might be wise to buy him the low-fat version because he literally asks for eggnog all day. Now I've had to just tell him it's all gone even though we have some in the fridge so that he has it just every once in awhile.

Secondly we got our tree up. Thanks to Tatton most of the ornaments along the bottom half of the tree are rearranged daily, but I suppose that's what Christmas is when you have a toddler in the home. He loves turning the lights on. Our neighbors probably think we're weird because Tatton will go push the button to turn on the lights all throughout the day.. it's a constant battle.

Thirdly, we've been playing in the snow. Tatton has his own little toddler sled that's just his size and you can buckle him in. I keep forgetting to take the camera outside with me so there aren't any pictures of that action. And fourthly, last night we went to see Santa at the Newgate Mall. But what we encountered there was surprisingly something Tatton loved much more than Santa. They have a train that you can ride. So the first go around, I rode the little kid train with Tatton and he loved it. Best $2 spent at the mall. So we continued our shopping and were making our way to the other end of the mall to see Santa but all Tatton could talk about was either "choo-choo again" or "back to choo-choo". And I mean this was all he said over and over again. He was getting pretty desperate realizing that neither mom or dad were going to take him back anytime soon so then he started asking if papa or mama (grandma) would take him. So we finally got to Santa and he was so excited until we tried to put him on his lap. Santa told Aaron and I to come sit with him. Hence the whole Gold Family sitting on Santa's lap. Tatton warmed up a little but still kept on insisting we go back to the choo-choo. We decided that Tatton could probably handle the train by himself this time. He walked right in, went to the same red car that we rode in the first time, waited patiently for Aaron to open the door and sat right down with his hands on his lap. He LOVED it the second time, riding all by himself. He threw a rather good fit when it was over and Aaron was trying to get him to come out. All the way home he talked about the choo-choo and even this morning in his sleep he keeps mumbling choo-choo. So needless to say, I think we will be venturing back to the Newgate Mall quite a bit before the train is gone. Merry Christmas Tatton...

busy, busy, busy...

Well, it's been a busy month since last time I posted anything on here. For a baby update... I've got the belly which is already uncomfortable. The little guy is doing good though, he's moving around like crazy and he weighs over a pound now. We have few names that we like but nothing for sure yet.

Aaron and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary! We must be getting old, or the fact that I'm pregnant... I don't know. Usually we have some elaborate plan, take a little get away... but this year we just stayed home, Aaron made a yummy dinner and we watched Up! with Tatton. It doesn't sound like anything fantastic but it was a perfect day for me. 4 years and I love just being home with my little family, snuggling with Aaron and playing with Tatton. The next day or night I should say, we went to the New Moon premiere. It was great... even lthough Aaron decided to become the line-butting Nazi at the theatre. We went to Layton and it was very unorganized and Aaron was determined that a group of teenagers in front of us were not going to let their 15 friends cut in line. Needless to say I was mortified and embarrassed that evening, but we got great seats in the end to watch our movie so I suppose Aaron deserves a pat on the back.

Thanksgiving was a great holiday as usual, good food and lots of it. We're lucky that our parents live so close and we can hit up both family parties on the same day. December has finally come and we're extrememly excited for Christmas. We have to get our ward christmas party out of the way that Aaron and I are in charge of which is on Saturday, and then we can have time to celebrate the countdown a little better... stress free! Tatton has become obsessed with The Polar Express, because of the "choo-choo" and Frosty the Snowman. Aaron and I have had to print off the words to the Frosty song (which is really long by the way) because Tatton requests that song to be sung at bedtime. And he tries to sing it too, it's pretty cute.

Oh, and speaking of bedtime... Tatton has moved into his big boy bed which is a little toddler bed. He's sleeping just fine it now, yay! It was a rough two weeks but we've made it. I wanted the crib to not be an issue at all when the baby came so that was one less traumatizing thing for Tatton. It seems so early for him to be in a big bed but it's working out just fine for him. I guess our little guy is growing up. I don't have a whole lot of pictures lately, I've been a slacker. The Tatton clan had family pictures taken though in November so hopefully I can snag one of those to put on here.

Halloween

Alright, finally getting around to putting Halloween on here, yikes! This is our little Haunted House that we put together. Tatton helped with the sprinkles and ate a lot of the candies, he enjoyed himself. On Halloween night, we went over the Gold's for a bit, Tatton was Dumbo. Then we headed up to North Ogden for more festivities. We ate and trick-or-treated from Ryan and Racquel's house. Tatton was still Dumbo since is was quite frigid outside. Tatton ate his donut and Aaron got him candy. He had a pretty sweet set up, I don't think he had a clue what was going on. After trick-or-treating we went over to my Grandpa Creamer's house. We put Tatton in his Nacho Libre outfit since that house is a warm 80 degress all year round.

IT'S A BOY!!

So it's official. The little guy was quite proud of his manhood and as soon as we started the ultrasound... there it was. I guess he felt the need to show it off so we'd quit toying with the idea of him being a girl. At our last ultrasound he was just kind of a blob, I can't believe how much he's grown since then. Today we were able to see a defined little body, it's pretty amazing. He weighs in at a whopping 6 ounces, no wonder I haven't felt him kick yet. I feel him squirming around, but no definite kick. We've been able to get Tatton to say "brother" tonight. It'll be a lot of fun for him to have a little buddy!

All Sorts of Stuff

So firstly, we still cannot decide what Tatton should be for Halloween. I don't know why it's so difficult? We still really like the Nacho idea, he has the perfect little belly and chubby legs to be in tights. But we were going through some patterns that my Mom has, she always makes the grandkids' costumes, and she has a really cute pattern for a skunk. So we like that idea too. Ugh, we'll see.

Secondly we have FINALLY finished the canning projects for this year. We finished doing our pears at 3 am this morning. We are exhausted, we have been having canning marathons for the past 3 weekends. I'm not kidding, we have canned stewed tomatoes, salsa, apple sauce, apple pie filling, peaches, grape juice, grape jelly, strawberry jam, raspberry jam, apple-cinnamon jelly, pickled beats and pears. So take that food storage! We are so happy to be done, for this year. Last night Tatton was trying so hard to help us with the pears. He took a pear at a time out of the bucket and set it on the table for me to peel and took a bite out of a few of them, lil stinker. So we put in Dumbo to keep him a little entertained because it has a "choo-choo" in it and animals. He was hooked. Here is a little picture of him glued to the movie. And that's one of my blankets by the way... not Tatton's.

And thirdly, we've had yet again a little mishap with the flour. This time it was with my bread flour which is in a bucket but he was "helping" me make bread. I usually try and make bread when he is asleep but that's not always possible. So I had a helper and I knew when I had to get my 2 cups of flour out, he'd be all over it. As I was putting the first cup in the mixer, he ran to the kitchen utinsel drawer, pulled out a bunch of different tools, and started digging. Good times! It wasn't as bad as before, and he looked pretty darn cute so what can you do?

And yes, he is eating/licking the flour off the floor. Also, for those of you who know my brother Rusty, I think Tatton looks a lot like him in this picture, well atleast Rusty's baby pictures.

And fourthly... those of you who are anxiously awaiting to find out if we are having a boy or girl, we hopefully will find out on Monday, yay!