Brothers

Mattox is 2 1/2 weeks old and we are all adjusting to being a family of four. Cooper is doing great! He's had his whiney moments and random acts of gaining attention, but for the most part he's a great helper and loves his little brother. Whenever Mattox is on the floor, Cooper HAS to play with him. Here are a few brother pictures.



Holding hands. Cooper loves Mattox's tiny fingers and toes.


My three boys all playing together. Cooper reading a tractor book to Mattox.


One of my FAVORITE pictures!

Mattox Robert Holland

Mattox is here! Here is the story....On Monday (26th), the family got together to celebrate Granny's birthday. Right before we left, I had one contraction. I didn't really think anything about it because I had been having random contractions about once or twice a day for the last month. We got in the car and headed to Granny's house. About 20 minutes later I had another contraction (this one was a little stronger and made me start to get curious). About 15 minutes later, I had ANOTHER contraction and I decided not to eat anything, just in case I was destined to have a c-section that night. As the hour went on, my contractions went from 15 minutes apart to 10 minutes apart and getting pretty strong. David and I decided to go home and get ready to head to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital, they were 3 minutes apart and I was dilated to a 5!! I was SHOCKED that it happened to fast. We got to the hospital around 7:00 and by 8:49, I had been prepped for a c-section and Mattox was BORN!! It all happened so fast! I guess Mattox didn't want to wait for the scheduled c-section the following morning.

Mattox was born at 8:49pm and weighed 8 lbs 11 oz and was 20 inches long. We are doing great. The delivery was SO much better than my first c-section. I felt NOTHING! In fact, I David had to tell me when he was born, I didn't even realize he was out. My recovery was so much better too. I was up and walking around, taking a shower any changing diapers by the second day in the hospital.

Before the c-section...smiling through contractions.


8 lbs, 11 oz. BIG BABY BOY!

Cooper's 2nd birthday

Last Saturday, we celebrated Cooper's 2nd birthday with a rececar party. We had it at the park, but it was VERY WINDY! Despite the wind we had a great time. Cooper had fun playing on the playground and spending time with family a friends.


Excited about the racecar cake!

Playing with the racecar ducks with Abigail!

Jasmine came in style.

Opening presents with Shawn.

Family of 3 (soon to be 4).

Enjoying the balance bike!

WINDY WINDY WINDY!

Apple Blossom Festival!

Our great friends, Holly and Cody invited us to go with them to the Apple Blossom Festival. It was held at the Apple Country Orchards outside of Idalou. Check them out at http://www.applecountryorchards.com/

I had been there several times when I worked in Lorenzo, but had never been to one of their festivals. (They also do an Apple Butter Festival in September). All of the apple trees were in bloom and the weather was perfect! It was actually 80 degrees with NO WIND! We walked around the orchard taking pictures, took a hay ride and ate yummy apple pancakes and sausage for lunch!



Enjoying the apple blossoms.


Daddy and Cooper walking through the orchard.



Looking at the water fountain. This was before he started throwing rocks in it.

After the hay ride. Cooper really just wanted to see the tractor.

Enjoying another apple tree. This one had beautiful dark pink blossoms.

Look Mommy! DIRT! Such a BOY!

Mattox Update (36 weeks)

Well, we've officially made it to the end of this pregnancy! Last Wednesday was 36 weeks (9 months). We met with the Dr. to discuss the ultrasound and our delivery options. We decided on scheduling a c-section for April 27th. This day is special because it is also my grandmother's birthday. As long as Mattox doesn't decide to come on his own earlier, he'll be here in about 2 weeks! We have a lot to do between now and then, including David's birthday, Cooper's birthday, cleaning the house for visitors, oh yeah, and packing a bag and getting ready for Mattox to come home! Here's my last pregnancy picture! I look HUGE! I also think he's dropped a little.

Easter 2010

This Easter, Cooper was so excited! I don't think he "got" it last year, but this year he was involved in everything! On Friday, we went to Grandmommy's house and decorated Easter eggs with cousin Aria. Cooper had a "Cars" decorating kit which made it even MORE fun! He participated in every part of the decorating and only threw one egg (thinking it was a ball at first). Once we realized that we didn't want to throw the eggs, we did much better.

Putting "Lighting McQueen" and "Mater" on the eggs.

Aria dying her eggs.


Dying the eggs and only splashing a little bit! We did a LOT of Green eggs, since that is our favorite color.

On Easter Sunday, we went back to Grandpops and Grandmommy's house for lunch, Easter egg hunt and Banana Pudding (yummy!) Lunch was great (even though I was sick the whole time). Cooper and Aria couldn't wait to start hunting their eggs!

Smiling for the camera!


Finding eggs, eggs and more eggs! The basket started to get heavy!

Enjoying the candy in the eggs and comparing "loot" with Aria.

Getting ready for Easter

Once again I was feeling crafty, I guess maybe it's the speech therapist in me. I thought it would be fun to do an Easter craft so Cooper and I made bunny ears and we colored a bunny rabbit and glued cotton balls on it. Cooper picked out the colors for the ears, but didn't really care to much about putting it together so I did most of that for him. He did enjoy wearing it afterwards though!



He also enjoyed coloring the bunny and gluing on the cotton balls! Here he is concentrating on his art work.