More Pictures

Just a few pictures of the guys in my life. :) I need to blog about the birth before I forget! But for today, this will do. Connor is changing everyday! It's crazy how fast they grow. Eli is keeping us entertained and it's fun to see him love his little brother. Enjoy the pictures!

Sunday:

Tuesday:

Today:

Picture Dump

More words coming later, but for now, enjoy some more pictures!

A few more from the hospital:

And since we've been home:

We're pretty in love with this little guy. :) He's a sweetheart.

We are a happy family...

Sarah here. Just a few more pictures from our special day today. Words cannot begin to describe how much easier this time around has been. We feel very blessed and are excited to be a family of four! Eli was really cute when he came to see Connor. Thanks mom for taking care of him while we're here at the hospital!

Sweet brother kisses. I love this.

Connor Dean Nowland

This is officially my second blog post... the last one was 23 months ago when Eli was born... this is Jeremy if you couldn't guess.

We are so excited that Connor has arrived. He was born today, 3/22/11 at 1:58 PM and weighs 7 lbs and 9 oz. He is 21 inches long and is a nice mellow boy.

I know you all want to see pictures so I will upload some. I will let Sarah tell the whole birth story, but the short version is... this has been much nicer than it was with Eli. I think a lot has to do with the fact that Conner weighs more than a pound less than Eli did when he was born. Anyway, here are some pics.

Haircuts for everyone!

Yesterday we all got haircuts. I usually cut Eli's hair, but the last few times I've felt like I was administering the harshest form of torture to the poor kid, so I decided to take him somewhere to hopefully reset his traumatic opinion of hair cuts. Seriously - he would scream bloody murder and Jeremy would just have to hold him down while I tried to cut as fast as I could. Not so effective. (And we tried all sorts of bribes - he would have nothing to do with them). So I decided to splurge and take him to Cookie Cutters. Have you been there? Very cute. All the seats are little cars or planes and they let the kids pick a movie to watch and some toys to play with during the haircut. Then when they're done they get a balloon and a sucker (or a "lummy treat" as Eli kept calling it [aka yummy]).

I told him to smile and this is what I got. Awesome.

So clean. I always struggled around the ears - hard when he's thrashing around!

So it was a much better experience. He still cried a bit, but not nearly as much, and I didn't feel as bad, since I wasn't the one actually doing the cutting (or torture). Then that evening I cut Jeremy's hair...

...and then I got to go get my hair cut! It was very exciting. It had been about 4 months, and as you know, hair grows like crazy when you're pregnant! It was way overdue, but I feel like a new woman now - and I'm ready to go into labor since I now have cute hair. :) Haha.

(Self-portraits are difficult).

So that was our excitement of the day yesterday. Also on Saturday I had a little recital for my 3 students (2 piano, 1 voice). We went to an Assisted Living place and performed there and they all did great! It was nice to do a little service and great for them to have a performing opportunity. They're so cute and I will miss them! (This is our last week of lessons and then I'm done).

So that's what's new with us. I went to the doctor today and I am dilated to a 2 and 70% effaced. He said my cervix is ready! (Just what every woman likes to hear, right?) :) I just need some regular contractions. I'm definitely feeling ready. The baby has dropped and seems to keep on dropping. I feel like I have the waddle going on like crazy and walking in general is becoming more difficult. But the end is near! One more week. We're excited!

March so far

March has been full of family (the first 2 days), house showings, an awesome date, and getting mentally prepped for baby #2!

The week of my Grandpa's funeral we had 5 showings on our house! One Monday, one Tuesday, and then 3 that Saturday. Every week we seem to get more and more so we are definitely encouraged by that. I'm getting a little tired at this point in pregnancy (okay, so a LOT tired), so I'm looking forward to getting it sold so I don't have to keep everything so spotless all the time! I think our families probably think I'm the Grinch because it seemed like we always had showings when they were here and I kept picking up after everyone and hiding their belongings. :)

So that's been exciting around here. Then last weekend Jeremy and I went on a big date - an OVERNIGHT date. Whoa, I know. Jeremy's boss gave him a gift certificate to the "Hotel Monaco" in downtown Salt Lake for Christmas, along with a $50 American Express card to use anywhere. The hotel stay was good for anytime this year, but knowing we were having a baby soon and that I would be nursing for the next bajillion months (and that we're moving this summer), we decided we better try and use it soon! We'd hoped to use it earlier, but it just didn't work out, so we decided to use it last weekend.

My little sis was good enough to agree to come up and watch Eli and we are SO GRATEFUL to her for that! She brought her roommate and I think they had a good time. We provided the pizza and ice cream and then said see ya later! So we went off to Salt Lake and enjoyed a fantastic evening together. We checked in to our hotel and then walked to PF Changs for dinner (luckily the weather was awesome). We had a great waitress who helped us pair some complimentary dishes together and we could not stop gushing over how delicious and perfect our meal was. Neither of us had been to PF Changs in years, so it was fun. We ended the meal with the Great Wall of Chocolate. Oh my. Believe it or not, it was Jeremy who insisted we get it - but you know I wasn't complaining! We could only finish a few bites in the restaurant, but somehow managed to eat the rest of it later that night!

We both commented on how nice it was to not be stressed about making it back in time for the babysitter to get home, or just worrying about anything in general. It was amazing! So we tried - unsuccessfully - to sleep in the next morning and then we headed back to reality that morning. :)

Here's a picture of our posh room. It also had a little sitting area and entry thing.

And I had to take a picture of these ridiculously tall counter tops! Normally this would be a great thing for me, but with my giant stomach, it made it really hard to reach the sink! Haha. I'd never seen anything like it.

We got home and Eli was totally attached to Heidi and didn't even hardly acknowledge us - figures. But it seemed everyone had a good time and he was a good boy. We then had an hour to get ready for our 3 in a row showings (!) and then we just relaxed the rest of the day.

Jeremy took this picture of Eli. If the showings are on a weekend, Jeremy usually takes Eli for a drive or walk around the neighborhood. Eli loves to play in the car (out of his car seat), so Jeremy just parked somewhere and he had a good time pushing buttons and exploring the exciting world of the car! :)

So that's March so far! I am due in 11 days. It's crazy. I haven't gotten any of the gear out yet (swing, bouncer, cradle, car seat, etc.) because we're still showing the house, but that's easy enough to do when the time comes...right?

The rest of February

After Heidi's recital (2 posts ago), Amy and my mom left on a Saturday and then Jeremy's mom came the next Tuesday! (I told you we have a lot of visitors). Jeremy's cousin got married the following Saturday, so she came in town for that. His dad and brother also came that Friday and it was fun to spend time with them. We had a lot to do to help prep for the wedding, so Friday was mostly dedicated to doing just that. We went down to Orem that afternoon and helped put up this "false ceiling" in the gym. It was a lot of work, but it sure looked nice! There was also a lot to do to prep for the food at the reception, but it all came together great and the food was of course amazing!

Working on the ceiling:
(Still working...)
Saturday morning was the sealing. The bride and groom looked so happy! Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of them coming out the temple - pretty lame I know. We then had a luncheon, naps :), and then the reception that evening.
A couple hours before the reception. The tables aren't quite done (and the ironing board is out) but you can see the ceiling.
The "kids" table. Eli took full advantage of this. :) It was such a cute idea. They used the nursery table so it was kid-height and had goldfish, uncrustable pb&j's, grapes, cake pops, and mac & cheese cups (not pictured - where that big hole is).
Lovin' the goldfish.
The "bar". They had tons of Italian soda syrup things that these fine gentlemen were preparing for people. Yummy!

The cheese table - cheese balls, brie, hummus, a million different cheeses and crackers, etc.

The "asian" table (Jeremy's aunt went a little overboard :) - sushi, egg rolls, spring rolls, crab wontons (sooo good), shrimp, etc.
Aaand the miscellaneous table I guess - corn tortillas with garlic lime chicken, meatballs, roasted veggies, etc.
Oh, and let's not forget the dessert table - cream puffs, eclairs, cheesecake, brownies, lemon bars, and the list goes on....yeah, it was a feast. And we did feast.
The following Monday was a holiday that Jeremy actually got off! So we went to the Church History Museum that morning and walked around Temple Square a bit. Jeremy's parents left the next morning to go home, but we were really glad we got some time with them! Eli has been able to see his grandparents a lot lately, which is really fun.

That same day is when we heard my Grandpa's condition may be more serious than we thought, so my parents hopped in the car and drove straight here from CA and were here until Wednesday night. We were all able to visit Grandpa in the hospital on Wednesday which was really nice. They left that night, thinking he would be fine, and then he passed away the next night. But we're glad they were able to be here to see him one last time. All of my dad's 5 siblings live here, so it was nice he was able to be here too. They then came back on Saturday and then my older sisters came on Monday and my brother came Tuesday morning!

Everyone left last Wednesday, and life has been getting back to "normal" since then (I don't think I quite know what that really means). But I will save the beginning of March for another post!