Work Trips

Febuary was a fun month. James had to go down to San Antonio ever week for work trips and we went down with him 2X. It was good times at the hotel. We got to see James mom and dad down there, his brother Joe and his family, my Dad was in town with his new wife Debbie and my Aunt Beverly and her husband Jim.

I have caught this little guy sucking his thumb a few times.

I have a picture of Luke and James just like this so I made James pose for this one.

It was to cold most of the time we were there to go into the pool so the kids enjoyed the hot tub. There were two days that were warm enough but wouldn't you know it they closed the pool for cleaning those days.

Whoo Hoo Outdoor World (Bass Pro Shop) We spent a good two hours here. Great place!

Luke and Bella slept on the pull-out couch. They were so cute snuggling together

Royce completely loves his carseat now. I can put him in it whenever I need him to take a nap.

Look closely. He has a little Mohawk

Thats the I will get mommy to do whatever I want face

Grandpa George and Debbie

Luke is really good with Royce and just loves being a big brother. He is very excited about all the things he is going to be able to teach Royce how to do.
My Uncle Jim

Three can be a crowd but more often the more the merrier.

Royce Week 1

We are loving having this little man with us. He gave James his first real smile on Friday (8 days old), which is amazing since Luke and Bella didn't start smiling (really smiling not just the random sleepy ones) till they were a month old, but I guess he was in utero 5 weeks longer than they were so that would put him at about the same age. Since then he has smiled in response to me and grandma. He melts my heart with the little dimple he has in his right cheek.

He is very alert, has fully developed lungs and is very hungry! Eating during the day every 1-2 hours for 10-15mins on each side. The dr. confirmed that this is completely normal espeacially for such a big boy. At his Dr. apt. this week he was only 3oz shy of his birth weight.Big sister taking care of baby Royce

Sleep deprived mommy

The Mortensen Clan

Our little burrito

Snuggling and watching a show

Grandma Betty reading with Luke

"You can take him now mom"

Bouncer

witch, princess, fairy ??

Going to the Dr.

Royce stretching out on the couch

Bella drew this picture and when I asked her what it was she responded "It's a big storm cloud"!

Grandpa Marc and Royce nappin together

So cute in his little outfit. He later pooped all over it!

This is a video from the hospital right after he was born.

Royce Benson Mortensen

Born:
January 27th at 12:38pm
Weighing 9lb 11oz
22 3/4in long

Our sweet little boy has joined our family! We are overjoyed and completely in love with this little man! He is named after his Great Grandpa Roy and Great Uncle Bruce (we combined the 2) and his middle name is after the Prophet Ezra Taft Benson. Below is the story of his coming into the world.

We had originally planned a home birth from Royce but due to his delay in being born we opted to be induced I was one day shy of being 43 weeks according to my original due date, after Royce was born the Dr. said he looked like he was about a week and a half overdue.
We were suppose to be induced Weds night at 8pm but on our way out the door they called and canceled and rescheduled for the next morning Thursday, January 27 at 7:30. So that morning James went to get the kids from where they spent the night and dropped them off at our friend Cookie and Lesik's. Heather (James sister) and myself went to the hospital got registered and checked in.
At 9:30 the Dr. Cummings showed up and we talked about what was going to happen and he broke my water around 9:45am. He told me to walk around to get the baby to drop and to get contractions going. James and I walked around for a while and some medium contractions started going.
Sometime around noon the nurse wanted to check me and the contractions were getting stronger, I was at a 7 and from that point on everything happened super fast and it was kind of a blur. When she told me I was a 7 I freaked a little and started thinking I was going to be able to handle the pain. James and Heather were under strict instructions not to let them give me any pain medication even when I begged for it so when I started asking they did a good job diverting me. A few minutes later the nurse checked me again and I was at an 8. I told her I felt like I needed to push. She immediately got on the phone and paged the Dr. he was there within minutes and they got everything set up and within a few contractions I was pushing. Heather and James were helping me breath through the contraction and I just started pushing, all I could think was that I had to get the baby out before the next contraction because they hurt so bad and within minutes his head was out and they told me to wait so they could get his shoulders. After his shoulders were clear the Dr. let James pull the rest of him out and he handed the sweet angel to me. At the moment all I could think was I can't believe its over and then I realized I still didn't know the gender. I asked and no one else knew yet either so I picked up the blanket to looked and it was a Boy! This little man had a 14in head, I had told the Dr. when he was breaking my water that under no circumstances did I want an episiotomy and he reassured me he wouldn't and that I shouldn't even tear and he was right he did his job well that day and recovery has been great. Heather has been staying with us the past few days and helping out which has been so wonderful because I have been just enjoying snuggling and bonding with Royce and not being pregnant!

42 weeks and 5 days

So I have been counting down the hours today till I get to go to the hospital to be induced. I don't think I have anticipated any day ,besides my wedding, more than this day. We will have a nice story to tell this baby when he or she get older about how long it made us wait to meet them. The plan right now is to check into the hospital at 8pm and the doctor is going to break my water. Hopefully that will get labor going. If not he will start me on pitocin. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will be a fast labor and delivery like my other two.

We have been so blessed with all the people willing to help us out these past weeks. I just want to let everyone know how much we love and appreciate you! You know who you are!

On a bummer note, James has been putting off his clients all month long waiting for this baby to come and unfortunately push came to shove and he has to head down to San Antonio Sunday - Thurs. I am totally sad but know its just something that has to be done. His sister Heather (bless her heart) is flying out this afternoon (probably getting picked up as I type) and is staying till Tues morning which is such a blessing because Heather is just awesome! Then next week we lined up babysitters for the older kids on Tues, Weds, and Thurs so its not like I will be all alone I will just miss him and be sad he has to leave.

Until I get around to posting about the little Turkey so long and good luck!

January!

Grandma Betty (James mom) was here for about a week, she was hoping the baby would show up but it didn't. James however was really sick this week and she was a lot of help and Luke & Bella enjoyed having an extra snuggle buddy around.
Luke was trying to drink his ice cream through a straw! Funny kid.

Fun with playdough and Mr. Potato head

If you come to our home on any given day you have a 80% chance of finding Bella dressed something like this. The girl is so girlie. The other day she said "Mom don't call me Bella, my name is Ariel and the baby is Aurora".


Let it snow!

We had our first (and hopefully last snow) this year! The kids and James had a blast playing in it. They went sledding on the same hill we did the slip n slide on this year and then made a snowman Luke named the snowman Snow-O and he is still standing strong in our front yard.

We didn't have a proper sled so we used a plastic bin

Snow-O

Playin games after FHE



As you can tell baby is still hunkered in there. I reached 41 weeks on Friday. I now have a lot more compassion for women who go over there due date. I had no idea how stressful/emotional it is. I am pretty sure this baby is not going to voluntarily come out.

Going Bonkers

We took the kids to this massive play place. They loved it but it was hard to keep track of them because it was so big. Of course they got sick a couple days latter.

Final Guess

As many of you know we didn't find out the gender of this baby. I thought it would be fun to get final guesses before he or she actually arrives! So give me your best guess, also we still haven't picked out a girl name so if you have any good suggestions leave them in the comment as well.

I have officially hit 40 weeks and still no sign of baby. I started to get nervous so I scheduled an ultrasound last friday. Baby is doing well and growing fine. They estimate he was 8lb 14oz lucky those can be off by a couple pounds either way I really don't want to give birth to a nine pound baby. Luke was 7lb 11oz and Bella was 7lb 12oz and that was traumatic enough. Anyways I am just trying to keep myself busy so I stop thinking about when this child is going to come and how much it is going to hurt when baby actually does decide to come out.

On a side note we were at IKEA the other day and I was looking at the dish brushes. I turned to Luke and said "what color should I get"? His response was " Mom are those giant toothbrushes"... Funny kid.

39 weeks Whoo Hoo! Happy New Years!

Happy 2011! Last night we had the Cooper family over for some games and fun. Kathryn and I are due about the same time its been nice having someone close by going through the same experience as me. James mom is now here and we are just waiting for this baby to make an appearance. Unfortunately it didn't make the 2010 tax cut off date :( but any day now would be good for me....

Christmas Day!

Favorite memories from Christmas 2010.

Bella: Her favorite part about Christmas was not the presents themselves but opening them. She would open one throw it on the floor and go for the next. By the end of present opening she was demanding to open other peoples presents for them! Silly girl. Luke: Almost every present he opened his response was. "Wow! its just what I wanted!" His excitement with every present was hilarious. I told James we should have just gave him a box of rocks and he would have been happy.

opening presents for the baby

After Christmas was over I was snuggling with Bella in bed and was talking to her about it. I said "Christmas was so great, Santa is such a nice guy to bring you all those presents." Her response was so sure and exactly stated " Jesus is a really nice guy too!" Her sweet innocent response brought tears to my eyes as I thought about the truth in that statement and realized that her little spirit recognized the gift that our saviour is.

She couldn't get this present open and neither could Luke. Finally daddy had to step in and help as to avoid unneccesary messes.