Alexander Johnson Hirschi

On October 29th Eliza and I were very happy to welcome our new son into our home, Alexander Johnson Hirschi. He was a very healthy boy weighing in at 9lbs 6oz. Both he and mother are doing very good. We expect them home tomorrow afternoon, just in time for trick-or-treating.

I'm very proud of Eliza. She does so well with all our babies despite them being so huge. I appreciate her willingness to undergo nine months of discomfort, sickness and everything else that comes with pregnancy. I'm in awe each time she delivers our children. I'm not sure how she does it but she is able to stay calm throughout the labor and delivery without any assistance from drugs, I raised my hand for an epidural because I've been struggling with a canker sore for about three days now.

Eliza, I love you very much and am truly grateful for you. I am who I am because of you. Thanks for your sacrifice to bring children into our home. I can't wait to bring you home in the morning.

It's about that time...

I love the look on her face. That's about how I feel. Although not really, because I don't want to have him too much earlier than my Mom can be here, which is two days after my due date. So we'll try to settle for sometime that week. We are so excited to meet him but still have a lot to do to be ready for another little person to join our family. Less than 3 weeks to go!

(cartoon was on pregnancy.baby-gaga.com)

76 degrees

A couple weeks ago, we had a weekend storm that brought lots of rain and cooler weather. We have a little park behind our house that we had never been to (it's not covered, so too hot to touch during the summer). We decided it would be a great time to check it out. It was only 76 degrees in the middle of the day! The kids were timid at first about riding through all the water, but once they got the hang of it they loved it. It did get me excited about the winter weather here, but we're not quite ready to give up summer yet...

100 degrees and back in the pool by Monday!

First day of preschool

Bradshaw had his first day of preschool today. He loved it! He knew his teacher from Texas (Miss Diana) so he already felt comfortable being there. I think it will be a great year, and I'm glad I get to enjoy more time with him at home before he goes to all day kindergarten next year.

As you can see from the picture, Paul was so sad that he couldn't go too. It was even more sad when we got home because as soon as he heard us walk in the house, he started running down the stairs saying "my turn Mom!" "take me to school!" and when I told him (again) that he couldn't go until next year he completely broke down. I'm going to have to do some serious entertaining while Bradshaw's at preschool to make up for the little guy's broken heart.

Thanks, little guy

I guess Paul didn't think we had enough wall art. It's all the way down the other half of the stairs too. When I asked him about it he said "my daddy did it." Hmm.

Meet the House

I finally took some pictures of our house. Come visit!

Shayne's room

I know the boys room doesn't look like much, but it's too hot to put their blankets on, so for now this is what we've got. And there are pictures on the wall you can't see.

Loft #1

Loft #2

Bedroom

Living Room #1

Living room #2

going upstairs

downstairs bath

entryway/hall

kitchen #1

kitchen #2

Family room #1- don't worry about the bench- it's a better color than what shows up on the picture, and we are going to get pillows and recover the pad to make it match the room, but for now it's a great place to sit!

Family room #2

Backyard (yeah- the grass needs a little help)

The pool (where the kids live)

First day of school

Shayne started school this week. I feel like we barely got a summer! She was so excited that she got to ride the bus to school- she didn't even want me to take her on the first day. She has liked it so far so we're planning on it being a good year. I think she's made a few friends in her class. This ward is way overpopulated on the boy side (her church class has 10 boys and she's the only girl!) so I hope she can make up for it with girls from school. Not that boys are bad, it's just she'd really like someone to play dress up with. For now we have fun planning her outfit every night and she doesn't mind waking up early. We'll see how long that lasts!