Miss Bea

One of Tim's co-workers and his wife do a little side wedding officiating/photography business and they always like to practice taking pictures with us. We love it because they always do a great job and we get family pictures regularly. They wanted to try newborn pictures, which we really should have done when she was like 2 weeks old and all they do is sleep and you can mold them into whatever shape you want...instead she was a bit grumpy and not mold-able...but they managed to get a few good ones and we love them. My mom gave me these suitcases and the bottom one was my Granny's (my Grandpa's mom) and the top was from a garage sale:)

This is what your hair looks like after you get a bath at 3:30am because you spit up all over yourself and your bed.

For Memorial Day, we all met with a bunch of families in our ward at the beach. It is so fun for the kids to have friends there and even the adults get some grown up time with friends. A few families brought their paddle boards and Tim tried it out. Other than one kid getting lost, and found, it was a nice day! It is definitely tourist season which means everywhere is PACKED. If we know we are going to go all day to the beach, and it's a holiday or Saturday during the Summer, we pay to park at a State Park so it's less crowded. But even doing that this year, it was still PACKED! Bea was great at the beach...

The guys got Ivy in the suitcase while I was feeding Bea in the back...

Excuse the naked bum pictures...it's inevitable.

Bea

Just some more pictures of the last week or so...I feel like I need to keep my blog updated for my family since they haven't seen Bea and don't see the other kids either as much. Tim's family is all on Facebook so they see the pictures more on there. Anyway, here is Bea....with her bow :)

Minnie and Bea... 

Push ups...just kidding.

First Vandy baby EVER to take a pacifier... 

Bea watching Weekend Update with Mom and Dad...she was so sad Bill Hader was leaving she couldn't bear to watch...

We have the best ever Nursery Leader in our ward and her family is so great. My girls BEG me to call her girls to babysit and they love Sister Riley (or Mister Riley as they call her). So Sister Riley brought over some really thoughtful gifts and dinner (including homemade bread!) and she made this tiny loaf of bread so Minnie could play with it with her tea set....it's the cutest thing I've ever seen! And, she brought a DVD with 8 episodes of the Andy Griffith Show. We always liked the name Daisy, but decided we couldn't do Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck....so instead apparently, we went with Aunt Bea and Andy Griffith...oh well.

Don't mind Minnie's creepy picture...she wears the patch for an hour a day and it looks like she has no eye.

I'm actually not a huge fan of HUGE bows and flowers on little babies (especially one's with tiny heads the size of softballs like all of my kids have) but I decided to try it out on Bea...the headband barely stayed on her head!

  

Minnie, Andy, Bea and Ivy...

4 weeks with 4 kids

I told Tim the other day that I feel like a Robot....just walking around all day finishing the next task that needs to be done....this person needs to be fed, this person needs to be wiped, this person needs to be fed, this person needs to go to Time out, this person needs their face cleaned, this load needs to be folded....etc. But,  that being said, I do feel like we are functioning pretty well as of now. This was when Andy was 1...and Tim's famous robot costume that is currently dismantled in the garage.

Almost 2 weeks...

I have taken so many pictures of Bea that I feel like she is my first baby...until reality sets in and the other 3 show up. I have had 4 kids for almost 2 weeks and, to be honest, it has been going better than I expected. My parents were here for a week so my Mom cooked and took Andy to school and burped Bea (she is the master baby burper). They even watched the kids while Tim and I got to go out TWICE without paying a babysitter!

So far, Bea has been a great baby. She sleeps well and eats well. She doesn't ride in the car well yet, but we'll give her time.

The kids LOVE her. Now that Ivy is on the mend and almost done being sick, she is obsessed! She is always asking to hold Bea or hug her and telling me to get her out of her bed. Minnie had all of her babies (including the Barbie she put by Bea) lined up by her crib for the baby.

They can't get enough of Bea!

So, tonight I finally gave Ivy a hair cut. Her hair was getting a little mullet-ish in the back and it needed to be evened out. I am always afraid I am going to cut off all of their curls, but as you can see, that was not the case. And, good thing their hair is curly because it's really hard to cut straight with a 2 year old wiggling around and using the same scissors I cut paper with. Hopefully it's even.

Minnie's face is so funny...

Tummy time...

Bea Kalli Vanderwalker

It all started last week, with Ivy feeling like this: 

 She started to get a fever and some sores in her mouth. So I took her to the doctor because I wanted to get it all gone before a baby was coming on Thursday the 25th. So she was MISERABLE! She couldn't eat or sleep or brush her teeth (whoah...a good 5 foot radius was necessary to avoid her death breath). Her gums were read and sore and her tongue was worse. It wasn't hand foot and mouth disease, but it was ROUGH.

 So Saturday, this was my view from the top of my belly. I was due on Thursday, but at like 1:30 started having contractions and they were getting more painful and stronger. I called the hospital and they told me to drink lots of water and lay down. Even though I was scheduled for the 25th, Saturday was about 8 days before my actual due date. I drank and laid down and felt like they were getting stronger. So I called the hospital and they said to come in and they'd check it out. So, being that my parents were not coming until Monday night, and we have no family, it got a little tricky here. I went to the hospital (which is about 20 minutes away) by myself and got hooked up to a monitor. The contractions were more like cramping when I got there, but as I was there they started to get stronger and more frequent. The nurse called the doctor and he said to give me a shot of medicine to try to stop them. Tim is still at home waiting with the kids. We had our friends (and home teachers:) "on call" in case something happened. So with the medicine, the contractions continued so the Doctor decided to go ahead and do the c-section. By this time, the kids were in bed and so Tim called our friend over to spend the night. Poor guy, Ivy was miserable and had a potty accident while he was here. I think it was a rough night for them. We are so thankful for good friends who were willing and able to help us out. Tim got to the hospital and they did the surgery. At 9:46 Bea Kalli Vanderwalker was born. 

 She was 6lbs 14oz and had a knot in her umbilical cord. The surgery went well and I got my tubes tied so I guess Bea is the last of the Vandy's. She had lots of hair and does not look like any of the other kids when they were newborns. The c-section was actually my best yet as far as recovery goes. I am very happy with my doctor here and think he did a good job.

 Tim slept that night with us in the hospital. The next morning, he had to go let the Halls get back and get the other kids to bring them to see their new sister.

Bea is our first baby EVER that takes a pacifier and likes to be swaddled tight. It's a whole new world.

The first time the kids saw her, they were so happy (except sick Ivy). Andy held her on the couch and sang a  song to her.

Having four kids is crazy...I remember thinking that we can't all fit on the hospital bed?!?! Uh Oh...

Bea has the funniest hair, it seriously looks like she got a haircut right before she came out. Andy said her hair makes her look like a boy, so I thought we'd take care of that with the hugest bow I could find. Our kids have TINY heads (always 25th percentile or less) so it makes it look even crazier!

I went in the other day to check on her and her pacifier had fallen out, so she made a peace sign with her fingers:) She is the sweetest baby and been really good so far.