Update

Sunday September 5th, 2010 we blessed Carson. Mark's brother Kyle and his family, and my parents and three siblings came to visit for the occassion. We had a wonderful weekend with everyone!

Our kids were so happy to have grandma and grandpa, aunts, uncles, and cousins come visit!

We love sharing our hot tub!

Since Gavin is in school all day, everyday, I decided to put Megan in gymanstics to give her something to do. She has only been to one class so far, but she LOVED it. Here she is getting ready practicing how to fall correctly.

This summer was very busy for us, but we did manage to squeeze in one camping trip. It was just in our backyard, but the kids thought it was great!

Here is Carson

We have been super busy lately, so hopefully I will give a more detailed update soon, but until then, here are a few pictures of our cute kiddos! This pic was taken in August. Notice Carson's size.
He's growing like a weed!

These pictures were taken today. At his 2 month appointment Carson was in the 85% for weight. He is growing so fast, he is snuggly, sweet and so darn loveable!

Our New Little Guy

On Tuesday July 13th at 8:54am we welcomed Carson Mark Black into our family.

He weighed 6 pounds 13 and was 19 inches long.
We arrived at the hospital at 5:00am for a scheduled c-section. I was hooked up to monitors and was having regular contractions about every 6 minutes. We expected to go into surgery at 7:30, but because of an emergency c-section we were moved back until about 8:30am. I was so nervous but the nursing staff, operating room staff, anesthesiologist, and doctor were fabulous!
This time around the surgery was very painful but Mark was very supportive and it was over quickly. I was taken to recovery for about an hour and a half and then I got to go hold our handsome little boy.

I fell in love with him instantly!

He has a very quiet, sweet cry.

My parents came into town to take care of Gavin and Megan. It has been so helpful knowing that my children are being well taken care of!

We are so happy to finally be a family of 5!

This is what I looked like the day before he was born. I am so glad he's on the outside now!

Gavin and Megan love him so much and they are great helpers too!

We love our new addition!

What we've been up to

I can't believe we're already a month into the summer! It's crazy how fast time flies! We've been staying plenty busy. Last night we went for a hike with some friends. The kids did great and it felt good to get some exercise.

M is getting good at posing for pictures.
The hike was beautiful! We went at about 6pm which was a perfect time. The weather had cooled down some, but it was still warm and there weren't a lot of bugs. G and his friend were little troopers.

This picture is a month old, but I wanted to share it anyway. My youngest sister graduated from high school and I was so glad we were able to attend. She is a smart, beautiful woman and I'm so proud of her! After 16 years of having kids in high school, my parents are finally done! That's quite the accomplishment!

G and M started swimming lessons a few weeks ago. G is in level 2 and although he is the youngest and smallest in his class, he's doing great!

I am so proud of M. She was nervous to start swimming lessons, but now she LOVES it and she is so brave. She's even gone off the diving board several times!

Birthday Girl

Our sweet Megan recently turned three and she has loved celebrating her birthday for the last week. We are so grateful she is in our family! She is very smart, she loves doing puzzles, reading books, and singing. She is a joy to have around.

We wanted a princess birthday party so we made these cute little cupcakes.

She loves to help me cook and bake.

We had a party with a few of her friends.

This is a random picture, but I wanted to post it. Gavin got to sit in a real Nascar racecar and he thought it was pretty cool.

Spring Break Trip to Texas Part 1

Before another little person joins our family in July, we wanted to go on a fun family vacation, so during spring break we drove to Texas. I was worried about how the kids would handle being in the car for 20 hours, but they were FABULOUS! It ended up being a great trip and it was so nice to see my brother and his family and Mark's sister and her family.
We went to Dinosaur Park where we got to see real dinosaur footprints. They were underwater, so my pictures of the actual footprints didn't turn out very good, but Gavin and Cailyn (my neice) had a fun time crossing the river to get to them.

Megan loved digging for her own fossils in the sand.

We went on a short walk that had several life sized replicas of dinosaurs.

Gavin is fascinated with dinosaurs right now, so he especially loved this part of the trip. He tells me, "Mom, I know everything about dinosaurs."

T-rex got hungry when the kids got too close!

Mark fighting for his life.

Gavin and cousin Jessica.

It was so nice to enjoy 80 degree weather and shorts. We came home to snow!

We spent a day the the Fort Worth Zoo. Here Uncle Jason, Aunt Mindi, and Megan are watching the penguins.

My little Megan is getting so big! Her shirt says, "I didn't ask to be a princess, but if the crown fits..."

The flamingos were beautiful!

When we first got to the lion he was asleep and there was an elementary school class trying very hard to wake him up. After the class left the lion woke up and we got to hear him roar. It was very powerful!

This bird's wing span was huge and he was kind enough to pose for a few pictures.

Gavin and Cailyn played so well together.

We got to pet this nice armadillo. Now Gavin's favorite super hero power is "Armadillo power with super strong armour." Stay tuned for more pictures of our trip.

It's a.....

We had our 20 week ultrasound today and found out we are having a BOY! Gavin and Megan have been pretty sure that the baby is a boy, but it was nice to have a doctor's confirmation. A few weeks ago Gavin grabbed an ultrasound photo from a previous appointment and said, "Mom, Teeny Tine (baby's name for now) is a boy. Look! (pointing to the head) He has short hair." We are very excited and can't wait to pull out baby clothes and get his room ready.