Going going back back to Cali

Our trip back to California this summer was jam packed and  full of  fun!

My mom had come up with Kori and then drove back to CA with me. 

This was our welcome back... traffic and smog.

We had a fun visit with Renata at Fashion Island.

Calvin meet his birthday twin and future wife Liv.

Lots of water play at Nana and Bops house and with cousins.

A Luau put on by the Singles Ward. The released my parents after the Luau. They knew they needed them to help make it happen!

The boys shared a bed at my parents house. That made for some interesting nights.

We had a birthday party for James on his 4th birthday! Transformer Theme of course.

Went to the beach with the Gatlins. Too bad it was super windy. The boys still had fun.

Pre-wedding party for the Mikos.

4th of July Party with all the cousins. The Hathaways and Haws finally joined us!

fireworks at Grandma's house.

Lindsey and Chris' wedding. It was amazing! What a gorgeous day and a wonderful couple. Lindsey thought of everything for this wedding. 

The best part of going back to CA is seeing all these ladies!

Sara had her baby girl Eve while I was in town and I was so excited that I got to meet her!

Then we headed to Palm Springs for a great vacation with my family. It is so fun to all be together. I hope we can do this every year!

Palm Desserts Childrens Museum

The day we got home my friend Carrie and her little boy Tommy came to stay with us.

We had fun playing with Tommy while Carrie had work meetings. 

I'm still hoping they move here :)

Utah sunrise. Even though I love CA and miss my friends and family there... it feels good to be home.

Liva Las Vegas

We took a family trip to Las Vegas so that I could go to my dear friend Lindsey's bachelorette party.

Haws is the best and agreed to my idea of taking the boys so I could go. ( having 3 little boys, including a nursing 3 month old makes it hard to escape).

It took us 8 hours to get there! But we had so much fun spending time at the pool and hanging out. 

Haws stayed with the kids so I could go out with the ladies that night.

After dinner and a show, the girls hopped in the minivan to go dancing. They got to meet Frankie and Freddie the dinosaurs. I am sure it was the highlight of the trip!

Liz and her blonde friends

Love these girls! I am so happy I was able to come on the trip, even if it was only for one night.

Calvin's first 2 months

1 month stats:

8lb 14oz (10%)

21 inches (70%)

head: 41th percentile

Oh little Cal. These past 2 months have been exciting and tiring! Calvin is my hardest baby yet. This is partly due to him having acid reflux, a gassy tummy and not sleeping well. The first month was the hardest. healing from a c-section, moving, taking care of 3 little boys and not getting much sleep was rough! Thank goodness for my mom and Haws' mom who came to help during the hardest parts. 

It's funny... I am writing this at the 2.5 month mark and I am already starting to forget just how rough it was that first month. I'm still not sleeping as much as I would like, but I am usually up only 2 times in the night and then up by 6:30. Now he goes right back down with out fussing where before he would sometimes be crying for an hour straight or on and off for a couple of hours. Things are getting better. We are settled into our new home, Calvin is on medication for his reflux and starting to take naps better. He still spends time sleeping on the go and has been on so many outings that he sleeps though. Calvin is sweet and I can see a very happy baby underneath all his tummy problems. 

My mom gave Calvin his first bottle and he took right to it! Thank goodness. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't escape for a few hours. Date nights and girl nights are important to me. I love my kids... but mama needs a break once in a while to be a wife, a friend and just have some time alone. Calvin also takes formula well which is nice in case we can't bring the breast milk.

James loves Calvin. Sometimes too much :) James likes to get right in his face a talk to him. I wish I could hear what Calvin was thinking. "Hey buddy, give me some space!"

I am not the only one who is sleep deprived. Calvin is still in our room because Davis is still in the crib. We wanted to wait until we had been in the new house a month before we put Davis in a bed. He will also be going into James' room! Big boy bed and sharing a room with James... we aren't sleeping anyway right? 

So when Calvin gets up at night, Haws sometimes wakes up too. That and the fact that Haws gets up super early for work. I don't know how he does it!

Calvin's first bath was a family affair.

Having friends come and meet Calvin has been one of the highlights these past couple of months. There are still so many people I want him to meet!

At 2 weeks old, Calvin went to his first basketball game. The Clippers were in town to play the Jazz and my dad got us all hooked up with tickets to the game. It was so much fun and felt good to get out. Calvin slept through the whole entire game! What a good baby :) He cried the whole way home.

2 month stats:

10lbs 8oz (10%)

23 inches(50%)

Head: 44th percentile

We blessed Calvin at 6 weeks old. I didn't get a single picture of him that day! So I had to recreate it later. He is 8 weeks old in this picture.

We had family and friends come into town for his blessing. It was a very special day. 

A few things I remember about the blessing are:

blessed to follow Christ. To be like the Apostle Peter and have a zeal to follow Christ.

Live by Christs example. Stand up for what he believes in. If he is righteous he will have opportunity to serve a mission and marry in the Temple. 

There was much more but those are the things that stood out.

Our friends gave us this as a gift for Calvin. Isn't it perfect? He may have been born in Utah, but made in CA. His name IS Cal :) 

  

Calvin can be pretty smiley at the right moments of the day. I have even heard come giggles come out of his cute little mouth. I love this picture. Every time I see it I smile right back at him. Calvin is finding his voice and will coo and have little conversations with me. It's the sweetest thing. 

Although these last couple of months have been challenging, I just love this little man! I am so lucky to have these boys in my life.

Davis is 2!

Davis stats at 2 years old:

Weight: 25lbs 6oz (30%)

Height: 35 inches (65%)

Head: 47.8cm (40%)

My sweet little Davis is not so little anymore. He has finally graduated out of the 10th percentile for weight! He is a good eater, I am not surprised. Now that Calvin is around, Davis has automatically grown into a full blown toddler. He has reached the stage of exerting his independence and his favorite word is "no". It is pretty funny when he tries bossing James around (who is the king of bossy) by telling him "no, no, no!" We have enjoyed some public tantrums, but I can't help but laugh at him when they happen. For some reason I just can't take him seriously. James has broken me in I guess.
Davis is such a funny kid. There is just something about the way he carries himself that makes me laugh. He has a little strut and when he runs around his cheeks giggle. The kid has some awesome cheeks. He is behind in his speech and will be starting speech to help him catch up. He still communicates pretty well and understands pretty much everything I say. He is a smart kid and follows directions well (unless he his trying to be naughty). James and Davis have the most fun together when they are doing something they know the shouldn't. If I can hear them laughing a lot, I know I better hurry and see what is going on before too much destruction occurs.
Davis still loves being babied. When he gets up from his naps he wants to be carried around. He will cry at the drop of a hat. I don't know why my boys cry so easily! I guess they are just sensitive.
Davis is going through a phase where he hates taking off his pjs. Sometimes I don't care and just let him wear them all day. I figure this is a time in his life he can get away with it and it's one less person that I need to get dressed :) He is pretty opinionated about what he wears when he does get dressed. Davis loves to dance. Anytime music is playing that he likes, he starts moving his body to the music. Davis loves playing with cars, trucks and dirt. His favorite foods are yogurt, pizza, and snacks foods... but he will eat pretty much anything!
Davis, although he has a mischievous side, is a very cautious kid. It is fun to watch him do things he is unsure of. I've seen him get down on his knees to crawl down a curb! But then today he was standing on top of a table!
Davis is affectionate. Lately, when we are wrapping up dinner he will walk over to Haws and I and hug our legs. There is nothing better than an unexpected leg hug from one of your kids. He loves his brothers. He can call them both by name (he calls Calvin "Cal") and looks for them around the house. I have to watch him around Calvin because his idea of soft is not always very soft. He will touch his head and say "soft" and waits for me to say it back to him.
I love this boy with all my heart! I never thought I would have room to love 3 little boys so much!

Davis loves dressing up.

We had a construction truck birthday party at a park with family to celebrate his birthday.

This was the best idea I had! I bought a Costco cake and then doctored it up to make a construction site. It was the easiest cake ever! He loved that cake.

2014-02-27

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Baby Calvin has joined the crew!

Calvin Allen Hexberg

Born February 25th, 2014 at 7:48am. 

6lbs 15oz and 19.5 inches

The last 7 weeks have been a whirl wind! In the last 5 months we have moved twice and had a baby. The first move was a big one and I am glad I was only 7 months pregnant then. I don't recommend moving with a 4 week old. Especially if you have had that baby via csection. I will talk move about the 2nd move later... this post is about Calvin.

Feb 25th, I was scheduled for a 7am csection. Haws and I had to be there by 5:30am, so my mom (who came into town to help after I had the baby) got to our condo around 5:15am and we headed for the hospital, which was conveniently less than 5 minutes from where we were living.
As we were driving we talked about how surreal it was that we were going to have a baby in a few hours! With everything going on, neither of us had given a lot of thought to how things were going to change or "tune in" to Calvin. The only thought I got was that he was going to be active... maybe a little feisty?  I didn't get the feeling that he was going to be calm and easy like Davis was as a baby. (and what I was hoping for with #3)
The hospital was great. I was nervous switching doctors and hospitals... but I was really happy with both. The nurses were great and got me all prepped for the c-section. I really liked the anesthesiologist. He was friendly and made me feel relaxed. Until I got the drugs!

I remember with Davis having a slight panic attack when the drugs kicked in, but it passed quickly. This time I had the attack again. My blood pressure dropped and I felt like I was going to throw up and pass out. I remember looking at Haws feeling like I might die. Then they gave me some drugs for the blood pressure and some morphine. The panic went away but I still felt like I could pass out any second. I remember just trying to stay awake during the surgery... I didn't want to fall asleep and miss seeing Calvin! I tried to focus on what the docs were talking about... vacations, spouses and how strong my abs were :) All that pilates and Barre work must have paid off even though I hadn't worked my abs for months! (if they could only see them now... not so strong). I also found out that I had extra fluid again this time. That explains why I thought Calvin would be an 8 pounder but he ended up weighing less than 7lbs.
Finally I heard them say he was out and they lifted him over the sheet so I could see him.

I was immediately in love! My first thought was he looked like my nephew Hunter... but I think he just has his own look. When his eyes are closed he reminds me of James, but when they are open he looks like a combo of Hunter and Davis. So really... he just looks like himself :)
He was a good crier in the delivery room and has continued to be a good crier!

I love the hospital stay. It is so nice to have alone time with your baby and get to know them. I stayed 4 nights and thanks to my mom, Haws was able to stay with me the whole time. It is amazing how much your body heals from day 1 to day 4. It took a while for me to get the feeling back in my legs. I wanted to wiggle my toes so bad and couldn't for at least 24 hours! By day 3 I was getting around pretty good considering. The nurses were great and so was the food! I always love getting visitors and they were good about letting you have visitors.

The boys came and saw us later that day. They were so excited to see baby Calvin (even though it doesn't look like Davis was). They were really sweet with him and have been pretty good with him so far. I haven't notice any major problems with them since he was born. We have been going through so much change, I don't know if I would be able to pinpoint what was causing any issues if I tried!

Our family of 5. Love these boys!

My friend from our ward and neighborhood had her baby 3 days after me and we were able to visit with each other in the hospital! Here are our cute little babes.

After our lengthy hospital stay, it was time to head home. It is always crazy how little the babies look when you put them in the car seat for the first time.

The boys were so happy to have us all home. They were especially excited to hold baby Calvin. James is such a good big brother to Calvin and is really sweet with him. Davis is also really sweet with him. I just have to watch him a little more because you never know what a 2 year old is going to do :)

One morning I came down and put Calvin on the floor to have a little "play time". The boys immediately came over to join him. My heart was so full looking at these three little guys loving on each other. I am such a lucky lady! I would have never thought 4 years ago that I would quickly have these 3 guys in my life.