Moving & Painting

We are ready for our move. We can't wait to get into our little house. I really can't wait to get out of that in between stage when you are kind still living at both places, hopefully that makes sense. Moving is such a pain, and is even harder when you have a "helper" who wants to climb like a mountain goat on your packed boxes, or empty the boxes, or play in the cardboard boxes before you can fill them up. Thank heaven for naps! To help distract her though I had a fun new activity for Natali to do. Do you remember those paint books that all you had to do was brush water on the page and the little dots of color dissolved and it looked you were using water colors. I loved those when I was little and them seemed less messy and I wanted to buy some for Natali. I couldn't find them anywhere and I was telling my mom about it. Leave it to moms...she found two books in a dollar store. They are super cute and Natali thought they were the coolest thing ever. It bought me some good packing time. The best part is that they are in Spanish (just the little captions at the bottom)! Obviously Natali could care less, but it just makes me laugh. Thanks Mom!

Week 7

Isaac is 7 weeks old this Friday. He is getting so big. He is having more awake time and is starting to develop a little bit of a schedule (if you can call it that). Last night Ben laid him on the couch on his stomach after a feeding. He usually likes a little tummy time. Anyway...I was in the other room and Ben starts yelling for me to come...and there was Isaac...rolling from his stomach to his back. Now to set the record straight, Ben and I are certain the couch cushion must have been on a slant, but none the less we are claiming (just to each other) that Isaac is a genius and already rolling! Just kidding...I am not that incredibly anxious for him to become mobile for a long time!

Kisses

Natali just loves to give her brother kisses. We are promoting the kisses on top of his head, but I know that when I am not looking she kisses his face. But I can't blame her...look at those cheeks! Natali is still doing pretty good about being a big sister. She hasn't told us yet to take him back to the hospital (which my oldest brother announced to my mom a few weeks after bringing baby #2 home).

I love the look on Isaac's face..."Mom make her stop!"

Going in for the kill

Mission completed! What a sweet big sister!

4 Weeks Old

Isaac is now 4 weeks old and getting more cute each day! He is just so cuddly...how could he not be with cheeks like that. He is a big boy. He has already graduated into the 3-6 month clothing since the 0-3 is skin tight on him and a pain to put on. This morning I was changing his onesie and after sitting there stretching out the arm holes to make it easier to put on, I finally decided for his sake and mine we were going to move up to 3-6 mon. clothing. Natali was a big baby as well, but she leveled off right after being born. Not Isaac, he is packing it on! We can finally start giving him baths in his little tub now that his cord has finally fallen off. I have been "wet" on several times...and I am sure there is more to come. The differences of having little boys vs. little girls I guess. This upcoming Saturday marks the first BYU football game of the season and you can all be assured that Ben & Isaac will be watching together (as will the rest of the family)...but now Ben can do it with his boy! I can't believe it has already been 4 weeks. I still wonder though...what is going to happen with his hair, and what color will his eyes be?

The Weigh In...

Today I took Isaac back to the doctors just for a weight check to make sure he was back to birth weight. Last week at his two week appointment he was 10.7 lbs. Just two ounces shy of birth weight. Today, at three weeks old he weighed...drum roll please...11.9 lbs! Needless to say, back and surpassed birth weight. We love our little chunk!

Our Two Kids

On Sunday Ben took Natali with him to church while I stayed home with Isaac. I took the chance to snap a few more photos. Ben has been so patient with all my picture taking...he hates having his picture taken. What a good sport he has been!

A proud dad

Our two kiddos!!! What little angels

Grandma Gerry

Yeah for mom's is all I have to say! My mom left on Sunday and was here for a week. It was great! She stocked the fridge, made meals, helped with Natali, and best of all... just the fact that she was here. She was very diligent about not letting me pick things up or push myself too hard with the c-section. She also made sure I took as many naps as possible. It was always the big internal struggle...take a nap or stay awake with my mom. Due to extreme exhaustion I took the nap. The truth is Natali can be a handful, and I think my mom needed the nap too! She kept saying..."There is a reason you have babies when you are young!" It was so good to have my mom here. Hopefully she will be back soon.

We're All Home

It has been so good to all be home together. Natali loves being a big sister and mommies little helper. Sometimes she wants to help a little too much, but what else would you expect from a two year old. Isaac had his two week check up last Friday. His doctor said he looked great! His weight was, 10.7, so almost back to birth weight. So that made him 95% for weight, and he was 75% for height and head circumference. Everyone keeps telling us he will be our little linebacker, but I am not sure I could handle being a football mom (sitting on the sidelines watching your child get pounded). Ben keeps telling me it is inevitable. Thankfully that it is many years down the road.

Isaac Update

Isaac is home! He was discharged from the NICU on Friday morning, and we have loved every minute of having him here with us. He is eating and sleeping well, and big sister is just enthralled in his every move. It is hard finding a balance of letting Natali feel involved while at the same time protecting Isaac. Ben and I keep telling ourselves that there are tons of kids out there who survived having older siblings, hopefully Isaac will be one of them! At the hospital they had him on a awesome schedule of eating every 4 hours. It was heaven. That stopped the moment we got home. Now he is back to eating about every 3 hours. I am feeling fine. My mom is here and that makes all the difference in the world. She is taking care of Natali and making sure that I am resting and napping as much as possible. I am already dreading the thought of her leaving. Thanks for all the calls, emails, thoughts, and prayers. We feel so lucky to have our little boy healthy and at home with us. The nurses kept telling us it was just amazing how quickly he was recovering and that his progress was so fast. We are blessed.

Big Sister

Today we brought Natali up for the second time to see baby Isaac. She came up once before but we didn't have our camera with us. Here we are waiting for Isaac to come to the window with Dad and Aunt Hollie.

Where is baby brother?

Here they come!

Natali got so excited! She started blowing kisses and kissing the window. We still aren't sure if she realizes it is "our" baby but she was so excited to have us all together as a family.

No More Tubes

Slowly over the last couple of days Isaac has slowly been losing his different tubes. His oxygen tubes has been off for awhile. Today his feeding tube was taken out and his IV was stopped! Yeah!!! He is doing so well. He is eating just great and just an angel. He is so snugly and kissable.

Dad and his baby boy!

Aunt Hollie got to hold and help feed Isaac.

Baby Issac

Here is Isaac all hooked up to his different monitors and machines. I still haven't held him yet.I finally got to hold my baby boy! I was SO SO SO happy, my little 10.9 lb chuck!

Look at those rolls!

Ready to Have a Baby!

Here I am ready Friday morning, off for the c-section!

Baby Update

Just a quick update on what is going on with baby Isaac. The plan as of now is that hopefully this weekend we will have our little guy. This Thursday I will go in the morning for an appointment where they will do an amnio test. This test will determine whether or not the his lungs are developed enough. When they did this with Natali her lungs were just fine so we are hoping for the same with Isaac. Then the doctor will decide if he wants to admit me to the hospital Thursday night or Friday morning to induce labor. So hopefully we will have some big news either Friday or Saturday about the arrival of the newest member of our family. All I have to say is I am ready!!! I don't remember being this big and uncomfortable with Natali, but Ben keeps reminding me that I was. I keep telling Ben that is must be part of the plan to make the moms so miserable at the end, because at this point I would do just about anything to have this baby and willingly welcome the sleepless nights to come (I sure am not sleeping well right now anyway). Just thought I would give an update. Hopefully the next post is all about Isaac and we will finally have found out the big question...What color hair does he have?

A Visit from Grandma & Grandpa

Mom and Dad Fluhman came out last Saturday to visit us in Iowa! We had SO much fun. Dad's dream is to be on a working farm surrounded by cattle and corn, so Iowa was a perfect vacation. We had 6 full days of shopping, playing, and lots of eating. I think we are all going to have to go through detox for a week or two. Natali loved having Grandma & Grandpa here. Every morning she woke up and asked for them and loved all the attention. She was spoiled by her grandparents and loved all the action of the week. The girl likes to be on the go. We took Mom & Dad to some of our Des Moines favorites. We went to Valley Junction for antique shopping and then later in the week for the Farmer's Market. We drove up to Ames and gave them the Hickory Park experience (great BBQ). We went to several malls to stay cool in the air conditioning and had some Bauder's ice cream. Like I said earlier...lot's of eating. It was quite the adjustment from the dry Utah heat to our Midwest humidity. We took it nice and easy most days. Plus the fact that I am about a week away from having the baby ( I am moving rather slowly and gingerly). We gave them the tour of Ben's school and we even got to drive them buy our cute little house in Valley Junction that we will be moving into at the end of September (still renting...but at least it is a house!). It was such a treat to have them here with us, especially for how long they were able to stay. We loved every minute!!!

4th of July

For the 4th of July we went over in the morning to the Centerville parade. Thanks to Liz and Stephan we had front row seats. They had to go over the night before and rope off a section for all of us (and defend it!). Natali enjoyed it for the most part. The fire trucks with their sirens going scared her. She was more excited to see them leave. She started waving and saying, "see ya later fire trucks, see ya later." There was a float with Disney Princesses on it and Natali thought that was pretty cool. She went to bed around 7:30 that night, so again another 4th passed without Natali seeing any fireworks...it's probably better that way!

Stephan, Ben & Baby Charlie (Liz's newest little boy)

Mom and Natali watching the parade (and trying to stay cool)

Oliver and Natali (they are 2 1/2 months apart)

Playing with Cousins

Natali loved playing with all her cousins. When we first got into Utah most of the family was at Ben's parents house. All the cousins just swarmed Natali and followed her where ever she went. At one point they went upstairs into the playroom and when they were coming back down I went over to make sure she was okay coming down the stairs. I think each cousin was holding onto her somewhere, she loved the attention. Since we have been back in Iowa she goes through a grocery list of names to see if any cousins, aunts, uncles, or grandparents are coming over to play.

Grace & Natali wearing matching outfits

John playing some songs for Natali

Coloring at Grandma's

Jack, Mary, & Natali up in the playroom

Playing Outside

Natali loved playing outside at Grandma & Grandpa's. Grandpa had a great garden that Natali enjoyed walking around and expecting. They also had a sandbox, trampoline, and a giant swing set. Everyday we went out and played for hours, especially when cousins were over. No wonder she slept so good at night and for so long!

Walking around Grandpa's Garden

She perfected climbing this ramp!

Getting ready to go outside

Grace & Natali on the swing

Grandma out with the kids

Four Generations of Fluhmans

We went up and visited with Great Grandma Fluhman on evening. It was so good to see her. We had to take some photos to capture the moment. Here are four generations of Fluhmans: Natali, Ben, Grandpa, and Great Grandma.


Natali loved Grandma's house with all her little knick knacks...a little too much. We had to keep a pretty tight leash on her, and had to cut our visit short in order to preserve all of Grandma's things. Especially the jigsaw puzzle in work.