Surprise!!! Baby Slade #3 coming soon!

Josh and I were blessed by a precious little surprise during the middle of April!!!  Another positive pregnancy test!!!  Let's just say, we learned that it truly only takes one time!!!  :-)  After getting over the initial shock and awe of the news, we became very excited to welcome a new little Slade into the family this Christmas!!!!

I am due December 28th and am 18.5 weeks.  Here is a picture from 17.5 weeks...  Don't look at the tired eyes from having 2 toddlers... they will only get more and more tired starting in December!!!!  :-)

Wii Fit Headbands

James, Jack, and I were talking about Baby Mikayla being on her way as we ate dinner on Friday night.  They both wanted to say hi to Mikayla so here are their "Hi Mikayla" pictures!  

Silly boy!!!  

Jack waving hi!  Note the awesome "Wii Fit" head band and wrist bands that have become a normal part of Jack's daily attire!  Jack pulls open the end table drawer, takes out the bands, and brings them over to me asking me to put them on!  So incredibly cute (and funny!)

Welcome Baby Mikayla

Auntie Miche had Baby Mikayla this past weekend!!!!  A huge welcome to Baby Mikayla!!!!  James is so excited to have another cousin to play with and Jack isn't so sure about another baby taking his role as the family baby!  :-)  Here are some darling pictures from Mikayla's first few days...  A few quick stats... Mikayla was born on Sunday, July 28th at 2:47pm after 50 hours of labor for little Mama!  She was 2 weeks early and weighed in at 8lbs. 4oz. and 19 1/4 inches long.  And absolutely precious!!!

I absolutely LOVE that darling little bow in Mikayla's hair!  Is she not the cutest little thing ever!  

So sweet snuggling up with Daddy (with her bow of course!)

Someone found her little hand!!!  

Her first car ride on the trip home from the hospital.  Josh wants to know how slow exactly did Gary drive!?!?  :-)

Snuggling with Mommy at home!!!

A few pictures from the hospital waiting room... Let's just say that I think we would all be okay if we never set foot in that room again!  Mommy trying to relax and get a little shut eye after "sleeping" in the waiting room the previous night!

 Greg and Patricia joyfully waiting for their first little grand daughter to be born!

 Greg and Katie trying to entertain themselves to help the time pass a little faster!

 Papa and Uncle Doug watching the minutes tick by and wondering when Baby Mikayla is going to make her appearance!

And me.... life is all about perspective... I had two days of forced sitting in a quiet hospital waiting room with no children to chase after and no chores to do!  Sounds like a perfect weekend to me!!!  :-)  Thank you Baby Mikayla for the mini-vacation!  And welcome to the family!  Hopefully the "Slade tornado" will become a protective force for you!!!

Train Trip Home from Hyundai

I had to drop my car off at the Hyundai dealership in town on Monday for a 60,000 mile tune-up and new front brakes.  Since transferring 2 car seats is such a pain, I decided that riding the light rail 2 stops then walking home would be much easier (and more fun!)  A few cute pictures from the little trip!  

James and Jack chilling in the stroller at the dealership as I was dropping the car off.  As you can see, it was kind of a chilly morning but the boys were enjoying it!

James did a great job of holding Jack's hand to walk him onto the train and to a seat as I got the stroller on the train.  They both enjoyed a little snack during our short trip and enjoyed the scenery!

The boys did a great job of walking off the train together also, then turned around to watch the train drive off.  

It was so incredibly sweet to see the boys continue to hold hands as we walked on the path home!  It's so nice to see that they can actually get along at times!!!  :-)

"Broken Garage Door"

I can't stop laughing.... One of my favorite stories ever!!!!  James is at the cabin tonight with Gaga on a special trip.  Gaga put James to bed around 9pm then went to close the garage door.  The garage door closed partially, then went back up.  Gaga was nervous that James had gone back out in the garage so she went running out there but didn't see him.  She checked the bed and he was resting quietly in bed.  So she tried to close the garage door again but again it went down partially then back up again.  She thought that something may be blocking the sensor so she check the garage but there was nothing blocking it.  Again she tried to close the garage door and again it went back up!  She finally resorted to calling the neighbor, Paul, who suggested that there may be something blocking the sensor.  Again she checked but nothing and again the garage door was not closing and staying closed!  At a complete loss for what to do and what the problem was, she started to get a little nervous since she and James were in the mountains by themselves and she couldn't get the garage door closed.  She finally decided to thank James for lying quietly in bed and explained that there was a problem with the garage door that she needed to fix... at this point James pulled the garage door opener out from under his pillow and said, "You mean this!" with a huge smile on his face!  Every time I think about this story I can't help but laugh out loud over and over again!!!!  Josh has always said that the challenge with James is that he's smart but mischievous like Josh!!!!

Big Boy Underwear

It has been way TOOO long since I have posted on the blog... I keep thinking about it but finding the time just hasn't happened.  And my bigger problem is that there is so much that I have missed that I want to go back and blog about that I would need an entire day to update to this point.  I have decided to look past that and start fresh now (with hopes of someday going back to update!)  Here's a quick update of the last 5 months (I think that is how much I have missed - sad!)

- James turned 3 and Jack turned 1 - where did the time go?!?!?!?  And during those same two weeks, we learned that there will be a new little birthday to celebrate around Christmas time!  We have a new little special sweetie making an "earlier than expected" arrival before the end of the year!  Wow!
- We have made 3 trips to Southern California to visit family and friends!  There are way too many of you down there now... no one else is allowed to leave us for SoCal!  And made a little visit to Mickey Mouse at Disneyland!!!
- We just returned from a family vacation to Maine to visit the Whichard crew and CAMP!  Had a fabulous time and can't wait to return in a few years!
- We have put our house on the market and hoping to find a slightly larger house (to accommodate the growing family!) with a larger yard in Folsom or El Dorado Hills soon!
- And always, James and Jack are growing like weeds and constantly keeping us on our toes!!!  And LOVING them to pieces!!!

So the reason I finally had to post (other than the fact that I actually have a night alone! i.e. time!), James woke up dry this morning!  A little back story... James has been asking to wear day time underoos instead of night time underoos (pull-ups) to bed for the last week or two.  We have told him that the two rules with day time underoos at night are: 1. No drinking after dinner. 2. Must go potty with Mommy or Daddy in the middle of the night if we ask you to.  After many nights of deciding that milk/water were going to win out over the day time underoos, James decided that last night was the night!  And low and behold, he did it!!!  I am so proud of him for waking up dry!!!!  I can't believe how big he is getting!!!!

I must get off to bed now!  Work will come early tomorrow and I could be here all night talking about my amazing and wonderful little boys!  Love to all!!