Chase Tanner Christensen

There is seriously nothing better than waking up at one in the morning 9 days before your due date to realize you are having a baby! Well the only thing that could be better is to get to the hospital and realize your birthing room looks like a spa! My room was literally huge -- they had just remodeled the whole maternity unit -- and had a jacuzzi in it. The L & D nurse (you can only call your labor and delivery nurse a L & D nurse if you have had at least 2 kids!) got the jets going for me and then asked if I would like some aromatherapy! This is not a joke she seriously did ask me if I did and then spread some around my room...who does that??? Well after an hour bath my contractions stopped (I was having such a good time I may have forgotten to tell the nurse they stopped) she caught on and made me walk for awhile. Long story short I gave birth to basically the hottest Iowan ever at 1:09 in the afternoon! Though my doctor was like "wow this guy is huge, he must weigh 9 lbs." Chase Tanner was actually 8 pounds 6 ounces and 20.5 inches long. His older brother was 10 days early, 8 lbs 11 ounces and 21.5 inches. Chase has HUGE cheeks and literally didn't cry for the first 48 hours of his life. Apparently most babies don't cry much the first little while but I still think we've got a good one. So far my favorite face he makes is when he is really mad. He gets it if I don't pick him up fast enough or feed him fast enough and its hysterical. Cooper seems to be doing pretty good with the little guy and has tried to pick him up and carry him multiple times. He also is good at poking and prodding Chase mostly when he is asleep. He'll be a great older brother. Well I can let my great nurses know they made it onto my blog -- I told them I would absolutely tell the world how great their facility was. And it better be...it is where I brought someone pretty great into the world.

Lions and Tigers and Rats...oh my! Halloween 2008

I knew Cooper had to be a rat this year when I was in Old Navy and I had him try it on and I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants! So did five other people in the store (laughed...not peed their pants). Well traditionally you take your little kid out October 31 and get loads of candy...well not here in Iowa! People go out October 30th for "Beggers Night" and collect candy but they have to tell you a joke before you give them any candy. I'm not sure how these rules got started and I was sure I was being lied to until I saw people trick-or-treating with my own eyes. So October 30th we went out and did some trick-or-treating ourselves! We learned a few things real quick that night. We have no good jokes to tell so we tried to play the we just moved here from out of town and don't know your crazy "beggers Night" rules...card. And Cooper can grab that Reeses Peanut Butter Cup just as easy as that tootsie roll. So we tried to train Cooper in the ways of candy. I don't care what anyone says bigger IS always better! By the end of the night we had lots of delicious candy that we did not share with Cooper but we ate ourselves...until we felt sick! What a Halloween!!!