Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Baptism Weekend & East Coast Visitors!


Yeah!  Brian, Katherine, Mikayla and Caden came over to meet little Mason on Friday morning, April 12.  It was so great to see them again!

Mom and Dad Tintle arrived in the afternoon.  Dorian and Levi were full of energy.
They loved meeting and holding little Mason.






On Saturday morning Mom Tintle was busy cutting fruit for our baptism meal and Dorian and Levi were playing a game of soccer together.  :)



Suzanne and Jillian arrived in the afternoon.  They had never been to Sioux Center before so it was fun to show them our house and to also introduce them to Mason of course.  :)



Sunday was a special day!  We do desire more than anything else, for Mason to grow to know and love the Lord and serve Him in all that he does. 
It was especially meaningful to have Brian baptize Mason.
Katherine made this canvas which was super cute and so sweet of her!
Both of our moms, Kerry, and Heidi helped us in preparing a meal to eat after the church service.  With friends and family there, we had around 60 people!


Mason was really good all day and looked so precious!

Dorian and Levi were happy to help with clean-up since it meant they could push this big broom around. :)



 
Monday was the last day that Mom and Dad Tintle and Suzanne were here.   
This is how Levi used to sleep!  :)
 
The boys had fun teaching Grandpa and Grandma how to play Ticket to Ride.
Dorian had to sing 3 songs with all of the kindergarteners before the school musical.  He did absolutely wonderful!!!  He was so brave and completely comfortable!  The songs sounded perfect and it brought tears to my eyes.  I was just thinking of how thankful I was that we could send him to such a good Christian school.
 
The chevron rug was a last minute addition to the nursery.  I love it!!! 
 Katherine, Mikayla and Caden came over to play and hold Mason.

Dad loves to buy tractors for his grandsons!
Levi was dressed as a cowboy for Wild West Day at preschool.  He was most excited about his rope and pretended to round up cows for a while, but actually rounded up Molly instead. :)  He told us that he was the only one that brought a rope to preschool and was pretty proud of it!
Today is April 23...which means Mason is 1 MONTH OLD!!!  I'm so blessed to have 3 beautiful, healthy boys and I love watching each of them grow and learn new things!
 

3 weeks

My last post was about Mason's first 3 days.  This one is about his first 3 weeks at home. 
 
This was Mason's first outing.  Nathan and I went to the Fruited Plain for lunch and little Mason slept through all of it! 
He is so tiny and precious.  And I think he's cute with his paci in his mouth.
Dorian loves all of the faces that Mason makes and was imitating him in this photo.  :)  I also found Dorian talking to Mason and telling him where his nose, ears, eyes, etc were.  I absolutely love how much Dorian loves his new little brother!
5 days old and taking your first bottle, Mason!  I'm really going to love it if you are willing to have a bottle once in a while!
This was the first time that I washed your hair and you were so sleepy and content.  I know that Dorian and Levi screamed through their first bath...but this was much preferred.
It's been fun to get some new clothes as gifts and we have Aunt Heidi to thank for this cute onsie!
Mason had a little jaundice so I laid him in the sunshine during the day. 
I'm so thankful that Molly has been so good to him up to this point.  She sniffs Mason, and likes to sit by me when I'm holding him, but most of the time she just ignores him.

One week old already!  I have really enjoyed and soaked in everything from our first week together.

We had our first outing as a family of 5!  We met all of the Bolkema's at the Dordt game room. 
My beautiful sisters!
Dorian had fun bowling. 
Love this picture of my mom holding Mason.


Levi thought it was awesome to wear Tyler's big cowboy boots.  I love to see him being silly and to see his great big smiles!
Easter morning.  The beginning of week 2.  What a busy morning.  Church didn't start until 10:30...but we were rushed all morning to get out the door on time (and still ended up being late).  We are still getting used to how long things will take now.  :) Nathan had a little egg hunt for the boys.
We ate a delicious dinner at mom and dad's house and the older cousins had a blast organizing an egg hunt for the little kids.  Later that afternoon, Nathan was curled up in pain.  He doesn't know how he hurt his back, but he was nearly unable to move.  The timing wasn't great since I was still recovering myself. He stayed home from work for nearly a week, went to physical therapy, and tried to help.  We did only what we had to do to take care of ourselves and our 3 little boys for the following week.

Skyping with Grandpa and  Grandma Tintle.  Mason was wide awake in his bouncy seat and the older boys had gone to sleep for the night so it was perfect timing.

Mason's first time in the swing.
My mom bought this sweatshirt for Levi and it is now his favorite!  He loves purple and he loves the big pocket in the front. 
What a precious memory...reading with my 3 boys!!!

Beginning of week 3: We were expecting company in less than a week and having baptism. Our house needed to be cleaned, groceries bought, food made, etc. Nathan wasn't supposed to lift more than 5 pounds and could still barely carry Mason.  I'm so thankful to live near family and extremely THANKFUL for everything that they've done to help us out.

It doesn't feel like Spring around here yet unfortunately.  The snow was perfect for making a snowman however!
Ice covered everything.  There were tons of branches down, but since we don't have any old trees, we only had a couple of branches that broke off.  The branches on this tree were touching the ground and typically they are about 6 feet off the ground!

Thankfully the weather didn't delay Brian and Katherine and Mom and Dad Tintle from arriving.  It just would have been nice to have warmer weather!