Little Nathan's First Bath

 Cooper wanted to help with his new little baby brothers first bath.  Of course the little guy wasn't so fond of being cold and wet.  He cried through the whole experience.  The kids are all concerned about his "hurt" belly button.  He smelled so sweet after being all clean.  

Sweet Newborn

  Baby Nathan is a sweet precious boy.  He was meant to be here in our family.  He’s been waiting his turn to come join our family.  He melts my  heart, I just love to hold him close.  I am going to cherish every single moment with this boy because he most likely will be my last newborn.  I don’t want to forget these sweet moments with this little boy who carries my wonderful husband’s name.  Thank heaven for this little boy.

The Boys with their Dad

These 2 boys have such a wonderful father.  I love their toothless grins in these photos.  Jax is missing his upper teeth and Cooper is missing his bottom teeth!  The tooth fairy is common in our home.  Nate enjoys taking these big boys places with him to work.  He takes them to installs now and again, to work in the remodeling of the building.  But most often he will take them along to help people move.  They are good hard workers too.  Below is a photo of them helping to move someone. They are in the back of the trailer helping to load boxes.  What great workers!  They love helping their dad.  In fact, they often fight over helping him.  

Welcome Nathan Blake Routsong

Baby Nathan is here. He arrived at 5:21 am on July 24, Pioneer Day. 7 lbs 2.5 ounces and 21 inches long.  

I had consistent contractions Sunday night that got consistently stronger but not super painful. They lasted all night till I fell asleep at 5 am when they must have stopped because I slept till 7 and woke up feeling nothing.  I thought things might begin happening during the day, but nothing.  Then, Tuesday night the contractions came on again at night.  They got to be 10 minutes apart and progressively stronger and more painful.  But again, I fell asleep around 5am because they must have stopped and woke up in the morning feeling nothing.  I kept getting my hopes up and then feeling discouraged.  

So Wednesday night I climb in bed and wait for Nate to get home.  He got home around 10:30 at night from work and church and came to tell me about his day.  He said he watched a YouTube video about acupuncture that induces labor and proceeded to show me what he learned.  He started massaging and pressing pressure points on my left shin and ankle.  About 2 minutes later I feel a POP and a gush!  My water had broken.  Acupuncture works?!!  Crazy timing!

So about 12:00 midnight we headed up to Auburn to the Auburn Birthing Center with our bags packed.  Contractions began almost immediately after my water broke and were painful and consistent.  Each bump on the road induced another hard contraction.  So I was already in quite a bit of pain by the time we arrived. 

Stephanie had already birthed two babies earlier that day.  She is a busy woman!  But she was ready and happy for a third of the day when we called in at midnight.  I was dilated to 4 centimeters, so I still had a ways to go.  I got a dose of antibiotics and just continued in labor.  Contractions got stronger and hurt terribly. After a while I got to be 6.5 centimeters and fully effaced. Baby was at 0 station.  I continued walking to allow gravity to help, but got dizzy and nauseaus. So I got into the jacuzzi tub with jets for relief.  It definitely dulled the pain.  It felt like the contractions had slowed or spread apart, but Stephanie said that is what is perceived because the jets help hide the constant cramping and the beginning and end of the contractions.  So it definitely brought relief.  But is was there that baby was quickly making his way downward. I could feel the changes.  I was so exhausted a at this time that I was literally falling asleep in between hard contractions.  Then the pain got so intense.  Stephanie scrubbed up. She said we were really close.  That gave me motivation.  This was almost over.  Nate had some inspirational music playing that also gVe me strength.  I was praying in my head, calling on my Father in Heaven to help me get through this.  I knew it would all be done in less than 10 minutes and I knew I could give my all for ten minutes.  I pushed hard, with all my might, energy as well as voice.  Baby was turned a bit, so once his head was out, Stephanie had to help spin him a bit.  A couple more hard pushes and our baby was here and the pain was done.

And he was perfect. It was so surreal to look and him and wonder how he had just been inside of me, and now he was here in my arms.  It felt like I was dreaming.  A very surreal experience.  Because we had not planned on this pregnancy, it was more surreal than ever. But this little guy was determined to come to earth, and motivated to join our family.  I have no doubt that he has a great work to accomplish in this world, because nothing was going to stop him from making his entrance.  The name Nathan means "a gift from God" which is fitting because he truly was a gift given to us from God, Gods will that he came to us at this time.  

Since baby and mama were doing well, we were able to go home around noon.  Grandma Hutchinson was home with the kids and couldn't believe we were home already. The kids were all so excited and had gotten blue flowers and wrote out a card.  

We consulted with the kids on a final decision for his name.  All the kids were dead set on Baby Nathan.  Ever since I was a teenager, Nathan was on my list of baby names.  And who better to name him after than his wonderful daddy, a beautiful example of love, service, and success.  

Baby Nathan was born on "Pioneer Day," a holiday honoring the LatterDay Saint pioneers that crossed the plains and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.  Nathan has LDS pioneer heritage from the Martin Handcart Company.  His great great great great grandfather was James Godson Blake.  He brought his family from England to join the pioneer trek.  His family was promised in a blessing that their whole family would make it to Utah. At one point James had gotten so I'll that they left him on the trail and moved on.  Remembering their family's promise, they went back for him and nursed him back to health. His toes were frostbitten so terribly that he couldn't walk, but had to be pulled by his family in the handcart.  He was unable to walk for a long time, but their whole family did indeed make it to the Salt Lake Valley and their promise was fulfilled.  Baby Nathan's middle name is Blake, so his whole name has a whole lot of meaning and purpose.  We love him so very much.  Welcome to the family, little one.

Summer Activities

This summer has been a lot of fun so far.  Each of the kids chose to be involved in a couple different activities.  Jaxton wanted to go Science Central, a hands on children's science museum.  He goes every Thursday for a whole day of themed fun.  Some of the themes have been Space, Sound & Light waves, and Dinosaurs & Fossils.  He has really enjoyed these camp Thursdays and has come home with all sorts of new facts he is eager to share.  

Cooper loved doing gymnastics in Utah with his cousins so much that he chose to sign up for a summer boys gymnastics class.  They do all sorts of neat boy gymnastics activities like learning to walk on and swing on the parallel bars, tricks on the swinging rings, and flips and jumps on the giant trampoline.  He also enjoys trying to master handstands and hand walking.  Our living room has become a gymnastics floor.  

Kaylee took a free gymnastics class with her friend Carter in the spring and she loved it.  So she is taking a summer session for 3 year olds and she just loves every minute of it.  She is not shy or hesitant at all; she just goes out there and follows her teachers instructions and waves to me from afar.  And she's adorable in her cute gymnastics outfit!

Jaxton and Cooper also have taken up piano lessons.  They are able to read now, which makes a world of difference in how much quicker they can learn.  They are both learning fast and feeling confident when they can play familiar songs by themselves.  They are even able to hear and recognize notes and figure out familiar tunes by listening to the sounds.  Cooper wants to stick with piano and will take lessons at school this coming year.  Jaxton hopes to learn guitar, so he is getting some piano background and will take guitar lessons at school this coming year.

Dawson gets to watch all his older siblings do all these fun things and hang out with me.  I wonder what his interests will be as he gets older...

Fun at Science Central

The sideways house

 The Science Central playground

 M&M's science experiment:  Watching the letter M come off the candy and float in the water.

 The kids spent lots of days and overnights at Grandma and Grandpas!

Simplx was busy too.  Cooper helped out at the Hispanic Festival in Fort Wayne.

 Our trip to the fair downtown Fort Wayne

 Kaylee & Cooper's Gymnastics

Uncle Nick & Aunt Carissa came to Indiana to visit from Arizona.  They brought 2 year old Kipton and little Aria.  We all had a lot of fun spending time with their family!

The Jim Gill Concert at the Downtown Library.  We love Jim Gill and it was awesome to see him in real life!! He is just as goofy as he sounds in his songs!

Fourth of July 2014

Today is the Fourth of July.  We are proud to be in America!  We celebrated this holiday with the entire Routsong family in Noblesville at Melissa & Johns house.  Every family was there, which was awesome so we were able to get a massive family photo.  Nate's mom & dad and grandma Martha, Melissa & John's family, Beth & Abe's family, Mike & Kim's family, and Nick & Carissa's family even came from Arizona.  It was wonderful to have everyone there and to visit with all the Routsong family. 

They set up bounce house with a slide and turned into a water slide for the kids.  They had a blast.  Kaylee took 2 slides down and then got dunked underwater. She was done sliding after that but still enjoyed the water and bouncing.  They also all enjoyed the trampoline of course. We had a very large barbecue with lots of yummy food and desserts.  Cooper had a blast turning into Jedi and fighting light sabers with his cousin Ash.  Jaxton spent a lot of time with his cousin Jack working on Ninja Turtles and legos.  Kaylee made friends with Madi playing in the dollhouse and with baby dolls.  Dawson worked hard on building train sets and getting his hands and feet wet in the water.  He was too smart to get all wet in that cold water, but he enjoyed it just as much!  

We all had a great time.  Now on home to set off fireworks to celebrate America!

The Great Wolf Lodge

Saturday evening Nate came home antsy to get out of town.  After a bit of research and making sure all obligations were covered, we settled to leave in the morning for Sandusky, OH and stay at the Great Wolf Lodge, an indoor water park and family friendly hotel.  Kids were stoked! We packed our bags and set out for a short, but much needed family getaway!

After 2 and a half hours we arrived and checked in to our hotel room, changed clothes and went to get wet!  It was a blast.  The two big boys got A lot of practice swimming I shallow water.  They are capable little swimmers now, dunking under water and holding their breath a long time.  They are old enough and big enough to go down bigger kids water slides now on their own.  And they loved it.  We lost count how many times they went down those slides.  Cooper was practicing swimming so much his little eyes turned bright red.  Jaxton loved when the giant bucket would dump and he would walk  as fast as he could each time he heard the warning sings before it dumped.  Kaylee's favorite was the smaller water slides that landed in 2 feet of water.  She could do those slides confidently on her own, and we lost count how many times she would go down those.  She also liked floating on the lazy river and figured out how to float around in her life jacket in deep water.  Dawson liked the kiddie slides too, but had mixed emotions of fear and joy as he came sliding down.  He loved the basketball hoops in the water and wouldn't let any other kids have his ball.  We got in the kid friendly hot tub, which was really like a regular pool heated to 90 or 95 degrees and within the first few minutes of being warm with daddy in that pool, he fell fast asleep.  He slept for a long time in daddy's arms after that.  

The next morning we decided to go check out the beaches in Sandusky and Huron, OH.  We found a nice sandy beach in amongst a residential area called Nickelback Beach.  The kids loved if.  You couldn't see the other side of the lake and the kids tried to understand the difference between a lake beach and an ocean beach.  Jaxton and Cooper had no fear of the waves and enjoyed riding them up to their chests.  Kaylee made a sand castle with me and we waited till the ride filled our moat with wAter.  She was ok with getting her toes wet by the waves, but that was as far as she'd go in. Dawson just wandered the beach, found sticks and rocks, and just enjoyed being outside.  Actually, as we walked from the car all the way down the sandy beach toward the water, he was looking down at the sand.  When he looked up and saw the beach and the water and waves, he exclaimed "Ohhh wowwww!"  He was surprised.  

After our beach trip we went back to the waterpark for a few hours and then headed home.  It is nice that Nate can use his Mondays to spend with us.  We had so much fun together as a family!!

The End of First Grade

Jaxton has finished 1st grade!!!! That, I can hardly believe! My big boy is growing up!  He has had an awesome first grade experience with a phenomenal teacher, Mr. R.  His teacher was recommended to us and so we requested him and we are sure glad we did.  I have been so impressed with him, his mannerism with his class, his organization, his fun & laid back style and his excitement for learning. A few times I caught him reading to the kids with such animation and energy, it was hard not to become engaged in the story.  I got to help him weekly with copies and box tops and the bullitan board. So it was fun getting to know him a little through my volunteer work.  I think Jaxton benefited greatly from his teaching.

Jaxtons classroom put on a play for the Shel Silverstisn book, "The Giving Tree."  I went to see it and Jaxton was one of several narrators.  He had memorized his lines and spoke loud and clear. It was a lot of fun to watch and a great opportunity for him to experience a bit of drama.

The first graders also had been working on First in Math all year, an online math program to learn skills, problem solve and earn "stickers."  In the course of the year, he earned over 4,000 stickers and won a medal for his success.  The program was done mostly at school, and Jaxton would come home with lots of outrageous questions for a first grader, like what does the dot mean with numbers before and after the dot?  And what does that line mean with numbers on top and under?  So of course his curiosity led to fun teaching moments where I tried to explain decimals and fractions with pies and pizza slices.  He is a little mathmerician!  

Congrats Jaxton on finishing 1st grade!  On to Second!

The End of Kindergarten

Cooper has graduated from Kindergarten!!  He officially is a first grader, and I can hardly believe it!!  He really has had a great kindergarten year with a great classroom of friends and a great teacher, Mrs. Kinsey.  He has learned so so much too. As I was looking at his report card it stated that at the beginning of the school year he was reading at "level B" on an alphabet scale.  Now at the end of Kindergarten he is reading at a "level J," which technically is a Second grade level. It's amazing how he has thrived academically this year.  

Cooper had a Kindergarten Music Concert.  His class, along with 5 other kindergarten classes, put on a music program for parents and families.  It was so fun watching him with his friends and singing the songs he's worked on for so long.  They even had a folk dance to perform.  He was so happy out there!  

Cooper has made some great friends.  Drew is a confident little guy that can't wait for his birthday party in July. He talks about it every time I see him. And Easton is a sweet boy who rides the bus with Cooper and the two have become great buddies.  Cameron and Jacob are other fun friends.  We hope to have some  friends over this summer a and to keep in touch with neighborhood friends even if the kids go to a different school next fall.

Happy Kindergarten Year, Cooper!!  On to first grade!!