Bryce Thomas

April 16th 2012, started out like most pregnant days.  This day I happened to be 38 weeks pregnant and off to the doctor for a routine visit.  The appointment went fine and I came home, went to the grocery store, had lunch with the kids, had a little rest, came downs stairs, and my water broke at 2:30!

An hour and half later this little fella popped out without an epidural...NOT BY CHOICE!!!

Time of Birth:  4:04pm

Birth Weight:  6 lbs. 11.8 oz

Length:  18 1/4 inches

I was so happy to see this little fella, even though we have four boys now, they are all so different.

 This last picture is right before we left for home...I was thrilled to be getting out of that hospital...I'm so much more relaxed and comfortable at home.

Happy Easter

Here's my three little ones on Easter! We had a fun weekend filled with the usually Easter activities. The boys are on Spring Break this week, but we're laying low since we'll be adding another little boy to this picture soon. Went to the doctor this morning and things have continued to progress since my visit last week. We're all getting excited and ready for our new baby brother.

Signing off.......

Hi there Friends and Family! Just wanted to let you know that this is my last post. I've been thinking about getting rid of my blog for the last 6 months or so and finally decided to go through with it. It's been fun, but I'm done. I've decided to go back to the old fashion way of communicating, email and actually talking. In a few days, I will change my settings so that it looks like I've gone private, and then after I figure out how to put what I've posted into a book, I'll delete it. So when you come to check my blog and it says for invited readers only, don't feel like I left you out. Hope things are going well with everyone...I'm sure I'll talk or see you soon...this is Tara signing off............

Special Delivery

Jake arrived two weeks ago, on March 14th...he weighed 7lbs 10 oz and was 20 inches long. Things went rather quickly as far as his delivery...thank goodness. I'll save you the details. He's been a great addition...sweet, cuddly, laid back baby....We love him and feel so bless to have him in our family.

This is Max and Jake's first time meeting...Max was so cute, he wanted to hold him immediately and the next thing out of Max's mouth to his father was, "Take a picture of this little guy!"

Seth is doing really well with him too, he is still learner how to love Gently. He loves to know where he is and what he is doing. Yesterday, he even wanted to join in the feeding and asked if he could taste some Mommy Milk...of course I said heck no, go find your father...I'll be done in a minute.

Jake has rather large feet, they make me laugh every time I look at them

And long fingers...I love to look and study all of Jake's little features while I'm holding and feeding him.

He has just as much hair as the other boys did, except for it's a lighter than their hair was. He also has dimples...that is something new...can't wait til he can give us big smiles and we can see these dimples in action.

Ready and Waiting

I've never been prepared and ready for a baby before, I've always felt like I would have time and that it was too early to get things in order. For my first two pregnancies, that was not the case...They both came at a complete surprise, one at 38 weeks and the other at 36 weeks--I was caught with things half done or not done at all. This time I wasn't going to let that happen, I was going to ready...totally ready--not just have the house cleaned and all the baby stuff out, but I've even had time to let someone take maternity pictures of me, something I've never done before. Some say you should treat every pregnancy and baby like it could be your last (I'm not saying I'm done) and I feel like I've really tried to make this one special. It would be easy not to since it's my third boy, but I've done some real special things for him that I'm real happy about. Now for the first time I'm waiting with nothing really to do before this little one gets here except get more excited to see him and how he will be received by his big brothers.
Just like the others, we never have a set name for our baby until we finally meet him. We do have a small list of names we like, but if any of you out there have a favorite boy name you would like us to consider that would go well with our current names (Maxton and Seth) please put them in your comments.
The longest I have to wait is two weeks (my due date is the 26th), but maybe this little one will show himself soon. We are so excited to see you little baby Hale...come out, come out, whenever you can!

Fall Fun

I know I'm not the best at blogging regularly, but it's not because we are boring and not doing anything around the Hale House. First of all, I've been busy cookin a new little bun...that right, we've got another bun in the oven that should be ready in March...very excited about this news! But lately, me and the boys did our annual apple picking last week. We had the best time, here are a few pictures-

PiCtUrEs!!!

It's been a LONG time since I posted some pictures. I was having a ton of technical difficuties before the new year with my computer and then this year I've had to wait a bit trying to get all my picture back together, but now I'm finally in a good place right now electronically speaking and so here goes a post chuck full of pictures. We'll call it..."a photo time line/quick way to review the fall and holidays/update on how much the boys have grown/ramdomness" That title should just about cover it?!?

In the middle of Dec. Ben and I took Maxton to Disney on Ice...He had an awesome time since he's been watching Play House Disney instead of PBS

Seth opening up his Christmas Presents from his Grandma and Opa Hale

Max opening up his Christmas Presents from Grandma and Opa Hale

Ben acting goofy and us opening up some presents from his folks...Thanks!!!!!!!

Looking in the awesome box that Grandma and Opa Hale mailed to us for Christmas and Seth & Max wondering wear to start!?!

Max showing off his way cool nutter butter cookie reindeer we made one morning with a couple of his buddies

Here's a picture of my tree...a few posts ago I had a picture of a tree that wasn't mine, because I was having trouble uploading my own pictures

Maxton in his self made Indian outfit in memory of the very first Thanksgiving.

A cute picture of Seth in November, at least cute to his mother.

Ben and the boys all dressed up on the 31st of October getting ready to hit the streets in search of Candy! Max insisted that Ben wear his costume in order to go trick or treating. Ben was the only adult dressed up in our neighborhood...What a good Daddy!

Seth at the zoo in October.

We've had a good couple of months...I have so many more pictures I could share, but I figured this was plenty.

Where's Waldo

Do any of you know those books, "Where's Waldo"? We had a few of those books when I was growing up and it was so much fun to try to find that little fellow. He was always in a very busy area in the middle of chaos. When you found him, he looked just fine and always had a smile on his face. Think of me as Waldo...I'm here somewhere with a smile on my face. We've had a busy month finishing up Halloween and getting ready for Thanksgiving. In the middle of the two holidays, we've all been sick, I've fed the missionaries at our Stakes zone conference, thrown a bridal shower, celebrated my dad's 50th birthday, finished up my '07 scrapbook, been getting use to a brand new calling in church, and been totally aggravated with my computer...it won't let me sign into my blog! My mother-in-law call me a few days ago to check on me since she enjoys keeping up with us by our blog, I was happy to report that we're all okay, just have had a busy run. I posting this from my mothers house, so I'll be sure to post soon with some pictures of the last month.
I do want to say how thankful I'm am for all my blessings and my sweet family...Happy Thanksgiving!

If you would like to take a peek at the storybook I made for my dad's 50th, click here and follow the instructions.

Fun Blogging Fridays

It has been a busy month here at the Hale House. I got this new program for digital scrap booking that I LOVE (yes, I haven't forgotten about you Aunt Gigi...I'm mailing you the CD tomorrow). Since getting this new program, I've been working on a book non-stop for my Wood Family Reunion scheduled for May 3rd down in GA. It takes two weeks for the book to be printed, so I've been working under a deadline and it was all I could do to get the book ready and sent in on time. I'm going to have everyone at the Reunion put their name into a hat and at the end of the day, I'm going to draw a name and that member of the family will get to take the book home. Anyone else that wishes to have one will have to purchase their copy. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, my hope is to do a similar book for each branch of my family...I think it is a great way to work on genealogy...I'm a very visual person and I love how the family came alive for me as I looked at each picture. The book went all the way back to my great-great grandmother, Granny Wood, it covered a lot of folk...my hope is that the family will better understand what I was trying to do when they see the book and that I can update or make additional books to fill in with any pictures people think should be apart of the Wood history.

After finishing the book, it got me re excited about working on my personal scrapbooks that I've let go by the wayside. I've realized that I have many loves, and I don't have time for them all in the same day...so I've decided to set aside time for each one...Friday will be my official Blogging day...you/I will always count on a new post and some sort of update/funny story about what's going on around here. Obviously, if I just can't wait until Friday, I may surprise us with additional posts, but we can all count on Fun Blogging Fridays.

Here are a few highlights from April:



*Ben's brother, Dave and his wife, Shelby came to visit us a couple of weekends ago...it was so great to see them...we have the best time when we're together.



*Seth turned 8 months old on the 23rd...he can crawl, eat some table foods, and has such a wonderful personality.



*Maxton is talking all the time and putting together small sentences...he is such a sweet boy, he makes me laugh all the time.

*Ben has started to really get serious with his bike riding again...the weather is finally nice and time is drawing close for his 100 mile ride on June 7th in Milwaukee.

*As for me, I'm proud of my first digital scrapbook, I hope it's the first of many...I love it!

*Can I just say that I'm excited that my Thursday night shows are finally back on track this month...I really enjoyed watching them both last night with Ben and our bowl of Whirly Pop Popcorn!