Mama Mia

Greg decided he wanted to make pasta. If there is a food that can be made from scratch, he wants to try it. Luckily his mom had a pasta maker we could borrow (take it from us, don't try pasta without it!). It was fun to see all the beautiful noodles come out and the boys loved helping.

In the end we had a lot of pasta. It was yummy, but not sure it was worth an entire afternoon of work.

Let's not forget little James. Here is a typical afternoon for him:

This is his big-eye look.

Then some smiles.

And then a nap.

William drew me this picture to ask me to play on the XBox with him. On top is the TV, then below is the game controller, me, the tv remote, and him.

Photo shoot

Catch-up

I suppose it's time for a bit of an update! There were 3 little reasons (named William, Isaac, and James) I had no energy to keep up on the blogging, but now life is returning to normal. We are so glad James is finally here. Here is his story (I'll leave out the gory stuff for you sensitive types):
I had contractions starting at around 34 weeks so I was exhausted and ready to have this little boy make his debut. When I was 38 1/2 weeks I woke up in the middle of the night with a contraction that was so intense I could hear my heart pounding in my head. That was at 2:45 am. I waited to see if it was a fluke, but then had another one at 3:00. The dog sat at my feet growling as I breathed through it, which I thought was really funny. I woke up Greg and told him it looked like his prediction was coming true and this baby was coming in the middle of the night. Despite the fact that his wife was in labor, he was not that excited about getting out of bed, but before he could even finish asking me "Are you sure this is the real thing?" I had another contraction and he said, "Let's go. I've seen that look before!"
My sister and her husband were kind enough to rush to the house to stay with Will and Isaac and we were out of the house by 3:30. In the middle of a contraction at a stop light my water broke (the first time that's ever happened to me spontaneously), and at 3:40 we pulled up to the emergency room doors.
To get into the labor and delivery ward you have to stand outside the doors and call the nurses inside for them to open the doors. They have a video feed to the doors. When we got there I went off to the side to lean on a counter for another contraction and Greg called the nurses. They had quite the funny exchange.
Greg: "Can you open the doors? My wife's having a baby."
Nurse: "What's your wife's name?"
Greg: "Talia Poulsen."
Nurse: Long pause. "We don't have anyone here by that name."
Greg: "No, she's right here, she's in labor."
Nurse: "What was the name again?"
Greg: "Talia Poulsen."
Nurse: "Sorry, do you know what room she's in?"
Greg: "Talia, come stand next to me. This is my wife. She is having a baby! Can we come in!?"
Even in the middle of contractions the humor of the situation was not lost on me. We finally were allowed in and subjected to a bunch more questions before taken to a room. Then they changed their minds and took us to a different room. After standing around in there for a while by ourselves a nurse came in and finally got things going. She did an initial check and then said "Oh, um, you're an 8. I think I'll go call your midwife." Greg turned on our music (some nice relaxing John Cruz) and did some massage and pressure points while I worked on visualization until the midwife got there. She checked me and asked "how do you feel about pushing?" A few contractions later and our James was born at 5:50 am. From the time I woke up until he was born was only 3 hours.
It was a great birth! The nurses were not very on the ball, but we don't use them very much anyway. Greg was great and the midwife was great and James was great. The hypnobirthing techniques I used were great too. James had a lot of bruising on his arm and sides where the midwife had to really pull on him. Sometimes with big babies they have to break the baby's collarbone to get them out, but we were able to get all 10 pounds 9 ounces of him here unbroken.
James is a wonderful baby. He's very calm and happy and loves looking at his brothers. His brothers really love him too.

Camping Trip

Every year the boys in my extended family go "Male Bonding." A few years ago the girls decided we didn't want to miss out on the fun so we started coming too (but we are only allowed every other year :). Amazingly, despite the fact that I was pregnant and had a cold, none of us slept at all, Ike threw up on me, Greg got shot in the eye with a paintball gun, and Will nearly chopped off his finger, we all had a really good time!
Will loved playing with his cousins, especially Mia and Jacob. This is probably the only picture of him we got because he was always on the move! The two things he was most looking forward to were roasting marshmallows and peeing on a tree, and I'm happy to say he was able to accomplish both.

Ike and Uncle Nick.

Greg got to do what he does- smoke that meat!

Sadie loved playing in the reservoir.

It's DINNERTIME!

It was so nice to be out in the beautiful mountains and with great family members. We really had a good time!

Spring!

Are you ready? Time to get that garden tilled, compost hauled, and get a jump-start on those weeds! Here's what's blooming around town:

Crocus, Miniature Iris, Forsythia, Hyacinth, Armeria, Candy tuft, Primroses, Daffodils (just starting), and Tulips (only seen 1 so far).

Delectable sea insects

Greg recently went to Boston for work and brought home 2 lobsters. LIVE lobsters. They spent the night on a bed of seaweed in the fridge and the next day Greg boiled them alive. Don't they look appetizing? Not really! I am not a seafood eater. I'm actually highly "allergic". The idea of eating giant insects that live on the bottom of the ocean is about enough to make me... well, you get the idea.
Despite my overt stick-in-the mud attitude toward the whole adventure, Greg was very excited to cook and eat the little aliens. His dad shared the excitement and came to enjoy the feast as well.

Look at all the equipment needed for this meal for 2. I even had to run to the store to buy nutcrackers at the last minute.

Mmmmm, guts.

This is possibly the goofiest picture of Greg's dad in existence. Had to share it with the world.

The aftermath.

I did have a taste of the lobster, and I must say, it lived up to all my expectations. And yes, it was covered in butter. Still grossest thing I have ever tasted. But Greg had fun and was able to add lobster to his cooking repertoire, and he carefully collected and immediately disposed of every scrap of lobster in the kitchen, so I really can't complain too much.

Cute faces

It's almost March, so I suppose I've been a little remiss about blogging. The most adorable things that have been going on lately:

We borrowed Papa's truck to move a couch and the boys LOVED it. All day they wanted to ride in the truck, and when they weren't in the truck, they wanted to look at the truck.