Trip to the Fair and Finn at 1 month

A picture of Aiden (taken by either Luke or Liam).  The boys have very VERY quickly learned that when Mom is sitting down to feed Finn, that is the time to get away with almost anything...for example, they love to play with the camera.

Outside the State Fair with Daddy.  

Liam and Aiden on the rides

Luke in the bumper boats that we have ridden for the last 4 years!

Liam was so proud of himself for riding the roller coaster.

It was HOT, very HOT for Minnesota

Cooling down with an icee

AJ riding the cars with Luke and Liam behind him

Luke loves the rides

Finn was a good patient for Liam and Aiden

Playing with our friends and enjoying popsicles on the final few days of summer

Daddy and his Boys

Liam holding Finn

So hard to believe this little guy will be 1 month old on the 29th!


It is hard to believe Finn has been here for a month on the 29th!  WOW, time does fly.  He is getting bigger and starting to get some chubbier cheeks.  He still has little skinny bird legs, but he is growing.  He is getting longer and has outgrown the newborn clothing and moved on to the 0-3 month clothes.  He still spends much of the day sleeping and eating, but is a little more alert at times and enjoys his mat on the floor and his bouncy chair.  His brothers love to entertain him and argue over who gets the next turn to hold baby Finn.  They love to help with Finn's bath, hold his pacifier in his mouth when he is hungry, or sing to him when he is laying on the floor.

Luke, Liam, and Aiden had the special treat of going to the Minnesota State Fair with Daddy over the weekend.  We try to take them once a year and they always ask when we can go.  In the middle of winter when we had two feet of snow on the ground, Luke asked about going to the Fair.  So, as much as John and I dislike the Fair, the boys LOVE it.  Their favorite part is definitely the rides.  I heard a statistic on the news this week that this will be the hottest week at the Fair in 65 years!  Yes, despite our very mild and almost cool summer, it is HOT this week.  Very hot.  So, on the day that the boys went to the fair, the weather was hot and muggy.  It definitely influenced the duration of their trip, but they made the most of it and had a great time.

Big week for us after Labor Day as Luke and Liam start Kindergarten and Aiden begins preschool!!

The Boys and the annual Twins game

Baby Finn is three weeks old!  He is wearing the outfit that Luke and Liam wore for their baptism.

Luke (left) and Liam (right) at around 3.5 months in baptism outfit that Finn is wearing above.    Aiden never wore this outfit because by the time it was warm enough, he was way too big for it!  I still think Finn looks a lot like Liam!

More coloring at the kitchen table (courtesy of some crafts from Aunt Jennifer)

Standing at the Kirby Puckett statue

One of the ways Aiden spent his time at the game

And another way Aiden spent his time.  What a mess with the cotton candy!

The boys all got free pencil boxes for the upcoming start of school.

Super excited to be on the field and run the bases!

More pictures on the field

All the boys

Walking out on the field to run the bases

Very cool!

Checking things out

This is a picture of Finn (courtesy of Luke)

Finn is three weeks old now and the time has passed so quickly!  My actual due date was Saturday, August 17th and it was hard to imagine the last three weeks without Finn being here.  He is getting bigger and more alert each week and the boys still love to hold him and help whenever they can.

John took Luke, Liam, and Aiden on another big outing over the weekend.  We typically try to do at least one Twins baseball game each year.  We have done this since Luke and Liam were around 6-7 months of age and Aiden went when he was around 8-9 months.  The boys generally enjoy it, although this was the first year that they made it to the end of the game.  ALL NINE innings!!  John was pretty exhausted when he got home and the boys were slightly on the tired side (that's an understatement), but everyone seemed to enjoy it.  They went with our neighbor and friend, Jack and his Dad, so that made it even more special.  One bonus of staying until the end of the game is that they got to go down on the field and run the bases.  Even Aiden, who has just started walking again over the last two weeks, ran the bases.  Baby Finn and Mom missed the game this year, but I am sure we will be there next season.  

Our First "Real" Week

We had our first "real" week as we tried to get back to reality with a new baby, John's return to work, and Aiden's continued progress with his leg.  Bear with me because we had lots of pictures from the week and lots of things I want to remember so I am posting them here.  

First off, Finn is doing very well.  He had his first pediatrician appointment early this week and he was already back to his birth weight and he had grown about an inch.  He is eating well and is overall an easy baby.  He eats about every 3-4 hours and gets up around twice each night, which is not too bad.  He is very tolerant of all the noise in our house as well as the well-meaning, but not so gentle hugs and kisses from his brothers.  Luke is by far the most interested in Finn.  He loves to hold him and help with just about anything I ask him to do.  

John returned to work for the first time in awhile.  His office has been very tolerant and accommodating of all that we have had going on.  He has worked quite a bit from home in order to help with Aiden while I was pregnant and then he was home for the first week with Finn.  This week was a bit of a learning process for me and for the boys since we are still mostly homebound and trying to figure out how to manage with a newborn and three boys that need to burn lots of energy on a daily basis.  The boys have been very tolerant of being home for nearly the last month, but I think we all miss some of our favorite activities.  To help with this, John took Luke, Liam, and Aiden to the Zoo over the weekend.  This is a smaller zoo in St. Paul where they also have several amusement park rides which the boys would probably rather do than see the animals.  They had a blast and it was good to get them out of the house for awhile.

Aiden surprised us this week when he started walking again!  This has been a much longer process than I think either John or I anticipated.  Aiden has been in a lot of physical pain and has dealt with a lot of fear from his fall.  After a month of rehabilitation, he took a few steps.  This really boosted his confidence and he has since started walking nearly everywhere now.  He walks with a significant limp right now and drags his left leg a little, but he is putting some weight on it and getting stronger.  He is willing to attempt almost anything at this point and has really been a trooper to keep working so hard and not get frustrated watching his two older brothers run around.

Lastly, Liam lost a tooth this week which isn't big news considering all the other things we had going on this week, BUT it was big BIG news for Liam.  After watching his twin brother lose two teeth, Liam was so excited to lose his first tooth and get a visit from the tooth fairy.  

All in all, it was a good week.  

Can you find Baby Finn??

Early morning with Daddy and the boys

New Shirts from Aunt Jennifer!!!  Super cute.  They also have numbers of the back as you will see below and the writing is in their favorite color.  Finn's shirt says "rookie" with a #4 on the back.

All four boys with the new shirts

At the Zoo.  The boys refer to the shirts as "jerseys" with the cool numbers!

Liam was super excited about getting his "Drivers License" after driving these little cars

Teacups with Liam and AJ

Aiden driving the cars

Teacups for everyone

Luke was more than excited that he was tall enough to ride the screaming dragon roller coaster!

Big Brother Luke

Liam and his first lost tooth!!

Sleeping Finn

Not everything went as planned this week.  This was one of many small mishaps.  While I was taking a shower to get ready for Finn's first pediatrician apt, the boys were supposed to be eating waffles.  Somehow, someone, dropped a full bottle of syrup on the floor and the top just happened to pop off and spill everywhere.  Not sure how this happened exactly and neither were the boys, of course.

Luke loves to hold his brother!

Welcome Baby Finn!

Just a minute or so after Finn was born

Our good friend Kirsten brought all three boys up to visit Finn for the first time

First picture as a family of SIX!

Luke and Liam were very interested in their brother

Luke loves to hold Finn

Daddy, Luke, and Finn

Lil Bro Finn

First Picture of all Four boys after we got home from the hospital

Aiden and Baby Finn

Big Brother and Lil Bro shirts

Finn Morse Carrithers joined our family on July 29th, 2013 at 1:28 pm.  He was 8 lbs 4 ounces and 20.5 inches long.  

After 3 days of contractions every evening for a hour or two, my water broke around midnight on Sunday, July 28th.  I was in denial initially because I have never been at home when my water has broken and I was certain that I wasn't going into labor since it was July (not August).  After calling the emergency number for the OBGYN, I was convinced that indeed I was in labor at 37 weeks and 2 days.  I wasn't having contractions at the time and actually felt pretty good.  John and I packed our bags and started our "Arrival Plan" for Baby #4 that included calling the neighbors to come over and stay with the boys.  We left for the hospital around 1:00 am and by 1:30 am I was hooked up to a monitor and Baby Finn was looking great.  We were then transferred to a labor and delivery room and told to rest.  Apparently, that "rest" idea worked for John, but I sat in bed pretty much all night trying to "rest" in between having to use the restroom since they were pumping me full of fluids.  

In my previous pregnancies, I have never had my water break at home.  I have always gone into labor at home and waited for awhile before heading to the hospital.  This time, however, was much different.  We had to go in earlier so it felt like we were waiting around forever before I was in active labor.  By around 9:00 am on July 29th, I was having some mild contractions but only dilated about 2 centimeters.  I was put on pitocin to try and regulate the irregular contractions and labor patterns.  They offered several things for pain, but I really wanted to hold off until we were closer so that I could still get up and move around.  By 11:00 am, I was around 4-5 cm dilated and in a significant amount of pain.  I was ready for the epidural so that I could rest a little prior to Finn's birth.  About an hour later, I was 8-9 cm dilated and we knew I was very close to delivery.  

A little after 1:00 pm, I started pushing and Finn was born around 20 minutes later.  Many have asked how we arrived at his name.  It was not an easy process this time around.  We started with around 20 names and narrowed them down considerably.  We asked input from several people (which we have not done in the past) and even took a poll among the boys.  We decided on Finn (meaning "fair") because it sounded fun, full of energy, and a lot like a 4th child.  We also felt it went well with our other names since it is of Irish decent. His middle name, "Morse", is my maiden name as well as the middle name of a few of my relatives.  We have always used family names as middle names for each of the boys so we wanted to keep with that tradition.  

Finn is healthy and doing great.  He was definitely a good size considering he was a little early.  Thus far, he has been fairly easy going and mellow.  He rarely gets very upset and he is very tolerant of all the noise in our house.  We are more than excited about his arrival and appreciate all the prayers and support we have had in past few weeks.