The Stubblefield Family

Our beautiful, little boy came to us Wednesday night (March 24). We are so glad he is here and feel very blessed to welcome him into our family. His name is Caleb Ephraim Stubblefield. He weighed 8lbs 8 oz and is 21 inches long. He is mild and snuggly. We are thankful from the bottom of our hearts to Grandma and Grandpa Stubblefield who took our big kids the day of Caleb's birth and over his first night. The next morning they brought flowers and food and two very happy kiddos ready to meet their little brother. Hannah and Benjamin are so happy to have him here. Ben says, "I love you baby." Hannah, holding him, says she feels like a "little mom." :) We feel so blessed. Thank you for all your love and prayers. Birth story, reflections on a home birth, the midwife experience etc. soon to come.

I love spring! Here are a few highlights from our first couple weeks of spring...

1. Jared's City-League Softball! The kids and I got to go watch an early game the week before last. Goooo Daddy! :)
2. Strawberry picnics and t-ball in the back yard.

The weather here is only getting nicer and nicer. This week we are expecting sunshine and 70s. Thursday afternoon we headed out for our first hike of the year. We hiked to the first observation blind on the walking trail at Gray Lodge and back...1.5 miles. We saw and heard lots and lots of birds. One sounded just like a monkey. :) It was beautiful, fun and so great to get out and walk!!

Here's what we did with the box from our new rocker...


Hannah has claimed it as her own. Ben gets to come in and "visit" sometimes. :) She loves to play bank and help us through her "teller window." She has put together quite the little orderly home inside and cares for her baby, reads her scriptures, gives FHEs etc. I still remember the playhouse we made with a great big box when I was a little girl. I love how much magic there can be in something as mundane as a cardboard box!

About a week ago Hannah decided she wanted to be able to snap her fingers. She really put her mind to it, practiced and practiced and...Voila!...she has an audible, amazing snap! :) She is quite proud. Here she is in action..

February brought some beautiful sunny days of mild weather, daffodils and blossoms. The orchards are beautiful now. Just rows and rows of blossoming trees. Our yard is not to be out done though with blossoms everywhere. They have a lovely scent and when the wind blows they float down and cover our walk-way with beautiful pink petals. The tulips, so beautiful, are just starting to show. I love spring!

While were were away at the Bounce Palace, Ericka and The Simply Clean Team were busy "Green Cleaning" our house! Jared recently approached and was then invited to join a marketing group for local small business owners. He worked out a deal with the green cleaning (no toxic chemicals, all natural cleaners, infused with your choice of essential oil) lady to trade services. Chiropractic for her family, cleaning lady for us! What a blessing!! To have our house sparkling-clean with no toxins etc. before the baby comes is a priceless gift. Because it was the month of February, in addition to leaving behind a beautiful, sparkling, lavender scented house, they also left a vase of flowers. Oh, I love our cleaning ladies!!!! :) We can't wait to have them back!

What else do you do with cooped up sick kiddos? Take them to a bounce house! We miss Monkey Joe's, our favorite bouncing/sliding spot in SC, but were happy to find the "Bounce Palace" in Folsom. Folsom is about an hour and a half away, but they have a Costco there too so we combined trips...bounce house and picking up lots of little diapers and wipes. :) It was a great bit of fun for the kids and we even got to stop by Aunt Andrea's house for a second to see her and a few of the Runyan cousins.

Well, 23 sick days in a row so far...we're going to have to call it a sick month! What do you do to entertain two little kiddos who've been cooped up and sick for weeks and weeks...Jared let them cut his hair. :)
You can see one of the spots where Ben has cut his own hair lately. Time for him to get back to the barber! :)

When I blogged about Hannah's fever, that was only the beginning of our sick days. It turned out it was the flu. We all got the flu. Hannah went on to get a double ear infection that took her and Jared to urgent care on Valentine's Day and then she went through a round of antibiotics. After all that, she ended things with another cold. She is finally back to Karate, Preschool and Primary and feeling like a normal kid again.

Well, as sick as we've been this last month, we've been blessed to be able to keep up with our baby preparations. On February 18, one month to the due date, we marked the occasion by heading out and doing a great big bunch of the pre-baby shopping. Here are the kids with almost every bracelet from one of the displays. They said they were robots. :) Then we had a little bit of preschool as they neatly sorted all the colors back to their spots. :)

Valentine's Day at our house always brings mylar balloons for the kids and usually presents too. This year it also came with heart shaped pancakes and some very yummy "love heart" strawberries from Sam's Club. :) Sadly, it also brought Hannah's double ear infection...but more on that in my "Sick Days" post. The kids got a little game of hungry hippos, a memory game, and a Sesame St. game box with bingo, go fish and checkers. We played games together as a family, which was lots of fun. Add that to all the love and we had a very Happy Heart Day. :)