A new blog, being a mom, and life

Sorry for the lack of posts. I swear it should still be March. March, April and now May have flown by. LOTS have happened.

First I'm starting a new blog to celebrate the new family...in other words I want to fit rylen into the blog name too. So the new blog will be found at: b4weforget.blogspot.com

The name is due to the Berman 4. Hence the b4 and well the rest just sounded good. I will try and post on the new blog soon. I won't be posting on this blog site anymore, but I wont be deleting it either. I like to complicate things.

Other Berman news: Joel got a new job! WE are so so so so excited for this. It is a good career move for Joel and it will hopefully be a much better/enjoyable job for Joel. He will be getting home at least an hour earlier. Which Chase will enjoy and hopefully it will allow Joel some much needed man aka golf time.

I have to admit being a mom of two has been much harder than I ever thought. I knew it was going to be hard. But, I didn't realize how emotionally hard it would be. I feel guilty for not giving Chase as much time as I use to. And I feel guilty about not giving Rylen as much time as I gave Chase. And I still don't feel like I know Rylen as well as I knew Chase at this point in his life....which adds to the guilt as well. I still feel like we are in survival mode, so hopefully it will get better in the months to come. Thankfully I have great family and husband support.

So on to the best part of this blog. The pictures!

My boys:
Rylen at two months:

Chase loves anything to do with tools, construction and building. So Joel scored a "little helper" tool set from Lowes and created a work bench for Chase. Side note: Chase's little helper tool set actually has a nicer hammer and tape measure than our household one. The work bench is just a saw horse with some drywall on it. Joel helped Chase put some nails, screws and bolts on it, for Chase to hit and turn. Here is Chase showing me his new building area:

The all powerful hammer! Aka I am THOR pose.

And my beautiful boy!

People keep asking if Rylen looks like Chase. So here is a side by side comparison. I think if you click on the picture it will make it bigger.

They do look a lot similar. Chase is on the right and Rylen is one the left. Chase is 3 months old and Rylen is 1 month old. Amazing how much bigger Rylen looks!

Well that is about it. I will hopefully get a new post sooner than later. I would like to show off the smiles I have been getting from Rylen.

Introducing Rylen Jaxon

He is here! On March 16th at 4am Rylen came into the world. The birth experience was fairly fast and "easy". My body is made for child birth.
This is how I labored both with Chase and Rylen. Joel says its my "I'm in pain, don't talk to me, don't touch me, just leave me alone" face/stance. And it is true, I'm silent when I'm laboring and the last thing I want is for someone to tell me to keep breathing and to rub my back. And yes, with no epidural I am still silent...impressing all the nurses. Although, as my nurse pointed out, she did hear a couple of curse words come out.

Rylen's birth story is pretty simple. Went for a hike that day had eggplant parm for lunch and started having contractions around 830pm. Headed to the hospital around 130am. Got admitted and into a room around 3am had Rylen at 4am. I asked for an epidural, but by the time it showed up I was told to push. So just like Chase I had a drug free birth experience. This time around the Dr. barely made it into her scrubs. :)

Rylen.

First moments with Rylen and me.

Brothers meeting each other for the first time.

Family of four.

Joel looks tired.

Brothers. Chase has done really good. Hopefully they will be best friends.

Work, Trains, Giraffes, and Pregnancy

Here are some more pics. This maybe the only post for Feb, since we are reaching the end!

This month has flown by. We have had colds, stomach flu, potty training and a couple of out of town visits. And when I look back it is all a big blur.

So first up, potty training. One morning (at the beginning of the month) Chase woke up and said potty mama. So we took off his diaper and he went to his potty. I wasn't expecting a whole lot. But, he went pee! Whoo hoo! He had a repeat performance and then I put a diaper on and we headed over to a friends house. The next couple of days we had the same success rate. NOT 100% but the kiddo was/is definitely on the right track. Then disaster hit us...Chase got the stomach flu, so we were back to full time diapers. Then when the little guy started feeling better I got the stomach flu. I have never had such a bug before and was in no shape to take on potty training. So we had to push it back. Then we started back up, but for some reason Chase has started to dislike the potty when pooping. I think he prefers to stand up and poop....As of today we have had a very high accident rate. Oh well! He will get the hang of it, hopefully! I just wish this had happened a couple of months ago...but Chase has spoken and I will listen. :)

Chase has also been obsessed with going to work lately. One night this is what his working attire consisted of: He typically says, "Mama, I'm going to work. Bye Mama, see you later."

This is a shot of my lime green laundry room. Joel finished it a month ago. It took me a bit, but I'm actually really liking it.

The weekend before Valentines Day, Chase and I headed to Scottsdale for a train park. We went with Chase's best bud. They had a lot of fun. It was a toss up to whether or not Chase liked the train or the carousal ride better.

Here he is "driving" the train.

I kept trying to get Chase's reaction to the carousal ride. But, I didn't quite capture it. He loved it! He kept giggling and saying "Hi peoples" as we went around.

Chase and his best bud. Chase is really big into hugging and kissing. Unfortunately the majority of his friends are not.

The next day we went to the World Wildlife Zoo with Joel's parents. Chase, of course, loved it. Here he is on another carousal ride.

Wearing his conductor's hat and blond curls poking out.

Feeding the giraffe! Again he loved it!!! On our way home he kept asking for animals and Numa and Papa.

This is on the way back from the zoo. The poor guy was so tired, he was delirious. Joel shot a good video of it...but I will let him post that.

And finally the pregnancy shot. Not the most flattering...but in the scheme of things, hopefully, I will want to remember this. I believe I was 35 weeks. I will try and post a more current belly shot soon. Pregnancy wise things are going good. Having a stomach flu this late in the game was not fun. But, other than that I'm healthy and it looks like the baby will be staying put for a little while longer. The Dr said: " finger type dilated, cervix still long and head still fairly high". And I haven't had any contractions, that I know of. So hopefully the baby will stay put until my mom can get here to take care of Chase! Joel and I are in count down mode, 25 days...I think.

December 2010 and January 2011

Well it has been too long since the last blog post! Unfortunately after looking through our photos, I have realized how little we have been using our cameras!

For Christmas we went to Pahrump and spent the time with my family. It was a quick trip and I feel like I didn't have a chance to really visit and enjoy my family. Such is life.

My parents got Chase a nice little kitchen. I don't think Joel was all that thrilled, not manly enough. But, I say if you are ok with letting your boy's hair grow long he can play with a kitchen! That and if Chase grows up being a professional chef more power to him. It really didn't bother Joel to much, but enough for him to make some snide comments to me. :)

I don't know if you can see it or not, but this picture contains Chase's favorite present of the year. A singing/dancing snowman from hallmark. I finally had to hide it from him.

For New Years we met Joel's side of the family in Boulder for some snowboarding/skiing. It was a lot of fun, but ended on a sour note with the majority getting some sort of stomach bug. The picture above is what happens when you ask Chase to say Cheese and smile for the camera.

Chase has an obsession with hats and gloves. I think he wore this helmet the majority of the night. Or until we took and hide it from him.

January brought snow, hot weather, and lots of playing outside!

Chase at the local park. This boy has no fear and will go down any slide. He pretty much asks to go to the playground on a daily basis.

A picture of Joel and I. Because, we just don't do this often enough.

And last but not least the belly shot from January. I was about 32 weeks when I took it. This pregnancy has been ok. Physically it has been great. Emotionally I have been a wreck (over Christmas I cried about pancakes). Both Joel and I are ready for me to get back to normal! Almost there!

Chase and Joel's First Home Movie

We got a new video camera for Christmas. We are experimenting with how well this will be "published" on the blog.

June - Telluride

The annual Telluride Bluegrass trip was fun as always.
Our hike. It was a fun way to spend the morning. But, man, was I tired afterwards! I hate this photo of myself...but it's not how good you look, but the memory it brings...right?!

The fathers day photo. Hard to believe that all these kiddos weren't in the picture 6 years ago!

I know the lighting is bad in this photo. But I love it. Chase was HARD to contain this year. He is an explorer and pretty much wanted to hi to everyone and interrupt/participate in any form of "ball" games.

And finally a picture that sums up the festival. Happiness and (empty) drinks!

June - Backyard Photos

Here are some fun backyard photos of Chase. His hair has grown so much since then!