Eyes

Thomas wanted me to take a picture of his eyes so he could see better what they looked like. I happily fulfilled his request and then did the same for Nicholas. Pictures don't do them justice, but as you can see Thomas's eyes are bright blue and Nicholas's rich brown. I find it pretty interesting because neither Jackson or I have eyes these colors. In fact, no one on either side of our families has blue eyes except my dad. We are anxiously waiting to see what color Estella's will be.

More pictures

Here are a few more pictures of Estella. We are just loving her to pieces. Thomas and Nicholas adore her and want to hold her all the time. A few days ago Thomas said, "When Estella gets big I want to be her man." I'm not sure exactly what he meant by that, but I'm sure it means he loves her a lot. Every time Nicholas has a turn holding her he just giggles at every move or grunt she makes.

Estella Dean Berry

Estella arrived Saturday, November 3 at 1:03. She is healthy and we are so happy to have her here. My mom just left this morning, so we will see how things go with just me and three little ones. Here are a few pictures...more will come as I have a few minutes to work on them.

Thomas Singing

Here is a little video of Thomas singing his two favorite songs. He had an infection in his eye when I took this video, so that is why one of his eyes is a bit swollen. If he knows someone is listening to him sing them, he does it as fast as he can, as you will see :)

Photoshop class

I have been wanting to get more into photography for a long time now. I have read lots of books and am talking about it all the time. Jackson decided that I needed to just go for it, so we bought photoshop elements 6.0 and I signed up for a two night class on the program that was offered at a photography studio here in town called 13 Photography. I didn't want to pay for both the beginning and the advanced class, so I just signed up for the advanced class and tried to figure out the basics on my own before. I just finished the class and it was SO great! I haven't had much time to put into practice the things I learned, but here are a few pictures from our recent trip up the Monument that I played with.

Love Birds
I plan on doing something like this with some pictures of the new baby...or maybe some old pictures of the baby boys, but I didn't have any of those old pictures on Jackson's computer, so I practiced on this one. I can only play with photoshop when Jackson brings his computer home from work, because the one we have at home is too old and slow to even download photoshop onto.
Jackson insisted on taking pregnant pictures of me this time. I think I will be glad I have them in the future.

Doing Better

I am doing much better now. I haven't had any major contractions or any bleeding at all for over a week now. I weaned myself of the medication and have slowly been doing more and more around the house. Thanks to friends, family here in town, and my amazing mom I haven't had to cook a meal yet. I went to the doctor Thursday afternoon and he said everything looked great. I asked him if I could start going for short walks and he said "No." I was bummed. He said I need to wait two more weeks and then I can do whatever I want. I am counting down the days.

Sunday morning before church we decided to drive up the Colorado National Monument (15 minutes from our house) and explore. I don't know if the doctor would consider that a walk, but I don't. We went less than 50 yards from the van. Jackson and I had fun taking pictures. Jackson wanted to get some pregnant belly pictures of me. Thomas is very excited about the baby and often lays his ear on my belly to listen and feel her kick. We thought we would get some precious pictures of this, but this is what we got.

We did get some good pictures. I am out of time, but I will post them soon.

A Bit Scary

We have had a bit of a scary week. I have been having some bleeding and contractions. I finally went into the doctor Sunday night and they monitered the baby's heartbeat and the contractions. I was having very steady contractions, so they checked me internally. Luckily I wasn't dialated at all. The cervix was soft, but they said that can be normal with a third pregnancy. They gave me a shot of Terbutaline (sp?) which makes your uterus relax (and also makes your heart race and your body shake). That stopped the contractions after a while, so they sent me home with some pills of that to take every 4 hours until I could see my OB. The next morning he saw me and told me to keep taking the pills and to not do anything, basically...no grocery shopping, no housework, no cooking. I was very faithful with that all day Monday (which made for very confused little boys and a very busy husband). Tuesday morning I had some fresh bleeding and more contractions, so I called the doctor to ask what he wanted me to do. He had me come in and put me back on the monitor. I was having lots of contractions, so he checked me internally again, and said it was still fine...not dialated, just soft. He said the blood was probably just small blood vessels in the cervix bursting as it softened.

That was all very stressful for me and Jackson and the little boys. This afternoon, however, I have been feeling very calm and peaceful about everything. I might just have wishful thinking, but I don't feel like Estella is going to come too early. I feel that if I take it easy-this week especially- my uterus is going to calm down and I will be able to go off the medication (which I REALLY don't like taking). We have had so much help and so many people call, bring dinner, watch the boys at the last minute, buy us groceries...it has been so wonderful! Thankyou to everyone that has been so kind and thoughtful!

Colorado River

My sister Kara came to visit a few weeks ago. The Colorado River runs right through town, so we drove the 10 minutes it takes to get there and had a great time playing in the water, sand, and mud.
There were a lot of fish jumping in the water. Thomas kept missing them, so he and Jackson sat down and watched until he finally saw one.

Nicholas is doing the actions to "The Wheels on the Bus" go open and shut...his favorite part!

We saw a few little toads; Kara caught this one and let the boys touch and hold it. They LOVED it!

Say Cheese!

Jackson and Thomas were the first ones awake a while ago and this is the result of their time together.

I hope these made you smile! They sure make me smile every time I look at them!

Playing in the Rain

Thomas and Nicholas LOVE umbrellas. They get them out of the coat closet constantly and beg me to open them. I always say that I can't open them unless it's raining outside. Yesterday it started raining and they both ran for the umbrellas. They were so excited to be able to open them. It rains fairly often here, but it is usually at night. These are a few pictures of them playing in the rain.

June

I just finished my pictures from June, so here are a few fun things we did that month.

We went to Fillmore to visit my family. There is a skate park that the boys love to play on. We brought cars for them to race down the jumps. They had a blast.




Jackson and Thomas
















My mom (Isn't she beautiful?!) and Nicholas.











Later that month we took a trip to a lake (I forgot the name) with Jackson's parents and his brother and his wife and 4 kids. Jackson's dad brought the sail boats. He actually made the one with the white sail. He is amazing! We all had a great time taking turns sailing around the lake.





Thomas and Bubba (Jackson's dad)










Jackson




Nicholas on the shore

A Few New Pics

Nicholas climed up in a little cave while we were hiking the other day. He looked cute (of course) so we took out the camera and as soon as we did he started saying cheese, can you tell?

Jackson passed his Real Estate exam in Colorado and has started working with a really fantastic broker, who's getting older and wants to pass all of his knowlege on to someone. He wants an apprentice he can pass the business on to. Over the past 3 months he and Jackson have been working together to see if it would work out for us. So far so good. If you hear of any businesses who want to relocate or expand into Grand Junction you know who to call. He's still taking loans on the side when he can get them.

The nesting urge is growing as we get closer to the due date. Our bright white living room is now a cozy cream, well almost. Thomas and Nicholas have chosen to sleep on the floor until we get them a bunk bed to share after Estella arrives. I'm reading a somewhat psycho book right now called Demons. Dostoyevski, the author, is facinated with the psychological refelctions of his characters, but I don't really get to know the characters as much as I would like to.

I'm Behind

I am a bit behind with my pictures. These are from March. There is a little alley behind our house that leads to a big, steep hill. We decided to have a little adventure and see what was down the hill. There must have been a fire right there within the last few years, because all of the trees were black and if you touched them, they left black charcoal marks on you. It was really neat, though, because it was really easy to walk around because the fire had burned all the short weeds and bushes. We had a lot of fun down there until the weeds started growing tall. Thomas had to go to the bathroom really bad just when we got there, so I let him pee on a tree. Nicholas thought that was very interesting. It was so cute that I couldn't resist a picture!

Recent Happenings

Wow...we have had a bit of a crazy time lately. Just when you think you have everything figured out, everything changes and you are back at square one. We have had job changes, career searching, insurance issues, deployment threats, and rental house theft all in the past few weeks. Things are beginning to work out and I am very grateful for that. Here are a few recent pictures. These first few are of a lightning storm we had here a few days ago. That is our house with the lightning behind it.















Here are a few that same night as the lightning of Thomas on his trike and Jackson and Nicholas.

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This is one of my favorite Thomas faces with the raised eyebrows. He does it often














A neighbor of my sister in law was throwing away a perfectly great swing set. When she saw it she asked them to hold on to it until we could come get it. They did and here it is in our yard. We LOVE it! The boys think it is so great.

Nicholas climbing up the slide.
Thomas's favorite swing is that two person one he is on in this picture. He can really get it moving!

We are loving it here in our new house and neighborhood. I am starting to feel a bit better now (pregnancy wise), and hope it continues to get better and better!

Easter Week

I am still getting used to this...so the pictures went on here a bit differently than I imagined. The first is of us on Easter Sunday. The second two are of a hike we took. Jackson's sister, Julia and her two boys were here in Grand Junction for the week before Easter. We decided to go on a hike, so me, my two boys...Julia, her two boys...and Amber (my sister in law) and her one boy and two girls packed a picnic and set off. It was such a blast. We did make one mistake, though. We hiked too far before we stopped and ate lunch. By the time we started heading back, all the kids (and the moms) were tired! There were three of us moms and there were 4 children that needed to be carried most of the time. By the end we were proceeding like this. Julia and I would get as many kids as far as we could and then one of us would stop and rest with them while the other went back to help Amber carry the other two. It was long and tiring, but well worth it and we will know better for next time. The favorite thing for the boys to do was to send "boats" (little sticks or leaves) down the stream. The also LOVED climbing up the big dirt hill as far as they could and then sliding back down. Everyone was full of dirt when we were done. It was great!