Halloween 2015

With the birth of Russ one week before Halloween, I knew we'd have to be more than ready for the holiday before he came!

My boys would never in a million years let us go half in for Halloween, so we planned and prepared weeks before the baby!

I will say, however, they did take some pity on their poor pregnant mom this October, and were much less demanding in terms of Halloween celebrating than they usually are.

Tucker picked an elaborate (and expensive) Stormtrooper costume, and man...it was a hit!!

He was able to celebrate a couple of days early at preschool, and thankfully his surrogate mom (Annie) was there to document it all for me!

Donatello (Sam) and Stormtrooper Tucker made quite a pair!

Jack had his Halloween parade and party at school the day before Halloween, and this is the one and only picture I snapped!

Win some, you lose some, I guess!

(Plus, I was one week post-partum... free pass?)

The 31st was on a Saturday, so luckily we had no school and Brett's help for our day of celebrating!

We started the day with soccer games, and then headed up to Alpine for a grand kids party!

Russell enjoyed sleeping through the majority of the holiday!

After a few hours with the Jones side, we headed to Annie's for trick or treating and the rest of the evening.

Thank goodness for older cousins, Brett and I got the night off...eating and relaxing at Annie's

The official costume pic:

Our Star Wars nuts-

Jack (Kilo Ren)

Tucker (Stormtrooper)

Russ the newborn on his first Halloween: 

Or Family of FIVE:

It was an exhausting/ wonderful day... and I'm just glad I felt well enough to participate!

First Weeks with Russell = Pic Overload

The first few weeks with a newborn are total bliss.

Russell has been more so than I even remember with a baby before.

Am I just more laid back...or is he?

Either way, there is no denying that he is such an easy, peaceful baby.

And, I'm completely and totally in love with him.

He seems to capture the heart of anyone he meets immediately!

And...truly... he sleeps like none other!

All day long, it's a battle just to catch a glimpse of his darling little eyes... but I'm not complaining!

Rarely one to cry, Russ man is about as chill as they come!

We had some 2 week pictures taken....

And then... have continued to take about 900 pictures of him daily!

My favorite thing in this world to do:

Welcome Home Russ!

The morning we came home, the paperwork and everything at the hospital seemed to take forever!

Luckily, I had a cute baby to hold!!

Also, the hospital has a company that comes and takes pictures of your newborn.

We had a fun little photo shoot in our hospital room, and then I was too cheap to buy the overpriced prints, so-- now we can just enjoy them with the "bella baby" watermark on all of them!

Haha!

They're too cute not to post, though!

Finally, it was time to go home!

Brett and the boys picked us up and we had an awesome time wrangling our new family of three to the car. (Tucker got lost once during the process and all labor and delivery nurses helped us look for him!)

Here's Russell's nursery.. all finished and ready for him!

First time trying out the crib... teeny tiny little thing.

We were showered with visitors, gifts, and meals for days and days after we got home!  We're really so lucky to have such an amazing support system who love us and little Russell.

Grandma Yvonna and Grandpa Sherm were some of his first visitors at our house!

The next few days included a whole bunch of laying around and holding our new buddy.