First few days at home

We only spent 36 hours in the hospital--we were doing fine, and the maternity floor was crowded--they needed the room!

Ready to go home! 

We had some help bringing Ben into the house!

The boys love holding Ben, kissing his head, holding him, watching him get his diaper changed, holding him...

Thomas will hold him for several minutes at a time and kisses his head while he holds him. Jojo holds him for about 15 seconds at a time and then announces "I'm done."

Sacked out in his Tigger outfit

First bath at home. He was not a fan of being naked or the sponge bath.

Hanging with Daddy

A slightly blurry photo that TJ took for me. I love having a baby all curled up, snoozing on my chest!

All swaddled up! We've used the swaddling method for sleeping on all three kids with great success.

One of my favorite baby expressions--the wrinkled forehead look

Benjamin's first visitors

Grammy and Buppa brought the boys (in their new shirts that I'd gotten them) over to meet Benjamin later afternoon on the day he was born. They were excited to meet him, but possibly more excited about their shirts. :)

 Our family of 5!

 Jojo shows off his baby holding skills, learned at the Suddenly Siblings class

Thomas looks very comfortable holding the baby, doesn't he?!

Buppa meets his fifth grandson--quite a change from two daughters!

Grammy meets her fifth grandson!

Introducing...

Benjamin Peter Ruble

born August 21, 2014

7:21 am

8 lbs 8 oz

21.5" long

We are excited to introduce the newest member of our family, a third little boy!  

 This little guy took his time making an appearance--since both his brothers were born before their due dates, we were expecting something similar for #3. Instead, he arrived a couple days after his due date. Happily for me, there wasn't much dawdling through the labor process. I woke up at 1:30 am having pretty regular contractions, we arrived at the hospital a little after 3 am, the doctor broke my water at 6:30 am, and he appeared at 7:21 am after only a few pushes. Since he did come so quickly (like Jojo), he sported a bruised face for the first day or two (especially noticeable in the photo below). Love the little crocheted hats the hospital gives to babies!

First photo with momma and daddy:

Daddy and Ben:

Hanging with Momma:

Fly-in breakfast

We'd always assumed that Baby Ruble #3 would make his/her first outing to the Newman's Field Fly-In Breakfast, which was scheduled for the third Saturday in August. It turns out that Baby R wanted to skip this year's breakfast, but Grammy and Buppa, eager to see the boys even if stubborn baby wasn't cooperating, decided to come hang out for the weekend, so we still had newbies for the fun event.

Like the last two years, the weather was gorgeous. We ate pancakes and sausage, wandered amongst the planes, and the boys ran with their buddies Jack and Trevor. Such a great way to spend a summer Saturday morning!

Buppa and Jojo:

The last family of four photo?!?!

Taking a gator ride with buddies, and a great backstop:

Trying out some machinery:

Everyone loved watching the planes take off and land:

I think this is the plane that is the same as my great uncle's.

Another highlight for the boys (besides the planes, the gator ride, and the pancakes)--one of the hangars had a number of remote controlled vehicles. The four boys chased this boat around for quite a while!

Later that afternoon, Buppa, Grammy and the boys went to Oshtemo family fun day. The highlight? Riding in a firetruck ladder!

Josiah turns 3!

Up until the day of, Jojo's birthday plans were pretty up in the air, as we weren't sure when the baby would come. Fortunately, when you're turning 3, complexity is not key to a fantastic day! It ended up being a quiet affair--just the four of us, homemade pizza, some cake, presents, and then a putt-putt golf trip.

Pizza on the deck!

A cake idea I found on Pinterest--easy to make and using one of Jojo's current favorite things--monster trucks! The "road" is crushed oreos. Oh, and Jojo is wearing his "blue guy" outfit because he had worn his favorite, "green guy," the day before. Did you know that shirts and shorts have to match? It's a fashion concept TJ has passed on to Jojo, except Jojo takes it one step further--his undies have to match too. So fun for the laundry fairy.

Think he's excited?

Blowing out the candle was tough!

One happy kid! Just a sidenote on the cake flavor--I had asked the week before several times what flavor cake he wanted. Every time he said yellow cake. On his birthday, while talking to Grandma, he told her that he loved and was hoping for chocolate cake. So yep, there's a box of yellow cake mix in the cupboard still and I made a last-minute trip to pick up a box of chocolate cake mix!

This was a perfectly timed gift--about a week before his birthday, he started asking for a "glove like TJ's." When you're trying to buy a present for a second boy, it can be challenging to come up with gift ideas--they reuse/share so much of their older brother's stuff. We jumped on the glove idea and he was thrilled!

TJ wanted in on the fun!

Such concentration opening the card. See the tongue in his cheek? Something he picked up from me.

Happy to have headphones like TJ!

Trying out the new ball

Showing off the new glove!

Brothers and baseball gloves

Early August

We tried to squeeze in some fun in early August, not knowing when the baby would arrive. 

First, we attended a Kalamazoo Growlers baseball game. We had great seats and really enjoyed the game. Ed taught the boys about the beer batter (a player selected on the opposing team--if/when he struck out, beer would be sold at a reduced price for the rest of the inning) so they cheered for that and liked watching all of the fun events between innings.

 Unbeknownst to us, it was Cowbell Night at the game. I kept offering to hold the boys' cowbells for safe keeping, and they kept declining. Sadly, the cowbells were "lost" before the next day.

TJ had his tonsils and adenoids removed on July 31. No pictures to commemorate, but he did a fantastic job before, during and after the procedure and during the recovery.


We celebrated Ed's birthday with his traditional favorite--apple pie.

Helping Daddy blow the candles out.

 A massive hail and rain storm on a Friday evening:

Jojo is the family mimic. Usually it's TJ he's copying, but when I lay on my side with my head resting on my arm like this (which I do a lot lately), he likes to do the same thing. It cracks me up!

Trying out a new playground at a local farmer's market. (Plus delicious breakfast, an early lunch pulled pork slider for me, and a stop at a fantastic cheese store!

What we did while Ed was out of town

 ...watched a lot of cartoons! :)
Seriously, though, after we returned from the beach, Ed was out of town for a week for work. We had a few afternoon visitors while he was gone.

My cousin Andrea came over with her two boys, Vince and Dominic. We ended up spending a lot of time flying paper airplanes off the deck.

The table worked as a great bench for reaching over the top of the railing.

Vince and Jojo, likely watching Thomas retrieve the airplanes from below. (The boys took turns doing that, and Andrea and I tried to take as few turns as possible--we wanted the boys to tire themselves out, and I, at least, didn't relish multiple trips up and down the steps!)

Lunch time on the deck!

The paper airplanes continued with my cousin Corey the next day who was passing through on his way back from Ann Arbor--and he, of course, was an expert on folding them!

Kathy came to keep us company over the weekend--after the boys went to bed, she and I started a project--a piece of artwork for over the mantel.

 Jojo with Piper, Kathy's dog

A gift from Kathy to match one she made for Thomas

A (slightly blurry....taken by a 5-year-old) pic of our work in progress. Can't wait to see what Kathy does to finish it!

Before Ed left, we'd decided to use the dresser in the guest room for the boys, moving their old dresser/changing table into the baby room. But of course the dresser needed to be repainted! Kathy decided to help get this project started, so she carried it downstairs, sanded it, and started priming it before leaving.

Thanks to her energetic start on the project, the completed dresser is in place!

Mary Beth took a similar photo with Jakin and Corban when she was pregnant with Annie, and I wanted to recreate the idea. The boys thought this was hysterical!