Here are some more pictures of my cute kids.

Finally

We have been cooped up in our little box for awhile now and the kids and I were ready to escape. My twin sister has been in town for a few days with her new fiance. On Saturday evening my brother had everyone over for a BBQ dinner. A perfect excuse to leave our little box and head out into the world.

Athen had a great time playing with his cousin Alyssa in her pool. He was needing some attention and some space to run around and play. It was a nice escape.

Here are some pictures.







Here is the gang minus my parents. Mariah my twin sister and her fiance Mats in the middle. My stepbrother Josh and sister in law Sara and their two kids Blake and Alyssa on the left.

Boys

I've got myself 3 boys, who would have ever thought????
Here are some pictures from the hospital. Grandpa O. and Grandma & Grandpa S. brought Athen for a visit.










Crew gave Athen a present when he got home. A new balance Y Bike. Athen LOVES it. He is still a little small for it so we try and keep him on the carpet. He has had a few falls already but is doing pretty good with his balance. He will be riding a bike in no time. Athen is obsessed with cars, motorcycles (or bikes), and shoes. He wears all of our shoes around the house and makes piles of shoes in each room. He gets excited when he gets to put on his shoes and believe it or not he is pretty picky on which ones he wears. Some times he is in the mood for his van, and some times it's his Gap beach sandles. We just got him some new Keen's and those have been his favorite for riding his new bike.







Ricky had a birthday today. He turned 36 - still mid 30's but still sounds old. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and Noah's Bagel sandwiches for his birthday lunch. Our friend then brought us over some delicious dinner and cake for dessert. We had a rich and creamy potato soup with cheese, bacon, green onions and sour cream, hot homemade rolls and a coconut cake. All hit the spot and was delicious. Oh how my friends know me well - rich and creamy that is what I LOVE.





Here are some cute pictures of my boys.








Nuk lover like his big brother.

Rufus Edgar

Bun number two finally came. It was Friday night and we decided to go for spicy Mexican for dinner. That night at 2:00am I woke up to my first contraction. At 2:05 I had my second and 2:10 my third… At 2:30am I decided to wake up Rick. I told him I was having contractions 5 minutes apart for the last half hour and that the baby was on his way. I decided to call my mom and have her come over now so that when we needed to go to the hospital she would be there.

I had Rick run downstairs to move the Land Rover on to the street so my mom would have a place to park when she got here. By the time Rick got back up to the apartment I was ready to go to the hospital. I told him to wake up Athen and needed to leave right now, my mom would have to meet us at the hospital to get Athen. Luckily, as we were loading Athen into his car seat my mom pulled up. Rick passed Athen along and told him we needed to leave NOW.

Luckily the hospital is just a mile down the street from our place. We walked into the hospital and the first think I requested was the anesthesiologist to give me an epidural. They said someone would be down in a few minutes to check us in and take us to triage. They didn’t seem to understand I needed some meds and quickly. A man wheeled me down the hall to triage as I was screaming down the hallway, please get me some drugs, I need some drugs quickly. They had me change and lay down on a bed in triage with several other women. I again asked where the doctor was and that I needed some drugs. I am the only one screaming in pain and everyone around me thinks I am exaggerating. I finally yelled out where is the doctor I need to push. When the lady heard that she ran for the doctor.

The doctor checked me as I was requesting drugs. She realized I was dilated to an 8 and the baby was coming soon. She wheeled me into the delivery room and checked me again and sure enough I was at a 10, screaming with back pain and wanting to push. Her and the nurses scrambled around to get things ready while having one hand out ready to catch the baby if it came before they had everything ready. She said there was no time for drugs and 10 minutes after arriving in the delivery room bun number 2 was born. We were at the hospital for 30 minutes, 20 minutes of convincing everyone I was in pain and the baby was coming and 10 minutes of delivery. Good thing we decided to deliver in Oakland and not at Stanford Hospital again, there is no way we would have made it.

Baby Stats:
Born at 4:09am on June 11, 2011 8lbs 13oz 21 3/4in – BIG BOY!

Rufus Edgar is really not a family name or his name. We did leave the hospital this time with a name on the birth certificate. His name is Crew Oustad Bingham and he is a cutie!






All these lovely pictures are taken by my friend Kimber who is a professional photographer. Kimber Hansen Photography - kimberhansen.blogspot.com
Crew is one day old. Thanks for the beautiful pictures Kimber!

I guess i better

I guess I better do at least one last blog entry before the next bun comes (which I am hoping is any time now). May has been a pretty good month for us. Rick got a bit of a promotion at work and is now running the vegetable business for Del Monte. With the brand transition he has had some slower days at work and has been making it home before Athen goes to bed at night. We have been loving the time we get to spend with him at night before bed. Athen is such a daddys boy, it is so adorable. He waits for Rick to come home and gets so excited to play with him. I love watching those two together.

Not only have we had some extra time with Rick during the week this month, we have had some extra time with him on the weekends as well. The last few weekends have actually been free of work, church, and apartment building obligations so we have been able to spend time together and have a little fun.

Last weekend we did our normal Friday night activity, which is going out to dinner. We had Indian food on College Ave. On Saturday morning we woke up and headed into the city for breakfast. We went to my favorite breakfast place in the city called Mama's Cafe. It is in Washington Square and has a line out the door and around the block even just minutes after it opens. We showed up 15 minutes after it opened and we waited for 30 minutes out side before we got it. However, it was worth the wait. We usually order a savory dish and a sweet dish and share. We got an omelette with shrimp, mushrooms, asparagus and fontina cheese with potatoes and french baguette and the sweet dish was a trio of french toast - cinnamon brioche french toast, apple and yogurt french toast and my favorite banana nut bread french toast with fresh fruit and berries. It was yummy!

After breakfast we headed over to Ghirardelli Square with our little friend Stella (girl version of Flat Stanley) took some pictures of Alcatraz, Lombard St., Ghirardelli, the bridge etc. Once we were done in that area we headed over to Bloomingdales to look for suits for Rick. Sure enough after a few hours of looking we walked right out of Bloomingdales with a nice brand new suit. After a few hours of being in the stroller in the mall Athen was done so we had to take the suit back the next week to have it taylored. I'll tell you what, my husband looks pretty sharp and sexy in his new suit. He makes me drool!

This last holiday weekend was another good weekend with some quality family time. Athen and I headed into the city again on Friday afternoon to pick Rick up from work early (Friday summer hours started this weekend). We headed back to Bloomingdales to get his suit taylored and then to the Apple store to get my mac fixed. We then headed into the mission to Papalotes to try out their famous buritoes (from the food network). We thought it was ok but not as good as we had heard it was. Of course Athen loved it, Mexican is his favorite food by far. It is the only thing he will scarf down as if he was a starving child. Since we were already in the mission we couldn't pass the opportunity of going to one of our favorite ice cream places so we headed to Mitchell's for some ice cream. Athen doesn't get sweets much so he enjoyed sharing ice cream cones with us. It was his lucky night.

Saturday morning we headed over to the park by the water for our ward Memorial day picnic. It was a little cold and windy and even rained a bit on us. However, we did stay for almost 3 hours. That afternoon we put Athen down for a nap and Rick hadn't mentioned going kiteboarding so I decided to take the opportunity to enjoy some free time for myself. I headed down to get my pre-labor deluxe manicure and pedicure. I found a new place to go and I must say it was wonderful. They massaged my arms and legs for a long while. I was in heaven. It was nice to just get in the car and drive all by myself with no child, listen to Live 105 which I grew up listening to (Memorial weekends were always the best with Live 105). This weekend was 90's weekend on Live 105 which is my kind of music. I heard Radio Head, Bad Religion, Dinosaur Jr., Social Distortion and all the old goodies.

On Sunday we had a BBQ dinner with our friends A,D & W who are moving. We are so sad to see them go. West was Athen's first little buddy. It was a nice sunny afternoon and time well spent with good friends.

Monday we had another nice day. My little brother Jesse was in town from college, so we went to Santa Cruz with him. We got some Indian food and had a picnic up by Steamers Lane in front of the surfer museum. After lunch we headed to the boardwalk for some rides and salt water taffy of course. Jesse took Athen on the merry go round one of the few rides an adult and child could do together. Athen didn't like it so much. He enjoyed watching it in line but when it was his turn he was grabbing on to Jesse for dear life. We then headed to Samba Cafe another favorite of ours to introduce Jesse to Acai bowls. They were delicious of course.



That just about wraps up our weekend. Next in line is the arrival of bun number 2. Bags are backed, clothes washed, bed and sheets ready, nails painted and pretty, eye brows threaded - just need some contractions.

Here is the cute quilt my mom made for bun number 2. She just finished it. I picked out the fabric of course (my mom would never pick this out) and I helped her work on it on Mondays while Athen slept, which was great because I learned a bunch of new quilting tricks.



Sorry the pictures are a little blurry.

Easter

We had a fun filled Easter weekend. On Saturday morning we had a brunch at my mom's house with my parents, my brother Josh & Sara and their two kids. We had an egg bake with potatoes, ham, green onions, mushrooms and cheese with fruit & dip, donuts, and cinnamon rolls. It was all delicious. We had key lime raspberry cupcakes for dessert. We had an Easter egg hunt for Athen and Alyssa in the backyard. They LOVED it. Athen thinks the eggs are balls so he loved running around, grabbing the balls and putting them in his bucket. He loved it even more when he discovered that the balls opened up and had candy inside. He did much better than I was expecting and had a great time. We sat around outside and enjoyed the nice day and watched the kids play.






Athen giving cousin Alyssa a ride on his trike.

That afternoon we had some friends from Oakland join us up on the hill for an Easter BBQ and egg hunt. Good thing Athen got some egg hunting practice in the morning because he was one of the youngest in this group. He still did pretty good. All the kids had so much fun finding eggs, playing on the toy bikes, blowing bubbles and going in the hot tub.











We started off with a delicious BBQ. Rick was the grill master and made some delicious meats. We had salmon marinated in soy sauce, butter, garlic, and honey, topped with a strawberry, cucumber, yellow pepper salsa which also had green onions, cilantro and rice vinegar. He also made some flank steak marinated in soy, honey, olive oil, garlic and red wine vinegar. We also had tri tip that was marinated in Omaha seasonings. It was a pot luck so we had some wonderful side dishes - potato salads, green salads, fruit salads, and brown rice salads. All was delicious. For dessert we had angel food cake with fresh cream and strawberries. It was a fun time. Athen had the time of his life and we were glad so many of our friends we able to join us.






On Sunday after church we headed to SJ to spend the day with grandpa O. We had a BBQ for dinner and enjoyed the sunshine in the backyard. Athen ran around the pool several times while Rick followed. The one time Rick decided he didn't need to follow was the one time Athen tripped and over the edge we went. Straight into the freezing cold water with all his clothes and shoes on. Although, he is pretty good at swim classes and is learning what to do when he falls in the pool, I think the cold water and all his clothes on shocked him a bit. He immediately tried turning onto his back which is what he is suppose to do. However, he still can't float on his back completely by himself yet so he started sinking. When that didn't work he started kicking his way up to the top to grab on to the edge which he is pretty good at doing. However, the edge was no where to be found. By this time Rick was in the water grabbing the poor little guy out. He sucked up a bunch of water and was a little scared. However, a few seconds later he was fine and happy as can be when grandpa showed up with a huge dump truck for him to play with.





This pictures is of Athen seconds before falling into the pool. The funny thing is while I was taking this picture the thought going through my mind was just that - this is Athen right before he falls in. I meant to document the whole thing but I think I was too frightened that my little guy had fallen in that I missed the photo opps afterwards.

After the pool incident we headed to the front yard for an Easter egg hunt. This was Athen's third for the weekend so by this time he was pretty good. Plus there were no other kids to steal any of the eggs. They were all for him. He is wearing his Jams in these photos because his wet clothes were in the drier.




We had a great Easter weekend!