Meet Colby

Introducing the newest member of the family, Colby Bennett! He joined us on September 22 at 3:15 p.m., just 1 hour and 15 minutes after getting to the hospital.

He weighed 7 lb 6 oz. If you want any other details about having a baby in this foreign country, you'll just have to call me! (yes, this is a blatant plea for phone calls - do you know how often I am awake at 2 a.m. now?!) We love his squishy little sleeping face.

One of my truly awesome friends, Halie, was sweet enough to make the 1.5 hour drive to the hospital to bring all the rest of my kids and Grandma to meet Colby. I was so excited for the kids to see him, and the boys were thrilled to miss school :) Halie took all these pictures, which I am so grateful to have now. I don't have anything like this from when my other kids were born!

The meeting went kind of like how baking cookies together goes at my house - you know, in my mind, it will be this bonding experience where I lovingly teach them how to measure ingredients and make wonderfully fluffy cookies. In reality, my blood pressure rockets into the "danger range" as I frantically attempt to stop someone from drinking the vanilla, while simultaneously stopping 6 other pairs of "helping" hands from dumping in too much salt, flour and sugar, wondering how to convince them to let me finish ALONE. 

 The first few minutes were so exciting, with everyone wanting to see Colby. It was sweet. Then of course, everyone wanted to hold him, or climb on the bed with me, or see what all the various buttons on the bed do when pushed. Somewhere in between trying to take pictures of the event and realizing that the kids ate all the cookies I fought so long and hard with the nurse to get (seriously, they are eating them in every family picture), we decided it might be nice for Ken to take the boys to lunch :) Things went from calm and sweet to exhaustingly chaotic in about 5.3 minutes...

A family of 7!

Grandma! She was holding down the fort on the home front, so that Ken could stay at the hospital with me.

Will was literally bouncing up and down with excitement!

Many of you know Tyler loves having baby siblings. He was right on the job, insisting the lights were too bright for Colby and shading his little face from them.

That hospital bed was getting a little crowded :)

While the boys went to get lunch, Hailey and I had plenty of time to ohh and ahh over baby Colby

Welcome to the family baby Colbs! While your quiet, peaceful days in the hospital with dad and mom may have led you to believe (falsely) that you were an only child, you are going to grow to love the noise and chaos that comes with being the youngest of 5, surrounded by siblings and parents who love you to pieces. Trust me.