First Meetings.

Since baby "Teddy" came late at night, the children didn't get to meet him right away.  As you can imagine, they were at the hospital first thing next morning.  They were all very giddy and excited to see and hold their new baby brother.  And Papa was of course excited to meet grandbaby #11.

It seemed diplomatic to go in birth order. 

So, first Nathan got to hold him,

then Ella,

Adeline,

and Evelyn.

Evelyn looooves babies.  She felt pretty special to get to hold "her" baby all by herself.

Finally, they even let Papa have a turn...kind of. :)

Matt likes to make sure I get in at least one photo, so here's me with all the kids.  My new brood of five (though Caleb's hard to see).  After the baby, the kids considered my bed the second most exciting thing.

The weekend coincided with our nephew's birthday party, so my sister Brenda and her family also got to meet him in the hospital.  As a bonus, Matt and the kids got spend a few hours at Chuck-E-Cheese.

We also were pleasantly surprised that some friends from church also stopped by for a visit.

With their four kids and our five, it was a full room!

Since the kids were always with us, Matt and I didn't have a lot of time to discuss a name.  Matt took the kids home that night as well and stayed with them.  We had a list of five names we were choosing from and had to speak in code.  For example, "I'm leaning towards C, but how do you feel about S"?  It could have been fun to include the kids in the conversation, but I knew they would have opinions and would likely just end up upset their choice didn't win.

We had the middle named settled.  We had chosen Louis, after my mother Lois. 

For first names we considered:  Caleb, Harmon, Henry, Silas, and Theodore.

As you know, we choose Caleb Louis. 

Caleb seemed the most "Thompson-like".  The other boys in the family, Matthew and Nathan, are Biblical names that start with a consonant (if you're curious all the girls are non-Biblical names that start with a vowel).

We also loved the character of Caleb from the Bible.  Joshua 14:14 states that Caleb "followed the Lord, the God of Israel, whole heartedly".  My soul would desire nothing greater than to see all of my children follow the Lord whole heartedly...and so it was the chosen name.

Side note: you may have been thrown by the name Harmon...I was too.  Matt really liked it though, and it is kind of cute. 

The rest of the hospital stay was spent snuggling baby and of course enjoying all of our provided, prepared meals...my personal favorite! 

I like this photo of Evelyn.  I imagine it's the moment where she realized she's not the baby anymore and everything is about to change!

 The boys. 

Nathan is so happy to have a brother! 

Next adventure: Home!

Guessing Game!

 Saturday we thought it would be fun to play a guessing game with the kids.  The rules were we would show them a picture one kid at a time, then they had to guess what it was.  Once they had their turn they had to wait in the kitchen as to not influence the next guesser...

First up was Nathan:

He guessed correctly and figured it out in about thirty seconds.  This isn't his first rodeo.

Ella was a different story.  

She figured out it was a baby, but just which baby she was confused about.

 

Is it Evelyn? Addie? 

 

Me?  Nathan?

 

She even wondered if a friend of ours was having a baby..

 

Then Nathan came to offer a few clues...

Finally, here she's asking me, "Mom, are you pregnant!?"

 

Addie did not want to participate in this activity and started off pretty grumpy.  She quickly warmed up when she saw the photos.

She knew right away that it was a baby.

 

Matt pointed out to her the date on the photos, so she soon figured out what this all meant!

Finally came little squirt:

No idea...

 

Matt explains this is a baby, and the baby is inside Mommy's tummy...

 

Evie loves babies!

 

So, the cat is out of the bag!  

Blessing number 5 is expected to arrive around September 5, 2016-which quite fittingly is Labor Day!

Thankfully, everyone is overjoyed!

 Five can seem like a lot of children.  The reality is we live in a three bedroom house, don't drive a large SUV, and are surviving thriving on a single income.  However, when I look at the above photo I feel I could have a dozen (I mean, I won't, but just look at 'em!)

We are so blessed, beyond our own comprehension.

Thank you Jesus!