I needed to share. . .

this cute picture of these two cuties with the world. . .so here you go.

The Arch.

Kids in the dirt & Josh, Nana and Hannah on the side.

M' in the sling.

Mike & I

Nana & G'.

Since Josh and Hannah are here we decided that they had to see the Arch. . .so today we went downtown, saw the Arch, got some lunch and the Gus's Pretzels (mmm. . .so good) and then headed home. They went down to Main Street to find some more treasures and Mike and I stayed home with the kids and wrapped presents. A bit of fun and a bit of productivity. . .not to bad.

Unbelievable.

M' is now 1 week old. The first few days we were having trouble getting her to stay asleep during the night for more then 1 1/2 hours. She would want to eat and then go back to sleep. . .it wasn't exactly working for us. We were kind of aiming for at least 2-3 hours in a row. Anyways we started to experiment with her sleeping and we figured out that if we set her in her car seat, swaddled and on a thick blanket, along with a thick blanket over her body she would sleep much longer. Last night was the second night trying it and it was unbelievable. I fed her at 11pm and laid her down about 11:30pm. . .then I went to sleep. I slept and slept and slept. I finally woke up at 4am. . .checked to make sure she was still breathing and made Mike check her. . .then I went back to sleep. Finally at 6:30am I heard M'. . .I couldn't believe she slept for so long. I was amazed at 4am. . .so 6:30am was incredible. I'm hoping this continues. . .I loved it.

My little sleeper.

Christmas Tree. . .Done.

The Santa's.

The mess.

The Tree.

The Hikers.

Mission Complete.

Today we went for a hike to find our tree. Mission accomplished. This year we had some whiners and the process seemed to take a bit longer but we found the 2009 tree, decorated it and we are now sitting and enjoying the lights. Even though we had to deal with the whining, it is so fun to see the kids get so excited about everything. A few years back several people gave us musical Santa's. . .I'm not sure why. . .we had never had any, never mentioned them, but for some reason we ended up with 3 different ones. They are loud, they sing and dance, and one even rides a bike. . .needless to say, the kids love them. So playing with them provided some long lasting entertainment.

Black Friday.

"Relaxing" on the couch. M' had just been crying so O' saved the day by quickly grabbing the pacifier and G' bounced the chair. It was some great team work on their part.

G' and O' showing M' some love.

Me at 4 a.m.

Ok. So I'm not totally obsessed or anything. Its not like we get up and stand in the lines in the freezing cold and wait for hours to get that one unbeatable deal, but we do get up while its still dark to get to the store right as they are opening. This morning we got up at 4am. . .which really isn't that big of deal considering we have a baby less then a week old. . .seems we are always up. . .jumped in to some clothes, made a cup of coffee and headed out. This year, my two cousins, my mom, M' and I participated in the madness. We hit up Target, Sams and Kohl's. Then picked up Mike and the other kids, went to McDonald's for breakfast and some playtime, then went to Toy's R Us. (Toy's R Us was the worst, just so you know) After that we headed home for some down time and Thanksgiving left overs. . .followed by a much needed nap for me. We were able to get some Christmas presents for some folks but definitely didn't walk out with any 40 inch TVs like everyone else in Target. Tomorrow is Christmas decorating day. We plan to go chop our tree down. . .yes, baby and all. . .and then come home, decorated, make some fudge and enjoy the day. So that's about all. . .there's my "for real" blog. . .hopefully more will follow.

Happy Thanksgiving. . .

I promise, after today I'll attempt, with real effort, to update this blog for real.I

Sweetie Pie.

Here she is. . .

Hospital Trip #2

November 22, 2009
1:22 a.m.
Baby Girl M' was born.
7 lbs. 15 oz.

Pictures to come.

While sitting on the counter waiting for breakfast. . .

"I'm not a fan of peaunut butter. I'm a fan of jelly."
Grace

(She explained this to Nana while Nana spread peanut butter on Obie's toast. Just so you know, we never use the word "fan".)

Hospital Trip #1

Been to there done that. So we had our first trip to the hospital this afternoon. It wasn't due to contractions or labor or whatever. . .I had a little "episode" this morning. Around 9 am I was helping get the kids ready for the day. I had had a blueberry muffin, water and a little coffee for breakfast. Well around 9 am I started feeling really weird. Like I was in a cloud. I couldn't focus, my heart was racing, I couldn't answer questions really. Anyways, I figured I was fine and really shouldn't be having a problem so I drove to Target and let me Mom run in real fast to get a camera battery. While she was inside Grace kept talking to me and I couldn't answer her. Nothing was really computing in my head. When I did answer her my answers were not making sense. When my mom came out I drove to Panera Bread. I thought some food would help me out. We got there and I couldn't figure out the menu. Like, it wouldn't make sense. I couldn't make sense of any of it. Finally I ordered a chicken Cesar salad since I knew they had that...its not what I really wanted but I just felt like I was in a daze and couldn't make sense of anything. . .or answer any questions people were asking me. It was really weird. My mom drove us home and I took a nap. When I got up I had a really bad head ache and took some Tylenol. When Mike got home around 3:30 pm. he called the doctor and my first trip to the hospital began. I was starving. They monitored the baby. . .all looked well. They asked me a bunch of questions and decided it was probably related to my blood sugar in some way. After my doctor was called back I had to get a CAT scan to make sure my brain was OK. It was. It was still there all in working order. . .the final conclusion was that my blood sugar level had a major drop after the muffin and it was taking my body a little bit to get it up to normal again. I don't have diabetes or anything, it was just from "fasting" all night and then starting my day off with a bit too much sugar. I had been having contractions that I could feel and that also showed up on the monitor so they went ahead and checked me again. I was 4 cm and 80% so there was some progress from yesterday. The house doctor said they could probably get me a little pitocin to get my started and let me have the baby if I wanted. I declined and am still hoping we see the new little one by Saturday.

Tuesday Doctor Appointment

Third weekly appointment down. Today marks 37 weeks 3 days. I've been having more contractions, but nothing regular or very painful. The first two appointments there wasn't much progress. . .pretty much nothing. Today was better. It gave me hope that maybe sometime in the near future this baby would be making an appearance. 3 cm and 70% effaced. So at least something is happening. I would love to have this baby by Sunday. I'm feeling rather large and uncomfortable. I gained another pound so I'm at 29 pounds. Bending over feels like the wind is getting knocked out of me and my lower back aches. Normal, I know but it will be so nice not to have this huge bump. Chasing two small kids is also so much harder. . .So hopefully in the next few days I'll give you some good news and have some pictures for you. . .hopefully.

Still here. . .

Yea, I know, I'm not updating as often. My mom has been here for a week now and we are having fun. We have been running all over town, attempting to get some stuff done before we have 3 kids to drag around with us. . .and taking late trips to Target and Starbucks while the kids sleep and Mike works on school work. We have been really bad at taking pictures over the past week. Here are a few. . .

37 Weeks

So 37 weeks. . .we have arrived. I was motivated to take some pictures today. Today marks full term so I keep hoping each picture might be the last pregnant one. Here they are a few. I was suppose to be cleaning and getting things done around the house but I took a few minutes out to sneak in some pictures.

So here is our problem. . .

Grace and Obie share a room. Not a problem at all. They love it and I think they would really miss each other if we split them up. Naptime used to be a problem. . .we quickly learned that they would have to be separated for it since all they wanted to do was play together. Here was our new problem. Grace doesn't need as much sleep as Obie. They have the same bedtime and I'm not giving up Grace's nap time. . .plus when she consistently doesn't have a nap she gets grumpy. . .really grumpy. So our problem was she has been waking up earlier then Obie, waking him up for entertainment which in turn causes him to get grumpy, need a morning nap (kind of) of then be off schedule for the rest of the day. Both kids are still in cribs. Neither have climbed out and we like it that way. But Grace is 3 1/2 so we thought maybe it was time. . .we were going to get her a bed after Christmas but. . .that idea has now changed. We decided we would try her mattress on the floor so she could "sneak" out of her room when she wakes up in the morning and not wake up Obie. She was very excited. The crib is in her room and she has been told that if she can't stay on her bed it will be put back in the crib. Grace was so excited. . .like she couldn't contain herself. She kept telling Obie about it. . .even after she was in bed with the lights our she was still telling Obie about her big girl bed. Anyways, she has been told she cannot get out until the sun wakes up and there is light. . .usually she gets up at 7:15am. Today it was 6:45am. She was a grump. GRUMP. She knew it too. She even told the Sunday school teacher that she was grumpy and that after she ate lunch she needed to take a nap. Well. . .she did need to. Except when we layed her down, she stayed on the mattress but she refused to sleep. 2 hours later she came downstairs and informed me she was done resting. I'm hoping the excitement wares off and some normal sleep starts taking place. At least she is staying where she belongs. . .now she just needs to do what she is suppose to do and sleep. Please sleep.

Crazy

Uncle Nate. . .

is in town. He got here yesterday afternoon so today was our first full day. Grace and Obie love him and it is hilarious to hear Obie say Uncle Nate. Today we went to a park, played on a playground, kicked the ball around and discovered a really good pastromi restaurant. The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast with Uncle Nate.

The Eye

So here is the eye. . .the first black eye. The pajama picture is from the morning after. He was a little puffy and had just colored his face and my couch with a yellow marker. The other two pictures are from today. The puffiness is down but the color has intensified. He's lookin a little ruff.