Santa 2009

Our mall has a fantastic Santa. We discovered last year that if you go BEFORE Thanksgiving they will spend lots of time with you to make sure your kid is comfortable and you get a good picture. Last year Addie was terrified of Santa. This year wasn't much different. She was OK with him being there as long as she was about 10 feet away from him. The photographer tried showing her toys, reading books and having his 2 year old son sit on Santa's lap to show Addie it was OK. Nothing worked. So Santa 'went bye bye'. He stood out of her view for a few minutes until we convinced her to sit in his chair then he snuck back in and stood behind her. This is exactly how the picture last year looked (except we have Johnny this year). We had about 20 pictures to choose from by the time we were done. They probably spent about 15 minutes with us and it was past the time they were supposed to be closed. Maybe next year she will actually be on his lap. :)

First Week

This last week has really been a blur. I don't think there is anything super significant to write about. Johnny is doing really well. He is such a great sleeper! We are working on getting him to stay up more during the day and get out of the 2-3 hours he cries and is awake in the middle of the night.

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Daniel went back to work on Tuesday leaving my mom to help me with Addie. Thank goodness she changed her flight to be here earlier. I don't think we would have survived 4 days without her here! After a few days at home I needed to get out. We ran some errands (which I mentioned in the previous post). Friday we took a trip to the grocery store. I thought about riding one of those electric carts but decided I could handle walking for a little bit. Soon after we got there the cramps started up and I probably looked miserable. Addie insisted on getting out of the cart toward the end so I let her. My mom left us to go get something and Addie took off running. I was moving pretty slow at this point and could not find her. Then I heard an announcement over the intercom "we have a lost little girl with blond hair. Would her mom please come get her." Embarrassing. Can't imagine what the employee was thinking when she saw me walk up with another baby in the cart. Friday night we received a gift card for a nearby restaurant so we were brave and went for our first dinner out. Tomorrow is my mom's birthday so we took her to Red Robin tonight to celebrate. The baby does pretty well out and in his car seat.

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Right after I had the baby Addie's potty training got a little rocky. She had a few accidents here at home. She kept asking for a diaper when she saw us putting one on Johnny. It would only last for about an hour though before she would want her underwear back on. She is doing much better now. Even at the restaurants she tells us when she needs to go. Even though I am not the one taking her to the bathroom all of the time right now, it is nice only having 1 diaper to change throughout the day.

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Other than being tired and still a little sore, things are going really well. I think Johnny gets cuter everyday. We are hoping he puts some weight on soon so that his clothes will fit a little bit better. Thanks to everyone who has congratulated us and even stopped by to see the little guy!

Updates...

Not much is going on here. I guess that's a good thing right? Hard to believe that Johnny is already 4 days old! He is such a quiet baby and sleeps a lot!! Except for the 2 or so hours that he cries at night. I have to wake him up to feed him, he'd rather be sleeping. Addie is loving him, giving lots of hugs and kisses and wanting to help change his diaper and being very concerned when he cries. Daniel went back to work on Tuesday so it's been great having my mom here to help out so that I can get lots of rest. It's driving me crazy not being able to do alot or getting to go out of the house. Finally today we went out and did a few quick errands. The kids and mom my stayed in the car the whole time. It was nice to get out, but very nice to come home and sit on the couch!

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I wanted to find pictures of Addie and Johnny to compare. When Johnny was born the midwife and Daniel said he looked a lot like Addie. I think they look similar but he definitely looks like a boy and she was so dainty!

Here is Addie at 1 day old.

And Johnny.

This was Johnny today after we ran our errands. He was sound asleep in the car seat! What a blessing after having Addie who would scream her head off every time we put her in the seat. He slept in there for about an hour after we got home before I decided to get him out. Soo nice.

I am loving that his hair looks like it is going to be a reddish blond.

My babies and I. :)

It was so nice to put on real clothes today and get out of the house!

Introducing...

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So far Addie is enjoying her new little brother. We just have to remind her to be gentle. I think she is going to be very helpful!

More progress...

38 weeks. My body is done. :)

Progress...

We (meaning Daniel) did a lot of work on the house before/right after we moved in. I am always so amazed at how much difference it makes by painting and ripping out carpet. I posted some before and after photos of the rooms that are done. But first, this is Daniel's current project. This is the downstairs shower that I am supposed to rinse off in after I have the baby...

before...

...and this is what it looks like today. Scary.

The blue master bedroom before...

and after. We still need to paint the drawers under the window but the rest looks pretty nice.

The 'loft' at the top of the stairs before...

and after. I am not good photographer. This area really does look nice, I am impressed every time I go upstairs.

Addie's pink room and nasty carpet before...

after. Aww...nice wood floors. :)

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Something else we have been making lots of progress in is potty training! I am so proud of her for doing so well. I decided about 3 weeks ago after reading a friends blog that we were just going to go for it and get her underwear. When we are at home I don't feel like I really need to constantly ask her if she needs to go. She will usually yell "have to go!" and take off running toward the bathroom. The first couple of days were rough but she caught on pretty fast. This week I got brave and we started running our errands with her in underwear. So far she has done fantastic! She had one small accident at JoAnn because she wondered off from me and by the time she found me it was too late, but it wasn't anything we had to change her clothes for. It has been wonderful for me not having to get up and down off the floor to change her. It is MUCH easier to stand in the bathroom with her than it is to get down on the floor at this point. :) We will see how she does when the baby comes, maybe we will only have child in diapers (she does still wear a diaper or pull up while she is sleeping but I am fine with that!).

Change of plans...

I have to move this to Wednesday night...hopefully some of you can still make it!

Craft Boutique 2009

We had a booth at the Northwood Boutique today. Last year was the first time we did an event like this and we learned a lot so that this year was much better. Addie spent Friday night at her cousins house so that Daniel could be there with me all day. I couldn't have done it by myself! He built me the peg board stand on the table which I think looked fantastic!

We did much better this year with our sales. I also saw a lot more stuff there that I wanted to buy from the other vendors. So I did some shopping with my earnings...

A little birthday present for me (thanks mom!)...

Something for the baby...

A new holiday decoration...

And one last Christmas present for Addie.

Halloween 2009

You have to listen closely to her replies, she is pretty quiet. This was after we were done and she was eating all her candy.

You're Invited...

Maternity Photos

We met with our wonderful photographer to get maternity pictures done. She also managed to get some great ones of Addie. She ended up including 108 pictures on the disc...here are just a few!