We have a lot to be thankful for!

Just wanted to put up a quick post. We got back from South Dakota this last week. We drove the 12 hours home. The drive up there was stressful to say the least. The roads from Rock Springs on were so covered in snow that we couldn't see the road. Then from Rawlins north the roads were iced over. We finally decided to stop in a small town called Kaycee for the night. Emma was a little confused as to why we were stopping at some random place for the night. We finally made it to Grandmas. We enjoyed a whole week of family visits and there were two weddings and a large party to celebrate.

Emmalyn turned FOUR on Dec. 4th. We decided to have three small birthday parties and presents instead of one large birthday. She was very excited to have all the gifts and cake all the time. Its hard sometimes cause her birthday is so close to Christmas.

Lance is doing great! He is walking all around our furniture and with his little push cart but has yet to take a step on his own. He eats like his sister and is non stop moving. He was 20 lbs and 27 inches long at his 9 month check up. He has started talking quite a bit and says mama, emma, uh oh, and almost dada. He gives kisses and shakes his head for 'no'. He really is a blessing and a balance to our family!

Brad has some really good news! He got a new job! Its still on Hill AFB but is with a different contracting company. He is doing a little bit of different stuff- more challenging stuff- and had a good pay increase!! He starts on the 12th of this month and is a little nervous. He will be so good though!

Our family is doing so well! None of us has been very sick or had any major incidents recently. We are just very blessed this Christmas season! Merry Christmas to All!!

Really!! Soooo long overdue!!

 

Well here I am again apologizing for not writing sooner... story of my life really. Random thought.. how the heck to people have more than one kid!! I am sooooo busy with two that somedays I don't go to the bathroom!! (not really but it feels like it sometimes) Lance is 8months old now and I'm just finishing up the 6 month pictures....uhhh. 

Anyways he is doing soooo well! I don't have his stats right next to me but I remember that he was in the 50% for his height and weight. Just perfect--haha at least I think so! He is still breastfeeding and we are loving it. He only will nurse for about 15 min anymore cause the world has so much else going on. He is the most distractable baby!! If Emma even makes a sound he tries to find her and figure out what she's doing. He loves watching every little thing. She is helping him learn to crawl by 'Showing' him all the time. He does get on his knees and push backwards and he scoots backwards but he cant figure out how to go forward yet. 

Emma is in a tumbling gymnastics group and is loving it! Two weeks ago we had a little scare though... She fell at gym and hit her head. Later that afternoon-after her nap she woke up and she wasn't feeling well. I called the pediatrician and they said just to watch her and if she started vomiting then she 'needed to be seen'. Well half an hour later she threw up! When I picked her up she was super hot so I took her temp and it was 102. Dang! I called the Dr's back and they said take her to the ER right away and have a CT scan done. Well wouldn't you know there was a line clear to the door when we got there. We were filling out a card for patient info and she threw up all over Brad and the floor. The nurse came and took us back right away to get Emma changed and get the CT started. Her temp was 104 when they checked us in. We ended up waiting for about 45 min (which is good for the ER- bad for Lance). Once we got in a room the Dr said that the temp wasn't from a possible head injury but from something else. We ran all sorts of test and the only thing they came up with was a possible UT infection. They gave her some antibiotics in a shot form and told us to watch her. If it didn't get better then they wanted to test her for Meningitis!! We have a wonderful neighbor that came and got Lance so he wasn't at the hospital all night with us and we didn't get home till 11pm. Her temp didn't come down for three days and she just looked so sick. It finally broke and she started feeling better, so thank goodness!!

Brad and I are doing good. We are starting a diet this week and will be going on more walks than we have been. We both need to loose some weight!! I think he puts on weight when I get pregnant, so for the last two babies he has gained just as much as I have. It will be good for both of us.

Lance and I did make a quick trip back to South Dakota at the end of August. My grandfather passed away and we flew out for the funeral. It was a very short trip and nice to see everyone and be with family. Its going to be so weird going home for Thanksgiving and not having them there to visit with. I know though that they are together and out of pain.

Well that's about it for now! I'm sure there will be more coming up and HOPEFULLY I wont be gone or so long again!!

Oh my gosh.........where did the time go?!

Well hello blog land....I've been absent for a while...sorry bout that! We have been really busy these last couple of months.

A few updates:

Emmalyn is now in a gymnastics group, well tumbling anyways. She LOVES it! She was always flipping off my furniture and running around so I figured we should channel the energy. Her teacher is wonderful and she has such a great time....although it hasn't really solved the jumping on the furniture issue?! She has been playing outside a ton now that its nice and I cant keep her out of her little pool.

Lance just turned 5 months on Monday....holy crap where did the time go!! I am still exclusively breastfeeding him! I never thought I would make it this far. I can honestly say that I am still enjoying it. Selfishly I love being his favorite person. My fears of feeding him in public are gone and quite frankly I just don't care anymore what people think. In fact most people that say stuff are more supportive than I thought. Even my coworkers are supportive of my pump, whom we've named BOB!! That's a whole other story tho. hehe Anyways Lance is almost rolling over. Hes done it a few times but not constantly enough to get the hang of it. We also introduced him to a sippy cup. He is soooo interested in food that he grabs at everything. We thought it would be fun to see how he did with a little water in the cup....mostly he just chews on it. Which brings me to the next topic, teething!! He is definitely starting this lovely (NOT) phase. EVERYTHING is in his mouth and the DROOL ahhhhh!!! He really is just a happy laid back baby. Such a welcomed change from Emma ;) hehe.

VISITORS!!
We have had two months of visitors at our house! First Grandma Jo and Oma came out to stay while I had a week long training for work. We went down to Discovery Gateway in SLC and just had a blast watching Emma play around. It was nice to have them here! Of course the kidlets always love having Grandma Jo here!!

Here are the pics from that visit:

We also had my dad come out and visit. We haven't seen him for a while so it was really nice to have him out. Of course he cant just come visit and not work....so Brad and him put the framing in the basement so we can get ready for the electrical. I promise we didn't' make him work too hard. He also fixed our fridge for us that has been broken for over a year. Hehe the water and ice in the door broke and flooded our basement so i was hesitant to fix it for fear of another flood. Well happy to say that its fixed!! NO floods! We also went to the Zoo and the park while he was here.

Baby elephant Zuri is still nursing!! AND out in public!- At least I have a cover...hehe



Brad and I are just working and doing housework. Same stuff just a different day. Well hopefully it wont be such a long stretch next time!!

I LOVE HIS FEET!!

Have I mentioned how much I love these two!!

Three months... and then some

So Lance was three months on April 27th.....i know this is a little late... but hey better late then never!! That morning I woke up and it hit me....take the pics NOW or you will forget about them. So these are just a quick few pics so I didn't forget.

I just LOVE his laugh and smiles...he uses his whole body to do it!!

He is getting so good and sitting upwards and has great head control

His tongue is out of his mouth more than in

This is for Grandma....His old soul is coming out! HAHA

Hes just so cute!!

Anyways he loves to play on the floor with Emma, eat and sleep. He is quite comical when he has to go to the bathroom and gets this look on his face that is so serious then when you take his diaper off he's just so dang happy. I've learned that about boys, take their diaper off, give em a little breeze and they're happy. The other day he was just cranky- not crying just fussy so I took his clothes off down to his onsie and went outside. It was almost 70 degrees so he wasn't cold. He loved it. The birds were chirping, airplanes overhead, and Emma playing with the dog. His mood was instantly better. I LOVE SPRING!

In other news were just trucking along. Ive gone back to work and this month of May will kill me! I only have four days off from now until June due to training. Its great that I get to learn but usually I spread my trainings over the year not all in one month. YIKES! Well pray for me that I wont go crazy!

Brad is doing great just trying to keep everything together. Now that I work nights he has to take the kids to Jenny's house on his own. I try to help but I don't function very well when I go to bed at 4 am and get up at 630 to help him.

Emma is loving being back at the sitter. Honestly I think she has more fun with the kids over there! I'm just boring old mom. They even took her to the zoo with them the other day on my day off. I'm pretty sure that her and Blake are destined to be married some day.

Well that sums up our life for now.....

Family 'Staycation'

So this weekend was the last long weekend I had before I go back to work on Wednesday. I am having mixed feelings about that btw. I LOVE my job but I have been enjoying my time off. Anyways on Friday we decided to go shopping. We bought stuff for a project you'll see at the bottom of the post and Emma some summer/spring clothes (if spring will ever get here she can wear them). We also found some great deals on outside toys at shopko. Later that afternoon we played outside while Brad started on his project & I finished Emma's Easter dress. Here are some pics:

Yes I did make that dress!!! I am soooo proud of it & it just looks darling on her. Now on to the project. I found this woodworking website & now Brad & I are hooked. Our first project was this:...............

A DRESS UP CLOSET!!

If you've ever been to my house you know how many dress ups we have & that they are usually scattered all over the playroom. So this was a must. Brad built it, Emma picked out the paint (it was a dollar cause the store had an oops), & we painted it. Emma chose large wall princess stickers to decorate it. It has hooks on each side for necklaces & purses to hang up & the best part ---it has wheels!

We Brad mowed the lawn and trimmed the edges. I love freshly mowed grass!! He also got the basement back in order and reorganized his tool area. We also went to the movie HOP and Emma loved it. Shes all about Easter right now. Probably just because she heard that the Easter Bunny brings presents. Anyways we had such a fun/busy weekend. Like I said before, I'm having mixed feelings about going back to work. There are so many things I wish I had time to do. My sewing project list just keeps growing as I read other's blogs ect.

I just realized that I haven't talked about Lance! Well he's good. His personality is just to go with the flow. He really doesn't have a choice though with who his sister is!! I made it my goal this weekend to feed him in public and not be worried about it. So he got to eat at McDs for the first time, hehe. In fact my nursing cover got lots of compliments. He also ate at the movie theater! That was by far the easiest place--dark and nobody is paying any attention to me, not to mention the comfy chairs. He started laughing this weekend. We cant get him to do it all the time but hes close. He is starting to watch toys and reach out for them. We are working on associating a cuddle object or blanket so when I'm away he'll eat from someone else.

Well all in all I would say that the weekend was a success!

Pictures FINALLY!!

Well i am happy to say.....i have photos!!! It's not that i don't take em, i just have a hard time getting them from my card to the computer and transferred over to the right format. See my computer is downstairs where its super cold and i just cant bring myself to take Lance down there. So i have to wait till hes taking a longer snooze and sneak away. Anyways my life is crazy so please forgive me!

So for starters here are Lance's blessing pics. They aren't the best but i had to at least get some in his outfit.

I just love the look on the last one... hes lovin the ladies already!!

I have a slight obsession with church clothes for little boys. I just love getting him dressed up on Sunday. (Truth be told I loved dressing Emma up as well). So here are his two church outfits so far. The onsie with the tie you have already seen, however, i just made the pants to match last week.

Hehe the pants are a little small, but only because his cloth diapers are larger than disposable ones. So far that is the only drawback to using them.

I also took a few shots of him playing in his crib while i was putting his clothes away. He doesn't sleep in here yet but will soon. I just cant bring myself to allow him to mess up Emma's sleep patterns yet. He loves to just play in there and look around at all the new sights. BTW the kids room looks like IKEA threw up in there! I love that place!!

You would never know but this bumper is the same one I used for Emma's crib. That's why I love IKEA! I can take a complete girly room and incorporate boy stuff into it and it works perfectly.

So Lance had his two month check up on the 28th of March....wow I'm way behind.... here are the results
           Weight: 12 lbs 14 oz --75%
           Height: 23.5 inches--75 %
           Head Circumference: 40 cm--50%
Emma was always in the 90th % or above so I'm excited that hes just slightly more average. I do however grow big kids though so I'm sure he'll catch up. The Dr said his head control is really good and his weight gain is obviously doing better. We are still breastfeeding and my supply is about 60-70% now. I am going to try one more drug supplement and see if I cant get it up to 100%. Its been a blessing to be able to bond with him in a way that i didn't with Emma. My recovery has been faster and the PPD hasn't been an issue this time around.

I had my last check up on the 31st and have been cleared to go back to work. Yeah!! I start back on the 20th of April and am looking forward to working again. I just have to see if i remember anything....they might put me back through training!!

We took our little vacation down to Moab this last weekend. My mom and Tammy just moved there the week before and we were excited to see them again. I forgot though how much work it is to travel with an infant. Pretty sure I packed everything but the kitchen sink. The four hour drive took us six and a half and Lance cried most of the car ride down. See he HATES the car seat and to be in it for that long was just torture for him. I think though (fingers crossed) that he may be getting over it cause on the ride home he did great. Emma had such a great time down there and hasn't stopped talking about going back so she can go hunt for lizards.

This last one I took today. Grandma and Grandma Tammy got these for her and shes been playing with them all day!! I just love the colors.....oh spring when are you going to get here!!??

Anyhow this has been a SUPER long post,  Lance is finally sleeping and Brad is threatening to pull the plug so until next time.....

Just photos

This post will mainly be photos.....i know i know ...you really dont want to look....

I realized today that mama needs a new camera!! The photos arent the best, posed, exposed, and they are grainy as all get out! But they are my kids and at least I captured the moment. So if anyone wants to donate to the camera fund, haha, let me know. I'll take any amounts. hehe.

This first one is on Lance's blessing day. Its not the best photo, he was pretty hungry! I have plans today to get the better ones done.

The next few are just the kids playing. Lance is getting to the point where he is recognizing faces and he just loves Emma.

And that is usually how my children react when the camera is out!!!