Happy Easter

We had a wonderful first Easter as a family of four today! Michael made us a nice breakfast and then Hayden discovered that the Easter Bunny had been by the house! He decided he wanted all the baskets...including his sister's! Since she doesn't put up a fight he was able to easily take those over too.

Miss V is 10 weeks old now and she is doing wonderful! She has even given us a few full nights of sleep already. At her 2 month appointment she weighed 11lb 5oz and was 23.5inches long! She is becoming more and more alert and gives us lots of coos and smiles these days!

Too bad the weather was not cooperating this morning! Luckily the wind didn't blow anything away and Hayden was able to play outside a little bit with his easter eggs and sandbox. He had a bit of a fit when we picked everything up to bring it in, he didn't understand why the eggs don't get to stay outside. I think the candy inside helped though!

H is a very "determined" kiddo these days as his daycare provider puts it! He is now opening up doors and wants to help with everything. It is so much fun to see him grow more and more each day, although very tiresome at times too!:) Never a dull moment, but we wouldn't change it!



Happy Easter to all our family and friends!

1 month

It's actually been about 6 weeks since Veronica was born but life with two kids is definitely busy so I am just now updating...

Big brother Hayden is doing wonderful with his "sissy!" He is such a loving brother, always wanting to give her kisses and hold her when he can. He is a big help to mommy as well, throwing diapers away and getting wipes when needed or letting me know if she has lost the binky. It is amazing to see how independent he is becoming and how much he can do on his own.

Veronica has been a dream as well, she has been sleeping 5+ hours since week 2 or so and recently gave us a couple nights over 6. She only seems to get fussy when it is time to eat! Lately she is becoming more animated and has given us some smiles as well. Her 1 month check up went well, she gained just over 1 pound and grew 1 1/2 inches, making her stats: 9lb 7oz, 21.5in.

We were able to get a few family photos taken recently along with some newborn pictures. It only took two days of trying because the baby did not want to put out the sleepy vibes, eventually we were able to get some really nice shots of her and the family!

I can't believe it has already been 6 weeks! Life with two goes by so much faster, we are looking forward to the nicer weather finally so we can take the double stroller out some more and enjoy some much needed play time!

Welcome Veronica Rae!

Introducing Veronica Rae,

born 12:38 am February 8th, 2011.

8 lbs. 2.9 0z. 20 in.

After a few weeks of teasing us, our baby girl decided it was time to make her entrance into this world! What a crazy entrance it was! I won't go into too much detail but after being admitted around 11 pm on February 7th we were told I could have my epidural and to expect a baby by 6am the next morning. Before they could even do my bloodwork I was in serious pain. After being admitted at 5cm dilated the nurse checked again to find I was now at 9cm with hardly any time passing. My water broke and all the nurses and doctor were in a mad dash to get things prepped for a baby. I was told there was no time for an epidural. From the time I began pushing it took about 10 minutes to deliver our baby girl. So needless to say the birth did not go as planned and Michael is just glad to still have use of his hand after the birth. From the time I got into my room and Michael had notified our parents around 11:30pm to expect a baby the next day we had a healthy baby girl about an hour later. I had not planned to have a natural delivery and still can't believe I did, but everything just happened too quickly.

Veronica has been such a good baby! Maybe because her delivery was so dramatic, she is just going to be calm from here on out! Fingers crossed:) She lets us know when she is hungry and that's about it so far. She has even given us some pretty good nights so far with a few 4-5 hour stretches of sleep here and there.

Her big brother is doing great as well! I think he is more interested in her every day. When he wakes up he wants to see "sissy." He has been quite the big helper around the house as we all adjust to our family of 4! Michael and I are so blessed and excited to see our kids grow. Thank you to all our family and friends for their love and support!

Happy New Year

We were able to get a glimpse of our little girl a few weeks ago when I went in for my 32 week appointment! This time Michael actually got to be with me. We are loving having him home from St. Louis...finally! We were pretty amazed at the 4D pictures we got, she actually cooperated and let us see her cute face:) Something Hayden never did...He always had his hands up over his face. I can't believe we are getting so close to meeting her! Hayden likes to say "baby sissy" and give my belly kisses which is so cute.

The holidays this year were very fun! It is so exciting to see how Hayden reacts now that he is starting to understand some of what is going on. He loved having the tree up and would say "Ho Ho" when he saw Santa.

As usual he was very spoiled by all the family members! Once he got the hang of the paper ripping he went to work on all the gifts under the tree! He is loving the blocks and his new John Deere and Dump truck riding toys! He is all boy and loves to play ball with daddy now that he is home. Michael loves to see him yell "football" at the tv when a game is on...big shock!

We are so lucky to have such a wonderful little guy and can't believe how independent he is becoming!

We wish all our family and friends the best in 2011! Happy New Year!

It's a Girl!

I had my 20 week ultrasound on Friday and we found out Hayden will be getting a little sister in February! Michael is still out of town on business, but he was able to hear the good news over the phone while I was at the doctor's office. He said it was a girl the whole time, while I always had boy vibes. Needless to say I was in shock to hear that it was a girl! It's still sinking in:) She looked great! Measuring right where she should be and weighing in at 12oz. We are so excited!



Hayden and I are looking forward to having his daddy back with us soon! We are hoping for sometime in October, if all goes well he will be here for trick or treating!



In the meantime, Hayden keeps me on my toes! It's all about cars, balls, and cleaning lately:) I swear he is saying something new everyday and he amazes me at how quickly he picks things up and what he knows. I can't believe how big he is getting! He loves to dance around the kitchen and run around without his clothes on whenever he gets the chance, he cracks me up!

Summer Update

Good news... Hayden is going to be a big brother! Michael and I are expecting a little one early next year. I am due February 13th, so we'll have a little Valentine! We could not be happier:)



Not so good news....after we found out about the new addition we also found out Michael would be leaving on business for 3 months. Yep, he is gone until the first part of October (let's hope it doesn't get delayed) Needless to say we are missing him!



Now on to the fun stuff... before he left Michael and I were able to take a week off to spend as a family. We loaded up Hayden and the dog and headed to the cabin in McCall to join my grandparents, and parents for the 4th of July. We had a ton of fun but were very tired from chasing Hayden around a cabin that hasn't seen a little walker in atleast 18 years! We also took a few days to head to Boise to see our good friends Bill and Nikki, and their little one Averi, who had just turned 2 months old! What a doll:)









Michael flew out on the morning on the 11th to St. Louis, where he has his own apartment for the time being and will be overseeing the completion of a job there at an Oil Refinery. After about a week of Michael being gone I loaded up Hayden and the dog again. This time we headed to Spokane to visit my parents and celebrate my sister's big 30!






The weather has been great! Not as hot as the Tri-Cities so we have been able to take walks everyday and Hayden loves playing outside, usually in a big bucket of water or just walking all over trying to master the stairs whenever he gets a chance.

We even took Hayden strawberry picking one afternoon! He was great, even though he was wanting to eat everything we picked along the way. We have made a few trips to the pool as well, Hayden loves the water! He spent an entire hour playing today in the pool before it was nap time.

We are able to talk to Michael everyday and at night we do the whole video conferencing thing so he can see Hayden. It's no substitute for him actually being here but for now it will have to do. He has a big job to do and we miss him dearly but we are proud of how hard he works and what a great job he is doing while gone! Love you Michael!

Hayden's 1st Birthday

Happy Birthday!

I guess it's about time we update everyone with some pictures from Hayden's first birthday party. We had friends and family join us over Memorial Day weekend to celebrate Hayden's first birthday, luckily the weather turned out to be pretty nice. A bit windy but nice. He was a trooper all day long, even without a good morning nap!

Hayden had his very own cake at his party!

Only the second time trying frosting...

And it was a big hit!!



Needless to say, he went straight to the bathtub after this!



We are so lucky to have such an amazing little boy! We can't believe how fast the first year went by... we look forward to what's in store for us in the year to come!


Mommy and Daddy love you Hayden!!

Mother's Day Weekend

Our good friends Lacey & Steve, from Spokane, made the trek down again this year for our Annual Wine Tasting/Birthday weekend. The only difference is now we all have kids to look after as well:) They brought their son William, who is exactly 6 months younger than Hayden. The boys got to know one another again...we hadn't seen Will since he was just a month old! Unfortunately the way Hayden shows his love towards Will right now involves smacking him in the face. He thinks thats what bigger kids do since he gets it a lot at daycare!




It was so cute to see the boys interact as much as they could, next year we'll be able to see them both walking around! The wine tasting portion of the weekend was fun as well for us adults. We were a tamer version of our former selves now that we have munchkins to come home and take care of at the end of the day! Will is adorable and it was great to see Lacey and Steve! We are already looking forward to their next visit in July:)

Hayden is so close to walking...I was certain he might surprise me and walk over to say "Mommy" on Mother's Day but no go yet. Instead he wandered around the house and played with JD in between visits to daddy outside (who was staining the fence). All in all my first Mother's Day was a nice and relaxing one!

Only 2 more weeks until his first birthday!! We are looking forward to celebrating with family and friends!

11 months

How fast time goes by! I can't believe we are actually planning for Hayden's first birthday party! He is such a big boy, he has continued in his quest to walk...at this point he walks behind his toys or all over is his play area while holding onto things but not on his own just yet. He continues to balance for longer stretches at a time on a daily basis. It is amazing to see his little mind work and pick up new things every day, you can tell he is figuring out where things go when he is playing with his toys and especially his blocks. Any time daddy tries to put them away Hayden stops what he is doing so he can investigate and dump them all out again. If we build something up he lights up when he gets to knock it all down and start over and he has mastered the "high five" and the wave.

Now that daddy is back from his travels we have all been busy around the house again! It is time to stain the fence for the first time, needless to say this is going to take us longer than we originally planned! Luckily we had my parents here to help this weekend and we were able to get a pretty good start on things. The plan is to have it all done before the birthday party at the end of the month:)

Hayden continues to love being outside, good thing he will have a nice yard to play in! What is funny is that when he crawls all over the place he feels the grass and if he is wearing shorts he does the bear crawl instead of on his knees...something about the feel of it on his legs. It is pretty cute to watch.

I swear he is going to be a swimmer someday! We call him our"water baby" because he loves anything that has to do with it. I guess he takes after daddy who has always loved the beach and swimming as well! He will throw a major tantrum when we take him out of his bath at night, I'm convinced he doesn't mind feeling like a prune...he just wants to splash and play in the water and will not even flinch if he dumps some over his head or in his face.

Most of the time he takes his bath in his bathroom upstairs but we couldn't resist putting him in our kitchen sink! It's the perfect size and he loves all the bubbles:)

As we approach his first birthday we are so excited to see all the changes that he has in store for us and we look forward to the summer ahead!

Moving...

New House:)

I know it is about time I update this blog! Things have been a little crazy in our world this first part of the year. We are finally in our new home and are still getting settled in. Loving every minute of it! It's not quite as easy moving and unpacking as one might think with a little one crawling all over the place! That's right...Hayden is on the go! Hence the "Moving" title! He started crawling when we moved in the new house and has only picked up speed ever since. About a week ago he started pulling himself up on smaller objects around the house and today after many failed attempts he conquered the couch!

We are not sure where the time went but Hayden is almost 10 months old! It's really strange to begin thinking about his 1st birthday already. He is amazing! We are so thankful to have him in our lives every day, he is truly a joy and we love to see him grow on a daily basis.

At the beginning of February we switched childcare providers and Hayden is loving his new spot, he takes two great naps for her each day and the big kids get excited and say "Hi baby Hayden" when we arrive each morning. I am so grateful to my friends at work for helping to connect me with a great provider.

Michael and I are loving our new neighborhood, when the weather is nice (which has been a lot lately) we take Hayden and JD for walks each day. It's so nice to see other families out playing and everyone is very friendly.

As you can see, Hayden is quite the piglet! He loves eating with us at the table and enjoys doing things himself if given the chance. The types of foods he enjoys grows each day, lately string cheese and of course a never ending supply of cheerios would suit him just fine:)

Michael just flew out on business today for three weeks so this will be a new adventure for Hayden and I in doing things around the house by ourselves! (We miss you daddy)

Luckily one of those weeks is my Spring Break and we will be heading to Boise with my parents to visit relatives. My sister is coming to visit next weekend and my friend Smitty will be here after that.

Now that things are getting settled and it feels as if life is getting back to a new normal, I promise to try and update everyone more often! Plus its always fun to show off new pics of the kiddo- I'm biased but I think he is pretty darn cute!!

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays! We had an amazing first Christmas with Hayden in Spokane, now that he is 7 months old he is sitting up and continuing to get into everything! He wants to crawl, but gets around faster on his back still which is totally hilarious to see. We sat him down early Christmas morning in front of a gift from his auntie Molly and uncle Mike and he could not get enough of the ribbons! With a little help he tore into his very own Jack in the Box! So cute:)

I may have overdown it with a few gifts under the tree for Hayden this year, we didn't realize everyone else would over do it too so as we sat there looking around at everyone's piles his was still overfowing long after we were all done unwrapping our gifts! I need to remember he does not care one bit about the clothes- only the toys get a reaction! He got tons of books and loves his drive toy that he can steer on and honk the horn! One of the greatest gifts for Hayden was a Pooh Bear made especially for him by his Great Gram Nena! I have to thank my wonderful husband for getting me a great new chair I wanted for the new house! We are within 60 days now of completion on our new place.

The rest of our break has been spent getting well. First Hayden was sick and then I came down with it. Otherwise everything has been great, we have been able to spend the break in Spokane with my parents. We have been taking it easy and look forward to ringing in the New Year with the rest of the family when we watch the Zags vs. Oklahoma on New Year's Eve. Go Zags!

We are so very thankful to have such an amazing little boy and his first Christmas has been fantastic! Best Wishes to all our family and friends this holiday season and in the New Year to come!