Christmas Picture

For some reason unknown to me, I want to take at least one family picture every year. I also like to send out a Christmas letter, so voila! We were going to have our friend take the pictures for us (she does an amazing job) but with my trying to pull of our quarterly enrichment today, Dustin going out of town all week, and her busy schedule for the holidays I decided to just go to the studio. So here it is in all it's glory. The yearly family photo.

Sleep Deprivation

Crazy things have been happening around here due ( at least in part) to the sleep deprivation I've been experiencing. Just in case you've never experienced this phenomenon, I've prepared this short list. You know you have sleep deprivation when.....
1. Your keys are inexplicably missing, and you have no idea when last you saw them or what you could have possibly done with them.
2. Being peed/pooped on at 3 in the morning makes you cry.
3. You can't remember if you rinsed out your conditioner or not.
4. You don't remember falling asleep on the couch, but upon waking up find that your 2 year old has raided daddy's forbidden drawer of goodies.
5. You've made spaghetti for dinner twice this week because you can't stand the idea of facing the crowds at the store with two kids in tow. (And also because you've inexplicably lost your keys).

Ok well maybe this doesn't apply to everyone. But it sure seems to be the story of my life lately..

So Thankful

We all have things to be thankful for, but I feel especially blessed. This weekend after Turkey Day my family came up from Houston and Dustin's came down from Oklahoma to attend our baby blessing at church. We had an amazing time with everyone and were so sad to see them all go. Here's a few pictures from the big event.

Dustin's mom, dad, sister, and niece

Dustin's aunt, uncle and cousins

My mom, dad, and brothers

My sister, brother-in-law, and their kids

My two nephews Jaden and McKay loved this little dog, Hercules

My brother ryan helped Michael brush the horses

My nieces and nephews feeding the horses treats

My brother in law snagging a trophy piece

My dad loving on James

My mother in law and children with their cousins

4 weeks

I can hardly believe that tomorrow James will be 4 weeks old. I'm not sure how that works exactly, since he was born the 25th, so technically he'll be a month old on Tuesday. But all the same, it was 4 week ago Saturday we were blessed with this little boy. Time flies!
Michael loves to share his bath with his brother

Aren't these the cutest little puppy feet. Baby clothes are so cute!

This is James' 'HELP ME!' face. He wears it a lot lately.

Bed head. And a double chin. What a great pic.

La Vita Bella

This week on Dustin and Breanna plus two......

It's a good thing that Dustin has a big enough chest for TWO boys

I gave Michael this sticker, then left the room to make a phone call. Looks like Michael isn't going to have any problems with sharing.

Dustin brought home these glasses. It was good for a nice laugh last night.

So Sorry

Well I hate to do it, but Dustin is a little weirded out about random people who have been able to find our blog. So I'm making the transition... next week we're going private. I'll add in everyone's email I already have, but if you're not sure that I have yours let me know before you get blocked out!

2 Weeks

It's been two weeks since James was born. This picture is a pretty accurate portrayal of what it's been like. Amazingly, both boys seem to have the uncanny ability to sleep through anything--including crying and/or screaming by the other sibling. For that, I am grateful. The one big problem we've had is James overeating. Every few days when I'm feeding him at night and not paying attention (since honestly, I'm barely awake) he will stuff himself silly until literally, he just erupts. Out the nose and mouth simultaneously. Last night it happened again. In the bed. (Sorry again Dustin). Other than that....things are great. He's up to 9 lbs. 5 ozs. And I am loving every moment.

Back by popular demand...

Sorry he's just too cute. I can't help but post more pics. I've taken quite a few in the last couple days, but these two are some of my favorites.

When Dustin was talking to James the other day, the kid was all smiles. Dustin is in big trouble. James has already firmly wrapped his daddy around that tiny, wrinkled finger.

I was so worried how Michael would react, but it's been great so far. Other than displaying their great love for one another, this pics is a good view of the abundant dark hair James has.

More Pictures

Michael LOVES having James home. He is always wanting to hold him, hug him and poke him in the eye.

For those of you who don't know, this is Dustin male bonding with his new son. As with Michael, Dustin will burp him, and then lay him on his chest for hours while the baby sleeps and they discuss sports. James really is in this picture, you can only see a sliver of a face between the matching hat and the blanket.

This is Michale's new face. He makes it every time the camera comes out and someone says "smile!" Just ignore the hospital bed head that I'm sporting. We all have to have our "I just cheated death and I look like it" hospital pictures for some reason.

This is Dustin's Mom holding the baby minutes after he was born. Karen went on to have a fantastic day, as the nurse later asked her if she was Dustin's sister.

So these are all a little out of order. That was me the night before we went in.

For those of you who are wondering.... James is names after Dustin's grandpas (2 out of 3 are named James--highly convenient) and Edward is after my Dad. I didn't like Twilight that much.

Details, details

Here's the long and the short of the birth story. I'll try to find a happy medium for those of you who want to know more details, but are totally disgusted by words like 'catheter.'
Since Michael was born a week early, weighed 8 lbs 8ozs, and had a very difficult birth because of his size, I was a little scared the same thing was going to happen with this one. As I discussed this fear with my doctor, I was informed that they are willing to induce you any time after 38 weeks because after that the babies are just packing on the pounds. That left me with a difficult decision to make.. would I get induced and risk a harder labor, but have a smaller baby, or would I wait until labor started naturally, resulting in a better labor process but a bigger baby. After a few days of indecision I made up my mind to be induced and called the doctor on Friday. They said they could have me in at 6 am Saturday. So I ran around like a crazy person the rest of the day and tried to get things all ready to go.
Dustin's mom came into town Friday night so we were able to sneak out Saturday morning without having to worry about Michael. It took about an hour and a half for them to finish all the paperwork, get some fluids through my IV and then finally start me on the PIT (the medicine that produces contractions). At 9:30 I was dilated to a 3 and they broke my water to help me along. By 10:30 I had lost all resolve to be brave and let my labor keep moving along fast, and had an epidural. That slowed me down a bit, so it took a while for me to reach a 4, but then only an hour and half after that, I was a 7. I reached 10 right as the Oklahoma game was starting, but the baby still hadn't dropped, so they decided to let me 'labor down' for a while (let my contractions push the baby down instead of me having to do it). By the beginning of the 4th quarter we were almost ready to go. They got everything set up and ready, and the doctor finished up delivering a baby down the hall from me. Right as the game was ending, the nurse had me push through one of my contractions. I have never heard such beautiful words as the ones that she spoke next... "Um.. don't push anymore. The head is coming out, let me go get the doctor." I couldn't believe it! I pushed for an hour and a half with Michael and still he wouldn't crown. Luckily, the doctor was on her way down the hallway as the nurse was going to find her. She came in, suited up and 2 contractions full of pushing later, I was holding my little boy.
So in the end it seemed I made the right choice since the labor wasn't very bad and he came out 10 days early at 8lbs. 7 ozs, 21 inches long. I can't imagine if I'd gone full term....
So now I sit here at the hospital eating mediocre (at best) food, and being totally bored. But loving every moment of holding and kissing my new little boy. My perfect little James.

It's a BOY!

He was 8 lbs. 7 oz. His name is James Edward. He is very healthy and has a full head of dark hair (unlike his father). Better pictures will be forthcoming.

Fall Festival

Our church does a big festival every year. It's basically a Halloween type bash, where the kids get all dressed up and have lots of fun games to play. My favorite part was the chocolate fountain though I neglected to get a pic of myself pigging out on that one.

This is Michael all dressed up and ready to go in his puppy costume. He was really annoyed that I stopped to take pictures.

Here he is putting on the cool spider rings he got from the fishing pond.

Everyone's favorite... PLINKO!
This is Michael's girlfriend Maura. Hence the goofy grin.

His favorite part--the suckers.

Baby's Room

These are some pictures of the guest room before I got a hold of it and turned it into the baby's room. The room is not huge, and was terribly hard to find a good angle on. But you get the picture.



And here are the after pictures. It's still not entirely done. Noticeably lacking are pictures inside the picture frames, and any sort of wall hanging/decorations on the wall where the crib is. But we'll get there. It's all minor details at this point. Especially compared to the impending childbirth....

The Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend we all went to the Punpkin Patch in Flower Mound. It's free, it's fun, and really, what else around here can claim that? I highly recommend it!

State Fair

Well I think the pictures pretty much say it all. Below, I have reviewed some of the best part of the fair for you (the food of course):
Fried grilled cheese: It was OK, just tasted like an extra greasy grilled cheese sandwich from home.
Corny dogs: Excellent, as always
Tornado fries: If you go easy on the salt, they're pretty good, a nice change up from regular ones
Apple I-Pie: It was pretty good, just what you'd expect from a fried apple pie, but nothing more
Funnel cakes: Sooo yummy. Don't eat when wearing a black shirt
Fried smores: This was my favorite! You cannot miss this one.
Fire and Ice: Totally overrated. Save the tickets and eat warm pineapple chunks at home.

5,000 calories later and I'm still feeling good. Make sure you take someone with you to share all this fine fodder with.