sledding with Wonka

I will be shocked if we don't have a white Christmas this year! It started snowing this weekend and it hasn't stopped! We have at least 12 inches. On Monday, we braved the weather to hang out with Grammar and Wonka. We packed the sled and Reagan's snowsuit so she could play outside. She had a great time!

The snow was so deep that they had to stop and dump out the sled! Reagan loves to be outside and is having such a great time in the snow. Personally, once Christmas is over, I am ready for the summer weather again.

the gingerbread failure!

Reagan loves to do projects and with the arrival of winter, I have been trying to think of fun things we can do together. What better holiday project than a gingerbread house!!! I had never built a gingerbread house, so being naive, I thought it would be a easy little project. HA!

I bought a premade kit (possibly mistake #1). When we opened it, 4 of the 6 pieces were broken. Daddy said it was going to be a waste of time. I was not going to give up that easily! So I told daddy to "glue" the pieces back together with icing (maybe we could call this mistake #2). The icing was exactly like toothpaste. Thick and extremely sticky. But we tried to work with it...

And things worked pretty well for a while. But as we tried to decorate things just went downhill...

So after Reagan had eaten way too much candy and the walls and roof collapsed, I threw our gingerbread house in the trash. So it was a wonderful idea of a holiday activity but it just didn't turn out the way I planned. Definitely the thought that counts on this one!!

my boys

It's snowing!

Reagan has been soooooo excited about the snow. Excited isn't even the right word... overwhelmed with child-like joy and enthuasiam is more like it. It so sweet that it actually makes me forget about my hatred for it (for a few minutes anyway). So she stands in the window and gives me constant snow forecast updates throughout the day. She begs and begs to go outside to play. Its too cold to take Liam outside, so I always tell Reagan that she can play outside when daddy gets home. Unfortunately for daddy, he can't even get all the way in the door after work before she is getting her coat on!

She's always been an outdoor girl. Definitely didn't get that from me!

So excited while getting bundled up. Notice the dog and cat have invited themselves to play as well...

The amount of snow on the ground isn't really enough to play with! But she had a great time anyway. Daddy brought her in when she was shivering! I guess thats what happens when you EAT the snow.

She will be a lot of fun for sled-riding this year. Maybe we will actually go down some hills, instead of just pulling her around the yard!

2 months old!

Liam is officially 2 months old. Although I know that he will be more "fun" when he gets older, I feel like his babyhood is slipping away quickly! He is *most likely* our last baby so I am just trying to savor every moment of his little baby-ness.

He is still a moose too! At his well-check this morning he weighed in at 13 lbs 12 oz (90%) and was 24.5 inches (90%). So it looks like we have been blessed with a big healthy boy! The doctor confirmed, once again, that he is perfect. Its always nice to get a good report.

In other Liam news, he is smiling and cooing so much lately. When I hold him on my lap he will just smile and talk to me. I love it! His face just lights up and he has the most adorable dimples on his chubby cheeks. I hope to actually get a photo of it someday.

"Chocolate Milky"

Aunt Hally has a new house, new puppy (Cookie), and new kitty (Milk). Reagan absolutely loves to play with Milk. She started calling her Chocolate Milky. The kitty is too young to know better, so she loves Reagan too. They played the entire time we were there.

holiday photos

Here are a few highlights of our holiday photos... we went to Portrait Innovations and as usual, they took a ton of photos! I posted more of them on facebook but I thought I would share some here as well. They all turned out so great, we had a hard time choosing.

naked baby

Who doesn't love a naked baby?! :)

The major difference I am discovering of having a baby boy vs. a baby girl is that we seem to change clothes a lot more often! We have a lot more diaper leaking problems with Liam. So, we can thank him for tripling our laundry pile. And check out his new belly button... Reagan had a huge umbilical hernia and it looks like her brother is following in those footsteps. His is way smaller than hers was. I guess my babes just have weak stomach muscles- shocker. ;)

Baby wearing

Before Liam was born, I did a lot of research on baby wearing. I had a snugli baby carrier with Reagan, and it just wasn't great. Reagan screamed everytime she was in it (although, we can't blame the carrier, she screamed a lot as a baby!). And it hurt my shoulders and back. I just don't think it fit correctly. So I wanted something different for Liam. After much research, I ordered a Moby wrap. I haven't used it with Liam yet so I can't review it myself. But I ordered a kids Moby for Reagan. She loves it.

When she wears her baby, she forgets the rule of keeping one hand on your baby. Often times she bends over and her baby falls right out. Oops! We will definitely stick to dolls for her wearing adventures!

Liam has been smiling for a few weeks. I have been trying to get a pic of his big grin and adorable dimples. I Havent had much luck but i did catch a semi smile today with my phone. Dont u love the dimples!

Just like Uncle Max

Reagan seems to have inherited many traits from her Uncle Mackie. She loves eating cake, drinking hose water, and playing with baby powder! Just like Max. :)

I think Grammar has similiar photos from 20-something years ago!

Unfortunately, her love of baby powder turns into quite a mess. She uses the trash can as a stool to climb onto the changing table. So we can't keep anything (creams, lotions, powder, etc) within reach. I wish I could say this was our only powder explosion. Not so, this is one of the recent three events! I can only blame myself for leaving the powder within reach. The bright side is, at least it smells good!

halloween

This year was Reagan's first trick or treat adventure. I wasnt sure how she would react because she is weird about strangers talking to her. However, the endless candy was definitely enough to keep her interested.

Here is our adorable bumble bee!

Now if I could just stop eating all the candy...

1 month old

Everytime I tried to take the picture he crossed his eyes! Silly boy. Oh well, he is adorable anyways. :)

When I was pregnant with Liam, everyone found it necessary to tell me how HUGE he was going to be. The comments of him weighing 9 lbs or more were constant. I tried not to roll my eyes and just would kindly accept everyones input. Mommy instinct told me that he was definitely going to be bigger than Reagan (who was 6 lb 8 oz) but he wasn't going to be a giant!

So in the end, I was right! He was a perfect 7 lbs 10 oz. However, I said that since he wasn't as big as the world predicted, he was going to make up for it now. My predictions continue to be correct...

Liam had his 1 month appointment yesterday. He weighed 11 lbs 4 oz!!!! That puts him in the 95% for weight. The doctor called him moose. She was so amazed that he is strictly breastfed and has gained so much weight. So I guess I will pat myself on a back a little ;)

He was almost 23 inches, which is 90ish%. I guess he is going to be a tall guy, just like his daddy.

He is perfect in every way. We love him more each day. I can't believe how fast time is going already and how quickly he is growing. I am so SO thankful that I am taking the remainder of the school year off. I am enjoying time at home with my 2 little darlings.

Sibling love

Reagan loves her baby brother. She is never far away from him!

However, I just don't trust her. I know the gentle touches can turn rough in a matter of seconds. Poor Liam just doesn't know what sibling love the future has in store for him!

pumpkin farm

First, I am not sure why everything is underlined. And I have no idea how to fix it. I hope you can overlook it while you check out photos from our recent excursion.

The fall would not be complete without a trip to the pumpkin farm. There is a wonderful one nearby that has a petting zoo. Since Reagan is obsessed with animals, we figured it was the perfect place to visit. It was chilly out and sprinkled while we were there, but that didn't stop us from having a lovely time. However, we left without getting a pumpkin! Oops! Luckily Grammar and Wonka donated theirs to us.


We were calling these llamas, but I am pretty sure that are alpaca. Makes no difference to me- or to Reagan. :)
I absolutely love this photo! Usually I think (and so does everyone else) that Reagan looks so much like me. However, this photo shows how similiar she actually is to daddy!

I guarantee our backyard will have a playhouse in the near future. Reagan loves them and I am sure Liam will too.

Whats not to love about a huge pit of corn?! Reagan was unsure at first but then loved it. I thought we would be finding corn in all sorts of strange places. To to my surprise, we managed to leave it all there!

Liam was wonderful as well. He slept in his carrier in the stroller until he was hungry.

baby bath time

I hate typing 1 handed. Unfortunately, one hand is typically all I have available. So I will keep these posts short, sweet, and full of photos. Hope thats ok with you!!

Who doesn't love photos of baby bathtime?!

Long time no update

Our computer is broken. Everything is going well! I cant believe how fast time is going. Liam is 4 weeks old today. Reagan and daddy are busy carving our pumpkins!

FWD:

the beautiful babes. :)

Liam Photos

Its hard to believe that Liam will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. He is already getting big too fast! Here are some photos of our sweet boy.

3 days old

8 days old

10 days old

13 days old

the big sis

Reagan is a great big sister. She loves Liam and constantly wants to hold him.

The birth story

Liam's Birth Story

As you know, we decided to give up on going into labor naturally and having a VBAC, so we scheduled a repeat c-section for 9:30 am on Friday, October 1st. After a good night's sleep, we got ready and headed to the hospital at 7:00 am. Once we arrived, we checked in and we sent to a triage room to get ready to meet our son! An IV was started and I was asked a million repetitive questions as we waited. At almost 9:30 exactly, we walked to the operating room. Daddy waited in the hallway and picked Liam a new Kent State hat. I went into the OR and everything was prepped, the spinal was started, and the process of getting Mr. Liam began. My blood pressure got really low a few times but other than that everything went wonderfully. At 9:57am we heard the beautiful cry of the newest member of our family. What an amazing sound! And the feeling of becoming a mom again is indescribable. The first thing they announced was that Liam had red hair!! As he was cleaned up, daddy took photos and I was stitched back up. As this point, I totally lost track of time. I just looked at pictures of my baby boy (daddy kept bringing the camera over so I could see what was happening) and listened to his crying. He peed all over the place while they were cleaning him up! He officially weighed 7lb 10oz and was 21 inches long. After everything was done, we headed to the recovery room together.

In comparison to my c-section with Reagan, everything has been so much easier. Maybe its experience or the fact that my belly nerves were already dead! We came home on Monday and have been adjusting to life as a family of 4!

I will try to post photos and updates again soon. But its definitely easier said than done at this point in time. I'm sure you understand!