Catching up

Things are finally starting to settle down around here, and we are beginning to get into a groove. I am a total routine person, and I am starting to feeling like the beginnings of a routine are emerging. The week after Gabe was born, was wonderfully busy, but also exhausting. My sister Steph was in town for a week which was wonderful! We don't get to spend nearly enough time together and it was so fun to get to know her little Sera-bean a little better :) The week included two camp fires with family, visiting with both great-grandma's, and lots of snuggling with my two little turkeys :)

Yesterday we all skipped church and just stayed home and relaxed. We slept in, went for a walk, and I was even able to take Hannah up to the playground by our house for some one on one time with Mommy. Hannah has been adjusting fairly well to having a new baby in the house. I can tell she genuinely loves her little brother :) She doesn't like it when he starts to cry and she will say, "its ok little man" or she will tell me to go and get him because he is crying. Too cute!!

Today we had Gabe's two week check-up at the Dr. He is up to 8lbs 12 ounces (he was 8 lbs 4 ounces at birth) and the Dr. said that he is doing really well. That is always good to hear :) Today was also my first day taking the two kids somewhere by myself. For the most part it went really well. I did have to climb up the plaything at Chick-Fila to rescue Hannah, because while she had no trouble climbing up, coming down was another story :) But other than that it went really well. :)

Well I hear little girls waking up from their afternoon nap, so I must go.

More pictures and Gabe's story coming soon!!

Announcements!!

He is finally here!! Gabriel Steven was born at 4:46 pm on Tuesday June 23. He weighed 8lbs 4oz and was 19 inches long. He looks just like his daddy :) We are home from the hospital now, and once we get rested up a bit I will post lots more pictures and his birth story!

I ♥ Faces!

This week's theme is "Let's Hear It For the Boys!" I decided to do adults this time and post one of my dad. Because he is a great dad, and grandpa, and all-around great person.

Rainy Day

What do you do when you go for a walk with your mommy and daddy and it starts to pour down rain just as you get home? Well if you are Hannah, you grab your daddy's hand and run out into the pouring rain of course :)

Then you talk your daddy into throwing you in the air as you both get soaking wet :)
Then you run up the driveway laughing and giggling because it is so much fun to get rained on :)
Thankfully Hannah has an adventurous daddy to play in the rain with her, so her mommy can stand in the nice dry garage and take pictures...(ahem :))

Is it wrong...

...that I am completely in love with this curly hair, and the sweet little girl that goes with it?

Wordless Wednesday

Hannah's version of a funny face :)

I Love Faces!

I have been thinking about joining in this blog fun for a while, but haven't been brave enough. This week though I decided to just go for. This is an older picture of my daughter, but I love the look on her face, so I decided to use it anyhow :) This weeks theme is sepia toned. Join in the fun if you dare :)

Wordless Wednesday

New Camera

Today I was reading the instruction manual on my new camera, and learning about all the setting and adjustments I can make to get my pictures to turn out just the way that I want them too. It is definitley a litttle overwhelming, and I still have a TON to learn, but I was really happy with how this particular picture came out. For this one I played with the aperture (I learned that this is how you can make your pictures have a fuzzy background...very cool in my book) and with the sharpness, contrast, saturation, and color tone. I really like it, because I think it really looks like what Hannah really looks like. If that makes any sense at all ;) I am really excited to keep learning and see what I come up with :)

36 weeks, the nursery, and gratuitous Hannah pictures :)

Today is the 36 week mark!! I am really excited, because for some reason, I just feel like he could be born any time now. I am feeling ready. Not just ready in the sense of having baby clothes washed, nursery ready, our bags packed etc., but emotionally ready too. I'm not quite to the point of feeling desperate, (haha), but whenever this little guy wants to come, I am ready :)

*Just as a side note, as you may or may not have noticed, we got a new camera this past weekend. You can kind of see it in the picture. Nick and I have been saving our change and pretty much any other extra money we had for the last six months, and we finally saved up enough to get the camera that we wanted. It is a Canon Rebel XSI. Even though I have not even come remotely close to figuring out all the things we can do, I am sort of in love with it already. :) *

This is a picture of the crib/nursery. The bedding has turtles on it and is light blue and brown.

Changing table and hamper. Hannah keeps untying the ribbons on the baskets, and I have given up on trying to keep them tied.

This is my super awesome diaper bag that I LOVE!! I didn't really need a new diaper bag, but when I saw this one I decided that maybe I did :) I love the bright orange and fun polka dots :)

This is the outfit that Gabe is going to wear home from the hospital. Hannah wore the same thing that I wore when I was a baby, so I wanted him to have something special too. It is light blue and white seersucker and in my opinion, oh so cute!

Just for fun I thought I would throw in some Hannah pictures. In the top one she was running around before church and in the bottom one she was fresh out of the bath tub. She LOVES her ducky towel :)

The India-bins!! (this is what Hannah called them :)

This year for Mothers Day I told Nick that what I wanted was to go to and Indian's Game as a family. Well...our ticket were for this past Thursday and we had a blast!! Even though there was a three hour rain delay, we toughed it out and made it through the whole game. And as you can see, Hannah had a blast too!!

My Beautiful Girl

Wordless Wednesday

34 weeks!

The 34 week belly :) I feel like it is huge!! I am carrying so differently than I did with Hannah, it feels like everything is out in front, and with her I was just really wide! Not sure if one is better than the other :)

I am starting to feel like I am ready to be done being pregnant. It is starting to get pretty warm out and we have no AC at our house, so I imagine that is contributing to my feelings. I am crossing my fingers for a couple more cool weeks before this little guy comes.

It is kind of strange, because with Hannah I had at least two ultrasounds a week from 24 weeks on, so I kind of felt like I knew what she looked like. But with Gabe, it is going to be such a surprise. Hannah definitely favors my husband, although I do think she has my eyes, so I think it will be fun to see who Gabe looks more like.

My goal for this week is to put the finishing touches on the nursery...curtains and a chair that I need to get from my grandma...and I have a few things to wash yet. Other than that, I am pretty much ready. I also need to pack my bag and Gabe's bag for the hospital. Or at least get those things started. Once I am finished with the nursery I will post some pictures. I really like it so far, and hopefully the finishing touches will come out cute :)

Have a happy Monday everyone!

Swim Suit

I got this adorable little swimsuit at the outlets yesterday for Gabe! I LOVE the Carter's whale stuff for little boys! Now he just needs to get here so that we can try it out :) 34 week belly picture coming tomorrow!

A Day With Thomas

Last Sunday we played hookie from church and took Hannah up to a Thomas the Train extravaganza. They had several different tents with fun things for the kids to do...a tatoo tent (the fake kind :)), a story time, a model train set, and one that was called imagaination station. It had a giant Lego Thomas and several tables for the kids to play with Lego's or to color at. And of course we got to take a ride on Thomas. It was really really fun, and the next day Hannah was asking to go back again, so I think it would be safe to say that she enjoyed it too :)

The model train set.
Seeing Thomas for the first time.
Getting off the train with Daddy.
With the conductor in our train car.
Lego Thomas...I wonder how long that took to build!!

Wordless Wednesday

Making Popsicles

Making popsicles in an outfit that she picked out all by herself. My favorite part is the the socks!

*Please ignore the messy cupboards in the background!!*

Our trip to PA to see the Sera Bean

My mom, Hannah and I spent the last three days with my sister, my adorable niece and my brother-in-law in PA. We had a wonderful visit, and it was so great to get to see my niece, who is 10 weeks old now, and I haven't seen since she was born. We spent a lot of time eating, talking, and hanging out. We also did some outlet shopping, and I got some really great deals! I got a five outfits and two shirts for Gabe at Childrens Place for only $23.00. Quite the deal if you ask me :)

Seriously...could she be any cuter?!Hannah "helping"Sera get a bath:)
Grandma with her girlies :)

Fashionista...

Oh, you know you are loving those fuzzy green socks!!