One Month

Where has the past month gone? It seems like Reuben was just born and now he's a month old!

Behold, A Son!

Last Saturday - November 8 - we welcomed
Reuben Thomas to our family!

He was born at 3:22 PM, weighed 9 pounds
and measured 22 inches long.

(More pictures to come - one of these days!)

Big Boy & Still My Baby

Last night, Levi was showing us what a "big boy" he is (wearing his new 3T pajamas)...


...and today I found him trying to hang on to his "Mama's baby" status!

I went looking for him when it was too quiet in the house and found that he had climbed into the crib in the baby's room. I think he knew he was doing something he shouldn't and that's why he refused to show his face for the camera!

It will be interesting (to say the least) around here when Baby #2 makes his/her entrance...

Fun at the Zoo!

Since we're on our third day of record high temperatures for November, Grandma suggested that we go to the zoo today! Levi and Henry had a fun time looking at the many animals that were also enjoying the fine weather. I was sort of hoping that all the walking would put me into labor, but so far that hasn't happened...

Hope you enjoy these pictures of the fun we had and some of the animals we saw:

Halloween 2008

Hard hat: $1.06
Red shirt: $5.30
Yellow paint: $5.70
Being "Bob the Builder" for a night: Priceless

Back and Forth

For this pregnancy (as with Levi), we chose to keep the baby's gender a surprise until it was born.

Until about a month ago, Matt thought that it was going to be a girl - to the point of shushing me whenever I suggested it was a boy. My gut feeling was that it was going to be another boy. Levi was siding with Matt and would tell us that he was going to have a little sister.

Then just about the time I started thinking that maybe it could be a girl, Matt told me that, although he would like a girl, his gut feeling was that it was a boy. Levi also changed his mind right about then and started saying that "Henry has a little sister, I'm gonna have a little brother"!

It seems that the only sure thing about the baby's gender is that it will be a surprise for all of us! Oh, except for the other sure thing - according to Levi - the baby's name (boy or girl): Clifford the Big Red Dog.

So, what do you think? Place your vote in our new baby poll (right-hand margin)...it is the voting season, after all!

Second Time Around

When I was pregnant for Levi, on any given day I could have told you how many weeks, days and probably hours until I was due.

This time around, I've been relying on those annoying political ads to tell me how many days until the election and then adding two to get to my due date!

It isn't that I'm not looking forward to the birth of our second child, it just seems that life is a bit busier now with Levi and trying to prepare for number 2. Thankfully, we are getting close to being ready for the new baby: the new nursery is all set up (complete with a dimmer switch and closet rods/shelves), the car seat base made it's way into the van again, the baby book is purchased as well as pink and blue outfits for the baby, and the mini-suitcases are out of the basement and at least have lists of what they should contain for the hospital and Levi's stay at Grandpa & Grammy's house.

Now if we could only get over our colds and stay healthy - then we might be ready!

p.s. 21 days till my due date, in case you were wondering!

6 Years

It seems like it was just yesterday...


...but look at us now!

Happy Anniversary, Matt!

Thanks for 6 wonderful, adventure-filled years of love and faithfulness!

Then & Now

I'm not a huge fan of having my picture taken - especially posed pictures of just me - so I didn't document either of my pregnancies with the monthly baby bump pictures. On occasion, I have let Matt take a picture (a "fun" time for all involved, believe me), so I can look back someday and see what I looked like pregnant.

Last Saturday was the 1st baby bump photoshoot for baby #2. I went back and found a picture from when I was pregnant with Levi at about the same point. See what you think...


Levi - Day 233

Baby #2 - Day 219

Perhaps I'll have to haul out the overworn pink shirt and take a picture for a better comparison!

Totally Tuckered Out!

This morning started out too early (in my opinion) with Levi screaming for me from his crib. Then, since we were trying to get out the door at a set time, I relied too heavily on the TV so I could get us ready to go. On top of that, the weather was still somewhat cloudy and dreary this morning. All of that combined made for a very whiny, tearful little boy by the time we made it back home around noon.

When I reached the point where I couldn't take the whining and crying anymore, I brought Levi to his rocking chair and told him that he could come out of his room when he was done crying and whining. I left the room and continued making lunch. After about 10 minutes, I realized that it was really quiet in the room down the hall, which normally isn't a good thing! Today, however, this is what I found when I reached Levi's doorway:

I debated about just leaving him in the chair for his nap, but decided to move him to the crib and was totally unsuccessful. Then I feared that those 10 minutes were going to be his only nap for the day, but thankfully he went back to sleep after lunch and he's been down for an hour and counting...

TGIF - Summer Style

Q: What do you get when you put together a play structure, a pond with ducks, a package of old english muffins, and a sprinkler?

A: A whole morning of fun for two 2-year old boys!

This morning, Angie & I took the boys (and Meleah) to a nearby park and then headed back to my house to let them run through an old sprinkler in the backyard. Levi has been napping for about 3 hours now - further proof that it was a fun morning and a great way to tire out two active boys!

Showdown

Saturday, High Noon

Boy versus Bee...

...and the winner was: the bee!

We were all outside, but neither Matt nor I saw exactly what happened. Matt responded to the screams first and found a red mark on the middle of Levi's upper lip. Levi told us "yes" when asked if a bee stung him. Later on, I asked him if the bee just flew up to him or if he was trying to touch the bee, he told me that he was "touchin' the bees" - so the details of the sting are still a bit fuzzy :)

The poor kid had quite the swollen lip until bedtime on Saturday night, but other than the swelling, he had no ill effects from the sting. I've since been told a few home remedies to try for reducing the swelling - good thing, since I think this won't be the only sting for our curious boy!

Auntie 'O'

I'm an aunt again - my sister had a baby girl this afternoon!!

I'm still in shock that it's a girl - I thought it was definitely going to be a boy all along! We went up to the hospital tonight to visit our new niece/cousin and to bring Henry to meet his new sister. The little boys got to bed quite late tonight, so we'll see what kind of a "fun" morning is in store tomorrow!

Auntie 'O' & Meleah Rose

Proud Grandma & Grandpa!

Levi had to check out the spot next to Aunt Angie in bed! He thought it would be okay if we had a baby like that come to live at our house. That's what he says now - time will tell!

Healthy enough?

In spite of being knocked down by the stomach flu all week, Matt ran in a 5K race on Saturday! I was thankful to see him still vertical at the end of the race - I wasn't sure how healthy he was after the week we had. Without any training during the week, he still managed to run it in 26 minutes, 13 seconds - a personal race best!


Reaching to give Levi a "high-five" on the way out!

Here he comes - finishing strong!

After the race, we stayed for the parade and then headed to the carnival in the park. The weather was perfect - warm, sunny and not a cloud in the sky!

Levi and his friend, Emmory, had a fun ride on the train - in the caboose car.

Levi tried out the inflated jumping thing, but spent most of his time like this - trying to stand up and jump!

It's all worth it...

...when at 5:30 am -- after you've changed a very dirty diaper, slathered on a thick layer of diaper rash cream, cleaned up vomit from clothes, hair and face -- your 2-year-old son (now laying next to you in bed) looks at you and says (without prompting):

"You're the best, Mom!"

Yes, the stomach flu is back at our house -- everyone except me (knock on wood!).

Kickin' Kiddo!

I've been feeling the babe kick for a couple of weeks now, but this week I figured out a sure-fire way to feel some extra kicks: lemonade cookies! Every time I eat one, I get an almost instant reaction from the little one.

On Tuesday, I had a bit of a sweet tooth (every day, really) and came across a recipe for lemonade cookies and gave it a try. They are different from anything I've ever had, but I think they taste pretty good. They also turned out to be a good way to get the boys to eat their lunches, although Levi was disappointed that his cookie didn't contain any chocolate chips.

Here's the recipe if you're interested in giving them a try:

Lemonade Cookies (from the SCHS Cookbook)

1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
6 oz frozen lemonade, thawed
Sugar

Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs, flour and baking soda with 1/2 of the lemonade. Mix well. Drop 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Brush hot cookies with remaining lemonade and sprinkle with sugar. (Using the Pampered Chef medium scoop, I ended up with approximately 3 dozen cookies.)

Bob the Builder

It's been a few weeks, but since Levi hasn't stopped talking about it I figured I could still blog about it...

Levi and I had gone to the Children's Museum this winter and ever since Levi has been wanting to go back to see "Bob a Builder at the children's mew-ee-um". So one Thursday night a few weeks back, Matt and I took Levi to family night at the Children's Museum. Levi was so excited that he ran from thing to thing to show Matt all there was to do and see (not to mention he has a really short attention span). Here are some pictures of our fun family evening:

Mother's day came early...

...on our front porch!

The saga began a few weeks ago when a duck decided that the barrel on our front porch looked ideal for laying her eggs. Every day during that week, the duck would come in the morning, lay one egg, and then leave again until the next morning.


After she laid all seven of her eggs, Duck took up almost round-the-clock residence in the barrel. Levi thought it was great to have a duck live at our house. Every day he would look for Duck through the sidelight window of our front door. Whenever he went out on the porch he would say "Hi Duck! How ya doin' a-day, Duck?". He was proud to tell everyone that he had a duck at his house. There were some days that Levi "checked on Duck" so often, I think that Duck may have had second thoughts about her choice in a nesting location!

Today, when we returned home from our overnight at the cottage, we had to check on Duck to make sure she hadn't flown the coop! She was indeed still there, but much to our surprise, she had company! The baby ducks have arrived!! Duck let me take some pictures of the babies, but after a little while she started hissing at me and ruffling her feathers a bit to let me know she didn't want anything to happen to her babes - not that I blame her in the least! I thought it was so cool to see how caring and protective she was of her little ones and how amazing that we got to watch the whole process unfold right on our front porch!

Safe under mama's wing!


This little one poked it's head out from under Duck while I was taking the pictures - how precious!!

Happy Mother's Day, Duck!

Levi's News

We finally let Levi share our news this week...in early November, he is going to be a big brother! We're all quite excited about the coming addition to our L-M-N-O family!

Grandpa's Birthday Party

Today is Matt's Dad's birthday and tonight the whole family got together for supper to celebrate. The warm spring weather was wonderful for sitting outside and the kids had a fun time playing on the swing-set.

Happy Birthday Dad/Grandpa!