Baby Visitors & Other Happenings

Our house has been very busy the last week or so! We've had lots of visitors drop by to say hi to Trace and to see everyone. It is so nice!

My grandparents and my aunt came to visit last week. It was great to see them and they really enjoyed meeting Trace. While we were eating lunch, Grandma told us the story about how she had our aunt when she was 19 years old. Her and Grandpa were working at a boy scout camp on the Mississippi River and had to leave in the middle of the night to go to the hospital. Can you even imagine? Grandma, you should write your stories down sometime! :o)



Later in the week, my sister came to watch Michael during the day for me. The hardest part of recovery has been not being able to lift my big boy! You don't realize how much you do it until you can't anymore. So far we've been doing good, but there hasn't been hardly any times when I alone with both boys. If I have to change Michael's diaper, I have him lay down on his bed. If he needs a snack and Scott isn't around to lift him, I just give it to him in his snack cup and he can eat while playing. It's not ideal but it works.



Anyway, Denise was so good with Michael. She was so patient and played with him for hours. He really likes her!



Michael has been busy too- playing in the water with Grandma.





side note- how awesome does this pot look? It is all stuff I dug up from other parts of my yard that I was going to throw away. It's doing really well in the pot!

Michael has also been taking some bike rides with Scott in his new bike trailer.

Scott has only had one incident so far with the bike trailer- Michael threw up all over himself after going on a short trail ride. I think he was really fine, but still we all felt bad. :o( Poor guy!

And since you've stuck with me this far....


a little baby picture for you! :o)

Bright eyes

Trace has been coming out of his newborn sleepy stage a little bit more every day. I love to see his bright eyes wide and open!

His eyes are dark blue right now, but I'm sure they will be a bright blue just like his brothers. When do babies eyes start to change?

I try to set Trace up near Michael when he is playing so he can watch, but I'm not really sure how much he can see at this point in the game. I'm sure he enjoys listening to the hustle and bustle of things!

Michael has been so funny lately with Trace. Anytime Trace cries, Michael runs right over to see what is going on. If there is a stray pacifier around, Michael will give it to Trace. Today I was changing Trace out in the living room while Michael was napping and Trace let out a big wail. A second later, I heard Micheal's door open and he ran right out to see what was going on! So cute.

We are having a low key Saturday today. My sister left early this morning and we are waiting for Scott's mom to arrive later this afternoon. Scott is outside doing a little yardwork (in between sprinkles-where is the sun?) and Michael, Trace and I are just relaxing. I'm having a great time. :o)

I hope you are all having fun, relaxing and safe holiday weekends!

Thursday Thoughts

First of all, thank you so much for all of your nice comments! I feel like our family is so blessed....it is so unreal to me to be able to have two beautiful boys. I can't even believe it at times!

I'm sure we are just in the honeymoon stage right now, but things are going really smoothly at home. I'm enjoying being holed up at home with nothing important on the agenda. My mom has been a huge help with Michael and keeping the house in order but unfortunately she is leaving tonight! I have been so thankful for her help and hopefully I can manage on my own.



Trace is such a good little baby and it's been fun taking photos of him. We went to our photographer's studio for his real newborn portraits and wow...I give those guys lots of credit! It is hard to take photos of a sleepy newborn. Usually I can get him to sleep for about 5 minutes and then he gets fussy. When we went to the studio, they worked with him for three hours!! Amazing! I'm excited to see the proofs and hopefully I'll be able to share them with you.

I feel like there really isn't much news to share with you all...my days are kept full feeding Trace, snuggling and trying to get some rest.

Needless to say...I'm enjoying every minute of it!

Becoming big brother

It has been so much fun for me to watch Michael and his new little brother. I think he is pretty excited about it. He always likes to see where the baby is and if Trace cries, he hears it right away. Michael's curiosity about the newest member of our family is growing by the day.

Michael has been having lots of fun spending time with Grandma who is here to help for a bit. He also had lots of fun with Grandpa who was took a break for the weekend to stop by and visit!

Scott and I stopped and picked up some balloons for Michael on the way home from the hospital and he was so excited about them! Seeing mom and dad, a new baby and balloons? It was almost too much for him to handle.

It is so fun for me to watch them together!

Welcome to the World!

Welcome to the world, Trace Holden!

Trace was born on Tuesday the 17th at 9:17 in the morning. He weighed 8 lbs and was 21 inches long.

We are head over heels in love with him. He is perfect.





The delivery went smoothly and recovery is going well. Trace was not happy about his arrival!

I was so excited when Scott told me we had another little boy in our family. I can only imagine what the future holds....



Trace could have been Michael's twin, freshly baked. He is a full pound smaller, but a better eater so I think he will catch up soon. He doesn't want to be a shrimpy little brother!

Michael gets so excited every time he sees him. I think they are going to have great fun together.

We are so blessed!

Getting ready for baby...

I can't quite put my finger on it, but getting ready for a baby sure has a different feel this time around. Is the fact that I now have a little boy who requires my full attention and care? Is it that I just have that much less energy? Is that that I know what to expect and thus how better to prepare?

I am hoping it is a combination of all these things. Today was a great day and I felt like I got a lot of loose ends wrapped up. Scott and I headed to church this morning and afterwards did a big grocery store run to get everything else we would need for the next two weeks. I made a master meal plan with my freezer meals and things my mom could eat while she is staying at our house and we just needed to pick up some things to fill in the blanks. Like we are having enchiladas one night, so I needed to get chips and salsa...so on and so forth. We also picked up extra snacks for Michael to have on hand and some things for Scott to eat while he's staying in the hospital with me.

After a nice two hour nap for Michael and I, I finally got the extra dresser situated in the nursery. I pulled out all of Michael's winter clothes and outgrown stuff and put it away in storage bins and then I pulled out all of the itty-bitty baby clothes. Luckily, I had most of my gender neutral stuff in one bin, but I can't find my bin of little boy clothes! Maybe we are having a girl though and I won't have to worry about it?? Tomorrow I will get everything put away the way I want it so it is ready to go.



I've also been running load after load of laundry...it seems like it is never ending. I washed all of our bedding, then the sheets we had on our bed while they other ones were being washed, towels, Michael's clothes and tomorrow I will get the rest of it so we can go to the hospital with no dirty laundry in the house! Am I the only one who is weird like that?



Scott also kept Michael for a few hours on Saturday while I went to a baby shower for a friend. She is having a little girl and got so many cute little girl and cyclone things! I was jealous! Afterwards I got a much needed pedicure and did some browsing at the mall. My feet were in horrible shape, it was embarrassing. I'm surprised they didn't charge me extra! I felt like all eyes were on my belly at the mall so I must be looking like it is time. One lady even said at me "She looks like she is due any day!". Yes...I am. Thanks.

We also got newborn portraits scheduled and I am really looking forward to them. Our photographer does beautiful work and I'm glad we decided to spend the money on them because we were really on the fence about it. I told Scott that we would do these instead of family photos this summer so I hope he holds me to my word!

My sister graduated from high school yesterday and we had to miss all the festivities. I thought a long car ride would be too much for all of us and plus I don't really feel like a whole bunch of people seeing me in all my glory at 9 months pregnant! My sister is awesome and I think she has a really bright future ahead of her. I am really happy she is going to ISU and I think she will have a great time!!

I guess that is enough rambling for tonight...thanks for listening to me. I am excited for tomorrow and of course excited for the big day on Tuesday! :o) I hope we can keep busy today because I have a feeling it is going to be a long day!

And if you've stuck with me this even further, here are some photos from my iphone!

Big boy haircut- all ready to meet the new baby!

Test-driving the new double stroller!

Salvia are blooming! Yay!

Watching dad mow the lawn is an endless source of fascination...for Michael, not so much for me.

It was really beautiful out last night. Can you tell which one of our trees is dead? Yikes! We are hopefully getting it replaced this week or next.