Christmas Festivities (part 1)

Christmas Eve this year was spent with the Acker's! We had a great day of being spoiled with delicious food and tons of gifts! Later that night we went to a Christmas Eve service at our church which was fun too. Lily in front of her GIANT stocking!And Jameson with his GIANT stocking! I love how little he looks in this picture!Showing his Grandma some smiles!Auntie Andrea helping Lily open her giftsPlaying with her new white erase/chalk board! Being such a good girl while waiting for her turn to open presents.She got this adorable hat and of course as soon as I take out my camera she acts silly and pulls it over her head! Oh well!Grandpa Dan holding Jameson

After the Christmas Eve service we headed home and AJ and I opened our presents to each other. We thought doing it then would allow us more time on Christmas morning to open presents with the kids and get ready before heading to my parents' house.

Such a goofy guy

I was very proud of my husband's wrapping this year!

Love my sweet boy!

SMILE!

Jameson has been smiling so great lately and I finally had my camera out and was able to take a picture of him doing it. Of course, it was right after he did his biggest smile ever towards me! Oh well. But, at least you get a little taste of his adorable little grin!

Oh, he melts my heart! And of course the camera was on the wrong setting so it turned out a bit dark. But at least I captured it! Hopefully more to come later! :)

Christmas cookies!

This Christmas season I wanted to do something special with Lily that we can make into a tradition and do every year. I decided to make sugar cookies with her! I remember doing this as a kid and it was so much fun to cut out the cookies and frost them however we liked! Plus, they were fun to eat too! Lily and I had a great time making cookies and she wanted to do everything by herself! I will admit, I didn't even make the cookie dough from scratch nor did I make the frosting from scratch! It just sounded like too much for me to do-especially with a newborn! Maybe next year I can do it all :) Rolling out the doughCutting out the cookiesLater that night...frosting the cookies! Honestly, I just had to let go of her and my house being clean. I mean, it's no fun to frost cookies when you have to follow rules! She did a great job though!

A close up of one of Lily's cookies! She would just put a little frosting on one and want another one to decorate! She'd also take a bite out of a cookie and want another one to frost, take a bite out of that one, and so forth!

I'm pretty sure this is the worst picture of us, but I had to document this new tradition! And we were home all day in our pj's....so there you go :)

The finished product! If you look closely, I'm sure you'll be able to tell which ones Lily decorated!

Here's a close up on a few of them...I especially love the reindeer with the green blob of frosting on him!
What a fun new tradition we started! I can't wait to do it next year-and even Jameson can get in on the action (well, if his sister lets him!)

1 month!

I can't believe that Jameson is 1 month old today!! In some ways it feels like he's been here longer than a month, and in other ways it feels too short as well! We are loving our son and Lily loves her brother (until she picks on him to see how we'll react, ugh!) Anyway, a few highlights for Jameson at 1 month:
*He smiled for the first time at us a couple weeks ago-and no, it wasn't just his gas making him do it! He was clearly looking at me and then again at AJ and smiling! Some day we'll catch it on camera!

*He is already out of 0-3 month clothing! I just put him in 3-6 month clothes today for the first time and they fit him great. This scares me!

*He is REALLY heavy-especially in his car seat! I struggle carrying him in it now that I'm worried what it'll be like when he's 4 months old!

*Sleeps great during the day-I have to wake him all day long just to make him eat.

*Wakes up on his own during the night to eat! What is this about? The kid is over 10 pounds that you would think he could go longer than 3 hours! Although last night I had a 4 hour stretch and it was heaven!

*He is a very happy and content little baby (except for when his sister hurts him, then he'll cry!)

Just hanging out-I can't let him lay on a blanket without my FULL supervision. Lily tried to step on him one time. Awesome.

Daddy helping pull him up to get good neck strength!

He didn't like it after a while

I wanted a picture of me and Jameson and Lily wanted in as well :) When this girl sees a camera she always wants her picture taken!

All cozy and ready to brave the FREEZING weather we've been having!

Sleeping on daddy-melts my heart!

Christmas Tree

Last weekend we bundled up the kids (still not used to saying that!) and headed on out to a cheap tree farm (we got a 5 ft. noble for $15!!!) that we've been to for a few years. My sister came along again (now a tradition) but sadly her fiance' was sick so didn't come. We also had my sister-in-law Andrea and her husband come along too. It was lots of fun but SO COLD!!! I just wish we could at least get some snow with this cold weather! Anyway, here's some fun pictures from our fun family outing: Lily with her auntie Lu-and she's wearing "gardening gloves" for mittens. And they are too big for her. Awesome.The family! We took Jameson out of the car just for the picture but put him back in as soon as we were done. It's too cold out there for a baby!AJ getting ready to cut down the treeAnd cutting it downLily with her uncle Jeff and auntie Andrea

We were going to decorate the tree that night but Lily unfortunately came down with the stomach flu! That morning she randomly said her tummy hurt one time but said nothing the rest of the day. That night we had dinner at a friend's house and right after we ate she started crying and complaining of her tummy hurting. We left thinking she just needed to go to bed and would hopefully feel better in the morning. Well, after being in bed for 15 minutes she started throwing up! It was HORRIBLE. This girl has luckily not gotten sick with the flu since she was a baby (even then it wasn't that bad) so this was all new to us. She threw up a total of 7 times and was done by 3 am. Of course this happens on a Saturday night when we have church in the morning with AJ leading worship! And of course me trying to nurse a newborn and deal with my sick child. See, I don't do puke at all. AJ rose to the occasion and would run in there and help Lily and change her sheets while I would sit with Lily on my lap in the bathroom while he cleaned everything up! I did change the sheets 1 time, but was gagging just doing that! I'm such a wussy mom! Sorry such detailed information here-but it was bad! Luckily she's feeling great now and is over it all. She just has a cold-which she has now given to her brother. And so the cycle begins :) Anyway, we didn't decorate our tree until 3 days after we got it:

Lily doing her part in hanging ornaments. She had a nice little row of ornaments all hanging next to each other in one spot. It was cute. We finally told her she could spread them out a bit!Jameson doing his part by watching us decorate!

She moved to another part of the tree now!

Putting on the angel with daddy's help!

This picture doesn't do justice, but AJ did an excellent job of putting lights on the outside of our house. Usually he moans when I ask him to do it, but this year he was all in the mood to do it and added more than we usually do! I've got such a great husband! And I love Christmas time!!

P.S. I have found to be a terrible blogger since having a baby. Please excuse my absence as I am figuring out life with 2 kids. :)

Baby Love

Oh how I love babies-especially OUR baby! Just some fun pictures of little (BIG!) Jameson:

Snuggling with his "monkeys"-we have since taken them off his car seat because when he would cry he'd reach for those monkeys and try to eat them thinking they were, well, me! It just irritated him!

Hanging out-and looking a bit Chinese-ish. :)

Trying to take a picture of just Jameson, but big sister needed to get in there and show him love!

So sweet!

I love rocking with him! He is a snuggler!

Things are finally settling in now as a family of 4. Lily is still smitten by her brother, although she did inflict pain on him for the first time on Thanksgiving morning-what a way to start the day! She wasn't even acting out...I had turned away from her to get our coats, Jameson was in his car seat and Lily just goes right up to him and digs her nails (it had been a while since I had cut them!) into the bridge of his nose right by his eyes leaving 2 scratches. Awesome. Poor Jameson screamed loudly...I felt so bad for him! Needless to say Lily got in trouble and actually started crying so hard because I think her feelings were hurt. I think she understood the seriousness of what she did, and I'm hoping it will be a while before it happens again! I know there will be more episodes of her doing stuff to him, but let's hope it will happen when he can actually defend himself! Jameson is eating and growing like crazy! After we left the hospital he had almost lost an entire pound. Then we had a 1 week check at the doctor and he weighed 9 lbs. 4 oz. Well, we went in just this last week for his 2 week check (and for him to get circumcised-ouch!!) and he weighed in at 10 lbs. 5 oz!!! He gained over a pound in a week and he also grew 1 inch! Unbelievable. You'd think because he's such a big baby that he'd sleep through the night, but he doesn't. He wakes up every 3 hours (which isn't terrible.) But I can't wait for the day when we can go in 4 or 5 hour stretches! I try to nap every day when they do, but sometimes the times don't coincide with each other-like, Lily will be sleeping but he'll be wide awake. Luckily I function really well off no sleep-at least that's what AJ tells me! We had a great Thanksgiving with AJ's family this year and it was so fun having both kids together! We are so grateful for our little miracle babies and all that God has provided and continues to provide for our family! We are even more thankful for our salvation and the fact we get to spend eternity in Heaven!

Happy Birthday AJ!

Happy 33rd Birthday to my AMAZING husband!!!
And the BEST daddy in the world!

We love you!!!

Life at Home

Well, we made it home! After spending 4 days in the hospital, both AJ and I were ready to come home with our son! We were especially ready for Lily to meet her new brother! She was so excited to meet him and was quite giddy. Here's some pictures of when she first saw him:Seeing Jameson for the first time
Running over to give him a kiss-so sweet!
She wanted to hold him immediately and of course give him lots of kisses!
Such a proud big sister!
And some more pictures of us in the hospital:


Love snuggling with him!
Daddy and his boy
Jameson hated the little crib thing in our room, so he slept with me every night! I really did try putting him in the crib after I fed him, but he'd wake up right away. At that point, I just gave up and really wanted my sleep so I let him sleep with me! It was fun!

Heading home!So tiny!Me and my kids!! (so weird to say that!)Daddy and his kids

First bath at home and he hated it!Look at that pouty lip!I know it looks like he's sleeping, but he's not! Just happened to be calm at that moment!

Sleeping...this is all he does-well, during the day at least. He's up all night!

Yes, I know, I look a bit tired :)
We are all doing great and adjusting quite nicely. Lily has only poked Jameson's eye once! She loves giving him kisses and hugs. I definitely don't trust her with him, so it will be interesting when it is just me and the kids at home...I'll have to keep an eye on her at all times! I'm still feeling quite sore from the c-section, but I've been so blessed with my mom and mother-in-law and the rest of my family coming over to help clean, cook dinner, and take care of Lily! I've got the best family ever! Jameson is nursing like a champ which is great. He sleeps ALL DAY LONG. I have a hard enough time waking him up during the day to eat! Which means he's usually up lots during the night because of this. I'm hoping we can break him of this sooner than later! But, I'll enjoy the cuddle time I have with him while he's still so little! We are so blessed with this new addition to the family! God is good!