Brother and Sister

What do you think? Do they look alike? :)

Baby Shower!

My friend Elizabeth and I had our babies 2 days apart, Hannah was born on the 21st of January and Hartley was born on the 23rd. Our friends and neighbors threw us a joint baby shower yesterday and we all had a lot of fun and Elizabeth and I (or I guess Hartley and Hannah) were totally spoiled.  We both received gobs of girlie clothes and some adorable items for baby and nursery.  A few baby shower games were played and there was a huge spread of yummy food, complete with cake.  It was a great turnout and I'm excited to attend the next couple of baby showers that are coming up. I've never known so many people pregnant at the same time! :)  

Enjoy the pics.  

Me and Elizabeth with the hosts of the shower, Katie and Nickayla

Hannah is tucked in that baby wrap - she loves it in there!

All the neighborhood ladies (except a couple that had to leave)

Elizabeth with the Tennessee bag I made for her - she is a HUGE Vols fan.

Katie, who is expecting her 3rd child in June, and Hannah

Elizabeth and Hartley

The spread

Leisurely day in Germany

Pictures from Brian's camera!  Last weekend was freezing but gorgeous so we decided to get out of the house for a drive.  We ended up driving to a furniture store where you can get furniture made specifically for your needs and since we have been looking for new kitchen chairs, we decided to take a look.  The shop definitely has beautiful items but I'm not sure that we were in love with anything, but we'll go again to check their catalog.  Here are pictures from that beautiful trip and of my adorable family at the shop.  :)  

Pictures

A whole week without pictures, how on earth have you been able to contain yourself? :) These are some pics from my camera, I am still looking for the USB cord to upload pics off Brian's camera. Enjoy!

Yoohoo!

That awful fever that Luke had? I got it!  So that is what I've been up to - shaking, shivering, sweating, freezing, all while taking care of a 3 year old who was recovering from an awful bug and a newborn who we were desperately trying to keep healthy.  For the record, we succeeded in keeping Hannah germ free and I finally shook my 103 fever (after 2 days).  I think this crud is on it's way out but Luke does go back to preschool this week and who knows what fabulous germ treat he will bring home.  Ugg.  Anyways, I have pictures on our cameras that need to be uploaded and posted but I have a gazillion other things that I need to get to first AND the baby is down for the night so I have to hurry and get to bed so I can get some good sleep.  I'd love to tell you how many hours my child has been sleeping at night, at the ripe old age of 3 1/2 weeks, but I don't want to jinx it.  All I have to say is that it is fabulous and I almost feel like a new person when I wake up.  

I'll write a decent update soon, along with a birth story which people keep asking me about but I haven't had time to type it all out.  I hope I remember everything.  I do have mommy brain going on right now.  

Toodle-oo

The Joys of Mommyhood

I've spent the last 3 days with a newborn who loves to be held and a very sick 3 year old. Luke fell asleep in the car on the way home from preschool on Friday and I knew something was up. Within an hour of getting home he was looking glassy-eyed and was spiking a fever. It quickly reached 103 degrees and after I medicated him, he passed out for a long nap. I know some of you are thinking that I am a horrible mother and that I should have rushed him into the clinic or something but before you start judging, I have to tell you that I am pretty laid back about big things and I totally trust mothers intuition. He was telling me his tummy hurt so I thought that we were in for a bought of the flu - fever and barfing - rah! I did CALL the clinic to tell them about my child's crazy high fever and asked them if they thought I should wake him up and bring him in. The nurse told me that there has been the same viral funk going around our Army base for months and that is part of the problem living in such a small community - all the kids keep giving each other the same germs over and over. I was to medicate Luke as needed - a Tylenol and Advil rotation and anything else that he needed for whatever symptoms popped up. By that night, however, little man had an endless supply of snot and was complaining of his ears hurting and that darn fever would get reduced with every round of medicine and then would come crawling back up. So he has been a sicky poo - complete with throwing up on me at 2:30am last night (no, not the flu but an empty stomach with nothing but snot drainage in it), but the silver lining in the whole thing is that #1 - Hannah isn't sick (thanks to a fabulous supply of newborn and breast milk antibodies!) and #2 - Luke has been napping the past 3 days which, although I feel bad that he is napping because he is sick, it gives me a nice little chunk of time to get things done - like laundry and sewing (yay! I'm back in the sewing room!) and showering (haha), etc, etc, etc.....I think he is on the mend today which is great because I'm sure he has been feeling miserable and I really didn't want to catch what he had. Oh, have I mentioned that Brian has been working this entire weekend? There is a heavy training rotation in town so they are on full schedule. Thankfully I have married one of the bestest men around and even though he hasn't been getting home until late these last few days and is pretty tired, he helps me get Luke scrubbed up and ready for bed and Hannah fed AND he helps take care of the Hannah in the middle of the night, every night.

Anyhoo, just for fun, let me tell you about my night last night. We got Hannah to bed around 9:30pm. Around 2am she woke up and I went to get the bottle. Brian changed her diaper, I took the bottle back upstairs for him to feed her so I could pump. I got back downstairs and I heard a door open and little footsteps - Luke was up. I went to take care of him - he still had his fever but he was actually kind of energetic. I got out the thermometer to take his temp, put the thermometer under his arm and within a few seconds, I got barfed on. I quickly scooped up everything and took it to the laundry room, gave Luke a bath (along with some Tylenol and anti-nausea medicine for little kids) and brought him downstairs with me so I could keep an eye on him while I was up. Brian came down to check on us - we were fine and I was able to get Luke to eat some crackers - and then he went back upstairs and got Hannah back to sleep (around 3am) and in her bed. I got Luke back to bed around 3:30am and then I crawled back into bed. Okay, here comes the exciting part...around 6:45am, I hear Hannah start to stir and fuss. I laid in bed, exhausted, wondering if I should hurry and get her another bottle, when I decided to see if she would be satisfied with popping the pacifier back in her mouth (I am kind of dumb when it comes to using a pacifier, Luke never took one so I never know how often I should use it or when I should use it, you know?) Anyways, I put the paci in and next thing I know, I woke up and it was just before 8am and I actually felt rested! I decided to get my rump out of bed and start my day before the kiddos woke up so I was able to enjoy my coffee without having to do 100 other things and Brian slept in until 8:45 or so AND took a shower all before Hannah woke back up. So it was a fabulous sleep night all around and I'm hoping we get another one of those HOWEVER, Hannah has been sleeping A LOT today so I think we're up a creek tonight when it comes to getting some decent z's.

Well now you know what we've been up to the past few days - it's been hectic and chaotic but it all works out and it is one of the many joys of mommyhood. :)

And, as usual, I have some pictures of the kiddos. Luke playing with Hannah BEFORE he got sick and pics of Hannah from this morning. Enjoy! :)