Merry Christmas!!

I'm a little late, but to me Christmas lasts the whole week until after New Years! I don't want to take my tree down or stop listening to Christmas music until after the New Year. :) Anyway, I just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We have been visiting my family since the middle of December and don't leave until next week. Our Christmas was wonderful!
It's been great spending so much time together to talk, laugh, eat, shop and just be together like old times! Tomorrow night we are having a New Years Eve party with all of us, some friends, and lots of yummy food. Major dieting starts on January 2nd!!! :) The way we've been eating has been out of control! Haha!! :)
Hope you all have fun New Years Eve parties, whether it's just a quiet one at home (and going to bed before midnight :) or a big party with lots of food, have a wonderful time reflecting on 2009 and looking forward to 2010!! I promise that there will be many pictures to come!

Busy Busy Busy!

Well, as I'm sure you have guessed by the lack of posts, we have been extremely busy, as always around this time of year! Parties and Christmas festivities, photo shoots, trying to get them edited and to my clients before I leave (in 5 days!) and of course, a busy life of a Mommy with 2 small children! I did just want to check in and say hi to all of you and share just a couple pictures!

I put his hair in a Mohawk after his bath the other day. The hilarious thing, it stayed in all day long, so he went to church with a huge Mohawk! He got lots of attention lol :)

The night we got our tree we went out to eat as a family which we haven't done in a while! Logan's Roadhouse has 2 meals for $13.99 on Mondays and Tuesdays, plus $2.99 kids meals, so we can all eat for under $20! Great deal!

This was also before we got our tree. We set the camera on a stool inside the house to take it of us outside all bundled up (35 degrees).

Took a few attempts but we got some cute ones :)

Hope you all are enjoying your Christmas season! It is truly the most wonderful time of the year--celebrating the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

Our House for Christmas!

I'm so blessed to have a husband who precariously climbed all over the roof to put up these lights!! Didn't he do a great job?!

Thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for every day, but this year I am especially thankful for....

My little family--Brookie who loves to laugh and have fun and loves her daddy, brother and me. My Hubby who is the kindest, sweetest man a girl could ever have to spend the rest of my life with. I do NOT deserve him! (My family can verify this lol). My little baby Joe-Joe who has brought so much joy to my life in just the few short months he's been here. He is a smiley, content little boy and I love him so much!

Special Friends!

A hard working hubby and my beautiful new baby boy,(enjoying x-box on Thanksgiving :)

My little girl who is always so willing to help me. Breaking the bread to make the stuffing was so fun for her!

Friends to celebrate Thanksgiving with, and best little friends for Brooklynne

Sugar Cookies (in the shapes of pumpkins and turkeys, or course)

The fun I have with my babies every single day

and last but not least, homemade stuffing! :) Happy Thanksgiving to my family, friends and readers! I love you all so much! I hope you had a wonderful day celebrating!

My House--So Blessed!

Most of you know that we moved last month. Here are some pictures of my downstairs, for now. When I get the rest of the house unpacked a little better I'll take pictures of the upstairs. :) I never imagined that we would have a house like this. I am so blessed!

Coming in the front door

My living room looking from the kitchen. Behind me is a guest room, bathroom and laundry room

Joey says hi from the couch :)

The kitchen!! My favorite part of the house!

Play room

Upstairs are 3 more bedrooms and 2 more bathrooms!

Right now I feel like a very accomplished Mom. Grocery shopping got done today, my house is clean, I got in a good quiet time, work out and shower (whew!), both kids are napping and dinner is in the oven. Yes there is a lot of laundry to be done. Yes there is poop smeared all over one of my stairs that is soaking in carpet cleaner, and no, my children are not dressed. Although they were when we went grocery shopping, thank God.

I'm learning about being a Mom of 2. I won't lie--it's not as easy as having 1, and it takes up a lot more time. I'm learning to use my time wisely, wake up earlier and not waste time on the computer. Hence, the lack of recent blog posts! But now since I have a few minutes, I want to share some recent pictures and let you all know that I'm still alive. :) I haven't even posted about my family's visit, which I hope to do next time I post--whenever that may be! We had such a wonderful time together and it was hard to see them go :(. Enjoy the pictures!

My Brookie is such a big helper!

My precious babies
Her biggest job--sticking the paci in his mouth when I'm busy :). She does it gladly :)

There is a Cabela's about 5 minutes from our new house. We went the other night just to look around. Joey doesn't like his car seat so I carry him in his sling most of the time when we're out. Puts him right to sleep!

Great photographer I am--his first smiles that I actually captured were blurry!! UGH!!

Smiling at Aunt Lydia :)

Talk about indulging--we made homemade chocolate chip cookies and homemade vanilla ice cream when Mom, Gramma, a few sisters, Greg and Claire and Felicia were here. Can I say heavenly?

I was so blessed to have one of my best friends here for over a week!! Love you Feli! It was a crazy time but we still had a blast. Here she is enjoying our amazing dessert the night before she left (tears). :(

That's all for now! Hubby will be home soon from work and I need to finish up dinner!! Love to you all---hope you are enjoying your November, whether you are all bundled up or wearing short sleeves and flip flops like me. ;)

Busy!

My baby is 6 weeks old today, meaning I've had family and friends staying with me for that long! I've loved it!
Last week was our missions conference. A total of 13 services, morning and night. My kids were sick--coughs colds, and stomach flu. We made it to 10 services which I'm so thankful for--the preaching and singing were unbelievable! The Lord really worked in our lives which I'll be writing about soon.
Saturday we had no services. So we moved instead of taking a break. :) We had lots of help and it got done quickly and smoothly and I'm living in a dream house now, really. I love it--pictures to come!
I have 2 more days with my family and then they leave *sob*. My big new house will be empty and quiet, but *luckily* I have a lot of unpacking, organizing and decorating to do. Before you know I'll be leaving to go home for Christmas so I can't get too sad. :)
Just wanted to check in. I have pictures to post soon!

Missions Dress up Night

Wednesday night was missions dress up night in clubs. Our missions conference starts on Sunday, so they like to get the kids prepared as much as they can. We dressed her as an Italian girl and she won best dressed! :) We were all dying because she looked so cute the whole night. :)

One Month Old!

Loves his binky :)

My baby is already a month old! Sometimes it makes me sad that time flies so fast, but in other ways, every stage is fun and just gets better! Joey had already rolled over and is a very strong little boy, lifting his head and chest so high! He has some tummy problems, so I let him sleep on his belly which he loves. :) I know you aren't supposed to do that, but people have been doing it for 100 years, plus he is so strong I am not worried about it at all. :)

Brookie loves her little brother so much and loves to hold him. The picture of them together was this morning when they woke up. Our house is still very full of people, so I enjoy my quiet mornings with my babies when I get the chance.

Happy Fall!

Here are some pictures of our fall so far...

Greg and Nate enjoying their new Starbucks Via :)

making apple pie...yes it was yummy!

Last Saturday we went with Greg and Claire to a pumpkin farm since it was such a cool day and we felt like celebrating Fall. :)

On a hayride

hayride again...so glad to have my best friend here for so long :)

Pretty Fall pictures

Hi Everyone :)

Hello Faithful Readers!

I've been busy and haven't posted for a while. I'm getting used to life with 2 children and I love it! It's a little more challenging and having a newborn takes up a lot of time--I think I forgot how much--but I am loving every minute of it. I know that so many people out there desire to be a Mom and for some reason God doesn't let them. I don't understand why, but I'm so blessed and thrilled that God has given me 2 healthy, happy children.

My Mom, Grandma, 3 sisters and one of my best friends are coming to visit on Wednesday! I am so excited! Claire is still here and her husband Greg arrived last night. They will be here for a week, so some of my family will get to see them too! YAY! By the end of October my entire family will be here! They are coming for our missions conference and then staying a whole week afterwards! I can't wait! During that time we will be moving into a much nicer, bigger house which I'm also ecstatic about and will post about another time. It's a really crazy, busy time around here but I couldn't be happier. Nothing is better than being with family and I haven't seen them all since April--the longest time that we've been apart. I can't wait for my dad to meet his little namesake..I know it will be a really precious moment.

Today we went to a pumpkin farm and enjoyed a cool fall day, very rare around here! We had so much fun and it was nice to get out in the fresh air for a while as a family! We got lots of good pictures which I will post soon!

Anyway, I will end with a Brookie classic. Yesterday she locked her brother in his room. When questioned why she did that, she replied, "because I'm only two!!"
As if she knew that she shouldn't know better--but she did. Needless to say, we all laughed. Sometimes 2 year olds are a little too smart!

Thanks for being faithful readers and commenter's! :) Love to you all!

So Little

It's hard to capture on camera how little newborns really are. Claire did a good job with these. Having him up near daddy's head really shows how small he really is. :)

I love this--Jo Jo and daddy are going to be best buddies!

Finally...some pictures!

My little Joey, 7 pounds, 8 ounces, 21 inches long, born at 3:07am after 1.5 hours of labor!

I LOVE Nate's face here--he's so proud of his little man :)

Right after he was born--can you tell I'm so happy it's OVER! :)

I was so shocked that he came so fast...and happy!

Thank you Jesus for another healthy child!

Getting his first bath

She gave him a little Mohawk--totally adorable!

Later that day, Brookie meeting her brother for the first time. She was so excited!

She LOVES him!

Love her little faces...she's in awe!

Daddy with his 2 little kids

LOTS of hair!

Our first family picture! Joey was about 10 hours old!

Claire got here 2 days after he was born, so she missed the birth :( but was able to still come to the hospital for a while. She'll be here for about 2 weeks! I'm so happy she's here!!

Brookie's face after Jo-Jo had a huge diaper blow out :)

Yay! Aunt Claire is here!

Joey is 2 days old...we are VERY ready to leave the hospital and take him home!

Little Man :)

Candid shot--LOVE

They took FOREVER to discharge us, so we were all a little restless, but we managed to get one last picture of us leaving the hospital :)

Thank you all so much for the prayers and support throughout this pregnancy! I thank the Lord that my pregnancy, labor and delivery went SO well! I am so blessed!