Miles is 1 month

Miles James
1 month

 On Jan. 6th Miles was officially 1 month old.  We love having this little guy around & really could not imagine life without him.  At his 2 week check up he was 8 lbs & I bet he is around 9 pounds now.  He is almost out of newborn clothes & moved up to a size 1 diaper.  He has a little bit of reflux & that makes him a pretty big spitter-upper & a loud sleeper, poor guy!

So far he seems to be pretty chill & a good sleeper like his sister.  He eats every 3 hours during the day & can go 5-6 hours at night!  He is a tough little guy & has already put up with lots of kisses, a little kicking, & lots of hugging from his big sister.  Pretty sure he has smiled at us a few times, but it might just be gas!

A few pics of our little guy at 1 month:

Lucy always brings her babies down to keep Miles company during tummy time.

Always getting love pats & encouragement from Lucy!

Miles gets LOTS of kisses each day.  He always opens his eyes really wide & turns his face away when he sees Lucy coming... he gets a little nervous!

We are working on being gentle.

Miles cheering for the Horns

Lucy cheering for the Horns at 1 month

Miles

Lucy Jane

Somedays I feel like they look so much alike & other days they are so different to me.  I hope they continue to look more & more alike, we will see..

Potty Training

Here we go, one of the things that I had really not been looking forward to...potty training!  It just didn't sound fun to me & I was nervous about how it was going to work with school & with our lifestyle.  I could just imagine us being at a basketball game or something with a newborn & a 2 year old who had just peed her pants, well that might happen but it hasn't happened yet.

Some people probably thought I was crazy attempting to potty train Lucy with a baby who was not even a month old & it really was crazy but we jumped in & have not looked back.  I felt like it was a good time to potty train because our life is pretty slow right now.  We have been staying home a lot & since it's colder outside we haven't been out as much, so why not?  

I read the "3 Day Potty Training" book & tried to follow it as best I could.  I didn't do everything it said, but I took the main principles from it & I would definitely recommend it.  Lucy had never gone potty on the potty until we started potty training on Day 1.  When she woke up the first morning I showed her her new potty & her new Dora & Minnie Mouse panties & told her this is what big girls did.  We moved all of her diapers into Miles room & talked about how diapers are for babies.  I helped her put her new panties on & told her this is what she would be wearing from now on since she was a big girl & she was pretty excited about this.  

We did not go anywhere for 3 days & focused on potty training.  Luckily Cody was home for these 3 days (totally planned on my part) so we could switch off & let each other get out of the house.  We had to be with Lucy all the time to help her develop the habit.  It was nice to spend lots of one-on-one time with Lucy & Lucy really did great.  

I don't know if I would say that Lucy is totally potty trained, but we are well on our way.  She only wears a pull - up during naps & at night & wears underwear all the time.  I am so proud of her because she has been doing great at school & tells her teachers when she needs to use the restroom & for the most part she tells me when we are home when she has to go.

That was probably way more than anyone wanted to know about potty training but I am proud of our little girl!

The rewards

Gotta have the heels on!

Multi-tasking

The reward for going #2 in the big potty - trip to the cupcake store!

Springtime in January

2012 started out with some amazing spring-like weather & we were loving it!  Anytime it's nice outside we try & make it out for a walk or a trip to the park & sometimes both.  Lucy loves to be outside & loves the park.

Here are a few pics of a very a happy 2 year old:

love this little girl!

This is how Miles roles when we are at the park.

 Double Bob = my lifesaver.  Thank you Grammy & Pa for the double, we use it almost everyday.  It's so great because you can go anywhere with it & even on the colder days it has enough protection so the kids are not freezing while walking.  This thing is going to get a lot of miles on it in the years to come!

Our new ride.

CHRISTMAS!

We went to see Cody's family this year for Christmas.  We were only there for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day but it was still fun to be together & see Lucy play with her cousins.  Here are a few pics that tell the story of our first Christmas as a family of 4!

Madison got baptized on Christmas Eve, so glad that we were able to be there to watch her!

We went to a really sweet Christmas Eve service, I loved every minute of it!  Lucy & Miles sat in the service with us, Miles slept the whole time but Lucy was really interested in certain parts of the service.  She loved the singing & part at the end when we all held out candles & sang "Silent Night."  She kept talking about Baby Jesus & throughout the whole service I was filled with thankfulness for this family that God has graciously given me & for the coming of Christ. It was definitely something that I will remember for a long time.

Dressed up for Christmas Eve - Cody & Miles in sweater vests - love it!

Cookies that Lucy & I made for Santa

To Santa
Love, Lucy & Miles

Setting out the cookies so Santa won't miss them!

Love them!

Christmas morning we woke up to see if Santa payed us a visit.

Lucy opening her doll house from Santa

Loves it!

Lucy & Harper got some fancy shoes or "clack clacks" as Lucy calls them

Trying so hard to get a picture...

The Blair clan

Lucy + Harper

Christmas Day 2011

The BIG 3-0

In December I turned 30.  Wow. 30.  It feels so weird to be 30 & have 2 kids.  I still feel like I am in high school or something.  I definitely don't feel old enough to have 2 kids & maybe I'm not because most of the time these days I have no idea what I'm doing!

Anyway, we didn't do a whole lot on my birthday but it was really fun.  Cody worked hard to make it special & it definitely was!  Cody, Miles, & I went out to lunch at my favorite restaurant & that night Cody made a delicious dinner, got me some really great gifts, & then we went to a local cupcake store & looked at Christmas lights.  I am thankful to be 30 years old & have such a sweet family.

The yummy dinner that Cody made on the "You Are Special" plate

Lucy at the cupcake store, she was SO EXCITED to get a Christmas tree cupcake & has talked about it ever since.

We tried really hard to get a picture on my birthday, but it didn't really work out...

Getting Ready For Christmas

Getting ready for Christmas was a little different this year as we were adjusting to life with 2 kids. I am usually really into doing lots of "Christmasy" things throughout the month of December & love to carry on traditions & create new traditions with Lucy, but it was kind of nice this year to really slow down & spend lots of time at home taking it all in. 

We spent lots of time in the car driving around looking at Christmas lights, Lucy LOVED looking at lights & would always say, "Wow" or "yook Mom, yook, Kreemas yights" - look mom, look, Christmas lights!  I got some video of her looking at lights, hopefully I can post that at some point in the near future!  I loved Christmas season this year, it was so sweet having a little 2 year old & a snuggly baby around.

Here are a few things we did this Christmas season:

Made cookies for Santa & ate lots of the yummy dough!

Made lots of silly faces!

Learned about advent & the Peace, Hope, Love, & Joy that Jesus brought to this world.

Decorated Christmas gifts.

Lucy & I had fun painting Christmas gifts this year.  We made Christmas trees out of her hand prints & made hand-print nativity animals looking at baby Jesus.  Miles even painted a few trees with his feet, but I didn't get any pics of these - he's already so crafty.