Pictures as promised

Here's Brandt raising the roof at 7 weeks old. He is showing you his moves that Daddy taught him.

2 months old

Mary and Jofus

I've been waiting to get the pictures off my camera so I could post about this because it shows Lucy's creativity. So, at Christmas time we talked a lot about the birth of baby Jesus and the kids acted out the christmas story. So since then, Lucy loves to play Mary, Jofus and baby Jesus. She brought a blanket to Michael one morning and said, Daddy can I be Mary. So he put the blanket on her and she asked him if he would be Jofus (we absolutely love to hear her say Joseph... makes us smile every time). Anyhow, she said, now we have to find a manger for baby Jesus. So she gets her baby Sophie doll and sticks it in the back of her sham on her pillow. Then she gets other stuffed animals to be the wise men, shephards and animals. They call me in Lucy's room then and this is what I find....

Love you

I talked to my Mom and Dad yesterday morning and they said to tell Lucy that we love her very much. So of course I did and she smiled. So at lunch time she wanted to pray, here was her prayer.... Dear Jesus, thank you for this day. Thank you for mommy, daddy and baby brandt. Thank you for daddy's job and he can go to work, and thank you that Grandma and Grandpa called to say they love me. Amen. Isn't that sweet! When she goes to sleep she has to say nigh, nigh, love you and she will cry until you come back upstairs to say it to you if she thinks you didn't hear it. So go and tell your children you love them right now... it means the world to them.

So last night I had to take some toys away from Lucy. We had started where if she wets her pants we take away a toy and then she gets it back when she goes 3 times in the potty. It had been working great because she doesn't like having her toys taken away. Well, yesterday we were out, so she had a pull-up on. I asked her several times if she had to go to the bathroom and it was always no. Anyhow, when we got home she was very wet and she didn't want her underwear back on and never went in the potty until before bed. So, I took 2 very precious toys away... her coffee pot and tea set. I thought she would cry and be upset, but she looked at me and said "I'm not sad, Mommy. It's okay." Great... not that I want her to cry, but come on it's the tea set, be a little sad so I think we are headed in the right direction with potty-training. I told her today that if she wets her pants, there will be no Dora... so far so good :)

The cute things she says

Just some sweet things Lucy has said that I don't want to forget...

The other day Michael came home from work and Lucy ran up to him and said "I'm lucky you are home."

We were talking about beautiful things that God made and she looked at me and said "God made you beautiful, Mommy." Oh and does Mommy ever love to hear that!!!

Lucy loves to sing songs. So we will sing actual songs for a while and then she will say, "Mommy, do you know this song," in which, she will proceed to make a song up and then look at me with big eyes and say "Mommy sing with me."

I love the way Lucy talks in a high pitch voice to Brandt. She will ask him questions and then tell me that "Brandt says...." It's hilarious. He probably will be 3 before he talks because she will do all the talking for him.

She thinks that we can get everything at Sams Club. Lucy and Daddy came in from the backyard wondering where the bubbles were. I told them that they were all gone, so Lucy said, "Well, we need to go buy some more at Sams Club." If you ask her what her favorite stores are, she says Hobby Lobby and Sams Club.

I know that this list will only grow. Speaking of growing... Brandt just keeps growing and getting more stinkin cute each day! I really need to learn how to take pictures off my new camera so I can post some of my sweet boy.

Gum

Brandt will be 8 weeks tomorrow and is getting so big... he found his hands this week and loves to eat them and coo. He also loves when you bend over him and talk to him. He responds with his sweet sounds that just make me smile and laugh. Last night was a momentous night because he slept from midnight to 6:30. I was so shocked and happy to not feel exhausted getting up to feed him. I know it was the one night miracle because Lucy had it too, but it sure is unexpected and wonderful.

It was Mike's birthday last Thursday and Lucy was very excited about it. I asked her what she wanted to get Daddy for his birthday and she said, I don't know, let's call him and ask him what he wants. So we called him and he told her that he wanted some gum. So we went to the store and she picked him out some watermelon gum. We were also walking by the men's department and she saw a green shirt and said, we should get that for Daddy. The girl has good taste, so we bought it. I helped her wrap the gum in some paper we colored and when Mike walked in the door that night, she ran up to him and said, Daddy, do you want to open your up your watermelon gum and can I have a piece? At least she kept the shirt a surprise. On the way to the restaurant, she said, Daddy this is the best gum I've ever had. It's only the 3rd piece of gum she has ever had, so I do believe her that it was the best.

Christmas Time

I can't believe Brandt is 6 weeks old and Christmas is over... although you wouldn't know in our house because the tree is still up and will remain that way for a little longer because I really didn't get a chance to enjoy it before. I'm thinking I should just add some hearts and leave it up for Valentines Day, that would require too much work :)

We started celebrating Christmas when my Dad took our family on the Christmas Train. It was 20 degrees, but we bundled up and had a great time. Brandt was the warmest one of all and we even found a cozy corner in a building to nurse... he was a real trooper. A few days later we headed to Kansas to spend Christmas with Mike's family. Brandt was a great traveler... he only fussed when he got hungry. That was such a blessing!! There was 22 of us at his parents house for a few days, but it really wasn't that crazy of a household, of course, every 2 hours I headed back to a bedroom to feed Brandt, so maybe the frequent breaks made it seem less chaotic. Lucy had such a great time playing with her cousin, Gracie (they are 3 months apart). I think Gracie needed a break from Lucy sometimes, because Lucy would say, let's go play downstairs, Gracie and she would say no. My sister-in-law, Marilee, told me that once she heard Lucy calling Gracie to come downstairs and Gracie kept saying no, so finally Lucy said, Gracie you come downstairs or else you will get a spanking. Where did she ever hear that? But we had fun taking pictures of the girls in matching pj's, Christmas outfits and their fancy dresses. Michael enjoyed pheasant hunting and we all enjoyed staying up late eating sweets and playing cards. When we got home we celebrated Christmas with my family on New Year's Eve at our house. My brother and parents were here from Wisconsin and my Grandma flew in from Florida, so it was nice being together. The kids put on there annual production of Luke 2 and we even had a baby Jesus... one of these years we will have to make them memorize lines, but for now someone reads it while the kids walk around and look ever so cute in their hodge podge costumes. Sweet memories!!

Brandt Jared

I am finally getting around to posting about our sweet BOY!! I was induced on Monday, November 24th because I was 2 days late already and didn't want to spend Thanksgiving in the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am and Brandt was born at 12:07pm. So a 6 hour labor was so much better than the 28 hour labor that I had with Lucy. My doctor came in about 8:30 and broke my water, which led to the worst contraction that any woman has ever experienced. It came on so fast and strong that I almost passed out. That is when I sent Michael to tell the nurse that I needed my epidural now!!! She was already on her way back in the room because Brandt's heart rate was dropping fast. They flipped me over, gave me a shot to stop the contractions, hooked a bunch of heart monitors up to me, and than just began starring at the monitor. I couldn't see the monitor, but my sister said that his heart rate dropped into the 40's. First of all, I was unsure of being induced because I kind of felt selfish and thought the baby should come on his own time and than this was happening. Praise the Lord, his heart rate rebounded, I got the beloved epidural and then the waiting began. They came in and checked me and I was at a 7, but then a little while later I felt like the baby was trying to sneak out and actually was crossing my legs and squeezing. I asked Mike to get the nurse and she came back and checked me and I was at a 10, so she went to call the doctor and when she came back she said let's see if we can do one push to get you started and she checked and said, don't push!! So when my doctor got there, they got set up and 6 pushes later I heard "it's a boy." I kept saying, what am I going to do with a boy :) He is just perfect and it is such a joy to look at him and see a healthy and precious child!! Lucy's response when she found out it was a boy was "but I don't want a baby brother, I want a baby sister." She got over that quickly as you can see in the picture above.

Brandt is growing, he weighed 8lbs, 140z at his 2 week appointment after weighing 7lbs, 14oz when we left the hospital. I ended up getting mastitis last week and I am on 2 different antibiotics to try to clear this up. It has been horrible.... I would go from uncontrollable chills to sweating profusely and even had up to a 103.8 degree fever. It was pretty rough, but my Michael was amazing... such compassion, endurance and love!!! I am so blessed. Unfortunately, the antibiotics can cause gas and I have been fine, but Brandt hasn't. So I am so looking forward to being done with this all and finding our new normal. So that's why this post was started Monday and I am finally finishing it today, Saturday. Will this be my new normal :)