This new life born just 11 days ago has brought me a wonderful new life. Things couldn't be better around here. Am I still running on adrenaline or was I just so miserable waiting and worrying for him to arrive that everything seems like a piece of cake now? Magnolia has even been such a good sport about her brother's arrival. There has not been one single instance of her acting out or even a hint of jealousy. I am waiting for it but so far she's shown nothing but love and acceptance towards him. I am SO amazed but then again I try to remind myself that she really is sweet by nature. We are slowly finding a new rhythm around here and really just taking it all in very slowly. I am able somehow to get laundry done and keep the house somewhat clean. I don't know if it's the convenient set up of our house or maybe that I was already a mom but it hasn't been nearly as hard as I imagined. Am I tired? Yes, but I know that comes with the territory and I know I won't be tired for the rest of my life. I know my kids will grow up, sleep through the night, go to school, and need me a lot less than they do now. So for now it's nice to be needed. I am enjoying this baby so much and know this first year is going to fly by. I want to relish every moment with him. He's such a delight, I can't believe he's finally here and we both made it safe and sound! What a miracle!

Sleeping in his Moses Basket....I feel like he's outgrowing it already!!!

Many faces of baby George

Magnolia takes the time to read to George during Tummy Time.

I love the above picture. We were all in the kitchen Easter morning and I looked over and saw this scene. Just loved seeing my wonderful husband with our two children! We had such a nice Easter. It was a sunny and warm day and George made homemade cinnamon rolls which were delicious! Nani was with us. She came the day George was born and stayed a whole week. My parents were here the day I was induced and stayed until the baby was born. They too were here a whole week but unfortunately spent the whole time waiting for the baby to arrive. We are so grateful for both of our parents help. Don't know how we would have done it without them and Magnolia sure loved spending time with them.

Magnolia loved her Easter basket. This holiday may have been even better than Christmas. She loved finding all that candy hidden in her basket and we let her eat as much as she wanted! George took this photo of Magnolia waiting patiently in bed while we all got ready to go downstairs together to find her Easter basket. Magnolia liked dipping her toast points in her soft boiled egg. Baby George Easter morning .
Two great finds in her basket, sunglasses and chocolate bunny! Easter egg hunt in the afternoon. Magnolia opened all the eggs and emptied their contents into her basket before finding the next egg. She has a few years until she'll learn to compete with her brother in finding the most eggs! More photos and updates on life around here coming soon!

We are finally home! A family of four! This morning the four of us were in bed together and I couldn't believe it...we have TWO kids...we are a growing family and I love every bit of it! If you haven't read about baby George's arrival, you can do so here. Magnolia is doing so well, she really seems to understand that the baby was in my tummy and now he's out and here. She's shown no jealousy or anger as of yet. We're doing a good job of spoiling her and keeping her involved in baby things. I was in bed with the baby while he slept and Magnolia came up and starting giving him lots of love. He opened his eyes and seemed to love her attention. I was so glad I had my camera right next to me so I could capture this sweet shot of the two of them.

We took George to the doctor this morning and he's doing perfectly well! Here he is in his carseat right before leaving.

Magnolia is checking out her brother as soon as we arrived home from the hospital.

Baby George in the hospital all dressed and ready to go home.
Waiting in his daddy's arms for the doctor to come and discharge me, wearing the beautiful handknit hat my sister made for him.

Big George getting Little George dressed to go home.

One proud daddy!

So good to be home...

Magnolia's brother is due to arrive this time next week! However I'm not sure what she's more excited for; her baby brother or the Easter Bunny. We are trying to explain that her brother will arrive first and then the Easter Bunny. Once I told her he would bring her a big chocolate bunny, she's been super excited. I made her these bunny ears today(pattern courtesy of Martha S.) and she loves them.

I'm so excited to have this little baby and will be so happy when he has arrived and we are all at home together coloring Easter eggs!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had a very warm and sunny day here, it was wonderful!

Still not a whole lot going on around here, just waiting and waiting to have a baby and trying to take it easy. With a day like today being housebound isn't so bad!

We have been really housebound lately. It's gotten way too hard to go out and about being this big and uncomfortable. The strange thing is that I prefer to be at home. Not sure how Magnolia feels about it but we've been trying to stay busy around the house. Here she is playing in the bathroom sink, her new favorite activity.

I hope to do Magnolia update soon but before I forget I want to mention what happened today.
Magnolia has been throwing things for some time now when she gets frustrated but lately the throwing has been replaced by high pitched screams. Most of the time I don't react and tell her calmly that she looks frustrated but it's not polite to throw or scream and she just needs to tell me she's frustrated, she needs help, or maybe she just needs attention. Sometimes I don't quite have the patience and tell her to stop! :) Today I was cooking dinner and apparently she was getting frustrated with something and I didn't even realize it. She marched into the kitchen and promptly told me that she needed attention. I was so proud that I swooped her up with a big hug and kiss and thanked her for telling me. I set her up in the kitchen to help me and when she had her fill, she got down and went back to playing. Ah, I love when there's good communication but mostly I'm proud of my little 2 year old. :)

I love handwritten notes, embossers, stamps, and beautiful stationary. I've always wanted a writing desk for this reason. When I saw this desk at Goodwill last fall, I just had to have it. Of course at the time it didn't look like this at all, it needed quite a bit of work but I saw the potential. George was not happy when I came home and told him we'd need his car to go and get it. We have a house (make that two) and a basement full of furniture. It's sort of a problem, we love furniture and have too much of it. The last thing we needed was another piece. Good thing it was my birthday and he conceded. The minute he saw it he loved it too. With a pregnant wife and a two year old, it sat in his shop for many months while he slowly took his time stripping it down to its original finish and giving it many repairs. It's finally done and I just love it so much. What you don't see is my laptop that sits there for most of the time. It's my favorite place to sit with a cup of coffee. Thank you George, I love it!

Last weekend we had Papaw and this weekend we had Nani! Sure was nice having visitors! We had 6 inches of snow when she arrived making it a cozy day in the house. For the rest of the weekend we did a whole lot of nothing but Magnolia loved being with her Nani and Molly Dog. It's crazy to think Nani will be our last visitor until the baby arrives! I'll be back again this week for some posts I've been meaning to share. Have a great week everyone!

Magnolia had a visit from her Papaw this past weekend. Oh how she loves her Papaw! They had a great time visiting the Children Museum, reading books, playing the harmonica, and singing songs. Thanks Papaw for visiting!

Magnolia spent Saturday morning with her one and only Valentine, her daddy. To say Magnolia is a daddy's girl is an understatement. I have never seen someone turn corners at such a high rate of speed to greet her daddy every night. So when our local children's museum was having a breakfast with Little Nutbrown Hare from the book Guess How Much I Love You on Valentine's Day, I bought two tickets for them. They had a wonderful time and I cried when she came home wearing the bunny hat she made with her face painted in whiskers and handed me a beautiful handmade Valentine. We opened presents or as Magnolia calls them, "presidents." She loved everything especially the chocolate. I put her to bed a little early while George cooked a delicious Valentine dinner for the two of us. It was a very nice day. Here's Magnolia getting one last look at herself before heading off with her daddy.

Opening her Valentines

Children's Museum

Apparently Magnolia didn't eat the breakfast and didn't want to go near Little Nut Brown Hare although she knows him well from the book. She did say hello from afar. She's been sick for the past few days with no signs of feeling better. We'll be off to the doctor tomorrow. Poor thing, I hate to see her feel so bad.

We traveled to my niece, Lilah's, 4th birthday party this weekend. My other sister, her girls, and my mom and dad also made the trip. We decided to make a weekend out of it and stay in a hotel with a pool. My doctor gave me the okay to go and boy was I excited to get away! We had so much fun visiting and swimming. Cedarburg is a very quaint town north of Milwaukee. When we arrived on Saturday they were having their Winterfest. We got to see a two hump camel and artists doing ice sculptures along the street. We stopped at the wonderful chocolate shop and then my sister's adorable salon where the girls were treated to hairdos and cuts complete with lollipops! On Sunday we went to Lilah's birthday party which was a lot of fun!!! I was sad returning home as it was all over and I'll have to wait for the baby to come before we can get away again.

Welcome February! I hope this month goes by as fast as it always seems to. It's been cold, too cold to do anything. Being pregnant in this weather is hard! With that said, I've been back in the sewing room. Not doing a whole lot but at least doing some things. I've been trying to gather my projects and take them downstairs so I can sit with my feet up in front of the fire. I'm enjoying the hand sewing far more than standing at my machine. For most of my pregnancy I've been needle pointing. Needle pointing a belt for George. I know that sounds strange but it's a St. Louis thing and if you're from STL then you'll know what I'm talking about. In doing that, I've discovered that it's the only thing to really relax me. Now I'm onto baby things and a couple of things for Magnolia. I made some beanbags and hair bows to give to her for Valentine's Day. I saw hair bows similar to these on JCr*w's Cr*wcuts site. Anytime they're having a sale things go so fast. I saw these one minute and then they were gone the next so I decided to try to make them. I used ribbon and tulle I already had. I like how they turned out but I'm having the hardest time finding alligator clips to glue them to. The first picture is of Magnolia wearing a hand knit sweater and hat by my sister, Emily. Thank you Emily, they are both beautiful! The last picture is Magnolia in the sewing room pouring me a cup of tea on top of the baby blanket I'm making out of a cashmere sweater. We have a lot of fun in that room!

My sister, Emily, and her three girls came for the weekend. We loved having them and miss them already. They carried around Magnolia all weekend and she loved it. We called her a koala because she wouldn't let them put her down. They played and read together and had a really good time. We made crepes, shopped, and just hung out. The girls loved to talk baby names and feel the baby kick. It was a really nice weekend. On Sunday my other sister, Mary, came over with her husband and two girls. Mary is pregnant also. She's due end of June and just found out she's having another girl!!! This little boy of ours has NO idea what he's in for! :)

This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago at our local FCC celebration. Magnolia had a blast playing with all of the other children. She also won the door prize, a stuffed polar bear that she now can't seem to live without. This year I just couldn't muster enough energy to put together a celebration but we did eat out at a Chinese restaurant. It was a very nice night. Magnolia ate so much and exclaimed how good everything was which the staff got a real kick out of. :)

Gung Hoy Fat Choy!