I cannot believe George is one month already! He's doing great, he's waking up a lot more, eating a lot more, and getting fussy a lot more! We're all trying to settle into this new normal and find our new places in the family. It's definitely trickier with two and I'm still trying to figure it all out. Getting out is still too daunting. We do it, but only if necessary. Magnolia continues to be a very sweet big sister to her brother but she also feels the pain of having to share her mommy and daddy. All in all she's handling it well. Wish I got a better one month picture of George but it's near impossible since I pretty much carry him all day in my sling. These were the few moments that I wasn't carrying him today.

Today my sister and her two little girls came to visit. It was a beautiful day and the girls loved playing together. My sister is due to have a third daughter in just 6 weeks, we can't wait to meet her!

Sophia (1.5) Lilah (4) Magnolia (2.5)

We are getting ready for our first trip as a family of four. We're heading to St. Louis to visit family. It's been a year and we can't wait to see everyone and experience more of a spring than we have here! Hoping the long road trip won't be as hard as I imagine it to be, we'll see!

Spring is finally here! We had a beautiful weekend. Things are blooming everywhere!

Very fussy baby tonight so this is all I can post. Be back soon!

The wind has shifted around here. We've been getting more of the behavior we expected from Magnolia. She's realizing that her little brother is a permanent thing. She's realized that there's some competition now. If he cries, she cries. If I have to pick up the baby, she wants to be picked up. If I lay him in his crib, she wants to get in too. She wants to be burped. She wants nukies. All the normal regression stuff I knew would happen. I would have been worried if she really didn't seem affected by having a sibling. The funny thing is that she's also done a lot of growing up too. She puts her shoes on all by herself. She's using a bigger vocabulary and talking nonstop. She's showing signs of wanting to be potty trained and even gone in her potty without me even asking her! I know I should act on her signs but I'm not ready for it. I'm still trying to figure out how to run errands with both kids. I've resigned myself from going out unless absolutely necessary until we get more on a schedule. Good thing spring has arrived and we can be outside! Magnolia loved feeling George's soft skin on her face in these photos.
I could kiss both of their cheeks all day long!

My sister, Emily, came for the weekend. Thank goodness! George had to go on a business trip so I was so grateful for her help and company. I was a complete wreck on Friday night because she was two hours late in arriving. I was convinced she was in an accident. Turns out she hit a deer in the middle of nowhere and drove to the nearest town where she discovered her car was totaled. She was going to be pretty much stranded until a retired cop offered to drive her the rest of the way to my house! She is the only person I know who doesn't have a cell phone so she had no way of calling me to tell me why she was so late. I was just so happy she was okay! She was such a great help to me, I couldn't have survived the weekend by myself! My brain is complete mush and I've lost all common sense. Thank you Emily for making the trip and having to go through all you did to get here!

Please come back soon Aunt Emily!

Boy, oh boy does Magnolia love her baby brother. I am still amazed at her acceptance and love towards him. This morning she came into the kitchen, looked around and asked "where's my baby brother?" Yesterday we went out for the first time together. I started by putting her in the car first and she said, "don't forget my brother!" Thank goodness she's on top of it in the event I ever do forget him!

Things continue to be good around here. Probably because we aren't doing too much. Yesterday's outing consisted of driving to the bank and back again. It was so rainy and cold that I didn't feel like getting both of them out of the car. I did take the baby out by myself over the weekend and it was easy until we got to the grocery and his car seat wouldn't fit in the cart! Yikes, what a pain that's going to be. After asking other moms about it, I was informed that car seats don't always fit. More of a reason to carry him in my sling.

The first picture isn't that great but I loved seeing him wearing those cashmere pants I made out of an arm of a sweater. He slept all day wearing those things. I can only imagine how cozy he was!

George took most of the pictures below. He's so much better at shooting in manual. I just can't seem to grasp it. Love these shots he took of the both of them.

Hope everyone is having a great week with warmer weather than we've been having...snow the past two mornings!!!

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!