Yikes!

I guess I am not keeping up very well with posting.

August was a very busy month! We gained a nephew/cousin in the process, which always makes for a good month! (We will also be gaining another one in December!)

We also bought a house!!! We are doing a 30 day close, so things are a little crazy right now as we work to get everything together in only about 3 weeks.

Here is a slideshow I put together tonight to see the 3 kids at similar ages...Notice any resemblance!?!? Lately, we have been seeing a lot of me in Henry--it is probably his laid back, go with the flow, always happy personality mostly that reminds people of me! I have been seeing a lot of Jonah in Logan--his hair, his eyes, his way of living in his own little world and loving it!

Enjoy!

Video

Here is Henry in all his greatness! Make sure your speakers are on! (Filmed last night right before bed!)

Enjoy!

So Long!

I can't believe it has been about 3 weeks since I last posted. Between being in Florida and continuing our searching and exploring up here, the time is FLYING!

Florida was great. It occurred to me that within about 2.5 weeks Henry had his first swim in a lake, in a pool, and in the ocean! Quite the lucky boy. He was very excited and accepting of all 3. Belli and Logan, as usual, LOVED being in Florida. Logan was a little swimming machine. Thankfully, I snuck his lifejacket into the big bag that carried one of the three carseats on the plane---he swam all over by himself. He also had no fear of the ocean, which was fun. Luckily, Daddy has no fear of the ocean either, so they were getting plowed over by waves and laughing hysterically.

Henry was the perfect little traveler. Belli and I sat with him on the plane. He stayed awake almost the whole plane ride down, but spent him time cooing and smiling! Belli was great as a big sister, helping whenever possible. Mema also had gotten re-routed and ended up being on the plane with us on the way down, so she was nice enough to hold Henry during potty breaks, etc. She was sitting next to another set of grandparents who were just about ready to eat Henry--he is so cute that other grandparents even like him! :)

Since we have been back home, we have been hanging out. Last weekend we visited Fort Snelling (or as Logan calls it Snort Telling). It was very cool to see how the soldiers used to live--and hear the cannon shot off!

Enjoy a few pictures! We are heading to Des Moines on Sunday for a few days to have some time with the cousins! And then heading to Illinois on the 18th to see the Beazleys before they head back home to Rome, and then to play the waiting game on the newest member of the family....I wonder if that little nephew of mine got the message that he can't come out until I am there?!

Hope all is well with everyone!

Henry has been cracking up laughing lately, so my goal is to get him in action on video---as soon as I do, I will post it! He has a tendency to get rather serious as soon as the camera is in his face!

4th of July, 2011

4th of July was TONS of fun! It was so great to have family up here staying with us! We really appreciated having the company--I appreciated cooking for everyone! And we really appreciated them bringing boats, so we got to check out the St Croix River and White Bear Lake. The house had 12 people, 6 dogs and a cat for 5 days and everyone survived and left smiling!

I attached a video slideshow of some of the pictures I took over the weekend. You will see it starts off with photos of Jonah and Carl running the half marathon thru Minneapolis the morning of the 4th. We were all really proud of them! The morning was beautiful, and the boys worked hard to make the run happen. They finished by running across the Stone Arch bridge which is where Stephanie, Henry, and I were waiting and taking pictures. The skyline is really nice from right there too, so I had fun playing with my camera lense!

Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th as well. We are off to Florida on Wednesday for a little vacation!

Where does the time go?

Sorry I haven't been so good about updating lately. We have actually been having lots of fun staying busy and exploring all there is to do around us!

There really is SOOO much to do and see up here. Tons that is family oriented and everything is very accessible. Charles Schulz (Peanuts & Charlie Brown) was born in St. Paul, so there is a park downtown with all the Peanuts characters. Woodstock was the kids favorite at Rice Park. We visited Des Moines for Barry's wedding, so Mema came into town to watch the big kids and dogs. Henry finally got to meet his Mimi and great-grandma Ellen. Such a happy day!! This last weekend, Jonah and I took the kids into Stillwater to have lunch and visit Teddy Bear Park...such a cute little park--Logan and Belli could have climbed all day long! Today the kids and I went and picked strawberries up in White Bear Lake. Such a fun time. I was really proud of the kids. They did a great job and picked for about an hour!

Enjoy the pics!!

We have more busy times coming up! We are having our first full house of visitors next week over the 4th---I can't wait to cook for a crowd!!

HENRY UPDATE!!! Henry is about 11 pounds or so now! Growing fast and furiously! He can't wait to catch up to Belli and Logan in more ways than 1. He is smiling a lot now. Really all you have to do is talk to him and he smiles, which is FUN FUN FUN!!! He got his tongue clipped about a week ago, so he can finally stick his tongue out, which Belli and Logan think is great. Henry copies them when they do it, so it can provide at least 10 minutes of entertainment! I also am now eating dairy-free to help alleviate some of Henry's gas issues, tummy pains, baby ache, cradle cap, etc...He was pointing many signs towards dairy allergy, and eliminating it from my diet seemed to have helped almost overnight. It is NOT fun for me, but hopefully in a couple months, he will be able to handle it! Hmmm...hard to remember what else?! He is doing great, still fitting in with the rest of the clan just fine. Belli is adamant that we keep him....she is also requesting another baby. She keeps telling everyone that 4 would be the perfect number...Mommy thinks that maybe 3 is plenty hard to do fun things with!

Hope everyone is well and not sweating too bad. The weather up here is PERFECT! We see about 80 during the day and usually upper 50s at night---so beautiful!

We spend a lot of time staring...

From the pictures, it looks like Henry sleeps a lot...He doesn't. That is just the only time he lets us set him down! He also wanted to show off his double chin. He was very jealous when his cousin Lukas visited...Lukas' girth was something to be envied, and Henry is working diligently at matching him! As of last night, pre bath, Henry was almost 10 pounds...Not to shabby for 3 weeks old. I am going to have to look back and check out Logan's stats. I am sure they will look similar!

The "older kids" as they are now referred to, have become very comfortable with "baby." Every morning they come in and first thing have to check on him!

We have made 2 trips to the zoo...I will post those pictures later. One with just the kids and I, and the other time, Jonah came with!

Can't wait to head back to Illinois on Thursday and let all the Illinoisians meet Henry!

More later!

Completeness

So, last Sunday, Henry was freed from his bili-blanket. He ended up having a combination of physiological jaundice along with breastmilk jaundice, and while breastmilk jaundice is not dangerous, it would not allow his bilirubin count to come down, so the doctors would not allow him to come off "treatment." We ended up supplementing every other feeding with formula for 48 hours and his levels plummeted! So thankfully, life has returned to our "unchained" normalness.

We have taken full advantage of being free this week. On Tuesday, we all went hiking at Wirth Park in Minneapolis. They have a Quaking Bog and a wildflower sanctuary that we all had fun exploring...and the weather was gorgeous. Today, we hung out at home and walked to the park and then played in the sprinkler this afternoon. The kids were excited to get the sprinkler out for the first time this year!

(I had to add some photos of the kids drinking from the water fountain at Wirth for Jill...We did not allow the kids to actually lick the metal part, but they did try to come close!)

I would say the picture of Henry sleeping and smiling pretty much sums up how we are all feeling these days. There is a great sense of being complete in our house now. Not that we were missing something before, but we definitely feel like a whole now. As crazy as our house is MOST of the time, and as crazy as we all drive each other, I think that if any one of us (or the animals) were missing, we just wouldn't function the same. It makes me happy numerous times each day that for the rest of my life, my little family will all have the same memories. We will all be included in making them happen. Henry has for lack of a better way of putting it completed us! (So Jerry McGuire)

There is also something amazing this time around. Maybe it is because the "big" kids are a little bigger than Belli was when Logan came along. All the fears of how a day would look, or if we would make it through, or if everyone would get what they need, don't exist this time. Everyone has fallen seamlessly into place. We never even missed a beat. This week has been our first week "alone" (visitors are gone, Jonah is back at work) and we have done just fine. It really has been great. (Henry has also been sleeping 6 hour stretches at night, so that doesn't hurt!)

Hope all is well with everyone in Illinois. We miss you all a lot. Then I went to the DMV today to get my Minnesota drivers license and everyone holds doors for me and asks about the baby and tells me how perfect he is and lets me rush through lines because I have him....And I think Minnesota isn't really all that bad.