Family Pictures

Jennifer Komp who does a phenomenal job came out a few weeks after Ben was born to take pictures for us. It went so well and she got some great ones! The sun was out so we were able to go outside for a few. The key to the successful shots of Brooklyn...mommy was out of sight :) Hey, whatever works!!

Christmas 2010

Ben's first Christmas, Brooklyn's first Christmas that she was aware of. Lot's of firsts in our house. We were so blessed to just stay home on Christmas day and savor time with each other. Brooklyn spent the entire month of December talking about how "Christmas is for Jesus' birthday". She also spent an awful lot of time talking about santa, presents and cake :) I loved seeing the joy on her face, and the meaning of Christmas through the eyes of a two year old. silly gilly on Christmas eve

zoolander pose

b's big present from mom and dad, princess chest

she kept this number on ALL day including nap

titi hauling some loot

doll house courtesy of mimi and papa

Had to post this of the Christmas hangover monday morning.

Verse of 2011

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
~ Colossians 3:12

This verse spoke to me. It is what I want for myself for 2011. I more often than not feel like I am crumbling in all 5 of these important areas. I fully understand that this is because my entire life revolves around needing to show mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience in all that I do with my children and husband. I fail daily, but this verse is a tremendous reminder that God longs for me to emulate these characteristics as much as my human flesh is capable of.

I decided to look up the meaning of all five just for a better grasp...here's what I found.

Mercy: compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one's power; compassion, pity, or benevolence
Kindness: Kindness is the act or the state of being kind and marked by charitable behaviour, marked by mild disposition, pleasantness, tenderness and concern for others.
Humility: the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc.
Gentleness: kindly; amiable; not severe, rough, or violent; mild and soft
Patience: the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.

I long to be ALL of these. The one that resonated the most was...drumroll...PATIENCE! Shocking I know :) I love that it says "without complaint, loss of temper or irritation". This is by far the hardest thing for me.
Being a parent is learning to die to yourself daily. To put anothers needs ahead of your own at all costs. I would give my life without a seconds hesitation for my children, yet it is so hard for me to sacrifice my quiet time during nap if we've had a rough day or my physical space if I am exhausted. That makes no sense on paper, but I know that it's the truth and it's where patience comes in. I want to be the best at all that I do and not complain or grumble or let the irritation of daily frustrations get to me. Even better, I know I cannot accomplish any of this on my own. So, enter verse daily and time in prayer. Lord, do your work!
Just a great verse and wanted to share.

One month old!

Benjamin Matthew is one month old today! It really has flown by. He is growing like a weed. Poor little guy has his first cold :(

He is amazing. He really is such an easy baby. Great temperament. He loves to listen to Brooklyn talk (often yell). Seriously, if he is having a rough couple of minutes and is fussing and Brooklyn decides to throw a fit about something at the same time he will stop crying. I think he knows that mommy needs a bone thrown at her in those circumstances. Ben, I love you son. Thanks for taking one for the team.

At his 2 week appointment he was 8lbs 13 oz. He is over 11lbs now according to our scale at home. He is almost out of his newborn clothes. He has the strongest neck of any child I know (brooklyn was the same way). He loves to arch his head back and look from side to side. He is not a huge fan of tummy time, loves music, loves baths, hates being naked and hates having gas in his tummy. That last one has been the biggest obstacle and we're still working on it. It's a combo issue of him pigging out and my milk flowing way too fast. Sometimes makes for a messy combo.

Here are a few pics from the past several weeks.

Happy one month Benny boy! I love you so much.

Christmas fun

Every year Brooklyn gets together with her friends Taylor, Remi and Kali to take pictures and have a little Christmas get together in their pretty dresses. It has become a really special tradition (one we hope to force them to do until they leave for college :). I love looking back to see how much they've changed from the year before. Wow. Time flies. The guys still to this day tease us about the black sheet on the couch from the photo shoot the first time. Lesson learned, back drops should not resemble that of an adult film aka tacky black sheet thrown on the couch.

2008
2009

2010

We also braved it and went to zoo lights with some friends from our mom's group. It was so much fun, but sooooo much work (as everything is at the moment). Matt had his company Christmas party earlier that day so he had to meet me there and I unfortunately did not have the stroller. So I huffed it through the parking lot with Ben strapped to my chest and Brooklyn crying hysterically on my hip. In all fairness to her it was freezing cold, she was just starting to get a cold and she had fallen asleep in the car right before we got there, so I would have been ticked to get out of the warm car too. She was in awe of the lights, she just kept saying "the lights are sooooo pretty. I love the purple ones". She has declared purple to be her "favorite color in the whole wide world". Everything is "the whole wide world" these days. Girl makes me laugh.

The group shot cracks me up.

poop, pee, spit up and LOVE

I am officially back in the swing of having a newborn. Can I just say, boys are so different than girls! I know this is obvious, but having now been peed on more times than I can count and changed more blow outs with this little man in the first two weeks than I did with Brooklyn in her first 6 months...it is evident I am entering a different world for good!

This first week on my own has had some high high's and low low's. I miss matt terribly, but am really too busy to dwell on it. The mornings are chaos, which makes them kind of fly by, and then nap rolls around, which I have yet to take part in because I'm either nursing or Brooklyn only takes a very short one. I am definitely experiencing a little hormonal imbalance (I don't like the sound of post partum) but it's more from lack of sleep then anything else.

This morning kind of sums my life at present up. Woke up, let B watch a show in our bed while I closed my eyes for just a few minutes more (both she and Ben were up for 2 hours last night and that's not including his other 2 feedings, that was just a solid two hour block they were both awake), came downstairs made breakfast (still have yet to even look at myself in the mirror, brushed my teeth or showered), disciplined B for having a full fledged tantrum, ate with Brooklyn while Ben nursed (yes, at the table, milk all over him, me and my lap) then got Brooklyn engaged in an activity and put Ben in his bouncy seat so I could do the dishes. 30 min or so later I brushed against my tank top (which I am still wearing from the day before) and it was wet, looked down only to find myself smeared in poop. Yummy. So, I am covered in poo, which means so is my son.

The funniest part is he didn't even seem bothered by it. He was just chillin in poo. The verse of the day when I opened my email was "So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. "~ 1 Corinthians 15:58

Quite appropriate and no coincidence :)

Adjusting nicely

Poor neglected blog. My priorities have changed, so here's a brief update. As of tomorrow Benjamin is 2 weeks old. Wow.

Brooklyn is doing great(ish), night time seems to be the hardest for her. She get's a little testy, but I think this is more of the strong willed two year old in her than the adjustment to having a baby in the house.

Ben is doing great. He is such a sweet, gentle little guy. He rarely cries, unless he's hungry or needs something. The hardest part is the lack of sleep, but I knew this would be the case. He's still nursing wonderfully and I am so grateful.

Brooklyn's been saying the most hysterical things lately, here are a few:

"I be right back!

Hey, wutch yoooo doing guys?

Oh, baby ben wants some milk

What's the matter mister mister

Ben needs his mommy"

She also likes to pull up her shirt and nurse her baby :) She'll put the baby on her chest and say "I need to feed my baby".

Tomorrow is my first day home alone with both of them. I have loved having matt home with me these past two weeks, but time to adjust to our new normal.