My baby?

My baby is no longer a baby. :'( I can't believe Josh is a year old already. I love that the first year is so full of firsts! First baths, first smiles, first steps, so many firsts, and I have loved everyone of them.  We have had a lot of ups and downs with Josh. He was colicky for the first little while (but believe me it seemed like a really long time), but after he was able to move around a bit, things started to settle down. Now that he can walk (practically) and hold his own against Heather (practically), he is very cheerful.  He has filled our home with so much joy. He is a sweet boy.

I can't believe how fast they grow! Here is a sample of how fast this baby grew in a year. 

Holding my boy for the first time. He came out screaming, and he didn't stop for 7 months!

My beautiful baby boy.

First smiles...ok, I guess he didn't scream ALL the time...

Just look at that chub...(not mine)

A spitter-upper

So happy at bathtime

My favorite photo of my two kids.

What can I say, I'm smitten.

Loves to play with Daddy.

First time on a swing. You guessed it, He loves it!

Little musicians

His favorite place to play.

After going down the sled (alone) for the first time

His new favorite place to play.

Happy birthday, baby boy! I look forward to another wonderful year! I sure love you Josh!

The post you've all been waiting for!

I am sure all of you have been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting to read our next update. Many of you may be wondering how our "house" hunting trip went. We went to Bloomington, IN during spring break, and after two stressful days of looking at several different townhomes/apartments, we signed the lease to a townhome in a fairly nice area. If you are interested, you can view the townhome here. Ok, ok, it's not the exact same townhome, but they all look the same.

In other news, Josh turned ONE on the 15th (during our house hunting trip). I can't believe he's a year old already. It has been a wonderful year and we are so grateful to have him in our family. (Don't worry, I am going to write a post all about him. Just like I always do with Heather.)

Here are some photos of the last couple weeks. 

Josh's birthday party during our house-hunting trip to Indiana.

Josh loved his brownie and ice cream. I wish we could say it's the first time he's had it...

Our very non-traditional tradition for St. Patrick's is to eat an all-green dinner. This year we had green eggs and ham, green mashed potatoes and a pot-o'-gold gravy, green peas, and some delicious lemon roasted cabbage.

There's 4 holes in the swing...why not?

Heather finally smiled for the camera.

Heather smelling a new spring blossom.

Spring has definitely sprung here in Ames!

My THREE year old!

Three years ago today, I received my favorite title and responsibility. Three years ago today, I became a mommy. Three years ago today, Heather was born. I can't believe it! I have had a lot of memories flooding my mind today. This morning at 7:30 I was remembering that we were sitting in the hospital waiting for her to come. At 3:30 this afternoon I remembered what it felt like to hold her in my arms for the first time.

Ok, this wasn't the first time, but that one is a little gory. ;)

 I remembered her first smiles.

Just look at that smile. 

And I am still mad that someone stole this cute outfit from the Wymount laundry mat!

 
 Our goofy, sweet, happy little Heather at 1 year old:

 Two years old, and just as happy as ever:

Now, three years later, I still love to hear her call my name, and tell me, "Mommy, I need a hug." I hope she will always ask me for hugs, even when she's my age.

I love to hear her sweet voice sing. I love to see her learning, and then teaching what she learns to other people. 

 I love that she is so concerned with everyone around her, "Mommy, are you fine? Are you doin' pretty good? Are you tired?"

"Mommy...are you mad?" (It's really hard to stay mad when she says that!)

I love to see her spread happiness to those around her by giving a cheery, "hi!" to everyone she see's. She has brought smiles to many a down trodden face.

So, a very happy birthday to my beautiful, happy, (not so) baby girl!

Birthday Breakfast...with sprinkles!

Heather and her birthday presents: raincoat and boots, swimming suit, candy land, and crayons that won't break! A new shirt and swimming suit cover up, are not being modeled, but are shown on the table and ground behind her. ;)

Heather, you make Mommy so proud. I am happy you chose me to be your mommy. I love being your mommy, and I love you!

Busy busy

This has been a busy couple of weeks for our family. The latest development is an RSV outbreak. It started the end of last week or the beginning of this week with Heather (we didn't know it was RSV at the time). She had a cough and a short-lived fever, but it wasn't that bad. Unfortunately, she passed it on to Joshua who had a very rough weekend and lots of difficulty breathing. It's amazing how differently a 3-year-old handles RSV than a 1-year-old (by the way, can you believe our kids are going to be 3 and 1 soon!). Anyway, Stephanie brought him to the ER on Thursday night, found out it was RSV, and was given a nebulizer to use at home. Then when she brought him in on Friday morning for a follow-up appointment, the doctors decided he needed to stay at the hospital so they could monitor his breathing and his oxygen levels. They hooked him up for supplemental oxygen, but luckily they never had to give him any. They did, however, treat him every few hours with albuterol via a nebulizer. He and Stephanie ended up spending Friday night at the hospital. Heather was a very good girl, despite being pent up for a while both at the Dr's office and in the hospital. I was able to come home from school early and spend the afternoon with her. We joined Stephanie and Joshua for dinner, and then after good night kisses we headed to the mall's indoor playground to burn some energy before bedtime. Joshua and Stephanie came home yesterday afternoon and are trying to catch up on sleep. Joshua's doing a bit better, although it will still take him about a week to fully recover.

We've also been busy the last couple of weeks with car shopping. We've been saving and planning for a new van for quite a while now, and this week we sealed the deal on a Toyota Sienna. We were tired of putting more and more money into a car that we were only going to be able to use for a short time anyway (due to family expansion...and no, we are not pregnant). Our car had lots of minor problems, that added together would cost us a lot to fix.  We weren't expecting things to go this quickly, but we're pleased with the deal we got. The dealer offered us an excellent trade-in value for our Stratus (almost as much as we paid for it 5 years ago!), and it being the end of the month (of the shortest month of the year), we were able to negotiate the price down to something we could manage. This is definitely a big step for us, but we're happy that things turned out the way they did. Hopefully this van will last our family for a long, long time!

And finally, for your viewing pleasure, we've got a few weeks' worth of pictures to catch up on!

We had an "Up" date a few weeks ago. Heather "helped" Stephanie blow up some balloons.

Joshua eating something delicious.

Our Valentine's Day family tradition...homemade heart-shaped pizza and orange julius.  This year we traded pepperoni for a taco pizza. Delicious!

The kids at the playground during one of February's unusually warm days.

Josh got his fill of dirt and wood chips. It...builds character.

Heather being glamorous.

Stephanie took the kids "swimming" the other day. 

The pancake fanatics that we are, we couldn't let International Pancake Day pass us by without a celebration. We had orange dark chocolate pancakes for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly pancakes for lunch, and bacon/corn/maple griddle cakes for dinner.