One Crazy Morning

My 7:00 AM alarm clock (also known as Dominic) failed me this morning. Probably because the sun doesn’t come up until 7:30ish. But anyway, we got a late start to the day. I had to shower and get ready for work in 15 minutes. Kirk usually gets the kids up and ready, but he woke up sick. (Those of you who know Kirk, know that morning is not his best time of day even when he's perfectly healthy. I am usually stressing because I think he should be doing things in a certain order at a certain pace to make sure we leave the house on time – and Kirk has his own ideas, I think it is usually something about how he doesn’t want to be awake taking care of kids.) But this morning sick and all, he got up and got Dominic ready like always. We left the house about the time I was supposed to be at work and drove to my friend Julie’s who watches the kids on Wednesdays. I step out of the car into a huge puddle, soaking my feet, and manage to get my kids and their bags out of the car. I am walking toward the front door feeling a bit like a pack horse with my arms full of children and their belongings when I realize that I just stepped onto a solid sheet of ice and we are going down. I landed square on my rear end (which is good – there is padding there and less chance for injury) Natalie was safe in her car seat carrier and poor Dominic got dumped into the bushes. He and I were soaking wet, Natalie’s blankets landed in a puddle and Dominic was crying. I got up, gathered up my children and their belongings and managed to ice skate to the door. Once we got inside and the kids were settled, I found out Julie just finished the Twilight series so I couldn’t help but take a few minutes to talk about it with her before I headed to work - I was already really late anyway. I did make it to work (despite some lunatic on the highway who tried to run everyone off the road, got of at my exit and then slammed on his breaks infront of me and tried to make a u-turn on one of the busiest roads in the area). No sooner had I turned on my computer then Julie called to tell me we had not packed a bottle for Natalie who hadn’t eaten since 4:30 am and was probably quite hungry. Julie offered to go pick it up, but I couldn’t really make her pack four kids into the car to brave the ice in order to retrieve something we forgot to pack. So I headed back out to the car to drive home and get a bottle. I ended up at work about an hour later than planned, still soaking wet. (I hadn’t gotten to the laundry last night so I didn’t have any clothes to change into when I went to pick up the bottle.) Despite this insane morning I actually feel less stressed than I have in months. Maybe the fall on the ice knocked it all out of me – or maybe everything was so ridiculous and completely out of my control at this point that all I can do is laugh about it. Merry Christmas Eve!

5 Years...

So as of last Saturday I have been married for 5 years - can you believe it? It is actually pretty sad because neither Kirk nor I remembered :0 Well I remembered Friday while I was Christmas shopping because I thought of a gift that would be perfect for my anniversary. Unfortunately it was a gift that would require some time that I obviously didn't have. (I think the fact that I didn't remember my own anniversary means that Natalie should get over her colic and sleep more so mom can regain her sanity.) Anyway, thanks to wonderful parents who are super busy but still willing to babysit my kids, Kirk and I got to go out on Saturday to celebrate. It was awesome, and the first time Kirk and I had been anywhere together without our lovely children since Natalie was born so it was nice to relax and not worry about anything. It was a great day, and its been a great 5 years! I'm a lucky girl :)

Cute Kids

My kids are pretty cute (granted I'm a little biased), but I thought I'd let you all enjoy some recent pics :)

Natalie's Christmas dress - I love this dress! Having a girl is so much fun :)

I almost caught her smiling, the camera was a little too slow. She smiles quite a bit now, and it is adorable!

Dominic looking rather sharp in his Christmas outfit - I haven't been able to find a pink tie so he can match his sister...

Dominic was helping me put up the Christmas tree by sneaking branches out of the box when I wasn't looking to carry around the house.

Dominic's Hats

Recently Dominic has decided that he LOVES wearing hats - well actually constantly taking hats on and off. Just before Thanksgiving Dominic made an Indian headband at playgroup which he loved. Dominic also loves his dad's beanie. When he runs around in the beanie it reminds me of an old WWI helmet. He got a hold of the hat while I was getting the bath ready the other day, it was pretty funny to see him run around the house in a diaper and war helmet :)

Natalie's Blessing

This past Sunday (which happened to be my birthday :) Natalie was blessed. She looked adorable in the dress that Grandma Gretchen made for her and was nice enough to hold back her screaming until the blessing was over and we took a few pictures. Our family portrait below didn't turn out very well - but anyway, it was a great day and we were lucky to have our family close to witness and participate in the ordinance.

Mommy's Helper

So after I finished feeding and changing Natalie today I remembered a phone call I had to make so I walked out of the room to get my phone. When I came back into the room Dominic had gotten a hold of the bottle and was feeding "his baby." If only I could put Dominic in charge of a few feedings :) It is actually very cute how much Dominic loves his sister. He is very protective and always wants to help take care of her - even if he ends up doing more harm than good.

Halloween

Dominic and Natalie looked absolutely adorable dressed as a bear and a lady bug. Unfortunately I am terrible at taking pictures so Natalie looks angry and Dominic is out of focus or only half in the picture while he tries to grab the camera from my hands :) - The best part about Dominic's costume was how he waddled around with the extra fabric around his bum. I think I'll have to put him back in the outfit so I can video tape him walking. It was seriously cute!

Dominic with his cousin Eliza


"What has mommy done to me?!?!"

Watch out - he's coming for the camera!

Nic with his favorite toy - the whinnie the pooh tractor

Natalie the grumpy lady bug

(she really was much cuter than this picture would lead you to believe :)

Our little "love bug"

Fall Days

We had a really nice fall day recently where Kirk got to tackle raking the leaves - well actually thanks to the new lawn sweeper he swept the leaves up instead. Dominic is still terrified of the tractor so he watched "dada" drive around and collect the leaves from a safe distance (in the house looking out the front door.) We took him out to play in the leaves but he was sure that terrible tractor was going to come back for him soon.

Dominic is keeping watch for that terrifying tractor...

Dominic in the leaves - against his wishes :)


How Natalie spent this fall afternoon

Dominic did eventually recover from his experience, but he doesn't want to play in the leaves any more.

Nic's First Hair Cut

Dominic's hair style was getting a bit out of control so he finally got his first hair cut at 16 months. To my surprise he didn't freak out :) He was scared to have the stylist put the smock on him, but after that it was smooth sailing - my baby boy now officially looks like a toddler! Check out the before and after...

WELCOME NATALIE!

Natalie Elizabeth was born 9/24/08 at 3:50 pm. She weighed 6 lbs and 14 ounces - a pound smaller than her big brother. She was 21 inches long according to the nurse at the hospital but the doctor measured her at 20 inches a week later at her check up.

The delivery went very well with no complications and the recovery was so much easier than with Dominic - what a blessing for mom!

We are all adjusting well to no sleep and trying to teach Dominic to be "nice" and "soft" - he sure loves his sister!

Summer Fun

I guess I am not very good at posting enough to keep everyone updated - but here are some fun pics from this summer :)

Playing outside is always fun....

But it's even better when you get to chew on rocks from the driveway!

Here is Dominic and Ah-Ah. (As in oo-oo ah-ah for a monkey sound) He loves this stuffed monkey and kisses him every chance he gets. I have to say its pretty cute :)

Daddy and Dominic at the 4th of July parade - Dominic really liked the marching bands and the dance groups - I will definately have to try and capture his dancing on video so I can post it, but whenever he sees a camera he stops what he's doing to try and grab it.

Dominc mowing the lawn with dad (right in front of our neighbor's beautiful car lot). Nic used to love to watch dad mow the lawn, but he took this one ride on the tractor and has been terrified of it since then. He won't let me put him down whenever the tractor is in sight!

After a lot of hard work from Kirk and I, Matt and Kirk's friends we were able to get the weeds out and the water in our pool! The water is always a little cold for Dominic at first, but he loves to ride around in his car float!

More swimming....

Dominic and I went to his buddy Braxton's first birthday party where we saw a magician and met Elmo!
Dominic and his supper preggo mommy with Elmo - Dominic was pretty scared of the giant red monster...

Finally, The Birthday Pictures...

I have been on vacation for almost two weeks now so I am really out of excuses for not getting these pictures posted :) Here are some more pictures of our birthday boy at the party and eating his cake!

We also took Dominic to get his professional 1 year pics this week - that whole experience did not go so well. But we did get some cute pictures though. I'll post some as soon as I get them in my email.

Dominic with cousin Eliza

The Birthday Boy

It is unbelievable how fast this past year went. Dominic is a whole year old and officially a toddler even though he'll still be the baby until his sister gets here :). We celebrated the happy occasion at Grandma and Grandpa T's. We had a BBQ with the family and then opened presents - it was quiet and simple - and a good thing because Dominic was exhausted. He took a horrible nap that morning since we are still working on siding the house and poor Nic was spent by the time his party started. But, as always, he was happy to see his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and even Grandma and Grandpa Great (My grandparents) were able to come to the party.

Dominic loved his BBQ lunch but was a mess by the time we opened presents. He did not care one bit about trying to open anything and was crying due to being exhausted and the center of attention which he normally loves. Thankfully his Lee cousins were more than happy to help with the unwrapping. We managed to sing happy birthday and then cousin Eliza blew out the candle for him :)


Dominic didn't get to eat his cake until after his nap - but I think it still tasted pretty good. Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated the special day!




Nic with Uncle Matt

Home Improvement

Well we (actually I) had big hopes for this past holiday weekend - we wanted to reside our house. We got a great start but I was a little naive about how long the project would take. Friday Kirk spent all day ripping off the old siding and Tom was over to install new windows in Nic's room.

Before -->

Saturday was great - the inlaws willing came over to help with clean-up, tacking up new insulation, and starting the siding. We even got to have our Memorial Day BBQ thanks to Gretchen.

Dominic did really well through the whole process. We had to ship him off to Aunt Ali's for his afternoon nap due to all the pounding on the house, but at least he wasn't scared of the noise. Just a few months ago he paniced everytime he heard daddy pounding away working to finish off the basement.

For all our hard work we have a beautiful new front to our home and a huge pile of garbage in the driveway :) It is going to be slow going for the next couple weeks with Kirk and Tom out of town, but I am sure it is going to be well worth the work and the wait when its done!

Now its off the the next big project for this weekend -Dominic's first birthday party!