It's true...now we are a family of 4!

Olivia Grace Jones made her appearance on Friday, October 14th--8 days early.  She let mom finish up her last day at work and then decided there was no need for down time, joining us the next day.  Labor went smoothly, Chris worked Friday morning and was home by 2p which is when the contractions kind of started to get more regular.  We got in the car around 4:30p to take Becca to Kathy's and then hit the Skyway into Chicago at 4:45p on Friday afternoon to fully embrace rush hour.  It took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to get in, with my contractions coming every 4-5 minutes.  We got into our hospital room at 8p (contractions about every 2-3 minutes) I was 4 cm dilated.  Received my epidural at 8:30p and by 11p, the doctor was there instructing me to give a few, brief pushes.  Livy was here at 11:12p, weighing 7 pounds and 15 ounces and measuring 20 1/4 inches.

(As an aside, Chris was super pleased with Livy's timing as the Cardinals game was starting as we got into our triage room and finished about 25 min before she came)
Becca came to meet her new little sister the next day, as did Chris' parents

Olivia is laid back and easy going and showed us that even on those first days.  We went home Sunday without any complications or troubles during our stay. 

Becca's been a good big sister (though we've had some ups and downs, her and I).  We were lucky enough to have had a LOT of help for many weeks after coming home, with family staying and meals being delivered...it has made the transition to 2 kiddos much easier.

We are trucking along as Livy grows so quickly.  She will be 11 weeks tomorrow!  I go back to work part-time on Jan 10th and the girls with both go to Kathy's.

Christmas was an absolute pleasure and blast this year!  We hosted and both Chris' and my parents were able to spend a few days with us.  Becca was well behaved and loved her gifts.  I cannot believe how grown up my first baby is...she is such a character and I love her so much.

Here is Livy and I a couple weeks ago...She's in 3mo and some 3-6mo clothes!

The last couple months...

I am the worst blogger, it's true.  I don't take offense.  I'm sorry.  Just a few words or a few pictures would satisfy, but I don't even get to that...it's on the list of things to improve.

Anyway..summer's been good.  Becca's fantastic.  She continues to grow and make us laugh with all her comments.  It's so (embarrassingly) me...I obviously talk a lot with her/to her and she has picked up on an incredible amount of my lingo:  "I'm just a little fussy, mommy"  "I'm enjoying this"

Becca loves to dance, jump with 2 feet up, off of, and over anything, and run.  Becca is into week 2 of underware and has been doing well.  We had been playing with it for months, then she went on potty strike--I didn't want to force the issue, so I kind of dropped it.  We were back in full-fledge diapers until she was just done with them!  She still saves #2 for the diaper at nap time or for a first thing in the morning event, but Chris and I are both very proud of her.

I'm growing and hanging in there.  I'm due on October 22nd and neither Chris nor I are quite ready yet.  Becca, on the other hand, is very excited about Baby Sissy.  The nursery is set up for our new little one and the closet is once again stocked.

Chris is still plugging away at the patio, but it is very close to completion and looks AMAZING!  I will get to that post soon: a little photo flashback through the project...

Enjoy a few pictures

An update...FINALLY!!

We are alive!  Life if busy but good.  Our little girl continues to grow and change so much!  Becca is quite a chatter box and has got a head full of CURLY blonde hair.  The first pictures below show Becca with her long gone, straight hair, which is more on the brown side, and the later pictures show her hair in its curly, blonde glory.  Though it gets Crazy, we love it!

Becca and I enjoyed our Paczkis together on Fat Tuesday in February.  With her sweet tooth, I wasn't surprised that she indulged without needing any convincing (nor did her mother).

We enrolled Becca in swim classes.  Both Chris and I got to go in with her on different occasions.  She loves being in the water.

Here is the start of curls, still brown, but these beautiful things joined us some time in April.

Becca and I enjoyed her first live stage performance, Seseme Street Live.  She was totally captivated.  It was a lot of fun, and I suspect we'll be regulars for the upcoming years.

Becca has also enjoyed playing in the water outside: hose, sprinkler and baby pool.  She's too cute!

Becca, of course, turned the big 2!  We kept the celebration very low key, but it was still a great time.  We had the grandparents in, Aunt Sarah, and even Betsy, Ben, Emma Lou and baby Clara stopped by.  Becca loved the gifts, the balloons, the cake and the attention.  We cannot believe she's already two and at the same time, we can't believe that this little gem has only been in our lives for two years.

Strawberry picking was fun again this year.  We picked two buckets worth, and I made a delicious pie--next year I'll make a few pies and freeze them.

Becca and I ventured up Lake Michigan to join one of my dearest friends and her family (newly expanded) in Manistee.  We stayed in a great beach house and went to the beach each of the three days we were there.  It is so great to catch up with the friends we love and don't get to see often enough. 

Almost 21 months old!

Our little one keeps getting bigger and bigger (and cuter and cuter, if you ask her mom and dad).  She is talking so much more and pushes for independence: "Becca do it" and "Self" are common expression these days.  We've gotten a lot of snow this year so far.  Becca loves it!  She loves to run around in her boots and kiss and eat the snow from the ground.  I'm so glad she's liking the snow; we'd love to get her on skis before too long :)

She loves sucking on Mommy and Daddy's toothbrushes--gross!  I know it's bad--bacteria transfer...I'm pretty sure it's a lost cause.

We had the carpet replaced upstairs and we expect no less than a few extra projects to emerge in the midst of the carpet exchange, if you know Chris...Chris (and Becca) painted the trim in the 4th bedroom and the bedroom itself.  It looks fantastic, but honestly, do we need to have 16 projects going at once :)

Becca loves to help me in the kitchen and (for better or worse) has absolutely, no question inherited her mommy's sweet tooth.

 

As I mentioned above, Becca thought it was the funniest thing to eat the snow like this.  "Snow, eat"



My mom's group had a Valentine's Day party and this is Becca post-party enjoying her loot.

And her she is.  Chris and I can't believe how big she's getting.  She looks like a real, little girl in this picture...no more baby!

It's a new year...here's how the last one wrapped up

We began the holiday celebration in Franklin the week before Christmas.  We took family photos with Chris' Grandfather (which turned out great!) and then went to his Aunt's house to spend time with Chris' mom's side of the family.  This is where the burn happened.  It was unpleasant (to say the least) for all involved, but we survived and Becca had her second trip to the ER.  We kept her hand wrapped for about 2 weeks with daily dressing changes and she's healed up beautifully!  You can see from the pictures below that the main blister was quite a sight.  She also had a blister on each finger tip...anyway....The week of Christmas my parents came to Chesterton for our at home celebration.  As Christmas Eve approached, Chris' grandfather's health was failing and our spirits were low; it was very emotional for all.  Chris' parents stayed in Franklin and then Chris' grandfather was finally able to spend another Christmas at the side of his dear wife.  As we were gathering ourselves and trying to lift our spirits by home projects (of course), my dad's already ailing back decided it wanted some attention...so, we went to the ER at Porter Memorial, which is where I work.  No red flags were discovered with the back, but we did get some strong medicine so that Dad could sleep.  Christmas morning was so much better!  Dad's back was 90% better, he slept through the night, Santa came and the Joneses joined us by lunch time.  Becca loved her presents and all the attention.  The dinner was delicious and the company was much needed.  Family is such a blessing, and we are so so so lucky to have a family as wonderful as ours.  We have so much to be thankful for and this holiday season we were reminded of all we have....

Becca's first haircut and winter's here

Since I last wrote, many photo opportunities have been capitalized on...we hosted a wonderful Thanksgiving with all the family. The table was set beautifully and the food was delicious.  We even played a little scrabble post-meal.

We went and cut down our Christmas tree again this year.  We went to a wonderful tree farm and hope to make it part of our yearly tradition.  Chris cut down a big Douglas Fir and we got a baby tree for Becca and a boxwood branch wreath (a little irony there seeing how we paid $42 for the wreath and could've made about 42 wreaths ourselves with all the boxwood trimming Chris did for us this fall).

And we had a flood...not too bad, sort of.  Chris, for some reason, thought to peek downstairs one morning at 5:55am before going to work and saw the 1-2" pool we had in the basement.  He stayed home from work, only to work super hard cleaning up the water.  He did a fantastic job.  The sump pump stopped working.  It got a little stuck and so stopped pumping...needless to say, Chris has since replaced it :)

Chris has completed our gorgeous front walk!!  Sorry about the lighting; it was getting dark as I was out there trying to get some pictures before the predicted snow....

We visited with Grandpa Jones.  It took Becca a bit to warm up to him and wasn't sure what exactly her and he would have in common, so naturally she thought she could teach him a bit about the iPhone :)

We went to Navy Pier with friends to play in the WinterWonderFest and had a good time.  We went on our first Carousal; Becca wasn't instantly sold, but at least we didn't have to get off early.

And the storm...we made a lot of national newa this week with our winter storm. I think it's great! Chris stayed home, well, he was stuck home.  He did some snow blowing for us and our neighbors and Becca and I ran around in it a bit with the neighbor girl, Antonia.  Becca was not an instant fan of the cold snow, but we'll work on that.

Becca got her haircut!  I'm very pleased with the cut.  The stylist cleaned up the whispy hair and there's still a little flip in the back.  Becca was not sure she approved of the process intially, but then was sure that she didn't want to leave...hence lying on the ground in protest.  She's usually a quiet, lying-down protester, but not after her cut.  Yelling, crying and thrashing...most were looking on smiling and I managed to join everyone else and smile.  Oh yea, and she thoroughly enjoyed her lollypop.