About Us

How long have you been together? 
Dating for 15 years in July--the first 4 of those years we were on and off, though. We were in high school...young love.


How long did you know each other before you started dating? 
a couple months

How old are each of you? 
Nick just turned 29 and I'll be 29 in 3 months.  Ew! We're getting old!


Whose siblings do/ did you see the most? 
Mostly his sisters. My sister lives in Indy and so does on of his.

Do you have any children together? 
Yes. Hannah is almost 2 and a half. Colson is almost 1 month.

What about pets? 
2 dachshunds. Dodger is 8 and Emma will be 7.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? 
I think money is always a hard situation or maybe adjusting to life with 2 kids but so far that has been pretty easy. 

Did you go to the same school? 
Yes. high school and college.


Are you from the same home town? 
Close enough. We have always lived within 5 miles of each other our whole lives yet we didn't meet until high school because we always went to different elementary and middle schools.

Who is the most sensitive? 
I am!

Where do you eat out most as a couple? 
Probably Applebee's and Val's which is a local pizza place (yeah, we have expensive taste! :oP)

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? 
Turkey

Who has the worst temper? 
Probably me.

Who does the cooking? 
I usually do.

Who is more social? 
He is.


Who is the neat-freak? 
He is when is comes to dusting, etc....but I definitely am when it comes to clutter and organization. He can't throw anything away.


Who is more stubborn? 
Hummm... I would say we are pretty equal in this department.


Who hogs the bed? 
The dogs. It's amazing how small a king bed can actually get!

Who wakes up earlier? 
Well, during the week he does for work. On the weekends, I do but since our new arrival that isn't so much the case right now.



Where was your first date? 
We went to the movies to see Gone Fishin'

Who has the bigger family? 
I do.


Do you get flowers often? 
No, not really. He used to get them for me in high school all the time though. :o( I love flowers.

How do you spend the holidays? 
With family. We make our rounds. 


How long did it take to get serious? 
Too long. :oP Like I said, we dated on and off through high school. Started 'really' dating at the end of junior year of high school but didn't get engaged until 2 years after college.

Who does/ did the laundry? 
I'm home all day so I do it.

Tummy Time

At 3 and a half weeks old, I think he is holding his head up pretty well!

The Many Faces of Hannah

Maybe one day she'll open her eyes when she smiles! :oP

Sleeping Boy

He always looks so peaceful when he sleeps.

My view when I'm laying in bed. So sweet!

Our Typical Day

When I got pregnant, one of my first thoughts was how it was going to affect Hannah's and in turn, my daily routines. Now that Colson has been here for 3 weeks, we have settled into a new routine...although this new routine is not much different from our old routine, I just have to feed an extra mouth because Colson still sleeps ALL the time.

Here is our typical day:

Colson is usually due to eat around 6 or 7 in the morning so I will feed him and try to lay back down in bed until Hannah is ready to get up.

Hannah still wakes up between 9-10 o'clock. When I hear her talking to herself in her bed, I'll get up and get her breakfast ready. We'll watch some cartoons for maybe an hour or so while Colson is sleeping.

Colson will eat again usually around 11.Although, his schedule shifts quite a bit from day to day. (He ate at 12 today.)  Hannah is pretty good about keeping herself occupied while I feed Colson.

Somedays we'll head over to my parents house in the afternoon  to play and other days we'll just hang out at home and play.

Hannah will go down for her nap around 3 o'clock but sometimes it will be as late as 4 o'clock. I try to lay her down before Colson needs to eat again.

Colson will eat around 3-4 o'clock and then sleep so this is when I try to get things done around the house or go down into the basement to get some design work done, catch up on emails and blogs, and write my own blog posts.

Nick gets home around 5:30, so I will try to have dinner ready.

Colson will eat again around 6-7 o'clock and Hannah will go to bed between 8-9 o'clock.

I will stay up until Colson eats one more time--usually around 10-11, although there are some nights where Nick will feed him and I will go to bed early.

Colson eats again around 2 in the morning and then we start the day over again.


We're pretty good about sticking with this schedule but like I said, sometimes it gets shifted a bit. Sometimes Colson will go 5 hours between his feedings or he will only go 3 so this throws the times off. But more times than not it will get back on track to the times I stated above.

We're very very lucky that Colson is such a good baby. So far he is just like Hannah but I am kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop and for him to decide he no longer wants to sleep. He seems to be a pretty content baby though so hopefully this doesn't change. I really never thought we could be lucky enough to have our second child be just like our first. I have heard stories about the second child being the opposite of your first, but that has yet to be the case for us. It actually kind of freaks me out how much alike our 2 kids are so far--from looks (like the dimple on their left cheeks) to their demeanors. It's almost like I am taking care of Hannah all over again. I can only hope that Colson stays this way!

Who's Who?

If it weren't for the outfits...would you know who was who?

(and I might give my boy a complex by laying him on pink blankets! :oP )

3 Weeks Postpartum

Colson is 3 weeks old today. Only 1 more week until he is 1 month old which totally blows my mind.

I can't remember what my life was like without him. Well, ok...maybe I should be real...I CAN remember what it was like...I was able to sleep through the night. But I would never want to go back to that because then we wouldn't have our prescious little bundle of joy who completes our family. Things are absolutely perfect right now, even if I do have to get up once, twice or even three times during the night. It is all so worth it!

I love that Hannah is finally acknowledging her baby brother. She will kiss his head and hold his hand. It is pretty much the cutest thing ever and it brings great joy to my heart knowing that they will be there for each other long after we're gone. They will have a bond that only siblings have and I love knowing that I gave them one of the greatest gifts that I could have ever given them...family!

In other news, I had my follow-up appointment to my appointment last week. They did another blood pressure check. 136/100. That is still high so I was put on the lowest dose possible of the medication until I see my regular doctor. I have to see my regular doctor sometime within the next month so who knows what that will bring.  :o/  I plan on going to see the regular dotor before I go back to see my OB in 3 weeks for my 6 week postnatal visit. Sigh. Never a dull moment, I guess.

Oh, and no more weight loss on my end. Once I can get back to my exercise videos I'm sure more weight will come off. I'm just pleased that 23 pounds came off without me having to do anything! :o)

Wonder Pets, Wonder Pets...

Hannah sang the Wonder Pets song for over 10 minutes the other day.  I had to get it on video!

Here is a shortened video clip of her singing the song.


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Bath Time!

All bundled up after his bath!

Random Photos

I fell a little behind on posting. It's a lot harder to get on the computer now that the office is downstairs. Sometimes I really wish I had a laptop instead of my iMac so I could take it upstairs from time to time.

But, I thought I would catch up on some of the photos I have taken in the past week.

Yummy cupcake!

Hannah enjoying some cereal.

Sadly, this is the only photo I have managed to get thus far of Hannah holding Colson.

One of little man by himself--holding 'Baby Amingo' as Hannah likes to call it. He looks a little pissed off that I made him hold a pink toy!  :oP

And finally a photo of me with my two babies! :o) Life is perfect!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Yesterday was my husband's birthday.

I thought it would be fun to have Hannah make her daddy some artwork for his office walls.

I went to Michaels and picked up some paint, markers and stickers and let Hannah have some fun creating the perfect masterpiece for her daddy.

Here is the finished artwork!

She even put those letters on all by herself...I just told her where they went. ("Hannah, put the 'A' after the 'H'.") I was quite impressed!

I think it's perfect, don't you!? :o)

Colson's 2 Week Well Baby Visit

I took Colson to his 2 week well baby visit today. Everything looks good.

Here are his stats:

Weight--7 lbs 14 ounces
(down 2oz from his birth weight but up 7oz from his 2 day visit)
20th percentile

Height--19 3/4 inches
(either my kid shrunk or someone didn't measure too accuratly because the hospital said he measured 20 1/2 inches when he was born)
15th percentile

Head Circumference--35cm
15th percentile

Colson is still a good sleeper, although he is alot more alert than Hannah ever was at this age. He will eat anywhere from 3-4 ounces at a time and during the day will go 3-4 hours between feedings and has gone as long as 5 hours between feedings at night. This mommy has no complaints! :o)

He has yet to reach his birth weight so I have to take him back in to the doctors next week to be weighed.
Then he has his 2 month appointment on April 19th.

2 Week Postpartum Doctor Visit

I had a follow-up doctors appointment today to check my blood pressure. After I had Colson my doctor took me off of the medication that I was on, so he wanted me to come back before the 6 week check-up just to monitor my blood pressure.

Well, it wasn't good news.
My blood pressure was 154/111.
I go back in a week to have it checked again. He is hoping it will go down and I can avoid the medication but if it doesn't go down by next week then I will have to go back on medication and he will refer me to a regular physician. Blah! I really hope it goes down!

However, I do have some good news from my appointment!
I have lost 23 pounds of the 38 that I gained during the pregnancy. YAY!
That means I have 15 pounds to go to get to my pre-pregnancy weight of 141. That's not too shabby. Although after I lose the 15 pounds, I would still like to lose another 15 pounds. I would love to be back around the 125 mark. It will take some work though... I haven't weighted 125 since college.


And I will leave you with a photo of my little man doing what he does best!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is all I need to make my Valentine's Day extra special!

I hope you have an extra special Valentine's Day with your loves!

Colson's Newborn Photos

The fabulous Amy of Amy Straka Photography has outdone herself once again!

This past Friday Amy came to our home to take newborn photos of Colson, as well as some family photos of all four of us. She posted a sneak peak of some of the photos and I absolutely LOVE all of them! I can't wait to see the rest. I have no idea how I am ever going to narrow down my picks for the ones I am going to get printed.

Colson has a dimple on his left cheek, just like Hannah.

Hannah had little to no interest in getting her photo taken, but Amy managed to snap a few really good ones! I'm glad she was able to get a nice family photo of the four of us.

And in true Hannah fashion...

Amy,

We can't thank you enough for capturing such wonderful photos of our little family. We will cherish these photos for a long long time! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Play-doh

Ever since Hannah made cookies with grandma, she has been wanting to make cookies again. I think she really enjoyed playing with the cookie cutters. So the other day I whipped out my cookie cutters and the play-doh and let her go to town.