3 Months .. ALREADY?!?

Seriously ... where does the time go? I just picked up Sarah's 3 month pictures and am still in disbelieve that it has already been almost 4 months since I had this precious girl! Sarah has some new milestones. She is always smiling and is starting to laugh. She has a super contagious laugh just like Kyle did when he was and infant. Kyle still has a great belly laugh that just makes you laugh when you hear it. I am sure that Sarah's will be the same way. These three months have seemed to blow by and I have since returned to work. It was a nice time off and I enjoyed spending every minute with the kids. The transition made me a little nervous but so far it has been OK. Everything seems to be working out great (knock on wood)! Pat stays home during the day and they seem to have a great time just playing and hanging out. Since Pat & I do not see a whole lot of each other during the week days, we try to cherish every second on the weekend to make the most of family time.

New stuff about Kyle Ryan...the Big Brother!

Now that Kyle is two he is at a great stage that he seems to be learning every day. He has a new word that he loves to use every day. For example yesterday was spoon. He is saying full phrases almost sentences and I am in awe that he can just pick up on things so fast. Other milestones for Kyle are he can count to 12 and can pick out most of the letters when he is shown the alpahbet. He has re-discovered that he LOVES to be outside. Our neighborhood makes this a hard thing. We live on a Cul-de-Sac and have a ton of children on our block. We also have on our street a grade school with a couple of playscapes and a ton of swings. We try to get outside as much as possible but since our LONG winter seems to still not be over it's been hard. He loves to watch outside when all the older kids are playing and he always is talking to them. His new thing is to grab his coat and put it on and tell me "outside"... It breaks my heart when he cannot go! Oh it will be a long few years... but still very convenient that we do not have to go very far for him to play! :-) The biggest question I get asked these days is "How does he like being a big brother?" I love this question because I really think that he likes it. We often talk about the baby and he is constantly checking on her. Every now and then he wants to hold her and I know he secretly cannot wait till the day that they can actually play together. Last night he wanted to hold her while he rode down the hall on his push bike.. Oh boy.. I cannot wait! :-) Kyle has take the transition well in my opinion and I personally think that Kyle IS a great big brother!

Another Boy.. that Makes Another Nephew!

Yay.. so not only was I blessed this winter with another child but my sister was as well. Yes .. I have a new nephew! Tanner Robert Ness was born on February 19th at 6:10 p.m. 7 pounds, 11 ounces and 21 inches. Welcome to the family little man!

Our New BABY Girl!

If you were not aware by now we had the latest addition to our family in December. I found out sometime in May that I was pregnant with my 2nd child. Sarah Renee was born on December 16, 2010 @ 11:27AM. She weighed in at 6 pounds 11oz. and was a healthy baby girl. I was due on December 27 but was scheduled for induction on December 23. I have high blood pressure and my doctor monitored my pregnancy accordingly. She induced me with Kyle and had the same intention with Sarah, but she decided to come on her own naturally. I am glad it happened this way. On the night of the 15th I started to have contractions that were about 10 minutes apart. Not having gone into labor last time I was unsure if this was the time or not. I called the hospital nurses station and told them the deal. They told me to take a hot shower and rest for awhile to see if they go away. This seeemed to work for awhile. I woke up around 4:30am on the 16th to what seemed to be stronger contrations and they were 8 minutes apart. I remember laying in bed thinking let me just try to sleep and see if they go away... no not really. So I got everyone up and ready. Called my dad to see if we could drop Kyle off and abruptly packed the car to go to the hospital. I was nervous but excited as it seemed the contractions were gettting to be about 5 minutes apart when we dropped Kyle off. The hospital thank God is only a five minute drive. As soon as we arrived we were sent to triage and hooked to the monitors. I could not believe that it was happening so fast. I was in a lot of pain but not too uncomfortable. I went from a 2 to a 5 in a little over a half hour. My doctor was surprised when she seen me in the hospital that morning. Thank gooodness she was there for a meeting to begin with. Everything after that went really fast and I gave birth to Sarah right before lunch! :-) My birth story with Sarah was fast and not too eventful. I was just super happy for it to be a mild ride and have a healthy baby girl. Cool little tidbits about Sarah.. she was born with tons of hair. She has eyelashes that would make any grown woman jealous. She is so far a super sweet baby!

Santa Visit Second Time Around (2010)

When you hear Santa you think the many joys that Christmas brings.. usually. This year I heard Santa was in town and immediately cringed... I knew that we were going to have to go sit on the big guys lap and try to go down that road again. This year instead of waiting in line at the outdoor mall I decided to take Kyle to Taylor's Christmas display. I had not been there in a few years but remembered that it was really a nice display and Kyle might dig all the scenery before sitting on the dreaded Santa lap! ... duh duh duh I was correct Kyle loved all the winter scenery and houses. He loved all the moving animals and elfs, especially the elfs that fished! The line for Santa was long and I was very nervous wondering if Kyle was going to even get within ten feet of Santa after last year. I was wrong... He loved it. Ms. Klaus was there and talked Kyle throught the whole thing. Here is the proof..

Kyle meet Chucky.. Chucky meet Kyle!

Well the day has happened.... Kyle has officially been to Chuck E Cheese... That great pizza restaurant that we all went to as children. The one we loved running around until we felt like we were going to be sick. Yep .. that's the one. It's still around and so are the many toddlers and school age children who love pizza, pop and those all so famous tokens that buy you $.25 plastic toys. We were invited to a Chuck E Cheese party for by BF's little girl this past weekend. Kyle was overwhelmed with excitement. He acted just as I suspected from the time we got there until the "I do not want to go home" fit at the end. Overall it was fun and we did get a great photo to show for it!

Halloween Second Time Around

We get pretty excited around our house for Halloween. We usually add a bunch of fun blood and gore to our front lawn. We used to celebrate with other adults and pass out candy. These Halloweens are different. Fun... but different. Now that Kyle is here it is extra fun to carve pumpkins visit apple orchards and do everything that you are supposed to do when you are a kid during Halloween. This Halloween was a little different. Kyle was a little more into it this year he liked his tiger costume and loved trick-or-treating. Brody (Kyle's cousin) was able to spend Halloween with us this year. We went trick-or-treating at the mall. We were also able to go to the park and decorate pumpkins and take a hay ride. On Halloween we actually went through the neighborhoods trick-or-treating! Super fun..

Football Rivalry

When the leaves turn colors and it starts to get a little cooler out that is when it is time for some FOOTBALL. Now in our house we typically are not die hard fans about any particular sport. We do not religiously watch Sunday Football games or Monday night football, but everybody loves a little competition. Pat and I have always watched the one game a year when Michigan plays Michigan State. Pat favors Michigan and I am a State fan! This has been this way since day one and probably will be this way until our kids go to college. This day always is ugly with the verbal beat downs but its all for the love of the game and our state. Now that Kyle is involved we have decided that he will not be able to wear one team or the other but a little of both... so this year here is his football fan photo. .. Love IT!