Timothy's first active Christmas

I wanted to make sure that my title was accurate: Timothy was here in time for Christmas last year, but was still in the NICU last year and really too young to understand what was going on. This year, he is still not old enough to understand what was going on, but he could at least participate in the festivities. And boy was he busy!

With a birthday so close, by Christmas morning he got the hang of opening presents. As long as we took any little pieces of paper away. And we pulled off half of the paper too. :) He was also dealing with an ear infection and a very congested head. Can you tell by the color of his nose and the pathetic look on that face? The poor kid was sneezing large amounts of goo every 5 minutes. Hence the snot rag...I mean bib.

After church, we drove to Rapid and spent the afternoon/evening at Jared's aunt and uncle's house. Timothy hung out (happily, I might add) with lots of family members.

We also spent the next few days at grandma and grandpa's house...playing cards...

Playing with our new car...

playing with all of the toys at grandma and grandpa's house...

and playing the piano (as well as discovering dynamics, especially forte). :)

We also celebrated mine and Jared's birthdays while we were out there. Unfortunately, our get together kicked off the passing of a stomach bug. Which so far none in our immediate family has gotten.

And it will hopefully stay that way.

Overall, we had a really nice time and there are lots of pictures in the picasa album.

The joys of Christmas

Timothy has been busy! Helping mommy sew (by happily playing with plastic storage containers), checking the mail for Christmas cards (and then eating all of the envelopes), and being assistant baker (shaking up the colored sugar). I am so thankful, especially this week as I am trying to finish up last minute projects, that Timothy still takes 2 naps. :)

Baby #2

I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family. :) Baby Nies is about 12 weeks along and should be joining us the end of June. We found out on Halloween that we were pregnant and I have been DYING to post this! We told both sets of grandparents about 2 weeks afterwards and most of the extended family around Thanksgiving.

So far, the pregnancy is going well. I was really nauseous and had a strong gag reflex for a few weeks, but that is calming down. Yay! I have also been pretty tired, but not nearly as much as with Timothy. Of course, I am not going to work at 6am either, so maybe that has something to do with it. :) I am looking forward to sharing updates with you as we go along!

Freezing fog

I don't think I have ever experienced a freezing fog before. Timothy and I have been enjoying the beauty from inside while Jared has been dutifully sliding his way down to church.

Day 1:

Day 2:

Party time!

Saturday we had a great time celebrating Timothy's 1st birthday with family and friends. We have been truly blessed with wonderful people in our lives!

He wasn't really interested in the cupcake. I have this feeling that he will be one of those kids who doesn't like to get messy and will not be into finger painting. :)

There are more pictures in the picasa December page, so check them out!

First Birthday!

How can I be a mother of a one year old already?!?!

I can hardly believe it, but just one year ago, we met Timothy:

Unfortunately for my son, he got his one year old check-up on his birthday, shots and all. He is 19 lbs and 28.5 inches. That puts him in the fifth percentile for weight, thirteenth percentile for height, and 28% weight for length. His doctor and parents couldn't be happier. With the MMR and chickenpox vaccines today, he is nearing the end of the vaccine cycle, which makes all of us very happy. We had the foresight to plan his appointment in the early afternoon, so after the shots were done, we went home and he had a nice nap. After a good 2 hours, he was ready to go!

He is standing at our coffee table and playing with toys for several minutes at a time, spending lots of time on his belly, lifting himself up off the floor, and scooting backwards. Whenever he tries to go forward, he smacks his forehead into the ground because he hasn't figured out how to get the arms moving, but he is so close! He much prefers walking around with help, especially at church when all the old ladies coo at him and he can flirt as he goes. :)

He got to open his present from Jared and I today and had more fun with the paper than anything else. More pics are in the picasa page. Many more to come with his party on Saturday!

The Latest Project

Jared loves Christmas lights. I have been hearing about how he is going to decorate his house for Christmas since we were dating. He did some while we were living in Litchfield, but he really wanted to go all out. Two weekends before Thanksgiving, with the help of his dad, Jared did this:

With every string of lights we own on the house, garage, and various trees, I think he did a pretty good job.

He is already planning bigger and better for next year...

First snowfall

Just so you know, I have been hearing for MONTHS (since April, when we found out that we were moving to SD) that I have no idea what winters are like because I have never lived in South Dakota. I am going to be miserable, I was told, and suffer greatly under piles of snow, through whipping wind, and sub-zero temperatures. With mild temperatures and basically no precipitation since September, I have been sorely disappointed in my first arctic experience thus far. Never mind that I come from Michigan, a state that also has harsh winter weather...I am going to stop there. Not stepping into that argument. :)

Anyway, I have been craving the first snowfall and we finally got some of the white stuff! Not much, just enough to cover the grass, but it was pretty to watch as it fell and it makes all of the dead stuff outside look so much nicer (the perfect snowfall in my opinion). It also gave my husband the opportunity to take Timothy out for his first ride, a fatherly duty he was looking forward to. Timothy really enjoyed the first two minutes, and then had enough. :) Maybe he will last a little longer the next time. They finished up by investigating the bird feeder.

How the mighty fall

After a full morning of playing, sleep came, but not without a fight. I still can't figure out how he loses socks in the crib. Only one more week until my little man turns one!

We have been decorating for Christmas and I have to be honest, I shed a few tears over this sweet ornament when it came out of the box:

The overnight nurses in the NICU were always crafting with the babies in the wee hours of the morning and we were surprised one morning with this little handprint! I can't believe how long his fingers were!

This is going to be a long week approaching his birthday for this momma if I am crying over his handprint...what a year it has been!

How did I miss this?

Somehow I missed the lesson on how to keep your child's socks on. Any tricks would be appreciated. :)

11 months

My baby is growing up! Yesterday he turned 11 months, one more month until the BIG day. :) Here are a few pictures of the little man from this morning while we played...

18 lbs, 2 oz ~ 28 inches

Ready for Advent

With the attachment of the partridge this morning, our new advent calendar is ready to go!

A close-up of the doors...the buttons aren't there just to be pretty, they have a job to do!

This will probably be the last crafting post for awhile because I am now deep into Christmas gift territory. No peeking! :)

Halloween Fun

all done!

This weekend Timothy and I enjoyed a visit with the Nies' in Spearfish. Timothy was a trooper traveling with just mommy and we had a good time. Timothy learned how to roll the ball with Grandpa (and a pumpkin, and an apple, and anything else they could find to roll), we watched the Cardinals game 6 and 7, visited Great-Grandma and Grandpa in Rapid, and Aunt Kim came to visit too. Of course we played with Eric, Michelle, Eli, Jason, and Alison. He has had some amazing naps since we have been home too. ;)

While we were there, my mother-in-law helped me with the binding on the Christmas Tree pants and it is done! I am really glad that I stuck with it and finished it through in a timely manner. I am still working on the advent calendar...sewing on 24 buttons by hand takes awhile. :)

And to make my day even better, I went to sew,mama,sew website this morning, and found out that I won 3 patterns! Woohoo!

At least his diaper matches his socks

I love cloth diapers :)

I have now been totally motivated to get the 12 month clothes out of the basement...

Tigger's new blanket

...I mean the Christmas tree pants. :)

Hey, at least I am being realistic. I even put a heavy canvas on the back because I don't want her to put her fat self down on it and rip it on the metal tree stand underneath. She does keep my feet warm at night, so I'll stop complaining about her now...

Almost done! I have officially machine quilted my first project. It has some wobbly lines (mostly because I am terrified that the quilting pen won't wash out after I am done), but I am really happy with it. All I need to do is cut a slit into the center with a circle for the trunk and bind it all together!

Yes, I have to cut into it now that I have finished it...also slightly terrifying...

And another picture of my helper, who is standing pretty well and starting to creep along the couch. I can't believe how fast he is growing and learning! I have a feeling he may walk before he crawls...but I think that is what happens when you have a feeding tube in your belly. We have such a wonderful physical therapist that comes to our house to work with him (a.k.a. show me what to do with him for the next week) as well as an awesome speech therapist.

Is it weird that we had to move out to the middle of ranch and farm land, 3 hours away from a major medical center, to actually get quality care?

Advent Calendar

Here are the promised pictures of the advent calendar. I have now finished top stitching each leaf and pear, but only after ripping half of them out and starting them over. After seeing some of the other projects and how smooth the stitching was, I was thinking it was going to be easy. I was so wrong. Stitching around the curve of each shape, trying to be 1/8" from the edge was PAINFUL.

I should probably rip out a couple of my leaves and try a third time, but I think I am just going to leave it.

I need to let it be a beginning project and sit back.

Besides, I only have 6 other things going on right now and I need to move on...

:)

This week's assignment is to cut all of the windows open, trace the openings on the stabilizer, attach the Bible verses on the stabilizer where they will show through the windows, and fuse the whole thing together. (This is easier than it sounds) Next Wednesday we will get the finishing instructions!

Tree Pants

Here is an update on the Tree Pants (aka Christmas tree skirt) that I am working on. It is nice that we get a little bit of the instructions every week...it is keeping me on track. The pictures are a little dark because it is absolutely dreary here today. I think we may have turned the corner and the fall weather is here to stay. We are supposed to get our first hard frost this week and highs only in the forties a couple of days too. To celebrate (and keep warm) we have declared it soup week. We kicked it off with tomato soup and tuna sandwiches for lunch and cheeseburger paradise soup for dinner. Amazing! Looking forward to this tomorrow and this later on in the week and lots of leftovers and soup going into the freezer for future meals!

I am also following a sew along for an advent calendar too. I am learning a lot and my sewing skills are definitely being challenged and growing. I am working on tracing all of the leaves and pears with stitching and lets just say that a couple of them are going to have to be ripped out and redone. :) I'll post pictures, the good and the bad, in a couple of days.

mmm...

chicken and noodles :)

Yes, Timothy is working on solid foods and apparently having a good time with it too. How much he actually takes in is questionable, but I do know that he does swallow and we are even swallowing with our mouth closed. (He would swallow with his mouth open before...you try it, it is not easy!)

We met with the pediatric surgeon/feeding team specialist earlier this week and he is pleased with how Timothy is gaining weight. At this point, we are just waiting for the muscle on the top of the stomach to get strong and for the spitting up to stop. Then we can wean him off of the feeding pump and to more regular feedings. For now, we are staying with the same plan with lots of practice eating, which is adding to the calorie intake too.

all clean!

weight (as of today): 17 pounds, 7.5 ounces

length (as of Monday): 27"

3% in weight, 4% in length, 41% weight for length