Updates

I think we forgot just how tough life can be with a newborn. ha. Add a toddler to the mix and then you have chaos times two! When they are both crying at the top of their lungs simultaneously, it can be enough to send you to the mental hospital!

All that aside, we are doing okay! Just learning to adjust to this new way of life. ha. Little Miss Vera does not like sleeping at night. I think she has her days and nights mixed up. We are doing better. A week ago, she was crying for 1-2 hours straight, inconsolably, each night. Nothing would calm her down. She's gotten better thankfully. She usually sleeps pretty hard during the day and I have a tough time keeping her awake. I am working on that to hopefully tire her out for nighttime! She had some issues with gassiness, but so far she is not the spitter that her brother was. That boy spit up so much that we changed his clothes like 5 or 6 times a day and wore bibs constantly. When we went to the doctor last week, she was gaining weight and everything was fine and dandy. We switched formulas and hopefully will see that start to help with her little tummy aches.

Grady still loves his little sister so much and hasn't asked to send her back yet. He is so sweet and gentle with her. When I pick him up from school in the afternoons, I think he is more excited to see her than me! He wants to help with everything, which sometimes is a bit scary. But so far, so good. She hasn't been hit in the head with a football or baseball yet. Grady is really in to "playing pretend" right now for some reason. I just noticed him doing this alot in the past couple of weeks. Anyway, he has his own "pretend baby" that he takes care of when I am taking care of Vera. He changes his diaper (he's a boy baby of course!), feeds him, puts him in Vera's car seat when she's not in it, etc. Cracks me up. SO glad that Grady has adjusted to Vera the way that he has. He still has a hard time sometimes and we've had quite a few temper tantrums, but I can handle those as long as he is being nice to HER!

Here are a few pictures of the two of them that we took outside the other day...

Easter Weekend

On Friday, we enjoyed hanging out and having lunch with Jenny, Susan, and my parents before Jenny's flight back to Idaho that night. She helped Grady dye eggs...

On Saturday, we had a cookout/egg hunt with our small group at our friends Chris and Tanya's house. Grady's new favorite thing is getting in a bounce house! Used to be terrified of those things, but now LOVES them!

On Easter Sunday, we always have lunch with Josh's sweet family. Vera got to meet her great-grandmother, who she was named for!

Vera meets Vera!

Grady got to hunt eggs again! Next year he will have some competition and won't have to hunt by himself. ha!

And we took a few family pictures...

Happy Easter!

Vera Helen

Little Miss Vera Helen arrived on Wednesday morning at 10:35 after a (thankfully) easy and quick labor! She weighed an even 8 pounds and was 21 inches long. She is doing great and is a healthy, beautiful little girl! Thanks for all of your prayers! We are back at home (got home yesterday) and re-adjusting to life with a newborn! Oh those joys of sleepless nights! Ha!

Here are some pictures...mostly from the hospital.
Notice Grady-man had to come visit his sister with his bat bag! Of course! He was ready to teach her how to "pitch." IN THE HOSPITAL ROOM!

My friend Leigh Ann has three boys and she suggested the idea to me of getting Grady a "big brother" present FROM Vera to give to him at the hospital. Great idea... Here he is opening his gift from baby sister.

A new special big boy night light...since he is giving his old one to Vera!

Grady has done so much better than Josh and I would have ever dreamed. We weren't really sure how he'd react to not being the center of attention, or adjusting to a new little person in his world. But he has been GREAT with Vera and loves her to death! He is so sweet and gentle and when he talks to her, he does so just like the rest of us...in a sweet little high-pitched voice! It's too funny!

Somebody has her dad wrapped around her little finger already! Josh is just crazy about his little girl!

This is one of my favorites...

I promise to post more pictures soon! Thanks for all of your prayers for our family!

Updates...

Grady learned to blow dandelions this weekend in Grana and Pops' backyard! We managed to only get a few seedlings in our mouth during the event, but he was fascinated with dandelions! Faye took this picture and sent it to me. I thought it was precious! He is growing up way too fast!
And speaking of growing, our little girl is growing like a weed, too! Went to the doctor today and she was measuring anywhere between 8 lb. 6 oz. to 8 lb. 12 oz. I am 38 weeks today, so according to due date (April 2nd), we still have two weeks to go! Thankfully, my doctor is going to induce on WEDNESDAY of this week to prevent me from having a 10 pounder! ha! So in just two more days, our little family of three is about to get a bit bigger! Will keep you posted!

Vera's room

Here are some pictures of our finished...(YEA, FINISHED)... nursery! People have asked me what color we painted the nursery, and when I reply, "a kind of bluey-turquoise color", I've gotten a few strange looks... ha. I know it's not the "normal" color for a baby girl room, but if you know me well, you know that I am most DEFINITELY not a "pink" person! The thought of painting a room pink makes me cringe. I'm not sure why, but pink has just never really been my favorite. Don't get me wrong... I am so very excited about having a little girl, but I just didn't feel like covering everything from wall to wall in pink. I actually had a really hard time trying to decide on bedding and decor for her room. Grady's was much easier for me to decide on. Her bedding is called "Lullabye Breeze" and Josh's sweet Aunt Viola made the beautiful afghan you see on the rocking chair to match it. Such a sweet gift! The rocking chair was also in Grady's nursery. It was Faye's and she used it to rock Josh when he was a baby. I love that!
I ordered the vintagey letters above her bed from Land of Nod, where I got Grady's as well. I loved that they were SO cheap and so easy to hang! Grady is always practicing spelling his sister's name when he goes in her room!

This was Grady's cousin Grayson's chair when she was little! It goes great with her bedding...and is SO soft! Grady has to sit in "Vera's chair" every time he goes in the room... THANK YOU, SUSAN and GRAYSON! :)

Saw some cute shadow boxes on different websites and liked the idea, so I decided to try and make one. Used different scrapbooking paper that I liked and just painted the frame and the back of the frame to match her room.

Also saw an idea for a ribbon wreath... WHEW! What a project this turned out to be! Began it one weekend and finished it about a month later! AGH! It took a LOT more ribbon than I thought it would, and so it turned out costing me a lot more than I thought it would... but oh well, I liked the end result! It's hanging on her door right now. I was going to try and figure out a way to put her "birth stats" on it and have it as our hospital door hanger, but I kind of just like it the way it is. So I will probably leave it as is. Faye found this wooden V a long time ago, and I liked it in the center rather than a "stats" thing in the center...

I ordered these mesh sequined butterflies from this neat website called Butterfly Craze. We have several hanging from the ceiling and then some attached to the curtains.

I have the most wonderful set of classroom parents this year! They all got together and threw a surprise baby shower for me on Valentine's Day at school. The kids knew all about it and totally kept it a secret from me. It was so sweet. One of the moms of one of my students painted this for Vera's room. So sweet!

More random creations that I came up with from ideas I saw on the internet and scrapbook paper that I liked... I thought the birds were cute. Grady points to each one and says "This one is dad, this one is mom, this one is me, and that one is Vera." Can't believe we will soon have FOUR people living here! :)

And this one is just Mom and Vera!

The diaper cake was from my surprise shower at school, and Faye made the stork/basket. I hate taking these things apart! They are too cute to take apart!

So I guess all we need now is a little girl to put in the room! ha! She will be here before we know it.

Melted Hearts

When I picked Grady up from school on Wednesday, he wasn't feeling well. He had a fever that night, but no other symptoms of a cold or stomach bug or anything like that. Thursday, Josh stayed at home with him because he still had a fever and we let him sleep in late. Thought he was better last night, but then fever went back up to 102. SO, I stayed at home with him today. He is acting like his normal self with no fever... so I do not know what the deal is...maybe a fever virus, or cutting molars???

ANYWAY, I guess if I had to take the day off, at least I didn't have to spend it cleaning up throw-up or visiting the doctor. Glad he is feeling better and hope we are good to go now! Today, Grady and I have worked on his valentines for his friends at school. Saw this idea the other day and wanted to make them...but honestly, if I hadn't had the time to do them today, he'd probably have had to just have Toy Story valentines from Walmart. This was so much fun instead!

First, peeled tons of crayons...

Broke them into little pieces and put into silicon heart baking molds...
Baked them in the oven for 15 minutes... They came out all melted and weird-looking on the bottoms...

But after they cooled and we flipped them out of the molds, they looked really neat on the tops!

Found some cellophane bags in my random craft box and used cardstock to make a little label for each child in his class...

Yes, they are kind of cheesy, but it's for 2 year olds... How cute are these!??!