Raindrops on Roses

The Front Room...

2012-01-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

Our front room has undergone a transformation! This room has had a bit of an identity crisis ever since we moved in. It's the second largest room in our house and it has only served one function: eating. That would be fine and dandy if we had a large home, but in our cozy home, this room needed to pull its weight. Thus the transformation.

Now this room serves 4 purposes: dining room, living room, sewing space, and entry. Talk about a workhorse! The transformation started taking shape in my mind this past Thanksgiving. I was sitting at my Aunt Debbie's house nursing Charlie in her living room when I noticed her amazing tufted, green velvet couch. When I asked her about it, she said it was my Great-Grandma Bartel's couch and that she was actually looking to get rid of it, but wanted it to stay in the family. I totally wanted the couch, but I had no idea where I was going to put it. John (and everyone else in my family, I think ;) thought it was hilarious that I was even considering adding a full size couch to our house. I thought about it for a few weeks, and realized that it wasn't going to work. I was bummed.

Pretty amazing couch, right?...

Then, a few weeks after Thanksgiving, I was at my friend Shelly's house and I was lamenting to her the fact that my dining room and family room were so disconnected from each other. I was getting so frustrated by the fact that Henry wanted to eat a snack or color while I was nursing Charlie on the couch 2 rooms away. I wanted to be able to do both activities in one room. Then, Shelly gave me the best piece of advice ever (she's an expert on making small spaces work for a growing family)...she told me that instead of complaining that I needed to reorganize, rearrange, purge, whatever, but I had to figure out a way to make it work. She suggested moving my sideboard and bookcases. So, as soon as I left her house, I came home inspired and moved things around. And, wouldn't you know it, the rearranging allowed me to fit a living and dining space in this room, AND that living space necessitated the addition of a couch, which meant that I was now able to inherit Great-Grandma's couch! (I'm not going to lie, I seriously prayed about finding a place to put that couch...I love it THAT MUCH! :)

So anyways, here's the updated front room:

I rotated the bookshelves and sideboard 90 degrees and moved the table directly in front of the window rather than having it in the center of the room. This allowed enough space on the wall opposite the window for the new living area...

I also spiffed up our entry area in order to make it more functional for us. I added a mirror and hung an old tin tray from Grandma Net's shed to the wall. The tray is magnetic, so I'm going to use it to hang anything that needs to be remembered when we walk out the door. Beneath the mirror and tray I hung a piece of twine and am using mini clothespins to attach Henry's Sunday School and Bible Study papers. This is working out so well for us because it means that all of his paperwork has a place to go as soon as it comes in the door. It also means that when we eat meals together we can take his papers down and talk about them while we eat. PERFECT! (and yes, I still have my advent calendar up...I didn't get around to doing much with it during December, so I thought I'd use it during January. But don't worry, I'm not doing much with it this month either. I just need to put it away :)

View from the boys' rooms. I still have my Christmas cards up, but I love them, so I like to leave them up for awhile...

Right now at the dining table we are using this old bench that used to be in my Grandma Sue's house. I believe she told me that her 5 girls used to eat their meals on this bench, so it's a special piece of furniture to me (it could use a new coat of paint, but it's good for now)...

We are also using 2 bentwood chairs to eat on. These were handed down to me from Grandma Sue as well. I love them. I'd love to have a few more...

This is what you see when you walk in the front door...

Here's the couch again...

Over Christmas break, Denise came over and helped me hang my gallery wall. I love it so much! I'm finally feeling like this room is a reflection of me, and I couldn't be happier about it...

I still need to get an 8x10 picture that will fit in the bottom frame correctly, but everything else is working on this side...

The right side of the gallery wall...

Not quite sure what I'm going to do with the 3 frames above the mirror, so I'm kind of ignoring them for now and just have a piece of twine hanging across them. And that heart banner was a feeble attempt at getting Henry to be crafty with me. I had a vision of how I wanted that banner to look and all Henry wanted to do was chop up my perfectly shaped hearts with his scissors. It turned out well, but that's because I did it all myself :) Maybe next year...

Here are the bookcases and sideboard in their new home. So.much.better...

Just a fun picture of an old fan I found at a yard sale in Fresno for $3...

And the mini party bunting...

So there you have it. The current state of our front room. It's working out fabulously for us and I feel super happy when I walk in there. And really, the only thing I bought for this transformation was the rug. Not too shabby. I'll post pictures of my sewing space later, once it's actually cleaned up :)

Henry says...

2012-01-23T22:09:00.000-08:00

Henry has developed quite the stutter lately. I think his mind is thinking of things to say a whole lot faster than he can actually say them :)

In the last week Henry has been referring to both grandpa's like this in conversation:

me: Henry, who did you build the hotwheels track with?
Henry: That farmer who lives with Grandma Gail.
me: You mean Grandpa Royce?
Henry: yeah.

Henry: I want to go to the Dodger game with the cows.
me: Do you mean the Dodger game with the towels? (as in the towel giveaway)
Henry: No. COWS!
John: Oh, do you mean the Visalia Rawhide game where there is a cow mascot that walks around?
Henry: Yeah, and we can sit on the grass, and he can walk in the bleachers.
John and me: Oh, ok.
Henry: Yeah, I want to go there with Grandma Sharon and that farmer who hurt my finger.
me: Do you mean Grandpa Bob?
Henry: yeah.
(Sidenote: Grandpa Bob took Henry to the bathroom at the hospital while we were visiting Jill and Ruby, and he accidentally smashed Henry's finger in the soap dispenser. Henry was overly dramatic about the whole thing and couldn't seem to get over it. Thus the reference to the hurt finger)

So, apparently Henry likes referring to his grandpas as "those farmers" who live with his grandmas. Pretty hilarious if you ask me!

Week 31...

2012-01-23T19:41:00.000-08:00

I tried for a picture of the 2 boys, this was the best I got (Henry is in dire need of a haircut!)...

John was home, so I had him take a picture of me with Charlie since I don't have very many of them...
31-week highlights:

Charlie's new cousin, Ruby, was born last Friday. Yeah!
Charlie is now pushing up onto his hands and knees. He isn't crawling yet, but he's certainly working on getting into position.
John and I are starting to think that Charlie resembles John as a baby. I'll have to see if I have some pictures laying around so that we can do a side-by-side comparison.
When Charlie is fussy he's usually pretty easily soothed by me. John...not so much. That's ok though, John can make him laugh a whole lot more than I do :)
Now that we have our swingset, we often spend our afternoons outside. Charlie is usually content in the swing for a good 45 minutes to an hour, and Henry and I play sports in between swing pushes. (Last week Henry asked me to punt the football, so I did, and I actually kicked it onto our neighbor's carport! I seriously cracked up at myself, that's totally not something I thought I was capable of :)
Charlie is eating whatever we can mash up from our table food. Last week I added carrots because we had them in our soup.
Charlie just continues to be a complete delight. I love to just squeeze him and savor his baby-ness. He's already growing up way too quickly!

I have a niece!!!!

2012-01-21T21:21:00.000-08:00

RUBY JUANITA BROOKS was born yesterday evening to a very proud mama Jill & papa Jay! She came 4 days early (seriously...how can everyone go into labor on their own but me?! :) and is absolutely precious. I couldn't wait to get my hands on all 6 lbs. 10 ozs. of her, so we drove up to Fresno today to meet her. Unfortunately only 3 visitors, including dad, were allowed in at a time, so that meant that Grandpa Bob sort of got the boot while I was there, but man, I just couldn't get enough of this sweet girl. I am one proud Auntie!

LOVE this picture of mom and dad and baby Ruby...

Henry and Charlie weren't allowed in to visit, so we'll have to take cousin pictures once we go back up later in the week. Welcome to the family Ruby, we love you already!

The perils of rolling...

2012-01-18T19:52:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about this rolling stage that Charlie is in is watching him end up in all sorts of random places. The other day I found him stuck under the chair like this...

Grandma Gail's Birthday...

2012-01-18T18:43:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm pretty much caught up on my blogging, I can actually post about things that are happening right now...like celebrating Grandma Gail's birthday! On to the pictures...

Henry had a fun day with Aunt "Telly". She even took him to her house for the afternoon to hang out on the farm. He keeps asking to go back, so we'll have to make that happen again soon...

Grandpa Royce got some Hot Wheels track for Christmas, so Henry helped him pull it out of the box and get it set up...

These 2 boys are going to be good friends, I think :)

Grandma Gail and her grandsons...

These pictures of Charlie totally crack me up. Charlie looks like such a monster trying to attack Levi. In reality it wasn't near as vicious as it seems. He was just trying to give cousin Levi some love...

And the cake and candles...

Henry's starting to get very excited about his birthday (April 29th). He keeps talking about things that he wants for his birthday (more racing cars) and what he's going to do for his birthday (have candles, presents, etc). When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday party, he said a pink cake like Grandma Gail's. It's funny to me to think that he's already thinking about his birthday cake :)

Cake bunting is so fun! I made a "party in a box" for Denise, Kelly, and Jill (and myself) for Christmas and included miscellaneous party supplies. This bunting was one of the items I included :)

Grandpa Royce & Levi...

Happy Birthday, Grandma Gail!

on Henry (32 months)...

2012-01-17T20:36:00.000-08:00

Just an update post about Henry. There are lots of things I want to remember about him at this age...

Henry is pretty much fully potty-trained. He never has accidents during the day anymore. He did go for a long time without wetting the bed, but those days are over. He likes wearing undies to bed, so we let him and just take him to the bathroom before we go to bed (which has been pretty late due to basketball season). He still has accidents once-in-awhile though.
On the bathroom subject, thankfully Henry has decided that he DOES NOT want us in the bathroom during his *ahem* extended visits. When we first started potty training he used to want me to sit right next to him in his little wooden chair and keep my arm around him while he went. I spent many days nursing Charlie in a toddler chair while Henry used the facilities. A very glamorous life I lead, I tell you!
Henry is now pretty much sleeping the whole night in his bed. We went through a stage where he would crawl in bed with us every single night, but now he stays put in his bed, which is FANTASTIC!
Henry is finally starting to fall asleep on his own. This boy has had a difficult time falling asleep since day one it seems. He has a very difficult time getting himself to relax enough to fall asleep. He just can't seem to wind down very well. But now, we've gotten him to the point where he can read until he falls asleep on his own, which is HUGE for us. Sometimes it takes him an hour or hour and half, but he can do it!
Henry is still taking an 2-3 hour afternoon nap most days. The bad thing about this nap is that if Henry takes the nap then he won't fall asleep until 10:00ish which is pretty ridiculous sometimes. BUT, if he doesn't take the afternoon nap, then he is a huge grouch from 4:30-6:30pm (which is almost always when John has practice :( Although, without a nap, he usually falls asleep very easily at 7pm. I can't quite seem to get a good schedule with him in the sleeping department. Sometimes I think he needs a nap, othertimes I think he doesn't.
Henry has developed a very irrational fear of the garbage truck. He is terrified of it really. And, unfortunately for him, our garbage truck picks up our trash twice/week. He starts screaming and crying and grabbing onto my leg the second he hears it. Someone suggested that maybe the garbage truck from Toy Story 3 scared him, which sounds reasonable.
Henry still LOVES sports of all kinds. His eyes see sports references everywhere (just like his daddy's). When he eats raisins he arranges them into a football team, when he has apple slices he lines them up like a stadium and points out where the pitcher's mound is and where Matt Kemp plays, and when he sees any shirt that has blue cursive writing on the front he calls it a Dodger shirt.
Henry also really loves playing with cars (especially the cars from the movie CARS). He lines them up, separates his cars into racing cars and the pit crew, he makes tents for them, puts them in their garage (a basket) and just generally carries them around the house all day long.
Henry still loves smoothies. We have pretty much given him a smoothie upon waking up since I weaned him at 14 months.
Other foods Henry likes: raisins, crackers, goldfish, "meat with bones" (ribs), taco soup, any dessert, yogurt, blueberries, granola, and applesauce.
Henry loves to read the Arthur books, and the Berenstain Bears books. He also likes Curious George and books about trucks.
When Henry talks about John he always refers to him as "my daddy"..."When is my daddy going to get home, mommy?" "Are we going to my daddy's game?" "Maybe my daddy can build a tent with me, mommy". It's very sweet.
Henry loves to build tents with John. They build them on the floor in the "hamily room"or on our bed.
Now that Charlie is more mobile, Henry is having some serious sharing issues. Anything that Charlie has, Henry wants (not baby toys, of course, but any of our communal toys). If Charlie has a block, then Henry wants to play with it, if Charlie has a matchbox car, then Henry wants that particular matchbox car. Good times.
Henry is very tender hearted and has a very strong conscience. When he does something wrong he is oftentimes (not always, but often) very repentant. I feel like Henry places enough guilt on himself over his misdeeds that he doesn't really need John or I to really go on and on about his mistakes. He feels bad enough without that. We'll see if this continues. John and I both tend to be very hard on ourselves, so this may be the early manifestations of a similar trait, but we'll see.
Henry's vocabulary is very sweet. He rarely uses contractions which makes his speech sound very grown up. He also still can't say his "g" sound so he calls Grandma and Grandpa, "damma" and "dampa". Cute!
Henry is definitely in the question asking phase. My ears sort of hurt at the end of the day :)
One thing about Henry is that he is a very good conversationalist. He will often ask me about my day and when John gets home from work or practice or a game, he will ask him how it went..."How was your practice, daddy?" is a common question. I hope we can continue to nurture this in him as it will serve him well in the future.
Henry has quite a bit of confidence in the kitchen. I guess he's watched me enough to think he knows what he's doing. I've caught him cracking an egg on the counter (he even grabbed a bowl to put it in and everything!), using a teaspoon to dump salt (lots!) into my bread dough, and using my egg slicer to crack peanut shells (which was actually a clever use for it :).
Henry loves his extended family so much. Great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts & uncles, cousins, he loves them all. He talks about each person at different times throughout our days and he has special memories with each person that he likes to bring up. He is one well loved little boy.
There's more to say, but I'll stop for now. Raising Henry is a delight. I can't wait to see what God will do with the gifts and talents and interests that he has given him :)

Charlie's dedication...

2012-01-17T19:40:00.000-08:00

We dedicated Charlie to the Lord at church on December 14th (I'm a wee bit behind on my posting :). It was such a special day! (At our church a child dedication represents a commitment on the part of the parents and congregation to raise a child to love and fear the Lord. The child ultimately makes their own salvation decision). All of the people that we loved joined us at church and then we had a special lunch afterwards to celebrate Charlie. As I looked around after church at all of our family members (great-grandparents, grandparents, siblings, siblings-in-law), I really felt very blessed. Not only do we love our families, but we really like them too. And they love our boys which is the biggest blessing of all.

Thanks to Uncle Andrew for the pictures!

Week 30...

2012-01-16T21:03:00.000-08:00

30-week highlights:

Charlie is very mobile. He isn't crawling yet, but he can get pretty much anywhere he wants to go. (As a side note, I have never experienced such anger from Henry as I have when Charlie finds his way over to his special racing cars. Oh boy, lessons in sharing are plentiful here in the Wiebe house!)
Charlie's sleeping habits are still pretty much the same. I'm starting to wonder when he will decide to stop napping in his carseat, so far he's still pretty much content there, so I'll continue to leave him be.
He's still eating bananas, rice cereal, and applesauce. He is now able to get a few cheerios in his mouth. Yeah! Consequently, the crunch of stepping on cheerios on the hard floor is a familiar sound around our house.
Charlie's been more content in the nursery lately. I'm able to get pretty much a full workout in during aerobics now!
He has enough hair to have a bit of bedhead when he wakes up. Pretty cute if you ask me :)
Charlie is quite the chatterbox. He babbles and coos all day long. I don't think I remember Henry ever being this talkative.
Charlie is ready to meet his new cousin! Maybe in next week's update we will have a cousin picture to share. What do you think, Aunt Jill?! :)
We can't get enough of our Charlie!

Penner family Christmas....

2012-01-11T20:21:00.000-08:00

I think this is the last of the Christmas posts. The Penner family Christmas is the only extended family Christmas at which I took pictures. The Sorensen Christmas was missed because I forgot my camera :( and the Fast extended Christmas was missed because it took place after Charlie's bedtime which meant I had a quasi-fussy baby on my hip the entire time. The Penner family Christmas was at a more convenient time for Charlie and I remembered to bring my camera.

We started out the day at Grandpa Art & Grandma Donna's house for brunch, swinging, and orange picking...

A new generation of orange pickers in the making...

After brunch many of us went home for naps, but we met up again for dinner at the church since we've kind of outgrown Grandma & Grandpa's house...

The great-grandkids...

The Penner family (we were missing 4 people this year)...

And the talent show...

A fun day. John has a great family. I'm glad I married in :)

Indoor picnics...

2012-01-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

On nights where John has away games he gets home fairly late. He usually gets home after both boys are asleep, which means that my nights can be fairly long. If we've had a good day, then I can handle the long nights fairly well, but if we've had a long day and then are about to embark on a long night, well then I just feel a bit overwhelmed.

So, to combat my overwhelmedness, I've decided that on those particularly difficult nights, we will have an indoor picnic. I throw out our picnic blanket on the carpet, we put on a movie, and we eat dinner in the family room. It helps save my sanity a bit and hopefully it will be something that's sort of fun for the boys to do with mom while dad's away. So far these have really helped make my difficult nights alone with the boys much more enjoyable. Yeah!

Week 29...

2012-01-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

29-week highlights:

Charlie now has 2 teeth coming in on the bottom. He's definitely teething...fussy, not sleeping all that well (although not horribly either), he's putting everything into his mouth, and he's just generally sort of grouchy if I'm not holding him (certainly not always, but often).
He's still napping around 9 and 1.
He's waking up in the middle of the night sometime between 1 and 3 and then wakes again around 5:00. At 5:00 I just put him into bed with us, otherwise he wants to stay awake at that time, and I'm not on board with that.
While I might be his source of security, Henry is his favorite source of entertainment. He laughs at him all the time. I love this :)
Charlie is loving his baby swing on the new swing set. I spent 45 minutes pushing him in it this afternoon.
Charlie is starting to try to move from sitting to all fours. Crawling is on the horizon.
Charlie isn't the greatest car traveler. It's been taking him quite a bit of time to fall asleep in the car, and unfortunately, when he's not asleep he's screaming. I will be needing to take some trips to Fresno in the coming weeks (Cousin Brooks is due this month!!!) so I hope he gets this car travel thing figured out quickly.
Aerobics continues to be a difficult time for Charlie. Our class is right during the middle of his naptime, and I just can't get him to be content for the whole hour that I'm there. He'll usually last in the nursery for 20-30 minutes max, but the rest of the time I have to entertain him. I've tried wearing him in the ergo while I exercise, and that works out decently well, although it's not ideal. I wonder how long this will last?
Charlie is now eating rice cereal, bananas, and applesauce. We give him cheerios but he hasn't managed to get any in his mouth yet.
John took both boys to the gym for a JV tournament last Saturday. The first of many sports-themed outings for the three of them, I'm sure :)
Charlie is still completely wonderful. We love him so much!

Dad and the boys...

2012-01-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

John got the complete Dodgers 1988 World Series DVD collection for Christmas, so he's been watching it with the boys. Henry keeps asking which player is Matt Kemp. We have to explain to Henry that dad is reliving the Dodgers glory years and these games are actually really old, but still interesting and exciting to watch, even though the outcome of the game is already known. So anyways, we're spending lots of time watching sports reruns around here.

But, if you want to feel really good about yourself, check out our messy family room...

I used to think I was tidy and organized...after seeing this picture, I think I must have been lying to myself :)

Love this picture...

The end.

The boys' Christmas present...

2012-01-05T10:00:00.000-08:00

This year for Christmas we decided to get the boys a swing set. It's as much a gift for me as it is for them :) It fits in our yard perfectly and is already seeing lots of use. Last year John and I decided that gifts of time, talents, and treasures would be the theme for our gift giving. This swingset encompasses all 3 of those things. Yeah!

I'm really proud of John, as he assembled the swing set almost entirely by himself! Building things isn't necessarily his life's passion, and finding free time during the month of December is next to impossible, so the fact that he built this swing set for his boys really says a lot about the kind of dad he is. When Henry was playing on the swing set for the first time he said, "Thanks daddy, this is perfect. I love it!" I don't think you could pay John enough money to build this again during the month of December, but I can guarantee you that Henry's words would be enough to make him do it all over again :)

Our nativity set...

2012-01-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Henry loved playing with our Fisher-Price Nativity set this year! His favorite thing to do with it was to hook all of the connecting background pieces together to form a "cage" and then put all of the animals inside. Besides caging his animals, it was also fun to get to listen to him talk about the Christmas story in his own words. Usually his talk consisted of lots of questions..."Were the shepherds in the stable, mommy?" "Where's Mary's donkey, mommy?" "Do angels have wings, mommy?" He has definitely entered the question asking phase. Sometimes I sort of drown him out and start nodding and saying "uh-huh," but unfortunately for me, Henry is pretty much on top of things and he always catches me. He usually will say to me, "Are you listening to me, mommy?" "Will you answer me, mommy?" Smart cookie, that Henry.

Anyways, here's Henry playing with his nativity set...

And here's his animals in their "cage"...

Week 28...

2012-01-03T21:04:00.000-08:00

He wasn't a huge fan of Henry throwing leaves up in the air...

28-week highlights:

Charlie is currently waking up twice every night. What happened to sleeping straight through?! I have no clue. Oh well, Charlie's night waking bothers me so much less than Henry's did. I guess I'm just used to it now. He usually wakes up around 1ish and around 5ish. He still goes to bed at 7pm.
Charlie is taking 2 naps every day usually around 9:30ish and 12:30ish. He usually sleeps between 1 and 2 hours. He is still napping in his carseat in the kitchen with the microwave vent on. He continues to be our "white noise" baby.
I'm pretty sure he still only has one tooth, although I haven't specifically checked in a few days.
Charlie continues to be such a good-natured baby. He smiles all the time and is so friendly and happy. He has his moments, of course, but overall, he is such a delight.
Speaking of some of his "moments"...he's not so much a fan of staying in the nursery during aerobics. He's usually crying by the time I pick him up. Bummer, but I know he's in good hands, so it's working out fine for now. I'm hoping that when we return to Bible Study next week he will be fine in the nursery, but we shall see.
Charlie brings a lot of joy to a lot of people (John and I are at the top of the list!) What a blessing he is :)

Charlie's playmat...

2012-01-01T21:03:00.000-08:00

My Aunt Lori and Cousin Liz, made Charlie a really fantastic felt playmat for Christmas. Obviously, if you know me, this kind of stuff is right up my alley! Charlie can't play with it much yet, but Henry has given Charlie's "placemat" his stamp of approval.

On the playmat they included things like our local grocery and hardware store, as well as a farm, train station, and construction site. They even included a miniature backhoe, blue Dodge pickup (like Grandpa Royce's), John Deere tractor, and a border collie puppy to play with. Too cute! (It's been played with so much that certain places already need to be reglued).

Here is the playmat unfolded...

And here it is all folded up into a house with a handle...

Absolutely precious! Thanks Aunt Lori & Liz :)

Life around here...

2012-01-01T20:47:00.000-08:00

While I play catch up on the blog, my posts will completely random and out of order. This picture was taken the week before Christmas. Henry dumped the dried black beans all over the floor and was "cooking" with them on his portable play kitchen stove. Charlie is in his exersaucer chewing on my lens cap...

The month of December can be a long one for me. John is busy and preoccupied with basketball games & tournaments, so I am often home for extra amounts of time by myself with the boys. In John's defense, he spends as much time as humanly possible at home, even rearranging practice times to do so, but I still need to find creative ways to keep things running smoothly around here. Dried beans are my new best friend :) When Charlie starts crawling and putting things in his mouth I'm going to have to figure something else out, but for now, I'll enjoy Henry playing with them while he can.

Fast Christmas...

2012-01-01T20:07:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Christmas with the Fast family on Christmas Eve. A good time was had by all, I think.

We started out the morning by reading the Christmas story out of Henry's Jesus Storybook Bible ...
Then we opened presents and ate brunch.

Charlie & Grandpa Royce...

Andrew & Levi...

The crew opening their stockings...

Uncle Ben...

Grandma Gail & Grandpa Royce got Henry a batting helmet. He's been wanting one for ages! The last time we took him to Target he loaded up our cart with every.single.batting.helmet that he found on the shelf. Needless to say, this will be getting lots of use around here!

Levi with his new teething ring...

Charlie pretty much liked the paper...

My present from Denise. She is an awesome gift wrapper. She always adds these fun little extra things on the packages that I love! I appreciate the time she takes to wrap everything so cutely because I am a pretty lame gift wrapper...

Aunt Kelly & Charlie...

Denise modeling the covered button earrings that I made for her...

Grandma Gail & Grandpa Royce helping Henry set up his new Handy Manny play set. Handy Manny is pretty popular around here right now...

Denise & Levi...

Charlie going for the batting helmet. Henry must not have been around otherwise he would have been pretty mad about this!

Aunt Nees and Henry...

We had a fun day together.

Wiebe Christmas...

2011-12-31T13:47:00.000-08:00

I'll start with the Christmas recaps. They are out of order, but as long as I get them up, I consider that a success.

We spent Christmas day with the Wiebes. We ate brunch, then went to church, then came back for more celebrating. A good day as usual.

Henry has learned how to dog pile It's a favorite activity for him right now...

During the afternoon John's Uncle Wes, Aunt Bev, and cousin Lynne (below) stopped by...

These next 3 pictures are my personal favorites. I don't have all that many pictures with the boys since I'm always the ones taking the pictures, and I certainly don't have many pictures of me with my sleeping 2-year old, but these represent both. These certainly won't win any photography awards, but they mean the world to me...

Daddy & Charlie...

Charlie's first Christmas!

John opening his new golf bag, which was MUCH needed (his old one was held together by duct tape!) Although, John is still trying to decide whether or not to keep this bag. He loves everything about it except that fact that it was made with ORANGE piping. A small detail, but he is staunchly opposed to all things orange. Oh John...

Uncle Jay (daddy-to-be)...

Aunt Jill (mama-to-be) and Charlie...

Grandma Sharon & Henry (love this picture!) I like how Henry lined up his new Mater pillow pet (Thanks Aunt Jill!) and his new CARS characters: Doc, Lightning "daqueen", Mater, and Mac. He also got a Guido, which he has already managed to break twice. Grandpa Bob fixed him once, and now he's in Grandpa's hospital again. When he broke the first time, Henry asked me the next morning, "Did Grandpa Bob fix my little blue forklift named Guido?" This boy's vocabulary is hilarious!...

Grandma & Grandpa with the boys...

Week 27...

2011-12-28T18:35:00.000-08:00

Now that he's sitting up, there's so much else to see besides mom. I'm afraid my days of getting him to look at the camera are going to be few and far between from now on...

27-week highlights:

He's finally figured out how to roll around in his crib. He slept on his tummy for the first time last night. He also woke up at 1am instead of his usual 4 or 5am time to eat, so maybe he's not a fan of belly sleeping. I'm not sure.
His hair is really starting to come in. So far it doesn't seem to be quite as crazy as Henry's was at this age. Although, because most of Charlie's hair fell out between 2 and 3 months, it is all growing in at the same rate, so it looks much more manicured than Henry's ever did. I wonder if we'll have another curly headed boy?
Charlie's sitting is getting sturdier. His core muscles are becoming quite strong. It won't be long before we start to see some serious movement from him. Yikes!
Charlie tires of his baby toys rather quickly, so lately I've been giving him some of our old Sports Illustrated magazines to rip to shreds. This is the best way to keep him occupied for long periods of time.
We moved Charlie out of his infant carseat and into his new carseat. His infant seat went up to 22lbs and he is now...
6-month stats: 23 lbs. 14 oz. & 29.5" long! He is completely off the charts in both categories. (For comparison: Henry at 6 months: 21 lbs. 1 oz, 28.5" Henry was only 23 lbs. 8.5 oz. at 12 months! John at 6 months: 22 lbs. 10 oz., 29 1/4" long. John was 23 lbs. 11 oz. at 8 months.)
Everyone we meet always comments on Charlie's chubby cheeks and thighs. Most people who see him say that they just want to squeeze him. I say the same thing and that's what I do most days, just squeeze my little butterball and give him lots of kisses. I love being a mom!

Henry says...

2011-12-25T23:21:00.000-08:00

I'm way behind on my blog updating. I'll catch up at some point, but this post is mostly just for me so I won't forget a few things that Henry's said lately...

1. "My best girl that I love is mommy." (This totally makes up for all of his tantrums lately!)

2. "So um, daddy, how was your practice?"

3. "Mommy, you are a good cooker."

4. To Aunt Jill (who is 36 weeks pregnant) when she said she needed to use the restroom before she played with Henry- "Are you going poop? I can bring my Arthur books and read them to you." (Maybe not quoted verbatim, but close enough, I think).

Talking to a 2-year old is never short on entertainment :)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T23:12:00.000-08:00

First solids...

2011-12-21T10:00:00.000-08:00

Another first for our Charlie-boy (we've kind of taken to calling him that :)!

Week 26...

2011-12-20T21:48:00.000-08:00

Week-26 highlights:

Charlie is halfway to his first birthday. What?!
Charlie is cutting his first tooth. We can feel it, but can't see it yet. Consequently, he's been waking up more than normal in the middle of the night.
We started feeding him solid foods a few days ago. He's all over it. So far he's really liking the rice cereal and bananas we've given him.
Charlie's third nap, around 4 o'clock-ish, seems to be a thing of the past. He's sleeping long enough in the afternoons that he doesn't really seem to want/need it. We'll see if it comes back or if he's done with it for good. I'd be fine if he did without it. I find that third nap to be sort of awkward with my schedule, but we'll see what happens.
LOTS of rolling these days. He's starting to roll as a form of transportation now. He likes to roll and then pivot around on his belly to get to the things he wants. I was so eager to see Henry become mobile, but with Charlie, I find myself with completely opposite feelings. My life is a whole lot easier with only one child on the move...
Everything goes in his mouth. Everything.
He continues to improve his sitting skills. He looks like such a big boy when he sits!
Charlie loves sitting in my ergo carrier. I would be at a complete loss without it. It is the only way I can run errands and get things done around the house. Best piece of baby gear I own!
He has his 6-month check-up tomorrow, so I'll have to post some stats when I get them.
Charlie's laugh is just about the sweetest thing. We love this boy of ours so much!

Henry's crayon wrap...

2011-12-16T13:45:00.001-08:00

...one of the little things I made him for Christmas.

Christmas books...

2011-12-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas books have been out since December 1st and boy are we enjoying them.

There is one in particular that is Henry's favorite. We read it multiple times every single day. Good thing it's one of my favorites too! It's called Who is Coming to Our House. I had never heard of this book until I stumbled upon it last year at Barnes & Noble. So maybe it's a new one for you too. Since it's such a short and simple book, I thought I'd share it with you. Definitely worth purchasing in my opinion :)

Isn't it just the sweetest little book? We're big fans over here.

Under the weather...

2011-12-13T20:44:00.000-08:00

Both boys have colds. Henry has become quite varied in his snot wiping locations. I am finding snot EVERYWHERE. He wipes his nose on the couch cushions, the pillows, hand towels, blankets, my pant leg, etc. Nothing is safe. If I earned a dime for every time I cleaned up all of his snot swipes and all of his toilet misses, I think I'd be one rich lady. Such is life around here right now.

I've been trying to keep the boys home more than usual in hopes of getting them to feel better. I don't want our Christmas festivities ruined by sickness. That would be a huge bummer!

Charlie's been doing lots of sleeping...

And Henry's been doing lots of video watching (and some sleeping too). I think he's figured out that when he's sick I let him lay on the couch and watch videos...He'll be attempting to use this to his advantage in the future, I'm sure...

Hopefully these colds won't linger!

Week 25...

2011-12-12T20:43:00.000-08:00

25-week highlights:

This cold, dry air is doing a number on Charlie's skin. I'm back to applying lots of thick lotion. At this point it seems like applying it once per day is enough, so hopefully that will continue to be the case.
Charlie has a cold. His nose is red and runny, but overall he is still happy and content.
Charlie grabs onto anything he can get his hands on. I put a tablecloth on our table today and realized very quickly that that was a very bad idea. He just pulled on the cloth and everything came towards him. Needless to say, the tablecloth is now gone.
Charlie loves to suck on our fisher-price play phone and put anything he can get his hands on into his mouth. At this point if he grabs something Henry wants I just have Henry give him a different toy to chew on. Pretty soon Charlie will become more particular about the toys that he wants and we will have a disgruntled oldest child on our hands.
Charlie was dedicated at church on Sunday. A very special day!
Charlie is still sleeping well. I still have him napping in his carseat on the floor in the kitchen under the vent. I don't want to mess with a good thing.
Charlie continues to be a delight.

"I am just reading"...

2011-12-09T19:37:00.000-08:00

I walked into the kitchen the other day and found Henry like this...

When I asked him what he was doing he said, "I am just reading. I like Curious George." Ok.

Henry's been saying some pretty funny stuff lately. His little voice and vocabulary are just about the sweetest things. Here are a few things he's said lately that made me laugh:

He went to one of John's games with Grandma Sharon earlier in the week while I stayed home to put Charlie to bed. When he got home I had just taken a shower, so I had wet hair. Before I put him to bed I gave him a snack and we sat together at the table. Neither one of us was talking, but after awhile Henry said to me, "So mommy, how was your shower?" I just started laughing, but he didn't think it was funny, he just wanted to make conversation with me.
The other day I told him that he was going to go stay with Grandma Gail while I ran a few errands. He looked at me and said, "Yeah, she is missing me."
John's been working with Henry on thanking me for the food I prepare for him. The other morning I gave him a snack of raisins, cashews, and crackers (nothing fancy) and as he was eating at the table he said, "This is yummy, thanks mommy!"

I'm 30 today...

2011-12-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

I started out my 20's living with some pretty fun girls in a dorm at Fresno Pacific...

and I've ended my 20's by living with some pretty fun boys at home...

This past decade has been good to me. I can't wait to see what my 30's will bring.

Charlie in the tub...

2011-12-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

Charlie loves the bathtub. He makes the cutest faces and ends up spending half of his time in there cracking up at Henry. He also loves sucking on his washcloth. I remember this was a favorite of Henry's as well. These pictures are all similar, but I just couldn't decide which one I liked best, so I included them all. This little boy is pure joy.

Peppernut making (again)...

2011-12-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

This time we made peppernuts with John's extended family on his Grandma Donna's side. The Boese family peppernut making has become an annual Christmas tradition and I personally think that it is such a fun one! We made seven different varieties of peppernuts: molasses, brandy-molasses, orange-almond, norwegian, citrus, anise, and coffee. Each family got to take home a small sample of each kind. Last night after the kids went to bed John and I had a blind taste test to see if we could identify each different cookie. John only got one right and I got them all right (although I won't tell you how many cookies I ate beforehand to "practice" my deciphering :) It just isn't Christmas around here without peppernut making and eating!

Week 24...

2011-12-05T19:24:00.000-08:00

Week-24 highlights:

First of all...week 24 already? Sheesh. He's almost6 months old!
Obviously Charlie's latest milestone is sitting. He still topples often, but he's getting more and more stable with each passing day.
Charlie is starting to reach for mom which, for me, is a development that is right up there with smiling & laughing.
I haven't started solid foods with him yet, but will probably do so in the next week or two. To be honest, solids are kind of a pain, so I'm putting it off until I think he seems to be really ready for them. Nothing beats the ease of breastmilk.
On the subject of eating...I haven't even attempted to give Charlie a bottle. Henry would never take one, and pumping wasn't very easy for me (although, admittedly, I didn't try very hard at it), so this time around I'm perfectly content being his only food source. Every so often it is a pain, but for the most part I'm perfectly happy with this arrangement.
Charlie is taking 3 naps/day. One around 9ish, another around 1ish, and another short one right before dinner. I usually just sit on the couch and hold him for his last nap and watch a few videos on the computer with Henry.
Charlie's waking up usually once or twice at night. He goes to bed around 7:00.
I have to say that I am enjoying Charlie's current stage so much! He's very happy and social, he's reaching for mama, he's doing relatively well in the sleeping department, and he still isn't able to get into anything yet :)
Charlie is such a lovable little guy.

Aunt Katie quilt #2...

2011-12-04T21:11:00.000-08:00

I have another niece or nephew on the way. Baby Brooks is due near the end of January. Yeah! So, of course, another Aunt Katie quilt was in order...

I can't wait to meet the little one who will get to use this!

Farming with Grandpa Bob...

2011-12-01T17:17:00.000-08:00

I took some pictures of the boys on a tractor with Grandpa Bob last weekend. Charlie even got to go on his first ride! These boys are pretty lucky to have 2 farmer grandpas. Fun stuff...

Henry's spiderman shirt was a hand-me-down, and to indicate to you how clueless he is about spiderman, he said he had a butterfly on his shirt :)

Grandpa Bob loves to flip Henry like this...it makes Grandma Sharon very nervous (and mom too...but I try not to watch)...

Week 23...

2011-11-28T23:04:00.000-08:00

Watch Charlie roll...

23-week highlights:

Charlie loves to lay on my lap while I fold laundry. He thinks it is absolutely hilarious when I shake the wrinkles out of the clothes. He laughs every time I do it. Consequently, I'm enjoying doing laundry a wee bit more than usual.
Henry is pretty much the funniest person ever to Charlie. Whenever we are in the car, Henry makes him laugh out loud. It is pretty cute.
Bathtime is Charlie's favorite time on the day.
One of my favorite things about this age is when Charlie reaches for something, his hands shake as they move towards his desired object. He knows what he wants and tries so hard to get his hands to it. I love watching his concentration.
Charlie is now using his rolling skills to get to new places and objects. It's pretty cute to watch, but pretty soon life is going to change around here. We're all going to have to be more careful with what we leave on the floor, and Henry is going to have a hard time adjusting to Charlie getting into his stuff.
We're working on finding a good bedtime for Charlie. Right now I'm thinking between 6:30 and 7:00 is good, so we'll see if that continues to work out for us.
Naps are being taken in the carseat under the microwave vent. Our microwave vent is the BEST white noise!
Charlie wakes up once or twice/night to eat. Very manageable.
This boy of ours is pure joy. We love him so much!

Sorensen Thanksgiving...

2011-11-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Sorensen family last Sunday afternoon, but I'm just now getting around to posting about it. Henry loves to play with this cousins Lathen, Blaine, and Owen, so this was an especially fun afternoon for him...

Apparently I am quite the anal mother, making my boy wear an apron while he eats and all...

Trying to take a Christmas card picture didn't turn out so well. This was the best one, but Henry was being ultra uncooperative...

Playing baseball with Uncle Ben...

The Fasts...

Love these 2 pictures of Ben and Kelly with the boys. Ben is slowly starting to overcome his fear of leaking baby body fluids so he's ok to hold Charlie for awhile...

Another fun day.

Fast family Thanksgiving...

2011-11-25T14:50:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family this year. This is the first time since we've been married that we didn't celebrate with both of our families on the same day, but that's the way it worked out this year. (My waistline is sort of grateful for only one meal ;) The meal was great, and we did our usual taking of family pictures. A nice, relaxing day overall.

On the swings. Notice Henry is wearing his pajama pants. He had an accident and those were the only extra pants I brought him...

Charlie loved the swing...

So did Levi...

The entire Fast family...

The Feils...

Grandma Gail & Grandpa Royce with the boys...

Us...

Grandma Net with Charlie...

zwiebach & peppernut making 2011...

2011-11-23T21:13:00.000-08:00

Over the past few years a tradition has evolved amongst the Fast family women. We get together the day before Thanksgiving to make peppernuts and zwiebach. We've got to do our part to keep our Mennonite heritage vibrant and alive for our children (& ourselves too :). We made 2 batches of peppernuts...Great-Grandma Reimer's recipe (which uses molasses) and Grandma Net's recipe (which uses orange zest). I think Henry pretty much ate his weight in peppernuts while we were there :) We had a great time!

Here's sweet Levi (and the bib is definitely NOT just an fashion accessory. That boy is a champion spitter-upper!)...

Charlie loves his cousin...

Denise was making Levi some new pairs of shoes...

Peppernut making with Henry. He pretty much just buried all of his dough under the flour, and then cut it into little bits, but that's ok...

Oh my, Henry on his perch by the peppernut bowl. I kept moving it away from him, but while I was working he kept finding ways to sneak in a few more handfuls. I thought he might turn into a peppernut he at so many...

Grandma Gail manning the peppernut pans...

Denise, Kelly, and Levi...

Charlie...

Denise & Levi...

I think we'd all agree that it was a good day.

Week 22...

2011-11-22T07:10:00.000-08:00

Week 22 highlights:

Charlie is still super happy and smiley.
When he is changed and well-fed he likes to lay on the floor and reach for toys and coo. Which is pretty great if you ask me :)
He can roll both ways, but really doesn't do it very often. I'm enjoying these fleeting days of keeping him in one spot...and I'm also enjoying the calm before the storm that will be Charlie getting into Henry's things.
I've been moving his bedtime up slowly, and right now we're at 7 o'clock-ish. I'm going to push it up as early as it can go...these long days of single-parenting while John is busy with basketball give me serious need for some kid-free time in the evenings.
Charlie loves being carried in the ergo carrier. I love using it with him.
Charlie is just the best!

A day at home...

2011-11-19T15:36:00.000-08:00

John's been very busy with basketball these past few weeks, which means that I've had the boys by myself from breakfast until bedtime. It's actually gone pretty well. I'm becoming quite fond of the powerful productivity combination of video watching for Henry and ergo carrying for Charlie whilst making dinner. Without the videos and the carrier I'd be struggling!

I've also had a marginal amount of success with getting Charlie to nap in his carseat underneath the microwave vent in the kitchen...

Henry's been waffling back and forth between needing a nap and not, so some days I just let him stay up if he seems to be in good spirits. On this particular day we took advantage of Charlie's nap to spend some time together. I did some sewing while Henry practiced his "tutting" (all of his hard "k" sounds are said with a "t" sound, so "tutting" = cutting). Henry literally spent over an hour at the kitchen table cutting up any piece of paper I would give him. He is obsessed with his scissors right now. They are the first thing he asks for when he wakes up from a nap :)

Fun Times!

My days are filled with...

2011-11-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

...lots of playtime on the floor with this boy:

...and lots of pretend sports play with this boy (he likes to pretend that the small mounds in the front yard are his pitcher's mounds):

I love my days.

Week 21...

2011-11-14T22:11:00.000-08:00

21-week highlights:

Charlie has entered quite the momma's boy phase. He will be screaming his head off while John is holding him, but as soon as I walk in the room he smiles and laughs. He likes it best when he can see me.
Charlie is going to bed between 7 and 7:30 and sleeping until around 4:30. I feed him and put him back to bed and then he sleeps until 6:30 or 7ish. At least that's his routine this week :)
Charlie loves to suck on a washcloth in the bathtub. Probably his current favorite thing to do.
Naps are showing signs of improvement. He will now take them, at least. They are only 45 minutes long, but that's better than nothing. My mom wisely told me that my boys just might not be good sleepers early on. She also reminded me that Henry seems to be doing fine, so I shouldn't waste my time worrying about the nap issues. Good points she makes.
I'm still nursing him to sleep. I know all of the books say not to, but, quite frankly, this works for us, so we'll ride it out for awhile.
I tried giving Charlie some banana, but his tongue still pushes everything out, instead of pulling it back in. I'll try solids again in a few weeks and see how he does.
I tried the solids because Charlie is starting to get quite HUNGRY! He's definitely interested in eating every 2 hours so I thought I could stretch that out a bit with the solids. Not quite there yet, but soon, I'm sure.
I see a lot of similarities between Henry and Charlie. Their sleeping habits are fairly similar. They both LOVE to fall asleep while nursing and they only want to take 45 minute naps. I feel like Charlie is a bit more relaxed than Henry ever was, but overall I don't feel like Charlie acts much different than Henry.

"up socks"...

2011-11-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

...this is what Henry calls his baseball socks. They go all the way up to his knees and he loves them!

A little blanket...

2011-11-12T19:31:00.000-08:00

I love making these little blankets. This one is for a friend I grew up with. She's having her first baby boy in January!

Toy storage cupboard...

2011-11-11T20:58:00.000-08:00

I accidentally took on a little furniture painting project. My dad salvaged these cupboards for me when Rosedale Bible Church was doing a little Sunday School building remodel project. They've been sitting in my Grandma Net's shop for a couple of years now, and I am finally ready to put them to use. I figured I'd just wipe them down and call them good enough. But, as most projects tend to do, this turned into quite a bit more work than I had anticipated.

After looking at the cupboard for about .1 seconds, I realized that the whole top layer of paint was peeling off. I suspect that the last time this cupboard was painted someone layered latex paint over oil based which caused the peeling paint. I figured I'd do a quick sanding, prime the cabinet and doors, paint it and be done. Well, the quick sanding didn't happen. Turns out the entire top layer of paint had to come off otherwise none of my new paint would stick. bummer. So...I've been trying to squeeze in working on this project when I have some free time (which is never...but luckily Sharon, my mom, and John have helped with the boys, so I've had more free time than usual). I was hoping to get it finished by this weekend, but I don't think that's going to happen, but maybe next weekend...hopefully.

It's not anything fancy, but it should meet our needs. I think a fresh coat of white paint will perk this little cupboard right up :)

Week 20...

2011-11-07T22:02:00.000-08:00

20-week highlights:

The main thing to note this week is that Charlie hasn't been sleeping well. He really only wants to take his naps on me, which is sweet, but it is sort of making me a bit crazy. I have things I need to get done during the day! I try to put him to sleep without nursing him, but then he screams in his crib for so long that by the time I get him up, it's time to eat again, and then he falls asleep on me anyways. This isn't foreign territory for me. Henry did these exact same things...and I never really figured out how to make naps work for us. Hopefully I'll have more success with Charlie. I've called in the big guns this week though. Grandma Gail and Grandma Sharon are going to give me some Charlie holding relief later in the week so I can get a few things done. I can't wait!
Charlie is still teething heavily...drooling, putting everything in his mouth, fussy, etc.
Despite the sleep & teething issues, Charlie still smiles. He has a dimple in his chin and one on his cheek that I hope stick around. They are awfully cute :)

PJ's...

2011-11-06T19:19:00.000-08:00

When we stay home all day I let the boys stay in their PJ's...mostly because I think they make Charlie so warm and snuggly. And having a warm and snuggly, pajama-clad, baby is very important when said baby is teething and requires lots of extra mom-holding. I've forgotten how rough teething can be...

Luckily the teething doesn't stop the smiles...

Morro Bay...

2011-11-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

We took our annual pre-season beach trip last weekend. We've been to the beach a few times since Charlie's arrival, but this was the first time to vacation with just our family of 4. It was just what we all needed to prepare ourselves for the basketball season ahead.

We started our vacation with a picnic lunch at the Atascadero Lake Park and then visited the Charles Paddock Zoo which was located right next door. It was a small zoo, but still fun. Henry is all about going to the zoo these days, so it was nice to visit a new one together as a family...

My ergo carrier is my new best friend. Charlie is pretty darn heavy, so this carrier actually makes it enjoyable for me to carry him. Yeah! I also just figured out how to put him in it all by myself, which actually means that I'll use it a whole lot more. I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out...

After the park & zoo, we headed towards Grandma Net's condo in Morro Bay. We layed around the house, took walks, went to the beach, visited the park, drove to SLO, and just generally enjoyed being together. It was a much needed few days with just the 4 of us...

It was actually really warm in Morro Bay, so we went to the beach to play in the sand...

Charlie hung out on the floor a lot...

And Henry spent lots of time playing with the Thomas the Tank Engine duplo that were there. Whoever contributed those to the condo (Jenny?) they were a huge hit!

It's hard to believe that another basketball season is already upon us! We've told Henry that when it gets cold outside, it will be basketball season. Now that we are starting to pull out the sweatshirts and jeans he keeps saying, "It's cold...it's basketball season!" It's fun to see Henry look forward to basketball season like his daddy does :)

Halloween part 2...

2011-11-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

We didn't see Grandpa Royce & Grandma Gail on Halloween, so we trick-or-treated at their house (& Grandma Net's) yesterday...

This time, Henry did not go as Matt Kemp, but instead went as a 49er football player! We were just given this costume as a hand-me-down yesterday, and as you might imagine, it is a HUGE hit with Henry. He hasn't let the helmet out of his sight yet. He even wanted to sleep with it...

Aunt Kelly went trick-or-treating at Grandma Net's house with us...

After Grandma Net's it was over to my parents, although Grandma Gail was the only one home. Grandpa Royce was busy with cotton picking so he got there late. No big deal, I think Henry's going to wear this costume every day until he outgrows it...

Grandma Gail got Henry an elmo sticker book and Charlie a teething ring. Perfect!

The boys in costume...

Don't worry, I'm sure this 49er uniform will make many more appearances on the blog. He is pretty much obsessed with it. He even wore it to church tonight (with helmet) for dinner. And, to top it off, he packed his football in his backpack so that he would have all of the right equipment with him. Henry never wants to be caught unprepared!

Halloween 2011...

2011-11-01T21:36:00.000-07:00

We had a great Halloween! Henry and Charlie wore their costumes to aerobics, then we participated in our local costume parade, and we finished up our day with a chili dinner at Grandpa Art and Grandma Donna's house. It's fun to have a special day just for dressing up.

Charlie was Charlie Brown (thanks Denise for the brilliant costume idea!)...

Henry was Dodger center-fielder, Matt Kemp (I couldn't get him to stand still for pictures. In hindsight, I should have told him I was taking pictures for his baseball card. oh well.)...

Aunt Jill & Uncle Jay found the Matt Kemp jersey on clearance at Target, it's a size 8, but it works...

We trick-or-treated at my parents and Grandma Net's today, so I'll have to post pictures of that later. Henry changed his costume, so that will definitely need to be documented.

Week 19...

2011-10-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

He was Charlie Brown for Halloween...

19-week highlights...

This past week marked a definite change for Charlie. He's teething like crazy, which means his mellow nature is slowly fading and we have a much fussier boy on our hands.
Charlie's naps are now SHORT (30-40 minutes). Not sure if this is due to the teething or if it simply means that we need a new nap schedule for him. Some wise moms have suggested that I try dropping one of his naps (from 3 to 2) so maybe we'll try working on that.
Charlie seems to be a bit of a mommy's boy right now. He's been getting pretty fussy when others hold him, but calms down fairly well for me.
I know I'm going to jinx myself by saying this, but so far he's still sleeping well at night. We'll see if this continues...
Charlie now rolls from front to back AND back to front. He isn't rolling a lot yet, just once in awhile.
Charlie still thinks Henry is hilarious.
Despite his increased fussiness, Charlie continues to be an absolute delight.

The pumpkin patch...

2011-10-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

Grandma Sharon and I took the boys to the pumpkin patch yesterday. We had a good time, although Henry was a bit wild. I think he might be a tad too comfortable around farming activities and operations, but that's not such a bad thing, I suppose.

Here are two pictures that I love...

And a few of me with the boys. We couldn't quite look at the camera at the same time, but I'm thankful for these moments captured together...

This was the first time I've taken Henry to a big pumpkin patch. I planned to take him last year, but this happened instead. Oh the memories.

Cotton picking...

2011-10-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

My dad took Henry out to the farm to check out the cotton pickers last Monday. I'm never usually privy to the goings on during these sorts of things, but Andrew went along and took my camera, so I have some sweet pictures to show for their time together...

These next 2 are really sweet...

Uncle Ben took him on a cotton picker ride...

He's one lucky boy to be able to go farming with BOTH grandpas. In fact, he spent the morning on the farm with Grandpa Bob, and the afternoon with Grandpa Royce. Lucky indeed.

Tennis practice...

2011-10-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

We made one last visit to tennis practice last week before the season wrapped up last Thursday...

Charlie slept right through it...

I think Henry's favorite part about tennis practice might just be the water jug. He's finally coordinated enough to fill up his cup all by himself. I've never seen him drink so much water!...

Getting in to daddy's racket bag...

So long tennis...hello basketball season!

Keeping Charlie entertained...

2011-10-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

I used to think that exersaucers were too big, too bright, and too obnoxious. I definitely didn't want one in my house. That, my friends, was kidless Katie talking. Now that I'm walking this baby path again, I say, "Bring on the exersaucer!" Does it take up a lot of room in my little house?...yes. Is it flourescent orange?...sure is. Are there all sorts of wacky gadgets and gizmos on the tray?...you bet. But does it keep Charlie entertained while I'm cooking dinner...why yes it does! And that folks, is all that really matters.

Week 18...

2011-10-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

Henry fixing Charlie's bandaids...

18-week highlights:

The biggest highlight this week was that Charlie's hair has started to grow back in! His eczema/cradle cap really wreaked havoc on his hairline, but I think that is all behind us now...he's got some great peach fuzz coming in :)
Charlie's skin seems to be almost back to normal. I'm crediting the cooler weather for the improvement.
A few days ago I was feeding Charlie and Henry was sitting next to me on the couch rubbing Charlie's head. After a few minutes, Henry looked up at me and said, "I lub my brudder." (Translation: I love my brother). So sweet!
Charlie still sleeps well. We've stopped swaddling him and are now using a sleep sack for nights instead. This change hasn't affected his sleeping habits at all.
Charlie had his 4-month check up today. He has reached all of his milestones and is completely off the charts for height and weight. (Height= 28.5", Weight= 21lbs. 15 oz.)
Charlie is a dream baby. If he had been my first born I think I would have been a bit smug in my mothering abilities...Henry kept me humble :)

Singing at Community Bible Study..

2011-10-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

This year at Bible Study Henry has graduated from the nursery and now attends the 2's and 3's class. Things were a bit rough at the beginning, but now he is a huge fan! He loves his teachers, Miss Judy and Miss Rachel, has memorized his verse (I am with you always Matthew 28:20), and sings his songs for us and tell us about his Bible stories. Last week he and his classmates sang some of their songs for us during our lecture time. Too cute! Henry didn't really sing much, but he did a few motions and stayed facing forward on his step the entire time (not too shabby for a 2-year old :) I took a some pictures this time, but next time they sing I'll have to capture it on video.

Shaver...

2011-10-19T15:18:00.000-07:00

We spent last weekend at Grandma Sue's cabin in Shaver. We had a great time, although with 3 little ones around, sleep was sometimes a bit illusive, but that's to be expected, I suppose. On Saturday some of the Sorensen extended family came up for a BBQ. A good time was had by all, of course. On to the pictures...

The little boys played baseball. Henry really liked organizing the boys into the correct positions. Here he is the umpire...

John was the pitcher...

Here are the boys in action, Henry as umpire, Lathen as catcher, and Blaine as batter...

Denise & Levi...
The kids & ladies...

Blaine loved the cake & ice cream...

Grandma Gail & Charlie...

Levi...

Owen...

John...

Lathen (Henry LOVED Lathen because Lathen played baseball with him. After he left Henry was sobbing and through his tears he said, "I want my friend. I lost my friend." Pretty cute)...

G.G. Sue & her SIX great-grandsons! (I think this picture is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen...I love that my grandma's wearing a pink sweatsuit amongst all the dirty and stinky little boys :)

4 generations- G. Sue, my mom's sister, Kaylen, her son (my cousin), Kenny, and Kenny's 3 boys...

4 generations- G. Sue, mom, Denise, Levi...

All of us...

Our 4 generation picture...

Grandpa Royce with his 3 grandsons...

+ Grandma Gail...

Charlie had his first ride on the swing while we were there and he LOVED it!...

The boys on the swings...

We had a great time and can't wait to be able to go back again.

Week 17...

2011-10-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

17-week highlights:

Charlie is teething. Everything goes in his mouth. His hands aren't quite coordinated enough to really make use of a teething toy just yet, but burp rags, edges of quilts, and fingers (both his and ours) seem to work well for now.
He grabs onto anything he can get his hands on.
Charlie can roll over from front to back now! This is the first step towards mobility...not sure how I feel about that.
We moved Charlie into the crib. He's doing great! He's pretty much sleeping until 5:30ish every morning. Yeah!
Charlie took his first trip to G.G. Sue's cabin in Shaver last weekend. He didn't sleep all that well there, but luckily he's found his groove at home again.
This boy is smiley and happy. We love him to pieces!

My boys...

2011-10-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

Closet curtains...

2011-10-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the curtains for the closet in Charlie's room. A super easy project that took me 3 days to finish...I seriously move at a snail's pace with projects these days. I meant to just use the blue houndstooth for the bottom band, but I didn't have enough, so I had to use the leftover damask fabric on the bottom to make the curtains long enough. Sort of girly, but oh well, the project is done.

Craigslist finds...

2011-10-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

I often do quick searches on craigslist for a few things...namely play kitchens and play houses. Usually nothing great turns up, but last week I lucked out and found 2 great play kitchens!

This stove top was $10 (I found it listed on amazon for anywhere from $30-$40) and is in great condition. It folds flat to store, so it can be put away easily. It's perfect for Henry to play with while I'm cooking. Henry's already putting it to good use, which makes me happy :)

This next play kitchen I bought is for outside. It was $15 (listed on amazon for $70). The lady who sold it to us said that her kids were never interested in it, so it has hardly been used at all. It looks brand new! Right now we have it on our patio, and it is already seeing lots of good use. I'm imagining Henry using it to make mud pies and all sorts of other outdoor recipes.

I'm not much of a toy buyer, but I think these 2 toys will be well used and loved by Henry and Charlie. Since we have a small yard, my goal is to do what I can to provide a variety of different ways to play out there. I think this play kitchen brings me closer to that goal :)

The Peddler's Fair...

2011-10-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

The boys and I met my mom, Kelly, Denise, and Levi at the Peddler's Fair last Saturday. I think we all had a good time. Grandma Gail mostly spent her time digging in the dirt & playing pretend baseball with Henry, while Kelly, Denise, and I shopped. We all found a few treasures. Here are mine...

New entry table. I've been in need of a new entry table and was so glad I found one, and at only $20 I felt like it was a pretty good deal. Denise and I were doubting its ability to fit into my car, but luckily, just as we were ready to admit table transport defeat, Cousin Charis drove up in her car and was willing to take the table home for me. Crisis averted. I might paint it a navy or peacock blue, and will move the mirror and frame on top of it, but for now, we're just enjoying it as is...

I also got the letter's "A" and "E" for Charlie's name. Now all I have left are the "C" and "L". Anyone have a good vintage letter source?

And lastly, I got a new stool for the boys' bathroom. It was $10 and was already padded and covered in oilcloth. Cute and functional. Perfect for giving baths. It's already being put to good use...

I can't wait to go back again next year!

Week 16...

2011-10-10T19:45:00.000-07:00

16-week highlights:

At 3 1/2 months, Charlie is a whopping 22 lbs (Henry didn't reach 22 lbs. until 8 months)! His carseat only goes up to 22 lbs, but I am loathe to switch him out of it just yet. If I move him to a bigger carseat, I won't have a cozy seat for him at places like church & Bible Study.
I have started leaving Charlie in the nursery during Sunday School as well as during the first hour or so of Bible Study. He seems to be doing pretty well.
The only problem with leaving Charlie in the nursery is that the nursery workers tell me that their arms are SO SORE once they are done holding Charlie. To which I can definitely agree.
Charlie LOVES Henry. He is always laughing at the things he does throughout the day. So cute!
Charlie is still jabbering up a storm.
He's still sleeping through the night and taking a really great morning nap. We're working on getting that afternoon nap figured out.
Charlie is almost able to roll over. He can get on his side, but can't get all the way over yet. Maybe next week.
Charlie is a complete delight.

A visit from Levi...

2011-10-09T21:25:00.000-07:00

Denise, Andrew, and Levi made their first trip to Grandpa Royce & Grandma Gail's house this weekend as a family of 3. So, of course, my parents had to invite the entire Fast family over to show off their newest grandson! Great-Grandma Net had all 5 of her great-grandsons together for the first time. So.much.fun! Here are the highlights...

Charlie sleeping on Aunt Kelly (I like how they were both wearing gray shirts with white stripes :)...

Henry dressing up in cowboy boots and a plastic cowboy hat (Henry loves to dress up!)...

Grandma Net with all 5 of her great-grandsons (Ryan, Henry, Jack, Charlie, & Levi)...

Grandma Net with her Fast boys...

Grandma Net with Levi & Charlie...

Grandma Net & Levi...

Aunt Kelly & Charlie together again. Too cute!...

Denise is doing such a great job with Levi. Being a first time mom is hard work, but she's doing so well, I'm proud of her :)

Off to Africa...

2011-10-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

Our cousins, Nathan & Adrianne, are leaving California for Africa in the morning. We knew their move to Africa was on the horizon, but now that it's here, it's sad and hard to believe. They've both forged a special bond with Henry, spending lots of time with him in the swimming pool and playing along with him in all of his various sports & recreational activities. They will be missed big time around here. When I told Henry they were moving to Africa and we wouldn't see them for awhile, he told me that he would skype with them on the computer like he does with Aunt Nees (It's hard to believe that a 2-year old can already be so reliant on technology!). And even though we won't be able to see them in person for awhile, we look forward to keeping up with them via their blog. What did we ever do without the internet?!

Nathan & Adrianne, along with Nathan's parents Randy & Pam, stopped by for one last round of indoor sports with Henry before they take off in the morning. Here are a few pictures...

With Henry & Charlie...

Adrianne & Charlie...

Nathan & Henry...

Charlie being the football coach...

And, of course, Henry is an all-inclusive recreation director. He had Randy & Pam be the referees and even gave them special "referee hats." Too funny!...

Safe travels Nathan & Adrianne.

This is how Henry sleeps...

2011-10-04T21:08:00.000-07:00

When I went to check on Henry before I went to bed the other night this is what I found...

...this boy loves his Matt Kemp bobblehead!

Week 15...

2011-10-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

15-week highlights:

Charlie loves to chew on his hands. I wonder if thumb sucking is in his future?
Cooing and babbling are favorite pastimes.
Charlie usually takes one long nap(2-3 hours) every day.
Sleeping through the night is still happening, which is great! Charlie usually wakes up somewhere between 4 and 6am. If he wakes up in the 4's or 5's then he'll go back to sleep, but if wakes up after 6, then he'll stay up. I can't complain a bit about this arrangement.
Charlie is so happy and content!

Great-grandparents...

2011-10-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

...are great! I took the boys over to spend some time with Great-grandpa Art and Great-grandma Donna last week. Henry had a great time playing with them. Our boys are lucky to have them in their lives.

Great-grandpa Art & Charlie...

Great-grandma Donna & Charlie...

Grandma Donna & Henry playing trains (Henry specifically looks forward to playing with this train set when he visits them. It's old...but it's new to him!)...
I think the highlight of the visit was when Grandpa Art put on the catcher's mask and played baseball with Henry...

Henry liked to pitch the ball to Grandpa Art and then run the bases himself. Batters aren't necessary in his games...

After the baseball playing, Henry wanted to swing so Grandpa Art pushed him. Then, Henry got off and wanted Grandpa Art to get on...

These boys are so lucky to have people of all ages who love them so much!

House projects...

2011-09-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

The problem with spending multiple hours every day nursing Charlie is that I am also spending multiple hours every day staring at my house. While I nurse I make grand plans and come up with all sorts of ideas that I have absolutely NO TIME to accomplish. This doesn't stop me from trying though. I've started a good number of projects, but haven't finished a single one of them. Maybe by Charlie's first birthday I'll have a few of them finished. Why do I do this to myself?

Here are a few of them...

1. After John graduated from college he needed a dresser, so we found this one at a yard sale and I painted it and added new knobs with the help our friend, Mark. I really like the dresser and I'm kind of sentimentally attached to it, but it isn't great for kids. You have to pull on both knobs at once or else the drawers won't open correctly. So, instead of it taking up space in Charlie's room, I thought I'd try it out in the front room as an entry table. It totally doesn't work here...way to huge, but I don't know where else to put it, and I don't have a plan B for the entry. So here it sits.

2. I moved this bench into the house from the patio so that I can have a comfy place to feed Charlie while Henry plays in the front room. The problem is, the white cushion cover on the bench is totally ruined and needs to be replaced, so I have temporarily covered it with some blue and white gingham fabric...which totally bunches up and looks awful most of the time. When I was up in Fresno with Denise (literally less than 24 hours before she gave birth to Levi) we went fabric shopping at a great discount fabric store in Fresno. I bought fabric to make a bench cushion and recover the pillows on the bench. When do I think I'm going to have time to sew those? I have no idea...

3. While at the Fresno fabric store I bought some gray and white stripe fabric to make new curtains for Charlie's room (which are actually already done...hooray!) and decided that I would take the old white curtains and hang them in front of the closet...I was completely over the sliding closet doors! Henry kept smashing his fingers and you couldn't access anything in the center of the closet, so curtains it needed to be. But...the white curtains are too short to completely cover the closet opening. No big deal, I bought fabric to add to the bottom to make them long enough. I just don't have any time to do this. So, for now, these closet curtains are sporting the high-water look...

4. I also need some additional toy storage in Charlie's room. Henry LOVES playing in here, so most of our toys have made their way in, I just don't have anywhere to store them. I'm sort of toying with the idea of moving Charlie in with Henry and then designating this as a playroom. John just rolls his eyes at me when I tell him this. He thinks we should see how Charlie sleeps in the crib before we do anything drastic. He's probably right...

5. I moved the armoire (that was formerly housing our old, beastly, TV) into Charlie's room for more clothes storage (keeping track of hand-me-downs takes some serious organization!). I want to paint it white but I don't know when I'm ever going to get to that project...

6. We replaced the armoire in our family room with the billy bookcase that was formerly in Henry's old room and added doors to the top portion. We got a new flat panel TV and it fits perfectly in the center section. We did this because the armoire/old, beastly TV combo wasn't working for us anymore. This has been a HUGE improvement for us. We also reoriented the couch so that it faces away from our bedroom door in the corner which is so much better. I hated having people sitting on the couch and staring into our messy bedroom! (I guess technically this would be considered a completed project...yeah me!)

7. I was kind of done with having all of my W's on the wood panels, so I took them off and have started to try to create some sort of gallery wall. When will I finish this? Who knows?

8. We have quilts/blankets EVERYWHERE in our house. I love this, but I want a way to store/display them. I'm on the hunt for an old wooden ladder that I can put in the family room to serve this purpose. I found one in Fresno for $40, but I'm hoping to stumble upon one for cheaper. Anyone have one they want to get rid of?

I am, however, keeping up with my 2 most important projects...

My house will be in disarray for a good long while, but my boys are coming along nicely, I think. And really, that's all that really matters, right?

Indoor football...

2011-09-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

Henry has a new favorite activity...indoor football! It starts with setting up the cones (or plastic cups) for the endzone...

When we play indoor football we have to have everything just so. For example, when you're the coach you have to wear the headset (or in our case, the toddler neck pillow)...

The coach has to call all of the plays. (When I'm the coach I have to call "Blue 88" because that's Henry's favorite play).

Henry also has to practice his 4-point stance...

Apparently when mom's not doing a good enough job as coach, dad replaces her. When dad takes over as coach, he now has to wear the headset and call the plays...

Once the game is over Charlie joins the boys on the floor for some tackling practice...

Whew...indoor football is quite the workout!

Week 14...

2011-09-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

14-week highlights:

Charlie's long morning nap has been non-existent the past couple of mornings. boo. Although, I've had the flu, so maybe I've thrown things off. Hopefully we'll get things back on track soon.
Charlie either sleeps through the night, or wakes up once around 4:00. Either way, we aren't feeling sleep deprived, which is a huge blessing :)
I thought I wanted to move Charlie out of our room and into his crib last weekend, so John disassembled the co-sleeper. But...then we had that random thunder & lightning storm and I decided I wasn't ready. So, he's sleeping in the pac 'n play in our room. He'll move into his own room soon.
Charlie's skin is looking much better. It's still red and splotchy in all of his creases (there are a lot of them!) but his skin has great color overall and seems to be on the mend. Yeah!
Charlie is starting to laugh more and more every day. We love this!
I am nursing Charlie to sleep between 8:30 and 9:00 now. Slowly, but surely, we are getting his bedtime moved up.
We love Charlie!

On Henry (29 months)...

2011-09-25T16:40:00.000-07:00

Henry is developing quite the personality, I just wanted to make note of a few things before I forget them...

Henry LOVES sports. Right now he is starting to really enjoy playing/watching football. John plays with him on the floor in the family room and he thinks this is just about the best thing ever.
Things Henry currently loves besides sports: CARS: the movie (He has named all of his matchbox cars after the characters in the movie), Veggie Tales, Toy Story, playdoh, all of his grandparents & aunts & uncles, dessert, puzzles, his little people farm set, coloring, stickers, and reading books.
Henry loves to line things up...cars, animals, books, crayons, etc.
Henry's current favorite book is the Berenstain Bears Play Ball.
Henry loves to go out on the farm with his grandpas.
Henry is about 85% potty-trained. We still have accidents once in awhile, but for the most part he stays dry. I still have to take him to the bathroom every hour or two, but he's getting better about telling me he needs to go. He pretty much stays dry at night, but we still put him in a diaper just in case.
I'm starting to have Henry take his naps in the morning for 2 reasons: 1. This is when Charlie takes his long nap, so it means I can get Henry to sleep and have both boys asleep at once. 2. If Henry takes an afternoon nap he tends to have trouble falling asleep at night. A morning nap means he can go to bed earlier.
Henry still ends up in our bed in the middle of the night. I know we should probably work on putting a stop to this, but quite frankly it isn't bothering John or I at this point, so we'll leave things be for awhile. As long as we're all getting sleep is all that matters.
Yesterday Henry was playing with his farm set and he started putting his animals in "time out" (sitting them on his bed). I asked him why they were in time out and he shook his head, looked really sad, and said, "Bad choice." Apparently he's heard me say that once or twice ;)
Henry is talking up a storm. There are very few words he won't say. Some of the cutest words he says are : "umpapa" (umpire), "Taya" boy (Charlie boy), 2-2 pitch, Bin Skuah (Vin Scully), "horner-nine" (49'ers), "Re-he" (referee). There are others, of course, but these are the ones I can think of right now.
Henry loves to help me in the kitchen. He especially likes to help me make pizza, scones, granola, and smoothies. When it's time to put the pizza, scones, or granola in the oven, he always cries because he wants to eat everything "right now".
Henry always refers to himself in the 3rd person ("no Hen-yeah like that", "Hen-yeah want that", "Hen-yeah help", etc.)
Henry is having a really hard time with staying in the nursery at CBS, aerobics, and church. He starts crying and screaming, "I want my mom!". This has been sort of frustrating for me.
Henry is a really great older brother. Yesterday he and Charlie were in the front room and I was in the kitchen washing a few dishes. I heard Henry say, "Uh oh, Taya-boy" and then heard him run into Charlie's room. I peaked into the front room to see that Charlie had spit up and Henry had run to get a burp rag so that he could wipe Charlie's mouth.
From the stories I hear about John when he was younger, I think it's pretty clear that Henry is a lot like his dad. John was very passionate about the things he was interested in (although his interest in sports started a bit later, at this age he was interested in all things rodeo :). When John was into rodeo he only wanted to wear plaid button-down "western-style" shirts, and when he got into sports later on, he only wanted to wear shirts with numbers on them (like uniforms). I can totally see this in Henry :)
One thing I'm already noticing about Henry is that he loves to interact with others through sports and games. When we are in a group of people he will often pull out all of his sports gear and start handing it out and telling people where to stand and what position they are playing. We might have a future coach on our hands :)
Henry likes things to be just so. I have a feeling that when Charlie is old enough to start getting into Henry's things we are going to have some rough times. Henry does well with structure and order to be sure!
Henry is such a fun boy to be around. He can be intense and particular, but it really adds to his overall charm and character, I think. He really brings a lot of joy and laughter to those around him. He certainly is a lot like his dad!

(Ok, so that was a lot more than a few things...oh well!)

Bath time...

2011-09-22T14:33:00.000-07:00

John came up with a way to bathe both boys at once...

...it works like a charm!

Week 13...

2011-09-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

13-week highlights:

Charlie continues to be the happiest baby ever! He has his moments, of course, but overall, he is so smiley and content.
Charlie has become quite the chatterbox lately. He coos and makes happy noises all the time. I love this!
He loves to suck on his hands.
We borrowed an exersaucer from John's cousin, Kristen, and started putting him in it this week. He LOVES it!
He is wearing 12 month clothes now.
He sleeps through the night most nights now, but sometimes he wakes up between 4:00 and 5:00. When he does this I feed him really quickly and he goes right back to sleep.
His bedtime is pushing forward to around 9:00ish now, which is nice.
Charlie likes to watch Henry play.
Charlie's eczema has improved DRAMATICALLY! Yeah!!!! His diaper area is still a bit red, but it isn't "shockingly" red like it was before. He still has some reddish bumps in all of his many creases and crevices, but overall his skin feels almost perfectly smooth and it looks really clear too. I'm only applying lotion to his skin once daily (down from 3 times/day last week) which makes holding him so much more enjoyable now :)
This week cousin Levi was born! We can't wait to watch him grow up and play with our Charlie (and Henry too).
Charlie is such a great addition to our family. We love him so much!

I'm an AUNT!

2011-09-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

My sweet nephew, Levi James, was born to Denise & Andrew on Sunday morning! Denise & I spent the day together on Saturday fabric shopping and visiting an indoor rummage sale in Fresno, while Andrew babysat Henry...hard to believe that less than 24 hours later little Levi was born :) And...for the record...Denise went into labor on her own and had a very perfectly sized 7 lbs. 14 oz. boy...nothing like his 10 days late 11 lb. 6 oz. cousin 3-months ago! :)

Here are some pictures of our visit. I didn't get one of Denise and Levi together or of Levi and his quilt that I made him, so I guess I'll just have to make another trip to Fresno soon...darn :)

Aunt Katie & Levi...

Sleeping Levi...

Charlie...

Charlie & Levi (what a difference 3 months makes!)...

Mom, Dad, & little Levi...

Sweet Levi with his new best friend, the pacifier...

COUSINS!...

Grandma Gail with her 3 grandsons...

G.G. Sue with 3 of her 6 great-grandsons...

I have a feeling I'm going to be spending lots of time in Fresno in the weeks and months to come. Especially since I will have another niece or nephew up there come late January!

Sleeping...

2011-09-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

I love seeing Henry put my quilt and pillow to good use!

Bible Study...

2011-09-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning Henry put on my Bible Study name tag and got out his Bible Study folder and colored his picture of baby "Moah" (Moses). His pretend play is really blossoming lately and it is so very cute.

Week 12...

2011-09-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

12-week highlights:

Charlie is BIG. He's just 2 lbs. shy of the weight limit on his carseat (we know plenty of people who keep their kids in these carseats until they are 1), he is wearing 12-month clothes, and he displaces almost all of the water in his baby bathtub when he sits in it. We love our big boy, but most of the baby gear that we have just doesn't seem to fit him very well at this point.
Charlie's eczema seems to be improving a bit, but, most importantly, it is definitely not getting worse, which is good. Aquafor is Charlie's new best friend. I keep him slathered in that stuff all day long. Our clothes are getting grease stains on them, but as long as his skin is looking better that's all that matters.
Charlie isn't sleeping through the night anymore. boo. He's waking up around 4:00 and then going back to sleep and sleeping until 7:30ish. Definitely not horrible, but not as good as sleeping until 6:30 either. I'm praying that he doesn't take after Henry in the sleep department...I don't think I can handle that.
Charlie is blowing lots of bubbles.
Reaching for toys is his new favorite pastime.
His legs are getting much stronger. He's able to stand while we hold him up, which is fun.
Charlie is starting to notice Henry and likes to smile and laugh at him. I think they're going to be great friends :)
This boy of ours continues to be a complete delight.

Outside...

2011-09-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

We haven't been spending much time outside lately due to the abundance of allergy problems in our house. However, last Friday it was clear that Henry really needed some outside play time. So, I grabbed a blanket, Charlie's bumbo seat, and a few magazines and we went into the backyard to play...

Henry's latest sports gear obsession is with John's old ankle braces. He discovered them in a box under our bed and I told him that daddy wore those when he played basketball in college. Big mistake. Now, every time he wants to shoot a basket, he has to put on daddy's ankle braces...

Charlie spent lots of time lying around on the pillow I brought out for him...

It will be great once the boys can play together outside

Charlie's chair...

2011-09-09T20:25:00.000-07:00

We're borrowing this bumbo seat from Denise for awhile. Charlie seems to like sitting in it, although his massive thighs make it a pretty tight squeeze for him...

Henry likes sitting in it too (His thighs aren't massive , so he actually fits better than Charlie does!)...

Thanks for the seat Aunt Nees!

Pismo...

2011-09-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

As per tradition, we enjoyed our extended Labor Day weekend at the beach with John's family. We did some shopping, walking, beach visiting, tennis playing (the guys), eating, and reading. As usual, we had a great time.

Here are the pictures...

Henry helping Grandma Sharon (or "dammah" as he now calls her) make snickerdoodles...

A visit to Avila Valley Barn to feed the animals...

Some football playing at the park. Henry says he is the quarterback. John told him to yell "blue 22" but since his favorite number is 8, he yells "blue 8!" instead...

Going anywhere with Henry means we have to bring his sporting goods...

Charlie & Grandma Sharon...

Henry and Uncle Jay (who was probably Henry's favorite person this trip)...

Dad and Charlie...

Aunt Jill (& Baby Brooks) & Henry...

Our little sumo wrestler...

Grandpa Bob & the boys...
Charlie...

Playing at the beach...

The applying of sunscreen. Henry's favorite part of the day...

Next year there will be 3 little ones underfoot. I can't wait!

Week 11...

2011-09-06T21:34:00.000-07:00

11-week highlights:

We are slowly getting on top of Charlie's eczema. I've found that a combination of aveeno lotion and aquafor seems to work pretty well for us. But goodness, this boy is so greasy once we apply it!
Due to Charlie's persistent cradle cap issues, his hair seems to be falling out as his dry skin scales come off of his scalp. He seems to have a growing bald spot on the top of his head...kind of makes me sad, but it will grow back.
Charlie's diaper rash issues are not going away. Resinol was recommended to me, so that's what we've been using, but the diaper rash is still there. So frustrating!
I've talked to some of my friends who have had kids with eczema and they've said that this time of year is usually the worst because of the heat, almond harvest, season changes, etc. We went to Pismo this past weekend, and not surprisingly, Charlie's skin looked much better than it has in weeks. I'm thinking that getting him out of the heat and the harvest was just what he needed.
Despite all of Charlie's skin issues he continues to be such a happy baby. I didn't know babies could be this happy, but he is...and it's wonderful!
Charlie still goes to bed around 10ish and sleeps until about 6:30. He even sleeps like this when we are on vacation...I sure hope this continues :)
His morning nap is taken at 8:30. Pretty much like clockwork he gets tired then and falls asleep easily. He usually sleeps for about 2 hours.
He hasn't seemed to find an afternoon nap pattern, but hopefully this will come soon. He does take afternoon naps, but they aren't consistently at the same time yet.
Charlie loves to lay in his crib and watch his mobile.
Charlie is starting to giggle. It doesn't sound exactly like a giggle yet, but if he smiles really big he will often make loud cooing noises that I'm counting as giggles :)
Henry is really very sweet to Charlie. He likes to say "Hi sweet boy!" when he talks to him(this is what he hears John and I say to him :) He also likes to tell us to turn on the microwave vent for white noise when he is crying.
Charlie is a complete and utter delight, plain and simple. I think he may bring a nice dose of mellowness to the Wiebe house (which we probably all need :)

Baseball with mom...

2011-08-31T18:10:00.000-07:00

Last week, since John had late tennis practice, it was up to me to play sports with Henry after dinner. He wanted me to wear all of the catcher's gear and pitch to him (not sure why a pitcher needs to wear catcher's gear, but I do what I'm told). When John came home from practice this is how he found us...

Henry in undies, his borrowed batting helmet, his hand-me-down baseball cleats (which are WAY too big on him), and his foam bat and wiffle ball...

This is Henry's baseball card pose...

This picture just cracks me up...

Henry agreed to let me sit in the lawn chair and play since I had to hold Charlie at the same time...

Here I am wearing the catcher's gear and pitching to Henry...

I'm doing my best to make sure that I take lots of time to play with Henry (& someday Charlie too). My mom was really good at playing with us when we were growing up, and I want to make sure that I'm the same way with my kids...even if that means wearing John's old catcher's gear :)

Week 10...

2011-08-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

10-week highlights:

We are still trying to figure out Charlie's skin issues. He definitely has eczema so we're dealing with that, but we're also still puzzled as to why his diaper rash won't go away. I've been using disposable diapers thinking that there may have been something in the cloth that was irritating him, but my doctor suggested using only cloth and changing him as frequently as possible. Keeping the diaper area open and exposed to the air is the goal. Hopefully we can get this under control soon.
The last 2 Sundays have been kind of difficult at church. Charlie desperately needs a nap, but he doesn't seem to want to fall asleep there at all. John and I have spent our time during the service pacing the cry room trying to get him calmed down. Kind of the opposite of his usual disposition. We'll get this figured out soon as well, I'm sure.
Charlie is off the charts in both height and weight...
1 month: 15 lbs. 8 oz (1 month, 10 days, 16 lbs.), 24 1/4" (above 95th percentile for both). Head circumference- 40 1/2 " (above 90th percentile)
2 months: 18 lbs. 5 ozs. (1 month, 10 days, 18 lbs. 13 oz.), 26" (above 95th percentile for both). Head circumference- 43" (above 95th percentile).
Charlie has been sleeping next to the Matt Kemp bobblehead doll a lot lately. Whenever he falls asleep, Henry likes to sneak Matt right next to him. It's pretty cute :)
Henry says "Charlie" like this..."Hi-yah".
Charlie is still giving us LOTS of smiles these days. Despite all of his skin issues he is such a happy baby!

Carpinteria...

2011-08-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

We went to Carpinteria with my parents and Denise & Andrew at the beginning of August. We all had a great time. We camped in the State Park and my parents stayed at their usual condo. Both boys slept so well in the tent...I was honestly shocked! Charlie even slept through the night the entire time we were there. It was great :) We did our usual beach stuff, visited the local shops, made a trip to Santa Barbara, and even took a trip to the SB zoo.

The big story of the trip, however, was that John got stung on the foot by a stingray! He was boogie boarding (is that the correct way to say it?) by himself on the beach while the rest of us were in the condo. My mom and I were in the living room with both boys asleep and all of a sudden the door flung open and John was completely out of breath and yelled at us to get a towel to stop his bleeding. I assumed he had stubbed his toe or cut his foot, but it turned out that something in the water had bitten him. He was in a tremendous amount of pain and his foot was pouring blood and it soon became clear that this was not a minor wound!

I called and found an urgent care nearby and we grabbed Charlie (couldn't leave him behind since I'm his food source) and took off to find it. Once we got there they took us to a room quickly and immediately put John's foot in warm water. This helped the pain, but only for about 5-10 minutes. The urgent care was packed and it took forever to get a doctor in to see us. While we were waiting John's pain kept escalating and at one point he was shivering and shaking because of it. While John was laying on the medical table in complete pain, I was trying to help him feel better and feed Charlie at the same time. I did my best, but these conditions certainly weren't ideal. Don't worry though, after I fed Charlie he managed to have a huge blowout and I was left with some serious yellow poop stains all over my paints. Just as I was kind of getting over the fact that I baby poop all over me, he decided to spit up all.over.my.clothes. I was a mess! Motherhood is so glamorous :)

Once the doctor came in he looked at the wound on the top of John's foot (it was fairly deep, but only about an inch in length) and he immediately knew that John had been hit with a stingray barb. Apparently these stings are about as serious as a beesting, but on a pain scale of 1-10, they rate about an 8 or 9. So minor injury, but intensely painful. The doctor examined the wound to make sure that the barb was not left in the foot (it wasn't) and then gave him a tetanus shot, pain shot, and some antibiotics. After that they sent us home. It was a crazy day!

No pictures of the stingray ordeal, but the rest of the trip is recorded below...

Henry fell asleep in my lap with a tootsie pop in his mouth...

A tootsie pop for John too...

Charlie smiles...

My parents and the 4 Wiebes went to the zoo. We had such a great time!...

They had a small hill covered in astro turf that they called an "ant hill". The kids got to use pieces of cardboard to slide down. It was really fun...even for a 2-year old :)

My parents gave Henry a quarter to ride on this little mechanical car thing. I found it particularly hilarious that they didn't even hesitate to pay for this silly little ride. When we were growing up my parents didn't give us quarters for ANYTHING! If we wanted to ride one of these sorts of things we had to spend our own money on it (and, of course, being the miser that I am...I NEVER spent my hard earned quarters :)

They have a really fun little train ride at the zoo that takes you around the entire park. Henry got to sit with grandma and grandpa during the ride. He loved it!...

At the beach, Aunt Nees and Uncle Andrew helped Henry ride Uncle Andrew's board. Henry thought he was pretty big stuff! Andrew even taught him how to make the "shaka/hang loose" sign and say "yeah, bro!". Henry thinks Uncle Andrew is really cool :)

Henry also got in plenty of digging while we were there...

We had a great time...can't wait to go back again next year when we will have 2 boys running around in the sand, and cousin Feil too :)