Two Months & Counting

Wow - it's already been 9 weeks since Jacob joined our little family. As long as some of the past days have been, the time really has flown by. He is now over 12 lbs - 75th% for height and weight. The last 4 weeks Jacob has been busy perfecting his smile, sleeping 8-10 hours at night (Hallelujah!!!), only napping when being held, and testing out his vocal chords. He's also started tracking (he loves to look at his toys... and unfortunately the tv) and he's started grabbing things. I have thoroughly enjoyed snuggling with him. I love how he always watches me and is very eager to smile back.

Emily continues to love having her brother around and she is such a good helper. She is always so willing to sing to him, give him his paci, hold him, and try to make him smile. Today she read books to him while I ate breakfast.

Of course there are other things demanding my time and going on in our lives besides taking care of Jacob. So here are the rest of our pictures and adventures the past several weeks:

Jeff and I try to make Valentine's Day more of a family day. We spend the days before writing "love notes" to each other and then on Valentine's we have a "fancy" dinner and read each other the notes. Emily LOVES it. She was so excited to have the lights turned down and use the china. Jeff and I loved her notes this year. She has learned so much in preschool the past few months. She wrote all of our names on them and signed her name. She also drew some great pictures. She is such a sweet little girl and we just love her.

No candles this year... I wasn't as on top of things because of Jacob.

We went to my brother's house to watch the Superbowl. Emily had a blast playing with her cousins and with Gma & Gpa Newman. I wasn't that into the game (but was actually suprised the Saints won) and I thought the commercials were pretty crappy this year. There were only two or three that we liked. I have to say I loved the Doritos commercial with the little boy getting mad at the guy going out with his mom. And the Betty White Snickers commercial was good. There was a lot of wasted money on the others though.

We celebrated Lucy's and Lisa's birthdays the beginning of February. It was the first time everyone from my family had been together since Thanksgiving. The kids were running around and having a blast together. Sara & Emily got to help decorate the cupcakes and then the kids all got to blow out their own candle. It was fun being all together again... even if it was loud and crazy.

We had a field trip to the fire station with Emily's preschool a few weeks ago. Emily got a hat, badge, and coloring book. They also got to climb inside a fire truck and ambulance. The captain came out with his accordion and played for the kids too. Then to end the tour they took them out back with the truck mount fire hose and sprayed it. The kids had a lot of fun.

I love the little boy dancing next to Emily

Post Pregnancy Rantings

I've noticed that after the arrival of baby #2 fellow bloggers posting trends tend to drop off. I now find myself in that same boat and completely understand why. As I'm making lunch with one hand, holding a crying baby with the other, have spit up running off my shoulder, and the phone is ringing, I find that my to-do list is accumulating quite a layer of dust. As I mentally add things to my list, blogging initially starts out at the bottom and as time passes it moves up to the top till I'm so guilt ridden that I haven't documented my kids life that I finally have a marathon post in an attempt to squash that feeling. I then vow I'm not going to do that again and I'll post again in a couple of days. Then lo and behold it's been two weeks or even a month and I've yet to even note that the kids are driving me insane and I'm wishing I was in my best friends shoes right now as she's on a cruise with her husband or that I could swap places with my sister and be leaving for Cancun tomorrow. But alas, I'm here with a constant barrage of whining and a baby that will only sleep if he's being held and wondering how I'm ever going to have time to prepare my sharing time for Sunday. Now in an attempt to start thinking positively (and so this post doesn't seem so depressing) let's just move on to pictures.

Dress shopping with Aunt Niki and playing cards with soon-to-be Uncle Mike. (And note that Mike is playing princess go fish. He's going to be a good uncle to all those girls).

And here's what completely makes up for the disastrous looking house, numerous pancake or grilled cheese dinners, once-a-week showers, 3-days-a-week pajama days, and one out-of-the-loop primary president: