Long Awaited Pictures

Remember how before the baby came I said I'd post pictures of our finished front room? Well I kept forgetting obviously and now a month and a half later I'm finally showing off my husbands handywork.

First let me refresh your memory of an example of what we had to walk through every time we went in and out of our apartment.  (We live in a basement apartment in case you didn't know).

It didn't always have the window missing, that was only missing for a few days while Brent repaired that wall.

And now I will show you a picture of it FINISHED but without the furniture and decorations.

drum roll please

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 and whalla!

and now for the room with stuff in it.

I LOVE this front room.  We needed it badly, we were going crazy having our couch in Chico's room and our computer in our bedroom. If guests came over they could sit in our little kitchen or in Chico's room.  If people came and needed to see something on our computer, we'd have to take them into our bedroom.  It was fine for a time but it was starting to wear on me.  

 We're in the front room all the time now, it feels so happy in here.  I think having this room finished has greatly influenced the ease I have had in coping with having two kids.  Besides the fact that our new little angel is just a really calm baby that sleeps a lot. :)  After Chico goes to bed I can just lounge around on the couch and watch a movie or read while Brent photo edits at the computer (which is directly across from the couch).  The other day I even got ambitious and broke out my painting again and painted while he edited.  It was a grand old time.  Oh and during the day, having NATURAL LIGHT pouring into our apartment is just priceless.

Halloween

Meet Chico the giraffe.

 

He would like to show you his Halloween Costume from this year.

He's a pretty cute kid.

 

He's got a pretty cute baby brother too. They had some nice grandparents spoil them with candy. I may or may not have eaten Nelmo's candy this year.

He had some evil plots this Halloween. Don't let the smiles fool ya. This is his buddy Auntie Em. She's a Jedi night. Apparently giraffes are well trained in the ways of the force.

This is his other accomplice in crime that lives down the street.  They've kidnapped the beautiful princess. All he demands for a ransom is all the candy we've got. 

His little brother thinks it's all pretty funny.

He doesn't feel the need to join in on Chico's schemings. He's got a pretty good life, what with eating and sleeping all day and getting carried around wherever he needs to go.

as of late

Nelmo is growing like crazy. It's weird to see him in the clothes at 3 weeks old that Chico wore as a 3 month old. He's our big boy! I LOVE this picture of him:

I know I've mentioned this before, but Chico LOVES Nelmo. He gets the sweetest most tender look on his face when he looks at him. Chico laid down on my bed next to Nelmo and I ran to get my camera because it was so cute. Here is the series of (badly taken) pictures.

And this next picture just cracks me up.

We needed to give our ward an updated picture of us for our ward directory so we went in our yard and took this with our tripod. We were surprised Chico smiled so good for our tripod!

Speaking of our yard, our neighbors have goats. There is a Mom a Dad and a new baby. Chico is a bit obsessed with them and usually loves them. But about a week ago he was petrified of them, couldn't walk up to our door without screaming and crying in fear. He even was having nightmares about them. We've convinced him that goats are nice now, but man that was a weird phase. How could he be scared of this cute little thing?

 

Okay, I guess they are pretty weird looking... So anyway the other day the baby goat somehow got stuck on the wrong side of the fence and the goats were freaking out. I think we can hear the goats better than their owners so Brent went out there and picked up the baby goat and walked around the corner to the neighbor's house and put the goat back. During that time the Mom and Dad were so scared for the baby, it was awesome to see them wanting to protect their baby. It was also awesome to see Brent holding a baby goat in his arms! It's big but surprisingly light Brent said. 

Enough about goats. :) Back to our kiddos. We swaddle Nelmo in blankets when he sleeps (so he's swaddled probably 20 hours of the day). The other day Chico wanted to get wrapped in blankets too, so Brent obliged and we just had to get a picture of them next to each other. I know Nelmo looks precarious at the edge of the couch but we had them immobilized because we're pretty much pros at swaddling if I do say so myself.

Another thing we've been dealing with lately was that I strained my rotator cuff. Super annoying to have an arm injury when you need that arm to hold and nurse your baby. It happened on a Saturday night and slowly kept getting worse. By Tuesday I was in so much pain that it hurt like crazy even when I wasn't moving it! So we had my old neighbor come over who is a Physical Therapist and he analyzed it and showed me some exercises and told me what to do with it. Then I had a priesthood blessing from Brent and my Dad. After that it slowly started improving just as I was promised. And now I can act like a normal Mom again! People have been so nice to us bringing us meals and helping with Chico. We are so indebted to them!

legos

Thank goodness for these big lego blocks.  They've kept Chico most occupied, most occupied indeed (name that movie).  Chico and I have been adjusting a lot this last week. Brent has gone back to work now and I have to feed Nelmo quite a bit during the day so Chico has needed to keep himself entertained more.  Thankfully these blocks have been perfect for that!  I asked Chico if I could take a picture of his creation and he was more than happy to pose for me...several different times.  What a ham. :)

And here is a picture of what Nelmo has been doing a lot of:  

No pictures of the other activities of his day which include changing diapers and eating. (you're welcome). Apparently we're doing something right over here. Nelmo has gained 11 ounces from his birth weight in just two weeks! That's my boy!

Chico sure loves Nelmo

This picture was from back at the hospital. How did I forget to post it!?

One week old..

We're going to be calling our cute little baby, "Nelmo" on this blog.  That's what Chico called him at first when he came home. Yeah, Nelmo doesn't really sound anything like his real name but that's how Chico talks for example "Grandpa" sounds like "Bartok".  It's a secret language and sometimes even I can't figure out the word Chico is trying to say.  By the way, Chico absolutely loves Nelmo.  He would hold him all the time if we let him.  And we are letting him hold him again, he finally stopped throwing up a few days ago. :)

We did a photo shoot this past weekend and had so much fun capturing OUR cute little baby. You don't know how much I've been looking forward to this! Here is Nelmo, one week old! And of course we had to try out the wedding rings on the toes. I was so proud of Nelmo, he was the most patient newborn with wedding rings on his toes that I've ever photographed. He didn't mind it at all! Good boy, you're being trained well Nelmo. This is the first of MANY photo sessions. :)

And I forgot to post this picture in the pictures last week from the hospital. I LOVE this one of him!

Welcome Baby #2...

We'd like to introduce you to our second son. He was born over the weekend and was healthy as can be. The delivery went really well and it has been wonderful experiencing life with our newborn. We're home now and Chico just started throwing up everything he's eaten today so I can't do a long post right now. Soon though. :)