Settling In

Hi all!
We've settled in to our little life here, and I'm loving being home with the girls. I know it's only temporary, but I like the stay-at-home mom gig. I have just a few more weeks to enjoy it. Jordan is pretty much an angel, just like Harlie was at this age. She only cries when she's hungry, and we often have to wake her to eat so we don't hear much fussing. She wakes us twice at night and Mikey and I have been taking turns feeding her so neither of us is exhausted. Many of you have been asking how Harlie is adjusting, and I feel like I owe you more of an answer, but all I can say is she's doing fine. It's as if Jordan was always here. Harlie doesn't whine about things, and she's very helpful. She says Jordan is cute, and she checks on her a lot to make sure she's okay, or just to see what she's doing, but she's not obsessed with her either. Things haven't really changed much for her. We have been waking her up at night and in the early morning, I'm afraid, so her sleep patterns are changing a bit. I do feel badly about that, but once the baby starts sleeping through the night we may be able to go back. For right now, though, we're enforcing an earlier bedtime so she's not missing so many hours of sleep. And she has been requesting her nap a bit earlier the past few days, so at least she knows how to make things work. Thanks for reading if you got this far - I'll caption below the photos. Love you guys!

Her hair was spiked to match Daddy's

____________________

The certainly are beautiful, aren't they???

________________________

This is what happens when you give Harlie a bowl full of strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. She ate the whole bowl, which was an ENTIRE bag of frozen fruit.

________________________

Dressing up like a fairy

__________________________

Jordan Brianne

Hi there! I don't have all of the photos I want to share with you ready, so I'll just post a few quick ones to appease those of you who are complaining! Mom is coming over this morning, and I'm hoping with her help I can get myself and my things in order enough to be ready to do some more photographing.

For those of you who don't know the exact statistics:

Jordan Brianne was born Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 7:11 PM.

7 lbs 2 oz, 19 inches

We had a long day of decent labor, though sometimes painful, and we had a few issues with the epidural, but it worked out fine. I just wanted to scare Mike! Delivery took longer than it had with Harlie - about an hour and a half of pushing as opposed to the half hour with Har - but Jordan was bigger and came face up, which I hear has a lot to do with the difficulty pushing. Anyway, I'd still do it again in a heartbeat just to keep my precious girls.

Still Waiting....

Hi all. I just wanted to let you know that I have NOT had a baby yet, and I'm still hugely pregnant. So huge, in fact, that I'm getting disgusted by myself more every day. My stomach has grown new stretch marks over the past few days, and Jordan has no room to move, but still does so, causing me a lot of discomfort. If she's not an 8 pound baby, I'll be surprised. Anyway, no new photos to share, although I have still been taking them. Harlie just gets cuter every day! I'm on leave now from the church, and as soon as I get my one final order here (it's stuck on a Fed Ex truck that won't deliver because of our extreme blizzard) I'll get those pics shipped out as soon as I can so I can relax! I figure the doctor won't let me go much past due date, so if we have to induce, we'll do so on the 24th at the absolute latest. No matter what, it won't be long now. I'll post pics and stats as soon as we have them!

Pregnancy Photos

Well, I decided I wasn't making the same mistake this pregnancy that I made with my first - I was getting pregnant photos taken no matter what! So thanks to my sweet friend Heidi for doing me the favor. I absolutely love these photos (we got them taken yesterday and I've already edited them all and chosen my favorites). I can't stop looking at them! If any of you reading this are from the era where showing a pregnant belly was shameful, I apologize, but I think it's one of the most beautiful things in the world. I'll just share my absolute favorites.

So I Lied!

I know in the little post below I said I wouldn't be back before Jordan was born, but I did want to add a few things.

First of all, do you know what this is?

This is a "Belted Kingfisher", and if you show Harlie its photo, she can name it, along with a Rock Dove, a Blue Jay, and a number of other birds. She has a knack for memorizing anything you tell her.

This morning, she said to me "My nostrils are itchy." We also had a conversation the other day about what "pupils" are and why we all have them in our eyes, and a few days before that we discussed which pronouns to use in a number of cases.

I don't know what to do with her... I'm wondering what you fellow parents suggest for a child so eager to learn everything. She's at this rate going to be old for her grade because of her birthday and school cut-off dates, but I don't think that's the best idea for her. I'm wondering what all of you think of starting school early, or what other things you've enrolled your children in to keep them occupied. Any advice would be greatly appreciated - you can comment if it's small, or email me (timelessfoto@hotmail.com) if you have lengthy advice. Thanks in advance!

Getting Ready....

Hi everyone! I thought I should maybe get some Christmas photos on here before I have new information for you on our little baby due to come soon! Jordan is growing RAPIDLY and I am rapidly GROWING. I hate to say it, but I am very much ready for her to get out of me. I was not this uncomfortable with Harlie, and it's getting pretty miserable. I have a headache every day now, because of the lack of sleep... Oh well. I know it really is all worth it in the end. But my mood is not as great as of late, so I want to get Christmas photos on here before I lose all drive to do so. Anyway, we are all doing well, and things are pretty much in order here - I even have most of my customer orders completed and out of here; I should be able to complete the others in a short amount of time. Enjoy the photos!

Scott, Jen, Zoey, Roger, Brian, Gloria, Mike, Harlie, and Me on Christmas Day

______________________________

We tried to get a cute photo of Harlie and Zoey.... well, it's near impossible to get a 2-year-old to sit still and hold a 2-month-old without making her cry!
____________________________

Sweet little Zoey!

______________________

Harlie and Daddy "playing" the piano

____________________________________

Aunt Bonnie receiving her home-made ornaments from Harlie

_________________________

My ADORABLE Grandma

(by the way, her sweatshirt was detailed by my cousin Trish - she's now selling some items, and they are all BEAUTIFUL. Check them out here - http://www.critterbugandcricket.blogspot.com/)

_____________________________

My little Har squeezing one of her new toys

___________________

Spike helping Harlie open one of her gifts - he LOVES opening presents (even more than she does)

_____________________________

My little guy enjoying one of his new toys (yes - he gets spoiled, too!)

___________________________

Well, I don't promise much before Jordan's arrival.... hopefully next month I'll have some new adorable photos for you!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great celebration to ring in the new year. We had a nice evening with family, and Harlie asked to go to bed around 9:30, so today we have a sweet little girl in a good mood. This is the year my second little girl will be born, so I'm already excited about 2010!