merry and bright

This past weekend we did all things Christmas!

Friday night Jimmy and I left the kiddos with my parents and went to the John Deere Christmas party. Des Moines is the only John Deere branch, that we know of, that still does a holiday party for all the employees at the large level, instead of just leaving it up to the departments. And it was a lot of fun! We dressed up, enjoyed some drinks and an appetizer dinner, and were entertained by a dueling pianos act. We even hit up a local bar with several others for a night cap. We hadn't enjoyed a night out alone since Preston was born so it was long overdue and really nice!

Then Saturday our kitchen was full of sugar, butter, frosting, sprinkles, little hands and lots of help for our Christmas baking. I invited my brother and his family down for the day as well and I love a house full! We made rolo pretzels, dipped pretzels, dipped peppermint oreos, oreo truffles, sugar cookies, peanut blossoms, and caramel popcorn - so yummy! I definitely ate too much and had a stomach ache that night - not use to all those sweets!

The kiddos helped with the sugar cookies and put M&Ms on the pretzels as well as decorated ice cream cones - aka christmas trees - and had lots of fun doing it! I think they all had a little bit of a sugar high by the end of the day.

We ended the night with pizza and a movie where the cousins all cuddled up and fell asleep - sweet memories.

Sunday after everyone left I finished wrapping presents and made sure we have everyone covered - only 1 more gift to buy and we have to get it back "home" so we are good to go. I can't wait to celebrate Christmas here with our kids and then head back and spend a good bit of time with our families as well. And it sounds like we should have a white Christmas after all as snow is in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow! Now we all know I don't love cold weather but I do love how pretty the snow looks and really love a white Christmas - it just makes it feel more festive!

The last thing on our Christmas to do list is to bring the kiddos to see Santa and we are doing that tonight at the local Bass Pro with my sister and her little one - I'll post those pictures tomorrow!

I hope you are enjoying this sweet Christmas time, enjoying traditions at your home, enjoying buying and/or making gifts for your loved ones, and most importantly have time to reflect on the incredible reason for the season - Jesus' birthday and what that means to us! 

3 months

Mr Preston turned 3 months this past week and once again time is simply passing too quickly!

Our little man is such a happy happy baby. He continues to be a laid back happy little guy that loves you to just look at him and smiles, smiles, smiles. He is cooing and laughing and brings us such joy.

He is growing like a weed - I don't have a weight or length for his month but I know he is continuing to grow. He is now in 3-6M and 6M clothes. He eats every 3 hours or so and gets about half breast milk and half formula. He continues to be quite gassy and spits up after almost every feeding. He hasn't lost much, if any of his hair, but still has more on the sides than on the top:) We chuckle at his hair because it kind of makes him look like a little old man - a cute little old man at that!

Other new things this month - he sucks his hands, he holds on to blankets and is starting to reach for toys. He recognizes voices and people from across the room now and it melts my heart when he hears it and just smiles.

James Preston -
You bring much joy to our family little man. It's so hard to imagine our lives without you already. Your little smile and coo's make my day and I enjoy spending all my days with you and your big sister. May you always always know how much you are loved and cherished by us.
We love you!

And as you can see he's already getting hard to get a picture of sitting still!

christmas is coming

I cannot believe Christmas is right around the corner. I absolutely love this time of year and am finding that with little kiddos it's even better! Lily is more active and understands way more this year than she did last year and it's so much fun. I am also quickly realizing how important it is to set and stick to a Christmas budget as I've found buying presents for Lily to be way too much fun - I'm just so excited for her :)

This last week we have been decorating for Christmas, getting my shopping list sorted out for what and who we still need to buy gifts for, yesterday we put up the Christmas tree, and I am hopeful that today we will get up the outside lights - even though it's snowing and cold outside and we should have done it weeks back when it was nice out!

We don't have any big Christmas plans this year other than spending plenty of time with our families. John Deere gets a nice week and a half break so we don't have to feel rushed with getting back "home" yet getting some things done around here as well. We are incredibly lucky to have our families live close enough together that we can feasibly do both during the holidays without too much travel.

We also have a few Christmas parties we are looking forward to in the coming weeks. Des Moines John Deere has a party that should be lots of fun with many old and new co-workers for both Jimmy and I. My parents are planning to come down and the watch the kiddos while we enjoy the night out for that one. And then the builders that built our house and majority of the homes in our neighborhood have an upcoming Christmas party as well.

We plan to do our Christmas baking next weekend too - a few of our favorites are frosted sugar cookies (of course!), rolo pretzels, dipped pretzels, and peanut blossoms. We may have to look on pinterest for some inspiration on a few more.

So that's what we've been up to lately - aside from the ongoing house list on what it takes to get settled. I am anxiously awaiting Christmas with my little family of 4 as well as our families back "home"!

By the way I am writing this post this morning as I sit in our living room with a cup of coffee listening to my littlest baby coo and smile at me as snow is falling outside - love it - how blessed we are!

paisley grace schipper

On Sunday morning at 7:29am my sister Jacinda and brother in law Clint welcomed their sweet baby girl into this world. Paisley Grace Schipper.

We were able to go see them at the hospital on Sunday night as a family and then I spent a few hours at the hospital yesterday morning while my mom stayed with my kiddos.

She is just a doll - so much dark hair, her mommy's nose and dimples, and daddy's dark skin.

Babies are such blessings. Every time a child is born it truly is a miracle and we are so thrilled that she arrived safely and healthy - both her and mama!

I can't wait for my sister to experience motherhood and I'm incredibly thankful that we live so close that we will be here to watch little Paisley grow.

We love you Paisley Grace and we look forward to all the fun memories ahead!

more space

Turns out I'm at my maximum storage capacity on this blog and can't add any more pictures until I do something about it.

Looks like I'll be making a book out of my blog posts sooner than I planned. Until then, enjoy my posts with no pictures :)

Any tips on making a blog book from anyone that's done it before?

a house full

This Thanksgiving was a bit unconventional for our family as my sister was due to have her first baby any day which meant she couldn't travel. So we hosted Thanksgiving at our new home and it was a house full. A house full of 6 little ones 6 and under equals lots if playing, laughter, some fights :), lots of food, football, wii playing, movies, and most importantly lots of love! Our house was definitely full as there were 16 of us total and I'll admit I got a little sick of cooking and washing dishes! but as soon as everyone left I immediately missed the chaos!

The fun began on Wednesday when my sister, brother in law, and 2 nephews rolled into town about 5am after driving from Denver, CO through the night. After a little sleeping and breakfast we headed out to enjoy one of the last days of warm weather for awhile at our neighborhood park. We stayed until around lunch time then headed home for lunch and naps. After naps we loaded up and hit the road to spend the next day at my parents and the Grover's. Wednesday night was spent at my parents with the Davis clan and then Thursday morning we headed over to the Grover's for the day.

Thursday we enjoyed a yummy Thanksgiving meal with Jimmy's family at his grandparents and then enjoyed a movie night at the Grover's with his siblings. Then Friday morning it was back to our place to meet up with the Davis clan again.

Friday we spent the afternoon playing games, playing with toys, playing the wii, and just enjoy eachother's company. Us ladies may have done just a little shopping too! We do Black Friday shopping in the middle of the night/early morning every year. However, with my sister being so pregnant and several stores opening Thanksgiving night, which we chose not to support, we ended up hitting up just a few stores later in the afternoon and guess what, we still got almost everything we were after! Friday night we broke in our mini bar, aka snack and popcorn station, and the basement with a family movie.

Then Saturday was a day of decorating sugar cookies for Christmas, more playing for the kiddos, and then everyone hitting the road after lunch. Saturday also became very exciting as my sister started having contractions just hours after everyone left. While we were so excited my sister from Denver was of course so bummed that she missed meeting her niece by just a few hours! 

So the rest of Saturday Jimmy and I took a much needed nap with the kiddos, did some cleaning, and he made a little more progress on his garage organization project before we had to hit the road yet again for another Grover Thanksgiving back North!

Sunday morning we joined the other side of the Grover family for a combined Thanksgiving and Christmas lunch and afternoon that they do every year. However, we cut the trip short as we had a new niece to hurry back and meet! Which that deserves it's own post so that will be next!

Overall things went so well and we enjoyed having everyone at our house so much. Yes it's a lot of work but it's incredibly worth it and we are just so thankful for the time we have together as a family! As our families grow it gets harder and harder to see eachother throughout the year so the holidays are always extra special when we are all together! 

Pictures to come....I'm having issues load them for some reason.

2 months old

Preston turned 2 months old on Monday, November 12th. While it seems like it's gone so fast, he seems like he's been a part of our family for much longer.

Yesterday Preston saw the doctor for his 2 month check up. He now weighs 14lbs 6 oz and is 24 inches long. He is growing like a weed! In the past 2-3 weeks he has really filled out and has turned into one of those chubby babies we all adore!

He is a very good eater although we've been doing mostly bottle feeding him with my pumped breast milk. For some reason he seems to eat better this way, seems to have less gas and just seems more content. This has also been much easier for me as we've transitioned to two and moved - the ability for others to feed him has been a God send! I'm not one that totally loves the breast feeding experience so I am ok with this too. However, I absolutely think breast milk is the best thing for baby, if you can provide it, so I'm just thankful that's what he's getting!

He is a happy baby that just enjoys attention, eating, and lots of love! He eats every 3-4 hours during the day and is still inconsistent with napping but he naps a long nap in both the morning and afternoon/early evening time. He usually goes to bed for the night between 9 and 10pm, sleeps until 3 or 4am, wakes up again at 6am and most days goes back to bed until 8:30am or so. However, the past few days he hasn't been wanting to go back to sleep after his 6am feeding - boo for mama!

He is wearing mostly 0-3 month and 3 month clothes but I think it's time to move him up!

He's been through the stress and dismay of us moving to a new home and weathered it just fine - he doesn't know the difference, right?!

We are going to switch him to cloth diapers in the next few days as well as move him into his crib - he's been sleeping in a pack n play in our room since he came home from the hospital. Lots of change in store my little man!

He smiles and is beginning to coo - I LOVE when they find their little voice! He has discovered his arms and legs and his little right arm just moves around all day long. His little face just lights up when you simply look at him - so sweet! I adore this little baby stage and love the times I do get to just sit and hold him - he is precious!

James Preston,
You are such a happy and easy baby and we simply adore you! You have been such a fun addition to our family and we look forward to a life full of happiness with you! Your little smile and coos make my day and I already can't imagine our family without you! You are a special boy and will always be your mama's little man!
We love you!

Now bring on the chub....:)

a year and a half

November 10th marked Lily's 18th month of life and we are so thankful for every one of those days. Not every day has been easy but still we are thankful and can't imagine our life without our sweet little girl. She has grown into such a little person full of personality and life and I can't help but just smile when I think about our Lily May.

She had her 18 month check up today and weighed in at 26 lbs with a height of 34 inches. That puts her about 90% for both categories. 

She has changed so much in the past few months, saying so many words, is a great big sister to brother Preston - always helping me when I ask her to, running and climbing everywhere and on everything! and loves so many different things. 

Some of her favorite things to play with currently are books, baby dolls, and blocks. She loves Elmo and Curious George and unfortunately has been able to watch a little too much of them lately as we get settled in to our new house :) Her favorite foods still seems to be most all fruits, hot dog, pizza, and fruit snacks. She loves being outside - whether it's riding a 4 wheeler with daddy (or grandma!), playing at the playground, or helping daddy in the garage - she just loves it!

She has so many new words since she was 12 months and has begun putting together 2-3 word sentences. She repeats almost any word you say if you ask her to - which means we better be paying attention to what we say!:) but still gets frustrated sometimes because we don't always understand what she wants or needs.

She is wearing 18-24 month and 2T clothes, takes one afternoon nap a day that is usually 1-2 hours long, she goes to bed between 8 and 8:30pm and usually sleep until 8 or 8:30am, and has begun showing interest in potty training - even going in the potty at least once a day for the past few weeks! Potty training is one of our next big to-do's!

Other new things since my 12 month post - we have moved to Ankeny and she seems to know that this is her new house already, she trick or treated for the first time (dressed as an owl), became a big sister to baby brother Preston, had her first sleep over with Grandma Davis and Grandma Grover at our house while we were in the hospital, went camping, went to her Great Grandma Davis' 80th birthday party, and so many more things I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention!

Lily May,
You are such a wonderful, happy, content, and playful little girl that truly lights up our world. Your funny personality and full of life character bring smiles to mommy and daddy's face every single day. You are a good listener, a terrific big sister, and it's so apparent you love life already! You really do bring us so much joy and we can't imagine life without you! Happy 18 month birthday our sweet baby girl that is growing up way too fast! We love you!

And here's some photos from the last 6 months......

June 2012 - eating sweet corn

Juky 2012 - aunt Jena got married and Lily was the flower girl

August 2012 - trip to the state fair. Also this month she got your first power wheels - a hand me down Barbie Jeep,  and had her first hair cut!

October 2012 - trick or treat, our little owl

September 2012 - Lily became a big sister! She also enjoyed time in the tractor and combine with Grandpa Grover and daddy!

adjusting

Well we have officially moved and are now residents of Ankeny. We spent last weekend guiding the movers on Friday and unpacking boxes with the help of my parents and my sister and brother in law the rest of the weekend. We had a nice break from the paper and boxes and had a dinner party at Jimmy's bosses house on Saturday night and then back at it for most of the day on Sunday. My parents left town and in rolled my mother in law, Robin, to help for a few more days. Monday and Tuesday brought more unpacking and organizing and now we are officially on our own in a new city!

I've always enjoyed moving - it gives you the chance to learn a new place, meet new friends, and see what different places have to offer. However, with kiddos moving is a bit more stressful, less fun, more challenging, and doesn't quite allow you as much flexible to just go explore. That being said, I have a feeling we will like it here, that we will meet some new friends - in addition to the ones that we already know here!, and that once we get adjusted things will be good.

We still have an ever growing to do list of things to do around the house before I'd say we are officially settled - tighten curtain rods, hang pictures and prints, organize toy room, organize closets, unpack the garage, get toilet paper holders and towel hooks for bathrooms - this is a new construction home so, per our request, it was left undone, get rid of boxes, unpack garage....you get the picture. 

Although we have a rather long to-do list I am proud to say that every box inside the house is unpacked and relatively where it's suppose to be. I have all the decorating mostly complete, with the exception of actually hanging things on the walls! So we've come along ways in just a weeks time.

The kiddos are adjusting just ok. Of course Preston doesn't know any different but Lily is learning that this is our new house, I think. Once her toys began to fill the space and her room got unpacked I think she realized we were here to stay and not just visiting. Night time has been an adjustment that may take a while to actually adjust to. Lily has woken up almost every night just screaming with fear. You can easily tell she just doesn't know where she is and has a hard time being calmed down, even by Jimmy or I. But we know this is just part of it. Soon (hopefully) she will go back to her usual sleeping pattern and we will all be back to getting good/normal rest.

Other than that things are going well. We spent the morning today exploring our neighborhood park, which is quite impressive, and I plan to spend the afternoon doing some catching up on things other than unpacking or organizing - hence why I'm blogging during nap time :)

More to come, I will post pictures and such once we get things hung on these bare walls!

best buds

One of the many things we will miss about living here is our friends as well as the little buddies Lily has made in her short (almost) year and a half of life. The friend we tend to do the most with and is definitely Lily's best friend is also named Lily, and it's been so much fun to watch these two grow this past year. Her mom was an acquaintence of mine growing up and someone I happened to get in touch with through facebook when we moved back, and she has since grown into one of my closest friends.

The Lily's have been playing together since they were just a few months old and are only a few months apart. We are often asked if they are twins, even though my Lily is a little bigger than the other Lily, even though she's younger. We've done lots of play dates at each other's houses, lots of pool time this summer, story time at the library, tailgating, dinner dates, birthday parties, time at the park, met for walks, nursery together at the gym and MOPS, and so much more.

It's been fun to watch their little personalities develop as they learned who each other actually was :) and to watch their excitement now when we tell them they are going to play with Lily! They have very different personalities but really do play well together and always seem to have fun.

One of the perks of working part time while living here, and now staying home full time, has been the flexibility to do these type of things. I often think about how different our year may have been if I were working full time. I definitely wouldn't have had the time to develop relationships and new friendships like my friendship with Danielle. She is just one of those people that is so kind and selfless the instant you get to know her. I can't tell you how many times she's offered to watch Lily, and now Preston, for me to run an errand or go to an appointment, or whatever it may be. She's the kind of friend that brings gifts and a meal when you have a baby and just calls or texts to chat. She's someone I have found myself being so honest with and often times after I say something thinking, "did I really just say that/tell her that even though we've only really been friends for a year?" (haha)! 

Those kinds of people and friends are rare and I know I will miss her immensely once we move. Luckily she also works part time, limited hours, so we've already agreed to day trips for them to Ankeny and us back here for the girls to play and for us to catch up. They will have a busy year ahead of them and it makes me sad to think about the things I will miss during our time in Ankeny but I know that our friendship, and the friendship we've started amongst our girls, will be a long lasting one! 

just this summer playing at the park

swinging together

check out the john deere tractors downtown waterloo

chugging their juice 

playing at the rec center indoor park last fall

water table fun

and the only one i could find with danielle! this was at lily garvin's 1st birthday party!

the last baby shower

A few weekends ago my sister, sister in law, and I threw my younger sister a baby shower. This is the final baby shower for the Davis clan (we only throw showers for the first baby) and we had a blast doing it!

My sister is due with their first baby girl December 1st and it was so much fun planning and throwing a shower for her. I love party planning and hosting these types of things! We found a fun theme through various blogs and pinterest and went all out with it. The theme for the party was "ready to pop". So everything had to do with polka dots, balloons, and things that are round and/or pop.

We hung balloons from the ceiling in the food area and on the mantle, my sister made an adorable banner that hung near the food area, and then we used tissue balls as decor throughout as well. We served popcorn chicken, princess popcorn, fruit pops (kabobs), cake pops, snap crackle and pop rice krispie treats, soda pop, and candy that pops - blow pops, bubble gum, and ring pops. We played a few games - balloon belly, which consisted of people have to do various "simple" tasks with a balloon stuffed under their shirt, to resemble pregnancy, of course. And balloon baby, which was people having to blow up a balloon big enough to fit and wear a newborn sized diaper, and then those that were able to complete that task moved onto round 2, which was drawing a baby face on the balloon and Jacinda picked her favorite few faces as the game's winners. We also had calendars for people to guess when baby will come and a baby wishing tree with cards for people to fill out with statements like, I wish for you..... I hope that you will ....... I hope that you will always remember......

Overall it was such a fun day celebrating another new life that will soon enter the world and into our family. That will make 7 grandchildren for my parents and 5 precious nieces and nephews for me. We are so blessed by each little person in our family and I can't imagine our lives without any of them. 

I get so excited when I think about all the joys my sister will soon experience. There are so many things that you simply cannot explain to someone about parenthood until they've experienced it themselves. And I feel so incredibly blessed to know that we will be living close to them and be able to experience life hands on with their new family of 3 as we are moving 2 miles from them next week! I know that this baby and our move is part of God's plan for their and our lives and I am excited to see how we can bless them in these next few years as they embark on parenthood for the first time.  We know this baby girl will forever change your heart and lives.

And unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the day but you can check some out on my sister's blog as she posted a bunch of there....
http://babygardzelewski.blogspot.com/

camping, pumpkins & an apple orchard

A few weekends ago we took the kiddos on their first, and last, camping adventure of the summer/fall. Even 3 week old Preston man tagged along amidst the COLD weather!

My parents had planned a trip to Backbone State Park and invited us along so we thought we'd give it a go. Luckily Backbone is only about 30 minutes from Jimmy's parents house so we figured if it got too cold and/or the kiddos weren't doing well we could head there. However, they both did great!

We arrived at the park in the afternoon, took a little hike, drove around the park to look at the different areas and different leaves, and checked out a cave! We decided to head into the closest town for dinner opposed to cooking over the fire and then headed back to camp for a camp fire. 

We all piled in the camper after the kiddos fell asleep around the fire and had a surprisingly good sleep. Granted we were in a king size bed and my little family of 4, including a VERY warm blooded hubby, was all snuggled in so that may have provided some extra warmth. I woke up quite often to check kiddos and make sure they were still bundled and warm, which they were. Little man woke up just a few times to eat and I will admit when I had to unwrap myself from the blankets and get the bare boobs out for eating that was a bit cold, even with the heaters in the camper! :)

The next morning we ventured another hour or so north to a few apple orchards in Gays Mills, WI. My parents had been there before and we tagged along this time. The drive was beautiful - it's amazing how many different colors you can see in the trees. My favorites are the bright bright orange ones. We stopped at a little pumpkin place along the way where Lily highly enjoyed running around all the pumpkins and picking out her very own - she's been carrying the thing around the house ever since! And then we made our way to a few apple orchards. We sampled some yummy apples, enjoy some apple cider and apple cider doughnuts - yum! and bought some things to bring home too. 

We had a fun fun weekend enjoying the outdoors and spending some time with my parents. It's special unplanned times with just my parents that I know I will miss when we aren't living in the same town but I have to remember it's just a short drive and there's no reason we still can't just hop in the car and go whenever it works - right?!

playing in the leaves on our hike

the cave we explored

lily & daddy

little man all bundled up

the beautiful colors

lily finding her pumpkin

carrying it around

one month

Preston was 1 month old on Friday - where has the time gone?! It is seriously unreal to me to think that it's been a month already since we were in the hospital meeting our sweet sweet boy.

Preston is such a good baby. He is so content, when he's well feed :), and sleeps like a dream. Since his first week home he has only been waking up about twice a night to eat. I feed him before we go to bed, usually around 10pm - he's up around 2 or 3am, then again around 5am, and then up for good between 7 and 730am. 

He is definitely growing! At his 2 week appointment he weighed in at 9lbs 1oz - up from his birth weight of 7lbs 12 oz - so he's doing great! He's already grown out of most of his newborn clothing and is now in 0-3M. Not exactly sure what he weighs today, but we will get that at his check up next month. He has changed so much too since that first night. Within the last week I think he's really started to fill out - getting those chubby cheeks and arms! His legs are still very long and skinny but hopefully those will fatten up too!

He is very curious, he studies faces for a long time if you are holding him, really looks around outside if we are close to a window, and already enjoys his tummy time and laying on the play mat. We've only had a few "mishaps" with Lily and her lack of carefulness - which have resulted in my phone falling on his head as well as a few toys. The small pumpkin she picked out last weekend may have been dropped a little too close for comfort a time or two as well :) So is the life of the second child, right?!

A few new things or firsts for this month include:

*first camping trip

*meeting many new faces - aunts, uncles, extended family, and friends

*first day alone shopping with mommy - sorry buddy :)

*first family walk
*pulling his own hair and crying

It's taken us a few weeks to get the hang of things with a newborn and 17 month old but this week has finally felt a little more normal and somewhat routine. We are still a little off "normal" as Jimmy is driving to Ankeny 3 days a week which makes for a long day at home alone, and unpredictable Tuesday and Thursday's, but we are getting the hang of it.

One of the biggest challenges has been breast feeding this time around. I had forgotten how much newborns eat! For a few weeks I literally felt like all I was doing was nursing while trying my best to keep Lily entertained and avoid a major meltdown, jealous fit, whining, etc. Lily has been so so good with him - she doesn't go long without checking where he is, giving him a kiss, or stealing his paci :) I have tried to be very cautious of finding something for her to do while I nurse Preston but it was becoming more and more difficult, other than the old TV - which unfortunately she's probably watched way too much of lately! However, this week has seemed to be a bit better and he already seems to be getting a little more routine with his feedings and needing it ALL the time!

Being a second child I definitely have the same instant and endless love for our little man. He is so so precious and I have really enjoyed the few quiet moments with just him as we've gotten to know him this past month. I feel like he fits so well with our little family and I already am finding it hard to remember our life without him. 

Overall it's been a good month. One of new adventures, discovering and learning about our new precious baby, moments of frustration for me as I try to navigate through stay at home parenthood of 2 babies and establishing a new routine for us all, but so so much love and hearts full of absolute joy. We know we are incredibly blessed to be the parents of yet another precious life and we are loving him to pieces!

And here's his one month candids........