It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

Even though we have been cooped up at home with a new baby, we are trying to enjoy and make the most of the Christmas season! We have been very blessed this year. Hayden is so excited for Santa to visit tonight.

Our Tree:

The Mantel:

Hayden's own tree in his room, decorated all by himself:

Hayden has been in charge of updating the Christmas countdown every day:

Felix the elf was back in full force this year:

Hayden's Christmas program at school:

Participating and going through the motions...

... aaaaand losing interest:

Hayden and Megan (apparently they are engaged):

Gingerbread House party at Hayden's school:

And Christmas came a little early this year, at least for a few "time sensitive gifts"

Curtis had to give me my gift early, since it had to be activated upon purchase!

LOVE IT!!!!!!:

and Hayden's gift from us would not survive in a box for very long:

"Turdy" the red footed tortoise

Time to catch up!

It's hard to believe that little Garrett is 5 weeks old today. We are relishing in his baby-ness, because we know it will all be over too soon!! Hayden just loves him... he told me a couple of weeks ago "Mom, I could just stare at the baby all day long." How sweet is that? Garrett loves staring at big brother too... he is always rubbernecking trying to find him when Hayden starts talking.

I have realized what a full time job feeding the baby can be. He is exclusively breastfed, and I feel like I am on the couch all. the. time. When he was about 1.5 weeks old, I decided to start watching "Desperate Housewives" when I was feeding. I started with episode 1, season 1 and as of last night, I was completely caught up to the current season (season 7.) Each season has over 20 episodes, lasting 45 minutes each. So, that is approximately 102 hours spent feeding on the couch over a period of 3. 5 weeks. INSANE!!

Now I am going to try to catch up with pictures!!

These are a few from the first week home:

These are some taken by Curtis! We did a little photo shoot at home when he was 1 week old:

Some more random ones from the past couple of weeks:

We had a photo shoot with the legendary Stephanie Fisher at 2 weeks of age... here are the "sneak peeks" we have gotten so far! AMAZING!:

Hayden on the left, Garrett on the right :)

I am horribly outnumbered in this house!

Can't forget about this guy! The best big bro around:

Happy Birthday Garrett!

We are a family of four!!

Garrett joined our family a little over 2 weeks ago. He was born 2 weeks early on November 19th. I want to write out his birth story before I forget some of the details. May be boring for you!

On Friday, November 19th, I woke up at 12:45 am having contractions. Curtis was still awake next to me watching TV. I had only been asleep for about an hour. When I first awoke, my contractions were coming very fast, about 2 minutes apart. I kept laying there hoping they would stop, but they did not. I finally got up and called the doctor and started packing up. After about an hour, they had slowed down to about 6-7 mins, but were still regular. I kept laying back down in hopes that they would stop, but we finally decided it was time to go to the hospital. I had just finished packing the hospital bag that day. We loaded Hayden in the car and my stepdad met us in front of the hospital to take Hayden back to their house. We arrived at the hospital sometime around 3:15 am.

After spending about 2 hours in triage, it was determined that I was indeed in labor (thankfully, because I was in entirely too much pain to be sent home!) I was 2 cm when I arrived, and the nurse said 4 cm when I was admitted. (Later, the doctor came to break my water, and he said I was only about 2 cm, so somebody was wrong! But it was too late!) I was admitted around 5:30 am, and I got my epidural around 8. The epi only numbed one half of my body, so I was in agony for quite some time. They finally came to give me a boost and that was much better. My legs were like tree trunks, I couldn't even move them.

The nurse checked me at 11:55 and I was 8 cm. The next 10 minutes was INTENSE. I told the nurse that I was feeling a ton of pressure, so she checked me again (12:05 PM) and I was 10 cm. By 12:15 I was pushing, and Garrett was born at 12:32!

He weighed in at 7 lbs 5 oz and was 19.5 inches long! And perfectly healthy! We were overjoyed!!

When Hayden came in to meet his baby brother for the first time, it was the sweetest moment of my life! He was so ecstatic. He jumped up into the bed with me and just gazed at Garrett. He kept saying "It's Garrett... he's so cute... I love him." He wanted to hold him right away. It was truly an amazing moment!

Our Family of four - so blessed!!