Photos

First Family Photos as Four

Whew! Say that ten times fast! Ha ha...so today, with the help of Adam's Mama, we made the trek to Sears to have our annual "Christmas time" family photos done. They went, well, as good as they could with a newborn with acid reflux that spits up anytime you move her, and a toddler that gets stage fright in portrait studios. We only got four pictures out of Riley, (two of which were accidental). Riley proceeded to pull out all of her tantrum tricks, which include: screaming, flailing, hitting anyone within reach (including trying to hit Bree), and all out Mama-clinginess. Needless to say, we are hoping that she'll do a bit better next time.

Bree did better than her big sister did! We were so careful to dress the girls right before we left the house and we put a bib on Bree so that if she spit up it would go on that and not the dress. Well, lo and behold, we whipped her bib off about ten seconds before the first picture was taken and Bleh...that's right, all over the dress. Luckily, she was dressed in an off-white dress which perfectly matched her spit up...one quick wipe and you never knew she spit up in the first place.

Today was the first, and last time, Bree will go out of the house to a public place (the exception being doctor visits). We had a great time...and we love the pictures that we got because they all tell a story of our family!

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"

...And that is what Riley will be getting! Just yesterday I noticed a little bit of white on her gums next to her right front tooth. Her left front tooth has to squeeze between the two teeth that are already there so the next few days should be full of crankiness, whiny-ness, and fit throwing! BRING IT ON!!! :)



Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!

Sisters united at last!

Riley has done better with Bree than we were expecting...a little bit of jealousy, but that seems to be it so far! Here is some pictures...

Homecoming

We had a little bit of a mix up in communication regarding the time we were bringing Bree home. I had gone in in the morning with the intent to watch her eye exam at ten, then we were told that we had to wait six hours after her exam before we could bring her home. We had made all of our plans (dropping Riley off, cleaning house, etc.) around that. Well, I got there for the eye exam and Courtnee said "Ready to take her home? She's ready to go!" So after a flurry of calls and rushing back home to get Adam and drop off Riley we were back up at the hospital to pick her up!

Aunt Courtnee had to get one last picture in with Bree...

After that, we got our discharge instructions, packed up the little stuff we had left there, and proceeded to get her ready. We dressed her in her coming home outfit. (Bumble bee pj's and hat!), switched her over to her portable oxygen and made sure her apnea monitor was set to go. Adam loaded all up and we were ready to head out!

Courtnee walked us out with everything, and after a few dozen hugs, promises to stay in touch and almost three crying adults we were off! We got home and settled in quite nicely for the night. Our good friend Cheri was watching Riley for our first night home. We were even able to squeeze in her first bath!

Hope this finds you happy, healthy, and in love with life!

Nesting

Nesting was great as you can tell from the pictures! She is an awesome sleeper!!! I am amazed and feel so so blessed to finally have a good sleeper for a child. I love Riley to death, but she is a horrible sleeper. Even at the age of almost 15 months she wakes up at least twice a night. Ugh! The only downside to Bree being a good sleeper is that we have to wake her up every three hours to eat and she does not like it. We have to bounce her, change her diaper and work with her for a half an hour trying to get her to eat as much as possible. However, during a large majority of it she stays zonked out and feels like a sack of potatoes.

Speaking of sacks of potatoes...she is now the equivalent of a five pound bag!! Her weight last night was 5 lbs, 2 oz! What a big girl...woo hoo! We are both very excited to be bringing her home tomorrow and we are looking forward to the visit of Adam's Mama on Wednesday to help us out.

While we are on the subject of helping out...we both want to extend a warm, heartfelt THANK YOU to Danielle and Pat, Cheri and Steve, and Aleasha and Scott for being our helping support system during these crazy times for us. They have logged numerous hours in watching Riley for us so that we can go to doctor appts for Bree, classes for her monitors, nesting with her, and just allowing me time to go see Bree during the week while Adam is working. We don't know what we would have done without you all!!

Hope this finds you all happy, healthy and in love with life!