Lydia's Blessing and Christmas Presents in October

We forgot to take our picture at church...so here we are in the kitchen :) Granny made Lydia's dress and it is beautiful! Nick will be mad that I shared this but...when we got to church that morning he asked me what Lydia's middle name was...as if that isn't funny enough! I told him Ruth and he explained to me that he had been thinking Ruthann or Ann all morning. I just laughed at him. Well, as he started the blessing he came to the part about her name and said Lydia Ann, then of course he paused and corrected it to Lydia Ruth, lol! So when they sat back down he said the whole way up to the stand he was telling himself "not Ann, not Ann..." hee hee! It was pretty funny to us! Everyone at church thought maybe he had changed her name! I told him it was Gram Vogel (Ann) trying to get us to name Lydia after her :) I guess my next girl will have to be Ann :) Ruth is my Grandma Kokinda's middle name :)

Sweet baby girl!

It's hard to decide which pictures to share sometimes! So I chose a few!

This is Lydia's routine at night...fall asleep on the couch while Mommy and Daddy straightened up the house.

Christmas presents from Daddy! We decided to give Julius his train set early, really wanted to enjoy the happiness together! While I worked the camera Nick practiced his multitasking!

Julius is saying "choo choo" at this point and is very ready to get those trains out of there!

Get this paper out of here!

And the train track!

"Whoa!" "What's that?"

Setting up the track!

It was definitely worth giving him his present early!! We have all enjoyed playing with the train track! Can't believe he is old enough to play with trains already!!

Helicopters and fall leaves! It was a blustery day outside, but I wanted to snap a pic of the beautiful leaves before they were all blown off the trees!

Lydia--1 month!

Hunting for Pumpkins--October 10, 2011

We decided to follow the sign for a local corn maze. Didn't know where the farm was and they didn't put signs up on all of the turns...so we ended up stopping at the Clear Creek Nursery to look at their pumpkins. Love Julius's surprise face! He does that little face all the time! Especially when he hears any loud noises outside, lol!

This picture didn't come out very clear but he was saying "cheese" and I love it!

We ended up purchasing a few crazy gourds to decorate the table at home. They have ended up on the kitchen counter, out of reach of our resident taste tester :) One little pumpkin was not as fortunate!

The nursery has a very large, very deep koi pond...with some very, very large koi! They know what people are good for!

As we were checking out I asked about the corn maze and we were pointed in the right direction so here we are at the start of the corn maze. For some reason Julius thought these pumpkins were the perfect size for sitting!

Just talking about the pumpkins.

The corn maze was lots of fun! We chose a great day to go, SUN! There were little pumpkins decorated throughout the maze precariously placed on tree stumps, wood, cinder blocks, etc. After very gently touching about 4 pumpkins amidst our cries of "be careful!" Julius finally succeeded in knocking one off. Well the corn maze is on a hill, we certainly don't live in a flat area, so of course it rolled down the hill through the corn rows...Nick got to go in after it :) I was worried we may get a fine, since at the start of the maze was a sign that read something along the lines of "living corn maze, stay on path, you break it, you pay for it"...something like that :) Needless to say, Nick was very careful as he went after the pumpkin!

The pumpkins were just asking to be touched!!

It wasn't too chilly in the maze, but there was a chilly breeze outside of it! Love the fall weather and long sleeves!

Pheasant Fields Farm giant pumpkin! And the resident farm dog :) Julius would have followed the dog wherever it went if we had let him!

Lydia was dressed very festive for our outing!

We actually didn't end up with a pumpkin this day. We got one from the commissary later in the month, but we loved visiting the farm and the corn maze!

Family of 4!

Daddy time!!

Sleeping...it's what I do! :)

We visited the Kids Discovery Museum on Bainbridge Island. Julius and I have requested one of these dig sites in our playroom :) any volunteers?

Unfortunately, taking pictures has taken a backseat...but in my defense this was where he spent most of his time. Hopefully I can get the video to work of the golf ball room that we spent some time in too!

See...sleeping again :)

Daddy came home for lunch and this is what we did! Julius getting some lessons in Madden12 :)

And sleeping again :) gotta love those newborn sleep schedules!

The golf ball room is lots of little golf ball courses. Mommy and Daddy both tried getting a golf ball to make it over these hills and apparently it takes a kids touch! He loved playing in this room but I don't want one in the house...for too many reasons to list!

Welcome Lydia :)

September 19, 2011

Wake-up 5am. Had to call the hospital to make sure they had room for me :)

Left for the hospital at 6am. When we arrived everything happened very fast! This picture was at 7:30am right before I walked back to surgery! Julius loved resting his hands on my tummy but I'm sure he's going to love sitting in my lap again even more!

I'm sure Daddy is sweating at this point :)

So, for those of you wondering what a c-section is like, here's a little tid-bit from my experience. (I was asleep for Julius, so it was different this time!) The Operating Room was below ZERO! I suppose this helps keep the doctors awake, don't want them dozing on the job :) The operating table is about 4 feet in the air. Again, for the benefit of the doctors I'm sure :) My personal nurse stood in front of me while I was getting my spinal, holding a nice, warm blanket and talking about anything to keep me calm :)

I was pretty calm, but I did explain to everyone in there that I talk a lot naturally, not that I was nervous or anything, lol! The anesthesiologist was also great about talking to me and answering my questions! So, after I was prepped, the doctors came in and started right away! I felt a little tugging and absolutely no pain. The few times I felt light-headed it went away with a little medicine in my i.v. :) Just before Lydia was born, Nick was brought in.

As he came in he kept his eyes on mine and didn't dare look over that curtain :) 8:24am...and her beautiful little cry was heard and I must say, the emotions are SO strong when you hear that first cry! Nick went over to her, and I laid there listening and crying and smiling all at once! (My anesthesiologist kept making sure they were tears of joy, lol!)

Here she is!! Beautiful, big girl!!

Happy Birthday Lydia!

Thank goodness she was over 8lbs! Dr. Ewing scared me when she predicted around 7 1/2...but once she came out everyone in the o.r. had much bigger predictions :) Dr. Dommermuth, the assisting surgeon, actually guessed her weight at 9lbs. 10oz.

Mommy's pink panther from when she was born at Onslow Memorial Hospital, January 10, 1985!

Proud Daddy!

Distracted Big Brother :)

Great-Grandma Linda getting some baby love!

Nana giving Julius lessons on being gentle :)

Bath time!

Lydia is glad bath time is over!!

Snuggling with Mommy our first night. Mommy was counting fingers and toes :)

After a great first night, Dr. Ewing was ok with letting me go home so, less than 36 hours after surgery, we were discharged!

Getting the babies ready to go home!

Our new family picture!

Here we go...on an adventure!

It's been 3 weeks and we are enjoying every minute of Little Miss Lydia! Great-grandma and Nana were here for 10 days after she was born! We went to a few little places around us. I think they enjoyed our little sight-seeing adventures. We really enjoyed having them here! Julius was thoroughly spoiled with all of the grown-ups in the house to entertain him! Very grateful for our wonderful family!!

Kitsap County Fair and Kitsap Memorial State Park

We had a great time at the Kitsap County Fair! We went with the Boyett family, Emily, Josiah and little Caroline (barely 1 month!).

Josiah had no problem climbing up in the seat and taking it for a spin :) Julius was not so sure about it...he loved looking at the old tractors but sitting on them, not so much :(

In the Antique Farm Equipment barn we found a cow to color on! (Looks like a cross between a cow and a moose to me!)

If there was an animal close enough to touch Julius had his hand in the pen just a pettin'! This baby goat loved it! And I loved him :) so wanted to take him home!!

Jacob Sheep

Never seen these before, two sets of horns, thought that was neat!

We went on the second day of the fair so the animals hadn't quite wised up to sitting at the back of the pen to avoid being poked and prodded. Then again, some of them seemed to like having a little scratch behind the ears!

MOOOO!

Kids Pedal Tractor Pull

Gotta be the best event ever!! I thought big tractor pulls were cool, I wish this was an event going on while we were there cause we totally would've watched it!! I'm gonna be looking for these at all of the fairs I go to now!

On the way out we had to stop by the EMS tents to check out the fire truck! In case anyone doesn't know, Julius LOVES fire trucks! He walked around and checked it out after this pic, tires, lights, anything he could reach!

Cool little race car!

Had a blast at the fair! Enjoyed some grilled corn on the cob and a very refreshing raspberry lemonade icee! Definitely will be making this fair a tradition while we are here! Did I mention they have military free and military half price days!!

So it got too warm inside the house one afternoon so we jumped in the car and drove a few miles up the road to Kitsap Memorial State Park. There was a nice breeze at least, but still a lot of sun!

Checking out the boats with Daddy.

Wanted to get a pic with him and this was how he decided to stand :)

Saying "cheese" to Mommy.

Talking about rocks...should make Granny proud!

This slide is super fast and Julius has quite a look as he goes down, unfortunately it's too fast for the camera!

Can't believe how much Julius has changed in the past few months having Daddy home! He has quite a little vocabulary and understands so much! He says a few little sentences like "hear that?" "see that?" "Dada/Mama go" and "thank you" One of his new words is Mama!! It took him a while to get that one and sure made me happy :) He loves cars, trucks, boats, trains, etc! He makes a different noise for each one and will play with them any time of day! He's discovered making them crash, thanks to the first scenes in the movie Cars. We went to the base theater to see Cars (for free) and he was really into it for the first hour or so. He eats a lot! Didn't think he would start eating us out of house and home so soon! :) He is full of energy and ready to go as soon as he wakes up in the morning!! We are so grateful for our little family and are excited for our new addition!

Only one more week til Baby 2! Got a lot of stuff to do this week while we prepare for Nana and Great-Grandma Linda to join us and prepare for Little Misses arrival! Still haven't made a final decision on her name apparently I'm going to have to see her to know!