Nicholas Turns 2!

So I am a bit late in sharing pictures of Nicholas's birthday party. He turned 2 on January 9th. His Uncle Jon and Aunt Krista and his 4 cousins came for the weekend to help us celebrate.

We had a Winnie the Pooh themed party. I used my Cricut machine to make Nicholas a birthday sign. Mike had got me the Winnie the Pooh cartridge for Christmas so I could make this for Nicholas.

Party decorations including Pooh themed ballons.

I made Nicholas's cake. It was my first effort at baking a themed cake. It wasn't too bad except for mixing all the frosting colors. It wasn't as perfect as a bakery cake, but completely made with love!

I also made cucakes, which was really so I could practice applying the frosting before I did the cake.

Me and my big boy! I cannot believe that he is 2 years old. The time has gone so fast. He is as sweet as he was the day he was born!

Nicholas and his Grandpa Carr. Love his little Pooh ears!

We had hot dogs, so Nicholas could have one of his favorite meals. Of course he had to have potato chips too!

Opening presents was still a little overwhelming. Fortunately cousin Bella was here to help. She would open his presents and while Nicholas would play with the new toy. Bella was ready to open the next one! They made a great team.

Getting ready to blow out the candles on the cake.

The hit toy was picked out by Uncle Jon. It was a Winnie the Pooh treehouse complete with characters from the Winnie the Pooh Sleuthing series (not sure what it is, but I guess it is a newer Pooh cartoon theme). Whatever it is, Nicholas loves it. All the kids played with this most of the night and into the next day. Even 2 weeks later it is one of the first toys Nicholas starts playing with each day. He loves opening the doors and figuring out how it all works.

365 2009 - Week 3

Monday, January 12
Had a pediatrician appointment for Nicholas and Jackson today. Our doctor wants us to get an evaluation for autism for Nicholas. There were some red flags in a screening they did, but I know in my heart he is not autistic. Starting to work on the accounting for the business. Our TV shows started back up this week. So lot's of TV time for two nights of 24 and two nights of American Idol at 2 hours a night. I love our shows, but don't like how much time they take up.


Tuesday, January 13
It's a two therapy day for Nicholas, speech in the morning and then physical back to back. The therapists were proud of Nicholas's accomplishments this past week. I re-joined Weight Watchers in the morning. I still have 14 of the 42 pounds of baby weight to lose, plus some more. I did a little grocery shopping in the afternoon, just picking up a few things to get us through the week. Scott, Lori and the girls are visiting this weekend so I'll do a bigger trip before they come.


Wednesday, January 14
More working on the business books. Jackson and I were hanging out in the office and I put him in the Bumbo seat. He sat up pretty good for a 9 week old.


Thursday, January 15
We were lucky and got into Phoenix Children's Hospital to see Dr. Ellis, a developmental pediatrician for Nicholas's autism evaluation. She does not think he has autism, just that he is still behind developmentally from the prematurity. He is about where an 18-month old would be. It was good to have the appointment, to put our minds at ease. Although I was certain there was nothing wrong. We do have to go back in 6 months for a follow up. Dr. Ellis did want us to stop spoon feeding Nicholas, so for lunch that day we gave him a spoon and some fruit and he started using it right away. Just over the weekend he didn't want anything to do with it. Funny how that works.


Friday, January 16
A long push today to get the books done for the business. Almost done at the end of the day. Just a few more hours.


Saturday, January 17
Running around to Costco, Sam's and Fry's to get the grocery's done and get ready for Scott, Lori and the girls coming tonight.


Sunday, January 18
We all went to Mike's mom & dad's to visit in the early part of the day. We came back and hung out in the basement watching the Cardinal's win their final playoff game to go to the Superbowl! Who would of thought?

365 2009 - Week 2

I got a couple of weeks behind, so I am going to do a couple of catch up posts this weekend.

Monday, January 5
We spent some time today preparing shipments for the January kits. We are going to have a busy week. Mike's brother Jon and his family are coming this weekend and we have a lot to prepare for that and Nicholas's birthday party. I did the grocery shopping and some errands for the party while Mike did some cleaning.



Tuesday, January 6
We took advantage of not a lot of new TV shows to watch and Jackson going to sleep at a good time to have a hobby night. Mike played his train game and I did some scrapbooking.


Wednesday, January 7
Mike was cleaning the kitchen and had put the dog's bed in their toy basket. He came around the corner and found Marti had crawled in the basket to lay on her bed. She likes to snuggle into her bed or under blankets. This is so typical of her. Such a sweetie!


Thursday, January 8
We went to my office to show off Jackson in the morning. It was nice to see everyone and hard to believe that I have to go back to work in 3 1/2 weeks. We went to Babies R Us and Michaels and then had lunch at Garduno's. Nicholas loves to eat lunch out with us and sit by his Daddy. We also went to Target to get Nicholas's presents for his birthday. This will probably be the last time we can shop for his presents while he is with us. It was a big day, Nicholas added three new words to his vocabulary "purple", "puppy" and "bear".




Friday, January 9
Our big boy is 2 years old today. It is hard to believe that it was 2 years ago today that we experienced the scariest day of our lives when our baby boy was born 11 weeks before his due date. That day was also one of the happiest in our lives because Nicholas was brought into our lives. He is the sweetest little boy, and so good natured. We are very lucky to have him in our lives. Today Mike's brother, Jon and his family came to visit. Nicholas loved playing with his cousins, especially Rhianna and Isabella. It is fun to watch him play with kids his age. He even learned how to ride on his fire truck and rode it around the kitchen all night.


Saturday, January 10
Today was Nicholas's birthday party. I made him a Winnie the Pooh themed cake and cupcakes. During the day, everyone went to the park. Nicholas slid down the slide by himself and loved the swing. He had fun playing with his new toys that Isabella helped him open. He stayed up really late playing with his cousins. Mommy is really proud of her big boy, he was so easy going and happy today.


Sunday, January 11
Jon & Krista stayed until the evening. So Nicholas had a lot of time to play with his cousin's today. While everyone else was napping or doing other things, Nicholas crawled up in the chair with his new book. While we were looking at the book I pointed out a picture of a little boy kissing a little girl and said "kiss" to Nicholas, and he blew a kiss. All these new things this week!

365 2009 - Week 1

So I am taking the plunge and documenting our daily life in 2009. A picture a day, every day of what our life is like and what we are doing in 2009. I ordered the Becky Higgins 365 Kit to document this (however the ordering on their site was a fiasco on New Years Day. I have six different confirmations for the one kit I was trying to order, and no charges on my credit card, so we will see if it actually shows up).

I am planning to do at least a weekly post of our happenings. Maybe this will make me a better blogger! LOL!

Day 1 for us started on Monday 12/29. We started taking down the Christmas decorations.




Day 2 - 12/30 - Nicholas had physical therapy. He loves his therapist Lindsay. We continued taking down decorations and finished up for the most part, just needed to finish getting the house back to normal. Jackson of course picked today to eat frequently so it slowed us down some.



Day 3 - 12/31/ - New Years Eve - Mike finished up the house and it is back to normal now. Nicholas and I did the grocery shopping. Mike and I watched Hancock that night. We celebrated the New Year watching Ryan Seacrest and Dick Clark while Mike gave Jackson a bottle.



Day 4 - 1/1/09 New Years Day. After a frustrating morning trying to order the 365 kit, we ate our traditional New Years Day breakfast made this year by Mike. We had to eat it with my holding Jackson in the Baby Bjorn, because he wasn't having being in his swing or play yard. Mike and Jackson watched football while Nicholas napped. I got a little scrapping done - the first 2 layouts in over 2 months! We took Nicholas for a ride in his new wagon and then he played on his swing and slide in the backyard until dark.



Day 5 - 1/2/09 - I photographed the January Color Me Daisy kits and then Mike and I spent the day uploading the new kit info to the website. Of course this has to be a day we have website issues and it takes all day.



Day 6 - 1/3/09 - We spent some time packing January kits. We got some time in the evening for a hobby night. Mike played his train game while Jackson snoozed with him in the Baby Bjorn. I was able to get a little scrapping time in.



Day 7 - 1/4/09 - I was taking some pictures of Nicholas playing and he ran up to me to look at the camera. He wanted to push the buttons so we turned the camera and he got this shot of the puppies. Not too bad for his first picture taken. LOL!



So there is our first week recap. Just a slice of life. Should be a fun project to do this year.

Color Me Daisy January Kits Available!

Hey Cupcake!

I love the fun brand new Pink Paislee in this month's kit! I also have been coveting one of those Maya Road cupcake albums since they came out at Summer CHA, and now I have one!

There is also a Home Album Project kit. Perfect to capture your current home or the home's you have known in your life.

Come on over and check it out here: Color Me Daisy

Catching Up

It has been a while since I have had a few minutes of peace to post. So this is a catch-up one with lots of pictures.

Here is our little Jackson at 9 days old (11/18). He is showing his Popeye face. It's the look he gets when he gets ready to eat. Nicholas has heard me call him Popeye and now says Popeye and baby.

When did my little Nicholas learn how to crawl up into the big chair? He is watching his favorite show on Baby TV (11/19).

Jackson getting his 2nd bath at home. No pictures of the first one, as Mike was in the other room bathing Nicholas that night. Oh well I guess I am a bad scrapbook mommy (11/21).

Jackson at almost 2 weeks old (11/23). Time is flying by.

In December I wanted to do the Daily December Journal's that many others are working on, but it just isn't in the cards. I didn't have time to get it together before Jackson came. So I decided to try to at least snap a few pictures most days, so I can do a few layouts later in the month of our December this year.

12/1 - I was checking e-mail when I heard Nicholas laughing hysterically in the kitchen and I could hear the pitter patter of his feet running around. I walked in to see him chasing the puppies around the island and he was having the best time. I had to stay and watch he was having so much fun and his laughter is just so contagious.

12/2 - I stole a couple hours away from home for the first time to get a mani/pedi. I came home to Mike and Jackson kicking back on the couch enjoying some "male bonding" while Nicholas was napping. Jackson looked pretty content just resting in daddy's lap.

We brought the bouncer back out for Jackson, but Nicholas has decided it is a lot more fun for him to sit in and "bounce, bounce, bounce" (12/3).

The doorbell rang while I was feeding Jackson. Thinking it was probably a delivery or solicitor I just ignored it. When I checked later on the door there was a note that this yummy Edible Arrangement from my chiropractor had been left at my neighbors house. Mike wasn't home so I patiently waited for him to get home before I sampled it. (12/4)

12/5 - We got some shopping done today at the mall and had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Nicholas was goofing off with his daddy. I can't believe they don't have a kid's menu. The chicken strips and fries they called "kid friendly" that they brought Nicholas were huge, an adult couldn't have eaten all of it, not to mention it was $8, (ouch) and didn't include a drink which was another couple of dollars.

Nicholas also got to see Santa today. He did good with him again this year. We weren't sure if he would be afraid of him or not. He did fine when we saw characters at Disneyland this year, but that was back in April. But he just sat in his lap and checked him out and smiled for the camera. It was a great time to see him, there was only one person ahead of us so we weren't rushed. Jackson was sleeping though, so we skipped it this year for him.

12/8 Jackson and I were just hanging out and he was so alert I had Mike get me the camera and I got this shot of my growing little guy! He is starting to be a little more alert and not sleeping all the time.
12/9 We hit Toys R Us today and had lunch at Red Robin before hitting the mall for a little more shopping. Mike fed Jackson a bottle so Nicholas and I could go get a few presents purchased. Nicholas and Jackson got their first Build-A-Bear's built from Santa. Buddy and Peanut will be arriving Christmas morning from Santa.

12/10 We headed to the park this morning to meet Nicholas' occupational therapist, Tracy. While we were waiting Nicholas explored the park. While we were settling Jackson in the stroller Nicholas had took off to explore. Mike had to run and catch him. Both Nicholas and Mike were worn out after all the walking, climbing, sliding and swinging at the park that morning. I got a little alone time that afternoon which I spent Christmas shopping.

12/11 We went to the pediatrician for Jackson's one month appointment this morning, and that little guy is now just under 10 pounds and is 22 inches. He has gained 2 lbs. 10 oz. since he came home from the hospital. He wants to eat all the time. I guess I don't need to worry if he is getting enough to eat at all of those feedings. LOL!

12/12 After spending the morning getting pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids we stopped for lunch at BJ's. Nicholas is so good when we go out (as long as we have a little snack for him while he waits for his food). He likes to sit next to his daddy and eat his big boy lunch.

And here are our pictures from the Kiddie Kandid's photo shoot. We had a small wardrobe malfunction that morning. Nicholas and Jackson had matching overall's, but when we put Nicholas in his they were about 4 inches above his ankle. So we improvised with other overall's and we were all set.

Our first family of 4 picture. We got lucky this came out since Nicholas was about done with pictures by this time. We even got one with Jackson awake and looking at the camera!

Our little Santa Baby! Jackson did really good for his pictures. Although he didn't get the memo that he is too little to be trying roll or crawl away just yet. We are going to have to keep a close eye on this one.
The photographer was great with both boys. And we got really lucky that when Jackson did wake up he was alert and happy, even if he was turning his head away from the camera at times.
This is the picture we are using for his birth announcements. Which now will be going out soon now that I decided to not make them myself.

Despite his happy face, Nicholas wasn't too thrilled about taking this picture. We think he is a little nervous around the baby, unless we are holding him. So we were happy to get this shot of the two of them.
And here is my little ham, Nicholas. He always does really well for the photographers there. Now for me he won't even look at the camera anymore.

And my big Santa Baby!
If you are still reading, sorry for the long post. Maybe now that things are calming down a little bit, I can be a little more regular about posting.