2 months

connor is 2 months old today. we took him for his 2 month check up and he weighed in at 6 pounds 12 ounces. he is 19 inches long. he looks about the size of a newborn. he is so cute. he is also very alert now. he has officially learned how to complain. he will be fed and changed and still cry to be held. he is just like mason. only now i don't have time to sit around and hold him all day. he has also earned a few nicknames. dr. connor, and little bird. i call him little bird because his mouth is always open looking for food and i have no idea why christina (his auntie) calls him dr. connor. it is catchy though.

snow day

we took the kids to see the snow. real snow. we drove up to big bear yesterday morning and met up with christina, zena, jen, ray, bodhi, rebecca, and riley. it was a big crowd. we had a bit of a mess deciding on an affordable (free) and fun place for them to go sledding. once we actually found a place we were thrilled to find it to be just perfect. not at all crowded. christina and rebecca brought some sleds and snow disks for everyone. we all (except for connor and me) took turns going down the small hills. connor was content to sleep next to my chest in the baby bjorn.

i wasn't sure if mason would enjoy the snow because he kept saying he didn't want to wear his snow boots and gloves and he didn't want to walk on the snow. that was all quickly forgotten when we got there and uncle ray showed him a snowball. hurray. i barely had time to get all his snow gear on him before he ran off to play.

all the kids loved going down the hills on the sled. we played for about 3 hours. i was really wishing we had a cabin to stay the night. it would have been such a fun mini vacation. we decided that we should do this again only get a cabin so we can have more snow time. i also need to get dahlia some real snow gloves. the knit mittens were soaked after a few minutes. we all thought it was a super fun day. i really can't wait to go back.

merry christmas

christmas was fun this year, but a bit crazy. of course i got only four hours of sleep on christmas eve. everything felt very last minute for me. we had christmas at our house again this year. i love having it here but really would like to be more prepared. i'm not sure how to do that but i will keep trying. the kids had so much fun. miles and i were very excited to get up and put their gifts under the tree. dahlia and mason got a tricycle and a big wheel. it was cute to watch the kids ride their new toys. connor got a book but i suspect it will be a while before he really enjoys it.

we made a much more simple dinner this year. we had beef tenderloin and a delicious baked salmon. this was served with a green salad made with gorgonzola cheese, candied walnuts and dried cranberries, and side dishes of asparagus and au gratin potatoes. the whole meal came together very quickly. this was much better than last year when we spent the whole day cooking.

connor slept through most of his first christmas. he enjoyed all the attention from everyone. dahlia had a blast playing with her cousins. i think her favorite gift was a pair of pink rain boots from my mother. she would not take them off. mason spent most of the day playing with bodhi's new train set. his train obsession continues.

all in all it was a great christmas. next year i will be more prepared and not do so much last minute rushing around. ha ha.

stockings

what is cuter than a baby in a stocking? that's right. nothing.

ho ho ho

we made our christmas cards yesterday. hurray. we are so crazy late this year. i just finished stamping them all and miles is dropping them off to the post office. at least some people will get them before christmas. i think we hit a new record for procrastination this year. they are super cute though. we were able to take the photos, design the card, and print them all in one day. go team.

christmas crafting

we had a full weekend of baking, parties and crafting. all last minute of course. christina had this great idea to make christmas card ornaments. i remember making these when i was a kid. it took forever to cut out all the pieces, and fold them. each ornament has 20 circles. we made six of them. we didn't have enough old christmas cards for the project so we bought some scrap booking paper from michales instead. we thought the kids would love working on these, but after five minutes they were bored. it ended up being christina, miles and i gluing all the pieces together. then we hung them in the dining room. i think they are so pretty.

announcement

we finally got connor's birth announcement out today. it took us forever as usual. our original plan was to use photo corners and put the picture on card stock that we were printing. this plan was quickly changed to printing the whole thing as a picture when the card stock kept jamming in our printer. with all the holiday stuff we need to do there wasn't enough time to keep messing with it. i like it this way though. it is so simple and clean looking. nice. and done!

getting the tree

we got our christmas tree yesterday. we are so late this year. we usually get our tree on the thirteenth but this weekend was too busy. we finally got the tree last night. mason and dahlia thought going to the tree lot was so much fun. they were running around and looking at all the trees. we even brought baby connor with us. it was a full family outing.

we decorated the tree this morning. mason was a huge help. he hung most of the ornaments on the lower branches and i hung the ones on top. he was so cute. he kept saying "are there more?" when i was unwrapping the ornaments. i love to look at all of them. they are a random collection from over the years. so fun to remember them all. they all have their own little story. i love christmas.

elf

we are watching the movie elf tonight so connor decided to dress up. ok ok. i decided to dress connor up for the movie. so funny. so cute.

gifts for sister

rice warming bag
i made these cute gifts for my sister christina's birthday. i was smart and made them a while ago. i just had to wait until i gave them to her before i posted a picture. the rice warming bag was super easy to make and fun too. it is a really quick project. the bag is filled with rice and after being warmed in the microwave for 1 to 3 minutes becomes a nice heating pad. this is perfect for cramps. i also love that the cover comes off and can be washed if it gets dirty. i scented the rice with pomegranate so it smells really good. i found the pattern here.



gratitude wrap
the thank you card wrap is the same as the one i made last year for jen. i of course had to use pink this time because it is christina's favorite color. the wrap holds an address book, thank you cards, and stamps. i hope she likes her gifts as much as i enjoyed making them.

aunties birthday

yesterday was my sister chrisina's birthday. happy birthday sister! it was a full day of celebrating. we went to a cookie exchange party and then to disneyland. disneyland was so much fun. all my sisters and my mom were there. susan's boyfriend also came. we had a huge group of ten. i loved it. the highlight of the day was the fake snow at the end of the firework show. mason loved it. they shoot soap bubbles out at the audience in front of it's a small world. it looks like snow falling. when we were driving home mason kept talking about how on christmas it is going to snow. hmm. somehow i don't think that will happen. we are planning a trip to the snow though. it will be so fun for mason to see the real thing and not just soap bubbles.

happy due date baby

today is connor's official due date. i think that is just crazy. i can't imagine still being pregnant. i pretty much knew he would be early. not as early as he was, but at least two weeks early. all of my kids were early birds. mason was three weeks early, dahlia was two weeks, and connor of course was six weeks. i actually like that they were early. as much as i love having babies, i really don't like being pregnant. i always hear stories from friends of going past their due date. oh my. i don't think i could handle that. being uncomfortable for so long.

anyway. today is his due date and he is as cute as ever. it just so happens that miles took him to get his synagis shot this morning and he weighed in at 6 pounds 12 ounces. wow. the little guy is gaining weight crazy fast. i wish i had more time to sit and stare at him. sometimes i stay up extra late just to have some alone time with him. this is after all my last baby. i want to enjoy every minute.

tumbling

the kids went to a birthday party for a friend on sunday. it was at a kids gym. a real kids gym with mats and bars and balance beams. they had trampolines. it was kid heaven. it reminded me of a gym i used to go to as a child. i took gymnastic lessons when i was little and loved it. mason and dahlia loved the gym. mason is usually shy and doesn't participate in party activities such as bounce houses so i was amazed when he jumped right in and wanted to try everything available. he was so cute hanging on the ropes and bars, sliding into a big foam pit, and jumping on the trampoline. dahlia of course was not shy at all and had a blast following mason and jumping right along side of him. what a great idea for a birthday party.

i am definitely going to look into classes for the kids at this place. i would love to get them into some organized activities. miles thinks it is a bit too girly for a boy. i don't think so. i think it would be fun to get some exercise and build your muscles.

the monitor

connor is hooked up to this apnea monitor all the time. it is designed to have an alarm go off if his heart rate is too fast or too slow or if he doesn't take a breath every 20 seconds. i have a love/hate relationship with it. the monitor drives me crazy. it will sometimes go off in the middle of the night if the cords are not properly in place. this will wake us all up and freak me out. i have to drag it around with me on my shoulder when i take him to change him or move him from room to room. it is not heavy. it reminds me of when i used to have a pull out stereo in my car and had to take it every where. it is about the same size. it is just a pain to have these cords hanging from the baby all the time. so i hate it because it is inconvenient and then i love it because it keeps me from wondering if he is breathing.

the monitor has gone off four times because of his breathing and heart rate. twice for low heart rate and twice for breathing. every time it goes off i become insane with worry. today it has gone off twice and i won't leave his side because i am afraid it will go off again. ugh. this thing is making me crazy. i am not sure how long he will have to have the monitor. they are supposed to evaluate the results in two weeks. i wonder if i will miss it when it is gone.

soft baskets

i actually started this project a long time ago. i made one soft basket for the baby blankets and then decided that i liked it so much i needed two. i cut the fabric, started sewing and then my sewing machine broke. i was so sad. luckily miles bought me a new sewing machine for my birthday and now i am back in action.

the pattern for these adorable baskets can be found here. they were a bit tricky for me to make because the pattern is not exact. the nature of a soft basket is that it is, well, soft and therfore a little loose in the measuring. it all worked out though and i will be making more of these in the future for gifts.

our little dolls

miles and i were laughing about how connor could share dahlia's doll clothes if we wanted. here is connor next to his sister's dolly.

here is the little dolly in dahlia's lap.