Twelve Days New

    Hard to believe our second blessing has been here for twelve days. Although we are still getting to know him, we already can't imagine life without him.

First Week at Home

My mom was able to come stay with me and the boys when James went back to work. Here are a few photos from our first week at home.

Jacob likes to stand on a chair to watch while his baby brother gets changed :)

Hanging out on Mommy's bed. Silas is so tiny! 

Jacob often says, "Mommy, I want to hold my baby brother."
Love.

Our Second Blessing

    It was Monday, March 11, and James was working from home. I started getting contractions around lunch time, they weren't too strong, but they kept coming. We wondered if Silas would come early, because he was not due until March 18th. By dinner time, the contractions were stronger and longer and I had to focus more and breathe differently to get through them. I probably sat bouncing on my balance ball for a couple hours. James would ask me every once and a while if we should go to the hospital. I kept saying that I didn't know if they were strong or close enough to go. I didn't want to rush to the hospital only to be sent home. But then he asked again, and I couldn't answer during a contraction, so we decided to call my friend who would be keeping Jacob, and head to the hospital.
    We dropped Jacob off at our friends house and arrived at the hospital about 11pm. Once I was connected to monitors, the nurses said I may actually not be in labor. WHAT?!?! This was frustrating, I knew I was in labor. So we started walking laps around the department. The nurses said they were surprised how fast I was walking. I was definitely taking this seriously and did not want to be sent home! James kept walking with me. I could tell he wanted to walk slower, but wouldn't dare ask! My labor progressed, so I was admitted. We decided to try to get some sleep.
    By mid-morning the next day, my labor slowed down. My doctor suggested breaking my water to see if that would help things progress more. I think it was around 10am when she broke my water. That. Was. Intense. I'm pretty sure I went from being 1cm to 7cm dilated in about 15 minutes. It was then I decided to get an epidural. I wanted to be able to enjoy labor more, and boy did it make a difference!

This is me a few minutes after getting the epidural.

    I continued laboring, but since I had the epidural, I was able to sleep a little. About 2pm I was at 9cm. I wanted to be ready for pictures when Silas came, so I put on some make-up :)
    2:30 rolled around and a nurse came in to go through some practice pushes with me. We didn't get very far when she told me to stop because she could see his head! My doctor was in another procedure and couldn't come right away, so we had to wait! (Looking back on it, I would have done things differently and pushed him right out. I was ready. He was ready.) She came in shortly before 3pm. I pushed though a couple contractions, and out he came! It really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Even though I went through most of labor when I had Jacob, I ended up having a c-section, so I wasn't sure what the actual delivery part would be like. It was exhausting, yet energizing. James was great. And I loved it.
    Silas Jonathan Lord was born March 12, 2014 weighing 7lbs 4oz.

Just minutes after Silas was born!

Silas Jonathan

We were still in the delivery room here, with our healthy new son :)

    Silas caught on to breast-feeding without too much trouble. We were able to rest a bit, eat dinner, then James went to pick Jacob up to come meet his new brother. Jacob was so sweet. One of the first thing he said was, "Silas cam out of your tummy! I want to hold him."

Our first picture as a family of four. Even Silas is smiling :)

We were laughing because Jacob starting counting Silas' toes!

Jacob kissing Silas. I love this.

    The next afternoon, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law, with his girlfriend, came to visit us in the hospital.

Ethan & Paige meeting Silas

James with his mom (Bev) and brother Ethan.

     The last thing we did before leaving the hospital was put Silas' footprint on the wall! I'm not going to lie, Silas hated it and screamed the whole time until he was wrapped up in his blanket again.

James holding Silas while the nurse put blue paint on his foot.

    Then we went home to begin our new life as a family of four. It wasn't as scary as when we took Jacob home. We felt like we knew what we were doing a little bit more ;-)

Christmas

Aunt Lisa & Jacob

Christmas was different this year. It was our third Christmas together since we have been married. Our second Christmas with Jacob. And our first time hosting Christmas at our house!

Since my parents house sold towards the end of December, we had our Christmas a week early. Their house was on the market for two years and along with selling it, comes a bitter-sweet feeling. Yes, it's good that they're down to one homes living expenses. But now it makes their home in Wisconsin have a more real, permanent feel to it. Who knows, maybe one day one of us will move again. At least it is only a six hour drive :)

Back to Christmas... Is it weird that one of the reasons I was most excited to host Christmas this year was because I wanted to try making oatmeal in the crockpot? You may think I'm kidding..

When my family came over in the morning they were welcomed by warm oatmeal in the crockpot, the smell of  fresh banana muffins, cake balls, coffee and orange juice. I really enjoyed preparing everything and was glad they came hungry! After we ate, we opened gifts.

Mmmm... cake balls!

Banana muffins!

Aunt Julie & Jacob

Grandma brought the plane Jacob would play with at her house. 

Oddly enough, Jacob was okay with Elmo being the tree topper!

Grandpa helping Jacob open a gift.

I think that shirt looks too small for Grandpa, eh? haha

Jacob: "I get to play with Grandpa's blackberry!" At least he gets some snuggles in the mean time :)

Julie & I with the tackboard/mail holder I made her.

James & Julie....

Helping open another gift.

 On Christmas morning, it was just James, Jacob, and myself. And, in many ways, I'm still adjusting to having my own family. Even though we saw my family the week before, waking up for the first time Christmas morning and not seeing them was a little weird. I felt like I spent a lot of time thinking that day. This is my family. Why do I feel like I'm missing something? What will our traditions be? I'm not sure I'm ready to grow up. But I want what's best for Jacob... And then I spent the rest of the day wondering off into each thought. It was a good day. Full of reflection and trying to figure where we are at right now.

Change of subject. Jacob has this feddish with vacuum cleaners. He can spot one a mile away. And he's always found a vacuum cleaner when we are someone else's house. If we all go to the store, James will take Jacob over to the vacuum's while I grocery shop, and when I am finished I know where to find them. If he's having a bad day, or just being plain fussy, all I have to say (usually) is, "Jacob, do you want to help Mommy vacuum?" And instantly, a smile comes across his face. He loves to turn it on, feel the suction on his fingers and toes, and check out the  attachments. Only problem is... Our Dyson is too big for him to actually use and that frustrates him to no end. He tries so hard, it just doesn't work.

So James was on Amazon one night in November, and found a child's size toy Dyson. Needless to say, this has solved any problem :) Jacob was so excited when he saw the picture of the vacuum on the box. Even more excited when it made a real vacuum sound and it was just his size to push around. Although he is still fascinated with ours, when it comes time to vacuum, he jumps to get his so he can "help". He'll even park it next to our vacuum in the closet :)
 

Daddy showing Jacob his new Dyson!

checking out the features :)

SOLD

My parents sold there house! I know it was a huge blessing to them with some bitter-sweet feelings. We moved into that house in March of 2001 and I lived there until 2009 when I got married. For some people, eight years probably doesn't sound very long, but it was the longest I had lived anywhere and it finally felt like home.

My Dad hired 3 guys to help load the piano, heavy furniture, and tools. At one point I looked out the front door and saw my Dad and the three workers bent over the dollie. I sent this photo along with this text message to him:
Q: How many people does it take to air up tires on a dollie?
A: 3 Mexicans and 1 Polack 

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I wonder what he's thinking.

So excited to be in such a big truck!

Class of 2012

Probably my favorite part of our Waukesha mini-vacation was getting to take Julie's senior pictures. With fall colors in full bloom, there were so many beautiful places to choose from. We started in the living room.

I absolutely love all the windows that are in the front & sun room of my parents home. They make for great pictures & a warm, sunny room to drink my coffee :)

LOVED this white fence that goes around the yard.

Couldn't decide which one of these I like best. What do you think?

We took the rest of these photos around the Fox River in Waukesha. It was beautiful there.

Waukesha, WI

The last week of October James flew out to Connecticut for a few days to attend marketing training seminars for work. Jacob and I decided (well, I was the one to make the decision :) that would be a great time to visit my parents and two younger sisters in Waukesha.

So Jacob went on his first plane! We flew out of St. Louis and changed planes in Kansas City, MO, then landed in Waukesha. I think Jacob did pretty well for a toddler. His ears bothered him a little bit, but by the time we landed in Waukesha he was sound asleep and didn't wake up until we were off the plane and I put him in his stroller.

Julie is a waitress at the most delicious Chinese restraunt. (I know because we ate there Saturday night :)

Jacob saying "Bye!" to Julie before she goes to work. 

One day Mom, Jacob, & I drove about an hour to Roscoe, IL to visit my Grandpa Button-Box. His last name is actually Major. But I've called him Grandpa Button-Box my whole life; so to say "Major" sounds silly to me. When my older sister was real little, my Grandma always had a box full of assorted buttons that she played with & that's where the name came from and we've used it ever since!

Grandpa Button-Box will be 91 in March! He took us to Ray's. It's one of his favorite restaurants. Everyone knew him there and he didn't even need a menu to order :) I got the rueben sandwich and it was delicious!

This is my dad. It is rare to capture a smiling picture of him WITH his eyes open.

I GOT ONE!

Grandma (my mom) got Jacob new Elmo pi's, complete with an Elmo doll while we were there. I can't put into words the excitement that Jacob express when he saw them!

Jacob, Julie, Me

Definitely loved this trip :)