Happy New Year's Eve!!!!

Just wanted to write a quick note to tell you Happy New Year's Eve!!  We'll just be hanging out at the house tonight, so anyone that is going out to have some fun...be careful!!

I'm so thankful for the past year and for my family and friends.  We are so excited about 2011 and the new little girl and exciting adventures the year will bring us.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year's and happiness and good health in 2011!!! :)

PS - I also wanted to say Happy Anniversary to the best in-laws a girl could ask for!!!  You guys are the greatest!  Wish we could be there to celebrate with you!

Landon's new hat

There is a show on TV called "Adventure Time with Finn and Jake".  Braydon loves it, and scooped up this hat from his friend.  It's a hat that the main character, Finn, wears in the show...I have to say, it looks pretty cute on Landon.

Here's a picture of Finn from "Adventure Time", so you can see the resemblance...

Last Christmas as a family of 3...

This Christmas was a good one!!  Landon got a lot of new toys from Santa, family and friends.  It got me thinking about what next year will be like....double the fun??  Or is it double the stress??  I don't know...either way I'm excited to have my family happy, healthy and able to enjoy each other this year and every year after this.

We normally get the chance to video chat with Braydon's family on Christmas Eve to open presents.  This year was a little different because we had some friends over for dinner that night, and it just didn't work out.  So we ended up opening EVERYTHING on Christmas day.  Needless to say, it was a little overwhelming!

We started the morning with the excitement of our Santa gifts and our stocking:

Our new "Lightning McQueen" Power Wheels!!!  Thank you Santa....wink wink (you know who you are)

Daddy trying to show me how to push the pedal to make it go

This picture cracks me up!  His face!  He didn't realize it moved and I think he was a little freaked out at first.

But then he warmed up to it, made it into the living room (with some help) and got out and enjoyed talking about the wheels.... :)

Then we had to check out what was under the hood...(typical male) :)

Seeing what's in the stocking

Dad helped take out all the loot, but all my son wanted was the $1 four pack of mini spiral notebooks....go figure

Christmas breakfast..."Dada cereal" (Lucky Charms)

The rest of the day was a whole lot of opening presents.  This part of it was kind of a whirl-wind cause there was no rhyme or reason to what we were doing.  I ended up getting so busy helping Landon open his presents, and opening my own that I sort of slacked off on the picture taking.  

After we opened our TAG reader from Santa...

And opened our books to go with our TAG reader from Nonna, Papa, and Grandpa Harris

He LOVES his TAG reader.  I think that's his favorite present this year.  It's a little pen that you run over a word and it says it for you.  You can also push on pictures and it will talk to you.  Landon doesn't do much of the "reading" part of it yet, but he loves to push on the pictures to see what they say.  It's a really cool toy.  Landon had a lot of fun with it after we had a chance to clean up and play with it....

Daddy showing me how to use my TAG reader

Laughing at the noises the TAG reader was making...

Look at all those books!!!  

On a side note:  We had to go through Landon's bookcase last night and have him decide if he wanted to give some of his books to his baby sister.  With a little help, he did great giving up his board books he had outgrown and he even took them to baby sister's room.  I was so pleased. :)  Now we'll actually have room on his bookcase to fit his new books!!

More laughing at the books...

Then some laughing at the sounds that Lightning McQueen makes. :)  There are buttons on the steering wheel that make different sounds...it's really cute.

Thank you to everyone that sent us gifts for Landon.  It was so thoughtful.  I'm sorry I wasn't better with the picture-taking.  I'll have to hire a photographer for next year! :) haha!!!

We will miss you Ashley!!

Today was a sad day for us at therapy...

Our speech therapist, Ashley, is moving at the end of this month.  Her husband got a job in Kansas (where she's from) and they will be moving there to be closer to family.  It will be sad to not see her anymore and we will miss her very much.  Landon was sure to give her a bunch of hugs when we were leaving, although I'm not sure he understood that he wasn't going to see her anymore.  We appreciate everything that she has done for Landon.  She's been seeing him since we brought Landon back from our last trip to Denver a year and a half ago.  We've seen her almost every week since then.  Landon has really transformed with her help of teaching him the picture exchange method and then moving that into his iPad.  She's also helped mom and Landon learn some sign language.  We've learned so much from her.

Landon and Ashley at the Dr. Seuss Christmas Party 

(Note: Ashley actually has brown hair...not blue)

  

We really do consider these therapists part of our family, not because we see them so much but because they genuinely care about Landon's well-being.  They all want what is best for him and will do anything to make sure he works to his full potential.  We aren't really sure where Landon would be without them.

Ashley, we will miss you so much!!!  It will be so nice for you to live near your family and we wish you and your husband all the luck in the world!!!  We love you!

Gingerbread adventures

Last week Landon was learning about the Gingerbread Man in school.  They did several activities associated with gingerbread.  They decorated paper gingerbread men, baked a gingerbread man, and on Friday they got to make gingerbread houses and take them home.  I was super pumped about the gingerbread houses (probably the artist coming out in me) and had been talking about it with Landon.  He seemed excited too.

Well, let's just say it didn't go as planned...Landon threw a fit when they were putting icing on his graham crackers to "glue" it to the milk carton for him to decorate.  He didn't want to have anything to do with it, and even cried the whole time they did it. :(  Oh well....maybe next year??

Needless to say, Heidi and the teachers tried to get him into it, but Landon refused...so Heidi made us a gingerbread house.  Thanks Heidi!!! :)  Here's a picture of her masterpiece. :)

We also went to therapy with Ashley last Thursday and gave the therapists their gifts.  I ended up finding some cups that have the insides where kids can make a picture and put it in the cup.  I had Landon draw on some construction paper and we put their names on each.  On the back I put "love Landon", but instead of his name I put one of his school pictures.  They turned out pretty cute and all three of them loved them.  I just wish I would've remembered to take a picture of them first...dang it! :)

Anyways, Penny ended up giving Landon a gingerbread house for Christmas.  I thought it would be a cute family thing to do, so we've been waiting for Braydon to not have to work 12 hour shifts in order to do it.  Sigh.  He's getting some days off soon so we'll take advantage of that and do the gingerbread house...hopefully without tears. :)  Wish us luck!  Here's a couple of pictures of Landon opening his gift from Penny.  He had fun ripping the paper, but was still pretty gentle with it. :)

Stay tuned for pictures of our family gingerbread house! :)

34 week checkup

This pregnancy is going by so fast!!!  I had my 34 week appointment this week.  It wasn't too exciting...just talking with Dr. NewMyer and listening to little girl's heartbeat on the doppler.  Her heartbeat was in the 130s (per minute), which is good.  I've only gained 22 pounds so far, although I feel SO much bigger. :)  She's starting to run out of room in there because I don't feel her moving as much, but when she does, it is very uncomfortable!  I've started to feel more uncomfortable with back pain, cramping and headaches.  Fun, huh??

Here's a lovely picture of me and my "torpedo belly" at 34 weeks...

25 cent lunch

So we all know of the battle we've had with Landon's eating habits.  We've been working with him to eat more for a couple years now in order to get him to where he has less and less nutrition going through his g-button.  The g-button feedings are almost down to half and half of water and his formula.  He's been doing great gaining weight, and I feel like he's eating close to the amount that any three year old would eat.

Since we have been concentrating more on getting food in his belly, we never really cared if we were feeding him the food.  We just wanted him to eat!  So now we're at the stage where Landon is eating well enough that we need to start really pushing him to eat by himself.  Plus, with baby sister coming, it (of course) would just make things a little easier.  We've shown him how to use a spoon and fork for several months now, but he only had interest for a few bites and then he was over it.  We used LOTS of encouragement, but some days were just better than others.  All in all, I think he's lazy about it cause we've allowed him to be that way.  But we are learning from our mistakes. :)

Landon is really into yogurt (which he calls "baby yogurt" because there is a baby on the package).  We started him out eating that by himself and he did great with it cause he loved it so much.  He would eat half the  cup of yogurt before we would have to take over.  We haven't had much luck finding anything else that he was super interested in where he would feed himself like that....until today.

Apparently, my son LOVES Ramen noodles!  Who would've thunk it??  I know it's probably not the best meal to be feeding him, but hopefully it's a stepping stone.  And we aren't feeding it to him every meal either...he's not in college yet! :)

Fun pictures of baby sister

I had my 32 week appointment with Dr. NewMyer on the 1st.  Everything was great!  We got some new pictures of our little girl.  My mom was here, so she got to come to my appointment with me and watch little girl bounce around on the screen.  As we were getting measurements, the technician was getting some pictures.  We were trying to get a picture of her face when she started to blink!!  She closed her eyes, and my mom started talking to her.  Just as she heard my mom's voice she opened her eyes again!  She did it over and over.  As long as my mom was talking to her, she would open her eyes and blink.  It was so amazing to see that even in the womb she was very attentive to what was going on on the outside. :)  Here's the picture of her looking at us:

You can make out her face on the top of the picture.  You can see her eye looking at you...creepy, huh?? :)

Look at that cute little smile!  

She was measuring 16 inches long already!!  Holy cow!  Her weight was estimated at 4 lbs. 2 oz.  The technician said that that was right on track.  I can't wait to get to meet her and see this cute little bundle of joy that has been kicking the crap out of my insides!!! :)  The time is getting close and I'm nervous, but also very excited to add another little person to our family.  I can't wait to give her a squeeze! :)

Cat in the Hat and Santa...who could ask for anything more??

Children's Hospital had their annual Christmas party yesterday.  We were anxious about if Landon would be able to go because he had had a fever earlier that week and didn't even go to school.  Thankfully, though, he was fever free.  We definitely didn't want to miss out this year because the theme was Dr. Seuss, and we all know how much Landon loves Cat in the Hat! :)  He had fun playing some of the games and collecting candy like on Halloween.  He also got to sit in Santa's lap and get a package of Hot Wheels cars from him.  Landon was in heaven!! :)

He got to give the Grinch his heart,

 Go fishing for fruit snacks,

Ride on Max the reindeer,

And put cats in hats.  He was cute cause he gave each cat a hug before putting them in a hat. :)

Picture with Santa

And so excited about his cars

He didn't recognize Ashley with her blue wig on.  He was very confused. :)

He wasn't quite so sure about the armadillo from Texas Roadhouse either.  It took a little encouragement for him to give him "five"...I don't blame him.

Landon and one of the therapists, Mary, matched with their Cat in the Hat hats.

The cute little cupcakes they had

I think Landon had a lot of fun.  I wish it would've lasted longer so he could've played more, but such is life.  I'm just glad he got to go at all. :)

Shower for our baby girl

Landon's nurses, Theresa and Heidi were nice enough to throw me a baby shower for our little one.  I had so much fun getting to hang out with the girls and play games.  Theresa did a fantastic job making sure we were fed.  There was so much delicious food.  I wanted to keep eating but didn't have enough room in my belly. :)  Here are some pictures that Megan took that day...

The cutest cake ever!

Diaper cake that Heidi made for me

Landon just loves Jess...every time she comes over he is glued to her. :)

Some of the girls that came to the shower...and their kids

Playing guess how big the belly is...it was 9 squares of toilet paper if you're curious. :)

Another game....unscrambling baby names.  I wasn't very good at this one.

The beautiful blanket Pyper made for little girl

Pyper and her daughter, Roslyn

Opening more gifts...

Landon loves his Nonna

Playing the rice game...you have small safety pins hidden in a bowl of rice and you have to try and pick them out...blindfolded...not as easy as it sounds.  I only got 4 in one minute.

Landon reading up on the best baby products. :)

LOVE this onesie from Megan!

Landon was trying to put on baby sister's clothes.  He was walking around with it over his shoulders.

Theresa, me and Heidi

This is a good side picture of my belly

I had the best time and I'm so thankful for everyone that came to help me celebrate our little girl!  I'm so excited to get to meet this little munchkin!!

A BIG THANK YOU TO THERESA AND HEIDI FOR ALL OF THEIR HARD WORK ON THE SHOWER!!!  YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!!!! XOXOXOXO