Picture post from back in time....

I was uploading pictures the other day and realized that I haven't posted some on here that I know you'd enjoy seeing. So, this post is dedicated purely to pictures.

ENJOY!

Waiting for the "potty races" (as Alex called them) to begin. We headed home to the Fireball Festival. It was fun to see Alex's reaction to the toilets racing down the street. He had no clue WHY they would do this!


Off they go!


3 Months Old



He was so focused on watering the plants in the Family Zoo area. Kent and I kept saying, "who is this kid?" It was cute.



Little trip to the zoo. They had this bean bag toss game set-up and Alex LOVED it! He played it about 3 or 4 times. He actually did a great job too. We made him scoot back further.


On Daddy's shoulders. Best way to experience the zoo.


Trying out the foot massager at the zoo.


Paige at the zoo! What a good little girl.


I took Alex to see his first movie in the theater. He loved Toy Story 3! It was fun to watch him experience the big screen for the first time.


Alex is taking two classes at the Park District this summer (cooking and art). After his art class he told me that he made "goo" to put his hands in. It turns out that it wasn't GOO but GLUE! Oops. Oh well, he had fun!




Water balloon fight on the 4th of July! We had fun tossing the ballons at one another. Alex wondered why we weren't in our swim suits. By the time we were done, I wondered the same thing.






Little Illini Fan!


One of his paintings from Art Class

Paige Laughing

3 Month update

Well, I'm a few weeks late for this post, but better late than never. Paige is now 3 months old and growing like crazy! I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish she'd slow down! She is definitely my happy little girl. She has just started in the last two weeks laughing outloud! She is not one you have to work at to get her to smile! She loves looking at faces and smiles back at you. She is unofficially around 12.5 pounds. On another note, we do have her in physical therapy at Children's Memorial because of her favoring the right hand side. Her neck is getting stronger and she is really starting to even out her preference. Basically by favoring her right side, she caused her head to be slightly misshapen. He has a flat spot in both the back and the front of her head. We do a lot of tummy time and moving her in different positions during physical therapy. Another aspect of it is that we have to really try our best to keep her off of the back of her head when she is awake during the day. Our goal is 50% of her awake time on her tummy (or similar positions). We're getting there and we're happy with the progress she has made.

3 Month pictures for JCPenny






Not to skip over Alex in this post...He's doing great and always full of energy! He loves to keep us on our toes. We were actually thinking back to one year ago and are so blessed to be able to say that he no longer has any speech delays! In fact he is non-stop talking! One year ago when we took him to fireworks, he was still using his sign language! :) Amazing how one year changes things.

God has truly blessed our family!

Picture Post!

Life here is good as we continue to adjust to life with 2 kids. I have about another week and a half of maternity leave then it's back to work. Paige had her 2 month check up and was 10pounds 10ounces, 22 inches long! She's looking good!

Playing in the rain.






Getting big!!



Little pool fun on a hot day



Beach trip with Daddy




Smiley Girl

Videos

Drummer Boy


Making a cake

A New Schedule

So I've discovered while home on maternity leave that Alex is a child who needs some major structure. Without it, he gets bored and starts to do things that he knows we do not allow. After 7 weeks, I finally figured out that I need to do a schedule like I did with many of my music therapy clients I worked with awhile ago. I created a storyboard and found pictures, laminated them and put them with velcro on a piece of cardstock. We now have everything planned out for the day so there is no time for Alex to get bored. Included in this schedule is a time for chores. I took a few pictures the other day of Alex doing his chores. It made me laugh, but he was LOVING it!!! We also have arts and crafts everyday as well as some time to "play" with Paige. He is doing very well with it.

Family Visits

My Grandma came from Arizona to meet Paige at the beginning of May. It was great to have her here, even though it was a short visit for the day. We were able to catch up and most importantly she was able to spend some time with our kids. We love that Alex and Paige have two great Grandmas that love them and are a part of their lives.

The whole gang!


Grandma Bev & Paige


We were excited a few weeks ago to have Kent's parents come and meet Paige. They had a quick visit, but Alex was beyond thrilled to have Grandma and Grandpa here to play with. He quickly took them to his room to show them ALL of his toys, read many books, and many silly games.

Bedtime stories


A bedtime prayer

One Month Old

Bubble Time

The other day Alex and I headed outside and played with his new bubble wand that I got from the $1 bin at Target. He loved it. He was having a blast. After deciding that blowing the bubbles wasn't enough excitement, he figured that it would be better to rub the bubbles all over himself. He was so dirty by the time we were done playing that we had to go right inside to the bathtub, but it was a blast!

Birthday Boy turns 3!!!

I can't believe it, but my little boy is 3 years old! A week after Audrey Paige was born, Alex had a birthday and turned 3 years old. He is getting so big. He is definitely in that independent stage, but yet he's always been strong-willed and independent. He loves to run and jump and play outside (or inside for that matter). He is loving his new sister and for the most part does really well with her. He's had his moments, but I can't complain. He has just started to like playing with little cars and trucks as well as Gogos (little plastic creatures). His creativity is growing everyday! I can't believe his attention to detail. He will recognize emblems from cars and other little things like that. He loves to know how things work, which means that I find myself saying, "I'm not sure, ask Daddy!" He is an absolute joy and even though he wears me out everyday, I wouldn't trade him for the world! What a blessing to have him in our lives!

We celebrated at Chuck E. Cheese (easy for me to prepare!)




My Grandma and Audrey Paige


Opening gifts!!!


When I asked Alex what kind of a party he wanted he said "Chocolate" When I asked if he wanted a circle or square cake he said "Triangle!"


Thomas Trainset he got


Drumset from Nana and Papa. Thankfully Paige is sleeping through the noise (for now)

New Addition...

We are happy to announce the arrival of Audrey "Paige" Thompson, born March 27th, 2010 at 7:05pm. She weighed in at 6lbs12oz and was 19 inches long. She came a few weeks early as she decided to do her own thing and flip around inside. Because of that, we decided to induce labor in order to avoid a c-section should she continue to flip until she came. My labor was longer thing time, but overall it wasn't bad all things considered. She is perfect in every way and we are so excited that she is finally here. She is sleeping pretty well at night which is always a help! We are just busy adjusting to life with 2 kids. Alex seems to like her and is trying to "help out" in any way he can. He also got to spend a few days with Nana and Papa, which he loved!!

What's new here?

Last weekend we took a trip with my family up to Christmas Mountain at the Wisconsin Dells. It was fun to watch the kids play together as they get older. Claire is the typical girl who always wants to be holding Alex's hand and hugging him. Alex is the typical boy who wants to play with her, but forget the hugs and hand holding. There were a few times that I had him hold her hand as we would walk inside a building. As soon as we'd get inside he'd say, "Claire, I don't have to hold your hand any more now." We went to the pool a few times, which had a water slide. To prove how much Alex loves having Claire around, here's a little story. They both LOVED the water slide. As soon as they were down, they would run (yes, we'd remind them to walk) back around to the top. Well, Alex would stand there and wait at the top until Claire made it back. Then he would jump up and down and let her go down first. He had a little hop in his step the whole time they were playing at the pool. It is fun to watch him get older and be able to do more things.

Look at that face!!!!


Saturday afternoon, the rest of my family went tubing down the mountain while I stayed back and hung out with Eli! Alex has such a funny personality as he loves doing things like tubing, but his facial expressions don't always reveal that. My mom would ask him if he was having fun and he would just say, "yeah." At one point they knew he was having fun going down the mountain when he said, "This sure is fun!" He also did manage to say "Wheee!!!!"on one trip down the mountain. :)






That was our last "trip" before the baby gets here. I've got about 6 weeks left until my due date. Our weekends are pretty full between now and then so I'm hoping that time continues to go quickly. I'm still feeling pretty good. My energy level is starting to go back down, but I'm not sure if that is from being pregnant or from chasing Alex around. We're all pretty excited for this baby to arrive. I think the closer it gets to spring, the more we feel like it will be right around the corner.


We've spent some time this winter playing in the snow and building a snowman. Alex was so proud of "Frosty." That is, until he toppled over as we had a few warmer days.





Playing with his Shaving Kit that he got for Valentine's Day!

Way too Long

I realize that it has been way too long since I last updated the blog. This will probably be a quick overview of the last month with a few pictures at the end.

Things are going well here. We took a trip to Disney World at the beginning on January with some friends of ours. It was a blast! Alex LOVED Disney! His favorite part was the Barnstormer which was a roller coaster. He also loved the race cars, meeting Mickey Mouse & Friends as well as the penny machines (that smash your penny into a souvenir). We were able to spend 1 day at each of the 4 parks which was great. We have a ton of pictures, so I'll try to chose a few to give you an idea of how much fun we all had. Alex is still talking about Disney World.

We are getting closer to baby #2 being here. We have about 10 weeks left til our due date, so we'll see when she decides to make her arrival. We are excited to meet her and have here here. Alex talks about his baby sister quite often. I think he understands as much as a 2 1/2 year old can understand about getting a baby sister. He has really taken to being a "big boy" and doing things "by himself." We've been working a lot with that lately as well as working more with disciplining. He's responded great to a sticker chart that we made for him. He's so proud when he puts his sticker on at the end of the day! When he fills up the chart he gets some sort of "surprise."

Nothing else really going on here. We've got some busy weekends coming up with being on praise team as well as just a few trips, then in April having baby #2 arrive! Should be an interesting couple of months.

For now, enjoy the pictures from Disney World.