Sarah's Newborn Pictures

Since I posted our maternity pictures last week, I guess it's time to post Sarah's newborn pictures too.  I also have delivery pictures, but I'm trying to decide how I want to share those.  Sarah was dismissed from the NICU on a Sunday.  My friend, Heidi, took these pictures some time that week (I think it was on Tuesday, which would make Sarah around 6 days old).  As with our maternity pictures and Joseph's newborn pictures, we took them at the OSU Botanical Gardens.  We used a few of the props from Joseph's shoot for Sarah which I loved.  Also, as with the maternity pictures, I'm trying to decide which ones to frame, so opinions are welcomed. 

Big brother went with me to the photo shoot.  I hoped he would be willing to take some pictures with Sarah, but he decided he would rather do toddler things like play with rocks, climb on bridges, and play in a water feature resulting in a soaking wet shirt that assured he would not be expected to appear in any pictures.

Except for this one where he stopped what he was doing to come over and check on "baby" and give her a kiss. 

Before the pictures began we made sure Miss Sarah's tummy was full. (Where did all that hair go?!)

Her poor little feet had so many marks from all the times they needed blood during her hospital stays and follow up visits.

When Joseph was born, Sam bought him a bison stuffed animal in the hospital gift shop to represent where he was born (Lawton is right next to the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge).  While Sarah was at OU Children's Hospital, he visited the gift shop to get her something and knew this slightly more Rumble looking version of Joseph's stuffed animal was meant for Sarah. 

I love her lips in this one!

These are the pearls I wore in our wedding.

I'm sure I've mentioned it at some point, but Heidi is a fellow angel momma, so she understands the importance of my necklace and why I like to include it in the kids' newborn pictures (she even has a necklace of her own).

Can you tell I never take my necklace off?  You can barely even read her name and date on the back now.

Here are some more pictures in the grass.  Since she was born at the end of September, we were limited in spots with nicely landscaped backgrounds.

And one with her monogram.

In case you are curious what pictures I framed of Joseph's, it's some of the pictures included in his newborn picture post found here.

Maternity Pictures (a Little Late)

Since Sarah is four months old now, I think it's safe to post the pictures from our maternity session.  We were hesitant to take pictures at all, but ultimately decided to take some and just wait to share them.  I'm glad we took pictures, because these turned out to be some of my all time favorites of Joseph (who was almost 16 months old at the time).  Instead of typical maternity pictures using baby stuff as props, we decided do simple family pictures that just happened to include a very pregnant mom (these were taken 10 days before she was born, so I was 36 weeks).  My only regret is that we brought Aubrey's "A" to the shoot, but forgot to include it in the pictures (my friend, Heidi, who took the pictures offered to photoshop it in if we decide to).  Now I need your help deciding which ones to frame.  Here are some of my favorites.

I'm not a fan of pictures of just me, yet I love this.

When Joseph saw me laying on the ground, his natural reaction was to come over and give me a kiss. 

Sarah is 4 Months Old

Miss Sarah had a busy month!  Shortly after she turned three months old, she became a very vocal little girl.  She doesn't necessarily babble, but it's more than a coo.  She smiles a lot now, especially at her daddy.  She can roll from her stomach to her back.  She likes sitting in the Bumbo, but it makes her spit up, so I don't let her do it often.  Also, I think it's now safe to say she is a paci baby.  Girl loves her paci and brother loves shoving one in her mouth when she even thinks about crying.  You might notice a little extra bling in Sarah's pictures this month since I took her and had her ears pierced.  I wanted to do it before she was old enough to a.) touch them and get them infected and b.) remember it hurt.  On Monday the 27th (two days after she turned 4 months old), we went in for her check up and found out that Sarah weighs 13.6 pounds and is 24 1/4 inches long. 

Sarah - Month 4

We broke out the jumparoo this month which she really enjoys.

Sarah has started manipulating toys on her own and occasionally takes them to her mouth.  She loves he paci pet and sometimes chews on its ears or legs. 

She is interested in all things Joseph and watches him and his things intently.  Especially when he leaves a bowl of snacks right next to her (because he quickly jumped out of the chair when I grabbed the camera since, I guess, he doesn't want documentation that he likes sitting next to her).

Sarah is doing a great job holding her head up, especially during tummy time (even though it isn't her favorite time of day).

Superman, aka Joseph, was a little jealous during her letter photo shoot this month.  Here he is pouting while still wearing my favorite pajamas (it was early morning) and needing a hair cut.

He then tried a different approach.

I still managed to get a couple of cute pictures.

Even though this picture was taken with my phone instead of the camera, it ranks pretty high in my all time favorite pictures of Sarah.  That's the smile that I know and love. 

Date Night - CHICAGO The Musical

My husband is hit or miss when it comes to gifts.  I mean, I can expect an awesome, extremely thoughtful gift or nothing at all for pretty much every holiday or special occasion.  I'm fine with this because the awesome gifts are truly awesome and have a lot of thought behind them. 

January 3rd was my birthday.  It was also the date of the OSU bowl game.  Since football is always better with company, we invited some friends over to watch the game with us.  Sam had told me that he had my gift but he didn't have my gift.  I assumed it was a gift certificate of some sort.  I eventually figured out that it was tickets (I promise I wasn't snooping, I just check his email occasionally because all of the bills and stuff go there and I'm who pays the bills) but I still didn't know what they were tickets to (see, I didn't even open that e-mail).  I kept asking if the event was in Tulsa or Oklahoma City and he eventually told me it could possibly be in a different city, maybe even a different state.  This only confused me more.  When he got home from work that night, he decided to make another food item to enjoy during the game.  He asked me to get out the cutting board, blender, and all that jazz.  I thought it was odd he was talking in musical form, but didn't realize it was yet another clue.  Finally, he told me that he had purchased two tickets to go see Chicago The Musical.  I was thrilled!  I quickly asked what we were going to do with the kids and he told me that our good friends the Castros (the people at our house at that moment because they were watching the game with us) had called earlier in the day to offer to watch the kids while we went to dinner for my birthday before the game and he had asked them if he could postpone that offer until the night of the musical.  To say I was excited about spending an entire evening with my love while knowing the kids were with people they love is an understatement.

Sunday, January 19th came around and we got all dressed up and headed out on our big date evening.  This was a decent sacrifice for Sam because the San Francisco - Seattle playoff game was during the show and I know he would have much rather been watching that (he only checked the score during intermission).  Being the good wife that I am, when we arrived at the restaurant, I asked for a table where he could view the TV so he could watch the Denver game while we ate.  Being the good husband that he is, he only looked at the TV a few times instead concentrating on our conversation. 

It was definitely one of the best nights I've had in a long time.  Great conversation with a handsome guy, a wonderful performance that I wanted to sing along with (I didn't), and returning home to two kiddos already tucked into bed.  Thank you, Sam, Heidi, and John for making it happen!

Of course, we had to take a couple of quick pictures before we left. 

Yup, this is real life.  Baby carrier to the left, coats hanging on the banister, toddler head barely in the picture.

My handsome dinner date.

The playbill.  I might have been scoping out next years shows to see what tickets he can get me for my next birthday (Million Dollar Quartet, maybe).

Christmas 2013

Another busy holiday season is in the books and we've finally had time to recover.  You'll have to bear with me on this picture heavy post as I cover all of our gatherings at once. 

We started our Christmas celebrations the weekend before Christmas since Christmas fell on a Wednesday this year.  On Friday, we left for my mom's house as soon as Sam got off work.  Part way there, we started encountering some severe freezing rain.  Thankfully, our car is all wheel drive so we were able to slow down a little and make it safely.  That night, we celebrated Christmas with my mom, step-dad, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew.  I didn't really get any pictures from that night other than this one of Joseph after he was ready for bed.  Both boys wore cowboy hats around most of the night and enjoyed riding the tractor as well as playing with smaller tractors.

After a long night of crying babies, we headed to my mom's parents' the next morning.  Since the roads were pretty slick, we didn't leave too early in the morning, so that was nice.  While at my grandparents, the boys continued getting spoiled including all the pie and jello they wanted.

Both boys got a trycicle.  I love their tongues in this picture, they were sure trying to figure out their new rides.

After riding them around the living room and bumping into things for a few minutes, we took the "bikes" outside.

While the boys were riding their tricycles, Sam knocked the ice off of the roof rack and cargo net of our car.  The boys then started picking up the chunks of ice and throwing them into puddles as well as stomping on them. 

 

 

Sarah stayed inside where it was warm and enjoyed the extra attention she received.

 

Before too long, both boys discovered the joy of jumping in freezing cold water puddles and had to come inside where we stripped their pants off so we could stick them in the dryer for a bit.  They will thank me for posting this picture someday.  

They didn't mind too much because they got to eat more pie.

We then attempted a cousin picture since they all had on their matching shirts that I made them, but Joseph didn't want anything to do with it.  Bryar, on the other hand, continued his love fest for Sarah. 

Aunt Moo attempted a picture with both of my kids too, but Joseph didn't want anything to do with it either.

Late afternoon, we left Cache and headed to Lawton to my dad's house.  This is the only family picture we took during the entire Christmas week and I think it speaks volumes.  Notice how extremely tired we both look, the fact that Sarah won't look at anything but Joseph, Joseph's lack of one sock and his desire to get off of the couch as soon as possible.  Yup, those were all reoccurring themes throughout the week.

Poor Sarah and her scared eyes.  Maybe someday she'll grow into them.

Dad had this big box that some of his gifts were shipped in, so he decided to put it in the living room for the boys to play with.  At first, Bryar enjoyed driving his tractor in there. 

 Then it was propped on its side and Joseph sat in it.

Bryar thought it looked like a good place to sit too.

Joseph wasn't too sure about sharing his spot,

but tractors make everything better.

We decided to push our luck and attempt a cousin picture one more time while they all had their matching shirts on.  This is the best we could do.  Joseph's natural response is to stick his finger in Sarah's mouth when she cries if he can't find a paci right away (I'm constantly reminding him that hands don't go in mouths). 

After another long night of restless kids (Joseph does not like sleeping in bed with us, but we wanted Sarah in the pack and play), we woke up and opened presents.  Since the box was still in the living room, we threw all of the wrapping and tissue paper in it.  The boys loved playing in there with all of the paper.

After getting dressed, we headed over to my dad's parents' house for lunch.  Somehow I managed to not get any pictures of any of the kids riding the bouncy horse, but I assure you they loved it.

Sarah decided she HAD to eat at the same time we were all supposed to be eating lunch, so Sam and Joseph ate with the family while I fed her.  After I fed her, Sam volunteered to take over and put her down for a nap while the rest of us ate.  A while later, I realized I Sam still wasn't around, so I looked in the other room to find this.  Poor guy, he was exhausted.

Soon, all of the grandkids that were present and awake migrated to the giant Santa doll my grandma always puts out.  It took many attempts and a game of peek-a-boo to finally get some decent pictures of all four of them.  I have to admit, scrolling through all of them makes me giggle, but I decided to narrow it down to a few of my favorites for you. 

 

And I have no clue how I did this, but here you go.  Hopefully it works.

Of course, I had to zoom in on this picture of my boy.  Isn't he handsome!

After reading the story of Jesus' birth from the bible and opening gifts, we headed home.

Sam had to work Monday and Tuesday, but came home a little bit early Tuesday so we could go to the Christmas Eve service at our church.  Both kids were great throughout the entire service!  I only had to get one small snack out of Joseph's busy bag that I had brought with us.  When the time came to light the candles, Joseph repeatedly told us and anyone within hearing distance they were hot. 

Christmas morning, we slept in until 8:30!  Well, the boys slept in until then, Sarah and I got up around 5:30 so she could eat then fell back asleep in the recliner until the boys got up.  It was so nice to not have to worry about being any where by a certain time or even getting dressed.  We took our time opening presents with just our little family, then Sam's parents came down for lunch and to spend the afternoon. 

I only took a few pictures that morning then put the camera away because I wanted to be present instead of worrying about capturing the moment.  I'm happy with my decision.

Sam spent a little time cuddling with the kids while I picked up the breakfast dishes.

The kids both got new toothbrushes in their stockings because that's one of the things I always remember getting in my stocking.  Joseph loved his and didn't put it down for a long time. 

Since Sam and Joseph often play guitar together, Sam bought him his own guitar.  Someday, if he is still interested (and I hope he is), we'll get him a real one.

I kind of love the sequin bows I found for Sarah's stocking.

Joseph loved watching the Disney Christmas parade.  Especially when he got to use Daddy as a pillow.

We kept the fireplace going all day which I loved.  One of my favorite things to do is sit in front of  fire.  Joseph decided it was a good place to sit too. 

The next Saturday, we went to my step-dad's family Christmas, but I managed to not get any pictures while we were there.  Joseph's favorite thing about that gathering was going outside to look at the tractors.  As soon as someone would bring him inside, he would walk to another person and ask them to take him outside to look at the tracties as he calls them.

Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas.  I'm so thankful for all that God has given us including the opportunity to spend time with family.