Christmas 4.0

Our final Christmas was on the 26th with Chad's side of the family. We did brunch with his parents and brother and then had dinner with his cousins and their children. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures in the evening but here are a few from the early afternoon present opening.

Brooklyn LOVED her guitar!

Pops

Uncle Drew loves kitchen stuff, but likes making funny faces more

Gramma is excited about opening presents

Christmas 3.0

After spending time at home this Christmas morning, we headed to my parents' house to open presents and eat brunch with them and my brother. Then, at 4pm, the rest of the family (and assorted other guests) arrived for Christmas dinner. All the kids get more presents, and the adults participate in a Secret Santa (we draw names the year before). I actually had my grandfather this year, and because of his unexpected passing in May, I didn't know what I was going to do. I spoke with my mom in November and found out that he actually had drawn Chad's name. My grandmother was taking care of Chad's gift, so I decided that instead of a physical gift, I would do a monetary memorial for my grandfather. He suffered from Parkinsons' Disease, but I knew that was not what defined him as the wonderful man that he was. He was a giver. My grandfather would do anything for anybody in need. So, I spoke with Frank, the outreach director at our church, and asked what needs there were this Christmas. There was a member of our church who was coordinating the purchase of 150 toothbrushes and other tolietries for the homeless of Greensboro. I knew this would be where I want my donation to go. This was so special for me to do in his memory, and I have a feeling I want to do more gifts like this in the future. After all, it is always better to give than to receive.

Here are some pictures from Christmas afternoon/evening...

3 Generations of Johnson men
My grandmother's gift to Chad were matching "father/son hats." They are soooo cute!

All the Roever cousins...11 of us in this generation. We have added Chad by marriage and my two babies, and I have a feeling that in the next several years, we will add many more. I am the oldest, and I think we actually lined up in age order from back row to front row from right to left.

My super cute parents

Sweet Jake's first ChristmasMy grandmother entertaining her only great grandson.

Brother and sister!

Brooklyn's favorite present of the day was definitely her digital camera. She is such a shutterbug.

Checking out the loot....

Santa Came!

Our Merry Christmas Weekend

Since I was born, we have always spent Christmas Eve in Trinity with my Oma and Opa. And we always have the best lasagna for dinner. It was a lovely day with my dad's side of the family (just Oma and Opa), and Brooklyn had a wonderful time filling up on cheese and crackers, chocolate candies, and cookies. She just doesn't know what she is missing with that lasagna. :-) After we spent the day there, we went up to the Greensboro Urban Ministry night shelter where we helped serve the Christmas Eve dinner. We did not have a 7pm church service this year, so we decided this would be a great place to spend our Christmas Eve- helping those less fortunate. Chad also played some Christmas carols on his guitar, and we all sang and read some Bible verses.

Happy 2 Month Birthday, Jake!

What a big boy Jake is! I cannot believe we are celebrating his 2 month birthday.

Here is what is going on with our "little" man:

*Wearing size 3-6 month clothes (unless it has feet and then definitely 6 months)

*Wearing size 1-2 diapers

*Smiling and cooing like crazy (or making this precious "concerned" look with his eyebrows, as seen in picture)

*Holding his head up very well by himself

*Eating every three hours during the day and about every 6 at night (usually waking up once in the middle of the night, but Christmas eve and Christmas night he went about 8 hours between feedings)

*Not sure about weight (we go back to the doctor in about a week) but I am guessing about 13 pounds

*Enjoying the swing and car seat more in SMALL doses

*Loves to be swaddled at night

*Still has not needed formula (yay!) and has been solely raised on breastmilk

*Taking a bottle well from others

*Recognizes mommy's, daddy's, and Brooklyn's voices

*Still has light brown hair (double yay!)

*Still suffers from reflux and takes Zantac twice a day (and Mylicon as needed)

*Makes some crazy animal noises when settling down to sleep :-)

*Has learned that he has hands but is trying to figure out what to do with them

Christmas miracle?

My son slept through the night last night. He ate at 9pm, went down in a deep sleep around 10:30-11:00pm, and woke up at 5:00am this morning. 6 hours of sleeping and 8 hours between meals...I'm calling it a "Sleep through the night!" night.

Hark the sound of tarheel voices...fa la la la la la la la la.

It's that time of year when we have our annual Christmas-party-with-Thanksgiving-food celebration with my five girlfriends from college. We think this is our 8th annual get-together for Christmas, and fortunately since we all live in NC again, we see each other fairly often.

With the arrival of Mckenzie's Ansley and my Baby Jake, as well as the upcoming arrival of some more precious babies, I hope we will see each other even more to swap baby stories.

Heidi, Mckenzie, Jennifer, Loryn, and Marisa
The Hubbies: Jon, Lee, Marc, Jay, and Chad

Jake was the life of the party :-)

Yes, we take this picture often, but one day we will look back and say, "I'm so glad we have pictures of us in our twenties."

Love you girls! Thanks for a great time Saturday night!

Snow Day!

Saturday was our first snow of the year....and Brooklyn had a great time playing outside!

Here she is with Peyton, our precious next door neighbor. Hey, who needs snow boots when you have plastic grocery bags?

Snow angels

My Snow Bunny

Jake will catch the next snowfall...for now he is just happy being warm and indoors. :-)

Jake and Brooklyn Say Hi

Just to clarify, that is NOT a vulgar sign from Brooklyn at the end of the video. But it makes me giggle nonetheless. :-)

What I've Learned in 8 Weeks...

Hopefully, I will get up a 2 month birthday post on Saturday, but I'll blame the holiday-induced coma I will be in if I don't get up sweet Jake's stats. We start celebrating Thursday afternoon and I believe Christmas ourselves into some part of mid next week. I believe I just used Christmas as a verb...wow.

I did want to quickly share 8 things that I have learned (or re-learned) in the last 8 weeks:

1. I can get all my daily news from people's Facebook statuses and from watching the Hot Topics on The View.

2. My son's hair resembles Kate Gosselin's when he has had a crazy nap.

3. Brooklyn can make her voice sound EXACTLY like mine when talking to Jake...and I realize I say some pretty annoying things on a daily basis to get him to smile.

4. Baby boys fart way more than girls.

5. I can use the bathroom and hold a baby at the same time. (Gross, I know, but tell me you moms have never done that before!)

6. I have rationalized that eating Christmas treats like brownies and dessert bars for breakfast are OK because it's "like eating a cinnamon roll or something."

7. I have never been more proud than when my son lets out a huge belch after eating....

8. ....except when I zipped up my pre-pregnancy jeans this week.

Waiting in Line...

Just in case you couldn't understand through all the excitement....

Brooklyn wants a piano that you step on, a baby doll and a pack and play, and Zoe wants a Jasmine doll and a Jasmine costume. :-)

Here comes Santa Claus!

Well, Brooklyn actually requested to go back to the mall to SEE Santa. Sitting on his lap and talking to him were never part of the deal. :-) Zoe did a great job (with some small bribing from her mom), and overall, the Bumps and Johnsons had a great night. This was our fourth year in a row going to see the Four Seasons Mall Santa with Luke, Em, and Zoe. We started going with them when Zoe was only 4 months old! Wow, where has time gone? Look at these big girls!

Our second family photo :-) Poor Jake is never awake for any of them.

Brooklyn volunteered Zoe to go first. :-)

And this is what we ended up with. :-) Jake actually woke up, and his crazy mommy wouldn't allow daddy to let him go on Santa's H1N1 infested lap. And Brooklyn agreed to be in the picture as long as she didn't have to touch him (though she ended up giving him a high 5 at the end). We told Santa to just sit there and smile :-)

Oh, Baby!

When I was preggers with Brooklyn, I was a bit "on my own." I had Brooklyn when I was 24-25 and several of my friends were still engaged, newly married, or fabulously single. Babies were just not "in" then. :-) Now, Jake is surrounded by some wonderful babies born both before and coming in the next several months. In a 12 month span, we will be celebrating the births of soooo many precious babies. I am so excited for these dear friends. So, to keep us all updated, I have added a Gadget on the right titled "Oh, Baby!" If I am forgetting anyone, leave me a comment.

And stay tuned because there will be a few more additions...they just haven't made their pregnancies "Facebook public" yet. :-)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Because of H1N1 and just my general germaphobic nature, we opted not to get Christmas portraits done at a studio this season or to sit on Santa's lap. Instead, I decided to play around with the kids at our house with our own Christmas tree. They did so well and looked so cute. I may try it again in a week or two and try to get some different poses. Brooklyn loved being a "model" in her own home.

She is still a bit shaky holding him without the couch arm but did pretty well.

My Princess
Handsome little thing, isn't he? We then loaded up the fam and headed to K-vegas for Brooklyn's school Christmas program. Last year, she made it on stage for 1/2 song before leaving the stage in tears (that was 1/2 song more than I thought she would do though!). I did not have high hopes for this year, but she had been saying for weeks how she was ready to sing on stage with her friends. She had been practicing her songs everyday and was doing soooo well with the words. Here is her class on stage:
And here is Brooklyn on Nanny's lap. :-)

She did not even make it on stage this year. About 1/2 hour before the show, Brooklyn declared that she was not getting on the stage. She said that she remembered how she cried last year and did not want that to happen again this year. I didn't push it. I asked her if she still wanted to dress up and go. She said yes, she wanted to see her friends (and get the goodie bag- she's no dummy). We went and sat in the front row, and Brooklyn took pics of her friends with my mom's digital camera. :-) She was so happy- you would have thought she actually performed. Ha! Chad was so disappointed. He just doesn't understand how, with us as a mom and dad, she can be so shy. I just say give her time. I mean, with a "show choir mom" and a "lead singer dad," she'll come around.

Or, we'll just hope Jake is a bit braver. :-)

Tales of a Big Sister

With all the excitement of having a sweet 5 1/2 week old in the house, let's not forget the precious angel who came first.

Brooklyn has adjusted quite a bit better than I thought she would to having a baby in the house. As I brag to people, she does GREAT with Jake- helping feed him his bottle on occasion, finding his paci (and holding it in his mouth), entertaining him at the changing table, and showering him with kisses and hugs every chance she gets. She is so animated with him, and I love hearing her speak to him in the same "high pitched mommy voice" that I use. I mean, who wouldn't be entertained by this face?


But alas, she is human, and having had ALL the attention from 2 parents and 4 grandparents her entire life, she struggles sometimes with not getting what she wants exactly when she wants it. When that happens, we get this:

We are working on reminding her everyday that starting your sentences with "please" and ending your request with "thank you" is the way to go. We are encouraging "yes, ma'am" and "no, sir." We are sending her to time out when she sticks her tongue out at us or yells at us. 5 weeks ago I would have burst into tears when punishing her just thinking that "she's adjusting to her new life...cut her some slack." Now, I am trying to work with Chad on a united front knowing that we have to nip this attitude in the bud NOW before she grows up into a spoiled brat.

Overall, she is a good kid. She's just sometimes too smart for her own good....and has learned a thing or two watching Jon and Kate (again, glad that show is OVER).

Brooklyn is doing sooooo well at school. She has been ready for Kindergarten since she was three, so I have never been worried there. She knows all her letters- upper and lower- how they sound and how to write them. She counted to thirty this week. She knows the days of the week and the months of the year. She spells September and October....I forgot to ask her about November. :-) She can write her full name and the first name of all her friends in her class, knowing how to spell most of them herself. She learned her phone number this month, too.

She loves watching "18 Kids and Counting" and anything on Nick Jr. She is growing her hair out and it's beautiful. I will NEVER forget that it took her 2.5 years to even get hair. She has amazing blue eyes and still has the chubby cheeks that we noticed on her prenatal ultrasound 5 years ago. She is so excited about Christmas...especially the candy she gets from her countdown Advent calendar. She is still shy with adults and does not like to have her picture taken by anyone other than me. Though quite outgoing at home, in public she stays pretty close to us and doesn't bring attention to herself.

I must have done something right to have been blessed with Brooklyn as my daughter. I hope we continue to have our special bond in the years to come, and I thank God everyday that He chose ME to be her mommy.

He's All Smiles!

Since catching a smile on a camera these days is still a bit challenging, I thought a video would do the job. Here is Jake and his first "trick," SMILING.