Pueblo Parade of Lights

On Saturday after Thanksgiving (11/26), we bundled up and headed to the Pueblo Parade of Lights for the second year in a row. Thanks, Grandma, for those super warm boots for Charlie!! He was decked out in his winter gear and sat so nicely on the blanket, just watching the floats go by. It was fun, albeit a bit brisk. Baby girl did awesome - and by awesome, I mean slept through the whole thing. :) She stayed nice and toasty, too, thanks to a fuzzy bear suit on loan from cousin Kemper. It was festive!

Such bright eyes!! She is 24 days old here.

I can be frequently be found here, on the couch, in my little nursing station. 6-8 times a day for at least 30 minutes each time...

My favorite outfit

I just LOVE this outfit. I have no idea why, but it's just so cute and comfy for Alanna. Strangely enough, I bought it and another one with a different pattern at a garage sale in Fergus Falls for maybe 50 cents a piece. If you remember, Charlie had the exact same one with an adorable sailboat pattern. Go back and take a peek halfway through this post! Charlie had his newborn pictures taken in that sailboat outfit, and I also put Alanna in this one for her newborn pics! Fun!!

Charlie has to be thisclose to his sister when he looks at her. I wonder if he's nearsighted...?!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving morning playtime at the park. And why not? It was 70 degrees out! (Want to find out about Charlie's accessory? Scroll down to the bottom of the post.)Rustand debate: is it a twisty slide or a tornado slide? Put in your vote and settle a bet around here! Whatever it is, Charlie loves it.

This pic is simply to show that Matt was indeed wearing shorts and a t-shirt on Thanksgiving. Ok, so he took Charlie for a run and then ended up at the park where Alanna and I met them, but still. Shorts on Thanksgiving!

Our little ladybug all snugged in the stroller.

This is the part where we went to our friends Karen and Kurtis' house for a Thanksgiving feast. I didn't take any pictures! Boo! Like last year, we ate together and spent a few hours talking while the kids played. (They have a 2-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl.) I hosted last year, so Karen hosted this year. Next year, it's our turn again! It's so fun. We really enjoy hanging out with them, and like us, their family lives in California and Canada. Well, not that we have family in CA or Canada, but you get it. I brought mashed potatoes and green bean casserole, and Karen made the turkey, gravy, sweet potato casserole, cranberries from a can, and some kind of German thing called spaetzla... which was more fun to eat than spell. We topped off the meal with a traditional pumpking pie. From Costco. Ha!

Our two lil turkeys. Alanna's HUGE Thanksgiving outfit. She's obviously not ready for 3 month clothes yet.

Turkey butt!!

Enjoying her bath at the end of a busy day.

Question: Why does Charlie have a bandage on his forehead?

Answer: Because he's 1 1/2 and I bought stock in bandages. :) Just kidding. The real story is that he was standing in the living room a few feet away from the piano and either started to just tip over or wanted to be silly and throw himself down on the ground (like he frequently does). Either way, the top of his forehead slammed into a super sharp corner of the piano. Though it wasn't a big gash, it was really deep! Matt and I were both standing within 4 feet of him but couldn't prevent it from happening. Being a head wound, of course it bled quite a bit. I scooped him up into my arms and rocked for a bit while holding a tissue on his forehead to catch the blood. Charlie's tears stopped long before the bleeding stopped, so Matt took him into the family room to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade thinking that he would sit still and watch tv while Matt finished holding the tissue in place. It worked! At bath time that night, we were expecting to take off the bandage and reveal a huge bruise, but surprisingly enough it hardly bruised at all. There was a visible bump (especially when looking at Charlie's profile), but no black/blue/yellowish mark. This is one of the first few things we've actually needed a bandage for. Ah, the first of many. :(

3 weeks

All nestled up against my chest. So comfy! And yes, she's all about the pacifier. She even keeps it in all by herself!!The 3-week photo shoot. Charlie's doing something crazy with his hands, probably because I was tickling his belly, trying to get him to smile. Both kids have their eyes open - quick, take a picture!!

Alanna Faye's First Bath!

Finally, after 19 days, Alanna's cord fell off so we could go ahead with the dunk! It fell off in three pieces, starting a few days before. With Charlie, we gave him a full bath the first night home from the hospital, and every night after that. His cord fell off at 13 days! With Alanna, we gave her sponge baths and I even used rubbing alcohol on her cord at about 2 weeks to try and speed up the process and it STILL took almost 3 weeks for that sucker to drop off. I knew a real bath would just feel so nice for her! She liked the bath part but not the drying off part. Brrr!!

All fresh and clean, dry and warm. Well, working on the warm part anyway. Alanna's laying on the quilt that my mom made for her. Have I blogged about it already? It's BEAUTIFUL and I just love it!! My kids (and sister's kids!) are lucky to have a grandma who takes the time to put together individualized quilts for each of them. They're all gorgeous!

17, 18, and 19 days old

Time is flying by!! Here are some shots of Alanna at about 2 1/2 weeks old.

19 days old and working on a third chin. That's ok. Alanna just wants to match Mommy.

18 days old; Daddy with his babies! The kids are beautiful, but the guy in the middle is pretty easy on the eyes, too. :)

Daddy and Charlie doing what they do best, playing!

17 days old: Can you see the albino spot on Alanna's head? There's a dime-sized spot on her head that looks like it has no pigment at all. It's so sweet! I hope it stays like that forever. She'll save a boatload on highlights. :)

Focus on the Family

On the last Friday before Matt headed back to work, we decided to have a family outing to Colorado Springs to go to Focus on the Family. The entire lower level of the visitor's center is dedicated to kids, so we just let Charlie play and explore. They even had birthday party rooms that you can reserve. One of them was a fire theme, so of course we had to pose for a few pictures in there. It's free to go to and on that particular day it was so quiet, hardly any other kids around. It was fun! Different than what I thought, but still fun. It would be even more fun for a bit older kids because they have a 2-story twisty slide and some other fun climbing equipment that Charlie couldn't do due to his height or sheer lack of coordination. Probably the latter. :) With a quick stop at Old Navy and lunch at the mall, we had a fun day out as a family of 4!