Christmas decorating

We are skimping a bit on our Christmas decorations this year and using the "we have a newborn and a crazy toddler running around the house" as the likely excuse. We did decide to put up our artificial pre-lit Christmas tree and at first were not going to add any ornaments at all so as to avoid the inevitable removal of the ornaments by the aforementioned toddler. But once it was up, it looked so barren and sad that we added some cheerful red bows just for a little color. We promise to have our house back in full holiday swing next year!

Good job with the bows, Joey!

Joey helping daddy put the star on top

Joey inspecting his work...looks good to me!

Owen is 2 weeks old!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! As always, our family has so much to be thankful for. This year, we are especially thankful for Owen, our little Thanksgiving turkeyball and of course thankful for his adoring big brother Joey. It's hard to believe that Owen is already two weeks old! He is still sleeping a lot although he is starting to open his eyes more often. He is also eating very well and you can tell in the pictures that he's starting to get a little chubbier in the cheeks.

Here is Joey pointing out Owen's umbilical cord stump just moments before he gives it a big tug...not coincidentally, the stump fell out the next day.


And I couldn't resist a couple of photos of Joey sneaking to the dinner table to gobble down a huge spoonful of sweet potatoes while no one was looking...

Owen's first week

Owen was born one week ago today and we're so enjoying having him home with us. He is such a sweet and pleasant baby and things on the homefront have been wonderful (especially with Mima here to help). Enjoy some of our favorite pictures from this past week!

Coming home from the hospital

Big brother Joey welcoming Owen home

Joey teaching us how to use the bulb syringe

Resting...this is literally what he does all day

Joey checking up on his baby brother

Mommy catalog shopping with her boys

Owen patiently waits while we do Joey's bedtime routine

Sponge bath!

Sweet little feet

Finally...the eyes are open!

School pictures

Okay, so the title of this post should really be singular since Mr. Photographer only took a single shot of Joey on picture day, but then he managed to photoshop the one pose into four incredibly cheesy variations. And on top of that, he also managed to con me into ordering all four...

Introducing Baby Owen!

Our precious baby Owen made his surprise entrance yesterday! He must have heard me begging him to come out the night before - we went to sleep for a few hours and then my water broke at 4:00a.m. We got to the hospital, got Pitocin, got an epidural (yay!!) and before I knew it, we started pushing. I guess it's true what they say about second babies just slipping out because I started pushing at 12:51p.m. and Owen was born just 16 minutes later. He is absolutely adorable (looks a lot like his big bro Joey) and so far the only issue we've had with him is keeping him awake long enough for feedings! Enjoy some pictures of our cutie below. Click here to see more (and we promise to keep posting more pics over the next few days).

Owen Christopher
November 13, 2008

1:07 p.m.
7 pounds, 8 ozs.
19.5 inches long

Quick Owen update

Our doctor's appointment went well this morning...although it would have been better if they had just kept me there and checked me into the hospital! I am still 3cm dilated and am now 50% effaced. We confirmed with the hospital and are still on for induction next Tuesday, November 18th. We also did our last ultrasound today and Owen is head-down facing my spine which is exactly how the doctor wants him to stay positioned for the delivery. His weight is estimated to be about 8 pounds right now so he may be up to 8 1/2 pounds by the time he comes out - that's over 1 pound more than Joey was at birth...YIKES!!!

Waiting for Owen

It really feels like we are just sitting around twiddling our thumbs and waiting for Owen to make his grand entrance these days. In fact I am so bored that we made a "test run" last Thursday night to the hospital. I swear to you I was having contractions and really did feel like I was going into labor. When we called the after-hours line for my doctor's office, the nurse told us to go ahead and head for the hospital. So we called Aunt Janet here in Austin - she's our first line of defense for staying here at the house with Joey - and then we called Mima in San Antonio to give her a heads-up. As far as the logistics go, everything went very smoothly. But as far as delivering a baby goes, we were sent home after an hour at the hospital because I was still only 3 cm dilated and experienced only 2-3 more contractions during that time.

In the meantime, we've pretty much finished working on Joey's big boy room. While he won't be moving into the room for at least a couple of months, he is really enjoying playing in it everyday. Since we've got guests coming to stay with us for the next few weeks (thank goodness for family members volunteering to help us with the boys!!!), Joey's room will be the guest room at least through the holidays. He'll stay in his crib for now and Owen will sleep in a bassinet in our room until he's about 3-4 months old. Here are a couple of pictures of the new room:

Joey's big boy bed - we upholstered the headboard ourselves!

A little table and activity center

A new dresser for Joey and some display cubbies which daddy worked diligently on hanging this past weekend.

Here's Joey testing out Owen's bassinet. Can you believe Joey was once small enough to fit in this thing??? I promise it looks a lot more gender neutral in person!

Some random photos from this evening...here's Joey giving his little brother a good night kiss!

And mommy gets a good night kiss too!

My next dr. appt. and last ultrasound is tomorrow morning so look for another update soon!

We're in the home stretch...

Went to see the baby doc today and things are progressing well. I am 3 cm dilated and the doc said she could tickle Owen's head with her fingers (blech!). The doctor sounded fairly certain that I would go into labor on my own before the actual due date, but just in case I don't, we are scheduled to check into the hospital at 7:00a.m. on Tuesday, November 18th, to be induced. So the countdown is on... only 13 days to go!

My mommy has no shame

Mommy went to a New Kids on the Block concert and all she brought me was this stinkin' onesie...

p.s. The only reason daddy even let me put this on was because it was worn underneath my Halloween costume where not a soul would see it.

Halloween fun!

Joey had a blast this Halloween. In case you can't tell, he is dressed up as a kangaroo because baby kangaroos are called joeys...get it? His costume came with a toy kangaroo to go in the pouch but we didn't know if Joey should be wearing it since that would make him a girl kangaroo, but I digress. We took Joey trick or treating at a few houses on our street - all were neighbors that know Joey well - and then afterwards we sat in our driveway and handed out candy to all the trick or treaters. Joey's favorite part was actually putting candy in other kids' buckets. And because daylight savings time was the night after Halloween, we decided to keep Joey up later than usual to help with the time adjustment so he had fun until almost 9:00! The most amazing part was that he kept his costume on (including the headpiece) for over two hours! Below are some of our favorite pictures but you can also click here to see all our Halloween shots.

The trick or treating is about to begin! But first Joey poses for a picture with his friend from across the street, Zander. He is dressed up as a little golfer.

Joey carefully examining his loot before placing it in his pouch.

The kangaroo and a black Halloween kitty.

Joey waiting for our neighbor to come to the door. In the meantime he's a little freaked out by the light-up skulls.

Joey and his friend from down the street, Arav, who is dressed up as a lion.

Joey and his umpteenth lollipop of the day.