And, just because...

Santa's Little Helper

Nolan absolutely loves all things Santa this year! (Well, let's just see how he does when he actually meets him and sits on his lap next weekend at Mark's NCM kids Christmas party...stay tuned!) So, at our local Tagawa Garden Center they had Santa's reindeer visiting for the weekend! We took the boys over to check it out!

Before we even got back to see the live reindeer, Nolan was psyched just to see these stuffed ones!

Pointing out the cool reindeer. He wanted to go in and pet them, but of course, we had to explain that that wasn't allowed! But why not, mom?

They had a white one and a brown one! They were pretty neat!

Nolan and Daddy played chase and hide and seek through the rows and rows of beautiful Christmas trees!

He loved smelling all of the trees and poinsettias too!

Posing with the Christmas decorations! If you look closely you'll see his filthy shirt from running and playing in the trees! Oh, my life with boys!

Flashback

As I was uploading some new Heath photos onto the computer I realized that we had some pretty similar pictures from Nolan's first weeks. Check 'em out...we think the boys look so much a like! Heath is just a smaller, darker version. What do you think?

1st Week

We are home and enjoying every second of it! Well, maybe not getting up every 2 hours during the night, but I still love my cuddle time while feeding Heath. It has been a good balance of playing with Nolan, snuggling with Heath, resting, cleaning, laundry, organizing the house, moving into the basement, etc. It has been so nice to have Mark home with me! He has been so amazingly helpful with Nolan and jobs around the house! What will I do when he has to go back to work on Wednesday?

Nolan likes his brother right now, but we'll keep it at that! He is still so young and although we know he will learn to love him, he's not too interested in him right now. Once in awhile he will give him a "pat pat" or kiss. Once in awhile he will ask for "baby" to sit by him. And once in awhile he will try to play with him. He calls him "Jax" most of the time- Jax is the son of my friend who I job share with and we helped watch each others boys. So we keep having to remind him that his name is Heath. He will quickly correct himself, but then 2 minutes later, call him Jax again! Sorry Nolan, this baby is not going home at the end of the day! And the other day Nolan asked "baby teeth?" and I explained that, "no, babies don't have teeth." When I turned around Nolan was trying to put his tooth brush into Heath's mouth! It was so cute!

Heath is doing good. He has jaundice and has had to be on a bili-blanket to try to get his bilirubin levels to drop. This is very common with babies born early. We just have to try to get him to eat, pee, and poop as much as possible and to stay on the lights pretty much 24/7. It is kind of a pain to have to have your little newborn plugged in all the time, but we are making the most of our "glow baby". He goes in to have his foot poked and blood drawn basically every 2 days until his levels are better. So his poor heels have had some trama! He weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. in the hospital, but lost weight which is common. When we left he was 6 lbs. 10 oz. So tiny! Since then he's gained to 7 lbs. and then 7 lbs. 2 oz. So we are happy that he continues to pack on the ounces! Wish he would go a little longer between feedings at night, but he seems to have his days and nights mixed up a bit. We're working on keeping him awake as much as possible during the day!

So there's an update of our 1st week at home! I put together a slideshow of pictures from the past 7 days! We are so unbelievably blessed to have such a happy and healthy family! Thank you to everyone who has visited, called, messaged on Facebook, and sent gifts! My life with 3 boys has been so special! I thought that I could never have room to love anyone else- it's amazing how it just happens so naturally!

So now we'll just continue to settle into a routine, get ready for Christmas, and highly anticipate the arrival of my family on December 19th!!! Heath can't wait to meet his Johnson fam!

Enjoy!

Introducing...

Heath Tyler Jansen

November 22, 2009

11:25 a.m.

7 lbs. 9 oz.

20 1/4 inches

"Sons are a heritage from the Lord,

Heath,

YOU are a reward from Him!"

Psalm 127:3

Sprinkle Sprinkle

Some wonderful friends of mine hosted a baby "sprinkle" for me on Sunday! Every detail was just perfect and it was so fun to think about and focus on baby number 2 for the day!

The adorable invites

Welcome!

My beautiful hostesses- Jess, Mandy, and Cara.

What a creative and fun table centerpiece!

And yummy treats too!

Shower gifts for all the guests- hand sanitizer and Emergen-C!

Almost the whole group eating and chatting and game playing! It was neat to have friends and family from different areas of my life together in the same room. There sure were a lot of laughs!

Cara and I share a love of all things "celebrity". She gave me a Life & Style magazine as a gift! Don't you think I look just like Kourtney Kardashian? We are due about the same time. Why didn't I wear my knit sweater dress to the shower?

Grandma and Auntie Mal sent their gift all the way from Chicago!

Oma gave baby this moose stuffed animal! It's been hard to keep it away from Nolan- he LOVES moose, and any other animal! These boys will have to learn to SHARE!

Mandy made a super cute diaper cake! We got a lot of diapers- and I'm sure we'll use them all...quickly!

Thank you girls for spoiling me for the day! And thank you to everyone who "sprinkled" us with love and gifts! Seems like we're set now- new clothes & blankies, a sling, books, diapers, toys, "bear necessities", and gift cards! Now we're just waiting on the boy! Just 4 weeks left- I can't believe it! Well, that is if he decides to stay put until his due date!

Trick or Treat!

We had a spook-tacular Halloween! Some pictures to prove it:

I ain't 'fraid of no ghost! Nolan thinks it's so fun to say "Boo" when he sees a ghost! Here he is learning how to carry his bucket to collect "can-can". His mouth was full of Twizzlers at this very moment- he was more than happy to practice!

The kind of cookies a mom on bedrest can make with her son! Nolan loved the spooky black cats in the middle!

Passing out candy to trick or treaters! We went over to Mark's parents house for most of the night, so we didn't have many at our house. But Nolan ran to the door every time the doorbell rang to see who was there!

We took him trick or treating to a few neighbors houses. His little monkey paws got wet and dirty in the snow and puddles, but he had a blast telling each house what a monkey says and showing them his "na-na" (banana). We worked hard on saying "trick or treat" and by the end of the night you could kind of make it out, but he got an A for effort. At least he said thank you for each treat he got!

The whole adorable gang at Oma and Opa's house- Rylan the pirate, Nolan the monkey, Brady the dragon, and Payton the ghost. They have so much fun together!

More fun memories! Looking forward to next year- with 2 cute costumes!