Decorations!!!

T put each of those figurines out himself!

Man, oh man, has Trenton been waiting for this. We had taken a box of Christmas decorations down from the attic earlier this week so that I could get out the Christmas cards... and he was soooo ready to put the stuff up around the house. When you ask him, "Trenton, what happens at Christmas?" his answer is "We put up decorations everywhere." Nevermind Jesus or Santa, it is the decorations that stand out to him!

So, we put up the stockings and the Nativity set, decorated the bathroom and found places for the Nutcrackers, and listened to Christmas music as we did it all. I have many fond memories from when I was a kid decorating for Christmas... I'm so glad T enjoys it this much. We haven't gotten the tree yet, so there were still plenty of ornaments left that need to find a good home... but that will probably happen next week.

Had to get this shot in here of Oliver in the Mets outfit. First baseball outfit he's worn, you know... First uniform worn by both kids, actually...
(Sorry, can't get it to turn...)

Thanksgiving Faces

A Konopack Thanksgiving

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. With Oliver's arrival, our lives have changed so much! This was his first trip to Grandma and Grandpa Konopack's house and man, did he do a lot of sleeping! He sleeps so well when someone is holding him... in all of these pictures, you can see proof that people love to hold him!

Jason, Chrysanne, Aunt Carolyn, and Elise were among the family that held little Ollie. Great- grandma was thrilled to
see him, too.

Mom did a fantastic job of cooking! Everything tasted delicious... why can this feast only last one day? ;)














The last picture here needs some explaining... Jim took this one just after he had casually thrown me the camera case. I had thought the camera was still in it, and reacted as such. Anyway, he asked for the case back, and I threw it at him before he was ready to catch it. He snapped this picture while the case was in mid-air. Ha!

Come and See Us!

We've had lots of visitors this week. Trenton's been excited about that!
Below, Grandma Lacina holds Ollie again... he's such a good little baby. It is so incredibly cute to see him stretch out his arms after taking off his swaddle blanket... I gotta get a picture of it.

Jason has been here since Monday and T has just eaten up all of his time here. Ha! Jennifer, Brayden, Paige, and my Aunt Lea came with pizza and to see Ollie.

And Aunt Carol and Danielle visited on Sunday.

Finally, we took Ollie to meet the faculty at Monmouth... lots of "oohs" and "ahhs". He's Daddy's boy!
In other news, we discovered that Oliver has a birthmark on his right temple. Just about the size of a thumb print, it is a bit darker than the rest of his skin. I have something kinda like it on my arm.. too cute! It will probably get covered by his hair eventually.
Also, I finished my Christmas cards and put them in the mail today! Say what you might, but I wanted to get out Oliver's birth announcements as soon as possible, so I've put them in the same envelope as the Christmas cards. Expect them by Saturday. ;)

Coooold Weekend

Has anyone been outside this weekend? Brrr! I swear, it went from November to February in just three days...

I had plans to go out to lunch with my girlfriends from college on Saturday. I took Ollie with me and Jim stayed home with Trenton. They took lots of pictures and a neat video of T rockin' out with air guitar to some Led Zepplin.

We're dealing with some rough sleeping nights lately... Oliver is up every hour or so to nurse, and T wakes up sometimes still, too. If we don't take naps during the day, none of us want to be around each other by the evening... I think I went to bed at 8:30 last night! With the darkness coming earlier (5 PM?) it is easy to feel like sleeping sooner...






Trenton and Jim gave Oliver his first bottle tonight! He did NOT want it at all in the beginning... it wasn't quite like a paci and not anything like the real nipple... but after three tries, he finally took it (for me!) and drank it all (one ounce). So at least we know he'll take it. I'm using the BPA-free Avent bottles and I like them so far. How cool is it that we have a dishwasher to put them in this time! We didn't have one with Trenton and ended up sterilizing stuff in the microwave sterilizer all the time...

The last few pics are in honor of the upcoming Christmas holidays! The outfit Oliver has on does not really fit him-- he is so out of newborn clothes! Some of the stuff I remember T wearing will never grace the body of boy #2... oh well! He's gotten so many new outfits from friends and family... it will be fun to take pictures of him in those!

Become a Follower of THIS BLOG!

Okay, I think I have this FOLLOWER thing figured out now...
If you've noticed, there's a new widget on the right side of the blog called "Followers". Originally, I had thought that this would notify my followers via email when the site was updated. However, it lets you know on your Blogger page if there is an update. If you have a blog with Blogger/Google, you can easily see updates each time you access your dashboard. If you don't have a Google account, you can still follow along anonymously. It just helps me to see who is keeping up with the blog!

Here's a little Q and A from the Blogger Help Site:

What is Following?

Do you have a favorite blog and want to let the author and readers know that you are a fan? Well now you can do that and more with the Blogger Following feature! You can even keep track of the blogs you follow via your Reading List on the Blogger dashboard.

How do I become a Follower of a blog?

There are several ways to become a follower of a blog. One of the easiest ways is to visit a blog that has added the Following widget and click on the "Follow this Blog" link under the "Followers" widget:

You'll then see a popup window with the options to either follow publicly or anonymously.

Select how you'd like to follow the blog, then click the orange "Follow" button. It is that simple, you are now a follower of the blog! If you elected to follow the blog publicly, your profile picture will be displayed on the blog with a link to your Blogger profile (Note: The widget may not show all followers of the blog. If this is the case all followers will be linked from the widget). When you become a follower of a blog, the blog will also be added to your Reading List on your Blogger dashboard. Additionally, you can become a follower of any blog or URL (even if the blog doesn't have the Followers widget) by adding the blog to your Reading List on the dashboard.

Wait, When Am I Supposed to Blog???

Needless to say, there has not been much time to sit down at the computer and blog. When in the world am I supposed to find a half hour where Trenton is busy or sleeping, and Oliver is content? Oh yeah, and when I don't want to be sleeping, too? Part of it is that the room the computer is in is freaking cold at night... I don't want to bring the baby in here. Also, once I get Trenton down for his nap, I try hard to get Oliver down, too. By the time they are both asleep, I am craving that nap, too. And then we all wake up at the same time... Jim has brought home a laptop computer from work that I can use downstairs (as long as T is occupied) but I can't put pictures on it and blog.
So how am I doing it right now? Thank goodness for the Teletubbies! Honestly, I don't like 'em at all... what do they teach? What age are they supposed to appeal to? Seems like T is above them. Other than manners and play (cause and effect?), they seem to just be colored things with baby-talk British accents... but he picked it from the library and is soooo into them. I think this will be the last time I allow it, though. I'd much rather The Wiggles be on and him be jumping around with them.

The pictures of Trenton with Grandma Lacina are from Monday! Mom is finally feeling better; for those of you who didn't know, she had a radiation treatment to kill off any remaining thyroid cancer that may still be in her body. She began it just three days after Oliver was born and couldn't be around infants for two weeks after that. So it was really nice for her to come down, spend time with us, have dinner, and hold Ollie!
Friends from my MOMS Club are bringing by dinner still--- sooooo nice! Tonight, we're having Mexican. I'm super excited. My appetite is back, and I'm trying to watch what I eat. It is easier to do when there isn't leftover Halloween candy in the house...
Special thanks to Cathy for the adorable Dr. Seuss outfit that Oliver is wearing in the picture below. It has Thing #1 and Thing #2 featured on it.

How'd that boy get such green eyes? ;) He is becoming more and more of a ham for the camera.

Here's the latest: "Mom, when I grow up, I'm going to have whiskers like Daddy. And I'll have to shave them. Now they are inside my face. But when I get big, they'll be whiskers."

Takin' Pictures!

This is Trenton's way of getting Ollie to look at the camera. Poor kid was hungry when we tried to take the one below.

Shairna and Chris took our Christmas card picture today! Above is one that we did not end up using ;)

It was so nice to see our good friends! They only brought Ethan with them, as the other three kids were with their grandpa for the morning. We know that they are having a great time together while Chris is home and we are very grateful that they had the time to come and visit! Shairna and I are already planning a trip for sometime in January to VA... we'll see!