MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Our first Christmas as a family was absolutely wonderful! We had a few busy days that were spent with wonderful family! Thursday Adi and I went to Aunt Missy's and spent the entire day there! I had to finish up some shopping so Adi hung out with Auntie while I ran to town! Then, on Friday it was off to Grama and Grapa Thompson's where Adi was given so many wonderful gifts from Grama, Grapa, Great-Grama Vollenweider, Aunt Robin & Uncle Bob & Aunt Tanya!

I must say, I think her favorite gift came from Uncle Bob...here first Dallas Cowboys toddler baseball cap!!!! Of course, this will fit much better in a couple years...but we are still excited to have it!!!!

Adi's first pair of Christmas Jammies for Christmas morning!!!

Then Christmas morning mommy, daddy and Adi all spent the morning together enjoying our first Christmas as a family and talked about how incredibly lucky we are to have each other and our precious baby girl! What more could anyone ask for?....Nothing! We have a healthy baby girl and know how blessed we are to have her in our lives! With that being said, Adi got sooo many presents from Mommy & Daddy AND of course, Santa...

Saturday we were off to Aunt Melissa & Uncle Aaron's for Christmas with Grama & Grapa Robson, Great-Grama Harwood, Aunt Melissa, Uncle Aaron, Aunt Shanna and all the cousins...there, Adi also made out well and now has waaay more clothes than her momma and daddy put together, I think!!! HAHA! :)

Adi in her Christmas dress that Grama & Grapa Robson got her!

Our first Christmas as our perfect little family!

(and oh how my husband will never hear the end of it for wearing a "Big Buck Down" t-shirt! Grrrr!)

8 Weeks

Yes...crazy as it may sound...our baby girl is 8 weeks old today! Neither of us can believe it has been that long already! Which means...bad news bears for me...returning to work on January 3rd! Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE Pridham and I love my job, BUT, no more lounging around the house all day in our jammies or waking up when Miss Adi wakes...back to setting the alarm and not only getting myself ready, but Adi ready too! Wow, this will be an adjustment! I'm thinking maybe next week we take a test run! But with Nick getting up so early, I can get up when he does, get ready and then wake little princess to get her ready!

Adi's baptism was a success and although Nick's family from Michigan was unable to make it since they were down December 11th & 12th but since church was cancelled on the 12th due to the snow storm, we didn't expect for them to make the long drive back down! Not only was Adi baptized, but mommy was also baptized which was very special for me to get to do with her! Lots of family attended and we could not have been more happy!!! A good friend of Auntie Melissa's made us a GORGEOUS cake and cupcakes and let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS!

God Bless Adelyn!

Happy Baby

Adelyn has been bouncing from 3 ounces to 3 1/2 ounces to 4 ounces but wasnt drinking 4 ounces very often, only time to time. Well 2 days ago I decided enough was enough and started filling all of her bottles to 4 ounces! She is still drinking breast milk exclusively but I pump all day and night and only allow her on the breast 1-2 times per day which seems to be working great for my supply and helping with blocked ducts too! Okay...back on subject...she is now drinking 4 ounces and this morning she sucked her 4 ounces down in record time...and after she was done, let me tell you...I had the happiest baby....ENJOY!!! I know I enjoyed every smile and giggle and dimple...it was soooo cute!!!!!

And giggle, giggle, giggle! :)

Adi was so excited she started sticking out her tongue! hehehehe! :)

Okay Mommy...my cheeks are getting tired so I will still smile but can't giggle anymore!!! :)

Happy Birthday from my Husband

Yesterday was my 27th birthday and my husband made it so special for me! We actually got to go out for a very nice dinner, just the two of us which was really great! Thank you Aunt Missy for coming to watch Adi for us! But, this was still a bit rough for me! When we got to about the salads in our meal, I grabbed my phone to text Melissa to see how our little princess was doing, BUT, Nick stopped me and told me/reassured me that Melissa would call if she needed ANYTHING from me! My oh my...to run and errand here and there doesnt bother me, but for some reason for me to go out with my husband bothered me, as if I was leaving her for 3 weeks or something...it was only 3 hours! Not that being with my husband was BAD...that was very nice, but I think just leaving her for us to go have fun without her is what bothers me! Anyway...now I know the feeling I hear from moms all the time about how hard it is to leave your child.

By doing this, going out to dinner that is, raised a big huge flag in my face that I only have 2 more weeks off of work BUT am so so so so thankful that I am able to take Adi to work with me! That is until she is running around taking her clothes off and being sassy at the office! LOL :) Time will tell how well we adjust to this! But, I know so many of my co-workers are looking forward to having her there...that is a GREAT feeling!

I have also realized that I have about 100 nicknames for our child and they are kinda fun so I have to share some of them...

pretty pretty princess ~ we sing this over and over and over and she smiles EVERY single time!!!!

munchkin

stinky

gassy

punkin

punky

baby girl

sassy britches

and there are more to come...

I am a firm believer that you can't spoil a baby under 6 months of age, BUT, you can get them in a routine and unfortunately this "routine" we have at night is beginning to take its toll on Daddy! Little Miss Adi seems to ONLY want to go to sleep for Daddy at night and that is only if he is holding her in the rocking chair SNORING HIS BUTT OFF!!! I am telling you...I have no idea how she sleeps through it, or for that matter, WHY she wants to sleep through it, but it does the trick! It must be that he snores SO loud that the vibrations put her to sleep! Only she knows I guess! But hey, if it works, I'm game! Now Daddy...not so much! :) And, as I type this I wish you all could hear him sawing logs and Miss Adi is sound asleep, mouth WIDE open!!!! :)

On that note...I love my husband and baby girl so much...GOOD NIGHT! :)

1 Week Gone...very scary

Well, last week it was shots for our poor baby girl...now this week, Saturday, we found 3 little lumps on the back of Adi's head! Now, we tried to keep a positive mindset for these lumps because whenever anyone has a lump, we all know the first thing that comes to mind but I am not even going to say it! Right away Monday morning I called Dr. Murray's office to get an appointment for Adi. They are so good to us and got us in on Tuesday because Dr. Murray is not in the office on Mondays!

Everything is FINE! Thank goodness! Dr. Murray explained to us that there are 20-30 lymph nodes on the back of her head, kind of at the base of the skull and from time to time this lymph nodes swell up...especially if there has been an infection. Well, she hasn't had any illnesses, BUT, she did begin to get a bit of cradle cap, which Dr. Murray said can cause these to swell because her body is telling her that the cradle cap is like an infection, even though it's NOT an infection! Also, with Adi getting her shots last week and getting a fever, that could have caused these lumps to swell as well! Any way we look at it...even though it is VERY normal, Nick and I feel so much better taking her to the Dr. to have this checked out! Oh how much we love her!

God is so good to us!

3 Shots

Poor Adi had to have 3 shots yesterday at her 6 week checkup! Now...I was NOT prepared to have her shots yesterday as I thought she was getting them at 8 weeks but they said it was fine to do them yesterday rather than us have to truck up to Sauk City again in 2 weeks! Me, just hearing the words shots, I started crying and continued crying pretty much until we left the clinic! All was okay as she slept for 4 hours after getting the shots...BUT, when she woke up, there was no calming her except for her to lay on mommy's chest for 2 1/2 hours! Now this meant a little nap for mommy too, so not all that bad! At about 10:00 p.m. the fever set in...now, I know this is normal, but I was still worried sick! Baby Tylenol, here we come and I have given it to her 2 times today as I want to be sure she isn't feeling icky! Daddy didn't get really any sleep as I FINALLY got to sleep at about midnight and she woke up at about 12:10 so daddy got up with her for awhile...little did I know (because I was in dream land) daddy was up with her until 2:30a.m.! I woke up at 4a.m. realizing I hadn't pumped since 9:30 p.m. so OUCH...I needed to get up! 4 hours of sleep later...I was ready for bed again...but NOPE, little princess wanted food! Since this was the time for daddy to get up for work...5 a.m., I let him get her and feed her while I cleaned up a few things!

Sorry for the ramble...guess I had to let everyone know how terrible I felt making her get so many shots!

AND...the GREAT NEWS...She has gained more weight...10 pounds 4 ounces, 22 1/2 inches long! Her dr. explained that she is long therefore her weight isnt going up quite as fast as it should, but all is okay...she is a healthy, happy (except for those darn shots) baby! :)

4 Week Sneak Peak Pictures

Okay...so, I debated and debated and DEBATED on whether or not to get Adelyn's newborn pictures taken by the same photographer who shot our wedding, but after much debate I just couldn't take it anymore and HAD to get them done! Well, today we got our "sneak peak" of 1 of the pictures Jolene took and let me tell you...the money is WELL worth it! I am soooo glad we decided to have them done...and this is only ONE picture we have gotten to see! We can't wait to see the rest of them...my oh my how will we choose!?!?...

Here is our sweet, peaceful angel...

Life is great, we truly are so blessed to have this little girl in our lives!

200 Cookies...

This weekend was great fun as my mom, sister Shanna & sister Melissa all trucked their way through the snow to my house to make Christmas cookies! 8 batches later...and 200 cookies...WAIT...more like 500 cookies later, the job was finished! All day Saturday and frosting into Sunday, we made it happen! It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs but let me tell ya, we were definitely ready to be finished after 8 hours!

Tomorrow is my 6 week postpartum checkup with Dr. Schad! I CANNOT believe it is here already! I am doing really well...the first 4 weeks or so were pretty rough but I am about 90% now! If I lift something REALLY heavy, I definitely feel it at my incision site but other than that, things are getting back to normal! Today, Monday, marked the when I should return to work discussion...as fast as it may seem, I am looking forward to getting back to a normal routine! This lounging around in pajamas all day is great, but I need to be getting more productive! And, some may think I am crazy for wanting to go back to work BUT Pridham Electronics is THE best place to work and I get to take Miss Adelyn to work with me! We will set it up so she can be by me in her bouncy seat or in her sling on mommy or in the bassinet sleeping in the spare office which they are now calling the nursery! Now THAT is a great place to work! Hopefully before I go back which wont be until at least after the first of the year I will be able to do some work from home!

Also...here is an updated picture of my sweet great-nephew Bentley! He is doing so great! He is in his own crib now, no isolette anymore! He has now hit 6 pounds!!!!! So amazing this little boy is!!!!

Beautiful Snow!

The first snowfall of the year is in the books...well, almost in the books...it is still snowing and it is so beautiful outside! The white snow sure does beat the ugly brown color of everything that died for the winter!!! When Adi woke up at 2:30a.m. I didn't think we were going to get the amount of snow the weathermen were calling for as we only had about 2 inches at that time, BUT, mother nature knew we needed our 5-6 inches so she came through for us! Hopefully Nick will have enough time after work and then plowing to get the snowmobiles out for us to take a short little ride around the house! My thumb is starting to warm up to push that throttle!!!!! :)

Today is going to be a great day also as mom, Melissa & Shanna are coming to make Christmas cookies with us! I was hoping the snow wouldn't stop us and sure enough, it's not! Christmas cookie baking, here we come!!! :) Now if I can keep Grammy & aunties on the task of baking or if I will have to take Adi upstairs to hang out with momma for awhile.

Speaking of Miss Adi...she is becoming so much more alert every single day. She is smiling and cooing and just a joy! Even though the poor girl is having her belly issues, she is still such a happy baby! We truly are so blessed to have her in our lives!

New Washer & Dryer

FINALLY...after using an apartment size washer and dryer that holds approximately 2 pairs of Nick's pants and 1 sweatshirt OR 2 t-shirts, today is FINALLY the day we get our NEW FRONT LOAD, MAXIMUM CAPACITY washer and dryer installed! Yes, I sent Nick out with the crazy people last Friday morning for Black Friday to save us $1,000 on our new set!

As excited as I am, my mom is super super excited as she has been helping us with our laundry while I have been healing from my c-section! Thank goodness I am now back in working order and can do pretty much everything myself now! But, I still like for mom to come hang out with us girls...as Miss Adi sure does adore her Grammy! :)

I am also super excited as today I finally get to go visit Bentley again! I haven't been able to see him since before I delivered Adi as I was in no shape, as you can see from the pictures I posted of me pregnant, to be wandering around the huge hospital! I also get to go shopping for his baby shower today too! Even though I wont be making it to the shower, shopping is still always a joy, especially when it is for babies!! :)