Staying Busy!

Lots has been going on around here lately!! I apologize that I have become such a slacker with this blog. It is so easy to just pictures on Facebook and call it a day, I haven't been posting on here much.
The biggest news is we are expecting Baby 3.0 September 25th!! We have decided this time that we will find out the sex AND tell people. The first time, Lars, we didn't find out at all; second time, Stina, Karl and I knew, but we didn't tell anyone; so this time figured it was only fair to find out and tell:):) I'm sure that most of you will be very happy with this choice!
For those of you who are thinking "Didn't they just have a baby?", YES! Our kids are all going to be really close together! Lars and Stina are 15.5 months apart and Stina and baby 3.0 will be 14 months apart!!

Lars is now a big 2 year old!! Not that anyone ever thought of him as small:)! His birthday was Easter Sunday, April 4th. We had a Veggie Tales birthday party for him on Saturday. While he was very excited to see "Bob", his cake, I think we probably should have had a CARS birthday! The mostly got cars and he has been playing with them constantly since he opened them!
He is a great big brother! He loves for Stina to sit in his lap and watch videos with him. If we go anywhere in the car, he always wants to make sure that she is in there too! He loves to play with Cars, trains, the water table and now Easter eggs:):) He is a joy and delight to be around!!

Stina is now 8 months old! I can't believe how the time flies!! She is so fun and happy!!! She has just started clapping and waving bye-bye! She also says, "Da-da" now! :) She seems like she really wants to crawl, but hasn't quite got the hang of it. She loves to put anything in her mouth! She has 2 teeth on the bottom and is working on more!! She just adores Lars. I hope they always care for each other like they do now!!:)

Returning from Atlanta!!

I apologize for not blogging in so long. Poor Stina is not getting the internet exposure her brother got! I still feel like I'm getting used to having 2 kids, but it's fun! Now on to the story at hand.

Saturday, we were returning from a week in Atlanta. I had to work a conference and Karl had to be in Florida for work, so my sister Jenni GRACIOUSLY volunteered to come with me and babysit, in a hotel no less! Not only did she come to Atlanta, she flew to D.C. and made the whole round trip with me! I don't know anyone that nice!!
Saturday I wrapped up the conference at the hotel, while Jenni took Lars and Stina to her future in-laws (Todd's parents) for the day. I arrived there to pick them up and needed to repack a few things. Lars was being unusually clingy cause I had been leaving him all week, I thought. Come to find out he was being clingy cause he didn't feel well. A few minutes into packing Lars was crying and then projected vomit ALL over me. I kinda panicked and called Jenni over, but her "father-in-law" came over. I just asked for Jenni and said Lars had thrown up all over me, he said, YES he did and went to get Jenni. We changed out of those clothes, while Todd's mom hand washed our clothes and put them in the dryer. We had to leave the house in 45 minutes so we wouldn't miss our flight. We sat down at the table to eat quickly when Lars insisted on sitting in my lap. A few minutes later I was covered in vomit again! Put clean clothes on and rushed everything into the car. We really needed to drop something off at FedEx and put gas in the car, but as we got closer to the airport we realized we didn't have time for either of these things! Plus, on the way Lars again threw up all over himself in the car! We got to the airport, I let Jenni out of the car with Stina in a baby carrier and all of our bags to be checked, 5 total, miraculously they let her check them all! I drove over to the Rental car return with Lars sleeping in the backseat. Knowing we would never make it to the plane on time if we took the normal transit system back, I asked to rental car lady if she would drive Lars and I back over there. Thankfully, she agreed! We got back over to the terminal. I got out carrying Lars (with throw up on him:), his carseat and my carry-on bag, unknowingly headed in the wrong direction. A VERY nice man who worked at the airport asked if I needed help, don't know what gave him that clue!:):) So he carried the carseat and bag while I had Lars. We ran through the airport and made it to the gate just as they would doing the final boarding call. Jenni actually was behind us with Stina cause she had gone to the wrong security line, which the airport man saved me from!

So, we actually made it on the plane, much to Karl and Todd's surprise. Todd was already making arrangements for his parents to come back and get us, cause there was "no way" we would make it!
On the plane we were surrounded by men who were thankfully all fathers and understood how difficult it is to travel with kids! After take-off with both kids screaming, Lars decided to throw up on me yet again! The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful. Stina cried a little cause she was hungry, but no biggy. We are finally on the ground and they tell us we have to wait for them to bring stairs so we can get off the plane. Everyone was already standing in the aisle and you guessed it, Lars threw up all over me again! It was quite dramatic since everyone was watching and wanted to help! It was 45 minutes before they came with the stairs, so even though I was sitting there soaking wet, others had it worse cause they missed international connections!
Karl, is there waiting for us. He takes all the bags, the sick child and then we realize Stina's carseat is not there. At this point we are laughing cause we are wondering what else can go wrong. After another 45 minutes of paperwork and locating the carseat (which is still in Atlanta) we get a loner and we are on our way! Lars of course had to throw up one more time, just to make it an exciting trip home!
We made it all in one piece and even received Stina's carseat back the next morning. The only thing missing is a small back cushion from Lars' carseat. AND of course we had LOTS of laundry!
Anybody want to volunteer to travel with us!!:)

Stina rolled over!!

Stina rolled over today for the first time! I wish that I had captured it on film, but she was all alone cozy in her crib! I laid her down for a nap on her stomach, as I always do. Then about 20 minutes later I heard her crying. I go up to find her on her back!!!! I think it scared her, especially since she didn't know how to roll back. I'm sure she was wondering why I was so excited, when she just wanted to be picked up!:):)

2-word sentence

This morning Lars said his first 2 word sentence! He said, "Eat apple"! Then proceeded to eat his apple!:):) He really is way too smart for his own good!
I just thought this picture was cute. It looks like he's pulling out his wallet to see if he has change or something!

Who does Stina look like?

My uncles will say Stina doesn't have to look like anybody! We know, she is special and unique and her own person, but we can't figure out who she favors!

Who do you think Stina looks like? The black and white baby pictures are Karl and the color ones are me, Jessi.

Stina talking

Stina telling Lars not to squish her! I have a feeling she will be doing that a lot!

Stina is growing!

Stina is growing and growing!! She had her 2 month appointment yesterday and she weighed 10 lbs 15 oz and is 23.87 inches tall!!

Lars' favorite song

http://www.hulu.com/watch/90244/sesame-street-plain-white-ts-song

I just thought I would share with you what we have been watching lately; about 10 times a day for the last week!
Lars has been watching Seasame Street clips, Tom & Jerry and other "old" cartoons on Hulu. I have been trying to think of things for Lars to do while I'm nursing Stina. Most of the time he is happy just playing, but sometimes he gets jealous that I'm holding her, so I let him sit in my lap and watch a "show".

For those of you wondering, why he has to watch them on Hulu (on a laptop), it's because we don't have a TV. We don't have anything against it. Actually, it drives my boss crazy, cause we know so much about what's on TV and we don't have one! :) We just don't have one because we decided when we got married we didn't want one for our first year of marriage, because we knew it was a huge waste of time. Well it's been almost 7 years and we still don't have one.

Well, that was a really long explaination for a short video clip. I hope you enjoy it!!

Life with 2 kids!

Sorry I haven't updated in a while! Having two kids keeps me quite busy! I'm not sure how people with more kids keep up on their blogs.

Stina continues to be a great baby. She's a great sleeper!! She has already had 2 nights that she slept 7 hours straight!!! She's a little colicky in the evenings, but James Taylor and a box fan are helping take care of that:)

Lars is doing great with her. He is definitely a little more jealous, but I don't mind having them both in my lap so it usually works out.

I'm sure it will be a while before I'm back to regular updating.

Here's a couple pictures to hold you over for a while!

Aug 1st, Stina Smiled!

Aug 14th, Lars climbed all the way down the stairs by himself, VERY carefully!!!

Adjusting

Lars is doing a great job adjusting to being a big brother. He wants to kiss Stina all the time, which is really cute!! He will (passive aggressively) try to sit in our lap while Stina is there.
Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement!!!