Julia is TWO MONTHS old!

Yesterday Julia was two months old!

She had her 2 mo appointment.

She weights 11 lbs 2.8 oz and she is 23.5" long. She is in the 90th percentile for height... whew! She is mostly wearing 3 - 6 mo clothes now because she is too long for her 0 - 3 mo clothes. However, they are baggy on her because she's only a little over 11 lbs. It's quite cute!

Her latest new thing is to bring her fist to her mouth. She is getting better at it every day!

Here are a few pictures from yesterday:





erin

House Cleaning and Other Fun

It's house cleaning day here today... and it's about time! I don't remember the last time that I cleaned the house, but I can tell you the last time I was SUPPOSED to clean the house... ha, ha, the day I had Julia. Sure, I've spot cleaned here and there, but not the good house cleaning that I'm used to... and it's been driving me a bit batty for a while. Thankfully Adam 'has the day off' and is watching Julia while I scour and vacuum. I think that my soul will be better for it once this is done today!

And... ha, ha, yes, it is JANUARY 19 and my Christmas decorations are STILL UP! It's been 8 weeks and 1 day since I put them up... I think it's about time for them to come down. My tree is pretty, yes, but it's starting to seem a bit... well... yah. Hopefully I get to that today yet... we'll see! If not today, then DEFINITELY tomorrow!

This afternoon we'll go to a wedding for our friends Jamey and Mary here in Pella. Adam is playing worship music during the wedding service, so we attended the rehearsal last night... it's going to be a beautiful wedding! We're looking forward to it!

Julia is 8 weeks old today! She will be 2 months old next Thursday (and I'll report her new 'stats' at that point). She's growing like a weed! Here are a few pictures from this week!

Monday, playing with daddy.


Tuesday, after Julia's bath.


Wednesday, while mommy was working.


And Wednesday, down for a nap.


Aren't I cute?


Last night, after the rehearsal dinner. Julia was a very good girl during the rehearsal and the dinner!


Enjoy!

Of course, we're looking forward to the Packers vs. Giants game tomorrow... should be a fun one to watch!

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Erin

Sunday Musings

Hello, all!
I'm a happy camper after a fun weekend of football. While I normally like watching and rooting for the Seahawks, I was very HAPPY yesterday to see the Packers beat the Seahawks 42 - 20 yesterday. Our little Packer Backer Julia joined us at our friend Joe's to watch the game yesterday.





Sadly, the Jaguars lost to the Patriots, but we were excited today that the Chargers and the Giants won. Next week's game against the Giants at Lambeau should be a fun one to watch!


Here are a few pictures of Julia from today... she is one happy little girl! She was seven weeks old yesterday. She has been getting over a cold, but it is pretty much gone. She has been doing well sleeping at night, only getting up once around 2 AM. She loves to chatter with us, show us how strong her neck is, and smile up a storm.

Have a good week!

Erin

Back to Work

Hello, all!

I returned to work this week. I am still working through Donatech with Rockwell Collins… and I have the best job in the world. I went back to work part-time, and I work out of my house. It’s been an absolute blessing!

Both Julia and I had quite the change to make to our routine… we had gotten used to going to bed between midnight and 1 AM (her choice… not mine!), and getting up around 9:30 in the morning (I DO love sleeping in!). I knew this wasn’t going to work for me to go back to work… so we needed to make some changes!Sunday night wasn’t so great in the sleep department, but we had a good day… and THEN Monday evening hit. Finally at 10:30 PM, Adam took one very disgruntled baby from me and had her asleep in 5 minutes (go figure). However, she slept wonderfully that night and only got up once between 10:30 PM and 6 AM. The last two nights have been similar… I’ve been able to get her down by 10:30 PM, she wakes up once around 2 AM to nurse, and then again around 5:15 – 5:30 AM to hang out.

Work is going well too. Going back part-time has been nice this week… and I know it will be nice from here on out. As many of you know, it takes a lot of work to be a wife, mother, and employee… and that’s no exception in my house. Ah… now if I could just hire a maid, my life would be complete. Hee, hee.

Other than that, life is becoming more regular for us. Julia and I are learning to be social with people out in the world instead of holing up at home all day. I’ve started cooking again and no doubt, I’ll start cleaning again too.

Julia will be 7 weeks old on Saturday, and in two weeks she has her two month appointment with the doctor. Where has the time gone?

Some neat things about Julia:
- She is over 10 lbs already.
- She is at least 22” long, but maybe longer.
- She smiles… a lot! (I call it ‘smiling on command’, since I can usually make her smile.)
- She laughs in her sleep… it’s very cute.
- She MIGHT be starting to stick her tongue out when someone sticks their tongue out at her… I can’t quite figure out if she’s sticking her tongue out just because, or because I am doing it.
- She likes to dance and seems to enjoy classic rock.
- She hasn’t lost any of her hair yet… but it is lightening up.

Here are a few pictures from this week… enjoy!









Erin

New Pictures, New Pictures!

So... I've taken a few new pictures... :) I love to take pictures of Julia and I love to share them too! :) To me, she has changed so very much in the last few weeks!









Erin

More Pictures of Julia...

Okay, so I love to take pictures of Julia... here are some from the last couple of weeks. Enjoy! :)







erin

Happy New Year!

Happy 2008!

It's amazing how quickly 2007 flew by!

I spent my New Year's Eve with friends in Cedar Rapids. Adam and I drove to Jason's on the 30th to watch the Packers game (GO, PACKERS!!! Way to finish the season 13-3!!!). Then, I stayed with Angela and Dan as Adam had to return to Pella to work and gig on the 31st.

The 31st, the 'girls' came over (with their husbands and kids...) and we had a nice evening together. Tomorra is learning how to do face painting, so we had a smashing good time having our faces painted like butterflies! Dan even got in on the fun...!





Thank you for a wonderful time, Angela and Dan! Lots of fun! :) (And as always, lots of good food!)

I hope you all have a blessed New Year! :)

Erin

Christmas in Wisconsin (aka, I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas)

Hello!

We celebrated Christmas with our family in Wisconsin. This was going to be our first trip with Julia farther than an hour away... I was really nervous!

We left the 21st (of December) and drove to Houston, MN, where my aunt & uncle (and wonderful cousins!) live. The drive was very foggy and we even opted to take a longer way to my family's home so that we could avoid twisty and curvy roads. Julia was a champ in the car and we only ended up stopping once to feed her and then another time to feed ourselves.

After a fun evening and following morning with the Rischette family in Houston (YUM, I loved those cranberry walnut muffins!), we drove to Tomah. When we left Houston, the rain / snow was already starting to come down, and by the time we hit Tomah, we could tell that a storm had set in. We celebrated Christmas with my mom and dad that night at their house, and we had a good time eating, drinking, and opening presents. And, Auntie Lissy enjoyed her new niece while they both took a snooze.

When I was up in the middle of the night with Julia, I could tell that the weather was bad outside, even though I couldn't see it. So, I wasn't surprised to wake up Sunday morning (the 23rd) to a WHOLE BUNCH of snow. And, it was still snowing! We had planned to drive to Mauston (Grandma Schroeder's) that day and spend the day with the Schroeder family, but everyone was quickly cancelling because of the road conditions. Adam and I were expected to drive up to Spencer later that day, so we decided to head to Mauston anyway. While on the way, we received a phone call from Adam's mom telling us that she had cancelled Christmas for the night and that we should stay in Mauston. We celebrated Christmas in Mauston with Grandma and Grandpa, Lis brought KFC so we wouldn't starve, and we watched a VERY sad loss to the Bears (Packers game). We stayed in Mauston that night and then proceeded to head to Spencer on the 24th.

On the 24th, we celebrated Christmas with Adam's family in Spencer. We had missed his brother Brian due the weather the day before, but we were able to see his parents, sister Claire (and brother-in-law Dan), and brother Alex. Julia was 'new' to Auntie Claire and Uncle Alex. And, Julia was also ONE MONTH OLD on the 24th! Wow! That happened fast! And, we enjoyed a visit from Deacon Keith, a friend of ours from college who was staying with his parents over Christmas.

The 25th was a whirlwind of a day. We had Christmas at Adam's aunt Theresa's in Marshfield. HOWEVER, before we wanted to do two things.

First, we wanted to see Adam's grandparents... so we drove to their house, and I visited with Grandma while Adam and Grandpa played with the concertina (Adam wanted to record Grandpa playing his concertina). And, then we were to drive to Adam's sister's to assemble the picnic table that we had brought with us all the way from Pella as a Christmas gift. Adam had built his sister (and brother-in-law) a picnic table for Christmas, disassembled it, strapped it to the hood of our car, and then we drove it to Wisconsin. Although we had wanted it to be a surprise setup of the table, because of the weather, our plans were thwarted. However, we had printed out a picture of Adam sitting at the table and wrapped it as Claire & Dan's 'gift'. How fun to see their faces when they opened that box! :)

We had a lovely lunch and gift exchange with the Bannach side of Adam's family. Adam played Santa this year to all of the small children, and handed out gifts accordingly. At 5 PM, we knew we needed to get going, as we were supposed to stop in Tomah yet that night and then drive back to Pella.

We left for Tomah, and Julia was able to meet her cousins (Laila and Hannah). We stayed in Tomah until 8 PM, and then began the long trek back to Pella. I'll spare the details, but we rolled into our garage at 3 AM on December 26th... what a drive that turned out to be! We loved visiting our family and seeing everyone for Christmas, but we couldn't help but think that we were also glad to be home. I nursed Julia and Adam dragged all of the stuff in from our car... and then we all crashed!

Here are pictures from our weekend:

Leaving Pella:


Happy In the Car:


Meeting Auntie Claire:


Meeting Uncle Alex:


I'm ONE MONTH OLD!


Visit with Great-Grandpa & -Grandma Draeger


Julia and cousin Laila:


Julia and Grandpa and Grandma Rischette:


Erin