The time is flying by!

If I thought time moved fast with two kids, it's moving three times as fast with three. I never shared Owen's newborn pictures with you. Or his birth announcement (which is going out in the mail this week, along with our fabulous Christmas cards). Or his 1 month pictures. That's right folks. My BABY is already past the one month mark! So I'm going to share.

Owen's Newborn Shoot. This was my second time photographing a newborn, in any sort of artistic way. With Julian, I just had my P&S camera, and was SNAP.HAPPY. Seriously. And Gabe? Well, I had Stacy. And she does amazing work. So I had no reason to take pictures of my own. I attempted pictures of my nephew Preston when he was first born, and some of them turned out OK, but nothing stellar, nothing special. Just cute baby, ya know? I'm pretty proud of the way these turned out. I'm not posting every.single.one, because there'd be probably 100. These are some of my favorites from the little session.












The announcement! Designed by my DEAR friend, Jackie! She's so amazing!


Owen's One Month!
I appliqued this onesie on the 3rd, knowing I'd need to take pictures on the 4th. My *goal* is to have a onesie or t-shirt for every month-day. We'll see how I do! He looks SO different, already! I can't believe it. Looking at his newborn pictures made me all misty, and newborn hungry! There's something just irrisistable about a squishy, snuggly, newborn! Also, early reports show that Owen, SHOCKINGLY, may look like ME!







I weighed myself the other night, and then weighed Owen, and he was 11.8 lbs! Holy Toledo! Such a big boy, but he's SO long, that he doesn't look as chubby as my babies usually do! He doesn't have an appointment until 2 months, so I won't have anything official until then! He is such a good baby, and sleeps pretty well. He usually wakes once in the night to eat, get a diaper change, and then goes back to sleep until 7ish. Mama likes!

We had a special visitor here the last week. Barry's mom, Ann, came to visit us! She's the first of the Palizzis to make the trek to Iowa! We had so much fun. She made English Toffee that was supposed to be for the ladies I visiting teach, but it accidentally got eaten. And sugar cookies! We went to WaterWorks park and saw the Christmas Lights. Got the Christmas shopping done for the boys. Let me just say, Julian and Gabe are going to be HAPPY CAMPERS come Christmas Morning! Nailed down Christmas presents for my niece and nephews! It was a really fun visit!

Julian eating a cookie!


The boys got a little sprinkle happy...




I love the Costco Gingerbread House Kits, and so do the boys!


Julian said the next morning, "Mommy, I tried to use a gumdrop as the door knob, but it didn't work. Sooooo, I ate it."





Well this post is mighty long! So I'll bid you adieu!

Well Child Check Ups, Vaccines, and MRI?! OH MY!

So, I had this brilliant idea. Why don't I bring BOTH boys to the doctor, at the SAME time for their Well Child Check Ups. Sounds sane enough, right? OY, I was W.R.O.N.G. First of all, their appointments were at 11:00 and 11:15. Guess what time I remembered about said appointments? 11:03! OY! So being in my PJs still (hey it was laundry/catch up day!) I ran around and threw some clothes on, threw my scary short bangs back, and got dressed. Luckily Julian didn't fight me much on putting clothes on, I think he saw that crazy look in my eye, he knew. By some miracle of miracles, Gabe was already dressed, he knew where his shoes were (in the car, and they really were there, it wasn't some stall tactic!) and he brought Julian's shoes downstairs for him! We made it to the doctor by 11:15! We walked in, and I was feeling pretty proud of myself. I mean from PJs to Doctor's Office in 12 minutes, without breaking any traffic laws? Holler! Until I saw people I knew! Ugh, no make-up, crazy post braid bangs, not good.

SO the boys are doing great. Julian, who is normally shy and reserved talked to the nurse. Passed his eye test, and was nice and kind. He was 40 1/2 inches tall (which is apparently 48%) and 38 lbs 8 oz (which is 67%). The doctor came in, and we realllly love our pediatrician. If you're looking for one in the West Des Moines/Waukee area, email me. I'll give you his info! He is really good with the kids, explains things really well, and let Julian look in Gabe's ear! Which was literally the coolest thing EVER for my little science nerd, Julian!

Gabe had to get undressed to be weighed and measured. Now where Julian wants to be in his undies, Gabe is the absolute opposite. He cried and cried and cried for his pants. Seriously. "Maaaaa pants, please?!" LOL! Seriously. He was too tall to measure on the baby table. :( He's officially growing up.
He was 37 1/4" tall (94%) and 33 lbs 1 oz (91%) and his head circumference is 20 1/4" (96%). He's pretty much giant, but I think Julian was pretty close to those stats at two. Maybe a pound or two smaller? Not a huge difference.

The pediatrician noticed that his soft spot still hasn't closed up. And it's supposed to. By two. He's two. So with his 96% head, and a soft spot that hasn't closed, he's got to get an MRI. They're going to call me with the appointment time. I guess they're worried about enlarged ventrals (maybe, something like that?) and spinal fluid on his brain. I feel like he's fine, and just has a big head. Our pediatrician said, "He's always had a big head, since birth, so it's not like it just all of the sudden happened. His brother has a big head." I said, "So does his dad!" So we're not really worried, but we are. I mean baby + sedation = scary times for mommy!

So after all of that joyful information, the boys had to get a finger prick to test for lead and some blood thing, I think hematocrit. So they basically prick their finger and then squeeze it to fill this little tube. My boys thought that was the COOLEST thing ever. Gross. But they didn't cry and happily let the LPN squeeze their little fingers. Gabe was mighty proud of his bandaid he sported on his pointer finger.

Then? It was shot time. We're pro vaccines in our house. And Julian needed four. He needed four and he won't have any more vaccines until MIDDLE SCHOOL! Say what?! Middle School? Age 11? Whoa. That freaks me out. He was happy though he wouldn't have anymore for seven years. Freaky. Until the nurse came in to do them. Then he flipped out. And the doctor had to come help me hold him down. Really, the doctor could have done it all, because once he came in Julian became all respectful, and not kicky and stuff. Weird. So we did Julian first, and then Gabe. Gabe only got one. And he didn't even cry.

Julian was mighty mad about his shots. He kept asking me why he had to get shots. So I told him. I said something cool like, Shots make you big and tough and scary. They scare away all of the bad diseases. (Because ya know, he's four, and is really big on being tough, and scary.) So he said, "Mommy, so my roar will be bigger now?" Yes Julian, your roar will be bigger.

Washington Trip Part One

So I've been home from Washington for 2 weeks now. That should be enough time to catch up on laundry, finish unpacking the house, get all settled in, right? Too bad it's not. I'm procrastinating, and blogging :)

So. I found out that I was officially pregnant on Monday March 1st. I knew that we were going to Washington the following Saturday, so I made plans to announce my pregnancy to my parents. I'd found these adorable Big Brother shirts at TJ Maxx for $5 each the week before. (I'm an optimist, I knew I'd be pregnant eventually...) So I bought them, and planned on the boys wearing them on the plane.

The boys did great on the two planes. The first leg was from Des Moines to Minneapolis. A nice 45 minute flight. We got there on time. It was great. Just long enough to keep them interested, and not so long that they got bored. We got off the plane, and ran to our next gate, and that was the leg I was worried about. About 4 hours. Stuck. On a plane. With my kids. So we got some cookies and drinks from the airport gift shop (Why doesn't the airport sell pepsi products? I'm not a Coke fan, anymore. And I really wanted a diet Pepsi.) and boarded our plane. The boys, amazingly enough, fell asleep right before take off. And slept for about an hour. Then they got wiggly. But it was all ok. They must have done well because a lady two rows back looked at us shocked and said, "I had no idea kids were even up here. They're good." And this cute old man said they were well behaved.

So. We landed in Seattle. Julian swore he saw Grandma's house as we were flying over the sound. And we were as far away from baggage claim as humanely possible. We rode the train, which I think was the highlight of the experience for the boys. And met my parents at baggage claim. I had tried lugging both suitcases, the stroller and my boys, but it didn't work. So we just waited.

Gabe, who is typically very shy and reserved was SO excited to see Grandma and Grandpa. He immediately started talking, which is very unlike him, but definitely welcome. Julian ran to my mom and gave her a huge hug (Dad too!)


You can see how OK Gabe is. No tears, nothing! I was proud of him!

It took a while for my parents to get the whole "Big Brother" thing. Julian even told my mom as we were walking to the car, "I'm going to have a baby sister." (I told you, he says it's a sister. And that's it.)

As soon as we got to Grandma and Grandpas, the boys went outside and played in the sandbox with Grandpa. Julian also managed to sweet talk Grandpa into some ice cream


Looks like G got some too!


We went up to Winco, where my little sister Jessica, works. We visited her for a bit, got some essentials, fruit snacks, sour patch kids, Easter candy. The usual. And then went back down to my mom's.

Saturday afternoon, my BFF Stacy, the fabulous photographer had her third baby. Ewan Jack. I'd told her that he should wait for his auntie, and she didn't like that idea. But that's exactly what he did :)

Sunday morning, Carly (My other BFF who is a fabulous hair stylist) went up to the hospital to visit her.


It's a good thing I was already pregnant at this point, or he? He would make me want another baby.

Carly and I went to Applebees, without kids. It was amazing. We were totally on a date, and shared an appetizer, buffalo wings (which seriously the thought of now, makes me want to vomit. Crazy pregnancy), a burger, which was realllllly good, and a blondie brownie for desert. (Sooo that's where the 8 lbs I gained over vacation came from.)

Then my family came down Sunday afternoon. Insert part one of the Preston/Gabe feud. They don't love each other. Preston loves Julian. Julian tolerates Preston, until he hits/pushes/punches Gabe. Then he gets all big brother.

Jess and Gabe


Cheeseball


That's all I'm going to post for Part One. Tune in for Part Two. Maybe tomorrow? I'm still uploading pictures...it's been an hour. The boys are revolting. Gabe turned off Dora. :)

PS I put up a poll. What do you think?? Boy or Girl for Palizzi #3?