Introductions

We were so excited to introduce Liam to all of our friends and family.

Jenn was at the hospital bright and early on Monday morning to help us document Liam's arrival with pictures. Many of the pictures you've seen in these past few posts were taken by Jenn. I was at the hospital when her two little ones were born and she has been there for the birth of both of my boys. We really appreciate her being there!

First picture of my mom, the proud grandma, holding her grandson. My dad was also there, but he didn't hold Liam right away - said he was too tiny. :)


Linda holding Liam for the first time.


Kelli meeting her second nephew for the first time!


Taylor was hesitant to hold Liam at first, but once he held him, he didn't want to let him go!


Liz and Travis stopped by to meet Liam - no picture of Travis, he's not one to hold the baby. :)


And there's the proud grandpa holding his second grandson for the first time.




Cousins! Trent and Taylor did a great job holding Liam and were arguing over who got to hold him next. Too cute. :)


Gail and Steve stopped by to meet Liam - so nice of them to visit!


They brought this fun Magnadoodle for Karsten - he has so much fun playing with one of these at Gail's house.


Leland, another proud grandpa, holding his 8th grandchild!


Trent doing a great job holding Liam.


Trent, Kelli and Taylor with Liam.








We are thankful for all of the friends and family who shared this special time with us. Thanks so much - we appreciate all of you!

Meeting Baby Brother

We were excited for Karsten to meet his new baby brother. We've been talking about his baby brother for many months now and Karsten always says sweet things like 'me love him'. Despite all of that, we weren't sure how Karsten would react when he actually met his baby brother.

This was Karsten's expression when he first walked into the hospital room and saw me in the bed. He wasn't sure what to think about the IVs in my arm and seeing me in bed. After I talked to him he seemed more comfortable with it. He brought this little lamb from Kelli for his baby brother - there's a big lamb (big brother) and a little lamb (little brother).

Scott held Karsten up so he could see Liam in my arms - Karsten lightly threw the lamb at Liam. I guess that's how a two year old gives gifts. :)


Then Karsten wanted to sit on my lap to see the baby. We were happy that he wanted to hold his baby brother. As soon as he sat next to me, he tried to take Liam from my arms.


He said 'aww, my baby brother is tute' (aka cute).




Love this picture of me and my boys.


Then my parents arrived for a visit - Karsten was so excited and proud to show off his baby brother. He said 'look mama papa, my baby brother!'


It was getting close to Karsten's dinner time so he had a snack. Thanks to Shannon for bringing snacks for Karsten.


Our first picture as a family of four!


Scott was giving Karsten a closer look at Liam.


Karsten was lucky to get many gifts from our visiting family and friends. Jenn got him this cute big brother book and he wanted to read it with me. It was so nice to have Karsten there - it was hard to leave him at my parents the night before. Even though it had been only 24 hours, I missed him so much!




Liam also brought Karsten several fun things - a fishing puzzle, a Handy Manny truck and some books.


And grandma and grandpa also brought Karsten a fun present.


Mickey Mouse - his current favorite! He was so excited and wanted him out immediately.


Playing with his Handy Manny truck with Scott and Liam.

Overall, Karsten's introduction to Liam went wonderfully. I think he's going to be a fantastic big brother.

Happy Birthday Liam!

Our morning began very early today! As one would expect, Lisa was already planning on how pictures would be taken today. Wow we look good for being 4:30 in the morning.

Liam was already working on clearing his lungs.

Our little guy did very well on his measurements.

Born at 7:26am, 8lbs 10 oz & 18 inches long

Finally wrapped up in a nice warm blanket.

Finally we are back in the recovery room. Thanks to Jen for capturing all the great family time.

After a bath and sitting under a heat lamp. Now this is one relaxed boy. We have discovered that he does NOT like his arms wrapped up. He seems to be the happiest when he has his hands rubbing against his cheek.

Not only is he sucking on his thumb, but can you believe how much hair he has?

For our grandparents who always check to make sure the newborns have 10 little toes.

And finally it can't get any better than this, Karsten meeting his new little brother. He showed up with a little lamb (thanks Kelli) to give to Liam. Now Karsten did throw the little lamb at Liam, but how else would a 2 yr old give a gift to someone? Karsten is also very good at sharing, so Liam was offered a gummy bear, Cheez-it, and Alphabet cereal as well. What a great brother. Karsten is very proud of his little brother and finished the night by reading a book to him.

Lisa is currently sleeping after a long day, so her great husband was the author of this post. I am sure Lisa will publish a few more pictures as we begin to collect pictures from the 5 plus cameras in our room. It's been a great day and Lisa and I are now very proud parents of 2 great boys!

Liam's Room - made with love

We moved Karsten out of his old room and into his new 'big boy' room with the intention of getting new bedding for Liam to make the room his own.

When I was doing Karsten's room a few years ago, I agonized over the perfect fabric for the quilt and bedding. I scoured fabric sites, Jenn and I went to several fabric stores, Shannon and I went to more fabric stores - then finally I decided what I wanted for him. Liam's room was a completely different story - Shannon and I stopped into a fabric store after we met for lunch one day and found the perfect fabric. The brown fabric with the stars (bottom of the curtains) was the first fabric we found, then we built the room around that fabric. I LOVE it!

I also think it's tough to find art for kids rooms. My mom found this idea where they framed fabric that was used in the baby's quilt and we decided to do something like that for above the crib. I'm really happy with how it came out!


We put this quote on the wall before Karsten was born - keeping it was the primary reason we kept the room color for Liam.

My dad made the clock on the wall - Scott and I found a picture of the clock online and he figured out how to create it. Isn't it cool? He wasn't so sure about it - said it was too modern for his taste, but I hear rumblings that there might be a clock like this appearing at his house in the future. :)

I'm still working on things to decorate Liam's shelves. The bottom one will be mostly books, and for right now I put some of the leftover fabric into a frame to add something interesting to the top shelf. It looks pretty cute next to some stars I relocated from another room and the cute sock gumball machine that Kelli and family gave Liam.

Shannon and I covered the lampshade with the paisley fabric from the quilt and she made the monogram pillow in the chair with other leftover fabric. So cute.


A closeup of the art above the crib - sorry for the crazy color, my flash wasn't on.

And last, but certainly not least, is Liam's quilt. I'm so happy with how it turned out! Shannon had this quilt pattern that we both loved, but it had a ruffle in the middle of it and was super girly. Shannon had the great idea to add these triangles to it (I call them triangles, their official quilting term is Prairie Points) and I think it made the quilt! I know Liam will cherish it forever!

Trick or Treat - Thank you!

Karsten was excited to be a fireman for Halloween. For weeks before Halloween, people would ask him what he was going to dress up as for Halloween and he would say in a big low voice "A FIREMAN!!" It was adorable - he was so excited!

Before he headed out to trick or treat, we had to get a few pictures of the fireman with his firetruck. I don't remember what Scott was doing behind me in order to get Karsten to smile, but it worked!








Jenn, David, Eden and Elam came over for dinner and trick or treating. We raced through dinner so we could get the kids dressed in their costumes and hit the neighborhood for trick or treating.


A quick family picture before we head out.


It took a couple of houses, but the kids quickly settled into a routine of saying trick or treat. When I would remind Karsten to say Thank You, he would say 'Trick or Treat - Thank you'. So cute :)


Headed to the next house. He wanted to bring along fire puppy, so it got to ride in his pocket.


Dorthy was handing out candy - complete with her ruby slippers.


The kids had lots of deliberation about which candy they were going to choose at this house. When he turned around and left this house, he almost ran smack into a kid dressed in some kind of transformer like mask. I thought Karsten would be scared but he just laughed and laughed and laughed. The kid didn't know what to do so after a minute of awkwardly standing there he went along to get candy. His parents thought Karsten's reaction was pretty funny too - but when the kid came back I heard him make a comment about how we were laughing at his costume. Oops!


We told Karsten and Eden that they could each choose one candy to have right then. I asked Karsten to show me his sucker and smile, but he refused to look at the camera. Little stinker.


Eden was between Skittles and Milk Duds - wise choice, she went with Skittles.


Enjoying their candy -Karsten was drolling all over the front of his fireman jacket. It must have been a good sucker.


Sticky fingers after enjoying his sucker.


After we hit several houses, we decided to head home and hand out candy to the trick or treaters at our house. Karsten had a lot of fun with this part.


We hit a slow period of trick or treaters so Karsten headed out to the driveway to look for more kids. He must have seen us put our hand above our eyes like this, but to him, it must have looked like we put our hand flat against our head - too funny.

It was a great Halloween - thanks to Jenn and David for coming over to enjoy the evening with us!