Family Pictures on Mothers Day

On Mothers Day we went and visited my husbands parents for the day and went to a little park near their house for Adeline to play a bit and take a few family pictures.

First time I've been to the park, but Adeline goes with her Nana whenever she goes up to visit her.

Here are Alan's parents with both grandchildren. Adeline is so hard to get to look at the camera!

Nana and her Grandson

Alan and I at the park. Ignore my gray hair, I need to get it colored! 

These two fill my days now and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Our family!

After the park we headed up their house for Mothers Day dinner and spend some time together. Abel was all smiles for PaPaw Mike.

We spent some time relaxing on their screened in porch.

Me and my girl!

Family Comparison

Whenever a couple has a baby everyone says "Oh he looks just like his dad" or "She looks like her mom". So I sat down and decided to compare baby pictures for our little family. It is surprising how little we all look alike. Some families the similarity is striking - but for us I don't see it! Let me know if you do. You can click on any collage of pictures to view them larger.

Here are a series of comparisons (ages are unknown for mine and Alan's pictures):

First is Adeline's baby picture compared to Alan and I:

Then comparing Abel to the same pictures of us:

So what do you all think? Who do Adeline and Abel look more like as babies? I think they both have my baby cheeks!

This past week Abel turned a month old! So here is a comparison picture of Abel and Adeline at a month old. It is crazy how big of a difference there is between the two! Adeline was still wearing Newborn (and it was big on her!), Abel is wearing 0-3.

I went ahead and looked forward to Adeline's 2nd Month picture and it is a better picture to look at to compare how close they look alike since Adeline didn't start filling out until then.

Then for the comparison that I promised on Facebook a couple days ago that got this blog post in motion. Alan and Abel both wearing the same outfit. The funny part is that Alan is 3 months old when this picture was taken, and Abel was only 1 month old!

Abel is One Month Old

This week we celebrated Abel being a month old! Time is already flying by and I can't believe it's already been a month. He has changed so much in that month.

Abel still does not like getting his diaper changed and cries through most. But when he doesn't he looks all around and is very observant. He loves looking at the ceiling fans in the house (what baby doesn't??) and at the big windows in our living room.

Abel is so different than Adeline at this age. Adeline was an easy baby, Abel is also an easy baby - just not as easy as Adeline! Or it could just be that now we have two, who knows? Abel typically sleeps ok his first stretch at night 3-4 hours then the rest of the night he's up about every 2 hours. I've really stopped keeping track. I am still dealing with pelvic and hip pain that I had during pregnancy so I cannot get up/down all night long with him, so after Abel wakes the first time from his crib in the nursery Alan brings him to our room and after Abel is done nursing he sleeps in a crib next to the bed. This is not what I wanted at all, but hopefully soon we can get him to sleep 100% in his room!

Abel only wore Newborn clothes for about a week, mostly because he lost a pound after birth (which is normal at the weight he was born at). But as soon as my milk came in he started gaining at a great pace! At 3 weeks old he weight 10 lbs 5 oz and was 21.5 inches tall. Most of his 0-3 clothes don't fit as they are hand-me-downs that are shrunk - so he can wear new 0-3 and used 3-6. He doesn't look like a big baby to me, but no one believes me that he's only 4 weeks!

So far Abel hasn't been out that many places. But he's been to Sugar Hollow Park, Steele Creek Park, Academy to see his dads old co-workers, Bass Pro for dads current co-workers, an attempted Target trip that failed miserably, O'Charlies, and Cracker Barrel. We spent our days at home right now with big sister, Adeline, either sleeping or eating and taking Adeline outside to play. We hope to head towards where the rest of our family is soon so that the extended family gets to meet Abel in person as well. That is one of the downfalls of living a bit over 2 hours away, but since it's still FLU season - it may be a good thing as well since his visitors have been limited.

Adeline is in love with her baby brother, Abel. She constantly wants to know what he is doing and loves to give him hugs and kisses. She has been a great help and is handling being a big sister great. She has had a bit of an attitude and acting up to get more attention, but that was to be expected. This weekend she's at my parents getting a break from having to share the spotlight, hopefully the break does her good. She loves visiting her grandparents (both sides), that will be her escape from her little brother for awhile until he gets big enough to go as well.

Alan and I are excited to see Abel grow up and see what personality he is going to have. Adeline is such a mix of the two of us, it's interesting to see what she gets from both of us.

Family Fun - Cleek Farms Corn Maze

We had a great time visiting a local Farm for some fall fun. Cleek Farms offers a corn maze, bounce pillow, cow train, hay/wagon ride, and lots of activities for kids! We ate lunch there, they have a BBQ vendor and the food was great. Adeline had so much fun she didn't want to leave but it was getting busy and we had been there awhile! This was a super easy farm to get to and not that far from us in Bristol, VA.

First stop was the Bounce Pillow! Adeline spied this before we even got through the gates. Thankfully she was easily swayed to go see other things. Unfortunately she played on it again right before we left and wasn't too happy to be leaving! There were just too many big kids and she couldn't even stand up at that point.

Next we spied an awesome play set - a Tractor and Hay Wagon made out of wood!

Needless to say, she loved it! She'll be talking to the granddads about her Christmas list now!

Up on the hill behind the play set was a huge sandbox, horse tire swings, corn box, and a water faucet race.

Next we were off to the cow train! Adeline did not like it, she said it was "too bumpy!". She rode it last year, but she was in my lap. So I guess I was the cushion.

Then we got in line for the Hay Ride! Which for us was more like a wagon ride since ours didn't have hay, just benches. I am not complaining, I'm allergic to hay! Adeline was so happy to spend the day with her daddy.

Hard to get good shots on the hay ride since I was behind Adeline and Alan. Oh well. Adeline said Paw-Paws tractor is better, and it's Blue!

After the hay ride we played a bit around the farm. We decided the corn maze with a toddler wasn't so good, so we skipped it.

We did get a chance to get this awesome family picture!

I hope everyone has a Wonderful Fall and Happy Halloween!

Wordless Wednesday - MY LOVES

Week in Review

Last Sunday we celebrated my moms 60th Birthday! Her actual birthday is January 27th, but we celebrated a week later with extended family! We all met up at The Farmhouse in Christiansburg, VA for a late lunch. It was great, we had the restaurant to ourselves pretty much. Didn't get many pictures, but here are a few!

We've had a bit of a rough week with Miss Adeline. She got pretty sick Thursday night, it was her first night ever throwing up! Thankfully the next morning when she got up (10am!!) she was pretty much back to herself and didn't really act like anything had happened. She's been a bit clingy and wanting to sit on your lap or next you a bunch this week, so she still doesn't feel so great. I'm thinking molar teething! Here's Adeline chilling on the couch with her daddy.

My mom decided to makeover one of her guestrooms as a room for Adeline when we come to visit. It's fun getting to make another "nursery" for Adeline! I haven't gotten to pick things out myself, but its still fun. So far this is the idea for the room.

I spent today painting the room and hopefully next weekend we can finish putting it together! Adeline got to try out her new chair. So cute.

Holiday Dinner with Friends and Family

Tonight Adeline and I went to a Friends & Family Holiday Dinner! It was so great to see some people I hadn't seen for awhile and it was great for Adeline to get to play with her cousin Lucy who is close in age (8 Months). It's always great to see familiar faces around the holidays and relive the past holidays. It's also a time that you miss the family that is no longer here with us or couldn't make it.

Last year we didn't get to celebrate the holidays (Thanksgiving through Christmas) very much due to Miss Adeline being so new & young. So this year I am extremely excited to celebrate. Tomorrow we are getting Christmas pictures done, heading to a friends birthday party, then coming home to finally decorate! I've been dying to decorate all week but Alan has been busy working for UPS - those guys work hard and Alan is exhausted when he gets home!

I didn't get any pictures of the adults at the dinner party, just the babies! The pictures didn't turn out so great due to the low lighting of the room we were in and the fact that these babies couldn't stay still! While we were there we had a few spur of the moment pictures taken by Mary (Merry Studios), so I can not wait to see them!

Scott and Adeline playing before we went