visitors, doctor, bath, snow, and stuff

I haven't been good about updating the blog because when I usually wind my evening down by sitting at the computer to write, lately at that time of night I have been crashing in bed!!! :) Things are GREAT in the brand household! We've been keeping busy and we are all doing really well. Here are a few snapshots of what we've been up to the last week or so...

Our friends, Jessie and Bryan brought their baby boy Cooper to see us from Texas! We were sooo happy to meet little Cooper!!! Actually, Cooper isn't little...he's a big boy! SOOOOO cute!!!

Brooke, Natalie (1 week), Sam (2 years), Cooper (4 months), Jessica

Samantha was showing Cooper the bracelets that "Aunt Jessie" gave her in a huge box full of presents for her and her sister!

Dan, his dad, his uncle, my dad, and his brother finished most of the flooring in the studio and it looks awesome! Next week they will come back to finish the last room, then we'll start hanging artwork, installing the kitchen, etc, etc...

Sam has really been better with Natalie! She helps feed her and brings supplies to us for her baby sister. She likes to go in and check on Natalie when she's sleeping sometimes too!

Natalie got her first bath! Our baby bathtub was still in storage at my parents' house, so we just held her over the sink to bathe her.

Miss Natalie did end up going to the doctor for a 2 week check-up, for two reasons. One was because her cord fell off early, around 6 days, but kept bleeding and scabbing over. The doctor just cleaned it and treated it with some chemicals to seal it so it would heal correctly. The other reason was because she's been having major spit up and, more importantly, projectile vomiting issues! Her weight gain was not a problem at all though. She was supposed to have gained between a half an ounce and one ounce a day the ten days between appointments (which would be 5-10 ounces total), and she gained 18 OUNCES! That brought her up to 8 pounds even! 

For now we are still allowed to give her breast milk during the day even though she's been chucking it back up, but when we do feed her formula, we have to put her on a special formula to see if it helps. If it doesn't help over the next 2 weeks, we might have to put her on some medicine. I'm all for it if it means I'm not changing my clothes and scrubbing the chair, the floor, the boppy, and the baby in the middle of every night---and then have a hungry baby an hour later!!!

Most days at home look something like this...

And....SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!!! Boy, did it snow!!! At our house it was about a foot of snow! So....we took Sammi to my parents' house this weekend to go sledding for the first time! They have a berm in the back of their house that is the perfect size for Samantha! Natalie just snoozed away in her car seat right inside while we played. (We could see her from the back yard.) :)

First we got Sammi all bundled up in her new snowsuit and snow boots! 

All ready for the cold weather!

Our first ride down the hill! Grandpa had to push us because the snow was so fluffy!

After a few trips with mom and dad, Sam was ready to go down by herself!

Daddy went down a few times too! He was loving it! :)

Samantha kept asking to go down on her belly next, but when it was time, she always decided to sit instead!

We ended our snow time with some hot cocoa inside and some snuggle time with Natalie!

She sure is a snuggle bug! She loves her grandpa already! 

I have been feeling really great. Physically I am doing awesome...I already can't wait to get the go-ahead to work out, which is COMPLETELY different from how I felt with Sam! With her I kept thinking, "It's no wonder you get 12 weeks off from work....you need every day of that just to recover before you can drive or do any normal things!" This time I feel awesome. Aside from the flab on my belly and pumping milk, which I am in the process of stopping, I don't even feel like I had a baby 2.5 weeks ago! I get tired easily, especially in the evening, but that is from getting up every 3 hours at night, which is to be expected! Emotionally I am doing great too. Thanks goodness my "toddler blues" were short-lived and I am feeling balanced with splitting time, although sometimes it can certainly be hard to figure out who to attend to! :)

Dan has been working since Natalie was born, but I have only been into the office twice so far. This week I am planning on starting part time consistently---the days Sam is in school, M, W, F, so that I can start catching up on wedding albums and designs for our patient and awesome clients who are waiting on me!!! Natalie will be with us, and so far she's been very cooperative when we've been working. :)

We've gotten so many amazing and wonderful gifts and meals from our friends and we are soooo thankful. Many of you I have not thanked yet, but please know how much all of your thoughtfulness means to us!!!!! We are the luckiest people on earth. 

All our love and best wishes to you all!!!!! Hoping to update the blog with some professional photos soon---we have a shoot planned for Tuesday! :) :) :)