CuddleBug

Even at an early age, I am starting to notice some differences between my two cuties. Addison has always been very independent and has never been super affectionate. She gives kisses and hugs, but she won't just sit down and cuddle with you...she is always on the go! However, I am noticing that my little boy is going to be just the opposite. I love the fact that he loves to cuddle up with Joey and I! 

Playdate

A few weeks ago I got together with a few of my friends and their sweet kiddos. It is so much fun knowing that our kids are so close in age and will grow up together. The only sad thing is that Addison is seriously outnumbered. She is the only girl!! We recently got all the babies together for a "playdate". The kids are all so young that they didn't really play all that much (in fact Joey and Gunnar slept the whole time!), so the "playdate" was really more for us moms! :) 

Here are all the cuties...

Milestone

I cannot believe it, but little Joey rolled over a few days ago for the first time! He's not even two months old yet! I had him on his tummy one morning and we were talking and playing and he just sort of kicked his leg and rolled over onto his back. I was so excited, and I was the only one there!...Daddy was still sleeping :) I made him do it several more times just to see if maybe it was a random fluke, but he was able to do it every time. I am so proud of my little boy! He is getting so big and strong!

Spit-Up

This is just a typical picture of my little J. He spits up ALL THE TIME and it goes EVERYWHERE. Both of us end up changing outfits multiple times a day and laundry has definitely increased. I tried using bibs but his spit up is so explosive it usually bypasses the bib and ends up on me, the couch, the floor, his pants or whatever happens to be nearby. Addison never spit up...I literally never had to use a burp cloth. However, we don't seem to have enough with Joey. I am just reminded of how different siblings can be, and I'm also getting a little tired of smelling like spit up :) Oh the joys of being a mommy!

RANDOM (What you missed this summer!)

I was a very bad blogger this summer! Part of that was due to my computer (which was broken) and my camera cord that went missing. However, I will admit that part of it was just laziness! I finally got some pictures from my camera uploaded so I thought I would share of few photos of from my brother's graduation and Addison playing in the waterscape at our park. I know this is totally RANDOM...but I am trying to be better about posting on my blog..and I ran out of material! :)

Here's someone who doesn't get alot of face time on my blog...My "little" brother graduated from Texas A&M in May of this past year. We were SO proud!! I was pregnant at the time and he was literally almost one of the very LAST people to walk the stage. Graduation seemed to last forever! However, we all yelled and screamed when they called his name. He now lives in San Antonio and works for a construction firm. Wow, it seems like just yesterday we were being silly and playing in the backyard. I can't believe my brother is all grown up! 

Addison and I spent ALOT of time in the water this summer :) We have a fun waterscape in a park near our house and we went there quite a bit. She LOVED it and it was a great way to beat the heat!

Photoshoot

My good friend Jill is really talented and takes wonderful pictures. She is so sweet to volunteer to photograph my kids, but for some reason the minute she steps into my house...my kids decide to be extremely uncooperative! Addison becomes a wild woman and will not sit still or follow directions and Joey has tummy issues, spits up everywhere, and cries the whole time...not a pleasant experience for either me or Jill (*sigh*). I have a new found respect for people who photograph kids! It's not easy! Anyway, these were a few cute shots she got of my kids. Thanks Jill for being so patient...maybe some day we will be able to take a decent photo!

Addison hamming it up for the camera

My sweet baby boy...what a silly face!

Addie and Joey...he looks pretty miserable!

My cuties...

Life has been crazy being a mom of two. In some ways it has been a very easy transition, but at times when both of them are crying or needing me in some way it can seem very stressful! However, every week gets easier as we get into a routine! Addison is a GREAT big sister. Joey and I are amazed at how much she adores and loves her little brother. She hasn't shown any jealousy at all so far. She loves giving him kisses and talking to him and patting his head. She will bring him his "paci" and she even tries to pat his back and burp him at times (this is not always helpful!) Here are some things I have noticed about my two cuties...

Addison:

1. LOVES music. She loves listening to CDs in our playroom and tries to dance when songs come on. Anything musical will entertain her.

2. Sesame Street...she can spot Elmo a mile away in a store...but her favorite is cookie monster. She is obsessed with anything that has sesame street on it, and therefore...they are making alot of money off of us :)

3. Stickers-she loves drawing and coloring, but she also really likes stickers. She can sit there forever decorating her paper (or other inanimate objects such as the coffee table, the chair or even her brother) with stickers. 

4. Apples and Juice. Addison asks for juice constantly...we don't give her much juice but when we do she downs the whole cup or juice box in minutes. She also asks for apples all the time...breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Other than french fries and fruit snacks...apples are her favorite food :)

5. Being Outdoors...Addison loves to slide and swing...therefore, we try to go to the park alot and fortunately she has a small slide and swing in the backyard. It has been so nice outside that we have spent lots of afternoons out there.

Joey:

1. LOVES eating...ALL.THE. TIME. He is a growing boy!

2. Smiling...Joey has the cutest smiles!! They just melt me :)

3. Talking...He has also started to "coo" and chat with us a little...we love listening to him make sounds.

4. His sister...Joey loves Addison and often gives her the biggest smiles...She loves him equally as much... She will not leave his side (which is sometimes a problem!) She always wants to know where he is and what he is doing. She reads books to him, and kisses and hugs him. She is the BEST big sister :)

The cutest little firewoman!

Uh...oh. Addison got into my lipstick. I think she needs more practice :)

This is what Joey does most of the day...

Halloween

This year Addison dressed up as a pink puppy. She loves puppies and when she saw this costume...I knew it would be perfect (even better was that it was half off!) She was so excited to put the costume on and even begged to wear it the next day...I ended up finally having to hide it from her! We dressed Joey up as a monkey. He was so cute, but pretty much slept through all the Halloween festivities! :) We went to my sister and brother in laws and trick or treated/took pictures with their kids and then came back to our own house to pass out candy and take Addison to some houses on our street. I am not sure if Addison totally understood the concept of trick or treating. She certainly liked having people put something in her little bucket...but I'm not sure she understood that you could eat it at first! She was also really cute...at almost every house she tried to walk into their home. We had to hold her back! I guess she figured that perhaps there was more candy inside...or if the people were giving her something it was an open invitation to come on in! Whatever the case, we had to watch her carefully! 

This past week I think she has finally figured out that the stuff in her pumpkin bucket is good to eat. Each morning she has opened the pantry and gotten something new out and tried to persuade me to let her have it for breakfast. Everything from atomic fireballs to whoppers. I have to confess she snuck the whoppers by me! (but she left the evidence on her face...chocolate everywhere!) When I discovered she still had one I asked her..."Addison is that a whopper in your hand, to which she promptly replied, "yep"! (At least she's honest!) I had to laugh! All in all...we had a great time at Halloween. 

Smiles

My sweet boy...This is not one of his big huge grins...

but I think it is so cute! He looks like a little old man! :)

Moments Like These...

These are the moments that make me smile! 

NO EXCUSES

Once upon a time...I updated my blog. Now...not so much! I have been in denial and many times have posted "I'm back!" or "I'll post updates I promise".  Let's face it, I am just not a good blogger. Almost daily I take time to "stalk" other people's blog sites to see pictures and read updates about their life, not bothering to pay attention to my own site which hasn't been updated in over two months! No more promises...I will try my best, but life with two kids has been hectic so I'm not sure how much I will  be able to post. For now, here are some updates and more photos! Make sure to scroll down there are several new posts and I have 3 more I will post this week when I get more pictures downloaded!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to Sweet Berry Farms in Marble Falls a few weeks ago with my brother and sister-in-law and their kids. We had a great time despite the randomly cold weather. The kids got to paint pumpkins, go on a hayride, look at some animals, pick out pumpkins and of course pose for some pictures (that was NOT the fun part for them!...so I don't have many good ones :) Addison was so cute! We took her last year but she was so little...this time she had more fun. She kept trying to pick up all the pumpkins, even the big huge ones. It was hilarious. Last year she enjoyed the animals, but this year she was a bit more fearful and kept her distance. All in all we had a great time as a family. I love going out there every year!

                                   The best picture we could get of all three of the cousins!

                                         Addison and her cousin Brynn painted a pumpkin

Serious look...

                          Addison tried to pick up all the pumpkins and gourds off the ground

He's Here!!

Kids...plural. It's still weird telling Joey "yeah, the kids and I went to the park today"...just sounds funny, but that's what we have now...two kids! 

The 5th Joseph Philip LoSurdo has arrived and we are SO in love with him!! He was born September 28th at 9:21 am. He weighed a whopping 9lbs 1 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long. His big sister adores him and is so protective and we are adjusting to life with kids...plural :)

Here is the story for those who are interested!

A week and half before I was due I started to get that miserable "I'm so done being pregnant" feeling. I was having pain in my legs and lower back and my OB was telling me that she thought the baby was going to be big (and she was right!). So we started to discuss the possibility of being induced early. Unlike with Addison this pregnancy hit me harder and I was really ready to meet my little guy. However, unfortunately there were no rooms available at the hospital. Who knew?!? So I was put on a waiting list. Finally, I found out I was scheduled to be induced on Monday, September 28th (only two days before my actual due date...but I'll take it!) It was such a weird feeling having a scheduled time. With Addison, I just went into labor on my own! I was scheduled to be at the hospital at 5am. I barely slept that night and got up around 4am to get ready. We arrived on time and things went very smoothly. Filled in paperwork etc., got my IV, and started pitocin by 6:00. I was actually starting to have some contractions that morning before we got to the hospital and I was already dilated 3cm so they told me things would move pretty quickly. They were right!!! By 7:00 I was having more painful contractions and contemplated going ahead and getting an epidural, but I knew it would slow things down and decided the contractions weren't that bad. About 15 minutes later I changed my mind...they were pretty bad. They called in the anesthesiologist who gave me an epidural but it didn't seem to be working and I was getting no relief. The contractions were BAD. They wanted to wait a little longer to see if perhaps they needed to up the dose of medicine. Meanwhile...I was in PAIN!! Poor Joey, his arm was probably about to fall off I was gripping it so hard! The anesthesiologist came back in and tried the epidural again and several other things that didn't work. She even tried giving me a strong narcotic, but they said I was just progressing too quickly and the medicine couldn't keep up. At this point I felt the strong urge to push. They checked me and sure enough I was dilated all the way. I went from a 5 to a 10 within an hour (At this point I was FREAKED out that I would have to push this baby out without any help for the pain!...which probably would have been fine...tons of people do it and I had made it that far already but I started to get a little panicky). They rushed to call my doctor and the anesthesiologist finally decided to just give me a spinal. This finally kicked in about 10 minutes before the doctor got there. The doctors taking care of me were great but in their willingness to try to ease my pain they tried alot of things and later when it finally all wore off...my anesthesiologist summed it up by saying we basically just gave you a "crap load of drugs" :)  The pain was not the only difficulty...by the time I was ready to push my parents still had not gotten to the hospital. My doctor told me we could hold off ("but don't cough or even sneeze!") because they were just pulling into the hospital. I got to give them a quick kiss and hug and then it was "go time". Fortunately baby Joey was ready to meet us...and I only had to push 3 times. He was a BIG baby though...9 pounds 1 oz. He is a cutie and has been a relatively good baby so far. We are so in love!! 

Here are some pics from his birthday!...in random order...

Shower Time!!

I can't believe that I only have 6 1/2 weeks left (and if Joey comes early like Addison...it might only be 5!) CRAZY!! Am I ready for this? I have been much more excited and less anxious this time around. I remember a few weeks before having Addison I seemed to be worried about everything, this time around I feel alot more laid back. Joey and I are just so ready to meet our little boy! By the way, this second one has taken a bigger toll on my body. My back hurts, my legs hurt...everything hurts! I'm sure chasing a rambunctious toddler doesn't help...but I definitely feel worse this time around. Or maybe I just forgot how rough those last few weeks can be!

Anyway, my sweet friends threw me a shower this weekend to celebrate having a boy! It was SO CUTE!!! Since I am doing a sports theme in Joey's room they used that theme for the shower as well. They had "ballpark food", fun music, baseball cookies and more. The house was decorated so fun and my pictures do not do justice! I felt so blessed and had such a great time. Thanks girls!!! I also got some very cute stuff. Lot's of cute Aggie gear (whoop!) and tons of fun boy things. Here are some pics from the shower...

Shower hosts and such sweet friends!

Cute baseball cookies handmade by my sister in law...they were AMAZING!!

and I loved that they had Joey #5 on them! :)

Fun (and yummy) food!

I was blessed with so many fun gifts...but I'm not sure

why I have my eyes closed in almost every picture! :)

Absent...

Well I have been a little absent from the blogging world lately! I guess you could sort of say I took a vacation from posting! I'm sure no one even reads this anymore...However, if you happen to be reading...I am BACK!! :) Honestly, we have been pretty busy this summer...but when I sit down and think about it we haven't done anything really exciting so I guess I have felt that I haven't had anything "blog worthy" to write about lately...I'm going through the summer "blahs". Not only is it ridiculously hot outside...but I remember when summer used to mean a break from school, homework, sleeping in...doing nothing but hanging out with friends? Well, as a mom now my summer just seems to be more of the same! There really isn't any change. Most of our days still consist of playing, cleaning, running errands, and going to the pool or park (when it's not 100 + degrees outside! ha!) Some days I miss the excitment of what summer used to be, but then I just look at my sweet little girl and I am reminded of how much I love to be at home with her and how precious our time together is. I wouldn't trade it for anything. So...stay tuned for updates this week! I am trying to download some pictures as we speak! :)

Updates...

What's been going on?

I think I get the "worst mommy of the year" award in terms of keeping up with my child. Addison is over a year old and I have yet to put pictures in her baby book (or even completely fill it in!) I don't have any sort of scrapbook and all the photos we take are in random assortment in a box on my desk. The one thing I try to do somewhat faithfully is write a monthly update of what Addison is doing and learning on this blog-most of it is really for my sake so I can look back and remember all the fun milestones and memories. The only problem is that I haven't done this in over 3 months! (oops). So here goes...

1. Addison is talking! This just started about a week ago. Her first words were "bye" and "baby" and she has been working on those for quite a while now...but that was it. However, in the past week her speaking ability has exploded! She now can say cookie, cracker, ball, up, daddy, puppy, Maddie (our dog), and Caden (her cousin). She is adding new words every day! Of course she still refuses to say "mommy"! We love hearing her talk and each day she seems to add more words to her growing vocabulary! She knows most of her animal sounds too. She can do the sounds for a cow, sheep, puppy, snake, kittycat, and duck. 

2. Addison loves trying to put on our shoes and walk. She also loves to watch me put on make-up. She tries to imitate me and it is too cute! She loves trying on my jewelry (necklaces and bracelets) and the other day when  I was painting my toe nails she insisted she wanted some too...so I painted a few of her fingernails! However, I quickly took it off afterwards. Having a girl can be so much fun!

3. Addison is OBSESSED with dogs...she calls them all "puppies". Whenever she sees one she starts doing a little high pitched barking noise..."woof woof". She gives Maddie hugs and kisses all day long (she is way more affectionate to her dog than us!) and we got her a stuffed puppy dog that never leaves her side. She is crazy about animals and dogs in particular! 

4. Addison is learning how to feed herself. She has done this for quite a while now by just using her hands...but we are adding in silverware which she hasn't been a big fan of up until now. We got her some little forks and spoons and she has suddenly taken an interest. She's really into eating yogurt with her spoon and though most of it ends up everywhere but in her mouth she is making progress! We clap for her when she takes "big girl bites" and actually tries to "stab" her food with her fork. Yea....it doesn't take much to get us excited these days :) 

5. The topic of food brings me to another one of Addison's favorite things...EATING. The girl is super skinny but you would never know it by the amount of food she consumes!! She eats everything in sight. Some nights she eats 3 full pieces of pizza and the other day when we were at a hamburger restaurant she ate her burger, fries, some of my mother in law's burger, mushrooms from Joey's burger plus lettuce, bacon and yes my friends...RAW ONIONS off of my plate. Crazy!! She will eat just about ANYTHING we put in front of her...that girl is a bottomless pit!

6. Addison LOVES the water. She has no fear in the pool and I typically get soaked during bath time...Joey calls it the splash zone!! She loves to splash us and laughs when we get wet!

7. Addison's favorite things: swinging, playing "peek a boo" with the curtains, eating french fries, taking the batteries out of the remote (almost EVERY day), eating french fries, trying on mom and dad's shoes, eating french fries, reading books, eating french fries, playing with her "babies", climbing on everything (she is fearless!)  and in general just tearing the house apart!! She is into everything! oh, and did I mention she loves french fries?? 

8. We are learning how to discipline. Addison has recently learned the word "no" and is not afraid to use it...on us! At times when we tell her she can't do something or we take a toy away she says "no, no, no" back to us and sometimes will throw a fit...this is new territory for us so we are learning as we go! :)

Addison's 15 month stats:

34 1/2 inches tall (95th %)

24.2 lbs (25th %)

She's long and lean! ...I'm jealous :)

Trying on Daddy's shoes!

Feeding herself yogurt with a spoon...what a mess!

Hawaiian Girl (her grandparents brought this back from their vacation)