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...