New lens. =)

Josh got a nice sized bonus from work this year, and let me get the lens I've had my eye on for awhile now. Behold my latest toy:

It is a 50mm lens, and I have heard nothing but great things about it. I am looking forward to using it on Christmas Eve at Josh's mom's house and on Christmas morning here at our house and at my grandma's. Be on the lookout for a picture heavy Christmas post in the days to come! =)

A tour of our Christmas tree.

Ashley posted this fun idea on her blog today, and I knew I had to copy her. I am always so fascinated by what people put on their Christmas trees (because let's face it, there are some UGLY ornaments out there). So I got out the camera and took a little tour of our Christmas tree (& living room), and here we go!

This is the console table near our front door.

We don't have a chimney (unfortunately), so we hang our stockings from the bookshelf.

Our tree.

Tree topper. Love this star!

One of my favorite ornaments. I love country looking ones.

Cameron's 1st Christmas.

Another one from Cameron's 1st Christmas.

Hannah's 1st Christmas ornament!

Our 1st Christmas ornament as a married couple.

Josh's favorite.

A souvenir from our honeymoon. I am NOT a Disney freak, I promise!

December happenings.

There hasn't been much going on around here these days. The snow is starting to fall, and we are in semi-hibernation mode. Taking 2 kids out in public alone is hard, but throw in a bunch of ice on the ground and freezing cold temperatures and I start to panic. I would rather stay home in the warmth, thank you very much.

And that is what we did today.

Hannah had taken a nice 30-minute cat nap this morning and woke up in good spirits, so I broke out my fleece, plexi glass and camera and started taking some pictures of her in the Santa hat her grandma bought for her. It started out wonderfully. She was on her tummy, not throwing a fit, looked at the camera several times and even smiled once (and I missed it). She started to get a little fussy half way through, then I blinked and she was on her back. The girl absolutely hates tummy time. In Hannah's world, tummy time is some sort of torturous punishment. We have been trying to enforce daily tummy time for awhile now, but the screaming always gets to be too much and we give up. Now that she has figured out how to roll, we will have to be a little more strict. And as soon as it happened, the joy was stripped away as Cameron began screaming. I could not figure out what was wrong, and looked him over for a good few minutes before I realized that his foot was bleeding. I am pretty sure that he had cut it on the plexi glass while I was celebrating with Hannah. I cleaned it up and managed to get a bandaid on it while he continued screaming. I eventually got him to calm down - that was until I had to change the bandaid. He ate lunch and is now down for a nap, so I am hoping he will be his normal self when he wakes up.

Here are the pictures I took of Hannah, and one of Cameron too. =)

Your Three Words

It is hard to believe, but Cameron is 23 months old today. Where has the time gone? If he is 23 months old right now, that means next month he will be turning 2. That seems unreal. It seems like just yesterday I was visiting my sweet baby boy in the NICU. I could swear he just started rolling over, crawling and walking. There is no way it has been a year since he started talking, expanding his vocabulary every day. No way. I will make a post with all of the sappy stuff (including pictures) when it gets a little closer to his birthday. I am sad. I can't believe my baby boy is growing up so fast. Slow down! Before I know it, he will be off to kindergarten.

Blog update & (dad's) wedding.

If you are one of my few blog readers, you have probably noticed that things are different. I have changed the url of the blog since we aren't just Josh, Alyssa and Cameron anymore. So if you want to add me to your blog list, please do! I promise I won't be changing the url any time soon. I am also working on a new button.

Alright, on to the weekend review.

My dad got remarried on Saturday. The day started off with thunderstorms. It was raining like crazy when Josh, the kids and I were out for breakfast. It cleared up for awhile, and started raining again as we loaded everything into the car and headed toward Holland. About half way there, the skies became clear and a tiny bit of sun peaked through the clouds. Phew.

When we arrived at the chapel, I was directed to a small building at the top of a hill. No problem, right? Wrong. The grass was soaking wet (& slippery!) and there was no walk way. Of course this was okay at first, seeing that I was wearing flip flops. Then I realized I was going to be in big trouble. I have been telling myself I needed to practice walking in the shoes I bought for this very occasion. Of course, I never did. After we got ready and started walking down the hill, Chelsea (new step-sister) and I aerated the grass for the owners. Maybe if enough people do that, they will add a sidewalk.

Everything from that point on went very well. The ceremony was great, besides the fact that the minister lady could not pronounce my dad & Diane's last names. Justin (step-brother), Chelsea and I poured colored sand into a glass bottle and I wished my brother was there with us (my dad poured his sand).

Cameron was adorable in his outfit (complete with robot tie!), as was Hannah. Everyone complimented them. Here are a few pictures from the wedding.

Dad and Diane

Cameron the explorer.

Pretty Girl.

Smiley girl =)

Mama and her babies.

Josh and the babes.

Hannah is 2 months old!

Okay, time. It is seriously time to slow down. Somehow, our little girl turned 2 months old yesterday. It is unbelievable to me. It seems like just yesterday that I was counting down the days until she was born, and now I want the days to go by slower.

She had her 2 month well child exam this morning, where she had to have 6 immunizations (1 orally, and 3 shots. They mixed 3 of the doses into one shot, thank the lord). She did surprisingly well. She turned as red as a stop sign for about a minute, then let out a 30-second cry. She has been pretty sleepy since then. The poor girl, she probably hates her mama now.

Anyway, she is growing very well, according to the doctor. She is up to 12 pounds, 4 ounces now which is in the 90th percentile. She is 24 1/4 inches tall (95th percentile). Her head has also grown, but not too much. It measures in the 75th percentile at 15 1/2 inches.

She is definitely starting to grow!

In honor of her 2nd month of life, we had a photo shoot yesterday. Well actually, a couple of different ones. Here are my favorite shots of her. =)

Catching up.

Life has been pretty normal over here for the past couple of weeks. The weather has continued to show us what fall will bring, complete with wind that knocks a bunch of leaves out of our trees. Guess it will be time to rake them up into huge piles very soon.

Cameron is still as crazy as ever. I (Josh didn't think it was a great idea) decided to transition him from 2 naps a day to 1. He seemed to benefit from 2 naps for a long time, until he decided that he would only sleep for an hour each time, which defeated the whole purpose. We had started a bad habit with him that we have decided to stop cold turkey while we are doing the other transition. We had been giving him a bottle half full of water to help him calm down and fall asleep, and last night was pretty bad. He was put into his crib at 7:30 and screamed and cried until 8:30. Josh finally decided to take a sippy cup of water up and he refused it. He finally fell asleep a little while later, thank god. It was pretty rough. Lesson learned, no water bottles in Hannah's bed.

Hannah seems to have improved after we switched her from the Gentlease formula to the Soy. She was having some serious digestion/stomach issues and now seems to be doing a whole lot better. She is growing really fast, and it hurts my heart to say that she will be 2 months old tomorrow (so look out for that post, complete with new pictures!). Thursday morning she goes to the pediatrician for a checkup and her 2nd round of vaccinations. Poor baby. I hate taking the kids for their shots. I am excited to see how much bigger she has gotten.

We don't really have too much going on this week. Tomorrow, I am going to get my eyebrows waxed and my hair cut. I am having a tough time deciding what I want to do to my hair. I might get a few inches cut off and some new bangs cut. I love getting pampered every once in awhile (it has been 7 months since my last trim). Josh and Cameron will go on Thursday night for their haircuts.

We are all getting cleaned up for my dad's wedding this weekend. I have to pick up my dress tomorrow from the lady who altered it. We went shopping 9 days after Hannah was born, so of course it needed to be altered, big time. Especially since it was a tad too big when it was purchased. I have lost an additional 15 pounds since I took the dress to the lady initially, so I hope it isn't too big. Nothing I can do about it now.

Let's talk about the weight loss. Since Hannah was born on July 15th, I have shed almost 45 pounds. That is 35 pounds of Hannah baby weight and 10 pounds of the Cameron baby weight I never worked on getting rid of. At this point, I am still 40 pounds away from my goal weight, so I guess I am half way there. Of course, I realize that it's going to get harder and harder to get rid of the weight as I lose it, and I'm okay with that.

I leave you with an overabundance of pictures from the past week and a half.

Cameron tried to fix the doorkob.

Then he tried to put it back in its place.

Hannah relaxing in her swing.

Mr. Muscles

Watching the Michigan game with daddy.

Playing with his crayon box.

Tummy time with Hannah Boo.

She was tired of the camera.

Getting his own juice out of the fridge.

Modeling daddy's Tigers hat.