fun at grandma and papa's

i'm thankful that aa's parents have been spending some extra days with kellen the last couple of weeks. these days give great bonding time for k and the grandparents and extra sleeping time for m and mama - today we (maya and I) rolled out of bed around 10:30 (after being up from 1-3:45am with m and then about 4:30-5:30am with k and then 6-6:45am with m). these pics showed up in my inbox today - k was having fun with grandma raking leaves. look at the size of those leaves!

everyday is a marathon!

wow...it's crazy how much 1 - 6 lb 13 oz little thang can turn your world upside down. especially when she essentially eats, poops and sleeps in that order every few hours. to say we are exhausted would be an understatement. in so many ways this second baby is SO much easier than the first - mentally and physically i feel so much better, so much more confident, stable and relaxed. in other ways, it's much harder...and much of that can be attributed to a certain ~23 lb-er! not only is our boy having to adjust to this new baby girl and sharing the love and attention of his mama and dada...he's about to turn two and really starting the push the limits of toddlerhood! favorite words are no, mine and my turn. actually, he's becoming a very polite, but stubborn toddler, instead of just no...about half the time he'll say no, thank you...in the cutest, sweetest little voice! we have to be careful about asking him questions when there really isn't a choice. for instance...

us: kellen, are you ready for bed?

kellen: no, thank you!

us: kellen, should we change your diaper (stink radiating from his butt)?

kellen: no, thank you!

so cute, but can be oh so frustrating over and over and over!

anyway...while we've had a few bumpy and frustrating moments, overall we couldn't be more thrilled with how things are going. when kellen wakes up in the morning and the first word out of this mouth is baby or when he decides she must be cold and will bring her a blanket or when she cries and he has a pained look on his face and says, "baby sad!"...these are the moments that i relish in and hold onto when things feel a little out of control! ...and boy, the laundry, dishes, contstant clean up of toys, changing of diapers, clothes, etc ...it is truly a marathon everyday!

here are some pics of my beautiful babes:

playing catch up - - -> pumpkin patch!!

well...since baby girl came along a little (let's say at least a week) earlier than i had expected, i never got a chance to post our pumpkin patch pictures. seems a little backwards to post pumpkin patch pics in november after the halloween picture posts, but that's how we roll.

other things that i still need to do:

• update our family photo at the top. believe it or not (you probably believe it!) we have not taken a SINGLE picture of the four of us together. next time any of you who reads this blog is with the four of us...will you please take a picture of the four of us?!
  
• figure out what to do for k's 2nd birthday - uh...it's in 3.5 weeks and we don't have a solid plan. what i do know is that we'll be keeping it simple!


• figure out m's birth announcements. luckily i timed my kids right so their announcements can act as our new year's card for the year!!!


• figure out what we're doing with's m's corner in the office - yes, that is right...she is not getting a full nursery. we just aren't sure how long we'll be in this house and not willing to give up our whole office, so she gets a corner. the second child is already getting the short stick! if anyone has ideas...let me know. the office is a martini olive green color and i really don't want to paint, so while it's not the ideal color to coordinate with, it's not horrible. oh, she's not getting a crib yet either...so pack and play for her. poor girl! :)

ok, that list could go on and on, but that was not the intention of this post. pumpkin patch pics from this fall - so weird to look at these pictures and see how far we are from that family of three already in just a few short weeks!

our final picture as a family of three!!!

mama & k trudging thru the mud (3 days before giving birth!) & k looking for the perfect pumpkin

dada & k in the field and then on the hay ride back to the farm w/ the pumpkin making a perfect foot rest!

k's favorite part of the whole day - "driving" the tractor & obligatory pile o'pumpkin pic!

carving the pumpkins up with dada!

happy halloween!

40 weeks ago we found out we were having another little one - due on halloween...a little pumpkin baby, our special treat! because kellen would not budge out of me, i anticipated much of the same. not that it was a huge worry for me, but i did think about what we would do if the baby decided to come right around halloween and we ended up being in the hospital. what would halloween look like for our boy...because he's at the perfect age to "get it" this year - or at least have some fun with it and i wanted to be able to experience that with him. i honestly thought that by halloween i'd look as if i had the giant pumpkin inside my belly and i'd waddle around the neighborhood with my boy and his cousins and then we'd have our little one shortly after. i still have to share the whole labor and birth story, but that is for another day. because our little maya arrived 10 days early, we were able to carry one with our long-standing tradition of trick-or-treating with my sister and her kids. kellen had a ball!

he was a little dinosaur (which was my nephew's costume 10 years ago!) he loved showing off his tail and using it as a sword!

the gang - tylre, britain, madison, kellen & maisy. kellen ended up riding his bike and maisers went stroller-treating!

my little miss pumpkin was much too small for even the smallest costume i could find, so she stayed in all snuggled up as the biggest, yet smallest duck fan! oh yeah...the other concern with the oct. 31 due date - the ducks v. usc at autzen stadium. why we had two fall/winter babies to coincide with football season, i'll never know....but it all worked out and aa made it to the game, without having to be on call, to enjoy a huge duck win over usc - 47-20.

and just for fun...here's a look back at our boy last year - my what a difference a year makes in our lives!

my girl's first dress!!!

i can honestly say that i really didn't have a strong preference either way on whether we had a boy or girl and really...i think if there was any preference, i leaned towards having another boy simply because i already had one and i thought the idea of brothers was awesome - or maybe i just didn't want to get my hopes up, since the trend in the gassner family is strongly towards boy! but really, i wasn't longing for a girl. that being said...i'm giddy over my little girl!

i'm sorry, but i know there are cute boys clothes out there...but nowhere near as cute as the girls clothes! and with that...here is my girl's first dress (with pants underneath - it's cold out there people and she doesn't have any body fat!).

brother and sister

so much to catch up on...but for the time being, this will have to do! a few pics of my two babies. after about two hours home, kellen decided he'd like to hold the baby. i swear my heart is melting looking at this picture!

it's not going to be an easy adjustment for any of us, but i'm certain kellen is having the hardest time right now. he'd also like to be a baby...needed to sit in the baby swing all afternoon/evening next to the baby and even tried to climb up onto the nursing pillow when i was about to feed maya! has been crying quite a bit today and even went back to crawling for a little bit. it breaks my heart to think about how he must be feeling and i am trying to not get frustrated with him - because so far (and it's only been like 10 hours home!) he's been the more challenging one! why did i think newborns were so hard the first time around?


the thing that gets me through, is knowing that at the end of this...once everyone is settled and reassured of their place in this family...we've given kellen & maya the greatest gift of all - a sibling - and i'm certain they will be the best of friends.

my boy and his helmet

our neighbor bought a fire helmet for my boy and he enjoys wearing it everywhere...around the house, riding his bike up and down the street, even to trader joes! i think it's pretty cute!