Road Trip...Part I

On Friday, the boys and I decided to make a last minute trip to Hickory for the day. GG was still in town, Oma and Opa were both coming home early, and Aunta and the girls were also coming up for a visit. We just couldn’t miss out. So, I packed up the boys and drove to Hickory for the day while Brian went to work.

The boys did GREAT in the truck the entire time. Lucas only got fussy once to which Isaac requested that I “turn him down, he’s too loud”! But then a minute later, Isaac was singing twinkle twinkle and Lucas was calming down. I will admit that I’d forgotten how your arm burns when you’ve got it twisted behind you holding a pacifier in a little one’s mouth while driving with the other hand! It was all worth it though. Lucas made his debut in Hickory and we had a very nice, although abbreviated visit!

Just hanging out

Madeline and Isaac in their “cage”

Lucas meets Neenie (my “adopted” grandma)

Isaac and Madeline playing Ralph’s piano

(Ralph was my “adopted” grandpa, he past away 4 years ago Friday. It warmed my heart seeing Anna and I’s kids playing his piano. I could just see his smile.I wish they could have known him.)

Hangin Out

Tuesday afternoon Isaac and Lucas spent some quality time together watching Isaac’s favorite tv show…Frosty the Snowman! Don’t they look like they’re having fun?

4 Little Munchkins!

It’s not often that we can get the four kids to sit still together and pose for a picture. It took some effort, but here they are all together and mostly happy (see my sister’s blog for more background on the set up of this photo!)

They don’t make them any cuter than these 4!!

Baptism

On Saturday, we baptized Lucas at our church in Wake Forest. Our family and friends all joined us for the big occasion. Lucas looked so cute in his brand new baptism outfit that Oma and Opa bought for him. It was nice and warm and he fell asleep shortly after arriving at church.

With an infant, you always wonder how they’ll react to the water on the head thing especially considering Lucas is not yet all that fond of bath time! He slept through it all though and didn’t even squirm when Pastor Wagner put the water on his head.

The service was beautiful and it was great to have everyone there to celebrate with. It, of course, turned into a family photo opportunity before we went off to dinner. Here are the family pics from the day…

With Pastor Wagner

With Oma & Opa

With Aunta, Uncle Mark, Madeline & Audrey

The Whole Slivensky Family (including GG)

With Nana & Boppa

A Visit With GG

GG (My Dad's Mother) came to visit this week from Michigan. We are all so excited to have her visit. She flew in on Wednesday night which just happened to be her birthday. The kids had everything ready for her...banner, flowers, a special cake, and even a cool handmade placemat! They practiced singing "Happy Birthday GG!" all the way to the airport to pick her up, and as soon as GG got in the truck they sang it to her perfectly!

It has been so cute watching the kids show GG all their toys and making her play all their fun games. Today we ventured to Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh. I think GG had as much fun as the kids.

Audrey & Lucas in the wagon...

The mailman...

The cutest little hockey player ever...

Let's go surfing...

Making crafts...GG taught Madeline to use scissors!

GG's favorite toy...the lemon/lime elevator...

We've had such a good time during the first few days of GG's visit. We absolutely love having her here. We're so glad we have a couple days left before she heads to Hickory and Gastonia for the remainder of her visit.

Lucas - Week 2

I can't believe that Lucas is already 2 weeks old!! We've had another big week, but here are a couple of pictures from this week.

First ride on the swings!

Hanging out with Big Brother's Friends!

Sleepy Time

Lucas and His Big Brother...best friends already.

Big Brother

Isaac's first task as big brother was to announce the arrival of his baby brother or sister to the family. As many of you know, Brian and I chose not to find out if we were having a boy or girl and not to reveal the names that we had chosen. To make the suspense a little more torturing, we wanted Isaac to be the one to make the big announcement. So, Oma, Opa, Nana, Boppa, Aunta, Madeline, Audrey, Ra-Ra, and Cindy all waited in the waiting room while Brian brought Isaac back to meet his new sibling. When he was ready, Brian took Isaac back out to the waiting room where he made his big announcement. I hate I missed out on it, because he did a wonderful job!! But here's the video (his new favorite video) of how it all went down...

In case you can't tell due to the quality of the video, he pulls a blue, "It's a Boy!", cigar out of his pocket! He did such a good job!

Soccer

A few weeks ago we made a trip to the Factory in Wake Forest to let Isaac play at Jumping Beans. While we were there he saw some kids playing soccer and told us that he wanted to play. We looked into the winter schedule and found that they offered classes for 2 year olds on Saturday mornings. We registered him for a trial class on Saturday morning to let him go and see how he liked it. He talked about it all day Friday and was SO excited to go play soccer. On Saturday, I woke up to a little dragon breath boy in my face at 7am asking "mommy can I play soccer now?".

His class was at 10am and we got there a little bit early. Daddy got to participate in class with him. When we got there he immediately ran right out on the field and ran around smiling and kicking the ball with his daddy. It was so cute. I'm glad I took some pictures.

He seemed to be a natural...that is until the organized class started. Brian said as soon as they told them to sit down on the dots that Isaac was done. He wasn't there to sit, afterall, he was there to kick the soccer balls people. He did participate in stretching but then they proceeded to play a bunch of juvenile little games (none which involved a soccer ball) and Isaac just got more and more annoyed an upset. Brian was a real trooper putting up with little Mr. Attitude, I probably would have rung his neck had I been out there. He spent most of the "class time" with his hands in his pants and a big frown on his face. I really don't blame him though, they didn't touch a soccer ball during the whole official class...I was not impressed.

This is a picture of Isaac just before he checked out...

He sure was cute and he said he had fun. Maybe by next year he'll be old enough to go to a class where they actually play with the soccer ball like he was hoping for!

Family of Four

Brian had this week off for paternity leave, so the four of us spent the week together learning to be a family of four. I'd be lying if I said a lot of it hasn't been exhausting...with a two year old that goes full throttle all day and an infant whose favorite time to be awake seemed to be between 2 and 4 AM!! But it's been a good week and we've all gotten adjusted. Even Lucas has started to readjust his schedule for us...last night he slept from 12:30 to 5:45. Hopefully that's going to become his new routine!!


Lucas made two trips to the doctor this week to have his weight checked...when we left the hospital Saturday he weighed 8 lbs 4 oz. On Monday, he was up to 8lbs 9.5 oz and by Thursday he was up to 8lbs 12.5 oz. He's a super good eater!! He also made a couple of trips this week with his first visits to Chick-fila, Walmart, and Target. He slept through all three of them!

Isaac has gotten very good at his roll as big brother. He wasn't sure about sharing the attention at first, but he's come around quickly even bragging to a man at Walmart who stopped to take a peak at Lucas in his car seat "that's my brother Lucas!". He has come to understand that Lucas hates to have his diaper changed and cries when he's hungry. Last night just after we put Isaac to bed, Lucas started crying. From his bed Isaac yells, "mommy what's the matter with Lucas?" to which I answer "nothing honey, he's just fussy". After a few more minutes of crying Isaac yells from his bed "mommy feed Lucas!!" All I could do was laugh...he's a smart little man that's for sure!

What a week and what an adventure having two little boys is going to be!! I'm looking forward to all of it and cherishing every moment along the way. It's not always going to be easy...but look at these two sweet little boys. How did I get so lucky?

Bird Bath

Isaac helped us give Lucas his first bird bath on Monday night. Isaac enjoyed it much more than Lucas did!

Hanging out with the Boys

Ever since I can remember, I've been the tomboy that hangs out with the boys. So, I think it's only appropriate that now that I'm all grown up and having kids that I'm surrounded by a house full of boys!


The boys at breakfast...Lucas even joined them!

Watching cartoons with my babies...

Isaac's "Sleep Train" - he has a GREAT imagination!

Dr. Isaac in his pluto hat checking out his baby brother!

Cousins

Isaac and his cousin Madeline are 3 months and 1 day apart in age. By the time Madeline was born, Isaac was HUGE in comparison. We took these pictures in the hospital when Madeline was born...they've been best friends since day one!

So now the second set of cousin best friends. Lucas and his cousin Audrey are 6 months and 1 day apart in age. When Lucas got home from the hospital, we made sure to take the same picture of the two of them. Audrey doesn't quite outsize Lucas like Isaac did Madeline! These two are destined to be best buddies too!

Our Littlest Munchkin

Just a couple of pics of Lucas from the last few days.