April 2016

April was a wonderful month.  We celebrated Joey turning two, and continued to get to know our sweet new addition.  Here's about April:

Neal was hired to design three shows over the summer.  He loves summertime because his full-time job slows down enough for him to be able to pick up side jobs doing what he really loves.  We're also super excited because these three jobs (baring any unforeseen emergencies) will pay enough to pay off ALL OUR DEBT EXCEPT OUR HOUSE.  We are SUPER excited about this!!!

I continued to adjust to life with two kids.  I finally started enjoying breastfeeding again (I've hated the first month with both boys), and gave up on having a solid bedtime for Joey over the summer (which is a big deal for me).  I'm still eternally grateful for the opportunity to stay home with these boys every day and to get to be their mommy.  I'm also eternally grateful for the knowledge I have of my Savior and of His Atonement.  It's been a rough couple months in other areas of my life (things that aren't my story to tell, but have affected me), and Neal and my Savior are what have been getting me through it.  I never cease to be amazed at the strength He will send when I need it and when I ask.

Joey has developed into the sweetest older brother I could have asked for.  He loves being around his brother, helping him (sometimes his "helping" causes terror for Hunter and mommy has to step in), and watching him.  We're grateful that the sun started coming out so Joey could play outside and get some fresh air.  His vocabulary grew by leaps and bounds, and each day we were amazed when he would say new words we didn't know that he knew.

Hunter is adjusting to life.  He was diagnosed with reflux at the end of the month, so we got some "Baby Zantac" for him.  Three hours after we gave him the first dose, he smiled at us for the first time.  He also has a Milk-Soy Protein Intolerance (aka Cow's Milk Protein Intolerance).  His only symptom has been that he gets REALLY fussy the day after I eat milk, so hopefully he'll grow out of it quickly.

We did some really fun things as a family in April:

- We celebrated Joey's birthday by eating a yummy cake and giving him garden tools and play food.  I still can't believe he's two (in case you hadn't noticed).

- We went to "Baby Animal Days" at Centennial Museum.  They have all sorts of baby animals that the kids can look at and pet if they'd like (and if the animals cooperate).  Joey loved the pigs - he kept asking to go back and see them.  The day we were there they also had horse rides.  After Joey's first ride he kept asking to go back because he loved it so much.  I think we got a taste of how much he's going to love Idaho when we go up this summer!

- We had Hunter's baby blessing and Joey's second birthday party on the same day. (I'll do another post with the pictures of this later...there's A LOT).

- Murdoch's has an anniversary sale every year, and this year they had a 25 cent BBQ.  The proceeds all go to a local non-profit, so we went there for lunch one day.

Other fun pictures:

March 2016

Now that we have two kiddos, I'm going to start doing monthly updates for our whole family.  I'm sure Hunter will give me a hard time about the fact that Joey got special posts each month for his first two years and he didn't, but he'll have to deal with it ;)

March was a really crazy, fun month - mostly because we added a new member to our family!  Hunter was born on March 6th.  To read about that click here.

Neal: Neal has been working incredibly hard.  He started serving at the Candlelight again so that we can eliminate our debt as fast as possible.  He's been a rockstar when he's been home, though.  I've been having a hard time keeping up with housework, and Neal has picked up the slack on that.  

Amanda: I'm doing a lot better postpartum-wise this time around.  Looking back, I realize that after Joey was born I had postpartum anxiety, and that I was borderline postpartum depression.  I was worried about the same thing this time. But I'm doing much better this time - physically, mentally, and emotionally.  Adjusting to two has been rough, but we've had lots of wonderful support.

Joey: Read about Joey here.

Hunter: You can read about Hunter's birth story here. Hunter had a rough start.  Between the bruising on his face from birth and his size, his bilirubin levels were very high, so he ended up on a Bilibed for a few days.  We had to supplement with formula until my milk came in (my milk comes in late, which doesn't help). We called him the "Neon Ninja."  Other than that he's just been eating, sleeping, and peeing!

As a family, we celebrated the Resurrection of our Savior on Easter.  We went to dinner at Neal's aunt's house.  Other than that, we pretty much just spent our entire month adjusting to the new little boy in our family :-)

Joey's TWO!!

My sweet baby - the one who made me a mother for the first time - is two years old.

Time is flying.

- The biggest event of Joey's March was becoming a big brother.  He is an INCREDIBLE big brother.  He has loved on Hunter since the moment they met.  One of his favorite things to do is hold Hunter.

- He rode the horse at King Soopers for the first time.  We've been trying to get him to ride the horse for a while, but he has always refused - wanting off the minute the horse started moving.  Then one day, he stayed on and didn't ask to get off right away.  We were proud of him.

- We spent a lot of time with grandparents in March.  Joey loved having special time with them.

- We dyed Easter eggs.  I loved seeing Joey's excitement and wonder as the eggs went into the water white and came out a different color.

- We celebrated Easter.  We did a small Easter egg hunt in the morning, Neal and Joey went to church, and then we went to Neal's aunt's house for dinner.  It was a very low key, enjoyable day.

- Joey's done really well at entertaining himself while I'm taking care of Hunter.  His independence is increasing, and so is his confidence.

- Joey's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds.  He is putting together 3-4 word sentences, and his comprehension is astounding to me.

We love this sweet boy and are so grateful that he's a part of our family!

Joey - 23 months

I'm honestly in denial that I will have a two year old in under a month. As we were walking out of the hospital with Hunter, I found myself thinking about all of the incredible things that have happened in the last two years, and how it feels like such a short amount of time.

- We had a Superbowl party with my family.  Joey loved having so much family over, and cheered for the Broncos.  My dad taught him to lift up his arms every time he said "Go Broncos."  He grinned every time we cheered for him.

- We also learned that night that he has learned "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam" in nursery.  He would jump and lift his arms above his head every time we said "sunbeam."

- We had a Family Home Evening about temples, and we built a temple out of Joey's blocks.  Ever since then he begs us to build a temple with his blocks.

- As a reward for Joey doing his chores, we took him up to Estes Park to see a train show.  He was enamored by all of the moving trains.  They had an area that kids could push buttons to make different trains move - I think that was his favorite part.  So we went to the train show, had lunch, and then walked down by the river for a little bit.

- Joey helped get the baby's room ready.  He was such a big helper getting everything ready for the baby.  I feel so grateful that he was so chill during the last month of my pregnancy.  He would help in any way I asked and when I told him I needed to relax, he would do things that we could do sitting down together.

- It started to get a lot warmer outside, so we spent a LOT of time outside this month and LOVED it

- Joey started doing more pretend play this month.  He loves bringing my stuffed possums downstairs and feeding them.  He "cooks" for them.  We got him fake food for his birthday and I can't wait to give it to him so he can "really" cook.  He also loves pretending to be a robot.  We build a robot costume and he walks around saying "beep-boop." (Thanks to Miss Elaina from Daniel Tiger).

- We went down to Denver to a HUGE volleyball tournament to support Neal's cousin.  Joey enjoyed running around with his cousins during the break.

- Joey loves nursery at church.  All throughout the week, if we bring up church, he asks repeatedly to go to nursery.  He also loves his friend, Pepper, from church.  One week Neal snapped this picture of Joey and Pepper walking to nursery together.

- We spent as much time cuddling on Joey since we knew Hunter would be coming soon.  One of my favorite times of the day is watching Neal and Joey at bedtime.  Joey loves his daddy.

Joey's doing pretty well with adjusting to being a big brother.  The next couple of months will definitely be an adjustment for all of us though.  He's doing well though, and we're looking forward to seeing how the next month goes!