Sleep.....Oh how I've missed you

Well I'm sure it is just a fluke, but I'll take it. The last 2 nights Bella has slept through the night. 10:00pm until 7:00am. And it was every bit of wonderful that I thought it would be. I haven't had a full night sleep in a year. Pregnancy doesn't allow you to sleep through the night because of the need to pee every 5 seconds and obviously a newborn needs to eat every few hours so no sleep then too. But I've been looking forward to the day when I wake up in the morning and realize that I didn't get up at all during the night, and when that happened the other morning, it was heaven. (after checking to make sure Bella was still breathing:) I have no doubt that because of the mere fact that I am writing about this, tonight she will be up every 2 hours, but that's ok because I have now gotten 2 full nights of sleep!

I think Bella's sleeping through the night may be because of this...

She has followed in her brother's footsteps and has now become a thumb sucker. Which I am very happy about. Right after I had Bella and they laid her on my tummy, the first thing she did was suck her thumb, I thought from then on out she was going to be a thumb sucker. But the first 6 weeks she didn't suck her thumb again. Then she started trying to find it and would just suck on the knuckle on her thumb because everytime she put her thumb in her mouth she would gag. Then this weekend, she found it, and liked it, and now everytime she is tired, there goes the thumb. So I think when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she is now able to put her thumb in her mouth and put herself back to sleep! Yeah! Let's just hope that she will be able to break the habbit before she goes to school, unlike Connor who is still sucking his thumb.

A baby sucking their thumb is just the cutest thing to me. Eveytime I see her do it, it just makes me smile :)

Just some pics for you

Here's a few shots I've taken of the kiddos this past week. I apologize for the unorganization of the pictures. I uploaded them under the wrong setting.

Leyla loves Bella, and will do anything to get to her, on her, and ahold of her. She will crawl across the room to get to her, and I even caught her pulling herself to stand up for the first time, just to get closer to Bella.

Up close with Bella.

Daddy with the kiddos right after he came home from ND.

Bella and I

My Camo Kids

Whats for dinner tonight?

Well Ben has been home a whole week and already he's left us again. It's hunting season so I should expect it. He's up at the cabin, hopefully bringing home some "buck" to fill up the freezer for the year. (Connor calls any kind of red meat buck. If we want him to eat something, we just tell him it is buck and he'll chow it down)

Anyways, when Ben's gone on the weekends, Connor and I head to town and rent some movies and then go to the DQ for some ice cream. Connor had his ice cream finished by the time we got home and he then decided he was still hungry and he asked if he could have a "nola bar" aka granola bar. Why not i said. So he grabs a nola bar and then 2 pieces of bread, puts it together and says, "Mom, I'm having a nola bar sandwich!" He thought it was the greatest thing. He chowed it down. The next morning he woke up and had the same thing for breakfast.

So now when I ask him what he wants to eat, it's always a Nola Bar Sandwich. MMM yum!

Enjoying his Nola Bar Sandwich

And yes, that's a chocolate chip granola bar, sandwiched between 2 pieces of everything italian bread.

SURPRISE!

So about an hour ago my doorbell rang. I was thinking it's probably someone selling something but.....little did I know I was about to get the best surprise ever! I went to the door opened it up, and guess who it was......My husband! Ben came home a day early and surprised us! I was so excited, and Connor was even more excited. The only thing that sucks is that I got nothing done that I had planned to do before he got home. The house is a mess, the laundry needs to be folded, and I had planned on having apple crisp ready for him when he got home. Oh well, he's here, that's what matters. And I just took the apple crisp out of the oven. Life is good. There may be a delay in posts for awhile as we take some much needed quality family time together!
It's a happy day, thanks for all your prayers :)

Look Alike

The other day when I was done giving Bella a bath, I looked at her wrapped up in her towel and thought, "this looks just like a picture I took of Connor." So I found the picture I had taken of Connor wrapped up in his bathrobe and here it is. If you ask me, they look like twins.

Too Cute!

No more rain!

Please pray that Pick City, ND gets no more rain this week! As long as there is no more rain or bad weather there, Ben should be done with job and able to come back Wednesday. But if the rain continues he'll have to stay longer to get the job done. And let me tell you, we are SO ready for him to be home. In the last 8 weeks that he's been gone, he's been home 2 times. As hard as it has been for me to be alone with 2 kids for that length of time, I can't complain because I've been able to be with them. I've been able to see how Bella has grown in the last 2 months, her first smiles, the way she lights up when she sees Connor, how she now loves to sit up and tries to do so on her own. I've also been able to be there for Connor's first day of school, I've seen him now learn to write his name...nicely, I'm here for his first girlfriend (that's right, my 4 year old has a girlfriend, who he says is pretty cute, and gives him hugs, and gets all excited when they see eachother first thing in the morning). But I've been here with them, living through all there accomplishments, while Ben has been in ND working for us, not being able to see these things, and only being able to hear about them over the phone. So I can't say that it sucks for me as much as I know it sucks for him to be away and not be able to see these things. So if you get a chance, please pray that he'll be home for good this week. We miss him and it's time he comes home to us and experience these things himself! Thanks a bunch.

Hopeful daddy count down.....aprox. 4 days

Addiction

Last weekend my cousin Teri came over to teach me how to knit. It as now become my obsession. Every free second I get, I'm knitting. Just can't get enough of it. I started out making dishclothes and now I've moved on to hats. Here's a couple of hats that I've made for Bella already. Warning: If you'll be getting any gifts from me, there's a pretty good chance that it will be something that I've knitted. Sorry in advance! But it is just too much fun.

Thank you so much Teri for teaching me how to knit!

Girls

My cousin Shauna had a baby girl (Maya) exactly one week before Bella was born. Here's a couple pics of the girls together. Bella is pretty bald compared to Maya's full head of hair :)

And my Grandma Toots with Bella.

Go Pack Go

Connor and Bella are ready to cheer on the Packers tomorrow for the Packer/Viking game. In Connor's words "GO PACK GO!"