The past week or two in pictures....and Happy New Year!

We've been pretty busy in the O house. Having two kids is just a smidge more difficult than one. Just a smidge. Okay, I am lying-it's a lot more difficult. I barely have time to check my e-mail, let alone respond to them and update this blog.

The good news is that Alex is doing better at sleeping. He is sleeping by himself for a couple hours at a time which is great. Last week he would only sleep for extended periods of time on us which makes it a bit difficult to get things done. He's more alert every day and his favorite past time is staring at the ceiling fan and watching his big sister. Oh yes, and eating. This little man loves to eat, the exact opposite of Sydney. He still squeaks and is a little loud at times. I never realized how quiet Sydney was as a baby until I heard Alex cry for the first time. Wowzers, indicator that he will be a loud child one day? Maybe.

Sydney is doing really well with Alex. Last week she was asking if we could leave him at home while we ran errands, but this week she is asking to bring him everywhere-definitely a good sign. She loves to help and is doing very well at being patient while mommy and daddy tend to Alex. She has also been working on her whistling and she is doing it! There are some real whistles coming out of her which is impressive. She has been getting into some mischief too. She put small pieces of kleenex up her nose to get the boogies (in her words) and after attempts at blowing them out and even using tweezers, I had to resort to having my three year old pick her nose to get them out. Nice. She gave her baby doll a toothpaste bath (her head is still sticky) and she broke her Dora umbrella day two when she sat in it while open so she could drive her "car." Luckily daddy fixed it. Okay so nothing major but definitely a new thing for her. She's pretty sneaky!

These were taken when Alex was nine days old-he's changed so much already! Man he has good hair. My kids have definitely been blessed with the good hair genes. Thank you Papa!

Think they look alike?
So cute, they're even holding hands
Check out Alex's face! He's totally smiling at one week old and showing off his dimples. So cu-ute!
We had so much snow the past two weeks, and this wasn't the worst of it! It snowed more after this. My four wheel drive SUV even got stuck on our little hill. No good right before Christmas!
Check out Frosty the snowman!
Our house

Anthony's Ferrari. Hey it could be, you'd never know if it was (or wasn't!)

Making Christmas cookies with daddy
Alex meeting his new friend Annika, who is six weeks older than him. Alex wasn't in the mood to meet new friends and cried pretty much the whole time. Apparently Annika found the crying to be soothing and passed out shortly later.

And with that I wish everyone a Happy New Year! 2009 has been good to us. Our family is now complete and during the wee hours in the night I've had plenty of time to reflect on how truly lucky I am. Not only do I have two great kids and an amazing hubby who is the most wonderful dad, but I have fabulous friends and family who make me happy. I have a house, two nice cars (hey, I'm a car girl), I get to stay at home with my kiddos every day and really, everything I always dreamed I would have when I reached my thirties. I really am blessed and I don't always take the time to realize how truly lucky I am. May everyone have a blessed New Year.

Our Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. We celebrated Christmas eve with my dad's side of the family at dad and Kay's house. We started the day off with bowling, definitely a fun tradition for us. The kids love it! Okay, and the adults too. It was fun for everyone to meet Alex and Sydney was spoiled with a pile of gifts she received from great aunties and cousins. Somehow I forgot my camera ( I know!) so I have no pictures. Believe me though, it was a fun time had by all.

Christmas morning was the best yet! Sydney understands the whole Santa thing so she was so excited to see what Santa would bring her. We left cookies, carrots and milk out for Santa and the reindeer the night before, along with a thank you letter. It was fun to see the crumbs Santa and the reindeer left, and Santa even wrote a message back to Sydney! The phrase of this year's Christmas is, "That's exactly what I wanted!" Sydney excitedly used this phrase upon opening her Dora fishing pole from Papa and Nana and her Dora umbrella from Santa. Yes, we did contribute to Dora's record profits again during this gift giving opportunity. My child has more Dora than I have blog posts...seriously.

Alex hung out with daddy and in his swing while we opened gifts and let out an excited "squeak" while we opened his gifts for him. He was pretty excited about this Christmas too. Sydney was a bit disappointed she didn't get to see Santa on Christmas eve, but there's always next year I say. Speaking of next year, she is already making up her list of what she wants from Santa next year. She wants a puppy-a real one. Although her puppy of choice is red with pink polka dots.

Anyway, enough with the wine induced rambling (my first glass in 10 months, happy new year to me!)

Sydney's gifts from Santa-a Dora umbrella and a Dora bike!
My sweet blessings
We had our first white Christmas in 18 years!
Opening presents!
Sydney loves her new Dora robe...I wasn't kidding about the all Dora Christmas.
A gift for Sydney and daddy-love the Muppet Show!
Alex with his blue froggy from auntie Alisa, although we call it his cookie monster. He loves this thing, and held onto it for quite a while

Sydney wondering what to open next

This was actually week two of the snow so although we were getting tired of it, we knew it'd be disappearing soon and we had to take advantage of the sleds Papa brought over. Beats sliding down the hill on cardboard!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas with the fam

This weekend we braved the snow and headed up north to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family. The roads were a bit tricky on Sunday and we saw quite a few cars in the ditch on the drive up and down. I will admit-not a fan of driving in the snow so I was a bit nervous. Luckily Anthony is an expert (ish.)
We just don't see this family often enough and we always have a great time at our get togethers.

Pictures from our day...
My brother Trevor, Sydney, Anthony and my cousin Kristy
My cousins Molly and Mical
Nana with Alex and Sydney
Kristy and Cheryle
Kay, moi, Cheryle, Cheryl, Kristy and Char
Sydney and my uncle Craig, who Sydney called "Uncle Greg." Yes, she's a little in love with Greg, can you tell?
Trev, me and Kristy
This is the moment where my bro decided he wanted kids. Okay, totally kidding. I wish though!
My cousin Molly had never held a baby before. Alex won her over-he slept for an hour on her.
Kay, my dad and aunt Cheryl
All the fun wore Sydney out. She passed out on Nana before we left.

Snow day!

Yesterday we woke up to four inches of snow! I don't know who was more excited, Sydney or Anthony. Okay, so probably Sydney. She loves the snow and since we only get snow once or twice a year (and sometimes not at all) it's a big event here.

Making a snowman with daddy
The finished product-Sydney is so proud of "Frosty."
Giving the snowman a hug
The street didn't have much snow on it so Anthony and Sydney decided to slide down the front yard
Wheee!
And the cutest little man in the world, otherwise known as "Squeaky boy." He squeaks a lot, especially when he cries.

Sydney's favorite toy is her cones. She runs around them every night, and her and Anthony have a good time making up fun games out of them. Here is Alex getting in on the cone action...


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

We're going good!

Everyone is doing great in the O house. Alex is such a good baby. He's not a fan of being changed (he dislikes being cold) but other than that he only cries when he is hungry, needs to be burped or is requesting a diaper change. He's already been holding his head up a little bit and even semi-smiled at Sydney this morning. He loves to stare at her, it's really sweet.

He's sleeping about 21 hours a day, and his favorite place to sleep is on daddy. Last night he slept for nearly six hours in a row on Anthony! It was four hours the night before. Holy moly. Now if only he would sleep that well in his bed.

Here's what we've been up to since Tuesday when we came home from the hospital...

Tuesday was Anthony's birthday so we celebrated with Mam-o's homemade cupcakes. Sydney ate three cupcakes-well, licked the frosting off of three. Here she is double fisting the cupcakes.
Opening a birthday present from Mam-o. I didn't get a chance to get a present for Anthony, but lucky for me he considers Alex the best birthday gift ever. Phew! ;) Mam-o and Alex
We're all a little sleep deprived at the O house
Helping feed Alex. Alex is mostly breastfed but we have been supplementing a bit with formula. Perfect solution for a few uninterrupted hours of sleep for me.Alex's first bath at home! Sydney was so excited to help with Alex's bath. She's such a great sister.
Sydney picked out the pink bunny rabbit towel for Alex for his first bath. This was actually Sydney's first bath towel too!

Not sure if he was crying because he was cold or because he was wearing a pink bunny towel... Sydney was so excited to brush Alex's hair. Check out how blonde it is!!
Big sis and little bro