Patiently Waiting...

Fin is patiently waiting for her little playmate to come out and visit her...she's tired of just playing footsie through Darcy's tummy :)

Jingle Bells

Rachel and I purchased a new "Flip" video camcorder with our Christmas money this year and got a chance to try it out at Jack's school program at Best Buy. He did awesome! We were really worried that he would be the one running around, but he stood still and sang his little heart out!

We hope everyone had a safe and Merry Christmas!

Little Helpers

Jacks and Fin have very different ways of helping me with laundry...and I use that "helping" word very loosely. Jacks jumps right in...

And Finners has to ride up in the basket so I can carry two loads at a time.

In the words of Tim Gunn, we "Make it work!"

Baby Fin...Finally!

Here she is, blog world....Our newest addition, Finley Dana.

I know, she was three weeks old on Wednesday....so this is LOOONG overdue. I kept thinking I would blog quick, and then there would be a blowout, or the doorbell would ring, or I would decide I'd rather watch her sleep than get on the computer. And now, like 400 pictures later I feel like where do I even start to put them all up? So I won't....for now anyway. Maybe I'll make a slide show or something one of these days, but then there's Christmas cards.....and staring at her when she sleeps.....

I have gotten a ton of emails and questions, so I'll try to just answer what I can here....

Details, please...

Finley was born on Wednesday, November 25 at 12:18pm. It was the shortest labor ever (at least in my book). I was induced, and started the pitocin at only 9:00 in the morning, so three hours was short compared to the 19 hours I was in labor with Jacks. It was intense, but short none-the-less. She weighed 6 pounds 14 ounces...another little peanut in my book. She now weighs about 8 pounds three weeks later...and she's such a honey.

How did we come up with her name??

First of all, when I sent out a text to let everyone know she was born I said "She's Here! Finley Dana Hove...blah blah" I can't even tell you how many people thought I spelled FINALLY wrong and thought her name was Dana... FINLEY was a name I saw on a blog and I liked it right away. It took a little bit of convincing for Brad since Findley Ohio is a distribution center he deals with, he couldn't get that out of his head (clearly, since that's how he accidentally spelled her name on the birth certificate!) Her middle name, Dana, is the name of my sister who was killed when we were little...I'm so glad we decided to use her name, it has been such a great reminder of how great Dana was and how much she impacted our lives.

Were we thrilled it was a girl?

Shocker of the century...we knew what we were having. We found out right away and decided to keep it a secret. A secret I would NEVER suggest trying to keep from anyone. It was so difficult to keep it a surprise, and we were shocked at how many people ask if you know what you're having. I became a worse liar every time, and was dying to tell people, but I knew it would be more fun if the rest of the world was surprised (even though her girly girly nursery made it worth it for us to decorate!!)

How are we adjusting to life with two babes?

Things are going pretty well. The first week with Jacks home was interesting. Thank GOD my Mom was here to help us out (what would we do without her!?!?!??) We went through some pretty interesting days (like the morning he ripped off her belly button....the good thing is it was ready to come off anyway, she didn't even flinch). The week after, Jacks started a new daycare/preschool and has been adjusting quite well. It's nice that he has something new to talk about every day when he comes home, and Fin is becoming old news to him which is nice, but he still has to know where she is at all times, and has to give her a "kissy" before he does anything. Every day is getting better.

Has she been a good baby?

What a honey she's been...she is such a cuddler, and prefers to be held and cuddled more than anything. She has only had one really crabby day so far, and even though we're trying to get our days and nights figured out, I'm not worried about getting her on a schedule until after the holidays are over...

I'm not sure what else to say, everyone is doing great over here! Let me know what I left out...I'm sure there's something :)

Thanks for all of the visitors, and I'll try to get more pictures up sometime next week...

Brad's Trip to India

I guess this post is past due. There is a reason why I am listed as super dad and not the blogger on our homepage! Rachel will be posting more to date posts very soon.

A little over a month ago, I had an opportunity to take a little trip over to India to work side by side with our off-shore team. It was a very interesting trip and I really got to see how different life is over there. It took a while for my internal clock to adjust to the 10.5 hour difference, but once it did I had no problem working the day shift then returning to my hotel at night to work on the US-day shift.

While I was there I did get a chance to do some brief sight-seeing. I took a day trip to Mysore; which is the second largest city in Karnataka. On the trip I was able to see many things, including a number of temples, tour Mysore palace built in 1912, and visit a bird sanctuary. The day was jam packed with car rides all around the countryside. I saw sugarcane and rice fields, animals on the roads and many, many people!

Overall, I had a great time and it was a once in a lifetime experience. I know Rachel was excited that I made it home in time to great little Fin! Jack was also very excited to meet me at the airport.

-Brad

What We're Thankful For...

I'm sure everyone that reads this already knows that on Wednesday, our little girl was born. We feel so blessed to have such a great little family, and these two munchkins are definitely what we were thankful for this year.

I will post a better blog all about Finley later, but I had to get this picture up. Jess made the hats (and Jacks told her what he was thankful for...Fin we just guessed!)

I hope you had as great of a Thanksgiving as we did!

Hmmmm....

I am so tired I can't even think of a title for this post, how sad is that!? Oh well. Last night Darcy came over to celebrate my due date. I wish she was coming over to celebrate a baby, but either way was fun. We decided we had to take one last picture of the two of us pregnant together. It has been so fun to share this time with her, and before we know it her little one will be here too!! (Although she'll probably feel like me at that point!)

Little Mr. Show-Off

Jacks loves Darcy...he always asks for me to go away so they can play just the two of them!

And his newest game is to pretend he's a baby...hmmm...wonder why!?

After Darcy left, we went to the mall to pick up our stockings that were supposed to be done at 5:00, and when we got there the guy said he hadn't even started them yet! I needed to get some walking in (trying ANYTHING to get labor started...) and to burn some time, Brad and Jacks went in a photo booth. Neither one of us thought they would turn out, but they ended up being adorable....

It turned out to be a fun night - I guess it wasn't such a bad thing baby decided not to join us quite yet!

Back to the Neb

We're back to nebbing Jacks. Every winter we dread the wheeze that comes along with it, and he really hates it. You would think he would eventually get used to it, but NOPE!

He would much rather do things like this with it instead... :)

Out with the Old

We got new carpet this weekend. We were told it wouldn't be in until December 4th, so we were pumped to find out it was here early and before baby!!

Jacks loved ripping the carpet out with Brad. And having an empty room apparently means it's a wrestling room. It was a lot of fun! We love the new carpet - and the best part, if it gets stained now, it's OUR stains....major bonus!

Definitely D-Day

Today is my due date....and no baby. Not even a hard contraction as of yet...

Someone once told me not having your baby on your due date is kind-of like it being your birthday but everyone forgot. It's supposed to be the "big day", right? I honestly am not surprised after being late with Jacks, but I was hoping I would have baby today....maybe tomorrow??

Since this will probably be my last pregnancy I figured I should take a picture to remember how big I was....although I'm pretty sure I never want to remember :)

Making Daddy Proud

At the mall last weekend, the boys and I split up so I could do some last-minute running around before Baby comes. When we met up again, Brad showed me this picture.

Apparently when Brad asked if Jacks wanted his picture taken with the ladies, he jumped up, threw his arms around them and smiled. That's Daddy's boy...

First Snowman

This morning, Jacks had to take a trip to the doctor, so we had a couple of hours to spend together. When we were talking about what he wanted to do, he wanted to build a snowman. Since there's no snow yet, we made one out of Play Dough.

Come on, use your imagination...this is the creation of a 3-year-old and his artistically-challenged Mom.

Just too comfy...

The other night, half-way getting Jacks dressed for bed...he fell asleep....like this.

He will kill me some day for this one, but it is funny.

Certified Dance Party

Jess and Eric were both busy one night last week and asked us to take the kids. Since we KNOW these get-togethers will soon be hard, we were really excited to take them. When we asked them what they wanted to do, they wanted a dance party...and a dance party they got. We laughed so hard at the kids, and they danced for an hour. An HOUR. They were all pretty sweaty by the time they were done!

When Brad and I were tired just watching them, it was time to wind down...and what better than Jack's favorite book. These kids make our hearts smile every time we have them all together (well, MOST times...Jack acts like a sibling to them, so you know how that can go...)

Girls Weekend

Last weekend, the girls were pretty home sick (I mean, how can you NOT miss us here!?) so they both decided to drive down for a girl's weekend. We had so much fun. Friday we had dinner, Saturday we shopped all day (and my feet certainly could prove all the walking around) and Saturday night our Mom came for dinner. It was so much fun - we're so glad they came!!

The pictures are pretty funny. Tate decided he was going to take the pictures for us, and he did a great job on the one of all of us above. He wanted to take one of just me, so this is the first one he took. He said he had covered the flash and didn't like it so he wanted to take another one....

And THISSSSSSSSSSSSS is what he took. HOLY HANNAH. Thanks a lot, Tater. Mr. 5-year-old thought it was hilarious, so I didn't delete it. Instead I guess I'm sharing my HUGE belly with the world. But I guess it will be a reminder some day of why I thought I was going to go into labor last weekend...

37 Weeks, and Time for Photoshop

37 Weeks...

What do I say? I'm pretty much ready. I have been getting hot flashes (this never happened with Jacks...I think I was just constantly a hot-box with him) and my face was so red in this picture I had to turn it to black and white. I wish I could photoshop myself a bit thinner, but alas...not gonna happen. Reality check I guess! When Brad got back from India I asked him (why, I'm not sure....) if I got bigger while he was gone, and his reply was "Well, you look..................due." You've got to love a man that breaks it to you gently. :)

It's starting to hit me that soon we'll have two kids. I know everyone tells you that your life will be not twice as hard and crazy, but like 10 times harder, and I just hope we're ready for it! We have some baby things sitting out now to get Jacks used to the fact that he can't climb into everything, and it might be working. Sunday, there were about 3 time-outs for climbing in the baby seat, and today he hasn't even paid attention to it.

My doctor says the reason women are ready to give birth is because of their last month, and I pretty much agree. Three weeks and counting, and if I didn't want this baby to cook a little bit longer, I would say bring it on tomorrow...this Mama is ready!! All joking aside, I do want the baby to hang out in there as long as it can, but I think everyone that's had a baby knows what I'm talking about :)

What the Wild Thing Was

This year for Halloween, Jacks and I had MANY discussions about what he was going to be. It took a long time, but we finally agreed upon "Max" from the book "Where the Wild Things Are". He hasn't seen the movie (and I think it is still too scary for him, so he probably won't) but he LOVES reading the book. Here is a picture from the book...

And my real-life Max...

It turned out pretty cute, and it was nice and warm - perfect for a Minnesota Halloween! We started our day driving out to visit Gigi and Grandpa, Grandma Lois, the Newman's, and then the farm.

He doesn't hand out hugs very often - but Grandpa Keith was lucky to get one!

Here are all of the kiddos...I love the Cat in the Hat and his "Things"!

When we got back, Jacks and I both took a nap, and then it was off for more trick-or-treating. Darcy met Jacks at the door looking like a spider...and he LOVED it!

Then it was off to walk the streets. Here is Max saying "BE STILL" just like the book. Brad and Jacks read the book pretty often (he doesn't like me to read it because I don't do it right...) and he knows just what to say to sound like Max.

Here is the crew we went out with...

Jacks did a great job walking. he got a little tired at times, and asked to be carried a couple of times, but he was a trooper!

Beckers needed to rest his feet too...

We had such a great time. Everyone was cold and ready to be done by the end of the night, so we went back to Kelley and Gary's for some hot chocolate and popcorn (and drinks for those that could actually partake!) while the kids played. It's going to be so much different next year when we have a baby with us...I think one of us may have to stay home to hand out candy!

A pirate, really!?

Last week, we finally got around to carving our pumpkins. We decided it's much more fun for Jacks to watch than it was to try and carve out the designs he chose for us! Jacks doesn't like the feeling of a lot of things with his sensory stuff, so it was hilarious to watch him try to touch the guts of the pumpkins, but he at least tried and that's all we ask!

Here's how they turned out. He picked a witch for Brad, and a pirate skull for me. Doesn't he know I don't like pirates!? I sawed off the nose and couldn't get it back on right, but everything else turned out OK!

I'm not quite sure why, but Jacks insisted on making this face when I took the picture...maybe he was acting scared? Who knows....

Halloween pics coming soon!

Daddy's Home!!

We had been looking forward to this day. Some may not think two weeks is a very long time, but with a MUCH more active boy than his 8-months-pregnant Mommy, two weeks can feel pretty stretched out. We had a really good time, and tried to do as many activities as we could to keep us both busy, but we still struggled a bit with Brad being gone. Jack went through an angry stage, where he wouldn't even talk to Brad on the phone, but we knew he would be excited to see him when he finally got back home.

Friday night, we made Brad's favorite cake to get ready for him to come home...

I don't have a picture of it, but Jacks ran about 50 yards once he caught a glimpse of Brad at the other end of the airport. I have to admit I cried. Seeing him running full speed ahead yelling "DAAAAADDDDYYYYY!" was pretty awesome. And it felt like everything was going to just be better having Daddy back home.

Jacks helped Brad with all of his luggage...

So excited to see Daddy!

I mean, can you tell he didn't want him to leave again!? He insisted on riding the suitcase on the way to the car.

YAY! Daddy's HOME! Now no more trips until Baby Hove arrives.

fARRRRRgo

Last weekend, since Brad was still away, we went to Fargo to visit Kas. I had full expectations that the majority of our time would be spent swimming, but it was even more than I thought. Jacks had a great time, although LOTS of swimming, and NOT so much sleep took a toll on all of us!

The first night we got there, before we even had dinner we spent 2 hours in the pool!

And here is why...they had a big pirate ship with slides, so Jacks was in heaven! I love that you can see Kasey's head from the hot tub in this pic...

My Mom took the trip with us, and it was so nice to have her there. I tried to keep up with Jacks as much as I could, but it was great to have some help!!

This makes me laugh...this was how we all felt all weekend. Jacks jumping as hard as he could, and us shielding ourselves from the aftermath! He did a great job swimming, and really didn't need much help, but he still makes me nervous since he has NO FEAR.

Another one of his favorites...the ENORMOUS popsicles they had by the pool. Kid cracks me up.

When we weren't jumping in the pool, we were jumping in the room!!

We took a quick trip to the mall, and for the first time ever, Jacks REQUESTED a picture. He wanted one with Grandma by the Bison.

But soon after, he had obviously had enough pictures...."Please, Grandma....no more".

We had a great time. We just wish Kas (and Kip) lived closer so it was easier to visit!