Christmas!

We had a really nice Christmas this year. It was so fun watching Myles open presents and be excited about everything. Both of the boys got well spoiled by Grandparents and Aunties and Uncles. Well, we all did :) Danny's family came down from Oregon so we spent Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with Danny's. It was nice to get to spend time with both of our families.
We got Myles a little bounce house for Christmas (not sure what I was thinking, it doesn't fit anywhere in our house!) We thought he would run out and want to jump on it, but he said "No, I want to open my presents first." Haha!
There were two major highlights for me this Christmas. The first was a few weeks ago. I had been waiting for the right time to tell Myles about the reason that we celebrate Christmas. We had gone to look at Christmas lights and had seen a nativity scene which he knew included baby Jesus. At lunch the next day he said "I saw Jesus last night. Who is Jesus Mommy?" It was a cute innocent moment as we read the nativity story and i explained it all, and he looked at me intently and listened as I read. And then after i was done, he said "let me tell YOU a story, Mommy...." and proceeded to read me three stories in a row with the same enthusiastic voice I had just used. It was priceless.
The second was my gift from Danny. We had gone to New York at the beginning of the month and while we were there we managed to make it to The fifth avenue. I was very excited and really wanted to go to Tiffany&Co. Well, it was Sunday evening so by the time we made our way down fifth ave they were closed. We ran out of time and didn't get to go back.
Christmas morning the last present under the tree was for me. Inside was a little blue box tied with a white ribbon. I opened the box and there was a beautiful silver necklace with a medallion that is esentially four circles intertwined in the center. He told me that the four circles represented the four Men in my life; God, Danny, Myles and Nolan. (Special thanks to Lee for haulin' it all the way back to fifth ave from Jersey! It means a lot to me :)

Deck the halls

We decided to let Myles decorate the tree this year. It was so cute watching him put everything on the tree so carefully. Yes, Myles was careful and meticulous! If you know him, you know that is VERY uncharacteristic of him. He likes to throw things. He put all of the ornaments in one place at the bottom of the tree. We dressed the kids up in their red jammies and had a fun evening of decorating and watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Myles' new favorite movie, go figure. He likes when the Grinch steals the presents.)
I am enjoying watching Myles' excitement over Christmas. He loves looking at the lights and decorations, and can't wait for "Santa Closet" to come and bring him presents. We are learning about the real reason for Christmas, but at two years old "presents" is what sticks out. It's a good way to make him behave though!
We went to visit Santa at our mall the week before last. It was actually a very pleasant experience. No line, and he called Myles by name just from hearing me say it once. He asked Myles what he wanted for Christmas and he actually understood when he asked for a "Lightning McQueen shirt". Haha! I thought it was pretty funny that he asked for a shirt.
Well I'd better go, going to make sugar cookies with Myles. I have a bazillion things to do and my house is a mess, but making cookies with my boy is much more fun!

New York City!!

We were so blessed to be able to take a little trip to the BIG city for a few days to get away and have some fun. The best part-we got to go without the kids!! Thanks to Nana and Grandpa (Danny's parents) who donated air miles to us so we could go and came down and watched the kids for most of the weekend, and to Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) who watched them for the rest of the time. It was fabulous, we got to see most of the big stuff; The Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Rockerfeller Center, Empire State Building, Grand Central, Grenwich Village, and lots of other things along the way. We ate the hugest sandwiches I have ever seen at the infamous Carnegie Deli and stayed out late every night (still being on west coast time and all) It was very cold, but so awesome to see the city all lit up for Christmas. We saw all that we could in two-and-a-half days, but we definitely have to go back. There is so much to see, it would be hard to see it all in a week!

The boys at home

What can I say, they are just so cute together! I had to snap a few pics while I could. (But I am not biased or anything) Myles will hold Nolan whenever I let him, and Nolan LOVES it! I put Nolan down on Myles bed the other day and he fell asleep there for a couple of hours while we played in Myles room. He definitely doesn't like to be "left out". He naps in the living room in his bouncer, he just won't do the crib during the day. He sleeps well in it at night though!
Nolan smiled at me for the first time on Wednesday! It was so cute! He stated cooing a little too. He stuck his tounge out at Daddy for the first time the other day, too! He has developed so much in the last couple of weeks. He is getting very strong and holding his head up really well!
And Myles. Myles is very... two-and-a-half. Strong willed and twitty! But he has great spirit and tenacity that will be a good thing one day (or so Daddy says, let's hope he's right!) He loves to sing all sorts of songs but his favorite is still "How great is our God", followed closely by "Wheels on the bus". He makes up songs, too. Those are MY favorite :) He also loves to read and has memorized many of his books. He'll get them all out and recite them to Nolan and I, it's pretty cute! He is a sweet boy, he just has his "moments". So.. I guess i'll keep them. They're cute enough.

Little Punkins!

Here goes attempt number three at trying to update this blog! I always start it and don't finish. Maybe I should make them shorter, then there is a chance it will get posted....
So our little Nolan has grown, he's over 13 lbs now, close to double his birth weight! He is a very sweet baby and sleeps alot. Myles loves him so much and he is a great big brother. He likes to help any way that we let him. Nolan already looks up to his big brother...anytime Myles is close to him he just sits there and stares at him with big eyes. He is going to follow that boy around like a little puppy dog when he is older, I can just tell.
I took the boys to get their pics taken in their costumes the other day. Myles is a fireman and Nolan is a dalmation, Nolan slept through his first photo shoot and I had to bribe Myles with a new car to get him to sit still for five seconds, but I got a cute picture!

Last Sunday we went to the pumpkin patch with Grandma, Grandpa, Liz and Keith. Myles had fun picking up all the little pumpkins and sitting on the big ones. He got to feed the goats and go on a tractor pulled hay ride! Afterward we had a bbq at Grandmas and Nolan got to meet Gigi (my Grandma) for the first time :)

Nolan is HOME!!!

It has been a long day so I am going to keep this short.. Nolan is home, and we are so incredibly happy! God is so good! Nolan is doing well and nursing regularly. We have had an enjoyable evening of just letting Myles see him and get used to him, and we have been holding our baby boy and staring at him. (without the watchful eye of the nurses) We go for a follow up check-up at the pediatrician's office tomorrow morning to check his weight and stats, so hopefully he will have a little weight gain. He seems so peaceful and relaxed, I feel like he knows that he is home and loves it here.

I will add more details and pics later but right now it is time to put Mr. Nolan to bed, we are pooped!

Thank-you again to everyone for all of your prayers and support :)

love,
Rachel

Update on Mr. Nolan

(Monday 8/28) Just a little add-on... We went to see Nolan last night and he nursed like a champ! We brought Myles with us and the nurse brought Nolan to the door so that Myles got to meet him in person! He loves his baby brother, he said "Hi Nolan! I'm Myles" and he gave him kisses. It was very sweet. It was so nice to see our baby's little face with nothing on it. No more tubes and tape, just cute soft little cheeks and eyes and teeny baby lips. Oh yeah, and I think he has mama and brother's "cabbage patch kid" nose :)
I just have to add the Myles has been such a good boy through all of this. He had gotten to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa, and Auntie Liz and Keith, and Auntie Christy and Uncle Chris. I don't know what we would have done without all of them! I think Myles has been enjoying getting to go places and get spoiled :)



(Sunday 8/27) First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and kind words. They have helped tremendously through this difficult time.
I am so happy to report that Nolan is doing SO much better. He was taken off the CPAP on Friday and put on a little bit of oxygen. Then yesterday, they decided that he was ready to try and eat a small amount from the bottle and he did GREAT!!
He was sleepy at first, but once he got a few gulps he loved it and sucked it down. He ate really good every three hours after that yesterday. We went in to feed him a bottle this morning at 11:30 and he drank it all (15cc) in about thirty seconds and then looked for more. So the nurse said if I wanted to I could try nursing and of course I jumped at that chance. He latched right on with no problem (Myles didn't even do that) and ate for 10 minutes! He got so full that he just sacked out right there. So we snuggled for a while, which was so nice :)
I called to check in on him this evening at 5:30 pm and his nurse said that she had just taken him off the oxygen altogether!!! We are so excited and can't wait to go see his little face with nothing on it! On top of all that, Myles will get to see his brother for the first time tonight! (through the window, but still better than a picture) All good things today :) We are so happy that he is making such great progress, God is so good! Now we just have to get him nursing regularly and gaining weight, and transition him off the IV. Hopefully he will be home within the week.

Unfortunately mama is not doing so hot. I don't want to bore you with details but I had a blood clot when I left the hospital and have been to the ER for my symptoms since, but things have gotten worse. I am hoping to see my Dr. tomorrow because it is getting hard to sleep. I am having chest pain and some weird head and neck pain, but thank goodness for the pain meds they gave me when I left the hospital :) They at least allow me to sleep a little. Anyway, I would really appreciate your prayers because I just want to be well so I can take care of my babies!

Here are a few pics but if you'd like to see more you can check them out at: http://picasaweb.google.com/DRPCSolutions

Nolan James Anderson

Well, that squirmy little worm just didn't want to be inside any longer. I was having trouble sleeping Sunday night, so I went out to lay on the couch and watch TV at about 11:45 pm. I was sitting there and suddenly heard a POP come from my belly while the baby was moving, which scared me half to death and I went running in to wake Danny up. I told him what I heard, and I was afraid that the baby had hurt himself or something, but two minutes later we knew that my water had broke. We started packing in a frantic rush and called Danny's brother, Lee to come stay with Myles while he slept (thanks uncle Lee!) My contractions started about 10 minutes later and were instantly 5 minutes apart. Danny sped to the hospital (Danny would like me to document that a Toyota Sienna tops out at 110 ;) and we arrived there at about 10 min to 1am. My contractions were 2 minutes apart. They got all of my info and admitted me, took me upstairs and took their sweet time getting me changed and getting my IV started, which was necessary before I had my much desired epidural. well, I went from 4cm to 8cm in about 10 min, and about 2 minutes later he started coming on his own. SO.. no epidural. But God got me through it, and Nolan James Anderson was born at 2:59am. He was 7lbs 11oz and 20 inches long.


Nolan was born at 36 weeks, which is considered premature. He was having trouble breathing, had fluid in his lungs, and had very low blood sugar, so they brought him to the Intensive Care Nursery, where he has been since he was born. After a couple of days of assesment, they have determined that he is suffering from Respiratory Distress Syndrome, which is a result of being a little premature. So he is on a machine called a CPAP which is a kind of respirator, and he has a few different things running through umblilical lines, including his IV and nutrition/vitamins.

I was discharged to go home today as I actually recovered very quickly despite how crazy my delivery was. Nolan is still in the ICN, we will be going to see him in the morning. As soon as he is able to start nursing I will likely be staying overnight at the hospital until he is ready to go home. The staff at the hospital have all been wonderful. It helps us to know that he is getting the best care possible. Most importantly, knowing that he is in God's hands is what gets us through. We are so grateful for our new baby boy, and we can't wait to bring him home. Myles wants to meet his brother! Although he is enjoying getting to spend so much time with Grandma and Grandpa while we are at the hospital :)

Sorry this is so lengthy, but I just wanted to let everyone know what is going on. If you feel so inclined, we would appreciate your prayers for Nolan as we are anxious for him to recover and to be home with his family.

Summer fun!

I realized that it has been a while since I updated this thing, so here goes...

We have been enjoying the hot summer days and warm nights. Myles loves to go swimming and run through the sprinklers in the backyard, and go to the pool occasionally. The pregnancy is going good. I am huge and this baby does not stop moving. He finds it particularly fun to stick various body parts waaay out while I am trying to fall asleep. It is good though, because I believe that he will be able to keep up with his very busy big brother!


Danny and I had the opportunity to have an evening to outrselves recently (thanks to Grandma!) so we decided to head to the city. We had a great time walking around and exploring, and Danny took some great shots with his new camera! You can check more of them out at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DRPCSolutions
We had dinner at a great italian place in North Beach, and then walked around and had Latte and dessert at a cute little cafe. One thing I love about the city is that no two trips are ever the same, and I always manage to see something interesting :)


We made our annual trip to the fair and despite the fact that we didn't make it past the kiddie carnival and the food (the best part!) we had a great time! Grandma and Grandpa came along which meant crazy spoils for Myles. He had a blast riding all of the rides and playing the games!
He won a big red car pillow that is almost as big as him, and he got to play the "sledgehammer test of strength" game and won that, too ;) He loved the carousel, choo-choo, and the bouncy "dune buggies" All of that topped off with his own ice cream bar covered in sprinkles and he was one happy spoiled kid.







Myles looked forward to the 4th of July for quite some time as he is fascinated by fireworks! (what kid isn't, right?) We had fun watching the fireworks from the back of our van with our brownie sundaes. The following weekend we went to the lake and relaxed. We got Myles to go in the lake with us for a little while. He wore the same life jacket that My sister and I wore when we were little, it was so cute! It was fun to get away and be lake bums for a weekend.

so that is a small sum up of the recent goings on. Keep an eye out for pictures of this squirmy baby that will (hopefully) come soon!

Danny's fame and More pics

I have to brag about Danny a bit now, because he has become famous! He submitted some pictures to be considered for Google Earth, which is a program that will show you an aerial shot of anyplace in the world, and they chose three of his! They were all pictures of Mazatlan, onw was on the beach and two were on the golf course. It is a big deal because thousands of pictures are submitted per day and they only choose the best of the best to be put on the map. So now everybody that downloads Google Earth and searches for Mazatlan will be able to see Danny's pictures! Pretty cool, huh?
If you have Google Earth on your computer you can search for Mazatlan to see the pics. Unfortunately I cannot link them here :(

Also, Danny has a web album where you can view additional pics of our family and other things that Danny has taken pics of, so if you like to check it out here is the link: (apparently you have to copy and paste it, how dumb!)

http://picasaweb.google.com/DRPCSolutions

Cheers!
Rachel

Myles turned Two!!

I cannot believe that our baby has turned two already! (That is such a cliche` Mom thing to say but it is the truth!) WE had a lot of fun on his birthday. Danny and I took him shopping with his birthday money that he got from his Great-Grandmas and we let him pick out whatever he wanted. The first thing he picked was a wagon and then he put the rest of his loot in it and pulled it around the store. Then we rode the carousel and every little moving car/train/tractor in the whole mall. Then it was off to Mc Donalds for a happy meal and some playplace! We had a barbecue party at dinner with family and Myles got lots of fun presents!:) He got a Train table from Grandma and Grandpa that he has not stopped playing with since and will drag anyone he can get a hold of into his room to play "choo-choo". So cute!
I managed to get him to hold still long enough to get some cute pics taken yesterday, so I thought i'd share them

It's a Boy!!!

We are having a BOY! I am sure that you all have heard by now, since I am incredibly SLOW at getting these blogs done, but hey, I have preggo brain and a 2 year old. We are very excited that Myles will have a brother, it will be so fun to watch them grow up and do all of those boy things together. So it's just me and my boys :) (well, I still have Dolly dog, but I don't think SHE even realizes she's a girl!)

The pregnancy is still going really well and everything on the ultrasound was normal, so that is good news! Now we just have to pick a name...

Here are some pics of the ultrasound and our boy doing the "spread eagle". No modesty there :)

Baby's first picture

Here is the ultrasound picture, as promised! The head is to the right and the bottom is on the left. The dots in the middle are the arms and legs. Cute little peanut, huh? I am not biased or anything. I am 9 weeks now, so the baby is about an inch long. My appt. was last Wednesday but we had a busy weekend of tiling the hall bathroom (thanks to Danny's brother, Lee!!) so the pic was put on hold. What is it about pregnancy that makes you want to remodel? When I was pregnant with Myles we remodeled the master bathroom. Well, I watched. Danny and his brother remodeled.

The appointment went well. Danny and Myles got to be there to see the ultrasound, and of course Myles was more interested in all of the buttons and contraptions in the ultrasound room than seeing his sibling on screen. If he could, he would have said "yeah, nice blob Mom. That is really exciting." It was exciting for Danny and I though, the baby moved quite a bit and we got to see it's little heartbeat. It measured big, just like Myles did. I was supposed to be 8 weeks and it measured at 9 weeks, but I think it is just going to be a big baby like Myles. My official due date is September 13th. This pregnancy has already been very different from the last, I have been much more nauseated with this one and I am growing much quicker. I can't wear my regular jeans anymore. The beginning is hard because I just look like I have a pot belly. hahaha! But all in all everything is good. I have no complaints :)

Cars and the news....

I had to blog this because it made me smile, doting mother that I am. I took Myles "car shopping" today, as he has recently become infatuated with them. We approached the toy aisle where rows of shiny little Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars were just waiting to be played with. I handed Myles a couple of packages and told him that he could pick one, and (my boy!!) he chose the cute little classic cars including a VW Bug like Daddy used to have! I let him hold them while we finished shopping, as he would have it no other way, and he had them open by the time we got to the register. As I handed them to the cashier to ring them up, you could have heard the words "CAR! CAR!" across the store. I let him take them out of the package and he proceeded to drive them all over the shopping cart handle and along the sides.
When we got home we got the rest out of the package, and Myles decided that underneath his hign chair made the perfect "garage". He parked all of them under there and has been driving them in and out ever since. They say that money doesn't buy happiness, but $4.99 has bought me at least an hour and a half of peace and quiet, and a huge smile. I'll take it :)

And, in bigger news, Myles is going to be a big brother!! Now, if I had told you that in the beginning, would you have read the whole thing? I had to be sneaky. We are very excited, especially Myles who doesn't want a "brother or sister", he wants a "BABY"! Ever since we told him he has stopped calling himself baby, now he is "Mys". I have my first dr. appt on Febuary 7th, so I will post the ultrasound picture. I am due around the middle of September, by my calculations. We seem to be good a lumping the birthdays together. Myles and Danny's are 3 days apart, and mine and the baby's will likely be a couple of weeks. Oh well, guess we'll just have to do it up!
Okay, now that I have rambled on so long that your eyes have likely crossed from looking at the screen, i'll end the blog. Love to hear from you!

Myles loves Mexico!!

It has been a while since I updated the blog, so I thought i'd put up some recent pictures from Christmas and New years. We just got home from Mazatlan, Mexico and we already miss it. We got there on New Year's eve, just in time to celebrate! We had fun watching the fireworks from the balcony at our hotel and watching Myles run around declaring "CACO!!" which is how he says "Mexico". We spent most of our days there chasing Myles around on the beach, when we weren't sitting under the palapas and eating. In the evenings, Myles loved to rock in the big wooden rocking chairs in the front of the Hotel. He would sit us all down in our own rocking chair and make us rock. This kid knows how to relax ;) Myles absolutely loves the ocean!
He would run along in the surf and sometimes just plop down right in the water. He also had a lot of fun swimming in the pool with Daddy and being thrown up in the air!

About halfway through the week, we decided to switch from being beach bums to tourists, and we took a fun "jungle tour" to stone island. They take you on a boat across a channel and through some waterways with jungle-like shrubbery. They took us to a beautiful secluded beach with lots of palms nearby, very pituresque :). On the boat ride back some pelicans, who were obviously very familiar with the tour boat, decided to join us One landed right on the front of the boat and would not let any of the others land there, so all of the others landed on the roof or flew nearby. The tour guide brought out the good ol' bucket of fish and let everyone feed the pelican, and the ones on the roof, not wanting to be left out, poked their heads down from the roof to get theirs. it was so funny, and Myles slept through the whole thing. Go figure!
Danny and My Dad had a great time golfing, as usual, at their favorite golf course "Estrella del Mar". I am inclding some of their pictures, because from what I have seen, this place rivals Pebble Beach in beauty. I have to learn to Golf so I can go play it someday! Maybe Myles will get to go next time..
All-in all it was a great vacation. Danny and I were able to have a couple of nights out childless, which was a nice break:) We went to Joe's, the beachside bar next to our hotel with Liz and Keith one night.
We had a very nice romantic dinner at Pancho's another night, complete with Coconut shrimp, a serenade, crashing waves, margaritas, and some killer chocolate cake. What more can you ask for? There is so much to tell, but I am sure I have bored you enough (or maybe made you want to go?) But we just feel so blessed to have been able to go, yet AGAIN! It is always a great time. THANK-YOU GRANDMA!!






So, going backwards a little bit.... We had a great time at Christmas! We got to spend Christmas eve at My Grandparents house. It's always nice to see the family :) Myles had fun opening his first presents and playing with the cousins. Then we went home to wait for Santa. Myles woke up and found that Santa had filled his stocking, and he LOVED opening it. We spent Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Livermore, where Myles was quite spoiled :) He opened some presents in the morning, sacked out, and then opened the rest after dinner. Ah, those were the days. I want to be a kid again! It is so much fun to watch your child open their gifts though, more fun than opening your own. And Myles actually wanted to play with his toys, NOT the boxes!! YAY!!
We are looking forward to our second Christmas in Klamath Falls with Danny's family in a couple of weeks! I love celebrating twice!
We hope that you all had a great Christmas and New Year's! we'd love to hear from you!