Busy Week

Brady did pretty well posing for his birth announcement photo shoot with mommy! Check-out his Buddha belly!

Thinker pose.

My boys chillaxin' with Daddy.

Ben's Aunt Julie Cheney and their cousin, Mary Karen (of Chicago area), visited and brought dinner on Monday night. These gals are so silly together!:)

Ben's cousin Jono (Jon) Cheney, his wife Denise and son Cael visited on Tuesday afternoon.  Cael just turned 1 this month!

CHEESE!

Kelly and Jason Kent and family brought us dinner on Thursday night.  Nolan is now Carson's BFF at Susie's Daycare. These boys play so hard!  Big sister Macey was pretty curious about Brady.  Macey: "Megan, why are Brady's feet so little?"  Megan: "He's just a baby, everything is little now and will grow as he grows."  Macey:  "Look at my feet, Megan. They are big."  :)

Ben's college and hunting buddy, Tim Myers of Mt. Pleasant area and his family came to visit us on Friday night.  If you're new to the blog: Tim's wife, Brandi, was in Megan's sorority at Simpson and graduated with Bob.  Their daughter, Presley, is two months older than Carson, and their son, Landry, was born in July.  Landry is a big boy already!

Presley and Carson had so much fun! Lots of playing, chasing, and squealing! At the end, they were so cute giving hugs and kisses good-bye.  Darn camera delay time, we couldn't get a good picture of it!

Ben's Aunt Deb visited on Saturday morning.

Also visiting again were Great-grandpa Phil and Carolyn.

Ben's Uncle Bill Sutfin (above), Aunt Tammy (below) and cousins Shannon (next below) and Bryant (not pictured) also visited on Saturday.  They were in town watching another relative's girls' basketball tournament at Mary Welsh Elementary, just 2 blocks away.  They took Carson out for a fun afternoon of watching games and a trip to McDonald's.  I enjoyed a much-needed nap during that quiet time! Thanks, again!!

Da Bears.

Ben's family is Bears and Cubs crazy. The coat was Carson's 1st b-day gift from Uncle Bob and Aunt Rochell. The hat is a handy-down from Bill's boys to Chase to Carson.

We have been showered with great gifts of clothes, diapers, and meals from family and friends...now and through the years!  Thank you so much, everyone!!!

Meeting more family

We were feeling great on Saturday (1/17) and decided to venture to Des Moines furniture shopping and to visit Uncle Bob, Aunt Julie, and meet cousin Ella.

Ella was very curious of Brady. She's starting to pull herself up to stand and tracing the furniture. Pretty soon she'll be a walker! Watch out Bob and Julie!

On Sunday, Brady met Uncle Dan.  Dan had a cold and was unable to visit us in the hospital.  Christine and the kids came, too, and brought lunch. Thanks, guys!

Another photo that looks just like one of Carson from the archives!  I need to find the file on Kodak gallery for comparison.

Our family of 4!

Mom and Dad look a little tired and Carson looks so serious!

First 24 hours home with Brady (Jan. 14-15)

Brady helping Dad check-in on the Iowa Whitetail (deer) and Hawkeye websites.

Family visitors: Ben's cousin Teona (above) and Uncle Sean Sutfin (below)

Ben's volleyball teammates stopped by in between their games. Visitors were Matt & Mike Matthes, Sean Helton, Nick Nordheim, and Brad Knoop.  Some of the photos below were taken by Carson.

Where'd my boys go?

Boo!  Carson's favorite game: "Hide!"

I love my boys! :)

Basement remodel

Above: Toy room and closet. (AKA 5th "nonconforming" bedroom)

While we were in the hospital, the basement project took the step of drywalling. We were supposed to be at the painting stage this weekend, but the freezing rain prevented the spackle/spray truck from coming out this weekend, so the project is pushed back about a week.  It will be a tight schedule with furniture being delivered on Feb. 9, we may have to do some shifting around during finishing and flooring, but hopefully everything will work out and be done by mid-Feb.!!

Above:  "4th" bedroom.  We had the window installed to qualify it as a bedroom. This room will be our guest bedroom and home to our exercise equipment. It also has a 6'x7' walk-in closet that I have planned to be my scrapbooking room/storage.  These two bedrooms are where the "old" rec room was and our "new" rec room is the part that was previously unfinished.

Above: Looking out of the bedroom door. Stairs are to the right. Bathroom entry is on a 45 degree wall and the bathroom has a walk-in shower.  The other door entry you see is to a small storage room that will house a refrigerator and shelving for games, etc storage.  The window seen was already there before our project. It lets in nice natural light. We plan to have a table and chairs in front of it for card games.

This was taken standing in front of that window area of the last photo. The rec room will have a bar (under the soffit area), pool table (will be moved to middle of room and changed directions), and then seating/TV area at the end.  The box in the back left area covers our sump pump.  We have a custom cabinet guy from Riverside building our bar and a corner TV cabinet (for the far right corner).

We are so excited for the project to get finished and hope to have a couple of family and friends parties in March!

Brady's visitors at the Hospital

Thank you, Grandparents!

Sledding with Dad at Grandpa and Grandma Griers' night before Brady arrived.
THANK YOU to both sets of Grandparents for watching Carson while we were in the hospital!  I know you guys had lots of fun, too!