Bring in the Bulldozers!

Many people are surprised when they find out where we live. Not just because it is in the country, but it is so far from "town." We love it out here and I seriously cannot imagine living in a neighborhood now. When we drive through neighborhoods I cannot get over how close together the houses are. I grew up in a neighborhood so this is definitely a new shift of my thinking. And if you told me 6 years ago I would be living out here and enjoying it I would have never believed you.

One of our main reasons for moving here (besides our jobs) was because we wanted to build a house. After 4 long years of wanting to build our own home, the dream is finally coming true. For almost a year Jay and his parents have been working hard to cut down the trees on the house site. During that time we have interviewed contractors, settled on a designer/contractor, drew up a house plan, finalized the house plan and waited for people to call us back :) Last Thursday we closed on our construction loan, Friday we finalized the plans and schedule with the contractor and tomorrow the project is finally getting started! The bulldozer is coming tomorrow to start the excavating part of the project and we are scheduled for this



to turn into this



in 6-8 months.

Randomness

In the last 24 hours....

I carried an infant car seat with said infant inside it, a diaper bag, a bag of groceries, a gift bag and held onto a toddler's hand with a death grip from the second floor of the church, down the hall, into and down the elevator, down the hall again, through two double doors, out into the parking lot and loaded everything into the car. I think I breathed heavily the whole way home!

I got 5 1/2 hours of sleep last night in a row. It was glorious!

Charlotte put herself to sleep in the bassinet twice last night. I laid her down at 10 and at 4 this morning wide awake and she went to sleep on her own without fussing.

I gave up fighting the whole "do not pull on the tablecloth while you eat" during breakfast today. Our dining room table is now only covered by a table pad. It is very appealing to the eye.

Trey likes to have his own napkins during meal times. He has learned to put it in his lap. He also thinks it is hilarious to pretend to cough into it. Unfortunately I think it is hilarious too, so he continues to do this :)

Trey can now take off his diaper under his pajamas. He likes to do this after he poops. This resulted in an impromptu bath this morning.

Trey ran around for 45 minutes upstairs after the impromptu bath in his diaper and white onesie. Every time he ran past me he had on a different pair of his dad's shoes. I regret not having my camera upstairs.

I think Trey is destined for management. Whenever I need to do something (like hang up the phone or put up the newspaper) he runs ahead of me, points to where the object is supposed to go and says "right there!"

I got to take a shower without someone (littler than 3 feet) holding back the shower curtain to soak the bathroom floor.

I have the best job ever :)

Bedtimes

Right now our kids have very different bedtimes. Trey's is at 7:00 pm. He is usually up for the day around 7 am, but we find he is up at 7 am whether he goes to bed at 7 pm or 10 pm. Charlotte isn't really on a schedule yet (despite all my attempts!) so she goes to sleep whenever we do. Or that is supposed to be the plan. Last night, that meant 1:00 am, even though I tried to get her to go to bed at 10:30.Trey was the same way as a newborn and by 3 months he had a consistent bedtime of 9 pm. I have to keep reminding myself of this at midnight every night when she is still not asleep!

The plus side of the crazy schedule, if there is one, is that Charlotte gets some quality time with mommy and daddy in the evenings. Here are some pictures from yesterday evening.

Charlotte holds up her head so well!


Charlotte loves her daddy!



I don't think Charlotte loves her daddy's beard. Don't worry Charlotte, it will be gone as soon as the Easter Pageant is over!



These next photos are taken after Charlotte has been changed into her nightgown and gotten ready for bed. She is still wide awake!

Visit from the Hipes

Jay's dad has three siblings and they all came to visit yesterday to see Trey and Charlotte. Let's be honest- no one comes to visit me anymore :) Trey was shy at first but opened up quickly and enjoyed playing with his great aunts and uncle. Charlotte was wide awake during the visit and loved looking at everyone's faces, staring at the lights, and listening to everyone's conversation. During their visit they mentioned that Charlotte is the first Hipes girl born in 70 some years!

Charlotte was fascinated by Aunt Geraldine and Aunt Rose.


Grandpa and Uncle Jack taking care of the kids.


Trey showed Uncle Jack how to work his puzzles.


Aunt Geraldine plays with Trey while Aunt Rose loves on Charlotte.


Charlotte has Grandpa and Uncle Jack wrapped around her finger.




Grandpa left his hat, so Trey wore it for him :)

Spring is just around the corner!

" 'When I was not much bigger than a pollywog,' said Frog, 'my father said to me, 'Son, this is a cold, gray day but spring is just around the corner.'
I wanted spring to come. I went out to find that corner." Frog and Toad All Year by Lobel


Today we found that corner! It was such a beautiful day outside. This afternoon it was sunny and 60 degrees. After Trey's nap we put on our jackets (not heavy coats!) and headed outside to play for the first time in a long time.

Trey had so much fun being outside and getting to run around.


Sometimes you just have to sit and enjoy nature.


This is how Charlotte spent the afternoon play time.


What? You can't see her? Is this better?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Charlotte's Valentine's Outfit



We had a great time today celebrating Valentine's Day. We started off the festivities this weekend by making homemade Valentines. I had great hopes of getting hand and feet prints of Trey and Charlotte for the Valentines, but Trey did not quite understand the whole idea of painting his whole hand, so I settled for letting him make fingerprints in the card. He had a blast coloring and finger-painting his Valentines. He also put stickers on to the Valentines, his specialty.

Today I took the kids to my class' Valentine's Party at school. Charlotte slept through the whole thing in the Moby Wrap, but she did enjoy visiting some teachers after school when she woke up. Trey had fun watching the kids, handing out Valentine's and playing the computers in the classroom. Every time we went into a new room, he would find a book to look at! Sorry there are no pictures of this event, keeping up with 2 kids left me no hands to take pictures with. Then when we got home Trey and Charlotte had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa. Trey was completely exhausted by the time bedtime came around!

This is Charlotte in the Moby at 1 week old. I love wearing her and being hands free!

I also made some Valentine's treats. We had whole wheat heart-shaped soft pretzels. They were very fun to make! For dinner we had a heart shaped pizza and I finally found a successful whole wheat pizza dough recipe. Don't worry, I didn't waste the cut off pizza dough, I turned them into breadsticks. Finally no Valentine's Day is complete without a little chocolate. I made Jay a Chocolate Chip Cake for dessert.







We hope you had a great Valentine's Day too! Love, The Hipes :)

Blue crayon.... yum!

Trey will not eat any meat, cooked vegetable, or most family dinners. I can easily list the foods that Trey will actually eat. I never had to worry about him picking up bugs or dirt and eating them. He won't put (much) real food into his mouth if it looks new to him, so he would never put any non food item into his mouth, or so I thought. Today Trey decided these looked appetizing.

Seriously? He never eats any new food put in front of him and while coloring today at the table, Hmm... maybe that is the connection..., he decides to put a crayon in his mouth. I was putting some dishes in the dishwasher and I when I turned around-there he is with the blue crayon coloring his tongue. Gross!

I promptly take the blue crayon away and tell him crayons go on the paper not in our mouths. Fast forward a few hours later and he does the exact same thing with the black crayon! I knew it may happen so I was trying to pay close attention while he was coloring, but as soon as I look away (because I do have another child) he does it again! Cakes and ice cream are yummy, but he will not eat them. Instead he prefer to eat crayons.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy One Month Birthday!

Happy One Month (and a day) birthday to Miss Charlotte Rose!

Stats at one month: 9 lbs 5 ozs, 21 3/4 inches long and head 13 1/2 cm

I can't believe you have already been in our lives one month. You love to look at people's faces and hold your head up. Every morning you play on your brother's bed and stare at him. I think he will be the first person you smile at. He loves to give you hugs and you let him count your buttons on your sleeper and tickle your feet. You are a big fan of sleeping with your arms spread eagle. I think you get that from your daddy.

I love to dress you in pink and purple. So many of our friends and family have been generous so you have some girl clothes to wear. You love to snuggle in the moby wrap and in your swing but do not enjoy your car seat. You eat like a champ and never miss a meal :) You are such a happy baby and fuss only when mommy eats black beans, which she will never do again while you are nursing. You are already so strong and your doctor can't believe how many expressions you already make! I can't wait to see you grow and change each month. I love you!








And just because so many people ask me if Trey and Charlotte look alike, here are some pictures of Trey at one month. You can definitely tell it is a different season!

Bad Hair Days

To my amazement, my oldest child was born with a head full of strawberry blond hair. I say to my amazement because I was practically bald until I was three. I loved his baby hair, but having a boy with a lot of hair means haircuts. I was able to get by with just trimming a few pieces here and there until he turned one- then it was time for the professional hair cutters. This is also a good time to mention my husband hates getting his hair cut. He puts it off and acts like a little boy grumbling the whole time he goes to get it done. This has impacted getting Trey's hair cut because anytime I suggest it, it is like pulling teeth to get Jay to agree that yes, his son's hair is too long.

Trey had super fine long baby hair at 9 months old.



Trey's first "real" hair cut when he was 13 months old.


We have taken him to four different places in the past 8 months to get hair cuts. He has to get it cut every other month. At the beginning of January we all got hair cuts because I knew when the baby was born that would be the last thing anyone wanted to deal with. Trey sat in Jay's lap for the haircut because at 9 months pregnant I had no lap :) This led to a not so great hair cut. Not that I am blaming anyone, but as the mommy I should have been there to oversee and say, can you please cut it shorter? Because as a result Trey's hair four short weeks later looks like this.



Today after church we had a friend cut Trey's hair. She does the best job cutting his hair and she cut it nice and short on the sides and bottom for me! Sorry my musician did not want to look at the camera :)


While it is a pain to get his hair cut every other month (especially since it is a 45 minute drive somewhere to get hair cut) I am thankful that he is a boy and that means I don't have to fix his hair every morning. Luckily Charlotte doesn't have too much hair yet, so we (mainly meaning myself because I don't see Jay doing any hair) have a while until we have to fight the tangles and the hair bows :)

Looking up to Daddy

I've got some big shoes to fill!

Bathtime

Most babies scream when you take off their clothes, but Charlotte does not mind diaper changes or bath time. Her umbilical cord fell off when she was two weeks old, but we kept giving her sponge baths because it was super cold outside (thus a little bit chilly inside our house) and she was fighting a cold. Here is her first bathtub bath. You will notice the absence of her big brother in these pictures. That is because he has a 7 pm bedtime. Right now she sets her own bedtime around 11:30. I am GREATLY looking forward to when she goes to bed at 7:00 as well :) Although in the evening is when she gets lots of daddy and mommy time on her own, which her brother gets while Charlotte naps all day.

What is going on?





I am so awake after my bath!


Do you think my eyes will always stay this blue?



After the bath we thought it would be a great time to take some pictures of Charlotte, but she did not.

Wordless Wednesday

Cousins!

We have had lots of visitors over the past few weeks. This has been great for my shy little toddler to learn to open up to new people. Everyone who visits usually brings something for Charlotte, and then something for Trey. I wonder if he will always associate visitors with presents. Hmm....

This past weekend my cousins and aunt came up for a visit. They learned how to unplug their cell phones (b/c the don't work here!) and we enjoyed a wonderful visit. It was so nice to have extra hands to change diapers, get kids dressed, entertain, and to have people who like to eat! As stated in a previous post my family doesn't always eat the food I cook (unless it involves chocolate) and since I love to cook it is nice to have people over who appreciate the food.

We also took a quick visit to site where our family's future home will be. Jay taught Trey how to make a log rock back and forth while you stand on it and I had a little adventure in off-roading with my Escape, which I hope to never repeat in my life.

Jayla holding Charlotte

Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks!!

All that playing wore me out!

Trey coloring with Nellie.

Jillian and Trey playing together.

Even with all those playmates, they still love their mommy :)

Be still my mommy heart!

Family picture at the spot where our front door will be!

Jay teaching Trey how to roll the logs and stay on top!