neighborhood egg hunt

So, we headed over for the annual neighborhood egg hunt. Emma was so excited to see Ray. They were less excited to stand in line...waiting to begin the big hunt.

There were so many three year olds, and Emma was ready for it all to begin.

She uses the Easter basket that was mine when I was a little girl :)

Carson hung out in the stroller. I guess next year he will be hunting too? They grow too fast.

She found loads of eggs.

And loads more.

And smiled for a photo with her Daddy.

There were pizza and juice boxes too. I think she was a little disapointed to discover that the eggs were filled chocolate free. If you know her, you know that she loves chocolate!

can mike help?

While getting dressed for Emma's Easter party on Friday morning, I overheard my child puking on the couch. Lovely, right? We were all dressed for once and ready to head to the school, but our plans changed rather quickly. Emma was devastated...she was going to miss her Easter party at school. So feeling sad for her, I struck up a deal. It was rainbow cupcake day. Her first question to me was, "Can Mike help?" I will tell you who he is later, but for now, you can wonder what I was wondering...has my child lost her mind? Does she have an imaginary friend that I don't know about? And if so, why is his name Mike? Shouldn't it be Sally or something?

She inserted our little chickie liners.

Added all of the ingredients to our white cake mix.

Then, licked the beaters. Which, instantly makes everything better.

This.

Is.

Yummy.

Want a lick, Mom?

Do you remember Emma's rainbow birthday cake? Well, we went with the same theme here. But we only picked three colors this time. I wasn't up to six colors with a newborn. And, you finally get to meet Mike. Mike the Tiger that is. If you aren't an LSU fan, you probably won't understand. I was just grateful that Mike was a stuffed animal :)

We divided the cake batter into three bowls. To tint, Emma picked blue, yellow (her self proclaimed favorite color), and pink.

She stirred them each well.

We placed a spoonful of each color in each cupcake. You just plop each color right on top of the other.

They look like this when they're done.

And, they look like this when you peel the wrapper off.

And, they look like this when you take a bite.

Carson was napping during our little project, and I was praying that he stayed asleep until we were done :)

He did. And, when he woke up, I fed him. And, Emma harassed him.

Then we frosted the cupcakes. I will post our frosting recipe below. They were delicious! We took them to our neighborhood Easter egg hunt, and there wasn't a single one left...

Frosting Recipe:

2 sticks of butter

1/2 to 3/4 bag of powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

the juice of a lemon

1/2 small container of cool whip

maybe some milk...

Let your butter sit on the counter and come to room temp. Add the butter to your mixer. Beat. Add the powdered sugar to taste. Add the vanilla and lemon juice. Beat well. Add the cool whip, and if it's still too thick, add a tablespoon of milk. More if you need it. Mix one more time. I dumped the icing into a gallon ziploc bag and threw it into the fridge. You could put it into the freezer for a little while if you wanted to get it really cold. When your cupcakes cool, snip the corner of the bag, and swirl the icing on. The lemon juice really cut the "sweet," which is why I think they were so yummy, and the cool whip made the icing light and fluffy. Think rainbows, clouds, and sprinkles :)

If you aren't into the lemon and cool whip, omit it. You will still make icing. It will just be thick and sweet, like the icing I made for Emma's birthday cake. And, you would have to apply it with a knife.

P.S. Since there was cool whip in the icing, I kept them in the fridge when we were done :)

a basket full of love...

Greetings from the Land of Lost Sleep

Well we're still here...sleepy, but here. More on that later.

As for our little fellow, Carson is growing so fast.

So, before I get sad, I just wanted to give everybody an update on our new little guy. We are all three enjoying him so much! I must say that the transition to two was far easier for me than the transition to one.

With that said, please don't think that our life isn't crazy. It is. I am pretty convinced that I can never talk on the phone again. Just as soon as I hit the talk button, it seems that everything begins to spiral downhill...ever so quickly.

Rob went back to work last week, and we were sad to see him go. I was so grateful to have my mom with me for the first week, and Rob with me for the two weeks after that. Their help was wonderful to say the least!

We spent tons of time outside playing during Rob's break. The weather was beautiful. Carson rode with me.

He could sleep all day just like that.

As far as our little bundle goes, he is already on a schedule, well sort of...ptl! Last time we talked, we weren't sleeping all that well at night, so I adjusted his daytime routine to eating every 2.5 hours. His routine looked something like this...

7 am~1st feeding of the day

9:30 am~feeding

noon~feeding

2:30 pm~feeding

5 pm~ feeding

7:30 pm~feeding

9:30 pm~feeding

Within each 2.5 hour cycle, I follow the eat, wake, sleep pattern from Babywise.

After the last feeding, I can usually get four hours of sleep. So, Carson is giving me one 4.5 hour stretch at night between feedings. Usually, my nights look like this...

1 am "ish"~feeding & he goes right back to sleep :)

I usually get three more hours of sleep now.

4 am "ish"~feeding & he goes right back to sleep :)

Then, we start all over.

I am so grateful for my one four hour stretch of sleep. I wish the stretch started a little later than 9:30 pm, but I am so afraid to lose my sleep that I am scared to death to change it!

I guess the breastfeeding is working. At Carson's one month check-up, he weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs. 9 oz.! I added both Emma and Carson's growth statistics to the web page. You will have to scroll down, but they are both located on the far right, underneath their birthday countdowns. Can you tell he grew?

She still loves him so much!

Well, the first half of this post was written several days ago, and let's just say that we started not sleeping very well again, so we went to this:

7 am~1st feeding of the day

10 am~feeding

1 pm~feeding

4 pm~feeding

6 pm~ feeding

8 pm~feeding

10 pm~bottle of pumped milk

Mama C. and Papa came to visit on Friday night...

Papa got to meet Carson for the first time...

I meant to get a photo of my parents with Emma and Carson, but I guess it never happened. The second night (Saturday), the new schedule worked like a charm! I got five hours of sleep at one time. A record, to say the least. At 10, he is too sleepy to nurse, so the bottle was working well. He was getting in another 3-4 ounces, just before turning in for the night, which meant more sleep for me :)

All in all we had a pretty lazy weekend with my parents and enjoyed their company so much!

Last night, the new schedule didn't work so well. I think the problem is how noisy he is. We think he's awake, and he wakes us up, but he really isn't. So, instead of jumping to feed him, I guess we need to try to ignore it? We may move his bassinette a little farther from us tonight :)

My lack of posting lately has been due to my lack of sleep and everything else. So, I will spare you by not filling in those blanks. I have little time for projects, so instead of updating the website, I have been working on Carson's birth announcements. With any luck, I will finally have them ordered by the end of today and in the mail, along with all of my overdue thank you notes, by next week!

I will try to post more often...promise!

Before I go, here's one more of Carson...

And a couple of Emma in the bath tub. It was a bath that she needed for sure...trust me!

She is such a ham...

And the winner is...

my good friend, Juli McDougal.

After entering Carson's birth information, the game calculates a score for each person. The lowest number of points wins.

I have to mention that I was only off by 5 minutes for his birthdate and time of arrival. Pretty close right? Juli's guess was much closer to his actual weight, so she won the game! That puts me in second place and my friend, Lorey, in third place.

Great guessing everybody!

To see the results, click the link below...

two weeks, too soon

Our first two weeks with Carson have just flown by. I'll admit that I'm a bit sad that he already seems to be growing so fast. He had his two week check up this past Monday and had gained a whole pound in one short week. I was amazed, with his new weight being 8 pounds, 12 ounces. Emma just loves him-a little too much sometimes. With the alternative being jealousy, I will definitely take her infatuation with her new little brother.

Carson is so calm, and I think would prefer to be held perfectly still than swung, bounced, or rocked. We have struggled with sleep the last two nights. He started out a rock star and hasn't exactly stayed that way.

On the flip side, he is still a wonderful baby and rarely cries. We have just been struggling with him going back to sleep after nursing during the night.

I have jumped on Babywise today and am hoping that it helps tonight. Since he arrived, we have been swaddling him in The Miracle Blanket. Which, in my opinion worked, but maybe not anymore. As the photos prove, I think he prefers to sleep like a muscle man...with his arms out. The Miracle Blanket was preventing this, so I am going to try the swaddle sans arms tonight.

Rob has been off all week, and we get to keep him around next week too! Our agenda has been pretty low key, just hanging around the house most of the time. I have enjoyed him being home so much. He is a wonderful hubby and father!

Since Carson's arrival, I haven't cooked yet! Yipee! Dinner is by far the very best thing you can do for a new mom. We have been blessed with several neighbors and friends bringing us food, and Mama C. cooked us several things while she was here the first week too. So between all of our family and friends, we have been good to go in the food department...delightful!

Thanks to all of our family and friends for all of the well wishes, phone calls, emails, dinners, and gifts. We are truly blessed and appreciate all of the love and support. Hopefully we all sleep better tonight...