Chub, Chub

Henley is not 4 months yet, but we went to the doctor the other day for something. I had them weigh her because I was curious? She weighs 14lb. 2oz.! I can not believe she is growing so quickly! I wrote a blog with her 3 month stats and forgot to post it? Can we say, absent minded? I will put that one on after I download more pictures! I will also give you a 4 month check up next week after her appt.!

Happy Birthday Stephanie!

Many of you know that Brian is on the road most of the week. I am so blessed to have the means to enlist some help with the kids. I know I could handle them alone most nights, but for those terrible days........Stephanie is an angel in disguise. She is so patient and loving with the kids. Henley has decided that nobody can hold her except mommy or daddy! This is an issue! I think between her constant cold, teeth breaking through and a little reflux she is not happy with anyone. My mom can not even hold her! My poor baby! Then Christian has been refusing naps lately and when that happens, well those of you with little ones know how that goes down.

Well Stephanie goes to Samford and comes over Mon.-Thurs. to help me with dinner, bath and bedtime. She is so helpful with Christian and plays with him and this allows me to cook a healthy dinner for my family. Usually Henley sleeps at this time and it is perfect. Christian is a stubborn rugrat and will not let anyone bathe him except mommy! Sometimes he will let her, but not always. I bathe the kids together every other night and she always takes one and lotions them up and puts their pj's on or she occupies Henley while I bathe Christian. Things you take for granted having husband's home every night to help out!

Anyhow, her birthday was Wednesday so we made a cake and celebrated with her. It was a surprise and one I hope she enjoyed since her family lives in T-town. There was a little helper there to blow out candles and open presents! You would never guess who that was? Enjoy the pictures!

Let the Children Come

"Let the Children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." This a bible verse out of the Gospel of Matthew that I have always thought was so special. There is a song with these words that they sing in church every Sunday when the children go up for a blessing. It was read at Henley's baptism. It justs reminds me that children and babies especially are such beautiful blessings from God and how much he loves them. At this point they are so little, innocent and pure! True creations of work! I look at our children everyday and thank God for them; they make me a better person!

We are so fortunate to have had two of them that are healthy and happy that joined us this past year 2008! I am talking about Henley of course and our darling nephew Preston. Henley was baptized into the Catholic church over the holidays on December 27th and it was a family affair! Being Christmas allowed our whole family to be involved and present at such a wonderful occasion! You could feel all the love for her in that room and it was truly a special moment! Julie and Steven Mizerany are her Godparents and participated in the ceremony that afternoon. Julie and Steve are a part of her life, but now they are even more special in that they will be great role models. Their love for God will help show and guide her to believe in her own faith! Hopefully, with a loving Christian family she will never know anything different. I pray all the time that we can raise both our children to be strong, independent Christian men and women. Faith is really important to us and I hope someday it will be to them as well!

After Henley Baptism we had everyone over to our house for Champagne and appetizers. It was a great day! I think Bennett really enjoyed the cake? The next day we went to Preston's baptism and celebrated another precious gift from God! What a way to start the new year!

Stuffy Nose, Teeth breaking through...what's next?

I would never wish for my baby to grow up, but my darling little girl is in need of some sprouting. Since the day that she was born she has had a stuffy nose! I have used bottles of saline and aspirated her little nose more than you could imagine! The doctor just tells me that she is petite and that her airways are the same! When she grows and her airways grow then and only then will this stuffiness get better! I hate this for her because she is miserable! I do not think there will be any sleeping through the night soon because she has trouble eating when she can not breathe! She wakes up many times in the night still to eat because she just does not get full! Imagine how miserable we are as adults when we can not breathe? I have been trying to help her as much as possible, but she has good and bad days! Then to top that off my sweet angel has already had a tooth break through!!!!!! Yep, you read that right. A tooth on her bottom gum has broken through the skin! It is a wonder she has been so unhappy lately. Between her nose and teeth she is having a bad month!

Christmas with the Families

We had Christmas with my family on December 23rd and we did Christmas with Brian's family on Christmas day! It was so much fun this year because Christian loves opening presents! The anticipation was killing him and he loved the idea of Santa. He did not like Santa himself, but the idea of getting presents from him was great! I tried explaining to him about our faith and how Christmas was a celebration of Jesus being born. I showed him out nativity scene and told him the story about Mary, Joseph and Jesus birth. He sang Happy Birthday to Jesus at school and I think will understand more next year, I hope? I just do not want him to be a spoiled brat. I want him to know there is a reason behind Christmas other than presents.



Well hopefully in time that will happen, but this year it was about the presents for him! When we arrived at my parents he knew he was going to get to open gifts. He immediately went to the tree and started passing them out to whoever would take one. Once we got everybody settled and baby's to stop crying we opened gifts. It took awhile because there were eight people and gifts for them all. I think Christian was a little overwhelmed and did not know what to play with or open next. After the presents we had a nice dinner and our family just hung out and watched Christian play with his new toys and old toys! I told my family not to get him a lot of toys this year and they actually listened! He got a few things, but he got books, puzzles and clothes too. Henley did well too she got a cool mat to play on and some baby toys. Clothes are always great with babies too because they grow so fast! We had a wonderful time and thank you to our family for all the wonderful and thoughtful gifts!



We always go to Christmas mass on Christmas Eve and so our service was at 4:30. We packed up the kids for church and went out for a long evening! After church services my family met up with the Banta's and had dinner at Bellini's. Bellini's is this wonderful Italian restaurant that we had never eaten at. The restaurant was not to kid friendly, but we sat in the back. We did the best we could to control the kids, but they can only sit for so long. The dinner turned out to be too long for Christian to handle. He was loosing his patience and hunger had set in. That all equals a tantrum waiting to happen! The waiter brought his food out a lot sooner than ours. He was a dad too and understood the little guy had been good and would remain that way with food in his belly! The dinner was fantastic and I recommend that restaurant to anyone in Birmingham. Christian even toasted to the dinner being over at the end of the night!














Christmas morning was so fun! We really enjoyed watching Christian's eyes light up when he came down stairs and saw what Santa had left behind for him. I think Santa knew Christian did not need alot, he just left a bunch of small things. He got the GeoTrax Airplane and a soccer net to kick into. He loves kicking balls! Henley got a new play mat and some little toys. She was excited too for a baby! HaHa! We took video of this fun event and not one picture! Mommy can only do so many things at once! I will upload some of it to this blog!



Alright last but, not least we headed over to Julie and Steve's house for Christmas with them and the Banta's. Christian had gotten tired of opening presents at our house, but he must of gotten a second wind once we arrived at Julie's. He again started to help pass out presents to everybody! Everyone enjoyed watching him do this because it meant the adults did not have to get up and play Santa this year! Well of course here everybody did and spent too much. I think Bennett and Christian were in heaven and did not know what to play with first. Bennett had gotten a kitchen and playhouse from Santa, so there were toys everywhere. I think both kids got a little tired and had to take breaks from the gifts. Julie and I had anticipated many fights between the two kids, but they actually played very nice together! Christian got an Easel to draw on and books from the Mizerany's. He also got many toys from Nene and Poppy. These children had a GREAT Christmas. I hope they enjoyed it! Next year I am starting a tradition with Christian that he has to pick out some toys he no longer plays with and give them to less fortunate children. I want him to know how blessed he is to have so much when there are kids with nothing! I hope this will instill in him a giving and loving heart.



Julie and Steve cooked a wonderful dinner and we had a great Christmas with our families! Thanks to all of them for such a wonderful time and thoughtful presents.

















I am sure I left things out since this happened almost a month ago, so forgive me. The kids received so much that I am having trouble remembering who gave them what at this point. I have yet to send out Thank you cards, but know they are coming! We love you all and thanks for another fabulous holiday!

Christmas Craziness!

Alright, I know that is well into 2009, but I am just now getting my children back to their routines! It has been ridiculously difficult getting them back to our normal lives! Never again do I want to push them like we did over the Holidays! It was overwhelming on so many levels that I can not even write it all down. The next few blogs will be short and sweet with lots of pictures! The Holidays really kicked off a week before Christmas with the Zoolight Safari and Polar Express Train Ride. Christian is so amazed by Christmas lights and just oohs and aahs every time he see them! This makes my parents house ten times more exciting for him because their house is lit up like nothing you have ever seen! I have no pictures, but I should have taken some of Christian outside their home! Santa, Reindeer, Presents, Sleighs, Trains and Candy Canes everywhere, like a winter wonderland! So the zoolight Safari was a success and he loved the light displays and of course the petting zoo was open! We petted the animals and walked around and last, but not least rode the TRAIN! Trains, Trains and more trains, I have never seen one person so obsessed with one thing! Enjoy the pictures!

The Polar Express was something that I had wanted to do with Christian, but forget about it until it sneaks up on me. This year I waited to long and did not realize the tickets went on sell so early. Regardless of my stupidity I was able to get us tickets on their Santa Special, which is basically the same thing as the Polar Express, but during the day and they do not read the story and Santa is on the train the whole ride. Alright so there are alot of differences, but next year I will be on the ball! Christian is still petrified of Santa so it was not such a big deal this year! We got some great pictures of Henley with Santa, but Christian did not want anything to do with him! He loved the train ride and yelled, " All Aboard" before the train pulled out! Christian thought the ride was great until Santa came out! We had a little freak out, but after the storm came the calm and he was o.k. However, he did take a liking to Mrs. Santa and got his picture with her! Everybody was there on the train including his Nene and Poppy who had just gotten into town! We were so glad they were able to join us on this adventure! Hopefully, next year the whole Banta, Mizerany clan can go together! That will be just in time for Preston and Henley to be scared of Santa! Oh well, more great pictures to take of screaming kids! We would not have it any other way!

Christmas just keeps on coming!

Well I have to say, that my blogging has been put on hold for awhile! Christmas has wiped my energy and time! We literally have not stopped going since the 19th of December until now! From family in town, train rides, zoolight safari's, parties and a dinner party on New Year's at our house........I am tired! Did I mention a newborn too? Anyway, this blog is short and sweet and I will update more later on with Christmas and all the adventures we had.

Nene and Poppy came in to town and still had some presents to purchase for the kids. Christian had fallen in love with a toy at a friends house, so I told them about it. I was going to buy it, but would have had to return some other things to do so. Well lets just say, mommy was tired and that seemed too much trouble! He had enough toys so I was not concerned. Nene and Poppy wanted to get it for him, so we ordered it online and it would arrive the first week of January. The toy came in today at Walmart and I went to get it! I knew Christian would love it and of course he did! Here is some video...