Born Natural

Thank God he does this with some crazy ease so Momma can get dinner on the table!! I can not wait to see him as a Daddy!

Adventures in Mommahood

• Lefty is still killing me. This morning I was sooo tired and in pain that I would take a sip of my hot coffee and then press the side of the hot coffee mug up against Lefty to get a little relief... gross but true. Why oh why must one clogged gland make me feel like I have the flu!!

• Griffin (I think) is getting his first cold. Last night he woke up at 12:30, 2:30, and 4:30 crying and choking on what I'm guessing is mucous. I could hear it in his throat when I went to pick him up out of bed. Poor little guy he sounds miserable. It was a blessing in disguise I guess because I was able to nurse him on Lefty every time he woke up instead of him (and me) going all night without a feeding.





Sleeping on Daddy is just the best! He's so warm and soft! I sleep pretty dang good next to him too :).


• Graham has a school play tonight and I'm super excited! Bobby is actually taking off of work early to make it in time and we all can't wait for that! He will be elf in it and I can't wait to do a blog post to show off my boy!





Graham is the best baby holder! Also, I have to mention just for my own memories sake, the outfit that Griffin is wearing in this picture used to be Grahams! I love it!


• Speaking of Graham (and something that I've never divulged here before), his school testing is almost complete to find out if he has learning disabilities! We are 99.9 % sure that he does just not which ones. Any readers out there that have a kiddo with LD please leave me a comment! Even you lurkers... :) Oddly enough, this is also something that we are excited about because we have been begging his school district to test him since Kinder. GRRR...





Griffin says "Thanks for my soft, comfy outfit Kerry!"


• Griffin has learned how to bounce himself in his bouncy seat!! He finally figured out that if he kicked his legs up and down then it gets him bouncing. He loves it and entertains him soo well. My dishwasher that got unloaded thanks him. :)



And yet another random picture...my middle "baby" Grady. We had such a fun time the other day cutting snowflakes! (also another post coming up soon)



My Breast Friend

Good old lefty. She was always there when I needed her. She was the best producer of the two and I could always count on her to supply enough for my little ones whenever they were hungry. I was soo proud!

Not so much anymore.

Last night around 1 AM Lefty let me down in the most horrible way possible. Lefty got plugged up and then Lefty proceeded to get an infection. I went from waking up at 1 AM in a little bit of pain to getting into a hot hot shower by 2 AM, then onto the living room to try and pump (Griffin was sacked out cold and there was no way in HECK I was going to purposely wake him up). By 2:30 ish I was in pain past the point of me baring it. I took my temperature and it was 99.7. I knew that there was something bad going on in my chest. I woke Bobby up when I started shivering and sweating uncontrollably. When he took my temperature at 3 AM it was 102.1. Crap.

We decided that it was time to call my OB's office and see if we should head to the ER or wait it out for the next morning and call for an appointment. Thanks be to God that it was my OB, Dr. Womack, that was on call! She called me right back and I told her what was going on. She said that it was up to us as to if we should wait for an appointment or head to the ER. She pretty much said what I knew all along. Pump and breastfeed as.much.as.possible. She also asked if we had any leftover antibiotics from any family member floating around our house. Sadly we didn't so I couldn't start on anything earlier rather than later.

Bobby and I barely survived the rest of the night. My fever spiked at 103.2 around 4 AM. I was just soo shocked that I went to bed just fine and hours later I felt like death warmed over.

My sweet hubby took Griffin and myself to my OB's office for a quick check and a prescription for antibiotics. Ugg. I'm feeling a little bit better now. I still feel like I'm fighting the flu though. I can't wait for my hubby to get home tonight so I can head back off to bed!

Christmas Home Tour ~ 2011

 Welcome to the Mueller Family Christmas home tour!

This is my AB-solutely favorite time of year! With more time and more money I don't think that I would stop decorating until well after Christmas and maybe past New Years even! :)

I love to put decorations on anything that will stand still and I'm trying to slowly but surely build up a Christmas collection of all my favorite things!

I am in LOVE with collecting blue ornaments! Every year I try to buy 4 or 5 more to add to my collection. I hope that one day I can have a solid blue tree. Right now though, it is still a bit mish-mashy. I have 2 little helpers that love to decorate too so my "dream tree" plans are put on hold for just a few more years... :).

My other favorite thing to collect are Jim Shore Santa's. They are a bit on the pricey side so I only add 1 each year.



These are 4 of the 5 that I have so far. Isn't he a handsome gentleman? :)



We also love to keep little tubs of books around for the kids to grab and read. We must read one Christmas story or another 15 times a day now! That's ok though, I'm pretty in love with the magic of the season myself!

The only thing that I miss doing is having a lighted tree in our front window that can be enjoyed by others as they drive by. The way that our house is situated our dining room is the front room of the house and we don't like to keep our tree in there. We usually keep our tree in our family room area where it can be enjoyed the most. I'm thinking that this year I may need to make a run to Hobby Lobby after Christmas to see if I can pick up an artificial one for my dining room!



Our Family Room!



The front door and other little nooks and crannies I found to decorate!



This is one of the most precious places in our house to me! Its on the right hand side of our mantle. In the middle is our precious angel Caroline's little urn. I was super excited to find a pink "M" picture frame holder that I put my 3 boys Christmas picture in. I like to think that I have at least one place where all my babies are together!





Our downstairs bathroom was not safe from me either. Funnily enough, there is soo much more in this little tiny bathroom but I couldn't capture all of it with one camera shot!

Our dining room buffet area. I love to look at my Santas when I walk in the door!

Our dining room table. I found the Christmas tree centerpiece this year and love it but I still feel like the table needs more but can't figure out what!

I hope that you all enjoyed this year's Christmas time tour!

A Quiet Christmas Season

This year I have felt like quiet the Christmas slacker. Sure the tree got put up, the house decorated, and quite a few cookies baked (and already scarfed down). But other than that we haven't done a ton. Maybe it's because we have Griffin now and he's just still so little that I hate to drag him around town with there being like 90 times more germs out there right now than usual. Or maybe its the slight sleep deprivation that I am still coping with. Maybe its that things are just plain harder with 3 kids in tow versus just 2. I don't know. Now that it is December 6th already and our poor little Elf on a Shelf, Jerry, is still in his box and has yet to make his grand appearance, I feel bad.

It is time to dig deep, suck it up, and get a move on already! I am bound and determined that even if we don't leave the house (I'm sorry, it just still skeeves me thinking about Griffin and all those germs) we will still try and do a little something Christmas-y every day!

After Graham left for school this morning I had Grady start a little project.



Grady was doing his best here to look at me and smile but "Fireman Sam" was on TV and he was having a hard time concentrating! :)



I couldn't find any Christmas coloring pages around the house so I made my own! I did my best to draw what Grady requested and did pretty good until I had to try and draw a tractor for him. He kept telling me "Oh, thank you for my truck!". Tractor, truck, oh well, as long as Grady is happy with it! :)

After he got done, Grady told me that these pages were for his Mimi (my Momma) for her Christmas present! So so sweet! We will have to bundle them up with a pretty ribbon for her and tuck it under the Christmas tree. The other day he trooped in from outside with another gift for her...

I was super proud of him. Really fun and interesting looking sticks are hard to come by for little boys and the fact that he wanted to share it with her for Christmas made my heart just melt! We will have some very interesting presents under our tree this year for sure! :)

This past Sunday we lit the first fire of the season in our fireplace and it was just soo beautiful! I love to have a nice fire going and would do it everday if I could. It could be 90 degrees outside and I would still do it!

With the flash...

Without the flash...

I couldn't decide which picture I liked the best... :)

Griffin Is 2 Months Old!

I can't believe that my baby is getting so big already!

I know that this is the lament by every mother out there. Our kids just grow up too fast. One moment they are tiny, sweet, helpless little newborns and before you know it... BOOM they are all " I can totally play with toys, BRING ON CHRISTMAS TOYS MOMMA!"

Exhibit A, B, and C.

Griffin has begun to notice tags and strings and pretty just loves to gaze at himself. With the above toy he is pretty much in LOVE! I really need to dig out more of the baby toys I put away after Grady outgrew them.

And now onto some random fun facts about Griffin now!

• Griffin just got his first round of immunizations at the pediatricians office the other day. He did great! He only cried for just a moment but then quieted right down.
• He weighs 12 pounds 10 ounces (75th percentile) is 23 1/4" long (67th percentile) and has a head circumference of 38.4 (20th percentile).
• To the above 20th percentile for head circumference and my resounding "WHA??" to the doctor, she said that that was the same percentile as he was before and his head is still growing so I shouldn't worry.
• Griffin is quickly outgrowing clothes that are 0-3 month size and is wearing mostly 3 month or 3-6 month clothing.
• He is still wearing size 1 diapers but I see him outgrowing them in the near future.
• Griffin is still nursing almost exclusively. He usually takes 1 formula bottle at night from Bobby and maybe a random one during the day if we are out and about somewhere that I don't feel comfortable nursing.
• He is sleeping soo good at night (I know, I should shut-up right this second before I jinx myself.) He almost always sleeps from 10pm - 4 am, nurses then goes right back to sleep. Last night he slept from 9pm - 6am!! I have been trying to scoot up his bed time earlier so he won't sleep so long into the morning.
• Griffin is still sleeping in our bedroom in a pack n' play and swaddled. I don't know how things will go once we transition him to his own room and without the swaddle. I am more than just a little scared about it.
• He really is interacting more with those around him. When he's in a super happy mood he has been trying to coo (really still more like a gurgle but I can tell he's trying to talk :). His eyes dart everywhere and you can tell that he is taking it all in!



At the doctors office for his two month checkup!




He looks soo big to me here!

And here are his 2 month "sticky" shirt picture. Did.not.work.out.well. I ordered the clear monthly stickers and I should have gotten white. None of Griffins onesies are plain and so you can see right through them. Grr. I have to go out and buy plain onesie now just for these pictures.  Double grr. I think I took 40 different pictures and these were the best. Oh well. We will just keep trying! Pretty much my most favorite thing to do these days is take my boys pictures all day long! :)

We are soo blessed to have Griffin join our family and our lives for this Christmas season! God is good!

A Very Thankful Thanksgiving!

Wow! What a whirlwind of a week this past week has been!

We celebrated two thanksgivings, hosted one at our house, and had company. I.am.exhausted but so very very thankful! We are surrounded by family and friends who we love and adore and who love and adore us. We have a wonderful house to sleep in, lots of good food to eat, our beautiful children and our health. My list could go on and on and for that I am thankful!

So here is a quick re-cap of our Thanksgiving in pictures!

Griffin was super excited to be having his picture taken. Can you tell ? :) This was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We were waiting on my mother, brother and SIL and their girls to roll into town.

Just as soon as they arrived the big question of "Can I hold the baby?" began. :) This is my niece Alice. We look a ton alike if you compare our baby pictures! I like to think that Caroline might have looked like her... She's just beautiful!

This is my sweet sweet SIL Ann. She is holding Griffin with my other niece and her youngest daughter, Bess.



Little Bess has the sweetest personality! She was such a blessing to have!



My SIL Anne was super smart and brought fun crafts for the kids to do on Thanksgiving morning. The kids decorated ornaments (and some of the adults did too :). They now grace two of our little trees in our house!





The Momma!





We have a tangerine tree outside our house and the kids had a blast picking the ripe fruit! (I laugh a little because I know some of y'all are already seeing snow but here in South Texas we are picking ripe orange fruit :)



The Men had a very rough morning of watching a turkey cook in hot oil for 45 minutes... :)

My mother will kill me for posting this picture! HA! Cheers!

The kids table with all our little turkeys!

The delish Thanksgiving lunch!

Later that night (and after naps were had by all) we went out to a local drive thru light display. It's an awesome place that you can drive around for about 20 minutes that the kids just adore! (Sorry for the terrible picture quality... my camera decided that it just did not want to focus in the dark that night)

After the light display  we headed out for a very festive dinner at IHOP. :)

We got a little silly waiting for our food to arrive.



Silly Bess! She had to try Graham's spoon trick too!




Griffin says "Happy Thanksgiving" too!