Meeting the Family

Despite the tiredness that comes with a new arrival, we are all doing pretty well. We put our house on the market last Monday. Over the weekend, we headed up to the Twin Cities to meet with our new realtor up there to start looking for our new house. While there, we had a fairly constant stream of family and friends coming over to meet Sarah.

Along with all the visitors, Austin and Sarah have also received many gifts...

Check out the adorable cookie bouquet from the Cronks.A really big fire truck with real fire truck noises for Austin, along with "Cars" crayons and a Nascar coloring book. Thanks Gramma and PopPop!

And an adorable hat for Sarah from Auntie PiPi.And just in case you think we only ever dress her in pink, check out this cute outfit Nanny got her.

Austin has overall been pretty good, but has started to have some more attention seeking behaviors. He now begs "No, mommy. You have to pick ME up. Put baby Sarah in her bed." He has had a few wetting accidents, but has otherwise stayed pretty steady on potty training (thank God!). Still working on going #2 in the potty though (I'm sure you all wanted to know that!).

Here is Austin happy to be getting some time alone with Mommy.

Grandpa enjoying some snuggle time with Sarah. That recliner chair he is sitting in has been around since before I was born (and I turn 29 today, so that's a LONG time!). Bath time! Grandpa is the expert at giving baby baths.

Nanny snuggling our fresh clean baby after her bath.All cozy in some fleece footie jammies and showing off her full head of hair.
On Saturday, Jenna, Trish, and Alexis came over to meet Sarah.

Jenna with Sarah.
Beautiful Miss Alexis.Cuddles with Trish.
Alexis had a very loose tooth, so Auntie Marsh offered to pull it out for her.Out it came with a little tug. This was her first baby tooth lost.
Now it is safely tucked away in a little box to take home and leave for the tooth fairy.She also got a chance to hold Sarah.
Hard to believe that Alexis was about a third of Sarah's size at birth!
Then Michelle and Brian joined us at Nanny and Grandpa's house on Saturday. Michelle had met Sarah a few hours after she was born, but Brian hadn't gotten a chance to meet her yet.

Sarah with Michelle and Brian (her Godparents). Aren't they adorable?
Snuggling comfy with Brian (and finding her thumb to suck).

Grandma Dorothy got to meet her newest great-grandchild as well.

We also made a quick stop to see GiGi (aka the kids' great-grandmother, my Nanny) so she could meet her 3rd great-grandbaby.

GiGi and Sarah.
Kevin and Keng came over for supper on Saturday night and Kev got some cuddle time in.
Look familiar?
Here's Kevin with Austin around this age.
Back to Sarah...
Checking out Uncle Kevin.
High five!

On Sunday, John and Jane McNeil came by.

Then Jeannie and Christopher Fichtel and Hap Strombeck came by on Sunday afternoon after we got back from touring some houses with our realtor.


Sarah's getting pretty good about finding her thumb to suck on. She seems to have picked this up quicker than Austin did. Check out the Notre Dame onesie Michelle got her too.
Snuggle time with Daddy.
And our blur of a 3 year old...
Austin! (Mr. Rambunctious)

People who remember Austin as a baby have been commenting on how much Sarah and Austin look alike at this age. Just as a comparison...

Sarah at 2 weeks old...
Austin at 9 days old...
Do you think maybe these 2 are related?

Next up...baptism. Since the Church does not do baptisms during Lent, we had to either get baptism in before Ash Wednesday (2/17) or wait until after Easter. By the time we get past Easter, Sarah will likely no longer fit the baptism dress that I wore and Jenna wore and I will be back to working a crazy busy schedule by then, so we decided to go ahead and have her baptism this upcoming Sunday, despite the fact that it is Valentine's Day. We hope we are not spoiling anyone's Valentine's Day plans. Of course, there will be photos of that event to come.