Christmas Eve {Christmas with Pappy and Omi}

    We spent our Christmas Eve in Plano with Pappy and Omi. We haven't spent a Christmas Eve/ Christmas in Texas since we lived in North Carolina, so it was special for Aaron to spend it with his family. We ate a ton, as usual, and had fun opening presents after dinner. I really loved my present! You'll see what it was at the end...

 Olivia is excited for her first Christmas Eve!

December Traditions

    December is a busy month for us. I love traditions, and over the years we have added quite a few to the month of December. Here they are, not including our Christmas Eve Traditions.

 Christmas book countdown:

      For the last few years, we have done a Christmas book countdown with Connor starting on the 1st of December. Every night before bed Connor opens a different Christmas book. He can pick them in any order, except for the last two. On Christmas Eve {which we will be celebrating when we are back at our house on the 26th} he will read The Night Before Christmas, and on Christmas day he will read The Christmas Baby.

Olivia: Four Months Old

Olivia,

     Today you are F O U R months old my little princess.  I love you so much, and I show you by giving you a million kisses everyday! I can't help myself because your chubby cheeks are so kissable. You have developed quite a little personality this month. You love to smile and talk to anybody that will listen! Your brother is starting to finally pay attention to you and interact with you. He swears you are saying words when you are cooing and he makes sure I am listening to you. One day you two are going to be best friends, I'm calling it!

XOXO,

Your Mama

{Photos taken on December 21}

Olivia: Four Month Check-Up

    Little Miss Livie had her four month check-up today just three days shy of turning four months. She is petite just like her mama. Her stats are:

Height: 60.2 cm {23.5 in} {33%}

Weight: 5.85 kg {12 lbs 9 oz - with clothes} {38%}

Head: 39 cm {15 inches} {8%}

     The only concern the doctor had was with her head being on the smaller side. Her soft spot was smaller than what it should be, so we will have to keep an eye on it. If for some reason it's even smaller by her next visit, they will have to do a head ultrasound. I went by myself to her appointment, so I didn't get any pictures during her check-up, but here are some from this morning.

Holiday Treats

    I love making treats for people, so when Connor was given the opportunity to take a treat to his class Christmas party, I was all about it. While searching through Pinterest, I saw some cute recipes for snowman soup, which I had never heard of. I loved the concept, so I made 10 bags for the kids in our family and for our friends kids that will be spending some time with us over the holidays.

Connor's Visit to the ER

    So because I like to document everything {because one day I am going to print these out into books for the kids} I need to write about our Saturday spent in the ER. Connor had been running a fever on and off for the last couple of days. On Thursday evening he complained that his neck was hurting. I mentioned to Aaron that a sore neck is a sign of meningitis, but we thought we would see how he was feeling the next morning. The next morning he was back to his old self, until around 3pm he started running another fever. I medicated him the rest of the day/evening. Around 4am on Saturday morning I noticed he still felt warm, so I gave him some more Ibuprofen. When he woke up he was acting normal. We had errands to run and stopped to eat lunch between one of our stops when Connor started shivering. It was cold in the food court, but not cold enough to cause shivers. Then he started complaining that he was tired and his head hurt. I started looking him over and noticed he had a rash on his chest. That's when the red flag came to my mind: meningitis. I told Aaron we needed to take him to the ER to be seen. 

Switching Olivia To Cloth Diapers

    Today was Olivia's first day in cloth diapers, and it was a success. I had been delaying using them because I dreaded the prep phase, but we were finally running low on our fourth box of diapers and realized it was time. I am so glad I finally started using them on her because she looked so darn cute in them.

Family Pictures

      Family pictures are a must for me every year at this time. We need them for our Christmas cards, and the weather is usually nice. This was the first year we didn't include our dogs, and it was the first year we took them ourselves {thank you tripod and bluetooth on the camera to make my phone the remote}. We took them on November 7, right before Aaron left. We thought they were hard with one kid, but then we added another and getting the perfect shot was hard. I could have kept going, but you can see in the last picture that Connor was over it.  

Lately

    Aaron has been gone for a month and we have missed him so much. Thankfully he comes home later today and we are so excited. We have been keeping pretty busy over here between school and traveling over Thanksgiving break. I haven't posted any blogs lately from our day to day life, so I thought this would be a good one to catch up on. I also don't want to forget any of these moments with my babies because gosh, they grow so fast!

November 8, 2017:

Aaron was packing to leave the next day and Connor was really sad.

G & P Ranch

     The day after Thanksgiving, my mom's side of the family got together at the ranch for a fish fry. The weather was perfect, which is hard to count on for Texas! Connor played with his cousins and practiced shooting with his Pepaw. Livie slept a lot and was passed around and carried by everyone. It was a wonderful day filled with good food, lots of laughter, and quality family time.

Thanksgiving 2017

     We had so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We have two healthy babies, a new house, and we are living back in Texas surrounded by family. I can't tell you the last time I spent Thanksgiving with my family {probably 7 years ago}, so it was so nice to spend a holiday with them. The only thing missing was Aaron. We missed him so much, but he’s going to be home in the next dew days so I am thankful for that!

Olivia: Three Months Old {+ 13 Days}

My Little Livie,

    Happy {late} T H R E E month birthday. You, my love, are such a mamas girl and everyone who has met you has seen it. I absolutely love how much you love me. You love to stare at me and are happy as long as you can see me, and are in my arms. Haha! I am super late writing this because you turned three months on Thanksgiving and we were out of town, and then we came home and our internet has been down for over a week. So here I am at Starbuck's writing your monthly birthday blog because I can’t put it off any longer. I love you so much beautiful girl!

Love,

Your Mama

{Photo taken on 11/26. You were 3 months and 3 days old.}

Halloween {And The Days Leading Up To It}

    We love the month of October. We celebrate Aaron's birthday, my birthday, and Halloween! We love Halloween. We did our traditional pumpkin carving a few days before Halloween, and went trick or treating. We planned on passing out candy once we got home from trick or treating, but we got nine kids the entire night. Oh well, more candy for us!

October 25: Carving pumpkins

Olivia's First Nap In Her Crib

    Today Livie took her first nap in her crib. It may have only lasted 15 minutes, but that's a start! She's a cat-napper anyways, so 15 minutes here and there are normal for her. She looked so sweet swaddled in her blanket. I put the same sound machine on that I used for Connor, and the music made her so relaxed. I was able to sneak in and take a few pictures of her right before she went to sleep and also during her nap. 

Spooky Kooky Family Night

    On Thursday evening we went to Spooky Kooky Family Night at Connor's school. It was our first family event at his school since he started, so I was excited to see what it was all about. The evening began with entertainment from Connor's class alongside a few other four year old classes. It was really cute. They acted out a book while the librarian read it, then sang a few songs.

Olivia: Two Month Check-Up

    Yesterday Olivia had her two month appointment. She is doing great and growing so fast! She was such a good girl and didn't cry until it was time for her shots.

Olivia: Two Months Old

Olivia Ann,

      Happy T W O month birthday my littlest love. You have been super fussy today, so I had a little bit of a hard time getting your pictures, but that's how life is so we will just roll with it. You are a little bit of a fussier baby compared to your brother, and that's okay. We just have lots of snuggles  and I hold you a lot. Since you are our last baby, I am enjoying every minute because I know how fast you're going to grow. I love you so much Livie!

XOXO,

Mommy

Aaron's Promotion to SSG

    On Sunday, October 1st, Aaron was promoted to Staff Sergeant. He has been waiting for a long time for this promotion. He has been promotable for over a year, but had to wait until he was sent to ALC. He was finally sent when we moved to Texas and completed the course the week before Olivia was born. Yesterday was his promotion ceremony. Aaron asked his dad to pin him, so he drove down yesterday morning to be here. 

   The ceremony was short and sweet, which was good because it was delayed and we were hot from standing outside. Olivia, who slept the entire time we were waiting, started to get upset as soon as the ceremony started. It was too bright and hot for her, so I don't blame her. Afterwards Aaron had to go straight to staff duty, so we didn't get to celebrate with him, but we are proud of him and he knows it!

Pumpkins, Gourds, and Harvest Corn, Oh My!

    Last weekend we went to the Dallas Arboretum for the second year in a row. This time it was even better because Aaron was with us and we had an extra little pumpkin in our family. This year the theme was The Wonderful World of Oz. We traveled through Pumpkin Village on a yellow brick road just like in the movie. It was really cute. Connor had fun running around picking out his favorite pumpkins and going through the children's hay maze. Olivia slept the entire time. As you can see in the last picture she decided to wake up as soon as we got home, but was still yawning.

Olivia: One Month Old

Olivia,

       You are O N E month old today. I really hope the next month goes by slower than this one because it went by way too fast. We spend all day, every day together and it is wonderful. We like to cuddle and takes naps together while your brother is at school and daddy is at work. Speaking of your daddy, we are quite sleep deprived, but we are surviving off naps and coffee. We love you so, so much and are so lucky to call you ours.

XOXO,

Your Mama

Playground Play Date

    Weekday mornings are usually pretty slow around here, especially now that we added a new baby to the mix. Connor doesn't start school until noon, so we have plenty of time to do things before, however we usually don't go anywhere. I like to take the mornings slow, hence why I chose the afternoon session for school, but yesterday we changed things up a little. A friend and I made plans last week to take our kids to the playground one day this week. We planned to go on Tuesday, but it rained the night before and I was worried the playground would still be wet. We changed it to Wednesday {yesterday} and Connor had so much fun.  Now he is asking to go everyday before school. 

Olivia's Newborn Photos

    On September 4, when Olivia was just a couple weeks old, I decided to take it upon myself to take her newborn photos. I didn't hire a photographer, and tried my best. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy. I was waiting to post them because I wanted to take a few more with an outfit I ordered from Etsy over a month ago, but it's coming from London and still hasn't arrived. So, without further ado, here are my sweeties newborn photos ...

Daddy's Home

    The day Aaron had to go back to work from being off for ten days of paternity leave, he had to leave us for seven nights. We were really hoping he was going to get out of the field exercise because he just had a newborn, but at the last minute he ended up having to go. Connor, Olivia, and I survived though! When he came home, we were all so happy. We missed him and all his help!

My happy boys + Olivia.

XOXO,

Jenn

Mommy + Me

    While daddy's away, mommy and her babies will .... have a mommy and me photo shoot! I really wanted to do a family shoot with all four of us at the house, but Aaron has been gone since last Tuesday and I couldn't wait any longer. I have to take full advantage of Olivia being a teeny, tiny, beautiful, sleepy newborn. While my sister-in-law was here over the weekend, I jumped on her offer to take our pictures! We had so much fun. Well, not everyone did. Connor wasn't very happy to take pictures, so he was only in a few.

Olivia's First {& Second} Tub Bath

    On September 5, 2017 Olivia's umbilical cord fell off, so that meant she could have her first tub bath. She didn't like sponge baths, but liked getting her hair washed, so I wasn't sure how she was going to react to sitting in water. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Connor's First Day of Pre-K

    Two weeks ago my baby started Pre-K. I don't know where the time has gone, but he has grown so fast. He has been begging us to go to school since we moved here, so he was over the moon when his first day of school finally came. 

At The Hospital With Olivia

 August 24, 2017

     Our first night with Olivia went well. Aaron and I were woken up quite a few times by the nurse, the tech, and by Olivia. I was running off adrenaline, so I didn't mind one bit. I was just happy my precious girl was healthy and the delivery went smoothly. 

    That morning, we were woken up by the sweet tech with my breakfast tray and to get my morning vitals. We went to a mandatory class {about shaken baby syndrome} at 11, and then ate lunch together before Aaron went to pickup Connor and my mom. They did her hearing test that morning, and then we gave Olivia her first bath when she turned 24 hours old. After her bath the doctor came in to talk with us because Olivia had not peed in 24 hours. We made the decision, with the doctor, to do an in and out catheter. It was a really hard decision, I cried, but it was the right one. When they brought her back to us we were told she had a full bladder, but peed around the catheter and continued to pee when they took it out. It was a good sign and she just seemed to need a little help.

 Admiring my baby girl.

Olivia's Birth Story

My beautiful girl,

       Today you are one week old. You've only been with us a short time, but I already couldn't imagine our lives without you. You are such a cuddly baby, and you love to eat! When I took you to your first doctors appointment at five days old, you had already gained the weight you lost in the hospital and passed your birth weight. The point of this post is to document your birth. I want for you to always remember how it is you came into this world, so I am going to write your birth story for you just like I did for your brother. Here it goes:

Goodbye Tonsils and Adenoids

    On July 28, Connor had to get his tonsils and adenoids removed. Right before he turned four we noticed that he was snoring really loudly and we would sometimes catch him gasping for air in the middle of the night. We let his physician know at his four year checkup and he recommended we be seen by an ENT once we arrived in Texas. We did just that, and the ENT physician recommended having a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. I wanted for him to have the procedure done before he started pre-k and before his baby sister arrived, so I made the appointment at the earliest available date even though I knew Aaron would be away in San Antonio for school. 

     We were told to be at the hospital at 6:30 am. {It broke my heart because Connor thought we were going to see his daddy and I had to tell him that wasn't where we were going.} After we checked in, we waited in the waiting area for about two hours before they called us back. Connor didn't have any idea what was going on and didn't ask questions until we went into the pre-op area. I got him dressed in the gown and pants they had laid out for him and explained to him that he was going to go see the doctor without mommy, but I would be there as soon as he got out. He nodded and continued watching the cartoons they had for him on the tv.

Spicer, Minnesota: Summer Vacation Part 3

July 5, 2017

    Aaron and I went on a day date that consisted of shopping and lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Willmar. Later that afternoon, we went to Aaron's grandma and grandpas house for dinner. We finished pretty early, so when we got back to the cabin Aaron and I took a boat ride around the lake. We never do things just the two of us, so we really enjoyed it.

Playing games at grandmas house.

Spicer, Minnesota: Summer Vacation Part 2

     I posted the first part of our Minnesota summer vacation yesterday, now today I'll post the second and third part to go with it. 

July 2, 2017

    On this day, we went to Aaron's grandparents house for a BBQ around lunch time. It was another perfect day to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather while the food was being prepared. The kids had fun running around the yard

DFW, Texas to Spicer, Minnesota: Summer Vacation Part 1

     At the end of June / beginning of July Aaron took a little less than two weeks off work so we could go to Minnesota for his grandparents 60th Anniversary celebration. Being that he missed their 50th, he wasn't going to miss this one. We had so much fun with family and relaxing on the lake. Because we were there for so long, I'm going to separate it into three different blog posts.

June 28, 2017

    When Aaron got off work, which was earlier then we expected, we drove to Pappy's house. As soon as we got there we went swimming until dinner time. For dinner we ate sushi, our favorite! We stayed up really late talking with Chrissy and decided at the last minute that we would try and fly to Minnesota the next day because flights weren't looking great for Friday {life of a standby passenger}.

Hinojosa Family Reunion

    Way back on June 24, we went to a family reunion for my dads side of the family. It was so hot, but we had a wonderful time visiting with family we haven't seen in years.

Our Weekend

    This weekend we decided to stay home since we spent the last weekend in Dallas. On Friday we went to a BBQ at Aaron's work.  One of the FRG's had a pie in the face donation table. Connor really wanted to smash one in Aaron's face, so Aaron let him. He was such a great sport. I can't say I would have been the same.

Home Sweet Home

    It's crazy to believe that we have already been living in our new house for a month now, and we are still sleeping on a blow up bed! Let's scratch that, I am sleeping on a blow up bed, Aaron's sleeping on the floor because he can't handle my tossing and turning {gotta love pregnancy insomnia}, and Connor is sleeping upstairs in his room on a cotton filled floor mattress. Minus the sleeping situation, we are loving our new home. We received our small shipment of unaccompanied goods from Italy, but are still waiting for all the rest of our stuff. We are really hoping it comes sometime next week because this 29 week pregnant mama has slept on an uncomfortable blow up bed long enough!

Rabbit Fest

     On May 18, Connor, Aaron, my mom, and I went to the 37th Annual Rabbit Fest in our towns city park. We didn't know much about it, except from the little bit of info that I was able to find online, so it was a surprise for us when we got there opening evening after Aaron got home from work. It was bigger then I imagined, with rides, food vendors, and even a small arts and crafts section. The weather forecast called for rain, but luckily it didn't rain and it just stayed overcast with a nice breeze.

Mother's Day

   Our Mother's Day this year was very laid back. My mom was staying with us for the week, so I got to spend it with my baby and her!  It was the first time in over six years that I was able to celebrate with her, so I was pretty happy.

Closing On Our First Home

     We have been in the process of building a home since September 2016. We knew Aaron was going to get stationed at Fort Hood, and we were really tired of throwing our money away into rental homes, so we decided to buy. Since we both like newer homes and wanted to pick everything out ourselves, building was our best option. The process was a little stressful, especially because we did almost everything from Italy. Thankfully my parents and Aaron's dad made trips to the house for us while it was being built. 

    Back in October I visited our empty lot, took a tour of a home similar to ours, and picked out all of our selections {paint, brick, stone, granite, flooring, etc}. I had a pretty good idea of what it was going to be like, but it was a surprise for Aaron when he saw it for the first time on May 4. We did a final walk through then and then finally closed on May 12. After signing what seemed like a million documents, we were done! We drove to the model home, picked up our keys, and went to see our beautiful new home.

It's finally ours and we love it!

Connor's Fourth Birthday Party

    In April Connor turned four years old. We didn't throw him a birthday party because we were in the process of moving, but we did promise him we would celebrate when we got to Texas. We kept that promise, and on May 6 we threw him a small birthday party at my mom and dads house. He had a lot of fun playing with his cousins and eating the special strawberry cupcakes I made him {he requested them months ago}. 

Goodbye Italy, Hello Texas!

     Aaron and I were both so ready to move back to Texas, so it is no surprise that we hardly slept the night before our flight. Connor was wide awake from the moment we woke him up that morning. I think he was really excited too. We had to leave the hotel by 3am so that Connor and I could catch the shuttle to the airport. Aaron went with a friend and he took both the dogs and all of our luggage. By the time Connor and I arrived, he was already waiting in line to check in. It went mostly smoothly, and the dogs were pretty nervous, but we got them checked in and my worries subsided some.

One Last Trip to Monte Berico

  One of the first places we visited when we moved to Vicenza was Monte Berico {Mount Berico}. There is a beautiful church on top of the hill and an overlook of the city. I thought it would be fitting to visit this beautiful place just one last time before we say ciao to Italy for good. I am so happy we did because it was such a good way for us to end this chapter before we start a new one.

Hotel Living

     I can't believe our time in Italy is just about over. Last Friday we handed over the keys to our Italy house and checked into the hotel on post. We have adapted much better this time around, probably because we had my car for a few days to get us settled in, and because we know where things are this time around. Here are some pictures of how we have passed our time over the last ten days in the hotel.

Easter 2017

    This marked our third and last Easter in Italy. It started slow, and that was just fine with me. Connor woke up to surprises from the Easter bunny and Memaw and Pepaw when he came downstairs. 

 He made that egg garland about a month ago and I just love it!

We Are Having A Girl!

    Oh. My. Goodness guys! We are over the moon that we are going to be adding a little girl to our family. When Aaron and I got married we always talked about how we wanted to have two babies, one boy and one girl. We always said we wanted the boy to come first so he could always protect his little sister. Well our dream is coming true and we feel so blessed.
     Yesterday morning, I had my 20 week anatomy scan. We had a sneak peak at the gender from our ultrasound before, but we weren't 100% sure because the doctor wasn't confident in telling us. We asked the doctor to mark bambino or bambina {the Italian word for baby boy or girl} on a card I printed out the night before. When it came time for her to check the gender, Aaron and I looked away. We were given the envelope after she was done checking the baby, which she looks perfect by the way, and we anxiously made our way home to get ready for our reveal.

Connor's Fourth Birthday

   On Sunday my sweet boy turned FOUR! It's so, so crazy how fast he has grown. Because we move in three weeks, we chose to skip the big birthday party and do something small. We went to the zoo with our good friends, drove through a safari park, ate burgers and shakes at Steak 'n Shake, and then walked around Verona. When we got home Connor played with his new toys and then we sang Happy Birthday. He had the biggest smile on his face the entire day because he knew it was his special day. Here are a bunch of pics I took through out the day...

Connor's Birth Story

My Sweet Connor,

      I can't believe tomorrow you turn FOUR years old! You are seriously the cutest, funniest, most hyper, talkative, rambunctious little boy I know. I am so, so lucky to call you mine.  It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital about to give birth to you. I realized that because I started the blog after you were born, I never documented your birth story. It has been something that I have wanted to do for a really long time, I just haven't made time to do it. Now that we are about to add another baby to our family, I want to make sure to document yours first. It was such a beautiful and special time that I want you to always have this to look back on. A special story of how you came into this world told by me.

CONNORisms 3.0 {All About Baby}

     Babies have been a popular conversation topic with Connor, even before I got pregnant. He has said some really sweet and funny things. One day when he and his future brother or sister read this, they will get a good laugh. I know I did!

 Reading about what it's going to be like to be a big brother.

Saturday at the Park

   Weekends are my favorite and this one has seemed to go by particularly slow. On Friday we had a BBQ at our house with a few friends, and then yesterday we spent the afternoon at a park that was only a 30 minute drive from our house. Our friends were going and invited us, so I said yes and woke up Aaron so we could start getting ready. We met at their house and then followed each other there. It was lunchtime when we arrived, so we setup our picnic in the most perfect, sunny spot. After it was all setup, we realized it was way too bright to get pictures, because you know pictures are everything, so we moved it to a shady spot. We got our one good shot, while our guys were rushing us to hurry up because they were hungr, and then we moved all the food back to the sunny spot. 

 We had so much yummy food we had to get a good picture of it all. 

Carnevale di Malo

   Yesterday we went to another carnevale celebration. This time it was in Malo. We went back in 2015, and had a lot of fun seeing the floats and performers. We knew Connor would have a great time, so we spent our Sunday afternoon there.

Carnival Party in Downtown Vicenza

   Yesterday we went downtown to a carnival party {Vivere il Carnevale}. Carnevale is the Italian style of Mardi Gras and is held over the weeks before Lent. It originated in Venice, but is held in towns around Italy until the Tuesday before Lent {when it's largest celebrations are}. We didn't make it to Venice this year, or any other year we have lived here for that matter, but still wanted to take part. We didn't see any fire breathers, acrobatics, or parades like I read about, but we still had fun and made the most of it! There was plenty of music, confetti, and face painting, and Connor had so much fun.