All dressed up!

It is so much fun dressing up a little girl!
OH.MY.GOODNESS!

I had a blast dressing Brynlee up for her 1st Christmas!

We had a few Christmas' this year 

so we got to dress her up in a few cute outfits!

Her first outfit..."Santa's little helper."

LOVE how innocent and sweet she looks in this picture!

 The outfit had an adorable tutu to go with it!

 On Christmas Eve we got her dressed up 

in this precious dress that I got from my aunt Jodi.

She looked so adorable in it!

Of course we got a few pictures of her in the dress.

 On Christmas Day we had another cute outfit

to dress her in from her auntie Tina!

"My 1st Christmas" outfit!

So sweet!

 And how about this adorable outfit?!

We got her all dressed up for a wedding last weekend.

Again...another tutu!

So much FUN!!

Just an absolute dolly!

LOVE her!

A very special someone...

Last week we said good-bye 

to a very special someone in our lives.

Makenzie is the gal that has taken 

care of Cohen for the last three years.

She will be starting a new chapter in her life

as she will be getting married!

They will be moving to another community

so she will not be able to take care of Cohen anymore.

Cohen absolutely loves and adores Makenzie.

She has been a significant part of Cohen's life

in helping him learn and grow.

There was never a dull moment at daycare with Kenz!

From playing games to making crafts to building forts...

they were always doing something fun and exciting.

She made his daycare experience an awesome one!

He looked forward to going each and everyday.

We feel so blessed to have Makenzie in our lives.

The last three years have been a blast!

We are sad to see her go but are so excited

 for her to start her new journey in marriage.

 Love this picture!

 Sledding fun!

A picture of Makenzie, Cohen, and his buddy Jacob.

We will miss you Kenz!

Thank you for taking care of Cohen.

It has been a truly amazing experience

and we greatly appreciate all you have done for us.

Good luck and best wishes!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Brynlee's newest friend

Brynlee met her newest friend Ellie on Wednesday!

Ellie was born this past Monday.

She is one adorable little lady!

She looks like such a peanut compared to Brynlee.

It is amazing how fast babes grow and change.

There is less then 5 weeks age difference

between the two of them but Brynlee sure looks big.

 What a sweet little girl!

 My great friend Laura and Ellie!

We are so happy for the Bussler family.

This little lady is one sweet blessing!

Laura and I have big plans for these two girls.

Of course we hope for them to be 

good friends just as we are!

They might not have much choice :)

Congratulations to Laura and Lance 

on your beautiful bundle of joy!

Brynlee is excited for her new friend!

One month old!

Brynlee is one month old today!

This last month has been amazing.  

Of course the time has flown by with her.

It is crazy to think she is already a month.

We have enjoyed every second with this sweetie!

 She has definitely started to get bigger.

She seemed like such a little peanut (and still does)

but she is getting chubby cheeks and legs.

She is outgrowing her newborn clothes.

So we have moved onto 3 month clothing.

Always a little sad putting those newborn outfits away.

 Brynlee is a great sleeper!  

She sleeps between 3 to 4 hours at a time.

She rarely cries.
When she is hungry instead of crying, she grunts!

When she is awake she is very laid back and content.

We have started to see a few smiles.

She makes a lot of faces likes the picture above.

And she is making noises and trying to talk a little bit.

She is a nookie baby!

She is soothed with that little pink nuk!

I love little babies with nuks.

Adorable!

Happy 1 month birthday Brynlee!

Ho ho ho!

Last weekend we went to visit the Big Guy in Red!

The last two years that we have gone to visit Santa

Cohen has been afraid of him.

We got pictures of him both years but that was after 

a few tears and a lot of coaxing.  

This year was a different story.

He walked right up to him and sat on his lap.

He even gave us a big smile!  

I think he is really starting to understand 

that Santa is a "good guy" rather then a scary guy.

So here is an adorable picture of the kiddos with Santa!

Brynlee was not afraid of Santa either :)

She slept right through our visit with him.

Brynlee's 1st picture with Santa...a great one!

Hopefully they both get what they asked Santa for this year!

Brynlee's room

I am so excited that we have FINALLY 

completed Brynlee's baby room!

Her room has been a work in progress for quite some time.

I was waiting to add a few finishing touches

before posting pictures of her room.

So here it is...

Brynlee's room which I absolutely love!

This fall my parents came out and painted her room.

I wanted a lighter aqua color.

Finding the perfect color aqua was difficult!

We bought paint which we thought was aqua

but it turned out to be a mint green on the wall.  

It was not pretty!

So back to the store to try again.

We definitely got an aqua color this time around.

A little bright but I really like it. 

One of the finishing touches we added this weekend.

A wall decal above her crib...it really added to the room!

 A picture of the room at a glance.

 Brynlee's crib and name decal.

 The book corner...

Love the bird pictures for her room.

So happy with how her room turned out.  

I hope she loves it as much as I do :)

Cohen's 3 year update...

Wow!  Cohen is three!

We had Cohen's 3 year check up a couple weeks ago.

We have been a bit busy so 

I am a little late on his update so here goes...

Cohen is: 

~32 lbs. (58th percentile)

~37 1/4 inches tall (46th percentile)

At the age of 3, Cohen likes:

~reading books

~imaginary play

(playing superheroes, going to school, hunting, 

being a construction worker, playing doctor, etc...)

~Buzz Light Year

~putting puzzles together

~playing "soccer"

~playing with toy figurines

~riding bike

~watching cartoons: 

favorites...Mickey Mouse, OSO, Jake and the Neverland Pirates

~watching movies:

favorites...Toy Story, Tarzan, Shrek, Peter Pan

~Candy

~ Cookies and Donuts

Cohen continues to learn and do new things everyday!

~He can count to 20

~Count backwards from 10

~He can identify numbers 1 through 10

~He is potty trained

~Cohen does well with matching and memorizing

~He can spell his name

~He can identify his letters in his name

Cohen continues to amaze us!

He is a great kid...for the most part.

He is three so he has his moments.

Cohen is very strong-willed and can be stubborn.

He can also be a sweet, kind, and caring little boy.

He loves his sister dearly!

(Cohen got a blizzard for his birthday treat

on his birthday and loved it!!)

Cohen is no longer a baby or even a toddler.

He has become quite the little boy!

And we love him with all our hearts!!

Brynlee's Two Week Check-Up

Brynlee is 2 weeks old!  

We had Brynlee's 2 week check up on Wednesday.

She is a growing girl...

Brynlee weighed 7 lb. 12 oz.(47%)

 and she was 20 1/2 inches long. (61%)

Her head came in at 37 cm...92 percentile.

She gained over a pound back from her first 

check up last week to her 2 week appointment...yay!

Her and Cohen are nearly mirroring each other

when it comes to growing!

When they were born they were almost exact...

Cohen weighed 7 lb. 7 oz.

Brynlee weighed 7 lb. 8 oz.

2 week check-up...

Cohen weighed 7 lb. 12 oz.

Brynlee was the same.

Cohen measured 19 1/2 inches at birth. 

So did Brylee!

2 week check-up...

Cohen measured 20 3/4 inches.

Brynlee measured 20 1/2 inches.

It will be interesting to see if Brynlee 

continues to grow in similar patterns as Cohen.

If so, we could have a chunky little girl at about 3 months :)

Brynlee is a very laid back and content little girl.

She doesn't cry very often...

only if she is hungry or needs her diaper changed.

She is an excellent sleeper!

She usually only wakes up once overnight for me.

Her big brother absolutely adores her.  

He gives her lots of kisses and is always willing

to shares his blankets with her.

We are loving every minute with Brynlee!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from the Chap's!

We are so thankful for so many things this year...

Family, friends, good health, jobs we enjoy,

a house to live in, food to eat, etc...

But we are extra thankful this year for

these two kiddos!

We feel so blessed to have two healthy kids

that we absolutely love and adore!

Our hearts are overflowing.

 

 Brynlee's first Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Introducing Brynlee...

Brynlee has arrived! 

We have been BUSY since this little beauty made her debut. 

I am a little behind in posts but I had some time this afternoon

so I thought I would try and give an update.

 

This sweet little lady arrived on November 13th at 8:00 pm.

She weighed 7  lbs. 8 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long.

She is an absolute sweetheart and is an amazing baby!

 

Brynlee arrived a week early at 39 weeks.

I was induced with her because I was experiencing

high blood pressure and some preeclampsia symptoms.

We checked into the hospital bright and early on the 13th. 

The St. Cloud Hospital has recently remodeled

and added on to their hospital.

So....we got a pretty sweet room!

We watched the sunrise from our room which had

windows from floor to ceiling and overlooked the river.

It was beautiful!

We began Pitocin at about 8:15 and my doctor

broke my water about 9:30 that morning.

The rest of the morning was very slow.

Eric and Erin kept me company and tried

their best to entertain me with their sweet dancing skills

and lovely singing voices :)

I didn't make a ton of progress all morning and into

the early afternoon.

By about 3:30 I was feeling a little uncomfortable

but was only dilated to a 3.

I decided to get my epidural in hopes that it would

speed the process up a bit.

I got checked again at about 5 and had dilated to  4 cm.

By the time I got my epidural and check again at 6

I was at 6 cm.  Progress was starting to be made!!

It was a good epidural! 

Once I got that epidural, I felt nothing.  It was great :)

I went from a 6 at 6:00 pm to a 10 at 7:30 pm. 

She was ready to come out and meet us!

I began pushing at 7:42 pm and she arrived at 8 pm.

She came quickly and easily!

I can be completely honest and say it was an easy labor.

I feel very fortunate for that.

 

 Our beautiful little girl!

 Brynlee and her mommy and daddy

shortly after she arrived.

 All snuggled up!

 Getting ready to go home.

 This little lady is all buckled up

and ready to see her big brother.

 Daddy and Cohen snuggling with Brynlee.

 More snuggle time!

 Brynlee's first bath...she didn't like it!

 Big brother and little sister

Brynlee is a great baby so far!

She sleeps most of the day and wakes up to be fed.

And does that routine all over again.

She cries very rarely.

We just love snuggling up this little cutie!

 

We are so blessed!

Thank you to everyone for all the well wishes,

visits, food deliveries, and gifts.

Everyone has been so wonderful! 



Our baby girl has arrived!

We welcomed this little sweetie to our family on Wednesday!

Brynlee was born on November 13th at 8:00 pm.  

She weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. and is 19 1/2 inches long.

She is absolutely precious and we are so in love!

Stay tuned for more pictures of this little beauty!

A Superhero Birthday

A "Superhero" Birthday Party for a super fun little boy!

We celebrated Cohen's 3rd birthday a little early last weekend.

With a little lady due to arrive to soon,

we thought we should have Cohen's party a little early.

 Cohen is all about being a superhero right now.

He doesn't like any specific superhero,

he just likes to act like he is a superhero. 

So why not celebrate Superhero style?!

 I got Cohen a superhero shirt that he absolutely loved!

My mom had made a cape for him for Christmas last year

which went perfect with his little shirt.

Oh...and how can you forget the "superboots" (aka rain boots.)

That is a big part of his superhero character!

 We had this delicious cake!

Cohen got to the cake before I had a chance to take a picture!

With the help of Grandpa,

Cohen was able to blow out his candles on the cake.

A few pictures of the superhero...

 Cohen and mama

 Grandma and Grandpa Remme

 Auntie Jesse and Jeremy giving Cohen birthday smooches!

 "Cheese" with auntie Carrie

 Big smiles with Auntie Tina

 He had to put his arm around Erin for this picture :)

 Auntie Erin and Uncle Josh

 Grandpa Roger and Grandma Julie

 Love this picture!

Trying to get a decent picture is not easy.

Love all of their expressions!

Cohen had a wonderful time at his birthday party!

Thank you to everyone that came out to help

him celebrate his 3rd birthday! 

 

This Saturday will be Cohen's actual birthday.

Happy Birthday to my little superhero!

We love you!!!