Ian James has arrived

Yes he is here. Born at 3:39 am on Friday February 20, 2009, via emergency c-section. He was a little guy weighing 6lbs 5 ozs and 19 inches long. It has been quite the crazy month as we have started to adjust to having a baby in the house again. I have had a difficult time getting used to 2-3 hours of sleep at a time at night. Bella was such a good sleeper from the start, I was hoping for the same again. Ian is a joy to have in our lives and he is growing and changing every day. He will be 1 month/4 weeks old already on Friday and that just seems crazy to me. It has gone so fast already. Here are a few pictures of our little guy.Only 2 hours old.

All cozy after his first bath.

Our family.

Ready to go home.

One week old.

Two weeks old.Three weeks old. (same outfit as last week!)

Getting Ready for Baby

Sorry I have not posted in a while. We have been really busy getting the house ready for the new baby due to arrive any day now, plus our Internet has been acting up, taking 5 minutes to load a page. Now it is fixed and I can show you how our house has changed. We finally have two rooms with walls that are not white. Isabella's room is painted a nice light purple color and she is settling into her big girl bed. We have had some struggles with her staying in but overall she is doing well.

This is her being silly on her new bed and a me looking very pregnant.

Posing with all her pillows on her big girl bed.

Then we stated working on the baby's room. We painted yellow because it looked really well at the old house and we could not decide on another color.

Here it is all ready for the new little one.



Bella is ready to be a big sister. Here she is kissing my belly and saying I Love You.

North Carolina

The day after Christmas, at 5am we left for North Carolina to visit Jim's sister and her family. It was an early morning but Bella went back to sleep in the car and we made it to Ohio before she woke up. We planned to make the entire trip down in one day and despite some rain, fog and a traffic back up we did it. It only took us 14 hours total, including several stops along the way.

Fog in the mountains of West Virginia.

Once we were there it was nice to relax and not drive around too much. The Mast's took us to a great playground not to far from there house and as you can see it was nice enough for no coats!!
Bella had a great time and did not want to leave.
Here she is riding the giant fish.

The Cousins-Bella, Brayden and Jacob.
Aunt Dawn and Bella at the White Water Center that is across the river from their house.Isabella is a natural at the rock climbing. She loved it!!! Here we are by a Palm tree in South Carolina. It was a beautiful day with temps in the 60's and plenty of warm sun.

Bella and Uncle Brent being silly.

The view of the Mountains as we headed home.

Bella relaxing in the car not too long after we left on our trip home.


This is what we came back too. A snow covered car. After making back to Ohio the first day. We came back to cold weather and more snow once we made it into Michigan, but it was a great trip and I am glad we got to go visit Jim's sister and her family.

Christmas Time

Christmas came and went so quickly this year, but we had a lot of fun. Isabella really got into the opening of presents part of it, although when she got something she really liked she only wanted to play with that toy and open no more gifts. Our first Christmas party was the weekend before with Jim's family.

Ready to rip it open!!

Bella got a new doll house from Grandpa Kuntz that she absolutely loves to play with.

All the Kuntz cousin's minus Brian for a recreation of last years Christmas photo. Darin, Lydia , Brayden, Jacob and Isabella.

Then on Christmas Eve we had a Christmas party with my extended family, on my mom's side. It was at my Uncle Fred and Aunt Laura's house this year, and there was so much more room than usual, a great time with lots of delicious food.

Here is a photo of me with my mom, dad and sister Kerri and Ashley.


Here we are as a family trying to get Isabella to stay still long enough to take a picture.

Here she is again posing in front of the tree.



After gifts were opened she wanted to put her pj's on and go home. While we packed everything up she played with the left over ribbons and bows.

Christmas morning at our house was a normal Christmas morning. We were up before Isabella like we have been the past two Christmas's. She slept until 8:30am (we are so lucky). Santa brought her lots of great gifts and her favorite was definitely her new kitchen. She didn't really want to open anything else, oh and she loved the new hat she got from Aunt Linda.

Merry Christmas!!!

After opening gifts at home on Christmas morning we were off to my parents for more presents. Bella got a palace and a camper for her Little People and we all had a nice Christmas brunch.

Visiting Santa and More Fun in the Snow

On Wednesday Jim stayed home with Bella and they had a beautiful sunny day to go out and play in the snow. Bella "fed" the reindeer in the front yard and did a great job at making snow angels.

Then on Friday night in we went to downtown Lowell and visited with Santa and his reindeer. Bella loved the reindeer and was not scared to pet them at all. It was freezing cold and it even started to snow, but Isabella did a great job waiting for the 45min to see Santa. She was excited to see him but would not sit on his lap, so Mommy got her picture taken with Santa too!

December Snow

It has been a few snowy days in a row and on Saturday Bella got to go outside and play in the snow. She did much better this year, but she kept trying to eat the snow.







Then on Saturday night in the freezing cold and snowy weather we went to Downtown Lowell and watched the Santa Parade. We were frozen solid but it was so much fun and Isabella loved seeing the lights and waving to Santa.

Thanksgiving

We had a great first Thanksgiving at our new house. Mom, Dad, Kerri, and Grandma Julie came over for dinner with Jim, Isabella and me. I have to say everything turned out great. I stressed out over it and the hardest part was just timing everything to get done on time. It was a great day and we have so much to be thankful for this year.

The table set with Thanksgiving dinner before we gobbled it all up .

On Saturday we decorated the house and tree. Our tree is an artificial one that was just the right size in our old house but now it looks really small. We will probably be getting a real one next year, or a larger artificial one. Bella got to put the angel on top of the tree.

Here she is posing by the tree, and not touching any ornaments, for the moment :)

The house with lights and the snow that fell on Sunday.