The Houser's Blog: December 2010

December 2010 was an exciting month for our family...obviously! Not only did we welcome our daughter, but celebrated Christmas and Finley's baptism. That's a lot of things squeezed into 3 weeks :)!

Finley continues to fit right into our family. She's laid back (so far) and just goes with the flow. Although, she woke up with a cold Christmas Eve night and that made for a rough week 2 for her and mommy. We lost a lot of sleep! She seems to be recovering well though I feel so helpless for her when she is so congested and you can't give her anything to help :(. Since she's been feeling better she's been sleeping about 3-4 hours at a time through the night which is helping me get rest.

At her 2 week doctor appointment she appeared to be underweight (she should have been at or above her birth weight) but she was about 5 oz below. So we went back at 3 weeks for a re-check and she was well above her birth weight (she weighed approx. 8lbs. 3oz, a full pound over her birth weight.) which led the doctor to believe the scale may have been off at the 2 week appointment...or she was getting some good milk. Either way, she's healthy!!

Christmas was great. Patrick didn't really understand Santa Claus, but be enjoyed telling us that he says, "HO HO HO". We celebrated our Christmas at home on the 23rd prior to leaving for Centerville. Santa came to our house and surprised Patrick with his presents when he woke up. His big gift was a Little Tykes Basketball Hoop (a big hit). This caused him to believe that every present he received at Christmas time was a basketball. He's all boy since he loves his sports. He made out very well with all of his Christmas'...he must have been a very good boy this year. We have so many toys, books, clothes, etc....to last him all year and beyond. It was a good thing that we bought a van this year, just to bring all the presents home in! It's awesome to know that we are all so loved, and have great families to celebrate the holidays with.

Finley was baptized the day after Christmas in Centerville. This was very convenient for her godparents (our good friends, Seth and Melissa VanSickel) and our families. Finley slept through the entire mass and baptism. She was too cute and her big brother even serenaded us when the baptismal candle was lit. It was priceless, he instantly (without help) began singing, "happy birthday". Then Fr. asked him to blow out the candle, so he really did think he was celebrating a birthday! Priceless!

We didn't do too much to celebrate the New Year's Eve this year. The weather was icy, but my sister and her family came up to visit and Matt accompanied them to Seven Oaks that night to snowboard. They had a good time, but he made it home sore...but in 1 piece before midnight. I had kids in bed early and cheated by celebrating NYE on New York time and made it to bed by 1100 :). Such is life with 2 little kids!

Enough said, life is good!

Finley 1 week

Finley 5 days old (our first outing, to our "home visit" at the hospital)

Patrick got all bundled up for his first adventure in the snow. He looked like the kid from the movie "A Christmas Story". He could hardly move, but had a great time!