Go Cats!

Grace sportin' her wildcats gear the day after the big win over KU!

Twinkle Twinkle...I wanna see!

Good Thing Claire was born in the age of digital cameras, she likes the instant gratification of seeing her picture as soon as you take it, " I wanna see!!". It has made taking videos quite a challenge though. We have been trying to capture her singing (including hand motions) Twinkle, Twinkle little star for about a week now...this is the best we have!

Grace 5 weeks old!

Here is a video of Grace at 5 weeks talking up a storm!

I think I figured out videos...

I think I figured out how to post videos....try this. This is one I would have posted a couple of weeks ago. It is through You Tube, so just ignore the stuff that comes up at the end of the video, their recommended other videos aren't ours! : )

Claire's headband

Claire is very proud of her new headband so I had to share this photo...by the way, what happened to my baby, she looks so grown up!

Grace - 5 weeks old!

My little angel is 5 weeks old and you can tell! She is sleeping long stretches at night (thank you reflux meds and the nap nanny), smiling and talking, and is a lot more alert and active during the day and likes to play. She still loves to snuggle and has chubby cheeks that I can't resist kissing all day long. At her 1 month doctor appointment she weighed in at 10 lbs, 1 oz and is 21 inches long, growing like a weed! Here are some pics!

Fun at G&G's

Claire and Ellen had a blast playing at Grandma's, maybe we should all spend some time rolling around and squealing in a pile of stuffed animals, it looks like fun! I have a video of this event, but I think blogger no lnger allows video posts...hmmmmmm.

Baby Hochberg

Here are pictures of both Claire and Grace in the "baby hochberg" onsie, do you know which one is which??

Prince of Peace EEC School Carnival

Claire had lots of fun at her first school carnival...Pizza + popcorn, lots of games and prizes and face painting! Mom and Dad had fun too!

Like Mother like Daughter

Claire is taking after her mom....girly girl who LOVES sports, time will tell if she is an athlete or not! Check out the fairy dress up outfit + Football combination.

The Big Dig

For the 2nd year in a row, KC got dumped on with snow. As the newscasters over dramatize it, they are calling it the Blizzard of 2011. Here is Mike digging us out, his snow piles from shoveling are shoulder high and have some pretty impressive drifts around the house! Our little family has had two snow days at home together this week!

Happy Half Birthday Claire

Claire turned two and a half this week, we made cupcakes to celebrate!

Sisters

Claire and Grace hanging out in jammies!

Grace's First Month

We are almost there, Grace will be one month on Friday! We have been a busy family over the last month and have loved watching Grace grow and do new things every day. She has met her Nana, Granddad and Aunt Beth and has "bonded" with her sister Claire, or should we say Claire has "bonded" with Grace. She continues to be a good baby and sleeper which her mom appreciates. Sure, she has the normal bad nights and goes a little nuts in the evenings but overall we can't complain. She still grunts in her sleep, sometimes for hours but we have gotten used to that. She really likes her tummy time and I think would prefer to sleep that way if we let her. She grunts and moves so much in her sleep she is already getting all over her crib! Grace is also growing like a week, having outgrown all her newborn clothes that were too big on her only 3 weeks ago! She likes her toys and the mobiles over her pack and play and in the play gym. Here are some pics from the last few weeks..... Grace - 3 Week "birthday"

Lovin Tummy time

Playing with her toys, she gets pretty excited and "talks" to them!

Grace's 1st Week

Grace is one week old today, what a sweetie she is. The first 36 hours at home were a bit rough as Mom hadn't figured her out yet. We think a combination of being hungry waiting for Mom's milk to come in and some tummy issues had our little angel a bit adgataded and wouldn't approve of sleeping anywhere but in mom's arms. Once she could eat all that she wanted and got some gas drops she relaxed and is sleeping just about anywhere, but mostly in her crib for naps and definitely at night. Whewwwwwwwwwwww, dodged one for now, but I am not so naive to know that I have about 1 more day until I get another curveball in the ever changing sleeping game. Grace went to the doc for a couple of weight checks and is overachieving and gaining 3 ounces a day and the doc said she looks great! Little nuances to Grace include: lots of grunting and "talking" as she puts herself to sleep in bed, sometimes lasting up to 45 minutes; she is a cuddle bug and would prefer to be curled up in a ball when snuggling; she HATES getting her diaper changed and lets us know it; she loves to play on the floor and gets excited for new sounds and will turn her head. Here a a few other pics from the week, including her first Teddy Bear that came with flowers from Great Grandma Fields!

Snow Days!

The only one of us who officially had snow days was Mike, but all of the schools were closed for 2 days. The first day was in the 20's so still bearable to play outside before the temps went south of ZERO! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Claire was so excited to go sledding with Mike, and loved every minute of it until the sled tipped, she got snow on her gloves (yes on, not in), and that was the end of it, tears and all. Daddy was a bit disappointed she didn't want to play longer, oh well! The last pic is of someone else who had fun playing in the snow and came back in with a face full!

Heading Home!

Here is Grace all bundled up for the trip home for the hospital, although it had snowed a bit the day we went home we got home just in time. The next 2 days it snowed somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 inches!

Welcome Miss Grace!

It's been almost a week that we were blessed with the arrival of a 2nd healthy baby girl, Grace Maren. Turns out she was on her way to joining the world before we even checked into the hospital for the induction Thursday. When I got hooked up to the baby monitors I was having contractions 6 min apart and had progressed since my last doctors appointment. The induction didn't exactly go as planned because before they could give me the cervidel drug they had to monitor Grace for 20 minutes, but someone was so dang active they couldn't keep her on the monitor for more than 5 minutes at a time. I had to lay in a million different positions, the nurse decided she was just going to sit next to me and hold the monitor and we FINALLY got her "monitored" around 11pm so I got the drugs. Of course the night went the same way, she kept moving so nurses were in constantly trying to "chase her down" and not much sleep was had. The good news was once the pitocen was given at 7:15am, things went really fast and our little angel arrived at 10:21am! We had a good couple of days in the hospital, Grace ate and slept well allowing mom to get caught up on some sleep before heading home. She got some good quality time with both Aunt Emily and Grandma and met Grandpa. We had a special 90 minutes of family time when Big Sister Claire came to visit with Daddy. Claire helped change a diaper and got to snuggle with Mommy while Grace and Daddy bonded. Here are a few pics from the hospital!

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year, our last as a family of three + Cali. Had a great time on Christmas Eve at Mom and Dad's with the Barkemeyers and Mere & Jake. Claire and Ellen had the time of their life sliding down the stairs on their tummies, so much so they both had red tummies from their shirts riding up! Christmas was low key with most of the day spent at home, just as we like it. We opened Santa presents, made brunch, opened more presents from the Hochberg side of the family. Claire had the time of her life, and squealed multiple time! We headed to church to tell Baby Jesus Happy Birthday and then had a light lunch at home before mom and Claire both took long naps. We stopped by Grandma Fields house to say hello for a couple of hours, but then headed home in time to play with all of Claire's toys again! I hope all had as special a holiday as we did! Click here for link to our photos on snapfish!

December!

Thought I should put a post on for the month of December, not knowing when I might be able to again. Time will tell if being at home with baby for the next 6 months will result in more or less posts...who knows! The Hochberg's are READY....ready for the holidays, ready for baby girl to arrive and I am especially ready to be done being pregnant. Presents are wrapped, diapers are purchased and I am one HUGE contraction with a lot of back pain. I have officially made it longer in this pregnancy, Claire was here at this point. I also think I will make it a couple more weeks, but you never know. : ) Blood pressure is hanging steady at an acceptable measure, not dialted at all and this was only my 2nd week without the progesterone shot to prevent labor. However, now that baby is head down (her birthday present for her mom), maybe that will be enough pressure to start something! Claire has been doing well, is liking school, getting more sassy by the day and is very obsessed with Santa at the moment. The sassiness has turned into flat out acting up, the usual 2 yr old behavior that you hear about.....deciding she doesn't want to walk and going limp in the middle of the parking lot, running away from us, hitting, etc....fun times! Good thing she is just so dang cute and I can't resist kissing her little cheecks! Daddy has also particulary enjoyed her new high pitched scream that she thinks is fun....she really is a girl! Here are a few recent pics of our little lady! Breakfast Pinic with Daddy Sporty Claire Excited for her Christmas party at school

Happy Birthday Ellen in Peeka

Claire is all about birthdays and birthday parties, so today was a good day...Ellen's 2nd Birthday party in Topeka (Peeka as Claire says). It started one weekend in September when we had 2 of our neighbor kids birthday parties to attend...every since then she has been obsessed and wants to know when it is her birthday again. She wants "Happy Birthday Cake" and "Happy Birthday presents". Halloween is starting to rival birthday parties though and has become another of her favorite questions too! Anyway, we had a great time at Ellen's party and Claire forgot she was shy running around with Ellen, helping with Maggie and playing with Madi and Taylor! Other than that the Hochberg house is on baby countdown. We made some progress this weekend on the baby's room, went through tubs of clothing and bedding and started getting ourselves ready and our heads around the whole situation. This week is hospital registration and from there it is all just up to the little lady to keep growing so she is big and strong when it is time for her to make her appearance. Oh and hopefully she will have a name sometime soon too! Here are some pics from today enjoy.... Ellen and Claire....HUGS! Holding and Feeding Maggie Just a REALLY GOOD pic of Mom and Taylor!

Halloween

So I realize how long it's been since I posted, I am not going to try to catch up, just post about where we are now....Halloween!! Claire had a great Halloween, for a shy girl, she sure did have a GREAT time trick or treating and handing out candy. A few of the older kids costumes were a little scary but overall Dorothy a great night! Here are a few pictures..... Carving pumpkins! Our Little Dorothy Claire and all the Hochberg pumpkins! "Looking, but not touching the candy!" She had to put her hands behind her back because it was so tempting! Dorothy + her friends ( Bride Cinderella and Jessi from Toy Story) Claire waiting for "more kids", she had fun handing out candy!