North Pole Express

Last Saturday we took our little train enthusiast on a ride to the North Pole. Well, not the real North Pole, but a really neat one set up in a train shed. It was so cold out, but we definitely had a lot of fun. Jaxson loved it and was so excited to ride a train. 

We got to talk to Santa, make an ornament for our tree, have a family picture taken, and enjoyed cookies and hot cocoa. 

Patiently waiting for the train

Here it comes.

Jax has come so far in the last year. Last Christmas he wouldn't even stand next to Santa or talk to him. This year he was all about telling him he wanted "an orange bike and an orange wagon." We will have to wait and see! 

Giving our tickets to the conductor and he punched them just like on Dinosaur Train! 

4 months old

Ben is now 4 months old and the time has flown by! People probably get sick of hearing it, but he is such a good baby. He rarely cries and is always smiling and laughing. He brings so much joy to our lives. 

At his 4 month appointment he weighed in at 16 lbs and is 24 in long. He sleeps through the night most nights. He has started eating rice cereal and really seems to like it. He's rolling over, but not all the time. He will normally roll over and then once he's on his stomach get mad and start fussing. 

This is how I see Ben most often trying to roll or reaching for  toys! 

His smile melts me! 

He keeps finding his thumb and he'll start sucking on it, but isn't a complete thumb sucker yet. 

I saw this idea on Pinterest where you put your baby in their stocking for their 1st Christmas...well, I think it might be intended for a little younger baby. I do like how the pictures turned out and Ben is such a good sport and just smiles and laughs along. 

Mommy's Little Helper

Jax has now turned 3 and with that came a new interest in all things cooking. He LOVES to help us in kitchen and while it now takes a little longer and is a little messier, I love sharing this time with him! Here we are decorating Halloween cookies and making cupcakes! 

Concentrating so hard on his decorating! 

Busted licking the spoon by Mom. Needless to say we didn't share these cookies with others. 

Such a big boy and he has recently discovered the yumminess that is licking the beaters! 

Love him so much....to the moon and back! 

12 months pregnant???

A very good friend of mine has reminded me that I'm a horrible blogger. I make the resolution to be a better blogger about every other month, but this time....I'm going to do it! 

To catch everyone up we gave birth to a perfect baby boy on August 2nd, we named him Benjamin Anthony and he is just perfect! He's also a GREAT baby and that's not just Mom being biased. Our daycare provider calls him the BEST.BABY.EVER. He's so content and SO happy! 

So here are some pics to catch you up on our little bundle! 

 I love looking at his monthly pictures to see how much he as changed. He's three months old now and sleeps from 8-5 most nights, is so close to rolling over, and he's a talker. He loves to talk, talk, talk!

Jax really needed to get in on the monthly picture taking. In the second picture, he's showing the owie that he got making pancakes that morning! 

Our daycare provider sent this picture this week. Ben just trying out the exersaucer for the first time. Looks like Mom needs to get ours out of the basement! 

I tried to take full advantage of the "sleep when they sleep mentality." My favorite sleeping is cuddling with him though! 

Baby Update--5 weeks left!!!

We had our weekly doctor's appointment on Monday. Our weekly doctor appointment now consists of a non-stress test and meeting with my doctor. We also had our monthly (and last) growth scan. 

The biggest news is that the baby has flipped. It's no longer breech and is head down. This is a huge relief for me. I was nervous about having the procedure to turn the baby! Now if the baby would happen to turn in the next 5 weeks, we would schedule c-section. 

Speaking of scheduling, we have scheduled our induction for Wednesday, July 31st at 6am. My doctor isn't planning on the baby coming until Friday when she is in labor and delivery. This makes me a little anxious, knowing that we are going in on Wednesday and she already isn't planning on the baby until 2 days later! I would love for this child to come on it's own before the 31st, but just not too early! 

We took our monthly baby bump pic: 

Celebrating Jaxson!

May 30th marked one year since the day we first got to hold Jaxson in our arms and on June 1st we celebrated one year of being together in Iowa. I can't believe that it's been a year. This year definitely flew faster than any year in my life. I can't believe how much Jaxson has grown in that year. He is talking so much now and definitely is becoming his own person. He is all about cars, trains, and trucks, just about anything with wheels.

We had decided that we wanted to do something special for Jaxson's first family day. We wanted to make it a weekend of Jaxson's favorite things: trains and Legos. We did some research and decided that Chicago was the place for us to go!

We got into town Friday afternoon had lunch and then it was time for Mommy to hit IKEA. 2 1/2 hours and about $300 later, we checked into the hotel and got ready for supper. While we were at IKEA Jaxson couldn't get over the carts going up and down the escalators all by themselves. He laughed and laughed...it was so funny!

We went to supper at a place called the Village Tavern. It is known for it's chicken strips and so we had to check it out. It was very good!

Our pre-supper family picture

Daddy and Jax gave supper two thumbs up!

On Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed to the train store. To say Jaxson was thrilled is an understatement. They had 3 different wooden train sets for kids to play with and in the back room they had a very large electric train set up. It was huge! There were buttons that Jaxson could push and different things would happen. He could make the train whistle blow. He opened and shut a garage door and put the fire truck inside. 

We left with a couple new trains a new t-shirt and a new favorite store to visit! 

From the train store, we went to a place called The Choo Choo. It is a little diner where you can belly up to the counter and an electric train will bring you your meal. Jax was beside himself here. He got so excited each time a meal would come and by he would squeal with excitement! 

After lunch, we went back to the hotel for naps and rest time for Jax and Mommy! Once we were fully rested, we got up and went to the Lego Discovery Center. There were a lot cool displays and Jaxson liked looking at them, but I think that it was just a little too advanced for him. In a couple of years, he will love it more!

I'm not sure when, but Jax has gotten so big! 

We ended our night with a trip to Giardano's for supper. Giardano's is Daddy's favorite pizza and Mommy loves it too! Jax is not a pizza fan, so he had noodles and chicken.

Now that we are home Jaxson has asked to go back to the train store multiple times and hasn't stopped playing with his trains. In fact, if you look through the pictures, he always has a train or a car in his hands. 

It was an amazing weekend celebrating a little boy that we both love so much. He's the boy that made us parents and every day brings a smile to my face! 

30 weeks!

We had our 30 week growth ultrasound on Tuesday. It was nice because my parents came to the ultrasound with us, so they got to see Baby Brokaw. The baby weighs 3lb. 14 oz. and is still in the 78th percentile for weight...for the 3rd month in a row, so it's growing at a very consistent rate.

During the ultrasound, the tech got this picture and it has quickly become my favorite. For the first time,  it looks like a baby. I'm so excited to meet the newest member of our family!

The baby is still breech, in fact, it's Frank Breech (sounds like a retired teacher's name to me), so when I go back at 34 weeks, we will make the decision to try and turn the baby or schedule a c-section. Right now, I'm leaning towards trying to turn the baby, but there's time to think about it. I'm still hoping that it will turn on it's own and it will all be a moot point!

Our May bump picture

Rainy Day at the Zoo

We had an amazing Memorial Day weekend! I wanted to take Jax to the Niabi Zoo over the long weekend and it snowballed into the whole Weida family making the trip. Steve had the great idea of renting a 15 passenger van so that we could all ride in one vehicle! It was perfect...until Mother Nature had to make her presence known. It was a rainy, rainy, day at the zoo, but we didn't let that stop us from having some fun! 

The whole family

Sophie enjoying a pony ride. 

The birds loved Bubba and Jax

Even Grandma got to feed the birds

Jax wasn't so sure about these birds.

"Ummm.....there's a bird on my shoulder"

Daddy's boy

The Brokaws

The Normans

The Millers

Everyone ready to head home!