Wenzel: Party of 4!

Being a mom of 2 kids is NO.JOKE.  Everyone told me that, and I believed them.  And I'm here to say they were preaching TRUTH.

And that's my excuse reason that it's been over 2 months since I posted here.

The other reason?  I've been living life as a mom with 2 kids.  It's the most challenging thing I've ever done -- but it's also the BEST.

And THAT'S the truth.

Okay, on to the point of this post.  I have a friend in our Connect Group at church that is a photographer, and she just happens to live in our neighborhood, right on the road behind ours.  She was sweet enough to come by one day before Jeff went back to work to take some family photos right after Natalie was born.

Deacon is 3 years and 4 months old in these photos, and Natalie is 12 days old...

16 weeks old!

[all photos taken with instagram]

{ first 8 weeks }

8 weeks old!

[all photos taken with Instagram]

Happy Easter!

Easter weekend this year was a little, um, on the cool-ish side.  And rainy.

Boo.

So we didn't go to the Spring Fling our church usually does -- in fact, they had to cancel the event due to the weather.

Boo.

Easter Sunday was cool, but at least it was sunny.  I had to improvise with Deacon's shirt, and putting a long-sleeve onesie under Natalie's dress, but they were still cuties, in my opinion.  :)

We were invited to a luncheon that afternoon so Deacon did get to do an egg hunt with some other kids inside our Family Life Center at church.  He had fun with that.

I put a couple of beach toys in Deacon's Easter basket, along with some chocolate and peeps (just like his daddy...).  In Natalie's I just put a couple of soft toys that she'll be able to play with later on.

[Natalie's 1st Easter]

Deacon vs. Natalie // a comparison post

So this is pretty interesting.  Since I've had Natalie, there have been a few photos taken that I'm pretty sure we had a similar shot somewhere of Deacon.  When I got to looking through my photos of Deacon (boy, THAT was a trip down memory lane!), I discovered quite a few photos between the two that were very similar.

It's crazy but we in no way posed these photos of Natalie to look like the ones we took of Deacon at the same age (ain't nobody got time for that!) -- it just turned out that way.

Honest.

I had a good time putting these comparisons together.  Take a look...

[brand spankin' new, still in the OR] 

[the first of millions of kisses from mommy] 

[chilling in the recovery room on their birth-day] 

[first bottle -- Deacon at 25 days, Natalie at 26 days] 

[4 weeks old]

So do they look alike to you?

Deacon meets Natalie...

My mom & dad (aka Grammy & Grandpa) were able to come for Natalie's birth and take care of Deacon for us while we were in the hospital.  Since Natalie was born in the morning, they were able to bring Deacon to the hospital later that same day to meet his little sister.

He did so well with her and with me, too.  :)  He was pretty curious about the expanding cuffs around my legs (to prevent blood clots until I could get up myself) but otherwise he just wanted to see Natalie, hold Natalie, kiss Natalie.  He was really gentle with her and it was clear that he was glad she was finally out of mommy's tummy.  :)

Happy BIRTH day, Natalie!

Our precious baby girl has arrived!  And we are all so in love with her already.  She was really tiny but she definitely made her presence known from the start (read: fantastic lungs!).  From the moment I heard that mighty cry that was distinctly different from her big brother's first cry, I knew that she already had such a special place in my heart.

She arrived in the same way her big brother did (c-section), and yet there were many things that were different about that day, her birth-day, from the setting in the OR to my time in the recovery room.  Everything went wonderfully and we are so happy to have our Natalie Grace with us...