St. Louis, Missouri

I know it's been a long time since I posted anything, it seems like I never have time to sit and sort through all the pictures I take anymore. We are all doing really well. Joshua is getting bigger by the minute and laughs and smiles all day long. Since my last post he's slept 7 to 8 hours every night. He's upstairs in the room across from Ethan now and doesn't even wake up until 6 or 7 in the morning. He's my angel baby. Ethan is finally starting to say a few words although he prefers to sign them or grunt. He speaks Chinese really well, we just need to get him to learn English.

We just spent the last week in the St Louis area and had a long needed vacation. We set a new record- almost 6 months without a vacation (not counting our DC trip since that wasn't technically a vacation)! I really shouldn't go that long again, we're all much happier when I'm traveling. We also combined our trip with a little camping, Joshua did awesome on his first camping trip and Ethan loves to camp, so we had a lot of fun. We camped the first night outside St Louis and then saw the sights of the city the next morning. We had fun going to the top of the arch- a little freaky how it sways though. We took the river cruise and of course did some shopping, went to the zoo, a few historic sites and just had a great time.

It is so much slower traveling with a toddler though! When Ethan was little we just packed him around and he did great, now he gets tired and doesn't want to sleep unless he's in bed and gets grumpy and wants to run around like a madman everywhere. We only saw about half the things on my list I thought we'd be able to see. Oh well, we got the important things. And I found another place I could live. Our hotel was 15 minutes outside the city in Fairview Heights, IL. I first fell in love with the town when we stopped for dinner the night before we camped- there was a mall on one side of the street and a target, burlington coat factory, babies r us and tj maxx on the other side of the street, not to mention lots of great places to eat. Then when we went to find our hotel the next day I got all excited about seeing those stores again when I realized it was the same place we stopped for dinner the night before. It seems like you're in the country even though you're only a few minutes outside the city and it didn't have half the traffic of say Sandy, UT. Perfect for me. Oh and the big kicker- just 4 miles away is the world's largest catsup bottle ;)





Anyway... After spending a few days in the city and doing some fun shopping, we went south to hike the high point of Missouri. It was pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the Mark Twain forest- called Taum Sauk mountain (although it was really a hill). It was a nice 3 mile loop and at the top there were some small waterfalls, we let Ethan skinny dip and he had a great time. He fell asleep on the walk back and Anthony carried him out. Then we drove through more country roads on our way back to KY. We camped again that night on the border of MO and IL at the Trail of Tears state park where we got eaten alive by mosquitos. We stopped in Paducah, KY on our way home the next day and let Ethan splash in the water again- this kid loves water and will find a puddle to splash in no matter where we go. We had a great time and are kind of glad to be home, we're already working on the next trip... To view all the pics of our trip visit http://carianthonyosborne.shutterfly.com/

New pics of the boys

Last night Joshua slept for 7 hours again!!! Unfortunately I didn't go to bed until 2 hours after he did, but still, it gives me hope for the future ;) Here are some pics I took of the boys yesterday, they actually cooperated! You can view the full photshoot at http://carianthonyosborne.shutterfly.com/action/

SLEEP!

The night before last the miracle of all miracles occured...Joshua slept for 7 hours straight! I could not believe it. I laid him down just after 10pm and when I woke at 5am I realized it was the first time he'd woken up! It was the first time in over 6 months I've had that much uninterrupted sleep, it was so nice. Last night he gave me 5 hours, so things are getting better- and he's not even 2 months old yet! The brain is starting to work again and I don't feel like such a zombie. I just couldn't ask for a better baby. He's starting to get fat- I'm going to try to do a photoshoot today, we'll see if I can get any decent pics before Ethan clobbers him...

Joshua's Blessing

I woke up this morning to my bed shaking- we felt the Illinois quake out here. I expect tornadoes- not earthquakes! Anyway- we had so much fun spending last week with Anthony's mom & her cousin and my mom and sisters Cheyenne & Beki came for the weekend. Ethan got completely spoiled all weekend long and was so sad when everyone left. We took them to Kentucky Down Under and Ethan got to pet the kangaroos. He wasn't one bit afraid but I was freaking out because he kept running around trying to touch their face and pull their ears. On Sunday Anthony gave Joshua his name and blessing. He was such a good baby, he didn't make a peep the entire time. It was such a sweet blessing and we are so grateful to have another precious baby boy. Unfortunately my pictures of his blessing day came out a bit fuzzy, but here are few. I've uploaded more pictures to our shutterfly photo album at http://www.carianthonyosborne.shutterfly.com/action

The Boys

The boys semi-cooperated today while I attempted to take some pics. Ethan looks a little disgusted that we stuck brother on him, but he really does love him.

New Site & Easter Pics

I've decided to switch to blogger because it takes way too long to edit my other website (please update your links), so hopefully I'll get more posted now! Joshua is getting so big, he's so much chubbier than Ethan was, I like his fat little arms. I could not ask for a better baby, he sleeps for 3 hours at a time (last night he slept for 5 hours!) and rarely cries. Ethan loves his brother, he has to smother him with kisses every chance he gets. Unfortunately he usually tries to lay on top of him at the same time. But we've managed to keep Joshua alive for a whole month now, so I think he'll survive. We are so excited for both of Ethan's Grandmas to visit us next week! We're blessing Joshua next Sunday. I know it's a bit late, but I did take a few pictures at Easter, here they are... As always, you can view all our latest pictures at http://www.carianthonyosborne.shutterfly.com/action

Finally!!! We have a baby!

We finally have a baby boy! Joshua Lincoln Osborne was born Sunday, March 2 at 8:47pm. He weighs 7lbs 6oz and is 20 1/2 inches long. I went to the hospital at 10am for a nonstress test my doctor wanted me to do since I was overdue. I started to have a few contractions around 9am, but they weren't strong at all. After the stress test (around noon) the nurse checked me and said I was almost a 5, and since I was GBS positive they wanted me to stay to make sure I had antibiotics at least 4 hours before delivery. Unfortunately they wouldn't let me eat anything in case of an emergency c-section, so I was famished all day long (I did have Anthony sneak me some of the cheesecake he brought for me though). It was quite boring just waiting for something to happen, but finally around 5pm the real contractions started. I hoped the reason I had back labor with Ethan was because of the pitocin, but I guess it's just me because I had horrible back labor again. Every contraction felt as if my back would break. Finally at 8:47 he was born, Anthony helped deliver him, then placed him on my chest. I forgot how tiny babies are, he is so sweet! He's such a quiet baby too, thankfully since Ethan is so energetic. He looks just like Ethan did when he was a baby, I keep wanting to call him Ethan. My recovery this time was so much easier though. I had so much energy after he was born and was hungry enough to eat a horse. I get really tired at night but feel pretty good during the day. Of course Anthony is home helping me now, I'm sure things will be different when he goes back to work Friday. We've got a few pictures posted at http://carianthonyosborne.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8CZsmjRy3cMZq&notag=1

Ethan running into the wall

Well, I was due on the 23rd and still no baby. I guess this one's as stubborn as the last. I went in today for a nonstress test and he's doing great, but they won't let me go over 42 weeks, so if I don't have him this weekend, they'll induce me on Tuesday.
In the meantime, I finally got around to downloading my camcorder files and saw this hilarious clip of Ethan on his birthday running full speed into the wall, I completely forgot about that, but it's pretty funny. Enjoy!

January- Our Little Toddler

January 2nd we FINALLY got snow! Of course it was just a tiny bit and only stayed on the ground for a few hours, but it was cold & white nonetheless. We bundled Ethan up in his snowsuit that he's never gotten to wear, and took him out to play. All he wanted to do was eat the snow. I wish we had a sled to slide down the hill we have for a backyard. I've posted some pics here: carianthonyosborne.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8CZsmjRy3cMZI

Ethan is becoming quite the boy. He's no longer a baby. He has a new independent streak and wants to do everything on his own. He grabs the spoon away when I try to feed him and wants to do it himself, and he no longer wants me to put food in his mouth, it has to go in his hand so he can do it. He doesn't want to be carried unless he's tired, he wants to walk by himself and touch everything he sees. He's learned to throw himself down and kick if he doesn't like something. He is still obsessed with computers so we bought him a baby laptop, but it still doesn't seem to distract him from wanting to press the buttons on mine. He has been doing the cutest thing lately, when he gets sleepy he'll climb on our laps and put his eye over ours and give us butterfly kisses.

His favorite thing is dirt. No matter where we are he'll find dirt and start digging in it. I take him to the park and he'll climb up the slide and go down once or twice then spend the rest of the time digging in the dirt. I take him to the mall and he'll play on the toys for a few minutes then he'll notice a plant and start digging in it, doesn't matter if it's real dirt or not. His favorite toy is books. He loves to flip pages and also enjoys eating the spine off the board books.

His favorite book is Where the Wild Things Are, all I have to do is pull the book out and he goes crazy. I have it memorized too so even if I don't have the book and I say "the night max wore his wolf suit..." he starts jumping around and making ape noises. It's so cute.

He's really become a daddy's boy the last few months. He is so happy when Anthony comes home and freaks out if he leaves to go somewhere. He's been going with Anthony to scouts and his church meetings because he can't bear to be left behind. He is such a fun little boy and manages to keep us entertained. It will be interesting to see how he handles a new baby.

Christmas 2007

We had a nice quiet Christmas this year. We spent Christmas Eve with friends and just relaxed at home Christmas Day. We put a banana in Ethan's stocking (one of his favorite foods) and he rushed right over to it and started to gobble it skin and all. When we pulled out his first box to open he climbed on top of it and jumped up and down. I think he had more fun jumping on the boxes than playing with the toys inside. It was a fairly warm day so we took him to play at the park that afternoon. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a happy New Year! You can view additional pic's of our Christmas at http://carianthonyosborne.shutterfly.com/action/pictures?a=67b0de21b3589c4ba4c1