Mardi Gras!!

We recently went to Norman for Mardi Gras weekend!! This involves us being in the parade throwing beads, bouncy balls, tiara's, wands and anything else that Adam's dad has gotten for us. This is his favorite time of year!! This year he really out did himself on the float. He had an idea and made it come to life! He and Joanne did an AMAZING job!! We won the prize for best lights as well as the overall prize for the best float! It was well deserved! Have a look:

Just as a side note- every year we dress up in whatever theme we have going...however this year we had a free for all on the costume end!! Someone mentioned that if Rick was dressing as Barney then we could be whatever we wanted! The outcome: Barney (Richard), Dirty Bubbles Lady (Joanne), Fire victim (Adam), Snake Hunter (Melissa), Zeus (Karsten), Fairy (Me), a Gypsy (Trish) and Noah? Joseph?- you know I'm not quite sure what Brad was! Even Dax dressed up in his awesome hat that a friend (Shauna) got for him in Vietnam. He looked super cute! We all had an amazing time! It was the best year yet!!

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We were able to stop and visit with the Harrison's and Courtney family on the way back home too. It was great to see everyone and show Dax off some more! They are such a wonderful family and we're so glad that our boys have them in their lives. Karsten was SO happy to see everyone, especially his Granny and Papa!! 

We have a few big things coming up this week. First of all on March 1st Dax will officially be 3 months old. How fast this time has gone by!! He has grown so much!! Then on March 3rd our Karsten will be 9 years old!! Wow!! I can't believe that the years have passed by so quickly!! It seems like just a short time ago I was meeting this wonderful family for the first time at Karsten's 4 year old birthday party. I can't believe it's been 5 years!! I have been so incredibly blessed to become part of this family. They have brought so much joy to my life!! I'll have to do another update next week with pictures of Karsten's birthday party!! He is SO excited!!

Also, we've had some hard times on my side of the family over the past year and I want to thank everyone who has had us in their prayers.  They have been such a helpful reminder of who is in control. Any time I get down I just think of all the blessings that I have had. It's hard to be sad when I have such an amazing baby and wonderful family. I once read that if your going to ask God "Why me?" during the hard times, then you should be sure to ask God "why me?" for every blessing in your life as well. I definitely try to thank him for every little blessing in my life, because there are SO many!!

Finally an update!

It has been such a long time since I have posted anything new! I've thought of it MANY times, but never actually got on here to do it! So many things have happened since the last post. Daxton is here of course. He arrived on December 1, 2011 at 6:30 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 8 oz and measured 20 inches.

Since then he has been to the doctor several times and grown quite a bit already. At 1 month he measured 10 lb 12 oz, 21 1/4.



The most recent measurement at 2 months was 13 lbs 7 oz and 22 1/2 in long! He has gained about 5 lbs since birth!! Let's just say he's a healthy boy!!





He is doing absolutely wonderful! He already sleeps through the night (and has for at least a month now). He is still asleep right now and that will make it at least 9 hours!! He LOVES to sleep! He's growing so great, so I just let him sleep as much as he wants.



When Dax is awake he loves to talk to me. He is such a smiling, happy little chatterbox! He is beginning to laugh more and more. It first started out as a little chuckle that was adorable, and it is slowly becoming a stronger giggle. I just love every single noise that he makes!



He is beginning to grab at anything he can get his hands on. Everything goes to his mouth already too! It is so funny to look over at him and see that he has grabbed his burp cloth and has it pulled up to his mouth. He will look at me with the cutest expression that seems to say "Ooops...I got caught!" I bought a new little toy for him the other day that I thought he would love when he got a little older. His awesome Aunt Melissa was showing it to him and he LOVED it!! I wasn't even expecting him to play with it for another month. I guess I need to take a look at his toy box and see if there is anything else that he may enjoy. He has a little butterfly rattle that came on a playmat and he loves to grab it and chew on it. He's such a boy...already loves bugs!



Another thing Dax loves to do is laugh and smile at his dad and brother. Every time Karsten comes into his line of vision Dax has a big smile for him! He knows how much his big brother loves him. Karsten is so sweet with him. I was worried about him being too rough, but he is just so gentle! I actually worry about Adam being more rough with Dax than Karsten is! I'm going to love seeing their relationship grow over the years. I know Karsten will be an excellent big brother. He will set a great example for Dax.





Now to brag on Karsten a little! He is doing great in school. He has done an excellent job with reading. He is one of the top students in his class. He has been reading the Harry Potter series and is doing an excellent job! He is on book 5, and no longer wants to watch the movies. He told me that the movies were kind of boring because they left out so much stuff. Can I just say how much this makes me proud? We are so blessed! He is also doing great in math. They have been doing multiplication and division and Karsten is a pro! We have been doing multiplication with him for years without him realizing it. It has paid off! He can now do about 30 problems in 1 minute. I love those mad minutes worksheets!

Karsten is also doing Upward basketball again. He loves it, of course! He improves with every game. I am often reminded at the practices and games of how kind Karsten is. He can really play as a team, where some other kids do not. He tries to be friends with everyone. I pray that he continues to be such a sweet and considerate young man as he grows up! Hopefully his dad and I can set a good example for him.

We've had many new adventures since the last post, but one that stands out is a trip we made a little north of here to see bald eagles. Now, we knew that we MAY see one or two, but we could not have expected to see at least 8 or more! It was amazing! We were also able to get a picture up close with one!!

Karsten, Adam, and Melissa went skiing yesterday. It was Karsten's first time! (Me and Dax stayed at home b/c it was COLD!!) Adam said he did a pretty good job...if he would have stayed up on his skiis longer!! Apparently he fell down a lot. He looks like a pro in this picture though!!

Hopefully I will update the blog more now that I am getting a little bit of a schedule down. I am LOVING being at home with my little one! I should find a job, but I hate to leave Dax long enough to go to the store (which I actually did!). I can't imagine leaving him in someone else's care. So, I'll stay with him as long as Adam will let me!! :) I love my husband!!

Some extra pictures:

Photo Card

Storytime Blue Baby Announcements

Shutterfly cards for Valentine's Day, Easter & Father's Day.

View the entire collection of cards.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday and this year was no exception. We have so much to be thankful for!! We go around the table and say what it is that we're thankful for each year and the majority answer for this year was family. Especially the fact that our family is growing! We feel so incredibly blessed to have Daxton on the way. Also, so blessed to have such wonderful family to spend holidays with.

I'm also thankful for a wonderful husband who does an amazing job at taking care of our family. He provides for us in many ways, and there is no way to possibly thank him enough. I hope he knows how much I appreciate all that he does! God really blessed me with Adam!!

I'm thankful for Karsten too! He is such a sweet boy who I know will be an excellent big brother to my sweet little Daxton. He is so incredibly smart and sensitive. He also likes to drive me crazy...but what kid doesn't enjoy doing that to their parents every now and then? I don't know what I would do without him.

I want to say that I am thankful for my husband's parents and sister as well. They do so much for us and there is no way to repay them! I'm especially thankful for their help with making a wonderful Thanksgiving meal!! I couldn't have done it without you!!

This Thanksgiving was a little bittersweet for me. This was the first one without my Gran. I missed her so much, but I know she was watching over me. I keep thinking about last Thanksgiving when she came over and how much fun she had. She hadn't been to a Sellars Thanksgiving before and she was in for a treat! I'm so incredibly thankful that I was able to share that holiday with her and always have that memory.

Here are a few pictures from our day!! We always have fun!

Such a good helper!

 What a beautiful bird!!

 Such a cute picture of mother and daughter!

 Oh the love they have for one another!

 Finally enjoying the meal!

A little update about Daxton. His due date is tomorrow, and I'm not convinced he's going to come by then!! When I found out I was pregnant there were 4 other girls who were all due around the same time as me. Most before, but one had the exact same due date! Well...the last one is about to have her little girl and my sweet son is still hanging out (or I guess in!!!)! He has decided he wants to be the very last one born. Adam says that it's good that he's last b/c he will get more attention. I like the way he thinks!! Of course, anyone who knows Adam very well knows that Daxton is taking after him. When Adam says he will be somewhere at a certain time, expect him to be late! Except when it comes to work...he's pretty much always on time for that. However, he's almost always late to everything else!

We have scheduled a date to be induced, HOWEVER, we are going to have to change it!! It was set for Wednesday, but Adam has some important people coming into his work on Thursday morning and we decided it would be best if we waited until at least Thursday afternoon, Friday at the latest. I'm going to talk to the doctor tomorrow and hopefully get it rescheduled!! I'm still crossing my fingers that I go into labor tonight and he is here by his due date!! :) Not likely, but you never know! I have tried to walk a lot to get him to come out, which seems to help a bit, but not enough. I go to the doctor tomorrow morning and I will know more after that. Keep praying for us!

Activities from October

We've had lots of things happening the past month! One weekend we had some great friends come for a visit. Karsten was very excited to spend time with his best friend Hannah!! We went to the Anheuser Busch factory, where we all enjoyed some beer and Mountain Dew (don't worry, I had root beer). We also went to Boo at the Zoo, where the kids got a little candy and saw a few animals. We really enjoyed visiting with our friends from Van Buren!! Thanks for coming down to visit Tiffiney, JR, and Hannah!! Here are some pictures from their visit!

Karsten has put his arm around Hannah in the trolley. He thought he was smooth! :) Hannah is super happy about this as you can tell! We joked that we could put this picture in a slideshow when they get married!! 

This is at the arch, facing the Mississippi River. Such a cute picture! 

Best Friends! 

Heading into the zoo with a ninja and a pirate! 

Karsten with the penquins at the zoo!

The weekend before Halloween we had to do some pumpkin carving!!! So, awesome Aunt Melissa came over to join the festivities!! Here are some pictures from that adventure! (It's always an adventure when Melissa, Adam, and Karsten are together)

See what I mean?! :) We love Melissa!!

Now, you would think that Melissa is being caught throwing pumpkin guts at Adam, however she just made an amazing catch! Adam is the guilty one!! Of course Melissa did get revenge! :) Like I said, always and adventure.

This is Adam and Melissa filling Karsten's pumpkin back up with all the guts he has already pulled out plus some! He had left the room of course. How did he feel about that? Well...look below.

That's not his happy look. He thought we had hidden his pumpkin, because his was empty. 

Back to work now!!

And now he is all finished!! One scary pumpkin, and one vampire pumpkin!

Of course the fun isn't over! 

We were able to go to a fall festival at a church that we visited earlier in the month. Karsten had lots of fun and got quite a bit of candy. He also won at a cake walk! We have found another church that we have gone to a couple of times that we LOVE! It reminds of us Community back home. Karsten is going to play Upward basketball again this year, and it will be at this church. We feel really blessed that we found a wonderful church so quickly!

Here are some pictures of the fall festival as well as a few pictures from halloween night!

Adam being goofy! 

Karsten's haul from trick or treating! We had SO much candy left over as well as the candy he brought home! 

Ninja!!

Brownies he won at the cake walk. They were SO delicious!!

And now a baby update! I have been going for weekly checkups now. I am 37 weeks, which is so hard to believe!! I just keep thinking that he will be here SO soon!! I can't believe it. At my last 2 appointments I have been dialated to 1 cm. It's not much, but it's a start. This is pretty typical at this stage. It doesn't mean that he will come early, just that he is getting ready. The doctor thought she felt his head at the last appointment so hopefully he is headdown now. They will check again at the hospital when I'm in labor to be sure.

I have brief moments of "nesting" but then other times I'm tired and would rather take a nap! There is still so much to do to get ready for Thanksgiving and a few things that need to be done before Daxton gets here. I still have just a couple of things I want to add to his room, but I need Adam to do it! I'm not very good at hanging things on the walls, but he is awesome at it! We have our childbirth class on Saturday, and then I plan on making him finish up everything that afternoon or on Sunday. Then I promise I will get some pictures up!!

I think that is all for now!!! Here is a picture of Daxton again. You've already seen it, but I couldn't resist putting it up again! I look at this one every day!! He will be here SOOOO soon!! If Gran was right then it will be November 27th. I'm hoping that's the day! Adam says December 3rd. Either way it's 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 weeks away!! Did you realize that it was so close?? :)

Oh! One quick funny story before I go!! I pick Karsten up from school every day. Earlier this week there was a problem in the pick up line with someone's car not working...so I got stuck behind a lot of other cars that I usually don't have to wait on. Karsten got into the car and said "Mom!! I was worried that you went into labor!! I kept telling my teacher that you are never this late and that probably meant that you were at the hospital!" It made me laugh! Hopefully he doesn't get stuck at school waiting for one of us to pick him up because I am in labor!! I guess it's a legitimate worry for him! Thank goodness Melissa lives up here. Also, we met a mom of one of his friend's and we have her number, just in case Melissa can't make it in time to get him. No worries!!! :)

Have a great week!!