Christmas set-up

Addie was fascinated this year with Christmas in general, but especially all the ornaments and decorations. Every time we turned around, she had another ornament in her hand or was playing tea party with all the snowmen decorations. Once presents made it under the tree (we didn't really hide the whole Santa thing from her, she in fact helped wrap most of the presents), it was hard to keep her from opening them all up. Her favorite was a little present to Maari, a tiny little package with a bow. She carried around her "baby present" as she called it for about a month leading up to Christmas. :)

James

James LOVES bath time. He somehow manages to pee within 1 minute of getting into the tub. Is that true with all boys? Maybe it is with girls too, you just can't see it!

James Thanksgiving and Christmas outfit. My dad said he reminded him of our old neighbor Paul with his conductor hat!

We seem to have very large bellied children!

Addie and James

The Como Zoo

We went to the Como Zoo while Nana SuSu visited in November. Addie loved the animals that were behind cages and far away. She wasn't so sure about the ones that were only behind glass and seemed to almost be able to touch you. :) Her favorite saying was, "I don't like it either!" - code for all done with that scary animal

Man time!

I love this picture of the men in my life. We have a similar picture of Stef and Addie when she was a little one. Stef loves cuddle time, as does James! Thanks Auntie Carley for the kimono!!

Visitors

We were blessed with lots of visitors the first month that James was born. It was amazing the amount of meals, gifts and thoughtful words that friends and family brought to us! Thank you so much and Addie LOVED seeing everyone. Two weeks after James was born, Nana SuSu came to help. It was so wonderful to have here in MN with us. We had lots of fun outings, froze some meals and I got some great naps in! Thank you Sue for all your help.

Addie, the new big sister

First week at home

Addie realizing that Mom and Dad were preoccupied, managed to take out most of the "baby toys" in James' new room and sit and pretend to be the baby. It was pretty cute until we started clean up time. :)

Famous laundry basket picture. It's the only way to do both the laundry and be with my little guy at the same time! It's a win win, because he LOVED the warm clothes.

My favorite 3 people!!

More Hospital Pictures

Going home!! We went home on Monday, November 1st (James' original due date). It was a beautiful fall day, crisp and sunny.

Introducing James Warren Julien

Better late than never! We are introducing James Warren Julien. He was born exactly 3 months ago on Saturday, October 30th, 2010. I finished teaching on Friday, October 29th and officially went on mat leave that Saturday. We had a busy day; a baby shower in the morning, fall yard cleaning all afternoon, and a bonfire in the evening. Stef and I finally sat down to relax at 7:45 that evening and turned on the Gopher game.

15 minutes late, my water broke. Man, what a feeling! I felt a really strong jab, his foot or something, and it started gushing. My parents got there 4 minutes later. My dad said my mom must have broken multiple traffic violations to get there so quickly. We jumped in the car (I slowly waddled, as I was panicking that my water kept gushing - when they mean break, it's literally a flood) and headed to the hospital. On the way, we called the nurses line. They said for us to go back home, take a nice long bath and call later. Not happening!

By the time we reached the hospital at 8:45, my contractions were around 4 minutes apart. After they did the initial check-in, my contractions were down to 3 minutes apart. The immediately started me on an IV (I had to have that before they would administer the epidural). Contractions were a nightmare. God must have known I could only handle them for 1 hour (I know, a big wimp) and at 9:45, the epidural was in and starting to take affect. 20 minutes later, I was ready to push. Just like with Addie, 3 pushes later, James came into this world!

Again, just like with Addie, we didn't have a name until the morning. We had been 99% sure he was going to be a boy, and hadn't really discussed girl names. Stefan feel in love with the name James about 2 months before he was born. James is a family name and Warren is his dad's name! He has a quiet demeanor and LOVES to eat. Addie was in love instantly. She wanted to hold, kiss, cuddle, you name it. When she was finished, she'd push James back into my arms and say, "All done!" Classic.

Canadian Thanksgiving

TC Marathon Movie

TC Marathon 2010

Stefan and his dad Warren ran the Twin Cities Marathon today. We are SO proud of them. They did an amazing job, finished with a time of 4:40, no injuries, didn't get sick, and were still smiling when we left the capitol. :) Lots of friends and family came out to cheer them on. Addie loved waving the Canadian flag in support for her daddy and Papa.

Addie's garage sale treasure

Addie picked out this treasure last week at a garage sale. Bapa Gene fixed it up on Friday and she has not put it down since then. She LOVES it!! Her favorite features are the rhythm section and the demo buttons (as you can tell in the video). The volume automatically turns on at "loud", so even though I'm constantly showing her how to turn down the volume, every time she turns it on and off again, it goes right back to where we started "loud". This toy is going to be my lifesaver and worst enemy all at once. :)