at the rate i'm going, it'll be march before i start talking about this year ;) november was a bit of a blur with lila's third birthday and cole's arrival so this monthly recap is going to be pretty quick! jumping right in...
early november was spent enjoying every last minute being a family of three. we had lots of adventures and outings -- baking, park dates, swimming, aquarium, fort building, train rides, birthday parties, shopping, lunch dates, amusement park... all of things lila loves that i knew wouldn't be happening quite as frequently with the addition of a new babe.
we also spent some time preparing (and waiting) for baby. i finally finished painting the nursery and we tried without success to figure out some name options. i was 95% certain at this point that we'd be having a little boy (i had boy and girl nursery plans and decided to just go ahead with the boy ideas!) which made the naming process that much more stressful -- we could not agree on ANYTHING.
li awoke on her birthday and even before noticing the balloons everywhere, the first thing she did was reach down to touch my belly and ask why the baby hadn't come yet. i guess we'd hyped up the idea of turning three and the baby arriving at the same time that it just didn't make sense to her that she wasn't waking up to a new baby brother or sister. (i'll admit that it was a little weird for mark and i as well -- with lila arriving over three weeks early, going over due was a bit of a change for us!) needless to say though, we had a fantastic day celebrating three and i'm super happy the kiddos won't have to share a birthday.
four days later we welcomed little cole henry into the world. it was a relatively quick and complication free labour and delivery and we were back home twelve hours after he arrived. we actually had the go ahead to head home a few hours earlier but stuck around the hospital until we'd settled on a name for the little guy... it took twelve hours but we did it, and though it took a couple of days to be 100% confident with the choice, it feels absolutely perfect for him now :)
the next few days were mostly spent just snuggling and adjusting to our new life. on the last day of the month, we snuck in our first portrait as a family of four :)
hope 2012 is treating everyone great so far :) stick around for lots more news and photos very soon! happy monday. xox, andrea.
Congratulations, and thanks for sharing these photos. These will be an amazing gift for your children to have throughout their lives... just beautiful!
Posted by: Alice G Patterson | January 16, 2012 at 10:10 PM
I'm curious what kind of bag you carry your gear in when you're on the bus, and how you decide what you're going to take?
Posted by: Carolyn | January 16, 2012 at 10:30 PM
Seriously awesome month :)
Posted by: Lauren | January 16, 2012 at 10:35 PM
Aww once again congratulations! And it goes without saying, your pictures are stunning as always!
Posted by: Happinessiseva | January 17, 2012 at 04:01 AM
Congratulations!!!!! Beautiful representation of your daily adventures.
Posted by: Monika Eisenbart | January 17, 2012 at 07:22 AM
love the updates - I hope you'll continue for 2012 :) x
Posted by: Brandi | January 17, 2012 at 11:41 AM
So happy for you guys! Sounds like November was a lovely month for you! ( : p.s. I adore the nursery wall. Amazing.
Posted by: amber fischer | January 17, 2012 at 01:20 PM
The quality of the images here are second to none, thank you for sharing and the inspiration
Posted by: 241Photography | January 17, 2012 at 02:33 PM
are we going to get to see more photos of that awesome looking nursery?? where did you get that curved lamp? love it! congrats on the arrival of your baby.
Posted by: Liz H | January 18, 2012 at 07:18 PM
definitely!! i have to finish it first though -- the paint job, lamp and crib are pretty much all thats done so far :) the lamp was from cb2 but has since been discontinued.
Posted by: andrea hanki | January 18, 2012 at 07:25 PM
mmm, ikea. those hot dogs are tough to beat value-wise.
as for the tardiness in posting, late and awesome is better than nothing.
Posted by: Evan | January 19, 2012 at 12:10 PM
belated congratulations! what a beautiful new addition to your beautiful family.
Posted by: Rebecca | January 22, 2012 at 10:40 AM
Where did you get that ruffled sweater? Love love love. Congrats on the new babe!
Posted by: Andrea Felgemacher | January 23, 2012 at 08:33 PM
hi andrea! the ruffled sweater was from crewcuts either last year or the year before :)
Posted by: andrea hanki | January 23, 2012 at 11:29 PM