tan the man

tanner is now one and a half weeks old today. we love this little man and couldn't be happier with him. he has such a nice temperment and seems quite mellow so far.

he is getting well aqaunted with lots of noise around our house. katelyn is doing a good job of breaking him in. she loves to be around him and always asks to hold him, and is constantly showering him with kisses. we do have to keep an eye on her when she's around him because she doesn't quite understand what it means to be soft with him.

we've experienced what it's like changing a baby boys diaper. you really have to be careful doing that.

we already have him on an eating and sleeping routine which makes it easier for me during the day/night because i know what to expect from him.

it's kind of fun doing this the second time around. i feel like we actually know what we are doing and know what to expect. naturally there are challenges that come with a new baby and even more challenges that come with having two kids, but it's all worth it. like i said, we love this little guy.

today we had a chance to snap some shots of tanner. it was a little more tricky than i realized to take shots of a sleeping newborn, but here he is at 1 1/2 weeks.

please don't judge my editing job-i still have some things to fix!

he's here...

tanner dale hedin

born monday, september 21, 2009 at 9:26 a.m.
weighing 7 lbs 4 oz
20 1/4 in



we are so happy to finally have tanner join our family. we will update with more details and pictures later!

boerner botanical gardens

my friend marissa and i have been planning this trip since the beginning of the summer, and we finally made it to the boerner botanical gardens. it really was a dream-like experience. so beautiful and very picturesque. especially for somebody who wanted a different scene besides the backyard to practice using her camera. plus i can't deny that i was secretly loving all of the walking we were doing. just giving baby an extra push, that's all.

for katelyn it was a place to run around with her friend, eliza, to explore and not get in any trouble. oh how i love outings like that.

there were flowers everywhere. we hit the gardens at the end of the season, so i know we missed out on some really pretty flowers. but, the garden was no disappointment, even at this time of year.

weekend visit with family-part two

ah, the windy city. while emily and andy were here we drove down to this crazy, expensive city (can you tell i'm not a city girl) to check out some of the fun it had to offer. it actually turned out to be one of our best visits so far. i think it was because we had emily's husband, wes, with us who really knows his way around the city so, a) we didn't get lost and b) he knew where the cheapest parking was.

this time we decided to check out this awesome street:



it really is magnificent. there are plenty of free things to see and do while taking a stroll down the sidewalk.

we didn't make it very far without seeing a number of street performers out trying to make some extra money. they really are quite entertaining. i could have spent the majority of the day just watching some of these talented people perform.



the statue guy. he was my favorite performer...at first. that is until we saw him again on our walk back. he was counting a wad of money with a cigarette in his mouth. i'm really not judgemental. he just didn't seem as appealing anymore.

one of our first stops was to the big chicago bean. it really is a fascinating piece of art. i had a lot of fun walking around taking tons of pictures of all of the different perspectives. and katelyn, well, she just had fun looking at herself. she was enthralled with her reflection.







we also stopped at some water fountains nearby the bean. if i had realized these fountains were there, i would have come more prepared because this is where katelyn could have spent all of her time. maybe next summer. thanks emily for walking around with her!






these fountains had large pictures of peoples faces on them. they mainly just stared, but they would blink every once and a while. i think we were there long enough to see two or three different faces.

we also had the chance to stop by the lego store and the hersheys store. i had been wanting to stop into these two places all day, but they were hard to find. luckily we found them right before we decided to head back to eat.



katelyn loved this lego guy. she kept smiling at him and touching him like he was a real person.



steven spielburg

they had so many different things built out of legos. some of them were huge! you have to have a lot of patience (or a real love for legos) to be able to build some of those things.



you can't go into the hersheys store without taking a picture of the giant candy bar.

we ended our day in chicago at the rainforest cafe where wes and emily treated us to a delicious dinner. it was the perfect place to take katelyn. she was entertained the whole time-especially because we got to sit right next to a huge fish tank.

it was tons of fun having some family to hang out with. thanks for the great day in chicago and for the whole weekend.

weekend visit with family-part 1

we had some visitors here in the good ol' state of wisconsin. tyler's brother, andy, flew out from utah and emily and her husband, wes, drove up from chicago. since wisconsin's state fair was running, we decided to check it out with them. we were told not to miss it. so off we went to people watch and eat.
we decided to head out on friday morning, which i decided we will never do again. turns out, attending the fair mid-morning/afternoon time is quite hot. next time we'll try an evening run. despite the heat, we still had fun checking out the sites and sounds of the fair.








we tried to get katelyn to pose for this, but she wouldn't. luckily emily and andy were willing to do it.

before we went, we kept hearing about all of the food the fair had to offer. tyler was dying to try the legendary cream puffs, and it turns out, they were pretty good. however, we did skip out on the chocolate covered bacon and the deep fried oreos.



even katelyn enjoyed a bit or two

and no fair would be complete without riding at least one ride, right? we shelled over the two bucks to go down the slide. it must have been a hit because katelyn asked to go again.




tyler claims the enthusiasm on his face is due to the fact that he was trying to make the slide exciting for katelyn.

we also heard about the pig, goat and duck races and were too curious not to attend. the races were pretty funny to watch. they assigned you a color to cheer for then they would send the animals out and you cheered your color on.



i don't think our goat did very well, but it was still entertaining to watch.

the fair was fun to attend, and we're glad we went. it was especially fun to have some family tag along with us. thanks for coming guys!

counting down at 36 weeks

we're to that point now where we are no longer counting up to the baby, but down. i can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone. a part of me thinks it's because it's my second. katelyn keeps me busy and always on my toes. i really don't have a lot of time to imagine what it's going to be like with number two like i did with number one. a part of me also thinks it's because i've been pregnant throughout the summer. summers fly by because there's so much to do. again, no time to sit around and dream of baby coming.

whatever the reason, i'm getting excited now. not that i wasn't excited before. i just knew i had time on my side. 9 months to be exact.

this pregnancy has been easy, just like my first. no major problems or issues i have to deal with, and i'm grateful for that. just little ones like baby keeping his foot in my ribs all of the time. nothing i can't handle.

so four more weeks of being a family of three!

farmers market

i've been anxiously waiting for the day when we would be able to attend our first farmers market. i've heard such great things about them, and it didn't disappoint. everything about it was wonderful. the rush of people walking by, the freshly cut fruit, the beautiful flowers that i so wanted to buy. i really do belong in the burbs. no city life for me, no sir.

we didn't stay long though. it was a quick in and out visit, and i'm dying to get back to actually pick out some fresh fruit instead of taking pictures of it. until then...i'll be dreaming of those sweet cherries i got to sample.