New Playset

We recently had a new addition to our backyard and Clare is LOVING it!  Tony and our friend Tracy built the kids a playset fully equipped with swings, a slide, a rock wall, and a picnic table for outdoor meals. Tony chose to design it himself rather than use one of those kits that are out there.   It was completed in just a few days and looks great!  Before they began the actual construction, Clare helped daddy with framing up some of the structure (or climbing over it at least!) and leveling the ground.  She just loves to help with anything right now and we are really enjoying that! 

And here is the finished playset...I think it turned out pretty nice.  It sure does pay to have a very handy husband.  Thanks, honey! :)

Now that the playset is done, Clare wants to play out there all the time.  She loves everything about it, but I think her favorite part so far is climbing the ladder and going down her "big slide" as she calls it.  These pictures were taken right after nap time which is why she has that wild hair.  Love it!  Check her out...

One Month Already!

Wow, it is so hard for me to believe that our little man is already one month old.  He's been here just four short weeks and yet I can't even remember (and certainly don't want to) what life was like without him.  This little boy has brought so much joy into our lives. 

I remember feeling a bit nervous before he arrived and thinking do I have enough love to share with both of these little ones?  And then miraculously, your heart just makes room...like it grows.  The amount of love I feel for both Austin and Clare is just incredible.  Our home is just overflowing with goodness right now.  I especially love the way that Clare has taken to being a big sister.  She wants to help me when I am doing things for Austin like changing his diaper or getting him dressed.  And she also wants to hold him once or twice a day.  She will give him kisses on the forehead and say things like "look mommy, Austin likes me!"  I have a feeling these two will be good buds some day. 

 
I took Austin to the doctor yesterday for his one month checkup and I was so happy to hear how he is growing.  He is already 8 lbs. 13 oz. and 22 inches long.  So that means he has gained almost two pounds and gained just over two inches since he was born.  He is staying awake more and more as he gets older and is becoming much more alert.  He is starting to track with his eyes a lot better, he turns and looks for voices (especially mom and dad), he can hold his head up fairly well when on his stomach or being held upright, and has even started to crack a little bit of a smile.  It is such a fun time seeing how quickly he is changing and I can't wait to see what he does next! 

Girl Time!

So, lately things have obviously been busy around our house.  One could even make the assumption that Austin has been a major focus right now in our lives.  :)  However, don't make the mistake of thinking we aren't making time for some fun just for Clare.  Last week Clare's cousin Aubrey spent the day with us and they had some much fun being girly girls.  First we painted finger nails and toes.  Of course they were painted pink!  And then the girls dressed up as pretty princesses.  Ever since we've moved here I can't help but think how lucky we are to be close to family so Clare can grow up doing fun things with her cousins.  This was no exception.  Check these cuties out...

Something else about Clare lately is just how talkative she has become.  Okay, who am I kidding?  She has always been a chatter box, but her vocabulary lately just keeps growing and she is saying some really funny things.  Here are some of her recent quotes:

"Shhh...mommy monsters are coming!"  When I ask her what monsters, she says "Monsters, Inc!"  This is her new favorite movie. 

When I tell her something that she doesn't like or doesn't want to do, she looks at me with the biggest grin and says "What you say mommy?"  It's really funny until I've asked her about 4 times.  :)

"Mommy I'm hiding!"  Then I will say "Where's Clare?" And she says "in the closet"...or wherever she might be.  We are still learning the concept of when you are hiding you shouldn't tell people where you are. 

And last...last night I went to tuck her into bed and she told me that her baby Sophie was in time out.  When I asked her why, she said "Sophie wasn't listening."  Then she said "Sophie can get up now, she says she will listen."  Gee, wonder where baby Sophie gets that from.  We only have to talk to Clare about being a good listener every single day!  :) 

Oh, the life with a two year old never gets old!!!   

Introducing Austin

On April 22nd at 10:37 a.m. the newest addition to our family arrived.  Just like with Clare, we didn't find out if we were having a boy or a girl and this time the anticipation was just killing me!  So when Tony announced "It's a boy!" we were both just over the moon with excitement.  We named him Austin Edwin Buessing.  We chose Austin because it was my maiden name and Edwin because it is Tony's middle name and is a family name from our great-grandfathers.

I was induced with Austin, so I knew what day I would be having him (and to be honest with the amount of contractions I was having, I think he was arriving that day regardless), which seemed kind of strange.  We arrived to the hospital at 7:00 in the morning for the induction and by 8:30 they had broken my water.  As you can tell by his arrival time, he was anxious to make his appearance.  From the time they broke my water to the time he arrived it was a short 2 hours and 37 minutes!  It was almost not enough time to get my epidural, which totally freaked me out!  In the end, it all worked out perfect and our new little angel arrived.

In the hospital, we had lots of family that came to visit.  Aunt Sara was the first to arrive since (she works right around the corner she was able to sneak over in a hurry)!  Also arriving when Austin was just a few hours old was Grandpa Sam, Nana, MeMa and Papa, and of course proud big sister Clare.  She liked Austin from the very beginning and couldn't wait to get a close-up view. 

Unfortunately, kids who aren't siblings weren't allowed to visit us, so Austin had to wait until the day we got out of the hospital to meet his cousins.  Austin doesn't realize it yet, but we are sure lucky to have so many great people in our family who care about us!

Blog Revival!

Well, after a very long 10 month hiatus from blogging, I have decided that it is time to revive the Buessing Family Buzz!  As I looked back at the blog I realized just how much I really loved documenting Clare's growth and changes she was making along the way and I miss doing it.  And now there's even more of a reason to bring it back with our newest addition, Austin!  Now I can not only document Clare's growth through her toddler stage, but see how Austin grows and changes as an infant and beyond.  However, before we get to our sweet little boy I thought it was only fitting to do a quick picture recap of the last year with Clare.   

Last summer, we took two vacations with Clare.  First was a road trip to Virginia with me and Nana.  Clare got to see the beach for the first time and we had a blast!

Then, late in July it off on Clare's first plane trip to Connecticut with me, Tony, and Grandpa Sam.  On this trip, Clare got to meet her east coast cousins for the first time and they were all so stinking cute together!  It was a great trip for me too, because it had been way too long since I've seen all of my family! 

In September we closed on our new house.  That meant big changes for Clare.  She moved into a big girl bed and now has a very cute and very girly room (which she never had because everything was neutral).  One of the first things she did once she had her big bed was a sleepover with her cousin and best bud Aubrey.  Love this!

Also in the fall came Clare's second birthday.  The theme was Elmo and she had a blast!  The party was full of family, friends and fun and still to this day she talks about her "Elmo birthday."  She even makes Elmo birthday parties with her kitchen and her play food...too cute!  She got many great gifts for her birthday because she was spoiled as usual.  You can see her below riding on her new scooter. 

October wrapped up with a trip to the pumpkin patch and Halloween.  Clare was Tinkerbell (or a version of her) with Aubrey.  Casey and Payton were Peter Pan and Captain Hook, so the four of them made quite the cute group. 



Through the winter we had a good amount of snow which meant lots of sledding.  Our new house has some great sledding hills, so we had a lot of fun exploring the outdoors in the winter weather.  Last winter we really didn't have much snow, so this was Clare's first opportunity to play in the fluffy white stuff!

We of course had a great Christmas holiday with all of our wonderful family.  We spent time with everyone and traveled some while also staying at home for a good portion of the time.  Here is Clare on Christmas morning with her kitchen from Santa.  And there's one of her in her Christmas dress looking beautiful!



Two of Clare's favorite things right now (besides doing tons of puzzles) is to read and to draw/paint.  I recently found her in her closet sitting on her duck stool reading.  The teacher in me absolutely loves the way she enjoys reading.  You can see how much she loves painting in the other picture below.  A little over a month ago Tony & I took Clare to the Children's Discovery Center in Topeka and one of her favorite stations was where she got to paint on the windows. 

And besides Easter (which I will try to post later), that pretty much catches us up to our most recent news...the arrival of Austin!  I will post about him very soon.  Hope you have a great week!

Summer Fun!

Well, even though summer is almost half way over I don't have one single post up...shame on me.  And unfortunately, I will have less posts than I hoped for because I very irresponsibly lost my camera and all the pictures that went with it.  Boo.  Let's not dwell on that, though.  Let's take a look at some of the fun things we've been doing this summer. 

One of the best things about this summer is the extra time I've gotten to spend with my niece and nephews and the time Clare has gotten to spend with her cousins.  Clare LOVES her cousins!  Several Tuesdays this summer, I've had the opportunity to watch all 4 kids while Sara is at work.  We've had a lot of fun during our time...going to the library, the park, going out to eat, the zoo, and even a trip to a mini splash park.  Here are some of the highlights:

We went to a presentation about animals from all over the world at the zoo.  The kids were allowed to touch all kinds of animals and learned more about what the animals eat, their habitats, etc.  Clare could have cared less about all of the information but she sure thought it was neat (and at times a bit scary) seeing all of them.  After the show we got to walk around the zoo some more, had a picnic lunch, and then played at the park for a while. 

Another favorite of the summer was visiting the mini splash park outside of the new Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan.  The park has fountains the kids can play in and a small little river that they can swim in with fountains over their head going to music.  All of the kids really loved this one.  As I've said before, Clare is a little fish and would spend all of her time in the water if she could.  It was funny to watch her run up to get splashed in the face with the fountains...I don't know many kids who don't mind getting splashed in the face like her. 



Hope you, too, are finding ways to stay cool this blazing summer!