From July '08 to April '09

So, usually Adam would be on top of this blog thing but with school and work he has very little to no time to post. Here is a brief summary of what has been happening in the Hopper household these past 8 months. Oh yea, this means more pictures than summary.

-Maartje

Jack at 3 months

Nichols' family reunion

Jack first rolls over in his crib

Another milestone: Jack pulls himself to his feet

Will turns 3, with Christmas right around the corner

Decorating the tree

Visiting the Georgia Aquarium

A weekend stay in the north Georgia mountains

Jack learning to walk

Jack's first Easter

Will and Jack after their Easter egg hunt

Our little angels

Sleepy Jack

Hot Summer

It's been really hot this month (duh... July in Georgia), so we got Will one of those inflatable kiddie pools for the back yard. Here's some pics of him playing in the water, and giving Katie a much appreciated drink at the same time.

-Adam

Fireworks

Here is the picture that I told you I was going to post. On the 3rd of July, the city of Warner Robins had their big fireworks display, so we took the kids out for ice cream and to see the show. We figured that actually going into the stadium with a 2-year-old and 1-month-old might not be the best idea, so we picked a out a spot in the parking lot with a good view of the sky above the stadium. I backed into the spot and we opened up the tailgate on the 4Runner. This is a picture that Maartje took while we were waiting for the show to start.

-Adam

Picnic Lunch

I got a three-day break right around the fourth of July, and we decided to have a little mini vacation. On the third we went up to the Air Force base for a picnic. They have a small campground area with a playground and some picnic tables all overlooking a lake. After playing on the playground for a while, we ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and then took a walk around the lake. This was really fun day. Later that night we went to the stadium in town to watch the fireworks display. I'll put up a picture of that next time.

-Adam

Spending Time With The Kids

Well if you wanted to see bad pictures of me, and some cute pictures of the kids, you've come to the right place. The first pic is Will and me and one of my favorite hobbies: playing Madden on the old Xbox. Secondly, we have me sleeping on the couch, with Jack sleeping on me. If you ever have the opportunity to nap on the couch with a baby sleeping on your chest, take advantage of it. It might not be the best sleep you've ever had, but there's no better feeling in the world.

-Adam

Wrong Again...

Hey, remember that last post I made a couple of weeks ago? You know, the one where I said that going through the infant stage is so much easier the second time around? Yeah, just forget everything that I said on that subject. May have spoken a bit too soon. This new baby (along with some help from Will) seems to be taking up every bit of our time. I didn't know what busy was until we had our second child. I guess that's part of the reason I haven't had an opportunity to post on this site as often as I would have liked. It seems like it's always feeding time, or bath time, or change the diaper time, or put the kids to bed time, or play time. Times two. Then I have to go to work for 24 hours, and Maartje's workload doubles again. I don't want it to sound like I'm complaining, I love being "Daddy", I'm just trying to provide a good excuse as to why I haven't updated the journal in a couple of weeks. And just so you know, I'm posting a few pictures here to prove that we still have some fun once in a while.

The pictures above are from Jack's first bath. He hated it that first time. Cried and screamed a whole bunch. But he actually enjoys it now. The picture below is of Will trying to put on his PJs all by himself. His favorite thing to do is act silly, and see if he get's a laugh out of Maartje and I. And of course he usually does, which only encourages him to clown around even more.

-Adam

Easier the Second Time Around

Just wanted to post a few pics. We're starting to get settled into a little bit of a routine. That's good. It didn't take too long to get used to having the baby around. I gotta tell ya, this one's going so much easier than it did with Will. The adjustments that we're having to make, aren't so drastic this time. It also helps that we have an idea of what to expect with a new baby. I'll keep trying to add new posts every week, but they'll probably mostly be about Will. It seems like all of the pictures that we take of Jack, he's asleep. And there's not a whole lot to write about when all you've got are pictures of a sleeping baby.

-Adam

Jack Has Arrived

On Thursday, June 5th, 2008 we welcomed our second son into our family. Jack Steven Hopper was born eight pounds, eight ounces. He has a head full of dark hair and blue eyes. I think his eyes will change to brown after a few months, but Maartje is hoping they stay blue. Maartje is doing fine, by the way. She went through the entire process with no pain killers of any kind. She came through like a real champ! Will was was very excited to meet his brand new brother. We've talked about Jack for so long with him, I don't know if he ever really expected him to arrive. Jack is just over a week old now, and doing fine. He lost a little of his birth weight, but he's already gained that back, and then some. We're hoping that the sleepness nights will end in a month or so. That may be wishful thinking. I start back to work tomorrow, so it's about to get a little more intense for Maartje. Thankfully her mother will be staying with us for the next week to help her out while I'm away.

-Adam