Preston Carter has arrived!

Preston Carter Snead was born on New Years' Day at 9:26 am! He was 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 20 inches long. Turns out that our little man was not going to sit and wait to be told when to be born. He was going to take control of the situation and pick his own birthday. On New Years' Eve, I was feeling pretty rotten and was sure that my ear/sinus infections were back. So I went to bed rather early, and eventually ended up sleeping on the couch because I couldn't get comfortable and didn't want to keep bothering Travis. Around 4 in the morning, I got up to go to the bathroom, laid back down on the couch, and felt a "pop". I knew right then and there that my water had broken. Ready or not, we were having a New Years baby! Long story short, we rushed to the hospital (with contractions coming about 4 minutes apart) after Gramme & Granddad got to the house (for when big brother woke up). I got all hooked up, and they prepped the operating room and Preston made his appearance AND was the first baby born at the hospital in 2011!

Preston came out showing off the set of lungs that he was given, and Travis & I enjoyed spending time with him as the operating team finished up with me. I was able to take Preston to recovery with me since he was doing so well, and we had some more quiet time. Over the next few days, we had lots of visitors: Grandpa & Gramme Cindy, Gramme & Granddad, Uncle Eddie & Aunt Emily, Aunt Jenn, Laura, Sara, Uncle Nathan, and so many others! Thanks to everyone that came to visit! Preston & I did have to stay one extra night in the hospital, compliments of my blood pressure that just did NOT want to cooperate. (After delivery at one point, it shot up to about 190/114 - scary stuff!) But my OB has been able to find a good combination of meds to help bring it down and hopefully it will regulate itself in the coming weeks and I'll be med-free again. (My BP was elevated with Tyler too, and it took several weeks after he was born for it to come down naturally, but it did.)

We're home now and trying to get used to having one more person in the house. Preston & I are working on nursing, and so far it's going pretty well. I did forget how challenging it was, and Travis gently reminds me when I get frustrated that it was like this with Tyler too. Speaking of Tyler, he is an amazing big brother and has been such a huge helper. He has handled the changes at home so well and we couldn't be more proud of him. He loves his baby brother so much and he's very excited to teach him all sorts of "big boy" things. We're so fortunate to have such a wonderful big boy. We're also fortunate to have Gramme & Granddad in

Richmond, as they have been a huge help with Tyler, and have let him have sleepovers with them so that he gets some quality one-on-one time, and Travis & I can get some rest when Preston rests.

Preston had his first pediatrician appointment on Friday and his weight was back up to 7 lbs. 13 oz. (He left the hospital at 7 lbs. 8 oz., which is a normal drop in birth weight.) He got the all clear from the doc and we don't go back for another checkup until he is one month old. And while this feels like a long time from now, I have a feeling it will all fly by. All in all, we're doing well and are excited about watching our newest addition grow. Our little family is complete now, and Travis & I couldn't be happier. We love these two little boys with all of our hearts and look forward to what's in store for them. And now some pics!

If I've gotten this bad about posting now.....

I wonder what it will be like with two little ones at home! Quick update for those that aren't on Facebook, or that we haven't been in touch with in some time:

- Snead 2.0 is......another boy! Tyler was right all along, and he is thrilled to have a baby brother! I'm about 24 weeks now, and am feeling pretty good. I'm getting bigger, and the little man is kicking up a storm!

- To end the summer, we spent lots of time at the pool, went to Busch Gardens one last time, and Travis & Tyler went to another Flying Squirrels baseball game. The guys caught a foul ball!

- The boys also made a trip to Richmond International Raceway when NASCAR was in town and watched practice. Tyler loved it!

- Tyler is starting soccer on the weekends. This Saturday will be his first game. He has lots of friends on his team, and a few weeks ago they all got their new jerseys, cleats, shin guards, the whole nine yards. We're excited to watch him "play", and hope he has as much fun as we think he will.

- The nursery is coming right along. We've painted, assembled furniture, and put up closet doors and a new ceiling fan. We have the curtains, and the decals for the wall, just have to find the time to get it all up. I have a self-imposed deadline of mid-October for this to all come together. Yes, it's early, but I want it all done before the craziness of Halloween, Thanksgiving, & Christmas arrive.

- Speaking of Halloween, in what will be a huge surprise to everyone (not), Tyler will be Spiderman this year. We have already found his costume and he is really excited. (Even Mommy has a special Halloween shirt this year that she's excited to debut.)

And now for some pictures!

Things are going to get interesting....

Well, I'll just get straight to the point here and let the picture do the talking:

Yep, we're having another baby! Tyler is going to be a big brother!!!! We're all very excited, especially Tyler. He is absolutely, 100% sure that there is a "baby brother in Mommy's tummy". We've told him that we'll have to wait for Mommy's doctor to tell us what we are having. But either way, he's excited! I'm due January 13, 2011. So Tyler will be just shy of turning 4, and therefore will be the perfect helper age.

This pregnancy has been very different from my pregnancy with Tyler. I have been much sicker this time around. I'm hoping that since I'm nearing the end of the 1st trimester, I'm also

nearing the end of the nauseousness. But we've had one ultrasound so far, and everything looks great! We will have another ultrasound next week for the 1st trimester screening, and we're looking forward to seeing our little one again. We will once again be finding out the sex of the baby, and we think that will happen in late August or early September. We'll keep you updated!

I need to catch everyone up on our weekend in the Outer Banks of NC for Dad & Cindy's

wedding too. They were married on June 26, and we were there along with many others - Eddie & Emily, the Radicks, the Leamons, Cindy's son & his family, my Uncle Nathan, Aunt Kay & Uncle Mike, among others. It was great to have everyone together for the occasion, and the ceremony on the beach was beautiful! Congrats, Dad & Cindy! We love you! Enjoy some pics from the fun weekend (which was just a warm-up for our week long trip to Emerald Isle here in a few short weeks!!!):

Summer is here!

Sorry to be away for so long, but it's been busy here! We had Uncle Eddie & Aunt Emily's wedding in May, and Tyler was a great ring bearer! He walked Maverick down the aisle like a pro, and he behaved perfectly during the ceremony. We were so proud of him. And we were so happy to be a part of Eddie & Emily's special day.

We also recently got Tyler his very first big boy bike! He proved to us that he could pedal his tricycle, and his reward for that was a bike of his choosing. You'll never guess in a million years what kind of bike he chose. Spiderman! Shocking, we know. Spiderman is definitely the superhero of choice around here. He's doing really well on his bike and it's hard to believe that we'll be taking training wheels off of that thing sometime in the future. He's getting so big, so fast!

The pool has also opened for the summer, and Tyler has been spending a lot of time there on weekends. He's loving the water just as much as he did last year. And we have plans to get him together with our friend Jennifer, who will help to teach him to swim. We figure it's time for him to learn and I think that he'll get a lot more out of his pool experience with that knowledge.

Coming up this summer we have Grandpa & Cindy's wedding in the Outer Banks and our annual Emerald Isle trip in July. Tyler also is excited for his first movie theater experience - Toy Story 3. He's a marketers dream. He wants anything and everything to do with that movie. Another busy summer ahead!

First Flying Squirrels game

Baseball is back in Richmond, folks! After running the Braves out of town and a one year hiatus, Richmond now has a new AA baseball team - the Richmond Flying Squirrels, which is an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Travis & I have been very excited to have baseball back so close to our house (the team plays near downtown, which is about 15 minutes from us) and we were so ready to take Tyler to his first game. We enrolled him in the Flying Squirrels Kids Club, which gets him a free ticket to every Sunday home game for the season. We took advantage of that this past Sunday, with a friend of his from school, Lee, and his parents.

Tyler has been outfitted in Squirrels gear since the team mascot was announced, thanks to Gramme and Granddad Snead. He has two t-shirts and a hat. (And now Mommy has a hat too.) He loves wearing his gear, so as you can imagine, he was quite excited to see everyone else in their Squirrels shirts and hats, and was excited when Lee got a shirt that matched his. The adults were all taking bets to see how long the boys would last, and believe it or not, they made it to the end of the 7th inning stretch! I think that they would have made it to the end of the game, but the adults were all ready to go, as it was a very hot and humid day. All in all, we had a great time, and can't wait for the next Sunday home game!!! Go Squirrels!

Easter sickness - and fun!

Easter has come and gone. Where is 2010 going? Anyway, we had a good Easter, for the most part. We originally had plans to go to Maymont Park’s Easter event on Saturday with some friends. We were looking forward to the nice weather, and having a picnic lunch. However, I came down with a nasty 24 hour stomach bug early Friday evening, and Travis got the beginnings of it Saturday morning, so we weren’t able to make it. Tyler was thankfully spared the sickness, and didn’t even realize that he was missing the fun at Maymont, but we felt bad about it anyway. Before the illness on Friday night, we did get in the annual dyeing of the eggs, and Tyler had a blast with that. We took advantage of the beautiful spring weather and dyed them on the deck. He had fun decorating his eggs with stickers and getting the colors to be nice and bright with the dye. We bought a Cars themed dyeing kit this year, and he enjoyed that, as he is a fan of the movie and the characters.

The Easter Bunny did indeed come visit Tyler this year. He woke up on Easter morning and asked if the Easter Bunny was at our house, and we told him that it looked like he had left some goodies in his basket. He then wanted to actually talk to the Easter Bunny. We had to break the news to him that the Bunny had so many other children to visit that he couldn’t stick around to say hi, but that he left him some goodies. That was enough for him, so we headed down to see his basket. The Bunny left him some new Legos, the Chutes and Ladders game, Alvin and the Chipmunks DVD, and lots of other things. He was very excited and pleased. It was a lot of fun to watch him go through his basket and his eggs.

We were all feeling much better on Sunday so we spent the majority of the day outside, planting new bushes and flowers. We’ve had pretty warm weather all week (believe it or not, in the 90s!!!), but haven’t been able to enjoy it as the pollen count is off the charts. We did have some rain last night, and that has helped. But it is wreaking havoc on mine and Tyler’s allergies. And Tyler is also working through his second bout with pneumonia is as many months. We go back to the pediatrician on Monday to see if he’s cleared up and to figure out what exactly is causing this stuff to keep coming back. I think that we are going to look into some prescription allergy medicines and maybe a steroid for his lungs. So keep your fingers crossed for us!

Three is worse than two...or so we've been told.

It’s hard to believe but our little boy is 3!! Tyler had his birthday party last Saturday, and he had a blast. We had it at The Little Gym, of which we are now members. He has his class every Saturday morning with Miss Olivia and Mr. Jason, and he loves it. We were lucky enough that both of them were the instructors for his party as well. Grandpa & Cindy came in from Lynchburg for the festivities, as well as Gramme & Granddad. We invited our friends the Lanes, Blakleys, and Kreckmans, along with all of Tyler’s class at school. We had about 15 kids total at the party, and I think we can easily say that they all had a great time. The kids got to play in the gym for an hour while Olivia and Jason organized different stations and activities for them. Many of the parents came in the gym to join in on the fun as well. The highlight of the gym time was definitely the inflatable air track, where the kids got to bounce their way down the track to the end where they jumped off, ran down the colored dots to the beginning and did it all over again.

After the gym time, the kids all gathered for cake in the party room. I made Tyler a Spiderman cake, at his request, and it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. I also made cupcakes which were a hit with the little ones. But I learned something that day – blue icing is VERY messy and stains little hands and faces. We got some priceless pictures of some of the kids that had been dyed blue. Thankfully, our birthday boy wanted a red cupcake. Surprisingly, it was the less messy option.

After cake, it was time to hand out the Spiderman-themed goody bags, and say goodbye to our friends. By the end of the party, we could definitely hear that some of the kids were winding down in their own ways – by whining, or fussing, or just quietly slipping away. We all had a great time, especially Tyler, which is the one that matters the most, right? He was so happy to see all of his friends, and loved having the spotlight on him (gee, I have no idea where he would have gotten that from). He had a great birthday, and now I’m already wondering how we’ll top it for next year!

One of the gifts that Tyler got this year was his enrollment in the Spring semester of Little Gym from Travis & I, Grandpa & Cindy, and Gramme & Granddad. It has been a wonderful gift for him, and he’s truly enjoying his classes. Last weekend, one of his schoolmates that came to his party enrolled. Her parents were so thrilled with what they saw at the party that they decided that this was something that Megan would benefit from as well. We plan to enroll Tyler again in the summer session since he has had so much fun already.

Tyler had a sleepover at Gramme & Granddad’s this past Saturday so that Travis & I could go out to dinner to celebrate both of our birthdays. I hit 33 in mid-February and Travis hit the big 3-0 on Saturday. We ended up having a nice dinner at a newer restaurant on the river in downtown Richmond (called The Boathouse at Rocketts Landing). Tyler had a great time with his grandparents, who took him to Friendly’s for his own special dinner. When we picked him up yesterday, he was playing with Aunt Jenn and (baby) Landon. He was showing Landon how to walk, and showing him which toys were his and which toys were for Landon. He was pretty adamant that Landon not play with his blocks. Guess he wasn’t a fan of Landon putting them all in his mouth.

We’re looking forward to warmer weather on the horizon. We saw the first glimpse of it this weekend. Yesterday the temps were in the mid-60s! Even the ice cream man hit the streets yesterday, which gave us a laugh. (Of course, Tyler ended up with a SpongeBob popsicle.) Tyler was outside riding his tricycle (which he can now definitely pedal like a big boy!) and playing with his golf set. I think we’re all ready to open the windows, let some fresh air in, and get outside and play. I’m ready for a helper in the flower beds to get new flowers in, and I think that this will be right up Tyler’s alley this year. We definitely had enough of winter for this year, and welcome spring with open arms!