January

Before Julia turns 4 months old in in 4 days, I thought it was important to show off her 3 month pics! She is now laughing and rolling over. I've seen her roll over at least 5 times now, and Matt has yet to catch it once. I don't think he completely believes me that she's done it.



We've had some fun in the mild weather that this January has provided. Looking forward to spending more time outside in the months to come!

November update

We've had a lot of fun and excitement in the past few weeks...

Elaina turned 3 years old on November 10. She celebrated with a "princess party" the weekend before her birthday with our friends from church.

On her actual birthday, she had a great time with Mommy, Daddy, Julia, and Grammy at the museum in Raleigh. She is really into dinosaurs right now, but she wasn't so sure about the giant dinosaurs at the museum. They were a lot more intimidating than the imaginary pink dinosaur that is often accused of hanging out in our entryway and playing with her shoes.

She received an easel as a birthday present, and she has enjoyed learning how to draw people. I think the arms and legs sticking straight out of the face are hilarious.

We've also enjoyed getting to see more of Miss Julia's personality in the past few weeks. She is a very smiley baby, and we can't get enough of her grins.

Last week, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Matt's parents. This was Grandpa Rust's first opportunity to meet Julia. Elaina did a good job sharing her grandparents with her little sister.

Julia didn't get to enjoy all of the delicious food on her first Thanksgiving, but we couldn't resist a picture with the turkey!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

J- 4 weeks old!

Wow! Julia is already 4 weeks old. In the past four weeks, we have had some nights of 4-6 hours of continuous sleep, some nights of waking every hour to feed/comfort baby (or Elaina), battled an outbreak of thrush (very painful for breastfeeding mommy), witnessed Julia's first smile and coos, prepared for Halloween, and held on for dear life! Overall, we're doing well and enjoying life with our two girls. A few photos of the last few weeks:

We've also updated the October photo album with more photos.

julia's First Bath at Home

Julia's Movie Debut

Here are some video clips I took on Sunday (before Julia's birth), Monday (when Elaina met Julia), and Tuesday (day we brought Julia home).

Julia's First Days at Home

On Tuesday afternoon, we brought Julia home from the hospital.

Elaina was at home with Grammy and Papaw waiting on us to get there. She was thrilled to see us.

We gave Julia the tour of the house; she seemed to like her room.

Elaina's new favorite hobby is holding her baby sister. She does well holding still and supporting Julia's head. I'm hoping I can have Elaina changing diapers by the end of the month. Until then, I'll settle for having her hand me wipes when I'm changing Julia's diapers.

Julia had her first bath at home on Wednesday evening. She cried a little bit but loved having her hair washed under the faucet.

Grammy and Papaw have had fun playing with their two youngest grandchildren.

For all of you waiting anxiously from a distance, we added more photos from the last few days to our photo gallery.

Introducing Julia Jordan Rust

Victoria and I are thrilled to announce that our daughter has arrived. Julia Jordan Rust was born last night, October 2, 2011, at 11:05pm. She weighed in at 6lb 13oz and is 19.75in long (just a little smaller than her big sister was at birth). Everyone is doing well.

Baby Sister. Elaina took to her little sister very quickly. I think 'Julia' is becoming her new favorite word. Elaina loves getting to hold Julia and give her kisses. She also likes poking Julia gently with her finger, as if asking, "is it real?"

The Name. We followed the same naming convention as with Elaina: pick a first name that we like and is fairly well-known and easily spelled (my dad's spelling skills notwithstanding); pick a second name that is a meaningful family name. Elaina's middle name 'Elizabeth' is also her aunt Andrea's middle name (along with many other women on my side). Plus, it's a biblical name which makes it extra meaningful for us.

'Julia' is a name we agreed was established and elegant. 'Jordan' is the middle name of Julia's Uncle James Jordan Wade and also happens to be biblical. Plus, we knew Julia would be born near the time of Uncle Jordan's wedding.

The Pictures (The reason you're here). The pictures from the last few days are viewable here.