Adventures of Squirrel and Bug

Little (or Big) Eli

2012-02-14T13:44:00.005-05:00

I am a slacker....what can I say? However, here is a picture of little Eli. He is measuring 4 weeks ahead and we have an ultrasound tomorrow to see if it is actually him or if it is fluid. We shall see....hopefully I don't have the "privilege" of pushing out a 10 pound baby! Here is a picture of my little man. This is at 29 weeks.

Isn't he cute?? We are slowly getting stuff ready. Oh my, the panic starts setting in!!

What am I gonna do.....

2011-12-14T11:15:00.002-05:00

....with a little boy? I am so lost on how to parent a son! We found out we are having a boy and we are so excited! I have been dropping by Goodwill about once a week to pick up clothes. I know I will need them! Of course, I have had numerous amounts of people offer to donate me clothes that already have boys-I am not going to turn those down!
Brandon is on top of the world. I know he can't wait to have that father/son bonding. I, myself am excited to have my mama's boy :)
We haven't picked out a name yet. We aren't telling anyways until he is born, but we can't agree on a name right now, so it doesn't really matter!
The girls are getting geared up for Christmas. We don't have our tree up yet, but we plan on doing that in the next few days. It has been hectic around our house! Both girls are doing wonderfully and I am enjoying this time with them. Emma is so excited to be good for Santa and Maddie is just taking everything in this year. She is in awe of all the decorations and activities we are doing. Fun times, I am trying to soak it all in.
Oh by the way (more for me)
Baby Boy is measuring 1 week ahead and he was moving all around, not afraid of showing off the goods! At my next appt after the ultrasound, we couldn't get a measure of his heartrate because he wouldn't stay still long enough! The nurse practitioner said, well I know he is okay because I can hear the heart beat, but I am not going to keep trying to measure it because he is not going to cooperate today, lol. I know he is fine though, he loves to kick me!! :) We have to get the baby's room done now, I am now 24 weeks and we haven't started a thing!! Yikes!

It's a.....

2011-11-11T10:11:00.004-05:00

BABY!!! :)
We are waiting to reveal the gender on Thanksgiving Day (tomorrow). Only Brandon and I know what this baby is and it has been hard to keep it a secret! I have to watch myself calling the baby him/her. However, baby looked great! Its heartrate was 156 and it was moving all around, punching and kicking. So, so cute! I can't wait to meet this little one! I will be 22 weeks this Sunday, so more than halfway there!!
Maddie also turned 13 months on the 7th. She is getting so big! She started walking the week before Halloween. It is so cute. I love baby wadddling. She had picked it up really fast, she can almost run already! She also has two teeth on the bottom on four teeth coming through on top (all at once!!!). Poor thing, but she has handled it like a champ! She is also starting to pucker up to give kisses. It is so stinking cute. I have really seen her "big girl" personality come through. It amazes me how much they learn in such a short time.
Emma is doing great as well! We are fully potty-trained-FINALLY, Thank God!!- and you would think she was Princess of the World! She is loving her Disney princess movies and always has to have a dress on when she watches them. To her, if you are going to watch princesses, then you have to be one as well :)
I just love my girls!
I would post a few shots of the baby on here, but I haven't figured out how to edit out the private stuff. As soon as I do, I will put some pictures up!

Finally Friday

2011-10-21T08:40:00.018-04:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I said I was going to update every week, but I didn't. So there :)
Maddie's birthday was a lot of fun. We had two smaller parties instead of the traditional big first birthday party. I think it made things a lot less stressed. The first one we had was on her birthday and we had a supper and birthday cake at my parents house.

This is the cake BEFORE we even cut it...Maddie loved the icing!!

Emma giving her little sister a birthday kiss :) :)

The aftermath...

This is the aftershock the next day....she absolutely loved cake!!

We also had a party at Brandon's parents house, but I don't have my pictures of those with me.
On Sunday, we went to the Fall Foliage parade in Brandon's hometown. The girls love parades and Emma especially loved collecting candy!

Emma isn't too fond of loud noises...especially fire trucks and police car sirens going off.

We took a trip to the apple orchard last Saturday. It was a nice day out, just a little windey. We stocked up on apple cidar doughnuts, popcorn, caramel apples, apples and pumpkins. I love country living :)

Maddie's first taste of an apple cidar doughnut....she just loved it.

Here is Emma pre-doughnut rampage. I tried to get a smile out of her, but between the sun and wind this is the best she could do :)

I love my little family :)

I am 16 weeks and 5 days today. I am feeling pretty good. I don't have too many symptoms right now. I am just very tired and hungry. I seem to be getting fuller faster though. My stomach has popped out on the top and bottom and I look like I am about 25 weeks pregnant.
Our anatomy ultrasound is scheduled for November 7. I can't wait! I am thinking this one is a boy...who knows. We are going to tell our families on Thanksgiving Day. My parents will be first because we have lunch with them, then Brandon's family that evening when their dinner is going to be. I am having a co-worker of mine make cake balls with the color of the gender inside. I can't wait to reveal it! We are also keeping this baby's name a secret. I want to have some kind of a surprise for this baby since Brandon won't let me wait until the baby is born to find out what it is. All well.

13 Weeks and A Day At The Park

2011-09-28T13:29:00.011-04:00

I am 13 weeks and 3 days today. Time really is flying by. I feel like I am not going to be prepared at all when this baby comes. Not mentally, not physically, and definitely not with organization. All well, things will fall into place....I think. Don't get me wrong, I am very excited about this baby, but I just feel like I need to be in a bigger house because the one we are in now just doesn't have the room. I like the house we are in, but we just don't have the rooms for three kids (especially if this baby is a boy). I guess I will just have to try and get motivated to organize as much as I can, but I still feel like I have been hit by a Mack truck. I am so ready for this first trimester fatigue to be over with!!
Other than my sob story, I have fun updates for the baby.
Heartrate: 156
Measuring: 3 days ahead
Gender: Don't know yet, but I have taken 4 "tests". One was a regular question test, such as what are your cravings, etc. One was based on the lunar calendar, one was the Chinese gender prediction test and one was the pee on baking soda test. All but one test indicates girl. We shall see :)
Cravings: Still craving anything with Buffalo sauce. I am also loving pickle and mayo sandwiches.
How I feel: I am still pretty nauseous. I am still very tired. I have headaches and backaches. Very irritable...lol
Movement: I think I have felt the baby move a couple of times on my lower left side. I am loving that :)
I am stopping my Progesterone this Sunday when I hit 14 weeks. Then I will definitely be in the second trimester and know that my placenta has taken over the hormone making. Whew.
Here is a picture of "Squirt"

Cute aren't they??? :)

We spent one of our few last nice, warm days at the park. We had a good time. Two hours of good time at that. I can't believe how much Emma has grown since the last time I took her to the park. She can go on the big curly slide now! I about have heart attacks every time she climbs up the ladder (even with Daddy there watching her). I am going to do really good when she goes to school....ha! Emma has also become so social. She will just walk right up to a bunch of kids and just join in on their fun! I am glad that they have accepted her right in...so far. The first time she gets rejected will probably break my heart :(

Maddie had a fun time too-this was her first time at the park. She loved playing in the grass and trying to eat all the leaves on the ground. We also put her down the baby slide and she wasn't so sure about it. I couldn't get a picture of it though because Brandon put her at the top and I "carried" her down. I have a picture of her in a swing and even though it is a baby swing, it about toppled her over going forward a few times. I left her in it long enough to take a couple of pictures and then that ride was done!

Here are the girls right before we left for the park. Emma was so excited she could barely hold still for one picture!

Going up the big slide-ahhhh!!

Getting down to the ground again....safe and sound :)

One last note-we have taken Maddie off of formula and she is now on cow's milk! She can handle a sippy cup wonderfully and loves milk-yea!! I wish I was still nursing her, but what can you do when Mother Nature doesn't let you anymore? Boo.

You Know What Causes That, Right?

2011-08-29T10:39:00.012-04:00

MIA-that is the way to describe me right now. I have so much to blog about, but I just haven't had the time. I have pictures of Emma's 3rd birthday, our vacation, the fair, and some big news!
First we will start with Emma's birthday. We started the day by visiting my work and saying hi to everyone. We then went to the Children's Museum. There was a Dora and Diego exhibit and Emma loved it.

She then got to model cute clothes on the Barbie runway....that was so funny to watch all of the kids do that. We finished out the museum with some regular fun stuff...running, climbing, playing water/sand. Emma had a blast. We then went and ate at Old Spaghetti Factory and headed home. Poor Emma was tired.

Emma's 3rd birthday party was a success! Her theme was Tinkerbell. She received lots of nice gifts and she enjoyed her cake and ice cream! She had to unpack all of her toys herself when we got home and she then had to try on all of her clothes before I washed them. She is so particular :)

I am lucky to get a picture of her...she is always on the move!

Maddie not quite sure what was going on....we will be having her first birthday party very soon!
The week of August 8-13 we had the Mooreland Free Fair. I always take vacation that week because I help out with our church's bean tent and it is just easier. The girls had a blast and I got a lot of fun pictures of them!

Last, but not least....
I have been asked the question, "You know what causes that, right?" because we are expecting another baby next year! I found out July 20th that I was pregnant! I am due on April 1. I am 12 weeks and 5 days today. I am going to try and do a week by week post. I didn't do that much with the other girls, so I am going to attempt to do that with this baby.
I had an ultrasound on Wednesday and the baby was measuring 3 days ahead the the heartbeat was 158. It was moving all around and I was so in love :)

My symptoms as of right now are:
-nausea that lasts pretty much all day long
-I am so, so tired
-headaches
-backaches
-stuffy nose
-irritability
-hungry all the time-goes well with the nausea

Cravings
-boneless Buffalo wings from Applebees
-baked potatoes
-pasta

We find out the sex the week of my birthday (w/o November 6). I can't wait! Maybe we will finally have a little man running around with two big sisters to torture him with dressing up and make-up! :)

A Sad Weekend

2011-07-25T12:02:00.006-04:00

We lost one of our dogs yesterday. He was hit by a truck/horsetrailer. We were on our way out to church and he slipped through the door and was hit right in front of me and the girls. He didn't suffer though. I know my girls are going to miss him something awful. Our other dog, Gertie will miss him as well. Here she is looking for him last evening....

Is that not pathetic....it just about breaks your heart :(

Here is Walter and Maddie having a staring contest a few months ago....we will miss you Walter!!

In other news, the girls are doing great! Emma's birthday is Friday. We have to make a quick trip to the doctor's office, then to work to say goodbye to one of my co-workers who is leaving. We will then go have lunch and then go to the Children's Museum for the Dora/Diego exhibit. We will then see how tired birthday girl is and then maybe go see the new Pooh movie. We will have to see. It is hard to believe my first baby will be three!! She is such a sweet girl. I will do her birthday post on Thursday with all her stats and fun facts :)

I will close with some pictures...

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-20T11:25:00.008-04:00

Paw's Birthday!!!!

Nine Months!!!

2011-07-07T08:32:00.004-04:00

Maddie-you are nine months old today!! Where did the time go? It seems like you just got here. You are doing so much these days and I feel like I can barely keep up! Here is a small list of what you are getting into these days.

-You are just over seventeen pounds. You have your nine month check-up on the 20th, so we will see how much you really weigh. You feel like you are bigger than that to me!
-Will find out your length at your appt too!
-You refuse to eat any kind of baby food now. You love to munch on Mmm-mmm's, puffs, yogurt bites and any kind of table food mommy and daddy will give you. You have tried bread, ice cream, chocolate, baked beans, corn, red jello, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, and few other things I know I am forgetting. You have loved everything!
-You crawl everywhere! You can pull yourself up into a stand holding on to anything that you can grab onto.
-You are trying to walk while I hold your hands and you sometimes try to push yourself up to a stand while you are crawling.
-You like to crawl on top of Emma while she is laying on the floor. You also like to pull her hair!
-You like to play with Gertie's ears.
-You love to play with your Seasame Street toy. You have to push the tops down on top of the characters and you love to slam your hands on them to push them down.
-You wake up once during the night to just cuddle, you sometimes nurse, but you are almost weaned. You have learned how to put yourself back to sleep-finally!!
-You are talking a lot. You still say mostly consonant sounds, but you sometimes try to imitate what we say too!
-You are still a 100% complete mama's girl!! (and mommy loves it!)

You are so much fun! You are so loved and we are so blessed to have you in our family! We love you Madelyn Grace!!!

Wordless Wednesday: The Fourth iPhone Style...Pictures Only, No Particular Order

2011-07-06T09:52:00.010-04:00

June Summary

2011-06-28T14:32:00.013-04:00

Wow, I cannot believe June is over in two days! The year is definitely more than half over now. So many fun things have happened in the last month that I have failed to blog on. We also lost Brandon's grandpa on June 9. That was very hard on Brandon, but we know he is in a better place having the time of his new life! Thank God for that!
Here are some highlights of our month:

-Miss Maddie stood for the first time on June 4!!

-Brandon and I celebrated our sixth anniversary on June 4 as well

-Miss Maddie turned eight months on June 7

-Emma has gone poopy in the potty quite a bit more than what she did before....she goes potty great, but we are still working on the poopy part ;)

-Emma received her first wasp sting on June 20 :( Emma and Brandon were at his parents' house and I had called Brandon right after it happened. It about broke my heart hearing Emma scream like she was....however, now we know she is not allergic!

-Emma has informed me that she is now a Princess and so am I. She is Belle and I am Snow White, just thought you might like to know-that is important information! :)

-We are in the process of finding an additional baby-sitter for the girls during the week. Let me tell you, that is fun stuff...

-I am starting to plan Emma's birthday party. She is definitely going to have a Tinkerbell theme. Now I just have to start getting her decorations together.

-I am going to get Emma Yo Gabba Gabba tickets for Emma for her birthday. They are not that expensive, and I know she is going to have a blast! She hasn't been to any "concerts" or "shows" like that yet, so that whole experience will be new to her. I just know she will love it though!

-I am learing to drive a six-speed car. Our new Mini Cooper is manual and I have to learn to drive it. I like it though. I just can't take off right....

-A little fun fact. Emma is really into singing and dancing. She will sing songs and when she can't quite say the word that well, she just sings gibberish instead. Well, the funny part about that is that she sings the same gibberish words each time. She has her gibberish memorized!! HAHA :)
Okay, now after that I am going to post some pics!!

Updates on Hold

2011-06-10T07:48:00.002-04:00

I will update my blog next week. I have not had time this week to even get on here and Brandon's grandpa passed away yesterday so I will be gone this weekend and on Monday and Tuesday. Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts.
I have lots of updates, so stay tuned! :)

Time to catch up! WARNINGA LOT of random rambling!

2011-06-03T07:55:00.008-04:00

Whew...what a busy couple of weeks we have had! I went on vacation the week of the 23rd, so I haven't been on the internet besides for my iPhone. That is why there are no postings lately. So, I guess I had better catch up everyone on what's going on (and considering I use this blog for a lot of my memories to write down later, I better make sure I get this stuff down so I don't forget!).

Let's see....

The big news is that Maddie crawled for the first time! She had been kinda scooting along and I was watching her on May 25--yes I remembered the date--she just pulled a knee up and away she went! My dad watches both girls on Tuesdays right now and he says she has suddenly become quite the handful...lol

What did we do on vacation? Well, we cleaned a lot and relaxed. We pretty much did whatever we wanted to do. However, we did go a buy a car. We drive an hour to and from work and at the time we were doing that in a Ford Explorer. With the way gas money is, we were going broke just from that. We ended up getting a Mini Cooper and I absolutely love it! It gets 34mpg on average. It is more than doubled what we were getting with the explorer. Stress level has decreased dramatically!

Brandon and I also went to King's Island on Friday. The girls stayed with his parents and we had the day to ourselves. It was great-it is no Cedar Point, but KI has great rides. Brandon did end up losing his phone on one of the rides, so I am working on getting him a replacement one. I asked him why he didn't keep his hand on his pocket with the phone in it like I did and he said he was too concerned about losing my sunglasses. Hmmmm, phone or sunglasses....what is more important??? Anyways, other than that, it was a great day. I got to eat my Smurf ice cream (blueberry) and that made the world a better place to be in :)

Now we are back to regular schedules again. Fun fun fun fun. All well, at least we can take vacations. My next one is in August, so not too far away!

This weekend is the National Road 40 rummage sales!! I pretty much live for this weekend! Think of me tomorrow while I am out in the heat getting awesome deals for kids clothes (my favorite thing to do!!) :)

We also have our anniversary tomorrow. It will be six years for us. A lot sure has happened in those six years! It has been a great ride though.

I cannot believe that in about 8 more weeks Emma will be three years old. Wow, I really need to start buying stuff for her party. I have asked her over and over again what she wants the theme to be--Dora or Tinkerbell and every time she says without hesitation "Tinkerbell". She absolutely adores Tinkerbell and anything that has to do with fairies. It is okay though because I like it too, I think the colors are pretty and all the characters are very cute in all of the movies. I like the concept of the movies too and Emma really seems to get the point of them-such as being a loyal friend and believing in yourself.

We bought a new swing for outside and I love it. The last couple of evening have been beautiful with a nice breeze and it is so nice to sit out in it and relax. Maddie has almost fallen asleep a few times in it, and she probably would have if we didn't have big redneck trucks driving by every 30 seconds. For living in a farm town, it sure it loud!!

One last thing before I post some pictures....Emma drew her first picture of me last night! I forgot to take her picture because I was too busy tearing up and trying not to cry. I will have to do that tonight and post it on here because it is the cutest picture ever!! :)

Madelyn eating sweet potatoes.

These last two pictures are from Memorial Day (thank you to all our veterans, past and present!). Emma would not look at the camera for me and decided to steal Maddie's duck. Maddie looks so upset doesn't she???? HAHA

Wordless Wednesday (A Day Late)

2011-05-19T15:41:00.003-04:00

I really need to start taking pictures with my regular camera....

2011-05-17T07:18:00.008-04:00

I just love my iPhone. It is so convenient to take pictures with; however, even though the camera on it is great, it is nothing like my Sony camera I have as a regular camera. I keep getting darker pictures than what I want. All well, I will just have to remind myself to grab my Sony.
Anyways, I have some pictures of my Emma...who is just growing up way too fast. I have really noticed this in the last week or so. She is acting like a little girl so much now (although she is not without the temper tantrums!). She is doing all the same stuff she always has, but there is just something different about the way she does it.

Even though she has her finger in her mouth, she still looks like a little lady doing it!! :)

Such a pretty girl!!

I had to take a picture of this because her hair is starting to look exactly like mine did at this age. She is my mini-me!

Here is my example about taking pictures with my iPhone....it would be so good if it hadn't been so dark. All well.

This isn't the greatest photo quality, but Miss Maddie is just too cute not to put on here :)

I love, love, love this picture. I recently got down a bunch of my old clothes to start giving to Emma to wear and we found this old leotard from 1983 or 1984. Remember when Mary Lou Retton wore this replica when she won the Olympics. I sooooo wanted to be Mary Lou Retton and so this just thrills me that Emma loves to wear this leotard now!!

I have started selling Mary Kay and I absolutely love it! I have quite a few customers already. I am ready to start booking parties! This company is great to work for and there are all kinds of benefits. I am very excited about this new adventures I am embarking upon. Wish me luck with it! :)

Seven Months!!

2011-05-11T09:53:00.006-04:00

Maddie Grace-you turned seven months old on Saturday! You are growing sooo fast! I look at pictures of you the day we brought you home from the hospital and it just seems so surreal how fast time has gone. You sure have accomplished all sorts of things in your life so far!
What is Maddie getting into nowadays?

-You wear a size 2 diaper
-You wear 6 months clothes
-You still love to suck your thumb while you are tired or upset
-You are still a mama's girl
-You are nursed in the evenings and if you wake up at night
-You still wake up 1-2 times a night to nurse
-You are eating baby food and love everything you have tried so far-pears, bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes (grandpa has thrown in a taste of chocolate cake and an ice cream bar; your baby-sitter has give you a taste of baked potato...you loved it all!!)
-You love any kind of toy that we let you play with and it goes straight into your mouth!
-No teeth yet
-You love Mmm-Mmm's
-You love to stand with assistance and prefer it to sitting
-You are trying your hardest to crawl, but you are just doing a baby type "Army Crawl"
-You have lost quite a bit of your hair, but you still have enough that I can pull a little bit up in a "Pebbles" ponytail
-You smile All. The. Time.
-You haven't had a major sickness (thank God!)
-You love to take walks
-You are starting to reach for me
-You can hold your bottle up all of the time now
-You try to take the spoon out of my hand while I am feeding you
-You are starting to really notice the cartoons your sister watches
-You love it when your tummy gets tickled
-You talk all the time. Your favorite sounds to make are "mamama", "dadada", "bababa". It is super cute.
-You look more and more like your great-grandpa(my mom's dad) every day and it makes me miss him even more. It also makes me happy knowing he shows so much through you!
-You can't get enough of your sister; she is crazy over you as well.

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect fit to our small family! We love you Madelyn Grace!!

Easter, Bikes and Springtime!

2011-04-28T07:56:00.020-04:00

I don't think it is ever going to stop raining. It snowed all winter and now we are going to have rain all spring :( I am thanking God that we have not had as bad as storms as the south though. We have had a few tornadoes, but nothing like Alabama and a few other states have gotten. It breaks my heart to see the damage there and to know there were so many deaths. Praying God will be with them!

On another note, we have been taking advantage of the days when it is nice out! Easter was NOT nice. It was misting all day long and all of our egg hunts were inside! :( However, it was so fun to teach Emma the real meaning of Easter. While talking about Jesus's death, she would look at me so concerned. Her eyes were very big and she looked like she was about to cry. When we got to the part about Jesus rising again, she started laughing and clapping. It is so sweet. I really love the innocence she has right now. She is such a loving and caring person. It warms my heart to know how much she loves Jesus already!

Emma in her Easter dress while doing the egg hunt at church.

Maddie in her Easter dress with Paw. Of course her bib is blocking the front of the dress.

One of Emma's Easter egg hunts! She made out quite well!

Trying to decide what to do with all of them....

I think next year we may just put stickers in the eggs. WAY too much candy!

And would you believe for each of her hunts, I forgot to bring her cute Easter basket?!?!?! AHHHHH, I hate it when I do things like that!

Emma and her cousin Maxine having fun with Papaw!

Maddie got bubbles in her basket and she got to experience them for the first time! :)

We also went to a baby shower this past weekend for Brandon's cousin and his girlfriend. They are going to have a little girl and are naming her Mya. I love it! Emma loved helping opening the presents! It was a small family shower and we had such a great time!

We also had Emma ride a two-wheeler bike for the first time! She had to wait patiently while Daddy fixed the seat (it was given to us), but eventually she was able to show her stuff! (Yes, we did have a helmet too! :))

She got tired of waiting, so she decided to take a short walk :)

FINALLY DONE! :)

So happy!

While all that was going on, Maddie sat and waited patiently in the grass....

What's over there?

No, I think I like what's over here better.....Sister and Daddy! :)

Emma and Maddie are doing wonderfully. Emma has to make sure Maddie sees her do things. She loves to entertain Maddie. She will sing, dance and give her kisses all day long. She also loves it when Maddie "toots". :) I cannot believe Emma is going to be three years old in three short months! Brandon and I are going to take the day off of work (it is a Friday-yea!) and we are going to do something special with her while the grandparents spend the day with Maddie. I am not sure what we will do yet. The Children's Museum has a Dora and Diego exhibit right now. She would go crazy over that. That may be our choice. We could do that and the zoo and a fun lunch. That would completely make her day :)
I hope we have some more nice spring days coming up soon. One thing's for sure-we are going to have the greenest grass ever!

Things that make me happy :)

2011-04-12T12:49:00.007-04:00

I started out today with not so good news. It is about money, so it can be fixed, but it just brought me down. However, as the day went on, I decided to put my big girl panties on and just live life. This makes me happy. At least I know my problem can be fixed; unlike so many more people that have it way worse than me. So, I decided to make a list of things that make me happy so I can remember how happy I really am.

1. Jesus. That is all I need to say about that.

2. My husband. He makes me laugh quite a bit. Even though he is a typical male, he makes it known that he loves me no matter what I look like or what I do.

3. My daughters. Emma-I honestly don't know what life was like before she came into it. She makes me laugh every day and I love to see how much like me she is. She is such a joy to me and I can't believe how much more I love her every day. Maddie-once again, I don't know how life existed without her. She just completes our little family and she is my other joy that I love so much more every day.

4. My parents. They have helped me in ways that I thought weren't even possible. I can tell how much they love me and my girls and I will be forever grateful to them!

5. My animals. I have two dogs and three cats. Even though that is a lot of animals and they do so many things that make me mad, they are all so good with my kids and I can tell they are loyal. They are so fun to snuggle up with!

6. Baking brownies and eating the batter......'nuff said.

7. Driving and blasting rock music in my car with the windows down. I especially like to blare 80's hair bands like Def Leppard and Poison.

8. Playing pass with Emma. I am starting to teach her how to do a volleyball "pass". She is catching on quick! Yea!!

9. Hearing Maddie giggle when I get her belly or tickle her. There is nothing better than a baby laugh.

10. Hearing Emma laugh her high-pitched laugh when Brandon is chasing her.

11. Hearing Emma talk and say new words.

12. Emma going to the potty.

13. Emma counting and saying her ABC's.

14. Emma singing songs to her little sister so she can keep her entertained for me.

15. Maddie's big smile she gives me when I get home from work.

16. Knowing that my girls have wonderful baby-sitters that take great care of them.

17. Going to my church and just feeling content.

18. Taking walks while there is a breeze out.

19. Drinking ice cold water.

20. Reading a great book.

21. Taking a nap without waking up for 3 hours.

22. Memories of my childhood.

23. Memories of my grandparents and going to their house.

24. My feeling of accomplishment when I check something off of my "to-do" list.

25. Paying off bills.

26. When a song gives me chills.

27. Seeing military families being reunited.

28. Cuddles with Maddie after bathtime.

29. My co-workers who have supported me through a lot of hard times.

30. My few close friends that have stuck by me in hard times.

31. Planning birthday parties for my girls.

32. Anticipation of my vacations.

33. Watching a movie I thought I would hate and it turns out I loved it.

34. Hearing that people are pregnant-I don't care if I know you or not.

35. Getting good bargains on clothes/items.

36. Running into people at the store that I haven't seen in a long time.

37. Friday nights!!

Those are just a few things, but I didn't want this to go on forever. Maybe I will finish this week ;) For the time being, here are some cute pictures of my girls from this weekend.

Sorry about the snotty nose, but this face is just her....

Here Emma is listening to my mom tell a story. Her face was so intent about 5 seconds before I took this picture.

Emma went to Grandma and Paw's earlier so Maddie and I decided to take advantage of the warm sun on Sunday. Her cheeks are getting so chubby :)

Watching the Amish go down the road....yes we live out in the country, well a country town...and I love it :)

6 Months Old

2011-04-07T10:49:00.003-04:00

Maddie, you are six months old today! You are growing so fast! What all are you up to these days?

-You are in a size 2 diaper
-You wear 3-6 months and 6-9 months onesies
-You wear 6 months pants
-Your hair is becoming more silky and longer in the front and you have developed a nice peach-fuzzy in the back from losing it from sleeping :)
-You love to blow raspberries at us-especially when we give you kisses on your lips
-You can sit up on your own now. You are able to catch yourself from side to side if you start to tilt over. You think you are hot stuff too!
-You are still sucking your thumb, but you usually only do it if you are very tired or cranky
-You pucker your mouth up for kisses before you blow a raspberry at us
-You are grabbing our faces now when we pick you up
-You talk all the time! You are really starting to sound out consanants and vowels
-You absolutely love baby food. So far you have tried apples, bananas, pears and green beans
-You are still nursing 1-2 times every night. You also love to take a bottle
-You love to be outside. Nothing calms you down more than being outside in the sun
-You absolutely love your sister. You smile so big every time Emma does something to entertain you. You also love to see her first thing in the morning
-You are still very much a mama's girl :)

Maddie, I don't know how many times I can say this, but we love you so very much! You are such a blessing to our family!

Only Little Sister Likes Her Picture Taken....

2011-04-05T13:15:00.007-04:00

Why is it every time I try to get a cute shot of Emma she bolts? She is always on the move and doesn't want to sit still for one second!! I can't even get her to sit still at a formal sitting. I am going to post some pictures that they had taken back in February. They are pictures of pictures so the quality is not that good. I hope Emma is out of this "I-don't-want-to-get-my-picture-taken" stage soon. The only reason why we have Emma smiling is because the guy taking the pictures was awesome and made her laugh just by throwing a stuffed bear around :) I just wanted to share these pictures because I thought they turned out really cute; especially considering the rambunctious 2 year old that was running around and halfway throwing a tantrum.....

Here are a couple of Maddie at church this weekend...once again, big sister would not stick around to show off her pretty face and dress.

Isn't that the most precious picture?? :) :) :)

Saturday's Game

2011-04-01T15:27:00.001-04:00

Just a quick note on this Friday afternoon....

GO BUTLER!!! GO BUTLER!!! GO BUTLER!!!

In Memory Of Beau Dog

2011-03-28T07:59:00.005-04:00

Beaucifous Pierre Deel
March 23, 2002-March 30, 2009

Beau as the "Ring Bearer" at our wedding on June 4, 2005

It has been two years to the day (and two years on the date on Wednesday) when we had to put our sweet boy Beau down. Beau was such a good and gentle dog. We loved him so much and I know he knew that. We miss you Beau and I know you are having a great time playing with the other dogs and animals at Rainbow Bridge! One day, we will see you again and take that wonderful walk to Heaven together!!

THE RAINBOW BRIDGE POEM

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

Look Ma-I'm Kinda Famous :)

2011-03-25T10:33:00.002-04:00

Everyone check out www.spearmintbaby.com Maddie is the Photo of the Day! This website is also great for decorating tips, ideas and is just a fun blog to read. You also can read about other Photos of the Day, Birth Stories, Baby Bumps and other random topics! I love this blog and thank you, Shari for featuring Maddie on your blog! :)

My Trip to WalMart

2011-03-24T12:35:00.003-04:00

Oh, how I loathe and love Walmart. It is the devil and an angel all at the same time. You get great prices, but then again, I know that the workers don't get the benefits they should and in turn the workers there are not the friendliest (not all of them, just quite a few). You also have to fight your way through aisles of people looking for the same deals you are. You have to pretty much jump through kids that run from their parents or just aren't watched closely enough. You have to get there on stocking days so you can be sure to get the product you want or it is gone within a day and a half. BUT, you get great deals on a lot of things and I love bargains!

I went to Walmart Monday night because Emma needed some new spring clothes. I think Walmart has a fairly decent selection of kids clothes so I loaded up the girls and headed out. I had packed a smaller diaper bag because I didn't want to have to carry the big one in. I forgot one minor detail though....my wallet with my driver's license and debit card was in it. I finally realized that when I pulled in the parking lot to WM. I did have my checkbook with me though so I thought I would write a check....do you see where this is going?
Well, I walk through the clothes and find some good deals for Emma. I even got her some socks and looked for some shoes, but of course no shoes in size 7 or 8. Surprise, surprise. We found a precious Tinkerbell outfit that Emma was so "cited" to take home and wear.

Once we were finished, I took my treasures up to the cashier and she started ringing me up. I asked her what I needed to write on the check and she said that the machine does it all for you. I handed it to her and it just hit me like a Mack truck--you need you DL# on your checks! The cashier told me that sometimes the computer asks and sometimes it doesn't. Of course....the computer wanted mine. So I tried calling home to Brandon...and tried, and tried, and tried. That boy ALWAYS answers his phone, but now he wasn't. So as I am calling, there is a nice little line standing behind me and the girls aren't being very quiet anymore. It is way past Maddie's bedtime and Emma is complaining because I won't let her hold her new outfit (that is called stealing Emma!).

I finally gave up and told the cashier to keep my bags, I will be back in later to pay for them. I took the girls outside (but not before the person at the door had to check through my diaper bag because I was leaving without buying anything) and loaded them up in the car. While I was loading them up, my new shirt tore and is now ruined. It started raining while all of this was going on and Emma is screaming for her new Tinkerbell outfit, Maddie is screaming because she is tired and Mommy is close to tears because she is so defeated. I pulled out of the parking lot and my phone rings. It is Brandon. AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! My husband wonders why I was so upset with him and why I am crying....oh, if only he knew.

Friday and Saturday

2011-03-21T11:34:00.006-04:00

I had an exciting thing to do after work on Friday that was unexpected....I got to go meet my girls and in-laws at the zoo! They have a membership pass and they took the girls for the day and so I met them when I got off of work. It was rainy and I had packed the complete opposite of clothes that Emma needed, but nonetheless, it was very fun! Emma acts like it is the first time she has gone every time she goes and I think Maddie really enjoyed herself as well!

Here is Emma with her head in the fence watching the elephants. I think those were her favorite that day!

Here is Maddie watching the Meerkats. We could have watched those little silly things all day. They were so entertaining and Maddie would not take her eyes off of them!

On Saturday, we went with my parents and dropped a friend off at the airport. We then went to Sam's Club and spent WAY too much money. We then had supper at a place called The Journey. I love it. It is a fancier buffet of sushi, Chinese food, Mexican food, salad, steak and for dessert...a chocolate fountain!! Yummmmyyyy! We had fun, but were worn out that evening....do you need proof? Look below.....

Happy Monday everyone! :)

Puppy Love

2011-03-18T14:28:00.011-04:00

My girls just love animals (just like their mommy). So, it is no suprise that they both have taken well to the concept of having a pet, especially dog. They love cats too, but there is nothing like a dog :) Here are some pictures of my girls loving on their doggies.

Here is a picture of the family when Emma was about 3 months old. Beau was our "first" dog that Brandon and I had (besides what our parents had). He was our first child and we just loved him so much. He looks fierce and tough, but he was a Gentle Giant.

Here is Emma when she was about 5-6 months old with Beau. Everyone was shocked that I let my big dog get that close to my baby, but he was so good with her. I tell you, big dogs are so calm. In my book, they are they way to go! Not that I have a problem with little dogs, they just aren't my cup of tea :)

This is one of the last pictures I had taken of Emma and Beau. Emma was 7 months. The week we took this picture, we found out Beau had cancer and he passed away the day after Emma turned 8 months old; it was only 6 days before that we found out about his cancer. You can tell how sick he is just by looking at him. We miss him so much :(

Here's the next dog we got--Walter. Walter is a "Bug"-Boston Terrier and Pug mix. He is cute, but a little too hyper for my taste. However, Emma loves him and he is very good with her so I tolerate him! ;)

My husband then surprised me with Gertie. She is the red dog and the exact same breed as what Beau was. Let me tell you, even though she is as sweet as Beau was, she is not near as calm! That dog chews up everything in sight!! We got her a month before I had Maddie, so things were a little chaotic during my maternity leave!

Here is Emma and Gertie during naptime. Aren't they sweet?

Here is Maddie with Walter. Right before I grabbed my camera, they were nose to nose and I missed getting it. All well, this picture is pretty cute too!

Last but not least, here is Maddie and Gertie becoming good friends. I just love Maddie's face in these pictures :)

Fun in the SUN!!!

2011-03-17T07:50:00.009-04:00

Yea!! I think spring is finally here! It is going to be consistently warmer this entire next week. Even though rain is in the forecast, it is still supposed to be in the 60's. I am so, so, so happy. It is like spring is my "new boyfriend" and I get rumblies in my tumbly when I think of it!! haha! We took advantage of the nice weather and took Emma on a bike ride and Maddie on a walk. Emma was such a trooper-she pedaled for probably 1/2 mile! She LOVES her bike. I think she feels like such a big girl on it because she knows she is being independant.
I also got some new hats for the girls. I am putting some pictures of them on here; I think they look so cute in them! I love these flowers on hats/bands. Emma is finally keeping her hats on because Maddie wears them. If one does something, the other has to do it too (according to Emma).
With today being St. Patrick's Day, the atmosphere here is always very fun. I guess the bars in Indy open up at 7AM! That is crazy! One of the secretaries I work with wore a bright green wig in--I will have to get her picture and put it on here tomorrow. That is so her personality. I know some people think it is crazy/stupid, but I love that she can have fun with life and not care what people think!

My beautiful Emma in her new hat that she LOVES!!

Little Miss Maddie looking all chunky :)

One more of my Squishy Bug :)

Daddy trying to show Emma how to ride between myself and him. That was a task!!

I finally got Emma to smile for me--she would not stop for anything!

I absolutely love this look on Emma's face. Daddy was talking to her about how to do something and she is just like, come on Daddy, just let me ride!! :)

Mommy's Happy Monday

2011-03-14T13:00:00.005-04:00

I know there are more pictures of Emma than Maddie, but I was so impressed with how smart my Emma is with her alphabet, I had to post a few pictures of that :) I just love my girls....they are what make Mommy happy on Mondays!!

This Past Weekend

2011-03-09T08:57:00.006-05:00

I just love the weekend. You never know what will happen-even if you have plans made.
Friday night we started the weekend off right by going and having supper with Brandon's grandparents. The menu consisted of spaghetti, brown bread with butter, broccoli and warm strawberry pie with ice cream--that was scrumptuous!! She sure did not help me with my weight loss goal....
Speaking of weight loss goals....for Lent I gave up candy! Every kind of candy. Kind of makes me sad :( But I think this will be a good boost to the weight loss help.
Okay, back on track. After supper we hung out with the great-grandparents. It is so much fun to just sit and talk with them. Brandon's grandpa always has stories to tell. He was in the Army and has told some doozies about that--especially when they had to eat whatever they could find at times. I tell you what, I would NEVER make it having to do that!! I guess I am a wuss when it comes to stuff like that. Brandon's grandma is such a sweet lady. She has always been like another grandma to me; always so attentive and concerned about me not getting enough to eat, or making sure I am warm enough, etc. Just a typical grandma :) However, I felt bad because we were a little late getting to their house and by then Maddie was ready to go to bed. She was pretty fussy the whole night. Emma made up for it though. She took grandma's hand and made her play with bracelets and dolls all evening long! We sat and watched them and some basketball with grandpa and finally had to go home. A nice, relaxing Friday.
Saturday was a busy day. We got up very early so we could get the girls ready for pictures. We had them taken at JCPennys. They did a wonderful job. The guy that did them was so wonderful with the girls. Emma wanted nothing to do with him at first, but he worked and worked with her and he eventually had her laughing so hard! I hope he does our pictures every time we are there, I may have to request him. We had the girls wear IU outfits. I know IU is not the best team right now, but we like the school and so we show our pride (even though I did attend Purdue). However, I like both schools...there are people in Indiana that do like both (though they are few and far between!!!) After pictures, we went home to have lunch and rest for a few hours. We then headed out to Western Bowl for our niece, Chelsea's eighth birthday party! We did this last year as well. I was about 8 weeks pregnant with Maddie and I remember we had pizza. That made me so sick, I still couldn't eat it this year!! Emma had a blast bowling and playing with the games. She also loves to see Chelsea and her other cousin, Maxine. She just looks up to them so much. Chelsea is such a cutie. She got so embaressed as we sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She is so girly too. I love it-she wanted little make-up stuff and I can't wait for Emma (and Maddie) to be more into that stuff too!
After we got done there, Brandon had to go back into work so I took the girls home and we went to bed. Sunday we went to church and had lunch there. It was so good. There is a man there that makes vegetable pizza and it is the best thing! I HATE broccoli and cauliflower, but I eat it on that pizza! That is how I justify eating my veggies; I just need to make a pizza! :) After church, we just went home and hung out. It was a low key day--we needed it!
I finished out my Sunday with a trip to Dollar General. I love going to our Dollar General. I could walk around it in forever. They have a really good selection and we now have one only about 4 minutes away from our house! I love a good deal!

Some pics from our weekend.....

Chelsea with her frog birthday cake!

5 Months!

2011-03-07T12:20:00.004-05:00

Maddie, you are 5 months old today! My, how the time has flown by! What are you up to these days??

-You wear a size 2 diaper
-You wear some 3 months clothes still, but mostly 3-6 months
-You talk all the time!
-You can sit up in a Boppy
-You still nurse 1-2 times at night
-You love to watch us eat--your baby-sitter even told me you smacked your lips last week as they were eating lunch!!
-You stick your tongue out when we kiss you
-You can hold your bottle up while you eat
-You grab our faces when we stick our face close to yours
-You pull Mommy's hair all the time!
-EVERY time you see your sister you smile so big!
-I call you "Squishy" because of your squishy smiley face
-Your face reminds me so much of my Grandpa....he would be so proud :)

Here you are with Daddy! You love to be with us all the time and we love having you with us! You are loved so much!!

Houston, I Think We Have a Problem

2011-03-03T14:49:00.002-05:00

Maddie has started watching us like a hawk while we eat. I think that could be a bad sign...my baby will like food--A LOT!! Maybe too much. That is not good when you have the genes that Mommy gives you ;) All well, we will just have to play outside more! That is fine with me.
Tomorrow I will post pictures of Maddie sitting up in the Boppy...such a big girl!!

One Year Ago Today.....

2011-03-01T13:25:00.005-05:00

One year ago today, I was as anxious as a mother could be. It was my first ultrasound of my precious rainbow baby that I was carrying in my stomach. I was exactly 7 weeks pregnant. I didn't know what to expect. I had found out the Friday before that my progesterone was very low. I had to go and get supplements made at a different hospital then the one I worked at because the hospital I worked at did not even make the kind I needed. I was scared beyond belief.
I immediately called my mom that Friday afternoon while I was at work. I was in tears. She immediately stopped what she was doing and said a prayer on the phone with me. I felt so much better after that; God really put a calmness over me that I can still remember exactly how it felt to this day.
That weekend, my fears took back over. Satan really had fun with me that weekend. I kept thinking, 'well, I have already lost two babies because of this, I am sure I will lose this one as well'. How wrong I was-God had other things in store for me!!
That Monday morning, I stopped into work to drop my things off before I made the ride over to my ultrasound. I can ride in a "train" transit from my hospital to the one where my doctor was at so my journey to and from was very easy. Everyone at work kept asking me, 'well, what are you going to do if something is wrong with the baby, are you going to work all day or go home?' I just kept telling myself that God is in control and whatever happens, happens.
When I got to the ultrasound room, they first did an external ultrasound and then they were going to do an internal one after I used the bathroom(those fun ultrasounds where you have to balloon your bladder up!!). The external one went great, she said my uterus was measuring on target for being 7 weeks pregnant and my ovaries looked nice and healthy. Of course we couldn't see the baby from an external ultrasound yet. That was killing me and of course my fears took over again.
Once that ultrasound was over, I went to the bathroom and came back into the ultrasound room. The tech was gone and it took forever for her to come back. I am not exaggerating-it was about 10 minutes! I was like, I want to see if my baby is alive or not--why would you keep me waiting in suspense like this???? Once the tech finally came back, she prepped me and the ultrasound wand and I held my breath. She asked me if I was okay and I told her I would be in a few seconds....
In those few seconds, my world changed forever. As soon as that baby came on the screen, I saw that heart beating so fast. My eyes welled up with tears and I threw myself back on the bed and just yelled "Thank you God!" I sat back up and saw the tech smiling at me. She then said, "I never get tired of my job when it goes like this". We continued on and the baby measured so perfectly. The baby was moving all around and I could just barely make out some arm and leg "nubins" :) So many thoughts ran through my mind...is it a boy or girl, what are they going to look like, how long will they stay in my belly-will they be full term?....I was so happy I just kept thinking thought after thought.
Once the ultrasound was over, the tech was getting ready to leave. I asked her if I could have a picture of the baby. She said they normally don't give pictures out of babies that early(I am not sure why, maybe because there is still a high chance for miscarriage?), and I said okay. All of a sudden, she looked me and said, well I don't see the harm in giving you one. She printed off a great picture of the baby and said "Happy Baby Ultrasound Day". How sweet she was :)

Once that was over, I saw my doctor. She was very pleased with how things were going and we were even more pleased that I was on the progesterone supplements. I ended up staying on those all through my first trimester. We think that low progesterone is the reason why Emma came early and I lost my other two babies. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to that doctor for helping save my baby!! God definitely put me in that lady's care for a reason.

One year ago today, I had no idea how the rest of my year would go. However, today it goes like this.....

My days are filled with love and laughter from my two favorite girls! I could not be happier with what God has given me here on earth. I also cannot wait to meet my other two children in Heaven one day!

How much difference one year makes....

Look Ma, I Have Feet!!

2011-02-28T15:09:00.009-05:00

Little Miss Maddie found her feet last week. She LOVES to play with them! I think she likes to lay on her back a little bit more now that she has found her feet. It is so cute, I love her chubby little feet.

It just amazes me that just over five months ago, those little feet were kicking my stomach non-stop! Maddie was quite the mover in my belly. We were also able to get her in her exersaucer this weekend. It used to be Emma's and Emma was all about showing Maddie how to use it. It was so cute; it seemed at times that Maddie was actually paying attention to her!

Poor Maddie....those headbands always seem to either go up or down on her head, they never stay in one spot for long!

We have a busy weekend ahead of us. I think we are going to go to the Maple Syrup Festival and we also are going to have supper one evening with the girls' great-grandparents. That is always nice. I want the girls to have as many memories as possible with their great-grandparents before they are gone.
It is also payday on Friday! I need to go to the grocery store. I am on a mission for salmon. We grilled out last night with salmon last night and, wow, it was great!!
There were some nasty storms that ripped through here last night/early this morning. I was up at 2:30AM because Maddie wanted to eat; while we were in the middle of that, the tornado sirens went off. Needless to say, I was up the rest of the morning. I can barely keep my eyes open here at work. I am ready to go home!! I have to say though, as bad as that stunk, I am ready for spring! I will take a good old fashioned tornado over this stupid snow any day!! However, it was quite comical to have a tornado warning with a pile of snow still at the end of our driveway.... :)

"Emma'isms"

2011-02-25T08:33:00.004-05:00

While getting ready to watch Tinkerbell(what else do we do anymore???).....
"Mommy, I so 'sited(excited) to watch Tinkerbell"

When she see something she doesn't want to eat.....
"Mommmy, that nassee"

When I ask her if she is a Big Sister.....
"No Mommy, I Emma"

Anytime I ask her a question that requires a yes or no answer and the answer would be yes.....
"Otay" (she never says yes)

Asking her if she wants milk or water in her sippy.....
"Nook" (milk)

As soon as a movie finishes she is watching or you are done reading a book to her.....
"adin" (again)

When Maddie is crying or upset.....
"Oh Maddie, id otay"

When she wants to watch a show she likes.....
"I wanna watch me show" -that is the only time she actually talks about herself in third person.

She is so much fun :)

Bowling

2011-02-24T12:15:00.004-05:00

Well we went bowling last night with our church's Youth Group. Let me tell you, if you have to wait long in line with a 2 year old who has been waiting all day to bowl, you better be ready to let her run loose to whatever lane she wants to go to....regardless if there is someone already on there or not (yes that did happen)!! Emma was so tired yesterday, but I really wanted to try and get her to bowl, so I took her. Oh my, she was a monster!! She was so agitated because we had to wait to get our shoes, wait to get our lanes, wait to put our names in, wait wait wait wait wait. She was screaming, crying, throwing herself on the ground because she wanted to do stuff NOW! I could tell she had not a nap that day. Anyways, we finally got things rolling and she bowled....4 frames and she was done. She decided to run around the game area so that is where we spent the rest of the evening. There were some other little ones who decided that the game room was funner as well so we did have some company. All the other moms were sympathizing with me and were a great help. But ya know, that is the first time she has really thrown a temper tantrum in public. I mean, she has cried and been pretty upset in public before, but not like she was last night. It was horrid!! The good thing was that when it was time to leave, she was ready and just walked right out with me, so at least there was no fighting about that. A big thanks to all the mamas that helped me with that situation last night. They took Maddie for me so I could focus my attention on my wild child. Maddie was a doll though so that helped eased my mind.
Here are some pictures of my little angel....lol Keep in mind, these are blurry for a reason(she wouldn't stop for anything!!) :)

We then headed home. Both Emma and Maddie fell asleep in the car on the way home. I thought for sure that Emma would go right to bed, but not last night! I swear, the days she doesn't take a nap are the days she is ready to party 24/7! All well, at least she finally went to bed when I convinced her that both her and I are going to dream about Tinkerbell and we can go flying together with all her friends at the fairy island :)

This and That

2011-02-23T07:16:00.007-05:00

Wooo, this has been a busy week and a half! Blogging is sure fun, but when I can only do it at work, I never seem to get it done!

I have been super busy at work. I am an OR scheduler for an Outpatient OR and I love it, but we just became private. That is good, but for a long time we were really slow because we had to wait to be re-approved to do Medicaid patients. That took 4 months! Thank God I was on maternity leave during most of that time because we were very slow. The good this now is if we are slow, we don't have to go home. However, that is not the case anymore. We are going to be busy every day of the week and I am very happy about that!

Let's see....
The girls are doing so good. Emma is doing great with her potty training and I think we almost have it down. She is starting to get upset if we put a Pull-Up on her. That right there is like paying off a huge debt when we don't have to buy those anymore!! Emma is also getting more into role-playing. She will put on a dancing leotard with a tutu and sway and twirl to music. Her imagination is running wild! She locked her bedroom door Monday night and shut it without anyone being in there. Needless to say, Daddy worked on that door the whole evening yesterday. He fixed it though!
Maddie has found her feet. She is so cute with them. She will touch them and them pull away like she is not sure what to think about it. She has also been moving her head back and forth while she lays on the floor, kind of like a "Stevie Wonder head shake". She knows we think it is funny too. If we start laughing at her, she smiles really big and starts doing it again. Kids grow up way too fast!!

I am now waiting on my tax check. My dad does it for me and he is not up with the times because he doesn't do it online. I am afraid it is going to take me a very long time to get my refund and we desperately need it!! My car is pretty much all but dead and we need to fix Daddy's car as well. So thank God for my parents letting us borrow their car when we need it.

Other than that little side note, life has been treating us pretty well! I am going to close with a few pictures of Emma playing out in the snow/ice before it melted off with our "spring tease" we had this past week. By the way, it is back in the high 20's to low 30's again.....all well, I guess after the winter we have had, if the temperature ends up being over 32 for the day, I am ecstatic!!

This is our driveway....we were so excited we could see the concrete!! :)

Emma kept running around, jumping and throwing her hands in the air. She did it over and over again! It was so cute!

Here is Emma's little friend. It was the tiniest snowman. It was so cute, when his arms fell off, Emma got so upset. She thought he was hurt ;)

Conversation with a Toddler

2011-02-10T10:54:00.004-05:00

While watching Tinkerbell last night....

Emma-I have wings like Tinkerbell's.
Me-You do? Do I have them too?
Emma-Yes.
Me-Does Maddie?
Emma-Yes.
Me-Oh aren't your fairy wings so pretty?!?! I love them!
Emma-Your wings are the prettiest Mommy!

Awwww, isn't she just too cute!

Madelyn is 4 Months Old!!

2011-02-08T12:43:00.010-05:00

Maddie, you turned 4 months yesterday! What are you up to these days?
-You wear a size 1 diaper
-You just started cereal and aren't too sure about it
-You like to laugh when jiggled
-You smile all. the. time.
-You love to have your sister give you smooches
-Your baby-sitters just adore you
-You still get up 1-2 times a night to nurse
-Your bedtime is 7:30-8:00 and you wake up around 12:30 and then again at 3:00
-You are a morning person!
-You have rolled over twice from back to front and once from front to back
-You love to suck your thumb
-You love to sit in your swing and watch the dogs
-You have started grabbing toys from mommy's hand (she has to place it in there)
-We will find out your height and weight when we go to your doctor's appointment this Friday! (and boo for shots)
-You are the PERFECT addition to our family!!

Maddie's First Bite of Cereal...

She decided that sucking her thumb was much better!!

Here is Maddie at 4 months....

....and here is big sister Emma when she was 4 months.

I see some similarities, but they do look different too!
Here are a couple more pictures to finish out my 4 month post :)

....a bit blurry, but too cute not to share!

Potty Training/Superbowl

2011-02-06T14:08:00.003-05:00

We have been doing potty training on Squirrel now for a while now. Before Bug came, Squirrel was almost there. However, once Bug showed up, the potty training took a big back-pedal. That's okay, I figured that would happen. However, we are still in the process of potty training now...4 months later.

At first, Squirrel would just say she needed to go potty and we took her and gave her a treat for going. That would include an M&M, she got to flush the toilet and also got to wipe herself clean (not in that particular order...haha). Now, that doesn't work. I found that you have to ask all the time....Do you need to go potty? No. Five minutes later, do you need to go potty? Yes! Now that we have put big girl panties on her (they are all pretty with Dora/Minnie Mouse/Princesses) I think she is finally in the end stages of potty training. I tell you what, that seems to be the biggest challenge so far with my parenting agenda!

Consistency is the key. That is hard to do when you work full time and have two different people watching her. However, I think she is going to get it. She is an awfully smart girl :)

I am not too excited about the Superbowl this year. I guess it is because my Colts aren't in it. They didn't have too bad of a season though-especially playing with their 3rd round drafts most of the season. However, I think the best part of the entire NFL season is when the Jets beat the Patriots. I am not a fan of the Jets, but whoever is playing the Patriots, well, that is the team I root for. Now, the only thing that will top the season off perfectly is if the Packers win tonight. The Steelers are my second least favorite team. Why does it always seem the jerks come out on top??? Of course, that is just my opinion ;)

Valentine's Day Ideas???

2011-02-04T12:56:00.005-05:00

I love Valentine's Day. I think it is such a fun time. I remember in high school I used to love to get cards and candy from my friends. It was even more special if you got flowers from your "Special Someone". Oh, how we thought we were in love back then!

I am busy trying to figure out what I am going to get my hubby for V-Day. I want it to be fun, but to show how much I love him. I think some homemade cards from the girls are a good idea. Of course, that is not from me, but I think it would mean more to him if the girls give him something homemade. We don't have a lot of extra money, so I think I am going to play up the girls' cards and gifts to him this year. It makes it extra special and fun! Maybe some cookies that have been decorated specially for Daddy. He has to work this weekend so I think we will go ahead and make his cards for him and we will figure out a gift for him next weekend. He better feel special-3 girls competing for his heart!!

Snow Days!

2011-02-03T08:25:00.007-05:00

Here are some pictures of what Emma and Daddy did during our snow days when we couldn't get out of the house...I think they had a great time :)

We had a great couple of days off with the girls. They are getting so big so fast and I am trying to soak up every second with them that I can.

Let's see on Tuesday, we read books, played with Emma's dollhouse and Princess dollhouse, put puzzles together, took baths, took naps, baked cookies, watched the weather outside and watched movies(Tinkerbell).

On Wednesday, we read books, played with both dollhouses, played with puzzles, ate our cookies, made chili, took naps, wrestled with Daddy, and watched Tinkerbell about 7 times.

Emma loved to watch the ice falling outside. She will think it is raining then decided it is snowing. When I tell her it is ice falling, she goes, "no, no Mommy it raining, it snowing, not icing." It is so cute. Despite it being a little colder in the house because of the arctic temperatures, she wanted to run around in her pull-ups all day! I had to force her to put a shirt on most of the day!

Maddie loved watching all the action in the house. She loves to just watch Emma play and I can tell that she is just going to be Emma's shadow here in a year or so. I can now set a play ring on her tray on her swing and she will now grab it and start to chew on it! She is getting too big, too fast. I am almost able to pull her hair into a ponytail now too. Well it would be like a Pebbles ponytail, but it is still a ponytail!

We have a birthday party for their Great Grandpa Wayne this Saturday. It is a taco themed party and I am so excited about that, I love Mexican food! I plan on getting lots of pictures there because I am not sure how many more birthdays we will be able to celebrate with Grandpa Wayne. I pray we get many more, but with his health the way it is, I am not so sure. I am just so happy he is able to spend this one with us and see his great-grandchildren again!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-01-26T15:48:00.003-05:00

Welcome To The Family Maddie!!

2011-01-17T09:10:00.013-05:00

Here are all my catch-ups from the time Madelyn was born until the present.

Welcome Madelyn Grace!!

This was after her first bath at the hospital.

Time to go home!!!

Halloween 2010

Thanksgiving 2010

Christmas 2010

Misc. 2010/2011

Don't mind the dirty feet of Emma...bath time had not come yet ;)

Happy Monday!!

This and That

2011-01-13T09:55:00.028-05:00

I am going to post on some events that happened towards the end of my pregnancy that I got too lazy to post. We will start with June 2010.

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy 4th of July!!

This was Emma's first s'more. Sorry about the blurriness, my camera fogged over.

Happy 2nd Birthday to Emma!!!!!

Emma's Second Birthday Pictures

New Dog on Labor Day(the red one-Gertie)

I think that is it....I will do a new post tomorrow on Maddie's birth and everything up until now. :)

Since Becoming a Mommy of Two

2011-01-07T09:14:00.005-05:00

I have learned many things since becoming a mommy of two kids.

1. Your children will never take naps at the same time.
2. Your children will never go to bed at the same time.
3. If you make your toddler mad and they start crying, your infant is going to start crying too.
4. Mommy does not have enough hands to satisfy everyone's needs.
5. If your infant does not want to be put down, you still need to do it because you need a few minutes to yourself!
6. It is okay to cry for no reason.
7. It is okay not to get your household duties done every day.
8. It is okay if you forget to shower, brush your teeth, hair or even go to the bathroom for long periods of time.
9. The love I have for these two human beings is beyond a love I never even knew existed.
10. The way they are looking at each other now just makes my heart melt.
11. I needed to make more time for my children instead of trying to get stuff done around the house (and I have!).
12. Always pack things the night before if you have to leave by a certain time the next day (not just every now and then)!
13. The appreciation I have for my parents' help is beyond words. They are so helpful with these two girls and I am so glad my girls get to spend so much time with them!
14. If we have another child, the next time around we will not get a puppy one month before I am due.
15. Dinner is not going to be done by a certain time every day...shoot, we are lucky if I cook at all!
16. Finally, I am so happy to have two beautiful daughters that are healthy and happy and I love more than anything in the world!!

Maddie is now 3 months old (13 weeks as of yesterday). She has already rolled over two times and has been able to hold her head up through all her movements for a couple of days now. We just introduced formula to her this week and she is taking it, but I am glad it is just to supplement my breast milk. I love to nurse her, especially since I wasn't able to with Emma. I plan on doing that until she is around a year old. Hopefully, she will cooperate with me! She is in 3-6 months clothes and can finally fit into the cute little shoes I have for her. Her hair is staying in and her eyes have so far stayed blue. She has a deep dimple on her right cheek and one on her left cheek that isn't as deep, but you can see it. We go for her 3 months appointment today so I will see how much she weighs and how long she is-I am always so excited for that.

Emma is a big two and a half year old now. She is speaking so well. She can count to 30, knows her ABC's, colors and is familiar with a couple numbers in Spanish. She loves to watch Dora, Diego, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Imagination Movers, Charlie Brown cartoons, Tinker Bell, The Backyardigans, Wonder Pets, pretty much anything on Nick Jr and the future Disney Jr--yea!!--, and also any princess movies. She loves to color and sing. Her favorite songs to sing are ABC's, Twinkle Little Star, Away in A Manger, Jingle Bells, Dora theme song, Jesus Loves Me and theme songs to other kid shows. She is also saying I love (wub) you now. It just about makes me melt! She is so good with Maddie, so loving and motherly.

I came back to work this week and it has been a little easier as time went on. I had my major breakdown Sunday night and a small one on Monday morning, but other than that I have coped fairly well. I am very tired and just wish I would be able to become a stay at home mom. Maybe someday!

Have a great weekend from Emma and Maddie!

(Don't mind the dirty feet...bath time had not come yet ;))

Madelyn Grace

2011-01-05T07:20:00.006-05:00

Just a quick post to let you know Maddie was born at 39 weeks and 1 day on October 7 at 6:40AM. She was 7lbs 3oz and 19 3/4 in long. She is a wonderful baby and I love her so much! Here are a couple of pictures of my new Bug when she was a week old! More pictures and posts to come here in the next week or two and then I will be back to normal postings on here again--finally!!

Updates, updates, updates

2010-09-07T12:47:00.002-04:00

Hello to everyone! I hope I didn't worry anyone with my MIA. Everything is just fine around here.

I am currently 35 weeks pregnant and am doing good! Emma was delivered at 35 weeks exactly, so I am so excited I have made it to this point. My doctor is checking me weekly for dilation. If I am dilated at all, I go on bedrest-not what I am wanting, but she is being very conservative with me. I love my doctor, she is so good and is right on board with my birth plan. We are still not ready at home for this baby-my hubby is being too slow for me :) All well, everything will get done eventually.

Emma is doing great. We had her birthday party at the end of July and it was great. However, it was the one cold day in July (it only made it up to 72 degrees that day!!), so the kids couldn't go swimming. Our house was jammed packed!! She is getting so big, such a little girl now. She is potty training and I think she is doing wonderfully with it! She is ready to meet Maddie, but I don't think she quite gets what that means...no more just her, mommy and daddy. I think she will be spending a lot of time at Grandma and Paw's house just so she can't get some "Emma Attention".

We got a new puppy this past weekend. Great timing, I know. This dog is just like our Beau that we lost last March. Her name is Gertie and she has so many traits of the DDB. I think she will be a wonderful addition to our family--plus her potty training has been going good too!

Well, just wanted to get a quick shout-out out there so you all know things are good. Blogger is still messing up on me quite a bit, but I will try to post as much as possible--plus I will get pictures on eventually!!

Really not ignoring anyone....

2010-07-13T07:49:00.004-04:00

Okay, honestly I am not ignoring people. I usually comment on a lot of blogs, but when I go to comment on most of the blogs of people that I know read my blog, I have no where to post a comment! There is not a box for comments. I can see everyone else's comments, but I have no where to post! There are a few blogs (Shel) I can't even get on...so sorry Shel, Kathryn, and a couple more of you blogging friends I have been "ignoring" for the past couple of weeks. I really am not. I still check daily even though pictures don't show up and I can't comment. Just to let you know...I still care :)

P.S. Everyone here is fine, hubby does not have MS, just horrible migraines that are being managed well and Emma picked Minnie Mouse for her b-day party theme. Maddie is strong as ever and keeps me awake at night!! Life is good :)

Update

2010-07-03T14:30:00.003-04:00

Wooo, time has flown by. My computer has been acting funny lately and I was not able to post at all. However, things are now better and I can finally get on my blog again--it has taken me forever to catch up on everyone else's blogs as well. That was a lot of work...haha.

Baby Madelyn is doing wonderfully at 25 1/2 weeks. She is quite the mover. She has a great routine down in my belly; I know exactly when to expect her movements. I have another ultrasound at 28 weeks to check for cleft palate and my cervix and if all goes well, that will be my last one. I have had a few BH contractions, but other than that, this pregnancy is staying normal and healthy!

Emma is doing great too. We are getting her birthday party all planned out. I think her theme is going to be the Wonder Pets. We are going to pick those out this week. We are having the party at our house and I think that will be so much easier! Just a cook-out, some swimming and some gifts. I hope I can keep it laid back....well, maybe just a little bit.

Hubby is not doing too well. The doctor's think he has Multiple Sclerosis. He is getting a spinal tap on Tuesday to check, but a CT Scan and MRI has shown multiple lesions on his brain. Not a good sign. His best friend has MS, so we are very familiar with it, so that is the good thing. It is quite ironic though. Please keep us in your prayers as we find more things out this week.

My former pastor who had leukemia passed away on June 15. That was very hard. They had the funeral in Idaho(where they had moved to) and it was hard not being able to support his family. I just praise God he ws such a Christian man and I know he is in Heaven now with his Saviour.

We are going to go see some fireworks tonight. Emma saw some last weekend and loved them, so I know she is not scared of them. I was worried about that.

Well, now that I have hopped, skipped and jumped all over this post, I am going to go and try and catch up on somemore blogs. Everyone have a safe and happy 4th of July!

Heavy Heart

2010-06-11T08:51:00.002-04:00

I am writing with a heavy heart today. My church family has been praying for a little boy named Brady who had medullablastoma, more commonly called brain cancer. His mom is an in-law of quite a few people who attend my church so we had him on our prayer chains and knew quite a bit about him.

He turned 4 on June 8. The next day on June 9, he went to play with Jesus. I know he is in such a better place and has no more pain or stress, but I am so sad for his parents and family. Sad that they had to see their child suffer like he did. Sad that they couldn't do anything for him to help take his pain away. Sad that they have to explain to his sister why her brother is not here on Earth anymore. Sad that they have to make the journey back home without taking their son with them to their house.

I do rejoice in the fact that his family knows Jesus and they know Brady is being taken care of by Him. I rejoice that his parents did have 4 years with Brady. I rejoice that they have their daughter and family and friends to help them through this horrible time.

We are doing the viewing, funeral and graveside service in my hometown. I am very torn on going. I did know the family, but not that well. However, I want to show them how sorry I am and that they have support. I am not sure how I will do at a child's funeral though. The last one I was at was for my niece and she was born prematurely and died 35 minutes after birth. That was pretty hard.

I know he is in Heaven, but he is a child-he should be healthy now, running and playing on earth, enjoying his long earthly life and then going to Heaven. I know that is not God's plan though-He knows more than I ever will and I trust Him and His plan. He will not fail this family, He will be with them and give them comfort and strength.

This family is just heavy on my heart because I could not imagine losing my Emma. I don't know how parents have the strength to go on once losing a child. I know that some of you who have read my blog have lost a child and I admire your strength and faith that you have. I just cannot get this family out of my head. I am sure that is God telling me to go see this family tomorrow. I pray that is the right decision.

We Have A Name at 21 Weeks!

2010-06-08T06:59:00.003-04:00

I tried to post about six times yesterday. Every time I did, Blogger was not working. So frustrating. All well, now it is working.

Baby is doing good! She is moving a lot, it is very low and it tickles me quite a bit. The doctor said she is a big girl. She is measuring about 3-4 days ahead of what I am estimated to be due and she weighs over a pound already(as of two weeks ago at 19 weeks). She is also longer-in the 75%-which I was thrilled about. Poor Emma just made it on the charts with her height at her last well appointment at 18 months. Maybe this baby will be a little taller?? My doctor was happy with my cervix length so we do not have to do ultrasounds every month now. I was sad and happy about that-I don't want to see the costs of it, but I looked forward to seeing her every month in my belly! I do have to have one more ultrasound at 28 weeks because we could not get a good visual of her mouth. They just want to check and make sure she doesn't have cleft palate or anything. So, that makes me nervous just because that is the purpose of the whole ultrasound. I am sure everything is fine though.
We have also picked out a name for the baby. She will be Madelyn Grace. We will call her Maddie while she is little and when she gets older she can decide what she wants people to call her. I am so in love with this name. Brandon pretty much picked it out and I was pretty impressed!

Emma is doing great as well. She is talking so much and just becoming a little adult. She is so independant and loves to give Mama heart attacks. She is really becoming a Daddy's Girl too. It is kind of sickening at times! :) It is sweet. She loves to help me pick up her toys-which is nice because I am starting to get at the point where it is getting harder and harder for me to bend over and then stand back up!! I need to get a belly shot because I am big! I just popped out when I turned 12 weeks and my belly has never looked back. Emma loves to hear her sister too, she loves it when I break out the Doppler. She gives my belly a kiss and tells the baby hi and then bye! It is too precious. She is just the sweetest thing ever.

You can really tell I am a mom because I don't have too much more news right now--all about the kids in this post! I am a little proud! ;) What can I say....God has truly blessed me with them!

Girl Power(Mother's Day 2010, Second Birthday Party, Ultrasound Talk)

2010-05-25T07:53:00.014-04:00

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. The day started off by me waking up to flowers and a sweet card from my hubby and daughter, and the baby. They also got me a couple of presents(don't laugh)....Friends Season 10(I have been meaning to get that for about 2 years now) and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Season 4. I just love to buy TV shows on DVD that I used to watch, especially now since I do not like a lot of sitcoms that are on at the present time(except for some TLC stuff and a few random shows). My husband then made me breakfast and we then went to church. At church, I received a gift card to Cracker Barrel-yum!-for being an expecting mommy. That was very nice. We then spent lunch with my mom(who bought me some maternity pants) and we then had a cook-out with Brandon's mom that evening. All in all, it was a very nice day.
This picture is horrible of me, we forgot to take one right after church so this is after all the day's festivities(and me pulling my hair back in a ponytail). Can you tell how tired I am???? I think my mom had just woken up from a nap too....sorry mom!! :)

A couple weeks later(has it really been this long since I blogged last???) we went to a birthday party of a very cute little girl. This is Emma pre-party. We wrapped the birthday girl's gift in white tissue paper and put princess stickers all over it. Well, Emma had to have some stickers herself so I gave her a sheet and she just loves them. Even though she has all those princesses on her face, she is still the prettiest one of all!! :)

Here is Emma playing at Bailey's birthday party. She had such a good time. She loved going down the slide, I have to admit, when she first started doing it, I cried a little bit. She was just climbing up and going down....all by herself. No help needed from mama. I was a little bummed, but so proud of her doing big girl stuff. There were also quite a bit of older girls there(8-10 yrs) and they did a great job of playing with the littler kids, just keeping them busy and having fun with them. I was able to talk to adults while still keeping the kids in eyesight, I just didn't have to be there right by them the whole time. That was very nice to do.

Here is the birthday girl, Bailey. She just turned 2. She is the girl with the white tank top on reaching for the cake. Her mom and I grew up together and are great friends. I hope Emma and Bailey can be great friends just like their mamas! :)

Here is the aftermath of Emma's cupcake eating. She loved it, but I don't think that any cake got into her mouth, just icing! Her shirt sure paid for it though! :)

Emma loved her party favors she received at Bailey's birthday party. She loved this Abby Cadabby hat(of course mama got it mixed up with Zoe). I had to take some pictures of her last night because she was being so cute.

Here we are in the waiting area before my ultrasound. Emma did so well. She was kind of "toddlerish" towards the end, but she really surprised me about how well she did and I was so proud of her!

The ultrasound went wonderful. The baby is healthy and is measuring two days ahead of my EDD. She was moving so much, and I mean a lot!! She kept crossing her legs at the ankles and then stretching her legs out as far as she could. I just fell so in love with her. I can't wait until my next ultrasound! I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to confirm everything is good to go with the baby and then I wait another month. Wow, before I know it, we will be going into the appointments that are 2 weeks apart.

We really have to get to work on the baby's room now. We are moving everyone around in the house. I am going to take Emma to go pick out paint for her new room(this could be dangerous) and I will pick up some new paint for the baby's room as well. I don't know if I should do what I did with Emma's room and paint it a light yellow or go for the pink. Hmmmmm, I will have to decide soon. Any suggestions??

By the way, we went and bought a going home outfit for our second daughter last night. We decided to get that done because we didn't get Emma's until I was in labor. My poor husband was frantic at WalMart asking women there what he should get...I wish I had been with him, I would have had a good laugh.

Thanks for all of the congratulations....they really mean a lot! I will talk to everyone soon! :)

It's a....

2010-05-24T10:33:00.001-04:00

It's a girl!!! More to come later today!

Boy or Girl????

2010-04-27T10:42:00.004-04:00

Well, I made my appointment for my "big" ultrasound for May 24. I am just as excited with this one to find out the gender as I was with Emma. I pray that everything is healthy with this baby. Once we make sure that the baby is good, I am looking south! I can't wait for this! I was thinking about this yesterday after my regular OB appointment(which went great) and I came up with some lists of pros for each gender(no negatives to either!!).

GIRL
-We already have girl clothes
-We have some girl names picked out
-I am used to girl issues already
-Emma will have a sister
-I will have another daughter
-I can play with two heads of hair
-Even though I have girl clothes, I can buy more frilly dresses.
-I will be blessed with two daughters

BOY
-I can go buy boy stuff
-We have boy names picked out
-I will be embarking on a new adventure
-Emma will have a brother
-I will have a son(mama's boy) :)
-I can go rummaging for boy stuff this summer
-I can get handsome suits for church
-I will be blessed with a boy and girl

GENDER NEUTRAL(stubborn baby)
-EVERYTHING we have is gender neutral-including stroller, car seat, swing, high chair, boppy, and bath tub.
-The surprise is waiting for us at birth!

I will tell you all my predictions. At first, I thought it was a girl. The heartrate was very fast and my intuition told me it was a girl. However, the heartrate has now slowed to the 130's and now my intuition tells me boy. Even my nurse practitioner said something about thinking boy. I know to not rely on the heartrate, but I think it makes it fun. All well, I shall find out in 27 days! :)

Picture Overload

2010-04-23T10:12:00.010-04:00

Easter Sunday-She is saying a prayer before we eat lunch after our church Easter egg hunt.

Taking a stroll with Grandma....

So proud of her flowers.

Trying to pull up a tree. Emma worked on this for a long time!!

Still pulling...

I was so afraid she was going to take a leap off of this little bridge. I wasn't afraid of the water, just the rocks! She just took some peeks though.

At the zoo looking at the muskrats with Daddy.

Tip-toeing through the tulips.

Think she hot stuff standing on these landscaping stones.

I'm on top of the world!

Time flies when you're having fun!

2010-04-15T07:23:00.004-04:00

Whew...the days just fly by for me now. This pregnancy is going so fast, I can't keep up! I will be 14 weeks tomorrow. My next doctor appointment is April 26. I always look forward to those. I have been hearing the baby's heartbeat about every other day with my doppler(I refrain from doing it everyday...haha).

Emma is doing great. I tried to do something "crunchy" and I cut her hair myself. It was starting to get out of control and really needed something done. My sister-in-law is a hairdresser and she gave me some professional hair cutting scissors. They are great, but soooo sharp. I had to distract Emma with Q-tips so she would sit "still" for me. I cut the bangs a little shorter than what I wanted and her sides have a mind of their own, but all in all, I think I did pretty good. She looks a whole lot better too. She has been outside playing in the sun in the evenings when I get home from work. We hung up clothes on the line outside last night and I think I need to get a new one up....by the time we got them all hung up, our clothes were almost hanging in the grass. All well, it was fun to do. I haven't been able to do that in years.

I did end up getting my hair cut. I didn't get bangs, but I did get about 4 inches off and layered my hair. I think I will do the bangs next time when I highlite my hair. It feels so much better and it takes half the time to get ready in the mornings now. I keep forgetting my camera to post pictures, so I will get those up in due time(along with zoo pictures and Easter pictures...shame on me!)

I have been going to some baby showers these past couple of weekends and I have one this weekend for my friend April. She is due May 21st and her and her husband don't know the gender and they won't give names away. It is so ironic because she is about the most organized person I know and this is something she is just letting go with the flow-but what a fun surprise it will be!! I can't wait to find out what comes out!
I also have a surprise 90th birthday party for a lady at church this weekend too....okay, don't flame me for this, but I was thinking about something. I hope we don't jump out and yell SURPRISE, because, well a 90 year old person isn't the type you want to make their heart go any faster than what it needs to...lol, I know it isn't going to be like that, but it just made me think of that and then it made me laugh-not because of the outcome it could bring, but because of the irony of it.

I will end on that note. Now it's time to go catch up on all of your blogs!! :) I will "see" you all soon! :)

Enjoying the nice weather and baby update!

2010-04-02T11:23:00.007-04:00

Wow, a lot of time has passed since my last post! Things are so great here. I am so thankful to God that my pregnancy has been uneventful (so far!) and the baby is healthy and growing great! Our last appointment was March 24 and the baby made itself known right away! Heartrate is 166 and I have a feeling this one is another girl. When we went for Emma's first heartbeat appointment, it took forever for the doctor to find her. I remember laying there with tears welling up and thinking the baby had passed. So, I was so relieved to hear this little one's heart so quickly! Apparently, the baby was kicking the doppler, but of course I couldn't feel it yet. I do feel something that feels like it might be flutters, but I am not too sure yet.

I am twelve weeks today and so happy to be heading into the second trimester! It is crazy to think that only two more appointments and we will know the gender! So exciting! My doctor wants to do ultrasounds on me once a month when I am five months along. She wants to be sure my cervix is not shortening. She is taking every precaution to make sure this baby is full term. Our goal is 38 weeks people, say it with me--38 WEEKS!! Of course, if I go past that, then we will be happy too! However, I don't know what it is like to be pregnant past 35 weeks and I was pretty uncomfortable then, I wonder if I can handle past that...lol

Emma is doing wonderfully. She is such a blessing to me. I can't believe how much I love her more and more each day. She has been acting like such a toddler lately, it makes me smile, but makes me sad at how fast she is growing up.

She just recovered from a horrible case of teething molars again. She didn't eat hardly anything at all for about 3 days. She was very picky on putting anything in her mouth, so that limited the sippy cups as well. She was so tired and clingy and I felt so sorry for her. She also had been picking at her lips so one morning she woke up with bloody, crusty lips on top of a sore mouth-that really made her turn away from food! We also weren't able to brush her teeth for about three days. We are still having trouble with that now, but I think that is partly her being a little scared still and partly being a toddler. Then, to top all that off, she was feeling better on Saturday, so I figured we would be able to go to church on Sunday. Well, Emma woke up that morning and while I was changing her diaper I saw all these horrible red welts all over her body. They didn't seem to bother her or anything but they looked nasty. I went and got Benadryl for her and then had to wait in line for a pharmacist to tell me how much to give a child her age. That took forever. I am pleased to tell you now that Emma is 100% better! She is eating up a storm and I can't seem to give her enough food. One of her new favorite foods is oatmeal. She had that for breakfast and supper yesterday. Very odd.....haha.

I hate that I am working on Good Friday. We are slow though, so I will be able to leave early. Brandon is going to come pick me up and we are going to go to the zoo with Emma and Brandon's parents. Emma has never been, so I am really looking forward to this. I am sure it will be busy, but the weather is going to be great.

Tomorrow I have a hair appointment and can't decide what I am going to do. I can't hi-lite(it is sad, but I have no idea if I spelled that right) my hair yet, but I am thinking of doing a drastic change, like getting bangs. I am sooooo nervous though. I will have to see what I decide and I will post a picture next week to show you all the aftermath. After that we are watching the Butler "Dawgs" take on Michigan State(I still have love for them since they are in the Big 10). But, Butler is sooooo deserving of this-what great kids and great coach. Many people around here know them personally and I couldn't be happier for such wonderful people. Even if they lose, they have made us all proud! I just don't want Duke to win....sorry if any of you are Duke fans, but I hate it when #1 seed teams win, I love the underdogs--like when Northern Iowa beat Kansas--you know I was loving it!

I am going to attach some pictures of Emma enjoying her evening out in the sun. I can't wait to get pictures of her on Easter. She will be so cute! Everyone have a wonderful Easter and great weekend!

Wanted to share some news.....

2010-03-05T10:52:00.002-05:00

We are 8 weeks pregnant! We found out on February 5 that we are expecting again! We are very cautious because of our previous losses. However, we have now seen our baby on ultrasound-which I cannot attach because for some reason the computer says they do not recognize the format, I will have to try again later. We are so happy and excited for this baby.

Some fun facts about little Baby Deel:
Our Estimated Due Date is October 15, 2010
Our Baby's Heartrate is 174!
Cravings-None so far-I just do not want anything sweet
Symptoms-NAUSEA, Fatigue, Tender Mommy Parts--trying to be vague :),strong smells, headaches, Feeling Round Ligament pain
Gender-Mama already thinks it's a girl, but a boy would be fantastic as well!!
How many-There is only one in there ;)

I have gotten my levels drawn and my HCG levels are fantastic. However, my progesterone is low. They have put me on supplements to try and raise it. So far, it is working. As long as it keeps raising, I will be happy. They think this may be the culprit of my previous miscarriages. I just thank God that they were able to find this and help my body out!

Now I can't wait to get a Big Sister shirt for Emma!

Glorify

2010-02-19T10:05:00.002-05:00

Glorify
John Mandeville

As ashamed as I am to admit it
All I have as an offering
Are the pieces of a life not worth having
And the shame only arrogance brings

So completely undone now before you
As I hand you what's left of my life
Lord, if Paul was the chief of all sinners
Then I must be the second in line

Glorify
Glorify
Glorify - Yourself in me

And as much as I didn't expect it
There were tears when I looked in your eyes
All the time that I thought you'd condemn me
Jesus, your heart was breaking for mine

So I fall down in total surrender
As I drink in the mercy you are
For the rest of my life and forever
Lord, this will be the cry of my heart

Glorify
Glorify
Glorify - Yourself in me
Glorify
Glorify
Glorify - Yourself in me

As ashamed as I am to admit it
All I have as an offering
Are the pieces of a life not worth having
And the shame only arrogance brings

So I fall down in total surrender
As I drink in the mercy you are
For the rest of my life and forever
Lord, this will be the cry of my heart

Glorify
Glorify
Glorify - Yourself in me
Glorify
Glorify
Glorify - Yourself in me

Yourself in me
Yourself in me
You in me...

This song touches me. I just listen to it over and over again and I just think how much Jesus has done for me and my family. He loves me unconditionally and I just don't know why I deserve that. I sin every day. Even though I ask for forgiveness, I still do not feel I am worthy of His forgiveness and mercy. That just tells me what a loving and forgiving Lord we have. He loves us unconditionally and that alone makes me want to live my life for Him.

Lord-please glorify Yourself in me.

We Are Still Here!

2010-02-18T13:13:00.002-05:00

Wow, it has been a while since I posted last! We have been so busy, well maybe snowed in is more like it. It has snowed and snowed and snowed.... I have never been so tired of winter like I have been this year. I think I am starting to show my age!! :) Emma loves it, but Mommy has had her fair share this year. I will have to post some pics of my girl playing in the snow, but I don't have any with me right now.

We have managed to do some firsts over the last week. Besides playing in the snow, Emma visited the dentist for the first time. I was so paranoid that she would throw a fit-and I was very right! However, the dentist and his assistants were so great. I loved their office and the people that work in it! I picked a great one! The dentist also knows some of the OR dentists I work with, so that was nice to talk about. I am not sure Emma left with the same attitude I did though.

Emma also visited a restaurant named Squealers for the first time with her grandparents(and mommy and daddy too). This place is sooooo good. It is a restaurant that serves mostly BBQ ribs, pulled pork, briskett, and whatever else pork products there are. I always get pulled pork with sweet sauce, mac and cheese and BBQ baked beans. They also served fried biscuits with apple butter with your entree. We had BBQ nachos for an appetizer and I think I ate almost all of that before the meal started!! I am seriously considering calling Guy Fieri from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives to tell him about this place.

Speaking of D,D-I, and D-does anyone else just love that show? I watch it every Friday night on Food Network. It just makes my Fridays perfect.

Anyways, I hope everyone has a great week! I am hoping in the next couple of posts, I will have some exciting news to share!....I will let you think about that one(it may not be what you think it is) ;)

Snow Day/Superbowl/Misc.

2010-02-08T10:07:00.012-05:00

Well, we got quite the snow storm here on Friday/Saturday! It is not the worst we have seen though. However, I was not going anywhere with Emma. Brandon was plowing in the city that day, so us girls were on our own. Thankfully, one of my friend's brothers and uncle came and dug out my car and dug a path to it and the sidewalk for me. That helped out a lot!
All in all, it was a good weekend except for the Colts losing. All well, good for the Saints. I wasn't too impressed with some of the hits they did on us, but that's another story....

The view from my front window.

The view from my front door.

My car drifted in.

Really, mom, I am not doing anything naughty...

This is Emma and our dog, Walter hanging out on Saturday. There wasn't too much to do and I wasn't going to take Emma out to play in the snow because the winds were horrid!! The snow drifts were like 4 feet high. I would never find her! Anyways, this is pretty much what our day consisted of--hanging out and playing!

I have not done laundry in like a week. I ran out of socks and I grabbed these to wear to town(it was Sunday). Well Emma decided she wanted to wear them, so I just couldn't resist to take some pictures. You should have heard her talking to the snowmen on her feet(well, on her knees)!

Emma then decided to play with some tape. She hasn't really played with tape too much yet and she was so intrigued by it! Needless to say, it was a lot of fun!

Sorry for the blurriness, but she was just moving too fast for me!

The aftermath.

This is Emma's face after she realized the Colts were not going to win....all well....

I honestly don't know what I am thinking sometimes and 18 month update!

2010-02-04T09:52:00.009-05:00

I had a serious brain lapse when I rearranged the living room on Sunday. I put some of my books on this book shelf right where Emma can reach them. I didn't even think about it until she started taking them off. You know what, I still haven't moved them off of the shelf!

I think she likes to pretend she is big and can read all those words. :) :)

My baby turned 18 months old on Friday. She had her well check-up this past Tuesday. She did good considering it took me and the doctor to hold her down on the table to look in her right ear. Oh my, she is becoming a toddler! We also had to get three shots and she bled a lot with them :( However, she always recovers great and never has any reactions-thank God!! Emma weighed 23lbs and 4oz-34%, her height is 30"-9% and her head is 18.3"-48%. My baby is a short girl! All well, like mother, like daughter :)

Emma Fun Facts:
Says some words: mom, momma, kitty, more, up, bite, papaw, peees(please)
Makes faces: Happy, silly, sleepy, shy, yummy, surprise
Recognizes body parts: eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, fingers, toes, belly button, cheeks, chin, hair, head
Favorite songs: If You're Happy and you Know It, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Hot Dog(from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), Theme Song from MMC, Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round
Favorite Toys:TIGGER DOLL, Mickey Mouse Doll, Bath tube whistles, Horse rocker, Quad, and any book you can think of(especially her baby Bible and Peter Pan).
Favorite TV Shows: MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE, Dora, My Friends Tigger and Pooh
Favorite things to do: Go to church, read, eat and play!
Favorite Food: Bananas, yogurt, animal crackers, cheese, potatoes, oranges, brownies(yes she gets that) and green beans.
Misc: Emma will fold her hands for prayers now, she recognizes everyone she is supposed to, she blows kisses, she kisses strangers but won't let them hold her, she loves to ride in the car, she likes to pick what she is going to wear, brushing her teeth and bath time are her favorite things to do before bed and she loves to run around naked!
Here are some pictures of my girl to end the post....she is so very loved :)

Pregnancy Losses

2010-01-28T14:19:00.004-05:00

I found out today that a dear friend of mine has miscarried. She is almost 6 weeks pregnant. She has been trying for only 6 months, but she wants a child so very bad. She found out just last Tuesday she was pregnant and now she found out today that she will miscarry. I hate that she has to go through this.

I experienced the same kind of heartache on June 3, 2009. It was the day before our 4th anniversary and I had started bleeding the day before. I passed a sweet little baby on the 3rd and that just broke my heart. When I became pregnant, I had no concerns that this would happen. My first pregnancy had had no problems, that gave me a false sense of security.

In September of 2009, I experienced another miscarriage. This one was a lot earlier than my first, if I had not taken a pregnancy test, I would have never known I was pregnant; I would have thought my cycle had just been a few days late.

As I think back to those days, I find myself wondering-is this kind of hurt worse if the baby is at an older gestation age? What if I had a stillborn instead of a miscarriage? Would my heart hurt more? I think my answer would be maybe. Even though I ache every day for my babies I lost much too early, I never had the chance to hear a heartbeat, feel a kick or know their gender. I think once you find/see/hear those things, your bond with your baby becomes even stronger and you become more attached to them as time goes on-you know their identity now. However, I don't know if I would feel more hurt, and I pray that I will never know.

Please don't think that I think that losing a baby early is not devastating-believe me, I know it is!! I believe that life begins at conception and that my baby had a heartbeat, an identity and that my baby was most definately my child from the start. I am just not sure if my hurt would be even worse if I had lost my child closer to their due date. We had names picked out for our second baby-one boy name and one girl name. We are not going to use either of those names now. We do not know if this baby was a boy or a girl and I am not going to mistakenly give their name to another child.

I hope you can see what I am trying to say. I was just thinking about that in my head today as I was praying for my sweet friend. Every time I hear a woman is pregnant, I pray they do not need to know the hurt that many women do. Some women do find that out, some don't, but in the end, we can all take comfort in knowing that our babies are with Jesus patiently waiting on us to be there with them so we can give them the hugs and kisses we never got to give them on Earth.

Once again, I pray I do not upset anyone with this post. These were just thoughts running through my head this afternoon. If you have experienced this heartache, I am so sorry; my prayers are with you.

Mommy misses you and loves you so much my sweet angels in Heaven.

My Bucket List

2010-01-27T14:44:00.003-05:00

I have been thinking lately about the things I want to do before I go to meet Jesus and then today I saw a blog about someone's Bucket List. I thought that was ironic, so I figured I would make my own personal one and share it! (and no, I haven't seen the movie yet)

My Bucket List
1. Learn a foreign language
2. Become a regular volunteer at a shelter
3. Write a book(not for publishing, but for fun)
4. Travel out of the country
5. Study each book of the Bible on a regular basis
6. Go to the Grand Canyon
7. Make Thanksgiving dinner all by myself
8. Just sit and listen to the rain outside
9. Go birdwatching
10. Organize every picture I have of Emma and make all kinds of different photo albums of each age

Some of those may be more of a goal, but it is what I want to do before I pass on. Every day I try to get stuff done, but I am bombarded with laundry, cleaning, child care, bills, work, the list goes on and on....then I sit back and realize how lucky I am to be able to do the things I HAVE to do. Just like getting Emma a sippy cup while I am trying to carry a load of laundry to the laundry room. She is grabbing at my and whining and I start to get exasperated. Then I just set my laundry down and get her what she needs. The reason why: there are millions of people out there who cannot have a child or who have lost a child-I have not gone through that experience with Emma and I need to remember to praise God for that every day and pray for the people who have experienced that heartache. I will eventually get this list accomplished and when I do, I may be old, but I will be proud. I was really inspired when I read about this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100127/ap_on_re_us/us_centenarian_degree

How wonderful that she was able to get this!!
Do you have any goals you want to accomplish?

Colts-A classy team

2010-01-24T18:24:00.002-05:00

I am so happy for the Colts!
Top 5 Reasons I LOVE the Colts:
5. They do amazing comebacks
4. They have players that stick together and do not blame one another.
3. They treat their fans wonderfully and know we stand behind them.
2. They do not trash talk their opponents.
1. They are not afraid to thank God for a great game(whether they win or lose).

Miami--here come the COLTS(again)!!!

Overdue Pictures

2010-01-20T13:10:00.021-05:00

Here are some pictures from Christmas and a couple of weeks after. I will just write under the pictures-it is easier that way!

It has always been a tradition for me to open one gift on Christmas Eve with my parents. Well now that Emma is the baby, she gets to do it. Since we live about 2 seconds away from my parents, we took Emma over there and she opened up her Christmas Eve gift-it was a drum that has a few balls between the parts you hit--sorry I don't know what that is called. Emma cannot figure out why the balls don't come out-she wants to take them out and play with them so bad!!

The picture quality isn't too good, but here is the princess tent Santa gave to our Princess!(the cat was not included)

Apparently our princess wasn't too impressed with her presents Santa got her because as soon as Mama was in the bathroom, she ran in there and got into the toilet paper. So much funner than toys!!

How many pieces can I tear this into....

Give me the floss! It is the best toy here!

She likes to munch on floss-what can I say?

It was actually quite funny, Emma had to stop and look through each book as she opened it, it took a long time to open up her gifts!

Emma is trying to decide whether or not she likes her new baby doll she got from Santa.

She loves her!!

Sorry about the price tag showing, but I had to show off her adorable Indiana cheerleading outfit Grandma got her! She is in a Hoosier-loving family!

Like my new sweater?

Can you tell that she is laughing hard here?

Emma decided to climb in this box that we had sitting by the front door to recycle. She about flipped out when I turned it right side up, but after she realized the world wasn't ending, she had a great time in it!

Mommy, I can't wait until spring!

Emma loves to read her books.

I hope this is not a sign of things to come! :)(She does this all the time, I don't know what the deal is!!)

Look mom, I don't have it in my hair this time!!

This is Emma's "Surprise!" face.

This is Emma's "GRRR" face.

A Few Overdue Pictures

2010-01-15T09:23:00.006-05:00

I promise--I did not give Emma any narcotics prior to this picture!! :) And if you'll notice, she has her hand down my shirt...I am not sure why she does that so much right now!

Alright, so I only have a couple right now. I have the wrong flash drive with me. All well, eventually Christmas pictures will be put on here! The two I have on now are from the Wilbur Wright Christmas Festival/Walk. They had a big room with all kinds of Christmas Trees that had different themes. They were very pretty and fun to look at.

It is 40 degrees here right now. I did not have to let my car run to heat up this morning(the first time in 3 1/2 weeks). I am loving this "heat wave"! We have a busy weekend ahead. I am going out with some girls from work tonight for dinner. Tomorrow, we are heading to a party that is being thrown for Brandon's cousin that is going into the Army in a couple of weeks, then we are heading to Emma's great-grandparents house for supper(these two places are two hours away and they are each an hour away from our house--pretty much a 4 hour drive...yuck). It will be nice to see some family that we don't get to see very much. On Sunday after church, my mom and I are going to make a big pot of chicken soup. I am so excited about this, I have been wanting some for a long time! A nurse at work had some the other day and I was very tempted to steal it....:)

I hope you all have a great weekend and I hope it is warm wherever you are at.

What Did I Do Last Night??

2010-01-13T13:14:00.004-05:00

The Things I Should Have Done Last Night
1. Laundry
2. Clean bathroom
3. Cook an actual dinner instead of eat leftovers
4. Unpack some more boxes
5. More laundry
6. Organize Emma's closet
7. Unload and re-load dishwasher
8. Sweep floors
9. Mop floors
10. Go for a walk
11. Take trash out
12. Take recycleables out
13. Shovel sidewalk(again)
14. Order checks
15. Pack my lunch for today
16. Go over diaper bag for baby-sitter
17. More laundry

The Thing I DID Do Last Night
1. Played with my favorite 17 month old and enjoyed every minute of it!

What did you do last night? Emma and I just hung out and had a girl's night. Brandon had an interview that was near his parent's house so he stayed there overnight so he could be there early in the morning. So, I stayed home, heated up leftovers and Emma and I read books, tossed toys around, worked on saying words and took a bath. I must say, that girl is fun to hang out with!

Cold and snow.....what's so great about it anyways??

2010-01-12T08:23:00.004-05:00

Oh my, it has been a while since my last post. I always mean to put something up, but then I forget....all well. I have some great pictures to put on here, but my husband has the camera today so I am out of luck with that!
It has been SOOOO cold here in Middle America! Of course, it has been so very cold in all of the country so far this year(at least us and south of us). However, it is supposed to get up to 40 on Thursday!!! I am so very excited about that. I am still trying to catch my breath and lower my heart rate after seeing my propane bill yesterday. It was amazing to see how much it was considering we do not turn our heat over 68 degrees and we turn it down to 60 degrees when we are gone for the day. At least the company was very nice and we worked out a deal. I am definately going to have to get on the budget billing with them this summer. How cold is it where you live??

I have some great pictures of Emma, but like I said, I need the camera to upload them. We had pasta the other night with lots of sauce...and well, I will let you think about it. I will try to get those pictures up tomorrow. I really need to blog better!!

Okay prayer warriors--please pray for a precious little girl named Sydney. She is a baby who was born with Trisomy 18 and she is on her 5th day of life! She is truly a miracle and I encourage you to stop by the blog made in her honor. Please pray for the Lord to be with Sydney and her family as they do not know how long she will be with them before she makes her journey to to be with Jesus. Let's just praise Him that they are able to spend this time with her!!--and thanks Nikki for letting me know about this blog!

One more prayer request....my husband goes in for a job interview tomorrow at nine--please pray that he receives this job, we are in a financial pit right now and desperately need this! I will keep you all updated! Thank you and everyone have a blessed day!

Merry Christmas and a prayer request.

2009-12-23T09:57:00.006-05:00

It has been a while since my last post! We all got a little flu-bug and we were sick the end of last week through the weekend. I am still catching up from it! It is amazing what a couple days of doing nothing will get you--NOTHING!!
Not a lot has been happening, just finishing up some last minute Christmas preparations and working. We did go see Santa one last time, but that was a pointless visit. All well, I am sure Emma will dig Santa sooner or later. Be sure to check the picture out at the end of the post.

Please pray for a man named Carl. He used to be my Pastor, but left to pastor in Idaho in July. He is married and has two kids. I love this family so much and they have been through so many obstacles. Carl had leukemia and had a successful bone marrow transplant September 2005. Since then, Carl has been in and out of the hospital with infections and other ailments. He has been on his deathbed at least three times(that I can remember). God has done many miracles in his life and our small church's congregation lives.
I received an email last night from Carl's wife and she said that Carl now has skin cancer on his backside. It is pretty advanced and the option to cure it is not an option for him because his platelet count is too low and he would not be able to heal. So they are going to burn the skin off and let him heal from that-that alone will be 2nd degree burns on a lot of his backside. However, the doctors also think there is a good probability that Carl may have either anal or colon cancer as well. This news is just devastating. Carl is only 41 and his kids are 14 and 9. Please pray for this family and for another miracle. We have all seen what the Lord and I know He will be with this family.

Finally, everyone have a wonderful Christmas! Enjoy every moment! I know I will! I can't wait to see everyone's pictures :)

Christmas Memories

2009-12-14T10:09:00.004-05:00

I remember when Santa was real.

I remember writing Santa every year the night before Christmas and him writing me back.

I remember reading those letters later on in life seeing how my Mom wrote me back one year, my Dad the next...the pattern continued on.

I remember laying in bed just thinking that Santa would be in my house in a few hours.

I remember being so excited Christmas morning.

I remember all the gifts tags said "From Santa"--they still do!!

I remember doing all kinds of Christmas pageants at church and wearing my Christmas dresses.

I remember Christmas carrolling.

I remember learning all the Christmas songs at church.

I remember going to Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas morning and waiting for "forever" until Grandpa finished his food so we could be able to open gifts.

I remember being the official present passer-outer.

I remember getting my Fievel.

I remember getting my baby doll that was supposed to act real.

I remember getting my Pound Puppies.

I remember sticking bows on our dog's head.

I remember unwrapping each individual gift in our stockings.

I remember wrapping presents for my Grandma in the nursing home.

I remember Christmas parties at school and how fun they were.

I remember doing Secret Santa at gymnastics; and how one year my Secret Santa wrote my "hint" letters completely backwards.

I remember watching my mom curl the ribbons she used to decorate presents and just wondering how she did that.

I remember knowing Christmas 2007 that I was pregnant with Emma and could hardly hold in my excitement.

I remember REMEMBERING WHAT and WHO Christmas is all about.

I pray Emma has the same kind of wonderful memories I do about Christmas. It was always so magical for my childhood.

What are YOUR memories of Christmas?

Christmas Decorations!!--Warning, LOTS of pictures!! :)

2009-12-07T13:48:00.033-05:00

Finally, finally....we finally put our Christmas tree up on Saturday! Yes, completely un-American, I know! We were a little hesitant with a 16 month old running around, but actually, Emma has done great with the tree(for a 16 month old-ha!) Here are some pictures of Daddy putting up the tree.....

Then, we have Daddy falling down with the tree.....
I thought Emma had been kind of quiet while Daddy was hard at work, so I looked over and saw her munching on Daddy's sunglasses....
...and here is the aftermath of "mean old Mommy" taking away the sungalsses.

These next few pictures are some ornaments that I had planned on putting on the Christmas tree this year.

Here are some ornaments on the tree. I love the way they sparkle with the lights!

Here is the final product. Not too bad!

Not too much longer after I had taken the previous photo, little Miss Emma found her favorite ornament!

These next few pictures are of random decorations we have for Christmas around the house.

Finally, to work off all of that hard work, we took Emma out to play in the leaves we raked up and never got rid of!

Finally, Emma's future boyfriend, Quinten came over after church to hang out for a while. Aren't they so cute? He likes to get into all over her toys and she just follows him around like a lost puppy. It is too cute!!

It snowed here in Middle America last night. For just one inch, traffic was horrible-it took me 3 1/2 hours to get to work today! I am not ready for this yucky traffic. All well, at least I had my Pottery Barn catalogue with me to pass the time by while I was at a dead stop(for 30 minutes!). I hope your Monday was better. :)

Teething

2009-12-02T08:14:00.002-05:00

We have had a looonnnggg week! We had a great Thanksgiving, we saw a lot of family and we were able to just relax and enjoy our new house.
However, Miss Emma has had some different plans for us. Her molars are coming in and let me tell you--these are WAY different than her front teeth. She had no problem at all with her front teeth while teething, but these molars have been horrible! She will not touch anything that is harder than a banana and she has been so whiny and fussy! I think I have given her more Tylenol in this last week than I have in her whole lifetime. I feel so bad for her, but I also feel bad because I just needed a break from her the other night. She will not go to anyone but Mommy(sometimes Daddy) and I just couldn't take it anymore. I felt so guilty because I had to hand her off to Brandon and leave the room and lay down. Of course, I cried the whole time because I felt like I abandoned her so I went right back in and took her and just held her. We were up until 3AM Monday night/Tuesday morning. I was in a daze all day yesterday...lol. The good news is that she seems to be doing better. She ate a lot more last night and was in a better mood. She is still whining a lot, but it seems to be the "toddler whining". I just want my girl to feel better soon!! It is so funny because I was so worried about her eating less, but then I thought to myself....when she teethed last time, she had all soft food, so that is why she never ate less then. I felt better soon after I calmed down and let my rationale thinking take over ;)
On a better note, Emma had her 15 month check-up on Wednesday. She weighs 22lbs 10oz and is 30 inches long. She is a little short, but is pretty average in her weight and head circumference(which I can't remember what that was.....sigh). She ended up getting some vaccines-MMR, chicken pox, meningacoccal(sp???) and H1N1. She did GREAT with them! Well, afterwards. She screamed during the shots, but I expected that-I think I would have screamed with her if I had been allowed- I HATE seeing my child in pain!! There were no bad side effects once again--thank you God!!
Well, there is my update for the week! I hope everyone is doing well. By the way please keep Bentley in your prayers. Check out her mom's blog for more info. This is a very sweet family that may have some obstacles coming up in the future and they would really appreciate prayers and support. Thank you!!

Thankful WEDNESDAY and Ten Times WEDNESDAY!

2009-11-25T11:05:00.002-05:00

I am a day late right now....with moving and a fiesty 16 month old(well in 4 days), things are hectic! We are technically moved, we just now have a mountain of items to unpack, organize, throw out, etc. I never realized how much stuff we have-that really makes me thankful. We are going to go through it and take a lot to Goodwill so someone else can have what we do not need. I am so thankful that my husband is here to help me with it. He is so good to me and is a blessing in my life! He can make me laugh in a second and helps me when I cry. I am also thankful for my daughter who is my whole world. She is such a miracle herself. When she came premature, we all expected the worst even though we KNEW God would protect her and be with us. When little Miss Emma came out, she was loud and pink and just perfect. God has truly blessed us with her. I am also so thankful for my parents, as they have helped us out emotionally, physically, financially and faithfully. My friends and co-workers are also wonderful people in my life who have been there for me through all my ups and downs. Last, but definately not least, I am thankful for my Lord and Saviour Jesus. Without Him, nothing is possible. God has been good to me.
Now, I have seen this on some other blogs and I thought I would try it. I think it is fun to find out some fun facts about people whose blogs you read on. I hope you enjoy this!
1. Are you a Black Friday shopper?
Not at all. I feel like my whole Christmas spirit is wiped out by that one day!
2. What was your favorite childhood toy? (Think Easy Bake Oven, Cabbage Patch Kid, Shrinky Dinks, etc.)
I received a Fievel doll when I was 6. He is still my most favorite toy!
3. Favorite Christmas movie?
A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
4. What is the "must have" item on your Christmas list this year?
A positive pregnancy test(praying for one!!)
5. Do you go all out with decorations or do you keep it simple and classy?
A little in between, but it is still classy.
6. What are your Christmas Plans this year?
Going to each set of grandparents houses and just enjoy time together.
7. What is your favorite Thanksgiving dinner item?
Turkey, cheeseball and black eyed peas!
8. Do you watch football on Thanksgiving?
Yes
9. What is your favorite Christmas song?
Go Tell It On The Mountain
10. What is your favorite Christmas Memory?
Being all excited to go to bed at night just thinking that Santa was going to be there soon! I miss those days of simplicity....

Everyone have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2009-11-25T08:42:00.002-05:00

Hi all! I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and you are able to spend some wonderful time with your family and friends! May God Bless you all and I pray you are able to relax and enjoy your holiday!

Older Pictures

2009-11-19T13:21:00.019-05:00

I wanted to post some pictures of Emma of when she was younger. Since I started this blog, I really didn't start keeping it up until she was one year old. I just wanted to share some of my favorites of her! (From when she was younger than a year!)

ABC's Of Me

2009-11-19T08:24:00.003-05:00

I saw this on some other blogs and I thought it was a cute idea.

A - Age: 29
B - Bed size: Queen-It's a Sleep Number so it's okay it's not a King ;)
C - Chore you hate: Cleaning out the cat litter box.
D - Dog's name: Walter and then my Angel Doggy-Beau :)
E - Essential start your day item: A Shower!
F - Favorite color: Purple, Pink, Silver
G - Gold or Silver: Silver
H - Height: Almost 5'5"
I - Instrument you play: I don't play it regularly, but I play piano.
J - Job title: First-Mommy; Second-OR Surgery Scheduler at a Children's Hospital
K - Kid(s): 1-Emma Catherine
L - Living arrangements: Just moving into a new house with my hubby and daughter after living at my parents' house for a year!
M - Mom's name: Denise
N - Nicknames: Andra-very original, just take the E out of Andrea--I got that back in high school and it stuck ALL through the four years!!
O - Overnight hospital: After having Emma.
P - Pet peeve(s): Where do I start.....cutting people off at the last minute to make an exit, not using a turning signal, people who do not say thank you, please and excuse me, people who chew with their mouth open(unless they can't help it-I know there are some who can't), and people who race at stoplights after they turn green(can you tell I have to drive downtown everyday??)
Q - Quote from a movie: Oh my, I have no clue.
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: No birth siblings, but I do have a BIL, and 2 SIL's.--just as good!! :)
T - Time you wake: 4:45 on weekdays, 7-8 on weekends
U - Underwear: Any kind as long as it covers what it needs to!
V - Vegetable you dislike: Broccoli, Green Peas, Brussel Sprouts
W - Workout style: Walking the 2 miles around my little town. Does it count as exercise when you have to stop to talk to people every 2 minutes?
X - X-rays you've had: When I had my wreck when I was 16 and of course dental exams.
Y - Yesterday's best moments: All my hugs and kisses from Emma.
Z- Zoo favorite: I love to watch the polar bears, but I love all the animals. They are all special in their unique ways.

Beau

2009-11-18T20:42:00.002-05:00

I am writing a post about my Beau who passed away March 30 of this year. I have been thinking a lot about him lately for some reason. We had him for barely 7 years. His birthday was March 23. He was diagnosed with cancer on March 24. He went very fast. Beau was such a great dog. He was loyal, protective, fun and so sweet. He snored, snorted, slobbered and gave upside down kisses. We loved him so much and I know that Emma would have loved him too. He was so good with her and never showed any jealousy or aggression when she came home. Emma was eight months old when Beau died. I will make sure Emma knows about this dog, he was like our first baby. We miss you Beau Beau!!

I took this picture the day that we found out Beau had cancer.

Mickey as Mommy???

2009-11-17T13:26:00.002-05:00

Okay, is anyone else's child completely OBSESSED with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse? Emma goes into a trance when this show comes on. She will stare for about 15 seconds and then start rocking back and forth dancing with the music. It is very cute, but sometimes I wonder that Mickey Mouse has taken my place as Mommy!!! ;)

Who Loves Santa??

2009-11-16T11:18:00.013-05:00

NOT EMMA!!!!

Sorry these pictures are so dark, but we were in a darker room and my camera won't let me do flashes for some reason...I just don't think I am tech-savvy enough with it and I for sure know my mom(who took the picture) isn't!! :) We went to a little annual celebration called the Wilbur Wright Annual Christmas Walk. Our little town is right down the road from where Wilbur Wright was born. There is a Christmas Walk there every year where you have a nice supper, carollers sing for you, there is a Christmas tree display-about 40 trees that all have a different theme-, there is a walk where you just go look at lights, you visit the house where they have actors portraying Wilbur's parents(that was so cool to see them act and see all the old housing fixtures!!), and finally there was SANTA.....Emma did so well with Santa last year that I thought I would take her to see him and well, you see the outcome!! I have never felt her hold on so tight to me before! She even gets scared of the Santa dolls and figures we have for Christmas decorations! I wonder how long that will last. Here are some more pictures of the festival....

Here are some pictures of the Christmas carollers we had while we ate our supper. They were very talented.

Emma had a blast with this nice lady. She came and entertained Emma while I was still eating and Emma was already finished. Once we were ready to leave and go walk, Emma did not want to come with us!!

Finally, here is a picture of my princess and me at Metamora. We stopped by there after a baby shower we went to. I love that little town! It is so historic and the shops there are so cute! We are going to go there the day after Thanksgiving and just hang around there instead of being in the hustle and bustle of "Black Friday". They also do a Christmas Walk there and they light up the whole little town in Christmas lights so that should be just Heavenly! That is what I love about Christmas....things like that just let me enjoy the seaon and the meaning behind it-our Savior Jesus. I know Emma will just adore Christmas like I do and it will be so special to her because she will know Jesus. I am so thankful for that! Now I am in the mood to whip out my Christmas decorations-they will look great in our new house!! Eveyone have a wonderful day and I pray the Spirit of Christmas and love of Jesus is in your heart as well!

Halloween and an Owwee

2009-11-03T08:15:00.009-05:00

Hello friends! I hope everyone had a great Halloween! We sure did, even though it was cold, Emma had a blast! She was a lamb this year(we only had one person guess right, everyone thought she was a bunny-ha!). She knew she looked cute too. The way people were making her over, you would have thought she was just born yesterday!! She also got some candy, which made her so restless that night during her sleep. She kept me up all night! Here she is playing at the October Fest at church the night before Halloween. She had so much fun. They had bobbing for apples(off of sticks to prevent spread of germs), pin the belly button on the ghost, ball toss for prizes and a pinata. We were also going to have a hayride, but thanks to the lovely weather in Indiana, we were not able to :( But all in all, the night was a success! Thank you Ben and Kim for putting this all together!! The kids all had a blast!

Me and my girl :)

She could not get enough of this ring pop. I finally made Daddy take it away!

This picture is bad quality, but she was trying so hard to keep this in her mouth, I had to show you all how much she is fighting for it!!

This is Jenna. She is Kristi and Jarod's daughter. She joins big brother Quinten. She was born in August and is going to be BFF with Emma! She is such a cutie and has had a head full of hair from day 1! We are so happy she is here and love her like our own niece!

This was the excitement of last week. Emma had grabbed a book for Daddy to read to her. She was running with it and tripped as soon as she got to Daddy and hit the corner of the book right under her eye. Thank God she didn't hit her eyeball. I felt so bad for her because she was so excited about this book and then look what happened :( This is the day after. I thought she would have a black eye, but she just wound up with some blood vessels breaking under the skin. My poor baby :(

Finally, please say a quick prayer for us. We just found out that Emma's baby-sitter's son has H1N1(probable) and we were both in close contact with him on Friday. Please pray we stay healthy and that our baby-sitter's son makes a quick recovery and the rest of their family stays healthy! Everyone have a great week! (Next week I promise I will get back to "Not Me Monday")!!

Fun Giveaway!

2009-10-30T08:13:00.003-04:00

Kelly is having a super-cute giveaway on her blog! Make sure you stop by and check out the cute items she is giving away! This blog is so cute and fun-she is a very sweet woman who has an adorable family! Stop by and say hi and start following her blog today! You will love it!

Fun Fall Times!

2009-10-23T12:54:00.016-04:00

This week has been uneventful, but that can be a good thing! We are going to pack up some more stuff at our old house tomorrow, but other than that, we don't have too much to do besides go to church and we always love that! Oh, I lied, we do have a party to go to tonight. It is for Thirty-One, I am not sure what that is, but it sounds like fun. It is at my friend April's house and I can't wait to go see her because she just told me she is pregnant! I am so excited for April and Alan. They will be great parents!!
I wanted to also remind everyone to please keep the Carswell Family in your prayers. They had their beautiful baby girl, Johanna this morning and she went to be with our Lord shortly after. Praise God they did get to spend time with her for a little while! They can now rejoice knowing she is perfect in Heaven and knowing they will one day see her again. Please visit their blog and you can see a couple of precious pictures of their sweet Angel.
Meanwhile, here are some recent pictures of my little stinker at the park and at an apple orchard!

Every time she is looking up it is because Daddy is always doing something silly!

She had to feed Daddy the straw!

Checking out the goats, I don't know how she really felt about them, she wouldn't touch them, so I think they weren't that appealing to her!!

I love this picture

I thought this would be a good ending to this post! Happy Weekend!

Prayers Needed

2009-10-21T08:48:00.003-04:00

Please pray for Nikki. She is getting ready to have her second child, a daughter named Jo, on Friday that has been diagnosed with Trisomy 18, which is fatal. She also has a son that is a little older than Emma who is such a cutie and she also has a sweet husband named Chad. This family is so sweet and they are strong Christians who know that whatever happens, God is in control and will take care of them and sweet Jo. I would just like you to pray for their comfort and trust in the Lord as they meet their daughter and possibly send her to Heaven in the same day. Know that we love you and are praying for you Nikki and Chad!

"Not Me" Monday!

2009-10-19T11:57:00.003-04:00

Do you ever do things that you feel guilty about and don't want to admit you do them? Well, that is what "Not Me" Mondays are all about! Just say what you didn't do and you will feel so much better! If you want more, head on over to Mckmama's blog to find out more of the "Not Me's" that everyone else doesn't do!!
For instance....
I most certainly did not eat Taco Bell yesterday even though I am on a diet at work-The Biggest Loser-to be exact.
I also did not envision everything I wanted to change about the house I am moving into at the beginning of next month while I was visiting there yesterday.
I also did not give my 15 month old daughter chocolate milk so she would drink some kind of milk since weaing her off of formula.
I did not sit at home Saturday night instead of walking because it was "too cold" out and wanted to watch Andy Griffith re-runs.
I also did not gloat when Purdue beat OSU this weekend in football...no, I most certainly did not!!

One Year Pictures

2009-09-30T08:56:00.014-04:00

We have some one year pictures of Emma(actually almost 14 months). We got them done at JC Penney. I love them, however Emma looks so grown up in some of them....*tear* Emma had a lot of fun doing these, however there was a brand new little baby boy across the hall getting his one month pictures down and every time he would cry, Emma would want to run across the hall to see what the problem was! She wasts to make sure everyone is always happy, just like her!!

We are going to make a trip to the apple orchard this weekend(probably Sunday after church). Emma has not been yet, she was too small last year, and being a preemie, I didn't want her out that long in the cold air. I can't wait, I love this time of year and nothing says "Welcome, Fall" like going to the orchard for some warm AND frozen apple cider, buying miniature pumpkins, Indian corn and guords-sp??, getting some homemade fried doughnuts, and picking out pumpkins! My, oh my, I am such a country girl, well-HELLO I do live in a small town in the middle of the country-and I wouldn't have it any other way!!

GO COLTS!!!!

2009-09-15T12:32:00.009-04:00

Go Colts! I am so happy you won your first game of the season!

I am sure thirsty after all that yelling that Mama did!! Are all Colts' games like this??

Now all you have to do is beat those stinkin New England Patriots this season! That would make me(and my Mama and Daddy) VERY HAPPY!!!!

Well, the game was fun, but playing in Walter's water was funner! What an exciting Sunday!

Random Pics to go with the Random Posts.....

2009-09-11T10:47:00.006-04:00

Just some randoms.....

2009-09-11T09:20:00.009-04:00

Things here are good! I am really enjoying life right now. Emma keeps getting funner and funnier. She is walking all over the place. She is also really starting to throw temper tantrums now too! We were in Target the other night and I took something away from her and the screaming began. Ahhhhh, the stares I got. I never realized how much people do stare at you when your kid is screaming, but now I DO!! All well, life goes on!!

We have Emma's one year pictures coming up on the 19th. Only a month and half late :) I can't wait to get them done. We are doing some of her favorite toys and some cute outfits. I will have to post some of them when I get them!

Brandon's grandma came out of surgery great and it sounds like she is healing well! Thank you God! We love her so much and I really want Emma to remember her Great Mamaw and Papaw!

A little off the topic--I follow a lot of blogs that I found through prayer chains for sick children. I am so thankful Emma is not sick, but at the same time, I praise God that these babies are being healed, either here on Earth or up in Heaven!

Last, but not least, please try to remember the lives lost on this day 8 years ago. If you pray, please say a prayer for those souls and their families. God Bless them all!

Time to hang with the Stinker!

2009-08-26T15:14:00.003-04:00

Not too much news right now. However, I am off of work tomorrow! I was also off on Monday. Our work has had some low census days and I took both days off. I love to spend the day with my girl. I will definately get some pics of tomorrow and put them on-who knows what kind of fun we could get into!!
I do have a prayer request. Brandon's Grandma will be going in for surgery on Monday, please pray she makes a full recovery. Thanks!

Just uh Swingin' and Mooreland Free Fair Pics

2009-08-21T10:34:00.023-04:00

Ready to swing!

This is not good picture quality, but I LOVE this picture!

Such a fun girl!

What does she see? She sees things I sure don't!

My beautiful girl!

I LOVE that grin!

Trying to climb out.....

She loves to try to eat whatever she can!

Hi Mommy!

My doggy, Walter, giving kisses.

I love to "ham it up" for the camera!

I am so excited for my first Merry-Go-Round ride!

It was so hard to take a good picture while the ride was in motion.

I just love that face she makes!

Oh, I think I want to go back on!

Hanging with Daddy before the parade starts.

All tuckered out after a long day at the fair....

Emma's First Birthday and A Promise!!

2009-08-20T08:40:00.021-04:00

Here are pictures of Emma's first birthday party!!

I was so proud of my Pooh decorations!

Look at me!!

I just love her so much!

I am gonna eat the nose....

Love those baked beans and mac and cheese!

Her trademark point!

Hahahaha

The cake my mother-in-law made for Emma!

The Finished Product!!

I am going to try and keep this blog up to date better! I saw I had some comments on my last post and thought, hmm, there are some people who do see/read this!! Emma is doing great and her 1 year appt stats are 21 lbs 4 oz, and 27 inches long. She is short, but that is okay! God is so good to us, for having a preemie, she has thrived!! Thanks to all who checked this blog, I promise I will be better!! :)

Family Picture

2009-02-23T19:44:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to share our new family picture...more to come soon!! Emma is 6 1/2 months now....getting so big!!

2009-02-05T17:56:00.003-05:00

Here is our first post! We created this blog to update everyone on our family and our beautiful daughter, Emma. Once I figure out more stuff on here, I will add pictures and change my background.

Adventures of Squirrel and Bug

Little (or Big) Eli

What am I gonna do.....

It's a.....

Finally Friday

13 Weeks and A Day At The Park

You Know What Causes That, Right?

A Sad Weekend

Wordless Wednesday

Nine Months!!!

Wordless Wednesday: The Fourth iPhone Style...Pictures Only, No Particular Order

June Summary

Updates on Hold

Time to catch up! **WARNING**A LOT of random rambling!

Wordless Wednesday (A Day Late)

I really need to start taking pictures with my regular camera....

Seven Months!!

Easter, Bikes and Springtime!

Things that make me happy :)

6 Months Old

Only Little Sister Likes Her Picture Taken....

Saturday's Game

In Memory Of Beau Dog

Look Ma-I'm Kinda Famous :)

My Trip to WalMart

Friday and Saturday

Puppy Love

Fun in the SUN!!!

Mommy's Happy Monday

This Past Weekend

5 Months!

Houston, I Think We Have a Problem

One Year Ago Today.....

Look Ma, I Have Feet!!

"Emma'isms"

Bowling

This and That

Conversation with a Toddler

Madelyn is 4 Months Old!!

Potty Training/Superbowl

Valentine's Day Ideas???

Snow Days!

Wordless Wednesday

Welcome To The Family Maddie!!

This and That

Since Becoming a Mommy of Two

Madelyn Grace

Updates, updates, updates

Really not ignoring anyone....

Update

Heavy Heart

We Have A Name at 21 Weeks!

Girl Power(Mother's Day 2010, Second Birthday Party, Ultrasound Talk)

It's a....

Boy or Girl????

Picture Overload

Time flies when you're having fun!

Enjoying the nice weather and baby update!

Wanted to share some news.....

Glorify

We Are Still Here!

Snow Day/Superbowl/Misc.

I honestly don't know what I am thinking sometimes and 18 month update!

Pregnancy Losses

My Bucket List

Colts-A classy team

Overdue Pictures

A Few Overdue Pictures

What Did I Do Last Night??

Cold and snow.....what's so great about it anyways??

Merry Christmas and a prayer request.

Christmas Memories

Christmas Decorations!!--Warning, LOTS of pictures!! :)

Teething

Thankful WEDNESDAY and Ten Times WEDNESDAY!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Older Pictures

ABC's Of Me

Beau

Mickey as Mommy???

Time to catch up! WARNINGA LOT of random rambling!