The Spaces Between The Trees

Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T09:26:00.007-06:00

It's been a full year since I've added anything here! Sheesh. I may go back and add some stuff in retrospect, but I don't want to miss out on sharing these pictures.

This year Santa brought the girls a doll house and a horse that both girls are super excited about.

Our Yard Transformation

2011-09-29T17:42:00.002-05:00

This summer we finally got to start the backyard landscaping/fence project. We've wanted a privacy fence for quite some time as our yard runs along a very busy street. We've been lacking the funds to do it up til now, but we're proud to say it's finally done!

I'll give you a quick run down via pictures of the project from start to finish.

Here is our yard December 27th, 2006. Just a short week or so after we moved in. You can see that there are still trees in the yard at that point, that eventually came down either from weather or when we cut them down (they were dead either way).

This is the yard right after it was leveled out a bit and graded.

Here are some shots of the grass growing a few weeks later:

Here is a pile of rocks... a pile of rocks that I pulled out of the yard by hand. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about the rocks. Well, when we had the yard leveled and graded, we did not have a layer of topsoil brought in (don't get me started) and all of the crap dirt from that gigantic pile I had dumped last summer was just spread out over our yard! I was soooo upset. Here we are trying to make a better yard for our kids to play in and instead I've made a rocky, debris filled, death trap! I spent several nights out in the yard just pulling up rocks and tossing them into a bucket, only to dump them later. Unfortunately the grass came in too fast and too well because I didn't even get to canvass the whole yard. If you notice in some of the previous pictures, you'll see where I had sectioned off the yard with string to try and get it all picked up. Seriously, I was pissed and very determined to make our yard great.

Next up on the list was the fence! (The best part in my opinion.) The guys who put it up were very quick and I thought it looked great.

New Furniture!

2011-09-29T12:54:00.001-05:00

After saving up for a few years (and then re-saving after tough times!), we finally got our new couch. It's HUGE! It does take up quite a bit of room, but frankly we are just so darned excited to have a comfy place to relax, watch tv, and play video games. Plus it's comfy enough for people to sleep on if we have guests, which our old couches were definitely not. And it has recliners!

The girls testing out the different seats.

Our old craptastic sofas on the curb for free pick-up!

Couponing for Kids

2011-09-24T17:28:00.001-05:00

Over the past 11 months or so, I've been couponing off and on when I find good deals and can find the time. This past week I heard of an awesome deal for board games where if you price matched the games at Wal-Mart and then used coupons found on the Hasbro website, you could get games for free or even better! (Better because Wal-Mart actually pays you an overage if your coupon value is more than the item you're buying.)

I had to drive all the way down to Des Moines to pick up a Big Lots ad, and then to a Wal-Mart down there before I was able to get the deal to work, but after a little effort I was able to walk away from Wal-Mart with 36 board games for $32 plus tax. I was so friggin' excited to pull off this deal, as the games cost somewhere around $490 before the coupons and price matching. I plan on donating 28 of them and keeping 4 for us and 4 for the neighbor who watched the girls while I tried out this super deal.

Edit in a few weeks later:
My whole intent was to wait for the Toys For Tots boxes to pop up in town and then the girls and I would go and take pictures of an empty box getting fuller and fuller with our board games. However, after a bout of serious cleaning, I couldn't stand looking at the wall of games in my dining room any longer. So I called up the Marines Corps recruiters in Ames and asked if I could just drop them by. They were totally ok with that and I was super happy to empty the dining room. So sadly, I have only this picture to share with you and none of the box getting fuller and fuller! (If it makes it any better, I did get to talk with some pretty hot Marines though!)

2 Chutes & Ladders
2 Game of Life
2 Monopoly Electronic Banking
2 Candyland
1 Memory Toy Story
1 Memory Ni Hao Kai Lan
2 Scrabble Turbo
1 Scrabble Flash
1 Simon Flash
1 Bop It
1 Bounce It
2 Scrabbel Alphabet Scoop
2 Connect 4 Launchers
2 Connect 4
2 Scrabble
2 Toy Story Operation
2 Battleship
2 Guess Who
2 Monopoly
2 Cootie
2 Sorry

Total pre-tax OOP - $32.00 Total worth - $488.86 Savings - 93%

Christmas Pictures

2010-12-25T22:10:00.005-06:00

Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T22:04:00.000-06:00

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T18:54:00.007-05:00

Thought I'd throw up a few pictures of Halloween 2010 and some other random fall photos while I had it on my mind:

Here's Uncle Jake's 18th birthday party at Heather's house:

Bethany's Birthday

2010-10-17T19:13:00.000-05:00

When we lie to our children

2010-08-18T08:26:00.002-05:00

For the past two weeks or so Erik and I have been discussing finding a new home for our puppy. He is a great little dog and I love him lots (even when he's peeing on the floor..grr), but the timing was just wrong. He was not planned for and when the woman offered him to us spur of the moment, we couldn't really pass up a papered pup for free. But that was when either Erik or I were home all times of the day. Once Erik started his new job in the north, the poor little guy had to spend the majority of his day in the kennel while I was at work. I'd drive home each day and let him out for a pee break and to run for a few minutes, but then straight back into the kennel. It just isn't how a puppy should live.

We both agreed that if we could find a better home for him, we'd let him go. I have been looking for a loving family for a little while and just the other day found a potential one. I had a call from a woman who was interested. She and her boyfriend just bought a house, had no kids yet, and no other pets, and were looking to get one. Although they are young, they seemed right. I went over and checked out their house (I'm not sending my pup to some skeez-ball's house). It was clean and had an area for him to play.

Today after work I took him to their house. Gave them the kennel and his toys, his food and bowl, his leash and collar. He kept trying to follow me out the door when I was getting things. I told them a bit about his routines and then left. I was pretty upset. Although this is the best move for him and us, it was sad because I was already attached to him and I'm nervous the new people won't love him right (lol).

After getting the girls from daycare we came home to an empty house. About 40 minutes after being here Addie noticed Carter was not around. She asked where he was and I answered "He went to visit his mommy". I lied. I couldn't tell her he wouldn't be coming back again. Just his being gone on a "visit" caused a whole evening of break downs and crying. She found a toy I had missed and wailed for 30 minutes about how much "he needed it and we had to take it to him to visit his mommy."

In then end I know it's the best thing for us all. Explaining why we gave away a member of our family to a three year old is a difficult task and one that I'm not sure she really even gets. For weeks now we've been telling her how he's part of our family and that's why we have to love him and be nice to him, and now I've just taken that family to live elsewhere. Here I am teaching her to tell the truth and yet I lie. It feels terrible.

Arts and Crafts

2010-08-14T10:39:00.002-05:00

I'll admit I'm not the best when it comes to making awesome scrapbooks and projects. I mean when I sit down to do it and I actually have the time, I can make some pretty artsy things, but finding that time is my downfall. I want to preserve all of the girls' artwork so they can look back on it later in life, but being honest with myself, I know that I probably won't do anything with it. So instead I've decided to start taking pictures of all their artwork and crafts and then tossing them (I'll probably keep the great ones or really unique ones!). Every now and again you may find a post of artwork. I hope you appreciate it as much as I do.

Fall Leaves, Adalia, Fall 2009

Penguin Thermometer, Adalia, Winter 2009

Finger Painting, Adalia, August 2010

Finger Painting, Bethany, August 2010

Finger Painting using blocks, Adalia, August 2010

Finger Painting using blocks, Bethany, August 2010

Only on a Friday the 13th

2010-08-13T10:18:00.000-05:00

Today was an odd day to say the least! The day at work was pretty bleh, but the call I got from Erik just hammered home the weirdest of months.

Let me start back on Tuesday when I received a text from Erik saying "Call me when you can, I'm thinking of coming home." Reading this text absolutely confused the crap out of me. When the option to go to CP first came up, I pretty much had a mental breakdown trying to cope with the idea of living alone, working full-time, and having my husband and the girls' dad inaccessible for possibly months. As the bigger picture of our current situation came to light over the next week or two, I realized that we really had no other option. We just weren't making it on the salaries we were pulling in at work, so we had to do something to remedy our situation and fast. This was not a time to be our typical lazy selves... proactive was the key. I agreed to him going away and came to terms with how our lives would be.

The next few weeks of me preparing went by without a hitch other than I didn't get as much done as I had liked. Then it all hit at once. The first week he was gone.. not too bad. I sent the girls away to my mom's to help while I fixed some stuff at work. The next week: pure hell. I pretty much lost 3 employees in 10 days due to transfers, the military, and new jobs. I was screwed. I somehow managed to make it through and I think I only broke down once, and it wasn't for long.

Fast forward to this week and the text he sends me. I called him up and ask what's up. He repeats that he wants to come home. I promptly and flat out say "no". I did not just have my life suck ass for 3 weeks so that he could quit. It was very selfish of me and childlike, but I wasn't having it. We agreed to this sacrifice and we were both going to stick it through. He then explained to me some of the bullshit the new railroad was pulling, and I understood his side a bit more. He also mentioned the pay would be less than they had originally told us. At this point my mind is racing and I'm trying to figure out what I should do. We're going to lose the house.. that's it. I just say "Fine, come home. Whether you're here or there, we can't pay the mortgage, so what's it matter."

He spent the evening rethinking the situation and figured some more stuff out. He calls me back and says he'll stay and stick it out, because at least it's more than we were making. Then Friday rolls around.

Friday afternoon he gets a call from CP to come into work, accepts the call and hangs up. Within a minute his phone rings again. This time it's UP! They ask him if he'd like to come back to work on the extra board in Boone!!!! What the fuck?!?! Now? Now they call? After all of this shit? I'm so happy and at the same time I'm just thinking to myself "what the fuck did we have to go through the past month for then?" Erik could've stayed on with me at work and it would've been so much better. Good news is I already have a babysitter secured.

So now our lives actually haven't changed much compared to last week other than we'll now possibly see each other every few days. I'll still be working 50 hours a week, the girls will still be in daycare, but hopefully we'll be able to pay the bills next month, (which will be nice). I still have the getting out of debt mindset and it's been very hard to get out of debt when we've barely been able to get out of each month most of the time. I can't wait for September 1st now!

Taking Jake home

2010-08-12T09:46:00.001-05:00

We had to take Jacob home today to make sure he was prepared for football tomorrow. The trip down to the border went pretty well, although the girls pretty much ended up eating crackers, cookies, and junk for dinner because of the car trip. (It's ok though, they ate an awesome lunch!) Traffic was terrible for my parents so Jacob and I had to entertain the girls for over and hour at the rest stop we were meeting up at. Luckily there is a lake about 200 yards from the travel center building, so we took a trip down to the rocky shore and explored. The downside was the temperature outside was about 99 degrees with a reallllly high humidity. We survived, but man were we sweaty!

Gathering and throwing rocks in the water

Looking for fish

Did I mention it was hot outside?

Catepillar we found at the lake (picture taken by Addie)

Bethany trying to touch the catepillar

Once Grandma and Papa showed up we played around near the picnic tables for a while letting the girls get their wiggles out. I wish I would've caught on film the way that Bethany ran to my dad when she saw him, it was perfect.

Bethany preparing to jump to Grandma

Anything Beth can do..... Addie can of course do better (at least she thinks)

Adalia, Grandma, Uncle Jake

Bethany, Papa, Addie, Grandma, Jacob

Bethy showing Papa how she can walk on her hands

My little jumper pre-jump

Floods of 2010

2010-08-11T09:36:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Jacob, the girls, and I drove over to Ames so he could get a quick glimpse at the campus. We drove through campus, around the athletics facilities, and around the off campus bar/restaurant area. Today though we're seeing pictures of the flooding that is occurring in Ames and I'm a bit shocked. Take a look at these photos on the Des Moines Register's website. It's amazing. Apparently this was the worst flood that Ames has ever had on record.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=D2&Date=20100811&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=8110802&Ref=PH&Item=0

We were just in that parking lot near the football stadium last night! I hope that this doesn't last too long! Freshmen are scheduled to move in this week I think.

Uncle Jake comes to visit

2010-08-08T09:27:00.001-05:00

Saturday the girls and I drove down to the IA/MO border to pick up my brother, Jacob. He had the week off from work and from football and insisted he come to visit. Who in the world wants to come to Boone, Iowa? Not that I'm complaining as we don't get visitors around here. I was actually pretty excited to have some company to talk to and the girls could play with.

Today was spent cleaning house and just hanging around. Jacob took the car around town a little bit to continue his manual education. (So far the engine has not fallen out, so he's doing ok I suppose.)

Addie and Bethany are super excited to have him here too. They love their Uncle Jake. He's great for climbing on and being tossed around and as a human swing. Plus he brought his ipod which is capable of hours of entertaining for Addie. All in all a great day for us all!

One week down

2010-08-07T09:03:00.002-05:00

Well we've officially survived the first week. Although it has been one hell of a week (for me), I think we'll be able to manage this for a while. I worked the overnight schedule again on Thursday into Friday morning. Stayed awake for about 25 hours straight and didn't screw anything up majorly. Success! Picked up the girls from the daycare around 3:30pm and we had a pretty good evening.

We had to run to the grocery store for dinner stuff. Unfortunately I didn't make a menu or list, so I've got a whole counter full of snack foods and junk, instead of whole meals and good foods. Actually we got a ton of fruit so that's got to be good right? Adalia and Bethany were both awesome helpers in the store, choosing items and putting them in the basket. Good girls = balloons, so we all left happy.

I had to go back into work around 7pm and my two little helpers went with me. They helped me make a few bags of ice (riding on the bottom of the cart), sweep up some trash (yell and point out dirt to me), and change the gas price signs (carry the numbers and clap for me). It's weird taking them in with me in this sort of situation, but truly I don't know what else to do. I have no one here that can help out in the evenings. I figure as long as they are happy and enjoying it, I'm ok with doing it. Usually I'll just pile some paper and pens on a box and let them make artwork while I do what I need. Every time Bethany goes to the store, she immediately runs in and heads straight to the check stand to pull out coin tubes. The people of Boone will just have to learn to love my kiddos as much as I do, as I'm sure they'll see the three of us in there a lot!

I'm thinking of getting some pictures of the girls soon. It's been over a year and I'd like some new ones. As always I'll have to see if I can find some coordinating outfits. I'm trying to decide if I want to go the matching way or just the coordinating way.

Here's to the next day and a half of doing nothing.

Thursday's dose of bleh

2010-08-05T19:33:00.002-05:00

Seriously, if you're still reading this junk by now, you must really be a glutton for punishment. Pity party of 1 please? I've decided that I have until Monday to be cranky and then I must stop.

Addie and Bethany had another good day at daycare today. So far, no real issues I can see with this new daycare provider. In fact, Addie seems excited to go over there each day. Today when I arrived they were about to go for a walk, or so thought Addie! They both seem to be doing just fine... unlike mommy.

Last week I had to work an overnight shift and it actually wasn't that bad. I worked that day, came home and napped, worked the shift, and went home to sleep again. Well it turns out that I must work overnight again. This time, however, the kiddos are here with me instead of in KC, and I get no nap before going in for the shift. I'm having someone come stay at the house with the girls while they sleep and I work, and then I'll come home to take them to daycare, and get to sleep. Soooo who's taking bets I either fall asleep standing up or completely freak out on someone. I mean it's only 26.5 straight hours of being awake. People do this all the time. The guys on Deadliest Catch do it all the time. Military personnel do it too. And even doctors do it! I think I'll survive, but I'm not going down without at least a small (or large) amount of complaining first.

I seriously don't think I'll be able to keep this puppy either. He just keeps peeing everywhere, and I can't deal with it any longer. I don't have the money to fence him in outside, and he'd bark the whole time even if I did (which I'm sure the neighbors would love), and I can't keep leaving him in his kennel as much as I have been. It's not fair to him or me. He's adorable and exactly the type of dog Erik wanted to get, but like everything in our lives, it's always at the wrong time.

Oh yes! I found the tv remote today! At least there's one positive to having to clean up for a guest to come here tonight.

Day 2

2010-08-03T20:25:00.003-05:00

Day 2 of being alone. Today started off in a hurry as I overslept. How one manages to turn off 3 alarms and still find a way to get back to sleep, I'll never know. I was having dreams about what I think Twilight? Who knows as I've never seen or read it. But apparently my mind just made up its own version of how the story should go. It was a real page turner in my brain, as I was not able to pull myself out of the dream. We only showed up at Heather's (new daycare) 10-15 minutes after I said we'd be there.

My stress level at work is kind of high lately. I am short 2 managers as I never replaced the first one that was promoted, and now am trying to train people on the go. With Erik's departure and now another employee's guard duty taking her away for weeks, I'm really struggling with the scheduling. I know it will improve, but something's got to give. I have no one who's willing to pick up any slack, and with a tight daycare schedule, it's almost impossible for me to put in any extra hours currently. Oh how I wish I had family nearby... again.

This evening was a bit trying with the girls too. It's hot and I'm tired. Both of their naps were very short compared to normal and you could tell they were tired. This dog is getting on my last freaking nerve. He's still pissing everywhere and I'm sick of it. What helpful advice do I get from my charming husband? "You're just going to have to take him out more babe." Says the man who's only been gone 2 days and already doesn't understand. This was our choice and I'm to blame as much as he, but I can already tell I'll end up resenting him somewhat for this move. It's a bad feeling, but what other choice do we have? We want to live the life we want to live, and the only way to do that is to actually make money and continue down the path to becoming debt free.

I was able to squeeze in another 20 minute workout tonight. My muscles were aching all day from the one on Sunday evening, so I'm not looking forward to tomorrow, but I can't wait for next week. I'm going to try to track this as best I can with pictures and such, but I'm too chicken to post the before shots until I know I've got some results to put them up against. I even got Addie to do a few minutes of the program with me... that is a show I'll tell ya.

Oh ya and the remote has been MIA for 2.5 days now. No where to be found. Please send help!

Time to get in shape

2010-08-01T19:01:00.003-05:00

Today is the day I take control of my life. Erik left today for an indefinite amount of time. Could be 2 months, could be 12. We're expecting about 5-6 months, but that remains to be seen.

The past week has been long and tiring. I left last Sunday to take the girls to my mom's house for the week. My sister had a beautiful baby boy, James Kyle Roy, on Monday, July 26th, at 10:07pm via c-section. He's perfect (even for a boy!). I left Tuesday afternoon to drive back to Iowa. Worked Wednesday and Thursday morning, went home slept, worked Thursday overnight, went home slept, worked Friday evening, went home slept, got up and drove to Kansas City again to pick the girls up. I stayed at my mom's last night and this morning we were out the door by 9:45 am (pretty early departure time for us). We raced home so that Erik and the girls could spend time together one more time before he left.

After getting Erik all packed up we all said our goodbyes, with a big ol' group hug (at Addie's demand). Watching him pull away was sad and I think I could've fallen into sadness pretty easily, but I've got a lot to do to prepare for the girls' first day at daycare tomorrow.

I did, however, make time for my first day of exercising. I'm making a change and it's starting today. I want to get in better shape, not lose control of my body, and feel better about myself. I think that having Erik gone is a great time to do this. It will be hard, but man what a surprise it will be to look good and feel great when he returns to us. I'm hoping to keep this us and I'm depending on my friends and family to keep me going. At work I'm considering telling everyone to yell at me if they see me eating junk food. At home, I'm going to ask my mom ask if I've worked out each day.

I just did my first set of Jillian Micheals' 30 Day Shred and oh man did it kick my ass! I can do that everyday. 20 minutes is not that hard to fit in (even while yelling at the kids and the dog and the cat to stop fighting with one another).

Today's the day I start fresh. Here's to hoping I stick to it.

My Little Photographer

2010-04-18T19:15:00.007-05:00

Tonight Addie got to use the camera for the very fist time. I thought I'd share with the world her first photojournalism piece titled "Around Addie's House". Each picture below was taken by Addie all by herself of whatever she wanted to take pictures of.

First Haircut

2010-04-01T20:27:00.001-05:00

Addie got her first haircut finally. After dealing with the "wild lion's mane" as we all call it, we decided it was time to try and control that crazy hair. So while on vacation in Ohio visiting Grandma Karol and Grandpa Scott, we took the plunge and got her first hair cut at the ripe ol' age of 3 years 2 months.

Before:

During:

After:

Hocking Hills

2010-03-31T20:59:00.001-05:00

We visited Hocking Hills with Grandma Karol today. It was a bit of a drive to get there, but nothing compared to the never ending two day drive to Ohio. The drive was pretty scenic though and I was very surprised at just how hilly Ohio really is. It's very picturesque in many places.

Having the girls with us, Karol opted to take us to Ash Cave, as it has a paved path all the way to the cave. She borrowed a stroller from a co-worker to go along with the one I brought and we walked the quarter mile or so back to the cave together. It was pretty funny though, as we could've stopped about 50 feet from the parking lot and spent the whole time there. There was a wooden bridge that went over a tiny stream and the girls were completely content to stand there and throw rocks, sticks, and dirt off of the bridge into the water. A two hour drive to throw rocks into the water... I don't think so!!

We urged the girls onward and finally made it after quite a few more rock throwing pauses. The cave was much bigger than what I had pictured. In fact, I'm pretty sure I read it was the biggest one in Ohio.

That makes me so sad...

2010-01-24T19:27:00.003-06:00

I assume I should be happy that my nearly 3 year old child is learning to express her feelings verbally instead of with screaming and crying, but hearing your child tell you several times a day "That makes me so sad" gets a bit old. Not to mention the times she now tells us that she does not love us when she's mad. No cookies for lunch? That makes her so sad. No sitting on the back of the couch? That makes her so sad. No sitting on my lap while I type on the computer? That makes her so sad.

Addie's way of describing not only feelings but everyday happenings is pretty cute though. When the sun comes up it's "happy outside". When she needs to brush her teeth "her teeth are so sad". When she gets a mint or altoid her "mouth is pretty". When it's foggy outside it's "very, very foggy outside". Ok that last one was not anything cute, but the way she says it is!

Bethany, on the other hand, is learning to vocalize her wants and needs and things she finds in the house too. Although most things she says comes out sounding like "ssssssss" or "shssshhh" it amazingly works out pretty well for her. She can get across "cat" "cheese" "this" "ears" "eyes" and "hair" all with some variation of the "ssss" sounds she makes. It's not really talking, but it's getting there.

Making Curtains

2010-01-17T21:41:00.003-06:00

So after looking at my dining room window/sliding glass door for the past 3 years or so with disgusting vertical blinds on it, I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and make myself some new curtains.
This is the eyesore that we (and everyone driving by on our extremely busy street) have been looking at for a few years now.

And this is my finished product. It's in no way perfect, but I'd venture to say it's a huge improvement over what we had before.

All coming together

2010-01-14T20:31:00.004-06:00

So it's all starting to come together at work for me now. This week I've been doing less cleaning and more counting and sorting. I'm starting to feel like the place is more mine than someone else's, which is really nice. I'm thinking that within the next 5 days or so I'll have it all up to speed, then I'll only have to worry about doing the daily work and getting the computer to order the correct things.
My supervisor stopped by today to help out with the ice/snow build-up outside. He seems great so far. I really like how laid back he is and his willingness to get dirty if need be. He also gave me a few compliments, which of course gave me some more confidence in what I'm doing.

At home we've been talking non-stop about Addie's impending 3rd birthday. She doesn't know exactly how far out it is, but she knows that she'll be 3 very soon. It's weird though, because she's been going through a bit of a regression of sorts lately. She really wants to treated like a baby a lot, insisting she's a "big girl baby". I think a little bit of jealously is starting to sink in about Bethany and the past 4 months have been just crazy for her. In and out of daycare, back home with dad all day long, and now I'm gone even longer than before. Unfortunately (in Erik's mind) she has gotten into the habit of sleeping with me every night too. While Erik was out of town for work, I really liked cuddling up with her in bed and falling asleep. But now we've started a trend that is proving to be very hard to break. I really have no inclination to stop her from sleeping with me, but I know that it really irks Erik, so I'm trying to find a happy medium. I know that as we move closer and closer to Erik getting his job back, I'll be sleeping a lot alone and will have absolutely no qualms about allowing Addie in bed with me. But sometimes I catch myself second guessing and thinking that it's not a good idea. Either way, I think there are pros and cons to it and we'll just have to play it by ear.

I've also started tentatively planning a vacation to Ohio this spring. I've never been to Ohio and we've been promising to come and visit Erik's mom for a while now. I'm tired of every year saying "maybe next year". So I'm just going to do it, that's it! I'm really looking into taking a train ride there, but am nervous about the cost and how the girls will do. Either way it will be rough on them. A 13+ hour drive in the car, or a 18+ hour journey on the trains. At least on the trains we can get up and walk around and I can focus on the girls. I'll let you know when we get closer to the date what we intend on doing.

Socks, Socks, Socks!

2010-01-10T14:29:00.002-06:00

That's it! I've given up completely on the sock situation in this household. I have bought 25 pairs of socks that the girls will share. They are all the exact same kind and same size. There will be no more searching and digging and matching and folding of socks for me in this house. I cannot stand the number of socks that we have.. half of which do not have a match. The little bitty baby socks that no longer fit anyone, the cutesy little socks with a pink stripe, the pretty little socks with lace... all gone! In the TRASH!
I held out for a very long time, thinking "ok ok I'll save them for my cousin". Then I figured "Ooh, I'll save them for my sister". But now I've realized I'd actually just rather spend the money on buy them new socks myself than trying to pass of some old, mismatching socks from hell.

Goodbye sock hell! Hello to sock heaven!!!

Lots of catching up

2009-11-04T20:49:00.002-06:00

These past few weeks have been very crazy around here. With Erik moving out to Mason City for work and the girls and I adjusting to yet another new schedule, I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed at times. So overwhelmed that the thought of even making new blogs seems too overwhelming!! lol. (How hard can typing a blog daily be right?)

Anywho I just wanted to stop in and let you all know we're all still living and doing well. You'll probably see a lot more cluster blogs from us for a while until we can get all settled in and figured out. A lot of times, I'll make a post and not publish it until later so that I can add pictures to it or whatever, then I'll sit down one night and publish them all.. hence the magic appearance of so many posts all at once.(You'd think with all this extra time, I'd be able to make better quality posts, but oh well.. this is all I've got for ya folks!!)

Halloween

2009-10-31T21:53:00.001-05:00

Halloween 2009 was a very good one in Iowa. The weather was almost perfect.. just the right amount of cool, no rain, and not too breezy.

With the added stress I've been under lately, I was having a hard time getting into Halloween this year. Which sucks, btw, as Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love the decorations, I love to hand out candy to kids, and now I'm really loving taking the girls around to trick-or-treat. Plus any holiday that is pretty much centered on candy cannot be a bad thing right? Well I hadn't put up any decorations, we didn't carve any pumpkins, and I had no idea what the girls were going to dress up for this year.

At the last minute I ran to Wal-Mart and picked a bag of candy to pass out. Ya.. I said "a" bag of candy. I refuse to buy the crap candy and the good stuff is expensive nowadays!! So being on a budget, I had to tell myself that there'd be no handfuls of yummy candy bars for kids this year.. just one piece per kid. (Oh the humanity!!!!) While at Wallyworld I grabbed the girls some costumes. Addie, a pirate princess, and Bethy, an elephant. Not the most unique costumes in the world, but hey they worked. And... my girls can pull of anything!! lol (ok ok I'm a bit biased)

(Don't mind the crappy coloring on the photos.. please refer to the other post about me needing a new camera!!)

I need a new camera!!

2009-10-24T16:47:00.001-05:00

So my camera is pooping out on me lately. Most of the pictures I take tend to have some terrible pink thing going on nowadays.. Sometimes I can catch it on a good day, but most of the time it's just not fun.
So you'll please have to excuse the lack of good pictures lately. Hopefully in the next month or two I'll be able to upgrade to a newer and better camera.

Bethany's First Birthday

2009-10-17T20:27:00.003-05:00

Today was a pretty good day. This morning I finished up Bethany's cake (well actually I had to remove all the leaves and start over as they did not darken as I had hoped). The family came over for cake and ice cream around 11:30am.

Bethany was not very interested in opening her presents so Addie was "kind" enough to do it for her! Pretty much Addie opened all of them, but that's ok. Beth couldn't have cared less lol. What a good big sister Addie was though!

While not quite sure what to expect when it came to Bethany's first cake experience, I'd have to say it was a little disappointing. She would poke at it and grab it and eat a bit, but nothing dramatic or funny as her older sister had done. Wouldn't that be just like Bethany though? To be such a little drama queen most of the time, but once the spot light is really on her and she has a free chance at making a mess, she just gets all laid back!!

Update on Addie's exostoses

2009-10-16T20:31:00.001-05:00

Our visit with the new doctor at Children's Mercy went well today. The doctor was very nice and Addie was very well behaved. He seemed impressed with her ability to sit still and let him touch her.... but ever since her trip to the ER, she's a big doctor fan.

He checked all over her body and actually found 2 more tumors that I hadn't found yet. He said he wasn't too concerned with them as of yet, but we'd need to keep an eye on the ones on her ankle and wrist, because those are the ones that tend to become problematic as they can interfere with the two bones that run next to each other (for example, the ulna and the radius of the forearm). He did not take any x-rays today, but has asked to see her again next year, unless any problems arise, at which point he'll be sending her in for x-rays. He'll also be seeing Bethy then too.

Interesting side note: While asking about our family history and such, he asked if my brothers, who also have MHE, are tall or not. I told him how tall they both were. He found it interesting as apparently most people with MHE are very short because the bones spend so much "energy" making tumors that they don't grow very well. Oh, and we all have a very mild case of MHE. I guess most people that have it have many, many exostoses, which tend to really interfere with living. I suppose that's a good thing for us!

My Green Thumb

2009-10-12T07:02:00.002-05:00

Last night my neighbor, Shelly, was able to come over and help me split some plants and transplant them to other places in my yard. She has been talking to me about doing this for some time, but we could never find the time to get it done. So after bundling up Addie we went outside and I learned how to slpit plants. It was ea-sy. Now I'm like ooh I can do that... but will I ever? That is yet to be seen.
It's great because Shelly is really good with gardening and she has so many plans for my yard.. that's right, she has plans for MY yard lol. I am excited. We were also able to find some nice rocks to add to the landscaping for free (again Shelly found them - she's a wonder woman I tell ya). I'll try to get some pictures as soon as I can, but it probably won't look good until spring.. so maybe not.
Addie had a wonderful time playing outdoors though. She got to dig in the dirt, climb on the dirt pile from the construction, and play in the leaves that have just recently taken over my yard. She did faceplant once onto the sidewalk winding up with a bloody nose, but it didn't keep her inside! That girl loves the outdoors.

All Alone Again

2009-10-11T21:10:00.002-05:00

Welp, here we are, just the girls and I. Erik is gone for the second week to Mason City for work. Bethy, Addie, and I are managing mostly ok, although I had hoped to transform into some sort of super mommy during the past week that was able to not only work full-time, but have a spic&span clean house, spend oodles of time with my girls, and have lots of left over time to do crafts or catch up on shows. For some reason that didn't work out though, I'm not sure why....

Erik was able to come home from MC this weekend which was nice. He helped me get on top of the housework finally, gave me time to get the grass cut one last time, and we were able to hang out some and watch the Chiefs lose.. again.

Tonight he took off and I'm feeling pretty sad right now. It's not like we've not done this a bazillion times in our lives.. first the Marine Corp, then college, then the new job, then the pregnancy, now the job again. We won't be seeing him again for about 2 weeks this time as we're heading down to KC for Addie's appointment at Children's Mercy this coming week. It's only two weeks, and I'm grateful that it's not more, but man I'm pretty depressed. When will we ever get to lead a "normal" life? Never. Even when it all settles down and I no longer have to work, we'll still be playing the every other day game with him gone on the railroad. It's a choice we've made and we'll deal, but please excuse me this one complaint tonight.

Addie has been enjoying sleeping in my bed.. well at least falling asleep in my bed when daddy's gone. I will admit, I really enjoy it too. She is just so nice to cuddle up to nowadays. It fills my heart with warmth and happiness to just look at her and chat with her there. Her latest word/sentence fad? "Cut it out". While I'm tickling her she'll say "Cut it out mommy." It's the cutest thing. Doh, speaking of.. there she is not sleeping. Off to rescue her.

Mommy Date?

2009-10-10T22:30:00.000-05:00

So this may seem a bit cheesy but I think I've set up a "mommy date" for next weekend while I'm in KC. Woot. I never get to go out.. especially without the girls. And the awesome part is I can actually stay out past their bedtime because I trust my mom with the girls and bedtime. Normally I hate leaving them with people other than Erik or I around that time of night. It's just our special time and I enjoy putting my kids to sleep (most of the time lol).

Soooo hopefully I'll be able to get this thing all set up and meet up with some awesome women from BabyCenter while I'm in town. I've made so many friends from that site, it's funny.. but cool.

That Silly Daddy

2009-09-29T18:19:00.000-05:00

So Erik left a surprise for Addie and I the other day. When we came down the stairs this is what we found:

Addie was pretty amused to find the teddy bear wearing dad's shoes and wanting to watch tv.

All 4 Grandkids

2009-09-24T20:33:00.000-05:00

We snapped a few pictures of Addie, Bethany, and Kyle's twins, Guin and Evie, while we were in KC. They were not too happy with us taking their pictures while they were stuck in carseats.. but I think they'll live lol. Poor Bethany is nearly the same size as the girls, who are 3 months younger. Teeny girl.

And here are two of just the girls that same day:

Carousel

2009-09-23T20:23:00.000-05:00

So the girls go their first rides on a merry-go-round while in KC. I thought I'd share a few of the pictures before I forgot about them!

Another long day

2009-09-22T23:06:00.002-05:00

We made our way home today and boy I'm tired. Oh and I'm short one child too... Those damned grandparents are kid thieves I tell ya. Adalia was given the option to stay at grandma's house or go home and see daddy and she decided to stay with grandma (go figure!) Um sorry there daddy... grandma takes the cake in this one's eyes.

Our evening was pretty boring here, if you discount all of the crying and whining Bethany entertained us with. I can't imagine she was that tired as she slept almost the whole car ride home (woohoo!!!), but she sure was cranky. Maybe she just noticed something was missing... something that is about 3 feet tall, really loud, and very "I can do it myself" independent. Either way we had a long evening until bedtime.

After bedtime I settled in for some well deserved internet time. And by well deserved, I mean I haven't done a darn thing today so I might as well keep up my lazy streak and not do anything this evening too.

After calling to check in on the ol' Addster, I'm thinking I should finally be in bed. But now I can't help but miss her and want her home again. Gah! Why is it no one ever told me how much I would want my kids to go away, but once they finally did go away how much I would want to irrationally demand them back this very second!!!! I think I'll go cry myself to sleep now.... (ok ok I'm not that emotional, but still, there is a glint of a tear in my eye as I write this.)

Wedding crashers

2009-09-21T20:30:00.003-05:00

This weekend we made a last minute decision to travel to Kansas City for my cousin's wedding. We had originally planned attending, but then decided against it a few weeks ago. After some pressuring from Erik, I decided that it was worth it for peace of mind and of course my family rarely objects to seeing the girls (and me I suppose lol).

The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time. From the moment we walked in the door my girls were all over that dance floor though! (I'm hoping it wasn't in the "omg someone needs to get their kids under control" sort of way.. I don't think it was lol)

Oh man were they worn out at the end of the night.

Nice days of September

2009-09-15T19:20:00.002-05:00

This month has been pretty spectacular for weather here in Iowa. This week the girls and I were able to make it to the park a few times.

Here are a few pictures and videos of the girls at the park.

Piggy-bank playtime

2009-09-03T23:38:00.001-05:00

Tonight Beth and I spent some quality time on the couch learning how to put coins into the piggy-bank and then take them out of the belly. She also practiced sharing things with me...one of her new favorite things. She loves to hand things to people when they ask for them.

After a while Addie noticed we were playing without her (ah! how could we?!?!?!) and came to join us on the couch. They were playing very well together, sharing, taking turns, and cheering for each other that I had to get it on film. Unfortunately the lighting was pretty dark, so you'll have to bare with me on this video. Oh and please note how Addie almost always has to say "Baby Bethany"... it's never just plain ol' Beth or Bethany.. it's got to be the full name: "Baby Bethany".

(Oh and when I look at our blog on the laptop, it looks really bad and is hard to read. But on our pc it looks great. So if any of you out there that actually read this thing are having a hard time seeing stuff, please let me know so I can fix it. Maybe it's just my laptop.. but I don't want it to look like poo for other people too. )

Sure does

2009-09-02T21:33:00.000-05:00

Sure does has now become the catch-all saying for Addie when answering a question.

Me: "Wow, wasn't that nice of Bethany to share her toys?"
Addie: "Sure does"

Me: "Would you like some more milk?"
Addie: "Sure does"

Me: "That dress looks small, do you think it fits baby Bethany?"
Addie: "Sure does"

I'd love to say that I have no idea where she got the saying from, but I'm fairly certain it comes from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Mickey will often ask the audience if certain things look like they fit somewhere or if something matches this or that, pause for a second, and then say "it sure does!".

And people say that kids can't learn anything from television.... gah I must turn off the Disney channel every now and again!

Linus in the making

2009-09-01T22:25:00.000-05:00

Bethany certainly isn't attached to a blanket yet, but she has been showing more interest in some things lately.. like blankets. Addie has "her" pink blanket and although it doesn't go everywhere with her, it's with her enough that I'm sure Bethy has picked up on its significance. So I'm assuming that Beth is just mocking her older sister.. go figure!

Today we were able to get a few videos of Bethany not only showing off her super walking skills, but also showing her Linus side.. dragging a blanket everywhere she goes.

When left alone...

2009-08-31T19:13:00.001-05:00

This is what Addie decides to do with herself:

Now that Addie can get out of bed on her own she's taken to entertaining herself (and Beth when she's awake) after naps. She loves to get into the dresser and pull out clothes and shoes. In the pictures above, she had gotten out several of those little head bow things that baby girls use and decided to dress herself up in them. One around the neck, one on her arm, one in her hair.. perfect! This is how I found her after her nap.

She also loves to get the hangers off the low bar in the closet and then re-hang them later. Most of the time she's entertaining Bethy though. She'll pass her toys into her crib or sing to her or just be silly and make her laugh. They are quite the duo in the afternoons chatting and playing perfectly together until I get them out of their room. I've even walked in to find Addie sitting on the floor next to Beth's crib reading a book to her out loud. It was just perfect. She's such a good big sister!

Pretty Addie

2009-08-29T21:22:00.002-05:00

This week I bought some fingernail polish and finally painted Addie's nails for the first time. She loved it!

I've always been afraid to do it before as she constantly had her fingers in her mouth and I don't need her eating nail polish, but now I feel a lot more comfortable with the idea. She's smart enough to understand when told not to do something after being told why.

Her perfectly pink little fingers and toes are just adorable by the way! How girly she is... and how much I love it! Can you imagine me of all people loving my little girly-girl? (Well, of course I love her, but I mean loving how girly she is!!) She absolutely loves to play dress-up now, which is pretty cute. She will get on her dress, a necklace, her shoes, have her hair done, and now flaunt her pretty painted fingernails. Oh and no outfit is complete without a handbag stuffed to the brim with toys and blocks and books. What a princess in training!! Oh well... what little girl doesn't dream of being a princess at least once? Might as well let her get it out of her system now... before all the bad traits show up that come along with being a princess.

Be Patient

2009-08-27T19:33:00.001-05:00

I have to say that I'm pretty stoked lately as it seems that some of our parenting is finally sinking in with Addie. I'm sure there's been a lot that's actually sank in, but to have her give us blatant examples is pretty reassuring that we must be doing something right.

Lately Adalia has taken to telling Bethany "Beeeeee patient, Baby Bethany". While in the car riding places if Bethany starts to get cranky or even just plain ol' chatty, Addie will kindly inform her that she must be patient. Each time Beth opens her mouth to speak Addie counters with another "Baby Bethany, no talking. Be patient." Pretty much Bethany is not allowed to talk without being scolded and told that she must be patient. I'm not sure why Addie thinks that being patient means being quiet, but it probably has to do something with her being told to stop crying and waiting whenever she "needs" something right now!

It's also nice when Addie actually puts this saying into practice herself. The other day I actually told her to be patient as I was in the middle of cooking some food. I explained to her what I was doing, how long it would take, and how once I was finished I would then get her a cup of milk. She repeated the saying back to me again and patiently sat there waiting. When I was finished she told me all about how she was patient! Awesome!!! A 2 year old learning the value of patience. Amazing. I'm sure it will fly out the door as soon quickly as it came in, but for right now it's just awesome.

Cuddlerific

2009-08-25T22:16:00.005-05:00

Tonight Addie and I spent some much needed cuddle time on my bed after Bethany was asleep. I think they've both been needing a little more face time than I've been giving them and I need to fix that. We laid on my bed all cuddled under the blankets just talking. It's so wonderful to finally be at that point when your child can actually carry on conversations with you. Granted, they are still pretty hectic, and filled with a lot of repeating each other, but it's amazing to ask her what she wants to do tomorrow and get an answer: "Go downstairs and watch Mickey Mouse." hahaha

I just think it's so cool when you step back and think about it. Of course she's a brilliant kid (who's kid isn't?), but some of the things we take for granted as adults are just so freaking awesome to witness in children. Like the fact that she now understands the concept of time. Tomorrow follows today; it will start when I wake up in the morning. Or how she can remember the activities of not only today, but days, weeks, even months ago. (If I have to hear about Uncle James' animals from 3 months ago one more time..)

Watching her make a decision as simple as picking out a movie is terrific too. It's not just a movie.. it's a choice.. her choice. Something she tries everyday to establish, her independence, is just thrust upon her every evening before her movie time. You can watch her relish the moment as she walks back and forth eying the 10 or so DVDs laid out for her approval. Beaming, she'll pick a movie and remind me that she also learned a new phrase recently.. "Addie made good decision". That you did there kiddo, that you did, Peter Pan is an excellent decision.

Bye-Bye

2009-08-24T21:42:00.000-05:00

We've finally got some waving going on around here. It's weird that she can walk completely by herself now and still can't wave, but such is life with babies. Tonight, though, I finally got her to wave... sort of. It was the smallest little open-handed, arm up and down sort of thing, but hey it's a start right?

The MorningRoutine

2009-08-23T20:48:00.002-05:00

The morning routine in our household is pretty well set, and has been for a while now. We wake up each morning to Addie and Bethany "talking" back and forth to one another in their bedroom: "Baby Bethany.. Baaaabbbbyy Bethaaaannnyyy... Ackgh.. babababa.. Baby Bethany.." On and on it goes, and you have to hear how Addie draws out Beth's name.. it's freaking hilarious. I'll try to get that one on video for you.

Next we come down the stairs, making sure to make the "whooop" sound as we go under the ceiling part about 5 stairs from the bottom. Please don't ever forget the "whooop" sound, else all hell will break loose.

Then comes the perfectly placed pillows on couch, that must be angled just right before Princess Adalia will lay her sweet head upon them. Mickey Mouse must now be put on the tv.. don't offer up Tigger&Pooh, Handy Manny is not even an option, and no we will NOT be watching Tinkerbell this early in the morning. Only Mickey Mouse.

"Need somefing drink" Now comes the breakfast ritual. Milk and a fruit bar.. or when we want to really spice up the day, milk and a pop tart.

Ok we're set..everything's in place. The milk cup is perfectly perched on her lap, the pop tart is ready for the eating, the mouse is in the house.. "Good morning mommy."

Outdoors Time

2009-08-17T22:52:00.006-05:00

Today Erik and I spent a while working on our dreaded yard. It's really the first time we've gotten out there to do anything other than mow this year. (It's hard to care much about your yard when they have a 30 foot hole in part of it.) We've been edging the sidewalk and were able to really increase the width of the walking space on the section we got done. I can't wait to get some more cleared away tomorrow. Addie was quite the helper, or so she thought. Nothing like slowing down the whole process just to let her help "shubble and sweep". Listening to her try to talk with a banged up lip was also pretty interesting today.

Bethany is finally enjoying the grass and likes to crawl/walk/tarzan across the yard now. You can see in this video how well she's getting at standing up completely unassisted. She was having a bit of trouble in the grass though, I think it will take some time to get used to walking in it.

First Trip to the ER

2009-08-16T21:05:00.003-05:00

2 years, 5 months, 23 days, and about 20 hours... that's how long Little Miss Adalia Lea made it before making her first visit to the emergency room.

Today while heading up to take her afternoon nap, Addie tripped over the hallway rug and face-planted directly into the corner of the stairs. Erik says she cried for about 30 seconds and then handled it really well. He called me while at work to tell me what had happened and that he thought it looked pretty bad, but she seemed ok and had fallen asleep for her nap already. I assumed it wasn't that bad if that was the case and went on with my day.

After I got home Addie remained in bed napping for about another hour. When I went up to get her, she seemed a bit off and she wouldn't speak to me at all. I could see the scrape/bruise below her lip, but was afraid to open her mouth and take a look. I knew if it was busted up in there it might hurt her to open up. At this point I called my mom seeing what her opinion was. She wanted me to take her in, I didn't want to waste the money or time if it wasn't all that bad.. I mean kids get scraped up and I'm not one to run to the doctor for every little bruise. I should've known what she would say lol. Once I finally finagled my way into her mouth, I could see the gash was pretty bad. I decided it was time to take her in.

Addie and I headed off to the emergency room, Bethany in tow. It turns out it was a good decision. The doctor was a bit torn on if she should stitch it up or not as the inside of mouths tend to heal quickly on their own and stitches have a habit of falling out in there. She went back and forth for a minute, reluctant to stitch, but worried about how "flappy" it was. Finally she suggested we go ahead and stitch it and then start her on the meds. If the stitch falls out, it falls out, but it eased her mind. I loved how she kept looking at me waiting for me to make the decision. I know I'm the parent, but I was expecting her to tell me what she thought should be done for sure and then I'd say ok or not ok.

Adalia was an absolute champ in the exam room. She laid there peacefully on the bed while they felt around in her mouth and looked at the gash. I know she was in pain because she refused to talk and looked the part, but she was just such a trooper. The only time she cried at all was when one of the nurses held her head for the anesthsesia. The nurses were quite prepared for the worst as they had wrapped a sheet around her arms and held her head and shoulders. Addie got a bit scared when they grabbed her head, but other than that she was great. I reached up under the sheet to hold her hand and rubbed her leg with my other hand.

2 shots of anesthseia and 1 stitch later, she was good to go. The doctor and nurses were all amazed at how calm she was and how she handled the whole situation. They also said that she was so calm because I was so calm... (haha on the outside maybe, but my heart was breaking for her poor, big ol' sappy eyes) Actually I was pretty ok about the whole thing. It wasn't an emergency, and she was fine, just in pain and a cut mouth. (Bethy was more of a challenge to manage in there than Addie was!)

Addie was rewarded for her bravery with a trip to Wal-Mart and a new coloring book, some stickers, and some pudding. (Actually I bought up on pudding, jello, and ice-cream until I can figure out what other stuff she can tolerate in her mouth.. lucky her!! lol)

She finally spoke to me about 2 hours after we got home. But she's still mostly just nodding her head or using signs to communicate. (Haha! I knew they'd come in handy and weren't just for fun when she was younger lol!)

Clapping, Walking, and Necklaces

2009-08-15T20:16:00.002-05:00

So my little walker has finally learned to clap! She's been clapping along with Addie all week now and it's so cute. I can't wait til she starts dancing too, that's the best.
Here she is showing off her super clapping skills:

She also learned to put on necklaces this week. I'm not sure how she learned that one at all, but I found her with it on over in the toy corner and figured Addie had put it on her. However, Bethany decided to show me for herself exactly how it happened and took it off and then put it right back on for me. Now anytime she finds the beads or ribbons she'll put them on around her neck or over her shoulders. It's amazing what kids can learn on their own too!

Beth can now also stand up completely on her own from the floor and walk wherever she wants to go. She doesn't even need to pull up on anything. This is soooo much faster than Addie ever did any of this stuff, so I'm pretty amazed. I really do think having big sister to chase around is all the encouragement she needs. I've got to get a video of it later for you to see.

And here's a video of Addie in her pretty yellow dress. A neighbor had two of the same play dresses, so she sent one home with us. Addie's in love with it now and wears it daily.

Learning to Cut

2009-08-13T21:31:00.002-05:00

Addie has been having a blast this past week after I bought her her first pair of scissors. I can sit her in the chair and let her cut paper and then glue them on other pages with her very own glue stick and she'll be content forever!

Our camera is getting a bit whacked out, so the color is off a bit but here's pretty Addie making yet another one of her beautiful collages.

A Cold in August?

2009-08-08T20:03:00.000-05:00

Well this week started off with me coming down with some sort of a head cold that I've now given to both of the girls. Boooo.

Addie's not too bad when it comes to being sick. She can tell me what she needs and she usually just sort of zones out on couch. Bethany, on the other hand, is no fun at all while sick. First of all she can't breathe through her nose and this makes sucking a bottle or binky a challenge. Plus she gets sooo hot. I think she has a slightly above average body temp to begin with so when she gets even the smallest fever she just feels like she's boiling. It only got up to about 101.8 (only lol) but the poor thing was just suffering like crazy.

We've had a few very long nights this week and I'm really looking forward to her feeling better and me sleeping better.

Finally Out of Bed

2009-08-07T17:58:00.000-05:00

Adalia has finally learned to climb out of the bed on her own at the ripe old age of 2 years and 5 months old. For the longest time I have been trying to coax her out of her crib. At first I lowered her side bar completely, showed her how to climb out and use a little chair to get down. Then I removed the sidebar completely and replaced it with one of those mesh safety rails (she still flops a bit while sleeping). There is a space between her headboard and the railing that she uses to get in and out of bed when I'm there, but she refuses to use it any other time.

I tell her frequently that it's ok to get out of bed or to come into mommy's room to get me, but instead she'll simply stay in bed and call for me or just talk back and forth with Bethany, who's in her own crib.

Well today I came home from work to find Addie out of bed and playing with Beth. She was passing her toys through the railings and just playing away. Bethany was giggling at everything she did.

So we can finally say that Addie can get out of bed on her own, although I doubt she'll start doing it each time.

Houston, We Have Lift-off.

2009-07-31T22:10:00.002-05:00

It's official. Bethany is now part of the bipedal population. She took her first real steps last night. Well, they weren't really her first, but they were the first ones I've caught on film!!

I've uploaded 7 short videos of her walking onto photobucket, and I'd upload one onto blogger itself, but it takes forever. So I'll just plop one of the photobucket links up for now. You can see the other videos here.

More tumors on Addie

2009-07-29T21:37:00.001-05:00

Well this evening while holding Addie's hand I found another "knot" on her hand. It's on her right hand, at the outer base of her pinky finger. This brings her total, that I've found so far, to 3. I'm pretty upset about finding another one on her body, especially on her hand. I was really hoping they wouldn't grow on her hands, although I had no reason to believe they wouldn't if you take me for the example.

We have an appointment at Children's Mercy in KC in October to have them examined by the specialist. I don't know at this time if they will want to remove any of them or if they will just let them continue on as they are, but I'm worried and sad anywho. The thought of putting her in surgery or denying her the use of her hand, even if only for a small amount of time makes me very sad.

For those of you who don't know, Addie and I have a medical condition called Multiple Hereditary Osteochondromatosis (or MHE)

I'll keep you posted on any more that I find or what the doctor says once October rolls around.

Learning to Poop

2009-07-29T18:26:00.000-05:00

Who would've thunk that you actually have to teach some kids to get over the fear of pooping in the toilet? But apparently you do.

Addie has been potty training pretty successfully for the past 6-7 days now. She is not having too many accidents now and when she does it's almost always because I forget to remind her when she's watching a movie. The first few days went pretty well (from my view point at least, Erik may have a totally different perspective) and she is now actually telling me she needs to go sometimes, which is great. But for those first few days she didn't know how to poop on the toilet it seems. I almost thought we'd have to buy more diapers just to get her to go, but she finally did it and was awarded with some big high fives and lots of praise.

I know you guys are all very stoked to read about my kid's bowel movements, but hey this is big news in the ol' Merryman household. We're really happy that she's finally getting out of diapers.

Things Are Changing

2009-07-28T21:52:00.000-05:00

Erik got a new job working nights to help out with money until the railroad can hire him back full-time. We're both very happy about the extra income as it is getting pretty tight around here, but I'm so apprehensive about the changes. I'm worried how the girls will hold up to the changes in schedules and if daddy will be ok during the daytimes after having worked all night. But we've got to do what we've got to do.

Bethany is already feeling the changes around here. For the most part, Erik has been the head honcho when it comes to Bethy raising over the past few months because he just spends so much more time with her and knows her routines better. But now that I'll be dealing with her more in the evenings, her bedtime routine is getting revamped. No more of this rocking to sleep, and no more of this still being swaddled. I'm sure it will happen now and again, but tonight she was put to bed awake. I checked on her a few times, laid her back down when she was standing and she fussed herself to sleep. I hope we can do it that easily every night.

Learning to Walk - Addie Style

2009-07-23T20:59:00.005-05:00

So Bethany is learning to walk the best way possible.. by having her bestest, biggest sister help her along. This is how the two of them like to spend the time together. Talk about finding something fun for them both.

30 Foot Hole

2009-07-22T20:01:00.000-05:00

Well I now have a 30 foot hole in front of my house. Well I've had one for a while now, but I'm just now revealing my little secret to the rest of the world... or all five followers I have, whichever.

This is how it all started.. with the removal of that oh so hated/loved pine tree in front of our house. I loved the shade, hated the needles. Man did our front yard smell sooo nice that day.

And this is how it is today.. (by the way please note my awesome Captain Obvious moment in the video.. brilliant I am)

15 lbs

2009-07-21T21:25:00.002-05:00

I had both the girls checked out today and Bethany weighed in at a whopping 15lbs 01oz! Hurray finally some weight gain. That puts her at the 2.5 percentile.. much better than below the 0% mark that she was before. Measured at 26.5" tall still.

Addie on the other hand weighed in at 29 lbs.. which is 2 lbs more than usual and 38" tall. She's grown 2 inches and 2 lbs. She is 96th% for height and 64th% for weight.

It seems that Addie has so far taken all of the giant genes that get passed down from my side of the family. We'll see what happens in the future though.

Dancing with Addie

2009-07-13T21:02:00.004-05:00

Addie was really hamming it up dancing around the living room this morning. Unfortunately once we got the camera out she decided to tone it down... still fun to watch, but not nearly as crazy as the first go 'round!

Window Crayons

2009-07-12T21:38:00.005-05:00

Erik had the brilliant idea to buy some window crayons today while at the store. They are a huge hit in the Merryman household. Addie has been "painting" all day on our sliding glass doors and then cleaning them off. I'm not sure which part she likes the most.. the drawing or the cleaning (mommy's little helper she is).

Bathtime Bethy

2009-07-10T21:48:00.000-05:00

So this evening's bath was a bit funny. I put both of the girls in the tub like I usually do nowadays and right away Bethany starts going happy crazy. She really enjoys the bath a lot lately, but unfortunately for me that means a lot of trying to keep her from bashing her head on the tub. She wants to sit, now stand, now sit again, now crawl, now stand.. you get the picture.

Well tonight she was more energetic than normal. She pretty much refused to stay on her butt and only wanted to try to stand or be in the crawling position. This is the kicker though, while in the crawling position she kept crawling, and crawling, and crawling.. except she wasn't moving forward at all. It's like she figured out that her knees could slip and slide on the bottom of the tub and she could "run in place". It was hilarious. Every once in a while I'd pick her up and try to sit her on her butt again and when I did her heart was just racing. She was getting quite the workout it seems! Goofy little kid, lol.

After bathtime, Erik and I decided to go ahead and make the switch by putting Bethy's bed into Addie's room finally. Bethany has been sleeping in the guest bedroom for some time now, but with our a/c being on the fritz we decided to put them together so we could cool off just the two bedrooms with a window unit. Luckily we have some really great friends up here in Boone that were willing to loan us a window unit that they weren't using at the moment. Ahhh.. nothing like being poor.

Addie is very excited to have Beth in her room, although she doesn't quite understand that she has to be quiet when Beth's in there sleeping. She keeps telling me how much she's going to "talk nicely", but she's not very convincing when she's talking rather loudly while telling me.

So here's to hoping that tonight goes well for us all... i.e. Bethany doesn't wake up screaming 100 times keeping us all awake.

My God, it's Hot and Muggy

2009-07-09T20:48:00.001-05:00

So I just need to vent a minute about how crappy life can be sometimes.

Our A/C has completely kaputted and we have no money to even have someone come take a look at it. Never mind the fact that I'm scared to have them look at our whole HVAC system as I'm afraid the house would be condemned or something because it's so darned shoddy and about 200 years old.

I know, I know.. A/C is NOT something that we have to have to survive, but when you're used to it, it sucks to all of a sudden go without. Especially when we didn't aclimate to the heat this year at all due to Erik's terrible allergies. The A/C has been on since April because of himm so our bodies are just not adjusted correctly.

So let's just add yet another thing to our ever-expanding list of things that need to be fixed or replaced or added in our household:
A/C
Heater
Windows
Garage roof
Fence
Wiring
Leaking washer
Leaking bathtub
Insufficient insulation
Driveway
Weedpatch.. I mean lawn
Microwave
Dishwasher
Brakes for one car
and many, many other things that don't even "need" to be fixed anytime soon, but are definately on the list of wants and wishes.

Man.. talk about being a negative nelly.. I just dampened the mood a lot.

Back to the Grind

2009-07-07T21:57:00.000-05:00

Well I finally made it back to the gym today. It's pretty nice having a friend in town who is asking if I'll make it to the gym each day. I don't want to let her down, (not that she depends on my being there), and it's a great way to fool myself into going... you're going because she's there, right? I've been going, off and on, for the past 7 months. I know that if I put a little more effort into it and actually went more regularly I'd probably be seeing some really good results by now. But alas, I'm a lazy girl. It also doesn't help that I can't seem to change my eating habits whatsoever. But hey! I am starting to get quite a gun show going on in my biceps!! Woohoo!

Addie absolutely loves going to the Y nowadays.. or the toy room as she calls it. We'll go in and get her all situated with some markers and paper and then Erik and I will take off. She doesn't even bat an eye at us leaving. Bethany also seems to flourish while there. She gets to play with a lot of kids around and the women who watch them really adore Bethany.. her super cuteness probably helps! And of course she's always a dream child while there. But when we get home it's another story. She's usually tired, hungry, and needy by the time we make it home, which is always such a treat. I swear no one believes us when we tell them what a dragon she can be sometimes. She has the best way of only being the best little baby when others are around.

Outdoor pool

2009-07-06T20:51:00.002-05:00

Today I took the girls to the city pool. It's an outdoor pool with 3 separate sections, 2 of them being kiddie pools. It was pretty fun, but I forgot to put the sunscreen in the bag when we left so I was a little obsessed with keeping Bethy in my shadow the whole time we were there. It was late afternoon, early evening, but still. I'd be sooo upset if she had gotten even a small sunburn.

Addie really enjoyed herself and has been commenting on the "big pool" and the "little pool" since we left. She was able to stand in the "big pool" and the water would come up to her chin. Bethany was able to stand in the "little pool" and hold the side all by herself. Although Bethany had a fun time too, I think next time I will just take Adalia so she and I can enjoy our time a little more. That, or make Erik go with us!

Sorry no pictures of this adventure. I just had my hands full with two kiddos the whole time.

4th of July Extravaganza....

2009-07-04T23:07:00.001-05:00

So... in case you haven't noticed before, I'm not a big fan of the state of Iowa. There are many, many reasons why I have this negative attitude about this state, but I'll not bore you today with my rantings and ravings. I'll just tell you about the one that effects us most today.

Iowa is one of those states that has a ban on firework sales. You know what you can buy here to celebrate the 4th? Snap-pops, sparklers, and snakes. Let me repeat... snap-pops, sparklers, and snakes.

I'm not sure what kind of celebrations many of you have on the 4th, but where I'm from it includes lots of family, lots of food, and LOTS of booms and pretties. You really get a lot of booms and pretties from snap-pops, sparklers, and snakes.

Pair this lack of excitement with the fact that the only place that puts on a fireworks display near us is the Boone racetrack, which you have to pay $25 a person to get into, it's a pretty lame place to be for the 4th. The display at the track is also very lame in itself. They don't shoot them very high, probably so that people who aren't in the track (i.e. didn't pay money) can't get a *good* show, and also because the show itself is not very well choreographed.

So I thought I'd take the time to show you a bit of how we celebrated America's Independence here at our house, in the lame state of Iowa.

Last Day in KC

2009-07-02T20:34:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Dad!! Love you lots!!

This afternoon we finally headed out of town for the trip back home to Iowa. It was a really nice four days, and as much as I dread having to get back to work, I'm glad to be at home with both girls and Erik.

Prior to heading out of town, we stopped over at my grandma's house so she could spend a little time with Beth before we left. She doesn't get to see her nearly as much as she sees Adalia, and I'd like for her to get to know her too.

Some of my family showed up at grandma's to hang out with us and see the girls before we left. Addie got to play in the water, run in the yard, and take daddy up the hill to see the dear food. (Coming down the hill was quite the adventure for both Erik and Addie, as I hear they toppled over and rolled most of the way down. Too bad I missed it!) My cousin's little boy, Austin, had a bubble blower there at grandma's that Addie really loved.

Bethy also enjoyed the bubbles too:

Liberty Memorial

2009-07-01T20:53:00.000-05:00

Today Erik and I went over to his dad's house to meet them for lunch. We left the girls at home with my mom because lunch with Tom and Mary, his grandma, usually takes 3-4 hours at least and I was not going to have them breakdown while at Avenues, a swanky bistro in Brookside.

The restaraunt didn't open until noon, so they offered to take us to the Liberty Memorial to kill time. Nothing like visiting a World War I museum with the inlaws!! Erik and I have been there before, but not since the new renovations.

This is from the wiki page for Liberty Memorial.

The weather was perfect yet again today and walking up to the memorial we felt what it would be like for ancient romans or egyptians walking up to one of their giantic structures... but theirs were even bigger. We all spent a while inside the museum before going up into the memorial itself. Once at the top, it was a spectacular feeling. The wind was strong, the sun was hot, not a cloud in the sky. If I closed my eyes I could just imagine myself on in the mountains on a beautiful day again. I think I could've stayed up there all day long.

This is from the wiki page for Liberty Memorial.

Erik and I talked about how we'd like to go back to the museum one day, just the two of us. As museums go, it was probably one of the better ones I've ever been to, not counting the likes of the Vatican and such! We'd like to spend a few hours there reading everything, learning what we can, and just going at our own pace.

On our way to the restaraunt Erik and I witnessed a man fall into the street and start to have seizures. Erik pulled the car over while I was dialing 911 and hopped out of the car to see if he was ok. The woman he was walking with didn't even know he had fallen, and she had kept going!! He seized for a few minutes as a crowd gathered around. Two women, one in nurses attire, stopped to "help", although they did nothing except hold an umbrella over his head. Really? You're a freaking nurse for crap's sake, and I'm the one down here doing all the checking, talking to the dispatcher, and telling him it will be ok. Erik thinks they were afraid of liability.... What is this world coming to? You can't help out your fellow man for fear of liability? Emergency services arrived and we left once he was in their capable hands.

Lunch at Avenues was great, as always. The food there is imepecable and the wine is awesome. Tom knows the staff there very well and they take very good care of him when he's there. Erik had the Kobe Burger... one of his life long dreams is to eat some Kobe beef. It may not have been a steak, but it probably the closest he'll get to one for a while.

As I predicted, lunch took several hours and I was very glad I decided not to bring the girls with us. I had to scramble around that afternoon asking my boss for tomorrow off too so we didn't have to hit the road after such a long lunch. Luckily he was able to pull through for me and we got to rest and relax one more night in KC before heading out of town.

Zoo-tacular?

2009-06-30T21:20:00.000-05:00

Today Addie got to go on her first Zoo trip. Erik, Adalia, my brother Jacob, and I decided that it would be an awesome day to visit the Kansas City Zoo. The weather was perfect and we had no other plans. Thankfully my friend Jamie was kind enough to let us borrow her stroller for the day, especially since the KC Zoo is just so darned spread out.. Thanks so much again!

The day went well, although Erik and I were a bit surprised that Addie didn't get a little more excited over some of the animals. We thought she would've gone bonkers over the elephants and giraffes, but she seemed most excited to see the meerkats. I think she could've stayed with them all day, trying to put leaves in their habitat. (I guess she thought they would eat them? I'm not sure lol.)

Here are a few photos from the zoo. We didn't take many pictures that day but know that we all 4 of us had a good time.

And here's a few videos:

Mini-Vacation

2009-06-30T08:29:00.000-05:00

Well this seems to be the only vacation we'll be taking this year with the current state of the Merryman economy, i.e. our bank account.

Last week my mom came to our house and when she left she took Addie with her to Kansas City. She's been at her house for the past week and we're finally going to pick her up this week.

After a little bit of procrastination (see previous post) we finally got on the road. We wanted to make it into town by 4:00pm in order to rest up a bit before going to meet Erik's sister, Marissa, at his Aunt Debbie's house. The traveling down to KC went pretty well, probably because I spent most of it in the backseat with Bethy. I know she gets so bored back there without Addie in the car too. I'm not sure how I ever did this 4 hour drive with Addie alone before.. lots of creative singing and distracting with toys I suppose.

Dinner at Debbie's house was really good. She made the famous Walter family Lentil Soup, which I actually liked this time around! Go figure, I've actually developed mature taste buds after how many years? The girls were pretty well-behaved and it seemed to go smoothly. Meeting Marissa's (boy)friend, Ben, was nice too. (Thanks for letting us know he's your boyfriend, btw!! lol) I'm really happy that Marissa and Debbie finally were able to meet their nieces. And Marissa got schooled on lightning bug catching by Addie, which was a treat! I hope they enjoyed the evening as much as we did. Too bad bedtime comes early for little ones!

New Game

2009-06-29T20:21:00.000-05:00

Sunday marked the first of a few requested days off from work and Erik, Bethany, and I spent our last day without Addie not doing a whole lot. Erik and I recently got a new video game, (well new to us, but it's been out for about 8 months) Valkyria Chronicles, a turn based RPG. We really enjoy it and have been having some good times playing together. So we spent most of Sunday just lounging around figuring out the new game.

Monday came and we left the house early that morning... ok, ok. It wasn't early morning. More like 11am or so, but we just had to finish up the chapter we were on in the game!!

Fishy Baby

2009-06-26T20:42:00.004-05:00

We took Bethany to the Y to day to go swimming for her first time. Although she didn't really do much swimming per se, she definately took to the water like a little fishy. She only had slight hesitations at first, and by hestiations I really mean death grip on my arm. However, I don't blame her. The water was a bit cool at first and she was probably wondering what the crap was going on.

I'd have to say her favorite part was probably the side of the pool (she gets that from her big sister obviously). But she was able to sit and crawl around on the lip of the pool and still splash and be wet. We tried going under water once, but she wasn't really into that. Oh well, there's always next time! I was pretty excited for her today but am wondering how I'll do it alone with two girls when Addie's back in town. I think I'll have to get a floatie thing for one of them while I hold the other.

Of course I spent yesterday afternoon sweating my ass off mowing the grass only to have today be overcast and cooler. Of course.. I'm really hoping it will cool down a bit again so I can open the windows. Yep, I'm one of *those* people.. the ones who like to open the house up for fresh air any chance I get. Who doesn't like fresh air?

I love summer..

2009-06-25T20:13:00.002-05:00

I love summer, I love summer, I love summer.. This is my new mantra. I want to keep reminding myself that I would much rather it be hot and miserable than cold and miserable. I mean really.. I remember just 5 short months ago it was about -20 degrees with a windchill hovering around -37 or something. And in only 5 more short months it will probably be -20 degrees again. (Man I dislike Iowa. See how nicely I said that?)

It's been really quiet here in the house without Addie's constant chatter. I know Bethany is living it up being the sole center of attention. I think it's good for her to get some alone time with mom and dad. She's really starting to babble more and more each day and we've been focusing on repeating the basics to her. It's so cute because everytime she sees the cat she starts going "ssssssss". So I should count that as her first word... or at least a valiant attempt at a word.

Watching Bethy today I couldn't help but think of how darn cute she is. I know I'm so biased, but dang watching this itty-bitty little girl stand up and cruise around the living room, only stopping to smile up at you when you catch her eye... It's sooo freaking adorable. (The empty mouth except those two viscious fangs on her bottom row is pretty cute too.)

I think I'm going to take Beth swimming for the first time tomorrow at the Y. I've taken Addie a few times, but now that I don't have to hold two of them, (more like drown two of them), I'm hoping Beth will enjoy the experience. I'm a bit concerned with the amount of chlorine in the indoor pool, but it seemed to be ok the other times I've gone. If she really likes the water, we'll definately be making a trip to the outdoor pool in the next week or two when Addie is home.

Let me backpedal a bit here.. I know I said it's nice and quiet without Adalia around, but man I miss her. Sometimes I think it's actually getting harder to leave her the older she gets. Shouldn't it be the other way around? She's just so special to me and I miss having her around. Her personality is really shining lately and she can actually hold conversations with you. How fun! I'm sure the time will pass by fast enough and she'll be mad at me for making her come home.

Catching Up

2009-06-24T15:43:00.002-05:00

Boy I've missed a few days already!! What a bad, bad blogger lol.

The past few days have been somewhat eventful. My mom and aunt came to visit us on Monday night as planned. It was nice to finally have some people come to our house again. Too bad Erik and I weren't able to spend much time with them.

Instead, Erik and I went out to eat some wings and drink some beer with some friends of ours. The wings and beer were great!! After eating, we headed over to Perfect Games, a new bowling alley/arcade/laser tag place in Ames. Bowled a game, drank some more, played laser tag, drank some more, cut my foot, drank some more... wait. huh? Ya I cut my foot on some glass while there. How did that glass get there? Oh.. that would probably be from the glass that I knocked out of Erik's hand while I was a bit inebriated. Ok, I'll admit it, I was a LOT inebriated. That's what happens when you've not had much to drink in the past, oh 3 years or so, and then go on a drinking rampage!

Anywho, it was a blast. And it was soooo nice to be able to let loose and know that my girls were being taken care of, that I didn't have to rush my fun, and that I could act like an adult, albeit an immature adult!

Addie, Grandma, and Aunt Christine got to finally try out Addie's new sandbox. She really seemed to enjoy it. It took a bit of coaxing to get her to really dig in and get dirty. She kept holding up her hands to have them wiped off when they'd get all sandy. (Such a girly-girl!) Later while inside, she showed off her awesome architectual skills by build numerous block towers.. only to have Godzilla, I mean Bethany, come over and knock them down uncerimoniously.

They left last night, with Addie in tow. I wish our guests could've stayed a bit longer, but it's ok as I'll be going to visit them next week when I go to pick up Addie in KC. The awesome thing about next week is not only will I be getting Adalia back (already miss her!), but Erik's sister is going to be in town and will finally get to meet her nieces. I know Erik is excited to see her and I am too. I'm hoping they both have dirty diapers while we're with her.. just so she can be even more grossed out!! HAHA

Bethany is in a great mood these past few days.. well actually her mood is just constantly improving over the past few weeks. I think that being so mobile and a lot more independent is really starting to help her out. She is just being a show off lately when it comes to standing without holding on to things, and last night she even attempted to take a step to Erik. It was completely out of no where; I'm not even sure if she knew she was going to do it. So she almost toppled over, but Super-Dad was there to catch her. Oh.. and let's not forget the great reminder she gave mommy about keeping the gate up on the stairs. Yep.. she was up about 11/15 stairs before I even realized. (Bad, bad mommy!) Luckily I caught her while she was giggling and trying to race up the stairs faster. Crazy girl!

It's Friday.. for me at least

2009-06-21T22:28:00.003-05:00

Finally, another week of work is done. Thank goodness. I hate to admit it but I think the powerball gods have forsaken me. I've yet to win any money,(actually I've not won even a free ticket in forever), and I see no end in sight to me working. Gah!

Tomorrow should be a big day. Addie will finally get to play in her sand, and hopefully I'll have some visitors! We'll see though. It's only supposed to be about 94 degrees here tomorrow, let's just hope the A/C doesn't konk out on us again like it did a few days ago..... yes I'll admit, I am addicted to the A/C this year. Normally I wouldn't even have turned it on by now, but somebody had to go and have really bad allergies this year. That somebody won't go to a doctor and get any meds, so instead we all clustered into our house and shut out the world, and the allergies.

Adalia spent the evening trying to figure out how to put hair ties into her own hair. When asked several times if she'd like some assistance she answered with the now all-to-familiar "no, my do it, my help you" (Addie translation: "No, mother. I believe I can do this on my own. I will not need your assistance at this moment as I believe I am all the help I will need in all of my endeavours.)

Bethy and Addie also played on Beth's new cardboard box... yes, a cardboard box. What can I say, my kids are easily amused and a copy paper box can last them for weeks of fun. Addie would stand on one side with some toys and then yell or scream something at Beth, who would then scream back at her and laugh like no other. She also took this opportunity to show us all again that she can now stand on her own, holding onto nothing. Man what am I going to do with two of them running around here? Nevermind, who am I kidding? I can't wait for her to walk, just as I couldn't wait for her to crawl. I love it!

Erik's Father's Day was pretty bleh. I had to work yesterday and today so I never got out to get anything and didn't want to bake anything last night. But little does he know that he'll be getting a gift from the girls later this week! muahahaha (I'm so sneaky.. just hope he doesn't read the blog for a while lol.)

Grease Lightning!

2009-06-19T20:45:00.000-05:00

Oh man.. Bethany has figured out how to race around the house in her walker now. She's like grease lightning she's so fast!! I'm really excited that she finally figured out that she could be mobile in that thing instead of just getting mad and wanting out. I had to take the seat out and wash it though as it was covered in biter biscuit gooo!!! Yum yum.

Addie has yet to play in her new sandbox I just had to get her. I've been hesitant to open the sand bags until I'm sure that I've put it in the place I want it.. once they're opened, no more moving of that heavy thing!!

She's anxiously awaiting Grandma coming to our house this coming week. I'll admit it.. I am too! It will be so nice to have my mom here (not that I'll probably see her much as Erik's made plans for every waking minute of having a family babysitter in town lol.) It just sucks not having family nearby to come and visit, or to give us a break when we really need one. And though I have some great friends up here, I'd hate to stick them with the girls for more time than is necessary.

As for the rest of us(Erik and the cats I guess), we're all doing fine for now. It's getting hot finally in Iowa, but really it's Iowa.. how hot can it really be?

She's Tackled the Stairs

2009-06-18T21:38:00.007-05:00

Tonight Bethany completely conquered the stairs. I can't believe how quickly she is growing up. It is amazing sometimes to watch her figure things out for the first time.. like how she learned to stand without holding on yesterday. It's even more amazing to watch such a little thing do all of these cool things. It looks like she's much younger than she is and totally advanced, but she's right on par for her age... I won't tell the onlookers that though! LOL let them be amazed at my daughter!!

As for Addie and her broken binky. Last night turned out to be pretty good after the initial hour or so. She slept through the night and Erik said nap time today went pretty well also. She asked for it again but was content to have her broken binky sit on the end of her bed while she slept.. after she inspected it yet again to be sure it was broken! Tonight also went over pretty well. She again asked for it and wanted to hold it, but then was ok with having it put on the end of her bed while she slept. She is now asking for her easter bunny to sleep with (a blue stuffed bunny.. but every rabbit is now called the easter bunny by her). I'm completely ok with trading out one lovey for another, especially as this one won't damage her teeth!

Here's one of Addie talking on the phone to grandma too.

Breaking the Binky

2009-06-17T22:26:00.004-05:00

I finally decided tonight would be the first night Addie would go to bed without the binky in nearly 28 months of life. She's almost 2 and half years old and I know that she shouldn't even have had it this long to begin with, but she has always been such a little champ when it came to bedtime, I just didn't want to ruin what we had going.

I kept waiting and waiting for Erik's job to come back so I wouldn't have to work anymore and then I could dedicate more time to things like breaking her from the pacifier and potty training. Unfortunately, there's still no end in sight with the job situation. So I knew I needed to get it done.

This evening about 30 mintues before her normal bedtime I cut a slit in her pacifier and took her upstairs. We sat down on my bed and I showed her the binky and pointed out that it was broken. She fumbled with it and examined the broken binky thoroughly. She kept talking about"binky broken, Bethany choke binky." Then she'd show me exactly how Bethany could choke on the broken binky and she'd cough over and over. (At least we know the conversations about making sure pennies, raisins, and other crap on the floor needs to be picked up, else Bethany might choke on it.)

We went into her bedroom, she climbed into bed and we chatted for a few minutes like we always do. She kept talking about the purple binky being broken and Bethy choking. I told her it was time to get to sleep and started to cover her up and she was like "how 'bout yellow binky?" Damn her and her memory!! Unfortunately for her, I don't even know where the yellow one is.. she's probably got it stuffed away somewhere lol. I explained to her again that it was gone and that the purple one was now broken, told her she was a big girl and didn't need it to fall asleep. She started telling me to take it to daddy and he could be nice to it. I think she wanted him to fix it!

I called Erik up and we both explained to her again what had happened. It slowly started dawning on her near the end I think because she kept touching her mouth and she was at a loss for words. It was all I could do to keep from crying. I can't believe how heart-wrenching it was to watch her realize what was happening.

We finally turned off the lights and said goodnight. I had to walk back into her room 3 times within the first few minutes because she kept talking and talking and talking to me... no wonder they call it a pacifier!! Without it, she won't be quiet! I think she was trying to stall and still trying to figure out the whole situation.

In the end, I cried a lot and she cried a lot. I had to sit with her for a while to get her to sleep and as of now she is sleeping soundly. I just hope we can make it through the next few days ok. I know it has to be done, but man it breaks me heart.

Tiny Baby Bethany

2009-06-17T16:29:00.000-05:00

Bethany had her 8 month check-up today. She weighed in at only 13lbs 12oz and 26.5 inches long. She is well below the 5th % for her weight and around the 45th % for her height.

I just can't fathom how I can have such a small baby. I am a giant. I come from a family of giants. And then I have this little petite cutie.

Other than being small she is right on track. She is crawling, standing, cruising, and can now even stand unassisted for a few seconds. Socially she's normal and she is a pretty happy little thing most of the time nowadays. I think she'll be right on par with Addie for walking.. probably somewhere around 10.5 months too.

Lunch and the Sandbox

2009-06-16T21:18:00.000-05:00

Today we had a really great family outing. I've been wanting to buy Addie a sandbox for some time now as there really isn't any dirt in our yard to play in, and we allllll know how much she loves to dig in the dirt. After talking to Erik about it, we decided to pack up the ol' family and head down to Des Moines to check out some sandboxes.
I wasn't looking for anything spectacular, just a regular old sandbox. We stopped in at Menard's and found something that fit the bill perfectly, in fact, it was bigger than was I was originally thinking. Addie also got to spend some time "testing" the playsets they had set up for examples. Too bad I couldn't get her to go down the big slide, but she just isn't as brave as she used to be... that or she's finally figured out that she just can't run headlong into everything with no consequences.

After the sandbox shopping we decided to grab something to eat. Well, who am I kidding? Everytime we go to Des Moines it's a given fact that we'll be eating something there.. even if it's Burger King or Taco Bell.. at least it's more than what they have in Boone. Erik forced me to pick the place, yet again (sometimes it sucks having two indecisive people in the relationship.) I chose Olive Garden because at least Addie would eat something from there. That kid can put down some italian food, let me tell you!

Let me just preface this part with a momentary reminder of why we don't like to go out to eat as a family that often. When Bethy was only a few weeks old we had to run to Des Moines to buy me some pants. With the kids both in pretty good moods, and falling back on the "must eat out while in DSM" rule, we decided to head over to Red Lobster. About 2 minutes after having our food brought to the table Adalia, then about 21 months old, decides she wants a piece of ice from dad's cup. She takes it upon herself to grab some ice out and plop it right into her mouth, all the while Erik was saying "hey, hey.. that's too big of a piece." And guess what? Dad was right.. it was too big of a piece! Addie started choking on the ice, and not just a little choke; more the waving her hands in the air while trying to scream and cough it out kind of choke. The look upon her face was absolute fear. Even thinking of that look now makes me cringe. I thrust the then screaming Bethany into Erik's arms, swooped Addie up out of her high chair, flipped her upside down on my leg, and started pounding her back. Nothing was happening. Another woman who was seated next to us claims: "You're not doing it right!" At which point she takes her from me and start to do the same thing I was doing??? No matter, as it freed me up to grab her face and do a fingersweep of her throat.
By the way, it's amazing how far down a throat your finger will go while probing for something that is lodged in there.
I plopped it out and pulled her into my arms trying to settle us both down. Guess what the rest of the dining room was doing during all of this? Watching, open-mouthed, eyes wide, not a sound to be heard. Poor Erik was the one who was facing the rest of the dining room too.. all eyes were on us. Let me tell you, I'm not sure that Erik and I have ever eaten any faster in our lives, and we got out of there asap!

Anywho, back to today. We decided to take a chance and went to eat. The meal was wonderful! Both girls were absolutely perfect, the food was great, Addie ate like a champ and we didn't even have to hurry! It's so nice to be able to sit thru a meal in a restaraunt and not have to eat like a ravenous scoundrel who hasn't eaten in weeks.

Bethany Anne

2008-10-17T21:14:00.000-05:00

Bethany Anne was born on Oct 17th, 2008 at 7:05pm.

Adalia Lea

2007-02-23T22:14:00.000-06:00

Adalia Lea was born on Feb 23rd, 2007 at 9:32pm

The Makings of a Family

2006-12-31T14:44:00.000-06:00

Our story begins on April 1st, 2005 in a small historical church....

WAIT! Scratch that! It started much earlier than that.

Ok, ok maybe not that early.. keep moving forward.

Cute pics, but still too early.

Ok there we go.. Let us begin again.

Our story begins in January of 1996, at a mutual friend's house. Both Erik and I were in high school at the time, he at Bishop Miege and I at Turner High. We met one evening at our friend Pete's house. Erik played the role of the stoic, attractive loner, and I played the part of the tall, outgoing goofball. Somehow we hit it off. I'm sure it had something to to do with him never talking and me never being able to stop talking.. we fit together perfectly.

As the months went on, Erik and I quickly became best friends as well as a couple. We spent our time together exploring the outdoors, playing video games, playing sports and learning more and more about each other. He took me to the mountains of Colorado where I instantly fell in love with them, peaked my interest in anthropology even more, and introduced me to a whole variety of things I'd never experienced.

Erik graduated high school in 1997, a full year earlier than I did. Having been a bit lackadaisical with his college admissions, he decided to join the United States Marine Corps, where he served 4 years, most of them at Camp Lejeune, NC. I graduated in 1998 and went on to college at Colorado State University, in Ft. Collins, CO.

Although Erik and I were separated by nearly 2,000 miles, we still managed to keep in touch throughout the years. While in the Marines, Erik traveled through South America, fought forest fires in Idaho, and too many other interesting things to talk about now.

I spent a few semesters at CSU before moving on to work at Disney World, backpack through Europe, and finally settle back down in Kansas City.

When Erik's term of service was up he decided not to resign and instead decided to come back to Kansas City to live. At this point Erik and I were only good friends, but I needed a roommate and he needed a place to live.... so we began living together in a small duplex I had been renting for a few months.

Erik and I continued to live together as friends only for about 2 years, until I finally realized that everyone I ever dated was being compared to Erik.. and no one measured up. I mean really.. he was my best friend, he knew me better than anyone, and we just meshed so well together. So one day I popped the question to him... NO, no, no! Not that question! I just asked why we weren't dating. In typical Erik form he answered "I dunno". LOL! Thus we began dating, once again.

About a year later that other question was brought up for real this time. I wanted to know why we weren't engaged and if we were even headed that way. We lived together, we loved each other, we already lived as if we were married.. why not truly be married? So we decided to go ahead and get married. Not the most romantic proposal, but hey we got the job done, right?

In August of 2004 we closed on our first house together. It was a 3 year old, 3 bed, 1 bath house in a suburb south of Kansas City.

Now we're back to the good stuff.. the makings of a family. With an upcoming wedding in April of 2005, Erik and I decided not do anything to put a stop having a baby. We weren't really trying to conceive, but we weren't trying not to conceive either.

Our wedding went off without any big hitches.. although I would like to state for the record that it truly sucks when no on at your wedding will drink or dance... it's supposed to be a celebration people! We honeymooned in Mexico and came home to find out I was pregnant on April 13th!

Unfortunately our first pregnancy didn't last much longer than about 3 days after finding out. I miscarried at 4w and 3d. We waited the suggested amount of time and then started trying again. I happily tested positive on Nov 25th of 2005. However, I yet again miscarried at only 5w5d. By this point I was pretty devastated because I knew that miscarriages were common for a lot of women at least once in their lives, but to have 2 back to back was a bit worrisome. I was so upset thinking that I may never have children of my own.

Erik and I continued to live and continued to try for a baby for the next 5 months. Erik and I traveled up to Iowa for a job interview with the railroad on June 12th of 2006. We stayed one evening in a hotel and the next night at our friend Jeff's house while he was out of town. Erik was offered the job on June 13th. That evening after I had some crazy cramps and feelings I went to the store and bought a pregnancy test. I tested that night, at Jeff's house, and it came up positive! Go figure, I would be pregnant the same day our whole lives are about to change with a new job in another state!

Erik took the job and started working in Iowa on June 19th, 2006. I stayed at home in Kansas City and put our house up on the market, packed all non-essential things away, and cooked my new little baby in my belly. It took us about 5 months to sell our house and find a new one in Iowa, and I "supervised" the whole moving process while I was 7 months pregnant.

On December 18th, 2006 we closed on our new home, a 126 year old, 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath house.