Update!

So I took these super cute pictures of Nikolai in his outfit the other day that I thought were just WAY to cute not to share. My Aunt Samantha sent this extremely cute baby outfit to us for Nikolai’s birthday and I thought they were perfect. At first I thought that he was going to SWIM in it… but as you can see it fits him perfect so it all works out!!

So I have to say the Maternity Leave Timer is almost over. I only have a week left! Can you believe it? It has been a VERY fast two months but I’m ready to go. My boss called me the other day and left a message on my work phone, and since being on maternity leave I don’t carry that phone with me all the time and was VERY surprised to see that he had called AND that I missed the phone call. So I called him back (the next day) and he just was checking on me to see how things were going and to make sure he knew my return to date and we talked a bit and you know it was a good conversation. Our office right now is kicking Butt and taking names we are getting big clients and sending proposals to all different types of companies so it’s GREAT it sucks that I have missed the excitement but I’m so glad that Terry wants to do outside sales that makes my stress level lower already, just thinking about that.

So to get me ready to go back to work. Tait bought me a massage that he wants me to get before I go back to work to relax me for the week ahead. I scheduled myself a hair appointment to get retrimed and rehighlighted. We have a family reunion coming up at the end of April so I figured it would be good to get that done anyway. Also this week we all went to the eye doctor and I found out that I need ALL THE TIME glasses, well at least when I want to see 20/20 then I can wear them so working, reading, you know… most of the time so I am posting a picture of me with them. <

Both girls do NOT need glasses yet and Tait well he needs new glasses the doctor said his eyes were pretty bad with his current glasses so he has those ordered. So it was an exciting week to say the least. So here are some more pictures of Niki so enjoy!

Weekend Update

Well another weekend has come and gone. I have to say as the count down slowly comes down I am having mixed feelings about having to return to work. On one hand I'm excited I like my position and enjoy the work that I do. We have had changes while I was out and I now have a FULL TIME OUTSIDE SALES PERSON that means I don't have to do that any more thank goooooooodness but that was seriously the worst part about my position. I know I'm going to be going back to being Branch Manager but with me not having to go out and do outsides sales that means that I can be the Staffing Coordinator on the inside and do my inside sales which is WAY easier. I just don't want to get bored with it. On the second hand I do enjoy being home, I'm definitely not 'made' to be a stay at home mom and kudos to all of those that go out and do that. I just enjoy being around adults and not having to watch day time tv b/c if I had to do it the rest of my life we would have serious issues. I think people turn to Dr. Phil and Opera b/c seriously they have to break up the boredom during the day. I realize that if I WAS a stay at home mom I would have to join a mommy's group or something b/c I would gain 500 lbs. Also I really don't enjoy the normal household chores, I know what person in their right mind would, but I am so bored during the day that I look forward to having to switch and fold the laundry, and that my friend is NOT normal. But I do enjoy rocking Nikolai to sleep and me knowing this is my LAST baby it makes me a little sad knowing that I won't be the person he shares his firsts' with. The only thing that makes it a little better is knowing that Helen will be the person he does all of those things with. I also enjoy having the finances as well. I know you aren't supposed to feel that way but I do I like being able to take my family on "mini" vacations and be able to go shopping when I want... I like those things, so that means sacrifice and that means working. I also have set myself up for a goals to reach and one of those things in my professional realm is I want to be an owner of my own Express office. So in the next 5 years that's what I want to have accomplished, even if I have to start off as a partner office I'm okay with that. Tait told me that once I get my own office he'll come work for me. So I already have my staff :) Of course that means I'll have to go back to outside sales for some time, but maybe it will be easier when you know that whatever you sell the profits go DIRECTLY to you... the motivation I would imagine would be different. I just would like to go to Aruba for a week when you make circle. Now mind you our office did get a trip, to Vegas, of course I was on maternity leave when it happened but still. Having my own office would allow different opportunities for myself and for my family and I just want a shot at those opportunities. Today is kind of an off day today I'm feeling kind of sad for some reason. I was searching on face book for friends and found a couple and sent requests but just feeling "off" today. Maybe it's b/c my time home is almost over who knows it's hard to explain. Life does have it's ups and downs and today I wouldn't describe as a total "down" it's just not an up. Who knows it's probably just baby blues. I'll get over it, I always do. I'm also on a kind of random rambling spree today. So just two weeks left. April is going to be a busy month for us. But it should be a good month. I know once I return to work I'll get back in the swing of things fast I just don't want to lose my workout schedule or time spending with the kids and I know that by going back to work some things will be more difficult to do... But that's life as I know it for now...

March in Review

Can you believe it; we have a 4 & 6 year old already?

Lehna Marie Lehna Marie was 6 years old this week. She is in kindergarten and is loving school; she makes friends very easily and enjoys spending time with her sister and helping me out with Nikolai.

For her birthday this year we took her to Applebee’s for dinner and they sang to her and brought her a HUGE ice cream sundae which she happily shared it with her sister. After her birthday dinner we came back home and we all enjoyed her birthday cake and she opened her birthday gifts. She has wanted this Barbie Movie called Secret Barbie Fairy or something like that and so she got that along with 2 Barbie dolls.

Now Lehna BEGGED us for a birthday party but at this point we told her no. I thought that with her as young as she is it would make more sense to do a birthday party a little older when she can invite her special friends over. I just didn’t want us to set up a party and only 3 kids show up I think that would be a disappointment to her. So I told her that we would go to Key Lime Cove in a couple of weeks and she was okay with that. (Key Lime cove is a hotel/water park that is in Gurnee)

Maya Elizabeth Maya Elizabeth was 4 this week. She is not currently in school or day care right now. She is quite a funny little girl she loves to dress up in princess clothes and wearing “dresses” which can be anything from her night gowns to her church clothes, which in turn drives me crazy b/c once when puts them on she takes them off and leaves them all over her floor and I spend a lot of time telling her to pick them up. She loves playing with her little dolls (like strawberry short cake and mini princesses) Maya could spend all day in a room by herself and she would play perfectly fine.

For Maya’s Birthday she wanted to go to Red Robin and they sang to her and brought her the perfect size ice cream sundae which she sheared with her sister. Maya opened her presents in the morning so she could spend all day enjoying them. Maya go the movie “Tangled” and Mini Strawberry Shortcake dolls. She didn’t want a party she talked about having one or at least Uninviting me to it when she got mad at me for not giving her something she wanted, but for the record she didn’t really want one. It’s going to be really hard in the years to come not to gain 50 lbs this week. With two birthdays’ we had two birthday cakes which in turn meant A LOT OF CAKE. I love cake so it was VERY hard staying out of it. And I gave in a number of times which sucks against my will power! So along with Birthdays to update me also wanted to update what we have been up to recently. At the beginning of the month we went up to visit Mom and Terry. Jackie and Marcus and their kiddos were coming for a visit and we wanted to spend some time with all of them so we all went at the same time. It was great. We hung out and just spent some quality time hanging out. We played Scrabble and also Totally Insane Card game. Man I truly miss having Game nights. We didn’t go anywhere this time we just had some good R & R time which was really. Also this month Lehna had her spring break so at the beginning of the week I asked Lehna what things she wanted to do while she was on spring break and we tried to do all of them. She had simple things like make an art project, go to the art store, and go to the park, things of that nature. So we were able to get all of the things she wanted accomplished except on thing, which was go ice skating but instead of doing that Tait took the day off and we headed down to Chicago for the day. We rode the train. The girls LOVED it at least for the first 30 minutes than they were over it. Lehna got a free family pass to go to the Shed Aquarium this year so we took that pass. Once we got to the train station we went via taxi to Shed now Lehna was VERY disappointed that we weren’t on Cash Cab but there were excited they got to ride in a taxi. We spent the entire day in the Aquarium we talked about going to the Children’s Museum but we didn’t b/c the train schedule really only allowed one activity. And I think by the time we left the aquarium the girls were ready to go. We did get to the train station way to early and we spend time going through the little stores there and buying books and things for the girls to keep occupied. We also bought a ton of snacks for the train ride home, which Tait kept saying that he bought way too much but we ended needing all that he bought. On the train ride home there was an accident and it delayed the train almost 2 hours. And during that time the girls were STARVING so it was nice that they had something to snack on, it at least kept them entertained. On the home front, aka normal life. Things are going well. I still have two weeks left of my maternity leave so I’m enjoying my last couple of days with the baby and also with Maya. I am still working on getting in shape so I have been really working hard at my diet and also trying to get in running shape for the Rudd Walk/Run that’s coming up in May. Last year I walked it and this year I want to be able to run it. I downloaded a program called Couch to 5K for my IPhone and I have to say I LOVE it! It tells me how to get in that correct distance shape. After I complete this program I am going to go straight to the Bridge program from 5k to 10K I don’t have a goal time set for the 10K yet but I’ll figure something out. I guess I just want to prove to myself that I can do it! I have about 60 lbs to lose as well so I figure this will help me get rid of that as well! It’s all for the greater good and since my baby making days are now coming to a close I don’t have a reason NOT to get my body into some good shape… at least I can’t us “well you are going to have another baby” as an excuse NOT to get into shape b/c I want to get there dang it. So that’s my goal for the next couple of weeks. I’m half way though my running program only 4 more weeks and it will be complete it comes right before the Rudd Walk actually so timing is everything right!

Nikolai Anthony 1 month

He's here

Okay so I KNOW that Nikolai has been here for almost two months now and I haven't put his information up yet but what can I say... I'm very busy.

So here's the Reader's Digest version of his birth, you know with out all the gory gross parts.

So on Feb 18 at 6 in the morning Tait and I headed into the hospital for an "elective" induction it's call that because I wanted to have it and since there was no "medical" reason for it that's basically what it's called... and I was pretty miserable and whiny that the doctor decided to do the induction YEAH! So we went in and they asked all the standard questions like am I having any contractions or has my water broken anything like htat and of course the answer was no because I was electing to go into labor so they had to start it for me. So I was started on Potocin and the contractions started. Nothing too serious and everything was going pretty smoothly. They checked me off and on for the next 4 hours and I was updating my face book as the day went on, why not right? I really wasn't making much progress I really wasn't dilating very fast and so I figured it would just take me awhile since it was me wanting the baby to come out not the other way around then at around 10 my water broke so I was super excited about that b/c I knew that once that happened within 24 hours this baby was coming OUT! So after that happened the nurse said 'well you are definitely in for the long haul now' so the contractions started getting harder and by noon I wanted something for the pain b/c it was starting to hurt a bit. So they gave me this medication that made me feel super strange. It was like I was moving in slow motion. Tait said I was hilarious when I was on the medication but I just remember feeling really strange. So Dr. Park had come in and out and was waiting for me to get father along finally I was dilated 4 cm which is the turning point for getting the epidural so I was able to get it! Hooray! So they made Tait leave the room, which was new b/c in Indiana Tait was always the person that I could "lean on" when I was hanging forward, but not in Wisconsin. But anyway. Tait was out of the room for a good 45 minutes while they did the epidural and I finally got to 5 cms but it took until 3 pm ot get that far. The nurse came in and kept readjusting my monitors because the baby's heart rate kept going off the chart and they wanted to make sure that things were progressing. I was worried because at that point I couldn't feel the contractions and my fear was that they were stopping and so they were going to have to do a c section. So I kept asking Tait to read the monitor to see if they were going... he kept saying "it looks like it" Then the nurse came back in again and said that baby's heart rate keeps dipping really low when ever I had a contraction so it answered my question about whether I was still having contractions but she showed me on the paper when I had 'large' contractions how his heart rate would go super low. She said she was going to report this to Dr. Park and since I hadn't dilated more then 5 cm she was concerned. Then not 20 minutes later she came back in and said that i needed to be on oxygen to help the baby's heart rate. So she put me on that, then had me do all these different positions on my different sides then she said "well that's not really doing what i need it to do" so she said that she wanted to put an internal monitor onto the babies head to make sure that she was getting an accurate reading, that took forever. but she got the task accomplished and said she would report back to Dr. Park then around 4:00 ish she came back and said that she was very concerned about his heart rate and then checked me again and said that i hadn't made much more progress as far as dilating not 15 minutes later Dr. Park came in, she must have called him. And at this point I was laying flat on my back, oxygen filling my lungs and just waiting. Dr. Park said came in and goes "well you are about 8 1/2 - 9 cm so is she prepped?" and the nurse goes "prepped for what c section, yeah" and he goes "no for delivery he goes she has just a little bit more to go but this is her third baby she should be ready to push and be able to get him out" So he told me I'll be back in 15 minutes so he left the room and she goes "well I thought for certain you were going to need a c section but looks like you are ready to go" so they got me "ready" in whatever fashion that means and then all of these people came into the room, it was like they were bugs or something and all just waiting... then Dr. Park came back into the room nd goes "okay we are going to have a baby in 15-20 minutes at the most" and sure enough 15 minutes later baby Nikolai was born. Now he had some trouble getting out b/c he said his head was in a strange position but once he moved his head he came out really easy. Once he was out I said out loud "well I"m definitely done with this" and Dr. Park laughed and it was all fine. Then they cleaned up me and the baby and I was able to hold the little boy. He was beautiful he was very bruised on his head from where he was slamming against my pelvis but for the most part he was just perfect.

Now they got me all cleaned up and everything then 30 minutes later the girls all walked in Lehna, Maya, and Helen. Tim followed in later but they three came in all smiling. Maya wanted to hold the baby and so did Lehna so I have those pictures. It was very fun to have the girls so excited about their new baby brother.

Nikolai Anthony was 20 1/2 inches and 8 lbs even and he was born at 4:44 pm so he is EVEN all the way around.

I have to say that having a little boy is definitely different than the girls I never got peed on by the girls and I have gotten peed on by this little rascal a couple of times, I'm sure more will happen. He seems pretty mellow as far as personality. He cries to eat and wants a clean diaper to poop in. He definitely fits into this family well. Tait is over the moon about having his little boy and I have to say that I'm pretty happy about him too.

Update since having him he is 5 weeks old so he can smile on his own but we haven't seen him smile at us yet when he's awake. Now when he's asleep he gives the BIGGEST smiles, of course we haven't caught them on film yet! He is trying to hold his head up but he really just likes to cuddle and snuggle, which I love. When he's awake he demands to be held and we have been able to 'trick' him by putting in the swing during the day so you can still get something things accomplished. But he is just perfect. He looks just like his daddy and has my blue eyes. I just can't wait for him to really smile at us that always makes me happy. He is starting to make sounds back which is really fun. The girls ADORE him Maya is over ally adorable to him, so much we have to make sure she is gentle with him. Lehna loves being the big sister and helping out when she can. It's really been wonderful adding another baby to our family and like I said before we are now complete.

Soon more to follow and hopefully pictures.

Baby News Update!

So its weekly updates now... don't get too used to it b/c it probably won't happen after next week.

So here's the scoop the baby is coming NEXT FRIDAY! He CAN come before but chances of that are pretty unlikely. We had the ultrasound on Wednesday and he is 6 lbs 13 oz but they said that could be up to a pound off either direction so he's the perfect size... if he comes out any smaller than 6 lbs he will be my smallest baby but if he comes out at 7 he will be smack dab in the middle of the girlies. The ultrasound revealed that he is still in fact a boy. That was one of Tait's FIRST questions was if she could double check to ensure that we will be seeing blue and not pink... and she goes "oh yep that's a little boy in there" Then she took her measurements and by the time she got around to checking so I could see he had crossed his legs and wasn't moving... he did the same thing with his little face he put his little hands right up over his face and we couldn't see his face the little rat so it was the same thing that Maya did when we tried to get a look at her too. The Ultrasound went pretty well I think for the most part besides not being able to getting to see his face but she said he looks good, and she said that he moves a lot of as far as long as I told her I knew that because he kicks quite a bit and she goes "well it looks like you have a busy bee on your hands then” So YEAH another one!

So when I went to the doctor he goes "well do you want to schedule an induction on the 18th?" And I said "what about the 14th?" and he goes... "Hum too early you need to be at least 39 weeks and that will be Friday so that would be the earliest” so I said "okay works for me" So there you go. I'm super excited let me tell you it makes it much easier knowing that he's COMING and coming in 5 days!!! I can't wait wait wait I'm sure this week will be the LONGEST week ever but hopefully not. This gives me time to get my very long list of "to dos" at work and get set for him to come. Now sleeping at night because of my excitement is a problem. I wake up and I'm awake for 2 hours at a time because my head won't just let me sleep it's super annoying, but it's just getting me used to when Peanut DOES get here I'll be up anyways so it's all good just getting back in the swing of things. The girls are UBBER excited. We made a paper chain of how many days it would take for him to get here and we got to take some extra days off b/c it's only 5 days now and Lehna was super excited to be able to take them off. It's just really exciting that I know he's coming!

I am a little nervous about being inducted b/c I know that increases the chances of having a c section but from everything I hear from my doctor he doesn't seem too concerned about it. But I think that's just fear b/c of what my old OB would say to me. Everyone that I have told that I have this OB says he's just the best, that's why they have dubbed him the "Mormon" doctor b/c almost all the women in our ward uses him or have had him before. So I feel like I'm in really good hands. He asked me what concerns or questions that I have and he went through what was going to happen and he said by Lunch baby should be here... so there you go. Its sounds so easy. I hope it is!

So this weekend I double checked everything to make sure that I have things ready. I got a bag of clothes from one of the ladies at church which it's older sizes so that's a good thing. I put them all away and I think I'm okay. We didn't bring in the bassinet yet but we may just use the pack n play for awhile until we move him to the crib. We have the bassinet from Tanna upstairs so he will have a place to sleep while Helen watches him during the day. So it's exciting!

We filed our taxes this weekend as well and we don't owe so it was WONDERFUL news! So we went ahead and just sent those through. That will be one less thing to worry about later.

While I'm off work. I hope that I don't go too stir crazy when I'm off. I really do enjoy working but I have to tell you the break sounds SO wonderful. I have a gift certificate to use from the book store so I may order a couple of books and maybe I'll get them read while I'm off when Peanut is sleeping and Maya is busy doing her thing. She's so independent it is fun, of course I'll be taking Lehna to and from school everyday so that will fill in some time. But it should be fun I can't wait. My coworkers are ready for me to go they are fully prepared the lady that is filling in for me as Branch Manager while I'm gone is up to speed as to what goals are and what we are working so that's taken care of.

Tait is going to take off two weeks when baby gets here. He is going to take the first week off when Peanut first gets here then he is planning on taking another week later on. So it should be interesting with it being broken up but I know that at work his nurse is getting ready to go to Hawaii for a couple of weeks so it actually works before for them if he does break up the time.

So I will update again as soon as I can hopefully this isn't the last post for awhile but you never know! Oh and Peanut can ALWAYS come earlier than Friday, I'm just saying.

So keep your fingers crossed for us and hope for a speedy delivery and that everything goes smoothly.

A blizzard of emotions

Maya doing her posing fighting cabin fever (ps she dressed herself)

What a crazy week it has been! I haven’t been able to sleep very well to be honest with you because at my last Drs Appointment the doctor told me that he would check me and see where I am with my progress and see if he could ‘get things started’ boy I didn’t really know what that meant but all week I just kept thinking… hey this weekend we could have a baby b/c he’s going ‘get things started’. Well I went to my doctor’s appointment and he did check me to see where I’m at and he did some irritation of my cervix which was not very pleasant, I must admit, and he said I’m dilated… so YEAH and he said that I’m still a little long but he said that he needs me to ‘start my process a little faster’ then he added, ‘now do I think this will send you into labor, probably not, but it might’ hummm so all I could hear is “hey this could send you into labor” what a cool thing… well the weekend is almost over and Saturday I have to admit I had contractions all day off and on but NOTHING. No baby yet. So where are we now? Well concerns from the Doctor he asked me how big was my biggest baby and I told him 8 lbs (Miss Maya) and he goes, well I want to order and ultrasound for you b/c you are measuring big and to be honest with you with you testing higher for you glucose test we don’t want baby to get too big because right now you are measuring bigger. Soooo… We have an ultrasound scheduled Wednesday… now what does this mean. Well I don’t really know to be honest with you… but maybe something. We talked about induction. He said that he won’t induce before the 18th of Feb!!! But he said that he really wants to see what the ultrasound looks like first because he wants to see how big baby is to see if we need to change some plans… so hopefully. It’s hard to be hopeful when all you want is the freaking baby OUT! I’m so not patient pregnancy was definitely not made for me I’m just way too impatient for all this nonsense.

I went back to read some of my blogs to see if I could find a pattern with my last pregnancies to see if there was a sign of when baby would be coming. I guess I wasn’t that good of a journalist because I didn’t see anything helpful. So I guess I just have to freaking wait… one thing I did notice was that I basically got this impatient with both kids around this time soooo that’s a positive, I think.

So we go back to the doctor on Friday after the ultrasound on Wednesday and pending on what he says I will be forced to walk another weekend pregnant. He’s cooked already dang it come OUT! I know I know patience. My mother in law was saying “when that baby does get hear you really will understand that busy is” I just chuckle when she says things like that. So that’s the baby progress, not much.

So we had a major blizzard around here this week. Tuesday night we got 23 inches of snow it was insane we had a 9 foot drift right outside our door and had to shovel to get outside… which was kind of fun. I went out there and shoveled what I could I took LOTS of breaks. It was exciting let me tell you. On Wednesday we had a snow day mostly because everyone was under so much snow it was crazy. This is the most snow that this area has gotten in over 30 years so at least we didn’t have to hear “well this is Wisconsin” all week because seriously it doesn’t even make any sense and EVERYONE here says it!
I took some pictures and I was getting ready to load them to the computer when I discovered my camera’s battery needed charged… it’s a good thing I wanted to get the pictures off or I wouldn’t have realized that the camera wasn’t going to work so therefore no pictures of peanut when the little Nut does decide to come out. So it was a good thing I decided to update.

I have to tell you this pregnancy is definitely making me MUCH moodier than the girls did. I’m just ready to have a break from work and have this baby out so I can dress him and hug and kiss his little hands and feet… but again. That part isn’t up to me. And I just CAN’T STAND IT! The girls ask me when he’s going to come out and I tell them, I don’t know. I am getting tired of telling people when I’m due and saying “yep I’m ready to have this baby” It’s almost depressing.

But anyways enough whining… I am able to get some pictures off so enjoy from our blizzard.

Snow drifts right outside our door

Veiw from outside the back of the house

View from our front window!

Baby Baby Baby... will you EVER get here!

Okay so I’m updating Christmas and the latest and greatest all at the same time… what can I say…

Okay so things have been going really fast around here and then in other areas… not fast enough… speaking in baby speak that is.

So we had a little scare yesterday. Last night as I was driving home from work I was thinking about baby Peanut and I was trying to remember the times that I really felt him kick and to be honest with you I couldn’t really remember and this baby I swear is half rabbit and I feel him all day… so I thought that I should call the doctor and ask them advise because I hadn’t really felt him and I had a contraction and thought “hum that’s kind of interesting” So I called and asked them what I should do and they suggested that I come in and get checked just to make sure that baby was okay. So I did. A little over an hour later and being hooked up to the machines baby was fine… he started to really kick as soon as they put the monitor on there… and the nurse goes “you know it never fails this happens but she said it’s always better to check” So we went home… Maya thought the baby was coming home and so we tried to tell her that the baby wasn’t coming we were just checking to make sure everything was fine but she was jumping around and such… it was so cute… it was kind of heart breaking to tell her he wasn’t coming home yet… so at least we know that she’s excited. Lehna wanted to come along with us and we told her that she couldn’t come after a few minutes she was okay.

So baby was fine. I am supposed to start going to weekly appointments this week so I’m pretty excited about that actually b/c that means its CLOSE! I’m pretty ready for Peanut to get here I’m super excited to bring him home and hold him and do all the baby things that you do. I know its right around the corner and I should really enjoy the time that I have with just the girls but it’s hard not to really be excited. We have decided that we are done after Peanut. Tait will have his baby boy and well I’ll be done with babies… I will be ready to do other things and put babies behind us.

I’m really excited about having 2 months off of work. I really am excited about that for as sad as that is. Work is a lot of pressure and it will be a relief to just relax and enjoy my time with our baby and the kids. Not that I want to quit my job and be a stay at home mom I’m just excited about being able to relax and enjoy my time when I can, but I’m certain that I’ll be ready to go back. I love kid time but I also love adult work time too… so I’m totally okay going back to work.

As far as work goes it’s going. I want more clients and so does my boss I have a lot of pressure to perform and get where we need to go… so we are moving in that direction just really slowly… I wish it would go faster and when we have clients that fall off b/c they get hired on makes it frustrating for all involved. But my team and I are working on getting more and that’s all we can do right? My boss believes in high pressure to get you to perform which I have to say works and then it doesn’t all at the same item. He is very successful so it does have its measures but still sucks when you aren’t performing where he THINKS you should be… he told me today that the hammer is going to come down… I don’t know what that means b/c I feel like I have enough pressure to perform so I’m hoping that maybe him just “saying” that is enough. I don’t want to end up with an aneurism! Anyway work stuff is boring.

The girls are just growing and growing so much it’s just so cool to watch them change and grow. Maya the other day was talking and I was like “wow she really is growing up” just by the way she was talking. She isn’t going to be the baby any more so we are enjoying her right now.

Lehna is in Kindergarten and let me tell you she is doing really well as far as development she is still above the curve which is good. We are still working on making sure she stays ahead… but you know she will slow down. We are working on reading right now and she was reading the Biscuit books (boring let me tell you) and she was able to read pretty much all of the articles but the other words we are still working on she could guess some of them just by what was going on in the pictures so we don’t want her to develop that habit b/c eventually the pictures WILL go away.

Maya will start 4 year old kindergarten next year which I know she will really enjoy b/c she keeps talking about going to school and her friends so I know she’s craving kids to play with. She does play with the kids at church so she does have some interaction just not as much as Lehna did at her age. So hopefully Maya won’t be too far behind when she goes to school.

Well I wanted to include some pictures of our latest sledding trip. I watched as they sledded but it was fun. So enjoy some pictures! I will update soon… hopefully before Peanut comes… but you know… it’s hard to say…

It’s Christmas Time in Wisconsin

Okay so maybe Christmas is over but at least the holiday season isn’t COMPLETELY over with yet. I know I know my updates are near and far between can’t be helped.

Okay so let’s jump right into this shall we! Well I was so excited about being able to spend some holiday time with the kids that I wanted to make sure that I had things planned for them and I to do together… So the first stop was to get something ornaments for the kids to paint… well when I found out that Hobby Lobby either doesn’t have them any more OR they just didn’t have them period that made me get a little bit more creative. So we went to the kids isles and picked up some window catcher and some paint and off home we went. I also stopped at the store to pick up some cookie stuff for the next door.

So on Thursday of Christmas week we painted window catchers which for my girls was actually a successful project. I wasn’t ready to kill anyone while we were doing the project so it was successful. Lehna was in a HUGE hurry to finish her and Maya was patiently working on her and getting her’s just perfect.


Then on Friday we had Tait home so we decided to make some Christmas cookies. I KNEW it was going to be a mess and well it was but it went okay. The girls were well prepared for mess and so was I again no one died so it was successful. The girls were SOOO excited about Santa coming and I have to admit that my kids were HORRIBLE the last couple of weeks and threaten them with “Santa isn’t going to stop” simply was NOT working the way that it SHOULD have worked. So by the time it was time for bed I was ready for them to go to sleep. They were soooo excited and they did their best to stay up for as long as they could. Lehna and Maya finally fell asleep. Santa finished in record time this year… he started at 10 and was finished by 10:15 so it was great. Of course it helped the Santa had wrapped all of the gifts a couple days before so there wasn’t that mess to work on, but it went smoothly. Soon after Santa left we got to sleep. It was a pretty peaceful night until 2:59 and Lehna and Maya BOTH came down and go ‘has Santa been here yet?’ I was thinking “didn’t you have to walk THROUGH the room to come down stairs and you didn’t notice” and Tait calmed asked what time it was and after giving him the time he said “oh no it’s time to Sleep Santa HASN’T been here yet” and since my children have no observation skills they took it and went right to sleep in the guest room. Which I was excited about that and then at 6 am they were both awake and we headed upstairs and let me tell you they were SO excited. We couldn’t get the video camera to work which was disappointing but we still had fun anyways.


The girls were great they opened and destroyed a perfectly organized living room in seconds it was truly great! Afterwards the kids played for a couple of hours and then it was time to pack up the van and head off to Indiana. We went down and had a good time at Grandma Sullivan’s house. It was nice getting to see all of the family there again and playing games with the family. After grandma’s house we went to Marcus and Jackie’s house to spend the night which was very cook that we could spend the night there. The girls loved being able to see their cousins and they were soooo tired that after a few tears they were fast asleep.


Overall it was a great trip to Indiana and Christmas was great. We told the girls that Santa can still come and take back the gifts which is kind of still happening but you know how that goes sometimes… I’m sure it will work for awhile so I’ll enjoy it for what it’s worth.


So peanut update. Time is ticking down so fast it’s amazing!!! I’m super excited that it is don’t get me wrong. I’m still worried about not having some things for the baby like car seat, bottles, and etc but I’m sure that we will get it all worked out before the he makes his appearance. Only 7 weeks to go and he’ll be here.

He loves to kick the heck out of me. When I’ve had anything with sugar or caffeine just looks out b/c he will kick me until he’s done… It’s really been a fun time though I am enjoying myself. I keep telling myself that this is the LAST time for babies to be in me so enjoy it… but it’s hard. Being pregnant just isn’t my favorite thing I know that once he gets here that it will be awesome!

So only 7 more weeks and he’ll make his appearance. If he wants to be early that’s okay too 

Skating

Okay so this week I’m like 2 days behind my time to update but heck at least it’s before this baby comes out!

Well I took pictures of our Monday adventure. The girls LOVE ice skating right now so I decided to bring my camera and hopefully capture some pictures of these kiddos. They were pretty funny Maya hardly smiles at ALL which is crazy but she talks about it nonstop before we go and after we go but I think she’s just concentrating. Lehna this time wasn’t ready to go where as last week she was READY to go. The girls are asking for skating lessons and I told them that they should as Santa for ice skating lessons. I looked up the price and it looks like something Santa might be able to do.

We have been talking about what to get the girls for Christmas b/c we really don’t want to get them a bunch of toys because they have so many already so we thought maybe we could go “more expensive” just not as many. So I have been looking at maybe the Kenetic for the Xbox I think that the girls would really enjoy it and it doesn’t require a control to use, b/c they struggle with that with the Wii because of the remote so I figure it would be fun for them.

I was also looking at the American Girl dolls since we aren’t going with the too many toys and then just get them an outfit then for their birthday maybe get them another outfit, the dolls are freaking expensive but I thought that they would really like them, I just don’t want them to end up at the bottom of the toy box. But they have these “tea parties” for you and your American Girl Doll and Sharon whom I work with said they are REALLY fun that the girls just love it because the treat the kids like little princesses so I think that would be fun for the girls to do once the baby is born, maybe for their birthday. I don’t know just an idea; again I just don’t want the dolls to end up at the bottom of the toy box which with these to who knows it’s a possible thing.

On Thursday I got a prenatal massage at a local spa and let me tell you that were wonderful. The masseur did “trigger point therapy” which means he would feel in my muscles where the triggers are and he would slowly work them out. He spent a TON of time right around my shoulder blades and he said that I had a lot of knots there. So at the end he gave me some stretches to help keep my muscles loose which I have been doing because he made my back feel soooo good. He said that I should come back and I said “talk to my husband” it was just really nice.

But after my massage I took Friday off. I decided it had been a long time since I took a day off and I needed it. And it was good because Trent and Alta came up to visit us this weekend. I can safely say that on Friday I took the “tour” of the living room, I went the complete circle of nothing but vegging out it was WONDERFUL. Then on Saturday Tait, Trent, and Tim went to Madison to watch Indiana and Wisconsin play and I went to a Mary Kay party, which I had never been to one of those before, strange, but good.

On Saturday night my boss was in a Dancing with the Stars event which he was a competitor in. It was for a local organization that helps children with grief of a parent or sibling, the program part of the night was VERY sad but the entertainment of dancing was really fun. My boss actually won so that was fun it was 50% judge and 50% audience and we had 5 tables all yelling for him so it was good that he won. The event was really fun we hung out with my coworkers and other adults I laughed quite a bit.

I did go to the doctor on Friday and I found out that I’m 8 lbs up… yuck! I know it’s important but still sucks. And the baby is doing fine. The doctor was REALLY cruel and came in and goes “oh you what now 34 weeks” and in my head I was like “am I really 34 weeks already, maybe my calculation has been off” then he goes “oh no you are only 25 weeks they calculated it wrong” I was like DARN IT, but I knew that’s how far I was I was just hoping for a closer due date. Baby is moving around all the time, I have a feeling he’s going to be a night owl because he is all over the place a night and when I’m trying to sit still, of course this is probably the only time when he doesn’t feel mommy moving around so he takes full advantage.

Well that’s life. Feeling good, slowing down a little but still trying to function on all cylinders so it’s fun  that’s life right now. Thanks for reading about us.


a LITTLE shaky

I'm doing my Tricks with a smile!

do I look Scared?

Here we come!

Opps!

Down again!

Post Post Post Post

Okay so it's Saturday and I just posted last week and I'm posting again a week later... scary hua... yeah I know... don't get "too" used to it.

So it's been a good day but man I am BEAT!
Today we did a service project with our Cub Scouts with Y-Link, which is a Young Professionals group here in Kenosha. We were helping with a food drive for the local food pantry we handed out flyers at a grocery store and took the donations as the people came out, it was quite and EASY project but it was COLD today so it all makes up for it. We were there for 3 hours, we were there about 1 hour too much our cubs kind of "lost" it after 2 hours but it was okay because I think they had a good time. One even said he didn't want to leave. One told Tait that he is grounded at home so he likes doing this better than what we would be doing at home, so I am taking that as a compliment.

After that we went to the area right outside where I work and took pictures. My office is RIGHT next to the woods and with all the fall colors and rocks and such I couldn't resist such a pretty landscape so I took the kiddos there so YEP pictures! I already ordered some from snap fish... so exciting stuff let me tell you.

Then after we took pictures we went to the park I promised the girls we would do something fun today and Maya choose that so that's what we did. I rode the tire swing with the girls and baby peanut did NOT like that, so I had to stop trying to ride it. Lehna wanted to have a Movie night... so we did that tonight as well we rented the new Tinker Bell movie and the girls were TOTALLY attached to it. Lehna this summer got a necklace that has fairy dust in it and THANKS TO MY WONDERFUL NEIGHBOR told her that there was no such thing as fairies and that it is just a great story but they don't really exist. I was sooooo upset that the mother, who's a school teacher, tried to take that away from Lehna, Lehna who didn't bat an eye goes "but what about the tooth fairy?" And the Mom didn't respond back to that, so I was proud of her. So I was a little worried. Lehna said "mommy can I try to catch a fairy" I told her that, according to the movie, that they only come from fairy land during the summer time so she would have to wait till then. So she was okay with that answer. So she said that she'll have to build them a house and put it in the backyard, just like they did in the movie, and hopefully she would catch a fairy.

I'm totally beat though I think that part of the problem is I didn't sleep really well last night. I was really worried about work for some crazy reasons just lots of things going on and worried about deadlines that we have going on. Hopefully this open house we have scheduled for Monday will yield a good work force... we are getting people in but nothing at high caliber and it's kind of a problem. So about 4 this morning I emailed one of my staffing people the list of things I wanted done on Monday. I know I know but can't help it it was PLAGUING me, I didn't hear anything from here today so I don't know if he didn't get the email or is just ignoring it... either is possible.

It feels like midnight and its only 8 pm what a sad sad life I lead. Although I do forget about baby Peanut quite a bit and I know that he takes so much of my energy but can't use that as an excuse on the weekends, that's what I use during the week!

So on Monday we usually take the girls swimming after we get home from work, at the gym we go to. Well on Tuesday Maya woke up and ran into our room and goes "daddy you can't go to work today we have to go ice skating today" Tait goes "Maya we have to go to work" and she didn't take that as the correct answer b/c she was convinced we were going Ice Skating... So I pulled the schedule for ice skating and on Mondays the same time we normally swim they have open skating, at the gym, so we are going to take them to open skating. Tait is going to go out on the ice I'm going to sit on the side lines, I don't think my doctor would recommend ice skating being 6 months pregnant... just guessing on that. So every day Maya and Lehna have BOTH been asking how many more days will it is before we go ice skating... I hope they don't expect ice skating EVERY Monday I do enjoy my swimming :)

Well on Tuesday Tait and I meet with the Bishop about our callings. We both have been in cub scouts for the last year and a half and I have been concerned because they haven't shown any sign they were planning on releasing us anytime soon and with the new baby coming I'm REALLY concerned about having Helen watch another kiddo on Tuesday night so we can fulfill out callings. So we asked if we could be released... talk about guilt. It's funny b/c the Tuesday before we had two parents come over and tell us what a great job we do with cub scouts and how much they really enjoy us being the leaders and how grateful they are that we are in there... so it was like total guilt in asking to be released b/c I know that Heavenly Father calls us to these positions so I feel like I'm being bad asking to be released but I'm just ready I guess. I understand why we were called in there together, I got the message loud and clear, but after going through the book 2 times already I'm ready for something different. I think I'll be released soon and then Tait will come out not too long after that. The bishop did tell us that people have requested us in their "openings" but he said that since we do such a good job in the calling that he wanted to keep us in there... so I guess that's a good thing, I just wonder, where in the heck am I going to end up next, hopefully it's nothing "made up” I mean I don't want one of those. We have SO many people in our ward and they really try to give everyone some thing and so they kind of come up with callings that I'm like "Really?" so I don't want one of those but who knows... I guess then next place will come when it comes.

So baby update. I'm feeling baby peanut move around SOOOO much I feel like Alice Tinker but seriously if it keeps moving around in there like it has been I swear it's alive... I love Vicar of Dibley. He kicks and pushes and does the thing where it feels like he's stretching out his fingers I HATE that when they do that... I don't know if its fingers or toes but it feels HORRIBLE, it's like he's trying to claw through my stomach hate it! Maya did it all the time too I used to hate it and baby Peanut has decided to take the same path as his older sister. (sigh)

I tried to go to the doctor on Friday but when I was there he was called into labor and delivery and was going to be there for another 1/2 hour before he was going to be back and I had two other people in front of me, and I was like "Hum seriously I don't want to wait" so I left and rescheduled. It sucks though b/c I had free tickets to go see Bill Rancic which if you don't know who that is, he is the was the FIRST winner of the Apprentice and he has a reality show call Bill and Guiline on E which I LOVE I think they would be really fun people to be friends with, and they just bought a house close to where we live... so I'm thinking of stalking them, okay just kidding. But I was really excited to see him but I found out that he wasn't going to speak until 10 and my appointment was at 10:30 so I wasn't going to be able to see him THEN on top of not getting into my appointment I was a little bummed b/c I missed Bill b/c of the doctor. But oh well I guess it's just not to be that we are supposed to be friends.

Well that's life right now... exciting exciting exciting...

Enjoy the pictures!