House Madness

Today the house madness begins! Exciting but busy and stressful. This afternoon we do a final walk through of the house before we close on the sale TOMORROW! I don't think there is anything that we could possibly see/find today at the walk through that would make us not make the purchase official tomorrow. We are so ready to make this house our new home. But as thrilled as I am about getting out of the apartment, I am equally as apprehensive about all the packing, cleaning and moving. But we will get through it. So BRING IT ON!

Other things I don't think I have mentioned on here yet....

I am embracing my wavy hair! For over 10 years now I have been using a Chi and with this second pregnancy my hair loss/breakage has been devastating. So, I am trying to not use the straightener or the blow-dryer on a regular basis. Instead I am letting my hair air dry with a little bit of product in it so that it goes "curly". I was not feeling confident about it so yesterday when Sam was getting her hair cut I made a last minute decision to cut my hair as well. It is pretty short, which I thought would make the curls bounce up a bit more. It is more curly/wavy but I am even more not sure about it as a "style" for me. I am sure I will get brave at some point and put up a picture of the new hair...but not yet!

On top of all of this moving craziness my other piece of news is that I am going BACK TO WORK! Technically I have been working two part time jobs (VERY part time) from home ever since I left my previous job in Stevens Point. BUT starting next week I will be working outside of the home once again. It is only a couple of times a month, nights and weekends, but it will be outside, around other people, TEACHING ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION! I could not be more pumped. It isn't much but it is something that is just for me to fuel my passion and my spirit. It gets my foot in the door at an amazing nature center in Madison, I will be meeting people with similar interests and getting a break from the girls a few times a month. Timing might not be perfect and it will mean that Chris and I don't see each other as much but I NEED to start finding something for me in Madison. I just wasn't cut out to be a stay at home mom and it has been too many years now without having a job that I love... so this is the first step in making that happen. I will keep you posted on how it is going.

So, if I am not around much this week and next know that it is because the house madness has taken over my life. Please pray for us that we survive yet ANOTHER move!

a few more birthday pics

Have you ever seen a child so upset about being "forced" to play in the water table? HA! Just kidding, what you don't see if that Chris just made her put that smock on which she didn't like.
Kathy "milking" the cow!
Blowing out the birthday candles!
Sam didn't have much interest in her birthday crown so I made Chris put it on...can you tell that he was thrilled with me when I grabbed the camera!?
And here is the BEST picture...OUR NEW HOUSE! When we did the inspection my dad took this shot of the front. The sellers were in the middle of packing so the inside doesn't look so great...you'll have to wait to see more pictures.

We have the final walk through on Wednesday night and then close on the house Thursday afternoon. I CANNOT WAIT! We will get started right away on the cleaning and painting so that it is all ready to go before we move our stuff in! SO exciting!

reading time

Sam told me she was going to read to Avery. So sweet I thought. A few moments later I poked my head out of the kitchen and reading TO Avery had become reading ON Avery!! HA!

Avery's look is priceless in the second photo! I love it!!

a week already!

Where has this week gone? We've been busy!

This little lady turned TWO YEAS OLD!

It is so hard for me to believe that my first little baby is already two years old. She is my big girl now. She is smart, creative, loving, stubborn, strong and funny. She has an amazing big girl laugh and horrible big girl tantrums. She loves building towers, racing cars and being creative with stickers. She is a typical two year old.

We went down to Bloomington for a visit last weekend with Nana and Grandpa. Here are just a few of the pics from the weekend. Sam got her first set of skiis and her first doll house for her birthday. She was a little hesitant about the skiis (which I am sure she will love next winter) but LOVED the doll house. Her favorite part was the toilet that made a flushing noise!







Then my parents came up here on Sunday to help us with the house inspection that we had Monday afternoon on the house that we are trying to buy in Waunakee. Dad was a huge help in finding all the flaws/defects about the house and then giving us estimates of what it would cost to fix them. We found more than I think Chris and I were hoping but we still love the house so hopefully in the next couple of days it will be a done deal! Mom and I talked about where furniture could go, what colors to paint and how to organize things. They also brought presents for Sam for her birthday and the biggest hits were the little purse that Grandma and Pawpaw gave her and the new doll from Aunt Jojo. The purse is now filled with all her doll accessories and the new doll has joined the other dolls in sleeping with her every night (that makes five dolls in bed now!). The camera died on me, of course, so no pictures of her opening those gifts.

Thank you all for the great gifts, phone calls and birthday cards! She had a great birthday!

More to share and pictures of the house but my peace and quiet is over for now so I better go back to being mom!

fun pics

her first day outside

Yes she has been outside before but today it got nice enough that I could lay a blanket down on the little patch of grass that we have right outside our door and let her soak up some sun! She loved it (although her faces don't really make it look that way!). The pictures turned out horrible but it was a blast!




Sam had fun too! She is loving going to parks everyday, blowing bubbles and doing sidewalk chalk. Thank you spring for coming early for us up here!!

saying goodbye

We said goodbye to our first home this weekend. We have signed the papers, packed and waved as the truck pulled out of the driveway. We officially no longer live at 3232 Clifford St. in Stevens Point, WI. Someone else calls that address home.

Since we moved to Madison I have fallen in love with this new town and thought that besides some great friends I wasn't going to miss anything else in Stevens Point. But as we packed up on Friday and signed the title over I started to get a little sad. That house was our first home. We have a lot of great memories in those rooms and in that yard. Before we left Chris and I walked around talking about the memories that we had, the things that we loved and would miss about the house, the things that we would have/could have changed about the house and the things we were excited to have newer/different in a new house. I didn't realize how hard it would be to pull out of the driveway that last time. It is weird to me that Avery never lived there and even stranger that Sam will not remember having lived there. She won't remember chasing the ducks or playing in puddles. She won't remember the snow mounds in the driveway or playing in the big bay window. I know it is just a building but it was a great home for almost six years I will miss it.
It is great news that the house has finally sold and we can move on. We are excited about plans that we are making in Madison and anxiously awaiting news on a house here. I just wasn't expecting to be as sad as I was yesterday.

I already love raising sisters!

They are just so darn cute!
Sam's attempts to tickle Avery.

Sam is very into singing right now AND laying down the way that Avery lays.

my child has made me an angry, spiteful person

It is blankie washing day. This is always a traumatic day but with Chris out of town right now (yes, he has been at a work conference for 24 hours and will get home tonight) and laundry absolutely needing to be done Sam and Avery had to come with me down to the laundry room. This made washing the blankets even more traumatic. In the 2+ hours that we have been waiting for them to get done the crying, whining and general pouting has barely taken a moments break. Every question, statement or request comes out as a whine or between giant sobs. At one point I was so tired of the whining that when she asked to color in a VERY whiny voice I actually looked at my daughter and said "If you don't stop whining I will never give you your blankets back!"

Of course I wasn't serious, it was an empty threat which I know I shouldn't do but in that moment it was exactly what I was thinking and feeling. I am quite possibly the meanest person in the world!

Edited to add - after all that drama I didn't fight with her when we went back to get the laundry and I let her carry the blankets back to the apartment. They were dropped on the garage floor THREE TIMES! So much for clean blankets!

I didn't want to forget

A few hours after Avery was born her and Chris were both sleeping but I was so hyped up with adrenaline still that I couldn't sleep. I grabbed a piece of paper and pencil and started writing down memories from the labor and my emotions at the time that I didn't want to forget. I knew that in just a few days the emotions, moments and pain from the delivery would all start to fade away so I wanted to write some stuff down.

I was working on Avery's baby book today and found that piece of paper. Thought I would share the random thoughts that were in my head just a few hours after Avery's birth.

~ Avery was so purple when she first came out it really scared me.

~ My hands went almost completely numb during labor. They cramped up in weird positions and I couldn't move my fingers. I kept looking at them and for some reason they reminded me of my Great Aunt Daisy's hands in her last days. I kept looking at my mom, Chris and my sister saying "my hands! my hands!". The numbness and cramping in my hands really scared me but everyone just kept assuring me that as soon as Avery was out it would go away.

~ The Orange Bowl was on the TV all during my pre-labor; Iowa v. Georgia Tech. At some point during labor the TV was turned off. I didn't put up a fuss about it but as soon as Avery was born I noticed and asked Chris about the score.

~Because of the paperwork being lost the epidural was going to be administered very late. After the doctor checked me and realized I only had about 1.5cm left of dilation to go, he kind of whispered in my ear "You can do this. You are strong. You can finish this with nothing." He sounded so confident in me and so calm about it that it really made me feel like maybe I could do it natural.

~THE SMELL! I was convinced during labor that one of the nurses had REALLY bad breath. When I laughingly told Chris about it after the fact he smiled and said, "I think that was you!".

~ I was very hesitant about having my mom, dad and sister see me go through something this huge. I didn't want them to see me in pain and struggling. But having them here encouraging me, talking to me, supporting me and distracting me was really the biggest blessing. I feel overwhelmed with love that they dropped their lives at a moments notice and drove so fast to be here for me.

~ Chris was my rock. His confidence in me never waivered and I am feeling overwhelmed with love for him because of what he has just helped me to get through.

Avery at 2 Months!

She has gotten so strong already, look at her holding that head up!

She doesn't really like the little toys dangling over her head.

two month stats

In our family it is all about the numbers!

Avery is two months old now and on Friday she had her two month check up. Doc says she is looking great, very healthy. Her height is 23", weight is 12 lb 15 oz, and her head size is in the 94%. She is still eating great and her sleeping is right on the cusp of perfect. She regularly gives me 4-6 hours at night and several times this week we got close to 8 hours in a row! The doc says that is fine since she is still gaining weight and growing.

I have some new photos but the camera isn't cooperating right now to upload them and we are running out the door to go to church so it will have to wait till later!

Happy Sunday!

before there were blogs there was Marge

My sister and I are close. I like to think that we are really close, great friends. I depend on her for a lot. She gives me the ugly honest truth when others sugar coat it, she is there for me to celebrate the small victories in life and cry with me over spilled milk. And I think she is someone that KNOWS me for me, sometimes better than I know myself.
But we were not always like this. Growing up we HATED each other. When we were really little we fought all the time. As we grew up we were pretty competitive, or maybe I was just competing with her I don't know. It took her leaving for college for us to start to click as people and want to be in each others lives. While we were away at college we talked on the phone, emailed and even sent each other care packages (I once got a large bouncy ball in the mail from my sister, not in a box, just with the postage right on the ball and she had written a letter to me all over the ball! SO creative!). At some point during our college years I got the idea to start a journal of sorts that we would actually send back and forth to each other. We loved this journal, named her Marge and wrote all about our lives in her. We filled up at least one spiral bound notebook sized journal and started a second but unfortunately at some point we just got too busy and Marge sat on a shelf not being sent.
I thought of her tonight as I was reading all the posts my sister has recently added to her old blog . Reading her personal posts made me think about how much closer we have gotten since we started blogging. It is just like when we had Marge, only better! It isn't just the writing of the posts, but the way we comment for each other, the conversations that we have about our posts and other people's comments and we share photos and videos that we normally would have to email or print for each other. These days there are so many ways to keep in touch with people that you don't live close to but for some reason blogging brings out really personal information, the real life stuff that I don't think most people would share over the phone, on twitter or facebook.
Marge is somewhere packed in a box right now with all of our other books that we had to pack up with the move. But now that I have remembered about that journal I cannot WAIT to unpack those boxes, find Marge and reread what was important to us and going on in our lives back then. I imagine these blogs will be the same way in a few years.

a fish and a almost smile

First the fish.


And now the almost smile. I swear she smiles when we do this whenever the camera is NOT on.

breastfeeding the second time

Don't worry I am not going to graphic or go into details about breastfeeding. I am also not going to try and convince anyone else to breast feed their child because I certainly understand why someone may not want to. But for me, right now, it is working. I had a pretty easy time with the whole process with Sam, quite frankly I just hated it. She was very sensitive to what I ate which meant that I couldn't eat some of the foods that I LOVE like mexican and chinese. It also meant I couldn't have a glass of wine whenever I wanted without having that mom-guilt feeling of "what might this be doing to her?".
Although those same problems still exist with Avery, (she is also pretty sensitive to what I eat) I am finding the sacrifices to be a bit easier this time around. I love the break. Every time Avery needs to eat (except when it happens in the middle of the night!) I get to sit and do nothing but take care of her. I just get to cuddle with my baby and sit! Getting cuddle time with Sam was never an issue but with Avery the time I just get to sit and be with her is sparse. I cherish feeding time. Sam has to fend for herself during that 20 minute period. Chris has to take care of chores during that time. Like yesterday, I said to Chris "So, do you want to feed Avery or go change the laundry and fold it?" You can imagine his response! But what choice did he have really? I probably shouldn't be admitting this and it isn't like I plan for choirs to need to be done or meals to be cooked at the same time that Avery needs to eat (boy wouldn't that be smart! HA!) but when it happens I secretly even more enjoy the fact that I HAVE to sit and feed Avery. It may seem really silly or really mean but everything is so different with the second one. I just have to take advantage of any opportunity that I get to just focus on one kid.

I don't know how long I will breast feed with Avery. I made it four months with Sam. I hope I can go a bit longer than that this time but you must understand I REALLY love Mexican food!!