2015 - Week 2

Well, after a busy weekend of fun and celebrating and unpacking toys and cleaning up, it was back to reality. Monday – back to work, back to school, back to daycare. I don’t think any of us were ready to get up and at ‘em this morning, but Olivia was pretty excited to head back to school after her long winter break. I left work a tad early to do our “Target Shopping”…grabbed some groceries and a few household items. Next up was Amelia's "Winter Gala" at daycare. They usually do it around Christmas, holiday themed, but there have been a lot of staffing changes at the center and with all of the chaos from that, they had to push it back. They did a "Frozen" theme this year so of course the kids were totally into it. Amelia did really well, but she was pretty funny. She kept getting distracted by all of the people and her singing would trail off...so I would signal to her to focus and sing louder and she'd get SUPER loud. So funny. Christian wasn't able to get off work early, so he was pretty bummed that he had to miss it. He met us at home with Eliza afterwards and we had a pretty quiet night.

She's so cute!

Tuesday was FREEEEEZING, and we also got a light snow overnight. Even though it was indeed a LIGHT snow, traffic was horrible and it took me two hours to get to work. Ick. After finally getting to work, I fought off a nuisance headache all day long. Headaches and working on a computer definitely do not mix. But, I toughed it out and worked through the day. I picked the girls up from daycare….Olivia and Amelia started fighting and bickering before we even made it home. I was seriously OVER it before I walked in the door, and Olivia was sent to her room until dinner. Eliza was crying and fussy all evening, it was just pure chaos. She finally fell asleep in my arms and we gave up on the world at that point. Christian made dinner when he arrived home, amidst the crying and chaos and fighting and arguing from the other two. They were both sent straight to bed after dinner, I got Eliza fed and down for the night and we finally got a little peace and quiet before passing out ourselves. It was a rough, rough night.

Sitting in her chair, such a big girl!

Wednesday was Olivia’s very first ever school closure! What?! Seriously guys, I live in Minnesota so you wouldn’t think so, but I VERY rarely had “snow days”. I honestly can only remember 1 in my life, in high school for a MONSTER snow storm. We had quite a few last year, and this is the first this year. The thing is…we can handle snow…snow closures are extremely rare around here. I mean, snow….it’s what we do. It’s the bitter, out of control cold that has been causing closures. Unfortunately for the kids, it will be a loooooong time before they truly know the joy of a “snow day”….daycare doesn’t close! So, she spent the day at KinderCare. I worked from home as usual, and it was nice to skip another crappy drive. After working the day away, I got to work on some cleaning before picking the kids up. I vacuumed and got the furniture moved back in place (post-Christmas). I packed up one tote of Christmas stuff (with plenty more to do). Slowly making progress. I started dinner and picked the girls up from daycare. Christian arrived home about the same time as us…we ate, the girls all got baths and we related together for a while. Eliza was in a MUCH better mood today, and has actually been going to bed much easier than usual so far this week, so YAY to that! Today also marks Eliza turning 8 months old. Come on, can you even believe it?! 8 months. Wow.  She is 19lbs and 28” long. She appears to have lost a pound this month…hopefully just from being sick a few weeks ago and nothing concerning. She’s had a few new foods and started snacking on little baby treats. In addition to sitting up and learning more coordination every day, she’s starting to support herself standing. She twirls and whirls, spins and scoots all over the place now. She’s starting to wave and loves to jump in her exersaucer. She loves to dance and hates to be alone. While we’re still squeezing her into her 6-9 month clothes, we’ll have to start transitioning her soon - all of her pants have turned into leggings and all of her shirts are just a tad short. Our baby, growing WAY too fast!

8 Months!

Floor Time with Daddy!

Thursday…still, horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE traffic!!! God, I hate it. It snowed again overnight, so, again, it was a two hour commute for me vs. my 25-30 minute usual commute). And, to follow that up, I left an hour early to ensure I’d get to daycare on time to pick the girls up. 3 hours of vacation….to sit in the car. Winter joy. Needless to say, the rest of the day was pretty much a wash…we picked up fast food for dinner and had a lazy evening. So glad it was my Friday!

Watching Videos Together, I love when they get along!

As mentioned, this week is my Friday off, YES!!! Christian brought Amelia to daycare today, while I took Olivia in for an early morning 6-year check-up (with baby in tote). Now, this girl was 90% in weight and height for at least the first 2 years. She was tall and chubby and delicious. She’s been slimming out gradually ever since, and the trend continued this year. Today she was 42lbs (33%) and 45” tall (26%). She is a skinny Minnie and doesn’t appear to be growing too fast. She had perfect sight and everything else checked out well. Her murmur was more prominent this visit than the last few years, but her doctor didn’t seem overly concerned about it. They’ll just continue to monitor it as they have been. Like last year, I did check with them about her lack/slow growth and they don’t seem concerned about that either. My baby, growing up! After her appointment, I dropped her off at daycare and Eliza and I spent the day at home. She napped, I had some breakfast and we spent the day hanging out. She wasn’t as crabby today as she has been, but still very clingy. I was pretty excited though…a week or so ago HuffPost Parents posted asking for parents to show off pictures of their littles in their first snow. So I shared one of my favorite pictures EVER of Eliza. Well, today they posted a pieced about baby’s first snows and her photo was included in it!!! She’s totally famous. It’s so dumb, but I was excited. HERE is the link. Other than that excitement, the rest of the afternoon/evening was pretty low key. I picked the big girls up, Christian worked his usual Friday overtime, and we just ate, watched some TV together and had a quiet night.

Off to sissy's appointment!

6 Years!!

Haha, trying to crawl...

She loves her chair!

Saturday was a pretty great day. After a middle of the night wake-up call with Eliza (ugh!), she and I actually slept in a little bit. We all had some breakfast and watched some cartoons to start the day. Christian got ready and was off to his friend Lorenzo’s to help him work on his garage door…my handyman, always up to something. My mom picked up Olivia around noon and took her to the mall as a late birthday celebration...her party last weekend was a “friends only” party, and she chose not to join us on her actual birthday for pizza and presents with the grandparents, so she had her own day with her today. They had lunch and she took her to a couple stores to pick out some gifts. She ended up getting a cute Frozen/Elsa necklace and a stuffed “Svan” from the Disney store. What a spoiled girl! Meanwhile, Amelia and I watched some movies, had some lunch and hung out together with baby. My mom came back to pick her up around 4:00 and they spent the night at her place. Eliza and I ran to Walmart for some movie snacks, and Christian picked up some gooooooooood tortas from a Mexican Deli by Lorenzos’ on his way home. YUM! We watched a couple movies before calling it a night tonight….“Chef” and “Argo” – both were really good.

Well, of course with the big girls away, my big chance at sleeping in, Eliza had a VERY rough night. She did not sleep well at all, I swear we were up just about the entire night. Haven’t had a night like that for quite a while. I was beyond tired the rest of the day. I started laundry as soon as I got up for the day, and headed off for an early trip to Target as soon as I got Eliza down for her morning nap. Once home, I hit the chores hardcore before the girls got home…of course, while watching some football. I quick cleaned up the kitchen, washed dishes, ate some lunch, made the beds and picked up around the house. Busy Busy! They arrived home around 3:00 and besides finishing up laundry, we had a pretty quiet afternoon/evening. I was up late watching the Golden Globes and folding laundry, so I’ll be regretting that tomorrow!

Until Next Week! XOXO

2015 - Week 1

Here we are. The first few days of 2015. There’s something so wondrous about a new year. I don’t know why really…I mean, today is no different than yesterday. But somehow the thought of a new year, starting from scratch, is just always so appealing. I don’t have any resolutions for the year, we don’t have any huge goals, but it’s still exciting nonetheless.

The “week” started on Thursday, with all of us home for the day. Christian and I were home from the day, Olivia is still on winter break and daycare was closed, so we had a nice family day at home. After the late night, everybody was happy to sleep in this morning…the big girls slept until 9:30, and even little Eliza slept until about 8:30. WOOOOOOOOT!!! Now that’s a way to kick off the new year. But, she was rather crabby and very clingy most of the day, so we really didn’t get too much done. We were all pretty happy to enjoy a quiet, low key day.

Sister Kisses

Lazy Day with a Crabby Baby

Friday. Well, let’s start with the basics…Christian and I were off to work (seriously, going back to work for one day, after a day off, is dumb. Definitely should’ve taken today off!). My mom was over to watch Eliza and the big girls were off to daycare. It was pajama day, which is always a big hit.

In more important new….OUR BIGGEST BABY TURNS 6 YEARS OLD TODAY!!! Oh my God, seriously, I don’t know how this is even possible. Our sweet, independent, mature, shy baby is growing way too fast. I can’t believe how fast these last 6 years have gone. I can remember everything about the day she was born like it was yesterday. All of the emotions, all of the chaos. Feeling more love than I ever thought were possible. Being able to watch her grow over these last 6 years has been truly amazing – it’s a gift I could never appreciate enough. She’s so smart, so responsible. She’s rough and tough and a wee bit cruel to her sister, but will stick up for her under any and all circumstances. She is independent and helpful and loves her baby sister like nothing else. We’re so lucky. So, so, so blessed. She was pretty excited to celebrate her big day with all of her friends, and brought some cookies to share with everybody. After school/work, my dad and stepmom, along with Christian’s parents stopped over to celebrate with us. We had pizza, a little cake and she opened her gifts from us. The day was over in the blink of an eye, but we had two very excited girls, ready to party the next day!

Roses from Daddy, for Olivia Rose

Saturday started off pretty typical. We had some breakfast, I did a little picking up around the house. We got all of the girls bathed, dressed and ready for the day. We showered and got ready. I made a quick run to Target to pick up the birthday cake and a few final birthday party needs, grabbed some lunch and headed home. We quickly ate, packed up the van and we were off to Olivia’s birthday party. This year we held her party at “Good Times Park” in Eagan. It’s an indoor playground…like a REAL playground, inside. It’s pretty cheap for parties…there’s no rental fee or anything, you just pay per kid, use a table in the picnic area for 2 hours, and bring in whatever you want pretty much, so it worked well. We did a middle of the afternoon party to avoid a need for lunch or dinner, so we just had cake and ice cream after playing for a while and opening gifts. She of course got lots of new Shopkins (her new obsession) for her birthday, along with a few puzzles, some clothes and some cold, hard cash! After the party, all of the kids returned to playing, and slowly left, one by one. Her best friend Bella and her dad stopped over after the party for a while…we had some leftover pizza for dinner, I tried out the glitter tattoos we bought Olivia on each of the girls and they played for a while before they left for the night. We all settled in for bed and the girls definitely passed right out. What an exhausting day!

Sunday was fairly busy, but also kind of a lazy day. Eliza has not been a happy camper lately – I think her teeth are really bothering her. Seriously, I can’t say it enough – teething is the pits! Christian made some breakfast and the girls played on their tablets for a while, while I dealt with the crabby one. When I finally got her down for a nap, I got to work on my tasks for the day. I started collecting all of the Christmas decorations onto the dining room table to start packing it away, and took the Christmas tree down. It’s always kind of sad taking down the Christmas stuff….it adds so much color and magic to the house. But, it is definitely nice to get the space back and get back to reality a little bit. Don’t get me wrong – it will take FOREVER to actually get everything put away, we all know that. Finally I vacuum up the living room and tree mess, cleaned up the kitchen and called it quits for the day. Christian hung out with the girls most of the day, before heading out for a haircut and dinner with his friend, Lorenzo. The girls had a pretty lazy day, watching movies, playing games, taking nice long naps. Once I got them to bed for the night I settled in to watch some TV…didn’t make it long before passing out, but at least I got a little quiet, alone time in.

Until Next Week! XOXO

2014 - The End...

Well, this is it guys. The final days of 2014. Keeping up with the blog seems to get harder and harder with each passing week. Why? I have no idea. It’s just a matter of finding the time to just ramble off what we’ve been up to, what we have going on, what we’re dealing with. For some reason, that time just seems to escape me with each passing day. But, I’m going to do my best to keep plugging through, and keep sharing our lives with the world (well, with the person or two who may actually still check in on this thing). I still get in random moods to login and look at my blogging over the years…see what we were up to, compare what we’re going through with one child to what we went through with the others, I do it often, and I can’t explain how awesome it is being able to look back at things at the click of the mouse. My own personal time machine.

On Monday, we woke up miserable. Eliza slept horribly, and woke up feeling so hot, just burning up. I was so exhausted, but I HAD to go to work. Luckily, she goes to my in-laws on Monday’s, so sick or not, she’ll get cuddles and TLC no matter where she is. I’m hoping her teeth are just making her miserable…all of the symptoms are there, so fingers crossed it isn’t anything more than that. Christian and I were off to work, the big girls off to daycare. So far Olivia seems to be coping well with being stuck at daycare all day. Though, I shouldn’t be surprised. Olivia is so funny, so smart, very friendly and way goofy – but she is a bit shy. She never talks about anybody at school, it doesn’t appear that she’s making any real friends there. I think the problem is that she’s so attached to her daycare friends though. Those are the friend she plays with, when I drop her off and pick her up, she squeals and runs to her friends like a normal little girl. Those  are the friends she wants to invite to her birthday party…it’s like she doesn’t realize that it’s OK to make MORE friends, she’s just clinging to her daycare friends. I’ve been hoping since school started that she would get over that, and branch out, but here we are, almost 4-months into the schoolyear, and still nothing. We’ll have to talk to her teacher about it again at her next conferences…just make sure there isn’t anything more going on. Other than that, I’m seriously just super happy that the Christmas season is over, and after Olivia’s birthday/party this weekend, life will finally slow down for a bit. YES!!

Well, they're loving their new trampoline...I don't think this is what it's meant for though. Quite the opposite actually.

Tuesday brought more teething misery. Teething is seriously the pits…it’s just the WORST!!! They say a woman’s body/mind is meant to forget the pain of childbirth…likely because nobody would have more than one kid if you honest to God remember what it felt like. I’m pretty sure parents are also meant to forget how horrible teething is. To bring fact to that point, I posted this on facebook and mother after mother chimed in about just how miserable the whole thing is. But, we do indeed have a tooth poking through, so I’m hoping that brings a little relief. Other than that, the day was pretty standard. She did well at daycare…I think the distraction tends to help. Work went well. Pretty much the usual. Looking forward to a day off again Thursday, and ringing in the new year tomorrow! 2014 – you have one day left, make it a good one!

My poor, miserable, teething baby.

Wednesday was a pretty busy day, a busy end to the year. The girls were all off to daycare, Chrsitian off to work, and it was my work from home day as usual. Over my lunch break, I made a quick run to Walmart to get some food for the evening's New Years Eve celebrations. I started a crockpot of lil' smokies/meastballs when I got home, and got a pan of brownies in the oven. Then, back to work for the afternoon. I picked the girls up and we all met Christian at home...he was able to get off a little earlier than usual, thankfully. So, we got the house picked up, I made some deviled eggs (OMG, my fave!). Then, we had some friends over to snack the night away. Olivia's little BFF Bella spent the night with the girls, downstairs, watching movies and making a mess. Eliza's boyfriend Connor hung out with her for the evening while we adults laughed and chatted and watched all of the New Years Eve shows. Bella's dad picked her up around 10:00...Olivia's passed out a little while later watching their movies in the basement. So, the big girls were off to bed. Eliza took a brief nap during the party, but the babies were up to ring in the new year with us. It turned out to be a very fun night, a great way to ring in the new year!

Lovebirds!

And, with that, we are officially done with 2014. So crazy....it feels like we were just ringing the year in, and here we are, already saying goodbye. In 2014, Olivia turned 5, Amelia 4 and we welcomed sweet Eliza Jane into our family. Christian and I celebrated 13 years together, and our 7th wedding anniversary. We purchased my very first NEW automobile, that I love beyond belief. Other than that small payment, and our mortgage of course, we've remained debt free. While we didn't have many adventures or any vacations this year, it was really devoted to family, adjusting to our new dynamic as a family of 5 and spending time together. Olivia played her first year of baseball, both girls played soccer and both continued their swimming lessons. While Olivia was shy and nervous when baseball began, she became a shining star in no time, and really started getting the hang of it. She jumped right back into soccer, and advanced her skills quite a bit this year, while Amelia was a a bit more slow going. She wasn't sure what to make of the whole thing for the first few weeks, but eventually became a complete ball hog and really started getting into it. Amelia is still pretty green in the water, and REALLY needs to learn on her listening skills (and safety), while Olivia has become quite the fish...she swim from one side of the pool to the other with little issue, especially on her back (I'm actually quite impressed). Watching them grow, learn and advance is so incredibly rewarding, even if I have little to do with it. Speaking of learning and growing...Miss Olivia graduated from Pre-K and begin her school journey, entering kindergarten in September. She was SO excited, and has been doing amazing. She comes home with some new and incredible every day, I just can't believe it. Meanwhile, Amelia began the Pre-K program, and has been doing very well. As for Christian and myself...well, not much has changed. Our relationship is actually quite great, probably better this last year or so than it ever has been, which feels pretty great. Or jobs are going well and we continue to advance where, and when, possible. While I do have to admit, returning to work after my maternity leave this past summer was very hard....VERY hard, I'm starting to get into a little bit more of a rhythm. Christian's family expanded with his sister marrying her boyfriend, Leo, and welcoming him and his two kids into the family. While my family felt the loss of our final grandparent, and with it, a giant tear in our family. There's definitely a rift, that I'm afraid won't be mended now. My what a hear can bring.

Now, we're ready to hit the ground running in 2015. Our goal for 2015 is to continue focusing on our family, and growing as a unit. Remaining debt free, and saving up for a new vehicle for Christian. Next fall we'll be sending Amelia off to kindergarten, and Eliza will be starting the full time toddler program at the center. I'm hoping with all of my might we can fit in a trip at some point this year...Wisconsin Dells or up north somewhere. Fingers crossed. Other than that, I'm looking forward to a pretty low key year. But, you just never know where life will take you....

Until Next Week! XOXO