12/4/10 - Picture Day!

Today we had a fun, family day together. We all woke up nice and early and I made a big breakfast feast for us. After we ate, we hung out for a little while. Amelia went down for her nap pretty early, but, luckily, she took a nice long nap. Christian went outside to plow the drive way and clean up the garage a little bit while Olivia and I played. He finally came inside and I started on my chores. The basement was a complete DISASTER. The basement used to be kind of our main living area. We had the big TV down there, the DVR, the nice comfy couch. Since having Amelia, we rarely go down there, so it’s become the dumping grounds of the house. It was time to tackle the disaster. I cleaned and vacuumed the carpet, picked up and reorganized toys, cleaned up the laundry room and the storage under the stairs, finally packed some of the old kids’ clothes away and everything was nice and fresh again! Seeing that we are never down there, hopefully it will stay that way!

Finally we had some lunch and showered. The girls woke up and we got them all cleaned up and dressed to take our Christmas picture! I’m trying to be more efficient about sending our cards out this year…hopefully people will get them sooner than the week of Christmas! Ha. I must say, the picture taking was much more successful than I expected! The very first shot we took ended up being the best one…Olivia actually sat down, looked at the camera and even smiled! We couldn’t believe it. Of course, Amelia is not looking at the camera in the least bit, but we can deal with that.

After dinner and some more playing, the girls went down to bed, and Christian left to hang out with a friend from work for a while. I hopped on the computer to order our cards and play online for a while. I had great expectations of enjoying my alone time and catching up on the DVR…but decided to just go to bed instead. I sure hope one day I won’t be exhausted 24/7!

A lot of my readers will be getting a card, but here's our Christmas picture anyway!

12/3/10 – Check Up Time!

Today I got to spend the day with the girls, and we had lots of fun together. They were both very well behaved, took nice, long naps and didn’t give me too much trouble. That was nice. We’re in the midst of another snow storm right now. The snow rolled in around 12:00 and is supposed to continue basically all weekend. Oh joy!

I was up bright and early to hop in the shower and get ready, because Amelia had her 4-month check-up this morning. After getting ready, I QUICKLY got them ready, grabbed Olivia some breakfast and we were out the door (running late, of course). My last attempt at a doctor’s appointment, with both girls, alone did NOT go smoothly, so I was pretty nervous. We got there and Olivia was mesmerized by the fish tank the entire wait, which worked well. And, we didn’t have to wait too long, which was great. Olivia refulsed to cooperate in going back into the exam room...until she finally realized the appointment was not for her. Then she was happy as a clam!

The appointment went really well…just the standard length, weight, chatting, do’s and don’ts and vaccinations. Amelia is now 24.5” (up 4.5” from birth), which puts her in the 53%. Funny thing is…this is the exact same length Olivia was at 4 months! Amelia us now a whopping 12lbs4ozs (up 5.1 from birth), which puts her in the 16% (Olivia was already 15.5lbs at this point, I think somewhere in the 60%). So, Amelia is still our little peanut for sure. The doctor was not concerned about it at all…he said she’s happy and healthy and growing just fine, she’s just on the smaller side. She got 2 shots and 1 oral vaccine. She welled up with surprise after the 2nd shot, and that was it. No screaming, no crying…nothing. I couldn’t believe it! That’s my tough girl.

After the appointment, we picked up some lunch and ran home. The girls ate and went down for their naps, and I just relaxed. Cleaned up the kitchen a little bit, did the checkbooks, paid some bills, addressed Olivia’s birthday invitations and watched some TV. The girls woke up pretty late from their naps, ate a little bit and we just hung out, waiting for dad to get home. I started dinner…and still no dad. Thanks to the snow, his 20 minute drive turned into 90. YAY. He finally got home, we all ate some dinner, and shortly after, it was time for the girls to go to bed…and we were not far behind. We’re awesome!

Here’s a picture of me and my peanut today :)

12/2/10 – 23 Months…WHAT?!

First of all…did you read that?!? My baby is 23 months old today! Do you know what that means?! She is going to be 2 in one month! How can this be? How did this happen? It seems like just yesterday I found out I was pregnant with her. It seems like just yesterday she entered our lives and started our family. It seems like just yesterday I was watching her learn to hold things, learn to roll over, learn to crawl, learn to walk, learn those first precious words.

Now, she’s almost 2. The things she learns and picks up every day just amaze us. It’s like she has a whole new vocabulary every day. She repeats everything we say and do (so, be careful what you say and do around her!). She’s becoming more and more helpful. She is actually starting to like her sister and I think she is finally accepting that “sissy” is not going away. She brings so much joy and laughter to our lives…we could just laugh and laugh at her all day long, she’s simply hilarious. She has more energy and more “spunk” than I have ever seen in my life. Even though some days are beyond difficult, and some days she drives us absolutely batty, I wouldn’t trade it in for anything. To be able to watch her go from this helpless, completely dependent newborn, to this off the wall, amazing, smart, funny, loving almost-2-year-old is the best gift we ever could have asked for!

Other than that….today is Thursday/Friday, so, as usual, it was super busy! I had meetings ALL morning…from 7:15-11:30! I HATE MEETINGS. I would much rather be at my desk, doing the grunt work, than going to meetings. And, neither meeting was actually in my building, so I kept having to leave, out into the cold. Not cool. And, let me just say, back to back meetings are NOT conducive to a pumping mother’s schedule!

Finally, I was at my desk and rushing to get as much done as possible before the weekend. 4:30 rolled around, and I was out the door…off to meet the BFF for date night! Of course, we were off to Khan’s for dinner. YUM YUM! Date night with the BFF is always a much needed break from reality for me. A time to chat, laugh, joke around, vent, catch up and just escape our real lives. And, delicious food on top of it…you can’t beat it! After dinner, I rushed home to spend some QT with the girls before bed time, then, we were all off to bed. Amelia has been sleeping pretty well lately. Usually just getting up once, eating quickly and going right back to sleep. Hopefully this new trend continues!

12/1/10 – December, Where’d You Come From?!

It’s hard to believe, but December is here. Shopping, family, friends, parades, presents, decorating, Santa, Christmas celebrations….AKA, the month of Chaos. Love it!

Today was a pretty good day. I ordered the last of the Christmas presents I needed to get online, so YAY for that! And, it was a very time consuming project, so hopefully it will be much appreciated :) Christian’s mom is watching the girls at our house today because the townhouse complext they live in is working on the roofs (in the snow, and rain?), so I got to sleep in a TAD, the girls will actually get to nap, she's making us dinner and she’s staying over and watching them here tomorrow as well. Win, win for everybody!

I fed Amelia right when I got home and the rest of us ate right when Christian got home. After dinner, those two watched the girls while I got some stuff done around the house. I cleaned up our room and Olivia’s room. I finally put the laundry away from the weekend and picked up aroudn the house. After baths we put the girls to bed and were all pretty exhausted, and off to bed ourselves. Now, if only we had someone living with us ALL the time – maybe then I can keep up with all of our stuff! LOL.

Amelia is getting better and better at sitting, and is holding on to things so well now days. She LOVES this little ball!

11/30/10 - So Long, November!

It's true, today is the last day of November! Can you believe it?!? Only 31 short days left of 2010. Only 25 days till Christmas. Only 33 Days until my "baby" turns 2! How is that possible?!? I swear I just started this blog...but I have 334 days down, and 31 to go! WOW!

Today was an OK day. I'm still a little bit of an emotional wreck dealing with my pity party carryover from yesterday. I know things are going to get better, and I know things can be MUCH worse, but it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, ya know?!

Christian got a few hours of OT today, so that was good. After work I picked the girls up, fed them quickly and waited for Christian to get home so we could do some shopping. So, we picked up some food, a few more Christmas gifts and a couple other necessities. Oh Target, I think I keep you in business!

Amelia passed out on the way home from the store, so Christian got Olivia to bed while I actually got a chance to eat some dinner myself! Then, it was time to feed Amelia and put her down, and we were right behind. I guess the 4 loads of laundry waiting to be folded and put away will have to wait...again...and get more wrinkly! Oops.

Here's a picture of my little cutie pie today. She sure loves watching Spongebob!

11/29/10 - When It Rains, It Pours...

Well, we are not having a good stretch right now. Aside from some personal stuff I won't put out there for the world...

My car is STILL not fixed. It is still leaking transmission fluid, and we don't know what to do. Christian is probably going to be taking it to his parent's house again this weekend to give it one more shot. If they can't get it, we're really in a pickle. We can't afford any major repairs, but we also can't afford to have the transmission blow out either. I refuse to just get rid of it, and buy a cheap, used car to get us through...because I'm sure that wouldn't be any more cost efficient than keeping this one running anyway. This is when I get so mad at Christian! About 6 years ago his car gave out on him, so he decided to buy a new car. We were not married or anything at the time, so I had no say whatsoever. One day he comes home and "surprises" me with his stupid little 2-door, 2-wheel drive pick-up truck. Really? First of all, this is Minnesota - you don't buy a 2-wheel drive pick-up truck. Secondly, he's always wanted kids, so, knowing that you are going to have a family in the near future, why would you buy a little 2-door pick-up? So, a couple years later he traded that in for the big pick-up, and we still have another 2+ years left on that loan. If he would have bought this truck to begin with, we'd be done paying for it. Grrrr. So, I have to keep driving my 1999 car with 150,000 miles on it, and try to keep it going until the truck is paid off. NO FUN!

Next problem...the house. I feel like we were completely led astray when we bought it 3 years ago. We didn't have a down payment at the time, but Christian was insistent that we buy rather than wait another year...so, we did. The bank asked us what we thought we could afford a month, we told them our thoughts, and they approved us for that amount. We bought a house at the top of our scale because we knew it was going to be our "forever home"...no starter homes for us. We had to build in mortgage insurance into our payment since we didn't have a down payment...we also have our property taxes and homeowners insurance built into our payment. Our banker assured us that the mortgage insurance would drop off after the first year, and our payment would go down. Well, our payment has gone up all 3 years, we are STILL carrying mortgage insurance and were just told we have to continue until we pay off a certain percentage of the loan AND our escrow has fallen short...again, so we owe the bank a nice chunk of money...again, to make up for it. And the banks wonder why everybody is losing their houses and can't make their payments...it's like they tell you what you want to hear and set you up for failure. I don't get it.

Anyway, it just seems like the issues pile up over and over. Every time I think we're making some headway on our debt, bills and finances in general, something else happens. Every time I think things are getting better, something else happens. But, I know, in the end everything will work out and everything will be just fine. Right now, I need this:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next.

Anyways, other than that, today was a pretty low key day. I wanted to get some more Christmas shopping done after work, but Christian had to work late, so I picked up the girls and headed home instead. When I got to his parents house, I knocked on the door and peered in the window to see Olivia running towards the door. She saw me in the window and started yelling "Mommy, Mommy" over and over. As soon as I walked in the door she gave me the biggest bear hug, asked to be picked up, wrapped herself all around me and kept yelling "Mommy" with the most excitement I've ever heard. She was handing out hugs, and kisses and "I Love You's" like they were going out of style. It's like she magically knew I needed that...I needed to be shown that as long as I have my girls, I'll never be short on happiness, joy and laughter. In the end, what more could you really ask for?

Here's a picture of my little Amelia Badelia, learning to sit up by herself (supported) so well!

11/28/10 - Happy Birthday Dad (Tomorrow)!

Well, today was the last day of a VERY busy long weekend. I think we need a long weekend to recuperate from our long weekend!

We were all up bright an early this morning. Christian started Olivia’s breakfast while I fed Amelia and got started on my “chores” for the day. I quickly got the kitchen cleaned up, the dishes done and started the laundry. Olivia finished eating and got in some play time while I grabbed a bite to eat…then she and I got ready for a shopping date! I quickly fed Amelia again, and we were off.

Our first stop was Sam’s Club for diapers. Seriously, two in diapers is NO fun financially…Sam’s has be best prices I’ve found so far (Olivia HAS to wear Pampers, otherwise she breaks out really bad, so we don’t even risk it with Amelia)…but still, it’s $78.00 for a box of each of their diapers there! After that, we were off to Target for our weekly shopping. Our fridge is still jam packed with Thanksgiving leftovers, so we could only get some essentials to get through the week. We hurried through the store, then scurried on home.

Christian got Amelia down for her nap while we were gone. Olivia ate a little lunch while I put the groceries away, then it was time for her nap, and the Vikings game for us! The head coach was fired this week (finally), so we were anxious to see how the game went with the new coach. And, they WON! YAY. Hopefully they can finish off the season strong. Most everybody has counted them out completely at this point, but I won’t give up hope yet!

After the game, my dad and stepmom came over for a visit and to go to dinner for my dad’s birthday. We were just going to order in because Amelia is usually so difficult in public, but we decided to give it a whirl. I fed her and we were out the door. We brought her Bebepod Chair for her to sit in since she hates her car seat, and it actually worked out really well! She made it pretty much through dinner with little fussing, and even hung out with my dad for a while! She started getting fussy right as we were paying the bill and getting ready to leave (and Olivia, like usual, was no problem at all – thankfully, she is SO well behaved in public), so it was really perfect timing. However…

There was a guy sitting in the booth behind us, and he kept looking back at us giving us dirty looks – like we needed to get her under control or something. She wasn’t even crying, just letting a whimper out here and there, AND, we were leaving so I’m not quite sure what more he wanted from us. I was so focused on getting the girls ready and getting out the door that I didn’t really stop to realize how upset I was by this man. First of all, we have just as much right to be out as you, sir. Secondly, we were at Applebee’s, a FAMILY restaurant…what do you expect? Third, you are here by yourself…if you saw you were being seated next to two young children, and that bothered you, why didn’t you ask to be seated somewhere else, or sit at the bar? Finally…like I said, we are packing up and leaving, what more do you want us to do for you? Ugh, needed to vent, it was really annoying, and I really wish Christian or I would have said something to him.

After diner, we headed home for some family time. I finished up some more laundry, we played with the girls for a while, gave them their baths and it was off to bed. It’s hard to believe our long weekend together is over already, and it’s back to work. It’s times like this that working mother’s guilt starts to set in…

Here is a picture of Amelia with my dad at dinner (Olivia, like usual, refused to take a picture)…I think it’s just too cute!

11/27/10 - We're Old...

Today was another [mostly] fun-filled, busy day for us! The girls and I hung out all morning and while Christian took my car over to his parents again to do some MORE work on it. The transmission fluid is still leaking – Christian has been having to fill it up every time I leave the house! It took them a few hours, but they got it done, and hopefully this finally does the trick! I’m so sick of car problems, and I’d give anything for a nice, new, realizable vehicle…but this car MUST last us at least 2.5 more years. Ugh…that sounds like a LONG time to keep a crappy car alive!

After he finished working on the car, he met up with our neighbor to finish hanging the outside lights while I got the girls down for their naps and cleaned up the house a little bit. I think we both were ready for bed and the day had barely begun!

After naps, it was time to head out to a birthday party! My cousin Lindsey’s little boy is turning 3, and she had his party at Eagle’s Nest, an indoor playground. I’ve wanted to take Olivia there forever, so I was extra excited to celebrate with them. They all of these nets and stairs and slide and tubes to crawl and climb through, and they have a separate area for kids 3 and under. Well, Olivia was bored to death in that area, so we took her to the bigger kids’ side and she had a blast. Of course, that meant Christian or I had to follow behind her everywhere…and let me tell you…Eagle’s Nest was NOT built for adults. We were both in so much pain and just plain exhausted by the time we were done in there! After dinner, cake and presents, we were on our way home. We got in a little play time at home before baths and bed, then we finally got the chance to finish putting up the indoor Christmas decorations. We decided to just decorate the entry, the upstairs living room and the kitchen this year since those are our main living areas now, and I just LOVE it! The house looks so bright and fun and festive. It’s going to be sad when we take everything down! Finally, we crawled into bed and passed out! It’s been a long day, a long few days, and we have another long day tomorrow. Now, if only Amelia would let me get more than 2/3 hours of sleep at a time, maybe I could recover!

Here are some pics from the birthday party fun!

11/26/10 - It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...and...4 Months!

It’s hard to believe, but our amazing high maintenance little girl is 4 months old today! She has pretty much mastered rolling over this month. She can scoot and spin and move herself all over like a pro, but just this past week she has been rolling like a champ. She gets on her tummy and gets so shocked by it, then rolls back and again, it completely shocked! I love it. She’s still not a very good sleeper….I get a good stretch about once a week, otherwise I’m up with her every 2-3 hours. It’s frustrating at the time, but then I remind myself, this will all be a distant memory soon enough, so I really just need to enjoy my time with her. Even though she’s a lot of work, and such a fussy little thing, she still loves to smile and laugh, and has the BEST smile and laugh ever. She still spits up quite a bit, but rarely gets fussy because of it like she used to…she seems to be adjusting well. She is still swimming in her 0-3 month clothes and PJ’s, and size ½ diapers. I’m guessing we’ll get another 2-4 weeks out of them. At least she’s getting plenty of use of her clothes, that’s for sure! When she is propped up on the couch/bed/floor, she can pull herself up to a sitting position (but, can’t stay there, so she just kind of falls over...). She still hates the car and hates being in her car seat. We pulled out the jumperoo this month, and she loves that thing! We can usually get a good amount of stuff done while she’s in there, so it’s great! She is still sleeping in our room, in her bassinet, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. She is so alert and interested in the world around her, I just can’t believe. She is so focused and just looks like she constantly thinking and taking everything in…I don’t remember Olivia being this into her surroundings this early. All in all, she’s just amazing as can be! We just love our little peanut to pieces!

Other than that…today was our traditional “turn the house in the Christmasville” day. We had some breakfast and hung out for a while this morning. Then, it was time to get to work! We pulled out all of the Christmas decorations, rearranged the upstairs living room to make room for the tree and got to work. Once it warmed up a little (and I mean, a little…it was super cold and super windy all day!), Christian went outside to hang up some lights. This is our first year hanging up lights, so we’re pretty excited. Hopefully there will be some good sales on outdoor lights after Christmas so we can get some more! Our neighbor came over and helped him since I was “stuck” inside with the girls, which was very nice. While he did that, I got to work putting up the tree. We have a fake tree…I’ve never been into real Christmas trees…they make a mess, and I don’t really like the scent of pine trees, or the expense of buying one every year. So, we put our pretty fake one up every. I had it all set up by the time Olivia got up from her nap and she was SO excited to see it! Once Christian finished up outside (which took a trip to Menards to get more lights and a timer), he came in, we started blasting the Christmas tree and we decorated the tree. Olivia just loved hanging ornaments and was having the time of her life. She was VERY upset when we were out of ornaments. Amelia was very intrigued by the tree, she just stared at it in amazement the whole time. It was great fun!

Finally it was time for baths and bed. I started unpacking some of the decorations, but was just too tired to do much. So, that will have to wait until tomorrow! Here are some pics from our decorating fun!

11/25/10 - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! It seems that every year we have more and more to be thankful for; and that is such an amazing feeling! We’ve always had a great family and some really great friend. We are very lucky to have good, stable jobs that we enjoy. We don’t have a perfect relationship, but we sure love each other and are so lucky to have each other. We have the most amazing little girls, and are lucky enough to be celebrating a “first Thanksgiving” two years in a row. We have a beautiful roof over our heads…an expensive one that steals most of our money, but it’s there! We have two working cars, which get us from point A to point B, even though one steals the rest of our money and one is not very reliable! In the end, even though we could find a ton of stuff to complain about and have plenty of “woe is me” moments, we are truly blessed and have far more to be grateful for.

I was up bright and early and in the kitchen to make the Thanksgiving pies (apple and pumpkin, yum!) and some cinnamon rolls. Once she woke up, Christian took Amelia over to his parent’s house so we could focus on cleaning up the house and getting everything done. Olivia woke up just in time to enjoy some cinnamon rolls and watch the parade with me! She wasn’t TOO into it this year, but it caught her attention here and there. We started getting some of the prep work done (chopping, peeling, cutting, etc.) and finally were able to shower and get ready for company. My mom came over around 12:30 to hang out and help us, and his parents came over around 1:30. Christian and his dad had to brave the FREEZING cold and wind while they deep-fried the turkey (this was the coldest Thanksgiving since 1985!). My mom, my mother in law and I rotated between preparing, cooking and watching the girls. I finally got Amelia down for her nap, and she slept long enough for us to finish cooking and eat! After dinner, we all cleaned up and were exhausted and way too full…we were like zombies glued to the couches! My mom headed out, followed by his parents shortly after. We were able to just relax and spend a little time together before it was time for bed. Amelia did NOT want to do down for me tonight, which never happens. And, I had to get ready for black “Friday” shopping, so Christian took over and got her down.

Shortly after 9:00 our friends Nate and Gini came over. Nate and Christian hung out watching some TV and catching up while Gini and I braved the Toys R Us crowd. Now, I knew it was going to be a madhouse, but OMG I never imagined what we were in for! We pulled off the highway and could see the line wrapped around the shopping complex. It was CRAZY. We considered throwing in the towel, but decided to just go for it. We stood in line outside (in the freezing cold) for about 30 minutes. Once in the store, it was pure chaos. Lines ever where, people everywhere, madness! We split up…she found the tea trolley and got in line, I found the Mickey Train and met up with her. The thing we really wanted, a Graco doll nursery set, was nowhere to be found, and I was very sad. We ended up in line to pay for over an hour! I could not believe it. As soon as we got to the front of the line, I spotted the nursery set up by the door and one of the employees grabbed one for us. I wanted to pass out I was so excited! We finally checked out, made the long, cold trek back to the car, got home, and were exhausted! I got home just in time for Amelia to wake up hungry, Nate and Gini headed home and we all passed out. It was a looooong day! And, with Amelia’s current sleeping habits, I think it’s going to be a looooong day tomorrow too!

Here are some of our pics from today. Of course Olivia is on a new kick of refusing to cooperate for pictures, so I couldn’t get a good one of the girls together. Boo!