Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year

I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year. I'll update with Christmas pictures later.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope Santa brought you lots of great presents!

Saturday, December 22, 2007

11 months old

Eek, the next time I post one of these Megan will be a year old. Anyway, this has been a big month of milestones for Megan. She started walking, yippeeee, and has also started clapping, waving, and a few nights ago we taught her how to blow kisses, which is the cutest thing ever. She had clapped and waved in the past, but now she does both on a regular basis, and at the appropriate times. She has walked on her own a couple more times. She has only taken 4 or 5 steps at a time on her own, but she is making progress and is doing it on her own. She was cruising along the love seat yesterday and let go and walked over to the recliner all on her own. Walking seems to be something she finally wants to do instead of crawling everywhere. She isn't talking mush yet. Mama and Dada are still all that is understandable. She is quite the chatterbox, but most of her conversations are just babbling for now. Her personality is so funny. She loves to do things just to get a laugh and really enjoys playing with Emma and Nathan. Every new phase she hits is so fun and enjoyable, but there are days I miss her just being a baby. This year has gone by way too fast, and there are days I'd rather just sit with Megan and enjoy time with her than do anything else.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

camera bag

My new camera bag got here last night, YAY! It is really cute and everything fits nicely inside. I am pretty sure that if I get one more lens or a flash it will also fit in this bag, but I'm pretty sure that is all I'll get in there. I already have two lenses, am 18-55, and a 75-300, so I probably don't have a need for another lens right now. I can see how a flash would be helpful since I have already taken some pictures that I wish there was more light for.
The other exciting thing from yesterday is that Sean is off work from now until January 2. I am really happy to get to spend the next two weeks with him, but not nearly as excited as Emma and Nathan. To them I may as well not exist if dad is around, which isn't all bad since it gives me a nice break. Sean hates that he doesn't get to just relax the whole time, but he loves spending time with the kids too, so it all works out.
I am hoping to get Nathan's room painted in the next couple of days. I painted our bedroom last weekend and I'll put pictures of that and Nathan's room when it gets finished.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

more Christmas decorations

Here are some pictures of the inside of our house. They are not the greatest decorations ever, but anything Christmas makes me happy. Only 5 1/2 shopping days left, and I will probably need all of them to finish. I wish I were really rich and money was not part of the deciding factor on what to get people. Then I'd buy everyone I know presents because I love giving presents to people.



Christmas party

Last night was the kids Christmas party at school. Being the horrible parent I am, I had no idea how big of a deal this was going to be. So we showed up with the kids in nice clothes, but not super dressy Christmas outfits, and without grandma! Emma could have cared less about her clothes, but the fact that Grandma wasn't there, and wasn't coming..., well, let's just say I might as well have ran over her favorite toy, repeatedly. I explained that I didn't know I was supposed to invite Grandma, and plus she'd worked that day, so it would have been hard for her to get there anyway. It stopped the comnplaining, but not the unhappy face. Anyway, once we got over that, the kids did have a good time. They did some Christmas crafts and we wrapped presents I had bought for their donations for the nursing home. That was this months special project for the kids. Every month the preschool picks a local charity/organization to donate things too. One month it was the animal shelter, another it was stuffed animals for the ambulance district, you get the idea. I think it's great that they have this program so the kids can learn about sharing things with other people who aren't as lucky as they are. That is definitely a lesson every needs at some point in their life. Anyway, after their crafts and wrapping the present, and then having a snack, The teachers rounded up all the kids to sing the Christmas songs they'd been working on in class. God Bless those teachers because I don't know how they managed to coordinate all of those 3 & 4 year olds, but they did a great job. Unfortunately they put Nathan in the middle of the fron row and he did this almost the entire time:

Based on the way his teacher talks about him, I'm guessing Nathan did really good at the singing and hand movements in class, but for whatever reason he totally froze up in front of everyone and covered his face the whole time. OOPS! All well, those will be great pictures to tease him about one day. Here are some other pictures from last night. And since I'm always puting pictures of Sean on here, I guess it's only fair to finally include one of me.



snow

We finally got a lot of snow over the weekend. We haven't had a good snow storm in years, and I was so happy to have more than just a dusting. The kids were also thrilled to have so much snow to go play in. Megan seemed to like the snow too, especially eating it.


Monday, December 17, 2007

because my husband is awesome

I already got my Christmas present. We have jumped on the bandwagon of the slr frenzy and are now the proud owners of this:

It's a canon rebel xti. Yippeeee! I'm so excited even though now I have tons of reading to do to learn how to use all the awesome features it has. I'm already amazed at the quality difference compared to our old camera. I know I'll get lots of great pictures at Christmas and on our trip to disney in March. Woohoo for having such a great hubby. He also let me get a really cute camera bag, even though it is kind of expensive. If you know me, you know I love bags and it took a lot of searching online to find a really cute camera bag that wasn't like a black canvas box. I finally found this Crumpler bag. I bought the 5 million dollar home in red, of course. I am hoping it is as cute in person as it is online.

I got mine from bagyou.com, and I got free shipping on it too. If I have time later today I'll post pictures from out big snow storm that I took with my new toy. Merry Christmas to me!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Congratulations Laura

so I am probably the worst friend ever. My really good friend Laura is graduating with her masters degree tonight, and where am I? Sitting on my butt watching tv. It's not like I'm just blowing her off, but I still feel bad that I can't be there for such an exciting day in her life. The weather kind of has me worried and I didn't want to get up their and then have it snow a ton and me not be able to make it home easily and safely. I am so proud of Laura for achieving this. She kind of makes me feel like a loser for accomplishing this with an amazing gpa and being so driven, but I'm very happy for her. She has worked really hard for this and I'm glad this day has finally arrived, although probably not even half as happy as she is. So we want Laura to know we are all here chearing her on, even if we couldn't make it tonight. Love you Auntie Laura!

Friday, December 14, 2007

and she walks

Megan took her first steps today. She took two steps all by herself wakling from me to Sean. I'm so excited and I only hope we can get her to keep walking and start walking more and more. I don't think she realized she wasn't holding onto anything. She was just going after the ball Sean was holding. What an accomplishment!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Girly presents

Look what I got the girls for Christmas.

This is the picture from the website. I got the bracelets made in the girls's birthstones and they look great. I will post pictures of theirs after they open them on Christmas. They are so cute, and the girl who made them is the sweetest person ever. She even agreed to meet me so I could pick them up and not pay for shipping. Then genious me totally forgot that I was supposed to meet her and she called me like 15 minutes after I was supposed to be there. I jumped in the car and met her, but I felt so bad that she had to sit there and wait on me. Especially since she took time out of her day to make things easier for me. I'm so jealous of her job. She flips houses, and is really successful at it. She does pretty much all the work herself, and it looks fantastic. Her last project she just listed and it turned out great. I would love to be able to do something like that, of course wouldn't we all.
Anyway, you can visit her website here. Happy Shopping!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Family Christmas

This past weekend my extended family came into town for our annual family get together. It is always a good time, and this year was no different. We went out to eat and then headed to the hotel where everyone was staying. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins, and the adults all talked and ate some more. Of course the big news that my cousin will want everyone to know, is that she and Sean are the beer pong champs this year! I hope they stay in shape during the off season so they are prepared for next year's challengers. In other big news another cousin announced she recently got engaged. Yay Amber! We missed eveyone that couldn't be here this year, and hope next year you can come. Because I'm a scatterbrained mother of three I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures to share with you. If anyone wants to send me some that they took I'd be happy to post them.

Friday, December 7, 2007

...I'm going to Disneyland

Well, actually we're going to disney world, but that isn't quite as catchy. We decided that it was time to take the kids to Disney. Part of me wanted to wait another year, but the other half off me knows the kids will have a great time, even if they are a little young to do everything.
Originally we were going to drive to Florida to save money. We were really surprised at how awesome the kids did the weekend we did all that driving to pick up the camper, so we figured they would be just fine on the ride to Florida. My plan was to rent a bigger suv of some kind so we'd be a little more comfortable, but once I started researching a car for the week, plus a couple extra days for drive times, I thought maybe I could find a decent airfare in the same range. I found an awesome deal on travelocity for our flight. It was $170 a person round trip, non-stop. Then I found a package deal for the airfare plus 6 nights in a two bed/two bath condo for only $100 more. So we are flying 5 people (Megan is still free thankfully), and staying for 6 nights for under $1200 after taxes and fees and all that crap. We are still thinking about renting a car while we're there, but we obviously won't need anything really big or nice since we'll just be traveling around town, and possibly driving to Sean's mom's, which still isn't far.
Thanks to the company Sean works for we get free tickets to Sea World, and they are building a water park that should be open by the time we go that we also get free tickets too. That will save us a lot of money because tickets to go anywhere down there are crazy expensive. If anyone has any good discount sites or places to go for deals on tickets, please let me know. I'd also appreciate any tips on flying with the kids. Not just how to keep them entertained on the plane, but getting through the airport with all our crap successfully. 5 people traveling for a week long vacation equals a lot of stuff. Ideally we'll check everything we can, and Emma and Nathan can each carry at least their own backpacks with their coloring books and small toys and things like that in them. I'm tempted to buy them each a little rolling suitcase to pack their stuff in so they can pull that, and then Sean and I would only need one bigger suitcase for us and Megan. Another thing we need to think about is Megan's car seat. She's flying as a lap child, but we'll need her seat for the rental car in Florida. Has anyone ever rented a car seat? Are they safe? Are we better off bringing her carseat and checking it? Obviously I have lot to figure out, but we still have a couple of months to plan everything.
We haven't told the kids yet. I am trying to get through the holidays and then I'll probably spring this on them. They can only handle so much excitement at once, and once I tell them they will probaly ask everyday how many more days until we leave. I don't need to hear that for the next 3 months!
If anyone wants to join us we'll be going at the beginning of March. We will be leaving on a wednesday and returning on a tuesday, which is how I got such a good deal on airfare. I can't wait!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Christmas decorations

If you know me at all, you know I love Christmas and all the decorations that come with it. Last year I had all our stuff up 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. This year I was a little slower, but not by much. Each year I try to add a little bit to my stash of Christmas decorations. That way I'm not spending a lot of money all at once, but eventually I'll have all the stuff I want for the house. Sean thinks I'm nuts for getting this excited about Christmas decorations. He thinks they are too much work when all you do is look at them. But I do most of the work myself so I don't really care what he thinks.

Here are a couple of pictures of the outside of the house. I would put some up of our inside decorations, but there are toys everywhere right now, and I'm just too lazy to pick them up. Maybe tonight I can get a picture with the oustide lights on. All I know is everything would look better if we could get some snow!

here is a close up of the wreath on our front door


Also if you live in the St. Louis area, you may want to check this website out. It is a site for a house that does a light and music show. Their site also has a list of other houses in the area that do the same kind of thing on the links and map page. Enjoy the show!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

santa may be late

As I've mentioned several times already I'm way behind on Christmas stuff this year. I had most of Emma and Nathan's shopping done already, but nothing was bought for Megan, so this past weekend I decided to get online and take advantage of Target's free shipping offer. I was really excited to find most of the stuff I wanted to buy for her on target's site and was patting myself on the back for finishing Megan so easily when I looked at the shipping dates. Umm, yeah, her stuff isn't supposed to be shipped until December 31st! OOPS! I placed my order on November 30, but for whatever reason the items I bought are on a scheduled shipment of 4-6 weeks. So now what? Do I play the waiting game and hope that things ship much sooner than the site estimates? I know Megan won't know the difference if santa arrives late for her, but Emma and Nathan will notice if there are no presents for Megan. Thats just how they are. They are always concerned about their siblings having things too. I'm really bummed because a present I bought for someone else is included in the delayed order. I know they'll understand why their present isn't here on Christmas, but I still feel bad. The thing that really irks me is I got back online two days later to order presents for the girls's birthdays so I wouldn't have to worry about that right after Christmas, and since there is still free shipping, and those items got shipped yesterday. Why can nothing be easy?

Monday, December 3, 2007

new layout is here

Yay! Thanks to Becca for the links to some blogger templates I now have a very festive page. Only after copying and pasting the html and clicking save twice did I realize I deleted the picture of the kids, my list of blogs I frequent and my visitor ticker, but I am getting those added back in, so all is well. I just made a little more work for myself, but what's new. I'm hoping to get some good pictures of the house decorations tonight to share with everyone. That is if we can get all the toys moved out of the way!

Christmas pictures

I took the kids this morning to have their Christmas pictures taken. Now that I have picked up their proofs I realize this is the year that we will look at pictures from and think, "The kids looked horrible that year." Getting all 3 of them to actually look at the camera at the same time was quite the feat. Getting them all to smile while looking at the camera at the same time was pretty much impossible. So you can all pretty much expect silly looking Christmas pictures in your cards this year. I hope that when we get family pictures taken this spring things go much better. This photo shoot does not give me much confidence though. Enjoy!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

different layouts

I am dying for a new layout for our blog. I don't even know why I say our, Sean never contributes to this thing. Anyway, I am so bored with bloggers preset layouts, but I know nothing about writing html, so I can't just change the layout myself. Anyone have any good links to layouts I can use with blogger? Please say yes!

Perfect Present

Sean got me an awesome present for our anniversary. The traditional gift for the 4th anniversary is fruit/flowers, which is ok, but not too exciting. The modern fourth anniversary gift is appliances, which is a lot more exciting to me. So I got Sean a pressure washer. He was pretty excited. I thought he might be a little miffed since that means he has some work to do in the spring, but he was really happy and said he's been wanting one. My present was something I've been drooling over basically since we got married. My mom has one, and hers has lasted for at least 15 years. It not the super fancy one that comes with all the gadgets, but knowing me I'd probably never use those anyway. Did you figure it out yet?
It's a....
well here is a picture of Sean's present:






















I'm so excited to finally have one of these. I can't wait to use it. It's just in time for making holiday cookies and candy too. YUMMY!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Happy Anniversary...


... to us! It's hard to believe we've been married 4 years today. Sometimes it seems like less, but most days it feels like more. Not because being married to Sean is bad or difficult, but because we've been through so much. We have 3 beautiful healthy children and a great house and I'm so happy. Things are not always easy in our life, in fact things are rarely easy, but we always get through it together. Sean is definitely my rock. He doesn't let things get to him, and him staying calm and level-headed helps me to get through things sanely. If it weren't for him I'm sure I'd have gone off the deep end long ago! There are plenty of days that I get so frustrated I want to kill him, but it is really hard to stay mad at him. I don't know how I got so lucky to end up with someone so wonderful.
As far as celebrating today, I doubt we'll do anything too exciting. It's a Wednesday and Megan still won't take a bottle, so it's not like we can go far. I'd love to plan a weekend getaway for just Sean and I, but there are two problems with that. One, we need a babysitter willing to put up with all 3 kids for a whole weekend, which is a lot to ask of anyone; and two, I would have to be willing to leave the kids with someone for a whole weekend. It's not that I wouldn't trust who I'd be leaving the kids with, it's just hard to leave my babies and be far away from them.
Anyway, I just want to say thank you to Sean for sticking by my for the last 4 years, throughout all the happiness and craziness, and I'm looking forward to many more together.
And now, some pictures from our wedding day.




Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Thinking of having kids?

I got this in an email today and I thought it was too funny not to share. I laughed pretty hard at some of these because they are so true!

Thinking of Having Kids?
Do this 15 step program first!

Lesson 1
1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12
pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6
1. Take an egg carton. Using a pair of scissors and a jar of paint, turn it into an alligator.
2. Now take the tube from a roll of toilet paper. Using only Scotch tape and a piece of aluminum foil, turn it into an attractive Christmas candle.
3. Last, take a milk carton, a ping-pong ball, and an empty packet of Cocoa Puffs. Make an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower.

Lesson 7
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them
with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 8
1. Get ready to go out.
2. Sit on the floor of your bathroom reading picture books for half an hour.
3. Go out the front door.
4. Come in again. Go out.
5. Come back in.
6. Go out again.
7. Walk down the front path.
8. Walk back up it.
9. Walk down it again.
10. Walk very slowly down the sidewalk for five minutes.
11. Stop, inspect minutely, and ask at least 6 questions about every cigarette butt, piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue, and dead insect along the way.
12. Retrace your steps.
13. Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the neighbors come out and stare at you.
14. Give up and go back into the house.
You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.

Lesson 9
Repeat everything you have learned at least (if not more than) five times.

Lesson 10
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is also excellent). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat.
Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 11
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.
You are now ready to feed a nine-month old baby.

Lesson 12
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street, Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking what's
'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 13
Move to the tropics. Find or make a compost pile. Dig down about halfway and stick your nose in it. Do this 3-5 times a day for at least two years.

Lesson 14
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 15
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 14 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Turkey Day

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. We stayed home Thursday and Sean and I made Thanksgiving dinner by ourselves. It turned out pretty good, but not as good as my mom's. Friday we went to my mom's and stuffed ourselves with another thanksgiving dinner, and lots of pie. The kids stayed at mom's Friday night, and Sean and I went Christmas shopping for them. We are almost finished shopping for Emma and Nathan, but that is still all I have. I am not one of those people that loves to shop on Black Friday. I looke through the ads in the paper ever year, but there is never anything in there that makes me want to get up at 4am and go stand in line in the cold. I also hate shopping when it's crowded. I'd rather pay a little more and have an enjoyable experience than save a few bucks and be sleep deprived and crabby. I really need to get my act together and make a list of what I'm planning to buy for who. I am so unprepared its ridiculous. I love giving people Christmas presents, but the preparation is kind of a pain. How is everyone else doing on their Christmas shopping? Surely I'm not the only slacker.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

10 months old

Megan is 10 months old today. In honor of the occasion she decided today that she would learn to stand up unassisted and how to play peek-a-boo. She can now go from a sitting position to squatting to standing without holding onto anything for support. She was really funny with the peek-a-boo game tonight. I held a shirt over her face and then pulled it down and said, "peek-a-boo". She immediately started holding the shirt up and then pulling it down and looking at me until I said peek-a-boo. It was really cute, even though she didn't always end up with the shirt completely covering her face. Yesterday she clapped for the first time. I guess she is a little late on this milestone, but we don't clap a lot around her, so it makes sense that she wouldn't pick up on that skill as quickly. She also seems to have learned to smile when I point the camera at her. I'm not sure if it's just a coincidence or not. I guess only time will tell.
She seems to get smarter every day. She is always watching and trying to take everything in. She has become an amazingly fast walker. If only we could get her to let go and walk. I have been trying to give her a lot more solids in an effort to keep up with her incredible metabolism and I hope it's paying off. I have to take her to the doctor next week to get her flu shot booster and I'm hoping they will weigh her again so I can see if my efforts are paying off. It's hard to believe she is only 2 months away from her first birthday. She doesn't really seem like a baby anymore now that she is babbling a lot and cruising around the furniture, but once she is a year she is officially not a baby anymore.
I'm also really worried about having to wean her from breastfeeding. Nathan pretty much weaned himself when he was 13 months old. He was eating a lot of solids and mainly nursing only in the morning and at night. Of course he was also sleeping through the night. I just don't think that in 3 months Megan will be sleeping through the night and eating enough solids to even be close to being done nursing. She is very attached to breastfeeding, both as a food source and for comfort. It's not that I want to stop breastfeeding, but generally when your child is a year old, other people start pressuring you to stop nursing. I want both Megan and I to be ok with stopping. I'm not saying I'll nurse her until she's 3 or anything crazy, but I will not make weaning a miserable process for either of us. I know it seems silly to worry about all this now since she's still not a year old, but time goes by so quickly and I'd like to plan ahead a little.

We made it

Nathan got better by Wednesday afternoon, and no one else got sick, so we made our trip successfully. The kids were aweseome. By my calculations we were in the car for 16 hours between Thursday night at 6:00pm and lat Friday night/early Saturday morning at about 1am. Even Megan did great and didn't cry much. Friday's drive was long and stressful. Sean did great pulling the camper. That thing is huge and we were on a two lane road pretty much the whole way from Iowa to almost the Missouri-Arkansas border. Arriving at 1am and trying to park and hook up the camper for the first time in the dark was not a great experience, but we were successful. It was a gorgeous weekend and the kids got to play outside quite a bit. They were mad they couldn't go swimming and just didin't get why the pool was closed. Sean's dad's friend loaned us his mule, which is similar to a John Deere gator, not a 4 leeged animal, to drive around the ranch in for a day. It was chilly, but we bundled everyone up and had a nice ride and saw a ton of deer everywhere in the evening. I do have some pictures but I haven't uploaded them yet, I will add them to the post hopefully soon.


Since we just got back into town last night I have to brave the grocery store tonight so we will actually have food in the house for tomorrow. We aren't having thanksgiving at my moms until Friday, so we are on our own tomorrow. Sean wants me to make a turkey and everything else, and I am very nervous since I've never done it all myself. Friday we will have thanksgiving at my moms, but before that I've been invited to an alumni soccer game at my old high school. I would love to go and see everyone, but I'm afraid I might die if I have to play since I haven't played in years and I've had 3 kids. Thank god I lost all my weight, but that doesn't mean I'm prepared for a 90 minute soccer game. I'll let you know if I survive. :)

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

well...

Murphy's law pretty much describes my life all the time. I feel like if something can be screwed up it will happen. Now these bad things are not so terrible that they can't be dealt with, but it seems as though nothing goes as planned, ever. We are leaving tomorrow night to drive 6 hours to Iowa to pick up our new camper, and then Friday driving almost 8 hours from Iowa to southern missouri to drop it off for storage for the winter. We were supposed to get this done last weekend, but because of some paperwork screw up we had to push things back a week. This meant that instead of Sean's dad taking Sean to Iowa and using his truck we had to find a new mode of transportation (thanks James!) and the whole family is going. That wouldn't be such a big deal, except that Nathan woke up puking today. He's only gotten sick 3 times, so I'm hoping it's just because of his cold and we aren't in for a major family stomach flu in the midst of all the traveling, but who knows. Worse case scenario Sean has to drive by himself to Iowa and then deliver the camper by himself and I'll drive down to meet him Saturday if everyone is well.
In other news I am waaaaaaay behind this year on all things Christmas. Well Sean and I did get started on the outside lights since it was so nice this past weekend, and I put the tree up, but I have ZERO Christmas shopping done, and have not even started on my Christmas cards. Last year by now I was done with the cards and had a significant portion of shopping finished. I guess the 3rd kid totally did me in! I am hoping that while Sean is home for 4 days over Thanksgiving I'll get some work done, both in terms of Christmas preparations and stuff on the house.
I've decided that the redecorations of our room is going to have to wait. Sean really wants to get started on the basement, and he wants to go back to school for his masters, so it just doesn't make sense financially to get new furniture for our room right now when ours is ok. I am planning to paint it soon, as I am tired of looking at the tan walls, but it looks as though that is the only imporvement I'm going to get now. I'm definitely planning to paint Nathan's room, and since his bedroom is only 12x12 that should be a one day project.
In my head I have all these great ideas of things I'd like to achieve, but with 3 kids I can only squeeze so much into a day.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Our hard work

Here are the bathroom before pics. They are from during construction, so it's a little unfinished:




And the afters:




And here is the office before, don't mind the pile of kids toys in the before pics:



And the afters:




Next up is Nathan's room!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

9 months old

I know I'm late on this, yet again, but at least I'm remembering to do them! :) Anyway Megan is 9 months old now. I took her in for her check up and she is 15 pounds 12 ounces and 27 1/2 inches long. The doctor mad me feel like we are starving her because she is in the 50th percentile for height, but only the 10th for weight. I'm really not worried since she is gaining weight, and I know how incredibly active she is. It makes me mad that he acted like there was something terrible about her being a skinny baby. Anyway, she also had an ear infection that I didn't even know about, but she wasn't overly fussy, and didni't have a really high fever, so how was I to know. The overall report is that she is healthy, but not fat enough!
I am so sad that she is so close to 1 year old already, but she is so cute and her personality is so funny, that spending time with her is something I try to enjoy as much as possible. I'm trying to get her to walk on her own soon, and she is close, but she still seems to prefer crawling. She is starting to talk a lot and more of it is sounding like real words. Mama and Dada are very clear now, but she no longer will say them if you ask her to. She is doing everything in her own time. There really isn't a lot of new things she is doing, I think she's just perfecting all the skills she already has. She still doesn't sleep through the night. I wish I knew why so I could fix it, but getting up with her every 3 hours or so is just routine now. I'm not saying I wouldn't love a good nights sleep, but since I don't have a choice, this is fine too now that I'm used to it. Maybe she's holding out until christmas so it will be her present to us! She also still has no interest in a cup or bottle, so Sean and I have not had any time away from all 3 of the kids since Megan was born. My mom babysits the older two when we ask, but since we still have Megan with us, there aren't many adult things we can do. It's not a big deal to me though. In the grand scheme of things one year with no kid free time really isn't that long, and they are only little once.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Home improvement central

Sorry I've been mia for a while. We decided to finally rip the carpet out of our bathroom and put tile down. It has turned into quite a long project, because with 3 kids, pretty much nothing gets done unless they are sleeping. Being busy on the weekends hasn't helped either, but we are finally puting everything back together in there now. In the middle of all that we also decided to turn the kids playroom into an office. This didn't involve as much construction, but it did require a lot of sorting and organizing of both the kids' toys and our office stuff, as well as a day of me painting. I think it looks really good and now I'd like to put some french doors on it, but Sean seems hesitant to do that. The room is supposed to be a dining room, but we always used it as a playroom because that's what we needed. Now, we need an office and the kids have gotten rid of a lot of their toys, or put them away in their rooms, but Sean is afraid to make this room too much like and office in case we ever do want to use it as a dining room. While I love the idea of having a gorgeous dining room with beautiful furniture (can you tell I already have it designed in my head?), I just don't think that is a practical use of space for us. It would only get used a couple of times a year, and the office is used all the time already.
The next project on our list in the basement. For some reason Sean is suddenly very gung ho about finishing the basement, and there is no way I'm going to stand in his way on that. I would love to have a family room down there that I can put the man furniture we currently have in our living room, and the big screen in. I do love the man furniture because it is comfortable, but it's man furniture. All of it reclines, has vibrating back massaging things in them, and the arm rests flip open and there are cup holders inside. Comfortable, but not really nice.
Our list of home improvement also includes our bedroom, which I want to paint and install crown molding in. We are also hoping to get new bedroom furniture and new bedding. I also would like to tile the powder room. It currently has carpet, which is quickly getting as gross as the carpet in our bathroom was. I am still in shock that carpet in the bathrooms was standard in our house and we would have had to pay to "upgrade" to vinyl flooring in them, but most of you have already heard me complain about that. The list of things I want to do to this house does continue, but those are the things I am concentrating on now. We also still have a ton of work to do in our back yard. BLAH! While discussing this list the other day Sean commented that "Basically I'm never going to be done working on the house, am I?" To which I replied "When you think you are finished, I will want to move and start over!"

Monday, October 15, 2007

Family Tradition

My family has lots of traditions and they are all very important to me, and I think it's important to pass these traditions on to our kids. This weekend we went to my cousins to make apple butter. My kids are the 6th generation to be a part of this family tradition. We go down on Friday and peel apples all afternoon, and then Saturday morning at 6am the guys get the fire going and we cook the apples for about 5 1/2 hours until they become apple butter. Our family has a big copper kettle that we use to cook the apples. We also have a large wooden paddle to stir the apples with, and the pot has to constantly be stirred or the apples will stick and burn. The kids don't really understand the signifigance of what they are part of yet, but I hope that one day they will enjoy making apple butter as much as I do and pass this on to their kids.

Monday, October 8, 2007

camping trip

We went on a camping trip this past weekend with a big group of friends and family. When they originally planned the trip I thought it would be pretty chilly, but probably still comfortable enough to enjoy the trip. Boy was I wrong! With highs around 90 degrees it felt like summer all weekend. The kids got to go swimming all weekend. Who would have thought we'd be swimming on an October camping trip? The kids had a great time camping. Megan on the other hand is not such a good camper. I think it was just too hot for her to be comfortable and I had to bring her home early. We also all took pumpkins and carved them on Saturday. I am hoping next year we will do this again and the weather will be more fall-like.

Field Trip #2

The kids had another field trip on Friday. This time we went to the pumpkin patch. They had a lot of fun going on a hay ride, and playing on the huge playground, and then picking out a pumpkin. Their school has so many activities every month we are incredibly busy. The kids are having a great time with everything going on, but I'm almost overwhelmed by all that we have to do.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Family Day

Every year Sean's company has a family day. This year it was at Busch Stadium. We get to arrive at the ballpark several hours prior to the game and we can walk the warning track, the kids can run the bases, and a lot of the cardinal players are out signing autographs. They also had the world series trophy out for pictures, and all kinds of other fun things to do. Then we all got to stay for the hoome game that night. The kids had a lot of fun, even though it was hot, and of course Sean had a good time since it was at the ballpark.

8 months old

I realize I'm a few days late with this post, but better late than never. Megan has grown so much in the last month. I don't know if she's actually bigger, but she is definitely less like an infant and quickly transitioning into the toddler stage. She is a really fast crawler and now she's pulling up on the couch and cruising around the living room like she's done it her whole life. She's still not sleeping through the night, but we are so used to that I know it will completely freak me out when it actually does happen. Megan's personality is becoming more apparent every day. She is so funny, and will do something silly just for a laugh. She loves when daddy gets home and she crawls after him and cries if he won't stop and pick her up. Yesterday we decided to try something new with Megan at bath time. She got into the big bathtub for the first time, and she did really well. I'm glad she is big enough for this as it will make bath time much easier.