Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Too Busy To Blog
Sorry fans. While it's great to be home, it is hectic. We're both working full time, carting the kids to daycare and back, catching up with friends and family, and catching up with life in general. There's just not much left in either of our tanks at the end of each day! So, I'm going to keep this kind of short (but with a picture or two or 20 of course!). What have we been up to the last few weeks? Here are some of the highlights...
First week back
We moved Ava into a new bedroom - what was our guest bedroom on the main floor. Before I went back to work, I bought bedding, a rug, and some shelving (all at Target of course!) and painted the walls. It is supposed to be a light key lime green, but it looks kind of yellow in these pictures and when the overhead light is on.
Reese is now in the nursery - all I did was add wooden letters to spell her name on the wall, otherwise I didn't change any of the decorations. And if I'm being honest, it still says "ees" as I used the nails from Ava's name and still haven't added another two. But she seems to be OK with all of it. :-) Actually, knock on wood, she must love it because she is finally sleeping through the night! Well, most nights. Or at least until 4ish and then back to sleep again for a few more hours. We'll take it.
July 11-12
Our first Saturday back in town, we met up with friends J-squared and K-squared (that would be Jess, Jared, Keira and their niece Kallee) at Teddy Bear Park in Stillwater...the weather was gorgeous! Just like our sweet girls.
On Sunday, we hosted "Kid Fest 2009"...because we're getting to the point in life where most of our friends now have kids and keep having more! We added 4 (!) to the mix just since we met up last summer: Grant (1), Bennett (6 mo), Reese (6 mo), and Izaak (3 mo). So, 9 kids in all and somehow we forgot to get a picture of them all together! We had a great time - we even rented a Bounce House so the bigger kids could burn off some extra energy. Lots of good food, drinks, and commiseration. Kudos to Aunt Julie who is not a parent and came anyway :-)
July 13
I went back to work. Ick.
July 18-21
On Saturday morning, my friend and old coworker Sheila invited Ava out to her place in Monticello to ride her pony Nuttie. We had a great visit and Ava had so much fun! She was pretty tentative to ride at first, but was a lot more confident when she tried again later. We'll definitely try to get out there again before it gets cold. Does it get any cuter than this?
On Saturday night, Scot and I went out to celebrate our 11th anniversary. I've now been married exactly one third of my life. Yowza. We had dinner at W.A. Frost in St. Paul, which was wonderful. They greeted us with 2 glasses of champagne on the house and Scot even had roses delivered to our table! Aunt Julie was generous enough to babysit AND see to it that we had dessert (chocolate cake for me and creme brulee for Scot - man, she knows us well!) and Moscato D'Asti. After that we went to see The Hangover, which was hilarious. I can't remember the last time we did dinner AND a movie, so it was quite a treat! It wasn't Hawaii...but it was still pretty good. Here we are acting like we like each other.
On Sunday we looked at 7 houses. We're thinking a little more seriously about taking advantage of the low prices that are out there right now so we can move into something bigger and in a nicer neighborhood (though we wish we didn't have to worry about selling our current house). We haven't fallen in love with anything yet so we'll keep looking and see what happens. It's stressful and exciting all at the same time. Thanks to Grandma Di and Aunt Marilyn for watching our napping children for most of the time we were gone - we treated them to a nice cookout upon our return!
On Monday morning, Scot went to a Honda dealership and bought us a 2007 Honda Pilot. A few days earlier, we learned the transmission was probably going out on our Explorer (which was especially annoying considering it only had about 85K miles on it). We considered our options and decided to get a newer used vehicle, so we combed the internet (oh, how I love the internet) and found a great deal on this particular Pilot. Scot did some haggling, got a great trade in for our Explorer, and came home with the Pilot...even made it back for an eye doctor appointment at 1. It's fun to have a new vehicle! Hopefully we can get a year or two more out of my car before we have to worry about that again - buying a car is so stressful!
As I read this over, it is no wonder that I have been sick since Tuesday with a whole gamut of symptoms. Too much. All of that and my job is in limbo as my department braces for a reorganization. I have been assured I will have a job, but it will likely be different than what I'm currently doing (supervising). I told my boss today that it wouldn't break my heart if I weren't a supervisor anymore. Something has to give and it might as well be the job that I don't always like. To be determined. On a related note, another full time job at the Guard base posted on Thursday and Scot already has his app in. Wish him luck!
And some "just because" pictures.
Reese. Who is crawling. As of 6 months, 8 days. About 3 weeks earlier than Ava did. We were actually hoping she'd "underachieve" on this one. Oh well...
Princess Keira and Princess Ava
Don't be too surprised if I take a little blogging hiatus for awhile...I hope the next few weeks are much LESS exciting than the past 3 have been!
First week back
We moved Ava into a new bedroom - what was our guest bedroom on the main floor. Before I went back to work, I bought bedding, a rug, and some shelving (all at Target of course!) and painted the walls. It is supposed to be a light key lime green, but it looks kind of yellow in these pictures and when the overhead light is on.
Reese is now in the nursery - all I did was add wooden letters to spell her name on the wall, otherwise I didn't change any of the decorations. And if I'm being honest, it still says "ees" as I used the nails from Ava's name and still haven't added another two. But she seems to be OK with all of it. :-) Actually, knock on wood, she must love it because she is finally sleeping through the night! Well, most nights. Or at least until 4ish and then back to sleep again for a few more hours. We'll take it.
July 11-12
Our first Saturday back in town, we met up with friends J-squared and K-squared (that would be Jess, Jared, Keira and their niece Kallee) at Teddy Bear Park in Stillwater...the weather was gorgeous! Just like our sweet girls.
On Sunday, we hosted "Kid Fest 2009"...because we're getting to the point in life where most of our friends now have kids and keep having more! We added 4 (!) to the mix just since we met up last summer: Grant (1), Bennett (6 mo), Reese (6 mo), and Izaak (3 mo). So, 9 kids in all and somehow we forgot to get a picture of them all together! We had a great time - we even rented a Bounce House so the bigger kids could burn off some extra energy. Lots of good food, drinks, and commiseration. Kudos to Aunt Julie who is not a parent and came anyway :-)
July 13
I went back to work. Ick.
July 18-21
On Saturday morning, my friend and old coworker Sheila invited Ava out to her place in Monticello to ride her pony Nuttie. We had a great visit and Ava had so much fun! She was pretty tentative to ride at first, but was a lot more confident when she tried again later. We'll definitely try to get out there again before it gets cold. Does it get any cuter than this?
On Saturday night, Scot and I went out to celebrate our 11th anniversary. I've now been married exactly one third of my life. Yowza. We had dinner at W.A. Frost in St. Paul, which was wonderful. They greeted us with 2 glasses of champagne on the house and Scot even had roses delivered to our table! Aunt Julie was generous enough to babysit AND see to it that we had dessert (chocolate cake for me and creme brulee for Scot - man, she knows us well!) and Moscato D'Asti. After that we went to see The Hangover, which was hilarious. I can't remember the last time we did dinner AND a movie, so it was quite a treat! It wasn't Hawaii...but it was still pretty good. Here we are acting like we like each other.
On Sunday we looked at 7 houses. We're thinking a little more seriously about taking advantage of the low prices that are out there right now so we can move into something bigger and in a nicer neighborhood (though we wish we didn't have to worry about selling our current house). We haven't fallen in love with anything yet so we'll keep looking and see what happens. It's stressful and exciting all at the same time. Thanks to Grandma Di and Aunt Marilyn for watching our napping children for most of the time we were gone - we treated them to a nice cookout upon our return!
On Monday morning, Scot went to a Honda dealership and bought us a 2007 Honda Pilot. A few days earlier, we learned the transmission was probably going out on our Explorer (which was especially annoying considering it only had about 85K miles on it). We considered our options and decided to get a newer used vehicle, so we combed the internet (oh, how I love the internet) and found a great deal on this particular Pilot. Scot did some haggling, got a great trade in for our Explorer, and came home with the Pilot...even made it back for an eye doctor appointment at 1. It's fun to have a new vehicle! Hopefully we can get a year or two more out of my car before we have to worry about that again - buying a car is so stressful!
As I read this over, it is no wonder that I have been sick since Tuesday with a whole gamut of symptoms. Too much. All of that and my job is in limbo as my department braces for a reorganization. I have been assured I will have a job, but it will likely be different than what I'm currently doing (supervising). I told my boss today that it wouldn't break my heart if I weren't a supervisor anymore. Something has to give and it might as well be the job that I don't always like. To be determined. On a related note, another full time job at the Guard base posted on Thursday and Scot already has his app in. Wish him luck!
And some "just because" pictures.
Reese. Who is crawling. As of 6 months, 8 days. About 3 weeks earlier than Ava did. We were actually hoping she'd "underachieve" on this one. Oh well...
Princess Keira and Princess Ava
Don't be too surprised if I take a little blogging hiatus for awhile...I hope the next few weeks are much LESS exciting than the past 3 have been!
Monday, July 13, 2009
6 months
How is my little peanut butter cup 6 months old already??? Mah. While I love bearing witness to all of her fun new milestones, I can't help but miss the little 6 pound bundle she once was... Reese is such a wonderful baby, I just can't gush about her enough! She is always smiling and she hardly ever cries, just when she has a legitimate reason OR if it's midnight, 2 o'clock, 4 o'clock in the morning (take your pick, sometimes all in one night!)...Yes, her only flaw is that she still isn't sleeping well at night. BUT we're hoping things turn in our favor now that we're finally back in our house and she's in her own room. The 2 bedroom apartment in Atlanta got really small in the middle of the night when she chose to shower us with ear-piercing wails. There's only so much ignorning you can do when the source is less than 4 feet away from your head.
Anyway, back to her endearing traits, of which there are many...
•Her smile and dimples
•Her BIG eyes and eyelashes
•Sitting - she's getting a lot better at this, but still falls over quite a bit
•Crawling - NOT yet, but we fear she will be soon. She's always on her hands and knees now, rocking, and spinning in circles
•Eating - she's intensely interested in food - she gets a very determined look on her face when she sees us eating and enjoys grabbing our plates. We've started to give her baby food - pears seem to be the favorite so far but she has enjoyed pretty much everything we've offered
•Did I mention she is SO CUTE?
We just love Reese to pieces (pun intended). :-) I feel so lucky that we have her in our life, it's hard to imagine it without her now! Here are a few pictures taken on our return trip home...
(I tried to upload a video of her spinning in a circle, but it wasn't working...I will try again later)
Anyway, back to her endearing traits, of which there are many...
•Her smile and dimples
•Her BIG eyes and eyelashes
•Sitting - she's getting a lot better at this, but still falls over quite a bit
•Crawling - NOT yet, but we fear she will be soon. She's always on her hands and knees now, rocking, and spinning in circles
•Eating - she's intensely interested in food - she gets a very determined look on her face when she sees us eating and enjoys grabbing our plates. We've started to give her baby food - pears seem to be the favorite so far but she has enjoyed pretty much everything we've offered
•Did I mention she is SO CUTE?
We just love Reese to pieces (pun intended). :-) I feel so lucky that we have her in our life, it's hard to imagine it without her now! Here are a few pictures taken on our return trip home...
(I tried to upload a video of her spinning in a circle, but it wasn't working...I will try again later)
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Home Sweet Home
We're back in Minnesota.
We left Atlanta at about 12:30 pm EST on Thursday, July 2nd and drove ALL THE WAY to Bourbonaiis, IL in one shot, arriving there at about 11:30 pm CST. So a twelve hour trip. With two kids and two cars. UGH, it was long, but we decided to push it instead of unloading and getting a hotel halfway through. Not sure it was the best decision...as I felt like death about 2 hours short of our destination (5 hours of INterrupted sleep the night before and an ungodly amount of time in a car will do that to you). Scot and I talked a lot of mindless chatter to each other on our cell phones those last few hours...and we did finally make it to our destination. The girls were great - much like on the way down, so we have that to be very thankful for. And it was great not to have to get up, repack and load, and drive some more the next day.
We had another nice visit with Grandpa Chuck & Grandma Sandy. Unfortunately, we were stuck inside for most of it due to rain and cold, but at least the skies parted at dusk on the 4th. The folks in their neighborhood had some pretty impressive fireworks and Ava was so glad to finally get outside and play with her pals.
After 2 full days in Bourbonnais, we headed 100 miles north on Sunday to Lindenhurst - a northern suburb of Chicago. We stopped there to visit my high school buddy Lisa and her family. Somehow we had let 3 years (and 2 kids) slip by without seeing each other, so it was great to spend time with them! We had a really nice visit and vowed to not let so much time pass between our next encounter.
5 kids under 5: Reese (6 mo), Amelia (3), Ava (3), James (8 mo), & Oliver (4)
The babies
The big girls
And then we finally reached our last day of travel on Monday, July 6th - 6 hours of driving with one lunch stop and we were back at our house in St. Paul. It was great to be home, to see our cats, to have all of our stuff back. Ahh....
We left Atlanta at about 12:30 pm EST on Thursday, July 2nd and drove ALL THE WAY to Bourbonaiis, IL in one shot, arriving there at about 11:30 pm CST. So a twelve hour trip. With two kids and two cars. UGH, it was long, but we decided to push it instead of unloading and getting a hotel halfway through. Not sure it was the best decision...as I felt like death about 2 hours short of our destination (5 hours of INterrupted sleep the night before and an ungodly amount of time in a car will do that to you). Scot and I talked a lot of mindless chatter to each other on our cell phones those last few hours...and we did finally make it to our destination. The girls were great - much like on the way down, so we have that to be very thankful for. And it was great not to have to get up, repack and load, and drive some more the next day.
We had another nice visit with Grandpa Chuck & Grandma Sandy. Unfortunately, we were stuck inside for most of it due to rain and cold, but at least the skies parted at dusk on the 4th. The folks in their neighborhood had some pretty impressive fireworks and Ava was so glad to finally get outside and play with her pals.
After 2 full days in Bourbonnais, we headed 100 miles north on Sunday to Lindenhurst - a northern suburb of Chicago. We stopped there to visit my high school buddy Lisa and her family. Somehow we had let 3 years (and 2 kids) slip by without seeing each other, so it was great to spend time with them! We had a really nice visit and vowed to not let so much time pass between our next encounter.
5 kids under 5: Reese (6 mo), Amelia (3), Ava (3), James (8 mo), & Oliver (4)
The babies
The big girls
And then we finally reached our last day of travel on Monday, July 6th - 6 hours of driving with one lunch stop and we were back at our house in St. Paul. It was great to be home, to see our cats, to have all of our stuff back. Ahh....
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
On the road again...
Scot is flying his last flight (finishing one week ahead of schedule!) as I type this and should be home around midnight. He is so excited to be done and I'm so proud of all that he has accomplished while we've been down here. He will be on active duty orders for another 45 days once we get back to MN, so he'll get some more practice flying in the left seat and then they'll officially turn him loose as Aircraft Commander. After that, we don't know what will happen - he will try to work out at the base as much as he can and keep trying to get hired on full time.
I just put the girls to bed after spending the last few hours at the pool, soaking up sun and the 90 degree heat. I spent most of the day packing and cleaning - the girls were at daycare so I actually got a lot done. Scot and I broke for lunch and went out for Mexican - it was lovely. He has to go into the base tomorrow morning for a short period to out-process and then we'll be on our way, arriving back home on Monday. We'll spend some time again wth Grandpa Chuck & Grandma Sandy for a few days and we'll also be staying a night with my friend Lisa who lives in a northern suburb of Chicago. We have 5 kids under 5 between us, so it should be...exciting?
Top 5 things I can't wait for back home:
1. Family & Friends
2. Sam & Rocky
3. Our gas grill
4. Having a yard
5. Reese sleeping in her own room
Top 5 things I will miss about Atlanta:
1. The pool
2. The "Big Park" - my favorite place to take Ava
3. Washer & Dryer on the same level as our bedrooms
4. The amazing selection of shopping & restaurants within 3 miles of our apartment
5. The weather - I don't mind the heat!
I hope everyone has a safe & fun holiday weekend - enjoy!
I just put the girls to bed after spending the last few hours at the pool, soaking up sun and the 90 degree heat. I spent most of the day packing and cleaning - the girls were at daycare so I actually got a lot done. Scot and I broke for lunch and went out for Mexican - it was lovely. He has to go into the base tomorrow morning for a short period to out-process and then we'll be on our way, arriving back home on Monday. We'll spend some time again wth Grandpa Chuck & Grandma Sandy for a few days and we'll also be staying a night with my friend Lisa who lives in a northern suburb of Chicago. We have 5 kids under 5 between us, so it should be...exciting?
Top 5 things I can't wait for back home:
1. Family & Friends
2. Sam & Rocky
3. Our gas grill
4. Having a yard
5. Reese sleeping in her own room
Top 5 things I will miss about Atlanta:
1. The pool
2. The "Big Park" - my favorite place to take Ava
3. Washer & Dryer on the same level as our bedrooms
4. The amazing selection of shopping & restaurants within 3 miles of our apartment
5. The weather - I don't mind the heat!
I hope everyone has a safe & fun holiday weekend - enjoy!
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