12 Weeks

Whoa - the baby is the size of a lime! Brain development is key this week, so I'll have to make sure to keep up on my Omegas to make sure this kid is super smart ;o)

I had a dream the other day that I had twins, a boy and a girl. The boy was named, the name we picked out. The girl wasn't named, probably bcuz we haven't narrowed it down to one yet.

I also had a chat with Derrick. I asked him if we had a boy, if it was ok to name the baby boy _____ (sorry, not sharing names, just like the other times!). He said, Ok that's cool. Or something to that effect. I asked him if we had a baby girl, could we name her _______ (Ryan's choice in a girl's name), and he said, No, he didn't like it. So here's me thinking that I'll get him to like my girl's name and turn Ryan around to it :o) So I asked him if we could name the baby girl _____ (my choice in a girl's name), Derrick tilted his head, looked right up at me, shaking his head, and said, "Mommy, that would not be a very good idea." What?! Ha! I had to chuckle at that. Where did he get his bluntness from? :o) I asked him what we should name the baby if it's a girl - and he said, "Sadie." I'm like - no, there are too many dogs in our family that were named Sadie. Thanks anyways, Derrick!

Well, I'm off to clean more. Our renters moved out and I don't think they cleaned a thing. The shower was brown and gray - COMPLETELY! I've already spent hours over there cleaning the kitchen, but we have some awesome girls coming tomorrow to hopefully sign a lease. I'd love to rent to them - one is a fantastic babysitter of ours from last semester!

Happy Anniversary

Happy 32nd Anniversary G and Papa!

We love you!

Two Cute Kids

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Daddy's Day to all the Dad's out there! Especially to Ryan, Papa and Grandpa! I tried letting Ryan have a good day to sleep in, and even tho he didn't get up for a long time, the kids were NUTS this morning - yelling, screaming, running, jumping. I couldn't get them to calm down. Tried bringing them to the store with me today, but that was a BAD idea - they were all over the store! They didn't get enough sleep last night, and I could tell today!

Crazy, I'll be 11 weeks already tomorrow :o)

Please also say a prayer for us - that we find someone to sign a lease in the next few days. I'm starting to get nervous about it. I know we'll find someone, I just want it done sooner than later ;o)

Yesterday Ryan dropped me off at work. When we were at a stoplight, Derrick saw the hotel Gran and Grandpa stayed at when they were here. He yelled, "I want to go to Gran and Grandpa's house!" and pointed to the hotel. I can't believe he recognized it! All he could see was a little corner of it from the road. He wanted to go swimming again. That boy LOVES the water! I think swimming lessons are in his near future.

Eve has been her typical self - crazy :o) Someone left a little notepad with Elmo on the cover at work the other day, so I brought it home for Eve. She calls it her checkbook and will sit and write in it for a good 20 minutes if not more. We got the kids a new box of color crayons and they are loving all the new colors (they had been down to only orange, red, blue and green for quite a while).

It's been a while!

Oops, didn't realize it's been 8 days since I posted - sorry!

Last Tuesday Gran and Grandpa came for a visit! I'll post pics whenever Gran sends them to me :o) The kids had a great time with them! It's been almost 9 months since they saw them last, so it took just a few minutes for them to warm up to them, then it was all good! They took them out to eat, tried riding the carousel, but I guess that didn't go so well with Eve. Eve got a new guitar that is noisy and I tried "forgetting" it in G's car this weekend, but that didn't work :o) But Eve LOVES that guitar - check out the video of her with it. Derrick got a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle van. It shoots pizzas out. It's pretty cool. He is soooo into the TMNTs.

Eve also went swimming for the first time at the hotel Gran and Grandpa stayed at! It didn't take her long to warm up to the whole idea. She wouldn't jump into my arms while I was in the water, but she really enjoyed "swimming" around with me. Derrick was like a little fish. He just grabbed onto the sides of the pool and walked around. He tried getting away from the wall a few times, it's 3 feet deep, so the water came up to his chin. If he moved too quickly, he got a mouthful of water :o) OH! I even got Eve to pinch her nose and put her face in the water - was that ever cute. Derrick couldn't figure it out :o)

Then on Friday morning, we drove up to the cities so the kids could to go G and Papa's house for the weekend. Ryan and I and a group of friends went down to Omaha. The kids had a great time. Daryl was home, so he and Eve played guitars together, while Derrick banged away on the kid piano. They had lots of fun like usual.

9 Weeks

9 Weeks (31 to go!)

Since Thursday my right side has been hurting, and progressively getting worse. On Saturday, I was sent home from work bcuz the pain was so bad I was crying. I finally went in yesterday to get it checked out (I was afraid it was my appendix). After waiting an hour and a half to see a doc (the only one that would see me was the one MD working, none of the PAs would see me bcuz I'm pregnant, which I can understand), I found out I strained my abdominal muscles. I can't begin to tell you how much it hurts to sit, stand, talk, laugh, sneeze, use the bathroom, breathe, EVERYTHING! Especially sleep (I'm posting this at like 330am). Poor Eve loves to curl up on my right side and cuddle and I have to send her away :o( The cure? Rest (HA! how do you rest a muscle you use non-stop all day long?), ibuprofen (can't take bcuz I'm preggo), and ice/heat (which just the weight of the bag on my side makes it hurt).

On a good note - Gran and Grandpa are coming for a visit on Tuesday! (on a bad note - it hurts to clean and I left just about everything to clean for Sunday and Monday so it was a smelling freshly clean when they get here). So this should be an interesting couple of days! :o)

Kids are doing well - altho their schedule is all mixed up. They've been taking naps which keeps them up sometimes forever. Like Saturday night (so lucky Ryan was home!) the kids were up at like 2am until I don't know when - 5am??? They were watching movies and "sleeping" on the couch. :o)

Well, I'm going to grab a snack and try to go back to sleep. Wish me luck!

Bedtime Routine

I'm now 8 weeks :o) Only 32 (or less!) to go!

We have a new bedime routine. I cannot explain how much I dislike reading kids books, so I leave that one up to Ryan most of the time as he's much more of a reader than I am (working on it tho!). So instead of reading at bedtime, we tell stories. It's so cute. Derrick and Eve both sit at the edge of their beds and say together, "Once upon a time..." Well, Derrick says it correctly, Eve's comes out something like "Up a bedtime..." Still pretty cute. Each night I then say a new story line and they help me finish the story. Tonight, it started out "Once upon a time there was a little girl named Eve and she was downstairs_______." They said she was downstairs playing toys with Nate and that Derrick was sleeping upstairs and they had to wake him up. So they came up with all kinds of ways to wake Big Boy Dirkie up. It was really cute. We tried monkey piling on him, and roaring like a baby lion, then roaring like a daddy lion. I like getting their imaginations going. Derrick has a wonderful one, and Eve is too slow to think of something right now that Derrick will usually beat her in saying something, so we are slowly getting Derrick to let Eve have a turn. She seems kind of confused, but she's catching on. I can't wait until this new baby is 2 and can join in on all the fun conversations we have with D and E!

#3

I'm pregnant. Due 01-05-2009.

:o)

Oh boy! (or girl!) Here we go again!

Grass

The Grass is Growing!! I'm so excited! We planted grass in our front yard where there hasn't been any since before we moved in. We raked up the needles last week and now the grass has sprouted! We might actually get a full front lawn full of green grass for the kids to run around on! Oh it's the little things that make life good :o) I'd post a pic, but don't want to be that weird, yet. Just wait. I'll take a pic when it's actually visible without putting your face right next to the teeny weeny grass growths. :o)

Animals and French Fries

Yesterday, Eve wanted me to draw pictures on the magnadoodle for her. So I drew and elephant, dog, cat, etc for her to guess what it was. She got them all except for the horse, which she thought was another dog. After two "dog" guesses, she got all excited that it was a horsie. She likes horses. Anyways, I decided to draw a bird, but just did the rough letter "M" that makes it look like a bird flying up in the sky. She looked at it and screamed, "French Fries!!!" I was like, what? She thought of the McD's "M". Ha Ha! They do love those treats, and know that when we go to McD's that we are meeting G and Papa.

Happy Birthday, Mindy!

Happy 29th Birthday, Mindy! Can you believe we'll be 30 in the next year? Where did the time go?

I hope you are blessed with a beautiful day, and an easy day at school!

Luv you,

Carrie "Re"

Happy Mommy's Day!

I got home from work last night and Ryan and the kids made me a HUGE mother's day card! It's really cute - full of stickers and drawings. The kids are pretty proud of it, it's so cute! I really do love their ages - they are independent enough to not need me at their side 24 hours a day. They play very well together, especially when they build forts downstairs with the blankets coming out of the dryer.

Well, we are going to go shopping for a short time so Ryan can sleep in peace and quiet, then I'll be off to work. I close tonight, which I didn't expect, so I won't get home until after midnight :o( But hopefully I'll make some good cash and I'll be able to buy all our shrubs to plant this week!

Puppy Ears and Laundry Baskets

Eve's hair is long enough to put into "Puppy Ears" - she doesn't like calling them pig tails, so we call them Puppy Ears.

The kids also had fun with the laundry baskets - I'll pass on the captions, but make sure to look IN the baskets!

Yard Work

So, it's finally nice outside, and we saved up some money to get our yard work on the go. We trimmed up the monsterous pine tree in the front last summer, but we never finished raking up the 50 years of pine needles that have piled up and covered 1/2 of our front yard. I raked up a number of them last fall, but now we needed to get the grass seed down to get it growing. So here's what we accomplished today:

• Raked up 1/2 of the front yard of the nasty needles (in some places they were almost 6 inches thick! and piled them on the other side of our front yard until we can figure out how to discard them. I vote for burning them, but that might not fly.
• Put up edging around our sidewalk to prevent water runoff from getting dirt all over
• Aerated the area that needed to be reseeded
• Raked the dirt "smooth" - as smooth as I cared to do it :o)
• Put one full bag of seed all over the dirt
• Watered our new babies with a sprinkler we didn't realize doesn't move, so we watered it by hand

So now it's just a waiting game. We have another bag of grass seed ready to fill in the areas that don't grow. Next on the list -

• Plant more seed to fill in areas that didn't thrive (few weeks away though)
• Find shrubs to replace the yucky stumps we have now
• Remove the stumps (not so fun work, we did one last summer)
• Plant the shrubs
• Fill in around the shrubs with rock/wood chips and edging
• Find and Plant a few flowers to give some bursts of color! Can't wait for this one! I might actually plant some flowers in my big pot first, just to get the colors going :o) I'll get the kids in on this one, as we did all the flowers for Applebee's yesterday! They had fun, although they are NOT allowed to go shopping for the flowers with me. That was the biggest pain I have ever done with them! They were so naughty - running and hiding in the plants. They are usually soooo good in the store, but for some reason, they had minds of their owns yesterday!

We have another busy week ahead of us. I'll try to remember to charge our camera so I can post pics of our growing front yard and the kids playing in the dirt, I mean planting in the dirt :o)

** Hint Hint - Mommy's Day is around the corner - I'd like some plants :o) **

Fun at G and Papa's

Mommy and Daddy went away for the weekend, so we got to go to G and Papa's house! But Auntie Marcie wasn't there again. I guess she moved away for a little while, but she comes back soon! I had a lot of fun - making cookies with G, being goofy on the couch and playing with Dirkie under the blankets and outside.

I had fun too! I love being at G and Papa's house. But it was super cold outside. But I still managed to play for a little while outside. Can't wait until Mommy and Daddy get a house with a lot of grass to play on! On our way home, Mommy said we get to go to Gran and Grandpa's house soon. I said they lived "a long, long, long ways away" and Mommy said we could fly in an airplane there. But I screamed at that! Not until I'm maybe 5. I have to be a very big boy to do that. So than Mommy and Daddy said we could go on a choo-choo train - that would be fun! So we are going to do that in August for Unkie Britt and Almost-Auntie Christine's wedding.

Mitch's First Communion

Yesterday, the kids and I headed up to Milaca (St. Cloud area) for my Godson's First Communion. We sort of ended up off the road I needed to take (missed a turn), so I ended up missing it :o( But I made it in time for pictures. I'll post those as soon as Mom emails them to me. I really need a new digital camera!

I can't believe Mitch is 9 years old already. Where has the time gone. He's such a great kid, I wish I could see him more often. He was excited about his gift, which I'm thankful for. It's so hard finding gifts for a boy! Dad is his Godfather, so we both went in on it. We bought him a black keepsake box. The lid has his name engraved on it, really neat, turned out better than I expected. When you lift the lid, the there are two trays that slide out - one to the left, one to the right. Underneath those is a large tray. He already had it all set what was going in each one.

The kids did so well in the truck for so long in one day. They were very excited to see G and Papa, but Eve wanted Marcie too. They haven't been feeling the best, so getting outside yesterday was great for them. Derrick enjoyed the skateboard with Mike, and Mitch helped Eve around their jungle gym.

First Overnight Friend!

On Friday, a friend of mine watched D & E for a few hours so Ryan and I could have some alone time. In exchange, I watched Isaac on Saturday. Her plans got changed a bit, so we ended up having Isaac spend the night at our house. The kids had so much fun! And actually, I had a good night too - Isaac kept the kids occupied and out of my hair! Unfortunately, the kids wouldn't stop talking, so they didn't fall asleep until almost 1030pm. But I think the kids had a wonderful time, and I can't wait to babysit swap with Amy again!

Long Day

Last night, I went to sleep around 930. I was so tired. About 1-130am, Derrick started crying for me. It's weird, you get to know which cry is which after a while, and I knew this was a not-so-good cry. He complained that his ear really hurt. He never complains, so when he did, I knew something was wrong. I gave him some medicine to help drain his ear like I always do when they can't sleep due to ear infections. He tried to sleep in our bed, but couldn't lay even half-way down. So we went downstairs and I propped him up in the corner of the couch and we watched Disney's Cars 3 times, and then the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1-2 times. I forget. It was a long night. Of course yesterday Zale got out, Ryan called me at work and I totally freaked out. He's such a big dog I was afraid he'd cause an accident (last time he ran out he had no concept of cars on the road, and many had to slam on their brakes). When he was found and I was told there was a cop involved, I freaked. I was afraid we'd have to pay damages if he caused an accident. Luckily he didn't, a cop just put him in the impound. But it was still stressful. He has too much energy! Then I pulled a double at work today. I usually don't mind, but it was pretty slow all day, so when I pull 10 hours and go home with less than $100, I'm not so happy. But it's $ I didn't have, so I'm thankful for what I have. But I think I'm ready to be done for the day and head to bed.

My Godson's first communion is on Sunday, and I'm looking forward to that. A friend of mine is babysitting for D & E tomorrow so Ryan and I can have a date, then we are watching her little boy on Saturday so her and her husband can have a break - I'm sooooo looking forward to this!!!

Wedding

Yesterday we spent the day with good friends. Ryan stood up for Josh and Paula's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony, and Nate sang the Lord's Prayer just like he did for our wedding. He has the most amazing voice, I wish you all could have heard him, he did a wonderful job! I have lots of pics to share, but they are on someone else's camera, so when she sends them my way, I'll put them up here for you to see.

I have to share a story from Friday. That night Josie and I decided to watch a movie and have a drink before her husband and Ryan went to the bachelor party. So I asked if there was a liquor store up by her place and she told me where it was. So I ran up there, grabbed a few wine coolers, and headed out the door. Then the wind picked up. My hair was all over I could hardly see. So I balanced the drinks and tried to dig out my keys without dropping my wallet all over, put the key in the key hole, and it wouldn't fit. I was kind of confused. I looked at the hood of the truck, and it looked different. Then my heart sank - this wasn't our truck! What's the next thing that goes thru your mind when you are trying to get into someone else's vehicle? Please, please, please don't let there be someone in the truck. I looked up and brushed my hair aside, and lo and behold, a lady was waving at me. I don't really get embarrassed, but here I am, coming out of a liquor store, trying to "break into" someone else's truck with my keys, and a lady is waving at me from the passenger seat! ha! I had some good laughs at that one! In my defense, when I pulled into the parking lot just a few minutes prior, I was the ONLY one parked in that row of stalls, so when I came out, I saw a black truck and went to it. Nate, Josh, Brian, Josie, and of course Ryan, had a good laugh with me. :o)

Debt Update :o)

Many of you know I reached my wits end about our loans a few months ago. So, I got a part-time job to get rid of it faster (amongst other reasons, which I won't go into). Last month, we were able to pay off our smallest student loan - so nice! Now the next student loan is less than $2000! I made a payment to it today, which got rid of that #2 at the beginning of the total :o) I'm so looking forward to being debt-free! Our business is growing, which also helps us have extra $! We are very excited - this is going to be a great year!