Good Morning!

For some reason I think this picture is so cute! It was first thing in the morning, everyone had just rolled out of bed. I think I like it so much because everyone is smiling genuine smiles, even though Avery is the only one looking at the camera. Its always nice to see their happy, smiling faces first thing in the morning. :)

The little boy undies on the couch arm have been a permanant fixture on the couch for the last few weeks. :)

I'm done

I've gotten to a point where i'm just tired of constantly comparing myself, as a mother, to other mothers.
I've never been a very confident person, never had a high self esteem, i've always compared myself to others.... I compare my flaws to others strengths.... which is totally unfair to do to myself because my flaws will never measure up to someone elses strengths. So, its only obvious that i'd compare myself as a mother as well.
I'm always worried that the things I do/don't do for my children are going to "damage" them. Wondering if i'm failing because my daughter, at 6 months, is not sleeping through the night. Or that my 3 year old is not potty trained yet. Or that we spend the majority of our time at home instead of out doing classes and activities.
After some deep and careful thought, here is my conclusion: Parents (or guardians) are the only ones who know what is best for their children. Just because other peoples kids are sleeping through the night peacefully from day 1 doesnt mean that my kids will too. It also doesnt mean that I am doing something wrong. And just because I dont have my kids enrolled in 20 different classes, doesnt mean that they are going to fail in life.
Hopefully i'll be able to convince myself of this everytime I feel inadequate as a mom.

I'm also done stressing and obsessing about my daughters sleeping habits. The only problem that her nighttime wakings has is that it disrupts mine and Derek's sleep, so its really just an inconvenience. I dont know why so much emphasis is placed on getting babies to sleep through the night anyways. Jadon was a horrible sleeper, and shortly after his first birthday, he figured it all out, so I know that Avery will too someday. She doesnt seem to fit the mold when it comes to sleeping.

It sure is hard being a stay at home mom sometimes, and its not completely what I imagined it would be. My whole life I always dreamed of being a stay at home mom and wife, but in my dreams, I always imagined having a lot more time, a house that never needed cleaning, well behaved kids who never acted out, and the sun was always shining and the temperature was always 72 degrees. I also imagined weekly playdates with friends and their kids who were the same ages as my kids. Unfortunately, we live in Oregon where the weather is rarely sunny and 72, my house wont clean itself, and its just unheard of to think of children that dont act out sometimes... time is something that I feel i'm always short on, and I dont have any friends, let alone friends who have kids the same age as mine.

Life doesnt always turn out the way we plan, but I keep reminding myself that its all God's plan. I am very fortunate to be able to be home with my kids, and i'm so grateful for that. I'm glad I get to be there for all their "firsts", and be there for them everyday. I'm thankful that I get to be here to (try) to make the house clean and get a warm meal on the table for my husband when he gets home from work every evening. I'm thankful that I have such a wonderful husband, and two amazing kids that I get to spend my time with.

The many faces of Avery

Avery makes some pretty goofy faces, and lately she's been making this new face where she has her mouth open and her tongue hanging part of the way out... really goofy looking, but as her mom, I think she's adorable still. :)
Most of these pictures are of her making that face, although its hard to see her tongue sticking out much in the pictures for some reason. Anyways, there's also other faces as well as normal smiles...
The second picture from the bottom cracks me up... she looks like shes a little.... um, retarded? ;)

I love my little girl :)

I can't keep up

I can't keep up with blogging more than once a week, i'm sorry! As i'm typing this, i'm making dinner. The kids are just keeping me busy, and they seem to be getting more and more demanding of everything!

Derek and I have been busily going through all our junk and stuff and sorting from stuff we will keep, stuff we will sell, and stuff going to Goodwill. We brought all the boxes and stuff down from the attic and went through it all. Feels good to spring clean, but now we've got boxes of stuff sitting around the office (the office that we were almost done cleaning and organizing.) I keep thinking that someday, maybe, the office will be just an office, and not an office/storage/junk room. Someday....

I am happy to report that I am down 2.2 more pounds! Of course, thats over the course of almost a month, but still! I've lost 15 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, and i'm thrilled!

Avery had her 6 month check up today, and her height and weight gain slowed down quite a bit. I was expecting that... i've been weighing her at home and noticed it wasnt going up much. The doctor isnt concerned yet, as her weight did go up, and she said it could be starting a new curve, rather than continuing to gain so rapidly. She's now back into the 50th percentile or so, where she started out at when she was born.

Jadon had a traumatic event this weekend. Saturday night, he woke up an hour after going to bed, and threw up all over himself and the bed. It scared him into hysterics, and we felt so bad for him. Still dont know what caused this incident... I dont think it was a bug or food poisoning because after that one incident he was fine. Pretty sure the entire contents of his stomach was on his comforter though, and I had to wash everything several times to get the smell and excess chunks off. Anyways, it was pretty traumatizing for him. And of course for me too... you know how much I love vomit!!
Potty training has been going good, and since we've backed off on pressing the poop issue, he has gone back to his normal self. I'm so glad! Peeing has been going well, and he is getting better at holding it.
I cant remember if I mentioned in my last post or not, but Jadon got into the preschool!

Time to go, dinners almost done!

???

I never know what to post as titles for my posts. I'm just not very creative.

Anyways, we got our beautiful new desk set up, i'll take pictures eventually! Believe it or not, we are actually having a hard time filling up all the extra space, which is a GREAT thing!

We've been potty training for a little over a week now, and its going okay. Yes, just okay. He's getting pretty good about going pee in the potty, however he will not do it on his own will, we have to make him go on it and constantly ask if he has to go. But, he seems to prefer wearing his underwear now! We have accidents every day, but most of them are just little leaks that dont make it out of his underwear.
Pooping is not going well though. After holding it for several days (several days doesnt seem like much, but for a kid who usually poops 2-3 times a day, going several days without pooping is a BIG issue!) Finally one day he was so horribly horribly miserable, so we put a pull-up on and told him to go in the pull-up.... (we had to assure him we wouldnt be mad if he went in it.) After a couple hours, he finally went.
In the last week, I noticed a huge difference in his demeanor and his mood.... he was being moody, bored, zero interest in his toys and playing, and he was always laying around, sometimes we'd find him laying in his bed and he'd tell us "i just need to get some rest." I was starting to get really worried about him and so I did a little research, and I figured that we were stressing him out with the whole potty training thing, and I suggested we back way off on the pooping thing. We have done that for the last few days, and he is back to his normal self now. (and yes, it is possible to stress a child out, especially from potty training.) So, for now we are sticking with the peeing part, which seems to be going in the right direction, but when he needs to poo, he's been asking us for a pullup to poop in, and we've been allowing that. My hope is that he'll adjust to the idea of using the potty and peeing in it, and then one day decide he wants to poop in it too. OR, a month or so down the road, we'll try pooping again and see if he's ready, but clearly, he is not ready for that yet. And in my opinion, preschool is not SO important right now that we cause him so much stress to get him potty trained. If he's not potty trained by fall, we'll try getting him into a preschool when he's 4. (surely he'll be potty trained by then!) :)

Averys the same still. She can now eat all her #1 veggies: peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, carrots and squash, and I tried prunes again on monday and so far so good, no diarrhea this time. She will be 6 months old in 2 days, and i cant believe it.
She rolled over again from tummy to back yesterday, but I dont think she'll ever roll from back to tummy. She's far too content just laying on her back, and as soon as she's on her belly, she screams, and if she was in a good mood before putting her on her belly, its completely gone. She's getting to be quite the little fireball. First she charms you with her sweet side, smiling at you all the time, making cute noises, but beware, a beast is in there just waiting to come out! And if you dont immediately tame the beast, it will continue to scream at you to the point where you have to wear earplugs. I'm not joking, she screams so loudly that your eardrums rattle in your head.

I'm not complaining though, I love my children more than anything in this world, but at this point in time, with Jadon in his terribly-awful 3's, and Avery's firey temper, its not a good combination... its an exhausting combination. I'm really having to pick my battles carefully with Jadon these days, because otherwise the entire day would be a battle with him.
On the other hand, he is to the point where he says some of the CUTEST things! I always mean to write them down, but forget to. I'm so blessed to have 2 great kids, and I know this difficult age will pass, and someday i'll be able to look back at it with fondness. :)

Switching gears. Every year in the spring/summer(i cant remember)our neighborhood has a big garage sale. This year Derek and I are going to participate in it. We have been going through all of our stuff (as i'm pretty sure i've mentioned before), trying to get rid of junk, and things we dont use anymore. The house is getting tight, and we dont need the extra clutter. So anyways, alot of the kids outgrown clothes i'm going to sell, as well as my maternity clothes. I know alot of the clothes from the kids were gifts to us, and I hate to make a profit off of gifts, so if theres anything that you want for any reason, let me know and i'll give it back.

Potty training and tax returns

We started potty training this weekend. We've had a couple accidents every day, but nothing too horrible. The first 3 days, he protested loudly and wildly to having to sit on the potty to pee, but yesterday was much better. I think he realizes that he doesnt get to use diapers anymore, and we have made that very clear to him.

Our problem is the pooping, which we knew would be a battle. For some reason he's scared to death to poop anywhere but his diaper. And I do mean SCARED TO DEATH. He's only gone twice since starting. Once in his underwear and again in his diaper first thing in the morning before we put underwear on him. Now, he is just holding it, absolutely refusing to go anywhere. At his 3 year appt, the doctor suggested giving him some miralax to help keep things soft and moving, and then he'll have no choice but to go, so yesterday I gave him a dose of that, and will do the same today. We just feel bad for him, and dont really know what else to do. I refuse to give him a diaper to poop into because I dont want him to think that he can hold it until he gets a diaper every day. I did, however, suggest putting his diaper on and sitting on the potty with his diaper on to poop, in hopes of eventually getting rid of the diaper all together once he gets over the feeling of sitting to poo. He didn't want to do that though. I guess I should add that a suppository is the absolute last resort.

In other news, we are getting a decent sized tax return this year. However, part of it is going towards paying off the new waterheater, another part will go towards new tires for my car. Unfortunately there isnt enough to take a much needed vacation, so we'll have to wait. We did however splurge and buy ourselves a new office desk. It was much needed!! Our office is fast becoming a cluttered mess because of lack of storage space, and this new desk has lots of storage and space. We dont have it set up yet, we have to get everything out of the office first because its an L-shaped desk and is 6ft long! And, its really heavy! So, you know what that means?? I want to paint the room before it gets set up so we dont have to move the desk later on!!!!! Yay! More painting! ;) The room is smaller, and its pretty dark as theres just one small window on the north side, so I want something thats brighter and cheery. I was thinking about a yellowish color, but I have to sell my husband on that first. He's not fond of the color yellow, and wants to paint it orange instead. (Nightmare!!!!!! Sorry honey, you know how I feel about orange walls in that room!) ;) Also, the desk is a dark finish.

Anyways, thats whats going on around here this week!

Happenings

Well life isnt slowing down at all, in fact I think its charging ahead full force and then some!
We've been busy, although not much going on. The kids keep us quite busy. They are both handfuls right now. Jadon's entered the completely-horribly-impossible-terrible 3's and wow does it get exhausting! I've decided that this summer (or spring... whenever its offered), i'm going to put him in a sport like baseball or soccer. Not for learning skills so much, but so that he can get out of the house, be around other kids, and burn off some energy.
Also, i'm going to enroll him in preschool for the fall. Derek's cousin found a really great preschool for her daughter to go to and told me about it, and it sounds fantastic. Its through a church, so they teach bible principles, the classes are small, and its about 2 miles down the road from us. We are going to go down and visit and sign up next week. I'm so excited, he really needs it now. He has recently started showing alot of interest in other kids, whereas before, he knew other kids were around but really didnt care. He's pretty shy around other kids, but please dont tell him he's shy. I'm shy and I really hate being "labeled" as shy... it really makes a person feel like they have a personality flaw, and I really want for him to be confident in who he is.
So, this weekend we are going to begin potty training, since he will have to be fully trained to go to preschool. Should be fun times..... that was sarcastic.

Avery... my my my... she's a handful herself. She has got a healthy (and I do mean HEALTHY) set of lungs and lets us know it for pretty much everything. She constantly wants to be held, and when we put her down she screams. Of course that doesnt stop us from putting her down. Especially during the day when I'm alone with both kids, I cannot (and will not) constantly hold her.... so, she does alot of screaming and crying on the floor. She's got quite the temper!!
She still isnt rolling over in either way (back to tummy or tummy to back), but she can sit unsupported by herself pretty good. She did roll over once the other day, but until she does it a few times, I dont qualify it as "rolling over."
She is eating some solids now, and really doing well and seems to really enjoy them. She eats rice cereal, oatmeal, green beans and squash. Tonight she tried carrots. Everytime we tried a new food with Jadon, he always made the most priceless looking grimaces, but Avery really doesnt make a face when she tries foods.
This weekend she tried prunes for the first time, and an hour and a half later she had a painful case of diarrhea and all the next day she had the worst gas (odorless, but very frequent) and was terribly cranky, so it could be a reaction to the prunes. I stopped the prunes right away, and i'll try them again in a week or so and see if she has the same reaction, and if she does then she could have a prune intolerance.

I've lost some more weight, and it seems to be continuing to go down steadily! So exciting!!! I guess thats why my sweatpants are starting to feel like they are going to fall off of me! Really, portion control seems to be all its taking at this point. I hope and plan to start exersizing as soon as I can... as soon as Avery gets on a schedule. Right now things are really pretty chaotic. Avery's been catnapping still, and Jadon's done with naps although he still has "quiet time" but its rare that I can coordinate her 30 minute nap with Jadon's quiet time. Theres just not enough hours in a day!

Dereks the same as usual. Nothing ever changes with him. He's the rock in our family :)

Spring is almost here!!

The kids and I spent some time in the sun this week, and i think they love it as much as their parents. Snapped a bunch of pictures and thought this one was cute... they look like they are posing, but they were watching the cat walk by. :)

Jadons 3 year appt

bear with me here, i'm typing one-handed as i nurse avery.

monday jadon had his 3 year appt with the doctor. we were not sure how things were going to go based on the last appts he had. rewind a couple months...back in i think january, we took jadon in to see the doctor because he had been limping (i cant remember if i blogged about that or not) anywho, the appt went less than well. jadon was freaking out pretty much as soon as the nurse called his name in the waiting room. screamed when we tried to put him on the scale to be weighed, and just about hyperventilated. would not let the doctor touch him, and barely let her look at him and talk to him without him freaking out.
while we were at the appt, the doctor reassured us it was very normal for him to get like that as some kids are very sensitive to any changes. so, knowing we had his 3 year appt looming in the near future, we asked what we could do or say to make him less apprehensive about the doctors office. she suggested we get a play doctors kit and practice with him. so, we did, but neither derek nor i thought it would make much difference.

fastforward to sunday. we had been telling him for several days that he was going to see the doctor on monday. sunday night, we practiced how the whole appt would go, from weighing to temperature taking, to even checking his reflexes. monday morning he complained over and over that he didnt want to go to the doctors. when the nurse called us back, he said "no" and was hesitant. but after that he surprised the socks off of us. he went on the scale with no complaints. got measured like a big boy. willingly let the nurse take his temperature. soon the doctor came in, and he looked a little worried at first, but that was the extent. she first chatted with us about things he was doing, eating, potty training, preschool, etc. and then her pager went off, and just like that she was gone- called away to perform an emergency c-section. so, they had another doctor ccome in to finish the physical part of the exam. none of us had ever met or seen this doctor, so i imagined jadon would have a meltdown for sure. he didnt. in fact, he didnt complain, flinch or hesitate as the doctor listened to his heart, look in his mouth or test his reflexes, and everything else. when he was asked to lay down on the table so the doctor could feel his tummy, he did so, but worry crept onto his little face and his eyes welled up with tears, but he kept still and silent and the tears went away. all was done! or was it???

i had told him he wasnt getting any shots thius time, but apparently last year there was a shortage of one of the vaccines and hewas due for it at this appt instead. great. then, we were told he needed his second dose of h1n1 nasal spray. SUPER! (his first dose went horrible)
so, the nurse came back in to do those, and jadon sat calmly on daddy's lap. i cant remember if they did the shot first or the h1n1 spray first, but really, it doesnt matter, he let her do them both without any protesting.

not a single tear was shed at the appt, and not even a wimper of fear! after the appt, derek and i were high on proudness for jadon. it was like day and night difference! the rest of the day, all we could think about was how brave he was, and how proud we were of him! our little man survived the appt that we thought would kill us all!

i will ALWAYS be proud of him for being so brave at that appointment. my heart just swells with pride. :) I love happy endings.

My baby boy is 3!!

Pictures are all of today and are completely out of order, but i'm too pooped to try to fix it.

I cant believe where the last 3 years have gone! I cant believe my Jadon is 3 now!

We had his party today at our house, and it went fine. Monday night I came down with a cold, and by friday I pretty much didnt have a voice, so today at the party it was hard to talk with very little voice.

The day started out good, and I was so excited for Jadon to open presents that I thought I was going to burst! So I hurried him through breakfast. I made up a treasure hunt for him to find his gifts, so we did that, and it was alot of fun! I think it was the highlight of my day! I'm so glad that he is getting to the age where he can do stuff like that now! Anyways, the treasure hunt took him all over the house and ended in the office where we'd been hiding all his gifts. We got him alot of little things, and a couple bigger items.

In the afternoon, we had family over to celebrate with us. I made a Super Mario cake for him, and it turned out alot better than his first birthday cake! This time I stayed away from red food coloring (which no matter how much you use, it never really turns red, its always a pink color)!

Anyways, we chatted, opened gifts and ate cake. It was a pleasant time!

Sorry

I know its been awhile since I last posted. Time sure flies these days!
I've been busily planning Jadon's birthday party.... and preparing my house for all the guests! Its going to be quite cramped, but thats ok. Anyways, I've also been painting my downstairs bathroom. My original thought was that I was going to paint it a green color, but then I decided to try something a little bolder and tried a red/terra cotta color. I liked the color, but it made the already tiny bathroom feel even smaller. It completely overwhelmed the space. So, I went back to my original plan and found a green color. After I got the walls painted, I wasnt sold on the green color.... the bathroom just looked way to "country" for mine and Derek's taste. The green color wasnt the problem... its the ugly wood colored trim and door that are the problem! So, I painted the cabinets white, and it already looks so much better! I still need to do the trim and the door, but i'll be waiting until after Jadon's party before I tackle that. We want to someday have ALL the trim and doors in the house painted white because this ugly faux-looking wood color is really awful!!!!

The kids are good. Avery still isnt sleeping very good... in fact saturday morning she woke up at 4:20am and didnt go back to sleep until after 6am. She had some gas that she was having trouble expelling that night! ;)
We are thinking that she is going to be cutting a tooth any day though. She's been cranky, and the usual things that calm her down are not working. Plus shes been drooling and chewing on things like crazy!!! I've constantly got my finger in her mouth feeling for teeth poking through.... its hard to look in there because she sticks her tongue out when you put your finger in there... plus she wiggles alot.

Jadon is doing good! He's testing us alot, but that comes with his age. I cant believe that in 5 days he is going to be 3 already! I always get emotional in the weeks before his birthday... he's just growing up so fast... i just dont know where the time has gone.
He's such a sweetheart though, and very sensitive.
I am so blessed to have two kids who are beautiful and amazing. I never take that for granted... even when i'm at my witts end because Avery isnt sleeping and Jadon's acting up. ;)

Lotsa random pictures

The pictures are all out of order... blogger is stupid in a few different ways when I try uploading pictures, sorry!

Jadon created a train out of his chicken nuggets a few days ago.

Our visit to the OSU lambing barns.... here's the baby we saw born. I thought it was amusing that it came out orange. ;)
Mommy and baby see each other for the first time....

Avery started out in her umbrella stroller, but then after about 3 seconds she freaked out. I think the barn scared her... new setting, weird and gross smells....

Jadon was more interested in pushing the empty stroller around than looking at the sheep.

Alpaca (i think)

Cute baby lamb

Another Avery picture

Jadon- he wouldnt smile for a picture, so this is the best I could get.

I realized the other night that I didnt have any naked buns pictures of Avery, so after her bath we snapped a few. You gotta have pictures of your baby's cute buns! Avery, however, has so many rolls, that even her buns have buns!

On the floor being goofy

Again, couldnt get a smiling picture of Jadon... its like he is a teenager who hates the world! lol! Anywho, he's playing his favorite- mario.

Avery has become quite attached to me lately, and so the other day she was screaming her lungs out while I was in the kitchen cooking, so I brought her in with me, laid her on the floor mat so she could be near me, and she was fine after that.

Time flies

Its really been a whole week since my last post already? Sheesh, time goes too fast lately.
We've had some incredible weather for the last week (sunny and upper 50's- low 60's) so we've been spending as much time as possible outside. The Lord knows that by this time of year, I need a few days like this! :)

Avery's sleeping hasn't improved much. During the day she has only been taking around a 30 minute nap several times a day, which is not sufficient. A baby's sleep cycle is 45 minutes long, so anything under an hour isn't enough of a nap. And a baby her age is supposed to have 4-6 hours worth of naptime sleep. It seems she's started catnapping for some reason. SO, I've got my work cut out for me! I'm HOPING that after a week or so of naptime "training," her napping will go for longer... which will in turn help her nighttime sleep to be better as well (she's been waking up a couple times at night... about 65% of the time..... some nights she'll go at least 5 hours, which is considered "sleeping through the night".) But, I just know its crucial that she gets good sleep during the day because good daytime sleep equals good nighttime sleep, and vice versa. I am really beginning to feel the sleep deficit though.

Jadon had a good fall at the playground the other day. Fell right on his head and face so his eye and cheek are a little scratched up. Derek and I both witnessed it, and its no fun seeing your child fall headfirst off of a play structure.

Saturday morning we went to the lambing barns and got to see a lamb being born! I think I was the only one excited about it though. I'll post pictures another day... for now i've got to go.

I did it!!!

I lost 10 pounds! So i'm officially 10 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight! Yay!!!!! My new goal is to lose 10 more pounds, and then possibly another 10 after that, and then i'll be about at the weight I was when we got married! Crazy to think that I gained that much weight after getting married! Its so easy to put on weight (unless your name is Derek), and sooooo hard to lose it.

Avery's been eating rice cereal every night for dinner. She seems to really like it, and almost all of it makes it into her tummy! It may be helping with the night wakings too, but i'll need a few more nights to make a good conclusion.

Avery's 4 month stats

Avery had her 4 month appt today, and she's doing good. She was 14lbs 6.5oz, and 25.5 inches long. Her length is in the 90th percentile... no surprise there, and her weight is about in the 75th percentile. She's the complete opposite side of the grid than Jadon was, he was always struggling to stay in the 10th and 25th percentiles!
She still has a tiny bit of cradle cap that I need to scrub off.
She was very social with the doctor, and the doctor thought she looked just like Jadon, and said we should have another baby because we have beautiful kids. ;) I dont think that is reason enough for Derek though. lol!
She should start rolling over this month, and i'm going to start her on rice cereal every evening. I really hope that it will help with the nightly wakings. Last night she was up again every 2 hours eating. Little porky pig. She also got 2 immunizations today, and another oral dose of the rotovirus immunization, and now she is sleeping good! I remember Jadon always slept really well right after his shots too. Must be a coping mechanism or something...

Well while our neighbors to the east are getting snowed in, we are having unseasonably warm weather for this time of year. Its been in the 50's. Still rainy like normal, but its been much warmer. I saw this morning on tv that in Vancouver they are having to bring snow in for the olympics. Apparently to our north its been much warmer than normal as well. Our rose bushes even started growing again a few weeks ago. Very odd. As well as my hydrangea's and lilac bush.

Just over a month left

Until Jadon's 3rd birthday. And it's official.... I'm making him a Super Mario cake. Yes, hopefully this one wont look as horrible as his first birthday cake did, but i'll try my best, and not set my sights on anything too extravagant.
I got some pans this weekend, as well as some fondant that I am going to try using. I've never used it before, but it doesnt look too terribly hard, and all the objects that I plan on making with it are flat, so hopefully it will be ok! If anyone has any suggestions for working with fondant that you'd like to offer me, feel free!!! I could use all the help I can get! :)
So, here's the cake that i'm kindof going off of:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/205/456019475_3d982c36b6.jpg

I ordered some little Super Mario figurines off of ebay today and I cant wait to get them!

Jadon has developed a love of Super Mario over the last few months. I dont remember how it started, but we started letting him play, and he has gotten REALLY good, i'm impressed. Anyways, I got Derek the new super mario for the wii for christmas, and since then Jadon's love for mario has really taken off. He plays it every morning while I am getting ready, and requests to play it all day long, but I have set a limit on around 30 minutes once a day. Once in awhile Derek will play the wii mario with him in the evening for a little bit, but thats not very often.

So thats that! Now that he knows he's getting a mario cake for his birthday, he can hardly wait! The pressure is on for me to make a good cake! :)

Avery will be 4 months old on monday already! I cant believe where time has gone. She's growing so fast! She's been wearing 6 month clothes for a couple of weeks now. And it wont be long before she's outgrown her #2 diapers. I'm hoping that during this month she'll start rolling over. And I'm pretty sure that sitting up by herself is in the near future as well.

Lotsa pictures

Most of these pictures are of Avery, but I did manage to get Jadon to let me take his picture a couple of times. :)

He loves his little sister now.... and the feeling is mutual.

Although he does get a little jealous when Avery is getting attention. Here I was taking her picture, and he came and stood in the way.

Even the side of her face is cute!

Jadon had just eaten a cookie and had pink lips, looked like he was wearing lipstick- but not so much in the picture.

The rest are all of Avery smiling tonight.

Wahoo!

I'm just 2 pounds away from being 10 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight!! I'm so excited!! And I havent even started exersizing yet...its amazing the difference that just portion control alone can make!

Sunday was a beautiful day here in the Willamette Valley. It was sunny, and not too cold... I think it was mid 50's. Late Sunday afternoon, the 4 of us went for a little walk. Avery was due for a nap, and I thought for sure that the stroller ride would put her to sleep, but apparently it just invigorated her. She just kept kicking her legs in the stroller, and when we got home I took her out of the stroller and she looked at me all bright eyed. I said to her "you liked that little walk didnt you?" and she smiled. Anyways, she napped after we got back. The point of my story is, its amazing what a little fresh air and sunshine can do in the dead of winter! It was very invigorating!
Today we're back to gray, cloudy and rainy. blah! The good news is, the sun is setting later each day now, and its now setting almost an hour later than it was in december! AND, next month is daylight savings time! Finally, some light at the end of the winter season tunnel!!!!

2am

Thats the time that Derek and I have been getting to go to sleep for the last week. Miss Avery has decided that anytime before that is just not going to happen. And Jadon gets up probably 5 days out of the week in the middle of the night, and then again at 5 or 6 am. Needless to say, Derek and I are running on empty, and I can actually feel gray hairs growing out of my head, and wrinkles popping up on my face. Ok, not really, but what i'm trying to say is "i'm tired."

I dont know what goes wrong. She takes good naps for the most part during the day. But no matter how hard we try, we cant get her to stay asleep after putting her to bed, and by midnight, she's majorly overtired and screaming her lungs out. She's like a completely different baby at night than she is during the day. Her 4 month appt is coming up soon (yes, 4 months already!!) so if we are still having issues we're going to talk to the pediatrician.
She's lucky i'm so majorly in love with her, otherwise I might have sold her on Ebay or something! ;) Just kidding!

On a different note, I spent the evenings this week painting our masterbedroom. I picked a blue-toned gray color, and I had so much fun! I'm not real fond of painting, but I LOVE the end results, so it makes it totally worth it! It took all week to do it.... I only had about an hour every night, so I basically just did one wall at a time, then the next day I would put a second coat on and start another wall. I'm still not done... I have to do around the windows still, and around the ceiling, but other than that its all done. I'll post pictures when I get the room all painted and set up how I want it to be. I've been in the process for several months now of getting rid of basically anything we dont use, and any extra clutter. (HINT HINT mom!) :) So once I get it all organized i'll take pictures.
My next project is going to be our half bathroom downstairs, and i'm thinking that i'll be a little braver this time and go with a redish rusty color. If I dont end up liking it, its a small bathroom so it will be easy to repaint.

I am SOO ready for spring/summer. I have been dreaming about working out in the yard, pulling weeds and laying bark mulch, etc, and bascially making up for all the work I didnt do last year because of being pregnant (and tired and nauseated all the time.) I CANT WAIT! :)

More cute Avery pictures

Once again I dont have any pictures of Jadon because he refuses.

Yes, I know her outfit doesnt match in the next ones

She recently found her feet and now she is constantly pulling her socks off and trying to eat them.

Also, I think i'm going to be starting her on rice cereal at 4 months. For the last couple of weeks, shes been eating alot more during the day, and several times at night. I've been spoiled for the last 3 months since she would sleep through the night, but she hasnt slept through the night in a couple weeks and I think its because she's hungry. So, she'll probably be getting some rice cereal before bed. I notice that when my sleep at night is so broken, I tend to get more headaches and migraines.... not to mention I have less energy. So, this is a problem that I'm eager to fix!

We ordered a new nightlight for Jadon to hopefully get him to stay in his bed during the night. I'll explain more later... i'm out of time!

more pictures

We had a rough night last night... Jadon couldnt sleep because of the wind and rain, and Avery was up at least 6 times eating (if not more.)... hopefully its just a growth spurt!

Anyways, it was just a rotten night, and none of us got adequate sleep. Surprisingly everyone has been pretty happy today though...

Pretty sure I posted a while back about Jadon being done with naps. He has "quiet time" now for an hour or so. Today I went to get him from quiet time, I put Avery on the floor while I went to get him, and this is what I found when I got to his room:

He climbed up on the changing table to take a snooze. I couldnt help but melt when I saw him there.... reminded me of a little kitten all curled up on there!
When I went back downstairs, here's what I found Avery doing:

Thats Jadon's Thomas the Tank firestation and Avery decided it made a better teething ring than a firehouse. I couldnt help but melt at that too. So, in a matter of a minute, both of my kids made me melt into mush. ;)

The rotten night???? Its now forgotten :)

I think she grew up overnight.

Messy messy messy!

I dont know about all the other baby girls in the world, but Avery makes some of the worst poo messes!! Its because she holds it all in and then lets it all out at once in a massive explosion! Similar to this video. I already posted it on facebook a while back, but everytime Avery poops I think about this video!

Water heater

A year ago Derek went outside to put something in the trash can, and he smelled that rotten egg, sulfery smell, so long story short, we called and had someone come out and take a look and make sure we didnt have a gas leak. I think we did, but I cant remember now. He suggested we have the heating people come out and clean our waterheater vent or something(I know, I sound intelligent dont i? ;) Well, we never got around to doing that...
So on Monday we finally had a man come out to do a routine check on our waterheater. What he found was not good. Basically our waterheater has been unsafe for who knows how long. (Think Mythbusters blowing up the waterheater episode......) I'm so thankful that nothing terrible happened, and i'm so glad we got it looked at when we did BEFORE something terrible could have happened.
Anywho, so tomorrow morning we are getting a new waterheater installed. It will be more efficient and hopefully save us $$$ on our water bills.

Rewind 2 weeks. The day after christmas I was doing laundry and the washing machine broke. 8 days and $200 later someone was finally able to come out and fix it.

Also, i'm now afraid that my dryer is going out because its making a funny noise when I first start it up, and its not getting as hot as usual.

So, the new year is not off to a great start with our house and appliances.

Like usual for this time of year, i'm sick of being cooped up inside, sick of the rain and gray clouds, and I get a big itch to do indoor home improvement. So last week I went and bought some paint samples for our masterbedroom, and for the downstairs. I've also been crazily looking online at lighting fixtures. Needless to say, its hard to find 5 minutes of spare time just to use the sample paint! It seems as though both of our kids need to have the attention of their parents 110% of the time. So, for now i'm stuck just dreaming about what my house could look like if I did all these projects that are dancing around in my head!

I think Avery is teething... she has been drooling like a faucet, and gnawing on her little hands like they are meat and she's a hungry animal!
She has really taken an interest in Jadon over the last week or so. She smiles at him alot, and tonight he "beeped" her nose, and she giggled at him. He effortlessly got her to laugh and she wasnt in a very good mood at the time... Derek and I have to work hard to get her to laugh, and she's got to be in a really good mood. Shes growing like a weed. I'm sure she's over 13 lbs now. She's just starting to look like a big baby now, and not a newborn. She's getting a little personality too.... lets just say, her hair is pretty red in certain lights, and her temper can be just as red too.

Jadon's doing good. Last week, and the weekend we had an issue with his pooper... he was constipated. We think he started holding it in rather than going potty when he should have. After researching it, it sounds like its a common thing for toddlers to get constipated during the potty training time, and its a big sign to back off for awhile. So, we wait. We hadnt even officially started the training yet.
Last thursday Jadon and I went on a "date" together and went out to dinner and a quick stop at the grocery store. It was nice to spend that time with him.
Everyone is always so impressed with how well he talks, and I guess we never thought about it before. The guy who came to give us an estimate on new waterheaters was really impressed with his vocabulary. He thought Jadon was 4 based on his vocabulary!

2009 Recap

Its hard to believe how fast the year went! For me, it was a year of sunshine in comparison with 2008-the year of rain for me personally (which I couldnt wait to say goodbye to!)

We started out the 2009 year by heading up north to Washington in mid January to see Derek's grandparents. It was a nice, short trip, and Jadon's first trip. He did very well, other than at night when he had a hard time with the sleeping arrangements. He was a dream to travel with! He is so fascinated by all of his surroundings that he was pretty well entertained the whole trip by pointing out landmarks and trains.

January 23rd, I took my first pregnancy test 4 days before Aunt Flo was due, and it showed two, nice, dark lines. It was both a beautiful sight, and a scary one.

Februrary for me was spent mostly laying on the couch with headaches and nausea.

March was a bittersweet month. Jadon turned 2. I'm afraid i'm going to have a hard time with every birthday because the years are just flying by so fast that its just hard to fathom that he is growing up so fast. We did venture out to the lambing barns in early March, and Jadon enjoyed that.

April started out with ending the first trimester, and at the end of the month I started progesterone shots. It was also the month that I first felt Avery move and ordered my doppler so I could listen to her little heart beating anytime I was feeling uneasy.

May. Derek and I took a week long golf class together. It was alot of fun! I also turned 29 that month... the last year in my 20's. On May 26th, we had our big ultrasound and found out that the baby in me was doing well and that she was a girl.

In June, we went to see Thomas the train in Hood River. So much fun, and i'm so glad we got to do that with Jadon before the baby came. We also went to the coast for the kite festival, which turned out to be much less exciting than I was anticipating... it was also REALLY windy. But Jadon loves the beach, and still to this day, talks about the beach Every. Single. Day.

July was really stinkin' hot and so I spent most of my time inside, still nauseated and still lacking any energy whatsoever.

In August we went to the Benton County Fair- Jadon's first time there. He rode a few rides and loved it! And he still wants to watch the videos of himself on the rollercoaster. We went to Enchanted Forest as well, but I think Jadon was still a little young to really be able to enjoy it to the fullest.
August also brought our 6th wedding anniversary, and our baby shower.

September, I was increasingly tired and uncomfortable and hot. We started weekly OB appts that month, I finished the progesterone shots, and Derek and I had our 10 year "anniversary" of being together.

October, I couldnt believe it when I reached October and was still pregnant. But, October 8th she made her grand entrance like a freight train. And she was born perfect, healthy and beautiful, and the answer to our prayers, and for me, the end of a very long, hard, worryfull pregnancy.

Over the last 2 months of the year, we didnt do a whole lot since the pediatrician recommended staying home as much as we could to avoid all the nasty bugs going around.

I made my yearly slideshow, and after looking back at the pictures of Jadon in the beginning of the year to the end, I am blown away by the fact that he started the year still babylike- sucking on his fingers (which he quit doing on his own at the end of January), and unable to say more than a couple words in a sentence. He also didnt start calling me "mommy" until early Februrary. Now he is a tall, skinny, very active, little boy who has normal conversations with us and talks in huge sentences (the other day I counted a 15 word sentence) and speaks very clearly. He counts to 15, knows all his colors and ABC's, and overall, just amazes me so much every day.
Avery also has made leaps and bounds already as well. Growing like a WEED, can almost sit up by herself already, "smiles at anything that moves" as her daddy puts it, and 2 nights ago, she blessed us with a beautiful gigglefest! Her first laugh- music to our ears!

2009 was a year of blessings for us, and a small part of me is sad to see it go because its just a reminder of how fast time is marching by, and how fast my kids are growing.
With that said, here's our yearly slideshow. It goes fast- I crammed a lot of pictures into a single song in order of the beginning of the year to the end. The song has a lot of meaning to me. Hope you enjoy!

Wishing you all a happy, and healthy new year and decade!

Christmas recap

Hope you all had a great Christmas! We had a nice time. Christmas eve night was spent with my family as usual, and as usual it was crazy! Every year my mom says she's going to scale back on gifts, and this year was no exception. She informed me weeks before christmas that she was going to just give the adults gift cards, and get all the grandkids a few little things. Again, as usual, she went majorly overboard! I think she just has a very giving heart and cant help herself. :)

Anyways, it was a nice time as usual!

Christmas morning Derek and I got up at 6am so we could get showered and dressed before the kids woke up, then we opened our gifts together as a family. Immediately after that we went to Derek's moms to celebrate with his side of the family. And again it was a nice time!

That night we came home and took down our tree. It was super crispy and with all the gifts we got, our house was a disaster area and we needed that extra space where the tree was to organize gifts.

Saturday, the day after Christmas, Derek and I spent the day organizing all our gifts and playing with our new gadgets and playing with Jadon and his toys. It was a very calm day after having had 2 really crazy days.

We would like to thank our families for all the wonderful gifts and for spending the days with us.

Things are settling back down now, and the house is now mostly organized (whew! I sure do hate a cluttered house!) I got the camera out and took some pictures of Avery last night and tonight. She's growing up so fast... starting to get strong neck and a whiny cry like a girl!

Here's Jadon a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately I dont have any more pictures of him... he's going through a faze where he hates to get his picture taken (unless, of course, i'm taking pictures of Avery.)

This one of Avery was also taken a few weeks ago.
The next 2 were taken tonight after her bath.

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Today Avery is 11 weeks old... I had lost track of how many weeks old she was after she turned 8 weeks. I cant believe she's 11 weeks already... where has time gone???
And Jadon is 2.75 years old... only a few short months and he'll be 3! My children are growing up so fast and I dont know how many times i've said it, but its so bitter-sweet to see your kids growing! I know that in just the blink of an eye they'll be moving out of the house, going off to college, or getting married. It will be so rewarding to see them as successful adults with families of their own, but I will always treasure them being little. They bless me every day just by being.

I cant believe Christmas Eve is finally here! I've been so excited for this day since the holiday season started, because I know that this year Jadon will understand whats going on a little more than he did last year. I cant wait to see his eyes light up in wonder as he comes down to the living room on Christmas morning, and sees that the cookies we left out for Santa are gone, and the tree has lots of gifts underneath that Santa left. I think i'm more excited this year than I have ever been in my whole life! Of course Avery wont have a clue whats going on. But thats ok... just having her with us is the best gift! :)

Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Pictures

I haven't been posting many pictures because i've been working on my yearly slideshow and if I posted more pictures i'd be posting all of the pictures that are in the slideshow... so, sometime at the end of the year you'll get to see more pictures of the kids in the slideshow. In the meantime, here's one of each of the kids...

This one of Jadon cracks me up... the look on his face is so funny!
I've been having a hard time getting pictures of Avery smiling because she's so fascinated by the camera that she just stares... like this picture. She is really fascinated with her surroundings, and seems to look at and stare at everything!

We only have a couple of her size 1 diapers left, and we're finishing them up just in time! The little butterball hardly fits in them anymore, and when she poops, she might as well not even be wearing a diaper because it just explodes out the sides! Its quite messy, but the good thing is that she loves getting her diaper changed, so I get lots of smiles while cleaning her up. :)

Nights have not been going well for Derek and I. Avery gets really fussy late at night (usually sometime between 9:30pm-1am), so when we finally get her to sleep, its at least midnight or later. Then Jadon usually gets up once a night at some point.... he had a couple nights in a row where he was awake in the middle of the night for several hours. Then he usually gets up at about 8am.

Monday night, Jadon woke up at around 9:30pm complaining of a tummyache, so we were prepared for a rough night thinking that he had picked up a bug or something. He slept fine the rest of the night. I finally got Avery to sleep at 1:45am, and managed to sleep from 2am-5am, then woke up and basically dozed on and off until 7:30am, when Jadon got up. Avery slept until 9am. I am really looking forward to them sleeping good someday!!!! :)

I'm happy to report....

... that i'm 4 pounds lighter than I was when I got pregnant! Woohoo! I havent been "trying" to lose weight yet.
What's my secret??? There's several reasons:

#1- breastfeeding!!! Need I say more?

#2- Having two children under 3 years old demanding 99.9% of my time! Right now when I sit down to eat, I have to grab something quick because Avery always seems to wake up or be cranky right at our meal times. So, I dont even have a chance to think about the food i'm eating really or if I feel full. This is a good thing, because now i'm not overeating, which is a problem that I have because I love food so much. I dont have time to think about how good the food is. lol!

#3- I'm just plain busy! Its hard work having 2 little ones now... I look back at before Avery came, and it seems so simple now! Now I am constantly on the go at home unless i'm feeding Avery.

#4- Overabundance of energy- When I was pregnant, I was pretty immobile because I was either nauseated or had a migraine, or was SOOOO painfully tired. I think my body is trying to make up for that now because I have a hard time just sitting down to relax. There's always something to do, and even when I do sit down to relax, my mind is running 100 mph.

Now I just need to incorporate a little exersize into this lifestyle! I started doing some situps the other day, but it still feels like my pubic bone hasnt grown back together yet and it hurts when I do situps, so i've just been doing crunches instead. Also, when i'm holding Avery, I try to incorporate a little exersize into it. Also, as Derek and I have always done, I try to park a distance away from the building where i'm going, so that I can get a little extra exersize walking to the building.

Unfortunately after you have a baby, your body doesnt look the same as it did before the pregnancy. Even if you lose all the weight, you've still got extra skin and fat around your middle, and things just seem to shift around. It is SO worth it though.

2 mo appt

Avery had her 2 month appt today, and she is growing like a weed! She's 12lbs 1oz now. Almost double her birth weight... babys usually double their birthweight by 6 months. She's also 23.5 inches long now too... 4 inches longer than she was at birth. Both her weight and height are in the 50th percentile, so she's doing quite well.
The doctor says she's eating so often during the day because she is sleeping so long at night, and at this stage, she is going through a major growth spurt so she's gotta keep up her calorie intake somehow!

We also have to do some at home physical therapy with her, if you will. She tends to look only to one side, and kindof rests her head that way. Most likely do to how she was laying in the womb. Anyways, we have to stretch her neck the other way and try to turn her head in the other direction when she sleeps and stuff. The reason its important to do this is because the muscle on the one side of her neck wont grow as long as the other side. The issue has a name, but I cant remember what the doctor called it.
Also, she's got a nice case of cradle cap, which I've been aware of for awhile now, but just thought it was something that would fix itself. Doctor said that it wont go away on its own, and can even get worse.... so now I have to wash her hair daily and put baby oil on it and scrub her scalp to get the flakes up and comb them out for a couple weeks.
The other day I discovered a red patch on the back of her neck, which I have figured out is a stork bite.

Other than that, she's doing really good. She had to get 5 immunizations today, and an oral immunization for rotavirus. She's been pretty cranky all day from those, and has slept ALOT. Poor girl, those shots are so much more painful for mommy than they are for baby. :(

Thats about it! We've been really busy here... of course life in general is much busier than it used to be now with 2 little ones!!
Here's a picture of Jadon and Avery together... I think he is beginning to warm up to her some ;)

Busy Busy Busy

Its been a busy week, and i'm sure it wont slow down much until after Christmas.
We got our tree a week and a half ago... I love having a tree in the house because it smells so nice. Jadon has done well with it this year and has not bugged it much. He even got to help us decorate it this year! We still have quite a bit of Christmas shopping to do, but thank goodness for the Internet and online shopping!! Going anywhere these days is quite a task and challenge, so online shopping takes on a whole new meaning for me now! :)

The kids are doing good. Jadon is completely in his terrible two's stage now, and completely exhausts me everyday- physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. EVERYTHING is a battle with him.... he says he wants something, then when you say ok he has a fit because he doesnt want it anymore, and that process repeats. Over and over, with everything. I really miss my sweet, cuddly little man. I look forward to when he comes back again!
He has not taken a nap for the last couple weeks... this is something i've been dreading, but saw coming for a long time. I still send him to his room for awhile to play so that I can have a break and get something done in the house. He's not too happy with this arrangement, and I have found him several times on top of the changing table in his room playing with the blinds.
He also doesnt tell us when he's pooped, and I get a whiff of him and go to change his diaper, but find that he has been marinating in it for awhile, and now has a diaper rash.
We are hoping to start potty training after the first of the year, but I'm not sure if he'll be ready. He has no problems going pee in his potty, and seems to like it, but he is scared to death of going poop in it. I dont see the rush in getting him trained anyways, other than for Derek and I so we dont have to change his diaper anymore. Everything i've read on potty training suggests not pressuring your child into using the potty- when they are ready, they are ready. Obviously he will someday use the potty...its not like he's going to be 15 and wearing diapers still if I dont train him before he's 3. ;)

Avery is doing good! She's such a little chunk... I call her my little meatball. Shes just about to graduate to size 2 diapers now. I'm guesstimating that she weighs somewhere in the 12lb range. She has her 2 month well baby checkup next week, so i'm eager to find out. She's also getting long too! I held a tape measure up next to her yesterday when she stretched out, and it was 24inches. Of course, that could be way off, but we'll find that out at her appt as well. She is really smiley, and it takes almost nothing to get her to smile. She sleeps really well too. She slept 8.5 hours the night before last, and last night she slept around 8 also. Of course, 2 nights ago, neither of the kids wanted to sleep... so Avery finally went to sleep at 2am. Jadon had went to bed and slept normally that night, until 1am, then he woke up and couldnt go back to sleep. Needless to say, I didnt go to sleep until after 4am that night, then Avery woke up at 6:15, so I had to feed her, and Jadon got up at around 8am. So, we only got a couple hours of sleep that night. It was a miserable night.
Anyways, Avery is wearing 3 month stuff now. She's growing so quickly... she should be... she's been eating every 1-2 hours during the day this week, so I hope that she's just having a growth spurt.

Well, it was a miracle that I got to type all that out, so I think i'll leave it at that.

As promised...

I'll try to get an update posted while the household is happy!

I spilled a cup of coffee on my laptop which broke my keyboard, so I was without my laptop while we waited for a new keyboard to get here. It took awhile! I'm so glad to have my laptop back now!

We've been doing well. Jadon is doing REALLY well in his big bed (knock on wood.) He loves it, and anytime we have company, he has to show it off to our guests. He's pretty proud of it.
The other day he counted to 14 (well, he skipped 13), we are amazed by him every day and how much he learns and picks up!! He is amazing!

Avery is doing well too... turning into quite a butterball. She's quite a pig. And i'm thinking she's going through a growth spurt as i've been feeding her every 1-2 hours for the last couple of days. She's wearing clothes now that Jadon wore when he was 6 months old.... its just insane! She's quite a smiley thing too when you catch her in the right mood. It takes almost nothing to get her to smile. Very cute!
Dare I say this?.... she sleeps through the night. Yes, she sleeps 5 and 6 hour stretches almost every night! (5 hours is considered "sleeping through the night" for a baby) Again, knock on wood. Of course, she is in bed with me most of the time. Often she starts out in her bed next to ours, but wakes up once to eat and comes to bed with me then. Anyways, she's been sleeping through the night since she was about a week or so old, but I had to wake her up in the earlier weeks every 3 hours to eat (per pediatrician's recommendation).

I'm still so amazed at how different it is to have a full term baby versus a preemie!

Anyways, thats about all I can think of right now to update on.... and Avery's beginning to cry so I need to go anyways.

Sorry...

Sorry its been so long since I have posted. I broke my laptop, so i've been without my computer for awhile while we await for parts to fix it. Yes, we have 2 other computers that I can use, but I rarely go into our office where those computers are located because Jadon gets into everything when i'm in here, and I think Avery hates this room because every time I bring her in here she screams and screams. Plus, its too difficult to drag both kids around the house with me everywhere, so usually we just spend most of the day downstairs wheres its most convenient.

Anyways, just wanted to let you know.... should be back with my computer today... or at least sometime this week! :)

Smile!

I can't believe I forgot to mention in my last post today that we got a few smiles from Avery today... and i'm not talking about the sleep smiles, or gas smiles... i'm talking real smiles! Today's her 1 month birthday, so its fitting that today we'd get our first smiles! Jadon didnt smile at us until he was 7 weeks old... unless you go by his gestational age, then he was only 2 weeks old. ;)

She's also been doing alot of "talking" lately, and i'm so excited, I just got her on camera talking! By the way, that is her absolute favorite place to lay- on the couch where we change her diapers.... she will lay there for a long time just looking around from side to side.... we arent sure why she likes that spot so much, but we imagine its because theres a lamp on each side of the couch that she can look at..???? Dunno.... whatever the reason, we love to lay her there because she just lays there happily cooing and other than that, we hardly hear a peep out of her! :)

We've been talking to Jadon about Christmas lately because he doesnt remember from last year. Anyways, he thinks that Christmas is a person. Tonight when I was tucking him into bed, I was laying there talking with him and he said "... and Christmas will come in a car!"
Let me just say, I love my kids!

Same old, same old

Nothing new or exciting to report. We've had two great nights in a row! Jadon has slept all night long, and Avery slept from 11pm or so until 6am!!

Jadon's doing great in his new bed... no problems at all, and he seems to like it alot. In fact he has been staying in his bed instead of sleeping on the floor! He's as goofy as ever! He's doing pretty good with Avery most of the time.... but he hates it when I am holding Avery and giving her attention, and sometimes throws a bit of a fit that is obvious jealousy and frustration. Its sometimes hard trying to juggle the needs of both kids on my own, but I am learning and getting better.

Avery just graduated out of her newborn diapers into size 1. She is becoming quite the chunk! Shes also outgrowing her newborn clothing pretty quickly too, and can wear a few 3 month items. Shes getting some fat thighs! They are now several rolls rather than just one roll. Its weird to see her grow so fast since Jadon grew so slowly (he could wear his newborn clothes until he was 6 months old!) I am still so in awe of how different it has been taking care of a preemie and a full term baby....everything is different!
I weighed myself the other day, then immediately got on the scale again holding Avery, and the difference was 10 lbs. Of course she was wearing pants and a new diaper, so its not exactly 10 lbs difference, but I imagine shes getting close to 10 lbs!

Its soooooo nice to have my energy back again! I can hardly stand having to sit down to nurse, especially in the evenings when i'm sitting for most of the evening. It drove me nuts having such a small amount of energy during pregnancy that I guess I feel like making up for lost time! :) When the kids are napping, i'm busily cleaning something or organizing something. Yesterday and today I cleaned out our closet and went through our dresser, and i've now got 4 bags of clothes and old bedding to get rid of! Feels so good to organize! I love organizing!!!!!! I wish I could make a business out of it! Not to mention the house is feeling so cramped lately that we feel desperate to keep it WELL organized and clean.

I ventured out to Kmart by myself with the kids the other day....first time out by myself with both of them. It went well! Avery just slept in her carrier, and Jadon was well behaved.

Sorry, no new pix to share... its true what they all say.... you dont take nearly as many pictures of your second child as you do with your first! ;)

Holy cow, another post!! :)

Last week we decided we were going to convert Jadon's toddler bed into a normal bed, so we went and ordered a full sized mattress for his bed on tuesday, and it came saturday. Jadon was SOOO excited- both for the new bed, and because a big delivery truck stopped at HIS house!!!

Here he is in his first night in his really big boys bed.


We decided to convert his bed because he was rapidly outgrowing his toddler bed for one thing. Also, we decided to use his crib mattress for Avery's crib instead of buying a whole new mattress for her bed. And, since she will hopefully be in her crib within a few months, we needed to convert his bed very soon.
He slept fine in his "new" bed... no better than normal, and no worse either. The kids room is quite packed now, but thats ok... our entired house is packed, so thats nothing new! Hopefully someday by the time the kids are bigger, we'll be able to buy something a little bigger. Until then, i'm just glad to have a roof over my head and a warm, nice place to call home.
I'm excited to cuddle up in bed with him and read to him before he goes to sleep. I have fond memories of my mom reading to me in bed before turning out the lights, so I hope that its something that he will always look back on fondly as well.

3 weeks

Hard to believe its already been 3 weeks since Avery was born! On one hand it feels like just yesterday she was born, and on the other hand it seems like she's been with us forever.

I think its obvious that i've been too busy to update the blog as frequently as I used to. I imagine after this newborn stage passes that that might change a little, but I wont make any promises. ;)

Things have been busy around here with a newborn and a busy toddler. Jadon is getting more comfortable around Avery, he gives her kisses alot. But at the same time, he can get a little aggressive with her, and I think that stems from frustration over me holding her all the time. Miss Avery likes to eat and sleep, and when she's not doing that she is usually crying (loudly!!) From about 5pm until about 10:30pm she eats almost constantly (cluster feeds), so I am pretty much confined to the rocker all evening long. She sleeps pretty well at night...knock on wood.

Shes also creating a lot of laundry for me. She only poops about 1-3 times a day, and so when she does go, she makes quite a mess all over her clothes. She has already stained almost all of her newborn clothing already.

I do miss Jadon alot since I dont get to "see" him as much as I used to. So doing the things that we used to do together are really special now when i'm able to do them... like reading before bed, and cuddling in the morning. On monday, my wonderful husband made Jadon and I get out of the house together while he stayed home with the baby. So, Jadon and I did some shopping at the mall, and then went to the library for awhile. It was good for both of us to get out of the house together. The first 2 weeks after Avery was born, I felt so horribly guilty that pretty much everything in Jadon's world had changed so quickly. There were several early mornings when i'd be up nursing Avery and Jadon would wake up and come to our bedroom, and Derek would take him back to his bed crying because he wanted to be in mommy's bed too. I'm sure he doesnt understand why he is the only one in the house who is not aloud to be in our bedroom at night. Anyways, there were several of those mornings where i'd just be sobbing in bed while I nursed Avery because I felt so guilty and I missed cuddling with him in the mornings so bad.

Derek has been amazing these last 3 weeks. I dont know what I would have done without him. He had to go back to work on thursday, and I was really worried how things would go with me alone with the two kids, but things have actually gone pretty smoothly so far. I've managed to get both the kids down for naps at the same time so I have some free time in the afternoon.

Thats pretty much how things have been for us in the last week... just getting to know Avery and her temperment, learning how to handle 2 kids instead of one, and helping Jadon adjust to the changes as painlessly as possible.

Overall, I feel pretty darn lucky and blessed though. I have a wonderful husband who is also a wonderful father, and two beautiful children. Its weird to think that last year at this time I was about to have my 4th miscarriage (november 1st.) I remember wondering if we'd ever have another baby, and I even started imaging that we might only have one child. Now, here we are a year later and we have a beautiful, 3 week old baby girl. Never in a million years did I imagine that this is where we'd be a year later. I am blessed!

Well its taken me 3 weeks to complete this 3 minutes slideshow, but hope you enjoy it!

Avery's 2 week appt

We just got back from Avery's 2 week appt. She is doing very good. She is now 21inches long, and weighs 8lbs 6oz. Yes, thats right... in just 9 days she gained just 1 oz shy of a pound. Little piglet!! Since she has been eating so much, I managed to lose all my pregnancy weight in 11 days! She is literally sucking the pounds right off of me!
On the downside, the doctor instructed us to not leave the house unless we have to. They are seeing alot of really nasty bugs all of the sudden that are not good for tiny babies. So Jadon and I are going to have to get creative at home after Derek goes back to work, since we are going to be stuck at home! I might have to make another run to Michael's craft store! :) Darn, too bad! ;)

Another successful haircut

Jadon's got his daddy's hair, and anytime their hair starts getting a little longer, they look like they are wearing helmets on their heads. They were both in need of a cut, so last night, Derek helped Jadon overcome his fear of the hair cutting clippers, and gave Jadon a buzz. We are very proud of him because this has been a HUGE fear of his since he was about a year old. Here's some pictures of my brave guy:

Then, in another moment of bravery, Derek decided to buzz his hair also. I dont have a picture of that yet. They both look much better! I'm not a fan of long hair on either of them since they have such bushy hair.

Avery's Birth Story

Our long awaited baby girl arrived on Oct. 8th! She weighed 7lbs 9oz, and 19 1/4 inches long. Derek and I were both surprised she was so short... Jadon was 19 inches when he was born and that was 5 weeks early!
Having a full term baby is a completely different experience to having a preterm baby. We were able to leave the hospital the day after she was born, and we didnt have to deal with any issues that come with preemies, ie, jaundice, difficulty breathing, trouble maintaining body temp, etc.
Jadon has been doing really well. He was really having a hard time when we were in the hospital, but I think he was worried about seeing me in a hospital bed, and the whole hospital setting. He has really warmed up to Avery too since we have been home, and now he seems to really love her.

Anyways, the birth story! I'm not sure where to start really. I had about 2 contractions a day for about a month leading up to the delivery. A week and a half before she was born, I was 3cm dilated... a week later, I was dilated to 3 1/2 cm, and she was really moving her way down. The day before she was born, I woke up with alot of pressure down there, and I kept having these pains (they didnt feel like contractions... it felt more like the pressure would momentarily increase drastically for about a minute). All day I had them, although I wasnt convinced they were contractions, I still timed them several times throughout the day. They were very irregular, and ranged anywhere from 7 minutes apart to 18 minutes apart, and even almost completely stopped that afternoon. By late evening, they were getting more painful, but I STILL wasnt convinced it was contractions, but I was convinced that the baby would be coming soon. We went to bed that night, and I continued to have these pains all night, and probably about 2 an hour and they would wake me up from sleeping. At 4am, I was woken up by a particularly painful one and right in the middle of it, my water broke. I woke Derek and told him my water broke, so he starts getting ready to go to the hospital. I was still not convinced. My pains were still very irregular up until then, and I could still function through them for the most part, so I didnt think it was quite time to go to the hospital. Derek insisted we go. I convinced myself to go as well because I was not feeling the baby move at all and was really worried something was wrong. We left the house about 4:15am or so... while in the car, the pain was beginning to get worse, and started to become regularly 5 minutes apart. Once at the hospital, everything went downhill. The nurse asked me to go the the bathroom and change into a gown... While I was in the bathroom, I had 3 consecutive contractions with no relief between them.
The nurse checked me, and I was dilated to 5cm. About 5 minutes or so later, I felt like I needed to push BAD! I yelled to the nurse that I felt like I needed to poop. She checked me again, and I was fully dilated. It was time to go!! The doctor wasnt there yet, so they had the hospital midwife come in and monitor things. I think they tried to get me to not push much since the doctor wasnt there yet, so I did alot of panting, but the urge to push overcame me several times. Finally the doctor got there right as the baby was crowning, and I think I only pushed once or twice after she got there! At 5:28am, our 2nd little miracle was born!

Let me just say, I had been planning to get an epidural for the delivery, but obviously when you dilate 5cm in 5 minutes, theres no time for ANY pain meds! So, she was born completely naturally. I'm proud of myself, but at the same time, IT HURT!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately the recovery wasnt as grand as they make natural births sound... at least for me. I was doing alot of bleeding, so they put me on pitocin to help me contract (that hurt), and gave me a shot of something in the leg to help with bleeding also. Also, as soon as she was born, my blood pressure shot up for awhile so they had to monitor me for awhile.

Thats all for now! I'll post more later when I get a chance!

Baby poll

So, in looking at the baby poll, I was trying to figure out how to decide who wins.... My first thought was the person who got the closest without going over (like the Price is Right.) So far, that would make Ashley the winner! Ashley, how bizarre that you were the only one to choose an overdue date, and yet as long as I don't go past the 14th, you're the winner! :)
Of course, then we have to figure out who got the closest weight/length as well! At my last appt, the doctor guessed she was between 7.5 and 8 lbs- totally average. Of course, thats just a guess that can be off by a pound or more; there's no way of knowing how much the baby weighs just by feeling her on the outside.

I'm still in shock that she hasn't arrived yet!

Almost 40 weeks

Had another appt today. I'm now 3.5 cm dilated and baby's head is really dropping.
Woke up this morning with an unpleasant headache that has now turned into a migraine. I'm not very thrilled about this... but I guess I have to finish out this pregnancy with a bang.

labor induction

Well, I dont think the full moon is going to induce my labor tonight, but I may have just potentially triggered it on my own! Ok, probably not, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did!

I was in the garage putting away some groceries in the pantry.... one of the bags of groceries was full of bags of cereal, and had been sitting in the garage for awhile unemptied. Well tonight I was putting them away, and a spider was in the bag but I didn't know it. I pulled out a bag of cereal, and the spider was on the bag, and it dropped down from the bag and brushed my hand. Wasn't just any old spider... it was one of the big brownish/blackish ones that I am absolutely TERRIFIED of... and it was HUGE!!!!!!!!!!! When I saw it in the bag and realized what had just taken place, I flipped out, ran out of the garage hopping around like a jumping bean, shaking every limb on my body, squealing. Derek just stood and watched me for a minute. He knows of my intense fear of those kinds of spider, but I dont think one has ever actually touched me, so I don't know that he has ever seen me freak out quite that bad over one... to be honest, I dont know if I have ever had a reason to freak out that bad over one. Anyways, after feeling and seeing that spider, i felt like I could have ran a marathon in record time... I had so much adrenaline pumping through me, I didn't even realize I was hopping around like that, and for the first time in 9 months, I think I completely forgot that I was pregnant.... until Derek said "well that might get your labor started!"

39w3d

No news. Sunday there is a full moon, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed! I know, i'm starting to go to the extreme, but honestly, time really seems to be standing still. To make things worse, my sciatic nerve is hurting now, and I can barely walk sometimes. I've been spending alot of time sitting on the heating pad, which really doesnt help much. Then I start to feel like i'm going to go nuts from not doing anything, so I get up to do something, and just force myself to do things through the stabbing pain in my rear.
Well, thats it... nothing new... still no sign of the little lady making her grand entrance!

Still going...39weeks 2days

Still no end in sight. Starting to actually wonder about going OVER my due date, which is a really really strange thought, considering I thought she'd be close to a month old already! Months ago I remember joking about her being overdue, but never thought it would actually happen... now i'm beginning to think twice about it happening. It definately seems like a good possibility now.

Derek and I have been praying for patience because time just seems to be dragging by at slower than a snails pace. At least I know she's getting a nice layer of fat on her... wont have to worry about any preemie clothes this time around, thats for sure! Hopefully we wont have to spend any time in the NICU either!

Latest update- 38weeks 6 days

Had another appt this morning.... same old same old.
Check for swelling- i dont have any (although this week I can no longer wear my wedding ring) Blood pressure- staying the same.
Baby's heartbeat- still good- 152 bpm
Uterus growth- not much changes anymore
Baby's position- head is coming way down- probably why I can't move without feeling like i'm going to split in two.
Dilation? yup- 3 cm

So, still nothing, just continuing to play the waiting game. Will update more when something changes. Next appt- next week.

Barometric pressure change

There's a small barometric pressure change coming beginning of next week, so i'm hoping that it will start labor! :)

With each passing day, i'm beginning to think that Jadon was born early because of the stress I was under from my job during the last few months of him being in-utero.

Anyways, here's another belly picture. Last one we did was 3 weeks ago, and I thought for sure it would be the last one, so you can imagine the shock i'm feeling that we were able to take another one! As you can see, my shirts are all getting way too small, and I constantly have to make sure they are covering my big belly! Apparently Jadon wanted to be in the picture posing like mommy ;)

38 weeks and 4 days!!

Nothing

Wish I could tell you all that i'm having contractions, or that my water broke, but I can't. Nothing has changed. I had an appt tuesday, they didn't check me for dilation or anything since I havent been having any contractions. But, the doctor did feel that the babys head had dropped really low into my pelvis. She seemed surprised and asked if I was feeling pressure down there.... I havent noticed any addition pressure... I've got a bowling ball inside of me, so obviously there's pressure down there all the time, but havent really felt that its been worse.
So, thats the only thing thats changed. I keep thinking that any day she'll be here... but at the same time, it doesnt feel like she's ever coming.
I remember about 2 months ago, I was reading a blog of a lady who was 38 weeks pregnant... her second child was born premature like Jadon, and she thought for sure that #3 would be born early as well. However, there she was in her 38th week, and no sign of the baby coming yet. I remember reading about how the mom was feeling pretty down being so far with no sign of the baby coming yet. I couldnt understand it then, but I can now!!!! My bags have been packed for a month... both Derek and I thought she'd be here by now. Its hard to wait, especially since I'm just growing increasingly moody and uncomfortable... and time seems to be standing still. I keep reminding myself that the longer shes in there, the better off she will be.

Still going.....

Here we are, tomorrow will be 38 weeks. I thought for sure i'd have had her by now!
I'm growing increasingly uncomfortable with each passing day (each passing hour!) Heartburn is in full force, and even Zantac is only partially helping now. And my back and feet are hurting after only being on my feet for a little bit. My mid-section aches- hips, groin, etc. which makes it hard to walk like a human. Totally understand why pregnant women waddle now! Its not comfortable to do much of anything... sitting, standing, laying down, etc. I'm getting increasingly irritable with not being able to do anything. My flower beds are littered with weeds, and it drives me nuts that I can't bend over to pick them!!! I've got my work cut out for me next spring! Actually, i'm just getting increasingly irritable - period. I know i'm whining, but i'm soooooooooooo uncomfortable!!!!!!! :) I'm sooooooooo ready to have this baby out of my belly, and into my arms!

Nothings changed yet, as far as I know. No contractions, although i'm getting a few cramps here and there on a daily basis now.
Tonight we went for a walk.... my hope is to get things moving a little! I doubt its going to work, and i'm afraid this little one is feeling comfy and cozy in there and isnt wanting to come out!

I really have nothing to talk about because i'm feeling very cranky and irritable lately! I hate feeling this way when I know there are women out there who would give anything to be in this position...however, i'm convinced that if they actually were in this position, and this uncomfortable, they too would be cranky and feeling guilty for being cranky! :) I think its just something that happens when you get to the 9th month of pregnancy, because I never made it to the 9th month with Jadon, and I was still relatively comfortable with him. It wasn't until this 37th week that I have REALLY started feeling miserable.

Time to come out little girl!!!!!!!

Full term!!

Its official! We are full term now! We made it! The progesterone shots seemed to do their job!
Also, its wednesday today, and I don't have to get poked in the hip!! How exciting!! However, I did get a flu shot yesterday. The doctor was joking that I just couldnt go a week without getting a shot.
Anyways, we had another weekly appt yesterday, all looks good. Blood pressure still holding steady, growth is right on track. Haven't had any contractions (that i'm aware of) however, I never felt any with Jadon until I was actually in labor.... so, who knows! I don't seem to be a person that notices having braxton hicks contractions.... only thing is i've had cramping here and there over the last couple months, but in the last couple weeks they've been more frequent, and almost every day i'll have at least one now.
So, now we just wait! Its weird... every night I go to bed thinking "could this be the night? could tomorrow be the day???" Never got to play the waiting game with Jadon, so this is new to us! Derek told me tonight he's getting nervous/excited thinking about the birth and introducing Jadon to his baby sister.

Ten wonderful years!

Ten years ago today, Derek and I became a pair! Hard to believe its been 10 years already, but at the same time it feels like we've been together forever (and thats not a bad thing!)

Its weird to look back 10 years ago and see where we've come. Ten years ago, we had no idea we'd be getting married, switching jobs several times, going to Hawaii and Florida together, be pregnant 6 times, lose 4 babies, buy a house, buy an SUV that we LOVED... sell the SUV that we loved, have a beautiful son who we adore and expecting a daughter any time. Of course, there's many many many more things that have happened between all of that, but those are the bigger events in our life together over the last 10 years!

Through all the ups and downs that come with every relationship, I can honestly say that I love Derek more and more every day, especially when I look at what a wonderful husband he is, the fantastic father that he has become, and a hard worker who supports his family the best that he can.

I love you Derek!

Its done!

The progesterone shots are all finished! All 20 of them!!!! I don't know who's more relieved, me or Derek! Now we don't have to dread our Wednesday nights! ;)
So far, all the extra progesterone i've been prescribed over the last 8 months has done its job!!! I couldn't be more thankful!! Now I just have to wait for my progesterone levels to drop, and then our little girl will be on her way!

36 weeks!!

Well, we made it to 36 weeks! Now i'm ok with her coming any time!
Had my first weekly appt today, and everything is going good. Measuring just about right, and the doctor guesstimated that the baby weighs close to 6 pounds, but still in the 5 pound range. Of course, thats just a complete guesstimate! That weight is completely average for 36 weeks, so she's on track to being a normal sized baby! Phew! I dont think i'll have to worry about delivering an 8+ pound baby! In fact, I feel that shes going to be pretty tiny. I feel much smaller than I did with Jadon. And with Jadon, they were predicting he would be a big guy of 8-9 lbs.
Of course, it also depends on when she comes! If she comes this week (like Derek is certain is going to happen) then she'll definately be tiny!!
Anyways, as I was saying, everythings looking good! Doctor expects that i'll have a really fast labor though, since Jadon's was only 5 hours. Derek and I are a little nervous about doing this the normal way- not being in the hospital already when I go into labor, but being at home when labor starts, like most people! We are both starting to feel nervous! Every day I think to myself, "today could be the day!" And it makes me instantly nervous!

At the risk of sounding like more of a germ freak than I already am, i'd like to remind everyone who plans to come visit us after our little lady is born, please remember to wash your hands thoroughly before holding her. Also, now is a good time for everyone to try to stay as healthy as possible, and if youre sick, or have been exposed to someone who is sick, please stay away. I know this sounds rude, but after everything we've been through to get to this point, I dont want to have something happen to her because she caught some kind of bug from someone. So please, use common sense.

Just so everyone knows ahead of time, we have chosen not to have anyone in the delivery room with us, other than the doctors and nurses. After she's born, we'll have Jadon come in the room with us for awhile so as a family we can get to know our new edition. When we are ready, we'll let everyone else come in. This was our plan for when we had Jadon too, but things didn't work out quite that way since he came early and ended up in the NICU. Really hoping that this time around we can do things "normally"- normal labor/birth, and hospital stay. I know of course that rarely do things go "normally" when it comes to labor and delivery, and even full term babies can end up in the NICU, but i'm really praying we dont have to go through that again!

Anyways, i've got my last progesterone shot tomorrow! I'm so excited!!! The doctor was really pleased and happy that we have made it this far!

I'll leave you with a picture of my handsome little man!

This and That

Here's the latest belly picture- at 35 weeks and 5 days! I've made it almost a week farther than with Jadon so far! My shirts are all beginning to get too short, but I hate to buy new ones since I'm only going to be wearing them for a very short time! So, i'm just trying to make do with the few that I have that still fit! ;) I did go shopping the other day for some PJ's to wear at the hospital. The other day I mentioned that i'd started packing my bags, and realized that my PJ's consist of Derek's old T-shirts that after years and years of wear and tear, are stained and extremely holey. And then sweat pants. Its quite embarrasing actually... I never really paid too much attention to them until recently.
Derek and I were also talking about when we think the baby will be coming. Derek thinks that sometime this week she will come. I, on the other hand, think she's going to hold off for much longer.
I've always wondered if my job caused me to have Jadon so early. During the last couple months at the clinic, we were under a ton of stress trying to learn a new program, and then when they went live with the new program, it was just HORRIBLY stressful. Also, the last month that I was there, we were having to train a bunch of new people, which is stressful enough in itself, but with the new program, it was absolutely awful. Anyways, 2 weeks after I quit my job, I ended up in the hospital, only to have him a week later. So, i've always wondered if my major stress at my job caused me to have him early, since extreme stress can cause early labor. Only time will tell I guess! We've got one more shot in 2 days, and then i'm done, and she'll be free to come whenever she pleases!

Some good news (I hope) is that I haven't been nauseated in the mornings for most of this week! I say I hope because I've had a couple days here and there in the past when I havent been nauseated, and then it comes back again... so I am hoping that it is gone for good!!
The bad news is, now I am getting hungry by 9:30 or 10am... and I mean STARVING hungry! To the point where I have almost no energy to make it through until lunchtime.

In other news-

Well, Derek and I are growing increasingly suspicious of one of our neighbors. Its a man who lives alone in his house.... he's probably in his 50's or 60's. Anyways, he used to live a block away with some lady (who we get mail for all the time from drug and alchohol rehab centers.) Then a couple years ago, he moved into the house across the street to our side. He's always been a very private person... I dont think i've ever seen his blinds opened the entire time he's lived there. Which is fine, some people are just private. Anyways, weird things have been going on at his house lately... we've called the cops a couple months ago when a guy and girl were trying to get into the house for 30-45 minutes without any luck. We'd never seen them before.
We've seen this man arrested at his house before.
Recently we think someone broke into his car.
The cops are at this mans house ALOT.
Lately, he's been doing some weird things... like installing a piece of board to the top of his fence that looks like a saw (like to keep people from climbing over the fence.)
Last week, he installed a servailance camera outside his house.
He also has had a red porch light for awhile, but recently added a blue light to one of the lights by his fence as well..... however, they are not always on.
Tonight, he traded the blue light for a motion flood light, as well as the light on the other side of his garage. This evening, he kept coming out of his house about every 1 minute (and i'm not exaggerating that)... going to the end of his driveway, looking down the street (like he was waiting for someone), then would go back inside.

We are just starting to get really suspicious of his activities. We joke about him being a drug dealer or something, but its really not funny... and lately we've been failing to find any humor in his weirdness. We dont like living next to someone that we know nothing about, who has strange activity at his house, and cops there all the time. Whether he deals drugs or what, we are not liking it... especially since i'm home alone all day, and we are trying to raise our young children.

Anyways, Derek's been looking online at houses for sale lately. This is such a horrible time to sell a house, but tonight after his weird antics (by the way, he is still going outside his house looking every couple of minutes... and its been well over 3 hours since he started doing it) Derek said he feels like we should hurry up and get the house upgraded and put on the market asap. We are beginning to feel very uncomfortable living next door to him. Between my wild imagination, and from watching too many crime drama's on TV, I just imagine all the worst things that could happen. It just stinks living next to someone who makes you feel very uneasy like this.

Sadly, we are now constantly watching his house for anything weird, suspicious or different. If something is going on at his house, I want to know about it, even if that means spying on him all the time!