Brandt Jared

I am finally getting around to posting about our sweet BOY!! I was induced on Monday, November 24th because I was 2 days late already and didn't want to spend Thanksgiving in the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am and Brandt was born at 12:07pm. So a 6 hour labor was so much better than the 28 hour labor that I had with Lucy. My doctor came in about 8:30 and broke my water, which led to the worst contraction that any woman has ever experienced. It came on so fast and strong that I almost passed out. That is when I sent Michael to tell the nurse that I needed my epidural now!!! She was already on her way back in the room because Brandt's heart rate was dropping fast. They flipped me over, gave me a shot to stop the contractions, hooked a bunch of heart monitors up to me, and than just began starring at the monitor. I couldn't see the monitor, but my sister said that his heart rate dropped into the 40's. First of all, I was unsure of being induced because I kind of felt selfish and thought the baby should come on his own time and than this was happening. Praise the Lord, his heart rate rebounded, I got the beloved epidural and then the waiting began. They came in and checked me and I was at a 7, but then a little while later I felt like the baby was trying to sneak out and actually was crossing my legs and squeezing. I asked Mike to get the nurse and she came back and checked me and I was at a 10, so she went to call the doctor and when she came back she said let's see if we can do one push to get you started and she checked and said, don't push!! So when my doctor got there, they got set up and 6 pushes later I heard "it's a boy." I kept saying, what am I going to do with a boy :) He is just perfect and it is such a joy to look at him and see a healthy and precious child!! Lucy's response when she found out it was a boy was "but I don't want a baby brother, I want a baby sister." She got over that quickly as you can see in the picture above.

Brandt is growing, he weighed 8lbs, 140z at his 2 week appointment after weighing 7lbs, 14oz when we left the hospital. I ended up getting mastitis last week and I am on 2 different antibiotics to try to clear this up. It has been horrible.... I would go from uncontrollable chills to sweating profusely and even had up to a 103.8 degree fever. It was pretty rough, but my Michael was amazing... such compassion, endurance and love!!! I am so blessed. Unfortunately, the antibiotics can cause gas and I have been fine, but Brandt hasn't. So I am so looking forward to being done with this all and finding our new normal. So that's why this post was started Monday and I am finally finishing it today, Saturday. Will this be my new normal :)

Random Pictures

Yesterday, we wanted to do something fun with Lucy, so we took her to the aquarium. She had fun walking through the tunnel with sharks and learning different fishes names. I think she retained more than I did.

One night while I was gone to get my hair done, Mike and Lucy made this robot hat. I guess she came up with it all by herself because there was a robot on Dora, so she wanted to be a robot too. I think they did a great job making it and she was so excited to show me when I got home.

We took Lucy to a pumpkin patch in October and I think this is just the sweetest little picture of her. They were fairytale pumpkins for our little princess. She had a great time running around, climbing hay bales and looking at animals.

Here I am at 40 weeks... can't believe it's time for this little one to be born!!

Big Girl Bed

Big news... Lucy is spending night #2 in her pink room. Whenever I would get up to go the bathroom, which is quite often, I would look at the clock and think, hmmm, haven't heard Lucy cry from falling out of bed. I was really expecting at least a few times of falling to the floor, but she didn't. So, Mike just needs to put one more coat of finish on the headboard, hang her Lucy letters and we will be done. I do have to admit, I cried and it wasn't the first time about this big girl room! On Saturday, we were moving her clothes into the other closet and I just started crying. Lucy said, mommy why you crying... I said because you are getting to be such a big girl. She got a sad look on her face and gave me a hug, so I told her it was okay, because that is the way Jesus made us to keep growing and learning. It's just hard on mommy's. It was very comforting to see her excited about her new room and wanting to sleep in her big girl bed, so that was an answer to prayer. Although, she thinks she has a pink room and a green room right now.

An update for my 4 faithful readers... I am dilated to a 3 (never got this far without being in labor with Lucy), my doctor is back (please keep praying for him and his family), and my doctor thinks that although I look like I have a small baby, I will probably have a 7.5 to 8.5 lb baby. That makes much more sense, especially since I look the same as with Lucy, just a few pounds heavier. We'll let you know when this baby comes!

Sweet Girl

Usually Lucy is a Mommy's girl, but the past few days she has been telling Michael that he is her sweet girl. Just what every man wants to hear. Well, for Michael it is, because this morning he asked Lucy if he was still her sweet girl today and she said yes. She sent a big man off to work very happy!! We all know though that she is still a mommy's girl.

I know this blog is about Lucy, but I need to vent. So I had a really bad appointment yesterday. When I got to the doctor's office, they told me that I would be seeing a different doctor because my doctor's 19 year old son died last week. Isn't that just horrible!! So, I knew that this new doctor wasn't married and young, so I said can I see someone else and they said next week we can make an appointment with one of the other doctors. So anyhow, he comes in the room to check me and than do the ultrasound. He was trying to get a good heartbeat and actually told me that the baby is making it very difficult to get the heartbeat because it's moving all over the place. So I said to him, well you did just poke the baby in the head. So, we move on... I tell him that we don't want to know the sex and I ask him if we can do an estimate on the baby's weight because that's what my doctor had planned for this week. Well, he goes on to tell me that you can't get the actual weight of the baby through an ultrasound that it could be a pound more or a pound less. I said, I know, but it's just for fun. So, he starts and he is moving up my tummy a little high, so I say, remember we don't want to know the sex of the baby. He tells me that I better look away then because if I want him to do this than he has to measure the leg. So I told him that I'd rather not know the weight if there is a possibility of seeing something, but he ignored me and continued. Well, let me tell you, he took FOREVER and pushed so hard on my tummy, and I had to pee. Then he finally gets the weight and I had to point it out to him on the screen where it was at... come on, are you kidding me. It was 5lbs, 4oz. I am pretty sure he did it WRONG because come on Lucy was 8.5lbs and do Mike and I really look like we can have a small baby. So, I said to him, the baby usually gains about 1/2 lb or so a week, right. He said, no, the baby might not gain anymore weight. Now am I wrong or does a baby continue to gain until the end? I really felt a bit smarter than him at this point. Plus, when he first started the ultrasound he didn't turn the screen so I could see and I kept asking him to turn it and he ignored me, so finally I grabbed the screen and turned it. So just to put the icing on the cake, he asked me if I had any questions and then walked out the door without even turning the light on for us. He's a real gem!!

Words of Affirmation

I haven't posted anything in a few weeks, but Lucy continues to crack us up daily. The most recent was this afternoon in a public restroom. We were in a store and Lucy said, I have to go poopie, so we hurry to a restroom. As we walk, I continue to ask if she still needs to go, and the answer was always yes. So we walk across the store to the restroom, load the toilet paper on the seat, securely tuck the dress in her neck so it doesn't fall in the toilet, pull down the tights and the pull-up and get on the seat. So as I am squatting there (which isn't easy at 9 months pregnant) waiting for her, she says I don't have to go anymore. After waiting a few more minutes, just to be sure, we finally give up. Well, since we have gone through the effort of getting to a bathroom, someone is going to go, so of course I can always come through on that. So I finish going and Lucy wants to flush, so I am standing up to pull up my pants and Lucy yells "that's a big butt" which by the way she usually says bottom so I obviously took her by surprise. Then she says "I have a little butt and that is a BIGGGG butt." I started laughing so hard because I knew there were other people in the restroom as well, and it's obvious she is talking about me. This isn't shocking news to me, but it's not really what I want to hear, I mean really, who ever wants to hear that. When we were washing our hands the lady from the other stall didn't even smile or say anything... I was laughing and still do when I think about it.

Zoo

I finally took Lucy to the zoo on Friday. It was a gorgeous day, my nephews were on fall break and Mike had strep throat so we needed to get out of the house (actually, I had planned to take Lucy before I knew he was sick, but it worked out great). Anyhow, we had such a great time... if you know me, than you know I love chimpanzee's, so that was our first stop, after the bathroom of course, I am 8 months pregnant. There was a baby chimp and he was swinging into the window, eating banana's and just entertaining everyone. My nephew said, I want to go in there with him and I agreed with him. Of course, when I got home and told Mike about it, he said the adult chimpanzee's are mean and probably would have bitten me up... thanks for ruining that idea! We also enjoyed the elephants because they had an exhibit room and this one elephant had his face right up to the window staring us down. Just a piece of glass separated us. Lucy said it was scary when his trunk would wack the window. We also smelt a porcuppine mark his territory in one exhibit and it just about made me throw up. Let me tell, the area was all his, I was out of there... it was a horrible dirty diaper/body odor smell... gross... aren't you glad I shared! We had a picnic lunch, saw all the animals and rode the train. Lucy and Preston loved the train. They both waved bye-bye to the choo choo for like 5 minutes and Preston even cried when he realized that it was gone and we weren't on it anymore. The older boys said, all we saw were a couple of ducks, so they weren't impressed. We only rode one-way on the train and we chose the wrong way... it was mostly construction we saw and a few ducks. Lucy has been playing chugga chugga choo choo all weekend... she has us all sit on the steps, including her baby dolls and tells us "all aboard" before proceeding to choo choo. She even gets Mike's belts and straps us all in.... such imagination!

Twinkle Twinkle

I found this video on the camera that Mike took of Lucy in July while we were in Wisconsin... it's pretty sweet!

Diaper Hats

Mike was getting Lucy ready for bed one night and this is how they came down stairs.

The funny part is that it was Lucy's idea.

So we are in phase 2 of potty training now. Lucy has been running around the house half naked the last few weeks because it is the only way that she will go on the potty when she has to go. So a few days ago I decided to put some undies on her and she is still doing pretty good. We still wear a diaper or pull-up when we go somewhere. She did tell me at the mall last week that she had to go poopie. So I rush her to the bathroom, put on the many layers of toliet paper on the seat and set her on it. We wait, wait and wait some more. Finally, she says, I don't have to go. I say are you sure, and she is. So we get off and go back to the store and just a few minutes later I smell the not so mysterious smell. I say, Lucy did you make poopie. She tells me yes. I said, but we just were in the bathroom and you said you didn't have to. She looks up at me and says very seriously "I tried and tried to go, but I couldn't go." What does one say to that.

One more cute thing... whenever you ask her a question about something she either says I think so or I think not. It cracks me up!

Branson

We made a short trip to Branson for a few days with my parents. They were on their way back home and have Silver Dollar City season passes, so we went along with them. We stopped at Lambert's on the way there, and thought it was overrated, except for the rolls... delicious! Besides Silver Dollar City, we went to the Sight and Sound Theatre and saw Noah, the Musical. It was a good production and Lucy liked all the animals. Silver Dollar City was so much fun. The weather was perfect and it wasn't very busy so Michael got to ride all the rides over and over again without waiting in line... he was loving that! Lucy liked the train ride and the children's area, and of course all the sugar she had!! What can I say, Grandma was along. Michael kept talking about the Giant Barn Swing, so Lucy was all about going on the swings and couldn't understand why she wasn't going. Thankfully, they have a new children's area and she was just tall enough to ride the rides and they had swings. She loved those the most... Michael and her just kept riding them over and over again. They also had a roller coaster, which Michael was going to take her on, but he didn't fit in the car and pregnant ladies aren't suppose to go on, so my Mom took her. My Mom said after the first hill she turned and said "Grandma, this is scary." My Mom completely agreed with her!! They didn't go on it again.

So you always hear that kids are like sponges, they absorb everything. Well, Lucy proved that to be so true because when we were parking once I became a little bossy and was saying, Michael go over there and directing him to a spot and than I realized that I sounded like my Grandma who would always tell whoever was driving to go park under that tree... so we started laughing about that. Anyhow, the next day Michael was parking and Lucy said, hey Daddy, go park under that tree. Oh, we laughed so hard, and she just thought she was hilarious! Such personality!!!

Here's a few pictures from our trip....

Labor Day Weekend

Last weekend, we headed down to Dallas to spend the weekend with Mike's sister and family. Lucy had fun playing with her cousins and we had fun relaxing and shopping. Have you ever been to a Harry and David's? They feed you, a lot! It's a great place for a pregnant gal to go... Elizabeth, I will never forget you.

We also thought it would be a great idea to potty train the girls (Lucy and Gracie are both 2) together in a weekend... it didn't happen. They did look super cute running around in little undies.

We have continued with the potty training since we are home and Lucy has pooped on the potty twice. She also has pooped in her underwear and on the coffee table in her play room. We asked her what happened and she said she was jumping and it fell out...don't you hate when that happens.

So here is a picture of me 29 weeks pregnant. I can't believe it is September and this little one will be coming in 11 weeks. Lucy likes to lift my shirt and kiss my belly button to kiss the baby, or she will stick her finger in my belly button and say tickle tickle. They are

already playing together.

When Jesus Comes

Last night we were singing songs... Lucy loves to sing. If you sing one song, she will keep saying, let's sing another one. So we sang This Little Light of Mine and Lucy loves that last verse that says "let it shine until Jesus comes," so we finish the song and she looks up at me and says "Mommy, will you tell me when Jesus gets here?" She just had the look in her face like, wake me up because I've been singing about Him coming for a long time now and I don't want to miss out. It was such an innocent statement and a great teaching moment.

Yesterday, Lucy went to the dentist for the first time. I wish I had brought my camera because she was so tiny on that big chair. She let the hygienist clean her teeth and floss them, but she was a little apprehensive about the dentist looking in her mouth. We found out that once her big teeth start coming in that we will probably start to have problems because her teeth are close together. It's really not a big surprise because Mike and I both had braces for a long time and I had like 7 teeth pulled before I could get braces, but for now she has a pretty cute smile!! She liked picking out a toy from the toy box and getting stickers... it was all worth it. Although, she is into wrapping presents to give to you, so she used one sticker to wrap the other sticker to give me a present and ruined them both. I guess the love language of giving of gifts is coming out. She'll take tissues and wrap up coasters or some small toy and say "open your present." Her 2 year old attitude is also coming out a lot. I hear this so often through out the day... "I don't want to." So of course I have come to sound like a true parent and say the ever popular "I don't care if you don't want to do it, do it anyway" or "change your attitude or I'll change it for you." I think I even used a phrase my Dad said to us a lot growing up... "you're going to have to do a lot of things you don't want to do in life." Like she even has a clue what I am talking about, but I said it anyway.

The day came too soon

This morning when Michael went to get Lucy from bed, he set her down and went to the bathroom, so of course she climbed up into bed and laid on his pillow. When he came back her response was "I took your spot." I sat up and said, what did you say and she said "I took Daddy's spot." I thought surely she didn't say that the correct way, so I asked her to say spider and spicy... actually I said, say pider and picy and she said spider and spicy. I almost cried because it's just another sign that my baby is growing up.

Funny Lucy

I love having a 2 year old. The things that Lucy comes up with are just hilarious and the way she says it makes it all the more funny. She thinks it is so funny to take your spot when you get up. So I was reading in bed and I got up to go to the bathroom and she comes in the room, climbs into bed, picks up my book and pretends to read it. When I come back, she peeks from behind the book and says "I took your pot." She misses the "s" on a lot of words and I love it! She will say "mommy, a pider, get it." I even encourage the mispronunciation because I like it and I know it will end too soon.

Last night we were rocking before bed and when we finished praying I told Lucy that Jesus loves her very much. She said "Jesus loves Mommy and Jesus loves Daddy" and she continued on with just about everyone in our family. Well, she has 2 Uncle Mark's so we are always trying to think of a way to distinguish them, and last night she came up with her very own way. She said "Jesus loves Uncle Mark without glasses and Uncle Mark with glasses."

Fashion Smarts

So tonight I told Lucy that we were going to go to the store to find Daddy some new tennis shoes. So she looked at me and said, "does him want green shoes." I said I didn't know and that she would have to ask him. So in the car on the way to the store she asked him if he wanted green shoes. He laughed and said that he probably wouldn't get green shoes. She told him that he should get green shoes to match his green shirt. That's my girl, always thinking about fashion.

Too sweet

Last night I was rocking Lucy and the baby started moving a lot. So I asked Lucy if she wanted to feel the baby. So she put her hand on my tummy and I moved it down to where I was feeling the baby move. Lucy sat there for 5 minutes feeling the baby move with her hand on my tummy and as still as can be. I would say, did you feel that, and she would nod her head yes. I think the baby knew that it was Lucy because the baby just kept squirming around inside like crazy. I was telling Lucy how much the baby liked her already. All of a sudden Lucy said, I wanna go nigh, nigh. It was a pretty sweet moment to share with my babies!!

Land that I Love

We spent 11 days up in Wisconsin with my family and we had such a great time. Lucy was a great traveler for 13 hour car ride and was so excited to go to Grandpa and Grandma's house. I made the mistake of telling her we were going, so for about 5 days before we left whenever I would get her in the morning or after a nap she would say "we leaving for Papa and Grandma's house now." We went up there for my Dad's 70th birthday party. My parents went all out with a pig roast in their backyard and there were about 55 people there. My Dad and Mom have the most beautiful yard because my Dad loves gardening. We took all the pictures of the party on my parents camera because it's nicer, so I don't have any party pictures yet. So the first few days up there we were getting ready for the party. Michael was the official pig roaster and had a fun time doing it. If I hadn't been so busy getting things ready I would have gotten a picture of him with his pig. I thought of it the day after the party... just a little late. We saw family and friends that we hadn't seen since our wedding 5 years ago, so it was a fun time. The only bummer was that is rained for about a 1/2 an hour. Thankfully, the guys had set up tents all over the yard, so everyone stayed dry. Lucy and her cousins were playing with the kids that Heather and I used to babysit, so every now and then I would look around to make sure I could see Lucy. Well, all of a sudden all the kids were gone and Lucy was still under a tent, sitting under a table. She was sitting there for a really long time so quietly, so I finally got up and walked closer and there she sat under the table with a bowl full of mints chowing down on them saying "mmm, mints."

One of our most favorite things all week was going up to our cottage in northern Wisconsin. We spent a lot of our summer's up there growing up, so it was fun to take our kids up there and let them experience all the fun too. Our cottage is on a peninsula, so most of the pictures I have of Lucy she is wearing her life jacket. I come by it honestly though, my Mom did the same thing with us when we were little. So we had fun going for walks in the woods, swimming, fishing, and going for rides in the boat. We asked Lucy if she wanted to go fishing and she said "yes, I'm gonna catch a purple fish." Her Dora fishing pole has a purple fish at the end, so that's the fish she always catches, but this time she actually did catch a real fish. She was pretty excited.

One of the funniest moments was when I caught a frog and gave it to Lucy. My Dad said why don't you kiss it and see if it turns into a prince, so she kept kissing the frog. She even gave the frog a little hug before throwing him back into the water. It was so funny because none of the other kids would touch the frog, but here Lucy is kissing and hugging it.

Michael thinks I am a little crazy, but I love to go strawberry picking. So since it is strawberry season up there, on the 4th I took Lucy strawberry picking. I caught Lucy eating the strawberries that my Mom was picking... she would take a bite and then throw it back in the bucket and take another one. She also was picking green strawberries and trying to eat them and then she would tell me that it was yucky and then take another bite. So we got our fill of strawberries, well not really I can never have enough, and I made 27 jars of strawberry jam. That night we walked to the fairgrounds and watched the fireworks. Michael was catching lightening bugs on the way and giving them to Lucy. She was holding them and squishing them. There was a glowing mess on the ground behind us as we walked. When the fireworks started Lucy covered her ears, but then she enjoyed watching them. She told us she liked the pink ones, surprise, surprise!!

On our last day, my Mom and I took Lucy and my niece to a water park. The girls had so much fun on the water slides and I did too. Lucy was so brave, she didn't even want to go down with anyone, she would say "I do it myself." So down she would go and my Mom would catch her at the bottom.

The only bummer from the whole trip is that the time up there went too fast and I came back with a cold. It's just so much fun having a cold while you are pregnant!! What does Tylenol cold do for you anyhow, I haven't noticed a thing???

Day at the Lake

On Saturday, my sister's family, my cousin's family and us went to this fun little lake that had a sandy beach and all sorts of water things, like a tunnel slide, a diving board, a high dive, a raft, a rattle snake for climbing on and a huge floaty thing that you can jump on. So we packed a lunch and enjoyed the day at the lake. My nephews, who are 7 and 4 were jumping from the high dive, and it was really high so we were watching them and Lucy takes off swimming towards it and says "I wanna jump." She wasn't very happy with me that I didn't let her. The scary thing is that she would have done it because she doesn't have fear, so unlike me. She also wanted to go down the water slide and it was one of those fast tunnels that has a huge drop so I didn't want her to go down that either, but Michael said he would take her. They came flying through the air at the end and she drank about half the lake. She didn't ask to go on that again. She spent most of her time jumping from the raft and swimming around. She also didn't fail to poop in her swim diaper. All you need to do is put the girl in a swim diaper, let her swim around and a little while later if you ask her if she pooped she will say "I pooped in Elmo", even though we had discussed that Elmo doesn't like to be pooped on. Regardless, it was a fun day. So if I had a brain at all I would have remembered my camera, but since it was a fleeting thought I had that morning I don't have any pictures to post.

A little bit of everything

So I have been a horrible blogger and I know it. I am feeling better for the most part. I still have some nausea at times, but nothing like it was. I remember with Lucy the nausea just stopped, but this time it is just dwindling on and on. Lucy's new saying is "I tired".... hmm, where does she hear that from?

So what am I listening to right now? Lucy plucking the piano keys and singing Jesus Loves Me. While we were in Kansas, some good friends of the family came over to visit and of course we made Brenda play the piano for Lucy because she is amazing and we want Lucy to see that you can make beautiful music on a piano, not just chopsticks (my song) and pink panther (Michael's song). So Brenda took Lucy's little finger and played Jesus Loves Me over and over again. She also saw her cousin's piano recitals while we were there. We were in Kansas for 10 days at Michael's sister's farm and his parent's farm. Lucy got to ride horses, see pigs, chickens and tiny baby kitten's. I wasn't too pleased that she was talking so much about kittens, but I agreed that kitten's are cute and cats are still yucky. I didn't get any pictures of Lucy riding the horse because I was in the house sick, but my sister-in-law took a bunch that I haven't gotten yet. We also went to the dairy that isn't far from the farm and Lucy got to pet calves and see the cows get milked. We didn't last there too long because it got a little too stinky for nauseous Erin. Lucy also loved to go for 4-wheeler rides with Michael and she really liked going fast. She does not get that from me. Last summer when we were there, she would sign "more" to go faster, this year she just told Michael to go faster.

So I need to write down some other things that Miss Lucy has been up to. Lucy has a new way to sing her alphabet. She did it once and got a lot of laughs, so now she continues to do it. Here's how it goes... abcdefghijk mmmmp qrstuvwxyz. She says the m's super fast and it is just very cute! We also went to the library the other day and she picked out some Dora books. So that night her and Michael were reading it and Michael decided to count with her in Spanish. So he said, uno and she said dos.... he looked up at me like, Erin, she's a genius. It was a priceless expression. He kept going and she said several more all the way to 10. He was in complete amazement. I was too actually, but earlier that day I had heard my niece, Samantha, teaching her to count to 10 in Spanish. I wish my mind was a sponge too, but it seems to just be mush. Speaking of Dora.... Lucy puts things on her back and says "it's my packback." So funny!! Lucy entertaining herself while I was sick one day

Lucy and her cousin, Gracie

The Cup

Yesterday I went to the doctor, and you know how every appointment you have to pee in a cup. Well, Lucy finds this quite interesting, so she grabs a cup and says "Mommy, I wanna poopie in cup." I just started laughing so hard and she persisted to ask. She got so upset that I wouldn't let her go poopie in the cup. She is however showing a lot of interest in the toilet and even went for Michael last night before her bath. I just need to start feeling better so I can actually feel motivated to start the process...maybe in a few weeks.

Due Date

We went to see the doctor today and found out that I am almost 11 weeks along. My due date is November 22. I am happy that I am further along than I thought because the end of these yucky days are in sight, but I am also bummed that my baby will have an ugly birthstone. For that reason alone I hope that it is a boy. A boy won't care. So we will have a thanksgiving time baby. The baby had a strong fast heartbeat and looked perfect. Lucy did great at the doctors office. I made her popcorn before we left to eat while I was being examined. She sat in the chair like such a big girl eating her popcorn and turning her head away anytime the doctor would ask her a question or even look at her... she's a little shy. He thought it was pretty funny. You would never know she was shy by her actions in Aldi. She was talking so loud asking what everything was. I would say, that's creamer and she would reply "I love creamer" or that's frozen food and she would say "I love frozen food." Where did she get that from.

Catching up

I haven't posted about our trip to Florida or Lucy's birthday, so I am going to do it all in one today. We went to Florida the first week of April to visit my Grandma. Lucy LOVED being at Great-Grandma's house, #1 because she had a pool, #2 because it is a retirement center so Lucy was quite the entertainment, and #3 because she had a lot of goodies from Grandma!! We spent the week there and enjoyed swimming everyday. Lucy was a fish, which doesn't surprise me because I was too. The first day in the pool she had her water wings on and couldn't quite get balanced so she kept tipping over, but by the second day she was swimming all over. At the end of the week she was jumping into the pool without me catching her. We went to the beach one day, but Lucy liked the pool better. The ocean was cold, the sand was blew in her face, and the seagulls attacked us to get our crackers. I'm not kidding. We opened the bag of crackers up and there were about 25 seagulls right above our head.... freaked me out, which freaked Lucy out, and what does Michael do, he feeds them! So Lucy got to eat one cracker and we saved the rest for the car where we were safe.

Lucy turned 2 last Saturday. If you would ask her what today is, she would yell "it's my
birfday" and give you a big cheesy grin. She loves singing happy birthday to anyone and for us to be singing it to her just thrilled her!! We had a double birthday party with my cousin's little boy, Grayson, because they were born on the same day only hours apart. So we had our families over, we made a lot of food, I made a clock cake for them and we opened presents. It was a fun day, a little chaotic at times, but I think Lucy felt like the little princess that she is.

Lucy turned 2 and....

Lucy Lipstick

What a nickname, hey. Where did she get it from, you ask? Well, let me tell you. My sister and I embarked on the LONG trip with our kids for spring break last week up to Wisconsin. We had a great time up there except for Thursday afternoon. I put Lucy down for a nap and after I thought she was asleep, we went downstairs in the basement to watch Biggest Loser that we tivo'd. About an hour later, my Mom yelled down to me that she didn't think Lucy was asleep yet because she just heard her yell, "get out." Well, if you remember from a previous post, that means she got out of bed. So I go upstairs and open the door (she can't open the doors in my parents house otherwise she would have come out) and oh my word, what a mess!! She had gotten in my purse and used a whole tube of lipstick on her, the carpeting, the walls, and the bed. She then went in her diaper bag and found suckers I had stuck in there for entertainment in stores and ate them. So she was covered from head to toe in lipstick and sticky sucker juice. I wish now that I had a picture to share, but at the time I was in panic mode, shocked and too upset to take a picture. After scrubbing the carpeting and shampooing it, we did get it cleaned up, but her shirt was ruined from the lipstick. Oh it was such a mess. So yesterday, when we went to my cousins house for Easter dinner, they were all calling her Lucy Lipstick.

Friday was a very exciting day, it snowed!! It didn't just snow a little, it was 15 inches of white sparkles from heaven. It was so beautiful and the kids had a blast in it. Here they are with Grandpa in the snow. This was before the heaviest part of the storm even started and look at all that snow. It snowed from like 6am to midnight. Thank goodness my brother gave my Dad a snowblower, otherwise I would have had one sore back from shoveling since it was my prayer for snow :)

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to....

But I didn't because yesterday was a really great day. It's not so bad turning 29 once again. Michael and Lucy started my day off by making me breakfast in bed. After church we went to the Olive Garden for lunch. It was yummy and Michael was very sneaky and told the waiter it was my birthday. So I got a little chocolate cake and the waiters sang to me after announcing that it was my 21st birthday...he got a good tip. While we were eating the cake Lucy decided she would sing to me too. So she sang happy birthday mommy over and over again, and quite loudly might I add, while standing on a chair. It was quite the performance. We then went home and watched a movie while Lucy napped. Then last night Mike invited over family, 23 of us, to enjoy some yummy turtle cheesecake that Michael made on Saturday. That's right, you read it correctly, that Michael made. He found the cheesecake factory recipe for turtle cheesecake and made it Saturday afternoon. He was pretty cute, especially when he excitedly said, this is fun!! While he was making the topping, I said, that chocolate looks yummy and he said, it's not chocolate, it's ganache. Excuse me, Martha :)

Although I did complain about losing an hour of sleep on my birthday, it was pretty nice for it to be lighter longer last night, and it was such a beautiful night. The kids had fun in the backyard. Michael had them lined up against the house for the races, even Lucy. She was down in position and when Michael would say ready, set, go, most the kids would be half way across the yard and she would be just coming up to take off. She also looked like a gem in her denim dress, black tights and pink shoes.... she LOVES pink. It was a great day!! Thank you to everyone who helped make it special.

Tell me it isn't so...

It is a very sad day for Packer fans as we bid farewell to Brett Favre. I don't think it will sink in until this fall when the Packers are on and our quarterback isn't #4.

All I know is if Aaron Rodgers is going to be our quarterback then he really needs to shave that caterpillar above his lip and cut his hair so he looks better in a helmet because a quarterback needs to look cute. Those are just the rules, I don't make them... oh never mind I guess I do. But it is a good one, don't you think?

So this is the picture of Lucy and I during playoffs. We are still going to love the Packers and cheer like crazy, it is just the end of an era.

One more thing, I actually blame the Cowboys for this. If they would of won against the Giants, then we would have played the Cowboys in Dallas, which wouldn't have been cold, so Brett wouldn't have realized that he isn't mentally up to playing in the frozen tundra, so therefore he would be back next year. So once again, the Cowboys really screwed things up for us!! Sorry Michael, your team really ticks me off.

So not only did I get that horrible news this morning, but I go up to get Lucy this morning and she was very obedient and did not climb out of bed, but she did manage to get her jammies off, unsnap her onesie and try to get her poopie diaper off. She never touched poop, but in effort to pull that diaper off she flung poop all over her bed. Nice, hey.

Get Out

On Saturday, Lucy refused to nap. I was gone and Mike put her down around 1:00. I called on my way home, around 2:30 and she still wasn't sleeping. So I told Mike to go and check for poopie because who wants to sleep in poopie pants, although she has before. So I get home and he is coming down the stairs with her and a poopie diaper. We get a drink and head back up stairs because of course she was just wanting to rock with her Mommy. Well, she was not wanting to rock so I put her to bed. Mike and I decided that we would go to the park when she woke up because it was such a nice day. So we were doing some things around the house and Lucy was still not sleeping. So since it was after 3:00, we decided to just get her up and go to the park. So Mike goes to get his shoes and I am in the kitchen when I hear Lucy on the stairs, saying "get out". I thought, wow, Mike got her out really fast. So as I am coming into the living room, I see Mike standing by the stairs looking at Lucy confused and I see Lucy standing on the stairs saying "get out, Mommy", "get out, Daddy" and looking very proud. Mike said, did you get her out. I was like oh my goodness, she crawled out of bed. We didn't even hear a big thud or anything. So I take Lucy upstairs, stick her back in bed and asked her to show me how she got out. She said, like this and then proceeded to lift her leg over the bar. I said, okay, that is dangerous, let's not do that anymore because you can get hurt. Well, she did it again this morning... she must do it very gracefully because she is quite quiet. So, once again, life as I knew it is now over. Here come the terrible 2's.

Road Trip

We had a fun time in Wichita last weekend. Lucy got to see her Papa, Grammy, Great-Grandma (GG), aunts, uncles and cousins. It was a relaxing weekend of basketball, shopping, eating and swimming. The best part, someone else did the cooking and cleaning and we just got to have fun. We got to watch our nephew, Kale, play basketball and see our niece, Ariel, cheer. Lucy liked watching Ariel cheer. She would put her hands on her hips like Ariel and whenever Ariel wasn't using her pom-poms, Lucy would grab them and shake them around. It's great that she has older cousins who are wonderful role-models.

I did see a little bit of Michael and Aunt Marilee come out in Lucy this weekend. There were some little boys playing cars next to us on the floor and they were sharing with Lucy. She was so excited that they were sharing, and to be playing with them that I caught her pinning one of the boys on the floor trying to give him a kiss. She was seriously all puckered up ready to plant one on him. The boy looked a little unsure what to do, and maybe even a bit scared. So that does it, I am definitely home-schooling :)

We've had a great day today. My friend called me up this morning to come over for a play date. When we got there she had made fresh chocolate chip cookies and had home-made wheat bread baking in the oven. We had a yummy lunch, the kids played, and I got to have adult conversation. So praise the Lord for spontaneous play dates :)

It finally got us!

I was beginning to get cocky because we have all remained well. So on Valentine's night Michael started getting a cough, which was just the beginning of the flu. Michael was laughing at me because I would walk around the house spraying Lysol, asking him what he touched. Compassion is definitely my spiritual gift, wouldn't you say? So he was sick all last weekend and now this week Lucy and I got sick. Thankfully, it is not the flu. We both just have colds, but poor little Lucy is so congested and she wakes up coughing in the middle of the night. The other night I went and got her and she said "sower" which is shower. We steam her so she can breathe. I must say I am enjoying the cuddle time with her. She actually fell asleep on my lap yesterday, it was like baby days again. We are both feeling a little better today, and we are leaving in a little while to go and see Michael's family and see our nephew play basketball, so hopefully we won't make anyone else sick or find another bug to bring home.

Nama and Papa

My parents are in town and actually staying with us! They usually stay with my brother , so it has been so fun having them with us. Lucy wants "Nama" or "Papa" to do everything for her. It's going to be rough when they go home for little Lu.

The other night, Lucy got out her Five Little Monkey's book and sat on the couch and was reading out loud. She would hit her head for when they fell off the bed and bumped their heads and then she would shake her finger and try to say no more monkey's jumping on the bed. My Mom was laughing so hard at her. And last night, Lucy was waiting for Michael to come home from work, so she goes and looks out the window by the door every now and then. Well, she spotted his truck coming down the street and boy did she get excited. She was running up and down the hall yelling, "Daddy home, Daddy home" then runs back to the window and yells "Daddy's truck, Daddy home!" And then just stands there waiting for him to open the door, giggling with excitement. It was just so cute. I love that she adores her Daddy so much.

Fun in the snow

It snowed!!!! We only got an inch or so of snow, but it was enough to play in. Michael came home from work early, just so he could go out and play in it with Lucy. We showed Lucy how to make snow angels. At first, she wasn't so sure, but soon we found her just plopping down in the snow on her back and than rolling around. She also caught on to helping with the snowman. I must say, her and Daddy did a fabulous job.

Tick Tock Prayer

My nephew Mason, who Lucy calls Boz, has a prayer that he learned in school that goes like this... "Tick, tock, goes the clock, now it's time to pray, we fold our hands and bow our heads and this is what we say. Thank you God for good food, thank you God, thank you God for good food, thank you God, in Jesus name we pray, Amen." Here's Lucy's version... "Tick tock, Boz, tick tock Boz." then she folds her hands and closes her eyes (very tightly might I add), and says a whole bunch of words I can't understand and then "eyes" some more words I can't understand and "Amen." Then she proceeds to do it again and again.

Go, Pack, Go.... what happened??

Here is Lucy and her cousin Preston dressed in their best as we cheered the Packers on. When I put her outfit on Sunday morning, she looked down and said "football". Unfortnately the season is over, but Lucy learned the pride in wearing green and gold this year. We love you Pack and can't wait for next year!!!

Just like Daddy

We haven't actually gone in the potty yet, but Lucy loves to sit on the potty and look at magazines. She sat on it for about 15 minutes the first time and just looked at the magazines.

Couldn't you eat her up!!

It's a handy to have a smart husband

I'm sure I will use this title again because he has some dandy ideas that I just might want to share. So we got these really soft sheets for Christmas from my parents, but because they are so soft, they keep coming untucked at the bottom. So Mike told me the other night that we should sew some denim on the bottom of the sheets because they need some friction, so when we tuck them in they will have some grip so they don't keep slipping out. I laughed so hard... those brilliant engineering minds, gotta love them!!

He's not only brilliant, but he is a softy. We are trying to get Lucy to sleep without her binky. So the other day at nap time Lucy cried on and off for close to 2 hours before finally going to sleep. I would go up there, bribe her with a sucker if she would go to sleep without a binky, rock her, etc... well, she finally fell asleep without it! Praise the Lord she did it. So that night I was going to work out and Mike put her to bed. I said, "try to do it without the binky, but if she cries too long go ahead and give it to her." So I come home... "so did she go to sleep without her binky" to which Mike responded, "no, she cried for like 7 minutes before I gave it to her." Seriously, after 7 minutes.... he's a softy!!

I'm a Bloggin'

That's right... after MUCH persuasion from Jana and Traci, I finally created a blog. Lucy is beginning to talk so much and is doing such fun things that I am going to write them down so I can remember these precious days!

So today is a special day... it's Mike's birthday. So I decided to let Lucy help me make his cake. She actually did a really great job of pouring everything into the bowl, and she even grabbed the mixer and stuck it in the bowl ready to mix. So we finish mixing, I take the beaters off, and she immediately stuck out her tongue to lick the beaters... Mike showed her that a few weeks ago. Anyhow, I went to get the pan and I came back and she stuck the mixer into the bowl, without beaters and was lifting it back up with her tongue out ready to lick some more. So now there is cake batter up in the holes of the mixer, hopefully it will work next time. So, thanks Mike for showing her how to lick the beaters!! She was very proud of herself. I love having a little girl.