Family Photos!

I'm not sure why I forgot to post our family picture ... It was freezing cold but we'd been dying to shoot at this old homestead so we seized the VERY small window of opportunity before Christmas cards had to go out and this is what we came up with! Not bad for doing it all ourselves!

Spring has Sprung!

Spring is in the air -- even though the weather hasn't quite caught on yet.

The girls were healthy for about 3 weeks, but are again fighting snotty and stuffy noses =( Nothing near as bad as it was a month ago, thank God!

Easter was a blast! The girls were so much fun to watch, running around looking for their eggs! Claire would get so excited and grunt and growl whenever she'd find an egg! (Family picture to come) And I was so happy that Easter Sunday was such a GORGEOUS day! Sunny and warm ... Mmmm!

What's that saying about Spring?? "In like a lion, out like a lamb." Something like that? Well that seems to be very fitting for us this month. I received a letter on April 11 informing me that I had been turned in to the state for unlicensed childcare. My thoughts at that moment? "Well, yes. I do run an unlicensed daycare ...... I thought that was legal as long as I was within these certain conditions!" Well it's not! Now I know. And now I am in the process of making it legit. The last week has been quite the whirlwind of emotions, but I've reeled it in and taken charge! After making list after list and checking off all the necessary boxes, it's just a waiting game now. We're in the process of REALLY child-proofing the house - inside and out, building an appropriate outside play area - shout out to my Dad for the fencing materials! - I've scheduled my TB test (tomorrow), I have my CPR/AED, first aid and blood born pathogens course on the 25th in Tri-Cities ... ALL DAY, Cory and I have the Family Home Care orientation on the 27th in Spokane, food workers cards for the pair of us online sometime between now and May, Cory gets to take a 20 hour basic education course (hehehehe!), then our first home visit with my licensor is scheduled for May 22! Due to the circumstances, and what an amazing and sympathetic and understanding lady she is, my licensor is fast-tracking me and says I should have my license within 2 weeks of our home visit! Thank God, again, for my ECE college classes and 9 years of child care experience!!!

And it continues ...

Notice how my last post was in November, and it was about the "Creeping Death"? Well -- it's mid-March and The McLaughlin Creeping Death is still creeping. Since the new year I've had the girls in to see their pediatrician 5 or 6 times (total, not each). ON the 10th I took them in to see the on-call ped. because the girls had been sick and not sleeping well, Friday night being the last straw. After check-ups, chest x-rays for pneumonia and asthma, and an RSV swab the results are ..... RSV, for both. Ellie was sent home with an antibiotic for some swollen bronchioli and off we went. A few days later Claire ended up with a fever, Motrin seemed to do the trick so we didn't think much else of it. Saturday night (17th) after spending Friday night punching herself in the side of the head in her sleep, Nana took her into the walk-in clinic and she came home with antibiotics for a double ear infection. On top of it all Daddy and I both have been battling a sinus infection. Awesome. I'm really hoping that these antibiotics kick the funks' butt and send it all packing for good. I'm ready for sunshine, warm weather, and no sickies!

We are gearing up for Miss Ellie's 4th birthday party (sniff-sniff, tear)! Some friends of ours opened an indoor jumping house downtown so we booked her party there, complete with pizza and cupcakes! She can hardly wait! =)
She is loving preschool, she knows all her letters and their sounds and is starting to sound words out and write them! she blows me away!

Claire is feisty and I love it! She's got her sister's sense of humor and temper. She's finally starting to say words, but only on command LOL! She's so stubborn! hahaha! She's finally calling me "mama" which melts my heart!!! And she knows "more", "please", "thank you" in sign language! She's such a smart baby!

So that's us in a nutshell as of now ....

The Creeping Death

It has hit our house ... I think Ellie brought a little cold home from school in her pocket. Claire found it but it was nothing major ... actually, I wish all colds could run through like that one did! Then Cory caught it, but it mutated and destroyed him. Now, you guessed it, this mutant virus is keeping me company! And lucky for me it came for a visit just in time for Cory to leave town today for 4 days!! Thoughtful right?
Warm jammies and hot tea are in order for the next 24 hours for sure!

Leaf Pictures (as promised)

(More to come as Fall continues)

Falling into Autumn!

I love Fall ... or as Ellie would correct me, "It's Fall into Autumn!"

I love the colors, the smells, the holidays, family traditions and the food associated with it!
One of our first Fall family traditions is Klicker's Pumpkin Patch! We thoroughly enjoy taking the kids there .. the wagons, the haystack mountain and giant slide, the reindeer (which we terribly missed this year), the old trucks ... and of course the pumpkins! It's really a great photo op.

This year we didn't get our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch because we grew our own! BUT ... as parental failures, we totally spaced carving them this year...???... WHAT?!!???!!? I know. We suck! BUT regardless, I've always loved Halloween and it excites me that I have kids to share that excitement with! Ellie wasn't phased at all by the lack of pumpkin carving (I will blame her for not reminding me) so we spent our time focusing on the perfect costume!
This year Ellie insisted on dressing up as Strawberry Shortcake ... who am I to get in the way of her dreams?!!? Strawberry Shortcake she was! Claire on the other hand, doesn't get to have her own opinion yet ... at least not about this ;) She was a Ladybug. Although no one asked, I conjured up a wonderful story about how the two costumes were connected (I think coordinating family costumes are THE cutest thing EVER!) ... it went something like this: Well Ellie chose Strawberry Shortcake and aside from dressing the baby up as a strawberry, we went with a ladybug that LIVED in Strawberry's strawberry patch. I didn't even get to explain it once. Oh well ... maybe next year it'll be a little more obvious.

Next we get to move onto raking leaves into big piles and jumping into them!!! We JUST, last night, had a crazy wind storm that blew all the neighborhood leaves into our yard (I want to take this opportunity to add that we have ONE tree and it's a medium sized Dogwood tree) so tomorrow after school will be spent playing in the leaves! (Pictures to come, I promise!)

Happy Fall everyone!

Claire is ONE!

Our baby ... she's officially a toddler and we just celebrated her first birthday!

Such a bittersweet day ... I'm really having a hard time with her growing up, probably because I have "that" feeling she's our last. Makes me sad. But MAN is she CUTE!!!!

With out shedding a single tear!

Ellie has successfully finished her first week of preschool ... and as the title reads, I did it with out shedding a single tear! The first day was perfect! Cory was home so he was able to come with me to drop her off. I attribute my dry face to him =) We stayed busy all morning. Ellie couldn't have been more excited to go to school. We got there and she chose a cubby to put her things in, then took off for the play room. I had to remind her to hug us goodbye, so she came back but was off again instantly! At pick up time she didn't really want to come home, which I think is a good thing!! Today was her second day (she only goes 2 days/week) and it was even better than the first! She actually cried today because she didn't want to leave. I can't wait for the art work to come home so I can fill up my fridge!
Here is Ellie on her first day, the first picture is before school on the front steps and the second is after school with her cousin Lily!!

Picture Post!

Cory is gone this weekend, at a friend's bachelor party, fishing on the ocean! The girls and I are having a blast with out him! LOL! Yesterday we (Sam, Evan, Ellie and I ... Claire stayed with Grammy) went to the MF pool with the neighbor and her grandson and today we just hung out, played outside and went to visit Nona! I also decided it's a perfect night to go to the Drive-In! Kung Fu Panda 2 is playing with Harry Potter (8??) so we are going to get into our pj's and head out around 845 ... we'll only stay for KFP2 though! I had a free minute while I have friendship bread baking so I thought I'd jump on and post pictures (FINALLY)!

First ... here is Claire at her Baptism!



These were taken about a month ago at the park. (Not sure why Claire's is so big. I resized all the pics the same)





This is at Lake Joy (in Carnation, WA that Cory grew up on) at Aunt Margie & Uncle Jerry's!



This is at Snoqualmie Falls.



And here is my entire world ... sharing a Rootbeer popcicle!

Lovin' Summer

Well it's about time! Summer finally decided to grace us with it's presence! Although it was quite abrupt, going from 55 to 80 in a matter of 2 days, I'm not going to be the one complaining about it!
June was fairly uneventful. Lots of rain. Cory's little sister, Tiffany, graduated high school on the 13th so we made a trip up and over the mountains to see her get her diploma! I cried a little, not gonna lie. It's hard to believe she was only 10 when I first met her and now she's gearing up for college! Gah! We stayed at Cory's Aunt and Uncle's house on Lake Joy. It's the lake Cory grew up on. It was cold but we were able to let the girls play in the water long enough to get pictures! It makes Cory feel so good that his kids get to play on the same beach he played on as a kid! Aunt Margie gave Claire her first hair cut! Poor baby was desperately in need of it! Her bangs were always hanging in her face and she could never REALLY see. All taken care of! Not only can she now see the world ... the world can actually see her face!!!
Since it's warmed up we have spent most days outside! Ellie is loving the freedom of the backyard. She's become friends with the two 6 years old girls and 4 year old little boy down the street and spends a lot of time with them riding bikes between our houses (4 houses)!
July is looking to be a busy month for us! We have a few weekend adventures coming us, as well as a wedding and our annual family vacation to the Oregon coast! This year we will be accompanied by our new camera! As I requested, Cory made sure we purchased the digital SLR in time to go on vacation! Yaay! I'm trying to find time to mess around with it so I know how to take perfect pictures on the beach, but there's just so much to do! We've started scraping the neighbor's house so we can paint it for them. This is funding our recreation while on vacation ;) We do that in the evenings when it's cooler and I get out while the girls (or at least Claire) nap during the day. Shouldn't take much more than another week!
Ellie is currently in her first session of "Turtle" swim lessons! We signed her up for a 2 week class so it wouldn't interfere with our chaotic July schedule. As usual, she loves it. It's OUR opinion that the class she is in, isn't quite advanced enough for her and I'd like them to move her up to the next level. They do things with the kids below what she was doing in the parent/child classes. They have to assume that the kids starting "turtles" are entry level and have never really been in the water much, as they're only 3. Understandable ... I just don't want to waste my money. We'll see if they move her up after this session at the end of next week. Until then, we are getting ready for the 4th of July! Not sure exactly what we're going to do, but whatever it is we're gonna rock it AMERICA style!

I spend so much time on the computer, while the girls are napping, LOOKING for things to do ... why is it that I NEVER seem to think to update our blog?!!? I'm SOO the worst at this! LOL! Well, instead of going on and on about how crappy of a blogger I am, I'll get right to the details of what's been going on!

Claire has been busy busy busy growing and learning. It blows my mind! She was 8 months yesterday and to date, she crawls, pulls herself up, babbles non-stop ... so much more. She amazes me everyday!
Today is actually a special day for her! Today is her Baptism! I promise I'll post pictures when we get home!

Ellie celebrated her 3rd birthday last Saturday ... I cried! We had a wonderful party for her in the back yard complete with ALL her friends and a HUGE bounce house! I promise I'll post pictures of her day tonight as well!

We got our front yard FINALLY looking nice! My wonderful Mom gave me 8 boxwoods for Mother's Day, something I've been wanting for almost 7 years! One beautiful, sunny day Ellie, Claire and I ventured outside where I spent 6 hours weeding, edging, tilling and planting in the front flower beds! The next morning Cory and I set out for Home Depot in search of more boxwoods and black mulch to complete the project!!! It looks great, and I got it done the night before Ellie's party!

We also, the day before Ellie's party, decided we were going to do a raised garden in the back yard! We built the raised bed and planted our first plants in it (strawberries and onions) and built a fence around it to keep Caly out! We started 177 more plants from seeds and are going to plant those this weekend!! We're attempting Square Foot Gardening, thanks to Jim! We're really excited about it and it really helps that Jimmy is so knowledgeable!!!
Also ... pictures coming soon.

That's what we've been up to in a nutshell. Right now I have to get Ellie showered and dressed, and Claire up from her nap, fed and dressed so we can head over to the church!

Potty Learned!

It's official ... although today is only the 4th day, it's been a full 3 days of NO ACCIDENTS! And, Ellie has finally figured out that she can go in and go to the bathroom with out having to ask first! We kind of had to put her to the test yesterday, as we had A LOT of running around to do. She told us about 10 minutes into our outing that she had to pee, so speeding towards a gas station we went ... and she made it! About an hour later, at the Nursery looking for trees, she ran half way across the property to come tell me that she had to go, and again .... MADE IT!!!! SO proud of her, I thought it would never happen. Hahaha! If she makes it 3 more days with no accidents, a celebration at Chuck E. Cheese will commence! Woooo!

New Year's Resolutions ...

So usually I don't make a New Year's Resolution because I'm TERRIBLE at sticking to them. But this year, I decided to go "balls to the wall" and make a few!
#1: Work it Out: I'm GOING to start working out, SOMEHOW, three days a week. Whether it's a walk around the block, getting around to doing Insanity, anything...
#2: Capture the Moment: We haven't been very good at taking pictures since we lost our camera last March. We got a new one, but hate it. I want to get a new camera and start taking pictures again! Especially since Claire is so little and changing every day.
#3: Clip, Snip & Save: Coupon clipping here I come! I am determined to master this damn art.
#4: Put it Away: Money ... always trying to figure out better ways to do it, always find other things to spend it on. Ellie needs preschool tuition from September - May... why not start saving now?!!?
#5: Time for ME: I desperately need to take time for myself. I never do. Once every other week to start. I will take an evening (6-9) and get out of the house and do whatever I want ... go somewhere with friends, knit, scrapbook... hopefully moving up to once/week!

I don't feel like I'm setting myself up for failure here, these are all very reachable goals! I'm starting a little late, obviously, but really ... is it ever really too late to make a resolution? Nah!

Now to master managing my headstrong toddler .... *sigh*

HAPPY 2011!

Well 2010 is over and here we begin a new year! 2010 was such an emotional year for us. Our best friends in the entire world, Jake (16) and Boone (3) passed away 3weeks apart from each other in May. Jake, was old and having great difficulties getting around, so after lots of weeks tossing it around, we finally took him in and had him put down on May 5. A very emotional day for all of us. Johnny built him a box and we took him out to a hunting spot and buried him. 3 weeks later, on the 30th, Riley called us, as we were out of town, and told us that Boone had passed. After almost 3 months of weekly, bi-weekly and sometimes tri-weekly vet visits and an autopsy, the unofficial verdict was Bone Marrow Cancer. On a happier note, we then welcomed our new puppy Caly, from TN, into our home in July and then our beautiful second baby girl, Claire Marie, joined us in late September! We are very blessed and I hope 2011 is filled with nothing but great things for us all!

Ellie is amazing! When we are out and about running errands, she recognizes "red octagons," "white rectangles," and "yellow diamonds" signs! I love it! She asks a million and one questions! We are going to put her on the waiting list for preschool in March so she can start this fall! From my experience, I'm sure I could have put her in the 3y/o class when she was 2 and she would have done just fine! In the mean time, I'm trying to keep up her her little brain and trying not to bore her =) She's growing up WAAAAAAAAAY too fast.

Claire is outrageous! I can't believe she's already 3 months old =( she spends her days cooing, smiling, giggling and eating! At her her 2m. check up she was 9lbs. and 22'. She absolutely is in love with her big sister! She's starting to reach for things and when she gets pissed enough, she's able to roll over from her tummy to her back! I'm not ready for my BABY to be doing things like this yet!

Caly continues her training and is a fabulous dog! We are so lucky to have her! She is SO great with the kids. When we brought Claire home and let Cal in to check her out, she got down and army crawled from about 15 feet away until her nose was touching Claire's head. Then she just laid there with her! It was absolutely priceless! That's when I KNEW Cal was meant to be ours! Never had she even seen a baby and that was how she reacted! LOVE IT! She's an amazing bird dog! Her first wild retrieve was a nice sized pheasant and she handled it with out a problem at all!

So with our health and love, we're hoping 2011 is half as good as 2010 was! Here's to a new year! *Cheers*

Ellie's a BIG Sister!

Well we arrived at the hospital just before 6 a.m. and was escorted to the last available birthing suite. I received my IV and signed all the necessary paperwork to be admitted by 630. My epidural was administered by 7 and Dr. V cam to check on me at 730. At my first exam I was 3 cm dilated and about 50% effaced. He said he'd be back a little later to check me again. We all waited for the pitocin to do it's thing ... He came in a few hours later and I was 8 and 70%. Shortly after he left I started to feel my contractions (about every minute and a half or so) and after about 45 minutes started feeling the urge to push. The nurse checked me and said I was fully dilated and very close to completely thinned out so at 12:50 p.m. she gave me the go-ahead to start my practice pushes. Dr. Vandersloot was called and came into the room around 1:15 and after feeling all my contractions (thanks to my epi. they were dull and nagging) and the infamous "ring of fire," Claire Marie was born with a TON of BLACK hair at 1:41 p.m. on Monday September 27, 2010! She weighed 7.15 and was 21.5" tall. The cord was wrapped around her neck and had to be cut before her body was delivered, then, come to find out, it was also wrapped around her arm and torso. She had a little fluid in her lungs and needed a little oxygen but nothing serious. She scored 9's on her APGARs and looked absolutely NOTHING like her big sister! We were released on the 28th at 5:45 p.m. Smooth sailing, quick and easy ... great experience!

Claire went from 7.15 to 6.10 in the first few days and it took her until her 1 month check up to get back to her birth weight. It's been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me, thinking it's my fault she's not gaining properly. Her pediatrician is WONDERFUL and had me come in every week to have her weight checked to make sure she was gaining (or at LEAST maintaining), which she has been doing. She's always gaining, just not as much as she "should." I'm going to start taking her to the support group on Mondays to have her weighed to make sure she continues. She is a very good baby! She's more fussy than Ellie was but I think we were just REALLY lucky with Ellie. She sleeps (now, at almost 6 weeks) anywhere from 6-8 hours every night! And for a breastfed baby that's GREAT (I hear)! Oh ... and she has BLUE EYES!

Ellie absolutely LOVES being a big sister ... and she's SOOO good at it! She always wants to help change diapers and giver her baths and asks to hold her all the time! She's transitioned from an only child to having a sibling better than I ever could have imagined! I'm very thankful! Now I just have to figure out how to better distribute my time between the two girls. Right now it's hard because Claire's nursing and just needy in general, being a newborn. I'm working on it though and it seems to come easier by the day.

So close ...

Big shocker! I'm a failure at blogging! LOL!
I decided, though, that I should update real fast. As of today I have a crazy, independent, loving, witty, and BEAUTIFUL baby girl and am 2 days away from having our second little girl =) Life is good ... but will be better Monday night. I hate being pregnant even though this time around has really been a breeze. I'm not good at it and all I do is complain ... poor Cory!
Per a friend's suggestion, I'm going to start a quote list for all the wonderful things my toddler says! I have to ... she keeps me in stitches 24/7!

Anyway ... Ellie is doing great! She can't wait to be a big sister! She talks about Baby Claire ALL the time. I hope she likes her as much once she's here as she does now! It'll make my life EASY-PEASY! She's successfully given up her "me-me" and since has had a vocabulary explosion! We attempted potty training and while she was excited about it for a little while, she completely lost interest so we're putting it on hold, probably until she's closer to 3. She's transitioned into a "big girl bed" wonderfully! She loves it! We took the summer off of swim lessons but are going to start them back up next month, she can't wait! She's also asking me lately if she can go to school by herself ... we're going to have to look into that, maybe after the first of the year =)

We got a puppy in July. She was shipped to us at 8 weeks old all the way from Nashville, TN. She's a registered Black Lab with an amazing pedigree and she's absolutely adorable! Her name is Caly (Calypso) and she's currently about 17 weeks old. Cory's been working his butt off training her and let me tell ya, he is doing an AMAZING job with her! She is absolutely incredible! She's the most lovey dog I've ever seen ... I think she's a little confused, I'm sure she thinks she's a Chihuahua or something! Her favorite place in the world is on your lap!

Then there's the newest member ... the one we're waiting on. Daddy named her, Claire Marie. She will be here on Monday! I'm scheduled to go in at 6 a.m. to be induced so she doesn't get as big as Ellie was, hopefully preventing a lot of the problems I had during delivery, including hypertension. At 37 weeks, Dr. V. guessed she was "...every bit of 7lbs., putting her right on track to follow in her big sister's footsteps." *sigh* Oh boy! We're all really excited to meet her and see if she's going to look like Ellie or if she'll throw us for a loop and come out a blondie (or red-head) with blue eyes! The countdown has begun, 36 hours until we're admitted =) I'll update (at some point) after she arrives!!!

Ultrasound, Birthday Party, Swimming Lessons, Oh My!

So this is the first time I've had a spare minute to jump on here and blog about what's going on, although I've been meaning to do this for a week! Lots went on for us in that last week. We had our 20 week check up and big ultrasound on Ellie's birthday (Friday May 21)!

We found out that Miss Ellie is going to have a baby SISTER! Cory was a little bummed, but only at first, every Dad wants a son ... but he's perfectly happy knowing she's healthy and has warmed up just fine to the idea of another girl! He figures Ellie is pretty cool, so this one will add to the fun! Now we begin the naming process! Oh boy! This is proving to be a lot more difficult that I thought it would be ... and a WHOLE LOT more difficult than naming Ellie. So far we have nothing. More posts on this to come, I'm sure!

Ellie's birthday party was a success. We had it the day after her actual birthday in our backyard. Luckily the weather held out for us and while it was a little breezy, it stayed mostly sunny/warm and the rain took a nice pause for us!! Ellie had a blast! Her best friend, Maddy, came as did Ellie's Cousin Lily! The girls had a great time playing together and it was absolutely adorable to watch! The Dora cake was delish and Ellie was spoiled with tons of wonderful gifts from all her friends and family! We are so blessed to have such a great network of people around us!

As I think I mentioned in an earlier post, Ellie has been in swim lessons since the first-ish of February! Last night was her last lesson for the summer (we'll start her back up in September) and she's done absolutely amazing in my opinion! Last ight was family Night so Cory and I both got to swim with her! After class teacher Lori handed out little awards and ribbons for the kids doing such great jobs! As we were leaving and Ellie was handed hers, the teacher pulled us aside ... (Before I get too into my story, I want to share what teacher Lori wrote at the bottom of the award in the "comments" section. "Excellent! Way to swim to TURTLE in the summer.") Lori asked when Ellie's birthday was. I told her she JUST turned 2 on Friday. At the time of writing out the award, she wasn't sure if E was going to be 3 in the fall/winter, but if that WAS the case, she wanted to move E up from parent/child classes to the 3y/o classes this summer because "she's a very advanced swimmer" !!! Since E JUST turned 2 she said she KNOWS she can get her approved for TURTLE (3y/o class) this fall/winter at 2 1/2! She had the TURTLE teacher (Tyler) sitting in on family swim and had E show him how she swims from the bottom of the pool to the surface for air and yells for "HELP!" (They teach them this in case they were to fall in the pool ... so we can hear her and save her). She's the only one in her class who does it and most of the other kids have been swimming since 6-12 months old, except for one new boy this session. E's only been swimming for barely 4m! Can you believe it?!!? I was (am) SO proud! I was glowing all night!!!!! I'm terrified of any water other than bath/shower or pools and am NOT a good swimmer ... at all. So to have her be SO into it and doing SO well is absolutely amazing to me! Cory LOVES the water, he grew up on a lake near Seattle so he's part fish and is ALWAYS begging me to swim and scuba dive with him and I do it but with a floaty and panic attack in tow. LMAO! First thing he said last night was, "Well ... I guess I found my new dive buddy!" SOOOO EXCITED! Anyway, we'll go back to Teacher Lori in Sept. for a session or two and then see what she wants to do with Ellie! She said she doesn't want to keep her at "age level" because of how well she's doing after only 3 sessions! =D We've also decided that we're going to start Baby #2 at 6m (when they first start excepting them) ... so in March/April-ish! =)

Sad day for us

Well today is a sad day for our little family. At 430 this afternoon we are taking our dog, Jake, in to be put down. Cory got him when he was 11, making Jake just over 16 years old. He's been, literally, THE BEST dog I've ever had or even known. He's been in my life for over 7 years and I can't imagine there ever being a more loyal, faithful, loving, cuddly, funny dog on this planet. We've been very spoiled to have had such a wonderful dog in our lives. I'm sad Ellie won't remember him, although in her 2 years, especially the last few months, she's had an amazing time playing and loving on him! We are taking him up Klicker Mountain to bury him. He LOVES the snow and the mountain get lots of it (for our area)! It's a hard decision to have to make, but we know it's for the best. He's got a lot of life left in him, I'm sure, but physically he's done. It's not fair for us to keep him with us. It's selfish at this point. It's really hard knowing he won't be here tonight when we feed "them." Last night we all made beds on the floor and couch and had a camp-out with him in the livingroom. I know Cory has ENDLESS amounts of stories and good times he'll remember, but my most favorite was 6 years ago. Cory was mobilized and staying up at Fort Lewis getting ready to go to Iraq. I had moved in with Eilin and every night I made Jake a place on the bed with me and he'd sleep there, with his paw on my arm, ALL night! If he'd get up in the middle of the night for a drink he'd always come back =) That is my favorite memory of Jakers! Losing this part of our family makes me not want pets anymore. Losing them is almost what I would imagine losing a child would be like. Devastating.

On a happier note, I have a Baby #2 update from a couple weeks ago (April 23)! Dr. V. said everything is going perfectly! The HB was 148-152 bpm and we made our appt. for the ultrasound! We get to find out ON ELLIE'S BIRTHDAY if she's having a baby brother or sister! May 21st it is!

"No Mo Monkey Jump OnA Bed!"

We had our 12 week prenatal check up on Friday. Everything was great! We got to hear the baby's heartbeat and it was pumping strong at 164! Dr. V said everything was perfect! I go back on April 23 for my 16 week check! That's about all for that =)
Ellie got to go with us, she wasn't too sure about the dr. at first but thought the HB sounds was "Cooooo!" Silly kid! I can't believe how much she's growing right before my eyes! I look at her everyday and think, "Man! WHERE has the time gone?" I swear I just brought her home from the hospital yesterday! She's SO much fun and SO full of personality! She's a real spitfire! She's learning to count to 10, colors (her favorite is green) and she recognizes the letters E, L, I, M, O and A when she sees them out and about! I'm so proud of her!!! She's also learning songs and rhymes and repeats them randomly. It's so cute! At her swimming class, they sing "Rain, rain go away, come again another day, little Ellie wants to play, rain, rain go away!" and she sings it ALLLL the time, especially in the shower when we're washing her hair! She also knows "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "This Little Piggy," and "No more monkeys jumpin' on the bed" (She knows that one in sign language too)! She really just amazes me every single day!
Cory started school (again) today! He's going back to college to get his AA, in addition to his AAAS (Criminal Justice Degree). This quarter he's taking Western Civilization, English 102 and Geology. He's pretty excited about it and I'm proud of him for taking that step! Aside from school he's working second shift at the Penitentiary still (6a.m. - 2p.m.) and really kind of hates it. We're just hoping and praying for a WWPD position to claim him! He's also keeping busy in the yard now that the weather is warming up a little. Now begins the never ending tasks of mowing, seeding, fertilizing, weed whacking, edging. *sigh* I'm just looking forward to the BBQ's!
I'm keeping busy too. In addition to my beautiful bundle of bouncing off the walls baby girl ... I've been watching Maddy, who's 6 weeks younger than Ellie ... and they're BEST friends ... and Logan who is 3 months old. This on top of my daily chore load keeps me on my toes for sure! I'm trying to find more time to get a little hobby time in, but it proves to be a lot more difficult than I expected. I taught myself how to sew cloth diapers and was doing that quite a bit for a while (I got a sewing machine for my birthday from my WONDERFUL husband and my mom-in-law!), I think I've made a total of 6, and now want to get caught up on ... started on really ... Ellie's scrapbook! I'd like to be fully caught up on her 2.5 years by the time Baby #2 arrives. I also taught myself how to make nursing covers! Little Logan's mom had one that caught my eye and I decided to take measurements and make one myself! My best friend, Katie, who just had her first baby, Kennadie, 2 weeks ago is sportin' my creation and says she loves it! I'm trying to get a second one made to send to my Sissy in PA, who actually just delivered my niece this morning! Miss Cordelia Elizabeth Fleur Tice arrived at 3:21 a.m. weighing in at 7lbs. 14oz. and was 20.5" long! CONGRATS SEESTER and DC, and WELCOME TO THE WORLD MISS CIA!! Anyway, I have to get that cover made and in the mail ASAP! =) I'll post pics of my creations as they come!

Signing off for tonight ... thanks for reading!

Couldn't have gone better!

Well we had our first appt. with the new OB yesterday morning and it couldn't have gone better! First and foremost, I think Dr. Vandersloot is a great doctor and I feel very comfortable and confident with him! Next, and most exciting ... we got to see the baby! It was wiggling all over the place and waving it's little arm buds at us! Cory thought that was the coolest thing ever! It's heart beat was 167 and my due dates has been confirmed. October 4, 2010, which is closer to where I thought it would be! I have to get our picture scanned onto our computer somehow, but as soon as I do, I'll post it on here! We are so excited! Now we just have to wait 12 more weeks to find out if it's a boy or a girl! It's gonna be a LOOOOONG 3 months! LOL!