Happy 2013!

Did everyone have a great New Years?  We did.  Here is a little of what we've been up to the past few days:

Ellis has learned how to "sing" into the microphone that was part of the piano they got for Christmas.



For New Years Eve, we spent the evening with Kelly and her family and friends.  It was great seeing her while she was home from Vegas for the week.  The night started out with an awesome Prime Rib dinner with green beans, basked potato, and salad.

Dessert was your choice of the biggest ice cream bar (dipped in chocolate and nuts) ever or a cream puff.  I opted for the cream puff.  It was heavenly!

After lots of good eating, we thought we should head down to play some Xbox Kinect and work off some of our food!  The guys started off with some golf, but then we played some of the other games, like river rafting, some sort of "fill the holes before it fills up with water" game, and some obstacle course thing where you had to duck and jump over things.  It was hilarious!  With a few beerita's in my system it was hard to stop laughing at times!

Kelly and her dad in the river raft

Kelly and Chris in the obstacle course

Kelly and I making sure our tank doesn't fill up with water.  

Wow, we look really serious..

Of course around midnight we stopped to watch the ball drop, enjoy some champagne, and take a few pictures before leaving for the night.

A huge thank you to Nicole and Mark for watching the boys for the night.  They had an awesome time and were good little boys, well, except for the sleeping thing.  Unfortunately when Troy and I got back there around 1am, we were barely asleep before Logan started crying.  It wasn't just the "where am I?" cry, this was a bit worse.  After a while of trying to quiet him, I realized he might be getting his 2 year molars a little early.  He kept sticking his hand in his mouth and pulling at his ear.  We got him quiet, but he ended up sleeping with us, which meant very little sleep on a night we were already out late!  Last night he woke up again with the same scream at about 10pm and was completely pissed when I gave him some orajel and tylenol, but once it kicked in, he was good to go and they both slept in until 8am!  This momma was very happy about that!

While we were out, Bella had her first experience in the Petsmart Hotel.  Troy got her a hotel suite for the night and she got to hang out with the other dogs at Doggie day camp during the day.  She even got a little "Pawgress Report" when we picked her up.

Looks like she even partied it up on NYE!

That's our past few days.  Now it's time to look ahead into 2013.  Anyone with any New Year's Resolutions?  I don't have any, but I have decided to do some monthly challenges.  I know it is a little unrealistic to say "eat better" or "exercise more" or "spend less", etc.  By week 2, you ask yourself, what resolution?  Oh well, no one keeps them.  So, I thought I would challenge myself to do (or not do) something for a whole month.  I figure with an end in sight, it might make it a little easier to do.  Then I can change it up and try something else.  Stay tuned to January's monthly challenge.

Happy Birthday little girl!

Yes, I'm a day late, but better late than never.  Yesterday our little girl turned 3 (or should I say 21?!?).  Here are a few pictures of her over the past three years!

A mere 8 weeks old.  This picture was taken the night Troy brought her home!

Her favorite spot - MY spot in bed!

Her favorite summer treat! Oh heck, her favorite treat regardless of time of year!

Birthday #2

Laying with dad on MY blanket - yet another of her favorite places to lay down.  

Attention seeker

A favorite pasttime - going for a walk.

To celebrate her birthday, she did a few of her favorite things: went for a walk, played with her toys (including a new one), and took lots of naps.  She also got a new bed, which she so graciously let the boys play in, before we put it in her bedroom!  Her MOST favorite was the yummy treat Troy got her, which she gobbled right up!

You are such a good little girl, Bella!  Hope you had a good birthday - here's to many more years...

Happy Birthday little girl

My one and only little girl turns 2 today. Happy Birthday Bella! May your day be filled with many naps, treats (tonight's treat is a big donut cookie!), playtime, and belly rubs.

The day we got her (8 weeks old)

Last year (1 year old)

Today

Labor Day weekend recap

We've had a pretty good weekend over here. It was definitely nice to have a 4 day weekend before school starts tomorrow. We got a lot done, saw some family and friends, and squeezed in a little bit of time to relax.

Friday was partly relaxing, partly working. Troy spent a portion of the day downstairs sanding the second coat of mud, while I hung out with the boys. Our cute picture of the day -- Bella giving kisses to Logan..

We also tried some sweet potatoes on Friday. They loved them just as much as the peas! I'm glad they are not having any trouble with the little bit of food they are trying out. They definitely aren't fussing like they did when they first tried rice cereal and they seem to like the new foods quite a bit. I'm thinking about trying bananas next...gotta get another fruit in there besides applesauce!

On Saturday my parents came over. My dad came to help Troy with the drywall. Troy is SO wanting this part of the basement to be done with, so with an extra set of hands, they were able to get the 3rd coat of mud on, fairly quickly considering the big space they had to work on. Troy is hoping to sand that sometime this week and then see where any little touch-ups need to be done. Maybe we'll paint the ceiling next weekend? While the guys were working hard, my mom and I just chatted and played with the boys.

On Sunday, we visited with the Chandlers. They also invited over an old friend from college (a long-time friend of Derek's), Doug, along with his wife Danica, and son Logan. We had an awesome dinner and a good time catching up with everyone. Logan was so close to sitting on his own yesterday. Well, actually, he did for 5-10 seconds before starting to topple. I guess I don't know how long they have to remain steady before you can actually say that he can sit on his own, but I was one proud mama! Ellis is working on it to, but definitely prefers laying on his tummy. Val also got some great pictures of the boys.

This has got to be one of my all-time favorite pictures of Logan so far..thanks Val for capturing some good ones! =)

Today we got a lot of stuff around the house done. Cleaning, baking, ironing, blah blah. We also tested out some new bottle/sippy cups with the boys. They have an interchangeable nipple/sippy "nipple" and looks very similar to a bottle, but has handles on it so they can get used to holding it themselves. I just put water in it to see if they would get the idea and they did pretty good for the first time. Of course I had to hold them like they were drinking a bottle, but they've held their bottle off and on in the past few weeks (not for a long time by any means), so I thought it was worth a shot.

I'm not sure how they'd react to the other sippy nipple but for now, it's all about practicing to hold it on their own.

Well, thats about it for us. I'm LOVING this cooler weather. I can't wait to bust out the hoodies and sweatpants. I'm also looking forward to cider and donuts (jealous, but not surprised, that you already hit up the cider mill Nicole!), football, and snuggling up on the couch with blankets! Don't get me wrong -- I'm probably going to be the first to complain when it gets cold enough for snow, but I'm okay if the 90's don't ever return this year.

Happy Labor Day and to all my teacher friends, happy first day of school tomorrow!!

A bad end to a good week

Let's start with the good...

• I went back to work on Monday and the boys have been spending the day with Grandma Frahm. The transition, in my eyes, has gone exceptionally well. They have been napping and eating well at her house (I was a bit concerned with napping, just because they would have a bit of a different routine), and coming home as smiley babies. They've been having lots of fun with Grandma, and Grandma seems to be having lots of fun with them!
• Work actually hasn't been too bad. As most people know, last year, work was quite a mess administratively, but we have a new CEO and superintendent this year that already know our concerns from last year. Although we've been in Math training for most of the week and not with our own principal, I'm feeing more positive than last year, just based on the few interactions I've had with the principal. Hopefully it continues into next week..
• Our basement is coming along. After a busy last weekend, Troy has spent some of his free moments this week cleaning up some of the things that weren't taken care of last weekend. He has just a few more small sections to dry wall and then we will start taping and mudding. We know it will be quite a project, but the basement already looks 10x better, so it can only get even better from here.
• Bella has done an AWESOME job this week. In the past (prior to March when I was still working), we had been keeping her in the crate while we were at work. We weren't quite ready to leave her out to roam the house for the long period of time that we were working. Over the summer, I started leaving her out here and there and gradually increased time. We had been up to 6 hours and Troy figured that we wouldn't know how she'd do the whole day unless we just tried it, so we did. This week, she's been out for 7-8 hours at a time and has done well. No accidents, no chewing, nothing -- and so happy about it. Way to go Bella!
• The boys have been eating pretty well. They've done better with the rice cereal and have been enjoying their applesauce. This weekend, I'm hoping to pull out my Beaba Babycook and make some peas. We'll see how that goes.

Now for the bad...

• Last night I was just about to go to bed and went back into the living room to grab my pump to take upstairs for the morning. I was carrying all my things and about to head to the kitchen to get Bella a treat before bed and what happens? I walk into the corner of our couch -- its actually the couch that was downstairs, but because we're working on the basement, its in our living room right now. It sits directly on the floor, so my whole foot smacked into it. I walked a couple steps before looking down and realizing the pain I had, and couldn't believe what I saw. My right foot "ring toe" (the one next to the pinky) was totally crooked and when I picked my foot up to look at it better, it just hung there. NOT COOL! I freaked out as my foot started throbbing, so I sat down. Troy said I should go to the hospital because if it is dislocated, they will have to fix it before wrapping it up and stabilizing it. I am not a fan of hospitals and have never had a broken bone in my life. I've never gone to the emergency room so I was asking what I could do to fix it myself. I tried pushing it back over and heard a bit of a pop, so I thought I was okay, but then I looked back down and it went back to being crooked...bummer. So, Troy turned the tv off, said he'd go get the boys and we'd go a couple miles down the street to Crittendon. I really didn't want to have to wake the boys up, so we tried calling a friend that lived nearby to see if he could come over to watch the boys while Troy took me. He didn't answer, so it was either me go by myself or pack up the boys. Again, didn't want to disturb their sleeping, so I figured I'd try it on my own. I hobbled upstairs and that is when it started hurting to put any pressure on my foot, got clothes on (I had my pj's on already), and headed out. Since it was near 11pm, there were very few cars on the street, so my slow driving (from my foot hurting when I put pressure on the pedal) wasn't an issue. Got in and out of the ER in just over an hour -- very impressive Crittendon! I have a spiral fracture, meaning that the bone twisted as it broke, right where the toe connects to the foot. There isn't much you can do with broken toes but readjust it and tape it to the toe next to it. They asked if I wanted a "boot" to wear, which prevented my toes from bending as I walked, or crutches, and I opted for the boot. I found out I'd probably be in some pain for the next week or so, but ultimately it will take 4-6 weeks to heal. I already had some leftover pain medicine from my c-section, so I didn't take anymore, and they told me to follow up with my regular doctor next week. They wheeled me out to my car and I headed home! Not exactly the plan I had for the night, but I'm glad I was in and out so fast. As for today, I stayed home from work. They said I should be icing it and keeping it elevated as much as possible to reduce the swelling and today was a "work in your room" day at work. As much as I would have loved to get stuff done, that just wasn't practical. So, I'm home with my boys today and Troy is taking very good care of me! =)

As for this weekend, we are going to do as much as we can in the basement. After Troy finishes the drywall, we will start mudding the screws and then dealing with the seams and corners (which is going to be a bit more time consuming). Not sure how much I will be able to help since I shouldn't be standing, but maybe I can work from a chair and work on the lower areas. On Sunday, I will be heading to my moms for a scrapbooking day with her and Nicole. Looking forward to working on more of Ellis's album.

For now, here are a few pictures from this week. Ellis is showing off his strong leg skills and how he likes to use his legs to pin his toys between them! He also likes to pin our arm between his legs when we are feeding him his bouncer, when he sits in the boppy or bouncer. It's as if he wants to make sure we keep that bottle in his mouth!

Logan is back to the wanting-to-army-crawl days...Well this attempt isn't as good as others, but I love the little smiles he gives (and of course Ellis's squealing at the end!)

Happy Friday everyone!