Stuff

So this isn't in the order that I wanted it but I am too lazy to care right now.

Father's Day turned out perfect I thought. I made cinnamon swirl french toast with buttermilk syrup for breakfast. If it didn't take so darn long to make, I think I would do it more often. Then for dinner we had steaks, berry brie, and some other stuff for dinner. It was delish. This was what we (the kids actually did help) made for Eric. They are pop top cans filled with his fav candies. He thought that was pretty cool, which made me happy that he really liked them.

Then the pie turned out perfect and was one of the best I have ever had. It is a five fruit pie consisting of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples, and rhubarb (even though technically it is a vegetable). Wow, what a great pie.

Here is my mom with the girls. Porter only wanted to take the picture, not be in it. She was such a great help. And it took me quite a while....in fact I am still getting used to not having her here to help.

And the traditional bum shot. Usually we only have these with a wedding and all of my sisters. But alas, my kids have joined in the fun. The funny thing is this is actually a tantrum throwing party on the couch.

Our first picture of our family of 5. I can't believe it.

Somewhere in there, Charlotte turned one month. I can't believe how fast time flies. I totally forgot that she was one month until grandma reminded me. Hense the jammies and the mohawk bedhead look she is sporting.

Here's her stats.

10 lbs. 11 oz.

22 3/4 in long

holds her head up

Starting to like to be put down when she sleeps

is mastering breathing out of her mouth (she has a stuffy nose)

She rolls over on to her side all the time

she has rolled from back to tummy twice

during tummy time she scoots herself forward

she is very opinionated and will let EVERYONE know when she is unhappy

she takes a "me-me" (a pacifier) which is a blessing to me.

It's a Girl!!!

So, I know this is later than a lot of people want, but what can I say....I just had a baby.

Friday morning I woke up a little discouraged having not gone into labor yet, wondering if I ever would on my own, and headed to my dr. apt. Much to my surprise, I was dialate to a "good 2" and Dr. was willing to stretch me to see if I would go into labor, and assured me that I would probably go into labor that weekend. Needless to say, the stretching definitely gave me some contractions, and I decided to go through my day and spend as much time "verticle" as I could so hopefully I would go into labor. By 6pm the contractions started to hurt and I would have to concentrate to get through them. But they were all over the place, and not consistent at all. I remembered that happening with Porter so I was pretty sure I wasn't in labor. We watched the kids that night for our babysitting swap (but we did ask that they keep their phones handy) and then watched a movie. By the time the movie was over they were slowing down, so I was a little sad, but didn't think that anything would happen. Eric was a little excited because he wanted to go to sleep. As soon as we got into bed the contractions got harder and were all of a sudden 2 minutes apart. After about 5 contractions within 10 minutes that I couldn't even open my eyes through, I told Eric we needed to go to the hospital. Luckily a friend of ours was willing to come over and be with our kids while they slept. So after he arrived, we headed straight up. We got up to the labor and delivery and everyone was going SO slow (or at least it seemed to me). Granted they did have to wait for my contractions to stop so I could move. Within a couple of minutes I was checked and they said, we need a room ready now for her and moved me over. People were running around like crazy and another nurse was spouting off random questions at Eric. The rest is kind of a blur for me except for the fact that I knew that I couldn't hold off pushing until the dr. got there. Baby popped out in just a few pushes and ..... IT"S A GIRL!!!! I was so excited. Dr. walked in as they were cutting the cord, and he joked with me that I don't mess around when I go into labor. I tried to warn him and Eric warned the nurses. She was born at 12:46am on May 14th. I am so glad that I missed the Friday the 13th by 45 minutes. I loved this experience giving birth. Everything was perfect.

Here she is. Our little Charlotte Ann (I call her Lottie). She was 8 lbs. 8 oz. and 20.5 inches long. She looks like her daddy (which I think is pretty darn cute), and loves her siblings already. I love this little girl. I feel like I have had her for forever, and am so excited to be able to keep her for forever more. It was definitely time for her to come to our family, and she just fits right in.

This man is my hero. I wouldn't have been able to do this without him and he is just smitten with this little girl. It only took me three kids to figure how I needed his help through labor and he went above and beyond the call of duty. I sure do love him.

With her eyes open for really the first time. I was lucky I caught it with our ancient camera.

Adie is so happy to be a big sister....can you tell. She is constantly asking to hold baby Charlotte.

At first Porter didn't want anything to do with her, but now is constantly telling her how pretty she is and how much he loves her. What an amazing big brother he is.

I sure do love my family. And thanks mom for coming out to help us, I couldn't go through the day without you here.

Birthdays and more

We will start off this post with my birthday. I had a wonderful day. It was so much fun. The weather was fairly nice with no snow on the ground, and there were wonderful strawberries in the store. I also was taken out to lunch by my wonderful friends in the preschool. We went to Red Robin and it was a blast. 4 adults and 7 kids. We got a lot of looks like we are insane. Go figure. Maybe we are, but it was fun none the less. Then Eric made me dinner, but I helped because I wanted to. And I made this strawberry cake. The actually cake is strawberry. I think that I need to tweak the recipe a little, but it was pretty good. And it looked really pretty. This is supposed to be me blowing out the candles. I think we had 5 in there. Yes, I am that young. We also celebrated Eric's birthday. From what I know he had a great day too. The group that he was on rotation with took him out to lunch at a place called Global Market. He had an apple brie cheese sandwhich. He came home and said that we needed to make some. Maybe after I am not pregnant anymore. Anyway, he had requested a dinner and pie that are generally more summertime food, but they were delicious. We will definitely be making them again. Here is a picture of the pie. It turned out perfect so of course I had to take a picture. It was a raspberry rhubarb pie. mmmmm....

We also got to celebrate April Fools Day. I don't usually do anything but this year I really wanted to. So this is what I made for dinner.

Eric was a little suspicious, but had no idea what it really was. Porter was so excited to have cake for dinner he couldn't stop talking about it. Also, Eric's birthday was coming up and he knew that so he thought it was for that. He even asked for us to sing happy birthday to Eric, so we did and then he held out his plate for a piece. You should have seen (and I wish I had a picture of) the look on his face when he saw what was really inside. It was utter disappointment as he sadly said "it's a sandwhich." Then he didn't even want to eat it. Poor kid, mom pulls a crazy joke like that on him. So really it was just a sandwhich made in a bundt cake pan and topped with cheese to look like icing. I was pretty proud of myself.

I love that all of these things happen around the same time. Not so good for the weight gain, but I love it just the same. We also had general conference, where we listen to the voices of modern day prophets. Sunday breakfast is always my favorite. Crepes with vanilla yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, mini chocolate chips, and a sprinkle of powdered sugar. With sausages on the side.

With all the nice weather we have been having we have been going outside more. My poor kids. I need to invest in more bandaids and neosporin. We were walking to playgroup because it was in our neighborhood and it was nice, but the wind was a little chilly so we were still wearing coats. Adie had put her hands in her pockets so she wouldn't be cold. The one time I stopped paying attention to her to answer a question from Porter, she totally trips. And because her hands were in her pockets, she did a total face plant into the cement. I felt so bad and almost started crying with her. My poor baby. Luckily we were only half a block away so I picked her up and ran to playgroup so I could wash her off and take care of her. She even had some rocks in her mouth. Her upper lip was all swollen, and luckily she has bangs to hide some of the damage done. This is later that night. So it looks a little better. But she definitley had some scabs to deal with, and woke up the next morning with a sore face.

Porter is getting very artistic. We made mosaics the other day and this is a dragon. There are also two people, fire, and a sheep. See if you can find out where they are. I think he did a good job.

I sure do love my kiddos. They are so silly.

This is how Porter draws people. This is a picture of Porter, Adie, and Dada. See if you can guess who is who.

While Eric was gone, Porter learned how to write his name. I think that he is doing great. He needed a little help with the order for a while, but now can spell it all on his own and he writes his name on everything. I am so proud of him. He is also learning how to sound out words. I can't believe how big he is getting.

I have also been working on a quilt for Adie. I chose the pattern when I was with my mom last summer. This is generally a bad idea because I think that I can do anything when I am with my mom. This has taken almost a year for me to do (granted it was here and there, but there are a LOT of little pieces). But I am pretty happy with the outcome. I still have the applique and the border to put on, but that isn't going to take as long. My goal is to have it done by her 3rd birthday. We will see if that happens with baby coming soon and all. I would really like to quilt it this summer, but again, we will see.

Spring Break 2011

So while Eric has been here doing "dental work" for spring break....(plus one week with a vacation in Fiji),


We have been here,


But I am not bitter in the least can you tell? I think the worst thing about the whole thing is that I have not talked to my husband in 2 weeks. Part of me has gotten used to it. Part of me is kind of angry about it. And the rest of me just wants to get even. I know I need to get over my anger issues, but I am having a hard time doing that when he is half a world away in paradise while I am stuck in Buffalo with two kids that only want dada now, and am 7 months pregnant. Maybe one day I will get over it.

And for the record the weather really hasn't been that bad. I did snow the first couple of days, but nothing stuck and then it has been pretty warm since, like in the high 40's low 50's. I think even one day it got up to 57. Yeah, we didn't wear jackets or anything that day.

Porter has been way into superhero's lately. So while doing spring cleaning we found the superhero kit that my mom gave Porter for his first birthday that we never opened. He wore it for several days straight and jumped off of everything in sight trying to fly. But we had to talk about what superheroes do because he kept trying to beat up Adie's babies. We'll get there.


Adie has been my little helper in the kitchen. Especially when it comes to chocolate. And she has to lick the spoon. I don't blame her.

One of the days we went with a friend to the East Aurora Explore and More Museum. It was so much fun. The kids played for probably 4 hours and would have loved to stay there longer, but we needed to go home. The had a whole section dedicated to droping balls from different heights on tracks to see how far they go. My favorite part was the probably 8 yr old in the picture that kept trying to do it all by herself and telling all of the 3 and 4 years olds that they were being selfish.

Adie playing with Valorie, one of her best friends.

This was fun, Porter played in a boat catching fish. His favorite though was the construction zone in the back and he spent most of his time there. But I didn't get a picture of it.

We played outside as much as we could. This is one thing that they did. They made a "road" by putting all of our rocks in the little place inbetween cement slabs. We also had to discuss the difference between rocks and bunny poop as it seems one has been living in our back yard for a while. Here is hoping it won't eat all of my plants that are just barely coming out of the ground.

We also rode bikes. Adie is learning how to pedal which is a lot of fun. But she gets really frustrated quite quickly when her legs don't do what she wants them too. Hhhhmmmm.......I wonder where she gets that from. In this picture she isn't just looking down, she is pouting because she can't get it to go as fast as she wants.

We also had a baby shower for a friend. We did a brunch and it was a blast. Can you tell these girls were ready for food? After it was over we stayed and played for a good portion of the day as both of our husbands were out of town.

We did do a few other things that I didn't take pictures of. Like we went to see Tangled at the cheap theater, which is fun because that was the first time they have ever been to a movie theater. Both of them loved it. I thought it was cute but had a part that I didn't really think was necessary and made that part a little more scary. But it ended up being ok. I just covered my kids eyes.

We had several play dates and invites to dinner at friends houses. I am glad that my kids eat wonderfully for other people even though they don't always for me.

We also had a date night where we went to Red Robin for dinner. The kids ate almost all of their food, again a suprise for me. And were well behaved for the most part. We even shared a milkshake. Then we came home and watched Megamind because Porter has wanted to watch it for a while now. It wasn't the best. A good idea and nice moral, but really not my favorite movie.

I have also been able to catch up on a lot of projects that I haven't been able to finish. The front to Adie's quilt is almost done. Pictures to come. And I will be doing some scrapbooking this week. I wanted to do spring cleaning but realized a lot of what I have left requires heavy lifting and I just can't do that on my own.

On another note, Porter is registered for Pre-K and learned how to write his name this week. He still needs a little help with the order, but gets all the letters right. He also has to show everyone that comes over what he can do. What a smart kid. He will do just fine in school, it will be me that has a hard time.

I also had a doctors appointment this week. The doctor is getting worried about how big this baby is going to be. He said that I am measuring good (right on what it is "supposed" to be) but that I need to be really careful. I was kind of thinking well I measured two weeks big with Porter and about a week and a half big with Adie, so I think I am doing pretty good. But I am also not a dr. I have only gained a little more than 10 lbs., but I guess that isn't really a good indicator. So we will see. We may have another induction for this one if it is going to get too big. I have an ultrasound this week so we will see what they say.