May 2013

May was a very eventful Month so here's a quick recap:

 

Laiken loves her baths.

We had some major sissy cuddle time.

Kinley loved drawing with chalk at the old house.

 

Laiken's looks kept changing.

We tested out the double stroller.

Scott took both of the girls to Sue's for the first time so I could get some packing done.  I might have shed a tear but it was nice to be productive!

 We closed on our house May 1 and started moving around the 10th.  We had pizza parties and hung out in our empty house a lot!

 Andy, my dad, Cora, & Christie were great help when we painted the girls rooms!  I'll have to get a little room tour up sometime before the girls go to college...haha.

We also tackled the wallpaper in the kitchen which proved to be the worst job ever!  My mom, Cora, Aunt Rindie, Andy's soon to be mother-in-law, Rob, and even my grandma helped with the awful job and I'm SO thankful!  There were a few hack jobs and we learned a big lesson in wallpaper removal. :(

Laiken slept through most of this excitement.

She also started getting chubby cheeks!

 

 Our friends Ryan & Courtney got married and for the first time ever, I couldn't find a babysitter - that never happens!  I decided to take the girls with me to the reception and they did pretty well.  Scott's mom was so sweet to take the girls with her when she left so Scott & I could have some adult fun!  And these are the only pictures I got of that night...

Laiken stayed snuggled in her seat because it was still super windy and chilly outside.

 

We went to cheer on Scott at his annual hockey tournament!

Laiken took one of many trips to Lowe's with me.

and she kept growing...

We played a lot while we got settled into our new house.

Buddha belly baby!

We had more bath fun!

Towards the end of May it finally got nice enough to open our pool.

Learning how to open the pool and get the water clear was quite a process.  I never realized how much work really goes into maintaining a pool... 

 Kinley loved helping grandpa vacuum and playing in the pool

 I don't care that the water is ice cold!

Laiken took lots of trips with me during my maternity leave - this Walmart trip got interesting when we ran out of cart room!

And one last sweet angel picture of Laiken...

I'll stop here since, apparently, I took a lot of pictures in May!



Megan's Baby Shower

I am SO far behind on blogging but I promise I have good excuses!  I'm going to try to get caught up so these next few posts will be short & sweet.

We celebrated the upcoming arrival of baby Forshee in March.  My cousin Megan and I are only 6 months apart so we grew up very close and that makes it even more exciting that our baby girls will be super close in age, too!  

She got tons of great gifts and I even saw a few "must haves" that I'll have to buy now, too!

Megan's sis-in-law Stephanie, her daughter Kate, Kinley, and me.

Treat tables!

We made sure to get a baby bump picture before I left and I just about died when I saw it!  Woooow, I was ready to pop!  And Megan just looks super cute!

We can't wait to meet her little peanut!

End of October

A few things that didn't make the blog from October...   Kinley & I went to Jess's baby shower on October 20 and she did SO good.  Some of the food was a little fancy so I didn't know what Kinley would eat for lunch.  Thank goodness that girl likes anything and she ate my orzo pasta with black olives, tomatoes, and feta.  She picked at my salad and ate my bread so I was left with nothing, ha!

 Jess got a ton of her big stuff so she was all ready for baby boy Huff to arrive!  Here's us with the mommy-to-be:

 And since I'm so behind, I can announce that Rowen Morris Huff made an early entrance into the world on November 7.  He & mommy are doing great & I cannot wait to meet this little guy!

 And this picture...no words necessary...

I'm not sure how anything can top that precious photo...

 

I'm jumping all around but the night of the baby shower we went to a birthday party at my Uncle Jack & Aunt Marsha's house.  Kinley was in baby heaven!  There were lots of other kids to play with and tons of toys!

Here's my little tornado, she's non-stop these days!

And still sassy as ever.  I ordered her pumpkin dress from Julianne Originals on Etsy.  I've made a deal with myself that I get one personalized Etsy purchase per holiday for Kinley so I don't get out of control. :)

My cousin Megan came home from Michigan for the party!  Here she is snuggling her first niece Kate.  Love!  We had so much fun at the party!!

 

And a few more random pictures from a lazy October weekend...

This was obviously a really exciting afternoon at my house...

My 2 little crazy girls. <3

Bump Watch 2013: Week 14

Well it's that time again to start my "bump watch" posts.  Didn't I just get done doing this?!  I'm not sure how I'll keep up on these posts plus Kinley's monthly posts but I'll try my best.

The 1st trimester absolutely flew by and I didn't even think to do a post about it.  Basically I was exhausted and fell asleep every night at 9, ha!

I hope you're all as obsessed with the little peanut in the picture as I am.  I mean, could she get any cuter!  She stood there and posed this morning and cheesed it up for daddy, I couldn't have been more proud!

 

I think it will be really fun to watch Kinley & my belly grow at the same time!

 

I need to work on my chalkboard since you can't read it.  I had Scott spray it with chalkboard paint a month ago and it used to say "happy fall."  I decided it's now our bump watch prop!

 

Pregnancy Highlights:

How far along: 14 weeks
 

Size of baby: 3.5 inches, about the size of a lemon

 

Total weight gain/loss: Gained 3 pounds

 

Maternity clothes: I haven't worn any yet but I've been tempted!  I did just order new maternity jeans & a pair of red denim pants so I can try to be trendy as I grow.

Gender: We don't know yet.  I'm ready to find out now but Scott is still deciding if he wants to find out so we shall see!

Movement: None yet

Sleep: Definitely different this time around.  Kinley has good & bad nights so it kind of depends on her.  If she has a good night, I sleep like a rock (with the occassional bathroom break).

What I miss: Doing my families' biggest loser contest & losing lbs.  It's never fun to watch the scale go up but at least this is worth it.

Cravings: Mashed potatoes...basically carbs.

Symptoms: I was exhausted throughout most of the 1st trimester so most of that has gone away although I have my moments.  I've been a little more nauseous this time around.  Sometimes it's when I get too full and other times it's when I'm hungry so it's hard to keep a good balance.  I'm also emotional as ever! :)

Change.

I sat down and wrote this right after I found out we were expecting, not really knowing if I would click 'publish' or not, but I wanted to record exactly how I was feeling at the time.  I've decided to share it because sometimes it's nice to hear "that's normal," or maybe that I really am crazy?! ha!  :) 

I'm not a big fan of change, unless of course it's by my doing.  Change always make me anxious, not knowing what's going to happen or if things will fall into place.

I'm also a major planner.  I might not be the most organized person in the world but I always have a plan in my head before I do something.  Whether it be planning out my whole Saturday to the minute or planning the details of a birthday party, I must have a plan!

Scott always tells me to just go with the flow and things will work themselves out.  Ugh, I hate hearing that because I always need to know what's going on next!

Then sometimes life comes along and throws in a little curve ball, whether you're prepared or not.  This is kind of how I felt after I took the pregnancy test - this was not exactly my plan.  Granted, we did want more kids and would have probably started trying again within the next 6 months, I still hadn't planned it so I was completely caught off guard.

Towards the end of our Puerto Rico trip, I think we both kind of guessed what was going on but I know that I was personally still in denial.  We joked about baby #2 a few times but didn't really say much else.

We got home late Thursday night so I decided to buy a test the next day so I actually knew for sure. 

Kinley & I ran into CVS on Friday morning and as soon as I stepped into the store I felt like a 16 year old that wasn't old enough to be pregnant or to be buying pregnancy tests.  

I quickly grabbed a test and threw a magazine over it in my basket.  Then when there was absolutely no one around the front counter, I ran up and paid, hardly looking the cashier in the eyes.  Seriously, I need to get over this issue!  It makes me laugh now.

I took the test right when I got home and I'm not sure what I was expecting but when the super dark lines immediately came up, I was stunned.  No question anymore, I was pregnant again.

Talk about a whirlwind of emotions.  How could I not be over the moon happy?  Babies are miracles, blessings, gifts from God!  I'm not sure what I felt but I think it was pure shock.

I sent Scott a text and asked him if he could bring me lunch because Kinley was napping and I didn't want to wake her up to leave.  That excuse definitely wasn't fooling him, he knew.

He came home with lunch and as soon as we sat down to eat I said, "well, you're going to be a dad again," and immediately started sobbing. 

 

I felt like we were giving up our one on one time with Kinley by having another baby so soon so I felt like a bad mom.

 

I wondered what other people would say and didn't know how I would tell some.

 

I felt really sad that I might not be able to love another baby the way I love Kinley.

 

I wondered how we were going to afford another baby.

 

I thought that I was finally really comfortable with Kinley and her schedule but how was I going to add another baby to the mix?

I didn't know how I was ever going to be a good mom to 2 babies, in diapers, 19 months apart!  All I ever hear is that going from 1 to 2 is a major adjustment.  What if going from 0 to 1 was an adjustment for me? 

After I vented all of my feelings, Scott just hugged me and said, "you know this is a good thing right?"  That just made me cry harder because deep in my heart I knew it was a blessing and that everything would work out fine but on the surface I felt really guilty for not jumping for joy like I did when I found out about Baby #1.

I knew it would just take a little time to process these emotions and have it sink in that I was going to be a mommy again.  Later that day I knew that at this time next year, the new baby would be a perfect fit in our family and we'll wonder what life was like without him/her.

Now I've moved on to researching double strollers and trying to decide if we'll find out the sex, the fun stuff!  We are both really excited about our new addition but still pretty nervous as well - it still seems pretty unreal.

So back to change...I guess it's not such a bad thing after all.  :)

Ashleigh's Baby Shower

The Sunday that we got home from Florida Beth, Kinley, & I went to Ashleigh's baby shower at Erin's Pavilion.

Aunt Beth & Kinley

Mommy to be, Ashleigh, and Kinley doing her "I'm over this" face.

Me & K - at least she's looking at the camera! 

I count that as a win these days. :)

Beautiful mama.  Almost makes me miss being pregnant...almost.

We decorated onesies for baby Floriana and even Kinley got to participate!

Ashleigh's husband Cosimo grew up in Italy and lived there all his life & Ashleigh is Italian so this one was very fitting and hilarious.  I promise they aren't Jersey Shore-ish though!

Aunt Beth trying to play baby bingo and entertain Kinley who is grabbing for her phone or cake plate or table cloth, who knows. 

This makes me laugh.

Cosimo arrived and everyone told him to go sit by Ashleigh and he dove right in opening gifts even though I'm pretty sure Ashleigh wanted to do it herself! haha

It was sweet. :)

One of the outfits Beth & I bought for Floriana.

Cori wanted to hold Kinley the whole day but someone was cranky.  She finally settled down enough to let go of mommy for a few minutes!

They got lots of great gifts to prepare them for Floriana's arrival.  By the way, how awesome is her name?!

And since I'm behind on blogging I also get to annouce that Floriana Patrizia Picci arrived on April 13!  I "borrowed" a picture from facebook:

Congrats Ashleigh & Cosimo!