Catch Up

So I guess I'm not very good at this now that I have two little ones around the house.  Maybe I'll make it my goal to do a once-a-month post just to keep the few who read this in the loop. :)

Things have been pretty crazy around here lately.  We closed on a house last Wednesday and are starting the packing process...again.  This will be the seventh place we've lived since we've been married, and V's fourth place.  Hopefully it will be the last for a very long time.  We are excited to move in; the house has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, meaning we won't have to share a room with Felicity any more.  :)  It also has a nice sized yard, which will make taking the girls outside to play a lot more convenient.  We got Verity an inflatable pool with a slide for part of her birthday present, which will be a lot of fun for her once we are all moved in.

Speaking of Verity's birthday, I can't believe she is going to be two next weekend!  The last two years have just flown by!

                                                                      One week
             

One year

Two years

She is so grown up it's scary.  This season isn't the most fun with her; she is SUPER strong-willed and I have had to battle with her over a lot of things.  However, there have been a lot of sweet things about it as well.  I really enjoy playing games with her, reading to her, singing with her, and being able to have semi-conversations with her.  It's really amazing how much her little brain soaks in as she observes and listens to her surroundings.

Felicity is really growing fast as well.  She is four months now and rolling over.  She is also enjoying sitting up (supported, of course).  I couldn't believe how fast time had gone when I took her to the pediatrician and she told me we could start Lissy on rice cereal whenever we wanted.  Crazy!

She is a big girl; almost 17 lbs at her last appointment!  She's wearing clothes V was wearing when she was a year.  It's amazing how different they are.

Well, hopefully I'll do a little better with updating this, but if not, this will work for a while. :)

 

So...

It's been a while since I've posted. I really thought I would have more time to do so but once Felicity arrived on the scene it got infinitely busier. Now that we have a semi-routine, I figured I'd hop on and do a bit of an update.

Felicity arrived on January 27th at 1:09 p.m. It was a SUPER short labor (which I am thankful for considering how much pain was involved) and everything went well. She has been very healthy and is developing normally thus far; in fact, she is so healthy she is wearing clothes that Verity wore at 7 months already. Anyway, she has been a very easy baby and is sleeping around 7-8 hour stretches at night. She has been smiling and responding more to us every day, which has been fun to see. Just this week she has really gotten into the animals hanging from her bouncy seat, which you can view below if you're interested:

Verity has been getting used to being a big sister. After about six weeks, she seemed to realize the baby was here to stay and that she may as well enjoy it. She has been trying to help soothe Felicity when she cries and has also tried to share various things with her, including food, her sippy cup, her binky, books, and even the cat she sleeps with. It's adorable when it isn't something that could hurt Felicity. Verity has also been learning her ABCs and how to count. For a long time her favorite Sesame Street character was Elmo but now all she wants to watch is the Count. The other thing I have really been enjoying is listening to her learn to sing songs. Every night before bed, since she was three months, we have sang a few songs and prayed and it's so precious to hear her sing parts of the songs she has learned and ask to pray. There was supposed to be a video of her reading her Bible below, but blogger seemed to have some issues with it, so just imagine a little girl saying, "God," and "Jesus," in a cute little toddler voice.

Other than that, not much is new. My goals need serious updating; many of them went by the wayside. I didn't think about the fact that I was going to be adjusting to another family member in the house at the time I made the list. Silly. We are going to hopefully start looking at houses in the next week or two, which is exciting. More next time.

2012 Goals

Not a very creative title, I know, but I just want to get these up here so I have some accountability. Anyway, here are my goals for this year. I may try to be a little more specific on some of them in the future, but for now they will do:

Personal:

-Read through the Bible reading plan I started each month

-Work out 4-5 times/week (once Felicity comes and I get the okay)

-Read 1 non-fiction book/month. This month I've read one already, so I am reading another one.

-Only check Facebook 1 time/day. I know that is ridiculous but I think I spend too much time on there.

Family:

-Have at least one date night/month with Joe

-Do one craft/new activity with V each week

-Teach V her ABCs by March

Home:

-Follow chore planner. I bought a downloadable one off the internet and it is really nice; it breaks everything down so it's more manageable and already in list form.

-Stick to our budget!!! This one will get more specific but for now I just wanted something down on paper about it.

We will see how all these go. I think they are fairly doable. Time to clean the V up from lunch.

Happy New Year!

Being that it's a new year and all, I figured I would actually write a little. Things have been fairly crazy the last couple of weeks with holidays and weddings and such. We also finally weaned V from her pacifier, which took a little longer than I had hoped. However, she seems to be sleeping better at night without it, which makes all of us grateful.

We also decided to move down to Grand Rapids earlier than planned. It was getting too expensive to live so far away from Joe's work, our doctors, etc. We had hoped to buy a house this spring but decided just to rent for a few months longer and take our time looking around at where we want to buy. I am excited to be going back to the city and am glad that we will be 45 minutes closer to the hospital I'll be delivering at at the end of the month, especially since we're starting to get more snow now.

I have been thinking about making a list of goals that I would like to accomplish this year in different areas of my life. I will probably share them in another post, but one in particular I would like to accomplish is to do more crafty/creative things with Verity. She is getting to the age now where she is more interested in stuff like that and can listen to instructions better, so I have been reading up on blogs and got a book for Christmas that should give me some ideas. Hopefully I can do at least one activity a week with her. For Christmas we got her some coloring books and she has been enjoying that:

We haven't had any issues with her trying to color on something other than the paper...yet. :)

Well, I suppose I should be thinking about dinner. Happy New Year everyone!

Photo Shoot

A few weeks ago, we went and had our pictures taken so we would have a half-way decent one for our Christmas card. It is the first time since we were married that we had something like that done. V wasn't real cooperative, but we got some nice pictures. Maybe by the time Felicity is here she will be more into it. Here are a few of them:

As far as life goes, things have been pretty good. Joe moves to second shift tomorrow, which will be a nice change as that is what we have been used to. I am also glad he will be around to help more during V's awake time. I have been unable to pick her up this weekend without being in extreme pain so the less I have to do it, the better at this point. We are fairly settled in to the cabin now and with our Christmas decorations up, it feels more like our own home. V is learning more and more words every day and has also picked up new skills, such as putting her garbage in the trash can and helping me unload the dishwasher. I really have been enjoying the time I have with her at home and am excited to be able to do more activities with her as she grows.

Well, Joe just brought me some applecrisp so I am going to go enjoy that now. Until next time.

Just in case

...you were wondering what we've been up to recently.

That's all for now. Enjoy. :)

An update of sorts

So it's week two of life up north. Besides the vast amounts of rain we've had, making it difficult to spend much time outdoors, things have been going really well. Verity has mostly settled back into a normal sleep schedule, which makes everyone happy, and is starting to eat more table food here and there again. In fact, she is taking her second nap of the day right now, which is the reason I am on here right now.

Actually, I feel like I spend more time online now than I did pre-Michigan; however, I have been a LOT more productive than I ever was in Louisville...well, post-V anyway. It's amazing how enjoyable cooking/housework is when you can do a little every day so it doesn't pile up like crazy. I have been able to actually stick to the meal plans I've made so far, keep up with the laundry fairly well, AND enjoy time with V. It's nice to sit down after she's gone to bed and not feel guilty since I have accomplished something with my day. We will see what happens once Felicity makes her appearance, but for now, things are going smoothly.

Joe is enjoying the pace of his job, as well as knowing he will be done at the same time every day. He still works up cases for the company he was working for in Louisville here and there, but he can choose when he wants to do it so it works out nicely. He is looking forward this weekend to be able to relax. After driving back and forth to KY for the last three, he is ready for a break.

Well, I probably should do something with my time; it's a lot easier to get stuff done when V is sleeping! Hopefully now that I have more time at home I will be better about updating this thing.