The NOT So Fun Part of Our Weekend...

We have mice...again.  Steven was out with friends on Friday night.  After I put Addy to bed I went to the pantry to get some chocolate.  While I was deciding what I wanted, there it was...on the shelf, looking at me!  I jumped back and ran out of the pantry and climbed on a stool.  It ran down to the floor and went under the oven.  Guess that was my sign I didn't need to have any chocolate!

I quickly texted Steven and told him about it and included, "Why are you NEVER home when this happens to me?"  This is the 3rd time, by the way, that I've found a mouse in our house and he's not been home...the only 3 times we've ever had mice in our house!  He told me where some sticky traps were, and I informed him that he could just take care of it when he got home!  I went upstairs and pretended that didn't just happen. :)

When Steven got home I showed him where I saw the mouse, and sure enough it was back and just sat there looking back at him!  It was eating some hot chocolate.  That was my cue to leave.  I did my part, showing him where the mouse was!  He set a bunch of traps and pulled a lot of our stuff out of the pantry and discovered what else they got into...unopened bags of flour and sugar.

Saturday was interesting.  We caught 3 mice total.  When we got home from skating there was a mouse on a trap, and Steven realized it was caught going into the pantry.  So he was determined to find out where they were coming from.  He pulled the oven away from the wall, and this is what we saw:

We didn't know what to do.  We couldn't believe they made a hole in our wall.  So we called a professional.  He came yesterday.  Bad news is there's signs of them everywhere...attic, crawl space, garage, etc.  We weren't that surprised by that news, but certainly grossed out and willing to do whatever necessary to get rid of them.

He set 6 bait traps around the outside of our house and had Steven set traps all over inside the house.  he'll come back every Mon, Wed, and Fri to check the traps.  He also instructed Steven to do quite a bit of caulking in the garage.  We're just hoping we can get rid of them once and for all!

We haven't caught any more since Saturday.   Hoping this resolves as easily as possible!  Is that possible?

The Fun Part of our Weekend...

Saturday we took Addy skating for the first time!  It's something I've been thinking about doing for a while and finally just decided to do it.  I haven't skated since moving here almost 6 years ago and can't remember the last time I skated before moving.

One thing that makes it harder to think about skating here is lack of ice!  I mean there aren't any ice arenas north of Nashville.  Only one in Nashville and one south of Nashville.  We went to the rink in Nashville.  And it was super busy!  It wasn't a problem though.  I just didn't anticipate open skating being that popular here!

Addy did GREAT!  I was so impressed with how well she did.  We were there about an hour and a half total.  Way longer than I expected!  I figured she'd make it about 30-45 minutes and I would've been just fine with that.  We definitely took breaks, especially if she asked to, but she always wanted to go back out and skate some more!

We started out just walking on the skates, trying to get balance.  She actually did cry initially, but after about 10 seconds realized she could do it.  And about 30 seconds later, she was ready for the ice!

I picked her up and skated with her a couple times around the ice going a little faster, and she loved it!

This is by far my favorite picture from the day!  Steven had gotten off the ice to tighten his skates and I was working with Addy to stand by herself.  And she did it!  So of course I wanted a picture.  I backed up about 5 ft from her to take the picture and she didn't like that so well!  I promise, I went right back to her after I snapped this picture.  And she stopped crying immediately.  :)

It really was a lot of fun, and I'm so glad we did it.  All 3 of us are looking forward to going again.  Addy's been "skating" everyday at home since.  It's hilarious, and I love her enthusiasm!

Sunday was a relatively quiet day.  We went to church, came home and had lunch, played for a little bit, then it was nap time.  When Addy woke up from her nap, we had planned to go for a run with the new-to-us jogger.  Addy was so excited, she couldn't wait to ride in it!

It started to rain just after we left home, but it was a light sprinkle, so we continued on our way.  It was in the low 50s, so not terribly cold, just dreary and wet.  But, we hooked Addy up with an umbrella and went on our way!

At the end of our run Addy got out and did a little running of her own!  She couldn't wait to get out and exercise!  It had stopped raining by then as well.

It actually only sprinkled on us for the first mile or so of our run, so not bad at all.  The tough part was the jogger!  It certainly makes a difference to push Addy in the jogger...a great workout indeed!

Last Weekend (Jan 18-21)

Last Friday evening we hosted a baby shower for one of Steven's coworkers.  He and his wife are expecting a little girl in March.  Addy was excited to help me decorate, and then as soon as we were finished she said, "Can I go to Ms. Wendy's house now?"  She was having a sleepover at Ms. Wendy's house and couldn't have been more excited!

Here's the decorations she helped me with:

The baby shower went very well, we all had a great time.  It was fun to host Steven's coworkers and their spouses.  I think we had around 25 people here.  The parent's-to-be received some nice gifts to prepare for their little Addie!  They're naming their baby Adalee.

Our Addy had a really fun night with Wendy and her family.  They played and played, she got to stay up late and get up early... and they played some more.  Some version of our Addy came home at 10:15 and oh my.  She looked like our Addy, but she most certainly wasn't acting like our Addy!

We experienced our worst temper tantrum to date, by far.  We were trying to get to Katie's 11:00 basketball game and there was not even one ounce of cooperation from Addy.  She was MAD.  She didn't want to be home, she wanted to stay with Wendy.  She didn't want Steven or me talking to her, touching her, nothing.  She cried and screamed and went to a corner on her own to cry.  There was no reasoning with her, at all.  We told her if she kept it up she wouldn't be going to Katie's game.

She kept it up and didn't get to go to Katie's game.  I felt badly for Steven since I did go to the game and left him home to deal with her, which meant sending her to bed...but it wasn't that easy.  He endured another half hour of her tantrum before she finally settled down.  He put her in her bedroom and told her she needed to go to bed until she calmed down.  She was so out of control she was kicking and hitting her bedroom door trying to get out.  Steven ended up having to lock it to keep her in.  She was so out of control she wasn't responding to discipline.  It was bad.

She eventually fell asleep for about an hour.  After that, our normal Addy was back.  Why the worst tantrum ever for her?  Lack of sleep over 2 weeks.  She didn't nap at all for 2 weeks straight.  We're huge fans of the book series "Baby Wise", and I think the most important advice I read was a statement like "have you ever seen a well rested child have a temper tantrum?"  So Steven and I have always made sleep a priority for Addy.  From infancy until now, we really try to make sure she gets proper sleep.

She didn't get proper sleep for 2 weeks since she doesn't sleep while at school and last weekend we attended a birthday party during nap time on Sat. and a basketball game during nap time on Sun.  The weekend is when she'll normally catch up on sleep.  It's common for her to take a 2-3 hour nap each day on the weekend.

Anyway, the rest of last weekend we made sure she napped!  And honestly, she's been normal ever since.  Thankfully!

Back to Katie's basketball game...it was their first game, and they did so well! Katie's in 3rd grade and it's the first time she's played, but it was so fun to watch her!

Chris is Katie's coach:

It's blurry, but Katie's about to steel the ball!

Hands up for a rebound:

Great first game, Katie!

Sunday evening, after Addy's nap, we picked Mackenzie up and went to dinner.  Then we came back to our house and Mackenzie spent the night.  The kiddos were out of school on Monday for MLK day, so Mackenzie babysat!  All day, just her and Addy.  They did great together!

Random Cuteness

Our accessory loving girl:

Before getting her to agree to the picture above, she tried to hide from the camera and crawled up on the couch and started shaking her booty at me instead!

Lately I've really enjoyed checking on her before I go to bed.  She's been in some interesting sleeping positions.  Before I turn her the right way, I prefer to take a picture!  Funny girl.  She gets that from her dad!

Last week we also experienced Addy sleep walking!  I heard her crying and looked at her on the monitor.  (I do that because if she's still lying down, she doesn't normally need anything and will just stop on her own.  If she's sitting up, then I go in there and help her lay back down and tuck her in again.)  Anyway, I didn't see her on the monitor so I thought she had fallen out of bed.  I jumped up and opened her door.  Only I didn't see her...anywhere.   My heart dropped for a hot second and then I took another step in her room and noticed her bathroom door was open.  There she was standing on her stool at her sink just crying!  I asked her a couple times if she needed to go potty and she answered me "no". So I asked her if she wanted to go back to bed and she answered "yes".  I put her back in bed and that was it!  She snuggled in and stopped crying!

Then a couple nights ago I woke up at 1:30 a.m. to Addy saying, "Mommy.  Oh mommy."  I was clearly in a deep sleep.  Not sure how long she had been calling for me, but I got up and went into her room.  I asked her what she needed and she asked me if I'd rock her.  I said, "No, sweetheart.  It's the middle of the night.  You need to go back to sleep."  I know, I'm hardcore.  Whatever.  She didn't need to be rocked.  She laid down and then said, "Mommy, what's wrong with your forehead?"  I said, "Nothing, why?"  All she said was "I don't know".  So I relayed the story to Steven.  He said, "Were you looking at her like that?"  (My eyebrows were furrowed)  I said, "Probably, why?"  Then he nicely pointed out all the wrinkles on my forehead!!!  Nice, right?  It was a good laugh for sure.

Dance Update

Dance is going really well!  I really like the new place, and it's fun to see all the new things she's learning.  I really love that there's a window in the door to the studio so we can watch their class!

Over the last couple of weeks they've been working on skipping, hula hoops, back bends, somersaults, cartwheels, and a variety of ballet poses.  The girls are so darn cute!  And Addy is doing really well.

And now for a sneak peak at her recital costume...

I'm so excited for her to dance in her recital at the end of spring.  She had such a good time last year, and I think this year will be even more fun for her since she'll know what to expect.

Saturday & Sunday (Jan. 12 & 13)

Saturday morning Addy had "coffee" on the back porch with Grandma and Grandpa since it was a warm weekend.  We love 70 degree days in January!  Then Grandma tried to get Addy to do some painting with her, but Addy was more interested in just spreading the paper around the floor!

After lunch we went to Rex's birthday party.  He turned 5!  It was at the same place we had Addy's birthday party last year, and she loved it!  She loves the inflatable bounce place.

Addy lovin' on Zak, Rex's little brother.

Rex and his birthday cake...I never did get a picture of his face that day!

Saturday evening we finally celebrated Grandpa's birthday.  Addy helped Grandpa open his presents.

After that, Steven and I went to look at a baby jogger...for our not so little baby!  We've decided to run in the Music City Half Marathon at the end of April and will need a jogger to complete the training necessary to prepare for the half marathon!  It's a huge undertaking, but we're excited about it.  

While we were gone, Addy decided to fix Grandpa's hair!  My mom clearly caught him with a funny expression on his face, but I couldn't resist including this picture.  It reminds me of when I was Addy's age.  I used to fix my dad's hair all the time when I was little...including getting the curling iron out and curling his hair!  I can't believe now that he trusted me with it!  Now, I wasn't 3 when I used the curling iron, but I was still young!

Sunday after church we stopped for lunch and then went to the Vanderbilt girls basketball game.  We had fun, and they won!  They really have a great team this year.

Addy holding up the pizza she won!  She also won a long sleeve t-shirt during that game!  The cheerleaders love the cute girl in the front row :)

After the game we took Grandma and Grandpa to the airport.  We had a really fun weekend with them!

Last Friday (Jan. 11)

Friday was a fun day for Addy because it was pajama day at school!

They watched the movie "Cars" and ate popcorn, too.

Addy and I had a really funny conversation on the way to school.  She just couldn't understand why I couldn't wear pajamas to work!  And she wanted to know where I lay down for my nap while at work. And she wanted to know my nap teacher's name!  It was hilarious.  When I told her that I wasn't allowed to sleep at work, that really confused her!  At some point I mentioned something about me working in the hospital and she was so surprised.  She said, "You work in a hostibal?!" (that's how she says hospital)  I just kept laughing at all the revelations she had in our short (15 min) drive to school!

Then my parents flew down for the weekend.  In the morning, I had asked Addy to sleep at school since she was going to have visitors coming to see her.  She said, "Well, what are they're names?"  I said, "Grandma and Grandpa".  She lit up and was so excited.  But that still wasn't enough for her to actually sleep at school!  Silly girl.

We had a fun dinner with Jen and her family, and then Steven and I ended up going to a movie with Jen and Chris while my parents took the girls back to our house to play.  We all had a great time!

And Baby Would've Made Four

Well, our new year hasn't started out as fantastic as we were hoping.  We hadn't announced to the blog world that we were expecting a baby.  I was waiting to do that until we had our ultrasound on Wed. Jan. 2.  When we went in for that ultrasound what we saw was an empty gestational sac.  Apparently I had a blighted ovum, which means that shortly after conception the embryo abruptly stopped growing, but my uterus and hormones didn't know that and kept growing the gestational sac.  I would've been 9 weeks along.

Since my body hadn't realized that a baby wasn't growing, the best solution was to have a D&C, and that was done yesterday.  It went well, and I'm not sure why, but for me it just didn't seem to be related to the news we received on Wednesday.  I didn't feel an emotional connection to the baby and the D&C.  It seemed more mechanical to me.  Weird, perhaps.  The toughest part for me was definitely seeing the empty gestational sac on ultrasound.

Let me back up just a little, though.  I really wanted to document this because of how the day went when we found out I was pregnant.  It was Sat. Dec. 1.  Addy came into bed with me when she woke up to watch cartoons.  Steven was sick with a cold and had gone upstairs to sleep in the recliner.  After getting Addy settled with cartoons, I got up and took a pregnancy test.  I waited for the results and was ecstatic to see the positive result.  I went back to bed though to cuddle with Addy.  Just as I lied down, she said to me, "Mommy, do you have a baby in your belly?"  My jaw about hit the floor.  I was stunned.  Since I had no intention of telling her I was pregnant, I said, "Well you were in my belly and Logan was in my belly."  She clarified, "No, Mommy, do you have a baby in your belly NOW?!"  Then I didn't know what to say!  I finally just said, "Maybe".  Then she wanted to look at my belly to see if it was growing yet!

Then I told her that we should probably go share the news with her Dad!  So Addy got to tell him and it was very sweet.  He was as surprised as I was!

We had estimated my due date to be August 8, 2013, and we were excited about that...right between mine and Steven's birthdays!

We let Addy tell my parents when they came down the next weekend, and she got to tell Steven's parents as soon as they joined us in Costa Rica.  Other than that we started sharing the news with some of our family around Christmas.

And because this is our story, I'm going to include a couple pictures related to this baby.  First, I always take 2 pregnancy tests!  Always.  And we also took my first belly picture on the beach in Costa Rica at 8 weeks.  It's actually my first and only bare belly pregnancy picture EVER!

The part of this miscarriage I was dreading most was telling Addy.  But, like the sweet girl she is, she took it well and seemed to understand.  While eating dinner last night, she asked me if my baby was hungry.  So, I said to her, "Well, there isn't a baby in my belly anymore.  This baby went to Heaven, too".  She asked why and I told her that Jesus thought it was best that this baby go to Heaven to be with Logan.  Then she made us laugh when she said, "Is your belly still big?"  I didn't think it got that big!  Silly girl.  I told her that it was about the same, but that it should probably get smaller again.  :)

Okay, now let me back up even further.  The title of the post has dual meaning.  This was actually my fourth pregnancy.  I never blogged about my first miscarriage that occurred between Addy and Logan.  But, I feel compelled to do so now as it is part of our story.

It was Valentines Day 2011.  We had just returned from our last Costa Rica trip and I randomly took a test that morning.  We were so excited, of course.  But before we could tell anyone our good news, I had a miscarriage a week later.  I was only 6 weeks along.  It was just before Addy turned 2, and that baby would've been due in early-mid October.

This was our card to Steven:

None of my miscarriages have been the same and none of them are related in any way.  All 3 have been completely isolated incidences.  And we have loved all 3 of those babies just the same.  We look forward to seeing them all in Heaven one day.

We're doing alright.  We're definitely disappointed, but we are confident God is in charge and is doing what's best for us, even if we don't understand the "why's" right now.  We certainly appreciate all the love and support from our family and friends.  We have so many people praying for us, and words can't describe how powerful and meaningful that really is.  We're grateful.  Thank you!