The Samples Family Adventures!

Good grief!

2011-11-18T15:14:00.001-06:00

It's been a while, let's see if this something I can keep up!

Halloween Through Christmas!

2009-12-27T13:46:00.001-06:00

So obviously…I suck at this now! Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Above should be photo album of pictures from October through November. I think I stuck one of Halloween in there too.

Things have been good around here. Nyssa is growing like mad. She’s talking so much now. She says, hello. Which cracks me up. Banana’s are ‘bubby’, She has FINALLY started saying please! It comes out ‘me.’ I’ll take what I can get. She will pretty much try and copy everything you ask her to say. You can’t always understand it, but she tries! There are quite a few and I’m drawing a complete blank! We moved around the furniture. We did have the coffee table blocking the entertainment center. Once she figured out how to climb up, it did us no good. It got her closer to the TV! Since Christmas was coming we figured we would give it a shot at putting the furniture back to the original places! It’s all worked out fine. The coffee table is now her performance stage, but it all works out!

Thanksgiving was good. Chuck got the big kids and went to his sisters in St. Charles. Nyssa and I went up to the Egert’s for Thanksgiving. I had to work the next day at 9, and wanted to be able to put Nyssa to bed at a normal time. (His sister’s house is an hour away, add a half an hour to drop to the kids off at home and you are easily looking at 10pm.) It pretty much sucked not all being together for Thanksgiving, but it was also great to spend it at the Egert’s house! After all, that’s where I spent MANY Thanksgivings!

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed to fly. We think Chuck had the H1N1. He had a fever for about 5 days and pretty much just ached all over. I was panicked until I remembered that Nyssa had the H1N1 shot and I had the nasal mist. Thankfully, they worked!

We had the Samples family Christmas at our place on Christmas night. It was a good time. There were 16 of us total in our apartment! It wasn’t as cramped at you would think! The kids made out like bandits! They always have so much fun playing with their cousins. I think there is a picture of Chuck’s Mom and all the grandkids in the photo album above.

Nyssa and I were off work last week, and we are heading back tomorrow. Last week Nyssa learned to sleep in! She was sleeping in until 9 or 10 most mornings! It was so nice! The kids are off school this week, so that may change! We may have to be there earlier than normal. We can’t wait to get back and see them all!

Chuck is at work today. He’ll be home about 7:15 this evening. Nyssa and I did some laundry today, now it’s nap time. (For Nyssa :)) Mommy’s going to fold some laundry and catch up on TV shows!

We hope everyone had a great Holiday! Happy New Year!

RandomNyss

2009-10-24T23:13:00.001-05:00

Okay, so I’m trying out this Windows Live Writer for this blog. I think I’m digging it a lot! I’m not sure how this photo album below is going to come out and how easily it can be viewed, but it’s worth a shot! I also was able to do the previous post about the Pumpkin Patch with the side by side views of last year and this year. So far so good. Let me know if any one has any problems! (FYI: If it does work out? Watch it, you will be seeing all kids of photos for those of you not on facebook!)

View Full Album

She is saying more and more words. It’s pretty funny. She said please a couple of weeks ago and hasn’t said it since. I ask her to say it and she sticks her little tongue out a little bit instead. Silly girl. She has started saying “again”, go figure.

She is an all around pretty cute little girl who knows how to charm her way out of trouble! If she knows she is about to do something naughty she’ll come right out and tell me “no no no Mommy” and proceed to do it anyway!

I think my little Butterball has some kind of tummy bug. The last couple of nights she has some icky loose poo’s (should I warn you now that this is going to be about poop? Read at your own risk!) I noticed yesterday that she wasn’t eating like her normal self. Thought about it and then didn’t really think about it again! Until this morning when she wasn’t really into her breakfast. She usually loves waffles. We kind of took it easy to and gave her whatever she wanted to eat. She kept drinking a ton of water, so I wasn’t that worried. After dinner tonight she over by the door and was letting it rip. After a few minutes of letting her finish (I hate to change her too early then have her keep pooping while I’m changing!) I chased after her finally got her down on the floor (in the middle of the room) got the britches off and noticed that it was a leaker. Up the FRONT. She hasn’t had a front leaker since she was tiny. I thought, oh boy this isn’t going to be pretty! I was moving her side to side to get her onesis pulled and noticed a nice puddle of poop on the CARPET. I put her bottom down and went to get a changing pad (a little late, yes but I do what I can). There were 2 more puddles of poop on the carpet. I’ve never been so grossed out in my life. I’ve changed my fair share of poopy/diarrhea diapers. This was just gross. I ended up throwing away the onesis and the changing pad along with the 50 wipes I used to get her and the floor cleaned up. I light some candles in hopes of masking the poop smell. I cleaned up the carpet with some water then put some Shout Gel on the carpet. I figure we’ll let that sit overnight and hope for the best. If anyone has any suggestions, I’ll take them. Please.

Chuck’s store is open until 10pm until Halloween now. Last night, tonight and tomorrow night he closes. Which means he is out of the store at 10:30 and home by 11 – 11:15pm. At least he doesn’t have to open the next day! He works six days this week and maybe the week after for the pack away, then hopefully we can get back to some kind of normal before the holidays.

Happy Halloween!

The Pumpkin Patch 2009

2009-10-24T22:15:00.001-05:00

The whole gang. L to R Cameron, Avery, Theodore, Nyssa & Julia

We had to take this picture. There were 5 holes and 5 kids, what parent wouldn’t take this picture if given the opportunity! (Theodore, Cameron, Julia, Nyssa & Avery)

Sara and the twins came up last Sunday and we all took an adventure to the Pumpkin Patch. It was insane. Seriously. Insane. It was the second nice day in a row with no rain. We pulled up, every got out and unloaded we took the first picture of the kids by/in the stroller’s. Then we were in and out. Took the pictures we needed, each kid got a little pumpkin and we bailed. We went to lunch. We decided that next year we would consider taking a vacation day to go during the week so we don’t have to fight the crowds!!

1 Year Ago on 10/19

2009-10-20T23:02:00.000-05:00

What a difference a year makes!

15 months!

2009-10-02T20:12:00.006-05:00

(The photo above is at a field hockey game for Hannah. The game stared late, so I was pulled out all the stops to keep her entertained. She loves to color and stuff. She is totally holding the pen the correct way! She colors the same way too!)

(We were hanging out at Auntie La-La's last Friday and I snapped the photo above. It seems kind of blurry but I can't believe how big she looks. She has definitely turned into Mommy's big girl over the summer!)

(The photo above: is by far one of my favorites. She is doing her fishy lips imitation. This was at the library. Those eyes and those eye lashes. I hope she keeps the long eye lashes forever!)

Hard to believe she's 15 months already! (Okay, so she's really almost 16 months at this point!) She is a very funny girl! Her sense of humor is hysterical. She knows when to be all cute so she doesn't get into trouble!

She went in for her 15 month check up on the 29th of September. She did pretty well! She got four shots. The nurse brings in another nurse and they double team them for shots. They count to 3 and stab them at the same time. The first round she kind of whimpered, the second round down right ticked her off. The crying ended pretty quickly when I started to put her pants back on she started saying "bye bye" because we were outta there! She weighs in at 21 lbs 6 oz (she has only gained one pound since her cardiologist appointment in July :), her length is at 29 inches now. I forget how big her head is, but that has a higher percentage than her height and weight! She's growing right on schedule, actually a little ahead.

She is trying to chat up a storm.

She says;

Daddy (sometimes it's Dada)
Mommy (sometimes comes out Money, nice, right?)
uppie (pick me up)
no (duh)
uh-oh
Zachary is Acky
Jamie is Ja-ja-ja (why she throws 3 J's into it, I have no idea)
Hannah is Nannah
Lori is La-La
more (she's been saying more A LOT the last couple of days...now if she could just learn please!).

She knows where her belly (& button), ears, mouth, chompers (aka..teeth), pretty hair (she's a girl, it can't just be HAIR, it's got to be PRETTY), nose (every now and again her finger makes it's way UP her nose), eyes, toes (she wiggles them for you too), hands and the grand finale is asking her if she has a poop. She pats her little behind and says, uh-oh! She also loves to do the motions for pat-a-cake, and we are working on twinkle twinkle. She just laughs when I sing twinkle twinkle.

This week she has started shaking her head "yes" as well. She tries any way, she puts her whole body into it. She shakes her head "no" quite well. Mommy: "Nyssa are you going to go on the potty soon and wear big girl panties?" Nyssa: *shakes her head no and laughs. (In my world it's never too soon to start talking about potty training!!

We were given a girls bedroom set by someone in our apartment building, so we had to do a little re-arranging in her bedroom a couple of weeks ago. Chuck actually came up with floor plan to allow more toys to be left out for her to go play in there. She plays awesome by herself. She just takes off for her room now. Her favorite thing to play with in there is her doll house. Actually it used to be Lauren Egert's and it's been passed down through their family/cousin's and now it's ours! It is funny to be playing doll house with my daughter that I used to play 13 years ago with Lauren! She loves playing with her baby doll's and cars and trucks. She's pretty much entertained by anything I guess!

Another favorite past time of Nyssa's would be putting on clothes. She may already have clothes on her little body, but if she can get some shirts and/or pants out of her drawers without Mommy putting them back, she will plop right down start attempting to put them on. Most of the time the shirt ends up as pants, but whatever makes her happy! You know when she can get them because you hear the "Wilson" temper flare up.

She is well on her way to perfecting the tantrum thing too. She has been known to immediately sit on tush, lay down and proceed to slam her feet on the ground all the while she's yelling at me. The tantrum that isn't as bad usually ends up with her crying and yelling and pointing at me while she's walking away to find some wall space. She backs herself up to the wall, stands there and cries. Just cries and cries. It's actually kind of funny which I'm sure pisses her off even more! I've got to get a picture next time it happens. It's funny stuff.

That's pretty much it for here. I can't believe the last post was July. I suck at this now. No. Really I just put a ton more stuff up on Facebook. It's so much easier!

We hope everyone out there is doing well and staying warm!!

Photos and the Pediatric Cardiologist Appointment

2009-07-27T08:49:00.003-05:00

We were hanging out at the tennis courts on Saturday. Chuck got these photos of Miss Nyss. She cracks me up.

I know you can't see her very well in the photo above, but I just like this picture. I love that her tongue is sticking out, this is right before she tried to grab the camera from Daddy!

She is doing a belly laugh in the photo above.

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People laugh when I tell them she is kind of naughty sometimes. The photo below? Proof! This is after she would climb up the steps of the slide, get to the top, then stand. WITHOUT HOLDING ON. So Mommy flipped the slide on it's side. Chuck and I were trying to eat dinner, I looked over and she was standing on the side of the slide. Smarty pants.

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The child loves hats.

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We were hanging out in the car waiting to get Zachary from camp. Look at those chompers.

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We went to her Pediatric Cardiologist appointment on Saturday. Nyssa had to have the EKG, which was no big deal in the world of Nyssa. She watched the nurse put the stickers on her tummy and chest. The nurse then hooked up the things (it's the technical term :) and she had the reading in one shot. Beautiful. Then we had to go in for the ECHO. (It was at the same visit, just down the hallway.) The guy doing the ultrasound was awesome. He did all he could to distract her when she was get restless. We had to bust out a first lollipop. Daddy about had a heart attack because she was laying down (kind of ) on my lap. I figured it she choked we were in a good place to have it happen! She did fine with it, though, so no worries. It lasted about 40 minutes. (Can I mention how cool it was seeing her little beating heart on the monitor? The colors and the sound of her heart beat actually helped distract her for a minute or two!) She and Mommy were covered in ultrasound gel and banana dum-dum residue! When it's all said and done, the Doctor said that she has an "innocent or functional heart murmur." She said that most children outgrow them by the age of 10. Hopefully by the time she's 2 or 3 years old. Such good news!

Nyssa and I are off today! We will spend this week getting stuff together for our trip to Iowa on Saturday! We are looking forward to leaving here. We also can't wait to see what Nyssa will think of the golf cart! There will be so much yard for her to run around in, it will be great! As long as it doesn't rain, we will be good! It doesn't even matter if it's cool, as long as there's no rain!

1st hair cut & Other news

2009-07-12T21:07:00.003-05:00

Above is before the bang trim. She was in bad need. After seeing her like this all day on Saturday I figured it was time to bite the bullet and trim the poor girls bangs! Getting that first little snip done was a challenge. Then she figured out something was going on and sat as still as could be for Mommy to finish! (Yes, Mommy cut the bangs. Not to bad except for her right side. She whipped her head around and Mommy got a little high on that side. You can't tell most of the time since her hair is usually all over the place!)

It's so nice to be able to see those pretty eyes! She has also stopped tipping her head way back to look around!

This picture cracks me up. She is telling me "na-na-na-na" and then she would laugh. I can't believe I caught this though!

In other news...we got her 1 one year picture finally taken! Yay! We had them done Friday. She wore a fancy dress (that we got in a bag of Julia clothes) and then her t-shirt that says birthday girl. She did pretty well considering she has never experienced anything like that at all! When the big flash would pop she would jump. The lady was very patient with her, because of Nyssa had to walk around and check things out! The pictures are coming on the 21st, so we are planning on bringing them with us on our trip to Iowa at the beginning of August! I had no idea how hard it was to pick out the poses and all that stuff. I think I got some extras, even with writing down who gets what size! They were just so stinking cute!

This summer seems to be flying so fast. I hate it. The weather has been kind of crazy too. It looks like we have the start of a runny nose. That should be interesting. Hopefully it won't develop into much!

I finally broke down and made her pediatric cardiologist appointment too. It's on July 25th at 9:30am. I'm not concerned about her mur-mur. I'm more concerned with the ECG & ECHO! I know they are painless. They say the ECG take approximately 20 minutes. No problem. The ECHO can take approximately an HOUR. That child is going to have to be strapped down! We will not have a happy girl or a happy Mommy when it's all said and done. It's being done through Children's Memorial Hospital which is good. At least they will have a ton of experience getting through with a child her age! It's just going to suck if we are in the room with her, I don't know if they will kick us out or not!

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-05T15:05:00.004-05:00

The photo above is from yesterday. Before our adventure to the mall.

The photo below is from Friday night. (I have no idea why this is typing in bold, hopefully it won't be this way on the blog) We went to On the Border for dinner (yummy). Nyssa has never had ketchup until this point. We were finished with out meal and Miss Thang was getting rowdy. I pushed her plate in front of her and of course she went straight for the fries. She saw that shiny bowl with the ketchup and looked at me as if to say, "can I?" Who am I to stop her when we are just trying to get out of the restaurant without a tantrum happening! It was so funny. It was pretty darn funny. Fries are now a way to scoop ketchup into her mouth!

We hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th! I can't believe it's half way through the summer already. I was just telling Chuck the other night how fast this summer is going to fly.

It was a rainy, yucky, cloud day out here yesterday. We hoped it would clear up in the afternoon so we could go to a festival some where. That didn't happen. After Nyssa's nap we ended up taking Nyssa to the mall. The mall on the 4th, so wrong. She had a blast playing in the germ infested play area. (Hand sanitizer is a beautiful thing!)

2 years ago we watched the fire works for our town from our parking lot. We watched them from our parking lot last night as well. Well, for about 5 minutes anyway. We let her run around in the tennis court for a while. She saw them but wasn't that impressed. (For the record. Last year was so much easier! She was only 3 weeks old and didn't move! LOL)

She's crackin' me up again. She can now find her nose. Her finger usually ends up, up her nose. But she finds it! Last weekend she decided that she can walk backwards sometimes. Out of no where you see her start to back up. She just laughs.

Miss Nyss

2009-06-30T15:09:00.002-05:00

So I haven't been on here since her birthday!~ Wowsa. She's doing well. Last week was very rough in the world of Nyssa. She would just cry and scream and cry and scream, then sob hysterically. This started on a Saturday, by Tuesday I looked at Chuck and said I can't take this much longer. We both agreed that she was crying like she was in pain. That night was bath night. Which is no longer fun, by the way. As I was rinsing her hair and body, she was screaming. What did I notice? A bottom 1 year molar coming through. It was rough that molar. She's pretty much back to normal now. That tooth was awful. Her first 1 year molar we had no idea was coming in, the second one she was a little crabby, but not much. At least we only have one more to go for the molars! She's go the top two front teeth, one to the right of them, her 2 upper molars, the two front teeth on the bottom and one molar. It seems kind of random how her chompers are showing up. It's pretty funny watching her actually chew something now. My favorite is to give her a pretzel or something crunchy. I love hearing that little crunch when she takes a bite!

She is officially in monkey mode. Although she cannot climb up on the sofa or recliner yet (phew). I believe that is because she is so doggone short! She will do it if her rocking chair is close by, she drags it over uses that for a boost. She's no dummy, my daughter. She also likes to push the rocker up to the coffee table to climb on. Her favorite thing to do with the rocker (that gives Daddy and Mommy a heart attack) is to climb in the chair. Continue standing, grab a hold of the back of the seat and just shake the crap out of the chair. She laughs up a storm. We figure she's going to fall off one of these days, at least we have carpet! I would like to think that wiping out a couple of times will hopefully keep her from doing her little shaky dance on the chair, but I'm not going to hold my breath!

Our summer is going well. It finally felt like summer last week. I could have used a little less humidity but at least it was cold. Like today. It is maybe going to be in the upper 60s. I put Nyssa in some over-alls and a short sleeve shirt for the day. It's pretty cloudy as well.

Nyssa and I are off today! We have enjoyed hanging out. She is down for her second nap. Sometimes I think she wants to transition to one nap a day. I hoping to stall that for another couple of weeks. She's been going down for nap around 10 or 10:30, waking between 12:30 and 1 pm. It's working very well with my work schedule. The girls have gone to over night camp for 4 weeks (this is the second week they have been gone :( ) Zachary goes to camp from 9 - 2. After we get Zach we play outside or in the basement until about 3 and she goes down for another nap! She's in bed at night by 8, maybe 8:30 at the latest.

That's about it from here. I better go try and accomplish some things while my little helper is snoozing!

PS: I'm working uploading a video to you tube to get on here some how. Ahh the beauty of our first tantrum!

Miss Nyss turns 1!!

2009-06-11T08:31:00.011-05:00

12;19am June 11, 2008

12:08am June 11, 2009

June 12, 2009;

This one is just cute. I know. I need to get her bangs cut. She leaves in a pony on the top of her head so I haven't felt the need. I don't think I could have handled it had we gotten it trimmed before she's one. We are hoping to get her one year photo's taken within the next week or two. After that, we can get them cut. I want some photos with her hair down and in her eyes (mean? maybe?) and then some with it in the pony tail. The "Pebbles" look suits her, although sometimes she acts more like "Bam-Bam!" Once kids get that first haircut it seems to change their whole look!

Nyssa also had her first check up today! She weighs in at 19 lbs 13 oz (30%), Height was 28 1/4" (25%), Head Circumference is 44 1/4 cm (48%). On her birthday we finally got to switch her car seat around to forward facing! After the appointment we switched it back to rear! Little Miss I weigh under 20lbs still has to be rear! I guess they recommend them being rear until 2 years old if possible. In her car seat she can rear up to 22lbs. So we are going to shoot for that weight. That or whenever our next car ride to Iowa! We'd probably switch her back to rear when we got back here though. She really didn't seem to mind being rear, so why not, right?

She's quite the little ham these days. She all about hugs now! I love it. She'll just run up with her head tilted and lay her head on your leg or shoulder! She's incredible. I can't believe how fast this first year flown by! I miss the tiny baby, but I'm so proud and amazed at how big she is now. (It's a little sad too!) It makes me happy I took those extra moment when she was tiny to just hold her when she would fall asleep on me!

June 13, 2009....The party! Grandma Sue's birthday was the same day as the party so it was double celebration!

We went with a cupcake for Nyssa's 1st cake! In the following photos you'll see, she kind of enjoyed it!

The big brother enjoyed it as well!

Miss Julia too! Yes, that would be icing on her nose!!

The end of the cupcake! I went to get her out of the high chair and she had a lovely sugar rush going on! She was saying side to side just laughing her little head off!

She opened her gifts with just a diaper on! The above photo is the first one. She loved climbing on the box....

We finally got her down to begin the opening process (who doesn't love a box of diapers :)...

The box under it were those pajama's. She was a little obsessed with the clothes. She really didn't want much to do with other gifts until she figured out there was more paper to tear!

Photos!

2009-06-06T21:49:00.009-05:00

One year ago today. That was me. Nyssa was in there somewhere! I ran across this photo while looking for some to post and thought I'd throw this one up! I can't believe she's almost 1!

That's Noo-Noo feeling the beat. Dancing to a Backyardigan's toy.

You may need to click on the picture above. That's Zachary in the brown shirt. Nyssa is on the other side playing peek-a-boo. If it's too hard to see click on it!

The sassy one after coloring at the table.

That's Zachary smooching Nyssa. Her bangs are so long! I don't want to cut them until she won't let me put them in the pony tail any more!!

I said, "Hey Nyssa." This is the pose she gave me. I love her.

This is our $5 garage sale bargain slide. It entertained all 3 kids for quite a while! Julia's legs practically reach the floor when she's on it! She's getting so tall.

The boy child's turn!

We were at a park and she decided to stick her tongue out at me when I was taking the picture! Sweet girl! :)

Mommy took her cell phone away. She was VERY angry with me. We actually got a pluggie out of the crib because she was so mad at me!

Sporting her Cubs dress from Auntie Lori. We were watching the bazillion geese that were camped out in front of our building.

She loves the park. It's just a matter of time before she throws that leg up there to try and climb the slide!

It's just a cute picture.

I think I clicked on the wrong photo to upload, her eyes are closed. But you get the idea with the sunhat. She actually leaves it on!

At the end of Julia's preschool year the kids put on a show. This is Miss J with her guitar that she made!

Trying to wink.

Trying to wink!

Random

2009-05-22T15:46:00.003-05:00

Here you see our gaggle of geese that live around our apartment complex. There are so many babies it's crazy.

I had some help unloading the dishwasher the other night. She's such a good helper that she had to take a poop in the photo below! Poor baby, it's hard to get those poops out now that we are on all big people food and whole milk!

Ahh ravioli! She loved it! I had even rinsed some of the sauce off of the noodles! She still managed to get it EVERYWHERE!

She's doing awesome these days (shocker)! She is walking all over the place. She tries to run and ends up crashing, but she pops that little tush right up and keeps on truckin'!

We have played outside a lot this week at work. It's been great, summer will be such a good thing. I noticed yesterday and today that as soon as we enter the garage at work, she is immediately trying to squirm her way down so she can go. The funniest is when we are leaving (taking Z to school or going home). As soon as I open the back door to put her in her seat, WOWSA does the crying and straightening of our back start! I have a feeling we will be seeing the 'terrible twos' earlier than necessary!

We are hanging out here this weekend. Chuck is working all weekend, which is a bummer. We'll get over it though. He is off on Monday, so that will be nice to hang out with him then. Who knows what Nyss and I will find to do.

I'm still working trying to get all the clothes boxed up and organized to go to storage. I just found another little pair of baby socks, too. Of course that's one of the boxes he just took to storage! It's great having all the bottles packed away. In their place are the sippy cups!

She started dancing this week! She's been doing the sitting down and side to side thing for a while. The other night she was pushing a button on one of her toys that plays music, and the next thing we knew she was moving her feet too! She also likes to clap while she's shakin' it! If I ever figure out how to put video up here, I'll have to post a little piece.

Have a great weekend!

Mother's Day

2009-05-12T08:52:00.002-05:00

Happy Mother's Day! It was a good day. We hung out at home in the morning. We went up to the Egert's at 11:30. Where we had round one of eating! It was great to see everyone! (Mommy took Lauren driving for a while too! It was pretty wild to be riding in the car while she was driving! She was only 3 when I moved in with them!)

We left the Egert's at 1pm. We had to head down to get Julia and Cameron. From there we went to Uncle Dave and Aunt Michelle's. Thankfully Julia and Cameron live on the way to their house. They live only about 10 minutes away from each other. Dave went and got Sue from her rehab/nursing home. Dave grilled out (round 2 of food) for lunch. The kids all got to play outside with one another. (Except Nyssa, she got to watch through the sliding glass doors and yell at everyone!)

On the way home, Nyssa fell asleep so we took the opportunity to scope out some places for the 1st birthday party that we need to start thinking about! We just hung out at home the rest of the night and had some wings (3rd round). We also got some laundry done. Talk about an exciting evening!

It was a great day! We hope all the Momma's out there had a great day as well!

This is by far the best photo of the 3 munchkins we have gotten since Nyssa was just a peanut!

11 Months!!

2009-05-12T08:48:00.002-05:00

I just realized I never posted these! Almost to the one year mark and Mommy's getting around to putting up the 11 month pictures!!

Cosley Zoo & Hanging at our Apartment

2009-05-05T10:41:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I didn't realize I had this saved in my drafts in here! I wonder what date it will post as! Oops. This was one of our first really nice days we've had. The kids are in shorts and Nyssa didn't have to wear shoes! Which thrilled her to pieces!

Cosely Zoo is a free zoo in a west suburb. It's actually free, with a thing for donations. It's a great little zoo. It took us about an hour to 1 1/2 hours to get through. It was perfect.

Daddy and his 3 kiddos!

Miss Julia. I didn't realize her eyes aren't open!

Cam "Call me a ham"

We went back to our apartment after the Zoo. Julia had gotten Pretty Pretty Princess for her birthday or Christmas. Every time we've played the game, we haven't allowed enough time to decorate it with the jewels. This time, we made sure to get it blinged out!

He's going to kill me for this picture one day!

A few photos!

2009-05-05T10:32:00.003-05:00

Yes, this is the big girl walking!!

Sporting Zachary's Cubs hat!

Nyssa and the Nelson Nuggets! She didn't know where to go next. She kept walking from one baby to the other, it was pretty cute.

Auntie Lori gave Nyssa her first Oreo. It has a strawberry center. Nyssa loved it. Duh. She is my baby!

Walking??

2009-04-26T20:57:00.003-05:00

So I'm thinking I have a walking girl now. She just takes off walking. She started this week at work. She was by the windows, the next thing I knew she was walking across the kitchen! If she loses her balance she'll crawl over to something to stand up, so is she considered walking? I don't now. But it sure seems like she's walking more than crawling! It's crazy and incredibly cute at the same time!

While she's walking she likes to hold her hand up to her ear (yes like she's on the phone, maybe Mommy's on the phone a little :) and saying "Hiieeee" She'll say, "bah" That can mean different things. That's how she says "bye" and it could be her translation for "bottle" too. "Da da" comes out very well. She will say, "Mom-mom" but usually when she's mad. Like when I put real shoes on her and she's trying to get them off in the car. It comes out twice too, Mom-mom. I'll take what I can get! She also likes to make the "sh" sound. If you ask her to say "shoe", "sh" comes out. I was driving with Jamie (the 10 year old girl I watch) the other day to get Zachary from school. Jamie was trying to tell me a story, and Nyssa kept talking louder and louder. Jamie finally looked at her and said, "Nyssa, shhhhhh." Nyssa looked at her and said, "sshhhhh" right back! Jamie looked at me and just started laughing. Once Jamie started paying attention to Nyssa, she stopped yapping back at her!

It's been a very rainy weekend here. Yucky. Chuck closed last night, so Nyss and I went to Chicago and visited my girlfriend and her 9 month old twins. Theodore and Avery. I think Teddy and Nyssa are the trouble makers for now. Avery? She just kind of hangs out in one spot. They are so big. Teddy is starting to crawl, he was getting really brave when we were there! Avery is good to go just hanging out sitting down or laying down on a blanket. At one point we had Nyssa and Teddy in his pack and play hanging out. They had a little cage match going fora while! Nyssa would be standing and Teddy would roll over to her and start pulling on her leg. She would fall down and he'd laugh like it was the funniest thing he's ever seen! It was so cute. I'll get pictures up on here eventually. (I'll probably have them put on face book first! Let me know if you want me to send you a link!)

Nyssa is in bed. I've got some banana bread in the oven. Nyssa and I have to be at work by 7:30 tomorrow morning (normal time is 8:15 - 8:30), so I had her in bed early tonight. That's about it out here!

Boy Oh Boy...

2009-04-21T16:51:00.004-05:00

The one above is just cute. Come on! Look at those eyes! I am also quite fond of her nice bed head!

This is the booster that was mentioned in the previous post. (You'd think I would know to post these things back wards by now. Geesh) I love her black leggings with the lace around the ankles.

This was last night. She is standing in the thing that we keep the diapers, and using the dinosaur to try and get closer to E*lmo!

You know the end table that I said was blocked with the booster seat in the front? Silly me, thought the high chair blocked the side. Guess not. She weaseled her way in between the end the table and the high chair. She was going for the lamp and the beads hanging up there. They were moved after these priceless moments!

She is lucky that she's cute!!

are we in for it or what? Nyssa has suddenly turned into a monkey. I don't know how the heck this happened, but it definitely has! I love it when she throws her short little leg up like she's going to climb up on the sofa! At least she's short, we have that on our side!

She's been doing really well lately. She finally got those 2 top teeth. She got them last week about 5 days apart. We are finishing up the baby food we have in the cabinet and home and the stuff at work. I may buy some fruit here and there or even the dinners, but nothing like before. She eats pretty much everything she can get her little chompers into. It's great. I find myself ordering food that I can share with the little mooch! At 11 months ( a little less than 3 weeks!) we can take her off of formula. I think I'll still have to give her the baby cereal for the iron and such, but we can handle that! The formula cost hasn't been that bad, since we found the Cost*co brand! What a money saver generic has been. I think at this point I know where to find my favorite generic diapers, wipes and where to find the most reasonable baby food! I just need to get her to drink from a spill proof sippy cup better!

The next post is about having the kids on Saturday and taking them to the Cosley Zoo! It was beautiful here, so we found something to do outside for a change! It was a great day!

T. R. O. U. B. L. E.

2009-04-21T16:38:00.002-05:00

This would be my little buttercup UNDER the computer desk.

Yes. She climbed into the toy thing. After this photo she was mad that she couldn't reach the toys that she had thrown towards to the entertainment center.

We brought this booster seat in the apartment to make room in the back seat for an adult for trip to Iowa. It hasn't made it back out to the car (we have another in the car for Julia). It has become Nyssa's favorite seat. It sits on the floor next to Mommy's chair and it blocks the front of the end table to boot!

This is just a sweet photo!

10 months old!

2009-04-13T10:32:00.006-05:00

It's been a while since I've been on here! I've got some other posts to get her about our trip to Iowa and of course Easter! I'm going to start with Nyssa turning 10 months on Saturday! Her top left tooth also decided to make an appearance that day as well! Nyssa and I didn't do much Saturday. We had a boat-load of laundry to catch up, after our trip to Iowa last week I never got around to doing laundry last Sunday so it was twice as much. I hate it when I do that.

Nyssa is still taking steps all the time. I counted 9 steps that she took to Chuck the other night. I catch her just standing more and more now. She'll be standing there, and then decide to sit down. She cracks me up.

Yes that is her laundry basket she is sitting/standing on. All of a sudden she's got this monkey thing going on! Out of no where she decides she needs to try and climb on everything! She'll be playing and you'll her little leg come up to figure out if she can climb.

On Saturday Mommy finally got her stuff together and cleaned out Nyssa's drawers of clothes. She has outgrown all her 9 month stuff, so I got it all washed and put away and pulled out the 12month stuff. It was kind of sad, the girl has some really cute clothes! I still need to pack away the little socks. You know the ones? The adorable little socks by Carter that are so freaking cute. I'm still cramming her chubby little feet into them, I shouldn't because I do have some bigger ones. But they are just so cute.

We are off today! I'm hoping to get those other posts up here as well as getting some things done around the apartment in between!

Still fighting a cold!

2009-03-21T14:07:00.003-05:00

Seriously, when is this cold business going to go away? Enough already! She started getting a little runny nose last weekend, and a couple of days ago decided a little cough to go with it would be good. For real. I could feel it a little more in her chest this morning. She's napping now, so hopefully all this sleep will be good for her. She was up at 7:15 this morning, Mommy turned the monitor down and the next thing I knew it was 9:15 and she was still sleeping! She never cried this morning. I was up at 9:30, and she finally started talking again at 9:45. We are in for a messed up day, but as long as she gets some sleep...hopefully it will help.

In other Nyssa news...those two top teeth have yet to make an appearance. I need to start putting bibs on her again because she gets this wet ring on her chest from all her drooling!

We had a good time seeing all the Wilson's last weekend. It's crazy to see some of my cousin's kids because they are all so big! Yikes. I'm not looking forward to those years! At least we have walking, talking and potty training to get through first!! Nyssa and Tayven had a good time with each other. Nyssa used Tayven to stand up. One second she was checking out his hair and the next thing I knew she was standing up with the help of his back. By the time I figure out what she was doing she had his head shoved down almost to the floor! Little stinker. We are heading back to Iowa a week from today, and we are looking forward to them getting some more time to play!

Chuck is off today, he went down to hang out with Julia and Cameron for a few hours. With Nyssa having a cold we didn't want to chance Nyssa passing it to them or them passing something else to her! Miss Julia started preschool this week! She loves it a lot. I was ready to hear that she didn't want Mommy to leave her there by herself. This is her first experience with anything of the sort. Tuesday and Thursday both went well. She did awesome Danielle said. I guess Thursday she cried when she saw Danielle at pick up because she didn't want to leave! She's such a big girl now. She has needed something like this for quite some time. I'm so proud of her! Cameron. He's good. I was pissed the other day because Danielle took Julia to school and didn't bring Cameron with her! He's a little character! I think he and Nyssa are going to be our challenging ones!

I think it's time to start disinfecting the toys to see if it helps us get rid of this stupid cold that we keep passing around! If you are in Iowa and are reading this we hope to see everyone in a week! Thanks for reading!

9 months old!

2009-03-13T21:25:00.003-05:00

This picture was taken last night (3-12-09).

This one is her 9 month picture. She how much we want to walk?

Can you believe it? She's 9 months already! Holy cow. We went to the pediatrician, on Wednesday. She weighs in at 18 lbs 12 oz, is 27 inches long, and has a big melon! Weight she's at 50%, length she's at 25%, and her head is at a whoppin' 70%. She's got the Wilson head, poor girl. She's doing really well, she ahead of the game still for her age. She's crawling like mad and walks along the furniture and even lets go when she's standing!

She took her first step(s) on Thursday! At work. She took one step to Zachary. Both of ours jaws about hit the ground! Later yesterday afternoon she took 2 steps to Jamie! Once she figures it out, she'll be gone! She finally took a step for Daddy last night. Her right leg thumbs on the floor, seriously, it's cute! :)

Back to the doctor appointment. At her six month check up Susie had heard a little murmur while listening to her heart. She said it was nothing to panic over, and that she could probably hear it because Nyssa was calm while she was listening. Susie still heard it Wednesday. We will be taking her to a cardiologist. She said it's still nothing to panic over. Basically just to get it checked out because with the economy and with our insurance through Chuck's job, it's to cover ourselves if something happened with his insurance. (Honestly, once she brought up the cardiologist I kind of started blocking things...Chuck wasn't able to go because of work.) I honestly am not so worried because I figure it was something that needed to taken care of ASAP we would be there next week. It still pretty scary. But obviously she is doing amazing right now.

She is starting to want people food more and more. I have no objection to that at all. The other morning she totally boycotted baby food at breakfast. After about 3 bites, she smacked my hand away and she got Cheerio*s. At lunch I figured we would try out some mac and cheese and strawberries! She LOVED them! I still try and sneak in the baby food at breakfast and night, especially the cereal!

Her personality is showing more and more now. If you catch her at the right time she'll answer, "yeah" still. I usually say, "Nyssa do you love Momma?" I never know if I'll get the answer I'm hoping for! She also opens her mouth wide when she's talking and she loves to stick her tongue out over those two teeth on the bottom! Still no top teeth. They are even closer still, but they don't want to come out yet.

I better finish getting packed. We are heading to the Amana colonies to meet the Wilson clan. It sounds like there is a good bunch of them all going! It should be a good time! There will a lot of photos to be taken and some will be posted up here as well as face book! Nyssa can't wait to play with her cousin Tayven!!

It's gone...

2009-03-04T21:27:00.002-06:00

for the most part anyway. Stupid colds! She's still got a little runny nose, but nothing like before. Sheesh it was icky. Saturday it developed into a cough, Sunday it was a little better, go figure. I am hoping it still teeth at this point. It looks like those two top teeth are trying to poke through. It would be nice to get them already! Teething is such a drawn out and painful process!

Chuck did an overnighter at work Friday night (inventory is coming this weekend). He slept until about 11 on Saturday, then when Nyssa got up from her nap we headed out to the outlet mall. I hate shopping. But when I saw those outlet stores....whoa baby did Momma have some fun! We came across the Carter store first. Momma dropped a nice chunk of change in there. Yes I sure did. Then when we heading through the rest of the mall we ran across this other store. Outfits for kids from $2.99 - $4.99. I got her about 9 new outfits for the summer. I had way less guilt about this because I have no idea what size she'll be in come summer. I got her 12 month, hoping that since they are short outfits we can get away with them being a little smaller. And really, as long as they last a little while that's all that matter's since she won't wear them that long anyway. Obviously on the way back out of the mall we stopped by Carter and I returned a good chunk of what I had bought in there. I mostly kept her swimming 'panties' with the swim shirts (the people I nanny have an in ground pool in their back yard and the swim shirts with little 'panties' will be nice when it's time to slather her in sunscreen). I also got her a few pairs of jammies. Totally cute jammies. Jammies that I'd love to have for myself. I got her 12 month for those as well. She's in 9 month right now. Depending on who makes them they actually fit her now or are a little big still. I got two of the jammies that are the sleeper type. The others have pants and short sleeves. Since I usually don't get her dressed when we leave for work in the morning I like the idea of the pants. I figure if it's going to be that hot out, she can sleep in a onesis. (LOL, okay. If it's that hot out, Momma's going to need the a/c going!)
She was a good girl through the mall, coughing and all. She loves riding in the green stroller and watching everyone, so she was in heaven. She finally did fall asleep for about 30 minutes while she was being pushed around. I took a picture of her on my cell phone and sent it out. I'll have to have Chuck put those on the computer so that I can post it up here.

Sunday we were maybe going to get the big kids, but decided against it since Nyssa was still coughing. I feel like we are trapped in this circle where we keep passing crap around. I am planning on sanitizing her toys this weekend and getting everything wiped down in hopes of getting that cold-bug out of here!

I do have some pictures to post up here. I finally got a picture of Nyssa standing without holding onto anything! I believe she has a napkin in her hand that she was tearing up at the time. Whatever, at least I got the picture! She's also started trying to jump which cracks me up. She is usually standing in her crib when i get her in the morning. She squeals, tries to jump a little, says, "hey" (in a deep voice) then falls down and crawls around her crib and squeals some more. I love getting her up in the morning!

She's been waking at 6:20 the last few days. Brutal. She hangs out in her crib until Momma gets around to getting her about 7 or so. (Unless she starts yelling at me, then she gets me going a little quicker.) I'm hoping the time change on Sunday will be a nice thing?!?!?!

Nyssa is in bed, and Chuck went to preview a movie at the theater. I think he's seeing Watchmen. He was excited. I'd like to see it eventually, but it's 3 hours long. I'd rather be in bed and not drag Nyssa out! Hopefully the Internet on the main computer will be working soon and I can post some pictures up here!

If any one's on facebook, find me...there are all kinds of Nyssa pictures up there! It's so much easier to get the pictures on there than on blogger!

Have a good week!

Here we go again...

2009-02-24T08:10:00.003-06:00

the last two nights Nyssa has been fighting another stupid cold. I think it's a cold anyway. Sunday night was awful. She was up crying (the kind of cry where you know she isn't going to put herself back to sleep because she is too hysterical cry) from 12:30 am to 2:20 am. We had no idea what was going on, so we gave her a bottle. It worked, I guess. She was back in her crib by 1 am sleeping...at least long enough for Mommy to fall back to sleep. Daddy was up with her for an hour before she got too hysterical and woke up Mommy again. It was very sad. I got tired of wrestling with her around 2 am. (She thinks it is fun to throw her head back and do a back bend while on your lap or in your arms!) I put her in the crib and she fell asleep at 2:20, and slept until about I don't remember when. It was maybe 7 or so. She was mighty clingy yesterday and continued to sleep crappy through naps and all. She got a little Motrin before bed....

and it didn't do much good. She was up doing that hysterical cry again at 10:15 pm. At least I figured out that I could rock her to calm her down. I think when she gets herself that hysterical with crying that when she tried to take the pluggie it pops back out when she was trying to breathe through her nose. I think I was up with her a total of 4 time before I had Chuck put the futon mattress on the floor. Nyssa and I slept there for the rest of the night. She woke up at 7:20 this morning. She was up off and on through the night. I don't know what's going on with her right now, but this is killin' me. Momma needs some sleep. I would be more than happy to let her cry this out at night if I knew she felt okay. Susie thought it could be another little virus too. Super. She did feel a little warm yesterday and she had an 'exploding poop'. She rarely has those any more. The clingy thing gives her away too, she's not usually a clingy baby. She's got things to do, things to see, she doesn't want to be held!

She seems to be in a good mood this morning, so maybe the worst is past?! Who knows. I'm ready for Spring.

The big girl car seat is going well. It's kind of a pain with the cold weather and all. It was just so easy to throw a blanket on her in the infant seat and then throw one over the whole seat to keep the wind off of her. I still try to put the quilt over her when we are going to and from the car. Sometimes it's okay with her, and sometimes it's not! It just depends on her mood! Go figure!

Okay, I have a girl who just crawled into the kitchen on her own. My are we adventurous these days!

Big Girl

2009-02-17T21:48:00.003-06:00

Okay. Momma's a little sad. I just switched out the infant seat for the "big girl" car seat. I'm sad, but I'm not. If that makes any sense. It's SO the logical thing to do since her little feet are hanging off the edge. Really? I don't take her in any stores or anything in her infant seat any more. She's too doggone heavy! The only lifting of the infant seat I do is from the car to the snap n go, going to and from the apartment. At work, I unbuckle her and take her inside. Hmm. I was just hoping we could avoid this until March. You know? When the weather is supposedly 'nicer'? (I crack myself up!) She loves riding in the green stroller (forward facing). After all she is my daughter and LOVES to see what's going on around her these days. The next post I'll be so happy that she's transitioned, it will be so much easier getting her in and out of the seat! It's just kind of strange is all.

To prove my point that she is growing...yesterday my little girl? Yeah. She let go when she was standing! She stood there for about 5 seconds, and slapped her hand on my arm. Then I got this big cheesy grin. She's been doing it all day, for longer periods of time. She gets that "Do you see me? Do you see me? Momma. Look" grin going on. She cracks me up.

We are officially heading back to Iowa at the end of March. Right now we are going to head back on Saturday, March 28th and play it by ear for the week. Chuck and I are both off that week. We don't know if we'll hang there the whole time or head back here and take a couple of days to relax! Who knows! What I do know is that Nyssa is huge now and will be even bigger then! I can't wait for everyone to see her again. Nyssa hasn't made an appearance in Iowa since she was 4 weeks old!

Hopefully my denial of Nyssa needing the big girl seat will be gone soon! LOL. I know I'll love it! We'll see how the little Princess does when the sun is in her eyes now! Whoa boy. The screaming that she has discovered she can do, she will be doing in full force! Sometimes Mommy cracks the window to share with the other people sitting at the traffic light!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T14:45:00.002-06:00

These were actually taken yesterday at work. She had to dress up for Zachary! The outfit is courtesy Uncle Jeff & Auntie Ann! I had to get a shot of the heart on the tush. It's all I see of her now, since she crawling away from me most of the time!

Happy Valentine's Day!

8 Months Old!

2009-02-14T14:20:00.004-06:00

Getting nudie to get dressed! Chuck barely got this picture before she was pulling the onesis off of her head. Hats are going to be interesting this summer.

We finally got the corner things to protect her melon, because you know she's going to crack her head on one eventually. Naturally, she had to taste it to make sure it tasted okay!

She also likes to taste the end table. (Seriously. We do feed her...a lot!)

I like this picture because it shows off her 2 chompers so well!

She started making this face this week. When she gets really excited is usually when it comes out. Most of the time she sees something that she wants and starts crawling for it when we see this face!

There you have Miss Nyss at 8 months old! Mommy finally got the gate out for our hallway in the apartment. We have a night light that glows orange in the hallway, and of course she makes a bee line for it! After pulling her away from it 4 times today, Mommy got it out.

Our next doctor appointment will be for her 9 month check up next month. I can't wait to see how big she is now. I took the cover off of the car seat the other day when it was beautiful outside. Her little feet are almost to the end of it! It makes me kind of sad. I think we are going to see if we can get through February with her still in the infant seat before putting her in a 'big girl car seat' rear facing. (Since we got a little more snow last night, I'm okay with it for now.) She loves riding in the regular stroller, so that won't be a problem. It's just going to be interesting if she's sleeping! She's been waking up when I've put the infant seat on the snap n go, so it may be time! Okay, now that I have re-read that, I'm the problem. I'm in denial!

Photo of the week.

2009-02-12T10:54:00.002-06:00

This photo probably makes me a bad Mommy, but come on it's damn cute! Look at her smiling all cheesy. Geez I love her. She helped Daddy put his beer (quality beer at that ;) away. She was just so excited to be in the fridge she didn't know what to do first. Mommy usually tries to be quick in the fridge knowing that I'm going to hear those little hands slapping on the floor trying to speed crawl to 'help.' That's my girl, she's got Wilson in her, I don't care what any one says!

Christmas with my side

2009-02-08T12:35:00.002-06:00

1-31-09 Gramma Jude was holding Nyssa. Julia looked at me and said, "I wanna be by Nyssa too." I told her, "Climb up there, Gramma has 2 legs." Next thing we knew Cam the Ham snuck in there for the picture too!

1-31-09 The little ones waiting for opening time! I think Cam was trying to be sneaky and open a gift here! We all know he looks at the camera otherwise!

1-31-09 I have no idea where this was taken. In the hotel somewhere, I just can remember! Cam is obviously on his way to the floor!

1-31-09 Nyssa loves her some shoe strings!

1-31-09 The oldest cousin and the youngest cousin!

1-14-09 & 1-18-09 Photos!

2009-02-08T12:13:00.002-06:00

1-14-09 This was at bedtime. Actually I think I was changing her diaper because I've got a shot of her nudie little tushy as she rolled over on the changing table. Changing her diaper has become like trying to wrestle and alligator!

1-18-09 This is one of Nyssa's favorite games. It doesn't matter if she's sitting on your lap or if you are standing with her in your arms. If she feels the need to lean back, she will. I love the way they are looking at each other in the picture.

1-18-09 Before the lean!

1-18-09 Daddy's arms finally got tired after a few minutes so he just laid her on the bean! She thought it was nice at first. I didn't post the next picture of her screaming!

1-6-09 & 1-10-09 Photos

2009-02-08T09:09:00.002-06:00

1-10-09 I love this picture. We were waiting to go in to Zachary birthday party. It was snowing that day (it was when it snowed for about 9 days straight), Cameron wanted his window down. The next thing we knew they were catching the snow flakes. There are some other silly ones where Cam is being a ham, but this is my favorite!

1-10-09 Cam & Julia started opening their gifts from Great Aunt Nancy and Great Uncle Kenny. He's such a good kid. "Car" is one of favorite words, you can actually understand it too!

1-10-09 'Nuff said.

1-10-09 Same goes here. I love there excitement while the other is opening gifts!

1-10-09 Julia says, "I got another game! Can we play? I don't know how, do you?" Seriously all in one breath those sentences came out. She loves to play games. Thank goodness Jacquie does too!

Pics from 1-1-09 thru 1-4-09

2009-02-08T08:46:00.002-06:00

1-4-09 I put these on here in the wrong order. The one above is after she opened the chicken car from Great Aunt Nancy and Great Uncle Kenny. Obviously, she's not a big fan of it yet! That thing 'bocks' louder than any toy I've ever heard! Scares the living daylights of her, yes it's good for a laugh!

1-4-09 This is the dreaded chicken car. I busted it out last night and she just glared at it, she didn't cry this time. Maybe we're getting over the scary chicken car!

1-4-09 This is the day she crawled for the first time. She would only crawl a little bit at a time, it was great. She's figured it out since then, little stinker! I was hoping that crawl a couple of times thing and think that was enough!

1/1/09 This one should be last. Go read the next one and come back....after she fell. (It didn't hurt either, she landed on carpet and Daddy caught her as well.) We get this look a lot. But usually after she lands on her butt from trying to let of something to jump.

1-1-09 She held on to the coffee table for about a minute. I caught it just after her left hand come down. She has this look of disgust and shock that I would just stand there and watch her slip. It was funny.

It's been a while!

2009-02-07T08:08:00.004-06:00

I can't believe it's been this long since I've sat down here! I'm sure I'll forget a ton, but I'll give it a whirl! I wish getting pictures on here wasn't such a pain! If I don't get them up this post I'll try tomorrow (I know, you've all heard that before!)

Well, Nyssa has got the crawling thing down pat. She is all over the place. Sassy about it too. She also pulls herself on everything and sometimes nothing. She has started just using the wall. She will also go from the bean (foot stool) to the entertainment center to the thing that we have the printer on. Ah crap, does this mean she is starting to cruise? LOL. How's that for denial!

We've had the entertainment center blocked off with the bean and one of her toy basket things. A couple of weeks ago she saw an opening under the table and crawled right under. She was quite proud of herself when she stood up at the entertainment center and yelled at me!

She's such a good baby. Nyssa has the best personality. She usually a happy girl. Those two teeth are pretty visible at this point. I love it. Sharp little suckers. Mommy's knuckle is one of her favorite things to chew on too!

Nyssa has had all the baby food (I think...until I'm at the store and see another one she hasn't had!). She's not so big on green beans and turkey, but if that's the only one, I'm okay with that! We have been trying to introduce more table food. She loved pancakes the other day, she's had some fries, she had bites of green beans (canned because they were softer), and of course banana. She had the Cheerio's and puffs. Which are so a rip off. We will finish up what I bought on sale and stick with Cheerio*s, Kix and stuff of that nature!

A couple of weeks ago we had a sick baby on our hands. She was up in the middle of the night burning up with a fever and just all around uncomfortable. The only thing that worked was being on Momma in the recliner. She'd sleep in bed about an hour and wake up screaming her little head off. It was awful. I was going in to work late that morning (thank god), and when I got there I asked Susie which office she was going to be in that day because we needed to come in. She checked her out right then and there. (Benefit of nanny for your doctor!) Her chest, nose and ears were clean. (I'm paranoid about ear infections after having them all the time when I was little.) Her throat looked a little red. Susie thought she was coming down with a bad cold. She said we'd watch her and see what happens. Momma gave her Tylenol and Motrin (at night). She did okay for the next few days and finally got back to the old Nyss. It was very icky and we are soooo ready for spring!

I think that is pretty much it for the last month. I've got another post to put about meeting my family in Davenport last weekend, along with some photos I'll put here. Some Julia and Cameron stories to go along with that trip! We are having Chuck's family come over this evening for the January birthdays. Cameron and or nephew Reese's birthday were then. This is probably the only time we can have it without pushing it off until April! I've got to get some stuff put away and make some coffee. No wonder I'm sitting here yawning!

One more Nyssa thing; I went in to get her out of bed yesterday morning. Guess who was standing up look at me with a big grin behind her pacifier! Little Miss Nyss! So proud of herself. She's been standing in there for the last week, how else would her music start to play if she wasn't standing?? Now when I go in there she's facing the correct way and just watching the door. I really really love her!

Tagged!

2009-01-24T13:59:00.004-06:00

Publish Post

Mommas Gone Mad has seemed to tag me for a meme. This is a first. We'll see how I do!

Those are the directions below. I'm with MGM and I'm going to have to go to my pictures directory and take it from there!

Go to your documents (pictures)
Go to your 6th file.
Go to your 6th picture.
Blog about it.
Tag 6 friends to do the same.
I'm not quite sure about this tagging thing! If you want to play along, let me know!

The photo is from New Years Eve. (Thank goodness, you never know what you're going to get!) This would be Nyssa enjoying her first cookie! (Don't tell :) She went to town on this baby. We were at the hotel hanging out in the lobby playing games. Nyssa had her baby food first then Aunt Lori came on over and gave her a cookie. She was such a good girl that night! I don't think I ever did put up pictures from that night!

Enjoy!

More photos!

2009-01-04T08:56:00.002-06:00

Nyssa is hanging out in the Schlacter's pantry. She tried so hard to grab a hold of the door frame to stand up!
I love the grin on her face, looking at the remote.

Zachary's Grandma gave Nyssa this hair bow/head band. I love this photo as well. Do you think she's teething with that wet chin?!

These next two photos are in the wrong order. Nyssa sitting there (above) is her frustrated after (below) trying to figure out what she can reach! She finally sat down with a sigh!

Some photo's!

2009-01-04T08:43:00.003-06:00

Nyssa and Daddy in their Bears jersey's. I love this photo. I really do.

This is her penguin from Santa. She loves to whack that thing around. This is actually her happy face as she's smackin' him around on the other toys!

Lounging in the chair. Probably getting a little annoyed at Momma for taking sooooo many pictures. This one ranks right up there with top 100 favorite because of the dimple in the right cheek. She's edible. Okay, and the legs in tights. Seriously. Who does not love a baby girl in tights? The tights become like second skin over those little rolls. Yummy.

Hanging out watching the Bears game. She's such a poser. I love it.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T20:29:00.002-06:00

Happy 2009! Miss Nyss decided to bring in the new year with us! We went to a hotel with Lori and the game night gang. We completely took over the lobby! It was great! Nyssa was a baby in style having her exer-saucer join us as well! Not counting the people that wanted to hold her! As long as Momma was in sight, it was okay! She actually slept until about 11:50 when we got out the party hats and horns! She got an extra bottle at 12:20 am (bad Mommy), went to sleep by 12:40, woke up off and on...she in the pack n play after all. Mommy only plugged her a couple of times before she could get really wound up. She was talking to us at 8:15 & Momma must have dozed because the next thing I knew it was 9:30 and I was talking to Lori on the phone about where we were going to eat and Chuck and I woke her up getting stuff together! It's a rough life!

HOLY COW! I put her on the floor in our room this morning...and she crawled about 2 feet to get to my gym shoes! I know! She looked at me like it was the craziest thing. So of course then I had to test it out again with my cell phone this time. What do you know? The little stinker crawled AGAIN! I'm enjoying this because she really doesn't know what she can do at this point! (Hopefully this gives us a couple of days to get the tree down and try to Nyssa-proof this place some how!) I'm sure soon, I'll be saying how she's Super Nyssa zooming across the floor!

I have a short day at work tomorrow. I'm hoping to get some much needed photo's posted up here! It's way easier to post pics over on Fac*ebook!

Happy '09 again!

Another tooth!

2008-12-30T10:15:00.003-06:00

So Sunday Nyssa was having a rough day. Nyssa doesn't normally have rough days. At least rough enough for me to notice that it's a rough day. About the 3rd time she started sobbing/screaming (one of our new favorite things to do) for no apparent reason, Momma (smartie that she is) finally tooth opportunity to look in her mouth. What did I see? That second tooth trying to poke through! I have yet to get a picture of the teeth! The first one is really making it's way up now. She loves to chew on Momma's finger!! Ow!

She's crackin' me up these days. This morning she decided to pull herself up to the coffee table again. I snapped a picture with my cell phone. Moved her away and she found her way back! Then I got the camera out and just started shooting. She's really become a ham with the camera! Chuck and I have caught her crawling about 2 hand/knee movements and that's it. It's so just a matter of time!

I went in to check on the little stinker last night? Yup. She was sitting up in bed! She was looking away from the door, so I grabbed Chuck to come in and look. She just looked at us like, "What are you guys doing in here?" She was just sitting there with a pluggie in her mouth while holding onto another one!

Our internet is incredibly slow today, so maybe later or another day I'll get pictures posted of Nyssa & Daddy in their Bears shirts!

Christmas Photos

2008-12-27T20:10:00.003-06:00

Hello! We hope everyone had a great Christmas! I know the Samples children made out like bandits! We picked up Julia & Cameron from their Mom's at 1pm and then we headed to Chuck's brothers. Which is about 10 minutes from the kids. We had turkey and all the fixin's! Of course all the kids (The oldest is 6, the youngest is Nyssa at 6 months. There's a photo on here some where.) Nyssa even got to try out baby food green beans with turkey! Naturally, she loves it! So far she has yet to turn her head to anything food wise. They all had a good time! Julia opened her presents, looked at me and said, "Are these for me too?" They were Nyssa's. I told her, "They are Nyssa's but she would love some help!" That made her very happy!

Nyssa and I have been hanging out a lot. This week flew by. I'm so not ready to go back to work! Especially since my little butterfly has been sleeping until about 8 every morning!

We didn't do much of anything today. We did get the laundry done. Which I guess is something. We had to wash Nyssa's new p.j.'s & new outfit! Julia got a cute sweats outfit as well! Cameron got trucks and cars. He was in heaven!

We went to visit friends yesterday. We were there last weekend and Courtney (who's 15) had to leave for volley ball. I told her Nyssa and I would come back Friday. We did. The next thing I knew Courtney was trying to teach Nyssa to crawl! She was saying, "Come on Nyssa. Like this." Then you'd see Court crawling across the floor! I told her to STOP because she isn't allowed to crawl until we get the tree down! That's Daddy's job on New Years Day! Nyssa did pick up on how to go from her tummy or hands and knees to sitting! She loves to pull herself up to her knees now if she has something to grab on to! Momma still doesn't like it very much!

Her little tooth is making it's way up. It kills me. She is a drooling fool. At least the spitting up isn't nearly as bad as it used to be! Now she's just all soaked from drool!

Another thing she has started is trying to pat-a-cake! She ends up slapping the backs of her hands! It's so funny. I caught her doing it while I was changing our 3rd poop of the day!

It's back to work on Monday. At least we are off on Thursday. I'm not quite sure what I'm working on Wednesday yet. Hopefully not too long. We are getting together with a bunch of people that we have game night with at a hotel. Lori (my old roommate) was able to get us hotel rooms at very reasonable rate of $25 a night! It's even a Courtyard Marriott! Lori has the hook up! The Samples Family wishes everyone a safe and healthy new year!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T09:10:00.005-06:00

Aunt Dorena & Christina & Tayven gave Nyssa this onesis at her shower in July. It's a 12 month. I think it runs small!

Sporting her sassy robe!

Her first time with Cheerios. By the look on her face? She's not diggin' it so much! At one point she launched that baby onto her tray! It was pretty funny. If I could ever figure out how to put video up here we've got some good footage of the Cheerio action.

After lunch yesterday we gave her this thing with a banana inside. At first she was totally into it, then all of a sudden she started squawking at me. Every time she'd get a little banana she would wince!

The Samples family wants to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! We are hanging out at home this morning and will go to Chuck's brothers house at about 1pm. We'll grab the big kids along the way! (Nyssa hasn't even gotten to open her presents from the big guy yet! Daddy is still snoozing. I emailed Santa and told him that Nyssa needed this year is some more pacifier's. By the looks of the packages I think he agreed! Santa usually leaves something little for the big kids as well. They never end up at our apartment on Christmas because we go to Chuck's family then we are either picking them up or dropping them off at something for Danielle's family. Lucky. I know. We are enjoying it while we can.)

Nyssa is doing fabulous! I was feeling around in her mouth last night and what did I find?? That 1st tooth poking through! It was just a corner too! (Although this morning I think I could feel the top of the whole tooth. She's so going to bite me for stickin' my finger in there. :) So cute. I can't take it. I figured she was teething because she's been drooling like a mad woman. Maybe that explains why the kid has been having 3 - 5 poops a day the last few days? She also had her first diaper rash. It was pretty bad, she would cry when I'd wipe her tushy and put on the butt cream. She's all better now. So far she hasn't really gotten fussy or anything out of the normal for a 6 month old!

The photo's above are all from yesterday. She's still rocking on her hands and knees. Now she likes to mix it up and throw her right hand forward. Sometimes she do the left hand also. She usually belly dives onto the floor after either/both hands! Just let me get the tree down first! We are good to go with gates!

That's about it for now! I'm not sure if I'll get back tonight with Christmas Day pictures or possibly tomorrow! I know we have 2 sets of back up batteries for the camera! I can't wait to talk to Julia and see what Santa brought her at Mommy's house!

Merry Christmas everyone!

***I did get the Christmas Cards put in a mailbox yesterday! So hopefully everyone will get them this weekend or Monday!

Brrrrrrrr!

2008-12-21T10:25:00.002-06:00

Holy cow. I'd say winter has arrived. I'm already annoyed with this snow stuff and to add below zero temps? Right now it's minus 6 with a high of 4 degrees today! It does not make for a happy Momma! If it weren't for the big kids out here we'd be south, for sure!

The lovely snow fall we got over night Thursday and in the morning on Friday resulted in Nyss and I not having to go in to work! They were leaving for Colorado that day anyway, so it worked out. Everyone had enough notice that this was coming so Susie stayed after work and did the work she usually does on Friday mornings. Their flight was leaving at 2ish from Midway. Next on the list is to email them and see how they made it out there! I also need to email Zachary pictures of Nyssa because he "won't see her for 8 days." I think most of the week he spent kissing her and hugging her all the time! It was so cute!

So Nyssa and I are off this week! Yay! We would have loved to come back to IA but the retail Gods were not in our favor. I hate retail. There's no way in h-e-double hockey sticks that I'm doing that drive with just Nyssa! I think everyone understands that! It would be one thing if she was forward facing in her car seat and it was easier to reach her to bribe her, but not rear facing! Ugh. It really kind of sucks because we'd love to make it back. On Christmas we will get together with Chuck's family. I think we are doing it on the early side, so that'll be nice. (Last year we got them in the afternoon and good lord were they crabby. So this year we get them early and they get them later!) This is the first year that we aren't going to Chuck's Mom's for Christmas, we are going to his brother's house. It will be nice, but different. We are actually going to go to his Mom's on Christmas Eve and hang out with Sue. That will be awesome. The whole family shouldn't be there all at once, so we can maybe visit with Sue for a change!

Let's see...tomorrow Nyssa and I are going to Chicago to hang out with Teddy and Avery! We will be there Tuesday also. It's going to be interesting with 3 babies! Yikes! Nyssa is pretty easy going and will hang out in their exer-saucer, so that will be nice. I think Sara has one of those jump-a-roo things too. Nyss might need to test it out and see if it's something we will need to find! Chuck is off Tuesday so I think he may go with us then! That way I'll have a photographer to take the pictures while I'm propping babies! Of course there is bound to be a photo shoot!

Last night Chuck (he opened), Nyssa and I all headed downtown to babysit Piper! She's so big now and talking up a storm. Her little voice cracks me up. (I left Piper when I was about to have Nyssa.) Nyssa loves other kids. I am worried she is going to be incredibly bored while we are stuck here without other entertainment!!

I'll try to post some pictures from last weekend when we celebrated Julia & Jimmy's (her cousin) birthdays. The kids also decorated Ginger Bread houses. Julia was totally into it and was so giddy to have presents! Christmas should be fun! Cameron. Cam Da Man. In the car on the way to Chuck's brothers house I asked him, "Hey Cam. What does Santa say?" Julia pipes up, "He's just a baby Jacq, he can't say it." (Tell me the girl doesn't speak for him, maybe that's why we aren't at our 50 words for an almost 2 year old?? Hmmmm.) I said, "Sure he can, you just have to teach him how." So I asked him again, "Cam what does Santa say?" He gets this little troublemaker grin and says, "Moo." I love those kids!

I've got about 4 loads of laundry to get done today and the timer just went off. Good, fun, exciting times when it's below zero outside! If I'm not on here before Christmas we hope everyone has a wonderful day full of memories! (I'm seriously hoping to be back to post some pictures!)

Merry Christmas!

*I'm hoping to get our Christmas cards done today and out tomorrow!

6 month check up

2008-12-10T13:35:00.002-06:00

Okay, so technically she will be 6 months tomorrow! My big girl! We went today for the 6 month check up. She's doing awesome! She's ahead of the game as far and sitting getting on her hands and knees and rocking. Duh. (Keep in mind I nanny for our pediatrician so she sees Nyssa pretty regularly when her schedule allows! Our visits with her at the office aren't so long because she pretty much knows what's going on with Nyssa! Convenient, I know.) We get to start giving her Cheerios and stuff! Woo hoo! Susie also said that for the 3rd meal (whichever is convenient) we can start giving her a little of what we are eating -within reason of course. She's already had mashed potatoes, so we'd try a little noodle or something. That mushy kind of stuff. She got her shots, 4 I think. One was a flu shot (Mommy had to get that one too) and I forget the others. All I know is Nyssa was pissed when the 2nd started. At least since the first visit with shots Mommy has learned to dress Nyssa in dark clothes and it helps if Mommy wears a red shirt! I hate that cry so Mommy is quick to cuddle when they are finished!

We actually met Susie at her office this morning. She brought Zachary (who turned 5 yesterday :) along and we took him to school after. Nyssa seriously loves that boy. I think she stopped crying sooner because he was there lovin' on her. I think next fall will be hard on Nyssa when she has to watch Zach get on the school bus for Kindergarten!!

Her stats:

Weight = 16 lbs 8 oz (70 - 75%); Length = 25inches (25%-shorty!); Head Circumference = 43 50-75% I think she got Momma's big melon!)

She's been doing really well at night lately. Sunday and Monday nights we spent at the Shapiro's so they were kinda sucky. Especially Sunday. Monday Mommy put towels under the sheet in their pack n play because it was NOISY! I think that kept waking her up. She was back in her crib last night and did awesome. I have about 5 pacifiers in there and she's been finding them..finally. I think I'm going to ask Santa for more pacifier's for Nyssa. I'll put 20 in there if it will continue to go like this at night! Of course my child doesn't take just any ol' pacifier either, oh no...she's picky.

I think that's it for now! She's passed out in the laundry room at Zach's right now. She was due to eat at 1, but no way in hell am I going to wake her up at this point! She got some Tylenol too so I'm sure that's knocked her out. Hopefully she won't be very fussy!

Random Nyss Pics

2008-12-06T14:40:00.003-06:00

Hanging in the kitchen with Mommy. I pointed the camera at her and she totally grinned. I love it.
Yes, Uncle Jeff...she cries.

She put the pluggie in by herself.

Little mohawk action during tubbie.

Nyssa's doing really well these days. She now likes to sleep on her tummy! The last two nights we haven't heard from her at all because she's been putting the pacifier in by herself! Woot woot! Mommy's been waiting for this to happen! I think we have about 6 of them in her crib, and Mommy's tempted to buy some more! Of course she doesn't like any ol' pacifier, she likes a particular one! At least she's not on the soothie pacifier any more!

The other thing the little butterball has been doing is getting up on her hands and knees and bouncing. Momma's not ready for that still. (I may have to edit this because I may have already blogged about it :) Now when she bounces she has figured out that she can lift her head up and look around..before she was always looking down just waiting to fall or something. It's incredibly cute but scares the bejeezus out of Mommy. If the kids' GOT to crawl, then at least wait until after Christmas so the tree is down!!

We go for her 6 month check up on Wednesday. I can't wait to see how big she has gotten!

Thanksgiving weekend photos!

2008-11-30T19:52:00.002-06:00

Cousins: Reese's right arm and right side of his body, Jimmy, Nyssa is on Abby, Julia & Cameron. They decided to take turns holding Nyssa.
Another. Cameron's entertained by his feet...go figure!

Mommy & Nyss. I realized trying to find pics to put here that we didn't really take of Nyss just hanging out!

It was a good day though. A lot of fun and food had by all!

Nyssa News!

2008-11-30T19:45:00.002-06:00

Miss Nyss had a great 1st Thanksgiving! She loved all the action going on at her Aunt's house! I believe all the families together have 6 children ages 6 and under (the 6 year old may be 7, I can't remember! Of course all the cousins (Julia and Cameron included) were running crazy all over and having a great time!

Also on the Nyssa front...we now like to get on our hands and knees and go back and forth. Yeah. Mommy's not too thrilled about this latest achievement! I know what's coming...crawling, being mobile, putting everything in the apartment up..you get what I mean! She's incredibly funny as she's rockin' away though. I usually just crack up laughing at her. She's also started this growling thing. Growling all the time. Happy. Sad. It doesn't matter, she growls and stiffens up like Frankenstein.

There will probably be some random pictures before you get to this post. I'm not quite sure what I'll be posting, but it's for some new one! We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

PS: Mommy has learned that asking Daddy to decorate the Christmas tree while the Bears are playing doesn't work so well!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T21:45:00.002-06:00

I'm just here to drop a quick Happy Gobble to everyone! I'm off until Monday so I'm sure I'll be back with stories and photos from the holiday! Gobble Gobble Gobble!!

Cold

2008-11-19T21:18:00.005-06:00

I think my little buttercup is fighting a cold. She had a little runny nose the last couple of days. I was prepared for a rough night last night, but lucked out. I'm bracing myself for tonight just in case. Daddy started getting a cold last Friday and is still kinda stuffy. I'm hoping we avoid it as much as possible. Okay I hope I avoid it, since Nyssa is a little stuffy in the nose! Poor girl. She's still happy as can be though.

She's such a happy little girl. She stares you down just waiting for you to make eye contact then she'll bust out into this mega-grin. I love it.

We had the big kids last Friday night for an overnighter. They are so funny. Julia decided she can pick up Nyssa by herself. I about had a heart attack. She picked her up then back up a couple of steps to sit in her rocking chair. She looked at me and said, "I told you I could pick her up all by myself." Little stinker. I'll have to post some pictures from last weekend. I'll leave you with the best shot we got of all 3 of the monkeys. Cam's got her in a death grip. It cracks me up.

5 months today!

2008-11-11T20:45:00.002-06:00

She was flying and Chuck grabbed the camera! Such a genuine smile from her...spit up on her shirt and all!
Nyssa with Mommy's Baby Beans. She talked to it then grabbed for it really fast.

This cracks me up. She was playing with Daddy and I heard Daddy crackin' up. I come in to see what's going on (heaven forbid I miss any laughter coming out of her) and he puts the 'peel' from the banana in her mouth. He did it more than once and she kept on sucking! It would start to fall out and you'd see her head going down to try and keep it in her mouth!

It's hard to believe it's been 5 months already. 7 more months of formula!!! That and no more bottles are about the only thing I'm looking forward to with her growing (beside potty training). She rolls like crazy, talks up a storm and loves to see what's going on around her! We have started vegetables and cereal. She's had peas, carrots, green beans, squash and we just started sweet potatoes today. She loves to eat. As soon as you put her in the high chair she's yelling at you to start. She kinda gets angry when it's all gone. Then she gets a little bottle and it's all better. We'll be on to fruit next! She's my big girl now!! I still heart her a lot.

Roller Girl!

2008-11-02T09:47:00.002-06:00

So, last weekend I was futzing around in her closet, trying to organize it a little. I had her on the floor between the changing dresser and futon. I peeked over my shoulder to look at her and couldn't find her! I saw the little hand sticking out from UNDER the futon. I ran and got the camera and snapped a couple of shots. This is the first one. She's got that kinda proud/I scared the crap outta myself grin going on.
A close up.

We laid on the blanket after the rolling and Mommy just started taking a lot of pictures!

I found this toy that Cameron played with last year. She thought it was the coolest thing once she realized it's not scary. The look on her face cracks me up.

I thought I'd see how she'd do in the high chair seat. (It's one of those you strap onto a chair. Apartment living leaves no room for an actual high chair.) She loved it!

Peas and other photos

2008-11-02T09:33:00.002-06:00

First time with peas! She loved them, she gets that from Chuck.

This is my garage sale cover for her carseat. I could have cared less that it's blue, because it cost a whopping $1. I figure her carseat is pink, so it should confuse enough people.

This is after her tubbie. I like to give her a mohawk, because we can't quite do the roll on the top like Aunt Dorena used to do to Christina! I figure I should carry on the tradition, since Tayven might look a little silly with the curl!

This is Daddy's first time giving Nyssa cereal. I picked this picture because I caught him with his mouth open too! I'm not the only one!

Halloween!

2008-11-01T12:59:00.002-05:00

We had a wedding reception to go to on Halloween night. Our friends got married during the day with just family present then there was a big ol' costume party/reception that evening! It was great. Nyssa was a good sport. She was the lobster (I'll get more pictures of her in her costume up here another time), Chuck was the waiter and obviously I'm the table. She was a good sport in her costume. I forgot to take her pants off before putting her in there, she was sweating up a storm when I finally took them off to give her a bottle! The eye balls would go in her face so she's grab one and just chewing like crazy! It was pretty funny! We hope everyone had a great Halloween!

1st time having cereal!

2008-10-25T13:08:00.002-05:00

Above: this was at the end of feeding!

Above: during. She got kind of mad if I didn't put the spoon in fast enough! She was crabby to begin with, but it went well considering!

Above: I love her hands. Right after this shot, she grabbed the spoon as if to say, "don't take it away!"

Above: Ahh the Bears dress! This was the second picture Chuck took! It's definitely the best one got of the Bears photo shoot!

She's rolling over!

2008-10-25T13:01:00.002-05:00

As of Thursday the 23rd, my little chunky monkey rolls over all the time! She did it once last week as a fluke. Thursday morning, I was in the kitchen at work and Nyssa was on the floor with Zachary he yells, "Jacq Nyss just rolled over!! All. By. Herself." Since then, when you lay her on the floor on her back, she's on her tummy. She is getting to the point yesterday and today that she then rolls from her tummy to her back!

I think it's time this Mommy gets used to vacuuming all the time to keep her from eating fuzzes off the floor!

She's doing really well, getting so big! She talks all the time and seems to have quite a few opinions as well (nothing like her Momma). I had no idea being a Mommy would be so cool!

4 Month Doctor Visit

2008-10-18T14:28:00.003-05:00

My little piglet went in for her 4 month visit today. She is 14 pounds 12 ounces (70-75%), 24 inches long (45%) and rounding off with a head circumference of 40 3/4 (40-45%)! That's my chunky monkey! The shots were brutal. She cried, Mommy almost cried. We didn't even bother putting her pants back on, just put her in her seat with her shirt. Momma wasn't going to screw with those stupid things after all that crying!

We get to start giving her cereal once or twice a day now! Daddy is off tomorrow, so we'll see what happens then! We could start her on a fruit or veggie too, but we are going to stick with the cereal and see what happens with that first! I'm sure pictures will be posted soon after!

On another note we went to the pumpkin patch (yes, our 3rd visit this season) yesterday. Only we got to go with Julia and Cameron and Danielle (the kids' Mommy). It was very cute and we actually got a nice picture of Chuck and I and the kids and then one with all of us and Danielle too! It was a nice day! The pumpkin patch wasn't very busy either, which always is a bonus! Tomorrow I'll try and post some pictures of that event also!

Have a good weekend!

Nyssa...

2008-10-14T19:16:00.002-05:00

rolled over today! Yay! She went from her back to her tummy! I was in the kitchen and work and Nyssa was on her play mat thingy watching Zach play with his cars and he yelled, "Jacq!! Nyssa rolled over!" Everyone gets excited that the Nyss has rolled over! She's been rolling from her tummy to back for quite a while, but this is huge, so exciting! Of course, she has yet to do it again! But we are on the right track!

The 3 Amigos

2008-10-11T10:39:00.003-05:00

Seriously. Need we say more? Teddy needs to get used to being in the middle of those two! The poor boy doesn't have a chance!

Pumpkin Patch!

2008-10-11T10:17:00.004-05:00

Teddy, Avery & Nyssa.

Nyssa, Teddy & Avery.

Nyss hanging out on Daddy's lap. He was just holding her legs steady, she was diggin' sitting up and watching everything!

Every year we have done this with Julia (we didn't think hold Cameron up there last year, duh) I love these pictures.

The full view of the Didier's sign.

We had a beautiful day at the Pumpkin Patch yesterday. It was great. The babies did awesome as well. It was nice having Chuck there, the ratio of baby to adult was even! It was such a great day! We are hoping to get the big kids there before the season is over!

Nyssa's First Play Date!

2008-10-07T19:53:00.002-05:00

So my sassy little girl had her first play date Saturday afternoon! In the red stroller are my friend Sara's twins. Mr. Theodore Knut & Ms. Avery Beatrice! They were born July 13Th! They seem so much smaller than The Nyss. Probably because they are! They were about 4 weeks early, and doing excellent! Sara and I were laughing because we can see it already,the girls will be up to no good and Teddy will be rattin' them out!

Ms. Avery. She's such a little cutie. You should see the girl's hair!

Teddy guy! He's the true peanut. He's so little. He spent most of the time hanging out in the Baby Bjorn on me!

Sara called me Saturday before I took the kids back, and we decided to meet at an outdoor mall! They were all so cute together! Granted they don't do much, but it was still cute! Nyssa did great being the "Big Girl"! She didn't like it so much when Teddy started crying, that upset her a lot. I looked down and she was crying with him, ugh, it was cute!

The Big Kids Friday night and some feet shots!

2008-10-07T18:26:00.005-05:00

I just like to give her kisses. She lets out a little giggle. Of course I'm diggin' in there and giving all kinds of smooches!

As long as she gets plugged she doesn't care how the passie looks.

We had the munchkins over night Friday night. This was the next morning. They are both hams!! I love it!!

My little buttercup found her feet Saturday night! She was in her seat most of the day (coming in the next post), as soon as I put her on the floor her feet went flying up!

This is what we like to call, "the one finger hold."

Just because...

2008-10-02T20:12:00.003-05:00

I love her and feel like sharing.

Miss Nyss & 1 year ago on this date!

2008-09-30T16:50:00.003-05:00

I'm not so sure that she's trying to get a cold now. She still hasn't gotten it full on. Once in a while it just kind of runs, but that's about it. Night time is still interesting. Last night from about 3 am on, she slept in her car seat. She slept quite well too. I bought some rice cereal to put in her last bottle tonight. Maybe the little thing thinks she is starving, who knows. Although she's arching her back and twisting all sorts of ways, according to Daddy. Hopefully the cereal will help her keep her milk down! I don't know what's up with Nyssa. Her moods seem fine during the day and evening.

It was a year ago today I took a pregnancy test. It was our first anniversary. During lunch Chuck had said, "Why don't we stop at the store and get a pregnancy test? Just to see. It might be funny." We did. I took the test. Looked at the two pink line's a couple of times (as in, put down the test and picked it back up, as if my eyes were playing tricks). I yelled from the bathroom, "Holy crap, Chuck! Come in here." My lovely husband in a kind of annoyed voice, "What? Why? Where are you?" I stood in the bathroom (keep in mind it's small, we live in a an apartment), I was over by the tub, with tears in my eyes pointing at the stick on the counter. He looked at me, I pointed again. He picked it up and I think I literally saw the light bulb go on over his head. Chuck, "Oh my God, you're pregnant." It was all over from there! Yay for Dollar store pregnancy tests (those sucker's add up if you buy them in grocery or other retailers. They all do the same thing.)! To think it all started as a joke, it was funny alright. For the record....there will be no peeing on a stick for me tonight!!

I think...

2008-09-28T15:53:00.003-05:00

what we have happening is the start of her first cold. :( She sounded stuffy and just annoyed from 5 am to 8 am this morning. My poor girl. She never really woke up, she just would fuss and whine until I plugged her up again. At 8 I grabbed and put her on the futon next to me, it's easier to plug her this way. She slept until about 9. It's very pathetic when you the little nose start to run. This is not going to be fun. I'm thinking she may end up sleeping at night in her car seat! That way she will be elevated and sound so bad. I think I could put a blanket or something under one end of her crib mattress. That may work. She spins around so much in her crib now, I'm not sure how effective that would be. I think this is going to be a play it by ear kind of thing!

Last night Nyssa and I went to play games with Lori and her cousin's house. Nyssa was awesome. She had her bottle then sat up on my lap and watched all the happenings. She's so good.

Today we had a bridal shower for Dawn! She did really great there too! It got a little rowdy (you know...a bunch of women playing bridal gift BINGO, trying to get BINGO so you got a prize? Yup. It can get loud.) I swaddled her up after the shower and diaper change and she's out like a light.

(The picture is from Sept. 19th!!)

Julia & Cameron!

2008-09-27T13:42:00.002-05:00

She loves her baby sister.

His face cracks me up. Whenever he holds her, he looks at us like we are crazy.
See the dirt around his mouth? Yup. He likes to eat the dirt. Atta Boy!
Her shirt show's her dirt. They were so excited to us!

Last weekend.

2008-09-27T12:57:00.005-05:00

The week got away from me! I hate it when that happens...anyway I'm here now to post some pictures and chat some about Nyss! (Imgine that!)

So we went last weekend to meet Judy and Meghan. It was so much fun having Meggie be the oldest around! She is such a good help with Nyssa. Except for the spitting up, then she's gone! Gramma Jude bought Nyss all kinds of clothes for this fall and winter. (Who doesn't love Kohl's and their sales?) Nyssa will be a well dressed baby!

She's getting so big now. She is into checking out her toys. It's so funny. She has this one that she absolutely loves. I need to dig out some more toys. She's to that point where everything you give her goes into her mouth!

Another favorite of Nyssa's is checkin' out the baby in the mirror. At first she gives herself that sideways look, then she goes full-on with all kinds of smiles and talking. I'll have to get some pictures. Seriously. It's cute.

On the way back into town we stopped by the Big Kids' to hang out with them and see what's going on. They were playing outside and having so much fun! The dirt all over them is pretty good evidence!

Okay, so there's a mish mosh of pictures going on here. I'll post pics of Julia and Cameron next!

Some teasers pictures before work!

2008-09-24T08:39:00.004-05:00

Nyssa actually started on the lion mat. She doesn't seem to stay in one place any more, she's so squirmy!

I think this picture is just so freaking' sweet. With her tilted, "What Mommy? Did you say I'm the cutest baby EVAH!?"

Tomorrow...

2008-09-22T21:23:00.002-05:00

Nyssa and I have a short day. I'm planning on posting some pictures of Nyssa and the Big Kids. Chuck and I and Nyssa went to Davenport on Saturday and met Judy and Meghan (6-Jeff's youngest). It was a great time! We stopped to see the Big Kids on the way back into town on Sunday. They are hysterical. Wait until you see the pictures. They were playing outside and they look like it too!

New things!

2008-09-06T15:30:00.003-05:00

Man it's been a while since I've been on here. Sorry about that, I'll try and do better!

The most exciting thing that Nyssa has been doing is...sleeping through the night! Can I get a woot wooooot!! It happened by accident too, that's the best part! On Wednesday August 26th I put her to with the night bottles waiting by the recliner. She woke up at about 2:45, I was so tired I knew there was no way I could feed her and not fall asleep. So I put the passie in her mouth and fell onto the futon in her room, because I figured I'd have to get up eventually. Then she was up at 3, I still wasn't ready so I plugged her again. Next thing I knew it was 7:30! Our pediatrician had said to give her the passie instead of feeding her every time (which we have been doing since she was 6 weeks old) and eventually she will figure it out. It's freaking AWESOME. Nyssa still does better when she is swaddled. I use the Miracle Blanket. It rocks. She still wakes up 1 maybe 2 times a night for us to plug her up again. That is way better than doing a feeding that takes 30 minutes and then I have to fall back to sleep. I love her. I really do. I like to squeeze her sometimes (then she gives me a half giggle because squeezing her by her armpits).

We get the big kids tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll have some pictures to post. Nyssa and I are heading downtown to babysit Piper. I haven't seen her (or her Mom & Dad) since I left for maternity! I'm so excited. Although the drive makes me a little nervous.

I better get the sleeping baby up and fed and dressed before we head out on our adventure!

Time flies...

2008-08-26T23:07:00.002-05:00

when you are hanging out with The Nyss. She's growing so fast! I know it only goes faster too.

We got her a Bumbo seat last week. It has become Nyssa's best friend! She loves it, if she's fussy stick her in the Bumbo. It says on the box that the baby should be 4 months or hold her head up. Yup. At 10 weeks (11 weeks tomorrow) the child holds her head up quite well! If she wakes up in her car seat or swing she throws those elbows out and tries to lean forward. She's kind of nosey. (Yes, I know...like her Mom and Grandma). The poor kid doesn't have a chance.

I tried giving her a bath tonight in the baby bathtub? Yeah. That didn't go over so well. Our bathroom is just so small and hard to move around in while trying to handle a slippery baby. So I thought I would give it another try in the kitchen. I guess I'll just have to suck it up and keep bending over the tub and killin' my knees! It's all worth it to see her smile and talk up a storm in the regular tub with the yellow sponge thing!

That is all I can think of at this time of night! Off to bed!

I love her. I love being a Mom. I can't imagine our lives without pretty-Nyss.

All the pictures.

2008-08-14T16:15:00.002-05:00

Obviously I had a lot of pictures to post. There are so many cute pictures I need to know when to draw the line! I just figured out they are in reverse order. That's one of those things I need to work with this blogging thing. Putting the pictures in the correct order. I'm sure you all will figure that out! I also just discovered that I can have the typing centered. I'm so digging this!

Okay...Nyss. She is doing awesome. Nyssa got to go to the DMV with Mommy this morning. It's that time of year when I need to get my license renewed. Good fun. She actually did awesome. I'm tell you. The kid just likes being out. She was asleep until we got in there, then she was all smiles and cooing. I seriously love this cooing thing. I want to bite her!

The other night I hear and Daddy out here in the family room. I hear Chuck cracking up. I come out here to find out what's going on? Nyssa giggles for him! Does she giggle for Mommy? Ooooooh noooooo....but for Daddy, of course! I've tried my hardest to get her to giggle for me. She just smiles. I think it's that little stinker part of her that knows I would give anything for a giggle. Maybe it's because I keep tickling her and she doesn't know what to do!

We had a great time with the kids last weekend. It was rainy so we ended up at the mall. Julia did great. It only took her about 20 minutes to warm and start playing. She's very shy. Cameron? Oh he's another story. Chuck was walking around the play area looking for the little stinker (it's gated in and we were by the entrance) and the lady on another bench waved and me and pointed...he was sitting next to her! The boy has no fear and LOVES people. Once he makes eye contact it's all over for them, he starts putting on a show!

We busted out the color wonder paints. Julia had a great time. She loves anything that she can be creative. The last time we got out hi ho cherry Oh! She loved it. We had to stop half way through the game because of this little baby that needed some attention. I need to keep getting stuff like that out for her. She loves anything that makes her think. She also is my baking buddy. She LOVES to help me make cupcakes. She keeps talking about putting the ingredients into the bowl. I also need to start working on her letters. Writing them. She knows them all, but looks at me like I'm a moron when I ask her to write a J. I'd love to work on that stuff with her, but I am afraid it will all be lost when she goes home. I'm not sure her Mom works on that stuff with her. Maybe if I start it and send some books home with her she will like doing it and get her Mom to help. I don't know. Wow. I don't know where that came from!

That's about it for here. Nyss is snoozing in the swing. I'm thinking about going through the pictures from the hospital and getting them ready to put in a photo album. I had wanted to do that while I was on maternity! HA! That got away from me fast!

We hope every one is doing well!

This is it for pictures!

2008-08-14T16:01:00.003-05:00

She loves her "little sister Nyssa Nyss". She has told me as much.

He think's it is funny when he gets one of Nyssa's soothie pacifiers. He even had to lay on the boppy pillow for the photo.

Someone just learned out to do 'fishy lips.' She was quite proud of herself. She made Chuck show her on the camera.

Still more pictures!

2008-08-14T15:47:00.002-05:00

She's got that trouble grin already.

Still at the mall. I love that she smiles when she spots the camera!

When we got home from the mall we busted out the Color Wonder Paints. We love those paints. I think color wonder is the best invention EVER as far as markers and paints are concerned!!

Cam..doing a little advertising for the great town of Paton. (I got him to sit still long enough because I put him on the coffee table!)

She needed her picture taken after Cameron got his taken. Notice the Dora twin that doesn't leave her arm while she is with Daddy & Jacquie.

More photos!

2008-08-14T15:36:00.002-05:00

We took the kids to the mall last Saturday. Here we have Cameron playing in the house!

This would be Julia playing in the house!

Daddy thought it was funny to take a picture of Mommy multi-tasking.
Cameron being a ham.

He thinks it is so funny when he holds Nyssa. He also discovered at the mall that it's funny to sit in Nyssa's infant seat!

Photos!

2008-08-14T15:21:00.002-05:00

Miss Nyss loves her some bath time!

On my way home from work this is what I see on the side of the road. I have seen so many deer. I stopped the car to take the picture (obviously it's not a busy road) and it kept moving so I kept moving the car at the same speed. It was very cool.

This is Nyss pooping. It seriously cracks us up. She is the loudest pooper I've ever encountered.

We don't enjoy our tummy time.

Big girl!

2008-08-11T12:07:00.004-05:00

Holy cow! She's two months old today! Right now she's passed out in her bouncy chair. Thank goodness for the bouncy! I'll have to get a picture of her in this bouncy, it's a pimped out bouncy. We got it from Cameron's Mommy. She was going to donate it to Goodwill or something, and since we need double of some things for work, I decided to keep this one here! It probably overstimulates her, but Mommy thinks it's cool!

Nyssa is still doing awesome at night. Last night I fed her at 8, gave her a tubbie after then put her to bed. She slept from about 9ish to 1:30, when Daddy gave her a bottle. She was up for Mommy at 5:30, then to sleep in her bed from 6 to 7 when she started spitting up and was very noisy before the spit up. Then I burped her some more and put her in swing! Where she slept from about 8 to 10:30ish.

Nyss and I are off work this week. We miss everyone already. Nyss is doing great there. She was finally adjusting to the fact that with kids are there is noise. So, this week I am trying to be extra noisy so we don't lose that. She has really adjusted well there. She knows all the kids and gives them great big smiles when they talk to her, and she loves every second!

We had the kids overnight Saturday night. I have more pictures to put here. They are getting so big. Julia has really gotten tall. She's such a little lady. Cameron...well I think he's gotten chunkier! We have some size 5 diapers that we were putting on him here, yeah, I busted out the left over size 6's that we got for Julia before she was potty trained. They crack me up. It was the first time in I don't know how long that I was actually to chase Cam around and climb up stuff with him. I am so happy to not be pregnant any more! I didn't realize how limited I was during the pregnancy. Although the one thing I do miss about being pregnant is feeling Miss Nyss moving around. That part makes me kind of sad, but that's it! LOL

Okay I need to go get some stuff done while the pretty-Nyss is snoozing. I'll put pictures up later!

We made it...

2008-08-01T22:44:00.004-05:00

through the first week of Mommy back at work. Thankfully, Nyssa is at work with Mommy. Otherwise I don't think I would have done well if I couldn't taken her with me to work!

The new nanny job went well! The kids are all good kids and they all love Nyssa! Zachary especially. He gave her hugs and kisses before we left. Then he asked if we were coming back tomorrow, and I told him we'd see him on Monday. He said, "I need to give Nyssa two more hugs and kisses because I won't see her all weekend." He did, and he was happy.

The nights went well. It helps that Chuck is in retail, because if he closes the next day he will take the 11pm-ish and 3am-ish feedings so I can get a good chunk of sleep. Hopefully next week will go as well! Nyssa has actually (quick, knock on wood) been sleeping in about 4 or 5 hour chunks when she first goes to bed. Actually the last couple of nights she's only gotten up twice and then she's up at about 5 or 6 and Mommy's up at 6:30 to get moving anyway! I think I just confused myself writing that, oh well...you get the gist of what I'm trying to say here! The nights haven't been that bad!

Speaking of nights. I'm going to bed! Momma's tired! Have a good night!

Photos Part 2

2008-08-01T20:34:00.003-05:00

I just love the look on her face. I think we'll be seeing that quite a bit when she's a teenager!
They both look like troublemakers!
Julia was so excited to wear this outfit. Meghan gave this to her in a big ol' bag of hand-me-down clothes. We heart hand-me-downs!
Daddy and his girls!
The proud big sister! I think she'd hold her all the time if Nyssa would co-operate!

There you have pictures from our weekend! At the end of the week, but at least I finally got them up here to share!

Photos Part 1

2008-08-01T19:58:00.006-05:00

Camouflage baby!
He's ham!
Chuck said he saw the ducks and took off immediately at a run!
Chuck caught Nyssa's spit up in mid action. This picture cracks me up!
I love this picture of Daddy and big kids!

The weekend!

2008-07-28T21:52:00.002-05:00

I've started you off with a teaser picture! More to come tomorrow, hopefully!!

Miss Nyss recovered well from her shots! Thank God!

We actually had a busy Saturday night and Sunday! Nyss and I picked up the 'big' kids about 3:30 Saturday afternoon. Chuck met us at home he worked during the day. I have to say it was quite a sight seeing the back seat of the Camry all full of seats! Julia's booster, Nyssa's infant seat and the Big Man's car seat. I think Cameron only stole Nyssa's passie once! I heard Julia say, "Give that back to me Cam, that's not you yours." He handed it right over. It was pretty cute.

We had dinner and then we went to the little play ground that is behind our building. It's nothing fancy but it does the job. The kids are just excited to get out. They know they are going to be doing things when they come to our house anyway!

Sunday, we took the kids home by noon. Then Chuck and I had to come home to get stuff ready to take to my new job! Which Nyssa and I started today! It went very well. Actually Chuck gets husband of the year because he got up with Nyssa for her 11:30 & 3:30 am feedings. The 11:30 she always goes right back to sleep. The 3:30 ish one she tends to get squirmy after that feeding for some reason. He actually slept on the futon (it's actually a way comfy futon, I enjoy sleeping on the thing) until she started fussing at 6:30 for another feeding. It worked out well. I had showered last night, so all I had to do was the basic's this morning. I fed her and even ate a little breakfast myself!

The new family, is actually a family I have known. I'm going to stop typing about them, because I'm not sure if I have already posted about it on here or not! I'll go back and read it so I'm not repeating myself!

It's about 10pm now, my butt is kicked. I'm going to go to bed now. I'm off tomorrow, so I'm hoping to get some pictures posted on here from the weekend. Hopefully during a nap I can that accomplished!

More later!!

Last night

2008-07-24T14:03:00.002-05:00

Sweet baby girl had a tough night last night. You could tell she was just uncomfortable through the night. Finally at about 4 something Mommy remembered to give her Tylenol! She actually slept about 2 1/2 hours straight at that point. She had been sleeping during the night, but not without grunting and whining and stretching and doing more than she normally does in a night. I actually slept on the futon on her room last night. Daddy had to get up and work today, so I figured I'd spare him the in and out of bed. She got up at 6 this morning and ate 3 ounces, which was good. All night she would only eat about 1/2 ounce to 1 1/2 ounces. At least I was ready for it last night. She slept in the swing from 8 to 10 this morning. I went and slept on the futon too!
She's back in the swing. Not fussing, just hanging out and fighting sleep. My little nosey Rosy.

Not that anyone cares...

2008-07-24T13:58:00.002-05:00

but I forgot to add that I have lost a total of 27 pounds since I first got knocked up! From that first weigh in at 5 weeks pregnant up to yesterday. I know some of that was baby, but what way to jump start a weight loss session! Lord knows I have a ways to go, but what a way to start!

Starting work on Monday will help. They are healthy eaters and plan out dinners and such. And actually eat dinner at a normal time (as opposed to my 9 or 10 pm eating time lately). I'm actually looking forward to being more active as well, there at the end of the pregnancy I was doin' much at all! Tailbone and big baby belly and all!

Of course I type that and now I'm hungry. Someone has to eat up those ice cream sandwich bars in the freezer. Sometimes it sucks having a husband who is allergic to dairy! :)

6 Weeks!

2008-07-23T20:59:00.002-05:00

Today was our '2 month' check up at six weeks old! Miss Nyss weighs in at 11 pounds and is 22 inches long! Her cousin Tayven better watch out, she's going to catch up to him!

She did great with the shots. So did Mom. I didn't cry! I even stayed in the room but I made Chuck hold her arms down for the nurses. I love this pediatrician office! (Aside from the fact that I start Monday, being the nanny for her doctor's kids!) When they do the shots, each nurse takes a leg and they do them at the same time. I still don't like it though. I still can't believe I didn't cry. Yay for me! As soon as they were done, though I scooped that little girl up and held her tight. Poor baby. She calmed down rather quickly though. I'm hoping this is a sign of how the 4 month round of shots will go!

Finally!

2008-07-22T18:30:00.003-05:00

Yay! I can finally type about my little butterball!

She's doing great! She's growing everyday, I can't take it! I think she gets cuter every day too, but I could be biased!!

We go to the pediatrician tomorrow for her 2 month check up..although she'll be six weeks tomorrow. She is supposed to get shots. Mommy's not looking forward to that so much, so Daddy took the day off to go along. That and Mommy has her six week check up as well. I'm looking forward to seeing how much she weighs and how long she's gotten.

She started smiling this week. I had no idea I could love her even more when I saw that toothless grin. She's trying to coo and stuff as well. I heart her so much!

That's it for now...Squeaky has decided to wake up!

Photos!

2008-07-17T21:16:00.004-05:00

Okay, so I've some requests for pictures of Miss Nyss. The first one is obviously after bath! The second is on the 4th of July. It was freezing here (okay so in the 60s) but for a baby in a shorts outfit...freezing. Of course it gave her a good reason to be wrapped up in one of her blankets! The last I just love her cottage cheese fanny. I am surprised she didn't pee on me! I made sure it was a quick photo shoot! LOL

Seriously, one of these days I'll get around to putting some posts up here. My goal right now is to do the Thank Yous and then blogging about Nyssa will be my reward! Enjoy!

Phew!

2008-07-14T06:57:00.000-05:00

We are back from our trip to Iowa! It was a long one but very nice seeing everyone again. Especially since people got to meet Miss Nyss! My plan is in between writing Thank You's to blog a bit to get everyone caught up! I'll have to get some pictures posted up here too. I'm not sure if I'll keep the flickr account either. It will depend upon on if this blogger site wants to cooperate!

Crying girl. Must go put the paci back in so Mommy can hopefully go back to bed for a little while!

Future home of Miss Nyss!

2008-07-10T09:55:00.000-05:00

Here we have the future postings of everything Nyssa (and some pictures and posting of her big brother and sister as well)! One of these days I'm going to get around to posting about her arrival and everything we've been up to since!

Check back soon!