an attempt to catch up

It has been more than six months since I have written on my blog.  I miss it.  I have a list of specific blogs that I read daily, it is part of my morning wake up/coffee routine.  I hope to update more often, for the sake of documenting the little things that we so easily forget when the days turn into years.  

So much has happened since April! 

 We got married in our living room on May 27, surrounded by family and a few special friends.  It was intimate, and it was so perfect for us.  We actually planned (correction, Cody planned--long story for another day) the wedding in three days.  We pulled it off and will never regret a second of it.  It was really special and something that I will never forget.  We initially planned on having a reception at a later time, but unless someone wants to plan and host a reception for us, it just is not going to happen.  We are beyond okay with that.  Life is just too busy, and planning a reception ranks very low on our priority list.  

Summer flew by even though some days I thought we would never get to autumn.  I like living in a place where we experience all four seasons in all their glory, but the older I get, the more I dislike the heat.  I could live in a fall/winter climate area year round.  During summer we swam, kept up with Caden and Laica's activities, and had a backyard camp out with our friends and their kids over labor day weekend.  We sent summer off with a bang, and I think that all in attendance would agree.  

School is going great for the big kids.  Caden is in third grade, and was chosen to be tested for the gifted program through the school system.  He made it and we could not be more proud of him.  His major unit class that he is taking is Robotics, and he absolutely loves it.  I am so very proud of my little guy.  He is growing into a very kind, responsible, helpful, polite, and intelligent young man.  I just know that he will do great things with his life.

Laica got her same teacher as last year and is in a class split with kindergarten and first grade.  At first she was a little disappointed (she loves her teacher but was looking forward to being one of the bigger kids in a first grade class) but she seems to be having a great year.  When she learned she would get to be in charge of helping a kindergarten student, she was all smiles.  Laica is a great leader and loves to give direction.  She can be a little bossy, but I have no idea where she gets that from.  ;)  

Penelope is full of sass.  She started walking at nine months.  I never really believed people when they said their child walked at eight or nine months, now I have no doubt that it happens.  Laica walked when she was in her tenth month, so I expected Penny to walk early, too.  I did not expect her to do it at nine months.  Now, at almost 11 months, she is a pro and trying to run.  Her stocky stature doesn't make her very fast, but we are in for some work with this kid.  She is the perfect baby for our family.  Penelope is so fun and always has us laughing.  She loves to dance and has some pretty sweet moves.  I like to think she gets it from her mama.  (Ha!) Penny loves to play peek a boo, be chased around by the kids, eat--she has at least eight teeth, and she is always shaking her head and telling us "no, no, no!"  She is so funny, and we are all smitten.

 

Cody and I got to go on our honeymoon at the beginning of the month.  We went all over the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and it was perfect.  The scenery was gorgeous, the mountains are where we are meant to be.  We have plans.  They are long term, as we have some kids to raise and get off to college, but we will eventually have our own little home out in the mountains.  Cody and I have so much fun together.  We laugh all the time, and when I am being a grouch he can always get me to smile.  He is the best, I could go on and on, but I will save that for another day.  

Cody had his birthday on October 7, and we had a blast celebrating with our good friends.  We both had great birthdays this year, we partied hard and paid for it the next day.  We have a damn good group of friends, and I love when we get all of our kids together.  

I should write more, but I am expecting Caden and Laica to be home any minute from their dad's.  All kids are out of school today and I am taking them with me to work.  We will have a good day, but it will be a busy one... at least we are accustomed to the busy.  I will try to update again soon, Laica and Penny both have birthdays coming up in November.

 

Life

Penny turned four months old on March 20th (I'm keeping track of her age according the the calendar date, not the number of weeks.)  She's the third child, if I have learned anything at all when it comes to being a mom, it is to let go of the things that are not important. Letting go, in any aspect, does not come easily for me.  I try.

I took a late nap with Penny yesterday, and paid for it this morning.  Aside from her not staying in her own bed, she woke up around 4:30 this morning, ready to party.  I waved the white flag and got up with her, she had already woken me at least four times prior to this.  She is now snoozing and I am up blogging and drinking instant coffee because I really need to go to the market today.  (Side note, a friend that I talk to almost everyday and I do most of our shopping at the little Walmart Neighborhood Markets.  We joked once that it sounded way more upscale to refer to it simply as "the market."  It was a silly conversation but it stuck for me.

Life with Penny is getting easier most days.  Damn, that girl is strong-willed.  I have no idea where she gets it.  ;)  Her huge grins, laughs, and constant baby chatter are so cute they make up for the trying times.  When she is mad, she makes a noise where she "rolls her r's"... I assume she is cursing at me in some baby Spanish language.  It is sort of hilarious when she does it, which is all the time.  We have to keep a sense of humor with this one.  Have to.

Caden and Laica are thriving.  I am so proud of those two.  They are each having an amazing year at school.  Excellent grades and behavior, all year.  They also have had near perfect attendance.  They are doing great with Penny and they love that she has become more interactive.  

Caden recently got promoted to the intermediate martial arts class and is now a green belt.  I love that he has chosen an activity that he enjoys so much.  It is a bit expensive, but worth every penny. 

 Laica still does gymnastics and is learning new things each week.  She looks forward to going. She recently had a school program in which she had a solo and a speaking part.  She rocked it!  I can totally see her doing drama in the future.

I am hoping to get back into my yoga practice soon, between work and having Penny a lot (she has the best babysitter two days a week, we love our Miss Bonnie) I stay busy. (Duh.)

I am going to wrap up this post with some pictures, I was hoping to write something a little more deep, but maybe next time.  I just joined a book club and I got my book in the mail yesterday (I love Amazon Prime) and need to start making the time to read again.  I love reading, just have not made time for it since Penelope entered our lives! 

Check back soon!

 

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Life lately is a roller coaster. 

 Penny can often be heard yelling in the background.  She is not sick.  She is not hurting.  She is not tired.  She's not even crying, just yelling.  She will stop and smile as soon as I swoop her up.  Penelope wants to be held and/or carried all of the time.  She has days that are wonderfully predictable, she naps for at least an hour at a time and is generally a pleasant little person.  The other half of our days are hard.  I often try to come up with the correct word to describe those days.  Challenging, difficult, crazy, exhausting, numbing. 

I know these baby days will escape me before I am ready.  I am aware of how quickly the time goes.  I am sure that Penny will grow into an amazing and smart girl that grows into an incredible woman.  However, right now we are in the trenches and some days are just hard.

Penny wants to be on the move.  At only three months, she is very aware of her surroundings.  I do not want to wish any time away.  I am trying to soak up every tiny bit of baby, but I think that she will be easier to deal with a few months down the road.  

She and I spend a lot of time together, which I do not take for granted.  My work situation combined with our family situation (Read: Cody is awesome and the best partner I could ever ask for.  He works long and hard hours to allow me to work part time. He knows that I genuinely enjoy taking care of our family and our home, and he allows me to do that.) has made it easy for me to almost exclusively breastfeed, which is good for both Penny and myself.  For the last month or so, she has been making a lot of eye contact while feeding, and I soak in those special moments between the two of us.

I have to laugh when I think about how Cody and I had our future lives planned out.  Penelope has changed those plans, or at least the timeline.  Our mountain tiny house dreams will be pushed back.  I find myself missing the time I had alone and the time that Cody and I had to ourselves. I miss it so much, but it all goes away when that chubby little baby smiles at me or laughs at her brother and sister.  I know I am very much doing what I am meant to be doing right now and I accept that life will be busy and crazy for years to come.

This is just a glimpse of life right now.  I anticipate the rest of this year being as wild as the first part has been, but I am ready for it.  Ready to marry my best friend and watch our kids grow up.  Ready to experience all of the ups and downs to come.  We only get one chance at life, and I am going to do my best to find the good in every day, even the hard ones.  


 

Just some pictures...

Just a few pictures I've taken lately... The common theme is pretty obvious, Penny is a grouch. I like to think of it as "spirited" but if I'm being honest, one of her nicknames is "mean baby."  :)

 She has been laughing more lately and it is the sweetest sound!  Penelope thinks she is bigger than she is and she likes to be held upright. She wants to take in everything going on around her. She is three months old now and is very healthy. I'm looking forward to her check up next month to see how much she weighs. My guess is... a lot. She's getting really heavy in her infant seat and my back hurts daily.  Penny has completed our family, we love watching her personality develop. 

Caden and Laica are doing wonderfully in school and have adjusted beautifully to the baby. They both love to help out, but Caden is the sweetest big brother. Those two will have a special bond.  

I'll try to update more soon, life is crazy (but I love it).

penelope's birth story

Looking back on it, I wish that I would have updated my blog more (or at all) while I was pregnant with Penny. I worked up until the week before she was born and was generally exhausted and/or crabby by the time I got the older two kids in bed. This was the last picture I took while pregnant, I believe it was around 36-37 weeks. We made it to 38 weeks, 4 days.  

this shirt is actually a dress

I had regular contractions off and on for about 2-3 weeks before she was born.  November was busy for us, Laica turned six and we celebrated at Jumpmania.  Caden had his first test in his martial arts class and received his orange belt. (He has since tested again and he is currently a yellow belt.)

Caden's first test was the night of November 19, and I was having contractions and extremely uncomfortable the entire time.  I had been having contractions for so long and we had already made a trip to labor and delivery in which we were sent home, so I did not think much of how I was feeling that night.  Come to find out, I was in active labor. 

I woke up to use the bathroom around 2 a.m. and as soon as I stepped into the bathroom, my water broke.  It was not a huge amount of liquid, and I wanted to be sure before I woke Cody, so I puttered around the house for about 45 minutes.  

When I was positive that I was leaking fluid, I woke Cody and told him that my water had broken.  His response?  "Ok.  I'm going to go back to sleep for a couple of hours."  :) I woke him out of a deep sleep and found it so funny that this was his initial reaction.  

I called the hospital and they told us to come in.  We called the kids' grandma to come over, and I made their lunches for school.  We woke them up and told them we were leaving. Due to the false alarm a couple of weeks earlier, we had the car packed and ready to go.

We arrived at the hospital around 3:30, and were in a birthing room by about 4:45.  Our nurses were both wonderful.  They called Dr. Stanczyk to let him know what was going on.  He told them he was going to work out and do a procedure at the surgery center and that he would be by around 8:30 to check our progress.

Right before the doctor arrived, I advised the nurse that I was feeling some pressure with my contractions (I had an epidural).  When the doctor checked my progress, he looked at me and said, "We can push!"  The next several minutes were a whirlwind of nurses and techs setting up equipment.  

With my first push, Dr. Stanczyk told us that the baby would have a lot of hair.  Cody looked and confirmed this.  Two more pushes and Penelople Rose Lane came into the world at 8:43 a.m.  My first words when they placed her on me were, "She's so big!"  She weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. 

She was fussy from the start and wanted to nurse every ten minutes.  At one point in the hospital, I had slept only 30 minutes in 30 hours.  I was exhausted.  We were able to get a nap the next morning for about an hour and a half, and that was the most amazing sleep I have ever had.  

We stayed two nights in the hospital and got home before noon on Sunday.  The kids got home from their dad's a little later that day and we settled in as a family of five.  We are all over the moon in love with Penelope.  She has many nicknames already.  We usually call her Penny, and my nickname for her is "Penny Pants."

Caden and Laica love her, and Caden is especially sweet with her.  He is the best big brother and I have been so proud of how great the kids have handled the addition of a baby to our family.  

I have so much more to write, but in true Penny fashion, she just woke up after a too-short nap and is being a grouchy pants.  More to come soon...

a quick catch up... aka a lot of pictures

It seems to have been six months since I last blogged.  I am hoping to keep up with it on a more regular basis from here on out, and we are about seven weeks away from having some new subject matter!

Those who follow me on Instagram and Facebook know that we are expecting a baby girl, due on November 30th.  Her name is Penelope Rose Lane, and we will call her Penny.  She came as a total surprise to us, but we are all ready to be a family of five.  

Since my last post, we moved into a bigger space.  We have enjoyed making our new house a home, and I have more projects ahead of me once I have the baby.  I can't really complain about how I have felt during the pregnancy, everything has gone relatively smoothly so far.  Aside from a handful of irrational emotional moments and feeling tired all the time, the past 7-8 months have flown by.  As of today, I am 32 weeks and 4 days.  Both Caden and Laica were around a week past their estimated due date, therefore I am planning on the same thing this time around.  However, I will be pleasantly surprised if Miss Penelope makes her appearance around Thanksgiving.  

Penny moves a lot, and when Cody talks to her with his head on my belly, she always kicks him.  It is absolutely adorable.  I know that Cody is going to be a great dad, and am really looking forward to experiencing this with him.  

As you can see from the pictures, the kids are growing and so is my midsection.  Caden started martial arts a little over a month ago, and Laica is back in gymnastics after taking a break for a few months.  They are loving school and we are so proud of them. 

Cody has been working crazy hours lately.  He just got home, so I am going to wrap up this post and spend some time with him.  Stay tuned, there will be more bump pictures and eventually I will be able to introduce the newest member of our family, little Penny Lane.

 

life lately...

Life lately... it has been hectic and busy, but wonderful at the same time.  We recently made the decision to move when our lease is up this summer, which is adding a little stress, but I am excited to find a house we will stay in for a long, long time.  We were planning on staying here one more year, but as we all know, plans sometimes change.  

Easter was a great day spent with family.  We went to Buffalo to Cody's Grandma's house and ate way too much food.  I made Neiman Marcus bars (Gooey Butter Cake) for the first time, and it was a huge it.  I didn't know it, but that is the favorite dessert of Cody's uncle Darrell.  I am happy to have found "my dish" to bring to family gatherings. 

Here are a few pictures of life lately.  We are all busy doing life...I am trying to stay focused and finish out the semester successfully.  So far, all grades are in the A-B range and going to do my best to keep it that way.  I am looking forward to summer break and reading something other than a text book. 

I have not been keeping up with my self-imposed blogging challenge very well, but that's life.  Stick with me, I will be back at it in no time.  











 Selfie on Easter Sunday.  We dyed eggs Sunday night with the kids, because they were with their dad for the weekend.












Cody and I had a date night.

 

And finally, Laica has been a huge help lately.  She is just like a mini version of me, always wanting to do things around the house like cook and clean.  Love this bossy little girl.

 

We are off to school and work, stay tuned!!