Seven Years Ago

I have several blog ideas in mind for this week (Thanksgiving with the Engel cousins, preparation for Christmas, fun pictures of the kids), but my heart wants to do one remembering my mom. Seven years ago tomorrow she died. There is really no easy way to come out and say it. It is hard to believe that it has been seven years, so much has happened. I started and finished my MBA, my Dad retired, Sharla moved up to Chicago and completed her radiology degree, Dan and I have had two kids, Dad moved into a new house and got remarried, the list goes on and on.

The hardest part for me not having my mom here today is knowing what she is missing out on. Sharla and I have really grown up and become the best friends my mom always wished us to be. (We fought like cats and dogs growing up and my mom frequently was in tears over it.) I hate that we have been cheated out on the friendship that most mothers and daughters form once they hit the adult years. I also feel sad over the fact that our kids will never know her. She would have been in their lives so much we probably would have had to set some boundaries and told her not to visit as much. I joke about this often! What a good problem that would have been to have though. Jacob and Bailey have formed a good relationship my dad's new wife, Debbie, and Jacob calls her "grandma" which is absolutely okay with me. She may not be blood, but they will always see her as their grandma and I love that. Dan's mom also gets to play grandma, but with eight grandchildren it is a bit chaotic when we all get together.

My mom was a great person and taught me more than I realized growing up. Now that I am a mom, I have a lot of "aha" moments when I see what my mom was trying to teach us all of those years!

This post is not meant to be a downer, but a way to memorialize this day. Although in the beginning it was tough to understand why God took her, I do see His plan in several ways. She was suffering so much in that last year, that it really wasn't fair for her to go through it all anymore. Her body simply quit. She was a silent sufferer, yet always tried to keep a smile on her face. Her death has made me a much stronger person. After she died, I had to become more independent. I could no longer call her for advice or ask for help on something. This became so evident when the kids were born and we had to figure it out on our own.

I like to think that my mom is an angel helping us walk through life here on Earth. I truly think she had a little something to do with the kids being born. I look at Jacob as a blessing after trying so long for him, but Bailey is our miracle girl who was so unexpected, yet such a gift. My mom would have been on cloud nine with her grandchildren and I firmly believe that she is getting thrill up in Heaven watching them grow up and probably getting a kick out of watching me struggle with them just like she did with Sharla and I :)

Here are some pictures of my mom....

Mom, me (almost 4), Sharla (7 months)

One of my favorite memories as a child - cross country skiing

Out west during one of our vacations. This vacation we went to Yellowstone, Colorado, Grand Canyon, Arizona, and several national parks. To this day, this is one of my favorite vacations and this is my favorite picture of my family growing up. (1993)

Goofing around during our annual Easter picture. My guess is Sharla said/did something funny to make us laugh. Laughter was never missing in our house growing up!

Annual Christmas picture (1997)

Taken while decorating for my wedding reception.

Last Christmas picture. Dan and I hosted Christmas at our house for the first time. We didn't have much furniture and the cooking was mediocre, but we still had a good time.

Last picture I have of my mom, taken with Rascal right after we got him. (October 2002)

Christmas Parties

We've had a couple of Christmas parties in the last week. ISU held an employee party last Sunday for all of the employee's kids and grandkids. I heard over 900 people came! It started with a performance by the Gamma Phi Circus and then the families could take a picture with Santa and participate in fun activies, like crafts and bouncy houses. The circus ran long (over an hour!) so by the time that was over it was all we could do to sit on Santa's lap and leave. The party occurred during Jacob's naptime, so he wasn't in the best mood. You'll see by the picture that Santa was a bust for the Engel kids this year!! Maybe next year.

The kids also had their parties at daycare this week, which was fun. Bailey's room really doesn't do much, obviously, so I hung out in Jacob's room. Out of 15 kids, I was the only parent. I was a little surprised, but it was still nice to watch Jacob interact with the other kids and get a glimpse as to what he is like there. It is so incredible to watch how two teachers keep fifteen two-year olds in line. They do a great job! I stayed through a few activities and snack time and then snuck out. Below are a few pictures of Jacob's party.

Reindeer game

Snack time

Jacob and Kenna who were sitting next to each other (daughter of our good friends)

Cute and gross at the same time!

Bailey with her three amazing teachers

Bailey's 8 Months

Bailey turned eight months this past week and she is like a completely different person all of a sudden! She learned so many new things over the last few weeks and her personality is really starting to show. I am having a blast with her right now and can't get enough! I had her home with me for a whole week during Thanksgiving week due to doctor appointments and illness and really got attached to being around her all the time. We thought Jacob was a happy child, but she really outshines him in that area!!

Bailey's post-UTI tests came back negative, so her UTI was just random and hopefully won't recur. We spent three hours at the hospital and she developed a fever while we were there. After it rose after we got home, I took her into our pediatrician to be checked out and they did another catheter on her to check for a UTI. It came back negative, but the poor girl had to endure two catheters in one day. I felt so horrible for her!! It turns out that her fever was from a virus that hit all of us during Thanksgiving week. All Bailey had was a fever, but Dan and I had the stomach flu, and Jacob had a low-grade fever and didn't eat for two days. Fun times! I'm just thankful that it skipped the two days we had plans to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families.

Bailey at eight months:

*Crawling! - she crawled for the first time during Jacob's birthday party (11/21)

*Standing with support - this has to be her absolute favorite thing right now, nothing lights her up more at the moment!

*Eating two meals a day and loving it

*Starting to make letter sounds - "baa, baa" and "maa, maa". She said "mama" also on 11/21.

*Holding her bottle by herself

*Pulling herself up onto her knees, she still isn't strong enough to pull up into a standing position yet on her own.

*Strong-willed on getting to certain things. Once she spots something she wants, she can crawl very quickly to it now.


Crawling (this is within two hours of her first doing it)




Playing with a balloon that Aunt Sharla had




Dancing with the musical frog

Jacob - 2 Years

Jacob turned two years old a couple of weeks ago. I've already blogged about his pictures we took and his birthday party, so here is the blog about what Jacob is up to these days.

Jacob has dramatically changed over the last few months. He now talks all the time and we understand most of what he is saying. It is so great to hold conversations with him now. He speaks in short sentences and really communicates well to us. He loves to learn new things and does a pretty good job at recalling things the next time. He is currently fascinated by puzzles and loves to put them together. He can put a 12-piece jigsaw puzzle together very easily and we're beginning to wonder if he has a photographic memory because he can watch it be done once and do it without a problem the next time. My dad and Dan both have photographic memories so it is possible.

Jacob just loves life. He is almost always happy and is very social. He has lots of friends at daycare and has the teachers wrapped around his little finger! He loves to sing and dance and we often will sing songs off of a children's CD in my car on the way home every night. Jacob also has discovered TV recently. We DVR'd "It's a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and he watches it multiple times a day now. We've been trying to introduce other cartoons, but he seems pretty happy with Charlie Brown at the moment!

Jacob is also very sweet to Bailey (unless she is stealing his toys). Whenever she cries he finds her pacifier or will hug her and tell her it's going to be okay. He also cheers her on with us when she does something exciting. Sometimes I forget that he is only two. Jacob constantly cracks us up and I can't wait to see how he evolves over the next year!


Here are his milestones:

*Height - 36 inches (87th percentile), Weight - 29 1/2 pounds (69th percentile), head (75th percentile)

*Knows all of his colors

*Counts to 10

*Speaks in short sentences

*Can name family members and all of his friends and teachers at daycare

*Has all of his teeth except the two-year molars

*Tells us when he is going #2 and is expressing interest in using the potty

*Loves to mimic what we do and is starting to pretend play

*Moves chairs (and toys) over to light switches, countertops, etc. to get what he needs - this is not necessarily a bad thing either!

*Just started watching TV cartoons

*Has become my little helper and likes to let Rascal outside/inside and will help get me things I need

*Favorites include: everything yellow, school buses, dancing to the "Cha Cha Cha" (see video below), pizza and fruit snacks, puzzles, playing outside


Here are some pictures of Jacob on his actual birthday:

Opening presents

Playing with his new racetrack

His first attempt at putting together Mr. Potato Head


Posing with his gifts from us

Eating his birthday cupcake



Here are some goofy pics of him in the last couple of weeks"

Playing in the leaves

Found him in his toy box one night

He loves to fool around with boxes, here an Easy Mac box


Jacob dances to the "Cha Cha Cha" every night and loves showing off his moves. Here is a video of him along with Bailey getting into too!

Yellow Party

We had a "yellow" party for Jacob's 2nd birthday. He absolutely loves all-things yellow, so it was an easy pick. The decorations were pretty simple and we had the cake decorated with a school bus, in honor of his other favorite thing. We invited family over and most wore yellow which was fun! We served lunch, which went well I think and then opened presents and had cake. All-in-all it was a great time!

Jacob got a lot of great presents. He got loads of puzzles, books, clothes, and much-needed new toys. He got a golf set, bathtime basketball hoop, vacuum cleaner (which actually cleans!), alphabet fridge toy, racetrack, and Mr. Potato Head.

Bailey did steal some of Jacob's thunder during the party, though, with a monumental first. She started crawling for the first time during the party and it was really special to have family there to witness it. I'll share more during her eight-month post here in a couple of weeks!

Here are pictures taken during the party. Thanks to Sharla for taking pictures for me, which is why she isn't in many.

Jacob's 2nd Birthday Party

Jacob's Pictures at 2 Years

After our fiasco last summer of trying to get Jacob to cooperate in taking professional pictures, we made the decision to take our own and no money would be lost. On a nice day last weekend we took the kids to our favorite local park and took lots of pictures of Jacob to mark him at two years. The park is great and has lots of playground equipment, a splash park, and lots of great landscape spots. It was so hard to get him to look at the camera AND smile, but I'm happy with what we got. I just wish we had gone a couple of weeks sooner when there were still lots of pretty leaves out, but that's okay!

I've included the photo album of all the pictures I like. Believe it or not, I started with 150!!

Jacob - 2 Years

7 Months

Bailey is really becoming a big girl, developmentally, not in size! She is still so tiny and she really has no baby fat except her thighs. This month she is on the move! She is on the verge of crawling and rocks back-and-forth and lunges in all directions. I think that she would be crawling by now if her leg strength was better. She still can't really stand very well, but that's okay. We do have to watch her because she does make her way to things, particularly Jacob's toys. Bailey is also eating much better and just began the fruits.

Bailey had a rough week a couple of weeks ago. She started a fever on a Sunday afternoon with no other symptoms. When I called the nurse on Monday, she advised me not tp bring her in unless her fever lasted more than three days so we could see if anything else developed. Well, her fever never broke and by Tuesday night it hit 104 degrees with the chills. It was heartbreaking to watch her in that state. I was up with her all night and called the 24-hour nurse line several times. I got her into the dr first thing the next morning and it turns out she had a urinary tract infection and probably kidney infection. Poor girl. She got on antibiotics and her fever broke by Thursday, but then she went on a milk-strike through Friday. She is now scheduled for some tests on the 16th at the hospital to see if she has a condition that will cause her to be prone to additional UTIs. Hopefully we'll get some answers and then onto the next steps of treatment. More later!

7-month milestones:

*Through the vegetables and onto fruits

*Nearly crawling

*Sleeping through the night without feedings, but still needs soothed a few times a night

*Takes about three naps per day

*Beginning stranger anxiety


Bailey pulling everything out of her diaper basket while I wasn't looking

Halloween 2009

The kids had a great Halloween this year. It was fun that Jacob had more of an understanding of certain aspects of Halloween than he did last year. He liked wearing his costume and getting candy! Jacob went as Tigger and Bailey was a ladybug. Daycare had a parade on Friday, which was inside due to the rain and then each room had a party afterwards. The infant room really doesn't do anything significant, so I spent time in Jacob's room. It was great to watch him interact in that environment, which I don't get to see. There were a few of his guy friends gone that day, but there were about eight kids total.

We took Jacob trick-or-treating for the first time and he loved getting candy. We taught him to say "trick-or-treat" and he actually said it! It was chilly that night, so I bundled Bailey in her stroller so I wouldn't miss the experience. We made it around the block before I took Bailey back home and then Dan and Jacob hit a few more houses. Afterwards, Jacob also had fun when kids came to our door. He stood and watched and let us know when kids were coming. Next year will be even more fun with Bailey more in the action!!

Here is a photo album of all the Halloween pictures :)

Halloween 2009

ISU Homecoming 2009

Illinois State's Homecoming was a couple of weeks ago. Every year the festivities get bigger and better. As an employee, I get to participate in a few events during the week, but this year we went to the parade for the first time as a family and I competed in the Great Urban Race with my friend, Amanda.

Great Urban Race

For those of you that don't know what this is, the race is a local, one-day version of The Amazing Race. The Amazing Race is one of my favorite shows and I've always wanted to go on it. The day of the race was in the lower 40's with light rain at times. As cold as it was, it actually felt good since we were on the move the whole time. The race consisted of two-person teams that had to dress alike, preferably in costume and each team had to completed 11/12 tasks in any order. The kicker is that you can only move from one task by foot or by bus. The tasks took us anywhere from taking a picture with Reggie at the ISU Rec Center, completing a murder-mystery riddle at Often Running, piggy-backing at McDonald's, line dancing in downtown Bloomington, finding a misspelled poster at US Cellular Coliseum, and lots of other fun tasks at locations in downtown Bloomington and Normal. We ended up running the majority of the race, with exception of a bus from downtown Bloomington back to Normal! We literally ran from the starting line in North Normal at the ISU Alumni Center, around Normal, and then all the way into Bloomington. We probably ran 5-6 miles in total!! That's a lot of running! We had so much fun competing in the race and I can't wait to do it again next year.

Piggybacking under the McD's sign as one of the tasks

Posing with a "Lincoln"

Finish line!

Homecoming Parade

The next day we took the kids to the parade and had a great time. We stayed an hour-and-a-half and the parade was still going when we left. This was Jacob's first parade and he had a blast. We gave him his Halloween pumpkin to collect candy and he quickly understood what to do! He got so much candy it was ridiculous. One lady came by and tried to put some candy in his pumpkin and he said "noooo!" and pushed her hand away because he didn't want anyone near his candy! It should be even more fun next year when Bailey can get into the action :)

Before the parade

Picking up candy

Reggie float

Jacob's loot!!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to one of the local pumpkin patches a couple of weekends ago and had a good time. We went on the first non-rainy day in a while, so it was pretty muddy, but I'm glad we went. Jacob had fun with all of the activities available for kids - endless pumpkins and gourds, climbing hay structure, farm animals, etc.... It was pretty cold so he didn't get to do as much if it was warmer, but he still enjoyed himself. I tried to get as many pictures of the kids as I could, but with all of the distractions and muddy conditions, the kids weren't as cooperative. As we were leaving I saw a family of four take a picture with their two kids (upper grade school age) and they took the picture in one shot! I usually take about ten picture per shot to get one decent one. Thank goodness for digital cameras!

Jacob picking out pumpkins

Bailey sitting on one of the pumpkin wagons

Jacob and Daddy

Jacob crawling through the tunnel in the hay structure

Bailey and I

Me with the kids

Bailey in the fall display

Jacob insisted on pushing Bailey, which turned into quite the temper tantrum when we wouldn't let him sometimes because he was running into people

Jacob probably go excited to see the farm animals more than anything else

Sea of mums