Christmas Preparations

As I write this, I am breathing a HUGE sigh of relief. My Christmas stress is done and it is five days before Christmas. Woohoo!! As I mentioned in a previous blog, we already celebrated Christmas with Dan's family over Thanksgiving and my family celebrated yesterday at our house. We are looking forward to a very quiet Christmas Day with just the four of us. Nowhere to go, nothing to do except spend time with our little family. I can't wait to just sit on the floor and play with the kids and their new toys and books all day!! Dan's mom and step dad are stopping by the next day to hang out with us and visit, so it will be a nice weekend.

This week is the first week in about three months that I do not have to squeeze in projects after the kids go to bed and I'm looking forward to hanging out with Dan again!!

Below are some pictures taken in November of the kids visiting Santa and helping to decorate our tree.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!!

First Snow

We got about eight inches of snow a couple of weeks ago and we got the kids out in it before it turned bitterly cold. This was Bailey's first time in the snow!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving Day with my family in Decatur and that Saturday with Dan's family. It was great because EVERYONE was home this time and we had fun!! We took advantage of the day and took pictures of the family. We also celebrated the fall birthdays of the four grandkids who had birthdays the past couple of months. Additionally, we also exchanged Christmas gifts for the kids since not everyone will be home for Christmas. It was a chaotic, but fun day!!

Thanksgiving with the Engels

Jacob's 3rd Birthday

Jacob celebrated his birthday three different times. He celebrated at school and at home the night of his birthday. We had a family party in Decatur a few days later and were lucky to celebrate with my three aunts who live out of town. We did a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed party, because he seriously would not have it any other way! We also celebrated on Thanksgiving weekend with Dan's family and included the other grandchildren who had fall birthdays. Since everyone lives out of town, we all missed the other's parties. It was fun!

Here are some pictures of the celebrations.

Jacob's 3rd Birthday

Jacob at 3 Years

It's hard to believe that Jacob turned three a few weeks ago. He is growing up really fast. He is such a great boy, fiercely independent, but a fun personality.

Here are some tidbits about Jacob:

*He is ALL boy! He is very active and will jump off anything that has height. We caught him jumping off the stairs, four or five steps up the other day!

*He is a big fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Dora. These shows are literally his bribe to do anything we need him to do. We've had to limit him to two episodes at once because he would probably sit in front of the TV all day.

*He is also a big fan of games. He currently has Candyland and Memory and could play them all day if we let him!

*He talks like an adult at times and says the craziest stuff sometimes!

*He is very strong headed and independent and we are working hard at not letting him run all over us sometimes. We've stepped up our attention to things and are working on being more consistent with things and holding him to threats if we reach "3". We are also learning to pick our battles.

*He is starting to pretend and practice his imagination. He has an imaginary house and airplane that he talks about. He also sees Swiper (from Dora) all over the place. I think it's great that he is going through this stage because it's important to his development.

*Potty training has not progressed passed it's point months ago. He refused to poop in the potty and never tells us when he needs to pee. We've tried underwear and he doesn't care when he poops in them, so back to pull-ups we went. The laundry isn't worth it to me! I keep waiting for that moment people say he will have when he gets it. I'm really not stressing too much about it, but as he gets older, it gets harder to wait on.

*He has been starting to skip his weekend naps, which is frustrating at times, but a reminder that he is growing up. It does make it easier to plan things for the afternoons though.

Bailey at 20 Months

Well, I started this blog two months ago and never finished it. Bailey is really changing fast and cracks us up all the time. Here are a few things about Bailey at this age:

*She's becoming independent and wants to do things herself or her way now.

*She is a feisty little thing and can express pretty strongly what she wants.

*Her vocabulary grows each day and she has been phrasing for a couple of months now.

*She can now sing along to parts of songs.

*She still loves to dance to any music. The video below is a fun one of her dancing to some of the singing toys the kids have.

*She's growing like a weed and is outgrowing her clothes all of a sudden. At her 18 month check-up, she had the following stats ---- Height - 33 1/2 inches (73 percentile) and weight - 22 lbs 16 oz (16 percent)

*She now has 10 teeth, but is still missing her outer four bottom teeth for some reason. I'm worried she will never get these!!

*Her eating is pretty awful at times. Still no vegetables and could live on bananas, bread, potatoes, and yogurt. She's a carb-girl!!

*She has been expressing interest in potty training and actually goes about 50 percent of the time when we put her on it.

*She is starting to exhibit the desire for routines just like her brother. She has to read the same five books before bedtime AND in a particular order.

*She's discovering her surroundings and loves to point things out now as we drive, like buses, Christmas lights, and dogs. All in all, she is a lot of fun to be around and she still loves to snuggle, which is a bonus for me!!

November's Highs and Lows

Phew!! I'm glad today's the end of November. It was a whirlwind of a month that was very busy with lots of ups and downs. I love my life, I really do, but sometimes normalcy is a good thing. I'm hoping that December goes as planned and is fairly easy-riding, despite Christmas festivities (which I have a head start on and believe to be in control of!). Look for future blogs on several of the events below :)

Highs:

*Seeing a lot of my mom's side of the family for the first time in years, although the circumstances were less than ideal (see below).

*Throwing my Dad (along with Sharla and Debbie) a surprise 60th birthday party.

*Dan and I celebrated our 10th anniversary.

*Celebrated Jacob's 3rd birthday with our own family party on his birthday and another family party with my Dad's side of the family a few days later. We also celebrated briefly on Thanksgiving with Dan's family.

*Celebrated my grandparent's 65th anniversary with lots of family and their friends. We surprised them with two separate gifts. The first was a quilt made by their five great-grandchildren. Each decorated two squares and my cousin, Shannon sewed it all together. The other was a scrapbook from their 10 grandchildren. Each grandchild put together a couple of pages and then Sharla and I assembled it. Both gifts turned out perfect!

*Celebrating Thanksgiving twice, once with my family and the other with most of Dan's family, including all of his siblings and their families. It was a great time and it was fun to watch all eight grandchildren play together.

*Jumped into the Christmas seeason with getting all of the Christmas decorations up, most of the presents bought, Christmas celebration with Dan's family on Thanksgiving, Christmas cards ordered, and a visit to our local Festival of Trees.

*Got the house cleaned and in order after being gone so much, which makes me feel like a new person. When things aren't clean and are disorganized, my mind goes into a frenzy!!


Now onto the lows:

*My grandma (mom's mom) died at the end of October and her funeral was the first. This brought up a lot of suppressed emotions of losing my mom eight years ago.

*We had to put Rascal down on the 20th. Sad, sad day. He began having back pain at the beginning of November and he ended up rupturing at least one disc in his back. He was in and out of the vet's animal clinic for two weeks. Unlike his other back episodes, he would take one step forward and then two steps back. The vet discovered that he was also suffering from liver disease, which was causing his abdomen to bloat and cause additional pain. On the 19th, he seemed to be improving and actually took a stroll around the yard. A few hours later, his back legs became about 90 percent paralyzed and he lost the ability to go to the bathroom. We knew this was his time and decided to end his suffering. It was a rough day, which was the same day we celebrated Jacob's birthday and my grandparent's 65th.

*Illnesses - Bailey and I got the stomach flu at the beginning of November, all four of us got bad colds the second week of November, Bailey's cold turned into a sinus infection and she was home with a fever for three days, and Bailey developed an allergic reaction Thanksgiving weekend and broke out into hives (likely from her diapers).


Here's to December being an easier month!!

Fall 2010 Photo Shoot

At the end of October, we went to Miller Park for a family photo shoot to capture Jacob at 3, Bailey 1 1/2, and a family picture that we could use for our Christmas card and in frames. I absolutely love going through other people's photos on Facebook and getting ideas. I'm still anti-studio at the moment and really like the outdoor shots instead. My dad and Debbie came up to lend a hand so someone could take our family picture and help with the kids. It was great having them there and we all had a good time, despite the cool temperatures (which is Bailey has a very pink nose in the pictures!).

There is a special picture for my dad in the midst of the album, so happy hunting!!

Fall 2010 Photoshoot

Dad's Surprise 60th Party

We threw my Dad a surprise party for his 60th birthday. It was a lot of fun to plan and have for him. Both our and Debbie's family came and it was a great group. Sharla and I had a great time preparing for it and decorating their house. Below is a photo album of the party and several shots of the decorations.

Dad's 60th Birthday Party

Halloween Events

The kids had a great Halloween this year. It started off with their parade and parties at daycare and then pumpkin carving and trick or treating coupled with a fun visit from Aunt Sharla.

Halloween 2010

ISU Homecoming

We enjoyed a fun ISU Homecoming parade with my friend Amanda and LOTS and LOTS of candy. The next day Amanda and I teamed up for the Great Urban Race held here in town. I said this last year, but if you ever have an opportunity to do this race here or in a city near you, DO IT!! You need to be in decent shape because it requires a lot of running around, but it is sooooo much fun!! I think we ran around 10 miles, but it was a blast.

Parade

Amanda with the kids

Stanley Cup made an appearance. I'm not a hockey fan, but I thought it was pretty cool!

Picking up candy

Candy loot


Amanda and I before the race in our costumes

St. Louis Zoo

We went to the St. Louis Zoo a couple of weeks ago for the day. We waited all summer to find a dry and mild day to go and it worked out for us finally. The kids loved seeing all the animals and I am glad we waited because Bailey now knows her animals and can say them too so I know she enjoyed it more now than when we originally wanted to go earlier in the summer. Both kids refused to ride in the stroller which meant that we all were very tired by the end of the day. Jacob did okay staying with us but it was trying to keep him moving onto the next exhibit that we struggled with. Since Bailey is so slow, I carried ALL four hours we were there! Amazingly I wasn't sore, just more hot and tired.

Here is a slide show for you to enjoy of our trip.

St. Louis Zoo

Pumpkin Farm

We visited Rader Family Farm a couple of weeks ago to pick out some pumpkins and let the kids participate in all of its fall activities. We had a blast! The farm expanded this year and there was more for the kids to see and do. We were there for three hours and could have spent more time there if Bailey didn't need to nap. It was more fun this year because both kids were older and could enjoy it more, not to mention the weather was PERFECT!





Giant inflatable jumpy pillow



Train ride

Wagon ride around the farm

Corn pit

Petting Zoo





Hay structure

At the top

Picking out pumpkins

Inspirational Sight

I shared this on Facebook today, but I wanted to blog about it and share more of my thoughts.

As I was driving to work this morning, I was stopped at an intersection as a crossing guard escorted a mother and her two children across the street. This was no ordinary sight. The mother was pulling a wagon with two children in one hand, one obviously onto her way to school, and in the other hand was a harness of her guide dog. WOW!! This woman is blind, with two small children, and walking them to school.

I still cannot get her out of my mind. Here I struggle with my two kids and keeping up with them and everday life and she is doing the same, yet cannot see. What an amazing woman she has to be. While I don't know anything about her, just imagine the perserverance and determination she has to go through each day.

While I admire her, I also feel sorry for her and have a sense of sadness for her. I cannot imagine never being able to see my children's faces. I tear up just thinking about it.

This was a sight that I will never forget. It was a real lesson for me on how blessed and fortunate I am. It makes any struggles I have seem so insignificant.

What an inspiration!

The next blog entry is one I wrote a couple of weeks ago but have been saving. I feel like it really ties into this blog entry.

It's the Simple Things

I'm a simple girl. I don't need fancy things. I don't need to be the best at things. I am easily entertained. I love my simple life and here are few thing that make me happy.

Evening walks with the family, including Rascal

Playing with the kids outside

Watching lightening with Jacob at bed time or just laying on the bed with him talking to him right before he goes to sleep

Saturday mornings - we get a few minutes of extra sleep and I like to make breakfast and then spend time with the kids. They are rested, fed, and just a lot of fun to play with. These opoortunities are rare during the week since we work, so they are all the more precious when get these times with the kids.

Bailey learning to talk

Jacob figuring out the world and watching him grow into a young boy

DVR - seriously what did we do before the DVR?!?!

Uninterrupted conversations with Dan

That moment when both kids are both asleep and Dan and I can hang out

Sitting outside early in the morning when everything is still quiet - haven't been able to do this in awhile since the kids don't sleep in!

A good run

Reading a good book for more than two minutes at a time

A successful dinner that everyone likes and eats

Kids laughing and playing well together

Jacob acting like a big brother (the other day he held her hand and helped her down the steps)

Spending time with family

Opportunities to spend time with my friends and sister

Facebook

Blogging

Having the house clean and organized

Getting it Together

I have never been one to make New Year's resolutions, let alone keep any if I did make them. That changed this year. I literally woke up on New Year's Day and decided I wasn't happy about certain aspects in my life and I vowed to make some changes. I won't go into some of them (you'll just have to just trust me that those changes were made!), but I thought I would share a couple.

One of my resolutions was to change how our dinner meal was being executed. For many years, Dan and I ate dinner around 8:00 at night. While that suited our lifestyle before kids, that didn't fly anymore. I have worked hard at getting dinner ready between 6:00 - 6:30 each night. I also wanted to eat as a family, which is really important to me. For Jacob's first year, I fed him his dinner and then Dan and I ate once he was in bed. When Bailey was born, that changed everything! Another piece of this mix was actually making a dinner as many nights as possible instead of frozen meals. I cleaned out my recipe box, added new ones that I found online (Kraft.com is amazing!), and talked to friends and family about meal ideas and tricks on getting dinner ready in a timely manner. I'm still experimenting with new recipes (much against Dan's preference) and have found ones that have turned into new favorites. I recently started making out a menu for the week, which is coordinated with what the kids eat for lunch. I love, love, love having everything planned out and knowing ahead of time what we're eating and the prep time involved. I can't tell you how many times I stood in the kitchen just staring at the pantry trying to figure out what to make and then settling on something less healthy that was quick because everyone was hungry. I in no way, shape, or form can call myself a good cook, but I'm learning and trying. I don't remember helping my mom in the kitchen much growing up, which is a mistake I won't let either of my kids make!

I also vowed to get my house in order. After having two kids back-to-back, I definitely let my house go. I have forced myself to clean on a schedule so it wouldn't get behind again and it has worked! I also created a long list of spring cleaning projects that needed to be tackled back in late spring and am proud to say that I am finally through the list! It's so nice to finally feel comfortable in my own home again. I could still come up with a number of projects to work on, but for now, I'm done.

In the spring, we decided to upgrade our washer and dryer to the energy efficient models. At first I wasn't a fan and didn't think it was worth the money. After using them for a few weeks I could see how many less loads I was doing a week. It probably comes to about three less loads a weeks, which makes such a difference!

I feel like we have finally emerged from the fog of the last year after Bailey was born. Adding one little body into the household is no small feat!! I love that the kids are on the same routine and are becoming more independent. I have started venturing out for some "me time" more (although not enough) and getting just a couple hours to myself is a great way to refuel. I'm also working out again and hope to rediscover my muscles that have morphed into jelly the past few years!!

Well, that's all for now. Oh, and I in no way feel like the changes I have made are in anyway "groundbreaking", but for me it is a step up in the right direction!!

Bailey's Dance Party

Bailey loves to dance. Any music gets her going. I grabbed the video camera to capture one of her moves last weekend and got more than I could have asked for. You'll have to view the video below, you will see what I mean!

I Wonder Where He Gets It?

Jacob has some OCD in him. It's really no surprise because I make no secrets that I have my OCD issues. Jacob loves to line things up. Lately, it's his bigger toys that are kept downstairs. He turns them into a perfectly lined train. If one gets moved, he freaks out! He also likes to line up the letter magnets from the fridge onto the dishwasher. He also lines things up in his room when he is supposed to be sleeping. He makes lines out of his lego blocks and books. He went through a phase where he would take all of his sheets off his bed and then line his books, one-by-one, in a perfect square on top of his mattress. I seriously wish I got a picture of this. His OCD goes beyond making lines of things. He has to have his food in just the right spot on his plate and if you want to cut up his food, you better ask first because if it's cut the wrong way, he won't eat it! I could go on and on!

Bailey has shown her first OCD issue. When you feed her, she likes you on her right and sitting down. This was where I would always feed her when she was eating baby food, so maybe that's it. We'll soon see if this is the extent of it for her or if she'll take after her brother (and mother).

Mommy and Jacob Day

I took a day off last week to spend the day with Jacob. I miss my little buddy sometimes! Bailey gets plenty of my attention and is sick often enough that our one-on-one time outnumbers mine with Jacob. We had a blast. We went to the Miller Park Zoo for the first time and played at its playground afterwards. I didn't know that was there or how great a playground and splash park it is! We'll definitely be back and also to take Jacob's three-year pictures there I think. Lots of opportunities for some great shots! After the zoo and park, we met Dan for lunch at Culvers. Jacob loves the fish tank and we were lucky enough to get a booth right next to it. Afterwards, we played outside for awhile before he took a good nap.

It's funny, because although I know he had a great time at the zoo, his favorite moment was going to the restaurant. He even told everyone at school the next day what he ate there! I think that the day was as much for me as it was for him. I gained more patience with him and he actually seemed to behave ALL day. I am going to plan on more days like this because before we know it, he'll be driving and not wanting anything to do with me!!


Wallabies

Watching the birds

"Reindeer"

Alpaca



Giant tortoise

The real tiger was "hiding" so Jacob posed with this one. He actually thought it was real!