update

Wow, it's been a while since I've last blogged. And a lot has happened since, too! We had a lot of fun with the holidays this year. Natalie and Ruby really enjoyed it and they were troopers with all of the late nights we had. And we announced that I'm pregnant again! Yep, that'll be three babies in our four years of marriage. Go ahead, do the math... it calculates :) So due to my lazy and sleepy pregnant state, enough said! Enjoy the pictures for now!

This last one is what you get when you buy the cheapest preg test there is! This is something like how the conversation went:

Jordan: "Look at the test, are you pregnant?"

Me: "Yay! We're pregnant.... right?" (hands test over to husband)

Jordan: "Well, there's a faint little line.... what's the directions say?"

Me: (fishes through the garbage to get directions then tries to explain) "I've gotta be, right? I'm tired and cranky..." (along with other non-mentionable things!)

Jordan: "Yup."

So yeah, we're pretty sure we're pregnant!!

natalie 2.5

Tonight I gave Natalie her first official haircut. I think it turned out cute. Natalie has very thin and wavy hair that has a mind of it's own and many different personalities - just like Natalie! She has had a very thin but long mullet going on for way too long. So I cut about 3 inches off. She looks even older now. So here are before and after pictures:

What else is new with Natalie.... Well, Jordan taught her to say 'Yes, sir' and now she adds 'sir' onto many other phrases. She also knows how to joke with us and say 'just kidding' since we pretend to not know that she's joking. We watched the movie "Elf" with Natalie just recently and do you know when Will Ferrell burps for an abnormally long time and then says 'did you hear that?!' Well, Natalie says that now after she or Ruby burps or toots!!

Natalie's current favorite song is the 'boom boom Jesus song' a.k.a. 'Little Drummer Boy'. She's been doing really well with potty training still, woohoo!! She's having less temper tantrums but still can be little miss attitude. We were at Jordan's aunt's house the other night, and Natalie went in the basement, looked around, didn't see anyone she wanted to talk to, and turned around to the stairs with her chin up when they tried talking to her. So Jordan's cousin says real quietly, 'she can have such a little attitude' and whether it was coincidence or not, Natalie whipped a plastic toy at her. It's funny and sort of cute but I really hope that someday she will just humor people and not give them attitude! And yet she can be so overly polite and so loving the next minute! Natalie is like a box of chocolates, you never know what yer gonna git (that's from one of the best movies ever made: Forrest Gump for you sad people who didn't know that!)

When we put Natalie to bed, we have to go through all these rituals: she needs milk, she needs a kiss, she needs a hug, she needs the fan on, and she's got some kind of order that she needs to do it in because sometimes we need to give her multiple hugs and kisses! But it's always worth it to hear, 'I love you' at the end. And she crawls into bed with us later and kicks us with her constantly flailing arms and legs. But only occasionally do I bring her back into her own bed. I like it when she crawls into bed with us and cuddles up. And a few times, I'll wake up to her stroking my face or kissing me and telling me she loves me! My theory is that she won't be sleeping with us when she's ten, right? It'll stop eventually ;)

Natalie is coming up on her half birthday making her two and a half. And in spite of the tantrums and the occasional bad attitude, Natalie we love you more than we thought possible. You are such a ham and a spit-fire. It's been so fun to watch you learn and grow. These two and a half years of life with you have been a BLAST and we look forward to a lifetime with you!

grandma quotes

I just found these two quotes on grandmas and I thought they were so true. Holidays always make me miss my grandmas even more than I already do. Is that normal? They've been gone for 4 and 5 years and I still miss them like crazy! It's just selfishness because I know they're happier in heaven. Anyways, I really love these quotes:

A grandmother is a little bit parent, a little bit teacher, and a little bit best friend. ~Author Unknown

Grandma always made you feel she had been waiting to see just you all day and now the day was complete. ~Marcy DeMaree


Here's to my grandparents who get to spend another Christmas in Paradise!

bat!

Tonight, Jordan and I were invited to go shopping with friends. I decided to stay home because I knew we wouldn't be able to find a babysitter. Jordan couldn't make up his mind: he felt bad leaving us but really wanted to go.... he flipped a coin and the coin said to stay home. And now we know why: a BAT flew into our basement!! Gary chased it back and forth, I put my hood on, Jordan hid under a blanket and we both screamed like little girls. After I whipped the blanket off Jordan and demanded that he 'be a man' he caught the bat under the blanket which was on top of me!!! (Which reminded me of that Office episode when Dwight catches a bat with a paper bag on top of Meredith's head! Ever see that one... you've gotta!) So, if Jordan would have gone out tonight, it would have just been me and the bat! Seriously, I don't know what I would have done!

{shudder}

....{another shudder!}

our november

Where did November go?!?! I cannot believe how fast the days and weeks go especially during the holidays. A couple of weeks ago, Jordan got the h1n1 virus along with a small case of pnemonia. He was down for a week and I was so certain the rest of us would get it so I sanitized repeatedly and thankfully, we didn't get it. Us girls have gotten vaccinated since.

Last week Monday, Natalie decided to go potty all on her own and has only had accidents during naps and at night. Before that, she had only gone pee on the toilet a couple of times but she basically quit diapers cold turkey. She's such an entertainer. She's always got to make us laugh. But she's still in the 'terrible twos' stage. She can change her mood instantly which is not fun.

Ruby is walking really well and talking a little more. She's always been so much quieter than Natalie ever was. This morning, I was changing her diaper and saying 'you stink' over and over and she spit out her pacifier and tried to say 'stink'. She had her 1 year appointment and is 22 lbs + 11 oz and 30 inches long. Ruby is just so much fun. She loves to get chased and loves to mock us when we tell her 'no' by shaking her head at us while laughing and smiling at us. She loves to sing and dance, it's so cute!

We had a good Thanksgiving weekend. We have soooo much to be thankful for: our health, our girls, each other, our families, that Jordan is keeping busy at work, and so much more. We had fun shopping on black Friday, Jordan with Luke and Brad and me with Sara- we've gone for 11 years now.

So now we welcome December, my favorite month: we usually have a ton of parties to attend throughout the entire month and I love the first snow and all things Christmas. My goal for this month is to really embrace what the Christmas season is all about. I have been struggling with my devotions lately, as in I haven't been making God my #1 priority. So this month, in celebration of Christ's birth, I am hoping to give more devotion to the reason that I have so much to be thankful for and the reason that there is any joy in my heart at all.

Wow, what a long post! If you made it through this entire reading, I am honored :) Have a good week :)

sir gary barkel

I love my dog but I don't usually like him. And my dog, Gary, is unlike other dogs... he's more human-like. He can ring the doorbell and open the front door (which some of my friends can't even open!) and all day long, I'm letting him outside, then inside, then outside (who knew this about dogs?!) because he has to be social. He's so high-maintainence! Maybe it's why I get annoyed of him.... he's such a baby and I don't have the patience for him. But Thursday, I discovered that I really do love the dumb dog.

Gary ate almost an entire bag of chocolate chips on Friday. And though I've always known that chocolate is bad for dogs, I didn't really think much of it. I just spanked him, threw him outside and went on my merry way. About 4 hours later, Jordan called and I mentioned it to him and he freaked and told me to call a vet. So I called one and she freaked out when I told him how much he ate and told me that 'this is a medical emergency and it's gonna cost you a few hundred dollars' because they probably would have hospitalized him. I told her I was going to discuss it with my husband before bringing him in. But before calling my husband, she wanted me to pour as much hydrogen peroxide down his throat as I could get so that he would throw up. So I did that and it worked! At this point, we decided that we didn't want to bring Gary in if it was going to cost us an arm and a leg and if he was going to be throwing up in our car. I looked all over the internet about dogs eating chocolate and everywhere I looked, it seemed like he could have ate twice as much chocolate as what he did before he entered the 'toxic' level. He is fine and I'm soo happy we didn't bring him in but I had no idea how toxic chocolate is for dogs. And did you know, there are agents in grapes, raisens, onions, and garlic that can also be toxic for dogs?!

Moral of the story: no matter how much you think you don't like your dog, you realize how much you really do love him when you think he could go into a coma and die. So take care of your pets :)

halloween

We went to the grandparents' houses with the girls on Saturday and I think they got much better pictures of them. These are the ones I was able to get of Natalie and Ruby - they were both crabby and ready to go to bed so I didn't even try to get better ones!

We had a costume party later that night with our closest friends. The vote for best costumes went to Jeremy and Crystal, a.k.a. Fred and Wilma Flintstone!

Jordan's costume started out as my 1970's prom date but it transformed into a woman's costume by the end of the night. He's got lipstick on in this picture (and a woman's blouse from Salvation Army to match!)

And, of course, we had lots of goodies to munch on!

Next party theme.... the Tacky Christmas Sweater Party!