tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59184979254678595342024-03-13T07:38:33.867-07:00The Bagwell FamilyNikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.comBlogger171125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-54902455337937372462014-07-05T20:03:00.004-07:002014-07-08T11:56:13.372-07:00June (Warmth and Carolina)<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;">We loved our week in South Carolina in June. The highlight of the trip was being at the temple with Grammy and Gramps on Saturday, but unfortunately my phone died while I was in the temple so I didn't get a single picture the whole day.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;">We enjoyed hanging out with all the grandparents in their homes:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-q3xbv0wRKzA/U7w-pDtVDhI/AAAAAAAADIk/s-BVB5ELQ_A/s640/blogger-image--1948283569.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-q3xbv0wRKzA/U7w-pDtVDhI/AAAAAAAADIk/s-BVB5ELQ_A/s640/blogger-image--1948283569.jpg"></a></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;">(Chickens at Lala's)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xJLWBq7-NUY/U7w-uKByVvI/AAAAAAAADI4/70XWopUgrLA/s640/blogger-image--986017497.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xJLWBq7-NUY/U7w-uKByVvI/AAAAAAAADI4/70XWopUgrLA/s640/blogger-image--986017497.jpg"></a></div>(Wildflower walk at Lala's)<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-FrV1Hlyb4XE/U7w-kvdXCjI/AAAAAAAADIU/pnWH5heBR-k/s640/blogger-image--1959309184.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-FrV1Hlyb4XE/U7w-kvdXCjI/AAAAAAAADIU/pnWH5heBR-k/s640/blogger-image--1959309184.jpg"></a></div>(Nora's swing set at Lala's)<br style="background-color: white;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-mlWAHk0qEZM/U7w-wKKDlZI/AAAAAAAADJA/KtBWbaNbjhk/s640/blogger-image--1620693103.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-mlWAHk0qEZM/U7w-wKKDlZI/AAAAAAAADJA/KtBWbaNbjhk/s640/blogger-image--1620693103.jpg"></a></div>(Aquarium fun with Grandpa and Grandma)</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-5TE6RYt0FLw/U7w-yiPq_ZI/AAAAAAAADJI/zDMe_Uvysak/s640/blogger-image-247135724.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-5TE6RYt0FLw/U7w-yiPq_ZI/AAAAAAAADJI/zDMe_Uvysak/s640/blogger-image-247135724.jpg"></a></div><br style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;">(Feeding stingrays)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-hCdjfzFkp4U/U7w-UXKnvWI/AAAAAAAADHc/E9ZLAe54rGg/s640/blogger-image-1228658217.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-hCdjfzFkp4U/U7w-UXKnvWI/AAAAAAAADHc/E9ZLAe54rGg/s640/blogger-image-1228658217.jpg"></a></div><font color="#222222" face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif" size="2">(Celebrated my birthday at my Dad's, and Nora tried to steal my wish!)</font></div><div><font size="2"><br></font></div><div><font size="2">On my actual birthday, my mom made a delicious breakfast complete with a crepe cake!</font></div><div><font size="2"><br style="background-color: white;"></font><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;">That night I had one of the best birthday parties I've ever had! My Mom and sister worked hard to fulfill my 13-year-old wish list, including a rainbow chip Barbie cake.</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-A27By4jWAfg/U7w-dflta5I/AAAAAAAADH8/8F3-WDTh6xM/s640/blogger-image--1935619759.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-A27By4jWAfg/U7w-dflta5I/AAAAAAAADH8/8F3-WDTh6xM/s640/blogger-image--1935619759.jpg"></a></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;">Also thanks to Betsey (Buck's sister) we were able to play an old classic board game, Dream Phone. The highlight of the party was a fabulous round of Truth or Dare. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-se0BJZ4TY8c/U7w-gA7g3ZI/AAAAAAAADIE/ctJb0bxeV0o/s640/blogger-image-1178892553.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-se0BJZ4TY8c/U7w-gA7g3ZI/AAAAAAAADIE/ctJb0bxeV0o/s640/blogger-image-1178892553.jpg"></a></div>(Bekah licking a bar of soap)</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ocgdtopG4bo/U7w-iIh4cPI/AAAAAAAADIM/hwIa6T-RCBo/s640/blogger-image--404917004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ocgdtopG4bo/U7w-iIh4cPI/AAAAAAAADIM/hwIa6T-RCBo/s640/blogger-image--404917004.jpg"></a></div>(Some of my dear friends)</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;">Amy, far right, brought some very old pictures of us from 4th great on. Here are a few gems:</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-4hsvSD5zxNc/U7w-rbyOL_I/AAAAAAAADIs/vGBczl8C66Y/s640/blogger-image--850482191.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-4hsvSD5zxNc/U7w-rbyOL_I/AAAAAAAADIs/vGBczl8C66Y/s640/blogger-image--850482191.jpg"></a></div></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;">(Yep, that's ME and Amy)</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-P_s93JgwgOY/U7w-W8DxGQI/AAAAAAAADHk/p1zh1aGjW54/s640/blogger-image--732874957.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-P_s93JgwgOY/U7w-W8DxGQI/AAAAAAAADHk/p1zh1aGjW54/s640/blogger-image--732874957.jpg"></a></div>(Me and Amy again)</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;">I'm so thankful to have great old friends that are loving, supportive, and good sports. What a blessing it is to have dear friends, even if you only see them every few years.</span></div><div><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;">With the weather so nice this month, and few things scheduled I've really felt like taking the kids places. We spontaneously entered Millie in the Swedish Day's (Geneva's big festival) Children's Parade. She loved decorating her bike, but her favorite part was riding in the parade and ringing her little bell the whole time. It was adorable. Louis and I walked beside her.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--l3aPhqN8bA/U7w-m6zHGUI/AAAAAAAADIc/mvl1zSIyhsE/s640/blogger-image-459298810.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--l3aPhqN8bA/U7w-m6zHGUI/AAAAAAAADIc/mvl1zSIyhsE/s640/blogger-image-459298810.jpg"></a></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;">Afterwards we enjoyed playing some little games in booths, eating yummy food and watching some dancers perform. Normally I would wait for Buck to do something like this, but I'm so glad I didn't. We tried to go back up on Saturday with Buck and got completely stranded at the Mall in a horrible rain storm.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;">I also braved a major crowd at a local restaurant for Millie and her little friend Paige to meet Elsa and Anna. When we showed up there was a 3 hour wait to eat, and no hope of seeing them unless you ate. After a while they came out to appease the (huge) crowd outside, and thanks to some aggressive Mommy tactics I was able to get the girls in a picture with Anna and Elsa. I don't think they'll ever know what it took for those pictures, but they were so happy. After the pictures we quickly got out of there and ate at Wendy's. Millie and Paige were a huge hit as they were obviously the only one dressed as princesses there. Paige's Mom made the girls matching Elsa capes for the event, and they were huge hits. Louis often bring it to me for him to wear. Did you know he like to sing "Let it go?"</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9_HzUct2rvI/U7w-ZKzX6dI/AAAAAAAADHs/msnBwDU0iH8/s640/blogger-image-81171633.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9_HzUct2rvI/U7w-ZKzX6dI/AAAAAAAADHs/msnBwDU0iH8/s640/blogger-image-81171633.jpg"></a></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;">We celebrated our 7th anniversary, and besides more lava cakes (hey, we like chocolate!) it was an average Sunday for us. It's been a wonderful 7 years. Did you know we share an anniversary with my Tutu and Rara?</span><br></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lgMSPVR3s7U/U7w-bZUlDmI/AAAAAAAADH0/-_OhV6msLPY/s640/blogger-image--1885290666.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lgMSPVR3s7U/U7w-bZUlDmI/AAAAAAAADH0/-_OhV6msLPY/s640/blogger-image--1885290666.jpg"></a></div><br></span></div>Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-8763564210527454142014-07-05T20:02:00.001-07:002014-07-08T11:35:30.167-07:00May (School's Out and Thriftcation)<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">May seems like forever ago. It was a lovely, mostly warm month for us. We enjoyed starting to really play outside, sometimes even in the water. We went to our first primary activity! There was a primary day at the Chicago Temple. The temple is really unique looking, and has a very interesting water fountain in the front that both of our children couldn't get enough of. It was a lovely Saturday family outing.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-hpcPEmfFPwE/U7w5zK2NE7I/AAAAAAAADGw/q6R57cuzzGU/s640/blogger-image--2107713835.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-hpcPEmfFPwE/U7w5zK2NE7I/AAAAAAAADGw/q6R57cuzzGU/s640/blogger-image--2107713835.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KHNktJgHLdU/U7w5wXpVdAI/AAAAAAAADGo/woIPSGPA6gA/s640/blogger-image-1200482038.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KHNktJgHLdU/U7w5wXpVdAI/AAAAAAAADGo/woIPSGPA6gA/s640/blogger-image-1200482038.jpg"></a></div><br></span><div>(Millie took this of Buck and I)<br style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">Millie attended her last day of school. This is her with Miss Kathy, her bus driver. Miss Kathy is also a local artist and does some really neat work. You can find her site <a href="http://www.kathyhoneystudio.com/">here </a>if you want to see what I mean. She has been a fabulous, patient and loving bus driver. Millie fought going to school a few times, but she was able to calm her down and occupy her mind with made up stories about Miss Kathy's cat, Pumpkin. We really appreciate her.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-B_7Lhgjor4A/U7w55y1siUI/AAAAAAAADHI/QUdNPZBBf6Y/s640/blogger-image-1208084707.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-B_7Lhgjor4A/U7w55y1siUI/AAAAAAAADHI/QUdNPZBBf6Y/s640/blogger-image-1208084707.jpg"></a></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;">Millie also finished a gymnastics class she had been taking. She didn't love it like she loved dance, so I think that's the end of her gymnastics road for now. I think it's right down Louis' alley though...until he can really get into sports. He jumps off of everything he can, and will throw his head down for a somersault so quickly to impress people. He also feels best having a ball in his hands and often takes one to bed with him.</span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-YEtU8Yo-A_I/U7w57_IYhGI/AAAAAAAADHQ/dlaSBtcjLjs/s640/blogger-image--1890480298.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-YEtU8Yo-A_I/U7w57_IYhGI/AAAAAAAADHQ/dlaSBtcjLjs/s640/blogger-image--1890480298.jpg"></a></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">I took a trip I had been dreaming about with my friends in May. We went to Madison, Wisconsin for a Thriftcation. It was such a beautiful, clean, delicious town full of well stocked thrift stores. We had an absolute blast shopping, eating, and even jumping on the hotel beds. We started planning this trip to help get us through the winter, but by the time it came around it ended up being a farewell for one of my good friends, too. So it was bittersweet, but wonderful.</span><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lOrMqZUplrE/U7w51XyZutI/AAAAAAAADG4/wgXnb_7uB4A/s640/blogger-image-1940575738.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lOrMqZUplrE/U7w51XyZutI/AAAAAAAADG4/wgXnb_7uB4A/s640/blogger-image-1940575738.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>(Delicious breakfast)</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-VuwE9qRj5-A/U7w53YzLNJI/AAAAAAAADHA/2_moD9Pbd2o/s640/blogger-image-1473113973.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-VuwE9qRj5-A/U7w53YzLNJI/AAAAAAAADHA/2_moD9Pbd2o/s640/blogger-image-1473113973.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>( you haven't truly thrifted until you've been to a dig-n-save)</div><div><br>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Of course I need to brag about some of my finds!<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NPFfipffRPs/U7w4oSB91XI/AAAAAAAADGM/xvP0kmvPYB8/s640/blogger-image--969777975.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NPFfipffRPs/U7w4oSB91XI/AAAAAAAADGM/xvP0kmvPYB8/s640/blogger-image--969777975.jpg"></a></div><font color="#222222" size="2">(Vintage books)</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><font color="#222222" size="2"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-CqOZB8eislo/U7w4q1_TVOI/AAAAAAAADGU/FH2w62tCTDc/s640/blogger-image--1271159546.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-CqOZB8eislo/U7w4q1_TVOI/AAAAAAAADGU/FH2w62tCTDc/s640/blogger-image--1271159546.jpg"></a></div>(Lonely Kokeshi with umbrella)</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><font color="#222222" size="2"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-1rSoLwwXfFQ/U7w4tPYDMTI/AAAAAAAADGc/DKmSenPcDEo/s640/blogger-image--683242258.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-1rSoLwwXfFQ/U7w4tPYDMTI/AAAAAAAADGc/DKmSenPcDEo/s640/blogger-image--683242258.jpg"></a></div>(The grand prize...an old milk container for $6!)</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><font color="#222222" size="2"><br></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><font color="#222222" size="2">I also collected lots of vintage linens and clothing. My heart skipped a beat paying a few cents for each piece at the dig-n-save.</font></span></div>Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-4806667881511558012014-04-28T20:08:00.001-07:002014-07-07T04:48:48.054-07:00April<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">April was the month we've been waiting for and lived up to all we hoped it would be. We officially feel all thawed out. After the winter we had we weren't sure that would ever happen.</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For some reason I felt like going all out for April Fools this year. I think it's now Millie's new favorite holiday. We loved playing tricks on people (plastic bugs in shoes and on pillow cases) and eating tricky food. For dinner we had meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting, candy peas and carrots (Jelly Belly makes some), Jello "juice" and a chocolate cake decorated to look like a pot of chili for desert.</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-SKaJ2X4irJs/U7qJDFj_wZI/AAAAAAAADFs/2G_4mqg8WS8/s640/blogger-image--1977826462.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-SKaJ2X4irJs/U7qJDFj_wZI/AAAAAAAADFs/2G_4mqg8WS8/s640/blogger-image--1977826462.jpg"></a></div><br></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We co-hosted an adorable Preschool Easter egg hunt at our house the day before we left for Hawaii. We had a sack race, egg on a spoon race, hunt, lunch and decorated eggs. Everything went smooth and I'm so happy I agreed to do it. It's nice to stretch those entertaining muscles after a winter of keeping to ourselves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We had a blast in Hawaii!</span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We're so thankful our Moms made the big drive to come watch our kids. Having many hands keeping an eye on them really put my mind at ease. We know young kids aren't easy to take care of, and really appreciate their willingness and enthusiasm to take care of our babies. For the record we thought about our children constantly. It was hard being away from them, but so lovely to have that adventure together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A few hours after we got home Louis got very sick. That was Easter weekend, and since he was in good spirits we continued on with our plans on Saturday to get together with KC's family. Of course everyone wants to snuggle poor little Louis. See where this is going? Our handsome little man managed to spread his stomach bug to all but two people. By Sunday nigh this stomach bug had spread to four households! We had to pass on doing an egg hunt and just work on making sure everyone had an empty bucket beside them. Thankfully it passed pretty quickly and we're all back to normal now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now that we really feel thawed out we had a truly spring weekend. We did yard work! That's 1,000x better than shoveling snow, trust me. Buck cut the grass, we ripped out some rose bushes and bough peonies to go in their place. We also had Millie pick out some flowers to put in her fairy garden and planted those. We like this no-snow thing we've got going on.</span></div>
Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-27311078155110499882014-04-28T20:06:00.000-07:002014-05-01T20:38:21.690-07:00Bagwell Family Hawaii Travel Guide<div><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TTzGtpfVHuQ/U18nJHzDMsI/AAAAAAAADB0/G_0oXxd1dyg/s640/blogger-image-283488807.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TTzGtpfVHuQ/U18nJHzDMsI/AAAAAAAADB0/G_0oXxd1dyg/s640/blogger-image-283488807.jpg"></a></div><br></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We had a wonderful first full-fledged vacation without kids! I feel like I've done a pretty good job of sharing what we did via facebook and instagram, but I want to write down a few more details and tips so I can remember them for next time. Sometimes I have the worst memory! Mommy brain? Plus I have two friends visiting Hawaii soon (and our tickets were so affordable I'm betting more will find themselves there) that were wanting some feedback of our trip.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>General Hawaii Tips:</b></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First off, being from the southeast I forget how cold the ocean can be. It's cold but clear blue and inviting. Totally worth going in, especially for snorkeling, but it wasn't very hot out so we didn't do a whole lot of just plain swimming. The weather was an absolutely perfect 70-80 degrees but it does rain every day (especially on Kauai) so a jacket is a must. I was freezing sometimes in my light sweater, especially if we got caught in rain at night. Don't worry, the rain doesn't last long and you're very comfortable the rest of the time. Also I've probably been a little spoiled by vacationing in Siesta Key most summers, but the sand on all the beaches we went to wasn't like walking on a cloud. The views are breathtaking and the atmosphere is wonderful, just the sand wasn't as great as I would have wished.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We really wanted to mail Millie a coconut, something I had done for Buck's sister back in college. They've changed the regulations a little bit, and we couldn't get it all worked out. With enough planning, you can though! You can find a dry coconut still in the husk anywhere (it's yard debris) or possibly one that is already painted at a store. You want to find a light one (so it's less expensive) without any bugs. After you find one you have to take it to the airport to have it inspected by the Department of Agriculture. They will check it and stamp it okay to mail. Then you can decorate it, take it to the post office, and mail it like you would any other package.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If you're planning on flying in to Honolulu then on to another island (like we did), you should know that the terminal for those little between-island flights is quite the haul from where we landed on Delta. I think it's out there compared to any carrier. You might want to consider that if you've got a tight connection. We had carry on bags only and ran, but just something to consider if you're checking bags, changing carriers and not into running.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Kauai:</b></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is known as the "Garden Island", and it lives up to its name. It is so lush and beautiful. I forgot just how many wild chickens run around here. You'll see them everywhere, and hear them all day and night. I think it adds to the charm.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We stayed with my Aunt and Uncle there but my grandparents have had a timeshare at the <a href="http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/lihhi-kauai-marriott-resort/">Marriott </a>for years and it would definitely be my first choice of hotels. It's a beautiful property.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-TRDlG9Qhenk/U18nHOqtUtI/AAAAAAAADBs/zBJ4qBs4l-g/s640/blogger-image-837216709.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-TRDlG9Qhenk/U18nHOqtUtI/AAAAAAAADBs/zBJ4qBs4l-g/s640/blogger-image-837216709.jpg"></a></div><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We borrowed kayaks from a friend and went up the <a href="http://www.gohawaii.com/kauai/regions-neighborhoods/east-side/wailua-river">Wailua River</a> to the <a href="http://www.gohawaii.com/kauai/regions-neighborhoods/east-side/fern-grotto">Fern Grotto</a> (only accessible by boat). That took a few hours but was well worth it. It was so beautiful and reminded me of the Appalachian Mountains meets the Caribbean. We could have (and should have) kayaked and hiked over to Wailua Falls. Next time.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We also did one hike where we saw the most unique trees. We didn't end up doing the hike right (never said we were expert hikers), but still had a wonderful time. I'm not sure what the hike was even called, but there are tons to go on and I don't think you can go wrong. First on my list for next time is <a href="http://www.gohawaii.com/kauai/regions-neighborhoods/west-side/waimea-canyon">Waimea Canyon</a> the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific." I seriously went from a very casual (or very rare) hiker to interested in hiking just from this trip. The views were completely what I was looking for.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Possibly one of my favorite things we did was visit <a href="http://www.gohawaii.com/kauai/regions-neighborhoods/north-shore/hanalei-town">Hanalei Bay</a>. We hung out by the pier and in the little town for a few hours, then ventured up the coast for an incredible scenic drive. I do love the movie South Pacific, so finding <a href="http://www.kauai.com/beaches/lumahai-beach">Lumahai Beach</a> was our original plan. Of course we passed it without noticing but stumbled instead across some really cool beaches and even <a href="http://www.kauai.com/attractions/wet-and-dry-caves">Manini-holo Dry Cave</a>. We backtracked and found it, no problem. Thank goodness for smartphones. I though Hanalei was cool, but found I got stir crazy sitting on the beach for too long so driving and trying new beaches every so often was perfect for me.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-OchuFtc6ROw/U18m8lc8PuI/AAAAAAAADBE/3wnvGoVnUJU/s640/blogger-image--546811234.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-OchuFtc6ROw/U18m8lc8PuI/AAAAAAAADBE/3wnvGoVnUJU/s640/blogger-image--546811234.jpg"></a></div><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For food we relied on the generosity of my Aunt and Uncle, tried a few taco places, and fell in love with Duke's Hula Pie.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Next time we visit I will make a point to try and do some whale watching if possible. I feel like we got a great taste of Kauai and can't wait to go back for more.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Oahu:</b></span><br>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><br></b></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since we didn't have any family to take advantage of here, I think we got clever with a few money saving techniques to maximize our trip. The easiest place to stay at is Waikiki. It's not the most beautiful (still beautiful) but is very popular and offers lots of shopping, and has the largest clumping of hotels and the best prices. Plus it's close to the airport, so if you have to catch a taxi is not super expensive.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We went back and forth on a few different hotels and nearly went with <a href="http://www.princeresortshawaii.com/hawaii-prince-hotel-waikiki/index.php">Hawaii Prince Hotel</a> based off a friend's recommendation (it's clean, updated and affordable). We caught ourselves drooling over the <a href="http://www.moana-surfrider.com/">Moana-Surfrider Westin</a> resort that was more pricey but grand and historic so we came up with a plan to stay there for one night (check in early in the morning, check out late, maximize resort time) since we were going to explore Waikiki anyway and stay at the Courtyard Mariott the other two nights since we'd be busy all around Oahu anyway. I think our plan worked out perfect and pretty affordable.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-8Ndg7TEjZ6o/U2MTId6Q_hI/AAAAAAAADCg/oZsyBe_XTzk/s640/blogger-image-1844815175.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-8Ndg7TEjZ6o/U2MTId6Q_hI/AAAAAAAADCg/oZsyBe_XTzk/s640/blogger-image-1844815175.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Fxlmu3-dc7s/U2MTGJ02dbI/AAAAAAAADCY/k0c0_DB5tXE/s640/blogger-image--1746433235.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Fxlmu3-dc7s/U2MTGJ02dbI/AAAAAAAADCY/k0c0_DB5tXE/s640/blogger-image--1746433235.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lcDMr2VgN0E/U2MTK1lAsSI/AAAAAAAADCo/evkqTH2PXUY/s640/blogger-image-1529895407.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lcDMr2VgN0E/U2MTK1lAsSI/AAAAAAAADCo/evkqTH2PXUY/s640/blogger-image-1529895407.jpg"></a></div><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We were only planning on renting a car for 24 hours, so we needed to work out some transportation from the airport and to a few other places the other days. We ended up catching a taxi to our hotel ($30ish) versus paying the hotel shuttle (some might be included but ours wasn't). Originally we wanted to take the bus but they don't allow luggage. We did take the bus a few other places ($2.50/person each way) though. When we finally ended up grabbing a car and sorting through parking fees we figured out we would have probably spent the same just having a car the whole time. Learn from us. Rent a car at the airport, it's much cheaper per day than renting in Waikiki. Look around for cheaper overnight parking than what your hotel has if you don't mind walking. Our two hotels charged around $30/night for parking, so we saved a little money by parking at the <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60982-d86961-Reviews-Aston_at_the_Waikiki_Banyan-Honolulu_Oahu_Hawaii.html">Aston Banyan</a> for $12 instead.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">No matter where you stay, you have to go walk through all the other hotels. That's totally normal, I promise. We loved the Moana. We missed the official tour offered every other day, but the front desk provides information for a walking tour. It's one of Waikiki's oldest (if not the oldest) hotels. The tour provides a lot of history of the city as well as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Kahanamoku">Duke Kahanamoku</a>. Its open to anyone, not just guests.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Bos3V5savi8/U2MTD59XuZI/AAAAAAAADCQ/JpKV73M-Skk/s640/blogger-image-1176304359.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Bos3V5savi8/U2MTD59XuZI/AAAAAAAADCQ/JpKV73M-Skk/s640/blogger-image-1176304359.jpg"></a></div><br></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The entire Waikiki area caters majorly to Japanese tourists, which I loved. We even had a fancy Japanese toilet in our hotel room. Everything is written in both English and Japanese and finding non-Japanese affordable food in walking distance can be a little tricky. I say embrace it and try some new things.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-EcjHDx9A4Vk/U18nFGnwDeI/AAAAAAAADBk/d8ZLyBDxapU/s640/blogger-image--825978356.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-EcjHDx9A4Vk/U18nFGnwDeI/AAAAAAAADBk/d8ZLyBDxapU/s640/blogger-image--825978356.jpg"></a></div><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We took the bus to Pearl Harbor one day. A friend tipped us off on needing to request tickets ahead of time if we wanted to actually go to the monument, but we didn't log on soon enough. They are booked several weeks in advance. They do give out 1,000 walk-in tickets a day, so it's still worth trying. We went late morning and got tickets for the 2:15 ferry. We ended up spending hours reading every single thing waiting on our ferry time only to find out there is a ferry every 15 minutes and they offer open seats to anyone standing there, so we could have tried stand-by much sooner. Live and learn. It's a great experience, but I had already been there so spending an entire day (when you're only on Oahu for 3) was a bit much for me.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-M_X2Fq362yI/U18nLd-zuiI/AAAAAAAADB8/2dRQH-ntJpM/s640/blogger-image--1902359681.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-M_X2Fq362yI/U18nLd-zuiI/AAAAAAAADB8/2dRQH-ntJpM/s640/blogger-image--1902359681.jpg"></a></div><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We spent another whole day in Laie visiting the <a href="https://www.lds.org/church/temples/laie-hawaii?lang=eng">temple</a>, <a href="http://byuh.edu/">BYU-Hawaii</a> and the <a href="http://polynesianculturalcenter.com/new/?gclid=CIDZ7erNhL4CFYtDMgodS0cATQ#.U18I6fldVsA">Polynesian Cultural Center.</a> We passed some beautiful beaches (the whole drive was breathtaking) and I wished we could have explored the area around Laie a little more. The PCC is the best. Such a great way to learn lots of culture. We had a great time and even stayed for the night show. I was disappointed they didn't really do much with fire until the very end, but it was still a great show. They pack a lot of entertainment into a short day, so go when they first open and plan on spending the whole day. And if you need an idea for lunch or dinner <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/seven-brothers-laie">Seven Brothers </a>was a big hit with us.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-NlD1EMEJ7xc/U18m-qmrWyI/AAAAAAAADBM/Y6PBoafkJjI/s640/blogger-image-766881752.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-NlD1EMEJ7xc/U18m-qmrWyI/AAAAAAAADBM/Y6PBoafkJjI/s640/blogger-image-766881752.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-nauQE2M96MQ/U18nAz-5-2I/AAAAAAAADBU/dYK6kd9lEgY/s640/blogger-image-1673705365.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-nauQE2M96MQ/U18nAz-5-2I/AAAAAAAADBU/dYK6kd9lEgY/s640/blogger-image-1673705365.jpg"></a></div><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the day we flew out we squeezed in the last of our list (since we had a car). We woke up early and got in to <a href="http://www1.honolulu.gov/parks/facility/hanaumabay/index1.htm">Hanauma Bay</a> right after they opened. Everyone needs to go here sometime in their life. The snorkeling here is what you'll compare all other snorkeling to for the rest of your life. They have limited space so going early is recommended. We were a little timid (and very cold) so we didn't venture out too much in the water but we still managed to see incredible coral, lots of fish, sea urchins, crabs, and about five sea turtles. I wish we could have stayed there for a full day. Just that morning the volunteers saw a momma whale and her calf!</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-2QEXphy274o/U18nDMI1B-I/AAAAAAAADBc/S1e3VtSyERA/s640/blogger-image--759394245.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-2QEXphy274o/U18nDMI1B-I/AAAAAAAADBc/S1e3VtSyERA/s640/blogger-image--759394245.jpg"></a></div><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The very last, but highly recommended stop was to <a href="http://www.leonardshawaii.com/about/">Leonard's Bakery</a> for fresh malasadas. It's like the Krispy Kreme of Hawaii to me. Stop by on your way out though, so you can still fit into your swimsuit for the rest of your trip.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After looking around we realized we were barely skimming the surface. There are so many more natural wonders I want to see on Oahu. The hiking looks incredible. The only food place we missed that was on our list was <a href="http://matsumotoshaveice.com/">Matsumoto Shave Ice</a>, and stop was to see the beach where the plane crashed in LOST. We're pretty big LOST fans so I'm really bummed we didn't get to that one.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Like I said, this is mostly for our records as we fully anticipate returning someday. Maybe two weeks instead of one next time?</span>Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-25034127050867080942014-03-05T13:33:00.003-08:002014-03-05T13:37:18.115-08:00February: Love, Parties and a Glimpse of the Sun<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What a <i>lovely</i> month we had. Pretty much the only way to beat the after-Christmas-winter-blues is Valentine's Day. The kids loved making and putting up decorations, admiring them all month long, and preparing for the big day.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">February was a great month for parties. We went to a preschool party where the kids decorated cookies, painted hearts with colored ice on toothpicks (very cool, not very messy and sorry no pictures) and exchanged Valentines. Millie's were a combination of a free printable found at <a href="http://www.madetobeamomma.com/2014/01/valentine-printable-bubbles.html">Made to Be a Momma</a> and some dollar store wedding bubbles. </span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Louis handed out ones that say "You make my heart glow" (from <a href="http://www.deliacreates.com/2013/02/last-minute-glow-stick-valentines.html">Delia Creates</a>) with added glow sticks we had left over from Halloween. Both were big hits. My favorite part of doing the Valentines was that Millie was willing to sign the back of hers, and even did a couple of Louis'! I haven't seen her write any other words besides "Millie" so this was a pretty big deal.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I was invited to a "Ladies Valentine's Exchange" put on by one of my friends, Amy over at </span><a href="http://sometimescreative.blogspot.com/">Sometimes Creative</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">. It was fabulous. Each guest was to bring 12 "Valentines". They could be pretty, edible, homemade, really anything you wanted. I made microwaveable hand warmers as my Valentine and I think they turned out adorable (though hard to photograph). I made the tags using my silhouette. Easier than it looks, just how I like my crafts.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> I came home with a vintage tea cup candle, Anthropologie pinch bowl, pink popcorn, kitchen towel with pink yoyos, earings, garland, wooden spoon, lotion, cupcake in a jar, set of notecards and cute mason jar of m&ms.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Actual Valentine's Day was great as well. The kids woke up to a fun spread at the breakfast bar including one balloon each, several cards from us and relatives and of course a small box of chocolates each. As you may have seen in the video, the balloons were a huge hit. Had I known it only takes a balloon from the dollar store to get them to run laps around the house by themselves I probably would have been buying them all winter long!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Since my brother is in town (aka free babysitter) we decided to splurge a little on our Valentine's date night. We finally made our way to a highly recommended restaurant, The Turf Room. Even though we thought this out well in advance the dinner reservations we ended up with were for 9PM. Good thing we're still in our 20's haha! The place was really neat, sort of rustic with a huge fireplace in the middle and couches to lounge around at. The food was good, but there are so many places to still try around here it will probably be a while before go again.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The snow level hit new heights this month, and we learned to throw snow over our heads in shoveling the driveway since the mounds are just too high. Checking mail has been a challenge for most of the month though we did eventually get rain which took the snow level down quite a bit. Now we've got lots and lots of ice.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We had a good two or three days above freezing which meant we were finally able to stretch our legs, soak up some sun and take out our bikes (from Christmas) for the first time. It was so nice, but unfortunately now that Louis has had a taste of outside that all our sweet boy wants to do and the weather is not cooperating. Hopefully soon.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On a whim Buck got some tickets to the Bulls game this past weekend from a co-worker who wasn't able to go, and since we have Xan to help watch the kids we were able to make a date night of it. Yes, that's TWO date nights in one month! It was lots of fun, very high energy and entertaining. It helped that we had pretty good seats, a parking pass and it was free. It was my first professional basketball game and even I was impressed with how the teams worked together. It's not easy to understand the synergy watching on TV. The highlight was when the Bulls scored 100 points and the crowd went wild because it meant everyone there won a free Big Mac. So funny. Now that Jimmer is playing for the Bulls, I seeing more games in our future.</span></div>
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Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-75573367713568864992014-02-20T12:36:00.000-08:002014-02-20T12:36:22.662-08:00January<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm obviously pretty bad at blogging. I find instagram fills my need to connect and share pictures of what we're up to, what's the point in writing a long post about it all? Plus I'm horrible about reading <i>any </i>blogs anymore, and assume most of my readers are in the same boat. But it dawned on me at Christmas (thanks to a gift from Buck's Mom) that I could totally kill two birds with one stone here. You see, we contribute monthly to a newsletter his Mom puts together for their extended family. At Christmas she printed all of our articles and put them in a book for us to keep as our family history. Originally I had been writing our articles geared toward his family, but now I think I'll write it more like our family history of the month and share the same article and pictures here. I'll try at least :)</span><div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our life lately has revolved around our weather, unfortunately. This is the most snow and coldest weather we've ever been in, and living here makes the winters "up north" or in Utah seem so much easier and more comfortable. Remember when we used to complain about those other places? It's not all bad, just cold. Truly I am hit with an overwhelming feeling of deep appreciation for this adventure in our lives. During naps on Saturdays Buck and I sometimes have a chance to shovel the driveway together and as silly as it sounds I can't help soaking those moments up, imprinting them in my mind knowing that some day we'll be living some place warmer and able to recall these vivid winters and the adventure it has been for us. While it is extremely cold outside, our home is nearly 70 degrees and very well insulated. We don't go outside for more than 1-2 minutes at a time as we walk from the car into wherever we are going. Even though it's extremely cold I promise anyone could handle it...with enough layers and good shoes :)</span></span><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The amount of snow we have received has been above average, and we honestly have run out of places to throw it while shoveling our drive way! Our mailbox is hard to spot, if you can imagine. Some areas (especially the airport, but some places around our town too) don't have the space for piles of snow this big so big trucks haul it off much like we're used to seeing sand and dirt being hauled off. They take it somewhere to be melted down and drained. Our neighboring town, St Charles, had to cancel school a few days because their town had completely run out of ice melt and sand for the trucks to spread so it wasn't safe for the buses to get around. This has been quite a learning experience for us, and although we long for warm days and time playing in the sun we really are enjoying our time here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Because we stay at home most of the time, we have gotten pretty creative a making our days special. Millie had a "beach day" at school and even wore her swim suit over her clothes! When she got home we decided to stretch out this easy theme through lunch. We pulled out beach towels, our beach umbrella, sun hats, and Louis' bathing suit and had a little picnic on the "beach" in our living room. We even enjoyed Betsey and Jocie's company via facetime. Sweet Jocie indulged us by putting on not one but two of her bathing suits. We hope they'll have a snow day and give us a call for some pointers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We've made many forts (or castles), obstacle courses and crafts. We've enjoyed our basement a lot, and Millie has gotten really good at her new bike. We've spent too much time on TV, Movies, and the ipads, but we're thankful for that technology. Sometimes its our only option to keep me sane. Louis loves the PBS kids app and watches Super Why and World Girl whenever he can. Really he flips through all the shows, but has shown a special love for superheros. Maybe someday he'll learn all about them from Garrett. Millie is branching out and even watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Millie's annual review was at the end of January. She didn't get dropped from the program like we were half way expecting, but we are thankful. She is still ahead for academics (showing more 5 year old skills, instead of her peers at 3-4 years old) and we're so proud of her hard work and perfectionism. She's starting to write other letters besides just her name and even wrote "Louis" on one of Louis' valentines for him. They still set a few academic goals for her (trouble with cluster counting and sequencing), but the main area she needs help catching up in is social. She's behind at staying on task in a group setting and needs verbal reminders more than an average 3-4 year old. It sounded like wimpy goals/reasons to keep her in to me but they also expressed concern for next year as a reason. In the pre-k class it's more academic, less play oriented, with many directions being given in a group settings. I walked away from the review proud of her and thankful for such loving teachers. They genuinely appreciate our Millie. They took the time to tell me what a joy she is and what personality and imagination she has. Her speech teacher even wore a polka dot shirt that day because she had Millie that same day for speech and knew Millie would love it. That's love. I still can't believe Millie had them convinced Nora was her babysitter!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Louis is a daredevil. Bet ya'll find that surprising. Although he's been hurt more times than I'd like to admit, his favorite past time is jumping from our side table or ottoman on to the couch. Sometimes he's close enough to make it, sometimes he isn't. We've had to move out the side table all together just to avoid this. In the bath he is just short of climbing up the side and jumping in to the water. The other day, before I could catch him he climbed up the side because he wanted to get out and somehow did a belly flop on to our bathroom floor, sliding across like a wet baby seal! All while smiling of course. That smile. His smile is something else. He is just adorable. Oh and he's pretty crazy about his red cowboy boots. Melts my heart when he brings them to me saying "boo, boo" for "boots." He also says "more", "bye" (with a southern accent), "cracker", "Dada", "ball" and a few others. I think he's got about 10 words down, but understands so much. He takes simple directions, and often surprises me when I ask him to do something (like "go get a book to read" and he has to go to another room and everything). He's such a picky eater these days, but thankfully his molars have broken through so he's able to eat more difficult foods.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Buck and I are doing great. Nothing exciting to mention about us, just keeping the kids happy and healthy and doing our best to try and be good parents. Buck is working a whole lot right now but hasn't had to travel lately. My brother just came to live with us for a while, and our kids love having Uncle Xan around. He's enjoying the opportunity to pull ahead on "favorite uncle" status.</span></div>
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Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-76138078771767122712013-08-30T12:19:00.000-07:002013-08-30T12:19:48.096-07:00Baby WoowisOh my word I love my little boy. I don't know if its like this for everyone, or if it will be with each of my full-term children, but I fell instantly in love and attached to this sweet baby. I'll never forget the moment I held him for the first time, quickly after birth. That in itself was so refreshing. He has been a very easy, happy, smart and smiley baby. He picks up on things quickly which makes me a little nervous for the next few years, but I'm sure I'll still enjoy being his Momma.<br />
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Since we were with a big chunk of family on vacation a few weeks ago we decided to go ahead and have a birthday party for Louis. I always joke about Louis being the heir to the throne (first male, royal name), so a "King Louie" party seemed appropriate. Having William and Kate add Louis to Prince George's name just solidified our choice in party themes. I knew I had good taste in names.<br />
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We celebrated 15 birthday's over those four weeks we were together, and Louis' was one of the last, so we kept his party pretty simple. By the way, I recently got my first digital DSLR and haven't sat down to truly figure it out. Really I need a class. Some of these pictures are great, some could be much better. And there are a bazillion of them. Sorry :)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We went with simple decorations and copycat Portillos chocolate cake (and smash cake)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The King himself</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Make your own crown (or tiara)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sporting the pre-made gold crowns</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The family</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Singing and "smashing" the cake didn't go over so well with him.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After the cake we headed to the beach to send off 20 Chinese sky lanterns like in Tangled. We only managed to send one off. Now we have 19 more to do another day!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cake was a big hit with Louis and Millie the next morning. Seems our little King was just too sleepy to party.</td></tr>
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Love this little boy so much. I'm so lucky I get to be his Mom. Have I mentioned he gives squeezes now? It's wonderful.Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-58559408834467137282013-08-17T12:58:00.000-07:002013-08-17T12:58:46.439-07:00Rachel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I don't really write about Millie being a preemie much anymore. The truth is it doesn't consume my thoughts like it once did. I love that experience, but I've kind of moved on. Thankfully she has very few daily reminders of her miraculous beginning. Can I blame the constant whining on that?</div>
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When we're meeting people for the first time it occasionally comes up. Sometimes I refer to her riding the mini-bus to preschool which is only a privileged given to the "special needs" children. Other times we talk about her glasses and why she has them at such a young age. Most of the time these conversations don't go far. Most people just nod in acceptance and ask how long we've lived here or how old Louis is.</div>
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Today I met an incredible neighbor on the playground. She asked a few questions about Millie and then shared with me the story of her daughter, Rachel. She was born just a little bit early which turned out to be a good thing. She appeared completely healthy, but the neonatologist noticed something unusual and figured out she had a heart condition. She had surgery at 6 months old to correct her condition and was given at 98% chance of survival from the surgery. She passed just days after the surgery.</div>
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I couldn't help but flip back to Millie as a tiny baby. I couldn't imagine knowing her for 6 blissful months and then her being gone. It reminded me of that terrible night in the NICU where we witnessed a baby pass away right outside of Millie's room. It was too much to handle. I actually teared up a little as she was telling me the story, about 3 minutes after meeting her for the first time.</div>
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She went on to share with me a little bit more about her. She has a son going into 2nd (there at the playground) who she adopted miraculously after 7 years of infertility. I was just blown away by how quickly I learned about this sweet woman. I can attribute that all to having Millie miraculously. It was a blessing then, and the experience still blesses me today. It could have possibly taken me years to learn so much about a neighbor that I might run into once a year on the playground.</div>
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I am so thankful for her birth, her 135 days in the NICU, and especially every day since. Isn't she beautiful?</div>
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Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-71026503871335498472013-08-01T21:20:00.001-07:002013-08-01T21:20:44.599-07:00Peaceful and Beautiful<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-IfM10uLJaSU/UfszmhJWTvI/AAAAAAAACXo/-lcIjZawHK4/s640/blogger-image-772244181.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-IfM10uLJaSU/UfszmhJWTvI/AAAAAAAACXo/-lcIjZawHK4/s640/blogger-image-772244181.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">We're at Siesta Key (wrapping up week 3) and loving it. I've been surprised at how stressful it is for me to be here. Keeping two kids safe, clean-ish, kind-ish, and fed in a busy house full of family doing the same for their kids is exhausting! I do get help, but it still wears me out.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It's worth it though. The beach is beautiful. It warms my heart to see my children take to the sun, sand and water like they live in Florida or something.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The best part of it all is seeing my sweet cousins that I have loved and admired as babies doing the same to my sweet children. They fuss over Louis, taking turns holding and singing to him. I sort of wish we was more of a tiny baby so all of their hard work truly paid off. They love my sweet Millie and endure her screaming, whining, and scowls when she's all-too-often grumpy these days. They are always excited to see her even if she gives the impression the feeling isn't mutual just that second. She has her good moments, and looks up to these kids so much.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I just crawled into bed and caught a glimpse of the most beautiful and peaceful face I've ever seen. I'm sharing a bed with my sweet Millie. It's amazing how just one sight can make your heart full and your mind race with thought that you need to write or you might burst.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I keep reminding myself that my kids are just this age for so long, soak up all you can. I do. I love it. They are sweet, giggly, loving, and fun. I do everything I can think of for them. I do my best to capture these memories, not often in a blog post. I'd like to blog more. No promises :)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Just in case I still have any readers out there, what do you do to feel like you're still using your brain? I'm not in school and my "job" requires lots of strength, patience, and endurance, but I don't find it mentally challenging. What do you do to feel like you're still thinking and learning?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Here are a few pictures from our little vacation:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ph3kwNHkz90/UfsxcJ9VH7I/AAAAAAAACXA/df72AYT-GNk/s640/blogger-image-883019997.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ph3kwNHkz90/UfsxcJ9VH7I/AAAAAAAACXA/df72AYT-GNk/s640/blogger-image-883019997.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-CwnTjPlrZ3I/Ufsxf-fCu6I/AAAAAAAACXI/c8zMYhvOwnw/s640/blogger-image-1582501698.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-CwnTjPlrZ3I/Ufsxf-fCu6I/AAAAAAAACXI/c8zMYhvOwnw/s640/blogger-image-1582501698.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1tcdBhH2Xq0/UfszhA1VReI/AAAAAAAACXY/U1-mOCU-8s8/s640/blogger-image-1379199414.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1tcdBhH2Xq0/UfszhA1VReI/AAAAAAAACXY/U1-mOCU-8s8/s640/blogger-image-1379199414.jpg"></a></div><br></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Foltr3p58Po/Ufszj5ZF8mI/AAAAAAAACXg/0ywOsLrFnjE/s640/blogger-image--728152238.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Foltr3p58Po/Ufszj5ZF8mI/AAAAAAAACXg/0ywOsLrFnjE/s640/blogger-image--728152238.jpg"></a></div><br></div><br></div>Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-60428884825739787202013-02-13T13:26:00.000-08:002013-02-13T13:26:04.036-08:00School Days<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Millie's first week of preschool was awesome. We found out on a Thursday that she qualified and by Tuesday she was on the bus headed to class. I'll dive into the details of her school, but first humor me and look over our cute pictures.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waiting on the bus to arrive. Love those two so much.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even Baby Louis wanted to see all the excitement.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">She has a wonderful bus driver.</td></tr>
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First, let me explain why I put my little 3 year old on a bus instead of driving her to school myself. She was so excited to ride the bus! As soon as it pulled up she walked up the steps ready as can be. I had to grab her and force her to give me a kiss. After she got on we followed her bus to school so we could sneak a peek at her getting off. She did fabulous--like an old pro. Had we driven her to school we would have pulled our car up to the front of the school and let a teacher take her out of the car and walk her into the building. Much less exciting for her and not sentimental for this Momma...so bus it was! Yes, it is a short bus, and she shares that bus with 3 little boys that also live in our neighborhood. Earlier this week her bus driver (Tammy) complemented me on having a talkative child. She loves chatting with Millie since the other kids tend to keep quiet. That's my girl.</div>
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We've been working with a preschool here that is affiliated with the school district (for special needs) and the city (so anyone in the city can enroll for a fee) since December. I've taken Millie in for different testing to see if she qualified for special needs through the school district which would mean becoming a student at this preschool. My initial concern was her speech, but after much testing they determined she was still behind a bit socially and would benefit from an integrated preschool classroom. So she's in a classroom with "caught up" children as well as a few in her similar situation.</div>
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She loves going to school, and I'm so excited for her to get some extra help (that I can't provide) that will teach her how to communicate and interact better with her peers. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled to get a few hours twice a week to spend with just Louis. She's happy, I'm happy.</div>
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Tomorrow she goes back, and she gets to do a "show and tell" for her class. When she's older I'll send her with something really cool like her first diaper or the picture of her wearing her Daddy's wedding ring on her arm. I'll never get over my walking miracle. For now I think I'll settle for a stuffed puppy she calls "Penny" after our favorite dog.</div>
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<br />Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-49303119444662630862013-01-11T20:45:00.001-08:002013-01-11T20:46:02.717-08:00Glasses PartyWe found out a few weeks ago that it was time for Millie to get glasses. In an effort to get her excited about them my sister suggested throwing her a glasses party. Lucky for us our family here in town (mostly) has poor eye sight, too.<br />
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We all put on our glasses together, learned how to put them away in a case, read "Fancy Nancy Spectacular Spectacles", ate a big chocolate pair of glasses and gave Millie a LalaLoopsy named Specs. Her reaction and love for Specs exceeded our already high expectations. Man, I'm good.<br />
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We think she's pretty darn cute in her new purple glasses, don't you? <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3B_5k1Qp2sM/UPDqb9SIZtI/AAAAAAAACFI/nxB5091PhVE/s640/blogger-image-739636339.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3B_5k1Qp2sM/UPDqb9SIZtI/AAAAAAAACFI/nxB5091PhVE/s640/blogger-image-739636339.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-kS0DcFK4IRQ/UPDqZZiI1XI/AAAAAAAACFA/WO5JntaWcBc/s640/blogger-image-354087002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-kS0DcFK4IRQ/UPDqZZiI1XI/AAAAAAAACFA/WO5JntaWcBc/s640/blogger-image-354087002.jpg" /></a></div>Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-81143874925111840662013-01-08T14:51:00.001-08:002013-01-08T14:51:20.516-08:00Why, Hello There!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Hi! I'm Niki. You might remember me. I blogged all about being a Mom. I dished all the details of Millie opening her eyes for the first time, how she was doing each week, and her progress after the hospital. I shared with you what a blessing it was to be her Mother, how cute her yoga poses were, and how devastating it can be when the power gets cut off and you lose an entire freezer of frozen milk. I shared with you our excitement of her becoming a big sister, and even shared with you our handsome man, Louis.</div>
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Does any of this ring a bell? Well, it's pretty obvious my weekly blogging days are behind me. I thought I was on the monthly blogging schedule, but now I see I can't even promise that. I'll share with you a few reasons why I've been so bad at blogging, and maybe you can help.</div>
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First, let me catch you up on a few highlights of this winter:</div>
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We blessed Louis. We did this in South Carolina while we were visiting for Thanksgiving.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can't resist a baby in a bonnet.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Since Millie has a Thanksgiving birthday, it's hard to resist throwing a small, family-only party. That still amounts to 50 or so people! We had a tea party and I think it was her best party yet. I had very little to do with this one. My hands were full of Louis so my family took the reigns. I think it will be her last big party for a while.<br /><br />We provided a few necessary dress up items,</span></td></tr>
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served fancy food and tea (plus Lemonade),</div>
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and did our best to keep our pinky fingers up!</div>
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Over Thanksgiving we were able to visit Santa and introduce him to Louis:</div>
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We had a wonderful Christmas morning. We only have so many hands, and the video camera won over the regular camera, so these are pretty much our only pictures.</div>
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Millie still didn't completely "get-it", but I feel confident she will next year. She loved our elf, Jimmy, and adored all the Christmas decorations. She still asks me about random decorations and concludes that they are all in the basement on her own now.</div>
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Our Christmas morning was slow (so wonderful!), warm, and full of Lalaloopsy, My Little Pony, and Minnie Mouse. The rest of us had some fun things, too.</div>
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Louis loved his exersaucer from Buck's parents. Santa didn't mind we put it out for him with his stocking. Since this didn't get it's own post I should mention he rolls over now, is absolutely adorable, and just finished his first ear infection. He's a sweet boy and we can't snuggle him enough.</div>
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Millie started dance class this week. She's been asking me about going for weeks now, so on Monday morning she was completely dressed two hours before class started. Her ballet shoes are completely broken in, too.</div>
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It was only 30 minutes long, and doesn't have a recital (bummer) but she doesn't know any different. She truly thinks she's Angelina Ballerina, and so do I. She's the most spirited in her class, and doesn't see the point in stopping for a plie when there is twirling to be done.</div>
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As promised, here are my reasons for not blogging:</div>
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<li style="text-align: left;">I keep hearing about blogger saying to bloggers that they have reached their data limit. I didn't get this message, but I can't be far from it. What's the solution? I haven't felt like I have time to figure it out, so I avoid blogging.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">I was considering blogging earlier, but I was shook to the core by the horrific event that happened in Connecticut. I wish I could share my thoughts and feelings on it, but I truly have to push them out of my head still or I'm consumed.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">My house is still pretty undecorated. I really should decorate in my free time. Or shop for decorations. Or maybe someone can come visit and take over the cooking, cleaning, and child watching while I decorate?</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">My church assignment (Cub Scout Committee Chair) is time consuming and stressful. It's not always time consuming, but I always feel like if I have free time I should keep teaching myself how to run the program. Currently I'm planning our Blue and Gold Banquet, Friends of Scouting drive, Rechartering, and the yearly program. I know, you'd think I'd be an expert on all things scouting but having never worked with the boys and the actual nitty gritty of advancement makes even buying the awards for Pack Meeting a challenge.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">I have yet to consistently make dinner for my family. I used to be great at menu planning, and am just starting to feel like my head isn't constantly spinning so I should probably use my free time to plan that out.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Should I blame my kids? Maybe, but honestly I could blog while they sleep. I love spending as much time having fun with them as possible, but keeping a record of family is pretty important too. It's a toss up I guess.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">This one is pretty big. My MacBook is on it's last leg and can barely hold my pictures. I don't have a smart phone, so I rely on a regular camera for pictures mostly. That means I've got to load them, cross my fingers my computer cooperates, then blog. We have a new computer, I just need to work out an internet issue there and I'll be back in business.</li>
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So that is it. If blogger will let me, I will promise you at least one more post soon. Millie got glasses (and they are adorable!), and to get her excited about wearing them we are throwing a glasses party later this week. I promise to post pictures of at least her, but maybe more if I remember to take pictures. I'm assigned to speak at church on Sunday so blogging will be a welcomed distraction.</div>
Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-69918505262103417452012-10-26T13:03:00.000-07:002012-10-26T13:03:27.204-07:00Confessions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
I know what you're thinking. How is it even possible for her to have such a darling little boy? Well my friends, I do not know. Man I love him.</div>
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It's probably quite obvious by my lack of blogging that being a Mother to two children is challenging for me. I thought I'd just lay it all out there for you, just to catch you up on my life these days.</div>
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<u>Confession 1: </u> It took us forever to really get down nursing. I didn't get to nurse Millie, and Louis is quite lazy (should we say easy going?) so the first 6 weeks were challenging. Six weeks is a long time! He's still not a super star but he's getting fat and I'm not in pain so we're happy.</div>
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<u>Confession 2</u>: Having two kids is hard. I feel like the biggest wimp in the world admitting that. I mean it's only two kids. Lots of people have more, for pete's sake. It's getting easier, don't worry. My source of encouragement has always been my Aunt Molly telling me it was harder for her to adjust to two than it was to three. Another huge help was getting a double stroller (thanks Dad!) that would work for our needs. I went with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Graco-Ready2Grow-Stand-Stroller-Metropolis/dp/B005VM63X0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=1LAFS2V0GVYZX&coliid=I1IFMTW98KKMQ3">this one</a> because I shop more than I go to the zoo so I needed it to work where a cart wouldn't (those dang tiny carts at Hobby Lobby and Ross). Now even running to the Dollar Store is a million times easier.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Millie playing on her new mattress on one of our potty training days. She didn't wet the bed, don't worry.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></td></tr>
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<u>Confession 3:</u> We stopped potty training. I've been dreading admitting it to the world, but I figured I'd have to eventually since I admitted we were starting on Facebook. I put it off because I didn't want to do the off and on potty training. I cleared a week, read up on everything, implemented everything I read about (including potty training in one day) and after five intense days of going to the bathroom every 5-15 minutes and Millie <i>not once</i> willingly peeing in the potty we called it quits. She would literally squirm and hold it for 45 minutes <i>while sitting on the potty</i> just to avoid going. Even after she went (from not being able to hold it any longer) and got tons of praise and treats she still never was willing to go again. We're going to let her lead 100%. Sure she'll be 3 next month, but it was obvious (after 5 days) that she's not ready. Oh well. She's happy, healthy, smart, kind, beautiful and a great big sister.<br />
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That's it for confessions. Unless you want me to add that my house is a serious mess and still undecorated, I'm burning food more frequently and I have yet to go around and meet my neighbors.<br />
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On the plus side I get to witness beautiful moments like this instead:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Louis was crying so Millie gave him a baby and "blanket" to hold. </td></tr>
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And I made Millie's Halloween costume, which she loves:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It looks better when she's standing, but she' knows how to pose like a Mermaid so this is what I got :)</td></tr>
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I love these two children so much. In just the last week I have watched Millie's play time mature so much. Seeing her act out what her toys should say to each other (and sometimes she uses her hands in the car if toys aren't handy) just melts my heart. She takes great care of Louis, sleeps wonderfully in her big girl bed, and is really understanding so much. It's incredible to watch.<br />
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Louis is getting chunky (love) and smiles all the time. Melts my heart. He also sleeps really well so I'm getting a good amount of sleep at night. He loves being held (with help) by his big sister and doesn't seem to mind her kisses either.<br />
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Ironically they are both awake now and screaming their heads off. Music to my (well rested) ears :)<br />
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And something is burning in the oven.Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-1033825530701125872012-09-21T09:14:00.000-07:002012-09-21T09:14:07.476-07:00You're Gonna Miss ThisAm I the only one that can't handle listening to "You're Gonna Miss This" By Trace Adkins? I mean really. My sneaky Pandora Josh Turner station played it before I could say no. Fast forward thirty seconds into the song and I'm in tears listening to my two babies crying while I try to throw together some dinner.<br />
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It was terrible and great all at the same time. I've been feeling pretty stressed and overwhelmed here and there, but I am so thankful for these two little blessings. Sure, they can't be happy all the time. We have about two time frames that make me want to hide but the rest of the day is pretty great.<br />
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I love just watching Louis while he eats or just wants to play. I imagine what he's thinking and it's always a tender moment. Millie loves any of my time I can spare (and I love to give it to her) but what really warms my heart is watching her imagination blossom when she plays by herself. She can play for hours with tiny little dolls. It is so incredible.<br />
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We're currently having our house painted (hooray!) so I'm staying out of the house and can't load new pictures. To tide you over, I thought I'd share the pictures of Millie and Louis meeting for the first time in the hospital. Enjoy.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Living by family is great!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Millie's first look. I love Karen's face in this picture.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't you just love Lily's smile?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bishop even came to see us! He also happens to be Uncle KC.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The whole thing was a bit confusing for Millie. Poor thing clung to Buck and I but is all sorted out now.</td></tr>
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So there you have it. Millie and Louis are great friends now (at least Millie worries about Louis, I'm not sure Louis pays her much attention yet). Instead of always asking where Mommy is when I'm not around she now looks for Louis. She still looks for me some though. I love this exhausting time we are having but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to many months down the road when they can play together. I'm looking forward to that but I know I'm gonna miss this, too.Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-86962121437735060272012-09-11T20:28:00.000-07:002012-09-11T20:28:04.946-07:00Little LEB<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
He's here! We love him to pieces, and spend all our free time adoring him. That should explain our delay in sharing the great news and darling pictures.</div>
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For fun I thought I'd throw in one of my last pregnant pictures. I am <i>so</i> glad to no be pregnant anymore. I could write a book about how wonderful it is, but you're here to see my baby so lets move on.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hanging out with my cousins. We loved living with them.</td></tr>
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Allow me to introduce Louis Emery Bagwell:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I had to include this picture. I hope it captures the pure bliss and amazement I was feeling.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lmuxFW6hDos/UE_y_DPHrzI/AAAAAAAACAQ/f0LJ9-Mr8H8/s1600/photo-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lmuxFW6hDos/UE_y_DPHrzI/AAAAAAAACAQ/f0LJ9-Mr8H8/s1600/photo-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lmuxFW6hDos/UE_y_DPHrzI/AAAAAAAACAQ/f0LJ9-Mr8H8/s1600/photo-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>Here is proof that he weighed almost 8 pounds...which obviously is gigantic when compared to his big sister.</div>
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We are proud parents.<br />
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I can't believe how different he looks now. I think he's handsome just like his daddy.<br />
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He's got quite the fan base, too.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Millie moved her rocker like that. She loves "baby woo-wis".</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My sweet cousin Lily. I just love this picture.</td></tr>
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We literally didn't officially decide on his name until after he was born, and actually chose his middle name on a whim as we were announcing his birth to our family. We knew we wanted to pay tribute to Buck's great name (Landrum Earle Bagwell IV) but didn't want to name him LEB V and have to come up with a nickname, so we though keeping the LEB initials was a good idea and Louis Emery it was. We call him Louis and Louie, so feel free to do the same.<br />
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We love this little boy. I know I will love all of my children, but it honestly surprised me how quickly I became attached to him. I'm sure a lot of it had to do with my more traditional birth experience this time. I loved Millie right away, but I gave myself a little bit of time to get attached to her. It took a while before I could touch her and it took <i>forever</i> before I could provide her any sort of care. Louis needed me right away and I'm so thankful for that.<br />
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I was so nervous about having a boy. I've been stuck in Barbies/Dress Up/Tea Parties gear my whole life, I just wasn't sure what I'd do with a boy. You know what? I still don't know what I'm going to do with him but I don't care. For now I'm going to rock him, sing to him, feed him and let his big sister stick (and pull out) his pacifier in his mouth. It's great.<br />
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Millie is really a good sport about everything. Having her visit me in the hospital was a nightmare for everyone, especially my Aunt Karen since I stayed there but Millie left each day. Millie and I are very attached to each other. It was really hard to watch her freak out when it was time to go. Now that we are home she just loves her little brother and feels comfortable knowing I'm around. She always checks on him in the crib, and if he's crying she tells me he's hungry. She gets a kick out of his car seat being next to hers in the car and of course she feels the need to climb into all of the infant toys (play gym, infant seat, swing) and use his pacifier. The funniest (though it's not super funny at the time) is when she tries to copy his cry exactly, often in the car.<br />
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Just so you're filled in on all our business I may as well mention that we closed on our first house when Louis was just four days old. Yes, that means we moved into the house when he was four and five days old as well as had my Mom and Buck's parents come to town to meet the little fella. The joke was on them since they had to do a lot of manual labor. Now that Louis is two weeks old we've purchased a home, our first brand new appliances (washer and dryer), a second car and moved into our home. Major life events covered recently: moving, buying a home, getting a new job, and having a baby. Looks like we only missed getting married (glad we checked that off five years ago) and someone close to us dying (think healthy, safe thoughts y'all!). Yes, I am a bit stressed but honestly I think I'd be stressed if we were just covering one of those events. Why not take them on all at once? I wouldn't recommend it, but it isn't as bad as you'd think...as long as you don't mind your house looking very messy for a few months.<br />
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Unpacking is slow moving, but you saw how cute Louis is so I don't need to explain why it's taking me so long. I love my kids. I've got two. That's crazy.<br />
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<br />Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-14867329772853455602012-07-12T06:38:00.000-07:002012-07-12T06:38:38.733-07:00The Great Mid-West<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We have made it to Geneva, IL. We actually made it a few weeks ago, but between house hunting and visiting with my family blogging was put on the back burner. I actually haven't even written about our vacation to Florida yet. Maybe someday you'll hear how great Disney and Sarasota were.</div>
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I was a bit nervous to see how Millie would adjust to moving. We have technically moved four times with her already, but she is now old enough to remember stores and people she loves. She even recognized streets in Connecticut (like when we drive by Dad's work or when we turned on our street). She had grown particularly fond of Stew Leonard's, a fabulous grocery store full of animatronics, fresh ice cream and a few live animals out in front. All day long she would talk about wanting to see the cow, which she is deathly afraid of when we actually go near the cow.</div>
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Thankfully we have moved to the edge of country. We went to a pool party right after we got here, complete with scenic views of cows:</div>
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She loved it! She obviously loves arm floaties and goggles, too.</div>
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I mean how many times have you found yourself at a pool party surrounded by grazing cows? I think we're going to like it here.</div>
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Our first weekend here was Geneva's Swedish Day's Festival, so we hauled everyone downtown to watch a local band, 7th Heaven. It was great, especially because they mostly covered familiar songs. As we were sitting there I couldn't help but reflect back on our first weekend in Connecticut watching the fireworks in New Canaan. That was the cleanest city event full of the most well dressed people I had ever been to. It felt like we were in a movie with a classic Big Band playing in the background, clean cut kids playing with frisbees on the beautifully manicured lawns and everyone visiting pleasantly with their neighbors. It was great. In stark contrast at the concert here in Geneva I actually saw tattoos, cut off shorts, large-armed women dancing passionately to the music, and men wearing socks with sandals. It felt like home. That is the scene we grew up with. I'm sure if I looked hard enough I probably would have found a port-a-potty, too.</div>
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We're house hunting, and feeling some fire under our feet with this baby boy on the way. There are very few places for rent in this area, so we are positive we are buying a place. In the mean time we are living with my Uncle, which works out nicely because they are all off on their five week vacation.</div>
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My new doctor here is nice and smart, but I can't help being thankful for the superior care I received in Connecticut prior. I feel confident he'll be able to care for me and deliver our baby, I'm just thankful we ironed out everything with my Doctor in Connecticut first. I think this doctor would have done things a little differently. The plan is for my cerclage to come out the first or second week in August. I have read about women going into labor within 12-24 hours after that, but some still end up needing to be induced. So that gives me a nice range of the first week in August through the second week in September to expect our baby to be born. I'm hoping for the second week in August since my Uncle and his family will be back, and I really hope I don't go much past that. I probably will, darn it. I'm just so looking forward to sitting down and slouching again.</div>
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Hopefully my next post will be about our home, but I can't make any promises. My Uncle's house sure is comfortable :)</div>
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<br />Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-48630685342933120412012-05-21T12:19:00.001-07:002012-05-21T12:19:48.525-07:00Hello Windy City!Sorry to leave y'all hanging. We made our decision a good week ago and life has been a whirlwind ever since. <br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We're officially moving to Chicago!</span><br />
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We are thrilled and so sad at the same time. We have really loved living here in Connecticut and have tried our best to make friends without the mindset of moving. It is so awesome to watch Millie bounce around from group to group after Church greeting all of her friends (any age group will do for that girl). We feel like we've made Connecticut our home, and leaving home is never easy to do.<br />
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On the other hand, we are so excited to be moving close to my Uncle KC and his family. They have promised lots of help with the little ones and entertainment, and we intend to take them up on it all. We've started house hunting, and have every intention of buying a house near them so my cousins can ride their bikes to our house as promised. Won't that be fun? We adore those girls.<br />
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Yes, Chicago gets very cold. I think we'll survive. The town we are planning on moving to (Geneva) has everything. I'm so happy to be living near a Hobby Lobby and not far from a Chick-fil-a again. Actually pretty much any store I could want is there. And I can just pull up to Target and park, without paying. Here in Stamford it's only $1, but it's the principle.<br />
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I haven't even hit on the perks or real Chicago, but we are excited to explore it as well. We have only heard wonderful things about the city. Any recommendations of places we need to see? During our summer in Boston I read <i>Devil in the White City</i> so I've got the World's Fair fair grounds on my list of things to see. That book was spooky, but I really enjoyed all of the incredible history. If you don't scare easily, I'd recommend it.<br />
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So we've been researching movers, doctors, houses, preschools, and pretty much everything else you can think of. We're moving at the end of June so I will be about 30 weeks pregnant. It is a lot to deal with right now, but a few months of stress is completely worth years of comfortable living.<br />
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Wish us luck!Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-68199676420129514302012-05-04T11:16:00.003-07:002012-05-04T11:16:54.918-07:00Apple of My Eye<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Millie figured out how to look at all of our old pictures on the iPad and she's chosen a few favorites of herself. She loves this one, and comments on how "yucky" it is every time.<br />
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I am about one week from when I had Millie, so naturally I've been thinking about her as a tiny infant a lot. She was so sweet. I try not to think about how painful everything must have been for her but this morning I couldn't help it. I was thinking about how much I wanted to hear her cry. We waited months to hear that very soft voice (which is not the case anymore, thankfully). I don't know what it feels like to be intubated and have a feeding tube, but I can imagine being in that situation for months must have been painful. Because she was intubated she couldn't cry out loud, and even when it came out her throat and vocal chords weren't strong so her cries were so soft. I complained as much as I could about my catheter and I only had it for a few days. Although pregnancy is uncomfortable, and I often feel like it is more than I can handle I am so thankful for every day I am still pregnant and able to keep this sweet boy safe and comfortable.<br />
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But really this post is about Millie. Y'all hear enough about my pregnancy. Millie is still the apple of my eye. She wears me out and pushes my buttons, but even when she runs away from me at the store and I finally catch her, get down at her level and tell her "no, no" all she has to do is grin from ear to ear and all is forgiven. It's frustrating doing things with a toddler, but so magical at the same time. She touches everything she sees and comments constantly. She never hesitates to tell someone "hello." It doesn't matter if it is someone with very few teeth, a little child, or a sweet looking grandma, they all get "hello" from her.<br />
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I think she is incredible. I know we have friends her age that surpass her abilities in certain areas, but I still want to share with you what she can do because I think she is the smartest 2 1/2 year old out there. She knows all of the letters (uppercase and most lowercase), recognizes numbers 1-9 and can count but not quite to 10 yet, loves to point out shapes (circle, heart, triangle), is starting to talk in sentences and loves to sing.<br />
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Oh my, this girl loves to sing. She sings to every TV show we watch, knows pretty much the whole Primary Colors: Insideout a Cappella CD, loves Adele (which can be embarrassing when she tries to get me to sing along with her in the grocery store...just in the car Millie, come on), and makes up words to the hymns at church. She also claps and cheers after the hymns at church, which is not something our church does. Buck and I do not have any musical talents, so for now I'm day dreaming of slumber parties with this girl that involve a great karaoke set up, Mr. Roboto and Dancing Queen.<br />
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At night when we put her to bed she says "bye" to everything we pass. "Bye kitchen, bye TV, bye bunny," etc. It's really adorable when she tells her shoes bye. We have to pry kisses out of her just before bed, but then she insists on hugs which we love. After she's hugged us she (completely on her own) hugs and kisses herself. That melts my heart and makes me feel like we're doing something right. Loving yourself is so important.<br />
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It's hard to capture Millie in words, but I tried. Guess you'll have to come see her for yourself. Oh, and I'm sorry I don't have any news to share about Buck's next job. I will pass it on as soon as I can.Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-6201888804411445372012-04-22T11:05:00.001-07:002012-04-22T11:05:54.565-07:00Half Way There!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Everyone has been kind enough to not ask for belly pictures or comment on how large my tummy is, but in order to document this baby I thought I'd get Buck to take a half way picture. In this picture I'm 20 weeks exactly, but today I'm 21 weeks. Its quite an ordeal to take belly pictures, so hats off to the weekly belly shot mommas out there.<br />
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I've been larger than when I had Millie for a few weeks, but I'm still not to Millie's gestation (23 weeks 6 days) yet. That sure makes me scared for delivery! Having a 1 lb 4 oz baby was still no walk in the park, and I obviously plan on having a larger one this time. Let's just say in many ways I feel like this is my first pregnancy.<br />
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I've had an interesting few weeks since my surgery, feeling quite scared sometimes and totally at peace others. At my first appointment back to the doctor after surgery I was surprised with a whole new list of physical restrictions in order to help me avoid bed rest. I really thought the cerclage would help me be able to do more. I was wrong. I can't exercise and should avoid too much walking, can't chase Millie at the play ground, and I can't do any heavy cleaning, etc. I know all of these sound like a dream come true to some, but it's really hard for me since I finally feel good enough to do these things. It doesn't help that Buck is still swamped with studying for his last CPA exam so he can't pick up my slack exactly. Soon though.<br />
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In practicing "taking it easy" for a week I managed to get myself pretty freaked out about bed rest. What would I do? I don't have any family here. In some cases bed rest (at home) means you even have to have someone bring you food. I could probably find someone to help with Millie but not stay at my house all day feeding me, too. I came up with a few plans, and feel good about my situation. I genuinely believed at first that this pregnancy would go completely smooth and I would feel confident the whole time. I guess I forget all the little aches and pains you naturally get and have to interpret along the way. I'm not good at guessing when I need medical help and when I should just "walk it off."<br />
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I went back to the doctor for my weekly appointment Friday (yep, weekly now) and shared my plans with them. I was so relieved when I was told that they really don't think I'll need bed rest (though anything can happen, of course) and things couldn't look better for me. They also mentioned I'm probably freaking out because I'm getting to that point where I had Millie, and my confidence will probably build up a few weeks after that point. I got my first shot of progesterone which was huge. Not too painful, but it's big enough that they like to tell you when they are half way done. It has to be given to you in that portion of your lower back/hip that can hold massive shots. I'll be getting that weekly.<br />
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It's not very entertaining, but that's my half way report. I'm feeling healthy, but still can't eat like I used to. Trust me, ice cream settles so much better than veggies. Couple that with exercise restrictions and I should look like I'm carrying twins in no time.<br />
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On a family note, Buck has finished interviewing for new jobs (his ends in June) so hopefully the next word you hear from me will be about our plans!Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-49940977251126539962012-04-18T20:08:00.002-07:002012-04-18T20:08:39.646-07:00Owie and Puppy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Buck's parents came to visit and also ended up with some pretty cute nicknames. The grandkids call them Ahbi and Papi but Millie thought Owie and Puppy were a little more personal.</div>
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We were thrilled to have them here for a good week, and especially glad they were here for Easter.</div>
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Millie loves candy (doesn't everyone?) so naturally her Easter Basket was a big hit. She enjoyed the toys too.</div>
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While they were here our winnings from the Harajuku Mini Collection arrived! Millie is currently obsessed with strawberries so she loved it all.</div>
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Ahbi was thoughtful and patient to bring (and plant) a little garden with Millie. It's sprouting, Ahbi!</div>
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Sometimes the camera is the only distraction that will work.</div>
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Buck's parents wanted to see a few sights in New York so we stayed over night just before they left. We were lucky to visit the 9-11 Memorial. I think Millie ran every square inch of it.</div>
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In New York you never seem to be far from a park.</div>
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For no good reason these are all the pictures I have of their visit! They took a bazillion, don't worry.<br />
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We all loved having them here, but I especially enjoyed them spending quality time with Millie outside so I could spend quality time doing little things around the house. I finally figured out how to describe my slow self. What used to take me 15 minutes to do before having Millie started taking me 45 minutes once I had Millie. That same quick task now takes me a week. With extra help I'm back down to 45 minutes, which is progress.<br />
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This was Buck's Dad's first time to our town so we showed him the works. We even ventured into new areas trying to help my sister-in-law find suitable towns to live in.<br />
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Thank you so much for coming! Millie woke up looking for y'all several times since you left, bless her heart.<br />
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I'll post about Baby Bagwell later. I've got a few things to say. We're halfway there, by the way.Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-73743166123798360242012-04-18T19:41:00.000-07:002012-04-18T19:41:21.021-07:00No-ey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Millie is quick to come up with nicknames, and her cousin Nora is now exclusively (in our house) referred to as Noey.</div>
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We were lucky enough to have the whole Dunnam clan (all three of them!) visit us for about a week. We stayed busy and did our best to show off our neck of the woods.</div>
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We enjoyed "donation" day at the Bronx Zoo:</div>
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Our local Children's Museum</div>
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Our backyard:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thank you Lala, for the dresses!</td></tr>
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And our home. Thanks Uncle Aaron for building/painting/putting together Millie's learning tower! </div>
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We also took them to Stew Leonards, the beach, the mall, our favorite playground, and of course our urban Target.<br />
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The girls had permanent smiles on their faces the whole week. Watching them look at each other for the first time each morning was priceless. Sure nap time and bed time were a little more difficult, but completely worth it. They even shared Millie's toys without fighting. Of course Nora did show Millie how to get into my makeup...<br />
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We're so glad they came to visit. I still feel pretty guilty for not warning Millie when Nora was leaving. I just pulled up to the airport and dropped them off, and said my goodbyes. Only when I got back in the car did I realize Millie was bawling for Noey. Those cries lasted nearly an hour! Breaks my heart. We do a little extra FaceTime here and there to make up for it.<br />
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Sweet, sweet cousins.Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-82580493820009548322012-04-01T18:19:00.000-07:002012-04-01T18:19:59.499-07:00This Baby is Staying PutFor inquiring minds I thought I'd give you an update on how my "little" surgery went. First of all I don't think any surgery should be considered little. Yes, I know I'm a tad wimpy. The cerclage was first described to me as a quick 30 minute surgery with a one hour recovery done in an outpatient hospital facility. I'm not sure I would describe it that way.<br />
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With that description I was picturing something similar to having my wisdom teeth removed. That's surgery, right? Well for me, I'd say the surgery reminded me more of when I gave birth to Millie but a much quicker recovery. Instead of weeks to recover I feel pretty much fine at 48 hours post operation. I had Millie in an operating room as well, so I pretty much felt at home. Just kidding. Those bright lights and all that white? No way can you feel comfy there. Seriously an operating room resembles where you go when you're abducted by aliens in movies. Am I right? I know, I have an active imagination.<br />
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Anywho, the surgery went well and the whole OR staff claimed I was the best patient of the day. But seriously there wasn't a single unkind person there. It was wonderful and thanks to one mean nurse, a stark contrast to my recovery after having Millie in Utah. The NICU was amazing there, I just somehow got stuck with a really crabby nurse for myself.<br />
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I got an epidural for the surgery and as soon as they were done I was able to move my legs and actually got myself into the next bed. They all thought that was great (should I ask for an extra strong epidural with this next birth?) and had me sent to recovery. I was quickly moved from one recovery (where mostly still asleep people are) to the next where they finally let you eat. My whole recovery time took about two to three hours and honestly I thought the recovery nurses were going to faint with how "quick" I recovered. There was a girl that had the same surgery by my doctor one hour before me that still wasn't moving her legs by the time I was walking and peeing. Why do they keep spreading this rumor about the one hour recovery time?<br />
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Thankfully we had a wonderful friend to take care of Millie. Even though she has her hands full with her own large family she convinced me she really wanted to watch Millie. So kind. It was a relief to have her there with this family knowing that if I took a little extra long to recover it would be okay. She and her family loved and entertained Millie, and of course Millie wasn't really eager to leave when we went to pick her up.<br />
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In speaking with my doctor right after the surgery he informed me that had I opted out of the cerclage (it was totally my choice at this point since my cervix looked good on the ultrasounds) I would have gone into preterm labor again. I do, officially, have an incompetent cervix. That means something is wrong with my cervix, and there are like 10 things that can go wrong. Specifically for me, my cervix is soft. It is supposed to feel like your nose, slightly firm, but mine is much softer. Because of that as soon as a baby gets some weight to it, it will come right out. Hello 1 lb 4 oz Millie! Of course now that my cervix is sewn shut we shouldn't have to worry about that. There are still other factors to consider so I'll still be monitored and medicated, but for now I'm pretty happy and feeling secure about our sweet baby boy being full term.<br />
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Happy 150th post? I should be on my 200th by now!Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-64588657513966111172012-03-29T18:21:00.000-07:002012-03-29T18:21:01.869-07:00It's a Boy!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Millie is so excited!</div>
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We put together a cute video, just in case you missed it via email and Facebook:</div>
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Truthfully Millie was excited about the balloons and has no idea we're having a baby. Oh well, we've got plenty of time.<br />
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We found out on Tuesday and it's taken a while for "boy" to sink in. I'm in girl mode and never really anticipated that answer! Crazy, right? I mean the odds are equal. To be honest I was a bit scared at first but thanks to all of the supportive feedback from family and friends I'm feeling pretty confident and excited.<br />
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I've always thought dressing a little boy to my taste would be a fun challenge, and I'm pretty excited to put a hurting on classic boy clothes with knee socks, Baby Gap, and Janie and Jack. I'm not sure where to begin with the nursery, but thankfully I have Pinterest.<br />
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I've been asked several times if we will be naming him after Buck. His full name is Landrum Earle Bagwell IV, so this boy could be the 5th. I'm leaving that decision completely up to Buck since he is the only one that knows what it's like to have that name yet go by something else completely unrelated. Buck's Dad goes by Landrum, and we aren't the biggest fans of Earle for a little baby so a nickname would be necessary. Right now Buck is leaning towards giving him a new name.<br />
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Tomorrow I go in for my little surgery (cerclage). I'm mostly nervous about not eating for that long, but I'm not sure what to expect for recovery. My heart cath was supposed to be no big deal but knocked me out for days.<br />
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There you have it...we're having a baby boy!Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-54897313710892802742012-02-20T10:39:00.000-08:002012-02-20T10:39:20.697-08:00Avoid Chuck E. Cheese<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Consider yourself warned. At least around our neck of the woods the Chuck E. Cheese you might remember from a few years ago is a far cry from the Chuck E. Cheese of today.</div>
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I expected loud. I expected overpriced pizza. I expected it to be crowded. I expected birthday parties. I expected really cheap prizes. In all of that, I was not disappointed.</div>
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Unfortunately I also expected a show. You know, where the curtain draws back and you watch the whole band perform? Instead we got one stuffed Chuck and a few TV screens showing something constantly. I never even watched them because it was so loud from the parties and Millie wasn't into it.</div>
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I expected a little toddler area, kind of off to the side full of the ride on toys and other "lame" things big kids weren't in to. Not the case here. That stuff was just mixed in with all of the racing games.</div>
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Case and point:</div>
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I was also expecting the playground area to be half decent and with a ball pit. Didn't their commercials used to center around the ball pit? Am I the only kid that watched that much TV? I recall a lot of commercials from my childhood. I know ball pits aren't as easy to find as they once were for safety reasons, but I had hopes. Millie has been watching kids play in ball pits for weeks on Youtube. How does she find these videos? I'm just not excited to fork out $12 for pump it up (or the like) when she'll play for 15 minutes and be ready to go.</div>
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Overall, I'd say if you've got a 10 year old then Chuck E. Cheese is for you. I'll probably try and avoid it for the next 8 years or so. By the way if you feel the need to go, it will be worth your time to sign up for the emails for the coupons. We easily saved $10 on our pizza/drink/token package that way.</div>
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For inquiring minds, my pregnancy (12 weeks 1 day today!) is still scooting along. I feel fine some hours, and horrible others. When I feel horrible, especially when I'm trying to fall asleep, I find myself deep in though. My appreciation for women that carry children without the loving support of a husband and women that carry children knowing they will give the child up for adoption has grown this week. I could write and write my feelings on this, and I do have a deep appreciation for adoption since my family consists of an aunt and four adopted cousins, but I will leave you with a summary. Basically I feel like these women individually deserve a parade. Or something huge. Whatever they would want, but it needs to be big. Their situations aren't ideal, but the sacrifice and love they show to these babies is about as Christ-like as it gets.</div>
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This week I go in for a hefty 2-3 hour appointment where my baby is screened for diseases like Down Syndrome. It is routine here, and I am not nervous. While I hope for a healthy, normal baby I would feel incredibly honored to take care of one of Heavenly Father's special children. I feel honored to take care of any of his children, actually.</div>
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One last thing to keep in your back pocket. If you find yourself pregnant and thinking that the smells from a dirty diaper or dinner cooking will be the death of you, go buy febreze air effects. I wish I had thought of this sooner. I've been going to great lengths squeezing my nose into a clothes pin (ouch!), changing Millie by the front door, and hiding in my room while Buck cooks dinner to avoid these smells. One little spray and I can breathe again! Unfortunately it doesn't work on your now-smelly-to-you husband. He used to smell so good, too.</div>Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5918497925467859534.post-31416935138512555592012-02-07T11:05:00.000-08:002012-02-07T11:05:20.633-08:00Brush With Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
It melts my heart when I find Millie in her crib looking like this:</div>
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You'll be glad I don't have actual pictures that go with the meat of this post. I've been saving those gems for a good time to share, and now seemed as good as any.<br />
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So I'm 10 weeks at 2 days pregnant now. Feel free to shout hooray. Week 8 wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but week 9 was quite possibly the worst week of my life. At least I hope I never go through that again.<br />
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Let me start by saying Nursery at church is awesome. I love everything about it, except the occasional germs Millie brings home to share. I mean let's be honest. My child definitely puts the fake baby bottles in her mouth in Nursery, and I'm betting she's not the only one. Germ swapping is inevitable.<br />
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Millie came down with a nasty bug in the middle of the night. Luckily Buck checked on her (I'm so adamant about her crying it out for a while, but he has a soft heart and decided to get up) and found her in throw up again. I stayed up with her all night long watching TV and cleaning up her throwing up about seven more times. Eventually she stopped and slept, but the next day she was so weak she just laid around and slept. It never even dawned on me that I could catch what she had. I just held her and tried to help her in any way.<br />
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Well I got it and it was horrible. I don't know if it was so bad because of the morning sickness as well, but I literally couldn't get off the couch (except to run to throw up). Needless to say Millie ate lightly that day and watched anything she wanted...even Caillou which I strongly dislike. That night Buck caught it, and had pretty much the same story as me. In the more than 10 years I've known him I've never known him to throw up. He definitely did, poor guy. I mean <i>I'm</i> at least used to it.<br />
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So the point of this story isn't to gross you out, though I'm sure I have. The point is to say Buck's Mom has certainly earned her spot in Heaven. She was planning on coming to help me (over <i>her</i> birthday, I might add) and showed up right in the thick of our stomach bug. She nursed us back to health, took care of Millie (we really couldn't have done that ourselves) and scrubbed our bathroom! I had to share the details of our sickness to really drive home the magnitude of cleaning our bathroom. We eventually got better but she still let me rest while she cleaned, cooked, grocery shopped, and entertained Millie. I really think being pregnant with a full-time housekeeper is where it's at.<br />
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One last thing about the sickness, I promise. Laying around thinking about the pain I was in gave me time to ponder a little bit. I really felt like being on the verge of death couldn't feel much worse. I've been blessed to be surrounded by long-living family members, so I have not seen a lot of death or suffering. My Dad's Mom passed away a few years ago somewhat slowly. She kept coming to mind as I tried to convince myself I would eventually feel better. It must have been so hard for her to smile and even talk with each family member that wanted to see her. Actually when you feel that crummy, smiling and talking is downright heroic.<br />
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Enough of the heavy stuff. I'm feeling so good today I think I might actually do an activity with Millie. I've got another ultrasound this week and I'm meeting with a genetic counselor in a few weeks. My doctor has everyone do it as well as some tests for the baby I didn't have in Utah. I can definitely tell I live in a more liberal state. I'll save my pro-life post for another day.Nikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09071397130333258239noreply@blogger.com2