Growing Reids

This is how we roll

2012-02-09T19:22:00.001-06:00

She did it folks!!! It sure was a slow roll, but a roll none the less. Nora had to get in on the action too!!!

3 months old

2012-01-28T09:25:00.000-06:00

I cannot believe our sweet little Stella is 3 months old already! She is doing fantastic. We all are settling in nicely to me being back at work. It took a little while for Stella and Mimi (Rebecca) to find their groove, but the found it this week.
I am so lucky to have such a great hubby that helps out so much. Peter gets the girls to Rebecca's every morning. I get Stella up, he feeds her, I get Nora up and ready and off they go! I get the girls after work everyday. Yesterday was the first day that I worked out since July! Wow, that was a long time. I joined Club Fitness. Not too impressed with Club Fitness, but it will do. I changed because Gold's Gym made me mad and I have multiple friends that work out at Club Fitness, so it seemed like a good fit. I did the step class and totally had to modify, but that first time is always hard. I am ready to continue going and cannot wait to start jogging/running again!
Anyway, back to Stella! She is holding her head up really well, but she HATES tummy time. She sits in her bumbo and loves to watch Nora play. She is eating like a champ! She gets 4 bottles a day. 3 6 oz. bottles and 1 7 oz bottle. She eats at 6:30 am, 10:45 am, 3:45 pm and 7:20 pm. I don't know how, but we have been blessed again with another good sleeper. She doesn't sleep as long as Nora did, but I am not complaining by any means! Believe me! She goes down at night around 8:15 and sleeps until around 6:15. She grunts for her bink around 5:15 am, but then will stay asleep until 6:15. She then naps at 9:00, 1:00 and 5:00. She takes two 2 hour naps and then a 1 hour nap. She is just a sweet little thing. She doesn't cry or fuss. She is smiling more and more and smiles the most at her big sis! They took a bath together for the first time last night and she actually giggled at Nora!
I took these pics this morning!

First Snow

2012-01-12T17:11:00.000-06:00

Well if you can call it that. It caused all kinds craziness on the roads today. People DO NOT know how to drive in the stuff. Major interstates were shut down and we only got maybe an 1". So I woke Nora up this morning and told her it snowed and the first thing she said to me was, "Can I put on my snow pants santa gave me and play?" God I love that girl! I said no, but we can after I pick you up from mimi's and she was fine with that. She insisted on wearing her snow boots to mimi's though.
So when we got home she said where are my snow pants mom! She also said she was so glad santa brought her snow pants and asked where mine were. I think i probably should invest in some snow pants and good boots since she now likes to play in the snow! Here are a few pics I snapped. I am so glad that I have this new camera! I have been experimenting and I love the pics that I am getting. I love that I can now blur backgrounds!
Anyway....I hope that we get at least one more snow day to really play in!

Park

2012-01-09T15:17:00.000-06:00

On Friday we took the girls to the park! Really we did! We took them to the park in January! It was 70 degrees here on Thursday and Friday. It was so beautiful and refreshing! I made Peter take Friday and Monday off since it was my last two work days off before heading back to work. Which is another post :( Anyway....we had so much fun playing. We brought Nora's friend Allison along and we met Loren and Karin there! It was so nice to let them run around outside and get some fresh air. It was also Stella's first trip to the park. I look forward to when she can run along side her sister.

Loren and Nora

Stella in the carrier

Nora and Allison

mommy and stella

2012-01-08T20:37:00.000-06:00

So I read a post by someone on Facebook and it was how hard it is to be a mom sometimes and that someone told her to just cherish the moments because it will go by too fast. It was an interesting post because I feel that it is hard to cherish every moment. It is hard being a mom and not to want that alone time sometimes. This women talked about chronos time (real time) vs. kairos time, which is the time you can really just take that moment in. So the last couple of days I have been trying really hard to be aware of the kairos times. I do have quite a few everyday. Life with a 3 1/2 year old will definitely keep those moments real. As much as I want to just throw my hands up I don't and end up laughing at her. Like tonight when we were online with grandma and grandpa and she was putting a baby doll dress on her head and shaking it, I just took it in because it was so funny. Or when we were getting ready for bed and she shook her booty at me or last night when she kept repeating what Peter and I were saying. She definitely makes me laugh and I have to just love those times. I am so lucky to have such a great little girl and when she is being so stubborn or telling me no or crying that she doesn't want to go to bed I need to remember the happiness that she brings to our lives. I have had some of these moments with Stella and know they will become more and more as she continues to grow. I really just enjoyed rocking with her today while she slept at nap time. I did this knowing that I wasn't going to get to do it except on the weekends from now on.
It is just hard because I feel like I try to be a great mom all time and I just get tired. I need to know and realize that I can't be on 100% of the time. I need to not be doing everything at once and that is the hardest thing for me. I need to slow down and take more kairos times and soak them in. But how do you balance everything? How do people do it and work full time and be awesome moms and still have time to be a great wife and time for themselves? I don't know but it is going to be an interesting ride!

Happy New Year-2012

2012-01-02T19:45:00.000-06:00

So I copied this from my friend Jenni's blog, I thought it was cool. We had such a great 2011!!!

Peter, moved departments in January, Found out we were pregnant in February, celebrated a new niece and kiki's wedding in May, finished school in July, Nora started school and I passed the praxis in September, welcomed Stella in October! Pretty awesome year!!!!

1.) Where did you ring in 2011?
At our friends the Beffa's house.

2.) What was your status by Valentine’s Day?
Happily married!

3.) Were you in school (anytime this year)?
Yes, I finished my second masters in school administration! Only one more degree to go!

4.) How did you earn your keep?
I work as a school counselor in the Affton School District

5.) Did you have to go to the hospital?
Yes, we took Nora to the hospital for an ear infection. I was in the hospital to have our sweet baby Stella!

6.) Did you have any encounters with the police?
Nope- thank goodness but we did witness a drunk driver plowing into the house across the street from us when he failed to notice the road ended. Scary! It was so loud it woke us from our sleep.

7.) Did you know anybody who got married?
Yes!!! My sister and we are happy to welcome Zach into the family.

8.) Did you know anybody who passed away?
Yes, my step cousin.

9.) Have you run into anybody you graduated high school with?
Sometimes.

10.) Did you move anywhere?
No and we won't be anytime soon.

11.) What sporting events did you go to?
I don't think I attended any major league anything this summer. We did go to a few Gateway Grizzly games and Jalen's football and baseball games.

12.) What concerts/shows did you go to?
Sadly no DMB this year, but we did see Jimmy Buffett and I got to see the Urge again!

13.) Are you registered to vote?
Yes.

14.) If so, did you do your patriotic duty on [last time you were supposed to vote]?
Um, yes.

15.) Where do you live now?
St. Louis, MO

16.) Describe your birthday.
Pregnant. We went to a Gateway Grizzly game and it was 101 degrees outside. What were we thinking!?

17.) What’s the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2011? I don't know.

18.) What is one thing you regret from this year?
I don't think I have any regrets.

19.) What did you want for Christmas? A new point and shoot camera and I got one thanks to my awesome hubby!

20.) Any new additions to your family?
YES!! We added Stella Kathleen on October 27, 2011!

21.) What was your best month?
Goodness, we had a pretty good year, but I would have to say October because of Stella.

22.) What from pop culture will you remember that happened in 2011.
I don't know, I don't pay that close of attention. I guess that bin laden died.

23.) How did you ring in 2012?
At our house with the Flemings and Beffa's. Everyone was gone by 10 pm so it was just Peter and I at midnight!

24.) What has been your favorite moment?
Stella's birth! Finishing my masters.

25.) What’s something you learned about yourself?
That I complain alot and that is my new years resolution.

26.) Who has been your best drinking buddy?
Peter, but since I didn't drink for most of 2011 I am not sure this question counts.

27.) Made new friends?
Yes, became closer to my new work friends.

28.) New best friend?
Nope, just new ones.

29.) Favorite Night Out?
I don't think I can pinpoint one night.

May you all have a blessed NEW YEAR!!!!

2 month check up

2012-01-02T18:53:00.000-06:00

We had Stella's 2 month check up last Thursday. Our little baby isn't so little anymore. I can't believe that it has been 2 months. I think I have said that everytime I have posted, but it is true. Stella is doing great. She is smiling away and starting to coo and talk to us. She doesn't get to much time to talk because Nora is always talking, but when she does she just goes to town.

The doctor said she is doing great, her weight and height are good. The only thing that we need to watch is how much she is on her right side. She has a small flat spot and he is not overly concerned, but wants us to rotate the way she sleeps and make things more interesting on her left side. So we are doing that and hopefully it will work itself out. Here are her stats...

Weight-11.10 lbs 70th %ile
Height-23.75" 90th %ile

At least she is long and lean!! (just like Nora was) She definately has a longer torso so some of the 0-3 month stuff is getting tight in length, but not in width. It will be interesting to see how she continues to grow. I brought up to the doctor Nora and her oral fixation. She has been biting her nails more and it seems constantly has her hands in her mouth. He said it is most likely from anxiety due to the changes in the last few months. He said if that is the only thing than we are pretty lucky. Yes, that is the most she has done since Stella has arrived and I do have to say we are pretty blessed in that way. Other than that Stella is sleeping 8-9 hours a night. Going to bed around 9:15ish and waking between 5-6 am!!! She is a great eater and only cries when she is really tired.

Christmas Day

2011-12-28T20:35:00.000-06:00

I had so much fun on Christmas morning this year. Nora actually got it, which was so awesome and fun! She was excited for Santa to come. We did have to wake her up on Christmas morning, she is our little sleeper. I am sure that not going to bed until 11:30 had something to do with it, but once she was up she was excited. We checked the cookie plate to make sure that Santa ate the cookies we left him. Then we found our stockings that he had hidden. Santa gifts are in red and green tissue paper at our house, so she was excited to get into them. I got the best picture of her opening her Little Mermaid set that Santa brought her. She was so excited that he listened and brought her Ariel's daddy, flounder and sebastian! We gave her Dinosaur Train stuff, which she loves as well! She is playing with it as I am typing this. The dinosaurs and little mermaid toys all play together, it is pretty fun to listen to her imagination take over! I was pretty lucky this year as well. We got a new family camera, a nikon coolpix! It is neat and Peter did a great job picking it out. I also got an Ipod touch!

She was so excited she got band aids in her stocking! Seriously?!

1st Christmas

Reaction to the Little Mermaid set!

I think she likes it!

We celebrated Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa the week before. They came in to town for the weekend. We are all totally spoiled rotten! Nora loves her new Barbie car that aunt candace and uncle tim gave her and the new Barbie grandma gave her. She also got some more things to go with her bitty baby, Stella.

We had a nice relaxing morning to play with our toys and talk to Grandma and Grandpa via skype. We headed to my mom's house around 2:30. Holy moly you should have seen her living room! It was packed with presents. We were all really good this year. It took us forever to open all of the gifts. I think Nora's favorite gift from there was her Barbie dorm room house and the remote control strawberry shortcake car. My mom made homemade mac and cheese, which was really good and we had good sandwiches and appetizers. My mom got the game logos for christmas and we played that which was fun.

Overall, we had an excellent Christmas.

We are so blessed.

Christmas Eve

2011-12-28T16:44:00.001-06:00

This year we had Christmas in St. Louis. We rotate years, which is nice because then we get to spend all of Christmas in one place. Christmas Eve in St. Louis is always spent with my dad's family. We started new tradition last year with having our generation start to host. So Katie hosted this year. We had an excellent, non traditional Christmas Eve dinner that consisted of Spaghetti, meatballs, garlic cheese bread, salad and wonderful appetizers. We arrived a little before everyone so we could open presents with my dad. Stella got a new activity gym that she loves! Nora got a dinosaur train toy and some other goodies.

After church we headed back to Katie's house and finished celebrating. The Bromeier tradition is to bring a $5 gift or gift card and we play a left right game to see what we get. After that we play bingo! We had a lot of fun playing bingo as always. Katie was the caller this year since she was hosting. We had lots of fun bingo gifts. It is pretty funny to see 30 people sitting around playing bingo and getting excited over silly gifts! Stella did a great job and was okay being passed around all night. We got home and all were in bed around 11:30. Needless to say we had to wake Nora at 9:00 on Christmas morning to open presents!

We went to church at the 5:00 service at Concord Trinity. Peter is having his membership transferred there so that will be our church from now on. I like it and I like the pastor too. It is a pretty big church and there seems to be lots of families, which is nice. My mom is even going with us from time to time. Anyway, the 5:00 service was geared totally for the kids, which was really neat. The pastor didn't even do the service, which was different, but it was fun and the "sermon" consisted of describing the members that were at the manger on that day and instead of candles being lite we all received glow sticks.

8 weeks

2011-12-24T13:16:00.000-06:00

Wow, eight weeks has surely flown by! I cannot believe that our sweet Stella is now eight weeks old. That means I only have two more weeks at home with her. She has grown so much in the last two weeks! She is holding her head up more every day. She does not like to spend time on her tummy unless she is laying on her daddy's chest. When I put her on the floor she just yells and squaks for someone to pick her up. She is also smiling more everyday too! Just about anyone can make her smile. I love when she smiles at Nora and I think Nora enjoys that she can now smile too. I think it makes her seem like she is acknowledging her.

Stella is sleeping pretty well too! She has given us a couple of 7-8 hour stretches at night, which is glorious! Last night was 7 1/2 hours. After she does that she falls back asleep for usually at least 3 hours. I know my friends hate me, but I had to wake her up at 9:00 the last couple of days. She is staying awake longer too. Now we are going to start working on the nap schedule and getting those down. It is going to be an adjustment in a couple of weeks when we are all getting up to get out of the house, so I know everything is going to be changing soon.

Stella absolutely loves her bath time! We are still working the kinks out, but finally figured out how to do it without getting mommy soaked! She just smiles and looks around when she gets a bath. She likes the water really warm too. As opposed to her older sister who lately likes taking cold baths.

Sisterly love!

So I finally finished her letters! I wish they would have been done for the birthstory pictures, but oh well, what can you do. And as much as I would like to say I painted these, I did not. My neighbor shared a great idea with me! This is scrapbook paper that is cut to the letters! It did take me a little while to do, but I think it is super cute and much better than I could ever paint!

Cookies

2011-12-11T20:23:00.000-06:00

This morning we had Grandma, Great Gran and Jalen over to make cut out sugar cookies. We had a lot of fun making the cut outs and decorating them. Great Gran now know that Nora's favorite color is PINK! Great Gran would ask Nora, what color she should make a cookie and Nora's response 95% of the time was pink. Aunt Kiki would be proud ;) We used to do this with my Grandma as kids and I have fond memories of this time of year with her. I am so glad that I can continue to share this with her and my own daughter. We made three batches of sugar cookies and can't wait to eat them!

6 weeks old

2011-12-08T13:17:00.000-06:00

Stella is 6 weeks old today. It amazes me how much they grow and change so fast. Our precious baby is now smiling!! I love it! She just smiles away. She is starting to coo as well. Nora has a stuffed leopard and that is Stella's favorite thing to look at right now. She just smiles at the silly leopard and today she was trying to talk to the leopard. She is growing and I am estimating around 10lbs right now. She is sleeping at night for around 5 hours, which is awesome. So it gives me a solid 3.5 hour stretch of sleep. The second stretch is closer to 3 1/2 to 4 hours. No complaints here! I am hoping that by the time I go back to work she is sleeping through the night! Fingers crossed!!!

5 weeks & growing

2011-12-01T19:49:00.001-06:00

Stella is 5 weeks old! We went to the doctor yesterday and she is a growing girl. The last time we had been to the doctor was at her two week visit. At that visit she had not gotten back to her birth weight so the doctor recommended still waking her through the night. Well we no longer need to do that!!

Here are her current stats...

weight-9 lbs 7 oz 50th %ile

length-22.5" 90th %ile

I cannot believe she gained that much in three weeks! What a porker! A lot has changed in 3 weeks. She is getting formula at her last feeding of the night and her middle of the night feeding. Formula sits a little heavier and helps her sleep a little better. We are also doing this so I can take what I am pumping at those feedings and stash it. She is no longer nursing. We got thrush and it was just too painful for me. Luckily I was able to pump through it and am now exclusively pumping. While I was in Chicago Grandma helped me make a hands free bra so I can pump hands free! That is how I can blog right now. My plan is to try to pump until after Christmas and start slowing down before school starts. For me it is really hard and I just need sleep. I will need to be able to sleep through the night before I go back to work. So if I can still pump a few times a day and still get enough then I will do that, if not I will be done. That is just the way it is for me and sometimes it is hard for me to come to grips with, but a healthy and happy momma is better for all!

Enough about nursing and pumping. Stella is such a great baby! We are so lucky. She only cries when she is really hungry or tired. Right now she is sleeping in 4 hour stretches through the middle of the night. She has started smiling at us. It is not always, but enough! I just love that. She has started to coo just a little bit. She is more alert and staying awake a little longer than before.

Nora is doing well too! She loves her baby sister. Tonight we start counting down the days until Santa comes. Everything she sees on TV she wants. We went through the toy catalogs and she wanted to circle just about everything. We were coming home on Monday evening from somewhere and she saw christmas lights and asked where ours were. She wants our lights up! We are going to do it all this weekend. She asked about the tree too. I am really excited for Christmas this year. I think it is going to be so much fun!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T19:47:00.000-06:00

Wow, what a week. We decided before Stella was born that no matter what we would be going to Chicago for Thanksgiving. We rotate years between St. Louis and Chicago and this year was our year to be in Chicago. We thought that we might as well make it worth our drive so we decided to stay for a week. We were not sure how the drive would be so we might as well stay.

The day we were leaving for Chicago Stella decided to sleep for her first 4 1/2 hour stretch, which threw our game plan off. Of course leave it to a baby to do that! She woke us up at 4:15, so as Peter was feeding her and I was pumping we decided to get the car packed when we were done and go. We didn't want to wait until after her next feeding because Peter wanted to get there before the Bears game and we didn't know how the drive was going to go. So we packed up put two sleeping children in the car and headed on our way. We got on the road at 5:30 am. Stella did a great job! We see the makings of another great traveler. Nora is an awesome traveler and hopefully Stella will be the same way. We made it to Grandma and Grandpas house in 5 1/2 hours, which was great time!

We had no plans for most of the week. It was really nice to see both sides of the family. A lot of family got the chance to meet Stella and we are so thankful that you came to meet her! Tuesday Grandma, Nora and I headed to the American Girl store. Grandma got Nora a bitty baby for Christmas. Nora picked out a baby with reddish hair and blue eyes and named her baby Stella. Now, it has been a little confusing, but you just have to make sure you ask which Stella she is referring to, her sister or her baby. I think it is pretty sweet that she named her doll after her sister. It just goes to show how much she really does love her sister. More about that when I post an update on Stella and Nora after Stella goes to the doctor on Wed.

On Thanksgiving Day the Harrigan side of the family came over. I got to meet Peter's cousins baby, Emily. There were 3 girls under 7 months! It was fun to have Nora be able to play with her cousins, Shamus and Molly. They had a blast playing together and Nora now refers to Molly as her "new friend".

On Friday I did a little shopping, but nothing too crazy. I hit Kohls up at around 10:00 and then went to Old Navy and Carsons, which was all in the same mall. That evening we had dinner with friends, which was great as always.

We headed back on Saturday around noon time and it took a little longer to get home, but not much longer. The ride home was 6 hours, but still not bad considering we were traveling with an infant. We had a great week in Chicago!!!

2 weeks

2011-11-11T10:39:00.000-06:00

Our sweet baby is 2 weeks old. Some days I feel like wow that was fast and other days i feel like she has been here a while. Stella went to the doctor at 5 days old and had lost a little more weight, but other than that was great. Grandma and I took her yesterday and she has gained back some of that weight! Yea! I am nursing this time around and it is going pretty good. There are definate days when I question if I should nurse, but that is usually at night when I am tired and then the next morning I feel better about it. She is taking well to the nursing and latching well and eating well. That is all I can ask for. It is hard and we have been busy the last few days running to the doctor, getting diapers and other stuff, and visitors. That can complicate things with nursing, but Stella seems no worse for the wear. I want to keep nursing at least until I go back to work.

Grandma has been in town since Stella was a week old. She has been a great help. She has been cleaning and cleaning and doing laundry. My house is going to be a mess when she leaves. Grandpa comes in to town today and will be meeting Stella for the first time! Nora is super excited Grandpa is coming in. She didn't understand why Grandma came without him.

Stella is a lot like Nora was as a baby. Nora was laid back and so is Stella. Stella only cries when she is super hungry or over tired. We are so lucky!!! I hope she is as good of a traveler as Nora was and is. We are making our first trek to Chicago in 9 days! It should be an interesting ride!

Well....here are her two week stats.

weight-7lbs. 10oz. (30%)
length-21.5 inches (89%)
head-14.1 (53%)

Here are some pics! Nora and Stella at the same age!!! It is scary! Can you tell the difference? Leave a comment and tell me which two pics are Nora and which two pics are Stella!!!

And Jalen and his sweet baby cousin. He is such a great boy! I don't know what we would do without him. He just loves his cousins so much. He is so proud!!

Who am I?

Nora or Stella?

Can you tell the difference?

What baby?

Jalen and his sweet cousin Stella

Trick or Treat

2011-11-01T12:16:00.000-05:00

Our little pumpkin

Ninja and strawberry

sugar high!

sisters!

Daddy and Aunt Boo took Jalen and Nora trick or treating this year. Normally he stays back and hands out candy and I go, but this year was a little different. Nora didn't have a joke to start with, but Peter called about 5 min. after they had been out and said that she started making up her own jokes. They last about an hour, which was more than enough with the amount of candy that she got! Holy Moly! We always have a great time at the Kountzman's!

Pumpkin Carving

2011-11-01T11:41:00.000-05:00

Here we are carving pumpkins Sunday evening. We did not do carving with the rest of the family with everything going on this year. We carved two pumpkins. Nora wanted a scary pumpkin and that is what she got! She would not touch the inside of the pumpkin, wanted nothing to do with it. She did do a good job helping me carve!

She's Here!!!

2011-10-29T10:11:00.000-05:00

We gladly welcome Stella Kathleen Reid to the world! This post is going to be long as i am going to share her LONG birth story.

After going into the doctor on Monday we decided we were going to induce early Wednesday morning Oct. 26th. I made plans for Nora for the next few days and Peter and I headed to the hospital at 3:30 am. We got there and got checked in and they started the pitocin. Contractions started to come and continued to come. My mom and Katie got there around 7:45 and I was still only a 1, but they kept increasing the pitocin. They increased it every 30 min. until they maxed out on how much they could give me. It was around 10 am that I was maxed out. The nurse came in and let us know that if I didn't progress in an hour they would send me home. I was devastated to say the least. I had never heard of such a thing after being on pitocin. I thought I would be leaving the hospital with a baby! So we sent mom and Katie to work and we hung out. Contractions were still coming and we decided to be taken off the pitocin. They flushed me with fluids and monitored me. I was still having contractions so we ended up staying until 2pm, but by then they were coming less frequently and we went home. We took a nap and then went to get Nora. I was still contracting that night about every 30-50 minutes, but it was not anything I couldn't breathe through. We went to bed and Peter went to work in the morning and took Nora to the sitters so I could rest.

I took a shower and was still having contractions. When I woke up that morning I thought that I might be leaking, as in my water had broke, but I wasn't sure. So I laid around, watched a movie, cried for a little bit and talked to Peter a lot. One of Katie's friends that she works with swears by this woman that does pre-natal massage and made an appt. Her friend said that every time she would go close to be 40 weeks within 24 hours she delivered. So I made the appt. for 5:30 pm that evening. I talked to Peter again and said that i was going to call the doctor's office and made an appt. with the nurse practitioner because i was still undecided if I was leaking or not and she said come in and it will put your mind at ease. So I went in at 12:30 to see her. She did the test and came back in the room and said, "Well, it is leaking, you were right. We are calling now to let them know you are coming back to labor and delivery!". All I could say was, "NO WAY!". So I called Peter immediately and he couldn't believe it either!

I walked down to labor and delivery and they asked me if I wanted the same room I had yesterday. I said, "NO WAY!". So they put me in a new room and started the iv and pitocin again. This was around 1:30 they got everything going. I called the photographer as well and told her what was going on. I was still only having contractions every 30 min. After getting everything going again they had the house dr. come in and finishing breaking my water. After that the contractions sure did start coming! They were coming about every 5 min. and were pretty strong. I could not talk through them and said I am not doing this so I asked for my epidural. The dr. who did the epidural was great. I really don't know why people freak out about getting it, because compared to contractions it is NOTHING! He was pretty funny too, which helped get through it all and I had asked him if I ended up with a c-section could my photographer come in the room as well as of course Peter and he said yes. That made me happy to know, just in case. So we just relaxed and it wasn't until 5 pm that she checked me again. I was hoping to be a 3 and my mom kept saying, "you are a 5". And low and behold I was a 5! She cathed me and it was then just a waiting game. I was really excited after that! We all placed our bets on when we thought she would be here. I said 10:30, Peter said 7:20, my mom said 8:30. Around 5:15 I said i could feel some contractions and felt like I need to have a bowel movement. So the nurse was coming back at 5:30 and I waited until she came back in. Katie and Zach had gone to get something to eat and my dad and grandma were on their way up. My mom, Susie and Jalen headed out of the room so she could check me. She checked me and her eyes got really big and said you are at a 10! A 10?! That was only a 1/2 hour!!!! I went from 5 to 10 in a half hour?! So everyone came back in the room and we told them what was going on and no one could believe it! We called Katie and Zach back and they were stuck in the Jack in the Box drive through! They called the doctor on call and she said she would be there in a half hour. We called the photographer and she was at the baseball game! So she said to call her sister, who is her partner and she was cutting someones hair. I was getting a little worried at that time. So Peter took over and started dealing with that. The nurse came back in and said well one of the other doctor's was still in the office so she is walking down now!! Needless to say the photographer was NOT! there. I am still PISSED about it all. Luckily I had my camera and there was a nursing student in the room and I gave her my camera and just said to take pictures and she couldn't take too many. After 5 contractions she was here! Dr. Campbell let me help pull her the rest of the way out at the end. It was amazing!!! I cried. She is perfect and so tiny. You forget how small they are when they come out! It all happened so fast.

I am feeling really good today. I didn't tear like I did with Nora and am more mobile and feeling way better than I did after Nora. We are leaving the hospital today. Hello real world!

40 weeks

2011-10-24T14:20:00.001-05:00

Well I made it to 40 weeks. I was really hoping that I woudn't, but baby girl doesn't want to come out yet. Since last week we have pretty much tried every natural inducer except for castor oil. Monday into Tuesday of last week I had contractions from 10:30pm-3am and then they stopped. I was really hoping they would continue. It was a really long week, but I made it through another week of work and get to put that on the back end of winter break since they have already taken it out of my paycheck. Last night around 11:00 I started having contractions again. The same thing happened as last Monday, they stopped at around 3:30 in the morning. I was really hoping they would keep going, but no such luck. I am at work today and decided it will be my last full day of work. I go to the doctor this afternoon and hopefully she has good news that i am at least a little dialated. We shall see! We will be scheduling an induction at today's visit as well. I know I have said I don't want to be induced, but I am in so much pain from my pubic bone being separated that I cannot take much more. I am hoping to be induced Wed or Thurs. I am getting really excited to meet our baby girl!

Through the pregnancy

2011-10-18T19:28:00.001-05:00

Here is a comparison of what I looked like through both pregnancies. I think it is interesting because I carried both of them different. I was much lower this time around. Nora sat really high. I am so glad that I did this and have this to look back on!

39 weeks

2011-10-17T19:23:00.000-05:00

Well I sent baby girl an eviction notice this weekend. I ate pineapple and did a shot of habenero extract and ate a WHOLE habenero! And....NOTHING! She is not coming out and I am upset about it. I went to the dr. today and i am nothing still....neither dialated or effaced. I know I still have a week until I am technically due, but I am so done. I am tired and crabby. I even took a nap yesterday and that is soooo not like me. If she does not come by the 27 of October I am going to be induced, so she better come before then. I am hoping this is my last picture!

Caramel Apples

2011-10-15T16:59:00.000-05:00

This morning we made caramel apples with my grandma. She has been doing this since my dad was a little kid. Instead of nuts she uses crushed up rice krispies. They taste pretty yummy! The best part is after when there is still hot caramel left and you dice up some apples and have a yummy treat or as we called it, lunch! I bought a new camera yesterday so of course I had to test it out while making the apples!

unwrapping the caramels

apples before

heating up!

learning how to dip

more dipping

Caramel apples!

38 weeks

2011-10-10T19:53:00.000-05:00

Made it to 38 weeks and nothing! Went to the dr. today and baby girl is in position, heart rate is good and not dialated or effaced at all. Guess she is going to be stubborn like her older sister and stay in there until her due date. I am so done being pregnant!!! I am sending her an eviction notice this weekend. Time to get out baby girl. I think everyone is tired of me being pregnant and crabby. I know I don't even want to be around me sometimes.

On a side note our photographer got up a sneak peek from our ripe belly session. I think I bugged her enough to do it and she finally did. To see a bigger version go to www.lelephotography.blogspot.com

Out and About

2011-10-08T20:35:00.000-05:00

So this morning we had to be out of the house because the cleaning lady that our friends got for us was coming to clean the house. So Peter and Nora headed to Best Buy and I did a quick shoot, then we met at Suson Park to see the animals and have a picnic lunch. Nora slept three nights in a row all through the night and she has been earning stickers and had enough to do something special and going to the park was that something special. Peter got a call on the way to the park from his friend Kevin and they were doing some demonstrations at the fire house today so we then headed to the fire house to check it out and then went to play on a playground! Here are some pics from our day!

37 weeks

2011-10-04T12:43:00.001-05:00

Well we have made it to October and to 37 weeks! Only 3 more to go, but if she were to come now it would be okay and she would considered full term. I am NOT ready for her to be here though. I am ready to be done being pregnant, but for my maternity leave I want her to at least wait until after the 14th! If she comes after the 14th then I won't have to go back to school until Jan. 2! At my appointment yesterday everything was good. I am not dialated or effaced yet, but her heart rate was good.

Since my last post people have done a little sprinkling for me! My mom, Susie, Katie, Jalen, and Uncle Mike had a little sprinkle for me on the 23rd. A sprinkle is a 'mini' shower. Katie made a diaper cake and they gave the new baby some clothes and my mom had a beautiful blanket made from her wedding gown. It was very nice and fun. We had a great time. Nora had a great time playing with Uncle Mike and I don't think all of us have laughed that hard in a long time! Then on Saturday some of our friends sprinkled us. We have regular dinners with this group of friends (which are some of Peter's college friends). They gave us some cute sleepers and toys and a house cleaning! It was so nice and thoughtful and cannot thank them enough!

In other news Nora is doing great! She is loving pre-school and asks everyday if it is a school day or not. I love that she loves it and she is learning a lot too! She is excited about the baby, as excited as a 3 year old can be. I think she won't be as excited once she is here, but we will deal with that later. We were talking about birthday's over the weekend since Peter's birthday is Thursday and I said, "guess whose birthday is after daddy's?". Of course she didn't know and I told her it would be the baby's birthday and she got all excited. So when my family came over Sunday to celebrate she told them whose birthday was next. We will have to sing to the new baby when she arrives. She has also been into a show on TV called 'Bubble Guppies' and lately she is bubble puppy from that show.

Our bubble puppy!

Oh and if you want to get in on the baby pool do it before Monday! Send you $1 to my mom!!! Here is the link http://www.expectnet.com/games/Reid-BabyPool2

I think that is all for now!

35 weeks

2011-09-20T16:44:00.000-05:00

So I am at 35 weeks and have 5 weeks to go! I am large and in charge. There are many days that I don't feel THAT big and then there are days where I feel huge. Then there are days when people tell me how BIG I am and I just want to punch them. I am sooooo done being pregnant. I hit that point around 1 1/2 weeks ago, which is not good. I am so uncomfortable and not sleeping. I have SPD, which means I have to much of the relaxin hormone in my body and my muscles are not holding my pelvis in place and bones are trying to separate. The best way to describe it is as if you are walking, standing and sitting on a broken pubic bone. So I am supposed to be resting at night and not doing much. Yeah, for those of you who know me well, know that I am not very good at resting. But I did ask for help!!! Huge step for me. My family is all pitching in to help, even my chicago family which is great! So it started with Kiki helping clean my house this weekend, which was huge. I got home from taking my silly principal liscensure test and walking in to a clean house. All I could do was say THANKS! It was a huge relief and I am trying to relax. Needless to say this pregnancy has been different in every aspect. I am in a lot more pain this time and sometimes when she moves I twinge. I have a lot of braxton hicks. I can tell when I have been running around at work, because they come a lot more often. Monday, September 26th I have my last ultrasound and then start weekly appointments. I will give an update after that.

1st Day of Preschool

2011-09-12T10:50:00.000-05:00

Nora started Preschool today! I cannot believe it. Time does fly by. She was really excited this morning and was up at normal time. It was not a normal morning though because she was not going to Rebecca's, instead Peter was taking her to school. I could not take off so he got to do this first. She is going to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday's from 9-11:30. Our awesome babysitter will normally be taking her and picking her up. We are so lucky that she is doing this for us! Anyway, she is going to St. Lucas Preschool and our neighbor's daughter, Allison, and Nora are in the same class. They play so well together. Our little girl is growing up! And yes, in case you are wondering, I did cry this morning!

Allison and Nora at school!

1st day of school picture

outside of school

Grizzlies Game

2011-09-06T19:05:00.000-05:00

Grandma and Grandpa came into town for the long weekend. We hadn't seen them in 7 weeks, which is a long time for us. We won't see them again until baby girl gets here. On Saturday we went to the Mills Mall and did some shopping and then BBQ'd on Saturday evening. We took them to our new favorite spot, Yogurtland!!! On Sunday we hung out and then went to the Gateway Grizzlies game. We met up with the Lovegreens and Beffa's as well. It was the Grizzlies last game of the season and it was really crowded. We sat in the lawn, which was perfect for the little ones to play and play. They gave away attendance prizes and Bob won free tickets to a Mizzou football game. Peter finally tried one of the krispy kreme bacon cheeseburgers. Yes, it is a bacon cheeseburger with a donut for the bun!! After the game ended they let you toilet paper the stadium and they had a great 20 min. firework show! All around it was a great long weekend!

Mitchell and Nora

Daddy and Nora

Playing with Grandpa-her big jungle gym

Nora in her Cardinals jacket

some of the gang

Sleeping Beauty

2011-08-22T07:21:00.000-05:00

So Nora has a big girl bed and she loves it. She totally cracks us up though because of some of the ways we find her sleeping in her big girl bed. And maybe we are mean parents for taking pictures of her sleeping and laughing before we wake her up, but I just can't help myself. So I thought I would share.

So this is how Peter found her one morning last week. Totally covered up with her blanket from head to toe. He didn't wake her up and called me into the room and we started taking pics! I guess it is a good thing that I know she can breathe through that blanket! That is definately a Reid thing, because I cannot sleep with anything over my head.

This pic was taken yesterday at naptime. I went in to wake her up and she was laying the wrong way with another pillow over her body. She just makes me laugh. And yes we do have a lot of pillows in her bed, but normally she refuses to lay on anything, but the princess pillow shams.

Warrensburg Trip

2011-08-15T15:52:00.000-05:00

This weekend Nora and I took the train to see my friend Valerie and her little girl Allison. Valerie's husband is away until December and so it is just her and Allison all the time and she is pregnant to boot. I decided we should take the train because driving is getting really uncomfortable and having to deal with Nora as well would not have made a good combination. Peter dropped us off at the train station Friday after school and Nora was so excited to be riding the train. For those of you who don't know she really likes the TV show 'Dinosaur Train' and so to be going on a train was really neat! She kept asking about the Mr. Conductor and if we would be going through any time tunnels. It made me laugh! As always she did great on the train. The two Mr. Conductor's that we met on the way there were not very nice ones and didn't humor Nora at all. But the ride wasn't too bad. On the way home the two Mr. Conductor's that we met were great and Nora asked one of them if we would go through a time tunnel and he said, "we sure will"! She got all excited. We are so lucky that we have a good little traveler.

Valerie and Allison picked us up at the train station and we headed back to their house. We didn't stay up much longer after we were there because it was getting pretty late. The next day we headed to the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia. It was a pretty warm day and I made the mistake of saying no to the umbrella stroller. You think I would have learned by now, but I haven't. Oh well. I got my exercise that day and more because I ended up carrying Nora alot. We had a good time and we got to see lots of animals. We saw pigs, cows, chickens, mules, horses, ducks, and turkey's. When we were in the pig building there were pigs walking around and Nora didn't know what to do. One girl let her in the pen with the pigs to let Nora pet them. She got a big kick out of that. She also got to pet a cow and a mule. She loves animals. We were at the fair for around 3 hours and then called it quits. Nora had her first fair corndog and cotton candy!

On Sunday we went to the park and played for a little bit and then played outside at Valerie's house. We had a great weekend. Nora liked to lead Allison around. She even tried to pick Allison up once by her shoulder and neck. Allison was a good sport for being 15 months and not understanding everything Nora wanted her to do. In the car they just cracked us up because one would start laughing and then the other would laugh and it would just keep going. They played well together, which is always nice.

pigs just walking around!

OINK!

petting the pig

so cool!

Big tractor

so funny

eating a corndog

moo

let's play

29 weeks

2011-08-10T20:38:00.000-05:00

Wow! I cannot believe that I am already 29 weeks. In 11 weeks this baby is going to be here and that is really hard to believe. It doesn't seem like this pregnancy has gone by super fast, but 11 weeks left isn't very long. This pregnancy has been so different in good ways and bad. The beginning was a lot harder and way more hormonal than I ever was with Nora. Good is that I have been able to work out for 29 weeks!!! I really wanted to make it to 30 weeks, but I have had some pain after working out and so I think it is time to stop. So here I am, belly and all! I have had some nice compliments in the last week or so. I have had look how little you are, pregnancy suits you, and you look great. I can definately tell that I am carrying this little girl differently, she is a lot lower and I feel a little more round looking. We are still working on a name. We cannot decide and when we decide we are not sharing when we do. We have had some mixed reactions when we mention names and so that is why we are not sharing and really because we haven't decided.

Trip to D.C.

2011-07-29T17:04:00.000-05:00

We did our first family vacation this year. We took a trip to Washington D.C. to visit my family. They live in Burke, VA, which is about 30 min. from the city. This was Nora's second time on a plan, she doesn't remember the first time. She loved it! She couldn't wait to get back on the plane. We left on Saturday and stayed until Wednesday. We had a great time and did some good site seeing. It was awesome to spend time with my family as well. We miss them so much!!! It was also great that they got to spend time with Nora. When they come here it is all of us hanging out together and this time it was just us and them. Here are some pics with some stories!

Uncle John and Aunt Sally

On the boat tour

It was so hot on the boat tour!

So the above pictures were taken on the second day that we were there. We went swimming in the morning and then relaxed and went on a boat tour. It was a very interesting tour to say the least and our tour guide was the reason it was interesting. He wasn't the greatest, but we got to see some sites. It was so flipping hot! There was no breeze on the boat the first 20 minutes, once the boat turned around the breeze returned. After the boat tour we went and had dinner at Capitol City Brewing Company. Poor Joe, the waitress spilled our soda's on him!!! We drove around a little after dinner and called it a night!

Jenny and Nora

On Monday we went swimming again and chilled out. Then we went and met Peter's cousin Jenny at Maggiano's for dinner, which was excellent. Jenny met Nora for the first time, can you see a family resemblance there?! We then walked around the very expensive mall that the restaurant was attached to. This is when the whole 'push present' jokes began. Annie asked me earlier in that day if I had ever heard of a push present. This is when your husband gives you a nice gift for being pregnant and having the baby. I had told her yes, but I did not get a push present with Nora. So we went into the coach store and I found a really cute diaper bag and the push present joking began.

Aunt Sally and Nora playing with Ben

My aunt has an iPad and has an app called talking Ben. Nora thought it was a hoot and wanted to play with Ben a lot. He eats and answers the phone and mimics you. It was pretty darn funny to watch her play with it and it was a great bribe as well!

Annie, Peter, Joe

On Tuesday we went to the Smithsonian Museums of Natural History and American History. They are really neat places to visit. After that we had lunch at a famous place called 'Ben's Chili Bowl'. It was really good and has been featured on Oprah, Food Network, and Man vs. Food. It was cool.

After lunch we went to see the White House and had some pictures taken in the back of it. We saw the first lady's garden and that was about it.

Emma is their dog and followed Nora around the entire time we were there. She kept trying to herd Nora. It was pretty funny. Nora is sad that Staley doesn't follow her like Emma did. I bet Emma was sad when Nora left.

The last place that we went on our last day was the Air and Space Museum. It was really cool and they had lots of neat planes and stuff at it. We had a great time with the Mernah Clan and can't wait to make another trip back to D.C.

Nora's Trip to Chicago

2011-07-29T15:25:00.000-05:00

Nora went to Chicago from the 10th of July through the 16th of July. Peter and I took her up to stay with Grandma and Grandpa and we came back home. She stayed with them for the whole week and was spoiled silly! A lot of people cannot believe that we let her do this and on the flip side people say to them I can't believe you are doing this. I think it is awesome! This is her third summer spending a week with them and I think that it is a special thing that she gets to do. It all started because I had class in the summer and so they kept her while I was in class, well this summer was the first time that I didn't have class. I was kid free, well besides the one that I am carrying ;) While she was gone I got the babies room ready. Nora kept busy in Chicago. She went to the pool with Grandma, Aunt Candace and Naomi, to the Aquarium, the library, to visit great-grandma, the park, a movie and build a bear! Here are some pics!

New Bedrooms

2011-07-14T19:17:00.000-05:00

So back in February I think I posted that Peter redid the guest bedroom for Nora and moved everything into a new room for her. He did a Disney princess theme. He did this in anticipation of having another baby and that we knew when that happened we would be turning Nora's crib into a full size bed. So a few weeks ago Peter and a few friends helped move the room around to get ready for the big girl bed and last weekend we got a new full size mattress for Nora! She loves her big girl bed. Baby girl is using Nora's mattress and we didn't want to have Nora have any issues with it so we decided to do it now instead of waiting closer to when the baby comes.

She has done really great in her big bed. She has only fallen in the crack one time. I just need to take a friends advice and get a pool noodle to stick under the fitted sheet to serve as a bit of a blocker and she will be just fine. Nora and Jalen slept in the bed together last week when he spent the night and she was all excited. We moved the guest bedroom downstairs. So now Grandma and Grandpa will be downstairs when they come to visit!

So since Nora has been gone I have had the chance to get baby girls bedroom together. The new furniture came over the weekend and once I got back from Chicago I couldn't wait to get it all organized and together. One of the side effects of being pregnant this time around is my major OCD or nesting. I know you are thinking how much worse could it be, but let me tell you, I cannot keep things organized enough or my house clean enough. I know it is irrational and sick, but I cannot help it!!!

Anyway...we are using the same bedding as we did with Nora, but we switched the room around so it is a little different. It seems kind of plain right now, but her name will go on the wall above the changing table when she comes and it will give it a little more. I had fun getting everything out again and washing it all. All of the blankets, sheets, burp cloths, and lap pads are all washed and ready to go. Here is her room...

Here is the new bedroom downstairs! Nora has been telling Grandma and Grandpa about their new bedroom and she is excited to show them where it is! They will be bringing Nora back on Saturday and we won't be home so Nora will be in charge of showing them around and I don't think she will have any problem with it ;)

Ultrasound

2011-07-14T18:36:00.000-05:00

So I had another ultrasound yesterday! Baby girl is doing just fine. They wanted to do a second one because at 18 weeks she was breech and the placenta was close to the cervix. So at 25 weeks she is head down and the placenta is growing with the uterus like it should! She was pretty active during this ultrasound as well. She sure does like to move and kick. She gave us an okay profile shot and that is what I have posted below. She is measuring right on track and weighs just over 1 lb right now! The tech did show us that she has some hair on her head too, but that pic you really need to see in person.

After having the ultrasound it really makes me wonder what she is going to look like! Is she going to look like Nora? Is she going have Peter's features or will she look more like me? Will we have a second red-head? I still have 15 weeks to go! We will find out soon enough. Oh and we haven't decided on a name yet. We have narrowed it down, but we are not sharing. You will have to wait and see what we end up deciding when she gets here!

Happy Birthday to Mom and America!

2011-07-05T16:15:00.000-05:00

We had a great weekend! Friday evening we celebrated my birthday with my mom and sisters and had a game night. Typically for a birthday we get to choose whatever type of dinner we want and go from there. This year I requested appetizers and a game night, so that is what we did! Everyone came over we ate and played games and had a great time!

Saturday morning we went out to breakfast with my dad and then took it easy until we headed to the Gateway Grizzlies game. This is baseball that is a step above college. We had a lot of fun, despite the 100 degree temperatures! Poor Nora is just like her dad and is just a sweaty little girl. I would definately want to do this again. The food and drinks were cheap as well as the tickets! They played a good game and the announcers were hilarious. After the game they had fireworks, which Nora did not like to much. She started to cry until daddy asked her to tell him the colors and she did it. She did start to cry again during the finale, but it didn't last too long.

making faces at daddy while mommy was getting sno cones!

My birthday cupcake!

Nora loved the mascot!

At the Game!

So every 4th of July the Bromeier Gang has a big celebration and it has been happening for a very long time. This year my cousin Mindy hosted and we joined in for the festivities! It was a pretty warm day and they have a pool so of course we had to get in. A few weeks ago Nora would not get in the pool unassisted and now she won't get out. Peter and I had to take turns getting back in because we were both participating in the washers tournament. It was pretty funny because I played two whole washers game soaking wet in a maternity swimsuit. I am sure I was a sight to see! Anyway, Nora swam for almost 3 hours! I don't know how she didn't just pass out after she was done. Neither Peter nor I won the washers tournament, but Zach made it to the finals again and was beat for the 3rd year in a row by our cousin Kurt.

Great Gran and Nora

Pappy and Nora (pappy bought Nora her dress for her birthday)

Since we were in Jefferson County it was legal to shoot off fireworks. Nora was not happy about this. My cousin Jamie saved the day because she had some headphones for Nora to put on. She could still hear a little, but she was not jumping out of her chair like she had on the first few! As you can see in the picture she made me wrap my arms around her like a seat belt. I tried to move my arms and she put them right back the way they were!

The head phones worked so well that the poor baby fell asleep! I guess that is what all that swimming and playing will do to you! She was out cold!

We had a great weekend! Check back soon for Nora's visit to Chicago. She leaves this coming weekend and won't be back at home until the 16th! I am sure I will have some updating to do!

Special House

2011-07-01T17:53:00.000-05:00

So last night we went to the Magic House or as Nora kept referring to it as the Special House. She sure is special! There was a Park Lane event and it was only $5 for us to get in and we were able to go into a couple of the rooms. Nora had a great time! She sure does have a wonderful imagination. She made me pretend that I was the kid and we were going to all of these different places. It was cute and fun and love being able to play with her.

They also had a clown there painting the kids faces and another one making balloon animals. She would not go near the face paint for the longest time. She did however get a kitty cat balloon made right away. She really wanted two and they wouldn't give her another one. So we sent a friend Laura in to get one and I totally forgot she was afraid of clowns!! It was so nice of her to do that! When she finally got the courage to have her face painted she wanted to be a kitty cat. It doesn't even look like her. She also had some flowers painted on her arm! Fun times! I love the summer!

On the Go!

2011-07-01T17:35:00.000-05:00

We were really busy this week! On Tuesday we went to the pool with our friends Stephanie and Emily. They belong to Indian Hills swim club. Jalen loves being in the pool. He was a little bummed because he couldn't pass the swim test to go off the diving board, but he got over it pretty quick. Here they are together. Nora would not let you let her go unless she could touch. So needless to say we spent most of our time in the 1.5 foot section of the club. The water was a little chilly, but not too bad once you got used to it. Summer is back!

On Wednesday we went to the World Bird Sanctuary. We went with a friend that I work with, Kathy and her two kids. Her son is the same age as Jalen so it was nice for him to hang out with another boy his age. It was a pretty cool place. We saw all kinds of birds! Nora liked looking at them all as well. They had owls, eagles, vultures, chickens, snakes, and a random bunny. We spent a little while walking around and looking at all the birds. Then we went to McDonalds for lunch and they had a playland and I think we were there for almost an hour! We had a great time with the Wagoner's!

The Bull

2011-06-26T15:09:00.000-05:00

So last night after we went to a wedding we met up with my sister for her birthday. She was celebrating at the Twisted Bull, a somewhat country bar with a mechanical bull. So needless to say quite a few of them took advantage of riding the bull. I laughed my head off because Peter and Zach rode the bull. Here are some pics of the bull riding!

Kristina

having fun!

Zach's turn

WHOA!

There he goes!

Ashtons next

He loves it!

Oh goodness!

Not too bad!

Is he a cowboy?!

Summer Fun

2011-06-26T14:37:00.000-05:00

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I have Jalen with me. We have been trying to do fun things on those days. We went to Grant's Farm and Suson Park so far and have had fun playing with friends. This week we are going to the pool with another friend and the Wild Bird Sanctuary with another. Here are some pics of what we have done thus far!!!

And its a....

2011-06-19T20:50:00.000-05:00

GIRL!!! For those of you who do not know we are having another little girl. We had a reveal party last Sunday and had close friends and family over to help celebrate. Everyone was told to wear either pink or blue for their guess. We had quite a split house! A few of our friends were in yellow too as to not 'reveal' what their guess was. It was fun and we had Nora reveal what the baby was. She opened a gift bag with a box and in the box was a onesie and on that was a picture of Princess Fiona from Shrek. My brother in law, Zach, has been saying from the beginning that it was a little girl and said we should name her Fiona. Since that point Nora has been calling the baby Fiona and we have been calling the baby Maverick, until we found out! Nora continues to call the baby Fiona despite the fact that this is NOT what we will be naming her!

Here I am at almost 22 weeks! I found this dress yesterday and just love it. I wouldn't have worn anything like this with Nora, but feel like working out this time around is soooo helping me!!! I am still feeling pretty good. My hormones are just a lot more out of control than they were with Nora and we are learning to deal with it. It will all be done before we know it! We have started tossing names around and it is going to be way more of a challenge than I thought. We are also not sharing the name we pick until she comes. I know, I know a lot of people don't get that, but I like surprises and want something to be a surprise!

I could not resist putting this picture up! She just loves Staley so much!!!! Her dog loves her too, but sometimes or most of the times wants nothing to do with her. He does put up with a lot. I had my camera out and asked if I could take her picture and she said take one of my dog! She looks so much like Peter in this picture. It really makes me wonder what this next one is going to look like!!!!

What's Up

2011-05-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

So much has been happening lately and it is hard to keep up!

Since the wedding we have been busy bees. The basement is shaping up! Over the weekend Peter primed and painted the entire, yes ENTIRE basement! Very different colors from what it was before and I am looking forward to the finished product. We are hoping our contractor can start working on putting in the floors this week, which would be awesome! We are doing pergo throughout.

I was busy as well this weekend. I had five photo shoots and in between the photo shoots I managed to weed whack the hill, clean the upstairs do all the laundry and start to tarp the hill. My goal for this summer is to have the weeds on the hill gone and it all tarped so that next summer we can lay rock or mulch.

Nora was so sweet this weekend and played so well while mom and dad worked. We are so blessed and I really hope that this next one is as good as her. Peter and I did manage to sneak in dinner and a movie on Sunday evening, which was really nice. I don't even remember the last time just the two of us did something alone. I really do miss that. I am hoping we can do that a little more this summer before the baby comes. There are some really good movies that we want to see ;)

I had a doctor's appointment this past Thursday and things are looking really good. We had our big ultrasound and I bet you are dying to know! Well, sorry, not in this post...you will have to wait until June 12th to find out if Maverick is a boy or a girl. We have been calling the baby Maverick because for some strange reason Peter likes this name and wants to name a child with that name. So it has become a joke and the name has kind of stuck for in-utero. Maverick is measuring great and weighs aprox. 8 oz! This baby was very active during the ultrasound and so it was hard to get some really good shots, but we did manage to get the 'money' shot. We also got to see this baby's mouth move, which was pretty neat.

I am officially 19 weeks and this picture was taken this morning after my workout. I have been lucky enough to have kept up with my running and step class. I am working out 4 times a week right now and hope to continue that as long as I can. It is getting harder to run, well harder because my heart rate is getting harder to stay down. If I didn't have to pay so close attention to that I would be fine. I have a 5k this weekend and I am thinking this will be my last race. I hate running slow and it will be hard to find someone to run with me that slow. I am thankful to my friend Cyndi who is running with me this weekend. I just really want to keep exercising in hopes it will help me keep some of the weight off and help me post-pardem.

This is my last week of school!!! YIPEE! I am so excited and ready for summer break. Nora and I are headed to Chicago on Saturday to visit Naomi! I cannot wait to hold that little girl. We plan on being there for 4-5 days. Naomi was born on May 21st, yes my sister got married and my niece was born. She weighed in at 6 lbs even and was 19 inches long. She has a head of dark hair. I will be posting some pics of her next week.

Well I guess that is all for now! A really long post, which is not typically my style, but there is a lot going on!

The Royal Wedding

2011-05-22T13:02:00.000-05:00

Well, I cannot believe the wedding has come and gone! It ended up being a beautiful day and we had soooo much fun! Nora did a great job and looked so stinking cute. The ceremony was good, the pics were great and the reception was AWESOME! We are all recovering and resting. Here are some pics from the day!!

rehearsal dinner

grooms cake

grandma and nora

handsome jalen

Add caption

17 Weeks!

2011-05-17T08:28:00.000-05:00

Well here we are 17 weeks into pregnancy number two! You know that I wasn't going to go too long without posting pictures. I did this for Nora and of course am doing it again for this little peanut. I cannot believe it has been 17 weeks already. This pregnancy has for sure been different that my first one. I was very nauseated for the first 13 weeks and nothing seemed to help that. I have really bad acne too, which totally stinks, but a part of being pregnant. I have had cravings this time around...did not have cravings with Nora. What have I been craving, for a few weeks at the beginning I could not get enough orange sherbet, I don't eat sherbet so that was weird for me. I have been craving salty and sweet together which is odd for me and most recently I cannot get enough rootbeer! Normally I would rather not drink root beer at all and now I want it all the time!

We have had a few dr. appt's and they have all gone well. Our first ultrasound was fun and Nora got to be a part of it. We are very excited that on May 26th we will be finding out, as long as this little peanut is cooperating, what the gender is. Please don't ask, we are not "revealing" the gender until June 12th! I will say that I think it is a boy this time around and my gut has been right with the last 8 out of 10 pregnancies of people I know. We will just have to wait and see.

Everyone has been asking if Nora is excited or not. We talk about the baby, but she hasn't said too much about it until last night. It was my turn to put her to bed (yes we take turns and I could do a whole post about this little issue) and we were sitting in the glider and she got up on my lap and I started to read. A few minutes later she said "mom i am sitting on the baby". I looked at her and she smiled and put her hand behind her back and left them on my stomach for the rest of the time we read together. It just made my heart melt! I know we will have some jealousy issues in the beginning, but this is the making of a great big sister!

Nora's 3rd Birthday!

2011-05-15T19:55:00.000-05:00

Cheese!

Birthday cake

opening gifts

make a wish

Nora had a great birthday. I cannot believe that she is already 3! Thursday Nora and I had pizza for dinner and waited up for Grandma and Grandpa to get here and opened their gifts when they got here. Friday they took her to the zoo and later that night we opened gifts from Aunt Candace and Uncle Tim, strawberry shortcake stuff!! Nora opened our big gift, which was an outside water table, which I can't wait for her to play with. I decorated the cake Friday night and my daughter came up, out of no where and said, "Mom, thanks for making my cake!". She is just too sweet! I know I am a little biased, but she is so good, despite the times she drives me crazy.

So Saturday rained and was cold and nasty and we still had a great party! All of our family and friends came over and my dad made some really yummy deep fried nuggets and french fries. She was so excited to open presents and eat cake. We had a lot of fun.

I am not sure how the three's are going to be, but hopefully we will get through them. She is starting to be more bossy and she told Grandma that she yells at me! I don't like that she is bossy and not doing what I ask of her all the time, but I know it could be worse and she is still a really good girl! I watched Nora's birth story on her birthday and it made me cry! But it also made me super excited for our little peanut to be here!

Aunt Candace's Baby Shower

2011-05-01T20:18:00.000-05:00

Centerpiece and giveaways

gift table

Grandma and Nora

Aunt Candace and Nora

We headed to Chicago this past weekend for Aunt Candace's baby shower. It was a quick weekend, but a fun weekend. Grandma and I planned the shower for Aunt Candace, it was so much fun planning. We made the diaper cakes centerpieces back in march when they came to visit. Two of them had blankets and lap pads in the center and the others had baby wash and lotion in the center. Then the outside was surrounded by pink and green ribbon. We also had candy bars for the giveaways and they had personalized wrappers on them that I had found on Etsy, they were super cute. They went along with her owl theme.
Nora had a lot of fun a the shower and was a total trooper. We got to hackney's at 11:00 and we didn't end up leaving until 4ish, so no nap for her and she did excellent. She talked to people and helped Aunt Candace open gifts and did a great job for being almost three and surrounded by only adults all day. Aunt Candace got lots of great gifts and then we headed to their new house and helped unpack and sort and Nora played with some of the new toys. It was a great weekend and we cannot wait to meet Naomi!!!! Aunt Candace is dialated to 3 cm already, so we are thinking she isn't going to make it until May 30th!

Happy Easter

2011-05-01T20:01:00.000-05:00

We had a great Easter! Nora had a great time and loved hunting for Easter eggs and coloring them and eating tons of candy! She I swear, had at least a half a bag of jelly beans and ate more candy than she has ever eaten. We went to church and she was so funny because the pastor said Hallelujah and she gave a big Hallelujah! It was pretty funny. We then went to Grandma's house for brunch and headed to Great Grans for dinner. It was a great Easter and we are so blessed and surrounded by so many people we love!

Big Girl Bed

2011-05-01T19:44:00.000-05:00

We turned Nora's crib into a toddler bed a couple of weekends ago and she loves it! I was a little worried about it, but she is doing great! She loves sleeping in her big girl bed. I can't wait to see how well she does when we give her a bigger bed. She also found a Barbie my mom had given her for her first birthday and she loves it. She needs to always know where it is at and she has been sleeping with it! As you can see in the picture she has barbie all covered up with her!

Katie's Bachelorette Party

2011-05-01T19:35:00.000-05:00

The Wedding Party (minus the irish twinkie)

Katie had her bachelorette party on April 17th. We started at Katie's house and had apps and drink's and then the bus came to pick us up at 8:00 and we went to D's, Big Daddy's, McGurks and Carsons.

MOH and MOB

MOH, Bride, MOH

We had a great time and it was a great party! I am so glad that I remember all of it and get to tell all the good stories!

St. Patrick's Day Parade

2011-03-12T17:08:00.000-06:00

Little Irish Girl

After the Run

Aunt Kiki & Nora

Today was the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in downtown St. Louis. This year I started a new tradition for myself by doing the run prior to the parade. My friend Sarah asked if I wanted to do it and I said sure. It really got me motivated to start losing weight and working out again, which was just what I needed.

The race was fun! There were a ton of people that ran...the race route was just opposite of the Komen Race for the Cure route and a little longer. This was a 5 mile run instead of a 3 mile run. Sarah ran with me the whole time, which was nice. I sooo miss having a running partner! It makes the time go by so much faster. It didn't feel like we were running for 57 minutes, but we did. Peter and Nora were there to cheer us on around the 1 mile marker and they then claimed a parade spot. It was such a beautiful day that there were a ton of people downtown. I think it ended up being 55 at run time and during the parade in the lower 60's!!! Just what we ordered.

After I got done with the run I said goodbye to Sarah and headed to our regular spot at 14th and Market. We laid out the blankets and waited for everyone to show up. Aunt Kiki, Zach, Grandma, Jalen and a bunch of other friends joined us. My friend April and her mom walked the run and met up with us after, as well as April's dad and Steve and the boys. It was fun to have younger kiddos to watch the parade with. Nora was such a trooper and was outside from 8:45-2:15! What a long day! And I only had to take her to the porta potty once! The kids got lots of candy and beads and had a great time. I can't wait for the parade on actual St. Patrick's Day! I am so lucky and excited to be off for Spring Break so we get to go.

Oh yes he did!!

2011-02-24T13:14:00.000-06:00

So before I went to Vegas I asked Peter to make sure he did something fun with Nora while I was gone. Since they had the whole weekend together to bond I figured it would be a good idea to do something with her he normally does not do.

So I talked with him on Saturday after we had gone walking around and he was acting all weird and stuff. I said what did you do today? He said not much and went to the park and then was just being goofy. He then said I have a surprise for you, but he would not say what it was. He did NOT want to tell me. Now, I do like surprises, don't get me wrong, but I just wanted to know. So Nora got on the phone and I asked her how the park was and she didn't say anything. Then she said..."I got a new bed". I said, "What?!". Peter got back on the phone and of course I asked what was she talking about and he said that she didn't get a new bed. No, she didn't get a new bed, but she got a new BEDROOM! Seriously, what are you talking about?

Now a few months ago Peter and I had started talking, just talking, about moving Nora to a bigger room since she has so much stuff and what not and I said I wanted to wait until summer so I could do it and what not and would have the time.

Well, he took that and ran with it. He has had this in the works for over a month! Not only did he switch her bedroom, he redecorated it! Really?! You redecorated our daughters room without me?! That is what was going through my head. I was so MAD! Not only did I not know about it, Susie, Katie, Debbie Reid, and Nicole knew about it and decided to keep this HUGE secret from me.

He sent some pics on the phone so I could see what he did. He did not transform her bed, he did paint the room and put Disney princess decals up. It is cute, but I was so looking forward to picking things out and doing it on my timeline that I was totally thrown for a loop. He did a lot of work and I am very appreciative of that. I still get to do some of the details such as valances and shelves and what not, but I had no choice in picking color or theme and I think that is what got me the most.

Nora on the other hand LOVES her new room! She just loves princess stuff and thanked Peter a ton and also thanked me when I got home. It is cute and it is not done yet, but it will be soon enough!

Vegas Baby!!!

2011-02-24T11:26:00.000-06:00

At the "Bling" Dinner on Saturday Night

Blown Glass at the Bellagio

M&M world

At Cesar's Palace in the Lobby


Paris is where we stayed

So I enjoyed my first trip to Vegas!! It was soooo much fun. I went because my mom had her jewelry convention there and I thought I might as well tag along. I asked Debbie Reid to go so I had someone with Vegas experience to show me around during the day when my mom was busy. What a cool place! I cannot wait to go back.

Debbie and I got there on Friday evening. Our flights were pretty close together and we went to the hotel, had a little to eat and joined my mom in the convention room. We sat and listened to some of the awards that were being given and then hit the casino floor. My mom and Laura joined us after a little while and we went walking. We went in and out of Bill's, O'Shea's, Bally's, Harrah's, Cesars, and Mirage. We didn't do any gambling, but we did a lot of people watching and sightseeing. We headed back to Paris, which is where we stayed and sent Laura and my mom to bed and Debbie and I gambled. We had so much fun playing Wizard of Oz! Didn't win much, but I was highly entertained. We didn't go to bed until around 2:30, which St. Louis time would have been 4:30! I had been up almost 24 hours!!! I cannot even remember the last time I did that.

We slept in until 9:30 and got up and had breakfast in the hotel and put our walking shoes back on. We hit Planet Hollywood (which is where I want to stay next!), MGM, Coca-Cola store, M&M store, New York New York (would like to stay there too), & Bellagio. We gambled in each hotel we went in, which was fun to say I did. We went back to the hotel and got ready for the "Bling" dinner that Park Lane was having that night. We went and ate dinner and then headed back out. We went to the same places we had gone the first night, but this time we gambled in all of those places. My mom and Laura did not go with us because they had an extremely early flight. We went to bed around 2:00 am that night or morning.

We slept in again and on Sunday had breakfast, packed up, checked out and headed out. I wanted to see the Venetian before we left so that is where we went. I won $50 playing penny Price is Right. It was so fun to win and keep going to the bonus stuff! We went back to Paris, played a little more there and then headed to the airport.

I had a great trip and really cannot wait to do it again. Aside from airfare and hotel it was not too expensive of a trip. Yes, I lost some money gambling, but not nearly as much as what i thought I might have. I even came home with money left!!! That says something right there!

Happy Valentines Day

2011-02-15T09:56:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine's Day! I know we did...We went out Saturday night for dinner to P.F. Changs, it was really yummy, but had to cut it short because Nora had an ear infection and we ended up in the ER. If you ever need to take your child to the ER go to St. Anthony's because they have a pediatric ER and we were in and out in a little over an hour. It was great!

We didn't do too much yesterday. Nora opened a present from us and a package from Uncle Tim and Aunt Candace. Peter & I had a special chocolate covered strawberry dessert and that was about it.

Imagination

2011-02-12T21:28:00.000-06:00

Over the last few months Nora's imagination has just grown and grown!! She changes into anything she wants and makes you play make believe as well!
She really likes to make believe that she is a dog. One night she had finished eating and she got down and then crawled back up to the table and was telling us she is a dog. Peter went to pet her and she growled. We cracked up!
We are also play princess a lot as well! Nora is always the princess and I am the queen and Peter is the King.
Tonight was pretty funny considering we ha dto visit the ER for an ear infection. We got some the meds in her and she was great. We were on our way home and a song from Beauty and the Beast came on, which she loves her princess music and she said mom, I am Belle! I said great. The she said mommy...you are the BEAST! The beast, really Nora! Then she said Peter was Gaston. So for about the next half hour those were our names and everytime that nora called beast out Peter laughed.
Then she changed into a dragon and was flying around the living room. I wish I had gotten a picture of her running down the hall with her hands behind her. She made me run with her and I was a mommy dragon. I guess and even funnier picture would have been of Nora and I running down the hallway with our hands behind us!
That girl makes me smile so much! We are so blessed!

Snow Days

2011-02-07T17:11:00.000-06:00

More snow!!! Holy moly we have had a lot of snow days this year. We never have this many days off and we have used every day they put into the calendar...6 to be exact. This puts us into the first full week of June! Seriously?! We have to go back to school for one Monday?! I am sure something will be worked out and yes I know it is a bonus...for all you blog readers that are not teachers.

Daddy got to stay home with us for two of the three snow days last week which was a nice change. He did work the whole time, but it was nice to have him home. He could eat lunch with us and do a few things ;)

On the third snow day he went back to work, but we had some other visitors instead...our friends for Warrensburg were in town. Valerie and Allison came to St. Louis to get away from the storm that hit Warrensburg...22 inches there! It was great to hang out for a while and let the girls play!

Nora did a pretty good job entertaining Allison with the pom poms. Allison thought they were pretty cool! Nora also shared well for the most part. There were a few times that she grabbed something out of Allison's hands, but overall did a very nice job. Hard for a 2 1/2 year old.

She is finally letting me take her picture and posing for the camera! A mother's dream, well a photographer mother's dream!

Here is Miss Allison. Isn't she just a doll!!! That dark hair and beautiful blue eyes. Can't believe how big she is getting and that I will be taking her 1 yr. pics in 2 months!!

We had a great mini "stay"cation. Nora did learn how to spell her name while we were at home so at least she learned something!

My best fwiend

2011-01-27T08:19:00.001-06:00

So Nora makes us laugh everyday...and can drive us crazy everyday. The past two weeks she has made me laugh more and more!

The last two night my child has slept. through. the. night!! Well with only one waking, which is huge for us!!! She had not been sleeping through the night since Christmas. It has been very taxing on us both and finally it is starting to go in the right direction again. I am not sure what caused it, but think it has been a combination of things. Whatever it was is changing. I think part of it is that Peter had been working so much and we were never getting to see him. Daddy is now home with us and Nora is no longer saying not nice things about daddy, but loving the time with him. She even let him put her to bed with minimal fuss last night and they are ready to go in the mornings for Mimi's! It is awesome with his new job and I love the help that I have been getting. I do have a great husband!!! Shhh...don't tell him I said that.

On to the funny things. So all of you know we have animals in our house and our dog takes a beating everyday with Nora, hence the previous posts of her on his bed. And we have a b@*#*h of a cat....she is not nice and anyone who has been to our house would tell you the same thing. She spits and growls and swats at people, myself included.

To my shock yesterday Nora said, "Mommy where is my best fwiend?"

I said, "Staley is in the kitchen."

She said, "no mommy, nala, nala is my best fwiend"

I must of looked at her pretty funny because she started to giggle. She has been pursuing the cat more and more and Nala has actually been taking it, which still baffles me. All night long if she couldn't find Nala she would say..."best fwiend, best fwiend, where are you?" Peter and I just laughed all night long.

Now I think what makes it all the funnier is that she still won't get to close to Nala though. She still keeps her distance and is very cautious, yet she calls the mean, silly cat her "best fwiend". She even said it this morning. We shall see!!

Snow Day!

2011-01-20T14:38:00.000-06:00

We have had our 3rd official "Snow Day" of the year as of today. The first one was in December and we had no boots or snow pants so we did not venture outside. The second one was last Tuesday and Nora had a bladder infection. Today we PLAYED!! We got some boots when we were in Chicago over Christmas and Mimi, our baby sitter, gave us some snow pants that her girls had outgrown. We were ready for the snow.

I was a little nervous to take her outside considering as soon as we got outside last year she started to scream. This year was different...she LOVED it!!! I was excited! She walked mostly on the driveway and a little in the yard, but not too far. We were out long enough that I could get the driveway shoveled. She had fun with playing with Staley in the yard while I worked and she kept throwing snow at him, which was pretty darn funny. He would just run after it and she would just laugh.

We went back inside and Aunt Boo called to see if we wanted to go to Pappy's house and go sled. So we packed everything up and went. She wasn't really to keen on the idea of sledding or sliding. My dad has a pretty good hill next to his house so I she had to go down at least one time. The top pic is of Nora and Aunt Boo walking to the top of the hill. She really does not like to walk in the snow. I think it just has to do with the fact that it is hard to do.

Here they are at the top of the hill. She didn't like it so much and after one time down she was done. It is a pretty fun hill. I went down a couple of times on an inner tube and because this snow is so light it made the tube go fast. It was fun. Nora was done so we went home and now she is napping! What a great snow day!

Hanging Out

2011-01-20T14:30:00.000-06:00

We have been enjoying our time at home and playing with all of our new toys from Christmas. Nora has a few favorite spots of where she likes to play. She likes to play in her room, on the couch and her most favorite spot is to play next to Staley on his pillow?! Seriously!! She just loves her dog or, "gog" as she says it, so much that she needs to be next to him, even when he doesn't want her to be. This is on his bed in our room. She also loves to play on his other bed in the corner of the living room as well. Kinda gross if you ask me, but it just isn't worth picking a fight over!

Here she is in her new crown and jewels she got from Pappy and below she is playing with her new cash register or "puter" as she calls it. She loves playing with the bottons and likes to make me buy things and pay for them. Now that she has play money to play with she is using her purses a lot more. It is funny...she is funny.

Sickness

2011-01-11T13:56:00.000-06:00

Well it seems like we just cannot get past this sickness thing. Christmas break was spent being sick, by Nora and myself. We all finally started to feel better and guess what....Nora is sick again. This time she has a bladder infection. Poor little girl...I feel so bad for her. Hopefully there isn't a theme to this year!

Recap of 2010

2011-01-02T11:18:00.000-06:00

Wow! I cannot believe that another year has flown by. I think this year has gone faster than most. 2010 was a pretty busy, but good year. We had lots of things happening and here is the recap.

A few things happened for me this year. I left a job and friends to take a new position in the Affton School District. So far I am not regretting that decision. I am still counseling, but with 2nd and 3rd graders and am liking it a lot. I have made some new friends and am really enjoying most of the people that I work with. Building those relationships take time and I think they will get better in 2011!
I turned 30 this year!! I still cannot believe that I am 30 years old and to most who cares, but I still feel like I should be in my 20's. Not that being 30 is a bad thing, it is just kind of crazy to me to think that I am!
I drove Nora and myself to Chicago, which is a huge deal for me. I don't think I could have done it before and now that my little girl is getting so big, it makes it much easier.
I finished 3 chapters of my thesis! I have two more to go, but I would have never thought I would actually get it done!

Peter has had a busy year as well. Last January he decided he was going to lose weight and he did! He has lost and kept off over 20 pounds! I am so proud of him.
Peter also got a new position within Express Scripts and will be starting that in a few weeks.
Peter bought a new car...we traded in my Ion and he got a Focus.

Nora had a very busy year growing and learning tons of new things! Nora is potty trained! She is talking up a storm and can actually carry on a conversation with you. She had her first ear infection this year and for the first time ever we had to give her antibiotics...pretty lucky for us! She spent another week in Chicago with Grandma and Grandpa.

Sweet Pea Photography has taken off! I cannot believe it. Thanks to my family and word of mouth I have been busy taking lots of pictures. I did 31 shoots between April and December of this year! I am hoping to buy a better camera this year with the hopes of doing a wedding. Thanks to all of you that have hired me to capture your families moments. It means more to me than you know!

And there are tons of other things that happened this year as well!

-Katie got engaged!
-My cousin Kurt got married!
-My cousin Kristina got engaged!
-Tim and Candace are expecting a little girl!

Lots of great things happened in 2010 and I can't wait to see what 2011 brings!

The rest of Christmas

2010-12-26T12:45:00.000-06:00

Well.....our poor Nora got sick....on Christmas Day. She had a rough night of sleep, but I didn't think too much of it because she has had a stuffy nose and it was a long Christmas Eve, just busy and off her normal routine. She woke up quite a bit and slept until 9:45 Christmas morning. Once she was up she was her normal Nora self. We opened gifts, ate breakfast, opened more gifts, took a bath and then went down for a nap. She woke up from her nap and was not our normal Nora. She was crying and wanted to be held then didn't want to be held and it kept going in that circle. She didn't want to eat or play. I finally convinced her to lay on the couch and watch her new Shrek movie. She did that, but was still sad and crying and then she started the ear tugging. We looked to see if there were any Walgreens take care clinics open, but there were not. We waited a little longer and the poor girl was miserable!!! No one tells you that a piece of you heart breaks when your child is in pain. I could hardly stand it she was so sad and hurting. So Grandma found a clinic/immediate care that was open until 5:00 and we flew out the door, it was 3:50. We got to the clinic, saw the dr. and had a script in our hands in under an hour. She has a double ear infection! This is our first time taking antibiotics for being sick. We are so lucky, I know. I am so thankful for the dr. and nurses that were working in that clinic to make my daughter better!!! She got some motrin in her and then her first dose of antibiotics and WOW, within 15 minutes she was back to her normal Nora self. We continued on with the rest of Christmas and went to the Harrigan side of the family and had a great time. Nora is feeling much better today!

Merry Christmas Eve and Morning

2010-12-25T14:46:00.000-06:00

Nora had a great time on Christmas Eve last night visiting with the Reid Family. I did her hair with the curlers and made her take her nap in them and oh it turned out so cute! She got a new baby with a potty that she just loves...it is actually pretty funny...the baby really goes to the bathroom on the potty...hours of entertainment for young and old alike.
This morning was great! We opened presents from Santa and then had Reid family chistmas. We are so blessed. Nora loves her new Ariel doll and all the princess stuff she got. So fun to have a little one. Merry Christmas!

The Big Man

2010-12-24T13:45:00.000-06:00

So we went to see the "Big Man" as we have been calling him so Nora doesn't freak out. She really does not like to get too close to Santa Claus. As you can see in the picture above she was as happy as could be waiting in line. She had no clue who was right around the corner!

So it was our turn and I picked her up and walked over toward Santa and she flipped out, like I knew should would and clutched on to me for dear life. She would not even look at Santa. I set her down to turn towards him and she darted away from me.

She was not a happy camper by any means. We even offered her a candy cane and she just did not want to be by him. Santa was no help either. He just sat there and stared at us, you think he would be a little used to this and tried to help or talk to her, but oh no. He just watched as she cried. I finally got her to stand in front of Santa and we got a couple of picks with her crying. These pics on here are the best because grandma got them as the action was happening!

After we were done she was back to her normal Nora self and as happy as could be. She really enjoyed the candy cane too! Here's to hoping for better next year....I have my doubts though!

St. Louis Christmas

2010-12-23T17:05:00.000-06:00

We celebrated Christmas in St. Louis on Monday and Tuesday. Monday we celebrated with my mom and Tuesday we celebrated with my dad. Monday we had breakfast for dinner and then opened gifts. It was definately the Nora show! Nora was in a smiling mood and was willing to take some pictures beforehand. That phase of not even looking at the camera is beginning to end! Thank goodness, because I couldn't handle much more of it!

We had so much fun opening gifts and about half way through Nora said she was done. It was pretty funny. Jalen was so patient because he only had a couple of gifts to open since everyone else was going to be seeing him on Christmas. He helped me open a few and Uncle Peter and when he asked Nora if he could help her she said, NO! He patiently waited until it was his turn and he had been keeping his eye on the one gift that was from us. It was a DS game and when he opened it he was sooooo excited. It just made my night and he put his hands in the air and exclaimed, "I love Christmas". All over one tiny gift!!!! I can't even imagine what he is going to do when Santa comes.

Nora was spoiled once again and some of her favorites included her Barbie, barbie & Cinderella dress ups and her beanbag chair! On Tuesday we had dinner with my dad and Nora got a gift card to Toys R Us, which will be used after christmas! I was super excited because I got a gift card to Creve Couer Camera to get a new flash for my camera!!! We are so blessed and so lucky to have such great parents! Can't wait for round two!

Merry Christmas!

Curls!

2010-12-20T09:59:00.000-06:00

So I decided to go ahead and buy some curlers to see what would happen when we put them in Nora's hair. I had been talking with my mom about it and finally did it! She was very patient while I put them in. At first she said, "no mom", but then let me do it anyway. I am lucky that I don't have a kid that throws tantrums about much! Her protest of no was next to nothing. So while we talked with Grandma and Grandpa I rolled her hair! Isn't she cute?!

I only had them in for about an hour. I wasn't going to make her sleep in them because she has been sick so I used the cool setting on my hair dryer, but they still were not all the way dry when I took them out. I think if I let her hair air dry and did this a couple of hours before we went somewhere it would actually be pretty cute.

So here are her bouncy little curls! It was pretty curly for only being half way dry and in her hair for an hour. Of course this morning there was no curl left, but that is okay. I think we are going to give it a go for Christmas Eve to see what we get. It was funny because after I took them out she kept touching her hair and then looking at me like, "what did you do?"

Success!!!

2010-12-12T13:12:00.000-06:00

I can successfully say that Nora is definately on her way to being completely potty trained!!! I am so glad that I pushed through the beginning of the week. Thanks so much to those who gave me encouraging words along the way...I definately needed them. She is now telling us when she has to go potty and doesn't even want to use her potty chair. She wants to use the big potty! It is great. She has not had an accident since Thursday, which is wonderful. I really thought that we were not going to make it through the beginning of the week and we did! She is so proud of herself. We are still going to be doing the pull-ups at night and during nap time, but my daughter is potty trained! So exciting! No more diapers for Nora!!!

stand off

2010-12-08T10:00:00.000-06:00

So I guess I spoke too soon when I said the potty training was going well. Yesterday we hit a wall and I don't like it at all! The weekend was great and Monday came around and of course I had to wake her up to go to Rebecca's and asked her to potty and she did not want to. The last two mornings were "okay mommy" and she would run into the bathroom. I am not sure what changed, but it has. She had a rough day on the potty Monday and Peter was the one to pick her up since I had class and she had just had an accident and then went again in the pull-up right when they got home. Needless to say she didn't go again for the rest of the night.
Yesterday I didn't even attempt when she woke up and waited until we got to the sitter. She did end up going for her around 8:00 am and they decided she was going to be in charge and held it ALL day. She still had not gone when I picked her up at 4:30....she was not going to "pee pee on the potty"! We got home and I made her sit on it in front of the tv, offered pudding, ice cream and a movie, no potty. We then moved to all the potty's in the house to try, no go....I finally got tired of the whining and crying and put a diaper on and she said, "I not pee pee in my diaper". Okay, whatever Nora...about 20 minutes later she asked for a pull up, which I thought was a step in the right direction...NO! Not 2 minutes later she went in the pull up! Seriously child of mine!
This morning she woke up at 6:00 am, which is very unusual for my child, because she was wet. She stayed up and I put her princess underwear on and thanks to a good idea from a friend, on the way to the sitter we stopped and got a huge bag of M&M's. Still not sure how I feel using candy as a reward, but I am desperate. So, we shall see how the standoff goes today at the sitters house. I hope she goes!!!

Braids & potty training

2010-12-05T20:37:00.000-06:00

Cheese!! Look at me! I was trying to take a picture of the back of her head and she kept turning and smiling at me. Of course this is the same girl who would not even smile for me a month and a half ago at the park!!

So this was my first attempt at french braiding Nora's hair. I felt like something different today and she does so well when i do her hair that she actually held still. I did not part her hair very well, but she did good while I tried and braided her hair...I think it actually looked pretty darn cute! She was too funny. She kept touching it and asking me was in her hair.

Well my sitter decided that we were going to start potty training and Nora has done great!!! It was four months ago that we tried to do it on our own and it didn't take. So I was a little nervous, but she has been waking up dry in the morning and as soon as she goes she is asking to be changed. So we got out the potty again and underwear and it has been good. She has had a couple of accidents, but nothing like before. We have set times that we try and it is working. Before she was always going sporadically, but now she is actually going about the same time everyday and that actually helps so that is when we put her on the chair. She just lights up when she actually goes...it is funny. She has been telling everyone too! Our little girl is getting so big!!!

Jewels by Park Lane

2010-12-01T13:56:00.002-06:00

So any of you know that my mom has started selling Jewels by Park Lane. She started on September 9th of this year and I could not be more proud of her! I am the one who pushed her to take on this new adventure and she is soaring with it. I had gone to a Park Lane event and wanted to start selling the jewelry myself, but decided my photography was more important, even though i would make WAY more doing JBPL.

Well last night they had a huge event here in St. Louis and the CEO of the company, Scott Levin, was here. It was held at Windows off Washington, a very nice banquet place. They had drinks and appetizers, a fashion show and jewelry raffle. We had known about this event for almost a month and as it got closer we were more excited. Well on Monday my mom found out that she was #1, yes you read that right, #1 in the country for the past week!!! The Senior VP of St. Louis emailed her and asked her to speak at the event, where over 300 people were going to be! With a little convincing from me and Mary Grace, she said yes. She was sooo nervous and I didn't even talk to her yesterday during the day because I didn't want to make her more nervous.

The event came and Susie, Katie, Aunt Janet, Yvette, Diane and Bitsy were all there. Some of them were interested in joining, and they had NO idea that mom was going to be speaking. So Mary Grace introduced by saying..."this person is very nervous and has never spoken in front of this many people before....she has only been with the company 10 weeks and has been in the top 25 three times, please welcome Kathy Bromeier". I thought Katie was going to die!!! Her speech was great! She did a fantastic job and even made people cry! It was sooo awesome! She did it and I am just so proud of her that she did. There were 300 people in that room and she gave an excellent speech!!!

After she was done the CEO took the stage and started handing out free jewelry!!! It was crazy and I got a beautiful necklace and earrings handed to me!!! He only handed out 10 sets of jewelry and I got one!!!! I can't wait to wear it. Then came the raffle and there were maybe 20 sets of jewelry given away and we had all bought raffle tickets and put them in the ones we wanted. Katie made us each put tickets in one of the blingy necklace and earring combo b/c she said she would wear it for the wedding. Yvette, won one of the ones that she had put in for and then number after number was called and no one at our table was winning until they called Susie's number for the blingy necklace and earrings!!! We couldn't believe it. It is valued at over $500!! Aunt Janet won a signature bracelet for signing up!

It was an amazing night and I am so glad that I was there to support my mom in her new business. Thanks to my friends and family who have had parties and I hope for those of you who haven't had a party you will!!! If you hold a show between now and March I am giving a free photo session to those who do. So if you want free photos or know someone who does have a show and you will get free pics and jewelry. It is an awesome thing and the deals are unbelieveable.

O Christmas Tree

2010-11-28T18:26:00.000-06:00

We put up our Christmas tree yesterday and it was so fun to do it with Nora. She is sooo excited about Christmas. I don't think she realizes what is going to happen on Christmas morning yet, but can't wait for that either. We did see Santa last weekend and have seen some lights, but when we put our tree up she was too cute. She wanted to help put every ornament up and did such a good job being careful with everything. She kept repeating that back to me. She would get excited when another snowman or santa came out of the box and she has had a blast playing with the christmas stuffed animals I have pulled out. Peter put more christmas lights on the house this year and it was so funny as we were coming home this evening she got all excited and said, "Look mom, our christmas!!". Anytime she sees lights she calls it Christmas. I just love having a little one. It is more fun than I thought it would be! She brings a smile to my face everyday! She was having fun posing for me in front of the tree. Poor girl has her daddy's squinty smiling eyes! Me

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T14:32:00.001-06:00

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We went to my Aunt Janet and Uncle Dan's for lunch and got to see that side of the family and then we headed to my mom's for dinner. My sisters and Uncle Mike were at her house. Nora got really wound up playing with Uncle Mike and she was just a riot! Nora and Jalen ended up spending the night at Pappy's house so the girls could do some shopping at midnight. That was an adventure! Hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving! We are so blessed!

Happy Halloween

2010-11-03T06:52:00.000-05:00

Nora had a great Halloween this year. She was so fun and actually got it this year. She was on such a sugar rush that she was running from door to door with Jalen and that lasted all of 20 minutes. Then she walked and after an hour she was riding in the wagon. She got a good amount of candy and kept saying, "another house?". Supergirl did a great job!

pumpking carving

2010-10-29T22:23:00.002-05:00

Of course we had to continue our annual pumpkin carving tradition. We had fun...even though the pumpkins I got were not that great and had bad spots in them. Lesson learned to not wait until the week of halloween to get your pumpkins. Getting excited for Halloween to actually get here!

Floor

2010-10-29T22:07:00.003-05:00

Yea!!! Our floors are done!!!! So we decided to go ahead and get rid of the carpet. It is something Peter has wanted to do for a few years and it has just taken him that long to convince me it was the right move. I am sure glad we did it. They turned out great! We started in September with the living room remodel and are almost done. We painted the trim around all the doors in the living room and down the hallway. Then the next weekend we painted the rest of the walls, which was something I have wanted to do for a few years. We went with tawny birch, a taupe/tan color and then freshened up the blue. Unfortunately we threw away the can from 5 years ago so we had to wing it on the color and it came pretty close. It is a little more blue, but hey we still like it.
We took a weekend off to go to my cousins wedding and then came the most challenging part for us....tearing up the carpet. Wow, I didn't realize what a job that was going to be. It took us an entire day to get the carpet out of the living room and hallway. The floors didn't look too bad underneath. We have no idea how long they have been covered and really no idea how long they have been there. It was a job and as soon as the carpet was gone I immediately noticed a difference in the smell of my house! No more animal smell!!!!
The following weekend a family friend came and started sanding on Thursday. You should have seen the guest room. It looked like a hurricane hit it. Now for those of you who know me well, that is 4 weeks of chaos in my house with things off the walls and not in its correct places and not cleaning and ugh!!! It has been a mess and I have been dealing with it pretty well. We came home from Chicago and Peter and I had to look. Sunday we had to spend the night at Katie's to give it one more full day to set so Sunday after Nora went to bed we came to the house and shined the car lights in and opened the front door and AMAZING!!! It turned out so great....the walls, baseboards, color, all of it.
Know we are slowly working on getting everything back in order. I have had conferences all week and Peter is working major overtime, so as hard as it is to still be living in chaos I am...it will get there...just in time for me to take everything down again and put christmas up!
Heres to new floors!

The DMB Experience

2010-09-20T14:22:00.003-05:00

Well in case you live under a rock and don't know what DMB stands for it is The Dave Matthews Band. And for those of you who know me well know that I am a HUGE fan of the band. On my birthday they announced that they would be playing at Wrigley Field on Sept. 17th and 18th and of course I had to go. For one, who wouldn't want to see their favorite band at one of the neatest fields in the U.S., and two, this would be the last show of the summer until 2012!!!!

I requested tickets for both shows through the DMB Warehouse, the fan club (I told you I was a big fan) and both requests were met. I knew I had at least one person to go with me and that was my friend Maureen! She is a big DMB fan as well. The date was set and plans went into work. Peter of course said he wasn't going to go so then I had to figure out how I was going to get there. I couldn't go to Chicago and not bring Nora with me, unless I didn't tell anyone else that i was going and I couldn't do that. Our options were to a) take the train, b) take the bus, or c) drive (which I have never done along with Nora yet). After much deliberation I decided that I wanted to have control over the time of day I was coming and going so I drove.

I was excited and nervous at the same time. Nora and I got up on Friday at our normal time and hit the rode at 7:00 am. Traffic was great....not much of it. It felt like we just flew up there. We stopped in McLean to use the restroom and get gas and got back on the rode. We didn't hit any traffic until we got on to 90/94 in the city. I swear that people in Chicago must not work because traffic should not be that bad anywhere at 12:00 on a Friday afternoon. At this point Nora was sleeping and I was jamming to DMB of course, and we got to the Reids at 12:30. Not too shabby and only one minor spill on the way up.
I dropped Nora, ate some lunch and headed to meet up with Candace. I had decided to do a rooftop for Friday night after some confusion had occured in the planning, so Candace, Maureen and I made reservations with The Wrigley View for Friday nights show.

The Wrigley View was pretty cool, but I would not reccommend concert goers to take this option. You could hear the music really well, but we could not see the stage and that is half of the fun. It was all-inclusive though so the price of the reservation did include dinner, desert and drinks. Candace and I took full advantage of the drinks and wanted to get our money's worth and we sure did! DMB put on an okay show in my opinion. The setlist was just so-so and a little slow, it could have been much better. It just seemed like something was missing. We had a lot of fun and had a drink after the show at Goose Island and then called it a night. I stayed with Maureen for the weekend and let Grandma and Grandpa have full spoiling access to Nora all weekend.

Saturday we just bummed around, I had a pretty nasty headache for most of the day. Evening came and it was time to head back down to Wrigley. I really wanted to get a shirt that night. I told Peter it was the closest to a Cubs shirt that I would ever where. Unfortunately they were sold out, I am keeping my eyes peeled on-line though. I do have to say that it was very cool in Wrigleyville. The amount of people on the streets and in the bars was unreal!!! And all to see one band play!!! I just loved it. We had a heck of a time trying to find a place to eat before the show and finally ended up at the Sports Corner.

We got to the show while the opening act was playing and our seats were not too bad. We were in the upper deck, but the view was good. You could not have paid me to stand down on the field where there were no seats with 5,000 other people....no thank you! DMB came on right at 8:30 and ROCKED until 11:15. They were AMAZING on Saturday evening. The setlist was awesome, the crowd was great and I have to say it was one of the best shows I have seen...and I have seen them every summer, sometimes twice a summer for the last 12 years! I can say that they closed the tour very well and I am satisfied until 2012.

Maureen and I were cracking up at the couple in front of us on Saturday. The girl was the DMB fan and the guy was not so much. It reminded us of our husbands. The guy sat for half of the show, which is something Peter and Mike totally would have done.

It was a fantastic weekend! Thanks Chicago and DMB!!!!

We did it! We did it!

2010-09-06T13:17:00.002-05:00

That is right we did it or I should say Nora did it. We got rid of the binky! I have been thinking about getting rid of it for a while, but was very scared to do it. She has only had it at nap and bed time for quite a while, but it is a big step. I was also nervous because a friend of ours had her little boy start to suck his thumb after getting rid of the bink. Last weekend was when I hit my wall and said enough is enough. She had starting asking for it more and more. She would cry for her "binky" anytime she didn't get her way and quite frankly it was starting to annoy me. So I decided Labor Day weekend would be good since I had three days to focus on before sending her back to the sitter.

Unfortunately for my in-laws they were going to have to experience the binky removal. I prepared myself all weekend and kept telling myself it could be worse and the longer I wait the harder it will be. I was totally stressing myself out about it. I took the advice of a different friend and cut the tips of the binkies off and said that they were "broken". I introduced the "broken" binky on Thursday night but still gave her a binky that night. I kind of wanted to see what her reaction was going to be, it was not good. She cried and wanted me to throw that broken one away. Luckily for me it wasn't bedtime yet and she was at Aunt Kiki's house and they watched a movie and she got a regular one at bedtime.

It was now Friday night and we had a long day. Grandma was reading to her and had given her the blanket and they were rocking and she finally called me in because she was not going to be the one to say goodnight and not be giving the binky (totally understand that!). So I rocked and sang and did our routine and put her in bed and nothing!!! I was in shock. I went out into the living room and waited for the screaming and crying to start and nothing. A couple of minutes later we hear a very sad little girl through the monitor pathetically saying, "my binky". It was the sadest little whine ever!!! After about 25-30 minutes of that I couldn't take it anymore and I turned off the monitor. Seriously....I had prepared myself for the worse and it was nothing but whining! She did wake up twice that night whining for it but I went in and kissed her and told her it was okay and she went back to sleep a little later.

Saturday at naptime she whined for about 10 minutes and went to sleep and then saturday night was about the same. Sunday naptime was nothing and bedtime was great! Now she has occasionally asked for it here and there when she hasn't gotten her way at something but we all have done a great job at ignoring the request.
I really don't know how and why and I am so lucky to have such an easy going child. I am really concerned that when we have a second child it is going to be a holy terror. It makes me not want to have a second child because what child could be as good as gold like Nora. My friends love when they see Nora cry because they say she is real then. It is kind of a running joke!

Here are some pics from the weekend. We went to Purina Farms with the Grandma's and went to the park Saturday evening while I took Susie and Jalen's pics. We had a great time this weekend!

Happenings

2010-08-21T20:52:00.002-05:00

Wow, I have not blogged in a while!!! So much has been going on lately.

So.....where to begin.....I went back to work starting on the 9th. I had two days of new teacher orientation and I was flipping late the first day! Agh! How embarrassing. Everything I had said 8:30 and it started at 8:00. Got past those two days and spent the next two moving into my new offices. Yes, you read that correctly two offices. I am working between two schools. Mesnier houses K-2 and Gotsch houses 3-5. I am in charge of 2nd and 3rd graders at those schools. Everyone has been really great so far. Change is so hard because I really miss my friends and familiar faces at Bayless. After being in one place for 7 years it is hard to change and be the new person.

This past Wednesday kids started to come to school and I started my day at Mesnier to help with the little kindergarteners. WOW! What a difference from what I have ever worked with. It went pretty successful and I only had to carry one student into the building. The next few days went fairly smoothly but I have been exhausted. Between seeing kids, getting up early and learning a whole bunch of new stuff it has really wiped me out. This coming week should be interesting....a full week!

Let's see some other things going on....Peter and I have been on a new workout schedule. We have been working out together and getting up at 5:00 am to do it. We have been doing really well, we just need to start eating better and I think we will be amazed at the weight loss. It is soooo nice to actually have a workout partner and it makes getting up at 4:50 a heck of a lot easier!

Nora is great. She cracks us up daily and is such a sweet little girl. She just talks and talks and talks. The child loves, and I mean loves to read! We could read all day. It is so fun to see her imagination take over when she is playing with her toys. She started back with our sitter on the 9th as well and has been just fine. Nora is the only one there on M-W-F. So she is so spoiled and gets tons of attention!

Other than that we are all doing really well and I think I can say for us all we are ready for fall!

Nora's 1st Cardinal Game

2010-08-21T20:51:00.000-05:00

We took Nora to her first Cardinals game this past week. We got to sit in a party box and thought we would bring her with since there is plenty of room to walk around. She had fun! She watched the baseball game, ran up and down the stairs and ate food. I think it will be a while before we actually pay for a ticket for her and take her in a regular seat. We had fun though!

Potty Training

2010-07-20T13:53:00.002-05:00

Well today is day two of potty training and I am feeling a little more discouraged today. I do have to admit it is most likely my fault for feeling this way.

DAY ONE
I considered day one a huge success. We woke up and put on the big girl pants and started with the liquids. Nora had cereal for breakfast and then I broke out the goldfish to make her thirsty, thanks Angie! We did potty on the chair, but then went on the floor twice. I learned that I need to stick with her the entire time instead of trying to make lunch or check my email! So after nap she sat on the chair and went a little and got a sticker. She really likes the stickers so I am going with it. I braved a trip in the car with no diaper to take Jalen to a birthday party and it was a success. When we got home we sat on the potty chair every 20 minutes and low and behold success!!!! She got another sticker and she was really excited. We had dinner out of the house so the diaper went back on and while eating she went in her diaper and freaked out. She knew she wasn't supposed to be going but was confused. I can totally see why people say not to switch and how pull-ups can be harmful. She didn't go again on the potty the rest of the night, even though we tried.

DAY TWO
Woke up and she had a full diaper, but I still made her sit on the chair before eating breakfast. Yesterday it was about 2 hrs. before she really went potty so I was being very conscience of the 2 hr. mark. So right around 10:45 we sat on the potty and she did it! It wasn't much, but she did it and we picked out another sticker from our sticker book, thanks Maue family! So I decided the two of us would go downstairs so I could check my email for the morning and what do you know she went right there on the floor! She looked and said, "Mommy, pee pee!" and we raced up the stairs for the chair and it was just too late. Man, I thought I was doing good. I knew I should have brought the potty chair down with us. Live and learn I guess. It was only 15 minutes later. So we drank more liquids and ate lunch and we were sitting reading and all the sudden I felt wet. She went on the blanket on the couch, seriously! She didn't even look at me or say anything. I probably should have set the timer again, but was feeling confident. And she went a lot....I guess she wasn't uncomfortable because it wasn't running down her leg or anything.
She went down for a nap around 12:30 and didn't use the potty before nap. I am hoping she doesn't go while she is sleeping so we can have a success after naptime. We shall see!

30 years old!

2010-07-08T12:44:00.000-05:00

Well, I am 30! I still can't believe it. Really, I don't feel 30 and for the most part don't act 30! It is kind of funny to say I am 30 years old. So in our household we have a huge blowout for 30 and get a bus. I picked to go to a winery and have a BBQ. So the day after my birthday that is what we did! We invited our family and friends, which most came, and loaded the bus and took off to Villa Antonio Winery. It was great. The winery is small and beautiful and we had so much fun. We had many friends come in town for the event and had a wonderful time seeing them. Reconnected with old friends, my freshman roommate, made it to the winery and I had a blast catching up with her. To recent friends, and some of Katie's friends. We really had so much fun. I am so greatful to all that came to celebrate with me, I can't even tell you.

After the winery we headed back to the Reid house and my dad was waiting there with the BBQ going! Many thanks to my sister, Susie for having everything ready to go when we got back. Wouldn't have been able to pull it off without her. Some people came back, some did not and new ones showed up. We partied until about 9:30 and then completely crashed. It was a day to remember!!! And for those who didn't come....you missed one hell of a good time!

Summer Time!

2010-07-08T12:34:00.000-05:00

Haven't blogged in a while. I know it is summer and I should be on top of it, but I just haven't been. So my friend introduced me to an editing program called Picasa and I love it, so you will most likely be seeing more collages of pics than individual pictures. It is really cool what you can do with it.
What have we been up to?! In June I finished up with school and we relaxed for a couple weeks and played with friends and hung out at home.

Father's Day weekend Nora and I headed to Chicago! Yes, you did read that right, we went without Peter on Father's Day weekend. That was his gift, Ha! Ha! No, he had to work and we wanted to see some of the fam, so we took the train and went on up. Not too bad. Had a little hitch on the way there with a 2 hour delay, but overall not bad. On the way home we had to sit in the cafe car b/c our seats didn't have plugs. You live and learn is all I have to say. We had fun while in chicago and went to the pool and a street fair and hung out. Peter did get some great gifts....Jeff Dunham tix (a comedian) and Cubs/Brewers tix!

We then got ready for the birthdays. For those of you who don't know the end of June through July is birthday season for the Bromeier girls. We start with Katie on June 26, a week later is me, and then two weeks later is Susie on July 17th. It was Katie's golden birthday (26 on the 26th) and she had a great birthday/housewarming party. I will tell you about mine in a another post with more pics!

So far it has been a great summer and going by way to quickly. Nora heads back to chicago this weekend for a week alone with grandma and grandpa. We started the tradition last summer and she will do this every summer for as long as they can. I have started summer class for two weeks so it works out.

Happy Summer!

Nora

2010-05-23T14:12:00.003-05:00

Here are some random shots of Nora. We were outside playing around yesterday and she was actually posing and smiling for me. She even posed by the tree!! I am hoping when school is out she will let me get her 2 year shots here at home! Now I just need to find someone to take our family pics!

Nora's 2nd Birthday

2010-05-10T07:44:00.002-05:00

We had Nora's second birthday party this past saturday. We had a great time! We went with an Elmo theme since this is her favorite thing right now, well that and babies. The party started at 2:30 and almost all of Nora's friends came for the fun. We had chalk and bubbles to play with outside. The day was a little cooler than we had anticipated, so we ended up being inside a little more than we had thought, but the kiddos had a great time outside.
Nora was so excited about her cake and cupcakes, yes her momma did make that Elmo cake and is very proud of it! Everyone devoured it in a short time. I think it was a hit! Nora certainly liked it and that is all that really matters, right?! She made a haul and everyone was generous as always with their gifts. She got lots of books, a sprinkler, clothes, luggage, soccer and football and her favorite a singing elmo with microphone! Thanks Uncle Mike! Overall it was a great day and we all had a lot of fun. Below are some pics of the day!

Spring Break

2010-03-31T10:51:00.003-05:00

So last week was my spring break and on Monday and Tuesday I sent Nora to the sitter so I could get some work done around the house. We decided to redo the bathroom in our room and get new blinds and window treatments throughout the house. I did not know what a process it was to pick out blinds, but I finally found some and went with it. We did white wood 2" in the living room and kitchen, white blackout in the two bedrooms and then khaki blackout in our bedroom. The blinds for the bedrooms are not in yet, but they have been

ordered! I am very excited!! Debbie helped me pick out some treatments for our bedroom and I found the perfect valance at Target for the living room. It is amazing the difference a window treatment can make in a room!

On Monday I cleaned out the bathroom and took down the border that had been in there and painted. Much to my amazement I hated it at first. For those of you who don't know our bathroom has a blue floor and white tile half way up the wall with random blue tiles here and there. So I decided to go with a brown paint and white toilet, white vanity, white medicine cabinet and white armoire. I had to paint two coats before it started to grow on me and now I love it! The next day I spend most of the day scrapbooking Nora's first year. My plan was to finish up to March, but a little surprise changed my plans. My cousin Annie surprised us by driving into town from DC on Tuesday night. We had a great time with her. We went and took a tour of the Brewery and went out to eat, did a happy hour, went to the new casino and had a game night!!! It was so good to see her and her boyfriend, Joe. We, me and my mom, were so surprised on Tuesday night. It was so much fun

That weekend was hectic, but so fun as well. I got to see one of my bestest friends, Valerie for her baby shower and I also got to do her belly shots! She is such a cute pregnant person! I cannot wait to find out what she is having and my guess is a boy. We shall see if I end up being 3 for 3! We went to the local park to do her shots. Check out www.sweet-peaphotography.blogspot.com to see her belly shots!
That afternoon we had our friend, Brooke's, 3rd birthday party to attend and the next day we had Natalie's 2nd birthday party to attend. Nora had so much fun playing with her friends at both of the parties! She did not want to leave either one. Over all I had a great spring break and enjoyed a lot of fun times with family and friends!

Don't you just love this picture of our little girl!!!

Crown Valley

2010-03-23T12:21:00.002-05:00

So Peter and I did a trip for our anniversary this year. We have never done anything like it before and I decided it was time that we do something instead of getting each other something. Rebecca, our sitter, recommended Crown Vally. Her and her husband went in February and she said it was great. So I checked out their website and they have different packages available. They have a winery package and a brewery package. It was a pretty good deal. You got a nights stay at a B&B, a tour and tasting at the brewery, a $25 gift card toward any Crown purchases and a growler full of your favorite beer. There was also a shuttle for transportation to and from the brewery, but not for dinner.
There was some poor planning on my part because I didn't check everything out until that day and because it is the off season they are only open till 6:00pm, oops! But we got down the the winery around 3:15 and checked in and they took us to our B&B. We were the only ones staying there for the night. It was a nice house. The room was big. It was different than a regular B&B because no one actually lived there and breakfast the next morning was at the restaurant. So we droped our stuff off and went to the brewery.
The brewery was nice. Our tour was at 4:00 and then we did our tasting after that. The brewery has only been open for ten months, so it was nice and small and the beer was pretty good. We stayed til they were ready to close and then went to dinner at Tiger Ridge Restaurant. We had to drive ourselves there so we couldn't drink as much because we wanted to be responsible.
Tiger Ridge is also owned by the same people who own the winery and brewery. It was nice and they have a tiger sanctuary there. We were waiting at the bar for our table and someone came and said they were doing the tiger stroll and asked if we wanted to go. It was really cool. We saw 3 regular tigers and the snow tiger. They were making a lot of noise too. I was amazed....so I am glad that we went to the restaurant for that part. We then went back and had dinner. It was way overpriced and not that great. We then went back to the house and watched TV and RELAXED!!! It was so nice. We got up the next morning and went to breakfast and headed home. It was a great time.
The next time we go we want to do it with friends because you can rent the whole house and we would just eat at the bar. It would be a great time. Anyone up for that can email me!!

Zoo

2010-03-23T12:12:00.003-05:00

Well Friday was my first official day of Spring Break and we definately took advantage of it. The day ws absolutely beautiful and some friends invited us to tag along and visit the zoo!

We had so much fun and it is a lot more fun now that Nora can talk and is saying more. She actually said the names of many of the animals and the sounds that they make. We went with our friends Alex, Max and Macy! They were great helpers with Nora too.

A lot of the animals were out and they were all playing. She was very excited about the monkeys and that she could see them so close. We also got to see the new baby camel. When we went and saw the apes they were chasing each other. We all got a kick out of it because I had never seen them do that before. We usually come in the summer and it is so darn hot that all they do is lay there.

We also got to ride the train, which was a lot of fun. We had a picnic at the zoo and saw tigers and such. We had such a great time! I think I must get a zoo pass for this year because we had so much fun and you just can't beat the deal!

A Little Survey

2010-03-16T12:17:00.005-05:00

Time for a little survey

I stole this from a blog I check and thought it would be interesting to look back at how much my life has changed.

10 years ago
Ten years ago I was in my sophomore year of college. I was still living in the dorms and being a CA (community advisor) for a floor full of freshman girls. I was enjoying school and loving life. I did not have a boyfriend at the time, but had a great group of girlfriends, who lived down the street and one also lived in the dorm next door. We hung out a lot at their apartment. It was the first time I had ever flown in a small airplane and had my friend puke in the plane sitting next to me. We were getting ready for Spring Break and I would come home and work at Mr. B's for the week.

5 years ago
Five years ago I was dating Peter and he had proposed a month earlier. We were just starting to plan the wedding and decided to have it on March 18! Only two days away from today. I was living in an apartment on my own and working as the PE teacher at Bayless Intermediate. I liked this job much better than working in the Jr. High. I was also getting ready to have my tonsils taken out on St. Patricks Day and got the flu the day before the surgery (which would be today actually!). Survived the tonsils and have only had one sore throat since then!

1 year ago
One year ago from today I was getting ready to celebrate my 3rd wedding anniversary with Peter. We were excited to be sharing Nora's first St. Patricks Day with her. I had a 10 month old and I was still working at Bayless Intermediate although now as the counselor. I was contemplating going back to school to pursue another masters degree in administration this time. I was also contemplating starting to train for a 1/2 marathon.

1 day ago
I was working at Bayless Intermediate as the counselor trying to think of everything I do to present to a graduate counseling class. I checked the website for my next assignment in my second masters program. I started training for a triathlon. I am anticipating my fourth wedding anniversary with my wonderful husband and am looking forward to spend the weekend at a Bed and Breakfast with him. Can't wait to put my almost two year old in her cute St. Patricks Day outfit! Life couldn't be too much better!

St. Patricks Day Parade

2010-03-15T14:50:00.002-05:00

So we braved the cold weather and went down to the St. Patricks Day Parade this year. We got all bundled up and went down with Aunt Boo, Jalen, and Pappy. It wasn't too bad when we got down there, but as the wind picked up it got a little chilly.
Nora enjoyed herself for the most part. She really loved it when she realized people would give her candy for waving! She had quite a few tootsie rolls and dum dum suckers. The girl is sucker crazy!

Susie and I bought Jalen and Nora green noses. Nora would not put hers on to save her life. She threw it down on the ground. It wasn't until we were at Grandma's yesterday that she put it on. Susie bought Jalen a green horn and Nora loved that! She played with it and was trying so hard to make the noise, but couldn't. She cried when i told her she needed to share with Jalen because it was his and she didn't wan to at all!

As you can tell as the day progressed it got colder and Nora would not keep her mittens on and so she was stuck under the blanket with me. She did not like this very much as you can see. She just would not smile for the camera. We did not stay too much longer after the picture because I was cold and I know if I was cold, she had to be. We got in the car and as soon as we hit the highway, she was out! We all went home and took a nap. Check back to see her in her cute St. Patricks day outfit on Wed. ! We didn't get to wear it on Saturday because it was too cold!

V-day

2010-02-16T20:10:00.003-06:00

Haven't posted anything in a while. Things have been really crazy around here, but I think things are finally going to settle down. My mom moved into her new place last weekend and it went really well. We just have a few more things to move and that is it! Not too bad if you ask me. Her new place is really great. I just love it and now she is loving it too. Definately an adjustment, but it will become her own sooner than later. I am just so proud of her for taking this step! YEA MOM!

Weekends have been extremely busy and January and most of February has flown by. We are finally all over our sicknesses that we have had and ready to just live life. Nora is growing everyday and learning new words everyday. Her new favorite thing is to give her baby a bath when she takes a bath. It is so cute watching her bathe her baby and when we get out we have to give the baby a towel too and lotion the baby. Whatever keeps her happy, keeps us happy. I am debating on getting rid of the binkie. I just think it is close to the time and I just need to work up the guts to do it. She is losing them more at night and she has five stinking binkies in bed with her. I think it is a sign. I might try it over spring break and see how it goes. Thanks to my friend Suzy for the encourgement and the other moms that have been there done that. I just keep thinking about my friend Sarah whose little one decided to take up thumb sucking instead, but the doctor says that is a rare occurance. Her hair is getting longer and I love putting in up in cute little pigtails!

What would a post be without a picture of my cute little girl! Grandma and Grandpa got her some really cute sunglasses for V-day and she loves to put them on. She is pretty funny because she doesn't smile when she puts them on she makes this really funny face like she is too cool. It cracks me up! Anyway, no complaints for me! Looking forward to St. Patricks Day and our anniversary!

New Do

2010-01-24T13:12:00.002-06:00

So I decided to get a new do and I decided to go curly!!! I wanted something different but I didn't want to cut my hair because I want to grow it out and donate it again. I also needed something quick and easy since I am working out again in the mornings. So with the help of my most favorite hair stylist I went with a perm. I was a little nervous at first because I haven't had curly hair since before Nora was born. That little stinker took all the curl I had out of my head! So 3 1/2 hours later I was curly again. When I got home I had some funny reactions. It was really big and very curly!!! Once I was able to fix it Peter finally said he liked it. I have had some mixed reactions from people, but whatever it is really whether I like it or not and I LOVE IT!!! It has saved me time getting ready in the morning and is super easy! So hope you all like my new do!

Snow Day!

2010-01-10T19:45:00.002-06:00

We had our first snow day here in St. Louis this past week! We got around 3 inches of snow and of course when we get even a little snow things here shut down. We got to sleep in that morning because school was called off before we went to bed! Nora was excited to see the snow and it snowing when we woke up. She kept saying "snow, snow, snow" over and over again. Jalen spent the night and he was super excited to see the snow on the ground. We waited til around 10 am to call the neighbor kids and go outside. So we got all bundled up with lots of layers and vaselined our faces so we could protect that beautiful skin and out we went. Nora was sweating so bad before we went out because we had so many layers on. She was ready to go and was saying "bye, outside, bye, outside, snow". So yes we did venture out into the cold so mom could be crazy and get some pictures of Nora and the snow. A lot of my friends did not venture out with their little ones, but I just had too!

As you can tell by the first picture Nora did not like the snow. I think that she wanted to actually get in the car and go "bye, bye" and that was throwing her off a little bit. As soon as I put her down in the snow she started to scream! Which will make for great pictures to talk about later on in life. We walked Jalen down to the neighbors and she was fine as we walked down but again as soon as I set her down there was screaming. Jalen said, "Aunt Debbie why don't you see if she wants to sled? I will take your picture!" So we got on the sled and she did not scream and got an okay picture considering a 6 year old was taking it. We got up and walked back home.

After we got home she saw her slide and said "slide, outside". So I put her on the slide and again she screamed. I picked her back up and she was fine. I think part of it was that she could hardly move in all of her gear because she had so much on underneath it all. We got inside and started to take it off and enjoyed the rest of the day inside playing and reading and enjoying the day off. We had Friday off too and did not venture out. We will try again if it does happen to snow again this year, but I had to get some picks and use the gear for this year!!

Christmas

2009-12-26T16:48:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas and what a great Christmas is was! We started celebrating the weekend before with Peter's parents. They came and town to celebrate with us in St. Louis before the actual holiday came. It was great and I was so excited for them to see our house all decorated for the Holiday Season. Nora got some fun stuff from Grandma and Grandpa and Aunts and Uncles for Christmas. I do have to say her favorite is her newest baby and cradle. She thinks that the cradle is for her sometimes and will sit her little butt right in it! She likes to put the baby in it and say, "Shhh!, baby is sleeping."

We then celebrated Christmas Eve at my grandma's house this year. My Uncle Dan was in the hospital the few days prior to christmas so we did something different. She had fun running back and forth from the kitchen to the family room laughing and laughing. She got a really cute stuffed leopard from Great Gran and she carried it around all night!

If you didn't know already we have a fabulous little girl! We put her to bed on Christmas Eve and then woke her up at 10:30 to go to the 11:00 church service. She was a champ! She was so good during church and made it the whole hour and a half it was! We are so blessed in many ways!

Christmas morning came and she wasn't sure what to do when she saw the presents, but after about the 4th one all she could say was, "more, more!". The kid got way to much from Santa and even more from her grandma, pappy, aunts and cousin on Christmas day. She made a haul. She was so wound up that she took two very long naps on Christmas and still went to bed fairly early. I hosted Christmas at my house this year, which was a little different but very fun. Our living room was a little snug with six adults and two kids and a big dog wanting to be in the middle of everything! As we opened presents from my family Nora really knew what was going on and kept wanting to open all the presents. She finally stopped when she opened an Elmo dvd and wouldn't stop saying his name until we opened it and put it in! She sure does love Elmo.

We did get some okay pics of the family. If you didn't know Nora really as at the stage where she does not want to have her picture taken. Which if you know me at all, it is killing me!!! She just wants to have nothing to do with the camera, even if you bribe her with something. We did get a couple of good shots. Here she is with my mom and Jalen. As you can see she is eating in this pic, but that is all I could do to even get her to sit still.

Here is the one picture of all of us and Nora was playing peek-a-boo with her dress! I sure hope that this stage ends quickly because I want to take pictures of the cutest girl ever!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas like we did! We love you all! Merry Christmas!

Bath and Books

2009-12-26T16:42:00.002-06:00

Well Nora has discovered the fun bubble bath! She just loves it when we put bubbles in the tub with her. All she says is bubble, bubble, bubble. It is too cute. She squeals with excitement! Since we are on break I have had lots of extra time to be taking pictures so that is what I have been doing.

Here she is mad at mom because she did not, and I mean did not want me to take her picture reading her book. She kepts saying, "No, No mom." But I don't listen very well and snapped the picture anyway and got a priceless look. Can she look any more like her daddy?! My friend Jenni commented on one of the pics and said how can our kiddos look so much like their dads?! Sad but true, but still pretty darn cute if you ask me!

Christmas Activites

2009-12-11T08:41:00.002-06:00

We went and did Cookies with Santa through our Parents as Teachers program last night. There was not really cookies but more activities. This was Nora's first time seeing Santa this year and she did not know what to do about it. She would hardly even look at him and would not get on his lap. She clung to me with a death grip. She wouldn't even go to him when he had a cookie and candy cane in his hand so that tells you something! Here she is writing a letter to Santa.
This is her and Brooke making cookies with play-doh. Nora was not quite sure what to do, but took cues from her friend Brooke on what to do.
Here we are making Reindeer food. This was a riot because Nora kept sticking her hand in the bowl and finally took a big handful out and stuck it in her mouth!!! It was oats, birdseed and cinnamon and she said "mmmm". She wanted more and I had to quickly put it in the bag and hide the bag. We also made a holiday tamborine with paper plates and crepe paper and noodles and a jingle bell with a pipe cleaner stuck through it to make a bracelet.
After we were done in the activities room we went into the little gym and Nora had a blast climbing up and down the stairs and playing. They had a mini trampoline and she did not know what to do with it and wouldn't bounce. She did not want to leave. Overall we had a pretty good time and will probably do more activities this winter with our PAT program!

Thanksgiving Fun

2009-12-06T18:17:00.003-06:00

We spent Thanksgiving this year in Chicago with the Reids. We had a wonderful 4 1/2 days with them. The weather was nearly as bad as many other Thanksgivings so it was really nice not to have to wear our heavy winter coats. We spent Thanksgiving day just lounging around and then we went up to Wisconsin to Peter's cousin Melissa's house for dinner. The drive was a little longer, but it was great to see Melissa and Rob's beautiful home! Nora had fun playing with her cousins, Shamus and Molly too! Isn't it funny that they are all three red heads?! Crazy, I know!!

We did a lot of shopping while we were there too. Debbie and I got up and did some Black Friday shopping, but we did not get up at 5 am like some of the other members of my family. We got up and went at 8:00 and still got a lot of great deals and it wasn't nearly as crowded. I got all of my shopping done for Nora and Jalen and Aunt Kiki while I was in Chicago. Way to go me!

We did get to see Uncle Tim and Aunt Candace. Of course we had Lou's one evening and stayed in and hung out and just played and laughed at Nora.

We also got to see our friends that live in Chicago. Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to watch Nora for the evening while we went out for dinner and drinks with Mike, Maureen, Dana & Joe. We had a great time and had some great margaritas and mexican food!

While we were gone Nora started to call Grandpa, Bob. I guess she has heard us say it so much that she is now referring to him as Bob and says it in such a cute little voice. It really cracks us up, but Grandpa didn't think it was quite that funny. It is funny for now, but we will continue to call him Grandpa so she doesn't call him Bob for the rest of her life! We had a wonderful weekend!

First Hair Cut

2009-11-16T19:22:00.003-06:00

So tonight we had Nora's first hair cut. My stylist said it was time along with the rest of my family and numerous others. It was really time for the mullett to get cut! I was a little nervous about how she was going to react. She would not sit in the chair by herself, but she did sit on my lap. Maria gave Nora a comb to do her hair with and Nora was content. She cut the back and evened out the front and blended the rest. It doesn't look too much different, but I do have to admit it does look a lot better than it did before. Hopefully it will start to grow a little faster and come in a little thicker! I didn't get too much cut off the front because I do want her bangs to grow out. Hope everyone is doing well and has a wonderful Thanksgiving! I will definately post after the holiday!

Growing Girl

2009-11-16T19:11:00.002-06:00

Well Nora is officially 18 months old!! She is just getting bigger by the day and learning lots of new things! We went in this past Friday for her 18 month check up and she is definately growing. She weighed in at 26.4 pounds and 34 inches long!!! She didn't gain to much weight but grew almost 3 inches! She is in the 77%ile for weight and the 97%ile for height. She did much better this time when we went for our visit. She did not cry and scream like the last visit. She actually laughed at the doctor, which was a first. Of course when she had to lay on the table and get measured or when he looked in her ears she cried, but right when he finished she stopped. Progress!!! She took her shots like a champ, one in each leg. The assistant put on flag band aids and as soon as she say those she stopped crying and wanted to take them off because she was trying to get them to stick to her body! Too funny. She is learning new words everyday and is trying to repeat everything you say. Guess
we better start watching what we say. She just chatters up a storm and some of the things she says I can understand and a lot of it I still don't understand. Her favorite phrase is up....peeasse! She can say around 20 words right now. We have also graduated from the high chair. She loves sitting in a booster seat. She got up from her nap on Sunday and it was time to eat lunch and I sat her in the seat and you would have thought I gave her the best gift in the world. She kept looking around as if to say look at me! She also is starting to eat more on her own and this day she got to eat her own yogurt for the first time. She was is hog heaven. Our girl is getting big and fast. Peter asked me the other day if I remember what life was like before Nora and it is starting to get fuzzy! I do have to say our lives are much bettter with her in it!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T18:47:00.002-06:00

Well Halloween finally got here! We had a great time. The week was full of fun halloween events and Nora really knows the meaning of candy now! We made caramel apples, carved pumpkins and went trick or treating. We started Halloween day by just relaxing and taking a nice long nap before all the trick or treating began. Nora and I headed to my mom's house first and started from there. We went and visited many friends before our final destination of the Kountzman's house.

We went and saw our friends Tom and Rose, Pappy and some of his friends at a party, Grandma's friend Peggy and her mom and Great Gran and Uncle Ken. Each stop had wonderful treats for Nora and Jalen! They got cupcakes, treat bags and Nora's new favorite M&M's!! Here is our pic with Great Gran. Nora did a great job in her costume, she just didn't really want anyone touching her while she was in it.

We got to the Kountzman's house around 5:15 and had our traditional chili dinner and waited for the sun to go down before we started trick or treating. Now in St. Louis the thing is to tell a joke for your candy. You have to actually work for your treat. So all day long I had been practicing with Nora on saying "boo". She did an excellent job! Aunt Boo, Aunt Kiki, Zach, Peter and I took Nora and Jalen trick or treating, well some of them started with us. She was such a trooper walking around from house to house and saying boo. She had no problem once she realized that everytime she said it she was going to get a piece of candy for it! She was too funny. I had given her a big tootsie roll and that lasted like 10 houses and she was content. We walked around with Jalen and Aunt Boo for a little over and hour and then headed back to the Kountzman household.

When we got back to the house Nora walked up to the door and said boo and Grandma gave her a piece of candy and she turned around and walked right back out the door. She was ready to keep going to get more candy!! It was too funny. She kept saying more, more, more. Our little piglet did a great job and made a haul! This last picture is of her and all of her candy. She had that pumpkin filled to the top!! Peter has really been enjoying Nora's candy. She saw the pumpkin this morning and said "boo, more, more". I guess she really wanted more candy!

We had a great Halloween and first trick or treating experience. Can't wait for many more Halloween's!!!!