Waiting for the 3rd thing...

They say things happen in "3s", well we're sitting here waiting for the 3rd thing to happen. Last Thursday, our summer roommate text me to say that she couldn't get into our house because our garage door wouldn't go up. Luckily, we had a key for her to use, but we still had a problem to deal with. Craig got home from work that day, and he could barely manually lift the door up. Upon further inspection, he discovered one of the coiled springs had split into two pieces. 24 hours and about $200 later we have a functioning garage door!

The same day we realized that our ice maker wasn't making any ice. For the first time in two years of living here, our ice tray was completely empty. Craig did some research and decided to order a replacement piece from an online store, as he wasn't able to find a GE brand valve at Lowe's or Home Depot. The piece came today, and after all that and about a week's worth of waiting, the piece was worthless and cost us $30. He called a local appliance repair piece, they advised us to purchase a whole new ice maker, but couldn't promise that would fix our problem. We'd be out the $200ish to attempt that. Our refrigerator is over 10 years old, so now we questioning how smart it is to put hundreds of dollars of work and parts into it if it could go out on us completely any time. We may be doing some refrigerator shopping this weekend...

So, we're waiting for the next thing to happen with the house. After 2 years, I guess it's bound to happen as we haven't hand any self-induce house expenses thus far. Oh, the joys of home ownership. Let's just pray the third thing is something simple and inexpensive, we've got a hungry little girl to feed!

A weekend at home

We decided to attempt cereal on Thursday night. It was a complete failure! She didn't swallow any of it, she didn't spit it out, she just held it in her mouth and screamed at us! I tried it again on Friday & Saturday with more success. I think we needed to make it thicker, the super runny consistency through her for a loop since it wasn't in her bottle! We're making progress, slowly but surely!We had Delaney's first sleepover on Saturday night. The Reinhart family came to stay with us! It was fun to spend some time with them, and the two kiddos had a pretty good time too! We hadn't seen Reed since the end of May, so he had changed quite a big! Delaney is definitely filling the gap size-wise. She's just a little shorter, but weighs almost the same!
Today we got together with both of Delaney's boyfriends for a little play date! We hadn't had all 3 babies together since Delaney was a few weeks old. My how they've changed! She is definitely catching up to those boys. The size differences are slowing going away! Here's a few of the best pictures. Getting all three's attention & smiles is nearly impossible!
Aren't they all so cute! We are all so lucky to have had them all so close to the same time! They are 5, 6, & 7 months old right now!
Delaney was over the picture taking portion of the play date. Her boyfriends tried to make her feel better. Parker started cracking jokes and Reed tried to comfort her! It was pretty funny!Here's Delaney's two studly boyfriends, Reed Reinhart (in the green) & Parker Aerni (with the frog). Aren't they a handsome duo? How will she ever choose?!?
Here's what the dads do at the play dates...don't ask!

5 Months

How is it possible that our little girl is already five months old?!? This last month has seriously flown by. It seems like it's been one thing right after the other since we got back from Okoboji. Delaney has spent most of her fourth month of life fighting with some teeth. We still haven't had anything "pop" through, but I think we are getting really close with the bottom two. They just look like they hurt. I hope they come through soon, I miss my happy little baby!
Another challenge we faced this month was transitioning Delaney out of her bassinet in our room and into her crib in her room. We decided to give it a whirl one night, and we haven't looked back. She loves it in there! She has plenty of room to stretch out and lots of crazy things to look at! She loves her bedding that my rock star friend Kaitlyn made for her! She has continued to sleep all night since moving down the hall, and when she wakes up she doesn't cry she just looks around and coos--even the one time she woke up at 4 a.m. When I go in to get her every morning, it's one of my favorites times of the day. As soon as I say, "Good morning sunshine!" she lights up with a huge grin on her face and flails her arms around. She's so happy & excited! It makes me feel a little bad that we didn't do it soon, since she seems so happy with it! We are so blessed to have such a good little sleeper...but, why am I still soooo exhausted?
Delaney has been busy growing this month. A couple weeks ago, she moved onto Size 2 Diapers and size 6 months clothes. She has definitely "chunked" up. I have already found a couple 6 month outfits that she will never be able to wear thanks to her fat rolls. One was a dress that had little puff sleeves that were way too tight on her arms. I had to take it off immediately! Another was a pair of little green pants. I put them on and they were so tight on her little thunder thighs and around her little Buddha belly that I took those off right away too. I really hope to have a baby niece soon to hand some of these things down too since we haven't gotten to use them! (hint, hint Jess & Nick!) She weighed in at a whopping 15.6 pounds and 25.25 inches long. Our little peanut gained 2 pounds and grew a quarter or an inch in one month!
She continues to have bright blue eyes like her Daddy and auburn-ish hair. She has managed to wear a bald spot into the back of her head while playing with her favorite toy...her activity gym! She seriously loves that thing! I'm honestly considering a hair color change myself just so I have something that looks like her. She is still a little clone to her Daddy. She may have my nose (although not crooked like mine) and my toes, but that's about it.
She eats like her Daddy too! She now eats 6oz about every 3-4 hours during the day. We are going through our huge freezer stash at record pace. We are going to explore the wonderful world of baby food & cereal in the coming weeks. I'm excited to see how she does with that, even though it doesn't seem possible that she's old enough for that! I'm hoping it will help with her spitting up as she is quite a little spitter. She doesn't have acid reflux, she's just a spitter. We do a lot of laundry. We got her high chair out and put together last night, and I got her bowls and spoons washed & ready. I think we'll give it a whirl tonight...it is bath night after all!
Delaney has changed a lot this month. She smiles all the time and now even really giggles from time to time too. She's extremely ticklish, and loves to be tickled. She also actually plays now. She notices her toys and loves to grab and hold onto to them while kicking and screaming. She has found her voice and makes crazy noises all the time. She has also mastered the art of blowing raspberries...it's adorable! She really likes her bath time, and prefers Daddy to give her a bath. She's getting to wear she is starting to splash and play in there. I think she's on the verge of finding her toes, which I'm looking forward to. She is also a pro at tummy time and rolling from tummy to back. There's been a few times when I thought she was going to go the other way, but she didn't quite make it! She's a busy little girl! I think it's time to start baby proofing! We love you D!

Advertures of Delaney

Well, our little girl has been pretty busy these days! For the last few weeks, she has been working on cutting her first couple teeth. So far they aren't through yet, but man have then been dealing her fits! The evenings have been especially awful on all four of us! The past couple days have been a little better! I wish she's get these babies through soon, so we can have our happy little girl back!
It's been soooo hot here, so one evening last week we got out Delaney's pool thinking she might enjoy a little swim. She tolerated it for all of 15 minutes, and then she decided it was too hot and her teeth hurt too much so she was done! It fun and cute while it lasted! We will have to get her in it again soon!
She was really fussy one night last week (what am I talking about, she was really fussy every night last week); anyway, I left the room for a few minutes and came back to find this. It was sooo cute! They were clones in awe of the TV. Yes, our four month old baby is a TV junkie! I did make a fabulous purchase earlier this week! For weeks I've been scouring Craig's list for Baby Einstein DVDs, well on Tuesday I found some! I got 10 DVDs for $30...what a steal! We've watched part of one, and she really enjoyed it! I think we'll get a lot of use out of that $30!
The other night she decided to take matters into her own hands and grabbed hold of her bottle. She looks like such a big girl holding it all by herself! It only lasted for a few seconds, but she has been working on it the last couple days, and I think soon she'll be on her own! Our little girl is growing up so fast!
I did an impromptu photo shoot tonight since she was in a good mood! I adore this picture, her baby blues are so bright & shiny! I managed to snap two pictures, and then she decided she was over the tummy time and rolled right over! So many things to do and so little time!

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Two years ago I married my best friend in front of all our favorite people. It was such a great day. We chose 08.08.08 for our wedding day and planned for it to be 100 degrees, but we were blessed with an 85 degree day in August! Everyone we wanted to be there was there to celebrate with us, and it all went as planned! Aside from the day Delaney was born, it was the best day of my life!

I knew we had big things in store of us, but the last two years have just been a whirlwind! Right after our wedding, we took off for Mexico! What a trip that was! I loved it down there, and if we are even given the opportunity to go back we will! It's amazing! A week after we got back from Mexico, we moved out of our tiny apartment and into our house! A month later, we got our puppy Izzy! The day before our first anniversary, we found out we were expecting and last March we had our beautiful baby girl, Delaney! Obviously, I left out many things, but these are the highlights! I can only imagine what's ahead for us! I can't wait to find out! Happy Anniversary Craig!

We had so many great pictures taken that day, but these are some of my most favorite!
This was right after the first time we saw each other that day! I'm still very proud of myself for holding it together in that moment!
This is my favorite "formal" picture of us! Notice I'm standing a step above Craig & he's still taller than me...good thing I had a long dress!
Our formal "first" kiss! We were official at that point!
Here's our wild & crazy wedding party! We were so grateful to have them all there! We picked the perfect people for the perfect "jobs" that day. Sometimes wedding parties can add stress to the day, but ours was great! They all went above & beyond for us! This picture cracks me up every time I see it! Priceless!
After the ceremony we took off with all our "peeps" in a trolley! This was one of my favorite times of the day...just cruising around with our closest friends and family enjoying the moment!
I just love this picture...my favorite of all of them!

We share our anniversary with my parents! They were married 08.08.80, so they are celebrating 30 years today! We are so lucky to have them as parents! I hope they had a great time last night...more details later! Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today, we found out that we were going to have a baby. It's amazing to me how much has happened in the last year, and how fast it went! I remember that day fairly well. I had suspicions that I may be pregnant, so I got up that morning before Craig left for work and took a test. I tried to keep telling myself to not get my hopes up. It was only our first month trying, and it's pretty rare for it to work out that quickly. It said not pregnant, so we went about our normal routine of going to work. I was disappointed and sad, but kept reminding myself that it was only the first time. I still had a feeling that something was up though that I couldn't shake!

So, I went home for lunch and took another test...this time it was positive! I was in shock! I pulled out the test from earlier that morning and saw that the control line wasn't there, so that test did work which explains the negative result! Here I am home alone with Izzy with the most exciting news of our lives and I can't tell anyone! I wanted to tell Craig in person, so I stifled my excitement as much as I could and went back to work. I avoided everyone at work as much as possible that day and didn't answer my cell phone because I was about ready to burst. I counted down the seconds to 5 o'clock so that I could get home and tell Craig. Of course in typically fashion, Craig said that he could tell and was not surprised at all! Whatever...he always ruins my surprises!

It was a Friday afternoon, so I couldn't call my OBs office until that next Monday, so we spent that weekend in a state of shock! We had planned it, wanted it, and suddenly it happened! We were so lucky! We couldn't believe it. We celebrated with a dinner out at Las Margaritas...may have been the start of my cravings!

We shared our news with our closest friends and family the week before Labor Day. I was about 7 weeks along and we had wanted to wait, but we had a trip planned with Ryan & Jill to Las Vegas over Labor Day and knew we couldn't go with them without telling them. We made a trip home the weekend before the trip to Vegas to tell our parents & my siblings. We had a lot of fun with it, and I think we caught most of them off guard! Izzy actually did the telling for us. We had a little shirt made for her that said she was going to be a big sister! It was fun! We told the rest of the world after our first doctor's appointment in early September. I was about 10 weeks along!

Oh what a difference a year makes, now we have a beautiful baby girl that we couldn't love any more! She is perfect and we are blessed! I can't wait to see what's next!

Biggest Loser Results

Well, we ended our Biggest Loser competition on July 12th before we left for Okoboji. Overall, I think the challenge was a great success as all four of us lost weight, which was the main objective. I came in fourth place only losing about 7 pounds throughout the 8 week competition. I'm all right with that though as I have lost 43 pounds since the day before Delaney was born. I have surpassed my pre-pregnancy weight and I am closing in on my wedding weight, so I'm feeling pretty good. Now, if I could just get a little motivation and energy to be more active that would help! My new goal is to have the weight listed on my driver's license be true!

Craig came in third place (percentage lost). He lost about 18 pounds! I can really notice the difference in just looking at him. It's amazing how a few different choices have made such a difference for him...smaller portions, diet pop, etc. Lauren came in second. She lost about 10 pounds, which was more than her goal! I think she took the competition the most seriously, and she looks great! Chip ended up beating us all by percentage and poundage. He lost about 20 pounds. His new job at Menards and getting away from dorm food were the keys to his success if you ask me!

So, like I said, we all did well and achieved some success! I hope that we can keep it off!

Playing with Delaney

Here's a little video of Delaney going crazy with her toys! Too cute not to share...

Okoboji 2010

After a week of being back to "normal" and getting into the swing of things, I decided I should tell you about our trip to Okoboji this year. I was so excited to take Delaney! I have been going up to Okoboji since I was a baby too, virtually every summer with just a couple exceptions! I hope that Delaney will have the opportunity to do this too and love it up there as much as I do!

We had perfect weather the entire time we were there. We got up there the morning after a serious storm that caused major damage to boats, docks, and trees. I'm so glad we missed that! It was warm enough to be out on the water and still be comfortable pretty much every day. It rained a few times, but always at night so it didn't change any of our plans. We went so many places and did so many things...it was a great getaway after a crazy few months at home, but man it is hard to travel and plan for a trip like this with a little one! We traveled with my parents, siblings, and my aunt & uncle and cousins. We had four vehicles packed to the top!


Delaney was spoiled the entire time by her grandparents and aunt and uncles. She loved all the attention, and seems to be a little disappointed when it's just us at home! She got to do a lot of shopping, go on a couple boat rides, and do a little swimming before she came down with her first cold and started working on her teeth! She loved the lake. She would sit outside with someone, and just watch the water. She also had quite the time in her little swimming pool. This was a great $6 investment of Grandma B's, and I'm sure we'll get a lot more use out of it at home!

Delaney had her first trip to the Barefoot Bar on Monday of that week. It was pretty hot that day, so we found a spot under a Tiki Hut in the shade. Delaney enjoyed an afternoon snack and was hanging out on Grandma when she had a massive #2 blow-out. Of course, being the genius, prepared mother that I am I had a back-up outfit in the bag, so we stripped her down and cleaned her up. We'll always be able to tell her that she got naked the first time she went to the Barefoot Bar! I'm sad we didn't document that experience properly, but I was elbow deep in clean up so stopping for a picture was not an option! I also got to enjoy the Rum Runner, I had been craving since last summer!
Delaney loved the boat rides she had. Because she wasn't feeling the best for a few days up there, she only got out on the boat twice. She loved it! She sat with Craig or I and gnawed on her life jacket. That thing was ridiculous, and I'm sure completely uncomfortable for her...but we have to have it! She didn't complain too much! The last night we were there was the annual fireworks show on the lake. She fell asleep before the show started, but the rest of us sure enjoyed it. I'd venture to say it was one of the top 3 fireworks shows I had ever seen. It's a whole different perspective seeing it from a boat over the water. So cool!

Craig had his share of ups and downs on the trip. His first morning of attempting to water ski was mildly successful. Witness accounts say he was "this" close to being up! He pulled a smooth move later that day by jumping on a tube with my cousin Trevor with his BlackBerry in his pocket. The phone spent the next few days in a bag of rice drying out. It's still functioning right now, but I'm not sure how long that will last. After getting his phone to dry land, Craig decide to tube solo and had a wicked crash. He's still sore two weeks later! He's getting too old for this stuff!I spent most of the trip with Delaney since she wasn't feeling the best. I did get out on the boat a couple afternoons while Grandma babysat, which was nice. I also did a little shopping during a couple of her naps! The rest of the week was spent eating, drinking, and relaxing! What more could you ask for?!? It was a nice break from the everyday grind, and I'm already looking forward to next year's trip!