Happy Birthday Amelie!

Oh my god, I worked on St. Patricks day and got my ass kicked.  In fact, it ended up being a whole weekend of ass kicking for me.  It was really busy and I was pregnant and tired, and sleep just wasn't in the cards for me all weekend.  Luckily my mom came over and picked up Ami on Friday morning and her and Abby took the kids to an indoor playground.  I slept until 12:15 when my mom called to see if I was awake yet.

I didn't have to work Friday night so after my mom dropped Ami off, we went to Eau Claire to visit the Skrtic's.  Ami can't sleep in a travel crib anymore, she climbs out, so I built her a bed on the floor next to me (she's also not very good at sleeping in bed with me.)  We had a lot of fun; we played outside, Ami and Carter messed up his playroom, they took a bath in the big whirlpool tub and had some popcorn before bed.  Ami really like Carter's swings and slide.

Then came bedtime.  She didn't fall asleep until around 10pm.   She came out of the room twice, and I went in 3 other times to try and get her to sleep.  She was so cute when I went in to bed around 11 that I took this photo.  She was sleeping in her Care Bears sleeping bag which she loves.  She woke up again around midnight, and was up every hour for the rest of the night.  I slept even less.  Once I woke up and her leg was wrapped over my neck.  She is tiny, but somehow managed to keep me confined to the edge of the bed.  When she was sleeping, it was great.  She was sharing my pillow and cuddling up to my face.  She got up around 5:30am for good.  I let her play games on my phone and watch Netflicks while I tried to get a few more minutes of sleep, but my service wasn't that great so the movie she was watching kept freezing and she would lean over with her face right over mine and yell. "Help!"

  

Here she is around 3am, not too happy.

Poor girl was either tired, scared, or really crabby when we finally got up and she sobbed for a good half and hour, but Krista made some great pancakes and she cheered up.  We left after breakfast and she slept the whole car ride home.

I had high hopes for a nap that afternoon before I had to work another early shift, but those dreams were crushed and I was running on fumes all night.  At least I made some money...

Amelie been pretty awesome this week.  She wanted to dress herself on Monday morning.  She put her pants on upside down and wore the sweatshirt on her head, but she had a great time doing it.  She did successfully get her undies on the right way though.

We had her birthday party yesterday.  Her birthday is actually today, but Tyler had to go out of town for work.  We had a few people over, I forgot how much work it is to host a party.  I managed to make BBQ pulled pork, colesaw, beans, and chocolate cupcakes though.  I got the house clean and had to make a last minute run to the store, but it all got done.  I had just stepped out of the shower, and out into the freshly mopped (ahem, swiffered) hallway, when this happened.

Aw shit.  We both cried a little over spilled milk.  Just kidding, only she did.

Looking back now, haha, it was funny.  But then, I was on my last legs and guests were set to arrive in less than an hour so.....

It ended up being a really fun party.  I was prepared enough that I didn't have to spend any time in the kitchen finishing up the cooking, the food was edible, and after the kids all got past the first few minutes of shyness, they had fun running around and screaming!  I wish I would've gotten a video of the kids helping Amelie open her gifts, it was like being in the eye of a tornado.  Paper flying everywhere, kids waving around art supplies and 2T clothes. 

The birthday girl stayed up over an hour past her bedtime, but that's what happens when you give a kid a cupcake.

We had our own little celebration this morning.  We made cinnamon buns and lit 2 candles.  She played with the balloons Uncle Ben got her, and just kept chanting his name all morning.  I save our gifts for her so she could open them up this morning.  It was a nice way to wake up...

I love how she is going right for the middle of the bun (the best part), just like I do.

AND, even thought they are now covered in 4 inches of snow, the tulips we planted in the fall are BLOOMING!

Happy second birthday Amelie!

Love life

I am convinced that I bore the cutest, most beautiful little girl in the world. Seriously, I'm not even kidding. You want proof...here she is in her Halloween Fairy costume.

When we are at the store or anywhere in public, people always stop and comment on her cuteness. It is crazy. The other day, some woman stopped and took a photo of Amelie with her cell phone. Are you kidding me?! Really though, it's great and I love it. I cannot believe that I GREW her. Incredible.

We were at the cabin for Halloween. We measured her in the basement where my parents measured us when we were kids. She was 24 inches tall.

There has been so much happening lately and I have had so little time to blog about it. Clint, Brenda and their kids came for a visit. We had a lot of fun and I'm really glad I finally got to meet their super cute sons.

Amelie is a pro-crawler, "talks" a lot, pulls herself up on EVERYTHING, claps, eats all sorts of solid foods, LOVES meeting new people (and babies), love Toby the dog and Lucy the cat, and says Mama. I'm so proud.

Also, check out the new chair that my dad loves. He fell asleep in it this weekend and we thought about ejecting him from it.

Yeah, it's an old man chair, but he's not really that old yet so it's mostly funny.

Besides constantly staring at my pretty baby, her and I have done some thrifting/antiquing. I have gotten some really great picture frames and shelves for super cheap. I'm going to paint them and hang them in our house.

We had some time to hang some artsy items in Ami's room and laid out a plan to hang some more stuff in the rest of the house. It's incredible how time slips away from you. Last week, while pretty baby was napping I had time to rake the front yard into 4 HUGE piles of leaves. Piles that we still haven't had the opportunity to bag. We also need to mow.

I just gotta say, I'm so glad that I did a lot of life living while I was young. Really enjoyed my youth. Throughly too. I had TONS of fun. For me, 28 was the perfect age to have a baby. I'm 29 now (which is weird because I feel way younger), and super happy...regardless that I never get a full nights sleep or any time to myself without sacrificing my own sleep. I had fun, did some crazy shit, lived it up with my girls, and had some incredible experiences with Tyler. I really appreciate the fact that I was able to have my own fun early in life, so that I could really enjoy my life now.

So tired.

I went back to work on the 15th. It's actually sort of a nice break for me. I can interact with adults, there is plenty of visual stimulation, and I get out of the house for a while. Tyler and I have a nice little arrangement going on, he works a day job, I work a night job, and Amelie doesn't have to go to daycare. Not only does it save us lots of money and stress, we get to spend as much time with her as possible.

The only problem, is that I tend to get home pretty late, and get up pretty early. I worked on Wednesday and Saturday this week and have been trying to catch up on my sleep ever since. I was dragging some serious ass today. I guess naps will have to be mandatory from now on.

Moving on, the unthinkable happened to me today. We were looking for houses again , and one of the homes we looked at was also having an open house. I was wearing a shirt that was rouged on the top and had a flowy bottom. The agent (Randall Walker) showing the home casually
said to me, "I see your family will be growing soon." I could have punched him in the throat. Instead, I replied, "Yeah, we had a baby 2 months ago." Of course, going over the scenario in my head later, I came up with some way better responses to his statement, but by then it was to late. I hope he felt like a really big idiot. That's him on the phone, he reminded me of a child Michael Scott and Dwight Schrutte would create. Thanks for taking me down a peg Randy. Lesson for the day, never make a comment like that unless you are 100% positive that a woman is pregnant.


On the flip side, we did find a house that we really liked. We actually already looked at. In fact, it was one of the first homes we saw. Oddly enough, our landlord is the listing agent...awkward. I hope that turns out to be a good thing. Anyways, we put an offer in but I don't want to talk about it anymore in case I jinx us. We'll be using "The Secret" to help aquire the home. Think what you will, but I swear it works. Ask my friend Kram, or boss Linda, they know.

To end on a good note, here is a family photo of us, it was over Memorial Day weekend up at our cabin. Amelie went fishing for the first time and we are posing with Tyler's first Northern of the season. That one will be going on the brag board in the garage.