This weekend was hard on my pregnant little hormonal self.
After the new year, and with our vacations (I don't know when the last time I got to use a plural "s" after the word 'vacation'?!? So excited!!) coming up in the next couple months, Max began talking about wanting to simplify our little homestead. The first thing he brought up was the chickens. We've had them for a few years now and they weren't laying eggs anymore. Apparently this was the cycle of life for most chickens. I had no idea. I understood his reasoning for this because we were basically buying feed for chickens who were no longer providing us with anything in return and since Max is usually the one doing chores, I could understand where he was coming from. So last weekend, the chickens went bye bye and I will need to find new sources for my eggs!
After the chickens, he brought up the idea of maybe finding a new home for Murphy. If you don't know the story (or stories, I should say) with Murph, then you may not understand this one but basically we took in a second golden retriever as a favor to help out a neighbor and a friend of my brothers who was in a bind with this puppy last year. He was 6 months old when we got him. Murphy is now almost two and he has caused us more anxiety/stress/frustration than we could have ever imagined. He couldn't be left alone with the kids outside which was super annoying (and weird, for a golden) and he basically destroyed anything he came in contact with, including any/all packages that would get delivered, shoes, and oh yes, sheetrock and wood trim in our garage as well. Most of this is just puppy stuff and we figured he would outgrow it so we held on for quite a while. I spent every tuesday evening with him last spring at a puppy obedience class and due to his 'running' habits, we also spent a small fortune on a wireless fence and collar so that he could stay safely in our yard instead of bothering our neighbors. Basically, we tried. The thing is---we just never could fall completely in love with him. With our growing family, we knew he wouldn't be able to get the proper training that he desperately needs so we did a little research and found an amazing organization that only take in golden retrievers, foster and train them, and then find them forever homes. After a weeklong debate and many phone conversations with this organization (they were so patient with my indecisiveness!) Murphy left on Saturday to meet his new foster parents. I cried. Alot. But in the end, I know it was best for Murphy, and I am finding peace with this decision. I won't lie that I also felt relief by the end of the day. Murphy was the cause of a lot of yelling, and a lot of stress between Max and I. I am so excited to be able to follow him to see where he ends up and how he does with his new family. Our (almost) 5 year old golden Mickey seems to be okay with this situation as well. He has now decided that he gets free reign of our house and is so far loving all the attention he has been missing out on.
On a more positive note, the sun was out today and the 30+ degree weather allowed me to lace up my running shoes and head out for a run. It felt so amazing to finally be able to be outside and get some much needed sunshine and cardio, with plenty of walking breaks here and there for baby, of course :)
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
big girl panties
I'm so proud of my little Piper Grace. About a week ago, I decided I was ready, (yes, me) to give potty training another round. I had tried to work with P a couple months ago, and it was clear that she really wasn't ready so I took her cue and decided to put it off for a awhile longer. Since last week was freakishly cold, I knew we were going to literally be stuck in the house for days and figured it would be the perfect time to attempt to ditch the diaper. I chatted with her about it one morning and simply took her diaper off and kept it off for the rest of the day. In fact, I made sure my house was nice and cozy warm because my little one basically ran around either naked (with just socks on!) or at least naked from her belly button down for the better part of the following 4 days. The first day, she had accidents and honestly didn't mind much. We spent most of our days on our hard floors so accidents were relatively easy to clean up. By day 2 I could tell she was catching on much more and only had one or two accidents and at this point she knew when she had gone where she wasn't supposed to and it would upset her a little. The next couple days continued to get easier and easier. I still felt like a broken record asking "piper, do you have to go to the bathroom? tell mommy when you have to go potty" -etc, etc but she became really confident in answering yes or no.
Things I found helpful while potty training:
-We kept our potty chair in the living room, or whatever room we were spending time in. By having her see it and know where it was at all times seemed to make her more comfortable.
-Rewards :) After each successful bathroom visit, Piper would get 4 m&m's. She thought this was awesome and now she doesn't usually even remember to ask for her "emmies" as she calls them.
-Bragging Rights. Piper would get SO excited if she was able to go in front of other people: her grandparents, her auntie, Ryder, etc. She loves to call people and tell them she only wears big girl panties now and that "DIAPERS ARE FOR BABIES!" :) Seeing her be so proud of herself was really fun for me to watch.
-Stick to it. Even on the days that we HAD to run to town for different things and before I was fully confident in her "holding it" abilities, I refused to put a diaper on her, because I knew it would just confuse her. I just took my chances and brought extra clothes everywhere we went. So far, it has worked out :)
CHEERS TO A FEW MONTHS OF NOT HAVING TO BUY DIAPERS :)
Things I found helpful while potty training:
-We kept our potty chair in the living room, or whatever room we were spending time in. By having her see it and know where it was at all times seemed to make her more comfortable.
-Rewards :) After each successful bathroom visit, Piper would get 4 m&m's. She thought this was awesome and now she doesn't usually even remember to ask for her "emmies" as she calls them.
-Bragging Rights. Piper would get SO excited if she was able to go in front of other people: her grandparents, her auntie, Ryder, etc. She loves to call people and tell them she only wears big girl panties now and that "DIAPERS ARE FOR BABIES!" :) Seeing her be so proud of herself was really fun for me to watch.
-Stick to it. Even on the days that we HAD to run to town for different things and before I was fully confident in her "holding it" abilities, I refused to put a diaper on her, because I knew it would just confuse her. I just took my chances and brought extra clothes everywhere we went. So far, it has worked out :)
CHEERS TO A FEW MONTHS OF NOT HAVING TO BUY DIAPERS :)
 |
| just working on her fitness ;) |
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
*twenty-fourteen*
2013 was a great year for my little family.
I accomplished (and surpassed) a great deal of the goals I had set for myself, and of course there are also still things I am striving to work on. My main theme for the year was "Stress less, Pray More, and Run Farther" I tried to keep this in my mind throughout the year. I know for a fact that my stress level has gone down, I continue to work on deepening my relationship and communication with God, and I managed to run farther than I ever thought possible not only once, but twice this year. Even better, I enjoyed doing it.
I know that Max killed many of his goals for this past year also and I am so proud of him for it.
My kids are happy and healthy and that is really all I could hope for from them at this point :)
Now that the new year has begun I was forced to start thinking of new goals for myself. Being pregnant, most of my goals were not fitness/running related, so I had to think outside the box a bit this year. It took me a LONG time to come up with these goals. Here's what I will be working on for 2014:
1- Attempt one thing I am uncomfortable with per week
2- Have coffee with Max at least 3x per week in the mornings- before the kids are up. (I hate mornings--this also means I need to start going to bed earlier.)
3- More playdates for the kids, more entertaining for us, more visiting family and friends, and more traveling.
4- Take more pictures.
5- Continue with my yoga practice and aim for 3 camelback's of water per day, minimum.
Cheers to the new year :)
I accomplished (and surpassed) a great deal of the goals I had set for myself, and of course there are also still things I am striving to work on. My main theme for the year was "Stress less, Pray More, and Run Farther" I tried to keep this in my mind throughout the year. I know for a fact that my stress level has gone down, I continue to work on deepening my relationship and communication with God, and I managed to run farther than I ever thought possible not only once, but twice this year. Even better, I enjoyed doing it.
I know that Max killed many of his goals for this past year also and I am so proud of him for it.
My kids are happy and healthy and that is really all I could hope for from them at this point :)
Now that the new year has begun I was forced to start thinking of new goals for myself. Being pregnant, most of my goals were not fitness/running related, so I had to think outside the box a bit this year. It took me a LONG time to come up with these goals. Here's what I will be working on for 2014:
1- Attempt one thing I am uncomfortable with per week
2- Have coffee with Max at least 3x per week in the mornings- before the kids are up. (I hate mornings--this also means I need to start going to bed earlier.)
3- More playdates for the kids, more entertaining for us, more visiting family and friends, and more traveling.
4- Take more pictures.
5- Continue with my yoga practice and aim for 3 camelback's of water per day, minimum.
Cheers to the new year :)
Monday, January 6, 2014
New Year, New Baby!
Happy New Year!!
2014 is looking quite promising over here... I want to blog a recap of 2013 and also want to share some of my resolutions and things I'm hoping to work on/learn in 2014 but I'm not quite organized enough yet to post that particular blog-- (go figure!) so instead I will chat about the last 14 weeks of my life.
We are thrilled to announce that we are expecting #3 in early July of this year! July 9th, is my exact due date so somewhere around then, Max and I will officially be outnumbered by kiddies around here. Scary! :) Since there is a GOOD chance that this will be our last baby, and my last pregnancy, I want to make sure that I document all that I can remember... Not saying a fourth baby is NOT in our future, but I can say it's never been in our 'plan' so likely, this baby will complete our family! With that being said, here's a bit to get you up to date....
A lot of people have asked us if we were "trying" to get pregnant. The answer is yes, sort of. We had been 'paying attention to things' without being overly optimistic for the last couple months. At the end of October I realized I was a few days late, and on our way to watch my cousin's play in Anoka on Nov. 1st, I told Max that we should pick up a test on the way home just to ease our minds. We didn't think we were pregnant. The play went longer than I expected so my plan of running into Target (my beloved store where I first found out I was pregnant with Piper!) wasn't going to happen since by that time all the stores were closed. I still desperately wanted to know by that point so I convinced Max to let me stop at a 24hr Coborns (classy!) in Elk River where we not only bought, but took the test. I can be a little impatient with these things ;) Then we left and soon after leaving the store we got stuck waiting for an incredibly long train. It was then that I took the test out of my purse and asked Max to look at it. His response was something along the lines of "YEP! IT SAYS YEP!"
We were both more than a little surprised, extremely happy, and yet both had a feeling of "Holy shit, what now??" :) I think we chatted nonstop for 30 minutes and then for the rest of the ride home we were silent. Both taking it in as we thought about how our lives would be changing, once again!
We didn't tell anyone for quite a while. Although I was super happy about this baby, I also felt very guarded about sharing the news. I was terrified that I would wake up and no longer be pregnant one morning. Our first appointment was at 8 weeks and I felt much better after seeing our little one's heart fluttering on the ultrasound machine. Soon after, on Thanksgiving, we shared the news with our families and some close friends. We had another ultrasound at 12 weeks to monitor some spotting I had been having and once again got to see our sweet baby! The following week we made it public that we were expecting and since then we have just been patiently checking each week off the calendar... In two days, I will be 14 weeks along and officially out of my first trimester. It really does seem like it flew by, the but the holidays kept us so busy I figured that would happen.
I will say that overall, this pregnancy has been EASY. I never got the extreme fatigue that I did with both Ryder and Piper. When pregnant with them, I would literally go to bed by 8:30 everyday because I was just so exhausted. That never happened this time around. I always felt like I had adequate energy and although I would make myself rest for 20-30 minutes and put my feet up during naptime each day, I always felt somewhat normal. I never got sick with morning sickness although I didn't always have the strongest appetite. I would eat really small things every couple hours because the thought of a big meal overwhelmed me most days. The thing I have noticed the most is that the foods that sound good to me have changed. I am a huge protein fan normally. I know how important it is in your diet and pre-pregnancy my breakfasts and snacks consisted mostly of protein. Most breakfasts I would have a protein shake, or a whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter and string cheese, or eggs of some type.... Since being pregnant, however, the only things I have been eating for breakfast is a bowl of special k cereal or yogurt. This morning I even had toast with jelly. These aren't crazy things by any means, but they are crazy for me. I NEVER eat cereal, or jelly for that matter. I also need strawberries on hand at any given time. Basically anything sweet and carb-loaded sounds good to me, which is just not my typical diet. Oh well! The only other signs of pregnancy that I've consistently had would be the lovely acne that has taken over my face (thank goodness for makeup- ugh) and I've been incredibly out of breath. I don't recall ever having that with either of my last 2 babies, but from what I've read and heard from my doctor, it is actually a common pregnancy symptom. Who knew?!
My belly is also growing, which I am actually thankful for because up until now, it has just been in the awkward "looks like I've just simply had too many christmas cookies" stage and although I hadn't really gained any weight, majority of my jeans/pants have not been fitting for a while now. The small belly I do have, is much lower than I remember with Piper so my clothes fit so much more different than when I was pregnant with her. I also have only had a few headaches, which is a relief because I had horrible headaches nearly every evening with P... When I compare the two pregnancies, they are like night and day, but then again, every baby is different!
We haven't made a solid decision as to whether or not we will find out the gender of this baby. I would like to be surprised and find out at delivery, but Max is leaning towards a gender reveal party and finding out at the same time as our family and friends... Luckily we have a good 6 weeks or so before we have to decide until our 20 week ultrasound scan! We appreciate any prayers for a happy, healthy baby :)
STAY WARM TODAY!
2014 is looking quite promising over here... I want to blog a recap of 2013 and also want to share some of my resolutions and things I'm hoping to work on/learn in 2014 but I'm not quite organized enough yet to post that particular blog-- (go figure!) so instead I will chat about the last 14 weeks of my life.
We are thrilled to announce that we are expecting #3 in early July of this year! July 9th, is my exact due date so somewhere around then, Max and I will officially be outnumbered by kiddies around here. Scary! :) Since there is a GOOD chance that this will be our last baby, and my last pregnancy, I want to make sure that I document all that I can remember... Not saying a fourth baby is NOT in our future, but I can say it's never been in our 'plan' so likely, this baby will complete our family! With that being said, here's a bit to get you up to date....
A lot of people have asked us if we were "trying" to get pregnant. The answer is yes, sort of. We had been 'paying attention to things' without being overly optimistic for the last couple months. At the end of October I realized I was a few days late, and on our way to watch my cousin's play in Anoka on Nov. 1st, I told Max that we should pick up a test on the way home just to ease our minds. We didn't think we were pregnant. The play went longer than I expected so my plan of running into Target (my beloved store where I first found out I was pregnant with Piper!) wasn't going to happen since by that time all the stores were closed. I still desperately wanted to know by that point so I convinced Max to let me stop at a 24hr Coborns (classy!) in Elk River where we not only bought, but took the test. I can be a little impatient with these things ;) Then we left and soon after leaving the store we got stuck waiting for an incredibly long train. It was then that I took the test out of my purse and asked Max to look at it. His response was something along the lines of "YEP! IT SAYS YEP!"
We were both more than a little surprised, extremely happy, and yet both had a feeling of "Holy shit, what now??" :) I think we chatted nonstop for 30 minutes and then for the rest of the ride home we were silent. Both taking it in as we thought about how our lives would be changing, once again!
We didn't tell anyone for quite a while. Although I was super happy about this baby, I also felt very guarded about sharing the news. I was terrified that I would wake up and no longer be pregnant one morning. Our first appointment was at 8 weeks and I felt much better after seeing our little one's heart fluttering on the ultrasound machine. Soon after, on Thanksgiving, we shared the news with our families and some close friends. We had another ultrasound at 12 weeks to monitor some spotting I had been having and once again got to see our sweet baby! The following week we made it public that we were expecting and since then we have just been patiently checking each week off the calendar... In two days, I will be 14 weeks along and officially out of my first trimester. It really does seem like it flew by, the but the holidays kept us so busy I figured that would happen.
I will say that overall, this pregnancy has been EASY. I never got the extreme fatigue that I did with both Ryder and Piper. When pregnant with them, I would literally go to bed by 8:30 everyday because I was just so exhausted. That never happened this time around. I always felt like I had adequate energy and although I would make myself rest for 20-30 minutes and put my feet up during naptime each day, I always felt somewhat normal. I never got sick with morning sickness although I didn't always have the strongest appetite. I would eat really small things every couple hours because the thought of a big meal overwhelmed me most days. The thing I have noticed the most is that the foods that sound good to me have changed. I am a huge protein fan normally. I know how important it is in your diet and pre-pregnancy my breakfasts and snacks consisted mostly of protein. Most breakfasts I would have a protein shake, or a whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter and string cheese, or eggs of some type.... Since being pregnant, however, the only things I have been eating for breakfast is a bowl of special k cereal or yogurt. This morning I even had toast with jelly. These aren't crazy things by any means, but they are crazy for me. I NEVER eat cereal, or jelly for that matter. I also need strawberries on hand at any given time. Basically anything sweet and carb-loaded sounds good to me, which is just not my typical diet. Oh well! The only other signs of pregnancy that I've consistently had would be the lovely acne that has taken over my face (thank goodness for makeup- ugh) and I've been incredibly out of breath. I don't recall ever having that with either of my last 2 babies, but from what I've read and heard from my doctor, it is actually a common pregnancy symptom. Who knew?!
My belly is also growing, which I am actually thankful for because up until now, it has just been in the awkward "looks like I've just simply had too many christmas cookies" stage and although I hadn't really gained any weight, majority of my jeans/pants have not been fitting for a while now. The small belly I do have, is much lower than I remember with Piper so my clothes fit so much more different than when I was pregnant with her. I also have only had a few headaches, which is a relief because I had horrible headaches nearly every evening with P... When I compare the two pregnancies, they are like night and day, but then again, every baby is different!
We haven't made a solid decision as to whether or not we will find out the gender of this baby. I would like to be surprised and find out at delivery, but Max is leaning towards a gender reveal party and finding out at the same time as our family and friends... Luckily we have a good 6 weeks or so before we have to decide until our 20 week ultrasound scan! We appreciate any prayers for a happy, healthy baby :)
STAY WARM TODAY!
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