Big Announcements

Ok, I'll come out and say it! I've kept you all waiting long enough...

We bought a house! Actually, due to some pretty complicated and weird Bank of America Policies Dennis and Lynne bought a house and we live in it! lol! But, come July, we'll have bought the house! So here's the deal. Bryan works for Bank of America and the house "we" bought was a Bank of America foreclosure. Well, I guess since it's possible that Bryan could have made friends with someone in that department and that person could possibly give Bryan inside info on that house, we weren't eligible to buy it. BUT- Dennis and Lynne we're willing and able to buy the house for us! The original plan was to turn around and buy the house right back from them, but then we found out that there's another rule that says they have to hold the title for at least six months. SO, for now I guess you could say we're renting, but we will own it exactly six months from the day Dennie and Lynne bought it... weird huh?! Anyway, here she is!

And, I haven't had a chance to decorate yet so I stole some old pis of the inside. Here's the kitchen:

It looks a little different now. Bryan and I bought stainless steel appliances and replaced the older black ones. And, eventually, someday, we're going to replace the counter-tops.

Other then that it's just a living room, four bedrooms and two bathrooms. Nothing fun to look at through pictures. My favorite part of the house??

The stars! Every night when you walk outside all you have to do is look up and you can see tons of stars! In Plano you can probably count the number of stars you see every night, but out here.... it's amazing! I keep trying to talk Bryan into getting a hammock so we can cuddle under the stars after Michelle goes to bed. SO any comments you choose to leave about what a good idea that is would be very welcome!

What else is new and exciting? Well, I can't lie. I'm pretty stoked that fruit is coming back in season! Michelle and I made these little beauties last week and they were DELISH!

It's ok to be jealous...

Let's see... what else is there? Oh yeah, there's this little guy-

lol! Yes, Mrs. Stephanie, you guessed it! I'm totally prego! I'm 11 weeks along right now, but this sono was when I was 9 weeks. I go back next week for another one, just to check on the little peanut and make sure he/she is doing alright. Many of you probably remember my comments a few years ago about staying pregnant with Michelle. Well, this kiddo was no different. It took three miscarriages and a lot of grief to get this little one to stick in there. So, in case any of you have been counting, I've been pregnant seven times now and only have a kid and a half to show for it! Therefor, I'm not sure how many more little peanuts I'm going to be having... we'll see. And, just FYI, I hate being pregnant. It's not fun. Especially since the majority of my pregnancy experience has been within the first three months. I just can't say that I particularly enjoy morning sickness, smelling every bad smell x2, being super tired all the time, and the oh so fun arrival of acne! HOWEVER! I am very glad that we are staying pregnant this time. Bryan and I are very excited and can't wait to find out if we're having a boy or a girl! I'm hoping for a girl, and Bryan is hoping for a boy. Either way, we'll both be happy. What we're really hoping for is healthy. As long as that word is in there somewhere (healthy baby girl or healthy little boy) we're going to be very happy parents!

Michelle is also excited to have a new brother or sister. And, I'm happy to report that she is on team Randi! When you ask her "Michelle, do you want a brother or a sister?" She will always respond "sister." The other day I was sitting in the living room playing with Michelle when she stopped what she was doing, walked over to me, rested her little head on my knee, sighed and said "Mommy, I want sister." It was the sweetest thing ever! You can also ask her where her sister is and she'll tell you "In Mommy tummy." And sometimes she'll even point, but not always.

So there's our big news! That's all there is. You can all stop reading now. Really.

Michelle's World

Michelle is getting SO big! I can't believe she's going to be 2 in just a few months! I know most of my posts are about her and not so much about me and Bryan, but here's a little look into the real world of Michelle:

Michelle has SUPER dry skin! When she was first born she was so soft and smooth, but it seems like she's had dry, rough and itchy skin for at least a year now. We talked with Dr.Katz about it and he told us it was just the winter weather and that if we used lotion after her baths that it would clear right up. Six months later we talked to him about it again. This time he recommended adding a humidifier to her room and to use a sensitive skin lotion instead of just a regular one. So now a few months after that I had to take Michelle in to see a different doctor who tells me that Michelle has eczema. She told me to use a special and specific kind of lotion and to apply it at least twice a day. If that doesn't work that she's going to write us a prescription for a corticosteroid cream. She also said to keep up with the humidifier and to keep Michelle dressed so that she wouldn't be able to scratch herself. I talked with Jess about it and we made a joint decision to change her laundry deterrent too. Well, long story short, you can't keep a baby girl dressed all the time! We try to keep her in a onesie so that she won't lift her shirt to scratch and pants keep her from scratching behind her legs. But there's really nothing we can do about her scratching her head or neck. Tub time is, by far, the worst when it comes to her scratching. She pretty much gets free reign to scratch where ever she wants. Or, at least she did. I walked in to check on her and Bryan (he's the tub giver in our house) and found Michelle like this-

I'm pretty sure I almost peed my pants laughing so hard! But it keeps her from scratching and she thinks its a lot of fun to put "socks on hands!"
As many of you many remember we bought a potty and all the potty training supplies for Michelle for Christmas this past year. Well, after a two week period of peeing in her panties we decided to give it a rest and try again when she turns two. I was so proud of her for a little while though. We did have a few successes. Michelle would get so excited when she made it to the potty in time!
Such a big girl!
So we're on a potty break for now, but plan to start trying again in a few months.

A few fun facts:

Michelle still loves to read. She'll read everything from board books to Dr.Seuss to "Daddy's books".

Her favorite shows rotate between Pooh, Imagination Movers, and most recently it's been Mickey Mouse. Which she calls "Pooh", "Show", and "Mickey Clubhouse".

Her favorite movie is definitely Finding Nemo. We have to skip the opening scene (where Nemo's mom dies) because it makes Michelle cry. She also yells at Bruce (the shark) every time she see's him "No bite Bruce!" And always reminds Dori to "swim, swim, swim".

She has figured out how to open "Chock" (chocolate) all by herself. Which is NOT a good thing!

She has developed this fake little belly laugh. When she gets something that she really wants or sometimes for no reason at all she just starts laughing so loud and fake that Bryan and I can't help but to laugh with her.

I know a lot of people list their kids vocab and the real meanings on their blogs and I LOVE to read those lists, but I'm not a very good list maker. I can't think of anything that Michelle says that requires that much translation or that is cute enough to be blog worthy. I'll work on it though.

She does say some really sweet things... but those would give away tomorrow's post so I'll have to wait to share them!

The Forgotten Photos

I haven't updated in a quite a while and it's gotten a little overwhelming trying to catch up. So I'll do one post a day for the next few days and I should be all caught up before too long! For today I'm going to try and catch up a little with a few photos...

Remember those snow days we had a while back? Remember how everyone had super cute photos of their kids playing in the snow? All the snowmen, and snow angels... here's why we didn't post any of our pics:

Michelle HATED the snow! We tried to get her used to it...

We even tried sledding!

It wasn't until we let her just sit on the porch and drop snowballs in front of her that she actually enjoyed herself. And you can see how exciting those pictures turned out...

Eventually we gave up and came inside. It was Michelle's favorite part of the day!

Michelle loves to cuddle...usually... ok, sometimes... all right it's very rare! That's why you have to be quick with the camera when she's in the mood!

She's a big helper around the house! She get's all those hard to reach places...

Michelle has found the best way to eat a sugar cookie is to lick all the icing off and then tell Mommy that her cookie needs more icing!
We have lots more going on and a Bunch of announcements to make, but I think that's enough pictures for one day, so stay tuned!

Christmas

I know it's the middle of January, but I feel like Christmas is one of those Holidays that you just HAVE to post about. (No matter how late that post is!) So here's our Christmas Post:

This year Michelle became an unwrapping pro! I'm pretty sure that was her favorite part of Christmas. Every year Bryan and I have a traditional Christmas Eve Ornament Exchange. And we give/get pretty much the same type of ornaments every year. Now that I'm explaining it the whole thing sounds pretty lame, but it's fun for us, and it's kinda a tradition so...yeah! So, every year Michelle gets a snowflake (a different kind every year), I get a Hallmark Ornament of a Polar Bear and a Penguin. I think it's called the "Buddies" series. And Bryan always get some sort of nerdy/geeky/techy ornament. This year he got a Star Trek 'Enterprise' ornament that lit up and made sounds. Michelle, of course, helped to open all three!

I recently learned how to make curly-cue bows. The first one I ever made was a Christmas bow. Apparently it was a little big because everyone kept saying it made Michelle look like a present! I didn't really believe them until Michelle got up Christmas morning, sat in front of all the other presents and I lost her! lol! Where's Michelle?!

One of Michelle's Favorite gifts that she got this year was a reading chair. She sat in it all morning reading all the new books she got.

Then I was a big dummy and left my camera at home while we went to Grandma Lynne's and Nana's house! But Michelle did have an amazing time! At Nana's and Grandpa Tom's house Michelle got enough clothes to last her the rest of the winter season! (We actually had to clean her closet out when we got home to be able to fit all the new ones in!) She also got a big fluffy ladybug pillow that she loves to play with. When we went to Grandma Lynne's house she had a blast playing with all her Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents. Her favorite things from Grandma Lynne are the bubble machine and the Little People Playhouse. Bryan and I also had a really good Christmas. Bryan got a new Nook (the one that's touchscreen, color, and backlit) and I got a gift certificate to the spa! We also got a lot of things from our families, but it would just take WAY too long to list everything.

We are incredibly grateful to our families for everything that they have done for us these past few years! Thanks to my parents for giving us a roof to live under and food to eat. To Bryan's Mom and Dennis for filling two whole rooms of their house with our furniture and storage things. And to Tom and Lori for giving up their entire evening, multiple times, on a minutes notice, to take us house hunting! Thank you, Thank You! Hopefully we'll have a house of our own someday!

Halloween

Yes, I am well aware that I should have posted this two months ago! However, it's better late then never!
Here's was Michelle's second Halloween experience...

I decided to make Michelle's costume this year. We wanted her to go as Pebbles, but all the costumes I could find were, well, ugly! So I bought some fabric and made an outline and here's what I got:

Ok, so it didn't really fit over her head so well so I had to cut the sleeves apart! But, hey, for someone that doesn't sew and that didn't have a pattern I think I did pretty dang good for my first try! My second try came out a little better... at least it fit!

Then we had to practice the hair do... too cute, right?! I love it!

After we got her costume under control we went to a pumpkin patch and let Michelle pick out her very own pumpkin!

Halloween night we decided to skip regular trick-or-treating (Michelle is still a little young for that) and stick to Trunk-or-Treat. Michelle had a great time! We met up with her cousin Clayton and did our best to follow the trunk-or-treat path, but... well, she's only one! We did our best, but only made it to a few choice cars. She got plenty of candy for a one-year-old though! Her favorite part? Believe it or not it was handing the candy out to other kids!

Happy, very late, Halloween everyone!

Thanksgiving 2010

This was our Thanksgiving this year...

Everyone woke up early and headed to the kitchen,

a few insults and jabs were made,

ok, quite a few,

favorite foods were prepared,

games were enjoyed

by all ages!

We played outside,

and inside,

and then we posed for the camera,

and posed some more,

and had a lot of fun posing...

until it finally came out right!

And now that Thanksgiving is over....

It's officially my FAVORITE time of the year!

How do I sign in?

Please help me!

Ok, blogger friends, I need your help! I haven't been able to sign in to blogger since google bought it out! I have to go to Jessica's blog (which is private) and sign in so I can view her blog and then go to my dashboard from there. I can't just go to blogger and sign in. It keeps wanting me to make a google account to sign in. The problem is I already have a google account (That's my e-mail now.) and when I use that to sign in it gives me a whole new blog! Is there a way to either transfer my blog or sign in and still keep this blog?

Thanks for your help!