Getting ready to leave

I cannot believe that Joe leaves for Germany tommorow. It is going to be hard being away from him for that long but I know it will be even harder on him. At least I will have the kids with me. We have put it off until the last possible minute and now have been packing like crazy tonight. We met Mary and her girls today for lunch and Maggie was totally wild. Not exaclty sure what was going on with her, she slept great the night before but she totally would not sit still the whole time and Owen cried about half of the meal too. But it was good to hang out with them anyhow. We are going to miss them so much, it dawned on me today that megan and emma were maggie's first friends and it made me so sad that we are moving away from them. Bur Mary I PROMISE to keep in touch from the other side of the world and we may rent out your extra room when we are in the area. My big goal is to convince you guys to hop on a plane sometime in the next two years and visit me. Think of all the great shopping we could do over there and you could come back and ebay!! (Incentive huh??) The kids and I are heading out tommorow afternoon to meet mom in Indianapolis and then she's going to ride on into WV with me so that I don't have to make the whole trip by myself. Joe flys out tommorow evening around 6 and will arrive in Germany sometime saturday. I am looking forward to getting to be in WV for a couple weeks and getting to visit everyone I want to see. It seems when we are there it's only a few days usually and I feel rushed and never get to visit everyone I would like to. I haven't told Maggie that we are going to MiMi and Grandad's yet, I figured I would just let her be surprised. We went to Walmart tonight to get a few things we needed before leaving and Maggie got a few new dvd's for the long ride tommorow. She already watched one of them tonight before going to bed. Our neighbors probably all hate us right now becuase Joe remembered that he needed to empty the gas out of our pressure washer so that I could take it with me tommorow for my parents to keep while we're gone so for the past few hours we have had it running outside and it's pretty loud. Here are a few new pictures i took of the kids today just bumming around. I will be keeping you all updated while we are in WV.

When mom is away

This morning I had the joy of taking my two children with me to my doctor's appoitnment. Maggie had not felt well the day before and slept in until I woke her up at 9:30 so I could make it to my apointment on time. She was not happy about this and so after fighting her to get her shoes on I dropped to an all time low of mothering and let her bring her portable dvd player with us to the appoitnment. It worked well since she was so into helping dora wake "sleeping boots" that she paid no attention to what was going on with me. She had a few run in's with a nurse and people in the waiting room though. She is very protective for some reason of Owen latley and anytime anyone even looks at him she screams, "No, my Owen" at them. Pretty embarrassing. We spent the rest of the morning playing Dora and Noah's Ark. (interesting combo huh) Owen got his first taste of the famous Super Baby Porridge this morning. (this is a mixture of several whole grains that are ground up and made into a sort of baby cereal) He wasn't as crazy about it as maggie always was but I am hoping it grows on him. He ate his bananas like a champ though. Joe got off work early this evening so when he got home I headed out to the natural foods store to get a few jars of baby food to take for Owen while we are at my cousin's wedding in Virginia. We will be in a hotel so I figure this would be easier than dragging my food processor there. When I got home Maggie comes running out singin the JoJo circus song and has her face painted up like a clown. She told me she was JoJo and was really excited. It was cute, but getting the make-up off didn't go so well. Let's just say that I doubt she'll be letting Joe make up her face again anytime soon.

Never leave a toddler alone.....

The best news first.....Praise the Lord!!!.....Owen pooped last night. Thanks to all you who prayed for him and keep praying that he keeps it up so I can cancel his tests that are scheduled for February. Anyhow, he did it as we were walking out the door to go to the cracker barrel, for the 2nd friday night in a row. Joe and I are hooked on their friday night fish fry. When we left it was raining a little bit but by the time we left to come home it was a full blown ice storm. We thankfully made it home safe. Today Owen had another shot at bananas and I added a bit more breast milk before pureeing it and it went alot better. As you can see in the pictures the meal ended with him much happier. His biggest problem now is keeping his fingers out of his mouth while eating. After each bite he seems to need a suck.
































After Maggie got up from her nap today she was playing with her babies while I was cooking. She was running from her room to the kitchen and had her baby in Owen's high chair and was talking a mile a minute. I wasn't paying much attention to what she was doing which turned out to be a mistake! I happen to look over at her baby in the swing and here is what she looked like......




















She had been covering her baby with aquaphor, I suppose she's seen me putting it on Owen's face before we go out to keep him from getting wind burn. In the mix of things she also covered quite a bit of herself in it so Joe gave her a bubble bath in the basement bathroom and she had a blast. She was being princess Maggie with a bubble crown.



























Tommorow we are having a going away party thrown for us by our small group at church so that ought to be fun. There are several little girls maggie's age there that she loves to play with. No other big plans this week other than Joe leaves for Germany on friday evening. I cannot believe we won't see him for nearly 3 weeks. The kids are going to miss him tons, and so will I. ;) We bought some video cams for our computers so we're going to try those out while he's there. The kids and I will be heading to mom and dad's on friday also for a nice long visit. We also will be going to Virginia to my cousin Olevia's wedding so that will be lots of fun. Dinner is about ready to I will post more later.

Bananas!!

Owen got his first try at solids today and it was definetly not a hit. I guess after having only breastmilk for 6 months anything else is going to be an adjustment. I tried to make it easy on him and give him bananas since they are yummy but I guess he doesn't agree yet. As you can see, he preferred to suck his hands as opposed to the food. Maggie was very excited about him eating and tried her best to help feed him. That only made matters much messier and ended with tears from Owen.
He looked so small in the high chair, it practically swallowed him up. He was much happier when we got him out and let him hang out on the couch with Maggie for awhile. He had another Doctor appointment today to find out why he isn't pooping very often and basically they just want to do more testing to rule things out. I wasn't extremley happy with this doctor though. He is a well known pediatric GI doc at the childrens hospital, yet he informed me that after 4 months breastmilk isn't enough nourishment for a baby and that I should have began juice and foods 2 months ago. Okay.....not only am I a nurse but any idiot can open a parenting magazine and see that juice is a major no no practically forever (all the sugar) and definetly not at 4 months old. Not to mention the American Acadamy of Pediatrics says to hold off solids as long as you can and it's better for the child. Maggie had nothing but breastmilk for 7 months and never tated juice until she was 18 months and still only gets 10% juice to 90% water, and she has grown just fine. So i was totally annoyed when I left there and will be anxious to see my pediatrician tommorow who is totally against giving juice to babies and didn't start his kids on any food until they were like 11 months old. Anyhow, after working in the NICU as a nurse I realized that even the "experts" aren't always correct and this is a time when I am going to use that experience to say that he is definetly not right on this one. Okay, so enough complaining about that whole situation. I just ask you all to pray for Owen that he will just start pooping normally and we can drop this whole thing. (funny request to pray for, I know, but prayer is the only thing that i am certain works)

6 months old

So today is Owen's 6 month birthday. We celebrated with a cake and pizza and had our neighbors Mark, Mary, Megan and Emma over to eat with us. Maggie was so excited to have the girls here to play and had trouble sharing at first but slowly got a little better. Joe had a 3 day weekend so I had the luxery of going to get a full hour massage this morning. It was wonderful!!! If I was loaded that would be one thing I would do daily. We didn't do alot this weekend. We all headed out to Walmart on Saturday which is never a good choice for us to do. We headed home an hour later with 3 new bikes. We figured when in Germany, do as the Germans so since they all ride bikes over there we figured we'd join in. Maggie got a dora bike and hasn't had much of a chance to try it out since it's been cold the past few days. It was nice today but we had someone looking at the house and then she had nap so Joe took her out for about 10 minutes before dinner. I feel like all I get done is cleaing my house for people coming to look at it. I have a lady coming tommorow at 1 from out of town. I tried to talk her into coming in the morning since 1 o'clock is naptime, but she would rather come in the afternoon so I agreed. We have playgroup in the morning at Mary's and then I have an appointment to go to the tot shop to sale some old baby clothes. I have been going through all my old stuff and trying to eliminate as much as possible so I don't have to bring tons of stuff to store in Germany. We had a guy call friday that had viewed the house a few weeks ago and said they really liked it and were going to look at a few more this weekend and they would call this week to let us know their decision. So that is hopeful for us. Here are some pictures of Emma, Megan, Owen, and Maggie tonight.






Owen was totally exhausted by 7:15 and ready to go to bed. I guess he had a pretty exhausting day being 6 months old!
He has his 6 month checkup on thursday and I plan to give him his first taste of something other than breast milk this weekend. I am sure he will love it since he watches everything we eat and chews along with us.

The only guy

So yesterday I went to my hair appointment and I am still a blonde. My hairdresser adviced me not to go dark mainly because of the fact that I am moving soon to another country and the upkeep of staying dark would be monthly so I need to find someone over in Germany before I begin this process. Anyhow, I woke up at 8 and saw Mary had called to say that she was going to have to take her daughter to school so we needed to figure out a plan. (she was keeping my kids while I went to my hair appt. and our other neighbor was supposed to take megan to school but her little guy was sick). Anyhow, I brought over the carseats and packed them all up in her van and she had the privledge of taking 4 children out not only once but twice that day. I also had a great treat since I had about 15 minutes after taking them over to finish getting ready. So for the first time in over 2 years I had the pleasure of sitting in the floor catching the last 10 minutes of Good Morning America and putting on my make-up without maggie running away with my mascara or Owen screaming to be fed. (and of course with no dora or wiggles on the TV). The 10 minutes of peace was enough to last me probably another year or two! Maggie had a great time at mary's house and Owen got a taste of a houseful of girls. I suppose this is what happens to little boys when they are out numbered by girls!


He seemed to enjoy all the attention, huh. (not to mention all the toys to chew on) Last night Joe and I were totally exhausted for some reason, so by 8:15 everyone was in bed and sleeping. Joe and I laid down at 8:30 to go to bed and were still awake at 11. Neither one of us could fall asleep. I said it figures the one night that we are able to go to bed that early we can't. Today was supposed to be Valentine Day pictures but I could tell by maggie's mood when she woke up that it would not be worth my trip so I rescheduled them. We played Dora all morning and then met Mary and her girls for lunch at Avantis. It was great! We then headed home and since it was 54 degrees today I let Maggie play outside and we took a big walk. Owen had his first walk sitting up in his stroller and seemed to love it. Everyone just went down for naps so I am gonna start cleaning since I just got a call from someone wanting to see the house soon. Tommorow the plan is to go swimming at the Riverplex with Mary and possibly a few other moms and their kids. Maggie is going to love that and we'll see what owen thinks about the pool.

the dentist

Maggie did great at the dentist today. She was a little scared at first but once they let her pick a toothbrush and she saw the Dora one she was good to go. They cleaned her teeth with cookie dough toothpaste so she was totally into that. (they assured me that no matter how good it tasted there was no sugar in it!) She left the dentist with a dora toothbrush, disney princess floss, a bouncy ball, a juice box and a bag of crackers. Owen also got a toothbrush. Joe says she may as well have gone to a carnival. We left there and went to Polly's to weigh Owen and he is weighing in at 14 lbs. Last week at Dr. Smith's office he was 14.4 so I guess his 3 dirty diapers equaled out to 4 oz. We headed to the mall after that and shopped around some before heading home for naps. I guess the dentist visit was good becasue Maggie has been brushing her teeth all evening since getting up from her nap.




















I got another call on my hosue today so that was exciting. Tonight I went out to Old Navy by myself to shop a little. They were having a great sale, 30% off of the already 50% off stuff. I got tons of great stuff for me and the kids. Tommorow morning I have a hair appointment and have made a major decision, I think i am going to go dark. I figured I would try something different and see how I look as a brunette. I won't know anyone in Germany anyhow, so they won't know what I looked like before. Mary is watching my kids and Maggie is so excited to see Megan and Emma, and of course Mary. Well,i will let you know how the hair appt. goes tommorow.

Boring Monday

Not much went on today, Maggie woke up in not so great of a mood and it seemed to last the entire day long. I am hoping she's not getting sick and that it was just one of those "toddler" days. She is having her first dentist cleaning tommorow. she has gone before but they have only looked until this point. Owen had some exciting news....he finally pooped today. So those of you brestfeeders.....don't worry if your baby goes 18 days and no poop, it will come! Despite the fact that he went, he was also pretty crabby today too. So I just cleaned some and waited by the phone for someone to call about my house. We are going to get Owen weighed tommorow after maggie's dentist appt. and then head to the mall to get Valentines clothes for the kids valentines pictures!! Gap has a really cute line out for Vday so I want to get them before the ones I want are gone. I am off to bed after dealing with maggie's final meltdown of the day over "goldfish". (the edible ones) Here are some photos of the kids sporting their WV and PocaDot (my high school) outfits that the Whaples got them for Christmas!

Mom's night out

So Thursday night I went out with some other mom's to eat and to a movie. We had a really good time and so did my kids it appears! Joe bowled that night too so Amanda and Tres were in charge of maggie and Owen. Amanda made dinner for Joe and Tres and then Maggie helped clean up. From the looks of the pictures the eating didn't stop after dinner. I think Maggie, Tres and Joe finished off the bag of sunchips! We have shown our house for the past 4 days. All these people come to look at it and seem to really like it and say they will call....but no phone calls yet. Oh well, at least we did get one of our cars sold. Our neighbors across the street made it very simple for us so THANKS mark and mary!! So I will once again put out my notice to anyone wanting to move to Washington, Illinois!! I have no clue why I am in such a hurry to get it sold since we found out the other day that we did not get the house in Germany that we wanted. So if this one sales anytime soon I suppose we'll be homeless for awhile. Well, we are off to go eat at applebee's.

Fun with Amanda and Tres

So Maggie and Owen are having a blast with amanda and tres here. Maggie cannot get enough of them and enjoys their playing with her. They are WONDERFUL playmates since they have more energy than you can even imagine and run around singing and dancing as much as Maggie wants. She is really going to miss them when they have to leave as will I!! After wanting to watch her new dora movie for the 20th time amanda got her to play with playdoh with her and here are the creations they came up with. Frosty and a pizza. She made amanda sing the frosty song over and over with her while they put him togther. Tongiht I am going out with the moms from playgroup to eat and a movie and Joe is bowling so amanda and tres get to babysit. I am mainly concerned only because Owen has not pooped in 2 weeks at this point and I am not sure how they would handle it if it all broke loose tonight. Well, it will be great training for them if he does!!

Happy New Year

We met our friends Nick and Neila-Susan (and there not yet born baby) in Indianapolis to celebrate new years. We had so much fun with them, as we always do, and Maggie had a blast getting to hang out with them too. We went out to eat at Carrabas and then headed back to our hotel where Joe and Nick took Maggie swimming again. She was all wired up and was so funny. Her favorite was jumping off the side to Joe and him throwing her up in the air. She also had a fun ride up and down the halls of the hotel on the luggage holder. Neila-Susan didn't quite make it to midnight, being 20wks pregnant she needed her sleep! Maggie and Owen almost made it and had fun wearing their new years hat, but they both fell asleep about 15 minutes before the ball dropping. New Years Day we went shopping at a huge mall in Indianapolis and ate at the Cheesecake Factory before we came back to Peoria. It was such a fun week but very tiering. We are so glad to be back home and Amanda and Tres are here to visit this week so that will be lots more fun. No big plans this week, the kids and I have playgroup tommorow which we havent' been to in forever so Maggie will be glad to see everyone as will I! I also plan to get a little alone time since Maggie and Owen have their aunt and uncle to entertain them.

Off to WV

We made it to West Virginia Wednesday evening after stopping at the outlets in Jeffersonville and shopping a little. We visited my grandparents and other family and friends while in. My aunt and uncle that live next door to my parents were out of town while we were in so we slept at their house. Maggie had her first sleep over at her MiMi and Granddad's house and got to stay up till midnight one night!! It was a great set-up since I would just call my dad when Owen woke up and he could come and get them and since they already had Maggie we went back to bed. I actualy slept in till 11 one day. That hasn't happened for along time! Joe and I went out while there to see "Fun with Dick and Jane". It was pretty funny. We're leaving WV Saturday and from there going to Indianapolis to meet our friends from Kentucky for New Years.