I'm Ready For Fall

I'm so ready for Fall. Last week we had a nice taste of it. The temperature were in the 70's, it was perfect out. The windows were open, the fresh breeze blowing. Now it's back up close to 90's and sticky. I'm just so ready for a little cooler weather. I'm ready for the smell of Fall. You know that crisp refreshing smell. The smell that reminds you of pumpkin patches, apple orchards, bonfires, fireplaces, Halloween, Starbuck pumpkin spice lattas (yumm-o). Fall is one of my favorite times of year. Oh, I love Fall clothes too! Big comfy sweaters, cute long shelve shirts, a good pair of jeans and boots. I love the way I look in them too. I feel Fall clothes fit me so much better then Summer clothes. Plus, it's always fun shopping for a few new pieces to add to your seasonal wardrobe. I know I will miss the warm Summery weather once Fall turns to Winter but for now, I'm so ready for the season to change.

These are a few of my favorite (fall) things:

Leaves changing

Comfy sweat shirts

Pumpkin Spice Lattas from Starbucks!

Warm Fall boots!

Going to the local pumpkin patch/ apple orchard!

Claire's New Ride

Checking out her new ride from her "Aunt"and "Uncle"

Still a little small but having fun pushing all the buttons!

Looking so cute next to her new toy!

Wordless Wednesday

Mmmm....Spaghetti

Stratch That

Well, we are still deciding but we are thinking about not selling our home. What, you might ask!? Well, since the market here is really bad (house are selling but for way low) and that would mean our house would have to sell real low and in turn we would lose a lot of money. We had a long conversation last night about the whole situation. We might drop our house a few thousand more just until our contract is up. In the mean time, we will be looking into the options that come with building on to our home. All we really need to do so we are able to live in this house for another 5-7 years is to add another bedroom, a small family room(play room) and maybe a small half bath. That would allow us to be comfortable where we are while we add to our family. We still have a lot to think about. It's a hard decision but we have to think about what's best for us (including our credit, bank account, etc.) This whole situation stresses the crap out of me. Once we know exactly what our plans might be, it will be a lot more exciting. I just want to know where are family is headed either moving or staying put! The joys of being an adult!

Michigan Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend in Michigan. We had our annually church camp out. The weather was perfect and the location was so nice and pretty. We got up there Friday night and stayed until early Sunday afternoon. Seeing that it was only noonish, we wanted to extend our weekend a little more and head a little farther up North to pick some fruit. We found a little place where we could pick peaches. After our peach picking outing we headed to St. Joseph to have a little lunch. St.Jo's is an awesome little beach town that is full of activity in the Summer months. All in all we had a great weekend. A much needed little relaxing trip!

Enjoy these pictures of our weekend:

Grandma and Claire checking out the beach.

Claire and I getting our warm clothes on. The 1st night was chilly.

Daddy and Bug heading into the water.

She was a "mover and a shaker" the whole trip.

After camping we decided to go peach picking. Claire's 1st hay ride.

Daddy showing Claire what we were about to pick.

Picking a peach.

Now that she's a walker, she doesn't stop moving!

Checking out what we picked.

Our peaches!

(Which turned in to a very yummy peach cobbler!)

Welcome! Come Right In!

Welcome ICLW!

Hi! Here's a little about me and my blog! My name is Megan, I'm a 20 something new mom (well, I guess not a new mom really any more). I have a wonderful hubby, Eric. We have a beautiful, very active, talking 13 month old. Claire a.k.a Bug was born July 10th 2009 at 9:39 am. The moment her little 6lb 7oz body entered the world, I felt a love that I've never felt before. For the last 13 months she has kept us on our toes but as been one of the best times in my whole life. I love it. We are currently in the process of selling our home! Fun, right?! Not! It's a pain in my ass. This market just plain sucks, which in turn our cute little home that we put so much work into will not be worth  what we paid for it. Sadness. Any who, we are dealing with that situation one day at a time. We are also currently start to talk more seriously about baby #2! A month ago I finished breastfeeding Claire, so I'm waiting to see how my cycle is in the up coming month. When TTC Claire, we went in blind seeing that my periods have always been very, very irregular. Through the TTC process, I found out I have polycystic ovaries. Thank God, I don't have PCOS but because of the cyst on my ovaries, I get the fun of having irregular periods! So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will be somewhat normal and no intervention will be need!
This blog is full of pictures, stories, a recipe in and there and a good 'vent' every now and then.

Come right in and take a look around!

I hope you will all come back!

Here are some pictures for you all:

Sadness

I've said (starting the moment I became pregnant) and I will always say, "Pregnancy is so scary because it's full of so many unknowns and is totally out of a persons control"!

A day ago I learned a friends brother and sister-in-law lost their baby boy a week before he was born. He passed away suddenly and tragically one day and was brought into the world still the very next day. They were hoping the moment he was born they would be able to see a reason for his sudden passing but there was none.

As soon as I heard this news, I broke down in tears. I was overcome with sadness and fear. One of my worst nightmares, came true for someone I know.  Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers. They could use all the can get.

I really hope God knows how thankful I am for Claire!

This Market Sucks

The housing market today just plain sucks! Well, at least in our area. I'm so frustrated. I just want to sell our house. I just want to get out and move on. Sadly, we listed our house for what we bought it for and we will not be getting that price. Now we are well below that price and just biting the bullet until we get some to make and offer. We've gone through the stage of anger. Yes, we put a lot of money into our house but at that point, we thought we would be able to sell our house way above what we purchased it at. Then the market crashed and everything went down hill. Everything. Now, the anger as somewhat diminished and motivation has kicked in. We want to do whatever possible to "get rid" of our home. I'll be sad when we finally (fingers crossed) sell it but happy that we will be able to move on and eventually find something bigger, in a better location. Hopefully we will be able to find a home where we can stay for as long as we want or until we feel it's a good time to move. Let's say 8 to 10 years. That would be nice. Fingers and toes crossed that sometime very soon we will be able to sell this house!

Claire's a "Mean Girl"

We went over the some friends house last night for a BBQ. They have a son who is 11 months old and a real peanut. His the cutest little boy ever. Claire and Micah were getting along great until he put his pacifier in his mouth. See, Claire never liked nor used a pacifier so what was about to take place the rest of the evening was just amazing to Eric and I. As soon as she saw that pacifier in his mouth, she wanted it. It started out all nice and cute, they were sharing the paci, handing back and forth. Claire then would take the paci and try to feed Micah. (She loves feeding her babies). Then all of a sudden, "mean girl" appeared and she literally lunged at poor Micah, knocking him over in order to get at his paci. She made him cry. Of course our friends were like it's fine but Eric and I were in shock. She's always so sweet and girly. We really watched her the rest of the evening, just to insure that she wouldn't beat him up and more (which she tried too, a couple more times). We told Micah to go ahead and get her back, she deserves it.

The more Eric and I thought about the whole situation we realized the other baby friend she plays with weekly is a little boy who is way bigger then Claire. Way. Claire is 18.5 lbs and Brayden is over 25lbs. When Claire and Brayden are together, he is the one that is usually dominate, knocking Claire over and being rough. Thinking about that we realized that Claire was finally bigger then someone and she took advantage of it, since she's the one always getting beat up on.

All in all it was a great evening and luckily no baby was injured in the process!

Wordless Wednesday

Eric and I enjoying the beach while Bug takes a snooze!

All About Bug

At 12 months Claire is:

• Talking up a storm!
• She can say: Momma, Dada, Papa, Nana, Night Night, Uh-oh, Puppy, Baby, Bye Bye, Hi, Brayden, Nom Nom, More, Wow, Pretty, Please
•  Walking, even running everywhere.
• Eating everything - she is not a picky eater! Thank goodness!
• Is weaned and is on vitamin D milk.
• Has 7 teeth (4 on top, 3 on bottom)
• Loves to play peek-a-boo!
• Loves to feed her babies and people.
• Her imagination is really starting to show.
• She loves to play out side, especially in her sandbox.
• She loves to go for walks.
• She loves other kids.
• She loves finding the moon.
• She loves her puppies and they love her. They even let her stick her finger up their nose and poke them in the eyes!
• Bath time is one of her favorite times of the day.
• Her bedtime is around 10pm and she wakes up between 8-9am.
• She takes 1 to 2 naps a day.
• Still in size 12 month clothing.
• Size 2 shoes.
• Loves to read - she will grab a book, bring it to you, and then plop right down into your lab.
• She follows directions very well- like asking her to go get you something or asking her to sit down.
• She shrugs her shoulders and puts her arms out when she's all done or her food is all gone.
• She's still wearing cloth diapers (which we love).
• Her hair is getting longer, she is now sporting a pony tail to keep the hair out of her eyes, every day.

Goodbye Boob Milk, Hello Cow's Milk

Well, it's been official for a little over 3 weeks now. Claire is weaned.  No more boob. No more personal closeness that I enjoyed and loved so much. It's weird, really weird. Although Claire was only nursing in the morning in the very end. I miss that feeding. I miss snuggling up to Claire in the morning hours as she nursed. At that time, I was so ready to be done nursing. I knew Claire was too because she would only nurse a couple minutes then pull away and go about her morning routine. Now, 3 weeks later I'm missing it. I don't feel like I lost a connection or a closeness with Claire but I miss that special mommy, daughter moment we shared, even if it was just for a few short minutes every day. Now I make sure we snuggle in the morning a little longer and give extra snuggles through out the day. I'm so proud of myself, my boobs, my milk supply and Claire for nursing for a little over 12 months. It was a great experience, one I know I will definitely try to do again.

On another note, Claire is doing wonderful with cow's milk (vitamin D). She absolutely positively loves it! She gets a cup with breakfast, a cup with dinner and a bottle (or 2) at bed time. We are doing the bottle at bed because she still needs that type of sucking to fall asleep. I'm not worried that she's drinking from a bottle. She just started it 3 weeks ago, give her another month or so and then we will start to wean from that!

12 Month Well-Being Appointment

Claire had her 12 month well being check up last Thursday.

Man, it is getting harder and harder to take her to the doctors. She destroyed the waiting room in a matter of seconds. There were pamphlets on the table, she knocked every single one off the table onto the floor. She was all over the place, she was literally "baby running" every where. Once we got into the room, she was trying to get into everything. Luckily, all the cabinets are out of her reach and the outlets all had plug covers so nothing real could have hurt her.

The doctor said she is doing everything right on schedule and something she's even a little ahead on. She got her chicken pox vaccine and will get her hepatitis A shot in a couple of weeks. She did great, it's hard to believe her year appointment has come and gone! Time is going by so fast!

(Claire's doctor has never really impressed me. She was on-call when Claire was born so that's why we went to her. We are pretty certain we will be switching to a new doctor that has great reviews in our area.)

Claire's 12 month stats:

Born: 6 lbs 7oz
12 months: 18lbs 5oz

Born: 20 inches
12 months: 27.5 inches

She's still a peanut but we think she always will be. I don't think we have a future basketball player on our hands but more like a great little ice skater!

Check out the next post "What's Claire Doing at 12 Months!"

for now enjoy your weekend!

TGIF!

Wish us luck we are taking Claire camping in MI for the first time!! This should be interesting!!

Wordy Wednesday (Vote for Claire)

We entered Claire into the "Gerber Baby Photo Contest"!

If you wouldn't mind, would you please hop on over to the contest and vote for Claire! Her # is 75878!!

Thanks, love you all!

Claire's 12 Month Pictures by LaRoche Photos