Easter

Easter really snuck up on me this year, but that made it an easy going week. I wanted to try coloring eggs with Andrea this year and kept trying to figure out a night when we could do it with Ryan, but between him mowing lawns in the evening and me going to aerobics it just didn't work out. In all honesty, I knew Ryan wouldn't care if we did it without him, so we did it during the day.  

My first plan was to just let Andrea put stickers on the egss but I couldn't believe how well she did at carefully lowering the eggs into the dye. I only boiled about 14 eggs but I wish I had more, it was a lot of fun and Andrea loved it!

 When I was young the Easter Bunny always hid the egss we had dyed. I don't remember getting plastic ones filled with candy. So I thought we would have the best of both worlds and re-use the plastic eggs from last year as well as the real ones. We heard the weather was going to be bad on Easter so we decided to let Andrea hunt for Eggs on Saturday, plus it would give us more time to get ready for chuch the next day. Even this 2 year old is too smart of the Easter Bunny... while hunting she told us "thanks for the eggs guys". And after she emptied the candy from the eggs she asked where the Easter Bunny went so she could give him his candy back :)

 

Sunday she found her Easter basket on the island after we had let her wake up for a while. The Easter Bunny left her a bunny Mrs. Potato Head, new sandals, Minnie pajamas, peeps, a chickie that chirps, and a chocolate bunny. Only a little girl would be most excited about the shoes!

Sunday we put on our most Eastery dresses, and Ryan put on his usual boring church clothes and headed to church. In Nursery they also joined in on the Easter fun. One of the Nursery leaders had planned an Easter party. They hunted for eggs and got to eat lots of candy. When I went in to do music time Andrea was wearing the funniest bunny glasses. The best part was... she was the only little one wearing hers and she never took them off, not even on the ride home.

Grandma and Grandpa gave us all our own chocolate bunny when we joined them for Easter dinner and even Grandma LaVelle had a little basket of coins for Andrea to put in her piggy bank. What a fun Easter weekend, I know we all enjoyed it, especially Andrea.

Hello, it's Me

I often get depressed when I blog hop, everyone's life seems so perfect. Then I realize that my life probably comes off the same way. Most blogs are all about holidays, birthdays, vacations, and cute babies. My friend Kristi and I were discussing this one day at lunch and I was inspired to open up a little more. I use this blog as a journal and one day hope Andrea will appreciate the few things I wrote about. But I also want her to know that our life wasn't perfect, so I'm hoping to become a little more realistic.
First confession... depression. Being a stay-at-home Mom is so difficult emotionally. I know it's just a small moment in time, and I know it's best for Andrea, and that is why I do it but it would be so much easier to send her to a day care while I get paid and get some adult interaction. It's surprising when I talk with other stay-at-home Mothers and hear how many of them are on anti-depressants. I've been there, and don't want to do that again, so I guess the result is a lot of days that leave me crying at the drop of a hat. After a year of staying home full time, these day are getting farther in between and I'm adjusting to our routine and lifestyle. I think the cause for my depression is the feeling that I am a nobody. Most days no one calls me, no one even sees me. If it weren't for facebook I would feel even more alone. While working I talked with countless co-workers and felt like the job I did was important and necessary, now all the sudden the world keeps turning without me.

Andrea and I have a great relationship, we laugh together, we clean together, we cook together, we understand each other. When I do have those "breakdown" moments she come and gives me a kiss and says "are you happy again?", what can I do but say "of course that makes Mommy happy again!" so the plus of staying at home is to have a close relationship with my daughter. I can't wait til we can go shopping together, to the movies, on vacations...

My entire life growing up I dreamed of being a stay-at-home Mom and all my friends in High School know that I wanted to be a "walking, talking, baby factory". Now that it's all come to reality my dreams have changed. I really can see the benefits of an only child and right now without insurance it really does look like the way to go. So there you have it, a little bit of our real world, as a preview to more down to earth post yet to come.

St George

Last month we were able to go on a fantastic weekend getaway with some of the owners/employees of Ryan's company. Going to St George in March was such a nice break from the winter weather.  We started with some hiking in Zion on Friday afternoon.

Because it was still early spring the crowds hadn't invaded and it was nice to get a parking spot and the hikes weren't crowded. It was, however, colder than we all expected up the canyon so by the third hike we were all borrowing jackets from the only prepared couple Amanda and Chuck.

The Weeping Rock, left to right: Amanda, Chuck, Socorro, Josh, Jeff, Stephanie, Me, Ryan.

The Riverside Walk

Emerald Pools

Zions Park always surprises me with it's beauty, no matter how many times I've been, and seeing it in Spring was a nice change, there was still snow in places and lots of deer on the hikes.

That night we all had a nice dinner in St. George and rested for our next day of golf. Chuck, Amanda, and myself all went to the driving range before our tee time since we hadn't golfed for quite some time. This course was beautiful and had the coolest carts I'd ever seen. Each golf cart had a digital screen telling you the info for each hole: distance, par, your cart's location, and it kept score. The course was beautiful and none of us were prepared for the sun... we were all pretty red after 6 hours.

We played golf scramble style, which is my favorite type, in groups of three. Not only did we play off the best hit out of the group, we also each got one free throw (with each hand), a roll, a kick, three man toss, and 10 sticks of liquorice that could be used to measure the distance from the ball to the hole. So with all those freebies and our great coach Josh, mine and Ryan's team won, which meant we got 2 more cents than the other team :)

This was my golden shot of the day, I got this close to the hole with my drive!

One of my favorite parts of the course were the critters. Jack rabbits were everywhere and so were squirrels who were obviously used to mooching off the golfers.

The rest of the day Saturday was on our own so Ryan and I did some souvenir shopping for Andrea, had a nice dinner, and drove around the town (I really love St. George) dreaming about having a condo of our own there some day.

Sunday on the way home we stopped in Cedar City to visit with Matt (on his birthday, Happy Birthday Matt) and Grandma and Grandpa Baumgartner.

The weekend went by far too quickly, especially since it may be the only vacation we get this year. But I can say that I took in every moment... loved the scenery, the company, the weather, and a full night's sleep with no worry about when Andrea would come in the room saying "watch Mickey".

In Training

This is week 3 of potty training at our house. It's been slow but promising. It began with entertaining Andrea as long as I could while she sat on the potty. After two days of that I needed a break to catch up on housework. Andrea, however, decided to bring me the potty and go peepee without being asked :) Ever since then it's been a "no pressure" situation with her going when she asks to or me sitting with her when she is willing to camp out there for a while. So far we have had a record of 3 potty peepees in one day.

When she does go she gets a chocolate chip, and a sticker on her potty chart. After filling up the chart she gets to go get a toy. We've also bought some Dora pull-ups and have treated those as a reward. She gets to put them on after a sucessful potty visit. I don't know how to get her over the last hurdle of recognizing when to go and going everytime, but I've been patient because I don't want her to hate the potty.

On a side note, Andrea is back to sleeping in her bed. A few weeks ago she began a bad trend of getting up several times each night even when sleeping on the couch. So we figured if this isn't working we might as well start the bed fight again. It went much smoother than I had prepared myself for, after one night of me sleeping on the floor, and another of putting her right back to bed when she got up, she had a successful third night. Ever since she naps and goes to bed beautifully in her bed.

Andrea's 2nd Birthday

Andrea's birthday this year was so much fun! She was old enough to understand just about everything. When we were preparing her for the big day and would ask "how old are you going to be on your birthday?" she would reply "two candles". And when we asked what she wanted for her birthday she would say cake. Until about a week before, when she said she wanted a truck, and that remained her answer for quite a while. So Ryan and I had to go buy a last minute truck so she wouldn't be dissapointed.

Anyone who knows this little girl knows what kind of theme her party would be... Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. That was definately a no-brainer! So Ryan and I found some cute stuff from Zurchers: plates, cups, a banner, and a centerpiece. I ordered balloons from Macey's and told them I wanted Mickey Mouse birthday balloons, I guess they assumed it was for a boy because most of the balloons were blue, but she didn't care!

I had been wanting to attempt a fondant cake at some point after watching so many cake shows on TV, so I thought I would attempt Mickey's head. I must say I am very proud of this cake! Having never made fondant before and having the first batch of cakes fail, it's a miracle it turned out.

Andrea liked it so much she would keep asking to say hi to Mickey in the fridge and wanted to kiss the cake. We made sure to put her back on the floor before she witnessed the knife cutting through her most beloved friend.  

She was spoiled, as always, by all the people that love this little girl. She got so many fun new toys, a couple of vehicles (which she has been in need of, our little tom boy), a new spring wardrobe, and even a mother-daughter apron set.

Thank you so much for all of those who came and celebrated with us, and for those who make sure she knows she is loved from afar, we really are blessed with great friends and family! I am so excited that Andrea is two, not really sad at all, I love seeing her grow and explore the world around her.

Sleeping Beauty

I realized, as I was reading over past posts, that anyone reading this blog would assume that Andrea has been sleeping in her toddler bed like a champ for months now... you would be wrong. She does sleep through the night, and falls asleep on her own, but she sleeps on the love seat in the living room :)

 It all started a few months ago when she got a 7 day stomach flu and I knew she wouldn't get through the night without vomiting. So we let her sleep on the love seat and I slept on the couch so I could be there when she got sick. Well since the flu just wouldn't go away she got in a bad habit of sleeping in the front room. We tried to do the "cry it out" thing that worked so well last time, but after a week there was no progress. So Ryan and I decided to "pick our battles".

She takes a nap beautifully, and goes night night without a fuss. We just learned to turn the TV to something she isn't interested in. If we turn on Mickey or Yo Gabba Gabba she doesn't fall asleep, but if we watch one of our shows she is asleep in minutes. It's also a benefit that I have the couch available for me, when she does have a rough night. Last week she had an ear infection and sore throat so I stayed in the living room with her to get more medicine during the night.

Her bed is now used as a bench for her stuffed animals and it's also where she prefers to have her diaper changed, instead of on her changing table.

I'm hoping one day when she's older she'll get excited about a new twin bed and we can work out a reward system. But for now, we'll keep our lives simple by letting her sleep where she feels safe.

Christmas

Christmas was, well, interesting for me this year. It all began Christmas Eve when I was miserable everywhere. I had such a migraine that Ryan insisted I go lay in the bedroom til I could move again. I had such a bad sinus ache that my teeth hurt, and I felt a little nauseous. I didn't know whether to take pain medication, allergy medication, or pepto bismal. I thought all three might be a little to daring. So I started with Tylenol and got rid of the migraine in time to take our traditional Christmas lights drive around town. I sat in the third row of our car (because it's easiest for me to climb back there) so Ryan's parents could join us. My sinus' were so bad I couldn't stand it, and each turn was making my stomach a little more unpredictable. But I made it home without incident and we opened all of our Christmas Eve pajamas.

Christmas morning was a little better, no sinus pain, and no headache, just a little nauseous. Andrea woke up ornery but we finally talked her into opening some presents.

After she opened her lady bug tent and we put it up she wasn't interested in opening anything else. We had to put the tent in her bedroom to get the rest of the gifts unwrapped.

Besides the tent she received, a snow suit, an outfit, some DVDs, a coloring book, a rolling tigger, and some hippo bath toys.

Ryan received some Wii games, cologne, itunes card, and the annual Bob & Tom CD.

I received a jacket, a camera, slippers, and some DVDs.

After the first round of presents at our house the stomach flu hit in full force for me before we went to Ryan's parents. Andrea received even more spoils from Grandma and Grandpa and I think by that time she was just a little too overwhelmed with everything.

It took her a couple of days to truly appreciate everything and take the time to play with each new toy. I think we'll take it easy on her birthday, which is in a few weeks, good heavens!

Even with the stomach flu it was a fun day watching Andrea understand the idea of Santa a little better! I am so happy we have her in our lives, she makes everything so much fun!