Positive Altitude!

Aunt J.

2012-02-13T17:02:00.002-07:00

So Aunt J came down and spent the WHOLE weekend with us...not sure who was more excited me or the girls, but it was awesome to have her around. While I have a 2 1/2 minute break from my 16 jobs let me just post how freaking cute the girls were in anticipation of J's arrival. They are wearing their new "princess dresses" that she got them.

And look who can sit up on her own, she still falls over but is getting much better about catching herself...well at least until a very excited Austin knocks her over. :-)

Motherhood.

2012-01-30T14:39:00.002-07:00

I have played basketball for what feels like forever now and with every passing year it becomes that much more difficult to build a women's team. Girls play the same amount (or nearly as many) sports in school as boys do but we get out of school and start down different paths. One such path is motherhood. I believe this is one of the main reasons that I can't build a complete basketball team now that I am 32. Somewhere between trying to change diapers and create healthy meals we lose what we once were. Most aren't bitter by that fact, it is more of just a life change...something that some of us welcome. But it holds true that when little girls dream of big sports they rarely have women athletes past a certain to look up to. Teens and early twenties are easier to find though even they drop off the more dangerous sports early on. Freestyle skiing lost a legend a week ago, Sarah Burke died while training for the X-Games. She was nearly my age and was one of the ones that kept pushing on...I can only imagine how hard it was every year to continue to strap on those skis and compete against young girls that don't wear wedding bands and aren't trying to start a family. The price of failure only multiplies with each thing you gain. I know every weekend as we head up to the mountain I feel sick to my stomach, what if this weekend will be the one where I wreck and can't get up. That's what we are all thinking, all us moms. We strap on our helmets and boards because it is more important to be the role models that my daughters will need to see that life is scary and hard but sometimes if you try really hard you can keep up with the boys.

Our drive up...

2012-01-23T15:23:00.002-07:00

The only bad part about snowboarding is in order to get the good snow you have to drive in this...

J's moving

2012-01-23T11:26:00.004-07:00

J accepted a job up in Breckenridge so she leaves tomorrow for that. We took our last trip up just the 5 of us yesterday. In the long run the trip up and back are really what you spend most of your day doing, we spend just over 6 hours in the car each weekend...she will be sorely missed not just on the trips but pretty much every weekend.

Here's all of us enjoying new snow....

Teeth & Sisters

2012-01-19T10:13:00.002-07:00

Austin completely treats Helen like a sister, in her mind she is an equal. It's funny to watch their dynamics since Austin sees the rest of us as parent figures. Here are all three girls playing with Helen's laptop yesterday afternoon in my office.

Look who's getting teeth! I tried to get a good picture of them but this is as good as it gets. You can barely see the two little teeth poking through on the bottom.

Snowboarding Weekend

2012-01-17T14:41:00.002-07:00

We rented a condo with some friends this weekend and a couple of them did not ski or snowboard so I managed to ditch out each day with the boys for a bit and take some runs while they watched the girls. It was crazy to be able to snowboard 3 days in a row, now my legs feel like Jello! Austin had fun with the other kids and Lil' Bit just likes watching her big sister.

Last Weekend

2012-01-12T10:15:00.002-07:00

We literally mobbed the mountain last weekend, we headed up to Breckenridge with a team of 20 people and road what was the first official powder day of the year, I still can't wipe the smile off my face. And for the first time ever we were 5 girls strong, all of which were snowboarders...that has NEVER happened. Snowboarding is definitely a male dominated sport so to have 25% of our group female was a huge success. Here's four of us that couldn't stop smiling.

Joe Snowboarding.

2012-01-11T16:06:00.002-07:00

Yes this is how fast Joe actually goes and how fast I have to try and go to keep up with him.

Joe in the park

2012-01-10T16:23:00.003-07:00

Here's Joe and Nate in the park. Doing freaking awesome!

Helmet Cam

2012-01-09T11:27:00.003-07:00

Helen got Joe a helmet camera for his birthday/Christmas so we have been having fun taking videos of our snowboarding outings. Well I say we have had fun but what I mean is Helen is using it as a learning tool and Joe is having fun while I cannot believe how much slower I ride than the boys coupled with the fact that I say the same 4 sayings 900 times a day. Needless to say I spent all day Sunday scaring the hell out of myself trying to keep up with the boys and falling a lot but I am refusing to be "the slow one" in the group anymore. Here are some videos that we took of two weekends ago.

Helen taking some turns first thing in the morning. She is already improving a ton and spent all day yesterday on the blues with us. (Green = easiest, Blue = Intermediate, Black = Most Difficult).

Little to no time...

2011-12-29T16:50:00.002-07:00

So you know what people that are already too busy do? They get second jobs, or in my case 14th jobs. On top of Verizon, Wishing Wells, Briargate Wellness Center and being the commander of this house I am now gainfully employed by a company called Support Space. They are online and over the phone tech support that companies can use to out source their calls. Currently Support Space's largest client is Geek Squad and who most all calls are routed from. Let me just say this...through a GIANT smile on my face...any one reading this blog right now is computer literate and while you may not think you are, trust me, you are. I spent just over an hour yesterday on the phone with a lady trying to get her to type in a web page address. Just that...just a web page. Bottom line though Verizon is having more layoffs and while I am as optimistic as I always am I would like to have something in the background if I needed it. It would be extremely hard for me to do phone support all the time rather than the kush life I am used to with being a lead engineer, but it's easier than hunting our own food. Helen has a good time laughing at me as I lay my head on my desk and say no ma'am I still don't think you are typing in exactly what I am saying. I'll probably end up drinking more but again it's easier than hunting our own food which is about where we would be if we didn't have my paycheck. I make commission on every call I take and pretty much the instant I go live I am routed someone and then let the hilarity of the situation unfold. :-) So if anyone ever needs tech support you can just click on this link and find me...crazy huh?

http://www.supportspace.com/support/expert/crystalwells

Peas aren't that bad after all...

2011-12-28T09:15:00.001-07:00

Someone has decided that peas aren't half bad after all. :-)

The Plane

2011-12-21T13:36:00.001-07:00

A picture of the plane Joe took his instruction in.

Look who can fly!

2011-12-21T11:22:00.003-07:00

For Joe's birthday I got him an intro to flight lesson. Here a couple of pictures from his flight this morning! I am stoked just looking at the pictures...it looks so freaking COOL!

Joe and his instructor pilot.

The view while flying over Colorado Springs!

Presents and Peas

2011-12-14T10:40:00.003-07:00

We held our annual Thanksgiving Dinner and Toy Drive this last weekend. I am super excited to have collected over 40 toys just as we always do. I read in the newspaper that times are so tough this year that our local hospital that runs a toy drive is begging for toys, last year they brought in over $137,000 worth of toys and this year they are only at $7,000. We dropped them off to the Safe House which was ecstatic about the load and I know they will go to families that wouldn't otherwise get shiny new Barbies. :-)

Here's our stack...well after Austin dug through it some. ;-)

We started feeding Lil' Bit rice cereal before Mexico and thought everything was fine but then one day down there she ate, went and took a nap and an hour later woke up puking everywhere. That horrible little kid puke where they cry in between each gag. :-( So we cut out rice cereal down there thinking that perhaps we overfed her or something was wrong with that particular rice. We got home and fed her new cereal and the same thing happened an hour or so later. Did some research and she either has an allergy to rice (highly unlikely since it is so rare) or her system is super sensitive to new foods. We have been making baby food from scratch and feeding her just a few tablespoons of different types of veggies, so far she hasn't reacted like that again but it took at few weeks for her to get sick from the rice so we will have to wait and see. I took this video last night of her first experience with peas...it was just too cute.

Poor Sister

2011-12-08T16:20:00.002-07:00

I was brushing Lil' Bit's hair trying to get rid of some of her cradle cap when Austin asked what I was doing. I explained what I was doing and how I was helping sister. Austin at this point shook her head and stated "Poor sister has crabs." I about died laughing.

We've been attempting to get settled back in from all the traveling although I still haven't put up our suitcases. The girls were exactly how they should be on a trip but that sure is challenging for us parents. Austin has this new venom side of her personality where she will scream at you generally some kind of command followed by a low growl. Both of these make me want to smack her in the mouth but since in the fight or flight spectrum she is definitely a fighter I have taken to calmly telling her that she is not allowed to speak to me like that and placing her in timeout. Who's know if it will work, all I know is that what we were doing wasn't working. This new found zen approach gets me some pretty hilarious looks at stores, like yesterday when she was taking off her boots, throwing stuff out of the cart and screaming at me through Walmart. I am pretty sure everyone watching was just waiting for me to hit her...half with their cell phones dialed for social services and the other half (obviously parents themselves) hoping that I would do so. Like I always say this parenting thing is a crap shoot.

Mexico!

2011-11-28T16:50:00.005-07:00

As it turns out traveling with two children at these ages is a stressful as the general public leads you to believe. :-) But here are some pictures of the fun that was sprinkled in with the stress.

Joe and Tyler at Thanksgiving dinner.

Austin ate every bit of her body weight in ice cream.

The amazing kids place play area.

My parents and Austin at dinner one night.

We have been calling Tyler Thunder Thighs all week, hopefully that name doesn't stick but isn't she just such a little chunk?

Joe and his girls in the pool.

Apparently the open mouth thing is something that both my girls do all the time.

If George was around Tyler was sure to be found sitting on his lap.

Tyler wanted so bad to be in the pool with her big sister.

Austin just about passed out when she realized that they also had a swing set.

Joe singing with his girls on the back porch of our room.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-18T09:46:00.002-07:00

I am pretty sure that Joe wishes that we would just skip Mexico this year again due to the business with the thought of leaving everything in the hands of his very young workers. But we are going and leave tomorrow morning, the girls and I (well at least Austin) are extremely excited and can't wait to sit on the beach and explore the place. I read a quote one time that stated that it was easier to grow old as a parent because you are so excited to watch your children experience their firsts. I couldn't agree with this more. This is our 11th trip to Mexico as a family and this is by far the most excited I have ever been...just the thought of Austin building sand castles and running from the ocean's waves has me giddy. It will be truly amazing. I am already completely packed which took FOREVER and a lot of sweat to close those suitcases. Again I am pretty sure if we had one more kid we couldn't make it happen, although I had to pack diapers for both girls this time which was a huge part of the process. Austin does really well at home with potty training as long as there aren't other distractions like you know, Grandma and Uncle Dane like there will be for 8 days. So rather than stress I packed accordingly and just brought the diapers. The only real down side to this Mexico trip is that Tadd won't be with us. I am super bummed about that, he paid for his trip and then got a HUGE promotion at work and can't take the time off. Tadd is now the Finance Manager at the new Used Car Super Store here in town, it is essentially his dream job so I don't think he's even that torn up about not coming. I think Joe and I are more sad than he is. Me because I love to laugh with and at him and Joe because now he is stuck playing golf with Dane...although that does make me laugh pretty hard. Last trip down Tadd let Dane drive his golf cart and I personally watched as Dane drove them off a bridge and then into a tree, the kid just spaces out sometimes and his brain disconnects. Hopefully he gets over that now that he has his learner's permit.

I promise to take a ton of pictures and post way too many of them on here. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! XOXOXOX

Why I am glad to have a brother.

2011-11-16T10:35:00.002-07:00

Tadd and I ventured out to some storage unit auctions yesterday and we couldn't resist one unit that was so covered in dusk you couldn't tell what color the furniture was. The ideal unit for treasure hunting...because it has every possibility of being really old. The bidding was going no where fast and hanging around under $10 dollars so I jumped in and scored the unit for $50. Tadd actually kicked me at this point because ol' Pretty Boy Tadd HATES to get dirty. When we got back to the unit to unload it first thing we find a giant black widow spider which means the girls were instantly locked in the Lexus so they didn't get near anything. Here starts the hilarity of having a brother like mine...we both looked like idiots as we spent the rest of the 7 hours it took to unload the unit swatting at our bodies just in case a spider had gotten on us. I dropped two microwaves and one TV because the cords hit me in the leg and I was convinced it was something creepy and crawly. Tadd made me laugh so hard that I dropped a couch, a headboard and three sets of drawers. Just when things couldn't get any funnier watching us drop things and swat at make believe spiders...Tadd reached into a shower kit bag, leaned his head to the side...sighed...and threw the bag at me to ask me to look in it and see what I saw. I literally peed my pants a little bit when I looked up and said "well Tadd you just touched someone's sex toys". Nothing could get any funnier than watching ol' Pretty Boy's face at that moment. He just shook his head and said why the HELL do we do this stuff? LOL Just when we had stopped laughing from that, or should I say I had stopped laughing at him, Tadd was struggling...I mean really struggling to get this stupid headboard in the truck while I was helping Austin get more to drink in the car. Tadd yelled over a little help please, and I told Austin I have to go help Uncle Wells...she looked at me and said "Nah he's got it Mom". I was laughing so hard that I couldn't help poor Wells who ended up just standing there for another couple minutes while I composed myself. He claimed that he was just going to light fire to his body last night, I haven't seen him yet today to see how bad the burns are. ;-)

Look what we did this weekend!

2011-11-14T15:45:00.003-07:00

Yep we decorated for Christmas! With Mexico this weekend and when we get back we head up to South Dakota to visit Derek and Rachel and their new little baby we knew we needed to get up the tree sooner than later, so we buckled in and put it up this weekend. :-)

J and I also made ornament frames, this is mine and while it's looks simple I can assure you that it took us about 5 hours to complete but was super fun! It's even supposed to be lit but the stupid lights have a short in them so they come on whenever they feel like it, although it does make that moment magical!

Weekend here we come.

2011-11-11T11:46:00.002-07:00

I am so glad to hear that other people are having issues with daylight savings time...holy smokes our house is in chaos because of it. The girls wake up wicked early and are nearly too tired to eat dinner at night.

I have always wanted to try one of those Brazilian Straightening systems where they bond keratin to your hair, so there was a Groupon that came around a while back and I bought a severely discounted one. I made the appointment for this last Wednesday thinking that it would be awesome to have straight non-frizzy hair in Mexico (which is coming up next weekend...Yahoo!). Had Joe come home early from work and I headed to my appointment, I think my hair looks much more manageable when I just let it air dry and MUCH less frizzy but Joe thinks it looks about the same. Needless to say that comment alone makes me not want to spend the normal $150 price tag every three months, but it was worth a discounted try. Like I always say, I don't spend much time away from the girls and I can say that Joe has never taken both of them anywhere. In fact most of the time when Joe watches them it is during nap time so I can run to the store if we need a lot of groceries or something like that. So on Wednesday night when I pulled into the driveway just one and a half short hours after I left I was surprised when I was greeted by one of our friends in the driveway that was picking up his dirt bike we had been storing. He was chuckling and said, "Man Joe has his hands full in there!". Hmmm, never what a Mom wants to hear.

I walked in our house to be greeted by Joe looking frantic, the dogs barking insanely, Austin covered in blood and Lil' Bit screaming on the floor. With my best "I'm not panicked voice", I looked at Joe and asked is everything OK? And picked up Lil' Bit, yelled at the dogs and grabbed Austin. Joe then explained that Lil' Bit had been crying since I left, the dogs were going insane due to the guy picking up his dirt bike, Austin got in trouble for shouting at Joe and when she went to run away tripped over a chair and fell on the tile floor only to cut open her lip.

I have a hair cut scheduled for this next Wednesday so I am hoping the girls can take it a little easier on poor Joe.

Oh yeah and our leaf tray finally dried...look at how amazing this thing turned out!!!!!

Happy Friday!

2011-11-04T16:15:00.003-06:00

Look at this ridiculously cute Baby Joe! I cannot believe with our two daughters we have one that is completely Joe and one that is completely Crystal. It's like we did the job ourselves each time.

Planning your children 2 years exactly apart.

2011-10-31T17:02:00.002-06:00

So I know that most people can't plan exactly when they are going to have kids but if you could making them 2 years apart or 3, 4, 5 whatever but the same distance in 12 month increments means that they fit in the clothing that is appropriate for the season. Like Lil' Bit being able to wear Austin's First Halloween outfit. Makes clothes sharing extremely easy on me. :-)

Hambone The Bouncer (Take 2)

2011-10-31T16:59:00.002-06:00

Could you imagine in your wildest dreams learning something new like bouncing and having this 2 year old yanking on the contraption you are strapped in to?

Halloween!

2011-10-31T16:38:00.002-06:00

I was all ready to take both girls to the annual Halloween party that we go to, got them all dressed and Lil' Bit started acting really tired and when I put Austin's costume on her she said "It's nice Mom, but it hurts though." I about died laughing. Apparently the elastic was entirely too tight for her liking. So I snapped a few pictures let everyone strip back down and went to the party by myself.

I told Austin to smile and she gave me this weird looking face, so I told her to think of something funny and this is what she did.

I love Lil' Bit's face here...it's like she's thinking, what in the hell do you have on your head?

The girls being serious for a brief moment.

My Little Bumble Bee!

My butterfly that looks like a Koopa Trooper from Mario Bros.

Things that make me giggle.

2011-10-28T09:18:00.002-06:00

This morning I was paged by work and got up and dealt with all that entails and then when I was done crawled back into bed for a few last minutes of warmth and peace and quiet. Of course the girls could sense this and woke up immediately after I laid down. Joe was on it though and got up with them. Here's the giggle part. :-) Joe wakes up slowly, much like I am sure most parents even some people do. Kids on the other hand do not wake up slowly - once they're awake, if you catch them too early or wake them up it's a different story. So this morning all I could hear downstairs was Joe grunting and attempting to make coffee as quickly as possible, Lil' Bit squealing because she was left alone in the living room and Austin asking about a thousand questions with no answers. Made me laugh so hard that I couldn't sleep so I just got up.

Second giggle spot. I leave the girls alone in the same room for a few minutes here and there and don't really have a choice not to. I have a ton of things that I get done throughout the day and it's pretty hard dragging them with me. Like making the beds this morning, I am in the other room and I hear this scenario. Austin talking to "Baby Sister" - Austin's voice elevating to excited level - Lil' Bit giggles - Austin starts breathing through closed teeth queue SUPER excited - Austin apologizing to "Baby Sister" letting her know it would be OK. Luckily Lil' Bit very rarely cries from this and Austin is never malicious so I can't help but giggle since to Austin it's like we got her a doll that plays back.

Snow Day

2011-10-27T11:04:00.004-06:00

We got a lot of snow here in Colorado yesterday, of course in true Colorado fashion it is already melting away today. But that made for a perfect snow day yesterday, one where the girls stayed in their PJ's pretty much all day and I slow cooked some meat for shredded tacos. Here are some pictures of our day.

Joe donated his old phone to Austin so she can play games on it, here are the girls watching Baby Girl play

Lil' Bit decided that she was hungry during her nap so I went in to give her a bottle and when my back was tired of leaning over the crib I let go and she held on. I thought it was too cute not to snap a picture.

Austin wanted to see the snow so she put on my hoodie and went outside with Dad, here is the little Ewok playing with the snow on our patio.

Well crap.

2011-10-25T14:19:00.003-06:00

Obviously I was super proud of Lil' Bit for rolling over but I forgot that also means that she can no longer sleep swaddled. I don't remember the adjustment from being a swaddled sleeper to a non with Austin as being a tough one but looking back I am sure it had it's challenges that I am just forgetting about. Poor little thing is constantly rolling over to her tummy getting scared, crying and I have to come in and save her. Needless to say the girls in this house haven't gotten much sleep in the last couple of days. Poor little Austin was up until 2:30 last night after Lil' Bit let out a scream and woke her up at 11. I find this to be just one of many great examples of family, when one person either struggles or succeeds we all do. So I am trying to teach Austin that baby sister is learning something new and it's hard for her. We've had a couple extra meltdowns today due to the lack of sleep last night but that's what happens. We'll see whether or not this trying to Austin a life lesson at 2 thing works out, because let's face it I find this whole parenting thing a crap shoot anyhow. I second guess myself at every turn and fret about everything yet crackheads have the ability to produce great kids. Although it did become painfully apparent to me the other day that if my girls turn out to be (fill in the blank), bad people, axe murderers, or Nobel Peace Prize winners...it was more than likely me and not Joe that caused it. We have a classic household where Joe leaves for work everyday and returns every evening and spends several hours a day with the girls...whereas I spend every hour of every day with them. I believe that children are the product of their consistent routine (or lack thereof) rather than the abnormalities in life (aside from perhaps trama). Take for instance when Joe is home, some rules fly out the window like Austin must pick up all of her toys by herself or she isn't allowed to play with them when it is just me, and Joe will help her pick them up when he is home. I don't ever tell Joe to change how he acts is these instances because I think it's nice for Austin to understand that rules are rules and while sometimes we can bend them it doesn't change that they are there. We obviously have our battles due to these inconsistencies but I'm OK with that. Whether or not she has a tidy apartment or has manners in a job interview are up to the everyday constant rules we have in place, not the Sundays where anything goes. Currently Austin grits her teeth and shakes her head when she is mad or frustrated. My Mom asked me where she got this from and I should have known due to the above statement that it was my fault but this morning I realized when she did something wrong and I spoke to her through gritted teeth it dawned on me where she gets it. While it's exciting to raise little people and watch them become part of our society it is also nerve racking to know how much every one of my moves is being duplicated.

I am going to attempt to give these two stories credit...hopefully my ability to tell a story gives them justice.

Joe and I broke down and got iPhones and they came in the mail yesterday. They have this app on them called FaceTime which is Apple's version of Skype. So Joe called my new phone yesterday to talk to Austin. I handed her the phone and she was giddy with excitement about being able to hear & SEE Dad in the phone. But I told her to be careful and not touch the screen or you will hang up on him. So she set the phone down on the chair and was talking to him. Joe said at this point "Baby girl I can't see you unless you get your head in that little box." - Meaning the preview box on the phone that lets you see what the other person is seeing. Austin stops looks around my office and grabs the box that our phones came in and put it on her head and stood there. I just about about peed myself laughing.

We have had an influx of bees this year and whenever they come in the house I whack them with a newspaper or as Austin says "bam" them. Two days ago a bee was buzzing around inside my office by the window. I picked up a magazine and whacked him so he fell into the window sill. Austin wanted to see the carcass as proof so she went to stand on the back of her sisters lamby seat, to which I told her that she couldn't because she would fall. So she went and got the camera, stood on her tippy toes with her arm raised above her head at the sill and snapped a photo of the dead bee. I couldn't believe what I was watching. Kids are scary smart...holy cow.

And last but certainly not least...sleeping baby pictures because they are like crack to me. :-) Although black star for Crystal - taking the picture of Tyler actually woke her up - D'Oh!

Pumpkin Carving!

2011-10-24T11:07:00.002-06:00

We carved pumpkins this weekend with a bunch of our friends. It's funny because in thinking back I can't ever remember my parents having parties so either they didn't have many friends or they didn't like to host for fear of the next day mess...which I could actually understand, because my house is destroyed right now. :-) Whereas at our house Austin is helping to prepare for parties pretty much every other weekend even if it's just the old roommates that come over.

Part of the pumpkins and snacks before we tore into them.

The first round of people gutting out their pumpkins.

Hacking away in the glorious sun.

Some of the pumpkins up for display.

Another set of pumpkins all carved up.

Marmee's Gift

2011-10-24T10:36:00.003-06:00

We don't really get Fall or Spring in Colorado, really we just have Summer and Winter and they seem to overlap at various points. Today it will be a high of 80 degrees and on Wednesday it will be 30 with dumping snow. So when Marmee (Carole) sent Austin these AMAZING dried leaves from Indiana I knew we had to do something awesome with them. J and I love do any type of crafts so I drug her in on this one and away we went.

Here's Austin crazy excited about being able to paint her hands without being in trouble.

The TV tray we decided to make with the sheet all laid out and paint everywhere already.

The TV tray after we put down Austin's hand prints and the gorgeous leaves.

Austin getting more and more messy. Now she is painting her arms, waiting until it dries and then peeling it off. A true right of passage for a child.

Lil' Bit watching from the Lamby just wishing she could get her hands on anything.

We decided to Mog Pog the whole tray so the writing surface would be smooth for Austin. Well we were surprised to say the least when we dumped it on and it was completely white. Hopefully it dries clear or J and I went to 3 hours worth of trouble for a good laugh.

Tyler rolling over.

2011-10-21T11:20:00.002-06:00

I finally captured Lil' Bit rolling over with the lights on. :-) I had forgotten how hard of a process it was for baby's to learn this and how rewarding it is to them when they accomplish it.

My Mom's latest project!

2011-10-21T11:14:00.003-06:00

Oh my word...isn't this cute. My Mom thought that the girls and my brother and I all looked so similar that she put together this collage of some of our baby pictures. Along with my Aunt Deb and the girls' Aunt J. Apparently I used to hold my head weird too. Oh yeah and the funny part to me...we must live in a different time, with us 30 year olds having kids...Aunt Deb and Aunt J are 10 years differnt in these pictures.

First Night

2011-10-20T10:50:00.003-06:00

The girls slept in the same room last night they both went down at 8 and both woke up at 7:30 with Lil' Bit eating once at 5:45. It was AMAZING! And while I don't want to jinx anything in thinking that every night will be like last night I was pretty darn happy with the outcome.

I have started to limit the amount of TV that Austin watches or should I say not allowing the TV to be on in the background. She doesn't watch much but asks for it all the time and just like any oppressive parent figure...once a child asks for something they must want it too much so I take it away. Obviously that is a slight exaggeration but I just worry now that she notices that it is on in the background that it will do more harm then good.

Speaking of harm, I broke my back and sweat the good fight putting in that stupid crib bumper and then read 15 minutes later that the Association of Pediatricians recommends the removal of bumpers due to suffocation and SIDS related deaths. Don't want to test that fate so ripped the sucker back out.

Oh yeah and two days ago Lil' Bit rolled over from her back to her stomach. I set her down in the living room and when I came back she was rolling over to reach a toy just out of reach. Last night I captured it on film but the video was SO dark that I am too embarrassed to post it. I swear we paid the light bill, I have no idea why it looks like we live in a cave.

And Austin wearing one of my hats...just too cute not to post. I feel a future snowboarder!

Day 2 Nap Time

2011-10-19T16:04:00.004-06:00

Both girls are in the room and have been for...buckle in for this one...1 hour and 45 minutes. I haven't heard a peep. Which means that Austin is probably playing and Lil' Bit is watching her, but I will totally take it. I think perhaps I will make them both sleep in there tonight, hell I don't need rest any how so might as well.

We just applied for Lil' Bit's passport which is funny in and of it's self since comon' she's a baby but the funniest part is that it is good for 5 freaking years.

Just look at these two...you will only be able to tell that they are in fact white.

Big Girl Bed

2011-10-18T13:44:00.002-06:00

I have been agonizing over what "Big Girl Bed" to get Austin and then it dawned on me that we already have a bed in there and I can start the, what I can tell will be a painful process of having the girls share a room. Luckily for the situation I am as stubborn as they are so it will HAVE to happen. Last night it became very apparent now that Joe and I don't have the air conditioner running in our room at night that we can't have Lil' Bit in there. We were whispering last night and woke her up not to mention that she was nearly sleeping through the night and is now waking up at 3ish to eat.

Here we are while I make up the crib for Lil' Bit...all smiles at the thought of getting a roommate.

Things started to turn a little more serious when she realized that she would not be sharing the crib with her sister.

Lil' Bit all swaddled up...bumper installed...and could literally give a care less where she sleeps.

Austin laying her the bed crying because she wants back the crib.

Actually at this point nap time has been going on for 10 minutes I have been in there 5 times to say go to sleep, stop crying, leave your sister alone...etc. And Austin has met me at the door twice. Hmmmm, I kind of miss her crib too. Perhaps I will get her a larger crib and keep her in it until she is 16. :-)

Opening Weekend

2011-10-17T14:45:00.003-06:00

Well the snow wasn't great but the company was epic. We went up snowboarding for opening weekend at A-Basin. There was only 1 run open and a TON of people there, but it was awesome to be back on the slope(s). :-)

Of course because I have these new found mortality issues I didn't sleep the night before contemplating the what ifs that could go wrong the next day. Not only is snowboarding a dangerous sport but we log 6 hours of driving to get there and back. Undoubtedly one of the most hazardous things people do is drive. I am having a hard time balancing the thoughts in my head of being an active Mom that teaches her daughters to be adventurous and a safe Mom that doesn't want to leave them. It helps having Joe around who doesn't seem to have any fear of mortality because he pushes me, but that also means that he gets the brunt of me pushing back. To help put my mind at ease I bought a helmet this year, I always talked about getting one and never did. It was nice to be wearing it yesterday just to give me a little more peace of mind that I would be OK if something did happen.

Sarah, me and J gearing up - you can see that there is literally no snow in the parking lot!

The bluebird day and long ass lift lines!

Yahoo it's Friday!

2011-10-14T15:38:00.002-06:00

Someone from work called my cell phone this morning and was so angry for them disturbing me on my Saturday that I sent them straight to voicemail. And then realized it was Friday and felt like a dummy.

Luckily my Mom was in town so we got to eat lunch to shift my bummer of a day when I figured out that it was not in fact the weekend. We eat lunch at Souper Salad pretty close to once a week and know the entire staff there. Where else can we both eat lunch, stay on our diets AND they clean off Austin's bib when we are done. It's like salad heaven.

Austin has started dragging toys into the shower with us every morning. Keep in mind we only have one of those stall type showers so between the shampoo, soaps and toys...not to mention the toddler at my feet, we have VERY little room. But she has just about as much fun as she would at Water World so I can't find it in me to take that away from her, instead I stand in luke warm water up against the wall and watch as she catches the soap bubbles that run down my leg. I can only hope that by the time Lil' Bit is old enough to join in we have a different shower.

Lil' Bit is deathly afraid a strangers right now, if you try and hand her to someone she doesn't know she literally starts shaking and crying. I remember Austin being scared of guys but not really of everyone and I definitely remember her being older when she started being so frightened. It's still amazes me that two people can make two people that are so different. I have one Little Crystal and one Little Joe, which means I spend my days battling myself and kissing on baby Joe. :-)

I could have stabbed Joe this morning, luckily I couldn't find a sharp object. Our deal has always been I take care of the girls at night since he doesn't wake up EVER, and he takes them in the morning so I can one extra hour of sleep. Keep in mind for today's story that we both went to bed after midnight but I got up with Lil' Bit when she needed her pacifier and at 3AM for a feeding/pumping which total 1 full hour. So naturally when 7AM came around and Lil' Bit woke up I nudged Joe (thinking in my head of this deal we have worked out) and he shook his head and stated "I am entirely too tired to wake up now." Hmmm, what per say does that mean that your daughter should do? This comment made me laugh out loud, probably because I was furious and delirious but what ever. He rolled over and went back to bed and I got up with her. Ahhh, note to self...make sure I never sleep near a knife.

Oh yeah and here's Lil Bit laughing because it is just so stinking cute!

OMG...eBay you will be the death of me.

2011-10-07T09:37:00.002-06:00

So I posted some of the less junkie things that we have found on eBay. Sounds like a fantastic idea right? Well I had them all posted (specifically two sets of business phones that go for around $300 A PIECE used) as fixed priced items. Which basically means that you go on eBay hit Buy Now for whatever price I am asking and you get that item, rather than bidding. Well I got absolutely no real action on those posts so after talking it out I decided we should list them in an auction format and see what happens. In reading through the eBay Tips to sell your shit, I noticed that stuff sells better without a reserve. Ok, easy enough right...I will just make the buy it now about what I wanted so like $100 bucks a piece for the 8 of them and watch the bids roll in. Starting the bidding out at $50 should make it good too. Well the problem with this is that I forgot to edit the description of the items and auction can only contain one item whether that be a "lot" of items or just one physical item. My description states that I have "4 BizTouch 3 IP Phones", so when someone bought my "item" for $100 last night they truly bought the entire "lot" of phones due to the description. And I wondered why they went so quickly.

The real issue is that you are judged on the customer's experience on eBay by your sellers score and in this day and age that score had more clout than your FICO score, so you had better mind your P's and Q's. So I will be boxing up 8 phones for the simple price of $150. :-( Stupid Crystal.

To make matters worse I had to rebuild a server last night because I can't remember the password. Contrary to popular belief not all computer geeks can hack into things, it actually requires quite the specific set of skills to do so...which sadly my server rebuilding ass doesn't posess.

It's Friday right?!?!?!

Play with me dammit!

2011-09-29T14:21:00.003-06:00

This video I like to call "You will play with me...dammit!" Again it's nice to be the oldest.

It's good to be the oldest!

2011-09-28T15:21:00.002-06:00

I've always been the oldest sibling that lived at home, so I got to do the picking rather than being picked on. So I can't really relate to what poor Lil' Bit must feel like but these videos show some of her life on a day to day basis.

Here she is trying to learn to roll over while Austin pinches her checks and compresses her spine...all in the name of love and excitement.

And today watching Sesame Street together, Lil' Bit is kicking like a baby and Austin takes this action as an open invite to "play footsie" back...I like that wording better than kicking her back.

This and that...

2011-09-27T14:34:00.002-06:00

I spent several days last week in Joe's shop learning the ropes, it was odd number one to be at work rather than at home and number two it was super stressful to know that any person you are serving could be an undercover cop. You really have to make sure you are checking every little bit of paperwork and what not. Needless to say I am quite happy to be sitting here in my yoga pants currently.

We decided with Wishing Wells to list things out separately which basically means that I have been on Craigslist all day typing and we are just piecing out everything. It's going to take a while but at least this way we are getting some action (thank you for the suggestion J).

I had to watch Star Wars at the gym this morning which means I am still shaking my head...that is a series I just can't get into. I generally like to shut up true fans by mentioning that my favorite character is Jarjar Binks. Star Wars geeks hate that.

One of my pet peeves is to leave clothes in the washer too long thus making it so you have to re-wash the load. I did this said atrocity 3 times last week for the same load. What can say they are really clean at this point.

I told Austin that I was 31 and she gasped being as though she can only count to 10 I am sure that number does seem awful. Still makes me giggle thinking about it. Although recently I have been having a lot of mortality thoughts, I think because while watching TV shows I am starting to relate more to the parents (as well I should) than the children. J and I were talking a while back and since she is my oldest friend we both can remember the time when we used to sit around and talk about "when I grow up and have kids...". I looked at her the other day holy shit...I grew up and have kids. I know what they look like, sound like...I know what I named them and who I had them with. It was truly an aw inspiring conversation.

We have our volleyball tournament tonight which should be super fun although we always go near undefeated all season (as we did this one too) and then lose in the tournament so we don't get one of the suckerific t-shirts they give out. Fingers crossed that we can pull it off tonight.

The Blame Game

2011-09-19T09:37:00.002-06:00

I had a server fail this weekend...which isn't real news because hardware fails. Cars die, blenders burn up and computers lose their cotton-picking minds. The part that is a shock is that I opened a ticket a month ago to have this computer looked at because I knew it was going Tango Uniform on me. Naturally when this said machine breaks I am the first that they come down on but now that everyone is actually at work because it is a Monday in starts the blame game. I love this game and already know the outcome...the person with the lowest title is to blame. In this case it is me although they are having a difficult time pinning it on me since I followed the process, but rest assured my title won't save my butt against high-ups and this will go down as an epic fail. Oh yeah and the backups that run every night...well they haven't been running but no one let me know but apparently I should have guessed. Again Crystal comes up with a failure. Now I know why some of my fellow comrades have given up the IT blame game and taken on other fields. If this reaches the levels that it might I am hoping the circus is hiring. :-)

Selfish...

2011-09-16T10:05:00.002-06:00

I have realized, well have known for a while, that I am selfish when it comes to updates and updating people. Such as this blog - I put off writing because of my lack of time but I always find time to read everyone's. Like this morning, I log in to the computer quickly go through my local paper just to be sure that there aren't masked gunmen perusing my neighborhood and then start my nosey reading - Facebook and Blogger. I NEVER update my Facebook but that is partially due to the fact that I have all kinds of friends on there that aren't really my friends and I was guilted into allowing them into my life because everyone else in school friended them. In fact one such women/gargoyle was a cause of great many tears my sophomore year. I was dating a complete scum bag who cheated on my with her while she was pretending to be my friend. Needless to say that I was shocked when she friended me. But just to watch out for my karma bank I allowed the friendship to happen. With that being said I don't really update much of my life on there. But those that have made it to this blog I consider my family and friends.

When I anxiously clicked on Anne's blog this morning I realized just how selfish it was of me to want so bad to read her update but not type any sort of an update myself.

So here we go.

Me - I couldn't remember when it would happen but I knew it would...so Kimberly if you ever find time to read blogs again with that new adorable son of yours - know that it takes 3 1/2 months for this to happen. The tiredness sets in and you are in a zombie like state. Lil' Bit only eats once a night but wakes up for that blasted pacifier 4-5 times oh yeah and the pumping that I have to do still. All and all I am sure that I am not lacking on THAT much sleep it just the fact that I am waking up so much the idea of getting any REM sleep is a complete joke. Every night Joe asks what's wrong and I just shake my head and say I'm tired. A weird sort of sinus pressure headache has set in behind my eyes that I can't seem to shake and my neck is stiff as if I got in a car accident during one of my sleepless nights. This must be the look that my friend referred to when she said that I looked like I had one foot in the grave. Luckily if Lil' Bit is like Baby Girl she will start sleeping through the night here in a couple months and I will start the process of digging myself out of the 6' hole.

Joe - Business is doing well and he was the major reference for the city council on the new fees that they just approved. He managed to hurt his shoulder playing softball the other day so he's been taking it easy with a lot of Oww's sprinkled in his daily life. One trait that is completely absent in my zombie like state is that of sympathy so I have practiced the fine art of biting my tongue when he mentions the injury. :-)

Baby Girl - She gets more and more expressive everyday and is just a kick to watch grow up, I know that people say that 2 year olds are hard to deal with but I think 1year -18 months was much more challenging. She didn't have many words and could barely walk but refused to sit still. When I flew back to Indiana by myself with a 15 month old you could have never warned me what that was going to be like, but now this time with a 2 year old all strapped into her own seat and watching cartoons on the headrest TV...that was like heaven. She helps out a ton with her little sister with pacifiers and feeding her - although I am sure that one day poor Lil' Bit will be blind due to them being shoved in her eyes all the time.

Lil' Bit - Can just about roll over, she does her tummy time everyday and I get out the video camera because I know it is just moments away from happening but still hasn't. She has had a blocked tear duct since we visited Indiana which is making me debate on going into the doctor which I hate, every time I take the girls in they end up catching some kind of cold. And why wouldn't they Lil' Bit touches everything and then eats her hand and Baby Girl licks furniture. I am giving it two more days and then I will take her in just so she doesn't end up blind - at least not from the infection.

Wishing Wells - Has been put on hold while they are building out a new wall in our suite and redoing the electrical. I can't wait to get back in there and get it all organized again. The website has been getting plenty of hits but no calls so perhaps it all of us incessantly hitting it. :-) My work has been eerily slow which is never a good sign but I'll ride this job out until they drag me away from my laptop.

Labor Day 2011

2011-09-07T09:48:00.009-06:00

Austin very excited on the plane and Lil' Bit all swaddled up laying on my lap.

Laura laughing with her girls in the background.

Poor Claire is just old enough to get everywhere but not quite one of the big kids yet.

The three oldest girls that could not be more different from looks to personality.

Claire was not allowed to drink the water so pouring it down herself seemed like the best alternative.

Little smiley Annabel...holding still for a rare occasion.

Allegra turned into a young woman over night.

Aunt Anne with some of the girls.

MaryGrace and Monica hugging it out.

Look at those leaves already falling.

I love how kids swarm to a little one in a walker.

Notice how the only smiles are those on the Grandparents' faces. :-)

The new website

2011-09-07T09:26:00.003-06:00

In all of my spare time...chuckling deep down inside right now...I managed to put together a functional though not very pretty website for Wishing Wells. We bought some more items at an auction that I have yet to take pictures of since there is construction going on in our suite this week and it's too choatic for the girls.

Here's hoping we get rid of some of the stuff....http://wishingwellsllc.com/

Our first storage unit purchase.

2011-08-22T11:25:00.003-06:00

We bought our first set of storage units, 4 in all. We spent a total of $1150 and are anxious to see what our things are worth. I am busy researching some of the valuables like the piano and such but other than that it looks like we are going to have to hold a garage sale of sorts to get rid of the odds and ends. Oh yeah and I cannot believe the amount of junk that people will store. Holy cow is some of this ridiculous...like for instance the chicken wing bones, yep just the already eaten wings. Or the collection of used plastic cups. WOW!

Tadd's phone will take pictures and stitch them together. Here is a shot of the whole shop and it's contents after we spent all day sorting and throwing away.

The first couple loads of stuff before my OCD kicked in and I had to sort it.

The very pretty, very old (marked 1904) piano...please God let this thing be worth a boat load of money. :-)

Austin's First Concussion

2011-08-22T10:51:00.003-06:00

I write that it is Austin's first concussion because let's face it Joe and I have had about a dozen between the two of us so if she follows in our foot steps this is sure to not be the last.

We were busy cleaning and sorting our newly purchased goods from our storage units (post in detail to follow) and Joe and I were moving wood when we heard Austin fall and start crying. We went over there and she was laying next to a mop handle that she had tripped over. So far nothing about this seemed out of the ordinary, she trips all the time. Joe picked her up and every time we put her back down she started to cry even more so we just thought that she was extra tired from the night before because we had kept her up until 10ish unloading storage contents (black star for parenting). An hour or so went by with us taking turns holding her until finally we set her down on a chair by herself, she cried and hoped off and started puking. At this point we assumed that she had worked herself up into a tizzy and I should just call it a day and go home and put her to bed. She fell asleep on the way home in the car but then when I stopped the car she woke up and started puking again. Again though kids puke, plain and simple so we weren't that worried. I put her to bed and looked it up on the Internet and they said that kids under three that have puked 3 times or more in 6 hours after a fall need attention, at this point I was debating on taking her in when I heard her wake up and start puking again. Whelp here we go...packed her and Lil' Bit up in the car and went to the ER. After MANY hours and much more puking we finally saw a doctor who told us that it was a concussion and he would like to have a CAT scan. We weighed the options and decided to skip it, other than major brain bleeds which would require surgery the only thing the CAT scan would show us is how big and bad the bruise on her brain is. While it may be nice to know, it would terrify her to be in the CAT scan it's self so we passed. Took her home and continued to monitor her waking her up every couple hours and making sure she seemed "normal", who really seems normal at 3AM being woke up and asked questions.

Today she seems much better although yesterday when it got close to nap time she seemed slightly more irritable and almost confused but that may be from the craptastic night of sleep or from the concussion. We have to wait at least a week to make sure she doesn't have any other symptoms like seizures and such but other than that we should be out of the weeds. And we have to try and not let her hit her head again while it is healing...wow is that hard with a stumbly little 2 year old. I have at least 20 new gray hairs. I can also say that I have new found respect for anyone with a chronically sick child and for those people that decide not to have kids because they are scared of the heartbreak that is possible. I know my girls are worth the tears and stress but Saturday sucked pretty bad. :-(

Someone thinks hospital beds are pretty darn comfy. :-)

A very annoyed with waiting on the doctor Joe with his girls.

Austin sleeping on Joe while still waiting on the doctor.

The Park

2011-08-18T21:08:00.003-06:00

Joe managed to get off early tonight and surprise us at home and offer to take us all to the park. And boy does Austin love the park...I on the other hand can't stand the park. A free-for-all full of kids that are either rude or on their way to getting hurt. Take tonight for instance, a 5 year old little boy stood in front of Austin on the playground equipment and said that she couldn't pass and then smacked her on the head. Ahhh what a perfect afternoon. But to Austin it is a magical place full of wonderment and joy that I am refusing to rain on. Some day she will have kids of her own and she will dread the heathens at the park but until that day here's how much fun she will be having...

The goofball looking through the holes at us.

For those not around her all the time, this is a clumsy child...she is always falling. So yes even at this age she MUST hold on to the railing with both hands or she's coming down the thing. In fact I don't even know if she is so much clumsy and easy distracted and completely forgets that she is walking up the stairs.

If we can keep her this confident and sure of herself throughout her life, we will have won as parents.

Getting ready to go down the small slide.

Perhaps her confidence comes from her totally admiration of this man.

Like a worm in hot ashes...

2011-08-18T15:01:00.002-06:00

My Mom said the other day out at lunch that Lil' Bit was like holding on to a worm in hot ashes...no truer words have been spoken about this little girl. You had better be on top your game when trying to hold on to her, thank goodness I didn't have her first I would have surely dropped her. No rookies with this one.

Our little Justin Bieber with her wild hair. Look at how much Lil' Bit already watches Baby Girl.

Austin helping out while I pump, and being just about as proud as one big sister could possibly be while doing so.

The ever changing Lil' Bit...holding still for one moment before going back into spastic movements.

Wishing Wells and Strikes

2011-08-08T15:06:00.002-06:00

So anyone watching the news this morning knows that the union part of Verizon went on strike. Wow am I glad not to be in Boston right now, while the forklift driving would have been amazing the chaos surrounding bringing my Mom and the girls would have been crazy. Although everyone but one other person on my team shipped out yesterday so I took over several other people's jobs...one of which starts at 4AM my time. So my new shift is 4 - 4, which is exactly how long it sounds and I will be ready for my second pot of coffee here in a few but in the iconic words of Flava Flav "They got to pay me boyyee".

A little back story for those of you that aren't privied to my incessant talking as J is. There was a vacant unit in Joe's building that he really wanted to rent to add an additional grow operation, however state laws are not allowing for any new licenses including additional grow locations until at least July 2012, but he didn't want to pass up the opportunity to have the extra square footage. That coupled with Tadd and I's new found passion for storage auctions we have started another business. Wishing Wells L.L.C. (I have to give Joe credit for the incredibly creative name) was born out of almost insanity since none of us have free time, but will be a mostly online (for now) second hand goods store. With hopes that if it takes off we will eventually have a retail shop. It should work out really well since this will be a business that not only can I take the girls to but since at first it will be online by appointment only we don't need to be there all the time. Oh yeah and Joe works two doors down so he is available to help out as he did this weekend. There was a giant structure in the middle of this place that needed to come down, while that part sounds fun - Joe wanted to keep the wood - which means that Tadd and I couldn't just destroy it and actually had to take the screws and nails out. Bummer dude. It was still fun though.

The bare structure after Nate and Joe took down the drywall and the ceiling part.

The fallen walls waiting to be taken apart - Murph you would have passed out had you seen Joe and Tadd pushing and pulling those walls down. Although they did manage to teach Baby Girl Oh Sh!t! :-)

After I was pretty much done with bending over I strapped Austin on so she could ride around the rest of the time. Here I am sweeping and looking rather annoyed, which I don't remember being.

And our new space all cleaned up, we have to wait on some finishing walls and electrical that the building owner is taking care of but after that Tadd and I are going to fill it with amazing treasures.

A couple new videos

2011-08-04T20:51:00.002-06:00

Lil' Bit wiggling and smiling...which happen to be her two best things.

My Mom and I had lunch today followed by some shopping and she sent Austin home with a stamp book. Luckily we have dark couches. ;-)

This was a book that my Mom got Austin a while back and she loves to read it to us. At the end of each set of colored clothing...yellow socks, green socks, blue socks...there is a picture where the turkey is wearing that particular piece of clothing on the wrong body part. So it says Ooops under it. That is Austin's favorite part of each page. :-)

Ride Mommy...

2011-07-27T15:05:00.003-06:00

Austin new favorite thing is to "ride Mommy"...due to our new amazing Kelty backpack. It is easier for me to justify the expense of a backpack to take Austin in rather than a double stroller since we already have three single strollers. So on days like today when I was up feeding Lil' Bit rather than at Spinning I can use the backpack as an additional workout in the afternoon too. Heck I figure I need to lose about what Austin weighs in baby weight anyway so this should help. :-)

Lil' Bit all buckled in and waiting for the rest of the caravan.

Here we are before we took off on our walk.

And here's after the walk...notice how I am sweating like Wesley Snipes on tax day?!?!? Make no assumptions that even Pygmies aren't hard to carry on your back in the summer heat.

New Videos

2011-07-26T15:07:00.001-06:00

One of those precious baby smiles. :-)

And Lil' Bit wiggling...as always.

If you blink you'll miss it...

2011-07-26T14:57:00.004-06:00

Look at how incredibly different Lil' Bit is already looking...holy crap do kids grow fast.

Lil' Bit on July 14th.

And here she is today July 26th.

County Fair

2011-07-25T10:06:00.002-06:00

Joe found himself a driver....

Look at how high my little dare devil is.

Petting the goats at the petting zoo.

No rest for the wicked...

2011-07-22T10:37:00.003-06:00

Today closes out my first week back at the gym, tired doesn't really even sum up what I am experiencing but the one thing that I have learned beyond a shadow of a doubt with life is that if you blink you'll miss it. Lil' Bit is almost 2 months old already and if she follows in her sisters footsteps she'll be sleeping through the night at 6 months old, so I know that the tiredness will subside. Most mornings I am delirious and spend my time laughing saying to myself no rest for the wicked, others I crack up because my head will hit the pillow and my alarm will go off...much like you would see in the movies.

Joe and I had the rare privilege of golfing together last weekend thanks to my Mom watching the girls. I believe that we both played marvelously, but then again I am biased....however the moral of the story is that I got a crazy sunburn and it still hurts this morning. I thought I would have gotten rid of the oddly sensitive skin brought on by pregnancy but alas no.

In watching Baby Girl "play" with Mowser I now understand why my cats would run away when I was child and why my Mom would constantly say...be nice to them or they won't want to play with you. Wow, that cat will someday pack up it's belongings and move in with some nice older couple without kids. Poor bastard gets carried around, has diapers put on it and is force fed pretzels on every possible occasion.

Storage Wars

2011-07-21T10:51:00.003-06:00

As Tadd likes to say I would rather find it than win it. No truer words have ever been said about a Wells. We are treasure hunters from way back when. Needless to say when I watched several episodes of Storage Wars I knew this was the place for us. I looked up a couple of upcoming auctions in our area and scheduled a date with Tadd and treasue. We were a little intimidated by the crowd since we were the newbies and all but when they stated that the auctions would be cash or credit cards it actually made us laugh. While I may have a small startup business charged across my credit cards...Tadd has the ability to buy Florida on his.

Armed with VISA and our two little helpers we went off into the wild blue yander. Tadd decided that we should set a limit between us on each storage unit before we started biding, I of course just wanted to win one and didn't really care about being sensible. After the day was all said and done we lost one storage unit to a homeless guy who out bid us and didn't find any treasure. Hopefully our next round goes smoother. :-)

The view of the extremely hot black top and the walking crowd of biders in front of us at our very first auction.

Old Organics and Forklifts

2011-07-16T10:36:00.003-06:00

Every year I grow vegetables in large pots so the dogs can't tear them up. So rather than having flowers to decorate my back porch we have vegetables and spices. This year Joe brought home some of the fertilizer that he uses at the shop called Old Organics...this stuff is insane, I am going to have to sell my zucchinis because I am pretty sure I will have 500 or so of those bad dogs.

Verizon is half union and half not, so when the union threatens to strike (like they do every year) the rest of Verizon gets affected. This strike though has become more serious and thus has made it so those of us non-union workers have been assigned to jobs that will still need to function while on strike. Guess who has two thumbs and was assigned to be a forklift driver in a warehouse in Boston. This guy! Fortunately my boss just put in for me to be excused from this assignment because of Tyler but I was getting ready to buy plane tickets for my Mom, Austin, Tyler and me to all head on out to Boston so I could work. Wouldn't that have been a fiasco? :-)

My spice pot, tomatoes and sweet peppers.

The crazy zucchinis and a small peek at the cucumbers.

The new dahlia's in the front yard.

The creeping clematis in the aspen grove.

The new solar lighting and pots of flowers in the front.

Response to Marmee's Email

2011-07-11T11:12:00.002-06:00

So Marmee wrote Austin an email and I recorded her responses back to her but the videos are too big to email so I have to post them on here.

Mrs. Wiggles

2011-07-08T15:17:00.002-06:00

And she wiggles just like this ALL the time. Notice Austin calling her funny in the background.

Updates...

2011-07-06T15:10:00.003-06:00

Now that I have posted some pictures I can post the updates about us.

Joe - We filed for our city license for the business today which is awesome and we are way above the curve and are currently the only business that has filed. Business is picking up and we are guessing this is because of some of the other shops closing down. Joe effectively lost most of his employees due to the new stricter regulations that came out, either they didn't want to fill out the new paperwork or won't pass the background checks. Unfortunately that means that Joe is back to working all the time while he hires and trains new guys. It's nice to know that he is working toward being able to take more time off with getting people trained but until then I know it is killing him to miss out on the extra time with the girls. His softball team took second last season and Joe continues to be the dirtiest and most passionate player on the team...trust me when I tell you, no one else slides in park and rec softball.

Me - I can't believe that I was pregnant a month ago, my body feels freaking fantastic. I can run up and down the stairs again and am anxious to get back in the gym again. Next week is my 6 week appointment so bring on the pain. Although I can tell I am tired since the other night I fell asleep while pumping and gave myself a breast pump hickey on my rib cage. Awesome! I go back to work next week too which has come entirely too quickly, I have been checking emails and what not since I came home from the hospital but I haven't been working all day like I will here starting Monday. I am sure it will take some getting used to with Austin and Tyler but as with so many things in life, you adjust.

Austin - What can I say she is an amazing big sister, she loves helping out whenever I will let her. I even started letting her help me cook, I read the front of a magazine the other day that said "Why letting your kids help you cook is worth the mess!"...I didn't even need to read the article to understand why it is a big deal. Anyone who has ever seen Bad Boys II knows the scene where Will Smith knocks on Martin Lawrence's door and Martin says "you are an enigma sent here by God to test me". I call Austin my enigma all the time. While some toddlers have a defiant streak in them, Austin has the San Andres fault. She will look directly at me and do something she is not supposed to with a look on her face like what are you going to do about it? We spend a lot of time in and out of timeout and saying "sorry Mommy".

Tyler - She is the hardest baby in the world to hold and wiggles all the time. She actually picked her head up for the first time when she was first placed on my chest in the hospital and it has just gone up from there. She smiles more and more and like I said in the last post is losing all of her hair. Still won't nurse at all and eats a ton of food, maybe she won't be a pygmy like her sister. Lil' Bit sleeps great and at least 3 hours a stretch. We had her in our bed for the first three weeks but graduated her up to her bassinet last week. I told J the other day that we should be careful because we are going to blink and be at their graduation...I can't believe it has already been a month.

And let the comparing begin....

2011-07-06T14:46:00.006-06:00

While I am positive that at some point in time the girls will hate to be compared, I thought it would be neat to see what they look like in comparison to each other right now. Currently they are within a day or two of each other in these pictures. I can see their resemblance obviously but Little Bit just seems so much darker complected than Baby Girl and she doesn't always have her mouth open like her sister did. I even put them in the same outfits for the pictures...some day girls when you read this...just add it to your therapy list. :-)

As you can tell Little Bit is losing all of her hair now too. It will interesting to see what color it grows back in.

We had to take a break from pictures for some milk and of course Austin wanted to do it herself.

Lil' Bit being a goofball during our photoshoot. She has started smiling a lot more which I had totally taken for granted with a toddler and forgot how precious it is with an infant.

Just another random picture from the other day.

I took this one especially for you Murph if you are reading...doesn't this remind you totally of your son and the way he sleeps.

Austin loves to have "baby sit on lap", so I try and give her opportunities whenever I can since it makes her so happy and doesn't hurt anything. Austin was just starring at me with that first stunned look and I was asking her to smile and getting that. I thought it was too cute not to post even though she (after 30 pictures) did eventually smile for me.

Lil' Bit laying on the couch, one of her favorite activites.

Austin being oh so helpful...

2011-06-24T10:57:00.004-06:00

And I am not even being sarcastic...of course she still accidentally hits her sister or lands on her but for the most part she is super helpful and loves being included. :-)

As fate would have it...

2011-06-23T12:47:00.003-06:00

As fate would have it I just sent out thank you cards when I received this in the mail for little miss Tyler. Isn't this hat the absolute cutest thing...thank you Anne for spending your vauable time and thinking of Tyler while doing so. :-)

It's J's Birthday!

2011-06-22T15:50:00.004-06:00

Today is J's birthday which not only makes me want to tell her happy birthday but also to share a story.

While sitting around at Austin's birthday party someone noticed a gray hair on J and let her know it was there in case she wanted to take care of it. She smiled and said no thank you, I like my gray hairs. This has always been my response also and I believe I have an answer as to why her and I have always said this.

Obviously J and I have been friends for give or take 20 years and have seen each other through everything, she knows every bad decision I have ever made and still chooses to love me. I remember one such time her and I were siting in Josh Jacobs truck barreling down a dirt road of course not wearing our seat belts, listening to music entirely too loud and squealing in delight every time we would go around a corner (with no guard rails mind you) and Josh would fishtail the entire bed of his full size truck off the road. It's stories like this (and I have a lot of them) that make J and I thankful that we made it to gray hair status. I would never be ashamed of stating that we are 31 years old and have lived a life that while some what questionable at times has been one hell of a ride and I couldn't have picked a better soul mate to take it with. :-D

Here we are long before I had stretch marks hitting the clubs in LA and causing entirely too much trouble. XOXOXOXOX

New Pictures

2011-06-22T14:54:00.004-06:00

Little Miss Tyler Mae laying on the floor of my office.

Austin paying close attention as to not step on the pink blanket which is off limits while her sister in on it. This is what my office looks like in the morning...notice "Elmo" on in the background.

Marmee sitting guard next to Tyler while we were at Little Gym. Austin crawling around like a rabid monkey. :-)

Marmee helping Austin with the balance beam. It was so amazing to have the them out here and be able to show them our lives for a week...including Austin at Little Gym.

Austin showing Tyler a pair of Booties that were gifted to her. Notice the bottle hanging out of my mouth...well little Miss Tyler or as we call her Little Bit, doesn't nurse. It's not like she nurses poorly or anything, I mean doesn't nurse at all. While she was in the hospital a doctor suggested pumping breast milk and supplementing formula to help wash out the jaundice faster...which it totally did and I am forever grateful. In fact she was out of harms way three days sooner than Austin so it worked wonderfully. However it has made her a total bottle baby and me Bessie the Milk Cow. I don't hate pumping and wouldn't mind if I had to do it for the next year other than the night time when I still have to get up, feed Little Bit, change her diaper and then pump which means that I tick away on the rare sleep time that I get in the first place. Oh well such is life, I hope that I can work with her enough to get her to nurse even if just as night but so far when I try all that happens is we both end up in tears.

Austin's pile of presents at her birthday...it is for this reason that we don't buy her anything for birthdays or Christmas.

Bunny Book

2011-06-22T14:27:00.002-06:00

Aunt Laura this one's for you.

Laura, Dan and the girls sent Austin a book called "Here Comes Easter" for Easter and we pretty much read it every night. Austin calls it the Bunny book and since Joe and I have now effectly read this book about a billion times we have taken to making her read it with us. Here is a clip of Joe and Austin reading the other night together.

Tyler's Birth Story

2011-06-22T10:39:00.002-06:00

So with each of the girls I have written out their birth stories while they were still fresh in my memory, obviously they include a lot of detail so if you don't care to know the entire story you can just skip this read. :-)

Tyler's birth story really started weeks before she was actually due. In a routine exam at 34 weeks we found out that Tyler was in a breech transverse lie position. Generally now days breech babies are delivered via c-section and I was terrified to have one. Not only because I didn't want to be cut open but also because with Austin at home and still needing so much help at 2 I couldn't imagine me not being able to pick her up. I started laying upside down on my back at night which made me feel awful and dizzy and going to the chiropractor every morning. Weeks went by and nothing happened so we scheduled an appointment with a doctor that would be willing to deliver Tyler breech if we met certain criteria. He was doing an examination to see where she was and miraculously she had flipped over night. Here starts the waiting game, with this being a second child everyone was sure that she would come early however Tyler had different plans. As we watched the days and weeks pass by still without a baby we started to get somewhat impatient, we had Joe's parents coming into to help with a new baby and to make Austin's transition from being an only child to a big sister as painless as possible but we still didn't have a new baby.
I started having the kind of contractions that will stop you from walking on Monday....Memorial day. I was working around the yard with Austin and Joe enjoying our time fixing sprinklers and playing in the dirt. Every 10-15 minutes I would have to stop what I was doing and wait for a contraction to pass but the past had taught me that if I could still talk through them that I was still doing just fine. I started bleeding ever so slightly and knew that my body was preparing for what would eventually come the next day. I called my Mom and had her come down that evening at 9PM just to hang around the house in case I went into full blown labor that night rather than giving her the 4AM panicked call. We decided to go to bed around 10ish and try and get some sleep. I started having some pretty rough contractions around midnight and tried to get some rest in between them remembering the 28 hours of labor that I had with Austin and realizing that this could be the last rest I get for a while. Finally I woke Joe up around 4ish since they were coming every 5 minutes and that fear of delivering in my car crossed my mind. My Mom was still awake just sitting there reading her book entirely too excited to go to bed, we grabbed the hospital bag that I had finally packed several days before and headed into the hospital. We checked in and went into the triage room where they admit you and figure out how far along you are. I was completely heartbroken and felt like such a sissy when they told me that after now almost 5 hours of contractions at home that I was only dilated to 3cm. At our hospital they won't admit you until you are at a 4, so the triage nurse suggested that we walk the halls for an hour and then get checked again. The walk was amazingly painful, with a lot of whimpering laying my head down on desks and window ledges. The whole time I was thinking to myself that if I go back in and I am not dilated more these kind of contractions are going to be the death of me. They were coming every 2-3 minutes and would stop me in my tracks, Joe followed along faithfully drinking his coffee knowing again from past experience that there is nothing you can do to help. I didn't want to be touched and couldn't be distracted from concentrating on staying standing. I continued to walk past a group of chairs and wishing that I could just sit down for a minute but I knew better than that, I didn't want to sit down I wanted the pain to diminish...which even hanging from my elbows on the space station wouldn't do, so why sit down and take the gravity pressure off the dilation process.
After one hour we went back into the triage area and I got undressed again, to which the nurse noticed that I had blood running down my legs...she said that's a great sign....needless to say she wasn't the one that just ruined her clothing. She checked the dilation and stated congratulations you are at a 6 now. Instantly the pain became so much more bearable, I can deal with it when I know it is doing something but just to feel like that for no reason would have been horrible. The nurse attempted to put an IV in my hand just in case we needed it later but my veins were rolling and she couldn't get it. I had several more contractions and told her that I was pretty sure on that last one that I felt that undeniable urge to push. She checked again and I was at an 8 and now into transition. She smiled and said well it looks like we will get this IV in once we are in the delivery room, I told her I didn't think I wanted to walk to the room after that last set of contractions fearing that Tyler would be born in the waiting room as we were walking. I waited for the next one to pass and we wheeled on down to the delivery room, a sense of pride came over me when we wheeled past the nurses desk and the shift that was getting ready to leave for the night and had mentioned that they wish they could be there for the birth but since it would be a while they couldn't, were now being beckoned to get a delivery cart ready and call the NICU just in case. We got into the delivery room and she got the IV in and my midwife walked in an hour earlier than she should have been there doing her rounds. Sharon smiled and said well it looks like we are going to have a baby in a hurry today huh? I had mentioned wanting to sit in the bath and they said that I could still if I wanted so they drew a bath and Joe helped me into it. They explained that while it was against hospital policy to deliver in the bathtub that it had happened in the past and that everything would be fine. But if I felt the urge to push again that I should pull the red cord next to the bathtub and they would try and get me out of the tub. One contraction came and I yanked on the cord, in walked 5 nurses smiling and reminding me that everything would be ok and that we would try and get me out but if we couldn't it was ok. Several nurses and Joe helped me into the bed that they had wheeled to the bathroom doorway and Sharon checked me again to feel that I was now at a 10 and could start pushing whenever I was ready. I had several more contractions but they were visibly less painful and no more urges to push. I turned on my side and the contractions got worse so I went back to lying on my back. Sharon suggested that I move around some more and I winked at her and said my body is doing just wonderful now and I will wait until it is ready. Sure enough 5 minutes later I felt a small urge to push and started pushing just ever so slightly which must have started the process since the next contraction came with a severe urge and I pushed once and they could see the crown of Tyler's head. I took a breath and waited for one last contractions and two pushes and one cuss word later Tyler's head was out. Sharon suggested that Joe take her and place her on my stomach, while he was hesitant thinking about how slippery she must be Sharon assured him that he would be fine and she wouldn't be harmed. So Joe delivered Tyler up on to me at 7:13AM and we talked and rubbed on her until she started crying and waited until the cord went flat and Joe cut the cord.

When I finally let go of her for the first time she was weighed and accessed, I asked the nurse if she could tell from looking at her if she was in fact 10 days overdue as the calendar suggested. She said that she was off the charts for development and responsiveness and smiled and stated but babies that are born to mother's like you that do it all natural always are. Joe had texted J to grab him a coffee on the way in to watch the birth, so she stopped at Starbucks and when she got to the door of my hospital room was greeted by a baby crying...apparently with second children you don't have the time to stop and get coffee.

Tyler turned out to be jaundiced just like Austin was again with the same blood type issue, Joe is AB and I am O...thus making our girls A and their little bodies fight my blood type. We had to stay an extra day in the hospital much to our disappointment since Joe and Austin were at home anxiously awaiting our arrival. Tyler was cleared to get out but we had to take a billierubin light with us, it was even more heartbreaking to know that she was in her own home and had to be so uncomfortable...finally Joe and I put our foot down and just held her. Luckily her levels had dropped and she didn't need the light therapy anymore.

Hello My Dear Sweet Blog!

2011-06-22T10:15:00.002-06:00

I have had so much to blog about lately but have been running to catch my own tail and haven't had time. It hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday (and thus caused a minor pity party) that I am going to be insanely busy when I have to go back to work - which is quickly approaching.

Can I just give a shout out to Anne if you are reading? I have been going to the store with my two girls now for a couple weeks and I have already warned Joe that if by chance we end up with a third child that we will never have groceries again. Shopping carts and everything about the super market is built for a one child system not for two and certainly three would send me spiraling off into the seventh ring of hell. I spend most of the time laughing out loud so I don't cry and attempting to buy small things that can fit in the cart along with one of the girls that is stuck being back there. I absolutely always park in one of the furthest spots away from the door since I loath door dings and cart bumps - so picture with me if you will unloading the cart in this spot out in the north forties when people come cutting through the parking lot rather than driving in the designated lanes, this last time I stood in front of a guy that attempted to hit me and my cart (thankfully the girls were already in the car) and just busted out laughing and called him pathetic. He could take this insult one of two ways either the way that it was intended that I thought it was insane that he couldn't make the additional 5 foot drive to be in the proper lane rather than almost hitting me or the second way that I believe him to be pathetic in driving an old beat up car while a punk like myself loads her groceries in her Lexus. Either way made me day slightly better and I am sure his worse...task completed.

41 Weeks

2011-05-27T15:03:00.004-06:00

Well at this rate I will just end up giving birth to a toddler and sending her off to school. We are now a week overdue and just playing the waiting game, making absolutely no plans and always making sure that I am picking up my cell phone when it rings so people don't think that I am in labor laying somewhere in a corner of my house. I still feel good, fat, but good. Although last night I went to Joe's softball games and heard a lot of "God now I even feel bad for you and I'm a guy" comments, so apparently I am already starting to get the post-pardum look of death on me. :-)

If I push it too hard during the day I can start to feel some contractions come on that are pretty good ones but other than that just the normal ones. Although thanks to the amnesia that ensures that our planet stays populated I can't seem to remember what labor feels like. I remember whimpering, which I don't do much so it must have been bad but I couldn't describe now if I tried. She is sitting really low which is causing that gimp hip joint of mine to lock in and out of place, so when I stand up and sit down it has to adjust and is doing so at a much slower pace. Again I don't remember when that feeling goes away after delivery, maybe it was right away, that's what I am hoping for. On the bright side with her being so low the horrible heartburn is gone, I don't feel like I am going to breathe acid on anyone anymore...which is always a good thing.

41 Weeks and in honor of the brave women everywhere, one belly shot of the roadmap of stretch marks too. You'll notice little Austin's head in the first shot asking "Mama, what ya dune-nin?"

Someone graduated...

2011-05-25T09:47:00.003-06:00

Austin could "hang" on things all day, which means that we totally got our money's worth out of Little Gym because she didn't have the hand strength before we started.

Here she is with her real metal gradution medal. She was very proud of her necklace and while she did in fact "graduate" we are keeping her in the same class since Joe can come on Mondays.

Here's the little dare devil being flipped over backwards by Miss Alexis. Notice her two hands with the white knuckle grip.

And one that I forgot to post from the Free Comic Book day...gotta love face painting. :-)

Nesting

2011-05-20T09:59:00.002-06:00

I don't think it's fair to call what women who are very pregnant do as "nesting". Some what because most of the time I hear it in a very accusatory fashion "oh here you go nesting", rather than "thank you for picking up after me". But the other part of me is like so many women and the entire house runs because I am either pushing it or dragging it. So while to the outside it looks like I am frantically getting the house ready for a new baby from the inside it should be taken as I am getting ready to not be here for 2-6 days while we are in the hospital.

It's become increasingly more comical to watch me take care of the house what with the waddling and the slow moment. Two days ago I was replacing a sprinkler head and had the hole all dug out when Austin came around the corner with a shovel full of dirt and threw it in the hole, obviously trying to help. So I told her that we couldn't do that part yet and proceeded to spend the next 5 minutes digging back out the hole and clearing the muddy sprinkler line. You know what happens next to a very pregnant lady with giant feet and ankles...when I go to stand up to get the replacement part my elephantiasis takes over and kicks all of that said dirt back into the hole. :-( All I could do was laugh since I was now forced to sit back down and dig it back out. I spend a lot of everyday wheezing from coming up and down the stairs or standing still with one eye closed while my hip pops back in place. I had a crazy lady at Wal-Mart tell me last month that I was sure to deliver AT LEAST two weeks in advance because I was so huge...with my due date tomorrow I wish I could see that crazy old bat and let her know that her Yoda skills are far from superior.

If a butterfly flaps it's wings...

2011-05-19T09:56:00.002-06:00

Remember the mom from my last blog that indicated that if I had started with a boy we wouldn't be having a second child. Well she is currently fighting for her life after being shot 5 times by her boyfriend just before he then turned his gun on that sweet little bendable boy and himself. This all happened just two hours after Little Gym on Monday and has rocked our little family to the core. Unfortunately with working at the Safe House here in town I generally know every women killed from domestic violence, for the most part I have even worked with them so it never gets any easier. But this is my first child killed in a domestic dispute. For the first time ever I am thankful that Austin is so young and I won't have to explain where Gavin is on Monday at Little Gym, pure evil is hard to describe to a 2 year old. The news is painting the parents relationship as this rocky and tumultuous one where something this horrible was just bound to happen. I can assure you that I spent the hour at Little Gym with them and thought nothing of problems between them or any signs of potential violence.

While we weren't close friends with either Gavin or his Mom we saw them every week and discussed parenting 2 year olds and laughed about the chaos that ensues and that little boy will be surely missed. Again, if a butterfly flaps it's wings...where can the effects be felt? As a mom of a child the same age I can't help but think about what will happen if she beats the odds and makes it, will it kill her inside to know that her little boy is gone. I wish I could be there when she wakes up if only to hug her...there aren't words for this type of situation but sometimes the energy that you pass along is enough.

On the home front Austin has gotten extra hugs and just enjoyed M&M's for breakfast. Some how the phrase don't sweat the small stuff just doesn't even come close to describing a situation like this.

What the hell were we thinking...

2011-05-17T10:51:00.003-06:00

So it's time like this morning that I think to myself what the hell were we thinking with having a second child. The first one we just got into a routine, one where I can clean house and write emails...one that pretty much entertains herself and allows for me to get done the endless list of things that I have on my plate everyday. So what would two parents that are feeling the amazing effects of a 2 year old with a great routine do? Have a second child, one that will have no routine and will cause total and complete chaos for the next two years as this little pygmy did thus far. Ahhhh. Perfect! A Mom from Little Gym stopped me yesterday and pointed at my belly and said you know what if you had yourself a boy first you wouldn't be in that predicament spoken as a frazzled mom who at that very moment had to go over and check her son's neck after he did a forward hand spring off a mat onto the floor.

We have a friend that told me a while back how nice it was to see me out and about and looking amazing (right before I got pregnant again and turned back into a water buffalo) and not so run down. I must have looked like I needed her to elaborate some on the run down part because she then started in with the fact that while she was sure that children were amazing she was also sure that Austin was sucking the life from me and I was one step closer to the grave everyday. Now mind you that I don't remember being this tired or run down but apparently people were planning my eulogy and I didn't even realize it. And here we go again...back into a world of no sleep coupled with frustrations that naturally come from having an infant. After all Joe and I only truly started fighting when we had a baby, before that it was simple misunderstandings brought on by 80 proof concoctions of bad decisions on a Friday night. But now with Austin in the middle...someone that we would both dive in front of a moving train for...now that's fighting. That's the gloves are off and I take no prisoners kind of arguments because neither side is willing to give up. I think what we should do is add a second little person in the middle just in case there wasn't enough fuel before. ;-)

Here's my little routine girl drawing a picture for her current best friend Meowser. Playing quietly and peacefully by herself.

Hospice Care

2011-05-12T13:52:00.000-06:00

My dogs both have an auto-immune disease that causes their immune system to attack the soft tissue in their bodies. That being said the soft tissue around the nose, eyes and ears coupled with their paws literally will develop scabs and fall off...picture leprosy if you will. Now before you starts feeling sorry for these pure-bred morons let me assure that in no way shape or form do these two idiots have any idea they are sick. We give them steroids to suppress their immune system so it doesn't attack them as much and other than the fact that they both put on weight easier than me at a donut shop now there really isn't much wrong with them. I can't take them jogging with me anymore since their paws are more sensitive so I had to put them on diet dog food...wow is that gross. You open the bag and when you would normally smell something of meat (unknown from what animal) now you get a giant waft of vegetables...bet that's tasty to a dog. The entire reason that I still call them "dummies" on a daily basis is because even though they are both old as hell and basically living in Hospice Care they will both on occasion do something as if they were puppies. Moose (this one was definitely a puppy mill dog here, we call him cute but slow) will chew up baby girls toys about once a week. And Ty (the older supposed to be smarter of the two) literally barks at anything including me if I change my clothes. At this point I am kind of hoping that he is going blind just so I can stop thinking that he just doesn't put two and two together.

The only part that I even feel semi guilty for is that I call them dummies all the time. Com'on Dummies go outside, upstairs or where ever else I am sending them. So baby girl was walking past them laying in my room the other day scoffed and said "dummies" and kept on walking. You know that you have hit rock bottom even in the animal kingdom when a two year old mocks you. I even tried after that to be nicer and call them things like "the boys" but while bending over for 10 minutes, 15 months pregnant picking of shards of a sand toy that Moose disintegrated...the old Crystal came back and they are rightfully being called dummies again.

King Sized Bed

2011-05-10T14:15:00.002-06:00

There is only one bad part about a king sized bed...the bedding. Both the cost and having to make that monstrosity are just absolutely horrible. I just spent the last 20 minutes wrestling with sheets and the 6 pillows it takes to make the bed look complete not to mention the fact that the last set of sheets I bought were from Target and still cost over a hundred bucks, I can't even window shop at Bed Bath & Beyond. Which brings me to another point, I thought everything at Target was under a hundred dollars as some kind of rule? I could have sworn that I saw an entire patio set for less than those sheets.

Black star for Mom of the year award today goes to hearing Mommy, Mommy and turning around to find Austin with her head in a gallon sized zip lock baggie running around my office. Of course I did what anyone would do at this point and got mad at her because clearly I had no blame in this matter. ;-)

Speaking of Austin her newest nickname is "stinky feet", which she absolutely has earned. Her feet actually stink so bad after she plays around outside that I wash them before I will let her on the couch. I am hoping that this new "stinky poo-poo" feet smell (as Austin calls it) is just due to the new shoes I have her in and not something that she will be mortified from on first dates.

Toothbrush follies...

2011-05-09T16:03:00.002-06:00

So while I am in the shower at my most vulnerable time clearly not being able to suck in and in need of makeup but not wearing any, Austin likes to point at me and say "yucky". While I can assure you I do not ask her to elaborate on what about me in this moment is yucky, I don't doubt she says this because she can't say "hot mess" yet. In order to get her peering eyes and criticism off me I relinquish my Sonicare toothbrush to her and allow her to take it on an adventure through my bedroom. I am the least worried person ever about germs so the thought of what she could be doing with my poor toothbrush never crosses my mind, until this weekend at which time I put that toothbrush in my mouth only to find it covered in dog hair and God only knows what else. Yummmm, that sounds awesome huh? In hindsight maybe I will just let her call me yucky.

Between J and I together I can guarantee you that we can find the most obscure and totally fun things to do on a weekend. I think it is because we are double dark, black belt warriors of Internet searching...or whatever else they would calls us at the International Web Search Finals. J managed to find that it was Free Comic Book day on Saturday so we headed on downtown for lunch, comic books at face painting. On the way to this extravaganza we drove through the Starbucks drive through and just in case people don't realize how powerful brand recognition is...Austin pointed at the sign and said "coffee", now that's marketing for ya. While making forced small talk with the drive through lady she asked when I was due, when I said "days from now" she said "yeah I can totally tell". Note to self those that are reading my blog, when you say this to a pregnant women who gets called yucky every morning by a two year old in the shower there is only one way for it to be taken. Good God do you look fat this morning! Just skip it, ask when they are due and say something like congratulations...that's it, nice and simple.

A bunch of nothing...

2011-05-06T10:19:00.002-06:00

MSNBC ran an article in honor of mother's day describing what a stay-at-home mom is worth. They even included a link to a salary calculator to see what your actual pay should be in your area. Apparently here in the Springs I should be making $108,000 for watching PBS right now with Austin. I remember before I had kid(s) I always said that I could never be a stay-at-home mom, probably because I run on food, water and compliments and the chief complaint that I hear from my friends that have tried staying at home (none of which were successful) was that after every day of keeping everything is order it was hard to even get a thank you much less a pat on the back. I quite obviously have a very different type of situation going on since I get to stay at home with Austin and work, but it became painfully apparent the other day watching Austin figure something out for herself that if for some reason I needed to give up something in my life due to time constraints that work would be the first to go. While that would mean that we would in fact have to hunt our own food I just don't see another option until the girls are in school.

Not only do I refuse to celebrate a person's death but again I can't stand to see so much acceptable racism flying around after we "got" Osama bin Laden. I was listening to people talking about how we killed the Muslim or the jihad or worse yet...ones that I won't type on my blog. Labeling bin Laden a Muslim for any other reason than to describe what religion he believes in would be as much of a shame as to say the church that pickets soldiers funerals are Christians. They may believe that the work they are doing is in Christ's footsteps but I assure you that is only one part of their personality and thus only one of the descriptive words that can be used to describe them. If all Muslims were violent or believed what bin Laden did we would live in a much darker society since the Muslim religion is still the largest.

Two cases here in town lately have caused me to question some of our means in which to punish those that break the law. One case a mother left her two children in the bath tub while she went across the street to a store. The two year old got out of the bath tub and turned back on the hot water thus scalding and drowning his 8 month old brother. In the other case a mom and her aunt bound a two year old girl with tape and placed her in a cold shower for spilling her drink. She nearly drowned but didn't and is recovering in the hospital. So here's my issue. I believe the first mom is negligent and shouldn't be allowed to be around any one's children much less her own, but I do not believe that she is a danger to society. Whereas the second mom and her aunt tortured another human being, a helpless one at that. Of course with the way laws are written the first mom will end up having far greater punishment since the boy died and I completely agree that this poor little boy never has the chance to grow up and leave his childhood behind like the little girl in shower does, I just worry about the severity of punishment for negligent death vs. torture.

I found a website dedicated to what women's bodies look like after pregnancy that was truly inspirational. I know for myself that I have a lot of stretch marks not just on my stomach but my hips, thighs and just about anywhere else my skin could fit one in and they have been a source of embarrassment ever since they showed up. And even when I ran in the IronMan I still had a flabby midsection where the skin had been stretched to accommodate Austin's 8 pound body. I hated it and only found myself dreading what would be a worse hot mess after baby two. That is until I was reading through this website and found how many women look just like I did, some in shape some not, some all stretched to beat the band like me and some not...but all totally exposed and totally fine with it. It was a great feeling to read through their updates about how miraculous their bodies were in allowing a whole other (or multiple) person to grow inside them. Just in case any of you need an inspirational website today...http://theshapeofamother.com.

Cousins...our first friends.

2011-05-05T16:56:00.003-06:00

Watching Curious George together...or "monkey" as Austin refers to it.

Playing with bubbles on a beautiful Colorado day.

A big sigh of relief...

2011-05-03T10:49:00.003-06:00

We had an appointment with a doctor yesterday to see about giving birth naturally to a breech baby. He walked us through some of the scarier scenarios while I gritted my teeth, but all the while he was very nice and made me feel better about the upcoming decisions. Then to check the baby's position we went and had an ultrasound only to find out that she had flipped and was head down. :-) It must have happened the day before which I think I could feel. I was walking to the door to let the dogs in and had this sharp sudden pain in my lower abdomen, looking back at the feeling it was probably her head finally resting on the lower section of my stomach. I was so happy in the ultrasound room that I almost started to cry, which I mentioned to Joe and he reminded me that I cry for everything else I might as well cry when I'm happy too. ;-) I won't be sad to see the additional hormones go, they definitely make me more of a "crier" which I don't need any help with.

So now we start the hurry up and wait part - which I am extremely excited about. I am even super excited about the pain, and puking on myself and everything else that went along with it. Although I must say in the day and age when we can put a man on the moon it still baffles me that we can't narrow down a delivery date past a 5 week window. Being in the 38th week we are looking at sometime between this afternoon and next month...comforting to say the least. :-)

We picked up a new couch on Sunday, we had recliners in the living room which were great but didn't allow for much seating and it's tough to saw Austin in half so she can sit on both our laps. Austin has since turned the living room into her own jungle gym, which I can't blame her because I would have done the exact same thing when I was young.

This was our living room last night while I was busy cooking dinner. :-D

Our Easter...

2011-04-25T09:54:00.002-06:00

Here are a couple of pictures from Easter at our place. We had everyone over for a Ham/Beef Tenderloin dinner and ate and drank with family...a perfect Sunday.

Aunt J sitting with Austin who is about three knuckles deep in the ranch dip.

Spike and Ike cracking up at something, probably that J said.

Dying eggs with Dad, her toungue is always out of her mouth when she is concentrating.

This one is actually from the Museum of Natural History. J and I are taking advantage of all the amazing things to see in Colorado now that Austin is old enough to have fun. Here is the little pea pod after she found a slide in the kids section.

A prayer for Mom's of daughters by Tina Fey

2011-04-18T20:57:00.003-06:00

I was tagged in this on Facebook by an old high school friend and thought it was too cute not to share. “First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches. May she be beautiful but not damaged, for it’s the damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty. When the crystal meth is offered, may she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half and stick with beer. Guide her, protect her when crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age. Lead her away from acting but not all the way to finance.Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels. What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, dammit. May she play the drums to the fiery rhythm of her own heart with the sinewy strength of her own arms, so she need not lie with drummers. Grant her a rough patch from twelve to seventeen.Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, for childhood is short – a tiger flower blooming Magenta for one day – and adulthood is long and dry-humping in cars will wait. O Lord, break the internet forever, that she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed. And when she one day turns on me and calls me a bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that shit. I will not have it. And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back. “My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a mental note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with your God eyes. Amen.”

Lying to myself

2011-04-13T10:28:00.002-06:00

We found out a week and a half a go that baby #2 is breech and we go back in on Monday to see if she has turned on her own or if we have to look into other options. Of course in this scenario other options are more than likely a c-section. I have been trying to come to terms with the pending surgery but no matter how cheery I seem on the outside I haven't slept well since we heard. I blame our natural birth classes, we took 8 weeks of classes when I was pregnant with Austin that basically went into great detail as to how horrible c-sections are for baby and mom. Now to be presented with one due to unexplained reasons is hard to swallow. I have read every medical journal, blog, and news article I can get my hands on and still rest no easier. While the logical side of me completely agrees that if it is safest for baby then we just need to schedule it, the part that has done so much research is fighting the sane part of my brain. I have been going to the chiropractor to try and turn her and while I am completely bruised she is still sitting pretty darn happy...and sideways, which is the other bummer. She's not even feet down, but rather laying across my (what I can only imagine) too big of an abdomen sideways. I read yesterday about some rather unorthodox births where a baby can come out bottom first but the mom has to undergo A LOT of stitches to make that happen and of course if the baby's heartbeat drops for any reason you are rushed in for the scary emergency c-section anyways. I read a story about a baby who had a sack of fluid next to their spine and was breech, as it turns out if the baby had been born naturally the sack would have had so much pressure applied to it that the baby would have been instantly paralyzed but instead was born via c-section and underwent surgery just fine. I thought for sure that would make me feel better but alas it did not. So here I sit worried about things I cannot change which is breaking one of my cardinal rules, hoping beyond reason that all the medical journals are false and there won't be bonding issues, or breastfeeding issues, or onset asthma, increased illness and failure to thrive. Not to mention that I actually just laughed out loud thinking of me being able to take two full weeks off to heal. I have already promised to begin checking emails when I get home from the hospital oh yeah and that two year old little girl I have running around that I won't be able to pick up.

Two peas in a pod

2011-04-05T14:10:00.003-06:00

So it was taken with a cell phone thus the grainy appearance, but these two are twins separated by 50 years.

Tadd's Birthday

2011-03-25T10:06:00.002-06:00

Tadd's birthday is in March and while we don't really celebrate birthdays I always use his to do at least something. And while buying items for Tadd doesn't make much sense, considering Austin and I were shopping for a new watch with him the other day that was worth five times more than my first car, I do like to use the excuse to make some kind of memory. Most of the time he and I go and see a comedian we have seen Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Ron White and countless others in our years of birthdays. But for the last two years since the comedians have been slim pickin's we have watched basketball. This year we are heading back up to the Nuggets on Wednesday night, we have center court 4 rows back and they were not quite as expensive as the earlier mentioned watch. :-) Probably because him and I have played basketball all our lives together, but we just sit there in amazement as these giant men check into the game, we have seats right behind the statisticians bench so the players all check in right there. I guess you can't understand how big a 7'2" man is until you see them standing there. Watching a TV screen you would think the refs are all very small men/woman (yes there is one woman ref in the NBA) but they are at least as tall as I am and most are taller. But the players just dwarf them. I can't wait! I have always lived by the motto that life is about the memories you take with you since you can lose everything else (spoken as a true house fire survivor) this is no exception.

My new favorite website...

2011-03-24T14:18:00.002-06:00

So I bought the movie "Waiting For Superman" and while I sat there crying watching how we are failing our children, I noticed a gift card for $25 to donorschoose.org in the DVD box. Intrigued by this card I went on line and clicked through a truly mesmerizing website. On this site teachers make a project request for something that they need in their classrooms, the request comes with an invoice and exact product details of what they need along with a page dedicated to their classroom and a bio explaining why the materials are needed. I read through the need in Colorado Springs and was touched by one teacher who wanted life science supplies for her first grade classroom. Science was my favorite subject in school, at one point I was taking 4 sciences in one year and my lowest grade was a 104%, needless to say I had some drive. So the thought of being able to give first graders a small taste of my passion meant the world to me. She needed close to $600 to fund the entire year's curriculum in her class so I gave the $25 gift card and matched that with my own $25. Then 5 other donors got on and donated some money too and within two weeks her project was funded. Once a project is fully funded a representative from DonorsChoose.org buys all the supplies and delivers them to the classroom. I didn't think much of it after I donated until I received this email yesterday from her...

Dear Crystal Wells,

It was such an unexpected surprise when I opened my email to find that my project had been funded! Since I have submitted it, we began studying living organisms and the students have been so excited! I purchased some meal worms from the pet store and they were a big hit. Little do they know that more living organisms are on the way!

They continually ask when it will be science time and that brings me the greatest feeling that I have somehow contributed to their interest in the world around them. Hopefully this curiosity will be the catalyst for their future contribution to the community in which they live.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for recognizing the importance of this project to the education of children and finding the funds to support it.
With gratitude,
Mrs. L.

What an amazing way to match people like me who are willing to give with people like this teacher who want to change children's lives. So today I had to go back on the site and donate again, this time to a literacy program that needs new books because lets face it we are a super power and the thought of children not being able to read here is disgraceful.

And our new fence...

2011-03-21T14:15:00.003-06:00

The two new side to the fence.

The old one that came down today to be replaced tomorrow.

More Little Gym

2011-03-21T13:44:00.004-06:00

I took more videos today at Little Gym of Austin being a big girl. ;-)

Austin learning a front roll on the "hot dog".

Austin learning how to jump on two feet.

Austin finally being able to hold herself up on the bar, and my big ol' belly! :-)

Front roll off the big donut.

Alexis teases that Joe should be a class helper since the kids (especially the little boys) all flock to him.

Bubble time!

Austin beating to the sound of drums.

20's vs 30's

2011-03-18T13:58:00.002-06:00

So obviously there are a lot of differences between your 20's and your 30's. Let me talk about a new one that I just noticed. I get a bonus every year, well god willing and the creek don't rise, I get a bonus. Back in my 20's a bonus would surely be spent in Vega$ or some other form of questionable means. Now this 31 year old sits here and stares at her new fence in the backyard. We decided that the one side of the fence that we got done was too beautiful to pass up, so we spent the rest of the bonus on the other two sides. Money that was once a glimmering token from Caesar's Palace can now be found in pre-treated wood. I've always embraced getting older, I love the feeling of becoming wiser and more patient...so it's not really a bad thing looking at my fence, just more of a "thing". An observation for the universe. You know, a gentle reminder that some day I will be wearing dentures and talking about when milk was 3 bucks a gallon. :-)

My weekend

2011-03-14T16:44:00.002-06:00

So J and I "raced" in a 5K on Saturday. The day was beautiful and Austin had fun with Grandma and Uncle Dane while we "ran". Notice all the quotes every where. Turns out even walking was kicking my butt, we got passed at one point by a guy who bless his heart was limping and dragging his 85 year old leg behind him. Yep you read that right, a gimp passed us. To which we could just laugh. Of course J being the ever supportive friend didn't even give me the patronizing don't worry you're doing great speech but instead would go tit for tat with my complaints. You would have thought we were war vets if you had the patience to walk along side us and listen.

Got home and all hung out for a while before I had to start working. My evil workmates scheduled a maintenance window for me that started at midnight EST. So I powered up my laptop here at 9PM and started making my changes. Of course Murphy and her laws got all caught up in my business and managed to blow my maintenance window right out of the water. The next day I took a nap around 1ish in the afternoon for a couple hours and back up until midnight last night. My ever wonderful team must have missed my voice though because they paged me before 6 this morning too. I have to say that watching the terror in Japan and the fact that they are facing a nuclear disaster that will eventually melt their fish to the ocean floor makes me feel better that it is only Verizon's Customer Service reporting that is down when I have a bad day. Not sure how good everyone else is at math, but lets just say I have already put in over 40 hours for the week just this weekend. :-( And I can also tell ya that I can't remember ever pulling an all nighter where I wasn't at least a little drunk and as it stands now I can't even have more than one lousy cup of coffee a day. Like that can possibly touch the fatigue that I am feeling.

On a brighter note, I am sitting here watching my new fence go up. We are just replacing the whole backside for now since it had blown down and fencing is incredibly expensive, so we'll do it one side at a time. Luckily it is my main focal point from my office so it makes me very happy to have replaced it first. :-)

Meet the newest DiFabio!

2011-03-10T11:50:00.003-07:00

Our Doctor gives you a 3D ultrasound in the third trimester as a gift, which is a great way to see what the baby looks like at this point.

I thought it was cute that she was giving us the peace sign. :-) I can feel her ability to change the world already.

And here's her precious little face....with a clip of what Austin looked like. Hard to tell if they will look just like each other from the pictures but I thought it was cool to be able to compare them even in utero.

And the belly...

2011-03-07T15:19:00.002-07:00

So here I was on Sunday, which is the start of my 30th week.

And here I was with Austin at 28 weeks, told you that belly was bigger. :-)

Oh yeah and just in case anyone was curious as to what my stupid arm looks like. I was very happy to hear today at my doctors appointment that I passed my glucose test and will not have to repeat it. Thank goodness I don't think my arm could handle anymore blood draws for a while.

A Quick Update

2011-03-03T10:28:00.002-07:00

Wow, I can't believe February is already gone. I turned around and had to start writing 3/1/11 on documents...how did that happen?

Austin -

We'll do her first since she is by far the most fun. She is moments away from speaking in sentences, she can already put words together but just skips the helper words. The little spider monkey stopped my heart by jumping out of her crib yesterday. She was taking a nap and had woken up but I could just hear her in there playing so I was finishing up some work, when all of the sudden I heard a big thud and then crying and when I got in there she was standing next to her crib sobbing and saying "fall". At least she wasn't hurt but it still stopped my heart. I find it increasingly harder not to repeat her words back to her rather than correcting them with what the actual word is, some of them are so darn cute. Bummie = Sponge Bob, Mankie = Blanket, Meow = Cat, Wanna = Water and by far the word that is the furthest from the actual one is Ball-Sa which is her version of toothbrush. She enjoys closing doors but can't open them yet. We got her a little potty but she just plays with it so far, we haven't actually started the potty training process. She still eats anything we put in front of her and sees all spicy food as a challenge, one that must be met and exceeded. The other day she had eaten so much spicy food that her lips swelled up. Goof ball.

The business and Joe -

Joe has been enjoying an "Epic" year of snowboarding with more snow than anyone knows what to do with, I am hoping for these same results next year. :-) The business is doing great and he continues to be the leader in the industry and is known as being the go to person. We actually just celebrated the 1 year anniversary of being open on February 25Th. Hard to believe that one full year has come and gone.

Pregnancy -

Well I am into the third trimester without even realizing it. I still feel good although I am starting to waddle, my belly is definitely bigger this time and if I run up the stairs I start to wheeze. I went in on Tuesday for my diabetic screening and if how you feel is indicative of whether or not you failed, I failed that SOB with flying colors. For those of you that have not recently been pregnant, you spend 12 hours fasting and just when you think you can't take it anymore and are going to gnaw your arm off they give you a super sugary drink - for one moment you think to yourself thank the stars that I got something in my system but the spike in sugar makes you feel light headed and "funny". You then sit there for an hour all while the blood tech asks you every 10 minutes "how ya feeling?", and desperately wanting to tell him "like crap" but if you do you know that he will whisk you away in an ambulance because something most be going wrong. So instead you smile, nod and say never better. By the time they drew my blood I was shaking and had sweat running down my face. Let me put it this way if I passed that damn test and that was how I was supposed to be feeling, that is just torturous and mean. If I failed I have to do the same test over but this time with a 3 hour window rather than just one, I hope they have a cot for me to pass out on. I don't remember the test for Austin being that rough, perhaps I was still in denial and thinking that pregnancy was a weakness that I was going to overcome or maybe my body has changed that much is two years. Oh yeah and when he drew my blood apparently something went very wrong because I now have a 3"x5" bruise on my arm that Austin calls "messy" and attempts to scrub off with one of her wet wipes. At least the swelling went down but I am still stuck in long sleeves so child protective services doesn't yank Austin away from her heroin addicted mother.

The Little Gym

2011-02-14T17:45:00.003-07:00

Ever wondered what it looks like trying to teach 2 year olds gymnastics?!?!?! Watch as poor Alexis tries. :-)

Lunch Time

2011-02-03T14:26:00.001-07:00

Our little German baby eating her Corned Beef and Cabbage. :-)

Playing Russian Roulette

2011-02-02T11:55:00.002-07:00

A few years ago there was a concert special on TV that caught my attention and after listening to one song I couldn't turn them off. There name is Dispatch and they *were* a garage band that made it, so of course right from the beginning I completely loved them. Thinking back to the bands that I have listened to in garages and parks...imagine if they made it. By this point I was intrigued as to why I was watching them in Madison Square Gardens and why they continued to thank everyone for coming out for their reunion weekend. I did some digging and it turns out the band comprised of three friends who traveled to South Africa to do some volunteer work several years back and as their song states "distance is short when your hand carries what your eye found". Basically after seeing South Africa they couldn't chase their own dreams and dissolved the band, started up a non-profit and work in Africa helping where they can. When they run out of money they join back together and travel to the US performing a few concerts to get more funding for their work. They are coming to Colorado June 3rd, 4th, and 5th (they had to add two extra dates because they sell out so quickly). I bought tickets to this epic event even though my due date is May 21st. So hopefully I will be able to leave new little baby girl at home with Joe and support a truly amazing band, but if not I will give the tickets away and know that my small contribution will help a child around the world.

New Videos...

2011-02-02T11:17:00.002-07:00

This one is actually an old video but made me laugh this morning so I thought I would share.

Here's Joe and Miss Wild Thing playing.

And them practicing a flip.

It's cold outside...

2011-02-02T10:09:00.002-07:00

Like not even fun cold, -10 right now cold. I know it's winter and some people expect this kind of cold but assure you that I am not one of them. When you look at the fact that it was 75 on Friday and -10 today I feel like I am on Survivor. The news has a constant scroll of the businesses that are closed due to pipes bursting which means the pipe guys are making a lot of money but have to work in crappy conditions. In fact it's so cold baby girl and I haven't left the house in three days, I haven't even gone to the gym...at 5am it's even colder and my car would probably eject me when I tried to start it.

Speaking of baby girl, her new words are "dang" and "amazing"...hmmm I wonder who her Mom is? The word amazing is super cute but the word dang just makes her sound like a hillbilly which means that apparently I sound like a hillbilly too, I guess at least it's not "damn".

Too many pictures...

2011-01-31T14:17:00.005-07:00

Austin at The Little Gym. We take her there on Mondays for "gymnastics class", I put that in quotes because it is really just semi-organized chaos.

Austin being a goofball in between some of the bars.

It was entirely too nice to be at work on Friday, my parents happened to agree so we all took the day off and went to the Pueblo Zoo. It was sunny and 75 degrees, not quite January weather but that's why we all love Colorado. In this picture Austin is calling Grandma like you would a dog and patting her legs...like "comon' Grandma catch up". And you can totally tell that my belly is getting bigger everyday and I definitely think it's bigger this time around than with Austin.

Austin could only be bothered by each animal for a couple of minutes before Little Miss Independent had to move on.

Grandpa helped her get up on that camel which totally made her whole day.

Here we are eating Mexican food before the Zoo, Austin's new favorite thing is anything "spicy". I think she sees it as some sort of challenge.

Austin and Grandpa petting the metal bears.

Looking at the big hairy cows.

Me trying to convince Austin to look at Grandma instead of me.

She loves any place without boundaries where she can just run around (preferably without hills so she doesn't fall).

Holding Grandpa's hand to make it over the bridge.

Austin's New Book

2011-01-20T11:35:00.002-07:00

My Mom recorded a book for Austin for Christmas and last night was our first time letting her read it. I thought her expressions were too cute to pass up. :-)