Play Date

Well, Sunday Sydney and I had a play date. We went to see my friend Carrie from work, and her 2 kids. Christian, who will be 2 in Feb and Isaac, who is 3 weeks. We exchanged a couple of gifts and was able to catch up on some things, since Carrie has been away from work for 3 weeks, and won't be back for another 4. :( Sydney got this really cool puzzle book from Christian and Issac, and she loves it. She also loved playing with all of Christians toys, and racing Christian around the kitchen with little chairs. She wasn't to sure of Isaac at first, she wanted me to "put him back (in the bouncer) " when I first picked him up, but she warmed up quickly and realized that he was no threat to her mom, she even held him for a couple of minutes!

Christmas is here and gone again!

Cole, Sara, Sydney, Alex and Jacob

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. We have been very busy over the past month, with a "Christmas" almost every weekend. Dec 13th we had Christmas at Aunt Marlenes with Derek's extra extended family, Dec 20th we had 2 Christmas', one at Aunt Marcia's with Dereks extended family (cousins, etc) , and one at Brett's and Robyns with my brothers and parents. The first picture up top is all of the cousins from Brett and Robyn's house. Then Christmas Eve we went to my mom's house with my Dad's side of the family. 2nd picture is of Sydney in her Christmas dress, and the 3rd picture is her and cousin Bella. Christmas Day we opened gifts at our house, went to Derek's parents for awhile, and then went to Waterloo to my uncle Chuck's house for my moms side of the family. The next pictures are Syd opening gifts at home. ( my camera died, so i didn't get many) We finally wrapped Christmas up this past Saturday at Derek's parents with family. We did manage to work in a visit to Santa, Sydney just wasn't real sure about him, and the only reason she was on his lap is because he had a candy cane. :D I was right next to her the whole time, and she didn't freak out like I thought she would.

Sydney got lots of cool things for Christmas, lots of Clipos (block things) movies, coloring things, books, clothes, etc. It was a very good (but long) Christmas season. Next to come is 2009! Wow, right around the corner too.

One more note for today.
I "Elfed" our family.... Pretty funny.
Check it out @
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/Zejppn05HJIOSE0kiKBj

Happy Holidays!!

So, we are officially in our Big Girl Bed! Yay. The first night she slept in it was Friday the 12th, and she does pretty good. Except for the fact that she gets up before 7 now, when before, I would have to wake her up at 7:30 during the week to get ready, and she was sleeping until 8 on the weekends in her crib. I think it is the light, in her other room, we had room darkening shades, and we didn't move them to the new room, so any and all light comes in the windows. Oh well, her getting up early during the week actually helps me out, but if she would only sleep late on the weekends. :) ( I like my sleep, and if she doesn't sleep, I don't sleep) Not sure if we will move the shades or just get used to her getting up early.

Fun Filled Weekend...

Well, as I sit here bored at work, because the whole network is down, I figured I would update with notes and pictures from our exciting weekend.

Derek went hunting with his cousin Brian, he left Thursday night, and came back yesterday morning..He didn't shoot anything, but then again, it is hard to see anything to shoot when you don't leave the cabin. :)

While he was gone, Sydney and I took Saturday and hung out with Brian's girlfriend and 2 of her kids, Maddie and Drake. They had gone to Breakfast with Santa at Drake's school, and then came to get Syd and I. We went to the Mouse House in Caseyville, where the kids got to go shopping for mom and dad and grandparents. It was really neat. I had never done anything like that before, and Sydney was a trooper. Adults weren't allowed in the shopping area, so she got her bag, and grabbed the hand of an "elf" (who happened to be "Aunt Jan") and she didn't look back as they went into this room with no Mom.. Drake went shopping for himself and Maddie, because Maddie was to shy to go with an "elf" she didn't know, she is very lucky to have a good big brother like Drake. After the mouse house, we went to Bandanas to eat, then we went to Pottery Hollow in Glen Carbon.. If you have never been there, or never heard of it, it is a really neat place, and a good thing to do on a cold day when there isn't much else to do. We spent a couple of hours in there, and the kids had a blast. Sydney painted 2 different bowl/plate things, and I painted a plate for the house. Maddie did a very good job on her reindeer, and Drake painted a tree plate. Christie painted a Christmas Tree that will have lights in it, very cool.

We went home after that, and rested from our long day with no nap. All in all, it was a very relaxing fun day, and I hope we get to do it again soon. Here are some pictures from our day.

Maddie waiting for Syd and Drake to get done shopping

The 3 of them after all shopping was done.

Sydney painting

Maddie painting.

Christie painting.

Drake painting

The new baby is going to be a....

Girl or a boy! Fooled you. :)

We went to the Dr for my 12 week appt yesterday, usually, they check the heartbeat with this little microphone thing, but, like with Syd, they couldn't find the heartbeat. So, she took us to the room next door that had a 1950's ultrasound (not really that old, but might as well have been) and we checked for baby. We could see a little bean in there (barely), jumping around like crazy, but they still couldn't get a good reading on the heartbeat and she thought I might not be as far along as we originally thought, so she ordered me for an ultrasound at the Imaging Center. Honestly, at this point, I wasn't worried, I saw the bean jumping around, so I knew it was there, just kinda bummin if I wasn't as far along as originally thought. We went to the Imaging Center, and they did the ultrasound, very cool. My due date is right on, the Dr had me at 12 weeks 3 days, and the ultrasound showed 12 weeks 1 day. So, my due date is still 6/16.

The heartrate was 168, very strong because they say anywhere from 120-180 is good. Wives tales say that the stronger the heartbeat, that it is a girl, but the tech said she doesn't believe that, so I am not putting faith in the heartrate determining what we are having. They also measured the baby, and it is 5.56cm long-about 2 1/4 inches...and as you can see from pictures below, it already has defined fingers and toes. We could see the spine, and ribs, and almost make out nose and chin. It was all very neat.

My next Drs appt is Jan 6, and I will be 17 weeks then. I can do another ultrasound anywhere from 18-20 weeks, and we should be able to tell what it is at that point.

Well, anyway, here are the cute little pictures from yesterday!! Some of them are kinda small, but if you click on them, it should bring a bigger version up for you to look at.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Well, here we are, another Thanksgiving, which means another year is almost over. It seems crazy to me how fast the years are going. I hope everyone got enough to eat, and was able to spend time with family and friends, some we only see a couple of times a year.

My side of family takes turns for Thanksgiving, meaning one year we go to my Mom's side of the family, and the next we go to Dad's side. This year was Mom's side, and we always go to Grandpa Joes house. Aunt Debbie is the coordinator, and always does a wonderful job! We also went to see Derek's family at his Aunt Marlenes house, we got there late, and missed the dinner, although Derek enjoyed a piece of every apple pie possible while we were there, and took some home with us.

Below are pictures of Sydney at each Thanksgiving.. well, last year we don't have her on Thanksgiving, but it is about 5 days before Thanksgiving. She has changed so much in the last 2 years.

2006 (5 days old)

2007

2008

Also, here are some random pictures from this Thanksgiving:

Sydney and friends Maddie and Drake at Aunt Marlene's

Sydney and Grandpa Denny

I opted not to go shopping on Black Friday, although, I probably should have. I was doing good going into November, had pretty much everyone done, now, as we keep drawing more names for different things, I am behind. Oh well, it will get done before Christmas, it always does. Instead of shopping on Friday, Derek and I decided to paint. We sent Sydney to Dena's and painted her new room and one wall in our living room. We are very happy with the way that both turned out. (pictures below)

Living room before

Living Room After

Sydney's room (saying above her closet)

Her new walls

We had a fairly uneventful, but full weekend, sad to have to go back to work today. Oh well, gotta pay for those Christmas presents somehow.

Out for today, will try to update again soon!

New to me

Ok, so I have friends and family that have a blog, and just for grins, I thought I would try it.
If nothing else, this is a way for people to keep up with Sydney as she grows. There is no guarantee it will be updated often, or that it will be interesting, but here goes.


I have used Matt and Robyn Pfershy's blog to keep track of their growing girls and it is like getting to see how they grow and what they are up to. I am hoping that maybe our little blog will be able to do that for someone.


So, to begin, incase anyone doesn't know our background-here it is.


Derek and I have been together for almost 6 years now. Our first date was actually on a Friday the 13th. Kinda scary for some, but it worked out for us. We got married on Oct 8, 2005, and little miss was born Nov 19, 2006. She was born weighing 6lbs 12oz, and18.5 inches long. Definately on the small side, and has continued to stay small. She is now 2 (wow-time flies) and at her check up last week she weighed 23 lbs 8 oz, and was 32 inches tall. So, she is still small, but still growing up.


Sydneys biggest news lately is that she is a true "big girl" now. She is going potty on the potty and not in diapers anymore. Yay for us and her!!! No more diapers... well.... that kinda leads into Derek and I's biggest news lately...


We are expecting again! I am due 6/16/09-which puts me at 11 weeks and 2 days right now. (still have a long way to go) If this baby is born on the due date, it will have a birthday right in between 2 cousins. Sara's birthday is 6/15 and Cole's birthday is 6/17. Would be kindof cool if all the birthdays were together.


Well, i guess i will wrap up for tonight. Will try to post more later. The pictures are Sydney's 2 year pictures.