mrk

maggie reese.  10 days away from her 7th birthday.  we still keep an eye on her activity due to her hip dysplasia, but she still loves to play fetch until about 14 throws after she’s reached her limit.  most recently we took her to the vet for an eye infection.  while there, i asked them about one of toe nails which way to frequently bleeds when playing fetch.  turns out it was swollen quite a bit.  after some xrays it was thought that it probably wasn’t infected, but since that is best case scenario, we are treating it with 30 days of antibiotics and hoping that it is back to normal when we head back for a follow up xray.  if it’s not better the recommended course of action, is to have her toe amputated.  i’m sure i don’t even want to know the price tag on that type of thing.  we’re just going to hope it’s all better.

been busy

lately:

the skies have been fairly blue

the grass is greening

the leaves are budding out

the perennials are making a comeback

which means we’re:

going on walks

lots of walks

rolling in the grass

fighting the wind

and loving every minute of spring’s return!

backyard fun

fall must be on it’s way.  slowly but surely we are having more and more weather that makes it enjoyable to be playing outside.  although at 31 weeks preggo i’m not up for running around playing kick the ball and such, i still love being outside with the family after dinner.  last night was one of those perfectly fun evenings to be out (especially since both kids napped until 5pm).

also, for any who are curious, potty training went alright yesterday.  she had an accident in the morning (luckily we were playing outside) after refusing to go on the potty several times in a row.  after that though, things went really well.  she peed in the potty 4 times between late morning and bedtime.  by bedtime she was intentionally peeing as soon as you would sit her down.  it clicked with her, and it was wonderful.  she did wet her diaper at nap, and she pooped in her nighttime diaper shortly after going to bed, but i expect that type of thing to happen for at least a while.  i am thrilled with the progress we made yesterday.  today has also gotten off to a good start.  she has peed on the potty 3 times (one time she told me she needed to!!!), and she hasn’t had any accidents!!!  i know we’ll have some ups and downs yet, but we’re off to a start which tells me it was time and she’s ready!

rides of all kinds

any guess as to

where we spent

our friday and saturday?

it has been a while.  i’m not sure exactly how long, but long enough since we headed down to brad’s parents for an overnight stay.  i’d say we all walked (okay, drove) away having had a great time.  some are a bit more exhausted than others (both kids were in bed by 7:15 tonight).

it was a weekend full of 4 wheeler riding,

chatting,

grandparent dragging,

tractor riding,

and swinging.

and those were just the photographed activities.  there was plenty more fun had which went un-photographed.

i love the memories our kids are forming of time spent at the farm.

one year comparison pics

{jilly at 1 year}

{nate at 1 year}

{me at 1 year}

{brad at 1 year}

🙂

(i don’t have any of his baby pictures)

{maggie at 1 year}

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to the lake

is it possible to go on vacation with two small kids and relax?  well, it had it’s not so easy moments, but overall, it was a success.  we spent tuesday – thursday about 30 minutes away at what we affectionately refer to as lake durbin.  we are so appreciative of their offer to let us use their lake house for a few days.  it was the perfect getaway in the midst of a crazy busy summer.  although he had no clue what a lake was, nate sure couldn’t wait to get there.  (thank goodness it was so close!)

once there we quickly settled in and headed down to the water.  nate did a great job of being willing to be brave but still his normal cautious self.  he would tell me he was “really deep” when he would crouch down in knee high water.  adorable!  jilly took a bit of work to figure out.  in the sand she would find all the larger rocks to immediately attempt to eat them.  she also was not a fan of the same float we use in the pool with her when she was in the lake.  we attempted to try a life jacket, but the screaming seriously was not worth it.  in the end we let her play right by the shore and sat right beside her.  i honestly don’t know how we’d ever make that type of trip with 3 kids, there just wouldn’t enough hands and eyes!

brad and i made sure to take full advantage of nap time for us to be in the water without the kids.  each day we’d put them down, carry the monitors outside, and float for the next hour and a half until jill’s cries interrupted.  so peaceful!  (until the cries of course.)  i’d like to think i came back just a tad tanner and not a bit redder than when i headed there.

this was seriously a perfect trip to have after so much away from each other time this summer.

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not me! monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not waste last week away sleeping.  I did not cave to the sickness and call Brad home from work to help me out with the kids.  I did not feel so terrible that I actually drug myself into the doctor’s office.  I did not want to be buried alive when he said 10-14 days to run its course.  Luckily, it didn’t stick around that long.

I did not miss mentioning 4 milestones in the past few days due to being sick.  I did not decided to skip a 9 month post for my tongue clicking, hand clapping, bye-bye waving and saying, pulling herself up to her knees but still not crawling 9 month old daughter.  My husband’s 3 year anniversary of his ordination did not go unmentioned along with Nate’s baptismal birthday.  Maggie the dog’s 5th birthday certainly didn’t not get forgotten until the day after.  My thought was not – well, next year.

I did not look forward to this week with great anticipation for several weeks now.  I was not thrilled with the idea of only having the work of one child rather than two for a week.  I was not caught off guard by just how much I actually miss my Naters.  I did not choke down a huge lump in my throat when he called earlier.  Friday, are you here yet?

I am not out of not me things for this time due to spending a week sleeping.

I’ll try harder for next week!

what spring should be

after jilly’s post nap feeding, i got naters up and we headed outside to enjoy what appeared to be a gorgeous afternoon.  i had no idea until we actually got out there just how nice it was.  there was bubble gun shooting, toy playing, big wheel riding, dirt digging, around the block walking, fetch throwing, ball kicking kinds of fun had.  hope you had almost as much fun as we did!  🙂