Sleep Over!

Hannah and Kate got to sleep over last Friday night because Lauren and I had a garage sale the next morning. Well, all 3 girls got to sleep over last night because Lauren and George are celebrating her birthday this weekend. I only have them until noon, but I am proud of the fact that by 8am, all of them were fed, changed and dressed. They spent quite a bit of time playing and singing songs with the piano. They are currently watching some Mickey Mouse and once Reagan goes down for a nap, I am going to grab a shower and then we can go outside and play on the swingset! I get them back on Sunday night and through probably most of Monday. Matt and I are starting P90X on Monday and it will almost be 90 days right up until our cruise. This should be interesting, but something for us to do together! Our diets will be changing up quite a bit too. We should both be eating a lot healthier and hopefully this will move us in the right direction. Rachel will not be completely joining our diet, but she will be eating much of what we do as I am not going to cook two different dinners every night. Spring break is in a few weeks and Matt has talked about painting our house over spring break. We picked out a color and I really hope the awful blue will be gone soon!

A Magical and Tiring Day!

We had a pretty fun day at Disney with Lauren and George and the kids. We left around 8 and didn't get back until 9. It was a long day, especially since Rachel decided not fall asleep around 8pm. The afternoon got pretty rough with her behavior and my hunger. However, we redeemed ourselves and had a great dinner at Tony's (something to do with Lady and the Tramp). It was a really good restaurant and the kids meal gave them so much food for around $8. I could have totally eaten it too and been happy. Instead, I stuffed myself on their delicious rolls and olive oil, salad, and fried zucchini sticks. I ate way too much, but that is what happens when you are starving going into a restaurant. We got to ride a lot without too long of a wait thanks to the fast passes. I think we have done most everything Rachel can do, so when we go back in March with Matt's Mom and some family, I am hoping to take it pretty easy and go at a slower pace. Matt already informed me that he had no plans to stay that late again. I would be okay with that.

I finally finished Rachel's bean bag chair. It turned out really cute and I love the fabric that I picked. I made a lot of mistakes along the way and had to fix them. That made it take a few hours longer than necessary. However, I feel that if I ever made one again, it would go very smoothly from the start. It turned out a lot bigger than anticipated, more like a lounger. I figured that was okay since Rachel, Hannah, and Kate could share it. It was a little pricier than just buying a new one, but at least I can continue to refill this one when it starts sagging. I have a little bit of material left and I might make a tote bag from it. That would require Mom's help and she has been out of town the last few weeks.

School is good, Matt's work is good, rentals are good. Rachel had her neurologist appointment for her second episode of febrile seizures or whatever the heck they actually are. The doctor was unsure and said there wasn't anything to do about them anyways since they are only fever related. She should outgrow them by 5 and they don't do any harm. I was satisfied with that and am happy to not have to go down to Tampa anymore.


I had to work Valentine's Day, but Matt, Rachel, DJ, and Bethany got heart pizzas from Papa John's.

Keep Me In

Things are going pretty smoothly around here now that my mysterious illness is behind me. On Sunday, I woke up with a fever and my stomach just wasn't feeling normal at all. That carried over through Monday and by Tuesday, my fever was gone, but my stomach was still not right. It only hurt when there was pressure on it and I wasn't getting hungry and really didn't have an appetite. It has been about 5 days now and I don't really now what is up with it. Otherwise, I feel fine and have been hitting them gym to make up for my lost days. We have plans of going on a cruise in late May and I have really been working hard to lose some weight that I gained after I stopped running last year. I have already lost 4.8 pounds in 3 weeks and hope to lose another 5 more. I am really proud of myself since losing weight is not something I think I am good at. I have been cutting out about 95% of sweets and snacks and trying to eat a lot more fruits and vegetables. It clearly has worked and I feel great and can already tell that my clothes are a little big. I feel like the first week was the hardest and now it is becoming more normal and not so forced. That cruise is looking better and better and I hope that this weekend we will book it. We plan on going with Katie and Josiah as a few other people weren't able to come.

Matt has been wanting some way to enclose Rachel to her playset area. We were looking at white vinyl fences on Craigslist and even used, they are so expensive. He found the fence we got for free. It needed a good pressure washing and it cleaned up so good. I wish I had before pictures because it was like brown/green. We had initially thought to paint it white, but we both kind of like the natural look, so we think we are going to keep it that for now and can paint it later if we want. I asked Rachel if she helped Daddy with the fence and she said "Yes, it's to keep me in." So true.

I finally got all of the family pictures on the wall. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted and how to arrange the frames and to find frames that I liked. I love the final product and we have one last picture to fill in. The lady that did our pictures needs to take a few of just Matt and I and we are hoping that one of those can go in the empty frame. As you can see, Rachel is getting somewhat better about posing for pictures and actually looking at the camera and smiling and holding still. Yea! Now you might just get some better pictures of her on here.

Blinging It Up

Our week started off rather uneventful and I was getting ready to go to the gym when we noticed that Rachel was getting a fever and she started having some more of her seizure-type episodes that she got about a year and a half ago. We (thankfully) got it on camera and took her to the doctor who was still not committing to calling them febrile seizures, but what she does doesn't seem to fit any textbook description of anything. He recommended we take her back the neurologist again and I am guessing they will do another EEG at some point. We kept her on Tylenol to keep the fever down and the next day she was doing much better and acting fine. The only thing that might have brought on the fever was that her tonsils were enlarged, but she didn't have strep. It is Friday and she seems perfectly normal! Here is a funny picture for you. I found her watching some TV all decked out in accessories, complete with the magic wand.

Ouch! (Take Two)

I have been trying to get a few things done around the house and one of them was to fix Rachel's bookshelf. I got it at a garage sale for $2 and it is really cute. It has a giraffe on each end and some cute gender neutral colors for the shelves. One of them had ripped and they were just kind of dingy looking. I went to Jo-Ann's and was overwhelmed by the adorable patterns that I just couldn't pick and solids and prints to alternate, so I ended up this pattern. I love it! It took me (with a little bit of my mom's help) about 3.5 hours total to make. This is a huge increase in speed over my last attempts at sewing. I am very pleased with the outcome and it by no means looks perfect it you look up close. I am definitely learning some things as sew more. Since I just loved the fabric, I decided to make Rachel a new bean bag chair cover. Hers is so dirty and stained, but there is no way to remove the cover and wash it. How stupid for a kid product... It also needs to be restuffed a little so I think I have found a step-by-step instruction that I can understand and follow as to how to make a new cover. Mom's help is definitely needed on this one, but I am really excited to get the stuff and start on it! Matt and I also hung some family pictures upstairs. I am so happy to get them out of my office and onto a wall. I have to buy two more frames and them I can hang some more downstairs too! Matt picked up a short wooden picket fence for free off Craigslist. It needs to be pressure washed and painted, but other than that, in pretty decent shape. We are going to fence in a small area around Rachel's playset. She is pretty good about staying close by, but better safe then sorry, especially where we live.

Rachel's face is healing up pretty good and in a few days, I will begin the vitamin E oil. She decided yesterday to jump from the top of the stairs to me (a couple steps down) and not inform me of her plans. Of course, when she jumps, she always has a huge smile and her teeth caught my upper lip. She was crying so hard and I was busy consoling her that I didn't even realize that I was the only injured one. I put my hand up to feel and it was dripping blood. So I have a slighty puffy lip with a thin cut. Vitamin E oil might be in my future too.

My brother and sister-in-law in the Chicago area had their baby boy on Saturday morning! His name is William Michael (which I really like) and I am really wanting to go see this little guy. It is so weird to not be able to go visit new parents/babies at the hospital because everyone is so close by. Lauren and I are thinking about a retry of a trip this year to St. Louis so maybe a stop is in our future. I am so happy for them!


.

Ouch!

I am sorry it has been so long, but quite honestly, there has been nothing great to blog about. I started school up again and things are going just fine, as usual. Matt is in a training class for work. We have been having fun doing the same stuff we always do, hanging out with friends and family. We did have a very busy and exciting weekend with Matt's family. Matt's Mom threw Nana a surprise birthday party and had most of her brothers and sisters fly into town to attend. There were about 25 or so people there and it was really fun to be able to meet these people and get to know them. We also spent the afternoon with them after church and are going out to eat tonight. Rachel just loved all of the attention. She did have some extra excitement yesterday when she got bit by a very small dog. There is a picture below, but the dog got her in the cheek and upper lip, but I actually think it looks better today than yesterday. The bruising seems to not be as bad, but I am hoping it will not scar. Good thing our family pictures are done with. She went up to the dog and said, "It's okay Penny, it was an accident." She is so sweet.

I convinced Lauren, Matt, George and maybe even my Dad to run the Gasparilla 5k with me. I have been wanting to lose a few more pounds and running really helped me last year, so I needed something to run for. It is at the beginning of March and should be a lot of fun. I am hoping to continue being able to run and find some races that are a little longer. Maybe someday, I can do a half marathon that I missed out on last year. The knee is doing well so far and I am being very careful to run with good posture and not too fast and too long. Matt and I are planning another cruise and hoping to get some friends to come with us! The rentals are doing good and Matt is still working on the other potential property.


She got this robe for Christmas from Nana and just loves getting into it and being a panda bear after her bath. She is growing up so fast, but I love this age.

A Very Busy Christmas!

Matt, Rachel, and I went to Christmas Eve service with my parents at their church. So, we decided not to go to our church on Christmas morning. We got up at our normal time of 7:45 and Rachel had no idea that she was going to get to open presents. We ate breakfast like normal, she watched some Dora and I got a shower. It was great not to be rushed by a child begging to open gifts. Next year might be different though. Since I already spent a great deal of money on her swingset, she wasn't getting anything else fantastic from us. I got her things she needed like more durable panties and bubble bath. I also got her a $2 VeggieTales movie. I am not a big gift person, but Matt just seems to love to buy me a present, so he got us tickets to The Band Perry's concert at the Strawberry Festival in March. Thankfully, it is on a Wednesday night, so I won't be teaching. I really like this group and we should have a lot of fun that evening. Around 11:00, we headed to my parent's house for lunch and more presents/chaos with the Lantz family too. As always, lunch was delicious and present opening was chaotic. The girls had a lot of fun and all of the adults were exhausted afterwards. We came home and got Rachel a nap before heading over to Matt's parent's house for celebrating Nana's birthday (yes, it is actually on Christmas). Rachel received more presents from the Rhine side of the family and lots of attention. We have been spending a lot of time with family the past week and I have been kind of lazy around the house. Today, I opened and put away all of the gifts we got and have started picking up the house. Thankfully, it is raining so I am not tempted to do anything outside. I have two more weeks of freedom from work before starting up another semester. We are also looking at another potential rental property and Matt is starting some classes with work soon. The new year is sounding busy already, but I think there are great things in store for our family!



Chilling out on Christmas morning with her new Minnie Mouse pillow pal and blanket
her new tea set from Great Grandma


Kate


Reagan is excited about her new toys!


Her new princess slippers from Nana.


Leftovers of the M&M's in her stocking

Rachel got a Belle doll and dress up costume from the Lantz's. She had been proudly wearing the whole day.