February in Florida

I am 11 1/2 weeks along and glad to see the 1st trimester coming to an end. I feel better and my energy is about back to normal. I had a head cold for a week which became a cough and I am still battling that another week later, but it is just an annoyance. The weather warmed significantly and we started hitting the pool and beach. The girls love it and I am looking forward to sitting my pregnant butt on the beach all summer. It is fabulous when we go to Jaycee Park and they can play independently in the shallow water while I can actually relax. This is the first summer in 3 years I can sit and watch and not have to chase the girls around every single second. Love it.
I am pretty sure I started feeling flutters at 10 weeks 1 day! SO early but I have felt it a number of times since and it certainly feels like it. I guess this is another active little one. I still feel like it is a girl and am looking forward to finding out. I go back to the OB next week and hear the heartbeat. I'm not sure what week they do the US at so we'll ask about that too. We have actually agreed on a girl name in the past few days and I can hardly believe it! We'll see if it lasts or we change our minds LOL And we still need a middle name...

HAPPY New Year!

We didn't go out, we didn't make it until midnight, Amanda even had to work New Year's Eve and New Year's Day BUT it was pretty much the best New Years we could ask for. On 1/1/11 at 5 am we took our test and found out we are expecting baby #3!! I was sooooo anxious about this pregnancy test I had hardly slept for 3 days. I had the same signs as I did when Lex was conceived (heartburn, indigestion, sore boobs on the sides by my armpits) but I had taken Clomid for the first time ever and blamed all my symptoms on that. Thankfully that wasn't the cause :)
This was our 4th try for this baby, first with meds. We are hoping for just one baby, but of course would welcome whatever gifts we have growing in there!
We've told a few friends and will tell the fam in the next couple weeks. We are taking a trip up north in a week and a half so it is perfect timing to be able to tell alot of people in person.


Christmas of course was also an AMAZING day. The girls were SO much fun this year and we had a great time. Next year will only be better! These are some of my fav pics of the day with their fav toys.
.

Christmas 2010!

As of today there are 14 days to Christmas! We started our shopping early, got some great deals and have been trying to be as "thrifty" as possible! Having 2 big families to buy for is so much fun but very hard when we're trying to penny pinch and get Amanda thru school so we can finally be in a very good place financially.
But anyway, the last few months have been SO MUCH FUN with the girls. We had Halloween, Lexi's 3rd birthday that included a trip to Sea World, Thanksgiving and now we have Christmas coming and our trip up north in January. I feel like a kid again getting to experience things through the girls. It is awesome!
The girls are getting so big and so hilarious. They love each other alot but also love to pester each other alot. LOL We are planning and trying for #3. 3 BFNs so far but this month we decided to try with Clomid. I feel different overall about it this try.....totally 100% ready and very optimistic. I would LOVE a September baby! After Lexi was born in November I was just thinking of when I'd like our kids to be born so they each had their own time of year. I was thinking March/April, June and September. We got our June baby as she came a bit early from her July 4th due date. Now we are working on our Sept baby :) We saw Santa yesterday and Alexis told him she wanted Play Doh and a baby sister. PLEASE SANTA, we've actually got the Play Doh covered if you could just help us out with the baby sister for Lex :)...or a brother would be just fine as well!

New beginnings

We moved into our new house. Amanda started her new job in her new profession. We are trying for a new baby. I am trying out a new life as a stay at home mom/in home child care provider. We are struggling financially at the moment and hoping everything falls into place here in the next few weeks!
The girls are growing like weeds and growing up way too fast. They absolutely adore each other and are really starting to play really cute together. I need to try to blog more often so I can look back and remember everything. Haidyn is walking, pretty much running already. She stopped taking a bottle 3 days ago. She is refusing to talk other than "mama" and "this" and I swear she does it on purpose because of the devilish grin we get when we ask her to repeat something.
Lexi is too smart for her own good sometimes and the most hilarious things come out of her mouth. She is big into her play kitchen, baby dolls, gymnastics, soccer and singing. She was recently introduced to Play Doh and really digs it so that is a definite birthday or Christmas gift this year.
Things are awesome but hard right now and hoping to really settle in ASAP!!

2 more years

So we were all prepared to move back up to Jersey. We miss the change of seasons, the snow and cold weather and the friends and family we have there. The kids have very few other kids to play with here and the ones we do have they rarely see because of distance. Up there they have cousins galore ranging from 8 months to 9 years old. We were planning and preparing for the big move and everyone knew we were coming/leaving. THEN....Amanda got offered a great job....in....Florida.
SO she'll be signing a 2 year contract to get this awesome critical care experience STRAIGHT out of school and we'll be here for 2 more years. We are happy to be around my parents for a while longer as our girls absolutely LOVE THEM. We have 2 more years to convince them to move up with us, which won't happen, but we'll try!
So I get to quit my current job VERY soon and I am THRILLED!!!! Then I'll stay home for a few months and live my dream of stay at home mom, then work part time. We already found a nice 4 bedroom house we'll rent. Not looking forward to the actual moving part, but at least we are packing over the course of a month or so so it won't be too bad.
REALLY hoping the girls will take to having their own rooms and let us have some restful nights. Lexi is excited to decorate her new room and we will get her either a twin or full size bed as she has told us that her toddler bed is for Haidyn. Hoping for a smoothe transition and we WILL make it to Jersey eventually.
And totally unrelated...
Haidyn FINALLY got her first tooth 4-12-10 after about 4 MONTHS of teething! She is standing on her own and walking with her push toys. She will take her first steps any day now. Time goes too fast!
Lexi is obsessed with singing the ABCs lately. It is too cute...except when she wakes up at like 2 am and wants me to sing it to her. But I try to cherish every moment, even the middle of the night ones.

Camera fun

First Haircut!

Funny face

BFF

It's Princess Tomboy

This is what sleep feels like

We recently realized that putting the girls in the same room at night quickly turned our nights into a disaster. We only have a 2 bedroom house until we move up north in a few months. Haidyn had been sleeping in our room, but we were more than ready to have our room back. So, since she had been sleeping very well at night we made the move and put the girls together. Lexi has never been a great sleeper and is by far not a heavy sleeper. We got a white noise machine, even equipped with a projection on the ceiling of either moons and stars, animals or sea life. Haidyn goes to sleep very easily and is totally uninterested in it, but Lexi liked picking which one she watched each night. However, for some reason Lexi decided she now wanted us to sit in her room with her until she was asleep. If I tried to leave she would yell MAMA!!! Of course I'd have to go running back in because if she woke Haidyn up then that would, well, SUCK. So she got to thinking I was a her beck and call. Then, when I got Lexi to sleep finally.....usually after waking up an hour or so later on her floor wrapped in one or 2 child size blankets with my head on a boppy or a stuffed animal.....every sound Haidyn made we would run into the room and shove the binky in her mouth and try to pat her butt back to sleep. If that didn't work she got swept out of the room and rocked. It got to the point where then she was awake and after 2 hours of fighting with her in the middle of the night we'd end up giving her a middle of the night bottle which she'd already given up a month ago!! Also, at some point Haidyn either woke up Lexi or she woke up on her own and once again screamed "MAMA" and wanted to come in our bed. So we said to ourselves, this is D-U-M-B.
In a few months we will be moving and they will have to deal with a move, a new house and a new schedule and make a big adjustment anyway which is sure to mess with bedtime big time. So since Haidyn sleeps very well on her own(well she did before we screwed her up) and Lexi is the one who wants to be attached to us at all times at night, we decided to move the extra toddler bed we had into our room. What we hoped for was that 1) with a few nights of sleep training and not taking Haidyn out of her crib that she would go back to being our super sleeper and 2)Lexi would go to bed much easier and spend the whole night in her own bed even if it was in our room. I'm happy say that about 2 weeks later we pretty much got all we were hoping for and for the first time in over 2 years we have almost slept through the night each night. Haidyn stirs once or twice a night and occasionally we have to just go pop the binky in her mouth when she can't find it but she mostly puts herself back to sleep. Lexi still wakes and yells mama but I can usually just say "I'm right here Lexi" and she lays back down and goes to sleep. Aaaahhhh sleep is good. Now we are looking forward to planning for baby #3.....are we nuts??? yeah a little I think LOL