Typical Night at Home

We went to look at another house tonight. It was nice, but the yard had some standing water and the backyard was fenced but looked right at the backyard of another home (I know, I know) you are going to have that in a subdivision. I think the water (drainage ditch in the front) was the downfall of this home because otherwise it's the perfect size and had a great layout compared to all the homes we've seen thus far. I still love the other one I have mentioned, but sale is pending on that one already...boo!  So, the search continues. We also had to go into the back to sign all the mortgage pre-approval papers. It's definitely a whole other ballgame compared to when I was pre-approved 4 years ago! I basically felt like we were signing our life away just for the bank to say 'yes' you can afford the amount of home you wish to purchase or 'no way!'  Needless to say, we are approved for double what we want to spend, but man is there a ton of paperwork involved now!

Other than our house hunt tonight, we really didn't do much. I still haven't been able to get Natalie to roll over again so I could see, but we worked on it a lot today!

Caught her sucking her thumb

Playtime

She's so happy!

Rusty must be tired!

Natalie was not happy we took her off her play mat

Rusty wanted to cuddle tonight, too!

She Rolled Over!!!!!

Exciting evening at our house tonight! Natalie rolled over from her back to her right side and onto her stomach. However, Bobby and I both missed it! While we were in the kitchen getting supper ready and fruit salad for small group, I laid Natalie on her activity mat like we often do. Next thing I knew she was making her regular coos and grunts, but this time it sounded slightly muffled as if she had something on her face. Lo and behold when I looked out into the living room, she was on her stomach!  At first I just thought Bobby had put her on her stomach when he got home from work, but he said he didn't. I tried and tried to get her to do it again tonight so I could record it, and she did try with all her might for at least 30 minutes and got SO close, but couldn't do it again. We will try again tomorrow!  She's growing up so fast!

Wonderful Weekend with Family

I always enjoy having my family come down to visit! Although it does make me want a larger house more and more so that people don't have to campout in the living room, which requires blowing up and deflating the air mattress each day.

Friday:
Bobby worked a super long day by getting up at 3am and working until about 3p in the afternoon. When he got home we all went to Menards to look for a ceiling fan for our bedroom (didn't buy one though) and then got to get a ice cream treat at Ritters...yum!  Afterwards, we met our realtor to look at 4 houses on the same side of town that we live on now. I absolutely loved the first house we went to look at, but Bobby needs some convincing. There is really nothing to do other than update the paint colors to our taste but it's more than double what we live in now and has great built-in storage. It is a ranch style house, but Bobby envisions a 2-story home with a basement (hard to come by in Terre Haute). It has an awesome covered deck with a patio right out from there and the master bedroom has sliding glass doors that open to the patio which I think a hot tub right outside the sliding glass doors sounds fabulous!  We are definitely in the early stages of looking, but this house I think would be perfect and is in a great neighborhood!  My parents and sister got into town late in the evening after Bobby and Natalie were already in bed.

Saturday:
Started out the morning going to Zumba at 9am with Amanda and my mom, only after we all ate Square Donuts...haha! Great breakfast before going to workout :) Afterwards I drove them by the house which from the outside they both liked a lot. We had thunderstorms in the morning which delayed Bobby's plans of yardwork, but we finally made it out there. It seems like every time my dad is down we put him to work, but this time it wasn't intentional at all! Although it was nice to have 3 people (maybe I should say 2.5 since I only worked the first half of the day) because things went much quicker. While Bobby and my dad thatched/raked the backyard, I powerwashed the patio which was much dirtier than I had originally thought! It now looks brand new after my dad went back over it to clear off the rest of the debri. I set out the table, chairs, and umbrella! Nice weather is hopefully here to stay finally! The backyard looks great except the grass looks bare after thatching, but I guess it has to look worse before it gets better!  My dad also pushed around the roller in the yard to flatten things out.  While they did all that, the girls (plus Rusty) were inside having storytime and playtime, as well as making the guys lunch.

Storytime with Auntie Amanda

By this time, I was finished and didn't want to do anymore yardwork since it was not my intention to work outside all day while my family was down here, but Bobby and my dad kept on working until 5p or so. They moved onto the front yard, which still needs thatched but the leaves are gone which makes our house look so much better! The driveway and sidewalks even got powerwashed! Now, we just need to touch up a few things in the house and put it up for sale sometime (we have no idea when we will do this)

After the thunderstorms, it turned out the be a BEAUTIFUL day! Sunshine, warmth, birds chirping...couldn't have been much better! We went for a walk to the park and then through the neighborhood of the house I love to show my dad. The only unfortunate thing about the house is it seems to be in a lower area of the neighborhood (which is higher elevation than our current home) and had some standing water, and we noticed a water pump out by the road that was pushing water out from the home. Not sure if this is common or if it means the house could possibly flood (gasp!), so I sent an email to our realtor to find out for sure what that all means. May not end up being the house I love any longer :( After our walk, Amanda and I put together steak/chicken kabobs for the grill and ate dinner outside. All we needed was a little fire in our fire pit, but since the wood was all wet from the rain in the morning, that wasn't going to happen!

Wow...Mommy needs a tan!

Natalie has done her normal sleeping/waking pattern during the day, so we'll see how she sleeps tonight. Last night she woke up at 2am and then again at 7:20a. She wore a dress today (had to safety pin her diaper cover for it to fit) and looked so cute!

Sunday:
Natalie slept through the night again...yay!  We all went to church and again Natalie slept through the whole thing. We came home after church and reheated dinner from last night to feed all of us lunch for today! We sat outside on the patio because the weather was GORGEOUS...summerlike!  Natalie even enjoyed the outside by laying on her activity mat outside just enjoying the warm breeze!  We all took a walk to Dairy Queen for a refreshing treat. My parents and sister had to leave...their visit always seems so short, but we will see them in 2 weeks for Easter!  Natalie will be 2 months in a week, which is just crazy! She's growing way to fast!

She slept 9 hours!

Natalie slept 9 hours through the night from 11:30p until 8:45am! I was up before her, which usually she is waking me up! The only one that woke me up in the middle of the night was our dog, Rusty! I was like, "Really?!" Our 2 walks yesterday must have really worn her out! When she did wake up she wasn't crying at all, she was just as happy as can be!

 

Love her!

 

Natalie making noises

 

Natalie falling asleep...kind of long 

Mommy reading "I Love You, Stinky Face"

(really long and she becomes uninterested from the middle to the end)

Natalie is getting bigger, at least you can tell in her face! She still fits into her newborn clothes with the exception of a couple sleepers. The majority of her 0/3 month clothes are still HUGE on her as you will see from some pictures that will follow. She has been starting to make more noises and smiling so much more! She is such a happy baby and I love just watching her explore this big world. She seems to have figured out that she has fingers because she has sucked on her thumb a few times and now her hands tend to go into her mouth more and more each day! As for sleeping, she can sleep long stretches, but trying to get her on a schedule to sleep at least from midnight to 7 is hard because she has been wanting to get up around 1 or 2 and be up for a little bit, then sleep for a very long stretch until 10:30am at times. Maybe she is more of a night owl like her daddy, but I can say I am definitely not a morning person, so maybe she's getting a little from each of us!

Not a happy girl!

All better!

This newborn sleeper is a little too small now!

The fam

Sleepy daddy and daughter!

Happy girl!

Love her! So peaceful

Love her smile!

These are 0/3 clothes, and like most of the 0/3, they are HUGE!

Mommy's outfit, but too small now!

Tired after all the wardrobe changes, but newborn clothes are still fitting!

Beautiful Day

Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day here in Terre Haute! A little windy, but very warm. I wish the warmer weather would stick around! Snow flurries last week and 80 degrees today, only in Indiana!

Today was the first time since Natalie was born that we attempted to take her to church. We were going to try last week, but it didn't happen. I had watched the live streaming, but nothing is the same as actually being in church with the live band. Natalie slept through the whole thing. Once we got home, I fed her and then we went to lunch with our neighbor, Rebekah, and Natalie slept through all of that as well. By the time we got home I had to pump, so that left Bobby in charge of Natalie. Well, he went to change her and she peed all over, so he had to give her an unexpected bath.

Bobby and our neighbor, Eric, were supposed to run 11 miles Saturday, but decided to complete their run on Sunday instead. Eric decided he didn't want to run since he was tired from being at drill all week, so that left Bobby on his own to run the 11 miles. Bobby is doing so awesome with his training (probably because I'm not his running partner like last year) and I think he will finish the Indy Mini definitely in an hour and 45 minutes or less! I'm so proud of his motivation with his Mini training. I'm walking it and really need to get my butt in gear if I want to still be alive after 13.1 miles...I have no idea what I was thinking when I signed myself up knowing that I was pregnant at the time.

Natalie, Rusty, and I all took a walk (I have no idea how long) for almost an hour and a half. It was just gorgeous out!  Rusty was actually pretty good on the walk, probably because I kept him on a short leash because usually he's all over the place when we go for walks! On our way back, I think he wanted to mark his territory on every blade of grass which was super annoying!  Natalie, like usual, slept through the majority of the walk. She was probably only awake for 10 minutes at the most. When we got back home I used the webcam on my computer to take some pictures of me and Natalie together since Bobby rarely picks up the camera to capture my moments with her. So here are some of the pictures (sorry for the poor quality) of some of her faces:

Learning as we go...

Natalie has been sleeping really well for the past 4 nights: Tuesday she slept 5 hours; Wednesday 5.5 hours; Thursday 7 hours; Friday night 6 hours. Since Bobby works during the week, I get up with Natalie during the weekdays. but on the weekends (when Bobby hears her or I give him a little nudge) Bobby helps out. So, this morning she woke up a little after 6am and I got up with her to change her and feed her. Once she was fed and changed, she was a sleepy girl and went back to bed. She didn't wake up again until close to 10:30a, so I told Bobby it was his turn. Instead of Bobby warming up her bottle or changing her, he decides that after he picks her up out of the cradle, she just needs to lay on Daddy's chest and go back to sleep. I was just laying awake in bed just waiting to see what Bobby was going to do because I knew she was hungry and probably needed changed. So, after probably only a minute or two of laying down, Bobby decides that she probably is hungry and needs changed (after asking me). By this time, Natalie is ticked off...holding her breath until her face turns beat red and just screaming! Bobby was warming up a bottle, but in the meantime was attempting to change her (I'm still in bed at this point, just waiting to see what will happen). Next thing I know she is a little quieter, but I get called by Bobby to come help him. I get out of bed (which I needed to anyway) and come into the nursery where Bobby had gotten her bottle and is now trying to feed her and change her diaper (impossible unless you have 2 extra hands)! He asks me to hold the bottle while he finishes changing her because when he was trying to change her a little bit ago (when she was royally ticked) she was just squirting out poop constantly because she was so mad and was just pushing it out! Bobby couldn't change her because every time he tried there was more of a mess to clean up. Now, this has only happened once before and it was when Bobby was changing her that time as well!  So, maybe now Bobby will try to change and feed her before laying back down with her :)

We are learning as we go! Bobby is definitely an amazing dad like I knew he would be, but some things you just learn with experience :)

I definitely need a drink after today! Bobby was doing yardwork, and I needed to run some errands so I took Natalie with me this afternoon. She was fed and changed before we left, but that didn't matter.  I made it to Sam's Club and Kohls with Natalie sleeping away and happy as can be. Although Kohls in itself was an adventure because everyone and their mother were there, plus they had NO shopping carts available. Therefore, I had to carry Natalie around in her carseat while I tried to carry a mixing bowl, 4 coffee mugs in a box, a dishtowel, and an outfit for her. I managed, but it wasn't easy!  I really only needed to go to the grocery store as my last errand after we left Kohls. but decided I would just shortly browse around TJMaxx since it was in the same shopping center. This is where things get hairy.

Natalie starting crying, not horrible, but enough that I couldn't calm her down while she was in her carseat on top of the shopping cart (I just couldn't lug that thing around another store!) So, I took her out of her carseat while I finished browsing and she was fine while I was holding her. Before I exited the store, I placed her back into her carseat. When we got out to the car, I changed her, and she was definitely messy. She has been a pooping machine all day today! As I was finishing up wiping her up, she had to sneeze and lo and behold, poop came squirting out straight at me! It was up my arm, a little got on the seat of the car, but luckily none was on my shirt! I could not believe it, but at least this time she was calm as she did this lovely spectacle! So, standing in the parking lot, I cleaned myself up and her again. She was still fussy and quite mad (red faced and screaming in the car), so I thought about completely skipping grocery shopping for the time being, but she appeared quiet and content once we were almost to the grocery store. Poor baby even scratched herself (time to trim the nails) she was so mad as we left the TJMaxx parking lot! I felt bad and knew Bobby was going to say something to me about cutting her nails when I got home, which he did.

Wanting to get everything accomplished I had in mind for the day, I decided to go for it, and in we went to the grocery store. Halfway through my grocery list, she started in on the inconsolable crying again that I could do nothing about but take her out of the carseat and hold her. I probably looked pretty silly holding a baby in one arm, grabbing groceries with the other, and pulling the cart behind me when I wasn't grabbing things off the shelf. Luckily I didn't have a ton more groceries to get, but it was challenging nonetheless! I never really paid attention much to people with babies at the store, but I can honestly say I had never seen any mom or dad doing what I did in Kroger today! Oh well. It kept her calm for the rest of the trip and by the time we got back into the car and headed home, she fell asleep once again and was fine. I think she was much happier when we arrived home and was fed and changed (AGAIN)!

I don't think I will try to squeeze in as many errands in one timeframe when I have Natalie all by myself! I will only attempt that if I have an extra person to shop with or just do shorter errands and spread them out during the day, or week for that matter! I'm just learning as we go...