Pam's 30th Birthday

Get ready for a change of pace-this post will have No Mia pictures!!

Last night we had a rare night out to celebrate Pam's 30th birthday in the city. We had plans to hit 10-Pin first, but due to a mistake they made we had to make alternate plans. All worked out though and we started out at the House of Blues Bar. After that we headed to Martini Park-a cool new bar in the city. I realized that I am an old lady though because by midnight I was so hot and my feet were KILLING me (not to mention I was hungry-shocking, right?). I wear heels at school every day, but for some reason, it was not a good choice last night! As Cort and I were walking to the parking garage he asked me if I was limping, that's how bad my feet hurt!!

We had a great time celebrating with Pam (the best friend and aunt a person could have!) and of course seeing everyone who came in town that we don't get to see as often like Lisa and Bob and Heather and Roger. Rebecca suprised us all by flying in from Texas to surprise Pam and doing a little celebrating as well since her birthday is almost here!! Mia slept at my mom's house, so it was nice knowing she was in good hands. Here are some pictures from the night...

Me and Pam

Lisa and Marina

Charlie and JulieMarina and Me (Marina is 8 weeks ahead of me)
Julie, Pam, Lisa, Me, and Alyson
Marina and Corey
Kristy, Graham and Melissa
Rebecca, Pam and Alyson
Kelly, Pam and Graham
Cort and Me

Roger and Heather
Heather, Melissa, Nicole, Kristy, and Me
Melissa and Nicole

GymQuest

Let me start by saying I am so ready for winter to be over!! Mia has boundless energy and tends to get bored after being stuck indoors to long. We found a solution though-open gym!!!Kristy had given me a suggestion of going to GymQuest, a gymnastics/cheerleading facility in Plainfield that has open gym a couple times a week. Mia loves it there! There is a ton for her to climb on and play with, and by the end of the hour and a half, she is spent!!! She likes it so much there I signed her up for a parent-tot class that starts this Saturday. The only bad part is the class is at 8:15 in the morning-yikes!

Walking around deciding what to do On the bounce track-Mia loves to run back and forth on here-it is so springy!
Climbing-look at that concentration!
Getting some help from dad
There's that tounge that she likes to stick out!
One of Mia's favorite things to do is take the foam blocks out of the giant foam pit and build with them. She even dove into the pit to get one!

Hiding behind her blocks
For some reason, Mia had some crazy static electricity going on! I tell you, that girl's hair is out of control!

Thank you Lisa for Mia's cute shirt!

Playing Around

We have been a bit homebound with all the cold weather lately. Here are some random pictures of Mia just playing around.

Blurry, but I love it anyway. :) When you ask Mia to yawn, this is what she does-it is a good way to see her teeth!
Look at that out-of-control hair!
Check out those chompers! Love those eyes!
Doesn't she look like she just caused some trouble?

The Grandparents Find Out

Okay, The fatigue is slowly starting to go away (not a ton, but at least I have some energy tonight!). I am going to be doing some catching up, so my posts may be a bit out of order. I will go back later and rearrange, but I've got a lot of catching up to do first!

After keeping my pregnancy secret for what felt like forever, we were so excited to finally tell the grandparents-to-be. We headed over to Cort's parents first house with Mia wearing her big-sister T-shirt. Cort and I were trying so hard not to laugh because his parents did not notice it at all. Cort finally brought Mia over to his mom and told her to read the back of her shirt (I'm going to be a big sister!) and then she got it. Cort's parents were very excited of course to have a 4th grandchild on the way.

Realizing what Mia's shirt says

The next night we headed over to my mom's and did the same thing. My mom always loves to see what Mia is wearing, so she noticed her shirt right away. She was so excited and surprised, so we went out to dinner to celebrate. This will also be her 4th grandchild-all which will have come in a 2 year span!

Checking out the shirt

Mia with a happy grandma-to-be

New Years Eve

New Years Eve was relatively tame for us this year. We headed over to Sarah and Ian's for some yummy Chinese take-out. After dinner we let the kids play for awhile and then it was bedtime. We put Mia down there, and she was a champ! After the kids slept, we played some pop-culture Cranium girls against guys. Sad to say, Cort and Ian beat me and Sarah.

Okay, here is the story behind this next picture. I had brought over a plastic bag of New Years party favors that I save from year-to-year--hats, noisemakers, etc. I had just thrown it in Sarah and Ian's family room and forgot about it. Next thing you know, Mia comes out wearing one of the hats and with a noisemaker in each hand-she had gone and dug through the bag on her own. She was ready to party!

Party-girl Mia

Showing off her leopard print
Mia and Ava in their matching outfits
Some Guitar Hero
What's New Years without a scuba mask?
The girls coming (don't they look suspicious?)

and going...

Mia Has a Secret...

Check out Mia's new shirt (click on it to see it bigger)....What could that secret be?????

You guessed it!!

See! I really do have an excuse for my horrible lack of blogging. I have been sooooo exhausted!!!
We are very excited to share that I am 12 weeks pregnant!!! Based on ultrasound my due date is July 19th, but I will have a scheduled c-section at 39 weeks, so the baby will most likely be here a little before that. Mia and the new baby will be 23 months apart-wow!!!

We have wanted to share this for what feels like forever, but we had some early complications. I won’t go into the gory details, but I had low progesterone again this time and some bleeding along the way. After 2 ultrasounds the past couple of weeks and hearing the heartbeat Tuesday night, we are hoping things have settled down a little bit. We are excited and scared for the adventure that we are about to go through!!!

Here I am-excuse the lack of makeup! This was taken at the end of the night. It kind of frightens me that I already am already showing. It took a long time last time to even look like this.

And a favorite of mine. My Mia with her baby...

Woo hoo!!! We are excited for the ride ahead....

I know, I know!

So I have been the world's worst blogger! I tell you, you would think having 2 weeks off I would be better, but I swaear I do better when my time is organized. I have so many pictures to still go through from Christmas, New Years, etc. But it doesn't help that my computer is being super, super slow!! So my promise is to get through all the pictures by the end of the week. I have some good ones to share, so stay tuned! For the time being, here is one to hold you over. This was Mia's first time out in the snow sledding. She LOVED it. She threw a fit when I brought her in and tried to get her snowpants off of her. :)

Hope everyone is well and had a Happy New Year. I will be back the next couple of days to catch up.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a wonderful day. I PROMISE I will post pictures and get caught up with lots of Christmas pictures in the next couple of days. Merry Christmas!

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

This weekend was a good opportunity to get in the holiday spirit. On Saturday we went to my mom's and had a little get together with my aunt, uncle, and great-aunt (my dad's sister and aunt). It was a really visit, but of course my camera battery ran out, so I have no pictures of that!

That night we went over to Sarah and Ian's for dinner. We were in the basement and everyone ended up going upstairs for some reason or another so that I was just down there with my niece and nephew, Ava and Aidan. All of a sudden I hear Sarah yelling for me to get upstairs with the kids. I ran the stairs with Aidan and Ava and there were a bunch of carolers at the door. The neatest things was that in front of them was a donkey. It was snowing and just perfect with the caroling and the donkey. :) Unfortunately, Cort and Mia missed it because he was changing her, and Aidan wanted to see more of the donkey. So, we all quickly put on coats, hats, scarves, boots, etc. and headed out to go see the carolers and donkey again. We met up with them about a block down. It turns out that they were from a local church and we actually knew one of them. They were so nice and said Mia could even ride the donkey. Between the snow, the singing, all the people, and a donkey, Mia was a little unsure and was happier just to see it and give it a pet. It was really just the coolest thing. Of course-no pictures!!!

Sunday night, we got together with Cort's high school friends for a white elephant party. Sarah had the fun idea of dressing up in really obnoxious holiday wear. Sarah had some bad sweatshirts for us to wear and picked up some reindeer and Santa pants for the guys. We went over to Shannon and Andy's and had a great time! Shannon and Andy shared the exciting news that Sam will be a big sister in June. The white elephant exchange was funny as usual and we ended up with a bar set and an OLD bottle of vodka that apparently had to be dusted off. I have some pictures, but I will add those tomorrow. There is a very funny one of all of the kids sitting on the coach where most of them are not looking too happy!

Pictures to come....

Lindsey

On Sunday I went over to my friend Jen's house to take a couple Christmas pictures of her daughter Lindsey. She is such a cutie! It was a little challenging since she was on the move, but we managed to get a couple Jen liked. :) How cute is she???

What's Mia Been Up To?

So Miss Mia has been a busy lady lately. What has she been up to? See for yourself...

Working on her walking

(don't mind the hat in all these pictures-it is one of her winter hats that she was actually keeping on and it made me laugh)

Helping Mom and Dad put up the Christmas tree (along with Zip)

I should add that between Mia and Zip pulling ornaments off the tree, I am about to go crazy!


Watching the first snow (with Zip)

Celebrating Thanksgiving

(This little blue dress was mine when I was a baby. It fit Mia perfectly!)

Sneaking up on Zip


Starting BAD habits!!!
And looking cute!

Mia has been a busy girl! After about 2 weeks of sickness circulating throughout our house, I think we are finally in the clear. Mia has some congestion when she coughs, but the Dr. thinks it will just go away on its own. We hope everyone is doing well!