Happy 3rd Birthday Jade!

I find it amazing that my first baby has turned 3 already! Time is just flying by, but we are loving each new phase...well most new phases. We could of course deal without the temper tantrums and the talking back, but I just think each year gets to be more and more fun.

This year we celebrated Jade's 3rd birthday the weekend before her actual birthday with just our families. Mike and Jean were down the night before the party to baby sit the girls so we could go to Nate's Christmas party. My parents came down Saturday and brought my Grandma. We of course had to have a Frozen party! We ordered a cake from the local bakery and found some fun decorations at Walmart. I have to admit, I took the easy route on the food and didn't do all the cute stuff I found on Pinterest. We served taco in a bag, chips and salsa, snowflake sugar cookies, Sven poop (puppy chow), Elsa's frozen hearts (chocolate covered pretzels), and birthday cake!

Throughout the day, Jade was telling me that this was the best day ever and the best birthday ever! Made me feel pretty good and I'm glad she was so excited to celebrate. All she kept asking for for her birthday was balloons, so anything else was a bonus. Nate came home with about 13 different balloons! and her cake. I think that made her day right there.

Jade is not very fond of getting sung to so she had to hide her face during the birthday song and for some reason has no idea how to blow out candles. I guess I didn't know that was something that is hard to do. Yes, we know she's not 33, but Nate didn't know I already had bought a number 3 candle and bought another one when he picked up the cake so we used both of them.

Next was time for presents! That was super fun for her. She got a bunch of dress of clothes, an Anna doll to go with her Elsa doll, a doll house, magnet blocks, a movie, a puzzle...

Anna Doll

Anna Dress

 

Elsa Dress

Doll house

Balloon avalanche on her actual birthday!

Jade loves Princess's, Fairies, anything that goes along with the movie Frozen, running around the kitchen island, playing hide and seek, and playing dress up. She does a great job talking and enunciating. She is able to name common colors, can count to about 13 before needing help, can sing the alphabet, spell her first name, tell you her whole name and what month her birthday is in.  She struggles leaving me in unfamiliar places and sometimes familiar places. She has always been a Mama's girl and continues to be one.

I saw this next part online and I am going to start it this year and try to remember to ask her these questions every year...
Jade's 3 year old Favorites:
Color: Red (although the color changes almost every time you ask her from red to pink to blue to green)
Activity: Play
Food: Macaroni and Cheese
Animal: Dog (this also changes as she is not a real animal lover right now)
Song: Let It Go - from Frozen
Movie: Frozen
Show: Sophia the First
Candy: M&M's
Toy: Elsa doll (this also changes)
Best Friend: Megan (this made my heart so full! I hope that's her answer to that every year!)

Megan is 9 Months Old!

Megan oh Megan...you're 9 months old. Where has the time gone!? She is full of personality this month and becoming more and more mobile. She gets into more "trouble" than Jade did, so we really have to watch her. I never understood why they had straps on everything for babies. I totally get it now. For example, I never understood all the straps on highchairs, but completely understand it now. They can climb right up out of them. Megan is starting to understand what we are saying and it's really fun! She "says" so big. Knows what come here mean. Seems to somewhat understand what "no" is, but likes to test her limits with that one. Knows who Mama and Dada are and will look at us if we ask where the other one is (not always, but does it occasionally). She is able to turn pages in books when we read and loves to read our pop up books to see the story "pop out."

Sleep:
Megan goes to bed at 7/7:30 and wakes up for the day usually around 7:30/8. She is still getting up 2 times a night most nights. She wakes to eat usually around 10:30/11:30 and then again anywhere from 1-5. My body must be getting used to it, because I don't get as tired during the day as I used to! She naps either one time for 2-3 hours or 2 times for 1-2 hours each nap. She has a hard time napping when other things are going on. She wants to be a part of everything. She usually does pretty good on one nap though. If she takes one nap she usually sleeps from about 12:30-3:00ish. If she takes 2 naps, she naps a couple hours after she wakes up for  1-2 hours and then again around 1:30/2 for an hour or 2. She is getting easier to put to sleep, but she is still not as easy as Jade ever was. We are finally getting her figured out. Most of the time she likes being rocked to sleep, but there are times that she just wants nothing to do with being held and you can lay her down and she cries herself to sleep in 5 minutes.

Feed Me:
Megan continues to eat every 3-4 hours for the most part. She can go longer without food, but it seems like we have so much food we try to fit in, in a day that we give her something that often. She nurses throughout the night and her first and last feedings of the day. She gets a 4-5oz bottle around 11:30 and then eats a solid lunch with us at noon. She usually eats 1-2Tbls of cereal with water or milk and half a container of fruits or veges. Then she has another "snack" usually around 3:30. She doesn't eat much at this feeding, 3-4oz bottle. At 5:00 she eats her next solid feeding of 2Tbls of cereal and half a container of fruit or vege baby food. She nurses at 7 for the last time before bed. I have stopped pumping during the day all together about a week ago. Megan is not a big eater and is a very distracted eater. When she has a bottle, we have to give her something to have in her hands and when she eats solids, she gets her own spoon to hold onto while she eats. She LOVES yogurt, just like her big sister. We go through tubs of yogurt in this house! She hasn't really been into more solid foods like puffs and yogurt bites, but we will keep trying them.

Milestones:
11-19-14 - Is able to crawl up stairs without a problem!
11-28-14 - Said Dada and looked right at Nate when she said it. It doesn't happen often, but she did do it!
12-12-14 - Started cutting her top two teeth at the same time.
12-13-14 - Took a couple of unassisted steps to me. She was in some control while doing it. Took two steps and then fell into me. I don't think walking is too far off in her future.


Favorites: Playing peek-a-boo, following and playing with Jade, wrestling with me and Jade, chasing her Dad and Jade, crawling into and onto anything she can, crawling up stairs

Weight: 17lbs   Length: 26 3/4"

Clothes: 6-9 month 

How big are you? So BIG!!

Playing with these blocks is way more fun than posing for a picture Mom!

What? I'm not supposed to rip the paper off the blocks?

Big girl showing of her pearly whites.

Megan is 8 Months Old...WHAT?!

Finally Megan is becoming more of a human! I mean that in the nicest way possible. Yes, babies are cute and lovable, but for close to 8 months all she did was eat, poop, sleep, and cry (yes, I am exaggerating a little). She now is mobile and laughs and jabbers and is getting to the stage that Nate and I really enjoy. Even Jade seems to be excited her sister is on the loose, as long as she keeps her hands off her toys! She does a great job playing by herself and when she is done playing with one toy, she is able to move onto the next without my help! She loves to follow her sister, watch what Jade is doing (and try to help Jade), and climb. Jade was so laid back compared to Megan. I can't count how many times Megan has bumped her head or tipped over because she thinks she can walk or stand on her own. Megan and Jade started crawling at about the same time as each other and I always said that Jade would walk before she became a good crawler. Well, Megan is pretty good at crawling and is really trying to walk. She gets this look of concentration on her face like she really wants to figure out how to put one foot in front of the other. I know I say this every month, but Megan LOVES Jade! Wherever Jade is, Megan is not far behind. She even can crawl into chairs so she's sitting right next to Jade. Jade can still make her laugh without doing anything at all. I hope they will always be best friends!

Sleep:
She is getting better at sleeping for the most part. We have some nights obviously better than others. She is still waking to eat 1-2 times a night. The times are pretty much all over the place. Usually around 11/12 and then again at 3/4ish, but it does vary. I knew we wouldn't have another Jade that slept all night every night, but I sure wish we did. I would even be better if Megan had more of a schedule so my body could get used to it. She still goes to bed around 7/7:30 and is up anywhere from 6:30- an occasional 8:00. She does wake up and go back to sleep on her own too. Sometimes she really doesn't want to be rocked to sleep, I will lay her down awake and she whines for a minute and is asleep. This would be ideal!! We left the girls with my parents for a night to see Garth Brooks and she did awesome for them. They laid her down and then she didn't get up until 6! She does best with 2 naps, but sometimes doesn't get them in because we aren't home. She still won't sleep places because there is too much going on. She will fall asleep in her car seat on the way home from places, but wakes up as soon as I open her door. She naps around 9-10 for 1-2 hours and then again and 1-2 for 1-2 hours.

Feed Me:
We've tried a few more vege's and fruits. Doesn't seem to hate anything yet. I haven't tried anything green yet...I hate the smell of those. She is not a big fan of cereal. I usually mix a fruit or vege in with her cereal to get her to eat it. Sometimes it works and others it doesn't. She doesn't eat much in comparison to Jade. She actually has decreased the amount of solids she eats since we started solids. She started taking a bottle better and then stopped eating solids great. I'm sure she's getting more milk now so isn't as hungry, but I still feel like she should eat more. Oh well. She loves yogurt! She still gets for bottles/nursings a day, eating every 3-4 hours. She nurses in the morning and at night and gets bottles during the day. I am still pumping once during the day. We have not even started into the stash I have in the freezer. I think I could  probably stop pumping during the day and start getting into the stash as we have plenty of milk frozen. We are still attempting solids after her lunch bottle and at night when we eat dinner. She nurses at 8AM and 7PM, then bottle around 11:30 and 3:30. Solids at noon and 5/5:30.

Milestones:
11-10-14 Started crawling into things and onto things. She will climb into Jade's chairs, into shelves, on stools, and anything else she can get on/in.
11-13-14 Started crawling on hands and knees instead of army crawling.

Length: ?? Weight: maybe around 17 lbs, I forgot to weigh her
Clothes: 6-9 months. Pants and sleeves of shirts are still pretty long for her.

Loves: Following us everywhere and putting anything she can find into her mouth. She makes sure I do a good job cleaning the floors...she finds the smallest crumbs on the kitchen floor and carpet!

Always has her hands or something else in her mouth!

Happy girl! We ditched the blocks because they were a distraction.

This is why they made straps on things like highchairs...we never had to use them with Jade. It's a whole different story with Megan.

Halloween 2014

I love holiday's with kiddo's, especially as they get older! We have had a great time making Halloween decorations and treats this month. We decorated the mud room one day to scare Daddy as he came home with "Bluzzery" the witch and 2 spiders we made out of paper plates, paint and construction paper. We also have made countless pumpkins at home and at ECFE (early childhood and family education class). We baked Halloween cupcakes, made pumpkin bread 2 times, created spiders out of Oreo's, M&M's and pretzels, and spent Halloween making sugar cookies. Jade also got to eat a grilled cheese sandwich in the shape of a bat for lunch. She ate that faster than I have ever seen her eat a sandwich. SOO much FUN!!

Because the neighborhood we live in has such big lots and long driveways, we have a trick or treat hay ride. There were 3 4-wheelers with trailers and hay bails to drive us around our neighborhood. Jade had a great time with this! There were 20ish kids ranging in age from about 18months to probably 13ish and then a handful of adults riding along. We brought a blanket along to sit on and enjoyed the ride from house to house. Jade decided she wanted to trick or treat at the first house by herself and just follow all the kids. That was the only house she did alone other than ours. I think there were just too many fast moving kids. The older kids would run to the door and then run back to the trailer. Jade was a little overwhelmed by this. I think she had a blast trick or treating. She kept talking about filling her pumpkin "all the way to the top." We trick or treated for about an hour and then had Nate pick us up at the last house in our neighborhood. The older kids went on to the next neighborhood. Jade dressed up as one of her favorite princesses this year, Sophia the First. All week, she kept telling me I was going to be a fairy. I didn't have a fairy costume, so asked if I could be Sophia's Mom and wore a bridesmaid dress from my Mom's wedding. She thought it was fun to have me dressed up too. Megan was an elephant just like Jade was on her first Halloween. Poor Megan is just going to be whatever Jade was for the first few years!

We also painted pumpkins early in the month and then carved them this week. I found a Disney kit, so we had a Minnie Mouse pumpkin and a Daisy Duck pumpkin.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Sophia the First doesn't like/want to get her picture taken.

Sophia the First and Sophia's Mommy...Queen Miranda.

She hates hats! It was pretty funny watching her get mad and pull the hood off!

Our little elephant.

Some of our art projects.

Megan is 7 Months Old!

Time flies in these little ones lives! I have to admit, I love when these little ones become more animated and start moving. Babies are great, but I just love watching them get older and discover new things!

Sleep:
Megan has turned a corner from the last month I think. We put her to bed before Jade. Megan is usually sleeping by 7:30, if not earlier, which gives me a half hour to hour before Jade goes to bed. She still gets up one time to eat in the middle of the night to eat. On a rare occasion she will sleep until 4-5, but is usually up between 1-3 to eat. She goes right back to bed, so I can't complain too much. She usually is up for the day around 7/8:00. She is doing a better job of going back to sleep in the middle of the night on her own. Nate was on his own with the girls on October 15 and couldn't get Megan to go to bed for him so he let her cry. That was the best thing that he could have done for us! For a few nights after that, I would rock her to sleep and then put her down. I usually rocked her for 5-10 minutes and laid her down. She would wake up when I laid her down, but she would go right to bed. Yesterday, (Oct. 21) I laid her down at nap time without rocking her or anything and she was sleeping within 5 minutes. We did the same for her at bedtime and it worked again. Megan might turn into a great sleeper! It still depends on the day as to how many naps she gets in and what her temperament is like. I would say more days than not, she just gets one long nap in around the same time as Jade...from about 1:00-3.

Feed Me:
Solids are going great! She loves everything but peaches. We just tried peaches and she doesn't seem to like them much. I think her favorite is pears. We have tried sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, pears, peaches, apples and bananas. We are also having her eating oatmeal. We have oatmeal and fruit at lunch and then oatmeal and vege's at night. She is taking vitamin D per the recommendation of the pediatrician for breastfed babies. She still eats 4-5 times daily. She is getting one bottle almost every day. She does pretty well with it when I feed her, but doesn't eat more than 4oz at a time. I don't know if that's really all she needs, or if she just doesn't care for a bottle. I've tried a sippy cup again, but it ended up everywhere again.

Milestones:
10/10/14 - Pulled herself to a stand.
10/12/14 - Started to use her hands and legs to scoot. She is still on her tummy scooting, but pulls with her arms and pushes with her legs. She gets better and better at this everyday.
10/18/14 - Is getting her two lower front teeth. The lower left has broken the gum line and I can see the other one coming right behind.

Length: ??  Weight: 16lbs
Clothes: is wearing 6-9 month clothing for the length. She has plenty room in the body of outfits, but needs the length in the pants over 3-6 month clothing.

Loves:
She loves to laugh and smile. Jade continues to be her favorite. Jade just sits there and Megan will laugh at her. I've let Jade be a little more rough with Megan and Megan really seems to like it. Megan loves to get into everything she's not supposed to...puzzles, card games, Jade's bubble magnet book. She seems to play with toys more than I remember Jade playing with. If I leave the room and Megan in one spot, she's usually right next to Jade when I get back. Jade doesn't really like it all the time, but I think it's pretty cute. She loves swinging at the park. She is becoming a better traveler in the car. She used to scream!!! She made it all the way to Grand Forks awake without crying. She did pretty good entertaining herself until about Fargo and then I had to rotate toys.

Getting pictures with blocks gets so much harder now!

I completely gave up on the blocks here!

Jade loves being a big sister most of the time. Megan is so big sitting on Jade's lap!

6 Months

We made it...Happy Half Birthday to Megan! It's hard to believe she's been in our lives for that long already. It's even harder to believe we've been in our new house that long!

Megan continues to be a pretty good baby overall. She is pretty happy for the most part. She usually wears a smile on her face. She flirts with her Dad all the time and continues to think her Sister is pretty funny. She loves playing peek-a-boo and for some reason not only likes to play with her feet, but my feet as well. She has started to jump in her jumparoo and really enjoys playing in that which frees up my hands so I also love it! She "plays" with toys more than I remember Jade doing. She enjoys different toys and hasn't really picked a favorite. Her laugh makes my heart smile! I just love baby laughs!

Sleep:
Ugh...She's not Jade! She goes to bed around 8/830 and is either up a few times a night or sleeps until 4-6:00 to eat. Then she goes back to bed until 7:30/8:00. If she is up before 4:00, I try to get her to go back to sleep without eating to not change our routine up too much and I don't think she should be hungry then. Some nights I'm not sure why she wakes up so much or what she really needs. If we are home, she usually naps around 10 for 1-2 hours. If we are gone, she will wait until we are in the car or home to take her first nap. She really fights napping and I can't get her to fall asleep at a couple classes Jade and I are in. Sometimes she does fine without a nap where other days she gets crabby. If she has someone or something to watch, she's usually fine. She usually naps 2-3 hours after she gets up. She is usually fine after 2 naps and doesn't really nap much at night unless she's really tired. If she gets up around 3/4:00 in the afternoon, she won't nap until it's bedtime. It's nice having her nap shorter in the morning so she will take her long nap at 1 with Jade, on the flip side, it's nice when she naps long in the morning so I get Jade time without her and then Megan time while Jade is napping. She is hard to get to go down for bed and naps. I can do it, but everyone else has a hard time and I can only do it when we are home. She's not a self soother, although I think she's getting better at that. We might be trying the cry it out thing to go to bed starting this weekend. Wish us luck...we'll see how that goes!

Feed Me:
We are still breast feeding. She eats 4-5 times a day. I continue to try to give her a bottle most days. Some days she does ok with them and will eat 5oz (I haven't tried more than that) and some days she struggles to eat 1. We might have to try a sippy cup again. Last time I tried that, it ended up all over her. We started solids on 9-15. I hate rice cereal the way you're supposed to make it right away. It's so runny. Most of it falls off the spoon before I even get it to her mouth. I thickened it up on day 2 and that seemed to go better. I will probably try to thicken it even more on day 3. I am mixing with breast milk now, but will try water later so we don't go through so much breast milk. (not that that matters if she's not going to take a bottle) I forgot how to introduce solids from Jade and when to do all of it, but I will figure it out again I'm sure.

Milestones:
She now is doing a good job sitting alone.
She started "talking" on September 11.

Length: 26" Weight: 15lbs 6oz (about the size Jade was at 4 months)
Clothes: Just starting to make the transition into 6-9 month clothing

She obviously loves sucking on her bottom lip. Today she was more interested in that than smiling. This is where using blocks gets hard! I remember having the same problem with Jade.

5 Months Old

Once again, I am bad at this blogging thing but will continue to attempt to get better.

Megan is 5 months old. Time is flying, but I am so excited for what's ahead at the same time. I love that she has started to play and that personality of hers is starting to show through even more.

Likes:
Megan absolutely loves her big sister! She is definitely her favorite in the family with a close second being Duke I think. If Jade is in the room, all eyes are on her. She will often just giggle watching Jade do nothing. Jade thinks it's fun and cute sometimes, but other times could care less. Megan loves playing peek-a-boo, sucking on her toes, and grabbing anything and everything she can get her hands on.

Sleep:
Megan is hard to get to go to sleep for naps and bed. She just doesn't want to miss out on anything so tries to look around until she can't stand it any longer and then cries hard when she can't get to sleep. I had thought I found a way to get her to sleep, but that didn't work for long. It gets frustrating at times and my arms are burning from holding her, but I eventually get her to fall asleep. I try to have her take 3 naps, a day but it doesn't always work out that way. It's easier when we're home all day or when we can do things around her nap time, but it's hard to always do that when you have a 2 1/2 year old too. She seems to do ok on less sleep, just needs a little more entertainment. I try to put her down for her naps about 2 hours after she gets up from the previous one. We try to have her in bed by 8:30, but again that doesn't always work because Jade is a Mama's girl and there is only a limited amount of things Dad is able to do at bedtime. We are slowly getting Jade used to Daddy doing more, but some battles are just not worth fighting for us at bedtime. Megan had been sleeping all night until recently when she decided to wake up a few times a night. She usually only eats one of the times she is up. She officially wakes up anywhere from 7-9:30. We have also finally moved her from her bassinet to her crib. We started that a long time ago...until she got RSV and then moved her back to the bassinet because it was sloped for when she was sick. Then I guess we "babied" her too long and she got used to be tucked cozy in that thing. Everything is a phase right? She will like her crib sometime...hopefully soon!

Eating:
We are still exclusively breastfeeding. She eats 4-5x per day and I really have no idea how much. We tried bottles early on and she took them easily, so didn't worry about continuing them. Now that i want her to occasionally take a bottle, she won't. We are working on that. I am trying different nipple "flows," having different people feed her, different positions, heating the milk up...I feel like I've tried everything. I am really hoping she's not one of those babies that never takes a bottle because I have too much milk saved in the freezer. I think I would bawl if I had to dump it! We are going to try a different bottle soon. One more month until solids and I think she will love them! She reaches for our food all the time and really watches all of us eat.

Milestones:
July 21- rolled stomach to back
July 25- found her toes and loves them!
July 31- rolled back to stomach
Can sit with assistance. I have her sit between my legs or in her boppy pillow for when she tips over.
She has started to really "play" with toys. She puts everything in her mouth. Can hold toys and change them from hand to hand. Looks at things she's dropped.

Weight: I think around 14 pounds  Length: ?? Clothing: 3-6 month

Jump Jump

I have to share this because I think it's kinda funny. Jade absolutely loves to jump and "dance" around in the basement. I say dance in quotation marks because her idea of dancing is stomping around in a circle clapping her hands. She has a Raffi CD that I am beyond sick of listening to so I decided to find some music with the words jump in it so she could jump and dance on her trampoline to it. Naturally I pull of Jump by Kris Kros and Jump Around by House of Pain. Are these toddler appropriate songs? Probably not, but I don't think there are any "bad words" in them either so I will continue to play them. I also personally think I can dance the sh*t out of any line dance so played the cupid shuffle in hopes to teach Jade the line dance for the upcoming wedding season. We are still practicing. She does have the lyrics "right right right, left, left, left, and kick kick kick" down though. That's a start right?

Megan continues to be an absolute perfect baby. She only cries when she's hungry or tired. She is turning into one beautiful little girl. I say that as if I didn't think she was cute before. Well, she was but in a Mother's eyes as all newborns are. I just don't think newborn babies are the cutest until they start to fill out a little. Megan is definitely filling out! She is 2 pounds lighter than Jade was and 2 inches shorter at the same age. Jade continues to love her little sister! She likes to copy what I say to Megan. It is so funny and cute! I wish I could capture it on camera sometime, but I'm always too slow.

The house update: It is still a work in progress. We absolutely love everything about it so far, but there are a few things that need finishing still. The deck and screened in porch is pretty much done, just a few finishing pieces. I will post picture sometime. We love it! It's so nice having dinner outside and not having to swat flies and mosquitos the whole time. They have also started on the stone so I will finally post a picture of the front of the house sometime too. Nate is renting a bobcat this weekend to work on the yard. We would really like to get the grass going! Our builder continues to drag his feet finishing all the little stuff, but we are keeping on him to get this done!

Dirty 30

I have officially entered a new decade...YIKES!!! I can only hope the best is yet to come, but my 20's are going to be hard to beat. I don't think there will be as much life changes in my 30's, but I might have the best memories as I watch my girls grow into young ladies. Crazy to think that I will have a 10 and 12 year old to start the next decade!

In my 20's I...
-Had transferred to UND from Dickinson State, one of the best decisions I had made!
-Graduated from UND with a BS in Athletic training
-Accepted a GA position at Bemidji State
-Graduated from BSU with a MS in Education
-Got my first job at Breckenridge High School through then MeritCare, now Sanford
-Met a few Mr. Wrongs that lead me to MR RIGHT!!
-Got married on a gorgeous spring day in May
-Spent a lot of money on booze...but had a lot of fun doing it
-Went from being able to go out every night and stay out late to going to bed at 9:30/10:00
-Went from hangovers that last a day to hangovers that last a week
-Moved to Dickinson
-Moved to Grand Forks
-Moved to Bemidji
-Moved to West Fargo
-Moved to Fergus Falls
-Bought my first car and house in one day
-Sold our first house
-Built our dream house
-Gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Jade
-Gave birth to another adorable baby girl, Megan
-Hosted our first Thanksgiving
-Hosted our first Christmas (right after Jade was born so I really didn't do much)
-Got my first dog
-Learned how to hunt and fish
-Bought our first boat (Just a couple days before my 30th bday)
-Went to Mexico (first time out of the country besides Canada)
-Went to Jamaica
-Went to a Duke basketball game at Cameron Indoor in Durham
-Learned what it's like to love someone else more than words could ever say...3 times!
-"Retired" after almost 5 years of working to stay at home with 2 kids
-Was the Matron of Honor in my best friends wedding
-Was a bridesmaid, an usherette, and a reader in three other of my good friends weddings
-Had to say goodbye to some people I will never forget

I'm sure there are more big milestones I'm missing, but it's 5:30 in the morning and I can't think of any. I think I got the major ones. So here's to leaving the 20's behind and hoping my 30's can come close to comparing. Cheers!

The oldest picture I had on the computer. This is probably from Christmas break one year after I transferred to UND. 

My 22nd birthday, when Nate and I started dating.

Bought a dog...Duke!

My first and only deer so far. 1 for 4 is not a good statistic! However, I have only pulled the trigger once too so that's a great statistic!

Mexico for our honeymoon.

Duke basketball game

Pre-kiddo family

Started fishing, but won't bait my own hook yet.

Bought our first house together.

Happy couple inside our fist home.

Went to Jamaica

Became a family of 3!

Built and moved into our second home. I can't believe I didn't have a picture of the outside, but I don't so this inside picture is the next best thing. We still have a lot of work to do but it's home.

Gave birth to our second baby girl.

Became a Mommy of 2 of the cutest girls!

My cuties!

Big Sister = Big Helper

Our first family of 4 picture!