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!

And then there were 4!

I am finally finding time to get a blog done! Life as we knew it is over and we have opened a new chapter. A chapter I wouldn't say we were ready for, but one that we embraced with open arms. On March 13, we welcomed Megan Grace into our family.

I began having contractions at about 4:30AM on the 12th, her due date! I thought we were going to deliver on her actual due date! As my luck would have it though, I would have to wait. This labor and delivery was so much easier than Jade was. Although I started having contractions 24 hours before delivery, They weren't real painful until about 8 o'clock or so the night before. I also didn't have consistent contractions all day. They were consistant until about 9:30AM and then I would have 1-2 each hour until about 6:00PM when they started coming back more consistently again. I attempted to sleep a little at home, but then decided to just go to the couch and read until our little one was ready to meet us. I went into our bedroom to wake up Nate around 11:30. We left the house around midnight and was admitted around 12:30. I had called my Mom around 8AM and asked her to come down. I told her it was no hurry as the contractions weren't strong, but they were there. She got here early afternoon. I had thought about sending her home with my contractions going away, but was glad she was here once I started having them again! We had no idea what we were going to do with Jade if my Mom wasn't here as we don't know many people in Fergus yet. I delivered just 4 hours after being admitted into the hospital. I was dilated around 5cm when I got there. I got an epidural that worked this time and would have another in a heart beat if I ever deliver again! My water broke on it's own about an hour after I got my epidural. The nurse called the MD after my water broke. By the time he got there, I felt ready to push and he agreed. He had the nurse prep me and get started. I only pushed through one contraction before she went to get the MD. I told them all I was going to be fast. I don't like messing around. From the time of my first push to calling in the doctor and getting him ready to delivery itself was 10 minutes! I think I pushed through 4 contractions is all. The epidural was amazing. I could tell when I was getting a contraction, but had to have Nate or the nurse tell me when it was over. Megan was born at 4:16AM.

Nate brought Jade up the next morning to meet her little sister. That is one memory I hope never fades! I was actually changing rooms when they got there because the birthing center was so full. I got to pick Jade up and show her Megan before we pushed the bassinet down the hall. Once we got in my new room, I asked if she wanted to sit with me and hold Megan. She said yes, so the three of us got to sit together. Jade gave a bunch of hugs and kisses and kept saying "baby," She continues to give Megan lots of love. There have been a few jealous moments for her, espcially when other people are around, which is to be expected. When it's just the 4 of us though, she does good. She loves wearing her big sister shirt too. She picks it out herself often.

Week 1-2 - adjustment weeks! I was lucky to get a shower in this week and was happy with one every other day. Nate just took Thursday/Friday off from work. Megan and I came home Friday. I had my Mom stay until Saturday. Mike and Jean came down to see us on Sunday and then my parents and grandparents came down on Monday. My Dad also visited while we were in the hospital. Megan ate every 2 hours all day and night, which means by the time I was done feeding and got back to bed, I only got to sleep for an hour. She slept fine on her own in the bassinet, which is different than Jade. I slept with Jade on the couch often the first couple weeks (I know you're not supposed to do that, but I needed the sleep!) Tuesday was our first day at home alone. I did fine, life is just much busier with two. I have to time when we go somewhere with when Megan is going to need to eat. I have to make sure Jade is occupied with something while I nurse Megan or she wants up on my lap too. I had to explain to Jade that I feed Jade and when I pump I'm putting milk away. She used to try to hook the pump up to herself and now she thinks she needs my nursing pillow to feed Minnie (or whoever) from her tummy. She is too interested in breast feeding!! I have to admit, it's weird having my 2-year old staring at me while I start nursing. Oh well, she won't remember that right?

Weeks 3-5- we are getting the hang of things! Jade is getting to be better and better with Megan. She thinks it's funny when I talk to Megan and has started to talk to her too. It's absolutely amazing to me to see how much Megan loves Jade already. She watches her when she can find her, she quits crying when you lay her next to Jade in bed... I think Megan knows Jade's voice just as well as mine. Truly amazing!

We are running out of things to do inside and can't wait to get outside more! I wish I would have found time to blog before this as I'm sure I had some funny stories to share, but hopefully I can start those now that I've figured out a time to blog in peace and quite!

Welcome Megan Grace Noland!

Early morning family picture minus our big girl.

Holding little sister for the first time.

Megan has gotton more kisses already than Nate and I have ever got!

Megan's gift to Jade. She loved it!

Megan's first day at home and Jade had to show her some of new things Megan got in the mail.

Red haired cutie!

Megan and Daddy time.

Big sister holding Jade all by herself! I know, I'm daring but she does great!

First bath at home.

Just hanging out.. "Mommy, Megan's holding Jade's hand!" Yes, we are working on talking in the 3rd person, 1st person is hard!