A while ago, my husband turned 30

Earlier this summer, my husband turned 30. He cried.

No really, he did. I think it might have been the fact that he learned he was going to win $1000 in his fantasy baseball league. I think I will chalk up the tears to the fact that turning 30 is a little happy and a little sad all rolled together.

A couple photos....

We had cupcakes. Henry picked them out. We enjoyed them with wine.

Henry just enjoyed them.... like 5 of them.

We spent a couple days in Vail. It was lovely. No kids. Lots of wine (remember that B?), a hot tub, massages and some golf (which for me? just wine and watching golf)

B golfed at the River Course, he had a great time. We enjoyed the amazing weather, and did I mention, no kids?

River Course.

Cheers. A good week. Love you B.

Who goes to the movies?

The last time I saw a movie in the theater? The Proposal. That's right. Summer 2009.

Why? Well, first, I have the attention span of a 5 year old. I hate long movies. I hate movies where I cannot get up and pee, or get a glass of wine. And second, I have 2 children under 3. And it isn't easy to go to the movies with them.

There are lots of movies on our list to see. And hopefully they will come to On Demand sooner than later.... but in the mean time, here are a couple I want to see this month (because we always go in December, it's a tradition)

www.fandango.com

Here comes santa....

This year as a part of MDO Henry will participate in the santa shop (we called it elf shelf back in the day, same thing). I had to bring in 10 items that could be sold at the shop. I had a hard time coming up with something that was cute, fun and not $10 each. I stumbled on these at target and thought they were just about perfect. Little muffin mix kits. I wouldn't be surprised if my kid actually picked one of these. Seriously.

Why?

This is a conversation I had with my 2.5 year old son the other day.

Me: Henry, we don't go pee in our pants.

Henry: Why?

Me: Because you have on underwear and not a diaper.

Henry: Why?

Me: Because you are not a baby anymore and we go in the potty now.

Henry: Why?

Me: HENRY. Are you listening to me? We go potty in the potty, not our underwear.

Henry (turns to his 8 month old sister): Lizzie, don't poop your pants, mommy says.

Think he got it?

Poor Liz.

Wordless Wednesday- This is why I love MDO

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving is a holiday that we really enjoy in the George house. It isn't stressful like Christmas and we get to spend the whole day relaxing and enjoying family.

We normally spend the day with my parents and brother... this year they headed off to PA to spend the day with my dad's sister and her family. So we decided it was a great year to host our first Thanksgiving. Never mind that it was just the 4 of us, we had and amazing day.

We hosted a meal on Wednesday night for Bryan's family- my sister in law and her husband, my mother in law, and her sisters family all joined us for a couple hours and we enjoyed drinks and dinner with the kids. It was a fun night.

Thursday we started early with the cooking, watched the parade (my favorite part of the day), ate appetizers and drink champagne while the kids napped then had a fun early dinner. Great day.

Friday we spend the day in FC with my mother and father in law and enjoyed lunch with the SIL and BIL again. Henry really enjoyed the day with Uncle Tyer (tyler) and we enjoyed seeing everyone for the first time in a couple months.

So, nothing too crazy for the weekend, just a good relaxing time together. A couple photos from the day....

Can't wait for Christmas!!

Potty Training

When we told Henry that we were going to start potty training, this is what he did.

No, seriously. The kid was NOT interested in the potty. We had one of those little ones, you know, the kind that was separate from the actual toilet. I think it scared him. We hoped he would like it when we brought it home a YEAR AGO. It was something we thought he might come around to. He didn't.

Before this last weekend, this was the extent of his interest in the bathroom-

That said, we think we tried every way we could to make this work. We made him sit on the potty every hour. We made him walk around without clothes on (now you know why I need new carpets...), we tried bribes, we tried punishment. Nothing worked.

So last weekend we spent 3 days at home. THREE DAYS. We didn't do anything. We pooped. We peed. On the potty. Every 10-15 minutes. By the end of the day he looked at me and said, "I don't have to poop mom, okay?" And by the end of the second day he was exhausted. By the end of the third day? He was telling us when he needed to go to the bathroom.

POTTY. TRAINED. I have some pictures, but in an effort to keep my kid in my good graces, I won't post them. He is playing with a train and wearing a bow in his hair. What? It was what he wanted that day. It was a good day anyway.

New Bedding

Since Lizzie is getting to the point where she likes to move around (read, crawl) in her crib, we are thinking it might be time to nix the bumper we have in her crib. We LOVE the one we have in there now, but honestly? They can be very dangerous to babies.

So we are looking at this buying a breathable bumper. I actually found one at BRUS that has a PRINT! It would still match her room, and would make me feel better about her being in there. At the same time, is it worth the $30 if we end up removing it in a couple months anyway?

Thoughts?

House Updates

Am I the only one who has a list of things they want to update at their house?

My house is new. As in, built in 2006. We moved in and painted every surface, replaced all the kitchen and bathroom counters. Put in new sinks, new floors, new blinds, a deck. You know, the essentials.

But I still have a list of things I want done here. I KNOW they aren't adding much value to my house- we are already over improved. And although we love our little house, we know that it isn't a house we can live in forever. It is too small for any more kids, it is in a bad school district, we want to live in an older, more established neighborhood WITH TREES, we want a place with some character that needs some fixing- something we can really make our own, a place our kids remember fondly when they grow up.

So here is what is on our list:

Update downstairs bathroom- almost done- need to replace the light
Paint front door- done
New house numbers
Install custom shelves in family room- half done- thank you baby!
Paint garage floors
New sinks in all bathrooms- done
New light in eat in kitchen
Replace carpet in family room
Trees planted on side of house
Update wooden spindles in kitchen and dining room
Carpet to the basement
Drywall basement
Carpet in at least half of basement

And that is just things we have talked about this month. I am sure that about half of these won't happen before we move someday....but it is good to have a list, a goal, something we know we want to spend our money on...

Pumpkin Patch

Better late than never, right? We took the kids up to Rock Creek Farms in Broomfield. It was crazy! I have never in my life seen so many pumpkins. Seriously. Henry loved running in the fields.

We took Nana, Papa and GG. Good day.



Henry picking a pumpkin.... he brought home 10.

Nope, not drinking... just loving the pumpkins.

Daddy and his girl.

GG and her girl!

Papa and Henry

Henry loves cotton candy.

Pretty sure we won't be getting a good family photo for years.

LOVE LOVE LOVE

We start them early

We play strong republican cards in our house. We don't care what our kids decide when they grow up... as long as they find the right to vote important.....

Both our kids were born in voting years. This year? Liz voted. She liked it. Her candidate lost. But she was pretty happy that day all the same.

Henry voted his first year too. He candidate lost and he cried.

Love that we have photos of both with their stickers. Maybe one day we can use these when they run for office.

Etsy...

Here are some things I am loving from this site today....

Slippers for Henry.....

This amazing wool coat, for ME

This diaper bag (since I don't carry a purse)

This necklace... with my kids initials. I have another one I love....

These longies for lizzie to wear over her diapers. Cute for Christmas!

all photos from www.etsy.com

Go Wyo

Henry.... likes Wyoming. He liked football and those cowboys....

And now? Well, Liz likes them too. Good girl.

Baby Food

When Henry was born one of the things I wanted to do as a STAY AT HOME MOM, was to make all his baby food. I mean, I was at home all day, it was the least I could do. Plus, you have read the benefits, right? It is full of vitamins and cheaper, plus there are no preservatives and I am keeping the plastic out of landfills. You get it.

Well, when it was all said and done, there were about 5 things that I made regularly for Henry. Squash, bananas, pumpkin and applesauce. Wait, that is 4 things, and he HATED the bananas. So pretty much, I gave up. And you know what? Henry is a picky eater. He doesn't like many veggies, and the fruits he does eat are random- one day he likes them, the next he doesn't. Maybe this isn't about the fact that I fed him jarred baby food. Maybe it was the fact that when he didn't like something we gave in and let him have something else. Who knows.

With Liz we (ok, I) really wanted to try and make as much as we could. We waited until she was 6 months old to start any kind of solid- we figured she wasn't ready at 4 months and didn't want to push it. We started with some organic jarred foods- I wanted to see what she liked (and really, what liked her). Once we had a better idea we got started.

We use a Beaba- it makes it so easy to steam then puree any food. That said, I don't think it makes the food as smooth as Lizzie likes. And it is only good at making small batches. So we switched it up to the large steamer and food processer. We now have a freezer full of food that lizzie loves.

A quick sample of what we have:

- mango/banana
- mango/sweet potato
- sweet potato/ banana
- brocolli/pear
- chicken/cauliflower
- peas/carrots
- peas/apples
- apples/chicken

Here's hoping we can keep this up.....

My kids

A quick update on Henry and Lizzie. This is for my one reader.... and my mom :)

Henry:

- Started MDO this fall, he LOVES it. There are 8 boys and 2 girls. He wants to go everyday. Looks like next fall will be 3 day a week preschool!

- Is POTTY TRAINED. This is the best news ever. Seriously, B and I had a mini party to celebrate.

- May or may not be using some choice words he has heard mommy use. Bad bad news. I won't tell you what ones they are, but I will say, they are not ones I hope he uses while at church.

- Loves, loves, loves his sister. It is awesome. He crawls in her crib after her naps (and sometimes during her nap) to play. It melts my heart.

Lizzie:

- is army crawling

- is still cloth diapered. 8 months- wasn't sure we would make it. But still love it.

- is eating EVERYTHING. I make all her food so she has some pretty great mixtures (post to come, I am obsessed)

- waves at us (oh lord, this is the cutest thing, ever)

And because they are cute......

Busy, Busy

It seems that we go weeks between posts these days...

What have we been up to?

Watching Lizzie grow (and make her mad face)... she now weighs just over 10 lbs and is 23 inches long. She is tiny compared to Henry. She is still in her tiny clothes- NB and some 0-3 months...

Golfin'- Henry and Daddy have gone 3 or 4 times in the last couple weeks. Daddy has taught Henry how to tee the ball up, how to putt and how to "put the ball in the hole!"
Playing with our trucks....

Watching Henry and Daddy play golf. She was as excited as her momma...

More to come soon, this time we promise!

Where are all the pictures?

Good question.

I think they are hidding with Lizzie's birth announcements and all of the thank you notes I have yet to write.

I am a bad mom.

All of those things will be coming before the end of the week though! I am in the process of ordering the birth announcement and I just dug out all my stationary to write thank you notes- FINALLY!

Stay tuned.

Selling our House!

So last week our house officially went on the market. Crazy times here at Casa George.

We have always known that the house we are in was a "starter home" (well a starter home with plantation shutters, granite and other lovely finishes!). There are only three bedrooms here, and now that they are all full it makes the house seem very small. We really want to be able to add one more child to our family in the future and so we need at least one more bedroom, we would really like an office and we would also love a guest room (in case someone wants to actually stay with us, especially with the kids living in our house!), a basement for the kids to play and a back yard big enough for running and jumping!

We are also thinking it is time to move given the current school district we are in. We knew from the day we signed our closing papers that our kids wouldn't be going to school in this district, and although we could chose to open enroll or send them to private, neither of those were ever really in our long term plans.

So the house hunt is on. We have no idea how long it will take to sell the house, and we are prepared to have the house listed through the summer and possibly through the very early fall months, but if we don't have anything by September we will take it off the market and try again in the spring- we just don't want to have to be on guard through the entire holiday season!

We have had one showing that has proven to be rather good- we are at the top of the list for the buyers, so only time will tell what they decide! In terms of finding a new house, that has proven to be more difficult. There have been a couple of homes we have liked, but neither of us can seem so agree on what we want and what is most important! We know that in the end it will all work out and that we will find a house that we love as much as we love this house.

My mom is actually our listing agent and she will be the one to sell us a new house too... bless her heart for working with us at all! Hopefully we will have good news sooner rather than later, but we will be sad to leave this house. We got married and had photos taken here at the house, we brought both our kids home to this house and this is the only home Henry has ever known. We also know that a new house will bring lots of new memories!

We will keep you posted!

Cloth Diaper Update

So, back when I was pregnant with Lizzie, I decided that we would give cloth diapering a try.

The response from our family, friends and if truth be told, my husband? Not good. Everyone thought we were crazy, the older family members assumed we were talking prefolds (which people still use, just not these people!) and my husband thought it sounded disgusting.

Well, we purchased our diapers- and we actually had a pretty good stash. We knew the diapers that we would use in the long run would be too big from the get go, but I didn't want to do disposables for 2 months (or longer depending on her weight and build) and then start the cloth process. My thoughts were two-fold: first, why put her super sensitive skin through 2+ months of chemicals (we had the most diaper rash in the first 12 weeks with Henry) and two, I knew if we got hooked on the disposables again we would stay with them because, well, they are easy.

So after we got home from the hospital and got through the "tar" phase we started the cloth diapers.

The diapers we thought we would love the most, Lil Joeys Rumparooz (the small version of the diaper we love) are actually the hardest to use. They are tiny (which is great fit wise) but they don't last longer than about 2 hours (less if she pees a ton or has a mini blow out) and they leak around the legs in that amount of time. But I will say they are ADORABLE and they are easy.

The diapers that I have really grown to love are actually the fitted diapers. We have a number of fitteds- including kissaluvs, thirsties and Bumbees. I like them all, but I love the kissas the best. They are super absorbant, easy to put on and really soft. These diapers do require a cover and we have three kinds- wool, fleece and thirsties adjustable. I love that the fleece and wool are so absorbent (she can go 8+ hours and the inside diaper is soaked, but not even a trace of moisture from the outside) but they are HOT and come summer, she will hate them. The thirsties are cute and easy. They come in all colors, are fitted through 9 months and have a velcro closure, which bryan likes.

Now, lets talk about washing the diapers. This was one of the things that I was the most concerned with, I mean, poopy diapers are not ideal to deal with, and diaper pails stink like crazy, so won't a pile of un-washed diapers? The short answer is, yes, they do stink, but with specially made wet bags, the smell is contained and special stain remover and detergent makes the stains disappear and makes the whole house smell good (our favorite is a handmade soap called Monkey Farts- it smells tropical, I love it!)

So washing, we wash the diapers every day, if not two times a day (depending on number of diapers changed) and it is easy, we make it work as a part of our schedule. The diapers don't get washed with other clothing, so it generally amounts to one full load on hot/cold, double rinse. EASY!

So, here is my final thought on cloth- if you can, cloth is the way to go. It is so much better for the baby, the environment, your pocketbook (ok, well in the long run. Happy B?) and lets face it, the diapers are cute!

Drive-Thru Life

With two kids, I now realize the importance of "drive-thru" businesses.

Sure, there are some drive-thru options that I have always taken advantage of, for example, banking. No joke, when Bryan and I got married and opened a joint checking account, it was the first time I had been in a bank in YEARS. I hate going into the bank. With kids, drive-thru ATM is the only option.

But there are some new ones that I just don't think I could survive without- the first is Sonic (or really anywhere with sweat-tea!). When I am craving a caffeine boost, I love that I can drive through and get a sweet tea (the biggest one they have of course, so it lasts all day!) The second is Starbucks. Get out of the car with two kids to pay for my $4 latte? No thanks. Drive through for my $4 latte- I would do that 2 times a day!

Now if I could only find a drive thru Chipotle, dry cleaners (I know some places have these, none around us though!), liquor store (again, I know they are out there, but to find one around here you need to drive to the ghetto! And sometimes I need a bottle of wine!) and most importantly, a drive thru grocery store- it always happens that at 4:30 in the afternoon with a VERY cranky 2 year old that I will run out of Very Vanilla Soy milk (and of course he won't touch anything else with a 10 foot pole). With two kids I can't imagine having to run to the store at that time of the night. So Super Target, please listen up and put in a drive-thru lane. I will be a long time shopper if you do!

Speaking of babies...

So with two kids, one boy, one girl, everyone seems to want to know, "Are you done now?"

The simple answer is no- we decided a long time ago that we would have at least 3 kids (I wanted four, Bryan was more on the three kid train) We love that our kids are almost exactly 2 years apart, and we hope to put the same amount of time in between Elizabeth and baby George number 3.

And although 2 years seems like a long time from now, in terms of giving birth two years from now, it means that we would have to start trying sometime next spring. And that seems close. Really close. I mean, a year flys by in the blink of an eye, especially with a toddler and a newborn.

It means a lot of other things for our family too- we need to move to have a third baby (we only have three bedrooms here), we would like to plan a babymoon with baby number 3, which means saving for a trip and trying to figure out who will watch our TWO kids, it means getting my body back in shape for pregnancy and learning how to deal with the two kids we already have!

The thought of being pregnant again is also overwhelming, I am not in love with the process, I never feel very attractive and if the next time is anything like this pregnancy I will feel icky for a couple months, and a 3 and 1 year old won't allow for much down time.

So there are my thoughts on more babies... and hopefully I am not alone in the feelings I have about our growing family!

Elizabeth Ruby George

Well, this time around we never made it to our official due date- April 9th. But we couldn't be happier!

At our 38.5 week appointment we talked with the Dr about the lack of Elizabeth's movement- we had spent the last week monitoring how much she was moving (or really how little she was moving) and the Dr decided that in the last week of pregnancy we might as well get Lizzie out! We started with the stripping of the membranes on Tuesday morning. The Dr told us we had about a 50% chance that it would kick labor off in 24-48 hours. In case that didn't work we were scheduled for an induction on Friday the 2nd.

Henry and I spent Tuesday with Nana and Papa- the weather was so beautiful and we needed to run a couple of last minute errands for the week. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to get out and get our errands done before the end of the week, and boy am I glad we were able to be out on Tuesday! My contractions started about 12- but they were very irregular and they didn't hurt much more than a braxton hicks contractions, by 4:00 they were a little more regular and painful, by 6:30 when Bryan got home from work I was sure that I was in full blown labor- but I didn't want to jump the gun.

I spent the next couple hours picking up the house, making dinner and playing with Henry while Bryan made hamburgers. By the time we put baby boy down for bed I was having contractions every 2-4 minutes, and Bryan decided it was time to call my parents to have them watch Henry. I was STILL not convinced that labor was actually real, so I took a shower and got pretty for the trip to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at 9:00 pm, got checked in and up to L&D by about 9:30. At first check I was almost 5cm- I guess I was in labor after all! I waited a couple hours and a couple more cms to get an epidural- I decided that it was worth it to just be in less pain! After the epidural I was dialated to a 7 and 100% effaced. And then we WAITED. And waited a little more. We spent the entire night without much advancement, it was frustrating and exciting all at the same time. About 4:30 am they decided they would start pitocin, which did nothing! At 6:15 they broke my water, and about 6:53 I started pushing- two contractions and very minimal pushing and she was born at 6:57. It was so easy compared to my labor and delivery with Henry (where I pushed for 3.5 hours!)

She was a teeny tiny thing, weighing in at 7lbs and 20.5 inches (her brother was 8.1 and 21 inches).

So far she has been a much calmer baby than Henry was, her cry is quiet, she sleeps like a champ and eats even better. She has a little bit of jaundice but she is doing well. We are getting settled in to our new routine and Henry is starting to adjust to having the baby here. More updates to come soon!

Henry's 2nd Birthday, 37+ weeks pregnant and other news

Well, we have been quite busy these last weeks, preparing for Elizabeth's arrival, celebrating our son turning two and getting ready for spring!

We spent the whole weekend celebrating Henry's day- we went to the Air Force plane museum, breakfast at the local private airport and lots of playing and spending time with family. LOTS of photos to come.

We are also FINALLY finished with Elizabeth's nursery- and it looks about as girly as we can get without feeling overwhelmed. I love how everything turned out. Henry is officially out of his crib- woo hoo! So we were able to get everything done a little earlier than we imagined.

I am currently 37.5 weeks along, and I am SO ready to have this little girl! We have been dealing with a couple of "movement" issues, so we go back tomorrow to talk with the Dr about next steps and options. We will keep everyone posted if we go into labor!

Spring is on the way in here in Denver. We had great weather last week (in the 60s and 70s) and then we had a little snow storm Friday- by Sunday (the first day of celebration) we were back to beautiful weather and it stuck around for H's big day. We are back to snow today, so it was like God was watching out for Henry's birthday. It was great!

I have lots of pictures to share, but Henry is asleep on my arm- so they will have to wait until tomorrow!

Keep us in your thoughts in the next 24 hours!

MDO/Preschool

So we have been looking into enrolling Henry in some sort of Mom's Day Out program or pre-preschool. We are hoping for a program that runs 1-2 days a week for a couple hours, but have been mostly unsuccesful in our search.

Seems that we can either find preschool or daycare- neither of which we are interested in. He isn't quite old enough for preschool (he will be in the fall, but we were hoping for something a little earlier) and daycare for 1 day a week just seems like a hassle, not to mention we really want a low student/teacher ratio.

Our hopes for the program are that he will get time to interact with other children his age as well as continue to learn age appropriate cirriculum (letters, numbers, colors, manners, and playing well with others (SHARE!)- he is pretty good at these now, but he struggles with the last one :)

We have also looked (and by "we" I of course mean "I") for summer programs that encompass sports or playing or some sort- as we think Henry would really enjoy them. But we have found that most of those programs start at 2.5- and Henry would be a couple months shy of that....

So hopefully we will have something to post soon.... stay tuned.

I wish I was....

Here.....
with him....

doing this....

and enjoying this.....(even though this evening we had a couple of bug issues :)

But instead I am enjoying the cold weather, a husband who is traveling in colder weather, and hanging out with my baby boy (which is just as good as any of the above!)

Someday we are planning to head back to this lovely location (hopefully with less drama on the way there) and doing nothing but laying by our private pool, sipping fruity drinks and relaxing (read: sleep, drink, lay in the sun, swim, read and drink some more)