Minivan Mama

It's official...we are minivan owners!  Ryan still isn't so sure about this, but I think he's beginning to come to grips with the fact that this was the best decision for our expanding family.  I got to that point a long time ago, so I'm happy we finally have our van.

Boy, it was an emotional week of trying to get this van.  A quick recap: we found one via private party and looked at it on Monday.  He was asking way to much for the base model, so we continued our search.  We looked at another one on Tuesday evening and we both loved (as much as Ryan could love a minivan) it.  It was a 2008 and top of the line model in really good condition.  We called the guy back on Wednesday morning and he wouldn't accept our offer because he owed more money than we were offering.  I was bummed, but understood.  I found a great deal from a dealer on Wednesday and spoke with a sales rep and he said he had people coming to look at it that night.  I called back Thursday morning and the van sold Wednesday night.  I was again really bummed.  Thursday night we looked at yet another van.  This one was promising - within our price range and in fairly good condition.  The only problem is that the AC didn't work.  The salesman said he would have it looked at on Friday and let us know.  We even negotiated a price with him.  Very surprising for a salesperson, but we had to call him.  He gave Ryan the runaround, so I spent a good portion of Friday night looking for more options.

Oh boy, Friday night was fun.  I ended up finding a really good deal about 1 hour 45 minutes away.  I called the dealer and, of course, it sold 5 hours earlier.  I continued my search and found 9 vans for Ryan and I to vet.  We crossed off a decent number and picked 1 that we thought was a "too good to be true" deal in Elgin.  It was a 2008 with only 30K miles on it.  It was a little steep on our price range, but given the low miles, we were going to take a look at it Saturday.  I spoke with the dealer and he said they would run it through inspection first thing in the morning and we could come around noon.  Perfect!

Saturday morning around 9a, I received a call from one of the dealers I contacted in Joliet (about 1 hour away).  They had an 2006 with 72K miles on it and it was on the lot for viewing despite the fact it hadn't gone through inspection yet (they just received it two days earlier on a trade-in).  I asked how much and it was surprisingly very much in our price range.  So, Ryan and I decided to call the Elgin dealer and postpone our visit until the later in the afternoon.  We wanted to see this one in Joliet first since it seemed to be a better fit financially.  Turns out, we really liked it and bought it!  We both love the color (officially, Slate Green Metallic Ocean Mist Metallic, but it looks more like a very light grey/blue color) and both the exterior and interior are in good condition considering it's 7 years old.  We negotiated with the dealer and were able to walk out the door paying $200 more than our goal.  Not too shabby for dealing with a car dealership.

Minivan Mama (as Ryan now calls me)

One Step Closer

This post is a few days overdue, but oh well.  Life gets busy and I get tired by the end of the day!

A little back story before I answer what the "one step closer" means.  So last week, we had Claire with us while Andy and Katie were on a missions trip in Haiti.  I didn't want to have the Aerobed set up all week because it takes up too much room.  Ryan and I decided to remove the front railing of Reagan's crib and let Claire sleep in his bed while Reagan slept in Kyleigh's crib and Kyleigh slept in the pack-n-play.  A little musical beds, but that's okay.

Fast forward to Saturday, July 13...Claire leaves our house.  Ryan and I decided to leave the railing off the crib and let Reagan take a nap in his "new" bed.  I wanted to test this out with a nap before a whole night that way if he fell out and woke up screaming, it wouldn't jolt me out of bed in the middle of the night!  To my surprise, he took his normal 2ish hour nap, no problem!  He didn't get out of bed and play with toys and he didn't fall out of the bed.  Whoo hoo!

On to bedtime.  We put him in the bed and reminded him of the rules: no getting out of bed and no jumping on the bed.  It was rest time.  He went right to sleep and I thought for sure I'd hear a clunk in the middle of the night, but I didn't!  I couldn't believe how well he did.

We are officially one step closer to moving Reagan out of a crib.  Craziness!!

Here he is Sunday morning, so proud of himself and his big boy bed!

June 2013 for Reagan and Kyleigh

Here are the notes I took for June 2013 for both Reagan and Kyleigh:

Reagan

• Enjoys putting his feet up on the dining room table
• Fights tooth and nail about eating his carrots
• He's a total book worm!  Loves, loves to read (Thomas is his primary favorite, but we read Jesus and Clifford, too)
• Loves to play in his "piece" (translation, police) car the Lehmanns gave us, but he always afraid there are bugs inside
• Likes looking for airplanes when they fly over
• Really enjoys listening to "moosic" on my phone
• Really aggressive with Kyleigh

Kyleigh

• Walks to the right inside of in a straight line
• Walks swinging her left arms like crazy while her right arms stays relatively still
• Loves to eat, especially carbs and cheese
• She doesn't really like her milk, but is getting better at drinking it
• 8 teeth now
• Grunts at everything to communicate; so funny!!

A little update

It's been sooo long since my last post.  So much has happened and I've been meaning to post, but honestly, I just haven't been up to it.  This will be a quick update on the past 6 weeks.

At the end of May, we were supposed to go on a one night family camping trip.  We were very excited to go, but pulled the plug at the last minute to due to weather forecast.  Unfortunately, the severe weather we were expecting never came to fruition so we cancelled our plans for no reason.  Grrr....

Kyleigh's first birthday came next.  We had a little celebration here in IL on June 1st with the Lehmanns and Sue.  I wanted to make the most of the decorations I'd been making for her big celebration in CA, so I decorated the house for our little pizza party here.

On Kyleigh's actual birthday, we didn't do too much.  We had her 1 year pictures taken at Lake Arlington and they were great.  It was a little cold outside, but we still got some really great shots.  Kyleigh's favorite part of the night was digging into her birthday cake and stuffing it into her mouth ;)

A few days later we left for CA for a week.  The trip was awesome.  We had such a relaxing time (other than Kyleigh's birthday party).  It was really nice to be in CA other than during the holidays.  It was such a difference.  Although I was stressed during Kyleigh's party, it went really well.  We had nearly 30 people there and of course, it was 106 that day.  Plans changed and we moved the party inside, but it all worked out.

The rest of June seems to be a blur.  I don't remember much, other than celebrating 7 wonderful years with my fantastic hubby.  We got a night out at Stoney River and truly enjoyed talking about our life together and dreaming about our future.

Ok, that's it.  I've got nothing else for now.

Sleep...

...I would really like some more of it!  I don't know what's going on with my little man, but his sleep schedule is all screwed up and it's having a huge impact on his mama!  Beginning last Monday, May 13, he has been waking up between 5a and 5:45a every morning with the saddest cry you've ever heard.  Each morning, I've picked him up and brought him back into our room with the hopes (unsuccessfully) of getting him to fall back asleep for another hour.

I'm trying to figure out what is causing this new and unwanted sleep pattern.  We've tried pushing his bedtime a little later thinking that 7p is too early now.  That hasn't worked. Katie suggested we try a night light - we'll give it a shot to see if this helps.  The problem is that he's not only waking up with these terrible cries in the morning, he does it at naptime too.  Last week, he was taking super short naps (45 minutes or so), but thankfully, he's doing better this week.

Anyway, I don't really have much more to say other than I'd really like to get back to our normal sleep routine.  I don't know how many more early mornings like this I can take before I need to start taking afternoon naps ;)

A Great Mother's Day

I can't believe I'm blogging two days in a row...that never happens ;)

Today was a great Mother's Day.  We didn't do anything grand, but it was great to me!  We went to church this morning and Pastor Adam gave a great message on marriage.  Ryan and I both came away from the service talking about things we'd like to change in our marriage for the better.  We came home and had a quick lunch before putting the kids down at 1p for their naps.  Both - thankfully - took 2 hour naps, which gave Ryan and I some much needed rest time.

Ryan asked me what I wanted to do for Mother's Day and I told him I wanted him to sit on the couch and watch the Cubs game (how's that for a request from a wife to a husband?) with me.  No iPad, no iPhone, no books.  Just sit down and relax with me!  He always works so hard during the week and then takes care of the yard on the weekends, it was time for him to relax a little.  He obliged and the Cubs won, yay!

After the kids woke up, we ran a quick errand as a family and then started making one of my all-time favorite dinners: taco salad!  Ryan quickly cooked everything and we all enjoyed it.  The only thing missing from the table was a margarita for me!  Diet Coke it was instead ;)

When dinner was over, I told Reagan to get his shoes because we were going to a "special" place.  Intrigued, he grabbed his "old shoes" and we put the kids in the stroller for a ride to DQ.  A little side note here: today was a big day for Kyleigh for many reasons.  First, we took out her infant (yes, I know she's 3 weeks away from being a 1 year old) car seat from my car and replaced it with the convertible car seat.  Then, Ryan graciously removed the car seat attachment from the stroller and made it just a regular double stroller.  Wow!  What a difference that makes on navigating the stroller.  So easy now ;) However, the biggest milestone for today is that Kyleigh ate ice cream!  It was her first time and let's just say she LOVED it.  The looks she was giving Ryan when he didn't have another scoop for her were priceless.  She was also licking her chops on more than one occasion.  I was so bummed I didn't have the camera to catch this.  I got my favorite dessert - a Peanut Butter Bash Royal Treat in which I shared with Reagan.  About every 30 seconds he would say "more" but I was happy to share with him.

On our walk home, we were just having a nice time and the kids were being good, so we made a few loops around the block before coming in to put on jams and get ready for bed.  As I said, we didn't do anything grand, but I got to spend the day with my hubs and my two pretty awesome kids.

Life is good.

One Year Anniversary

As I sit on the couch tonight, I simply cannot believe it's been one year since I quit my full time job out of the home.  May 11, 2012, I walked out of the door from a company I really enjoyed working for and drove to Cheesecake Factory to meet my two R's!  How is it possible that it's been a year since I did that?

Ryan and I went to Cheesecake Factory, sans kids, last night to commemorate this one year anniversary (day of the week, anyway).  I don't know why this occasion has affected me this much, but it has.  After sitting down at the table, Ryan asked me, "So, has this past year gone as you thought it would?"  I couldn't answer his question directly because a year ago, I had no idea what to expect.  I do know I was afraid and anxious to begin this new chapter in my life.  It was something I always dreamed would happen, but never thought would become a reality.  What would I do with myself all day?  Would I have any value in society by staying home with my kiddos (I now know this was a ridiculous thought, but at the time, I really struggled with it)?  Would I enjoy spending 12 hours a day with a newborn and a 14 month old, etc....?

Without a doubt in my mind, I can say Ryan and I absolutely made the right decision for me to stay home with the kids.  Although there are days in which I stare at the clock and mentally count down until 5:30p, those days are few and far between.  I really cannot imagine my life any different than what it currently is.  I am so blessed, thankful, and happy to be home raising our two children.  Seeing each new milestone for both kids will forever be etched into my memory.  There is nothing more precious than watching them grow up.

Thank you, Lord, for making this possible.  I know He continues to provide for my family in more ways than I could have ever dreamed.