See all the names?

Look how decorated the cast is this time?? It is so cute I will almost miss it...almost.

Look into my Eyes

Ryan's 12 yr old cousin, Mataya, took these. She has a great eye and cute subjects.

Pumpkin Patch

These pictures are from our day trip to the pumpkin patch. It was so much fun to watch Cadence enjoy the little games they had set up and she loved to look at the animals they have. She is really starting to be aware of all the things around her. Makenna has rolled from back to front already and I feel like she is hitting milestones too soon!! Notice my long hair in the picture above - I was going to blog about my stupid new hair cut (8-12 inches off depending on the layer you measure) but I decided that would be really vain and besides no one really cares about my hair issues. I just have to remember that the reason I had to cut it. Which was that I don't have the time to do it to make the long hair look good -- so we will just have to get used to the short hair. Anyways, I will have to get up new pictures of Cadence's cast - yes, another one. She has a hot pink one this time. She has yet to hit anyone with it and is doing well. She will be getting it off the Monday after Thanksgiving and so we are pleased that it will only be on about 3 weeks.

Here are some pumkin day (idea stolen from Ryan's sister) pictures. We did pumkin pancakes, chili, cornbread, and orange/black cupcakes, and then had the kids do fall themed crafts. It was really fun and maybe next year we will add some other projects / recipes to the day.

Cadence is getting really good at being around Makenna and not mauling her. That is a nice development. I think some of the new is wearing off the situation. Cadence really likes to run and skip everywhere now. She is also really in to singing songs - anything from hymns to made up songs. Makenna is cooing and smiling a lot - she seems a little more mellow than Cadence but we will see how that develops.

We are planning a trip to the pumpkin farm tomorrow - that should be fun! We also hope to find an apple orchard to go visit. Cadence LOVES apples right now. Fall is such a nice time to get outside and RUN!! It makes for good naps. :)

I have even stopped checking my own blog...

Almost a smile!

Cheese - at the firestation.

Cadence's first boat ride - on Grandpa Doug's new to him jon boat.

I guess it has been a while since I did an update. At least you knew I had the baby... Things are going well here. Makenna is a rock star sleeper - 4 to7 hours at night, usually more toward the 7 hour mark. She is gaining weight but I don't know how much she weighs right now. Her hair is still dark brown but there is a auburn cast to the new hair and her eyebrows are strawberry blond - we will just have to wait and see. Makenna's eye color is still blue/gray. Cadence's had already turned brown by this point so again we will just have to see what happens. OH YEAH! I almost forgot she started smiling a few times a day last week!! And then started occasionally cooing this week - she is advance people :). Cadence does really well with her - well she LOVES to touch and "talk" (usually closer to a yell - what can I say she is an enthusiastic girl) to her. She gets me diapers and blankets and occasionally put in the paci. We still have to watch her and make sure she doesn't squish her - out of love of course.

We are going into fall weather now and don't expect to be in the high 80's anymore - which is nice because just last week the weather was 90!! We will hopefully be getting outside a bunch and burning energy. We are also excited because fall means we get to go to Iowa for my brother and his fiance's wedding!!! It will be a fun week and I cannot wait to enjoy a wedding without the pressure or stress of being the bride :). Then at the end of October will be in Branson with Ryan's family celebrating Doug and Bonnie's 40 wedding anniversary!! It will be a family packed fall and it will be great!

Baby News

Makenna Grace arrived 8/18/2010 at 10:40 pm. She weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 19.5 inches long.

Working Out

Yes, I am doing my walking videos in a lame attempt to get this little child to come into the real world!! Cadence wants to walk with me - she lasts about 10 minutes of the videos and follows the steps pretty well. It is adorable. I should have taken a video of it. Also she usually grabs her blanket/paci at about 10 minutes in and then precedes to lay on the floor with them the rest of the video like she is exhausted. The top picture must have been her trying to multi-task during her workout. The pink gloves are weighted gloves that the lady in the video wears, so Cadence wanted them on herself.

Yes, we are waiting for baby sister

I think Cadence will be glad when she has better acess to me :). I will be too - but then she will have a little sister to contend with. I hope we can be good at balancing giving attention to two children.

Front Door

Our door - man, it has taken a long time to get this part of the house right. It still needs a few coats of Spar Urethane (or something that sounds like that), which will make it shine like the morning sun :). The green around the stained glass is tape - so that is not going to be there forever. The trim around it will be painted Winchester Maple (like our other trim). It is nice to have a solidly locked door at night. Even after all the trouble to get it ordered, put in and get hardware that will fit it -- it is a beautiful door and it adds a lot to our living room. I added Cadence to the picture so you can see just how massive this door is. So now when you come to my house you can walk up our sidewalk and right up to a proper front door :).

No, I have not given birth yet

Just a little FYI or maybe it is a rant either way you can read it or not. Here are the facts:

Yes, it is my ESTIMATED due date today.

No, I have not delivered yet.

Yes, I know I look HUGE, thanks for the reminder.

No, staring at me will not put me in labor so please STOP.

If you know me well enough to have my personal cell phone number - I will call or text when we have the baby - you will not be out of the loop, I promise we are not that mean.

Yes, I am a little cranky at times and I am not cooking anymore or cleaning too well so don't expect too much if you stop by my house.

Enough said - maybe I should go watch a movie or something. I finished all my good books - disappointed about that.

Lack of Sleep

Don't let the cuteness confuse you - she is not really adjusting to the toddler bed that well. I am sure she is doing what is normal for most kids. Well, I am not sure of that - every mom I talk to has a different story :). I am sure we will get there soon enough. Probably just in time for the new baby to come and everything to get crazy! She just gets too excited to stay in the actual bed. She is, as I type, playing in her kitchen in the complete dark. It is quite an adventure to have a toddler.

I'M BACK!

Welcome back!!! I mean to me of course. It has been a long time since I had Internet here at the house! Speaking of house, I will upload some pictures of the house soon. Right now I am a little behind on housework. Hopefully, I will get caught up tomorrow and then I will share some pictures. For now I will leave you with some pictures of Cadence and her cast. It seemed like a long 4 weeks that she had it on. It never really bothered her, just an inconvenience for me mostly. Things are good around here. We are 8 days from the due date. We have all but settled on a name (no I will not tell you so don't ask). Ryan is still doing finish work and getting in more relax time. He has also started to help his parents with their house. They hope to be done sometime in August. I hope for their sake they are! It is so nice to be done with the major construction and to live here. Sometimes it seems like we have always lived here...hahahaha. Oh, now that the pictures are loaded I realized that I yet again loaded them backwards. So look from the bottom up to watch her get the cast off :). Well, we are transitioning to a toddler bed...so I must go discipline my 2 year old for getting out of bed ... again.

Internet, House and Broken Bones

We will have internet is about a week...so I am at the fire house right now using the laptop to look at friends and relatives new babies and catching up on the lives of others. We now have TV channels which helps you feel a little connected with the world but the internet is truely the info part of my world. We are mostly moved in - just a few boxes to move to the basement and then to put up decor. We do have to organize the basement and clean up the garage. We have been in a week today and I feel like we have done a great job with progress :). Ryan still has some last minute things to finish on the house and we have to paint the exterior. We will get there - hopefully, before this little girl makes her appearance. Also - Cadence fell down the steps going from the house to the garage and has a broken wrist. So she is in a full cast *she picked a dark purple one * until July 7. So far she has handled it well. She is banging it on a few things. We are just thankful that the new baby will be here after she gets it off - no accidents there!

Moving

We were inspected today - didn't pass because of three really minor things. The good news is that they can all be fixed within a few hours or less and hopefully we can get re-inspected tomorrow afternoon. The worst case scenario is that we move everything but mattresses and toiletries in until we can be inspected. Here are a few pictures of what the house looks like today. I still have to finish clean it and there are a few cosmetic things to do after we move in but other than that we are done. Oh, and we have to paint the outside...:) The picture of Cadence watching Ryan is when he and his dad were trying to get our fridge in the kitchen, the front door is a wide opening and made it relatively easy to get it in (well, that coming from someone who didn't help). The front door will come either the last week in June or the first of July so we are going to have to live with a construction door for a little bit. But as long as we get to move in we are happy.

Tile

Some of our appliances are in also - some are in the garage :). I forgot to take pictures of that. Here are some tile photos. We are waiting for tile to be done and toilets to be put in and then carpet and then we are ready for final inspection. We are trying to move in without a front door. Long story short - it will not be delivered until July 1!!! So we have the space all boarded shut and are hoping to save a month's rent by getting approved before then. The white stuff on the master bath floor is radiant heating - if you have ever had tile in the winter time it is freezing...so this will be great! We are so excited to move in and get settled.