Proud Moments

I love when Mother's day comes around. The girls act gitty all week with the anticipation of giving me my mother's day gifts. You can just see in their eyes how proud they are. I almost love watching them give me their gifts as much as the gifts themselves. Lots of credit goes to their teachers for making them take so much pride in their projects.

Reese's gift was her hand print cemented into sand. Lauren made one of these when she was in Mary's room as well. It's a very neat idea. I've also attached a snapshot of her card. Please ignore the glue on Reese's hand. We told her to put it down approximately 42 times before she broke it. Low and behold, she knocked it against the counter and snapped off 2 fingers. Good thing Dad is so good at fixing things with duck tape and glue!

The next series of pics is the Mother's Day book Lauren made for me. Please note, the weight is RIGHT on (at least in her eyes anyway, and that's all that matters to me!)

I LOVE HER FOR THIS STATEMENT!

If you can't read what she wrote, she said I'm a money person. Not sure where she got this but whatever!

This is funny because I have terrible handwriting. Again proving love is blind in the eyes of your children!

This means alot cause Lauren cherishes her billfold! She's very tight w/ her money!

"Card"... obviously we need to work on our spelling!

Thanks for the presents girls. I love them! Thanks for making my day so special!

Busy Weekend

We had a fun fill weekend, packed w/ lots of friends and family stopping by to meet our latest addition.

Our first visitor was Grandpa Steger. He was down in Talladaga (sp?) for the Nascar race when Paige was born and he couldn't wait to get back to meet his 8th grandbaby. According to him "she's perfect"! Here we go again w/ another granddaughter wrapping him around her finger!

On Friday night, our good friends BJ, Carey & Charlie made the trip home to visit. We hadn't seen Charlie since January so we were very excited to see him again. And boy has he grown! Ya forget how fast 5 months goes. (Hope you guys are feeling better today!)





On Saturday, Grandma & Grandpa Osterhaus and Aunt Dawn (who is also Paige's godmother), came in. Dawn drove all the way from Sioux City to meet her latest niece. They were able to spend the entire day w/ us. Beth and Taylor also came in later that night. What I love about this picture is that when I first started dating Troy, Taylor was just born! Man how time flies! She'll be in 7th grade next year already!

I just thought these pictures were adorable....there's something about my 2nd child that just melts my heart and puts me over the edge on a daily basis all at the same time! Sigh!

My Aunt Kathy and Uncle Lonnie stopped in that day as well!

After such a long day of visitors, we decided to have a nice relaxing tub. Once she overcomes the initial cold, she loves her tubby. And I always have "help" from Reese during tubby time as you'll see in the below pic how she's holding her head!

Finally, just a couple random pics. Lauren wants to hold Paige every morning before school. She even fed Paige a bottle this morning. Lauren has proven to be an amazing big sister, helping me out tremendously. Paige is a very lucky girl to have Lauren in her life!

And last but not least, I just thought this picture was funny. I forgot how cross eyed babies were that first couple weeks. I've been trying to get a good close up picture of Paige to post for about a week now and every one she has her eyes crossed. So, figured might as well post it if that's all she's going to give me for now!

It's a GIRL.....again!

And we couldn't be happier! As much as I wanted a boy, and as much as I thought this WAS a boy, Paige 100% completes our family! Never having had sisters of my own, I'm selfishly jealous of the years ahead my three girls will have together. It might get a little rough in 10 years when we have 16, 14 and 10 yr old girls all in one house, but we'll get through it I'm sure.

Unfortunately, the labor and delivery proved to be the hardest one yet. You'd think by the third one, your body would know what to do and just do it. Not the case this time around. Paige was sunny side up, making her delivery very difficult and LONG! But, after 8 hours of pretty hard labor (back labor), she finally made her appearance at 10:15 pm, April 23rd, weighing 8 lbs even and measuring 20 inches long.

Her big sisters are doing great. Lauren has been a mother hen and Reese, well, she has her moments but overall has been great.

So far, Paige has been an amazing baby. The first night home was kinda rough but that's to be expected I think. Ever since then she's been perfect. I know this trend can't continue, we aren't that lucky, but last night she slept from 11:30 until 5, and the night before from 10 till 4. I pray every night our luck holds out, but I know it's only a matter of time before the sleepless nights begin! In the meantime, I plan to enjoy every minute of sleep!

And the nerves have set in....

It's official.....the nerves have set in!!! Tomorrow is the big day. I go to the doc at 8 am to get induced and I've officially started freaking out in anticipation of the upcoming PAIN! As long as this labor goes as fast as Reese's I'll be fine. If it lasts a minute longer, I might die!

The next post will be pics of our newest addition, Paige or Gabe! Until then......

Life never goes as planned...

6 months ago, I couldn't wait for summer to get here. I had pictures in my head of me sitting on the back patio, the girls on the swing set and the baby in the stroller. Fast forward 6 months and everything has changed. About the only thing not changing, is the fact that this baby is going to be born Friday whether we are ready or not!

Last Thursday, Troy accepted a job at Maquoketa Valley, in Dehli, Iowa. What does that mean to me and the kids? It means we're moving! There goes my peaceful, quiet, laid back, do whatever we want summer!

Let the house hunting begin. The plan right now is to try to find a place in Dyersville. Troy will have about a 15 minute commute and I will have about a 30 minute commute. I'm not to worried about the time on the road, as I already have about a 20 minute commute anyway. I am on the other hand worried about selling our house, getting the girls settled in a new town and registered for school/daycare, etc....oh, and giving birth to another child in 3 days! Sigh.

So anyway, as you can probably tell, life has been a little twazy here this past week and there is no end in site for it to settle down anytime soon. I know this is the right choice for our family, as we wanted to get the kids into a small town before Lauren got into 3rd or 4th grade. So when this opportunity presented itself, we figured timing shouldn't stop us from doing this for our family. It's going to be crazy for a year or so.....and initially I think the cons are going to out weigh the pros..... but eventually, I know the pros are going to out weigh the cons.

If anyone is interested in helping us move.......just call! I promise we won't turn you down! And I also promise lots of cold beer!

Let the Countdown Begin....

Had a doc appointment yesterday. If I don't go by next Friday, they are going to induce me!!! (If you could only see the smile on my face through a computer!!!!) I can't complain about this pregnancy to much. The first trimester was kinda tough. I was nausious through most of it, but other than that, it was fine....up until the last 3 weeks that is. I haven't been able to sleep very well cause of back pain, and we all know sleepless nights can lead to some pretty long days. So I'm anxious for this little bambino to leave my body!

The girls are very excited & very curious all at the same time. Reese keeps asking "how the baby is going to get born". It's adorable how she says it.

And Lauren is a little upset that she can't be there when the baby is born. She keeps saying it's not fair that she has to go to school that day and Daddy gets to go the hospital w/ me! We keep reassuring her that as soon as the baby is born Grandma & Grandpa will bring her straight to the hospital to see us.

Lauren still wants a boy and Reese still wants a girl. I guess one of them is bound to get their way!

Spring is FINALLY here!

Well, it's only been about a month since my last post. No excuse, I just simply didn't have much to post about and have been a little preoccupied. Either way, I'm back. But probably not for long. The baby is due in 16 days, but I'm hoping to get induced in 12 days. After he/she gets here, I'm gonna guess my blogs might be a little short for a while also. But, I'll do my best to get pics out there of the little one.

Anyway, here are some pictures from Easter. I don't have to many as our Easter was a little different from years past. Troy's grandma turned 80 this year, so his extended family had a get together in Des Moines. Troy gave me the most wonderful present in years.....TWO WHOLE DAYS HOME ALONE! He and the girls left on Friday morning and got home late Saturday night. It was an amazing couple days, relaxing and having me time. I was able to watch a couple chick flicks, spent quite a bit of time washing bottles, bedding, toys, etc. getting ready for the baby. But by Saturday night, I was more than ready for them to come home. Seriously, what did we do before we had kids!?!?!?

Easter Sunday was very nice and relaxing as well. We went to church early, slightly afraid the 10:00 mass might be a little long for our blessed second born who 99% of the time asks "Mom, how much longer?" just as Father is giving his opening prayer! After mass, we went out for breakfast as a family and came home w/ nothing on our agenda other than to wait for Grandma & Grandpa to arrive home from Arizona!

Mom and dad pulled into our driveway about 7 that night to surprise the girls which was a wonderful way to end the day.

This weekend we didn't have much on the agenda either (notice a trend here?). I just haven't been feeling very comfy the last couple weeks, and hanging out at home in my fat pants is about the only place I care to be lately. We did go out for our "last supper" Friday night w/ Paula and Jason to Tony Roma's. It was very nice but w/ one 8 1/2 month pregnant lady and another 4 1/2 month pregnant lady, needless to say the night didn't get to twazy! I think we were home and in bed by 9:45! HA!

The girls had a great weekend playing outside. I don't think they came in once yesterday. Which resulted in Reese passing out on the couch at 7:40 last night. Lauren proved to be a trooper tho, staying outside w/ the neighbors until after 10. And yes, she has been VERY tired today.

The neighborhood girls had their first lemonade stand today. It was so cute. They were SO excited. It was like a bunch of little entrepreneurs w/ all these ideas on how to make this even more successful.....which I do have to say, they made over $17. So we either have very thrifty neighbors or we really need to push these girls into business school at a young age!!!