Ugh (that's the nicest way to describe it).......

Well, I had every intention of regularly blogging again but then LIFE came along and it didn't happen. It has been a miserable 2011 so far. And again, that's the nicest way to describe it.

We start off January with my Poppy having surgery to put a shunt in his brain. He didn't come out of sedation well and ended up staying in the hospital for a month. It was a horrible time with lots of ups and downs and lots of crying and praying. Thankfully he was in the hospital in Wenatchee so tons of family and friends have been in and out visiting. Three weeks ago he was moved into a nursing home and he seems to be doing as well as expected. He removed his own feeding tube from his stomach (ouch) but has been able to drink very thick liquids.

The middle of February, we found out we're expecting baby #2. I was all gung-ho for this and super excited until the morning sickness kicked in. It is HORRIBLE. I remember being sick with Aniston but nothing like this. I am convinced it's a boy and he's already creating issues ;)

That's the reason there are no pictures along with this post. Because pretty much the only thing I've seen for the last 5 weeks are the bed and the toilet. Not fun or photo worthy. As I said, I remember being sick with Aniston but not sick to the point of crying. Nothing helps and I can barely function. My dr. put me on some anti-nausea meds that help a little so that I can get to work and am able to spend most of the day here but at home I'm pretty much in bed. Thankfully Aniston's excited about the upcoming little sibling and is relatively easy to please with daddy being the primary parent for the last month or so. Thankfully I have an amazing husband who's picking up the slack as parent/housekeeper/cook. I'm only 8 weeks so I'm hoping that if I'm sick until the end of the first trimester that the next 4 weeks fly by. Keep your fingers crossed for me please.

We did have a little excitement on March 5th. Aniston turned 4! I can't believe my sweet little girl is 4! She went to her first Wenatchee Wild (hockey) game last weekend with her best friend Teanna. From the pictures Teanna's mom sent, they had a blast. Aniston is very excited to be a big sister and the general consensus at our house is it's a boy so she refers to my tummy as her little brother.

I hope this finds everyone healthy and happy and having a better year so far!

More Oldies.....

While Brandy, Justice and Gunner were up this summer, we took some pictures of the kids. Aniston is one week older than Gunner....but it's no surprise after looking at the pictures, that they're all related. I didn't realize until looking at the pictures, how much the three of them look alike.

Being a ham.

Aniston, Justice and Gunner.

Cute girls.

Love this one...you can tell how hot it was even in the shade....but it gave them cute little pink cheeks. Aniston thinks Justice is just too cool because she's a big girl. Justice had the patience of a saint with the two 3 year olds running the house for 3 days.

Summer Fun....

I know these pictures are old but I was horrible about blogging pretty much all of last year so here are some cute pictures from this summer.

Erik's sister Brandy and her two kiddos came up for a weekend of fun this summer. It was SO hot so we went to the waterslides in Chelan. It's the first time I had ever been there and Erik hadn't been there since he was 12 or so.

The kids fueling up for a day of fun.

Aniston and Gunner are small enough we were able to create some shade for them. They were lounging with their ice cream.

Aniston likes to share.

So cute. Hopefully they'll be able to come up this summer and go again....maybe Uncle Dan can come this time too!

Weekend Fun.....

This weekend we spent a lot of time just hanging out. Sunday Aniston and I went to Quincy to visit Grandpa and Grammy Rose and Aniston rode the 4 wheeler and fed the new baby cows (I forgot the camera). Monday morning Aniston and Kaiya spent the day shopping with Auntie B, which gave me and Erik time to lounge...QUIETLY! After Auntie B dropped her off, she wanted back into her jammies and just play...so that's what we did.

Aniston asked for puzzles for Christmas and got quite a few. She has mastered the 24 piece ones and moved on to this 48 piece one...by herself. She is quite proud.

Her and her kitty "Figero".

Any guess on where Aniston is "hiding"? She giggles so loud while she's hiding....it's not hard to miss her.

Our friend Lori gave Aniston the prettiest bracelets from India. They were too small for her but Aniston has put them to good use. What girl doesn't like rhinestones.....Fancy Nancy says "rhinestones are genuine fake diamonds"!

These are her Christmas jammies. She LOVES Belle and these were the "deluxe" jammies from Disney store. Needless to say, they are her favorite.

She did this pose and yelled for me to take a picture.

No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed....

January 10th Aniston had a big dentist appointment. She had 8 (!) teeth fixed as apparently the enamel didn't form all the way with her being a month premature. So she went under general anesthesia and did wonderfully! She went under quickly, came out quickly and didn't complain at all that day about her teeth bothering her. Well, that night Erik and I put her to sleep and about 10 minutes later heard, and felt, a huge crash and instant screaming. We ran downstairs (I thought she had pulled her bookshelf over on herself since she likes to "read" in bed) and found her curled up on the bed screaming. She was laying in a funny position with her arm under herself and Erik though she broke her arm. Well, I got her calmed down, Erik asked her what happended and that's when I saw her forehead. Little Miss had been jumping on her bed and clipped her toe on the bedrail resulting in a head first collision with her floor, which is wood floor on top of concret. It looked like someone had cut a golfball in half and glued it to her forehead. I gave her some children's Advil (I had gotten it for her teeth but didn't need it for that) and we put an ice pack on her head. After calling my mom, she assured me that if Aniston was carrying on a coherant conversation and was now calmed down and not showing any signs of stumbling or her neck/back bothering her, that she should be fine. Needless to say, I went to her room about 10 times throughout night to make sure she was okay. The next morning, her entire forehead was black and blue. Erik decided to stay home with her for the day.

We were all worried that she would be so sore from her dental work.....I guess we're lucky she didn't knock out her new "sparkley" teeth.

Pictures 1 week after the accident. Still pretty green and yellow, but most of the goose egg is gone.

Coming up....

This weekend Erik and I are heading to Coeur d'Alene for our anniversary (it was December 29th....9 years). Aniston is spending the weekend with Nana and Grandpa Howard and is so looking forward to it. She wants to take her new Easy Bake Oven from Santa so she can "cook" with Nana.

Monday Aniston is going under general anesthesia for a ton of dental work. According to her dentist, between Aniston being a month premature, bad teeth on my side (sorry honey), and these weird ridges on the top of her molars, she needs to have 8 teeth fixed. They're capping 4 and will fill the other four since they're closer to the front and can been seen when she talks.....they don't want her to have a mouth full of silver. Her dentist says it's easier on kids her size who need so much work done instead of making 3 appointments to do all the work. And like she'd sit still for all the shots anyway. So keep your fingers crossed for the little girl (and her mommy) that she'll do fine and not be too sore or MAD when she wakes up.

My other New Year's Resolution is to keep up on documenting our life....through pictures and blogs. We'll how this pans out.

Disneyland!!!

November 24 - December 5 we took a much needed vacation. We DROVE down to Anaheim and spent 3 days at Disneyland, a day at Universal Studios, a day at the San Deigo Zoo and a day at SeaWorld. It was SO much fun but Erik and I were happy to be home and ready to get back to our routine. The first 3 days of the trip we spent between Disneyland and California Adventure. Aniston LOVED it. She met her two favorite princesses, Ariel and Belle, and rode a ton of rides. Her favorite are the Winnie the Pooh ride, the Toy Story ride and King Triton's Carousel. Thankfully the carousel never filled all the way up so they never made her get off. She would just switch to a different animal and ride it again. I think we rode that thing 15 times each day. Alysha and her boyfriend Alex joined us the third day and stayed until we came home. They took Aniston for a few hours around the park so Erik and I could do the big rides. Our favorite was Indiana Jones....at least until the snake portion of the ride. Erik said he forgot about that part but I could hear him laughing after I screamed. The fourth day, I woke up with the stomach flu. So not fun on vacation but thankfully we'd rented a condo for the week so we had a seperate bedroom and bathroom that I could hide in. Erik, Alysha and Alex took Aniston to Universal Studios that day. She got to meet Dora, Spongebob and the characters from Madagascar and Erik was impressed that you didn't have to wait in line to meet them....unlike the princesses where mommy stood in line for 75 minutes so my little princess could meet her favorites. Wednesday we got up bright and early and drove to San Deigo for two days. Even though we had a condo in Anaheim, we stayed at a hotel in San Deigo one night so we'd be closer to the zoo the next day after doing SeaWorld. The shows at SeaWorld were amazing but we were ready for our room that night. San Deigo Zoo was impressive. My favorite are always the flamingos and we were shocked at how close you could get to all the animals. Aniston LOVES the pandas and Alex got her a really cute panda mask that she wears around the house.

Friday morning we dropped Alysha and Alex off at Disneyland (they flew out of Orange County late afteroon) and we headed to Santa Rosa to spend the night with my grandparents. We made a much needed stop at Costco in Redding as about 20 miles before Redding the portable DVD player gave out and we knew we couldn't make it home without Aniston being entertained in the backseat. Saturday we were supposed to head to Vancouver to spend the night again with more grandparents but with Erik's hip and our losing patience with being in the car, we decided to drive all the way home and made it home at 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning. It was nice to have all day Sunday to rest and get ready for work the next day. And with having a condo, we had a washer/dryer so we came home with clean clothes! Erik videotaped pretty much the entire trip so I didn't snap many pictures and he's made the video into a DVD for Aniston and she watches it almost every night. I now remind myself that that's why we work so hard so that we can play hard too and give Aniston these memories.

SOOO much to catch up....

So, I've been horrible about blogging. And, to be quite honest, I've been horrible about taking pictures. Thankfully Staci Faw is TERRIFIC at taking pictures of Aniston and I'll put up a few of our favorites. Things have been busy around the house with just life. Aniston's in preschool four days a week now and loves it. It amazes us how she comes home everyday and has something new to tell us. She informed us yesterday that snow is "just frozen water" and she was trying to "conversate" with her dad. Erik has been working around the house and will hopefully start a few more projects and wrap a few things up as well. But the house is looking great. I have started off the new year with the resolution to ORGANIZE. I'm tired of stuff. I am in love with the Container Store and thanks to them and my mom's organizational skills, my pantry looks amazing. Now to move on to everyother room in the house! We cleaned out Aniston's toys a week or so before Christmas to make room, since she's one spoiled little girl, and she was upset that I was getting rid of her "junk".