December Wrap-ups

Well, I haven't blogged in awhile because I have been so busy but I wanted to share with you all how our December went... First of all, I can't believe 2009 is over. This year FLEW by. I feel like the older you get, the faster time flies. We are enjoying every moment with our daughter though and looking forward to meeting our new baby in 2010!

For mid-December for a few weeks, we took off and went back east to Maryland to stay with my family for pre-Christmas. I told God it would be nice if we could have some snow while I was there... and we got a BLIZZARD! It hasn't snowed that much in MD for decades. It was awesome. Tim and the boys had fun playing in the snow and jumping off the playground into huge piles of it. Leah, on the other hand, was NOT too fond of the snow. I think it was too cold for her. She's a desert girl at heart.

We had a great time there with my mom and dad and we went to visit my grandma (Leah's "GG") and spent some quality time there with her. We also got to spend a lot of time with Justin, Jen, Olivia, and our little Godson Connor! I love those guys! Leah had fun playing with "Liyia" as she called her. We also made time to hang out with my cousins, Chris and Collin and got to see their first swim meet! Those are some awesome boys!

Leah learned a new word, thanks to her POP! Dad spilled some coffee in the car and accidentally shouted "Shit!" and well Leah picked it up and has been saying it every now and then since. It was so funny that it was hard not to laugh at her enthusiasm with the word.

We got back to Yuma a few days before Christmas. Christmas morning was fun, seeing Leah's face at all of her presents. It took a few hours to open them all because she was so enthralled with playing with her kitchen set (which we should have given to her last because she didn't want to stop playing with it!) I'd say her first "real" Christmas was a success though! Tim's looking forward to next Christmas already.

Our little baby is turning into a big girl so fast! She's 20 months now...talking and running and jumping and repeating everything. She's so much fun! Every day is something new and we just love her!

Little bean is 18 weeks along now and my belly sure is growing rapidly! We're still not sure if it's a little brother or a little sister yet but we should hopefully be finding out within the next few weeks. I'm feeling great.. I have energy back and no more nausea! YAY! I'm enjoying this pregnancy and trying to take it sloowwww. I feel like I rushed through the first pregnancy, I just wanted her to be here already! But with this one I'm actually taking time to enjoy everything and not wanting it to go by too quickly, because I know the whirlwind that's going to come once he/she is here!!

Anyways, that's enough for now. Here's to 2010! Happy New Year everyone! xoxo, Sarah

in a nutshell...

Well, we are headed to Maryland tomorrow for the Holidays! I'm so excited to see my family and have a nice relaxing vacation. I'm running around like a chicken with her head cut off today trying to pack and clean the house (nothing like coming home to a clean house!!) even though Tanner (our neighbor) will be staying here to watch the house and the dogs. But in the midst of all of the craziness today I thought I would give a run down on the happenings of the past few weeks.... Here goes....

On Thanksgiving, we went to Aunt Chris' house like always and had a nice lunch with the family. I took off early and headed to Scottsdale to visit my friend and old roommate, Michelle, for my first overnight trip away from Leah! Tim was off the next few days so he offered to watch Leah while I went up and had some R&R (much needed after my nauseating first trimester!!) I had a nice time with Michelle and even went and got a prenatal massage! It was heavenly and just what the doctor ordered. I missed my baby so much though!! It was nice to get away but I wouldn't trade my life for anything! (even if that means getting up 6 times a night....)

I had my 13-week doctor's appointment and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat and see him/her on the ultrasound. He/she was waving at us and swimming all around in there, doing backflips and all kinds of nonsense. I go back on December 23rd and hopefully will be finding out if we are having a brother or sister!! We are having a hard time deciding on names...

Not much else has happened. We had a crazy wind storm last night. The town looks like a tornado rolled through. I couldn't sleep at all since the wind and rain was shaking the house. I heard on the radio some guy's skylight blew right out of his master bedroom! It was pretty intense. Luckily we didn't lose any trees or anything.

Well I should get back to packing... tomorrow is going to be a whirlwind of a day! We leave Yuma to drive 3 hours to Phoenix, our flight from PHX is at 1pm and then we have a layover in Tennessee and then finally get to Baltimore at 10pm! It's going to be a long day and I'm praying that little miss Leah behaves herself, but she has never failed us. Wish us luck! And we can't wait to see you all!! XOXO

Elmo?

Leah's new obsession is Elmo... every morning I turn on Sesame Street while she eats breakfast and I get ready for the day. I've been doing this since she was a baby but she never really paid any attention to it until a few weeks ago, when she learned how to say "Elmo." She watches him intently and dances along to "Elmo's World..."
When we go to Walmart, every toy that is red or somewhat resembles a monster is called "Elmo!" and I have to explain to her, "No, that's Mickey Mouse..." or "That's right, Elmo, and we wave at Elmo when we go by.. hi Elmo! bye Elmo!" otherwise we will be buying every damn Elmo toy that was ever made.
Well last night, I thought I heard her at around 3:00am so I went into her room to check on her. She looked up at me with this big silly grin and said "Elmo??" and then laughed, and closed her eyes really tight again. She must have been dreaming about Elmo, and it was so stinkin cute.
Tim puts Elmo videos on the iPod and she carried it around dancing and singing with Elmo. It's cute but if I have to hear "Elmo's song" one more time.........................

Happy Halloween!

This weekend my friend Michelle, who lives in Scottsdale, came down to celebrate Halloween with us. Tim was working so we dressed Leah up in her kitty costume (to which she practiced very nicely saying "MEOW! MEOW!"). Michelle and I took Leah down to Tim's work because they were having a little Halloween party, where the kids could go around and trick-or-treat at different stations set up. Leah was not too sure what was going on, but I think she had a good time. I think it's ironic how we teach our kids at a very early age to take candy from scary looking people... and then spend the rest of their lives telling them to stay away from strangers. ANYWAY then we came home and ordered pizza and set up a picnic on the front lawn and waited for our trick-or-treaters. Leah enjoyed watching all the kids come by all dressed up (except the ones in scary masks, she wasn't too sure about them), and by the end of the night she was even standing up pointing at the candy bowl when kids would come by. It was too cute. Michelle and I had a good time catching up, and all in all it was a fun and relaxing weekend. Here's some pictures of the festivities:

Leah walking around with her "ball."

Waiting for trick-or-treaters.

Bedroom Addition

So to keep up with our ever growing family, we decided to close off our "den" and make it into a 3rd bedroom. This will be Leah's "big girl" room and the nursery will remain the nursery, since it is ocean-themed, it will work for a boy or a girl.

Well you guys know me, when I want something done, I want it done now :) What's wrong with that? I got that from my dad! So I got 4 estimates on Wednesday, hired the lowest bidder, and they started on Saturday, finished it tonight! I thought it would take longer, but it was very quick, and they did a really good job! We still have to paint everything, but that can wait. I'm excited to paint Leah's new room. I haven't decided if I'm going to go with a cowgirl theme or a zebra theme. Either way it will be super cute.

Here is a picture of the final construction. Remember, we will still have to paint. The door next to the green wall is our front door, so when you walk in the front door, Leah's room will be on your right. The room turned out pretty big... 12X15ft. It's still a mess in there, so pictures of the actual room will come later. Here is a picture of the actual wall, looking towards my front door from my kitchen. Leah's room is in that open door...

In other news, I've been very nauseated the past few days. Morning sickness is hitting me hard. I'm living off of bagels, saltines, and ginger ale. Oy. I hope it passes soon. Leah has been such a good girl though. She must know I don't feel well, because she's been very snuggly and then goes off and plays by herself and keeps herself pretty occupied. I can't believe how much she is growing right before my very eyes. Her new favorite thing is to help me unload the dishwasher, she takes all of the silverware out and hands it to me and says "Tank you" (she's getting better at pronouncing it..) because I tell her "thank you" for handing it to me so now she just says it ahead of time. Hasn't quite gotten the hang of "you're welcome" yet. Haha but that will come later. She also now points to her diaper and says "poopoo" when she goes, which I'm hoping is a good sign of early potty-training!

Tim's doing good. He's working a lot this past week, but he has 5 days off this week and we have a few weddings to go to in the coming weekends. We love going to weddings because that means..babysitter, dressing up, free food, and dancing! :)

Well, it's getting late and I'm hitting the hay early! Gotta get all the rest I can! xoxo

Update on the Acorn Trees!

Okay so it was killing me, so I did some research on the weird acorn trees that we found in Julian! Apparently this is done by the Acorn Woodpecker. Here are some fun facts about Acorn Woodpeckers:

• The Acorn Woodpecker stores nuts in individually drilled holes in trees called granaries. The acorns are jammed in so tight that even squirrels can’t pry them out. Some of these granary trees have up to 50,000 holes drilled by extended woodpecker families.


• Acorns seem to be emergency provisions; on mild winter days these birds catch flying insects.


• Breeding groups may contain as many as 7 male breeders and 3 females. All breeding males can mate with any and all of the female breeders of the group.


• A group of acorn woodpeckers are collectively known as a "bushel" of woodpeckers.


• "Woody Woodpecker" was based on the Acorn Woodpecker

Camping in Julian

On Wednesday, we headed out about 2.5 hrs west to a little town called Julian, CA. We were headed up to the mountains for some cooler weather and some camping. The drive was nice... it was a really windy road through the mountains with gorgeous views! Southern California was hit pretty hard with wildfires in the previous years, and you could see the devastation it caused. It was almost eerie to see all of the charred trees, everything dead. When we got to the campgrounds, they told us that the whole place had burned down 6 years ago, and last year they were evacuated for wildfires and that the firefighters had actually stayed at the campground during the fires. Anyways, we stayed at a place called KQ Ranch.

We set up our tent and explored the campgrounds.. they had everything.. playgrounds, a pond, swimming pool, bathrooms, SHOWERS!, a club house. Leah had a ball roaming from one thing to another. She loves to be outside, so it was definately a treat for her! Wednesday night we went into Julian for dinner (we were planning on cooking hot dogs, but didn't bring any charcoal and they didn't allow campfires until November due to the risk of wildfires). The whole town was about a quarter of a mile long and was very old-towny. It was so adorable! When we got back to our camp, we got ready for bed. We put Leah in her monkey footy pajamas and hunkered down under our sleeping bags and blankets. She slept surpringly well but it was quite chilly!

On Thursday we went back into Julian to walk around the shops (they were closed wed night). Then we came back and walked around the campground, played at the playground, fed the ducks in the pond, and just relaxed in the fresh air! We cooked our hot dogs for dinner.. Leah was so hungry that she actually ate a whole hot dog! Around dusk, we decided to go for a hike up the mountains to watch the sunset. Leah fell asleep in the backpack about 10 minutes into the hike. It was too funny! When we got back to camp, it was already 45 degrees, so we decided to pack up and head home that night, rather than freezing out Arizona butts off in our tent again!

All in all, we had a great time! It was good for us to get out in the fresh air!

Mom... maybe you can explain this to me?! It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen! These trees (I think oak trees?) had holes all the way up and down them.. thousands..millions.. of these holes... and the holes were stuffed with acorns! I have never seen anything like it. There were tons of these trees everywhere with the same thing! What kind of animal does this and why??

Two Pink Lines

Okay so nowadays its more like a digital thermometer that says "pregnant" or "not pregnant" but I did still use the good old fashioned two pink lines kind too. I don't know why when a girl finds out she's pregnant she insists on taking 3 tests, all different brands. But ANYWAYS, that's what I did....and sure enough Baby Vanderhoff #2 is on his or her merry little way! We couldn't be more excited to have another bundle of joy added to our family! Leah is going to be the best big sister! Now it's time to really get cracking on that bedroom addition...

So Tim was out to lunch with an old friend when I decided to take the first test. Just had an inkling like I did when I was pregnant with Leah. Sure enough there was a very faded pink line (hard to see in this picture, but it is there!!) So I took a digital test...pregnant! (I took one when I woke up today too, just to be sure!!)

When he got home, I told Leah "take daddy and show him his present in the kitchen..." (I had put a hamburger bun in the oven just to be silly) "In the kitchen?" he said. "Yes, show daddy what's in the oven!" ..."Babe, why is there a hamburger bun in the.... a BUN in the... oven?!" It took him a minute to get it but he was super excited! He has been wanting another baby since the day Leah popped out.

SO anywho... there you have it. I haven't been to the doctor yet but we are guessing I'm about 4 weeks and due the first week of June! xoxo, Sarah

gymnastics

So today I took Leah to our first Mom & Tots Gymnastics class. I've been looking for some sort of Mommy & Me class to put her in for awhile, because she doesn't get much interaction with other kids, and sometimes I wonder if she thinks she's a dog. ANYWAY so I found this awesome gymnastics class for kids ages 1-3 and we went today to check it out!

She LOVED it. Absolutely. It was so funny to see her interaction with the other kids. It was a "free play" day which basically meant free-for-all with the equipment, games, trampoline, and squishy mat. Her favorite was the squishy mat. That's what I called it anyway... the huge square mat that takes up half the place but it bounces when you step on it. She was running back and forth chasing other kids and throwing balls around and even spinning around with the hula hoop (she spun her whole self around, not just the hoop.. it was too cute!) Definately will take some pictures next week. I'm so excited!

But here's a cute pic to tide you over...

Leah's Milestones

I've been meaning to write this down in a journal for awhile now but I haven't gotten around to it. So while I'm thinking of it, I'm going to make a list of Leah's milestones so I have something to refer to for future kiddos.

6 months - sitting up on her own, bottom 2 teeth came in, started baby food

9 months - stopped breastfeeding, switched to formula

10 months - starting crawling (in hotel in Minnesota for Geoff & Jess' wedding)

11 months - top 2 front teeth, walking with push-walker

12 months - started "people food," still getting bottle at naptime, bedtime, and morning

13 months - started walking independently, switched bottle to 2% milk only at bedtime

14 months - 2 more bottom teeth, only taking a bottle occassionally

15 months - MOLARS (yikes!), put away bottles for good, learning sign language to say "more" and "all done"

17 months - running, saying specific words, climbing

here is one of my favorite pictures of Leah learning to walk with the push-walker... look at that booty sticking out! hahaha

Everyone's been asking me what Leah says these days.. so here's a list straight from her mouth:

• Not counting the usual "mommy," "daddy," "bye bye," "baby"
• "binky" - this is clear as day, and she wants her binky NOW when she says it
• "banky" - this is also very clear that she wants her blanky and if you don't get the message, she will take you by the hand and lead you to her bed where her blanky is and point in her crib and say "banky!"
• "ni-ni" - night night
• "soos" - we keep her shoes in a basket on a table in the entryway, she points to them and says "soos" when she wants to go for a walk, which she calls "caulk"
• "joos" - juice. not to be confused with shoes, they sound very similar, and anything in a sippy cup is called "joos"no matter if it's water or milk
• "mon(long pause)keee" - tim's nickname for leah has always been monkey and now its so funny when she says it because she takes a dramatic pause in between syllables, which she also does for the word outside
• "ow(long dramatic pause)siiiiii" - outside. she usually goes to the back door, trying to turn the key and says "ow siii" and she wants to go now no matter if its still 108 degrees out, and if i tell her its too hot she bangs on the door and says "NO!"
• which brings us to my least favorite of her words.. "NO!" and she says it just like that. very demanding and its usually followed by some sort of hitting motion in the air. sometimes she hits the dogs or my leg, for which she gets a time out
• "no no no no" - this is cute and not like the other NO because she always does 4 in a row and she's talking to the dogs, and it's accompanied by a pointing finger motion at them. she tells them this when they are playing or barking too loud.
• "Jes" - Yes. she also likes this word
• "Bubba" - this is what we call the dog, her best friend, who she chases around with her stroller or car or anything else she can push
• "dog dog" - general term for dogs, she also says "woo woo" as in woof woof
• "mow" - meow. we see a lot of stray cats in the neighborhood on our nightly walks, she just points them out and says "mow"
• "bew but" - belly button. she lifts her shirt up, grabs her belly button and says "bew but," she went a little higher one day and i told her that was called boobies and yes she now says "boobies" every now and then. not something i encourage, even though it was my fault
• "nose" - proceeds to stick her finger as far up her nose (or yours for that matter)
• "eye" - and pokes herself in the eye (or you)
• "luhluh" - i love you. we taught her to wave her fingers like an "L" shape and say i love you, which sounds like "luhluh" but it's the most precious thing ever
• "mow" - more. my mom taught her the sign language for more, so she says "mow" and taps her pointer finger in her other palm. sometimes is very demanding.
• "peas" - please
• "tan to" - thank you, she also does the sign for this

This is all I can think of right now, but she's learning new words every day!

Roseola... not so rosy!

So on Friday, Leah woke up from her nap with a 102 fever. Her fever continued to go up and down throughout the night but was pretty manageable with Tylenol. I was hoping it was just a 24 hour thing and she woke up the next day still a little warm but only with a 99 fever and she was playing fine. Since she was acting better, I decided to take her to Tim's cousin's little boy's birthday party at ChuckECheese and see how she managed. Well I knew something was wrong because she didn't want to play, and she fell asleep pretty quickly in my arms so I thought I should get her home.

When I got home, her fever had spiked up to 103 and when Tim got home from work (he was teaching at the college that day), we decided to take her to PrimeCare once her fever hit 104.2 and I started freaking out.

PrimeCare was pretty useless.. they told me it was probably a UTI and to manage it with Tylenol or take her to the Emergency Room if it got worse or she started having seizures. "That'll be $20 copay for our useless information." Thanks. UGH!

Poor baby couldn't eat or sleep. All she wanted to do was lay on the couch or lay on my chest with her sippy full of juice (the only thing i could get her to eat/drink!!)

On Sunday, the fever was still pretty high..102 or so, but the Tylenol was making her throw up. She threw up 3 times on Sunday. It was pretty miserable and there's nothing that makes you feel more useless than having a sick baby that you can't fix. We sat on the couch all day on Sunday (when we weren't in and out of the bathtub) with her blanky. I sat there and stared at my kitchen table collecting dust and the dishes piling up on the sink and thought to myself "there's nothing more important than sitting here holding my baby girl until she feels better."

She went to bed with a 99 fever (I felt a little better about this) and woke up on Monday feeling much better and no fever. We took her to the pediatrician anyway and she said it was probably just a virus or something. As we were leaving, she goes... "oh, there's one more thing it could be.... there's a virus called Roseola where the only symptom is fever and sometimes seizures and it ends with a bright red rash all over and that's when you know it's over, so if she gets a rash, that's what it is!"

And sure enoough... Monday night we were at Walmart and as I put her in the cart, I noticed these bright red bumps appearing all over the side of Leah's face and it was all over her back and neck and chest. We thought, PHEW, that's what it was! It would sure be nice if the rash would appear FIRST so you wouldn't be freaking out the whole time but oh well. She's all better now and we survived our first "real" sickness.

A Blog is Born

Hey guys. I created this blog to share news from out here in the Wild Wild West. We miss all of our family out there in Maryland so this is an easy way you guys can keep track of us! Our little girl is growing so fast, and we don't want you to miss a moment! Can you believe she'll be 18 months soon? Happy reading....