Livin our love song...

Today, August 18th marks 5 years and 12 days since Tim and I met...today is our 5 year wedding anniversary. That's right...if you know your math that means we got married after knowing each other for 12 whole days.
And yes...we were totally crazy.
I remember the night we met and stayed up until 3am talking that I knew I was going to marry him. You could call it love at first sight if you want to. He was everything I ever wanted and had all the qualities I wished for in a husband. We spent every possible minute of those 12 days together learning everything about each other and every deep dark secret we ever had. I had never been more in love and more sure of something my entire life. And I don't know exactly what we were thinking that afternoon of august 18th to go to the courthouse and seal our fate but we did and it was the craziest, worst, and best decision of our lives.
Let me explain... Craziest: obviously...12 days!
Worst: my family being 3000 miles away...my family is the most important thing to me in the world and why I didn't bother to think about them missing out on this moment kills me and I'm lucky that they forgave me and that they accepted him with open hearts and open arms because they didn't have to after what we put them through. I never fully understood how much it hurt them until I had kids...because if Leah ever ran off and got married to a stranger the way I did I would be devestated. But I'm happy to say that he fits right into this crazy family of mine and they have grown to love him just as much as I do.
Best: let me just say this marriage could have gone really really wrong...we had a LOT of things (and a lot of people) against us at first. But I believe all of that only drew us closer together and I'm happy to say we're still crazy about each other. I'm still on that same high for him that I was 5 years ago. We have had our fair share of ups and downs and a few surprises along the way but he never ceases to amaze me. He is still everything I wished for in a husband and the best father to our babies. I thank God every day for bringing him into my life. We have had a lot of crazy adventures together and I look forward to what lies ahead of us.
Now come with me if you will as I take a little journey through our life in pictures... (warning: picture overload!!!)

One of those 12 days :)




Our courthouse wedding August 18, 2005





Just married!





Imperial sand dunes - winter 05





Camping New Years Eve 06





Camping on the beach - Rocky Point, Mexico 06






One year anniversary -vowel renewal ceremony in MD for my family in the church I grew up in





Just married...again! 8/18/06





Summer 2006






Big Bear, CA ski trip 01/07






Las Vegas -February 07






El Gulfo, Mexico Spring 07




My birthday -April 2007



Summer 07



"honeymoon" in Fiji - 2 year anniversary summer 2007









Fiji





August 2007




Souvenir from Fiji! Pregnant with Leah -Spring 2008



Waiting for our baby girl!



Leah Joan is born - 4/23/08



3 year anniversary as a family of 3! 8/18/08




Halloween 08 camping @ dunes





January 09 - my brother's wedding in Minnesota





April 09 Leah's 1st Birthday! Cruise to Catalina and Mexico




Winter 09 in Maryland




Pregnant with Chase - Spring 2010




Chase Timothy is born 5/26/10...Leah is 2 years old




My whole world - Summer 2010


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Gimme kiss mommy!

Today I was doing something on the computer and Leah walked in with her sunglasses on top of her head and her purse over her
shoulder and said "gimme kiss mommy...I going byebyes" and leaned in and gave me a hug and a kiss. It was hilarious because that's exactly what I say to her when I go to the farm to work on Tim's days off...I grab my sunglasses and purse and tell her to give me a kiss, mommy's going bye-byes. LOL that kid cracks me up! I laughed really hard at her and so she did it like 10 more times hahaha! Every time she would go to the front door and pretend to leave. She's so funny doing everything I do! When I have Chase she follows me around with her baby doll and pretends to change it's diaper, give it a bottle, put lotion on it, even tells the baby doll "shhh not nessary!" (I tell Chase "not necessary to cry!") Oh man she cracks me up every day!!!

Here's Leah "going byebyes"



I put Chase down for a minute in his crib so I could take Leah to the potty and this is what I found when I came back for him...



Here we are going for our evening walk/bike ride...



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The Target Pee Incident

Well it was bound to happen eventually......Leah's first public "accident." I had to run to Target to get a birthday present for Dylan's party on Saturday. I asked Leah before we left the house "do you have to go potty?" NO. Of course not. When we got to Target, we stopped in the family restroom because I had a suspicion that she had to pee... put down her Winnie the Pooh portable seat on the toilet.. sat her down. Nothing. Ugh. Okay, packed everything back in the diaper bag and out shopping we went. We were just about done and I wanted to stop in the men's department and look for something. As we were walking down the aisle, Leah was whining to be carried. To avoid a fuss, I picked her up with my 3rd arm as I'm still pushing Chase in the cart in his carseat. When we got to the men's dept I went to put her down because my arm was KILLING me. She started crying "MOMMY NO!" I looked down and she's standing there with pee rushing down her legs and soaking her shoes and the Target carpet. AWESOME!
Luckily we were right next to the dressing rooms... there was no associate to be found so we just went in and I stripped her down, wiped her down, and changed her into the change of clothes I had in the diaper bag (Always carry a change of clothes in your diaper bag!!). She was crying so I explained to her that accidents happen.
When we were all cleaned up, we went to check out (mind you my kid is now shoeless..I'm still carrying her because I don't want her to walk on the gross Target floor.. Leah's probably not the only kid to ever pee on it.. and since Chase was in the cart with the carseat, there's no room for Leah to sit in the back) I went to find an associate to tell them what happened. Well, let me start over.. I contemplated for a few minutes .."do we peepee and ditch? or do we tell someone?" Apparently my daughter decided for me because all of the sudden she saw someone and said "I peepee on the floor! I peepee a LOT!" Oh I could have died. LOL. So I had to explain to the nice Target man that my daughter had an accident blah blah blah. On the way to the counter she was telling EVERYONE we saw that she peed on the floor. Gotta love kids.
All was well. We checked out, and I carried my shoeless hillbilly girl out to the car and home we went.
Here is a picture of the aftermath of her shoes...

The little things in life...

It's 11:30 at night...the kids have been in their beds asleep for hours (bed time at our house is 8pm)...I'm laying in bed and all of a sudden Leah runs in crying "I scared! Mommy's bed? I lay witchu?" She must have had a nightmare. I usually don't like the idea of bed-sharing with your kids but I believe every now and then for security and comfort it's a good thing. She is just too sweet I couldn't say no. She wanted to use daddy's pillow and blanket (he's on duty tonight) and she is laying next to me snug as a bug and sound asleep. I figure one day she won't even want me to go with her to the mall so I have to cherish these little moments, right?!


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My Big Girl!

It seems like just yesterday we were bringing home our little 7lb 15oz baby girl home from the hospital. Neither one of us had had too much experience changing diapers but we jumped in head first with our new, sweet, beautiful, and stinky! baby girl, Leah. How something so tiny and precious could make such a mess (there were a few flying poo incidents) was beyond me! Now...27 months later...I'm proud to announce that our Leah Joan is no longer in diapers!!! (insert immense clapping and a cute jingle about "peepee on the potty" here).
We tackled the beast, so to speak, over a 3 day period when Tim was home to help me with Chase. Like everything else she does, Leah took to it right away. After she realized she didn't like the feeling of pee running down her legs, that was it for her. She decided that the potty was a better choice. We went to the store and she picked out Minnie Mouse and Cinderella undies and for the past week we have been accident free! Now only one kid in diapers woohooooooo!






Now I'd like to point out the things no one tells you about your child being potty trained...
*no matter how long they have been sleeping through the night they will start waking up now to use the bathroom...
*"I have to go potty" is the new greatest excuse for getting out of bed and do u really want to take that risk of not letting her go?
*public restrooms become THAT much more disgusting...
*your child will have a newfound discovery of their "parts"
*you will make up more songs and rhymes about bodily functions than you ever dreamed about before becomming a parent
*your child might just tell everyone about her new accomplishment and will expect a high-five and a sticker from each one of them


Anyways I'm so proud of my girl!!!


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Cavaties and reflux...

Yesterday Chase went back to his pediatrician and she diagnosed him with GERD (severe acid reflux) and hallelujah there's treatment! She prescribed him with Prevacid which is an acid blocker. He gets 1/2 tsp every morning and she said we should be seeing the full effects within a week. I've already noticed a significant difference in his temperment... He smiled at me today and went most of the day without crying! Woohooooooo! I'm looking forward to enjoying my baby again!

And today miss Leah had to go to the dentist to get her cavaties in her top front teeth filled. It was quite traumatizing (I think moreso for me than for her...) they gave her a liquid sedative that made her high as a kite. We had to wait in this little room for about a half hour for the drugs to kick in before they could begin the procedure...she kept trying to walk but was wobbling and Tim had to hold her to keep from falling and she kept saying "numbers!" (there was a scale in the room). Once she was loopy enough the dental hygenist took her and we had to wait in the waiting room. The whole thing took about 2 hours because the dentist said she kept waking up. She was really out of it on the way home but when we got home we snuggled and watched tv for awhile and then took naps and she was her normal self again after that. Lesson learned: be adament about brushing your kids teeth!! We have already started wiping Chase's mouth with a washcloth after his bath so he gets used to it and doesn't fight us like Leah does. Anyway that's the update on the health of my kiddos! Time for bed! Xoxo

Here is a picture of my poor girl on the way home from the dentist...that is a thermometer on her forehead.

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Wah!!!

Well if you're wondering why I haven't been updating more often its because I rarely have a hand free to type.. You see our house is under attack by the collick monster! Yep that's right... Mr Chase has a serious bout of collick. Now if u don't know what collick is let me explain... By definition: unexplained, unconsolible crying for 3 or more hours a day, 3 or more days a week, lasting about 3 months. Damn you number 3!!! Now by Chase's definition: unconsolible crying unless you're bouncing on that sweet birthing ball that kills my moms back...from about 7am until I finally fall asleep around 10pm. And since you were nice enough to hold me while I screamed bloody murder all day long I'll be nice enough to let you sleep in 2 to 3 hour incriments all night long. Love, Chase.

So you can see why I'm MIA from the computer a lot. My poor guy...it's such a hopeless feeling knowing that I'm supposed to be able to make him all better as his mommy but nothing I do works! It just seems like he's in so much pain all the time. We go back to the pediatrician tomorrow to see if there's ANYTHING else we can do for him!

Anyways I downloaded blogger for my iPod so it will be easier for me to post more frequently, as I'm laying in bed right now about to go to sleep. On a lighter note...I cut my hair super short for the summer. It's really cute and really easy to maintain. I was getting tired of looking tired! Goodnight all:) xoxo





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