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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Odds and Ends

We haven't had any major excitement around here in a while so I thought I'd just post an update about all of us! We'll go youngest to oldest and see what happens!

McKinley is up first! Yep, that's the name we're saddling her with! I promise we don't have an M obsession; it just sort of happened that way. There is a theme though, one very fitting to Jordan and I and our interests. We'll see who figures it out :) This girl is a mover and shaker! Madison didn't really move a whole lot, but McKinley is constantly all over the place and already loves to kick! Of course, Madison has ended up being a very busy girl so we'll see what this means for McKinley. Her most active time seems to be around 10 p.m., right as I'm trying to go to sleep. Typical! Jordan hasn't been able to feel her yet, but I actually saw her kick for the first time this morning. Cool and creepy all at the same time! I'm almost 22 weeks, which is kind of depressing. I'm already very anxious to see and hold this new little one. I didn't get to hold Madison until about two hours after she was born so I just keep thinking how wonderful it will be to have McKinley in my arms right away! We've picked out a crib set for her room and I've got a list of crafts to get done for her in the next couple months. It's been interesting to prepare for another girl. I don't want to do all the same things we did for Madison, but at the same time, I loved everything in Maddie's room so I'm trying to come up with ways to make things different but similar. I can tell you that we're COMPLETELY set for clothes. Her newborn to 6-month wardrobe takes up the entire closet!

Madison. How can I even begin to sum up this girl in a few sentences?! She's crazy!! Keeping up with her is more than a full-time job. She's seriously awesome. Sometimes when I finally get to lay down at night, I look back at the day and can't help smiling because she's so stinkin' cute (although I will admit that's not always my attitude before bedtime when I can't lay down)! Her current obsessions are shoes, hats, Mickey Mouse, stars and anything "pretty" or "yucky." I started to make a list of all the words she knows now, but when I got past 100 I realized that it's safe to just say she's definitely talking now. And singing. The girl LOVES to sing. She likes the old standbys of course like Popcorn Popping; Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star; and Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam, but I like it more when she makes up her own songs. This usually happens in the car or at the piano. I'm SOOO grateful for our piano! Madison loves it. Sometimes she wants me to sit with her and play songs for her but more often than not, she climbs on the bench, tells me to go away and starts her own concert. Her birthday is coming up next month and our plan is to give her a new "Big Girl Room" complete with a twin bed, reading corner and alphabet wall, which is really just an excuse to get the crib, rocker and changing table out of her room! So once again, I've been planning and crafting! We just got her bed set, and I love it so I hope she does too! Our last adventure has been potty training. We can always tell when she's about to poop and she's getting pretty good at telling us so we decided to try it. Unfortunately, our attempts coincided with the onset of the naked stage, wherein Madison will do anything and everything to get her clothes off! So our smart little girl quickly figured out that us saying "Do you want to go sit on the big girl potty and go poop?" in the morning was really code for "If you say yes, we'll take your jammies off." Then within seconds of getting on the toilet, she somehow finds a way to squirm her way out of our grasp and is off and running around the house naked and screaming in delight. As soon as you catch her and try to put her clothes on, she immediately insists (LOUDLY) that she has to go poop. So back on the toilet she goes, only for the cycle to repeat. Needless to say, we're shelving the potty training for a little while!

Jordan is loving optometry school! He's been a lot more involved here than he ever was at BYU, which sometimes leads to hectic days and nights but is a lot of fun for all of us. In addition to his classes and labs, he's been playing on volleyball and basketball teams (kind of like intramurals) so we get to go and cheer him on! This is sometimes a challenge as Maddie desperately wants to play too, but I love getting to go watch him and hang out with the other wives. He has a pretty close group of about 10 guys that he does everything with, all of whom are married. In fact, four of us are pregnant! So we love getting together as often as possible! Jordan is also involved in a couple clubs at school and is pursuing some other opportunities for this summer and next fall. He was able to get a work study position this semester, but it's only about five hours a week so he still has plenty of time for the fun stuff! His friends all joke (and sometimes lament) that Jordan is much more likely to be found in the rec center playing ping-pong than in the library studying but he's doing very well grade-wise so I guess all I can say is I'm grateful to be married to a genius :) He is still definitely Maddie's favorite, and they especially love to read books and build block towers with each other along with lots and lots of "wrestling" and tickling!

Now for me, as I'm the oldest (which Jordan loves to remind me!). My activities are pretty much summed up in everyone else's! I'm finally over most of the nausea, although I still rely heavily on my little pill every morning. I'm a lot more tired this time around, which might have something to do with the aforementioned crazy toddler, and I think as much as I can't wait to not be pregnant anymore, Jordan is even more anxious! He's been a trooper :) As I said, I'm getting antsy to have McKinley, but I'm also a tiny bit sad that we won't have any family around this time to celebrate with us, which also means I have no idea who will be on Maddie duty while Jordan and I are at the hospital on baby duty, especially if I go into labor in the middle of the night. Yikes. I'm definitely in the nesting stage and have to budget carefully to moderate my crafting habit. Sometimes I just want to go buy everything now and have all my projects done by next week! I'm grateful for the friends we have here and enjoy the opportunities I get to have girl time! And that's pretty much it! Maddie and I both look forward to Jordan coming home in the evenings and warmer weather so we can get out of the house more during the day!

A few pics just for fun ...

Still loves to read

I'm not sure if I mentioned this but we got Madison's ears pierced right after Christmas. This, combined with my pregnancy hormones and the fact that her hair is now long enough for pigtails, makes her look much more like my cute big girl than my sweet baby girl!

SCO hosts an annual "Eye Ball" for all the students so Jordan and I got to go out for a night on the town! We went to dinner with our little group (22 of us) and then had a lot of fun at the dance!

Not too big yet!

Jordan and a few friends ... looking good!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Maddie and Daddy

Remember this?


Sometimes, no matter how big they think they are, little girls just need their daddies ...


Can't wait to see him fit two somehow :)

Monday, January 16, 2012

Drumroll Please ...

It's a girl! According to the good doctor, the only thing between this little one's legs is the umbilical cord so Maddie will have a little sister in June!

Cue tears. Yep, once again, I cried when I found out I was having a girl. My daughters are going to hate me for the rest of their lives. When I learned Madison was a girl, I was scared to death and totally broke down because I didn't think I had it in me to be a girly mom. I hated pink and baby dolls and gigantic hair bows and pretty much all things traditionally female. I wanted a boy that I could throw out in the mud and coach in soccer and call my little man. But of course, as you all know, I have fully embraced my feminine side and wouldn't trade my cute girl for the world, hair bows included!

This time around, I really didn't think I had a preference. I guess I got in the habit of using male pronouns when talking about baby #2 and we've had a name picked out for FOREVER so maybe it was just easy to fall into the boy trap without even realizing it. But the instant I heard "girl" this morning, all I could think about was my cute girl at home. I already have a girl. There can't be another one. At least not for a while, until my little girl is a big girl and far removed from the next baby girl. And then I thought of the two of them together, two years apart and competing with each other for the rest of their lives over EVERYTHING from dolls to bows to boys to clothes to weddings to babies. Ugh. I know I'm being a downer - lots of people have sisters that they are very close to, both in age and relationship. I have a good friend with two little girls who often talks about how close they are and how much she loves watching them play together. Maybe my fears will be totally unfounded and they'll completely adore each other. But I myself happen to be a girl and know that while we have many wonderful qualities, we are also highly competitive and territorial. A recipe for disaster, if you ask me.

So I'm working on it. Like I said, I was worried the first time around too and Madison has turned out to be pretty darn near perfect! We bought some cute girl clothes today (not that we needed to as Madison's old wardrobe takes up half the closet for just the newborn stuff) and we got some things that the girls can wear together and match. Cute, right? I hope so. Because that might be the only thing these two have going for them :)

18 weeks and HUGE! Much bigger this time around than last time! Good thing my husband likes to tell me how cute I am :)

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Surprise!


Christmas attire for three people: $40
Apartment rent for three people (including picture window backdrop): $867
Photo session for three people: Free (thanks to good friends)
Knowing there's actually FOUR people in this picture: Priceless

That's right - Maddie's going to be a big sister in June! We've been holding onto this secret since the beginning of October, which has been the hardest thing I've ever done! But we really wanted to wait until Christmas to tell our families, and it was so fun to plan their "gift" and enjoy their surprise! On the flip side, this whole pregnancy thing is completely to blame for my lack of blogging over the past couple months ... and my lack of doing pretty much everything else. I have been SOOOOO sick! AHHHHHH. I thought I was sick with Madison and was hoping this one would be easier, but it turns out I didn't even know what sick was the first time around. I'm so glad that I had my sister here with me because she ended up doing a lot more than just watching Madison while I worked in the mornings. We all would've been existing on Rice Krispies for the last three months if not for her! I'm definitely already missing her! Anyway, I'm just praying it will get better soon! I'm 16 weeks, for crying out loud!

We have an ultrasound in a couple weeks to find out what we're having, although I'm sure it's a boy given all the trouble he's already causing :) Last time around, I really wanted a boy and was kind of disappointed when we discovered otherwise. This time, I'm okay either way. I girl would be easier and cheaper since we're already pretty stocked up on pink but I honestly can't imagine having another little girl right now. Maddie is my little girl, and it just doesn't seem possible there could be another one (yes, we are planning on having more than two, so I know someday I'll have to get over it!). Either way, I'm excited. And scared out of my mind. Two kids. Yikes. And for me, it's not just learning how to juggle two kids. I'm basically starting from scratch! One of the lasting effects of  Maddie being in the hospital so long after she was born is that I actually don't really know how to take care of a newborn. I mean, we were there all the time, but we weren't allowed to do a whole lot with her and everything we did do was supervised by nurses. I didn't have to deal with the cord stump. And she was already on a fantastic sleep and eating schedule by the time she came home. So this is definitely going to be an adventure. Wish me luck :)

If the next one is anything like this one, we're in for a wild ride!

Maddie Randomness

Our cute girl seems to grow leaps and bounds every day. I swear her vocabulary has doubled just this week! Every once in a while, I like just posting lots of random pictures to show everyone (and especially her later on) how much joy she brings into our lives. And let's be honest, sometimes it's good for me to remember how cute she is, like when she's dumping cereal on the couch or telling me to go away :)

 Horsing around with Dad. These two seriously ADORE each other!

Just because she's cute

One of the perks of having a husband in optometry school is free eye appointments! Since premature babies sometimes have a specific eye problem, we got Maddie's checked out. After seeing all that goes into an eye appointment with a toddler, I think Jordan's pretty sure he does NOT want to do pediatric optometry!

I came in the living room one morning and found this. Jordan was watching ESPN but Maddie wanted to watch "Up" (which is what she calls Mary Poppins because her favorite song is the kite song). So her Dad came up with this setup, although I think her perch on the top of the couch was all her idea!

Playing soccer while Dad played in the turkey bowl on Thanksgiving morning. I think we have a future star!

We invited all of our first-year friends who were still around for Thanksgiving to have dinner at our house, which was a ton of fun! I hope you all like the little boy because he and Maddie have already kissed so we're pretty much locked in :)

This pretty much sums up Maddie's approach to food - extreme distrust usually resulting in a refusal to even attempt it. It is by far our biggest struggle, especially for a girl who already had some catching up to do. Good thing she's cute!

Good morning, cute girl!

Merry Christmas!

This year was a Rothlisberger Christmas so we headed to Arizona for eight days to be with Jordan's family. We just saw Jordan's parents in September, but it somehow seems longer when you're further away so it was great to be there! Madison still isn't into Santa or anything, but she definitely has the hang of presents and always loves playing with her cousins (of which there are now seven under the age of three!). She also got saying "Nana" down and spent a lot more time with Papa, which she was surprisingly unwilling to do over the summer. She seemed to like her presents, which included some books and movies, a bowling set, a new puzzle, big lego blocks and some activities I made for Church, although I was a bit disappointed that she couldn't have her big present - a kitchen set - on Christmas morning since we couldn't fly it out there. Our biggest problem was that once she opened one present, she just wanted to immediately play with it and didn't care about the rest! All the girl cousins got purses and strollers from Nana and Papa, which sometimes prompted stroller wars, but was really cute to see all of them pushing their babies around! Jordan and I also made out pretty well :) All in all, it was a very fun holiday filled with chaos and closeness, which is just as it should be!

That is one dang cute girl!

Two of Maddie's cousins got Power Wheels for Christmas and were nice enough to let Maddie take a spin. She didn't really care much about driving but had fun getting in and out and telling everyone bye!

Jordan and I both got some new toys to play with thanks to Jordan's parents! I got a new camera (which is responsible for all these pictures!) and Jordan got a remote control airplane!

Jordan's brother-in-law, Lincoln, is really into RC planes so he did his best to show Jordan how it's done. I don't know about the flying part, but we got to see some pretty cool crashes :)

Up, up and away!

We had a chance to take Maddie to see the lights at the Mesa Temple the night before we left. She LOVES Christmas lights and the ones here weren't very impressive so this was awesome!

The lights were beautiful and the perfect thing for Maddie - she just kept saying "pretty" and pointing everywhere

She's pointing at the star above the nativity scene

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas

We had a lot of fun this year leading up to Christmas since Maddie was old enough to start getting excited. We broke a cardinal rule and put up our decorations before Thanksgiving ... yikes! But I was just in the mood for some holiday cheer so deal! I'm glad we did - Madison LOVED the Christmas tree and it was really fun to see her so excited to see it every morning and insist that we plug in the lights. She also had her own little nativity set to play with, and she enjoyed taking care of baby Jesus and talking to the sheep and camel. I don't have pictures because my camera is (was) lame, but we also went to a couple light displays here in town with friends! Christmas is always a busy time of year, but I'm glad that we had some random moments to enjoy our family and friends and celebrate!

Helping Dad fluff the tree

Admiring her handy work

It should come as no surprise that she insisted on being involved in every part of decorating. Hopefully we can make that translate to doing dishes and cleaning bathrooms a little later in life!

Hanging ornaments is serious business

The shiny balls were her favorite because she could see herself in them - typical girl!

We decorated and ate sugar cookies one afternoon when I was desperate for something to do. I'm glad I had the foresight to strip her down first!

Frosting and sprinkles make everything better!

I know this picture is super blurry but I couldn't resist :)

Love it