What are you looking at?

I decided to go to WalMart. I haven't been in a really long time, but I needed a vacuum cleaner belt and thought maybe they would have the one I needed.
So we're walking around...just looking at stuff with no major agenda. I wanted to compare a few prices of things,
just to see if it would be cheaper to buy some stuff there
(which it's pretty comparable to Target for those of you who were wondering).
We - Elly, Lucy and myself -
walked all over that store and Elly picked from the time we walked in to the time we walked out to ask me a new question every minute or so..."what are you looking at?" Ok, she didn't just ask it, she shouted it.
I'm sure people were looking at us the whole time,
trying to find out who was being so rude.

No expectations

I feel like things are finally settling down.
We are in our new normal routine. I'm not saying we have everything figured out by any means, but Scott, Elly and I are almost partly adjusted to the newest member of our family, Lucy.
I've gotta say that it took a little longer than I expected, which is totally my fault. In these situations I shouldn't even have expectations.
That's been my motto for the past couple weeks, "no expectations." Then I can't be disappointed if something doesn't quite go the way I think it should.
I only have one more week at home before I head back to work. And before we know it, Christmas will be here. Time really does speed up as you get older.

Well, we're currently in the middle of family visits since Lucy has been born.
Grandma Lynn and Poppie came out for a week right after Lucy turned a week old. Grandma Susan arrived on Halloween and gets to stay for a week.
We're still trying to figure out schedules and routines. This has been my biggest transition so far, I think.
I take care of little babies all the time, yet I've forgotten what it's like to have one in my own home.
I think once I'm not scared to death that Elly will attack or "love" on Lucy I might be able to get a few things done, but I'm not sure how long that will take.
I'm already having to plan my return to work...wow...time does go by fast.

Lucy is here

Lucy is here! She was born 2 weeks early and definitely surprised me! I had been at work all day and then just walked across the hall and delivered her. Okay there was a little more to it than that, but that's the jest of it. We came home Sunday night and have been trying to get used to having a new baby since. That consists of...

Elly never listening to what we say
Me having emotional times of crying semi-regularly
Scott waiting on me hand and foot
Sleeping at random times and in random places during the day and night
Making quick runs to the grocery store to pick up random items
Having a wonderful new baby girl addition to the family who is a sweetheart!

So I guess it's pretty much the same adjustment that all families go through. Even though it's a little rough at times...totally worth it

It's official. I'm pretty sure nesting has begun.

the light switch by the door

It's official! After living in our house for just over a year and a half, I figured out what the light switch by the door does. It operates an outlet across the house in the living room. Who knew?

newbiggirl bed

Elly is now in her "newbiggirl bed" as she calls it. It was delivered yesterday. I have to say that I wasn't too sure about it...nap time yesterday afternoon did not go well. It consisted of quite a bit of crying, followed by, "mommy? mommy? mommy?" for a while, and then a door opened. She wouldn't lay back down after that.

Bed time however, a different story. She laid right down and went right to sleep. Sure she woke up twice during the night, but overall...not bad. I decided when she woke up at 5 am that I was not ready to get up yet, so I laid down with her in that new bed and we both fell back asleep. One thing is for sure...her bed is more comfortable than mine.

So far today...she laid right down and went down for her nap this morning...yay.

splash park

Well...Lucy's room is now almost done. Scott worked long and hard yesterday to get the strawberry ice cream looking paint on the walls. It's very pink in there, but I like it :)

As it always seems to, life is still going by at an incredibly fast pace. The summer is almost over and it feels as if there is still so much to do before Lucy's arrival in October. However, this week has not gone by without it's share of good times. We've been swimming a lot lately it feels like, which is fine with me. Elly has really taken a liking to the splash park. She actually tries to push me away the whole time we're in the pool and attempts to climb out of the toddler inner tube we have for her.

We have also been able to frequent the splash park. Scott was able to go with us for the first time a couple weeks ago. Here are a couple moments we captured while playing...

cranky hormones

The retail business redeemed itself last night. After we had gone to the Home Deopt, Scott suggested ice cream. The most friendly lady helped us at Dairy Queen and was very fast.

In other news, I am sitting and just watching today....not allowed to participate in the painting of Elly's room. Instead I am trying to entertain a cranky 18 month old who is getting more teeth. It's not so fun, especially with my hormones all cranky too! I'm trying to convince Scott to paint Lucy's room this weekend, too. Then it's all done. We'll see.

crazy busy

Our lives have been crazy busy these past couple months. We're trying to keep up with a growing toddler, work, spend time with each other, lead a community group at church and get ready for baby Lucy's arrival. Things in the house have slowly started to change and while the mess is getting to me, I think it's all going at a good pace. Today we hope to buy some paint so we can finish the walls in each of the girls' rooms. Plus my friend Emily is helping me sew some curtains for the rooms so we might go buy some fabric. We had a fantastic 4th: swimming and hanging out with friends and playing cornhole, but we did miss shooting off fireworks (they're illegal here for those of you who were wondering).

For everybody wishing they could have chased a polka-dotted Elly around the park while she hunted for eggs on Easter Sunday, here is what that looked like. We love how she shakes the eggs before placing them in her basket.

scorpion on the wall...

So I walked into the bathroom the other night and saw a scorpion on the wall....I made Scott come and kill it. Since then, I seem to be slightly obsessed with finding out about scorpions in AZ and how likely it is that one would be able to exterminate them. Turns out my chances of getting rid of all them or keeping all of them out of my house aren't very high. I won't walk barefoot in the house anymore either. And I peer around every corner and turn every light on at night before walking into a dark room...I promise I'm not crazy...I just don't want a scorpion to be lurking around the corner, ready to strike.

San Diego

We're going to San Diego!!! Woo Hoo!! We haven't had a vacation in about 2 years. We're (well Janice is anyway) excited to take Elly to Sea World. On a side note: It's very possible, however unlikely, that we might get blown away today by the wind. Seriously, I can't remember such gusts since Kansas.

It has been a while since we've updated this thing. You know how it goes: Christmas, child's first birthday party, finding out you're having another kid...kinda takes up a bit of time. And yes, for those who didn't know yet, we are having another baby due to arrive in October. We were surprised but are extremely excited. We've been busy trying to explain it all to Elly, but she just laughs and says "belly." However, our Dr. gave her a sonogram picture of the baby at our appointment and all she could say after that was "baby." Maybe she's getting it all, but we're still thinking it is going to take some time.