Chit-Chat

This is what Serena is doing right now. She just had her morning nap from 9:30-11:30, during which I showered and put the house in order. When she woke up, I brought her downstairs and thought I'd catch up on Facebook while I nursed her. She was feeling very 'social' and could hardly concentrate on nursing for her desire to smile at Mommy. So, I finally put her burp rag over my shoulder so it would cover her eyes and she got busy eating then. The next thing I knew, she was sound asleep and doing this little snoring thing she does. I've wanted to get it on camera before, but never have my camera handy at the right time. :P But this time I could use the webcam on my computer! :)

When Serena wakes up, I'm going to finish nursing her and then we're going to go for a walk. Kinda funny that after we already had a snowfall in early October, we are now having 70-degree days in early November?! Is this messed up or what?!

Jordan's out deer hunting today, so it's just us girls until later this afternoon. Tonight we'll be going to church. No, we're not 7th Day Adventists now or attending Mass or anything like that. ;) Our church has a Saturday night contemporary service that we have started attending and we're really enjoying it! The fellowship is great; and the preaching has been very challenging and encouraging. The last couple weeks have been mostly uneventful. Jordan's been getting up early most days to go bow hunting. He's taken Macy out pheasant hunting a couple times too, and she's been doing awesome. As you can imagine, Jordan is very proud of her! :) Serena and I have gotten into a pretty good routine. She generally wakes up between 7 and 8. We go downstairs and have some breakfast and play for a little bit. Then she's ready to go down for a nap between 9 and 10. That's when I usually get my shower and try to get as much done around the house as possible. Usually the morning nap lasts about 2 hours. When Serena wakes up, it's usually been about 4 or 5 hours since she ate last, so she's VERY READY to eat again! :) After that feeding, we play or go for a walk or run errands or whatever is on my agenda for the day. From that point on, she eats about every 3-4 hours, playing and napping in the interim. Depending on how the day goes, Serena falls asleep for the night between 7 and 9. I put her down in her crib and we don't hear from her again until about 1am. At that point, she usually hasn't eaten for about 5-6 hours and is again VERY READY to eat, haha! So, I bring her into bed with us and nurse her there and she sleeps just great next to me for the rest of the night. She loves 'talking' to people. Nothing makes her day like having someone make eye contact with her and talk to her! She likes playing on her tummy and standing (with help, of course!). She loves looking in the mirror! She is always very interested in Macy and finally smiled at her for the first time on Thursday (I even got it on video!). Jordan gets her full attention whenever he's around, though! Serena definitely thinks he's pretty cool! I couldn't agree more! :D

Well, looks like we've got a live one! I'll try writing more again soon!

Ahem...

Jordan keeps mocking me for writing the "I'm Back!" post two weeks ago and not posting anything since then. :P

There. Now I've posted something.

I'm BAAAAACK!!!!!

After two weeks, I am finally back in business....the blogging business, that is. Two weeks ago, we ordered my birthday present: a new computer. It was high time we replaced the old computer. It was 5 years old, which is basically ancient as laptops go! The main problem was that it had gotten so slow. And I mean S.L.O.W!!!! We're talking 'slower-than-molasses-in-the-winter' kind of slow. I did most of my reading in between waiting for links or programs to open up. As you can imagine, that made blogging quite the undertaking. Jordan has been trying to convince me to get a new computer for about a year now, I think. I kept saying, Oh, no, it's fine; I don't mind the slow computer; we don't need to spend that money right now. And, really, I am a very patient person by nature, so for the most part it didn't bother me too much. But, as time went by, I realized that I was missing out on too many things because of my computer's sluggishness. I couldn't Skype or watch videos or edit videos. I didn't look at people's picture albums on Facebook unless I really wanted to because it just plain old took too much time. Blogging and editing pictures would take so long that I didn't do it as often as I really wanted to. And, if someone tried to instant message me while I was trying to do anything else on my computer, the instant message conversation would be delayed and the other open program would slow down to a crawl (a very slow crawl, in case you're wondering!). So, as my birthday rolled around, I gave in and decided to get a computer. And not a moment too soon. The old one crashed (for the second time, boo!) the following Friday. I don't know yet if what was on there was salvageable. If not, I lost a few cute pictures and videos of Serena (double-boo!), but I am thankful that I've been pretty faithful at posting stuff on the blogs (especially Daily Serena) so I haven't lost all of her pictures/videos!! So, the computer finally came this past Friday afternoon (yes, that was almost two whole weeks after it was ordered...but the fiasco surrounding that delay is a story for another time and place!), and I have been busy setting it up and getting caught up on all the things in my cyber world that I have missed for the last week!

I took this picture of Jordan and Macy while I was doing Serena's photo shoot for DS today. I thought it was so funny because they both look really put-out the way they're each squinting one eye! I was taking a picture of Macy because she was practically falling asleep sitting next to Jordan, but Jordan thought I was taking his picture so he made a face, haha! Turned out to be a Kodak moment! ;)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...Christmas?!

This morning, after I had put in my contacts and put on some warm clothes, I picked Serena up and took her to the nursery to change her diaper and get her dressed for the day. And what sight should greet my eyes as I looked out the window above her changing table, but that of SNOW! And LOTS of it! Already covering the ground and the rooftops; falling as big, soft flakes. On October 10th. I immediately started singing Christmas songs to Serena as Macy looked up at us wagging her tail while her eyes begged to know what had brought on this sudden merriment? Though it's not too unusual to see snow at some point in the early weeks of October, it is definitely unusual for the first snow flakes to accumulate like this! The last time that I can remember having an early snow storm like this was 10 years ago on my 16th birthday. A friend, Kasee, had planned a surprise camp-out and invited a bunch of girls to her house for my birthday. We slept in a tent out in the woods and it SNOWED all night long! It was freezing out, but the close quarters and laughter kept us warm, I guess, 'cause we stayed out there all night long as we told every scary ghost story we'd ever heard! Ha! Good memories! Anyway, after getting Serena ready for the day, I came downstairs and took some pictures of our fresh winter wonderland and turned on some Christmas music! :)

Our deck (from the kitchen window)

Macy checking the yard for squirrels (one of her favorite pastimes) from the big picture window in our living room

My Birthday Visit from Mom

Today Mom came to visit me for my birthday. It was SUCH a wonderful day!!! She got here a little after noon and took me out to eat at Cracker Barrel. We talked and talked while she ate her salad and me my scrumptious (though possibly slightly juvenile?) apple streusel French toast. :) After that, we went shopping at Target, Kohls, and then the MALL!! Serena was a little trooper and didn't complain about all our gadding about. (I'm trying to start early training her to enjoy shopping, heehee!) I love shopping with my Mom, and it's especially fun now that we have Kaden & Serena to shop for! It's so fun to go look through all the children's clothes and toys and just talk about anything and everything related to babies and mommy-hood! It was such a wonderful way to spend my birthday!!! Love you, Mom!!!

Me with my baby and my mommy :)

Serena and her grammie (check out more pictures of them at Daily Serena)

Serena Loves to Talk

Introducing My NEW Blogging Venture

Daily Serena will be featuring a (guess what?) daily photo of Serena!  Head on over for your daily cute fix at www.dailyserena.blogspot.com!!

FBC Ladies' Retreat 2009

Serena and I ventured out on our own Friday afternoon to attend a Ladies' Retreat hosted by Jason and Julia's church. I really enjoyed it last year, so I was excited when I received the flyer about it in the mail and Julia assured me that they wouldn't mind my bringing Serena along! Thankfully, Serena behaved herself wonderfully so I was able to attend all of the sessions and participate in the activities (including a bonfire and a scavenger hunt)! I really enjoyed the fellowship with the ladies and the encouragement of the sessions.

Waiting for a session to begin

Our group during one of Mrs. Janke's sessions

We stayed at a very nice campground near Tama, IA, called Pilgrim Heights. Although rain was forecasted for the weekend, it held off and we were able to enjoy the outdoors in our woodsy location.

The cabin where our rooms were

Jessica came too! She helped take care of Serena a lot! I even got to paint my toenails!!! ;)

For the scavenger hunt, we had to take pictures of a bunch of things on a list that was open to very loose interpretation. One of the things was 'flower girl.' Serena did a wonderful job stepping up to the plate for our team!!

Jessica tried out the sling. She must have been doing something right, because Serena promptly fell asleep!

Julia & I

The three of us for the second year in a row!

Serena Goes to Minnesota

We finally got to take Serena to visit my friends and family in Minnesota this past weekend!

Serena and Daddy being really serious

Serena's yawns crack us up because they always seem like they are too big for her!

We girls went to Fairmont for fun Saturday evening while Jordan was at Justin's watching football. There's not too much to do in Fairmont, but it was fun to visit my old 'haunts' - the dinky mall and, of course, Shopko! At Shopko, we got a little carried away playing in the Halloween aisle!

She's so glamorous!

Jess as a brunette

Me as a blonde

My babe and I

We took Serena to see an old family friend, Mel. She was all smiles for him, and I think he was instantly wrapped around her finger! He never had a chance! :D

Me and my lil' sis

Mom & I

Auntie Jessie put Serena to sleep!

Our family...this time Serena was the one complaining about taking pictures instead of Jordan!

We went out for breakfast at Perkins with Christa and Marcus

My happy little girlie on the way to Grammie's house!

Scenes from Last Week

Last Tuesday, my friend Christa (who was the Maid of Honor in our wedding) came for an overnight visit with her little boy Marcus. We had a great time catching up face-to-face on all the details of our lives that seem to slip through the cracks during our phone calls!

We went to Panera (one of my favorite places!) for supper. The babies looked so cute in their carseats! (Serena - 6 weeks; Marcus - 6 months)

Here we all are!

Serena and Macy are getting along well. Macy likes giving Serena kisses all over her face, hands, and feet...basically any skin that is showing is likely to experience some 'Macy love'! ;) The other day, I was baking cookies in the kitchen while Serena was napping in her swing in the dining room (right next to the kitchen). I heard Serena starting to stir and making her little baby noises, and was a little surprised that she wasn't sleeping longer. Then, I remembered seeing Macy trot by me a minute prior to hearing Serena making her little sounds. My suspicions were confirmed when I peaked around the corner and found Macy licking Serena's feet (which are right at Macy's level when Serena is in the swing)!! Silly girls! Thankfully, once Macy left her alone, Serena fell right back to sleep and I was able to finish the cookies! ;)

Serena scrunches up her face when Macy kisses her!