It's official!

I know switching blogs is like switching emails - you lose track of half of your friends because they don't update your new address. Come on, just do it right now. Switch my link (if you have it) to www.mowerfamily.com. It's that simple! I won't be returning to this blog and am only keeping it here so I can still see some of your blogs that I have to be signed in to see. (I don't want you to lose track of me because I don't want to lose track of you! Got it? :)

Thanks everyone! Happy blogging! Oh, and Happy Easter! :)

New Blog Site

Hi Everyone! I'm trying out a new blog site. I've just started it so it needs a little work, but I think I'm going to like it. Come check us out at www.mowerfamily.com! Please update your links to my blog, and I'm excited to start blogging again and to catch up on all of you! It's been a month or two :). See ya!

A Facebook Fanatic

I have been having so much fun on Facebook lately that I have neglected my blog. I can't say it will get much better soon, but if you haven't found me yet on Facebook then come and find me! I have found so many past friends, roommates, cousins, aunts, and other acquaintances and I love being able to keep in touch with them so easily that way. I post pictures on Facebook more frequently and it's easier for me to handle, so come and see me there for more updates. I'm sure I'll start blogging more soon, but for the time being...Ciao!

Oh, I guess I could atleast give an update on our family. We're doing great! Well, kind of. This past week and a half has been pretty rough actually. Chris got very sick and then I started to get a bad cold a couple of days later. Then Chris was diagnosed with Pneumonia and missed some work and had a crazy time recovering from that...actually he still has a hard time breathing often and can't be very active. Maggie was diagnosed with Croup the same day Chris was told he had pneumonia. She had a rough time for a couple of days and then she also got pneumonia and was on antibiotics for awhile and felt pretty awful. I continued to have a nasty cold that gave me headaches for awhile and now I'm pretty sure I have a sinus infection. It's miserable! Robyn escaped the illnesses at first but just as Chris and Maggie started to recover Robyn got Bronchiolitis and has been fairly miserable from that. From what I hear, that will take a while for her to recover from. Poor girl. I have never been surrounded by so much sickness before! I am pretty exhausted from taking care of everyone and myself. I just can't seem to get better. Anyway... we're still happy and are enjoying some new Anime movies and series and the weather is getting warmer and I am starting to play my fiddle again and we're doing well considering.

I hope all of you are doing well!

Unfortunately.....

Well, it turns out we're not going to try to sell our home after all. Yet. The value of our place has gone down too much and it's not worth what we owe on it, so we would be losing money to sell it. Unfortunately we can't afford to take the hit. So we'll be sticking around in this little place until the market goes back up or until we can afford to get out. At least it's a beautiful place. Our dreams of buying a real home will have to wait. :)

Beautiful Home for Sale!

Well, we're about to put our house on the market and I just finished taking pictures. I think it looks pretty good! I've heard so many stories about people's houses being on the market for a full year, but I'm hoping for the best. We sure are getting excited to move and hope we don't have to wait around very long!
LIVING ROOM
LIVING ROOM 2
LIVING AREA
LIVING AREA 2
DINING AREA
HALLWAY
KITCHEN
ENTRYWAY
MASTER BEDROOM
MASTER BEDROOM 2
MASTER BATH
2ND BEDROOM
OFFICE / 3RD BEDROOM
BATHROOM 2

It's been way too long!

Hi everyone! Sorry it has taken so long to update again. We are doing so great! I absolutely LOVE being a mother of two. I never knew I could love having another newborn as much as I'm loving it. What a wonderful life! Besides enjoying being a family of four, Chris and I are getting ready to put our house on the market this week or next. We're getting very excited to move to a bigger home. Enjoy the pics!

Happy to be US again

Well, Robyn is just over 2 weeks old and she is still the perfect baby! She hardly ever cries (only during diaper changes) and she sure sleeps a lot. In fact, last night she slept through the night for the first time! She gets cuter every day and Maggie simply loves her and loves to hold her and kiss her. My mother moved out last week and Chris spent the rest of the week home with me and this is my first week flying solo with the kids. Amazingly, it's not as bad as I thought it would be and it's actually been wonderful being home with just me and the girls. I have been recovering 10 times faster now that I have had the baby and it feels so good to be able to move again and to be able to do things on my own. My back is the only thing that I still struggle a lot with. I think my back muscles suffered the most from lack of use during bedrest. Anyway, our little family is so happy to be just us again. I haven't figured out how to get out of the house with two kids yet, but I guess that'll happen soon enough. Robyn is already up to 8 lb 15 oz and she is doing just great. I hope you enjoy a few more pics of my sweet little girls and our family.

Robyn Kenadi is here!!

Yeah! Robyn Kenadi was born Sunday, Nov 23rd, at 8:39 a.m. and she weighed 7 lb 13 oz and was 20 1/2" long. What an amazing and rewarding experience! I had a successful VBAC and a wonderful delivery and I can't get enough of little Robyn. Chris and I are so happy to have another little girl in our family and Maggie is sure cute with her! We are so happy. I will post more later. Oh, and she was born two days overdue! Wow!

still going......

39 1/2 weeks and still going strong! I just can't believe it! Any day now, any hour, any minute!!! AHHHH!!!

38 Weeks and Still Pregnant!

Hi everyone....yes, I'm still pregnant! I know, it's totally crazy. I've been off of bedrest for exactly one week now and boy does my body hurt! Most of all my back hurts like heck and I feel like there's no strength there to support my belly weight. If I'm on my feet for very long or do any bending over I feel like my back might just snap. My feet are killing me from carrying my weight, and the muscles in my upper and inner thighs and lower abdomen are sore from trying to carry my belly weight. I get exhausted very easily and my muscles stiffen up the moment I rest to recover and I have a hard time getting up again. Ouch! However, I'M FREE!!! The freedom of getting out of the house (I've made it a point to go shopping somewhere every single day) way outweighs the pain of getting in and out of the car and walking around the store. I'll suffer anything for the freedom of going where I want and shopping and even doing some cleaning! Actually, I'm not that free, since I can't drive just yet, but I'm going to start working on it. My mom's a good chauffeur (?). My first trip to Wal Mart in 4 months felt like a holiday! It was so exciting to be surrounded by people and stuff happening and noise! I still have to get pushed in a wheelchair for a very extensive shopping trip (anything besides a fairly quick errand) because if I don't my body gives out on me halfway through. I had to sit in a massage chair at Bed Bath and Beyond for almost 30 mins the other night to recover from walking around the store, and yesterday I almost sat down on the floor in Wal Mart because I was hurting so much. I don't know if I would have been able to get back up!

I still can't pick up Maggie and I haven't ventured to do any real cooking (mostly because I don't want that responsibility yet), but I did actually clean up Maggie's toys last night and that was sooooo refreshing! For once I didn't have to stare at a mess and wish I could do something about it. My body hurt (especially from the bending over) but I kept going because I could! I was so happy to leave my living room clean when I went to bed last night! I also straightened up the kitchen counters a bit (which have been driving me nuts) and I've been doing a little organizing around the house. You just can't imagine unless you've been there how wonderful it is to do something for myself! I'm so excited!! And FREE! I've also been wanting to vacuum but haven't had the energy to pull out the vacuum yet. Maybe that'll be my next project. Oh, and I did my first batch of laundry in 4 months! That was exciting, too. Pretty much anything that I do besides resting on the couch is exciting to me. I even shower every day now (which exhausts me about as much as anything)! Ha ha.

This past week I've been extremely active, eager, and impatient. I want to do anything and everything before I have the baby! Because I don't know how long I'll last (I'm already dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced as of three days ago, and yes I've had a few irregular contractions) I can't sit still for a minute in getting the house ready for the baby. My mom says I have intense nesting syndrome, and I agree and add that I have major off-of-bedrest eagerness, finally-do-something-that-I-want-to-do-when-I-want-to-do-it syndrome, and stage-my-house-to-sell syndrome. I have all these things I've thought about and made lists of and researched online for 4 months and now I just want to get it all done before the baby comes! I simply can't wait for my body to catch up with my brain. I haven't shopped in 4 months and in the last week I went shopping every single day! (except Sunday, of course). I've sold tons of old household items online in the past 2 months and this past week we took all the money we earned and bought new things to stage our house and I must say it's looking awesome!

Phew! Anyway, I'm in pain but I'm so excited to be off of bedrest. I'll be starting some physical therapy soon, too, so that will be nice. I could go into active labor at any time also so I'm scared but excited for that. We shall see what happens!

Oh, another interesting thing about being so pregnant for the first time: I waddle! I waddle mostly because it hurts my back and my sciatic nerve so much to walk around, and to get up and down, but I waddle nevertheless. I was even walking around Wal Mart (very slowly I might add) today with my hand on my back to relieve some of the pain - just like you always see in the movies! Or is that in real life, too? I feel like everyone is staring at my belly when I'm out in public, and I've even had an ecstatic group of girls run up to me and touch my belly and talk excitedly about how pregnant I was. That was weird! I've had a number of strangers come up and touch my belly. I'm certainly not used to this kind of attention - I feel like such an odd duck. But, I guess that's what being 8 1/2 months pregnant is all about! So, I'm finally experiencing some of the craziness of full-termness. However, I've had so little time to enjoy it I'm certainly not sick of it yet, and I doubt I will get sick of it before I have my baby girl. I hope to be pregnant for another week or two so I can gain back more strength and become even a little more independent before having another baby. I'm just hoping to not have her on my birthday (which is this Sunday) because I want her to have her own day to celebrate - okay I'll be honest, I want my own birthday, too!

Allright, that's all I have to report. Most likely I won't report again until we have our baby. But for now here's a picture of me at 38 weeks pregnant, and her are some more cute pics of Maggie!





****************Pictures from HALLOWEEN!!!**********************