A Big Announcement

A few months and a lot of morning sickness later, we are very happy to announce that we are expecting a baby in May! I am officially halfway through the pregnancy at this point and am feeling really well. The first trimester was very rough, between the nausea and chasing after a toddler, but things have leveled off and am in the "good stage" right now.

We really wanted to incorporate Hayden into announcing the pregnancy to our families, so here are a couple videos we took spreading the news...

A Boy after his Momma's Heart...

Hayden's new hobby is cooking. Whenever Nick or I (well let's be honest...it's always Nick cooking) start to cook in the kitchen, here comes Hayden scooting his step stool up to the counter. Last weekend we decided to make some brownies for dessert, you can obviously see that Hayden enjoyed himself.

The Cutest Ogre in Town...

Hayden started getting the hang of things this Halloween. I'm not going to lie, it was a total wrestling match to get him into his costume, but when we did and he realized by wearing it he got candy, he was all about it. I mean come on, has Shrek ever looked so cute??

I also realized why parents can often times dread Halloween. I've never been one to be overly health conscious (at all), but this kid's candy intake this year has been rediculous. To the point of us having to hide the candy. The love of the candy is summed up by not one, but two pumpkins that he had to carry around at his school Halloween party.

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween and are gearing up for a great Thanksgiving!!!

Broken...

I think my camera is broken...well I think my 50mm lens is broken which makes me very sad :( It suffered a tragic fall in a Vegas bathroom and I've been trying to revive her ever since. I've been trying to use my kit lens, which sucks. It's just not the same. So we're making a trip to Best Buy to get the camera body checked out and see if it is an issue on that end...thank god for warranties. If it's not the body then maybe I'll just need a new lens, perhaps the 50mm 1.4? A girl can dream right?

He Speaks!

And by him I mean that little 6lb 13oz bundle of joy we brought home from the hospital...like yesterday. Or it feels like yesterday anyway. My little baby is turning into a little boy who TALKS! His words started out with momma, daddy, ball, matza and it quickly progressed to well everything. Seriously, I'm not even kidding you, say a word and the child will repeat it. It is the funniest thing in the whole world. Especially since he concentrates so hard (wrinkled brow and everything) to pronounce it correctly. This also means that Nick and I must start watching our language ASAP. Because we could potentially have a real problem on our hands here soon.

The best language story yet that I have happened a few days ago. Everyday when Hayden wakes up we give him his morning bottle (yes he's 19 months old and we give him a bottle in the morning - go ahead, judge). He was sitting on Nick's lap and I brought the bottle out to him. He reached out for it, gave me a big smile, and said "thank you." He said thank you! With no prompting! Oh my god my heart melted!

Here's a recent pic of Hayden waiting at the Dr.'s office. I die that he's getting so big....

I Suck at Juggling

When I was knee-deep in graduate school my professor told me that there was no such thing as balancing everything that you had going on in your life. She said to think of it as a juggling act instead. She said to think of all the different aspects of your life as balls and you constantly have to juggle them all at once and at some point balls will inevitably drop from time to time. Me, the naive grad student who was going to conquer the world in her sleep, thought pssshh yeah whatever, none of my balls are EVER going to drop. I've got this.

Umm yeah, maybe I could handle the whole grad school thing, but the whole juggling motherhood, a husband, a career, friends, family, advising a sorority, a household, and my health is a whole new ballgame. I SUCK at juggling all of this. This is a crazy busy time at work right now for both me and Nick. So it is very easy to become consumed in work and have some of it linger into the evening hours, which I hate. I honestly don't know when I cleaned my house last, Hayden's baby book isn't even started, and Nick and I figured out that at least one of us will be gone every evening for the next couple of weeks. Hayden probably thinks we are insane.

On top of all of this, I started a running program in the mornings this summer. Every other morning at 5:15am I go out and do Couch 2 5k. I am registering for a 5K for homecoming this year and I am going to complete it, I have to. The question is, did I wake up at all this week so far to run? That would be a big negative. I suck at life right now. So I WILL be running tonight when Nick gets home from his meetings. Not only does running help out with the lingering baby weight (if I can still claim it as that), but it is also a huge stress reliever for me. So it's a good thing, I just have to wake my lazy a** up in the morning to do it.

Vent over. In the end I know all of this is worth it. We are providing Hayden with a stable home, Nick and I both feel accomplished at work, and someday this will all pay off. But for now, I will keep on juggling and hope to not drop too many balls (at once anyway).

Aunt Elana's Here!

Exciting news! Nick's little sister, Elana, has made the move to Illinois and has begun school here at WIU. We are so happy to have her here with us in the Midwest. I know it isn't the easiest thing for Nick's parents, having their baby move away for school halfway across the country. But we promise she is in excellent hands with us here.

Hayden absolutely loooves his Aunt Elana. He took to her right away (which is huge because that is not usually the case these days with people), and kept her busy while she spent a week at our house before she was able to move into her residence hall. They spent time watching Shrek (Hayden's new favorite movie), taking off and putting on their shoes, and drawing on our sidewalk's with Hayden't new sidewalk chalk.

Last week we packed up all of her boxes and helped her with her big move into her residence hall. Hayden enjoyed the move primarily because he got to ride in the moving carts. He thought they were AWESOME!
And he had to test out the beds...I mean he wouldn't want Aunt Elana sleeping on a mattress that wasn't up to his standards.
We are just so happy for Elana to begin her experience at WIU. We hope that she finds all of the friends and comes upon all of the great experiences here that both Nick and I did. This is a huge time in her life and we are so happy to be a part of it! Welcome to WIU Elana!
We're so happy and excited for you! Aren't we Hayden??