It's only been 5 months...

It's only been 5 months since I last wrote a blog post - I'm sure my loyal readers have been so sad!

I supposed I need to mention a big update - we're expecting a little boy (at least it appears to look like a boy!) at the end of May this year. I haven't taken a single bump picture - but don't worry, I plan to start this Friday at 24 weeks. I just compared myself to what I looked like with Roslynne at this point - I was much smaller then. I'm going to start standing backwards on the scale so I don't have to see the weight I'm gaining - because you KNOW I'll lose it after he's born, right? RIGHT? But really, I need to get this eating sh&* under control. I have a wedding to be in only two weeks after my due date - sorry Laura!

Besides THAT update, we've had Halloween, Thanksgiving AND Christmas since I last wrote. 

First, enjoy this random slide show G-Mail made of our year in review for 2013 (random photos from my phone, obviously I didn't choose that golf shoe to be in there!)

Christmas Eve at grandma and grandpa Russ'

We set up her play kitchen for her to see Christmas morning - can you tell she was excited?

My grandma, Becca (my brother's beautiful girlfriend) and my brother - Drew were home for Christmas this year!

My mom ("Nana Rucker")

This never happens, but Roslynne had my grandma read her a book!

Roslynne's favorite thing ever - coloring!

And this is from tonight - she got out all her hats and tried them ALL on. Why on earth do I have to chase her in the mornings to put it on then??

Speaking of hats, today daycare was closed because of weather which meant I needed to stay home with this crazy child. I think there might be a high of -5 tomorrow? I think I might have a touch of cabin fever (Johnny would say I have MUCH more than a "touch"). This winter has been never ending. I'm starting to have dreams of warm weather, grilling and beer and of course, going outside without having to put 10 layers on myself AND Roslynne.

Here's to wishful thinking and more blogging this year! 

Lately.

 

Damn. I've been meaning to blog all summer. Please excuse me! Once you read what we've been up to, I think you'll understand.

1. We moved.
In June this summer we made the move to a bigger house on a MUCH quieter street. I STILL haven't posted pictures of our new place, but will one day soon. There's a lot of painting I'm hoping to do this fall and I just don't want to post pictures of these white walls :)

2. We went on vacation.
Mid July we went to a resort (resort=cottage on the lake) in Moravia, Iowa for a week with Johnny's family. It was a week of boating, going to the indoor water park (Roz LOVED this), and eating homemade meals. I hope to post more about this soon - I wanted to do something with all the awesome Instagram pictures I took on my runs each morning.

3. Family Time
In addition to going on vacation, my brother and sister both visited (different weeks) after we were back.

4. Went to the pool!
Finally! A reason to spend a few hours at the pool - a baby! Roslynne loves the water, she would crawl into the water and just keep going even though it was getting deeper. Let's just say she's swallowed a lot of chlorine this summer.

5. Went to the playground.
There is a little park close to our house that we've gone to a few times. Roz doesn't seem to like the swings yet, but sure digs the slide!

 

 Those are only a few! One night, when I can stay awake past 9 pm - I'll write again!

 

 

 

Yowza!

Ya'll, it's been a while. Thanks for the push to make me blog tonight, Katie! I guess I better do this more often.

Since April just a few things have changed:

1. We're moving next weekend! Please keep me in your thoughts as you know how short my patience is, I'll be on my best behavior. I promise. Maybe. We're so excited to be a part of a neighborhood instead of along a busy street. The street we're moving to is the same street I grew up on, I have many fond memories of my best friend and I riding in circles on our bikes at the end of the dead-end street. Our garage is full of boxes and boxes of things we've packed already and the house still feels really full! Sign that we have too much, I suppose.

2. Our baby girl is almost an entire year old. It's possible I may cry at her party, in my mind she's already married with her own babies. She can now blow kisses, almost say puppy, stand for a few seconds without falling and can dance dance dance!

Here she is in her pink striped overalls from Grandma Russ!

Grandma Rucker may or may not get her a new outfit or accessory every time she's out. New Dora hat!

Photo shoot in grandma's back yard. "You guys, I found this leaf! Look! Are you listening? A LEAF!" That's what I imagine she's thinking.

Photo shoot at the cupcake place!

 

3. Went to a friend's wedding from college. Talk about flash back! I haven't been with that group of girls in 5 years! It was good to see those faces again and catch up AND fill up on the candy bar. Good choice, Jen!

Thank you for giving me a reason to buy a new dress!

 

4. Said good bye to my grandma, she passed away last week surprisingly. We're not sure exactly what happened, just that she fell a few stairs down to her basement and didn't recover from hip surgery. Here's a photo I happened to take of her and Roslynne over Mother's Day:







 She was such a classy lady, as you can tell by her cute outfit! I remember Easter egg hunts in her backyard with dimes in the eggs, lunches at Finley Hospital down the street (big spender grams!) and  sidewalk chalk in the driveway. Here's to you grandma!

Happenings.

Oops, I think the last time I wrote it was Valentine's Day!

Today is one of those days that it's a little too chilly to be outside and there's not much to do indoors - so, we're watching Monster's Ink. We're working on selling our house, so there's never any cleaning to do besides light picking up because we're constantly having to keep it picked up incase someone wanted to look at it (whoa, run on sentence). It's kind of funny how packed the weekdays seem and all I wish for is a day like today, and when a day of no plans happens - I get super bored. Sigh...

Anyways, this house thing. I sure hope we sell this soon or decide to just back out - there are so many projects we had planned for the current house that we'd rather not do if we're just moving anyways. So, cross your fingers we're able to move soon and I can add some new projects to the to-do list :)

Annnnd, now I give up writing - here are some recent pictures though!

The Life & Times of the Russ Family

I don't know. I couldn't think of a title.

Updates! Roslynne turned EIGHT MONTHS old two weeks ago. I don't know how many times I've said "I can't believe how the time has flown!" It quite honestly feels like yesterday I was waiting to get this little wiggly fish out, all the while what I actually did yesterday was reserve the venue for her birthday party! Yes, I realize it's only March and that her birthday is in July. Whatever. I'm excited. Yes, I'm going to be that mom that pins multiple ideas on her Pinterest page under the grouping "Birthday ideas!" But, don't worry - I make sure not to send all those updates to my Facebook page like some of those people in your friends list, you can thank me now.

Ok, so EIGHT MONTHS. This baby recently started dancing. No, really - dancing. She shimmies side to side when she gets excited and then back and forth singing and talking. Two itty bitty teeth have popped through on the bottom row of teeth - I'm fairly certain if she never got any more teeth I'd be ok with it, it's too freaking cute. She's started pulling herself up if you hold on to her hands, she constantly wants to stand in your lap or at least be sitting up - this is the very reason we haven't gone to church since she's started doing this, that and the fact that we don't want to get up and going that early on a Sunday. She continues to steal her father's heart, especially her grandpa Russ - pretty sweet seeing them together.

This picture captures our week day mornings. I go to the gym, come home and make her a bottle that Johnny gives her and then they proceed to watch Sponge Bob for approximately a half hour.

The goofballs I live with.

 

So, there you have it. My life obviously revolves around my little person and husband and I'm ok with that! Johnny, I'm publicly apologizing for calling you and yelling at you for not knowing how to turn on the vaporizer. Don't worry, I've since figured it out.

 

That's it.

 

Good night!

Such a sweet, sweet blessing.

You know what? Yes, I should be working on designing wedding invitations for a friend and/or work things. But you know what? I'm. Not. Going. To. Instead, I'd rather write a post about my little Valentine.

 

She is the best possible thing that ever ever could've happened to us - it's too much to think about how she even came to be. There's so much that has to go right to even get pregnant and today I feel extra special to have her in our life. Yes, she's stinky and pukes (usual baby things, right?) sometimes, but the happy moments far out-weigh those stinky diapers! She's already 7 1/2 months old and get her first teeth on the bottom! She wasn't ever really cranky when they were breaking through, although it seems like it's taking a long time for them to come in. Month 6 brought her first ear infection and 10 days of meds - she seemed to recover from it quickly and we're hoping that more aren't in her future.

Oh gosh, what have we been up to the last few months? Roz tried food for the first time around month 5 and wasn't really interested. We're still not very consistent in giving it to her and so daycare gives her a bit around lunch time, at least this way she'll get a try at it every day while she's there! We're so bad when it comes to feeding her solids, she just doesn't seem interested.

Roz likes to "help" read board books. I just bought her an Elmo Valentine book and Elmo has a fuzzy texture in it. She seemed to enjoy feeling the pages, especially Elmo!

Johnny got me a really good bottle of wine for Valentine's Day and I've had 2 glasses. I'm tired and falling asleep here! Signing off - g'night!

The sickness.

Oh man, it was a rough week in this household. The little lady was sent home Monday morning from daycare with a slight temp. Johnny stayed home with her that day and I stayed with her Tuesday because of the temp she still had (it only ever got to about 100.5) and to the doctor we went that day. They checked her over and basically couldn't find a thing wrong! Frustrated.

Wednesday she seemed back to our normal and so off to daycare she went. Wednesday night she woke up around 2 am screaming and nothing at all could console her. Bless him, Johnny got up with her and rocked her downstairs for a while until she fell asleep. Her temp seemed to stay up all day and luckily we were able to get her into the doctor that day, to find out she has an ear infection. Poor baby had been battling it for a few days by then! Just as she started to feel better I started getting a nasty cold and sinus infection. Sigh.... I just wish we could open the windows and air things out. Spring can't get here soon enough!

Here she is this morning playing in her seat while I blog and have some coffee (Dad is out getting new tires on his truck, yay!)

(I don't know how to rotate!)

 

We're headed to a baby shower later today and then back home to do some organizing! While we're at the shower, Johnny is planning to work on our new livingroom trim (post to come soon!) for the windows and floors. Last weekend we painted the livingroom and now I'm just waiting for the trim to be put up before I get things back on the wall. Built in shelves coming soon, too!

 

Recent pictures (ok, I guess I only have one! I swear I take pictures, but now that we have smartphones they're all on that! Note to self: download all phone pictures!):