Where does the time go?

I am just terrible about posting on this thing! I am not even sure what is motivating me tonight, but for some reason, the time seems right. We just got home from a retirement party for one of Jason's co-workers and I'm exhausted, but here goes.....

7 weeks to go! This little guy reminds me every day how anxious he is to get out and move around. He is quite the mover and shaker inside me. Somehow I have a feeling he is going to live up to his name we have decided to give him, which sounds athletic to me.....Colton Swift Wagner. Jason and I just liked Colton, and Swift for my brother, dad, and grandfather who all had that as a middle name. Jason and I finally decided last week that Colton was the name that would fit our soon-to-be-son, and we are just thrilled and relieved to have figured that out. Now if we could just hurry up these last 7 weeks, I'd be ecstatic!

Well, I hope the 7 weeks don't hurry up too much - my doctor told me I'm having too many Braxton-Hicks contractions and that she might put me on bedrest if they keep up. I know it's because I push myself all the time, and of course I'm chasing around 2 kids I already have! I find that I don't have BH contractions if I just relax and lay down, but how often do I have time to do that? I'm trying to pay attention to it though because I really don't want to (and really can't) go on bedrest. How the heck would I do that?

Mackenzie and Brandt are great! Kenzie just started 2nd grade and has Mrs. Williams this year, who informed us she also runs a middle eastern restaurant outside of teaching. Interesting combo.... Brandt is 18 months and running around like a crazy boy - you just can't slow him down. He's finally starting to say a few words and really mimic a lot of what we say - I can see his vocabulary is going to pick up here dramatically in the near future. We're about to celebrate Kenzie's 8th birthday in 2 weeks (can you believe it??), and she's having a slumber party. What fun! (Well, hopefully I'm saying that as I'm taking care of 6 8-year-olds all squealing and playing at all hours of the night while I'm 8 months pregnant!) I just love my kids so much and they are so much fun at their different ages....I'm just so anxious to see what our new little guy adds to the mix in a few weeks.

Jason and I just took a trip to Santa Barbara a couple weeks ago sans kiddos....so nice to get away. We rented a convertible and drove along the coast, went whale watching (only saw 1 from far away), explored the cute town, drove through the wine country nearby, and ate some good seafood. It was a great relaxing weekend, and a perfect retreat before I can't really travel anymore. No more plans for us until after the holidays, and then we talked about maybe going up to the mountains for our 3 year anniversary in January. We'll play it by ear...make sure our new little man is ready for us to take a weekend away.

Other than that....not a whole lot going on at this point. We have our house for sale in Denver to try to move down to Littleton. A little more space and a little more kid-friendly is our goal. We bought a minivan to accommodate 3 kids, and we're also in the process of hiring a new nanny. Our current nanny, Mary, who has been with us for a year and a half, is moving back to Illinois to be close to her family. So there are a few things changing around here, but we're rolling with the punches and just seeing what happens.

I can't commit I'll be posting again anytime soon! With a little one on the way, somehow I find it less likely I'll be posting more, but who knows. Maybe maternity leave will be inspirational for me to start blogging more. We'll see..... ;-)

April Fool's!

Mackenzie was hysterical yesterday - she totally loves April Fool's Day. She called me to tell me that she got in trouble for being really mean to a playmate, and I was believing her....and then of course she yelled, "April Fool's!!" Then she called Jason at work and said, "Where are you? You're supposed to be picking me up from soccer right now - it's over and I'm waiting for you." Jason freaked and picked up his stuff to bolt out the door, and she had him fooled as well. I got her too though....I said, "Hey, you need to start packing tonight." She said, "For what?" I said, "Disney World!" She got super-excited and asked, "When are we leaving??" I said, "In 2 days...you need to start getting your bag packed." She started jumping up and down and I said, "April Fool's!!" Oh I'm cruel. We really do leave in 37 days, so it's not like it was a trick where we really aren't going at all. That would have been awful! She's such a fun little girl....she's such a joy to have around.

So Brandt had his 1st birthday 2 weeks ago....I can't believe it's flown by so quickly. We had a monkey-themed birthday party for him, and he made a royal mess with his birthday cake. We had some friends over with babies, so they all played together, and it was so much fun. The best part of the day for me was that he took his first steps (to Aunt Erin), he started making kissing noises, and he also started really dancing (arms and shoulders going to town)....all on his 1st birthday!! It really was a great day - I just love my little boy so much. It's just amazing how fast that first year goes by.

So I guess we have another future 1st birthday party to look forward to in that I'm expecting our 3rd child! I know I've told everyone so this isn't a surprise, but this is the first time I'm blogging it. We found out on March 11th when I was 4 weeks pregnant. I'm now 7 weeks, and due November 18th, which is exactly a week before Thanksgiving this year. I'm starting to feel the effects of morning sickness a bit, but thankfully it does not seem as bad as the last time. I'm very tired, but that's to be expected. I'm just hoping that I start feeling better before Disney World, which will be my 12th/13th week, which is usually when I turn the corner on pregnant ickiness. I'm guessing I'll just barely be showing at that point. Last time I was 14 weeks there, and I actually had people that worked there notice I was pregnant, so I clearly was showing some. 12/13 weeks might be pushing it, but I'm sure I'll be out of my cute clothes by then. Not looking forward to another round of maternity clothes again, but at least this time it will be the nice Colorado summer to look forward to. I love the summers here! I think we'll find out in July if it is a boy or a girl. Yay!

Mackenzie had her talent show just last week, and oh my gosh was she awesome! She got up there and belted out Taylor Swift's "You Belong to Me" and I was just so proud of her. I'm just amazed at her confidence and style when she gets up on stage....a quality I have never possessed. We're looking into maybe an acting/drama camp this summer, as it seems to be something she really enjoys and might want to pursue. She's also signed up to play on a softball team this summer - her first time playing softball and I have to admit I'm excited. That was my sport and I just love that she wants to play it too.

Easter is this weekend and I found matching outfits for Brandt and Mackenzie. Yay! We're doing Easter Brunch at the Aquarium after church. I know it sounds a bit cheezy, but they have an Easter Egg Hunt and a complete buffet, plus you get to go through the whole aquarium, so I think it will be a fun family day. I only have Kenzie every other Easter, so I want to make it special when we have her. Plus it's a special day in itself to celebrate!

Signing off....think I might take a nap.....feeling exhausted. I can't wait to get past 1st trimester!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Day of Love!! We are so blessed with our family - we are so happy to celebrate all of our blessings today. J and I are going to a nice restaurant tonight, and since I know now that I'm not preggo this week, at least I'll be able to enjoy a little wine at our fancy dinner. Praying for next month!

B is now running around his little activity station - it's a very cool one because he can run around the outside of it versus putting him in the center and he can just turn around in one place. He's now going at top speed in circles, and he must love it because it gives him a feeling of walking/running. The best baby toy ever!! Check it out:

http://www.target.com/Bright-Starts-Tropical-Activity-Station/dp/B000LY3W00/ref=br_1_4?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&searchView=grid5&searchNodeID=15305371&node=15305371&searchRank=pmrank&searchPage=1&searchSize=30&id=Bright%20Starts%20Tropical%20Activity%20Station

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

"Hi!"

That is officially B's first word. He can't stop - he is waving and saying "Hi!" to everyone now, and I have to say it is the cutest thing I've ever seen. I just love how he's growing up and learning more and more each day. His top 2 teeth have broken through, so now he has such an adorable smile with his 2 bottom teeth well in and his top 2 showing through. His hair is getting long and is curly when he gets out of the bath, and I'm getting more and more comments that he looks like me with his blonde hair and blue eyes.

J's stepmom "Nennie" is with us this week and the kids are having a blast with her. We went to the museum last weekend and to a Super Bowl party, and this week we're enjoying her home cooking for us. She's going to stay with the little guy while we go out on Valentine's day to celebrate a date together. Hopefully we'll have some good news to celebrate by then! (hint, hint)

Welcome 2010!

Hi there! Me again....I know, it has been a while....

Let's see....updates - where to begin?

Well, little man has turned into a new little baby! He started crawling at 9 months old, but even then it was really just a bit of an army crawl, not a full-on "on all fours" crawll. Still, it allowed him to get around and to go straight to those electrical outlets! J and I went on vacation, and we came back to little man not only full-on crawling, but also pulling himself up on *everything*. Wow, it's like he discovered it and then he couldn't have enough of it! He used to be such a happy baby just content with sitting in your lap, and now he won't have anything to do with that. He wants to be up and about and into everything. It cracks me up how quickly they can change. He's 10 months old now, still eating a lot of jars of baby food and some finger foods, and he has 2 bottom teeth almost fully in and his top 2 have just broken through. He has started waving to you, although he doesn't completely associate it with "hello" or "goodbye", but he likes moving his hands in that way. It's funny because he does it like the queen of England does - it makes us all laugh. He also LOVES the bathtub. He splashes so much he soaks the floor. Later this week he is having a procedure to unblock his tear duct in his left eye that has been blocked since he was born. Thank goodness! We are so excited to finally have a baby without a crusty eye all the time. It sounds like a simple and relatively painless procedure, so we are thrilled it can be done now and prevent him from having to go under anesthesia later in childhood. Whew!

M is still as vibrant and entertaining as ever! She is doing much better in school - her reading has just taken off and she has had an amazing change in attitude about it. Thank goodness as it was obvious for quite some time that she wasn't confident and was getting frustrated. The one-on-one tutoring we put her in seems to have worked wonders, and she's really enjoying it. She is in gymnastics and dance (jazz) right now, and especially loves gymnastics. She has advanced to the intermediate level, and seems to be doing really well. You should check out her little 6-pack! Oh to have the body of a 7-year-old. Dance is good, but she's struggling a little with jazz as she has never taken it before. She's asking to switch to hip hop, so we'll see what we decide to do. She LOVES to dance in general and has incredible moves, but she hasn't found that exact class that she completely loves. She watches So You Th.ink You Can D.ance with us and requested to take "cha cha" which made us all laugh. She is such a funny girl. So confident and talkative....even our nanny says that there isn't a day that she's with her that she doesn't say something completely funny and unexpected. She's very mature for her age....I'm scared for when she's a teenager. I think we're going to have a handful.

J and I just got back from a vacation to the Mal.dives. Amazing! We were gone for 10 days and B and M stayed with a combination of our nanny, my sister, and my mom. I think it was good for them to stay with other people and get used to other folks besides their parents taking care of them. They seemed to do really well, except little man got a little sick with a cold while we were gone, but thank goodness that was it. It was so wonderful for J and I to be able to have some one-on-one time and celebrate our 2 year anniversary, which is actually today. We're going out to dinner tonight tonight - I can't believe it has been 2 years already. It has just flown by.

This past weekend I worked on plans for our Disn.ey W.orld trip in May. We are taking the kids and our nanny and my sister. What fun! I just switched our hotel to the Boar.dwalk. We were going to stay in the cool Tree.house V.illas that just opened, but I read they are really far from everything and take a ton of extra time to get to the parks. I think having a 1-year-old as well as the possibility that I might be preggo, we wanted to be very accessible to things so we could slip home for a nap if necessary. I've never stayed at the Board.walk, so that's something new and fun, with EP.COT right next door and tons of restaurants and entertainment right at hand. I always love looking forward to our next trip! :-)

I'm going to try to be better about posting on here from now on. Now that the holidays are over and our trip has passed, I feel much more relaxed and ready to tackle some projects around the house that I've been putting off, including pictures, photo books, and keeping up with my blog! Planning to post Mal.dives photos on our Kodak.gallery site very soon.

So behind!

It's been AGES since I've posted on here, so let's get caught up.

First of all, my excuse. I resigned from my job on the 23rd of October, and it has been nothing short of a whirlwind since then. I started a new company that is considered a competitor, so it's been over 2 weeks of phone calls, customer meetings, and overall chaos. It's a great move though and I'm very excited....I'm just anxious for all of the hysteria to be over, hopefully in a couple months.

Since I last posted, we had Halloween. What a fun day with the kids! We had M this year, so she was a 60's go-go girl and B was the cutest little monkey. It was hilarious because M didn't even know what a 60's go-go girl was, so she kept asking, "What am I again?" She didn't used to be interested in trick-or-treating too much (too cold, feet get tired, etc), but she's obviously growing up because she couldn't get enough this year. She went once with Aunt E and then went out again for round 2 after dinner! Hmm, I wonder where she gets her love of sugar from? Ha! We had a great day carving pumpkins and decorating, and the weather was awesome. Just the perfect amount of fall chill in the air, but not too cold. Funny since the week before was literally a blizzard in Denver with over a foot of snow! WOW! That was unusual to get that much snow in October, but it is Colorado, I guess.

M is done with soccer now, and has already decided she wants to play in the spring. She seems to really enjoy it! She was super-fast this year, and when she got her mind to it, she would take off and be a little lightning bolt down the field. She still needs some work on her dribbling to go along with that speed, but I have to see I am very impressed being this was her first time to play. I'm glad she likes it so much - it's good for her to be playing on a team sport. She wants to play softball come next summer, which I will personally love after all my years of playing.

I can't think of any other updates, but it's probably because I've been so focused on work lately. I'm anxious to get through that and get focused back on life again. :-)

Houston....we have a tooth!

Little man has been fussy and cranky all afternoon, and we were sooooo hoping that he was not coming down with what I've had. Then I thought about it, and checked it out....and sure enough, he has another tooth breaking through! Now he has 2 teeth on the bottom. He'll be biting his big sis in no time!