Herr Family

A New Video!

2011-03-10T09:01:00.004-06:00

You wanted a new post - so here it is! ;)

You all helped us win our Bob Evans video contest to win a trip to Disney World! What you don't know is that we won by a HUUUUUGE amount - we had three times the votes that second place did! Isn't that crazy??!!

Ryan then decided to subscribe to a site that lists all the online video contests going on - which is where he found out about the Children's Advil Contest. We debated on whether or not to do it for weeks, because Ryan's schedule at work has been crazy busy and stressful lately. We finally decided to go for it after we thought up an awesome idea, and I had a good idea on what I wanted the costumes to look like. Our first day of shooting went HORRIBLY! We spent all day with Lucy & Bridget trying to get ONE good shot, but after about 6 hours, we still had nothing. They were not happy campers at all, and we were about to give up, but had already put so much work into it. We called Ryan's mom and had her come over, and like magic, the girls preformed perfectly for her, just because that's how grandparenting works. :) Your kids don't like you, but they will do anything for Grandma or Grandpa. And Aunts and Uncles too. :) We still needed a few more shots, so the next moring we had Uncle Jacob come over, which was amazing as well. They were 'fighting' him, which is where we got most of our fighting the germs shots from the video.

Then came Ryan's biggest contribution - actually making and editing the video. He worked on it for probably 50 hours or more, literally. We really should keep track of the timing for these things. He did the awesome germs animation, and I think it turned out so awesome!

Overall, our Bob Evans video and this Children's Advil video took about 80-100 hours a piece (maybe more?). But, now is the frustrating part - waiting and waiting and waiting to see who the winner is. We already know exactly where the money is going if we win (taxes, tithing, house). We could get rid of our PMI in the next 6 months if we win this video, so we're really hoping that we do.

The voting runs from March 9 through March 20, and you can vote here: http://bit.ly/flt6bz

The voting on this contest is nice, because it's not a month long, and you don't have to enter all your information, just your email address.

Thanks for all your help!

Help us win a Disney World vacation!

2010-12-02T23:19:00.003-06:00

Friends and fellow bloggers, we need your help!

Please vote to help our family win a Disney World vacation! We entered a funny video of our cute daughters in the Bob Evans Super Spud Sing Along contest. We're one of six finalists, and it's pretty simple now - whoever gets the most votes wins!

Our three daughters are the stars of the video. Lucy is only three years old but she learned the lyrics to the jingle and led the singing. Her little sisters Bridget and Anne joined her in performing and pretending to be immersed in a giant tub of mashed potatoes!

You can vote once per day through the whole month of December. Go to http://bit.ly/i3ZDy4 and on the left side of the screen, enter your email address and click the big red button.Unfortunately, the first time you'll have to fill out a registration form. Then click our video (Cute Sisters by Veronica Herr) and the Vote button underneath it. Thanks for your help!

PS - If you are concerned about filling out the registration form, I understand, but I read their privacy policy and it states that "Bob Evans.com does not sell, rent, or trade the information that you provide to us at this Web site." And they won't send you any email as long as you un-check the box labeled " I would like to sign up to receive exclusice monthly offers from bob Evans." Thanks!

Motivation

2010-08-14T20:19:00.004-05:00

So...it's been over 9 months since I last posted. It would seem like I dislike blogging, but in reality I probably read more blogs then anyone else. :) I'd like to post more....but I don't. But now I have more motivation to do so because Ryan's youngest sister just left for her first year in college (with a soccer scholarship - Go Vanessa!) and my sister just left after graduating college (and becoming a nurse - Go Regina!) to do a year of volunteering with Mercy Corps down in Savannah, Georgia. She recently started a blog here, and it's making me incredibly jealous of the gorgeous southern landscape! She will be gone for 12 months and will not be able to come back AT ALL, not even for holidays, which will be pretty depressing. :( But, if we get our finances together enough, then I hope to visit her beautiful land during the dreary Illinois winter.

I'd better go though so we can watch our Dave Ramsey (just recently we've been all about Dave and it's pretty exciting!) and get a few more things ready for Lucy's first day of preschool on Tuesday! ACK! Can you believe it? I didn't think I would be as emotional about it as I have been and it didn't even start yet! :) But, maybe that's just postpartum hormones still. :)

Postpartum time after my first natural birth....geez, that's another 10 posts in the making. Someday I'd like to write my birth story about Anne's birth, but I'm still emotionally trying to sort out all that happened. :-/

Hope to see you all soon!

Here we go again!

2009-10-14T19:54:00.003-05:00

We're pregnant!! Some people know already and some don't, so here is our 'official' announcement. :) I am 10 weeks along so far, and our EDD is May 12, just a few weeks before Bridget turns two. We're excited about the spacing - although 23 1/2 months apart may seem like close spacing to some families, when our first two were 14 months apart, this is nothing! :) Maybe...

The bad news is that I'm feeling like total garbage. I vomit at least once a day. Yesterday it was 7 times in about 20 hours. :( We had to end up going to the ER because I was becoming pretty dehydrated. Hopefully that will be the last trip for a while. We did get our first ultrasound there and as always, it was awesome! He/she was really moving their whole body for only being about an inch long. :) Some other 'good' news about our trip to the ER, was that I finally got a 'diagnosis' for being so sick. When I am pregnant, I have a condition referred to as hyperemesis-gravidarum. When Ryan or I try to explain to people (even friends or family) about how sick I get when I am pregnant, I just get a "Yeah, that will pass in a few weeks," or "Well, at least it's only in the mornings." It's extremely frustrating, because it is much worse then the stereotypical 'morning sickness.' I am nauseous from the moment I wake up until I fall asleep at night. Not to mention that so far I have vomited at any time ranging from 7am until 2am. It is far from 'only in the mornings.' Every day is a struggle to get through, and most days I am only able to get off the couch a few times, to make a quick and easy lunch for the girls and put them down for naps. I rarely see my friends anymore because I don't have the energy to get myself and two toddlers dressed, out the door, and onto an activity.

Anyways, I hope it doesn't seem like I am complaining (too much!), but I am just venting, because it's frustrating when people don't understand how you are feeling. I am very excited for this baby, and can't wait to meet him/her!

Thanks for listening to my long vent! :)

Random Updates

2009-07-10T14:42:00.003-05:00

I'm bad at blogging. I know. I'm so much better at reading other people's blogs and checking their updates. :) Also, until we get our new computer in the fall, it's a challenge on my little acer to upload pictures, which makes for boring words only blog posts. So, I thought it a good time to do a few quick updates.

-My internship is DONE! All my papers and projects are not, but I'm not thinking about those until next week. ;) But, at least I am finally home again with my babies! I have one two-hour course this fall semester and then I graduate in December! It seems so crazy that I will not have school anymore, because I hate being away from the girls, but I love my major and classes and am much more thankful for the education then I was when I began college many moons ago. :) Ryan will be planning a large party for me I hope. ;)

-Bridget turned one on June 3, and is even more adorable and amazing then she was then. She is talking a lot more and is basically a walker. She walks almost everywhere except after an occasional fall will start crawling again.

-Lucy is crazy and sassy. Every day she talks more and more, and I'm amazed at how much she learns and how fast she learns it! I think we're going to start with potty training next week, since I'm home now again.

-So far, this had been my favorite stage of parenting, because now that Bridget is a toddler as well, the girls play a lot more together. They love being rough with each other and wrestling with hugs and kisses. They seem to enjoy having each other a lot more now, despite the daily pushes and hitting. :) Besides giving birth, this is my favorite thing about being a parent - seeing how much my children love each other and enjoy the family God has given to us. I can't wait to add more babies to this joy!

-Ryan has found a new love - grilling! We got a new awesome grill for Bridget's birthday party, and although that day of grilling wasn't so great, since then Ryan has been grilling lunch or dinner for us multiple times a week and is AWESOME! Food fresh from the grill is one of my favorite meals and having a cute hubby who enjoys making up new recipes for it is a dream come true. :)

-We had our three year anniversary this week. Three years. Wow, has it gone fast. I am so blessed and I need to remind myself of that more. I can't say much else besides that. :)

That's it for now. Hope to see all you Newman Alum at our party (look on facebook) and everyone else I want to see at the Sprinkler Park or something soon. :)

I love Danielle Bean!

2009-04-20T09:46:00.003-05:00

"Sarah Palin's Pro-Life Hesitation"

This article by Danielle Bean is awesome! I understand where Sarah Palin's 'hesitation' for a moment comes from. We all have that thought of 'Was getting pregnant a good decision for our family?,' or "Will I be able to handle everything physically and emotionally that a new child brings?' I had these thoughts especially when we were pregnant with Bridget and we realized how closely spaced our children would be. But, just because Sarah Palin or I had 1 second thoughts about wishing something didn't happen or that we could rewind time, doesn't ever mean we would actually have an abortion.

But, actually,what I like best about this article is how it made me realize that even though we consider ourselves to be very pro-life, we need to be doing more...MUCH MORE. We need to have a completely different mindset in offering anything and everything we can to pregnant women or new/young/struggling mothers and fathers. I hope to strive to learn and get involved in more through my internship this summer, which is through Healthy Start, a program through The Children's Foundation in Bloomington, who mostly do home visits to pregnant or new mothers with young children.

My favorite line Danielle says is "In the evil of abortion, we should hear God’s call for us to meet women’s needs with such with such crazy, over-the-top magnanimity that the temptation to abort becomes no temptation at all." Awesome!

New blog: Summa 3 Reading Group

2009-04-12T08:11:00.002-05:00

Alleluia, He is risen! On this Easter Sunday, I want to invite you to another Herr blog, the "Summa 3 Reading Group":

http://summa3readinggroup.blogspot.com/

Here is some more info:

What is the group reading? Articles by St. Thomas Aquinas about Christ, from part 3 of his Summa Theologiae.

Do I have to buy a book? Nope. Every Sunday, I'll post another reading onto the blog. (The entire Summa is available for free on the Internet.)

What's the commitment? None required, it's really flexible. If you want to participate, do so when you're able, to the extent you're able.

How do I participate? You don't have to sign up for anything.
1. Go to the blog to read the weekly articles
2. (Optional) Ask questions and discuss. (Click on "comments" underneath the article.)

Who is welcome? Anybody. I'm iniviting the Third Friday Group from Epiphany and some alumni of the St. Robert Bellarmine Newman Center. If you know someone else who may be interested in this sort of thing, feel free to send them the link.

The Summa seems intimidating. Am I prepared to read it and qualified to discuss it? Personally, I'm neither prepared nor qualified, but anything worth doing is worth doing badly.

Any other questions? Feel free to ask. Thanks, and happy Easter!

-Ryan.

Notre Dame

2009-03-25T21:07:00.002-05:00

This is my favorite article so far about the Notre Dame/Obama scandal. He explains so simply but effectively what Catholics are thinking when we say we do not want Obama to speak at ND's commencement. But, my favorite line of it is right at the end:
"It’s time for Catholics and Catholic organizations to decide if they are truly Catholic or not. Either you believe in Church teaching or not." So simple and to the point. Awesome.
'Is Notre Dame Not Ashamed?"

In case you haven't noticed.....

2009-03-02T22:43:00.004-06:00

....we have extremely gorgeous children! This past Saturday we had a photo shoot with a photographer, Summer Knoblach. I had some other friends who had pics from Summer, and immediately I loved her and knew she had to have a shoot with my family. So, after saving for a few months, I booked her! I knew they would be good pictures, but the sneak peeks we saw on her blog were so much better then I could have imagined! We can't wait to see the rest and to FINALLY hang some pictures on our walls!

Small Successes

2009-02-26T10:01:00.002-06:00

I love the Faith & Family Live Blog, and I love all the mothers who contribute to it. Most especially I love Danielle Bean and the way she encourages everyone by admitting her faults and also by knowing how to give a good 'pick-me-up.' One of her new weekly posts is called "Small Successes," and I was so inspired I wanted to share it with my family and friends. So post some of yours in the comments, either from today, this week, this month, whatever - And be proud of them! Here are mine:
1- Both of the girls and myself were all dressed and fed before 10am and we don't even have anywhere to
go today!
2-The clean diapers are dry and put away, not just sitting in the dryer today.
3-Yesterday we finally decided what carpet to buy, and where to buy it from (we've been sitting on making
the decision for too long now, and our goal is to have it done by Lucy's family birthday party which is just
over three weeks away).

I wish....

2009-02-19T08:17:00.005-06:00

I wish that my daughters (and sons) will be as strong in 10 years as this girl.
I wish that I would be as strong and courageous as this girl.

I wish that I was good at making dinners and keeping the house cleaner.
I wish I was a more patient wife and mother.
I wish I liked road trips.
I wish I liked being pregnant.
I wish I was done with school.
I wish that I have a boy for our next child.
I wish our basement would finish itself (as well as our library, master bath, main floor bath, and family room).
I wish I could go to the bathroom throughout the day without a child in there with me. :)

But, what makes me feel not so depressed about all these wishes, is what I have on my feet. :) I used to wish that I had Ugg moccasins that I have been dreaming about forever....and my lovely hubby got those for me for Valentine's Day. :-D Thank you wonderful hubby! My feet have never been happier!

BABY!

2009-02-17T20:03:00.003-06:00

Congratulations to one of my best friends, Lauren (and Drake) who just had baby Thomas Steed around 3:30am this morning! She was 34 weeks yesterday (her due date was March 30 - the same as Lucy's due date!), so he will be in the NICU for about a week or so. But for being a 34 week baby he was almost 6 pounds, and has no medical issues at all. I can't wait to see him, hopefully it will be sometime this week or next.
Whoo Hoo!
Sagel's are next......

Outtakes

2009-02-10T08:09:00.003-06:00

First thing Bridget does - try to eat the paint. :)

Lucy wanted to paint her own belly instead of her sister's.

Last week we were playing at Lily & Ella's house, and our new friends, Dalton, & Calem were there too. Being the fun and creative mom's that Katie & Tara are, they wanted to do some pictures of the kids to make some Valentine cards. And since Lucy, B,and I were there, we reaped the benefits of their creativity and Tara's awesome photography skills. :) So after a morning of naked toddlers, lots of red paint, and loads of fun, some awesome pictures came out of it. Be looking for your Valentine coming in the mail this week. Until then, here are some of our outtakes. :) Thanks again ladies!

Christmas 2008

2008-12-30T20:39:00.006-06:00

Lucy wouldn't sit with Santa for the Funk (Ryan's mom's side) Family Christmas, but she tolerated him enough to get a candy cane from the big guy.

enjoying her new table and chair set

the only time Bridget actually opened a gift instead of eating it :)

having fun with Grandpa Bill

beginning her 'big girl' lifestyle!

I'm too lazy right now to think of a fun title for this post, so oh well. :) Overall we had a wonderful Christmas, mostly because we did not have to travel anywhere outside of Bloomington. Since our new house has more space then my mom's house, she, my sister, my brother, and a close family friend, Sue and her son Tim came over to our house for christmas. This is the first year ever where we have had a fireplace to hang and open the stockings by. The rest of the morning was spent opening the many many presents that Grandma Sophie and Aunt Gigi (Regina) had brought. Both of them love to spoil the girls, and lucky for Lucy Aunt Gigi bought her the interactive Elmo toy that I told them not to spend the money on. But, Lucy loved it, so oh well. :) Grandma Sophie also got the girls a child size gorgeous table and chairs, much like the one my siblings and I had when we were young. Besides those bigger items, Lucy's favorite gifts were an Elmo shirt from Uncle Mike and Aunt Jackie, an Elmo phone from Grandpa and Grandma Herr, and an Elmo 'boom box' from Grandpa Bill and Grandma Nancy. Can you see the trend here?

Mommy and Daddy's favorite 'present' was that Grandma Sophie helped/forced us to finally finish the girls room (which is just Lucy's for now) and the nursery (currently Bridget's). Finishing those two rooms makes the entire house feel so much more like home! Speaking of Lucy's room, yesterday we started Lucy in her 'big girl bed,' a twin bed and boxspring on the floor with cute pink bedrails. She went down fine in it for her nap yesterday, but then 10 minutes later got up and was walking around. So, I reverted back to the paci after deciding that I would rather have her not get out of her twin bed while having a paci, then having to lay next to her to have her fall asleep everytime she needed to go to bed (which is what happened at that nap yesterday). And with the paci in her new bed, she has been doing remarkably better then we expected. :)

Besides sleeping, we've been having a rough time with Lucy lately. For about the last two weeks, since before Christmas, every few days she has had some horrible screaming, crying, yelling, uncontrollable fits brought on by nothing and ending with nothing (just her finally letting me hold her and 'giving in'). When she has them nothing will stop her - we've tried giving her the paci, giving her really any kind of cookie or treat that we have, letting her watch Elmo...everything. But, we don't want to call them 'tantrums' - they are not because she is being forcefully stubborn or mad at not getting something she wants. It just seems like somehow she isn't able to control her emotions for that 45 minutes to 2 hours. Has anyone gone through this or have any ideas?

oh, and more pics to come on facebook sometime in the near future!

NK 37

2008-11-23T20:25:00.006-06:00

I've been meaning to write about NK for a while, and while I've got one minute, I'm going to quickly. It ended up being a wonderful weekend for all involved, and I got more out of it then I was expecting to (but I shouldn't have doubted it!). The talks were all really good, Agape (which was 'construction site' was honestly one of the best I've ever seen!!! But, I still can't find any pictures of it!) was so much fun, and CC was completely amazing. My good friend, Lauren LaCoy, was CC and it was as moving to me as my first, on NK27, 10 retreats ago. One of my favorite parts of it was Charlie (junior at Newman), who is not a small guy) crying the second it started until hours after it was done-more then any of the girls. :)

And, I know many of you 'older' Newman people have seen these pictures from Molly's blog (oh, and Molly-thanks for letting me use these pics without asking you ;)), I wanted to put them on here anyways for the rest of you to see. Reunion was such a blast, and Simon, Maria, and Lucy were definitely the highlight of the evening for all(and of course Charlie, Cecilia, and Bridget too, they just couldnt dance as well as the older ones!)! They all looked so stinking adorable, I can't wait till we can all get together again! I was craving Lucy all weekend, but after only one hug for me she wanted to be on the dance floor with all the action or in other people's arms. She espiecially liked Elizabeth and Susie that night. She insisted that Susie hold her, and Susie, being the super mom that she is held both Maria and Lucy, until I went over and Maria happily let me hold her; so we ended up switching girls, as the pictures show. Enjoy!

spring semester & "Roomie"

2008-11-23T09:02:00.003-06:00

I've been quite busy this semester between everything going on in our lives, and been a bit overwhelmed by it. I am only taking three classes currently, but one of them has been the toughest I have hit in college yet. It has been the one class since I've been a "non-traditional student" where I am sure I am not getting an A. I would be very happy to receive a B. This professor just keeps grading lower and lower every assignment. Granted, I have learned a lot in this "Advanced Child Development" class, but it's just not as easy as I thought it would be (and I have two young children to pull experiences from, and I'm still not living up to her expectations!). Next year, I was planning on taking my last 5 classes, and then doing my internship and graduating in the summer, while getting many more hours of babysitting for the girls (hopefully some from Patrick, whom I will refer to later). But, now I am thinking that I just won't be able to enjoy our family and will be a overly grumpy wife and mother which won't be good for anyone. And, from a talk put on last week to some of my friends and I, Father Dittmer really stressed the importance of taking care of ourselves as wives and mothers first, because, like I said, we won't be able to live our vocation out to the holiest, or push our families' to be holy, if we can't deal with our own emotions. But, not taking a full load next semester means that I would push my graduation back (again!) to december of 2009, which is another depressing thought. ugh....
In other news, the girls now have a new 'roomie' living in the fourth bedroom upstairs! No, not a dog, Battey's (thank goodness! we will never be a dog family!), but a friend from Newman, Patrick Wood. Some major roommate issues forced him to be pushed out of his apartment and was homeless for a few weeks before we even found out. It was when people were asking him after K-Mass one night where he would stay for the night that I realized what was going on. And, since we didn't buy our home for our current family, but for our (hopefully) larger future family, we actually have two open bedrooms (as Bridget hasn't moved out of our room yet, nor have we tried to move Lucy to her 'big girl bed' yet). So, a few weeks ago, Patrick and his crew moved all his stuff in. He is actually only a few months younger then Ryan, because he was in some kind of service ( I forget which one) and went to Iraq for a few years, and is now returning to school. I got to know him more this semester because he was on my NK team as the Mary speaker. When we were growing up my mom let multiple people in need of a home live with us for different amounts of time, and now I can really respect her for all that she did for them. And, her house is maybe half as big as our house right now.
Also, something you might not expect from the most eligible newman bachelor (I think he is literally one of a few men there who isnt dating, engaged, or in the seminary), is that he is head over heels for Lucy and Bridget. Before he moved in, he honestly held Bridget more then all the other newman girls put together. And our (big) little B just adores him right back. Lucy goes in spurts of liking Patrick, but she does that with us too. :)
Anyways, just keep us in your prayers, as these last few weeks of the semester are really hectic, and still living out of boxes makes it even more stressful (although I'm hoping to get a lot done this week with break! whoo hoo!).

Mom Expo

2008-11-14T20:54:00.002-06:00

We have been plenty busy with the move, so we haven't written in a while. Almost everything is painted and the basement refinishing will begin on monday!! I can't wait to post before and after pictures!! It's been pretty stressful, but tomorrow afternoon I'm taking a break-I've been looking forward to the annual MamaPrenuer Bazaar at the new hotel by Target (if you're in Bl-Normal). It has all my favorite local mom businesses, such as Pinstripes & Polkadots, Summer Knoblach Photography (we're saving up for her to take some family pics in a few months!), and The Sling Connection. I'm really excited to have all my favorite places in one spot!...Plus, I'm hoping to win lots of prizes (since we are pretty good at that)!

Life

2008-10-20T08:08:00.003-05:00

We got the keys to our new house! We don't own it yet, as the closing was AGAIN pushed back from last Friday to sometime this week. :-/ But, I just told them that we could not wait any longer to get in there and start working, since there is a lot to be done. Especially because of NK next weekend, my time is extremely low. So, we did get early possession of the house and started working Friday night until last night, and will be back there every day this week. There isn't a ton of work for us to do, but plenty still. We literally have to paint every room of the house. Then, a lot of little fix-it projects and our big basement project are being done by a family friend.

We did finish the green in the kitchen/family room (the color similar to the Bailey's main floor- I just LOVED it there!), and started a gray-blue color in the front living room. Both colors look amazing and are exactly what we wanted! It feels so wonderful to finally have a home that is OUR OWN that we can paint and do what we want too....I'm so sick of white walls from our rental homes. We're not even living in the house yet, but I can give you 100 reasons why it is so much better then where we are now. It's just a really beautiful house. :)

Although fixing up and moving into a new home is very exciting, but also extremely stressful. And, since I'm trying to be a wife and mother of two, a student, a NK lay director, AND move into a new house, that complicates things even more. But, I read a lot of Danielle Bean and Faith & Family Live to get good suggesstions and an occasional laugh or two from their children. :) Today, I found a post by one of the mom bloggers-Arwen, and just really found it awesome for Catholic moms, espiecially this line:
"I firmly believe that God blesses us with His grace as we work to live out our vocations. Motherhood, especially with young children, leaves little time for extensive contemplation - but if we seek to love and serve God while we love and serve our children, He will fill our hearts with Himself just as much as He does for contemplative nuns who spend whole days at a time in the chapel." It is just what I needed when I get down on myself and feel guilty about not accomplishing the daily prayer that I was so 'good' at accomplishing even a few weeks ago.

Guest post by Ryan

2008-09-29T20:22:00.005-05:00

Just a few of Lucy's favorite words:

3 syllables:
Cheerios
Ariel

2 syllables:
Jesus
Baby
Pizza
Elmo
Headband
Uh-oh
Daa-aad

1 syllable:
More
Shoes
No
Truck
Poop
WALK
Various zoological onomatopoeia

Updates

2008-09-23T14:14:00.002-05:00

No, we have not closed on our new house yet. :( The closing date has been set and moved three times already! It is supposed to be by the end of the month (which is only a week away!), and if it's not, I'm going to be really mad at someone. I've been trying to be patient with everyone involved, but honestly, this is ridiculous! The closing date doesn't just affect us, it affects the people we're currently renting from, our parents/others who are going to help us pack/move, my mom who will be coming down to help with everything, the family friend who is doing a lot of work at the new house, and NK37 (pray that we end up actually moving more then a week or two before the retreat!!). I will be contacting the seller's lawyer, bank, and realtor myself either today or tomorrow so they can understand how frustrated we are instead of our nice, calm realtor and bank.

In other news, Lucy just turned 18 months last Sunday and Bridget is well on her way to 4 months!! I can't believe how fast they are growing, but it is so fun to see! They are now interacting a lot more with Bridget actually 'talking' and laughing back when Lucy plays with her, and Lucy loves to try and hold bridget too! Their halloween costumes are insanely amazingly adorable, and we need to get together with all of you so we can show all the chillens off! :-D We also finally have gotten Bridget into cloth diapers a few weeks ago, and it is wonderful! They are now in the same size BumGenius rise (size) of medium, which is a little crazy. Soon enough they will be wearing the same size clothes, as Bridget is 3 months, and wearing 6 month clothes which really aren't big on her at all! We also switched to cloth wipes, which honestly, if youre doing cloth diapering is SO much easier then trying to do disposable wipes with cloth diapers! I highly reccomend it! I did buy some cotton babies/BumGenius wipes, but mostly we just use baby washcloths as they are cheaper and work exactly the same.

Well, I've got class in a bit, so I need to go, but I'm going to put up a facebook album of pictures sometime today, so check there for those!

CatholicVote.com

2008-09-14T15:58:00.002-05:00

I saw this video on Danielle Bean's Blog, and really enjoyed it. It's a bit lengthy, but gets the message across. On a side note, our Epiphany Elizabeth Ministry is thinking about coordinating with the other Catholic churches in Bloomington-Normal to get her to come do a mother's retreat day late this year or early 2009!! Whoo Hoo!

But, since that is still in the planning stages, we are heading out to Champaign in November to see www.smartmartha.com talk. :-D You should come!

PS-I don't care Raul

2008-08-27T22:03:00.002-05:00

Raul recently informed me that I had too much pink on our site. Well, my friend, we have two little girls - pink is our life right now whether we like it or not. And, I happen to like the stylish pink and black stripes. Oh Uncle Papi.....We miss you being in Bloomington.

Our new house (hopefully)!

2008-08-27T21:39:00.003-05:00

Limerick Lane

front living room

dining room

back family room

Yes, it's been a while since the last post. Summer is gone and school has begun for me. I am taking three classes, doing some practicum hours for my major, leading the fall Koinonia retreat, moving within the next month, and all while trying to be a good wife and mother (although those are the two that I feel like I am lacking the most in right now). Ryan recently got a new job and transferred from Country Companies (the second biggest insurance headquarters in town) to State Farm ( the biggest insurance headquarters in town). The girls and I have highly benefitted from his significant pay raise, his day being shortened by 15 minutes (which doesnt seem like a lot, but is when you are dealing with the crankiest part of the day for a young toddler!), and our completely free membership to State Farm Park. It is many acres of sports fields, parks, meeting areas, and best of all a HUGE waterpark made up of 4 different pools and a sprinkler area. It is awesome!

Our house has been the biggest worry right now. We found an amazing, large house in an awesome neighborhood just a few minutes away from Epiphany. At first, it was out of our price range, but then about a month ago or so, our realator got some 'inside scoop,' and found out that the owners were in a pretty bad financial spot right now, and just really needed to sell the house at any price they could. So, we moved in for the kill, offered them less then the house was listed, and they accepted! But, the issue now is that this is what is called a 'short sale.' At first I thought that meant things would be moving fast, but I quickly realized that it meant quite the opposite. A short sale is actually a longer process then a 'normal' sale, because what we offered for the house is less then what the owners owe the bank on it. Bad for that bank, but good for us. So, it just takes a lot more paperwork and a lot more time for the bank to mull over whether or not they want to accept losing money on the house. But, the good news is, that our realtor just called me this morning and let us know that we have a tentative closing date of September 15! So, I'm trying not to get TOO excited because until the closing is actually over, there is still a chance that something crazy might happen and we wont get the house. But, everyone involved seems to be very confident.

The house is wonderful and everything we have been looking for: 4 bedrooms all on the upper level, open floor plan where the kitchen is open to the family room, larger front living room area, full basement, laundry on main floor near the kitchen and family rooms, 2 car attached garage. It also has some extremely nice 'extras' that we werent looking for at all but will be quite wonderful to have: very large master bedroom with walk-in closet, garden tub in the master bath (one of the things I am most excited about!!!), extra office area in the basement, nice sized deck and backyard. The pictures are from the houses' website, and although they are nice looking, I dont really think they do justice for the space. The pictures definitely make the rooms look smaller then they are. Plus, its a very open floor plan like I said, which makes everything feel bigger.

We cant wait to have everyone over!

House Hunting (and more weddings!)

2008-07-29T15:21:00.009-05:00

Well, we are pretty sure we've found 'THE house.' The asking price is fair for the house itself, but apparently, its one of the highest priced houses in the subdivision, which i guess, is a bad thing. So, we're trying to learn more about that through friends, family, and our buyer's agent (who is just helping us as a family friend with this FSBO house that we love so much), whom we lovingly call DP. He has been wonderful, but he is quite the character with his designer shoes, pink polos, and the best smelling man's cologne I have ever smelled.

Anyways, house hunting is exciting and fun, but at this point we're becoming impatient for this house and frustrated that it's overpriced for the neighborhood. We're praying that we can help the sellers realize this, and that they will come down a little. As DP always says: "You don't make money when you sell a house, you make money when you buy a house. " - meaning, don't overpay for your house, otherwise you'll be screwed when you try and sell it.

In other news, we attended our last Newman wedding of the summer, Andrew Lawrence and Kate Markowski. The food was excellent, and as always, Lucy was a hit, espicially being the only toddler there. She danced the night away with the newman girls.

She also really enjoyed dancing with David

Because she was the smallest person on the dance floor (and because of Mommy not being fast enough to catch her), she got knocked over a few times. Once by a whack to the head by the photographers camera, and once by running into Jack. He felt pretty horrible even though it was in no way his fault. But he then felt much better as Lucy became tired not long after that incident, and fell asleep in his arms while dancing.

Ryan and I were also able to enjoy the night with the help of Karen for Bridget. She didn't mind holding Bridget for an extended time partly due to the fact that it gave her an excuse not to dance with Jeremy, her crazy dancing new husband. :)

Beyonce, Elmo, & Lucy Gianna

2008-07-11T21:23:00.003-05:00

This is Lucy's new obsession. Ryan introduced it to her one day when they were watching their daily dose of YouTube. Now, we can't get her to stop watching it. 5, 6, 7 times in a row and she still wants more. If we make her stop, she will run to our bedroom door and yell and cry for a while........At least it's catchy. :)

Steed Wedding

2008-07-05T21:11:00.010-05:00

Lucy with her new best friend

Lauren dancing with Lucy

Lucy loving the band

Amy and Bridget

enjoying the attention

Last weekend we were up north in the suburbs for Our dear friends Lauren and Drake's wedding. Lauren looking stunning with a gorgeous dress and long dark locks. The mass was of course wonderful with a beautiful choir and a great homily by Father Dittmer. Ryan and I were supposed to be in the bridal party, standing up together, but when we found out that we were pregnant with Bridget in the fall, we all decided it would be best for us not to be a formal part of the wedding. But, I will admit that it was pretty difficult for me not to be recognized as a bridesmaid for my best friends' wedding. Yet, I was recognized as momma to the two most beautiful little girls there. Lucy was even cuter then the flower girl.

Our favorite part of the celebration was the band at the reception. When not going crazy on the dance floor, Lucy espiecially liked one of the lead singers, a middle aged woman with a very sparkly sequined blue top. Once, between songs, Lucy even walked up to her with arms open wide, wanting to be picked up and held. Now, Lucy likes people, but does not really like to be held by anyone - she more prefers to do her own thing. So, this was quite a surprise to us. Luckily, the woman liked Lucy just as much as was delighted to hold her.

As a side note, I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting today since I was pregnant with Bridget. And I was extremely surprised to find out that I've lost over 20 pounds since B has been born!!! I am only 6 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy #2 weight! YES!!! My goal weight is still much more then 6 pounds, but it means i'm that much closer! What great news!

PS-We were busy making sure our girls werent screaming their heads off at the wedding, so these picstures are actually stolen from a few friends. :) thanks!

To cloth or not to cloth?

2008-07-03T15:13:00.003-05:00

Thanks to my regular reading of Bonnie & Katie's blogs, we have decided to try cloth diapering. Now, this is dependent on the fact that trying them out goes as good as we're hoping. I am waiting to set an appointment with a woman who has a showroom to show all the different kinds of diapers and what works best for each family.

Thanks to being excited and staying up way too late last night, I've decided that we're definitely going to do an All in One Diaper, which seems to be the most convinient next to disposable diapers. Out of the AIO's, I think the ones I am most interested in are the Mommy's touch AIO's, and the Swaddlebee's AIO's.

For now at least, we are just going to use them on Lucy, for a few reasons. One, I don't really know if we're ready to do cloth diapering on Bridget's newborn poop. And two, when Bridget was born, our families were so generous with buying us diapers, that we literally have enough for her for the next 4-5 months I think, and I don't want to waste those. And, three, Lucy goes through a lot less diapers a day then Bridget does, therefore we wouldn't have to buy as many diapers.

I have finally been convinced to try cloth diapering because I don't like that there's always nasty gel from the disposable diapers on the girls' bottoms. Also, having two children in diapers has made us realize how much garbage we're creating. We need to be better about recycling and such anyways, but this is one way that we can help. So, even having just one in cloth will drastically cut down on our diaper waste. Having two in diapers (and just plain having two children in general) has made us look at our finances more as well. We are planning on buying a home in 2008, so saving even more money for the down payment, and for all the purchases that come with buying a new home (like FINALLY getting some nice, new couches and a kitchen and dining room table! :-D YAY! I cant wait!), has made us find ways to cut down in other areas. And even though there is a big investment at first with cloth diapers, even Ryan agreed that it would pay off soon enough with Bridget growing up so quick, and for all our future children as well. The biggest challenge for me I think will be to make sure that there are clean diapers avaliable for use, and hopefully this will help me keep up on other laundry as well.

Anyways, we are just really excited to try this out for our family and to see if the AIO cloth diapers actually are as convenient and easy as they seem!

2 more weeks!!!

2008-05-20T13:44:00.000-05:00

Well, Ryan has convinced me to update our blog, since the last post says that we may be having a boy. It is a girl, she does have a name, and we love it! It's just a secret name so there is some surprise for all of you. Just Ryan, me, and Lucy know it. :)

I had an appointment this morning with Dr. Svientek, and I'm still 3 cm dilated. I know that's pretty good for 36 weeks, but since I was 3 cm last week, I was hoping for a change. It's sad when your high for the week is your internal cervical exam with your OB. :) Any mom sho's been pregnant would understand. Also, when I was talking to Dr. Svientek about possibly inducing june 11, the day before the due date, she mentioned that she would be out of town from June 4 through June 11. I don't remember her telling me this before, but it's the same situation that we were in with Lucy. And, we are looking at the same solution. We are 99% that we are going to induce 9 days early (the exact same as Lucy) on Tuesday June 3, which is two weeks from today. We have to let her know by next Tuesday, at our next appointment. We also have an ultrasound then, because at our last ultrasound, the baby was in the 95th percentile! So, around 37 weeks they like to do one last ultrasound with larger babies, just to be sure she's not like 10.5 pounds or something. That was pretty crazy to us, since we're used to hauling around our 3rd percentile Lucy (as in 03%, not 33% :) ).

We're pretty happy with the decision to induce again, since we had such a wonderful experience with inducing Lucy. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is hearing from a few certain people how inducing is not "the best choice," and how I could make a better decision. I've done it before, I don't have any of the risk factors, Lucy turned out great, I turned out great, and I hate hearing how it's such a bad idea (espiecially from men, who have NO IDEA what it is like to be 38 weeks pregnant and miserable!....okay, thats my vent for now). So, just say an extra prayer for me that when I am dealing with these few people and their comments that I can be patient, calm, and loving with them. :)

And, it's looking like I won't be tandem nursing. :( I really was looking forward to it for a lot of reasons, but I just can't handle any more of Lucy's biting. The whole time I nurse her, I am just wincing and waiting for her to bite. That's not how I want breastfeeding to be. She hasnt nursed in about 48 hours, so we shall just see if that's the end or what. I'm sad though, because I went this far in the pregnancy nursing, and I at least wanted to try tandem. Oh well.

Anyways, for today, I'm trying to stop thinking about how long two weeks away seems, and starting to think about how good the Idol finale will be tonight and how fun our Idol results party will be tomorrow night. Oh David Archuleta......you are so wonderful! :)

Baby Boy Herr?

2007-11-13T20:34:00.000-06:00

We had our second regular appointment yesterday at Dr. Svientek's office. A few weeks ago, on Halloween, we had an ultrasound, just to make sure the baby was on target where we thought he/she was. The due date was moved to June 12, so only one day difference. Yesterday was our monthly appointment with the Doctor. As always, they were excited to see Lucy, and luckily, she was pretty calm for most of the time. Number 2 gave me quite a scare though. This was the first time we were going to hear the heartbeat, but when Dr. Svientek used her heartbeat finder machine (I totally forget the name of it!), it took an awful long time. Being previously pregnant, I knew that sometimes it might take a few minutes to find the baby, but after 4-5 minutes our doctor exclamed "It must be a boy, since he's making me chase him!" followed by laughter and a quick "Just kidding, I have no idea really!" But, of course we're hoping for a boy, even though another girl for Lucy would be fabulous! But, that's just another reason I love our doctor, and if any of you ever have babies in Bloomington, I will force you to go to her!

Anyways, after those comments, and an even longer 3-4 minutes more she gave me two options: 1-get an ultrasound now just to make sure everything is great, or 2-make an appointment for two weeks until the baby is a little bigger and try the heartbeat again. I made the obvious choice.......there was no way we were waiting two weeks to make sure our baby had a heartbeat. Every second of every day I would just be worrying. And, she agreed with me, so Lucy and I went back to the waiting room to wait some more for the ultrasound technician. And this time we got my favorite lady. She's so outgoing and fun and talks a lot when she's doing the ultrasound (which is very comforting). And, she always takes lots of pictures and gives us multiples of each pose. I love her. We're trying to find a scanner to put the ultrasounds up, but honestly right now they're not very exciting yet. It's like "See our baby??...that tiny white blob on the right??...no, the other tiny white blob on your right." :-D

Lucy is doing pretty great too. Still no teeth at all, but she's had some pretty bad nights lately, so we're hoping that it's because of teeth coming in. Even though she's not crawling on her knees yet, she sure can get around. If you walk past her into the kitchen, she's about two seconds behind. We're still getting used to the fact that she can follow us around now....it's so weird how big she is! I miss my little 6 1/2 pound snuggler already! Lucy is definitely not a snuggler now. She withstands our hugs and kisses but only for a short time. Then, she wants to be off and moving.

Pray for me and my being sick, it still stinks, but every day is closer to getting better, right? I'm hoping.....

Our First Doctor's Appointment!

2007-10-16T20:23:00.000-05:00

I had my first doctors appointment for the new baby today! As always, everyone flocked to Lucy and told me multiple times how adorable she is (it never gets old!)! It was espiecially fun to see Dr. Svientek with her. She asked all about how she was doing, and what her "skills" are, and she couldn't help herself from playing with Lucy for a bit.

She wants us to have an ultrasound in 2 1/2 weeks (on Halloween!), to get an exact due date, since she said that with nursing, my cycles are not exactly reliable for the baby's due date. But, until then, our tentative due date is June 13, 2008!!! AWESOME! Right smack in the middle of all our summer 2008 weddings though, so we might not be able to make it to all of them. :(

Besides having my blood drawn, the appointment was great, because it reminded me how much I love our Doctor, and the entire staff at the office. They were excited to see us back, and probably even more excited to see Lucy (but who could blame them?). Now, we're just very excited to get to see the baby earlier than expected on the ultrasound in 2 weeks.

As for Lucy, she's doing so great! She still hasn't cut any teeth yet, but as a nursing mom, I'm okay with that. Her new big thing is that she's doing this fun army crawl. It's a struggle, but she can do it pretty good. We have learned how stubborn and independent our little Lucy is already at only 6 months! We try to get her to crawl more by putting toys in front of her, but if they're just an inch too far away from her, she just gives us this look like "Nice Try," and won't crawl at all. Then, when we're not looking, she will crawl 4 times to get to a toy she needs. She's just such a ham!

Well, off to try and get some chores done while Dad is out at RCIA and the little Lucy girl is asleep!