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Monday, November 21, 2011

My Sweet Pilgrim

Today Sammy took a few hours off from work this morning and we headed to Anthony's preschool Thanksgiving gathering. It was fantastic!! All the parents had to find their kiddo's hand made turkey place mat and sit down at that table. There was a "turkey foot" pin that I put on :) and a paper plate turkey the kids made at the tables as well. The ones Anthony made were soooo sweet. I got all choked up when I saw his sweet little hand print made into a turkey. He also made a "I'm thankful" coloring and he wrote...."I'm thankful for my Mama and Papa and my Sister. And for the deer. And for the turkey and fish to eat. And for coloring." HAHAHAHA Too cute.


The kids came out in their costumes....some pilgrims and the others turkeys....and headed to the front of the room where they sang a few songs. Ohhh gosh it was so sweet. Anthony even sang too, which actually surprised me, but I was very glad to see!! He was so cute standing up there in his pilgrim costume. He kept waving at us, lol.


Once the kids were done with their songs, they went and sat down with their parents. Anthony was so excited to see us! I think he had forgotten we were going to have a little gathering that morning. The teachers layed out the food and we all lined up and then chowed down. Little meat sandwiches, apples, carrots, Hershey kisses, and apple juice. The parents helped supply the food. Earlier last week there was a sign up sheet to volunteer to buy some food and help out.  I donated two bags of carrots and they were mighty tasty dipped in ranch dressing. We ate and mingled and Anthony even let me ware his noodle necklace. :) We had a great time and it was so fun to see Anthony in action. I loved it.


In other news, we got a fair amount of snow Friday night! 5-6 inches round abouts. Anthony wanted to go out and play in it soooo bad, but his old snowsuit didn't fit him. So perfect excuse to drive an hour to The Dalles to get him a new suit and do a little grocery and Christmas shopping while we were at it. We made it home just in time to let the kids play outside for an hour or so before it got dark. 


Sunday I spent most the day packing. We leave tomorrow afternoon to head to my mom's place in CA for Thanksgiving. Our thoughtful and trusty neighbors will be watching the horse and dogs for us. I don't know what we would do without them! We're excited to head out tomorrow, though not looking forward to the actual drive. It's a good 10-12 hour trek. Ugh. We'll be packing lots of snacks and making sandwiches so other than stopping for potty breaks, we wont have to stop and spend money on food. It'll be nice to get out of the house, I'm just crossing my fingers I feel well the whole time we're gone. I've been doing good with the headaches and nausea recently, so lets hope it stays that way! Wednesday I am finally getting my hair done! I'm stoked! My mom made me an appointment with her hair lady. Definitely looking forward to that. And turkey. And biscuits. Mmmmmm

And one last update! Mols is now onto sticker sheet number two!! She's done really well with the potty training. There are accidents every day, but that's to be expected. She's averaging 4-5 times going on the potty and that's pretty dang good in my book. She gets all excited when she goes, haha, it's cute. I must admit, I am EXHAUSTED. Just plain 'ol tired of getting up a million times to put her on the potty when she says she has to go. For every 5 times I put her on, she only actually goes once. But ehh, comes with the potty training territory. Hopefully we will have continued success while we're gone away from home. Here's a pic of her first completed sticker chart!


I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving week! 

With love,
Mama Hauck

Thursday, November 17, 2011

To Me, Santa is the Mailman

We had plans to go to Sam's Godmother's place tonight and stay the weekend, but she has become ill so our trip is canceled. :(  Bummer. I was really looking forward to relaxing in a hot tub and lounging around a fire, but it's more important that Sam's Godmother relax and get well. So hopefully we'll do something fun this weekend to make up for it. I'd still like to do our family photos like I had planned and maybe head out and do a bit of shopping.

Soooooooooo I have something exciting coming in the mail any day now!!!


The Sonoline B Fetal Doppler! This hand held doppler will let me listen to the baby's heart beat whenever I want. :) I'm SO EXCITED! It even comes with batteries and gel so I don't have to go buy those separately. Pretty good deal. It got really great reviews and I can't wait to get it!

No other news to share except I felt like crap yesterday and couldn't get Anthony to school. He was pretty bummed. Still not feeling all that well today. Exhausted, ill, and just plain 'ol run down. For the past 2 weeks my morning sickness and nausea had diminished a great deal. I'm hoping these last 2 days have just been a fluke and not the return of my least favorite pregnancy symptoms.

With love,
Mama Hauck

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The Weekend

Friday's play date with Anthony's little gal pal went well. Her Mama stuck around and it was nice to have company over and hold an adult conversation! I discussed with her how difficult it's been on Anthony not to have any friends to play with and we both agreed it would be beneficial for Anthony, as well as her daughter, to get together more. I hope this really happens. The play date pooped me out, but Anthony and Molly had a good time so it was worth it. 

Saturday morning we woke up to a light dusting of snow. It had been raining Friday evening and it's been getting down to the 20's here at night, so some snow didn't surprise me and it was nice and exciting to see some. HOWEVER, I would be happy if we only received a little snow this year....I've got a preschooler to take to town 3x a week now and it takes 20 minutes to do so. That drive is made treacherous and slow by snow and ice. Ahhh!!

Anyhow, Anthony's eyes about bugged out of his head when he saw it, he was so excited! After a delicious breakfast of french toast, he begged and begged and begged to go outside and play until we finally said yes. I knew the dusting would be gone shortly, so why deny him the joy of playing in it for 30 minutes or so? Molly headed out with him as well and both had a good time.


After playing in the snow, the kiddos came inside and my midwife showed up. We ran through my pregnancy and labor history with Anthony and Molly, played Q&A, I gave her all my filled out paperwork, peed in a cup, and got to hear the baby's heart beat! She brought her hand held doppler like I had hoped and it took all of two seconds to find the tiny heart beat. :) A healthy 140 bpm. The kids sat on the couch and got excited....I told them, "Hear it! Told you there was a baby in my belly!!" hahaha It's oh so reassuring to hear the baby after not hearing/seeing anything since my ultrasound at 9weeks. It was nice to have my whole appointment on my couch in my p.j.'s! The conclusion of the appointment was that all is well! Baby sounded good, pee results were normal, I've gained 2 pounds and am overall feeling better. She'll come back in two weeks, on the 29th or the 30th of the month to draw all my labs. I'll be in my 15th week then. This morning I received a phone call from the midwife saying all the insurance mumbo jumbo is finally complete and her services will be covered by our insurance. It's a great relief to hear that!

After the midwife left, Sam took Anthony into town for his first ever hair cut from a barber. Usually Sam does it, but Anthony wanted the town barber to do it this time. It turned out great. :) That evening we headed to a friend's house for a going away get together for one of Sam's co-workers. I was tired and pretty much starving the whole time, but had a good time regardless. My gal pal who recently moved with her husband and two boys showed up and it was great to see her. I didn't know they were coming so it was a nice surprise. I really miss her. :( 

Sunday I tried my best to relax most of the day. I wasn't feeling the greatest after staying out so late Saturday night and then not sleeping well. I took up residence on the couch and didn't move until we went to our friends Kurt and Tracie's place (the people who held the Halloween party) for dinner. We had spaghetti, garlic bread, and a green salad. Delicious!!! The kids were very well behaved and we capped off the evening with a little game of Wii Sports. We decided we're going to start a dinner club (hopefully we can get a few more couples to join!) and rotate who's house we go to each month. This probably wont start until January, but I'm excited! Maybe I'll be able to meet more people with kids who want to hang out!

The kiddos before going out to dinner....Anthony with his new haircut and new sweater. And Mols rocking a pony tail and chocolate on her chin. 


Just a few new photos of my belly at 13 weeks....I definitely feel bigger (and I think even look bigger) than I do in these photos. lol The camera actually makes my belly look smaller. Which isn't so bad. ;)


With love,
Mama Hauck

Monday, November 14, 2011

Hello Potty Training!!

It's funny how a little poo and pee in the potty can make a Mama and Papa gleam like they are the proudest parents on Earth. 

This weekend marked the beginning of real potty training for my little Mols. She has been interested in the potty and has sat on the potty at least once or twice a day for the past few months, but nothing ever came of it. You can't force these things. Yesterday was her first poop on the potty and this morning was her first pee! 

She woke up and came into the bathroom where I was blow drying my hair to give me a hug. I checked her diaper and she was dry.....always a good sign when they wake up dry in the morning. I plopped her on the potty and she started to whine and cry. No fun to sit on a potty when you're still groggy and all you want is breakfast. But she was dry so I knew she had to go and I wasn't going to take her off the potty, crying or not. Amongst her whines she farted and that erupted an explosion of laughter from both her and I. I don't care how old you are, farts ARE funny. ;) And then the pee came! She was so excited (and maybe a bit bewildered) she looked at me like, "what the heck just happened?"

Then there were giggles and high fives and lots of hugs and kisses for positive reinforcement. We've got our  potty sticker chart going, which she loves, and pretty pink princess pull ups that she thinks are the coolest things! Hopefully we can keep this up, she went again on the potty just a few minutes ago after getting home from dropping Anthony off at school. I have very high hopes that we will be successful with this and be going on the potty every time within a month. Maybe pull ups full time now? We shall see! 

I'm so proud of her!

If you'd like to read about my potty training methods, the ones I used successfully with my son and am currently using with my daughter, click HERE. Anthony was potty trained at 2 1/2 and it looks like Molly will be too. Good thing too, because I didn't want to deal with two kiddos in diapers!

With love,
Mama Hauck

Friday, November 11, 2011

Bunch 'O Randoms


Happy Veterans Day!!!! Please take time out of your day to think of all the men and woman who have served and are currently serving for YOU.

I must admit....we put up Christmas decorations last night! ;) I just couldn't hold out. I REALLY wanted to put up some lights around the living room like we do every year and figured I'm pregnant and grumpy....if it makes me happy then I'm going to do it! lol Anthony got a string of lights around his bedroom window and he was so excited about it! I was going to do a string in Molly's room, but used up all we had around the door frames and large window in our living room, so Mols will have to wait until we get more. A little early to put things up for Christmas, but it looks awesome so I could care less what anyone else thinks! Hooray! 

Anthony has a friend coming over today! No school today because of Veterans Day, that's always nice for me, I don't have to wake up early to take him to town.  A gal that lives fairly close to us (so you think it would be easy to get together....but it's not.....people are always busy or sick, you know?) and goes to school with Anthony is coming. Luckily I'm feeling great today so the play date plans can continue as planned and she should be here in a bit to have lunch and hang out with us for the day. Anthony is stoked!! 

I've got my first official appointment with my midwife TOMORROW! I'm anxious, but excited! I'm really hoping she brings her hand held doppler so we can try to find the baby's heart beat. I know it can be tough with those things sometimes....hopefully I'm far enough along that we can use it and I can hear the baby. :) I'm not sure what all will go on tomorrow, but I think I might have some labs drawn? We'll see. I'm just glad I finally get to have a real appointment with her and feel more established with my pregnancy and care. Whoop! 

I think that's all the random news for now!

With love,
Mama Hauck

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Country Bumpkins

The past 2 months I've slacked horribly with my photo taking. I took my camera out for Halloween festivities and that was basically it. I'm ashamed to say we haven't done our family photos yet this year....that's unheard of for me!! I've just been too run down to do it. I seem to have missed my opportunity to take photos like last year, shown HERE. It bums me out because I was really looking forward to some more colorful, leafy photos. :( However, we will finally be taking our family photos next weekend while at Sam's Godmother's place. I'm hoping to stake out a good background somewhere in her yard. 

As for now, here are a few fall like ones I took of the kiddos yesterday while waiting for Papa to get home so we could have another campfire. It feels great to break out my camera once again for some real photos!

My handsome boy....


My sweet little gal....


With love,
Mama Hauck

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Baby Names

Any Mama will tell you it is NEVER too early to compile a list of your favorite baby names when expecting. :) You make a list and your partner winds up hating every single name on that list, so you trash it and start over. You make a list and then meet someone with the same name as one on your list and then instead of loving the name, you hate it. You make a list and run it by friends and family. Instead of being told it's a lovely list of names and getting positive input, you're told your list is ok, but really you should name the baby after your Grandma Gertrude because she would have loved that.

LOL!!!

It can sometimes take forever to pick out that perfect name. And don't even get me started on middle names! I have two middle names and Molly's are the same as mine - Lynn Elizabeth. If we have another girl, she'll have two middles names as well (would it be wrong to have her have the SAME middle names as Mols and I? Is that TOO many Lynn Elizabeths?) Last week I told Sam I have a feeling we are having a boy. With every pregnancy I have "just had that feeling" and I was right both times. We never found out with Anthony until his birth, but I just knew I was having a boy. We found out by way of ultrasound for Molly at about 20 weeks, but before we even did I just knew I was having a girl. It'll be interesting to see if I'm right this time around too. Though.....I wouldn't be sad if I were proven wrong as I'm hoping for another little gal. ;)

Sammy and I each have our own list of top names (mine longer than his!). It'll take much more discussion between the two of us to finally settle on the one that is perfect for our little one. Sometimes you honestly just don't know until you see your baby and then the right name just hits you like a ton of bricks.

Sam's top names: Samuel Charles
                                    Jolene (?)

My top names: Thomas Dean (Sam likes Timothy as the mid name.)
                               Daniel Lane
                               Delilah Dixie Ray (I have my heart set on this one!)
                               Joscelin (?)
                               Joesphine (?)

I wish it were time to have my ultrasound to find out the sex! The suspense is a killer. I'm in my 12th week!

With love,
Mama Hauck
                                                          

Monday, November 7, 2011

Finally Barn Pics!

We had a very pleasant weekend. Saturday I did my best to relax while Sam worked outside with the kids for a good chunk of the day. Later, while they took a nap, we watched a scary movie we had intend to watch on Halloween, but I wasn't feeling well that day. After the kids woke up from their nap, we surprised them with a trip to our town's pizza joint for dinner. This made them very happy kiddos! :) Sunday afternoon we cleaned up and winterized the barn, house, and yard. The place looks great and I finally took photos of the barn like I promised ya'll!!! After I was extremely exhausted, so we enjoyed another fire and roasted more marshmallows and ate smores. I made Sam a Reece's smore, yum! Sammy and I had a good time sitting by the fire while Anthony and Molly ran around playing "animal shoot." LOL It was a pretty cold day, but lovely none the less.

A funny story to share.....

One of the elements on our hot water heater burned out. This seems to happen to us every year. In order to replace it, we have to drain the tank. We do this by draining it by way of a hose while blowing air into it with our shop vac. Always works like a charm. This time, however, Sam left me in charge to check in on the progress every 10 minutes or so while he ran to town Saturday morning. After checking on it a few times, I settled back on the couch to snuggle with Anthony. All of a sudden the lights flicker and I hear the shop vac turn off. I go into our bathroom and see smoke and sparks flying out of the top and black ash everywhere. AHHH!!!! I unplugged it from the wall and tried my best to get it the hell out of the bathroom without panicking too much as smoke and ash were sputtering in my face. I half expect the sparks that were sporadically coming from it to catch my eyebrows on fire as well as my bedroom. I got it to the living room and Anthony started to freak because of the smell. He later told me we needed a new house because out house smelled bad, lol. I finally get it outside and come back in to access the damage. The house smelled horrible. Our bathroom was just putrid smelling and smoke and ash were covering the floor and sink. It was definitely a scary moment. I shouldn't have lifted the shop vac, but I had no choice. Sam can thank my killer bowflex guns for not burning the house down. ;) When Sam got home he cleaned up the mess and we had to air the house out for the rest of the day.

And now onto the pics!

360 view of the barn. Front, back, and both sides. The tack room and back of barn is complete. The front of the stall still needs a few panels of wood to complete the half wall and the side of the stall needs the batten over the boards (to create the board and batten look). That all will get done come spring. We've got a nifty water system going on. Hose is in back of the barn and it connects to tubing that runs up and over and down the front of the barn into Nik's trough that has a water heater in it to prevent freezing. Gravity will prevent water from staying in the hose and tube and freezing. Only little things here or there to finish up come spring. It's great to have things done for the year and see Nik enjoying his new space. 

Tack room! Almost completely full with hay. Nik's all set for the winter. Like how I have everything red? Lead ropes, lunge line, cross ties, halter, blanket bag and saddle cover. :) On the other wall of the tack room Sam has made handy storage shelves and hooks for tools and such. We also have a radio that we leave on for Nik. He likes it. 

Nik's stall. We got a hay rack positioned under the window so we just have to plop the hay through the window when in the tack room. Pretty convenient. Next year we will finish the inside with siding. 

Dirty, fluffy Nik. He's gotten his winter coat, so goodbye to his beautiful brown spots! 

My little gal being mischievous.  Hehehe

With love,
Mama Hauck

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Friday, November 4, 2011

So Flippin' Excited!!

Remember when I told ya'll about how Sammy and I went on a Murder Mystery train ride? Read about it by clicking HERE. Well the same train station, The Mount Hood Railroad, puts on all sorts of different shows. In November and December they put on The Polar Express show and I BOUGHT TICKETS on Thursday! Whoop!!!!! Sammy, the kiddos and I will be boarding Saturday, December 17th for the 4:30 ride.


AHHH!!! I'm so excited. It's going to truly kick-ass. On the ride the kids will get their "golden ticket" punched, lol. The Polar Express book will be read and music from the movie will be played in the passenger cars. Apparently the passenger cars will be decorated for Christmas too, adding that little extra something special to the atmosphere. :) We all get a mug of hot chocolate and a gourmet cookie. On the ride back Santa comes on and meets and greets each kid and gives them a bell as a gift. The only thing I'm bummed about is no meal being served. So we'll have to pack our own drinks and snacks. It would have been awesome for a meal or at least a snack (more than the hot chocolate and cookie) to be served. 

The kids are going to flip when we pull up to the train station and tell them we are getting on!!! I'm really excited to watch them during the show. I hope they are excited and love it! It'll be really nice for us to do this special treat as a family. :) The kids have never done anything like this and I hope they find it magical.

If you want to check out the Polar Express site, click HERE. There are 4 different passenger cars, which of course come with 4 different price tags. I didn't want to do coach, which was the cheapest, and certainly couldn't afford the upper dome, which is the most expensive....even though it was the one that I really wanted!! So instead we will be in the lower dome. The last choice was the parlor car, which is the same price as the one we will be in, but I didn't like the seating. So hopefully we will be very happy with the lower dome seating. Woot! I'm so stoked!!!

With love,
Mama Hauck

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Hello November

Halloween day I was feeling pretty crappy towards the late afternoon/evening time. So not only did we not go out trick or treating, but we never did the alternative plan either....camp fire with roasting marshmallows and scary movie after. *sigh* What an anticlimactic Halloween and end to my favorite month. Boo.

Instead what we did was welcome November with a camp fire and marshmallow roast!  Hooray! Sammy got the fire going as I fed the kiddos dinner. Then we all rushed out and had a grand 'ol time roasting marshmallows! Molly wanted to eat hers unfired and Anthony was funny because he said the fire was burning his face so every photo I have of him he's blocking his face with his hand. We hope to do this a few more times before the snow falls this year because it was so fun and relaxing. Even the kitties came and had a good time. 


During the day Tuesday I made these yummy cupcakes for Sam to take to work and share as a belated b-day gift for a friend and one of Sam's co-workers. It took every once of self control not to swipe one and eat it, lol. Word on the street is they were a hit. Yay! Who doesn't love heavily frosted cupcakes with Halloween candy on top!?


I feel GREAT today. Got sick once this morning (and with such fury I popped a blood vessel on the skin under my left eye....ugh) but other than that I've felt significantly better today than I have in a long, long time. Maybe this is a taste of what's to come for me? I'd love it if I'd start having more good days than bad days. I'll be 12 weeks on Sunday!

Sammy worked at a different work site today and had to take a work vehicle in to get some work done on it. This allowed the kids and I to meet up with him at my favorite local food joint, Sodbusters, and get some lunch. I've been missing coffee, so I got myself a cup of decaf and loaded up on sugar and creme. Mmmm. I got the woodshed burger to eat....it's a burger with their special BBQ sauce on it. Ohh it was so good. I *almost* finished the whole thing. I also pigged out on french fries and a side salad with their delicious ranch dressing. Lunch out was just the thing I needed. :) Now the kids are napping and I'm eating Halloween candy, lol.

With love,
Mama Hauck