It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop. ~Vita Sackville-West

Jenna's First Birthday

My baby is ONE! Yikes! When and how did that happen?!?! I cannot believe how fast her first year of life flew by! 

I decided to keep with the pattern I've created of just doing small, easy birthday. Especially since it's just 1. But since it is summer and we could do it at a park I decided to invite a FEW friends. 40 people and an entire day on my feet preparing was not what I had in mind. Melyssa the Great had the GENIUS ( http://thedazeofus.blogspot.com/ ) idea of putting things on a stick for her daughter's birthday, fruit, meat and cheese, desserts. It was so yummy, summery, and looked fairly easy. Bah! I slaved over this all day Saturday. It was worth it tho. It was so yummy and it was a hit. Thanks Melyssa!! I know I'm vain. I took pictures of the food. If you're really not that interested just scroll down and you'll get to see my beautifully precious 1 year old. :)

I promise she started out with a very pretty dress on. It was off the first couple minutes we were there. This girl is a fruit lover like her mommy, who, doesn't like to use stain remover :)

 Singing to her. She sat there looking around quite confused as to why we were all singing and staring at her

 The cake!

 I wish I could have gotten her reaction after she would take a bite, the few that she actually took. She would crinkle up her nose and a shiver would run up her spine.

 She enjoyed flinging it all over the table with her fork. Surprisingly she didn't get very messy  :(

Despite what some of you may have seen on Facebook and how misleading these pictures are since Tawni is the one helping her open her gifts...I DID NOT give my girls away! I was right next to Tawni...most of the time.

 This was the funnest one to watch!

 If I didn't know better I'd say she knew what money was and it's value. She was hilarious with that $10!

 Best buds with their babies :)

 Haddie froze, but must have had lots of fun cuz she kept heading back out once she was warmed up

 I know the first one isn't the greatest picture of Jenna, but look at that guy holding her. Quite the stud muffin if you ask me! :)

 She had a blast! She conked out as soon as we got into the car.

She is my little fearless girl. She has no fear of animals, edges (no matter how far the fall), pretty much anything. She is such a sweet little girl. She loves to play with her big sister and up till recently would only blow Haddie kisses. She is ALMOST walking. Auntie Erin, Uncle Matt, and her cousins got her a walk behind toy and I swear since that night her walking has improved leaps and bounds. (No pun intended :) ) She is quite the verbal little girl. She does more yelling than anything else. She loves to imitate animals and her Daddy's infamous cackle. She is probably saying more than I realize. Well, there is a small update on my little sweet pea, altho not quite so little anymore. She is gaining weight and moving up in clothes sizes. Pretty soon I'll be posting pics of graduation and her car packed to the brim as she pulls away..sniffle..sniffle. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET PEA!!!

...Everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it..." ~Sylvia Plath

 Our Day at the Zoo

We loved the monkeys! Some of them really put on a show for us, swinging like crazy from the trees and ropes.

 That is the only picture I got of Jenna. She fell asleep right away and napped the whole time..almost. Poor girl. We'll have to go again soon and get lots of pics with her. Taking these 3 gave me an idea of what next summer will be like...I was so incredibly exhausted and achy by the time we got home. And I still have 3 months left!

She looks like a little girl! :(

She LOVES elephants. I don't think she realized these weren't real. She touched it very hesitantly.

 She kept giving this silly face every time I asked her to smile.

I think this was my favorite moment!

Her first ice cream cone.

She had a blast. I have NEVER heard her talk so much! When we got home she went on and on telling daddy about all the animals in a very animated and excited way. Hearing her talking and then looking at these pictures I'm realizing she isn't a baby any more. :( I'm sure I'll be happy about that when this little one arrives tho. :)

We were all exhausted by the time we got home! We all took a nap from like 6:30 to 8....and then went to bed at 10 :S My wonderful husband gave me a foot massage before bed. I love that man!

P.S. I promise the middle little girl had lots of fun and was quite happy! She just has a very serious face most of the time.

”Writing is learning to say nothing, more cleverly every day.” ~William Allingham

Pregnancy Brain and Other Randomness

Sometimes I really worry about my mind. I can be so forgetful and loopy. I use to tease my mom pretty ruthlessly, I think this is pay backs. I don't know how she survived that many pregnancies (12!) and came out with her mind still intact (This is still up for debate amongst the family)! 

So here are a few of my pregnancy brain moments. I'm sure there are lots more, but with this pregnancy memory I can't seem to remember them.

The other day I was talking about the craziness of the Governments back and forth about the military's paychecks. I was saying, "I don't think there is anything more messed up that our government could do to those who are serving, especially those who have been deported." Yeah, deported instead of deployed...

I drove by a thrift store that had the words second hand on the sign. I suddenly became enlightened as to why they call it second hand. I thought, "Oooooh! That's why they call it second hand! It's going from one hand to the next...second hand...you're the second hand to use/receive it!" I realize that you probably already know this, but can you act excitedly enlightened for my sake?!

Down town Nampa has a cute little section of town. It's much like the Moses Lake main street, only where all the 4 way stops are there are lights. Quite annoying to go a tiny distance, have a stop light, go a tiny distance, have a stop light, especially since there isn't a lot of cross traffic. Well they were doing construction and had those lights off. They were covered with yellow covers. I was driving along and when I realized all these lights were turned off I was so excited. I sat back and started getting all comfy as I cruised through each one. About the 3rd light I realized all the other cars that WERE next to me were now behind me because they were treating the lights like a 4 way stop. You know, like how you're supposed to when lights aren't working? Oops :S

I immediately thought of this clip. Jake likes the show....it's only the first couple seconds..

And our family's favorite...My mom was complaining of her belly button hurting during one of her pregnancies. She said, "The baby must be wrapped up in the cord or something because my belly button hurts." My dad looked at her hesitantly and paused for a second and before he could say anything my mom quickly said, "Forget I said that!" None of us listen very well... Of course there are lots more I can easily remember from my mom's pregnancies, but I'll give the poor woman a break....My brain can't handle any more paybacks ;)

Moving on to bigger and better things....

Probably the same night I posted my last post we went over to a friend's house where we celebrated a birthday with chocolate cake. Some fell on the floor and now we can add that to Jenna's list of added foods.

 You can't tell but she had chocolate cake all down her shirt and all over her hands. The little piggy ;)

I meant to put this one on the last post as well. This was when she was 7 months old....before she was sitting up or crawling. She climbed up into this rocking chair and right after I took the picture she then climbed up onto the couch.

Haddie told Jenna to go away for the first time :( I'm sure Jenna was after her food, but still it made me a tad sad. Jenna sure can hustle when she sees Haddie has food within reach. One day Haddie had a strawberry. (Her very, very, very favorite food) She set it down on her stool. Jenna very quickly crawled over, pulled herself up and grabbed the strawberry. Haddie was very upset about it, screaming as she saved her strawberry. She walked over and put it on a chair. Jenna in no time at all had made it over there, pulled herself up and started gnawing on it again. Haddie had the same reaction and put it somewhere else, yet again in Jenna's reach. The strawberry was set in several locations where it was promptly gummed before Haddie figured out she had to put it high enough where Jenna couldn't reach it. There wasn't much left of it by then.

Haddie's first tree climb. :)

Jenna was inside pounding on the window and yelling at Haddie the whole time. She is going to be an outside girl just like her big sister

I finally cut Haddie's hair. She has been needing it for so long, but it was really hard for me to do. It's like the last official step from babyhood. She has had a runny nose for the past couple of weeks and I got sick of pulling caked hair off of her snotty face so I gave in and gave her bangs. You can see it in the tree pictures. She has this funny cowlick on the side that makes her bangs part to the side. Most days it looks OK, but sometimes it looks kinda funny.

Haddie got to feel the baby kick yesterday! It was a good strong kick. She was pretty excited about it.

I feel like I need to clear something up. At the end of my last post I said I haven't been able to find much humor...I don't want you to think I'm depressed or anything. I would say I've just lost my creativity, but that's not true. All the sewing and such I've been doing. So I guess my creativity has just shifted a little. I'm quite happy and have no problem finding humor in life. I just can't express it very well through my blog lately.

24 weeks!! Woohoo! :)

If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of empty pages. ~Elaine Liner

Look at this wonderful man.

 Yes, he is doing laundry....but wait! It gets better!

Mr. mom :)

Haddie is saying and doing cute things everyday. We are just amazed at how big she is getting. Here are just a few:

She wanted to stand in daddy's chair to eat dinner and since daddy wasn't home I let her. She is completely potty trained so I was quite shocked when Haddie said, "pee pee pampies, mommy!". Sure enough. I turn around and she had peed her panties while standing in the chair, getting pee all over the chair as well. When I sadly and dramatically said, " Oh no, Haddie! You peed your chair!" she responded quite matter of factly, "No pee pee my chair, mommy. Pee pee daddy's chair." As if that made it all better.

                                                               Haddie: Daddy! Poo poo!
                                                               Jake jumps up
                                                               Jake: You have to go poo poo, Haddie?! Come on! Let's go!
                                                               Haddie giggles
                                                               Haddie: Just kidding

We were all laying in bed snoozing on a Sunday morning. (Our Sunday mornings are quite lazy. When the girls wake up we bring them to bed with us and we all hang out in bed till we are either starving (usually that's only me) or it's time to get up for church.) We were all quietly laying there when Haddie shoots up and yells, "Hey! It's me! Member?!?!" She wasn't asleep so it wasn't sleep talk, but I have no clue where it came from.

She also likes to say whenever I tell her to stop doing something, "Just playin, mommy. Just playin." 

Another favorite (Bah!) she'll call me over and over: 

                                         Haddie: "Mommy."

                                         Me: "What, Haddie"

                                         Haddie: "Mommy. Mommy."

                                         Me: "What, Haddie?"

                                         Haddie:__________________________"Mommy.                                          
                                         Me: What, Haddie?"

                                         Haddie: _____________

                                         Me:"Haddie, what?"

                                         Haddie:_____"Umm"_____

                                         Me (A little less patient): "What, Haddie?" 

                                         Haddie:"I said Um"

Not only does she LOVE shoes, but she ADORES her daddy as well. Why not combine the two?!

 

Auntie Erin gave her a doll stroller that she plays with all the time. She puts her dolls in it, gets her diaper bag, puts her boots and jacket on and says, "bye bye, mommy. Have fun!" :) She has discovered that live babies are more fun...

She really enjoys getting mail from people too. We have a daily routine of checking the mail and it is the highlight of her day. So far grandma Kathy and grandma Jenna Vee have completely thrilled her with a letter. She carried them around for days asking me to read them over and over again. Good thing I had them memorized by the 2nd or 3rd day because they got pretty tattered and worn. :)

Jenna is still our tiny little bean, but she is doing sooo much! This was the first time I discovered her standing in her bed.

She was incredibly proud of herself. She went from that to realizing standing wasn't all that fun because she couldn't figure out how to get back down. There were a lot of tear filled naps. Now it is the funniest thing to see. we go in to get her and she'll be standing up. The second she sees us she lets go and flops back because she is too excited to hold on.  

The reason I went into their room that day was because they were supposed to be sleeping. They had been in there quite a while and were still happily awake. I found Jenna standing in her bed for the first time and Haddie playing dress up.

She has an inside out, backwards turtle neck on, a backwards skirt on, and a sweater dress. She was pretty proud of herself too.

Jenna is crawling and sitting up, finally. I don't mean "finally" because of her age, but because she was pulling herself up to everything before she was doing either of those. She really had no interest in either, because she figured out how to stand up. I was worried she would walk first! Poor girl has no fear of anything and more often than not has several bruises on her forehead and has even had a few cuts on her face. She climbs EVERYTHING! I am amazed at what that tiny girl can accomplish.

The first time she pulled herself up to something other than her bed. Haddie was tickled pink! So was Jenna :)

 She got herself to  a somewhat standing position, but didn't know what to do after that. She was pretty stuck. The toy would tip if she moved her weight, and she didn't want to get down, she wanted to stand up higher. Once she decided she did want down she discovered how stuck she was.

I did this one extra large so you could see her precious sleeping face. :) (Notice the bruise on her forehead, the red mark on her eyebrow and the cut under her nose?) Daddy fell asleep on the job. Jenna quickly followed suit.

Her first bite. Not one of her most flattering pictures. ;)

You want to know what she has supposed to have added into her diet by now? Probably not, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. green beans, kale, beets, squash, avocado, yams, carrots, broccoli, bean sprouts, spinach, apples, pears, bananas, and cherries. Notice how those are just fruits and veggies? Do you want to know what she has eaten? Again, probably not, but here goes. :P Toast, butter, and jam. Rice, beans, cheerios, strawberries, noodles, raisins, fruity snacks, eggs, cheese, potato chips, chicken and hamburger. Those are just the things that I can think of off the top of my head and that I know of. She has discovered the art of grazing. She has found the bountiful location too. Under Haddie's chair. Kids are hardy, right?!

She discovered that when she did this scrunched up smiley face everyone laughed at her. So now she does it all the time. She did it for Uncle Malachai the first time and often after that while they visited

 

Jenna's first hairdo                                                                                Haddie's first hairdo

This pregnancy is going SO fast! I can't believe I'm already 6 months! The heartburn and discomfort has begun making it a little bit easier to believe. I'm getting really excited to meet this little one. It has been really hard to become attached with all the ups downs of this pregnancy, but it hit this morning that we are going to have a precious little bundle in the near future! :)

Profile view

 These were at 11 weeks when we thought we lost the baby. I'm sure recent ultrasound pics would look much different

Front view

Can't believe that was that long ago! I'm 22 weeks now!

For names we are sticking to the boy one that we've had from the very beginning of our childbearing days ;) Jacob Roger Logue. For the girl we have decided on Abrielle (Abbie for short) Altho don't be surprised if it changes. Jake likes it which completely surprised me and I like it...I'm just not in love with it. The middle name is still up for discussion. I have one that I really like and I'm trying to mention it often so Jake becomes used to it and begins to like it. ;) Hope it works!

Well...sorry this is so late and doesn't hold much humor. I can't seem to find any these days. That's why I've put this off for so long, but then I thought, "My followers are die hards. ;) They love to read what I have to say about my oh so entertaining life whether it's humorous or not." ...Right? Hello? Anyone there?! 

*Sigh*

“If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad.” ~Lord Byron

Sorry guys, my creative juices walked out a few weeks ago along with my pre-pregnancy clothes which, by the way, I wore for an entire week before putting them back in that dusty box and shoving them to the very far back of my closet. I thought about burning them, but I have a feeling they are the only thing, a very thin line, keeping me from throwing my hands up and devouring a hippo, stepping into the pastry...uh....pie....um...point of no return.

  Yesterday I woke up feeling the most energetic I have in several weeks. I sent my hubby and corn dog..eh....kiddo off to church so I could tackle the very dirty house. I cleaned my bathroom and then took a nap. Oh, I also thought about working out. If only you knew how big of an accomplishment that was! I haven't worked out since turkey...er...Thanksgiving and have had no guilt in that, but as I'm slooooooowly getting my energy back the thought has crossed my mind once or twice. That thought is soon followed by hysterical laughter, but it does enter my mind.  I also did a load of laundry, but I don't think it counts. I washed it quite a while ago and never switched it to the dryer. So, the mac & cheese..I mean...musty clothes needed rewashed. speaking of which...I need to go put it in the dryer.

 

 My little Jenna is...well...little. The sweet pizza...uh...pea has gained a grand total of 3 lbs since she was born. She is still in 0-3 month clothes and she is almost 6 months old! If she doesn't have a growth spurt and soon it'll look like a have a newborn and 9 month old by the time this one is born!

I can't believe how fast Haddie is growing. She is almost completely potty trained. She loves to help out with Jenna Beth and often plays with her Jenna (one of her dolls). Whenever we go somewhere she HAS to have her diaper bag and baby with her, just like mommy. The other day ice cream...er...I walked into the room to find her getting into my wallet. I asked her if she was getting into it and she said, "no". I asked her to come to me and this is what she did before walking over to me. One hand over her mouth and the other over her bottom. She acts like I beat her!





My husband has moved to the garage. Just kidding. We haven't gotten around to that discussion yet. Man, I didn't realize how hard pregnancy is on our marriage! 3 months was not enough time between these two pregnancies! I was just beginning to discover that I DO want to spend the root bear...um...rest of my life with him and we would both live to tell about it, when those creepy, crawly, nasty hormones came and crashed the party. I do love him and he is a wonderful man. The other day while I napped on the couch he cleaned my entire kitchen. All the dishes, the counters, the floor AND organized the pantry after feeding Haddie lunch and putting her down for a nap. Maybe I should keep a journal of these things and read them every time those ugly, green, stinky hormones start dancing around singing the chorus to Goodbye Earl. I have either been pregnant or breastfeeding the past 3 years and by the time I've weaned this one it will be somewhere around 5 years so if I end up in a asylum somewhere don't be surprised. Just promise to bring me brownies, pumpkin bread...bread of any kind, caramel, fries, ice cream, green olives, cheese burgers, Chinese food, fruity snacks, fake coffee (you know the kind that is so loaded with cream and calories you can't even taste the caffeine? Yeah, that.).



I have actually been excited about this labor and birth. Jenna's was so amazing I'm oddly looking forward to doing it again. I had my first appointment at The Baby Place and it is so beautiful! I love the midwives and the place is so cozy and peaceful. (I encourage you all to see what it looks like! here is their website http://www.thebabyplacehome.com/discover/the-birth-center )It was incredibly hard for me tho. I kept thinking all morning as I was eating..I mean...getting ready to go that this prenatal visit just wasn't going to be the same without my dear cousin. I can't believe how hard it has been on me to know that she won't be helping with this one. I get sad and teary eyed thinking about it. I know it's mostly hormones, but some of it is simply that she is amazing and irreplaceable.