Finds of the year

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Diana

If you have a little unallocated Christmas money burning a hole in your pocket, here are a few things I bought this year that I can recommend.

Nursing cover

I nurse in public relatively frequently, so this has been wonderful. I don’t have an actual picture of mine, so here’s Hannah pretending to nurse her baby. When she saw mine, she said she wanted one, too, so I easily sewed this one in a similar fabric to mine. I ordered mine from Deborah & Co. They have many fabrics to choose from, and I have been very happy with it. They are handmade and are good quality. I think they’re a good size because they cover what needs to be covered but don’t have so much material that you feel attacked by a tent. $25 plus shipping

iPad
No picture for this one, but I’m typing this post on it. :) A long time ago, when we’d go to the Kansas History Museum about once a year, my favorite thing was the touch-screen TV in the “diner” that ran clips about Kansas agriculture products. Now I do almost everything on my very own touch screen, and it is wonderful. $450

Initial necklace

These are very popular right now, and I was pleased to find this company The Vintage Pearl because they had a lot of options and high-quality chains. I ordered H and V initials as well as a heart for the baby we miscarried last year. There are a lot of really cute designs, and they’re very customizable. I also ordered a necklace inscribed with “b+d” with an engraved heart. Start around $30

Vanity plate

At preschool drop-off, it seems like 30% of the parking lot is comprised of silver Honda Odyssey minivans. And now we have one as well. But we’ve got something to make us stand out a little bit and help this fuzzy-brained momma remember where we parked. The fee goes to organizations that promote adoption, and if adoption isn’t your particular passion, there are a lot of other neat organizations you can support i.e. Big Brothers Big Sisters, CASA, reading, special olympics, and parks and wildlife conservation. And bonus – the specialty tags only have 5 characters for you to memorize instead of 15 or whatever is on the regular plates now. So look into it (out-of-staters, too)! $30

Flexi clips
Stylish hair accessories – no pic of this either since they literally just arrived in the mail today, so I’m still messing around with them. But I can tell already they’re going to be great! Flexi clips are from Lilla Rose and can be used with all hair types, but I think they will work especially well with long curly hair like mine. I got two different sizes; it was hard to pick with so many cute styles. $11+

Sewing class/Personal enrichment

This was my mom’s idea – for Christmas last year they got me a gift certificate for classes at a sewing specialty store. There were a ton to choose from, but I picked an appliqué class and an embroidery class. Above is the sampler we made in the embroidery class with 10 different stitches! This idea could be broadened to whatever you feel like – cooking classes, Spanish, pole-dancing lessons, art classes… Spend a little for a few hours to learn something you can use for a long time.

So those are a few suggestions for spending some of your Christmas cash. What are some of the favorite products you’ve come across this year to recommend?

The tree shot

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Diana

This is Hannah’s fourth Christmas, and I’ve taken a picture of her in front of the tree every year. It’s fun to look at the progression.

First Christmas

Second Christmas

Third Christmas

Fourth Christmas

What a young lady we have! Hope you had a very merry Christmas – we were very blessed.

From the silence

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Diana

My goal is to not go more than a month without blogging. I realized I’m getting close to my deadline, but I have other things on my to-do list. So here is a gratuitous cute baby picture. :)

Trickertreat

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Diana

Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays. I like the costume aspect, but the whole scary aspect plus greedy candy hoarding puts it low on my holiday list. With Hannah getting older, Brett and I had to decide if we even wanted to “do” Halloween, and if we did what it would look like. We tried to think of how we could make it as positive as possible and use the opportunity to encourage others.
This may look different for use every year, but I wanted to share what we did this year (and cute pics of course). The day before Halloween, my friend Meghan and I decided to create “matching” costumes for Hannah and Cody. Many ideas were thrown around, but most involved trips to the craft store and too much time (in my opinion). We settled on Mary and Joseph. It might come across as us having our holidays confused or trying to over-Christianize Halloween, but really it was because Meghan was able to raid her fabric scrap stash and with a few swipes of the scissors and some yarn – voila, costumes!

On Halloween, Meghan and I loaded the kids up (four total now, wow!) and went to a nursing home that said they were offering trick-or-treating in the afternoon. This sounded great because afternoon is much better than evening for preschoolers. We also thought this would be a good way to encourage others.
Our time at the nursing home was brief because it was set up a little awkwardly, and some of the residents were a little confused and got mad when the kids asked for their candy. Another little girl had a meltdown because she wanted to take baby Jesus away from Hannah. But Cody and Hannah were very cute and came away very excited about their few little Tootsie Rolls. Whatever ended up in the classic plastic pumpkin was dubbed “trickertreats” which makes sense at this stage.
Halloween evening, Joseph was not available, so Hannah dressed in a cute nurse outfit she recently received. (sorry about the weird pics, I’m still figuring out the WordPress app)

Our street did not have a lot of lights on, so Brett took her to four houses and she came home happy with a very appropriate amount of candy. She was also happy that several kids came by our house before she went to bed and she was able to generously pass out our candy at the door. She even insisted that the parents take candy.
Violet slept through the whole thing, but we woke her up to take some pictures with the good camera. I’ll try to post those soon.
So that was our Halloween – the first one Hannah will really remember, and we hopefully we were able to fill it with fun, encouragement, sharing and, of course, trickertreats.

Freezer cooking day

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Diana

It’s nice to have a few meal options in the freezer for busy days or … new baby coming! When Hannah was born, several friends brought us meals, and I really appreciated not having to think about what was for dinner each night. This time, I tried to plan ahead and have a stash of meals in the freezer. Brett has a lot of good skills, but in the kitchen … :/

I doubled several dinners and froze the extra, but I also wanted to try an exclusive freezer cooking day (before Violet’s arrival). I found four recipes with several overlapping ingredients for efficiency.

– Sweet and sour chicken
– BBQ veggies and chicken
– Scalloped potatoes and ham
– Chicken verde soup

The first three recipes are prepared with raw ingredients then frozen. To prepare, you put the bag in the fridge the night before to thaw a bit then dump it in the slow cooker for 6-8 hours (with my favorite slow cooker liners of course). The soup is fully cooked and just needs to be thawed/reheated.

Here are the ingredients, ready for prep:

I did the potatoes and ham first because it was the easiest and didn’t have any “fresh” ingredients. Then I chopped all the veggies and made the sauces.

After assembling the veggies and sauces in the proper bags, I cut up 4 lbs of chicken breast and divided it between the recipes. Then everything was off to the freezer. From start the freezer, the prep and assemblage took me around three hours. Not too bad! Here are the finished, frozen meals.

That’s eight meals – four servings each so counting leftovers that’s really sixteen meals for us. I’m excited to taste the new recipes I tried. As much as I love cooking, I’m enjoying the extra rest time from not planning or preparing meals for a couple weeks.

Violet’s birth story

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Diana

Written by our doula Lindsey

Dear Violet,

Today was a beautiful day that we will never forget: the day of your birth.

In the weeks leading up to your birth, I met with your mom and dad to plan for your special day. They wanted your entrance to be as simple and as healthy as possible, and they planned to minimize interventions and medications to let things progress as naturally as possible. Even your older sister Hannah seemed protective of you; she and your parents carefully guarded the revealing of your name until your arrival. They were all so excited that you were coming! What a gift! Your mom made a special banner of paper rings to show Hannah how many days there might be til you would join them. As they tore one ring off each day, Hannah commented that it was starting to get very short.

Early in the morning on Monday, October 8^th, your mom awoke with some strong contractions. When she got up for the day at 6:30 am, they picked up fast and strong. I received a text from her around 7 am letting me know what was happening. I was surprised by how quickly it sounded like things were moving, so I called to touch base. Your mom was calm on the phone but had to stop to breathe with each contraction. By 9 am, it was clear that it was time to head into the hospital.

When I got into my car to drive to meet your parents at North Austin Medical Center, the air was cool and crisp—a perfect early fall day. I could feel the anticipation of the day; a precious new person was coming to be with us. It felt like the most important thing happening on earth.

I met your mom and dad in triage, and your mom was laboring hard. Your dad stood calmly on her right side, holding her hand. He was serene and steady, but you could tell he was also so excited. Your mom’s labor was moving fast indeed; she was already 6 out of 10 centimeters dilated and was feeling lots of pressure, which meant you were making your way down. Even before we moved to the labor and delivery room, she was naturally beginning to bear down with each surge.

Soon we were in L&D Room 14, and we had fortunately been placed with Nurse Lisa, who your parents knew from church. Over the next two hours, your mom labored with all her might, and your dad never left her side. He told her she was doing great and that she was in the home stretch; it was clear that he was truly proud of the hard work she was doing for their baby. Even though your mom was working harder than she ever had before, she never complained. She was focused and diligent, willing to make any sacrifice necessary for her baby. We were all in awe of her beauty and strength.

By 12:20 pm, your mom was fully dilated and ready to push. Dr. Sebestyen joined us for the pushing stage and helped guide your mom through the next hour and twenty minutes of really intense effort. Around this time your mom asked your dad if they should share your name with us, so we could all call to you. Violet Elizabeth! What a beautiful name. We were so ready to soon see your face. Then, at 1:40 pm, with a mighty will, your mom bore you into the world.

You were placed directly on your mom’s chest and held tightly in her arms. She greeted you with such joy—“Hi…hi! Remember me? Hi baby! I can’t believe you were in my tummy!” Looking at your dad—“I can’t believe she’s here!” Your dad, leaned in close admiring you, said sweetly, “Hi pretty girl. I love you.” Such precious moments to witness.

You were beautiful, little Violet. So pink, so soft, and so content in the arms of your parents. You were just perfect. You weighed in at 8 pounds, 11 ounces, and you were 20 inches long. What a healthy girl! As you nursed eagerly, your mom talked to Hannah on the phone. Hannah asked, “Is she drinking the mommy milk?!” We all laughed. What sweet sisters you would surely be.

Welcome to the world, dear Violet Elizabeth. We are so grateful to have you here with us; you are dearly loved.

Today we say with joy in our hearts: Happy Birth Day!

Family of four

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Diana

I’m pretty sure everyone who reads my blog already knows this, but for the sake of official-ness (and in case I have any surprise lurkers out there) – baby Violet is here! She was born on Monday the 8th, 8 lbs 11 oz. Our doula wrote an amazing birth story, and I hope to share it on here or do one of my own.
In brief, until this point I have had absolutely zero physical accomplishments to my name. No trophies, no 5K’s, it’s just not my thing. But to say I gave birth to this amazing little person naturally, feeling and doing everything to bring her into the world… I feel pretty good about that.

My mom went home after keeping the house running for eight days, and we are now finding our feet as a family of four. I’m ridiculously tired but made it to MOPS today!
We are so thankful for our little blessing Violet. Life on Olive Street just got a little busier.

Madly, Truly, Deeply

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Diana

Before Hannah was born, I wondered what it would feel like to be a mom. My previous roles were daughter, sister and wife. This was something different; my life would now be devoted, 24/7, to keeping this little person alive and helping her grow into the best big person she could be.

Then I walked into a nursery of bassinets, and the nurse led me to one and said, “Congratulations, mom!”

Um, okay?

It wasn’t in that instant, but one day I realized that over time I had not only fallen in love with this little person, I had feelings for her that were very different than other relationships. Now, as she is three, she regularly drives me to the end of my patience and takes me to the negative end of my emotional spectrum more than anyone else. But she also makes me laugh more than anyone else, and I have this passionate, crazy attachment to her despite the daily challenges.

We spend hours and hours and hours a week together. Just the two of us. We have our routine, our friends, our jokes.

I know some things will change with the new baby. Everyone will be making adjustments. I keep reminding myself that this sibling is a gift – I can’t imagine life without my sister! It’s hard to wrap my head around, but as God puts our family together, I’m trusting He’ll give me the same crazy love for each child as I have for Hannah. But I’m wondering how I could possibly love anyone else the way I love her?

There are a lot of children’s books along the lines of “how much I love you.” Some of these are pretty cheesy, in my opinion. But someone gave us one that makes me cry every time I read it to Hannah. I want to include the last few verses here:

You’re my sweetie, my dear, my smile and giggle.

You’re my playmate for always, my hug and my wiggle.

Hanging out with you is where I like to be,

eating ice cream sundaes or watching the TV.

Under your umbrella, behind you on a bike,

by you and beside you is what I really like.

I can’t imagine life before you came along.

You are the music to my dance and my song.

I am meant for you, and you are meant for me,

the one I love forevermore. Undeniably.

– I Love You So… by Marianne Richmond

Did anyone else have an emotional rough patch going from one to two kids? Please reassure me!

Countdown

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Diana

We’ve only got a few weeks left as a family of three. This seems to be taking a long time to me; I’m sure Brett feels similarly. Hannah probably thinks this whole thing is weird because we’ve been talking about it for as long as she can remember but there is still no baby.
I thought a visual countdown might help us stay motivated. Time to make a chain. This was a great way to use up some scrapbook paper scraps that had been lying around a while. It even turned into a mommy-daughter project when I realized the cool paper cutter thing I have is fairly child safe.

I made enough rings to go through 42 weeks. So I know the length of the chain is the maximum number of days left. We’ll have a baby before we use up the chain, whew.

Every morning at breakfast, Hannah takes off a ring. The chain is already shorter than when I took that picture, wow!

Our growing girls

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Diana

Today was the first day of Hannah’s second year of preschool. She has been asking all summer, “Is school open yet? Can we go to school today?” Finally, the day was here! Last week, we were able to visit her new classroom and meet her new teachers. We loved her sweet teachers last year, so it was a little sad to not see them again. But Hannah’s new teachers, Miss Beth and Miss Shannon, seem great as well, and we’re looking forward to the next year!

First day – almost 3!

This one just cracked me up

Our two growing girls – almost 36 weeks

Hannah told us she didn’t do anything at school today and didn’t have any fun. But at 6:15 tonight, she announced she was ready for bed. At 6:30, she was tucked in and has been quiet ever since which is two hours earlier than she often falls asleep. Hopefully, that doesn’t mean she’ll be up at 5am.

First dentist trip

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Diana

At my last dentist appointment in January, I talked with the dentist, Dr. Evans, and hygienist about the possibility of bringing Hannah in sometime. We decided to set an appointment for July and just see what she was comfortable with. They said that 2-yr-olds typically ride up and down in the chair and sometimes will cooperate and open their mouths. This isn’t a big deal since regular dental visits aren’t recommended until age four.
So we took Hannah in; she got to see Brett get his teeth cleaned. Then it was her turn.
She did awesome! Sitting on Brett’s lap, she let the hygienist do a complete cleaning (with chocolate toothpaste!) and got an exam with Dr. Evans. They said she was one of the best-behaved 2-yr-olds they’d ever had. They said her teeth look great, and she thought the whole thing was very exciting. Next appointment in six months – our big girl!

grit & grace

life on olive street