Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mothers Day

Once again it's been too long since I've posted!
This pregnancy has seemed more exhausting than my pregnancy with Addiston, which really isn't surprising considering I spend most of my time chasing her and not resting! The hardest part of this pregnancy of lately has been craving food that I was raised on. Jared says that Cincinnati is like a food cult, we have Skyline, LaRosa's, Grippo's, Frische's, and other "northern" foods. I wanted a steak hoagie the other night, called a few places and went in one, no body in the south has even heard of a steak hoagie! You can't get goetta her to save your life-nobody knows what that is either (it's a breakfast dish) and legit skyline chili is out of the question! At least I can get that in cans, it's not exact but it beats a blank.
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We've been crossing lots of things off of the "get-done-before-we-have-another-baby" list which has taken up most of our free time. We've taken several car loads to good will trying to clear out space for the new little one and we're well underway on her room, my dad should be coming down soon to finish up the painting (he's a pro-so we figured we'd let him do it) and then all that's left is putting it all together.
We have officially decided to name Baby Girl #2 Isabella Grace Miller. Both of Jared's grandmothers names are Ella and we wanted to incorporate their name into our little one's name. No we are not insane closet Twilight fans, we just like the name! And Grace has always been one of my favorite middle names. Addiston is so sweet trying to say Isabella, the Isa never comes out but the Bella part always does, and in the process she looks as if she's going to vomit, sticking her tongue out all the way while saying bell. It's so funny, we laugh every time we ask her what her little sister's name is.
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On Fridays I have a Mom's group that I attend at our church, this was our last meeting before summer and instead of having a formal meeting we decided to drop our kids off at church and head out to get pedicures for mothers day. I'm so grateful to have these women in my life. Most of them have more children than I and older children. They have been through the same sicknesses, trials, and are such a comfort in my life. Addiston had become friends with many of their kids and asks to play with them on a regular basis. Most of the time we find this sweet, but when she was asking for a little boy names Gavin "davin" the other night at chick-fil-a Jared decided she's too young to play with boys.
Addiston is doing quite well potty training, we ask her to sit on her big girl potty every time we need to change her diaper and are using cloth diapers more often so she can tell when she's wet. She always tries to go only is successful about 50% of the time but hey she's only 23 months and is doing great, so we're happy.
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Our sweet friend Nathan, who I've mentioned before, got engaged two weeks ago, and asked Addiston to be his flower girl, luckily she's got a while before the big day. Addiston LOVES Nathan, and will have her aunt Kara's wedding under her belt so I'm sure she'll do great.
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We're in a great routine right now, Addiston's super playful and we have a great balance between her playing with us and playing by herself. Her favorite thing to do is still read but swinging is a close second. We try and go on walks in the evening when the weather is good or we don't have plans and she loves those.
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I had my 28 week appointment and learned that I do NOT have gestational diabetes this pregnancy! Hooray! I was told that I had a very high chance of having them this time so I was shocked when the nurse called and told me I didn't, I am however anemic, so I need to take an iron supplement, so no big struggle here.
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In other news one of my best friends came to visit a few weeks ago from Virginia and it was so good to spend some time with my dear Kari, she gave me a book "heaven is for real" and somehow I found the time to read it in two days, it was so sweet, and I loved that she told me that I'm going to have an entourage waiting for me in heaven. Today ironically enough would have been the due date of the baby that we miscarried last fall. It was strange to see in on the calendar, but Jared made this mother's day so special for me and Isabella has been doing summersaults all afternoon, reminding me that I indeed have another miracle growing inside me. Addiston actually telling me Happy Mother's Day and saying "love you mama" was the sweetest thing I ever could have asked for, but her daddy got me spa certificate and a new make-up mirror just in case her sweet blessings didn't cut it.
Yesterday I was a wedding coordinator to another friend Lindsay, she was a beautiful bride and the whole day went smoothly even with a few scattered showers. Her photographer offered me a job at the company she and her husband own as a part time wedding planner/coordinator, so who knows maybe I'll go to a few weddings before this baby is born and put my OCD tendencies to good use!
Well it's a little girls bed time and she's trying to lick the ice cream on her pajamas, so I think I'll go cuddle a bit before I crash myself!
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Saturday, March 31, 2012

We meet again

ok I know its been a long time since my last post, sorry, I'm pregnant, I was insanely ill, yada yada yada, we've all got our excuses. My sister-in-law ever so subtly facebooked me and; anyhow, I'm here now and because of the current state of my house and my life am unsure as to when my next post will be, so I'll just catch ya up on all the recent details of our lives!

First and most importantly...It's a Girl!

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Our dear friends Jared and Sarah Jo threw us a gender reveal party, where we revealed to everyone that baby Miller #2 is a Girl. I'm thrilled! There was a slew of food that I was able to eat: rice, tater-tots, cottage cheese, pancakes. I ate more that night than I had in the last 20 weeks, then I got sick the next morning! I as every mother in the world would say would have been happy with either sex but I semi-secretly wanted another girl.

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Our girls will be born in the same season of the year so we can do hand-me-downs and save a little cash. They will exactly be two years, one month and one week apart. I know this because we opted to schedule a c-section for this pregnancy. So on July 18th 2012 we will officially be a family of 4!

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My Feburary gift came in the form of a trip to a friends house where I sat in a living room and held her sweet new girl, twenty-seven hours old, and studied her features, ran my fingers over the cowlick of silky hair that hugged her perfect head, and inhaled the rare opportunity to experience the miracle of really new life. I speak fluent newborn, you know. And I could have sat in that room holding that baby Nora all day.

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Other than that you missed:

A visit from Grandpa
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St Patricks day (green food and clothes)
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Somebody's getting curls!
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She is going to be a flower-girl this summer
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I was giving myself a pedicure one afternoon during Addiston's nap and when she woke up wanted to match mama, after one foot she spased out and refused to let me near her with a polish brush. Oh we she can rock the one foot pink look!
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She loves afternoons out with mama
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and had her first tea party with a friend.
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Jared built me a table for valentines day!
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we've always done homemade gifts for V-day and this year I was sick and slacked off and made him a glorified card and he went all out! (gotta love those amish roots)

Progress:
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I started to eat normal food about 20 weeks and have finally started to gain weight! I'm not going to be frequenting any chinese buffets any time soon but I'm content with my normal american meat and potatoes. My doctor is happy with the progress I've made but I have some catching up to do, I'm still about 5 pounds behind where I should be. The baby is measuring about a week smaller than she should be but shocker Addiston is barely on the charts and I'm not exactly going out for the WNBA any time soon so no worries there.

Life continues to race by, we're been getting the house ready for the new little one and spring cleaning/lawn sprucing all month. The weather has been beautiful and I'm really liking that the Month of March was more like summer than winter Thanks Nashville.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Pregnant

Sorry it's been so long since I've had the chance to post, as many of you know by now we are expecting!

We are thrilled beyond imagination and have been trying to wrap our heads around everything that has been happening. We were hesitant to share our news too quickly because of my miscarriage a few months ago but were finally able to go public a couple of weeks ago after we completed the first trimester! I am 14 weeks pregnant, due July 25, 2012.

Around 8 weeks I was diagnosed with hyperemesis which is basically morning sickness of the devil! I've been on zofran ever since and while that helps me eat and retain nutrients it carries with it migraines and drowsiness as if being pregnant didn't cause enough exhaustion! Ha! I have been SLOWLY getting better, timing my meals, learning what I can tolerate and trying to sleep as much as possible! My sweet husband has done most of the laundry for the last two months and I'm so thankful that the whole family is perfectly content eating cereal for dinner multiple nights a week!

I promise to come back more as I regain some energy, for now I just ask you to pray that the hyperemesis fades quickly (it usually lasts about 20 weeks) I'll leave you with some pictures of what you've missed!

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Addiston Enjoying the tree, and our family Christmas photo.

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Addiston in her first Christmas performance!

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My grandma helping her open a "special present"

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My Grandma's reaction!

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Reading her new book!

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Opening Presents at my parents.

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Enjoying her favorite toy of the season-A new slide!

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The Miller family finding out the big news (#1 Sister ornament)

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Jared's family visit-Breakfast at Loveless Cafe

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Riding the antique carousel with Grandpa Miller

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My parents visit-in a giant rocking chair with Grandpa Boyer

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My life most of the past two months!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

It's beginning to lool a lot like Christmas

Confession: Christmas is one of my least favorite holidays. There it is I said it. Don't get me wrong I love christmas, the real christmas, the bible story and the symbolism of it, but the commercial, craziness of turning a holiday into "get me this, I want that" turns my stomach.

I do believe in balance and that things can be calm and enjoyable and I strive for that at our home so hey who knows maybe I'll grow to say Christmas is my favorite holiday.

We spent the weekend decorating the house. The tree is up, the lights hung, and there is an assortment of holiday themed knickknacks around my house all of which I promise were purchased by my mother or grandmother!

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Addiston's has an assortment of favorite ornaments. Topping off the list is a talking nativity that my mom bought her last year.

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A close second are all of the bulb ornaments she just walks up to the trees several times a day and points to each and every one and says "ball ball" and Finally our first ornament fatality of the season, a ballerina of mine. I'm not sure how it happened but she no longer has hands!

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My favorite thing was a when I was putting out the nativity my grandmother made me and telling Addiston the Christmas story as I got out each piece, she looked at me and looked to the nativity scene and looked at me and pointed to one of the camles and said "dog, woof woof"

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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

busy

ok real quick, Addy's first art project from mom's group last week,

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On our drive home Jared casually made the assumption that our whole week was booked...wasn't it? I retaliated that we had Saturday morning free but that I wanted to put up christmas decorations. He smiled. When somebody asks me how we're doing I instinctively reply, "good but busy." Busy is how I always respond, and it's become second nature to have it ready to fire off in response to any question. And Busy becomes this black hole that mysteriously abducts us away from the humble land of availability. I've lately been reminded though that everyone's busy. I think we often make the mistake of assuming that our worth somehow corresponds with how busy we are. We find ourselves bragging about how many responsibilities we have how at the end of the day we're so fried we can't do anything, but then there's the flip side, We've all done it, faked being busy to get off the phone, or out of a lunch date we fear may be awkward.

If companies struggle all year to break even and Black Friday finally flips the switch to gaining profit, then perhaps I should do likewise and focus on the rest of the year as pure gain. I'm going to enjoy it, to embrace the busy as my life and not something keeping me from my life. After all I did sign up for this!

So I'm going to let my girl help me with my "busy" like doing laundry, because let's face it her little face lights up when that machine dings after you push start!

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And I'll let her help with the grocery shopping.

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And I'll stop what I'm doing and play "help" (where she pretends she's trapped behind the baby gate.)

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I'll read her a few extra books in the afternoon extending storytime by at least one more giggle and a hug, we'll have more dance parties. I'll teach her a new word or a good place to tickle her daddy. We'll bake more scones, and have adventures, we'll try and forget that time we were forced to pause and try and be in the moment. Giving thanks for every moment. For now Jared's dad is in town and we are torn between cheering for our two favorite teams: OSU and Duke. Addiston had no problem choosing a side.

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