I love LOVE

If you didn't know, I'm a lover of love. Sappy mushy ol' love. I've been called a hopeless romantic and you know what, that's totally okay with me...(I think my obsession with Marlena from Days of our Lives did it to me.)

Case in point.

A little upcoming wedding this weekend that I am so over the moon about I can't even stand it. Seriously. Two of our very best friends are getting married...to each other!! I was friends with Matt before I even dated Andy, Andy and Matt have been friends since high school and I have been friends with Alicia for just as long. They're even Emmie's god parents. And though they were just dating when they became god parents...and there was no pressure...I knew they would get married. Oh my god I love being right....but being right about love...can it get any better?!

Anyways...totally rambling about a wedding that isn't even my own.  Hmm...I wonder what the rules are about blogging about someone else's wedding?? I mean, I'm sure they totally want their wedding exposed to the internets right??

And to make the sappy-fate-love-Lover in all of us believe just a little more...let's look at a Facebook photo from just a few summers ago when Matt and Alicia were just friends. Cute pic, more specifically, read the comments.

Kudos to Bridgett for calling it early! Any lottery numbers you'd like to share?

So here's the sitch.

I have nothing to blog about...because my life has been all consumed by something I'm not blogging about.

We're going to build a house!

I feel like sometimes when you put things on the internet it gets too real, because you know, everything you read on the internet is true. And well, we're not 100% there yet...so I'm hoping not to jinx it.

This little whim started with a open house over a month ago. We went, we saw, we turned up our noses and proclaimed we loved our house and were not going to move.

The following day I made an appointment to meet the builder.

Naturally, being one of the pickiest people on the earth without the time or energy or skill to redo an existing house, we have to build. We technically built our twin home, only getting to pick out the carpet, counters etc. And then we built the house we're in now. We took our builder's existing plan and just tweaked a couple things. But now....we're pretty much starting from scratch. Like, I'm scouring the internet day and night to find the perfect, budget friendly plan.

We started with one builder and then I met a new one. I seriously felt like I was cheating on our builder, but I think we found someone better, someone different. We were with the big brand builder and now we're going with an independent builder. There are no rules, no you have to use our realtor, you have to buy your lighting from this place etc. Oh yeah and the best part, our builder will buy our house if we don't sell it by the time our house is ready. Obviously not at the full asking price...but it sure helps mama sleep at night knowing we won't need to pay two mortgages!

But shhhh....we haven't broken up with the first builder yet! Should I text, email? Do I have to call? Oh gawd.

Anyways, I found a plan that we both agreed would be a great starting off point and we recently met with a draftsman to make modifications. I know, I feel fancy. 

Now we need to find a lot and that is proving to be the most difficult part thus far.

So yeah, that's where I've been. Internetting, tweaking kitchen layouts, meeting with the builder, cheating on the builder, driving through neighborhoods, going to open houses, staring at the new development plans for all of south West Fargo wondering why the eff lots are so expensive and texting our realtor back and forth and back and forth.

my bean sprout

If you recall....(and don't you love how I assume you all have amazing memories and commit all my posts to memory)...Emmie had her 3, 6, 9, and 12 month photos taken at a place called Tiny Sprout. They did an awesome job. And because I signed her up for the whole year, we got this keepsake box and three foam core 5x7s of each session for free. And when I say it was free, it wasn't free at all considering how much we spent throughout the year. Anyways...

The year is over and we finally have our keepsake box!

1 year!

9 months!

6 months!

3 months!

And you know I have an idea up my sleeve for all of those photos...just need to get it all in place!

Ha. It's not just me!

Remember back when I took Emmie on a little bike tour around the neighborhood sans helmet? And then I found out it's illegal to even have a child under one in a bike seat? Yeah, that was an awesome parenting moment.  But at least I was the one that figured it out...and then blogged about it.

Who in the world is going to tell P!nk?!

heart.

First off, Happy Valentine's Day.

I know, it's not really that much of a holiday....but it is one more occasion for Andy to send me flowers at work and we know I like that. (Andy: this is a not so subtle message that yes, there should be flowers arriving to my desk shortly. Perhaps a nice card when I get home, dinner would be great and a foot rub would be just fantastic. Thanks in advance.) (The rest of the internets: I'll let you know how that goes over.)

Anyways...

Let's take a stroll down memory lane shall we.

Do you remember this Valentine's Day sweetness one year ago?!

Oh mah gaaawd.



Quite possibly one of my fave pics of all time. Little cherub face looking all sweet and innocent. Oh. Love.

Yeah, I don't even have a Valentine's Day photo of the Little Miss this year. First off, I went to Target last night at 8pm to prepare her school treats. Hey, did you know that is a huge mistake?! Note to self, be more prepared next time.  And secondly, I wouldn't be able to get that crazy monkey to sit still for a picture if I begged and pleaded and promised ponies and such...

Speaking of crazy monkeys.

The Valentine's Day school treats: I didn't even steal the idea from Pinterest people! (I stole it from my friend Erin, which is totally different!)

Seriously, how cute (and easy)(and cheap)(and healthy) is this idea?! Emmie loves bananas and hopefully her little friends will too!

slidin'

Back to the vacation for a minute. Did I mention that in addition to all the funsies outdoor stuff the resort had there was also an indoor climby jungle gym area? And did I also mention that we were a week or so before peak season so we had all the pools and all the jungle gym area to ourselves? Yeah, basically the best thing ever. The girls would run and scream and it was only the fam there to listen....and photograph.

Fun with dad on the slide!!

Oh just kidding.

baby wonder mcwonderstein

As you may recall: after Florida = operation drop the paci.

Sunday night came and we chickened right out. We rationalized that perhaps Emmie needed a week or so to get over her cold and get back into the daycare swing of things. You know, because she was all jet laggy from vacation and the 6am flight home and well because mom and dad wanted some serious sleep filled nights too.

Apparently we neglected to tell daycare our new plan and they remembered the one drop the paci comment we made weeks prior.

So I pick up Em after work on Monday and she is sans paci. This is pretty normal but I asked her where her paci was.

Daycare gal: Oh she hasn't had it at all today!
::insert open mouth and blank stare from mom::
Me: What do you mean? Is she okay? Did Andy talk to you this morning?
Daycare gal: No. I thought we were getting rid of the paci this week.
Me: I know, but we kinda chickened out...but she's still alive? Did she nap?
Daycare gal: Yeah, she slept for two hours.
::insert open mouth and blank stare from mom::
Me: Like without her pacifier?
Daycare gal: Yeah. She stole Avery's for a bit but then she fell asleep after they took it away.
Me: Hmm...okay, operation no paci is back in full swing.

So I get home and inform Andy it's officially D-day.

::insert open mouth and blank stare from dad::

Andy: On a Monday?? I don't think I'm ready for this!
Me:  I KNOW! But we can't make them do all the work in the day and then just do whatever at night.
Andy: I need some time to wrap my head around this.

Fast forward to bedtime. We do loves, we do milk and Andy lays her down. She cried a lame cry a few times and dicked around in her crib for a half hour (I can't love our video monitors more if I tried) and then....she fell asleep. And stayed that way until 7 this morning.

WHAT?! That was it?! (Knock on wood.)

And life was good at daycare with a two and a half hour nap this afternoon and again tonight, we laid her down and she put herself to sleep, not even a peep.

How can this kid be so amazing?! I'm still knocking on wood because who knows what might happen tonight or the next or the next....but she is definitely rocking our world for now!

vacation is over...wahwah

Oh vacations. Why must time fly so much while we're enjoying you?? I will admit I was a little nervous that a seven day vacation was going to be a tad too long...but the week in Florida went crazy fast. I'm not even exaggerating when I say I stomped into my parents room on the last day and whined and tantrumed that I wasn't ready to go yet. It was a proud moment for them I'm sure.

Anyways....Florida. It was great. The resort was better than expected and the rooms bigger than pictured. How nice when that happens!!

I'm not going to lie and say it was 100% perfect, but it's great to know that we can definitely travel with the little Miss. Even when she is popping through FOUR molars and caught some kind of bug mid trip that left us with sleepless coughing nights and a run to the walk in clinic. Oh well, such is life. The funny thing is, even when she was feeling totally crappy...she didn't seem to mind.

The details. There was a massage, a pedicure, a lazy river and water slide, lots and lots of drinks, lots of seafood, lots of fun and laughs, boatloads of sunscreen, plenty of tylenol, caffeine, a trip to Target for a new stroller, tons of memories made, and lots learned for the next round.

Some photos:



Not a fan of the water. This is about as close as she would get on the first day. It was a little better towards the end, but she is apparently a bath only water baby.

Big ocean for a little baby.  Our first trip to the ocean was towards the end of a windy day. She liked the hard sand, but when we put her down in the soft stuff, she cried hysterically. And the other day we ventured to the ocean, she was asleep before we hit the sand...so hooded sweatshirt ocean photos will have to do.

Grandpa loved seeing the girls check out the new scenery.

This one is a little blurry but it kills me every time. Like, heeeey y'all. This way to the pool??

It was so fun to travel with a built in playmate! Liv and Emmie had tons of fun playing together. Mostly with buckets of water at the pool.

I'm just so glad I was finally able to put Em in the dresses we had stocked up for last summer! (This was the very first thing I bought when I found out I was having a girl...and she finally got to wear it just shy of 14 months old.)

Our last day in Florida was a cloudy one...still warm, but cloudy. We decided to head to the mall, the girls shopped....and Andy...got a pedicure. I know, he's going to kill me for posting this photo. But for reals, how funny is this?