The TANK

A few days ago Sydney and I went to her one month appointment. This was the report, she grew one more inch and gained 2 lbs. since her one week check. 11 lbs 7 oz!!! DAAAAAAAAANG Tubby! Hahahaaa. She does like to eat, that's for sure. Here's a picture of her this morning after her meal...hahaaa

So cute. I don't remember when the boys were 11 pounds...maybe like 3 months old? hmmm.... anyways, she's a sleepin' eatin' poopin' machine. =)


And the boys are still doing well adjusting to a babe in the house all the time... fun new toys... =)


but still the fav is buzz and woody. every time they watch it is like the first time! And Buzz and Woody do everything too, play with playdoh, eat snacks, take naps, drink milk. You name it. =)


In other news, were getting ready for a trip to the NEB on Monday! There are SOO many things to pack it's crazy. My list keeps getting longer and longer. But there is much to do there, get as much family time in as possible and help out as much as we can (we- Erin, Josh, and I) while watching two 2-year olds and feeding 2 infants. HA! Could be a terrible idea, we will soon find out!!! Evan and Kristy here we come!!! Woop Woop!

December fun!

I'm hoping to get something back up here worth reading soon...but for now, I put pictures up on FB and here's the link. check em out!

CLICK HERE

The kiddies

Many of you may be wondering what the boys are like with Sydney...and if they're thinking I'm going to return her soon. HAHA. I'm pretty sure they thought that in the beginning, but now they're used to having her around and know her as their sister, or Sydney, if we ask them questions about her. As shown in the pics below, they both like to hold her, and do it about 3-4 times per day. Only for like 30 seconds and then they're done, but it's still super cute! I will narrate.
Everything's going well so far...Maybe she wants her pacifire?

DANG, she dropped it! I can't reach it!

Backfire! now what do I do?!?!

maybe Buzz will make her happy?! (I tried to make this picture turn but it wouldn't go. LAME)

no? ok, i'll just give her a kiss. so sweet....also sideways...



And now Garrett's turn...
G, do you want to hold Sydney?

ooo this is fun.

WOW all by myself!

And a kiss...

ok someone can take her now...


They are so sweet...I wish our computer would take a YEAR to post videos, cause I have some pretty cute ones from the last few weeks. You'll just have to live with just the pictures. =)

Can't wait for my bro's weddin - THREE WEEKS FROM TODAY! Just sayin, kinda a big deal. AND, Josh and Erin will be there with Renae, they got the OK from the doc to go (YES!) and we'll be able to get some good cousin time in. Bout time we get some cousins around here!!

Here They Are!

here's a few shots from the boys' bday weekend with our company! Thanks again Deb for throwin one heck of a party! =)

There is much to report.

I'm an AUNT!!! Renae Abigail Barricklow was born this morning and I can't WAIT to see pictures of her. It's really hard to not be there in GA with Josh and Erin....to return the favor, but more just cause I'm so excited for them and for the newbee. =)

Also, yesterday our company from NE left us, Steph and her parents, Bill and Deb were here helping us out with life for a few days. So sad to see them go. Of course, she brought along all sorts of activities for the boys to do...things that I wouldn't even think about just because all I see is the clean up. Hahahaa. But the boys obviously had a BLAST with them. AAAANNNNDDDD, they turned TWO on Sunday! Deb is the party planning genious, so she offered to do the boys' 'Toy Story' party on Saturday afternoon for our friends here. it was a HIT! The boys had a blast and were soo excited about their gifts and everyone singing happy birthday to them...so cute. =) We also discovered Sydney has no problem drinking from a bottle, which makes going places in public waaaayyy easier, and leaving her with people for that matter....at any rate....I'll put pics up here when the boys take a nap!

Congrats Erin and Josh! We love you already Renae - welcome to a GREAT family! =)

Two weeks old already!

Well, after a week of help, mom and grandma (or grandma and great grandma, rather) left yesterday for NE. It was nice to have some extra hands for holding/feeding/entertaining any of the three of them at any time. Plus, I got to run my errands sans boys, go to Sydney's 1 week appt, and go on a birthday date with Ry, and decorate the house for Christmas without little 'helpers' pulling on our legs! Hahaaa. Anyhoo, here's some pictures of the last week. Thanks again mom and gma for the visit!

Sydney Paige Thomas

Welcome lil lady. You're beautiful!

WHEW Finally!

Word on the street is she's comin out tomorrow! WOOP WOOP!! Had my appt this morning and things pretty much are the same. Seriously. What is THAT about? Anyways, Ryan and I will go to the hospital tomorrow morning at 7 and get the ball rollin, and HOPEFULLY she doesn't decide to take as long as the boys did (31 hours) and will come out and meet her parents MUCH MUCH sooner than that. =) I am kinda sad to say that she will miss my gma's bday by a day, since it's today...but I guess the day is only 1/2 over and there's still time! SOOO, stopped at the grocery store, stocked up on a few things, bags are packed, laundry is going, and the boys have no clue. HA. Hopefully tomorrow night we'll have more news for you, like maybe a PICTURE or two (hundred). That's all I have for today, see ya tomorrow!

Hello Everyone.

Well, sorry for the not very exciting news...but I'm still pregnant. HA! Which means one week past my date. Anyhoo, here's what I know:

I have an appt tomorrow morning.
A non-stress test is in store.
From that info we will decide when to induce.
Our options at this point seem to be Tuesday or Friday.
A simple pros and cons list tells us that Tuesday is our best pick.
HOWEVER, we respect our doctor's opinion, and will decide after we receive more info.
No amount of 'home techniques' seem to work to put me in labor.
We need to pick a name. HA

There you have it folks, stay tuned for more information!

On a different note, I REALLY REALLY wanted to be able to watch Ry play in the Lakeshore Alumni bball game against the varsity team last night, Meet the Team Night, if you will...and I WENT!!!! WHEW!!! I had so much fun, maybe even more then Ry. I could watch him play any day. AND, they tied 59 to 59. Pretty great. Schoony played too, even though he's not a true alum, he was recruited for a reason. (someone can TEAR IT UP). Heather and I were great fans, that's for sure. Anyways, I was really hoping all week that I would be able to go to that, so thank you God for keeping me pregnant so I could watch my man. =) And now she can come out whenever. Anytime really works for me.

Another update....

I'm afraid this isn't that exciting of an update, but I had another appointment this morning, ANNNNDDDDD, nothing has changed. haha. YES! Now 2 days OVER due, I scheduled for next monday, and at that appt if I'm still around (or just round - ha) then we will decide which day next week to be induced. My favorite thing. At least I know it will end in less than 10 days! But I LOVE my midwife who will be delivering the lil lady, which is good, so hopefully I have a (much) shorter experience with this whole thing than last time. I personally think that the girl just keeps getting bigger and bigger- cause it's not like that space didn't already hold an almost 13 pound kid. SO, she's not cramped at all. DAAAANG. Anyhoo, now that she's heard the word 'induce', maybe she'll get the show on the road. HAA

At any rate, here I am ON my due date.

And the boys havin fun with my tum.




A little fun fact, if this were my first pregnancy, the boys would be two weeks old tomorrow already!! woah!

tick tock...

well...due date is rapidly approaching....THIS SUNDAY! Come out already. =) To keep it PG for those readers who don't really want to know, the doctor says nothing's happening. haha. DANG. SO....we'll just keep waiting.

In the mean time, the boys and I are having a lot of fun during the day to pass the time before Ry gets home...play dates with friends, last minute grocery runs (seems to be a lot of those, maybe I should make more lists...)naps for all of us, play dough fun, coloring, building blocks, and this morning, our first ever Parents as Teacher's play group! It was a blast! Look at how cute the lil guys are just sittin there listening to the lady read a book. =)

Anyhoo, we'll just keep at it until she decides to come out, whatever makes the time go by!!

The ROOM.

Well, I didn't really do much to the girl's room, but it definitely got cleaned up/out after being full of toys and storage stuff for a year. Erin called me out on not putting up pics of the room yet, so I just ran upstairs quick and snapped a few for ya. Here we are standing in the doorway. It's the room above our garage, so that's why there's that weird shaped part.


AND, since she doesn't really need that much space and I'm not ready to move toys to the basement yet, most of the toys stayed upstairs, in these bins and in the boys' room.

and here is the BEAUTIFUL blanket my girlfriend Brie MADE for her, had to use it as wall art to show it off. =) Thanks Brie! Love it!

And here's another shot of the crib - totally exciting, but you can see the little flowers I painted on the wall a bit better. Hope the girl likes flowers, cause I do. hehe

Staff Outing! Woo!

After work today Neal and Trish planned a fun evening for the office to go to this cute lil shop in Bridgman and have a flower arranging class! We had a blast just hanging out and getting to be creative. Ryan and I did a joint arrangement, which you can see at the end, and all the ladies said they were going to bring their flower basket to the hospital for the girl when she's born. haha. At least my room would smell good!! Anyhoo, it was pretty fun and I'm glad I was invited, even though I'm not really staff. =)

BOO.

get your head tilt on for this one...sorry... =)


Here's a sneak at our costumes...a construction worker and his road sign (pic is dark cause Ry's vest was too reflective with the flash - haha), and a ref and a NEB football player! We had a pretty fun day!!



Check out my facebook album for more pictures from the day!

Nate-o and Scipp

What wonderful friends to take their fall break (and 1 year anniv. trip) to come visit lil ol me...well, and the boys...and Ry. We had a pretty great time. They cooked two FABULOUS meals, which we will totally be making again, played with the boys, shopped around, showed Nate some of the town (from the van cause it was raining the whole time- boo), Nate fixed our computer, got some good catchin up time in, got a night out to eat without the boys, watched a movie, made about 20 trips to the grocery store- haha....many things. It's always great to see them, even though it's been since last xmas since we've been together in person, you know you have great friends when you don't miss a beat even when it's been a long time. Two of my favorites...thanks for comin guys!

Fun in the sun?

well...not really. but who says you can't have fun without the sun!?! Schoony's brought over a little treat for the boys to keep thru the winter months in case they (or I- haa) need to burn off some energy. Thanks guys!

Tis the season!

When I was pregnant with the boys, I had Emily make a belly cast of my stomach when I was huge, so this time I had to do something crazy again, you know....just to keep it up. This was SO funny and she did such a good job! Thanks Emily for putting up with me. =) Happy Holloween a week early!