Grammie's Birthday

We had my Grammie's 86th birthday party yesterday at my Aunt Jane's house in Hermann. I love her house. It's on a ton of land and it's so cute. It's like a country house out of a magazine. My Uncle Don designed the house and it's just perfect.

After going to this party, I was again reminded as to how bad my Grammie is getting. As soon as I got there, I went over to her and told her happy birthday. I had Dominick tell her happy birthday and I sat with her for a bit. I gave her Gretchen's birth announcement and her baptism invitation. She asked when the invite was and I told her and after about 15 minutes, I got up and went to help in the kitchen. While we were getting ready to eat, Grammie looked at Nick and said, "I guess Meghan had to work today since she's not here?". It's just hard. Hard to watch, hard to hear, just hard all over.

But the kids had a blast and I think my Grammie did too. My sister came, which was a surprise to me, and it was great for Dom. The kids were running all over the yard and just having a ball. I brought candy and all the kids got some Kit Kats and everything worked out perfectly.

I made an easy pasta salad recipe that was really good if anyone is interested.

Pesto Pasta Salad

1 box rotini pasta
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1- 7oz container of prepared pesto
1 cup toasted pine nuts

You just cook the pasta, drain it, rinse with cold water and drain again. In a separate bowl, whisk together the pesto, oil and vinegar. Pour the pesto mixture over the pasta. Top with the tomatoes and pine nuts. Toss to coat the pasta. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Yum!

Sue

My mother in law is having some problems with her back. She was in the hospital for a few days a few weeks back and she's in so much pain. It's hard to watch. I feel so bad for her. She loves exercise and picking up the grandkids and DOING things and she's pretty much confined to her house and she's in so much pain she's not sleeping. I feel awful for her.

We went to visit her for a bit yesterday. It was just Nick, Gretchen and I and it was the first time I've seen her since all this has happened. Nick's been over to see her but I haven't been able to go. It was sad for me to see her like this. She was walking with a cane and it was very evident that she's in pain. Please say some prayers that she feels better soon and can get back to the things she loves. Exercise and playing with grandbabies!!

Pumpkin Patch

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch this past weekend and it was stressful! :) but fun and totally worth it.  Luckily my mom met us there and that was a major life saver. It's hard when you are outnumbered by kids! Especially when one has to be held and another one doesn't talk but likes to run away!

But we made it. And Dom and Anna had a blast (Nick calls Annabelle Anna and I'm trying to go with it so she doesn't get so confused with having a million different names!).

We got there and it was PACKED. I swear, everyone was at this pumpkin patch on Sunday around 2. But there was a lot to do and Dom jumped right in. There was a small maze for kids with a bridge, a pole to slide down, a tire to crawl through and more. There were a few slides to go down. There were some hay mazes to crawl through (that were completely pitch black and I can't believe Dom liked them). There were also pony rides and swings and of course, pumpkins!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the pumpkin patch!

Happy Halloween!

Pictures!

My grandpa holding Gretchen and talking to Annabelle

My little dare devil. She climbed up onto the coffee table 

at my parents house and was smirking as if daring us to tell her to get down...

Gretchen napping in the pack n play while I cooked dinner one night. 

It amazed me how close in size she and the doll were!

HAHA, I HAD to post this picture!

Cecilia is SO skinny and tall. Her pants can't even stay up. When this happened

I asked if she needed help. She said, "no". She was more concerned with playing 

than worrying about her pants! 

Annabelle, Dominick and Cecilia

Cheering on the Cardinals!

Go Cardinals!!!

Big girl Gretchen!!

My Grammie, Gretchen and me. 

Gretchen at 1 month

Dommie and Addie cheering on the Cardinals. 

I haven't hardly taken any pictures, but this is what I have. Hopefully I can add more to it soon!

My Grammie

My grandma is sick. You wouldn't know it if you just looked at her. Physically she's perfect. She's living on her own and doing everything for herself. The scary part is that she has dementia. I don't talk to her as often as I should, but every time I do talk to her I realize how bad it's getting.

I went to visit her last Wednesday with my mom and Gretchen. We wanted Grandma to get to meet her. Here's the conversation we had the first few minutes I was there:

me: "Hi Grandma! How are you?"
Grandma: "Hi. Is this the baby? What's her name?"
me: "Yup. This is Gretchen."
G: "Oh hi Gretchen!"
silence for a few seconds
G: "So what's his name? Is it a boy?"
me: "No, it's a girl. Her name is Gretchen."
G: "Oh I thought it was a girl, but then you just said he."
I got the baby out and gave the baby to Grandma.
G: "How old is she?"
me: "She's 1 month old."
G: "Oh she's tiny."
me: "Yeah, she's pretty small for our family."
G: "Yeah, she's small. How old is she?"
me: "She's 1 month old."
G: "One month? Oh wow, she's tiny"

It went on like that for every conversation we had. We were there for 2 hours and we probably had 30 minutes worth of conversation. It makes me sad. Sad because I know that must be frustrating for Grandma to think that no one tells her things or that she can't remember anything. Frustrating for the family when Grandma can't remember things. It's sad because she'll never really know these great grandchildren.

The only thing to really do is keep visiting, keep calling and make sure she knows we love her. So I'll keep doing it. And keep taking pictures. Even if the kids don't remember Great Grammie, I want to be able to show them pictures when they are older and tell them stories about her.

I have a great picture of me, Grammie and Gretchen, but of course it's on the camera and not on the computer. I'll upload it soon.

I'm going to try and remember to bring my camera more places and take more pictures. I've been lazy recently.

Anyway, we love you Grammie and I'm so happy you got to meet Gretchen the other day! We'll come back soon and visit.

1 month old

I need to bring my camera downstairs and update all my pictures, but I wanted to post Gretchen's 1 month stats.

She turned one month old on Thursday and we had her appointment with the pediatrician. She's doing great! She's up to 9 lbs. 4 oz. and 21" long. So she's back on track with her weight and doing fabulous. She got 1 shot and only cried for a few minutes.

She's tracking with her eyes and starting to hold her head up. She's already getting to be so big!

She just got out of newborn clothes. Literally yesterday. As of Thursday she was wearing newborn and then yesterday she was just too long. Now I'm sure that has more to do with the brand and the actual onesie I put her in, than the idea that she grew overnight, but still. I'm moving her to 0-3 month clothes. It's crazy. Dominick and Annabelle NEVER were able to fit in newborn clothes and Gretchen wore then for a full month!

One thing that the doctor said at the visit was that Gretchen was going to start giving me longer stretches at night on sleep. She said within the next month I should start getting 4 and 5 hour stretches as well as more awake time during the day. Well the last two nights have been AmAzInG. Last night she ate at 10, and then slept until 3 and then again until 6:30. It was great. GREAT I tell you!

I can't believe she's getting so big!! I'll update with pictures soon!

Cardinal FeVeR!!!!

Man I love baseball season!!!

Last October, we were the miracle team. We barely made it into the post season. We were the underdogs. We were the long shot.

And yes, we were the WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!!!

Here we are again. We were the 2nd Wild Card team. We went on the road to beat Atlanta, the first wildcard team. Then we played the Washington Nationals. The BEST record in baseball. ON the ROAD. We were down to our last strike twice. TWICE. JUST LIKE LAST YEAR!!!!

AND WE WON!!!

I'm so excited!! What a game! What a season!!

GO CARDS!!!!

The night before...

So tomorrow is when my scheduled c-section was supposed to be. it's kind of crazy to think about what I would have been doing.

I would have been double checking my hospital bag to make sure I have everything. I would have been charging my camera. I would have been making sure we had arrangements for people to pick up Dom and Annabelle from school and daycare. I would have been enjoying one last meal (complete with ice cream) before having to stop eating and drinking before the surgery. I would have been soaking up the last few minutes of being a family of 4 before turning into a family of 5.

Instead, I'm chasing around an almost 4 year old and 1 1/2 year old. I'm cleaning up after making dinner. I'm folding laundry. I'm watching the baseball game and getting ready to watch the debate.

But best of all, I'm looking at a beautiful 3 week old sleeping in her pack n play.

Today isn't what I was planning on it to be. But sometimes messed up plans turn out to be amazing.

I'm so happy that Gretchen is already here and so happy to be our family of 5.

What an amazing night.

Oh and GO BIRDS! :)

Hospital Pictures!

I'm such a sucker. I always buy the hospital pictures. Even when Dom was born and Bella Baby wasn't doing the pictures yet and the pictures were awful! I bought them all... But I got the CD in the mail yesterday with Gretchen's pictures so I thought I'd post a few of my favorites!

Enjoy!

Isn't my baby beautiful???

Happy 3 weeks Gretchen!!