Our bed arrived!

We ordered a sleep # bed and it arrived yesterday. Lance & I put it together this morning. It really wasn't too bad considering it came in 8 boxes! I cannot wait to sleep in it tonight! I'll have a review tomorrow:)

Food for thought.

This was sent to me by one of my students....

There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She

hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend.. He was always

there for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see

the world, I will marry you.'

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages

came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.

He asked her,'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The

girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The

sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected

that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life

led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her

saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before

they were yours, they were mine.'

This is how the human brain often works when our status changes.

Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who

was always by their side in the most painful situations.

Life Is a Gift

Today before you say an unkind word - Think of someone who can't

speak.

Before you complain about the taste of your food - Think of someone

who has nothing to eat.

Before you complain about your husband or wife - Think of someone

who's crying out to GOD for a companion.

Today before you complain about life - Think of someone who went

too early to heaven.

Before whining about the distance you drive Think of someone who

walks the same distance with their feet.

And when you are tired and complain about your job - Think of the

unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job.

And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down - Put a smile on

your face and think: you're alive and still around.

Don't tell Daddy....

(4 months old)

Seriously isn't that one of the cutest little faces ever?!!

Not too bad you say!! Keep looking;)

Same day!! 4 months old:) Gotta start her early!! Faith would hardly even walk with Makenna on her. Makenna rode Faith again today and even held the reins. She also sat on her all by herself! My mom took pics so I'll post them when I get then from her.

Excuse my lack of makeup-didn't do my hair-didn't even manage a shower-self:/

The difference if you marry a North Dakota Girl!

Three friends married women from different parts of the Midwest.

The first man married a woman from Wisconsin. He told her that she was to do the dishes and house cleaning..It took a couple of days, but on the third day, he came home to see a clean house and dishes washed and put away.

The second man married a woman from Minnesota. He gave his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes and the cooking. The first day he didn't see any results, but the next day he saw it was better. By the third day, he saw his house was clean, the dishes were done, and there was a huge dinner on the table.

The third man married a girl from North Dakota. He ordered her to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed, and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything but by the third day, some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye, and his arm was healed enough that he could fix himself a sandwich and load the dishwasher. He still has some difficulty when he pees..

OMG!!! This is SO true!! I love being from ND:) ha ha ha!

Christmas in pictures!

Wow does Miss Thang look like a cross between Lance and my brother! :/
I swore I'd never be one of ~those~ mothers that put weird crap on my baby's head. Oh well...I couldn't help it! She looked SO cute!!

"Uncle Lee! Wanna try?"

I love presents from Santa!!!

This is also the 1st time of kneeling and pulling up on something:/

Scrapping up a storm....

Lance installed my new blue cricut into my slide out drawer/cupboard and hooked up the DVD player in my scraproom....LOVE it!!! No time to talk....pics tomorrow:)

Milestone Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas and not just because Miss Thang entertained us completely!

The church service was wonderful. Food was good. Presents were great. Miss Thang had a wonderful time with all the paper, ribbon and boxes. She was so good natured in spite of being up 1.5 hrs past her bedtime. Such a little trooper.

THEN, this morning she decided to dazzle us with her agility and strength...she figured out how to kneel then pulled up to standing not once but at least 10 times (that's when I stopped counting and started looking at everything that needs to be baby proofed). She can stand with one hand on something and the other free. She's trying to figure out how to go "no hands" but hasn't gotten it yet. With the way things are going, it'll probably be tomorrow:/

Amazing? Yes.
Too soon for this milestone? Most definitely.
Mommy needs a drink! :)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good nite!!

We're off to church and then look at Christmas lights with a cup of hot ~insert fav beverage here~ then food + gifts = Very Merry Christmas!!

I want to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Luv,
Kelly

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

We are under a Winter Storm Warning for tonight through Saturday. Luckily Lee and Lance rolled in today and my mom is going to try to slide in tomorrow after she's done with work. Hopefully she'll make it!

Everyone have a very Merry Christmas!! I hope you enjoy a fun family and loved one filled holiday:) If you are traveling, be safe!

I kicked the to-do list

and it kicked back! I got about 1/3 of my list done today:/ Miss Thang went to daycare while I finished some work and Christmas projects. It was so funny...last night I was trying to get as much done as possible before bedtime knowing that I had today to get more "to-do's" done. I wanted to make the most of my free day. Pre-Makenna I would have left it to do today because I had the whole day to do it:/ Oh how things change!

The weather people are going nuts around here....apparently we are going to get smacked with snow starting tomorrow and ending around the weekend. Lee and Lance are heading this direction tomorrow and my mom is coming on Thursday. We're suppose to go to my Grandma's house on Friday but it's not sounding to good for that. We'll see.

Tomorrow is going to be filled with playing, drinking Diet Dew, trying to NOT eat all the Christmas cookies and stalking the ~new bed~ wedsite since I got the notice that our bed was shipped today. I can't wait until it arrives!

Oh and I ran just under 2 miles today on the treadmill. Last time I was on it was when I was pregnant. Felt good except for my belly flab was jiggling... so not cool:/

Cupcake love.

Thanks Jen for introducing me to this site. I am so going to make these over and over again! My Grandma turns 90 in Feb so I'm going to make some pretty ones for her big celebration.

Miss M has been wow-ing us with all her new tricks including (but not limited too) snorting, standing up off my lap all by herself and jumping so hard in the jumperoo that I think we're going to have to weight it down:) I MUST video her! That is my goal for this week. We really could use a new video camera as our battery is shot in our old one. I've found some fabulous purple ones out there!! Don't know if they record for crap but Lance will look great holding it!! Did I mention there are purple ones?! tee hee

Breads a baking.

Wow does it smell good! We've had a few mishaps in the kitchen during the bread baking including the "oven safe" pot and lid (it says it on the box!!) basically melting in the oven during the pot warming process. Thank God that the bread wasn't in there. So that set the bread baking back 30 mins. Everything is going well so far now...

I rode my horse this afternoon (with my mom). It's so nice to get out to the barn. I used my new Roth work pad and LOVE it! Faith is going really well. She's slightly out of shape but is moving great. She's jet black except for her nose and around her eyes and looks gorgeous!

Miss Thang went down awesome tonite plus she had a big nap today??? So not like her! I'll take it though! Hopefully she's not up all nite. I'm wrapping up Christmas cookies, baking bread and working in my scraproom while watching the Vikings...it doesn't get much better than this! I think I might fire up the jacuzzi tub and have a nice bubble bath too.

Only 4 days til Christmas!!! Are you ready? I am:)

Christmas cookies galore!

I was baking up a storm today. I made 4 different kinds of cookies plus the easy bread which is rising in M's room. I love baking so that was fun for me but I'm glad to have it all done with. I have all the Christmas presents wrapped except for the few gifts that I need to finish making. Hopefully I can get them all done Tuesday when M goes to daycare for a little while so I can have some time to clean and finish up Christmas stuff. I just can't believe how fast Christmas is coming! Pretty soon I'm going to be showing my horse again...YAY!!! I need to get on the weight loss/get back in shape band wagon since I cannot use "I just had a baby" excuse anymore for my less than flat belly. Yikes! I need a gurdle!

OK, I'm off to bed...oh speaking of beds...we bought a new one! YAY!!! We ordered a sleep number bed so hopefully that will help my back feel better because it's adjustable. It should be here before the New Year. Can't wait!

Nite!

Cake bites.

Have you ever had cake bites? One of my students brought me these yesterday. Oh. My. God. Yummmmmmy! Talk about a little piece of chocolate heaven. Lance was lucky that I saved any for him because I SO could have eaten all of them in one sitting. So I've been searching the net for a recipe so I can make these littel goodies for Christmas. Here it is. This is what I'll be doing tomorrow along with a couple other cookies and the easy bread recipe. I love baking! I don't do it nearly as much as I'd like to because there aren't enough people living in this home to eat all the goodies and Lance and I don't want to weigh 500 lbs each!

The last day of class went great. All my grades are in and I'm done with Fall 2009. Now I have to start prepping for Winter 2010. That is the one disadvantage of being a teacher vs student. I think that's the only one though;)

Last day of class!!

Woooo Whooooo!!! One little lonely final to give this afternoon along with loads of grades to enter then I'm done! Well just for this quarter:) I do need to order lab stuff for next quarter and review what I'm teaching...I think it's probably helpful if your teacher at least ~looks~ over what she's teaching you;) ha ha!

Tonight is Chix Nite at the theatre then dinner and drinks and white elephant. Fun Fun!! Tomorrow is going to be full of Christmas cookies and wrapping of presents plus snuggling with the anti-snuggle M. I might have to resort to hugging a cat instead as they are WAY more receptive.

Happy almost Friday!!!

Explanation.

Stinkin' dog......so it is really cold yesterday (0 degrees was the high!). I thought Teddy would be fine in his kennel because A) he's very woolie and hairy and made for cold temps B) he can go in and out of our insulated garage where he has a very cozy area with raised floor, warm bed, ect. I am talking to Lance while I'm leaving and he says to leave Teddy in the house. We've left Teddy inside for that long, it's never been a problem. He's big enough to hold it from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. So I leave him in. Since it's finals week, classes are kinda messed around so I wound up getting done with class early. I pick up M and head home by 4:30. I walk in and Teddy is no where to be seen or heard AND there is PEE and POO EVERY. WHERE.

FRICKIN DOG (and husband!)

So M is freaking out cuz she just woke up. I'm PISSED. Teddy needs to go out but by the look of our ceramic tile it's more of a want. Grrrrrr.

Silver lining.... at LEAST is was just on the tile floors and no where else. BUT that was the LAST thing I wanted to do when I got home:/

Frickin husband and husband's dog.

$%#^&*#* Dog!!!!

Anyone want a Keeshound cheap? i.e. I'll pay you??? Freakin dog! Grrrrrrr.....

Plans for the weekend... already...

I am going to bring out my inner Betty Crocker and try this. For those of you that ~know~ me really well, you know there isn't a place in my house warm enough for bread to rise... pre-baby that is. Things have since warmed up in the Haugen household. Both Lance and I are very hot blooded so we like our house lukewarm. Now that Makenna has joined the family, things have warmed up for her sake. We have a heater in her room to make sure she is extra cozy at night because she doesn't have any covers or blankets so that's where I'm going to put the bread overnite:)

Lazy Sunday

I got a 2 hour nap!! 2 HOURS!!! I love my husband!!! He's the best:)

I feel like a new woman after that nap!

Tonight I'm editing photos to get sent out for printing and grading papers. Awww, I lead such a glamorous life;)

Makenna and I wrapped a bunch of Christmas presents today. She loves all things paper plus the curly riibon! Our presents aren't quite as beautifully wrapped as usual but that's ok. They have Miss Thang's touch added to each and every one. Plus some drool if you look real close;)

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Its my mom's 57th birthday today. So in honor of her being OLD (tee hee), we went & got our hair cut & colored and went out to lunch plus a little shopping. I've been harassing mom about trying my fabulous hair stylist. Finally she caved. Her hair looks SO GREAT!!! I should have taken pics. It's very cute. Mine is rockin'! I really felt like I needed a change so it was either grow it out or cut. So we cut! I love it! I'll take some pics and show you. I also had her do my normal colors of black, purple and blonde but this time it was purple all over instead of black...just to mix things up. Love it!! It sounds pretty extreme but really its not that crazy.

We have a Christmas party tonight at our friends' house so Lance's parents will watch M for a couple of hours. We won't stay long because M isn't feeling fabulous after her shots and that nasty tooth coming in. Plus I was away from her all day and Lance is leaving tomorrow for another work trip so we all need some quality family time:)

Christmas decorations and 6 month appt.

Lance is normally Clark Griswald but this year with M and the business, we just ran out of time and energy so thanks to an email from Diane (horse showing BFF) this is what we came up with! Excuse the very blurry pics as my camera wasn't liking the freezing cold weather!

The sign says Ditto with an arrow pointing to our neighbors who spent 3 days on their lights and decorations and won the Bville Holiday Light contest. tee hee hee! We thought it was funny as hell!!

We had Miss M's 6 month appt and she is right on track for the 50% in all the height, weight and head size. She is way ahead of most with her sitting, standing and crawling. Our dr was amazed but not surprised at all of Miss M's new tricks. She told us to start child proofing the house as she's betting Miss Thang is on the move in the very near future. God help our household when that day comes! Miss Thang got more shots including the H1N1 and the regular flu shot. We have to go back in a month to get more shots as our Dr doesn't like to do too many shots at once (which we certainly appreciate and agree with). So Miss Thang is just as fabulous as we think she is;)

Ha Ha Ha!

Wait until you see what we did for our house decorations this year....

pics to come....


tee hee hee.....

3 days left...

of class. Tomorrow and next week which is finals week. Yay for me...not so much for the students;) I love teaching but it will be nice to have a couple of weeks off, eventhough I will be working on my classes for next quarter. I'm teaching 3 classes just Mon and Wed. It's a lot of work on 2 days but that's the way I wanted it so Miss Thang doesn't have to do daycare more than 2 days/week. Lance is also going to try to schedule it so he's home with Miss M every other Monday so she'll actually be doing less daycare than now. She'll appreciate that and I think Jaye will too. Miss M can be a royal pita sometimes:/

Thanks for all the nice comments on my ~wanna be a photographer~ photos!! We did half the pics in the morning then the other half in the afternoon. It took a total of about 15-20 mins all together as Lance was helping, Miss M generally likes her picture taken and I'm quick with a camera. It was fun and I can't wait to wallpaper the house with them;) OK maybe not the WHOLE house!!! ha!

Notes to self...

I really need to start journaling about what Miss M is doing because I can't seem to remember things like:

• when she started growling at things (her toys, food, the cats, ect)...1 of her newest traits:0)
• she puts everything on her head...toys, washclothes, spoons, newspaper, ect...kinda like Robert from "Everybody Loves Raymond" when he puts his food to his chin then eats it.
• she laughs all the time... I love that sound!
• she is REALLY into giving kisses...they are very wet and slobbery and now they sting a little as that tooth of hers is pretty sharp. Her kisses are not gentle! Oww! She even latched onto my nose...I LMOA when she did this and kinda scared her cuz I was laughing so hard.

M is at such a fun stage right now! I just wish she was better for Jaye (daycare) and not so fussy while with her. That's got to make it rough for both of them. Is it just a phase? We're still on the bottle strike....2 weeks now:/ She is starting to drink a little out of a sippy cup so that's good. I just put water in there for now.

Pictures with Santa

Poor Miss M caught my cold and is very snort-y and boggery. She's just not feeling real hot. Poor thing. She's napping already eventhough she just got up at am. I'm trying to wrap up our Christmas letter and get the Christmas cards out soon!

Here is Miss M and Santa:

On the 6th day of Christmas...

Makenna turned 6 months old!!!! Here are some pics I took of her this morning.

Spa la la la la la la la awwwwww!

Lance and I have a tradition of going to a day spa for our anniversary. We did it 2 days before our wedding and every year after that. So M went to Grandma's for the morning and we went to The Lodge in Detroit Lakes. If anyone is in need of some pampering and in the DL area...I would highly recommend The Lodge's spa services. We had pedi's and I had a hot stone massage while Lance was getting a mani. It was great. I feel like a new woman, other than the fact that I'm getting a cold. Oh well!
M is still on the bottle strike. I even bought the "boob-like" bottle from Pout (along with some other cute things there) and she doesn't want any of that either. Dang child! I'm going to attribute that to the new tooth and not attitude because then I think about what Miss Thang is going to be like in 13 years and CRINGE! I can feel the grey hair sprouting:/

On the 4th day of Christmas....

we went to see Santa!! I'll scan the pics and post them tomorrow.

Also....5 years ago today....

1 of the greatest things I ever did:) Love you Lance!!! You are the luckiest man in the world. Umm, isn't that how it goes? Oh I mean me...no really I mean he is;) tee hee

On the 3rd day of Christmas...

I ask you questions!

1. Did you/do you give your baby juice and/or water? What age and how much? (I'm thinking of trying this in a bottle to get M to take the bottle again.)
2. M is getting Stage 1 baby food. Stage 2 baby food says that it is for babies that sit. Well she does that. She topples over every once and a while when she dives to get the cat or a toy but she's pretty stable on her own. So can I move to Stage 2 foods?
3. Are there any shoes that actually stay on a babies feet? When we go outside I really feel like I need to have more than just socks on her.
4. Don't you think my fabulous neighbor who laughed at my post about M crawling should be the first one signed up to babysit Miss Wild Thang? hmmm....Gina Gina Sexmachina?? tee hee

I'm off to bed. M did not sleep well last night. We were up 3 times and by the looks of the bags under my eyes, I need some beauty sleep! Yikes! The good news is Lance is coming home late tonight so we can tag team Miss M. YAY!!!

Nite nite!

Oh, I forgot to add that one of my scrapbook pages from last year's Journal Your Christmas was one of the featured layouts in today's prompt. I didn't know about it until I opened up the email this morning! I was thrilled!!! Yay me!! ha ha ha

On the 2nd day of Christmas....

Miss Thang started crawling. :/ Forward & back. Not totally proficient at it but definitely moving.

By the 10th day of Christmas she's going to be driving and growing boobs if she doesn't slow down. Sheesh! She's over her napping too. That is for babies.... and mommies but alas M didn't get that memo plus she's too busy for that. According to her. Sorry for the quick post but M is trying to check her email or update facebook or something that my laptop & her fingers.

Oh & its snowing like crazy here:) Yay!

On the 1st day of Christmas....

Makenna brought to me.....




1 new tooth!!! We have a tooth people! I thought I felt something kinda hard and pointy on her bottom gum but I couldn't see it. As soon as I tried to look, she would bite down or put her hand in there. She was tired tonight after daycare so I was able to look again while getting her ready for her bath. There it was... a little white tooth just barely jutting out. It hasn't broke all the way through yet but soon I'm sure. No wonder she was waking up during the night! Would that have anything to do with her bottle strike (going on day 6)? She went completely milk-less from 8:30 am to 6pm today. That can't be good?! She did have baby food but it's not mommy milk. That just freaks me out!

So this is what its like.

To have a baby that naps! Wow! Talk about easy! I could DEFINITELY get use to this:) M has been down for about 1.5 hrs and I have gotten so much done. Love this!!

So how long does an average 6 month old nap during the day? A couple hours? I need to "gog.gle" this.

I've got the Christmas tree half decorated, laundry going, presents wrapped or shoved in gift bags, phone calls made and now I'm going to write our Christmas letter. Ahhhh, glorious naps! I just might need to have one myself one of these days;)

So proud!

Of myself for blogging every day this week! Of Miss Thang for actually napping!! She's been down in her crib for 1 hour!! Awww its glorious:)

I am going to blog every day in Dec. That is my goal. I usually do the Journal Your Christmas album in december and I'm going to this year again. I already have it made so that way I can just take some pics and journal. I. will. do. it. every.day.

On the Miss Thang ~no bottle~ front....still the same. I tried a sippy cup but she would have none of that. Jessi, I'm going to try your sippy cup recommendations as the ones that I have have a hard spout. M has taken a bottle (occasionally) since week 2 so this isn't a new thing for her. She's really good with a bottle and has them at daycare so why now is she refusing? We use the playtex drop-ins and the born bottles. She has (I mean HAD) no problem with either of them. ~sigh~ I have no problem with nursing her as I really enjoy bf-ing but I do work 2 days a week. We do have her 6 month appt next week so I'll talk to the ped too. Gasp....6 months! Holy crap! I got my 1st comment of "when is the next one coming?" this week. Seriously?! Do you not remember me being pregnant for 15 of 17 months? Yes we are having more. Right now...not so much! Soon? Probably, but not right now. Unless its an ~oops~ we are not trying!!
Cripes...I'm still trying to get my body tucked back in. Sheesh.

Miss Thang decided..... (help!!)

that she doesn't want a bottle anymore. WTH?!! She is eating Stage 1 foods for lunch and supper but gets breastmilk for the rest of her meals either from me or via a bottle. She has NEVER had problems taking a bottle. Now she won't take one from Lance, Lee or my mom. Why?? I have no idea??! What do we do now?? Any ideas?? The only thing I can think of is to try a sippy cup which I think she's way too young for but what do I know. I need suggestions and/or help!!!

Today I fed her, then went to do some Christmas shopping while my mom and Lee watched M. They both tried the bottle but she wouldn't take it so they gave her baby food at 9:45 and 11am then I got home at 1:30pm and nursed her and again at 3:30 then went to the barn to ride. Lance tried the bottle but she wouldn't take it so he gave her baby food. I got home at 7:30, gave her a bath and nursed her then bed. That seems like hardly any feedings. Granted she's eating a lot when I nurse her but still.

Any advice or suggestions? Please:)

Lovin' the Black Friday!

Ok. I don't like the lack of sleep that now comes with responsible parenting when I decide to go shopping at 3am (no going back to bed for this mommy) but I LOVE all the great deals I got. So I'm going to leave it at that and head to bed. I do not function well on 3.5 hrs of sleep. I'm going to become one with my jammies, bed and Santa Claus (the movie) on tv:)

It IS the most wonderful time of the year!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

To each and every one of you!!! I hope you had time to enjoy a wonderful meal with loved ones, watch some football and wrestle the crazies at Michaels for cheap cricut cartridges. Oh, umm.... I guess that last part was just me and Ember:) Boy were there crazies!! And we were NOT them;) Well maybe we might be a tish nuts. Oh well, we both scored several carts for at least 60% off. YAY!!

Anyway...Happy Thanksgiving and for all the Black Friday shoppers, enjoy and be safe! If you're going to the DL wal-mart for the cricut expression, they are all sold out:) tee hee OK so maybe they aren't but I'm not above clawing, scratching, kicking and/or elbowing! I'm just saying.....

I'm thankful for these 2.

I'm thankful for this sweet baby girl and her father. I'm thankful for the way she looks at him when he gets home from a long trip (she gets SO excited!). I'm thankful for the way he makes her laugh and giggle when he's changing her diaper or playing with her. I'm thankful for the way she smiles when she's sitting on his shoulders and tries to eat his hair by pulling it towards her not bending closer to it. I love that when he's getting his hair pulled out, he is laughing too. Plus, if you have seen Lance IRL then you know he has hair to spare!! That man has like 10 hairs coming out of 1 follicle! I ~know~ he will never be bald!

1 free hour

My babysitter/day care provider offered to drop off Miss M tonight since she is coming into town so I can have a little extra time to run errands/do chores/ect. That is SO nice of her. So I've been home for 1 hour....BY. MY. SELF! What do I find myself doing? Looking out the window or door to see if M is here yet? Sheesh! Why is that? I should be doing things that I normally do after she goes to bed or sitting with my feet up eating bonbons yet I find myself so excited for when Miss Thang is going to get here. I need to get a grip! Or valium! Or something! ~blush~

I've looked out the window 3 times in the last minute.

Hi my name is Kelly and I have a problem.

Oh well! Remind me again of what I did before Miss Thang was here? How was I "so busy"? I feel kinda lost without the little screech monkey and its only been 1 extra hour of Kelly time.

So today I'm thankful for an awesome daycare provider AND that I miss my daughter when she's not here instead of celebrating getting rid of the high-maintanence wonder! tee hee

I'm thankful for....

the last 1.5 hours of peaceful silence as sweet Miss Thang is FINALLY learning how to nap! In her crib too! Triple arm pump! Never mind the fact that I've played my ass off this morning to wear her out and Mommy needs a nap too;) Instead I'm spending NDQHA money on awards for the open and ammys. I love to shop! I ordered myself a new work saddle with my award winnings as I was able to do really well this year in spite of being hugely pregnant and not able to ride then having a new baby. Yay me:) Faith too! We wound up with Reserve Amateur All-Around too!!

Wait...how did this become a post all about me?! Oh ya, back to Makenna napping... that is DEFINITELY what I am thankful for today!

The Christmas tree is lit...

not decorated but up and on. I do have Christmas music playing too. I'm shopping for new glasses online, ordering awards for the NDQHA and have the 1st batch of Christmas cookie dough chilling in the fridge. Ahh, it's the most wonderful time of the year!!!

Now before you think I've gone and completely skipped Thanksgiving, I'd like you to know that I have my list of what I'm most thankful for (which I'll be going over this whole week), the turkey is thawing in the fridge AND my Black Friday shopping list is made! That's right...Lance and I are some of the crazies that get up at 4am to go shop. There is a cricut (scrapping item) on HUGE sale at Wally so I WILL be there in line for it. Don't even think I won't elbow you out of my way if need be;) tee hee
Uncle Lee is going to watch Miss Thang...and by watch, I mean they are both going to be snoring at eachother:) Lance and I will probably be back by the time either of them stir. They probably won't even know we left! Can't wait!

I will be better!

My goal for next week is to blog every day. I've been such a slacker:)



We had a doctor's appt for Miss M yesterday. At one of our pregnancy u/s appt's, they noticed that 1 of her kidneys was slightly larger than the other and had a little more fluid on it. They kept telling us it's not a big deal and don't freak out. Seriously?! After what we went through with Lily, a little fluid on the kidney WAS NO BIG DEAL. We just laughed. So after Miss M was born, they did an u/s and saw that the 1 kidney was still bigger although just slightly. They wanted us to do a procedure where they inject dye into the bladder and watch to see if it goes back up the ureters into the kidney. Luckily it did not! So all is good there. M did great with all of it. The 1st tech that tried to insert the catheter was horrible at it (apparently) as poor M was not impressed. Finally, as she was still fumbling around, I told her that was enough. She had her chance and it was obvious that she was not going to succeed. She asked if we wanted someone else to try...I said yes (since we were there). An older lady came down and had the catheter in in 15 sec and M didn't even flinch. I was NOT impressed with the 1st lady and ~might~ have said "Hmmm, sure would have been nice to have that done the 1st time and not traumatize the baby" while looking at her. Needless to say, she left in a hurry. Now M was not traumatized but I was pissed. She was lucky I was standing on the far side of the table as I would have ~liked~ to smack her. I don't know how parents are able to go through cancer with their kids? I mean I know they don't have a choice but that would be so tough to see your child in pain. Just breaks your heart.
So anyway, all is great with Miss Thang! She wasn't traumatized (or hurt) but I think Lance and I were;)

Today we put up the Christmas tree. It's a big one so I haven't put any ornaments on it but I will tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a nice relaxing Sunday full of football, pizza and Christmas ornaments. Add in some chocolate and that sounds like a perfect day:)

I'm a....

• working
• riding
• scrapping
• shopping
• paper grading
• misted
• reorganizing
• football watching
• Christmas music listening
• furniture moving
• baby feeding
• not blog posting

machine! This week was crazy at work...I have tons to correct/grade/enter but I'm 3/4 done. I was also able to get the H1N1 flu mist due to Miss M being under 6 months old. I did that Tuesday with just minor side-effects (sore throat, runny nose) except it really seemed to hurt my milk supply. Things really decreased but I'm fighting through it and hoping to ramp the production back up. Thank goodness we have some in the freezer. I wish I had more though. Yikes!! Has anyone else had that side effect or heard of anyone with it??

On friday I had a 2 day scrap retreat with a bunch of girlfriends. We had a blast! I got a bunch done eventhough I was missing my daughter and hubby who were at home spending some quality bonding time together. Lance just got back from a 9 day work trip on Thursday nite. I packed up to go scrapping on Friday morning. Not an ideal situation but we made due. It was a local retreat so I was home both nights by midnight. Today was spent relaxing with the fam, taking Miss M for a walk, grading papers and watching a lot of football. Now if only I could have squeezed a nap in there too;)

Miss M is up to her usual antics:) She is a rolling, creeping animal loving little girl. Anytime one of our cats or dog walks by, she watches them then gets all excited and the arms and legs start flying. She LOVES to pet the cats and dog but gets so excited that she screeches and usual scares Uggs off. Maui and Teddy aren't phased by it. She loves to pet Faith too. Faith doesn't mind her noisy flailing little self either. Miss M even rode her for the 1st time with me but don't tell Lance as he doesn't know;) tee hee Faith was so careful that I had a heck of a time even getting her to walk across the arena. My mom said Makenna had a HUGE grin on her face and coo'd like crazy. That's my girl:) M is sitting up all by herself. She does tip over occasionally but I'm right there to break her fall. She is getting to be SUCH a big girl. I just can't believe how she's grown and changed. Love her to pieces.

Oh well... I'm heading off to bed now... Bring it on Monday, I'm not afraid of you! I have a fridge full of diet dew and some chocolate in the drawer so I'm ready for a new week. Tomorrow's agenda includes grocery shopping, cadi washing and maybe some new shoes for Mommy. ;)

How did you get over there?

I was carrying things in from the car so I set Miss Thang on her playmat. She rolls over and over but generally stays on the mat. So when I walked in and she is off the mat I was shocked! I immediately asked her how she did that....she responded with giggles and "talking". So I put her back on the mat and went to grab the last few items from the vehicle. When I walked back in, I ~caught~ her in motion!!! I cannot believe it! She is doing the creeping thing...she pulls her legs underneathe her then lifts her butt way in the air, twists her legs to the side and pushes her upper half forward. She was also caught doing this backwards. :/ So now I begin shopping for baby gates and electrical plug covers. Apparently M did not get the memo that she is not suppose to be mobile yet. I thought more around 7-8 months....not 5 months.

Speaking of which.... Happy 5 month birthday Miss Makenna!!!! Wow the time flies! It's been 5 months and Miss M is growing like mad and developing with leaps and bounds. Very impressive!! A whole lot less impressive is the fact that my tummy/ab area is still not where I would like it to be....I guess I can't blame it on "I just had a baby" anymore. That was such a nice excuse;) I guess I better start working on getting that less flabby! Maybe after the holidays....tee hee hee!

We had a major National inspection at work (hence the silent blog) so now that that is over with and we passed with flying colors, I can get back to our normal routine. I'm looking forward to the weekend and going to ride my horse and enjoy the beautiful weather (60 degrees).

Happy Friday everyone:)

Halloween fun!

This is going to be a picture heavy post!!

Here is Miss Thang in her ~pre-Halloween~ outfit! This is the outfit that I bought thinking that she doesn't need a costume at 5 months. Yah....right...

I don't know how I thought I would get away with not getting her a costume when both Lance and I are halloween freaks. SO...here is Miss M in her costume. We also dress up our poor dog so she was very fascinated by his bumblebee ears. (Do bees have ears?)

Miss M LOVED halloween and all the people coming to the door. With this being said, she also crashed for the night very well and quickly. That was one worn out baby!! What a great halloween:)

Its bananas!

We introduced bananas this weekend. Little M has been loving her oatmeal and oatmeal/banana cereal so we thought she'd love bananas too. Well....go ahead and see what you think....

She made some of the funniest faces but kept coming back for more. She did the same thing today except the full body shiver was absent! :) It is just too cute!

This is her other new thing. You will be just minding your own business and all of a sudden, Makenna will....

start licking your chin and/or latch on and start sucking! Apparently Lance ~tastes~ funny!!! ha ha!

Church + Makenna = laughter

Our church just recently started Friday nite service. I love this idea as I'm not a huge fan of getting up on Sunday or really doing anything that doesn't involve football/eating. (Sorry God!) So I wanted to try the Friday nite service. My mom took pity on me and went with M and I. (Lance didn't get home until late so he wasn't available to go.) So it wasn't full but there were plenty of people there. The service starts and M is loving all the singing and things going on. She is VERY busy looking around. The sermon starts and she's still bouncing. No problem! The pastor finishes the sermon with

P: "Now let's bow our heads to prayer. Dear Heavenly Father (pause)"
M: ~tooot~ ~tooooooooot~
P: ...continues with the prayer....

~insert me and the whole row behind and in front of us rolling in laughter~ My mom asked if I needed to leave because I'm laughing so hard. I finally get control of myself and the grunting begins. Insert more giggles as Miss Thang grunts and groans and fills her diaper during the rest of the prayer. I was pretty certain the couple in the row behind us was going to have to leave as they were laughing SO hard at her. So "we join in the final hymn" and Miss Thang sings/talks with the whole song. It was so adorable. By now, I'm laughing again from her "singing" and the fact that she stinks so bad that my eyes are watering! It was quite the experience!! Lance is getting "church duty" this Friday....

It'll probably be Christmas before I can get my mom to go back to church with us!! :/

She's still asleep!

2 nights in a row, Miss Thing has slept through the night! Now if the dumb dog would quit waking me up to go outside. Plus the "girls" are so full by 4am that they wake me up. I ignore them and try to go back to sleep but I finally have to get up to pump at 6am. For all you breastfeeding moms, what did you do to help the "girls" adjust to your baby finally sleeping through the night? Do they adjust? I want to enjoy my sleep to the fullest and longest and this is definitely not helping:/

We are currently under a winter weather advisory for later today and tomorrow. Apparently Mother Nature did not look at the calendar as it is FALL! NOT. WINTER. Oh well...it is suppose to be 60 degrees this weekend so any snow that does come our way should melt. We're hoping to head to the pumpkin patch this weekend.

Well I'm done pumping and M is still sleeping so I'm crawling back into bed even if it's just for a few minutes:) Happy hump day!

October does NOT = Snow.

Someone apparently has failed to inform ND and MN of that little fact:/

It is snowing as I type. There is enough to cover the rooftops, cars and anything stationary. The roads are just wet as the ground temperature is still warm enough to melt the snow. It is WAY too soon to be starting this business.

Makenna had her 4 month appt on Friday. She did really well for her shots. Just a quick scream then I feed her and all was forgotten. She is growing like a weed!! Her pediatrician couldn't believe how big she is, especially height-wise! She grew almost 4 inches since her last appt. No wonder all her 3-6 month outfits are getting too short! M is doing great with all other development and actually quite a bit ahead but that is often a girl thing.

M is:

• standing all the time (w/ us holding her steady).
• rolling over constantly
• sleeping on her side or belly (eventhough I roll her back to her back)
• LOUD!! She's learned a whole new level of noise called screeching!
• eating cereal & starting oatmeal this week.
• needs to get back on her normal sleep schedule instead of being hungry all the time! I thought cereal would help that?
• wants to be held ALL the time & screams when you put her down. I do try to explain to her how Mommy does not wear a diaper and needs to occasionally take care of business or shower! Sometimes she just has to scream.

I had my photography class this last weekend....It. Was. Awesome!! I learned so much!!I will be practicing on M all week:) Thank you Ria!!!

Happy 4 Months Miss Thang!!

Here are some pics I took of M on Monday as I had to work yesterday. I was trying out her hats and bunny slippers:) Such a cutie!! She has decided that it is WAY more fun to roll everywhere instead of just laying on her back looking or playing with her toys. Yikes! She's got a whole array of new sounds too! I can't believe how big she's gotten and that its already been 4 months! Wow.

Yesterday was my 1st day as Professor Haugen and it rocked!! I love teaching. I love Rasmussen College. It is a wonderful place to work! All 1 day of it;) It was even better than I anticipated so YAY!!

I ~big puffy heart~ cereal!!!

YES!!! More than 2 hours of sleep in a row! YAY! Miss Thang is not overly impressed with cereal by the spoon. Her facial expressions are hilarious! BUT a little in the bottle is her new favorite right before bedtime. It's mine too! She's back to her normal sleeping schedule of waking up once at night to eat. She sleeps from 9pm to 7am with 1 wakeup to eat. I can definitely live with that! M is also rolling front to back and back to front with ease. She is also talking up a storm. It seems like all of a sudden we don't have a little baby anymore:/ I do already miss the "curl up on your chest into your neck" baby but this new semi-mobile, talking non-stop baby is pretty fun too! It's all in the different stages.
M is REALLY loving her daddy right now. She watches him constantly if he's in sight. It's very cute! I truly think it's all part of her master plan to get him wrapped around her little finger. Little does she know, but she already has;) We're still waiting to hear more of the laughing but I'm sure its in the near future.
I start teaching tomorrow and I'm totally excited for it! Especially if M is back on her regular schedule! I don't need a lot of sleep but some would be nice!
I'm also missing the horse show this weekend for my photography class. I'm really looking forward to my class but I'm also leading the points in all of my classes with my horse after only going to 2 shows (missing 2) so I know if I would have gone to this show, I'd win the year end awards but since I'm going to miss this show then I probably won't be able to retain my lead. If only I wasn't so dang competitive! Or good;) ha ha ha!

Hello? Hello?

Is this thing on??

What. a. week.

It has been the week of 1st-s around the Haugen household. Wow. Not only has someone been on a complete sleep/nap strike but she's decided to wow us with her new found abilities. Here's the list:

• M rolled over 3 times


• is blowing raspberries and bubbles (which includes drooling ALL over!)


• laughed for the 1st time (she was looking at herself in the mirror and thought she was absolutely hilarious! It was so cute!!)


• vocabulary explosion...I guess sound expolsion is more accurate but MAN can this girl talk!


• has given up sleeping through the nite ...due to what I can only imagine is the fact that she loves her mommy SO much that going for more than 2 hrs without seeing my face is PAINFUL to her. ~sigh~ Mommy needs more than 2 hours of sleep in a row, you little crap! How can you be ~too~ upset when you lean over the crib and Miss Thing is SO excited and happy to see you...smiling like mad:/


• sitting and playing in the high chair. She's really into chewing on the tray. It apparently it much tastier than the chew toys directly in front of her. ? .


• started cereal today in hopes that I won't have to feed her 6-8 times in a 6 hour period and I'll get more than 2 hours of sleep in a row. We can only hope!! "The Girls" perform wonderfully so its not lack of food but this kid is hungry ALL the time. It just doesn't seem to satisfy her anymore. I gave her very diluted cereal in breastmilk with a spoon and she gobbled it up. I also gave her a little cereal in her "right before bedtime" bottle in hopes that she'll be full. She seems to sleep longer when we give her a bottle instead of direct from the "source". Why is that?? It's the same stuff just different delivery method. Weird.

I think that is it for Miss Thing's week. It's been a wild one. I start teaching on Tuesday so I'm hoping that M's sleep schedule gets back on track otherwise I'm going to be a crappy teacher. I'm all prepared for my classes this week so now I just need to keep ahead of all the planning and preparing. It's nice to have all the ready!

M's 4 month appt is on Friday...more shots. Ick! We were planning on holding off on cereal until after that appt but we were at the end of our rope. Hopefully the doctor will agree with our decision and guide us from there. I cannot believe we are already at that stage. Yikes!

I have my photography class this Friday and Sat. I'm really looking forward to it! I adore the photographer that's hosting the class so I'm sure I will learn a ton. We're also hoping to hit the pumpkin patch sometime as today's trip was rained out.

A BIG Congrats to D & D S. on the birth of their baby girl!! Can't wait to see pictures!!

I leave you with Miss Thang....

Lovely Sunday

First off, sorry for all the silence over here. Things are hopping with activity and I was just trying to stay above water until October:) I've had my hands full with Makenna activites, Lance being gone all the time, me going back to work (albeit part time) and lots of visitors. ~sigh~ It has been a fun but VERY busy September and I'm not sad to see it wrap up. I'm looking forward to a much more relaxing, slower paced October filled with pumpkin spice lattes, Halloween decorations, sweaters and beautiful colored leaves. This is my favorite time of year.

I've been scrapping all weekend with friends and have had a blast! I'm going for more quality pages instead of quantity due to these being about Miss Thing! So I didn't get nearly as many pages done as usual, but they are exceptional fabulous layouts (IMO) and I did a ton of gabbing! My throat is sore today but I'm sure it is not because I've been talking non-stop since Friday @ 5pm. Although not nearly as much as the lady next to us! Yikes! I don't think she even took a breath! Anyway, it was great to have some ~Kelly~ time and creative time. Love it! We're already planning the next one for November and December. Do you think my mom will mind if I move her birthday to a different day this year due to a scrapping gathering?! tee hee

This week I'm getting caught up on house work and school. Miss Thang is going to daycare tues and thurs so I can get prepared for my classes. Teaching starts Oct.6! I was wimping out on daycare for tues but I really need to get prepared for my classes so off to Jaye's she goes. Poor M hasn't had much Mommy time in the last 4 days and the Mommy guilt is beating me up. I think putting her in regular daycare (although only 2 days/week) is adding to the mommy guilt too. I've only commited to this quarter so we'll see how it goes.

It's cool outside, footballs on inside (Yay Vik.ings!!) and my T.J.'s chai tea is hot....doesn't get much better than this. Ok maybe if Lance was home so M, L and I could snuggle on the couch or bed andwatch football but this is a pretty great day. Plus M isn't into snuggling very much these days...she's WAY more into standing, putting everything in her mouth and looking at everything. Oh and talking/cooing. Love that.

Welcome autumn old friend...I've missed you:)

Where has the time gone?

I swear it was just Monday and I was editing baptism pics?! Here it is Wed and I still don't have any pics up. Well, lets just fix that!

Here are a couple to tide you over until tomorrow when I finish editing photos while M is at daycare for another "breaking in" session. I do actually have to go to work later in the afternoon to meet with High School counselors about the programs we offer since the program coordinator is gone. I REALLY need to get some school work done and read before October rolls around and I start teaching/winging it! I need to prepare! I'm planning on doing that next week as this week is going to be spent getting ready for a scrapbook retreat (fri-sun) just down the road at the local scrapbook store. Some great friends are going to join me...can't wait! It has been FOR.EVER. since I've done anything like that. I need to be crafty and create! I need to organize and pack up my things. I normally have all the photos and papers organized according to what I'm going to use with what so I'm more efficient. That was before Miss Thang! Now I'll be lucky to have photos and/or paper or that they coordinate! Ha! Oh well... this face is SO worth it....

Look at that cute pudgy belly!! What happened to my 6 lb peanut? She's a 14 lb cutie!!