She's in the way just a little...

My sewing companion at midnight while everyone else is sleeping.

But she is in the way just a little.

This kitty might be a pistol, plays with my pins and elastic and bats at my needle while sewing but she does relax a little bit (just not always in the right spot).

My sewing is coming to an end for Christmas even though I have a few more projects to get done, my list is much shorter!! Hence why I am blogging instead of sewing and I have two girls to be taking care of too. I will be posting after Christmas my projects I whipped out up to show you all. I had quite the fun fabrics and projects to work on for this giving season.

Until then, the wait begins.

The new seating arrangement

Miss E is rockin' the new chair and I would say she is enjoying it. The seating arrangement is working for everyone. :-) Eleanore loves to be sitting up high, playing with toys and chewing on carrot sticks (with supervision I might add). I would not have thought of this expect for my girlfriend Krisanne mentioned her little guy is doing this and I thought, why not E. I would say it does keep her busy.

Food is going to wait until after the holidays, stay tune to see what goes well and what comes back out.

We also had a 6 mo. check up. She is weighing in at 16.3, 26.5" long and her head is in the 50th percentile. She is doing well! :-)

The girls...

1st in a long time of just the girls. I always have the camera making sure shots are being taken hence I am not in very many. So, I said, Jim was are all sitting here, take a couple.

Sage was lucky to get in on the shot too.

Dec. 11, 2010

O Christmas Tree

Yep, this is our Christmas tree for 2010.

This cute little craftiness sitting in the corner was made up by my auntie. And since it kills me to go buy a tree for mega bucks and it doesn't even look nice and I can't go cut it myself. This year i decided that this one suits us nicely.

Eleanore got to sit and watch as Claire and I put on the lights and added ribbon.

As you can tell, Sage has enjoyed the tree too.

And we shall call her...

Sage! A farm kitty from down the road and she was just to cute to give up. She came with the name 'Princess' but i didn't think i could live with a cat by that name for 20 years and since i have only named 1 cat in my life, it wasn't so easy for me. But i think Sage suites her, if i'm wrong then you better make a comment with a name suggestion. :-}

Yes I am crazy for getting into this but all this kitty stage shall pass, right?

The scratching, leg climbing, kitty playing with baby toys instead of her own, jumping into the bath tub full of water and so on. It will all pass and she will be grown and loved by all of us.

The one good thing, she tolerates Eleanore and her crazy kitty petting hands.

Baby E at 22 weeks!

December 2nd, (22 wks).

Eleanore is getting so strong, sitting up more on her own

likes to sit in the baby rocking chair

the exer-saucer is beginning to be used

Still sleeping well but she does tend to be a night owl

She is grabbing more and loves to watch Claire and Claire loves to be goofy and make E laugh.

Eleanore continues to be a wonderful baby, giggling, smiling, and love-able!

She's passing up the sister...

Eleanore at 16 weeks.

18 weeks.

I should do better at taking pictures at the same distance but I guess a few weeks apart isn't that much change. I took E into the Tender Transition at the hospital and she weighed in at 16 lbs. 1 oz. Her sister CMW didn't weigh this until she was passed the 6 mos. mark. She is doing great!! A good eater and sleeper. As always, a joy to us!

Fabric for a baby gift? Really?

Yes, really! I was given some pretty neat fat quarters as my baby gift to use in my quilting adventures and baby making gifts. I would have to say my girlfriend Paula does know how to give gifts! And they were from the quilt shop in Perham, the one that is 'to die for' with amazing flannels, snuggle fabric and cotton prints. And as one girlfriend puts it, they are all designer fabrics which makes it all that much neater to have! It isn't the run of the mill Joannes which I will admit that is where I make 90% of my purchases.

So I will just have to say 'Waa-hoo' for a great friend and great gifts and great visitors.

Paula and her girls came out to visit since they were in the F/M area for a couple of days. It was such a good time! Our older girl are 6 weeks apart and our younger girls are 3 months apart, but you wouldn't be able to tell by size, Miss E is pretty large for being 3 months. It was fun to catch up and see how big the girls are getting. And what's neater is Paula moved closer to the F/M area so it will be easier to visit more often and we are both excited about this!

The first big trip

The first big trip or should I say the first long trip since have have gone home to see my parents more then once. We made the venture to the twin cities to visit family who hadn't yet seen Miss E and of course to shop! And everything turned out pretty well. It took us about 1.5 hrs to get out of Fargo since baby E was not happy with her seat and I had to make sure she wasn't hungry, had a burp or messy pants. But after all that and a few miles of crying we made it with out stopping. Phew.

Jim, CMW and EKW.

The gigantic mum plant at my g'ma's house.

The lovely g'ma Shirley!

You should of had a V8

Yes, Miss CMW likes to drink V8 and she looked at me with this grin and V8 from cheek to cheek saying 'Mmm, Yummy!' .

15 weeks

I was doing so well getting short and simple blog posts posted and then the time gets away and the evenings are sucked into doing other projects. Like sewing or house duties or children. We (the 4 of us) have a pretty good routine but I myself am not yet disciplined enough to get everything that needs to get done besides what I want to get done. Does this happen to anyone else? So, here is baby E, at 15 weeks. She is just so darn fun, I love it! And CMW is getting to be much more fun too!

I'm bias but, isn't she just a cutie! ? !

And I love pink on my girls, especially monochromatic pink!

Claire and all her doings

A few pictures of what Claire has been up to!

CMW got this cool new dolly stroller! A friend called me from a garage sale letting me know about this. I knew she would like it, so i got it for her. She enjoys taking her dollies for walks around the yard.

Playing dress-up while visiting friends. She had a lot of fun with all the new stuff.

The chickens really like CMW mostly because she gives them food! How nice of her! And here they are following her around. They come running every time they see you.

CMW is also into anything that deals with very fine motor skills. We do lots of coloring with markers, make a mark with each one, putting on the cap and then putting them into a row. Stickers, more the merrier! We have a sticker book that also has pages with simple directions and games or counting or ABC activities. For the most part she is doing really well with it. And painting, she loves to paint. I might go broke buying paper and paints for the little lady. She also is being instructed with the Montessori method of teaching. A friend of ours is doing this with her along with her own children. Claire is reallying enjoying this and I am thankful, it is challenging for Claire but she does very well too.

And of course she is continuing to be a great big sister!

One more visit

Jim and I finally got up north to visit our friends Paul & Krisanne and baby Jonah before they head out soon for the other side of the world. We are going to miss them but are so excited for them to get back and get into the groove once again.

It was a great visit and beautiful weather to enjoy. Fall right now is amazing and perfect which I don't say very often about ND weather. It was great to have our little ones outside and for CMW to play and run around with out being cold.

Jonah and Eleanore are 3 weeks apart and it is fun to share stories (& complaints) of motherhood with Krisanne. Even though there are few complaints, right Krisanne?

Love you and always Praying! - The Waa's

A little fun at the Parade

Jim and I were invited to go watch the NDSU Homecoming parade with two of his buddies and their families. All of us are alumni except for one but we still allow her in. :-) I haven't been to the homecoming parade since 2001, which was my very first homecoming experience and i didn't go back. It was just a bit to ridiculous for me but this event wasn't to bad. We got just the right amount of candy, there were a couple of pretty good floats and of course the political parties were out parading their name.

The little man over on the right is one of CMW's pretty good playmates.

He is always wearing his shades.

CMW is not sure what to think about all this parade business.

She was most excited about the horses and least excited about the firetrucks, the sirens are scary.

And a Thanks goes out to Katy for buying this cute little Smurfs bag for her candy! :-)

The "Cabin"

I call it the 4 season cabin, the nephew calls it the 'castle' but really it will be house when finished. It was great of Jim to help out with this gigantic project on and off this summer and the past two summers. For some of you who don't know, his parents are building this from the bottom up and it takes a lot of time and help.

The Waa family cabin - A living room upstairs is going to have a vaulted ceiling and those pretty rafters to look at! Jim and his dad put them up a few weeks ago. There are three bedroom and two baths with living room space downstairs and two bedrooms and 2 baths upstairs with kitchen, dining and living room space. And of course a two stall garage. :-) And the super tall chimney, it's for two different fireplaces, one up and one down. The roof and walls will be completely sheeted, roofed and wrapped by winter, which means soon for this up north area where fall is short and winter can be long.

disclaimer: If Jim would of wrote this post instead of me, one would of gotten much more information about this project but this is all I got to share and the picture just helps to know how far this project has progressed!

One more project down

We have been working, let's say Jim (& my dad helped a bit too) has been working on getting the house ready to paint all summer. And, yes it has just taken this long, with a new baby, the 4 season cabin he's helping build and then all the fun added in, it's just that way. This last weekend was gorgeous, amazing temps, not a lot of wind and an all around pretty good ND weekend. Jim got the bug to start painting since the sanding and priming was almost finished and I requested to Jim that at least the west side of our house needs to be painted by winter so i wouldn't have to look at a poke-a-dot house every time I came home. With this in mind, Jim started painting the west side and realized this project is going a lot faster then anticipated. This is when he decided he was going to get all the green finished by Sunday, he started on Saturday afternoon keep in mind. After church Jim was talking to some good friends at church about his project and the Mrs. said, 'we'll take CMW and the Mr. can come and help you guys paint so you can get this project done', I said that would great! Wan't this so awesome of her? And so, our super friend Mr. A came out to help and he is super efficient at painting too. By the evening hours our house was completely painted with a new green color and our window trim and down spouts were painted grey. How sweet our house looks now, I am in love all over again. :-)

Even the chickens helped with painting...

French Braids...

Claire is finally letting me do a bit more with her hair. I was super impressed with I got to do double french braids even if she was watching a show, it works for me!

She is just so darn cute when her hair is our of her face!

Baby E is 12 weeks !

(9-10-2010)

Our baby girl Eleanore is 12 weeks today and she just had a great well check.

She weights 13 # 13 oz. & is 23" long. The 90% for both height and weight!

Eleanore is busy talking, very alert, busy with her hands and legs and love to watch her sister Claire be busy. She has had some teething issues already and we are trying our best making her comfortable. Not always easy. And we are getting into cloth diapering too, it will be so nice not needing to run to Target for diapers. :-}

(9-23-2010)

Sometmes cheap labor isn't worth it...

For all of summer (I know) we have been prep-ing our house to get it painted for, lets hope, the next 10 years. Yes, I am crossing my fingers. And today Jim was with CMW priming. She was certainly enjoying it. Even though Jim says 'cheap labor isn't worth it' since CMW is creating more work then help. Like paint in her hair or on Jim or places it isn't suppose to go. But he did say, 'I just couldn't resist, she was so cute!'. She went to find her own paint brush and came out and asked to paint and for a little while he did.

CMW looks huge because she is wearing a life jacket (her idea of a 'jacket') under her paint shirt and she is wearing a dress (which you can't see) with those black boots. Isn't she fashionable?

2 Months !

Our girls both smiling and happy on this Friday Morning !

E is 2 months today and C is 32 months!

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I am going to attempt to take a picture of Miss E with her bear that Claire got her each month. Baby E ~ 7.5.10

E ~ 8.2.10

Hasn't she grown so much? She is quite a bit different then Claire but still so much fun!

A trip to the Ranch

Yes, my mom calls their place 'Tall Oaks Ranch', a bunch of trees, 1 dog, 2 horses and a newly added cow and calf. It's one of my favorite places! The main reason we went home other then to visit was the 3rd annual Dru Sjodin Purple Elephant run/walk.

Sonja, baby E and I walked the 5k. It was a great morning and a great turn out. Sonja and I got to hang out a bit and get caught up with what's happening in our lives. :-) I also got to see her whole family, what a plus.

While I was walking, C got to hang out with Mawga! They picked red raspberries, went to see the cousins next door, and visited the cow and horses!

This is the only horse she can ride at the Ranch, at least for now! Yee - Haw!!

And you are looking at only part of my parents massive garden behind C and she got to pick green beans, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, and C picked a green tomato, an unauthorized pick I might add.

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Nephew J and niece G holding baby E. Doesn't she look so comfortable?

Our nephew Z had his birthday August 6th and we got him a pretty sweet K'nek set. Everyone here is checking out the new set! Jim couldn't wait to open it and see what there was to make, but I reminded him, it's Z's gift, not his!

And while I was walking, Jim got the beauty of hanging out at home with my dad! He helped him put the starter on his old B John Deer and start up the old '67 chevy. It hasn't ran in over 2 years but Saturday was the day to get it running. Not sure what else he found to fix or do but there is always something happening on the ranch.

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And last but not least a few pictures to keep those to don't see baby E on a weekly basis up to date.

Baby E, just hanging out, wide awake at 9:30pm after attending a bridal shower (8/7/10)...

Sleeping way (8/19/10)

Big Sister Claire

Claire is a great big sister!

While we were getting ready for our 1st road trip to Pequot, Claire decided to read to Eleanore. Claire didn't even object to E laying on her bed AND her pillow. She just sat down and told me 'Mom, i'm gonna read to Eleanore'.

It was so sweet!

Claire just had to cover Eleanore up with the fly netting, she thought she needed it.

County fair time

A little peak of Claire enjoying the fair!

We visited the petting zoo, walked the hay bail maze, went twice through the Dinosaur Exhibit, visited more farm animals & baby farm animals too, watched some of the 4-h horse show, and rode a few rides. It was super hot by the afternoon since the carnival is located on black, black, black tar but she enjoyed them anyway.

We also visited our neighbors hatchery of button quail and chicken eggs. Of course no pictures, but they are boxes about the size of large dresser drawers that are warm and you sit around and wait. There was one hatching about every 10 minutes or less. It was a big hit along with the live bird exhibit of fancy colored pheasants & chickens.

I think this is a water buffalo.

Goats and i'm pretty sure she asked to slide down the slide too!

The Camel.

She had to ride the chicken on the merry go round.

And just another ride that 'the parent' could go on since C was to little to go by herself. It went up and down and 'round in circles, pretty exciting!

And last but not least, while we were heading to town for the fair, C stated "Dad, I'm gonna see that Donkey!" Jim was telling her, lets go find a donkey at the fair and we didn't even know if there was one, after this comment, we certainly did hope for one.

(I wanted her to say 'Donkey' but wouldn't... she does say Alpaca & then decides to move on to the next animal. :-))

The Day Before

And here is the story of 'The Day Before' since some friends think it's crazy what I don't go though when it comes to labor and delivery.

On Thursday the 1st of July, it was the 1st time I had seen my doctor since the end of April. ( Dr. H needed to take some time off.) And I was a bit worried that she was not coming back, but she did. So I managed to squeeze into her schedule to see her and was told 'all is good' and I was dilated to 5 cm (Dr. H couldn't quite believe this, but I was). Even though I was at 5 cm and didn't know really how I felt or how quickly i'd continue to dilate or if I was imagining contractions and if I could even feel them. I decided to make plans. CMW and I went home for a nap and then headed back to town for a swim at the pool. My good friend Paula, who was up unannounced, called to let me know she was going and I wanted to see her before she left. It was nice to be in the sun and C enjoyed the water and playmates!

Once at home, I was trying to convince myself not to worry about getting to the hospital, that we'd make it or about the contractions that I didn't know if I was imagining or not. So, why not get some sewing done right? I made a pillow case for a friends daughter that I picked up earlier that day & then played a game of Settlers. After heading to bed and trying to relax, I woke up at 4:30 to what I thought was my water leaking but no contractions and decided to head to the hospital. I didn't know if it was my water but it seemed to be in the right description of water leaking but now that I look back, I think I 'jumped the gun'. Reason be, my doctor was concerned that I would not make it since CMW's delivery was so quick and this honestly worried me. So, we got to the hospital by 5 ish and according to the test at the hospital, my water had not broken or even leaked. So, what ever, we were there and we weren't leaving and the rest of the story is here!

Our Sweet Baby Girl

Now that three weeks have passed & then some

I best get out the old but new news out about our new baby girl!

Eleanore Kate is her name and she is a beauty. For me (Lexie) it was exciting to know we had another girl even though when I was told it was a girl, I was shocked. Jim response to 'It's a girl' is 'so good'! Isn't he just sweet and to the point? Our family now has a great new addition and God has given us a wonderful gift. :-)

Here's the short and sweet birth story...

Baby E entered into this world with out much difficulty on July 2nd at 8:09 am. She was 21" long and was a bit bruised, but all went away by Friday evening. We got to the hospital about 5 am and my doctor arrived about 6:30am and then 'we got the show on the road'. Even though E's delivery was pretty simple, I say 'it wasn't as efficient' as CMW's and here's why...

- Baby E weighed in at 7 lbs. 14 oz. A whole pound bigger then her big sister.

- Her head was positioned a bit different, making her passing a bit more difficult

- At the hospital I was dilated to 7 cm and with CMW, I was 9 cm going on 10cm.

- And for the life of me, I could not figure out how to use the 'correct pushing muscles' but all the same, delivery was short & sweet. Contractions were minimal. (My labor and delivery nurse commented "if all of my deliveries were like yours, i'd pray differently each morning". Let's just say, she was quite impressed with my labor.)

- But after the Dr. broke my water with both girls, they were here for us to hold about 30 minutes later

So there's the short and simple story to E's arrival into this world. Like I said, it wasn't as efficient but would do it all over again.

We are all enjoying baby E and for me, it has been so much more fun! I am not stressed out and I actually enjoy the small new baby phase, I'm getting plenty of rest thanks to the girls sleeping during the afternoon at the same time and bit sister C is transitioning well too. I'd say this 'second time around' isn't to bad! Big sister C is enjoying Baby E too and this new baby isn't cutting into her schedule either!

A tid-bit on how did we pick her name. We came upon the name Eleanore and decided we liked it and Kate is my middle name and I thought the two names went well together. And I was so excited to be able to use it!

A quick update! Baby E is growing, her 2 week appointment, no, make that her 3 week appointment was 7/26/12010. She weighs 9 lbs. 12 oz. and grew almost an inch. Dr. H says she is doing well and nursing must be going well too! I agreed! I think she might be making the turn from 2 feedings to 1 feeding, meaning i'll get even more sleep! She is such a good baby and we love her to pieces. Even the evenings are going well!

So, there you have it, all the happening events of Miss E and more to come! :-)

Look for pictures in the future, our home computer 'bit the dust' and I have none to show as of now. Wish us luck, we have a lot of stuff we want off of it.

Memorial Weekend and a furry visitor!

Memorial weekend was a weekend CMW and I stayed home, well almost. Jim went to the lake to work on the 4 season cabin & see family. C and I caught up with friends we hadn't seen for some time, garage sales and took care of Kevin, the guinea pig. He was super fun and I think he enjoyed his stay at our house. Just like I remember from my year or two of my guinea pig, he's pretty simple. He even 'talked' to us! CMW wasn't to sure of him out of his cage but she did give me this picture and she did like to feed him and take his turtle shell away since he hides in it the majority of the time, it's what I call a 'quality security blanket'! :-)

Kevin likes his 'turtle shell' and is barely ever out for more then a few minutes. But when he hears the crunch of plastic, he thinks he going to get a treat. He was just so cute.

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I guess I shouldn't say we totally stayed home, since most of the weekend we had some outing planned each day. But on Monday we did make it to the lake since it wasn't to hot and my dad needed to get out of the house. Memorial weekend was his 4th week of rotator cuff recovery surgery and well, he was sick of sitting around. So, mom and him pack up and we met up in DL for a short afternoon and a tour of the Waa's 4 season cabin that will soon be finished... one day. (side note: the chimney is done and the garage wall's are finished. They are working on the floor of the house and I guess some rumor of building the trusses for the garage is the next big move.)

CMW loves the water and she was freezing, we could actually see her shake she was so cold but she continued on. Her Mawga Paula was making sand castles and C was crushing them, boy did she have fun! I try to keep her white shirt on, it's a great spf blocker and I think she'll be 'warmer' but by the end of the hour she was just in her suit since the shirt got wet (imagine that) and she does not like having wet cloths on.

It was a great day and a great weekend! We certainly did enjoy our time with friends, family and Kevin, whom we'll babysit any day, week or month!