Esther's Birthday Pics!

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More Wizard of Oz...


Her very first taste of ice cream. I made my Dad wait until she was 2 years old. She took about 6 bites and then had enough. She also didn't want to try any flavor but vanilla. All the others she didn't even want to touch let alone taste...
this must be a particularly scary part like when the trees are throwing apples...


And here is the Dorothy Doll that Lolly made. Esther and Dorothy are actually watching the Wizard of Oz here. Her absolutely most favorite movie. If you put it on you get a whole 113 minutes or however long it is to do whatever you want...

I'm not sure what Ben is doing here but Esther doesn't seem to even notice let alone be entertained...
I like how Ben's expression is the polar opposite of Miah and Dad's
Making Breakfast with Manang Miah.

Climbing off the bed to go wake up Lolly and Granddad
Esther watching Charlotte's Web with Granddad early one morning before Mom and Dad were awake.
Dad and I taking a load off

Playing in the tent with Cessy
That Elmo is possessed and was a present from her Opa!

Whooooo HOoooo!!!

Before 7am I snuck away from my over-crowded bed to check and see who won...

Then i came back to bed and held hands with Ben excited to think about our country's future.

Unfortunately Esther did not get to trapse about town in her halloween costume lastnight as we spent the better part of the evening/night in the ER. Esther's been sick the last few days with a very high fever. Since it didn't go down we decided to take her into the ER. She's fine though. Some kind of viral thing that she ought to get over on her own. Some kids are just prone to higher fevers it would seem. Poor thing has been absolutely miserable (and doped up on tylenol/motrin) for three days now. She only wants to be held and when she's not crying she's whimpering... I haven't been able to get a thing done and my shoulder is sore from holding her non-stop. She hasn't even been able to sleep until today. She's finally getting a good rest. She's been asleep for over 3 hours now. I gave her a hot salt bath, suctioned her nose, gave her baby motrin, hot tea, and garlic oil in her ears... 

quick update

Just a quick update while waiting to get pictures off my mom's camera (and because Mel specifically requested it).

Esther's 2nd birthday was yesterday. We celebrated by spending a few days at White Oak Campground which is where i spent several days while in labor with her. It's right around the corner from the Birth Center (which is like 2 hrs from our house). My parents drove Esther up in the Camper (or "Bus" as Esther calls it) Miah and Ces met us there. We ate pumpkin muffins with cream cheese icing, sang happy birthday, gave her lots of presents (including a Dorothy doll that my mother stitched by hand and her very first train set!!), snuggles, and attention. We bought lots of things at the Amish markets (food mostly). And then we came home thoroughly exhausted and not particularly happy about an end to our little family vacation.

We had our 30 wk check up with the Birth Center. All is well with baby #2.

Ben and I have removed the TV to storage and have decided to go on a TV/movie-free diet for a couple months.

The addition is coming along nicely. We hope to be moving in around Thanksgiving time. If anyone has any leads on cheap/free building materials or a not-so-ugly rug let me know.

And a little Esther story to finish off the post:
She's bouncing around on the bed a couple weeks ago watching me get dressed. As i'm changing my shirt she stops bouncing, looks at me and says "I like your nickles ma."

Pictures From Casey's Wedding

My sister, Casey and her husband, Andrew.
Ain't she so cute?

My adorable brother and my adorable daughter .
My some-day soon sister-in-law, Cecilia, my brother, Jeremiah, Sister Casey, New Brother-in-Law, Andrew.

Oh Boy, Oh Boy!!

Pilgrims' progress

Our trip to Prescott, Az was good. Esther is such a good traveler. She is so good on the plane and something about take off makes her conk out for about an hour. So that's nice for all of us.  She was pretty good during our stay.  Normal tantrums, that is to say not more and definitely not less, and sleep patterns (or lack thereof). We got to see all those we desperately miss (Hi Mel & Ted, Uncle Mikey, Uncle Steve, Sarah, Corbin, Mason, Aunt Heidi, Tele, and Aurora!!!! We miss you!!!!) .  We got to stuff ourselves silly with mexican food (and yet it was still somehow not enough, what i wouldn't give for some Hugo's right now).  I got to go to our old hang out bar and feel awkward about being pregnant in a bar even though I was only drinking gingerale (I loudly anounced it several times just to make sure that I didn't seem like such a dead beat). And we got to reminice about how much we loved it there... I think in many ways Prescott was Ben and my 3 year honeymoon...

It's very weird how much Prescott still feels like home to me. Lots has changed since we've been away but also hardly anything. I miss it so much. It's feels like the same homesickness I get when I go to brush my hair after cutting it all off and end up brushing my neck... I hope that some day this place will feed me the same way that Prescott did. It'll be three years since we moved here this December. We spent a total of three years on Prescott... when will this place start feeling like home home and not some home left a life time ago.  Why is it so hard to come back?

In true slacker fashion, we failed to take any pictures of our trip at all whatsoever. I know, we suck.  I have attached a few pictures with this post though for those of you who can't do without. Hopefully, these pictures adequately depict our progress on the house, the belly/baby, and our growing munchkin (who says to me the other day in the sweetest possible voice, "Mom, eat my butt." I think she's been hanging out with my mother too much). 

getting better...

Thanks for all the love and sympathy!  I'm slowly getting better. Still on crutches but not in so much pain. My knees are all bashed up and covered in oozing rug burn from the fall.  Esther says, "Aww mama! your poor legs!!" and kisses them.  It's super hard to follow around and play with a toddler while on crutches... whodathunk??

Anyhow, tonight is Wicked Wednesday Dinner with j&i. We've decided to order Indian food rather than make something (at the request of the fetus). 

Other than being gimpy things are ok.  My godfather died last week.  We were pretty close for a long while but lost touch in recent years each doing our own thing. He became pretty ill the last two years and i never made it down to see him... though we chatted once in a while.  I think he was pretty ready to go... no sense in hanging around on this planet while in emense pain and varying states of conscousness.  So lastnight, rather than a funeral we had a big bonfire at our house and a lot of his old friends came, my parents' old hippy crew. It was neat seeing everyone again. These are the folks my parents hung out with when i was a wee one.  I do miss John though. I always thought I'd see him again before he died. It's just weird not being able to remember the last time you saw someone you'll never see again. 

I have to take more pics of the addition. Ben has two of the three walls up. It actually looks like a room.  He's working so hard and fast. That man is sooooo my hero.  He took some time off so i could rest and not but up and about on my ankle and i think that was hard on him because he didn't feel like he was getting anything done.  But he's back at the grindstone today.  

With everything in varying states of upheaval and incompletion it takes a lot of patience and "ho-hum"ness to get through days of things not feeling like they're getting done but really they are just super slowly... 

Fell Down the Stairs

I fell down the stairs yesterday morning at 5am while holding a screaming Esther. My ankle is severely sprained/possible hairline fracture. I'm on crutches for the next few days or so... hopefully back on my feet in time to got to Arizona (Hi Heidi!!). 

Exhausted... feeling stupid... 

My Manly Man

Poor Ben. He's been working upwards of 12 hours a day, half the day with my Dad rebuilding a log cabin and half the day here on the addition.


Which explains his appetite...

The "Man Taco"

Venison burger, chicken breast, portabello mushroom, and no that's not a pigeon heart on top, it's a beet.

It's Been a Good Summer

But i'm ready for fall...

Faces of Esther

Although my voice is hoarse from yelling "no!" all day long, she is pretty darn cute.

Keeping busy

In the land of the under employed we are managing to keep quite busy (and happy i might add).
Ben's plugging away in the shop and on the addition. I am sewing food out of felt, spending lots of quality time in the kitchen, and thinking up creative things to do with a butt-load of tomatoes. And of course Esther is extremely busy. She has a million things to do such as draw all over the stairs with a crayon, throw up in the car for the 4th time this week, decide the compost is a fun place to go digging for treasure, and of course strategically place all her toys where we will step on them, trip over them, or break them accidentally. It's really quite amazing what she can get done in 24 hours...

This is our daily tomato harvest. It doesn't seem so unmanageable here but imagine getting that many every day for two months straight.
Here is where Esther spends most of her day. Just kidding. This is what will eventually be our bedroom. It doesn't look like much here but all that stone and block and concrete has been occupying more of my husbands time than i have.
These are the three little speckled frogs... Notice how the eyes on all three of them are pretty much the same size...
She is yelling "ribbit" at me

3 in 1 make up post

i'm such a slacker with the blog these days. I do apologize to all those who check this site regularly for updates and are constantly being disappointed. So to make it up to you here's a three in one post complete with pictures and everything!! I'd promise to be better about posting, but we all know that will only last so long and then we'd be back to the same old routine...


Post 1: The Esther Update
Not too much to report. She's honing in on two years old complete with emphatic "no"s and temper tantrums that leave me oscillating between hysterically laughing at her and furious. Here are some fun pics. Sorry if any of them are repeats from earlier posts, i just cleaned out my camera and i'm not sure what was already downloaded or not.






Post 2: Art of Motorcycle Misuse
As some of you may know, and some of you may not, i was supposed to buy a friend's motorcycle (hi Ivy!) a few months ago. However, upon return from Sri Lanka I decided to be a responsible adult and save the money since we're expecting another little one this winter. Also, it seemed less and less practical to go riding around on a motorcycle while pregnant, not to mention the baby on board sticker had no where to go...

Luckily though, the discovery channel guy that has been living at our house for the past month or so to assist in the project my dad has been working on and he brought his little 125 and I've been learning to ride it (just up and down the drive way so far but it's been good to get my jibblies out nonetheless). You also get a good view of the belly

Post 3: Annual LAT Reunion
Me and my two of the most amazing women ever attempt to get together at least once a year. We all used to live in the same town and barely a day would go by without us seeing each other. We had adventures and played tricks and were really good at chasing away the blues. Now we're all attempting to be adults in various parts of the country...

This year i flew down to Atlanta to be with them. We had an all-too-brief but albeit fantastic visit. We did nothing. We ate, we cuddled, we played with the cats and dogs, we saw a bad movie, we sat on the kitchen counter and bitched. It was, admittedly, a tame visit considering that i can't drink, or stay up late, or hang out in smokey bars... but it was just the right speed nonetheless and i came home sad but recharged, relaxed, and a bit more laid back than i've been in ages.

SO that about wraps it up. I was able to procure some part-time from home work (thanks Fred and Allison!!!). Ben is working away splitting his weeks between the shop and the addition. The 18ft crocodile has finally been delivered and will stop taking up the entire drive way. My sister and badu are coming to visit on friday. YIPPIE!!!!!!!!! i haven't seen them in about 3 months... and over all things are starting to calm down and fall into place. The next 4 months or so ought to be interesting to say the least, and we can only hope they prove fun if a little crazed.

Getting back on track

So, despite the fact that we have no money and lots of work to do we decided to spend a couple days getting back on track at the ocean. Here a couple pictures (compliments of Oma) of our relaxing weekend. Thank you Oma!!!

This is us eating lunch... one thing about being pregnant, your chest is always much larger than you think it is... i'm afraid i was a bit indecent all weekend, luckily it's the beach and someone always looks worse in their swimsuit than you do in yours.
This is our gregarious young-un makin' friends with the "big girls"
Ben taking Esther swimming. She's generally pretty scared of the waves, but once past the breakers she's fine. And it was cold which is why i'm standing like that.

Big things...

So, lots has been happening here with us. Namely, i quit my job. Yes, i know it was a new job and it was more money than i've ever made... and yes, i know that i was good at it... but it was sucking the life out of me which is not a good thing when you're pregnant. So without going into too much detail i felt like it was better for me and my family if i quit.

So now, we're a bit strapped for cash and figure out what it is we really want to be doing. Our insurance is running out the end of the month and i can't get more cause no one will cover me pregnant. So even though the money stress has us crazy we're much happier than before.

Other things, we're flying to Arizona in Sept. for a visit.

I've decided to try freelancing for little bit. We'll see how that goes, i have to figure out how to make time for it, and how to get my foot in the door...well foot and ever-growing belly...

What else... um.... Ben is doing a lot of blacksmithing, working on the addition, and helping my dad with the Discovery Channel thing.

And lastly, Esther is doing well. I need to post pictures of her soon. She is starting to look more like a little girl than a baby. She continues to impress me every day... she sings and talks constantly.

Thanks for putting up with my lack of posts these last few months. Let's hope with the advent of all this new free time i'll be able to post more.