April Showers Brings May Flowers

Chelsea invited us to celebrate a potty training success for Keegan at this indoor trampoline place...so damn fun!!! Keegan and Lily and Alyssa and Kylee kept up with the big kids and I think its safe to say, we all had tired kids when heading home!

 

I'm 31!! We had cousin dinner at our place the Friday before my birthday so I decided to be out of character and kinda make a little big deal out of it. Really I just made a cake :) But it was fun! Cousin dinner was a success. I LOVE LOVE LOVE getting the kids together and watching them all interact. Alyssa basically kept Mickey and Marie (her two new toys from Disney Store) captive and wouldn't let the others play with them...ah, the stubborn personality is starting to break through.

 

The Sunday of my birthday was the annual Kite Festival. It was funny watching Jason running around trying to fly a  kite while Alyssa just kinda picked flowers haha. Not really windy.

 

Date night for both our birthdays. A new little gem in the ultra hip 'Midtown' called Picasso and Wine. We have been wanting to do something new and this fit the bill. It was fun experiment and see how competitive Jason really is! We picked Alyssa up from the airport and headed home. (First time leaving Alyssa for Katie to put her down to bed. I was having major separation anxiety and had to peek in to see her before we all crashed.

 

Alyssa turns 2!! Super fun party, I have been planning for awhile. The whole party was a blur. I now know why people pay to have their party somewhere. I was so exhausted! My feet hurt and I don't think I was able to visit with anyone, running around to make sure the food was getting prepared, making sure someone was keeping an eye on Lyss, and trying to refill the snacks...its a handful! I'm so thankful for my folks letting us have the event at their house and for the majority of the cleanup!

 

School is almost done!! Never in my life have I had to work so hard to pass! All my other classes, if I don't really pay attention I can get a C. Accounting is making me work my ass off to earn that C!! Bleh. I need a 70% on the final to move on to the next course...so fingers crossed and I better get back to studying ;)

Trying to stay on top of it

Between school, Jason's running events and Alyssa's activities, I'm trying to stay sane!! We are really homebodies. Don't like to get out much, really enjoy each others company (most days lol) and LOVE our couch. But it doesn't seem this way haha, we have been so busy! Easter Sunday the in-laws came up to celebrate with us, weather didn't hold up so we could 'hide' the eggs on the front lawn, but Lyss had a good time anyways. We didn't really do anything last year so this year it was fun to put her in some cute dresses and put jelly bean filled eggs around the house. She would grab an egg, shake it to make sure it had goodies in it then dump all the beans onto the hope chest to make sure they were all ok. It was a relaxing visit with Jason's parents and sister. I put together a gluten free pizza station and we all made our own pizzas.

Jason had his second 50 mile race last weekend. So we got a nice hotel room in Sacto and made a little trip of it. He started at Sac State and ended in Auburn! His parents took Alyssa and I to lunch and shopping to pass the time, Lyss made out like a bandit. My 'pick one' rule didn't fly at all!!

 At the half way mark, in Beals Point in Granite Bay, Jason picked up his sister to pace him the last 24 miles. Lyss was a great cheerleader :)

 He did amazing, dropped 3 hours from his last 50 mile race! It was a crazy long day and we were super happy to get home...just in time for Matty and Izzy's birthday party the next day!

 

School is kicking my ass. I'm doing fine. Really. But in my head, I'm failing. My finance class and my supply chain management classes I have over a 95% so far. So I really shouldn't be too worried about those two. My history of economics class is a handful, with papers, presentations and essays galore!! But I still am pulling a B. Accounting. Well, accounting takes a separate mindset. I don't feel like I can just get by, I feel like I have to KNOW everything, and I don't. So I feel farther behind than I really am. Its hard to separate that class as important and brush off the others. Only 4 more weeks until I'm safe for the summer!! And 12 credits left until I graduate. That means after next semester I only have 2 semesters left!!

 

Jason's dad got us an unbelievable gift, he is paying for our monthly membership to Caughlin Ranch club, with a year round heated pool and a childcare that is so nice! I have been twice so far, my body is thanking me for swimming, but its hard to just let go and not worry about Alyssa while I'm swimming. Its good for us both to have this time away. She has never stayed with someone other than family, so its been a rough couple days. But she will get used to it. Hopefully.

 

Sibling number 2. Well, no baby for Christmas. I decided to go hard core with OPK and I bought a saliva fertility tester just to show my doctor at my appointment in May, prove to her that we are doing all we can. With any luck Ill be preggo before my appointment :) January is  a nice month to give birth! That way I have a full 8 months before leaving the kids to go back to my last 2 semesters of school!!

Girls Gone Wild

Swim lessons start! The whole pool heard the loud and super excited "WAAAWAAA" echoing through the building as she points at the pool. Yes dear :) Thats the water.

Needless to say, she loves it! She is a typical 2 year old though so she has a hard time with doing what she is supposed to be doing, as opposed to whatever the hell she wants to do...but for the most part she is doing great!

 ROAD Trip!! Spring Break quickly approached (um, schools almost over??) and my mom, Aunt Deb, Alyssa and I headed off to Vegas to meet up for some  yard shopping and a general girls trip. I was nervous for Alyssa (she doesn't have the best driving personality) but I was excited enough for us both, I went to Walmart and filled a little tote bag full of little toys and games to surprise her with and it was a hit. She seriously did not fuss at all, I repeat did NOT fuss. She sang and played and entertained herself the whole trip. Oh and No nap. She has never liked her car seat and the last few trips to visit in Vacaville she has not slept so I was worried, but she did great. So proud of my little stinker :) Showing off for Aunt Deb so she wont rat her out to Lily haha. The night we got into Vegas we met Jenn and Ollie for dinner at a Mexican place and both kids played while the adults chatted. We snagged some booze before checking into the hotel. I should have taken pictures of the room!! It was a 2 bedroom suite, so Lyss and I shared a room and Deb and mom shared, each with our own bathrooms and a full living room and kitchen set up. We were able to let the kid nap and not bother her (or her bothering us really haha) and it was our little home away from home.

 Day 1. Had to check out Little Baja for Deb to see if she found the perfect fountain, and she did! Lyss liked getting shuttled around and she kept running from fountain to fountain sticking her head under the water then shouting "WAAWAA". 

 Hotel had a pool and I, of course, forgot Alyssa's swimsuit and her swimmer diapers, but she didn't mind one bit.

 Ollie showed off to Alyssa, swimming around like a total pro.

 Day 2. We headed out to Boulder City to see an outside decor place that Deb has been to, I was in heaven!! So many pretty things, I bought new wall art for the front of my house, a beautiful butterfly trellis and a potted plant structure full of bright pink flowers. (Alyssa got ahold of my camera and the pictures I took are super blurry). Being so close to the Hoover Dam, I was determined to go!! I have never been, so we took the 10 minute drive and headed over. Such a huge process, the new bridge going to Arizona was so impressive. I'm a happy girl. Love getting to experience these things for the first time with my daughter.

The road home. Again, NO meltdowns, and no nap. Darn, but she did so well and was so dang excited to see her DADA, after unloading all the treasures and packing up my Jeep, all I heard from Nono's house to our house was "DADADADA" "I LOVE DADA" (or something that sounds like that haha) and singing. Such a damn trooper.

I love little vacations but was excited to hear that we have 2 full weekends 'off' before heading to Sacramento to see Jason run his 2nd 50 mile race (yes MILES) Sacramento area to Auburn.

No other news on the sibling for Lyss area, still charting, still trying. It is what it is :)

And we are all anxiously waiting for the newest little one, who should make his appearance any day!! Don't stress too much Mal ;) Love you guys! Cant wait to hold a newborn again, its been too long.

Quick catchup

 

My fabulous child had learned the word No. I'm not super excited about that, but I'm glad her vocabulary is picking up a bit. She is still pretty quiet and around other people she is shy. If she knows you...look out! She is wild and crazy and getting a huge personality. We haven't really started trying to potty train but I have introduced it. Bring her to the toilet whenever I change her diaper and get excited when she sits on it. She has peed a couple times on the potty but the great achievement is that she will tell me when she needs a new diaper. And mostly her diaper is still warm, so she tells me right after going! I'm not going to worry about it too much until summer hits and I'm home more consistently, but for now, I'm pretty proud!

 

School. Oh man. This semester is kicking my ass!! Its only 4 weeks in and while I don't feel behind, I feel like I wasn't prepared for this course. I'm so scared that I'm going to fail and if I fail then I have NO freaking idea what I'm going to do with my life. I'm trying really hard to not let that overwhelm me but I'm losing the battle haha!! AHH, guess all I can do is drink some wine and try to relax!

 

Next weekend Jason and Stacie are running in a marathon in Napa and I decided to join them, I mean, its not everyday his events are in wine country :) We are staying with Stacie in downtown Napa and its so exciting, its so fun watching Stacie and Lyss interact together. They don't see each other very often but Lyss has this connection with her aunt, it doesn't take her any time at all to warm up to her. They are a kick together!

 

I had an appointment with the VA today that told me that I am almost 100% covered in fertility treatment, everything except Invitro...HOPE it doesn't come to that. But for now we are taking a breather (might miss the hugely popular birth month of November and a holiday babe in December) and I am told to chart my temps and cycles (I have been anyways, she wants 3 months more) and she took some blood work. While I didn't really get any answers, I feel better. We will figure this out and someday soon I will be all knocked up and stressed about something else and this will all feel like a far away time.

 

We used our tax returns and paid off Jason's Hyundai so we officially have no car debt!! I'm so excited. Those monthly payments are so annoying. And we realize that we will buy another vehicle soon (can you say fuel economy!!) these months of no payments will be smiled upon :) Maybe will even make it through the summer months of me not earning any GI Bill money and can actually afford to do fun stuff, like keep Lyss in gym and maybe swimming.