Company!

Jordan's family came to visit us! They arrived Tuesday afternoon and stayed 'till Wednesday afternoon. Serena got lots of lovin'!! :D

Okay, I just had to post a picture of this pie, because I was so proud of it. This was the first time I've ever made a lattice top crust! Isn't it pretty?! :)

Playing in PJs with Aunt Anna and Grandma Wednesday morning

Serena is always very interested in everyone around her

She looks like such a little person sitting in Grandpa's arms!

She loves playing with Grandpa!

Big bright eyes

Grandpa's so funny!

Getting passed around

Aunt Anna is so much fun!

Plenty of smiles for Grandma too!

Wrapping It Up

Sunday was the last day of our visit. We went to church and then Mom took Jess & I out to eat at the Mexican restaurant in Fairmont. Like Mom, Mexican is my favorite cuisine! Mmmmm!

Jess & Mom

Mom left for a few minutes and Jess & I went a little silly with the camera

Serena slept through the whole thing! Good thing, since she probably would have been very embarrassed of her mother if she'd been awake, haha!

After we ate, we visited a friend in the nursing home who is a member of our church. Then we hurried home so I could get Serena and I packed up for our trip!

Serena with Aunt Jessie

My baby and me :)

Serena with her Grammie

All ready to go! Gotta love those squishy cheeks, haha!

A Girl Day

Growing up in a tiny town with the nearest good shopping almost an hour away conditioned my Mom and sisters and I to be able to be able to shop hard for an entire day when we did manage to get to a mall! Mankato was always our shopping destination in those days, and we grew to love the River Hills Mall. Even to this day, now that I live on the west side of Des Moines where the shopping is the stuff my girlhood dreams were made of, I find myself feeling a special kind of excitement whenever I get to shop in Mankato with my Mom and sisters. I suppose it's because we just have so many memories wrapped up there!

Anyway, enough with the reminiscing! Saturday we spent the whole day out shopping. Seriously. We didn't get home till, what? Nine, I think! Crazy, I know. Thankfully, Serena is very accommodating for my shopping fetish!!

We snapped a few pictures before leaving the hotel:

And, of course, we pulled the camera out a few times at the mall:

Jess & I trying on hats at Charlotte Russe

Serena fast asleep. Check out those droopy cheeks!

Enjoying some time with Serena's reflection (she loves mirrors!)

After we got home, we stayed up till about 1am watching a movie! I think it's safe to say that sleep was not exactly a high priority that weekend, haha! :D

Talking on the phone with Jordan

Kisses from Mama

I love the ruffles on the back of this sleeper! Cute, cute!

Serena got to fall asleep in Grammie's arms that night!

Our Surprise Visit to Minnesota

The last several weeks have been pretty crazy with Jordan spending much of his time hunting when he is not working. While I don't mind Jordan's hunting (it only lasts for a few months, anyway), it does get pretty boring around here when he leaves us before the crack of dawn and doesn't return home until late! Jordan had been planning a weekend trip to South Dakota to go pheasant hunting with some friends last weekend. So, I made plans to go to Minnesota and visit my Mom and sister, Jessica. I told Jess about it, and we decided to keep it a surprise from Mom. My home church was having a Ladies' Retreat, so Jess had to tell Mrs. Schofield, our pastor's wife, about my coming so she could add me to her list. Well, the Sunday before I was going to go, Mrs. Schofield was talking to Mom and accidentally slipped and told her that I was coming!! Jess called me to tell me and we were both so disappointed about not being able to surprise Mom. Then that evening Jordan's trip got postponed, so I figured I would just stay home after all. I told Jess that I wasn't coming, and she broke the news to Mom. At first, Mom wouldn't believe her, but Jess finally convinced her by calling Mrs. Schofield to cancel my name off the list of ladies going to the Retreat. I was discouraged that evening because I had been so excited about going home, and Jordan encouraged me to go after all since he would be out hunting most of the weekend anyway. I said no, but after sleeping on it, I started to change my mind! Monday morning before Jordan left for work, I asked, "Are you really going to be out hunting all weekend?" Jordan, as perceptive as ever, replied with "Are you changing your mind about going to Minnesota?" And I was all, "Yeah, I'm kinda reconsidering...." This time, I decided not to even tell Jess that I was going. I called Mrs. Schofield myself to get my name back on her list that very morning and told her that the whole thing rested in her hands! And she did a great job keeping it a secret!!! :D

Friday morning, Serena and I were on the road by 8:45. It took us 4 hours, since we had to stop a few times, and Serena needed to eat once. I was so glad the trip went smoothly, since that was the longest I'd ever driven by myself with her! As I approached home, I was hoping that they had left the garage door open. I knew Jess had something to go to that morning and that she should be home by then, so I thought I had a pretty good chance of it's being left open. And it was! I drove the car down the gravel driveway slowly, hoping the crunching gravel wouldn't make too much noise. I got Serena out of her carseat, gently shut the car door, and walked into the house. No one was on the main level, but I could hear voices upstairs. I was excited that I would be able to get them both at once! I walked up the stairs, and just as I was starting to go down the hall towards Mom's room (from whence the voices were coming), Jess walked around the corner! Upon seeing me, she let out a little scream. (I SO wish I had this all on video!) When Mom heard that, she came to see what Jess screamed about, and when she saw me she screamed too! Later, she admitted that her throat was a little raw from that scream, heehee! It was so fun to be reunited!! We spent the afternoon chatting and getting Mom & Jess packed up for the Retreat, which we barely managed to leave in time for!

Jess had gotten this adorable pumpkin costume off the clearance rack at Shopko. The size is 0-24 months, so Serena should be able to wear it next year, but we just had to try it on her!! She looked so cute!!!

The Retreat was really good! It was so fun for me to be able to spend time with ladies from my home church that I have known almost since I can remember and to get to know some of the ladies who have become a part of the church more recently. Of course, being with Mom & Jess was the best! We stayed in a hotel and even got to go swimming!!

Mom & Jess at the Retreat

Serena did wonderfully for the 3 hours of scheduled activities. She finally fell asleep all nestled into me, and it was so adorable!

Jess and I stayed up until 3am that night just talking! It was so fun!!! More to come....

Chit-Chat

This is what Serena is doing right now. She just had her morning nap from 9:30-11:30, during which I showered and put the house in order. When she woke up, I brought her downstairs and thought I'd catch up on Facebook while I nursed her. She was feeling very 'social' and could hardly concentrate on nursing for her desire to smile at Mommy. So, I finally put her burp rag over my shoulder so it would cover her eyes and she got busy eating then. The next thing I knew, she was sound asleep and doing this little snoring thing she does. I've wanted to get it on camera before, but never have my camera handy at the right time. :P But this time I could use the webcam on my computer! :)

When Serena wakes up, I'm going to finish nursing her and then we're going to go for a walk. Kinda funny that after we already had a snowfall in early October, we are now having 70-degree days in early November?! Is this messed up or what?!

Jordan's out deer hunting today, so it's just us girls until later this afternoon. Tonight we'll be going to church. No, we're not 7th Day Adventists now or attending Mass or anything like that. ;) Our church has a Saturday night contemporary service that we have started attending and we're really enjoying it! The fellowship is great; and the preaching has been very challenging and encouraging. The last couple weeks have been mostly uneventful. Jordan's been getting up early most days to go bow hunting. He's taken Macy out pheasant hunting a couple times too, and she's been doing awesome. As you can imagine, Jordan is very proud of her! :) Serena and I have gotten into a pretty good routine. She generally wakes up between 7 and 8. We go downstairs and have some breakfast and play for a little bit. Then she's ready to go down for a nap between 9 and 10. That's when I usually get my shower and try to get as much done around the house as possible. Usually the morning nap lasts about 2 hours. When Serena wakes up, it's usually been about 4 or 5 hours since she ate last, so she's VERY READY to eat again! :) After that feeding, we play or go for a walk or run errands or whatever is on my agenda for the day. From that point on, she eats about every 3-4 hours, playing and napping in the interim. Depending on how the day goes, Serena falls asleep for the night between 7 and 9. I put her down in her crib and we don't hear from her again until about 1am. At that point, she usually hasn't eaten for about 5-6 hours and is again VERY READY to eat, haha! So, I bring her into bed with us and nurse her there and she sleeps just great next to me for the rest of the night. She loves 'talking' to people. Nothing makes her day like having someone make eye contact with her and talk to her! She likes playing on her tummy and standing (with help, of course!). She loves looking in the mirror! She is always very interested in Macy and finally smiled at her for the first time on Thursday (I even got it on video!). Jordan gets her full attention whenever he's around, though! Serena definitely thinks he's pretty cool! I couldn't agree more! :D

Well, looks like we've got a live one! I'll try writing more again soon!

Ahem...

Jordan keeps mocking me for writing the "I'm Back!" post two weeks ago and not posting anything since then. :P

There. Now I've posted something.

I'm BAAAAACK!!!!!

After two weeks, I am finally back in business....the blogging business, that is. Two weeks ago, we ordered my birthday present: a new computer. It was high time we replaced the old computer. It was 5 years old, which is basically ancient as laptops go! The main problem was that it had gotten so slow. And I mean S.L.O.W!!!! We're talking 'slower-than-molasses-in-the-winter' kind of slow. I did most of my reading in between waiting for links or programs to open up. As you can imagine, that made blogging quite the undertaking. Jordan has been trying to convince me to get a new computer for about a year now, I think. I kept saying, Oh, no, it's fine; I don't mind the slow computer; we don't need to spend that money right now. And, really, I am a very patient person by nature, so for the most part it didn't bother me too much. But, as time went by, I realized that I was missing out on too many things because of my computer's sluggishness. I couldn't Skype or watch videos or edit videos. I didn't look at people's picture albums on Facebook unless I really wanted to because it just plain old took too much time. Blogging and editing pictures would take so long that I didn't do it as often as I really wanted to. And, if someone tried to instant message me while I was trying to do anything else on my computer, the instant message conversation would be delayed and the other open program would slow down to a crawl (a very slow crawl, in case you're wondering!). So, as my birthday rolled around, I gave in and decided to get a computer. And not a moment too soon. The old one crashed (for the second time, boo!) the following Friday. I don't know yet if what was on there was salvageable. If not, I lost a few cute pictures and videos of Serena (double-boo!), but I am thankful that I've been pretty faithful at posting stuff on the blogs (especially Daily Serena) so I haven't lost all of her pictures/videos!! So, the computer finally came this past Friday afternoon (yes, that was almost two whole weeks after it was ordered...but the fiasco surrounding that delay is a story for another time and place!), and I have been busy setting it up and getting caught up on all the things in my cyber world that I have missed for the last week!

I took this picture of Jordan and Macy while I was doing Serena's photo shoot for DS today. I thought it was so funny because they both look really put-out the way they're each squinting one eye! I was taking a picture of Macy because she was practically falling asleep sitting next to Jordan, but Jordan thought I was taking his picture so he made a face, haha! Turned out to be a Kodak moment! ;)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...Christmas?!

This morning, after I had put in my contacts and put on some warm clothes, I picked Serena up and took her to the nursery to change her diaper and get her dressed for the day. And what sight should greet my eyes as I looked out the window above her changing table, but that of SNOW! And LOTS of it! Already covering the ground and the rooftops; falling as big, soft flakes. On October 10th. I immediately started singing Christmas songs to Serena as Macy looked up at us wagging her tail while her eyes begged to know what had brought on this sudden merriment? Though it's not too unusual to see snow at some point in the early weeks of October, it is definitely unusual for the first snow flakes to accumulate like this! The last time that I can remember having an early snow storm like this was 10 years ago on my 16th birthday. A friend, Kasee, had planned a surprise camp-out and invited a bunch of girls to her house for my birthday. We slept in a tent out in the woods and it SNOWED all night long! It was freezing out, but the close quarters and laughter kept us warm, I guess, 'cause we stayed out there all night long as we told every scary ghost story we'd ever heard! Ha! Good memories! Anyway, after getting Serena ready for the day, I came downstairs and took some pictures of our fresh winter wonderland and turned on some Christmas music! :)

Our deck (from the kitchen window)

Macy checking the yard for squirrels (one of her favorite pastimes) from the big picture window in our living room

My Birthday Visit from Mom

Today Mom came to visit me for my birthday. It was SUCH a wonderful day!!! She got here a little after noon and took me out to eat at Cracker Barrel. We talked and talked while she ate her salad and me my scrumptious (though possibly slightly juvenile?) apple streusel French toast. :) After that, we went shopping at Target, Kohls, and then the MALL!! Serena was a little trooper and didn't complain about all our gadding about. (I'm trying to start early training her to enjoy shopping, heehee!) I love shopping with my Mom, and it's especially fun now that we have Kaden & Serena to shop for! It's so fun to go look through all the children's clothes and toys and just talk about anything and everything related to babies and mommy-hood! It was such a wonderful way to spend my birthday!!! Love you, Mom!!!

Me with my baby and my mommy :)

Serena and her grammie (check out more pictures of them at Daily Serena)

Serena Loves to Talk