A Tale of a Snow Castle

This past Tuesday, before the arctic blast of air arrived, Vera and Adam went outside to play in the snow.  It was finally "warm enough" for Vera to go out and get some fresh air.  I stayed inside to iron some clothes, but I had a great view from the back doors of their activity.

They decided to build a snow castle on the back patio area.  Here's the progress.  They aren't the greatest pictures; you can see the reflection of me and the kitchen in them.

 

By the time they were done, it was completely dark outside.  Good thing for the flood lights lighting the back yard! 

 

Later in the week, the wind picked up and more snow arrived.  The Snow Castle started to lean...

 

...and leeeaaaannnn...

 



...and lean some more...

...until...

...it smashed into the side of the house!

Vera had fun watching the leaning progress.  She was so worried that it was going to fall over and break.  We will have fun watching what will happen next as the wind picks up and it gets colder tonight!

Second Trimester

I'm officially 18 weeks pregnant...almost half way there!  It doesn't seem like half way already.  Then again, on other days, it seems like I have such a long way to go!

Overall I've been feeling pretty well.  I have tough days & easier days.  My energy level has been decent, though I'm really tired when I sit down in the evenings.  I've been putting Vera to bed lately, and we try to lay down between 8 and 8:15.  Often I fall asleep with her, and wake up at 10:30 or 11.  By that time, my evening is gone, so I just get up and crawl into my own bed.  It's somewhat frustrating to have such short evenings without enjoying TV shows or relaxing after Vera's in bed.  But, I guess I need the rest, so I will take it while it's cold and dark outside! 

Most recently, I've started to experience the aches and pains of pregnancy.  I've noticed my lower back starting to hurt a bit.  Lately, the most noticeable aches are horrible headaches.  Sometimes Tylenol doesn't touch the pounding head.  The pain starts in the back of my neck and creeps up to my head.  It can get so bad that I become extremely sensitive to sound, which makes for long days with teenagers at school and a 2 year-old at home.  I went last Friday and got a massage, after the recommendation from my doctor.  It helped so much.  She told me that my head was extremely tight and she could certainly understand why I was having excruciating headaches.  I might have to pay her another visit (or two) because it felt so good!

At about 16 weeks, I started to feel the fluttering movement of the baby.  I was really surprised that I could feel it already.  Although, I guess I don't remember when I first felt it with Vera.  Pretty crazy feeling!  At my appointment last week, the baby's heartbeat was around 159 bpm.  I think that's pretty comparable to what Vera's heart rate was. 

Dr. Bachman, my beloved doctor, left the practice at the end of the year for a position at Cleveland Clinic.  So once again, I'm faced with a decision to make.  What are the chances this would happen to me with two pregnancies!?  I guess it isn't meant to be.  I met Dr. Train at my last appointment and she was nice enough.  I'm not totally sure which direction I'm going to go, but I need to select a provider really soon!

I'm still wearing my regular clothes at this point!  I'm trying to hold off on maternity clothes for as long as possible.  This past week, I've noticed that some of my shirts & sweaters are starting to look a little short.  I've been wearing maternity jeans for a while because my regular jeans were getting really uncomfortable.  Over Christmas Break, I washed up all of my maternity clothes that were packed away.  I forgot how much I dislike them.  Some of them are really stretched out and in sad shape.  I'm going to have to get some new things for this spring.  All of my maternity clothes from Vera are winter clothes.

I haven't had a lot of major cravings.  I went through a spell where cold meat sandwiches (ie Subway) sounded good for every meal.  Just like with my pregnancy with Vera, a bowl of cereal always sounds good in the mornings.  Lately, I've had a craving for a piece of cake with buttercream icing.  It's always so hard to keep my sweet tooth in-check.  I guess I can thank my dad and grandpa Otte for my sweet tooth!

Most recently, Adam and I have started making plans to get a room ready for baby!  We're going to put the baby in Vera's current room, which means Vera needs to move out...much against her will!  In order for that to happen, we need to move all of the furniture and stuff out of the spare room.  It's going to be quite the undertaking.  The spare bedroom (and it's closet) have somewhat served as a basement for us...a place to store all kinds of things!  We have two dressers in the spare room that need to move out.  One of them will have to go in our bedroom.  In order for it to fit, we need to take down the large TV shelf that was mounted on the wall when we bought the house.  When the shelf comes down, we're going to have to do some painting to make it look right.  We decided that while we're moving things around & painting, we're going to move everything out of our bedroom and repaint it.  The carpet is also the original carpet from when we moved in.  We're going to replace that and put trim around the closet and windows.  It's a needed project, but it's been put off because the furniture in our bedroom is big and heavy.  Once we get our room done, we can move Vera into the spare room and then put together a baby nursery again.  It could be a long project!  I much appreciate Adam's DIY projects because it keeps him busy and saves us a lot of money.  But, it gets exhausting living in the mess with furniture in disarray. 

I'll take a picture at 20 weeks and post it here.  Stay tuned...

Old Man Winter

Old Man Winter has definitely reared his head lately.  After 16 scheduled days off for Christmas and New Years, Vera and I had an extra 3 days at home because of snow, ice, and extreme cold.  With negative temperatures, strong winds, snow, and icy roads, we weren't able to get out much at all.  We started to get bored, but tried to find things to keep busy and stay warm! 

Before it got really cold and windy, Vera went out with her dad to try out her new snow shovel.  She had a blast shoveling snow, digging in the snow, and just being outside.  She did tell me while I was getting her dressed that it was hard to sit down with all of the clothes on.  :) 

We made home made cinnamon rolls one day to pass the time and warm the house.  Vera helped do the measuring.  It was a fun project, and the rolls turned out really well.  We put some icing on them, and they were delicious!

Day #3 of our extended Christmas Break wasn't as much fun.  Vera started coughing and spiked a high fever.  We paid a visit to Dr. Elshoff, and Vera checked out with a bad cold, though she was tested for Influenza A.  Thank goodness she didn't have that!  We rested throughout the day, and Vera started to perk up after a day. 



This sick little girl fell asleep watching TV after the doctor's appointment.  She rarely falls asleep watching TV, so we knew she was feeling yucky!

Going back to our routine at Patty's house wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated.  It was much-needed!  Vera's friends missed her, and she missed them!  We've been sad that her buddy Harper hasn't been back to Patty's.  Vera will have just as much fun playing with all of the boys at Patty's.  It will definitely make her tougher!

Since the spell of arctic air at the beginning of the year, we've experienced plenty of snow and even more cold.  We're trying not to go crazy staying inside all day. 



Vera's had to use her imagination and find fun things to play.  Her daddy brought a stopwatch home from work, and that provided a day or two of entertainment.

Blake came for a visit.  We had fun playing with him!

And of course, Vera's spent plenty of time in her mom & dad's bed watching movies.  She loves doing this!

It doesn't sound like we're going to have relief from Mother Nature anytime soon.  We'll just continue to keep warm, pass the time inside, and hope for an early spring!

I couldn't resist the $1.50 bouquets at Kroger.  It might be cold and snowy on the outside, but at least we have a glimpse of spring on the inside!

Christmas Break

Our Christmas Break this year was a full two weeks off, a total of 16 days!  Vera and I have been talking about being on "vacation" right now.  She has really enjoyed staying home with me.  Often, when I ask her if she wants to go out and do something or stay home, she wants to stay home and play. 

Vera quickly caught on to "sleeping in" while on vacation.  She's been getting up around 9 lately.  We're going to be in trouble when it's time to go back to school.  On Sunday after our Christmas gathering at my parents' house, Vera slept in until 11:15.  After she woke, she sat with me in the chair and dozed off and on for another hour.  The holidays certainly wore her out!

If I could summarize this break with one word, it would be MOVIES!  We have watched so many movies together.  Many evenings, we would lay down in bed together and watch some holiday movie on TV.  To name just a few, we've watched Polar Express, Little Mermaid, Elf on the Shelf, and Chipmunk's Movie.  I have really enjoyed doing this with Vera, and Vera loves to lay in her mom & dad's bed. 

Before Christmas, Adam and I took Vera to her first movie in the theater.  We went to Piqua and saw "Frozen" in 3D.  Vera was so good.  She was really into the movie; it was a cute movie!  When the movie was over, and we were walking out, Vera asked when we could come back to see another movie. 

Right as Christmas break began, we went to see Santa one last time with Blake at North Star Community Center.  Blake was a little scared of Santa, but Vera told him exactly what she wanted, per her usual.  She nervously twirled her hair, all while talking with Santa.

I had an assistant in making food for our holiday parties this year:

On Christmas Eve, we gave the sponge curlers another go.  It didn't turn out that great.  Vera's hair is still just too thin.  It turns into a fuzz-head after about 20 minutes. 

Of course it wouldn't be Christmas break if we didn't spend time playing with all of our new toys and surprises.  It's been really fun to listen to Vera pretend, create, and play. 

Uncle Brian got Vera a singing machine for Christmas.  Singing and dancing has been brought to a whole new level at our house!

The trunk of dress-up clothes and jewelry has been a huge hit!

Vera says Happy New Year!

A Christmas Surprise!

We shared these cards with our families at Christmas...

 

Vera's going to be a big sister in June!  We're pretty excited about the addition to our family.  Right now, Vera says she wants a baby brother.  But since October, she's also said she wants a brother AND a sister, and on other occasions she's said she wants a sister.  I don't think she totally understands all of this.  I'm sure as my belly grows, it will be more realistic for her.  As of now, she does not like the idea of moving out of her bedroom.  We have a few months to work on that.

My exact due date is June 29.  So, at Christmas I was about 13 weeks.  I went through about 2-3 weeks of feeling pretty sick and yucky all the time.  By the end of the day, I was totally exhausted, and no food at all sounded good even though I was hungry.  But, I am starting to gain back my energy and the nausea spells have gone.  It feels good to be able to tell our family and friends so they can share in our excitement. 

This is how I told Adam I was pregnant.  Back in October when I found out, I took this picture one evening while he was gone.  When he came home I said, "Hey, look at this picture I took tonight."  It took him a few seconds to figure out what was up.

Christmas 2013

Our Christmas this year was filled with much excitement, busyness, and memories.  Vera was pretty excited about Santa and Jesus' birthday. 

It all got started on Christmas Eve with Santa stopping by our house.  Vera, mom and dad were all taking naps and resting up when Santa slipped in and out. 

The calm before the storm.

The first gift Vera discovered was the tricycle.  She was excited to sit on it and ring the bell.  With dad's help, she was able to cruise around the room too.  She's still not able to pedal herself, but we'll keep working on that. 

This was a set of mixing bowls and measuring spoons so Vera can do some more cooking!

An Ariel necklace (that broke into a zillion pieces an hour later!)

A Minnie alarm clock.  It's all set and ready to wake Vera up when our vacation is over.

Some tools to help dad fix things.

Uno Moo! has been a big hit. 

And the Super Why! ABC game is a little too tough for Vera, but soon enough she'll be able to play.

This was a Little People house.  Vera's doing a good job of pretending and playing with the mom, dad and baby that came with it.

Vera really wanted a "Crash Register" for Christmas.  This was also hours of entertainment and fun.

On Christmas Day, we took off around noon for the Bertke Christmas.  We had a good time, and it was nice to see everyone.  Vera enjoyed lots of snacks and treats--and I think plenty of my cousins and aunts helped feed her junk food too.  She was tired when we left--sound asleep before we were through Ft. Loramie.

For dinner, we took off and headed to the Pearsons for Christmas.  Vera didn't get cheated there either.  There were plenty of surprises to go around.

An awesome wooden high chair for Vera's babies.

Fishing game from Uncle Brian

We gave Bailey a Sofia amulet.

A Sing-Along CD from Brian.

PICKLES!  From Uncle Brian.  Vera was a little confused about why she got pickles for Christmas, but we all thought it was a good laugh.

And a singing machine from Brian too!

 

And of course, it wouldn't be a Pearson family get-together without the photo disaster with grandma and grandpa.  These two photos explain perfectly how it goes every single time!

 

When we came home on Christmas Day, I was really tired.  But the next day, I really struggled because Christmas Day was over.  I was sad and bummed that it all came and went in just a few short hours.  It felt like there was a piece missing. 

We celebrated Christmas with my parents and siblings the weekend after Christmas, so I was able to grasp on to and look forward to that.

My mom says every year that she's going to "cut back" on the gift-giving.  Even if she does cut back, everyone still goes home with plenty of really nice loot! 

Vera and Blake are best friends and worst enemies.  Vera wants what Blake has, and Blake is good at sabotaging whatever Vera is playing with.  Grandma let Vera and Blake each open a gift before we got started with all of the presents.  Blake opened a couch-like bed and Vera opened a really awesome wooden crib bed for her babies. 

 Then this happened:

 

 Vera didn't win.  She just managed to sneak over to the couch when Blake wasn't looking.  They both wanted the couch AND the blanket that came with the crib.

From Uncle Steve & Aunt Lindsey: a really cool pretend cupcake decorating set.

A trunk filled with dress-up clothes and jewelry from grandma and grandpa.  This has been a huge hit, especially the wings!

From Aunt Karen: a MagnaDoodle.  Note the wings.

It's been a while since we took a "formal" sibs picture.  Aren't the girls so short?  I am glad to NOT be the shortest!  I hope my kids get to be as tall as Steve!