Goodbye 2010

Ahhh here it is 5:00 New Year's Eve morning and I am just too excited to sleep (see last nights post below). We have so much good and exciting stuff coming up! Such as closing today on our home (finally!) and moving this weekend, then Tuesday we get to try and find out whether BV2 is a boy or girl and Saturday next is Miss Cassie's first birthday while Sunday is her party! I just can't help but to think how lucky we were in 2010 and how much better a year it was than 2009. Hopefully the trend continues for 2011!

TTFN

So it looks like we are ending 2010 with a big bang and closing on our home! Well I say we but it will be just Matt and Cassie at the table since I will be relaxing at a prenatal massage I received as a gift and scheduled about a week ago and they will both be at the same time! Funny how things work out like that sometimes :).

So it looks like we will be off line for a while until we can get Internet hooked up again! Expect to see lots of pictures and updates when we do!

Christmas at the Inn

Well it's official, our first house bought is now our first house sold. So that means we were all settled in our new home for Cassie's first Christmas right? unfortunately not. The bank is still giving us the runaround (over a water test that has so far passed two times) so we moved out of our house straight into a hotel.

Not that it's all bad, I mean the "room" is more like an apartment and it is absolutely beautiful (see below for pictures) and where else can a SAHM have breakfast cooked for her family 7 days a week and dinner cooked 4 nights a week and have the trash taken care of and clean towels delivered as needed?! But the fact is we are still in a hotel, we are officially legally homeless at the moment and we don't technically have a street address, however we are making the most out of it, considering it holidays on vacation :). We decorated the place for Christmas and are making it feel nice and homey, the staff are so incredibly nice and really make us feel very welcomed.

So on to Christmas itself. We started on Christmas eve with trips to both of Cassie's paternal grandparents. She loved opening the presents it was so neat to see her ripping the paper :) and she loved the presents themselves as well, as long as they didn't make noise at first lol.

Christmas morning we were all set up with the video camera, ready to see her reaction when she saw all the new presents under the tree and her special own chair...what does she do? goes straight to the presents she opened the day before! She had little to no interest in opening the new toys when she knew she had perfectly great ones right in front of her!

Christmas day was spent with my family...my mom's entire side of her family. 15 of us crammed into this room for dinner and presents. I thought the food came out pretty good, great in fact given all the room we had for preparations! Then after the food was done we headed down to the lobby for a bit more room, some Kinect games and desert! Kudos to my cousin for thinking to bring it! Over all I don't think the day could have gone any better.

Then on the 26th we had our VanAlstyne family Christmas which was awesome as always, I don't think I could ask for a better set of inlaws :) it was great to get to see Cassie meet and interact with her cousin Zoe who is about a year older than she is for pretty much the first time ever.

So I know that was a very quick update on a very special Christmas, but hey, it's been a long long weekend :)

Now on to finish the first birthday plans lol. Where it will be nobody knows, but it will be special and it will be awesome, Cassie may not remember it, but we will and we will be able to tell her all about it.

Moving finally (maybe)

First off, let me apologize for any editing errors and the picture quality. Since the computer is all packed up I'm doing this post from my iPod (including taking the pictures!) so hopefully this works!

So we have been going through the wonderful process of selling our house and buying a new one. This process has been going on since sometime mid May. We found what we thought was our dream home and lost out on it, finally sold this house and found a new house, our blank slate, our fresh start for the future. We have been ready to close for the last few weeks but have been getting the runaround from the bank BUT I think we are FINALLY in the homestretch and will be closing sometime next week (just in time for our first Christmas we are hosting!) or at least we are completely planning on it since we have rented the moving truck and have moved at least 1/2 the house out into it.

Hopefully we will be able to fit everything in the truck! It seems big enough from the outside, but everything that has accumulated in the house over the last almost two years really adds up!







Cassie has really been such a good girl through the entire ordeal, even trying to help out!





























Kinda hard to keep the tv out of the girls reach without a entertainment center but we are nothing if not inventive (though I am just waiting for the crash on the middle of the night when one of the cats tries to jump up there !)

Wordless Wednesday - Kindermusik

Friday Firsts - Kindermusik

Disclaimer: Today's Friday first post is also the first First post with no pictures to back up the experience we were too busy having fun to take pictures!

Wednesday the first was Cassie's first Kindermusik class!

I was a little worried how she would react to being around other kids since I am a SAHM and she hasn't really been around other kiddos for any extended period of time. We were both the youngest in the group, most of the kids were 2 or almost 2. She was a little shy at first, but we were only the second ones there so she warmed up really quick and was much better as other kids came into the room.

Class started off with massage and a song, then we moved on to dancing around the room and looking/describing different pictures/objects as the song stopped, then out came the instruments :) Cassie took to the rhythm sticks very well though she often forgot that you are supposed to hit them together to make a sound rather than put them in you mouth to suck on them. At first I tried to discourage the whole putting the sticks in your mouth thing, but the teacher told me to let her go and that the mouth is the first place they start learning things like hot/cold or hard/soft etc. (and she made sure to tell me that they clean and disinfect everything after each class). We also did songs that included Cassie riding around the room in a laundry basked (pretending it was a wagon and a space ship of course) and also the ever popular parachute - most kids liked to sit under it while the moms (and nanny) walked around them with it and went up and down with it, Cassie on the other hand wanted to hold onto it with one hand and onto me with the other and walk around in the circle :). She just LOVES her walking now that she can do it!

She may not have gotten everything the class was doing such as rolling the balls or reaching up/sitting down when the song said to do it, but she did have fun (which is the main point for now!). She loved just walking around AND she started standing up by herself (not just standing by herself but getting up from the floor with out any assistance whatsoever!) she did it 3 times while we were there and kept on doing it once we got home...that girl just loves to go!

So amidst all of the activities Cassie started making friends with this one other girl in the class it was just the most adorable thing ever. Everywhere one or the other went the other was there in a matter of minutes. I am so so glad there were no meltdowns, I dunno why I was worried, but I was!

So all in all we both had a great time and I see definite learning potential for her as she gets older so it may be pricey but well worth every penny. Especially for us since she needs the socialization (and lets face it I do to :) ).

A little focus on BV2

I realized today that I haven't really focused on BV2 that much on here lately so I had my 16 week appointment first thing this morning and figured it was about time to do a post!

How far along? 16 Weeks

How big is baby? according to my Bump ticker about the size of an Avocado

Stretch marks? still nothing...let's keep it that way!

Weight Gain? 2 pounds (not soooo bad...)

Sleep? what's that???? with Cassie we don't get much anyway so hard to tell what the non sleep is caused by :)

Best moment this week? Getting to hear his/her little heart beating away!

Food Cravings? Food? ewwwww....not really wanting to eat much of anything let alone craving something. Hopefully the acid reflux and all day sickness subside soon.

Gender? Not a clue

What do you miss? Getting through an entire day without having the urge to puke...or having my throat burn up...

What are you looking forward to? Moving into our new home so we can stop stressing over the move! and so we can set everything up :)

Milestone? Thanksgiving was last week, does that count?

The appointment went really well, I got right in and out within 20 minutes and I got to see my favorite nurse and favorite NP :) and Cassie was an excellent little girl walking up and down the hallway by herself making everyone smile. We got to hear BV2's little heart beat chugging away (in the 140's for those who would like to know) and got to schedule our Anatomy scan for January! Looks like we are going to start 2011 off with a bang :) hopefully BV2 will be nice and cooperative for us!

Wordless Wednesday - Bubble Bath Time!