Sharing My Jennarocity

So, Avery is just, so big. Terrible picture, I know. But her hair is getting so long too! Jason and I are trying our best to keep teaching her new words and things she doesn't know. Right now, she is using two words pretty consistently. Tonight, she surprised me when she told the dogs to "go away." Whenever she is eating, they just follow her around or sit by her chair and wait for her to drop food. Lately, Molly has been getting brave and just taking it right out of her hand. So tonight, she just said "Go away!" Pretty funny. She is definitely beginning to use three word phrases as well. "Help you mommy" (which means help ME mommy). "Pops come here" stuff like that. So pretty much anything where she directs other people on what to do. Bossy little thing! We are working on her writing her name, recognizing letters, counting to 20, colors, stuff like that. NOT that she can do any of that yet, but hey, never hurts to try! We are trying to c...

Except, this is what it's become... We've kept the toys up in the foyer part of the house since we moved in, just because Avery was still little and we felt like she was too little to play in her room by herself. Not that she's so big now, but at some point, we knew we didn't want to girls' toys to take over the front of the house. I want a grown up entry way! So, since we got this... I am feeling like the entry way needs to be more of a sitting room. We have a great window seat that is completely going to waste. It's begging for some new curtains and beautiful throw pillows, two wing back chairs and a sunburst mirror. I can see it in my head now. I've been looking for wing back chairs on Craigslist for months now, but they are really, really expensive, even the ugly ones. Hopefully something will come through soon. I like refinishing furniture, and will even try my hand at some easy fabric jobs. But I think reupholstering wing back chairs is beyond my...

So, this whole week I just felt awful. AWFUL. On Monday, I started feeling like allergies hit me, really hard. Normally, my allergies have been accompanied by a sinus infection, so I didn't really think anything of it when I felt allergies coming on. I hadn't seen Colbi since she got sent home, so I went over to my sisters to see Colbi. I held her (probably shouldn't have) but I did.  Tuesday afternoon, at work, I just had the feeling I had a fever. Chills, then hot. It was awful. We had all three kids that night, so I went to my room, took Nyquil and went to bed. I had a fever of 102 all night, until it broke in the wee hours. Wednesday, I was feeling better since my fever broke, but I was coughing all day like crazy. My head really hurt and my glands were swollen. But I didn't have a fever, so I still went to work. That night, I took some cough syrup and went to bed, but I felt awful. I woke up with a fever again, of 101.9, at about 4 am. I was coughing and felt nau...

So, my beautiful niece is home safe and sound with my sister and brother in law. Oh my gaw, this picture is so cute I could just DIE. I get to go see her tonight, so excited! Avery will get to meet her cousin one of these days. In case those of you with kids don't know, toddlers are petri dishes, so the pediatrician said it's best to keep Colbi away from kids right now. It's a good thing, Avery's nose is running like a faucet. So, with all of this activity, I couldn't help but reflect on this time in my life, 20 months ago today. Such a flood of emotions, you are so glad to have the baby with you at home but TERRIFIED that you might injure it, or starve it, or feed it too much, or not pick up on how tired it is, or that you might scar her for life at only 4 days old..... At least, that's how I felt some times. But one thing I didn't think of at this time 20 months ago was how much baby weight I would still be hauling around with me. I just figured it ...

Brooke's face, the fingers on her hand, the fact that she can hold her baby and feed her. Makes me so happy.

Just as an update: Baby Colbi is still in the NICU, but she is doing great! They removed her CPap machine (the nurses said it just annoyed her too much!) She is moving around like crazy and hungry. They even said her tests are going so well that they may take her off IV today or tomorrow. I am hoping she gets to go home sooner rather than later! In more good news, Brooke and Dave got to hold her!

Here is the story, from Brooke's blog post... My sweet girl arrived at 1:06pm on 7/19/12 weighing a whopping 7lbs. 13oz. and 21 inches long. I still can't believe she's here and I'm a Mom! That's insane!!! We did have a bit of hard delivery as she had a bowl movement before she came out and is in now in the NICU because she then inhaled it into her lungs. Colbi is a trooper and doing well though, she is on a CPap and antibiotics (sidenote update: Brooke just text me and told me she is no longer using the CPAP! Yay!). Hopefully, she will able to come home within a week. Maybe say a little prayer for us? I'm so sad at the thought of not being able to take her home but it's for the best. The birthing experience is one of the craziest, most beautiful, hardest, most rewarding, emotional things ever. I will never forget the moment she entered this world and what that felt like. I'm so thankful God blessed me with this experience and my beau...

So, our entire house has had an overhaul in the past two months. Jordan's room was a big one. He had an old futon, a dresser that was falling apart, and oh yeah. His room started out pink. I found this dresser at a garage sale. I was blown away when I saw the exact same dresser in Better Homes and Gardens (they painted theirs a glossy green). He got actual curtains, he got our old TV, and his room got reaaranged! One thing I've always wanted to do in his room were hang posters. But I didn't want to just hang them. I found these frames at a garage sale for $3 each. They had really pretty pictures in them, but I knew I would like the posters better. Right now, he is REALLY into the Avengers, and has always been into Star Wars. I used this table from the girls' room.. and painted it like this, in glossy black with metallic silver on the bottom. My brother in law had some old fence posts that he was throwing away, so as an experiment, I painted them the color...

When we moved into this rent house, we got an amazing deal in rent from some friends of ours. We are living here while we pay off debt and get ready to buy a house (someday!) Obviously, in rental homes, there are things that aren't always the way you would have them. In this house, there are a few. For starters, this house was built in the 1950's and little has been done to it since. It has alot of potential, but I wouldn't dream of doing anything to it, as it was the owners childhood home. Apparently in the 50's, it was standard for homes to only have one full bath. Our house only has one full bath and a half bath in the master bedroom. This was really, really annoying when we first moved in. The bathroom in the master bedroom was stark white and just plain blah. Honestly, I hated using it unless I really had to. Both of the bathrooms had light fixtures that had the ONLY plug in them. That's right. Can you imagine?? Only one plug in the whole bathroom and it'...