she's basically all grown up

with Annabelle's 1st brithday here and gone in a flash I found it basically impossible to blog at an appropriate time about it.

She is sooooo old! 

:(

No more baby here. We have a running, and jumping, and whining toddler over in our parts!

Annabelle loves:

balloons

clicking her tongue when she sees clocks

Grandpa holding her

Feeding Moe Bear his food one kibble at a time

Wearing Grandma's pearl necklaces

climbing the stairs

peeing on the bathroom floor right before getting in the bath

riding in her big girl car seat

BUBBLES

kissing pictures of momo and the screen of the phone while face timing

music class with miss Katie

dancing and screaming to the cd great Grandma got her

playing with her old car seats

loving her baby doll, and feeding her

blowing kisses to everyone

stomping her feet in her new TOMS

shaking her head "no"

informing everyone that the fireplace is "hot"

Her favorite food is strawberries, cheese and bananas

She hates:

having phones/necklaces/keys/remotes taken away from her

when she isn't allowed up the stairs

Her vocabulary:

mama

dada

hot

boon

tick ta "(tick tock)

up

pop (bubbles)

gee (doggy)

She is more fun and rambunctious then ever! I am loving this age but boy does she wear me out!! 

She is running every chance she gets. And is Miss Destruction. 

My favorite things to do with Belle are music class, tickle time, and reading her favorite book,"my good morning book" and "my animal book". She loves that I imitate all of the animals while burrowing in her neck and tickling her. 

Her birthday was a blasty blast! 

There was a bunch of appetizers,delicious desserts and sooo many happy faces! Thank you everyone who came and made that day extra special for us and Annabelle!!!!

She recieved sooo many cute clothes and great gifts! 

One of her favorites is the new big girl nap mat, from Aunt Barb. She pulls it out everyday! 

Here is Dada showing her how to use it on his lunch break:

She received a ton of really cute spring clothes which will all debut in Texas while we are there for the wedding!

Momo (texas grandma) surprised her with her first cake and tons of balloons!!

Auntie Lindsay was sweet enough to bring her camera and take some really beautiful photos!! 

best frannnnnns

little jealous of Ella's pony tail

lots of new books!

saying POP to the bubbles

I made this little guestbook thingy to hang in her room :)

And strung the balloons on her shoes and placed them around the room.

I made her a baby friendly cake with less sugar and a banana glaze frosting.

It wasnt as beautiful as the one for the adults from the bakery (see below) but she LOVED it because it was yummy and we decorated it like a clock. :)

My birthday was a few days later and Lindsay was kind enough to have this photo blown up and framed for me. I can't wait to hang it in our new house.

I can't wait for more birthday parties to come. She had sooo much fun!

It's been a year...

I just can't believe that it has been a year since all I could say all day long to Adam was,

"I JUST WANNA KNOW HER!"

And then February 11th, at 2:11pm she arrived :)

I was thinking I have never openly shared her birth story on here and her birthday might be a great opportunity to do so.

Wednesday, February 9th

I start to feel what I think is painful contractions. I can't get comfortable and keep going from laying on Adam's lap, walking laps in our dining/living room, to the exercise ball, to all fours on the floor. 

They subside enough for me to fall asleep in our bed around 11pm. 

My mom goes to bed early knowing that its going to be a long night.

Thursday, February 10th DUE DATE

I wake up at 2am with contractions, I roll over and tell Adam to start timing them. They are already 6 minutes apart. I let my mom sleep until they have lasted an hour. 

We call the Doctor Chouchani (the best doctor in the whole wide world!!!!) and he says meet me at the hospital.

We arrive and I start to feel much more painful contractions. 

They put me in a pre-admittance room where they monitor your contractions and make sure you are ready to be admitted. I lay there for 2 hours on the most uncomfortable table/bed while they monitor my contractions. I squeeze Adam's hand with everyone and moan in pain. 

Around 6 am they tell me I can either be admitted and will not be able to shower or eat anything because they are going to hook up meds, or I can go home and wait for my water to break.

I jump at hearing the words HOME.

I make Adam stop at manhattan bagel and get an Everything Bagel toasted with cream cheese and stuff it faster then humanly possible into my face. 

I sleep from 8am-1pm.

I rest all day and am so glad I didn't stay in that cold hospital and just lounge with my mom.

Adam goes to work for half the day.

We eat a delicious dinner my mom makes and watch a Sabres Game. Then welcome back contractions.

I am doing exactly what I was the night before...changing from every position I can think of. 

I take a shower knowing it will be the last one I take with the baby in my belly.

Of course I am still peeing every 10 minutes, so as I am in the restroom I feel my first REAL contraction.

OH MY GOD!

It makes the others feel like a tickle.

I scream. 

No I let out a wretched horror movie scream.

My mom does not like that and says "We are going to the hospital."

10pm

This time its real. I know there is no maybe we are staying maybe we arent. 

They take me immediately into a room, no pre admittance room this time. 

They could probably tell by my face that it was time. 

We arrive in the room at 10:30pm and the resident that is on duty asks if I would like my epidural now.

I am at 6 centimeters.

I for what ever rediculous reason tell him, "No, I think I would like to wait as long as possible." I think I wanted to test out the pain and see if I could handle it.

Which I couldn't.

Duh.

1230am February 11th 

Hello Epidural. 

I had seen the needle while doing some research and knew that under no circumstance did I want to see it in real life. And boy am I glad I didn't see it because it was nerve racking already. I can't imagine it would have gone well.

By 1am lights are out and we are all trying to get come sleep.

2am, "umm Adam?"

"What??What?!"

"Something is happening, but I don't know what"

Adam pulls the sheet back, and by pull of course I mean rips it back, "oh my gosh! I think your water just broke."

Doctor/resident comes in, "Holy Cow, it's like Niagra Falls in here. Wow!" 

Thanks young, nice, smart, resident man. Thanks for making me feel less awkward about having a complete stranger guy down in my private places. Ya jerk.

No but really he was nice and did help lighten the situation a bit. haha.

Now at 8 centimeters.

Then we sleep.

 I can't get comfortable due to the numbness from the epidural, and my mom does everything she can to try to help. Ice chips, rearranges pillows every 10 seconds, and wet wash clothes, and just talking to me about anything.

At 7 a.m. the epidural starts waring off and the machine that monitors the bag of medicine starts going off. 

 nurse comes in and tells me my bag of the epidural is out and she needs to order for a new one so I may start to feel the contractions again. 

Thirty minutes later the new bag comes in and I am able to feel everything slightly but not terribly. 

A half hour later, completely numb again. Then at 8 a.m. it wears off again.

It is a shift change so the nurse comes in and I fill her in on how the other one ran out and she practically tells me I am a liar because a epi bag should last 12 hours.

She goes to get the anesthesiologist, its a new one because of the shift change, and he tells me he is going to give me a stronger concoction.

It continues to ware off. 

By 9a.m. I can feel everything but because of the heavy dose I have encountered through the morning of epi's I still can't move my legs. So adam and the nurse are rearranging my body for me every two minutes when the contractions come. 

My doc comes in and tells me that my body has had as much drugs as I can possibly have and I am still at a 8, then informs me that I have another bag of fluid. 

Yes you heard right, I am the lucky owner of two bags of water, so he breaks my second bag. 

He then makes another joke about water...

11 a.m. 

I am finally at 10 and I start pushing, and pushing and pushing.

Did I mention the back labor this whole time?!?!?!!

Adam had to be pushing on my back at all times and said he could feel her feet. She was trying to lower herself into my pelvic by pushing on my back.

I start getting so mad around 12:30pm because nothing is going according to plan and tell them I can't do it anymore.

At one thirty my doctor comes back and brings in his protege, a beautiful young woman and his son :), they are talking in doctor lingo while going back and forth feeling my cervix. I am screaming my lungs off in pain and they tell me "well she doesn't look like she's going to fit,you did everything you could, but we are going to have to go to a c section" 

By this point I am begging for the c-section and my poor mom is crying in the hallway because she cant handle hearing me scream in so much pain and I am pretty sure I wasn't being very nice to Adam or the nurse.

They shoot me up in the same spot as my epidural and tell me that this one will work faster and that in ten minutes I will be on the table numb and holding Adam's hand while they pull our little girl out.

Well sure enough ten minutes and I am on the table and they are poking me and I can feel everything!! 

Yep, that's right folks. THE MEDS DIDN'T WORK!!

They tell Adam he can't come in because the injection isn't working. I hear them 

whispering to eachother pretty much saying "I can't believe she isn't numb" 

I remember hearing my doctor and his son saying things in there doctor lingo, and asking me to stop moving my legs. Then I told the nurse holding my hand, "I'm not moving my legs!" 

They were shaking in shock.

So then the gas came and then everything went black.

February 11, 2011 @ 2:11pm Annabelle Rose arrived :)

 First to hold her <3

Although I wasn't the first person to hold her, and I didn't see her for the first 30 minutes after she was born I do want to applaud the speediness of the whole c-section. Within a half hour of me finding out I was going to have a csection, I was having it done. So 1:30p.m. they tell me, she was born at 2:11pm and I was in recovery awake holding her by 3p.m.

It wasn't what I planned

AND

It was the scariest experience of my life. its literally hard to relive it as I type it, but holy moly was it a beautiful miracle! I mean look at this little angel that came from it!!!!

 

With momo

Hello World :)

 

grandma and grandpa

I love what one of my girlfriends said about the whole thing, "it's like your body said I can do this on my own, get these drugs outta here!" So the next baby I am considering trying to do it without the epidural, but lets get real.....

;)

Turns out I had a high fever and an infection in my placenta during the whole labor. So I had to stay extra long at the hospital. 

Which looking back now was probably a blessing. Gave us a couple extra days to transition into parents while still having 3 meals a day made for me! haha

Spent our first valentines day together in the hospital

Annabelle also helped get a tumor out that probably would have gone undetected for a very long time. So I am tumor free now and completely healed.

No baby fever yet either!

She fills so many lives with so much joy, I don't know that I want to cramp her style with a sibling for a long long while. 

About that...

In case ya'll have forgotten (which is totally my fault since I NEVER post about it anymore) 

we are STILL renovating the house. 

Slowly but surely it is getting done! 

It looks great and progress is now picking up.

We had a professional come and do the electrical, drywall and tile. So we had to keep waiting for one to get done so another could start and then hold off something else or whatever...but now they are all finished and Adam and his dad can finish the cabinets so countertops can be brought in!! And then it'll all start tumbling into place :):):):):):):)

Here's some more progress...

I do want to mention how many funny faces I have received about our decision on the YELLOW paint color. The tile guy even said and I quote, "WOW! Who is your decorator? This is BRIGHT!!"

I do have to admit after it was up on all the walls it was pretty shockingly yellow, but as the cabinets are being put up its crazy to realize how much wall is NOT going to show. 

All photos taken from same place in the living room. This photo is a shot of the right side of the room.

 This was when the first wall came down. This is a shot from the center of the room.

 Both walls down!

Drywall up.

beautiful recessed lighting :)

That wall to the left is the one that will show off the yellow color.

 Some upper cabinets up!

Same angle as the others up there!

Tile :)

 

Next on the project list other then cabinets all day everyday is painting the master bedroom and the bathroom.

Thanks for following us through this journey. I can't wait to have each of you over to enjoy it once it is all done!

Girls Weekend

So this past weekend was my bachelorette weekend...OH.MY.GOD.

It was everything I had hoped for and more!

My friends that came were so amazing and truly made it a weekend I will never forget.

Lindsay and I flew out early Friday morning and had a layover in Tampa where we kicked the weekend off with margaritas and chips y salsa...just to get in the flavor of Tejas!

When we arrived we met Katie, another bridesmaid at the airport where she had arrived from Reno. 

Tricia, the one in charge of the weekend, picked us all up and we headed to the rental house. 

At first is wasn't starting off as we had expected..there was a group of old mexicans standing outside with a frazzled hippie woman in her mid 50's and the front door wide open. They were apparently waiting for a mattress to arrive (SCORE!) for the master bedroom.

Frazzled 50something lady won't stop rambling on about light switches and keys and blinds, and all we are thinking is "get the hell out" so we can start our weekend! Tricia gets bored and walks away and me and the rest of the girls stand around pretending to be interested when we hear her say 

"We didnt have time to clean, the people here before rented it for a month and took forever to get out today"

EXCUSE ME?!

Not only are you standing here with a group of people that don't speak english putting an awkward damper on the start of our kick ass weekend, there is also no bed in the bedroom, but you are honestly telling us how this place hasnt even been cleaned!!!! 

Cue Tricia coming in and whispering that there is a jacuzzi in the next room with a steam room!

Before I had a hissy fit about the cleaning situation., or the lack there of, Katie opened a bottle of wine and we all had a glass while they brought the new bed in and then we decided we couldnt take anymore of this lady and we left to do our grocery shopping.

We decided that we would try to get the cleaning fee back and an inconvenience fee because of the experience but who knows if that'll ever happen.

That night we played lots of games and drank more wine then I thought we could consume. 

Aren't we pretty? haha

The next morning we hung around and had mimosas and bagels, while we all got ready for the day.

We called a cab to pick us up around 1230 and as we are all (5 of us) walking to the itsy bitsy cab we realize there isnt enough room for us. We desperately plead the driver but not a chance! So Vanessa, Tricia's long time friend and one of the niceswt people I have ever met, offers to drive.

Katie, Linds and I get in the cab and we arrive to the brewery a good 30 min later!

We thought it was a 10 min to drive, so we were a bit bitter but whatever...we got there!

The owner and brewer greets us in a Gorilla suit and tells us cheerfully, "Wow first time a cab has dropped any one off way out here, how much was the ride from the city!" and then true magician style he disappears. 

We walk in and immediately are so happy we made the decision to come! It was such an awesome, rustic place. It felt kind of lofty with big window and exposed pipes but kind of rustic with old looking wood making up the few walls that were in the building. There was great contemporary artwork hanging around that was forsale by local artisits and a huge great patio!

It was a small group of people working and touring so by the end it felt like you new everyone. It was lots of fun and I definitely reccommend...

http://www.thirstyplanet.net/

after..obviously

The beer was delicious by the way :)

We then headed home and I made a quick dinner and we all got ready. Cabs were back to pick us up but after making dinner, doing tricias updo and getting dressed I still hadnt even done my hair or makeup and they were already outside! So we had to pay a stupid 7 dollar waiting fee and not to mention we had to take 2 cabs because of the stupid 4person per vehicle (even if it is a van!) in Austin. bleh. 

Regardless we made it downtown to Pete's Piano Bar!

They are known for Bachelorette parties and their wonderful dualing pianos!

It was the most fun I have had in a long long long time! We got there around 8 so we didnt have to pay the $20 covercharge which was a really good decision because we were able to make friends with bartenders and pianists because we were the only ones there. Not to mention the great table we got!!! 

We made so many friends that night! A cougar that sat next to us basically hung out the whole night with Katie. The bartender from Tahoe, whom I wanted to bring back home to buffalo with me! And a sweet mom from Texas with a great southern accent! Not to mention all the other bachellorette parties that were there! Seriously so much fun. 

We were having such a great time we didn't really make it to any other bars lol. Which is what Austin's 6th street is all about. 

Only made it to one other bar, called the dizzy rooster. I.DONT.REMEMBER. lol

Well maybe a little bit, I remember we ordered a shot and the bartendar put mine on a beam over the bar with my i.d. and said the only way I was getting it was if I climbed. 

So, naturally I did. 

We met a huge group of friends there as well. 

Then it was time to go home. We tried getting a cab but there was way too many people so we took a bicycle cab to a less populated area. Never done that before!

It worked!

Oh wait I forgot to mention...somewhere between Pete's and Dizzy Rooster, this bachelorette lost her phone! haha Typical.

So the next day we all filled in each other memories with bits and pieces of that night and laughed at pictures and videos over a delicious greasy Mexican breakfast. yum!

Then we parted ways. sad face!

It was soooo much fun and I was so happy all of my friends got along so well. They all had never met one another so it was so comforting to know that they will have a ton of fun at the wedding all together too!

Thank you to all of you who made this weekend the most perfect girls weekend, whether you were an attendee, a brewer, a bartender, a new friend, a pianist, a cabbie, or my fabulous fiance whom without asking me to marry him, none of this would have been possible!!!!! Love you all :):):):)