Pics Finally!!!!!!

Courtesy of my sister Mary here are some pics from the hospital. Reid is two weeks now and I can't remember our life without him. I will post more current pics soon. Thanks for all of your support and love.

Baby News!!!!

So, I have had the baby and have been home for a few days now. Sorry for my neglect of the blog but our computer is messing up constantly and we can't upload pictures. I am going to try to post some this week.

Reid Oliver Andersen was born November 18th at 3:09 in the morning. Labor was FAST!!! I was due on the 17th. I went to the doctor that morning and was to a 4. My contractions started at 9:45 and when they checked me I was a 7 and my contactions were 3 minutes apart. They admitted me and I was dying. I wanted my epidural so bad and the anesthesiologist took a LONG time (it was probably not that long but felt like an eternity) because of an emergency they had going on. After I got it I was a lot better. The doctor said that the epidural would slow down my labor but I didn't care. I could have been in labor all night with that thing. Within the hour the doctor came back and wanted me to try to push to see what would happen. Chris was sleeping and the doctor said that he could still sleep. I pushed and the baby was COMING. We woke up Chris and within a few minutes Reid was born. I couldn't believe how amazing it was.

Riley is doing great considering his world has been turned up side down. We are all doing great and I am the luckiest mom in the world. I promise to post pics this week.

Change of Plans

Super Why didn't turn out so here is what we came up with instead. More pictures to come.

Mixed feelings

Being a mother is so emotionally challenging! Sometimes I laugh until I cry and other times I just cry. Riley is changing a lot lately and I don't really know what to do about it. He gets mad a lot and yells a lot. I try to be patient and loving but that can last only so long. I guess it doesn't help that I can barely walk and I am not sleeping well either. I feel like my emotions are raw. I hate yelling at Riley but sometimes I feel like I lose all control of myself. I don't like that feeling either. I just had to vent.

Favorite Pizza Toppings

We had pizza tonight and I usually just get pepperoni because it is a fav of Riley. He loves to dip it in ranch. I however love it with pineapple. Ever since my days at Ricks, I love pineapple and pepperoni pizza. We would order a pizza bomb at all hours of the night and get extra pineapple and pepperoni with some ice cream from Craigo's. I can almost taste those right now. I miss that place.

What is your favorite topping or toppings?

Fall

Here in Michigan Fall is in the air. It is chilly outside and the leaves are changing. I love this time of year. I want to go to cider mills and start on our costumes this year. This year Riley has decided that he wants to be Super Why, Chris will be Alpha Pig and I will either be Wonder Red or Princess Pea. I can't wait to show you all the results. Being 9 months pregnant at that point it should be interesting. I hope you like the new background.

HAPPY OCTOBER!!

Heartburn

UGH!!! First I have to say that I love being pregnant. I love feeling the baby move and seeing my belly grow. I love hearing the heartbeat and having Riley and Chris rub and kiss my belly. What I don't love is the beginning of heartburn. Last night I had a horrible night. Riley wanted to sleep in our bed and I was up a lot because of that. In between being hit in the face with Riley I had heartburn. It was uncomfortable and irritating. I am sitting here before bed wishing I had some tums. I will have to pick some up tomorrow. I guess it is going to get worse before it gets better.

Anyways.... I am 33 weeks this week and can't believe it. My sister Mary had her baby yesterday and I am kinda freaked out about it. I hope I feel ready when the time comes. I am getting scared.

POST 100!!!!!!

I saw on my dashboard that I had 99 posts. I honestly never thought I would make it to 100 posts. I am pretty happy about that. Thanks to everyone who looks at my blog and thanks even more to those of you who comment. That is why I started the blog, to reconnect with people and to hear your thoughts on things.

Thanks!

Biggest Loser Starting TONIGHT!!!

Is anyone else SO EXCITED about biggest loser starting tonight. I can tell I am going to cry a lot!!! DAN IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pregnancy Pics

Prenancy through the weeks (starting with most recent. Watch the belly shrink!)

30 weeks






20 weeks




10 weeks!

Riley Singing

Cool decorating Blog

My good friend Rachel showed me this cool blog. I love it. The woman is SO talented and has great ideas. Enjoy!!

http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/

Bacon

I love the taste of bacon. I like it in quiche, on BLTs, for breakfast and just plain. The crispier the better. What I don't like is cooking it in the house. I hate the way it makes everything smell like bacon grease and it doesn't go away for a long time. I hate the way it spatters on my skin and clothes and burns.

So... the dilemma continues. I love bacon and eating it with my family but it comes at a price. I have to deal with smelling like bacon for the remainder of the night and smelling it on my furniture for at least 24 hours. Anyways. Just thought I would share some thoughts.

Baby Clothes

I recently took out Riley's baby clothes to see what we needed for the baby. Because of all the sales going on I wanted to see what we had and what we needed size wise. Let me just tell you that taking out his clothes made me want the baby to come so bad. It also made me ache for Riley to be a little baby again. I can't believe he was ever small enough to fit into those clothes. Now he is a walking, talking, potty trained boy who is so smart and awesome. WOW!!! Time flies. I can't wait until November.

Woolite Testimonial

I have started washing my clothes in Woolite and feel like it has made a huge difference. Do any of you use it? I get coupons for it at target and love it. I especially love it for darks. I wash my black maternity t shirt and maternity jeans and have noticed no difference in how it looks now from when I bought it. The shape stays amazing and there is no fading. It might be a little more expensive but I feel like my clothes look amazing. Just thought I would share. :)

Dry Nights

Riley has been such a champ when it comes to potty training. He usually wakes up in the middle of the night having to go potty and wakes up dry. We ran out of pull-ups and he has been wearing undies to bed and is awesome. He is the best.

And here they are!!!!!!

Here are some pictures of the new couches. It took a few days of getting the decorating to where I like it. We got all three pieces of the set the people were selling. I am really happy with them.

New Couches and Cake Wrecks

I love my new couches. I will put in pics later but for now... if you haven't looked at the cake wrecks blog lately YOU HAVE TO!!! Hilarious.

Tomorrow is the DAY!!

We get our couches tomorrow. I am so excited!! I will take some pictures so you can all see what I have been talking about. YEAH!!

Decorating Ideas

I am wanting to redecorate my living room. We are getting new furniture on Monday and now I want to revamp my wall decor. Here are some ideas I found. Which one do you like best? ( a friend of mine gave me the idea.)
#1 I like the tiles and I think I could find some that are affordable.


#2 I have always liked the different size frames put together. Frames can be pricey though.


#3 I think the plates idea is cool because they mismatch and can bring in all sorts of colors.


#4 This looks pretty, but where do you find decorations like this?


#5 These are cool platters but again... where do you find stuff like this?

Tiny Hawks Sports Camp

Last week Riley was able to do a sports camp called Tiny Hawks. They learned Soccer, T-ball and Basketball. Watching 3-4 year olds playing these sports was pretty cute. Riley had a hard time at first getting used to it, but by the end he loved it.

They started by having to walk through the "Gateway of Fun" The kids always got a kick out of that.


After completing the camp they all got a little certificate. Here is Riley getting his.

To go from one activity to the other they told the kids to do and "airplane". It got the kids going pretty good.
This was Riley's coach "Twinkle Toes" or Coach John as he was known to the parents. Every night in Riley's prayers he would say he was thankful for Twinkle Toes. It was pretty cute. He was great with the kids.
This is all the kids and the three coaches on the last day.
Snack time. Riley wouldn't sit with me. He wanted to be by Twinkle Toes.
Riley playing T-ball for the first time.
He actually made contact. He is a natural. :)
The weather was beautiful and cooler all week. We were lucky.

Your hearts deepest desire?

Because the new Harry Potter has come out, on TV they are showing all of the previous movies. I have to say that I am never really in love with the movies. I like them. They are fine. But I am too much of a purest when it comes to the books. Those books are so amazing to me. They are interesting and full of magic, which I have loved for as long as I can remember, starting with Narnia of course. Anyhow... we were watching the Sorceror's Stone the other night and a thought came to me. It was the part where Harry was running from getting in trouble and found the Mirror of Erised. This is a special mirror that when you look in it you see your heart's deepest desire. Poor Harry, who never knew his parents, saw them and could watch them move around.

It made me think... what would I see when I looked into the mirror? After thinking about it for a few days I have come to know that I would see myself old, with my honey, and children around me. My children would be grown with families of their own and we would all love each other and be strong and faithful members of the church. I think that my life is so full of unknowns right now that I long to know the end from the beginning. I long to know if Chris will get into Med School. I long to know what kind of man Riley will become and I long to know the rest of my babies. At times I think I would look into the mirror and see myself looking amazing with lots of stuff. But I guess that is the nice thing about the Mirror. It shows the heart's deepest desires and not just the stuff we want short term.

What would you see?

Hilarious Blog

If anyone loves cakes and cake decorating you have to take a look at this blog. A friend of Chris at work showed it to him and when he showed me I thought I was going to die laughing. Take a look and let me know what cake you liked the most.

cakewrecks.blogspot.com

Enjoy!!!

Some pictures

Riley in his big boy bed.


























Canoeing. Riley did awesome sitting in the canoe.



































Chris on Father's Day with his fruit tart. It was delicious.

Happy 4th of July EVERYONE!!!

We had a great 4th this year. We went to the boy scouts pancake breakfast at church followed by a carnival where Chris got in a dunk tank. Riley and I were both able to dunk him. It was pretty fun. We then went to the parade in Ypsi which was the longest parade I have ever been to but it was fun. We then came home and Riley and I took naps so we could go to fireworks that night. After we woke up we went to a BBQ with some friends. That was really fun and we had some good food. WE then went to the Whitmore Lake fireworks. By then we were all pretty tired so we left a little early to beat traffic.

While watching the parade I totally got emotional when the Veterens were marching. I love our country and feel so much pride for those who serve our country and give up so much to protect our freedoms.

Happy 4th everyone!!

Boy or Girl???

We had our big 20 week ultrasound this morning and we are having a...

BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are so excited. We only have boy names picked out so now we just have to decide on one.

Potty Training and A Big Boy Bed

A few weeks ago I started trying to get Riley to go potty on the toilet. We had some success and some accidents. Actually more accidents than successes. I decided to give it a rest. Boy, am I glad I did. Just this week Riley got motivated to do it himself. My mom bought Riley some new undies and with the help of Lucky Charms cereal we are on our way. There was a little bit of a power struggle to get him to go every little bit so I now let him tell me. Little did I know my boy is a genius and started telling me when he had to go. He is great about going potty other places and telling me when he has to go poop. I can't tell you how proud I am of my little guy. He is awesome and he looks so cute in his undies. Now I know what it is like to not have to change diapers all the time. I love it. Granted... I will have my share of baby diapers soon enough, but I don't even mind about that. Buying one size of diapers is an exciting prospect. I am more amazed with my sweet boy every day. He is the best.

As for the big boy bed... I found one on Craig's List and we just bought it the other day. He has been climbing out of his crib for some time now so he was definitly ready. He fell out the first night but has been great ever since. We bought him cool car sheets and he has been staying in bed all night. Again, I have to say that Riley is the best. I can't wait to see what we get with the next baby. If this new one is 1/2 as amazing, we are in luck. We took his crib apart the night we got the bed and he wants the new baby to sleep in it already. So cute!!!

Pursuit of Happyness

This movie was on last night. Have you ever seen it? I had mixed emotions about it. Even though I knew how it ended I was still stressed out. I was pretty much sad through the entire movie. Will Smith and his adorable son made you love them and wish they could have just had it a little easier. It was good though because it made me realize how much we really have. This caused me to have a little self reflection.

For those of you who know me best, know that I like to look cute and I like nice things (champagne taste on a Koolaid budget if you will). I love to get new clothes and shoes and kind of wish I wasn't like that sometimes. I wish I was one of those people who have a hard time spending money on themselves or who hated shopping. I LOVE shopping. I am one of those people who get a high from it and could shop very often. I love finding a deal, but more than that, I love finding a beautiful pair of heels that make my legs look amazing or a pair of pants that fit just right. Ya know what I mean?!?!? Anywho... I know I can't really change who I am but when I see a movie about a guy like Chris Gardner, it makes me think. It makes me want to be better.

On a different note, the movie also made me love Riley more than ever. It made me want to go pick him out of his bed and hug him forever. It made me want to be a better mom. If you have seen the movie let me know if you felt the same.

Pregnancy and dreams...

I don't know if I am alone on this one but when I am pregnant my dreams are messed up!! Before I had Riley I would have dreams where my baby got switched at the hospital (with and Indian couple of all people) or that I left my baby on a high place and just walked away. Basically it was neglect that I was worrying about I guess.

With this baby so far I have had two dreams. One was good and the other was HORRIBLE!! My first one was that I had a baby boy with a ton of dark hair (he actually looked like the baby of some friends of ours, so I think that is where that one came from). That one wasn't so bad. But just last night I had a really disturbing dream: I was cooking for a bunch of people and Riley was helping me, as he often will, and I was really frazzled trying to get all the food done. I walked away and the next thing that I knew, Riley was sticking both hands a pot of boiling water and his little hands burst out in blisters and he was just crying and crying. I was so upset that I woke up and said a prayer to get those images out of my head. I felt bad for a little while and had to remind myself that Riley was fine and sleeping in his bed.

What is up with that??? I feel like I am telling myself I should NOT be having more kids because I can't even take care of the one I have!! UGH!! I know that's not true. Riley is awesome, but I guess I am more worried about it than I thought.

Am I alone in this or does anyone else have some crazy pregnant dreams to share?

"I be so brave!"

Today was Riley's 3 year check-up (a little late, I know, but I totally spaced it for awhile) and to say that I was scared was putting it mildly. Somewhere between one and two, Riley gained and intense fear of the doctor. I am sure that kind of thing is normal but it was still hard. He would constantly say "I no go doctor!" over and over again on our way to the office and the crying would begin as soon as we were taken back. Weighing and measuring was always a nightmare and forget the doctor even getting his hands on Riley without a serious wrestling match. For a well visit it wasn't that big of a deal, but if there was actually something wrong it was a problem. UGH!! So, the older Riley gets the stronger he gets and the louder he gets and so I was scared about today. I was even avoiding telling him about it until the very last moment.

But, I should give my sweet son some credit. I told him about the appointment yesterday and he was fine. I prepared him all day, telling him that we would go to the park before and there would be ice cream after. He responded "I be so brave." He kept saying that and he was great. Being 3 now the visit is a little different. They wanted to check his eyes and they gave him a little gown to wear. He didn't like the paper gown. He said it felt weird but he did great at the eye test and every other exam they had to do. I love that my son is old enough to reason with and is smart enough to know I would never let anything bad happen to him. Riley is awesome.

Minnesota visit!

Two weekends ago we went to visit my brother Nate and his family in MN. It was a long drive but Riley did awesome and we had a great time. We loved MN. Everything about it seemed better than where we live now. :) We saw beautiful parks, the MALL OF AMERICA!, and the coolest children's museum I have ever seen. Here are a few of the highlights.

Birthday party pics

I love throwing Riley birthday parties already. I love celebrating my baby boy. Here are a few of the highlights.
Here is his new bike from Grammy. He has gotten really good at riding it.
Here is a side picture of his "Mack Cake".
Some of the guests.
Mack with his head injury. I didn't get a picture of him until after Riley had a "taste".

Silliness with Aunt Mimi

I was getting ready and this is what I came out to...

(these are those tabs you put on papers to mark a page.)