26 Weeks + More House Hunting

Chris and I continued our search in Illinois for our next home. We focused this trip on the Tri-Cities (Geneva, Batativa & St. Charles) and seeing the sights of the area. Our realtor brought us around the ridiculously cute downtown's of Geneva and St. Charles that are separated by the Fox River. She had planned to have us get some coffee and a little breakfast snack at a local bookstore/cafe, but being Sunday it didn't open until 10:00am, so we ended up at Starbucks. Can't hate on a good Starbucks. We also stopped in to see the park systems in the area and even passed by the Bark Park for Lola.

We then headed out to a small neighboring city called Sugar Grove to view a hand full of homes.  The small town is definitely in development as there is nothing out there but a grocery store, gas station, McDonalds and a Subway....of course a Subway....a town is not a town without a Subway. The nice part though is it's really only about 15 minutes away from the Tri-Cites which has everything. We can afford a lot more house out there and a lot of them are much newer.  We toured a home that was hands down the best we've seen. Unfortunately it's a short sale. Until our home sells we can't really put in an offer on it. Kind of a bummer.

So as we headed back to Wisconsin that night I had me first major emotional breakdown. All I could think about was how much my life was going to change with Sloane on her way, losing my job, and moving to a new city, and I have zero control over any of it! For those that know me best they know I don't do out of control, I plan everything to a "T". Needless to say, I'm very lost right now. Nothing a good cry didn't get out...poor Chris...

Any who... Here I am at 26 weeks...

Lastly, don't forget to check out the poll on this side of the blog and put in your two cents! If you are looking at this on your cell phone you'll need to view the page in the full web version in order to vote. 

100 Days to Go!!

100 days and counting! Tomorrow we enter the double digits! Ekkk! It's all going so fast, time to slow it down a notch! So many things to be done before Sloane arrives! 14 weeks to go!

TO DO LIST:
Finish Registry
Clean House....again
Sell House
Grow Beautiful Little Lady
Find a Home in Illinois
Pamper... because I can...
Attend Baby Showers
Keep up with Works Fast Pace
Find Job in Illinois for Ashlee

Lastly, FIND MY BRAIN, I can't even remember right now what I was going to write in here about my not so smart brain. Fabulous!

25 Weeks + House Hunting

25 weeks and doing great. I've had a couple bouts of acid reflux lately, but nothing that needs to be treated with any medication. My newest and latest experiences though... random acts of kindness like getting the snow brushed off my car for me and CANKLES! For those that don't know what cankles are they are when you can't tell where your CAlfs end and your aNKLES start!

I can thank our five hour drive down to Illinois for the start of this trend. Sitting for that long, not good. Didn't help I was taking it easy on the water as well so we didn't have to stop more than the 2 times we already did. Oh well, that's pregnancy for you! Nothing a little elevation and ice didn't take care of.

Why were your in Illinois, you may ask? Well, we've shared with our family and close friends and now that I've finally told my work I can say it on here too. Chris recently accepted a new territory in Illinois, in place of his Wisconsin territory. He has the 8 most north-east counties in Illinois, including Dane County (Chicago) as well as still taking care of the state of Indiana. What this means for us is a move from Appleton, WI to somewhere in Illinois. His new position began the first of this year and since we haven't sold the house yet the overnights away from home have increased. So we are both pretty eager to get down there. We put the house on the market by owner for about two months and gave it a good old college try with no luck. We listed with a realtor at the beginning of the year and have had a few bites, but no offers yet.

This past weekend we drove down to Illinois to check out potential homes and area's for us to live. More than likely we'll be renting down there first to become more familiar with the area before jumping into owning a home. We saw 12 homes on Saturday, quite a few dogs and a few that were more like maybes with a little TLC needed. We may head down again next weekend to check out a couple other homes and area's while I can still travel. Awesome, more cankles!

Our good friends watched Lola for us while we were gone. This is their spit-fire daughter Annessa (who loves Lola to pieces) having a fun sleepover with LoBear and Gus. Rich didn't tell her Lola was coming and when she first saw her she said "Dad, Lola broke into the house!" Then she turned, smiled and said "Can she sleep over tonight?" Way too cute for her own good!

The plan currently is still to have Sloane here in Appleton but if the right offer comes along, who knows where we'll be!? Pretty scary if you ask me, but I'm trying to stay focused on staying healthy while growing our little love, keeping the house in "showing" condition, planning a nursery I can't build in this home, refining the baby registry, researching homes in IL, keeping up with my work schedule and somehow on finding time to rest.

25 Weeks

24 Weeks + Lola, Sloane & New Poll

Arriving soon... Miss Sloane Michaela Casey!! That's our little ladies name, we can't wait to meet her!

We had a doctors appointment last week and Baby Sloane and Mama are doing great. Her heart rate was 160bpm and she's measuring (or I'm measuring) right on. Apparently I'm gaining weight right on as well, but seriously, I'm really starting to feel huge... see for yourself!

On another note, just in case any of you are wondering how Lola is doing with all this, she's been great. If she knows something is going on she's not showing it yet. Around the holidays she got to listen to Ella cry and watch me feed Keegan. Thankfully the crying didn't seem to phase her and she sat on my lap while I fed Keegan like a good girl. The only problem we're having, if we could even call it a problem, is Lola seems to think that the babies activity mats and boppy pillows are just different types of beds for her....

Thank goodness she's hypoallergenic!

Lastly, the fun stuff! Time for a new poll! Chris and I were both born 6lbs 7oz (yes please, I'll have one of those from the menu) here's hoping history repeats itself. While we're waiting Chris and I figured out LoBear is 6lbs 14oz... will Sloane weigh more or less than our current little love!?

23 Weeks +

Well January's fabric seemed a lot more reasonable when I selected it back in October, but looking out the window these days, not so much! What a funky winter we've been having. 49 degrees in January...in Wisconsin.. seriously!?! Don't get me wrong,  I'm certainly not complaining, there has been a lot less snow to shovel (knock on wood).

My belly seems to have really taken off in the last two weeks and I can for sure now feel our little ladies twists, turns and kicks. I thought hearing her heartbeat was the best thing ever but those kicks, letting us know she's still happy in there, is hands down the best thing ever! She must take after her daddy though because she's most active in the morning. She makes it that much harder to get out of bed now because all I want to do is stay there and feel her wiggle around. Then of course I get hungry...

They say she can hear us in there which means Chris and I have some work to do on our sailor accents. On the other hand, I got some sweet advice from a friend of ours to sing to our little one. Her son still responds to the song he shares with just mommy. Our little lady kicks around when I sing, but I'm pretty sure it's because she's not a fan of my singing voice! Oh well, she gets what she gets!

10 Posts of Review for 2011

Time to look back at 2011 and these 10 posts pretty much some it up. BABY was on the brain! Check out all the links below for any posts you may have missed through out the year, or if you just want to take a trip down memory lane with us!

January - Super Bowl XLV Champions!

Okay, so not ever post is about the baby, we needed to keep some room in there for the Packers! We would love a repeat again in 2012!

March - Chris' TN Golf Trip

The one and only post written by Chris this year. I'll get him to write more yet!

April - The Official Results are In!!

This year together with the Wendorf side of the family we completed a 5K race. This was the first race for everyone and they all did so great!

April - Before the News: April

I think this month collectively had the funniest events of our baby adventures! Too funny!

May - Mother's Day in Chicago

Lot's of great memories from this trip and would love to make it a tradition to keep up with. Maybe this upcoming May might not be the best, especially if I'm over due for any reason! Bonus if I'm early, it's never too early for our little lady to have her first shopping experience in Chicago!

August - WE DID IT!!

Yeah, the title kind of says it all.

October - Growing Fast

The introduction of our new niece and nephew

October - We're Having a Baby!

Again, the title says it all.

October - 13 Weeks +

I like this post because of the memories that came with Chris' 32nd birthday. It was an awesome marathon meal!

December - Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

It's a Girl! 

22 Weeks +

Wow, December was the month to grow! I just looked back at the first picture for December and there is quite the difference to now. 

Chris and I setup our "Baby Preparation Class" for next Saturday. Chris was suppose to be out of town ice fishing next weekend in Iowa, but with the mild winter we've had this year he figured it was best to cancel.  It really helped with opening up the schedule for us to get some baby related stuff done. Besides our class we'll be registering soon, it's a pretty daunting thought but still very exciting.

We can't wait for all this new year is going to bring our way. So many wonderful changes. To bring 2011 to an end we attended a New Years Eve party at our friends home. It was a 1920's inspired party complete with a speakeasy, gangsters, flappers, 20's inspired food and music. It was a great night and baby girl did a great job letting mom make it to midnight!

Here's to another year of this wonderful life with the family and friends we love!