Living Life

You haven't lived until you've owned a Lab, specifically a Yellow Lab named Hemi. Although they are "America's Dog", I don't know that such a status should come into effect until they are well past the age of 2, maybe 3 or 4. None the less, it's hard to imagine life without Hemi, although I know it would be calm and peaceful. There would be a void there without him. Noone to yell at, to dig in the trash, to bark for no reason and wake up Andi, noone to run away or get stuck in the grumpy neighbors backyard and make him even more grumpy, noone to get stung by a bunch of wasps the night before Easter Sunday when no vets are open and swell up like a balloon and require an emergency vet run Easter morning. Would really calm things down around here. I can hardly watch the movie Marley and Me, because it in so many ways is exactly like our family. Hemi snacked on my wedding shoes two weeks before my wedding. And last week decided to run away on the night I was gone and Todd was supposed to leave at 4am for Sturgis. He's such a helpful dog. But we do love him and yes he is found, still alive, bailed out of dog jail and now microchipped...just one of reasons I have not blogged recently. We've been living life :)

We are all doing great, yes that is what you would expect me to say. But we really are. When you have a baby everyone always tells you that your life is about to change, nothing will be the same. You always knod your head and say yeah I know, cause yes a huge event is about to take place. When I heard that I always thought of less time for dates, less time on the couch. Noone ever talks about how much it truly does change things. Nearly every dynamic of your life is altered in someway or another, and not always in a positive way. Things didn't change immediately for me, it took time and a lot of thinking. As Andi gets older and I look at her "I'm about to destroy this object and laugh at you" smile suddenly everything became more important to me. Suddenly my heart melted. I think I've spent most of my life moving from one thing to the next, leaving people and objects behind without really thinking twice about it. I realized so much. I've never really focused on what I want in life. Suddenly my friends became priceless, and my family a necessity. At Andi's first birthday I felt as though God was slapping me in the face saying, look at your family, look how much they love you. How blessed we are, it gives me goosebumps to think how everyone came, for my little girl. So many people. She'll never remember it, but I always will. And that in the end, thats all we really have is our family and our friends. For my little girl to spend every moment she can looking at the cows and rocking in the chair with her grandparents. To see all of that love for her, all I want is for her to be surrounded by it. To go fishing with her daddy and grandpa and know how to ride a dirt bike(daddys says no to 4 wheels :) ) and shoot a gun. And what I want in life suddenly became so incredibly clear a blind man could see it. To be surrounded by those people is truly the only thing in life that matters. And that to spend time with our friends is so important, to let them know how you feel and be able to grow with them in so amazing.
I think my relationship with Todd has changed more than any. In so many ways I can't even explain them all. My mom always told me the hardest thing I'll ever do is be married. Be married and have a child that is. You both go through so many changes that to stay on the same page and headed in the same direction is nearly impossible. We're guilty of surrounding ourselves with to many people. And being influenced by others to easily. We both think about others so much, we forget about ourselves. And in a time with so many changes from a new baby that is critical, to think of yourselves. I can honestly say we made it through the ugly and the sky is so clear and beautiful. That we are a family, we have each other and need each other. And as long as we are together and looking out for each other we can do anything. With each challenge you become stronger and better. He's a quiet fella and a lot of people have no idea what he's like. But I know that I'm so very blessed in so many ways, he is an amazing husband.
Andi is almost walking now, she was taking about 5 steps on her own. But has suddenly decided to stop trying. She walks better for daddy than for me, but shes doing awesome, she is a babbling fool. Her favorite words are daddy, doggy and hey. She could spot a dog a mile away, she truly loves animals. Animals and music. She wiggles with the beat of almost anything that is playing, it is pretty funny. She loves to play grammy's piano and rock to the beat. She's also got the worlds most adorable smile. Smiles and wrinkles up her nose and giggles. She knows she's cute, almost to cute. :)

Moving along

Andi is starting to think about crawling. She gets frustrated because she is noticing everything around her but can't reach it. She has figured out how to pull her leg up rather than kick like she is in water, so I'm sure it won't be long. Last week she also held her own bottle for the first time, VERY exciting!!!

7 Months

We have arrived at 7 months old! Little miss is becoming such a big girl, we are of course so incredibly proud of her.

I'm not sure where to begin it has been so long since I have written anything. Life is a little hectic, so sitting down to type a blog is harder then I imagined. We are all doing great here though. Little miss (more commonly known as Andi Pants and Midget) is growing like a weed. She is quite possibly the tallest baby around at her age. She has been wearing 12 month clothes (she's been in them since she was 6 months) and towers over other little ones her age. Maybe we have a little basketball star on our hands :D, she is definetly tall and skinny like her daddy. She got her first tooth in a few weeks ago and has conquered sitting up and clapping. She is VERY proud of the fact that she can clap. I love the look of pride on her face when she does it and the adorable smile that comes with it. She is quite a little character. Full of funny noises, and facial expressions and a tongue that will never stay in her mouth. Her newest thing is to yell but it's a whispered yell, so she's yelling but hardly any noise is coming out. Todd thinks it is her way of talking, we will never know. She is definetly going through the "I can't be more then 2 feet away from mommy" stage. A little taxing on me, but it is neat to see her recognizing so many new people and objects around her. She discovered the light on the ceiling above the kitchen table. So now when we eat we spend most of our time looking at the light rather than eating, but at least we're learning. :)

This week hasn't been the greatest week for her, she's definetly ready for it to be over. She got sick on Friday and we are still battling to overcome it. Poor little lady, she is so miserable but tries to be in good spirits. Todd is doing great, he is busy building another spec home. I believe last time I typed he was working on the home at Applewood. They have since finished and sold it, built a garage for the neighbors to the Applewood house and are now working on a new one a few blocks away. He's a busy, busy fella. I'm still at home with Andi Pants, but I've started looking for a job. I've been (kind of) doing real estate still, but it's time for me to get out of the house. I tried being a stay at home mommy so I could enjoy my little angel, but it's just not in my genetic make up. So we'll see what we can find, it nothing great comes along I'll just keep hanging out and growing with the little one, no rush.

We're looking forward to more warm weather, she is definetly going to be an outdoor, barefoot little girl. We've been putting her toys on the back deck and playing in the back yard with the dogs, but it's still a little chilly to be outside to long. The dogs have come to accept little miss. Hemi and her have become pretty good pals, she often lays and kicks the tar out of the poor little guy, pulls his ears and lips etc, but he doesn't care. Her face comes to life when she sees him, it is very adorable. Who would have guessed the world's worst dog would be the baby's favorite thing. Hopefully it's not a sign of what she'll be like, if he is her partner in crime we are in a boat load of trouble. His most recent fiasco he nearly didn't live through. I had put the hamburger on the counter to thaw and ran to the store, he has never bothered anything I had thawing on the counter. So I came home from the store, opened the door and there he was enjoying 2lbs of raw hamburger on our white/cream carpet...not a good day for Hemi. Oakly could really careless about her, he tolerates her to put it best. He doesn't care to have her touching or being near him, I think he's still bitter she took his mommy away. He'll get over it...

That is all I have for today, we hope everyone is doing great and we will keep you posted!

Take care!!