MILK... it does a body good!

First of all, if any men happen to read my blog, this is probably a post that you don't want to read.

It's has to with breastmilk. (I picture all men gasping right now and running away from the computer as fast as they can) That's right... breastmilk. MY breastmilk.

I nursed Carsen for 1 year, and plan to do the same with Madelyn. I hated breastfeeding with Carsen at first. I would sit and cry because I felt like such a cow. (it didn't help that the first time Keith saw me pumping he "mooooooo'd at me..." :) But then I learned to enjoy the quiet time with him. Night feedings totally sucked were definately more difficult, but I quickly got used to them. And now with Madelyn, I feel like it's easier to breastfeed than it would be to bottle feed.

But here's my dilema... I'm so curious as to what it tastes like. SO curious. But the thought of actually tasting my own milk grosses me out. Big time. I have dipped my finger in it and taken a lick of it, but that's the farthest I have gone.

I'm not sure if we're going to have any more kids. We both go back and forth. (well, I go back and forth... Keith is done having kids pretty satisfied with the 2 kids we already have) Part of me thinks if I'm going to try it, I need to do it soon. Madelyn is almost 9 months, so that means 3 more months of breastfeeding her, and maybe no more kids. Ever. No more breastmilk.

Ahhh... life's dilemmas.

So, it's confession time... have YOU ever tried (or thought of trying) your breastmilk?

Drumroll, please.....

Last week, District One Hospital had a birthday party for all the babies born in 2009. That included Madelyn, so we went! This mommy Carsen loved the cupcakes! I got a call this week-end from the hospital saying Madelyn won a door prize! All I had to do was go to the Woman's Health Unit and pick it up!!

So... today I went. She won a cute t-shirt and some bath toys. FUN!

I love practical jokes. LOVE them. So this got me thinking...

I went unto facebook and wrote as my status "Amy went to the woman's health unit today... and it wasn't to visit someone else's baby". I knew I would get a reaction. I WANTED a reaction!! (I know... it's sick and twisted)

I got facebook comments, facebook messages, e-mails, phone calls... someone texted my sister, asking her if I was pregnant. My own mother called me, b/c someone asked her to clarify. My mom's words to me?? "That's so funny!!". I'm glad that I make my mom proud!! :)

No... I'm not pregnant. But eventhough I'm not pregnant, there was still something fun about people thinking that I was, though!

I actually feel kind of bad, too. I'm sorry to those of you who thought I was pregnant.

A friend of mine played the same practical joke a couple months ago. When she did it, I thought "this is SO something I would do"! Check out her blog! We're both super cool a lot alike!

Thanks for humoring me, everyone!!! This was fun! Maybe we'll do it again next week!!! :)

Look out Martha...

We have 2 large windows in our livingroom that we never put curtains on. After 2 years, we thought it was time!
I've been looking at curtains, and they can get pretty expensive. So, I decided to make some! We picked out the fabric and I borrowed my sister's sewing machine. We saved about $100 by doing it ourselves.




I even sewed some little beads on them. Pretty fancy, huh?! ;)


Look out Martha Stewart... I'm coming after ya...

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I love Valentine's Day!! The "holiday" has definately changed meaning over the past few years, though. When Keith and I first got married, Valentine's Day was a huge celebration for us. It often included an overnight hotel stay, and it wasn't out of the ordinary for me to receive diamond jewelry!!
Now that we have kids, we don't go anywhere overnight. (not yet, at least... maybe in a few years) And it's not really about "us" anymore... it's all about celebrating things that we love. I still reserve our wedding anniversary to celebrate Keith and I, and always will.
Isn't it funny how when you get married, you think "How could my heart grow and give even more love". Then you have a child... and you love them like crazy. Then you have another child... and your heart is able to love even more. I don't think that our heart is ever capped off of how much love we're capable to give. I think my heart is probably pretty big, because there are a lot of people that I love. I love my family (immediate and extended) so much. We're blessed with great friends. I love our life.
Our Valentine's prep work began yesterday while Keith and Carsen went sledding. Madelyn and I stayed back and made cut-out heart cookies!!



She was such a great helper!!! (I know... putting the Bumbo on the counter is not safe... babies can easilly fall out of them... not that I know that from experience or anything.) *ahem* (ok... so maybe I do know from experience... but the bumbo was on the floor that time she fell, and I was RIGHT by Maddie the whole time we were making cookies yesterday) Did I justify it yet??? Ok then... moving right along... :)



... Whoever said a broken heart is always a bad thing doesn't know what they're talking about... ;)

We had a baby dedication at our church today. Our churh doesn't do infant baptism, but rather a dedication. It's actually more of a parent dedication than anything. During the dedication, us parents promise to raise our kids in a Godly manor and to follow with what the Bible teaches, along with the church's prayer and support. Because of the dedication today, the whole service was geared towards the kids...


Carsen's Sunday School class sang Jesus Loves Me. I loved watching him up there. He wasn't nervous at all!!


Keith introduced our family (Carsen wasn't up there... he was already dedicated a couple years ago...)


Next the Pastor prayed for all of our families. During the prayer, Madelyn found her shoe and began to eat it. I love Keith's face in the picture... "Yes, I'm praying, but I'm squinting to see what Maddie is doing..." :)


Might as well snap a family photo when we're all dressed up, right?!



Yes, the Christmas Tree is STILL up. Carsen loves his tree. I told him that we can keep the tree up all year round, and we'll decorate it according to what holiday/season it is. For Valentine's Day, we decorated it with hearts with things written on them of what we love!


I hope you enjoyed celebrating all the things you love today!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Children's Museum!

Carsen and I went on a field trip today with some of our friends! 3 of the 4 of us have 2 kids, so we left the younger ones and brought the older ones to the Children's Museum in St Paul.


This was our first time at the children's museum. We had so much fun! It had so many fun little galleries that were perfect for Carsen. Here he is, whooping up a little dinner for mommy. Yummy!! :)


Carsen also loved this spot... they had a little store set up with carts, food and cash registers.



Carsen also enjoyed the painting! We even took some of his artwork home... on my jeans!!! Guess it's time to go shopping for some new jeans! SCORE!! ;)



Me and my turtle Carsen!


Logan, Lauren, Carsen and Peyton


The gang! (minus Amber and Logan who left early!)
Noelle/Lauren, Amy/Carsen, Amy/Peyton

What a fun day with great friends. Thanks, girls!!!!! :)

good-bye 20's, hello 30's

I was born on February 7th, 1980.

That means I'm going to be 30 on Sunday. Yeah, I know... THIRTY. That's old. I don't like birthdays the way it is, but I especially don't like this one. I've been dreading this day for about 3 years now. Seriously.

My 20's were very good to me. It was a great decade. I accomplished a lot in those 10 years.

*Graduated college
*Lived in Colorado for a summer with 2 great girlfriends
*Lived in Israel for 3 months
*Got engaged
*Got married
*Lived in 3 different apartments
*Lived in 3 different houses (2 of which Keith built)
*Had a son
*Had a daughter
*My super awesome hubby pulled of an awesome surprise 30th party for me. He's the best. THE best.

It's weird... I don't feel 30. At all. In fact, I remember when I was a kid and my mom turned 35. I thought she was old. And now I'm approaching 35. (well, not really... but kind of...)

The past 10 years have been really good, and I'm confident that the next 10 years will be even better... even if I am.... *sigh*.... T.H.I.R.T.Y.

E-I-G-H-T months

Each month I take a picture of Madelyn as she becomes a month older. Yesterday marked Eight months for Maddie already.
This task is becoming more and more difficult. I only set her in this chair to take her monthly picture, and I swear she remembers as soon as I set her in it... "Hmmm... time for the monthly picture... that means mommy is going to place a piece of paper by me... I'm gonna find it and play with it and stick it in my mouth as SOON as I get my hands on it..."

So here are a few pictures from our 8 month photo shoot. These are actually the best ones. Better luck next month, I guess!!!

She's lucky she's cute... :)

Our rockin' week-end!!

We went to Illinois this past week-end to meet our new nephew, Zachariah Douglas. He was just born last Wednesday, and is such a little cutie.

I will definitely admit that looking at this picture makes me think “hmmm… this is what our family picture would look like if we had another baby…”. But that’s another blog post for another day…

Anyways... moving right along... :)


We stayed with Keith's parents, so Carsen and Maddie got lots of play time!!

Friday night we stayed at this super cool hotel with a huge indoor waterpark called KeyLime Cove.



Carsen has been P.U.M.P.E.D. about the waterpark for about a week. It was all he would talk about. At random times, he would go in his room and put his swimtrunks on, asking if it was time to go swimming yet. And it was of course fun to put Madelyn into her girly swimsuit and take her swimming for the first time!!!



Carsen loved the kid slides. This slide in particiluar I think he went down about 5,000 times. Well, maybe not quite that much, but that's probably not too much of an exageration!! :)



Madelyn wasn't a huge fan of getting in the water. There were a lot of people there so it was quite noisy... but she was sure content hanging out with mommy and watching all the excitement going on around us! (umm, yeah... don't mind her hand, either...)



Keith and Carsen braved the wave pool and lazy river...



... while Madelyn and I hung out and watched them!!



But after a while, I told Madelyn enough was enough. We were going down the big, steep, scarey waterslide!!



(plesae ignore my big ole' thighs in the picture, and the very unflattering shot this picture provides. I have no idea how to photoshop, but wanted to include it as Madelyn's first waterslide experience!!)




After spending a couple hours at the waterpark, we headed to the arcade and played some games!!



Then I got to enjoy some BLUE MOON ice cream. I haven't had that kind in years. YUMMY!!!



It was a fun little get-a-way week-end!!! Seeing Carsen have so much fun and just being together as a family was awesome. I'm ready to go again!!! :)