Another Month

Well, a few weeks have passed. Let me fill you in. I have been super busy trying to get pregnant but alas, not this time. This time we tried IUI. My response was just okay ... Meaning that my body is super slow at developing eggs. I had numerous blood draws every other day at 7 am that left me looking like a drug addict. Every other day I also had an ultrasound. In the end I only had one egg that was about 18 mm. The doctor likes to see them 20 mm. So tomorrow I will learn how to shoot myself up with hormones, and then on Wednesday I will begin. It is a full time job! Thanks to my friends and family for their support. I have really needed it. Hugs.

First Day of School 2012

Uh oh! Look who's in Kindergarten!\






 Here is Violet with her teacher, Mrs. Poelman (the same one Ava had last year. This is a really good thing!)

 Here are the girls SO excited:

 

 And my first grader who looks like she is turning 16...

 

And Ava with her teacher Mrs. Jones:




Violet reported to Ava that the "she was right, the teachers really were nice." Ava said all she did was color. And that I forgot her snack (but I didn't, it was just in a different pocket). They have the same recess, but when they went out it started raining (and it rained BUCKETS) so they had to go back inside. They get a solid A+ for the first day! Mom, on the other hand dropped the ball and didn't go inside to pick up Violet like she was supposed to, so Violet was one of the kids "left behind" with the student teacher. Poor thing. She didn't know it was a bad thing though so this is one of my free passes. Soon she will cry I'm sure, but hopefully it will not happen again.

In case you want to know what Ava and I wore for the first day of school click here. :) I'm sad my girls are away from me, but happy they will get to learn and have fun at school. It is also nice to know they are in good hands. We are blessed with a school that is in the top 20 in the state ... or as the principal says, "The NY Yankees of elementary schools!"

End of Summer

One of the things I really enjoyed this year was doing a celebration, or something really fun the "last" day of summer vacation. School will always start in Michigan after Labor Day, and since it's a holiday there are a lot of fun things going on. It was nice to have a real shift in activity one day to the next - and be able to anticipate that shift and prepare for it. All the school supplies were bought, bags packed, named, clothes set out ... so we had the whole day to have fun!

It was a hot one. And naturally the AC in our house died. Thankfully we got the AC in the van fixed last week, so we're running at a solid 50% average in the AC department. The weather is going to turn soon ... I know it! (This totally jinxes me ... we're going to have 80 degree weather through Halloween now ... )


We went to a local fair called the Renaissance Festival. There was giant food:



(Honestly, what's a paleo girl to do? I've always wanted to try one of those giant drumsticks and I had my chance)
Saw jousting and a sword fight:

 

 Some pretty gardens:

 

 And hugged some weird dragon thing:



He wants to be just like his sisters.



All in all, it was nice to have "an event" to look forward to and something big to do the day before school started, but I'm not sure if we'll go to that festival again. The people watching was much crazier than any amusement park I've ever been to. Tons of people were in costume, which was fun. But it also drew the tattooed and pierced crowd. And to top it off I saw a pregnant woman smoking. The SECOND one this summer. So sad. Breaks my heart. Michigan and smoking in general is so antiquated. Anyway, next you get to see the school pictures, so I'll stop this and move on!

North's 2 Year Photos

Took some today. Here is my little blessing! So thankful for him!



Still has baby hands.



Fake smile face.



These are edited. Definitely my fav's.









He definitely has my eyes, my nose, Tyler's skin tone .. but the rest is still a toss up. It will be fun to see what he looks like as he grows up.

August!

I guess I've had a bit of hiatus from blogging. There just hasn't been that much to blog about! Here are seriously the only pictures I've taken in the past month.

Me and my giant bag of Kale!




Kale processing all the way from the left (on the stove) to the right. I froze a ton, and made a ton. Such a blessing! We didn't have a garden this year.



Food photography is so much easier than kid photography. Don't you think?



I gave the girls haircuts. Bangs have been re-introduced. And they are pretty cute two weeks post-cut. Ava really wanted shoulder length hair with bangs. And honestly, there are other battles I'd rather have. So she got it cut.



Still winkin'. He has a serious problem with sweets, hitting and getting his 2-year molars.



Here's Ava's cut. On Tuesday she had an accident at the playground. I didn't see it, but it involved getting hit in the gum with a metal bar. She was really good about it, and is so brave. She has really good pain tolerance. I took her to the dentist because her gum was black (you can see it a little in this picture), and they said they weren't sure if she would lose any teeth. They gave her an antibiotic and said if the swelling didn't go down to go in on Monday. Looks like we're going to avoid that at this point.



Other than that I'm just in a waiting phase. Waiting is so hard. I could take a picture of the needle in my refrigerator waiting to release an egg. I could also take a picture of the hormone medication in my pantry. But that will have to be another day. Tyler wants to make sure everything with his company is settled down before we try again. And as much as I know that with my head, my heart is sad today. My period came just in time to wait another 57 days to try. So it looks like it has once again backed up to October. I am so sick of taking tons of pills hoping they will fix me or balance me.

But that is the nature of our earthly bodies. They are not perfect. They break, the degenerate. And we have to do what we can to take care of them. And some of us were born with bodies a little different than others. In the meantime I will continue to go to the gym and sweat off my sadness. It is fun to see the results of working out (I am getting major results), but I would trade that away in a second to have a chance to carry another baby. If it doesn't happen ... well, you lucky readers will get to take that journey with me!! :)