Sassy girl

Jordyn has been super fun lately. Smiling, laughing and just being cute. Here is a recent pic of her sitting out in the sun enjoying an afternoon snack. Don't you want to bite her?

Update

Wow, I haven't posted in awhile. The last few weeks have been completely insane. I've been dealing with a sick baby who has had one illness after another. It started with a double ear infection which cleared after the antibiotics for 10 days. Then she had a upper respiratory infection with wheezing and she needed a nebulizer. At the same time she developed a stomach virus and was throwing up for a day. The chest congestion was better and she had loose coughing and a runny nose. It took her a good week to bounce back and start eating well again. Then I noticed her 1 year molars started coming in, but she was especially cranky and pulling on her ears. Of course, she now has another ear infection. Poor thing just can't catch a break. Its a combination of daycare and the weather. Hopefully as the weather gets warmer these illnesses will slow down a bit. I just want my baby to be healthy!!

In other news, we sold our house! In my last post we were about to put it on the market. After one day we had 5 showings and got an offer on the 2nd day. We went back and forth and couldnt come to an agreement so we didn't accept. We had a few more showings during the week and on that Thursday we got another offer. This time it was a better offer and we negotiated a bit but finally accepted. After only 7 days on the market we had a contract. We were really surprised because we didn't expect the house to sell so fast. But I guess Austin isn't as bad as some other markets - I know people who have had their house or apt on the market in other states for months with no interest. The new buyers wanted to close in 30 days so we had to act fast to find a new house. Luckily our realtor is a good friend so he helped us find something great. He used to work for one of the builders here in town so we went to visit one of the communities in the part of town we wanted to live in. They had 3 inventory homes available for immediate move in. We loved all 3 of them but one of them was perfect for us. It had the right amount of bedrooms, a family room, huge kitchen with granite countertops, game room upstairs and a guest suite with full bath downstairs. Its beautiful and most importantly, its huge. We are going from 1900 sq feet to 3048 sq feet. We desperately need the room and this is the house we can see Jordyn and any future children grow up in. So now we have to pack up everything and move in a month. Its exciting and scary all at the same time but we feel like its the right decision. All the stars were aligned with selling this house and finding the right new one, so it was all meant to be.

Here is a pic of us in front of our current house with the sold sign, and a pic of the outside of our new house. More updates to come!

Tomorrow...

For months we have been talking about putting our house on the market. We have a lovely home now, and this week marked 7 years that we've been here. In those 7 years we've accumulated a lot of things, most recently tons and tons of baby clothes, toys and other random baby gear. Each day we feel like we are slowly growing out of this home as we seem to have no storage space for anything. Our small attic is full, and all our closets are jam-packed with things. We also hope to have another baby soon, and there is definitely not room for a 4th person. Yes, our starter home of 1845 sq feet, 3 beds and 2 baths is just not large enough to support our growing family.

Tomorrow is the day we put our house on the market. Its scary, especially in this economy. I worry that our house won't sell, or we won't get near what we are asking for it. We haven't started officially looking for a new house yet because we want to have a contract on this house before we actively pursue something. Its the smartest thing for us to do because we do not want to have 2 mortgages. And this way, if the house doesn't sell, or I get laid off (God forbid!) we can take the house off the market and stay put. We really have nothing to lose so we are going for it. Our realtor is a good friend of ours and he thinks we will be lucky. In our entire neighborhood there is not one 1-story home available for sale. He said many small families are looking for a 1-story and they are at a premium right now. So keep your fingers crossed that it won't take too long.

This week has been crazy as we were working to de-clutter and get the house ready. And poor Jordyn has a double ear infection so we've been dealing with that on top of everything else. I am exhausted. Tomorrow our realtor and photographer are coming to take photos of the house to include with the listing. I hope they turn out OK. Wish is luck!

Uncle Larry

Jordyn's Uncle Larry came to visit from NY last week. She's lucky to have a very cool 19 year old uncle! We had lots of fun visiting all his favorite restaurants - Jordyn now loves the Salt Lick as much as he does! Here is a pic of him reading "Five Silly Monkeys" to her on the night he arrived.

Back to Reality

Tomorrow we officially will take down Christmas 2008. All the ornaments and Christmas/Hanukkah decorations will be put away, the tree will come down, the lights outside will be packed, and it will all go up in the attic until next year. It always makes me sad to do this because the holidays are so festive, and the house always looks warm and inviting. But we had a great Christmas and holiday season, so at least those memories will make me happy! I've been off work for 2 weeks and Monday I have to go back to reality. Its been really nice having this time off to spend with Jordyn - I could totally get used to being a stay at home mom.

I can't believe its 2009 already. 2008 was a great year - so many milestones with a new baby and happy times for our family. I have big plans for 2009. I plan to finally decide once and for all what I want to do with my career. March will mark 9 years at this company, and after all this time I feel nothing. I have no passion for my job or my industry and I really need to take a look deep within myself to see what I want. See end sentence in above paragraph. If only it was a paying job I would take it in a second. This year we also plan to work on Baby #2. I am not sure what secondary infertility we will encounter this time around so we are going in with an open mind and will hope for the best. Finally, we plan to upgrade our living arrangements and move into a larger home. After Jordyn's birthday and Christmas, we are slowly realizing our lovely starter home is just too small for a growing family of 3. We need more space, more storage, more closets, and a play room for all Jordyn's crap. We are excited about moving and found a new house we love. We are terrified to sell our present house because of the current state of the market, especially since we are not interested in having 2 mortgages. So we will wait and see how things go - the plan is to put our house on the market within the next month. Lots of change and excitement on the horizon.

For my last dose of the holiday season, I will leave you with my favorite picture of Jordyn from Christmas. This was taken the day after Christmas and Jordyn was in her new Nutcracker PJs. She had on a elf hat from her PJs the night before and is so excited to be playing with her new toys.

Hope you all had a great holiday and wishing you all the best for 2009.

Holiday and B-day pics

Yesterday we went to Portrait Innovations to get some holiday and 1 year photos of Jordyn taken. They are really great - and affordable, and the best part is they print your photos right then and there. No waiting 3 weeks like at other studios. Since we were all sick the past 2 weeks we were really slacking on getting our holiday cards out. Thankfully, we had them printed yesterday and sent them off in the mail by the end of the day. Before we went I had also decided to get some b-day pics of Jordyn since she was sick on her birthday. At her party she didn't want to eat a cupcake, so I brought a cake to the photo shoot hoping we'd get some good pics with frosting on her face. She didn't really want to eat it but we did get some good pics. Here are the 7 poses we picked out of 89. It was really hard to cut them down!

Birthday Girl

My sweet baby girl turned 1 year old yesterday. I simply cannot believe a whole year has gone by. It was everything I dreamed it would be and more. She is so amazing and definitely the best thing that has happened to me. She gives us all so much joy and we am so very grateful to have her in our lives.

To celebrate her birthday, both her grandmas and her Aunt Erin came to visit from NY. We went to the zoo and out to dinner to celebrate yesterday. It was her first trip to the zoo and she really liked seeing the animals - especially the monkeys. They are her favorite lately and she likes to imitate their sounds. Its pretty funny hearing a 1 year old saying "ooh ooh ooh". She got to pet some of the animals at the petting corale - I thought she would be scared but she really liked it. Here is a pic of her petting a goat.

Afterwards at the restaurant, we got her an ice cream sundae. She loved putting her hands in it, mushing it all over her face and the table like fingerpaint. Here is a photo of her just getting her hands in it...

Then we went home and opened her presents. We bought her the Anywhere Chair from Pottery Barn Kids and one of her grandmas got her the Elmo Live doll. This thing is amazing. She got tons of other toys and gifts - and Christmas is just around the corner!

Today we had a party for her at the house with some friends and family. Jordyn was a little cranky this morning so I put her down for an early nap. I woke her after 2 hours to get her dressed for her party. By then some people started to arrive. She became very clingy and wouldn't let me put her down or go to anyone - not even her daddy. At first I thought all the people freaked her out, but that usually doesn't bother her. Then her triplet friends arrived and she didn't even want to play with them. I thought she might be hungry so I fed her lunch. She seemed a little better but still didn't let me leave her. Then it was cupcake time. I put her in her high chair and we all sang to her, and daddy and I helped blow out her candle. She didn't want to eat her cupcake, much less touch it. She was not interested at all. So I was bummed that we didn't get a photo with frosting on her face. She then seemed even more cranky so I put her down for a nap. Over 2 hours later I went to get her and she had 102.5 fever. Her first fever ever in her life and it had to be for her birthday party. Poor thing. So I spent the rest of the day taking care of a sick baby. Her fever broke a little while ago but I am expecting it to spike during the night. I have a feeling I won't be getting much sleep :-(

So since I was dealing with Cranky McFever Pants, I didn't get any pictures of her from her party. I know others took some so I have to wait to get those. For now, here's a few more from her b-day yesterday.