Playroom makeover 1

Since the news of our new addition, we have been doing some major changes in our house. Our goal is to spend as few dollars as possible. Here is our list of projects and hopefully I will be able to share all of our progresses.

1. Transition Harrison's room from nursery to big boy room.
2. Merge office into guest bedroom downstairs.
3. Sell all work out equipment (that we NEVER use) and transition room into a playroom.
4. Decorate old office and create new nursery!
5. Insulate the garage ceiling so the new playroom and nursery are not FREEZING in the winter.

The past two months I have been able to sell our elliptical and treadmill machines on craigslist. Craigslist and I have a love/hate relationship. I love that people come to your house, give me money and haul my stuff away! I hate how many people email and waste my time. Oh well.

On Sunday, Adam and I filled all the holes with joint compound and began sanding the walls. The putty was taking forever to dry so I suggested that we get started on building the stage. Jordan came over and the two of them took over the project. Using the free plywood and 2x4s that my step-dad Dave gave us, they created a 3x6 foot stage for our little guy. He loves to sing, dance and be the center of attention so I thought he would love a stage. I was right!!! We needed curtains so I hemmed the old curtains from the office and hung them on the shower curtain rod from Harrison's closet. It looks perfect!!!

Last night, Adam spent most of the evening sanding everything. Walls, ceilings, and the stage. He looked like John McCain when he was finished. I wish I would have taken a picture... he was covered from head to toe in white! We were expecting to be able to paint yesterday but are learning that everything always takes twice as long as planned!

Tonight was painting night one. When we originally painted Harrison's nursery, we bought two gallons of paint and only used one, so FREE paint was sitting in our garage just waiting to be used. So now our playroom is green. :) I used the rest of the navy paint from Harrison's dresser to paint the stage.


More progress to come!  See here

Long overdue update!!

Since it has been almost 6 months since I have posted on here, our family is growing!

Baby #2, a little girl, will be joining our family in August. We were very surprised to find out we were having another baby. . I have PCOS which means that I do not have regular cycles. Without medicines, I am lucky to have 4 periods a year which means trying to get pregnant is next to impossible. When we were trying to get pregnant with Harrison, we spent 6 months struggling with fertility drugs to get pregnant. It was a constant roller coaster every month and was very stressful for us.

After having Harrison we have never thought about using birth control since its impossible for us to become pregnant on our own. So this was a big surprise!!! I am due on the third day of school next year. Oops. Not the best due date ever, but we will make it work somehow. I am praying for the best sub ever who is a natural at teaching Kindergarten. My poor students will not even get to know me until I get back. I keep telling this little girl of mine that she has to stay in there a few extra days so I can at least teach for the first week of school. I guess we will have to wait and see if she is a good listener!

Happy Birthday Harrison!

Mommy and Daddy love you!

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Wow! So I am the mother of a toddler...

I just discovered Smilebox so hopefully this will help me keep up with this little blog of mine.

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Summertime!!!

Its officially summer! No work, no plans, just being a mommy! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that part of my job :)

Harrison is growing so fast, he's 8 months now and on the move. Crawling is his new favorite thing. He use to cry any time you left the room or when he couldn't reach a toy, and was frustrated all the time. Not anymore! He's all over the place. I can have him in the kitchen while I'm cooking or washing dishes and a few seconds later, he's on the other side of the house! There's blessings and challenges in everything I guess. :)

He is also pulling up on everything which unfortunately results in things falling on him and him falling over quite often. Poor baby is developing bruises all over. I guess that's just part of growing up and being a boy.

On my last day of school, June 1st, I decided that it was time for Harrison to begin sleeping through the night. Although I didn't mind him sleeping with us and nursing all night, it was time. We did the cry it out method. Our pediatrician had told us it would probably take a week with terrible nights but to stick it out, so we did. The first night, Harrison woke up around 2 and cried for over an hour. Not just crying, but screaming! It was awful. So awful that Adam went down stairs and slept on the couch! But the second night, he fussed for a few minutes and went back to sleep. Since then he's sleeping 11 hours each night. Pure bliss!

With him sleeping though the night, its kind of let me to begin weaning. It's a sad thought that I'm not making it to the one year mark like I planned. But I keep telling myself that he's super healthy from all my milk so far. He's never had a real fever or been sick. I'm trying to take it slow :)


My biggest task this month is trying to change Harrison's sleeping schedule. Right now he wakes up around 6 am (too early!!!), morning nap at 9, afternoon nap at 1, and bedtime at 7 (absolutely no later, he gets WAY to crabby). I'm pushing everything back in 10 minute increments to hopefully have him wake around 7 and stay up until 8. This will help us be able to actually do things together as a family in the evening. Stay tuned....

He's sitting up!

Harrison will be 6 months old next week! Craziness! About 2 weeks ago he started sitting up. Its the funniest thing because he is just so little!



I've decided that I would like to learn how to decorate cakes so I can make his 1/2 birthday cake and also a cake for his baptism next month. I made my first one last night so maybe the next one will be pretty enough to post!

Time is just flying by!

So Harrison is now 4 months and a week old! He's so much fun! He's cooing, laughing, and rolling around. Everything is going in his mouth these days; his hands, toys, Mommy's hair, and even his feet! Those are the cutest!
We've survived the first 6 weeks of me back at work and him at the sitter's. I miss him so much during the day but I know he is in good hands. Our sitter is wonderful! She's like a second mom to him. We really lucked out. When I was pregnant, everyone warned us about going through several sitters before finding one we really liked and we haven't had to switch at all! She really is wonderful!
These days are getting easier since Harrison is on a pretty predictable schedule now. He wakes around 7-8, plays for 45 minutes, takes an hour nap, eats, plays for another hour, takes an hour nap, plays for an hour and 1/2, takes a nap, eats, plays, blah, blah, blah. Bedtime is at 6 or 6:30 then he wakes around 2 to eat again, wakes to eat at 5ish, and that continues everyday!
He is still waking up several times throughout the night to nurse, which is fine with me. Since I'm gone all day I really like having him with me in the middle of the night. Adam changes him around 2 and sticks him in bed with us where he sleeps and nurses. I love having him all cuddled up next to me!
We tried cereal last week for the first time. Harrison seemed to enjoy it and slept for 12 hours straight that night! But ever since then, he seems to hate the cereal and we've given up on in. I might try it again in a few days.

cloth diapers! Call us crazy!

Everyone told us we were crazy when we announced we were going to use cloth diapers. They told us we'd only last a week and I'm happy to announce that we have lasted 13 weeks! Well not exactly, since we didn't start until week 3 but who's counting? Here he is at 3 and 4 weeks! The diapers are huge! But aren't they cute?

Growing and growing

These first few weeks with Harrison have been wonderful! He is a great nurser! All of my pregnant dreams about him revolved around some catastrophe related to breastfeeding... so I am so happy it is really easy.

The first week Harrison was home, we had lots of visitors. Great-grandma Fletcher, Aunt Vickie, Uncle Bill, Dawn, Aunt Diane, Grandpa Fletcher, Grandma Chris, Grandpa Jay, Grandma Lee, Aunt Jeanette, Aunt Katie, Stacy and Phillip, Jaki, Matt and Jami, Brian and Bethany, Great-Grandma Lolly, Aunt Cathy, Aunt Tami and we even took a trip to Rayville at 2 days old to visit Aunt Linda and Uncle Ronnie. My mom came and stayed with us for a few days to help with cleaning and taking care of baby. It was so great having her here with us!

Around 6 weeks old, he started to smile a lot! It was so great to have this little guy recognize us and smile! I can't explain it but its the best feeling.

Harrison's arrival

I'm sorry this is a tad bit late! I'll rewind just a few months.

On September 28st, I decided I was DONE being pregnant! I finally worked up the nerve to try the caster oil. I had read all the great stories of women who had their babies hours after wards and the horror stories of women who spent the evening on the pot! But I decided I was having my baby that night, so I did it! Unfortunately, I got sick... really sick. I was sad and went to bed. I woke up at 3:30 having tons of contractions. I laid in bed for an hour before I decided that I should tell Adam. He just grunted and rolled over! I took a shower and made Adam take a walk with me at 6 in the morning. We finally decided to head to the hospital since my contractions were 2 minutes apart! Fast forward 18 hours... no baby... no dilation... still having contractions and miserable. The hospital gave me some meds to stop my labor and I was sent home. :(

Well, October 6 came and went and I was still pregnant! Dr. Magee said I could wait until next week and they can induce me or we could have a baby on Wed (Oct. 7). Of course I picked the 7th! Seriously, who would volunteer to be pregnant for an extra week?!?

We went to the hospital on the 7th at 7 am. They hooked me up to the pitocin and I had a BEAUTIFUL baby boy at 3:11 pm!
Harrison Grant Kroeger weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces and was 19 inches tall. He looks exactly like Adam! The entire time we were at the hospital the nurses called Harrison "Mini- me"! Adam even went with Harrison to get circumcised and the nurses have to check bracelets for ID. They just told Adam "that baby is definitely yours" and never glanced at the bracelet!

The birth was perfect! My epidural was WONDERFUL! I highly recommend those. :)

My mom, both of my sisters, mother-in-law Lee, and Adam were all there when Harrison was born. My dad (visiting from Guam) and my father-in-law Jay were in the waiting room. 10 minutes later, Granny and Aunt Vickie arrived! It was great to have everyone there! Here he is! Isn't he the cutest?!?