Goodbye August, Hello Fall!

First of all, happy anniversary to my wonderful husband, Ian. I can't believe it's been 7 years! This last year has been rough, but we've had some great moments too. :) I love you!

August went by way too quickly. Alex is almost 3 months old now and Serra reached her 3rd birthday. I started some personal training sessions at a local gym and am struggling with seeing any results. Ian says he sees a difference, but so far I don't see anything. Unfortunately, I can't measure by weight yet because I'm losing fat but gaining muscle- so my weight has only gone down a few pounds. Also, I have a medical condition that makes it more difficult for me to lose weight. But I'm trying to see the future picture- that if I stick to it, I WILL eventually reach my goal!

The weather has cooled considerably already- I guess that's one difference about being so far north, fall comes sooner! It's still pleasant, but depending on the time of day I have started needing a jacket outside- in Utah I usually didn't wear a jacket at all until end of September or even October! Oh well, will have to get used to it.

Next month is Preparedness Month, Piano Month and Sewing Month. I'm going to focus on sewing because I have a lot of sewing projects I've started and not finished. Hopefully I can be motivated to use the little time I get to myself each day to work on some of those. If I'm feeling extremely ambitious, I might work on the piano too- I haven't played hardly at all the last few years. I might have to reteach myself all over again! So which one are you going to work on?

Serra & Alex

Serra told me she was cute and needed her picture taken- I obliged. :)

Serra LOVES to paint pictures.

Alex wearing his first baby shoes!

Closeup of his baby shoes- so cute!

A better picture of his cute smile!

The reason why I can't get good pictures of him smiling... he gets too excited and puts his hands in the way! :)

Eye Exam Month & Make a Will Month

Since it was eye exam month, I figured I should follow and get my eyes examined. Actually, I'm running out of contacts so I needed to do it anyway! And I've been wanting lasik eye surgery for years, we just haven't had the money, so I finally asked the doctor about it to see what he thought and to get a "ball park" figure of how much it would cost. Yeah, costs about as much as I thought- more than we have right now. And he tells me, "the best age to get it done is 21- to maximize the benefit of having it done". Gee, thanks doc. Seeing as I can't go back in time 7 years, I think I'll just try to save up quicker and get it done before I'm 30!

Also, it's make a will month. Ian and I actually accomplished this a couple of months ago- shortly after Alex was born. We'd been wanting to do it ever since having Serra, to make sure that our wishes would be fulfilled if we were to die concerning who would raise her, etc. Since my own father's death I have learned a lot more about the legalities of wills and trusts. My father had a trust and for many different reasons Ian and I decided we should have one too. So we finally set up a living trust and have slowly been adding all of our bank accounts and assets to the trust. In a way it's horrible to think about us dying young, not being able to raise our children- some people have looked at us like we're crazy for worrying about it at our ages. But in a much larger way, it's given us some piece of mind. We know that everything will work out the way we want- we know our kids will be well taken care of emotionally and financially because we've taken the proper steps to set everything up. And now that it's done we can set that worry aside and just enjoy our time raising our children, hoping that we did it all for nothing but piece of mind! If you don't have a will or a trust, I highly recommend looking into it. You might be surprised by how courts work without one in place if you were to die. Take care of your assets, take care of your kids- all it takes is some research time to figure out what's best for you and some money to set one up with a lawyer. Anyway, that's enough on that- I'll post something cheerier next time. :)

Paige's Wedding

Paige finally posted the pictures on Facebook, so I thought I would post just the family ones on here for those of you who aren't "friends" with Paige on Facebook.

And, of course, what's a wedding without a "Serra fit"? [Yes, Paige's professional photographer took this photo... the videographer got a lot of footage on it too. Aren't toddlers wonderful?]

Random

At the end of June, we traded in our van for a brand new Nissan Cube- a smaller, more efficient vehicle. We love our new car- this is the picture the dealer took when we went to pick it up [if I had known they'd be taking a picture we would have looked a little nicer!]

Alex holding his head up during "tummy time".

Serra and Alex laying on my bed playing together.

A typical view of Serra during the day- wearing no clothes and watching a movie while eating!

Paige's Wedding

Still waiting for pictures of the actual wedding, but I got some pictures that my sister-in-law took of our family right before [not often we are all dressed up AND matching!]

So true...

Happy Birthday, Serra!

I can't believe she's THREE!

Serra with the balloons we bought for our yard sale the week before her birthday- they lasted to her birthday, too!


Serra giving Alex a "squeeze"!


Serra with a Redbox movie she chose & popcorn. [The movie is Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs]


Serra with her birthday "cake" I made.


Serra and her birthday dinner- one of her favorites: pizza!


Serra and a new dress-up tiara.


Ring "bling"!


Serra VERY excited about her new musical tea set from Grandma & Grandpa and Aunts Amy & Lorie.


Trying to open her new dress-up shoes.


Wearing her new boa.


Worn out after all the partying. She fell asleep watching a movie [quite the feat for Serra... she LOVES movies!]

Expensive, but Worth it

Alex is finally bought & paid for! :) The last payment went through and we have no more doctor's bills coming in! I can't even describe how exciting it is to know it's DONE!!! With Serra we had Medicaid, so I never saw any doctor's bills- they were 100% covered. [Which was an entirely different kind of exciting!] Alex was definitely expensive- it cost us $2,800.74 total! A little higher than we expected because of the C-section and other things. But without good insurance, it would have been $21,839.95! Even with the expensive delivery... and other extra expenses from diapers, wipes, clothes, etc.... Alex is DEFINITELY worth every penny- and more!