Milwaukee Visit (Part 1)

We were able to go to Milwaukee for a few days to visit our friends!  It works out great that Alec can work out of the office there; we left Friday morning and were able to stay in town until the following Wednesday morning. It was nice that it wasn't a rushed weekend and we were able to see tons of different friends.

Brad and Jessie were gracious enough to host us for the 5 nights that we were in town.  We aren't exactly the easiest people to have as guests with Brie now, but it was so much fun!  They have a 3mon old, Bennett, and Brie loved to crawl up to him, take his pipe and toys, and try and touch his face.  Poor Bennett did get a couple face pokes throughout our time there, but he handled like it champ and thankfully Brie didn't cause any permanent damage.....

Brie slept pretty awful while we were there.  The first two nights were the WORST.  The first night she screamed from 11:15 - 12:45....so pretty sure no one got a ton of sleep that night.  She would always wake up during the night around 3am, and then be up for the day around 5:15am!  Horrible....her Eastern internal clock would not shut off, no matter what time she went to bed.  So Alec and I took turns getting up in the morning with her.  Needless to say we won't be traveling any time soon with her.....  (We were debating spending a night or two camping with my parents coming up later this week at Muskegon State Park, but I think it would be better for everyone involved if we just come for the day time and went home for bedtime.)

We arrived Friday, hung out for a little bit and then all the adults met up for dinner!  We went to BelAir Cantina in Wauwatosa.  They just opened a few weeks ago.  The food and drinks was amazing, but unfortunately the service was HORRIBLE.  Hopefully they work out those kinks.....  But we had an absolute blast with everyone.

Then on Saturday we went to the Milwaukee zoo with Brad and Jessie.  We love the zoo there, and had been wanting to take Brie.  We had such a good time, the weather was amazing and the babies did great!  I couldn't believe how much the 2 babies got out of the zoo for as young as they are.  But both were looking at stuff and Brie would point to stuff that she saw, it was great!

She loved looking around and taking it all in.

Bennett did great for only being 3mon old, he enjoyed being pushed in his stroller and looking around at all the different sights!

It was a bit hot during the first part of the day, and so Alec and Brie are cooling off by one of the blowers that were meant to keep the floors dry:

Alec and I failed at remembering a ton of stuff for Brie this day....we forgot a blanket to cover the stroller so she could nap, her lovey that she falls asleep with, and wipes!  FAIL!  Thankfully Jessie is super prepared and we were able to borrow a few things from her diaper bag.  Brie is fast asleep here with a leg poking out.

Bennett was giving me smiles! 

 Loving looking at the animals, and being up by her daddy.  And sucking on her thumb...that thing is always in her mouth, we are in for a long road I think with that thumb.

 I love this picture, you can see her little pointy finger!

 And what do you do after a long day at the zoo, just sit back with your legs up in the stroller, relaxing and eating some puffs.  Ah, the life!

Preston and Jennifer off to China

Our really good friends from Milwaukee have been in the process of adopting a baby girl from China. They started the process February 2012; it has been a lot of paper work, waiting, decisions, and more waiting for them. Today is finally the day they travel to China to pick up their daughter!

Their daughter is 18mon old and her name is Anna. We haven been so excited and anxiously awaiting this trip with Preston and Jennifer! Alec and I have been in Milwaukee since Friday (July 18), so it has been great to hang out with them their last couple days before leaving for this adventure. I was able to help Jennifer set up some baby stuff and do some last minute prep! 

This morning (July 24) Alec, Brie, and I had the honor of picking them up early this morning and dropping them off at O'Hare airport! They have a direct flight from Chicago to Beijing (15ish hours!!!). 

Last picture at their house as a family of two!:

Here is the link to their blog:

 http://annacosgrove.wordpress.com/

They hope to be able to update it throughout their trip. But may have to wait until they get home. 

Please join Alec and I in praying for them these next two weeks while in China, and the weeks and months to come once they arrive home. It will be a huge adjustment for Anna, so we hope and pray it goes as smooth as possible. 

We can't wait to meet Anna!

5 Year Wedding Anniversary

Have we really been married 5 years already?!  I remember our wedding day like it was yesterday, and then sometimes it seems like we have been married forever (in a good way!).  I am so thankful for Alec, he truly is my other half (yikes....that is cheesy).

We celebrated by going out for drinks and dinner downtown Grand Rapids.  Alec actually took both Thursday and Friday off to do painting (post to come soon about that!).  For an anniversary present to me he got me a gift card to go get a massage!  So, lucky me, got to go out during the day on Friday (7/12) and get an amazing massage.  That evening, Travis and Merin came over to babysit.  I love having family so close that it works for them to come and do that!!!  We went to Republic for some happy hour drinks and appetizers.  Then headed over to Bar Davani for dinner.  I actually purchased a Groupon for dinner, so our meal was half off!  It was a very fun night out with just the two of us, something we very rarely do, especially now having a kid!

These last 5 years have been a little crazy, I think we do a big thing every year it seems like!  But we have been so happy and are loving our life together!


Looking back over the past 5 years:    (I'm including dates more so for my own reference of looking back!)

• Alec was offered the Operations Manager position at GLCS (August '08)
• We moved to an apartment in Milwaukee (September '08)
• Bought a house in Milwaukee (April '09)
• I decided to back to school for nursing, and started classes (September '09)
• Alec continued too gain more responsibility with his position at work, which involved travel. (Nov. '09) (definitely something I had to get used too, he travels now about 2-3x/month) 
• I graduated nursing school and passed the NCLEX (December '11, Jan. '12)
• Found out we were pregnant with Brie (January '12)
• I got an RN position at Columbia St Mary's (January '12)
• Had Brie (Oct. '12)
• Started exploring the possibility of moving back to Michigan with various job opportunities for Alec, causing his job role to change yet again slightly (with even more travel) (March '13)
• Sold our Milwaukee house (May '13)
• Bought our house in Lowell (June '13)

And a billion different things in between all that! We have been so blessed these last 5 years!

9 Months Old

Briana was 9 month old on the 4th of July.  I remember all too well last year on the 4th of July, I was 27 weeks pregnant and it was over 100 degrees.  I will take this years scenario ANY day over last years!  I asked Alec, "Does it feel like we have had a baby for 9 months now?"  He and I both agreed it definitely did not. She is getting so old and doing new stuff almost every day it seems like.

27 weeks pregnant, July 4, 2012: 

9 months old, July 4, 2013:

What a difference one year can make.

Her biggest change this month is how mobile she is.  She can now crawl, she started crawling just a couple days after we moved in (June 18, 2013).  After a few days of doing a clumsy crawl she pretty much mastered it.  She still isn't all that fast, but she definitely gets to where she wants to go.  She is almost pulling herself up as well, she has done it a few times by using things low to the ground.  She goes up on her knees all the time, so I know going up all the way is not far off.  We have slowly been baby proofing as she gets into stuff, but once she can pull up it will be tons more baby proofing! She will crawl up to me and paw at my legs, and then lay across my feet when she wants my attention.  

Brie is starting to sleep a little better.  She takes two naps a day, each one is about an hour and a half (give or take) and she goes down really easy.  We just lay her down with her lovey, turn on the fan, rub her back for a few minutes and usually she is out.  Sometimes she cries for a little bit, but then puts herself down.  At night she goes down around 7:30pm and then usually wakes up once in the night (between 4:30-5:30), eats then goes back down until 7ish.  I don't mind, some people can't believe we don't have an exact schedule and that she still gets up in the night, but it works for us!  

She still likes her solid foods, we just started doing 3 meals a day.  She eats pretty much whatever I make her, which has been great. I really enjoy making baby food, it is fun to come up with different combinations and see what her favorites are!  She is starting to do finger food, but so far that isn't going so well.  She tends to choke on a lot of stuff and ends up just spitting it out.  She is also still nursing about 5x/day (including the 1 time in the night).  

Brie is starting to be shy when there are a lot of people around, she won't give out smiles as easy and just sits back and takes it all in.  She still doesn't care who holds her for the most part, she loves to be held!  But if she gets nervous or freaked out she wants to come by Alec or myself.  She has also started to cry while taking a bath, this is a new thing and so I am really hoping it is a phase!  

We love our little Brie so much and love watching her continue to develop and grow.  We are truly blessed and thank God for her every single day!

Well Maintained Home

In part of our awkwardness of dealing with the sellers of this house Alec got to talking with the husband about the home a bit.  The guy was saying that if their circumstances were different they wouldn't be leaving. And kept going on and on about how they made sure the house was well maintained, and how good of condition it is in.  And he also was telling Alec about some of the landscaping and said, "Well don't go hacking and tearing everything out!"  Ok.....it is NOT your house anymore, we will do as we please thank you and good bye!

We have been here now for 3 weeks, and both Alec and I will completely agree it is indeed NOT a well maintained home.  I wouldn't expect a perfect home, heavens knows the one we sold in Milwaukee certainly wasn't.  But this house is not well maintained, it isn't shabby and falling apart at the seams or anything like that but there are so many things that were not taken care of!  Maybe we just have different standards than them.....

All the gutters leak, and so upon further investigation many are on incorrectly and seams are not dealt with properly.  So whenever it rains it just streams down in the most random places!  In this picture it is post rain and you can see the 2 big puddles on the deck where it streamed from the gutters.

The roof is in terrible condition.  Now like most things, this came up on inspection so we were aware of it.  But it is in such bad shape and should have been replaced YEARS ago.  If it had been done years ago you could have put another layer of shingles on top, but now in its current condition it will need to be a tear off job.  

There are leaves, weeds, and over grown bushes everywhere.  The landscaping is in shabby condition, so we have been getting rid of leaves and I have been pruning back bushes and such like crazy!  Hack hack!

The dryer was so caked full of lint it was a major fire hazard.  Thank goodness I know a guy in the industry :)  Alec spent tons of time vacuuming out lint and cleaning out the ducts.  

Besides this light fixture being hideous (and there are 2 of them), they only function as fans.  Something is messed up with them where if you put light bulbs in both fans/lights short out!  So the wiring is ALL messed up there and the fans need to be replaced.  In the mean time though we are living with minimal light in the upstairs living and kitchen area.

The other major thing we had to fix (not pictured) was the garage door opener to the larger garage.  It would work about 30% of the time, the other times it wouldn't work no matter which button you pushed or how hard I pushed it or screamed at it!  So we decided to just have a new one installed.  My hubby is willing to try new projects and knows a lot about home repair, but fixing and installing a new garage door is not something he was willing to tackle.  So we hired someone (very different for us!) to come and fix it.  So thankfully it is now working flawlessly and we even had them install a keypad to get into the garage (if you are super lucky will give you the code :)).  

These are a few of the things that have popped up in the 3wks we have been here now.  I'm sure there will be more.  So since the previous owner kept saying what a 'well maintained' home this was, we always say that sarcastically now.  "Well maintained home Laurel, well maintained home!"  Alec will say to me, eye roll.  Oh well, that is just part of home ownership I guess!  

4th of July

We had such a fun 4th of July.  We had all the family over to our house for a huge cookout! It was the first time some more family members saw our house, so we gave the 'tour' a few more times.  We had an afternoon full of swimming, bag games, Frisbee, fireworks, and of course tons of food!

Brie got a lot of attention that day, which she is becoming more and more shy with.  When there are tons of 'new' people (aka, not Alec or I) around she is just a quiet observer.  She just takes it all in and doesn't really participate.  But she did great!

We attempted a family picture, which turned out ok.  Brie would not smile for anything.  Oh well.....they are still decent!