Aikido! Airplanes! And Ellie!

Yay! Papa is home again! Mike was out for a few days this week (again!) but this time for work. I really missed listening to Autumn and Mike chatter while I cook. Mike showed her pictures from his trip.


He came back all tanned and sunburned.
+

While we spent most of the week like this.


Last week Autumn did some serious flying in her cardboard airplane.


For a few days. Ha!


And, omg, this is so awesome. I recorded Autumn doing the hand stretches from aikido. These are the basic joint locks you learn to do when you first stop. HOW CUTE IS THIS??? Also, at the end, watch how she corrects herself when she does it wrong!!

Last, but definitely not least, check out baby Ellie!!! She arrived very early Tuesday morning. Lindsay is doing great!!


I loooove this photo so much!


Doesn't Autumn have the best look on her face??


We're so excited to have another little miss in the mix! I need a new tag because she's not a LittleColley, is she? She's a LittleSellers! Ha! Check out PassingPinwheels for more posts about our last few days and a photo of us together with baby Ellie!

So much for lazy days...

It's been a crazy week with appointments and meetings and stuff...next week is just as crazy. I wonder why it happens that way? Nothing for a while and then pow SO MUCH TO DO.

I don't have pictures of this, but last weekend I went to what's probably my last martial arts seminar until after baby Garrett arrives. I wish I did have pictures though because they are probably hilarious. We did some really fun stuff with the guys from Innovative Martial Arts in Michigan, the same group whose seminar I attended back in September. Saturday I didn't do a whole lot other than videotape because the Sunday material is what I really wanted to do. Even so, that was a lot of walking and standing and both nights I ended up zombie walking around and counting the moments until Autumn went to bed and I could go soak my old bones in the tub, hahaha.

Later in the week, we took Molly to a new vet. Some of you have read about this on facebook and I'm sorry for the repeat but it's just so funny. She did great. I just dropped her off to be groomed and get the shots all at once and she was really chill when I picked her up. They suggested that I get her teeth cleaned for the first time in 8 years so I set that up for Friday. When I picked her up, the lady was all, "your cat is so sweet, I bet you can brush her teeth regularly on your own." I laughed. And laughed. Because, seriously. This is how most people think of Molly:


I've heard more than one person lament that she's so pretty and yet so evil. I mean, she has her moments and she's way better with Autumn than I would have imagined but...dude. This is Molly. Even Mike said he's rather spend the cash to have someone else brush her teeth rather than try it himself and Molly likes Mike.

That same day, Autumn and I went to the dentist, too. It was her first time and she did better than I expected. If you ask her how she did, she'll tell you, "I was very brave." She showed how she brushes her teeth and then they brushed her teeth for her. She got her teeth counted (20) and picked out a toothbrush. I was surprised. I thought for sure she'd get a princess toothbrush but she ended choosing a Sesame Street one. She likes Zoe. She also really liked the "tiny toothpaste" that she got. It's crazy because I remember when she only had like one tooth...
'

Apparently her one tooth stage was also her chunky monkey stage. :D

On a completely different note, I've had the urge to make lumpia for a while now. This weekend I finally managed to actually follow through. It's kind of an involved process but it's so worth it. If you've never had lumpia, you simply must sometime. I couldn't find spring roll wrappers at the store, which was weird. So I ended up going to the mexican korean market. I love going there because it's so random but the store isn't in an area I'm in much so I don't get there often enough. This trip, I ran across this tea and was so tickled I emailed a picture to Mike.


Vigorous Man Tea. :D

Anyway, I haven't made lumpia in over a year so there are some tweaks I need to make but it was pretty good. Autumn thought so, at least. I don't know why but I thought she was hilarious at dinner. She loves rice so she was shoveling it down like she'd never eat again. She kept saying, "mmmm, num num." And even though she rarely asks for seconds, she wanted more lumpia. And her hair...well...


Next week should be a crazy week but in a good way...we're closing on the house in Lakeland tomorrow, yay! I have my ultrasound and Autumn has her 4 year appointment. We also have some other fun stuff planned but I'll wait to blog about THAT next week.

Autumn has an announcement:

So, there you go...baby name! We've known for a while but kept forgetting to video her saying the name, haha. The story is that we were keeping a shared Google doc with boy names we liked. Mike kind of wanted something nature-y but, really, it's hard to find nature names for a boy if one is not a hippie or Native American. And the one name we did like, Ashe or Asher, just didn't sound right with Colley. Well, one night, Tamara and I were looking at names and she mentioned Garrett. I liked it and added it to the list. Long story short, have some chat logs:

Mike: Did you put down "Garrett" as a name?

me: yes. is that one you like? or don't like?

Mike: I was about to put that down.

me: oh, cool

what made you think of it?

Mike: I'm going through the list of all the names in my mail server.

And the next day:
me: is garrett your favorite name right now?

Mike: Kinda mebee?

me: i don't remember if it means anything

Mike: Rule of Spear

me: other than, "it sounds nice with colley"rule of spear? well, that's a very kali name

Mike: Mighty with a spearme: i can dig it

Couple more days and conversations later, we added Michael (Autumn's middle name is Rose which is also my middle name) and voila! Baby name! And it was way, way easier than I was expecting it to be.

Today was our 3d ultrasound and...it was weird. :) We brought Autumn and she did great although she's still trying to figure out how some gel and a wand made pictures on the screen. She took one of the pictures and put it in a magnetic frame on the fridge that Penny gave her about a month ago. We didn't get a 3d with Autumn so this was a totally new experience. It's crazy because it's so vivid but at the same time we are now afraid he might be ugly, LOL. In a couple of the pictures, he looks like a creepy old man with a freakishly large schnozz. But in a few of the photos, he looks like me or Donnie. Mike took one look at the first face shot and said, "that's your family's nose." Hahahaha. He's right. But, Autumn had a very my side of the family nose when she was born and it seems to be okay so maybe baby Garrett won't be grossly out of proportion. And if he is, we'll just make sure he's confident and dresses well. :P Anyway, have the least disturbing photo of the bunch:


Ok, that one's pretty cute. Also cute? He kept sticking his tongue out at us.

So, that's all the good stuff. We do have a couple of prayer requests. Because of Autumn's growth restriction issues, they have been keeping a vague eye on this baby's weight. The general consensus has been that there's unlikely to be an issue since his umbilical cord is fine (hers only had two vessels) but if there's any kind of history like that, they check just to be safe. Last time, he was in the 36th percentile. This time he was at the 23rd. They aren't crazy concerned that he's small because, seriously, I'm not exactly a big person but the doctor does want to make sure that he's not on a steady downward decline, as opposed to it being a normal fluctuation. I will go back in two weeks for another weight check and then they'll decide what to do from there, depending on the results.

Autumn, covered in spaghetti sauce and practicing her skills on baby Hudson.


Another thing they'll be checking in on is a cyst in the placenta. The doctor said she genuinely has no idea what it might be, if anything, but she doesn't seem too worried. It might resolve itself like the one on the umbilical cord from early in the pregnancy. If it's still there in two weeks, she's going to send me over to the high risk doc I saw with Autumn just to check it out and make sure it isn't causing any problems.

All in all, though, things are looking good! Couple of little blips but so far nothing too crazy. I'll update everyone after the next ultrasound in 2 weeks.

Next post: party pics!

In which I am very random

1. If Autumn were a dog, this is what she'd look like: clickie!

2. Did I tell you I am officially in my third trimester? Yay! Went to the doc this week and all is well. I feel like a hoss but I'm inside the target weight for this stage and everything is measuring fine. Next visit is a 3-D ultrasound. I didn't get one with Autumn because it was like $200 which, no. The 3d is routine at this practice and they are going to do a weight check because of Autumn's growth issues. I doubt there will be anything too funky going on though because she had umbilical cord issues and this time there are no (known) umbilical cord abnormalities.

3. This children's Bible is awesome. Our friend Michelle gave it to Autumn for Easter two years ago. I love the illustrations--it's one of the few books that seems to have people of every color in it--and the stories. I've been reading Autumn different parts of the Easter story this week. Today we read about how Jesus died on the cross and tomorrow we will read about His resurrection.

From page 292:
"My body is like this bread. It will break," Jesus told them. "This cup of wine is like my blood. It will pour out.

"But this is how God will rescue the whole world. My life will break and God's broken world will mend. My heart will tear apart--and your hearts will heal. Just as the passover lamb died, so now I will die instead of you. My blood will wash away all of your sins. And you'll be clean on the inside--in your hearts.

"So whenever you eat and drink, remember," Jesus said, "I've rescued you!"

4. Roxie's birthday was last week! I get the fail award because I didn't take any pictures of things like the fruit arrangement Valerie made. It was cute...she cut out the letters of Roxie's name in pineapple! It was a Minnie Mouse party which totally delighted Autumn. We all know how much she likes anything Mickey.


Valerie also planned an Easter egg hunt. Autumn was the most mobile of the kids and the only one who had really done an egg hunt before so I tried to corral her into one area while the others did some hunting. Once they gave up, Autumn swept in and gathered everything else. :) She ended up with 4 eggs that had a dollar each in them! She was seriously excited and put the dollars in her mickey bank where she is saving up to buy a soft my little pony.


Roxie was so cute while everyone sang her happy birthday. At first she looked a little baffled. Then she started to enjoy herself.


Then she was all, "this is for meeee!"


This was part of her gift from us. It was not popular with her. :P


I like this picture.


The gift Roxie is leaning on above was as interesting to Autumn as it was to Roxie. Mike ended up putting it together for them to play with.


My mom got Roxie a little push/ride car. The second I took it out of the box and put it together, Roxie took off. Mike got all worried and followed her around. :) When my mom saw this picture she said, "Mike loves babies, doesn't he?" And yes. Yes, he does.


Want to see something crazy? Here's Autumn at her first birthday party:


HOLY COW WHEN DID SHE GROW UP??

This won't be the last time the words 'Land Whale' appear here...

When I was uploading the pictures for this post, I had to go through like 10 pictures Mike took of me and Autumn today and it was seriously depressing, LOL. I feel better than I have felt all pregnancy but between my hair not obeying, my skin pretending it is 14 again, and the fact that I am rapidly approaching land whale proportions, complete with a swelling nose...man. :P I did just look at how many weeks along I am and realized that, according to the books, this is my last week in my second trimester! So, I feel a little better.

I've been having a little bit of a hard time getting good exercise in. My acupuncturist friend Chuck and my chiropractor have done wonders for me but walking and doing aikido, my main sources of exercise, were really doing a number on my lower back and hips. Soooooo, after talking about it and trying to put it off...I joined a water aerobics class since there wasn't really a yoga class that fit in my schedule.
(I'll be the one in the back trying to figure out how to run in the water)


The first one I went to was okay. It was shallow water and the average age was about 500. They were super nice but I decided to give deep water aerobics a try and that was a bit of a better workout...the average age was more like 65 so more vigorous movement was encouraged. :) In both classes they were very, very concerned that I not hurt myself and it was kind of hard to figure out how to reassure the ladies that there is pretty much NOTHING that I'd do in there that could hurt me without sounding like a snob so I mostly smiled and nodded. I mean, considering that I spent about half of aikido Saturday doing techniques on my knees (I call that Japanese bar fighting--it's really called suwari waza) with guys twice my size...I think I'll be okay. Hahaha. But this will be good. Extra workout, no impact, maybe it'll help with some of the swelling.


Anyway, our yard is doing some serious flowering. It's been kind of fun to see what's hiding around here. The azaleas we knew would be amazing and I've enjoyed watching to see which bushes would turn what color. We have two red Japanese maples and one green one. We found some tiny flowers and we don't know what they are called. Today was so pretty and Autumn's new dress was so cute that I wanted to go outside and take some pictures in front of the flowers.


I think Mike and Autumn are so cute together. Today I heard music and giggling and when I went downstairs, they were in his office spinning and dancing to the music.


Autumn's been going through a little bit of a phase where she's learning to express frustration. Poor kid mood swings from suuuper happy kisses to growling and stomping her feet. We have a lot of "ok, tell me why you are angry" conversations these days.


For the most part, though, she's such a great kid and a ton of fun to be around. The first thing she does every morning is say good morning to "her" baby and give him a kiss.


I took some more pictures around the yard. Autumn tried to find her toy camera but couldn't so she got her cell phone and "snapped pictures" alongside me.


She's getting to be such a big girl. She started buckling herself into her carseat last week. It was so funny the first time. I put her in the car and asked her to get in her chair while I talked to someone. When I looked in to buckle her, she was grinning and said, "I already did it!"


Oh, and we got to have Frank and Emily and Olivia over yesterday! That was a lot of fun. I made a chicago style pizza, by Mike's request. I like it when he has favorite meals that he asks for when friends come over. Autumn was really looking forward to seeing Olivia and I was hoping that when they finally arrived, Autumn wouldn't go into shy/antisocial mode where she hides. She actually did really well and after dinner, she wanted to be Belle and asked to dress Olivia up as Cinderella.


Olivia was a good sport but she was definitely more interested in coloring and drawing that indulging Autumn's dress up. :) I think Autumn is going to make her new baby brother a doll, poor guy.


The one thing Olivia wasn't having any of was a hat. She resisted all attempts at hatting. Autumn even gave Frank some bunny ears and Emily got a halo. Mike got a pirate gun which doesn't seem overly fair. Ha.


Wow, that was a long post! I probably need to do more than one a week when I have a lot of stuff going on. Ah, real quick...I have a couple blogs for anyone who might be interested. One is my sister's blog which is looking like a family blog kind of like this one. The other is my friend Michelle's. Michelle is in a unique situation right now with one of her daughters who was born with a meconium cyst and her blog is the story of their life since. Definitely check it out...she's a great writer and I might have to steal some of her super creative collages!

Celebrations, Part 1

This week, Autumn and her papa celebrated her upcoming little brother together!


:D Not really, but she looks so happy! Also, here's a blast from the past...Mike appears to enjoy photographing our daughter with his vices:


:D

Anyway, last week we had one baby shower and two birthday parties! The shower was at our house and it turned out really great. It was for one of our community group members. Elyse is having a baby girl and has one little boy named Micah who is just the sweetest little kid.


I got to decorate the house (with some help from Cheri!). It turned out a litttttle pinker than I intended but it's so happy and spring-like that I have left all the decor on the tables.


Inside each lantern, I put a nest and an egg. Dede brought some cute birds and I added those to the mix.


Even the cupcakes were pink! Tara did the cupcakes and I made the toppers from the invitation I ordered on Etsy.


Here's the breakfast room table.


And here we are! This is my community group. The husbands are in Mike's group. We meet on the same night which is nice. Also, ignore my hair. It's being crazy in this picture. And you can't really tell because of the black, but I'm definitely showing. It was funny, today at church I had a couple of people people go, "are you....???" I think no one is ready to be like OMG YOU'RE PREGNANT because I am still a little at that "pregnant? or donuts?" stage, to use a phrase from a blog I like.


Ok, I just realized that if I post my pics from the two birthday parties, this post will be just ridiculously long. So I better wait and do a part two later. I hope everyone is doing well!

SO MUCH NEWS

First! Welcome to baby Hudson!!! Hudson was born yesterday and has a full head of hair. Congratulations to Ryan and Leah and Tyler!

(totally stole this pic from Lindsay's facebook)

Second! We knowwww what we are having! :D Any guesses? Well, let me tell you by sharing Autumn's prayer tonight:

Dear God, thank you for Lainey and P.D. and for mama and papa and for my new baby brother and for tyler's baby brother and for give a pig a pancake. Amen.

Yep! It's a boy! Autumn's reign as Colley Family Princess remains supreme. :D Here's one of the ultrasound pics:


The ultrasound was a lot of fun. He was super active, just like Autumn was at her 20 week ultrasound. Everything looks great--no cord problems, no visible issues, just bouncy baby-ness.

Autumn is excited about her new baby brother--she says he's going to be the prince, she's going to be Belle, Aunt Penny is going to be Cinderella, and mama and papa are going to be pirates. So, apparently, we are just one big play in Autumn's mind. :P I'm glad she's taking it so well because she was totally convinced she was going to have a sister named Cinderella and she'd call her Ella. Hahaha. Funny kid.

Anyway, that's it for now! I have a ton of picture from THREE different parties over the last four days so I am going to try to get those up before Sunday.

So...

Here's a shot from our session with Elizabeth Wiggs last month:


Zoom into the book why don't we?


Some of you guys get it but if the responses of the various family members we did the book to is any indication, a few of you miiiight need a little help:


:D

Yep! We're expecting baby number 2 sometime around July 15! How cool is that? It was kind of a long journey, punctuated by things like counseling for me to deal with how rough my delivery of Autumn was and fertility treatments both eastern and western and lots of people have been waiting on this for a long time and it's finally here!

I'm actually only 9 weeks along but a lot of people already know. Of course, our family is huge so like 20 family members have known for about 5 weeks. I also told the people I train with for obvious reasons. We don't want unexpected kicks or punches in less than ideal places, right? So, now we're telling you!

I have a few prayer requests, too. First, please pray for me. I had about 3 weeks of absolutely debilitating morning sickness. I even had to go to the emergency room for IV fluids and medicine. That kind of helped me reboot my body and things have been improving. I also have continued acupuncture which is think is also helping. With the exception of a sinus problem (this crazy weather), I've been doing remarkably well this week. A friend of mine told me yesterday that I'm actually experiencing "normal" morning sickness but that it feels like "good" to me because of the last few weeks and because of how things were with Autumn.

So, you saw that I had an ultrasound, right? Well, apparently, I produce inferior umbilical cords. :) If you remember, Autumn had a 2-vessel cord which was the source of all of our delivery drama--she stopped growing at 34 weeks. Well, this little one has a cyst in his or her umbilical cord. It should go away before the first trimester is over but they still want to do some monitoring. If it's still there in a couple weeks, I'm headed over to the same high risk doctor that I saw with Autumn. Everything else looks super healthy so that's great news.

Last but not least, please keep Mike and Autumn in your prayers. Mike has been so awesome. He's grocery shopping and cleaning and just being generally awesome in addition to his normal job and side jobs. There's a lot of time left so I hope he doesn't burn out!

Here's Miss Autumn:


She's sick today. That was her yesterday after I got her from school. She was running a fever, poor thing. Papa D and Lainey rescued her, though, so she slept on the aikido mat before the kids class while we waited on them to come get her. Autumn sick is truly one of the saddest things in the world because she just kind of lays there and is so, so sweet.

Anyway, that's a lot of updating! I know I haven't been on the blog lately but now you know why! I've seriously been going to bed between 7:30 and 9:30 almost every night but things seem to be normalizing a little bit. How are you guys? Getting ready for some great Christmases, I hope!

We interrupt the Easter series for an important announcement...

Mike and I were talking today about how incredibly tired we are. Over the weekend, it seemed like we were going 90 miles an hour from the moment we woke up until our heads hit our pillows. It's all good stuff, but of course, our bodies can't tell the difference between good stress and bad stress, hahaha. It's strange, we close on our new house next Friday! Isn't that crazy? Our current home hasn't sold yet, unfortunately. We do know what the hold up is, though, and it's good news and bad news. It sounds like everyone loves the house itself, but they don't like the backyard because of the hill. So, there's nothing we can do about it which is good because...well, we've done what we can. And bad because...there's nothing we can do except wait for the person who doesn't care.

The worst part about it? It looks like things aren't going to slow down because next we have a new house that's going to need some work. And then when this house sells, we'll be moving...so there's no end in sight.

HOWEVER! None of this compares to some life changes (and most likely exhaustion) going on as we speak! Because my sister had her baby on Thursday! I'd like all of you to meet our niece Roxie Kay!


Mike picked out the above photo. He was totally into Miss Roxie and spent the entire visit on Friday poking her, hoping she'd wake up. Haha, not really. He was actually enjoying the way she'd startle herself every once in a while, like babies tend to do.


Valerie and Justin looked good when we saw them. I talked to my mom today and she says things are settling down a little, that Roxie is getting used to her new locale. Justin has been trying out music on Roxie and so far she's into Elvis and George Strait. Autumn was a Keane and Stereophonics girl there for a while. Then she was into opera, which was random. Now she makes up her own songs...time flies, for real. Seeing Roxie brings back memories! Roxie is 6 pounds and we all talked about how weird it is that Autumn was a little over 4.5 when we brought her home. Roxie's soooooo teeny that it's hard to imagine a smaller baby!


Autumn hasn't met Roxie but I'm hoping they'll be able to meet soon! Autumn's been practicing.


Haha, don't worry Valerie and Justin, I'm just kidding. Autumn will be happy giggling over the "beebee" and touching her teeny beebee toes.