William LOVES to take a bath!

Letting all of you in on our secret

Our secret...

For those of you that didn't know, in August, Benjamin and I tried another cycle of IVF to have a second baby. Unfortunately, it didn't work. We used our 2 frozen embryos from the cycle where we got pregnant with William. Even though I am still pretty sad that it didn't work, I am feeling a lot better; not as bitter. I guess time does heal at least some wounds. So, here we are in a holding pattern. I am currently trying to go back to work. I am not allowed to sub while on parental leave, and Benjamin and I can't afford to get a house just on Ben's salary. So, I think the best thing is for me to go back to work. I'm sad I won't be able to stay with William, but part of me is missing some adult interaction anyway. I have a meeting with the HR department tomorrow to see if I can come back. Our plan (if I can go back to work) is to start building a new house. While the house is being built, we will stay with my parents and save the money I make. By the time the house is complete, we should have a good chunk of money, half to pay for some of our IVF (we will try one last time in the summer) and the other half to pay for future maternity leave when the IVF works! I am allowed to take 12 weeks off for maternity, but it is not paid leave. However, another cycle of IVF would be dependent upon good cycle day 3 hormone levels. We had my levels checked back in 2005 (all was normal), but the fertility doctor wants to make sure my levels are still ok. If they aren't, that might explain why our last cycle didn't work and it would also mean no more IVF (we would have to look into adoption for a second child). If I can't go back to work, then I think we will go ahead and do IVF in January and just borrow money from our 401K and then start building in the summer. Who knows? I guess we are in the "Just Wait and See" part of life right now. We didn't want to tell anyone about doing another cycle of IVF because we wanted to surprise everyone with good news. However, that didn't happen. For now, we will just go with the flow and see where God takes us next.

18 months old

The 10 things that I love that William is doing at 18 months...

1. I love that William smiles all the time! (Well, not all the time, but almost!)
2. I love that William is feeding himself more and more with less spills.
3. I love that William knows what happens when Mommy gets his binky and his teddy bear! (nap or bedtime)
4. I love that William will give me a hug and a kiss without even asking for one.
5. I love that William loves books and being read too.
6. I love that William loves to get baths. He squeals whenever I say, "Do you want a bath?"
7. I love that William likes to dance! He is soooo cute!
8. I love that William whispers to me.
9. I love that William is getting more teeth. He looks so grown up.
10. I love that William understands so many things when we talk.

William's first parade

The state fair Kid's Day parade was this Saturday, so we decided to take William. He really enjoyed it (and so did we).

All moved!

Well, I'd have to say we are all moved in here at Mom and Dad's even though there is still some stuff at the house. Benjamin is over there now trying to tie up the loose ends while I am at Mom and Dad's watching the baby. I think after today we should be about 90% done and only have to do some cleaning. I found a home for our fish. They are actually going to my school. That move is happening on Monday, so then we can get rid of the fish tank. Things are going pretty smoothly here. Benjamin and I are getting settled and the baby seems to have made the adjustment easily. It will be nice to be out of our old house for good and concentrate our energy here getting even more settled. William is doing great. I just took him to get next shoes and he wears a size 6! He has gone up a shoe size in 2 months. He next dr's appointment is Sept 5 (I think) and it will be fun to see how much he has grown. I weighed him a few days ago and he is 24 pounds. He is starting to say more. He is growing so fast! Here are a couple pictures of a quick trip to an arcade. They were taken with my phone, so the quality isn't as good.

A Virtual Get-Together

This is a fun slide show of a day in the life of our family - August 4, 2008 to be exact. Enjoy...

Wonderful, Fantastic News!!!!

We sold our house!!!

I can't believe it! We have finally sold our house. We had a second showing on Friday and an offer Saturday. We signed the offer and now just wait while they do the appraisal, inspection, and all the other stuff. We are closing on Aug 22nd. WOW, that is coming fast. What I can't believe is the timing. Since we hadn't sold and my last paycheck is the last week in August, we were starting to get nervous about having a house and no money to pay the mortgage. So, we decided that I would go back to work, keep the house on the market until it sold, and hopefully I'd stay home next year. Guess we don't have to do that now! I had a job interview Thursday and didn't get the job. I was pretty upset I didn't get the job, but now look what happened! If I had gotten the job, then things would have been really complicated! I have another job interview tomorrow, but I will call HR in the morning and tell them I am pulling my application. So, the next few weeks are going to be packing and moving. We are going to move in with my mom and dad until we figure out what kind of home we can afford just on Benjamin's salary. Oh my goodness! This is all so exciting. I get to be a stay at home mom! YEA!!

William is doing great. He has been working on getting a couple more teeth and they are just starting to poke through. I've felt bad for the little guy. He's been really cranky and I know it is from the teeth. Benjamin's mom and dad came for a visit and here are some pictures of their visit.

Just chilling at home...

Lunch at the GoldDust...

William with both sets of grandparents!