I hate bedtime.

I am tired of bedtimes. I hate bedtime. Little Miss Sommer also hates bedtime - so you can imagine my frustration level at this particular time of night. Usually bedtime isn't until 10:00 pm because Sommer is the ultimate night owl. It's like she thinks she will be missing something SO important if she goes to bed early. Usually it's a fight - it starts off nice, sweet, quiet. Patience is in my voice and all my actions. After the 3rd time of her door opening I start to get a little less patient - I start to threaten ("There will be no park tomorrow", "I will take your noiseybox (music box) out of your room"). After this I am starting to get MAD - I will threaten to spank and then I will spank. UGH. Tonight was no different. I am exhausted.

I use to have the perfect child at bedtime. Kiss good night, say prayers, go to bed. And I wouldn't see her to morning. PERFECT. But for the last while (actually for a really long time...) we have had WWIII at bedtime. Doesn't she understand that I would give ANYTHING to go to bed early. Please, someone send me to bed!!! Kids are funny that way. I can remember fighting my parents over an afternoon nap. Why nap when the world is still going on outside my window? Now, I would PAY someone to send me to my room for a nap. Kids have it easy - if only they knew that.

Well I think she is finally asleep. I guess I will start my mountains of laundry that are waiting for me. Please tell me I am not the only parent who hates bedtime???

Thank You

Thank you to all of you who prayed for our appointment today. It went so well and smoothly. We are able to continue to move forward in our journey and get some answers today. It is such an amazing feeling to know that people all over the world are praying for us and are lifting us up to God. I can't even begin to tell you how blessed we are to have you all in our lives. Thank you! Please continue to pray for us as we keep moving along the road God has planned.

What to write???

Sometimes I don't even know where to start when I sit down on my computer to update you all on my life. I don't know whether to write about Sommer or the dogs or James. Maybe it's should be an update on the business or maybe that is too boring. Sometimes I just wish I could really share what's going on inside my heart but scared at the same time that is getting to personal in the blog world. I don't want to depress you with my complicated journey of fertility. I just want to share my heart. Can I really, freely, truly do that? I am not sure.

I think today I will just ask you to pray. Please pray for me as a Mom. Please pray for patience with Sommer who is trying to learn independence - and I try to teach her independence but all within arms reach of me. She is a beautiful little girl and I am blessed to have her. Please pray that I will always remember what a blessing she is to us and how lucky we are to be her parents. I find it hard sometimes to look at what a little girl she has become when I am trying to hold on to the baby side of her. I love the snuggles she still loves to give, the new phrases she comes up with every week, and watching her discover new things around her.

Being a Mom is not the easiest job but I want to be able to say that I did my best. My favorite part of the week is Sunday mornings. When Sommer was younger it was easy for us to skip church because we were tired or something else came up. Now that Sommer is old enough to learn about Jesus we have made it a priority to go to church every Sunday. Our amazing church has such a great kids program. Every Sunday morning before they are dismissed all the kids go up to the front for a quick little lesson. Every Sunday Sommer is the first one up there - sometimes beating the Children's Pastor. It just makes me smile to watch her eagerness and passion at such a young age. I love picking her up from Sunday school and getting the run down of what she learned. I challenge each christian parent to make Sunday School a priority for your child - you will not regret it. Please pray for us as we teach Sommer about her Heavenly Father and the love he has for each one of us.

We have an upcoming appointment on Monday(June 14) and I ask you to pray for us. I always feel nervous about appointments with our specialist and such doctors. Please pray that God will go before us and that his peace will surround us while we are there. Of course, I ask you to pray that God will have this appointment turn out for the best and that we will continue to move forward on this journey. So please, mark it in your calendar and pray for us on the morning of June 14th... I could use everyone praying!

Well, thanks for lifting our family up and following us through the good times and the trials. I appreciate each one of you!

Baby Bentley and Baby Update

Another Monday night in the show home so I might as well keep everyone updated on what is going on in our lives!!! So much has happened this past week!!

The biggest news is that we have a new family member - Bentley McCullough has joined our crazy household. Bentley is a 3 month old Miniature Pinscher who has endless energy! I have always wanted a Min Pin and our local pet store had Min Pins and I just couldn't pass him up. There have been days where I have wondered what I have got myself in to but he his absolutely adorable so it makes up for all his accidents and mischief! Lexis seems to tolerate her new brother and Sommer is absolutely in LOVE with Bentley! I honestly forgot how much work puppies were - I think a newborn was easier than a puppy! He doesn't really sleep through the night unless he is in our bed in my arms - something I am not too fond about. Just like a newborn....

We went to our doctors appointment last Thursday. Turns out there is nothing wrong with us - really??? My levels are all perfect and James is good in his department. I am not sure what the heck is wrong, haha. So now we start a treatment called Clomid and pregnyl. Here is what it is - Clomid is a pill that I will take on days 3-7 of my cycle. This drug encourages strong and healthy follicles to grow. Starting on day 10 I will go through a series of ultrasounds where the tech will measure the size of my egg that will be released during ovulation. Once that egg reaches a certain size and ovulation will be occurring soon I will be given an injection of Pregnyl, a drug that causes ovulation to occur within 24 hours. This will allow for intercourse to be timed with ovulation. Quite the science involved! We will try this for 4 months and then if we still aren't pregnant we will move up to the next stage of fertility treatments - hopefully this won't have to happen. One exciting thing is what when on clomid your chances of twins is 10%! Wouldn't that be something!!

So those are the 2 major developments in our lives this past week. Just thought I would update you!

Road to a Baby Update

I am such an emotional person today that it is actually annoying! I finished all my fertility testing a couple of weeks ago but I am still waiting for James to do his test   (he assures me it will be done this week – I am no longer going to nag him). I always have such a positive attitude throughout the month while we are trying but sure enough the end of my cycle comes and I am met with despair over again. I read something the other day that really hit home: “For a woman who is TTC and every cycle end is met with the reality she is not pregnant it is like she is mourning the child she lost that month.” And that’s how I have been feeling these past couple of months. I have moved on from mourning the little baby we did loose in January and now I am mourning the loss of the baby that “should have been” each month. I must get out of this depressing state! I am sure it is because I am hormonal right now but still, what the heck!! I had a little meltdown today on the phone and my mom assured me everything will be fine.  I am lucky to have a supportive family (and friends) who are lifting us up in prayer and encouraging us in our journey. We have an appointment with our fertility specialist on May 6th so we will get some answers and look at our options. I am curious to see what the results of the tests are as I feel like my body is all over the map. I am really excited to have some help finally and some guidance. To be honest, I am sick of trying…. Just tell me when to do it, haha, and please let it work! Please keep us in your prayers. Pray for our appointment with the doctor – that we will have answers if tests came back not normal, that the doctor will have the knowledge he needs to decide what we should try first, and that we will have peace about what is set before us. I will let you know what we find out!

By the way, I appreciate all the comments you all leave! It is encouraging to see who all is praying for us. So please, if you are keeping updated through this blog please leave a comment, even just a “hi”. And if i don’t know you personally but you are reading this I would love to hear from you too. Thanks for your prayers :)

Learning to Measure

Let's just say that Daddy would be proud... sort of proud. Give her props that she is using a tape measure, on the job site, pretending to measure openings, etc. and she is 2. Never mind that she is yelling out measurements that make completely no sense and would confuse all framers. But she is darn cute pretending to know what she is talking about!

Good Bye Sadie

Well it was a sad day yesterday as James' family's dog got ran over by a car while they were in town visiting us. Sadie was a special part of the McCullough family and things just won't be the same without her. She lived 8 happy years with his family and everyone loved her. No one is totally sure what breed she was but our guesses were part Jack Russell/Chihuahua/Beagle? She had a little prance she did when she walked. It looked like a little march as she would bring her little feet right up in the air. She had a ear piercing bark that she always let out at the most inappropriate time (nap time, movie time, when you were on the phone...). She loved to snuggle and always wanted to be held. When I first started dating James and I would go for the weekend to his family's house (they live in Outlook) Sadie would always sleep in my bed underneath the covers - she would sleep under the covers of any willing participant.

Today we buried Sadie at our acreage. It was sad. Sadie was loved and will be missed. What a special little friend you were Sadie-bo-badie. I hope you are having a smorgasbord of milk-bones, pigs ears and even a little human food in your doggy heaven.

We love you.

Our Caribbean Cruise 2010

I just loved our cruise so much! I just want to go back all the time. Such good weather, food, friends... ah, the life. We went on a 7 day Eastern Caribbean Cruise that stopped at Nassau Bahamas, St. Thomas US Virgin Islands and St. Marrten which is a Dutch/France owned island.
Our cruise debarked from Cape Canaveral, Fl. and the weather when we left was so chilly! Lucky for us it did warm up quickly once we set sail.

Our first stop was Nassau and there we visited the Atlantis Hotel - what an awesome hotel!!! You could easily spend weeks there and never be bored with all it has to offer. We took an aquaventure package where we got to use the water slides, pools, beaches and go to the aquarium. The water was a little cold in the water slides and it was a cool breeze that day so I did spend lot of time on the beach chair - soaking up the beautiful sun.

After a day at sea we embarked at St. Thomas. It is such a great clean and friendly little island. It is the busiest of all the islands so no celebrities were spotted (I am such a celebrity junkie). There we did a snorkeling adventure which was so much fun! The first location we swarm right beside sea turtles, fish, string rays, and a barracuda! And I mean RIGHT beside! Such an awesome experience. The next stop was at a shrip wreck which I thought was totally creepy!! We also fed yellow finned tuna and those suckers are aggressive. Some of you may know that I have a phobia of fish and unfortunately James and our guide thought it would be funny to throw pieces of shrimp at me so that the tuna would attack me - needless to say I didn't last long in the water at that location.

Another day at sea and we arrived at St. Maarten and let's just say that was.... ummm... interesting? St. Maarten (the french side at least) allows European Bathing (*COUGH* NUDE BATHING!!). We didn't realize this until we were debarking from the ship and arrived at the beach. Lucky for us there was no NUDE bathing but the young women beside us in the beach chairs did participate in topless bathing!! I made sure James had his eyes on his book or took him out to lounge in the bathtub temperature water. Thankfully the girls were getting a bit burnt on their chest and had to lay on their stomachs for most of the afternoon. It was a different experience let's just say! Not my style.... that's for sure!

It was a nice vacation with our friends. We missed Sommer so much and I feel like she got so big while we were gone. She stayed with James' parents for 4 days and my grandparents for 5 days. She was spoiled, out of schedule, and played out by the time we returned. I can't wait for next year!!!

HELLO!!! I AM BACK!!!

Easter Sunday with Mommy and Sommy - Annual picture by the piano

Silly Sommy with Daddy - What a goof :)

I ran into a friend of mine at a baby shower (HI HEATHER!) and she told me it was time to update my blog! I guess she is right - so much for my New Years Resolution!!?!

This past March has been an absolute CRAZY month for our family! We got back from a Caribbean Cruise and our month went into full swing. We packed up all the junk in our house one weekend, cleaned it the next, sold it the weekend after, participated in The Spring Home & Garden Show for Trademark Homes, and just opened up our Show Home this past weekend. It has been a whirlwind month! Now I am working Monday nights in the Show Home so I plan on updating my blog when it is slow in the show home - plenty of time to think!

As I mentioned, we sold our house!!! The market has picked up in Regina so we wanted to take advantage of the spring market so we decluttered the house and put it up for sale. 4 days later we had multiple offers and accepted a full price offer with a July 31st possession. We are currently building a house in Lakeridge for us to live in while we build our dream home at the acreage we bought last year. I am not necessarily a "Northender" but I will always give something a try once - especially when there is money to be made. So we plan on having that home finished by the end of July so we can move right from our home in White City into Lakeridge.

Sommer is growing up so fast - crazy how that happens. I looked at her today and realized there is no baby left in her. Sometimes I could see it in her cheeks or her eyes but not now. As you can see from the above pictures she has turned into a beautiful (if I do say so myself) little girl. Her hair is curly and she cheeks are so plumb and her little eyes are a deep dark brown. I just love her! The things she has come up with lately really crack me up. I love watching her try to put things together and make sense of the world around her... I love learning how a 2 1/2 year old thinks the world works. Just priceless.

Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?

Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? is a favorite book of ours. Sommer loves sitting down and reading books - especially when she can read them too. We often hear her reading to her babies or by herself on the couch. Her voice is beautiful and I never get tired of hearing her read. She is precious. We love her!