What Have We Done???

Sorry it's been so long since I've written... We've had a bit of a mess on our hands around our house for the last week or so, and there's no end in sight. Maybe I should start at the beginning...

So y'all know we moved in to our new house right before we headed off to Iowa. While we were gone, we had painters come and put new fresh paint on the walls to make the house more "ours." Once we got back, I began the arduous task of unpacking box after box after box. After a couple weeks, things were pretty well settled - we even got the pictures hung on the walls.

But here's where the problem came: once everything was put away, I started my normal routine of cleaning (which took three times as long to get done as at the old house - UGH!). It was during these cleaning episodes that I began to notice the RIDICULOUS amount of grime, dirt, food, dog hair, and who-knows-what-else all over our floors. When we first bought the house, the one thing I wasn't crazy about was the white tile and light wood floor that pretty much covered the entire downstairs. But I told myself that in time, these were things that could all be fixed...

Let me interject here that I am by no means a clean freak. In fact, I'd much rather sit on my couch watching The Bachelorette or Big Brother than get on my knees and scrape nasty stains off my kitchen floor. But every time I turned around my eyes would focus on all the gunk covering it. I would put the vaccuum away and what do you know? More filth! It was never-ending. Of course, I constantly complained to Brad about it, but he gently reminded me that we just bought a new house and eventually we could talk about it.

Then came the turning point... we went over to our friends, Mary and Travis' house, who had just completed tearing up their floors and putting down a beautiful dark wood. As soon as we walked in, I was SOOOOO jealous! It looked amazing and it was exactly the way I wanted our house to look. I mentioned it to Brad, who actually looked equally as impressed. By the time we left their house that night, Brad was sold on the idea of ripping out our floors and putting in some wood!!!

Maybe I should tell y'all that once Brad gets something in his head, he's ready to start. So four days after our night with Mary and Travis, guess who's house turned into a complete disaster area? Yep! Brad and some friends completely tore out all our tile (which was a ton!) over the weekend. Then Brad decided that if we're gonna do it, we might as well be thorough, so he also tore up the yucky colored wood in the family room and the carpet in the office and the dining room as well. Why not, right?

So needless to say, our house looks like a warzone. DUST IS EVERYWHERE!!! I love my husband, but boy would it have been nice if he'd used some drop clothes to cover the cabinets, new couch, etc. He did make sure to cover the tvs though - go figure. For the past three days, I have done nothing but clean dust from every imaginable place in our entire house - including the game room upstairs! I am now quite talented at dusting and washing the walls, individual crayons, boxes of cereal, toy cars, each separate spice in the spice rack, and everything in each kitchen cupboard had to be washed and put back (after I cleaned out the actual cabinets of course!). RIDICULOUS!!!

So the floors are supposed to come in by August 9th, but Mary and Travis have warned us theirs took six weeks before they got them. AHHH! In the mean time, we'll just be as content as can be with our cement floors and dusty feet. Oh, Lord, what have we done???

Love to y'all,
Tracy

Tate's Big Birthday Weekend!!!

My sweet little boy turned three today!!! I cannot believe how quickly time has passed. I remember the day he Tate was born like it was yesterday... the anticipation, the excitement, the worry, the overwhelming joy, and the true love at first sight. What a miracle God sent to us that night.

So this weekend we were busy with our little man, doing all of his most favorite things... Friday night we went to a Ranger's game. I will say it started out a little shaky when Tate started screaming and crying every time the crowd would cheer. I still have to idea what the problem was, but for a good fifteen minutes we had pretty much the entire section of fans staring at us as he screamed his pretty little head off. Embarrassing? Totally. But so freakin' cute... Then all of a sudden he just snapped out of it and ended up being the loudest kid in the ballpark, cheering on all the players, yelling how many outs there were, and even booing the umps bad calls (I know, I know, not the best sportsmanship!). At one point, the Twins hit a homerun and it literally landed two rows directly in front of Brad and Tate. The crowd started chanting, "Throw it back! Throw it back!" to the woman that got the ball. And our little boy yelled it right along with them... His daddy was so proud.

Yesterday morning Tate woke up to find an early birthday present that Brad picked out for him: a new set of golf clubs... They're real clubs that had been cut down so kids can use them. And the best part is they're left-handed so he doesn't have to use the back side of Brad's anymore! Then Brad took our own little Tiger to the golf course and shot nine holes with him and some friends. Tate had a great time hitting his new clubs and driving the golf cart.

To celebrate his actual birthday, this morning Brad took him to pick up donuts for breakfast... (is it bad that he ate two glazed donuts with frosting and sprinkles and then three donut holes???). Then he opened his presents and played for a bit. For lunch we went to Chuck E. Cheese's with my parents. Tate has been OBSESSED with going there since a recent trip there with my dad. He was sooo excited and ran around that place for two hours, playing every game and riding every ride he could get his hands on. After the tokens ran out, we came home and opened presents from my parents and then had some cake.

All in all, I think it was a pretty fun birthday weekend for our little Tatertot... I wonder when he's gonna think it's embarrassing that I call him that. Before I know it, he'll be thirteen and I'll be begging him to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for old time's sake...

My Sweet Tate... Thank you for being my boy. Thank you for teaching me about baseball and how to hit golf clubs. Thank you for sharing my love of country music. Thank you for the cuddles, the kisses, the tight hugs. Thank you for giving me strength when I need it most. Thank you for bringing so much love into this house. You are a gift to all who know you... I am so blessed that God chose me to be your mommy. I love you bunches.

~Mommy

Love to y'all,

Tracy

***QPTU (Quick Potty Training Udpate): Doing really well. A couple pooping mishaps (like in the play area at McDonald's). Tons of stickers. A lot less nakedness.

Potty Training 101

As of yesterday the Sievers household is in full-on potty training mode. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this... We've only been doing it for like 36 hours and let's just say it's been a long two days!

Here's the stats for the first two days according to Tate's "Potty Chart" (sorry if this is TMI!):

5 accidents

13 pees in the potty

3 pees in the grass in the backyard

3 tiny poops in the potty

TONS of nakedness

Not too bad for just starting out.

I'm so proud of Tate. He's trying so hard and actually I think he's exhausted from it. Poor thing! He loves his big boy underwear - especially his Spiderman and Power Rangers ones.

Hopefully he'll get the hang of it more and more each day so that we can start to venture outside of this house. It makes the days go by pretty slowly, sitting here waiting for the next pee to come...

Wish us luck!

Love to y'all,

Tracy

BTW... As I was finishing up this post I have one more thing to add to Tate's "stats"...

1 poop on the floor

Seriously.

Tate's Potty Chart

Waiting...

Tate's First Sticker For a Job Well Done!

Potty Training is Exhausting!!!

Making It Official

By reading the title of this post, I'm sure a lot of you already know what it's going to be about. After all, many of y'all have know our little secret for awhile now! So, here I go...

Brad and I are going to have another baby!!!

Yep! We found out on our anniversary at the end of May that our third little miracle is on the way. I am ten weeks along as of yesterday and the official due date is February 3rd.

I went in today for my second appointment. As of now I've already had two sonograms - one at six weeks and one at ten weeks. The baby looks good and the heartbeat is nice and strong.

As y'all can imagine, this time around feels very different to us. We are trying to be positive and think good thoughts, but at times the worry and fear seem overwhelming. My pregnancies with both Tate and Nash were textbook and "easy." I LOVED being pregnant and felt great throughout all nine months. Now I find myself wondering if this little baby is developing normally... I especially think about if his/her heart is forming the way it should. I'm trying to enjoy this experience, but it's definitely different.

So far I feel pretty good... I NEVER felt a twinge of sickness with either boy. This time I would say I feel the tiniest bit queasy if I get too hungry. Other than that, I'm just really tired all the time - which I know is totally normal.

Today the baby measured about an inch and a half long, which is about the size of a prune (according to thebump.com). And the heart was beating at 178 beats per minute.

Needless to say we feel very blessed to be given the opportunity to have another little one running around. In my mind, all babies must come directly from heaven. That's the only place perfect enough to create such miracles... I feel like this baby was chosen by God with the help of our sweet Nash to fit into our family perfectly.

Please pray for our newest addition and for our fear and worry to ease as the days go on. Thank you all for your continued support.

Love to y'all,
Tracy

We're Home

After three weeks of being away, we got home safely on Sunday night.

I feel a little mixed about being back in Texas. It was so hard to leave Storm Lake. Not only were we surrounded by people who love us and love Nash, but I always feel so close to him while we're there. I went to the cemetery everyday except for one, and sometimes twice a day. It's like I needed to make up for not being there since December. Going for the last time early Sunday morning was so hard. It's just this huge reminder that we're all going home and he isn't. I had to force myself back in the car.

In addition, it still feels weird to be in this new house. It smells different than my other house smelled... Our furniture looks different here... It makes different noises... We have so many things to do to get it the way I want it. It's a little overwhelming at this point. I just want to snap my fingers and have it be done. I'm hoping that pretty soon, this house will turn into a home for me...

Love to y'all,
Tracy

It's Over... and Yet It's Not

So the anniversary of Nash's death has now come and gone. As y'all can imagine, yesterday was full of emotion and lots of painful memories of Nash's final hours on this earth.

I wasn't sure what we were "supposed" to do on the anniversary day... With the suggestion of a great friend I decided to bake some cookies and bring them over to the funeral home that helped us so much last year. As we pulled up, I felt sort of silly doing it, wondering if going there was really such a good idea. But as soon as Brad and I walked through the doors, Nathan, the man that was so amazingly empathetic to us in our greatest grief, was there to greet us by name. We visited for a few minutes, telling him again how much we appreciated all he did for us last July.

Over the past year, the local floral shop has had an on-going deal with another great friend of mine back in Texas. My friend has been in communication with them to make sure they put something new out at the cemetery on the first of every month. I can't tell you how much it means to see Nash's grave looking so perfect. Thank you, Jennifer for your thoughfulness and love!!! So because of this, Brad and I also went to the floral shop to bring them cookies and say thanks.

In the evening, Brad and I went to the cemetery so that we would be there at 5:37 - the official time that Nash entered into heaven. We stood there, in silence, both knowing the hurt of the other. I asked Brad if he thought Nash was scared when he was "going." He said he didn't know for sure, but that maybe Nash knew he didn't have to be...

At 6:00, many of our family members showed up. There were over thirty of us, standing in the cemetery remembering our little boy. Brad's aunt said a short prayer and I thanked everyone for coming and for all the support and love they've showered us with over the last year. Then we said the Lord's Prayer and let go tons of yellow balloons, hoping that Nash would receive them in heaven.

All in all, the day went as well as it could have. I am so grateful to have it over with and yet am so overwhelmed that fifty years from now, I will still be sitting at Nash's grave on July 1st. That won't ever change. There's no end to the pain and that's hard for me.

Thank you to all that were praying for us. I can't even begin to tell you how much the text messages, emails, cards, flowers, and phone calls helped. Some of my friends even made a post on their own blogs about our little one. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

Love to y'all,
Tracy