Molly-isms and No, No, No's...

I knew I was slacking on my blog, but certainly not this badly. 4 months since my last post. I can't believe how much has change. My little Molly is 31 inches tall, 27 lbs and is WALKING! She continues to be the light of my life and, as much as I hate to say it, is developing into her own little person. She's quite opinionated (her favorite statements are "No, no, no" and "mine" thanks to a certain neighbor teaching it to her). She replies to every question you ask her; and while we are trying hard for her to say "yes", she picked up the word "yah" instead. Ahhhh, my little yooper baby. Molly's talking/babbling is pretty much a nonstop thing at our house and at daycare. She says about 20 words (including "Megan") and is learing new words every day. She prides herself on her animal sounds, which now stand at 6 (dog: woo woo woo, monkey: OOO OOO OOO (complete with hands scratching her underarms), elephant: sticking her bottom lip out and making a blowing sound upward, owl: Whooo!!! Whooo!!!, Lion: roooooar, cow: moooo Seriously, I refer to it as "the cutest cow in the world". Molly makes this teeny,tiny little noise for it.

Currently, her favorite activities are "reading" books (paging through them and pointing out things) and playing "tackle" football and catch with Matt. *sigh*. She is getting quite an arm on her, too, and daddy is hopeful he can have her playing softball by age 3 :) She loves being in the kitchen while I'm cooking and I give her tastes of everything as it's being made.

Christmas time was wonderful this year, albeit a little more hectic travelling with a toddler (I've never calculated departure times so much in my entire life- this is not a child you can skip naps with).Molly was spoiled terribly. Dollhouses, a retro kitchen set, building blocks, pillow pet, clothes, books... the list goes on and on.  We spent Christmas Eve in Winneconne with my parents; it was a really nice evening, even if Molly cried every time my dad walked in the room. She was loving up on Nana, though (she knows what side her bread is buttered). Christmas Day evening was spent with the Jacquet family and, as usual, my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. That is one comical family. Molly and Makayla (my sister-in-law Meghan's daughter) stole the show. Those two are destined to be great friends as the grow up together. I got some great kitchen items (new frying pans, FINALLY), too! The Freund Christmas was on January 8th and it was a fun, fun, fun time. All the little girls (5 who are 5 and under) got along great with minimal incidents and meltdowns :) In my book, thats a successful day!

I'm headed to Spain in May during my birthday with one of my dearest friends - am looking forward to some girl time in Barcelona and Valencia!  In the meantime, I'm gearing up for another Special Olympics Polar Plunge in Oshkosh. This year, I'm plunging twice . Once in Wisconsin Rapids on Saturday, February 5th and once on Friday evening, February 18th in Oshkosh (the big plunge is on Saturday, but I will be volunteering all day there). Our plunge team raised $9300 last year and we'd like to hit $10,000 this year. So far, we are THIRD in the entire state for fundraising. If you'd like to donate to my team, click here .

Memories, families and glass doors

This past weekend, I met with my mom's brother (Uncle Paul) and his wife (Aunt Mary), who came from Illinois to Plover. The purpose of the trip was to share items we both had regarding my grandfather's service in WWII, when his plane was shot down over Germany and was subsequently taken as a POW. Uncle Paul had some amazing newspaper clippings about the plane crash, telegrams that my great-grandparents received after the crash and hand written letters  from grandpa to them while he was in the POW camp. Of course, in between discussions, there was a LOT of friendly bantering from the older, male version of me (ok, he's just like Nancy with a beard). Let's just say it's a good thing that both of us have a thick skin... all right, most of the jokes were at Nancy's expense, but what did you expect? No one ever accused Paul or me of being nice :)

Leah, Jamie, Dylyn and Tyler (their daughters, 2 and 5 months) came to visit all of us while Paul and Mary will still in town. Dylyn is one of a few children that I say has a song playing in her head all day and no one can hear it. She walks in with two pigtails atop her head and announces she has "flippy flops on her head" (Remember Fraggle Rock? Dilly was the spittin image). A short while later, she went outside with her dad. As they were coming back in, Dilly, who was in front of Jamie, walked straight into the glass door in the entryway. Not just bumped into it, but full on, 100% smacked into it. And not a peep out of her. Of course, we all laughed hysterically because, well, only Dilly would do that, and only Dilly would shake it off as if nothing happened. I wish everyone had a little piece of sunshine in their life like her. Molly was already sleeping when Leah and Co. got to the house, so I got to snuggle with Tyler (aka TyTy), who gets prettier every day. Wonder if I could persuade them to move closer...hmmmmm.....

This is a photo of my grandfather and the other men who flew in his mission. "Doc" is in the front row, second from the right. The quality isn't the best once I tried to enlarge it.

A year of firsts

I find myself constantly making mental notes of Molly's "firsts"... I suppose most moms do that. "Mental note.. first smile... mental note... first bath... mental note... first tooth...mental note...first kiss (yep, first kiss)" Each and every day, the list gets longer and longer. The biggest milestone this year, however, was Molly's first birthday. I look back and wonder how long I actually thought of this day. I think the second I found out I was pregnant, I had a glimpse in my head of her first birthday (and yes, I knew it was going to be a "her"). However, to let everyone believe I was sane, I didn't tell them about dreams of pink balloons, a huge cake and our entire family and godparents swirling around the house with our baby in a beautiful satin gown and bows in her hair. Because, really, who ACTUALLY does that??

Apparently, me.

It was an amazing day that, frankly,went by too fast. I loved having our house full of kids (SO many little girls and the infamous Ray boys). The noise was infectious and, while I'm sure most people couldn't hear themselves think, I wouldn't have changed it for the world. I was surrounded by people who love us and love our baby girl.....our satin clad, cake all over the place, pink ladybug lovin' baby girl. Here's a few pics from the day:

Her theme was pink ladybugs, and I had an amazing cake made by a woman in Oshkosh, who also made our wedding cake, Molly's baptism cake and our anniversary cake.It was gorgeous AND tasted amazing.





Molly's throne



The seasons, they are a changin'

I love Fall. I love the trees, the cool wind, the smell of the air, the colors, the apples....the entire season inspires me. I couldn't get my fall decorations up fast enough. As soon as September 1 hit, the silk gerbera daisies and pumpkin pillar candles came out of the basement. I wish I could bottle up this time of year and open it up when it's -30 out in January. Plus, Miss Molly's fall wardrobe is adorable. I bought her some super cute leg warmers that can be put under skirts/dresses or worn alone with onesies as leggings. Of course, I bought some beenies, too. Molly was in daycare today for the first time in 2 weeks. Needless to say, 2 weeks ago she was rolling all over her infant room. Now, she is crawling everywhere and pulling herself up onto the shelves (subsequently clearing the entire shelf). It makes my heart ache seeing how she changes and grows EVERY day but at the same time, I can't wait to see what she'll do next. Oh, and for those wondering, looks like she's going to be a southpaw like her mama :) Matt is still digesting that one.

I've become "that" mom



Yep, I've become "that" mom.... I've decided to start a blog. Maybe it's because a few friends of mine have blogs and I thoroughly enjoy reading them (Sara, Kristi, Abbie) or maybe it's because I've always enjoyed writing.... regardless, when it comes down to it, I want my family to be able to see and read about our life in Winneconne. It may only be an hour away from my parents and two hours away from my sisters, but it may as well be an entire state away. When most of my nieces came along, I didn't have my own child yet, so I was able to see them often and not miss much of their first few years. Now we don't see each other very often and I want them to be part of Molly's life, even if it's via internet. So, here's my feeble attempt at trying this out.... bear with me....

Molly getting ready for the cold weather