Fall 2012

I really need to take 15 minutes and update this blog for the kiddos to read later:) Doing anything on the computer is hard these days because anytime I have the computer out, Liv wants to climb on my lap and then pretend to type. She likes to play with the computer, Aaron has had the joys of trying to reconfigure things on it when she presses just the correct combination of keys to change something important like the language settings or something. She is so, so, so cute these days. She just just got over her 2nd ear infection. Which coincided with her second cold of her life as well. It's hard to see your baby sick and it's even harder to deal with a tired, cranky baby for days on end. Liv is getting bigger and getting smarter every day. She says: momma finally, as well as dadda, hi, bye, go, baba and I think she says bath and I swear she tries to say Cece or sissy. Her new favorite thing to do is somersaults, just like her big sister is always doing around the house. We are working on trying to catch her doing this on camera. She is such a little mini Cece. Like her in every way. Her hair is starting to come in, but we still only have the 2 bottom middle teeth. I wonder when more will appear?
Cece is doing great in school. Loves her classmates. She is on the Green Recycling Team at school. She had to write and essay and come up with an idea that the Green Team could use to improve their program to get selected. Only 30 kids in the whole school got to be on the team. They get out of class twice per week to help recycle and work on projects and once a month they meet before school. We are so proud of her. She also is starting to attend gymnastics twice per week in preperation to start competing in December and in the spring. She will have I believe 6 meets total, this includes 2 in her gym. If she is comfortable competing at the two within her gym in December she can choose to compete in the spring and other meets, but it's completely up to her. I don't want to put any pressure on her to compete. She's only 8 and I want her to be in gymanstics because she loves the sport and not to compete and win.
We are all getting excited for Halloween. Liv is going to be a zebra and Cece is a cat. Both have adorable costumes. Kiley will be back for 5 days over Halloween this year too. Exciting because we are such huge Halloween fans and Kiley has not been back to Omaha for Halloween in almost 5 years. The girls want to go trick or treating with their best friends down the street Jordan and Madee. We will see though. Were going to throw Kiley a party for her Birthday while she is home. She really wants a kindle like Cece so we are planning on that being our present to her. Cece and Kiley e-mail back and forth (which is absolutely adorable) so this will make it easier for Kiley to do that now too.
Aaron just celebrated his 30th Birthday with a small birthday party with family at our house. As a present to himself and from me, he is taking guitar lessons once a week, starting next week. He bought an acoustic guitar to practice on at home of course. He has wanted to take lessons for as long as I can remember. Plus, Cecelia really wants to take lessons too, so I'm hoping if Aaron gets good, he can teach Cece to play one day. Aaron and his Dad are celebrating at a concert tonight. And Aaron gets to go to the Husker game tomorrow night. Lucky boy, gets to celerate his birthday all week long.
I'm recovering from an unfortunate accident involving a can falling on my toe. A large hematoma needing to be drained, lots of oozing and now the pain is coming back. Looks like another emerga care visit is in the making for me, unfortunately. I joined a mom's group through church that provides daycare one night a week so us moms can get together. I love, love, love it! I also started the process to serve within the nursery or toddler room at church 2-3 wknds a month at church. It feels good to be involved finally! A few of my sister's and I have begun thrifting once a week. I have found so many treasures for the house lately. It really is addicting. My favorite place is the Goodwill bin store. I can't believe I had never been before, why didn't anyone tell me about this? I've enjoyed decorating the house for the fall/Halloween seasons and have made some amazing crafts off of pinterest. What was life like before pinterest? LOL
Well, I should get back to work. Still in the ICU supplemental. But I always have my eyes open for the perfect gig that doesn't involve me being constantly sleep deprived. Still trying for the next baby Culver. I guess it willl happen when the time is right

Liv has her first tooth, finally! It only took the kid 11 months to grow one. I am such a nerd but I seriously thought that she might have rickets or something. The girls birthday's are approaching. Saturday we will celebrate Olivia and Cecelia's birthdays. We are going to get a 6 foot sub, and some chips for food and the girls are getting an individual cake each. Olivia will do the whole smash cake thing and I hope my mom can get some good photos of it. I remember Cecelia's first birthday like it was yesterday (well, parts anyways). Like the chocolate individual size cake we got her with hot pink frosting and let her dive into it. She ate so much of it that it was actually coming back out. Where did the past 7 years go? My eyes well up with tears when I think about how quickly life passes by and how precious it all is. I thank God for happy, healthy children and pray that they will always be safe and happy and healthy. This year's birthday party is going to be smaller, just Aaron's family and a few of my sister's and parents and just 2 of my friends. Then in the evening, Cecelia is inviting 4 girls over for a sleepover. And the next day Kiley goes home. Then before you know it my days will be filled up with back to school shopping, well child checkups, eye exams, hair cuts, school supplies, backpacks and safewalk back to school night. Again, like so many other things in my life, I am ambivilant about this too. I love summer and the free lifestyle that it brings. Late nights, root bear floats, the pool and hanging out with family and friends over good food. I also LOVE a schedule, routine, predictability and an 8:00 bedtime (about to be 8:30 this year for Cecelia though). I crave those last 2-3 hours in the evening where the house is quiet. I can clean, get organized, watch a show that's not appropriate for kids, read or take a bath. I also LOVE watching Cecelia get off the school bus, and run to me with excitement in her eyes as she describes what new thing she learned or did in school. She loves learning, and loves reading (like me). I'm going to savor this last little bit of time I have left of the summer with the kids because another baby will hopefully soon be in the works for the Culver's. I'm already thinking about room reassignments. This is also because Cecelia is begging for her room to be redone and painted and I need to figure our which room she will get depending on the gender of the next baby...

I haven't updated this in awhile! Where to start?...Well, Cecelia finished off this school year with advances in all subjects. I hope and pray that she gets invited into the high achievers program in the 3rd grade, it would open up alot of opportunities for her to broaden her learning. Shortly after the end of the school year Cecelia was bitten by a neighbor dog while out playing with friends and had to have a course of antibiotics to prevent an infection, she has a pretty bad scar on her hip that will hopefully fade with time. Olivia was very sick with fevers up to 106 degrees around the same time. The fevers were unexplainable and eventually caused her to have a ruptured ear drum. We got her on antibiotics to prevent an infection but unfortunately it ended up getting infected anyways, despite our diligent efforts to hold her down and cram oral antibiotics down her throat and drops in her poor ears. Eventually after several trips to the doctor, two different antibiotics and almost 2 weeks of a very crabby baby she finally started feeling better and her ear is all better. Now we are just dealing with her getting her very first tooth. She's a little crabby but really more snuggly than anything. We drove up to Denver to see Kiley dance in her end of the year dance recital. She did great and looked beautiful. We are so proud of her for getting up there in front of an audience! After picking up Kiley we drove up to Colorado Springs and enjoyed 2 days there. We did all the tourist sites like the Cheyanne Mountain Zoo, where the girls got to hand feed giraffes!We visited the Cave of the Winds where we took a cave tour. Olivia loved that...hear the sarcasm in my voice? Imagine carrying a fussy baby who just wants out of your arms to crawl and explore on her own while following 15 other people and a tour guide that keeps on talking and talking and making corny jokes. Augh!!! The girls and Aaron did the Air Walker Challenge and had a blast. We went to an old western town and panned for gold. Olivia did not like the ride home from Colorado AT ALL. I think my traveling with and infant days are over for just a little bit. Kiley and Cece have been getting along so well. I love seeing them running around the house playing like sisters. We gave Kiley the option of having the guest room as her room until another baby comes along and depending on the gender we do some room reassigning:) She likes it but we still find the girls snuggled up in bed with eachother most nights...tell me, what's the point of having your own room then? We got a membership at Papio Pool and the girls have been enjoying mnay hot days playing in the water. They have a great baby pool for Liv. And the girls will be doing swim lessons for 2 weeks...the papio pool membership includes 2 weeks of swimming lessons for each child in the family. Cecelia probobly doesn't need them, but I'm sure she will enjoy it, but Kiley could benefit from them by learning the official strokes and proper diving techniques I'm sure. Liv is officially walking. I caught the first steps on camera, I can't believe it! And she hasn't stopped walking since. She just loves being able to follow the girls around, she screams and laughs with them. It warms my heart to watch them play together. She also loves, loves, loves to dance now. Anytime the girls are bored or I need to keep Liv occupied I turn on some music and she works on her dancing skills! Baby dancing has got to be one of the funniest things EVER! Summer will be over before we know it:(

I can't believe this school year has flown by so stinkin fast! I think Cecelia has 12 days left of school! I can't wait for laxy sleep in days, stay up late nights, don't care how late you eat ice cream in the evening or how late you stay out jumping on the trampoline days:) I have some of the best memories of being a kid for me occured during the summer months.  Yeah we got Cecelia a trampoling with a net enclosure. Were are the  "Best Parents EVER"! Gymnastics wrapped up for the year. Cecelia didn't pass into the next level but she made great progress. The next level up is advanced and I just can't imagine a 7 yr old in the advanced class just yet. Swimming testing was last week and she did pass into the next level. She is part fish, I swear!!! For Girl Scouts last week we went to the Kroc Center so the girls could get water safety lessons from a life guard and they could swim for awhile. I brought Liv and it turns out she is part fish too because she loved the water! I can't wait to take her back. The water is heated to a perfect temperature and there was literally no one other than us there swimming. I'm sure it will be a different story once school is out however.
Little Liv is walking around furniture more and more every day, she is walking with her walker back and forth across the living room but still needs help turning around when she runs into furniture she backs up a few inches and then rams it again (as if the oversized ottoman or metal baby gate is going to move out of the way) LOL. She is babbling more and saying baba and I've now heard her say mama twice. She is also waving. Most recently Aaron taught her to give high fives. Oh my goodness! It's A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E! She still has no teeth and some days she is so fussy that I swear she must be getting ready to pop one through but it never happens. Still breastfeeding. Giving her the very occasional formula bottle from the cans of free samples you get in the mail when you have a baby of course. I cringe when I think about having to buy those cans...$15-$22? It should be a crime to charge that much to feed a baby!!!

Quick update

Liv is crawling...and really starting to cruise! I'm busy trying to baby proof. At least I will be on my next 5 days off that is. She's finally eating solids, well, anything that is soft enough for her to mush between her gums. Favorites: Bananas, avocados, breads and muffins, blueberries, pears. She is just one adorable kiddo!

Cecelia just had spring conferences. She excelling in almost every subject. The only problem we have now is that she is too advanced, meaning they will have to try and figure out what class to put her in next year and with whom since she will need to be in a special advanced reading group. I can't believe that I have such a smart child! I know that every parent thinks their kid is a genius, but conference after conference, her teachers tell me how advanced she is:) They are planning on recommending her to the gifted and talented program next year since you have to be in 3rd grade to be accepted. This is a great opportunity for her to get a chance to do really fun, after school and summer learning programs. Where she will be challenged because unfortunately for her, 3rd grade will be lots of repetition of skills and subject matter that she has already mastered. I've got to come up with some summer curriculum for Cece and Kiley for the summer:)


I'm going supplemental! No more full time overnights for me! Woooohoooo!!! I'll be working just 1-2 days a week, floating to other floors and no benefits but that means more pay and I would do almost anything to work even just 1 day less a week and be able to spend that much more time at home with my family!

Aaron is getting a promotion, and they have so many kids on the program that they will be hiring another full time staff member which means that Aaron's hours and/or days off might just get better. He really loves his job and I'm so happy that he is happy to go to work everyday.

Our white vinyl privacy fence is going to be put up at the end of the month. Luckily, our neighbors put theirs up a few weeks ago so we are only having to do the other 3 sides, which saved us about $1000. I'm so excited because that means next we can get the kids a trampoline. I'm just as excited! Our neighbors are going to think I'm crazy because I will totally get out there and jump...probably a good workout;)

Dad

Aaron insisted I mark this milestone,right now. Liv just said "Dad", she's been babbling dadadadadad for a few weeks but she was seriously just sitting on the floor looking up at him and he was trying to get her to start babbling and she surpassed what he was asking for. She is also on the verge of crawling. She's been going backwards for a few weeks and she certainly figures out how to get around but now she is on her knees, rocking back and forth and is just about to figure out how to put it all together:)

Liv's 6 month checkup was today. I got to go because I got staff reduced all weekend at work so I was bright eyed and bushy tailed for her 1:30 p.m. appointment:) The verdict: She is in the 98th percentile for height at 27 inches and the 37th percentile for weight, at 15.7 lbs. She is getting over her first cold and her appetite has been decreased over the past week so her true weight is probably a little higher. Little booger is still not eating solids as well as I would like. I'm trying. I just need to find something she loves and get her to enjoy it so she will try other stuff. Today we tried blueberry yogurt and peach puffs. Both of which she spit out and acted like she was being gagged with:(
We got about 8 inches or so of snow over the weekend and Cecelia loves our backyard because as she found we have a pretty good hill for sledding on the garage side of our house. The neighbor kids and her enjoyed a few hours of sledding and I enjoyed watching her have fun:)
This week I'm contemplating going back to school for my masters degree. Yikes!!!

Olivia at 6 months!!!

I know I definitely need to add some pictures to this blog. It's just that I usually update the blog from work (working overnights can get quite boring) and I obviously don't have access to my pictures from my work computer:(

Liv spend the today babbling "dadadadadadad". Aaron couldn't be happier. But I swear she's been screaming "MOOOOOOOOOOM" since she was born! You can't stop this rolling girl. Not only is she rolling ALL over the place she can turn herself around and she "crawls" backwards. Which is actually her attempting to get on her knees and sliding backwards a few inches. Too cute! She officially got her first cold. Running nose, cough and all. Very sad for her because I know exactly how she feels...Cecelia gave me the cold.

Speaking of Cecelia. That little girl is growing up so fast! We spent some time over the last 2 weeks working on her final presentation for 2nd grade. In social studies, they are learning about government. So for their presentations, they had to make a poster and speech (note cards required), describing why they would be a great mayor of Papillion. And if elected, what changes they would like to see.
Cecelia said she would make a great mayor because:
1.)She gets good grades, and helps her classmates (she's a peer coach)
and
2.) Through Girl Scouts she volunteers for community organizations like the Salvation Army (bell ringing this year on the coldest day in November), Safe Haven (making Halloween candy buckets for the kids who couldn't go trick-or-treating because for whatever reason it wasn't safe for them to do so), and for doing canned food drives for donations.

She said that if voted Mayor of Papillion she would:
1.) Build a new swimming pool that would have free admission because Papio doesn't have enough pools and the ones it does have are too crowded (ever been to Papio Bay? Enough said)
and
2.) Make the school days longer but have a shorter school year. This way they wouldn't be rushed during the day to get everything done, and the kids could enjoy a longer summer. A win-win for teachers and students:)

To top it off, we helped her make "Campaign buttons". Hobby Lobby has just about anything you can think of creating. Then we took a picture from the newspaper of President Obama giving a speech and cut a picture of her head out and glued it to Obama's body and glued that to her poster board. Hilarious!

Aaron and I, under my urge, have decided to go on a money diet. I just feel like since we decided to buy a house, our wallets have been hemorrhaging cash. We make enough money to have a good savings and little debt and well, right now we just have the opposite. Little savings and a good amount of debt. I would eventually like to cut down to just 2 days a week when I get pregnant with the next baby and, by eventually, I mean before this next winter. So if that means that I need to price match and pack a lunch for work, I'm willing to do it:)

Cecelia is in brownies this year and is selling cookies, well, actually it seems more like I'm selling cookies! Love them but can't wait to not have them staring back at me begging to be eaten. It is pretty cute to watch Cece selling the cookies and collecting money for them. Good life lessons I suppose.

Liv is rolling around all over the place. You can't leave for more than a moment without her rolling from her back onto her tummy. She gets her arm out just fine from underneath of herself too. She's beginning to learn to sit up with minimal assistance at times but she leans so far forward that it just looks uncomfortable. She continues to sleep through the night for Aaron. She sleeps from about 8-11 and wakes up for a bottle and then sleeps till 8:00 A.M. when I get home from work. On my 4 nights off a week she isn't sleeping throughout the night for me but since we co-sleep I barely open 1 eyeball to nurse her and I'm back asleep. Besides that she wakes up so few and far between even when I am home. I am still getting great sleep.

We continue to add items to the house to decorate it and I love it. It's fun trying to hunt for the perfect items at the best price. Aaron and I are going on a date to dinner in mid-town crossing and then to see Blue Man Group at the Orpheum. I'm excited to get out and have an adult night. And maybe just 1 drink:)

Can we talk about Liv's hand's?

From the very beginning she has been obsessed with her hands. While in the womb, we were never able to get a clear 3D picture of her face because her hands were always in her mouth or she was trying to get them in her mouth. When she was delivered, she came out with her hand by her face yet again. From the minute she came out she sucked her thumb. When we took her to portrait innovations when she was about 1 week old we were only able to get 1 semi descent picture of her because she wouldn't keep her stinkin hands down. And now, everything goes in her mouth but she particularly enjoys her thumb, or any finger for that matter, her binkie, and sometimes she chews on my knuckles:) My sweet baby girl

Christmas 2011

Christmas was amazing. As it is every year. Love the holidays. Next year Christmas is my holiday to work...what am I going to do? I have NEVER worked Christmas in my life:( Maybe if I throw myself of the ground and kick and scream like a toddler I will get out of it.

Doubt it!


I have decided that we might as well celebrate Hanekauh because we can never wait to open our presents. It started out by Aaron letting me pick out my new comforter set for our bedroom...in November. Then when it arrived on the door step I was allowed to open it. Then I gave in to Aaron's ways again when we decided that the girls playing the Wii in the living room constantly was getting pretty old. Actually, Cecelia was constantly trying to get me to dance to Just Dance and Aaron couldn't bear my awesome moves anymore... so we thought we should let them open up the new flat screen T.V. we got them. Then after that it was a slipperly slope. Until Christmas morning, o.k. I won't lie we let the kids open the last of the presents on Christmas eve. The girls had 3 presents and their stockings to dig into left.


I don't know why I am ashamed of this. I really have the urge to let the cat out of the bag and just celebrate the holiday for what it is. The birth of sweet baby jesus, who was born to die. Die because we were loved so much that god would give his only son, so that we could be forgiven for our sins. I also love us giving eachother presents because we love eachother unconditionally and want the best for our friends and family. I really cringe whenever I have to tell Cecelia "Santa this" or "Santa that". I hesitate to tell Cecelia the truth because my sister Nikki, told her son, my nephew Gabe, that Santa wasn't real.
His response: Hysterical tears while calling his mom a liar.
She immediately recanted her statement. She responded that she just said that beacuse she hadn't actaully ever seen him in person.


The older girls played so well over Christmas break together. I think that now that they have more room, and we aren't all on top of eachother any more, everyone gets along a little more cohesively. After Christmas, I got outdoor lights for the house on sale at wal-mart. next year we won't look like the grinches who didn't decorate the outside of the house for Christmas:)