We are alive and kicking

Wow, it's been...more than a year.  A lot has happened since Lizzy turned one.  We got pregnant with number two, found out it was a boy, had said boy and named him Michael, moved down to Houston to be closer to family (and get a new job for Steve), bought a new house, and rented out our old house.  Life was throwing us curve balls for a while, but we made the best of it and are happily settled down into everyday life again.

I wanted to get into writing more blog posts because 1) everyone and their mom seems to be getting their own blogs, and I like to follow blindly like a sheep (not really, but it sounded good), and 2) I went to see a psychotherapist and she said to start writing stuff down to help with my issues (more on this later).  We shall see how much I keep up with this since having two kids under the age of three is a little hectic, but I'm going to try my best.

First some pictures:

Lizzy - June 2010

Lizzy - July 2010

Found out we're pregnant - August 2010

Lizzy - August 2010

Lizzy, PawPaw, and Grandma - September 2010

Lizzy and Mommy - October 2010

Lizzy - November 2010

Lizzy and Daddy - December 2010

Lizzy and Daddy - January 2011

Lizzy - February 2011

Lizzy - March 2011

Lizzy and Daddy - April 2011

Michael, Daddy, and Mommy - April 2011

Lizzy - May 2011

Lizzy and Mike - June 2011

Lizzy and Mike - July 2011

Lizzy, Mike, Daddy, and Rascal - August 2011

Lizzy, Mike, and Katie - September 2011

Lizzy and Mike - October 2011

Lizzy and Mike - November 2011

Lizzy and Mike - December 2011

Lizzy and Mike - January 2012

Now to talk about the whole psychotherapist thing.  I'll start at the beginning of when I noticed a change in my behavior....

About the time that I got pregnant with Michael, I started to get a little annoyed with how Lizzy would act or I would feel really bothered by having to play with her 24/7.  She was in a MDO (Mother's Day Out) program, but that was only 2 days a week from 9am-2pm.  For a while it was fine, but once the pregnancy hormones came into the picture, things got a little overwhelming.  I dealt with it all by going to a lot of play dates, sleeping when Lizzy was in MDO instead of cleaning the house, and telling myself it was just the hormones and would go away once Michael got here.

On April 1, 2011, Steve informed me that his Dallas office for V I Technologies was closing, and we had three options.  We could stay in Little Elm and try to find a job (which not a lot of people were hiring), move to Austin where the main office for V I Tech was, or move to Houston and find a job so we can be close to family.  We decided staying in Little Elm was out since no one was really hiring (believe me, we looked), and we've wanted to be close to family for so long anyway so moving was in our best interest.  Steve put out feelers in Houston, but didn't tell anyone at the Austin office that he was.  Our plan was for me and the kids (because I was 39 weeks pregnant by then) to move in with my parents while Steve lived wherever he had a job.  Once our house in Little Elm sold, we'd look for a house wherever the job was and go ahead with moving again.  Two things I didn't really prepare for: the selling market is really that bad, and I would have to take care of a newborn and a toddler while under the strain of living with my parents again.

Needless to say, it didn't go quite as we planned.  Oh Steve found a great job in Houston, but for the first month he had to stay in Dallas to finish out the office being open.  Our house didn't sell at all so we eventually had to rent it out.  We lived with my parents for 3 months when we figured it would only be for about 1-2.  I had a whole month of getting up every 3-4 hours to feed Michael during the night, and then staying up all day with no nap (since Lizzy decided she didn't need to nap anymore).  It was a little bit of hell, and my mental health showed it.

I'll continue this post at another time.  It's getting a little long, and Michael is getting really fussy.  The joys of parenthood as we know it.



Lizzy is 2 years 8 months, and Michael is 9 months old