The Gaiser Family News

The Reason for the Blog Break

2010-09-26T17:53:00.002-04:00

For those of you who have not heard, Matt is running for Athens County Commissioner. We are working hard on his campaign. You can keep up with him at www.MattGaiser.com or www.facebook.com/Matt.Gaiser.

Blog Break

2010-05-14T16:44:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the long blog break. We have been doing renovations at home and going a hundred miles per hour in every direction. We have been adding pictures to Facebook of the home renovations, but here are a few in case you have not seen them yet.

Step 1, adding a new floor to the breezeway between the house and the garage. This was done for a little while before anything else got done.

This is the picture that Matt posted on Facebook with the heading..."My wife left me alone for one night." Then he said, "Behind curtain #1......"

Step 2 - Tearing the closets out of both bedrooms to extend the hallway outside to the breezeway and eventually the garage that will someday be the master bedroom/bath/walk-in closet!!

View from the inside looking out to the garage. They also took the wall off the garage. One of the walls will be moved slightly into the garage to make room for an office.

View from the breezeway looking into the house. Once we got the siding off the house, Matt noticed that there was a lot of writing on the wood. He did a little research, and we found out that our home was a catalog home made by Aladdin and was called The Madison. We are still up in the air about the year it was built. Our tax card says 1935, but our research points toward the early 1950's. The Madison was sold from 1931-1950's. Our particular floor plan has some of the slight differences in the floor plan in the 1950's style house. We are still looking into it.

Here is the missing garage wall. Our friend Adam is standing next to the wall that is going to be moved.

Here is the breezeway and our house missing windows into our bedroom and the kids room.

This is our bedroom with our old closet doorway filled in. We have been able to put our bed back together so we can sleep in there.

We removed half of the wall into the garage to make the office a little bigger. Also, we put in a new exterior door.

Here is our new door which will be in the office. To the right of the door, the new closet for the kids room has been framed in.

More pictures to come later. We are at a standstill because we have not bought a shower yet for the new bathroom.

First Haircuts

2010-03-16T08:57:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we went to Columbus to pick Alla up from the airport. As she was boarding her plane in Baltimore, the airline discovered a problem with the plane so they had to get off and wait for a new plane. She called me right away, but we were already on our way to the airport so I just kept coming. Since we had time to kill in Columbus, I headed to Once Upon A Child to do a little shopping. For those of you who don't know, Once Upon A Child is a great second-hand kids store with about anything you could ever want for your kids. We were looking for a raincoat for Micah and found one for $3.00.

As I was driving to the store, I saw a Cookie Cutters hair salon for kids. Micah needed his hair cut really bad. It was in his eyes and over his ears. I had been putting it off because I didn't want to loose his baby curls. Amelia had never had her hair cut before either, and it needed evened out. I pulled in to see if they could take us as walk-in appointments. They were really busy, but managed to squeeze us in.

I love places that are geared to kids. It makes being a mom so much easier. Amelia went first and I was able to put Micah in a play area that had a half wall so he could not get out, but I could still see him. Amelia got to watch Dora the Explorer while she had her hair cut and blow dried and got a sucker for being so good.

Micah was next. Here he is before his hair cut. He is definitely looking a little bit neglected.

We had to put him in a different seat so he could have a seat belt. I was worried because Micah does not sit still, but he was a perfect angel. He did try to push the stylist hands out of the way, but only because he could not see the TV.

I am glad I picked Cookie Cutters. The kids had fun and I was not stressed trying to corral one while the other was getting their hair cut.

Ring Around the Rosy

2010-03-09T21:53:00.003-05:00

Amelia loves to play ring around the rosy and will play with anyone who will play with her. Her grandparents are especially accommodating (as grandparents tend to be). Her Nana and Papa Gaiser have found the trick to "we all fall down" without having so far to get up.

In the background of the second picture, you can see Micah's new trick. He can now climb on top of his toy box and then onto the couch. Last week we went to visit the Fishers and he pulled out their kitchen chair, climbed on it, then climbed on a desk and then climbed on the kitchen countertops, which is where I found him sitting after helping Amelia over the safety gate we had set up so Micah would not climb the steps. I was definitely freaked out, but he was happy and content. I wish had my camera with me to take a picture.

Playing in the Snow

2010-02-19T15:58:00.004-05:00

As most of you are probably aware, Ohio has had a lot of snow over the past few weeks. Enough so that we have really not left the house much since the roads have been so bad. I have been wanting to get the kids out to play in the snow, but they both have had colds so we have been basically house bound. It has also been frigid cold outside too. Today, the sun came out and we had beautiful blue sky and the temperature was up over 30 degrees. I decided it was finally time to take the kids outside to play. They had a great time. Micah quickly gave up trying to walk and crawled around. Amelia and I made a tiny little snow man which she took apart and put back together. Micah ate snow and I helped Amelia make a snow angel. They didn't want to come inside when it was time. More snow is on the way. Maybe they will get another chance to play outside.

Amelia with her little snowman. She wanted to bring him inside. I tried to explain that he would melt, but I don't think she understood.

Micah soon gave up trying to walk and army crawled in the snow. Below is a picture of him tasting the snow.

Here is a picture of some deer that watched us play for a while. Amelia was yelling and waving at them, but they didn't seem scared. They eventually wandered away.

Daddy

2010-02-08T16:53:00.002-05:00

"My father is my hero - the giant who protects me, the teacher who inspires me, and the guide who shows me the world. His my source of strength, motivation, and vision of the future."

I recently found a frame with the above inscription on it and thought immediately of this picture. How true it is that when we are little, we know our dads can conquer the world. Sure, Mommy can help me feel better, but everything else, only Daddy can do it right.

Micah Turns 1

2010-02-01T15:21:00.006-05:00

I really don't have a lot of time to post, but I wanted to put up pictures of Micah for his birthday. We celebrated at our house a couple of weeks ago with a lot of family. Here are some shots we got taken at Wal-Mart of all places.

The story behind this little white outfit is that my dad had his picture taken in this same outfit when he was about a year old. My mom took CJ to get his picture taken in it when he was little and CJ and Michelle took Joshua when he was about a year old too. I love having special memories that can be passed down for generations. James will be the next to get his picture taken in this outfit. For more pictures, check out my facebook photos.

Christmas Pictures

2009-12-22T00:20:00.003-05:00

I know I promised more Disney pictures, but I do not have them yet. I will post more later when I get them.

For now though, here are my two little cuties posing for their Christmas pictures. We has them taken at Babies R Us this year when we were in Columbus last weekend. It was quite an event. I tried to make an appointment, but they were booked solid. The first half hour they are open though, they take only walkins, so I knew that if I was going to get them done, it had to be then. I took Mom along for back up and as an extra lookout and we arrived at Babies R Us twenty minutes before they opened. Since it was freezing cold and raining, we stayed in the car and watched to see if anyone else was coming to get pictures taken. About 10 minutes till 10:00, another car pulled up and parked so I hopped out and went and stood at the door so I could be the first in line. One of the store workers was nice enough to let me inside so I wouldn't freeze to death. Needless to say, we were first and the kids did great for their pictures.

I was so happy with the photographers and the pictures that I ended up buying one of every pose they took and I bought the CD with all the pictures on it. I am such a sucker when it comes to pictures of my kids. :-)

Home from Disney World

2009-12-08T19:50:00.005-05:00

Micah, Amelia and I have just returned from a trip to Disney World. Matt's parents provided the trip for us and we had a wonderful time. We left the day after Thanksgiving and drove down with Darla. (Mark couldn't go on this trip.) We met Sarah in Georgia and she and her kids Judah (2 years old) and Bella (1 year old) came with us. That meant that Darla, Sarah and I were out numbered 4 to 3 with kids who all under the age of 3. We made the most of it though and had a great trip.

Our first day at the park we spent at Disney's Animal Kingdom. We went on an African Safari and saw a lot of animals up close and personal. I didn't get to take a lot of pictures because we had the most energetic driver that I have ever had on the Safari and I spent most of the ride trying to hold on to Amelia and Micah. About half way through the ride, I realized that Micah had fell asleep. He always does fall asleep in the car. I wonder if that says something about my driving.
Also at animal kingdom, we watched a parade and met the characters from Winnie the Pooh. Amelia's favorite part of the day was playing drums. There is a small area of drums set up that anyone is allowed to play. That is one of the things that I love about Disney.....they cater to the kids. Make the kids happy, make the parents happy, and make the parents want to bring their kids back to where they know they will have a good time. I know it works on me.

Day 2, we went to the Magic Kingdom. Here we ate with the Winnie the Pooh characters, met Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse and the Disney Princesses, and closed the park down at midnight. We had a great time.

Amelia wore her Minnie Mouse dress that the Fishers gave her as an early Christmas present. She was beautiful. Sarah had Bella dressed in a Minnie Mouse dress too so they were quite a sight together.

All Amelia talked about before coming to Disney was getting see Minnie Mouse and the Princesses. After we stood line for 25 minutes to see Mickey and Minnie, she got scared and would not go anywhere near them. She then said she wanted to see the Princesses and I thought yeah right, but I took her anyway. She marched right up to Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and gave her a hug and then told her that she had wanted to come to Disney just to see her. I guess Amelia is more comfortable with a real person dressed up as a princess and not as a 5.5 foot tall mouse.

The evening was a special Mickey's Christmas Party so Darla bought all the kids matching pajamas and we had their pictures taken with Santa.

We watched a parade and saw probably the best fireworks presentation I have ever seen anywhere. We went to eat a late night snack at a dining area that was handing out free cookies, hot chocolate, and apple juice for the Christmas party. A couple of the workers took special interest in our entourage of kids and brought them out coloring books and crayons and sat down and colored with them. Amelia gave them both a hug when we left.

We rode kiddie rides until midnight. Micah is the only one that did not stay awake for the whole night.

Day 3 we spent half at Hollywood Studios and half at Epcot. I will post more pictures later.

Just Try and Stop Me

2009-11-08T00:49:00.005-05:00

Micah is not walking yet, but it is only because he knows he can get where he wants to go fast by crawling so why bother doing anything else. He will stand unassisted for up to a minute, and then drop to his knees and shoot like lightning across the room. When he does decide to walk, I am sure it will be a couple of wobbly steps and then a sprint to wherever he wants to go.

Here are a few pictures of his new talent. He is not a big fan of being confined. He hasn't made it up to the top yet, but I am sure he will soon. Safety fence, you have met your match.

And here is our solution for now. Back in the walker you go. I did find him the other day leaning over the tray on his walker and using the bars underneath to try and pull himself out of the seat, so I am not sure the walker will be the best place for much longer.

Life should be back to normal......tomorrow

2009-10-23T01:06:00.004-04:00

I know it has been forever since I have posted, but we have been going nonstop. Also, I have started a new stay-at-home mom job. I have been selling things on Ebay. That takes all my normal freetime that I used to have to post on my blog and Facebook. Anyway.....we are all doing well. Here are my favorite pictures of the kids. I will write again sometime.

Time to Wake Up

2009-09-18T00:32:00.006-04:00

When Amelia was little, she used to sleep between us on her "Princess Pillow" and stay there all night. We tried to have her start sleeping in her own bed, but she would wake up at night and throw a fit. At this point, many parents would have just let her cry herself back to sleep. We tried that a couple of times, but she would get so upset that she would gag and get sick and then we just had to get up anyway to clean her up so it was easier to just start out with her in bed. Ok, we were probably a little lazy too. Here is Amelia on her Princess Pillow. She was 6 1/2 months old.

I say all that to emphasise how alike and how different two kids can be.

Micah was also going through a time where he wanted to sleep in bed with us. He was waking up every two hours and once again, it was just easier to have him in bed with me. The only problem was that with him in bed, there was no room for Matt and almost no room for me. See the circle of pillows in the picture below. That is how much space he took up in our king size bed.

One night I woke up and he had crawled over the pillow barrier and was laying on top of me. Since then, we have been letting him cry himself back to sleep in his own bed and it is working. He gets pretty distraught usually around 2:30. We let him cry and he falls back asleep until 6:30. Lucky for us, he does not have the same gag reflex that his sister has.

For those of you that wonder what I did with Matt, he spent about two weeks sleeping in the spare bed in Amelia's room. :-)

Here are some more pictures of the kids. Amelia loves to go and see Micah when he first wakes up. When he was in our room she would climb up on the bed and play with him. Now that he is in his room, she still goes to our bed and waits for me to bring Micah in so she can play with him.

Bath Time

2009-09-06T22:31:00.003-04:00

I have finally become brave enough to give Micah and Amelia baths at the same time. They really have a good time. Amelia likes to share the toys with Micah that she doesn't like to play with. Micah likes anything right now, so it works for him. So far, the only time we have had any problems with them being in there together is when Amelia decides to practice her swimming. Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Yes, he does smile like that all the time.

Cooking with Daddy

2009-09-01T09:46:00.001-04:00

I think it should be a given that when you marry someone that has a degree in Culinary Arts from Johnson and Wales University, you should not be expected to cook. The main reasons being that I will never be able to make anything taste as good or look as pretty (probably not the correct culinary term). Anyway, I am always amazed when Matt can make a wonderful meal without using a cookbook. Just a little of this and some of that. No measuring necessary. Here are some pictures of him cooking with Amelia. She had a great time and we ate some great fried chicken that night. This picture shows Amelia doing another one of her favorite things to do: screaming. She loves to scream as loud as she can, which is pretty loud for such a little girl.

As you can tell by the pictures, my kitchen is still not finished. It is coming little by little. Still no oven, but I love my 6 burner gas cook top, 3-bay sink, dishwasher, and little island.

Also, for those of you that have told me that you were not able to comment on my blog, I have changed the settings allowing anonymous comments. That should let you comment now.

Potty Training 102

2009-08-23T23:00:00.000-04:00

Last night after I posted my blog, Amelia must have forgot all she learned because she had four accidents in a row. At least she made it to the bathroom before she covered the floor. Today I had to constantly remind her and she still had one accident. I don't think we are back to square one, but I feel like it. The stickers are no longer an incentive for her. Any suggestions.......

Potty Training 101

2009-08-22T16:55:00.000-04:00

The last couple of weeks have been very busy and stressful in the Gaiser home. We started offically potty training Amelia on the 9th. We finally had a week that we were not going to be out of town and I could focus on real potty training. We had tried pullups in the past, but she treated them just like a diaper. We instead went straight to underware. The first day she got two stickers for remembering by herself to go to the bathroom. By the fourth day, I thought we were home free. She only had one accident that day. Then came days 5 and 6 when I think she completely forgot everything. I think she only made it to the bathroom three times each day. I felt like I was doing something wrong. We pushed on though and in the last four days she has only had one accident and that is because she fell asleep in the car and I didn't have a diaper on her. It is very nice to only be changing one set of diapers a day not to mention the money we will save. Here is a picture of Amelia getting her first sticker for remembering to go to the potty all by herself.

Micah, Micah, Micah

2009-08-10T23:49:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday, we were running a little late for church so when I got to the nursery with Micah, it was already full with workers and little kids. The workers were excited when I came in because all the other kids were 18 months to 2 years. One lady said, "oh yeah a baby." I told them sorry, but Micah does not consider himself a baby. When I came back to pick him up after church the same lady said "your right, he is not a baby. Did you know he is crawling across the room and he used my fingers to pull himself up." I wanted to brag on my little man and say yes he has been crawling for over a month now and he pulls himself up to stand all by himself on a regular basis and he has even started taking a few steps while holding on to his playpen, but I just smiled and said, "yes, I know." Bragging is reserved for my blog anyway...... These pictures were taken on August 4th when he just started to stand up.

Kyle and Emily's Wedding

2009-07-22T18:16:00.000-04:00

Our summer this year is full of weddings and wedding showers. We have three cousins, one very close friend, and Matt's brother all with summer weddings. Matt is in two of the weddings and I was in my cousin Kyle's wedding on June 27th. I also celebrated my 30th birthday that day. It was a great way to tone down the fact that I was no longer in my 20's. I want to thank Kyle and Emily for doing that for me. :-)

Anyone who knows me knows that I like to take pictures. The only person that may like taking pictures more then me is my cousin Kendra. We normally swap picture taking at big events like our kid's birthday parties, baby dedications, ect. Since Kendra was in Kyle and Emily's wedding, she asked me to take some pictures for her. It was a good thing she emptied her memory card because between the two of us we took 571 pictures. Here are some of the shots we took.

Here are Kyle and Emily. The wedding was perfect and the bride beautiful. Thanks guys for asking me to be a part of your wedding.

CJ and Kendra were both in the wedding. Don't they look great. As you can tell from this picture, I scored a great seat at the wedding since I was taking pictures and doing a reading.

Here is Micah at the wedding. I wish you could see the adorable tie he is wearing under his sweater vest. I got the whole 4-piece outfit for $5.00 at Once Upon a Child. What a great deal. His daddy wasn't too sure about the pink, but I think it looked great.

Matt and me at the reception.

Micah and me at the reception.

Amelia and Matt at the reception.

Amelia and her cousin Sam Heck dancing at the reception. They were so cute.

Little Wiggles

2009-07-20T00:22:00.001-04:00

Micah has reached the 6 month milestone. He is almost 17 pounds and 27 inches. Last Sunday he officially crawled. He has been getting around just fine since he was 4 months old, but now he has learned how to move on all fours. He does a lot of rocking on his hands and knees and spinning in circles, but he has moved forward a few times. I say one more week with good floor time and he will be unstoppable. He has earned the nickname Little Wiggles because he cannot sit still. Even when he is not trying to squirm out of my arms, his legs are still kicking. He is exhausting to hold. Changing his diaper is an absolute wrestling match which he wins more often then not. I am trying to master putting a diaper on him while he is on his belly. He still wakes up every 3 hours or so at night. We started him on solid food since every told me that would help him sleep through the night. So such luck so far. My mom looked at me today and said, "you need 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep." I tried to remember the last time I slept for 8 hours straight. I know it hasn't happened since Amelia was born because she didn't sleep through the night until after Micah was born. Oh well, I guess I can dream. All that aside though, Micah is an absolute ray of sunshine. He is always smiling. He even smiles when he cries. He has the most contagious laugh. He gets so excited when someone new comes in the room especially when that someone is Mommy, Daddy, or Amelia. We are so blessed.

A Random Day

2009-06-19T13:58:00.001-04:00

Here is a typical day in the Gaiser household if we don't have anywhere to go (which isn't very often). Amelia is still in her pajamas even after lunch. She will get dressed after her nap, maybe. Micah is on his second outfit because of various reasons. If you are a parent, then you can probably list them. Here is our day in photos.....so far.

Micah always hits the gym first thing in the morning to get his Exer"sauc"ing in. He is much more dedicated then I am.

Amelia doesn't quite hit the ground running. She gets up dragging her pink blanket, and her duck blanket (Bob) and sucking on her binkie. She wants to lay on the couch for a little bit and wake up while she watches Dora the Explorer. Recently she has decided that she also needs a pillow on the couch for extra comfort.

Here Micah is doing something cute so I grab the camera for a photo op.

"Take my picture too Mommy."

Amelia and Micah playing together during his floor time.

Amelia "helping" Micah roll over.

Tummy time!

My beautiful little girl.

My handsome little man.

Micah gets a little out of control during his floor time and Amelia pulls him out from under the couch. She has discovered his sock which he has kicked off and she has to put it back on.

First though, she cleans all the sock lint out from between his toes. This is something I would have done too. Who likes lint between their toes......

After several tries, finally "Mommy help."

Naptime.

They almost never go to sleep at the same time. Oh happy day!!

The Morning After

2009-06-03T18:09:00.000-04:00

Amelia's second birthday party was a lot of fun. Thanks to all of you out there that helped make it a success. Amelia enjoyed being the center of attention and being allowed to eat pretty much anything she wanted. I posted pictures of her party on my Facebook for those of you who want to see them.

The morning after her party, she got up and came out and told me she was hungry. She said she wanted "Happy Birthday" for breakfast. It turns out that she meant she wanted cake for breakfast. I asked her if there was anything else I could get her and she went to the refrigerator and got out the green olives and hot dogs and ketchup. So that is what she had for breakfast the day after her party. Never fear though, I got her to eat eggs for dinner. All is good.

Micah Inching

2009-05-28T14:11:00.000-04:00

At just 4 months old, Micah has decided he does not want to be in one place any longer. Since the time I could first feel him move, he has not stopped. He is not an easy baby to hold. He constantly arches his back and wiggles out of control. Getting him in his Exersaucer has been great because he can see what is going on and he can bounce up and down. Last week though, he decided that he needed to be a little more mobile and started to move around. He looks like a little inch worm going across the blanket. He scoots up until his knees are all the way underneath him then he slides forward. It took him 10 minutes to cross the blanket. I wouldn't say he is exactly crawling yet, but he is almost there.

Master Gardener Amelia

2009-05-21T09:02:00.000-04:00

There never seems to be enough time in a day to get to my blog. Sorry it has been over a month since I have posted. For those of you who Facebook, I usually post picture there a lot more often because I can post a lot more in less time.

Yesterday, Darla's Master Gardener group invited their kids and grandkids to come to the Children's Garden at the Athens Rec Center for a photo shoot with Ohio Magazine. Amelia went with her Diego gardening gloves which she would not take off. She was the definite favorite with the photographer. She made it for about an hour before she asked to leave. I do not know what month the pictures will be in the Ohio Magazine, but I will keep you posted. Until then, here are some pictures I took.

Just Some Pictures

2009-04-14T10:41:00.001-04:00

I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything on my blog. We have been going none stop, and I don't think it is going to stop until after September. In the next five months, we have 4 weddings, 4 wedding showers, birthdays for Amelia, Matt and me, vacation to Lakeside, and random other events thrown in. It looks like we will be out of town about 2/3 of the weekends this summer. Anyway, I have still managed to take some pictures of the kids for all to enjoy. I will post more on my facebook.

Amelia and Micah on Easter Sunday. Amelia had no interest in posing for a picture and she definitly didn't want to hold Micah. As I am posting this blog, she is sitting on my lap saying "no hold Micah."

We got to go and see Amelia and Micah's Great Grandma Rucker last week. It was the first time Micah has seen her. We had a good visit and hope to see her again soon.

Amelia, just like most girls, loves shoes. We find shoes all over the house that she has pulled out and worn around. Yesterday I found a pair of Matt's shoes that she threw out the back door while I was carring in groceries. Here she is wearing her daddy's shoes.

Growing Up Fast

2009-03-22T13:22:00.000-04:00

Ok, I know that when you have an 8lb 12oz baby, you should not be surprised when he continues to grow quickly and be way high in the baby size percentile. But, when you are used to picking up a 24 pound little girl, her 13.5 pound brother feels like a feather. So it should not have come as a shock to me when I had to spend this week sorting all the clothes that have been given to me to find 3-6 month clothes for my two month old little boy. It should also not have been a shock when he was just the perfect length (24 inches) for his new size clothes. It was a shock though. My little boy is growing up too fast.

Micah has started laughing now and that coupled with his big smiles can make even sitting on the couch a wonderful event. He likes to stand and put weight on his legs and he has amazing head control. I look forward to the day when I can put him in his Exersaucer and he can see the world from a different view. For now though, his favorite place to be is his swing. (Just imagine a motorized hammock.)

Pictures

2009-03-18T09:12:00.000-04:00

We had pictures taken on Monday and they are up online for everyone to see at www.mcolemanphotography.com. Click on Customer Login and then select 3/16/09 Micah and Amelia. You will have to enter your email address in order to see them. Let me know if there are any that you want to order or you can order for yourself straight from the website. They are only available until the middle of April.

The Zoo

2009-03-17T09:25:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to brave the zoo in 25 degree weather. Aunt Della was nice enough to brave it with us and paid our way in. Needless to say, we only went to the indoor exhibits, but we had a great time. This was the first trip to the zoo for both Amelia and Micah. I haven't been in a very long time. We look forward to going back when it is a little bit warmer, well at least above freezing.

Micah slept almost the whole time, but here is a shot with his eyes open. He really didn't say much about the zoo, but we think he had a good time. LOL.

The Aquarium was Amelia's favorite place. We stayed there for almost an hour. Because it was so cold outside, there were not a lot of people at the zoo so Amelia was able to be right up against the glass the whole time. She loved it and we loved watching her.

Micah

2009-03-10T14:58:00.000-04:00

Here is Micah at 1 month old. He is already almost two months old and we will have more pictures taken on Monday. I have some pictures to upload later of our freezing cold trip to the zoo. For now, here is our beautiful (handsome is more PC I guess) boy.

Valentine's Weekend

2009-02-16T14:46:00.000-05:00

Our Valentine's weekend was pretty uneventful. We stayed home and Matt worked on our driveway which had become pretty muddy and unmanageable since the ice storm. We are putting quite a bit of money into it and hopefully will not have as many problems in the future. It is going to be a really nice driveway. (Oh the joys of being an adult when you get excited about a new driveway.) Sunday, Matt took Amelia to church and to the youth group's spaghetti dinner afterwards. Micah and I stayed home trying to catch up on some sleep that we didn't get Saturday night. Here are some pictures of the kids in their Valentines outfits.

Two Kids = Twice the Fun

2009-02-10T19:53:00.000-05:00

Having two kids is so wonderful. I know that one of them just sits around and sleeps most of the time, but seeing them together is so special. Amelia is crazy about Micah. She calls him baby or Buddy now. Sometimes we get her to say Micah, but it is rare. She worries about him if he is crying and she tries to give him his binkie even if he is asleep. That is because if she had it her way, she would have her binkie all the time. Here are some pictures of my two special kids.

Amelia is not supposed to get in Micah's bouncy seat. She is also not supposed to have her blanket, binkie and Bob (her duck which she named herself) unless she is in bed. Matt took this picture when she tested him to see if he knew the rules. I left to run to the post office and he said that I wasn't gone for 5 minutes and she was trying out the bouncy seat. Now what do you do in that situation. I think I would have taken a picture too.

Here is Amelia showing off her teeth. She got two new teeth last week bringing her up to 6 teeth. I was beginning to wonder if she was going to ever get any more teeth. You can't see the two new ones, but they are on the bottom on either side of the middle two.

Amelia loves to hold Micah. She says "hold, hold, hold" while holding out her arms. Usually she asks though when I am feeding him which is not the best time.

Amelia is still getting used to her toddler bed. She does not fall out quite as often, but that could be because we have most of her exits blocked. She does turn circles most nights.

Here is a picture of my clean babies. The got baths at the same time, but not in the same bath tub. I am not that brave yet.

I love this picture because I think she looks a lot like me. It is not often that I think she looks like me. She looks the most like her Aunt Amy, Matt's sister.

This is not a posed picture. He was actually sitting just like that. He is so cute relaxing with his Daddy.

25 Random Things about Me

2009-01-31T12:36:00.000-05:00

A while back, I got tagged by my friend Mary Thorson to write 7 Random Things about me on my blog. Unfortunately, I never got around to it. Recently I got tagged on Facebook to write 25 random things about me. I decided to finally do it. I posted it on my Facebook, and thought I would post it here too since Mary tagged me months ago. So here is more information about me then you probably ever wanted to know.

1. I can’t spell. I don’t mean I have a hard time, I mean that when I right click on a misspelled word, spell check comes up with “no suggestions.” This is an inherited problem. My brother can’t spell either and my dad is worse then both of us put together.

2. I love to go to the movies but I hardly get to go anymore. I love movie theater popcorn and get a large or jumbo size just for me. The best is when the theater offers free refills.

3. TV shows on DVD have ruined regular television for me. I can’t stand to watch a series over a period of weeks and I absolutely cannot stand commercials. I wait until the series comes out on DVD and then watch it through Netflix or buy the whole season.

4. I laugh out loud every time I watch a Friends episode. I have all 10 seasons on DVD and watch them when I need to laugh. My favorite episode is the one where everyone finds out about Chandler and Monica.

5. I don’t make friends very easily because I hate starting conversations with people that I don’t know very well. I do fine if someone else starts a conversation with me and I can answer their questions and then elaborate on what they have asked, but I cannot walk up to a random stranger and talk to them like I have known them forever. Luckily, I married a man that can talk to anyone about anything.

6. I love to travel. I have been to 38 states, Canada, Jamaica, England, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and Israel. I would love travel more and will when my kids are older.

7. I owe my thanks for my trip to Israel to my brother who won a free trip for 1 and my grandparents who thought he shouldn’t go alone. That trip is by far the best travel experience that I have ever had in my life. I have walked where Jesus walked.

8. My dream job is to be a tour guide.

9. I find US History fascinating. My favorite class in college was History of Western Expansion.

10. I wrote my high school and college research papers on organized crime in Chicago and Al Capone.

11. I changed my major 4 times in college and got my Bachelor’s Degree in Composite Social Studies Education for 7-12 grades. I have not taught a single day since I graduated and do not ever plan too. I work with my husband and have since I graduated from college, first as a restaurant manager and now as a Realtor.

12. I enjoy working with my husband because I understand his job and his frustrations and joys without him having to explain them too me.

13. If I had all the free time in the world, I would scrapbook my whole life. Scrapbooking is my escape.

14. I would love to be able to take professional pictures and have a good working knowledge of Photoshop.

15. When I look at my kids, I feel like my reason for being has been fulfilled. Being a mother is more rewarding than I could have ever imagined.

16. Being a mother is also more terrifying that I could have ever imagined. Being 100% accountable for another human being is, for lack of a better word, terrifying.

17. Every day my daughter surprises me with how smart she is.

18. I met my husband Matt in the kitchen of Damon’s restaurant in Athens, Ohio. My first impression of him was that he was rude (he was just busy and did not have time to talk) and his first impression of me was that I was stuck up (see #5).

19. Since Matt and I started dating, my life has never been boring. (You will understand if you read his 25 things.)

20. I love my husband more then I ever thought possible. He is the best husband and dad in the world.

21. I wish I could be more organized but my house is too small and my stuff is too big and my husband is too disorganized.

22. When I clean, I take everything and put it on the bed or couch or table, depending on what room I am in, and then put stuff away one by one. This drives Matt crazy for some reason.

23. I really do not like dogs at all.

24. I like to read but don't do it very often.

25. I actually enjoyed writing “25 random things about me.”

Just Some Pictures

2009-01-22T12:33:00.001-05:00

Complications

2009-01-20T18:59:00.000-05:00

It turns out that the problem with my incesion was not that it just needed another staple or two to hold it together. It was actually infected and was not healing at all. On Monday, I was scheduled to have my staples removed. I had started having a lot of bleeding and drainage from my incesion, so I figured that they would not take out the staples, but I should probably go ahead and see the doctor. It turns out that the incesion was retaining a lot of fluid and it had to be drained. They took out half of my staples and then packed the wound. It will have to heal from the inside out and could take several weeks. I had to go back today and have it repacked and I also have to go back tomorrow to have it repacked. Tomorrow they are going to teach Matt how to repack it so I do not have to continue to go back everyday over the next few weeks and pay for that many doctors visits. We are still in high spirits though. This is just a minor complication that slows me down. Just keep me in your prayers that it will heal quickly and properly and that Matt does a good job repacking it every day.

Micah Matthew Gaiser - Pictures

2009-01-20T18:27:00.000-05:00

This is our family getting ready to leave for the hospital at 5:45am. We got Amelia to smile if you can see it behind her binky. Even Matt made half an attempt to smile. Of course he had not had his coffee yet.

Amelia had a great time running around my hospital room. She was all smiles that day even though she did not get a lot of sleep.

Here is our beautiful baby boy. He was born January 14th, 2009 at 9:47am. He weighed 8 lbs 12 oz and was 21.5 inches long.

A great family picture. Amelia and I ended up falling asleep right after this picture was taken. She had a really long day too.

Amelia is pretty fascinated with her baby brother. She calls him baby & will not call him Micah.

Here are pictures of Matt and me holding Micah before leaving the hospital on Friday, January 16th. Micah is wearing the same outfit that Matt wore home from the hospital when he was born. It barely fit him.

Micah Matthew Gaiser

2009-01-18T15:03:00.000-05:00

Things have finally slowed down and so have the visitors. This is the first time I have been able to get in front of a computer to do anything since Micah's birth. I have been told that Matt posted a lot of pictures on his facebook, so if you have not seen them, check them out. I will post a few here soon for all of those that don't use facebook.

Basically everything went very well. We had to be at the hospital in Gallipolis at 7:00am. We left at 5:45am from home. When we checked in at the hospital, we were the second surgery on the schedule. They started the surgery at 9:30am and he was out at 9:47am. He weighed 8 lbs and 12 oz. He was in perfect condition.

The rest of the first day went great for Micah. I was a little sick from the surgery, but nothing too major. During the second day, he stopped wanting to eat, but he was never upset. He just preferred to sleep. He ended up losing quite a bit of weight, bringing him down to 8lbs and 1oz a few hours before we were supposed to go home. We gave him some formula since it seemed like he was not getting enough nutrients from the little bit of breast milk he was getting. He ate a couple of ounces of formula over two feedings and the nurses were satisfied that he would not starve if we took him home. (On a side note, as soon as we got home he started to eat just fine.)

We left the hospital around 10:30am on Friday and headed home. Matt had to be at work by 1:30, so my mom came to help out. Right after Matt left for work, I noticed that my incesion had started to bleed so I called the doctor and made an appointment to go to the clinic in Athens to have it checked at 3:00. I told Matt so he had to leave work and meet me at the clinic. The doctor at the clinic said it looked like there was one spot where there should have been a staple in my incesion and there was not so she put a steri-strip on it and sent me home. When I got home, I realized that it was still bleeding so Matt put a couple more steri-strips on the spot and the bleeding stopped. We called the hospital and they said that they wanted us to come back and have the oncall doctor look at my incesion. So back to the hospital we went. They put about 5 more staples in my incesion and we have not had any problems since. We got home from the hospital around 12:30am Saturday morning. It made for a very long day.

Anyway, that is the story. Micah is doing great. Amelia is head-over-heels for him and Matt and I couldn't be happier with our larger family. I will post some pictures soon.

Baby Gaiser

2009-01-08T23:57:00.000-05:00

Quick Update..... My c-section has been changed from January 15th to January 14th. No time yet. We won't know the time until the 13th.

Coffee Anyone?

2009-01-02T20:27:00.000-05:00

This is probably our favorite picture of Amelia from 2008. For a very short amount of time, Matt had to have his coffee maker set up on the floor because we do not have counters in our kitchen and this was one of the few places with an updated outlet. We now have a table set up in our empty kitchen. This is one of the reasons.

Since Amelia was tiny, Matt has had her help him make coffee. We used to have a coffee grinder which required only the push of a button to grind the coffee instead of holding down the button. Amelia had it mastered. Now, she helps her daddy hold down the grinder button and pour the water and change the filter, ect.

On this particular day, Matt was alone with her for about 45 minutes. The desk he was sitting at has our computer on it and it sticks out in the middle of our dining room/office. He was sitting facing her, but couldn't see her over the desk. All of the sudden from the other side of the desk comes a little hand which reaches out and grabs the box of clean coffee filters. He finished the email he was typing and stood up. This picture was the scene he saw.

Amelia had dumped out the old coffee filter on the floor and put a new clean one in the basket. She had also heaped a couple handfuls of old grounds into where the water is supposed to be dumped. She had taken the Brita water pitcher and poured water up and down the hallway.

I am so glad that Matt does not overreact and he was able to be calm about his coffee maker and take a picture with his phone. This picture now serves as the wallpaper on our computer.

I Can See the Finish Line

2008-12-30T22:37:00.000-05:00

So many things have come close to completion with these final days of 2008. Christmas now seems like a distant memory since I have already taken down the very few decorations that I put up and my empty tree is staring at me waiting for someone to drag it to the tree cemetery -- a Gaiser Family Tradition where all the trees of Christmas past are laid to rest in the same location. Alla and I found where our new cemetery will be today, it is just the actual effort of getting the tree there that eludes me. The only real evidence left of Christmas is the stack of Amelia's toys that only two weeks ago was half the size it is now.

Our house is almost finished. We have almost finished unpacking. We have almost finished the area for the baby (he doesn't even get his own room, he has to share with my crafts.) Matt has almost finished our kitchen cabinets. I have almost finished hanging pictures and shelves, ect. I think you get the picture.

We are very close to having our baby. I am scheduled for my c-section on January 15th (no time yet) which is two weeks from Thursday. I only have one more predelivery appointment left next Thursday.

I am very much in agreement right now with the Christmas letter from my friends Andy and Emily Smith that basically said that everything in 2008 was just leading up to 2009. They said that 2009 was their year. I am going to claim the same thing.

So here's to 2009, may it be your year too.

Merry Christmas Mamaw

2008-12-25T11:36:00.000-05:00

This Christmas morning, we got to open presents with Matt's parents and grandparents and my dad and grandparents. My mom is in Cincinnati with CJ and Michelle and Joshua. Since she can't be here to celebrate with us, we want to wish her a very Merry Christmas and post these pictures for her to enjoy and everyone else to see.

This is our tree on Christmas Eve. Amelia went to bed around 9:30 and Matt and I put together all her presents and her new bed.

This bed and Dora sheet set was a gift from Matt's parents (Nana and Papa Gaiser). Amelia spotted it first thing this morning and had to try it out. When everyone arrived this morning, she took them back to see it.

Amelia loves Dora the Explorer. She got this backpack from us and a Dora doll from Alla.

Our New Home

2008-12-21T18:50:00.000-05:00

Our house is finally starting to feel like a home. We have moved everything from our old house in Portland and have finished unpacking a majority of our boxes. I even managed to put up a Christmas tree. Our kitchen is still an empty shell, so those boxes remain in our garage waiting to be unpacked. We do have a refrigerator, microwave and toaster oven in our kitchen so we are now able to eat in a little more. Because the house we moved into has smaller bedrooms then our last two houses, we have a lot more stuff to put in storage like summer clothes. Our basement is doubling as a storage space and we also have a long-term storage unit that I hope to empty some day.

This is a picture of the back of our home. The front door opens to a hillside and does not have a real walkway up to it so we use the back door. The pine tree in the front is going to disappear as soon as possible. It is way too big for where it is. We have some really nice flower beds and landscaping, but they are completely overgrown. Hopefully this spring we will be able to spend a little time and money on them.

This is a picture of what we believe was once an Indian mound that was used to fill in the swimming pool on our property. As you can see, the trees that are growing out of the top of this mound are decades old so we know the mound has been there for a while.

Here is our living room. A vast improvement over the last picture we posted. We still have work to do like painting the fireplace and replacing the fire screen and mantle. We are also going to mount our flat screen TV above the fireplace and hang a few pictures.

We are really happy with our new home. I especially like that in the mornings, Matt is able to make phone calls and answer emails from here at home and have access to the Internet and be only a few minutes from the office if he needs to go in. In the moments between calls and emails, he gets a little more time with Amelia which is one of the main reasons we moved back closer to his work.

Trying to be Organized

2008-12-17T16:46:00.000-05:00

These last couple of months have been focused on getting our house organized and ready for Christmas and a new baby. We have finally gotten internet service at our new home so hopefully I will be able to keep my blog a little more up-to-date.

Looking over my calender for the next few weeks, I realize that I must have forgot that I am going to be 35 weeks pregnant when I was planning my schedule. There is not a day between now and Christmas that is not marked with something to do. Most of the events include traveling like going to pick up Alla at college and Christmas in Newark and my nephew Joshua's surgery in Cincinnati. I thank God constantly that I have had a very easy pregnancy. My only problem right now is that it is starting to get hard to get up off the couch or out of bed. I miss being able to bend at the middle.

We had an ultrasound on Monday and everything looked great medically. The baby did not cooperate very well though. He hid his face behind his hands. We got to look at his ears and fingers. Also, when we did the check to make sure he is in fact a boy, he tucked his feet in and would not let us have a look. I tried turning on my side and tried getting him to move, but no luck. The ultrasound technician was pretty confident at my 20 week ultrasound that he is a boy so that is how we are planning.

He is a pretty big baby. He is about half a pound heavier then the average baby and the technician kept saying how long his feet and legs and fingers are. I was scheduled for delivery on January 15th, 2009, 4 weeks from tomorrow.

I promise to soon post some pictures of the house and Amelia.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

In Transition

2008-11-06T09:12:00.000-05:00

We are in the process of finishing up moving to our new house and my camera and computer are packed away waiting to be to be unpacked at the new house. We also do not have Internet at the new house yet so I have been checking in at the library and at my in-laws house, but do not have the normal nap time free to be "on the Internet." I am getting a lot of other stuff done though.

We had a wonderful time at Disney and are already ready to go back. I will upload some pictures soon.

Counting Our Blessings

2008-10-19T09:04:00.000-04:00

The boys from our church that helped us move last Saturday came back this week to help us move everything from our garage to our basement. While they were moving stuff, I open each plastic tote or box to see if anything had been taken and told the boys what still needed to go in the house and what went to the basement. That is how I realized that the box with my jewelry box in it was missing. That box also contained an iron, a Longaberger tissue box, and a few other odds and ends.

The night after we moved everything to the basement, I couldn't sleep and started thinking about the iron. Why would they take an iron? They took very minimal stuff that they could sell at a pawn shop for some money. They would get nothing out of my iron. Then I thought about the Longaberger basket. Sure it was valuable. Actually, they could probably get more money out of it then some of the other stuff they had taken, but why would they take that Longaberger basket and not the three other baskets that were sitting out. They actually took our video camera out of the Longaberger market basket. I also had a lot of Longaberger Wrought Iron pieces sitting around that were worth a couple hundred dollars and they didn't take any of it. It really didn't make since to me, but stealing doesn't make since to me either, so I let it go.

The next morning, I went down to our basement to find something of Amelia's that I had put down there by mistake. What I also found was the tote with my jewelry box, iron, and Longaberger basket. The boys must have moved it before I had the chance to check it. What a blessing.

Through this whole situation, Matt and I have been trying to count our blessings. There really are so many it is impossible to count them. We just praise God and thank him for one more to add to the list.

Amelia and I are visiting CJ and Michelle right now and then we are off to Disney World with the Gaiser clan. I will post more pictures when I get back.

The Thief Returns

2008-10-15T10:20:00.000-04:00

After moving a majority of our stuff up to our new house on Saturday, we went through and secured all the windows and doors in the house and the garage. At least we thought we did. It turns out that the windows in the garage look locked when they really are not. So we think on Monday night, our thief returned and took off with some more stuff. This time they got a box of baseball cards, my jewelry box (not the one with my wedding ring), a super Nintendo, and our video camera. We are not very good at taking video, but the camera did have the only tape we have ever taken of Amelia in it.

Needless to say, the windows are now nailed shut in the garage and all other windows were checked and rechecked yesterday. I will be going around to pawn shops today to look for our stuff. Please pray I find something so we can catch our thief.

The Unexpected

2008-10-12T10:07:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was our first big move day. Matt's parents "hired" 6 boys from our church to help us. Matt had his truck and a flat bed trailer and I had our Excursion and a large box trailer. We made two trips with both vechicles and got a majority of our stuff. We were very excited about this day because of all the help we had. The new house was not quite ready for everything, but our two car garage was emptied out and ready.

When we arrived at the house with the first load of stuff, I right away noticed something was different. We had been keeping three big trash cans out front to fill with trash, but the trash bags were on the ground and no trash cans. I got up to the back door of the house and it was standing wide open. Now let me pause and say that this is not out of the norm. Matt sometimes gets working outside and will leave forgetting that he left the door open. What was not normal was that the front door was also standing wide open. There was a small pile of trash inside the back door that had also been in a trash can. Now I had the feeling that something was wrong. I went down the hall to Amelia's room and it looked like a tornado had gone through it. Her room was the only one that had any stuff in it. It was also not all her stuff, but mostly stuff that had been in my car that I didn't see any reason in moving twice so I had already dropped it off at this house.

I went outside and told Matt and he said he didn't know what had happened. A little while later, he came back and said someone had definitly been in the house and garage. Most of his power tools were missing and some random little stuff. Our best bet is that they emptied the trash out of the trash cans and filled them up with stuff and took off. Needless to say our house and garage are now locked, but we are still sad that someone came into our house and took stuff.

Moving Again

2008-10-03T23:54:00.000-04:00

I have just spent the last four days packing up my house and updating my Facebook when I needed a rest from packing. (I may have also caught up a little bit on the last season of Lost which I completely missed on television.) When we moved here in March, I knew that it would not be forever, but I had no idea we would be moving again this year. If I had known that, I would not have been so quick to unpack my boxes and burn all the empty ones. The only good thing about having a month to move is that I can unpack my boxes and repack them.

Aside from that, I am really excited that Matt and I have found a house that we both like and property that we love. It is a 3 bedroom, 1 bath on over 6 acres just North of Athens in a town called The Plains. The Plains is not known for much, but it does have a few Indian mounds. Our property has an Indian mound on it, but someone dug through the middle of it. We think they used the dirt to fill in the swimming pool. Ok, I realize for those of you who have not seen it, you are like....."hold on, Indian mound and a filled in swimming pool!" Most people who know us though realize that it would not be a home for the Gaiser's unless it is unique.

So here is the rundown on our home. It was built in 1935. It had the traditional living room, dining room, kitchen, 3 bedrooms and 1 bath on a full basement. At some point, but probably a long time ago, the owners added another room that provided a back entrace into a sunroom and another living room. Under that room they added a one car garage and cut through the existing basement wall so they could park and walk up the basement steps into the kitchen. Later, they changed the basement garage into just a regular entrance and put a wall and door over where the original garage door was. We don't know when, but a two car garage with a breezeway was added to the bedroom end of the house. There is not an entrance to the house from the breezeway. Neither the basement "garage" nor the two car garage have doors that are high enough to park any of our cars. So, we hope to later turn the two car garage into living space.

The bedrooms are really small and the bathroom is even smaller, but our plan is to finish off the breezeway into a bathroom/laundry room and small office and the garage into a Owner's Suite with walk-in-closet and bathroom. That will give us a 4 bedroom house with 3 bathrooms. That is one room for us and one for each of our "kids," Alla, Amelia, and baby boy Gaiser.

So that is the plan. When it is done, I will post pictures for all to see. Here are a couple before pictures. I really wish I would have taken more because the place was really scary when we started on it.

This is a picture of the living room. The carpet is now gone and the original hardwood floors have been refinished.

This is where the kitchen was. As you can see, there is nothing left of the kitchen at all. All cabinets and appliances are being replaced. Matt and his dad are making the kitchen cabinets. Matt and our friend Adam are working on the wiring and plumbing in this picture. The whole house has to be rewired.

New to the Blog Scene

2008-09-19T18:57:00.000-04:00

Since bloging seems to be the best way to share a lot of information with a lot of people without resorting to mass emails, we thought we would try it out. Say tune for baby updates, moving updates and life updates.