Growing fast

Pictures are a little out of order. . .

CJ and daddy playing in the yard

Evy's first visit with Santa...CJ was still scared!

Evy, Noah and Ethan (this was taken yesterday)

CJ and his new farm

Rylie, CJ, Kynzie and Evy (sorry, I haven't figured out how to turn the pictures!)

Well, Evy is now 2 months old...and growing like crazy (as you can tell from the photos, she's quite the little chunk!) We've made it through Christmas and New Year's without any troubles. Everyone is doing well.

Cliff has now finished teaching his first interim class. It went well, but was very time-consuming. Now one week off and back to the regular schedule. He's not on vacation, though. He always has research to work on!

CJ is doing well. He went once a week to the daycare at UWO during the interim so that I could have a day with Evy and could get some house work done. He had a really good time playing with all the other kids and supposedly he was well-behaved. No potty accidents, even in the new environment! CJ enjoyed being with all the many families around Christmas, and had lots of fun playing with all his cousins!

I have been enjoying my time off with the kids, and am a little sad to have to go back to work in 3 weeks. When I start back at work, I am going down to a 2-nights a week schedule instead of 3. I am really looking forward to that! I will have much more time with my babies that way.

Evy is doing really well. She is growing like crazy and is really a good little baby. During the day, she has lots of awake time, but actually lays in a crib a few times to sleep. At night, she has been sleeping in a crib at least part of the night, and often goes at least 4 hours between feeds. Of course, she has her bad nights, too! She coos a lot now, and smiles a lot when you talk to her. I absolutely love that! CJ thinks it's neat when she coos and always asks "what is she saying to me?" He loves to hold her and gives her lots of affection.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Evy went swimming for the first time. She did really well...we were there for a good 2 hours and she didn't make a peep. She kicked her feet in the water and floated around on a big mat just looking all around. I forgot the camera, though, so we missed out on those photos!

Sorry it took so long to get this out. We are going to the Dells in a few weeks, so hopefully I will get those photos out a little quicker!

Love you all and miss you!

meet evelyn

On Saturday, Nov 19th at 1238am, Evelyn Margot Moll was born. She weighed in at 8lb 10oz and is 20.5 inches long. She looks a lot like CJ did as a newborn, though is much chubbier. She's got light brown hair, about 1 inch long already. She's a bit of a crabby girl, though has been a little happier today. Last night she actually let mama sleep for a few hours in a row, and today she slept in her bassinet for 2 solid hours! She is nursing well, a huge step ahead of how her brother was at this age! Mama is doing well, a little sore, but otherwise fine.

Labor was fast and furious, much to my surprise. I really wanted an epidural when I hit the hospital doors, but I was already 9cm and she was born 30 minutes after I got to the hospital, so I was unable to get any drugs and ended up with a completely natural childbirth. From first contraction to birth was only about 4 hours and I didn't even really think I was in labor until about 10pm friday night. We were actually out to eat with friends and then were in Appleton shooting our bows until about 9:30. Fast labor is great in some ways, but extremely intense and I have to say I was a bit out of control. Cliff did really well and was very supportive through my craziness.

Evelyn is doing well and CJ seems to be very happy with her. He goes straight for her when he comes in the door to visit and likes to hug and kiss her. He has asked to play with her and says he would like her to go home with him. He has been very gentle and when she cried today he told me I needed to give her some milk! What a little helper! Mom and Dad have been staying with CJ and Cliff has been staying here with me and Evy (or Evie, as we are not sure yet how to spell it). Cliff's mom Lori has come to visit and Erica and the girls were here as well.

We will be heading home tomorrow morning, so hopefully the transition will go well. Can't wait for everyone to meet our newest addition!

CJ the dragon

For Halloween, CJ was a dragon. He liked his costume a lot and had fun wearing it. We went to Festival (the grocery store) for trick or treat in the morning. It was cute...they went around to the departments and got treats related to that department. For example, he got an apple in produce and a string cheese in dairy. Then we went to our downtown celebration and did trick or treating at the stores. It was REALLY crowded, but CJ had fun. We met with some friends, so he wasn't alone. Mom and Dad went with us, too. Since both Cliff and I worked on Halloween night, we didn't do traditional trick or treating through the neighborhood.

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

4 more weeks and counting. . .

These are pictures from the diaper shower Erica and Megan threw. Thanks!

34 weeks pregnant

"Grandma and the girls"

getting big!

My "diaper cake"

Me, Lori, Mom, Marge, Annie, Tami, Grandma, Shari, Megan, Erica

32ish weeks

my baby boy playing in the leaves

I am now 36 weeks pregnant, so I should have about 4 more to go. Things are still going well. Lots of crazy baby movements, sporadic contractions, but all around feeling pretty good. We put up the crib, which CJ asks if he can sleep in with "baby sister" when she comes. He likes to go upstairs and see the crib, and has grown attached to a small burp cloth that Lori made for the new baby.

Erica and Megan (for those of you who don't know, Megan is my cousin) threw me a very nice diaper shower with my mom's side of the family. It was so great to see everyone! Thanks to all for the diapers and wipes! And thanks to Lori (my mother-in-law), who made "baby sister" aka "november" (those are the names CJ gives her) some beautiful bedding!

Cliff has been busy hunting and he also put a deck railing up at the cottage. It was a lot of work, but it looks really nice.

Hope everyone is doing well! Hope to keep you updated as best I can with baby news. . .and I'll try to put CJ's Halloween pictures up asap after trick or treating this weekend! Miss you all!

28 weeks pregnant. . .taken just today!

Four-wheeling with Daddy (and Grandpa Duane is to the side with his back to the camera)

CJ swimming this weekend

CJ fishing

CJ with great grandma Patterson

CJ feeding a baby sheep

Did I mention that I am super computer savvy. . .I couldn't get these to load with the text, so here are the pictures and the text was posted separately!

finally some pictures!

Hey, everybody! So it turns out that there IS a SD card slot on Cliff's computer. . .it's just computer savy me who couldn't find it! O-well.

So. We have been busy with CJ playing, Cliff fishing and me working. I've gone up to the cottage a little, too, but Cliff likes to take CJ when I work a few nights in a row. Ever since Cliff caught that muskee he is obsessed with fishing. CJ likes it, too, but turns out he likes to throw Cliff's fish back in the water when Cliff is not looking. He was excited about having some eater fish a little bit ago, but went to retrieve them and found that SOMEONE took them from the bucket and freed them! He did admit to it when Cliff asked him.

We recently went to Minneapolis to visit some friends. Had a good time, but forgot our camera. We took a riverboat ride down the Mississippi, went shopping at Mall of America, went to Cabela's (who could pass THAT up in every city we go to?), ate at some fantastic restaurants, and hung out with friends. Cliff's new favorite game is Balderdash, which we played until the wee hours of the mornings. . .

Pregnancy has been going well, but I am measuring about 4-5 weeks ahead of schedule. Just had an extra ultrasound to make sure there isn't a problem. . .everything seemed to be fine, but baby has a large head and average body just like her brother. I also have a bit extra fluid. . .so my belly is gigantic. Baby looked healthy, though, just has a large brain! Night shift seems to have it's disadvantage while pregnant, despite the obvious of being more tired. . .baby has become a night owl. She's active during the day, but CRAZY at night. Often on work nights she is active almost nonstop between midnight and 6am. It actually seems to put the other babies to sleep when they are cuddling on my shaking belly at night.

CJ is doing well. He's going through a whining phase, but other than that he is great. He finally felt the baby move and now likes to rest his hands on my belly sometimes or lay on it. He often asks when she is coming out and who will help me when she comes. He always volunteers to help so far!

Well, I guess that's enough for now. As we speak I am watching CJ drive his F150 truck through the front lawn, telling Cliff he's gonna run him over and giggling. Funny little kid. . .

Love, Dana

It's a. . .GIRL!

Well, the Moll's have been waiting something like 90 years for this. . .a Moll girl should be making her arrival at the end of November! Had our ultrasound a 2 weeks ago. Everything looks fine so far. As of now she's right on schedule for growth, although my stomach would beg to differ. WAY bigger this time around, but that's to be expected for my 2nd so I have been told. Sorry I still can't post pics (no SD reader on the Cliff's work computer and ours is still on the fritz). She has a name, but we're not blabbing until she makes her debut. At least we will try to hold out until then!

Another new arrival to our family. . .we are the proud new owners of a new vehicle. Our Honda Accord was needing some attention, so we figured we get rid of it and get something bigger for the expanding family. We now have a 2011 Honda Pilot (SUV). Up to 8 passengers, so we can have more kiddos, or just drive friends and family around with also having room for the 2 car seats. It's pretty nice to have the extra room. We were gonna get a used one, but newer used Hondas are hard to come by and we ended up getting a decent deal on the new one. It is black.

Cliff is pretty excited about his accomplishment last weekend. . .he caught a 40 inch muskee up near his parent's cabin in Eagle River. I guess that's pretty big, but he's excited about it cause he caught it on a (and I use my non-fishing lingo here) pole meant for little fish. Apparently this means that actually landing it was a big feat in and of itself cause they usually would bite through the line and the pole isn't made for that much weight. He thinks it was around 20pounds. Too bad no one had a camera with them! Now he's really excited about fishing, so we're going up to our cabin this weekend. . . CJ likes fishing, too. He plays with the minows, and takes the fish from you to the live well. He also kisses them! I won't touch the bait or the fish, so he's already a better fisherman than me!

Well, my breadmaker is about to beep with the dough for my homemade pizza tonight, so I should be signing off. Hope you all are well. Thanks for the comments letting me know at least a few people still look at my blog. . .

P.S. Katie Mears, email me sometime! I'd love to catch up!

P.P.S Miss you, too, Ann! Wish I could have been at the party, but had to work. CJ had fun! Hope to see you soon!

Love, Dana