Who has time for this anymore?!

SO I just added a post that I started back in July (Last year!) and never finished it.. Just put up what I had done to get something out there. I can't believe I haven't posted in over 6 months! Our lives have completely changed since then! Get comfy, this is going to be a LONG post...

Starting where we left off.. IT's a BOY!! Bring on the blue, dirt, trucks, fishing, rough and toughness, we're having a boy! We were so excited! The first thing out of "big sister's" mouth when we told her was "No, it's a girl...The doctor's are WRONG Mom!" She wanted a sister very much, but quickly came around to the idea of a boy after we convinced her that a brother wasn't going to want to take any of her toys.

Practicing taking care of babies

She thinks she is having this baby

Putting the remote on her belly to see if her baby kicks it like her brother kicks Mommy

Our beach vacation was fun! It was HOT HOT HOT. Of course. In face it was so hot that one day there was a major power outage, so we lost air conditioning, our refrigeration etc. It was only out for a few hours thank goodness. Our campsite was probably the "buggiest" campsite in the whole park. I got eaten ALIVE. Worse than just the mosquitoes at home. It was so bad that Jay even bought box fan to sit at camp to help blow the bugs away.

This is some type of bug bite that I got on my foot and had for a few weeks

The few days that we made it down to the beach, the ocean was FULL of jelly fish. There were tons of them! Mostly the beach was covered in dead ones, but there were quite a few large LIVE ones in the water also. With that being said, Mommy sure stayed out of the water as much as possible. Addison loved playing in the water and sand right where the water was breaking. Sitting there was terrible. I ended up with a load of sand in my pants, if you know what I mean. It was so terrible (it was building up in the mesh lining of my bathing suit) that I had to cut the entire lining of my bathing suit out one afternoon.
Daddy and Addi had a date! Daddy promised her that we would do mini golf one night. Ever since our trip to the Poconos (there was a mini golf right in the campground) she has been wanting to mini golf. So Daddy and Addi had a date night where they played mini golf and rode go-karts. She absolutely loved it!
One day, Nanny took Addi on a pirate adventure! Leah, Jace, Danielle and Uncle Bubby went too. They got to wear eye patches and vests and find treasure, shoot water cannons, etc. The kids LOVED it.
One day we drove to Assateague Island and spent the day driving around looking at the wild horses. We also went to Chincoteague. It was a great trip, we've never been there before.

Crab fishing with Nanny and Pappy on Assateague

Horses on Assateague

Sometime in July, either right before or right after vacation (I can't remember that far back now!) we did a makeover on Addison's bedroom. I painted her room pink and purple upon her request. We got rid of the toddler bed and she got a "big girl bed" (twin mattress) and all new pink and purple accessories, goodbye baby room! She also started sleeping in her own bed (we went through a few rough months of her not sleeping by herself and coming into bed with us), we got completely potty trained (no more overnight pull ups!).

Animal Zoo that Daddy built

In the beginning of August, I decided that we should get rid of the ugly green living room carpet. We have lived in this house for 7 years at this point and I had never bothered to pull up any of the carpet to see what kind of floors were underneath. We were able to tell that there was hardwood under the carpet and it appeared to be in good shape. We basically moved our living room into the dining room and started part of the living room renovation. We pulled up the carpet and saw that the floor was going to need some TLC. There were staples and plaster mud as far as the eye could see. It was a pain pulling out what felt like a million staples, and then we sanded, and stained the floors. I say we, but Jay did most of the work by himself. Being down on all 4's when you're pregnant is not the most comfortable thing. We "lived" in the dining room for a week until it was all said and done and were able to move the furniture back into the living . I am VERY happy with how they turned out and I think Jay did an awesome job for having never done anything like this before! In the beginning of September we started painting the dining room and living room. I wanted some color on these drab white walls. Both of us hate painting so it was not a fun couple of days.

The same weekend that we started painting the living room and dining room, my Mom and my best friend Joni, threw me a surprise baby shower at my Mom's house. It was a gorgeous shower! It was a great time and we got a lot of really cute baby clothes! Who knew boy clothes could be so cute?!

I think the floor renovation project sparked something in Jay because he got awfully crafty and handy after that project. He has since built us the following: a dining room table with 2 benches (a 7 ft long table!), a t.v. stand, living room end tables, a headboard and two matching night stands, a wine rack, a decorative
wooden map wall hanging, and a key rack. He is really building up his power tool collection and with the help of his father he enclosed our 2 car car-port and turned it into an enclosed garage that he is taking over for a workshop.

The dining room table with 2 matching benches

King size headboard

He made two of these nightstands to match our headboard

A wine rack to hold "Mommy's juice"

The t.v. stand and matching endtables

Addison picked up a new interest, DINOSAURS! She loves all things dinosaurs. I don't know how it started exactly, but we watch dinosaur shows all of the time (both cartoons and documentaries - she actually prefers to watch the documentaries). She blew Jay and I away when one day she told us the name of a dinosaur that we didn't know, and when we looked it up she was right! She is one smart paleontologist in the making! She was a dinosaur for Halloween, and we had a dinosaur themed birthday party. Our house has become a miniature Jurassic Park! We couldn't be more proud of how smart she is. Her favorite dinosaurs are T-Rex, triceratops and parasaurolophus.

This is the start to her dinosaur collection

Showing off her dinosaur jammies and slippers

Exhausted after a dino-riffic birthday party

Paleontologist at work: Excavating a T-Rex

We knew from the beginning of the pregnancy that we would be having a repeat cesarean, and it was scheduled for 11/20/13. We had to arrive at the hospital at 6am, and were scheduled for 8am surgery. Addison spent the night before at Nanny and Pappy's house so that we wouldn't have to get her up early as well. The surgery went well and Raylan Michael Peffer was born at 8:38am on 11/20/13, weighing in at 8lbs 4 ounces (supposively - more to come on that in a later post), 20.5 inches long and perfectly healthy! We couldn't be happier with the newest addition to the family!

Our last photo as a family of three (night before delivery)

Leaving for the hospital

Daddy and his boy, doing some skin to skin

Big sister and her new baby brother, she loves him!

We had our first ever Thanksgiving at home, just the 4 of us. It was pretty nice not having to worry about running from place to place, and all four of us spent the day in our pajamas. Daddy made us a duck rather than traditional turkey, it was delicious!

Christmas came and went before we knew it, which it always does. Addison got everything on her Christmas wish list and more! I think we have to have a talk with Santa and tell him he needs to start scaling it back. We are running out of room as it is, and I can't imagine what it's going to be like once Raylan gets bigger and there are twice as many toys/gifts.

Addi decorated most the tree all by herself this year!

Christmas cookies! 

Santa came!

My maternity leave is winding down, I have 2 more weeks until I go back to work. We're still working on establishing a bed time, which is hard to do with an almost 2 month old. If we can just get him to go to bed for the night before 2am we'll be in good shape!

Eagles, Bears and Doctors Appointments, Oh My! (Created in July 2013, added LATE)

The past few months sure have been busy ones! Time is flying by and we're just about halfway through this pregnancy! In fact we get to find out the gender of baby #2 next week! We can't wait! Big sister insists that she is having a baby sister because "boys are disgusting!" She is so excited to take care of "her baby" and teach them things like how to roast marshmallows over a campfire, and how to swim under water (her latest accomplishment!). I can't wait to see Addison in her new role as big sister, she is going to be a wonderful older sibling and it warms my heart to see her so excited!
At our 3rd prenatal appointment (in June), we were finally able to hear the baby's heartbeat via the dopplar! Appointment #1 & #2 they were not able to get the heartbeat because baby was being very uncooperative (of course!) so we got ultrasounds each time. But for the 3rd appointment the baby was showing off, probably because I brought Daddy and Big Sister with me! Addison LOVED going to the appointment with me, she was very interested in what the doctors were doing to me. The look on her face when they found the baby's heartbeat was just priceless!

Mommy had a milestone birthday this year, and a surprise party thrown by Daddy, Nanny and Pappy. I thought we were going to Nanny and Pappy's for a Memorial Day cookout, and it turned out to be a surprise birthday party! It was a great day and everyone had a good time! The next day Mommy, Daddy, Nanny and Pappy went to the Connewago Dam to see eagles. We packed a picnic lunch and took our cameras and binoculars and made a day of it. We were able to see a lot of eagles this time it was pretty neat!

In June we celebrated Fathers Day while camping in the Poconos. It was a wonderful weekend get-a-way! We hiked Bushkill Falls - we all did, including Addison. It sure was a workout and she didn't complain once! We were so proud of her! We went spotting for animals at night and saw a bear! He was pretty big too although we saw him from a distance we could tell he had a good size to him.

We are getting ready to go on our July beach vacation in about a week. We had to reschedule from the original plans, to go to the OBX again this year, to now we are going to Rehobeth beach for the week.  We are looking forward to it! 

Times, they are a changing!

We haven't posted for a while. Not that great at keeping this blog up to date, that's for sure. This year is flying by, I cannot believe we are 3/4 of the way through April already!

Potty training has been excellent! We haven't had any accidents, and we haven't had to use diapers/pull-ups during the day! Only sometimes at nap time, and every night. Otherwise it is big girl panties all the time and we are loving it! We were able to cut out the chocolate milk at night for bedtime, although she still insists on having her "empty cup". I know it's still not good for her, it's the equivalent of a binky or thumb sucking..but we're making progress and I know in time we will get there.

Both Jace and Leah had birthdays that we attended. Jace's birthday is in January, and Leah's is in March. They both had their parties at the Middletown MCSO builidng which was great for the kids to run around!

 Jace's Birthday Cake - Pirate themed party!

 Jace being silly blowing up balloons

 The kids digging through wonderful 'booty' from the pinata!

Very yummy cake!!

Leah's cake - Hello Kitty theme

 The kids are scrambling to get the goodies!

Happy Birthday, make a wish!

 Mmmm More cake!

Easter came and went pretty fast this year. We did the egg hunt at the Penbrook Community Park again. Addi didn't get as many eggs this year as she did last year. One of her eggs broke open in her bucket and when she saw candy she slowed down and became more interested in getting the candy out of her bucket rather than finding more eggs. The Easter bunny sure was busy this year because he of course came to our house, but also to Nanny & Pappy's house, MawMaw & PopPop's house, and to GG's house! We had candy coming out of our ears! This year we painted eggs rather than dying them. 

 Addi had her first dentist visit and came through with flying colors! I took her with me to my appointment so that she could watch and see what happens, and hear the different noises that the instruments make, etc. We schedule her for her own appointment. They let her wear sunglasses, and had a t.v mounted on the ceiling over the chair which she thought was cool. The hygienist was very friendly and patient, answering all of Addi's questions. She did excellent, and no cavities! She was especially thrilled that she got a new "Mater" toothbrush.

Addi is really getting into a stage where she loves to be a helper. If you give her a task or a job to do, she just loves it. She likes to help clean, do laundry, and especially feed the dogs. Of course we still have fits about picking up our toys and things like that, but overall she is a great helper.


This is going to come in handy for us, and for her, because she is going to make a great big sister! We found out on March 24 that we are expecting another little one! Addi will be a big sister right after her 4th birthday. Our due date is November 27. Addi is very excited and asks lots of questions about the baby. We talk about how long it's going to take until the baby is done growing in Mommy's belly, and about how the baby will come out (we have looked at a lot of her baby photos with her), and she loves to hear the comparissons of how big the baby is (the baby is currently the size of a raspberry!).

 
 We had our first camping trip of the year. This was our first family camping trip just the three of us. We went to Bellefonte, Pa. It was a short weekend trip but it was nice to get away. We went to Penns Caves and did the boat tour through the cave. Addi made a friend at camp with a dog named Jasper. We later found out that he belonged to a farmer who neighbored the campground. He was very sweet and Addi enjoyed playing with him a lot! We aren't sure where all we will travel yet this summer/season, we do have a week vacation planned to go back down to the Outer Banks in July.

In the meantime we are going to do some things around the house to get ready for the expanding family. Addi will be moving bedrooms and going to the third floor where she will have a bedroom and a playroom to herself. We need to prep the walls and paint, and then we will freshen up her current bedroom for the baby. Addi will be moving to a big girl bed (twin bed) when she moves bedrooms so it will be some very big adjustments for her in the next few months.