It's the most wonderful time of the year

Christmas is now over, 2016 will be here in no time. I am finally enjoying the pregnancy relative to my first few months. I had a horrible scare September 30th. I had Matt take me to the hospital and despite everything seeming to be leading in a bad direction, we found out, miraculously, that everything was fine. A follow up appt at my Ob's confirmed the ER doc's diagnosis. Now that I have reached viability, I feel more comfortable discussing it, although my worry is not completely gone. It probably won't be gone until I deliver a healthy baby. We also found out around Thanksgiving that we are expecting a girl! While we both had an inkling we were having a girl, the ultrasound confirmed this!
Sean and Bradley have been playing so well together as they get older and older. Over xmas break so far, they have been starting light saber battles and play fighting. They are definitely in boy territory. We thought Sean was old enough to actually see Star Wars with Matt at the movie theater. I reserved seats for them at the Emagine Rochester. Sean loved the movie and couldn't wait to come home to tell Brad and I all the plot spoilers! haha
Before Christmas, we had a mini vacation planned to go to Traverse City. We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge and loved every second of it. They upgraded us to a Wolf Den Suite because our room wasn't ready at check in. The bunk bed room within a room concept was a huge hit. Sean loves the water so he enjoyed splashing around the water park. Brad hasn't really had a lot of experience with water, but he loved the Lazy River and Lily Pads. We also visited our friends, the Cannons, who recently moved from Bloomfield to Traverse City. It was great to catch up with them. We intend to go back to Great Wolf one day :)
Christmas Eve was spent with the Hersteins in Ann Arbor and Christmas was spent with the Guptas in Troy. It was so great to catch up with family. It truly is the most wonderful time of year!

 Ultrasound was taken in November. What a beautiful profile!

 We upgraded my Pontiac G6 to a Chevy Traverse. I LOVED my Pontiac but it did not fit 3 cars seats. I have never had an SUV, but it was an easy transition.

My 2nd trimester bump with my 1st SUV.

Halloween and Diwali

A post about two very different holidays!

Sean was Frankenstein and Brad was Darth Vader. Here are our adorable villains.

 Sean is pretending to be "zombie" like

 Diwali took place in early November this year. My friend Sheena put together a kids dance group to perform at a Diwali festival. The kids practiced every week for months and were GREAT! I don't have any footage but here they are before the performance.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween and Diwali!

My birthday week

My birthday week was pretty eventful. I was in full blown nausea, but I had bought tickets to Disney on Ice months before. So our family of four went to the Palace to watch Disney on Ice. It was really fun and I think I enjoyed it as much as the kids. This performance showed all the classics of Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Lion King. There were also great songs from Frozen, Tangled, etc. It was a great way for all of us to be together and for me to be distracted from how I was feeling.

At Foley, the fall birthday teachers got this AWESOME, huge cupcake. Yum I may have eaten the whole thing.

I have many things to look forward to this year, most importantly, expanding our family to a family of five. Cheers to being another year older, and wiser.

Expecting #3

I am now in the second trimester! This pregnancy has been rougher than my last two. I have also never worked full time while being pregnant, so that has added to my tiredness. We had a few scares already, but baby is doing okay so far. We have only told a few people out of precaution; hopefully this trimester will be less eventful and we can spread the joy soon. I have had a lot of nausea, but it is subsiding a bit, yay! My due date is early April.

1st grade and 4 year old preschool

The kids love their teachers and for Bradley, his new school. Sean said that first grade is more fun than kindergarten, even though he really liked kindergarten. He has a great class and was put into a group of 3 for seating arrangements. The two other students are very smart and well behaved and really challenge him to do his best. He is still seeing Mrs. Frank, the speech pathologist to work out his hard c sounds. We started seeing her at the end of last year and continued this year. I can already tell that his speech has gotten so much better. So instead of saying "Hult" he says "Hulk" very clearly. He is in the advanced reading and math groups and loves gym and art class.
Bradley is in the 4 year preschool at GA and goes for 5 half days. The other day, our babysitter picked him up and he didn't want to leave. Every day he asks me questions about rhyming words, and many many "why" questions. That's a sign of a good school and a happy learner!
It will be so much easier when both boys are at the same school, which will be next year. Sean's school does not have a preschool, but I am very happy with GA and how they have made Bradley so happy in the mean time!

Disney World Summer 2015

We had a wonderful time in Disney World. Both boys were old enough to fully remember everything. Sean went on the Tower of Terror for the first time. He wasn't a huge fan, but now he has bragging rights that he mastered the scariest ride at Disney. I am so proud of him for being brave enough to want to go on it. Both boys went on Thunder Mountain for the first time too, while Bradley went on the Barnstormer for the first time. Bradley's favorite ride was Soarin'. He barely made it on height-wise, but as soon as we were buckled in and lifted off, he had the widest grin the entire time. He wanted to go on it again, but seeing how the wait was forever he will have to wait until next time, which may not be until February 2017!
The picture below is one of my favorites from the trip. The kids were acting like gargoyles while we were waiting in line for the new Be Our Guest restaurant. Such personalities!

We stayed with Matt's parents at the Beach Club and then switched over to Boardwalk mid week. I loved the Beach Club. It is my favorite outdoor area and villa so far. Although you cannot beat Boardwalk's scenic walks and night life area. I also had to take it easy because we found out I was pregnant pretty much right on our trip so I did the small rides and hung out by the pool while everyone swam.
We had never gone to Disney in August and it was HOT. We did get lucky with a few rainy days, but going in August is a little tough. Luckily the pools were amazing and kept us cool.

Above is a picture of everyone (except me) on Thunder Mountain Railroad. I took several pictures really fast as they were riding by, and to my surprise this one turned out pretty well. Bradley is in the front seat with Grandma and Sean and Matt take up the second seat. Grandpa is in the third row.

This is one of our only family pictures that we took! Hanging out with Goofy.

Summer 2015 birthdays

We had a family birthday party to celebrate Bradley's 4th birthday. We also lumped Sean's birthday in there since we had both grandparents over and Sean's birthday was the following week.
It was dinosaur themed, which has been Bradley's obsession for the last year or two. He had a wonderful time and loved eating cake and punch!

Sean's party was at Bounce U. We had so many friends show up, considering it was in the middle of summer. Sean's Star Wars cake was a hit and everyone had a great time jumping around and seeing each other after a month off from school. Sean's Hugo and camp friends were in the mix.

From the doc
Bradley's stats: 39.5 inches
Sean's stats: 44.5 inches

Bradley loves tagging along with his brother, loves dinosaurs and still loves giving mommy kisses.
Sean loves Star Wars, tball, swimming and playing video games.

First year of Foley, kindergarten and preschool winding down

School is winding down for me. The seniors have left and will graduate soon. Even though I have only been at Foley for one year, it will still be sad to watch the seniors leave. I had seniors in 4 out of my 6 classes so I feel like I have been on this journey right there with them.
Sean and Bradley were rockstars at their new schools. Sean completed kindergarten with great marks in all subjects. His reading ability is remarkable. Bradley went from me being home all the time to starting preschool and going there every day. He is such a smart boy, just like his brother (and his parents!)
I can't wait to spend the summer with them. And we are only a few months away from Disney World!

Easter 2015

We skipped out on the Easter Bunny this year. Every weekend has been busy with events or just me too busy with lesson planning. We still had a great Easter. The kids and us parents found our Easter baskets the morning of. Bradley got a bigger present than usual with a Spider Man bike. Sean got a mini cash register and calculator. Both boys got candy of course and a few books.
Matt was given the first season of House of Cards. We started it last night and it's pretty intriguing. The politicians are just as calculating and sleazy as they are in real life so I would say it's a pretty accurate depiction.
I received a presto pop lite popcorn popper. It's supposed to be healthier than those popcorn bags. Can't wait to try it!
We celebrated Easter at the Herstein house in Ann Arbor. Below if the pic. I am biased, but I think our boys are so handsome :)

Swingset

Our new swingset! It was put up last week and we are so happy about it (especially the kids)! Thanks to our friend Jessica for telling me about the great promotion running at Toys R Us. With the price of the set, we were able to get them to deliver and install. I hope we will be playing with this thing for many years to come. The picture below shows how cold/rainy it was last week. Today it was in the high 60s and sunny and it should stay that way so I will have to take an updated sunny picture soon.

Promotion to Executive Consultant

I have become an executive consultant in 3 short months. I am pleasantly surprised because I started this side hobby as a way to buy the products at a discount. The products are amazing and since I was talking about it with friends anyways, I might as well benefit from that!  I also thought this would be a nice way to pay off the rest of my student loans and I am on my way to making that happen. I never thought I would be in sales, but here I am, AND I have better skin. Win -win.

Relax and Enjoy Yourselves!- January 23rd at 7pm.

Sit back and relax at the Herstein Household on January 23rd!

Below are some pictures that will show how well R&F works!

The Soothe cream is safe for use to treat eczema in children, on rashes, cracked, dry hands and bug bites. It is clinically proven to visibly decrease redness, peeling, dryness, stinging and overall irritation within five minutes of use, allowing you to take comfort in having a healthy-looking, luminous complexion every day. If your skin is not usually sensitive, check out Soothe #2 and #3. 

I have been using the under eye cream. Here is my fellow consultant Kelly who applied the eye cream to only one eye and after three weeks you can see the difference!

We also have anti-aging products for hands, brown spots, and wrinkles, as well as sunscreen. Because this is from the creators of pro-activ, we also have a line of acne cream for those pesky pimples and scars. 

Hope to see you on Friday January 23rd at 7pm!! Come for refreshments/appetizers and talk to my friend Sarah, an executive level consultant who KNOWS her products! 

Cookie Exchange

Dana hosted a cookie exchange at her house. I brought the kids with me since it was going to be a bunch of moms and kids. The cookies we brought home were so good. I think most of the weight gain over Xmas was from the cookies. They are my weakness. I have never been to a cookie exchange before, but I highly enjoyed it :)

Below is a picture one of the kiddos took of all of us.

Independent Consultant

Because I like the products, I am now a Rodan and Fields consultant. If you are interested in purchasing products as well, check out my website. They are from the makers of Proactiv, but are focused on anti-aging skincare such as sunscreen, under eye makeup (which I use!), and skin brightening, etc.

rherstein.myrandf.com

If you think you will be reordering someday, I can sign you up for our Preferred Customer Program. It runs like the Amazon Subscribe and Save program where it automatically sends you a new supply in 60 days OR you can push it off until later if you are not ready yet. It also gives you free shipping and 10% off every time. 

Whirlwind Christmas Break

The boys and I had two weeks off for Christmas break and Matt had several days off. We saw both Sean and Bradley's Christmas plays, celebrated Matt's birthday, went to the Hersteins on Christmas Eve, my parents' house on Christmas (they had just come back from Dubai and India!), went up north after Christmas, and enjoyed a quiet evening at home for New Year's.

Bradley's play was adorable. He was one of the youngest students up there. He just stood there and didn't move his mouth while the other kids sang around him. haha. I am just glad he didn't cry and run off the stage. Bradley was brave for his first time up there! He is in the front row below third from left.

Sean's play was great. They learned three songs and stood on risers. Sean sang through all the songs and did all the hand movements. He has come a long way from preschool to kindergarten! No stage fright anymore!

The kids really loved Christmas because they both understood Santa Claus and the story of Jesus. It made for a special, magical holiday. They both loved seeing Santa Claus at Somerset and obviously loved opening presents on Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Up north, Sean went skiing for the first time. He was hesitant but after trying he didn't want to leave the bunny hill. We will be going up north several times this winter to get more practice in. Bradley wanted to ski, but we thought he was too young. Luckily, we found strap on skis that he could try in the backyard. We bought Sean some too so they can both "ski" in our backyard in Troy when we can't hit the slopes.

New Year's was just the 4 of us at home. The kids made it to 9:30pm. haha. I am surprised Matt and I made it to midnight! We had our traditional PF Changs carry out.

Here's hoping 2015 will be even better than 2014! Happy New Year!