Hello again!

Merry December!
It has been a long time since I have updated this!  Yikes!
Life here at the Rowan house is going really well!  We are getting closer and closer to welcoming our son to our home.  I am 32 weeks pregnant and feeling rather large and ready.  But I still have 7 more weeks!  Actually, I will need every bit of those weeks that are left to get everything in order.  We are in the process of moving Hailey into a new room with a big girl bed.  She doesn't really understand but she will in a few days when we make the move!  After that I can start getting Austin's room in order.  That's right! We finally decided on a name! Austin Evan Rowan! I decided to decorate his room in an airplane theme.  We can't wait to meet him and start our lives as a family of 5.  We just continue to pray for healthy development and a smooth delivery when the time comes.  We are so thankful and excited that God chose us to be his parents!
Well a lot of time has passed since my last post- so I will summarize the best that I can! For Halloween the girls were Doc and Lambie.  They sure looked cute together.  If you're not familiar with those characters they are from a cartoon.  Doc is a doctor for toys and Lambie is one of her toys. In November Hailey turned 2!  I just really can't believe it!  She also decided that she was ready for potty training a month or so before her 2nd birthday.  She let me know by taking off her diaper and sitting on the potty all by herself.  She did her business and then went to the sink to wash her hands.  I took that as a sign that she was ready. Haha... it is still a work in progress but she is doing really well!
Mimi came to visit for Hailey's birthday.  We decided to have a relaxed celebration at home with just us.  It was wonderful!  The next few days that followed her birthday proved to be some of the most stressful days that I have ever had.  Chile, our sweet puppy, had another ruptured disc episode.  This one was severe and left him completely paralyzed and unable to go potty on his own.  It was truly a heartbreaking thing to watch.  Terribly difficult decisions had to be made about our "first baby" (well first dog baby).  We decided that Chile's quality of life was more important than our wishes for him to stay with us.  These episodes had become more frequent and seemed to be worsening in severity.  With terrible heart ache and sadness Chile was put to sleep.  Callie thinks that Chile is in heaven playing with her Pap.  It was a hard few weeks but we are slowly feeling better and remembering the good times that Chile boy gave us.  As if that wasn't traumatic enough, Hailey got sick the day after her birthday.  Really sick!  She had a terrible case of croup.  I stayed with her in her room that night and I'm glad I did because she woke up and just had a terrible time breathing.  It was so bad that I got her in the car and started driving to the emergency room (which unfortunately is 45 minutes away).  While we were driving she cleared up and was breathing fine, so with the advice of the nurse hotline I went back home.  I regretted that decision the next day though.  I had an appointment already scheduled for early that morning by the nurse hotline so I waited for that since I could get her there before the ER.  They took her immediately to the back at the doctors office and gave her an Epi shot to open her airways.  Then they administered multiple steroids and finally we saw improvement.  They were really close to sending us by ambulance to the hospital in town, but luckily she started to improve.  It was the worst case of croup that they had seen in the past few years. What a stressful couple of days that was.  Poor Mimi was here to witness the Chile incident and Hailey's first sickness- that just happened to be pretty scary!   Whew!  We were glad that was all behind us and were ready for a better week ahead!
For Thanksgiving, Marty and Debbie flew out to spend time with us!  We are so glad that they were able to come.  We spent a few days in a hotel at Knottsberry Farm Amusement Park.  Callie of course LOVED it.  She is such a thrill junkie!  Hailey is getting more adventurous too!  There were actually quite a few rides that Hailey could do and she loved them all!  After that we came back home and shared a wonderful meal together!  I love Thanksgiving and taking time to reflect on all that we have to be thankful for!  So glad that we got to see family on Thanksgiving! The girls were happy to be spoiled as well!

Well we blinked a few times since then and now its December!  Callie continues to do wonderfully in school and absolutely loves it!  She loves her teacher and all of her new friends.  I'm so proud of how much she has grown and learned this year.  Callie also completed her first season of soccer.  She learned a lot and finished strong.  At the end of the season awards Callie got, "Most dramatic performance".  Hahahahahah!  If you know my child, this will not surprise you one bit.  I mean how fitting and perfect.  We did have some drama filled "injuries" throughout her soccer season... but I really was proud of the progress she made and how much better she got!  She also is in dance and will have her first recital this month.  She loves ballet!  I cant wait to see her first performance!
Little sister Hailey is doing just great!  She is a chatter box, strong willed two year old!  She is busy, busy and never stops making us laugh... and go crazy all at the same time.  Haha... oh the 2's are such an interesting time.  We are trying to soak it up though because I know how quickly it goes and we will look back and miss parts of this season. Hailey is doing well with her letters and sounds and numbers.  She loves reading books, counting to 10 and can identify most letters and probably half of the sounds.  She must be picking a lot up from big sister who is just reading like crazy these days!
Matt and I are doing good too.  I'm feeling like I'm about ready to pop but other than that I'm great!  I have had an easy pregnancy so far! I thank God for my family and praise Him for all of our many blessings.  Through the good and bad times of the past month he has been there holding us tightly in his arms.
I hope this finds you all well and I hope that you all have a very lovely holiday season!  The Rowan's are thankful for God's love shown in action by sending Jesus to the Earth to save us from our sin!
Much love!!
Erin

Callie's Kinder school picture

Callie's first field trip to the pumpkin patch.

Callie and Mommy at the pumpkin patch.

Callie and her best buddy at school for 50's day.

Hailey playing in the sink.

The girls and their pumpkin!

 

Hailey in her Lambie costume!

Callie at her school Halloween parade!

 The girls handing out candy on Halloween!  (Hailey just kept eating it...)

My sweeties!

 Hailey on her 2nd birthday!

 Trying sooo hard to make the 2!

 Silly sweet Hailey!

Loving the presents!

Thanking sissy with a kiss for her present!

Hailey's new bike!!

Puppy toy!

Daddy and Mimi looking on!

Cupcake time!!! She knew just what to do with the candles!

She devoured it.

Our sweet boy.  Oh how I miss him.  

Callie getting her award at the soccer bowling party with Coach Chris.

Daddy, Hailey and Callie on a ride at Knottsberry!

Hailey loves the carousel!

haha!

Hailey and Mommy on a ride!

 Hailey on the way home after fun at the park!

Here is what my belly is looking like these days!

Callie starts Kindergarten!

Even though she'll always be my baby, she sure had a big milestone this week!  Callie started Kindergarten!  She couldn't have been more excited about it.  She did tell me that she was a little bit nervous, but I told her that it was totally normal and ok to feel nervous about starting something new.  She was all smiles on the big day!  I will say was a bit of a shock to her system to wake up at 6:50.  We just don't do that here at the Rowan house unless we have to.  She was eager to get dressed and was very concerned about being late, even though I tried to reassure her by telling her that we had plenty of time. Haha... I guess she's used to me saying "we're late"!  She wanted cereal for her first day with a banana.  She even had time to watch one cartoon!  

Fortunately, Matt was able to come with me to take her to her first day!  We have an awesome neighbor who watched Miss Hailey for us so that we could focus on Callie's big day. This school district releases the list of classes on the Friday before school, so we had a Kindergarten Orientation in her class on the first day.  We were able to walk her to her class for the first day and see where she will sit.  She felt right at home!  Her teacher is Mrs. Berglund.  She has been teaching for over 20 years and seemed really nice and organized.  At the end of orientation we all walked outside where she showed us where to pick the kids up after school.  We then said our tearful goodbyes (well lets be honest, I was the only tearful one) haha.  We then watched her walk with her class back into the school. That was the hardest part of the day for me.  It pulled at my heart strings!  Thank goodness it was sunny and I had my sunglasses! I wasn't the only Mama feeling the same way that morning.

I went and picked up Hailey and Matt went to work.  I met several of my friends with Kindergartners at Starbucks for a morning treat.  That was fun and helped us get our minds off of what just happened.  After that Hailey and I had a great day together just hanging out around the house!  I'm trying to get Hailey to nap a little earlier than normal and she didn't really get a good nap.  It took her a long time to fall asleep and she finally fell asleep about 30 minutes before it was time to pick Callie up. So I woke Hailey up and we went to go get big sister!  Her school day is 7:50-2:00.

When I picked Callie up she was excited to see me! She told me that she loves her teacher and her new class!  She told me that they had recess and they ate lunch in the cafeteria.  She seemed really excited about that.  She also said that she made new friends and loved playing in centers! She said that after 1st recess she accidentally got in the wrong line.  Luckily, they all wear name tags on the first week so her teacher could easily spot her. She said they had circle time and story time and sang a fun goodbye song at the end of the day.  She had nothing but good things to say about her day and her teacher! As we were about to leave I was making sure she had all of her stuff and sure enough the lunchbox was missing.  She told me she left it in the cafeteria, so we checked the lost and found and it was in there.  Haha... already at the lost and found on the first day of school!  

All in all I would say her first day was a huge success!  She was a happy camper and was excited to go back the next day.  I'm thanking God for a smooth day and a sweet little girl who is growing up so super fast!  Hope you enjoy the pics!

At home before her first day!

My sweetie! All ready to get in the car to go to school!

Callie and one of her best buds! They are so sweet together!

Callie and her other best bud!

Callie sitting at her table!  She has all girls at her table.  

Callie and Daddy.

My love!

She's got her box and crayons all ready to go!

Oh how I love these two.

Smooches for Daddy!

A teary eyed hug from Momma! I won't lie I got teary eyed looking at these!

Surprise!

Well that was a good surprise huh!?! ETA Jan 30.

Another one bites the dust!

Callie's second tooth is out! Ahh! Big kid stuff!!! This time Daddy helped her get it out so that she wouldn't swallow it. She immediately ran around the house screaming tooth fairy!!!!!!  I am so thankful to God for this special little girl with a heart of gold. 

Here she is! Look at that toothless grin!!

Here are a few random pictures of my loves. 

Callie and some friends at the bowling alley!

Looks like a strike to me!!

After bowling snoozes!

This is hailey after eating a lollipop that she got at a birthday party. She's quite proud of herself!! Hahaha

He is Risen!

Happy Easter!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful Easter and that you were able to take time to reflect on the amazing love and grace that our Savior gives us.  It is truly amazing to me that Jesus became man to bear our sin- all so that we can have a relationship with God Almighty.  What a painful and horrible moment it must have been for him on the cross to be separated from God for that moment because of all of our sins.  Praise God for the love that he has for his children.

The Rowans are doing great!  It is definitely a busy season in our life, but the good news is that Matt will be graduating in June!  We are almost there folks!  The girls and I are staying busy with the amazing friends that we have made.  Callie enjoys preK, swimming, gymnastics and AWANA.  Hailey is along for the ride and looks forward to next year when big sister is in Kindergarten (tear) so that she can have some much deserved Hailey and Mommy time!  I sure love my girls.  And let me just tell you, they are growing like weeds.

Exhibit A:

Callie's loose tooth.
We were getting into the car at preK and callie bit into her turkey and cheese wrap.  Loud screaming and crying soon followed.  Of course I assumed that she either bit her finger or her tongue (both of which are common occurrences).  I immediately tell her to stop screaming and calm down... I tell her that she will be just fine. Then she tells me, "Mom my tooth hurts really, really bad"!  I thought that a hurt tooth warranted a closer look.  To my complete surprise when I examine the hurt tooth I notice that it was very loose.  My four year old baby has a loose tooth.  Instantly my mind starts to wonder... is this normal?  Four years old?!  Did she hurt herself at school today?  Hit her mouth on something?!  I asked and she said no!  Well of course I immediately scheduled a dentist appointment and guess what?  Everything was good, shes just early!  In fact her first tooth came out the day before her appointment and the one next to it was loose too!  She will be loosing her second tooth any day now.  She lost her tooth at Sunday school...and of course... she swallowed it.  They were having graham crackers for snack and there ya go! My sweet big girl!  I will admit that I cried a little. I thought I had at least another year before all of this big kid stuff started.  For those who were wondering... the tooth fairy was very understanding and accepted a paper tooth with a note explaining the situation.  ;)

Cheese!  Notice anything missing?!

Note to the tooth fairy!

Callie loved the dentist!

 Callie and Mommy on a Mommy daughter date!

Exhibit B:
Miss Hailey, who will always be my baby, is actually a toddler.  As much as I try to hold on to my little baby girl she too is growing up!  She is very opinionated and wants to be very independent.  Seems she's learning a lot from big sister.  ;)  Hailey is all over the place.  Climbing, running, trying to be a 4 year old.  She is talking up a storm.  At 17 months she says, Momma, Dada, Chile, sissy, baby, dog, ball, hi, bye-bye, please, thank you, up, all done, outside... oh the list goes on.  She is adding words by the day.  She also knows where her nose, eyes, mouth, tongue, hair, and ears are.  In the past few weeks she has really mastered animal sounds.  She knows what the cat, dog, sheep, bird, and many others that I can't quite remember at the moment!  It's precious to see her learning more and more everyday.  Her kisses just melt our hearts (even though they are on her terms only).  She loves when her Daddy comes home from work and waits by the door when she hears the garage.  Definitely and Daddy's girl.  And why shouldn't she be... they could be twins!  Hailey has also successfully endured 4 molars coming through.  She currently has 12 teeth!

Well back to Easter... here are some pictures from Easter Sunday.  I hope you all enjoy them!  Have a wonderful week!!
Much love,
Erin

First time dyeing Easter eggs!

Excited much?!

Check out that missing tooth!

Does she look grown up to anyone else?!

Callie loved dyeing eggs! 

 The finished product!

This is Callie's stickeriffic  egg!

She was proud! 

 Happy smiles!

 Thanks for our dresses Mimi!

Look how big she is!

 

Her basket was quite full!

Hailey found one!

Oh and here are a few random pictures from a day trip to the beach!

It was Hailey's first time and she loved it!

 My sweet girl!

All three of us!