The Pringle Family

Summer, summer, summer time

2011-07-11T15:04:00.016-04:00

Of course with a new baby and the fun festivities of summer our blog has lacked a little. Here are a few things we've been up to lately. Note the picture and video quality isn't great. All of these pictures and videos were taken on my phone.

Oakley has taken to the water like the little half fish, half tasmanian devil she is. Today our friend Pam kindly let us invade her swimming pool. When we first got there Oakley was a little fearful and needed someone to hold her but by the end she was jumping into the pool herself and swimming all over the place. She even told me "NO" when I later tried to hold her and help her in and out of the pool. I don't think determined is a strong enough word to describe this little two year old!

Oakley climbing around on a rope jungle gym at the Ithaca Science Center. She made it all the way to the top!

Oakley's "happy face"

Oakley and Hayden riding the log ride at the zoo

Here's my little angel. Ethan is really the best baby. He's so smiley and just goes with the flow. He can even nap when Oakley is screaming right next to him. He has given me a new love of babies.

Ethan is definitely a momma's boy. He wants to see me all the time and really loves to be held. He's pretty content to sit in the bumbo and watch me cook.

He's been rolling from tummy to back for about a month now and is very close to doing the reverse. And just like is sister, he's already hooked to the TV.

All of us watching the fireworks on the 4th. Oakley was so enthralled, she actually sat still for 20 minutes!

stuck in a rut

2011-04-12T22:56:00.003-04:00

I was downstairs one day and heard Oakley screaming at the top of her lungs. I rushed up the stairs thinking she'd broken a leg, fallen in the toilet, or just stuck her bum in the railing.

(And as any good mom would do, I took a picture before helping her out.)

Bad Hair Day

2011-04-10T12:42:00.002-04:00

Ever wake up having one of these?

I don't know where she gets it from...

Ethan's First Photo Shoot

2011-03-23T14:28:00.003-04:00

Here are some cute pictures my talented friend Carlee took of Ethan at two weeks. Isn't he just the cutest?

Two week update:

For now Ethan's been an almost perfect baby- for now. He took to nursing without any objections. In fact, eating is his favorite pass time and can down as much as 7 oz at a feeding, bottle or boob. At his two week appointment he weighed 8 lbs 9 oz, gaining a whole pound above his birth weight. His nighttime schedule is an 11pm feeding, followed by a 4 am one and then he wakes up around 8 or 9am. I know, I am the luckiest person ever (for now). My only complaint about this little guy is not how long he sleeps but how he sleeps; which is in bed with mom and dad. I do love holding my snugly little newborn all night long but is doesn't make for very sound sleep.

Oakley absolutely loves her little brother. She always asks to hold him and is constantly letting me know where he is. She always tells me when he's crying and gives him lots of big, tight hugs and slobbery kisses. She enjoyed lots of attention from Grandma, who she lovingly refers to as "baga", during my mom's two week stay. Today was our first day on our own and we all miss "baga", especially Oakley who keeps asking about her.

Ok, more pictures:)

The New Arrival

2011-03-13T15:07:00.003-04:00

Its been one week since I went into labor and I'm just now getting pictures up- sorry!!

Details:

Ethan David Pringle
Born: 3/7/11 @ 4:27pm
Weighing 7 lbs 8 oz and measuring 20 1/2" long

The Story:

Saturday Night- I started having 5 min contractions that were hurting more than normal. I panicked, called a babysitter, called Dave's parents to come down the next day and of course...NOTHING!! Sunday night (9pm) rolls around and I start having hard contractions every 15 to 20 minutes. I brushed it off since my preparations the night before were in vain. Around midnight they were every 10 min but I told myself they were going away just like the night before and I went to bed anyway. Sleeping was hopeless, I lay awake as the contractions got closer and closer and at 3am they were every 5 minutes. I decided it was time to inform Dave of our upcoming plans. Around 4:30 they started coming every 3 minutes and we finally decided it was time to find a babysitter and go to the hospital.

We get to the hospital and I'm already dilated to a 6!! It was at that point that I accepted I was really going to have this baby. I was in complete shock!! I really, really didn't expect to go early. I felt really lucky and totally unprepared! Back to the hospital: I kept telling myself (and other people) that I was going to try to have this baby "all natural" (aka no epidural) but I completely ate my words. I got the the hospital begging for an epidural, I couldn't kissed the anesthesiologist! I seriously admire any of you who have gone the "all natural" route but a part of me also thinks your crazy:) So around 7am I was dilated to an 8 and very thankfully got my epidural. It was amazing, I highly recommend it. From 7 to 1pm I dilated, slept, and waited for Ethan to drop down a little more. At 1pm I started pushing... at this point I was on a pretty big high. Everything had gone so fast and so perfectly up to this point. I figured a half hour of pushing and it would all be over. I was making bets with Dave saying he'd be out by 2pm. So I pushed and pushed and pushed. 3pm rolls around and I was almost begging for a c-section. At that point it was too late, he had dropped to about a +2 and was ever so slowly progressing.The midwife had a specialist come and give his opinion since I was having a VBAC and he kindly told me that I could be successful at my VBAC attempt but it would take a WHOLE lot of effort and pushing on my part. So any of you lucky people who only have to push once or for like a half hour, just don't tell me- I don't want to hate you:) I finally decided to give myself a little extra dose of my epidural and let me tell you, I felt like a new woman. I even told myself I could probably push for another two hours. I practically did. I pushed for another hour and a half!! And finally after an episiotomy and a 2nd degree tear, Ethan made his way out. Words cannot describe how amazing it was to be able to hold him right away while they cleaned him off in my arms. I heard his first cry, watched them weigh and measure him and saw Dave hold him for the first time. I completely missed all of that with Oakley. All of the pain and the 3 1/2 hours of pushing were completely worth that experience.

Now for the pictures:

One last preggo picture at the hospital. (Yes, I look awful but I had been awake with contractions all night.)

Here he is!!

The token 'I look like hell but I'm so excited bc I just had a baby' picture.

Ethan and his daddy.

All clean and snugly.

Oakley's first visit to the hospital with Dave's mom.

One little skeptical look but besides that Oakley didn't pay much attention to Ethan.

Ethan and mommy

And another picture of this little guy. He has the cutest blond hair!!

Christmas Pictures- just a little over due

2011-01-20T22:30:00.007-05:00

Here are some pictures from Christmas that I've been meaning to post forever. Pregnancy and a toddler have kept me especially distracted.

Here's Oakley with a bucket o' farm animals from Grandpa. She was sooo excited and still loves playing with them to this day.

Here she's opening a 'Thomas the Train' set. She's also a huge Thomas fan.

This was our trip to the mall to see Santa. Unfortunately Santa is not recession proof- $25 is a little too steep for me. So we settled for the $2.50 Christmas train ride, twice. She absolutely loved it!!

Much to my surprise she actually stayed in her seat the whole time.

More posts to come, I promise. Blogging is one thing I can do while hugely pregnant and sitting on the couch!

The Princess and the Pea

2011-01-12T22:40:00.007-05:00

Here's a fun little Oakley story from Nursery. SO our ward has just switched to 1pm which means our morning consisted of breakfast, playing, lunch, nap and then church. Dave and I were both in Nursery to help out this particular Sunday. As I was about to help Oakley say a blessing on the snacks, a pea rolled out her nose and onto the table. Dave and I couldn't stop laughing!! The best part is that after lunch Oakley had taken a nap and then I changed her clothes head to toe, then we went to church. The pea definitely wasn't hiding anywhere on her clothes and had been up there for at least 2 hours!!

My little Princess- messy face and all!

I dropped the price of my last diaper bag- only $25! Click here to view.

And we're moving.......(drum roll please)

2010-12-28T14:26:00.005-05:00

NO WHERE!!!!!

We couldn't be more excited. Dave signed a contract today that keeps us in Pittsburgh another two years!! We are so happy to be able to stay in such a cool city. We love where we live, we love our house (although I wouldn't want to live in it forever), we love our ward, we especially love our friends and this city. (And the Aldi's that just opened up down the street!) I'm so excited that I don't have to try and move with a newborn and we can stay close to our families. Here's to Pittsburgh and another great two years of the Steel City!

99 Days, NYC & Good-byes

2010-12-04T17:09:00.004-05:00

I'll start with the sad news first. We said good-bye to Lucy... forever. It was a tough decision but with another baby coming and the upcoming prospect of renting somewhere with two dogs, it was for the best. It all happened so quickly- an add on craigslist and two days later she was gone. The good news is her new family is awesome! The father wants to train Lucy to be a hunting dog. The teenage son wants her to sleep in his bed at night and the mother is really loving towards her. I couldn't be happier for her. Its a much better life than being shut in a kitchen or small backyard all day. Here's one last picture of Dave and his best friend minutes before she left us for good.

About 30 minutes after we said good-bye to Lucy it was off to The City. Dave and I were able to take a trip with no dogs and no kids (thanks to our parents) and hit the big apple for a couple days. Our real reason for going was we got tickets to The Daily Show but to make a long story short, we ended up going to The Colbert Report. Both are two of our favorite shows so we were happy with the end result. It was all thanks to two really nice New Yorkers who gave us their tickets!! Here's a link to the show we were a part of. The camera flashes past us for a microsecond so don't bother looking. As much as we love The Colbert Report when we came home and watched The Daily Show we missed, we were a little sad. Its probably the best Daily Show I've EVER seen. (Esp if you hate Glen Beck! Here's that link:)

Two days later it was time to pick up Ms. Oakley who had a blast staying with Grandma. We spent a week up in New York visiting both our families. Here's Oakley at a Bouncy House in Ithaca, she loved it!!

And 10 days later we were home. A long and eventful trip. I couldn't believe I only had 99 days left of pregnancy when we got back. This pregnancy is really flying by. Here's a picture of me at 26 weeks. Just think...I STILL HAVE THREE MONTHS LEFT!! Even though it may fly by there's no doubt in my mind that I'll be HUGE by the end.

Sassy Store Special

2010-11-24T00:22:00.003-05:00

I have one bag left to sell and I'm selling it for a deal! $35 for this bag and wipes case, e-mail me if you're interested. Or you can buy it off my site here.

A Rare Moment

2010-11-16T14:59:00.000-05:00

Sunday night Oakley went down without a peep at 7:30pm only to wake up at 11pm in the happiest mood. She was delighted to go back and forth between mom and dad, giving us kisses. Needless to say I'm looking forward to our next midnight rendezvous:)

Momma's Girl

2010-11-13T00:59:00.010-05:00

Blogging has taken a back seat to napping and projects. Being pregnant with a toddler is no easy task, in any case here's a few things we've been up to.

Oakley's personality is really starting to show through these days. She is very demanding!! Anything she wants really bad is a "baba". That can range from her blanket to halloween candy. She is saying a lot though. She can say and sign "please" when asked. She always says and signs "more" when it comes to snacks and asks us to turn on her "moo-me" (movie) when we get in the car. (Yes, I have our DVD player going constantly in the car- I gave in. Car rides were just a scream fest before we came to this compromise.) Other words she's saying: bracelet (the girl loves jewelry), car, dogs, thank you, pumpkin, blanket, sippy, cracker, snack, fish, ball- just to name a few. She's at the point where she's saying something new everyday. Oh and shoes, she loves shoes. Last night she pulled out her boots and insisted on wearing them over her PJ's while I was sorting clothes before bedtime. She LOVES shoes, just like her mommy:) She definitely says "mommy" ALL the time. Right now Oakley is a serious momma's girl. Tonight, when Dave and I were putting her down to bed she practically jumped into my arms from his and then continued to push him away while we were trying to say a family prayer and sing a song. Poor Dave!! Its too bad she doesn't understand that daddy is a lot more fun than me, but I'm sure she'll figure it out soon enough. She is much more affectionate now than she ever has been but that's not saying much. She will occasionally give kisses, only if she's in a really good mood. She will come and give me hugs and cuddle me, which is cute and much appreciated after all her toddler tantrums.

This is Oakley amongst her friends at a Halloween party a few weeks ago. She was a kitty cat. She loves her costume and still asks for it saying "kiie-ka" but she hated wearing the hood so you can't really tell what she is here. Anyway the party was really fun, I was able to live out my dream of having a "pumpkin party" with all the food being something pumpkin. Thanks to Carlee for hosting it at her lovely house and everyone else who helped out. I wish we could make this a Halloween Pittsburgh tradition but we most likely will be moving this summer:(

We had some other excitement around here when a crazy wind storm came through Pittsburgh and uprooted this big tree in our back yard. We were incredibly lucky that it didn't hit our house and just broke a few slats in our fence. After all was cleaned up I was actually really happy that the tree came down. I've hated this tree since we first moved into our house and have toyed with the idea of taking it down. Instead of paying a tree service a few hundred we only had to pay about $35 for the new fence slats and posts.

Here's Oakley eating her lunch the other day. She insisted on wearing her $1 witch hat from Target that she's obsessed with. It became a little problematic for her since every time she sat back in her seat, the hat fell over her eyes. After about 20 minutes of this she finally let me take the hat off and place it within eyesight of her eating her PBJ.

Dave, Oakley, our tripod and I headed out to take some family pictures the other day. Our first attempt was really, really bad. Here's one cute picture of Oakley from that try. Our second attempt was much better but I'll post those pictures another time.

Sunflower fields

2010-10-19T22:10:00.008-04:00

Over a month ago, Dave, Oakley and I drove up to New York for my friend's wedding. On our way back home we drove passed this beautiful sunflower field and had to stop. Our pictures don't really do the scene justice, it was breathtaking!

Both my mom and Dave's mom have kindly trusted their mouths over to Dave's skilled hands for some crowns over the past few months. Oakley has loved all the attention from her visitors! Here she is with my mom sitting oh-so-nicely, which is rare for her.

And for those of you who don't already know, we're definitely having a boy:)

are you ready for this?

2010-08-19T21:55:00.003-04:00

I'M NOT!!! (Those are my hugely swollen pregnant ankles in case you forgot)

But I'm most definitely ready for another one of these:

Another 29 weeks and it will all be worth it!

That's right, we're expecting another little baby sometime around March 11, 2011. So far this pregnancy has been a mix of nausea, extreme fatigue and the most bland, non-dairy diet you can imagine. I'm 11 weeks along so I'm hoping to move on to the next phase of "cute pregnant but feeling good" soon before I hit the "swollen ankles and belly the size of a beach ball" phase. Either way we are very excited to welcome another little bundle of joy to our family.

The Cape

2010-08-17T16:35:00.003-04:00

The first week of July my family got together to celebrate another White family reunion. My three brothers and their families, my family and my dad were all staying in one house. It was a bit chaotic but absolutely a lot of fun. The last time we were all together there were four less members of the family. This time we had 9 adults and 9 kids.

The rest of the White family was spread out between three other houses. We spent dinners together. My dad is the oldest of 7 so we have quite the large family. Two of the 7 siblings weren't there and we definitely missed having the whole family together. Here's a picture of everyone who came minus a couple of sleeping kids.

We took the opportunity to take an immediate family picture. It'll probably be another year and at least another baby before we all get together again!

Here's one of just the three of us. By that time Oakley was really done so this was the best "smile" we had.

It was a very fun trip. We took a couple of trips to the beach, ate some yummy seafood in Provincetown, and enjoyed being together as a family!

I knew it!

2010-07-26T16:07:00.003-04:00

Oakley's legs haven't stopped moving since they started kicking me in the womb! And now she has become obsessed with the soccer ball Grandma bought her. She goes around the house announcing "ball" in her little trilly voice while she throws and chases after her little soccer ball. As Adam Sandler would say "She's gonna be a socca playa!"

What's happenin' here

2010-07-22T16:15:00.004-04:00

Getting ready for the pool: so I thought Oakley would love the swimming pool b/c she's always laying on her belly during her bath and sticking her face in the water.

Not quite! She's not really the water baby I envisioned but she still has fun playing in her little pool.

Keeping busy: who would think those nice, hot summer days would put me in the mood for sewing. Its probably the 90% humidity that has kept me inside working on this Rag/ABC quilt and a few other things.

Cross it off the Bucket list! I've been dying to see Falling Water ever since we first moved to Pittsburgh. Its unfortunate that we waited until after Oakley was born b/c they don't allow children under 8 on the tour. So we had to switch off entertaining Oakley for 3 hours while we took separte tours.

To finish it off: We're down to the very last renovations on our house. We re-carpeted the front steps and recently refinished our basement. With just a few odds and ends left to do we'll soon be ready to sell!

before

after- kind of hard to see in this picture.

The Second Worst Flight EVER!

2010-06-25T22:11:00.011-04:00

Now I know a lot of you have had some pretty bad flight experiences. And I'm not saying mine was any better or worse than yours. I'm just saying its my personal second worst experience- the first being stuck on the plane on the runway for 12 hours with no food in the middle of July with no AC. Take home lesson from that experience: NEVER FLY INTO/OUT OF JFK, EVER!!! Now onto this horrifying experience. First I should probably tell you about my trip!

Dave and I headed out to Utah to visit some family. We were very excited to see our friends, family and hit up a bunch of restaurants we've missed since leaving. We stayed with Dave's sister Kristin and of course took some fun embarrassing bath photos of Oakley and her cousin, Roman.

And of course we had to stop here, Costa Azul.

Met up with these guys, one of my best friends from High School and his girlfriend.

Oakley NEVER lets you hold her. That's why I had to snap a picture when Dave got her to fall asleep on his chest- how cute!

We had a fun dinner with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and 2nd cousins.

Oakley with her 2nd cousins; William and Annie.

Annie and Oakley had a fun time playing together/stealing sippy's. As you can see Oakley is quite the drama queen. I don't know where she gets it from!?

Dave took off after some family pics.

I spent the next few days down at the farm visiting my grandparents. It was so fun to take Oakley to the farm that I remember going to as a child. I just have to say how impressed I am with my Grandparents who are in their 80's and still keep up their farm, a horse, a calf and a garden bigger than my backyard. I just hope some of that "good pioneer stock" my grandma is always talking about has made its way to my gene pool and that I'm just as active and healthy at that age. Oakley had so much fun with her great-grandparents. She loved all the attention!! Oakley and I then hung out with my college BFF, Mandy and her son, Logan. Then I headed off to the airport...

I was running a little late to the airport but managed to make it through security on time. I had a half our left before my flight took off and decided Oakley and I had time to eat breakfast. Well that turned out to be a mistake. After I was done feeding Oakley I looked at my watch and realized my plane took off 5 minutes ago!! AGHH! The flight attendant was very nice about re-booking me on the next flight out- FOUR hours later!! So Oakley and I spent a long, long, looong day at the SLC airport (which is the lamest airport, btw) and then two hours at the Houston airport. We finally made it to Pittsburgh 6 hours after we were supposed to get there. I think the worst part about the whole ordeal was that it was all my fault!! (oh and that we were both sick, did I mention that?) So there was no one to be mad at but myself! Take home lesson: don't miss your flight while your in the airport!

The Big One!

2010-06-02T10:06:00.004-04:00

One year has come and gone and I can hardly believe it. To think that last year I was in the hospital, swollen like a balloon, with my precious little angel by my side. I don't often get mushy but I just want to say this for memory's sake. I really didn't know how I would take to motherhood since you're all aware of my previous dislike/fear of most children (not yours of course!). But every night in the hospital when the nurses wheeled Oakley away to the nursery, I felt like it was Christmas Eve. I couldn't wait to be woken up at 3am to nurse my tiny, sweet baby. I know that sounds a little crazy and the feeling wore off quickly once we were home but I remember the excitement I felt every time I held her. I still go in her room at night just to watch her sleep and sometimes pick up her sleepy little body and just rock her. And then I breathe a big sigh of relief knowing that I won't have to get up until 7:30 the next morning! Alright, onto the party!

Birthday Party Part I: May 7th, 2010

I decided that Oakley wouldn't mind if we combined her party with two boys and invited everyone we knew to a huge BBQ. Despite being more of an undertaking than I anticipated, the other two mommies and I managed to put on a pretty sweet party for 72 adults and kids. I absolutely loved being able to have a big outdoor party with all our Pittsburgh friends. It was also a great opportunity to get together with some of our friends who are moving:( Onto the pictures!

Here's the unsuspecting birthday girl, waiting to head over to her party. There's something to be said about her green blanket, its her favorite thing in the world and she must have it with her everywhere she goes.

Here are the two birthday boys, the party, and me with my new do.

The Cake- it would've been better had I remembered to take a picture before cutting into it.

More pics of the party, the decor, and just two members of the Pittsburgh baby boom.

Isn't her birthday hat adorable?!? My exceptionally talented friend, Carlee made it just for Oakley.

Needless to say she loved the cake. She ate two entire pieces then rubbed the rest in her hair which resulted in us having to leave her party early for a birthday bath.

Thanks to everyone who came to help us celebrate! It meant a lot to me to have so many of our friends there for Oakley's first birthday. We are lucky to live in a place with many great friends who have been there for us through the last three years. Thanks to Rachelle and Jamie for letting me talk you into throwing this big ol' party for our kids! It was a piece of cake!!

Birthday Part II: May 9th 2010

Oakley's real birthday was on Mother's day so we decided to invite some friends over to celebrate both. After Oakley discovered her new love of sugar, she was pretty content to sit on our friend Tiffany's lap while being spoon fed chocolate cake. Quite unusual for a little girl who never sits still!

Oakley didn't care too much about the presents, good thing she had some helpers show her the ropes!

Grandma's visit

2010-05-27T22:49:00.013-04:00

Get ready for whole lot of bloggin', I have a lot to catch up on! My mom came out to visit at the end of April. We went to Time Out for Women, listened to some really great talks and beautiful music. We also managed to do some fun "Pittsburghy" things.

Here we are at the West End Overlook.

Oakley had a blast with Grandma! (That's her SUPER EXCITED smile)

We made a trip to the zoo, turns out Pittsburgh has a really sweet zoo.

This was the first time that Oakley insisted on walking by herself. This is something I've been so excited for because I no longer have to carry her. It turns out that she never wants to go in the right direction so its quite counterproductive. Sorry if my white legs temporarily blind you. And I have no idea why everything is now underlined and I don't know how to change it.

Oakley LOVED the aquarium, she's just like her mommy:) Okay not underlined anymore- hmmm.

The aquarium has this really cool underwater viewing area for the shark pool and the polar bear habitat. Da-dum...

Next my mom, Oakley and I headed to St. Louis to visit my brother, Mike and his family. Oakley did really well during the 12 hour drive. Thank goodness for TV and Baby Einsteins!! I actually didn't take one picture there so I'm using pictures that Jessica, my sister-in-law, took. You will most likely notice how much better her pictures are, she's very talented.

St. Louis was a blast! This was taken in the beautiful botanical gardens.

We went to the butterfly house which is just about the coolest thing EVER. Its an enclosed garden full of HUGE, beautiful butterflies that just flutter all around you. Oakley was completely fascinated with it. To the right is Mike with baby Charlotte, isn't she a cutie?!

Here is my mom with her five granddaughters. Right now the grand-girls out number the boys by one, making nine grandkids total.

Thanks Mike and Jessica for the fun visit to St. Louis! And thanks mom for taking Oakley on her first girls trip, it was awesome!!

11 Months 2 weeks and 4 days

2010-05-07T11:20:00.004-04:00

That's how old Oakley was in this picture taken by her very talented Aunt Jessica. Oakley, Grandma (my mom) and I just got back from a trip to St. Louis to see my brother's family and meet one of her newest cousins, Charlotte. Oakley has three cousins that were all born before her first birthday. I can't wait to see what great friends they end up being. Oakley was supposed to have fourth cousin born right around the time she turns one but sweet little Jaycee wasn't meant to stay on earth and died in utero a month before she was due. We were all very sad to miss out on meeting this little angel and I have to think that she and Oakley were good friends up in Heaven.

Oakley turns one this weekend and we're kicking off the celebration with a triple birthday party tonight. More pictures on that, St. Louis, and my new haircut to come:)

Wanna be

2010-04-27T21:49:00.003-04:00

Yes I am a follower. I have no capacity to be inventive on my own so I copy the ideas of other people and I'm about to do it again. But as a true follower, I can't do this without the approval from those whom I usually follow. You see I'm having one of those moments where I want to cut my hair- just like Katie Holmes. And I'd like to say that the idea for copying Katie is at least mine but its not. My friend Megan originally copied Katie's hair a week ago and so I'm going to do the same thing... I think. But I need all you original people to approve. SO vote on my pole- you have one week. I need this done before I'm heading out to Utah-- land of the well-put-together mommies.

Oh and I need all you hair stylists/experts to tell me if this haircut is easy to style in the AM. I mean 10 maybe 15 minutes max!!

Beware the Toddler

2010-04-21T12:57:00.003-04:00

My little baby turned into a toddler overnight! Here's a little video montage Dave put together of her first day of becoming an upright mover.

A few things to note about Oakley. She can sign 'more'. I'm pretty sure she's saying "mama", "daga" (doggies) and "dada" but I'm not completely convinced. She is such a drama queen, she gets offended very easily when a toy is taken away or if she has a little tiny fall. (Probably because she knows momma reads her a story to calm her down.) She'll eat just about anything including dust bunnies. And she's seriously attached to me right now which I love and hate at the same time.

Playin' Hookie

2010-04-12T22:00:00.001-04:00

Easter weekend Dave and I convinced our friends Darren and Tiffany to skip conference and come with us to the cherry blossom festival in DC. We weren't the only ones who decided to enjoy the beautiful weather and take in the sites. The entire city was packed! Despite the crowds, missed naps, and a cranky baby we had a pretty fun time. I feel guilty that Oakley's first Easter was spent being dragged around in a stroller but I guess its better than being ignored while your parents watch TV:)

We checked out the awesome blossoms.

Saw the Jefferson Memorial across the Tidal Basin but didn't quite make it there.

Walked a little more through the cherry blossoms with these guys.

Saw this place but didn't get an invite to the Easter egg hunt, lame.

Oakley's first day of wearing her hat. She wasn't amused.

Unfortunately this is the best picture of the two of us and Dave's eyes are closed. A role reversal for us, I'm usually the blinker. This is taken in the National Gallery of Art, my favorite place to visit in DC. (But I still haven't been to the spy museum...)

My attempt at a artistic picture in the art museum, seemed fitting.

My favorite artist of all time, Monet. Dave's least favorite, he doesn't like impressionist art.

You may recognize this one if you've ever seen my kitchen. Another impressionist artist I like, Degas.

And if you're still reading and haven't dozed off yet, here's another one of our chubby little bunny.

And here's one of her eating paper while watching TV. I know, my parenting skills are something to admire.

Blah Blah Blog

2010-03-25T23:00:00.001-04:00

Wow, has it really been a month since the last time I blogged?

Okay quick update: Oakley is EVERYWHERE!! Walking along furniture, knee crawling, pulling herself up and standing by herself but NOT walking. Kind of a bummer because I'm not really okay with the idea of letting my child crawl just anywhere and she is just so busy/hates being held. She's been doing all sorts of new tricks. She can wave, clap, and throw her Binky at least 15 feet across a room. (She almost clocked someone in church with it the other week) She's finally sleeping through the night and has been for a couple months and *sniff* just stopped nursing. I'm a little sad but enjoying my new found freedom.

Little Miss Skeptical...

Not a carrot fan.

Dave and I have been LOVING this amazing weather and have taken Oakley for several bike rides and runs. I love how the minute that spring begins everyone has such good intentions. Everywhere you go you see people running, biking, etc. I always wonder at what point do we start taking the good weather for granted and end up spending summer days shut in our homes. (At least I do!) Tangent...sorry.

Little trip to the Carnegie Science Center with some friends.

I have finally fulfilled my new years goal of volunteering for a better cause, at least for this month. After a month of delays I was able to help the Pittsburgh Food Bank distribute food to those in need last Saturday. The whole experience was fun, interesting and definitely eye opening. After being on Food Stamps and Medicaid, I'd thought that I had seen my share of poverty. Well, it really doesn't compare. The place we went to was the most run down, ghetto place I'd ever been to in Pittsburgh. The people that came were all different types but most were in good spirits and made the whole experience rewarding. Its going to be a tradition for me every 4th Saturday of the month. I'm looking forward to being a part of something outside of being a mom.

The Wounded Soldier

2010-02-26T22:06:00.007-05:00

Here's a little video snipet of Oakley doing her army crawl. She's been doing this for about two weeks and just barely started knee crawling the other day. Yesterday she started pulling herself up in all the furniture and walking along it. She's unstoppable now!! More videos soon to come...

Wounded Army Crawl

This is how we found the little pumpkin, sleeping away with her bum in the air and her head stuck in the corner.

Blackmail

2010-02-21T22:05:00.004-05:00

I don't think there's a mommy out there who can resist a few naked baby pictures. And they may aid in motivating teenage Oakley down the road;)

P.S. Just posted a new article on my "Hot Off the Press" sidebar that you should check out.

Keeping my cool and heating it up

2010-02-13T22:01:00.012-05:00

Many of you know that I have a bit of a hot temper when it comes to politics (rather how so many people misunderstand politics but I won't go into that). Dave and I have posted a couple of things that may have somehow upset some people. From now on I'm going to try and keep this as just a family blog and hopefully keep out the negative comments. BUT I want to do my part to keep people informed, so I'm going to keep current and relevant news articles and video clips on my sidebar that you should check out:)

Anyway, here's some cute pictures of Oakley because what's a post without pictures?

9 months old and she's already got her sassy face!

Next up, here are pictures of a fun fondue night we had with some friends. I have begged and begged Dave to take me out to the melting pot since he gets 50% off but he claims he can do a much bigger and better fondue feast. He's not lying!! I think everyone left full for the next few days. I can't take credit for the pictures, thanks Tyler!

The Food.

The Fun…

The People!

Abandon all hope that things will ever change!

2010-02-09T19:47:00.006-05:00

This one's for you Aaron!!!

Another post brought to you by Dave Pringle.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Sarah Palin Uses a Hand-O-Prompter

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Economy

Super Duper Fun Exciting Stuff Here!!

2010-02-09T16:24:00.002-05:00

So, I have really hated blogging lately. Maybe its the lack of sleep, the baby tugging at my pant legs, or the fact that it takes way more time than I'm willing to give. Luckily, I have found myself with a bit of extra time on my hands since I've been SNOWED IN for the last four days. Which is probably where all my extra sarcasm is coming from. OK, trying to be positive… ( Oh and its snowing AGAIN!!)

Oakley Updates:
She started army crawling about two weeks ago, which has made both of us much happier. She's pulled herself up on a few things, including the bathtub ledge (scary!). I've realized this happy period of only baby-proofing the house to ankle-biter standard won't last long. Plus, all she wants to do is walk holding my hands and walk along furniture. My dreams of a content crawling baby are quickly fading away! Lastly, she's getting her top teeth in meaning lots of sleepless nights for both of us. Oakley turned 9 months old today and is in the 95% for height and 75% for weight.

Visitors:
We were so excited to have my dad and brother, Aaron all the way from Germany, come to visit last weekend. We had grand plans of going to museums, movies, dinners but found ourselves spending the weekend taking turns shoveling 24" of snow off our cars, driveway and street! (Yes I said street, no snow plow has ever attempted to come down our cobblestone road.) We did enjoy some yummy meals Dave prepared, movies and playing games. Cabin fever isn't nearly as bad if you have more people to spend it with.

The Oakster munching on some snow.

A little collage of "snowmageddon".
(That only took me an hour to put together and you can't even read it, another reason I hate blogging.)

Other news:
I finally finished a project I've been working on for months, Christmas Stockings. A little too late but I will definitely enjoy them next year when I'm working on my matching table runner and tree skirt. Luckily those projects won't involve handmade bias tape which was a "fun learning experience".

Christmas x 3

2010-01-18T02:35:00.000-05:00

Lately I've really hated blogging, sorry kind of negative for a Christmas post. But I'm just letting you know why its so late and I didn't feel like sugar coating it (I had enough sugar coating over the holiday). While our 3 Christmases doesn't quite match up to Vince and Reece's movie charade, I assure you it was just as busy, chaotic, but absolutely more fun:)

We spent Christmas Eve with my Mom and family. Because my mom always wants to "do it easy this year" with a ziti casserole (I'm being 100% serious), Dave and I decided to take matters into our own hands. We (mostly Dave) prepared a seafood fest with king crab legs, muscles, shrimp and enough mashed potatoes to feed a small army. We both enjoyed being able to choose what traditional foods we wanted and not eating ziti casserole:)

My mom with Oakley. It was nice to get out of changing so many diapers!

As you can see Oakley was super excited for her first Christmas.

Christmas Day was spent with my Dad, brother and his family. Issac, my nephew, really enjoyed opening presents this year. I'm excited to see how Oakley reacts next year. Most of the day was spent relaxing and making a yule log. My dad is a really good french cook and most of our holiday feasts include a few french recipes.

This Yule log requires about 2 dozen eggs, 6 sticks of butter, and 10 hours of labor, but so worth it!! And yes, I did make those meringue mushrooms, they were delish!

Grandpa gave Oakley her first Cornell hoodie, the first of many no doubt!!

A super quick family pic before saying good-byes. Hey that rhymed!

After a second frenzy of present opening the next day at my mom's, we were off to the Pringle's house for our third Christmas. We were probably there 10 minutes before we tore into our third round of presents.

Breakfast with Nana.

One more shot of that little stinker:

Here's a picture of my very first Christmas, I was 11 months old. Still think Oakley looks like Dave? Okay she does a little:)

A post from Dave

2010-01-16T09:54:00.003-05:00

SO,
after a year and a half of nagging from Elise to contribute to "our blog" I have decided to write a little tidbit. As a preamble, I need to tell anyone who reads this that anytime I use a journal/diary/blog, it is usually to rant. I will ask forgiveness first for what is about to come, and hope to keep this rant as short/nice as possible.
Hmm, how to bring this up and make it so people keep reading? How does one keep another persons' eyes from rolling?
I know! A PARABLE!
(commence eye roll)

Once upon a time there was this nice family of 3 who did everything in their power to choose the right. They would go out of their way to donate their time in the community. They would give of their substance by paying tithing to the church they went to. They would try their hardest to follow every law of man. They wanted to raise their child, and future children, with morals and a strong sense of what is right.
Over time this family realized that doing what is right, even though some times harder, is very rewarding and ....

AWWW Screw it.. I can't make this nice. sorry.

WHY DOESN'T ANYONE RECYCLE!!???
PA makes it sooooo easy. You get a tub, put garbage that is not really garbage in THAT tub. You take it out the same day as garbage, and SHAZAM! you just recycled. Are people AGAINST recycling? Are you against NOT throwing away aluminum ? a non renewable metal that was dug from the earth. Are you against not throwing plastic bottles ? which need 1.5 million barrels of oil a year to create. I know that in Utah it's like impossible to recycle... but now that it's easy, does being from Utah give you a pass so that you still don't have to do it? Does everyone know that it is a LAW in PA?
"Recycling is mandatory for every resident, business, office and institution in the City of Pittsburgh (City Code 619). "
I understand lazy. I am lazy. I epitomize laziness. But seriously! you are already going to take this stuff to the curb on Tuesday anyways! Just do it. If Dave Pringle can do it...

Any questions on how or what to put in the recycle bin click HERE

calming
calming
calm

OK then. such a nice parable.
comments welcome, just know that if anyone says anything about not recycling because the earth will be cleansed with fire, prepared to be scoffed and laughed at.
your truly,
Dave

EWWWW Gross!! This is what happens to the plastic bottles you don't recycle. Its called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and its formed by ocean currents that cause marine trash to accumulate in an area twice the size of Texas!!

Donate-a-Day

2010-01-06T13:15:00.016-05:00

Happy New Year! I'm sorry not to have any family posts up yet but we just got a new camera and I'm a little overwhelmed with the massive amount of pictures I have to sort through. But this post will be equally as exciting, I promise.

New Years resolutions: We've all made them and broke them, and then made the same ones again. This year I've decided to do something a little different. Inspired by the movie "The Cove", I realized what I needed to do. As much as being a stay-at-home mom brings me more joy than I ever imagined, I still find myself searching for something else to define who I am. I've tried sewing bags for additional income or going to yoga classes to improve my body. Nothing has really filled that void until I came up with this plan:

Donate-a-day:
I am going to donate one day every month to a charity for the next year. Whether that be working in a soup kitchen or helping to build a house, I want to better the world we live in. One day a month doesn't seem like much but its a start. I'll keep you posted on what I'm doing for the month and if you live in Pittsburgh you can come along! Want to join in? You should! Why not resolve to help others this year instead of helping ourselves. (You can even get a free ticket to a Disney theme park)

JANUARY:

Ever since the 2nd grade I have been infatuated with the ocean and marine life. I started out as a marine biology major at BYU and spent two months in Monterrey, CA studying our ocean's creatures. I've been scuba diving a handful of times and cannot even begin to describe the high I get from viewing ocean life up close. I even got engaged in an aquarium!! Marine animals will always have a special place in my heart and that's why after seeing "The Cove", I felt the need to do something to help. You can help too! Watch the movie "The Cove" (rent it at a redbox for $1) and check out this website to see what you can do to help stop the unnecessary slaughter of dolphins.

Scuba Diving with some classmates in Monterrey. (I'm the short one)

Salt Lake City Aquarium, where Dave proposed.

Random dolphin fact: Did you know that dolphins are one of only four animals that are self aware? Only elephants, apes, humans and dolphins can recognize that they are looking at themselves in a mirror.

Here's the Plan:
As a farewell to my sewing site, I still have to get rid of the rest of my inventory. I have three diaper bags left and I will be selling them for $15 each!! (I'll even pay to ship them) All the money made from the bags will be donated to Oceanic Preservation Society. E-mail me if you would like to purchase one of these bags at elisepringle@yahoo.com. First come, first serve!

***All the bags are gone, thanks for supporting a great cause!!***

Best Kept Secret

2009-12-20T22:05:00.003-05:00

Okay I have to admit, I've been keeping something from you. I don't even know why, I chalk it up to pure laziness- of which I have plenty. Anyway, my good friend Keri is one of those people who is amazingly talented at everything she does. Lucky for you she has started her own business of hand making some seriously stylish hair accessories. Keri has been my "partner in crime" while have shared a tent selling stuff at the strip district. I can tell you these headbands and clips are much cuter than what you'd find at Nordstrom and because of Keri's immaculate attention to detail, much better quality. Check out her Etsy shop, Bold Minimalist, and you'll see what you've been missing. This is one of my fav's, it's even named after me:)

Oh and did I mention she's having a give away? Check it out here.

SALE

2009-12-17T02:06:00.001-05:00

I'm having a pretty sweet sale on my sewing blog, check it out!

A little bit of this...

2009-12-10T00:31:00.006-05:00

After being inspired by my friend Melanie's post today, I decided to try my hand at a little amateur Photoshop editing. Let's just say its about the most frustrating thing I've experienced. Today is the first time in several months of Photoshop frustration that I felt like I finally made a break through. A little tiny break through and I really only learned how to use a few buttons. And I'm not saying a did a good job using those buttons so don't judge. Anyway, here are my edits...

Most of my excitement comes from finally knowing how to cover up zits.

That's all you get! Here are more pictures from our trip home for Thanksgiving. We had a fun time fitting in all the family you could possibly see in just 4 days and we're excited to go home again in just two weeks for Christmas. Let's hope Oakley decides to sleep this time.

Look at those little chubby feet!

Three generations: My mom, me and Oakley. Each one shorter than the last.

Oakley is now fluent in two words: "da-da and mum". The best part is she says "mum" when she's upset or wants my attention. She reserves "da-da" for expressing her happiness and excitement. I know she doesn't understand what those words mean yet but it certainly feels like she does.

I seriously think Oakley looks a lot like her cousin Jack in this picture!

Drama...

2009-11-23T12:53:00.005-05:00

Okay so the past couple of days have been a little interesting. We'll start with little miss Oakley. She is getting her first tooth!! I know... she's so big. This was discovered by none other then her daddy, the dentist. I happened to be selling crafts at the strip district and missed the initial discovery. And for some reason, that made me want to cry. (I didn't actually cry- I have a heart of stone) How could I miss such a big milestone in my baby's life? Anyway, the excitement has since worn off and I'm now realizing this just means extra crankiness. Which would be okay except for the fact that yesterday my body decided to get a vicious stomach bug. Oh yes, I mean even my toast and saltines were coming right back up. And not to be graphic but the worst thing about throwing up is the feeling that you're about to die right before it happens. Am I painting a picture for you?... cranky baby, pukey mom. And even that would have been okay IF I wasn't supposed to speak in church yesterday. So here I was trying to write my talk, not throw up on the floor and deal with the baby. I don't know why I insisted on still writing my talk (or speech), oh wait- its because my husband kept giving me the pep talk. "You're not that sick" "What would Jesus do?" "It'll only take you 10 minutes, you can handle anything for 10 minutes!" So I wrote my talk, got dressed, dragged myself into the car and headed to church. We get there and I realize, there is no way I'm giving this talk. I'm so nauseous, I can hardly stand. So my sweet husband goes up to the 1st counselor and breaks the news to him, (his exact words) "We have a code red, my wive is about to puke." Fine. Great. I get in the car and somehow drive myself back home. So back at church, Dave ended up speaking for like 30 minutes after they announced that I was "incapacitated" and wouldn't be able to speak today. INCAPACITATED!! Really they could have used a much better word. Then Dave starts getting all sorts of questions about what's going on. And to answer one of them: NO I AM NOT PREGNANT!! Anyway, just a little dramatic, way more attention than this little stomach bug deserved. Today I'm feeling much better. The 1/4 cup of applesauce I've eaten today seems to be staying down and the 12 hours of sleep last night really helped. I'm still pretty tired which is why I'm blogging instead of packing for a trip that we're leaving on tomorrow. Okay, here's some pictures. After reading this long post I guess you deserve it!

Here's her tooth, can't you see it?!

Getting a picture of her tooth was not easy. She was very fascinated with the camera.

Our biking adventures

My Testimonial

2009-11-14T21:38:00.008-05:00

Of late I have found myself obsessed, taken, in LOVE, if you will. What could it possibly be? I'll give you a hint- its something you would never expect from me (an avid Nordstrom shopper). It's CRAIGSLIST!!! I'm really not a bargain shopper (TJ Maxx gives me anxiety) and I normally wouldn't be caught dead buying something second hand. But dental school has forced me to broaden my horizons (mom- you must be so proud! But seriously I'm not switching to soy milk, just give up on that one;). Craigslist has become my new hobby, and here are a few reasons why:

Before moving to Pittsburgh Dave and I decided to downsize to one car. We sold my Toyota Echo (aka. souped-up golf cart) ON CRAIGSLIST in one day- for cash!!!
Oakley's bedroom furniture: a 4 in 1 crib, HUGE dresser, glider, trunk and bookshelf all previously used by one child. The dresser alone retails for over $400 at Babies R Us. I paid $650 for everything! (Plus she threw in a wipes warmer (a $20 value) and Dave accidentally stole her scissors- opps!)
Recently I've had this crazy desire to go biking. In order to accompany Miss Oakley we needed a child's bike trailer and a bike rack. Bike Trailer: Trek Go-Bug that retails for over $400, used twice; we paid $75. Bike Rack: Bell Triple-Back, new-in-box that retails for $60; we paid $30.
Now we've found a highchair for Oakley: Chicco Polly, used a few times for $70, retails for $150. And I have big plans to replace our refrigerator, which mysteriously keeps leaking water, for a fairly new one- only $150.

Anyway, I had to share the love (or brag). And an added bonus- a great tour of the city. We have found some of the nicest neighborhoods in Pittsburgh thanks to my Craigslist adventures. In fact our little tours have convinced us to stay here, possibly permanently. There you have it, Craigslist has changed my life. It could change yours too, I highly recommend it.

**I was not paid to say any of this**

Bug-A-Boo

2009-11-04T00:34:00.005-05:00

Isn't this terrible!? These are the only pictures we took of our baby on Halloween! We dragged this little lady bug to the dental school for a Halloween parade, a trunk or treat and then to a costume/birthday party and only managed to get these two lousy pictures of her. For the record, Oakley was a doll. She didn't mind her antenna and spent most of the time trying to eat her tulle skirt while mom and dad wolfed down her candy. Maybe next year we'll let her enjoy a few Halloween treats but for now she'll have to celebrate with some seasonal pureed squash- yum!

Mmmmm

2009-10-16T08:46:00.003-04:00

A lot has happened in the last month including a trip home and two trips to Orlando. (I know, I feel a little spoiled) There will be more on that later but one momentous occasion that took place right here in Pittsburgh was the introduction of rice cereal to Oakley's diet.

Oakley's fascination with the spoon resulted in whole lot of rice cereal on the face.

Her bib says "too cute to eat my veggies" which has always been my philosophy.

Dr. Dad pulling out his dental skills...

Lets hope not all Dave's patients are this temperamental.

And the winner is....

2009-10-15T18:35:00.002-04:00

Jaimie!!! Lucky comment #17. Thank you to everyone that entered and helped spread the word about my new blog. I really appreciate all your support! And as a special treat to all those who supported me, I'll sell you any bag off my website for $10 off the price. Just e-mail me to get details. And Jaimie...like I said any bag, your choice (unless is says sold) is yours! Email me your address at elisepringle@yahoo.com. Thanks again and stay tuned... this won't be the last give away;)

GIVE-A-WAY!!!

2009-09-29T01:25:00.010-04:00

And so it begins.... My once adored hobby-turned-obsession has turned into a little side business of its own. It started off in the strip district of Pittsburgh where I may have been a little overpriced for the area. I made more bags, boppy covers, you name it in one week than most people should ever consider making in a lifetime. My big debut turned out to be not as big as I had hoped.

So now I turn to the blogging world to see if I can get my piece of the American pie. Many of you already have a diaper bag or birdie sling or both and have no need to purchase a new one. Well that is where the GIVE-A-WAY comes into play. I am giving away one of my bags- your choice (unless it says SOLD) to the lucky winner (I'll pay the shipping!). And how may you ask do you enter this incredible GIVE-A-WAY?? Well, all you need to do is to write a post introducing my new sassy site and post a comment below then you will have your chance at winning the bag of your choice!

P.S. MAKE SURE YOU MENTION THAT IT IS A GIVE AWAY!!

Oh yeah, the deadline for entering is 10/14/09.

Trot Trot to Boston...

2009-09-15T10:31:00.013-04:00

Ahh don't you just love coming home from vacation. The huge pile of laundry, the dirty car and that random smell you can't quite pinpoint in your kitchen. Then there's the realization the your vacation is over and that looming vacation blog you have to write that no one really wants to read. But lets get real, everyone gets bragging rights so here I go...

Labor Day weekend 2009: Boston

That's right, Dave, Oakley and I headed over for a visit with my brother, Aleks and his family. We had an amazing time. Boston is probably the coolest city in the US (that I've been to). Its big with lots of fun things to do but not overwhelmingly big like NYC. Both of my parents grew up in the Boston area and its a place that I've been to visit more times than I can remember. Its always been my favorite city and after this trip, it still remains at #1. One of its best attributes is the rich history of the area that is kept alive by the beautifully well-maintained buildings. We walked part of the "Freedom Trail" which takes you around the city's historic sites. This is the Old State house in front of which the Boston Massacre occurred.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson. If you have the time, just go check it out for yourself.

Here we are right outside the Boston aquarium, my favorite thing to see there. I love aquariums! For those of you who don't know, Dave actually proposed to me in an aquarium. I know, he's quite the romantic:)

Oakley and her cousin Issac. Issac's 15 months older than Oakley.

The whole crew: Thanks Aleks and Laura for an amazing vacation!

Oakley had a pretty fun time.

So here Dave, Oakley and I are all set to go on our whale watch. Sad news was that all whale watches were canceled that day due to some rough seas. Oh well, that just means we have to go back another time.

So instead of whale watching, we headed over to the North End to get some amazing Italian food. Also one of the best things about Boston... the food! The North End is basically the Italian part of Boston (this is actually where my Nana was born). And this picture doesn't really do it justice. The entire area really looks like you wandered over into Italy. The food is amazing but the best part are the cannoli. If you ever go to Mike's pastries order a "Lobster Tail". Its a puff pastry that's full of probably a pound of cream filing. Dave and I polished one of those off along with 3 cannoli. Sick huh? Also we enjoyed some good chowda (as the Bostonians would say), steamers (steamed clams) and frappes (milkshakes).

On our way back we stopped off at Dave's parents house who were kind enough to watch our dogs while we were out gallivanting. Dave's mom treated us to some portraits of Oakley. Despite the fact that she cried for most of it, we were able to get some pretty cute shots.

This little girl is now 4 months old and weighs 15.3 lbs. She's in the 95% for weight and height, yeah she's a big one!

Whew, that was a long post! Kudo's to you if you've made it this far.

Secret Weapon

2009-08-27T13:33:00.007-04:00

Oakley has been up to her cute little antics as usual. Her adorable smile and dimples are charming old ladies at grocery stores across Pittsburgh. She still loves to watch T.V. This morning I caught her on her play mat at a half roll (from back to tummy!) with her head cocked just so she could see the TV. Can you blame her though, Ellen was on. She's also dead set against any type of napping schedule that I've tried to put her on. So I've thrown in the towel (and a few books) and I let her do what she wants. That's right, I'm denouncing BabyWise! But ever since we've come to terms she's decided to sleep in until 8 or 9am which makes us both a lot happier. (Take that BabyWise!) Her latest and greatest trick is her giggle, its her secret weapon to make daddy and mommy play with her instead of putting her to bed. This may be Gods way of trying to convince me to have more children. Sorry, after my labor experience you're going to have to try a lot harder than that! (like helping me drop those last 10 lbs!) And here is that adorable little giggle for you to enjoy: (I know, she's only in a diaper but she managed to puke on 5 outfits in a row and then all of a sudden be adorable.)

ROAR!

Cutie Patootie

2009-08-16T23:51:00.002-04:00

This little girl is just too adorable!

Oakleyisms and Trip Home

2009-08-13T22:09:00.005-04:00

I swear Oakley is getting cuter by the hour. But she's also developing her little personality and with a mix between Dave and me, it's bound to be interesting. Here's a couple of things we've figured out about her so far...

1. She LOVES her "binky". In most major breakdowns it is the only thing that will calm her down.

2. She's not a big fan of all the giant flowers I keep trying to put on her head. Most likely because they end up here... but I'm not giving up!

3. She likes to sleep with something over her face.

4. She's already a T.V. addict! Yes, this is her glued to the tube despite all my antics to try and get her attention. Its almost impossible for her to nurse if she suspects the T.V.'s on.

5. She also loves to try and fit both hands in her month. Her Daddy can put his whole fist is his mouth so I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree! (Not Pictured)

6. Oakley already knows mommy and daddy. And unfortunately for me and for the grandparents she stiffens up like a board when anyone else tries to hold her.

(Oakley with Grandpa- my dad)

Anyway, here are some pictures from our trip back home. Dave and I spent the weekend with his parents and then I went up to spend the rest of the week with my family. We had a great time and even managed to get all the grandkids there in one picture: (we missed you Aaron and Harmony!)

Left to Right: Avery (twin #1), Kasia, Oakley, Issac, Haven (twin #2)

Fun times at the Carousel!

My attempt at taking some cute pictures of Haven in the sprinklers:

We had a pretty fun time but by the end were both ready to come home to our own beds, a little less noise, and Dave.

Searching for Home

2009-07-28T09:35:00.008-04:00

A couple of weeks ago Dave and I took our big trip out west. We are looking for a place to "settle down" after Dave finishes school. We really have no ties and no idea where we're headed. (Any suggestions?) Somehow the idea of living in Portland or Seattle has been really appealing to us. It has the greenery that we love, the ocean and that great city planning thing unlike most places out east. So since we go home to New York all time, we decided to use our summer trip to do some future home scouting. Dave's parents also came along for the adventure and despite some serious traffic, crying and being squished in a car together for days, we managed to have a pretty awesome time. And for bragging purposes I just have to say how amazing Oakley was. On the Airplane, in the hotels, at friends houses, and in the car, she is just a sweet little angel! Now for the pictures...

Mount St. Helen's

Seattle (And No, I didn't wear the same shirt two days in a row, we really did it all in one day!)

The Pringles- not us, Dave's parents

Seattle Temple- again same really long day!

The Japanese Gardens in Portland- my favorite part of the trip!

Japanese Gardens again, which by the way are not stroller friendly, we found that out the hard way!

Dave's dad taking a picture at Cannon beach. I guess this rock is in the movie "Goonies" which I admit I've never seen. I know, I was a deprived child!

Fort Stevens- and the kid in the red coat would not get out of the picture so I got impatient and just took it!

This was at a restaurant. Oakley fell asleep in my arms pulling her little hat down like this, so stinking cute!!

And the verdict was.... 1- Portland 1- East Coast. I really loved it, every bit of it and I could totally picture myself living there. Dave was almost sold until we got to the beach. He was soooo disappointed that the ocean was freezing cold and pretty much unswimable. I admit east coast beaches are a lot more fun but west coast beaches are so beautiful. Anyway I had told him many times that the ocean was cold out west but he thought I was just being a wimp. And he made the comment "I don't understand what all those people from California are bragging about, west coast beaches stink!". I thought that was pretty funny since most of the people I know from California are always talking up the beaches. No hard feelings west coasters but our beaches here win by a landslide!

Big Moves, Baby-haters and Birthday Wishes

2009-07-23T10:16:00.009-04:00

Oakley is getting so big! At her 2 month Dr.'s appointment she was 11 lbs 10 oz and 24 1/4 in long. She's super tall (who would've thought that would happen?!), she's in the 95% for height and already in 6 months PJ's. And here's the big news in her life..... she's rolling over! (Tummy to back only) Crazy but she did it for the first time a few days after her 2 month appointment. She performs her little trick about once a day but gets frustrated when I put her back on her tummy after all her hard work. I'm still trying to capture it in video so you can all see her little trick. As you can see she's holding her head up really well now.

As for me and Dave things are going really well. Dave just started clinic and is working on real patients. So far its been quite an experience! I'm just loving being a mom which if you know me is a little surprising. Recently some friends have keyed me into just how awkward I was around babies. For example, there was the time I visited my friend and her newborn baby in the hospital and hardly paid any attention to the baby much less asked to hold him! Or the time I went to visit another friend who just had a baby and held the poor little boy like a rotten potato about a foot away from my body for like a 1/2 hour! What can I say, I only wanted to have a baby to stay home and hang out with my friends. I assure you I'm a much different person now. I absolutely think babies are the cutest and love their little smiles. Well I just ran into another baby-phobic friend and had good a look in the baby-hater mirror. We stayed with some old college friends in Portland (Portland blog soon to be posted) and our friend Andrea shared the same dislike for kids I used to have. At first I was totally confused as to why she didn't ask to hold my baby and didn't tell me how absolutely adorable Oakley is. Then it clicked... baby-phobia! I saw exactly how I must've been around other peoples babies. So I want to send out a big apology for my pre-baby behavior. Its not that I didn't think your babies were cute and adorable, I just wasn't interested in babies at all. And if you share that same baby-phobia I used to have, don't worry it goes away about 2 seconds after you have your own. I sure love this little girl and can't picture my life without her. If you remember any of my awkward pre-baby moments please share, its funny to me now!

I want to send out birthday wishes to my mom. Her birthday was like two weeks ago but we all know what a procrastinator I am. I just have to tell what an awesome mom I have, she's the best! We're complete opposites in many ways but still best friends. We talk about 1 to 3 times a day on the phone and she's always willing to listen to me whine about whatever. Thanks for staying with me for 2 weeks after Oakley was born and waiting on my every whim! Anyway, happy 60th mom! You don't look a day over 40!

Mom- can we consider this your Birthday Card? I'll be on the ball next year, I promise!

Untitled

2009-07-10T21:49:00.002-04:00

Untitled because I'm leaving it up to you to come up with a good title for this picture. All I have to say is... we all knew this would happen. At least Oakley seems perfectly content to lay with her daddy while he plays X-box...for now.

Oakley Update

2009-06-21T21:52:00.005-04:00

Not too much to say. Here are some pictures of Oakley for the grandparents. Oakley is getting cuter by the day. She loves when her dad or I talk to her and she'll give us the biggest smile. She has this really cute 'pouty' face where she sticks out her bottom lip right before she cries. We have yet to really capture it on camera but I haven't given up yet. As for the rest of us... Dave just finished finals and is now officially a 3rd year dental student! I'm busy with the baby and I've started running trying to drop the baby weight. Don't be impressed, a 70 yr old grandma passed me on the track the other day.

Ahh...

Ahhh...

Chuuuuu!

Daddy is sooo funny!

It's just so sad!!

Fun times on the playmat!

Sooo big!

The rare right-side smile, she's usually a lefty.

Happy First Father's Day Dave! This is a cute little hamburger/cupcake Father's Day treat my friend Keri arranged for us to make the other day. I can't take any credit for it but it was a lot of fun putting these treats together. Dave thoroughly enjoyed them! And to Dave's credit he has been a great dad! He loves holding and playing with Oakley and is willing to help out. He's even done some 4 am feedings and babysat while I went out with the girls. Dave thanks for being such a great dad and husband!

Happy Father's Day Dad! We miss you and hope to see you soon!

Cute Photos

2009-06-09T18:57:00.002-04:00

So here are some pictures my friend Melanie took of Oakley when she was just a few days old.

One Month Old

2009-06-08T22:44:00.004-04:00

Oakley is now one month old and adjusting to life out of the womb. So far Oakley is a good eater and has a really good 3 hour schedule down. She only wakes up one time at night and takes a bottle so daddy can feed her every once in a while. We're still figuring out a nap schedule, she usually has two times out of the day where she just screams for a few hours. I'm still recovering and realized after a long walk yesterday that I still need to take it easy. Dave loves being a daddy and is always willing to help out. And I can get him to do just about anything as long as he doesn't have to change a poopy diaper- a fair trade off for me! Anyway, I can't believe its already been one month. So far we've love being parents and we love our little girl even more.

Baby Blessing

2009-06-02T19:47:00.005-04:00

Memorial day weekend we drove up to New York to bless Oakley. We squished the three of us, my mom and both dogs into the car and headed up for the 6 hour drive. Besides being way too crowded the drive went pretty well. Oakley really likes riding in the car but only if you're driving fast!

The crew includes Dave's parents and grandma, my mom and her husband and my brother's family.

Just the three of us now!

Oakley slept through pretty much everything... gotta love newborns!

Dave and Oakley were both pretty tired out by the whole thing.

My brother Aleks, his wife Laura and Oakley's cousin Issac drove down from Boston.

My Dad and Oakley

Oakley has arrived!

2009-05-16T08:38:00.006-04:00

Oakley Kay Pringle is now one and a half weeks old. I know, this post is a little late! But motherhood has kept me pretty busy. Oakley is a good baby so far. She sleeps a lot and for the most part she has caught on to nursing pretty quickly. She loves being held and absolutely hates taking a bath. She has two adorable dimples that you can see when she smiles. Dave and I absolutely love this little girl and can't picture life without her.

Labor Story:
So after waiting 4 days past my due date I decided to take matters into my own hands. I picked up a bottle of caster oil and at 8pm on Thursday (May 7th) I downed the caster oil and chased it with a Yoo-Hoo. I went to bed disappointed that nothing was happening but woke up at 2am when the caster oil decided to kick in. At 3am I started having contractions and we showed up at the hospital at 7am. I was dilated to 3 cm and my contractions were every 5 minutes lasting about 2-3 minutes long! I suffered through my contractions all morning until they finally gave me the epidural at about 11am. After that it was smooth sailing... for a while. I was dilated 1 cm about every 1-2 hours and at 9pm they decided to break my water to see if things would progress a little more. Things really weren't progressing so at midnight they gave me a little Pitocin. Finally around 2am I was at 10 cm and ready to push. So I pushed and pushed and pushed. After 2 1/2 hours of pushing they told me it was time for a c-section...

Oakley was stuck behind my pelvis bone and it looked like she wouldn't fit through. At this point you can imagine I was pretty devastated. I really didn't want a c-section after all the work I had put in, it just didn't seam fair! Not to mention I was scared out of my mind about having surgery! So I was not in a good state going into the surgery. After they strapped my arms down and put a big blue drape right above my face I started to panic. I was shaking uncontrollably while going in and out of consciousness. Oakley was stuck in my pelvis so they had to make a bigger incision on my uterus. Because of that I lost a lot of blood and the surgery took twice as long. My blood pressure and pulse started dropping and they had to push some epinephrine in my IV to keep me going. Stitching me up took forever! I keep coming to and asking how much longer. Every time they told me 15 minutes. At one point I was getting pretty ticked and asked them "What the hell is taking so long?!" After all was said and done I had a beautiful baby girl that I didn't get to hold until I came to about 2 hours after the surgery. Well at least I know for next time, it can't be worse than that!

Oakley:
Oakley was born at 5:38am on Saturday May 9th. She weighed 7 lbs 14.5 oz, was 20 inches long and she got a 9 on the apgar scale. She has two dimples on her checks and a dimple in her chin. She also has a head full of sandy blond hair.

Ta-da!

2009-05-07T22:36:00.007-04:00

No, I'm still pregnant- no baby yet. And by the way, I'm not happy about it. I've been in a pretty crappy mood so sorry I've been bad at calling/texting. I like to wallow alone in my sorrows.

Something I am happy about is we are almost done with our bathroom. We just have to paint. But good news is I can actually shower at home now! I don't have to keep bumming showers off of Carlee and Rachelle! Anyway, here's a picture of what the shower looks like now. We're still debating about painting above the shower green or white. What do you think??

Before

Post demolition

Tiling

Ta-da!

Ticking Time Bomb...

2009-05-03T10:53:00.011-04:00

So I'm due tomorrow and I'm still here. No baby yet, I'll be sure to update as soon as she comes. I have been staying busy to keep myself from going crazy. One thing I have to get on my little soap box about is the phrase "about to pop". I have been avoiding public areas because looking like your about to have a baby any second gives people the idea they can say all sorts of funny things to you. My least favorite of them is "you look like your about to pop!". I don't understand it, I'm not a toaster or a balloon someone filled with too much air. It makes me feel like I'm a time bomb and everyone is just waiting for me to go off! I guess the stress of my last week of pregnancy is really getting to me.

All right, here's the fun news. Dave and I decided to be a little crazy and rip apart our shower this week. We renovated the rest of our bathroom last year and the shower has been waiting for Dave's next vacation. It just so happens that he had last week off and luckily, I haven't had a baby yet... Here's a picture of what our shower looks like right now. We're going to tile today so hopefully we'll make good progress before Oakley gets here. In the mean time, we're a pretty smelly bunch!

Here's a picture of Oakley's room ready and waiting for her to come. I still have to put up more pictures on the other side and I'm really excited because my friend Michelle and I are working on Oakley's name in cute wooden letters. I'll have to post a picture of the finished project when its up.

Tuesday, April 28th Dave and I celebrated our 3rd year anniversary! I can't believe we've been married 3 years already. To celebrate Dave surprised me with 2 dozen roses and we took a trip to the outlet malls. That turned out to be a little disappointing because the only person it was fun to shop for was Oakley. Even shoe shopping was out for me, it took a couple of stores and some tears for me to come to that conclusion. Anyway, Dave- thanks for a wonderful 3 years! I love you!

Three years ago... its a little depressing to look at these pictures 9 months pregnant. We'll just call those my future "after" pictures, I will look like that again!

Right now it probably would take all those guys to lift me up!

Crepe Night with the girls and good-bye to Jana:( We'll miss you!!

Sewing mama!

2009-04-26T23:51:00.006-04:00

So I just have to show off what I have been doing over the last month. I don't know why I've become obsessed with sewing all of a sudden but at least its been a productive craze for me. If you told me 3 years ago I'd be really into sewing I would've laughed in your face, and then I'd whisk my Coach bag over my shoulder as I walked away! But I've really had a lot of fun sewing with friends and I'm planning on starting a sewing blog with all that we do in our sewing group. Yes, I've organized a sewing group and we do super cute projects! I guess I still have a week of waiting...we'll see if I'm motivated enough to start another blog!

Boppy cover with zipper!

Onesies I appliqued

My 5 Birdie Slings- This one I made for Tiffany

The 5 diaper bags I've made- I made another black one for Mandy

The Waiting Game

2009-04-26T23:14:00.005-04:00

Yes I know, I'm bad at blogging. Right now I'm a little preoccupied with playing the "waiting game". Sounds a bit boring but I've managed to keep myself busy. I have one week left until D-day and I'm finally reaching the point where I've had enough. I'm ready to have this baby... out of me at least. I've sewed my way through the last month of pregnancy and now I'm done. My feet are swollen, my back hurts and I keep having random contractions that I know don't mean anything but fool me every time! Well here's a run down of whats been going on the last two months....

I got my braces off!
I stopped working!
Dave finished his second year!
I've made 5 diaper bags and 5 birdie slings (birdie sling=purse)
I've had a blast hanging out with friends and doing whatever I want!

Ok, some pictures:

Gag! And this was the best one out of 40- yuck!

Last lunch with the Oakland working girls, I'll miss you guys!

What Dave did most of finals week!

I'm about to lay an egg

2009-03-15T21:03:00.006-04:00

Nesting....

Well it has been way too long and really, I have no excuse. I've actually been preoccupied with making ridiculous amounts of baby stuff. I guess nesting is one of those things where you're supposed to be in some cleaning frenzy but considering that's my normal state, I've taken it up a notch. I'll keep this short since I'm about to make a boppy cover (boppy is a nursing pillow for those of you who don't know). I know you can buy them at the store but I couldn't find a cover good enough so yeah, I'm making it!

I'll start off with a nice huge pregnant picture: So far I've only received one twin comment, there's still time...

So this was my first project, hair clips. Thanks to my talented friend Melanie I got hooked on making these.

Then I went to wipes cases (thanks again Melanie), and yes, I need two of them. I also made this block quilt to go with Oakley's crib set.

Then I just had to knit her a baby blanket and I learned how to make burp cloths.

So then I was onto flannel baby blankets- I've made 13 of them. (The missing ones are gifts). And I still have four more in the works! Thanks goes to Meridith on this one.

Last but definitely not least is my new diaper bag. My talented friend Amy made a super cute one and I just had to too!

This is not the end of the madness. Oh no, I've got plans for a boppy cover, diaper stacker, another knitted blanket, another crib sheet (I've made one of those too- thanks Libby) and at least one more diaper bag. I'm also planning on learning to make appliques on onesies, baby booties, bibs and a baby wipes case holder. I've got 7 weeks left and I'm going to make the best of it! Well at least I'll make the most stuff.

26 & 26!

2009-01-29T17:19:00.009-05:00

Well for those of you who forgot or didn't know, yesterday was my Birthday:) I'm now 26 years old, closer to 30 than 20! Anyway, I had to work but besides that it was a fun day. I'm also 26 (almost 27) weeks pregnant. So to celebrate, I'm gifting you with a picture of my huge belly. Go ahead, laugh, I do everyday. I'm getting so huge and I still have 3 months to go! I'm going to look like I swallowed a basketball by the end. Oh well, its all worth it right?! Also here's a picture of Oakley at 19 weeks. (I think she has Dave's nose.)

My solitary confinement from the web

2009-01-11T09:33:00.010-05:00

Almost four weeks ago my favorite pet, Lucy, decided to knock over our cable Internet box and there by ruin my life for the past month. I don't know how she managed it but in one swipe of her paw, she destroyed our cable modem and my will to live (okay, a little dramatic). We didn't have time to find a replacement in the few days before heading up to New York for Christmas since our house was completely torn apart while we were trying to refinish our floors. After we returned home to the same disaster, we were too busy trying to put our house together to find a replacement. Once we finally had the time to look for a new modem, we realized our idea that it would be a cheap $15 replacement was a little off. The modems we saw in the 5 different stores were all around $65-$70 and our on little budget, that was just out of the question. In our attempt to save money we finally ordered a cheap replacement from eBay. This was only managed by using a computer at Best Buy while receiving many suspicious looks from the employees. We finally received our new modem yesterday and discovered that somehow our wireless modem also bit the dust. So despite the inconvenience of having to sit on the floor of the nursery we're painting to plug into the web, I'm happy to once again be connected to the world. When I was trying to come up with a title for this blog I stumbled upon the definition of solitary confinement and felt it suited my feelings exactly...
Solitary Confinement is a punishment or special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is denied contact with any other persons, it has also been called a form of torture.

Friday Night I went with some friends to see the movie Marley and Me. I highly recommend it, especially if you have dogs. While watching the movie I found myself reminiscing about all the wonderful experiences I've had with my lab, Lucy. I'd thought I would share some of the magical moments we've had in the last two and a half years of having Lucy in our home.

The time Lucy ran over to our next door neighbors house, knocked their 2-year-old to the pavement and peed in their entryway. They moved shortly after that!
The time Lucy peed on our friends love sac.
The many times Lucy peed on our own love sac, and especially the two times she did it right above Dave's head!
The time we had to rush home from my Grandparents house on July 4th to pay a $300 vet visit after Lucy had gotten extremely sick from eating cat food and too much rawhide.
The time Lucy and an entire bottle of my antibiotics (yes, including the bottle). If you ever have to make a dog vomit, just use one tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide and they'll be puking all day!
The two pairs of my rainbow flips flops she ate ($50 a pair, that's a $100 chew toy.)
The time she got an anal glad infection and we had to again pay a $200 emergency vet visit.
The time we she puked on my very expensive coach purse in the moving truck.
The time she broke out into little blood blisters all over her body in the moving truck to Pittsburgh and again we went to the vet and had to pay only $100 that time.
The many, many ears infections we've had to treat her for.
The three times animal control has shown up to our house because our neighbors complained about our dog barking too much.
The three rugs, wooden chair and many kitchen towels she eaten.
The many many times (including yesterday) shes eaten her food too fast and puked it up on my rug.
The many times she's knocked over the trash can. Notice all our trash cans and laundry basket now have lids.
Dave's flip flops, shoes, and hats she's destroyed.
The time she ate her own dog bed and her own dog dishes.
The time she opened the fridge and ate a whole Kielbasi.
And last but not least, all the black hair she sheds which can be found anywhere from my cereal bowl to stuck in my clean clothes.

All the same, I know that deep down somewhere, I still love my dog.

The results are in.......

2008-12-07T18:38:00.008-05:00

So Dave and I took a nice little trip to get my momentous ultrasound this week and got some very good news. My placenta previa has gone away, the baby looks perfectly healthy and ITS A GIRL!!! So your vote really did count! Ha ha! Well I really thought I had some type of mother's intuition, I was convinced I was having a boy. I'm very happy to be wrong!
We've already decided on a name Oakley Kay Pringle. I came up with the name one day after Dave was talking about a bench instructor at school with the last name Oakley. It just clicked for both of us. Anyway, I'm including some preggo shots for Harmony even though I'm a little opposed to having my picture taken right now because of the braces.

And here are some cute shots of the girls. I'm a little nervous that Cleo is going to have some serious jealousy issues when the baby comes. She spends her time cuddling up to me every minute she can, its so cute!

A Night to Remember....

2008-11-05T20:17:00.004-05:00

A new America emerged last night after a moment that we will remember for the rest of our lives. The crowd spoke and history answered. As Lyndon Johnson famously said “We shall overcome” and we finally have. I’m not here to say this is a historic moment because a black man became president, but because we now belong to a country where racism has faded to the point where a black man can be elected president. Many of us are too young to remember the days of civil rights and Martin Luther King Jr. but, in our time racism has exposed its ugly face. I still remember hearing about my brother’s friend. He was good student who stayed out of trouble. He was an African-American who lived close by in a suburban neighborhood. He was the victim of a viscous hate crime where he was attacked by two white boys who knew nothing about him besides the fact he was black. I was shocked! I had always lived in a diverse area that I thought was devoid of racism. But still in my own hometown, to a family friend, racism reared its ugly face. Today I woke up more proud to be an American than I can ever remember. There are few moments in our lives that will deeply imprint in our hearts that cannot be forgotten. Last night we experienced one of those moments, a moment where all Americans truly became equal. I whole-heartedly support our president elect and not because of the color of his skin, but for the integrity and intelligence that he exudes. I believe he is the best man for this job. I believe in the America he has inspired.

Obama's victory speech

No negative comments please.

Another vote?!

2008-11-04T22:11:00.002-05:00

In the spirit of election day I've decided to give you all the chance to decide what I'm having... Well not really, but you can put in your two cents and vote on whether you think we're having a boy, girl or, from what my ultrasound picture shows, an alien. I'm hoping to have the results soon, like a few weeks. I'm strongly campaigning for a girl although, in this case I would be happy with either candidate (maybe not alien).

Baby Pics

2008-11-01T23:41:00.003-04:00

I'd like to think the baby was sucking his/her thumb, cute!

This is the baby's face, apparently we're having an alien.

This post is long over due. In my defense the last month has been spent in a haze of sleepiness. I can't complain too much about pregnancy. I haven't had any morning sickness and the nausea really isn't that bad. But, I have been unbelievably tired. My days are spent trying to stay awake at work, coming home and taking a 2 hour nap, and then going to bed. I'm 15 weeks along and I think I'm finally getting out of my slump.

So here's an update of what I can recall from my hazy memory... The only news I can really report is a pregnancy complication I have. Don't worry- I've been told its not too big of a deal. I found out after a scare took me on a little trip to the ER that I have placenta previa. The good part was I had an ultrasound and I will have several more to see if the condition clears up. (Let me tell you, this little guy's a kicker!) I won't go into all the little details but the point is that baby's fine and most cases clear up as the baby grows. The real problem is if the condition doesn't go away (only 10% of cases). So I'm just interested if anyone else has had this and if there's anything I should know. At least I'll have lots of ultrasound pictures to post!

Woah Baby!

2008-09-22T18:04:00.008-04:00

Well as many of you know, Dave and I are expecting! I'm due sometime around May 6th but we haven't gone in for our official first appointment yet. I'm about 9 weeks along but unfortunately my first appointment isn't until I'm at 11 weeks. (The place was booked!) I didn't really want to spill the beans just yet but as there was an accidental slip up a week or so ago, I felt that I shouldn't leave everyone in the dark. So this is a big first for us. We've been married about 2 1/2 years and have enjoyed our time together. Now we are preparing to bring our first little one to the family! I'll be sure to keep you guys posted!

See the faint "second line". I wasn't a believer so I had to take a second test.

OBX...aka, THE BEACH!

2008-09-15T22:26:00.007-04:00

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Melanie, Dave and Me catching some waves!

Me, Melanie and Gina- serious boogie boarding chicks!

Just the two of us;)

Labor Day weekend Dave and I headed out for our last big trip of the summer. We were joined by 7 other LDS families which comprised of mostly dental students, an orthodontist resident and a law student. We stayed in a hooked up beach house located in Waves, NC on the Outer Banks. Our house was nice and roomy, allowing each family to have their own room and included a pool table, movie theater, pool and hot tub.
I have to say, OBX is probably my favorite beach! The water was really warm and the boogie boarding was hot! That's pretty much what Dave and I did all week and it was so much fun! We had perfect weather all week until Hurricane Hannah cut us one day short. We did have a few other adventures like ordering a dozen steamed blue crabs with Melanie and Zack, taking them apart and eating them with our bare hands! We visited Cape Hatteras lighthouse, one of the tallest lighthouses in the nation. We also had a lot of good girl time. We would spend our nights playing seriously intense games of Nurtz. All the girls went out for dinner at a yummy crab restaurant. Overall, a great way to say good-bye to summer!

Hurricane Hannah rolling in!

I'm it!

2008-08-23T15:05:00.003-04:00

Tagged. Well I didn't even know I was playing but Michele got me! I've been officially tagged and I know that she thinks I won't play, but I'm proving you wrong Michele! Here are my crazy quirks...

The RULES
1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Post these rules.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them

I'm being lame- if you want to, consider yourself tagged!

1. Being fed food: I do not like it when people try to put food in my mouth. I'll eat whatever it is you're trying to give me, just let me take whatever utensil/weapon your holding and direct it myself. This is probably my quirkiest thing but I just don't like the idea of food being directed toward my face by someone other than me.

2. I can smell dirty clothes: Okay I know most people can smell when clothes are really dirty but if I've worn something more than once, I can smell it. It sounds totally crazy and it may just be in my head. But I think I just have an extraordinary sense.

3. I eat Nutella with a spoon, from the jar. In fact, I've always had such a Nutella obsession that all the girls from my freshman floor were hooked after hanging out with me. I think the quirky thing about it is I love all chocolate and I am probably the worst eater over the age of 8. Here's the clincher, I was a nutrition major. So I am completely aware of all my food mistakes but I just don't care.

4. Shopaholic: yes this one is kind of obvious and I'm sure a lot of people have this problem but you should really come look in my closet. And I actually hate wearing things more than twice. (Plato's closet loves me, I'm their best seller of barely used clothing!) If I ever go shopping and don't buy something, I get depressed. And then I have to buy anything just to feel like I was successful. Whereas most people feel good about not spending $$. It was really bad when I worked at Abercrombie but now I just try and stay away from the malls as much as possible. Its almost like a heroin addiction.

5. I'm kind of out of ideas and I need to go to bed so I'm leaving this one up to you. Yes, feel free to comment on what you think is the quirkiest thing about me. I'm sure there are quite a few if you think about it. Be nice!

Quick like a band-aid!

2008-08-16T09:19:00.006-04:00

So here's my brace face...

Here are some people I work with: (L to R) Melissa, Me, Paulo, Lauren, Melessa. My job has a huge turnover rate because a lot of people work in labs in between college and grad or med school. Everyone is the picture is leaving except for me and Paulo:(

Cowboy Wedding

2008-08-13T22:13:00.002-04:00

Camera crisis solved! I can finally post some of my pictures from my 'star' best friend's wedding in Montana (which was about a month ago).

So Emily and I have been friends ever since I was 2 years old. Our friendship started when my family moved to Ithaca, next door to the Pollaks. We lived there for 12 years. During that time Emily and I had so many adventures in the vast woods behind our house, playing with our Barbies and American Dolls, and avoiding the teasing that came with older brothers. There are few childhood memories I have that don't include Emily. We've remained friends ever since then, even after my family moved across town and we went our separate ways to college. After college Emily moved to New Mexico to do a masters degree in some type of range science. That's where she met her cowboy, Bob.

So last month I flew out to Montana, where Em and Bob were running a ranch together, to be a brides maid at Emmy's wedding. The other two braids maids and I arrived there a few days early to help out with all the wedding details. We ended up having an awesome time! We all stayed in a hotel suite together in the days leading up to the wedding, that was complete with Godiva Chocolate. Thanks to Emily's parents, we had a fun girls night out and some serious spa time before the festivities. Despite several dilemma's that came up beforehand, the wedding was beautiful! It was set in a cowboy style park that had lots of cute old buildings and signs from different places in Montana. The entertainment included a very talented country singer from Utah, Brenn Hill. And the cowboy's two-steppin' was very impressive! (Most guys I know hate to dance) I got pretty good look at cowboy culture and learned about cowboy hat etiquette. I was a little sad when it was all over, it was such a fun time! But I'd left Dave for almost a week and I missed him and the puppies. Plus, I think I'm better suited for city life!

Braces... yuck!

2008-08-07T22:22:00.006-04:00

As some of you may already know I just got braces put on last Friday. It has been quite the experience. I never had braces growing up and I guess this is payback for all the people I made fun of (just kidding, I never really made fun of anyone). First off, there is a lot more pain involved than I imagined. The inside of my mouth looks like raw meat and I can hardly bite down on a piece of bread. Besides that I totally look like I'm 13 and feel a little dumb. Maybe now I won't have such a hard time getting the kid's meal at McDonald's. At this point I'm thinking the crooked teeth were just fine.

Well, for all of you hoping for a picture I have some bad news:) My camera battery has died and I left my charger in Montana, no joke. So I'm including a picture of my once beautiful, but a little crooked smile (mostly my bottom teeth are screwed up). No worries, I'll be sure to post an embarrassing photo or two soon enough.

This is taken back from my days as a Jurassic Park construction worker.

A White Family Reunion!

2008-07-23T22:06:00.011-04:00

The whole Fam!

The Fab Four: me and my brothers

So the weekend following Dave's 50Th birthday party, we headed up to NY again for a family reunion. For those of you who don't know, my maiden name is White (Pringle was an adjustment). So this goes without saying, it was my family reunion.

Well the last time the White family all gathered together was over two years ago at my wedding! We've had several new additions to the family since then (two nephews: Jack and Issac, and my dogs of course!). It was a fun filled weekend with lots of Rock Band, hanging out at the pool and hot tub, hiking, birthdays, dinners and more! We hated saying our good-byes, especially since my brother Aaron and his family are headed off to live in Germany for the next three years. All I have to say is trip to Europe!

So a run down of our weekend:
We started off hiking one of our favorite gorges; Treman falls state park. We celebrated my mom's birthday as well as my nephew, Jack's 1st birthday. We did a little swimming at my dad's pool and celebrated his upcoming 60Th birthday! We also decided to try and organize some family photos. It was decided to try our own luck with our cameras and a tripod. Despite a lot of crying from the kids, a car in the ditch and my mom singing BINGO to the babies while we were trying to get her picture taken; I'd say we were very successful.

It was great to get together with the whole family. I hope we don't have to wait another two years for the next White family reunion! More pictures to come...

Treman Falls

Happy 50th to Dave's Dad, Dave!

2008-07-23T21:47:00.003-04:00

Dave's grandma, Dad, and Mom

Walker^

Twin cars (ours is older by a few days)

Well a lot has happened in the past two months here and quite frankly, I've been too busy/lazy to post anything. But it's gotten to the point where I'm too bored to even look at my own blog page, so here goes. (Just a warning, there will be a few post coming up here all at once!)

So...mid-June we headed up to NY to celebrate Dave's dad's (also Dave) 50th birthday. The months leading up to this event were filled with undercover planning by Dave's mom (Lori). Unfortunately the surprise was spoiled, which often happens with surprise parties. But all together a fun party with great food, friends and family. The party still held a few surprises of its own, including some of the gifts (look for the walker in one of the pictures). We had a wonderful time hanging out with Dave's parents and it was the first time our identical cars met. Yes, we both have the same car. Great minds think alike!

Puppy Love

2008-06-30T20:05:00.005-04:00

Here are a couple of pictures of my adorable girls. Just for your information, taking pictures of dogs is no easy task. Lucky for my blog readers, this means there won't be too many obsessed dog pictures.

Memorial Day Weekend!

2008-06-09T22:41:00.003-04:00

So it took me a while to finally post my Memorial Weekend pictures but I'm new to this whole blogging thing. Anyway, Memorial weekend was a lot of fun. My brother Aaron, his wife Harmony and their baby Jack came to visit from DC and my mom drove down from NY. We had a great time hanging out, playing Rock Band (our new purchase for the weekend), and touring the city. We decided to go on the Gateway Clipper tour of Pittsburgh. It was really crowded but we got to see parts of Pittsburgh I had never seen before. And it was quite possibly the first day this year I didn't need a coat! Everyone took off on Monday afternoon as Dave and I headed over to the ward picnic. It was great to hang out with friends and finally enjoy the nice weather!

New Glasses

2008-05-13T23:20:00.003-04:00

Here's a picture of us with our brand new glasses we picked up today. I don't know how often I'll be seeing Dave's new glasses since he almost threw up after wearing them for 5 minutes. Maybe a waste of money but he looks so handsome. I'll just have to get used to his dentist loops!

Cancunaversary!

2008-05-04T21:15:00.004-04:00

Well, to celebrate our two wonderful years of marriage we decided to take a vacation to Mexico. So bright and early the Saturday after finals we headed to the airport all packed and ready to go. Opps! Only the Pringles would head to Mexico leaving our passports at home, 45 minutes before our flight took off. Thanks to our wonderful friend Tyson, who answered our phone calls at 6am and drove like crazy to bring us our passports, we were able to make the flight. We even had luggage when we got there! We stayed at the beautiful Hilton Hotel, who kindly left us a bottle of Champagne to help us celebrate. (We left a nice surprise for the next guests!)

We started the first day off with a bang, jet skiing through a Mangrove forest to a nice little coral reef. We stopped and did a little bit of snorkeling. Then we went back through the Mangroves hoping to catch a glimpse of the alligators that inhabit the area. When we returned, Dave headed straight to the hotel pool (which was approx. 5 ft deep) to do a 30 minute beginner scuba lesson.

Monday we were off again, to Cozumel for a day of Scuba in the coral reefs. Our first dive was a little scary; poor visibility with a strong current (I was having flash backs to my last terrifying drive in Monterrey!). But we were able to swim through the murky water and strong current to a small reef. The second dive (approx. 50 ft) was an absolutely amazing experience. We drifted along a thriving coral reef, seeing tons of huge fish including two eels and a few puffer fish! We didn't want to leave but Dave's huge lung span ensured that he was the first of the group to run out of air and we all had to surface. (Party pooper!) But overall a wonderful scuba experience, that 30 minute lesson paid off!

We spent the rest of the time laying out by the gorgeous hotel pool, haggling at the flea market and took a nice para sailing ride above the ocean. All in all, our favorite vacation!