Hazel Street

We're embarking on this new journey of buying a house and while all I want to do is run from our old house straight to he new one and put dishes in the dishwasher, I can't help but be a little sad.

This is where I came home to live when I packed up Hurley and left everything I knew almost 7 years ago.  It's small and lacks a dishwasher.  The laundry is in the unfinished basement and there is no room for a growing family.  But it was my home.

This is where Kiel & I first moved in together.  This is where we started our family, bringing our baby boy for his first night home.  Where we lived when we got engaged and married...where we had our biggest disagreements.  This house has seen everything. 

I will miss only cleaning 1 toilet.  I will miss having a landlord to take care of everything, including bringing our garbage cans in on garbage day.  Jase will miss the porch where he loved to play.  He will ask to go "home" often, but eventually he'll realize he's already home.  

We will make new memories in our new home and it will become our new safe place, but this little house on the corner of Hazel & Polk will always have a special place in my heart.

-Nicole 

(I wrote this post back in November when we moved, but forgot to publish it)

Wedding Party

In the spirit of it being 2 weeks until the wedding festivities kick off...a post I started writing months ago.

A shout out to our wedding party most of whom we haven't seen nearly enough in the last few months...

Matron of Honor

Amy Brummel (introduced by our parents in 1983)
As my first friend, enemy, and BFF my older sister wore the title Maid of Honor before I was even born.  We've shared everything from bad matching outfits, to secrets we kept from our parents, advice, criticism, tears, so so many laughs and a lot of unconditional love.  She made me an aunt and gave me the two most amazing nephews and the most beautiful niece I could ever ask for.  She gave me the privilege of being her Maid of Honor at her wedding (good luck topping my speech ;)) when I was just 19 and our relationship has changed so much since then.  At 31, I am truly grateful for the built in best friend I was blessed with. 

Bridesmaids:

Lindsey Voigts (25 year friendship)
I met Lindsey in Mrs. Obraholzer's class at Noah's Ark pre-school where she forced me to be friends with her and changed my life forever.  Like a true sister, we haven't always seen eye to eye, but  somehow wound up with the closest, strongest friendship.  Our boys are destined to be long-distance-lifetime-friends that will give their mothers gray hairs acting just like us, I'm sure.  She is my partner in crime, my devils advocate, the one person in the entire world that knows Every. Single. Thing. about me.  She is, my person.    






Heather Alexander (2003 - sophomore year SIUE)
The first girl to make me feel like an outsider in college by asking me to take a picture of all the girls (ahem!)

and ironically the first best friend I made in college.  We were roommates, ledge buddies, tiny dancers, co-workers and hot HOTT messes together.  Not long after we started dating, Kiel and I took our first vacation together to Florida and stayed with Heather.  Of course we had a great time and while it's great to have a place to visit, it means we don't get to see each other very often.  BUT we email/group text ALL the time and when our few and far between visits line up, it's like nothing has changed between us.   

Nicole Gengler (2003 - sophomore year SIUE)
Nicole was the first girl I made friends with my first year at SIUE.  Our names gave us an instant connection and the night we met, someone named us "Big (me = tall) & Little (Nicole = midget)" in order to avoid confusion and it stuck.  Oddly enough, we both somehow found men named Kiel (Kyle) and are currently still working on their nicknames...Big & Big is about all we've come up with.  Nicole was also my roommate at 108 Club Centre so she's seen me at my best and worst which let's me know she'll always be there to hold my hand...or hair as I was for her on her 21st birthday ;)  11 years later and not much about our friendship has changed, she's still short and I'm still "Big" Wouldn't have it any other way!

Suzy DeVries (2003 - sophomore year SIUE)

Suzy & I met through Nicole and spent quite a bit of time together in college, but didn't really become close until after we graduated and got grown up lives.  Our babies are exactly 6 months apart and we'll be planning their wedding until they're old enough to either tell us to take a hike or actually marry each other.  Since the DeVries' move to Champaign and now Mahomet, we've had a lot more opportunities to get together and I couldn't be happier to have a college girlfriend closer to Pontiac so the others will drive here lol  As my most creative friend, she has helped me with a lot for the wedding from designing our invitations to putting together our seating chart and considering her twins will barely be 5 weeks old when she slaps that bridesmaid dress on, she definitely deserves deserves a good adult night out!!!     

 Dani Vanderveen (my newest friend)
I met Dani through Kiel shortly after we started dating and while I was a little worried that we wouldn't click because she's so much sweeter than me (no seriously, she is), we hit it off.  Dani was dating a good friend of Kiel's (Matt) and I arrived just in time to see their relationship go from dating to engaged to husband/wife and then to mom & dad!  The 4 of us have spent a lot of time together doing couple things and Dani is was actually the PA in Jase's pediatrician's office so she gets a lot of baby questions from me.  Since kids, our movie/dinner/venting dates have become few and far between even living just 10 minutes apart, but that doesn't stop us from from play dates and the occasional golf outing :)  I have to make a note that since Kiel and I didn't meet until our late 20's, we don't really have a lot of friends that we met for the first time as a couple.  While this isn't really an issue, it's also something I think I take for granted about my relationship with Dani.  While Kiel loves all my girlfriends, he is 100% comfortable with Dani since he's known her for so long.  Something about that easiness really makes me appreciate her friendship.

Best Man

Evan Henkel (the childhood best friend)

I could do an entire post based on Evan & Kiel's friendship in just pictures.  The amount of times they've fished, hunted, golfed, done just about anything together are uncountable.  At the beginning I seriously thought Evan & Kiel had their own language because I never had any idea what they were talking about.  Took me awhile to realize every other one liner out of their mouths was a line from the Grumpy Old Men movies.  They are like two strange peas in a pod.  I sincerely hope Jase and Evan's boys grow up to have a friendship as "special" as this one.  Unfortunately, they won't be able to hang out because I knew their father in high school and would probably have a nervous breakdown every time they left the house.

Groomsmen:

Todd Greskoviak (the lineman)
After almost 6 years, I'm still not sure if Todd's last name is pronounced Greskravonich, Pezanowski, or Dickey.  Just kidding...it's Pez...I mean Greskoviak.  After highschool, Todd talked Kiel into going to line school in Georgia with him so even though Todd works for the wrong company, Kiel (and I) kind of have him to thank for his career.  And while golf is something Kiel & I enjoy doing together, I know Todd is one of the main reasons Kiel got so into it.  I think between duck season, deer season, squirrel season, golf, and fishing Todd & Kiel could spend every day together.  99% of what comes out of Todd's mouth is sarcastic and he's deathly afraid of butterflies, but Todd is the base to Kiel's soprano and they don't give a shit what anyone thinks about that.







Quinn Ifft (the old roommate)
Quinn holds a very special place in our lives and my heart as he was Kiel's roommate when we started

dating.  He was there the first time Kiel invited me over for dinner and for so so so many other days in the beginning of our relationship.  A few years ago, Quinn jumped on the golf bandwagon and is Kiel's partner in an ongoing rivalry with 2 of the other groomsmen (Matt & Jordan).  He's also the resident body repair man when those shiny trucks get dinged up, the barber to the majority of the men listed here and as one of the last single guys in the group, he catches a LOT of crap from EVERYONE!  But we all know that if we ever needed something, Quinn would be there no questions asked.  There's a pretty good story about an awkward conversation Quinn started with me at Evan's wedding that if you ever get the chance, you should ask him about.  I mean, why wouldn't you? :)

Brendan Bachman (the wingman)
Petey, I mean Brendan, was with Kiel the first time we met and looking back, there weren't a lot of weekends in the beginning that Brendan wasn't a part of.  There were a lot of late nights and lazy mornings at this point in our lives....my oh my how that has all changed for all of us!  He lives in Jacksonville with his wife Mandy and their beautiful daughter, Hattie so like most of my bridesmaids, we don't see them as often as we'd like.  Fortunately, when we do get the chance to get together it's pretty easy to pick up right where we left off...usually talking about hunting or about how cute he looks when he's on tv :)      







Matt Vanderveen (the golf enthusiast)
The other half to Dani (bridesmaid) and part of the opposing team of the aforementioned golf match.  I think he's the only person I know that spends more time on the golf course than Kiel and between the two of them, they make one hell of a golfer ;)  Matt is incessantly trying to talk Kiel into buying a snowmobile and the Ford/Chevy rivalry between these two is real.  When Kiel decided to pick out an engagement ring, Matt was the one Kiel texted about advice on where to go.  I found out later that his response to that text was, "Is this Nicole?"  Very funny Matt!!!     










Jordan Post (the legend)
Jordan makes me constantly wonder how many times Kiel & I were potentially at the same party in hs and never knew it.  Like Evan, I actually knew Jordan before I met Kiel and was pleasantly surprised when I found out he was one of Kiel's good friends.  He loves to remind Kiel that he's the oldest in the group while constantly adding years onto his age and calling him Grandpa whenever the time arises.  He's just so damn easy to get along with!  I love late night chats and reminiscing with Jordan about all the fun nights there's been before and after I joined the crew.  Although that night I depantsed Kiel inches from his face is one of those memories he'd probably rather not talk about lol He'll be the one on the dance floor belting out Mr. Big & Mas Tequila and rapping The Regulators!  


I know I can speak for Kiel as well as myself when I say, every single person on this list is beyond important to us for so many different reasons and we couldn't be more honored that they've agreed to stand next to us on our big day!  Here's to adding to this list of reasons why we love you all so much!

15 Days!

-Nicole   

No more paci, baby

I said in my letter to 2 year old Jase that we would be making big changes this year and apparently I wasn't kidding.  The big boy bed was welcomed with open arms.  Potty training was much less dramatic than anticipated.  We bought a boat.  We're planning a wedding.  It's summer!  Things are happening, we are busy.

I have 3 drafts sitting unfinished that  now pale in comparison to the event that took place at our house last Thursday just moments after Kiel got called back into work.

Jase threw away his paci....and we ALL survived!

(27 months | May 14, 2015)

He's been a paci kid since week 1..

So I've been reminiscing about the last 27 months because I'm sad this stage is over...who knew?

It got us through doctors appointments...

It was like a sleeping pill for him...one minute he was there and then zzzzzzzzzzz

I don't even remember when we made the transition to nap/bedtime only but it was well over a year ago.  This is the last picture (November 2014) I have of him awake with it in his mouth. He had the flu and because we all know sick babies get whatever they want, he had it for like 2 days straight.

On the big night, Jase was fighting me on brushing his teeth so I gave my standard empty threat "if you're not going to brush your teeth, we're going to have to throw your paci in the garbage" to which he replied, "OK!" and then proceeded to THROW HIS OWN PACI IN THE GARBAGE!  There was a major meltdown when he realized he wasn't getting it back, but I stood my ground in the kitchen quietly watching him cry into his pillow via the baby monitor.  After about 15 minutes of yelling for daddy and mommy and "MY PACI IN MY MOUF", he gave in and fell asleep.  I waited for him to wake up all night freaking out, but not a peep.

I've realized, I may have been hanging on to the paci as much for me as I was for Jase's feelings because when I asked Kyra how nap time went she said, "He never even mentioned it."  He did ask for it when it was time for bed that night, but didn't put up much of a fight when I reminded him that HE threw it away.  And the cycle continues...we are so very lucky.

And for the last paci pic, ever.  On our way home from Earlville on Easter weekend...out like a light before we even turned off Uncle Roger's road.

I'm laughing at myself for writing this big post about such a small object, but a week later and I still feeling like I'm missing a limb not packing one in his daycare bag everyday.  What a big step for our independent little man.

-Nicole

Potty Training w/ the 3 Day Method

Jase has been showing signs of readiness for potty training for what seems like forever.  He's been going pee in his potty chair and on the big toilet for months now, but we've never really had a very strict routine.  He's been telling me after he poops and then asking to have his diaper changed for a few weeks now.  When Kyra text me last week saying Jase told her he needed to poop on the potty when one of the other kids was going and then he actually went...I knew it was time.  Then on Thursday, we were playing hide and seek when he bent down and said, "I'm pooping, mom" I REALLY knew it was time.  So I requested Monday off and we took the plunge...

(FYI the 3 day method recommends you take 30 days off from any potty training routine you're currently practicing before starting, but I'm too impatient for that)  



Day 1 - Saturday
7am:  Awake & dry - pees in the toilet.  Threw away his last diaper & put on his first pair of big boy underwear...too cute for words.  

7:50am:  standing in the kitchen says, "Mom, I need to go poop" while pooping in his underwear
10:15am:  starts to pee on the floor while playing - I catch him & get him to the toilet where he finishes and earns 2 Mike & Ikes.

And yes, there's a lot of exploring of his new found "freedom" if you can't tell by the above picture.

My dad stops by.  Jase was VERY proud to show off his big boy underwear asking Grandpa if he wanted some.  My dad innocently says, "I wish I had spider man underwear!"  Jase gets him a pair from his room and when my dad said he's too big for them Jase tells him, "My mom will help you put on."  Kids really do say the darnedest things!

10:45am:  says he needs to poop - pees in the toilet
12:10pm:  potty accident on the floor - I don't catch it
12:15 - 3:10pm:  Nap - wakes up dry & tells me he has to poop - pees in the toilet
4:50pm:  tells me he has to poop twice, but nothing either time he sits.  A few minutes later he runs to the bathroom saying "I need go poop!" and does both!!  Earns a sucker :)
Sometime between 7:30 & 8, pees in the toilet before bed

3 accidents total - I feel like we're off to a good start

Day 2 - Sunday
3:35am - hear him whimpering in bed...he's soaked.  Put him on the toilet while I changed his sheets.  Goes back to sleep until 7am with no other accidents.  I blame myself for this.  The method clearly states to keep them in underwear and a shirt only for the entire 3 days...I put him in his regular pajamas.  Lesson learned.
9:30am:  tells me he has to poop.  has a tiny dribble in his underwear, but pees in the toilet.  Realize he waited 2.5 hours to pee after getting up.  Become envious of his bladder control.









11:55am:  potty accident on the floor...I don't catch it
12pm - 2pm:  Nap - put him on the toilet immediately after waking up, pees

4pm:  accident...I don't catch it  UGH
5pm:  tells me he has to poop, pees in the toilet.  Give him a sucker for extra praise since it feels like a hard day
6:40pm:  tells me he has to poop, pees in the toilet



Bedtime = 7:15/7:30ish

3 accidents total - I feel frustrated











Day 3 - Monday
2am:  wakes up whining so I take him to the bathroom.  Pees in the toilet.  I quietly celebrate not having to change his sheets.
6:30am:  hears Kiel in the shower & gets up
7:30am:  tells me he has to poop, pees in the toilet

10am:  we're playing hide and seek in his room.  He crouches down behind his motorcycle, toots and
with a horrified look yells "I HAVE TO POOP!" Poops in his underwear while I'm carrying him to the bathroom, but pees in the toilet.  A small success is still success - Give him 2 M&Is









Decide to break the rules and try pants since he'll be going back to daycare tomorrow and don't want him to go into shock.  Bravely take a drive to get eggs so we can make cookies and pick up lunch, he stays dry.

12:10pm:  potty & down for a nap.  As I put him down I start to say, "If you need to go potty, come and get me" but he interrupts saying, "I wake you up"  Feel like its starting to sink in.
3pm: wakes up
4pm:  no accident, but I put him on the toilet anyways, he pees. 
Never asks to go to the bathroom for the rest of the night, but goes before bath time and bedtime (7:15ish).  Slept all night with no accidents.

1 accident total - I feel hopeful, but scared to admit it out loud

Day 3.5 - Tuesday
6:15am:  wakes up & pees on the toilet
7:45am:  tells me he has to poop & actually makes it to the toilet HALLELUJAH!  Give him a sucker


8:45am:  poops in his underwear while I'm in the bathroom $#@! Feel like I should have known when he didn't go as much as usual an hour ago.

Note:  Jase knows when he has to poop and has a few tell signs.  He gets very antsy, switching from one toy to the next like he's trying to occupy his mind, but can't focus.  Goes from room to room seeing if I follow him, asking to play hide and seek.  He's ready, we just need to continue to police this.

11:45am:  pees in the toilet before I take him to Kyras so I can go to work for a half day.

Kyra reports no accidents and says he was in a great mood and seemed excited about his underwear.

During our pre-bedtime potty sesh, Jase sees Kiel getting out of the shower and announces, "you have giant wiener."  We laugh hysterically.  I'm crying and Kiel is embarrassed because Jase just keeps repeating himself over and over and over...and over.  Putting this in the blog will probably not be appreciated, but no way am I taking a chance on forgetting that gem.   

1 accident total.  A good day.

It's now been a week since we started the 3-day method and we've had a handful of accidents since I stopped documenting his progress.  I'm really happy we took this route, but I'm also fully aware that we still have quite a bit of work to do.  I've read the manual word for word a few times and no where in there does she flat out promise, "After 3 days your child will NEVER have an accident again!" but I do feel like that is what she's implying or at least giving you the illusion that it's possible for sure.  I will totally recommend the 3 Day Method to any of my mom friends that ask and will most likely use it on any future children assuming potty training in general doesn't make me take Kiel up on the offer to just adopt one that's house broken next time :)

This life hurdle is a tough transition and something I've been dreading.  Just like everything else, I think we're all learning our way together and hopefully with a lot of positive reinforcement, patience and Mike & Ikes, Jase will get a better handle on his body's signs and I'll have a little less laundry sooner rather than later.  For now, I will continue to ask him if his underwear are dry over and over and over, repeatedly remind him to let me know when he needs to use the bathroom and worry about his progress at daycare where he's got better things to do than sit on the toilet. 

And just because I think he's adorable in his new underwear here's a video.  Yes, he's standing on the kitchen counter.  Yes, we sing songs about mac-n-cheese.  And yes, Jase thinks we're excellent parents.

Please think dry thoughts for us!

-Nicole