What's This...

A New Post!

Oh my gosh, I can't believe-once again-how long it's been since I've last been on this, or any, blog!  I guess life's been happening a little too much lately and it seems that it has been dragging me down-and away from keeping this updated!

Since last posting, we've had another death-very unexpected-and Avery's 4 yr. well check left me bawling in the doctor's office and completely blew us away with news that she has developed a heart condition that is now being monitored by a cardiologist at the children's hospital here in Cincy.  Artie and I's marriage has been pushed to the limits and then some, especially recently.  And, I would be lying if I didn't say I've asked myself a few times "why me?"  I can't understand how I could be going through serious health concerns with another child, but it is what it is and I still have my really dark days, but Avery is the most amazing little girl and I'm just loving her to pieces-so I'm trying to be happy that my kids are otherwise healthy and keeping me busy!

Since I'm so far behind, I'll just try to do a little picture recap of the last few months and start anew!

We had a chance to visit the Osburns on a trip to Indy for Avery's birthday!  

Spencer and Jacob had a great time:)

Elizabeth and Avery also became fast friends and quickly started planning their
next get together!



Avery's request for her birthday was a trip to Chuck E Cheese-her first experience!


Avery got her very first big girl bike (from grandma and pop pop)!


Great Grandma (and Grandpa Scott) made a trip to Cincinnati:)


We're very into dressing up-especially as Rapunzel.


While running through the park-on a rocky trail-I managed a nasty ankle roll that had
me thinking it broke because of the snap I heard. Also left me unable to walk myself out of the woods-quite the spectacle when I had to be taken out on a landscape cart to the ambulance waiting for me! Turns out it was a dislocation. Seriously, one of the worst pains I ever felt.


After crutches for as long as I could stand them, I ended up in this for weeks. Almost 8 weeks later and it's still not healed completely! The worst part, trying to chase and drive kids around while in this boot!


My uncle unexpectedly passed away the month after my grandpa at 50 from a heart attack. My dad lost his father and his brother in a month's time. Jake, Cim, and I made sure to get a picture with our dad at my uncle's funeral since we aren't together often.


Halloween brought Woody and Jessie to us! These two made out like crazy in candy-but they were so cute, people couldn't help give them extra:)


I finally started drinking wine.


The kids met Santa. Even though we don't do Santa in our house in the traditional sense, Avery and Spencer still enjoy seeing him. We went to a lovely horse-drawn parade in a charming town called Lebanon just north of Cincinnati and ol' Mr. Claus brought the Mrs. to help celebrate!


Avery attended her first real birthday party-invitation and girls only!


Avery also had her first Christmas recital and her first recital with her new dance school down here. She danced to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and she knew the whole dance (over 2 minutes!) and performed like a star!


And just last night, Avery made her stage debut as a bumble bee in "Winnie-the-Pooh" and as a proud mamma, I must tell you she was the only preschooler with speaking lines! She did amazing and seriously, a star might have been born:)


Well, now you're all caught up! Hope you all have a wonderful (FINAL) weekend before Christmas!

Iron's Fruit Farm

First, (since I have been blog absent for a while) I'm happy to report my brother made it home safely from his year tour in South Korea about a month ago.  It was such a long awaited reunion and yet, bittersweet.  The day before my brother got back to the states-in fact Jake got the news at the airport in Korea-my grandpa passed away.  I wasn't able to make it back in time from Cincinnati and I was (still am actually) pretty upset about not being able to have seen him before he went.  The report I had gotten from my dad just the day before was that he was doing better and then he went so quick no one was able to make it to the hospital.  I'm sure it was his time and he was ready, he lived a long 89 years, but it isn't ever easy.  So the few days Jake was home before reporting to his next duty station was spent with family saying goodbye to our very special grandpa. 

We did have a special moment, surprising Jake at the airport.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of it but I was so happy to see him in person I sort of forgot!  He didn't think we were coming because he actually flew into Indianapolis and his girlfriend, Natalie, was going to pick him up.  We kept the kids up way past their bedtime-considering Jake missed his connection in Detroit from hold ups in customs and didn't get in to Indy until 11:30pm-but it was well worth it to see Avery run to her Uncle Jake with her arms wide open to give him his first hug!  Spencer wasn't far behind and it made my brother so happy that the kids missed him so much and didn't forget him-thanks to skype Spencer really got to know Uncle Jake while he was in Korea (since he was only 1 when he left).  Anyway, we had a great time with him in the few short days, we had a bonfire, family meals, and Jake bought his very first car!  He's now stationed in Kentucky (40 minutes outside of Nashville) and only about 3 1/2 hours from us!  I can't wait to visit him once he gets settled:)  He will be deploying to Afghanistan January 2013, leaving just a little over a year for us to enjoy him being back! 



Avery's First Field Trip

Yesterday, I was able to tag along with Avery and her classmates to an adorable little working farm for a hayride and pumpkin picking.  Spencer came too and it was such a blast to get to watch Avery with her classmates and friends.  I drop her off and pick her up and get to hear about the kids in her class, but it was nice to finally see them interact!  Her teachers are great and we're really happy with our choice in her school!

 
There are just under two weeks until my little princess turns 4! We can't believe she's getting so big. The time has sort of crept up on us and Artie and I are scrambling to make plans for her big day (or weekend since her bday is on a Monday). Be sure to check back for birthday fun!

First Day of School

These two precious feet entered a new world today.

A butterfly backpack to assist her adventure.

The face of a girl who can't contain her excitement.

   Avery was up bright and early this morning, bouncing on her bed with such joy on her first official day of preschool.  I asked her why she was jumping on her bed because we usually don't do that, but she told me that she was just so excited to go to school she couldn't help it!  I don't like the absence of her sweet little voice around the house while she's at school, but I absolutely love hearing how excited she is to tell me about what she did.

   It's not only a new world for Avery, but it's a new one for me.  She's my first baby and I feel out of my element as a parent with a school-age child.  Avery, however, is confident and so sure of herself.  I don't know how she became the little person she is, but I absolutely adore everything about her.  I'm also enjoying my one-on-one time with Spencer.  He's never been out of the shadow of his big sister (which most of the time these days he's her shadow-wanting to do everything she does) so I think he will enjoy the three hours a morning three days a week that he gets to be his own little man:)

We'll see how this first full week goes with our new schedule!

Something New!

I have been working on putting together something new-a new, public, blog.  I hope you all check it out here: Not A Typical Life Lesson. 

I will still be writing about our family on this blog and in fact, have much to catch up on.  My new blog is something more creative for me to capture my love of writing and photography (photography is something new I'm really into).  I am really digging my camera and take mostly candid, nature, and abstract photos.  I'm not really into the whole studio, photo shoot thing, so basically this blog will have some of my pictures and things I'm thinking about.  Thanks in advance for the support!!

Check back soon for more consistent updates on here too:)!

Perspective

As I'm stressing about our recent move and trying to scramble to find Avery a preschool that's perfect and a new dance school, doctors, etc. I stop and think about people like the Florida couple in these articles: Sarasota and Bay News 9.  

I went to high school with Cory.  Eden (also from Fort Wayne) went to Notre Dame and I met her through the scholarship we both received.  Eden lost her parents, was raised by her grandparents, worked her way through college prep school to get into Notre Dame and went on to Harvard Law.  It's so tough to put these things in perspective.  I mean, I often think about what we went through with Spencer and believe we've put in our dues, don't let anything that terrible happen to our little family again.  But then I find myself thinking about people like Cory and Eden who have been through a lot in one lifetime (and that's only 30-31 years worth) and then to lose a partner like this so young just makes me wonder what the bigger plan is.

I just thought I'd share their story with you.  I can't imagine having to go through this with my one and only and be left to live a long life without him.  Please make sure your loved ones always know how much they mean to you!

Change of Address

Needing a change of scenery-among other reasons-we decided to take a leap and finally move out of Fort Wayne.  We are now residing in the wonderful city of Cincinnati.  We're crashing with my father-in-law until we get organized and figure out a little more about the lay of the land and decide what school district we want the kids in.  So far, we like our new surroundings.  It's also nice that the big tennis tournament down here is right around the corner to welcome us-both Artie and I are volunteering as marshals this year.  Speaking of tennis, Avery has assimilated well into her new racquet club and the lessons she takes now are a great build on what she has already learned.  Since this is a private blog I'll go ahead and post our new address on here for those of you that would like it.

Belschner Family
5038 Lord Alfred Court
Cincinnati, OH 45241 


The "Orange Park," as Avery calls it, is literally right across the street from us and it's a very nice place to take the kids-even on hot days since there's water to play in!


Avery's happy her new home has even more flowers to pick than she had in Fort Wayne:)


For some reason there is this squirrel outside the Queen City Racquet Club, where Avery takes her tennis lessons.  Every week when we leave, Avery requests to have her picture taken with this tennis playing squirrel!

We're still in the process of finishing our move and logging lots of miles back and forth, but will hopefully be completely finished soon! Wish us luck:)!!

Production 2011

I am interrupting our Florida posts to bring you "Raindrops" Production 2011!  I realize I'm way behind on my blogging, but good reasons-explanations coming.  But, in the meantime, you all know how extremely excited I was to get Avery involved in dance.  Finally, this past weekend we were able to watch our baby girl's stage debut!  I had the absolute best time doing her makeup-duh (all that time spent as a MAC artist will pay off!)-and her hair.  She looked so grown up and did the most wonderful job when it came to performing the dance she and her ballet class had been working on for so long:)

Proud mommy and daddy!

Brother and sister:)

Beautiful Girl!

Here she is in all of her cuteness!

Clearwater Beach

We took a break from park hopping on Saturday, May 21st to head over to Clearwater Beach.  It's on the gulf coast just outside of Tampa and it's our favorite beach to go to when we're in Orlando.  I, of course, still traumatized from my stingray sting last year at this very beach did not venture into the water but we had a great day!


You'd think my kids were born at the beach, they absolutely adore it! Avery cried when we left because she didn't want to go:(


My pretty girl (I could never get a good picture of Spencer)! About 2 seconds in to being at the beach, Avery's suit broke (you can see the supposed halter strap had just broken when I snapped this)! It was the first time she had even worn it. Luckily, I was able to tie it and she made it through the day without any peep shows-phew!


The most fun to be had was looking for shells:) We brought back a whole baggie full of them and I was more than happy with this activity because it allowed me to get my feet wet and be with my family without having to actually be IN the water:)!!


A quick family picture! I wasn't able to get many photos at the beach because my phone kept getting sandy, but we had such a nice relaxing day-it was a great break from the scorching heat inland! Plus, on the way back we stopped at Five Guys for dinner-our first experience. I have always been reluctant to go there, but then I found out they make wonderful grilled cheeses! It was so good, I'm hooked!

One more post about our birthday trip and it's done!

A Magical Birthday

...at Magic Kingdom.  We spent Friday, May 20th of our trip at this park celebrating our little man's 2nd birthday.  We're pretty hot and sweaty looking in most pictures because we were-it was nearly 100 and not a cloud in the sky!



The Birthday Boy with his celebration button!

First thing we did was head off to meet some characters.

Meeting Buzz Lightyear. Spencer was completely star struck!


He kept pushing Buzz's buttons-I'm assuming that he was trying to play with him like his Buzz toy:)


Woody and Jessie. Spencer was still star struck meeting his "idols" from Toy Story-Avery was pretty darn excited too!


We waited in line for over an hour to meet Ariel-Avery's favorite Disney princess. She was excited in the line and talking to the little girl in front of us about their shared love of all things Ariel and the Little Mermaid. Then, it was Avery's turn to meet her and she turned to Artie and I with a frightened look on her face and asked to leave!! The same thing happened on our trip last year. She was perfectly fine with the characters, but the real people dressed as princesses/princes and such she is for some reason terrified of! So, daddy took her to meet them so she didn't totally miss out.


She got a little brave after Ariel asked so sweetly if Avery would take a picture with her. By the way, Avery was ecstatic after this encounter and thought it was the coolest thing-no mention of her last minute terror!


Prince Eric took a second to come over and chat with Spencer and wish him a happy birthday:)

After having to socialize all morning, Spencer completely crashed out. I don't know how he did it with how hot it was but he slept forever! So, in the meantime we took Avery on a few rides.

Such a sleepy boy-keeping his Mickey stickers close by.


Riding Aladdin's magic carpets. Everything we went on that had something pink, Avery had to ride in it. We weren't assigned this particular carpet, but Artie negotiated with the people in front of us to switch carpets so Avery could have the pink one:)


Tea Cups! Avery loves spinning it:) Spencer did get to ride this once he woke up!!
.
Then, we had a little accident. The kind that is mommy and daddy's fault for playing around. Artie and I were enjoying our one-on-one time with Avery while Spencer napped and after a ride we were swinging her (you know, she's in the middle and Artie and I each have one of her hands). She loves to do this and we've done it before. However, like I mentioned, it was really hot. Artie's hands were sweaty and somehow he and Avery lost their grips on each other. She went flying through the air and landed on her head. The people around us gasped in displeasure of our parenting (though not one of them came to Avery's aid) and the sound of her head hitting the concrete is not something I'll soon forget. Luckily, we knew where first aid was located (remember last year when I had just been stung by a sting ray?? I had to visit that very first aid station to get help for a painful, seeping wound). We rushed her to first aid and she got checked for a concussion-no signs of that, but she had a massive purple egg on her forehead and huge bruises on her knees. After a quick dose of advil and some band aids, the nurse tells us if she's up to it we can continue our day. Phew.


This is what Avery looked like for about 20 minutes while we had to keep ice on her head. Thank goodness we were able to get her to keep it there that long because it helped so much! She was acting like her usual self in no time, especially when she got candy as a reward for being so good at first aid and spotted the Mickey performance at Cinderella's castle!


One quick family photo in front of the castle before heading out for the day. These are such great memories for me (minus cracking my daughter's head on the ground) and I hope one day the kids will look back and be happy that we spent this time as family celebrating our little miracle(s).

Almost there!

Animal Kingdom

On the second day of our trip, we headed to Animal Kingdom.  Artie and I hadn't been to this park since 2005 when we went with my brother and sister.  It's such a relaxing park compared to the other three and we were glad to get back and share all the fun with the kids!

First stop at this park is always the Lion King show. No matter how many times I've seen it (I think this was the third) it is always awesome! I'm sure it's just a taste of what's on Broadway, but it's a pretty amazing show and there isn't a bad seat in the house. The kids sat still for the whole thing and since they're really into the Lion King movie right now, they loved it!

The next several pictures are from our safari. This is probably the next best thing to an actual African safari and Avery is still talking about all of the animals we got to see up close on this adventure!

Rhinos.

Ostrich eggs.

Elephants.

Termite mounds.

Giraffe-it was right next to our truck!

Hippos. Up until a few nights ago I thought these animals were so cute and harmless. Then, I watched a show about them on the Nat Geo Wild channel. Did you know that there are more human deaths per year by hippos than any other animal? I'm fairly frightened of hippos after that show, but when this picture was taken I was still naive!

Grandpa with the kiddos in front of the tree of life. This is a 14-story tree with 325 animals carved into it, it's an amazing piece of artwork.

A view of Expedition Everest. When we were last at the park in 2005, this roller coaster was being built and torturing us because we couldn't go on it. This year Artie and I made the most of being able to ride it and went on it 3 times in a row-very fun!!

My little drummer boy:)

...and girl, of course!

We had a blast at this park.  The only thing to watch out for if you're visiting Animal Kingdom is that it has shorter hours than all the other parks.  Because of this, it is absolutely jam packed in the morning hours, but relatively clears out in the afternoon.  There's also a dinosaur area in this park, but I didn't get any pictures of it:(

If you're still hanging with me, I'm half way there.  Three down and three to go of our Spencer Birthday Celebration in Florida!