the motherload.

i feel like i've been running around like a madwoman for the last month and a half.
barely home to go again.

so.  i shall do a motherload update.  

because, well, i feel more balanced if i stay on track.

and, i wouldn't blame you if you scroll down really quick and decide not to read this.
because, it's really just a quick documentation of crazy whirlwind stuff.
but it's our life.
and i want to remember it :)

you see, i have this system.

i take way too many photos on my phone each day.  documenting the little parts of life.

some get instagrammed.  

and then about once a week, i load them onto my computer, and then they're dumped into my picasa web albums.

from there, i usually blog.

it's a nice little system i have going.  and as i mentioned, it keeps me balanced, and i feel like i'm sort of keeping up with this scrapbook/journal/familymemorymatriarchduty.

but then crazy stuff happened.

including.... my child attacking my computer with a spray bottle of vinegar water 

{i clean with it, he thought he was "cleaning" too....}

and my system got shut down. {pun intended}

but i'm back.

so hi.

let's go way back. like, end of septemberish.

mr leif and i went to pauldavidTripp's what did you expect marriage conference.

and well, what did i expect? i rocked my world. my heart. my mind.
i probably posted about this before. i can't remember. but it was just really good.
and also, my parents came that weekend to babysit.

and that's an important piece to the puzzle, 

because while they were here, my dad's brother unexpectedly passed away.

he went to be with Jesus, and that i can say with confidence.

so. my parents left immediately, and romy and i followed a couple days later.
we packed up our stuff,

 made some road snackies,

 and hit the road.

 he did good.  3 hours to omaha [where we picked up my sis and her girls].
and then 3 more to sioux center, ia.

as i heard how authentic his life was, the respect i have for my uncle compounded by the minute while we were in iowa for the 5 days,
though i didn't know him during the day-to-days, his children and their wives gathered together,
and as a beautiful family, they mourned and celebrated his life.
it was a blessing to our family as well.
we were able to reconnect and bond with our dear cousins.
and spend some time with even just our immediate family.
it's weird how tragedy can provide beautiful things as well.
while we were there, my momma turned 55!

and, roman and charlotte wondered the mall with uncle donavan.  eating lovely amounts of candy.

all too soon, family began to disperse and we headed back to nebraska.

5 days with our "ribbens" family could have easily lasted 30.

they are unspeakably beautiful in many ways.

tim and marilynn raised 4 wonderful boys, and i think we could easily be neighbors with each of their families :)

naturally, we stopped back in nebraska on our way home.

and naturally, after 5 days on the road, my little guy would get the flu.

puking. fevers. puking. limp body.

it was so sad to see him like that, and so difficult to be enduring it hopping between my mom's house and my motherinlaw's house, to try and not contaminate the world.

but we made it through :)

 and she never got sick.
that's what mattered most :)
our wittle hazel baby.

after another 5 days in nebraska, our 10 day road trip concluded.
we were headed home.

 to daddy :)

and the very next day, these two dapper men accompanied me to our family photo sesh.

i'll have to show the real pics sometime.  they're pretty fantabulous.  but hey, what mom doesn't gush over successful family photos?  i do! i do! i do!

we spent the next week re-cooping.

the park,  inhaling bags of candy corn, and snuggling in romy's crib were on our agenda.  

oh, and we spent a day at the pumpkin patch :)

 and then, just a quick week after getting back, romydoodle would turn TWO!

hotdiggitydog.

 we had a nice little pizza party.

grammy stayed for a few extra days.

and they spent lots of time outside.

romes didn't mind.  in fact, outside is still his mecca.

and then what do ya know.

just a week after romy turned 2, my sissy hit the big 3-1.

so.  i decided to surprise her by showing up on her doorstep, the night before her brithday!

and it really worked out awesomlyamazing.

off to denver i went. without my child. and wow, flying alone is easy.

it was such a great quick weekend with liza.
it just makes me wish we were neighbors.
sad face.
..... and i can't NOT put my plug in for my flight-home reading material.

i can't wait to tell everyone i know to read. THIS. book.

i've been following her blog for a few years now, and she's just a really beautiful person.

just three days after denver, i had a really bad day.

roman tried to clean my laptop.

apple told me he fried the hardrive.

i felt sick.

i hadn't backed up ANY photos. or videos. or photoshop stuffystuff.

basically my life. romy's existence. and let's get really drama here....every.thing.that.mattered....was gone.

poof.  gone.

but i couldn't really dwell on it, because

the next day, i found myself back in the airport.

without romy. or mr leif. but accompanied by my 18week babybump.

i was off to the bigApple.  

 it was my first time in NYC #inawe #wowlotsofpeople #everyonewalksfast

 and we literally hit the ground running.

or, errrrr, riding.  we took this "expensive" little rickshaw ride to dinner the first night.

 and then we ate our way through the chelsea market 

 i met lady liberty just as the wind was picking up

 and with our flights cancelled and the storm a brewin, we rented a set of wheels,

bought a ton of roadtrip snacks, and drove through pennsylvania to try and fly out of pittsburg.

 it was a wild ride.

my pitt flight ended up getting cancelled.

so i went to hotlantla.

they flew me home.

i wanted to kiss all of the flight attendants and pilots.

i just really was ready to be home.

because look who was waiting for me?

 heartmelt.

ok. we're getting closer to being caught up.

hang tight.

...

right after i got home from NYC, i mean, pittsburg, i mean, atlanta....

mr leif had an awards banquet :)

so an hour before the babysitter showed up, i ran to target.

they had a whole 2 maternity dresses to choose from.

one of them was hideous.

the other was black. and plain. and hid my chest.  so, practically perfect.

here is my 19 week belly :)  

and my 19 week butt :)

they're the same size.

i woke up to a cute little donut delivery guy,

we spent an afternoon visiting daddy,

and the next day, a big husker win!

 on sunday i was barely breathing.  i just wanted to crawl into a whole and sleep.
but i had committed to helping decorate for the holiday swing,
and it really was the perfect creative outlet.
just what i needed :)

and later that night, just a week after NYC, mr leif's brother came to visit!

so.  i took a deep breathe, and we were off again.

this time, to lawrence.

i was a first timer at the AllenFieldHouse. it was fun.

i ate popcorn and dip n dots.  they were both amazing.

ok.

now we're almost caught up!

we're to THIS week!

i had my HALFWAY sonogram.

we DID NOT find out what we are having.

but we have another sono in a month, so maybe, maybe we will?

i don't know if i can hold out :)

romes and i went with "uncle towel" [uncle kyle] to the nelson atkins museum.

romy preferred to roll in the grass, than view any of their outdoor structures.

and today?  today?  

today started off hot.

someone threw a huge fit wanting chicken nuggies for breakfast. 

 so i distracted him with blocks and before he knew it, 

he had eaten the pears and banana bread that he was refusing just moments before.

and, as i mentioned on IG, i literally made romy pray with me FOUR times by 7:51am

it was a rough morning.

 but guess what.

the reason i'm writing this forever long post with way too many pictures?

the reason you're probably rolling your eyes and thinking, just finish it up already?

well, today, i got a new computer.

i went with a desktop this time.  trying to play it safe with my wildchild.

and also, guess what?  they recovered my hard drive.

 and because mr leif is working late, and this baby head licker went to bed,

i'm here.  typing up our life from the last month and a half,

listening to some really good music,

and just really grateful.

i'm 20 weeks along now.

halfway. 

and this week i've officially kicked nausea to the curb.

last night i even ate thai food.

wow. i know.

ok.

i need to go eat some more halloween candy from my hidden stash,

and you need a few sparkly star stickers for reading this whole thing.

nighty night!

yikes, do you feel like i was just really talking on triple fast forward through this whole thing?
because i was.  it was pathetically written, with really no other point then to catch myself up.
HA! take that.  and go eat some chocolate.  i know i'm gonna.