Victoria & Chris' Wedding

On November 14th our good friends Victoria and Chris were married in a beautiful ceremony at the Carnegie Institution of Washington DC. Although not the official match maker, I was responsible for bringing Chris to Orbital. He met Victoria on his first day there (he and Victoria worked on a small 3 person team) and the rest is history. I had the honor of standing up with Chris as a member of the groom's party, a first for me. The girls (Victoria, her maid of honor Georgene, and the moms) were pampered by both a hair stylist and makeup artist as we got ready for the big day. Thank you Victoria for that special treat...especially for a 5 month old pregnant lady.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so until the professional pictures become available, I just have a few pictures I copied off a snapfish album, so the quality isn't great.

There were 6 bridal party members, 4 males and 2 females. Georgene and I were told to pick out a long dress we liked...what could be easier. Lucky for me, the dress I picked out 3 months earlier fit the baby bump perfectly.

The happy couple!
Their first dance was "fly me to the moon"...very appropriate for two space enthusiasts and Orbital employees.

Congratulations Chris and Victoria!

Aiken in the Fall

I'm trying to catch up with November and am starting with the beginning of November. Geoffrey had a long work trip at the beginning of the month, so Isabel and I used the trip as a good excuse to fly for Aiken for a week. We had a great time and Isabel loved the warmer weather, and of course extra attention from Grandma and Grandpa. Our flight down was smooth for the most part, minus a few tears when boarding the plane and a 20 minute delay getting off of the plane. The flight attendant claimed I didn't need a seat belt extender (I did) and her seat wound up almost becoming a permanent fixture of seat 1A. It wound up taking 2 pilots and the flight attendant to free the carseat.

Isabel has really been mothering lately, and always insisted on feeding her penguin and hippo...and they had to wear bibs.

Already taking after mommy, having fun with coupons.

Isabel saw Grandma using the watering can and decided she could help as well. She attempted to get every last drop out of the already used watering can.

Who needs toys? One of Isabel's favorites from this trip was a small, round laundry basket that she enjoyed sitting in.

Isabel decided that her baby needed to take a ride on this horse and string. She later attempted to sit on the horse which didn't work nearly as well as the baby did.

The silly fur hat was my Grandma Schaeffer's and made a great dress up item.

Grandpa taught Isabel about drawing on the window condensation.

Isabel was excited about one of the new sleeper's we bought for Mia and tried to make off with it by climbing upstairs.

Of course a trip to Aiken would not be complete without a visit to feed the ducks.

The flight back went very smoothly, with no tears or stuck car seats (this time we insisted on the seat belt extender). We had such a great time, but were happy to be home and to welcome Daddy back a few days later.

MIA and Mia

Just a quick update to let you know that we are not MIA. The past couple weeks have been pretty busy. It all began two weeks ago when Isabel and I boarded a plane to SC and Geoffrey boarded a plane for some work travel. The week was followed up by three lovely events surrounding the wedding of Victoria and Chris (I was in the wedding). Throwing in work, an airline delay on Geoffrey's end, a few CPR classes and normal life with an active toddler, one isn't left with much time to blog or download pictures. Hopefully next week I'll have a major update on the photo end, as there are plenty of good ones to share. Geoffrey and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary on Wednesday and are lucky enough to be having my mom come up for the weekend so we can take a short getaway, just the two of us. To say that I cannot wait would be an understatement.

As for the other part of this post - we have a name! No middle name yet, but we will be naming our second daughter Mia. Isabel is actually mostly responsible for coming up with the name. After the sonogram we had been talking about names and would jokingly ask Isabel what we should name her sister. At one point, she started chanting "Mia, mia, mia." thought it sounded more like "Meeea, Meeea, Meeea." Geoffrey and I both kind of looked at one another and said, Hmm, I really like that. Mia?! We let it sit for our respective trips and decided on Friday that would indeed be the name. I love being able to call the bean by name now, and Isabel likes to identify clothes that are Mia's (we got a few new things in Aiken), and will point to what will be Mia's room and say "Mia's (pause) room" very matter of factly. We hope she will be just as excited to meet Mia, as she is about naming her room, clothing and other items that will be the baby's.

Happy Halloween

Halloween this year didn't happen quite as we planned, but that is how life goes with little ones :). The Thursday before Halloween Isabel spiked a fever of 103 and by Friday was almost up to 104. We knew that the lovely H1N1 was going around, so we called the pediatrician's office and Geoffrey took Isabel in. A course of Tamiflu was prescribed and we were to treat it as the flu, as they have all but stopped doing the H1N1 test because the test can give a negative when indeed the child has the virus. Friday night was rough, her fever went to 104.5 and she was up many times a night just needing some comfort. As a parent, I don't think there is anything worse than seeing your child sick and in pain. My heart goes out to those parents who have to experience this on a regular basis, as we've been super lucky with this being Isabel's first major illness beyond a cold.

Isabel's fever started to break Halloween afternoon, but we knew that trick-or-treating was not in the cards for her. She had no interest in carving the pumpkin and just wanted to be held and cuddled, and we were happy to oblige. She went to bed early Halloween night and woke up without a fever Sunday morning, feeling a little better, but not her happy little self. A bit before lunchtime, she expressed interest in wearing her "bug" as she calls it, and we got her dressed and let her go trick or treating in the house and on the front porch with our leftover candy (although she didn't get to try any, since we only had butterfingers and she isn't supposed to have peanut products until age 2). She had a good time for about 15 minutes or so it and it was so nice to see a smile back on her face.

So what exactly do I do with this pumpkin?



Ohhh, it holds neat stuff. I'm not quite sure what this candy stuff is, but it makes fun noises when I squeeze it.

You mean I get another one? Yay!

I had hoped to get her to pose with the pumpkin I had carved, but she really wasn't into posing and we didn't want to rock the boat with our happy girl.

We asked her if she thought the pumpkin was hungry and she immediately decided he was...

...and apparently he was hungry via his eye.


That's more like it. Pumpkins eat with their mouths too.


During her time of being sick, Isabel had little to no appetite, and on Sunday I was getting a wee bit concerned. I asked her if she wanted some ice cream (the last time she'd had some was in July) and she responded "ICE CREAM!!!" Which Geoffrey and I thought was a good sign. So we let her eat as much ice cream as she wanted (a whopping 2 tablespoons), all while wearing the stocking hat that she insisted on modeling. We think she might have been cold and achy, as she kept repeating "boo boo" about every 5 minutes, but wouldn't point to a specific part of her body. Poor Isabel.



As a final sick day treat, we decided to see if Isabel would enjoy watching the fish from "Finding Nemo". She was interested in watching the first 30 minutes or so and calling out "shish!" each time a fish came on screen. Geoffrey snapped this picture of the excited fish girl after returning from a trip to the mall to buy Isabel a coat.

By Tuesday Isabel had pretty much returned to her old self. She is happy again, laughs a lot and is eating food and drinking her milk and water as she did before. Whether or not it was H1N1, we'll never know, and I'm hoping that enough vaccine will come around that she can get her second dose in 2 weeks (she did receive her first dose 6 days before coming down with her fever) and we won't have to worry about it period.

We hope that everyone had a great Halloween (or post Halloween) and stays healthy!

Healthy Baby Girl

Just a quick post to let everyone know that my 20-week ultrasound went very well today. Baby GIRL Buescher is healthy with all major organs and bones growing as they should be for a 20 week babe. Isabel seemed to enjoy the ultrasound and we have gotten her to say "sister." We are excited to welcome another girl into our family, and all the dressing up, tea parties and teenage hormones that will come with it...though Geoffrey is already talking about needing to move out of the house for a few days each month 15 or so years from now :).

Seems that things have progressed a bit since Isabel's 20 week ultrasound. The radiology office where we went no longer does print outs, and instead saves the key images to a disk. Baby Bean (we don't have a name just yet) kept moving around and seemed to have no interest in sitting still. The tech even turned on the 4D imaging quite a few times (which I still think is a bit freaky), but only was able to capture one good face picture, as the rest of the time baby Bean had either her hands or feet covering her face.

Here are a couple of our second daughter's first photo shoot.

Pre-Halloween Fun

Last Wednesday afternoon, Isabel and I headed to Cox Farms for their Fall Festival with friends from the St. Mark Moms' group. It really isn't a farm at all, though there are some farm animals. They have big kid and little kid play area and some really great slides, that would be fun for adults even without the kids.

Isabel had an absolute ball and we were both exhausted by the end of the evening.

Here she is enjoying some time on the wooden train with her friend Elise (in the orange).

Isabel was in almost constant motion the entire time, but I did manage to convince her sit for a picture on these hay bales.

Here she is playing in the corn box. Just like a sand box only with dried corn...and what a great idea, since the corn stays and doesn't come home in your shoes and clothes.

Here we are on our first slide...

And next on the BIG slide.
Isabel took a break in the stroller while we waited for our friends to go on the hayride. Apparently it is very bumpy and pregnant women are highly encouraged to avoid it.

On the way out, Isabel got to select a small pumpkin to take home. She loves her pumpkin and insisted on keeping it on her lap in the car for the trip home.

Sunday we were supposed to head to Frying Pan Farm Park with my other moms' group, but it was very cold and we opted to meet indoors at our home. Although only 2 of the 10 toddlers were able to make it, we still had a wonderful time.

Isabel the lady bug and Sarah the duck.

Isabel loved Sarah's costume, as I think it reminds her of her other duck emmy, whom she sleeps with at night. She felt the need to check out Sarah's beak...

...and then her webbed feet. Sarah was a great sport during Isabel's inspection.
Alec was dressed as a puppy and wouldn't let the fact that his hat kept covering his eyes stop him from playing.
With the help of a few crackers, we convinced the kids to take a group picture. You can also see a bit of my halloween decorating above (the picture frames will be filled with halloween pictures and come out during October each year).

I tried to squeeze in one more pre-halloween event last Friday by letting Isabel watch my favorite Halloween movie, "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Since Isabel doesn't get to watch TV, she really had no interest in the movie, even though I was sitting with her and talking about what we were seeing on screen. We only made it about half way through, and that was with lots of movement and pointing to things outside. The only part of the movie that caught her eye is when snoopy was "flying" around on his dog house. Isabel decided he was on a helicopter and kept saying "airshow, airshow!" Oh well, maybe next year we can start the tradition of the great pumpkin.

Happy Halloween everyone. Isabel can't wait for her second school parade followed by pumpkin carving on Saturday and actual trick-or-treating (though mom or dad will have to keep the treats).

Airplane & Air Show

I'm still waiting to get the pictures Geoffrey took, but until that happens, here are some pictures pre-air show of Isabel and her airplane, followed by some pictures taken by Grandma Buescher.

As I'd mentioned before, Geoffrey worked like a mad man to get Isabel's VT airplane completed for the airshow. He arrived home Friday afternoon and put the finishing touches on the airplane before giving it to Isabel. She was thrilled and is loving that she has her own "airpeen" to fly around. So far the only casualty has been in the form of 4 broken prop blades, which we knew would happen, as the kit wasn't designed for a rotating prop. Geoffrey will be working on his own design in the coming weeks to make something a bit more toddler proof.

The weather at the air show was just plain crummy. It was cold and and the cloud "ceiling" was really low...which meant most of the jets weren't able to fly. Isabel still enjoyed herself as you can see in the pictures below. I was also grateful to be able to borrow a super warm sherpa lined jacket for Isabel. She was toasty warm the entire time and I think I'll be purchasing one of these in a more girly color. Thank you "Aunt" Megan for the use of the coat :).

While things weren't flying Isabel entertained herself by securing the strap once used for her infant car seat...its nice that little things can provide such amusement.

Isabel and I stopped for some pictures at this airplane at Geoffrey's request. I couldn't tell you what kind of airplane it is, but will find out.

We spent the remainder of the weekend relaxing with Grandma and Grandpa Buescher. Isabel enjoyed playing with the toys from the "special bin" and reading some new books...even a board book version of Cinderella. Both Dad and Grandpa had to roll their eyes at this one.

And finally, some fun(ny) pictures of the family. I asked Grandma B to take a family picture of us, but didn't realize until after I saw these that sitting on an overstuffed sofa that reclines doesn't make for the best photo angle. But, we at least have a picture to send in with Isabel to her classroom.

More pictures to come later this week of our adventure to Cox Farms and our halloween play date. I'd hoped to get those pictures up tonight, but I'm loading pictures to order prints (I'm ashamed to say it has been a year since I last printed paper pictures), and it is slowing down bloggers ability to upload.