A Pearl Among Diamonds

19 weeks

2012-01-22T11:59:00.001-05:00

Here I am at 19 weeks, possibly halfway through my pregnancy if Evanee comes before her due date. It’s been 3 weeks since I’ve done a pregnancy update post. I haven’t updated mostly because of the ‘eh’ feeling toward blogging but I’m starting to feel a little better about it. A lot has happened with birthing decisions in the past 3 weeks so buckle your seatbelt!

January 5th I had my 2nd ob appt. It went well. According to their scale I had gained 4 lbs (this was back at 16w5d) so I may or may not have gained more weight since then. I again saw nurse practitioner (NP) S. I really like her and I wish she could do deliveries! It was at this appt that I told her I had decided to do a homebirth and she mentioned they would still want to continue seeing me even if I choose not to deliver with them. I had already made up my mind not to come back because I thought it pointless to pay for 2 providers when only 1 would be delivering me. So, when the receptionist wanted to make my 20 wk appt I declined saying I would call later. (I wasn’t lying because I wasn’t really sure if I was going to come back or not to get an US.)

Over the past few weeks I have met with several MWs. I met with CHOICE in Columbus and I really liked them! The MW that I met with was very nice. I was supposed to meet with another one too but she had a birth to attend to. I had pretty much decided I wanted to go with them but the downside was that I would have to drive to the CHOICE office for my prenatal appts, which is over an hour. I decided to keep looking to try and find a MW closer to me.

I had an appt with a MW but we ended up having to reschedule and were able to get together on Thurs of this past week. We drove about a hour to meet with her but the good thing is if we decided on her she would come to me for all the prenatal appts. While she is nice, I’ve just never gotten a good connection with her or the other MW I had met previously. When we arrived at the MWs house it wasn’t a good start because of some miscommunication and I have to say she was a little rude about the situation, which put me off. I was ready to turn around and go right back home. We ended up going inside and having our meeting but I won’t be going with her.

This past week I have been reflecting on my choices for birth. I thought I was for sure on having a homebirth but now I’m not. The choice is between a homebirth with CHOICE or a hospital birth with the ob office. There are pros and cons to each and it has been hard deciding on what to do. I think though that I am going to go with the ob office and a hospital birth for several reasons. 1) I don’t have to travel hours for my prenatal checkups like I would with CHOICE. I’d just have to walk a few minutes through the hospital to get to the office from the dept where I work. It would definitely mean big savings on gas. 2) The cost of a hospital birth will actually end up being cheaper for us compared to CHOICE. That’s not even including the money that would be spent on gas driving to and from the prenatal checkups. 3) Medical interventions will be readily available in case I would want them. I think as this pregnancy progresses I may start to get a little more anxious and it’s good to know that if I want to have NSTs done then they are available to me. I can also decline any care that I deem unnecessary and speak up for what I want. The biggest downside to having a hospital birth is that I will not be able to have another water birth but if I set it up with the mother baby unit at the hospital I should be able to labor in the water.

So now my next move is to send back the prenatal book to CHOICE and cancel my appt Wednesday with them and schedule my 20 wk appt with the ob office and prolly my anatomy US too.

I had thought about hiring a doula if I ended up doing a hospital birth but I think I’m not going to do that either. For one, it would save us money not hiring one and I also think I can do it myself like I did for Lainey. Anthony will be ~~my slave~~ there if I need anything. I do feel a little better now knowing for sure what we are doing. I didn’t like everything being up in the air.

Ok, on to the rest of my pregnancy!

The belly is slowing getting bigger and I do notice a difference in my 16 wk and 18 wk belly pic. I haven’t been experiencing any heartburn lately, which I’m quite happy about! No new stretch marks either. My skin has been drier lately because of the weather so I’ve been trying to stay moisturized, especially my face. Instead of using my usual night cream for my face I’ve been putting on calendula cream and I think it’s really been helping. Now I need to work on keep the rest of my body moisturized. I haven’t been as good at doing that lately.

Still loving my Icees. Yum. And I am still enjoying my red and pink Starburst jelly beans. I’ve been trying to take all my vitamins each day but I always seem to forget a couple. I’ve got my regular prenatal, which I always take each day no matter what. I’ve also got extra folic acid, vit B12, iron, and calcium. Hopefully with the extra iron I can avoid becoming anemic this pregnancy. The other things I take are a stool softener, DHA, and a probiotic. I added the probiotic recently to try and help prevent having GBS this pregnancy like my last one and avoid taking all the antibiotics. It is supposed to help and I think it’s worth trying.

Evanee has 2 active periods during the day. She has one in the morning and one in the evening. I still check HB on my doppler once in a while but now that she’s moving around pretty good I don’t use it as often. When I was 18 wks Anthony was able to feel her kick. I wasn’t sure if he’d be able to but he was! He felt her during her active period during the evening.

Here is my 18 wk belly pic from last week:

Kyndra’s birthday outing

2012-01-20T21:14:00.001-05:00

On Saturday, January 14th, we went to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery for Kyndra’s birthday. When I gave Kyndra the choice of having a party or going somewhere she wanted to go somewhere. More specifically, she wanted to go to a dinosaur museum. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make that happen but she did have a lot of fun at Boonshoft. We had previously went for her 2nd birthday to the same place.

All the girls had fun. It was better earlier in the day when there were less people at the museum. Plus, as the day progressed Kyndra and Lainey started getting tired and whiney. I had wanted to take them to the 4pm laser show in the planetarium but it just wasn’t happening at that point. Of course, Kyndra didn’t want to leave but it was completely necessary. I don’t think we wanted to find out to what level whining could escalate.

Kyndra and Hannah liked climbing on the playground area and Lainey really loved going down the small slide. I definitely think she would have stayed there all day if she could. It was funny because every time she went down the slide her hair would stick up all over. Kyndra liked digging up the dinosaur bones too. She talked about that part the most days later.

After the museum we met up with some friends of ours at a local Godfather’s for an early dinner. Kyndra was so tired she slept through the whole meal and ate her breadsticks on the way home. Later that night I ended up getting sick. Not sure if it was the pizza or not but I turned in early after that.

Eh.

2012-01-18T18:31:00.001-05:00

That’s about how I feel right now. I haven’t really been in the mood to blog much about anything but it’s necessary to ‘keep up’ so I don’t get too far behind. In fact, I have not been into blogging so much that I have considered not blogging here anymore or making it private. Do I really want the world to know what’s going on in our lives? Do I really want nosy people (which I think most of you aren’t) coming on here who only want to get info on us instead of really caring? Would going private give us as a family and my girls more protection? All this and more has run through my mind.

I don’t think it would matter if I did shut this down or went private. Those who really care about us would still keep up with us. BUT you will be glad to know if you do like to keep up with us here that I will not be doing either for right now. I think it’s just a mood that will pass. If it happens not to pass I’ll decide what to do then. I admit I like the idea of going private because then I’d be a little more free to write more of how I am feeling and without worrying of the people reading it. I could pick and choose who I want to read my blog. Because what you get here is an edited version of our lives and not the whole. Some things I’d never share on a blog regardless of it being private or public but it would be nice to have a little more freedom to write.

In the meantime, I will continue to blog. Feel free to share your thoughts with me.

Friend & Family Christmas #2

2012-01-14T18:32:00.001-05:00

January 7th we had Christmas with my parents at their house. There were lots of presents to open. (We ended up having to leave stuff at my parent’s house because we didn’t have enough room in our van to take it all home. Crazy!)

All the girls had fun opening their stocking stuffers and their presents. I think all the presents got a little overwhelming for my girls because they just became uninterested at one point and I ended up having to open them. We had a pretty good fire going in the fireplace with all the wrapping paper.

We ate a good lunch of ham, mashed potatoes, scalloped corn, and more. The kids played with all of their toys and us adults later played a game of Scattergories. I requested (again) to make taffy this year but it didn’t happen. I really want some homemade taffy!

That same weekend on January 8th we had a friend Christmas party. This year we had an ugly sweater party but there were only a few of us who wore the ugly stuff. I wore the sweater I got from Goodwill that was multicolored and had gaudy snowmen on it. My mom thought it was cute. (Go figure.) One of our friends had her whole family dressed up and it was so fun. I couldn’t find anything for Anthony or the girls or else they would have been dressed in ugly sweaters too. Too bad I don’t knit or crochet because I would have tried to make something ugly! lol

We had lunch and then the kids opened their gifts and the adults exchanged lottery tickets. Anthony and I won $1 on one of ours. Darn, the big money eluded us.

After the friend party we went to Anthony’s parents house, which I was not happy about. Not because I didn’t want to go to their house, but because we were adding it on to the end of the day we would be getting home very late. I DO NOT like getting home late when I have to work the next day. So I didn’t end up getting to bed until after 12:30 am and got less than 4 hours of sleep. I’m still not happy about it and I think that at least Anthony should have been more considerate of my schedule and my sleep if no one else was (but apparently he’s not).

I will have to make one more trip back up to the northern region for a board meeting for SGM but I think after that we’re not going to go back up for a long while. Since I seem to be the only one concerned about getting enough sleep I’m not going to risk going back only to come home late again and lose sleep. If people want to see us they can come to our house, which doesn’t often happen either because people don’t like to drive that far (yet it’s ok for us to have to drive all the time but we don’t go back now as often as we used to now). Ok, rant over.

Tidbits for the new year

2012-01-05T14:51:00.001-05:00

I hope that everyone had a Happy New Year and I don’t know about anyone else but I’m excited for 2012 to finally be here. I’m excited to see what this year will bring for me and my family. Of course, I am hoping that this year will be filled with many good things.

Here’s just a list of updates to catch up for the new year.

Looks like we are on the road to being flea free in our house and I can’t tell you how relieved I am! So far I have bombed twice, sprayed twice, and swept every day and sometimes twice a day. Coalee got a flea bath twice and Advantage twice. I still plan on sweeping every day for a while. The number of bites on me has dropped drastically (thank goodness). I think that I’m gonna spray the house again this weekend and I am hoping that’ll be the last time!
Hannah now has braces. After having a couple teeth pulled she had them put on in December. Right now she only has them on the top teeth until we get those teeth moved around a bit and then she’ll get them on the bottom too.
Yesterday was Hannah’s birthday! She is now 12 years old. It’s crazy to think she’s that old already, which means I have now been in her life for almost 10 years now! HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH! WE LOVE YOU!
Looks like Lainey is cutting some more teeth on top (lateral incisors). However, just like her other teeth they are taking their good ole sweet time coming in. We haven’t noticed any fussiness thanks to her amber teething necklace. I tell you, those necklaces were money well spent!
Lainey is definitely a lot less of a talker than Kyndra was at her age but lately she has been saying bye-bye. How exciting! So the words she can now say include momma, dada, and bye-bye.
We have been working with Kyndra more to help prepare her for preschool by doing workbooks and flashcards. She really does enjoy doing them but sometimes gets frustrated with writing. I thought maybe with my new work hours I could just homeschool her for now but just working with her this small bit has shown me that I just don’t have the patience for homeschooling and it reminds me why I never wanted to become a teacher!
Christmas decorations are mostly down. However the tree is still up (though bare) and the blow up and lights are still up outside. I’m really not even sure when we’ll take them down.
Speaking of Christmas, we still don’t have all our Christmas cards passed out. We’ve mailed the ones that needed mailed out but we haven’t passed them out at church yet. Oops? Not even sure if that’ll get done now, which means we will have quite a few extra ones.
Pregnancy is going very well and we are approaching 17 weeks. Took a peek at baby and it is very likely this baby is a girl. So as of right now we are excited to have Evanee Graycen as a part of our family. :) We’ll know for sure at the next ultrasound what type of baby bits this little one has.
Anthony is getting a promotion at work and will be phasing into that job within the next several weeks. This is great news as it should mean an increase in pay, which will help make up for the hours that got taken away from me. With the extra addition to the family we could certainly use it! Plus, he deserves it as he is one of the best workers in the company (and I’m not saying that just because I’m a little biased-his numbers prove it!)
Since making the final decision on having a homebirth I’ve been thinking of all sorts of things that I want to get done before Evanee’s birth day arrives. Most of it involves redecoration, improvements, and cleaning of the house. I am hoping to get as much done as possible.
I’ve been really wanting to finish up Lainey’s 1st year scrapbook. It’s my goal to get it done before Evanee is born. I just recently finished putting maternity photos in it so I’ve got a lot to go yet! The biggest problem is finding the time to sit and work on it because it takes quite a bit of time to put a few pages together.

As with every new year, people make new goals and resolutions to try and keep but more often than not fail at it. I’ve never made new year resolutions and don’t plan to start. I do have some changes I would like to make in our every day lives. I would really like for our family to starting doing devotions and to read the bible more. I’d also like to pray more as a family and just myself. Life can get so busy sometimes that it’s easy to push those things to the back burner but I really think that we need to make it a priority. I think it will make us a more happier and spiritually healthy family. Our pastor and his wife gave us a devotion that starts at the beginning of the year but we haven’t opened it yet. I think we need to change that! Good luck to all of you out there with resolutions and goals!

16 weeks

2012-01-03T20:49:00.001-05:00

I don’t feel like doing the “Q&A” thing this week so I’m skipping it and I didn’t even do last week so I will do an update from where I left off at 14 weeks to now.

Currently, I am 16 weeks 3 days and things are still going very well. I checked baby’s heart beat yesterday and it’s still sounding great in the 140’s. I’m so glad I bought that thing as it definitely gives me some peace of mind. Only thing better would be my own US machine!! ;)

I got in touch with another MW and Anthony and I are set to meet with her later this week (also have ob appt this week too). Hoping I have a better connection with her than the other MW I met previously. I plan on calling a MW group in Columbus to see if they would take me. I may be out of their area but I’m hoping they’ll still take me on. I’ve read lots of good things about this group.

I called my insurance to find out numbers of what is covered and what isn’t. Let’s just say my insurance bites. I wish we had our previous insurance. It would’ve made things so much easier all around. I did find out though that my insurance does have homebirth coverage but it is dependent on the provider. I’m not sure if it’ll work for us though because the lady made it sound like they only covered CNM (certified nurse midwife) and a homebirth MW in Ohio will not be a CNM but instead a CPM (certified professional midwife).

I decided the other day the type of birth I am sure I want for this little one. I’m going to be having a homebirth and I’m excited about it. Some people may think I’m crazy but as long as I remain low risk there is no reason I cannot safely delivery at home (plus it’s cheaper than a hospital birth!). I have not had any postpartum complications with any of my pregnancies and the only thing I’ve had to deal with during pregnancy is the bleeding with Kyndra (which I’m not even considering into the equation) and anemia and GBS with Lainey. I’m hoping to test negative for GBS this time and I plan on getting some iron pills soon to help prevent becoming anemic again. My hope is to have another water birth.

I’m already thinking of all the things I want to do before the birth of this baby but I know before I tackle anything else I need to settle on a MW so that is my goal in the next few weeks.

Baby bump is getting a little bigger. I have taken my belly ring out now. Here’s my 16 week pic.

I also have some pics of baby to share. I think they are just so cute. Baby is growing well and everything is looking good, which I am very happy about! Took a peek to see if we could see baby’s gender and this little one had legs crossed pretty much the entire time. Got a few glimpses of in between the legs and as far as we can tell it looks like this little one is another precious girl! It’s not 100% but usually at this point if there are boy bits present you’d more than likely see them. We’ll know for sure before too long.

We did pick out our boy and girl names over the weekend. Our boy name is Brenton Grady and our girl name is Evanee Graycen. So far it looks like we’ll be welcoming Evanee Graycen come June! Frankly, I’m tickled pink about that! hehehe

Cravings these past weeks have been Starburst jelly beans, particularly the red and pink ones. I have ate the red and pink jelly beans out of 4 bags so far. Totally wish I had some right now to eat. I have continued to enjoy the Icees, too, while pregnant.

Tonight it felt like I was have some BH contractions. Hoping I don’t keep getting those often! There’s more I could yack about but this momma had to get to bed!! Good night!

Our Christmas

2012-01-01T15:22:00.001-05:00

Christmas Eve after Anthony’s family left we got things picked up and then pretty much relaxed the rest of the time. The girls played with their toys and everyone napped a bit too. Lainey thinks it’s pretty fun to put her boots on her hands.

Later Anthony and I put together the cardboard house for the girls and they really liked that! I even let them color a bit on it but there’s still a lot more to go. I put their little tikes table inside the house.

Daddy put together the new wooden table and chair set the girls got and they love it and so does Mommy. It’s a really nice set and it came with 4 chairs, which was better than the 2 chairs that the little tikes set had. So now more kiddos can sit at the table together.

Kyndra has so enjoyed playing with her new dinosaur set. And Lainey has enjoyed bugging her sister.

Christmas morning the girls woke up to presents under the Christmas tree. Looks like Santa visited over night! We didn’t set any reindeer food out or cookies for Santa this year but they didn’t seem to mind. The girls got lots of goodies so it seems they were on the nice list. Both girls got unicorn horns, M&M candy canes, mini pillow pets, ballerina socks, and sea turtle bath toys. Kyndra got a pet vet carrier and accessories and Lainey got a My First Photo Album.

The girls then enjoyed playing with their new toys and taking a bath with the sea turtles. I couldn’t get the unicorn horns to stay well on their heads so I hot glued them to a headband and also tied them on to help reinforce it. Lainey got a purple one and Kyndra got a pink one. I’ve already had to reglue the pink one as Lainey pulled off the horn. The girls look so cute in them and I’ve worn them too playing with them.

In case you’re wondering what Anthony and I got each other for Christmas, we didn’t get anything. It’s just our thing to save our money and not get each other presents. Makes sense to us since if we want anything we usually get it throughout the year.

Family Christmas #1

2011-12-29T15:17:00.001-05:00

Anthony’s parents and Hannah came down on Dec 23rd to our house for his side of the family’s Christmas on the 24th. We met them at Buffalo Wild Wings and ate dinner and then they all went to a friend of Anthony’s house to look at a Christmas village and I went home. I had to work the next day in the morning so I didn’t want to be out too late.

After work the next morning I came home and finished readying the house for guests. We let Hannah open her presents from Anthony and I before everyone else arrived since she wouldn’t be able to stay for Christmas Day.

Lainey was put down for a nap before everyone arrived and she pretty much stayed asleep through lunch (pizza) and opening gifts, which was prolly good because things had calmed down by then.

Anthony’s brother, Todd, and his girlfriend, Megan, came down along with his sister, Chantel. And of course, all their kids. The big kids were definitely anxious to open presents. They got lots of good stuff including various toys and clothes and accessories.

Kyndra enjoyed opening up all her presents. She was very excited to get a dinosaur set complete with dinosaurs, mountain, trees, and even dinosaur eggs! She loves playing with it. She also got learning activities and clothes.

Lainey helped open her presents just slightly. She preferred for me to open them and she just look. She got clothes and a couple toys. She enjoyed getting it all.

After all the presents were open the kids played around. The bigger girls did some dress up and then modeled for us. Hannah was a hippie, Autymn was an old lady, and Kendall was a rock star.

A couple other things that Kyndra and Lainey got was a cardboard playhouse and a wooden table and chair set. They both have been enjoying each!

I told Anth that while it’s always nice to get together with family it’s also a relief when they all leave! I’m sure those who host know what I’m talking about! lol We were ready for some peace and quiet and a little relaxation (after clean-up of course).

Live Nativity

2011-12-26T16:12:00.001-05:00

Last week from Dec 19-21 was the Live Nativity at our church. Anthony and I was there on Mon and Wed to help out. On Mon, I played Mary and Anthony played Joseph and on Wed I played an angel and both Kyndra and Lainey played an angel in one of the showings. Anthony wasn’t anything but he took pictures. I also brought soup and cookies on Wed as we provided different soups and snacks for each night. We also had unleavened bread for people to try (which was quite good I thought!).

It rained both Mon and Tues but Wed we didn’t see a bit of rain. Over all 3 days we had 161 people come out to see the Live Nativity. I think perhaps we would have had more if it had not rained 2 of the days. I guess we can say at least it wasn’t like last year with 4 inches of snow!

The girls stayed in the nursery most of the time aside from the one show they were each in.

So here are just a few pics from our Live Nativity.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T00:00:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

14 weeks

2011-12-20T19:30:00.001-05:00

Hello 2nd trimester!!! It feels great to reach this milestone and I am quite happy about it!

How far along? 14 weeks 3 days

Total weight gain/loss: Not sure on that since I haven’t weighed myself.

Maternity clothes? None yet. But I wear scrubs at work and lounge pants at home so those are pretty accommodating!

Stretch marks? No new ones

Best moment this week? Listening to my baby’s heart beat on my doppler.

Movement: I am pretty positive now that the flutters I feel are baby. They only happen occasionally but it feels great when they do!

Food cravings: I’ve been liking white cheddar popcorn.

Gender: Still don’t know but the day is coming closer to when we will!

Labor Signs: None and glad!

Belly Button in or out? A definite outie

What I miss: Oh my gosh, this one is a no brainer right now! I miss clear skin! My breakouts aren’t really acne but almost like dry patches but yet they’re not if that makes any sense. Trying to stay as moisturized as I can and cleaning my face really, really well but I don’t think anything I do will make much of a difference with the hormones against me.

What I am looking forward to: Finding out if this baby is a boy or a girl. We are narrowing down the names!

Emotions: I’m getting excited to be able to know what gender this baby is so I can start calling the baby by name. I’m also excited to pick out a name for this little one. I have my lists finished and Anthony has already been through the boy list and narrowed it down. He still has to do the girl list yet.

Milestones: This can get kinda wordy at times so I’m gonna shorten it.
Baby can make lots of facial expressions. The kidneys are producing urine. Baby measures about 3 1/2 inches (about the size of a lemon) and weighs 1 1/2 ounces.

There is only a slight difference between my 12 week and 14 week belly photo when I compare them so it’s good to know I’m not getting really huge really fast (at least for now!).

Today I got my results from the blood test from my nuchal translucency scan. My risk for Trisomy 13 and 18 is 1 in 10,000 and my risk for Trisomy 21 (Down’s Syndrome) is 1 in 700. So pretty good odds in my favor! Even better in my favor since baby looked great on the scan when it was done.

Tonight I finally recorded baby’s heartbeat from my doppler. It isn’t the best quality but it was the best I could do by myself with one hand trying to do several things. Hearing the heart beat is such a precious sound.

I am expecting to find out the gender of our baby next Friday and I plan on having a gender reveal party on that Saturday. I’m not sure how many will come but it’s something fun I’d like to do this time around. We’ll prolly go the cake route since I’m thinking some cake from The Cake Diva sounds mighty fine. But we wouldn’t be able to have chocolate cake. Bummer! :( So, I have to sort out all the planning for that!

Oh, and vote on my poll on my sidebar for fun!

7 Things Your Kids Can Put Their Handprints On

2011-12-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

Today I have a guest post by Brooke Stafford. Thank you, Brooke, for your submission!

It might seem like just a piece of junk when they first make it, but those things that hold your child’s hand or feet prints can be one of the most valuable pieces in preserving the memory of your kids as they were. Far from just getting them to put the prints on a piece of paper, there are many other ways you can preserve those tiny hands forever, and we have included seven below.

Concrete – Those prints can literally last forever on this idea. Those pouring a driveway, patio, or even a foundation for a house can have the little ones put their hands on the concrete when it’s still wet. Don’t forget to date as well.
A t-shirt – If you’re the kind of mom who loves her kids so much, she’s willing to wear her love on her sleeves, try this project. Grab a plain t-shirt and have the kids print the front and/or back with their little hands. If they’re old enough to write their names next to them, go for it, or do the deed yourself.
An apron – They’re going to get it messy anyway, so why not have them sully one of your aprons with their handprints? It’s also a bonus for seeing how tall your kids were when they made the handprints.
The clay print – A popular choice, this is where a slab of clay is rolled out, and the child puts the print on it. It can be hung up, used as a coaster, or for other purposes.
Plant pots – Because most pots for plants are so bland, use your kid’s hands to jazz them up. Simply paint and place to have a truly memorable plant pot. Also useful if your kids have plants or flowers of their own.
Quilt patches – If you want to have a truly memorable keepsake of your child’s growth, do the quilting thing. Kids place their hands on a different square of fabric each year. At the end, all the pieces are collected and sewn into a quilt.
Go pro – The practice of preserving a child’s hand or footprint is not new, but it is getting a 2.0 makeover on the web. To see for yourself, check out a site like Piggies and Paws where they specialize in all sorts of amazing artwork featuring your child’s hands and feet.

Brooke Stafford is a nursing practitioner student and also writes for Family Nurse Practitioner Degrees. The site helps students find the right nurse practitioner degree to fit their needs.

The Crazy and Christmas

2011-12-16T17:15:00.001-05:00

There’s so much to update on that I’m pretty sure I’m gonna leave something out but I’ll get down what I can remember.

The intersection near our house is notorious for accidents. We’ve seen quite a few while we have lived here but last week was the first time I had seen one involving a school bus. Not exactly sure what happened but I heard the crash and after a few minutes looked out the window to see a pretty smashed up car. The school bus looked like it faired pretty well though. My neighbor Charlie is the one in the green jacket. He usually comes around when an accident happens. In fact, you see a lot of people walking from their houses to check it all out around here. The girls and I stayed inside because it was chilly out but had it been warmer I’m sure we would’ve been on the front porch watching. Later the fire department and sheriff showed up to clean up the mess. And if you’re wondering why I took a picture of it it is because I took it for Anthony. I figured he’d want to see what happened. He’s one of those people who slows down to gawk at accidents so figured he’d like to see a picture of this one.

Last Saturday it was me and the girls until the afternoon because Anthony was doing some things at the church. I decided to build them a little fort in the living room. Then they ate cookies and watched tv for a bit. Well, I should say Kyndra ate the cream out of all of them and then fed Lainey the cookie part. Lainey did seem to mind though.

Lainey has been playing more with baby dolls, especially one of mine I played with when I was young. It’s one my Great-Grandma Fessel gave me. Thing is, I always put clothes on this doll and Lainey keeps taking the clothes off. I guess she just prefers the naked baby doll.

We’ve had a BIG problem at our house lately and I can sum it up with one word. FLEAS. Ugh, I hate those creatures! We obviously know that Coalee brought them in but we’re not sure where he got them from unless other animals were in our yard and had fleas. The fleas slowly got worse and finally this week we took care of it. Coalee went and got a flea bath and while he was gone we bombed the house. Then I came home and vigorously cleaned before I picked up the girls from our sitter. Luckily, we were able to get Coalee pretty quickly. The groomer actually didn’t have any open slots but when they found out the kids were starting to get bit they said they would come in early and get Coalee in. I figured once they knew that it would happen! Honestly though, Lainey hasn’t really been bit at all and Kyndra has a few bites but it is me who has gotten the brunt of the flea invasion (and Coalee too). It is ridiculous the amount of bites I have on me. Of course, Anthony doesn’t have any that I know of. I don’t know what it is about me but fleas love me.

In addition to the flea bath and bombing, I have put 3 bowls in various rooms of the house with a mixture of Dawn and water. It is supposed to attract fleas and I think 2 have willingly jumped in. There’s about 6 more that I found and put in the bowls myself. I have also been sweeping every day and sometimes twice a day to help with the fleas. I’m pretty positive we will do another bombing in another 2-3 weeks. Until then I plan on keeping the bowls out and sweeping every day. And Coalee will definitely be getting flea treatment from now on! As of right now I am still getting bit by the fleas and can find new bites every day. I will be so glad when this is all over with!

My hours at work have changed yet again. I am back to working 5 days a week but I still work about 32 hours so my hours are split over those days. I actually like how it works out because I get home hours earlier and I get to eat lunch with my girls. With getting home earlier, I want to start planning our meals weekly-both lunch and dinner. This way I can perhaps have dinner ready by the time Anthony comes home instead of waiting until he comes home to figure out what we’re having that night. I’d like to start planning this weekend. My new hours will be nicer, too, when the baby comes because I’ll be at home more, which is important!

Oh my gosh I so need to get my rear in gear and finish Lainey’s 1st year scrapbook. I am only up to maternity photos in it and I need to get this scrapbook done before the next baby comes. It’s hard though because it takes a lot of time to get a little bit done with scrapbooking but I am determined to do it. Hubby may need to help me out though with getting some free time to work on it.

We went to the store and while in the Christmas aisle Anthony spotted a small, pink Christmas tree. We ended up getting it for Kyndra since we couldn’t get pink Christmas lights for the house. She decided she wanted it on the kitchen counter.

We did end up getting Christmas lights up outside the house. We decided to go with blue since there wasn’t enough of the multicolor to go around the part Anthony wanted to put them on. We got the LED ones and man are they bright! Anthony only has the lights going around the front and up the one side of the house. We’d have to buy more to go all the way around but at this point in the year we prolly will just wait until next year to get more. You can also see our giant snow globe blow up. It’s kinda hard to miss.

The girls got letters in the mail from Santa. It was quite a surprise to both them and for us! They also each got a small ornament from Santa. Kyndra was very excited about the letter and we opened it right away and read it.

The girls also made Christmas trees at the sitters house. Yay for Christmas crafts!

Our Christmas tree is still undecorated but I have plans to get it decorated this weekend. I even bought candy canes to put on it. So maybe it’ll look more like a Christmas tree soon! I did get a red velvet tree skirt for it but that’s all it has right now. The only other decoration we have around the house is the snow I sprayed on some of the windows. One of the windows had Kyndra’s handprints as she stuck her hands in it before it was dry. I just kept it that way. :)

I am hoping to complete our Christmas cards tonight. I made 2 up and we’ll decide tonight which one we want to go with. I’m a little behind on it this year but things have been so busy I haven’t had the time to sit and create any cards until the girls took a nap today.

We’ve mostly finished our Christmas shopping. We have just a couple more things to get and then we are set but all the kids are bought for. I do need to wrap everything still but I will prolly wait until Christmas Eve if I’m honest. I’ll just stay up late and Anthony and I can play Santa. :)

Children’s program at church

2011-12-13T17:51:00.001-05:00

Sunday was our children’s program at church and all the kids did so well and they were all very cute playing their parts. The younger kids around Kyndra’s age were only up on stage for one song and they were dressed as animals from the nativity. Kyndra was supposed to be a sheep but I guess wouldn’t wear the sheep costume but agreed to be a horse. (I think she’s really supposed to be a donkey, but she pretended to be a horse.)

Anthony got a short video of Kyndra’s performance. She neighed like a horse at the beginning and then surprised us by picking her nose and eating it. Oh yes, she did. I should have figured she would do something like that! It was both gross and funny and she will prolly wish we hadn’t taped it when she’s older!

13 weeks

2011-12-12T19:23:00.001-05:00

I’m in the last week of the 1st trimester! Hard to believe! I am looking forward to the 2nd trimester very much since the risk of miscarriage drops considerably. While I know things can still happen (I’m well too aware of that unfortunately) it gives me some relief to know the odds will be better for my baby.

How far along? 13 weeks 2 days

Total weight gain/loss: I would say no. Today at my NT scan the had to get my weight and I was at 110 lbs on their scale but when I had my appointment at the one OB office on Dec 8th they had my weight as 112 lbs. Definitely has to be a scale difference because I doubt I dropped 2 lbs in a matter of days.

Maternity clothes? None yet. But I did use a rubber band on my pants for church on Sunday. It felt a little better than buttoning them!

Stretch marks? No new ones

Best moment this week? Seeing how much my baby has grown in just a week on today’s ultrasound.

Movement: Sometimes I feel a little flutter but I don’t think it is the baby. The earliest I felt out of the girls was 17 weeks so I’m thinking I’ll be closer to then. But if it is the baby then yay!

Food cravings: I’m definitely liking my ICEEs again. Grabbed one today at BK after my ultrasound!

Gender: Still unknown right now! I was tempted to try the Intelligender test and prolly would if it wasn’t so pricey. I think I’ll just wait a few more weeks and then get a scan to find out!

Labor Signs: None and glad!

Belly Button in or out? A definite outie

What I miss: Not missing a thing right now!

What I am looking forward to: Finding out if this baby is a boy or a girl and picking out a name. (I’ve already started looking some up.)

Emotions: I’m getting excited to find out whether this baby is a boy or a girl. I go back and forth about what gender I think it is. No matter what though this baby is loved! I do find it annoying that people automatically assume we want a boy because we have girls already and they even say, “I hope you have a boy!” I honestly do not care if we have a boy. I would be very happy with having all girls. Our happiness as a family isn’t dependent on having a boy. I think considering what we have been through people would care more about us having a healthy baby but most people still assume that being pregnant=bringing a baby home and that isn’t always the case. The reason I am excited to find out if we are having a boy or a girl is so that I can start calling this baby by name instead of just baby! (Kristin, I’m sure you had to deal with boy comments a lot. Did you find it annoying at all?)

Milestones: Fingerprints have formed on your baby's tiny fingertips, veins and organs are clearly visible through still-thin skin, and the body is starting to catch up with the head — which makes up just a third of the body size now. If you're having a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries. Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce.

I had my appointment at the OB office last Thursday (Dec 8) and I would say it went well. I had to take the girls with me and I think they did very well considering we were there for 2 1/2 hours (and the appointment was only supposed to be a hour). We waited a hour before I was even taken back. I know this particular office is very busy since it’s the only OB office in town but I was annoyed at the wait. What annoys me even more is that no one even tells you while you are waiting that they are sorry for the wait and explain why you are waiting. I consider that to be good courtesy toward your patients but obviously they don’t treat their patients the way I would treat mine. Of course, this office is not known for having the friendliest office staff. (Which had never made sense to me because in an office you want staff that is friendly and welcoming to your patients.)

Anyway, the nurse finally came back and got us and I got weighed and taken to a small room and asked a bunch of questions while I tried to keep the girls in check. The lady definitely hit a nerve with me when she told Kyndra to get down when she started climbing around where she was sitting with the papers before I had the chance to get her. I really could have backhanded her and I prolly would have told her off if I wasn’t by that point frustrated and at the end of my rope. (I was ready to go home just like the girls were!) I thought it was just rude of her. It would have been one thing if she would have asked Kyndra nicely to get down (and Kyndra would have listened) but she wasn’t nice about it at all.

Thank goodness the appointment made an upswing when I met one of the nurse practitioners. I’ll call her NPS. NPS was very nice and interacted well with the girls (even the times they were all over the place). I told her how I wanted a water birth but was denied to go to the birth center again because of my insurance. She said they (the drs and the NPs) had a meeting that evening and she would bring it up about me wanting a water birth. She couldn’t guarantee the doctors would agree to one but she would try. She was supposed to call me the next day but I never heard anything but I’m not surprised I didn’t hear anything. You know how that goes. I also told her I had not completely ruled out having a homebirth and she was fine with that. She said they just can’t advise me in having one but can do all the testing that I would want.

The office set me up for a NT (nuchal translucency) scan for today. They wanted to get me in as soon as possible since I am at the cut off for the scan. So today I went to Miami Valley South for the scan. This is the same place I used to go for my appointments for Lainey with the one doctor/midwife group. It really made me miss going there and I still wish that I could. The scan went well. The ultrasound part looks great from what I was told and it’ll be about a week before the blood work results come back but I think (hope) everything will come back normal. It’s amazing how much the baby has grown since the last scan and I got some great pics.

Below are just a few of the pics from the scan and I labeled them to make it easier for my mom to know what she is looking at!

I think for next week I may try out some old wives’ tales about gender and see what they tell me. I think that’ll be pretty fun!

12 weeks

2011-12-06T19:45:00.001-05:00

Well, I thought it time for a pregnancy update and to start with my weekly pregnancy Q&A like I did for Lainey. I have good news too! I do know how far along I am now and I do have a due date!

How far along? 12 weeks 3 days

Total weight gain/loss: Not really sure as I haven’t weighed myself recently. At my one ob consultation appointment they measured my weight at 110 lbs. So I guess I will consider that my starting weight.

Maternity clothes? None yet. If I wear jeans and sit down they’re a little snug so I’ll pop my button. Sometimes I forget to button them back up though (like this weekend!).

Stretch marks? Nothing new. But I can sure see them from Lainey!

Best moment this week? Seeing my baby on the ultrasound with a good heart beat and a nice, round head.

Movement: I don’t feel anything yet but I’m expecting to be able to feel it even earlier this time.

Food cravings: I haven’t had any major cravings yet but I often wish I could get my hands on an ICEE! There have been a couple times I’ve wanted sour things (and ate them-like warheads). I am starting to get a meat aversion like I do every pregnancy. I seems to have been more gradual this time though. I haven’t been drinking as much milk lately either. For a while there I was drinking 2 frosty mugs of milk in the evening but I haven’t done that since I’ve been pregnant.

Gender: We don’t know yet! (But hubby is hoping for a boy! I think he’s feeling outnumbered. lol)

Labor Signs: None and glad!

Belly Button in or out? Well, it never really went back in after Lainey so I started this pregnancy out with an outie!

What I miss: Not much at all right now. I would have said a good sleep but the tiredness has pretty much worn off but I’m still making sure I go to bed early to stay on top of it. I just want to enjoy this pregnancy as much as I can as it’s very likely our last baby. *sniff sniff*

What I am looking forward to: Finding out if this baby is a boy or a girl!

Emotions: I’m very happy! Of course there is times I have worried when I have a cramp here or there but things are still looking good and I’m thankful for that. I do feel like my anxiety is less this time around, which I am glad for.

Milestones: The most dramatic development this week: reflexes. Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, the toes will curl, the eye muscles will clench, and their mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. The intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into the abdominal cavity about now, and the kidneys will begin excreting urine into the bladder. Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in your baby's brain, synapses are forming furiously. His or her face looks unquestionably human: the eyes have moved from the sides to the front of the head, and the ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.

I am extremely happy to have gotten an ultrasound and finally found out exactly how far along I am and get a definitive due date. I had a scan on Friday (12/2) when I visited a friend where she works and got scanned there by another friend. I measured on that day 11 weeks 6 days, which is what I was thinking. With my baby measuring that amount, that makes my due date June 16, 2012! Below are some pictures from that scan.

To help my mother out I will tell what each picture shows. Picture #1 is a profile of the whole baby. The head is on the left and then the belly and you can see the legs sticking up on the right. Picture #2 is also a profile picture but the difference with this one is the baby is sucking on their thumb. You can see the hand right in front of the face. Picture #3 shows the baby’s head and a hand sticking up. (Does that help, mom?)

I also got another scan on Monday (12/5) as I volunteered to be a model patient for my local women’s center so that one of the nurses can get trained on the new ultrasound equipment. A former coworker of mine actually did the scan and it was nice to see her. She was the same tech who did many of my previous ultrasounds and was the one who did the scan on me when we found out Carleigh had anencephaly. One of the ladies that work at the center asked if she could watch and I said of course! She had been wanting to see one and only felt comfortable asking me since she knew me. It was a nice time with all of them. The women’s center really has a nice set-up and I have no doubt it will be so helpful to them and their clients!!

Now for my 12 week belly pic!!! This is actually the first official belly pic I have taken. I wanted to wait to take pictures until I knew for sure how far along I was. And for those of you wondering how I didn’t know how far along I was-I just quit breastfeeding the end of October!! This is definitely the biggest I’ve ever been at 12 weeks but with 4 pregnancies in 4 years I’m really not surprised. (But I was wondering for a bit if there were 2 babies in there! Much to Anthony’s relief, there isn’t.) I am hoping this doesn’t mean I’m going to get really huge (for me at least) but I’m not holding my breath. I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up with stretch marks on top of the stretch marks Lainey gave me.

My Aunt Sherry told my mom this baby is a boy. She’s been right about all my girls. My intuition isn’t telling me anything this time like it did with the girls (which my intuition got right each time). I think a lot of people are hoping for a boy for us just because we have all girls. Personally, I would love another girl (and we already have all girl things!) but I know the most important thing is a baby we get to take home. This baby will be loved no matter what the gender is.

Getting in the spirit of Christmas

2011-12-05T15:41:00.001-05:00

We’re starting to get in the spirit of Christmas here around our house. While I don’t plan on putting up many decorations inside the house we are putting up a tree and we are putting up lights outside and our giant inflatable.

The Christmas tree we put up this year is a new one I bought last year after the Christmas season from my hospital’s gift shop. They always have a sale after the holidays and I snatched this tree up for 50% off. I like how it is tall and skinny and looks somewhat like a real tree. Even has snow on the branches and is pre-lit. So we have it up and put it behind out tv stand. We had to move a small table that was there up to Lainey’s room for the time being. Right now the tree remains undecorated but I’d like to put stuff on it this upcoming weekend. I’d really like to have the girls make the ornaments for the tree. Stuff like popcorn garland (or maybe even froot loops!) and gingerbread ornaments. I think that would be a lot of fun for them.

The same day we put the tree up Anthony also put up our snow globe inflatable in front of the house. He tried putting up Christmas lights too but most weren’t working and aren’t salvageable since when our basement flooded the one time water got in the totes with the lights (before we moved everything up to higher ground). We’re going to get some new LED lights and finishing putting those up. We asked what color Kyndra wanted between white, blue, and multi-colored and she said she wanted pink. I’m not sure if we can even find pink lights in our area. I know you can get them online but I don’t want to wait that long to put them up. I guess we’ll see!

Below the girls are watching Daddy outside putting up the blow up snow globe.

We went to the store on Saturday evening and as we were leaving Kyndra saw the mini pillow pets right by the door and begged to get one. I told her she’d have to write Santa a letter and tell him that she wanted one for Christmas. I was surprised when the next morning she asked if she could write him a letter. So we got paper and a pencil and I helped her write out the words (I put my hand over hers). Then we folded the letter and sealed it and addressed and stamped it to send out on Monday.

This morning I sent out the letter and my postmistress said she’d make sure it got there safely! ;) And then she gave me a Reese’s Cup for the girls. The girls know that post office=candy as she has a small candy dish and they like to get the Reese’s Cups so she has started buying the larger sized candy bars for them. They are always happy to get it! So I came back and gave the girls their candy and told Kyndra that her letter was mailed to Santa.

It was much to our surprise when later in the day we got a video message from Santa himself! Kyndra was so happy and she just loved that Santa sent a message just for her and that he even knew her name and things she did in the year! She was on pins and needles waiting to know if she was on the nice list and happy when she was! You can click the link below to see Kyndra’s message from Santa.

KYNDRA’S VIDEO MESSAGE FROM SANTA!!!!!

In other non-Christmas related news our deep freezer quit working. We had to throw some stuff away but we managed to save all our meat. We have it all packed in the freezer above our fridge. We’re going to go this week to look at deep freezers to replace it because we definitely need one. And when Anthony was on the roof over the weekend he thinks we’ll need to have our roof replaced within the next year. I joked with him and asked if we could just spray that Flex Seal stuff all over our roof if that would work instead. If only!! lol

And, boy, it’s been raining a lot here lately. The pump in our basement has been on all day pumping water out of it. My postmistress said that she heard if all of it had been snow we’d have like 30 inches of it. I believe it too! I hate it when it’s a cold rain! Bleh! We need to find something to put in front of our drafty basement door to keep the cold air from seeping under the door. Right now we just have a towel that we’ve used the past couple years but we really want to find something better to save on heat this year. It would definitely keep the den warmer if we could. So that’s on the to-do list too!

Anthony got my little space heater out for me and I’ve enjoyed sitting in front of it already! Sometimes I have to fight Kyndra for it because she likes it too and will park herself by it for warmth. Lainey just likes messing with the knob on it and doesn’t seem to care how many times her hands get smacked. I lift my hand up to smack her hand and she gives me a high five. Hard not to laugh when she does that!

Also, check out the Christmas Extravaganza over at the Sufficient Grace Ministries blog! Click the button below!

Thanksgiving at the cabin

2011-11-30T20:12:00.001-05:00

For the Thanksgiving holiday we went up to the cabin in MI. We left for the cabin on Wednesday evening and went back to my parent’s house on Sunday evening. Then the girls and I left mid-morning on Monday to finish the trek home. It had been a bit since I was up at the cabin so I thought it would be a good place to spend Thanksgiving consider we could make it an extra long weekend. My parents went along and so did my nieces Audrey and Kendall. (Audrey came to play with Kyndra and Kendall came to play with Hannah.)

We arrived late and pretty much unloaded the bags into the house and took them where they were supposed to go and got ready for bed. I knew my kids would be up early and sure enough they were (and every morning after that!).

The kids had lots of toys and games to play with and they did their fair share of playing. Kyndra and Audrey would mostly stay downstairs with Hannah and Kendall and play with them unless they were watching a movie.

I made sure the adults played some darts while we were there. Such a fun game! Anthony, my dad, me, and Kendall played a few different games.

We had a good Thanksgiving meal and I made sure I got my dark meat! Yum. We had turkey, stuffing, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, and rolls. The next morning my mom and I got up and did a little shopping (not with the psycho Black Friday crowds though!). We went midmorning and hit a few stores and I got some Christmas shopping done. I also picked up a few nerf guns to have fun with later.

The nerf guns were definitely a great source of entertainment. Hannah and Kendall had brought their own so they used theirs and Anthony, my dad, and me used the new guns and we played various games outside shooting each other with them. We stayed out for hours. On a different day we went outside again and played some more (minus my dad). It was a little rainy then but still a lot of fun! For sure a good purchase!

Mom brought Lainey outside for a few minutes so she could watch us while we were outside. I shot a few nerf darts at her and she thought that was fun.

On the way home on Sunday we stopped and ate at Ponderosa. I was reminded why so many of them have went out of business. The food was just not that good! Good thing they have ice cream to make up for it!

Not long after we got into Ohio my parents got into an accident and thank goodness they are ok. My mom is pretty bruised and swollen in the face and sore as her face hit the windshield but she should get better. Just takes time! (Mom says she looks like a raccoon!) Their car will likely be totaled but we are thankful that they and my niece made it out of the accident alive as it could have been much worse. Thankfully their car didn’t flip and no cars hit them as they spun across the highway.

Monday before the girls and I left I let them play a little bit. So my mom got out the play bus and they played with that. These fold up things are pretty good things to have I think! They store easily!

I took a video of the girls playing in the bus.

Just the lazy days of home

2011-11-22T15:28:00.001-05:00

First, about the girls!

I took down the one small tent up in Kyndra’s bedroom and put up the larger one. The girls have enjoyed playing in it. I think I need to find a play tent that has a lot less poles to it and is more sturdy. It’s a real pain in the rear to put up and a pole can come loose pretty easily.

One of the things the girls have enjoyed doing recently is watching Coalee eat. Kyndra likes to help get the bowl and scoop the food for him. Then they sit down and watch him and wait for him to be done. Both want to be first to pick up the bowl!

Kyndra recently saw some small droids made by MoonlightAura and so she wanted me to make her some robots out of her modeling clay. I don’t think I did too bad! lol She’s been enjoying playing with these and they currently reside in our windowsill.

I went upstairs one day and caught the girls playing quietly (and nicely!) together. Had to capture the moment!

We stopped by Big Lots one evening (after I picked up tickets for Breaking Dawn! Eeeek!) and I let the girls pick out candy. Kyndra picked gummy bears and Lainey picked up 2 cars filled with candy. She didn’t really know they had candy in them though. She just liked the cars! And we found out that when you pull them back they move on their own so that was neat for them.

Lainey has discovered that she really loves pacifiers! I think it is because she has the teeth coming in on top or something because it wasn’t in until the teeth starting coming in that she started wanting to such on them. She even liked to suck on the top of the Poly Vi Sol bottle I let the girls play with except that now it is gone because Daddy threw it away because Lainey fell this morning while she was sucking on it and cut her lip and it was bleeding. So regular pacifiers will have to do! The picture below is what it has looked like lately. She’d have the bottle in her mouth and all the pacifiers in her arms. Oh, and there’s even an orange pacifier missing!

Has anyone else seen Breaking Dawn? Oh my gosh it is so good! Not wanting to really go by myself my sitter Ashley and I watched the 3 movies before (she hadn’t seen any of them) and then on Saturday night we went and saw Breaking Dawn. I’m pretty sure I have her hooked! lol I cannot wait until Part 2 comes out! Until then, I’m ready to watch it again!

As far as I know my pregnancy is going well. I have decided I am not going to go back to the one office I have an appointment with on Dec 1. So my choice will either be between the other doctor office and a hospital birth or the midwife and a homebirth. I have been trying to get a heartbeat on my doppler but I haven’t had any success so far. It worries me a little because I think I am at least 10 weeks but trying not to stress too much because some people may not hear it until later, which I am hoping is the case this time! Once I know for sure how far along I am then I plan to start taking belly pictures. I do have a little bump going on already! I did start to wear my splint from the Tupler Technique to help my stomach muscles but today after lunch it gave me heartburn so it is back in the drawer! I’m hoping the heartburn was just from the pressure of the splint and is not going to be a regular occurrence this early!

Lainey’s 1 year pictures

2011-11-20T20:39:00.001-05:00

I wanted to share some of Lainey’s pictures I had taken back in September. I just love how they turned out. I won a session on an auction for Photography by Jacobson and they were really fabulous and great to work with. I wish I could have gotten more pictures but with the prices of pictures and my hours still being cut I couldn’t really get that much but I knew I wanted to get a CD of pictures so I got the digital web images and the video slideshow they put together along with a few prints.

I got a very cute collage of her cake smash. I’ll have to take a picture of when I put her prints up in the house and show it to you all!

I love the vintage look too her photos too. If you can’t tell, that was what I was wanting and they turned out so good! I also have most of the photos in black and white too.

Here is the video slideshow. I just love this!! I’ve watched it like a million times already!

While I was sleeping…

2011-11-15T21:19:00.001-05:00

Gosh, there hasn’t been much updates from me lately but I have a good excuse (maybe). I’ve been sleeping more lately thanks to the pregnancy thing. So the time I used to use to do things on the computer has now been taken over by good ole Mr. Sandman. No complaints here about the break because I really do need that sleep! This also means I have not been reading hardly at all and commenting. So I’m sure I’m fabulously behind.

So this’ll be a hodge podge of a post of all the things I haven’t posted about.

Back on October 30th we had a church gathering at one of our members’ house. It was nice and we had fun. Lots of food and we went on a hay ride with the kids. Kyndra did a little fishing with Jerry (and brought home a few lure souvenirs) and Anthony and I played some cornhole.

On November 6th we went to my niece Kinsey’s birthday party (who turned 2 the day before). My sister used the yarn balloons, some of the favor bags, and one of the cakes from Lainey’s party so she had a rainbow party too! :)

I had the day off work on November 7th so I stayed an extra day at my parent’s house. Kyndra and my niece Audrey thought it would be fun to play with the leaves and rake them. Hey, why doesn’t Kyndra rake at our house!? And some pics of Lainey and Grandma too!

That next week Anthony was away for training for work so it was just the girls and I. I think they slept a lot more from having to get up and go to the babysitter’s at 4:30am!! I didn’t take any pictures of them that week (prolly cause I was sleeping! ha!) In fact, the pics above have been the last ones that I have taken. Newer news with the girls include Lainey’s top 2 teeth starting to come in and we are still trying to get rid of Kyndra’s ringworm on her leg (I think another dr visit is in our future).

And for those of you wanting a pregnancy update I really don’t have much for you. I have been denied a water birth by my insurance so I will not be able to go to the providers I did for Lainey or to the birth center. I mean, I could go but the cost is more than we really can afford. I haven’t had much luck in deciding what to do. I had blood work done at one office and saw the ob coordinator there today but I am still not sure I want to go there. So I have an appointment to go back on December 1st and I also have another appointment at the OB office in town for December 8th. I also got the midwife’s contact information from my sitter to get in touch with her to talk about a homebirth. I’m not ruling any of the options off the table as of right now.

I still do not know my exact due date or how far along I really am. I need an ultrasound to confirm both but seem to not be able to get one easily! My friend who is a board member for our local women’s center let me know that the center needed volunteers for training on the new ultrasound machine and they were looking for women in their 1st trimester so I called the center and the nurse is gonna call me back and I’m likely to be able to go in and help them out and in turn they help me out! Another option is going to one of those “entertainment” ultrasound places and getting one done. I’m sure I’ll eventually figure it out.

My Memories Freebies

2011-11-14T15:24:00.001-05:00

For those of you that use My Memories here are some freebies! They are updated every 14 days with more freebies!

Freebie 1 Page:
http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_1

Freebie 2 Page:
http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_2

Freebie 3 Page:
http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_3

Don’t forget you can use the code STMMMS45787 to receive $10.00 off your software download & a $10.00 credit to their online store!

Halloween fun

2011-11-03T16:25:00.001-04:00

October 31st I was home from work so the girls and I had a little Halloween fun. I dressed them in their Halloween gear for starters. Lainey’s onesie said “I ♥ my mummy” and Kyndra’s said “give me candy or owl scare you”. I got out the modeling clay for Kyndra to play with and she had a lot of fun playing with that and various animals. If you’re wondering why the girls are wearing gloves it’s because they were something new. I got Kyndra some gloves for winter and they both wanted to play with them.

Later in the evening it was time to get ready to go trick-or-treating. Kyndra dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Lainey was the cowardly lion. I tried to get Anthony to dress up with the girls-him as the tin man and me as the scarecrow but he wouldn’t do it. That’s not very festive, Daddy!

Our Pastor and his wife have a small Halloween party every year. There isn’t much to it really but there’s food and some of the adults pass out candy while the other adults and kids go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood but it is nice to go and we do enjoy ourselves.

After getting myself some good chicken and dumplings it was time to take the girls trick-or-treating. This would be Lainey’s first time getting candy. Both girls did very well. Kyndra was very much the big sister trying to show Lainey which way to go and trying to put candy in her pail (and in some instances taking the candy directly out of people’s bowls to give it to her!). Mommy had to keep reminding her to let sissy do it on her own. Lots of people thought they were so cute! One guy even commented that we needed more kids to finish up the characters. That would be quite fun!

Lainey actually did quite well and I think may have even gotten what to do as she watched big sis. She carried her bucket the whole time and even got out a Hershey bar and nibbled on it for a bit. Kyndra used her basket for her treat bag and I ended up holding Toto the whole time. (The lion costume that Lainey is wearing is actually Kynrda’s first Halloween costume that I kept. Glad I did!)

So here are some pics of the girls at different houses.

The girls passed out quickly in the car on the ride home. The were tired from all that treat gathering!

I hope everyone else had a Happy Halloween!!

Shutterfly Holiday Cards

2011-10-29T14:11:00.001-04:00

It’s getting that time of year where we all start thinking of Christmas. I’ve already gotten some Christmas gifts and I have been thinking about our Christmas cards that we send out every year. One of the great places to get your holiday cards is from Shutterfly. They have a great selection of Christmas cards and many times you can find coupon codes to get a great deal.

I’ve even found a couple that I like and would be get choices for your holiday cards. One of my favorite color combinations is the blue and red. We had those colors for our Christmas card last year and I wouldn’t mind having it again! I really like snowflakes on cards too. A very cute option for putting your children on a card is the ornament card below.

Shutterfly also has other great things besides cards. You can get a loved ones photo mugs for the holidays or if you’re planning a party they have lots of invitations sure to be perfect. They also have several sizes of photobooks that would be a great option for all of the holiday photos that you take.

Just the latest

2011-10-26T17:16:00.001-04:00

I’m finally finished telling of our trip to MN and now on to other things!

Look Grandma! Kyndra got her 1st issue of Big Backyard! For Christmas, my mom got Kyndra and my niece Audrey subscriptions to the kid’s magazine. My sister and I used to get that magazine and Ranger Rick when we were kids. It’s exciting that our girls get to read it now too!

On Thursday, October 20th, Anthony and I went to the annual fundraising banquet for our local women’s center. We went with my bff Lindsey and her husband Jarrod. The speaker who was supposed to be there couldn’t but they had an amazing stand-in. She was really great and funny too!

Last weekend we went back up to the northern region. My mom has an old table and chair set that my sister and I used to play with when we were younger. It was made by a great uncle of mine. (Is that right, mom? If you read this please comment on who made it because I know you know!) It’s still in remarkably good shape. The seat on one of the chairs did have to be replaced though.

On Saturday night my parents watched the girls and Anthony and I went to a concert to see Matthew West and Jonny Diaz. We had gold seating tickets, which meant we got to go to a meet and greet before the concert to meet both Matthew and Jonny in person. Before we got in line for that though we got some CDs and I also got the tshirt below. I couldn’t resist it as it’s the song I rewrote for Carleigh and the tshirt has a purplish hue to it. Perfect! I ended up changing into it for the concert.

After we got our items we then got in line and waited. By then we were the last in line. My FIL was working security and he told Jonny ahead of time that I had rewrote the lyrics to his song More Beautiful You for my daughter Carleigh. (You can see the lyrics I wrote HERE.) We were able to get our CDs autographed and I was able to give Jonny the lyrics that I wrote. He said that he would read them later. Now whether that actually happens I don’t know but I really hope so! We also met Matthew’s dad too. He’s so nice!

I can’t tell you how good this concert was! Both Matthew and Jonny did a fabulous job!! You could tell everyone there was enjoying themselves and so did they! They were both very laid back and would often joke around with the crowd. Anthony and I had seats just a few rows back so we had a great view the whole time. One of the songs that Anthony and I both loved that Jonny sang was called Waiting Room. We had never heard it before but it was such a good song. It’s on his first CD and I’ve been listening to it a lot!

And here's a video from the concert!

Kyndra is doing very well aside from recovering from a little sickness (which she’s almost over) and the pesky little rash on her leg. If you are a friend on FB you may remember a pic I posted of a rash on Kyndra’s leg that I was concerned about. Well, it is still there and was getting better then getting worse. Many people suggested it was ringworm so I began putting Lotrimin on it and it did get better but then came back. I decided to just take her to the dr. So yesterday I took her to see the nurse practitioner in the practice (who is really awesome!) and she took a look at it along with a student nurse who was very nice. She really thought it was ringworm and suggested to use Lamisil and not Lotrimin. I guess Lamisil is just like the prescription stuff and should work better than the Lotrimin. So I got some Lamisil and we are to put that on her leg twice a day for 2 weeks. Plus we are putting it on a small spot on her other leg that recently popped up. Oh and she weighs 29 lbs. Just had to throw that in there.

What’s funny is that people say ringworm is really contagious yet none of the rest of us has gotten it. And believe me, I have touched the heck out of that rash and Lainey and I have taken baths with her. Maybe it hasn’t spread because she hasn’t really messed with it or itched at it at all. If she did then I didn’t see it and it was most likely when she had pants on. So, we will eventually get it cleared up! I’d really like to know where she might’ve picked it up because I have no idea!

Lainey is now 13 months old! She still has 2 teeth and isn’t saying anymore words than she has been but her personality is growing every day. She got a little sick when Kyndra did and still has a stuffy/runny nose so her nose has been a little chapped lately from all the wiping. Poor girl has scabs on her nose too! In other Lainey news, she has officially moved up a size in clothing. She is now in 12 months! So I’ve been in the process of changing her clothes out. I admit though I’ve only gotten as far as getting the tote out of the attic and taking the clothes out of the tote as she needs them. Hopefully this weekend I can get it all in the drawer and the 6-9 month clothes back in a tote. She is also officially done breastfeeding. She no longer is nursing although she would really like to. I have the proof of that when we get in the bathtub and she goes after me! LOL! But we have also used all the freezer stash so she is on all organic whole milk and is doing very well with it. We worked out way up to it by combining the breast milk we had left with the whole milk. I will definitely miss nursing her but the new baby needs all the nutrients right now and considering my size it wouldn’t be a good idea to continue to try to nurse while pregnant.

Speaking of pregnant, as far as I know I still am! I still don’t know for sure how far along I am or when my exact due date is. I haven’t made an appointment to see the doctor yet either because of the insurance thing. I vaguely mentioned it in a previous post. I called insurance last Tuesday to see if I could still go to the birth center and the same practice that saw me when I was pregnant with Lainey. After Lainey was born I got new insurance and it wasn’t a change for the better. Right now with the insurance I have now if I would go to the birth center without getting approved first the cost would be outrageous. Because the birth center does water births and my hospital does not provide that service I could be able to go to the birth center at a lower cost but I need to get it approved through insurance first or I can’t afford to go. I called my insurance again today since I hadn’t heard anything and I was told they are currently working on it and expect to get an answer any day now. You know how that can go….. I am just hoping that whenever I do find out the answer is that I can use the birth center. Once I know what the outcome of that is then I can decide from there what to do. If I can use the birth center I am definitely going that route. If they don’t approve the birth center then my options are either the only OB office in the town where I work or a homebirth and I lean more toward a homebirth.

As far as how the pregnancy is going, well, it is going! I am definitely more tired! My butt has been thoroughly kicked lately! I really do need to try and get more sleep so I don’t wear down so that is something I’m gonna try to do. Haven’t had any nausea but I have had left hip twinges already. Seriously!? It’s too early for that! Seems like that happens earlier and earlier each time. My belly does seem to be pooching out a little but that’s no surprise as my stomach muscles have been put through the ringer. I’d like to get another splint from the Tupler Technique soon to help support my muscles. They claim it is safe to wear throughout your pregnancy so I’d really like to wear it as long as I can for support. The only food I’ve been eating more of is hard boiled eggs in the morning.

I came across this the other day and I think that this totally need to happen! If you aren’t familiar it is a petition to allow parents who have a lost a child to use their FMLA for time off. Those of us who have lost a child know that the days currently given for bereavement just simply isn’t enough. Losing a child is a HUGE life event. I know my hospital gives you up to 5 days bereavement. I can tell you certainly that if I only had 5 days after Carleigh I would have went back to work a mess. Luckily, I had my maternity leave because I had just given birth to her. But had it happened later when my leave was over I wouldn’t have had sufficient time. Please sign the petition and help parents!

Road Trip {Apple Orchard & the rest}

2011-10-25T17:53:00.001-04:00

On Sunday, October 16th we got up and ate the continental breakfast at the Best Western we stayed at. They had a pretty good breakfast and a small little room. Good enough for us! The room was sort of log cabinish, especially Lainey’s high chair! I bet my mom would love to have this for up at the cabin in Michigan!

After breakfast we packed up and set off to head back home. This is one of the pics I snapped from the van. Choo choo!

We didn’t head straight home though as I wanted to take the girls to an apple/pumpkin orchard so that’s what we did! I looked into quite a few places to go and settled on Ferguson’s Orchards. There are 3 locations to visit but we went to the one in Galesville, WI. At the orchard they give you maps of the place so you can find your way around. Here’s a copy of our map.

We were first greeted at the orchard by many pumpkins! I wanted to get the girls some pumpkins and Kyndra wanted one too so I let her pick. She ended up picking small white “baby” pumpkins for both her and her sister. If you think about it, it was prolly a good thing she was thinking small! We didn’t have to lug huge pumpkins back home!

After picking out the girls’ pumpkins we went inside their barn store and looked around. We picked up some maple syrup and cider and looked around at the different apples that they had available. I decided that I wanted to get some of their Ferguson apples, which are supposed to be exclusive to the orchard and a hybrid of Honeycrisp and some other apple. They had an area where you can sample the different apples so I tried a bit of the Ferguson and it was pretty good and I’m not much of an apple person.

We decided to go finish doing the activities at the orchard before getting the apples. We paid $3 per person (except Lainey) to do all the outside activities. I let Kyndra decide where to go first and she wanted to go to the pedal tractors and go around the track. Kyndra did try to do the actual pedal tractors but her legs weren’t long enough so she switched to the ones she moved with her legs. Then I told Anthony to bring Lainey in too and Lainey sure liked that! Kyndra and her had a little race around the track.

After the pedal tractors we visited the Rotten Apples Jail. Kyndra said she was busting out Daddy and sissy from Apple Jail.

We then visited a little ride called Spin The Apple. It is much like the rides you would find at a carnival/festival/fair but it’s just by itself and you do ALL of the spinning. So the girls and I took a spin courtesy of Daddy (who thought it was fun to spin us really fast and I had to remind him not to make the girls sick!).

Once we were finished with Spin The Apple another wagon was approaching for a wagon ride so we hopped on and took off for a ride through the apple orchard. Lainey had a little snack on the way up.

After the wagon ride we walked across to the hay pyramid, which Kyndra promptly conquered. Then I helped Lainey up to the top of the pyramid too.

The teepee and tunnel was right beside the hay pyramid so that was next. A big long tube connect 2 teepees. (Basically a drainage tube connecting 2 green tarps but lots of fun for kids!)

The barn with farm animals was next. Kyndra liked the small horse. It was funny to see the goats up on this platform. I guess they walk around up there! I sure hope they don’t fall!

The last activity that we did outside was the corn maze. It was a pretty decent sized corn maze so it took us a bit to get through it. Our goal was to find the farmer named Charlie somewhere in the maze. We did eventually find him and Kyndra got her pic with him.

We had finished all the outdoor activities so we went back inside to get our apples. While I was bagging up some apples, Anthony tried to take the girls through the kids’ haunted house but as he started pushing the stroller through Lainey started crying so he backed out of it. We paid for the apples and then went back to the van to leave after picking up a hot dog for Lainey because that girl was hungry!

I thought the following would be neat to share since it is the variety of apples they had at the orchard and a little more about each apple.

We drove through the horrible Illinois toll roads again and had to get a couple slips to pay online because we didn’t have any cash on us (oops!). One guy was rude about it and I would love to make a complaint about him to his manager!! Poor Lainey was getting so tired of being in her car seat. We decided to stop in Merrillville, IN for the night and stayed at a newly opened Econolodge, which for the record was not that great at all. Our nonsmoking room was at the end of a smoking hallway so you could smell all the smoke, we didn’t have any hot water for baths, they had no high chairs in their dining area, and the continental breakfast was a joke. It was basically donuts and toast. I thought of making another complaint there too!

In the morning, we stopped at a nearby McDonald’s so that I could meet up with my friend and fellow BLM, Dana. While we waited for her to arrive, we got some hashbrowns. Kyndra wasn’t feeling very well so she didn’t really eat but Lainey downed one. Once Dana arrived we talked for a bit before it was time to hit the road again. It was so great to meet her! I just love meeting my online friends.

The rest of the ride home was pretty uneventful. I read and took a nap and the girls napped off and on and ate some snacks while Anthony drove. One of the worst parts after a vacation is getting home and unpacking everything. What a pain!

Overall we had a really great trip and the girls did pretty good too considering how long they were in their seats. So glad we got a weekend to get away for a bit.

Road Trip {Lunch & Memorial}

2011-10-24T18:57:00.001-04:00

On Saturday, October 15th we got up early and went to the hotel pool to swim. We had the pool to ourselves. Who else is crazy enough to swim as early as we did!? LOL! It was nice though and the pool is pretty neat because there is a portion that goes outside and it is separated but heavy, plastic blind-looking things covering the opening and down into the water. So we ventured outside for a tiny bit (not long though because it was chilly!) and it definitely made the water inside a lot warmer! (I definitely could’ve went for a hot tub!)

The girls had fun and Kyndra gave us a little scare too. She was on the steps and Anthony had Lainey and we were hitting the ball back and forth and I glanced behind me and Kyndra was trying desperately to swim but she kept sinking. I guess she must’ve gotten a little too far away from the steps. I snatched her up quick and she coughed for a bit and was a little shaken but was ok. We got out not long after that as the girls were starting to get cold. So we took them back to the room and gave them a warm bath.

After the girls’ bath we got ready to head to the lunch that was being held for us. We had time to watch a little How To Train Your Dragon.

The lunch was at another church and was catered by a place called Meatheads. We had BBQ pulled pork and some other things and it was quite good! Of course, Kyndra didn’t eat anything. She’s always picky! The girls did enjoy running around the gym and playing. (Kyndra was playing with the stones she took from our hotel’s landscaping.)

After lunch we had some time to spare so we went to a small mall that was also quite colorful! We stopped at the candy shop (was the first store!) and picked up some candy for us all. Kyndra really enjoyed that shop! One of the more interesting shops was this pottery place where they pottery is handmade and they even have this one area where you can watch them make it. One of my favorite displays was the one below with all the different colors of pottery lined up. It would be awesome to have one of each for a rainbow of colors!

We went back to the hotel after the visit to the small mall and just rested until it was time to head out for the memorial.

Here is the pamphlet from the memorial that evening. I unfolded it and scanned it. You can click to make larger.

The first event of the evening was at Levee Park in Red Wing, MN. We had a balloon release there.

The next event was the lantern lighting at Central Park in Red Wing. Once we arrived we enjoyed listening to some songs.

Not long after the ceremony started everyone went up and lit them. I got both a lantern and a luminary for my babies Jordan and Carleigh.

I took a picture of Heather and her family. I couldn’t help but notice the Comfort Bear from Sufficient Grace Ministries.

I really like this photo that Heather’s daughter took.

Towards the end of the ceremony it was time for the speakers, which meant it was my turn!! I admit, I was definitely nervous. I have never spoken in front of anyone sharing our story of Carleigh. Anthony says he could tell I was nervous but I eventually settled into a good rhythm. It prolly didn’t help that I was a little chilly! The air wasn’t real cold but there was a crisp breeze that evening. A couple parts I got a little teary but I made it through! I’m so glad that I got to share.

After I shared my story it was Amanda’s turn and then Sherokee Isle spoke. If you’re not familiar with her she wrote the book Empty Arms: Coping After Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Death. I haven’t read the book but I am sure it is good. She was good at speaking and we were all glad that she had decided to join us that evening and speak. I even got to speak with her after everything was over and I felt better when she said I did a good job speaking.

After the lantern ceremony was over we decided to go out to eat. None of us had ate before (but the girls did snack during). We went and ate at The Smokin’ Oak. Oh my gosh this place was so good! We had to wait longer than what we were told but everyone was so nice there. We were even given crackers and mashed potatoes for the girls while we waited. Kyndra ended up falling asleep before dinner and I had to take Lainey to the car before Anthony was finished because she was fussy. Can’t blame them though because they had a long day!

Wanted to share also a pamphlet about the support offered by Anchored By Hope.

My Memories Review & Giveaway!

2011-10-22T13:33:00.001-04:00

I actually won a My Memories giveaway thru Jenilee in August. They contacted me recently about a review and giveaway and I was definitely on board as I love doing giveaways! Life has been pretty busy so I haven’t had a lot of time to interact with the My Memories software but the few things I have done have been really neat and pretty user friendly.

I created these pages in less than 5 minutes altogether from the premade templates so you can do things relatively quick. One of the biggest things for me is time management so I like things that save me time and this software definitely does that!

As a special for all of my readers, you get your very own Share the Memories code that provides a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store. That is a $20 value! The code you use to get the discount is STMMMS45787.

You can learn more about My Memories through the following youtube video also:

To enter the giveaway go to the digital scrapbooking kits and let me know which two are your favorite in a comment. The giveaway will remain open until next Friday (Oct 28th) until noon EST and the winner will be announced later that day.

For extra entries you can follow my blog and the My Memories blog, FB, and twitter as well! Just leave a separate comment for each.
Blog- http://blog.mymemories.com/
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/mymemoriessuite
Twitter- http://twitter.com/#!/mymemoriessuite

Road Trip {Meeting BLMs & Dinner}

2011-10-20T16:11:00.001-04:00

After we left my cousin Kate’s house on Friday, October 14th we headed toward Madison, WI so that I could meet up with Melissa and Alissa. They are fellow BLM’s (babyloss moms) that I have gotten to know on my own journey through loss. We met up at a Panera Bread there and had a nice time chatting while we ate. We only got to spend about 30 minutes with them until it was time for us to leave so that we could stay on schedule. Before we left Melissa gave me my shirt that I got from the Forever In Our Hearts Remembrance Walk they held in that area. The shirt is really pretty and it has the names of my Heavenly babies on the back. How wonderful!

After Madison, we headed to Tomah, WI so that I could meet up with Deanna at Subway in the Walmart there. She’s another fellow BLM. She had her mom and her little guy, Asher, with her. He and Kyndra had fun riding the little truck ride nearby. (Thanks Deanna!)

Here are some pics of the scenery as we were driving from Tomah, WI to Red Wing, MN.

Once we arrived in Red Wing, we headed straight for the dinner that was being hosted at a local church. Kyndra really loved the big hall and I think she thought it was her own stage as she was singing and dancing all over. A photography club was there taking pictures and video of the dinner. It was nice to meet a few more BLMs that I only knew from online, like Kristie and Heather.

While we were there Heather interviewed me on video. I was a little nervous but I think I did ok.

After the dinner we went back to the hotel and loaded everything in our room and pretty much got ready for bed and hit the sack. It had been a long day!

Our Road Trip {Time with Kate}

2011-10-19T23:50:00.000-04:00

We left for our road trip to Minnesota on the evening of Thursday, October 13th. I made sure I had everything packed and loaded so once Anthony got home all we had to do was pack up the girls and go. We ended up leaving about 4:30 pm. Anthony did all of the driving that night (as he does most of the time). Our destination was my cousin Kate’s house near Milwaukee, WI. Our plan was to stay at her and her husband Eric’s house that night and have breakfast with them that morning before we took off again.

We ended up getting in around 11:30 pm. The girls were sleeping but woke up a little bit while Anthony and I were up talking to Eric and Kate. I think it was after midnight when we finally went to bed. I told Anthony, ok we got to get these girls in bed or else he prolly would’ve stayed up longer.

In the morning I made sure to snap a few pics of all the girls playing together. I had to keep reminding Kyndra to share. Sometimes she has a sharing problem. Overall they all got along very well and had fun.

Breakfast was really yummy. Eric made pancakes, eggs, and bacon for us all. Then Molly had to get ready for school and then Eric walked her when it was time. We got around and I think it was around 9:30 am when we finally headed off for the next leg of the journey.

And of course before we left I couldn’t forget to get a picture with Kate!

It was so nice to see my cousin {sister} Kate and her family as it has been a long time since I have seen her. So long that I can’t even remember when it was. (Isn’t that awful?) Kate mentioned on her blog about the things we used to do when we were younger. Those times were a lot of fun and I miss them. It always seems so much harder to get together and do things as you get older. Of course, not living close has a lot to do with that too! But I am excited to perhaps see them again over Christmas.

I would definitely like to make the trip again sometime to see them. However, I wish we could avoid all those stupid toll roads in Illinois! What a pain in the butt! I’m so glad Ohio doesn’t have those!

Stuff I haven’t gotten around to yet and BIG NEWS!!!

2011-10-18T17:51:00.001-04:00

Just some stuff I haven’t shared yet since I haven’t had time. I’m sure there’s more I intended to share but at this point I can’t remember it all so this is what you get! ;)

I won a giveaway on Veronica’s blog and got a blanket, journal, mug, and 2 coupons! Score! Thanks Veronica! And we are just loving the super soft blanket!!

Here’s pics of the girls from October 4th. Kyndra cooperated. Lainey didn’t.

On October 5th, Kyndra helped me decorate some pumpkins to put on our front porch. I ended up having a leftover pumpkin tattoo and I stuck it on Kyndra’s belly. It was pretty funny. Not so fun getting off though! I had to scrub pretty good to get it all off. Her belly was all red after.

After Kyndra and I put the pumpkins on the porch a butterfly was fluttering around the butterfly bush. I was able to capture Kyndra nearly holding it. It ended up flying away before she could.

On October 7th, we were having fun running around the house and we had an accident. Kyndra was on Daddy’s back and Lainey was on my hip and we were chasing them. We came around the corner and Lainey leaned back just as we were turning and smacked her head into the corner of the wall. I knew before even looking at her she was bleeding and sure enough she was bleeding pretty good.

I kept saying over and over to Lainey, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry!” Mommy felt so bad! I got the bleeding to pretty much stop but she had a decent sized cut above her eye. We weren’t really sure what we should do. All the urgent care centers were closed since it was after 8 pm so the only other option was taking her to the ER and we weren’t really sure if we should.

After posting the above pic on FB we were advised to take her, which ending up deciding to do. We waited HOURS. It was just ridiculous and by the time she was seen it had clotted itself and couldn’t be fixed. All they did was put that glue stuff on top of the cut. So it ended up being a waste of our time. So we basically got a balloon glove for a $300 deductible. NICE. Lainey did really well in the ER. I just wish we could’ve been seen earlier. I personally don’t think kids should have to wait that long to be seen, but whatever.

Next day Lainey was happy as ever and you’d never known she ran her head into a wall. She’ll have a scar for sure but hopefully with some Mederma it’ll be hardly noticeable.

On October 7th, we had quite a pretty sunset for our area. I just had to take a picture of it. I love the purple and the yellow in it as it reminds me of my Heavenly babies.

Kyndra found the sidewalk chalk again and so got artsy. I drew the crowns and scepter for her and then she drew the people. She has improved in that now the people she draws have a head and a body where before it was just a combination head-body. I sure loved those little people monsters though! They were so cute!!!!

It isn’t so bad anymore now but for a bit there we had quite a few potato bugs! They were everywhere! The picture makes it look like there weren’t many but honestly there were! This was just on top of the play car. Our back patio seemed to be the best place to congregate for them.

Probably the BIGGEST news to share in this whole post! I know some of you know already but to make it official here on the blog I must share! On October 13th (the day we left for our trip), I took a pregnancy test. And, well, you can see the result for yourself……

A BIG, FAT POSITIVE!

There’s no mistaking that one! lol It wasn’t really a shock as I was sorta suspecting since AF hadn’t shown yet. We weren’t actively trying but we certainly weren’t preventing so it was a nice surprise for us. As of right now I don’t know how far along I really am or my due date. If I had to guess I would say I’m maybe around 7 weeks and due in June. Only an ultrasound will tell for sure!

What I have found annoying since finding out is that people seem to think we are gonna have a ton of kids like we are the next Duggars or something and make jokes about it. Really? Or saying that we should be done after this one. Really? I don’t see how it is anyone’s business on how many children we decide to have. That’s between me, my husband, and God. So if you aren’t one of those feel free to BUTT OUT because we don’t want your opinion. Anybody else run into this?

I would like to say thank you to those who are happy for us and are praying for us and our little one as we start this new journey. I am hopeful and anxious. I do have a prayer request for right now. I am waiting for a phone call back from my insurance that will determine if I can go to the birthing center again like I did for Lainey. I won’t get into all the nitty gritty details but my insurance is different now and is crappier. Please pray that I can go to the birthing center again. The alternatives are to either go to a VERY busy and overworked ob office and receive most likely less than quality care or a homebirth. I really want to go to the birthing center because I loved our experience with it and the reassurance that if something did go wrong the right services were close by.

Our Anniversary

2011-10-13T14:44:00.001-04:00

October 1st was our anniversary. We have been married 6 years now!

We originally had planned to go to Haunted Covington in KY for our anniversary and have someone watch the girls. I had bought a Groupon for it but I could book the tour online like we were supposed to because it was saying my Groupon had already been used so I emailed two people and never heard back from them. So we had to make other plans.

Instead we went back to the northern region and on that Saturday we had some family game fun, went to the theater to watch Courageous, out to eat at Longhorn steakhouse, and then back home for more game fun. However, we never ended up seeing Courageous. The theater we were in wasn’t playing the movie. Something was wrong with it so we went out to get refunded and then they said it was working so we went back in only to be told after sitting some more that it really wasn’t working. So back out to get refunded again!

That was disappointing because I really wanted to see that movie but it was still a fun night. Anthony got me some red roses, a card, and diamonds earrings. I got him a card. I sound like a Scrooge but I’m really not. We usually just do cards and no gifts but he surprised me. And even got my rings cleaned for me (and used that as a good excuse to go to the jewelry store I guess!)

The most fun part of the night was playing the game. We had a blast playing Scattergories. We sure laughed a lot!!!!

Happy Anniversary to us!!

The girls 2 weeks ago

2011-10-12T20:38:00.001-04:00

The title is kinda self-explanatory. These are pictures of the girls from 2 weeks ago when we went up to the northern region. Just haven’t had time to post them before now. (And honestly I should be doing some other things rather than posting but I wanted to get these up!)

Kyndra’s 1st haircut

2011-10-05T17:38:00.001-04:00

On September 30th I took Kyndra to get her first haircut. I also got my hair trimmed. We both got our cuts by my BIL’s gf, Megan, while she was working. (Love her ♥) My niece, Audrey, went with us but just watched.

I went first to show Kyndra and then Kyndra was ready for hers. She did really well and I didn’t go crazy and get her hair all cut off. She got about a 1/2 inch trimmed off all around.

I told Kyndra if she did good with her haircut and if her and Audrey behaved while getting mine done I would get them cookies. I made good on my offer. We went to the Great American Cookie Co. which is just diagonal from Mastercuts. The girls got pumpkin cookies and I got a spider web cookie. To top it off I got a strawberry squeeze Freshens smoothie that we all shared.

While sitting and eating our cookies, the girls spotted the playground area in the mall. They begged to play there so I let them play for a bit.

Then we went to Meijer so I could pick up a few things and they rode the horse like a million times.

So, in summary, another first done to put in the baby book!

Lainey’s birthday-bounce house fun

2011-09-29T12:30:00.000-04:00

One of the things I wanted to do for Lainey’s birthday was rent a bounce house. Anthony thought it was a little excessive but I didn’t care. I wanted one anyway for everyone to have fun in. So we rented one for the length of the party and it was such a blast! All the kids and even the adults had fun on it. I told Anthony we should buy our own bounce house to blow up whenever!

As for Lainey, she LOVED it! I knew she would because this same bounce house was at our church for VBS and she had fun on it then. But it was even better at her party because she was a little older and enjoyed it even more. She really loved going down the slide.

So here’s some pics of the bounce house fun!!

Lainey’s birthday-moments from the party

2011-09-29T04:00:00.000-04:00

Here’s some moments from Lainey’s birthday party on Saturday.

First and most important at the party: the birthday girl!!! No time for pictures, mom, I’m making an important phone call!

My bff Lindsey’s daughter, Alexa, driving around in the little car.

The kiddos taking a little break from the bounce house and catching a little Dora the Explorer that was on tv.

Time to open presents! Lainey did fairly well at getting the presents open. She knew what she had to do but just needed a little help.

After opening presents Grandma just had to put Lainey in the outfit she got her to see how it looked.

My bff and her family leaving. Thanks for coming!

My niece, Kinsey, making her way to the swing set. She can’t escape Aunt Holly’s camera!

Our swing set say a bit of play time during the party.

My sweetie Kyndra.

Near the end of the party my girls and my nieces played around on the back porch.

Lainey’s birthday–cake time!

2011-09-28T11:08:00.001-04:00

I knew that for Lainey’s birthday I wanted to have The Cake Diva make Lainey’s cake. She has made Carleigh’s cakes for her 1st and 2nd birthdays and they always turn out so good. She didn’t disappoint this time either! I had her make a cake with a rainbow and the two cakes are supposed to represent clouds. The clouds turned out larger than she had anticipated but I didn’t mind (we just had lots of cake left over)! She also made a little smash cake for Lainey. Inside the cakes I had her make rainbow layers. I also had rainbow sugar cookies made by the cafeteria where I work. They make the best sugar cookies.

You can see the favor bags behind the cake. The favor bags are rainbow balloon with a rainbow thank you tag. In the bags I put rainbow goldfish crackers, a box of crayons, and glow sticks. I think the whole table set-up turned out really great. After I hung the yarn balloons I twisted some yarn along the main thread holding them up and I think that was a good touch. And I didn’t even have to buy a table cloth as I had a nice, bright red one that I use around Christmas.

When it was time for the cake I added balloon candles to the big cake and a number 1 to the small cake and we sang Happy Birthday to Lainey. I let Kyndra blow out the balloon candles.

When I placed the cake in front of Lainey while we sang to her she just smiled and gazed at her cake. Then she put her hand on the lighted candle and put it out. Well, at least she put out her candle by herself! lol

She started delicately on the cake by just scraping off some frosting and eating it. Slowly she started digging in more. I helped her to get into the center of the cake too but she was more interested in the frosting.

While Lainey was digging into her cake I cut into the big cake for everyone else. I just LOVE the rainbow layers! I’m not a big white cake fan and it was pretty good cake! Everyone else liked it too and with the size of the cake itself everyone got pretty big pieces even though I cut them as thin as I could.

After everyone had some cake Lainey got a bath to rinse off since it was easier than try to wipe her off with a rag.

Is this sorta redneck?

2011-09-28T04:32:00.001-04:00

Our bathtub can be slippery when wet so we have always used bathmats in it since Kyndra was born so the kiddos don’t slip and fall and bust something. Well, when we get lazy and never take the bathmat out to dry it grows mildew underneath and eats at the tub lining and then stains it. The last time we lifted the mat it looked pretty bad so Anthony cleaned it but the mildew spots were still there.

Anthony was just gonna get some spray paint to spray over the spots. While at the store in the spray paint aisle I saw some textured spray paint. I asked Anthony if we could just the textured spray paint to cover up the mildew stains and give the bottom of the tub a little grip so we wouldn’t have to use bathmats anymore. Seemed like a good idea to me and he thought it might work. So, we looked at a few textured spray paints and picked one out.

A few days later Anthony cleaned and then sprayed the tub. We had to let it dry for 24 hours and it smelled up the bathroom pretty good. The next day it had dried up nicely. Still slightly smelly but that eventually went away.

I did a test run with the girls and it worked great! No slipping and no bathmat! It works even better than the bathmat because they can go around the whole tub and not just the areas of the bathmat where before if they went in front of or behind the bathmat they could still slip (and they did).

I even like the extra grip it gives me and it isn’t too scratchy either.

Recent still life

2011-09-27T21:49:00.001-04:00

Just a few pics I took last week. The flowers will soon be gone as it's getting cooler. The last pic is the sun setting over the grain mill in our small town. I really like that one, especially since you can see flag off to the side too.

Sept 19-23

2011-09-27T21:35:00.001-04:00

Just gonna do a quick (maybe) rundown of what went on before Lainey’s birthday party on the 24th.
On the 19th I can’t remember what I did but I know I had the day off work so I was at home with the girls. Later I had Anth take some pics of me and the girls. Kyndra was a little tired.

On the 20th I did some snuggling with Carleigh’s blanket and Lainey got some snuggles in too! She really liked her blanket.

Also the 20th Lainey post bath in her duck towel. You can really see her two teeth well in the 2nd pic.

The 22nd – it’s Lainey’s birthday! My little girl is officially 1 year old. She doesn’t have a clue but seems mighty happy regardless.

On the same day Anthony, me, and the girls went outside after he got off home from work. Anthony mowed the lawn. Kyndra played while I trimmed up the weeping cherry tree. It really needed it! Anthony also pulled out some of the yuccas to thin them out a bit. You can see the difference from the side he already did to the side he hadn’t done yet.

Kyndra also picked flowers.

Lainey hung out on my back.

I had to take a pic of the ever growing rhea nest that Kyndra tends to. Every day when we get home from the sitter’s she adds some ~~rocks~~ “eggs” and/or sticks to the nest. Sometimes she even puts plants and flowers around it. As you can see there are quite a few “eggs” in the nest.

I took Kyndra by our town sign and took a couple pictures.

When we went back inside I made sure to give Lainey a special treat for her birthday. Ice cream! I had to add a candle too. She loved it of course.

Had to share the potato heads that the girls made at the sitter’s house. Both funny and fun!

And Kyndra made a dinosaur clock. At least that’s what she said it was.

On the 23rd I got some more stuff around for Lainey’s party. I put together the favor bags and made her birthday onesie. I also put up the yarn balloons.

Lainey thought it was fun to play with the yarn and kept unrolling it so I just gave her some pieces to play with. Kyndra played with some too but she got smaller pieces are pretended hers were worms.

Yarn balloon tutorial

2011-09-26T21:32:00.001-04:00

I thought I would give a little tutorial as I made some yarn balloons (aka yarn eggs) for Lainey’s birthday. I figured out how to get started through tutorials online but I don’t think they explained it well. You can bet I will tell you the problems I had with it and what I did to make it work.
First of all I found these really awesome rainbow yarn balloons from the juicy bits blog that I wanted to try and do for Lainey’s birthday. I thought it would be an awesome decoration for above her cake.

via juicy bits

I found the tutorial to make them here but the instructions weren’t very clear on a couple things and I only found out later that you’re supposed to use cotton yarn and not acrylic yarn. At least that’s what they say. So I got the acrylic yarn and just hoped I could get it to work. Some people suggested using watered down glue and others mentioned starch so I picked up both.

Below is the supplies that I used, which includes garbage bag, starch, pan, glue, scissors, nylon thread, balloons, clothespins, and yarn. I also used a small bowl and hairspray in the matter that isn’t pictured.

What I did first was set up shop in the den of our house. I cut a big black garbage bag and then unfolded it to help contain any messes. I then strung the nylon thread from one side of the room to the other to hang the balloons on to dry later.

Next I blew up a balloon and started off with the watered down glue. For the glue you supposedly just do 1 part glue to 1 part water and I mixed it in a small bowl. I cut about 2-3 foot strips of the yarn to dip into the glue. I removed excess glue with my fingers by sliding the yarn through my fingers.

Yeah….that didn’t work out so well. I recommend NOT getting pearlized balloons when doing this project as they were really slick and even extra slick with the acrylic yarn so the yarn would not stick to the balloon at all. So I got the idea that maybe if I turned the balloon inside out it wouldn’t be as slick so that is what I did for each balloon and it worked out much better but the acrylic yarn still did not stick well to the balloon with the glue and water.
So next I decided to try the starch. So I poured some starch in a pan and dipped it in the same fashion as the glue.

The starch didn’t work well either. I even tried hanging the balloon and wrapping the yarn around it but the yarn just slipped right off. I’m not sure why I thought that would work better. (Right after I took this picture the yarn fell off.)

So I had been going at this whole yarn balloon thing for a while now and still no success. At this point I thought my whole plans were pretty much screwed but I still wasn’t ready to give up yet (even though it was late at night and I had to get up for work the next day).
I decided to just wing it then. So I got some vaseline thinking it would help the yarn stick a little better and I did a light coating of vaseline on the balloon. I then lightly coated the yarn in starch and then strung the yarn through the glue while removing the excess. It seems that the combination of starch and watered down glue creates a sort of jelly mixture after it has sat for a bit but before it reaches that stage it has just enough stickiness to stay stuck to the balloon. HALLELUJAH!

Once I got a system down I was moving through the balloons at a pretty good pace and it was actually working!!! I hung up each balloon once I finished it to start drying.

Even though I got the yarn to stick to the balloons I still wasn’t sure if they were gonna dry right and turn out. I turned on both of our box fans on medium and left them on overnight. And for extra measure I sprayed each one really well with hairspray.

When I woke up in the morning (a mere 3 hours later!) I found that my green yarn balloon was shriveled due to the balloon popping so I put a new one in and blew it up. Some of the yarn didn’t straighten completely but it still didn’t look too bad and it wasn’t enough that it was worth doing over.
After I got home from work I checked on them and they all had hardened nicely. So I put a small hole in the top of each balloon and let the air out slowly. As the balloon inside slowly deflated I unstuck the yarn from the balloon. Some glue residue stuck to the yarn and I took off the bigger pieces and just left the smaller ones.

Once I got all the balloons done I strung them up above the table. I have to tell you, I was mighty pleased with myself that I got these yarn balloons to turn out because it was NOT as easy as the original directions I read made it seem to be. But it was well worth the effort because they ended up turning out and they looked really neat as decorations.

My sister ended up taking these home after Lainey’s party to use for my niece Kinsey’s birthday in November. I may even save them after that to use in the future.

Lots to share!

2011-09-25T22:21:00.001-04:00

I have lots to share and lots of pics to edit to share too. Hoping to be able to put up something tomorrow so stay tuned! Lainey had a great birthday weekend!

Happy 1st Birthday Lainey!!!!

2011-09-22T00:21:00.001-04:00

Today my baby girl is 1 year old (officially at 2:48pm). This past year has FLOWN by. It seems just like yesterday I was pregnant with her…..

…..and I was dreaming of her arriving safe in my arms. That day could not come soon enough for me!

I wanted her labor and birth to be totally different from her sisters. I didn’t want to be induced. I wanted to experience labor naturally and I wanted a water birth. Thanks to my wonderful team of caregivers I got exactly what I wanted.

Here is a never before shared video of me in the labor tub. I was around 7cm dilated at this point and we had just finished walking the halls. That tub was soooo nice and the music I had playing was the music I had in the background at Carleigh’s 1st birthday party. Quite relaxing!

Then the moment we had all been waiting for! At 2:48pm on September 22nd little miss Lainey Iris was born!

And we were elated!! (and I was tired!)

Mommy, Daddy, and Lainey stayed in the hospital less than 24 hours and then we were on our way home!

Mommy was so elated to leave the hospital with a baby she was able to take home.

On our first Sunday home we took Lainey to ‘meet’ her big sister Carleigh.

Here is a picture of Lainey from each month from her birth:

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAINEY IRIS!!!

Lainey,
You have brought so much joy into our lives since the moment we knew you existed. We thank God every day for you! We love you always!
~Mommy & Daddy

Last Monday vs. This Monday

2011-09-19T13:34:00.001-04:00

Last Monday I was off work and this Monday I am also off work but that’s about the only similarity so far in the days!

Last Monday was such a nice day outside! I had to return a pair of jeans to the outlet mall so the girls and I went there and after I returned my jeans we went to the playground they have there and played and rode some of the little rides they have scattered around. Good thing I had lots of quarters! (And my cell phone for pics!) The girls had a blast and I enjoyed seeing them have so much fun.

I also got a special surprise in the mail. Someone sent me an Emergence necklace from The Midnight Orange. I don’t know who it was but thank you! Kyndra really likes the necklace and actually wore it the whole day.

This Monday is nowhere near as nice! The day is gloomy and rainy with a bit of chill so no outside play for us today even though the girls wish they could

The past few nights haven’t been good sleepwise for Lainey or for me. Last night was prolly the worse and this morning she was so tired all she could do was just cry. She wasn’t happy at all and mommy wasn’t that thrilled with maybe 1 hour of sleep straight through. She got a brief nap this morning and is feeling a little more cheerful. I think a new bedtime routine is worth trying out. I think we may try what we did for Kyndra, which was Daddy do the last bottle and then put to bed. I can def tell in the pic below that I am tired (esp seeing how I didn’t bother to do my hair or my face. lol)

Otherwise the girls have been playing and not wanting to eat what I try and feed them other than the mini candy bars they swiped from the post office and fruit snacks. Eh, oh well. Today I am just not in the mood to even try harder.

All I’m hoping for today is a good nap because I know I seriously need one and I’m sure Lainey does too!

Just 5 more days…..

2011-09-17T22:40:00.001-04:00

…..until my baby is 1 YEAR OLD!!!

This past year has just flown by. I don’t remember it going this fast with Kyndra! Today we went and got her 1 year pictures and I know they are gonna be so adorable! She did really well in cooperating.

Here’s some recent pics of my growing baby with a little commentary of course. :)

The pic above shows how Lainey carries her purse around the house. She really likes this purse. I’ll even sneak things in it for her to discover later.

This child is constantly putting this little cap off a play medicine bottle in her mouth. The cap has a hole in it and she’ll stick it in her mouth and start blowing which makes a whistling noise. I swear I take this out of her mouth like 10 times a day.

Her and her sister climbing on things. Lainey is always climbing up on the green chair and standing like this. She’ll even stand on one leg and rock back and forth. I guess first time she falls she won’t wanna do it again (at least I hope so!).

She has found that it is a lot of fun to play dress up! She especially likes to put the necklaces around her neck. But hats can be fun too!

In case you don’t know what’s in her mouth it’s a bunny finger puppet. We like to introduce a variety of meat opportunities. And I just thought the last pic was neat. She reached for me at the last second.