Posts filed under 'Family'
Carlee moved to a toddler bed in April of this year. 3 months ago she looked so big and so comfy with all her stuffed animals and her dinky…
Last night was her first night in a Real big girl bed.. she slept in Kennedy’s full-sized bed. without her dinky! This month she is 2 years and 8 months old. I can’t believe how big and grown-up she is getting. And, once I figure out how to upload videos from my phone, I’ll let you hear how she can talk our ears off. It’s so precious.
July 7th, 2011
My favorite holiday is July 4th. I might have mentioned that before. This July 4th there’s a burn ban, so no fireworks for us this year, except on tv. But I have been enjoying one of the tastiest crops of watermelon this year. Each one I’ve picked has been sweeter than the last. (My favorite place to get them is at Sam’s – they’re big, seedless, and less than $5.) So, this weekend, we’re planning for said watermelon, a few times to go swim, barbeque eating, and homemade ice cream. I think that should about do it. Anyone else have plans for the 4th?
July 3rd, 2011
About a month ago, I bought this and then I sent the following email to my mom, my sisters, and my friend Leah, who owns a Petunia Picklebottom diaper bag. If you don’t know that I love bags and purses, you should know i love bags and purses.
Had to share my latest find… I wanted a new diaper bag for this
baby so I got on amazon to check them out. Well the ones I liked were
running 70-80$, so I decided to wait a little while. Plus, I like to
put my hands on a bag before I buy, to see if it’s big enough, etc.
Today I went to TJ Maxx and found this petunia pickle bottom bag
(google them if you want). It’s red silk and has a zillion pockets, &
comes with changing pad and wipes case. Plus the handle unclips to
hook it around your stroller.
The “original” price onthe tag was $145. TJ Maxx marked to $59,
but they red-line clearanced it at $29!!!
I know Kevin is thrilled (yeah, right) abt this, but I thought the
rest of us girls would be pleased. 
Oh, and even if it’s a boy, I’ll drop the dipes and wipes off if I
leave him at church or whatever – this bag stays with me!! ;)
July 2nd, 2011
I mentioned that I was training for a triathlon, remember? (see “March”) Well, Baby Cuatro put a damper on the tri, for 2011 anyway. Him or her and the brutal Texas heat we’ve been having this summer. However I’ve been riding bikes once a week with some die-hard [race] bikers. So far we’ve been doing between 14-20 miles each week. Today we did 20.8 miles and I increased my speed by 2.2 miles this week over the last time I rode, which was about a month ago, actually, because of VBS and going out of town.
These ladies I’ve been riding with have been so kind as to let me borrow a racing bike and all the equipment I need for having a super great ride. Like the gloves I never knew I’d need but am so grateful to use. I am so glad to ride with them and that they give me all the techniques and terms and expertise that I need to “race” properly. I’ve even talked one of the ladies into doing a triathlon with me next year, since I already registered and paid for my tri that would have been at the end of July. The ladies I ride with do the MS150 race each year, which benefits Multiple Sclerosis and covers the distance between Houston and Austin. They think that I’ll be able to do that race in April of next year. (I don’t think so.)
This morning we started riding at 8:15 and finished at 10:15. At 10:40 I went to the grocery store and when we were done at the grocery store at 11:40, my car thermometer read 106. ONE HUNDRED SIX DEGREES. FAHRENHEIT. Next week we’re starting even earlier in the day – at 7:30, I’m thinking.
I might have ventured into a new hobby. I might be asking for padded bike shorts for my birthday. I might also be buying a very expensive racing bike to support said hobby. But I don’t think Kevin can complain too much about a hobby that burns almost 500 calories an hour.
July 1st, 2011
Last week was Vacation Bible School. Our church holds it at night, which always makes for a very long and very tiring week. But I am thankful for all of the volunteers (especially male!) whom we would miss if we held it in the morning.
These are pictures of Kennedy & Carlee’s water play day, which is what the kiddos under kindergarten-age get to do on the last night of VBS. (Since they don’t get to participate in many of the things the big kids get to do.)
Kennedy playing with water and shaving cream (cleaning off the tarps). She’s always so busy. Good thing she knows how to pose.
I told Carlee I wanted to take a picture of her (she was busy climbing up and sliding down the water slide). Carlee ran right up to me, maybe a little too close!
And, a bonus pic. Found this book on display in the church library.
June 19th, 2011
I thought today – I am so glad I was invited to do the 365 project last year instead of this year… I know now why my friend Kristen (who was pregnant for half of 2010) only blogged for half of 2010.
Here’s the pic of the pregnancy test. Sorry if this grosses you out, but it really is the most effective way of knowing you are pregnant! The directions on the test tell you to wait 2 minutes to read the results, but when it shows 2 [positive] lines immediately, it’s not going to change in 2 minutes. I did wait and read the test after 2 minutes, at which point I took this picture. I thought it was worthy to note, seeing as how I broke the news to Kevin this way. And, I did wrap it up in a plastic bag and throw it away. I mean, I did pee on it.
This was our very first look at our little peanut, taken May 25th. I immediately saw his/her heartbeat, and I cried! We have another picture of the heart rate, which measured at 165 bpm. (Any guesses on gender now? Which actually, I Googled and found to be a myth, that you could guess the gender based on heart rate. The heart rate fluctuates based on week gestation. The doctor is just listening and measuring for a good strong heart rate that isn’t lower than 100, which could be a sign of impending miscarriage.) In this picture, the baby measured 1.92 cm. So tiny!
This is the ultrasound picture taken June 9th, at which I was 11 weeks and 1 day. This was also the one that made it to Facebook.
Today I also thought about each of my pregnancies and how far along I was when we broke the news to everyone…
- with Carlee, it was at 10 weeks, because we found out I was pregnant about that time!
- with Kennedy, it was at 8 weeks. I took the test right at 4 weeks, we hadn’t been to the doctor yet, but we told at my birthday party.
- with Colby, it was at 12 weeks. I knew I was pregnant right at 4 weeks, but because it was my first pregnancy, our first appointment was a “general health and wellness education session” with a nutritionist, I guess? She didn’t do or say much in the way of what I should eat, she just wanted to make sure I wasn’t using drugs or alcohol. We weren’t allowed to see a doctor (because of our insurance group’s procedures) until 12 weeks, and even then I had to see the group’s midwife because my doctor had to do an emergency c-section that day. I did tell my principal at the time I found out; I figured if anything happened to me or the baby, I at least wanted her to know. I also wanted pictures so we could tell our parents in a special way.
- with this baby, it was at 5 weeks. (or 7 weeks, or 8 weeks, depending on which due date we were using). Another reason we wanted to tell was because I was feeling so sick right there at the beginning… I didn’t want anyone to think I had relapsed on my liver stuff (which was actually one of my first thoughts. I am so glad I was wrong!)
For only a few days now, I feel the baby moving this time of night (ahem, morning?) – around 11 or midnight. It’s the first time all day I get to sit still, and I feel so at ease when I feel this tiny thing moving in my tummy. I know all “the books” say you’re not ’supposed’ to feel the baby until later on in your pregnancy, but I say that’s all hogwash. I’ve been pregnant with 3 very active children, and this one will fit right in with the bunch.
I’ll get back to blogging about the rest of that bunch sometime soon.
June 18th, 2011
You’ll have to bear with me… My gmail is acting up and not wanting to support my browser right now. (Just wanted to point out that that phrase never would have been used 30 years ago… “’supporting’ & ‘browser’ in the same sentence? Ludicrous! And what’s gah-mail, anyway? I don’t want none of that in my mailbox.”) So since my mail domain doesn’t want to work, I can’t post a picture of our latest and greatest news of the moment.
…which is, Carlee will be a Big Sister. Yep. We’re expecting Baby #4! I’ve been calling it “Cuatro”, to keep with the C/K theme, until we figure out if it’s a boy or girl [on August 4th].
Warning: some of this might be TMI. Proceed with caution.
Colby has been asking for a baby brother for a long time now, and we felt like we were done having kids of our own (especially after the drama/trauma we had to endure with Carlee’s after-birth). And, when I had to endure the Mellow Yellow Liver Quiver , my gastroenterologist said something to the effect of “It’s a good thing you had 3 healthy pregnancies already…”, which I took to mean, “It might be impossible for you to get pregnant again.”
So, Kevin and I were looking into some other options, pretty casually. I’ll leave it at that. We went on our trip to Washington at the beginning of May, and I took all my Monthly Supplies with me; according to my calendar, I was supposed to start then and I didn’t want to have to buy things there (which was actually moot, since the airline lost our luggage and I had to buy toiletries anyway). But as we went through the trip, I kept feeling nauseated and really really tired, but I just thought it was because we were up in the mountains (motion sickness?) and because I was on vacation and wanted to sleep. Plus, my grandmother passed away while we were gone, and I was trying not to think about that.
The kicker though, was that I didn’t want to eat sweet stuff. That’s pretty much a tell-tale sign for me that I’m pregnant. I usually have a HUGE sweet tooth and was looking so forward to ordering dessert at these fine restaurants in Oregon and Washington.. but I just couldn’t. And, Kevin got peanut butter and jelly for us to make sandwiches.. between that and the Gatorade we drank on our hikes, I could barely get through our lunches on the road. I also kept needing to stop and pee, like every half hour.
While on our 4-hour excursion through the mountains from Carson, Washington, to Seattle, we stopped at a gas station for a potty break and I lost my lunch.. tossed my cookies… hugged the toilet. So to speak. Again, I just thought I had motion sickness. But I told Kevin, “I haven’t started yet. Maybe I am pregnant.” And, Kevin said to me, “Well then we’ll just have to name him ‘Carson’.” (being the town we just left) So, we got through the rest of the trip okay [we still need to post pics, ahem, gmail!], and had a very very very VERY bumpy (and nauseating) plane ride from Houston to College Station, which thankfully was only 20 minutes long, but was tortuous for a very newly (and not knowing!) pregnant woman.
The next day after we got back from Washington, I was still feeling sick but still not really knowing why.. Alicia had had a stomach bug, she told me, and I thought maybe I was catching it. Then Kelsey (our adopted Aggie, now engaged to Tim – whoop!) came over and told us good-bye for the summer – she is again at Sky Ranch Camps, this year as a coordinator, in charge of and leading/directing the counselors and staff. She mentioned that Tim’s best friend’s wife is expecting and due at the beginning of December, which she thought was so cool, because Tim & Kelsey’s wedding is at the end of December, and there would be a newborn at their wedding! I immediately thought to myself, “Do I have a pregnancy test handy?” because that story immediately made me think that I’d need to know if I was pregnant – because my kids are flower girls and ring bearer at their wedding… the due date of this baby is completely crucial, you see.
So, right before Kevin got home that day, and right before my grandmother’s viewing that night, I took a pregnancy test. I have a picture of that too, dang gmail. My friend Amanda came over to cook us all dinner, and I pulled Kevin aside and showed him the picture on my phone, which he couldn’t believe any more than I could. But we were also very very thrilled.
The downside to finding out that information on the day of Grandmother’s viewing is that I felt like I needed to tell everyone right away, even though I have had several friends (meaning 5 now…) who have had miscarriages early in their pregnancies, even after hearing the heartbeats. The upside is that ALL of my family got to be in the room together to hear the same info. And, Kevin’s dad came to town for the funeral the next day, so we got to tell him too, followed by Kevin’s mom later that afternoon, and Kevin’s sister & fam that week. I did tell them all to wait until I at least went to the doctor the first time (at the end of May) so that we could make sure everything looked okay – plus, I wanted their prayers and love and support more than anything in the world.
Another cool fact – according to my calculations, my original due date is January 10, 2012, which would have been my Papaw’s 100th birthday. (He was my mom’s dad, who died almost 20 years ago to the date we found out we were pregnant.) So far I’ve been to the doctor twice and had 2 ultrasounds, both of which have given me earlier and earlier due dates. After Carlee’s birth, we decided we’d go with a hospital birth but I made it clear that I don’t want any unnecessary medical interventions (drugs, IVs, etc.). I really like my doctor so far (a new one to me) and have heard good things about him in the delivery room. I think the trick will be convincing the nurses of my birth plan.
My official due date (for now!) is December 28th, 2011, which will make a nice Christmas gift/tax deduction this year. ;) I’m 12 weeks + a few days along right now, and so far I’ve been sick a lot at night. So far I think I’m having a boy, and Colby pegged that Carlee would be a girl, and he says this one is a boy, so I’m sticking with Colby’s odds. :) I want him to have a little brother so bad – Colby’s such a great kid and I would love to have another Colby!
I know I’ll have lots of other stories (and pictures.) as I think of them. I posted this on Facebook about a week ago, if you’re friends with me, so you can see the sonogram picture there. I have a friend who thinks she already knows the sex of the baby, by the 11 week picture. I’m saying this sarcastically because it is SO too early to tell… maybe maybe in 1-2 more weeks we could find out, but I’m good to wait another 6 weeks to find out for sure. Even though the wait is already killing me! :)
I’d appreciate your prayers, especially as I get through these rough patches of sickness and lethargy. And, once I feel a little better, hopefully I’ll be blogging more and not overloading your brains with long stories.
June 17th, 2011
Photo taken March 2011.
Clearly this is not an ice cream stand, at least not to those who are older than 8 years old. This is part of a playground near our house. We went during Spring Break, and our usually very quiet playground was overrun with older school-aged kids. My kids were trying to play with the big slides and things but it was getting harder and harder, with more people around.
So, Kennedy walked up to this window and said, “Who wants ice cream?” And Carlee ran over to her and said, “Me!” And we played a game with lots of questions. .What kind do you want? .How much is the ice cream? .Do you want a cup or a cone? Eventually, the other [older] kids decided these little ones were okay to play with, and they started asking for ice cream too. Colby took the money.
I love imaginations.
June 6th, 2011
I started this post way back in February. My good intentions really are being finished! (now to catch up with 3+ months of pics!)
I have a confession to make. I am not good at taking “before” pictures of my messes. This isn’t because I don’t want to show you what the messes look like! It’s only this – when I see a mess, I have tunnel vision to clean it up before it somehow multiplies. So, I only have pictures of one kitchen drawer but you can see the general progress of what’s been going on in my kitchen.
If you want lots of pictures of what step-by-step organization looks like, I’ll refer you to iheartorganizing & her 3-part kitchen drawer organization series… there’s a girl who knows her stuff!
But, here’s what I am able to show you. This is just one of my kitchen drawers [actually the smallest one], with lots and lots of stuff in it. I sorted through all of my drawers and found things I had forgotten about, things I haven’t used in awhile, things that were taking up space in my drawers. (Proof that you can have a big kitchen and still have too much stuff in it, if you’re not careful.)
I knew there was no way I’d be able to find those items without some sort of organization. I found this clear acrylic [is that redundant?] bathroom organizer at Target, which worked perfectly for this drawer. I bought more for another drawer which needed major organizing help.
And, for eye candy, I removed all items and inserted super pretty drawer liners [which were pretty expensive at Target, but this print seriously makes me happy every time I open my drawers. So, my happiness = more cooking in the kitchen = Kevin's happiness.]
Voila! Finished product.
I spent about 10 minutes on this drawer and 10 minutes on the other big clean-out drawer. Plus, I put liners in 4 other drawers in the kitchen. Budget-wise, I spent $15 on shelf liner paper and $20 on the acrylic organizers. Not the cheapest fix, but I really do like the way it turned out for these drawers I use every day.
June 5th, 2011
Picture taken February 2011.
This might not seem so interesting to someone who’s not me, but this was actually Colby’s 2nd visit to the dentist. On the first visit [last August], Colby was so Not Interested in having someone touch his teeth. He sat in my lap for about 2.4 seconds before going to the other side of the room and not budging. I seriously thought I might have to start Colby’s therapy fund.
But, the dental hygienist [why don't they just call them tooth cleaners?] gave us great advice – to let Colby use a battery-powered toothbrush, so he’d get used to the vibrations. We did, and he did, and 6 months later, of course he did a super job. As if all my pep-talking beforehand was like Charlie Brown’s teacher – ‘wa-waa, wa-waa, wa wah-wah, waa.’
June 4th, 2011
I think that song* would be on the soundtrack of my life right now… ”saying AYO, gotta let go!”
Let me briefly recap the last 3+ months for you.
February – Kevin’s grandpa passed away, followed by the memorial at the DFW National Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in March. Also – my foot doctor cleared me to start running again – Hallelujah! And, my dad returned to work full time, another Hallelujah.
March – I decided to start training for a triathlon! I’m not such a good swimmer, but I do enjoy running and just got into the biking phenomenon. Love LOVE [race] biking, lest you think I ride a Harley.
April – Kennedy turned 4 years old. And yet she started acting 2 again. Now it’s like I have two 2 year-olds in the house.. I’m so ready for her to start preschool.
May – too busy to recap in this post, but here’s the Reader’s Digest condensed version -
1. Kevin and I took a trip to Oregon/Washington. Fabulous. Highly recommend it. I’ll be devoting an entire post (or two, or three) to it.
2. My grandmother passed away while we were gone. I wrote her obit in a hotel room. More on this later.
3. Also while we were gone, my parents started renovating their kitchen. Now finished, but wow it was a mess – my mom had to put everything into her dining room, and she felt like she was on that show Hoarders. I’ll try to post pictures of that too.. you’ve seen some of the before pics, you just didn’t know it.
4. Kennedy had her first dance recital. I laughed, I cried, but I wasn’t stressed. She did a superb job and can’t wait for dance next year. Pictures and a post to follow.
5. Colby finished Kindergarten. He also turned 6 earlier this month. I also laughed and cried. His teacher was such a sweetheart, and she’s moved to DFW. Pictures of him to follow too [oh and lots of stories. he is one funny kid.]
June – (and I’m so not kidding about this one) Carlee is going to the potty. Like, for real, she’s wearing panties all the time, even at night, and even when we are out in public. She has a chart for going #2 and when she goes 5 times, we all get to go to Red Mango for frozen yogurt. She’s been twice so far – once yesterday and once today. You should see the big kids trying to encourage her on the potty. ”Don’t you need to poop, Carlee?” Hilarious.
More to come. You won’t believe how big and grown-up my kids are getting… I can’t believe it sometimes either.
*that song = Dynamite, by Taio Cruz.
June 3rd, 2011
Colby broke out in a rash on Monday night. (He’s allergic to penicillin.) This is him on Thursday… looking so much better, if you can even believe it.
When he looked in the mirror, he thought it was pretty funny that he had polka dots (his term). But in the car he told us, “I am not enjoying this itching.”
February 19th, 2011
One of the best things about Colby going to the KOR school is that he is finished at 12:30 every day and we get to eat lunch together every day. (I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I still love it.) So, this is just an ordinary day for us, before we clean up the kitchen and go take a nap.
February 18th, 2011
If you’re expecting me to give encouragement today, I probably won’t. But I will send you to our friends Dee & Greg’s blog. They are serving God in Estonia right now, and with 2 little ones (age 3 & less than 1!), it’s safe to say that Dee is Supermom. She touched my heart the other day with this post – From the Mouths of Children and Infants. I needed to “hear” all those Scriptures she quotes.
It seems like our family is in the midst of weekly medical drama. I haven’t been posting as much because of it. On the other hand, maybe I should write this up and sell it to Hollywood as a script for a tv show. Here goes -
1. My grandmother is in a nursing home now. She is having trouble feeding herself, much less walking. We are not sure how much of her symptoms result from depression (from losing her husband of 58 years last September) or from just getting older. Please pray for my dad and his siblings to know the best care for her, and for my grandmother to know God’s peace and comfort right now.
2. My dad is doing fantastic. Each day he is stronger and happier and can do a little bit more. He’s been working every other day for a few weeks.. now I think he’s working 3.5 days, with his cousin from out of town working for him the other full day. Thank you for his prayers for him and continue to lift him up – recovery is slow and steady, but still not fun.
3. Colby has been sick for the past 3 weeks now. I think he had a mild form of the flu I had, which turned into a double ear infection. He went to the doctor and was prescribed amoxicillin. This week he broke out in a horrible itching rash from head to toe and I worried beyond all worry that he had the measles. We took him to the doctor, and the bad news is, it turns out he has a pretty bad allergy of penicillin. The good news? He does NOT have the measles. So, now he’s on another med to try and get rid of the (ever-loving, ever-living, compound, complex) ear infection, and a steroid to get rid of the itching and rash. One of these days we’ll figure out how to be rid of sickness.
4. Kevin’s grandpa is in the hospital. This is fairly recent, and this comes after Kevin’s mom was in the hospital for a very complicated bladder infection. We are so glad she is doing [MUCH] better; now Kevin’s poor dad is taking up residence in the hospital rooms, looking after one and then the other. Please pray that our family will find some much-needed relief – emotionally, spiritually, physically.
I’m so glad the Groundhog Phil told us winter was over. My kids have really enjoyed playing outside and I have loved being outside as well. I am so thankful for all of you – family and friends who lift us up in prayer. Thank you for remembering us and for your encouraging words to us.
February 17th, 2011
Some of you have given me a pat on the back for how organized I am, but I’d say there’s always room for improvement, especially when younger children are underfoot. For Christmas I asked Kevin to clean out the garage and our master closet, and he immediately cleaned out the garage. The closet will take a little longer to do.
Our closet houses the gift wrapping supplies. Why? I really have no idea, other than the fact that the wrapping was stored in a bedroom closet [Colby's] in our old house, so I just moved it into our closet, which is the size of a college dorm room, no joke.
Here is a picture of the gift wrappings I’ve accumulated in 8.5 years of marriage.
A big mess. There’s an extra-large Ziploc bag full of wrapping paper and bows and boxes, 1 underbed storage box full of baby gift bags, 1 box full of tissue paper, and 2 hanging organizers full of birthday/gift bags. Too many containers. And, I haven’t touched some of the stuff in the Ziploc bag since we moved 18 months ago. I was inspired by my favorite new blog – iheartorganizing – and I realized I didn’t want all those containers to take up valuable real estate in our closet. Yes, we have room in that closet, but the space wasn’t being used efficiently.
So, I combined and threw away some things (just a few, but remember when you want to organize, you must always purge some). I definitely got rid of any tissue paper that was torn or bags/bows that were smushed. Here’s a picture of my [ever faithful, ever "present" - ha!] helper, Kennedy.
And, here’s my finished product. Ta-da!
I condensed 5 containers into 3 small ones and OH LOOK – I found a red bucket in that XL Ziploc bag – I totally forgot I had that bucket and now it holds the kids’ bath soaps.
Here’s an up-close picture of my success.
What I did:
1. I chose a longer box that would hold the wrapping paper rolls and the tissue paper.
2. I put the gift bags in the hanging boxes (not pictured in the close-up). Baby bags in one, birthday in the other.
3. I separated all the tissue paper into gallon-sized Ziploc bags, according to color. ROYGBIV worked for me!
4. I only spent 45 minutes, start to finish, and ZERO dollars to complete this project.
I’m proud of my accomplishment – even though it might not be life-changing, it feels good to be organized. I can’t wait to show pics of some other projects I’m taking on.
February 1st, 2011
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