Another One Gone...

Kylie went over to a friend’s house after school yesterday. She was supposed to call me as soon as she got to her house. I got the call as I was driving home, and the first words out of her mouth were “I lost my tooth at school today!”

I couldn’t believe it…I didn’t think her tooth was that close to coming out. But she said that she had been wiggling it in class, and it started to bleed, so the teacher sent her down to the nurse’s office and while she was in there she just pulled it out. I was so happy for her because it seemed like losing your tooth at school was a big deal. They gave her a little treasure chest to carry her tooth in and she kept it in her backpack until she got home.

She and I have been having fun conversations about the Tooth Fairy. They have been talking about the Tooth Fairy at school this week (something about different traditions?). I had always assumed the Tooth Fairy was a big thing, like Santa, but she told me that she always thought he/she was small, like 4 inches. I think it’s so interesting how people can have such different images of the same thing :)

I'm Not Worried...

I’m 24 weeks pregnant as of yesterday, and for anyone that has been pregnant within the past 7 years at least (that was my first pregnancy), they know that it’s a milestone in that the baby, if born now for some reason, has a chance at life. So it feels really good to be at this point. It will feel even better to be at 30 weeks, and even better when I’m at the hospital delivering and done being pregnant. Can you tell I really don’t like this whole pregnancy thing???

By this point last pregnancy I know I had written at least (and I say that loosely because I’m sure it was more than once) about my fears of having another child. I worried about how I would handle it and how we were going to be outnumbered and so on and so on…

I can honestly say, for the most part, I am not worried about adding a fourth child to our family. We’ve been outnumbered, and now we’ll just be even more outnumbered :) The kids have really become so easy, and Kylie and Josh really do just about everything themselves, and Ryan is growing up so much each day, that adding a helpless newborn does not scare me like it did last time.

My one worry is that there is only so much of me to go around. Even last night I felt like I was being tugged by all three of them at once (they all wanted a different book to read/read to them at the same time) and for a second I felt panicked about how I would find more of me to give to a fourth child. But I know that God will help and of course I have a wonderful husband that has such an optimistic attitude about kids.

So while I’m not looking forward to getting up every two hours to feed a baby, or recovering from having a baby, or for winter in general, I am ready to be done being pregnant, and for maternity leave, and to find out whether this little bumble is a girl or a boy :)

A Great Fall Weekend...

What a glorious weekend!

Friday night we hung out outside with the neighbors for a while…the guys played football with the boys for a while, Ryan played with Zora for a while, and Kylie’s friend Belle came over for a sleepover. Finally, around 7:30 we decided that we should go inside and figure out what we were having for dinner :)

I ended up making the kids corn dogs and tater tots and the kids loved it! They also got cream soda which was a treat for them. We moved Ryan to his booster seat (we still had him in his high chair on top of the table!), and he felt like such a big boy sitting at the table with us! After dinner John set up a movie for the kids to watch on Kylie’s ceiling and they were set! Ryan went to bed and John and I talked for a while.

Saturday morning we got up and went to Joshie’s football practice. The weather was a little chilly, but the sun was out so it was a perfect football day! While Josh practiced, Kylie and Belle went and played on the playground, and I took Ryan over there a couple of times to play too. There were only three kids at Josh’s practice, so they had a lot of fun running and catching passes.

After practice, we changed clothes and headed out to go apple picking! I’m in the minority, and not really a fan of fall (mostly because I know the weather is getting cold, and I HATE cold weather!). But I LOVE apple picking, which is obviously a fall activity. So we drove about 45 minutes away and we were at the farm we go to most years to pick apples. We parked the car and set out. We picked before eating lunch, so of course, all the kids wanted to do was eat the apples, and they loved them! They had a lot of fun and we were done way too quickly. We went to the tent and grabbed some apple and peach cider, as well as some apple butter and peach salsa.

After that we headed out a little further and went to lunch at one of my favorite small-town restaurants (La Paloma). As we got closer, we noticed that Ryan was asleep, so we drove past the exit and went to see the Longaberger headquarters. For those that don’t know, the corporate building is in the shape of a giant basket, and John had just golfed over there and had seen it, whereas I have never seen it, so he really wanted to show us. The kids loved playing around it and touching it to see what it felt like. They were so amazed! We then went to eat and had a great lunch. We then made the hour drive home and stopped at Rita’s for some frozen Italian ice before taking Belle home and settling in back home.

The rest of the day we just hung around, and in the evening, we did a major clean-out of the playroom. It’s amazing how unorganized that room can get! Sunday we went to church and then came home and relaxed. It was just so chilly for me that I did not have any desire to go outside (I’m such a summer girl). I did take the kids to get new shoes and they were so great! The last time we took Ryan he screamed and cried for some reason – he did not want to put any shoes on! But this time they all did fabulous and I was so proud of them! The trip did make me realize that I would be OK with this baby being a boy…the boys each got one pair of shoes and Kylie got 3!!! I don’t think I can afford another girl :)

We have a semi-busy week ahead of us with football, softball and gymnastics, but hopefully it won’t be too bad :)

Getting Busy Again...

I wouldn't really say that life has been calm the last couple of weeks, but I think it has been the calmest it’s going to be for the next couple of months. There were no sports practices or games for Joshie, and with school just starting, there really wasn’t any homework to speak of. Unfortunately, that’s about to change…

Last night was Joshie’s first football practice. They are the Jets this season, and four of the kids played together last spring and one of the other kids is our neighbor, so on a team of seven kids, Josh already knows 5 (including himself :)). I love watching Josh play football…I can tell how much he loves it and how much fun he has playing. But with John being the coach, the practices and games really take a big chunk out of our weeks.

The kids have been in school for a month now, so homework/schoolwork is really picking up. Thankfully, Kylie really hasn’t had too much homework, but she has a spelling test every week, and is doing time tests in math and needs to work on that. Joshie needs to practice reading as well as do math. He gets new sight words just about every class now, so we need to make sure he is learning those words as well.

The Sunday school class that the kids are in (Joshie now too since he graduated) requires the kids to learn Bible verses. Well, they don’t have to, but if they do, they earn points to use to shop on Market Day and get toys. Kylie has a fabulous memory (one of the traits she definitely got from me)…she can look at a verse and have it memorized in minutes, no matter how long it is. Joshie is the complete opposite (John openly admits these are his genes). I worked with the kids last night for a long time on the verse they have to know on Sunday, and poor Joshie just couldn’t get it without hearing me say it first…no matter how many times we went over it.

So take last night for example…Kylie had gymnastics until 6:30, so I went over there and Danielle (our nanny) and the boys left to go home. I watched Kylie while John fed Josh and Ryan and then took them to football practice. After Ky’s gymnastics was over, we headed down to Joshie’s practice. We got home around 8:00 and I made dinner for Kylie, me and Josh (he ate another meal!) while Kylie took her shower and put her PJs on. While they were eating I worked on their verse with them, as well as went through Kylie’s folder and filled out her picture order form since today was picture day. After dinner Kylie worked on her addition facts and Joshie took his shower. Finally, around 8:55, the kids were put to bed…30 minutes late. These are the nights that I just feel like I can’t keep up…

On top of all of this, we have OU games on a lot of Saturdays, and John’s twin sisters are both pregnant and due in October, so I know our October is going to be even more packed. All of the things are fun, but it is still tiring and exhausting. Maybe I’ll get a break in January? Oh that’s right…I’ll have my own new little bundle of exhaustion :)

Ryan's Birthday Party/OU vs. OSU Game...

Last weekend was such a whirlwind!

Friday night I hung out with the kids and our neighbor for a while outside (our husbands, along with a couple of other guys from the neighborhood, were out golfing). After that, we went in and ate dinner, and then Kylie went to open gym with a friend, and Joshie and Ryan went over to my parents’ house so that I could get started on Ryan’s cake.

I got smart this time, I bought pre-made icing, which ended up saving a lot of time! I tried Ace of Cakes’ Duff’s icing and it worked really well, as well as tasted pretty good too! While I was working on it, Ryan came back over to go to bed, and I showed him the cake, which at that point only had the crumb layer on it, and he said “cake dirty, wash it.” I kept telling him that when he woke up in the morning, Thomas would be all done!

I put him to bed and worked on his cake until about 11:00. I was really proud of the fact that it only took me about 3 hours to do the whole thing! And I loved the way it turned out! I had gone back and forth about whether I had wanted to do this cake for Ryan, or whether I just wanted to order a Thomas cake for him. I was so worried that one day he would look back and wonder why I did one for Joshie, and not for him (even though every guy I talked to said that boys don’t do things like that). And in the end, I’m so very glad that I did the cake for him!







The next morning, we woke up and got ready to head down to the OU/OSU game. We drove down to John’s office with his parents, brother-in-law, and our nephew. When we got to the office around 9:10, the party had already started! My uncle, cousins, and other family members were there hanging out and playing cornhole. About 98% of the people there had gone to OU, so there was a lot of green and white!

Around 10:00 we loaded up on the bus and headed to the stadium. That was an adventure, let me tell you! When you get on and the first thing the bus drivers asks is “what’s the fastest way to the stadium?” you know you’re in trouble! So we get stuck in traffic and a bunch of us jump out and just walk the rest of the way. We met up with some of my family who were tailgating nearby, and then headed into the stadium. While in the bathroom once we got there, I ran into one of my friends who was my roommate my Junior year at OU! Out of 105,000 people, I see her in the bathroom :)



Our seats were great…we sat with my aunt and uncle in A deck, which was in the shade the whole game! The game itself was horrible, but luckily, I went into this knowing OU was going to get their butts kicked!

After the game, we all headed back to our house for Ry-Ry’s party. We set up some chips and pizza, and we all sat in the driveway and hung out while the kids played. Then we ate some cake and Ry-Ry opened his presents. It was a really nice and relaxing end to the busy day!

















Sunday we went to church in the morning – it was a special service because we were graduating 7 kids from our class up to “the big kids’ class.” One of those kids happened to be our little Joshie :) But I was very proud of myself…when I was up speaking in front of everyone about the gifts we were giving the kids, etc., I did not cry! Even John thought I was going to cry and was proud I didn’t :)







After church we spent the whole day lounging around. We sat outside with our friends/neighbors again and my mom and dad were out there too. Later in the afternoon Suzie came over before heading back to Michigan.
It was a fun weekend and I can’t believe Ryan is now 2. The past two years have flown by…he’s such a big boy now and is so much easier to take care of! (which is the whole reason John and I truly believe that had we not gotten a surprise baby, we probably would have stopped at 3 kids…they are so easy now!).

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Dear Ry-Ry,
Today you are two years old. I can’t believe how fast the past two years have gone…I feel like it was just yesterday that we brought you home and I was snuggling with you on the couch all day.

From the minute you were in my arms I felt such a special connection with you. You screamed and cried those first few months every night, but I would just walk you around and you would finally go to sleep. When you were a little older, the only way I could get you to sleep at night was to cradle you in my arms while lying in bed and pat your little butt until you finally gave in and went to sleep. You always made such loud, whiny-type noises when you were going to sleep…so much so that I always had to turn the TV up so much louder in order to hear it!

When you got older and we finally moved you into your crib, you were such a great sleeper! You still got up in the middle of the night to eat, but putting you down for naps and bedtime was so easy! Even to this day you ask to “go to nap” when you’re tired, or you’ll tell me which pacies you want, which means you want to get in your crib and go to sleep.

You are such a fun little guy! You have an amazing sense of humor already and I love it! You copy everything Joshie does and love playing with him. You are the youngest football and baseball player that I know :) You love it when Kylie comes into your room in the morning and reads you stories. You refuse to call her “sissy,” which makes her really sad :(

Your speech is amazing! You talk in short sentences now and can remember things so well! You have followed Kylie’s love of books and love it when we read to you. You also love to play with the magnetic letters on the refrigerator. You really can count to 10, but most of the time you tell us “1,2,3,6,7” :) You know your colors and we’re working on “in front of” and “behind.”

You are into only few things when it comes to playing: Thomas, cars, and playing sports. You love to play trains and cars down in the basement, and you love to play baseball, football and golf outside. You also love jumping on the trampoline! Kylie and her friend taught you this cute thing that you say when you’re jumping: “Hands up high, feet down low, that’s how you do the junglelow.” Only you say it like this: “hands up high, feet down low, that’s how do junglow.”

At night, you always tell us “pacies, couch” which means you want to get your pacies and sit down on the couch and watch sports with Daddy. Sometimes you say “mommy bed” and you’ll come upstairs and stand at the bed and say “nuggle with mommy.”
Every day you ask me what your little girlfriend Zora is doing. You want to know where she is at all times! You love playing with her and I could sit and watch the two of you forever! You two play very well together and are such good friends! I really wish arranged marriages were back in style :)

Most people say that the third child does not get hardly any attention from the parents and can often be forgotten about. I don’t think you have to worry about that :) Mommy and Daddy spend so much time with you each night after Kylie and Josh go to bed, and even during the day, Kylie is off playing with her friends so that gives you and me a lot of time together. I love every second of it!
I hope you have a fabulous 2nd birthday my sweetie! I can’t imagine what my life would be like without my little blonde haired, blue-eyed little man :)

Happy Birthday!

Love,
Mommy

22 Weeks...

I had my 22 week check-up yesterday. Here are the stats:

Weight: 147 lbs. (YIKES!)
Blood Pressure: 114/I can’t remember – this is high for me…I hope it doesn’t continue!
Heart rate: 148 beats per minute

So first for the weight thing – I honestly cannot believe I have gained 30 lbs. so far this pregnancy. What’s horrible is that I don’t feel like I look like I have, but numbers don’t lie, right? The only thing getting me through it is knowing that it should hopefully all be gone within about 7 months!

When the nurse went to try to find the baby’s heartbeat, the minute she put the Doppler on my stomach the baby moved like crazy. Every time she moved the Doppler trying to find the heartbeat, the baby wiggled away…it took her a while to finally get the baby to stay still so we could hear it.

The rest of the appointment was very uneventful. The doctor came in and asked if I had any questions or concerns, measured me (said I measured perfectly), and that was it.

Next appointment will involve that fabulous orange drink so that they can test my glucose levels. I just hope I don’t fail it again like I did last time and have to go for the 3 hour test!

Finally!!!

Yesterday (September 12, 2010) was a big day in our house! At 7 years, 3 months and 25 days old, Kylie finally lost her first tooth!

Her bottom teeth have been wiggly for a long time, and yesterday she kept begging John to pull the one. He worked on it a little bit at a time throughout the day, and finally around 4:30 it came out. The poor thing barely has a hole there though because the big teeth have been coming in behind them for a little bit now :( But she still looks adorable and has been having fun putting her tongue in the spot where her tooth used to be.

The Tooth Fairy came and brought her $5* and a note letting her know that she left her the tooth in case she wanted to keep her first tooth. I had no intention of ever keeping any of the kids’ teeth (the whole thing kind of grosses me out), but this morning Kylie asked me to put it in her scrapbook, so I guess I have to :)

She is now working on getting the other tooth out :)




*I think I got a $1 in quarters when I lost my teeth…why does the Tooth Fairy succumb to inflation???

Where is the Time Going???

Life has been so busy lately…I can’t believe this week is just about over!

We have some big projects going on at work, so that has kept me super busy during an otherwise quiet time. Then at home I feel like we have something going on every night, so our nights go by very quickly.

Our Labor Day Weekend was really nice…the weather was gorgeous and we pretty much stayed home and relaxed the whole weekend. Saturday John took Kylie and Josh, along with our neighbor and his son, down to the OU game. Then Sunday we went to our church’s Labor Day picnic which was a lot of fun. Then Monday we just sat outside all day with our neighbors and finished the day off with a great dinner and going out for ice cream. The only downside was that Kylie and I caught some type of cold on Monday – she’s all better and I’m slowly starting to feel better.

Last night I got to go to dinner with some friends. It was so good to get out and hang out with the girls. I love the fact that I have a great mix of different types of friends. Sometimes certain people or situations can really bring me down and it’s so refreshing to get out with a different group that I have different things in common with.

Tonight John and I get to go out on a date! We are going to The Melting Pot! It will be our first “romantic” date in a long time and we are both really looking forward to it!

Saturday John’s supposed to take the kids down to OU again, but there’s a 60% chance of rain, so I’m not sure whether he’ll do it or not. I’m planning on getting some sleep and relaxing this weekend! I need to start baking Ryan’s cake for his party next weekend, and I need to clean out my closet, but other than that, I’m hoping that I can have some nice downtime with whichever kids are there with me :)

First OSU Game of the Season...

Last night was the Buckeyes’ home opener, and as usual, we used it as a great excuse to sit outside and hang out with the neighbors :)

John set up the projector in the garage, and we all ate our dinner in the driveway while watching the game. The kids all played the whole time – the older kids played football most of the time. They were so upset when we had to drag them into get ready for bed, but it was already late and a school night! So we took the filthy kids in and got them cleaned up and into bed. The guys ended up watching the whole game, but not being the biggest football fan and the fact that the Buckeyes had a very large lead, I went inside and went to bed :)

Go Bucks!

This is who we hope to be Ryan's future wife. They play all the time together, and when one of them is not around, the other one is constantly asking where they are at! She's a year older than Ryan...he's going for the older woman!