Christmas #2

Friday night we had Christmas with Cody's dad. Pizza for dinner, opening presents with great company, and the kids were in a good mood. We couldn't have asked for a better evening :)

18 weeks

Baby's now the size of a sweet potato!

This week baby is become amazingly mobile passing the hours yawning, hiccupping, rolling, twisting, kicking, punching, sucking, and swallowing. Blood vessels are visible through the thin skin, and it's ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from the head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around the nerves, a process that will continue for a year after baby is born. If it's a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If it's a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.

We have three weeks yet until we get to find out the sex. I am getting VERY impatient!!

But still, soo very thankful that I am feeling great. Being out of breath often is probably my biggest complaint...and that's pretty lame.

a busy weekend

Early Saturday morning, my mom and I went into Sioux Falls and did some quick-last-minute-shopping. We were back in Brandon by 10:00 in order for my parents to go to Windom for our family Christmas. Cody, myself, and the kids stayed back because we had a birthday party for some friends whose little guy turned ONE!!

We celebrated with cake, ice cream, gifts, and great company!  We then ran a few errands and the kids napped in the car. Around 5:30 we continued to celebrate as the party moved to the Ramada. We enjoyed dinner and some more great time with friends. We were home by 8:00, the kids took a bath, and went to bed.

We leave for Florida in 6 days!! My parents gave us tickets as our gift, so our whole family could spend Christmas in Florida this year. My parents are driving and the rest of us are flying. I can't begin to tell you how excited we are! We still had some last minute things to get done before calling our packing "complete." So this morning, we were back in Sioux Falls finishing our list. We made a trip to the mall, both Targets, Scheels, and Wal-Mart.

I am a little anxious about this whole flying thing with 16 month old twins. It's either going to go really good or really bad...we're kind of betting on the latter. Today it was my goal to look for some things that will get us through our flights. We needed some fun snacks and new toys that will hopefully keep them entertained.

Tonight we are going to go out for dinner with my family to celebrate my birthday. After eating we are planning on taking the kids to see the Christmas light show at the Western Mall. Hopefully they will love it!

Then back to Brandon, pack up, head back to Brewster....and get ready for the week ahead.

Hope you all had a fun weekend and are ready to celebrate the Christmas season with your friends and families :)

Christmas #1

**WARNING---PICTURE OVERLOAD**

--all of the great-grandkids. I was actually VERY surprised that my two sat there with everyone else. I think they were in shock of everything going on that they were scared to move :)  They did great though!

--my handsome men :)

--Kaden opening his gift from great-grandma and grandpa

--Kenley opening her gift

--Kenley with aunt Jamie, working on getting inside!

--fun stuff!  "what did you get Kenley?"

--BIG kisses :)

--that kid sure loves his puppy :)

--who needs toys??

--no nap = one sleepy girl

--Kaden playing the Wii

--Kaden found some shoes. He had to take his off in order to put these on, aren't they nice?

--aunt Jamie...not really sure, but it looks like fun :)

--eating their new toys with grandpa Rick

--uncle Travis bribing Kenley with some food to sit on his lap...she'll never pass up food!

--he sure loved playing the organ...good thing it didn't work!!

--second time around santa gave Kenley a present. Now she doesn't think he's soo bad :)

--even with a present, Kaden is still not a fan :(

--reading their new books

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

our first visit with santa...

....didn't go very well

We had our first Christmas of the year this past weekend with the Finkes. In order to get everyone in one location at the same time, Cody's grandma had rented the senior center in Slayton. There were 51 of us there, with only 2 missing!  We had a great time! 

I will post more pictures from the day soon :)

17 weeks

Baby's now the size of an onion!

Baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord —  lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Baby can move it's joints, and sweat glands are starting to develop.

Baby's skeleton is hardening, changing from rubbery cartilage to bone, and fat is finally accumulating around it. The umbilical cord is getting thicker and stronger, and those little fingers and toes now feature one-of-a-kind prints.
 
 
 
I still have been feeling awesome! I think I'm feeling the baby move, but I've thought that for some time now...so who knows! I find myself out of breath often and the more I do with the kids, the more I feel the strain on my lower stomach and back. I told Cody the other night, that he's really gonna have to start taking Kenley more often and leaving me with Kaden...she's just too much of a lug and I'm really noticing it after lifting her. It's mostly in the evenings after bath time or getting her in her car seat.
 
I have an OB appointment on Monday afternoon, but my next ultrasound is not for another month!! It's been really hard having to wait to find out the sex of this baby. With the twins, we knew at 16 weeks!

the many faces of Kenley

She is one crazy girl :)

catch-up

*last week was pretty much a nightmare around here. Kaden's virus/bronchitis took it's sweet time making it's exit and he was one grumpy kid the entire time!

*both kids ended up with pink-eye. I kind of expected it though after reading some about the Adenovirus. Luckily we had some leftover drops from the time before and all four eyes cleared up pretty quickly.

*last Thursday the kids had a follow up with the Pulmonologist. As far as their lungs go, they've been doing pretty well. He felt that we could cut down the dose of their inhalers and switch to just one time per day. Now, I'm really not sure why, when we are going into the winter season like this, that he would cut them down. But as much as they hate them, we were on board. If their lungs start acting up, we just bump them back up to two doses. He also gave us an albuteral inhaler to use rather than using the nebulizers when needed. This is going to be a HUGE change. We've had to do nebs a couple of times, and it's certainly a little different than when they were 6 months old. They hate it and they can run away and they can fight and they are strong!!  So instead of 10/15 minutes of nebbing, we can just do a couple puffs of an inhaler!! This will be great!

*the kids and I went to Brandon this past weekend because the boys were cutting in our egress windows. I didn't figure this was the best place for us to be with the dust and the cold.

*last Friday night was the worst night the kids have slept since they were born. I'm not sure what happened, but the kids, myself, and my parents, got absolutely NO sleep the entire night. It was bizarre! Needless to say, Saturday was a jammie day and we stayed inside all day long :)

*this week the kids have been soo much better! They are feeling well and have a ton of energy. They have been wild animals lately, and I love it!

*tomorrow is Friday and that is definitely a good thing :)

16 weeks

Baby's the size of an avocado!

Tiny bones forming in baby's ears mean it can now pick up your voice. A few more changes: Eyebrows, lashes, and hair are starting to fill in, and taste buds are forming.

A growth spurt is coming. In the next few weeks, baby will double it's weight and add inches to it's length. Baby's legs are much more developed, the head is more erect than it has been, and the eyes have moved closer to the front of the head. Baby's ears are close to their final position, too.

fun at grandpa and grandma's

7-day wrap up

*Last Wednesday, after work, the kids and I packed up and headed to Brandon for Thanksgiving break. My sister and niece were there and we were so very excited to spend 4 days with them!

*Thanksgiving Day, we went to Windom to my Grandma's for lunch. We drove our Expedition and had every seat filled, plus the dog! After lunch, we spent the afternoon looking through Black Friday ads and making our plan. Yes, we are Black Friday Freaks!!

*8:00 Thursday night we still didn't have a definitive plan. With the stores opening at midnight this year, it made things a little more difficult. How were we going to pick just one!?!  We took a little nap about 9pm and were back up at 10:30 and headed to Sioux Falls. We hit up Shopko, Kohls, and Target. Finally at 3:30am my sister and I had decided we were ready for some sleep!  Too old for all nighters I guess :)  We went home, took a nap, and went back out later that afternoon.

*I certainly didn't care for the Midnight openings on Black Friday. I thought it brought a whole different crowd than what you got going to the 4am openings as in the past. People were crabby and obnoxious. I'm not sure I could do it again, let alone even be interested again :(

*Friday during the day, Kaden started running a temp. Friday night was miserable for us as we were up with him constantly and his fever had climbed to 104. When we climbed into bed Friday night, I was soo excited to get some sleep. I was exhausted! But apparently Kaden had other plans for us.

*Saturday, my aunt and cousin came to visit. They had lunch with us and then spent the afternoon making potato cakes. YUMMY!!  Unfortunately I had to miss the entire thing because Kaden and I were spending it at acute care.

*It had been over 24 hours with him running high temps and we were going to figure out what was going on. After visiting with the Doctor, Kaden's ears, throat, and lungs looked/sounded good. The dr. was determined to find something simply because of the fevers. Fevers are a good thing, but he is fighting off something and he wanted to know what it was. We couldn't seem to break his fever even with Tylenol or Ibuprofin. The dr. did an xray of his sinuses and chest. After reviewing the xray, he diagnosed Kaden with pnuemonia. Off to the pharmacy we went to get another antibiotic.

*Saturday evening Kaden was extremely crabby. We spent another night with no sleep. After finally throwing Kaden in bed with Cody and I, I think I noticed his fever broke sometime early Sunday morning. This was the first time he had been fever-free in over 36 hours.

*Sunday, we had a Thanksgiving meal with Cody's dad and siblings. The meal was great, the company was great, but the crabby baby boy we could have done without.

*Sunday evening we came back to Brewster and before bed Kaden once again had a fever. I planned to stay home with him on Monday.

*Monday, no fever but Kaden was extremely crabby and irritable. There didn't seem to be anything that I could do that would make him happy. We got through the day, but I wasn't about to bring him to daycare on Tuesday knowing he would be this grumpy. So we called Cody's mom and she planned on coming over to watch the kids on Tuesday, just to give Kaden another day and hopefully get over this and start feeling better.

*Tuesday morning, Kaden wakes up with another fever. I called the doctor and discussed whether or not he should be seen. We made an appointment for Tuesday afternoon. After being on an antibiotic for 3 days, he really shouldn't be running temps anymore and should have started to feel better by now.

*Tuesday afternoon, back to Sioux Falls to the doctor. The doctor confirmed that Kaden's diagnosis of pneumonia on Saturday was re-read by the Radiologist who felt it was more of a bronchitis than a pneumonia. He also did some blood work and sucked out Kaden's nose to test. Neither were his favorite!  His blood work came back as viral, so the doctor was pretty convinced the other stuff would too. He called me late this afternoon that Kaden had tested positive to Adenovirus, basically a viral infection of the respiratory tract. Because it's a virus, we stopped the antibiotic and now we just have to wait it out. It's highly contagious, so he'll be out of daycare for the rest of the week. It's nice to finally know what it is and that hopefully we'll be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel....and maybe some sleep too.  We've had too many sleepless nights and it's starting to catch up to me. Watch out, I'm a little crabby!!


But through it all, I can't even begin to share how blessed I feel to have such an amazing husband and awesome kids, as well as the support from family and friends. I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and gave thanks to those you love.

15 weeks

Baby's now the size of an orange!

Baby is busy moving amniotic fluid through it's nose and upper respiratory tract, which helps the primitive air sacs in the lungs begin to develop. Legs are growing longer than the arms now, and baby can move all of it's joints and limbs. Baby is squirming and wiggling like crazy down in the womb. Although eyelids are still fused shut, it can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, for instance, baby is likely to move away from the beam.

hope it works

Last weekend we started working on our house. Our basement floods and is completely unusable, except for some storage that is kept up off the floor. But with the addition of another baby, we could certainly use some extra space. The guys worked hard last weekend digging up around the basement and re-tiling in hopes to dry up the basement. We are hoping this spring we notice a difference.

But THIS gives me hives...