Happy Halloween!!!

Chad and Delainey's handy work :)

See I REALLY do live in a ZOO HA! Shelby and Avery were the sheep they were 'supposed' to be last year (they swam in the costumes last year) and Delainey was a Cheetah :)
PS, forgive "corporate' Shelby on her cell phone, she carries that thing EVERYWHERE now HA!

The kids had a lot of fun today. Delainey had a 'spooktacular' party at school in which rather than a 'regular' Halloween party the kids did more 'fall' themed activities like making leaf rubbing book marks, a few little games etc and then each child got to pick out a book funded by our local Kiawanis (sp?). We then went to visit both my mom and aunt's offices to go trick-r-treating. The kids made a haul at both places and now have more candy than ANY three children need. At least I can blame the pregnancy on eating it for a few more months right ;) After all I DID lose a pound.. LOL.

Hope your kids and you had a wonderful and safe Halloween!!

Very interesting....

Today I was going through pictures on the computer and loading new ones from our ultrasound this past weekend. One of the pictures of Brody really struck me like "I have seen that 'look' before"... so I was pouring over the pictures from our previous scan to see if there was a similar one...there wasn't. Well tonight as I was going through some paper work that was in my a folder that I found (it was Shelby and Avery's discharge file from the NICU) and in it was a picture of Avery a few minutes after she was born... LIGHT BULB!!! Below you will find the two pictures that I am comparing... what do you think? Be honest...

Avery minutes old on 12/26/05

Brody at our 31 week ultrasound on 10/27/07

Sad but true...

I saw this 'poem' posted on a message board that I frequent today and it just breaks my heart that in the world that I am raising my precious babes in... it is true.

WRITTEN BY A 15 yr. old SCHOOL KID IN ARIZONA :

New Pledge of Allegiance

NEW School prayer :

Now I sit me down in school

Where praying is against the rule

For this great nation under God

Finds mention of Him very odd.

If Scripture now the class recites,

It violates the Bill of Rights.

And anytime my head I bow

Becomes a Federal matter now.

Our hair can be purple, orange or green,

That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.

The law is specific, the law is precise.

Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.

For praying in a public hall

Might offend someone with no faith at all.

In silence alone we must meditate,

God's name is prohibited by the state.

We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,

And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.

They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.

To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,

And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.

It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,

We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong.

We can get our condoms and birth controls,

Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.

But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,

No word of God must reach this crowd.

It's scary here I must confess,

When chaos reigns the school's a mess.

So, Lord, this silent plea I make:

Should I be shot; My soul please take!

Amen

31 Weeks appointment

I had my 31 weeks ob appointment today. Everything is looking good. I am 'down' a pound from last week when I was at the doc, but he isn't concerned. My blood pressure was wonderful at 120/68. Still measuring a bit big and still contracting, but nothing that anyone seems to be too worried about. I am to continue with resting when I can (umm yea right) and trying not to do too much (again, umm yea right).

My doc wants to see me again in 3 weeks rather than two (last appointment he said we would be doing 2 week appointments but he said one more 3 week will put us on a better track). So my next appointment is Tuesday, November 20th. This is of course the Tuesday before Thanksgiving so I am sure my bp will be up for the simple fact that I am going to be almost 35 weeks pregnant and hosting the 'big' family shin-dig, with Delainey's 4th birthday party the following weekend (Dec 1)... that reminds me, I need to get on her invitations.

Thanks so much for checking on us all the time! We love you all!!

Brody's 2nd 3/4D ultrasound

We had a lot of fun at our ultrasound yesterday. Brody is head down and VERY engaged so we didn't get as many cute/fun pictures as the last time, but we can certainly see the changes in him. He has got some chubby little cheeks that we can't wait to kiss and cuddle.

Small Change in Plans

It has become VERY clear that Delainey is in some serious need of mommy and daddy time, so she will be joining us this weekend for our trip. She has been acting out in ways that I can't even really fully understand. She has always been 'emotional' but lately it has just been over the top. She cries for a good 20+ minutes every time Chad leaves for work, she has started acting out towards her sisters (hitting, taking things etc) which we have never had to deal with before. She never had ONE ounce of jealousy towards Shelby and Avery until very recently.

Part of me can't help but think it is because of all the changes in her life recently. I mean hell I am having a hard time dealing with her being gone for almost 6 hours M-F, Chad working extreme hours, us having a new baby, Shelby and Avery getting older...and the list just goes on. It just breaks my heart that she can't just 'tell' us what is wrong instead of acting out this way. I know that it is normal for a 3/4 year old to act out, but it just makes me feel 'bad' that as her mommy I can't make it all better.

Hopefully this weekend with just Chad and I will help her remember how much we love her and how hard we worked to become her Mommy and Daddy. She is such a special little person and I don't ever want her to forget how much we love her.

Oh and if I had my way, we would be taking all the kids. It is after midnight and I am just now packing because I have been putting it off all day long because part of me wants to go and part of me doesn't. Well I best go... nothing is going to pack itself and because of Chad's crazy hours this week, I am pretty sure I am going to be the one doing all the driving tomorrow.

COMPLETE SHOCK!!!

What is with the mail giving me heart attacks this week???

Anyways, I checked the mail and saw a bunch of cards with the girls' names on them from my dad. I thought... "Cool".. well I have the kids their cards, they ripped into them and each proudly showed me the dollar that was inside. As I continued through the stack of mail, I found a card with my name on it also from my dad's address. I literally had to sit down... NEVER in my 26 (almost 27) years have I gotten a birthday card from my dad.... NEVER. I jokingly told Chad "if there isn't at least $4 in here I am gonna be pissed"... jokingly of course because they (My dad and Stacey) had given each of the girls a dollar :) Boy was I shocked to learn what I did get... and YES it was WAY more than the $3 my kids got!!

I know that it is all his new wife doing it and such, but I am glad that my children will be able to have some sort of relationship with my dad and Stacey... Stacey really does loves us all and is a wonderful person....

Hmmmmmmm... I wonder if I can use the amount of my dad's gift as a tool to get a 'better' gift out of my mom like all my 'divorced' kid friends did when we were growing up... HA! Totally kidding :) Well unless it works of course LOL

Shelby and Yabba Gabba

Shelby LOVES the Nick Jr Show Yabba Gabba (don't ask...) mostly because it is singing and dancing the whole 20 minutes that it is on. Well today I caught her in action...but of course once she noticed the camera she stopped...so there is some prompting of me in the background for her to dance, but it is just too cute not to share. Please excuse my laundry baskets...the clothes are clean just need to be put away...well I think at that point they needed to be refolded because I apparently do not get bathroom breaks in my 'contract'... HA :) Oh..and we are so excited!! Shelby's hair FINALLY fits into a pony tail...she has some serious 80's bangs but aside from that it is FINALLY growing :) Oh, and sorry about it being sideways... I have edited like 5 times but it won't change it.... so just turn your head to the right and it's all good ;)

Thanks....but...ummm ok

My husband has not gotten a birthday card from his only living grandparent in YEARS. In fact he and I have been together for 7 1/2 years and never once have I seen a birthday card from her to him. Well today in the mail I received a birthday card from her. Not really sure what to think about that... I mean hey thanks for the card and cash but... don't you think you should send one to your actual grandchild first?

Oh...and the girls all got halloween cards from her with dollar coins in them... Did Chad get a card? Nope. Apparently he is on her 'list'...which alot of this the 'relatives' are perfectly fine with... HA-ha!

"Exciting" morning...

This am I was awaken by two things... one the fact that I was freezing and two...I was having contractions.... ACK!!!

Well I got up, turned the heat up (apparently it had been turned down to 63 degrees). I also went and got some water to drink and then went and laid back down. Well after having a couple to many contractions an hour I called the doc's office and was told to come in. We did the fetal fibronctin (sp??) test which came back negative and our ultrasound showed that everything is going well and good.

I did get a little bit of a shock when I learned Brody's approximate weight... 4lbs 1oz. If he gains the 1/2 lb per week that most babies do in the next 8 weeks we are looking at an 8 pound baby. I know that this is a 'normal' size for a baby but for me it was kind of 'shocking' to hear the idea of a 'normal' size baby considering Delainey was our 'heavy weight' at 5lbs 6ozs. I guess I can take back that second back of newborn diapers that I bought this weekend along with those newborn sized sleepers which supposedly only go up to 7lbs.

Long story short, everything is ok. I have been told to take it easy and they are going to go with dehydration as the reason for the contractions, even though I am still having them (about two an hour) they aren't too worried. I can still make my trip to the Cities this weekend as long as nothing more begins to happen. Also the doc and NP would like to talk to Chad and I about having a repeat c-section because we had some trouble during labor with Delainey and she was only 5lbs so we shall see how that goes. As you all know, all Chad and I REALLY want is a healthy baby as close to term as possible. OH and the BEST part... I have a prescription for a 2 hour nap EVERY DAY until delivery :) Wonder if that is going to work out here... ha!!

Big week ahead...

Well we have a big week ahead for it being a ‘not a lot’ on the calendar week. Chad and I will be traveling to the twin Cities this coming Friday so that we can have another 3/4D ultrasound which we are really looking forward to. The girls will be staying home with my mom and aunt so this should be interesting for everyone involved.

The only time that I have left any of the kids was when Delainey was about 13 months old and Chad and I went to Fargo for his work Christmas party…we were gone for all of 15 hours but it about killed me… I bawled all the way to Fargo and didn’t have any fun, so this should be interesting to be leaving all three of them. Especially since Shelby and Avery will NOT go to bed unless I am the one who puts them to bed. An example of this is unless I put the girls to bed before I leave if I am going to MNO, I can promise you that they will still be up when I get home… it isn’t going to be pretty for anyone involved.

I know that I am going to drive myself crazy worrying… I mean heck this weekend I had a scrapbooking event and all I did was call the house every 30 minutes to see how everyone was doing etc. The time away from the kids will be nice and is certainly something that Chad and I need…as I said we have not had ANY just use time in a very long time.

We have some fun things planned. We are going to go out and eat at a few resturants that we never go to when we have the kids while we are in town and also do some of the running that just isn’t child (or Kristin) friendly… but Chad really wants to and since he is agreeing to us spending a couple hundred bucks in gas just so I can see our lil man again I guess I should just buck up J I am hoping we can sneak over to Mike and Kristie’s (Chad’s brother and his wife) new house. They just moved in last week and from the pictures we saw it is just beautiful!! In fact it is very similar to a house we would want if we moved back…well except we would want at least two more bedrooms ha-ha! And then on Saturday we are going back to Premier 4D Imaging in Bloomington, MN http://www.premier4dimaging.com for another sneak peak at our little man. We are so excited!!

Who needs 30 minute meals....

Today for some reason the day got away from and before I knew it, it was 5:45pm and my children were telling me they were hungry (SHOCK I KNOW) and it dawned on me that aside from having taken the hamburger out of the freezer this morning I had no other plan.

Well I figured, pan fried burgers and macaroni cheese, simple and quick!!! Well dinner was done and on the table by 6:00pm. My 'loving' husband comes out to the kitchen to dish his plate and says "Rachael Ray has got nothing on you...why should someone waste 30 minutes in the kitchen when they only need 10. You should give her a call and let her know"... Ha-ha! I am taking it as a compliment... and please don't tell me that it isn't... LOL

Gonna be a rough one....

Well all three of the girls went to bed really well at 8pm tonight...almost too well so I should have known what was coming. At 10pm Delainey woke up SCREAMING that someone was trying to take her....she is currently sitting on the couch afraid to go to sleep.... Ahhh... fear is wonderful isn't it....

WTF?!?!

I just got Delainey off the bus and she promptly burst into tears and said "My teacher said I have to go live with a stranger".... WTF?!?!?! My mind was RACING considering this teacher and I don't exactly see things the same....(that is another post for another day)....

Well I get Delainey calmed down and call the school....Apparently there was a gentleman walking his dog during recess today and Delainey and some other children rushed up to the fence to pet the dog (DUH... Delainey does this all the time and we tell her it is only ok when she WITH US)...well the man let the kids pet the dog and then apparently the teachers noticed that a group of 7 preschoolers were by the fence with a 'stranger' and should be brought back to the play ground... The teacher of course told the children that this man was a stranger and that they shouldn't be talking to him...the older gentleman instantly felt horrible and told the teacher... "Yea times are different now days aren't they? " and apologized several times.

So once the kids got back into the class room the teacher decided to take this time to tell the children about strangers again (it was their safety unit last week) and I guess 3 of the children burst into tears (Delainey being one of them) when they realized that this man was a stranger and could have taken them... so my daughter is now still rather distraught by the fact that she talked to a stranger today.... Poor kid. Hopefully though, she will learn her lesson and stop doing this... I don't even want to think....

My friend loves me...

My friend 'let' us watch her child on Friday night and all the kids had a blast!! So Saturday I thanked her for letting us watch him. Well the other day we were on the phone and she said something about lunch and cleaning my kitchen... I brushed off her comment like I always do because she is always saying "I'll clean your house" to which I respond "No you won't"....

WELL today she did, she unloaded my dishwashers, hand washed the pots that can't do into the dishwasher, reloaded it and even swept my kitchen floors....Oh, and she cooked me lunch ~~ which by the way was REALLY GOOD!!~~

So to my special friend~~Thank you so much for being you!!! I am so lucky to have you!!!~~

My computer hates me...

OK, so that past few days I have been having an issue using the 'address bar' on my computer to type the web addresses of places I wanted to go etc. Well yesterday after having run every piece of securities software I could find on our computer (all of them came back clean/fine) I called my uncle... he is the BOMB when it comes to computers. Well he suggested that I run a program from the microsoft site, so I did that (it took forever) and just as it was about to be done my power flickered... :(

So I uninstalled Internet Explorer (it is the only browser that is having this issue) and will be leaving it off the computer for awhile, as I re-run my 'forever' scan. Hopefully I will be able to get to the bottom of this problem soon.

At least I learned my lesson from our previous computer crash... all my photos are backed up on my external harddrive :)

Feeling the love...UPDATED

Well it seems that the birth of my nephew didn't go as planned. My sister had to have an emergency c-section and things were a little scarey for everyone for awhile. Baby Landon is home (as is my sister) and they are both doing well and baby is nursing like a champ :)

Congratulations Holly, Bobby and of course Baby Landon--- SO many people love you already little man....

Shirts for the Hospital

I think I may have found shirts for the kids' at the hospital when Brody is born. The only thing that is holding me back from ordering them is seeing if I can do them myself cheaper and I want to see if I can 'edit' the one for Shelby to say "i'm the middle big sister" instead of 'just' Im the big sister. Whattya think?? Please be honest and leave comments :)

Delainey's

Shelby's

Avery's

Brody's

28 week appointment

Well had our 28 week appointment yesterday and everything is still looking really good. Baby is doing great even though he tends to have the hiccups all the time (and apparently he hiccups like his Uncle Brian LOL) and is moving constantly. We joke alot of about how 'early' is too early to start him on his medications for ADHA (hee hee).

I had my glucose test and I passed with flying colors :) Brody of course LOVED the sugar high and was bouncing for a good two hours after the test. Next appointment is in 3 weeks and then we start our 2 week appointments :) I can't believe in like 10 weeks we will be holding "Mr Man" as he has been labeled :)

Busy Day...

Today was a fairly busy day. Apparently the energy that I had been missing the past two weeks showed up this morning when I woke up… or maybe it was the “mommy’ day I got yesterday that recharged my batteries and was just what I needed, whatever it was it worked and I hope that it continues.

So today I accomplished a lot of the things that have been stacking up because of me feeling fairly icky. I was able to clean out the kitchen fridge and let me tell you, there were some VERY interesting things in there…in fact if I were doing a science experiment I am pretty certain that I would have gotten an “A” on that antibiotic growth that had somehow fallen behind the vegetable drawer… yucky!

I have almost caught up all the laundry that had been creeping up. I mean do you have any idea how much laundry a family of 5 can get if mommy slacks for every a day??? Thankfully ALL the bathroom and kitchen towels as well as all the sheets and blankets are clean and put away for the first time in a long time.

Chad and I took the girls for a nice lunch (man those kids can eat) and did a little shopping. We then came home and the girls and Chad took a nap (Chad now works Sunday-Thursday) while I finished up cleaning the kitchen and kept up with laundry. I also was able to clean the living room and get the play house into the living room – it has previously been ‘hidden’ in the toy room which sadly takes up to much space in there and leaves no room for the children to play. I also put up the girls slide that I got at a garage sale a few weeks ago. Hopefully the slide will encourage our little monkey (Avery) to climb on appropriate things rather than the coffee table to the couch to the end table to the recliner—Oh yes, it is a site LOL (Brian and Tracy, we apologize AGAIN for laughing about the kitchen chairs on the counters).

The girls really enjoyed being able to play with the play house and the slide and I know that it will be a cause of hours of entertainment for them and bottles of Tylenol for me… oh, did I mention that my girls are ALL ‘girlie screamers’… (It can peel paint I swear)

After getting dinner in the kids and everyone in bed I was able to clean the toy room and get rid of the rest of the toys that serve no purpose other than to continue to break and chip (and I am FINALLY through all our Fisher Price toys so I have model numbers and manufacturer dates for any NEW recalls all written down). So ahhh… my ‘children’s’ areas are all now clean… I on the other hand am BEAT!!!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend! I will update tomorrow after my 28 week OB appointment which of course includes the ‘delightful’ glucose testing… BLAH!!! Nothing like SUPER SWEET orange crush like soda to make you want to puke…

Here are some pictures from the day:

Shelby about to slide down...

She was laughing...really I promise :)

Avery saying "wee" before she even started...

Again, I promise the kids were having a good time, although if I recall correctly in this one Avery was doing this 'wonderful' girlie scream :)

Scrapbook day...

Ahh... I had a whole 6 hours to myself today to scrap book. It was wonderful!! I was able to do 16 pages (8 in each of Shelby and Avery's albums) in the girls albums. My 'goal' is to catch Shelby and Avery up before Brody gets here. Up until today they had JUST come home from the hospital according to their books, but now they are at least 3 months old and have their baptism scrapped as well. Poor Delainey's book is stopped at 18 months, because we lost a lot of pictures when our computer crashed last year, and I want to at least get Shelby and Avery to 18 months as well.

I talked with Chad today and it sounds like I will be able to do these monthly 'crops' to have some 'me' time. I normally 'get' to go to MNO for Mom's Club, but to be honest I would rather have the scrapbook day to catch up on the kids' books.

Next weekend I promised Chad he can have all of Saturday 'parent duty' free as the following weekend (Oct 20) I am getting to go to an all day scrapbooking event at the Civic Center...I am hoping to get a lot accomplished there as well because now I am at least 'organized'.

I also ended up dropping one of my classes this week... it was just too much taking 15 credits and trying to care for the girls and feeling as crummy as I have been the past two weeks. Hopefully at my doc appt on Monday we will get some answers for the extreme headaches, tiredness, etc.

Oh... 28 weeks today!!! :) Only 4 more to 'beat' the docs 'goal' for us.... I KNOW I can do it!!!!

Hope all is well!!!

!@#$%!@#$%^

Well today SUCKED!!!

I have been playing email tag for MONTHS with my advisor at the college I attend, let me define this 'tag'... I would email and weeks would go by and I'd get no response, so I'd email again and FINALLY get a response.

Well it turns out that the advisor who hasn't been helping me one bit, isn't even the proper advisor for me or my program. I went to the college and was able to get the 'right' advisor for me and hopefully am on the right track now... SADLY, I will not be graduating in May as hoped but because of the advisor or lack there of that I had previously I am missed the chance to register for two classes to complete my degree in the spring (these two classes are only offered in the fall).

As sad as I am about having to put of graduation another semester, it helps me with a very hard choice I was having to make. See in order to graduate in May I had to take a few classes on campus and I wasn't sure that would be the right 'fit' for Brody and I, as I am hoping to nurse him as I did the girls....so this will give us a bit before we will have to be seperated :)

New mission

I have set a new mission for myself and I have NO CHOICE but to accept it.... to find my laundry room floor and keep it relatively caught up BEFORE Brody arrives. You may laugh at this idea, but if you had seen my laundry room floor you would scream.

Here's an example of one days 'laundry':

• Chad gets home at 6am and takes a shower (throws two towels and his dirty work clothes down the laundry CHUTE)
• I get Delainey up and changed for school and throw her pj's down the shoot
• I jump in the shower after getting Delainey on the bus and throw my clothes and two towels down the laundry CHUTE.
• Avery and Shelby were 'accidently' put in a size 3 diaper last night (the 3s work for the days but at night I have had them in 4s) so they, their clothes and bedding (which of course included THREE blankets each) are soaked because their diapers leaked so add two sheets, 6 blankets and their clothes down the CHUTE
• Because of the leaking diapers, the baths that the girls had the night before are pretty much 'garbage' so they take baths again~~~Gee...wonder why my children have dry skin~~, so on top of the two towels from baths last night, we now have two more towels for the two of them. Get the girls dressed after their bath and 'start' the day.
• breakfast was a bit messy, but they didn't do to much damage to their clothes so they are good.... WOOHOO!!! Washcloth from washing them up down the CHUTE
• lunch was another success, so we only have a wash cloth for the CHUTE
• Delainey gets off the bus from school ...field trip day to the pumpkin patch so off come her clothes and down the shoot they go, thankfully she doesn't need a bath aside from her hands/face and just gets to pick another outfit for the rest of the day.
• Chad wakes up and takes another shower, two towels down the CHUTE
• Dinner time... not so lucky in the clothes department as I made 'cheesy dinner' (yes it is macaroni and cheese but if you call it that Delainey won't eat it) So clothes down the CHUTE and three more towels because we did baths...again for Shelby and Avery.

So if you were keeping up I have for one 'days' laundry:
13 towels, 7 wash clothes
one pair of 'adult' jeans
one pair of pj pants
3 adult shirts
3 pair of kid pj's
5 kid shirts
4 pairs of kid pants
all the underclothes from above people
2 sheets
6 blankets

This comes out to 6 loads of laundry for ONE DAY.... woohoo!!! Between the baths and the laundry (not even counting I run the dishwasher twice a day) no wonder my water bill is what it is each month...thank goodness I got one of the fancy water saving front loading washing machines.

Oh and never mind the 'catch up' laundry I need to do to get all of the clothes we have for Brody washed up and ready to go.... and just think roughtly 10 weeks until 'D' day... I am sure I will get everything done in no time :) Well I am off to unload and reload my dishwasher so at least my KITCHEN will be clean in the morning when I get up to 'start all over'....

Psst... for those who think this was a 'rant' or 'complaining' I just wanted to state that this is my life, I love it and I wouldnt' change it for the world...well that is unless I could afford a maid to clean my house and do my laundry, because THAT I would certainly do :) Take care folks!! \

*posted edited for a misspelling because Angela is a spelling Nazi... LOL*

5 Little Monkeys

Delainey learned this song last week at preschool... there are 'proper' actions to it but as you can tell she gets a bit 'jumbled' and just likes to shake her 'bootie' ENJOY!!!

The Mom Song

You have got to check this out!! It is just too funny not to share with EVERY mom there is!!!

Delainey's first field trip

Tomorrow Delainey will be going on her first field trip for school. She will be going to Papa's Pumpkin Patch with her school. I am sure she will have a blast, but sadly this means that we will have a VERY stuffed up and irritated preschooler getting off the bus. I am planning on giving her some allergy meds before she gets on the bus and then again once she gets home.

She also got place her first "book order" today at school. She was thrilled to learn that she takes a check to school and in a few weeks will be bringing home some new books :)

Hope everyone is well!!