Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I get annoyed every year that it seems to get overlooked. It seems like stores go straight from Halloween to Christmas. Not in our house! I think it is so important to take time to eat with family and friends and take the time to actually sit and think about what you are thankful for in your life and how God has blessed you over the past year.

Tonight Grace and I made turkeys and pilgrim hats for Thanksgiving tomorrow. She was so proud and wanted me to take a picture before she went to bed. The classic "cheeeeeeese" pose with crazy hair to boot. :)

Happy 28th Birthday

Happy birthday daddy...we love you! Side note: Sorry Steve. I didn't realize your eyes were closed or I would've taken another picture. :)

The latest

The past month has flown and been so fun! I always forget how much fun it is to have a baby at home and be on maternity leave with the kids. :) Our weeks are pretty much the same around here. On Mondays we usually stay home and that tends to be my catch up on cleaning day. Tuesdays are story time at the library. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Grace has preschool and at least 1 of those days we run errands...groceries, post office etc. We have been taking advantage of Playland in Archbold 1 day a week too. Usually on rainy days or days where the kids just need out. The kids have done amazingly well transitioning to having a new sibling. We've had no issues with behavior or anything like that thankfully. They love their sister and are always wanting to give her a kiss and a hug and hold her. Lydia is such an easy baby. She eats well and sleeps well. She's been going down for the night around 8:30 or 9 and sleeps until 1:30 or 2 and then is up to eat. After that she's up every 3 hours to eat. I think she's literally fussed 30 minutes or less total since we've been home. It is always when she's hungry or tired or once in a while during her bath. :)

I can't get enough of this little girl.

Last weekend Grace and Steve went to a father daughter dance. Grace hasn't stopped talking about it since. They looked so cute! She was so excited because several of her friends from preschool ended up being there as well. One of her biggest accomplishments of the week...she can now spell and write Lydia's name by herself. She can now write Grace, Sam, Lydia, mom and dad. She's working on being able to spell her aunts, uncles and cousins names...and of course grandma and grandpa. I'm constantly being asked "Mom, how do you spell____?"

My little sidekick. We've gotten to spend a ton of time together since Grace is at preschool 3 mornings a week. He loves to sit and color or draw. Playdoh is also a huge hit. I started letting him play upstairs with Grace this week (I trust him to not fall down the stairs about 90% now) and he thinks he's big stuff. :) He's also been obsessed with taking walks. He walked over a mile with me 1 night this week.

Reading library books before bedtime. One of their favorite traditions of the day. Every week we get new books at the library - also a favorite pastime.

Tough job. :)

Lydia Joy

We have another beautiful girl in our family! Lydia was born Monday, October 3rd at 8:43 a.m. She weighed 6 pounds 14 ounces and was 21 inches long. No wonder I felt like I had little toes wrapped around my ribs for the last month or so. :) Although they thought she was 3 weeks early they decided my due date must have been wrong after seeing how she did on all of the newborn tests they do. The doctors and nurses said she scored more like a 40 week old! I'd been having Braxton Hicks contractions for months but on Saturday evening they started to come regularly and became increasingly intense. By 4:30 Sunday morning they were 6 minutes apart and what I can only call "make you moan" contractions. I went in and they decided to try to stop my labor because they thought I was barely 37 weeks along. They wanted me to try to last a few more days. Around 11:30 Sunday morning they felt comfortable that they had stopped my labor and sent me home with a prescription for Procardia to try to hold off labor for a few days. I had my doubts because by 9:00 Sunday night I was feeling uncomfortable again. I started having strong contractions although they were irregular. At 11:45 that night I started having regular, "make you moan" contractions again. By 4:00 Steve was starting to panic and made me call in again. :) I was having contractions every 5 minutes apart and by the time we got to the hospital they were 4 minutes apart and I was 4 cm dilated. They scheduled a c-section for later that morning. I went back to surgery around 8:00 and she was here within the hour! They must've forgotten that we didn't know what we were having because nobody said anything for probably 30 seconds after she was out (it felt like hours) and one of the nurses finally said..."ahh...did anybody tell you what the baby is?!" :) Lydia is doing great - she is such a little sweetie and cuddle bug. She is nursing well, sleeping well and pooping well! :) I feel fantastic. I've never felt this good after surgery before. I'm just a little sore but not in any actual pain. The incision already looks great and I feel very blessed to be recovering so quickly!

I love watching them together.

Grace and Samuel are in love. They can't get enough Lydia. They hate having to leave the hospital without her.

We should get to go home tomorrow sometime. I'm ready to have our family together in 1 place and start figuring out our new normal. :)

Sam-bam

The poor kid has had a rough few days. He started getting a cold late last week. On Sunday he started going downhill pretty quickly so I decided to take him to urgent care. They gave him a breathing treatment and tried to get a chest x-ray but they aren't really equipped for pediatrics. He felt crappy enough that he wouldn't stand on a chair so they could get an x-ray. The doctor sent us off with prescriptions for an antibiotic and breathing treatments and off we went to the hospital to get an x-ray. The doctor said that if he got worse that night then he needed to come back in. I took the kids and we were off to get the prescriptions filled. Of course the pharmacy only had 1 of the 2 and the next closest pharmacy to have the other 1 was 35 minutes away. Luckily by this time Steve was getting off the turnpike in Wauseon (he had been fishing with his dad in Michigan for the weekend.) I met him and traded vehicles so the kids...especially Samuel...didn't have to be carted all over northwest Ohio. Steve called the pharmacy in Bryan and asked them to please stay open for me because I was going to be a few minutes late getting there. They stayed for me - bless them! One of my friends in Archbold has a nebulizer so I then trucked back to Archbold to pick that up. By the time I got home Samuel was looking worse than ever. He wouldn't even lift his head and could barely open his eyes. Within 10 minutes we decided it was time to go to the ER. Steve stayed back with Grace and I took Sam. When we got there we got in pretty quickly. Side note - this was my first time going to the ER and I'm amazed at what some people consider "emergencies." I couldn't help looking around wondering whose emergency trips I was helping pay for. I know...bitterness and being judgmental isn't good. Anyway, they put an IV in and gave him a round of steroids and another breathing treatment. They also did a couple x-rays of his throat. He barely moved the whole time. Around midnight they decided to admit him. We got settled into his new room around 1. Steve and Grace came the next morning around 7 and spent the majority of the day with us. Samuel seemed to perk up and then he'd go downhill again. This happened several times that day. By noon they decided that he needed to stay another night. I took Grace home around 5 to shower and pack a few things while Steve stayed with Samuel. Mom and Dad picked her up at 7:30 and she stayed there for the night so Steve and I could both be at the hospital. By the time I got back to the hospital a little before 8 his IV had fallen out because he bumped it on something. They didn't put it back in but were worried because he wasn't drinking well at all. Steve left around 5 this morning to run home and shower and pick Grace up so Mom and Dad could leave for work. She went to the sitter's to play for the morning. By the time Steve got to the hospital the doctor had already been in and decided that he could go home. We got home around 10 this morning with breathing treatment stuff in hand and an antibiotic because of course all of this junk settled in his ear. I wondered because he woke up this morning and his balance was all off. He kept falling down. The poor kid can't catch a break. We are all home now and hopefully on the mend.

Updates

Here's the latest:

Steve is starting his 2nd year working on his master's. Hopefully around this time next year he will be done! I think he'll be a rockin' elementary principal. :) He seems to be enjoying his new class of 2nd graders and is his school's tech guru again. Apparently some days it's not worth the stipend. :) He went to the Boise State/Toledo game last night with Eben and got to sit in the middle of Kellen Moore's (quarterback for Boise State) family.

Grace is loving preschool and is especially excited because she gets to go 3 days a week this year. She had her first field trip on Friday and Steve took a personal day to go with her. They went to Mrs. DeNoi's dad's house and picked apples, pumpkins and gourds and made applesauce. They also played a bunch of games outside. I wish I would've been there but I had testing that I had to do at school. I'm glad Steve got to go! Here are a few pics:

Here is her class playing "Mrs. Fox." You'll have to ask Grace how to play it sometime. :)

Cutting up apples for applesauce.

Picking apples

I had to include this picture Grace drew of her family. She had to make a book as a project for her first show and tell. This is one of the pages. It makes me giggle to see that she drew toes on the feet. She attempted to draw Maggie underneath Sam in the bottom left but decided it was too hard. :)

Samuel is changing so much. He is repeating everything we say and talking in 3 word phrases often. He is wearing little boxer briefs while we are home now. They are too stinking cute. When we go out he still wears a pull-up. He is adamantly trying to do things on his own: zip his coat, put on his socks and shoes, buckle himself into his car seat, brush his teeth, pee etc. I often hear "I do" or "I do it" followed shortly by "help!" :)

Samuel and Steve spend lots of time putting around our living room and dining room together. I need to get a better picture of Sam mimicking Steve putting. He bends over and has the exact same form that Steve has. It's pretty cute.

Loving bath time! I think he'd stay in there for hours if we let him.

I am really enjoying my lovely class of 1st graders this year. We've had tons of changes at our school which makes this year challenging but the kids are great! On Monday we are celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Yes it really exists. Google it. I'll try to get some pictures of us dressed up. It's one of my favorite days of the year. The kids love it! The countdown to meet this little one is officially on. I've hit the end of pregnancy and am now in survival mode. :)

I try to not have pictures of me in the third trimester because it's not great for the ego. That being said I know it's all part of it and I wanted at least 1 of the kids and my big belly.

Dinner Conversation

Here's a conversation from tonight's dinner - I made chicken stir-fry:

Me: How do you like it?

Steve: It's really good except my potatoes are a little crunchy.

Me: Those are water chestnuts.

Steve: Oh (pause)...well how am I supposed to know that?

Me: (fighting back laughter) You're 27. How do you not know that?

Steve: Grace, what are water chestnuts?

Grace: (pointing) These white crunchy things.

Steve: Well crap.

And he thinks he could be on Iron Chef. Battle hot dog maybe. :)