Tony and Jayme Dee & Family

March 1st, then and now

2011-03-01T15:41:00.000-08:00

5 years ago March 1st took on a different meaning for me. In the past it had always just been "another day"~ another number in the 365 days that always seem to go by too quickly. Days seem to fly by no matter how much we try to keep them moving slowly~ This has become much more apparent to me after I had children.

5 years ago March 1st was supposed to be "another day".....just another Wednesday that I would be seeing my OBGYN for an appt. I was 26 weeks pregnant with McKenna and had been on bedrest for 6 weeks. I was supposed to go to stay at Aunt Diana and Uncle Rick's for a few nights for a change of scenery but things went a completely different direction when Aunt Diana had to drive me to the hospital for what would end up being an 8 week long stay before Kenna was born 6 1/2 weeks early.

March 1st is different for me now. It means much more than just another day. It might be categorized as the hardest day of my life. The scariest day of my life. The day in my life that I cried the most. However it has made me a different person. It taught me that I'm stronger than I give myself credit for. It taught me patience. It gave me a new respect for what it means to be a nurse and what it means to be a patient. It taught me the strength of relationships, of families. It made me grateful for what I have be given.

It hit me like a ton of bricks today at work. I was in the breakroom making my lunch when a nurse asked me "So, how old is your oldest daughter now?"

"Four and a half" I said, my mind swirling as I realized it was March 1st.

I pondered the date for the 20 minutes that it took me to eat, then, in the quiet of my office, I cried. I cried as I relived the emotions of that Wednesday in 2006. I cried as I thanked God for the experience. I cried as I thought of the amazing four and a half year old that God blessed us with!

I still have a card that I was given by a friend during that time. I have held on to it becase the message is so true. I believe that God gave us that experience for a reason! He wanted to teach me things that I could only learn through that experience, and for that, I am grateful.(Not to mention that I got an amazing little girl out of it!!!)

The card says:
"You are going through trials and difficulties, not because God has abandoned you, but because He has chosen you and called you to know His heart. ~Roy Lessin
There is a purpose in what you are walking through, and God would never allow it if He could not keep you close to His heart and use it for good in the plan He has for your life"

This card is so true. And I believe, that March 1st 5 years ago, He wanted to teach........

Conversation with Kenna

2010-12-17T09:55:00.000-08:00

I know! I know! I am a HORRIBLE blogger! I'm pretty sure my last post was in September.... maybe my new years resolution needs to be that I blog more!

This will be short until I have more time, but I HAVE to share a conversation I had with Kenna in the car on the way home from preschool this morning. We were talking about the birth of my friends Gabe an Jenn's new baby girl, Caroline.

Me: "Kenna, today we are going to go see a new baby and guess what her name is?"
Kenna: "What?"
Me: "Caroline"
Kenna: "Caroline? Now there are 2 Carolines!!!"
Me: "Yep"
Kenna: "How many is she?"
Me: "She was just born yesterday"
Kenna: (silence) "So she just came down from Heaven?"
Me: "Yes, God just gave her to Gabe and Jen"
Kenna: "Where does he live? Did he get married and move?"
Me: "Who? Gabe? Yes, he got married and now they have a baby girl"
Kenna: "No, I'm talking about God. Did he move?"
Me: "No, God lives in Heaven. He has always lived there"
Kenna: "But it's not comfy there. He has no blankets"
Me: "I'm sure God has blankets"
Kenna: "But where does he sleep? Are there beds there?"
Me: "Yep, I bet he has beds"
Kenna: "Lots and lots of beds?"
Me: "I bet he does"
Kenna: "Does he have 2 beds? One for God and one for Jesus?"
Me: "Yes"
Kenna: "Oh mommy, its like a SLEEPOVER!!"

Hahahahaha.... just had to share.........

2010-09-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

As I am looking through my pictures I feel a little bit bad. I'm not eactly sure where August went. I realized that I only took about 5 pictures the whole month!!

We had a garage sale mid August. Kenna was very ecited about having a lemonade stand! (But got a bit bored with it when it wasn't busy)

Granny was her first customer!

Earlier this summer, Tony built me a clothesline in the backyard by connecting a wooden post with the playset. It has been nice to be able to hang my diapers outside!

The Wednesday after Labor Day was a big day for Kenna! It was her first day of preschool! I can't believe that my baby girl is going to preschool now! It seems like she was just born a few weeks ago!

She was SO PROUD of her backpack!

Last week Angela and I took the kids to the zoo.

This picture was trying to portray how HUGE the leaves on this plant were

I think it is just amazing how no matter when or how many times we go to the zoo, there is always a sense of wonder that can be seen in her eyes. The experience at the zoo is never the same and we (all of us) always come home with stories of what we have seen!

As Delaney gets bigger, she just loves to jump right in there and play with the big girls!

Taylor was terrified that it was going to rain. She cried almost the entire time we were there. We really had to twist her arm to get her in this picture!

Bill the lion was laying on the rock ledge next to this window. It was totally impossible to get them all to look at the camera. Delaney was very photogenic though!

The three girls in the tents...

Again, miss Delaney was very cheesy as she posed for the camera.

This picture really made me laugh when I saw it! Kenna always loves to feed the giraffes. This time she was so in to the feeding that she even stuck her tongue out too!!

The giraffe Kenna fed was Mystic. As I was standing watching Mystic close to the stand, I realized she had some interesting markings..... directly in the middle of her right side, one of her spots looks like a Mickey Head (maybe I had Disney on my mind since I watched a show last week about Disney World and the "hidden Mickeys")

As I mentioned earlier, Taylor cried almost the entire time we were there because she was afraid it was going to rain. By the time it actually did rain, she was hysterical......

Kenna thought it was kind of funny that we all were soaked as we ran for cover!

Mommy and Delaney VERY wet!

This weekend, we went to Turkey Run State Park to go camping with Gabe, Jenn, Artie, Amanda, Savannah, Mitch, Andrew, and Kati. McKenna and Savannah had a great time playing all weekend.

Delaney and Mitch also had a great time playing together!

The guys had a well planned set up so they could see the TV in our camper to watch the Notre Dame game.

Yesterday we took the kids to the Nature Center and out to the suspension bridge. I was a bit disappointed with the lack of live animals for the kids to look at, but they still had fun!

The whole gang on the suspension bridge!

We had such a great time with a great group of friends but also had fun as a family!

Baby Mitch giving a big binkie CHEESE smile

The Strack family

We decided to go on a short hike. It was really a good hike with the kiddos in tow!

We had such a great time!!!

Andrew and Gabe on the BIG rock!

Sleep girls on the way home...................

Another update- finally!

2010-08-19T09:03:00.000-07:00

The weekend of July 4th, we went to Ohio to visit the Dees and the McCabes. The girls were being so cute together! They even let me take a picture of them on the stairs- which is a rare occaion for Kenna. She usually doesn't smile, doesn't look at the camera, or makes a strange face (You may see each of those in the following pictures! haha!)

For lunch on July 4th we went to probably one of my favorite places in Sandusky! It is A TGI Fridays right on the water. The boats can pull right up to the dock and park. We always sit on the patio/deck when we eat there. Daddy and Kenna were walking on the patio when they spotted a snake in the water

This picture shows a bit better the view of the patio area. I love it!

Poor Delaney was VERY sleep

We attempted to get a group picture. Kenna would not look at the camera!

McKenna is sitting next to me as I type. She just said "I wish we could go there again"

After lunch, we went to the beach. I was driving around attempting to find a parking spot. I found one at the back of the lot but failed to realize it was mostly sandy so I ended up getting the trailblazer stuck. Tony took over and I took the kids out to the beach. Luckily some nice people helped him get it un-stuck!

Once at the sand it was VERY HOT. I really think that I burnt the bottoms of my feet when we walked on it because they burned for quite a while after the trip. Despite the hot sand, the water was gorgeous! Delaney LOVED it.

On our trip, we also went to the annual 4th of July parade at Reeny's house.

After the HOT parade (which very well could have been the LONGEST PARADE EVER) we went swimming in Reeny's pool. Kenna had such a great time! She LOVES to swim!

Grandma, Bobby, and the girls posing for a picture before we leave! I didn't realize Bobby had on the "Its all Muscle" shirt until I was reviewing the pictures on my camera! haha!

As everyone probably knows, I have been cloth diapering Delaney. I was doing the laundry and had all the diapers stacked up on the couch so I decided to take a picture of them!

Then Delaney decided to pull the diapers off the couch and run with them! It was too cute!

As the girls were playing around the livingroom, I noticed the Delaney's hair was just barely long enough for a teeny pony tail on the top of her head. Unlike Kenna at that age, it only stayedi n long enough for the picture and was immediately removed. Kenna never bothered her pony tails! (I was trying to snap the picture fast before she pulled it out and I'm so mad I cut Kenna out of it. It would have been a great picture of her!)

Oh how can 365 days go SOOO fast!?!??! Look at my baby on her 1st birthday!

Delaney getting some Nana love on her birthday!

This is my sad attempt to get her lamb picture. She must have known it was her birthday because she was all smiles and all energy! To get her to stay still for any amount of time for a picture was nearly impossible.

We call Delaney our "Laney-Bug" so it was fitting to have her birthday a lady bug theme. Mom did an awesome job on her cupcakes and her birthday cake! They were ADORABLE!

Delaney is such a food-lover that she didn't resist the temptation to dig in to it! She carefully picked the ladybugs off first to eat......

She had a look of panic on her face when Kenna decided to stick her finger in to enjoy the icing. I think she was afraid that Kenna would eat the whole thing!

But she was sure to get that icing before Kenna could!

Then she thought she could just stick her whole face in it!

MMMMMM.....CAAAAAAKE

NOW it's time to get SERIOUS about eating the cake!

What a messy baby girl!

All the kids enjoying the pool. We bought this pool not too long before the party. The one I had gotten that was simlar had a leak in it that we couldn't find! This one was MUCH bigger!

Not sure what this face means...................

Delaney wasn't took excited about opening the presents~ She just wanted to play with them after they were opened! She was very happy to have the baby doll from Papa and Nana!

SO happy!

As the party was winding down, we were able to get a calmer picture with the lamb.........

Kari and I went out to a few garage sales one Friday and Delaney latched on to a little baby. Then she found the baby car seat, and I was amazed at how she knew just what to do with the baby!

This is why we don't let Daddy do her hair....

Mama Dee and Tay on the boat

Angela and Papa Dee

Grandma Dee, Bobby, and Amy came over to Tom and Jean's house for a day of fishing

Daddy and Delaney

Bobby gave us the thumbs up indicating he was having a great time!

What a beauty!

Delaney attempting to walk around the boat with her huge life vest on!

Delaney was a sleepy baby after all her fun in the sun! So precious!

Here is what we have done in a few months....

2010-07-02T18:57:00.000-07:00

First things first- no, we did NOT fall off the face of the earth, although it may seem that way since it has been so long since I have blogged. It just amazes me how fast the time goes. I feel like I blink my eyes and a week passes!

These are Delaney’s 10 month pictures. Look at that smile! How can you NOT love it?!

On a pretty beautiful day Dad, Mom, Kari, Tim, Andrew and us all went to the zoo. I remember liking the zoo when I was little but I almost appreciate it now when I see how excited Kenna gets to see the animals!

Bill the Lion! And his lioness....

I took this picture of Kenna's hand in one of the examples of an animals paw but now I can't for the life of me remember which animal it was. I do know that it was in Indonesia though!

The Brubakers- poor Kari was pretty uncomfortable walking (I can sympathize because I was in her shoes last summer!) Luckily, we were able to get her a wheelchair!

Dad and Mom

US!

I'd say one o four favorite exhibits is the giraffes. This year there is baby giraffe. The worker told us that at the time, they had not yet let the male back in to the exhibit because they wanted to let the baby get used to it first.

Kenna feeding the baby giraffe

What a sweetie!

Kenna, Andrew and I rode the carousel together. It is probably one of Kenna's favorite rides!

In the times I have been to the zoo, it is pretty rare to see the tiger up roaming around. It wasn't very hot that day so the animals all seemed to be a bit more active. He really scared us when he ran toward the window and pounced on the piece of cardboard on the ground behind him.

Laney-bug and I on the train ride. It was pretty busy so Tony and I had to be separated on the ride with a seat between us. Sadly, the ride was not totally uneventful- the man behind us made 3 phone calls and talked to his "woman" about what it was like in the "penitentiary". NICE

Happy cousins playing on the train!

Does she look like a cheerleader or WHAT?

One of Delaney's favorite things to do outside at our house is to play on the swing. She LOVES her swing and would probably sit in it all day if we let her! She smiles and laughs the entire time she rides in it!

On memorial day weekend, Tony and I and 2 other couples- Andrew and Kati & Gabe and Jenn all went on a little mini vacation. We rented a cabin in Brown County and had an amazing time. I have to admit, I knew the cabin would be nice - since Gabe and Jenn had been there before, but I had NO IDEA what to expect. It was an amazing weekend with great friends! Andrew and Kati rode with us, then we met up with Gabe and Jenn. At that point we shuffled cars and rode down "girls" and "guys". We ate lunch on the way down at Cheeseburger in Paradise in Indianapolis.

This is the view from the road. The driveway was very long and you could not even see the cabin from the road. (The building off to the left is a shed) If you see the faint smoke above the trees- that is where the cabin is - was had built a campfire.

This is our gorgeous cabin. It was much more amazing than I could have imagined. So secluded and beautiful!

This is the view of the livingroom from the stairway up to the loft- which I realized was the ONLY room in the house that I didn't get a picture of! The decor was beautiful and very "homey"

Once in the cabin, we realized the smoke detector in the loft (which was a bedroom) was chirping due to a dead battery. Here is Andrew changing it!

The cabin has a lofted bedroom, livingroom, dining room, kitchen, bath and bedroom on the first floor, a full walkout basement with the third bedroom and a second bathroom. This is the bathroom on the main floor. The unique feature of this room is the window. On the other side of the shower curtain is a VERY LARGE window with no curtain, no frosted glass, just the outdoors in view. We had a rule that no one was allowed outside when anyone was in the shower!

This was the bedroom Tony and I stayed in. It was beautiful. Everything in the cabin was immaculate. We noticed that all the pots and pans were Wolfgang Puck, all towels and bedding was either Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel. VERY NICE- not to mention beautiful!

Our bedroom had a sliding glass door to the amazing porch!

Another view of the dining room table.

The kitchen, which was fully equipped. All we had to do was bring the food! We took turns and each couple cooked a dinner one night. (After I took this, I realized it may have been a better picture if I took it BEFORE we had put all of our stuff in it!)

The stairway to the basement. I just love the look of the cabin- very rustic with the combinations of wood and nautical colors!

The Basement.....

The view to as I was exploring the porch that wrapped around 3/4 of the house.

The boys enjoying the porch!

More views of the porch

The beautiful gardens at the back of the house. The garden was on the back and part of the side of the house- this was the only portion without a porch.

After exploring around the house, I went in to our bedroom to pump. I heard quite the commotion on the porch, everyone was laughing and having a great time. When I came out of the bedroom, I saw this on the refrigerator- an ultrasound picture with Jenn's name on it. I assumed that everyone was talking about the big news and they were waiting to see if I would notice the picture.

When I got on the porch....... I saw this....... notice the fishing pole......

I pulled Jenn aside and said "Jenn, I saw it!"
Jen said "Saw What?"
"I saw it, I took a picture of it! Did they see it"
She continued to play dumb about "it". I then paniced that maybe I wasn't the one who was suppoesd to see it (but surely she would have told Gabe before getting an ultrasound.....), and I didn't want to ruin the surprise for everyone else. I took Kati in the cabin and showed her the picture..... Her response "YOUR PREGNANT?!?!?".
I said "NO, JENN IS!"

I was totally confused about what had been so funny and why there was so much commotion, then they explained to me that a HUGE black snake was seen slithering through the landscaping (where I had just been a little while earlier as I took pictures- YIKES). They were trying to force it out of the bushes. It wasn't until Andrew and Kati got a bit closer that they saw that the snake was actually 2 snakes and they were mating.

This is the snake as he slithered away. He was HUGE. Probably 5 feet long and as big around as my arm!

Ok, so here is the window.- You remember the one I talked about earlier- the dreaded bathroom window. The girls thought it would be funny to wrap ourselves in towels (fully clothed) and play a joke on the guys. As you can see, they were playing a joke on us as well.....

We stood on the inside of the bathroom by the toilet- so you can see how big the window is when you are actually showering!

I just realized I forgot to upload the picture of when Andrew jumped up and scared us. It was pretty funny......

On Saturday of our trip, the girls went shopping at the outlet malls and the guys went fishing. On Sunday we all took a canoe trip- which was a lot of fun!

We packed our lunch and at one point stopped to have a picnic. The trip was pretty eventful. Our boat was the first to tip. We hit a tree branch and I was terrified I was going to lose my camera. Tony fell in completely but somehow me (and my camera) managed to stay in the boat fairly unharmed. A short while late, Gabe and Jenn were tipped also but a log underwater. Their canoe was so full of water, it almost sank!

Pictures by the fireplace!

The boys (no, they did not pose)

The girls (we bought matching sweatshirts at the GAP and YES, we did pose!)

Delaney and I using her new BECO carrier! We love it! : )

I bought a swimming pool at a garage sale for the kids. It is perfect (or was perfect)... Kenna LOVES is and so does Delaney! the only problem we are having now is that we can't seem to keep water in it. We think there is a slow leak somewhere and it is pretty disappointing that we can't seem to locate it!

Delaney's 11month picture. She was pretty squirmy that day so I had a tough time getting her to sit still. In the last month or so she has really learned to pull herself up and has started walking! My baby is getting so big!

My beautiful girls!

Delaney "cooking" in the kitchen with me

Getting pictures of the girls before church!

A few weeks ago, Kenna went to bible school for the 2nd year. She had a great time and this is the "set" they had for the parent program. Sadly, the opening prayer before the program was inturrupted by teh tornado sirens and we all headed to the basement of the church!

Everyone in the basement!

Luckily, they made the situation fun and began signing and dancing in the basement. Thankfully, some of the kds were oblivious to what was going on!

Kenna singing a pirate song

At church the Sunday after bible school, the kids performed during the service. McKenna is hardly EVER shy, but for some reason she didn't want to sing! Silly Kenna!

I went out to Shirley Knellers and we picked a bunch of fresh raspberries! They are awesome! I have never picked this many in all my life!

A few nights ago, Tony ran over a nest of baby bunnies in our yard. Luckily we only found one that was "sleeping". This one I about stepped on as I was getting some toys out for Delaney. We attempted to get them all back together at the nest and failed miserably. This one did let me hold it for a short period of time!

The other night, we went to the splash park in town. Kenna has a blast even though it was a bit chilly!

The water was FREEZING but Delaney still wanted to play in it!

I couldn't get both of them in the same place long enough to get a good picture!

Happy Birthday baby Aidan~

I hope get all this right. He was born today at 3:35 weighing 7lb 9oz and 19 inches long. So in pictures I really think he looks like Tim but in person I can't see it! Ha ha!

Aidan told me that I'm am his favorite Aunt. He looks so happy to have me holding him. :)

Kenna and Andrew looking at baby Aidan

Double kisses for the Birthday Boy!!! (I think he is smiling! He likes us!)

"How about you let me hold him for a minute, mommy....."

I think there might be a look of fear in Delaney's eyes... she's worried she has been replaced.......

Kalahari and birthdays

2010-04-22T18:40:00.000-07:00

In the beginning of April we took a little trip to Ohio for spring break. We got some tickets to Kalahari water park. We had a great time! I cannot wait to take Kenna back! Delaney loved it too! There was so much going on and so many people, she had plenty of things to watch! I wore her most of the time we were there so she was pretty comfy!

Kalahari has a lazy river, multiple water slides, a surfing area, a wave pool, etc but we spent most of our time in the kiddie area. Tay and Kenna had a great time chasing each other around and going down the slide together!

They also had the most prefect little baby swings. They were just low enough that the babies could reach the water! Delaney had a great time in them!

The group

Some lovin from Uncle Bobby..... I never really thought Delaney looked like Tony but for some reason, I think she looks a lot like him in this picture.

The April 22nd birthday girls!!!!

Angela and I cooked dinner to celebrate the birthdays. We had originally decided to make spaghetti but when we came home with the ingredients to cook it, Grandma Dee had already started making a chicken casserole....but we made the spaghetti anyway. It was an interested combination but it was yummy! We also made this beautiful strawberry cake!

Aunt Lynn was also excited to see Miss Delaney.

What would a birthday celebration be without "Happy Birthday" and a candle, right? The birthday girls designated Kenna to be the one to blow out the candle. She was pretty excited but then was confused that there were no presents... and that it wasn't REALLY her birthday.....

Here is Delaney's 9 month picture. I just can't get over that adorable smile!!!!

Next s Kenna's picture on her 4th birthday. She is such a hard girl to get to look at the camera and smile, although, I think it is still a pretty cute picture!

Kenna.... how old are you......????

We wanted to do something fun for Kenna on her birthday so we decided to go to Chuck E Cheese's. I don't remember their pizza being so terrible....... The first thing the girls went on was a little carousel. They had a blast!

Kenna and Taylor had to ride on the car together. There was one that was a single person car, but -oh no- they had to ride in the one that they both could sit in it at the same time....... The scary part is that someday it will actually happen.........

Even the grown-ups had fun....... Notice there are no kids in this picture........

The cake.....

Kenna was very excited to finally be celebrating her birthday. She had been talking about turning 4 for WEEKS before!!! She did get a sticker that said she was a birthday girl, but if I had been a good mother I would have called ahead and set up a birthday reservation so that Chuck would come sing to her like he did the girl at the table next to us. She acted a bit confused as to why he wasn't coming over to celebrate her birthday (which made me feel worse) but I think she quickly forgot about it.....

Opening presents:

Tony insisted that we play each other at Skee-ball- of course I lost.

Mom and I went out to some garage sales. Tony really didn't want me to go because he thought that I would get a "bunch of things we don't need". Well guess what! We DID find a bunch of things we don't need! The most interesting of all was ELVIS! He was even life sized~ In case you are wondering, no, we didn't spend the $300 to get him. Although Angela said it best when she said that if Jack were with us, he would not have batted an eye and bought it for Run-A-Muck. If Elvis were $50, I would have seriously considered i!

I have been using cloth diapers for 7 months now and have been pretty successful. We even started using them at daycare! Christa, a friend of mine, gave me a snappi to try. Snappis work with the "old style" prefold diapers (my mom used pins). I have done it a few times with a cover over them. Delaney looked pretty cute in just the prefold and the snappi.

We had Kenna's birthday party on Saturday April 24th. Guests included: Nana, Papa, Mama Dee, Papa Dee, Kari, Tim, Andrew, Angela, Matt, Caroline, Taylor, Aunt Diana, Uncle Rick, Granny, Grandma K, Artie, Amanda, Savannah, Mitch, Ashley, Tony, and Abbie. It was a great time! Kenna loved it. Here is all the kids eating together.

We had a princess themed birthday (of course). I found some crown hair combs at the party store and we used them as cupcake toppers. They were super cute! Mom made the cupcakes for us!

I'm such a bad mom......I was so busy trying to make sure she had her cupcake, the candle was lit, Happy Birthday was being sung, etc that THIS is the ONLY picture I have of her getting ready/blowing out her candles..... = (

Present time!

I can't believe Delaney is old enough to start using a sippy cup!!!!!

About a week ago, we got some rock to put in our landscaping. Tony was outside working on putting it in place, I was cleaning up the house, Delaney was taking a nap and Kenna was watching TV (or so I thought). When I walked in the living room, I found her like this. My computer has the pictures randomly shuffle on the screen and sometimes Kenna will start watching it. She obviously started and got a bit sleepy........

Then I went in to check on Delaney and found her curled up with her taggie blanket too. SOOOO precious!!

March/April fun

2010-04-04T18:21:00.000-07:00

I think I say this everytime I post, but time really does fly. Delaney is 9 months old already and Kenna will be 4 next week!! WOW!

Well, it has finally warmed up enough to be able to be outside. We put Delaney in her swing for the first time and she LOVED it!

Of course Kenna was very excited to be out playing as well. She has really missed her time outside this winter. I imagine we will have many more nights outside in the near future!

At Abigail group at church a few weeks ago, I took all my cloth diapers to show to some of the ladies. I had them in a bag in the living room and Kenna started getting them out and playing with them. It was too cute not to snap a few pictures!

I tried to get a few pictures of Delaney with Easter eggs but she was too interested in watching Kenna to look at me!

I know it is late but this is Delaney's 8 month picture. I can't believe how fast she is growing!

Kenna has a book that Nana made for her when she was a baby with pictures of her. She was looking at it the other day and wondered where the bear was in the picture. I had to explain to her that just like Delaney's pictures with her lamb, we took pictures of Kenna with her bear. I found it for her and she profoundly said "Mommy, it SHRUNK!" I said "No, Kenna you just got bigger!" (You can see her holding it in the picture. She was about Delaney's age at the time)

Before Easter, the Easter Bunny came to the model home in our subdivision. They even had baby chicks and baby ducks for the kids to pet. Kenna jumped right in! She was a little afraid to hold them because they were so wiggly but she sure did try it!

I think it is next to impossible to get a picture with everyone looking at the camera!

At Papa and Nana's house, the kids got to open their Easter baskets early! Even Delaney was excited!

Since the weather has been nice, we have been able to get out on our bikes a few times. (I even got a new bike since mine was from mom and dad when I was about 13! We hooked up the bike trailer and the girls LOVED it!

Easter morning the girls looked adorable. They wore matching green dresses with pink flowers! TOO CUTE!

After church, we had breakfast, then they had the annual easter egg hunt for all the kids. They kids were all given baskets and set out to find the eggs. I think they had a great time!

Again, I was trying to get a picture with everyone looking at the camera. One out of 3 isn't bad......

The Easter bunnt came to our house while we were at church. Kenna was hilarious as we got out of the car. The told us to "SHHHHHH" and we needed to tiptoe into the house because we might see him before he leaves. Sadly, the easter bunny was already gone when we got inside but he did leave treats!

Kenna tore through her basket so fast, I barely had time to take pictures. But, the good big sister that she is, she also went through Delaney's basket and told her everything that was in it.

Then the easter egg hunt began. I hud one in Delaney's toy mailbox and she found it!

Kenna had a great time finding the Easter eggs throughout the house!!!

For lunch after church, we all headed to Kari and Tim's for some great food and more easter egg hunting fun!

Before the egg hunting, some of us grown-ups went out and "hid" the easter eggs in the backyard, then we sent the kids out to find them. Sounds easy, right?

And the grown ups (and Dleaney) watched from the porch.........

Pretty soon, we realized that we were missing an egg...... Its pretty sad when the grown-ups can't fid the eggs they hid.................

Still looking..........

And FINALLY, the easter egg hunt was over, Granny found it!

Then the fun began of discovering what was IN all the eggs- parachuting bunnies, candy, bouncy balls, etc

Delaney really didn't care about what was in them, she just wanted to play with them!

ERGO giveaway

2010-04-01T19:43:00.001-07:00

Everyone please cross your fingers for me~ I really want to try an Ergo carrier for Delaney. I just found this website where I might be able to win one!

http://www.makingmyamericandream.com/2010/03/ergobaby-carrier-review-giveaway.html?showComment=1270176108407_AIe9_BF8k7QUfCa8pipisuvOR_I6-F3MKPxUcTF0dN1UP4gZVa1BKlF7cea9kCzaA6s8V_OO2RykIItgpbm-rOFC3ATY77DpVGSHppyj0LS5FSWGHNbKqBjTFZzM94ZQgoBS95w4KcVVQjIvAYU5G1AANKaq55PfE0n8Rub20nzqeI14vcxv4uRrLNalIumyXkRwEjWmPkwW9GHknTAbf36QVINeR7AonKf0TT2XIB4eKpSfMmrPCrPxey50ZK-C8oktT1eaJfKv#c7778495566609009505

Hopefully I will get some picture up of the girls soon. I feel like the last few weeks have just slipped away from me. Is it REALLY April already? Really? Kenna will be 4 in a few weeks. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

2010-03-11T17:06:00.000-08:00

So, now that Delaney is almost 8 months old, I guess it is about time I finish my blog from Florida which included her 7 month pictures with her lamb, huh?

We had such a good time in Florida. After Disney, we went to Granny's house in Estero. It was warm enough that we could go swimming almost every day! Kenna LOVED the pool!

Delaney had quite a few new experiences while we were in Florida. I'd say her most favorite was trying a strawberry for the first time! She really enjoyed it and wouldn't let me take it away from her mouth!

Another one of Delaney's new experiences was getting her toenails painted! We all had matching polish! It was so wonderful to be able to wear sandals! I can't wait for spring!!!

About a month or so before we went on vacation, I was shopping in Target and found the most adorable matching swimsuits for the girls. Oh my goodness do they look cute in them!!

We only went to the beach once. There was pretty bad red algae so Kenna played in the sand but we really couldn't get in the water. And the algae made it smell pretty bad. But we DID get to sit in the sun, so that made it worth the smell!

Delaney was pretty nervous most of the time we were at Granny's. She was out of her usual environment which made her very clingy to mommy. She really didn't want to be put down or to be held by anyone else if I was in the room. But she did sit with Granny for a while!

One night Tony and I took Kenna to see the greyhound races. We told her all about out dog, Lexy, that we had when she was a baby. Kenna was in awe of the dogs.

Of course we let her pick the dog we would bet on. She usually picked them on what color she liked best (she gets it honestly, because that is how I make up my brackets for basketball) and she won quite a bit!

I can't believe I got this picture. I kept trying to snap the picture when the dogs were coming around behind Tony and Kenna but couldn't quite get it. Kenna picked this dog and we bet for it to show.... sure enough it won!

This is the scoreboard. Kenna won $2.60- which she eventually spent on popcorn!

On Friday before we left, Aunt Nancy came to visit and have lunch. She had presents for all of us. Kenna's present was a little tea set that had been my great grandmothers when she was a little girl. Kenna's face was priceless in this picture

Opening the tea set.......

Amazingly, all the pieces are there! Some are chipped and the paint is coming off, but that just means they were well loved!!!

We were so sad to leave! I wish we could have stayed there another week! I was trying everything I could to get to stay longer!!!!!

FLORIDA!!!!

2010-02-22T06:38:00.000-08:00

I thought the day would NEVER come.... The one that I could say I'm sitting in Florida instead of at my desk at work.... on my couch.... in the cold...... We left on the 18th in a caravan with mom and dad to seek out warmer weather. I was pretty nervous about how the girls would do on the trip but they did amazing. Our saving grace was the little TV/DVD player in the back for Kenna. Sh watched movies, played with toys, colored, etc on the way down. At one point we switched cars and she rode with mom and dad for a while.

In Georgia, we stopped at a gas station to use the potty and there was in hugs cow in front of it. I was feeding Delaney so I didn't see it until we pulled away, but mom took Kenna's picture with it. She is standing underneath it.

Look how big the hoof of the cow is compared to Kenna!

Thursday night we stayed the night in Georgia, then Friday we made it to the hotel in Orlando. We really wanted to eat at Rainforest Cafe but the wait was 2 hours long so we settled for Wolfgang Puck (which was wonderful) and shopped our way around Downtown Disney. Delaney looked just adorable in some minnie ears in one of the stores!

Saturday morning we got up and got ready to head to The Magic Kingdon (aka the castle to Kenna)

McKenna was SOOO excited. Nana had got her a princess backpack, autograph book, etc. She carried that backpack around ALL day! It was adorable!

Disney is doing their "Give a Day, Get a Day" promotion and for being a volunteer you can get free Disney tickets. I still am a volunteer for Sidelines (nonprofit organization for women on bedrest) and out director sent out the link on how to earn free tickets. Tony and I got our tickets for free so we just had to get Kenna's. We thought buying them in advance and getting it at the will call window would be good. WRONG. It took FOREVER to get through the line! Luckily, I had my sling so I could wear Delaney on and off throughout the day. She loved it!

After we FINALLY got our tickets, we hit the monorail and headed to the park. I took a picture of Kenna's face when we could first see the castle over the trees. She was amazed! Look at her face, its priceless!

Once we made it to the front gate, I felt for a moment like I was at the airport. We had to have our bags checked. It is pretty sad that our world has come to that! But this security guard made the most of it. Here was his conversation with Kenna:

Him : I see you have a backpack. Is there fairy dust in it?

Kenna: No

Him: I think I need to look at it.

Kenna was a little nervous but let him

Him: HMMMM. I think I see some fairy dust in here (as he got out a baggie of "dust" and sprinkled it in her bag). There IS fairy dust in here! Did you know that?

Kenna's face was in awe. Then he sprinkled some in her hand. It was awesome!

The view of the castle from main street!

Kenna was totally in awe of the castle, but the question of the day...... who is more excited??

Of course the 2 reasons for Kenna's visit to the Magic Kingdom is to see the castle and to see the princesses. At one point, she had asked us if there were any "mean ones" there (aka villans). After all the joys of seeing the castle, the FIRST character we see is a villan- Cinderella's stepmother. Lucky for us, she is a fairly calm villan. Had we seen Jafar from Aladdin or someone like that, I think Kenna would have been even more terrified. As we were waiting our turn to talk to her, she was asking a little boy what he could do for her- did he have a horse? a donkey? Could he milk a cow? etc She was really in to her part!

Each character has an escort with them. Kenna asked him if the stepmother was mean or nice. His response "She just misunderstood". HAHAHAHA

It was finally our turn to talk to her and Kenna was pretty hesitant. Before we walked away, Tony said "I think Cinderella made the right choice to live with the prince". The stepmother was a little annoyed and told us to "Have a mediocre day"

Our first stop was back to ToonTown. We had read that the Disney Fairies would be there. We waited in line before Toon Town opened and we headed straight for the fairies. Once we arrived, we had to pick between seeing the fairies and the princesses. Of course we chose the princesses since she LOVES princesses. Yet again, who's face shows more excitement???

The first princess we saw Cinderella. Kenna was in awe and was a bit shy with both princesses. She got their autographs, then got pictures taken with each of them.

Our next princess was Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

Kenna's dress had fairies on it. Belle commented on how Kenna had her "friends the fairies" on her dress. It was very cute how the characters all really get personal with the kids.

If you haven't been to Disney, you will notice Mickey heads everywhere. Even in the tomatoes and pumpkins at Mickey's House!

In Minnie's house we could get a little closer to the things in the house. Kenna was drawn to Minnie's tea set!

Delaney was absolutely perfect the entire day (so was Kenna) but all the excitement was a little overwhelming for a sleepy baby!

Daddy and Kenna riding the Dumbo ride

Kenna really likes Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Sadly the Snow White ride was very scary. Kenna was terrified and wouldn't let me let go to her hands. Poor thing! But this picture was taken before the ride started.......

The "Its a Small World Ride" was perfect. By the end of the first time riding, Kenna was singing the song (but who wouldn't be, right?) Delaney loved it too. The ride went slow enough that she was able to focus on what was going on around us and enjoy it too!

See, she was mesmerized........

So was Kenna.......

Woody and Jessie from Toy Story.....

Aladdin

Kenna and I were able to ride the magic carpets together. We could see Aladdin as we waited in line for the ride, but he was done greeting people by the time we were off the ride. Kenna was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see him. = (

Just before the parade, there was a show on the castle steps. We were able to watch it for a bit before we went to our seats for the parade.

Kenna on Daddy's shoulders watching the princesses dance at the castle

Pictures from the parade

After the parade, we headed back to the hotel for some food and rest. Of course there was no rest for Kenna. She was wired! But it was a nice break for the grown-ups.

Back at Disney we were impressed with the color changing castle. Kenna especially loved the pink color!

We made our way back to Toon Town again, this time to see the fairies. The line took FOREVER! I think we waited about an hour total. The girls were really good in the line.

Our first fairy was Silver mist.

All the fairies also made a fuss over Delaney and had to get theier picture taken with her too, although that meant getting thier picture taken with whomever was holding her at that time- which happened to be Daddy. He was irritated because they got glitter on him. Hahaha

Next was Tinkerbell. She was the perfect person to be Tinkerbell. Her first question for Kenna was whether or not she was a light fairy.

Kenna had an autograph book with Tinkerbell on it. She asked Kenna if she had painted it herself. It was cute!

Iradessa also had to have her look at Delaney~

I think the hour wait was worth it. We could tell by the look on Kenna's face. She loved it. Ironically, earlier int he day when we saw the princesses, Kenna's dress had fairies on it. When we went back to the park Kenna had on a princess dress (which she had taken off by the time we made it to the fairies)

After riding the "Its a small world" ride again, Kenna was ready to go. We stumbled onto the light parade and had a great time watching!

Sunday morning we headed to Downtown Disney to eat at the Rainforest Cafe.

We put in our reservations and then had time to wonde around downtown disney.

I just love the rainforest cafe! I'm not totally crazy about their food but the atmosphere is awesome!

Kenna was not a big fan of the "thunderstorm" that happens eevry 30 minutes......

So, now that today is the LAST day before we go home, I FINALLY have our FIRST day posted on my blog. It has been a great week which has flown by. Delaney has been awefully clingy so I haven't been able to update this. More to come later!

2010-01-16T15:38:00.000-08:00

This week has been a rough week for us. Tony was out of town all week so the girls and I decided to stay with mom and dad. Tuesday night (during the night), Kenna woke up and was just sobbing. It didn't take too long to realize that she had thrown up in her bed. This is the first time she had done this so she was pretty traumatized by the whole thing. Yesterday Tony came home from his trip and I thought all was well....... I was wrong. I became sick in the middle of the night and have felt terrible all day. I have a terrible low back/hip pain that has caused me to be emotional and uncomfortable. We decided to go in to the hospital to make sure I don't have kidney stones, kideny infection ,etc. Luckily all test came back fairly normal and the only thing is that I, obviously, have the stomach flu. Tony took the girls to his parent's house so I could rest. I thought- what a perfect time to lay in bed and work on my blog! So here we go!

The week between Christmas and New Years, we got Kena, Caroline and Taylor in tennis lessons. This is the girls relaxing after tennis camp

The first day, Kenna did better than I anticipated. I thought she would be shy and scared, but I'm sure it helped having the girls with her. The instructor had them doing "bear crawls". Of course, Kenna had to voice her opinion that she didn't want to be a bear, she wanted to be a doggy. Haha

Ok girls, this isn't exactly what we had in mind. I love Taylor's racket on her head!

Angela and I decided that the camp was totally worth the money for the hour that the girls got to run wild around the tennis courts. The were worn out and we didn't have to chase them. That is great, right?

The girls with Papa Dee on the last night.

On New Years Eve, Tony, Greg, Angela, and Matt took all the kids ice skating. (Cathy and I stayed home with Delaney)Tony and I were trying to remember whether or not Kenna had been skating before. I'm pretty sure they all went last year while I was pregnant. I guess she just had a blast with Daddy and her cousins! I love this picture- because Tony still appears to be getting ready and Kenna is off and running! I'm amazed she could walk in the skates!

Kenna and Daddy

After skating they all went to Starbucks for a warm beverage- but Kenna had juice!

Greg and Cathy had a little party at their house on New Years Eve. Julie and Russell Morris brought their kids along with their new baby. She was born before Christmas and seemed SOOO tiny compared to Delaney. I think Delaney is small but you can really see how big she is compared to a new baby!

My smiley girl!

This was hilarious. I put Delaney in the bouncer while I cleaned up the house and she pulled herself to a sitting position so she could chew on the part of the bouncer that plays music and moves.

Delaney has a new found love- baby food. At first she seemed pretty aprehensive about the whole eating thing, but in the last week she has really taken off! She will even REFUSE breastfeeding/bottle until you feed her real food first! Tony got out the highchair last night and she loved it. She tried mashed potatoes- but wasn't too interested- but LOVED her mixed vegetable and peaches baby food. She ate 2 bowls!!!

See how much she loves it?!?!?

LONG update- part 1

2010-01-05T11:49:00.000-08:00

First, let me start out by telling you about my night last night. I spent and hour and a half typing/updating this blog. After I FINALLY got it done, I tried to publish it and POOF. It was gone. I was very disappointed, and since it was 11:15, I thought I'd just go to bed instead of typing it all again!

I think I say this in all my blogs. WHERE DOES THE TIME GO??? It seems to go very fast!

Delaney has begun to have a new found obsession with tags like her sister did as a baby. She will play with toys, only to be pleasantly surprised that they have a tag on them, which she loves to play with. Granny made her a few taggie blankets like Kenna has and she LOVES them. Here she is playing with them!

So, I just realized that this entire blog will be about Christmas. On the 23rd, we had our Christmas with the Greg, Cathy, Ang, Matt, and the kids........

This kids fell in love with watching the train under the Christmas tree. It was adorable because it isn't very often that all the kids- age 5mths to 12- all are interested in the same thing!

It has been a tradition in the Dee house (at least since I have been around), that we have dinner at Greg and Cathy's house, then all pile in the cars to go look at the beautifully decorated house in Emerald Lake, then one of the cars gets "lost" (usually the moms), and when we all meet up again at the house, SANTA has come! The past few years, the dads have taken the kids out and we stay to clean up the dishes. While washing the dishes, we hear sleigh bells, and when we go back to the living room, there are presents under the tree. BUT, we have yet to actually catch the jolly elf in the act. He is too fast. Here are the kid's stockings

It is difficult to get the expressions on the kids faces when they come in the door and see the presents. We attempted to get a picture of them by the tree but it was very difficult to get them all looking the same direction and smiling when there were tons of presents behind them!

Kenna got a chest of princess dresses from Angela and Matt- which was perfectly appropriate since she loves to dress up.

Delaney even got in to the unwrapping- with Daddy's help of course!

Greg and Cathy got the girls matching outfits. It wasn't long before she and Tay were modeling theirs!

Taylor holding Delaney

On Christmas eve, we had a difficult time getting Kenna dresses. She insisted on having the perfect dress to wear to church! I realized that the only picture I took was Delaney being content in her carseat with her Christmas dress on and her COLTS hat. I'm such a bad mommy. I didn't get any pictures of Kenna, the girls together or the family! Just this one. Only one!

After we got home, and when we were putting Kenna to get. She wanted me to come in to sing to her. As she was getting out of bed, she became tangled in her blankets (we think) and fell forward, hitting her face on the end of the bed. She got a great black eye for Christmas!

With this being the first year Kenna really understood Christmas and santa, we needed everything to be perfect. Me being new at this whole thing, FORGOT the cookies. Thank goodness for fundraiser frozen cookie dough- and its a good thing that santa likes coconut pecan cookies! The other issue to had was milk. We had run out of milk and the only thing I had was vanilla soymilk. Santa will drink soymilk, right? WRONG. "Santa" asked me WHAT WAS THAT? And insisted that I have "real" milk next year- he also requested DeBrands chocolates!

Kenna had a great time putting the cookies and "milk" out for santa. She insisted that they be on a stool right next to the tree so he wouldn't miss them!

Santa also left a nice note for Kenna about her cookies and milk! She is STILL talking about the fact that he only took one bite of the last cookie. Next year, he'd better eat them ALL!!

I was pleasantly surprised that Kenna didn't wake up at 3am and want to open presents. We actually had to wake her up! She wouldn't let us turn on the lights so some of these pictures are a bit fuzzy

Opening stockings

Delaney got some banana puffs to eat when she gets a bit bigger. MMMMMMM

One thing Kenna really wanted for Christmas was princess make-up and she was sure to tell all the santas that she saw that she wanted it. Luckily we were able to find it. Included in the princess make-up is "lips" (lip gloss) and fingernail polish. She is getting surprisingly good (for a 3 year old) at painting her own fingernails!

Another thing Kenna got that she really enjoys is a 3 1/2 ft tall ballerina doll. She also got a ballerina leotard. She LOVES her ballerina and dances around the living room with her often!

Just before Tony opened his big present - his new Garmin- mom and dad showed up with muffins for us! It was a lovely surprise! Now for the Garmin story- Tony had a garmin which functioned perfectly and he used often when he travels for his job. Unfortunately, the week before Christmas he was parked at his office downtown, some decided they needed a Garmin too. After a broken window, hole in the door panel, 4 trips to 2 different body shops, 50 calls between the insurance companies and the body shops, a rental car, a new garmin and a dead car battery later, we finally have the car back. All because someone wanted to sell it for probably 50 bucks. I told Tony that if it came down to it, I would have written someone a $50 check to avoid the hassle!!

After we were finished opening presents at our house, we headed for the Knafel Christmas!

A tradition at the Knafel house is to take our pictures in front of the tree. After already having 2 Christmases, Kenna was too preoccupied with which presents were hers than smiling for the camera!

Nana and Papa with the kiddos

Granny with the kiddos

This year, Kari bought the kids all jammies to wear to have their picture taken. It was adorable! I think this needs to be a new tradition. There was something about them all having jammies on that made it very much cuter! (but again, difficult to get them all looking the same direction at the same time!)

Another tradition is that both the bible story of Jesus' birth as well as 'twas the night before Christmas is read. Papa read Twas the Night Before Christmas with Kenna and Nana read the bible story. It was a tradition when I was young to listen to the bible story when we had Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Knafel. I remember being young and listening to someone read the story, then as I grew up , I remember reading (or trying to read) the story myself and having help with the "big" words. (Notice Kenna is wearing the tutu. It was all we could do to get her into regular clothes for our picture, then jammies for the kids' picture) It is important that they kids know the true meaning of Christmas. Although it is rigthfully confusing to a 3 year old. WE open presents on Jesus' birthday? Isn't it usually the other way around? That is how birthday parties work, right?

Granny got a leopard print jacket for Christmas, which she modeled beautifully!

I think this is a great picture of Grandma. She is holding a shirt we got her.

Andrew loved his John Deere hat and toolbelt he got. It was hilarious to see him strut around like a big boy!

Dad has been working on his man-building for quite some time. Mom found a sign for him, which appropriately said "garage mahal".

Mom's big present was a laptop computer- which was appropriate since they were still in the stone age of desktop computers!

I hope I didn't miss anything since this is the SECOND time I've typed up this blog. I have TONS more pictures to catch up to date so I will probably be posting another blog in the near future!

_______________________________________________________

Conversations with Kenna

Tony (in the car looking at her lunch menu for daycare)- Kenna, it looks like you are having walking tacos for lunchon Friday

Kenna: (after a long silence)- Do we eat their legs???

2009-12-20T12:17:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it has been so long since I have updated the blog. Time sure flies around the holidays! Delaney is 5 months old already! WOW. We took her to the doctor on Thursday. She was 13lb 2oz and was 25.5in long. She is in the 25 percentile for weight and the 75th of length.... So tall and skinny like Daddy! Darcy told us that we can start giving her baby food (although we have already tried rice cereal and oatmeal. I also gave her a little bite of cornbread last weekend!)

This was her first time trying peas. Judging by the look on her face, it wasn't her favorite thing!

And it didn't get any better if she tried to do it herself!

I took Delaney's 5 month picture with her lamb. We had Kenna pictures taken with this hat when she was a baby too.

Today Dad, Tony and Tim got out the snowmobile. Oh how that brought back childhood memories for me! Dad used to pull Kari and I around the yard on the sled. Tony and I were trying to remember when they had it out last. The last time I can remember was 4 years ago when I was pregnant for Kenna. Of course I couldn't ride it.... Before that they had it out right around the time that Tony and I were married 5 years ago!

Kenna and mommy getting ready for the ride!

I think Kenna was a little nervous about the ride. The snowmobile is pretty loud and of course smells like gas. Anyone that knoes Kenna, knows that she is pretty nervous around loud noises. She did pretty well for her first time! She didn't fight it or anything!!

Next was Andrew's turn. He hopped right on with me and and grabbed the handles! He was ready to drive! It was hilarious!

Papa got the sled all hooked up and pulled Kenna and I around a few times so she could get used to the idea. She was all ready for Bubba to ride with her. They LOVED it!

Lots of fun!!

2009-11-29T18:01:00.000-08:00

Wow, I have a lot to get caught up on. It has been about a week and a half since I've posted pictures and there is a lot to update on! Hold on to your computer!!

About a week and a half ago, we went up for a sleepover at Camp Creech (aka Aunt Di and Uncle Rick's). Tony was doing an audit in the area so it just made sense to have a sleepover with Aunt Di, Uncle Rick and the doggies. Aunt Di and Kenna decided to make chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.... MMMMMM

Our mini vacation had an.. interesting.... end. I began having problems with my contacts/eyes and Aunt Di had some pain in her ribs from coughing so we both ended up needing to go to the doctor. But we still had lots of fun!

The next day Lori, Katherine and I (both from work) had a mini retreat to plan for the upcoming year. We got a great deal accomplished during the day! The fun part was that we were able to bring the girls with us- Izzy and Delaney!

I promise the opposite colors (Izzy in purple with her pink Bumbo and Delaney in pink with her purple bumbo) were not planned, but the girlies sure looked adorable! Izzy was born 4 days before Delaney so we are pretty sure they are going to be good friends!

I love this picture how they are staring at eachother!

Last weekend a group of nurses from the NICU and their daughters/granddaughters went out for a little girls day. We bought tickets to see the Sleeping Beauty ballet at the Scottish Rite. Kenna knows the story of Sleeping Beauty VERY well, and let me just say that it wasn't a Disney production. We took Caroline and Taylor for Caroline's birthday. The girls were mesmerized by the beautiful dresses, dancing and music, however 2 hours was a bit too much for Kenna to handle.

Besides the priceless look Kenna had on her face when she first saw the ballerina, actually MEETING one of them was probably the highlight of Kenna's night. She LOVED being right next to a real ballerina! It looks like ballet classes may be something in the near future for us!

Last Sunday we had our Thanksgiving at the Knafel house. Mom wrapped the kids' pieces to their nativity sets and used them as props for our picture taking (the kids did get to open them up later!)

I think our pictures turned out pretty good for having to fight with the kids to keep them from opening the presents!

We even got a good family picture!

For Thanksgiving day, we went to Ohio to see Tony's family. The girls were perfect in the car on the way there. Delaney MAYBE cried for a total of 3 minutes for the entire 3 hour drive. We had rigged up the small TV in the back seat to Kenna could watch movies (which she loved)

Our first night at Grandma Dee's house, Delaney discovered her feet. And the fact that they can reach her mouth! Ha ha

Our first Thanksgiving in Ohio was at Tony's Aunt Reeny's house for lunch, then we went to his Aunt Amy's house for dinner. At Amy's house there was another baby. She and Delaney had fun staring at each other!

Amy and Delaney

Grandma Dee, Uncle Bobby and Delaney

On our way home, we made a pit stop at the outlet mall. While I fed Delaney, Daddy and Kenna managed to find her a new ballerina skirt and a pair of wings. Of course Kenna had to try them on when we got home. She then found the program from the ballet and was telling me that she wanted to look like the ballerina in the book.

And every girl needs to make sure her outfit looks perfect in the mirror, right?

I love this one. What a beautiful girl!

Thankful

2009-11-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

Today I'm thankful for:

- The two blessings that God has given me who are asleep upstairs
- An amazing husband and father to our kids
- My parents, grandparents, sister, aunts, uncles, cousins and all extended family
- Having had two thanksgiving dinners today and one last Sunday with amazing families
- A safe place to raise my girls
- Kenna's jokes she told me in the car today
- Hugs and kisses from my family
- Delaney's tiny hand resting on my cheek as I rock her to sleep
- A husband who sings to our kids
- Being able to watch Delaney learn new things- rolling over, finding her hands and feet, starting to try to scoot across the floor, etc
- A job that allows me to be home with my family more than I'm at work
- Kenna telling me she loves me before she goes to bed
- Being able to watch Kenna kiss her sister
- Smiles from both of my girls
- Watching Delaney's eye slowly close as we rock
- Listening to Kenna sing "Jesus loves the little children" as we ate thanksgiving dinner
- Listening to Kenna sing "Over the river and through the woods to grandma's house we go" as we drove to Gma Dee's house
- The fact that my girls have both been held by their 4 great-grandmas, and 1 great grandpa (Kenna was held by 2)
- That my girls know all their grandparents

And I know there are MANY more things I'm forgetting. I think I could go on and on all night.........

4 months old already!

2009-11-17T17:19:00.000-08:00

Last night we decided to try to give Delaney her first rice cereal with a spoon. She was not a huge fan, but didn't hate it as much as Kenna did! Delaney has had cereal in her bottle for a few weeks but this was our first experience with a spoon!

Wow, I can't believe my little sweetie is already 4 months old! She is just amazing!

Decided to snap a bunch of pictures of the girls this evening. Here are some!

Funny conversations with Kenna:

1st one

Kenna: Mommy, are policemen mean?

Me: No, police men are good. Like Papa

Kenna: Do policemen save us?

Me: Yes, they can save us if something is wrong.

Kenna: Police men are boys. Girls are not boys. So girls are not policemen

2nd one:

Me: (in the car) Kenna, it is starting to rain, do you hear it on the window?

Kenna: When there is thunder and lightning and you get scared, you can get out of bed and go get mommy and daddy. Then you go to that other place

Me: What other place?

Kenna: Nana and Papas. (She was remembering about 3 months ago when it stormed and we went to mom and dad's because there was a tornado warning)

3rd one:

Kenna: Mommy, when there is thunder and lightning, it is just God. He takes all the thunder and lightning like this (clenches her first), and throws it like this. Then if you get scared, you get out of bed and get mommy and daddy

Lots going on!

2009-11-13T04:26:00.000-08:00

Wow, I haven't posted for a few weeks and have quite a bit to talk about. The other night we went to the mall and I found the most adorable bow for Delaney's hair (or I guess lack of it). She looks so cute with it on!

Friday night we went to Menards. Kenna was fascinated by all the Christmas lights. She especially liked the nativity scenes. She had to have Daddy lift her on his shoulders so she could see baby Jesus.

Last night we went to the Komet's game with Greg, Cathy, Ang, Matt and the kids. Delaney was pretty interested in the players skating all over the ice, but REALLY hated it when they scored and the blew the loud horn. She got a huge frown on her face and started to cry. It was so sad

This was after the Komets scored. The girls kept their fingers in their ears for a while.

Delaney and I awaiting the runners of the Marathon. The Veterans Marathon was this past Saturday in CC. The route of the marathon went down Keiser Rd past Mom and Dad's house. We had muffins, donuts and warm drinks as we sat in our lawn chairs awaiting the first runners to come through. Their house was at about the 8 mile marker. We had a lot of fun cheering on the runners, although felt a little like "couch potatoes" as we sat and watched! Couch potatoes included: Dad, Mom, Aunt Di, Uncle Rick, Kari, Tim, Andrew, Granny, Me, Tony, Kenna and Delaney.

We even got to see an hang glider fly over

I was a little disturbed by this guy. He didn't have any shoes on. I can't imagine how painful it is to run on a country road with no shoes. Even worse, how dirty would your feet be at the end of the race?!?!? EWWWWWW

This is Delaney's first time in the exersaucer at home. She loved being able to look at all the toys surrounding her. She is still working on her strength at holding up her head so her play periods in the exersaucer don't always last too long.

Last week Ashley and Abbie came over to play. The girls went in Kenna's room and when they came out, they looked like this. Adorable! I'm a little shocked that Kenna shared her dresses that well, she is usually pretty protective of them. A girl has to watch out for her fancy dresses, right?!

We also had fun playing with pla-doh. I found some old cookie cutters and plastic knives for them to play with. They had a great time!

Delaney modeling her cute bow and her "Ta-Da- cuteness has arrived" onesie that Mom got for her. Everyone at the daycare said how adorable it was! I think so but I'm a little partial........

Cute conversations with Kenna:

First one:

Kenna: Mommy, is that the wedding (pointing to the church)

Me: No, that is a church. That is where you have a wedding

Kenna: I want to be a bride

Me: You will have to talk to Daddy about that

Kenna: I want to marry Daddy

Second one:

Kenna: (kneeling in the living room praying) Dear God. I love my mommy very much. And I love my friends. I love to go outside too. But Jesus it out there up high. But I can't go up there because there are no stairs. Amen

Third one:

(On our way to get Kenna's 2nd H1N1 shot)

Kenna: Mommy, when we go to the doctor is the nurse gonna shot me?

Me: Yes, but it will be real quick and will be over really fast

Kenna: (crying) I don't want the nurse to shot me. I want the nurse to shot Delaney and I will just watch

Trick or Treat

2009-10-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday mom and I went shopping. Kenna got a new pair of shoes (in the picture). Of course, she had to match the shoes with a pink princess dress, pink socks and a huge pink bow in her hair. She looked cute, although I couldn't get a "good" picture of her. She either wouldn't look at me or she gave me HUGE CHEEEEEESE smiles! Ha ha

Last night Tony and Greg went to a football game. I was trying to come up with something fun for Kenna and I to do on a Friday night at home alone (with Delaney). I decided to bake cookies. Kenna is GREAT. She loves rolling out the dough and cutting them into shapes with cookie cutters. We made bats, moons, and pumpkins.

Bat cookies before we baked them

Kenna REALLY loved frosting them. I was afraid she would get sick of it but she hung in there until all the cookies were frosted. We made orange pumpkins and purple moons and bats. She did so good!

And, finally the best part of baking the cookies was to taste them. I let Kenna stay up a little later so that she could give Papa Dee and Daddy a cookie when they got home from the football game. She was so proud of them!

On to the next adventure. Cloth diapers. I decided to give it a try after feeling the hurt of having to buy diapers again. I guess with, Kenna I never really thought about how much money we were spending, or how often, we were buying diapers until she was potty trained and it was kind of nice not buying them! These are much different than cloth diapers when I was a baby. They come in all kinds of cute colors and patterns, are fleece lined on the inside, then have a pocket to insert a washable absorbent pad. The entire diaper is washable and the outside is waterproof. This brand I bought on ebay for about $4 a diaper. I have 10 to start out but I imagine we will need more. It is unreal how many brands are out there (and how expensive some are)

Delaney in her pumpkin shirt. I can't believe how blue her eyes look in this picture! She looks so big sitting there propped up on the couch. When did she get so big?!? Wasn't she just born yesterday??

Andrew dressed up as a monkey and Kenna was a ballerina bunny for trick-or-treating. Kenna has been snow white the last few halloween events we have been to and she has been on this bunny kick recently. She pretends to be a bunny and hops around the living room so I thought we'd just go with it!

Look at Andrew's smile in this picture. Ha ha! And Kenna was checking to make sure her tail was still on.

My beautiful bunny!

Daddy and Kenna enjoying trick or treating- this was before we got smart and got the wagon and a blanket. It was FREEEEEEEZING!!

Granny snuggling with Delaney

Kenna and her loot! She got TONS of candy. She is such a sweetheart. She wanted to make sure to share her treats with everyone. In this picture she was opening a pack of gum she got. She gave all of us pieces of it. It was SOOO sweet! She wanted to make sure we all got treats. Also, Granny had a bucket with candy in it. Kenna would say "Tick or treat", then put candy in Granny's bucket! AWWWWWW

Mommy's first bottle

2009-10-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

Here is something weird- Mommy's first bottle, not Delaney's first bottle. Daddy, Nana, the daycare, Mama Dee, etc have all fed Delaney a bottle. Tonight was MOMMY'S first time feeding her a bottle. We decided to start giving her a little rice cereal in a bottle at night in attempt to get a few hours of sleep. The last few nights she has been up every 2 hours!!! It is like having a newborn again!

This is my new music box. As I posted earlier this year, we lost a great person this spring. Dr Lewis passed away. Today was an auction of his estate, including his house. Renell (my office mate) and I decided to go. I went knowing I wanted to buy something as a momento of Dr Lewis. When I arrived, there we SO many people in the tent around the auctioneer that I could not see anything. People started dispersing as a second auctioneer began making his way around the outside of the house auctioning various items on tables outside. As I approached the tent, I felt a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes as I thought of all the people there just there to get "stuff" and didn't even know Dr Lewis at all. I walked around and talked to some people before actually getting a "number" and heading to the tent to bid on things (this was the first auction I have ever participated in)

I bid on a few music boxes but didn't win until this one came up. Each Christmas Dr Lewis gave all the NICU babies a music box/globe. He also had a collection of music boxes of his own. All the nurses are pretty sentimental about them and a few people I talked to hoped to get one at the auction.

Mine is just gorgeous. It is a dark wood with a gold design on the top and corners. It was the largest that I saw while I was there - with room for storage of items on the inside. When I got home, I played it for Kenna. She wanted me to open it so she could watch it play music

I hope this works..... this is a video the first evening we saw Delaney roll over

Halloween party, bowling, etc

2009-10-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

Last night Tony and I went to a Halloween party. Last year we went to this party as Marilyn Monroe and Joe Dimaggio. This year we opted for Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson (I told Tony that he owes me BIG TIME for wearing a moustache!!)

We did pretty good with these costumes. We were able to do them for practically nothing:

My costume: Gramps' suit (handmade by Granny), Gramps' hat, my dad's vest, and my dad's pipe. Shoes and white shirt were from Goodwill.

Tony's costume: His pants, pipe, shoes, and shirt. Dad's trench coat, vest from Goodwill, and hat from Wal-Mart.

Bobby had to get in on the pictures too!

Friday night we all went bowling at Crazy Pinz. It was Kenna's first bowling experience and I think she had a lot of fun! Of course Kenna was hooked on the pink ball!

They had in interest "ball launcher" as I called it. The lane had the bumpers up and then all the kids had to do was put the ball on this metal stand and push it. Then it went down the alley. When I was little we had to push the ball with all our might to get it to roll down the alley. MUCH easier with this!

Kenna's first attempt at bowling!

Delaney did pretty well. There were strobe lights and music so she was pretty entertained. It was a bit loud but I don't think she seemed to mind too much.

I think Bobby had a lot of fun. I think I heard that he was a special olympic state champion in bowling. Greg, Tony, Bobby and Julian all shared a lane.

I really like this picture of Kenna and I!!!

Bowling with Mommy!!!!!

Julian and Bobby.

This totally cracked me up. A Michael Jackson song came on and Kenna started dancing everywhere. Soon she had recruited Taylor to dance too! It was so hard to get a good picture of how hilarious it was. Kenna would drop down to her knees and wave her arms around. I was laughing so hard I could barely take the pictures!

This picture was right before I was able to get Delaney to go to sleep. Not sure if you can tell but she was screaming!

Pumpkin cake I made!

Delaney has become pretty good at rolling over. Sometimes you can catch her in the right mood and she will hold her head up and look around........

.......Other times, she just goes to sleep........

Dr apt, zoo, and rolling!!!

2009-10-20T18:12:00.000-07:00

Delaney went in for her 3 month check up on Monday with Darcy. She weighed 11lbs exactly and was 24 inches long. She was just about the 25th percentile for weight and the 75th for length! She is long and skinny- big shock! Darcy said she thought that her weight would come back up since she had been sick. We are going again in a few weeks to have her weight checked.

Today after work we put Delaney on the floor and SHE ROLLED OVER! It seems really early for her to be rolling already. I think Kenna was about 4 1/2 months old when she rolled for the first time. The problem is Delaney hates it when she is on her belly, so once she gets there, its not fun anymore! (I actually got it on video so if I can figure out how to upload it, I will!)

Tonight we went to the Great Zoo Halloween. It was great to see Kenna having such a great time. She enjoyed it last year but this year, since she is older, she got into it a little more! She was Snow White and Delaney was a flower

I'm glad I got to see Delaney in it. When Kenna wore it, I never was able to see it on her. It was my night to work late in the office and by the time I had got home, Tony had already put Kenna to bed. I'm sure she looked just as cute as a flower as Delaney did tonight!

They had a little straw maze as well as a big one. This picture was Kenna and Taylor as they came out of the smaller straw maze.

It was so hard to get a picture of all the kids together. There was a nice set up for picture taking but so many people wanted to use it, that we couldn't take too long getting the kids situated for a picture!

Here are some funny conversations with Kenna recently:

Me: Kenna, you get to go to school today. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Kenna: No, I don't want to go to school

Me: Ok, how about you go to work and I go to school?

Kenna: I can't drive

_______________________________________________

Daddy: Kenna, lets tell knock knock jokes

Kenna: Ok

Daddy: Knock knock

Kenna: Come in

Daddy: (laughing) No, you are supposed to say who's there

Kenna: ok

Daddy: Knock Knock

Kenna: Come in

Me:Remind me never to let her man the door

_______________________________________________

3 months old!!!

2009-10-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Delaney is 3 months old already! She is getting so big! We will be going to her 3 month appt tomorrow so we will see how big she is getting. I really feel like time is flying by. I feel like just yesterday I was pregnant!

Earlier tonight Kenna and I decided to have a tea party. She has had tea parties at Nana's house but this was her first tea party with me. I have to admit we had a lot of fun! We had real tea and little chocolate cakes! Yum!

Kenna loved to add sugar to her tea and stir it! It was adorable!

Mommy and Kenna enjoying our tea!

Say CHEEEEEEEZE Kenna!!!

Say CHEEEEEEEZE Delaney!

Last weekend we went to a garage sale and found Kenna yet another princess dress. She wore it all the time after we got home and of course danced and sang around our house!

This one is of Kenna wearing a skirt that used to be Mom and Aunt Di's while we were visiting Granny's house.

A few weeks ago, Tony, Kenna and I went to the Parkview Hayride. We had a lot of fun. It was spitting rain a bit so we decided not to take Delaney. It was a nice to get to spend some time focused on Kenna. Since Delaney has been born, I feel like Kenna needed some time where all our focus was on her. Of course she was dressed beautifully as Snow White, complete with black wig!

We didn't actually ride the hayride because of the chilly rain. The event was at the Allen County fairgrounds and in one of the barns, they had an area where the kids could pet the animals. Kenna wasn't too sure about the large horses! She was able to get up close and touch a donkey, sheep, goats, calf, and was able to see a turkey

Inside one of the barns was a giant straw maze. Kenna wanted me to walk it with her. There were kids running everywhere!

In yet another barn was the a few moonwalks for the kids to jump in. I was concerned about how Kenna would do with all the kids jumping wildly in it, but she loved it. The biggest problem we had was that she kept seeing other girls with princess dresses on and wanted to get those dresses for herself!

Delaney sporting her COLTS hat that Aunt Angela bought for her!

Delaney hasn't rolled over yet but has gotten herself up on her side. Once while propped up on her side she got a glimpse of herself in the mirror. It was so cute to watch her as she looked at herself.

2009-09-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

This morning was Delaney's baptism. She wore the beautiful white gown that was also worn by Kenna, Taylor and Caroline for their baptisms. Kenna, of course, had to wear a beautiful dress too. I picked out a cute black corduroy dress with flowers on it, but since Delaney had a fancy dress, Kenna needed one too. (I think the hat made Delaney look a bit Amish....)

Today was Pastor Cress' last Sunday at Grace so it was special to have a chance to have him baptize her. He also baptized Kenna as well as married Tony and I. There were some moments in both the children's sermon as well as the main sermon that I lost it a little bit. Some of the pictures below you can see my red puffy eyes from crying.

Yesterday Tony gave Delaney a toy for the first time. She put it straight in her mouth and started chewing on it. It is the first time we have see her do that!

Also yesterday I dressed the girls in their Notre Dame cheerleading outfits. They were so cute!

2009-09-25T04:46:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we spent some time with friends Artie and Amanda, and Andrew and Kati. Andrew and Kati recently built a house so it was fun to hang out at their brand new house. Here is a picture of us girls:

I thought it was a very good picture until I just realized Tony's toes are in it.......

Next is a picture of the guys. If you notice, they are taking up the whole couch and us girls are sitting on the floor.... I guess it was ok since we had the babies on the floor with us.

Delaney and Mitch. They were so cute together on the floor, although Delaney looked even smaller next to him. He is 4 months old. I like the picture of him trying to hold her hand! AWWW

Artie and Amanda's oldest is Savannah. She and Kenna had a great time playing together. I was so happy that I had brought extra dresses that they could play with!

Sunday we all spent that day at mom and dads. They had returned from camping and hadn't seen the girls in quite a while. Granny got some cuddle time in too! = )

I have noticed that I'm always the one taking the pictures, therefore I feel like I'm never IN any pictures with the girls- so I made sure to snap one of Delaney and I.

Nana and Delaney

Andrew and Delaney

Nana let the kids help her dig up some potatoes and carrots from the garden. They were dirty but sure had fun. The carrots and potatoes they brought in were HUGE!! It makes everything at the grocery look pretty pitiful!

Andrew's hand and the giant carrot

Kenna's hand and the giant potato

Nana and Papa with the kids

Delaney is always so happy during and after her bathtime. We have not been able to get her to take a pacifier but she sure loves to suck on her fists!!

Wednesday I was making some phone calls and Kenna said "Mommy, who are you calling?" I said "Just calling Stacey". Then she said the cutest thing "Maybe you should call God". She proceeded to beg me to call Him on the phone and was trying to tell me which buttons to push. She is so precious!!!

First baseball game

2009-09-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that we had Delaney weighed yesterday. She is 9lb 10.5oz! WOW! One of my coworkers had a baby who was 7lb 5 oz - just 1oz smaller than Delaney. I held him the other day and was amazed at how much Delaney has already grown!

Tuesday night we went to watch the TinCaps play in Ft Wayne. It was Delaney's first baseball game and she did pretty well! Mama Dee bougth Kenna a princess baseball hat, which daddy showed her how to wear backwards. (All these pictures are from my cell phone!)

Here are some more random pictures from my cell phone!

Granny and Kenna

Kenna and Delaney.

Delaney

2 months old!!!

2009-09-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

2 months already! WOW! I can't believe how fast time is going! I wish it would SLOW DOWN! Tony told me he doesn't want to have any more kids- he is happy that both pregnancies gave us happy healthy babies (and he is happy that I'm healthy too). I just don't think he wants to risk it again. But it really makes me sad to think that I will never be pregnant again... never have a brand new baby again......

Anyway. today I took Delaney's pictures with her lamb for 2 months. Of course Kenna wanted in the pictures too so I took some of both girls!

What beautiful girls we have been blessed with!

Over the weekend we went to Chicago so Tony and Greg could go to a Cubs game. Kenna stayed with Angela and Matt but we took Delaney with us. We got Kenna some presents at the Disney store up there. She LOVES princesses. She has almost all the princess dresses but we got her the Snow White headband and shoes for her dress. She loved it of course!

She also likes Jessie from Toy Story 2. We were lucky that its getting close to Halloween so there were many costumes to choose from!

Delaney looked so peaceful as she slept in her car seat in Chicago. She did beautifully. I had to stop and feed her quite a bit but it didn't bother me. She was wonderful!

We stayed in Skokie. As we were leaving to head back to the city, we saw this buidling.... It was very...... interesting..... in Skokie

When we got to Chicago, there was a strange fog between the buidings. Very eery.

8 weeks!

2009-09-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe little Miss Delaney is 8 weeks old today. Where did that time go!?!? I started back to work this week. I only worked 2 days but that was 2 full days longer than I have ever left her before. I have to admit, I did cry on Monday night and Tuesday morning. I was doing pretty good on Tuesday until we were getting in the car. Tony kissed each one of us and when he got to me, he said "You'll be ok". After he had walked back inside, Kenna said "Mommy, why Daddy say 'you'll be ok'?" Then I had to explain to he how mommy has to go back to work and that I don't want to because I want to be with her and her sister (by then I was crying). She said "It's ok mommy, you'll be ok". She is so sweet. Love her to pieces!

Last Thursday we went to visit Kenzie and Whitney. The girls had a great time dressing up as princesses and playing together!

Over the weekend we went to visit family in Ohio. It was Delaney's first trip. She did pretty well and Kenna had a great time!

Of course we had to watch the exciting New London parade. Kenna got a huge balloon flower! Not to mention lots of candy! Kenna hated the sirens, as usual!

We also got a chance to see Tony's cousin (the other Tony Dee). He is a chef in south florida. He is absolutely hilarious so we always have a great time together!

We also got to watch Tony play softball. His cousin Mitchel is on a team and they needed an extra player so Tony stepped right up!

Grandma Dee gave us a few blankets that she used for Amy when she was a baby. Delaney was so happy and smiley that we had to snap pictures!!

Mommy and her girls!

The gracious neighbor offered to take our group picture. It was so nice of him, however, Julian's head was cut off in the picture!

We also headed to Norwalk to see the McCabe family. Everyone was so happy to meet Delaney and get a chance to hold her!

2009-09-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we went to Churubusco to visit Jen and her new baby Olivia. Ashley and Abbie came too. Kenna, of course, wasn't too interested in the baby since we now have one of our own. It was cute to get all the girls together. I can't believe how big Delaney is already when you compared her to a 3 week old baby!!!

As Delaney has gotten a little bigger, she has started liking bath time a little more. She was even kicking her legs in the water! Everytime Delaney gets a bath it is quite hard to keep Kenna out of the bathroom. She wants to be right there to help and then wants to immediately take a bath herself!

Tuesday we went to the zoo with Ang, Matt, Taylor and Caroline. Kenna and Taylor loved being in the stroller together!

Look how excited Delaney is for her first zoo trip!

Kenna and Taylor had a great time looking at the animals together!

I think one of my favorite exhibits is the lion area. It is amazing to see them so close. Kenna was a little freaked out, however, when the lion sat up and looked at us!!

Another favorite is feeding the giraffe. Kenna always wants to feed them but then is a little scared of their long black tongues!

Of course, we had to ride the train. I was worried Delaney would wake up from the noise but she loved it!

It was great being at the zoo since school has started. It was pretty quiet. When we got to the train, I'm pretty sure it was "off". The man running the ride had to turn is "on" and let it sit for a while. After our ride was complete, he let each of the girls take turns sitting on the "engine" for a picture! It was cute!

It has been a while!!!!

2009-08-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

Wow! It has been a while since I posted! Life with 2 little girls is sure busy! I'm starting to get pretty sad as I think about going back to work in 9 days! I really am not looking forward to it!!! = (

I have LOTS to talk about and many pictures to share! I just love it when Delaney is curled up on Daddy's chest. It is just adorable! She sure loves to be cuddled!

As I was looking at my pictures, I felt like I really didn't have many pictures of me and the girls. Daddy snapped some for us. I really love this one, Kenna looks so adorable in it! I just wish there was more of Delaney in it and less of me!

Me and my girls! Delaney was wide awake so we snapped LOTs of pictures! These were taken 2 weeks ago!

Kenna holding her sister's hand. How precious!

Here are a few pictures of Delaney at one month with her lamb.

Cathy's OSV pincic was at Paiges Crossing this year and family were invited as well. Dadd took Kenna on the go carts (or golf carts as she calls them)

Angela and their neighbor girl

Matt and Caroline

Greg and Taylor. She was hilarious. She had her ears plugged the entire time!

I took Kenna nd Taylor on a ride too. I wasn't sure how Kenna would do but she loved it. It was pretty jerky as it went around. I love Kenna's face in this picture!

Last week there was a baby shower for one of the girls I work with (who was also one of my nurses very frequently when I was in the hospital for the 8 weeks before Kenna was born). The dinner was at Biaggis. Delaney actually did great and slept most of the time! This is the Lori holding Delaney.

This picture is Delaney and Izzy. Izzy's mom is a good friend of mine, Katherine, who also works in NICU. She is the clinical supervisor. Izzy was born just 4 days before Delaney

Last wednesday Katherine and I took the girls to the outlet malls. They were so cute in their carseats together- except for that one of them was always crying! It was almost funny!

Kenna licking the spoon after making rice krispie treats

This weekend was our first camping trip with our new camper. We were to Salamonie Resevoir. It was a great time! We had quite the crowd- Mom, Dad, Kari, Tim, Andrew, Granny, Aunt Di, Uncle Rick, and Grandma Creech. Greg and Cathy also came up for dinner on Saturday night!

Kenna has really been doing great riding her bike. She loves it. Of course we took it camping with us. At one point I saw her really watching some older kids that were riding around. I think she was hoping to rider fast like them!

Papa was reading books to the kids by the campfire- so cute!

When Greg and Cathy came up, they brought Kenna a new princess skirt. Cathy had bought it at Shipshewana. Kenna loved it. She wore it constantly- only taking it off to go to bed!

I bought the girls matching shirts but couldn't get them both still enough to get a good picture. They say "peace, love, and smores"

Ha ha ha

New camper!

We have a picture of us like this on Kenna's first camping trip. It seems like it was just last summer but she was about Delaney's age..... Can't believe time has gone that fast.......

It was pretty chilly this weekend. We had to break out the snowsuit for Delaney! She looked just adorable in it!

We took the kids to the Nature Center. There was a live turtle that they could touch. Kenna loved it. I can't imagine how many kids poke that poor thing in one day!

There was an area for bird watching too. I'm pretty sure Kenna and Andre didn't see anything but they sure looking cute using the binoculars!

Andrew was trying to see things through the binoculars when we were inside. I'm pretty sure all he saw was a clost up of the carpet!

Aunt Di found a spider puppet and was singing "The huge gigantic spider" to the kids. It was hilarious!

Then Kenna started singing it to Andrew

"The huge gigantic spider climbed up on Bubba's head......"

Outside was a beautiful flower garden area. Uncle Rick bought both kids a pair of their own binoculars. Kenna was using hers to look for butterflies

And we saw one!

I asked Kenna to smell the sunflower so I could get a cute picture of her. When I asked her what it smelled likes, she told me it smelled like potatoes. What?!?

2009-08-16T07:12:00.000-07:00

I had to take some pictures of Delaney and her "bears". We have a changing area on our pack n play which is set up in her room. When I change her diaper, I turn on the bears and she LOVES to watch them slowly spin around. It is amazing how in the last week or so, she has been focusing more on them and moving her gaze from one bear to another. I remember how Kenna loved them too! In addition to focusing her gaze more, Delaney is starting to get a more pleasant look on her face when you talk to her. Earlier this week she "talked" to me as I talked to her. It was adorable. I think she is getting close to smiling at us too!!!

Yesterday we went up to Aunt Di and Uncle Rick's house. We took Kenna to the pool for a bit, Aunt Di read books to Kenna, sat on the porch, etc. We had a WONDERFUL dinner which made us feel like we just went to a fancy restaurant. We had a "boil" consisting of corn on the cob, red potatoes, smoked sausage, shrimp and crab legs all cooked together in a large pot. YUMMY- crab legs are my favorite!! Poor Kenna was slightly traumatized by the dinner. Uncle Rick had cooked it outside, but obviously when he brought it inside the seafood smell filled the house. Kenna kept saying how it smelled bad. She held her taggie blanket over her nose, then refused to even be in the room with us while we ate. She headed to the bedroom with the toys and shut the door. When she asked to watch Dora and was told that she had to watch it on the TV in the living room she was leery because she would have to "come out there" where the smell was. Poor thing. She better get over that dislike of seafood if she is in this family!!!

She wore and array of princess dresses while we were there, which can be expected. On our way to the pool, we saw a bridal party getting pictures taken outside the club. For the rest of they day, she was telling us she was a bride!

Poor Delaney goes through a period every evening when she is very fussy. She gets very tired and tries to fight going to sleep. Sometimes walking around with her helps to relax her. By accident, we discovered that she loves the dryer. Aunt Di thought it was funny that once we turned on the dryer and laid her on it, she quieted down. Hey, it works!

Just a few things

2009-08-14T06:13:00.000-07:00

Tony was out of town this week for work. Luckily, mom was lonely too so she helped us out and stayed at our house with me and the girls. We really appreciate all her help!! She took this picture of the girls laying on the floor. I think it is really good!!!

On Wednesday night, we gave Delaney her first tub bath. She screamed the whole time!!!

She looks a little happy in this picture but I was lucky and got her picture between screams!

How she really feels about bath time......

And finally, she was very happy when it was all over!!

3 weeks old~

2009-08-08T06:08:00.001-07:00

This morning, Delaney was in the swing and Kenna was trying to push her. I was in the process of tell Kenna not to push the swing (which we have to do quite frequently). She came over to me and said "I'm trying to sing her a lulla......lullabee.....lulla-a.....baby song". How could I punish something that cute???

I can't believe my baby girl is 3 weeks old. Just can't believe it! I'm already starting to dread going back to work. I would love to just stay home with my girls! I think I was spoiled -in a way- being able to work from home during the last 5 months of my pregnancy. It makes it really difficult to think about having to get up and go to work and leave my babies!

Yesterday Delaney, Kenna and I went to Mama and Papa Dee's house during the day. Tony was working in Michigan and we wanted to get out of the house, so off we went. I picked up Greg and we drove to Roanoke to have lunch with Cathy and some of her friends from work. They have been dying to see Delaney so we thought it was a perfect opportunity. We ate lunch outside which was wonderful!

What a pretty girl!

This picture makes me laugh. I was trying to get a good picture of Delaney and Kenna wanted in it. She is wearing her big sister shirt and a crown that Mama and Papa got for her on their vacation. By accident, they are both making the same hand motions. It almost looks like they are dancing! Ha ha!

Almost 3 weeks!

2009-08-06T05:55:00.000-07:00

Why does time have to go so fast? I can't believe Delaney will be 3 weeks old tomorrow!!! Where has the time gone???? What I'm really dreading is going back to work. I don't think I will be ready to leave her yet!! : ( Monday we took her in to the doctor's office for a weight check. She was 8lb 1.5oz already!

Tony went back to work this week which I wasn't too happy about, but luckily we were able to stay with mom and dad so we didn't have to be alone just yet. Wednesday Andrew came over to play and we took them to the playground at the church by mom and dad's house. Delaney and I stayed for a little bit but she got fussy and we had to leave. I think the kids had fun!

We found out that Delaney loves to "play" on the floor when she is awake. She looks all around, kicks and squirms. Sometimes Kenna gets on the floor with her. It is so cute, but we still have to remind her to be careful around Delaney.

2009-08-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was Delaney's first trip to Momma and Papa Dee's house. I think everyone was more excited than she was!

Earlier this week, Granny brought over a baby gift from her long time friend Eloise. She made a blanket for Delaney. It is yellow and white checked on one side, then has ducks on the other. She put Delaney's name, birth date, and birth weight on the blanket. Eloise also made a blanket for Kenna when she was born as well as Andrew. Kari and I also have similar blankets with our names on them!

Delaney and Kenna were laying on the floor together "playing" on Delaney's new blanket. It is amazing to watch McKenna and she how much she loves her sister. It is also unbelievable how little Delaney is compared to Kenna! I also had to take a picture of the girls with each of their blankets!

This past week has been a big week for McKenna. She went to bible school at church for the first time. She was pretty worried about mommy leaving the first night. Poor Tony was in the car with Delaney who was crying and I was in the church with McKenna who was crying. I was finally able to get out when they called her name to go with her class (of course after calling Tony in for reinforcement!) Overall, I think Kenna had a great time meeting new friends, learning songs, and coloring pictures. Thursday night our friends Bill, Melissa, and their son JP came over and brought us dinner. They brought Kenna the roller skates in the picture. She looked hilarious with her dress on and roller skates!

Friday night was the parent program for bible school. Kenna wasn't too cure about standing up and singing in front of everyone so I had to go up to the front row to try to keep her there. She would stand and sing a while, then run back to where mom, Tony and Delaney were. I later found out she kept making sure mom had her hymnal open and was "singing along". One time, I guess she went back for "lips" (aka chapstick). You know a girl needs her make-up when she performs!

Kenna's favorite song had some cute hand motions. She was turned sideways so I really couldn't get a good front picture of what she was doing but it was cute to watch!

We spent some time at the lake this weekend and Kenna was able to play with Jaila. They had fun running around, swimming, and playing in the sand. On friday Tony, Joey, Kenna, Jaila and Jackson went on the boat and got a ride on the tube. I wish I would have been there to get pictures but I was at a retreat with some of my coworkers. They had a great surprise for Delaney and I when they brought out a cake and had a little baby shower!

Kenna had fun sharing her baby sister with Jaila who will also be getting a little sister in December!

When I was putting Kenna in the car to go between lake houses, I heard a thump on the car door. I looked up to see a male hummingbird buzzing around my head. He quickly flew off and when I shut I the car door, I saw this little hummingbird in the grass. I think she was still alive but I didn't want to touch her to find out.

Yesterday, Grandma Dee, Bobby, and Amy were on their way home from Hartford City and stopped at Angelas to see everyone. Of course, they loved getting time to hold Delaney!

Also yesterday afternoon we had a little barbeque at mom and dads. Kenna had a great time playing with Andrew! Dad was post command in the evening so we packed up everyone about 6pm, stopped for ice cream, and had a little party while we visited Papa!

How a week flies by!

2009-07-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast 1 week has gone! I can't believe a week ago today we were sitting in the hospital room waiting for our precious Delaney to arrive- wondering what she will look like, if she will have hair, what her cry will sound like, how big she will be, how long we will have to wait to snuggle her, etc. Unbelievable!

Kenna has been adjusting as good as can be expected. She wants to hold Delaney right when she gets out of bed in the morning. She wants to do everything herself and has needed some reinforcement that babies are small and need to be handled with care! But she does love her sister very much! We try to involve Kenna as much as possible- having her get us diapers, blankets, etc. I was worried about explaining breastfeeding to her. We just told her that is how the baby eats and she was fine with that. She calls it eating out of my belly. She asks why Delaney has to get milk from my belly. It is cute. Yesterday she tried to breastfeed her baby using her belly button.

This is Delaney's first trip out of the house. On Tuesday we had our first appt with Dr Dickmeyer. Delaney weighed 6lbs 14.5 oz. She was 6lb 14 oz the day after she was born so she is doing well. We had to see him so soon because her bilirubin level (test for jaundice) was high when we left on Sunday. Dr Dickmeyer chose not to retest it, which I agree with because her skin was slowly returning to normal color.

This is a picture of Kenna helping me give Delaney her first sponge bath at home. Kenna was totally confused since we were not actually putting her in the bathtub but she was trying to help anyway. It was cute! Of course Delaney hated every minute of it!

Wednesday night we took Delaney to mom and dad's house. We knew Kenna needed some time out of the house- and so did we. She was not listening to us and getting in to everythingso we thought it would be best to get out for a bit.

While we were there, mom set up dad's new hammock and Kenna had fun playing with it. First she laid on it......

Then she used the legs of it as her microphone as she danced and sang her way around the living room!

Yesterday we went to Parkview North to meet with the lactation consultant. I stopped in to get the hospital pictures we had done of Delaney as well. We stopped in to see a few people too. The first picture is Stacey Adams. She is the day shift supervisor of the family birthing center. She was a nurse I had regularly when I was in the hospital with Kenna. The next picture is Stacey Delagrange. She is the evening supervisor of the family birthing center. Deb Howell is the next one. She is the educator of the FBC and my preceptor when I started this job. The last picture is Jenny Dougal. She is a clinical nurse specialist for the FBC.

Just had to.....

2009-07-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Tony took Kenna to the zoo so Delaney and I had some alone time. We both took a nap and had some time for cuddling too. She was wide awake at one point so I had to snap some pictures of her!

I think my favorite is the one up close of her wearing the purple skirt! She is adorable!

2009-07-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

Tony and I decided to do the stuffed animal pictures just like we did with Kenna to help measure growth. We took pictures of Kenna every month with the same stuffed animal. It was amazing to see the stuffed animal almost seem to shrink as she grew! This was when she was 1 day old.

Look at how awake and alert she is. Absolutely beautiful!

Little hands and little feet!

We were so excited to be able to go home! Delaney didn't seem to mind the car seat at all. She slept the entire way home!

Coming in the door to her home for the first time. Look how excited she is! Asleep!

When we got home, Mom and Dad had not gotten there yet with Kenna. It was nice to enjoy the peace and quiet with Delaney for a few minutes by ourselves.

Of course the first thing Kenna wanted to do was to hold her sister. It didn't last too long, but we were able to get a few pictures. After she was done holding, she immediately wanted to put Delaney and her other babies in her play wagon and pull them around. We didn't think that was such a good idea.....

The first night was....ok..... I guess you can't expect it to be perfect. I went to bed when Kenna went to bed and Tony stayed up with Delaney until about midnight when she was hungry and needed fed. From midnight to 4am she would just sleep for small 10-15 min increments then would wake up and need held or fed to be calmed back down. At 4am Tony took her out to the living room to the swing- which she has grown to love already. From 4 to 6:30 they were in the living room together until I needed to feed her again. Then we switched and Tony went to bed and I stayed out with her. After I fed her, she fell back asleep for about an hour and a half. I was able to get a little sleep on the couch before Kenna got up too.

Tony and Kenna just left to go to the zoo. We have zoo memberships and there is a special event going on today. I think it will do them both good to have some time away. Tony stayed at the hospital the entire time with me- never leaving- so I think he was ready to get out for a bit. Before they left, Kenna gave me a hug and kiss, then ran to Delaney, hugged and kissed her and said "Bye Delaney. I love you, my sister!" It was adorable!

Delaney Grace

2009-07-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

Well, she is here! We have been enjoying Delaney and our visitors so much that I have not had time to post about our experiences with her in her first 2 days.

We came in on Friday (our anniversary) at 7am. I was pretty nervous about how the day would progress and hoped all would go smoothly. When we arrived, the nurse notified Dr Schwartz who asked that I have my epidural as soon as possible so he could breakdown the scar tissue that was left from my cerclage. I was terrified about the epidural, although knew I wanted one. The anethesiologist was good and the epidural seemed to go in pretty smoothly at around 9;00. And we had pitocin started- which is a medication that induces contractions.

At9:30 Dr Schwartz came in and checked my cervix and found that the scar tissue was almost completely gone and I was 4cm. He also broke my water at that time. We joked that since Delaney decreased the amount that she was moving around, she was thinking "Oh no, someone broke my pool!"

Over the next few hours, we worked with the anethesiologist to get my epidural to work on both sides. It did the same thing as the one I had with McKenna. The epidural began working mostly on the left side and not on the right. The more and more medication that I was given, the more numb my left leg got. It eventually was to the point that I could not move it at all, but could still move my right one. It was a very strange feeling. I said it felt like my leg was a log!

At 1pm Dr Schwartz asked for an update and I was 5cm. I was a little disappointed since it have felt like I had been contracting FOREVER. The goal was to have my contractions ever 2 minutes and mine were varying from ever 2-4 minutes. So the nurse, Trisha, increased the Pitocin dose every 20 minutes. By 2:30 I was 6-7 cm and we were still waiting.

My contractions seemed to be increasingly painful but with one side of my body completely numb, it was difficult to tell. At 3:15 I called Trisha back in and told her what I was feeling. She checked me and I was 10cm. She notified Dr Schwartz who said to just keep him updated. After she got off the phone she had me do a few "practice pushes" to see how fast the baby would move. After those two, she decided it was best if Dr Schwartz came over because she didn't think I'd push too long.

Dr Schwartz arrived at about 3:40 and I started pushing. About 10 minutes into the pushing I became nauseated and had to rest a bit. After 25 minutes we were able to meet our beautiful little girl at 4:05. She was 7lbs 6oz and 21 inches long. She was beautiful!

She was immediately placed on my chest and the nurses were joking how since I was "competent" at suctioning, I could suction her out. Jokingly, they also asked what I thought her Apgars should be. Also, Daddy was able to cut the cord.

Kenna was the first family member besides us to see her. Of course she had a million questions and wanted to hold her all the time!

Here are some pictures to enjoy!

The big day (and a little about yesterday too)

2009-07-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I decided that I didn't want to spend my last full day pregnant at home with Kenna. At first, I thought that taking her to the zoo sounded fun. I called Ashley and invited her and Abbie. After talking, we thought going to the park would be a better idea. We packed up our lunches, loaded up the car and spend the morning at the Parkview North park. I just love this park. It is very nice and so kid friendly. I know Abbie and Kenna had a great time. Lunch was a bit of a battle because there was so much going on but it was fun anyway.

After we got home, Kenna disappeared to her room for a while. when she came out, she was wearing these clothes. I had to really hold back the laughing but she looked adorable. I had to convince her to take off a few layers before naptime but she wanted to put them back on immediately after she woke up. She also wanted something in her hair. I put a pink hair pretty in her hair and we went to the bathroom to look in the mirror. She profoundly said "Mommy, I look like a teenager". WHAT!?!? I have NO IDEA how she knows what a teenager is or how to look like one!

Last night Tony made a fire in our new fire pit. We took Kenna to mom and dad's house to stay the night and came home and had a fire. It was nice to have the first fire in the fire pit and it was a little celebration of our 5 year anniversary (which is today)

This morning, I couldn't sleep with anticipation for the big day. We got ready and left the house at about 6:15 in the morning. We arrived at the hospital and got settled into room 137. Dr Schwartz asked that we have the epidural done as soon as possible because there was scar tissue from the cerclage that he wanted taken care of before I was in active labor- and doing this without an epidural would have been unbearably painful. The epidural was in by 9am. I was pretty nervous but the anesthesiologist was really good. The epidural only started working on my left side- which is the same problem I had when Kenna was born. They gave me a few bolus doses of medication and it has slowly begun working on both sides, although I cannot move my left leg AT ALL. It feels like it is dead. It really is not a good feeling when I can move and wiggle my toes on the right side and cannot do anything with my left.

Tony and I are very excited to meet this little one. The nurse just checked me and I'm 5cm. hopefully things will move fast from here!

38 weeks

2009-07-13T17:26:00.001-07:00

38 weeks! Look at that belly!!!

Today at my appt we discussed the induction with Dr Schwartz. I am pretty nervous. I don't want to push this little one before she is ready. It is very hard to go your entire pregnancy and worry about staying pregnant, then turn around and try to PICK a day to have the baby. Baby's heartrate was 164 (higher than usual but she was bouncing around in there) and measuring 38 weeks. Dr Schwartz told us that he does inductions on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and asked if we had a preference. Tony and I just looked at eachother. He said "Do you want me to pick?" We said "Sure". He picked Friday- which happens to be our 5 year anniversary!

This is a picture of our new camper that we got a few weeks ago. It is much bigger and nicer than our old camper. We just won't be using it for a while!

Our new fire pit~ Dad got us the inside ring and Tony set it in the ground and arranged the brick. It is really nice, but we haven't had a chance to have a fire yet!

I have to add this conversation that Kenna and I just had in the bathroom after brushing her teeth:

Me: (lifting her up to see herself and me in the mirror) Look Kenna (kiss her on the cheek). Who is that BEAUTIFUL girl!??!?!?!?

Kenna: Its YOU mommy!

AWWWWW. Makes my heart melt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cute conversations

2009-07-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

Here are a few cute conversations I have had today:

Kenna: Mommy, I have to go potty but I don't want you to come

Me: Ok Kenna, tell me if you need help

Kenna: I went mommy! I went potty!

(I go in to help her wash her hands)

Kenna (of course wearing a princess dress): Mommy, princesses ALWAYS wash their hands after going potty

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I'm on the phone with Cathy telling her that I don't have any cash to buy food at the consession stand at Julian's baseball game tonight. This is the conversation when I get off the phone with Cathy:

Kenna ( after she goes over to get her purse and her umbrella. Stands in front of me and with all seriousness): Mommy, I have cash. I have cash in my purse. We can take my cash to go to the baseball game!

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At Julian's baseball game, I'm sitting in my chair and Taylor walks up to me

Taylor: Are you going to take your baby out?

Just had to share those!

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Here is one from yesterday:

We are in the car on the way to the zoo talking about Kenna being a big sister

Me: Kenna, you are going to be such a good big sister when the baby comes

Kenna: NOT THAT BIG

Me: You want to be a little big sister

Kenna: Yeah

(I'm a little nervous about what she thinks it means to be a big sister. I think she thinks we are expecting too much out of her!!)

2009-07-07T17:05:00.000-07:00

Yay! 37 weeks! I went to see Dr Schwartz on Monday for my weekly appt (I took Tony too just in case...). He checked me and I'm 3cm and baby is still head down. Her heartrate was 144 which is normal for her. He told me that IF I make it to the weekend, it will be my last weekend pregnant. I have another appt scheduled on Monday. If no baby by Monday, we will pick a day late next week to induce!! Wow, I can't believe it is that close. We will have a baby by next weekend! WOW!!!!

We had a pretty busy 4th of July weekend. We took Kenna and went to the Johnson's lake house for dinner on Friday night. We spend a little time out on the boat while the guys went tubing. The water was freezing. I think they were crazy!

I just LOVE this picture of Kenna on the boat!

Kenna and Jaila had a great time playing together. They are pretty close in age and were the best of friends for the evening. After the boat trip, they had a fun filled game of t-ball. Of course it was just each of them taking turns hitting the ball 3 times while the other of the two chased the ball and brought it back. It was just adorable!

Then Saturday afternoon/evening we went to the Pontenburg's house for a 4th of July party. Once the sun started setting, people around the pond started setting off fireworks and I don't think Kenna's hands left her ears for more than a second. The previous night we had watched he fireworks at the Johnson's lake house so by Saturday she was pretty good at covering her ears. She really hates loud noises!!

See, ears still covered!!!

Yesterday we went with Ang, Matt, the girls, and 2 of Matt's brother's kids to the new park/splash park. The kids had fun, but the fun only lasted about an hour. I think the water was pretty cold so they didn't stay in it too long.

Today we went to te zoo with Angela, Matt, the kids, Greg, Cathy and one of Julian's friends. It was the first venture out without the wheelchair. Of course I sat as much as I could and Kenna and I left early while everyone else was still there so we didn't push it too much.

Kenna was very excited that she was able to get a chance to do her very favorite things at the zoo- see the giraffes and feed them lettuce. This particular giraffe was HUGE. The one she fed a few weeks ago was barely tall enough to reach the bottom of the railing and this big guy was resting his head on the top of the fence. Kenna only gave him one piece of lettuce because she kept saying that he made and owie on her finger- I think he just touched her with his tongue and it scared her.