Monday, February 3, 2014

Kayla 2 Months, Ryan Updates



It always amazes me how fast time flies. It seems like the last couple weeks of pregnancy last a lifetime and then all of a sudden my baby is 2 months old! It has been a busy couple of months for us. We traveled to see family for Christmas, and Josh started back to school at the beginning of January. It seems we are finally getting into a routine – I was able to clean the whole house at one time today for the first time since Kayla was born!  And Ryan is starting to become more accustomed to having a baby sister. He points to her and says “K K” Whenever he sees her or hears her cry. He loves to give her hugs and kisses and tries to play with her. 

Kayla’s Milestones at 2 months

Making eye contact
Smiling – Josh is better at getting her to smile
She loves to look in the mirror and see her reflection
She is sleeping 3-4 hours at a time at night
She can hold her head up for a few minutes at a time, although she is still a little wobbly.


These pictures are from the last 2 months – since I am pretty behind on blogging and didn’t get one with our Christmas pics!

Josh and Kayla on Christmas Day

Happy Girl



Ryan and Kayla with Nannie Heather

Sweet Girl
Kayla's Christmas Outfit




Ryan’s Updates

Ryan is at such a fun age! He has begun to talk more and more in the last month or so and we are able to understand what he is talking about. His favorite word is “Choo choo” and he is really into trains right now – anything and everything with wheels is a “choo choo.” He also likes to say “car” and “vroom vroom.” We hear those two phrases from sun up to sun down.  His other words include “Foo” – food; “Faa” –fall, Cookie and Cracker, and tee – for TV and any kind of drink and his newest phrase is “Ohh cool!!” I have tried so hard to get that on video, but he refuses to say anthing when I have the camera on!

Ryan’s Current Interests Include:
Trains – especially watching Thomas the Train and playing with his train set
Reading
Playing in the snow

 
Ryan loves getting to help - he started changing his bears diapers

Playing in  and tasting the snow - Ryan would have stayed out there all afternoon!  

Playing with his trains - he play's "choo choos" all day!

 
This was his first night playing with his trains



Ryan loves to read. He will sit for 10 minutes or so and look at different books

Pouring himself a bowl of cereal

Reading with daddy


Thursday, December 5, 2013

Kayla Marie


We finally welcomed our little one on Tuesday Dec. 3, one week later than expected. She was born at 9:28 am and weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and was 19 1/2 in. long.
We are so thankful for how the Lord worked through our experience and through the timing of her birth. As I mentioned in my last post we were looking at inducing on Wednesday, Dec. 4th because she  was overdue. This was the absolute last thing I wanted. We had an appointment Monday morning, Dec. 3 and it did not look like my body was anywhere close to ready to have a baby, so we finalized plans for the induction and we were sent home. I was pretty disappointed at this point but the only thing I could do was give it to the Lord and wait. Josh and I decided to go on one last date so we could get our minds off all that had been going on. We had to stop at the grocery store on the way and I started to feel different but not really sure why. We then went to dinner where I realized I was having slight contractions - I timed them but they weren't regular at all, but I told Josh I was pretty sure we were going to be going to the hospital that night. Sure enough, at around 9:30 my contractions were fairly regular, around 7 min apart and started getting closer together. We drove to the hospital around 1 am and I was monitored for about 30 min.  We ended up having to walk around for about an hour before we were finally admitted around 3:30. Kayla was then born at 9:28. In the week between my due date and her birthday I was trying to figure out what the Lord was doing with the timing and why was she late? It was ruining all our plans! Saturday night I finally realized that it really doesn't matter, our plans can change and the Lord sees the bigger picture that I am just now starting to see.

I can now look at all the ways He had a hand in Kayla's birth.

1. I had been praying during my whole pregnancy that I wouldn't have to be induced and that Kayla would come on her own, during this last week, knowing I was getting closer to being induced I began to think this wasn't going to happen, but he brought her into the world one day before we were scheduled to be induced.

2. The weather forecast for our area called for a pretty bad snow storm Tuesday night and Wednesday. We were supposed to go to the hospital - a 30 min drive - Tuesday night and again Wednesday for the induction. We were concerned about having to be out in such bad weather, but again she was born the morning before the storm hit so we didn't even have to worry about driving at all in the snow.

3. My sister came out here last week to see the baby and had to leave Monday morning so she missed everything, we were really disappointed about this, however, the Lord provided a plane ticket for $50 - in December, right before Christmas, for her to come back the day after Josh's paternity leave ends to see Kayla and help with Ryan, and then 5 days later Josh's Christmas leave begins, so I won't have to be by myself with the kiddos until after New Years! This is a huge praise since I'm beginning to see how difficult it might be.

I have definitely learned through this whole process that even though my plans might seem like the best scenario, the Lord sees the bigger picture and he has a greater plan for all of us that we might not be able to see.

Ok! So now for some pictures, this might make this post quite long, but I know the pictures are what everyone really wants to see!





Ryan getting know his baby sister







He loves holding her and giving her hugs and kisses










Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Waiting on Little Girl



40 weeks pregnant
Well...our baby girl is officially late! She was due yesterday and so now we are just waiting on the Lord's timing for her arrival. Since Ryan was a day early I wasn't expecting her to be late but here we are - still waiting. We have an induction date set for next Wednesday but we are hoping she comes before then. We are using this time to finish getting the house cleaned and ready and we are trying to enjoy our last few days with just Ryan.

We finally have the nursery finished and have all of the little details in place - I love the fact that we got to do a girly nursery. It was a lot of fun and definitely different than doing a boys nursery. With the shape of the room it was hard to get a good overall picture but I tried to get lots of angles to show the different parts. We went with a simple theme of pink and grey/cream with a few of ballerina touches here and there.


Her crib and rocking chair where we will be spending lots of time!


Rocking chair with her beautiful baby blanket made by Grandma Cheryl and her pillow was made by Aunt Steph


My sister made this art for her walls

Changing table and dresser


This little dress was one of the dresses I wore when I was a baby


No post would be complete without a few pics of Ryan! I just love our little boy and he is becoming such a fun little guy!

He figured out where I kept the cereal and decided he could get his own snack! We found a new place to store the cereal out of reach since picking up cereal from all over the floor is difficult while pregnant!

Climbing is one of his favorite activities! 

Giving his teddy bear a hug
This is what I came in to when he woke up from his nap - this boy loves to read!

He was showing me what he was reading 
Right before I took this picture he tried to feed his bear some corn on the cob 


Reading with daddy - I love that he loves to read! He will sit on our laps for as long as he can and read his books over and over! He is definitely my child!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Lately...



I can’t believe September is already half over. We had such a busy summer but I am thankful that things are slowing down and Fall is approaching. I love this season! The cool weather, my pumpkin spice candle and looking forward to the holiday season.

 It’s been awhile since I updated about what we are doing. Josh started back into school at the beginning of August and is currently taking 2 classes towards his masters. So far he has kept a 4.0! At the end of October, he will be ¾ of the way through his program so we are hoping he will be done sometime next year – he’s planning on taking a break for November-December to have time with the new baby!

Speaking of baby - I am now 30 weeks pregnant, so we are in the third trimester and only 10 or so weeks away from meeting our little girl! We are slowly but surely getting the nursery put together and it’s been fun to look and plan for a little girl.

This picture was taken 2 weeks ago at 28 weeks - around the beginning of the third trimester
Ryan has been learning so much in the past few months as well. We have been working on baby sign language with him to help him learn to communicate. So far he is signing “please,” “thank-you,” “all done,” and “eat.” This is helping with screaming and whining when he is hungry or wants something. He is also beginning to say some words “mama” and “dada” are his two main words right now but he tries to imitate us when we make animal sounds or point to the cats. He is definitely a busy boy, but I am so thankful that he enjoys playing alone at times too. Sometimes he just sits down and looks at books for 5 or so minutes or spends time concentrating on a particular toy. I love watching him learn about how things work!

We were able to find one of the fun grocery carts at the grocery store and Ryan loved it! I also enjoyed it since it kept him entertained! 


Ryan has discovered that this bouncy seat (for baby sister) is more fun than his own chair. He likes to lounge and hang out when he needs a break - its a good thing its made for up to 25 lbs!


Lately, Ryan has been wanting to help with lots of things. One of those things is cooking dinner, he wants to stir the things on the stove - so instead of him stirring hot food I gave him his own pot and spoon and he stirred to his hearts content

He also loves to help dust. He gets his own duster and pretty much dusts the floor and some other easy to reach things but likes to do what Mommy does.


Ryan's first time eating a Peanut butter and jelly sandwhich. He practically tried to shove the whole thing in his mouth at one time - I think he liked it! He ate the whole thing


Family photo op over Labor Day