Homework

Sometimes I think it's harder for the parents to figure out than the kids. Taryn just brought me a paper and I was trying to figure out something for her and couldn't come up with the answer. She made me laugh when she said:

"Do you want to think about the answer for a while?"

FInally Broke It Open!

Kolin picked me up a wiifit a couple of weeks ago. I've wanted one since they came out, but it didn't make any sense to me to get one while I was hugely pregnant with Ryanne. For the last couple of weeks it's been sitting in its box justing waiting. Today was the day....

I must say it's super cool! I really like the step aerobics and balance games at this point. I'm sure I'll like more once I get more time to play around. The fun part is you don't even really think that you're exercising and you actually are. =)

1 month check-up

Ryanne had her 1 month check-up bright and early this morning. The doctors office likes to get all the newborns in and out of the office before 9am...after that the sickies start coming in.

Stats:

9lbs 11.5oz
22 inches long
39 cm noggin

She's a long and lean baby girl. A lady asked me this morning if we were coming in for her 1 week check-up.

The last month has gone by so fast...I almost wish we could do it again.

1 Month

Pizza Cake and Cookies & Creme Fudge

Brennan's preschool is having a cookout and bake sale tomorrow afternoon. I decided to make a 'pizza' cake and cookies & creme fudge. Hopefully they will sell. =)

4 weeks old...yep already....

Such a sweet, adorable and super cuddly little girl. It doesn't seem like she has been here for 4 weeks already. She fits in with the rest of us totally and completely. It's like she's always been here.

Visit w/ Great Grandma

We had a great with with Great Grandma on Sunday. She loved seeing the baby and the older crew too.

Tractor Time!

The Farm

I've said it before

and I'm saying it again....

Mommies should have some sort of immunity against colds, flus and just being sick in general. We can't just lay around the house and sleep like one of the kids. There is always something that needs to be done, laundry, kids needing to be picked up, errands that have to get done, etc.

I'm just hoping that no one else gets this cold I have...especially little miss Ryanne.

Fall is here!

Even though the temp has been in the low to mid 80's the last couple of days, you can tell that fall is here. The leaves on the trees are changing and falling off. The man down the street with the immaculate lawn has already been out this week mulching the leaves that have fallen. The mornings are cool and require a jacket, while the afternoons are quite warm and the girls are left wondering why they had to wear a jacket in the first place.

We thought about going apple picking, but I think we're going to put it off this year. The older 3 are already talking about costumes for Halloween and getting pumpkins. I can't wait to get the Halloween goodies out and start decorating.

Flowers

Taryn's flowers

Taryn's name was drawn for a prize at a family reunion this afternoon. She ended up with a pot of beautiful flowers. I was able to find room in the Expedition and we brought them home (we thought we'd have to leave them with grandma.)

Ryanne's Quilt

Homework

Brennan doesn't find it fair that Jadyn and Taryn have homework to do throughout the week and he doesn't. I'm going to have to hunt up different things for him to do for 'homework' to keep him busy and to keep the whining at bay. I just hope that when he actually starts Kindy and has homework that he'll want to do it, but I think that's just wishful thinking on my part.

20 days and counting

Miss Ryanne just keeps growing. She needs to slow down just a little bit. =)

Oh Monical's......

All I really craved while pregnant with Ryanne was Monical's pizza. We'd drive up to Rockford about once a month so the craving could be taken care of. When I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes Monical's became a thing of the past.

In the last 4 months I've just been waiting to get the chance to head back up north for lunch. Yesterday was the perfect day. Brennan and Taryn had their neuro appts so we had to drive up to Rockford anyway. We finished their appts and got my lab work done. Headed over to the other side of town for pizza, salad and breadsticks. YUM!

Imagine my total dismay to find out that Monical's no longer existed and that a mexican restuarant was taking it's place. We still went out to lunch, but what we had was definitely NOT what Kolin nor I wanted.

A little brother....

Today at school one of Brennan's teachers asked him how he was liking his new baby sister. He told the teacher that I was going to have another baby and he was going to get a baby brother the next time around.

I'm so glad that he's got boys his age and older that love to play and rough house with him. He loves the boy one-on-one contact, but he's going to be stuck with the 4 sisters he has.

New Shoe Inserts & New Shoes

Karis recently got a pair of shoe inserts to help a little more with the pronation in her ankles. Her ankles are MUCH better than they were, but still need just a little bit of tweaking. We were able to order her a new pair of shoes that are specifically made for inserts, braces, etc. The inserts arrived a couple of weeks ago and her new shoes arrived today. Both fit her great and I'm really hoping that they will be the last set she needs.

Taryn & Brennan Neuro Appts

Would you believe that Brennan weighs 3 pounds more than Taryn?

Taryn's appt went well. She's almost an inch taller than her last appt and has gained 2 lbs. Granted it took about 5 months to gain that much. She hasn't had any seizures in a year...we've got another year to go before we can even think about weaning her off her meds. The cooler summer for us definitely helped us keep any seizures at bay. Now the countdown begins for the next year....

Brennan gets to start weaning off his meds tomorrow. It'll take about 7 weeks (that one threw me for a loop) to fully wean him. In about 8-9 weeks we have to have a sleep deprived EEG done to make sure that his test results are still normal after stopping his meds. Then we'll meet with the dr. one more time and he's DONE DONE DONE! I can't tell you how excited that makes us.

Swing Time

We put together Ryanne's new swing tonight. She seemed to like it the short time she checked it out. I felt a little guilty after putting it together. She looks super teeny in it.

2 more teeth are gone!

Sleepy Girl

Quack Quack Quack!

I gave up my webbed feet when I moved here from the west coast 10 years ago, but I think I'm going to need them back. So far today we've gotten 3.82 inches of rain. Just when you think it's about it stop, it starts pouring again.

The National Marrow Donor Program

is offering free registration.

Kolin and I sent for our kit a little over a year ago. It was super simple to do and didn't cost us anything, but a couple of seconds to swab our cheeks and remember to drop the envelopes in the mail.

PROMO CODE: NASC262101

The National Marrow Donor Program is offering free registration to cover the $52 cost of the bone marrow testing kit September 7-22. Details can be found on their website: http://www.marrow.org/

We encourage all families and friends to join the registry. For many patients, a bone marrow transplant is the only option for survival. The more people in the registry, the more people who will have a chance of survival from bone marrow failure or the many other diseases for which a bone marrow transplant may be the best option for treatment. You must be between 18 and 60. The test is a simple cheek swab sent to you and returned by mail. Even if you are not a match for your loved one, thousands of lives are saved each year through the NMDP.

How can it be

That miss Ryanne is 2 weeks old already?!?!?

She totally reminds me of Jadyn when she was a baby...except for the dark hair. =) Her eyes are actually a dark blue at this point. We'll just have to wait and see if they'll stay blue or change to green. The green eyed people vastly surpass the blue eyed ones in this house.

She's sleeping really well at night. Going down anywhere between 10-11pm lately and sleeping until about 6:30am. Sometimes a little earlier to eat, but she goes right back to sleep afterwards. She's also trying to lift up her head a little here and there. It doesn't last long before her head is bobbing, but she's trying.

I'm planning on taking her over to a friends house this weekend for another baby photo shoot. She's growing way too fast!

Fever Broke

Karis' fever broke last night and she's doing great this morning. Now to keep my fingers crossed that she's the only one and everyone else stays healthy.

I'm soooo excited!

We have a quilt made for each of the kids when they are babies. Each one is different and fits each baby totally and completely.

Jadyn's has a noah's ark theme.
Taryn's has a celtic design.
Brennan's is the Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Karis' is an ocean theme.

Ryanne has a rainforest theme. It was mailed out today and I cannot wait to see it in person. It should be here the middle of next week or sooner. I'll post pics!

It never fails...

School starting and a new baby in the house always means that someone is going to get sick.

Last week Karis had a nasty cough and nose. Just as we get rid of those she gets a fever yesterday. She and Kolin ended up sleeping in the living room last night and just might be doing the same thing tonight.

I took her to the dr this afternoon...ours was out for the day so had to see another. He checked for microplasma pneumonia and her cbc...both came out alright. If she's still go the fever tomorrow though they want to do a urinalysis.

More than anything I took her in because if she should have something nasty nasty I definitely wouldn't want Ryanne to catch it because she's so little. At the same time though there really isn't much that I can do except wash my hands 500 millions times during the day and keep the big kids away from the baby.

I'm hoping her fever will break tonight and we won't have to go back to the dr. tomorrow.

"One Eye Ry"

Ryanne's got a couple of blocked tear ducts that are making her eyes all goopy and gross. Poor baby girl isn't happy about it at all and her daddy has started to call her "One Eye Ry." I'm hoping that the problem will recitify itself soon....

Poor Daddy....

It doesn't seem to matter what the older 4 are doing, when Kolin gets a hold of Ryanne for a cuddle they start to swarm around him. I have no doubt that the 'newness' of the baby will subside soon and then he'll get her all to himself for a bit.

I don't think I've ever

been able to get into my pre pregnancy jeans at 11 days postpartum before. I am beyond thrilled at this point. Even though I've cheated here and there since having Ryanne I am still pretty much keeping to a certain amount of carbs throughout the day. It's hard to get it out of your head when it was ingrained for so long.

As of this morning I'm down 26lbs! Yippee!

"I don't have too!"

When Karis Alyse Kathleen doesn't want to do something those are the words that come out of her mouth. They are also words that I wish would be banned from the English language.

9 days

Second day of school and what does he do?

While picking Brennan up from school yesterday it was brought to my attention that Brennan (during circle time no less) decided to explain to his teachers and the other kids how a baby is born. The teachers both thought it was quite cute even though they were a little surprised. The other kids didn't seem to be too phased by it all.

All I could really do was smile and apologize. I have no doubt that he'll make a great OB/GYN when he's older.

One of Brennan's favorite shows

Me: Brennan, what are you doing?
Brennan: Watching a Baby Story!

He's loves watching a Baby Story. At this point it wouldn't surprise me to learn that he wants to be an OB when he grows up. He can tell you the two ways a baby is born, that some mommy's get a shot (epidural) and some don't and that once the baby is out they wash the baby and give it to the mommy.

1 week already **sigh**

Miss Ryanne had her 1 week appt. She was beyond thrilled at getting dressed, undressed and dressed again all within a short time span. Of course the poking and prodding was lots of fun too.

She is a great baby. Only cries when she's hungry, needs some mommy loves or little people are bugging her too much. For the most part she's been sleeping from about midnight to 5:30-6:30am. Just depends on when she ate last.

She weighed in at 8lbs 3.5oz and is still 21 inches long. She left the hospital weighing 8lbs even so we're gaining and doing great! Her cord fell off Wednesday (wasn't expecting that so soon) and just a little tiny bit is left.

1st day of Pre-K

Hard to imagine that Brennan is old enough to be in Pre-K this year. He was soooo excited!

4 Days Old!

We had a photo shoot today. All the pics turned out great! Now to decide on which ones to use for her birth annoucement.

Here is one of the pics to start us off with.....

Pics w/ Mommy & Daddy