Solo

Charlotte did so amazing at her concert today. She came in perfectly on her solo, she sang well, and she was so confident once she began to actually sing. We are so very proud of her! She overcame her own anxiety about singing in front a crowd and soared! I will post some pictures as soon as I get them from her grandpa. I forgot to bring my camera to the concert.

Tonight for dinner we are having baked spaghetti squash lasagna. Jess found the recipe and we thought we'd try it out. Some other meals on the menu over the next couple of weeks are fish tacos, asparagus pesto pasta, veggie spaghetti, mushroom & black olive pizza, teriyaki tofu stir fry, veggie tacos, burrito casserole, bean burgers & tater tot casserole, veggie enchiladas, peanut butter pancakes, loaded nachos, and veggie pie.

Oh we weighed Delaney today. She weighs 9lbs 15oz @ 14 weeks 6 days.

Wonderful Wifey

Jess decided that today would be the day she gave me my Mother's Day gift. I was able to sleep in this morning while she got the big girls off to school. She brought me breakfast in bed (homemade french toast, orange slices, and iced tea). She then sent me off to get a face facial, a back facial, and a massage. This was the very FIRST time I'd been away from Peanut for longer than 15 minutes so I had a little anxiety about it at first. Once I got to the place and was in the process of receiving a back massage I was just fine. :) After I came home from that (woohoo me making it 2.5 hours away from Peanut without tearing up) she took me out to lunch at Jason's Deli. I had the portobello mushroom and avocado wrap. YUM-O! Then we went to the book store and got me another Jodi Picoult book Salem Falls. Now we are home. She is handling all cooking/meals, all discipline, and all housework for the day. All I have to do is relax, enjoy, and breastfeed. :) Isn't my wife the greatest?! I have a special tribute planned for her, but she doesn't get it till May 10th.

We were talking today about how busy our lives will be for a while and how many trips we have planned. In June we are going to Arkansas to visit my people and Colorado to visit with some of hers and we are celebrating Jess' bday. In July I am hopefully flying out east to visit a couple of my ladies on FF. In August we are going to Mexico for Dylan's wedding. In September we have a special trip planned but I can't say on here because it's a surprise! In October we are hopefully going to Salt Lake City, UT. We are visiting her cousins there but not sure what else we'll do. Then in November we are going back to Arkansas for Thanksgiving. December and January don't really have trips planned but we have 5 birthdays, Christmas, and New Years. We were worn out just discussing it.

Sickness update: Delaney still has her cold. I now have Delaney's cold. Jess' abdomen is still hurting her but less frequently. Charlotte and Julia are healthy as far as I know. :)

Charlotte's Gratitude Journal

This is for Dylan and Jennie:

Charlotte brought home her work for the past week today...as she does every Tuesday. Today her Gratitude Journal from Friday April 17th was in there. I thought I would type it up for Jennie and Dylan to read.

Today I am thankful for my uncle Dylan and his fiance Jennie. I am flying to Chicago tonight and they are taking me to see the Blue Man Group and to an art museum. I will be spoiled for my birthday when its way past my birthday. I get to stay up late and play games and watch movies. It'll be an amazing weekend! These are the reasons I am thankful for my uncle Dylan and "aunt" Jennie.

Response to the Midwife

"Thank you for your response. The reason I looked you up was because I was told you were the leading midwife in the area for HBAC delivery. I am sad that I will not be able to use you because of your religious beliefs. I too am a follower of Jesus Christ. I am also called to love all people and I also raise my children according to His word. I respect that we are reading the same word and getting different messages from it. I guess that is the true natural of human kind. Perspective. Thank you for your assistance in finding a healthcare provider that will work with me during my pregnancy and birth. Have a blessed day,"

This was my response to that lovely midwife that said she could not accept us as patients because of our orientation. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control Galatians 5:22. These are the qualities we teach our children and we strive to practice ourselves even in the face of discrimination. I'm not going to lie it got both Jess and I pretty hot yesterday to read the email from Midwife Anita, but we didn't respond to her email in that anger and frustration. Thank you to ALL that supported us on our blog and facebook.

Peanut noodles

Last night I decided to try making peanut noodles. I took peanut butter, soy sauce, chopped garlic and vegetable oil and put it in the food processor. It turned out yummy. The only thing I would add is a little "kick" of some hot oil or red pepper flakes. Delaney helped me cook.


Last night I also received an email. Jess and I are starting to PREPARE for our next pregnancy/child. We are doing research on midwives, birthing centers, homebirths, natural child birth techniques, etc. I contacted a midwife in the area that came highly recommended for Homebirth after Cesarean. I received an email back from that woman telling me " As a follower of Jesus Christ, I am called to love all people whom God created, to live biblically, and to raise my children according to His Word and His mandate for the sexual relationship between a man and a woman. While I can show the love of Jesus to all people and care for anyone with the moral obligation of the Good Samaritan, a same-gender couple would have need to choose another midwife for a planned homebirth."

Gotta love bigotry with the use of God. I'm pretty sure God, at least my God, doesn't much appreciate people using Him as a reason to excluded and discriminate. I'm glad she told me but its still shocking to read. I can show love to all people BUT a same gender couple would have need to go elsewhere. I will certainly pray for this woman for all the wonderful people she will miss getting to know because of her belief.

Colds! ICK

Delaney has her first real cold. She's had a snuffy nose before but now has the coughing sneezing snuffy nose cold. She is uncomfortable. Doesn't feel well. Temp is creeping up over 100 degrees. Nothing we can do but suck out her nose and wait, but that's not fun at all for either of us.

Cloudy Soccer

Julia has had the worst luck with soccer this season. Games have been snowed out, rained out, and canceled. Today it was extremely overcast. It started sprinkling and we thought oh great it's going to be rained out again. However the skies had mercy and stopped! Here are some pictures (Gramme and Mikey I am going to attempt to get a video of her game next weekend so you can see her actually "play")

Delaney loves Mommy Kisses

Delaney Complaining

Here is Delaney "complaining"


We went to see Disney's Earth today. It was absolutely fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This one is for Gramme, Mikey and Michael

I know that it's hard to be so far away and miss the little moments as Delaney grows up WAY too fast so here are some things she normally does during the day. *warning* everyone else in the world may be bored watching these! Sorry the sitting on is sideways.

Seriously?!

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day! Delaney wasn't feeling well so I took her outside for some fresh air hoping that would help a little. I set up the blankets and the baby shade umbrella and put her down in the boppy. She fell asleep pretty quickly and took her entire afternoon nap outside in the fresh air.

Sleeping in the yard. Thanks Dani!

Then the girls and Jess came home. I cooked dinner. And we went to the store. At the store Jess and I decided that Delaney looked to sicky to not take her in but we didn't want to wait until today to attempt to get an appointment with the pediatrician, so I took her into the urgent care at the local Children's Hospital (the same one we were admitted to for 8 days 2 months ago). We were just scared to wait this time in case she was getting dehydrated from all the pooping and vomitting. Delaney and I were there for 5 hours (didn't get home till 1a.m.). They drew blood and ran tests just to see if she was dehydrated at all. It came back that she was fine on fluid and to just keep feeding on demand like I do anyway. And if her temp gets over 101.5, she vomits green (eww) or she doesn't have 3 wet diapers in 24 hours come back in. I still glad we took her in even though she's perfect because she had only had 2 wet diapers in 24 hours. We will see what today brings.

Thanks to dani for emailing this phone pic to me! Delaney sleeping in the ER.

Last night I made tater tot casserole with pb&j. It was a HUGE hit around here. I also made homemade bean burgers for myself for lunch and saved some for Jess and the kids to try. They all LOVED them....and have requested a full meal of bean burgers soon! (KJ & Kids you are welcome to dinner anytime! We even have 2 extra tables for your big brood. Btw, did you notice we are also K, J, & kids?)


On a really happy Delaney note...She made a REAL laugh yesterday. Not the squeek she's been using as a laugh but a real laugh.

80 DEGREES

Let's start with Jess is feeling a little better. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts. I know that she greatly appreciated them!

Yesterday was so nice so Jess picked up sticks in the yard and I mowed the yard. Our neighbor, who has a few boundary issues, but is generally nice came over and helped pick up sticks. I even used her lawn mower because I couldnt get ours started. The neighbor even trimmed our bushes and roses.

Then after the kiddos got home I took Julia outside and we learned how to ride her bike without training wheels. Well I already know how to ride a bike, but I taught her how to. She did really well. She only needed me for a few balance issues which I'm sure will iron themselves out over the next few days of practicing. So so so proud of her.



Charlotte interviewed Jess about being a nurse. She is really such a loving young lady. In her autobiography project for school she was told to pick a day that she would like to relive. She chose the day she met me because it was such a great day for her and she wants to relive it to remember all the details. Makes my heart melt!

I made my mom's veggie pie last night with no recipe. I used what she told me and what I remember seeing. LOL gotta love that kind of cooking. It came out just like I remember. :)



Finally I took Julia and Delaney outside to play in the front yard a little. They were so cute together I just had to take pictures. I can't disappoint all of you that are used to seeing pictures all the time.



P.S. I finished the book Keeping Faith. It was good. I am now reading Jodi Picoult's The Pact.

Jess is sick

Jess has had abdominal pain for about 7 days now. She finally went to the doctor yesterday and he ordered blood work, urine testing, and an abdominal/pelvic ultrasound. Blood work came back great. Urine too. Then the ultrasound came back inconclusive. So he ordered a CT scan for this morning. We went in for that and I guess Jess is allergic to the contrast material. She was in the CT and her throat closed up, started throwing up, her BP was sky high, and her pulse ox was way low. They brought in the crash cart but luckily did not have to use it. They gave her IV Benadryl and IV fluids. They got her stable and then finished the scan. AFTER all of that and a little more monitoring they finally came into the waiting room to ask me to come back to see her. The entire time all of this drama was going on I had NO IDEA. No one let me know anything. I was extremely frustrated by that. The only bonus was that the radiologist immediately read her scan and called the doctor instead of us having wait until tomorrow for the results. Her appendix, gall bladder, and ovaries looked good. He did see something in her small bowel and asked if she had Crohn's Disease. She said no. He also suggested it might be an infection of some sort. She has to go back for an upper and lower GI either tomorrow or Thursday. Let's hope she feels better soon!

Sweet Potatoes

So like I've said in a previous post our youngest daughter LOVES food. She licks her lips, shoves her hands in her mouth, gets as close as she can to it, smiles, etc whenever we eat anything. We've started letting her "taste" food. She is still be exclusively breastfed but we figure it can't really hurt anything for her to taste the foods she is so interested in. I made some mashed sweet potatoes yesterday so I gave some to her tonight when she became interested in our chili and granola peaches. Here are a few pictures of her little sweet potato adventure. The funny thing is that at her age she really shouldn't have the ability to "eat" baby food yet. She should still be doing tongue thrusts which would push the food right out of her mouth. Yeah not this baby. She does still push some food out, you can see that in her pictures, but she also eats a ton of it too! We are going to go with green veggie baby food tasting in the future and rice cereal next month. However we are not ready to have any type of nutrition come from food until she's 6 months old. We will attempt to stay with the tasting food stage until then.

Charlotte is home and Delaney is clean!

Charlotte had the greatest trip to Chicago. She has the greatest Uncle Dylan and Aunt Jennie in the world! They took her to get deep dish pizza (SO JEALOUS). They took her out to a restaurant called Minis where everything is...well...mini! They went to see the Blue Man Group, where up on the big screen it said HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLOTTE M*******(it actually spelled her last name). How totally 100% awesome is that!?!?!?!?! She then came back, watched a movie, and went to bed. She bought souvenirs for she and Julia with her birthday money (thanks Gramme). She got them both a shirt from BMG and an eraser from the Art Institute. How sweet was it that she thought about her sister. Even admitted that she totally missed her and us! Woohoo go our family for creating such a bond that our 12 year old missed us only being gone for a day!!! :) Julia was a wreck without Charlotte around and she made her a card that said how much she loved her. Ahhh the sweet moments in life! Now I am going to make lunch for us (getting rid of the last bits of meat in the house before we only cook veggie here at home). Steak with blue cheese crumbles for me, Julia, and Charlotte. Baked chicken for Jess. With mashed sweet potatoes and steamed green beans. YUMMMMMMM!!!!

Delaney was a little fussy on the way home from the airport. I even brought a bottle of breastmilk in case she got hungry. She didn't want the breastmilk. She didn't want the binkie. She didn't want kisses. So I told Charlotte to see if she'd lick on the sucker I had just long enough to calm her till we got home. Low and behold the child LOVED the sucker. Held it in her OWN hands sticking it in and out of her mouth. Crazy kid...which meant lots of sticky all over her. So we took a bath when she got home. She likes to sit up, loves to splash in the water, and likes floating on her back. Well I decided to get her baby bath (thanks Dylan and Jennie) and put it in the big tub. Then put her bumbo (thanks Carla and Vincent) in the baby bath so she could sit up and splash. Here's how she looked.

Does anyone else see the red in her hair?!

Also we wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA MIKEY!!!!!

Flying alone

Charlotte chose to bypass an organized party and actual gifts from parents to take a flight on her own just like Jess did the year she turned 12. She either wanted to go to Chicago to see her aunt and uncle or to Little Rock to see Gramme and Mikey. Well since there were no direct flights to Little Rock the decision was made easy for her :). We booked her flight to Chicago. Dylan and Jennie planned a great series of activities to make her stay so very special. She is flying back home tomorrow morning but I know that she will FOREVER remember her solo trip to Chicago. She went to the art institute with Dylan. I believe he baked her a cake. And Char, Dylan, and Jennie are going to see Blue Man Group tonight. So jealous!!

Playdate!

Vincent is such a caring older cousin!

Playtime outside!

If we tried to get both babies to look at the camera at the same time again it wouldn't happen!

Thank God for...

1. the wrap
2. loving sisters

3 month milestones

Weight: 9lbs 8oz (less than 5th percentile)
Height: 22inches (less than 5th percentile)

She is reaching/grabbing for things. She can spin the balls on the toys that her Uncle Dylan and Aunt Jennie sent her. She can grab a hold of your shirt, hair, skin, nose, ear, and finger. She can hold a pony tail holder, rattle, spoon, spatula, and binkie. She has discovered that she can pull her binkie out and even put it back in sometimes. We practice sitting, rolling, standing, and moving a lot. She has very strong legs and can stand if you help her. She also has started to stand and lock her knees when you attempt to put her in her carseat, as if she's telling us I was having fun doing whatever we were just doing and I'm not sitting down in this thing again! When placed on her belly she will push herself up with her arms. She will also "slither" across the floor if you give her something to push off of with her feet. She can do it without the item to push off of she just moves a WHOLE lot faster with it. LOL She sits quietly in church and either stares at the choir or sleeps in her wrap. She clearly recognizes our faces and our voices. When Jess comes in from work she will give the biggest smile ever! Letting her know that she missed her mommy! She likes to talk to Jess too. (we'll have to get it on video sometimes along with the slithering) She refuses to take a bottle (not that we've give her one in weeks) or a binkie if I am holding her. I guess she figures she can breastfeed if she's on me. She is doing much better sleeping. She waits 1-3 times a night depending on the days events. She starts out in her pack and play and then after her first wake up she generally refuses to go back to sleep unless she is in the recliner snuggled with Jess or in the bed with us in my arms. She LOVES food. She stares at us while we eat. She licks her lips. She moves her head as close as she can get it. Soooo we gave her a small taste of some foods last week. We put some chocolate pudding, banana pudding, key lime pie yogurt, and ice cream on our finger and let her suck it off. I'm guessing TOTAL she had 1 ml of food but she absolutely loved it and was pretty angry when we didn't give her more. We are going to try to hold off on all real food until 6 months. We may still give her some tastes here and there but nothing more than a small taste. She loves her stroller and she can now sit in it like a big girl. She loves her sisters and smiles when they come to kiss her little head. She adores being outside and would prefer to live out there. We love her more and more each day and can't wait for the next set of milestones!

It's a little fuzzy but you get the point

Such a fun day!

Yesterday was such a great day. Jess made Charlotte a cake for her bday. They had half a day at school and got to come home early. We spent time together as a family and then Charlotte and Julia went upstairs to play the Wii. While they were upstairs I snuck out of the house and went and picked up one of Charlotte's best friends (Sami). I walked in the house and surprised Charlotte with her friend. She was so SUPER excited. Then Julia got a little upset and felt a little left out....just in time for HER friends to show up! LOL We couldn't leave Julia out of the fun so we set up a playdate with Lizzy and Maddy. I think all the girls had a blast. After they played for 2 hours, we sang Happy Birthday, and ate some wonderful cake. Here are the pictures we took yesterday of Charlotte in her new outfit (thanks Gpa Mikey), Delaney with her party dress on with Charlotte birthday morning, and then some pictures of Delaney in her party dress. Don't worry Julia will have her very own post in the next few days because she found the prize of "Individual Photo Session" in one of the easter eggs she found easter afternoon. :)

Charlotte is TWELVE today!!!! (just posting 2 hrs early, it's really the 14th)

Charlotte we love you so much!! You have been such a blessing for me to get to know over the past two years. It brings your mother to tears just thinking about all that you have brought to her life! You are wonderful, beautiful, intelligent, creative, caring, and sensitive. You are the most amazing daughter, granddaughter, great-greatdaughter, sister, niece, cousin, friend, and PERSON!!! We love you Charlotte. Happy 12th Birthday. :)