A big day

Lots of exciting news and pictures to share.  Kase Alan Patterson arrived at 1:52 PM on Friday, April 27. He weighed 8 pounds and was 20 and 3/4 inches long.  We are very proud parents and he has some very proud older siblings.  We've so enjoyed our first day as a family of 5! Lots of visitors, lots of love, lots of pictures so I promise to write more later. 

It has been absolutely amazing holding a newborn again and it's been really fun to see how very much Kael and Kylee already love Kase.  We are so blessed to have so much family close by and willing to pull together and help out while we've been able to enjoy lots of quality baby time.  We are looking forward to heading home tomorrow afternoon.

I also wanted to share our news that at exactly 1:52 yesterday afternoon our realtor received an offer from another agent on our house! Kent handled all of the details but needless to say our realtor came to the hospital today so we could sign all the papers!

An update

I know lots of you are anxious to hear baby news! Here's the scoop.  Dropped Kael and Kylee off at Mom and Dad's last night and the hospital called me to tell me they would be calling anytime after 5:00 AM the following day about what time to be there for my induction.  So, Kent and I were up and ready by 5:00 this morning in case they said to go ahead and come on in.  They didn't.  Turns out lots of people are having babies at Mercy today and we happen to be third on the list for elective inductions.

My doctor called me around 9:15 to let me know that I do have the option of delivering at West Lakes if I would like.  I would not like.  There's no NICU there, and I'm more familiar with Mercy, plus I'm just not in that big of a hurry. Every hour that I wait just brings me that much closer to having the baby naturally anyways, I suppose. 

Thus far, there are only a couple downsides that I can see of not delivering today.  Lots of people have moved their schedules around for a baby to arrive today, and now plans have to be changed for a (hopefully!) delivery tomorrow instead. Also, the doctor I have been mainly seeing is there today, not tomorrow but I know the doctor who will be there tomorrow, too.  Kael and Kylee are really excited to meet their new brother today, but since they've waited this long, another day or two can't hurt.

Figured I'd take this opportunity to share a couple last minute belly pictures.  I'm looking forward to having news to share soon!

All my bags are packed.....

....I'm ready to go!

Figured I'd update everyone on my plans for the week- I had a check up last week and my doctor decided it was time to go ahead and schedule an induction.  The plan is for baby to come on Thursday, April 26.  Since I'm not an emergency induction or anything, there's a chance I could get bumped to Friday but either way it looks like baby will be here in a few short days. Wheee!!!

After a busy Saturday with my neice's first birthday party, a BFF's baby shower and Little League practice I was ready for a productive Sunday.

We did a family grocery shopping/errand running trip which is something we almost never do.  Stocked up on tons of stuff so I don't have to do as much running around once baby comes.  Spent the afternoon baking and getting some meals in the freezer, prepping some snacks and writing out plans and schedules for the kids to stay with my parents while I'm at the hospital.  Got loads of laundry done (pun intended- ha), dishes done, and got the house clean-ish. 

We've narrowed the name search down as best we can, and packed bags for ourselves and the kids. So now, my friends, I wait. :) I will update you soon!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for a fun birthday yesterday and thankful for all the sweet birthday messages I received. The highlight of my day was celebrating with my family at Old Chicago.

I'm thankful for a lazy, rainy day today.


I'm thankful that today is my neice's first birthday! We are sooo excited to go to her party this weekend!

I'm thankful that Kent is going to be around for most of the weekend.  He was supposed to spend the whole weekend in Iowa City to watch the Olympic wrestling tryouts, but with me being as pregnant as I am, and with a Little Leage practice already scheduled he's going to stay in town til late Saturday afternoon. I really don't think the baby is coming this weekend but just in case, I'm glad he's going to be around.

I'm so thankful for the homemade brownies my mom brought me yesterday for my birthday.  I absolutely did have one for breakfast and I don't feel even a tiny bit guilty about it.  Man I'm going to miss being pregnant. :)

I'm thankful for the birthday card Kael left under my pillow last night.  It said, "Happy Birthday to you.  You live in a zoo.  You look like a monkey and you smell like one too."  An oldie but a goodie.

What are you thankful for today?

38 weeks!

If I tell my doctor that I've ordered some cute baby clothes in size newborn, do you think that he would see that as a perfectly acceptable reason to hurry up and induce soon? Good.  I thought so too. ;)

Two weeks ago the baby was six and a half pounds and if newborn clothes generally fit babies up to eight pounds and if babies gain an average of a half pound a week towards the end of pregnancy...well, you do the math.  Looks like I better get this kid out before next week. 

All joking aside, I'm very thankful to be feeling this well and be this far along.  More than likely this will be the last time I get to be pregnant so I'm really enjoying every last minute of letting people do things for me and eating anything I want such a special bond.

Kael is 7!

Friday was Kael's 7th birthday! Thought I'd share some pictures from all of our celebrations.

Here is Kael being the Big Cheese at school.  He got to fill out a poster all about himself and bring in pictures to talk about.  He also had Kent read a story to the class and tell them about his work.  Kael did such a great job in front of the class! It was fun to see them all cheer for him when his name got announced over the loudspeaker for having a birthday.

Kael requested a Bowser cake this year and I was just not about to attempt it.  Thanks to Creme Cupcake for making it happen!

Luckily 7 year olds are not yet too cool for birthday hugs from a younger sister.

Kael had several ideas for a party this year and ultimately we decided on taking a few friends to SkyZone then to Godfather's for pizza, cake and presents.  The boys LOVED SkyZone as much as Kael does and one even told me that it was the best night of his whole life! Now that's a good party.

Another cool cake!! Kent's mom's neighbor made this- impressive!!!

The fun thing about it being your birthday is that people will often do what you ask them.  So when Kael asked all the Patterson boys to dance to Dynamite on our Just Dance game, they were happy to do so.  My in-laws are so fun. :)

Happy Birthday Kael! I love you soooo much!

Thankful Thursday

I'm so thankful for a neighbor who continues to spoil me with homemade goodies.  She keeps insisting she has "tons of leftovers" but really she's just a good person who knows what it's like to be pregnant and have other people cook for you. :)

I'm thankful for a full Starbucks punch card.  Normally the only thing I drink at Sbux (actually, the only coffee I drink in general) is a tall black half decaf but today Kylee and I split a Caramel Frappucino and it was so yummy.

I'm thankful for Pinterest, as we continue to kick around the idea of building a home.  There are so many great inspirational ideas to be found there!

I'm thankful for warm weather and how simple it is to entertain my 4 year old and her friend.  A bucket of water and a couple paintbrushes and they spent the whole entire day "painting" anything and everything: our driveway, our deck, our mailbox...

I'm oh-so-thankful that the Easter Bunny brought the Wii game Just Dance 3.  You better belive I the kids have a blast bustin' a move!


Short and sweet today...busy day here and Kael's birthday is tomorrow!

A case of the Mondays

It was bound to happen.  After such a fun-filled weekend, we all crashed and came down off our sugar highs on Monday. 

Kylee and I were both sick.

Kael Who Never Gets Hurt Ever accidentally slammed his finger in the door and it was insta-purple.  I'm quite certain his fingernail will fall off soon.  Later when we were working on a poster for school he couldn't even hold a marker.

I ordered a family picture from Walgreens for Kael's poster (he's the Big Cheese this week...I'll explain more later I'm sure) and sure enough I had ordered the wrong picture and completely wasted my time running to and from the store.

Kylee mysteriously had several splinters in her hand.  Combine her sugar rush with a lack of sleep and fighting a cold it was pretty traumatic trying to get them out. 

Blogger was not cooperating and wouldn't let me appropriately add captions to my photos which explains the crazy post yesterday.


I checked out a few movies from the library for the kids and all of them were scratched or cracked.  I guess that's why they're free, right?


Fast forward to today and it wasn't much better.  Kael was up in the middle of the night complaining that his leg hurt.  He ended up sleeping in so I took him to school an hour late.  Less than twenty minutes later the school nurse called me to come pick him up.


We have a meeting with a builder tonight that I'd like to be very prepared for and while we're gone the house is going to be shown.  I'd love to spend a big chunk of the day cleaning it up but, alas, I'll probably be spending most of my day on the couch with sick kiddos.


Not to mention the fact we're completely out of several staple grocery items and I'm just not about to run to the store in my current state.  Who needs milk and toilet paper anyways?

I am soooo ready for it to be Friday. Kael keeps referring to Friday as The Big Day...I think someone's a little excited for his birthday! Even though the last day and a half have been kind of crummy, I'm glad it's hitting now and not Friday morning.  I have a feeling everyone will be on the mend and doing great by party day!

Weekend Wrap- Up Part II (Easter)

(After writing this I realize now I should have done perhaps a Part III to break it up a little! Lots of photos to share. :)

After getting home Saturday night from the birthday celebration, I knew we'd be tired and rushed on Sunday morning to get ready for church (plus, Kent had nursery duty so we needed to be there even earlier than usual) so Kent and I hid eggs that night. He's such a good sport. :)

Isn't this what the Easter Bunny looks like at your house?

The egg hunt was all but postponed until Kent had coffee in hand.

Be still my heart.  Kael NEVER wants to dress up but he chose his own outfit for Easter church.  How handsome is he? Now, Kylee on the other hand, was well prepared for the event.  One day a few weeks ago my mom and I took her to the mall for a girls' day and she tried on ("had a fashion show" in her words) nearly every dress in the store

My, my that bump is getting big!

I LOVE our tradtion of having an Egg Cracking Contest with the dyed eggs. It's extra fun now that the kids are old enough to participate.  Everyone picks and egg and you crack/tap/wait for (depends on your strategy) your opponent's egg.  Whichever egg doesn't crack moves on to the next round. We set it up tournament-style so here's how it broke down this year...

Below: Tam takes out Kael's orange egg. Kael wasn't too upset because he had beaten Grandpa Terry (in an above photo) in the "practice round".

Next up: short vs. tall

Grandpa Terry takes the controversial win over Grandma Ama. She wasn't quite ready when he "attacked".

Above: Kent was reigning champ and has won the contest for several years now.  As you can see, he isn't too pleased with his first round loss this year.  Below: When you lose, you have to throw your loser egg as far as you can off the deck down to the creek.  Tam lost so Rob is letting her know where her egg needs to go. :) When all was said and done, Mandy was crowned champion this year!

After the Egg Cracking, Kael had an idea that will likely begin a new tradition: the classic Egg on Spoon race. Boys vs. Girls.  Boys won.  Like 5 times in a row.

This is what an egg looks like after a few races.

You all play baseball with your leftover eggs too, right?

Then the egg hunt begins!

Look at those ups!

That is one full basket!

Matching jammies! Above and below! :)

Too much candy? Too much fun? Nah....

These last few photos are a little out of order but I got them from my mom's camera and had to include them.  Below is what will most likely be our last photo all dressed up as a family of four!

If I cropped the below photo to show only our faces, I think it would be nearly impossible to tell us apart!

Ha! I love this picture below! Mine is coming in three weeks, hers is coming in October!

We're pretty normal....

....and really really fun!

Hope your Easter was wonderful and your week is off to a great start!