Thankful Thursday

I'm so thankful for my deal-snagging mother-in-law. :) She found some AWESOME new bikes for Kael and Kylee!!! Now she's on the hunt for bunk beds for the new house.

I'm thankful that my mom came to stay over last night.  Kase's stomach has been a bit upset lately, which makes him upset so it was wonderful having someone help through the night.

I'm thankful for a rainy, stay-in-sweatpants kind of day.

I'm thankful it's Thursday.  The weekend is in sight.

I'm thankful it's almost time to flip the calendar to June! Moving month!!!!

I'm thankful (giddy might be a better word) that I recently found out who one of my neighbors will be at our new house.  I just knew that our new neighborhood was going to be a good fit for us.

Short and sweet today. Happy Thursday!

6 down, 28 to go

We're off to a great start on our Park Tour 2012.

Kase is 1 month old!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful Kael had fun at the Flat Stanley play.  Earlier in the school year he was really into the Flat Stanley books so we bought him tickets to see it at the Des Moines Playhouse with Kent this last Sunday. When Kael got home he just smiled and said, "Best play ever!"

I'm sooo thankful for Kase's first official smile even though it wasn't at me. He smiled sooo big at Kent twice the other day.  Nothin' better.

I'm thankful for a few extra free minutes before we picked up Kael on his last day of school.  I had been wanting to do a Welcome to Summer type party (darn Pinterest has too many fun ideas!) but thought I was going to run out of time to throw anything together.  Kase fell asleep and Kylee went to the neighbor's house so I quick blew up a TON of balloons and filled my car with them.  I also made a Happy Summer sign and broght along popsicles.  A perfect way to kick off summer break! Kael's smile was so big when he opened the car and found it full of balloons!

I'm thankful for a neighborhood full of kids.  It's not easy to tell from the picture but there were 7 bikes and 2 trikes parked in my driveway the afternoon school got out. 

I'm thankful for a husband who still makes cat calls at me, even if I'm just walking down our sidewalk to pick Kylee up from her friend's house.  It's a little bit embarassing and a lot flattering.


I'm thankful to live in a town with so very many parks! The kids and I came up with a list (I found 34, counting school playgrounds) and we're going to try to play at every single one before summer's over!

The first few days of summer have been all sorts of wonderful.  Hope you can all say the same!!!

Thankful....Tuesday?

I had some pictures I wanted to share and figured I wouldn't get around to posting until Thursday. 
These days, I often start a post and it takes me awhile to get back around to completing it.  But not this time, folks! I actually finished two days early! :) I'll try my best to get around to posting again on Thursday too.



I'm thankful for the days Kylee lets me braid her hair.  That face! So adorable when her hair is pulled back away from it.  Not to mention the fact it showcases her fabulous stick on earrings.  You know you had some when you were little too! I loved those things!

I'm seriously thankful for coffee in the mornings. 

I'm thankful for this proud papa and this handsome little boy that loves his daddy so much already!

I'm thankful that I got to go to Kael's Field Day.

He was thankful for the water games.  It was hot out there!

I can't believe I have a second grader now!



I'm thankful for weekly trips up to the ball field to watch Kent's slow pitch team, even if they are, *ahem* 0-7.  I'm also thankful for babies in baseball hats.

I'm thankful for these two funny kids.

They're just thankful to have all their summer toys out again!

I'm thankful for coffee breaks with my best gal after a grueling Target trip. Some guy actually stopped me in one of the aisles and said, "Wow I'd hate to have your grocery bill!" Ha.  We rarely shop on weekends since I can go during the day, but Kylee was oh-so-thankful for tons of samples out around the store on Sunday.

I'm thankful that the heavy, calorie filled, spicy Mexican food I typically LOVE to eat doesn't  really agree with Kase.  If there was ever a reason that would cause me to kick my habit of overindulging in that kind of food, it would be Kase.

I'm thankful for a loooong weekend ahead.  Hoping to get lots of organizing and packing done, but mostly I'm just looking forward to some quality family time.  The pool opens this weekend and our pool passes have been burnin' a hole in my beach bag since February, baby!

I'm thankful for the safe delivery of a healthy baby boy for one of my BFFs.  Naturally her son and Kase will be BFFs too.

Happy Thursday Tuesday!



Kase is 3 weeks old!

Happy Friday everyone!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for my mini-me.  I know what it's like to be the middle child so I've been trying extra hard lately to do some fun, girly, "just us" stuff.  She unknowingly puts a lot of pressure on herself to be so mature, so helpful, so poised.  Lately I've been seeing some emotions and attitudes that are not typical of my Kylee and I know she's starting to break, just a little, under her self imposed pressure, but she tries so hard to hold it all together. We moms know what that's like, right?

I'm thankful for baby sighs and sweet baby snuggles.

I'm thankful for a husband whose help I could not do without.  He has been swamped at work but never ceases to come home with a smile on his face, ready and willing to lend a hand with the kids.  He's so good with Kase.  Actually he's just really good with kids.  The church nursery workers have told me that they LOVE when Kent gets scheduled to volunteer in there.  Yeah, he's that good.

I'm thankful that we were able to make some quick end-of-year teacher thank you gifts.  I was worried I wouldn't get around to it this year with everything that's going on, but my mom (and Pinterest) came to the rescue! :)

I'm thankful that Tropical Sno opened for the season!

I'm thankful that things are rolling along over at our new house.  I stopped by yesterday to pick out glass tiles for the shower and make a few decisions for the exterior of the house.  It's all so exciting!

I'm thankful that we got to stop by Kael's future elementary school yesterday afternoon and  meet all the second grade teachers.  We don't know which one he'll have yet, but just meeting all of them will surely help him transition in the fall to a new, much bigger, school.

I'm thankful for baby mohawks and baby rat tails.  Well, rats (pun intended) the picture I have of Kase's little rat tail won't upload for some reason.  I just love his soft, dark hair!

I'm thankful that Kase is SUCH a good sleeper.  Is it ok for babies who aren't even 3 weeks old to basically be sleeping through the night? I initially worried a bit because I thought I should be waking him up to eat, but at our most recent doctor's appointment she commented on what an 'efficient eater' he must be because he is gaining weight at an appropriate rate. 

I'm finding so much to be thankful for this week.  Hope you can say the same!

Ready for summer

Hi all! Sorry for the absence in blogging...as predicted May has been as crazy as April! Can anyone believe there are only 5 (!!!) days left of school? Oh my.  Last year I was so prepared, with summer schedules, summer bucket lists...this year I have a newborn and a move to think about intstead! Here's what's been going on with us.

Friday, Kylee had her Mother's Day Tea program.  She was right in the middle, singing her little heart out, cute as can be. You could hear her above everyone else.  While the program itself was entertaining, far more entertaining was watching Kylee run around with friends after the program.  She has such a cool confidence about her- she was clearly the ringleader of the group which consisted of her and about five boys.  My mom likes to refer to Kylee as "Laura 2.0".  In other words, she's just like me, but 'even more so' says my mom.  "And you so deserve it," she adds.  I do deserve it and I absolutely love it.

This is Kylee with the boy that I've babysat for 5 years now.  How cute are they? Looks like a mini Prom picture!

We spent the weekend hanging out with family- Kase got to meet Aunt Tammy and Uncle Rob! We spent Saturday with my fam and Sunday with Kent's fam.  I had a lovely Mother's Day- the kids made some really cute cards for me. :)

In other news, Kase has been in and out of the doctor's office for several days now- he spiked a pretty bad fever last Thursday and hasn't quite been the same since. His white blood count is down, indicating something viral but poor guy just can't get comfortable.   Good news is, he's cute even when he's miserable.

Well, that's all I've got time for today.  The temperature in my car on the way home from the doc this afternoon said it was 93 degrees out! Best believe I've got the slip and slide already set up and waiting- when Kael gets home from school, it's on! Woo hoo! Bring on summer!!!

Thankful Thursday

I'm so thankful for Kase's calm, sweet personality.  He's just so innocent and has made this transition of having a baby around again so easy on all of us.  He sleeps so well, waking up just once a night to eat.  He has fit seamlessly into our lives and his sweet baby sounds just melt my heart. 

I'm thankful that I have a husband.  Having grown up with only sisters I'm not familiar with boy stuff.  Kael's baseball hat was FILTHY after only one game so I asked Kent, "How do you wash a baseball hat?" Kent looked at me like I was completely crazy, then replied firmly, "You don't." If I were a single mom, poor Kael would have shown up at game two with a sparkling clean hat and probably gotten laughed off the field.  How's a girl supposed to know things like this?

I'm really thankful and very, very proud that Kylee can ride her bike without training wheels! Girl caught on so quickly. She's got the need for speed and yells out, "Mom watch how fast I can go!!!" Awesome. Just awesome.

I'm thankful that I'm able to reach my feet to paint my toenails again.  I'm doubly thankful for the gift card to a salon from a friend so that I can have someone else just do it for me. :)

I'm thankful for my Moby wrap. This is not something I had with Kael and Kylee when they were babies but I figured it'd be worth a try this time around.  Kase and I walked to the park today like this and we (well, I can't speak for him, but he seemed awfully content) LOVED it.  I have a feeling this thing is going to get a lot of use.  Two free hands while carrying a baby- brilliant!!

I'm thankful that our home inspection went well and there are no requests of anything that we need to do to our house before we leave.  We've started making some decisions on our new house- it's about a month away from being finished so we are able to pick out the carpet, hardwood, tile, granite, exterior color and stone which has been fun.  All the credit goes to Kent as he has been handling the majority of the decisions and paperwork for our future home. He has been amazing.

I'm thankful for all the meals people have brought us since Kase was born. I love to cook but having food brought to us has been so so helpful!

Family of Five

Thank you all so much.  For the phone calls, the e-mails, the visits.  For continuing to check the blog day after day with no new post from me. :) I promise you'll be flooded with pictures and stories soon.  I've just been spending all my free time cuddling Kase.  It is so awesome having a newborn around again.  And Kael and Kylee have been AMAZING.  Not jealous, but interested.  Not smothering, but helpful. 

I have so much to say that I'm not even sure where to start so I guess I'll begin at the beginning.

 Thursday, April 26 I was supposed to be induced.   Turns out lots of people were having babies that day so I got bumped to Friday, April 27 and really, it was perfect.  I ended up having the same nurse that I did when I delivered Kael (Coincidence? I think not) and we LOVED her.  I won't go into details about labor and delivery but I will say that it was all very smooth.  Doc broke my water at 8:30 and Kase arrived at 1:52 and I can honestly say it was a very pleasant experience. I'd actually even go as far as to say it was easy.  Kent, the nurse and I had fun playing a Sports Hangman game that my family had given me. We laughed and joked and chatted pretty much the whole time up until it was time to push. Thank goodness for epidurals!

 I do recall that it was probably a full five minutes after he was born that the doctor finally said, "So what's his name?" and I just laughed because Kent and I honestly hadn't decided on Kase until the night before.  So it was lucky I wasn't induced on Thursday! The whole name thing was on my mind the.entire.pregnancy.  Kent liked Kole, but I thought it was too close to Kael.  We thought about doing Kole with  J middle name so that if Kael/Kole sounded too much alike then this one could go by KJ.  Several people voiced concern that we might not use Alan as a middle name. (Kent, his dad, his brothers and Kael all have the middle name Alan). We liked a couple trendy names (think Knox, Kash) but ultimately decided we were not trendy enough ourselves to use such names.  Kase had always been at the top of our list. Now that he's here and I see him and I've spent over a week with him...it just fits him perfectly.

I really wanted Kael and Kylee to be the first ones to meet him and you guys, it was so perfect.  My mom had the kids looking all cute in their Big Brother/Big Sister shirts and Kylee walked in carrying flowers and Kael was carrying a balloon. They were smitten with Kase from the very start. I will never forget that moment when they met their little brother and we became a family of five.