Kinsey's Room

We are decorating Kinsey's room with red daisies and denim (using the same bedding and paint job from when it was Jackson's room). David took a picture of one of the daisies we will be using in her room and put together this picture to use as a wall hanging. It turned out GREAT!! We had it printed tonight at Sam's as a 16x20 poster.

In other news . . . Jackson had his 1st night in his BIG BOY bed last night! He did really good, just a little scared of the BIG bed when he first laid down. He only cried for a few minutes and then did his normal tossing and turning before falling to sleep. However, at 3:30 this morning he fell out of the end of the bed (not footboard) . . . OOPS! But David put him back in and he slept until morning. He even woke up before David got up this morning and just laid in his bed until he got him : ) YEAH!!! His nap went pretty well this afternoon too . . . . so hopefully we are off to a smooth transition!!

Also, I failed my 1 hour glucose screening for gestational diabetes, so I had the VERY FUN 3 hour version this morning early. So hopefully I pass this one!! I'll keep you all posted!

A New Friend

Last night, we had a couple from our church over that adopted a little girl from China in May. Her name is Emily and she is SO cute!!
You wouldn't know it from looking at her, but she is actually a little over 2 years old. However, you can see that she is smaller than Jackson : ) David couldn't resist taking a few pictures of them looking out the window and then one of her beautiful smile. He tried to get one of them giving each other kisses before they left, but he wasn't fast enough : ) Enjoy!

Cardinal's Game!

We were offered 4 tickets for the Cardinals vs. Dodgers game last night. We talked to Ron and Pam and they were up for it. We especially couldn't resist since the tickets were about 16 rows behind the visitors dugout along the 3rd base line. So we enjoyed a fun WARM night at the ballpark!!

Family Time

Ron and Pam arrived on Wednesday afternoon and are here until Tuesday morning. Aunt Pennie, Uncle Gary and Caleb came over on Thursday for lunch. And we celebrated Josiah and Nathanael's birthday all day that day. You can see the boys having fun cooling off in the pool and in the sprinklers. And then later in the day, Grandma and Grandpa gave the boys their presents, which ALL the boys enjoyed!

They couldn't resist setting up the tent in the middle of our living room (tent and sleeping bags). Here are Jackson and Josiah peeking out of the tent : )
Later, Nathanael and Jackson were giving each other kisses through the screen!

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Thanks Best Buy!
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We Survived!!!

We got back from camp on Friday night and had a great week! We had great weather until late in the week and enjoyed time with some of our old college friends from LCC. And Jackson got to play with some new friends (here he is on the Gator with Addison Willis). He especially enjoyed daily rides on the Gator/golf carts and swimming after lunch in the wading pool. Of course, the day wasn't complete without "playing" the drums before or after one of worship services each day. I wish I had taken my camera with me one of the times he was beating around on them . . . it was too cute! We are all pretty worn out from staying up WAY TOO late and then having to all sleep in one room together for a week. So we are glad to be back in our own beds and rooms!!!!

Oh, and we took this picture of me on Saturday (24 week).

More 18 Month Pics. . . .

So I am still having a hard time deciding which pictures to have developed to distribute for Jackson's 18 month pictures. There are so many that are good that I just can't decide. Here is one of him with David that is a sweet candid shot on the walk to the park. And then a family picture at the park : )

Pictures

So we got the picture CD on Friday (which was earlier than expected). And I couldn't resist posting one of the pictures as a sneak peek : ) Isn't he cute!?

Oh, and side note I can't believe how much of a jabber box he is these days. Courtney and Brent were here today visiting and they couldn't believe how much he was talking. Most words are understandable, but some things not so much! He has been repeating words for a few months now, but it seems lately he is trying to put more words together. Before long we won't be able to shut him up . . . HA!

Have a great week! Hopefully we survive with 250 junior highers . . . AHHHHH!!!

18 Months

Jackson was 18 months on the 14th. We took him for his well baby checkup on Monday and he was 24 pounds (25%) and 33 1/2 inches tall (80%). I can't believe how big he is getting!!! We had our youth minister and his wife over with their little boy, Levi. Here are a few pictures of them playing in the backyard.

We took Jackson last week to have his 18 month pictures taken. We are suppose to get the cd from our photographer friend this weekend at church. So I will post pictures soon! He has started saying "cheese" every time you pull out a camera . . . it is so funny : )

I had a prenatal appointment on Wednesday. I am measuring right on schedule (23 weeks). Everything was fine. I have to go in for my glucose screening in 3 weeks. And then after my next appointment, she will schedule my follow up ultrasound. They detected that my placenta was "low-lying" at my last ultrasound. My midwife says that it is fairly common and that it usually moves up as the baby grows. But they just want to check it to be sure that I can deliver naturally again.

We are heading to camp in Indiana on Sunday for the week. David has done music for this week for the last 3 years (Matt Willis is one of the deans). We all went last year, but Jackson was only 6 months. So this time he will actually be able to discover and play. I should have a lot to report when we return : )

A Couple Pictures from the Day . . .

While we were at my parents over the 4th we found out that Jackson LOVES sweet corn on the cob (he won't eat it very well if you cut it off the cob). Here he is tonight enjoying his ear : ) He worked on it until it was completely clean!!!

She FINALLY has a name!

OK, so after much anticipation, we have FINALLY come to an agreement on our expectant baby girl's name. . . . Kinsey Grace. We were wanting a "last name" to use as a first name to sort of go with Jackson's and Kinsey kept sticking out for me. Especially because it was my dad's real mom's maiden name. Just wanted to share the GREAT news. . . . I was beginning to wonder if she would have a name before she was born :) HA!

4th of July

Despite the rain, we were able to enjoy the parade in Herrick and fireworks in Pana. And the kids even got to go swimming in Grammy and Papa's new kiddie pool! Here are a few pictures . . . Enjoy!

Pool Time!

We were house sitting for a family from the church from Saturday until Tuesday and got to enjoy their swimming pool!! Here is Jackson enjoying the water . . .


We also went to "Sparks in the Park" in Rochester on Sunday evening. We stayed around for the fireworks. Here he is riding on daddy's shoulders . . .

We are headed to Tower Hill on Tuesday night for more 4th of July celebrations. We should have more pictures after our time in TH.

20 Weeks and more . . .

So here is a picture David took of me yesterday at 20 weeks. I am anxious to compare them to pictures from my pregnancy with Jackson.


And here are some pictures of my boys getting ready for a bike ride this morning.
David was SO excited when we found this bike trailer at a garage sale for $10!!! And then we found this little helmet for a $1. WOO-HOO!!

Father's Day & More. . .

On Father's Day evening, David asked if we could all go out to a family's pond from the church so he could take Jackson fishing. Well, for safety-sake we thought it would be a good idea for all of us to go so I could be sure he didn't jump in since David would be occupied fishing. So we packed up and went out to the Vandenberg's pond. David caught some bass and bluegill pretty quickly, but Jackson wanted nothing to do with them (as you can see). We did finally get him interested in touching one of the smaller bluegill that he caught, but when he reached to touch the fish's mouth it moved and it scared him! So hopefully he is more interested in fishing when he gets a bit older. . . at least his daddy hopes so!

Also, David's Father's Day gift was a ticket to the John Mayer/Ben Folds concert at what use to be the Riverport in St. Louis. So this past Wednesday, we took another trip down to Waterloo to visit the Warner's. Claire was excited to have Jackson to play with and we got to see how much Blake had grown. They took him to be weighed that afternoon and he is almost 8 lbs. which is GREAT! My mom was also there for the week so we got to help Courtney later that evening with birth announcements for Blake, which was fun! We had to head back for David to be back at work by Thursday afternoon, so it was a quick trip, but good!

On a VERY sad note . . . yesterday afternoon I got my laptop out to check email and look at blogs and it felt really hot! I opened it and nothing would display on the monitor. So I forced it to turn off and tried to turn it back on and the hard disks made a very weird sort of noise and it wouldn't turn on. So I had David check it out last night and he couldn't fix it. And he called tech support at Apple since he thought it was the same problem we have had with it before, but this time it would cost to have it fixed. And sadly the tech guy said that it was an old machine and the money would probably be better spent invested in something newer. So my sad little computer is officially fried!!!! Thankfully, I have a VERY smart computer-savvy husband who figured out how to hook his computer up to mine and access the hard-drive to get all of our financial and other VERY important files off of the computer!! THANK YOU!! I was WIDE awake at 5 am worrying about what I was going to do if I couldn't get my documents off that stupid computer! Looks like we are probably going to purchase a new one for David and I'll get his computer (since he does get a professional reimbursement account from the church to help offset some of the expense. . . thankfully). So I may not be posting for a little while . . .

A Secret from Jackson

SHHHHH! I'm having a baby SISTER!

My mom and dad took me to see my new baby sister on the tv screen today at the hospital. I was really more interested in exploring everything in the room, rather than watching the baby! They told mom and dad that she was 11 ounces already and seemed to be on schedule to arrive the first half of November. Her name has not yet been decided, so I'm going to call her sissy for now!

Fun in the Sun!

We enjoyed some pool time this morning. Jackson liked being in the water at first, but quickly got tired and wanted to explore. The Louderman’s have several grandkids so there were plenty of toys and floats for him to try out. Here are a few pictures from our morning.

We laughed SO hard at this one!!!!

From Mother's Day

So I’m a little late getting these posted, but David had a photographer friend of ours take these pictures as part of my Mother’s Day gift. We had them taken at Washington Park by the Botanical Gardens. Here are a few of them. Enjoy!

Swimming . . .

So it has been SO HOT this week! I finally decided yesterday that Jackson needed a little baby pool to splash around in. So when I got groceries at Walmart last night, I bought him one!




This afternoon after lunch he had a little fun splashing around. . . he just giggled and smiled at us! We are going to a friend's house on Friday since David is off to cool off in a REAL pool. . . thank you Louderman's!

Blake Comes Home!

These two pictures were taken last Friday when Blake, Courtney & Brent got home from the hospital. Jackson got to meet Blake for the first time. He checked him out at first and then was back to playing with the toys. He wasn't really all that impressed either way!


He did give him a couple kisses, but did NOT want to hold him. We tried to get him to after Claire did for a while and he didn't want any part of it. Of course, it may be a different story when the baby comes home to his house and STAYS! HA! : )

Blake Elijah Warner

Blake Elijah Warner arrived at 12:11 pm on June 5th. He was 7 lbs., 10 ounces and 20 inches long. We got to meet him this afternoon . . . pretty cute!! Here is a picture with his peepers open and one of Claire giving him a "Big Sister" kiss! Courtney, Brent and Blake will be discharged from the hospital in the morning and hopefully home by lunch time. Courtney said her recovery this time around is 100 times better, so that is GREAT news for her! And Blake is doing a great job nursing, again more good news : ) A VERY different experience for them vs. Claire's arrival. We are here overnight and then we'll be back on the 20th. So it will be fun to see how he has changed in just 2 weeks! Jackson wasn't able to go up to the hospital room : ( Hospital policy!! So he will get to meet Blake tomorrow after they get home. . . . I am interested to see what he thinks about just a little baby.

Catching you up . . .

So the past few weeks have been pretty crazy!! On Memorial Day weekend, we where down in TH for my cousin Jill's wedding at Oak Terrace. Which, despite the threat of rain, was set outside overlooking the lake. The peaceful boat ride to and from the ceremony was WONDERFUL!

Here is my niece Claire at the reception getting in a little "Big Sister" practice holding cousin Lincoln. My sister is scheduled for a c-section tomorrow morning (June 5th). Blake Elijah should "technically" arrive shortly after 11 am. I will be sure to have pictures and stats as soon as I get them. We are heading down there to meet him on Thursday!!

We got bad news about our littlest nephew Cian (David’s brother Brian’s little boy) who is almost 9 months old. He had an accident on Memorial Day. His sister Ciara (7) was carrying Cian and tripped. He fell from her arms and hit his head on the concrete driveway. They took him to the hospital by ambulance and did a CAT scan to check for the extent of the injuries. Fortunately, the results of the CAT scan showed no bleeding. The doctors gave Brian and Jenny a list of things to watch for over the next month to be sure he is ok.

And to top off Memorial weekend, David caught Jackson keeping Claire company while she was going potty!! He pulled up the little step stool so he could sit next to her. He said they were just smiling and jabbering to each other.

This past week, my mom and dad took Jackson for a few days. And David and I were able to get away to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary!!! Jackson and I also went to Lincoln on Saturday to celebrate Bob & Patsy Wilson's 50th wedding anniversary! 6 years doesn't seem quite as long when you stack it up to 50!!!

Oh and I finally got my ultrasound scheduled at the hospital for Monday, June 18th!! I can hardly wait until then to find out!!!!

I think that is the last 2 weeks in a nutshell . . . .