The Best Christmas Ever

Decker has declared this will be the best Christmas ever! From decorating trees to singing carols this boy is loving Christmas. He loves sitting around the tree and pointing out his favorite ornaments. He likes to "compact" the ornaments as he calls it which otherwise means moving them around from place to place and placing a large number of ornaments on the same branch. Luckily there have only been a few casualties. The Grinch song came on the radio and he said who is Mr. French? I said the Grinch was a pretend character that doesn't like Christmas. He could not wrap his 4 year old mind around why someone would not like Christmas. And later in the day he wanted to know again why  Mr. French did not like Christmas. How do you explain the Grinch to a child? Kalena has no ideas of Christmas yet which is good on our budget! She is however pretty stinkin cute even if she does still get me up every 2-3 hours of the night. She's on the verge of crawling which will probably tick Decker off when it happens. As it is now she is only allowed to play with certain fire trucks-but come to think of it so are Brady and I.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Merry Christmas

Summer Lovin

We have had a great summer. Raising kids ain't for wimps but it's fun-very tiring at times but fun! Kalena had her first experience in the pool at Brown County and Decker had his second try at fishing with guidance from our family expert fisherman Uncle Todd. Decker loves all things boy and is getting ready to start 2 day a week morning preschool at a local church. Brady and I enjoyed a dinner out for our 11th anniversary last Saturday and did not get called home to a crying babe so that was excellent! Deck and Uncle Todd will soon have two big bdays-4 for Deck and the big 30 for Todd.

The Arrival of Kalena

After lots of prayers and extra walking Kalena Evelyn made her way into the world on Sunday March 10th at 2:58 am weighing in at a whopping 9lbs 10oz and 21 inches. 10 days late of her due date.  I was to be induced on the 11th so we barely made it. This labor and delivery went much better and quicker than with Decker thanks to the help of our doula and midwife.  We couldn't wait to get out of the hospital to get back to our first baby although he did great while we were gone. I had a couple minor glitches while in the hospital. My blood counts were low so had to get blood. Then, my midwife thought I had a umbilical hernia so I had to get an ultrasound and then a CAT scan. The nurses weren't letting me eat which led me to believe and worry that I may have to get surgery to repair the hernia. Thankfully the scan came back showing a weakened abdominal wall that should heal on it's own. We finally got to go home Tuesday night and then on our checkup 2 days later my blood pressure was elevated so I've been on bp medication 3x a day since then. I am currently weaning myself off the medication and hope to be off completely in the next couple weeks. Kalena and I go back to the midwife on Monday for our 6 wk checks.  She is eating and growing well as far as we can tell. And of course she is as cute as ever and loved by all her family. Decker has been a bit of a wild card acting out, being rough and vying for our attention, but he does love her too as he cried when his Aunt Julie was teasing him about trading his cousin Brooklyn for his new baby sister.