Sledding

Ryan and Daddy went sledding today. I stayed home with Jake and baby Kaleigh. They had a lot of fun. Joel was afraid Ryan would be scared to go down the hill, but that wasn't the case. They would no more than get to the bottom and he would say "again"! He came home all rosy cheeked and excited. Maybe next time we can all go.....

Heavyweight

I went to a friends house for a visit yesterday, and she has an infant scale. She let me use it and wouldn't you know-Kaleigh weighed in at 6.05 lb!! Yeah-go girl. Jake has decided to boycott walking for a while, instead he's learning to make noises like a pterodactyl. I'm not sure if he's just playing around with his voice, or what he's doing....but it's not so cute anymore. We're still waiting to get the nursing help for Kaleigh. It's been 3 weeks of just me during the day with all three, and Joel around in the evening. I've been getting a bit frustrated with the agency, and may end up having to find another one if they don't rise to the challenge pretty quickly.

Merry Christmas

I want to start by wishing you all a Merry Christmas-even a day late is better than nothing. We had a very festive yet busy holiday. The boys loved opening their presents and playing with them too. We all received many very nice things. It was also nice to get to see all our family this year! Some years we have to skip a side due to scheduling conflicts, but we were able to make it to them all.

Jake finally took his first solo steps yesterday evening. He did two of them walking from Grandpa Bryce to me!! Yeah...go Jake!

Ryan helped play Santa by delivering presents. He had a hard time not opening them all, but was a great little helper!

Keleigh sat in her seat, looked cute and slept the whole time. She's pretty young to be festive.

However, she is definitely growing, she no longer fits into preemie diapers and some of the preemie clothes are getting too small too. I'm anxious to weigh her again and see if we've passed the 6lb marker finally!

And finally.....my brother Doug proposed to his gal pal Sara! I'm going to get an awesome sister in-law two nephews and a niece. What a wonderful Christmas present for our family.

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying all the snow we've been getting. Joel and I would like to take the boys sledding, maybe we'll do it this weekend.

Scary Santa?

As I mentioned earlier, I figured the picture of the boys with Santa would be "fun". Need I say more?

Chili supper

Last night my Dad and Stepmom came over for dinner. They brought some yummy chili and brownies for dessert. It was nice to have dinner prepared for us! I took Jake in to the MD. He's got a nasty sinus infection. He's going to be on antibiotics for a week, but hopefully this will help him sleep better at night. His coughing has been keeping him and me awake. Baby Kaleigh had an appt and she is rapidly growing. She weighs in at 5.4 lbs now!! We're still working on getting nursing help in the home for her. There seems to be a problem with the insurance, but we're hoping to get it worked out pretty soon. In the meantime, we'll continue as we have been and just keep plugging along.

running on fumes

Things are going pretty smooth considering. Jake is a little on the jealous side, however, he's starting to come around. Ryan is mostly just concerned with how "the baby" is doing. He narrates everything I do, "mommy feed the baby" "mommy put the baby down" "mommy change the baby" and so on. Sleep is virtually non-existent. Jake still wakes up once or twice a night-a habit we're trying hard to break, and Kaleigh needs to eat every three hours. Needless to say, I'm running on auto-pilot right now. Otherwise, we're all doing great. Jake should be walking on his own by Christmas. He's a little tornado right now. He crawls into a room, destroys it, and moves on to the next room. There are times when I can't even see my floor due to the toys and books he tosses everywhere. Ryan did this too, so at least I know it's not permanent. Ryan is a little jabber-jaws. He talks non-stop and is just a great little person.

New addition

A while back, Joel and I decided we would like to become Foster parents. Soon after, we realized the high need for medical fosters- a home where kids can go if they are higher need, or have some medical issue whether it is long or short term. We've been waiting for the call for placement for a few months, and it finally happened. I got a call late Friday afternoon asking us to please take a preemie baby home from the NICU. She is now 2.5 months old and weighs just under 5lbs! She has a good demeanor-she mostly just sleeps. I would love to share pictures, but for legal reasons I can't, so you'll just have to trust me when I say she's a cute little peanut. We look forward to helping her grow strong enough to go home. But for now, it's fun to have some pink baby clothes in the laundry for a change.

Bubble Bath

Last night while I was filling the bath tub, Jake decided to reach over the side to play in the water. Apparently he was a bit top heavy because he flipped over the ledge and ended up face first in the bubbles and water. Thankfully I NEVER leave my kids alone in the tub, so it was a fraction of a second before I pulled him out. He wasn't even really upset-just anxious to get back in.

Visiting Santa

This last weekend Joel and I took the boys to the Medtronic Kids Christmas Party. They got to play games, dance with the DJ, and get their photo taken with Santa. They enjoyed it all except that whole Santa thing. Jake screamed and reached for his mommy, Ryan wouldn't stay in his arms, and when we finally got him to stay put they were both crying and squirming to get away. That should be a fun picture!

Powder Fresh Sleep

This afternoon I put the boys down for their naps. Then I went outside to play some fetch with the dogs. I came in about 15 minutes later and the kids were still talking and playing in their beds so I checked my email and started to clean the kitchen. It got quiet a little while later, so I opened the door to check on them. It appears that Ryan got ahold of the baby powder on the dresser, pried off the top, and went to town!! I have to admit that it was hard not to laugh out loud.

our "Best Friends"

A friend of ours and our former dog trainer came over for a visit and to show off her new baby girl. She insisted that I put these pictures on the blog....I assure you that no animals were harmed in the filming of these pictures...well maybe just their egos. This is Duke on Halloween last year, and Duchess on Halloween this year. They are our two "best friends" and we love them dearly, even if we dress them up once in a while!

Jake's Shiner

This morning, Jake woke me at his usual time of 5:45. I groggily (is that even a word?) protested until 6:15 when we went into the living room to play. After a few minutes of playing he pulled himself up on the coffee table, grabbed a book, and fell to his bottom. The corner of the book barely caught his eye, and he didn't even cry, but after just a few seconds his eyelid turned black and blue. I tried to get a picture, but it wasn't easy.

Little hoodlum

Ryan's favorite thing to do is climb. He can't get high enough fast enough. we got him some new hats and gloves for this coming winter, and he's really taken a fancy to them. At first he wouldn't even take them off!

Bed and Breakfast

This summer, I won a gift certificate to the Dakota Lodge in Hinkley, MN. They do murder mystery weekends there for groups of 6 or more. So after some arm twisting (very little....) my brother and his wife and mom and step-dad all went away for the weekend. We chose to do the Vegas Wedding Mystery, and tried to act the parts assigned. I was Ruby Lipps a Vegas Showgirl, and Joel was Rock King, a performer. It was a ton of fun, and very relaxing-especially since Joel's parents took the boys for the weekend. (thanks Bryce and Sharon) We are looking forward to doing more family getaways in the future and hope that Kennie and Bobby can join us on our next one!

New to blogging

I am new to this whole blogging thing, so please bear with me. I am going to try to keep this site current so those of you who live far away or I don' t talk to often can still find out what's going on and how our kids are doing. Please enjoy the pictures and email if you like. Here are the boys at Halloween. Ryan was a monkey-not a far stretch for him, and Jake was a dinosaur. They were in the parade at the nursing home in town, and we did a little trick or treating. They are still a little young to understand, but Ryan sure knows how to say "Candy"!