So, this week Kolby said he’d like to write our blog post for us, and I’m just going to type what he says:
I love my manta (blanket). And I love preschool. I like church because I love Jesus. I love my toys. My favorite toys are my cars, and my favorite car is my new car from Christmas. It is my favorite because I like it, because it makes noise. My other favorite toys are my trains. Making a train track is fun.
I’m going to write what our family did this week. On Monday we didn’t go to school because it was a holiday. On Tuesday it was Isaac’s doctor’s appointment, and Mommy’s doctor’s appointment. And Camden was sick that day. On tv we watched the parade for the new president. On Wednesday we went to the temple open house. The temple made me feel good, it was quiet and beautiful. My favorite part of the temple was the room with the baptismal font. Later we went to my piano lesson. I played three songs on the piano. And then on Thursday it was Eli’s birthday party. Before the party we decorated the house with balloons and ribbons. People came to Eli’s birthday party. Kaitlyn and Nikki, Chelsie and Emily, Paige, and my cousins, Jaden and Kyler, and aunt Mel and aunt Annette all came. When people came, we got out cars to play with. I played in a box too. After we played, we sang “Happy Birthday” to Eli and ate cake. It was a car cake. After everyone else left, Jaden stayed for a sleep-over. We played together and then we went to sleep. The next day we played and colored together. On Saturday I helped Mommy get some food out of the food storage. And I helped Daddy move the clothes because my brothers and I moved bedrooms. Today was Sunday. We hade stake conference at church, it was a special meeting where we listened to people talk. And that’s what we did this week.
Showing posts with label Kyler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kyler. Show all posts
25 January 2009
24 January 2009
Eli's 4th Birthday Party
So, we had Eli’s birthday party on Thursday (he will turn 4 on January 31st). I made a Lightning McQueen car birthday cake which turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. The boys were excited to help me curl ribbons and hang them from the ceiling, and to blow up balloons too. Since it was a Cars themed party, we got out the boys’ box of matchbox cars for all the kids to play with. We also got out several little boxes that the boys like to play with like they are garages for their cars, and a large box that we happened to have from the dishwasher that had to be replaced earlier this week. The kids enjoyed climbing in and out of that big box until it finally collapsed at the end of the night. Eli liked his cake and ice cream, and enjoyed the treat of drinking soda (we usually only get soda for birthday parties). And of course he had fun opening a few gifts from his friends, which he has been carrying around and having fun with the last couple of days since the party. Although it was a traditional Bradshaw family kid’s birthday party [lots of loud kids running around for the entire evening], the kids had fun and it was nice to see the parents and get to say hi to them too. You can tell from the pictures and video clips that Eli enjoyed the night – he has a big smile in every photo.
11 December 2008
Catching up on Photos
So, I’ve put off adding photos and videos to the blog now since just before Thanksgiving. All the boys are down for their naps right now, so maybe I’ll try to get caught up a bit.
Here are a few random shots from November:
Some plastic animal cracker jars from Costco that I’ve converted into food storage containers. I just cut up the bags from the food items that I wanted in the jars, then taped on the labels so it shows what is in each jar, and there is nutrition info on the back. I was pretty leased with how they turned out. (Now we’ll just see if the boys can eat enough animal crackers so that I can get a few more of these jars for food storage).
Here are a few random shots from November:
Some plastic animal cracker jars from Costco that I’ve converted into food storage containers. I just cut up the bags from the food items that I wanted in the jars, then taped on the labels so it shows what is in each jar, and there is nutrition info on the back. I was pretty leased with how they turned out. (Now we’ll just see if the boys can eat enough animal crackers so that I can get a few more of these jars for food storage).
A couple cute shots of Isaac and Camden in the bath when Kolby and Eli were at preschool one day.
One day Kolby and Eli’s friend, Hannah Johnson, came over to play for a little while after preschool. They played well together, but the boys got a little wild – showing off for their new friend. It was funny to watch them play, though, and see the obvious difference between boys and girls. Hannah had two of the Fisher Price “Little People” toys and was talking for them: “I love you,” “Why do you love me?” “Because I love you.” And then she made the people kiss. Eli, on the other hand, had a Little People bird and a crocodile which he was waving through the air (because the bird was helping the crocodile to fly) and every once in a while his animals would dive-bomb some of the other toys.
A rather unsuccessful attempt at pictures with Santa at the mall (we couldn’t even get Santa to look at the camera, let alone any of our boys). [Not that we would expect Isaac to sit with a strange man and smile for the camera].
When my family came for Thanksgiving, we met Michael at the hospital one day so that he could give everyone a tour of where he worked. These are of my brothers giving my boys piggy-back rides on our way into the hospital.
Michael wrapping a White Elephant gift for his work party that we went to.
And here are a couple shots of our boys with their cousins, Jaden and Kyler, on Thanksgiving at Grandma Bradshaw’s house.
20 October 2008
Catch-Up
Well, it’s been a few weeks now since we’ve written our “weekly” blog post because I’ve been busy having fun in San Diego with the boys for a month and Michael has been busy at the hospital on his ICU rotation, so I’m going to play a little catch-up now. I have lots of fun pictures from our trip, and a few video clips. Since I last wrote, a lot has happened. We took the boys to the beach when my brothers had a day off of school, we attended several playgroups at the fun splash park and big playground in 4S Ranch, my brother Matthew got his Eagle Scout, Kolby and Eli had lots of fun with their new friend, Brittany Giles, at the playgroups and swimming at Nana’s house, Isaac started to stand up without holding onto anything quite often, and he made us think that he was going to take his first step more than once in San Diego, my friend Sidney came over to the house a couple times for my mom to help her smock a blessing dress for her baby girl and the boys really enjoyed playing with her daughter Haley, my brother Aaron had his 14th birthday party and I found out that pregnant women are not allowed to play laser tag, my dad and I went shopping for my grandma’s birthday gift and he got me a cute shirt – it was fun to just hang out with him, we went out to an Italian restaurant downtown to celebrate Grandma Faun’s birthday, Camden got his second haircut ever – even though it’s not a really drastic looking change, I did take off 2 or 3 inches – and the boys warmed up to my parents’ dog (which they had been rather afraid of when we first got to San Diego), my mom got me some maternity jeans and three cute maternity shirts – thanks Mom!, Camden learned how to climb out of the playpen about a week before we left San Diego which made it rather difficult to figure out sleeping arrangements where he couldn’t get up and get into anything, mom and I got to go look at model homes (always fun), and we all got to spend lots of fun family time together.
Then on October 16th my Grandma and I drove back to Salt Lake. It was a long drive, and what made it seem even longer was the fact that about ½ an hour after we left Kolby needed to pee, then ½ an hour later Eli needed to, then Kolby, then Eli, etc. all the way to Las Vegas! After stopping for a quick dinner at In’N’Out and threatening the boys that they had better “get it all out” because we weren’t going to take any more potty breaks for a long, long time, we made it a whole 18 miles outside of Las Vegas before Eli started insisting that he really had to go again. After telling him that he couldn’t possibly need to go again that soon and trying to ignore him for about 10 or 15 minutes, I started to look for a good place to stop for him, and then he fell asleep and slept the rest of the way home, so that was nice. Kolby also slept until about an hour before we got home, and then he woke up telling us that he had to go right away. By the time we stopped and got him out of the car about 10 minutes later his shorts were all wet, and he told me that he just couldn’t keep it all in. Oh well. At least we made it home without any major problems.
The day after we got home Michael had a day off work at the E.R., and I took Camden for his 2-year check up, and I forgot that it was his first official appointment with this doctor since we moved here and so I had to go back home and get his immunization records from our old doctor in Milwaukee and then return for him to get his 2-year-old shots later in the afternoon. The doctor also ordered some blood work just to check for iron levels and lead – I guess she must do that for all new patients, because she had Isaac’s blood drawn after his first appointment there too – and I was amazed: Camden not only didn’t cry for the initial needle prick, the moving the needle back and forth in his arm for about a full minute before they got his vein, the blood draw, or the later shots, but he didn’t even make any noise at all. Amazing! Anyways, while we did that Michael started getting things unpacked and then vacuumed out the van when we got home. And while the boys napped I folded all their clean clothes from the trip and put away all the shorts and t-shirts in the storage bins and got out all their fall and winter clothes. After the boys got up from naps, we decided to take a break from getting things done and we all drove over to the Jordan River Parkway to take a fun walk and then play on the playground for a few minutes. Then we decided to go to Denney’s for dinner, a mistake which we probably won’t repeat – the restaurant was run down, the waiter messed up our order even though we were the only customers there for most of the time, and they were skimpy on the portions so we had to ask for more of things that normally come with the meals. But it was nice to go out together and not to have to cook or clean up afterwards.
When we drove home that night, Kolby said something pretty cute: He asked what it was called when things sleep in the daytime, and I said “Naps.” He said, “No, like when owls sleep in the day.” And I told him that was called nocturnal. And then he said, “Oh, so the moon and the stars, they’re nocturnal, huh?” He is such a little thinker.
On Saturday evening after Michael got home from work Grandma offered to watch the boys for us while we went to stock up on groceries. We got some bigger things at Costco and then went to WalMart for the rest. I got a bunch of different vegetables for a couple of big batches of soup that I am planning on making this week. One thing I like to do in the Fall and Winter is make a big stock pot of soup and have it for dinner, and then freeze the rest of it for several more easy and healthy dinners.
On Sunday Michael had to work. He says that a career in the E.R. would not be for him – there are so many patients who come into the emergency room with minor problems, either because they don’t have health insurance or because they are overly concerned parents who bring their babies in for a cough. Also, he said that patients are either discharged because they shouldn’t have come to the E.R. in the first place, or they have a real problem and they are treated and sent home or they are serious enough to be admitted to internal medicine, the ICU, or surgery, and then Michael, as an E.R. doctor, doesn’t get to find out what happens to them later on. That’s one thing he likes about dermatology, is that he gets to see patients and their families over time and watch their progress and build a relationship with them. Anyways, on Sunday after church we went down to Mel and Christian’s house in Lehi to celebrate Kyler’s 1st birthday. The boys had a lot of fun running around with Jaden, as always.
And today after taking Kolby to preschool, the other boys and I went to Wheeler Historic Farm for the playgroup that one of the other interns’ wives has organized. Melissa, the one organizing the playgroup, and her daughter Chloe were the only ones there. We had a great time taking pictures in the pumpkin patch, seeing all the animals, and letting the kids play in the little tree house there. After the playgroup we came home to pick up Kolby, then headed downtown to turn in my voter registration paper – we realized when we got back in town that today was the last day to turn in the registration. I am still unsure if I will be able to vote or not – I know that you have to have either a photo ID or proof of residency to vote, and I don’t have a Utah driver’s license because I decided not to pay for a Utah license and then turn around and pay for another one in New York next year, and since we are living with my grandma we don’t have any rent, mortgage, or utility bills that come in our names – and I don’t know if they will take junk mail or catalogs as proof of residency. Oh well, at least I’m registered now, so I can try to vote if they’ll let me.
Tonight I am going to try making spaghetti squash for dinner, so wish me luck. (Last time I tried it I did it in the oven and it took much, much longer than the label on the squash said it would so we were very hungry by the time we ate late, but my mom said that you could do it in the microwave for about 20 minutes, so that should be good if it works out this time). And then for our family home evening activity tonight I was thinking of going to a pumpkin patch (if we can find one) or at least getting some pumpkins at a store, because the boys need little pumpkins to paint in their preschool class this week. So that should be fun for them to go pick those out.
Oh, and we have been very lucky that Camden has not yet climbed out of his crib since we got back, even though he got very good at climbing out of his playpen in San Diego. Also, Isaac has officially been off the bottle for about 3 days now. And he took two steps in a row without falling down this afternoon – although I could only get him to take one step on the video afterwards. But it shouldn’t be too long before he really starts walking around. And his birthday is on Thursday, so we will officially have a 4 year old, a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and a 1 year old all at the same time for just over a week until Kolby will turn 5 on Halloween.
Well, my computer continues to have internet connection issues, so I’ll get this posted for now and then try to add the photos later.
Then on October 16th my Grandma and I drove back to Salt Lake. It was a long drive, and what made it seem even longer was the fact that about ½ an hour after we left Kolby needed to pee, then ½ an hour later Eli needed to, then Kolby, then Eli, etc. all the way to Las Vegas! After stopping for a quick dinner at In’N’Out and threatening the boys that they had better “get it all out” because we weren’t going to take any more potty breaks for a long, long time, we made it a whole 18 miles outside of Las Vegas before Eli started insisting that he really had to go again. After telling him that he couldn’t possibly need to go again that soon and trying to ignore him for about 10 or 15 minutes, I started to look for a good place to stop for him, and then he fell asleep and slept the rest of the way home, so that was nice. Kolby also slept until about an hour before we got home, and then he woke up telling us that he had to go right away. By the time we stopped and got him out of the car about 10 minutes later his shorts were all wet, and he told me that he just couldn’t keep it all in. Oh well. At least we made it home without any major problems.
The day after we got home Michael had a day off work at the E.R., and I took Camden for his 2-year check up, and I forgot that it was his first official appointment with this doctor since we moved here and so I had to go back home and get his immunization records from our old doctor in Milwaukee and then return for him to get his 2-year-old shots later in the afternoon. The doctor also ordered some blood work just to check for iron levels and lead – I guess she must do that for all new patients, because she had Isaac’s blood drawn after his first appointment there too – and I was amazed: Camden not only didn’t cry for the initial needle prick, the moving the needle back and forth in his arm for about a full minute before they got his vein, the blood draw, or the later shots, but he didn’t even make any noise at all. Amazing! Anyways, while we did that Michael started getting things unpacked and then vacuumed out the van when we got home. And while the boys napped I folded all their clean clothes from the trip and put away all the shorts and t-shirts in the storage bins and got out all their fall and winter clothes. After the boys got up from naps, we decided to take a break from getting things done and we all drove over to the Jordan River Parkway to take a fun walk and then play on the playground for a few minutes. Then we decided to go to Denney’s for dinner, a mistake which we probably won’t repeat – the restaurant was run down, the waiter messed up our order even though we were the only customers there for most of the time, and they were skimpy on the portions so we had to ask for more of things that normally come with the meals. But it was nice to go out together and not to have to cook or clean up afterwards.
When we drove home that night, Kolby said something pretty cute: He asked what it was called when things sleep in the daytime, and I said “Naps.” He said, “No, like when owls sleep in the day.” And I told him that was called nocturnal. And then he said, “Oh, so the moon and the stars, they’re nocturnal, huh?” He is such a little thinker.
On Saturday evening after Michael got home from work Grandma offered to watch the boys for us while we went to stock up on groceries. We got some bigger things at Costco and then went to WalMart for the rest. I got a bunch of different vegetables for a couple of big batches of soup that I am planning on making this week. One thing I like to do in the Fall and Winter is make a big stock pot of soup and have it for dinner, and then freeze the rest of it for several more easy and healthy dinners.
On Sunday Michael had to work. He says that a career in the E.R. would not be for him – there are so many patients who come into the emergency room with minor problems, either because they don’t have health insurance or because they are overly concerned parents who bring their babies in for a cough. Also, he said that patients are either discharged because they shouldn’t have come to the E.R. in the first place, or they have a real problem and they are treated and sent home or they are serious enough to be admitted to internal medicine, the ICU, or surgery, and then Michael, as an E.R. doctor, doesn’t get to find out what happens to them later on. That’s one thing he likes about dermatology, is that he gets to see patients and their families over time and watch their progress and build a relationship with them. Anyways, on Sunday after church we went down to Mel and Christian’s house in Lehi to celebrate Kyler’s 1st birthday. The boys had a lot of fun running around with Jaden, as always.
And today after taking Kolby to preschool, the other boys and I went to Wheeler Historic Farm for the playgroup that one of the other interns’ wives has organized. Melissa, the one organizing the playgroup, and her daughter Chloe were the only ones there. We had a great time taking pictures in the pumpkin patch, seeing all the animals, and letting the kids play in the little tree house there. After the playgroup we came home to pick up Kolby, then headed downtown to turn in my voter registration paper – we realized when we got back in town that today was the last day to turn in the registration. I am still unsure if I will be able to vote or not – I know that you have to have either a photo ID or proof of residency to vote, and I don’t have a Utah driver’s license because I decided not to pay for a Utah license and then turn around and pay for another one in New York next year, and since we are living with my grandma we don’t have any rent, mortgage, or utility bills that come in our names – and I don’t know if they will take junk mail or catalogs as proof of residency. Oh well, at least I’m registered now, so I can try to vote if they’ll let me.
Tonight I am going to try making spaghetti squash for dinner, so wish me luck. (Last time I tried it I did it in the oven and it took much, much longer than the label on the squash said it would so we were very hungry by the time we ate late, but my mom said that you could do it in the microwave for about 20 minutes, so that should be good if it works out this time). And then for our family home evening activity tonight I was thinking of going to a pumpkin patch (if we can find one) or at least getting some pumpkins at a store, because the boys need little pumpkins to paint in their preschool class this week. So that should be fun for them to go pick those out.
Oh, and we have been very lucky that Camden has not yet climbed out of his crib since we got back, even though he got very good at climbing out of his playpen in San Diego. Also, Isaac has officially been off the bottle for about 3 days now. And he took two steps in a row without falling down this afternoon – although I could only get him to take one step on the video afterwards. But it shouldn’t be too long before he really starts walking around. And his birthday is on Thursday, so we will officially have a 4 year old, a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and a 1 year old all at the same time for just over a week until Kolby will turn 5 on Halloween.
Well, my computer continues to have internet connection issues, so I’ll get this posted for now and then try to add the photos later.
24 June 2008
Cousins!
It has been lots of fun to visit with some of Michael’s family members since we’ve been here in Utah, especially for the boys to have fun with their cousins, Jaden and Kyler.
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08 June 2008
Getting Settled In
A lot has gone on for us this week. We arrived in Salt Lake on Tuesday, and on Thursday Mel and Christian came to help us unpack the furniture and heaviest boxes from the pod. That didn’t take too long, and then we got to enjoy playing some games with them while the boys ran around together and had lots of fun. We worked hard and got everything organized and unpacked, which feels nice. Now our biggest thing we have to get done is to find a car for Michael, since we ended up getting rid of his old one in Milwaukee.
This week we’ve had lots of fun getting settled in here. The boys have been great – they love having all the extra space to roam around, and they have actually been very good at playing or reading downstairs and entertaining themselves without getting into trouble while we’ve spent a lot of time unpacking. Hopefully that continues.
The day after we moved in a nice girl from church, Emily Harker, who lives just a couple houses away invited us over and we had fun getting to know her and letting our kids play together. The boys were especially excited that their new friends have a tree house and several kittens. We’ve also had a chance to get together with Faith and Tyce a couple times this week, since Faith’s sister lives not far from here. And yesterday afternoon I went down to Lehi to pick up Mel, then to Provo to pick up Annette, and we drove to Spanish Fork for Jenn’s baby shower. Although I made us quite late by getting lost on the way to Mel’s house, we had fun at the shower, and enjoyed seeing Jenn and Alan’s apartment afterwards too.
Church today was a little hard for me. We are so excited and grateful to be here staying with my grandma, but I have been thinking that I would have to try hard to make friends and not just be ‘that family who’s visiting for a while.’ So, in this ward they have the classes first and sacrament meeting last, and after I dropped Kolby off at his primary class I went into Relief Society. A nice lady who had a three-year-old girl in Eli and Camden’s nursery class had introduced herself to me, and when I walked in I sat near her. Since I came in just after class started because Kolby took a little longer to drop off since he was in a new class, she pointed out that I was new and they asked me to introduce myself. I stood up and said that I was Stephanie Bradshaw and that we had just moved from Milwaukee. And then I was so disappointed when they said, ‘Oh, you’re Faun’s granddaughter, the one with all the little boys, you’re just staying for the summer, right?’ I told them that we were here for a year. And I know that it doesn’t really matter, but I felt pretty bad -- just don’t want to be a temporary visitor that no one will take the time to really get to know because it’s not worth it to invest that much effort in building a friendship with someone who is just going to leave. I felt like there were a few younger women in the ward around my age, but other than the lady I sat next to and Emily (who is Camden and Eli’s nursery teacher, so she wasn’t in the class anyways), no one really talked to me at all except a couple people saying “Hi, we’re glad to have you here,’ as they walked by. And there was a nice lady named Diane who came and talked to Michael and I out in the hallway during sacrament meeting while we each had our kids out there (Who ever came up with the idea to have sacrament meeting last? They must not have had babies or toddlers!) I said a prayer that I would feel comforted, and I did feel better. I guess I’ll just have to really go out of my way to try to make friends. I suppose that friends are so important to me because since we got married we haven’t really lived close to family, especially for the last four years in Milwaukee, so we depended on our friends so much for all the things we would normally have depended on family for, and they really meant a lot to us, so I can’t stand the idea of putting my life on hold for a year until we get into our own place again to make good friends again. I guess I’ll just have to do something about that then, huh?
Hope you’re all doing well. We are really liking it here so far – it’s been great to be with Grandma and see some of Michael’s siblings again. And the rain of last week has let up for some nice, sunny days lately. The boys and I walked over to the school – about 2 houses down the street from us, and they played on the playgrounds and got excited that they would go there for preschool in the fall. This week we are looking forward to a fun trip with Tyce and Faith to Tyce’s grandmother’s cabin at Bear Lake. And Michael will be starting his orientation on the 16th, and that week there will be a few fun activities that our family can go too, so I am looking forward to going there and meeting the other residents and their families too.
30 January 2008
Utah
So, I haven't really kept up on posting photos to the blog since we've been out of town for so long. Tomorrow we are leaving San Diego, so I figured it's about time that I at least posted the photos from before we even arrived in San Diego. Here are some from our short stay in Utah for Jennie and Dalin's wedding. It was fun to see family while we were there -- especially Mel & Christian and Alan & Jenn (Michael's siblings and their spouses who live in Utah). It was fun for me to finally meet Jenn and for all of us to get to hang out with all the siblings. Kolby especially had fun palling around with his cousin, Jaden. Too bad we didn't get to spend more time with them. Here are a few photos from Jennie's wedding luncheon on January 4th.
Michael, Kolby, Camden, Stephanie, Alan, Jenn, and Jaden at the luncheon:
Jennie and her bridesmaids:
Kyler and Isaac had lots of fun napping together
(these little cousins were born only a few days apart):
Eli had fun hiding under a table:
Camden and his new best friend, Aunt Jenn, had fun walking
in circles around the gym after he was done eating:
21 October 2007
A Long Week of Doctor's Visits
This was a pretty long week for our family. Kolby wasn’t feeling well last weekend and had fevers for a few days, so I took him in to the doctor on Monday and they called us back on Tuesday to tell us that Kolby had strep throat. I was glad that we found that out early on in the week, because with strep throat you need to take antibiotics for 24 hours before you are no longer contagious, and we had a little birthday party planned for Kolby for Friday night. I really didn’t want to have to cancel the party, because not only would Kolby be disappointed, but I really thought it would be easier to have a party before the baby comes. So, I was glad that we got the medicine for Kolby so that he was no longer contagious, and that his brothers were not showing signs of being sick, so maybe there was a chance that just Kolby would get it and no one else in the family. But I was wrong. Camden woke up in the night with a low fever and I took him in to the doctor on Wednesday. Because Kolby had strep, they didn’t wait to get the culture back before starting Camden on the antibiotics, so he got the medicine so that he wouldn’t be contagious (although they never called back about the culture, which means that it was negative and he didn’t actually have strep throat). When we were in the office on Wednesday, I had the doctor look at Eli just to check him, even though he hadn’t shown any signs of being sick, and Dr. Papp said that his throat wasn’t even red at all. So then on Thursday morning Michael had a really bad sore throat and went to his doctor. They said that he wouldn’t hear back until Monday to see if his strep test was positive or not, but they started him on the medicine anyway. So he stayed home from work Thursday and Friday – so it was nice to have him around, except it would have been nicer if he had been feeling well. On Thursday (the day after the doctor said that his throat looked fine) Eli started having fevers too, and I took him into the doctor’s office that evening. His rapid strep culture came back positive immediately, showing that he did have strep. Luckily he got the antibiotics early enough that he was no longer contagious by the time of the birthday party the next night, so we didn’t have to cancel it. So, we had 4 sick boys at our house this week, and four different doctor’s visits – maybe next time one of my kids gets a contagious sickness like this I’ll insist that they write me prescriptions for each of the children so that we don’t have to go back all week long when each one catches it. At least I am doing pretty well – I have had a cough for the last few weeks that I just can’t seem to get over, but luckily I have no signs of catching what the boys have had. Kolby has acted fine all week, and the other boys haven’t been acting like they felt too bad, so that’s nice. Michael is finally starting to feel better today, the last few days were pretty rough for him.
Since Kolby had roseola when Eli was born and Kolby and Eli had strep throat when Camden was born, I kept wondering if we would stick to our pattern of the older children have a contagious illness whenever I have a new baby, but Isaac seems to be holding out to arrive after everyone at the house is healthy. I have had a few times this week when I felt contractions, once when I wondered if it might lead to labor, but even though they were strong and pretty close together, it didn’t last for too long. Michael’s sister, Mel, had her baby boy, Kyler, on Friday (her due date was supposed to be 3 days before mine), and I thought maybe Isaac would come that day too, but was kind of disappointed when the contractions stopped. But it won’t be too much longer – from today, there are 9 more days until my due date (11 days until I will be induced, if it goes that long). I can handle that – I feel like I’ve been very patient with this pregnancy, unlike my pregnancies so far when I have gotten to the last month and just couldn’t wait to have the baby right away. But I am still crossing my fingers that it will somehow work out for me to have the baby early or late enough so that I can participate in the Halloween celebrations with the kids. I was telling Michael this morning that Halloween is a big holiday. As far as rating holidays on how important/fun they are for me to experience them with our children (and not taking into account how significant I think the reasons for the holidays are or how much I enjoy spending time with Michael or other family on those holidays), I think that Halloween would be tied with the 4th of July, right after Christmas. [I don’t know if that made much sense – Michael asked me about Thanksgiving when I told him that, and I said that Thanksgiving is important and the kids enjoy certain traditions we have like decorating cookies to look like turkeys, but it is a holiday that we have always spent our married life with friends, and Halloween is all about our kids and nothing else. So, not to make any other holidays seem less important, but I really love watching our kids dress up in their costumes, carve pumpkins, and trick-or-treat, so I hope I don’t have to miss that].
Well, let’s see, what else did we do this week? On Monday, after we did a family home evening lesson with the boys, we went to the Hymas’ house for Chelsey’s birthday party. We got her a wand, tiara, and feather boa so that she could be her favorite princess – I have fun buying girly gifts for our friends’ kids, since I don’t get to pick out cute pink things that often. On Wednesday night Kolby had his swimming lessons.
After Kolby’s lesson we dropped the boys off at the Hedgecock’s house and had a fun, inexpensive date night. We went over to the Hymas’ house, and they had already put their girls down to bed, and we played Nintendo Wii games. Michael’s parents told us that they would give us some money if there was anything specific we wanted for a Christmas gift for our family, and Michael has been talking about a Wii video game system, which I was not so sure about. I thought it sounded like more fun than normal video games, because you use the remotes like sports equipment to play the games – so you are standing and swinging your arms like you are playing tennis, bowling, golfing, etc. I think that games like that are better than ones that you just sit in front of, and I would prefer sports games to any kind of violent video games, but I am still not a big fan of most video games because of the time that can be spent on them, and the cost. So the Hymases invited us to come try it out, and it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the tennis game the most, although I wasn’t the greatest at any of the games (and my arm was quite sore from swinging that remote for 3 days afterwards – I guess that shows how out of shape I am). But after playing that night, Michael said that he thought maybe we should choose something else for Christmas, because he thought a Wii might take up too much time, especially once he has a busier schedule when he starts his residency next year, and he hasn’t mentioned it since then. It was a really fun date night, though. I really don’t mind video games (the ones that aren’t violent), but I do prefer them at someone else’s house, so we can go and enjoy them, and then come home and not have the temptation of spending too much time playing them.
On Thursday afternoon I left the kids with Michael, since he was home sick, and went to my doctor’s appointment. [Hey if any of our friends here in Milwaukee are pregnant and looking for a good doctor, I would highly recommend Luverda Martin – she is a midwife at Froedtert Hospital. She has been great – I have had a different doctor or midwife with each pregnancy, and I will stick with Luverda from now on as long as we live here. When I first considered seeing a midwife, I wondered if it would be weird, but I thought I’d try it out and then just switch doctor’s if I didn’t like it. But my midwife is not weird at all – she has given me “normal” care like any doctor I’ve had – I’m not into herbal stuff or home remedies or things like water births, which I thought a midwife might suggest, and I was definitely not interested in someone who didn’t fully support my decision to have an epidural – and she has never suggested anything to me that seemed different than a normal doctor. She is very personable and she has always made herself easy to contact if I have any questions, and she has a couple young children of her own, so it doesn’t faze her at all when I bring all of my kids into the appointment with me. Anyway, I just think she’s great, so if anyone is looking for a good doctor, you have my recommendation.] Back to the point – I went in for my appointment on Thursday and all is well with the baby. I was measuring normal and she said that the baby’s heart rate is starting to go down a little, just like they would expect since the baby is preparing to be born. And I had her strip the membranes – which is supposed to help the baby come, if your body is ready for labor – I don’t know if I really think it helps or not. With Kolby they did it, and then he was induced a week later, so it didn’t seem to do anything. I don’t remember them doing it with Eli. And with Camden they did it and then he was born 2 days later (2 days before his due date). So, I figured it couldn’t hurt, but I haven’t gone into labor yet, so I guess it didn’t do much this time around. Oh well.
On Thursday night my friends threw me a little baby shower at Sandra Simon’s house. We had desserts and everyone just had fun socializing. I told them that I felt like we didn’t really need anything for the baby this time, so I didn’t need any gifts, but they decided to throw a “pamper Stephanie” party, and most people brought things like nice lotions and body washes and stuff like that, which was fun. It was really nice to get together with friends and have a fun night out, just talking, sharing stories about being a mother and wife, and laughing together.
On Friday Kolby got to go to school again after missing it all week because of his strep throat – he was really excited to go again. And that night we had the little birthday party for Kolby. Michael and I spent the whole day cleaning the house and preparing for the party – and I was pretty worn out by the end of the day (even though I know he felt pretty lousy with being sick, I’m glad Michael still found the energy to help me clean up, because it was a lot of work to get everything done that I wanted to, and it felt really nice after we had finished). Kolby was excited about his Tigger Halloween costume, and so when I asked him what he wanted for his party theme, he said Tigger. We took orange ribbons and curled them and hung them from the ceiling like bouncy Tigger tails, blew up balloons for the kids to play with, and played pin-the-tail-on-Tigger. I used half a container of yellow food coloring and half a container of red to turn the frosting for the cake a bright orange color like Kolby asked. And I got a little set of plastic Winnie the Pooh characters that I used to decorate the cake, and then the boys got to have them as toys afterwards. Kolby was so excited about his friends coming over and the gifts that he got. The one thing we forgot was to hand out the little goodie bags that the boys helped me make at the end of the party – so we still have a big bowl of goodie bags sitting out in our living room, I guess we will have to give the candy from the bags out to any trick-or-treaters that visit.
On Saturday morning I went to the church for our Super Saturday enrichment activity, and among other things I did a project where we etched our name on the bottom of our glass dishes. I think they turned out well, although I signed up to do 4 dishes when most other people just did 1, so it took me a lot longer than I had planned.
Church went pretty well. The boys did a good job. Camden has trouble because he gets so tired while we are at church – if we were at home he would just lay down in his crib and cry to sleep for a few minutes, but there is no place for that at church, so he kind of has a rough time. But what we heard of our lessons was good and Kolby’s and Eli’s teachers said that they both did well in their classes. Camden spit up a couple times at the end of church after he had his cup of milk – I am wondering if he has some kind of lactose intolerance. I mentioned to the doctor on Monday that he had started spitting up again for about a week, (which is strange because Camden spit up a lot with the formula, and then stopped entirely when we switched him to whole milk about 3 months ago). The doctor thought it might have something to do with him having a little cold or being sick this week (because milk can cause you to have more mucous when you have a cold), and suggested not giving him any milk for a few days to see if it stopped. I got a bottle of soy milk and he didn’t spit up once with that. But I figured that now since he is over his cold, he should be fine on whole milk again. I don’t know – I guess we’ll have to talk to the doctor about it and see what we need to do to find out if it is any kind of allergy or if it might be something else.
Well, there is a roast cooking for dinner and Michael is off home teaching right now. I can hear the boys in their rooms waking up from their naps. Tonight we are having a new family in the ward, the Gittins, over for dinner. They have a little boy and a little girl, so it should be fun for the kids to get together and for us to get to know them better. Hope you are all having a nice Sunday!
Since Kolby had roseola when Eli was born and Kolby and Eli had strep throat when Camden was born, I kept wondering if we would stick to our pattern of the older children have a contagious illness whenever I have a new baby, but Isaac seems to be holding out to arrive after everyone at the house is healthy. I have had a few times this week when I felt contractions, once when I wondered if it might lead to labor, but even though they were strong and pretty close together, it didn’t last for too long. Michael’s sister, Mel, had her baby boy, Kyler, on Friday (her due date was supposed to be 3 days before mine), and I thought maybe Isaac would come that day too, but was kind of disappointed when the contractions stopped. But it won’t be too much longer – from today, there are 9 more days until my due date (11 days until I will be induced, if it goes that long). I can handle that – I feel like I’ve been very patient with this pregnancy, unlike my pregnancies so far when I have gotten to the last month and just couldn’t wait to have the baby right away. But I am still crossing my fingers that it will somehow work out for me to have the baby early or late enough so that I can participate in the Halloween celebrations with the kids. I was telling Michael this morning that Halloween is a big holiday. As far as rating holidays on how important/fun they are for me to experience them with our children (and not taking into account how significant I think the reasons for the holidays are or how much I enjoy spending time with Michael or other family on those holidays), I think that Halloween would be tied with the 4th of July, right after Christmas. [I don’t know if that made much sense – Michael asked me about Thanksgiving when I told him that, and I said that Thanksgiving is important and the kids enjoy certain traditions we have like decorating cookies to look like turkeys, but it is a holiday that we have always spent our married life with friends, and Halloween is all about our kids and nothing else. So, not to make any other holidays seem less important, but I really love watching our kids dress up in their costumes, carve pumpkins, and trick-or-treat, so I hope I don’t have to miss that].
Well, let’s see, what else did we do this week? On Monday, after we did a family home evening lesson with the boys, we went to the Hymas’ house for Chelsey’s birthday party. We got her a wand, tiara, and feather boa so that she could be her favorite princess – I have fun buying girly gifts for our friends’ kids, since I don’t get to pick out cute pink things that often. On Wednesday night Kolby had his swimming lessons.
After Kolby’s lesson we dropped the boys off at the Hedgecock’s house and had a fun, inexpensive date night. We went over to the Hymas’ house, and they had already put their girls down to bed, and we played Nintendo Wii games. Michael’s parents told us that they would give us some money if there was anything specific we wanted for a Christmas gift for our family, and Michael has been talking about a Wii video game system, which I was not so sure about. I thought it sounded like more fun than normal video games, because you use the remotes like sports equipment to play the games – so you are standing and swinging your arms like you are playing tennis, bowling, golfing, etc. I think that games like that are better than ones that you just sit in front of, and I would prefer sports games to any kind of violent video games, but I am still not a big fan of most video games because of the time that can be spent on them, and the cost. So the Hymases invited us to come try it out, and it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the tennis game the most, although I wasn’t the greatest at any of the games (and my arm was quite sore from swinging that remote for 3 days afterwards – I guess that shows how out of shape I am). But after playing that night, Michael said that he thought maybe we should choose something else for Christmas, because he thought a Wii might take up too much time, especially once he has a busier schedule when he starts his residency next year, and he hasn’t mentioned it since then. It was a really fun date night, though. I really don’t mind video games (the ones that aren’t violent), but I do prefer them at someone else’s house, so we can go and enjoy them, and then come home and not have the temptation of spending too much time playing them.
On Thursday afternoon I left the kids with Michael, since he was home sick, and went to my doctor’s appointment. [Hey if any of our friends here in Milwaukee are pregnant and looking for a good doctor, I would highly recommend Luverda Martin – she is a midwife at Froedtert Hospital. She has been great – I have had a different doctor or midwife with each pregnancy, and I will stick with Luverda from now on as long as we live here. When I first considered seeing a midwife, I wondered if it would be weird, but I thought I’d try it out and then just switch doctor’s if I didn’t like it. But my midwife is not weird at all – she has given me “normal” care like any doctor I’ve had – I’m not into herbal stuff or home remedies or things like water births, which I thought a midwife might suggest, and I was definitely not interested in someone who didn’t fully support my decision to have an epidural – and she has never suggested anything to me that seemed different than a normal doctor. She is very personable and she has always made herself easy to contact if I have any questions, and she has a couple young children of her own, so it doesn’t faze her at all when I bring all of my kids into the appointment with me. Anyway, I just think she’s great, so if anyone is looking for a good doctor, you have my recommendation.] Back to the point – I went in for my appointment on Thursday and all is well with the baby. I was measuring normal and she said that the baby’s heart rate is starting to go down a little, just like they would expect since the baby is preparing to be born. And I had her strip the membranes – which is supposed to help the baby come, if your body is ready for labor – I don’t know if I really think it helps or not. With Kolby they did it, and then he was induced a week later, so it didn’t seem to do anything. I don’t remember them doing it with Eli. And with Camden they did it and then he was born 2 days later (2 days before his due date). So, I figured it couldn’t hurt, but I haven’t gone into labor yet, so I guess it didn’t do much this time around. Oh well.
On Thursday night my friends threw me a little baby shower at Sandra Simon’s house. We had desserts and everyone just had fun socializing. I told them that I felt like we didn’t really need anything for the baby this time, so I didn’t need any gifts, but they decided to throw a “pamper Stephanie” party, and most people brought things like nice lotions and body washes and stuff like that, which was fun. It was really nice to get together with friends and have a fun night out, just talking, sharing stories about being a mother and wife, and laughing together.
On Friday Kolby got to go to school again after missing it all week because of his strep throat – he was really excited to go again. And that night we had the little birthday party for Kolby. Michael and I spent the whole day cleaning the house and preparing for the party – and I was pretty worn out by the end of the day (even though I know he felt pretty lousy with being sick, I’m glad Michael still found the energy to help me clean up, because it was a lot of work to get everything done that I wanted to, and it felt really nice after we had finished). Kolby was excited about his Tigger Halloween costume, and so when I asked him what he wanted for his party theme, he said Tigger. We took orange ribbons and curled them and hung them from the ceiling like bouncy Tigger tails, blew up balloons for the kids to play with, and played pin-the-tail-on-Tigger. I used half a container of yellow food coloring and half a container of red to turn the frosting for the cake a bright orange color like Kolby asked. And I got a little set of plastic Winnie the Pooh characters that I used to decorate the cake, and then the boys got to have them as toys afterwards. Kolby was so excited about his friends coming over and the gifts that he got. The one thing we forgot was to hand out the little goodie bags that the boys helped me make at the end of the party – so we still have a big bowl of goodie bags sitting out in our living room, I guess we will have to give the candy from the bags out to any trick-or-treaters that visit.
On Saturday morning I went to the church for our Super Saturday enrichment activity, and among other things I did a project where we etched our name on the bottom of our glass dishes. I think they turned out well, although I signed up to do 4 dishes when most other people just did 1, so it took me a lot longer than I had planned.
Church went pretty well. The boys did a good job. Camden has trouble because he gets so tired while we are at church – if we were at home he would just lay down in his crib and cry to sleep for a few minutes, but there is no place for that at church, so he kind of has a rough time. But what we heard of our lessons was good and Kolby’s and Eli’s teachers said that they both did well in their classes. Camden spit up a couple times at the end of church after he had his cup of milk – I am wondering if he has some kind of lactose intolerance. I mentioned to the doctor on Monday that he had started spitting up again for about a week, (which is strange because Camden spit up a lot with the formula, and then stopped entirely when we switched him to whole milk about 3 months ago). The doctor thought it might have something to do with him having a little cold or being sick this week (because milk can cause you to have more mucous when you have a cold), and suggested not giving him any milk for a few days to see if it stopped. I got a bottle of soy milk and he didn’t spit up once with that. But I figured that now since he is over his cold, he should be fine on whole milk again. I don’t know – I guess we’ll have to talk to the doctor about it and see what we need to do to find out if it is any kind of allergy or if it might be something else.
Well, there is a roast cooking for dinner and Michael is off home teaching right now. I can hear the boys in their rooms waking up from their naps. Tonight we are having a new family in the ward, the Gittins, over for dinner. They have a little boy and a little girl, so it should be fun for the kids to get together and for us to get to know them better. Hope you are all having a nice Sunday!
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