Almost a Year

I can't believe Kenneth will be a year in just over 2 weeks. My little boy, sure isn't so little anymore. Kenneth has been such a blessing in our home, we sure love him. He is crawling everywhere, he especially loves the stairs and has recently figured out how to crawl down them too, so proud. He loves to eat mostly anything, but it is still a challenge with only 2 bottom teeth, I keep waiting for the rest to show up...anyday now (at least that's what I tell myself - by Drew's 1st bday he had 13 teeth, so it's a big difference). He takes 2 naps a day, one around 11:30am, and the other at about 3:30pm. He loves to play with his brother, these two have great times together. He likes Little People toys - he could play with them all day long. Will stand by himself only if distracted, he doesn't trust himself yet, but if you give him a toy while standing he will stand for about 10-30 seconds until he realizes no one is holding onto him and so he will slowly sit back down. Looks like he will just turn away from the sofa and walk, but doesn't....yet. Is super smiley all the time, and a very calm little guy. Basically, he's awesome and I love him! Here are a couple photos to help get you updated on his super-cuteness.

Water Boy

Drew is my little water boy! This kid LOVES it! If he could he would spend all day outside spraying my car, watering the lawn, "cleaning" rocks, and on occassion get mom and dad all wet! Whenever we take him outside, he heads straight for the water spout turns it on and away he goes. On this particular day, apparently it was more fun to clean the inside of his boots than just spray the water.

Making sure he has a tight fit

Fill 'er Up When that's not fun anymore find a nice dirty rock and try to "clean" it (this happens to be one of his favorite things to do in water)

When that's not fun anymore, just throw the rock

Dentist

Andrew had his very first dentist appt on July 17th, and I have to tell you, he did A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I was shocked (and so was the hygenist). The Hygenist was great, she showed Drew all the tools she would be using, which was a big help to ease some anxiety, being able to understand that the tools she used made noise, but that they didn't hurt. She even let Drew squirt water in a cup and then suck it back up - that was of course his favorite part. With Drew sitting in my lap, we leaned him back and Dr. Kammack was able to get a full evaluation and all his teeth are looking fantastic. He also let the hygenist clean his teeth - without the toothpaste for reason 1. It tastes disgusting and 2. Drew doesn't understand how to wait and spit, he just swallows whatever is in his mouth, and we didn't want him ingesting that much flouride. I must say though, all in all it was a huge success!

Getting to squirt water into the cup

Letting the hygenist clean his teeth

Rinse and Spit

Photo Enslaught

We have been really busy lately, but here are photos of our growing boys

A smiling baby boy to get you started off
We have the opportunity to attend my best friend Kasey's wedding September 25th in Stevenson, WA (absolutely beautiful), and this is Andrew strutting his stuff!

This is what Andrew did when we woke him up to go somewhere...he got strapped in his car seat and put the blanket over his head so he could go back to sleep.

NOT WHAT I WANTED TO FIND IN MY SON'S ROOM RIGHT BEHIND HIS DOOR......this picture is not zoomed in...the spider was really THAT BIG!!!

HE WAS HUGE!!!!!! (I freaked out, thankfully Jon was home and killed it, and no worries, we called the exterminator and now we have no more spiders)!!

This was sooo funny, I went out and got the mail and I sat down on the couch to look for the deals, and Andrew came up grabbed the grocery newspaper, went and sat down in this chair and read it. This kid is hilarious!!!

Another funny day. To understand why this is funny. (our bedroom door has a door that connects our room to the kids' room (so I don't have to walk around the house to get into his room) and we don't have doorknobs on our doors yet, so to keep andrew in his room when he is taking a nap we wedge an extra piece of base into the bottom of the door). So to explain the picture, I put Andrew down for a nap and "pinned" the door closed so he couldn't get out. I heard him climb out of his crib and start playing with his toys. I thought, it's okay he's in his room and he's not crying, so I was okay with it. Then I didn't hear him at all, so I figured I would go check on him. Being as quite as I could I unwedged the door in my room, and as I opened it, I saw Andrew SOUND ASLEEP inbetween both doors, with the blankets over his face. It was soo funny, and hey he was asleep so I just let him stay there until he woke up from his nap.

This is what I first saw when I opened my bedroom door.

A clearer picture of what he looked like (he was still asleep when I took all these pictures)

Kenneth sleeping...he does a lot of this

Chilling in his bassinet

I pretty much have the cutest boys EVER! And yes they are in matching Sunday outfits, I didn't do it on purpose. I found Kenneth's first and loved it and after looking at all my options for ones in Andrew's size I found the same one (not realizing it was the same one I picked out for Drew). It just goes to show I know what I like!

I don't know why, but I LOVE this picture! He's so stinking cute.

Andrew giving his brother some lovin'.

He has really beautiful blue eyes

In the Zone.

So that's it, photo update of our boys!

Prayers

Last night before putting our son Andrew to bed, we said our family prayers, and Jon decided we would let Andrew actually say them (for the first time) and I would lead him in the prayer. So we start out great, Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the day, thank you for our family (and so on) and Andrew was doing GREAT, he was repeating everything I said until it came to the end. I started closing the prayer by saying Name and before I could keep going my son pops in and says DREW!!! Trying to hold back my laughter I started again, in (andrew copies, in) the (copies again, the) and then I say NAME and without hesitation Andrew again says DREW!!! By this time both my husband and I can hardly control our laughter as we finish the prayer with Jesus Christ Amen...

Kids say the darndest things, and I am grateful for my sweet son who knows his name is DREW!!!!! :)

Kenneth Blake Has Arrived

This post is a little late, but our son Kenneth Blake entered this world, on Wednesday August 18th, 2010 @ 9:28am. He weighed 9lbs 9 oz and he was 21 1/2" long...not to mention perfect!

We are so grateful to have another sweet spirit in our home. He has brought more happiness and love into our lives!

LABOR STORY (if you don't care, skip to the pictures)

I woke up around 4am wednesday morning to what felt like contractions. After 2 contractions, I decided to wake Jon up...

"Hey Jon, I think we might be going into labor....

Jon - "Well, are you having contractions..

I think so...

Jon - Tell me when your next one is and we'll time it

Okay....waiting, waiting waiting, no contraction....Jon falls back asleep....and then another contraction starts

Babe I'm having a contraction

Jon - (times the contraction)
They are coming about 10 minutes apart. We decide it is probably a good idea to head to the hospital.

- We call my mom and let her know we are headed to the hospital and that we would drop Andrew off on our way. (mind you I knew I was having contractions, but they weren't super painful yet)

- My mom calls back and lets us know she will just come over so we don't have to move Andrew.

- Around 4:45am, my mom arrives and Jon and I head to the hospital (by this point, my contractions were only 2 minutes apart and lasting for 1 minute)

5am: We arrive and get checked into the hospital where I was told I was 7cm dilated...WAHOO (i thought), I'm almost done and my contractions are still pretty bearable.

6:30am: My doctor arrives and everyone expects a baby within about 45 minutes, so the nurse checks me to see how close to 10cm I am, and to my horror I hear her say "I don't know what those other nurses were feeling, but she is only 5cm dilated...yes 5!!!!!!!

I feel terrible...It had been over an hour and a half since I was told I was a 7, and so I'm thinking I'm almost done, and yet it turns out I am only 5cm...it was awful. :(

At this point I decide to labor in the tub which really seemed to help.

I stay in there about an hour and at 8am we decide it's time to be checked again and break my water.

8:08am: I am 7cm dilated and they break my water.

All I remember during the last hour of my labor was being in a lot of pain (wishing I had some drugs), however I was almost done, and had already chosen to do it natural.

During the last hour my contractions were very hard and crazy! I would have a contraction that lasted a minute, and then I would have a 2 minute break, and then I would have something like a 4-6 minute contraction, where there was no break, and it just kept peaking. My nurses were shocked, and all I kept hearing was "she's not getting a break, her contractions are constant and one on top of the other." All I was thinking as I'm listening to this is, I know, I know, it hurts - I want this baby out!

Then around 9:20am I was allowed to push and after only 3 pushes (It only took 8 minutes because at that point my contractions had, in my opinion, stopped, and so finally I just decided to push without one) baby Kenneth was out!!

And HERE he is!

Kenneth Blake 9lbs 9oz, 21 1/2" long.

A very tired, but happy mommy!

Proud big brother

Super cute!

Sleeping

Super Stressed

I just need to express my stress in hopes that maybe letting it out this way will help me to feel a little better.

LIFE IS CRAZY BUSY!!!!!

For those of you who don't know, let me express my stressful situation. My beautiful baby boy (I'm sure he's going to be just as handsome as his older brother) is due on Friday, yes THIS Friday, in 2 days, Friday, and well here's to hoping he holds off for another week. I know most moms can't wait to get there babies out, and while I do want this little guy out of me (so I can work on getting my old body back and being able to move normally), I wouldn't mind him staying in just a little bit longer so I can have time to finish the things on my "to do" list. The next week and a half are going to be really busy, emotionally & physically draining, and well...I'm just not looking forward to them. So while I am hoping my son decides to stay put in mommy's tummy for a while longer, we (Jon and I) are putting final touches on our house....doors, hooking up the water, carpet, painting the outside of the house, finishing the electrical panel (just making it look nice), cleaning up the outside of the house, and a couple more little odds and ends. We have our appraisal on the house tentatively scheduled for next tuesday, we have locked in our interest rate which means we must close by the 10th of September...we also gave our landlord notice at the beginning of this month that we would be out by the 21st (next saturday)! I am also trying to pack our house, which is difficult, being so pregnant, cause I can't lift anything!!! It is really frustrating trying to pack and not being able to move things around...oye! Like I said, crazy busy!

So, all in all:

• Here's to hoping the baby stays in at least another week
• Our house is Miraculously finished by Tuesday so it appraises for what we need it too
• We can get occupancy and move our stuff into the house by next Friday.
• I get the house packed and cleaned out by Saturday, when our landlord is coming to check us out
  And I stay completely sane the whole week while all this is happening

(and just a quick word of advice, don't try to finalize, close, and move out and in of a house when you are due...it's been an emotional roller coaster)!!!