Happy St. Patty's Day!

What a BEAUTIFUL day it is today! I'm hoping to get all the kids outside to play. We all have on our head bopper headbands with clovers on them - check out our picture below! I love Oriental Trading - they have really cute (and cheap!) stuff. I was able to get a dozen bopper headbands, a dozen pots of gold plus a bag of chocolate coins to put in them, a dozen little green mugs and a dozen tissue paper clovers for the kids to make for about $25 - not bad! Miss Maddie has on her St. Patty's Day outfit too which of course is totally cute. :o) I always talk about how our cat Haley is Irish (not really sure why I do) and it drives Travis crazy. So last night I told him to make sure he tells Haley "Happy Irish Day" when he got up this morning - he basically told me I was a weirdo, but he used words that I can't really share with you all to communicate that to me.
Our weekend was pretty good!

Tracy and her kids came home for a bit on Saturday so we all ran in town to the DQ for a treat from Grandma Joanne - good stuff! Grandma also bought the kids each a kite - it was perfect weather for kite flying!! Oh and Lexi got her ears pierced too - this is like the 3rd or 4th time now so we'll see if it lasts.

Now that Kiegan's signed up for baseball, we've been trying to practice with him so the boys & I went to the backyard later Saturday afternoon to hit some balls around. We need to buy Patrick his own bat & glove I think - Kiegan's bat is way too heavy for his poor skinny arms and the gloves we have are about as big as he is! So he didn't play with us for very long. :o(

We had our family pictures taken on Sunday - they turned out good. Of course I don't like how I look in them, but what's new? I was so irritated too b/c when I got ready that morning I really thought I looked nice - I liked my hair and my makeup - I really felt good! But then when we saw our pictures afterwards, I looked like crap - a big FAT pile of crap. The others looked good though! Maddie wasn't really smiling much in it, but she's cute even when she doesn't smile. We did get some pics of just her by herself and they turned out really cute - we could have gone crazy buying the different poses, but we controlled ourself. Pictures are so expensive! And of course their computer server went down so I can't even send you all to their website to view them. They said that they might have their server back up in 2-3 weeks. Anyway, we can pick our pictures up on the 24th so I'll try to scan them and put them on here for everyone to see.

Travis' dad gave him a welder over the weekend and Travis just loves it! He welded a hook thing on a post to hang my bird feeder on and he welded a broken sign of mine back together for me - he's so crafty with his new toy! Saturday is Flanagan's town "junk sale" as I like to call it and he's hoping to find a bunch of junk that he can weld together and make it look like new again. That could be interesting! Another "to do" for his list......he still hasn't finished our bathroom! He has also mentioned that he would like to buy some fence and posts and fence off the play area in the backyard for the daycare kids - I would love for him to do that! So we'll see how long this task takes to get done. :o)

The countdown is on for our weekend at Grand Bear Lodge! We leave two weeks from this Friday. The kids are VERY excited! Grandma Joanne told the kids that they didn't need to bring their Nintendo DS that weekend and I honestly think Kiegan went into a panic about that. Then she said that they could bring them for the ride there and that seemed to be ok. These boys of ours are game freaks - they will sit for hours on end playing either the Wii or their Nintendo DS. Reminds me of how I was when I was their age!

I'm sure you all know what a genius Maddie is going to be simply b/c she has me for a mom, right? Well, she is already showing how smart she is! A few weeks back I was putting her PJ's on her getting ready for bed and all of a sudden, loud and clear she says "HI!". Travis & I looked at each other and then looked at her and said "Hi" back and then busted out laughing. We thought for sure that was just a one-time thing, but I guess when she stayed with Grandma Joanne and Grandpa John she said it again and they both heard it! AND one night when Grandma Joanne was at our house visiting, Maddie counted to four on her fingers! FOR REAL! One at a time she held up her fingers until she counted to four. It was so funny....she is definitely "talking" more to us and I've even found her tickle spot and can get a giggle out of her every now and then, but I feel bad tickling her so I don't do it very often. I know I hate being tickled and I'm able to fend it off, but she can't! Oh yeah - our long-legged brunette is now wearing size 6-month clothes. A few of her 3-6 month clothes still fit her, but we're mostly pulling out of the 6-month pile now.

That's all for now - enjoy the pics!





I love the little fat rolls on the thighs....


Soooo looooong!


Yep - I'm cute!


Happy St. Patrick's Day!


Very serious moment....


Yes, that's drool.....

HELLO!

This is what she does with her hands when she's eating - balls them up into tight little fists!

2 1/2 months old already!

Maddie is 10 weeks old today! Hard to believe....she's growing like a weed too! At her two-month check-up she weighed 13 lbs. 3 oz. and was 26 inches long!! She's grown 6 inches in just 2 months - no wonder she's outgrowing her clothes so quickly! She's wearing her 3-6 month clothes now and only has about 2 more inches to grow before she'll be too long for her 6 month clothes. I definitely think she'll be tall like Daddy. She is still an excellent baby - she sleeps all night now! Her bedtime is still between about 9:30-10:00 and she'll sleep until around 5:30. When she wakes up, she nurses for about 10-15 minutes and is then back asleep until usually 8:00-8:15 or so. My kinda baby!! She also smiles like crazy now (I'm just waiting for her to bust out in a laugh one of these times) and wants to always sit up so she can see what all is going on. She has strong legs too! She's always standing on them if you hold her up on your lap.

Travis & I did have our first night out this past Saturday! We went to a comedy night at The Elk's Club that the Pontiac Firemen were putting on. There was a big group of us that went for drinks (I had my one beer), dinner and laughs and boy did we all laugh! It was absolutely hilarious!! Travis had a headache by the time it was over from laughing so hard - we definitely plan on going next year. I think some of the older people there were a bit put-off by some of the language, but I'm not sure what they were expecting since these were professional comedians. Oh well - we had a great time! Maddie stayed with Grandma Joanne and I knew they would get along perfectly fine. All week long I was convincing Travis that we were ok to go out and have some fun. He kept saying how he wasn't sure if he was ready to leave her yet. I think he was glad he went, but we were both ready to get her back home by the end of the night! :o)

Daycare is going very well! My daycare kids are so stinkin' funny - I have one little girl that is 2 1/2 years old with the funniest imagination. Her mom has also told me how she has named one of her babies at home "Maddie Moose" - I wonder where she picked that up at? :o) Her mom also shared with me last night that when she gets in trouble for something at home, she'll tell her parents "Heather says 'yes'". So funny! I took all the kids outside for a little bit last Friday - it was so darn nice out that I just had to get them out in the sun. Our swingset is leaning really badly and I was nervous to let them play on it so we all just held hands (well, I held Maddie) and made two trips around the yard. They were so cute b/c I had them all hold hands (I had 7 or 8 kids that day) and they were all holding hands in different ways so some of them had to walk backwards and some were walking sideways and when cars would drive by they would honk at the kids and boy did they think that was so funny!! I've also received 2 requests this week for daycare which is encouraging. AND one of my current daycare moms has told me that she told her husband that they would not be having another baby unless I had the room in my daycare - what a compliment to me! It was nice to hear after some of the problems I've been having with another daycare provider in Pontiac. For some reason this lady has targeted me and likes to run her mouth. It's getting bad enough that I'm thinking about having a little talk with her - I've been biting my tongue long enough. I certainly don't bother other daycares or get into their business, but I've heard that there are a handful of daycare providers in Pontiac that are just out to get others. I'll never understand people.....

In other family news - we get family pictures taken on Sunday! I've been trying to get better about pictures. I think we're all just going to wear jeans and something nice on top - Lord knows we're not the fancy clothes kind of family! Plus Maddie has the cutest jeans!! Hopefully I can post one of the pics after we get them taken.

Kiegan has been signed up for baseball - he'll start practicing in April. He is VERY excited about it!! We think all the running will be great exercise for him. Also, Kiegan will be having some Auditory Processing evaluations done at ISU either this summer or early Fall. Cross your fingers that we can get him the help he needs to make school and learning easier!

Lexi has her last volleyball game tonight. She told us the other night that she signed up at school to play volleyball for St. Mary's next year. We're hoping this will be incentive for her to keep her grades up - they are NOT good at the moment. Lexi heads to a specialist next month to do something for all of the nasty warts she has on her feet. We've already tried having them froze off and that did nothing and now she has like 800 more! I wonder if stinky feet bring on warts?? This girl's feet smell AWFUL!!

Patrick is finishing up some eye therapy appointments that are suppose to help with his lazy eye. He also got another pair of glasses that are now bifocals - they seem to think this will help with his vision.

That's all the news for now - let's start praying for warmer weather!!

Her face cracks me up in this one (she's sleeping of course, not blinking).

On the road to being healthy....

We were able to bring Maddie home Sunday before lunch time! She slept pretty well through the night Saturday and they took her off the oxygen at Midnight, but I was still up at 1:00 am. I just can't seem to sleep in the hospital for some reason. Plus the nurses were coming in constantly checking her vitals and giving her breathing treatments. Travis slept at home - he's just too big to be able to be comfortable there. Plus with his Bronchitis - he needed to be able to get some good rest. The nurses we had were all great. One in particular hooked us up with some free formula and infant water and she even had a couple of $5 off coupons for the formula I've been supplementing with. She also took Maddie's IV out Sunday morning and I immediately scooped her up and held her which was so nice because it was impossible to hold her closely with everything sticking out of her. Travis held her very little while she was in the hospital b/c of the fact that he was also sick, but I think he held her almost all of Sunday afternoon to make up for it!

As this week has gone on, I can tell that she's slowly getting better. She's not wheezy anymore when she breathes and her chest rattles very little now. She was coughing more than usual yesterday, but now today it's been very little. She is definitely staying awake a lot longer during the day which is fun! Last night she fell asleep for the night around 10:00 and didn't wake up until about 5:00 so that was good! She also smiles a lot when we talk to her and it's so stinkin' cute. I keep trying to get a picture of her smiling, but it's just not working out for me. Her hands also seem to be going into her mouth quite often when she's awake so I'm wondering if we're gonna have a thumb sucker on our hands? Daddy will not like that!! She has her 2-month check in a couple of weeks. It was suppose to be this coming Monday, but they won't give her any shots while she's sick so it was rescheduled to early March. I'm curious to see how much more she weighs (she's 12 lbs. 3 oz. now) and just how long she is. The outfit I put on her yesterday was too short and I'm having the same problem with her outfit today and they're both 3-month outfits!! So I may have to pull out the 3-6 month clothes that I put away.

We don't have much coming up this weekend besides a volleyball game. Travis & I might have our V-day dinner that we weren't able to make, but that's about it!

Enjoy the pics!!

A few bathtime pics:

This one cracks me up - her big ol' belly, fists and tough girl face:

So sweet......

All the daycare kids I had today (a couple of them were smiling goofy for me):

Me & my high-waters.....

Maddie's first Valentine's Day - a visit to the ER!

Well, this has been the longest Valentine's Day ever!! I think I mentioned in a previous blog that Maddie had her first cold. She's been congested and coughing most of the week, but it never seemed too serious until she woke up around 3:00 this morning. I was already awake because Travis was having a coughing fit and her breathing suddenly sounded very odd - almost like she was stuttering and I could tell that she was struggling to breathe. So I picked her up and rocked her and she was acting like she was hungry so I nursed her for a bit and she seemed to fall back asleep, but then her breathing started sounding horrible again so I start heading downstairs where Travis was hacking his head off and she suddenly spits up everything she just ate down my shoulder and back which is not like her at all. I told Travis that I think she needed to be seen by a doctor and of course we had the older three kids upstairs sleeping; so he stayed home with them and I headed to the ER with Maddie. Her breathing the whole way there was making me a nervous wreck - I could really tell that she was working hard to breathe. We got to the ER and they admitted us and this is when the real fun started! The nurses that were working were fantastic - they were so sweet to Maddie and very kind to me, but they had quite a few problems doing what they needed to do b/c Maddie's veins and all are so small. First, they wanted to put in a cathedar to get a urine specimen and the nurse tried 2 or 3 times and couldn't get it so she called in another nurse who was finally able to. Not fun! Then they wanted to start an IV line - yippee. They put this cream stuff that would numb her skin on three different spots so that they had three different spots to choose from and of course trying to put an IV line in a baby's vein is not easy so it took multiple times to finally get it, but once they did I noticed that it was leaking so while they were trying to fix the leak they accidentally pulled the IV out!! NNNNOOOOOO!!!!! So then they had to put another one in, but in the other arm this time and they didn't bother to use any numbing stuff. That took a new nurse to finally get the job done. THEN they wanted to draw blood which I thought they could just use the IV, but nope - they used the opposite arm and the girl stuck and stuck her poor little arm and finally the girl was able to get some blood for two vials. BUT apparently it wasn't enough b/c another nurse came back in later to draw some more blood!! Finally, that was all done and they admitted us. So since about 6:30am we've been in a private room and she's been receiving breathing treatments, a bag of antibiotics and a bag of fluids for dehydration. She tested negative for RSV, pneumonia and influenza so she has some sort of a bronchial infection. She has tubes coming out of everywhere too - there's the IV coming out of her arm, a thingy on her foot to measure her oxygen and oxygen up her nose. So it's impossible to cuddle with her b/c of it all and that drives me nuts! She slept a lot during the day and is finally asleep for the night - at least I hope b/c I am pooped. The nurses have all been great and they all just love her hair! She does weigh over 12 pounds now which doesn't surprise me considering how much she eats. But hopefully we can go home tomorrow because she sounds so much better now. To top things off - Travis walked over to the Saturday clinic to see if he could get something for his cough and come to find out he has Bronchitis and something else that he can't remember. UGH! So he's got some meds that will hopefully help him out and let him get some good sleep. Oh and here's the weird thing - the bed they have in the room for me to sleep on has a mind of its own b/c it doesn't matter if nobody's sitting on it or even when I am sitting on it, but not moving - it'll start moving all on its own! Suddenly the foot of the bed will go up or the head of the bed will move - it's really weird.

The older three kids spent the day with grandmas while we were at the hospital and Grandma Joanne had a very special V-day planned for all 6 of her grandkids! She was brave enough to have our 3 kids and Travis' sister's 3 kids over for a dinner by candle light and then they all are spending the night. Yikes!! Travis called to make sure that she was still alive and that the kids didn't have Grandpa John tied to a chair or something and it sounds like the night was going very well and the kids were having a blast. I had planned on making a steak dinner for the two of us to have, but we'll have to do that another night. We did get milkshakes from the DQ though thanks to Grandma Carol & Grandpa Marvin - YUM-O!

From what I heard, Lexi did GREAT at her volleyball game today! She told me that she wasn't as afraid of the ball this time and got a couple of good hits in and a good serve. I knew she'd get braver the more she played! We love that the kids are getting more active, but they're going to run us ragged! Kiegan was telling me the other night that he wants to play basketball at the Rec Center, baseball at the Boys & Girls Club and JFL Football (only if Travis will be his coach). Oh and he's also mentioned wanting golf lessons....we'll see about that one. Patrick has also been going to a wrestling clinic so they're all busy with something!

Tuesday morning we get our new upstairs windows put in. That will be so nice! I won't know what to do without having the rattling windows to listen to and the boys room having snow on the floor during the winter. Yes - that's how old our house is! Eventually, we'd like to replace the dining room windows and the bay window in the living room. We think it'll make a huge difference on our heating/cooling bills.

It's almost 11:00 now - I should probably try to get some sleep. Cross your fingers that we get to go home tomorrow!

Looong Update!

I am super sorry that it's been so long since my last update! The days just get away from me sometimes - not that I've got a lot going on or anything, right? :o) So anyway, this update may skip around a bit - do your best to follow along!

Patrick turned the big 0-7 last month! We had family over for his birthday to celebrate it with him. He finally has his own Nintendo DS and I think he received enough games to last him awhile! Seeing him plopped on the couch playing his DS almost makes me wonder if he's more of a "game head" than Kiegan is which I didn't think was possible.

Lexi has started volleyball and has her first game coming up next week. She seems to be enjoying all of the practices so hopefully she enjoys the competition of the games as well! Her Girl Scout Cookie sales ended on Monday and she sold an even 200 boxes of cookies - thanks to everyone that bought!!

Kiegan has his last basketball game on Saturday morning. He's so fun to watch because Lord knows he's no Michael Jordan, but he is having more fun than anybody else out there. It doesn't matter how many baskets he misses or rebounds he fumbles, he has the biggest smile on his face the entire time! We went and bought him a St. Mary's Saints duffel bag to carry his basketball gear in and he thinks that's just the coolest. He said that he's going to take it to school when he starts to play basketball for The Saints so it's awesome to hear that he plans to keep on playing. I had a meeting Wednesday afternoon with Kiegan's special needs group of teachers. I haven't talked much about this on here because none of us have been exactly sure what's causing Kiegan to struggle so much, but Kiegan has been in special speech groups since he turned 3 and unfortunately his speech issues have affected his ability to learn. They did a BUNCH of testing on him and thankfully those tests have shown that he doesn't have a learning disability - he simply needs to learn differently than his peers and work harder to learn. There's also a disorder that we are going to be looking further into with the help of people at ISU called Auditory Processing Disorder or APD - for more information on that check out: http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/ears/central_auditory.html. Kiegan seems to show a lot of the signs of possibly having this particular disorder. I'll keep you updated as we learn more!

Miss Maddie is doing fantastic as usual!! She is the sweetest little baby and has the best little personality - when she's awake that is. Yeah - she still sleeps constantly, but is also still sleeping great at night. She's in bed for the night around 9-9:30 and then wakes up one time between 3-3:30 to nurse and is then back to sleep for another few hours. What also hit me this morning is that on most nights when I lay her down in her little bed, she's actually still awake and she'll just lay there making her little noises until she finally falls asleep! I had been worried that I was holding her too much (because she is just so very cuddly to hold) and that she was maybe a bit spoiled, but this girl is an angel and we just couldn't ask her to be any better. She must really be growing during all of her sleeping though! She wears 3 months clothes pretty much all the time now, but her toes are starting to curl because she's so darn long! So the other night I pulled out a 3-6 month outfit just to see how far off her body was from filling it out and sure enough - her legs are long enough to fit, but she has a bit more filling out to do to fit that size perfectly. So I think we may be looking for 3 month outfits that don't have the footies on them so the poor girl doesn't have gimped up toes. On a poopier note - my mom and I went to a visitation last week in Minier. It was a small family visitation and of course Maddie started out sleeping, but then she decided to wake up while the priest was talking. Now, Maddie makes a lot of grunting noises when she moves and stretches around and she's very loud when she does this. So of course she was doing this which was enough noise by itself, but then guess what she started doing? Filling her diaper VERY LOUDLY!!! All of us on our side of the church were trying to control our laughter during all of this which was a very long and loud process. My mom was holding her at the time and her cousin who was sitting in the pew behind her was leaning forward and saying things to make it sound like it was my mom not controlling her bowels which got us all laughing even harder. My cousin, Jill, who was sitting behind me had tears rolling down her face from laughing so hard and I was about a mess sitting right next to my mom & Maddie. Thankfully, the priest finally finished up and I was able to take Maddie to change her and oh my Lord - she had mustard poop all the way up the front and all the way up the back of her!! And wouldn't you know, I had her in the cutest darn outfit too!! (Pics of it are below) Now, keep in mind that Lexi & Kiegan are 9 and almost 11 so it's been quite a while since I've traveled with baby in tow so apparently I also forgot about always bringing an extra outfit in case such things were to happen. Now the town of Minier is very small and certainly doesn't have a Walmart or any other store that would have baby clothes, but thankfully my cousin, Jill, brought Maddie's gift with her and it had two outfits in it!! My biggest dilemma was how the heck I was going to get the onesie off of her without smearing the poop all throughout her hair, but somehow I managed. Oh it was an experience....needless to say, I have an outfit that just stays in the diaper bag now! On a more fun note -she is starting to smile at us more now! And now that her umbilical cord has fallen off, she's enjoying bathtime much more until it's time to take her out of the warm water - watch out! She gets MAD!! The comments from people about who she looks like are about 50/50 - some people think she looks a lot like me and others think she looks a lot like Travis. Personally, I see a lot of Travis in her. She has broke out with some baby acne on her face and chest - sometimes it's worse than others, but from what I've read she'll probably have it off and on for 4-6 months. Yuck! I think I'm bothered by it more than she is though. :o)

My daycare opened back up this week and I don't think I could have asked it to go any smoother! The kids have all been fantastic with Maddie and I can tell that now she's sort of "old news" to most of them. :o) I have also had a lot of my parents tell me how happy they are to have their little ones coming back to my daycare (especially the ones that were unhappy with the temporary sitter they had while I was closed). And two of my parents have told me how much better of a mood their children have been in since they've been coming back. That makes me feel good! I have been trying to create my own curriculum to use with the children instead of buying it over the internet, but what I'm finding is that I will probably spend more in printer ink cartridges and printer paper than I was buying it already prepared through the internet. So who knows what I'll do! It's nice to have my energy back though and to be able to enjoy the kids again.

Next month we are all going to Grand Bear Lodge again! This is Grandma Joanne's big Christmas present to her grandkids. She has reserved a cabin for us and I'm sure most of the time will be spent at the indoor water park and indoor amusement park. They had such a great time when we were there a couple of years ago that I'm sure they'll love it just as much this year!

I guess that's all for now - I'll try to do a better job at posting updates!!**************************************************************

I started writing this post on Wednesday so you can see how well it's been working out for me! I figure I might as well add our weekend update to it. We really didn't have a whole lot going on which was nice for a change! Kiegan had his last basketball game Saturday morning where he basically attempted to "tackle" someone on the other team. I have to admit that the other team played really rough - throwing elbows and all so maybe he just wanted to give them a taste of their own medicine? The high school girl that was the referee for this game was irritating me to no end though. She was way too concerned about whether or not the players had their toes behind the line when they were passing the ball into play and not at all concerned about the rough way the other team was playing. If I wanted to be one of "those" parents, I could have certainly shared a few words with her but I held myself back!

I finally decided to pull out all of Maddie's 0-3 month clothes because she can't fit into any of them and the girl's only 5 1/2 weeks old! In fact, I put a pair of 3-6 month jammies on her last night just to show Daddy because the front of them said "Daddy's Princess" (that's what he calls her) but they fit her perfectly so that's what she slept in. She also seems to have Daddy's appetite and my poor body can't seem to keep up with her. I shouldn't be too surprised because Kiegan was only a few ounces bigger than her when he was born and I wasn't able to nurse him as long as I would have like either. I feel bad for her because she gets so very frustrated with me, but my body is just not producing enough milk to satisfy her so she's been getting more and more formula which I know isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's not what I had planned! I think she also has her first cold - I've been having to use the snot sucker on her and she certainly doesn't enjoy it at all! During the day she doesn't seem too bad, but once night rolls around and first thing in the morning she's been sneezing and sneezing and sounding rather congested. So we may be calling the doctor soon!

Ok - now I think I'm done. :o)

Yeah - I think Kiegan is ok that he has a little sister and not another little brother like he had hoped. :o) I can't remember if I put on here what his reaction was when we told him that we were having a girl..."Can you put a penis on her?" Ummmm.....no.

My big sister!!

Big brother#2!!

I do cry every now and then....

But I still like to sleep a lot....


And you're taking my picture again because why?!

The infamous poopy outfit! See how cute it is?! Thankfully it all washed out!

I'm so smart that I can already hold my own bottle! ;o)

These are my 3-6 month PJ's that say "Daddy's Princess"! My diaper takes up most of the room in my pants....

A close-up of me and my first pimples. :o(

Long-legged Brunette!

Our first two weeks with Maddie have been going perfectly! She is such a GOOD baby and is already sleeping great at night - only waking up once or twice. Can't complain about that! She had her 2-week doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon and I was anxious to see how long she was because she's already out-growing a lot of her 0-3 month outfits and her toes are reaching the end of some of her sleep sacks when she stretches. Sure enough - she's grown 2 inches since birth and is measuring 22-inches long which puts her in the 90th percentile for her height and she's an even 9 pounds (gaining 14-ounces since her appt. last week!) which puts her in the 75th percentile for weight. So we have ourselves a long-legged brunette! The doctor also got quite a kick out of her when he asked her to open her mouth so he could check things out in there and sure enough - she did. :o) She's a genius already!! Overall, she's doing fantastic and the doctor said that she has a more "mature" look about her than most 2-week old babies. I'm sure when she's a teenager we won't be real thrilled about her looking more mature than other girls her age!

Last Saturday night we went to G&G Wunderlin's for supper to celebrate grandpa's birthday and Travis' (which was Sunday). Maddie slept pretty much the entire time we were there and wasn't even bothered when being passed from person to person. So I don't think I have to worry about the daycare noises bothering her at all!

Lexi, Kiegan and Patrick are all doing great too! I need to get a picture of each of them holding Maddie to put on here - hopefully this weekend I'll remember to do that. I think we're finally going to get to have Christmas with my parents this weekend too - nothing like still celebrating Christmas in the middle of January! Kiegan has decided to play basketball at the Boys & Girl's Club - his first practice was this past Saturday and he did great! Travis did end up ordering him a pair of basketball shoes - his regular tennis shoes apparently have no traction on the gym floor because he kept sliding around when he'd try to stop and shoot a basket. His next practice is tonight and his first game is on Saturday. Lexi has also decided to play volleyball at the Boys & Girl's Club! She has volleyball clinic every day next week after school and then her games will start in February. We're glad that the kids are getting more active!!

I busted out my Wii Fit the other day and despite the fact that I only have about 1 more pound to lose before I'm at my pre-pregnancy weight, I am considerably overweight for my age & height. Not that I was surprised by that! And my Wii Fit age is 41 years which is also not surprising considering the fact that I don't exercise AT ALL. Kiegan also made a profile for himself and he is considered obese for his age and height which we all knew he was getting too chunky and his Wii Fit age is 22 years old! Lexi really wasn't too bad - she is overweight for her age, but her Wii Fit age is 13 years. Travis attempted to make a profile for himself, but the Wii Fit board's scale apparently doesn't go beyond 300 pounds. It's been fun doing the different exercises and getting lectured by the game when we go too many days between exercising - you can't help but laugh!

That's all for now - enjoy the pics below!

Here is a shot during "tummy time" of all of the hair she has:

See that pouty bottom lip? Daddy says that's what will get me anything I want from him!

Doing what I do best....sleeping.....

Welcome Madalyn Elizabeth Sancken 12-31-08!!

Our little Maddie has finally arrived and we missed having the first New Year's baby by just over 5 hours! When we went to the hospital Wednesday morning for our non-stress test and ultrasound to check that there was still enough fluid for her to be ok in - we had no idea what the day would end up bringing. The ultrasound went just fine - they give the baby 30 minutes to do certain things such as move and stretch around, practice breathing, etc. Of course Maddie waited until she had about 3 minutes left before doing any of her stuff, but did pass with flying colors. After the ultrasound, we headed up to the OB department for the non-stress test. This was basically just the nurse putting the monitor on my belly that tracks my contractions and making sure that's all going ok. About 20 minutes into that, she told me that I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes which was not news to us since I had been having them for about a week and a half or so. She asked if we wanted her to check me to see where I was as far as dilation goes - we told her that would be great and when she checked me, she said I was almost a four! She let us off of the monitor and told us to walk around the hospital for awhile to see if we can get me to a four because if I could get there then she could probably convince Dr. Nyi to admit me. So we practically ran around the hospital hoping it would do the trick and when we went back to the room for her to check me again, I was almost a six! AWESOME!!! My contractions were also closer together (although I still wasn't feeling them much) and Dr. Nyi said that there's no way he could let us go home now. YES!!! So the nurse hooked me up to my IV and got my antibiotics started that I had to have since I tested positive for the Group B Strep. They are suppose to get 2 rounds of the antibiotics in me 4 hours apart BEFORE the baby is born to ensure that the baby will not get sick from the Group B. Dr. Nyi came in and broke my water at 2:37pm and gave me an hour to progress before putting me on the Pitocin which I was really dreading b/c I had heard horror stories about how Pitocin can make things much harder. After an hour, I had not progressed as much as he had hoped so they started me on a very low dose of Pitocin - I was still not feeling much as far as the contractions were concerned. After another hour, they bumped the Pitocin up from a level 2 to a level 4 which seemed to do the trick! They said that a level 4 of Pitocin is what they call a "whiff" because it's such a low level - most moms need it bumped up to the max before it does what it needs to. Dr. Nyi said that if I were to have an epidural then he could probably get me ready to push even quicker, but I was like "Heck no!" I had no interest in having an epidural! Finally, I could tell that I was ready to push and exactly 3 pushes later Miss Maddie was born at 6:44pm - almost 4 hours after my water was broke. Dr. Nyi told us next time to just save ourselves a few thousand dollars and just deliver at home since everything was so quick and easy for me. :o) Maddie weighed in at 8 lbs. 8 oz., 20 inches long and was absolutely perfect from head to toe including a head FULL of beautiful black hair! She took to nursing immediately and Travis took to changing diapers immediately. In fact, he changed her first two yucky diapers within 10 minutes of each other - she has the pooping thing down for sure! We did end up staying in the hospital an extra day because she was jaundice and had to be in one of those incubators with the bright lights. She looked like she was in a tanning bed with her little glasses on and everything! When we left the hospital Saturday night, she weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. - she had lost almost a whole pound, but there was no concern over it. We were glad to get back home though - there's just not much sleep to be had in a hospital. Home Health did deliver us a lighted blanket that we had to keep on her at all times to help with her jaundice, but when the Home Health nurse came out to the house Sunday to draw her blood and check her levels, she called us back later that afternoon and said her levels were dropping and we could take her off of it! We were glad for that because it just wasn't easy to hold and cuddle her with this blanket/machine attached to her. She then had her first doctor's appointment on Monday and passed with flying colors. All three of the kids really love her and are doing a great job of not being too wild and crazy loud when she's sleeping (which is all the time!). And Daddy is absolutely head over heels over his Princess as he likes to call her. The first thing he does when he gets home is plop in the recliner with her and just hold her and watch her. She has some of the greatest little faces that she makes! I'll stop bragging about her now and get some pictures posted as I'm sure that's what everyone is waiting for!!! But let's just say that we are enjoying every single second of finally having her with us - she is such a calm, relaxed little girl.

Just minutes after she was born:

In her tanning bed (check out all of that hair!):

A proud Daddy:

A week old already: