Trick or Treat

It's hard to believe it's the last day of October and time for Trick or Treat.

What a fun Halloween we had! The kids have had their costumes for well over a month and were super excited to finally get to show them off. I thought for sure McKenna would chose a fairy costume this year - how wrong I was. My little girl picked a ninja of all things. But she sure did look cute. Cooper's costume choice was a no brainer. We are into all things Transformer in this house. Optimus Prime seems a little camoflouged in this picture but I assure you he's there! And our littlest princess, well she was Mommy's little Mummy in her homemade costume.

What Mummy would be complete without a bow?

Can you even tell that's Cooper?

The cutest little Ninja I've ever known.


Happy Halloween!

Kinley You're 2 Months Old!

Kinley, you are 2 months old already! It's amazing how much you have grown.

You are quickly out growing your zero to three month outfits and you are already wearing size one diapers. We are all done with newborn diapers. How sad!
You are beginning to take about 4 ounces of formula at every feeding. Sometimes more, sometimes a little less. Most days you are still eating every three hours, even during the night! The good news is that even though you are still getting up 1-2 times during the night, you go back to sleep a little easier. Sometimes though you want to get up at 4am. Those are the mornings that you end up sleeping next to me in the Boppy pillow. You squirm and fidget for an hour or two and then finally settle back into a sound sleep around 5:30. Just in time for Mommy to get up!

You take a long morning nap and then cat nap in the afternoon. I've threatened to nick name you Kitty because of all those little cat naps! During the day you are a dream baby, rarely fussing and only crying when you are hungry or tired. The evenings can be a different story. You often get fussy around 6pm and don't really settle down until close to 9. You don't cry the entire time but you just aren't you're usual happy self. We're working on this. We are also working on you staying with Daddy which also doesn't tend to go so well right now.

Apparently you just love your momma! And it's no wonder because I certainly love you!

This month you have started to smile which is a huge hit with everyone in this house. McKenna thinks you are the cutest thing around and when you smile she just about goes crazy. She loves to talk to you and the way you already look at her with such wide eyes melts my heart. I think Cooper is looking forward to the day you can really start playing with him. He loves when you are lying on the floor or the bed. He loves to rock you in your car seat and loves to play your music box for you the instant you start to cry. He says you like it. I'm not so sure about that but I am quite certain that you are one lucky little girl to call McKenna and Cooper your siblings.

And who can forget the best puppy ever. Tucker has stood guard by McKenna and Cooper and he's not going to let you down either.

You've brought us such joy, Kinley. Thank you for the smiles you bring to us every single day. We love, love, love you.

Happy 2 month birthday!

Weekend Recap x 2

We have had a busy schedule again this weekend. Beginning with dinner with the Dugan's Friday night, a baby shower Saturday night and Joshua's birthday party this afternoon. Regrettably I have not one single picture to show for all of our time spent celebrating. And it's a shame because there were many cute photo opportunities to be had. You are in luck though because I have pictures from LAST weekend that I haven't had time to post yet.

Last Saturday afternoon we braved the cold, windy weather and headed to Ard's Pumpkin Patch with our neighborhood friends. It was way too windy to take Kinley on the hayride to pick our pumpkins so Daddy stayed back with her and I went with McKenna and Cooper to find "the great pumpkin".

McKenna and Cooper were quick to pick out their pumpkins and then grabbed a small one for Kinley.

These are the kids from our neighborhood. They have played together all summer and had so much fun. I think it's safe to say that their time at the pumpkin patch was pretty memorable too.

And so that someday we can prove to Kinley that she was at the pumpkin patch that day - here is her picture. She slept the entire time until the food came at dinner, of course.

So, there you have it, a very brief recap of our last two weekends. Here's to a great week where I promise to take more pictures!

How Do You Say Thank You?

I think I mentioned before that we chose to have Kinley at Evan Hospital because we were looking for a different and hopefully better experience than what we had previously with McKenna and Cooper. We definitely were not let down. The care we received lived up to all of our expectations. And let's face it - when you're dealing with two nurses that's tough to do.

So how in the world do you say thank you to those wonderful people who helped bring this cute little baby into the world?

You do it with these simply adorable cupcakes!

No, I did not make them. But I did find the idea on Pinterest, my latest addiction. My cousin, Nicole, is responsible for these babies!

This little one is my favorite since it looks so much like Kinley!

My mom and I delivered these "babies" on Wednesday along with a few very important thank you cards. I was glad to have the chance to express my gratitude for everything that they did for us during our stay.

Alone Time

Ahhh...After the long holiday weekend Kinley and I finally had a day to ourselves. After being awake most of the night she was surprisingly pleasant today.

We spent some time hanging out together on our tummies. She worked on holding her head up while I worked on taking some cute pictures of her.

I'm convinced that she won't be completely happy until she gets the hang of putting that thumb in her mouth.

Later we worked hard in the kitchen making some yummy enchiladas for tonight's dinner and a meatloaf for later this week. Maybe not quite so yummy but what can you do? Have I mentioned that Kinley started smiling about a week and a half ago? I am having a hard time catching one of her priceless little grins on camera but trust me when I say they are to die for.

The days go by so quickly but I'm so blessed to have these days with Kinley all to myself. She brings so much joy to my life.

**Sorry for the spacing issues that I can't seem to get fixed today. Some days Blogger drives me crazy.

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful Saturday morning to spend together at Lewisburg's annual Wooly Worm Festival. I packed all three kids up mid morning and headed to Hufnagle Park. McKenna and Cooper were quick to point out that the last time we ventured to the park we ended up with a baby a few hours later. McKenna still proclaims it to be "the best day ever". I might have to agree that it ranks up there pretty high.

We started out our morning with a pony ride. Cooper jumped right up on that horse like he'd done it a million times.

And what else do you do at a Wooly Worm Festival but race wooly worms. The kids carefully selected their wooly worms and placed them on the "race track". It was hysterical watching the worms race and watching the kids cheer them on.

Coopers worm was the winner. Notice his blue ribbon for first place!

There was face painting...

And catepillar painting...

And pumpkin ring toss....And literally so many other activities that I could spend all night recounting. We enjoyed music and a magic show and a hot dog, of course. Then headed for home before Kinley woke up and realized she had spent the majority of her morning strapped in her car seat - again.

I'm glad that we left before the Wooly Worm made his prediction for a deep, deep snow this winter. I might have survived the festival but I'm not sure I could have handled the promise of a long winter.

"Hey, That's Mine!"

When we told the kids that we were having another baby McKenna, of course, wanted a baby sister. We warned her that a baby sister would want to be just like her. She would want to play with McKenna's toys and McKenna's friends and even wear her clothes. Little did McKenna know that it would start already...

This morning I dressed Kinley in an outfit that was McKenna's when she was a baby. The seasons are a little off so this is one of only a few outfits that Kinley will be able to borrow from her big sister - for now! It's so strange to look at this picture and remember McKenna being this small!

Cooper is into all things football these days. His preschool teacher says all 5 boys in the class spend the majority of their play time pretending they are football players. Some days they play NFL football and other days they stick to my favorite - college football. He might be wearing number 22 today but if you ask him he'll tell you he's Silas Red. Thank goodness he didn't say he was Bolden! Yikes!

But really, whoever these kids are and whatever they are wearing, I happen to think they are pretty darn cute!

Chef Cooper

Monday's and Friday's are my days with Cooper. He serves as my right hand man; my big helper. I have found that I have to keep him very busy in order to avoid whining and meltdowns. On his part and mine...just kidding. Sort of. Anyway...

In Cooper's new room at school each child has a daily job. The jobs are as follows : navigator (line leader), electrician (turns the lights on and off), librarian (makes sure the books are cleaned up), garbage control (makes sure trash is cleaned up), prayer leader, and last but not least the chef. Cooper favorite job is navigator but since we don't follow one another around in lines at our house he settled on chef for the day.

He takes his job very seriously.

Maybe not!!

I hope we have enough noodles left for the lasagna...

Mmm...the finished product. Looks pretty good!

And when you're done being the chef and you've finally changed out of your Elmo pj's it's always fun to cuddle for a few minutes with your little sister.

One Foot In Front of the Other

I will never forget the minutes after Kinley's birth for many reasons. Most of them are wonderful reasons, but there will always be the memory of the difficult moments when I found out about her foot.

I will never forget hearing Earl tell me that "something was wrong with her foot." At first I was sure that I didn't hear him right. I'm sure I asked him to repeat himself at least one time. And then it started to sink in. It's strange when you can't feel your body from the chest down but you can still feel your stomach drop in fear. Every bad scenario played out in my mind in a matter of seconds. Did she have all of her toes, did she even have all of her foot, why wasn't something picked up on the ultrasounds, would she be able to walk...the list goes on and on. At that time, with Kinley literally only minutes old, no one could tell me what was wrong with her. I heard the term "club foot" quietly spoken a few feet away but there was some uncertainty in everyone's voice. As a pediatric nurse all I could think of was "let me see her foot. I know what a club foot looks like." I couldn't take my eyes off of the area where the nurses were working to clean her up and weigh her. I had to get a glimpse of that foot.

When they put her on the scale she was finally close enough for me to see her little feet. I could tell right away that she at least had a foot and from where I was on the OR table I didn't think that it looked like a club foot. But it was apparent that something was not quite right.

Of course all any parent wants when their baby is born is to hear that she is healthy. Kinley appeared healthy and we had no reason to believe that anything else was wrong with her. But with our medical backgrounds it was difficult not to let our imaginations get away from us.

Of course I was thankful that there wasn't anything more serious wrong but the tears soon came and I wasn't even out of surgery yet. Soon I felt two hands on either side of my face. And when I looked up our sweet OB nurse was standing over me. With her mask on I could only see her eyes as she looked straight into mine and said, "Don't you worry about a thing. Your baby is beautiful." I can honestly say that those were the sweetest words I heard that day. And they made all the difference in the world to me.

This past Tuesday we finally had our appointment with the pediatric orthopedic surgeon. We found out that Kinley has calcaneovagus foot. Essentially instead of having her feet crossed at the ankle while she was in my belly, she was sitting "indian style" or criss cross apple sauce as the kids call it. That meant that her left foot was pressed up against the inside of her right thigh, pressing her foot back against her leg. This caused the tendons that run from her leg to the top of her foot to be tight. The doctor referred to it as "a positioning problem because no parent should ever be told that their baby is deformed." Again, words that made all the difference in the world to a mom. The good news is that in time and with us exercising her foot 15-20 times a day, her foot should be just fine.

Tomorrow we will be taking Kinley to the hospital to have some tests done to rule out kidney reflux. It is important to evaluate her because of the fact that McKenna had kidney reflux as a toddler. We pray that tomorrow's tests will turn out as well as the orthopedic appointment. But no matter what we will just continue to put one foot in front of the other.

It's a Little Crazy Around Here!

I like to periodically take a picture of the kids while they sit at our kitchen counter. This is a view I often have of them while I fix them breakfast or snacks as they watch. It's fun to have a picture of them in the same spot to see how much they've grown. This past week I asked if they would pose for a picture. This is what I got! They're a little crazy. But, hey, lately it's a little crazy around here.

I suppose next time I should be more specific when I say "pose".

I included this sweet picture of Kinley because lately I feel like it's where she spends most of her time. I suppose that's a consequence of being the third child - spending most of your day being carted around from one school drop off spot to another, cruising through the grocery store or Target. And just when you think you've done your duty for the day it's time to do the afternoon pick up, appointments and gymnastics. Poor girl never gets a rest. But it doesn't appear that she minds much.

This past summer I was insistent that Earl get the crib put together. And so finally he did as I asked and I washed the cute bedding set and made up the crib. Since then it's only purpose has been to hold clean baby clothes that I need to fold. So Thursday I decided that it was time Kinley started to at least nap in her crib instead of in the pack n play that has occupied our bedroom for the past five and a half weeks. She lasted about 45 minutes in there but it was a start.

Friday we had the chance to get together with some wonderful girl friends for a nice lunch date. We made an exception to "girls day" in order to include this little cutie. He's just a month older than Kinley. We had high hopes of getting some cute pictures of them together. But they both were so content in their car seats that we didn't have the heart to get them out and risk any meltdowns.

Friday evening we had the opportunity to join the Dugan's in celebrating Lauren's second birthday. I packed my camera with good intentions of getting some pictures of all the kids but sadly it never made it out of the diaper bag. The kids had a wonderful time (as always) and Cooper was asleep before we were barely out of Turbotville.

I'll close with this picture of my four little loves. We enjoyed a quiet Saturday after a quick trip to where else - Target - to pick up a few things. McKenna and Cooper played so nicely together all day. And they even took some time to play on the floor with their little sister. Of course, Tucker was never far from Kinley's side. We couldn't ask for a better "guard dog". It warms my heart to see them all together in one place - especially when they're smiling. I was hoping for a picture where you can actually see ALL of their faces but I'm quickly realizing that pictures like that are bound to be few and far between. I think that I should be happy to have them all in the same frame.