The Vacation Part 1

So, the vacation for the boys went great!  They had a blast spending a week with their grandparents in PA!  Chris and I had a nice time spending quality time with Xander- just the three of us.  I had an opportunity to get a lot of cleaning, organizing and a little bit of decorating done while they were gone too.  :)  It was nice.  I missed them like crazy though!

We did so many fun things!  I was a bit worried that we wouldn't get motivated and would end up hanging out around their house the whole week we were out there.  I made it known to Chris that it was important to me that this be a vacation and not just visiting relatives again.  So, we did a bunch of things.  It was great. 

Our first full day out there was Sunday, August 28th - my 32nd birthday.  It was a cold, rainy, windy and gloomy day outside because of Irene's affects on the area.  We didn't do much outside that day.  I did get a great gift on that day:  a NAP!  I never get to take a nap anymore.... unless I'm sick and usually not even then.  That was awesome!  Then, we went out to dinner at the California Grill in Shillington, PA.  It was a nice and casual dinner.  I had Chicken Parmesan and some corn chowder fore dinner.  Daniel ate most of my spaghetti after trying a bite and discovering he DOES like it.  I went to the restroom to change Xander's diaper and when I came back, he had cleaned my plate!  Too funny!  When we got back to the house, Chris's parents surprised me with a chocolate peanut butter birthday cake!  mmMMmmm  In the picture to the left, Nathan is sampling the frosting:

The second day was Monday, August 29th.  We went to Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA.  What a good time we had!  The boys loved it there!  Daniel was able to ride every ride in the park but didn't want to.  Nathan wanted to ride everything but he was too little for a few rides.  We rode a bunch of things - even the log flume!  Nathan LOVED the log flume.  Daniel liked it but said his face got too wet ( and we barely got wet at all ).   Even Xander got in on the action on the Lady Gay boat ride and the Crazy Plane ride.   Who knew babies could go on rides?!?!  It was a fun day.  The only thing I didn't like about the park was the bees.  There were a lot of them where we sat down to eat and they were swarming us but otherwise it was a lot of fun.  The boys even got to see Thomas the Train there in a little theatre  (not the full sized train ).   That night we had Dad's pork chops for dinner.  Oh.  My. Goodness.  Those were some GOOOD pork chops! So tender and juicy!  LOVED THEM!  Favorite I've ever had!  Kuddos to Chris's Dad!   In the photo to the left you can see Nathan and Chris on the Kite ride.  It's basically like a flying ride.  They had to lay down and get caged in and then flew around in a circle a bunch of times.  Our Nathan is FEARLESS!

Here you can see Nathan and Chris riding the merry go round . Nathan loved getting to ride the horses.  I think this might have been his first time because Daniel usually prefers the seats that don't move.

Here is Daniel on the Monster Truck ride.  I was in the back seat. 

Vacation for the Boys

Chris and his sister Stephanie left this morning with Daniel and Nathan to take them out to visit Chris's parents for a week without us.  I have mixed emotions about it.  I'm excited for them to have a great visit with their grandparents and for my chance to really clean the house without them coming behind me and remaking the mess I just cleaned up!  I'm going to miss them like crazy though.  This will be the longest I've ever been away from them.  We have only  taken one trip just the 2 of us since we had kids and that was when Daniel was almost 1.  So, it's been a few years.  We've never travelled without them since Nathan was born.  I'm sure they will have fun.  Chris's parents really know how to make things fun for them and the boys love them to pieces.  I'm sure Daniel will miss us more than Nathan.  Nathan is much more independent.  Daniel is more of a people person and always tells us that he misses us even if we just run up to the store for 10 minutes. He's very sweet and he loves his parents.  Nothing wrong with that!

So, I'll try to post about this week and how it's going as it goes along.  Day  1 of them being gone (11:00am) and I've been on the cleaning mission already but now I'm taking a break because Xander needs some Mommy cuddling so he can go to sleep again.  I've been reorganizing cabinets and counters and de-cluttering already and I vacuumed a bit.  Not bad so far. I have made a nice checklist of things to accomplish this week.  I want this house to be clean and organized and to be able to see all of the surfaces again.  We are really a bad clutter family.  Flat surfaces are always cluttered with mail, and various other paper items or things that don't have homes yet.  I'll be really happy when we don't have to use the infant carrier car seat anymore.  That thing takes up a lot of space on the dining room table.  

I'm happy to report that the family room is already in pretty good shape.  I cleaned it somewhat yesterday.  I didn't dust all of it yet... that's basically all that is left aside from steam mopping the perimeter of the room. I think I'll clean the french doors too... they'll get a couple weeks withing nasty fingerprints on them!


Well, I'm off to work again!  Thanks for reading and please comment!

Contemplating...

So, have you ever heard the saying that people always die in 3's?  Well, I heard it a while ago and in the past week, there have been 3 deaths I've now heard of in the last week.  All three were people I didn't know personally but were known by friends of mine.  The first was while Xander and I were on our trip to St. Louis.  Our first night down there, last Friday, just after I had gotten to sleep, my friend Linda came and woke me up to tell me they had to run over to their friends: Joel and Erica's house because they had just received a letter stating that Joel's youngest brother had committed suicide. 

This is just terrible news and so sad.  I feel so terribly for Joel and Erica and the rest of their family.  Joel's brother was very young and had so much life ahead of him.  Seems like such a waste and so unfair to the rest of his family and friends that loved him for him to do such a thing.  All we can do now is pray for them and for his soul. 

If Joel or Erica read this, I'm desperately sorry for your loss.  I know that we only met once but my heart goes out to you and your family.  We prayed for you all at Christ the Good Shepherd today as well and we'll continue to pray for you.

The second death was my friends' Robin and Kim's mom, Linda.  She was only 64 years old and died suddenly from either a massive heart attack or a blood clot.  The doctors were unable to determine which it was for sure.   Linda had been healthy up until that point and was the center of their family.  Both Robin and Kim are married and have young children.   As I listened to the descriptions of Linda and what a wonderful person she was and how she was the glue of their family, it made me think about how I would deal with my mom passing.  I pray that she doesn't go until she's very old and has lived a very long and full life free from dementia of any kind.  She is my best friend aside from my husband and has always been my rock for everything.  My boys love her so much.  I know if we lost her, it would be devastating.  I'm not sure how I'd deal with it.  I'm actually crying as I type this right now just thinking about it. 

The last death was my friend Nicole's friend Michelle.  She was only 38 and lost her battle with cancer.  Her death wasn't sudden nor a surprise but she was the mother of 4 young children and a wife.  I've thought about the possibly of what would happen if I died.  Who would help Chris raise our boys?  It hurts my heart so much to think of them growing up without their mom.  My not being there to kiss their "bee boos" (as Nathan calls them) or to teach them about girls or how to drive see them graduate and become men.  I know Chris would still do an amazing job raising them because he is a wonderful father but no matter how wonderful a father you are, you can only fill the roll of mom so much.  So, I think of Nicole's friend's family and I pray so much for those children and for her husband because he lost his best friend, soul mate and partner and they lost their mother. 

So, in closing, please keep all of these families in your hearts and prayers in the coming days and weeks as losing loved ones, especially so young, is so so hard to get through. 

Xander's First Trip

OK, I'm nervous.  This afternoon, I'm taking Xander on a plane to St. Louis by myself.  I know it will be better than driving down there from MI but I'm still nervous about how it's going to go.  Funny thing that even though I'll be turning 32 this month, I've never flown by myself before, let alone with a baby.  Chris and I took Daniel on a plane when he was closer to 2 years old. Xander is 4 1/2 months old now so this will be quite different.  The rules and regulations with flying are a pain too.  I haven't flown in over 2 years so I'm nervous about other things too like the full body scan and how are they going to scan Xander?  Has anyone out there flown with an infant in their arms before?  When we took Daniel, we bought him a seat and brought his car seat.  If anyone has advice on this topic, please post a comment.

So, yeah, I'm a bit nervous about this and then I read the weather reports.  I'm leaving Michigan which is finally getting some NICE weather, unlike the last month of 90+ and heading to hotter weather and flying through THUNDERSTORMS.  I'm not psyched about this at all.  I'm hoping and praying all will be fine and Xander and I will have a fun and stress-free weekend with our friends.

I'm looking forward to Sunday morning's activity too.  My friend, Eric, is being installed as a Vicar at his new church in Florissant, MO.  He is currently going through Seminary at the Lutheran Missouri Synod Seminary in St. Louis.  Very exciting to see Eric progress on his journey!

Also looking forward to meeting Eric and Linda's newest baby girl, Jillian, who was born in June!  She is their 5th child!  (They must be crazy!) ;0)  I think 3 children is plenty for me!

I'll post after our trip and share our experience.  Please comment!  Thanks!

New Food!

Last night Xander tried his first carrots.  I was really nervous about giving him more new foods since when I tried giving him cereal, he not only hated it but he didn't sleep well all 4 days we tried the cereal.  I was afraid the cereal was the reason.  After a few days I realized it was probably more of an effect from my birth control shot.  Since I'm nursing and I had gotten a new shot the day we tried  cereal for the first time, I think the big blast of hormones might have been the culprit.  I'm not sure about this but I think its definitely possible.

So, we tried the carrots. He was actually opening his mouth well and actually ate some and was happy and smiley for a lot of it. He didn't eat tons but he did really well for his first time. Here are some pictures:

Preference

So, I'm curious if there are many other stay-at-home-moms out there that have the same situation as I do.  My boys, aside from Xander, always prefer their daddy over me for pretty much everything!  I'm so thankful and very blessed to have found a man that is such a wonderful father to his kids but at the same time I get quite jealous when they always want their daddy to do everything with them.  They just want me to get them stuff.  Daniel is starting to want me more for things and just now gave me a big hug and kiss and told Chris "I love Mommy so much!"  Nathan comes in my room in the morning while I'm laying in bed with Xander and Daniel who has come in to cuddle with us and he completely ignores us and goes into the bathroom where Chris is showering and then turns around and leaves the room without even saying hi.  Why does this happen?  I keep telling myself it's because I'm home all day with them so I'm not as special to them as their daddy who's gone most of the day. 

Is there something wrong with me that I'm bothered by this?  I'm curious if anyone else has the same feelings about this as I do.  It hurts when I offer to read a book with Nathan and he wants to only read it with his daddy.  I work hard taking care of them all day every day mostly on my own.  Thoughts?  Comments? 

Videos of my boys

Here are a few videos of the boys that go with some of my recent posts:

http://www.youtube.com/user/heenycute1?feature=mhee#p/a/u/0/GmmCT926B1E
This video is of Nathan riding his new tricycle.  Yeah, he's wearing a swim diaper because he'd been playing with mud and water.

http://www.youtube.com/user/heenycute1?feature=mhee#p/a/u/2/BRTToEmTvIQ
Here is Daniel describing the river he made with his daddy.  This goes with the Fun with Mud and Water post I put up last week. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/heenycute1?feature=mhee#p/a/u/1/Ih5SHXJkzUg
Here is the river running.

Exersaucer!

Xander's first time in the saucer.  This was day  before yesterday: July 23, 2011

He's really enjoying it!  A new way to play!
He's doing really well with not falling over too.  It's great for his leg strength and also fine motor skills.  So glad we could get him into playing upright more!

Looking closely at one of the toys...

Interacting...

Having lots of fun.  Not to mention, big brother Daniel was in the chair next to him making him laugh.

"Look at me, Daddy!"

Daniel gave Xander this lion ball thing with little tentacle like things coming off of it.  Xander is really studying what it is and the strange new texture!

He seems to really like the exersaucer.  I'm so glad I bought this thing for Daniel when he was a baby.  All three boys have gotten great use out of it!  Last night, Xander staying in it and was happy and entertained for about an hour!  Not too much else to report on this story.  The pictures really speak for themselves!  Thanks for checking them out!

Heat Exhaustion

So, yesterday, my friend Jill called and invited us to come to her swim club for the day because it was so hot out:  a whopping 117 degrees with the heat index.  I wasn't sure it was  good idea but I knew the boys would want to go and see their friends and play in the pool.  So, I packed the kids up and we went to the pool.  It was insanely hot!  We got there (in our suits) and pretty much go right into the pool.  I had the baby with me in the water and I was doing all that I could to keep him cool while keeping him out of the sun.  There was one sliver of shade in the pool so that was where we camped out.  The boys had a good time and I'm glad I brought some of their water toys because no one else did and their toys were quite popular.  One little girl named Isla (age 2), kept taking them and putting them over by her mom.  It was cute.  She was thinking "I'll take this one and this one and put them here so I can play with them later".   It was a nice time but even with sitting in the pool and watering ourselves down, we were all getting too hot.  When it was time to go, I had the boys dressed (aside from Daniel's underwear which I told him to pack and he didn't) and I was about to strap a sleeping Xander into his car seat and he woke up and wanted to eat.   So, I got my cape and the burp cloth and sat down to feed him while still in my bathing suit.  My friend who invited us, Jill, offered the boys suckers.  So they were content and sitting in  a couple of deck chairs enjoying their suckers when suddenly I see/hear a gush of something under Daniel.   Immediately, I thought he peed his pants.  I was about to yell at him when he got up and walked over to me covered in vomit and tears streaming.  Poor guy got so overheated that he threw up.  I handed Xander off to Jill and took Daniel to the showers to get the puke off of him and put his bathing suit back on so he didn't have to wear the puke in the car.  We get back to the kids pool and Nathan is still sitting happily with his sucker and Xander is with Jill and has burped.  Daniel gets green again and looks like he's gonna go again.  I tell him to bend over (so he won't barf on his bathing suit too) and he proceeds to stand straight up and puke all over himself.  I was screaming at him "BEND OVER! BEND OVER! BEND OVER!" and he just stood there and kept puking.  GRRRRR!  I felt bad for him but angry that he didn't listen and now had NOTHING to wear home.   I was going to take him back to the shower again but decided to grab a few cups of water from the pool and dump it down the front of him to rinse him off and the pool deck at the same time.  That worked.  We packed up and got out of there fast.  Thank GOD my van's AC works fast!  It cooled down within a couple of minutes and he was already feeling better.  We got home and I pumped him with apple juice and water to rehydrate him.  He was fine.  It was a quite a scare though!  Moral of the story, always bring drinks to the pool and keep the kids drinking, drinking, drinking if it's that hot outside OR  stay inside in the air conditioning!!!!! 

Fun with Mud and Water

So, yesterday, after not sleeping well because of heartburn and feeling nauseated half the night, I had to miss church which I wasn't happy about.  After a couple of hours and some breakfast, I started to feel better.  Chris and I decided to take the boys outside to play because it was a nice summer day but way too hot to not doing something with water.  So, Chris got the Bruder trucks out that the boys got for Christmas from their Grandma and Grandpa.  He and Nathan got to work on building a river in the area he created in the back yard just for them and their trucks.   I hung out with Xander in the front yard so I could watch them if they decided to ride bikes or play with the cozy coupes.  I also got the plastic pool out and filled it up with cold water from the hose and bubble bath.   I got the idea from my friend Rachel Kinney, who posted some pictures of her kids playing in a pool filled with bubbles on facebook.  As soon as it was filled, Nathan was in it... even in his clothes and sandals!  They had huge blobs of bubbles on their heads and I'm bummed we weren't able to get pictures of that but I did get pictures of Nathan in the pool and Daniel's river he built with his dad.

Daniel after playing in the dirt.  He didn't want to show his face for the picture! He was pretty dirty even after rinsing off in the soapy pool a lot!

Nathan in the pool with his new swimming Nemo.

New Story to Share

I have decided to change the focus of my blog to talking about my family and things that come up in our lives.  Sharing things the kids have done for family and friends to read and any others that might relate to our stories and struggles.  On that note, I'm going to start right now with talking about what's been going on with us since we became a family of five...
Oh, and in case were wondering why I'm MOM2DNA it's because a the mom to Daniel, Nathan and Alexander!

It was certainly a surprise when we learned we were expecting a third child.  It happened earlier than we had planned or expected but we were happy none the less after the initial shock wore off!  After I told Chris, the reality of the situation set in for both of us and we both were a bit freaked out.  I went down to my crafting desk and just stared at it for a while in wonder and fear of the impending reality of being a mother of 3.  I'm not sure why it was so scary at first but it was. 

We found out the day before our kitchen and the rest of our house was demoed for a full kitchen remodel.   It was really not the best timing to find out that I couldn't lift or move anything since our whole house was turned upside down!  My parents are a God-send and offered to let us come and live with them during the remodel so we lived there for about 2 months.  It was really nice living there aside from the boys having a harder time sleeping in an environment they weren't used to sleeping in.  I didn't have to worry about cleaning much or cooking because my mom took care of most of it. She wouldn't let me because of my "condition".  The best part was when we told her.  She had no clue because I didn't let on before we went to her house.  We told her the day after we found out.  We arrived at her house to live there and as we were unpacking our stuff I handed her the pregnancy test.  She screamed with delight!  Best reaction EVER!

The pregnancy was my hardest by far.  I had a LOT of pain from sciatica and contractions for the last 5 yes FIVE months of my pregnancy.  I ended up in the hospital once with what I thought might be preterm labor but was dehydration and a UTI. 

I have to be honest, I was a little bit sad after I learned that I was having a third boy.  I really wanted to have one girl to do all of the mother-daughter things with and share all of my "wisdom" and experience with. My mom and I are really close and I wanted to have that with my child.  I cried during my ultrasound.  I was really sad.  Chris didn't understand why I was sad.  "He's healthy.  You should be happy."  I was happy that he was healthy but he didn't understand that I was mourning a relationship I'll never get to have.  I'll never get to help a daughter with her first period, how to deal with boys, taking her shopping for her first bra, prom dress or help her plan her wedding, just to name a few things.  He didn't get it until I asked him how he thought he'd feel if we'd just found out we were having our third GIRL. He got it then.  He's really close with the boys which is great.  I'm not sure why God decided to bless us with our boys and no girls but there certainly was a reason.  I was sad for a day and when people ask if we'll be trying again for a girl.  I have to answer them, "No.  The doctor told me it's a bad idea for me to get pregnant again because my uterus has thinned out too much after having 3 c-sections".  Our only option would be to adopt at this point and I'm not closed to the idea.  We wanted 3 children and we have been blessed with 3 beautiful children.  I will do my best to raise good, sweet, honest and loving boys who are happy and healthy.  I love my boys more than anything in this world and I thank the good Lord for blessing us with them.  Thanks for listening.