Friday, December 28, 2007

Melanie's Two Month Stats!

This morning was Melanie's two month appt. She is growing so well. Now she is 14.5 lbs., 24 inches long, and her head is 16 inches. Andy made the comment that her head still isn't as big as Anne's was when Anne was born (18 inches--trust me, I know). :) I plan to take Melanie to get her 2 month shots next week. They would have given them to her at our Dr.'s office, but I prefer to take her to the County Health Clinic. Our Dr. advised us to do this when Anne was born for two reasons: 1. it's cheaper--always a plus, and 2. the children hate going to that clinic, but not our family doctor's office. :) Our Dr. also commented that if she continues to keep growing at this rate she will be as tall as her Mommy! The determining factor is puberty. Thankfully we have a while before that happens. :)

Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas to All!

I thought I would take a few moments to wish everyone a Merry CHRISTmas today before time gets away from me. Anne and Naomi are finishing up breakfast. Melanie is happily smiling and cooing in her bouncy seat. She slept from 11pm till 8:30am!!! YEAH!! Next on the agenda is to make sugar cookies for Santa! So begins the hustle and bustle from now until tomorrow night. :) The feeling of so much to do and so little time. I plan to just take things one at a time, get done what I can, and make sure that I'm enjoying every minute of this CHRISTmas time with family and loved ones. All the while emphasizing the true meaning of CHRISTmas with our girls. For without Jesus CHRISTmas would be pointless. So, from our family to yours:

Have a VERY Merry CHRISTmas and a Happy New Year!


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Thursday, December 20, 2007

Randon Christmas Hoopla!

Tagged once again. Thanks Emily! :)
Here are the rules.
1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas.
2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla'.
3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done.

1. For the last few years I have been a last minute shopper. This year I'm pretty much done with shopping, but I have been caught out Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve before.
2. I love any Christmas music!! This year with all the confusion of our house remodeling I thought my CDs were in storage. Andy, my wonderful husband, got my CDs out of storage for me. Only when I opened the cases they were empty. I had organized them with our other CDs in Case Logic notebooks which have been in our house all along!
3. My all time favorite Christmas movie is "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby. I have to watch it at least once each year, and belt out every tune and line I know. :)
4. Melanie, our newest princess, made her debut as Baby Jesus in our church's Christmas cantata this year. She absolutely stole the show!!
5. While we don't put Christmas lights on our house I really enjoy looking at other people's light creations on their houses. I could just drive around all night looking at them.
6. I'm usually anal about the ornaments being spaced just so on the tree, but not this year. I let Anne and Naomi put the ornaments on, and I haven't rearranged any of them.
7. I don't remember ever making/decorating a gingerbread house when I was little, but last year I started the tradition. I made "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers and royal icing for my girls and nieces and nephews to decorate. I enjoyed watching them decorate them so much I decided to keep the tradition going. It also gives them something else fun to do on Christmas day.
8. Speaking of starting traditions...last year I made kolaches, a sweet roll with cherry pie filling in the middle. I have a fond childhood memory of my mom making them around the holidays. I found a recipe last year, made them, and the second batch turned out just like I remembered. They are time consuming so I'm not sure that I'll get them made this year with a new baby in the house. But it is a tradition that I would like to keep going--maybe next year. :)
9. The Christmas holidays with family has been fairly easy on Andy and I. We spend Christmas Eve night with his side of the family, and Christmas day with mine. Thankfully we aren't trying to go to two places in the same day.
10. I collect the New England Village pieces. Andy usually gets me one each year. They are prominently placed on top of the piano I inherited from my Grandma Dick.
11. My mom and I enjoyed taking the girls to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO this year for their Christmas season. The last time I had been there was when Anne was six months old! We had so much fun watching the girls take it all in.
12 In response to Emily's #12...You have to try eggnog!! I hadn't tried it till I married Andy because he likes it. We buy the kind from the store. I don't think I could handle drinking a recipe with actual eggs in it!

Now I'm tagging the only other blogger I know...
1. Rebecca Edwards

Friday, December 14, 2007

The Man Song!

I guess I'm just a blogging fool lately. :) Andy sent this to me today, and I couldn't resist posting it. TGIF!

I Got Elfed!

This was a lot of fun once I figured out how to upload pictures that would work. :)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1395682915

Have fun!!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Melanie Smiles!! :)

I couldn't resist blogging these pictures of Melanie smiling. She has been smiling every now and then lately, but this morning she just kept doing it. She'll be seven weeks old this Saturday. ENJOY!




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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Baby Mel update

I thought I would give an update on Melanie while I'm blogging. She is now 6 1/2 weeks old. I have no idea what her weight it, but I'm sure it's more than 12 1/2 lbs. now. :) I love this outfit she has on from my sister. She's already in 3-6 month clothes! She was so happy and content on the changing table after a bath that I couldn't resist taking a couple of pictures.


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Couldn't Be Prouder!

I just couldn't be a prouder sister. This past Sunday night my brother and the praise band he plays in played at a Christian bookstore/coffee house. They did an awesome job, and if memory serves me right Jaron was pretty much the lead singer! I always enjoy hearing them play.

My brother, Jaron!


The drummer--Wynn
Guitarists (from left to right)--Colt, Eli, and Jaron
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Saturday, December 8, 2007

The Gentry Christmas Parade

Tonight was the Gentry Christmas parade. The weather was a little frightful. :) Actually, the picture makes it look worse than it really was. Believe it or not that's just drizzle falling, but the flash on my camera made it look like snow--I wish! Our Awana program let all the kids that wanted to ride on the float. Our daughter, Anne, is the angel on the left in the back of the truck. Naomi is more difficult to see, but she's on the trailer behind the truck. Both girls were so excited about getting to be in the parade. This was Anne's second parade. She was able to be on the gymnastics float last weekend in the Siloam Springs parade.
Then Santa was at the old Carl gym in town so that kids could have their picture taken with him. Anne jumped at the chance. She had already had her picture taken with another Santa at Wal-Mart earlier today. :)
Naomi wasn't as excited about Santa as Anne was, but finally conceded to having her picture taken with him.
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Monday, December 3, 2007

Our Branson Trip!

What a weekend! I wasn't quite sure if I was being brave or crazy while we were traveling to Branson, but it turned out to be a terrific time!! I haven't been to Branson, let alone Silver Dollar City, since Anne was 3 months old. It has changed quite a bit since then.

We left late Friday morning and arrived at our cabin early afternoon. After unloading the van we left for Silver Dollar City. Anne and Naomi had no idea of what was in store for them!! They thoroughly enjoyed the kiddie ride area!! Their favorite was the roller coaster. They would ride that several times in a row. There was an elephant ride that they enjoyed on Friday. They could make the elephant go higher by pushing a button. We went back to SDC on Saturday, but they weren't allowed to ride the elephant ride. The man told them that they weren't tall enough and would need an adult. My oldest daughter, Anne, put up a good defense, though. She told him, "But I'm 11 feet tall." :) I think she also tried to convince the guy that Naomi was 10 feet tall. Bless their hearts.




Even my mom enjoyed the frog ride with the girls! :)


The parade came through twice at 6pm and 8pm. The girls got to see it both times. The first time I was was feeding Melanie (SDC has nursing stations--yeah!) and didn't get to see the girls enjoy the parade. But I got to see it at 8pm with them. We were standing by a food cart by ourselves so the girls got a lot of attention from the characters in the parade.


I'm so glad that it worked out for us to go. We're planning to go again next year on the first weekend of December and would like to make it an anual event. Although we'll plan to stay a little longer so that we can enjoy shopping at the outlet malls, too.
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Melanie's One Month Stats!

Failing to thrive is definitely not a problem for our newest princess!! She had her one month appointment today. She now weighs in at 12.5 lbs. and is 22 1/2 inches long!!! Our doctor commented that her weight was off the charts for a baby her age. And to think I was a little worried with all the spitting up she's been doing. It evidently is not enough to hinder her weight progress. :) She's sleeping almost 4 hours at a time at night, but she really doesn't want to settle down to sleep until around midnight. That's difficult on her mommy because she's NOT a night owl. :) Hopefully it won't be too long before she's sleeping a little longer than 4 hours. :)

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Trimming the Tree!

I've had the tree up for about a week, but hadn't got around to decorating it, yet. All I did was put the tree on top and the gold garland around it. The girls put all of the ornaments on it. Needless to say, I need to get some more ornaments. I was thinking of having a primarily gold tree, but I'm not entirely sure. I might try to go look at ornaments this week with the girls--we'll see. :)


Here's the finished product. (at least till I put the finishing touches on it. :)) I tried to get the girls to spread the ornaments out a little, but you can see my advice fell on deaf ears. They had a lot of fun doing it, though. They even spent some time rearranging the ornaments till they were where they wanted them. They probably just liked playing with the tree. I'll post MY finished product later. :)
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Cross-eyed Gangsta' Girl!! :)

I realize that updated pictures of Melanie are long over due. So, here are a couple. These were taken last week. She is gaining more control every day, but we get such a kick out of her when she goes cross-eyed. :) She's growing so quickly. In a couple of days she'll be a month old. (I can hardly believe she's been in our lives that long.) Then we'll have her one month stats to post.

Here's our little gangsta. We were amused at her hand symbols.
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Tuesday, November 6, 2007

One Week Stats!

Today Melanie had her one week appt. with our family physician. She is doing great! She is currently 9 lbs. 10 oz. She is still 21 " long, but everything looks great!! Sorry, I don't have any recent photos. Maybe next time.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Little Sleeping Beauty!

Here's our little sleeping beauty. The past two nights since we've been home from the hospital haven't been too bad. We'll get it all straightened out eventually. :) She slept for quite a while this morning. I finally just woke her up so I could change her and she could eat. She seems to sleep best on her side. She was also slightly jaundiced so we put the pack-n-play in the sun porch so she can get some natural light while she sleeps. Of course, I'm extrememly biased, but she looks so precious.

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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!

Even though Melanie is only 4 days old we all got out and took the girls trick-or-treating. It was a lot of fun. We took them to Andy's office first at Simmons Foods, Inc., and then to Allen Canning offices where my mom works. Finally we walked down Main St. here in Gentry before going home to pass out candy to others. The girls have gotten a lot of mileage out of these princess dresses. My mom made them for the girls a couple of years ago. This will probably be the last Halloween they will wear them. I had found a fleece cat costume for Melanie so she wasn't left out.

The girls in their costumes.
Melanie's not really in the mood for a photo opp. :) It's time for her to eat, and that was all that was on her mind. :)
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Monday, October 29, 2007

Welcome Home!

WE'RE HOME!!! Melanie and I got to come home this morning!! We are both doing GREAT--especially now that we're home. Notice how much I use the word, "home." LOL
We took this picture this morning after she had a full tummy and changed into her "going home" clothes.

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Sunday, October 28, 2007

Welcome, Melanie Kate, Princess #3!!!!

I was scheduled to be induced on Friday morning. Since Anne and Naomi were both 9 lbs. when they were born I didn't want to take the chance of delivering a baby bigger than that. :) The hospital called me the day before to let me know the OB ward was full!! So, we had to wait for the hospital to call when a room was available. They finally called us Friday night around 8:30pm. Off to the hospital we go. They started my epidural, but when the Dr. checked me he wasn't so sure that Melanie was head down. When they did an ultrasound to be sure we found out that she was breach. My options were to go home and see if she would turn in a couple of days, try to turn her at the hospital, or a C-section. We were not expecting to have to make this decision, but after much diliberation we decided to do the C-section. I was already full term so going home wasn't an option to me. :) Melanie Kate made her debut at 12:38am, October 27, 2007. She weighed 9lbs. 2 oz., and her length was 21 inches long!

Mom and Melanie are both doing great!! My recovery has been going really well.
Our new family of five! Anne and Naomi were excited about their new sister, but they were also concerned about their mommy. They weren't so sure about the IV I was attached to. Plus, they've never been in a hospital room.
Here is Melanie in her daddy's hands. This is one of my favorite pictures so far! :)
I'm sure there will be more pictures to come. Stay tuned! :)
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Saturday, October 20, 2007

Pumpkin Pancakes!

I tried a new recipe this morning, and it turned out great!! Fall is my favorite time of year, and now this recipe is an added bonus! :) I received the recipe from a lady in our homeschool group, and thought I would share it with all of you. Here it is:

Pumpkin Pancakes
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. cornmeal
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
4 t. baking powder

Stir dry ingredients to mix, then add:
2 c. buttermilk (or 1 T. vinegar in bottom of measuring cup and fill with milk for each cup of "sour milk")
1 c. pumpkin puree
6 T. brown sugar
2 eggs

Beat until smooth and pour into heated skillet in 1/3 c. amounts. Makes about 11-12 big cakes.
BEFORE
AFTER
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Saturday, October 13, 2007

Right Choices Corn Maze!

Let me just start by saying, "WHAT A DAY!!" Today I took the girls to a corn maze in Southwest City, MO. We all had a great time!!! There was so much to do there. We were there all afternoon. We could have easily stayed during the evening as well with all there was to do. If you'd like to check out the website it is: http://www.rightchoicescornmaze.com/





Here the girls are standing at the beginning of the corn maze. I let them choose if they wanted to do the short or the long. Of course, they wanted to do the long one. The time estimated to complete the long one was 30 minutes. Let me remind those of you reading this I have only 13 days till my due date. :)




I let the girls each pick out a pumpkin. We'll carve one of them, and the other I plan to scoop out. I'd like to roast the seeds and bake the meat to use for bread or pie. We'll see how ambitious I am. I think it would be an awesome thing for the girls to experience.

We didn't get lost too many times. :) The girls had such a great time. I can't wait to take them again.