Kaden's last day of school

Oh my, this year flew. Kaden had a great year in first grade. It amazes me how far he has come in just one school-year. He had team-teachers this year and he just loved both of them.

I took some pics of the last day.

I like to compare the first day of school to the last:Going to the bus stop one last time

Matt and Kaden

Awards ceremony. Kaden received awards in scrolling and rocket math. Not the best pic (I had Hudsen climbing all over me at the back of the gym!) but you get the point!

At the field trip to Silver Lake Park

Hudsen and I stayed for lunch. That was quite an experience. Mrs. Holcomb passing out the popsicles!!!Some friends
Hudsen waiting outside for Kaden to get home. He was excited to get his big brother back home everyday!I can't resist piggies...especially muddy ones!
He's home!

Let summer 2009 begin!!!!!!

catching up...May

Here I am again playing catch up. Where the heck did May go? Really.
The month started out with my NEW DOOR! I know, that sounds SO boring, but you have to understand that the minute we stepped foot inside this house, I said, "the door has GOT to go" (along with a lot of other things, but that was a biggie for me!). Well, here we were, 3 years later still looking at that damn, drafty door. In the winter, the snow and frost would come IN. Nice. So, I got finally got my door put in. I love before and after pics....

Before: (the left side is what it looked like when we bought the house. Yes, it is pink. The right side is after Jeremy painted it to make me happy for awhile!)

And After:The first weekend of May, our nephew Tyler got married to a great girl, Jill. She has been a wonderful addition to the family. She loves kids and the kids love her! Hudsen was the ringbearer in the wedding. He was so darn cute in his little tux. To my surprise, he did walk down the aisle with the flowergirl. He had a long day, but he did amazing!

Bribery!All the kid wanted to do was party and eat cake!
Addie's first lake experience...Mother's Day. My mother's day present from my mom and dad was a weekend with just Adalyn. They took the boys to Iowa for 3 days and we had a nice, quiet weekend. Jeremy, Addie and I went to brunch at Chesters on Sunday a.m. Addie decided to make a huge mess in her pants at Chesters, so that cut our breakfast short! Happy Mother's Day to me! :)

Can you find Hudsen? He LOVES sleeping with almost ALL of his stuffed animals.
Lilacs from my garden. Lilacs remind me of my grandma, they are one of those smells that take me back to my childhood.

We had a HUGE tree fall in our backyard. It fell right between the trampoline and the swingset and during naptime, so thankfully, the boys were not out of there. Scary. Crazy hair day at school. Hudsen had to have his hair spiked, too. He has a totally different texture of hair than Kaden does, so it didn't work quite as well. And Addie...well, that poor little girl only has fuzz. 80's day at school. Remember those big glasses?
Kaden is the top scroller in all of first grade at Jefferson! This pic was taken when he was at 3K, he ended up at 8K! Good job Kaden!
For Memorial Day weekend, we decided to stay home for once. It was nice. I think Jeremy wished we would have gone back to the lake, but I was o.k. with not traveling. Kaden had his race on Sat. and I am glad we didn't miss it. He had been training with the Jefferson Joggers at his school in the mornings before school. The race was 1.2 miles and they had been logging their miles for a month before the actual race. They actually ran the whole marathon (26 miles), but over a month's time. It was so cute. He got to run with his favorite teacher, Mrs. Holcomb and her Cayden. He ran the whole thing, never stopped. He loved it!
Water break!Medal from Mayor Brede! Yeah for Kaden! We are proud of our little runner!Adalyn is three months already! Wow! She is amazing. SUCH a good baby! She is always happy and actually sleeps at night! I am convinced it is because we swaddle her up in her Miracle Blanket like a baby burrito (I'll have to post a pic of that soon, it is cute!) and give her a huge bottle before bed. All of that equals a great night of sleep! She is a cat napper during the day, so nothing ever gets done around here. Oh well, she'll be heading to kindergarten in the blink of an eye. Hudsen's last day of preschool at Bethany. He did SO well this year at school!
Isn't my life boring? But, that's o.k., I like boring.

Kaden

Kaden got his tonsils & adnoids out April 7th. He was a trooper. The one thing he was SO afraid of was "the needles". We kept telling him not to be afraid, but he is deathly afraid of shots, needles, etc. He got his finger pricked at his pre-op appointment and thought he was being killed.  Overall, he did great and it is now behind us.  We are happy to report he no longer snores like an old man. Sleeping much better now!

He didn't have the best Easter since he was still on his liquid diet.  This picture tells a lot:

Hudsen

Hudsen Lee

Hudsen's special day at school. Grandma B. was here to watch Adalyn so I could go and spend the morning with Hudsen. It was a blast!
Hudsen's new thing lately has been playing legos and tinkertoys in our bay window. Love that we can sit in our family room and watch the deer. Do you see it right to the left of Hudsen?

Likes and Dislikes

Addie likes:

Spa treatments (baths, hair being washed)

1st bath @hospital

1st bath at home

The Miracle Blanket (no really, that is what it is called)
Swinging

Hates:
hats (or ANYthing on her head for that matter)

being messed with (a.k.a. getting dressed)

naps in her crib

getting buckled into her carseat

Playing Catch-up

OK, so I am NOT good at blogging. I WANT to be good at it. I wish I had more time. But, that is something that seems to just fly by with a blink of an eye. I hate how fast the last SEVEN weeks have gone. Our sweet Adalyn Mae is already SEVEN weeks old today. She is an amazing little girl in so many ways. The last two nights she has slept 8 straight hours. I know God gave me a baby like this because of the way Hudsen was as a baby! I look back at that time and wonder how I survived it all! All alone with a three year old, a newborn, a husband that worked some really CRAZY hours, no friends and my family 1,000 miles away. If that doesn't qualify someone for PPD, I don't know what does!!!! So I am thanking God everyday for Addie (and not just because of her sleeping habits, but that is a little bit of it!) and also the place that I am in now (physically and emotionally).

Here are just some of my favorite pics of the last month and a half.

So, I am going to go backwards a bit...

I am feeling the need to tell the story of Adalyn's birth. Bear with me...

I had a scheduled induction at 8 a.m. on Wed, Feb. 25th, 2009.

It was a long and kind of boring day. Waiting...

I had pitocin to get labor going and then I couldn't take it much longer and had an epidural at 6:30 p.m. (who needs natural childbirth? I've done that, it is overrated!)

I got to enjoy American Idol that night. (See American Idol on the tv?)

25 minutes later, my water broke as I was talking about when my doctor was going to come in and "snag the bag". Weird, and quite funny!

I love that I can have a smile on my face while in VERY active labor. This day was a total roller coaster ride. Miss Adalyn wanted to be born hand first. THAT was not going to work. My awesome doctor (best doc in the world in my opinion!) Dr. Agudelo kept pushing Adalyn's hand away. Everytime she came to check me, her hand would be back by her head. NOT good. I could tell Dr. A was nervous and tried to prepare me for the dreaded c-section in case things didn't change. She gave it another hour and came back and checked me and pushed her hand back again. Thankfully, she kept her hand where it belonged and it was go time...

(the last belly pic...it was really distorted at this point!)

After 16 hours and 31 minutes of labor (my longest) and four pushes (my fewest) Adalyn Mae was finally here. We thought she looked so small. I guess compared to a 3 year old and a 7 year old, she was. But, compared to an "average" sized newborn, not so much. She weighed in at 9 pounds exactly. 20 inches long. She was SO mad when she came out! But, oh so sweet.