Happy St. Patty's Day

Kenzie came back from kindergarten with this larger-than-life "Leprechaun Hat" (I had to take a step backwards to get it all in the photo even!). She was rather disappointed that the leprechaun traps set in the classroom didn't actually catch the sneaky little fellas, though.

After school, I planned on having the kids make Irish soda bread with me. I heard giggling but it took me a minute to find them - they had camped out in the bathroom closet and were playing in there with the door shut. I thought it was sweet, so I let them be and they played happily for a half hour or so. (Of course, then the novelty wore off, and I remembered why the bathroom is not a play zone - I discovered they were sword-fighting with the plunger! So disgusting.)

After a thorough hand-washing session, we proceeded to make our yearly green bread.

I divided the dough in half and enjoyed the comparisons - Kenzie had worked her dough so much it was a sticky mess. Parker had barely done anything so his was a dry, floury ball. I put them together and we had some decent bread. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

8 Months

Let me first preface this post with the statement, "I do not care for pregnancy pictures of myself." This is no exception, but for posterity's sake I figured I should have Chris take at least one.

I am 32 weeks, and already getting very anxious to be done! Baby Girl is already very curious and/or feisty, based on the kicking and poking I feel constantly. She also gets very riled up when she hears Parker and Kenzie being noisy. It's going to be interesting...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Remember when Valentine's Day was so exciting? Kenzie is at that stage, and she had a great time decorating this little foam mailbox for all her Valentines.

Then this morning I gave the kiddos their presents. (They don't need to know the word "clearance" yet, just that they were happy). Kenzie has been asking for a Valentine's bear, too, so I was very happy that one had been sitting in the closet all year. It has little hearts all over it, and Kenzie studied it for a second and remarked, "It's like the chicken pox, except it's Love Pox!"

I also loved that Kenzie couldn't be bothered to take off her coat or backpack first, no, she needed to empty her mailbox and go through the loot! Parker was right there, too, and helped himself to more than a few little pieces of candy (most were willingly shared). Happy Valentine's Day!

Day 100

Today was day 100 of Kindergarten. This was a big deal for McKenzie, so it seemed fitting to take a few pictures. I'm just glad even after 100 times (or well, 99, she was sick one day) she is still so happy to go each day.

It looks like we're preparing for some bizarre Mardi-Gras event! Happy Friday!

Cousins

Monday I had a doctor's appointment to remove the stent placed during surgery (and am now feeling much better, hooray!), and my sister-in-law came over with her little girl, Tatum, to watch Parker. (I was very glad not to bring Parker with me, since he's been extra concerned about me since the hospital.) But I thought this picture was too sweet that DianaLynn took - and I'm glad Parker has fun with his little cousin.

Jinxed

Well, I have learned my lesson - no month will ever be declared "boring" again! Last Thursday at 6am I woke up with a sharp pain my my back. I thought it was just a failure to evenly distribute my pregnancy weight while sleeping, so I told Chris not to worry as he headed off to catch his bus to work. About 20 minutes later, though, it was clear that I was not going to be fine, and my self-diagnosis was the dreaded kidney stone. I had one when I was pregnant with McKenzie, so I recognized the pain, the throwing up, and my whining like a little kid. Despite recognizing what it was, it still took all day Thursday in the ER, and then all day Friday admitted to the hospital, before the urologist agreed to surgery to remove the stone. (It was not showing up on an ultrasound and they'd rather a pregnant woman languish on heavy narcotics then have an x-ray...)

Anyways, my own grumbling aside, the saddest part was having my kiddos come visit me before my surgery. Kenzie brought me this picture she'd colored. (Top says: "To Mommy From McKenzie." Bottom says, "To Mommy I love you I'm sore [sorry] that you have a kidney stone.") She looked so worried seeing me hooked up to an IV, oxygen, heart rate monitors and who knows what else. Of course I tried to reassure her, but it still was obviously concerning for her.

My little guy was very concerned as well. Even this morning he still told me, "I miss you at hospital!" He got to ride in my bed with me as they wheeled me to surgery, so he did think that was fun ("I have fun in the bed!"), and he also got to ride in the wheelchair with me as I was discharged on Saturday and push the button for the elevator. He was very proud of himself for that. He's still worn out from the ordeal, though, and has gone back to napping during the day. I've just been puttering around very, very slowly. We have some great neighbors around here who have taken Kenzie to school and even brought us dinner a few times, and of course we really owe my in-laws for watching the kids all day while Chris sat by my side in the ER. (Some date! We spent all day together and I remember only a little of it!) Anyways I have an appointment on Monday to have the stent removed, so cross your fingers I will start feeling better after that!

January Sure is Boring!

I have not had anything to post about all month! So here's a random selection of recent things:It's cold in the basement. I did take a lot of "before" pictures as we slowly begin finishing the basement, but since there are no "after" pictures yet, there won't be a post on that for quite some time.

I love that in family pictures, Kenzie draws Parker as the tiny baby and Allison is closer to her size. The other day she looked at my growing belly and told me, "You just look like a real mom now!" It was better than calling me fat so I just thanked her!

One of my many sweet notes that come daily from McKenzie. Although I did really like the one where instead of Mommy I was "Tefne." I taped that one in my journal.

Here are the goofballs themselves, growing up some more. Each has been going through a growth spurt; I haven't had time to update the blog because we're always in the kitchen for snacktime!

Using the coffee table as the basis for a fort. I was sad I cut Kenzie's face off in the picture, but in my defense, it's increasingly difficult for me to get under a coffee table! And there you have it, January in a nutshell. When's Spring?