The Real White House

Our performing girls

2011-12-23T19:20:00.000-05:00

Cami had her Christmas concert for kindergarten last week. It was so sweet. She's just too funny with her facial expressions. (I went back to look at Alaina's kindergarten concert, and you should totally watch them if you have an extra minute, here and here. They are priceless. Seriously.) Here's Cameran in "Away in a Manger" for your viewing pleasure:

Alaina had to miss her Christmas concert because she had mandatory Nutcracker rehearsals at the theater that evening. She was a soldier and an angel this year, performing in 5 performances over 4 days last weekend. She did a great job. The surprising thing is that Alaina has decided to take a break from ballet and take a theater class instead. Here is a bit of her angel performance:

We're gearing up for Christmas. The girls have been gone since Tuesday night in Ft. Wayne and I have spent the week shopping, as I was WAY far behind. Luke was a trooper shopping with me all week. We'll travel to Ft. Wayne to pick up the girls Saturday morning and head back in time for our church's Christmas Eve service. It has been a nice break with them gone, but I have to say I have missed them at times. I saw a rainbow the other day in the car, and Lucas didn't understand why I was so excited. The girls would have appreciated my excitement. :)

Merry Christmas to you all. I pray you feel our Father's peace and love this holiday season.

Looking back over the last year.

2011-11-16T13:42:00.036-05:00

Lucas celebrated his first birthday last week. It was a really hard week for me. I don't know if it was because I think this is our last or because he's been such a joy or because I just love babies so much, but I really mourned him turning one. It was a rough day for me.

So I thought I'd look back on the last year, month by month, to see how much Lucas has changed. And how we have loved every minute of him. You'll also see that *he* didn't mourn a MINUTE of his first birthday celebrations. :)

Lucas is doing great. He's such a happy kid. He's really walking now - attempting to walk aroud the house instead of crawling to his next destination. He LOVES to make noise - by banging with his hands or even better, with anything long and hard, like a dowel rod or plastic baseball bat. :) When he's not hitting things with hard objects, he's dancing to music (any kind, even music on TV shows or commercials) or wanting to read books. Over. And over. And over. He would read the same book 20 times in a row if I let him.

He weighed in at 19.5 pounds and 28.5 inches at his well-child visit. Such a big boy! I mean, not really, he's really in like the 15th percentile, but it's all relative. :)

The girls are still just as completely smitten with him as the day he was born. They really find so much joy in him, and him in them. It's really wonderful to see it in action.

We're looking forward to the holidays, spending Thanksgiving with family. It's so crazy to think that we had a 2-week old baby last Thanksgiving. How time flies...

Will update soon. Promise. :)

Fall trip to Kelsay Farms

2011-10-17T14:07:00.002-04:00

Each year, the girls beg to go to some kind of fall farm festival. And each year we go, but we've never found a farm that we've loved and go back to each year.

So this weekend, we tried out Kelsay Farms. It's located south of Indy in Whiteland (just about 5 min from Greenwood). I was instantly drawn to this farm because the admission price includes ALL activities. I have never seen this before at any farm we've visited in the last few years. It's always a few dollars per person to get in and then a couple dollars per activity on top of admission.

The first thing we did was the 5 acre corn maze. It was huge. And thankfully, they give you an aerial picture of the maze so that you can use it to help navigate your way though. Plus, there's a fun game you can play by finding 5 questions and answers along the way. (You turn those in for a free pencil.)

When we finally found all 5 Q&A's and made our way to the exit, the girls ran to the hayride. It was a nice rest after walking around 5 acres in circles! After we rested our legs, we grabbed a quick snack. Surprisingly, the food was pretty reasonably priced. (We got a hot dog, string cheese, Cheetos and 4 drinks for $7.)

Rested and fed, we went to the huge "bale mountain." It was basically a huge playground made of hay bales. The girls LOVED it! Lucas even got in on the fun.

We also visited the calves - only 23 days old! They were so cute.

The girls also played in a "corn crib." It was basically a sand box, but filled with corn kernels instead of sand. It was so neat. There was even a slide in it. Alaina had Cameran bury her in corn! That was, of course, after Alaina found a Taylor Swift poster.

Our last stop at the farm was the Moo Choo Express. It was a tractor pulling cow trailers behind it for kids. It was the funniest ride!

By this point, I had a cranky 11 month old and a tired husband, so we ended up leaving before experiencing everything on the farm. We were there for 2 hours and we still missed out on the magic show, face painting, milk parlor and barn tours, and the rope maze. There is seriously a TON of things to do at this farm.

You should totally go. It's open each weekend in October (Friday, Saturday & Sunday). Check out their website for hours and special activities lined up for each weekend. (One thing that looks especially fun is going trick or treating in the corn maze!)

We received free tickets for our family to visit Kelsay Farms. BUT, we had a great time and I would have written this post even if we had paid for our tickets. You really should visit. :) ~~If you are going to go, leave a comment and let me know. I have one extra ticket that we didn't use (kiddos under 2 are free) that I would LOVE to pass along to you!~~ (sorry! the ticket's been claimed.)

And so it begins.

2011-08-22T14:34:00.000-04:00

School, that is. Summer break is officially over and my kids are growing up too fast.

Alaina is now in 4th grade. I really remember 4th grade - my teacher's name was Mrs. Meyer and I learned cursive, Spanish and how to take care of a class hamster. Alaina has already learned cursive and started Latin in 3rd grade, so I'm excited to see what she learns this year. And I don't think it will include taking care of a class hamster, since right now they don't have one. :)

Cameran started kindergarten this year! She was quite nervous and a bit overwhelmed the first day, but is completely fine now. She's only going 1/2 day, partially because of cost, but mainly because I just want to spend some more time with her since I'm not working. A bit selfish I know. :)

Lucas is now 9 months old and is offcially a crazy man. He makes the funniest faces, especially when prompted. He thinks he's pretty funny, and two little girls encourage it constantly! The kid is moving nonstop - crawling, pulling up on everything, cruising around anything that will hold his weight. Oh, and chasing the cat. He LOVES any kind of animal. He is just so active - and therefore crashes every night and doesn't make a peep until morning. I'm loving it.

Adam competed in his first sprint triathlon earlier this month (Tri Indy). It was a 500 yd swim (in the Canal!!), 13 mi bike ride and 5k run. He did a great job and really enjoyed it. We had a blast cheering him on - we were able to walk beside him for the entire swim and watch him transition from swim to bike and from bike to run and then cheer him on right before the finish line. All while pushing the stroller. It was a great spectator race!

Oh, and we also spent 4 days at the Indiana State Fair (LOVE!!!). I wrote about that here if you want to read more.

I'm ready to get into the swing of a normal school week. And to see how Lucas handles not being doted upon every minute of every day since the girls will be gone. Should be interesting...

All things Taylor Swift.

2011-08-05T15:55:00.000-04:00

Last Friday night my mom and I took the girls to see Taylor Swift in concert. Here's how excited Alaina was before the concert:

And here's how excited the girls were RIGHT BEFORE (and as) the concert started:

We had SO much fun. Our seats were wonderful - we were close enough to see her mouth actually move and at one point she flew right over us in a basket. And Jon McLaughlin sat just 3 rows in front of us, so I thought that was cool too. :) The group who opened for her was Needtobreathe. I loved them. One of me new faves.

Here are some pics from the night.

"Girl's Night"

The closest they got to Taylor Swift.

We're ready for the concert!

When's Taylor Swift gonna sing?

Alaina & Nana

Cameran & Nana

This was Alaina when she saw Taylor Swift for the first time.

Such a pretty girl.

Such a tired girl.

The basket that proceeded to go directly over our heads!

While we had a wonderful time just being together, it would never have been so great if the concert was spoiled by nasty language, slinky clothes or dirty dancing. I was so impressed and quite thankful that my girls adore a young woman who carries herself so well.

It was well worth the money. :)

Go big or go home

2011-07-24T23:34:00.000-04:00

I think this is Luke's motto. He's sure living it the last few weeks.

I mentioned in my last post that Luke had just started pushing from his stomach to a sitting position. The first time he did that was on Saturday, June 25th. The day I posted the last post, he started crawling (after I posted of course!) and two days later, on Saturday July 2nd, Adam went to get him from his crib and he was standing up in it! So in 8 days he reached three big milestones. Now he's crawling everywhere...

Pulling up on everything...

And even climbing. (This is of him tumbling down after he crawled up.)

Luke also got his first tooth! And three more! His first tooth (up top) came in on Wednesday, July 13th and in the next 5 days he proceeded to get three more. So he now has his two top and bottom teeth. If you look closely you can see his top teeth in this picture.

We sure are lovin' this boy.

School's out!

2011-06-30T20:12:00.000-04:00

Man, time flies. Alaina has finished THIRD grade. She had a wonderful year with a wonderful teacher. My third grade teacher called me Kathy. And once I peed my pants in her classroom during standardized testing because she wouldn't call on me when I had my hand raised and we weren't allowed to speak. It was *great* - so different than Alaina's year. :)

Adam ran a MARATHON. Yep, 26.2 miles. He ran it the first weekend in June in South Bend. It was pretty amazing. We got to chase him around South Bend to cheer him on throughout the race. We were able to see him 4 times during the race. The runners crossed the finish line inside Notre Dame's football stadium, so that was so cool (for me even just to be IN it!).

Luke turned 7 mos. old on the 10th. He's trying to crawl and cut teeth. He can sometimes get from his stomach to sitting when he tries hard enough. And he's eating like mad. The kid thinks he should eat big kid food if it's anywhere close to him, no matter if he just ate a full meal.

Cami turned FIVE on the 16th. She celebrated by having cousin Vanessa for a sleep-over the weekend before, dinner at Chick-fil-a the night before (so she could go to Kid's Night and make a craft and get a balloon hat) and then had a backyard water party on the morning of her birthday. It was fun-filled and exhausting. :)

We left the next day for our annual trip to Myrtle Beach. We had an amazing time spending time with my parents, my brother and his girlfriend and our friends the Moloney's. Luke loved the beach and pool just like his sisters. He loved kicking his legs like he was trying to swim while we pulled him through the pool water. It was like instinct took over! He did get knocked over by a wave the last day we were there while sitting in the sand at the beach near the water. The tide came in a bit harder than I expected and wiped him out flat on his back.

We took a side trip when we left Myrtle Beach to Wilmington, NC to visit Adam's cousin Curt and his family. We hadn't seen Curt and Tee for nearly 4 years and our families have changed so much since then! It really was a great reunion with them and the kids had a blast playing together. And Cami swam by herself for the first time in their pool!

The girls leave for Ft. Wayne Friday night for a week. They are looking forward to time with grandparents and we are looking forward to a little break as well! I'm already starting my to-do list, including weeding (since it rained so much while we were on vacation our yard went CRAZY!) and deep cleaning. Sounds fun huh? :)

Rocka rocka rocka.

2011-06-01T12:48:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to share our sweet boy's newest trick. :)

Busy busy!

2011-05-27T12:02:00.000-04:00

The last 2 weeks have been eventful, so I thought I'd get a quick update in so the next post isn't so long. :)

Luke weighed in at 15 pounds at his 6 month well-child visit. That puts him in almost the 15th percentile. He has started talking more, making sounds as opposed to just humming and grunting. :) He started saying "ma ma" which of course has made me happy. Too bad he doesn't know what he's saying still!

Cami graduated from preschool on Wednesday last week. It was fun to see her sing "Jesus Loves Me" and do sign language with the song. She really had a great year of preschool and she loved her teachers and new friends.

Alaina's annual Spring Fling was on the following Friday. The entire school has a parade, dressing up in costumes from something they studied during the year. Alaina's class dressed up as Romans.

After the parade, we went back to Alaina's classroom for a play about Caesar's killing. The kids did a great job and Alaina was quite dramatic, taking advantage of her part to claim the spotlight.

We left the Spring Fling and drove to Pokagon State Park to go camping with three other families for the weekend. We all squeezed into our tent (blow up mattress, 2 sleeping bags and the pack-n-play!) and had a great time.

Our good friends let us borrow their back-pack for Luke and it was a lifesaver while hiking!

There's a beach on Lake James that is part of Pokagon. It was an amazing afternoon so the kids took advantage of the water!

Right when we got back from the beach, it started raining. And got cold. It was nuts. It proceeded to rain until about 8:30 that night, but then cleared up and left the adults a great night at the campfire.

Alaina's last day of school is next Thursday June 2nd. We're so excited about this summer and the plans we have - Myrtle Beach, Nana Camp, Grandma Camp and other little camps and VBS outings, as well as the pool!

I think I'll have some Baby Jedi teeth to report in a couple of weeks. We're getting close!

Luke's Half Birthday!

2011-05-10T21:54:00.000-04:00

Somehow, it's been 6 months since Lucas was born. He's growing so quickly and is really such a happy boy.

Today Luke also woke up with his first legitimate runny nose and proceeded to run a 102 degree fever later this afternoon. Cami was also not feeling well today, with a slight fever and nauseau, so some bug must be in our house.

Luke is doing great. We've added oatmeal, sweet potatoes, pears, plums and prunes to his menu and can't wait to move on to even more now that he's 6 mos. old. As you can see from the picture above, he drools nonstop. I'm pretty sure in the next few weeks a tooth or two will pop out.

The boy LOVES his toes.

He's sitting with a little support.

And he adores his big sisters. (This pic is from Easter.)

Luke was baptized on May 1st. Alaina's recital was also that day. She performed in ballet and tap and did a great job! (To see pictures from these events, go to http://bit.ly/lvfI8j. My mom took pics for us!)

Cami started swimming lessons for the first time too. She's getting very brave and is much more comfortable in the water now. She's not swimming alone yet, but they moved her down to a smaller float device since she's doing so well.

Adam ran the Mini Marathon this past weekend for the fourth time. We went to cheer him on near the end of the race. The girls were waiting for him to arrive.

And Luke slept.

He did a great job finishing the 13.1 miles in 1 hr 48 min (his 2nd best time).

Adam will be running a marathon in South Bend on June 4th so I'll be sure to update you on how he does!

We're enjoying the break in rain and the warm weather. The girls jumped on the trampoline with the sprinkler under it after dinner tonight and had a blast. Cami finishes preschool the end of next week and Alaina has less than 4 weeks of school left. We're looking forward to what the rest of the Spring and Summer have in store for us!

Ahhh... Spring. Finally.

2011-04-13T21:15:00.000-04:00

I wasn't sure we'd actually make it to Spring. Being couped up with a newborn all winter was hard on me. And therefore hard on the rest of the family. But Spring has arrived and I feel blessed by this warm weather.

We started Spring Break off by taking a trip to Evansville with my dad (sans Adam). We had a wonderful time visiting my grandma (aka "Super Grandma" to the kids) and lots of other family members as well.

Lucas was enamored with my grandma and completely fell in love with her (it's impossible not to!).

And the girls, well, they found love in Uncle George.

The girls went back to Ft. Wayne after Evansville for a quick visit with Adam's mom. Then returned to Indianapolis to find snow on their first full day back. So we stayed inside and made crowns. :)

Adam took a couple days off at the end of the week. We went rock wall climbing, but forgot the camera. This is something Alaina loves to do so she was climbing the whole time having a blast. Cami climbed twice in a harness and a few times across some pegged walls, but that was it. She had a great time cheering for Alaina though!

We all went ice skating, which was a trip! Alaina really enjoyed herself and skated for a good 1.5 hours, finally getting the hang of it about 1/2 way in.

Cami on the other hand, skated twice. But she had a great time being there, which is all that matters I guess.

The weather was beautiful over the weekend. The girls have been asking for weeks to play outside in their bathing suits with the hose, so I finally gave in. They played for probably two hours!

Baby Jedi is now 5 months old and it seems like he's growing overnight! He has found his hands, toes and tongue, which is always sticking out. :)

Luke is very active. He's always moving his arms and legs, so we got out the Johnny Jumper for him to try out, which was a huge hit! Our doorways are too high though to use it anywhere but in the bathroom by the kitchen. When he's bigger and weighs more, we'll be able to move it so he's not stuck in the bathroom door. :)

I was planning to introduce Luke to solid foods when he turned 6 months old, since those are the new pediatric recommendations. But he kept trying to grab food out of my hand and was intentently watching each and every bite I would put in my mouth at every meal. So I thought I'd try some cereal to see if he was ready. Holy cow, that boy ate the cereal like it was second nature! No sour faces, no spitting it out. So he started eating some solid foods a couple weeks ago and is now enjoying brown rice cereal, smashed bananas and avocados and applesauce. The kid LOVES to eat real food! (pardon my hand in the video below)

I'm happy we chose to have another child. Baby Jedi's pretty cool.

4 month old sucka

2011-03-11T17:56:00.025-05:00

Lucas turned 4 months old on Thursday. It's hard to believe that it's already been that long since he was born. I don't know why this continues to surprise me, considering Alaina is 8 1/2 now. Time goes by so quickly...

Luke measured in at 12 lbs. 8 oz. and 25 in. According to my records, that's only 1 ounce heavier and the same length as Alaina at the same age, which is crazy since I considered Alaina to be so small when she was a baby and Luke doesn't seem that small to me. Alaina didn't grow much after that though, so we'll see if Luke follows in her footsteps. I hope not. Being a bitty boy would be harder than a bitty girl as he gets older.

I didn't have Cameran's measurements at 4 months written down for some reason. I did find her 2 month measurements and she weighed the same as Luke, just 2 months earlier. :) I found this picture of her at 4 months old at Zoo Boo. (It's funny that we don't have any digital pics of Alaina because we didn't even have a digital camera until Cami was born!)

We were fortunate to be given free tickets to the Shriner's Circus last weekend. We had a great time, though it was VERY long and we ended up leaving at intermission (almost 2 hours in!!). As you can see, Baby Jedi wasn't very attentive and slept through about half of it.

Oh, and one other piece of Baby Jedi news: he's officially a thumb-sucker.

Super cute on a 4 month old right? Not so much when he's 2 and I can't throw his thumb away...

And there he rolls!

2011-02-27T16:55:00.000-05:00

Luke has rolled over several times in his crib. But we've never seen it! So we were pretty excited to actually see him roll over on Thursday for the first time. And now he won't stop. Every time I put him on his stomach to play, he rolls over within minutes.

Adam took the girls to the symphony this afternoon for a family series performance called The Classical Clown. They were really excited - we haven't taken them to the symphony since the Yuletide performance before Christmas. It's a beautiful day today, so the girls were equally excited to not have to wear coats when they left. :)

All is going well with us. Cami is preparing for kindergarten in the fall, having recently had her enrollment assessment and observation. She's pretty stoked. Nothing else big is happening right now.

I'll take it.

Through the ice and snow we go!

2011-02-16T09:55:00.000-05:00

It has been a crazy winter here in Indy. We are starting to thaw (thanks to some welcomed warm weather!) from 2 inches of ice that fell Feb. 1 & 2 and the subsequent 3+ inches of snow three days later. The girls had 4 days of school cancelled that left us together, stuck inside, for WAY too long. The girls did have a great time "ice skating" in the backyard at least once a day. And since Adam loves being outside in the ice and snow with the girls, they had fun playing together.

When we could finally get out of the ice, we headed to the Children's Museum for the Barbie runway and the new Dora and Deigo exhibit.

Luke is 3 months old and is so fun to be with right now. Which is good, since he still prefers me over anyone else. He's just so darn cute.

He has rolled over twice - in his bed in the middle of the night. I haven't seen any interest from him in rolling over during waking hours, so this is a mystery to me. I think he must be pushing off the side of his crib with his foot. Or he's using his Baby Jedi powers. One of the two. :)

It is supposed to be 62 degrees here tomorrow. I'm hoping for a trip to the zoo. Cami needs to run off some energy and I need to breathe some fresh, warm air!

So funny!

2011-01-30T23:02:00.000-05:00

Luke laughed for the first time today! See for yourself.

Isn't he the sweetest?!

59 days and counting

2011-01-20T12:35:00.001-05:00

Two months from today is the first day of Spring. I am counting down. This cold winter weather has us stuck inside and I am craving some warm weather activities like going to a park, taking a walk, having a picnic, going to the pool... (I could go on and on...) Luckily, the girls, unlike me, absolutely love the snow.

It's a good thing Lucas is so cute or I'd be going stir crazy spending so much time in this house. Luke smiled at me for the first time on December 17th - it took me weeks to get a smile on camera!

Luke is now 10 weeks old as of yesterday. He was up to 10 lbs 12 oz at his 2 month appointment last Monday. He has been sleeping through the night (probably 5 nights a week) since Christmas Eve. And he's talking like crazy. He is definitely mama's boy, preferring to be with me over anyone else. I'll take it. :)

Alaina is home sick from school today with a fever, headache, sore throat and cough. I'm going a little overboard trying to keep the rest of us from getting sick also. I can't imagine having this go through our whole house and I definitely don't want Luke to get sick. Spring cannot come soon enough.

Maybe I'll win a trip somewhere warm...

Yeah, I know, fat chance.

Until then, I'll just cuddle my little man to keep warm.

More or Less?

2011-01-01T13:23:00.000-05:00

My friend Emily wrote about her word of the year for 2011: less. I think she's definitely on to something. I could quote her whole list of "lesses" word for word.

But as I think more about it, I am quite thankful for the more in 2010.

More (wonderful & not) days with my girls.

More joy in a new baby that we wanted for the entire year (and most of 2009).

More time with family we don't get to see enough.

More curing of cancer.

Don't get me wrong. I'm fully embracing Emily's "less is more" concept for 2011. Partially by need - financially this year, we don't have an option to not embrace "less" since I'm working so little. But I pray that the rest of me embraces "less" from my heart.

One thing Adam's looking forward to more in 2011: testosterone.

What a week!

2010-12-21T15:04:00.001-05:00

Last week was crazy! Let me start with Wednesday...

Baby Jedi (my nickname for Lucas) turned 5 weeks old. Crazy. Nuts.

Adam likes to take pics of out babies sitting up. Even if they can't. :)

On this day, Cami had her Christmas program at her preschool. This was Cami's first "performance" ever, so she was very excited and we couldn't wait to see it. My plan is to go early with Luke to get a good seat. What really happens? I put Luke in the car, start it and get out to scrape the windows. BUT, I must have ALSO locked the car doors as I got out of the car, because when I was done scraping, I couldn't get back IN.

A quick note: Katie = Best. Mom. Ever. I'm now 3 for 3 in locking my kids in somewhere I am not.

Alaina: also in the car, when she was 2, on a Friday at 11:30 am, in the middle of downtown Indy, rescued by the fire department with sirens and lights ablazing
Cameran: in the house, when she was about 6 weeks old, rescued by a neighbor breaking into a second story window with a ladder.

Thankfully, one of our neighbors was home (the same one who rescued Cami I might add) so I used his phone to call Adam to come unlock the car.

We walked in to Cami's program RIGHT before it started. Phew. Cami would never know. (See her on the top row in green.)

Alaina had Nutcracker rehearsal each night last week, leading up to performances on Friday night and Saturday and Sunday afternoons. This is Alaina's third Nutcracker, though the first with her new ballet school and the first she had to actually audition for! Needless to say, this little Nutcracker Soldier was beyond excited! And she did a great job!

I am thankful the week is over. Though tomorrow Baby Jedi will be 6 weeks old already. And Christmas (!!!!) is on Saturday. Where does the time go?!?!

One month

2010-12-10T16:24:00.000-05:00

Today, Luke is one month old. It's so crazy thinking that 4 weeks ago today we brought him home from the hospital. He has grown to 8 lbs. 7 oz. and 21 in. This puts him in the 15th percentile for weight and about the 25th for length.

I can see changes already in him beyond the physical growth. He is so close to smiling at me - his face is starting to light up when he sees one of us and I work daily on getting him to smile at me. (I want him to smile at me first!) He is making lots of little noises and is intently looking at objects now.

One month. Already. Soon he's going to be 8 years old. :)

The girls are really enjoying Lucas, though they are pretty busy on their own these days! Cami is in preschool 3 mornings a week. She's doing a great job learning her letters and numbers and is starting to write much better. She will be in her first Christmas program next Wednesday and is singing her songs all the time to practice! At home, she LOVES to help out right now - she cleans the bathroom sink several times a week, helps me make dinner, etc.

Alaina is doing well in school. She is working on a mammal project right now - she was assigned the mouse. She really wanted the otter, but unfortunately wasn't given her first choice. She had to research the mouse in three different books and is now putting together a binder about its characteristics. She'll be missing her Christmas concert at school this year due to Nutcracker rehearsals. She's in the Indianapolis School of Ballet's production this year (her ballet school as well) and she's a soldier. She's VERY excited. She heard a commercial on Radio Disney for it the other day and was SO excited she was jumping up and down as she was telling me "I'm going to be famous!!" :)

I am getting into my new work schedule slowly. Working from home with a 1 month old is harder than I thought - Luke is a good baby, but it seems like every time I want to sit down and work he wakes up from a nap or is extremely fussy and needs held. So I'm trying to work through that and figure it all out.

And the winter weather doesn't help me at all. Winter is always a hard time of the year for me - I really hate the cold and snow, so I struggle to get through those months. And being stuck inside with a newborn is going to add to that I'm sure. So I'll probably be writing more often to get out my SAD feelings so I don't take them out on my family. :)

Today I told Luke that I was so thankful he was here and that we chose to have him. I hope you are thankful for your blessings too.

Lucas Adam White

2010-12-04T18:49:00.009-05:00

We have now been living with little Luke for 3 1/2 weeks. It's been a great transition - the girls are totally in love with their baby brother and things are really going well with us learning to be a family of five. Of course there are struggles, but that's to be expected right?! :)

I wanted to write about Luke's birth story right away, but have been a bit occupied with getting accustomed to living life with a newborn again! I'll start at the beginning...

It took 10 months for me to get pregnant this go 'round, so I was very ready for Luke to arrive way before he was due. And he tricked me several times, giving me hours of contractions that ended in false labor. So when my contractions started again around 5:30 Tuesday evening (Nov. 9th) I assumed they'd stop in a few hours like all the times before. By about 10:30 pm I was pretty sure this was the real deal and called my mom first (to give her a heads up) and then my doctor. My doctor told me to go to the hospital and if it truly was real labor, then I'd be admitted and they'd let her know.

I was still pretty calm at this point and felt very in control of the contractions and the situation. I called my friend and neighbor to come stay with the girls until my dad arrived to relieve her. About 11:15 pm Adam and I headed to the hospital while my mom and dad were driving in from Ft. Wayne and my brother from Purdue!

Once I was in triage, they checked me and I was 5 centimeters dialated! This was great news since I was still waiting for them to tell me it was false labor and to go home. :) I was so happy and ready to meet this little guy that the midwife said "Are you having an epidural? Because you seem pretty happy for being 5 centimeters along!"

We got to the labor and delivery room around midnight. My mom arrived around 1:30 am and I was still feeling pretty in control, much more than with either of the girls' labors. I had each of them naturally, as I was planning on doing with Lucas as well, but they were both posterior, meaning they were face up, rather than the normal face down. This causes a ton of back pain during labor. I'm sure this is the reason I felt more comfortable during my labor to this point.

About 3:30 am, my water still had not broken and my contractions were getting much stronger and closer together. The nurse called my doctor and she said to check my progress again and if I was far enough along she'd come in and break my water. I was 8 centimeters dialated, so around 4:00 am my water was broken.

My water broke naturally with both of the girls, so I didn't know what to expect. The actual breaking of the bag wasn't painful, but the amount of pressure that I immediately started to feel was nuts. I think that with the girls I wasn't as dialated when my water broke, so my body had more time to transition. Well, not with Luke. I felt like I was ready to push almost instantly, but I wasn't dialated enough and my darn doctor wouldn't let me push. :) This was one of the hardest parts of my labor - not pushing...

Around 4:30 my doctor finally gave me the go ahead to push. (My mom made a quick call to my dad to get the girls up and bring them to the hospital at this time.) Up to this point my contractions were so close together that I was getting so little rest between them that I was completely worn out. Plus, I was so tired from being up for almost 24 hours that I felt too physically tired to do so. This is the point where I see God stepping in to help me. After my first round of pushing, I started having longer breaks between contractions. At one point I joked that I thought my labor was stopping because of the time between my contractions! It probably was only a minute or so, but it felt like forever, which provided me with some great rest time between contractions and pushing.

At 4:52 am, little Lucas was born. I thought he was going to be my biggest baby (he sure felt big when he was inside!) by he weighed in at 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 20 in. long which was 3 oz. and 1/2 in. less than Cami (but a whole 1 lb. 2 oz. and 1/2 in. more than Alaina!!).

The girls rushed in (still in PJ's) to be the first ones to meet him. Alaina instantly was in love. Cami just acted like it was any other day. :)

Unfortunately, because of my gestational diabetes and required insulin, they had to take him to NICU very shortly after he was born to monitor his blood sugars. This was really hard - I only got to hold him for about 2 minutes before they took him and Adam didn't even get to hold him. They did allow Adam to go with Lucas to NICU 30 minutes later, so that was nice at least for Adam to be able to sit with him there. We also were able to spend some time with him there when I was being taken to my post-partum room, but that wasn't until about 7:15 am.

Luke was in NICU until 9:45 am and then he was cleared to leave NICU and to stay with us. Thankfully his blood sugars were stable and they didn't need to do anything to him during his stay in NICU. Mine were also stable right away without insulin, so I'm quite thankful for that.

It seems so long ago already. Luke is already changing - being purposefully alert and making sounds. He knows our voices and intently studies our faces. The girls are so great with him - they hold him and care for him when he cries. Cami likes to sing a song she made up for him called "You're fussy" which he actually really likes. :) Alaina is wonderful at holding Luke and really wants responsibiliy with him more and more. It's nice to see her so in love with him, since it was really hard for her when Cami was born.

I can't wait for all of you to meet him. Here's a glimpse of what I see when I look down at my little man...

Isn't he perfect?

Christmas card sneak peak!

2010-12-01T17:41:00.004-05:00

I am always excited about the Christmas season because it means we get tons of Christmas cards from friends and family showing current pictures of their families! I'm equally excited about making our own card each year. While taking our annual card picture is often a hair-pulling experience, I love picking out the perfect one and comparing how the girls have changed in just one short year.

This year, our card will be different. First, it will include a little BOY! And second, it will double as a birth announcement. I just couldn't fathom sending out birth announcements and turning around a week later to send Christmas cards! So I'm combining them this year.

And I'm doing it on Shutterfly. Here's a sneak peak of one of my favorite cards (and hopefully ours!):

Did you really think I'd include the pictures? :) You'll have to wait for those...

You can find this Christmas Photo Card at http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards. You can also find other Christmas card options at http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards.

And for those of you still looking for the perfect gift for the grandparents? Create your own calendar at http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars. They are always a hit in our family!

You know what else? I just might have Shutterfly address, stamp and mail our cards for us. Ahhh, wouldn't that be amazing?! :)

Really, I tried (written partially in October, and partially on 11/4)

2010-10-27T16:19:00.003-04:00

I'm not loving Blogger right now. I can't seem to get pics uploaded in any sort of realistic timeframe. I'm trying one more time. Right. Now.
And look at that. Finally, it worked. But this is the only one you get tonight. I'm not tempting fate.

Today I am 38 weeks pregnant with little man. No, he still doesn't have a name (it's totally overrated in my opinion) which totally shouldn't surprise you. I am discouraged that after a week of regular, increasing in intensity contractions, I have progressed no further than at last week's appointment. Doesn't seem fair to have all these contractions for naught. But I do have 2 weeks left and the doctor today said "At this rate, I'm sure I'll see you at next week's appointment and we'll talk about good dates for induction." She knows just what to say to an uncomfortable, emotional 38 week pregnant woman, huh? :)

I guess we'll use this weekend to buy the remaining little items we need to be fully "boy" stocked, at least for the next few months. I'd rather spend it holding my new little man, but I guess it'll happen all too soon anyways...

Hopefully I'll be able to update before this time next week with bigger and better news about a little guy out in the workd, and his name...

Yeah, yeah (this was written in September!)

2010-09-16T17:48:00.003-04:00

I know, it's been a LONG time. The summer went by so quickly and we've been busily anticipating this new arrival, that I just don't remember to post! And then there's Facebook, which allows me to quickly upload pics for all to see so easily.

Here is suppposed to be a few pics of the girls' birthdays. (except that I can't get Blogger to actually upload them, so you're not getting any...)

Cami started a new preschool this month. She is in the Turtles class and really enjoys it there. She goes MWF from 9-11:30 and then 2 days each week stays until 3pm and then the other day goes to a friend's house to play for the afternoon. She'll keep up this routine until little man's born and then will just go for the 3 mornings each week. I'll be working very little (and from home) so I'm looking forward to spending more time with her before she heads off to Kindergarten next year. (I know, unbelievable!! And Alaina's in THIRD grade!)

Signs of Spring

2010-03-12T12:53:00.011-05:00

Less than a month ago, we were city sledding. Or ghetto sledding. Whatever you decide to call it - it's sledding down the interstate embankment. :)

Now, we have the trampoline back up and have taken the first of many "hair-raising" pictures of backyard fun.
Like Alaina's hair cut? Isn't it cute?! :)

Kiera Photo

2010-01-03T17:07:00.004-05:00

A friend of ours took some pics of the girls last week. Here's a link to a sneak peek of the pics:

http://www.kieradubach.blogspot.com/

We love them so far and can't wait to see the rest!!!