Welcome Baby Regan!!!

A great big welcome to my friends' (Pete and Jenni) beautiful baby girl, Regan Kail. Born last night at 6:26 PM weighing in at only 5 lbs 13 oz. She's a tiny little bundle! I sure hope the hat I made for her doesn't cover her entire face :-)




Congratulations! We can't wait to meet her!

(Pics sent to me courtesy of her proud Grandma S. but I think her Aunt Erica must have taken them. Thanks for sharing!)

Does this make me wish my baby would come soon? OK, I admit, a little bit. That sweet little face looking up at her mommy just melts your heart, doesn't it? But mostly I hope he stays put for at least another month, so that I can get all my fall work done first. Then I can settle in with my baby and not have to fret about what needs done outside. Oh, and I really need to finish that sweater and hat! So hang in there baby. Just another month. And then it will be our turn.

More Prepared

Well, I'm feeling much more prepared for baby now. The clothes, blankets, and diapers are washed, folded, and put away in their appropriate places. The car seat is washed and reassembled, and the BundleMe is inside it. The Moby wrap is washed. Plus the baby sweater I started knitting about 6 months ago is finally getting to the final stages....I only have the sleeves left to finish! So whenever baby decides to make his entrance, we're pretty much ready. There are still some things I"d LIKE to get done before he arrives, but nothing major or terribly urgent. Such things include.....

-Wash the bouncy seat cover and the Moses basket cover
-Sew some new cloth wipes: the ones I'm currently using for Miles will do, but I could use a couple dozen more with 2 in diapers.
-Pack the hospital bag. OK, theoretically this should be done before I go into labor, but I've come to realize how little you actually need to take. I can easily throw a few things in a backpack just before we leave, or worst case scenario, have Rich bring whatever we need to the hospital after the birth!
-Pack an overnight bag for the kids to take to Grandma's. Again, nice to have done, but not totally necessary ahead of time. Besides, if it's the middle of the night, Grandma will just come here, and then a bag won't be needed anyway!
-Knit baby a hat and possibly a matching blanket (the blanket most likely won't get done!)

So, I"m feeling much better. Plus, I got my house more in order this weekend, and we've got plans underway for our bonfire party on the 17th. Now if it would just stop raining so the contractors could get the siding on our house!!!

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Can You Actually Have Too Many Onsies?

I recently realized that I likely have less than 6 weeks left before baby comes and I have NOTHING prepared for him. I mean nothing. So this week I decided that I'd better start getting ready.

I dug the car seat out of the basement where it's been hanging out since Miles outgrew it. I located the bouncy seat down there too, used more recently for baby Evan. Sometime this weekend I plan to wash the cover on the car seat at least. I'm in the process of moving the kids clothes to a bigger chest so that baby can have the one they're currently using (and sorting out anything they've outgrown in the process.)

Since I'd vowed to get started, I picked up the newborn baby boy clothes boxes from Mom's attic this week. The ones that have been going back and forth between my sister and I for our boys for about 3 years. When Miles was born, I seem to remember that there was only 1 box. Somehow it has now grown into 2 full rubbermaid tubs. So tonight I sat down and sorted out all the things that I thought baby could wear..... sleepers, onsies, some hats, and a few actual outfits for Sundays and/or special occasions. After I washed them and started folding, I was amazed at the amount of onsies there are in those boxes. So after I got them all folded, I counted, just to see how many there actually were. I found.....

40 onsies (12 are plain white)
6 newborn sleepers
11 small sleepers (0-3 mo)
5 fuzzy fleece sleepers
6 long sleeve onsies wth pants
8 outfits (cute little things he'll probably never wear)
1 baby sock.

So, tell me, what newborn baby actually needs this many clothes????? Since Ian and Miles were both summer babies, they practically lived in onsies for their first few months. Plus it's always nice to have onsies to layer under sleepers when it's cold out. But 40 of them? Where did they all come from? And what happened to all the socks? I know socks disappear, but honestly, I had at least a dozen pairs for Miles. Did the various dryers actually eat 23 socks?

Anyway, I'm off to put a load of newborn cloth diapers in the machine. And see if I can find the box with the baby blankets in it. I have a feeling I'll be washing diapers MUCH more often than baby clothes!

Togetherness

Here are a few snapshots from Dick and Mary's recent visit. The kids were thrilled to have them here, and we were too! We can't wait for them to get all moved so we can see them much more often!

Kaylee and Grandma having a good snuggle. Kaylee, actually go to sleep during the day? Are you kidding? She did rest for a while though.


Miles trying to convince Grandpa to read just one more book. Do you think he's going to succeed?


Grandpa's "babies". I guess Miles thought he needed more than one. (Notice Miles cute cloth diaper? I just had to point that out! )

What I Did Today

9 quarts of tomatoes, 7 pints of dill pickles, and 8 pints of salsa. And that's just a small dent in the tomatoes and cucumbers out in the garden.

Summer's Over Already?

I know, I know, it's been nearly 3 months since I posted. Yes, it's been crazy around here this summer. Yes, I could have found the time to post, but it just didn't' seem to be on the top of my priority list! So here's quick rundown of our summer.

June was cold and wet. The garden grew slowly and the weeds quickly. The kids played outside every chance they got and I spent a lot of time hoeing. We did get a bumper crop of strawberries though. Kaylee enjoyed helping make jam.

Near the end of the month we had our ultrasound, and discovered that we're having another little boy!

July was a month of travel. Miles turned 2 on the 3rd, and was super excited about his Thomas the Tank Engine set.


We lost my brother-in-law to cancer the next day and traveled to Missouri for the funeral, getting back just in time for our pre-planned camping trip to SD, where Kaylee caught her first big fish.


We got back from THAT in time to head to Minneapolis for our 10 year anniversary weekend, leaving the kids with Grandma. (YUMMY food!)

The garden started to produce a little, and the tomatoes almost succumbed to blight.

August finally brought a few warm days, green beans, and the first ripe tomatoes. Here's my canning helper and I at our first tomato canning session of the year. Like our aprons? ;-)


We also had a welcome visit from Rich's grandparents, and spent 2 and 1/2 hectic weeks looking for places for them to live nearby. We finally found one the day before they went home! They hope to be moving up in the next month.

Kaylee turned 5 on the 25th, the first day of preschool. She got a new bike, complete with training wheels.



The past couple weeks I've started babysitting again, the tomatoes are finally ready to can, and we're taking Kaylee to preschool 3 days a week, so our days are full as can be. And in only 2 weeks it will be Boyden time already. Where has the summer gone?

Random Happenings

It's been a long time since I posted anything, so I thought I'd just give you a few random snapshots of our month.

With the coming of spring, we've spent a lot of time outside. The lawn needs mowing weekly now. Miles would love that job, if only he could reach the pedals.....


Speaking of Miles, here he is wearing his chocolate pudding goatee. I just had to reach for the camera, because I thought he looked just like his Daddy when Daddy has a goatee.


Baby Evan is growing and turning into his own little person. He loves the ExerSaucer nowadays. He reaches for things, rolls over and over, and is close to sitting alone. It's just crazy how fast babies grow. I think he gets cuter every day. He has lots of smiles, but I like this serious expression too.


Our baby-to-be seems to be growing as well. My tummy is, at least! It won't be long until we have a few ultrasound pictures to share. Probably sometime in the middle of June.

My Mother's Day gift from my sweetie. The card is a coupon for a massage. Isn't he thoughtful? And I absolutely love the bubble bath.


And finally, what do 2 silly kids do with new pails? Use them as hats, of course!



PS: For some cute pictures of Kaylee and her kittens, check out this blog. She's better at taking and posting pics of my kids than I am!