An Upside Down i and a Broken Heart

No, I haven't completely disappeared from blog land....but I'm more tired than ever and have a feeling my posts will happen pretty randomly :o) Hopefully they will be interesting enough to enjoy when they happen though!

We don't go all out on Valentine's Day, but we do recognize the holiday and celebrate at least a little each year. Casey and I swapped date nights with my SIL and took our turn on Friday evening. Recently I had a dentist appt. and Casey bet me I'd have at least one cavity----for a clean bill of health he promised to take me to Hu Hot. I've been craving it (actually I've had many cravings with this pregnancy!) Anyhow, he lost the bet......I had to work late Friday night so we didn't get a great start and the wait was a half hour. If you don't know him well, he is NOT a patient person when it comes to restaurants. It just amazes me, we really do not eat out very often, but there always seems to be a line no matter where we go or when we go (unless it's like 4:00 in the afternoon!) But the food was well worth the wait that night :o)

It seems like we just got most of the Christmas sweets out of the house so I settled on one large heart shaped lollipop for each of the kiddos. Casey thought I was insane for getting ones so big but that seriously was all they got and their faces were priceless when they discovered them Sunday morning before church. That was my first mistake. The second was they convinced me to let them take them in the van.

My graceful (???) just.like.me oldest daughter tripped out the door and smashed hers on the ground before she even opened it. I'm not sure who/what was more crushed: the lollipop, her or me. It totally broke my heart because I know how disappointed she was.

It's one of those things where I could have run out and bought her a new one, but yet isn't this part of what life is all about? Disappointments stink, but if we as parents "fix" everything how will our children be able to cope with life when they are adults? She actually handled it fairly well considering.

.......and guess what I found for their Easter baskets? Yep, large egg-shaped lollipops! (Sorry, Casey!) These will be handed out AFTER church and kept at the table. Hey, we're never too old to learn a lesson ourselves!

The other half of my post centers on Corbin. Oh, it was just too sweet watching him write out his valentines to all 22 of his daycare friends, all.by.himself! I just love seeing what my kids have learned to do! So, the day after his V-party, on the way to daycare he was spelling out the letters to one of the cards he had received:
"H-A-P-P-Y-V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E-S-D-A-Y-UPSIDE DOWN I"

I was listening from the front seat and just enjoying hearing him recognize all the letters and then got totally stumped on the "upside down i" bit......then it hit me, the exclamation point! So I'm still giggling on that one. I guess they haven't taught the 4 year olds about punctuation marks yet. Too funny!

I hope you all had a love-filled weekend, and have remembered He who loved us first and who should always remain our first love, our Heavenly Father!

173 bpm

It is always the most amazing sound to me....hearing for the first time my babies heartbeat that is growing inside of me. Our little Baby H4, we found out that we are expecting on December 4th, just hours before we left to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family.

Our first ultrasound was Thursday, 1.14.10, and the due date is 8.4.10. We are already 1/4 of the way through this pregnancy, and I feel so behind, there is so much to do! We are planning to re-decorate Kyndal's "Princess" room into a "Cowgirl/horse" room. We are looking for a good deal on bunk beds with some storage and the girls will share her room. This weekend we remodeled and painted her closet so that it has two clothing rods and enough room to hang both their wardrobes. Step one, check!

I have also started on a cross stitch picture/birth announcement for the little peanut. I hope there's enough space on the nursery wall to display all four of them!

Overall I am feeling good. I dealt with a lot of nausea in December but that is subsiding now (yahoo!) I am still very tired and have a very hearty appetite so I'm already gaining weight rapidly IMO! It's all for a good cause :o)

The kids are very excited and learning to be cautious around the baby in my tummy. No more jumping onto Mommy's lap. They looked at the baby's "picture" Thursday night, not quite what they were expecting, but exciting nonetheless.

Home Sweet Christmas

In my memory, this was definitely my favorite Christmas ever. Except for the disappointment of our Christmas Eve services being canceled at church and subsequently our decision to skip driving around to look at lights...I was filled with joy.

We were blessed to have my MIL snowed in with us for the two days...and since we didn't have plans to go anywhere we weren't stressed or disappointed with being house-bound!

I worked Christmas Eve until 2 pm. When I got home, the girls and I snuggled in for a short winter's nap together!

On the way home from work I picked up a cake and ice cream and we celebrated the birth of our Savior, Christ Jesus. We let the kids open one gift and read two Christmas books about Jesus before we all snuggled up on the living room floor to watch movies together.

We played Connect 4 and Bingo, the gifts they opened.

Kennedy got a keyboard and microphone.

Reading about baby Jesus; so cool to have Kyndal read this year!

The kids slept under the Christmas tree!

Christmas morning we were shocked when we actually had to wake the kids up at 9am! They opened their stockings and then we had a filling breakfast. After they tore through their gifts we spent the rest of the day playing with our new toys. I was a lucky girl this year! Casey hooked me up with a new lens for my Nikon camera so I can get up close and personal with the kids now, and I got a new smoothie machine which will work overtime in our house! Thanks babe!

Eager to get started!

Kyndal's new wheel'sCorbin's ready to hit the snowKennedy's in heaven with her babies.Corbin gets more tracks for his Trick TracksA new pony for Kennedy!Finally, an Easy Bake oven, Kyndal's been asking for one for 2 years!A new 4 wheeler racing shirt...Playing with all the Trick tracks.A family surprise--Casey got a deal on this little 4 wheeler for the kids.

We know who will the most miles (and smiles) on this one!

Christmas with the Cooley's

Each year my sister's and I rotate who hosts Christmas for our family. This year we headed southwest to my hometown, Scott City, KS the first weekend of December. Which meant, I had a lot to do beforehand....all the shopping, wrapping and baking. Which also explains why I haven't been blogging!

We had a wonderful time as always, playing games, catching up with our siblings and parents and watching some Husker games too. I was able to share something fun with my family in person (stay tuned blog friends!) too. Here's a few pictures of my sweet family...

My sisters, Casey and I and my BIL's

Owen and Mom

Sweet baby Lizzie...too much excitement!

Mom and Austin playing UNO

Ashlynn, Marissa, Nikki, Kyndal, Corbin, Kennedy (and Austin's arm!)

Lizzie's first Christmas!

Corbin goofing off...

The kids and my Dad watch as Owen opens a white elephant gift, another family tradition

My sister came up with a great craft idea for the kids, an advent calendar. That and the brand new park (and 60 degree weather) kept them entertained for the afternoon!My beautiful sisters!

Candyland and Grandma

I have started a new tradition this year with my family (hopefully I will stick with it!) I purchased a journal and intend to post in it each year five things that each family member is thankful for at Thanksgiving time. I loved each of their responses, they were genuine, sweet and unique. Below are my children's responses, I hope you enjoy them as well!

Kyndal is thankful for...
the holidays
food (she is definitely mine!)
her home
her posters in her room

Corbin is thankful for...
Candyland (maybe because we were playing it when I asked him?!)
his stuffed bunny
his Curious George stuffed animal
for Kyndal giving him several books

Kennedy is thankful for...
(I thought her response was intriguing, that she thought of people after listening to her siblings!)
Grandma
Lora
Grandpa
Mommy (yes, I was 3rd on her list!)
Daddy

I won't list all of Casey's and mine, but I will say I am most thankful for the God I serve and for all that He has blessed me with. May you each remember your blessings all throughout the year. Happy Thanksgiving!

Simple Joys

I adore when my children do or say something that amazes me....and I'm so thankful for how often it happens! Lately, Kennedy has taken me off guard several times. Her vocabulary continues to explode and she picks up things from the older two daily, so it shouldn't surprise me, but it still never fails to.

I'm starting a tradition this year, a book of "Things We're Thankful For". Look for a separate post later once we have them all down....but here's a preview. While playing our favorite game (Candyland) Tuesday night, I popped the question to get a few initial responses from the kids. "What are you thankful for, what makes you happy?" The two oldest weren't really into it and mentioned a couple objects, but Kennedy got really excited. I was assuming she wouldn't understand what I was asking, but I think I was wrong. She mentioned specific people in her life (and I wasn't the 1st one either, haha!) I was pleasantly surprised!

Two other things that have given me goosebumps lately with her. One day, I barely missed getting on videotape this incident. She loves to read and it's a nightly ritual to read together. I heard her repeating almost word for word one of her favorite books while turning the pages all by herself in her room. A few days later during the afternoon (supposed to be napping!) I heard her sweet little voice singing "climbed up in a tree......YOU COME DOWN!.......going to your house today!" She was singing "Zaccheus was a wee little man..." I haven't been singing that with her so again, taken off guard with her little memory. Two other songs she's been singing recently, "He's Got the Whole Word in His Hands" and "Jesus Loves Me". One last thing, last night she wanted to be the one to say the bedtime prayer. I think Jesus is working on my little girl's heart. Instead of the typical "Thank you for the food, amen" that she always says (before a meal and at bedtime), she rattled off several things and people that she was praying for. Thanks to God for helping me slow down enough to enjoy each of these moments!

"Holy Jeans"

I learned an interesting lesson last night. Well, maybe a few lessons......

1. Don't pick out Corbin's clothes in the dark.
2. Make sure you at least take a quick look at him after he gets dressed.
3. Purge any jeans with holes.

I had an early morning meeting so Casey dropped Corbin off at daycare. Last night I saw the evidence of what I had chosen for him to wear that day. His jeans were completely shredded down both sides of the front! Apparently they had holes to begin with (Casey noticed but I obviously didn't because I would have thrown them away!) So when I dropped him off this morning at daycare and apologized/admitted what happened, I heard the rest of the story.

The girls giggled as they said throughout the day Corbin kept ripping his jeans further and further. My saving grace is that Casey is the one that dropped him off and guys can get away with things like that happening LOL My only regret is I don't have a picture of Corbin in those Hulk style shredded jeans; but I think your imaginations can take over here, and see him grinning from ear to ear with those big dimples, proud of his "holy jeans"! Have a great week!