Last Day of School

Tuesday was the kids last day of school, and all I can say is thank goodness.  I was DONE weeks ago and I know that the kids were too.  It has been really hard trying to keep a positive attitude about school so that the kids would too.  After a year of traditional schedule I think I have to say that I prefer year round schedule to traditional.  I may change my mind after the summer, but for now I have to say that year round works better for me.  It might also have a lot to do with being pregnant and not feeling well so I may end up changing my mind later but for now that is my opinion.
Anyway back to the last day....

Ashton's school had a picnic for lunch on the last day and parents were invited.  I think it was a nice way of saying to the kids that they weren't welcome in the freshly cleaned lunch room until next fall, but it was a good excuse to go and have lunch with my little man.  Don't worry that I nearly forgot and had to rush to get there just in time to eat with him. We were lucky enough to get a spot in the shade to eat.  After lunch we went back to the classroom to get some of the papers that Ashton had to bring home from the year and he ended up talking me into taking him home too.  Here he is with his teacher

Mrs. Fagerlund...

and some of his friends from class.  And yes he really is that much taller than almost everyone in his class.  

In middle school it is not cool to get your picture taken by your mother, but Lexie had a fun filled last day of school too.  They watched a movie, went bowling and just generally messed around on the last day.

Take Your Daughters (and Son) to the Range Day

It all started in Christmas of 2010 when I got Jake a shotgun for his Christmas present.  Well, really I know his love affair with guns started much, much earlier than that but that gift gave him the permission he needed from me to start taking the sport of shooting much more seriously.  Unfortunately his schedule for the last two plus years has left little time for actually going out and shooting.  But I think that times are changing in that regard.  During the outage he bought another gun and I know that he has been itching to go shooting for a long, long time.  Red Wing had a local gun range that is actually really close to our house that he got a membership to this month so since today is national take your daughter to the range day we made a family affair out of going and breaking in Daddy's new gun and some old ones too.

Each kid got a chance to shoot the 22.

And then Jake starting shooting his 30/30 which of course is much louder packs a bigger punch than the 22.  Abbie didn't last long once the big guns started firing so I took her home and let Jake stay with Lexie and Ashton.  Both Lexie and Ashton did get a chance to shot the 30/30, I think Ashton is going to end up with one heck of a bruise, but they had lots of fun.  I think they are going to be spending lots of time on the range.

Lexie looks like she feels right at home with a gun, don't ya think?  

Good News

Today I had an appointment with the Maternal Fetal Medicine clinic that is affiliated with the clinic her in Red Wing, it is an hour away in Burnsville (which is near the twin cites).  Anyway, I had the appointment as a consultation for the anti M and while I was there I asks them about the parvovirus.  After checking my results they decided that I am already immune to it, meaning that I have had it sometime in the past (which I don't remember having and neither does my mom.)  Anyway that is GOOD news because that means that it can't hurt this baby because I am already immune to it YA!  And getting more info on the anti M helped me be a little more calm about that too.  Hopefully my levels stay low like they are right now and things will go smoothly, I just wish that there was something that I could do to control it, but I can't.  All I can do is put it in God's hands and have faith that things will work out for the best.

Stressed Out

Two weeks ago Ashton stayed home from school one day because he was sick, I didn't think much of it, kids get sick all the time.  Well then last week he was sick again and this time he had a fever, rash  and red checks.  After a couple of days he wasn't getting any better and Jake and I decided that one of us needed to take him in to the urgent care to see if there was something that could be treated.  I was tired, really tired, and I didn't want to have to be the one to go, but then at the last minute I decided that I needed to be the one to take him (mostly because I had been the one home with him for the last few days) so off we traipsed to the urgent care.  Luckily for us they were not very busy when we got there and we were taken right back.  We were seen by a PA and he walked in the room, took one look at Ashton's red cheeks and said "you have fifth's disease".  He did spend some more time more carefully checking Ashton, but stuck with his original diagnosis of fifth's disease.  Something that I had never heard of before.  He talked to us for a while and told us more about it and what to expect, namely that the rash and red checks can come back off and on for up to the next three weeks.  And then almost as an after thought as he was gathering up his stuff to leave, he said pretty casually, " oh, and you should probably keep him away from pregnant women for the next little while just to be on the safe side."  Um, excuse me what?  I am 14 weeks pregnant I explain and he turns and looks at me with this look of total astonishment on his face, "really?" he asks.  Yes, really truly.  So now what do we do.  I have already been exposed to Ashton when he was contagious because he was contagious clear back the first time that he was sick.  He had no idea so he goes out and pages the OB doctor on call.  She says that the first thing we need to do is have my blood tested to see if I have parvovirus B19 antibodies.  That is what this thing Ashton has is really called.  So the PA writes orders for me to have my blood drawn and I am the one getting poked and prodded even though Ashton is the one that is sick.  Then I had to wait ALL weekend for the results.  I am not a patience person that was hard.  I tried not to think about it, but really how could I not?  I got my results back this morning and I have the antibodies in my blood.  I don't know exactly what it means for the baby.  From what little info I got that night in the urgent care, these antibodies can do the same things that the anti M ones can, if they get high enough.  Basically the short answer is that they cause anemia in the baby, which can lead to so many things.  Everything from having a miscarriage/stillborn baby to needing intrauterine blood transfusions for the baby to having a baby born with hydrops, to nothing.  I am so stressed out it isn't even funny.

Pregnancy Cravings

I have been craving mexican food when I feel like eating at all.  Not a lot has sounded good to me, so when something does I try and find a way to have it. It seems like I eat little stuff all day long, mostly to keep something in my stomach so I am not dry heaving all the time, (I know WAY TMI) and as of my doctor's appointment yesterday I am still down a pound from my pre prego weight.  Well craving mexican food in Minnesota is not good, because there is NO WHERE to get good mexican food.  And I mean no where.  About three weeks ago I was craving a Cafe Rio pork salad and there is nothing that I could come up with that would be even close to that here.  Thanks to Jake I also know that the closest Cafe Rio is in Montana, a 15 hour drive from us.  Not exactly doable.  So I was stuck craving my salad.  My sweet sister in law came to the rescue with a  recipe for a mock Cafe Rio pork salad recipe, complete with meat, rice and creamy tomatillo dressing.  The only problem I totally didn't feel up to making it.  Finally on Monday I found the energy and desire to make the salad.  Oh, was it good!  I think next time I am going to change it up a little more to our tastes but it was good, and now I am not craving that dang salad anymore.

But I am definitely having the real thing later this summer when we are on vacation.  

Oder Up

I thought this was too cute to not save a picture of...  we were getting lunch from a local burger joint that fixes all of their burgers made to order.  They come plain and you tell them what you want on yours.  Ashton had told me what he wanted on his as we were waiting in the drive up line, and then as we pulled up to order he handed me this paper with his order written out, "just in case you can't remember, mom"

In case you can't read what he wrote, it says pickles, ketchup, cheeseburger.  What a cute kid!!

Tour de Cherry Street

We finally made good on our promise to get Abbie her bike. Isn't she such a cutie on it?

Jake took an extra day off of work this week so that he could go to a doctor's appointment and then he, Abbie and I spent the rest of the day running errands.  At the top of our list was finding a new bike for the birthday girl.  Not an easy task in this little town.  Not as hard as finding dress clothes from a 6 year old boy, mind you, but hard. (But that is another story) We went to a little bike shop in town and they had this one in stock, just not put together.  They asked us to give them a few hours and it would be ready to go.  Sadly we left the store without the bike, much to the dislike of Abbie.  So after the big kids got home from school we went back to the store and what was waiting for her when we walked in the door?  The smile that never left her face made us know that we had made a great decision.  Unfortunately, there would be little time for riding Friday night.  But Saturday morning was named bike riding time. 

One thing that we realized when we got Abbie's bike home was that Ashton's bike was a little on the small side for him.  He has had a hard time figuring out the no training wheels thing and Jake said he would work with him to get him riding with out training wheels while I was helping Abbie get used to her new bike.  

Jake went for the sink or swim method, and took his training wheels off from the start, which actually worked like a charm.  He also used a little bribe incentive.  We told Ashton that if he could ride the bike he had without training wheels that morning we would get him a new bigger bike too.  TEN minutes later this was what I saw....

Ashton riding like he has always known how to ride a bike and it wasn't his very first day without training wheels.  Once he got the hang of it, there was no stopping him.  Around and around he went like a man on a mission.  

So back to the bike shop we went after lunch and came home with a bike that was 6 inches taller than the bike he had.  Ya, maybe his bike was a little small for him.  

And because of the size of this bike he has also stepped up to a bike with gears and hand brakes.  New things to get used to, but he took off once again like it was nothing new.  We decided to take advantage of the church parking lot to do a little uninterrupted riding, well I walked there with Abbie as she rode, and Lexie rode my bike that she has basically taken over anyway.  Even jake donned a helmet and dusted off his bike for a little spin.

It was a fun way to spend the afternoon as a family.  

Someone Wants to Say Hello

With Mother's Day just around the corner I though it would be fitting to introduce you to our new addition.  Well technically he or she isn't here yet.  But he/she is growing and waiting patiently for a chance to meet everyone sometime this November.  I am due Nov 28th, but if the past is any indicator, this baby will make its appearance some time between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

This is why I felt so terrible lately and why I have been "living under a rock."  Some days I still feel like I am, but hopefully by the time we get to come back to Utah for a visit in July, I will be feeling better.  At least that is what I am praying for.
 There are still a lot of unknowns for us right now, but I think I am going to become good friends with the vampires phlebotomists at the lab at the hospital since I have to go in every 4 weeks to have my blood drawn.  As of right now, the levels of the anti-M antibodies in my system is as low as they can be.  That is good. Really. Good.  If they rise to a certain level then I will have to start having more tests done to see how it is affecting the baby.  But for now, things look good.  Ya!

Birthday Fun

So I am finally getting around to telling more of the birthday celebration story.

 First off I feel the need to say something about Abbie's choice of clothing, this is her favorite shirt and favorite pair of pants she wears them together all the time no matter how many times I try and explain that they don't match.  She doesn't care she loves them and thats good enough for her.  I finally decided that I mostly don't care, she is getting herself dressed and thinking about what clothes she is wearing.  I guess that has to be good enough for now.

man she can rip some paper... she opened those presents in no time.  

I took her shopping during the day, because I hadn't been up to going before that.  I was feeling pretty good about just being up to celebrating at all after getting food poisoning on Saturday.  She picked out a few things, but her big present is still coming, we are getting her a two wheeled bike, but with Jake's schedule and me being sick we haven't had time to get one for her yet.

play-doh is one of her all time favorites.... 

She had fun opening her presents and then we had cake and ice cream for both of our girls since we never had a cake for Lexie's birthday.   I didn't think to check if we had the right candles or not before so this is what we ended up with.  10 plus 2 for Lexie and a four for Abbie.

Here they are blowing out the candles.  

All in all it was a fun day.  

Abbie's Birthday

Abbie turns 4 today!  I can't believe that my baby is FOUR.

 I remember so well the day she came, I was so nervous because she was so early.  I was just 36 weeks and in labor-I knew that I was in good hands at the hospital, but still I didn't know what to expect.  We were so blessed that everything turned out so well for us.  More on the birthday celebrations later...