Big Kids

It's official--Alaina has outgrown most of her 0 - 3 month clothes *sniff, sniff*. She is a big girl. At her two month checkup she weighed 13 lbs 2 oz (94% for weight) and 24.25" (84%) height. What's really funny is that at the same age Ky was almost a pound heavier than her and 2 inches shorter! He was a really ROUND child!

As usual tons of pics this time around. I LOVE digital cameras! It helps me capture so many great memories--and yeah it is out all the time!

So the first pics are of Alaina in her baptismal gown--I promised them last blog and there they are. Isn't she beautiful! I told her the next time she will be wearing all white may be her wedding.

The next pics are of my beautiful car :(

Sir Lancelot (aka Lance) is no longer a member of our family. I loved that car! So here is the scoop. About a year ago Rob and I had been talking about purchasing a larger vehicle for the family come Spring. We knew that we were going to be preparing for a second child and just needed something larger to accommodate 2 adults, 2 car seats, and a 60 lb dog. Camping was going to be out of the question with our sedans once Alaina got here. So the spring came and gas prices soared (remember $4.00/gallon?) That's when Rob and I talked and we decided we would wait until the coming spring to purchase a vehicle (after all we wouldn't be camping until at least the next summer). The waiting was a way for us to save the extra gas $$ by keeping 2 sedans--we were also thinking *hoping* maybe hybrids might come down in price yet??!!

Alaina presented herself to the family in late Sept, and I began driving again in mid-October. I had not realized how difficult my life would be--getting in and out of the car with a toddler and an infant in a car seat. If you don't remember my car--it was the bare basics. Manual locks/windows, etc... So the process of getting in the car was opening the driver door, then reaching back to unlock the passenger door and then getting one of the kids in...and then going around to the other side of the vehicle and doing the same. Notice that when I am putting one kid in the car, I would have to let go or put down the other kid in the process. This was a little scary--especially if Ky didn't always listen and started wandering off (which rarely happened--he was usually very good at staying next to me), or putting Alaina's car seat on the ground. What was especially scary was when there was a vacant parking spot on either side of my vehicle, because then I had to worry that a car might turn into the spot and not see either of my children next to my car. ARGH! Can you sense the tension?! It really was worrisome. And even more so I was worrying about the winter weather and cars sliding or children falling....It just wasn't worth it. So at the beginning of November I told Rob I wanted the new vehicle before winter. Saving gas money just wasn't worth the lives of my children or the stress I was dealing with--trying to get them in the car. (What did people do with their children and cars prior to automatic locks?--see how modernization has spoiled us!)

Thus we began looking. I had done a little research of my own and so had Rob. I was thinking minivan at this point, he was thinking SUV. The only reason I was thinking minivan is because they were roomier--and had better gas mileage--though I personally like the look of an SUV much better. It didn't take much work to convince Rob--just had to show him some numbers and then have him actually look at the size of a Highlander vs. Sienna, etc...

In November, we were also blessed by Rob's company. Apparently Toyota had a special offer to all AmFam employees to purchase their vehicles at invoice price. We did look at other vehicles, but that deal pretty much got us set on getting the Sienna. We did a little back n' forth game between the 2 dealerships in town and got ourselves a very nice van for a very nice price with a few extra perks thrown in. Oh yeah--a lot of people ask...we did look at used, but found that we were only going to save a thousand or two dollars to get a new used (we wanted something with less than 30,000 miles on it) so it just didn't seem worth it. Might as well get a car with a clean history, no worries of prior smokers, or abuse, and a full manufacturer warranty.

So I just need to recap my goodbye to Lance. First of all--the history of Lance. In college my car was going kaput. It just was having problem after problem and I wasn't feeling like it was worth putting money in to anymore. So I started car shopping. I did some shopping on my own and some with my Uncle. In August of 1997, I found Lance's brother on the lot of a Saturn dealership. He was a very affordable car that I could lease and then buy if I chose to 5 years later. I was only a poor college student so I was very concerned with committing myself to such a big purchase. My big brother Joel agreed to cosign with me though. On my way to the dealership, I prayed for God to give me a sign that I was doing the right thing, minutes later smoke started coming out of my glove compartment--hence God saying "Get the new car!"

I was diligent with that lease and took good care of Lance. What a great car! Who would have thought that at 19 I would be able to afford the car and college. God really blessed me. In 2002 my lease was up and I was given the option to buy or turn it in. I did some car shopping, but in the end I found it well worth my money to purchase Lance (he only had 50,000) miles at the time. When I told the dealership that I wanted to buy Lance, they were flabbergasted. Apparently, I was the first person to ever buy out my lease--and in turn they made a mistake and sold him to me much cheaper than they should have (the salesman got reprimanded by the manager.)

Back to the present...We were going to trade Lance in for credit at the dealership, but they offered us very little. We went home that night and said a prayer, "God give us a sign if this is what you want us to do." I put Lance up on Craigslist that night before I went to bed. By noon the next day I had 5 responses to my ad, by 2:30 my car was sold to the first scheduled appointment, for almost twice what the dealership was going to give us. And even better, she paid us ahead of time and told us she would be back in several days to pick it up. This gave me time to say goodbye to Lance, as well as gave us time to finish our negotiating with the dealerships and purchase our van. I would also like to say that this girl who bought my car was also a Saturn lover (her car had recently been hit and that was why she was looking for another one.) I know she will take good care of Lance. So the first pic of Lance is the one I put on Craig's list. The second picture is my last day with Lance. Sadly Lance had to stay outside the night before (the new van took his spot in the garage) that is why he had frost all over him. What a great car! I pray that he may be as much of a blessing to her as he was to me. So that is my sad car/happy van story.

Other pics...

The other pics we have are of T'giving. We went to Pops and Debi and had somewhat a potluck type meal. Debi had had a mild heart attack about a month ago, so us kids decided we would take care of a majority of the meal so she could relax. It sort of worked. All the sides were ready by 5:30, but the turkey wasn't ready until 6:30. Next time we will need to coordinate a little better. Ky had an awesome time. Pops put up one of his train tracks so Ky was so excited to watch the train go. The boy loves trains! At T'giving a lot of the family got to meet Alaina for the first time as well, so that was exciting and why I have so many pics of her with different family members.

The next day Jared and his fiancee, Deb, stopped by the house. Ky was so excited to see Uncle Jared. He was a non-stop chatterbox. "this is my chair, and this is my dog, this is my baby sister Alaina--she cries..." Wow! He just kept going. It was good to see them and even more fun to get the proposal and wedding details. Rob was honored by being asked to be the best man. And we are all very excited about our trip this summer to Springfield, Missouri for the wedding. And we have already been talking about turning it into our camping trip. Camping in the Ozarks! How fun!

The next morning we all enjoyed Robby's pumpkin pancakes before Jared and Deb hit the road.

We will see them soon again come June!

After Jared & Deb left we were scheduled to have a T'giving meal at Jan's mom's house. However, Ky suddenly spiked with fever so we had to cancel. We had a wave of illness hit the family that week---Daddy got it--and even Alaina appeared to have a mild case. I, fortunately, avoided the "cold" though and listened to everyone else's snorting and coughing--ugh!

The last pic is of Ky in his bubble bath--which he loves now..The boy has been using up all my fragrant and yummy bubbles---I gotta buy him some of his own. He loves sticking the bubbles all over his face though...I think he likes the feeling of them as they pop. He is so funny!

The brave two-year-old: Ky got his flu shot the other day. I have really thought a lot about honesty with my children. I want them to know that what I say is true. So Ky and I went together to the clinic to get the flu shot. I explained to him that he was going to get a poke in his leg and it was going to hurt BUT it would keep him from getting sick later--so the shot is a very good thing. You should have seen my little boy--he was so brave. I had them administer the flu shot to me first so Ky could watch and see what was going to happen. They then gave it to him. He didn't even cry! He was so brave! What a great little boy. Afterwards he said thank you and we went home. Now one of his favorite games is to play "poke" where he gives you a shot and then puts a bandaid on it. I am so proud of him! Honesty does pay off afterall...

A few other things about Ky--his mispronounciations of words are just hilarious. And then if you mock him in mispronouncing a word--he tries to correct you--but still misponounces it! HA HA! He tends to put "tw" in the front of a lot of words---for example he likes to eat "Twackers & milk". Boy--am I going to miss these days....

My last thoughts to this blog....

In highschool, I discovered one of thes secrets to life---and let me say that it has taken many years for me to really apply & put this secret to practice in my life--but I am feeling pretty good these days.

So this secret in life "You get out of life what you put in." And I mean this quite literally. In highschool I was a very depressed teenager--and one day I decided that I was going to pretend to be cheerful....and by the end of the day I was actually feeling pretty good. This became the solution to my "down" days. I can honestly say that I RARELY have a depressed day--due to this secret in life...and I know depression runs in my family! What an awesome solution--However I have really began to expand on my secret--and I have to say the good Lord and my children have spurred me on to do so. I have cut crappy tv shows and music out of my life--and first of all let me say how much lighter my load feels. There really is a lot of CRAP on tv and in music. Why do I want to watch murders or love affairs? Does this make me feel good about myself or the world? Do I want my children to think that this is normal or acceptable behavior? And what about music? Do I want to listen to music that makes me feel like this world is a lousy place to live in? Do I want to listen to people slander others?

I also have to say that taking this CRAP out of my life has made me more sensitive to the strength and impact that each one of our voices has. I subbed at a high school the other day--and wow was I sad when I left. Such a negative atmosphere. The kids were putting each other (and me) down all day. Why do we do this to ourselves? No wonder teen depression and suicide rate is so high. I can say that in my classroom (when I taught) I did not allow foul language or the putting down of others--however I could not control this outside of my classroom. And when you are a sub--it is very difficult for you to have any control of these situations. But WOW! I am glad I have cut this CRAP out of my life and I am not exposing my children to any of this. I also realize now how important it is for me to build my children up and protect them from this CRAP in their young and delicate years.

One final note about this...I am writing about this because I heard a study the other day on violence & negativity on tv & in music and the negative impact it is having on kids. The jist of the study was that kids who were exposed to violence on tv were more likely to become violent and/or depressed. It also mentioned that children's shows have an extremely high amount of violence in them and often in the shows the violence is not justified.

Just goes to show when you put "Good things in you get good things out."--so I will continue to protect my children as long as possible from the crap that is out there as well as myself.

Have a great day--and spread the cheer! We all need a little more happiness in our lives!