The Girls' Check-ups!

Both of the girls had their year check ups today!  I am very happy to say we have two very happy, healthy girls who are developing beautifully!  I give all the glory to God as He is the one who gives us our many blessings! 
At Keziah's 3 year check up today she weighed in at 30 lbs 6 oz. (50%) and a height of 3' 2.75" (+75%).  She had to get one shot and seemed to handle the initial poke just fine, however the entire evening today she complained and cried at random times that she was getting sharp pains.  She also fell on the cement on our walk back to the car and scraped up her knee a bit so I think that was bothering her too.  She had a bath tonight so hopefully she will wake up feeling much better!
At Adah's 1 year check up today she weighed in at 21 lbs 3 oz. (-50%) and a height of 29.5" (50%). Her head was 18 cm (-75%).  Adah had to have 3 different shots and also had to have her lead level and iron checked (which required a finger prick).  She also does pretty well with the initial poke but you can tell that she hasn't been feeling like herself all day either.  Although, nothing nearly as dramatic as her sister!  She is still pretty playful and happy!
UPDATE: (12/10/10) I got a call from the nurse today and she said Adah is slightly anemic and needs to be taking some iron drops (ferinsol).  We have to get her retested in January to make sure she is getting the amount of iron she needs.  Her lead levels came back normal!

Adah is ONE!

Adah is such a joy to have in our lives! She is an amazing and smart little girl.  I don't think I can even begin to remember all the things she can do/say but I will give it a shot (why don't I learn and just keep a log?)!

Adah signs: milk, bath, book, more, eat, drink, all done, shakes her head yes and points to things/places she wants to go.  I am a huge advocate for this because it is so handy when trying to communicate-at dinner time especially!   She says many things, mostly only Brian and I can understand because we taught them to her but some of them actually do sound like what she is saying: banana (nana), bye bye (baa baa), apple (ba um), baby (bay bay), mom/mama, dada, yum yum, moo (for cow), meow (me me), barks like a dog, blub blub (for a fish), she tries to neigh (horse) and baa (sheep) but it just comes out sounding like a cough,  puts her hands in the air and says 'ta da', plays peek a boo, tickles you and makes a tickle noise, understands the word NO and looks at you with a cheesy grin to see if she is going to get away with it anyway!

Adah got her 9th tooth (top right molar) on her birthday.  All day I was feeling in there because she wasn't acting like herself and finally at bedtime I felt it again and there it was, just barely sticking out of the gum!

 Adah is starting to learn her body parts.  She points correctly to the following (most of the time): eyes, nose, ear, hair, teeth, tongue, mouth, fingers, foot and belly.
Adah's current schedule goes something like this:

Wake at 7am, nurse at 7:30 (sometimes earlier), nap at 9ish, wake at 10:30/11, nurse at 11/11:30, lunch at noon (eats whatever we are having with water or milk in a sippy), nap at 1:30ish, wake sometime between 3 and 4, nurse by 4 (usually has a snack at this time too), supper at 5/5:30 (whatever we are having with water or milk), nurse at 7:30 with bed to follow around 7:45.  She sleeps through the night only waking when her teeth are bothering her and usually a little orajel will do the trick!

This month Adah really took off walking.  It's funny that she is already walking...she looks so little!

What a wonderful first year we have had with our Adah!  I can't wait to see what this next year brings!  Praise God, for He is the one who gives us such awesome blessings!

This was how we spent the day of Adah's first birthday:

She got to open her gifts (2 books and a Leap Frog play b-day cake-so cute), we ate her favorite lunch (mac-n-cheese) and peas along with pears, and for dessert she got another shot at a cupcake.  But she still wasn't a fan just like at her party so instead we let her have a few licks of a tootsie pop.  She LOVED that!  And since we didn't have any more cupcakes left, Kezzie got a sucker to celebrate with too!

Happy Birthday Adah!  Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

Keziah is 36 MONTHS!

Keziah is so beautiful!  I can't help but stare at those big brown eyes and long eyelashes!  She is becoming so funny too.  She says some of the funniest things!  I have logged a few over the month (there are many more, but I don't always remember to write them down): Keziah has a really good sniffer.  It's hilarious, she always lets us know if something smells funny!  And she is always right about it too.  If Adah is poopy she will sniff with her nose and say, "it smells like poop in here."  Or if our stubborn dog poops in the house, she isn't in the room a second and she immediately identifies it and upon deep searching I always find it hidden in the corner or something.  She identifies many other smells too before I even notice them.  It's so funny!

On a ride in the car Adah was quite upset and Kezzie was becoming frustrated.  She looked over at Adah to apparently find her flailing her arms while crying.  I overheard Kezzie respond to Adah by saying, "Adah, stop hitting yourself and you wouldn't have so much problems."  She didn't say this calmly by any means! 

Another funny thing she said was to Austin.  Austin was getting yelled at by me and he and Kezzie were sitting at the table eating breakfast together and in an effort to make him feel better she says to him, "She yelled at me too Austin, she yelled at me too!"  (I didn't yell at her too but she pretended I did to try to make him feel better?!).

Kezzie is getting a very large variety of vocabulary.  Sometimes she knows what she is saying and sometimes she uses it in really weird places (ie: 'change your attitude' when really somebody is in a good mood-or maybe she is just trying to be bossy!).  She likes to say actually a lot!

Keziah is in love with her finger, blankie, and now her penguin she recently aquired for her birthday (daddy  got it for her).  She will panic if not all three are within arm's length at all times.  Although, she is ok if her blankie is in her bed and she knows that is where it's at.  In fact, her blankie is supposed to stay in her bed at all times (but that's not always the case)!

Kezzie's love for Jesus is growing too.  I love it when I ask her a question she always thinks the correct answer is 'Jesus'.  We have a devotional every night before bed.  They only last a minute or two but they include a bible verse (which she always tries to repeat after me) and a prayer (which I break up into pieces so she can repeat it after me).  I recently asked her what we were going to be celebrating at Christmas time and she answered me Jesus' birthday!  That really warmed my heart.  We talk about it, but I didn't know how much was really getting through!  I just love it!

She is looking forward to church more every week.  She has started doing crafts in the room she is in now.  Everything she decorates is typically colored blue (her absolute favorite color).  But what I love the most is that each craft comes with a slip of paper explaining what she learned in class that day.  I like being able to re-talk it over with her and just solidify the story she learned about!  God is so good and I pray that she will continue to live for and learn more about Him!

This is how Keziah spent her third birthday! We had such a great day! We woke up and I made homemade pancakes (per her request). Before daddy even left for work, we let her open her gift from us.  She absolutely loved it.  It's called squinkies.  A little story for ya: One time when we were at Fareway Austin got Kezzie a miniature puppy from one of the vending machines.  She has since wanted more and loves the three that she has so much that she carries them everywhere with her.  Well, the squinkies are kind of the same thing.  The squinkie home is like a gumball machine.  There are squinkie pennies that you put in (or you can use a regular dime or penny) and you turn the dial and a little squishy, rubbery, figurine comes out in a little plastic bubble.  This is just the beginning of the squinkies though because you can collect many different series.  They are adorable!  Her favorite one is a baby and it has a paci!  We have rules with these squinkies as this can be a huge problem with Adah around.  She can't get them out unless she is going to play on the dining room table or play when Adah is napping.  We haven't had too many problems!
Anyway, after a quick nap for Adah we headed over to playgroup at one of the mom's houses. We had a Thanksgiving party where we ate fun treats and made Indian hats that portrayed all the things we are thankful for. Keziah put all the normal things on hers such as: family, home, nice warm bed, food and clothes. After playgroup, I decided I would go out of the norm of eating lunch at home and instead take her to lunch at McDonald's and let her play for a bit with Adah.  I told the other moms at playgroup that they were welcome to join us and to my surprise, a couple of them did!  I really thought this would help Keziah be brave enough to go up into the big part with the big slide, but she got scared and I had to rescue her (yet again).  Daddy got to join us too, for a little bit, which of course made her day!  After getting home late and rushing into bed for nap, we somehow managed to forget to have birthday cake or sing happy birthday to her.  She didn't care though and instead spent the rest of the day enjoying all the many toys she received for her birthday!  Don't ask me what we had for supper or why we didn't think of singing to her then either!  It was a great day!  Happy Birthday my beautiful Keziah!  Mommy and Daddy adore you and love you so much!

New toys!

Kezzie is enjoying all her birthday gifts so much! Here she is tending to her baby like a good little mommy! It is so much fun for her to have new toys to play with.  She loves that she can feed her baby like mommy feeds Adah and she can change her baby like mommy changes Adah.  She especially likes giving her baby a bottle because then she has to change her wet diaper.  She is getting better at this and even tries to help me when I am changing Adah!  She has even 'nursed' her baby while I am nursing Adah!

Birthday Party Fun and Uglum Thanksgiving!

What a fun and awesome day!  The party started at 10AM and lasted until about 1:30 (mom and dad stayed until about 2:30).  Emily and Ethan and Alanna were unable to come because they had the flu so that was a bummer!  Casey had to work so she and Nate and Gavin didn't come either.  Dad was in the hospital for a few days (due to an infection that developed after bunion surgery) prior to the day of the party but managed to get out the day before and made it to the party.  That was a nice surprise for us all!  Even my good friend from Cedar Rapids and her son came!  What a treat!  Keziah and Adah received many great gifts and we all got to enjoy ham balls, veggies, fruit and cheesy carrot casserole together!  What a great time to reflect on how blessed we are to have these two beautiful and healthy girls! 

Since Mat and Steph and the boys were in town we decided we would celebrate Thanksgiving that same day so a little bit after the girls woke up we headed over to Riley and Kathy's house for the evening.  It's always great to get the cousins together and have a little adult conversation!

Keziah!

I am so blessed to have her in my life!  What a beautiful and precious gift God has given us!  She definitely has a deep love for her blankie and finger! I had to snap this picture of her on our way to church in her nice white winter (garage sale bargain) coat.  She just looks so cute!

A few of my favs!

Here are three of my favorite peeps in my life!  I'm not sure what Austin is doing with his hand but aside from that this is the best picture we've had in a long time!  I love my kids so much!  Each one is an individual blessing of their own!  God is so good to me!  Aren't they just beautiful?!

Camping Itch!

Either we have been really bored lately or we really have an itch to go camping...we got this tent out and set it up in our living room and the kids had a lot of fun together! Adah especially loves rolling around in there with blankets! Kezzie likes closing the door and 'locking' herself in (or 'locking' Adah out)! It provided several hours of entertainment over the course of the few days we had it up!

Baskets and dentist apts.!

Adah and Kezzie have a new obsession...baskets.  Kezzie pretends like our big blue basket is her shell and she goes inside it.  She has started putting a blanket over it since there are holes on the sides and she doesn't want us to be able to see her.  Adah sees this as an opportunity to either a) annoy Keziah b)to have fun hiding under a blanket with Keziah.  Kezzie doesn't see it as b and as you can see in the picture tries to yell at Adah to leave her alone :(.  I guess they can't get along all the time!  Adah has a hobby of her own.  She likes to climb in and out of her small toy box.  She thinks she is pretty cool stuff!  And then just last night she found the baby cradle and gets in there.  This is way more fun then the toy box because it actually rocks back and forth.  She gets going pretty good in it too! Gotta love cheap entertainment!

Today Keziah went to the dentist.  Actually, Austin, Kezzie and I all three had dentist appointments.  Luckily mine was first thing in the morning and Kezzie was able to see how easy it was.  Her and Austin go to a peds dentist who is really good with kids so that helped too.  She was really nervous to go but after seeing me get mine cleaned she was ready to go and knew exactly what to do.  She climbed right up on the table/chair and opened wide!  Dr. said she still has quite a crossbite but that her teeth and gums look really good.  She said we should give her a paci back because she is doing way more damage with her finger then she will with a paci.  If you remember right, we've been through this before!  Summarized:  early 7/09 we took her paci away, late 08/09 she started sucking her finger, early 09/09 gave her paci back, 04/10 took her paci away again, it wasn't until Sept. or so that she started sucking her finger again.  I don't know what to do.  Dr. said her arch in her mouth is being affected and that her cross bite is getting worse.  Any suggestions? She has an oral fixation and has to have something in her mouth all the time (takes after her dad!).  She typically sucks her finger while watching tv or going to sleep but it doesn't stop there.  She also bites her fingernails already at her age and will chew on her blankie and even the collar on her shirts and sleeves.  The Dr. thought maybe if we gave her her paci back something would click and she would think, 'I don't need this, I'm a big girl'.  I don't think we are going to be that lucky!  But I don't know what else to do!

Great Great Grandma!

Brian's Great grandma died a very peaceful death Saturday (11-6) at the age of 99!  One of the nurses took her in to use the bathroom, brought her back out to her chair and went back to the bathroom to clean up, when she came back out, she had passed away.  Her visitation was Monday and the funeral was this morning.

I remember when Brian and I started dating she was still doing really well living on her own.  She since then moved to a nursing home here in New Hampton.  She was Brian's mom's mom's mom.  Her name was Selma Hahn and she was a very sweet lady. I am pretty sure the most recent picture anyone has of her is with my girls.  It was the day we went for a visit to the nursing home for playgroup all dressed up in our Halloween costumes.  Here she is.  I remember her asking if Kezzie could sit on her lap again!  With the camera ready to go, we said, 'sure!'

A nice visit!

We went to visit my grandma Smith today.  She is so much fun to be around.  You can definitely feel the Lord's presence in this women!  She isn't always happy but she is very loving.  The kids ADORE her and her laughter!  Austin found a boomerang there the last time we visited and so he pretty much played with that the whole time.  The neighbors' cats came to see what was going on so Kezzie had to go out and investigate!  She spent quite a bit of time outside too until she fell off the picnic table.  And it wasn't because she was looking at the cat and not paying attention.  Her and Austin were sitting on the picnic table and spitting and she leaned too far over to look at her spit and fell!  After that 'incident' they came inside and road my dad's scooter all over the kitchen (he had another surgery on his other foot to remove a bunion 11/2).  Austin was giving Adah rides and she just lounged on there!  My dad is like a little kid when it comes to taking pictures!  He's so difficult!  That's why there is two!   Gotta love him!

McDonald's Playland!

Out of sheer boredom we decided to go to McDonalds for some ice cream after supper on Saturday.  I was once again reminded of what a waste of money this is.  The ice cream is pretty tasteless and there isn't even any options really.  Kezzie got a coupon for a free cone from Halloween so we wanted to use that and her only choice was vanilla.  I don't think she even ate any of it.  It was nice to get out of the house and let the kids play though.  It was the only thing we did other than going to church on Sunday.  This of course isn't great for someone who stays home all week but Brian enjoys being home on the weekends since he goes to work all week.  It is a common battle between us!  Kezzie, once again tried going up in the play area, and once again I had to rescue her!  She and Adah had fun on the little slide though!

Happy Halloween and More!!

This last weekend we stayed with my parents all weekend because it was also the weekend of a wonderful Rise and Shine Women's Retreat at our church (guest speaker was Lysa TerKeurst, I will post more on that later).  So that's why you see Adah in her jammies!  She found the pantry and had fun 'hiding' in there.  Sunday we went to church and everybody got together at mom and dad's for lunch.  We got a nice photo of all the grandkids (except Gavin) and their Grandma and Papa!  Alanna is so cute in her bones outfit!  The boys had some kind of Halloween attire on too!  When the girls got up from their nap we headed for home.  Trick-or-treating in New Hampton was from 4-7.  We got home a little before 5 and ate supper and then headed out for about an hour and a half.  The girls had a lot of fun and got a ton of candy (not Adah).  Austin met up with some friends as soon as we got home and didn't come home until almost 7.  He somehow didn't have as much candy as Kezzie...goofing off maybe!!  He said he had fun too!  When it was all over I managed to get somewhat of a shot of the girls in a picture together with their costumes on. Today Adah found a sucker I attached to some balloons from Henry's first birthday. Mat and Steph forgot to take them home with them (thanks Steph!) and somebody needed to enjoy them so they landed at our house.  Adah wouldn't let the sucker go.  She apparently was getting some flavor even with the wrapper on and loved it!

And I think I forgot to mention in any previous posts...Jamie (my youngest sister) is expecting baby #2 May 25th, 2011!  I am so excited to be an Aunt AGAIN!!!
And on that same note...my oldest sister Casey is going to be having her C-section on December 28th!  That is coming so fast!  They are having a girl and naming her Molly Maxine!  I can't wait!  I will officially be an Aunt to five AWESOME kids before the year is over!  What an amazing Holiday gift!