David Kaul...you will be missed

We said goodbye to a very special man today.

Kenny's uncle David passed away shortly after 2pm.

 He was admitted to the hospital earlier this week after having a heart attack.

David was a kind, funny, lighthearted guy that always had a smile for you.

Whenever you asked him how he was doing, his response would be “Oh, pretty good”.

It's a very sad day, but knowing he is now in Heaven with Grandma is a wonderful feeling!

We miss you both!!

Simply Connected!

We had our first night of Simply Connected tonight. It's a group with 3 other couples from church that also have kids and want to "connect" to others from Westwood. We met at our house last night for spaghetti and had a blast! The guys talked sports and the girls talked deliveries...haha. The kids (7 rugrats under 4) just made a lot of noise. Can't wait for next month!!

Moments with Graham

We are just lovin every moment we have with our new little guy! Yes, he is still sleepin through the night and eatin like a champ!! He weighed 8 pounds exactly at his 2 week appointment, just one ounce short of his birth weight. The nurse was a little concerned that he hadn't gained enough weight and asked me how often he ate during the night. I told her he eats at 11pm and then not again until he wakes up around 8am. She told me to start waking him up to eat...ha! I don't think so!! We were both diagnosed with Thrush...don't look it up, it's gross. Hopefully our meds can clear it up quickly. Other than that, we have a perfectly healthy and amazing little boy. And we can't take our eyes off him :)

Zoo Day with Daddy

I lead a small group in our High School Ministry at church and we had training all day today. I was amazed to find out that Kenny took the girls to the Zoo while I was gone! What an amazing daddy, those girls are so loved by him!!

Toria's New Do!

Tori's hair has been lookin a little...crazy boy hockey-ish.  So Kenny gave her a haircut! Then he dressed her up in boy clothes and spiked her new do! Now I have one daughter and 2 sons...

Bath Time

Graham got his first official bath at home today! (No, it's not the first time we've cleaned him since he was born...we are just shower people and those pictures wouldn't really be appropriate!) If you read the post about our photo shoot at Clix, you already know that Graham HATES to be naked! That hasn't changed...

Bath Time

Graham got his first official bath at home today! (No, it's not the first time we've cleaned him since he was born...we are just shower people and those pictures wouldn't really be appropriate!) If you read the post about our photo shoot at Clix, you already know that Graham HATES to be naked! That hasn't changed...

Mackenzi's helping by brushing his hair...with her toothbrush!

 Someone get me a towel...NOW

All clean, time for bed!

Life with 3 kids!

I absolutely LOVE this!! Can you relate??


ORDER OF CHILDREN

Your Clothes:

1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy.
2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible.
3rd baby: Your maternity clothes ARE your regular clothes.

Preparing for the Birth:
1st baby: You practice your breathing religiously.
2nd baby: You don't bother because you remember that last time, breathing didn't do a thing.
3rd baby: You ask for an epidural in your eighth month.

The Layette:
1st baby: You pre-wash newborn's clothes, color-coordinate them, and fold them neatly in the baby's little bureau.
2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are clean and discard only the ones with the darkest stains.
3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?

Worries:
1st baby: At the first sign of distress-a whimper, a frown-you pick up the baby
2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your firstborn.
3rd baby: You teach your three-year-old how to rewind the mechanical swing.

Pacifier:
1st baby: If the pacifier falls on the floor, you put it away until you can go home and wash and boil it.
2nd baby: When the pacifier falls on the floor, you squirt it off with some juice from the baby's bottle.
3rd baby: You wipe it off on your shirt and pop it back in.

Diapering:
1st baby: You change your baby's diapers every hour, whether they need it or not.
2nd baby: You change their diaper every two to three hours, if needed.
3rd baby: You try to change their diaper before others start to complain about the smell or you see it sagging to their knees.

Activities:
1st baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics, Baby Swing, and Baby Story Hour.
2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics.
3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket and the dry cleaner.

Going Out:
1st baby: The first time you leave your baby with a sitter, you call home five times.
2nd baby: Just before you walk out the door, you remember to leave a number where you can be reached.
3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter to call only if she sees blood.

At Home:
1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby.
2nd baby: You spend a bit of everyday watching to be sure your older child isn't squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby.
3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.

Swallowing Coins:
1st child: When first child swallows a coin, you rush the child to the hospital and demand x-rays.
2nd child: When second child swallows a coin, you carefully watch for the coin to pass.
3rd child: When third child swallows a coin you deduct it from his allowance!!

GRANDCHILDREN: God's reward for allowing your children to live.

ONE YEAR!!!!

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mackenzinash

What a beautiful day! It's been exactly one year since Mackenzi's surgery and she is doing amazingly well!! We met with her surgeon and team of docs a few weeks ago after doing some tests at Children's and we finally received all good news. Her vertebrae have almost fully regrown and are now doing their job of protecting her spine again. Her scoliosis has not gotten worse since surgery, and the abnormal mass they saw on the scans a while back was indeed spinal fluid and NOT another tumor!

It's just amazing to think about all of the things that have gone right for her since discovering this crazy tumor. We are so proud of our little girl for being so brave through all of this. And we are SO thankful for the amazing team of doctors that gave Kenzi back her BACK! They did an amazing job and have been there for us in every way over this past year.

Kenzi will continue to be monitored for her scoliosis and SFL (spinal fluid leak), as well as yearly CT's and MRI's to watch for possible future tumors. We know she is in the best hands, and are finally ready to put this craziness behind us!
Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet.
James 5:13

Lovin it

There were a few times during the pregnancy that Kenny and I would look at each other and say "I can't believe we're gonna have 3 kids, we're nuts!" Friends, family, and sometimes even strangers warned us in nice (and not so nice) ways that having 3 was going to be overwhelming. Well guess what, I'M LOVING IT!!! Being a mom of three sweet kids has been overwhelmingly AMAZING. I love getting up in the morning with my sweet guy wrapped in my arms (yes, he still sleeps through the night so that obviously helps!), I love watching the girls stare at him when he's sleeping and ask questions, I love watching Kenny talk to his son like he's already 10 years old, I love the constant multi-tasking that is required to survive the day, and I love how fulfilled I am when I crawl in bed at night. This transition has been one of the easiest I have had in my life, he just fits right into our family! I'm sure things will change once Graham gets a little older, but for now I am just lovin being a mom to 3 little ones. Today I was brave enough to attempt Target and swimming at Lifetime...and I did it!! I could totally adopt triplets :) Haha

Photo Shoot

My little brother is studying to be a professional photographer, how lucky are we?! He currently works at Clix in Maple Grove and has already taken lots of amazing photos of the girls. We attempted to bring the WHOLE family in yesterday for our first shoot with Graham. Tori refused to smile whenever the camera was pointed at her, Graham did NOT want to be naked and only wanted to be held, Kenzi broke the princess tiara prop after tripping over the backdrop, Tori ate a princess wand made of foam, and Graham peed all over the boppy prop. Ha! Good thing we knew the photographer!!

So here are our first family pics, Graham's first attempt at newborn pics, and Kenzi's 4 year pics!

Due Date!

Today was our due date. 2-10-2010. We have been looking forward to this day for so long! We lost another baby a few months before finding out about Graham, and it changed us forever. We had decided that we would wait to try again until Baby Tyler's due date had passed, but God had another plan! He surprised us with another pregnancy (does it qualify as a surprise if it happened because we were relying on a phone app for our bc??) just a few months after we lost Tyler. I took the pregnancy test while Kenny was at work and knew that I wanted to tell Kenny in a very special way. Have you seen the video?!?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a43NHNMDLBg

Our OB allowed us to have an early ultrasound because we had recently had a miscarriage. He was worried about something he saw during the ultrasound and asked us to come back a week later for another one. Apparently there was some kind of bleed and it was connecting itself to the baby. We left that appointment in a daze...God wouldn't put us through the pain of losing a baby again, would He? We turned to prayer and waited. At our next appointment, we learned that the blood mass around the baby had grown larger and was now bigger than the baby itself. Our OB warned us that this usually meant the pregnancy would end in miscarriage because the blood mass would eventually surround the entire sac and prevent it from growing. The only chance this baby had was to be stronger than the mass and outgrow it. He sent us home with a picture and said to come back again in another week. Kenny and I looked at that picture every single day, praying the baby was fighting and would make it.

And here we are, at the due date, and we are holding our precious baby in our arms!!! He is truly our miracle baby and I can't wait to see what God has planned for this special boy.