Senior Year

The days have finally come that I used to think were so far away. Jessica is now in her senior year of high school. It is a busy time and is already going really fast. In August, Jessica got her acceptance letter to Iowa State University. Last spring we decided to start visiting colleges. In April we went to Iowa State and she decided then and there it was the school for her. I offered to go with her to other colleges but she had made up her mind that Iowa State was the one. She is hoping to get into the honors program and for now thinks she will major in business. She is continuing a family tradition as Iowa State is the same school her cousin, Kelly, attended.

I have been way to busy with Kaleb to do much scrapbooking but did find a great idea for senior scrapbooking project from Stacy Julian. As soon as I seen her project I thought it was maybe something I could actually accomplish. Here is the start of my album for Jess.

As Stacy suggested I got a cheap photo album from Walmart. The album goes with the theory that there are 180 days in the school year. This is not completely accurate for seniors but still thought it was a great title. On the divider between pictures I will put questions I have asked Jess and her answers, her class schedule or just journal. I thought it might be neat to
have her write up a bucket list of things she would like to do in her life. I thought it might be fun to look back at that list years later to see how many things on her list she accomplished or still wanted to do. The album is still evolving and my time seems so limited but hopefully come Spring it will be filled up. Wish me luck!

Pumpkin Patch

A couple of weekends ago we went to Longabaugh's Pumpkin Patch. They have a beautiful place and Carla had it decorated with lots of antiques. Although I don't have many, I love antiques. I took along my camera hoping for some great fall shots.

It was a beautiful day.

In these last two we were trying out my new remote control for my camera. It works like a charm and I have a feeling once I get the hang of it it will come in really handy.

After several shots we figured out we were having trouble getting Kaleb to look at the camera, since no one was at the camera.

I won't bore you with all of the shots but I figured out by about the 4th or 5th one it was a lost cause as Kyle was laughing so hard he was barely in the picture anymore and Kaleb was more interested in watching Kyle than getting a fall family picture.
It ended up being a good time though by all of us. As Kaleb gets older I am sure we will make more visit to the pumpkin patch with lots of photo opportunities yet to come.

He

I can't believe it has already been a month since my last post. Time is flying by. I have been so busy I don't know where the month of September went. I have a lot of post and pictures I would like to add but as it is already the 2nd I have to first post about Kaleb.
He is 4 months old today.
He weighed 15 lbs. and 8 oz. at his doctor visit on Monday.
He was 25 1/2 inches long.
He is taking 6 oz. in his bottles now, about every 4 hours.
He still gets up for a bottle at night between 2:00-3:00 a.m.
He gets a little cereal twice a day.
He wears size 6-9 months but is getting too long for many of them.
He wears size 2 shoes.
He can shake his head "no".
He can roll over from his stomach to his back and also from his back to his stomach.
He really doesn't have a favorite toy right now but is starting to enjoy Mommy reading to him.
Last weekend he went for his first trip to the pumpkin patch, where the photo above was taken.
I'll have more pictures to post of all of us from there after I finish getting them edited.

He

He is 3 months old now.
He had his pictures taken at Sears in St.Joseph today.
He can hold his head up.
He can roll from stomach to back now easily.
He weighs over 14 pounds now so his Dr. gave the okay to try some cereal. He doesn't seem to
like it too much though.
He takes about 4 1/2 ounces of formula every 3-4 hours.
He goes to sleep at about 10:00-10:30 p.m., gets up between 2:00-3:00 a.m. and then again between 5:00-6:00 a.m.
He favorite toy right now is a set of little soft farm animals that came with a little barn. The animals make noise. Our friends the Rowan's gave them to him.
He is drooling a lot and has lots of bubbles.(maybe some teeth are on the way.)
He is most of the time a very happy baby, constantly moving.
He wants to sit up straight, doesn't like lying back so much.
He and Daddy are great buddies.
He took many pictures today and I bought way too much. At Sears you get a CD and the copyright. This photo is only one of the many but probably my favorite. I feel the need to write across pictures or watermark them when I post them online so people won't steal them. I have heard some horror stories about that happening. If we keep it up I told Kenton our entire house will be decorated with pictures soon!



If anyone decides to go to Sears let me know, if I refer so many people I get a discount next time.

Who Does Baby Kaleb Look Like?

We have had a big discussion about how Baby Kaleb looks so much like Kenton. I have posted pictures of him taken tonight and one of Kenton and one of me at about the same age. I don't know how to get them side by side but you can definitely see the similarity between Kenton and Kaleb.

Baby Kaleb

Baby Kenton


Baby Marilyn

Baby Jessica

Baby Kyle

We think he looks most like Kenton.

I had to also post these pictures of Kaleb sitting in his Bumbo seat and playing with his rubber duck.

He is growing so fast and changing everyday!

Wish I Could Bottle It Up

I was rocking Kaleb to sleep this afternoon and was thinking how I wish we could bottle this feeling up. Holding a peaceful sleeping baby is a wonderful feeling, one that I had truly missed all of these years. Each day with Baby Kaleb is a new adventure to see what he will learn or do next.

Although we have not yet developed a good routine since I went back to work and I am lacking greatly in the sleep department I am feeling comfortable where my life is right now.

The challenges of raising children at both ends of the spectrum are great and we are finding can be stressful but in the end so worth it. This little smile reminds me that at the end of the day, all is well. I am doing my best to document it with photos and journaling. I just wish we could bottle it up!

Kaleb's Baptism

We celebrated Kaleb's Baptism last night at mass. Our special friend Fr.David was kind enough to perform the ceremony as well as say mass for us. We met Fr. David a few years ago when he was assigned for a short time to our parish. He was a great source of strength for all of us when Kyle went through his transplant. His sermons are always moving and as the day progressed yesterday, I found myself looking forward more and more to hearing him speak. Again he gave a wonderful sermon. He talked about how Kaleb is a gift to us from God. He talked about how we are all gifts from God and how we should give our gift to others. He gave some good advice to instead of asking our children what they want to be when they grow up to instead ask them what does God want you to do when you grow up? Fr. David uses examples from his own life and childhood to get his point across. The kids relate to him so well and were so happy to see him.

He is now located at the St. Thomas Moore Center working with vocations and the youth of the diocese. They couldn't have picked a better guy for the job. It was so kind of him to come down to baptize Kaleb. He made it very special for us. And he is right. We have always felt that after all that we have been through that Kaleb is our special little gift.






My parents and Kaleb.
Kenton's mom and Kaleb.



My brother, Dan and Lisa, his wife, are Kaleb's godparents.