Christmas 2010

Christmas day this year was with my side of the family (all but my brother and his family in Arizona.) Lots of people under one roof!!

Which then led to lots of presents...

Nerf gun wars...
and Wii playing action.

It was a great weekend and now to celebrate with Brian's family this weekend.

My Dad

This is my dad, David Joe, the man my son, Carson David, is now named after.

I am so excited.

Here are some of my favorite memories growing up that I would love to share with you.

I remember waking up in the mornings and heading out to the garage. I was such a tomboy. My dad would be waiting for me and we would start on some project. Somehow, it always seemed the garage needed cleaning, no matter that we had just cleaned it the week before.

We would run errands together to get more wood for a house project. Appropriately, there would be room for me in the vehicle on the way to the store, but never room for me on the way home. I would also have to hang on to the wood to make sure it would not fall out.

I remember my 21st birthday card. My mom always sent us a card for our birthdays, but this one was different. Before, the card would always be closed with "Love, mom and dad." On my 21st birthday card it was closed with: "Love, mom." "Love you more, Dad." Written in his handwriting. I will never forget it, thanks dad.

Little Brother

Just a couple of shots of big sister and little brother!!!

Carson David

He is wonderful, healthy, and quite!!! Nursery said he is the best baby in there as he is so quite while everyone one else is screaming.

Born at 9:52p.m. on 12/13/2010
7 pounds 14 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long!!

Not the best pictures, these were taken with the phone. Will get the pictures from the camera downloaded so they are better but many people have been asking to see him so thought I would post something.


Everyone is doing well and we should be discharged around 11a.m. tomorrow if it continues to go well:)

Man I love this guy!!!

Calm before the Storm

I decided before little brother comes (and we are stuck inside for awhile), that Kaylee and I needed an outing. We headed to the Science Museum for some hands on learning and we had so much fun.

Some serious investigating going on here:

This was her favorite part. Looking at all the cars whizzing by below her.

I love our "one on one" time and I love how adventerous she is. It was a fun day and I look forward to more with just her and with Carson David!!!

Advent

Last year I only did a few Advent activities as she was only a year old. This year, I am trying to do atleast three to four activities a week. Some are very small, some may be pretty silly, but they all lead back to one thing....Jesus.

The list of activities is more for my memory for years to come, but also if you are looking for ideas, please steal away.

In no particular order:

-Set up nativity set and Christmas tree

-sit outside for a little while - Joseph and Mary where outside when they had baby Jesus

-M & M - Messiah in a Manger

- Eat by candlelight - just like Joseph and Mary had no electricity

- new Christmas socks or slipper - go and tell of Jesus love for us

- playdough - Jesus molds us

-attend our Church's Dessert theatre

-attend Journey to Bethlehem - at Harvester Christian Church

-go and buy gifts for angel tree mission (or an other ministry) as a family

-special meal out

-look at Christmas lights - Jesus is the light of the World

-bottle shaped sucker - Jesus came into the workd as a baby

-binoculars - Shepherds "watched" their sheep at night

-left over dinner - Joseph and Mary had to stay in the stable which was the only place "leftover."

-fun bath soap - Jesus washes us "white as snow."

-milkshakes - God "shook up" the people's thinking by sending his Son the way he did

-Family Christmas pictures - seeing how God has changed our family from year to year.

That is all I can remember at this time. We may not get to all of them, especially if baby Carson decides to come early (please come early!!!). Kaylee has truly enjoyed doing activities even though she still doesn't get all of it. She does go around the house singing "1,2,3, Jesus loves me!!!" She also talks a lot about Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus so she is starting to understand some of it.

Ice Skating and Carriage Ride

I love to experience "firsts" with Kaylee. We have been thinking it would be fun to take her ice skating, but also knew it was pretty early for it and we didn't really want to pay for her to possibly make one lap and say she was done.

When a friend of ours mentioned that Clayton was having a free night of ice skating among other things, we decided to jump on it. Of course, Kaylee was excited and very curious. It was pretty busy so hard to get any good pictures.




She made it one lap around and then they announced that it was time to resurface the ice. That was ok, Kaylee was done. She decided it was too cold and slippery. She said she did not like it but five minutes later, that was all she was talking about. I think in another year or two she will try again and love it.

After skating, we headed to where they were doing free carriage rides. We caught the last ride that they were offering and it was very cold!! It was a lot of fun and Kaylee loved seeing the horses.

Overall, it was a great evening hanging out with friends (which I need to get better at taking pictures with them) and some more "firsts" for Kaylee.

A long time

I feel like I am not posting as much right now and when I do it is updates on the past week or so. I need to get better at keeping up to date with the blog.

Well, here is another update:)

We have been pretty busy around here and I don't have as much info to share with you yet but still hoping too soon. One thing that has been happening in the Katerberg household I can update you on though, but I must warn you that you may not want to read about it.

We had a little health issue with Kaylee lately. I thought at first, she just ate something that did not agree with her but then it lasted WAY too long. A few weeks ago, she started having diarrhea (in the amount of 8 diapers a day!!) It was nasty and did not smell good at all. Long story short, they ran stool tests, blood tests, and this week (after dealing with it for 3 weeks) we saw a GI specialist. After a long wait, all tests came back great. She just irritated her small bowel with an upper respiratory infection she had shortly before all of this started. The bad news is though, it could last another couple of months:( Good news is, it is down to only one to two diapers a day now. (more than you wanted, I am sure).

Other news, I am going to be 37 weeks along in the pregnancy on saturday. I am more than ready for Carson to make his appearance. I have not felt the greatest today and am really exhausted. We have our hospital bag packed and I told Brian to keep his phone on him today as I actually thought it might have been the day, but no go. Good news is though, my doctor said that since I have not developed the cholestasis at this point, that I most likely will not develop it!!! That is great news, but now I am actually nervous of having a normal pregnancy. I was not prepared for that at all since I was assuming I would be induced next week because of complications.

We have also been hard at work with Advent activities around here. I will blog later to let you know what we have already done and what is coming up in case you need some ideas, plus then I will have them for next year to remind me of what we did. I don't think Kaylee totally understands the Advent part, but I think she is understanding some of what Christmas is all about and that it does not mean lots of presents. She is so excited to go look at Christmas lights too. Brian is going to take us to one of the light shows that play to music. I know she will love that.

Update - Picture style

It has been a whirlwind of things happening in our family these past few weeks. Most of which I hope (God willing) to enlighten you on soon (no, the baby will not be born this soon, sorry that one you have to wait a little longer on)!! We are excited with the path that God is leading us on, but can't share with you right now what that is. We are just having a lot of faith and a lot of emotions lately (mostly me on the emotions, since pregnancy emotions seem to be high right now.)

In my tuesday morning Bible study, I once heard a quote that I have been sticking with through all of this. "Doubt sees obstacles, Faith sees opportunities." I love this and am looking forward to the opportunities that are to come for our family.

In the meantime, here are some activities that we have been embarking on (picture style):

One of the last beautiful days before winter arrives, walk in Castlewood state park.

I took Kaylee to a gymnastics class sponsored by our P.A.T. program.

She actually got into the big "pit" this year. She even asked me to throw her in a few times. She was having a ball with all of it and I could hardly keep up with her.

The parachute is by far her favorite activity, but she only likes to go under it and not on top.

Playing in the leaves that mommy and daddy are raking up.

And lastly, while I helped with a Christmas workshop at Church, daddy and Kaylee headed to the Magic House.

Lots of hands on activities and goofy things too.

So that has been our last few weeks. I can't wait to share with you more info but for now you are just going to have to hang in and wait:) It will be worth the wait, I promise and I will share it with you as soon as I can.

A little strange?

Kaylee and I will often visit daddy at his work. Lately though, I cringe when I come into his office to see this. Anyone else think this is a little strange? We have the progression of marriage and then Kaylee entering the picture. I gave Brian the daddy and me photo frame for Father's day, I believe. Then there is the next photo.

Here, let me zoom in on the issue.

'Yes, you are seeing that right. Brian designs artificial joints and so frequently has hips and knees laying around. Why he thought this needed to be added to the mantle next to his desk is beyond me. I am sure his coworkers love him for this one:) Me, I don't need the reminder of what is happening or going to happen here soon!!

First Big Haircut!!!

A dear friend of mine usually cuts my hair. When I was over this past time, I had her look at Kaylee's hair to just trim it up some and make it even. The only hairs on her head that have been cut since birth have been a few bangs. Now, we are letting her bangs grow out, but I just felt the rest of it needed a little shaping.

Kaylee was so excited to get her turn to sit in the chair and get her hair cut. She did great and loved it!!!

We did not have to take much off at all, except in the back where it was growing in really uneven. She mostly shaped it to her face a little and just cleaned it up. It looks great!!!

Happy Halloween

I have to admit, this is not my favorite holiday tradition. I can't remember really ever getting into it but I am sure I did as a kid. I mean, who wouldn't with candy involved, right?

This was the first year that Kaylee seemed to enjoy most of it. She was a cat as hopefully you can tell from the pictures. I do have to admit one thing, this child is not afraid of the scary stuff. Our neighbors house had a few things that almost even scared me and she just looked at it and laughed.

On friday night, we went to a friends house for a party. Kaylee the whole way there, "we go to a party?" Even when we were there, she was asking it. We had to keep telling her that we were at the party. She wasn't too impressed, too many people for her I guess.


Halloween night, I took Kaylee to a few of our neighbors houses for them to see her. Of course, as soon as she found out that you go to someone's door and you get candy, she was hooked. We ended up walking around the block with our neighbors and their two boys. She loved it and she did pretty well. We have to work on her "thank you" though. She will do it for people she knows well, but not for just anyone.

Here is daddy and Kaylee with our pumpkin.

In case you missed the pumpking in the previous picture. Brian has been wanting to do Nemo in a long time and since his daughter is soooo into the movie, he thought the timing was right. All the neighbors loved it.

I will have to admit, I did enjoy walking with her and getting a few pieces of candy. I think next year we may try some of the trunk or treat activities around our neighborhood.

Like father like....

daughter? Isn't it supposed to be like son?

The other day, Kaylee's flashlight quit working. So daddy took her downstairs and together they fixed it. Kaylee has been hooked ever since. She (and he) was so proud!! I told Brian as long as she will be my girlie girl, she can follow in his engineer footsteps.

It was quite funny though. The next night, Kaylee decided it was broke again and wanted her daddy to come in and help her fix it again. I am just counting the days until she starts taking things apart on her own, hopefully they are actually broke when she does that:)

Chopsticks

One of Brian's (and possibly mine) favorite place to eat is Huhot. It is Mongolian food and you can go back up as much as you like to make different dishes. Brian insists on eating most of his food with chopsticks. While there, they gave us training chopsticks for Kaylee. I didn't have my camera on me that night, so one of the next mornings she wanted to use them to eat her pancakes and sausage. She has gotten pretty good at it.

not much happening

Not much happening around our house these past few days. I have some pictures from this last weekend to upload but right now we are all under the weather.

Kaylee has a double ear infection and a sinus infection. I let it go for two weeks thinking( and hoping) it was just allergies, but then finally took her in. She went on an antibiotic for a week and then seemed things got worse lats sunday. Took her back in (to our normal doctor this time) and then infection was still pretty bad. She is now on a stronger antibiotic and should hopefully feel better soon.

Brian missed work last monday with not feeling good and over the weekend seemed to be doing better also. Then Sunday night, he started to not feel good either. He headed to Walgreens clinic this past monday and was diagnosed with an ear infection and upper resp stuff. Yesterday, seemed to get worse and have labored breathing so we took him to a different clinic (thanks, Kelli) and he now has bronchitis and was put on even more meds.

Me? I called my OB and told him what was going on and that my ear was raging also. They called in amoxycillin for me too. Ear seems to be on the mend but today, I seem to have lost my voice. I do have to say that none of this has slowed down this baby boy though. Yesterday, I couldn't get him to be still for anything and I am already thining today is going to be the same.

So here is to hoping your household is feeling better than this one and to pray for a quick recovery in this one. None of us seem to be very good patients around here:)

Another busy weekend

Brian's brother and his family offered to come for the weekend and help get some projects done around the house. Of course we took them up on it!!!

I finally have a kitchen sink and dishwasher again!!!! Two weeks was enough for me:)

Here is Kevin and Brian putting the sink back in, with Kaylee looking on. Kaylee needed to get in on the action:

Laura with her daughter, Emma, and Kaylee. We just HAD to get the girls out of the house and go shopping:)

Thanks again guys!!! We got a lot done and any time you want to come back to finish our list would be great!!!!

I will get more pictures of finished projects when we finish a few detailed projects. The house is really coming along:)

Weekend in Review

We have been continually (slowly) working on the kitchen and some other projects around the house. Some dear friends of ours volunteered to take Kaylee for the day so we could get a full work day in!!! Awesome idea!!! Of course the weather wa wonderful all week until saturday, and Kaylee woke up not feeling the greatest. I ran and got her childrens claritin to see if that would help. She perked up by the time they got here and said, "I get my backpack and go." Ok, she was ready to go, to the ZOO!!!


Here are a few pictures they took.




I guess they also took her to petsmart and let her hold a puppy. They told me they got her one, but was glad to only see my daughter getting out of the car. I am not ready for a puppy yet, someday!



While they were out having fun for the day, Brian got the tile laid for the kitchen counter!!! I will get pictures later this week when he has done the backsplash and grout. I am so excited to have counters, and my kitchen sink and dishwasher back!!! He took the kitchen sink out a week ago to get prepped and I have been missing it oh so much!!! It just does not seem the same to wash your dishes in the bathroom sink. I have been trying to grill out more so we don't have many dishes to do but just can't wait to get it back. It looks so good too!!



I painted our basement. It had not been painted since we moved in and was the boring dark beige color. I will also get pictures of it when I finish two area. I have to have Brian help me get one wall done and then it will be complete. It helps to watch HGTV, I painted it a grey color since it is our entertainment area. I LOVE IT!!! I only wish I would have done this 3 years ago when we moved in.



On sunday, Kaylee was still not feeling well, but we tried to head to Church to see how she did. I was pretty sure it was just allergies since there was no fever and such. She perked up once we were there. After Church, we headed to one of Brian's coworkers house for lunch. They have been redoing their kitchen also and wanted to show it off. We grilled out, played some ping pong, and had some good conversation. I was excited to get home though to get comfortable and just lay on the couch for the evening (of course watching the Bears also!!)

That wraps up our weekend. It was very busy, but very productive!! Now I have to run to HD to get more supplies for my husband to finish the grout stuff and take care of a sick kiddo:( Hope you all had a great weekend.

Kaylee and Baby boy update

Kaylee:

Every bit 2 Years Old!!!
She is great, funny, and the life of the party when we are with friends.
Can quote Finding Nemo at any moment and while watching the movie will tell you exactly what is going to happen. She is the girl you never want to take to a movie because she will ruin the ending:)
Learned to peddle her three wheeler today and can hit a baseball off of a tee.
Wears 3T clothes because she is in the 97% for height
Has stopped taking naps - I am not thrilled with this one. She will lay down on her bed but will never sleep. I think in the past week, she has taken one nap and that was in the car on the way home from Springfield. She is not too bad in the evenings, but still would love to see her take a nap.
Loves the outdoors and loves her family and I can't believe how grown up she is getting.



Baby Boy:

Growing right on schedule and as healthy as can be.
Every bit active in my belly right now, I think he is swimming laps in there as his daddy was a swimmer.
On saturday, I will be 28 weeks. Which means I am in my third trimester!! Which also means, complications can start at anytime. I started around 32-33 weeks with Kaylee so maybe will hold out a little while longer. I am actually ok with developing the cholestasis, only for the fact that I will deliver around Dec. 6th instead of waiting until Christmas. According to my doctor, I will not make it to Christmas and will develop the complication. As long as baby boy stays ok, I am good delivering early. I am not a good pregnant person:)
Almost has a name. Please, someone, convince Brian to make a decision:)
We know his middle name will be named after my dad. I remember as a kid, I used to get up early on saturdays and in the summers. I would meet my dad in the garage (it always seemed to need a good cleaning) and we would hang out. He would even wait for me to get up
(which was by 7a.m, I know geek) before he would run errands. I remember spending most of the morning with him. It means a lot that our son will be named after him.
Can't wait to meet this little man and see his daddy with him.

Just wanted to give a quick update on how the little ones are doing!!

Reconsider

You may want to reconsider me watching your son after you see this photo:

(Notice the bow on the top of his head, necklaces, and bracelets).

He actually had on a lot more but by the time I could find the camera this is what I found.
It is raining, they are cooped up inside, and I threw all of these clothes at them to see what they would come up with. They told me they were dancing, and kissing. I told them to stick to dancing:) They had parades, dances, and much more. It was pure joy for about an hour.

Potty Training - take 2

I know that I previously posted on potty training and said that things were going great and I was so proud of her. It was and I was definitely proud of her. Then she decided she didn't want to tell us she had to go anymore. She decided she didn't want to use the potty anymore. She could care less if she went in her underwear anymore.

So now where are we? Square one:( We have to start all over again I guess. Find a new strategy and devote as much time as needed on it. Maybe I quit too early with the rewards last time and so she lost interest too early. I am heading to my sisters house for part of the week and so decided we will take #2 starting next week. Need to prepare and find some other incentives besides just stickers. I think I may try skittles since she does like those and I will not get into them as much as I figure I would if we used M & Ms:) They are a weakness for me and would not last for an incentive too long!!

She knows when she is going and so I think we are good to try again. We will see if this time it works, and if mom can stick with it for as long as needed.

Our Weekend

My sister texted me after my last post and told me that I was too vague:) Well, sorry, but that is all you get. I can tell you that it has nothing to do with the pregnancy - all is well there.

Here is a recap of our crazy weekend.

Friday night: Picked Brian up from work at 5p.m and grabbed some food. Then we parked at Forest Park for the Balloon glow. We decided to try it without the stroller. Kaylee did great and it was sooo much fun. She rode on Brian's shoulders most of the way to the balloons and walked the rest. We hit some of the boothes for freebies and then saw the balloons light up. We did not take pictures because we were having so much fun as a family we forgot, plus it is dark and hard to get any good ones. We did put glow sticks on Kaylee so it was easier to keep track of her. We left around 8:30p.m thinking she would clunk out in the car, wrong. She was so excited from all the activities that she was wide awake the whole way home and even had a hard time falling asleep when we got her home. She did sleep in alittle on satuday though.

Saturday:

We decided to head to the botanical garden for about an hour. Here is an awesome picture Brian got of Kaylee.

After the Botanical Garden, we headed back to Forest Park for the balloon race. We thought this was a good idea, it turned out to not be the best idea. We thought there were activities all day, but we were wrong. If we do it again next year, we will show up at 3p.m for the skydivers, freebies, and then the launch of the balloons. That is all you need. Brian did manage to take aver 300 pictures so I am not going through all of them. Here is a snapshot of one with some of the balloons taking off.

We ended up being down there until 5:30 and then had to get out with all the traffic. We thought we parked near an exit but it was still 45 minutes before getting out of the park. We were all exhausted. I made a peanut butter sandwhich for Kaylee and sent her to bed since she had no nap. It was still after 7p.m. before she got to bed. She did sleep in until after 7a.m. though.

Sunday:

We headed to Church and then home for pizza and naps. Thinking Kaylee had been exhausted from the business of the past two days and she would clunk out fast, wrong. She again did not take a nap but laid in her room for 1 hour and a half and was as giddy as possible when we let her get up.

We then had to clean up the house and get supper prepared for 6 other people. We were partaking in "dinner for 9" through our Church. We had a blast and even Kaylee had another little girl to play with. Again though, she did not get to bed until 9p.m. and was up at 6:30 this morning, now she is napping though:)

All in all, it was a great weekend and here is a snapshot to show you just how much fun we had:)

We are exhausted now and I am going to take a rest also.

Apple Picking

I am a little behind on my blogging lately and hope to catch up in the next day or too. Sorry, we have been busy around here with things that I hope to be able to share with you on the sooner side but can't right now.

Last sunday, we took Kaylee apple picking with some friends. We packed a picnic lunch, but Kaylee was so excited to go get apples, she could barely eat her lunch:)

Isn't this girl just yummy!!!

I promise to catch you up on a few other things we have been up to. It was a very busy weekend here this weekend and my brain is fried right now. I will post tomorrow if I get a chance.