Feeding the Ducks

As a family of four our lives get pretty hectic. We have our usual routine during the school week. Usually when the boys get out of school, it's to the kitchen table for homework. Then we all have a snack. Usually there is a movie or the wii before Kale gets home. Then it's the usual routine again. Eating, bathing, teeth-brushing and time for a little play before bed.

Yesterday was different. I had some extra energy for the kids. I was cleaning out our pantry because I had just hit up the grocery store. I found some extra bread that was a week or two old. I didn't want to just throw it away so I decided to take the boys to the park to feed the ducks with all this leftover bread ( regular bread, hot dog buns, and hamburger buns) that we hadn't used last week. This would be fun and it would give me the opportunity to get some pics of the boys.

So we head down to the park. There is a pretty decent number of geese off to the left and a smaller number of ducks off to the right. For the boys sake, I skip the HUGE geese and tell them to go feed the cute little ducks.

So they do and it was a little more than my little man Tyler could handle...

Tyler is excited to feed the ducks

The kids get their bags of bread out ( that little girl is our neighbors kid, Taylor)

The ducks are eating this up! Ducks are at a safe distance...

The kids reaching for more bread trying to satisfy all of these ducks...

Taylor and Colten are having a blast. Tyler gets a little panicky..

I see the fear come across Tyler's face as all the kids start walking backwards. Tyler asked me if the ducks bite? I tell him no they just want to eat the bread. Out of no-where these huge white ducks come along. Colten screams and tells Tyler that the white ducks will chase and bite you. I thought oh no here we go!

Taylor is smart. She starts walking off up the hill after hearing what Colten said about the ducks. I told Tyler that if he is scared to get all the bread out and throw it at the ducks. Then he can go ahead and run to the car.

He didn't listen. Those white ducks got closer....

And closer...

And I think I have had enough of a laugh as the crazy mom that I am..."Run Tyler" I keep yelling. These ducks are relentless! There were too many ducks to satisfy! They all came running toward the kids. Finally my 5 year old listens and heads up the hill. As preggo as I am I can't really run. 

And of course, the Man with the Master plan as usual still feeding the ducks with a smirk on his face. I believe when I was younger my brother did the same things to me. Of course when I saw Tyler crying and Colten still grinning I had to laugh!

Wow. I do not believe Tyler will want to go feed the ducks anytime soon! Poor guy. I felt so bad for him. He finally got over it and we all went and played at the park. 

What a day this turned out to be! 

# 5 Paint the room

Yesterday was great but awful at the same time. We painted Ladybug's room.

When we started out with the paint sample a few months ago, we were told by the clerk at Benjamin Moore, that all paint samples come in an eggshell finish. So, I went in Ladybugs room and painted a corner with the sample to see if we liked the color. We did. We actually loved it so much ( being so neutral) that we decided to get a 5 gallon bucket and use that color throughout the entire upstairs.

I went back to Benjamin Moore and bought the 5 gallon bucket on Saturday. We edged and painted Ladybugs room. The new paint (from the bucket) did not match the sheen from the sample paint. Kale and I were a little agitated. We distinctly remembered the clerk telling us that all sample paint comes in eggshell. Well, that's what we bought the new paint in! 

After scratching our heads for a bit, Kale and I finally decided to go to Sherwin Williams, right down the road, and talk to a clerk there. The clerk said that it was our paint roller. So we bought a new paint roller. 

We painted the entire room including painting over the sample paint. It worked. We were very happy (TIRED) but happy. The room looks great!

Finally, her room is painted. This was a huge task on my "Preparing for Ladybug" list. I am so happy! Now I can start some sewing projects and get this room done before she arrives (hopefully)!

Love,

The tired and exhausted parents to be...

#1 and #2

Tasks Completed!

#1 - Clean room really well. (This includes finding out where I am going to put the computer desk in our home. It is large and takes up a lot of space)

#2 - Shampoo Carpet

Finally I had enough energy to complete 2 more tasks for my Preparing for Ladybug list.

First, we had to break down the desk and get it out of the room. This was a chore in itself! We decided to go ahead and make a guest room/office downstairs. This is where the desk went.

going...

going...

going...

gone.

With the desk out of this room I was able to put all the office stuff downstairs. Then I had to organize all the baby stuff into the upstairs hallways so I could vacuum and shampoo the carpet.

With all of this complete, I have a nice clean empty room and am ready to throw some paint on these walls.

I sort of went a little crazy with the paint sample in the corner of the room :)

I am hoping that sometime tonight Kale and I will be done painting. This is gonna take all the energy I have left for the day! But it is so worth getting this done. I really need to work on her curtains tomorrow.

My Squash - 30 weeks

30 Weeks Pregnant with Ladybug

Only 9 weeks until we meet Miss Ladybug! 

Ladybug Update:

We had a Doctors appointment this morning for Ladybug. 

Her Heart Rate was 134 bpm.

She weighed in at 3 lbs. 5oz. (give or take a few ounces)

And even though we have known the gender, I just wanted to make sure and YES. It is a girl. Yay!

We also got to see her for the first time on 3D ultrasound. It was interesting but I am not a big fan of the 3D for some weird reason. I prefer the regular ultrasound pics. The 3D ones sort of freak me out a little.

It was fun to see her playing around today. Me and Kale were both glued to the screen. She was doing the usual rolling and moving. She doesn't really have a lot of room but she's still just very active. She also had her foot and her hand in the area to see the gender so this took a few times to get a good pic.

Ladybug is very very active! She is always kicking and playing around. She plays with me sometimes. Last night I was feeling her feet roll across my tummy. I would roll my finger across her feet. Then she would roll her feet again. And we went back and forth a few more times. Yes, it might just be coincidence that we were doing this but it was cute. 

Here are some pics of our Ladybug:

While she was having her picture taken, she was opening and closing her mouth. It was funny to see. She was trying to "chomp" already!

Mommy Update:

Weight Gain: 21 pounds. To my surprise. I really have been feeling heavier than I ever have and thought that I had gained more. I guess with 2 months still remaining in this pregnancy there is always room for more weight gain!

My appetite is also back. I went through a phase where I wasn't sleeping at all this last few weeks. I also wasn't eating very much either. Now that I have been able to catch up on some rest, my appetite is back and I've been munching out.

I am currently "all belly" with this pregnancy. With Colten I was "all belly" and with Tyler it was all in my belly, hips and thighs! I was just huge with Tyler. Ladybug's pregnancy is more similar to Coltens as far as my size goes. I went to Motherhood yesterday and bought some fall clothing for the remaining of this pregnancy. To my surprise I went from an XS to a Small. I was thinking I was a lot bigger than this. But I am still all Belly with Laybug. I did get medium jeans because I want to be able to wear these jeans after I have the baby. I didn't want them to be snug around my c-section incision. So I played this one safe. At least I will have a few "after baby" outfits to wear out. I also can't wait until the last month of pregnancy to finally go and buy some "comfy" clothes for the hospital and after I get home. I'm thinking sweats all the way!

Sleep Update:

I'm doing o.k. I did finally get some rest this week. Maybe too much rest but it was so needed. I felt like a lazy bum. I would sleep all night, get up and put kids on bus then go back to bed for a few hours. My days didn't start (almost all week) until around 10 - 11 am. 

I did have trouble sleeping last night big time. I don't know what the deal is! I went to walk from the kitchen into the family room and stopped in my tracks in a lot of pain. The pain was in my hips and pelvic area. It really hurt. Kale made me sit down. The pain went away and we played basketball on the wii. Then we went upstairs to go to bed. I started having contractions. I had 6 within 1 hour. I didn't go in to hospital this time. I decided to take a warm bath and count for the next hour.

 Well, I fell asleep. The difference between now and before with these contractions is that there was a little pain in the pelvic area when I did have a contraction. I did get a little scared. So did Kale. He got very serious and told me to call a house cleaning lady and start having her clean the house. He says," I'm putting you on bed rest." It wasn't funny but the way he was acting was totally cute. He is such a good daddy for acting that way. I appreciate Kale when he goes from being a total goofball to serious when it matters. There are times that we both don't exactly pay attention to each other sometimes but when it really matters, Kale is always all ears and firm with the family. I like that balance with him.

We talked to the Doctor about what happened last night and she said that since I am carrying so low into my pelvic cavity that it's normal to experience this. Especially where I am with the pregnancy. They are Braxton Hicks of course. They always have been. She said that these things will not put me into actual labor. Just keep doing what I am doing and make sure to count if they start again.

I do have the fear right now that I am just going to be really tired for the remaining of this pregnancy. I feel as if I am just not able to get motivated. I haven't really been doing a whole lot of extra things around the house lately. Just the daily maintenance when it comes to the usual housework and cooking supper. I am getting nervous that if my energy level doesn't get any better that I won't be able to finish the few things I have left for Ladybugs room. This will make me very sad. But I guess as long as it gets done eventually that things will be o.k. The necessities are all we are worried about at this point. 

My face has also stayed unusually clear throughout this pregnancy. I had some acne issues with Colten's pregnancy. Totally embarrassing but I was so young that it could have just been normal for my age. Tylers wasn't so bad either. With this pregnancy I had a few breakouts when I first got pregnant but also used cheap walmart cleanser. I have continued to use the clinique line and have been very pleased with the results. I never break out. It's pricey but worth it. 

Daddy Update:

Kale is doing well. He continues to be supportive with me during this pregnancy. He has learned my ups and downs. 

He is definitely pleasing me along the lines of accepting that every single day I am going to be counting down this pregnancy. I understand that I am the one pregnant and for him, I think his "moment" will come when he hears her first cry. And it's o.k. that he jokes with me. Not too long ago I had mentioned that I was only 3 months away from meeting her. He then would turn around and say, "3 months and 2 weeks." It was so annoying at first obviously because any time that I can skim off the top in my mind sounds good. I'm the one who is pregnant. So we did this for a while. I would get really mad! Even if I was just a few days off he would remind me that it was actually 2 months and then he would say it. GRRR

So last night I had said to him ,"Oh my goodness. We are only 2 months out from having her!" He chuckled a little and said, " 2 months and 1 week." I started laughing because there is humor there to be recognized. Now that we are closer to our due date than ever before, I think it's cute. 

And some more pics of the preggo. Kale thought he would be funny and snap pics of me getting ready for our Doctors appointment...

Afterall, I usually don't get the chance to make an appearance :)

I was actually in a fantastic mood and felt great. I feel beautiful during this pregnancy and my body has treated me well (besides being overly tired).

TADA! Ladybug's Crib

(So, I had to put out the last two posts (in order) before I could post this one. )

Finally, September 10, 2011- Ladybugs Crib goes up!

I was too excited the day we got her crib in. It actually arrived at babies-r-us the day before my birthday and was available for pick up the day of my birthday. I got lots of great gifts for my brithday but this was the ultimate. Being the pregnant one who wants everything in place asap, this was the most exciting part of my day. Kale was tired after running around with me all day. I know the grandparents were tired after running around with the kids all day too. So everyone pitching in and putting this crib together was great. I really appreciate it!



Well, here it is ... Ladybug's first bed

TADA!!!

Proud daddy to be!

 We all helped in one way or another but  I was of course the lazy preggo who stood/sat around taking  pictures.

Visit From Tache and Papa

Tache and Papa came to visit about 3 weeks ago. I am so behind on posts!

September 10, 2011

It was nice having Tache and Papa come visit. They came in the evening before my birthday. They offered to take care of boys so Kale could take me out for my birthday. We had errands to run the next morning. We went and picked up Ladybugs crib and Kale's glasses. We actually ran into them at Walmart. We were in the vision center and they were buying the boys stuff. The boys actually didn't really want anything to do with us. After all, they were being spoiled by more grandparents!

So while Kale and I ran errands, Tache and Papa drove the boys around town picking out toys. Colten got a spy watch and Tyler got a gun that makes lots of noise (of course).

Then we all met back at the house. The boys were snuggled up with the grandparents. Colten took a liking to Papa and little Tyler was all over Tache. It was fun to see them "pick" a favorite not that anyone is mentioning favorites or anything :)

Late that night while Kale and I went out for my birthday date, Tache and Papa took the boys to the Imax theatre. They went and watched smurfs. Tache said it was a cute movie. Papa said that Tyler went to fill up his drink and forgot to take the lid off so Mountain Dew spewed everywhere. What a night with a 5 and 9 year old.

They ate up the attention and got practically everything little boys want when they go to the movies!

It was very nice seeing the grandparents and having them around. Wish they could have stayed longer but there is always next time!

I didn't get the chance to get many pictures because we were all running around all day long BUT here are a few:

Tache and Tyler

Papa and Colten

I was happy to celebrate my birthday and having the grandparents in town. It was fun. I also got something from Tache that was very special. We "nicknamed" our daughter Ladybug until she is born. Well Tache found this clipping from the newspaper and brought it to me. 

Very Sweet! This will go in Ladybugs baby book.

Mrs. Preggo on her birthday #29 

This pic is so blurry :(

There is actually a story behind this one! So Kale and I get through with our dinner date. I decided I wanted to go to the mall and find some more maternity clothes. Well, I am tired and full. So this didn't exactly work out for me that well. But Kale had fun. We were walking out of Macy's to leave and he sees this hat. He is as bad as a child! He puts the hat on. Then he checks the price tag and says,"seriously, who pays $30.00 for a chicken hat?" I laughed and told him to take it off. He then decides he is going to close in on my face very slowly and then he does the cockadoodledoo all up in my face! It was so funny that I literally almost peed my pants! I was so embarrassed! Kale!!

More to Come

Love,

The Shank Family

Visit from Grandma Weycker

Once again, I have saved posts that I have taken way too long to get on our blog! It's been a month but Nana Weycker came for a visit in August. 

Nana and I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned! That's basically all me and Nana did while she was here. Oh we did a little shopping too.

Most of Nana's time here was spent with the boys. It was nice getting that little break.

They did all sorts of things from playing at the park, riding scooters, riding bikes, mending bumps and scrapes, cooking, artwork, and much more! They even went and watched a 3D movie at the Imax theatre.

The boys were absolutely spoiled the entire time she was here.

Nana also did a craw fish boil which Kale has never eaten craw fish before. I steered clear of eating the craw fish (because of the pregnancy) but it looked so good!

She cooked almost every night actually. If theres one person you will never be hungry around, it's Nana Weycker!

Some pics from that week:

Nana and Colten learning how to draw

Nana Weycker and the boys

Nana and the preggo

Nana starting her baby blanket for Ladybug

This blanket is definitely something I can't wait to see finished. She will crochet the entire blankey! I got to choose the colors of course. So adorable. I have received a few blankets from our family for Ladybug and am thinking I might have them tagged. The tag will be attached to each blanket with 

To Ladybug

From: who it's from

and the date it was given to her

I think this will add the final touch. And I know just the girl who can make these personalized tags! 

Despite the fact that Nana and the preggo bumped heads a few times (which was all me and my hormones!), it was fun having her here. We all look forward to seeing Nana Weycker again when Ladybug makes her appearance into our world!

Running on Empty

This preggo is tired! I am so tired! I love the fact that I am pregnant and bringing a new little one into this world but...This is getting hard!

I broke down a started crying the other day. Poor me right? My back was killing me, I haven't slept in 3 nights, and it's just really really hard right now. I stood at the side of my bed, threw my face into my pillow while standing up, and just started crying to Kale! He stated a question and I really could have smothered him with his own pillow! He looks at me in this serious like face and asks, "Guess the fun part is over huh?" I wasn't trying to be a smarty pants but I just dried up my tears and said, "Ya think?"

The last 3 nights in a row I have been up until at least 3am. I have been getting severe leg cramps. I am up at least twice a night in a hot bath trying to soothe my legs. It helped for the first two nights but last night was the worst! I finally got online and did a search for leg cramps during pregnancy. Alas, google is my hero! I was told to wrap a heating pad around my calves and let the heat do the work. I fell asleep wrapped in a heating pad. Wow. The highlight of my 29th week of pregnancy. Black, swollen, tired eyes. It was 7:45am when I woke up this morning. The kids missed the school bus. I had to rush around and grab them breakfast, Tyler's meds, clothes, and just as I was pulling out of the driveway Tyler confesses that he forgot to brush his teeth. So back in the house with mr. stinky. Then off to school. I went back to sleep when I got home and slept until 11:30 this morning. I have absolutely NO energy.

I am hoping after I see my Doctor this Friday, she can help me do something about these leg cramps. I really need to sleep! The tossing, turning, throwing pillows around, stealing Kale's pillow while he sleeps (yes, I figured that out of all the pillows on our bed Kale's must be the most comfortable - after all he has NO problems falling asleep).

I hope my nights get better. I hope I start getting some sleep soon. We have so much going on with the boys bedroom , the guest bedroom , and Ladybugs room - I can't spare any more time!

Kale was saying goodnight to Ladybug last night and these were his words, " Ladybug, now you go to sleep so that momma can get some sleep tonight" Sweet but she already doesn't listen. :)

This is such a complaining post but for my memories sake it was a must.

We don't have much more time left in this pregnancy. If I can just make it through the next 10 weeks then it's on with the up all night with the baby.

Yay!

Park Play

The boys were restless today! They were in need of getting out of the house. In between all of the projects Kale and I have had going on lately, it was time to take a moment and get the energy out of the kids!!

Needless to say it's almost 9pm and they still have loads of energy!