Princess McKenzie

A neighbor friend gave us a bunch of new princess dresses, shoes, crowns, and other fun accessories.  Since that package was dropped off, my princess McKenzie has literally become Princess McKenzie.  Her favorite outfit is the Belle dress with matching accessories.  We have been everywhere in this dress: Cambrie's school, the gym, Lowe's, the grocery store...you name it.  I love seeing her so dressed up.

Chuck E. Cheese

Last week Cambrie was invited to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.  Since it would have only been McKenzie and I at home for dinner, we crashed the party and stayed to play too.  We ordered pizza, picked up some tokens, and partied with the birthday kids.  The girls hadn't been to Chuck E. Cheese in awhile so they were very glad to be there.  I was just glad to not have to make dinner :)  With their last token they chose to have their picture drawn by one of the games, and it makes me smile so I thought I'd share.

Browsing vs. Blogging

I know I haven't posted anything at all in about two weeks.  I have a reason for that and you can decide if it is valid or not.  Ever since we have found out that this baby is a boy I have been daydreaming about the nursery.  Okay, not simply daydreaming, but absolutely obsessing.  I have been online looking at nursery pictures galore, following blogs, and going to Lowe's looking at paint samples.  I thought I had something figured out, only to change my mind a  week later because I wasn't in love with the idea.  So instead of spending my computer time blogging, I have been browsing.  And in case you are wondering, I have finally come up with an idea that I am absolutely in love with!  Explaining it all in a blog post is too tedious and it would be hard to catch my vision anyway.  Suffice it to say, I am using our time in Nantucket last year as inspiration.  I am using whites, rich navy blues and red accents.  It will be slightly nautical without the lighthouses and sailboats.  I just want it to feel like a home in Nantucket without looking like we stole a room off the beach.  Once we get going on this project (which is going to take me awhile it looks like) I will definitely post pictures.  Now you know where my mind has been!  Can you tell I'm really excited about decorating for this baby? 

It's a...

There are three moments during pregnancy that are true highlights for me: getting that positive result on the pregnancy test, hearing the baby's heartbeat for the first time, and the ultrasound when you get to see the little munchkin for the first time.  I have been waiting very anxiously for this ultrasound.  In Philadelphia they let us have the ultrasound around 16 weeks, so having to wait until 20 weeks has been absolutely torture!  I have been incredibly nervous for this ultrasound.  Not that I really care if this one is a boy or a girl, but it drastically changes our family planning.  For example, if it is a girl that makes three girls in a row...the chances of Jeremy wanting to try for a boy and getting girl number four was a little daunting.  Four teenage daughters all at the same time?  Uh....  But I don't just want three children.  I wasn't ready for this to be my last pregnancy.  However, if it was a boy then it would leave a lot of doors open.  The entire pregnancy Jeremy has been pretty positive that it's a boy.  He's been right the other two times so I had my fingers crossed.  I just didn't want to guess.  I was afraid if I started assuming it was one or the other then I would be disappointed when the time came.  But I have wanted to start dreaming about names and decorating the nursery and picturing our future family picture.  Waiting isn't my favorite thing. 

Jeremy came with me to the ultrasound and the first thing our technician asked was if we wanted to know the gender.  Yes!  Definitely yes!  She then told us she would be doing all of the measurements she needed to do first and then look for the gender towards the end.  I really like making sure that all of the baby's pieces and parts are there and working, it is very reasurring.  But I wanted to get to the end of that appointment.  As it turned out I didn't have to wait long after all.  Just a few minutes into the ultrasound she stumbled upon a very telling piece of anatomy.  Surprise!  It is a boy!  In fact, this little boy wasn't shy at all about his hardware and wanted to make sure we knew he was male, and it creeped into many of the ultrasound pictures.  I was so happy and relieved!  I was all smiles the rest of the appointment. 

Our technician was such a joy to work with.  You can tell that she really loves her job.  She became very excited when she would see a perfect shot of the baby's brain, his ventricle output, or a great aortic arch.  She had a few rough ultrasounds lately and was really happy that we were photographing well.  It was a long appointment since she was having so much fun, but we left with about 30 pictures of our new little guy. 

A lot of friends and family knew that our ultrasound was yesterday and they couldn't wait to hear the news.  We decided to announce it on Skype to our parents at the same time we told our girls.  Since Jeremy had to work late the girls were kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the announcement.  Finally it was the time they had been waiting for.  We pulled up as many family members as we could, then got ready for the big reveal.  Jeremy rigged up a balloon droopping system that would release pink or blue balloons when the girls pulled their strings.  But in the chaos of all the excitement Cambrie pulled her string a little sooner than McKenzie and it was hard to capture the moment with precise photographic precision.  But I hope that everyone who was watching was able to tell that they were blue balloons falling from the sky. 

Now we get to find the perfect blue paint for the nursery and the perfect name...both jobs that are going to require some serious thought.  We are so excited and Jeremy is more than slightly relieved to have another boy in the house! 

Valentines Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  I woke up for my morning workout and was confused when I saw a large shadow hanging in my living room.  I turned on the lights and was shocked to see a giant candy gram.  I couldn't believe that Jeremy whipped that up before he went to bed.  It is made of approximately 100 Reese's peanut butter cup packages.  That candy supply should definitely last me awhile, and the smile stuck with me all day. 

When the girls woke up they had Valentines balloons waiting for them and I made them as pink as a breakfast as possible.  We had pink heart-shaped pancakes, pink juice, red straws, red strawberries, and even made sure we pulled out the pink and purple plates. 

They were very excited to get dressed in their new Valentine's Day clothes, in fact they had been waiting for days to wear them. 

And Cambrie was able to experience making her first Valentine's Day box, and her first Valentine's Day party at school.  I went in with McKenzie to simply drop off some treats, but ended up staying for the entire party.  The girls each decorated a Valentine's bag, ate some goodies, and Cambrie passed out her Valentines.  This year we made little fish bowls with Swedish Fish and tag lines like, "I'm glad we're in the same school." "I saw you and I was hooked." and "You're the cutest fish in the sea."  She loved putting them together and loved giving them out even more. 

When we got home I let the girls go wild with their candy.  Some of the kids in Cambrie's class had extra and so even McKenzie came home with sugar.  It was like a flash-back from Halloween; sugar and sweets everywhere! 

Jeremy and I didn't celebrate our Valentine's Day until the next day when we out to eat at Texas de Brazil.  It is a yummy Brazilian steakhouse and I really enjoyed it.  I had told our babysitter a time we'd be home, and it was a little longer than a typical dinner.  That way I didn't feel rushed and truly savored every bite.  It was a delicious holiday all around!

Speech test

We have always had a hard time understanding McKenzie.  Her speech has developed slower than Cambrie's and I've tried not to compare but it's hard when I still can't understand her at 3 years old.  She can say one or two words clearly, but once she starts stringing them together they become slurred. Mostly she has problems with her beginning sounds; f, l, s, and any two-letter blend.  We finally decided to get her speech tested to see if she qualified for help from the school district.  Our first appointment consisted of testing for all areas of development: gross motor, communication, fine motor, interpersonal, etc...  She scored great on everything except communication.  Today was our second visit and it was specifically for her articulation.  The speech therapist asked her to identify all kinds of pictures and listened for sounds she wasn't saying or replacing by other sounds.  It was nice to know that what I was hearing, is what the therapist was also hearing and that I am not crazy.  Once the test was over we scored her results and found that she scored an 84 on this test, 85-115 being normal.  That places her in the 24th percentile.  Unfortunately in order to qualify for service through Child Find she needed to score in the 70's on the test.  So while her speech is definitely less developed than we had hoped and she didn't qualify for the services we had hoped for, there is a silver lining.  The test allowed me to see exactly where McKenzie stands.  I was able to see where she is struggling, and where she is progressing.  Most of her beginning sounds are not there, like I had suspected.  However, she is able to make those same sounds later in the word.  So while she can't say the "f" in "fish," she can say the "f" in "knife."  This means that it is progressing and her speech is moving in expected patterns.  Now we are just going to watch it and see how she develops.  We will retest her again in approximately nine months.  If she improves, then we really don't have anything to worry about.  If her score remains the same then she will qualify for services.  I was hoping for her to receive help so that I can understand her.  I feel really bad that most of the time I just smile and nod.  It would be nice to know what is so important to her that she takes the effort to tell me.  So while today was slightly disappointing, at least I understand a little bit more about what to expect with her.

Jeremy's 31st

I don't know if it was because it was a Sunday or because 31 doesn't sound as crazy as 30, or 40 years old, but Jeremy's party was fairly low-key this year.  I made him eggs Benedict for breakfast (that was an experience), we went to church, then he came home and napped.  I suppose that was probably one of the best presents he could have received anyway.  For dinner he requested a "Pie" style pizza.  Not having grown up on the Pie, I did what I could to recreate the deliciousness he desired.  It was a good pizza.  Yummy!  After dinner we moved on to cake and presents.  Earlier this week when I was trying to decide what kind of cake to make for him I had asked the girls for their opinions.  Cambrie said that daddy liked football so we should make him a football cake.  McKenzie said we should make him a pink cake.  I decided, "Heck, why not?"  And we made Jeremy a pink football cake.  Jeremy loved it and thought it was a great idea. 

Once we had our fill of the cream cheese frosting he opened his gifts.  Cambrie made him his own Ducky.  Jeremy has named him Frank.  He even slept with it last night.  What a good daddy! 

I got him a new Utah State polo shirt.  He has grown sentimental from being away all these years and Aggie gear always brings a smile to his face.  And that was where the party ended.  Simple yet satisfying.  Happy birthday love.  I am so lucky to have you as a husband and a father to our girls.