Just Another Day in Paradise

How about another?

2012-01-18T10:12:00.000-08:00

Another wrap makeover?

Ok...why not!:)

Before....

I couldn't tell much from 45 minutes later....BUT she took another one when she got home....so this would have been about 4 hours later.....BIG difference!

Let's do some side shots.......

Before.....

AFTER! 45 minutes later!

The good news....she'll see progressive results over the next 72 hours the more and more the toxins are flushed outta her system!! Who WOULDN'T wanna see results this fast?! Comment or Inbox me on facebook for more details or questions:)

The Very 1st ItWorks Wrap Makeover!

2012-01-14T15:26:00.000-08:00

Ok friends....prepare to be amazed:) I wrapped 2 lovely ladies today and (with their permission) wanted to share with you their before/after pictures! Of couse, they're going to remain nameless, but I wanted to give you an ACTUAL visual of just what 45 minutes can do by being wrapped!

The 1st lady lost 2 inches total from her midesection! The beautiful part? It's a progressive toxin loss over the next 72 hours so she'll most likely lose some more! What else can do that in 45 MINUTES?!

Before.....

AFTER!

Seriously take a look around her belly button and how much tighter it looks, as well as the improvement from her surgical scar.

And my next gal, lost 2 1/2 inches total in her midsection!

This is before....

And AFTER! Amazing right?! Bye bye, baby belly:)

Once again, she'll see even more progressive results in the next 72 hours! The best way to see these results really take affect is by drinking plenty of water, that way you're literally flushing the toxins out of your system while the product does it's work!

Hope you like seeing what this stuff actually does....it really does amaze me. As one client said, she visualized laying down all slathered up for 45 minutes without being able to move--totally not the case here! You have a cloth laid over your stomach, or whichever area you choose to have wrapped, then we seran wrap you tight so it stays in place, and you're free to move about with your clothes on and still be completely comfortable:) It's pretty great!

So there ya go, now you definitely need to make sure you make it to my next couple parties, right?;) Tuesday night will be here before we know it! Can't make it? That's ok....come Wed. the 25th and you won't regret you made the decision!

FYI: Dudes, need an idea for your wife or significant other for Valentine's Day? (Or any special day for that matter:-)) Treat her to a wrap! It's like a mega cheaper version than the spa;) And she still walks away feeling great!

Little Lady's 1st Haircut.....

2012-01-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

The time had come for my baby girl to finally get her baby hairs trimmed away! It was looking quite homely looking lately:)....so glad we got it done! Thanks Brooke:)

Before.....

Before-Back view....was sporting some shagginess-turning mullet!

Brooke doing her magic:) It was nice to have a kid that didn't scream through their entire haircut this tme ( cough...Kahler!...cough) May didn't seem to mind it, even though the middle pic looks like she's a bit pouty;) She did a great job!

ALL DONE! Nice aiming by mommy, I know! Hey it was hard holding her and taking a quick picture at the same time!

And how cool is this?! She got a little certificate with her baby hair in it:) Great keepsake for her book!

A couple AFTER pictures....front, side and back. She's a moving target these days so pictures are not easy! ha ha! But it looks SO much nicer and hopefully will grow out really well too!

And of course needed a Mommy and May picture....also not so easy!!

But we finally got one!:)

Can't believe my baby is going to be a year and a half in one week! Wow!

Hello 2012!

2012-01-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

Good golly it's been a month since I've been on here!

Pretty much explains how our holidays went...but it was a good one! I was actually really sad to see Christmas come and go so quickly, but we thoroughly enjoyed this season celebrating.

But Happy 2012! I'll tune you in quickly on how we finished out the rest of 2011:)

Our annual Christmas picture:)

Isaac recieved a pretty amazing Christmas gift this year. He was "anonomously" donated an I-pad. We were at a loss for words at the generosity of this gift to help Isaac and his communication skills. Isaac gave his daddy and I one amazing gift as well. He actually went on stage at ths year's Christmas program (which he has never done before...it's always been too much for him). As he comfortably went up there I watched through tears as he jumped and clapped to the music. It was amazing.

My 2 big boys loving to sleep together lately. Visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads on Christmas Eve:)

My sweet girl on Christmas Day. When did she get so big?:(

We rang in the new year starting out with dinner at Hana Yori's with our wonderful friends.....YUM! Afterwards we stopped over at the Byng's to play games and watch the ball drop.

At the Byng's...CHEERS to 2012!!

That night was so much fun for us...relaxing with friends and no kids:) We played a hilarious game, Quelf. It's so worth getting if you haven't heard of it! Oh and we can't forget about the pyramids...Ginger, where are those pictures?! LOL!

Christmas break was somewhat enjoyable. I ended up working at a vet I've filled in for in the past to make a little extra cash, so that was nice. Brock and I literally switched roles as he took on being a stay-at-home dad while I worked:) We rewarded ourselves with 2 date nights over those 2 weeks:)

I must admit I was actually ready for school to get back into our routine again. I really think Isaac was missing preschool:) So now we can re-focus and get things rolling again after a crazy few weeks!

A couple new things for 2012 in our family that you'll see on the blog...and very recent new things I might add:)

I just signed up to be a distributor for ItWorks Global. It's all natural products that work to detox your system. All very good for your bod and I'm loving it! In another post I'll talk about it a bit more but you'll get to see a lot of before/after pics of "headless" clients to see how awesome this stuff works!

I'm also booking a few more future brides to do their wedding makeup too! So between Mary Kay and this new business, I'm staying busy:) I also combined the 2 products to make a sweet bridal package deal. So hopefully you'll see more of "my work" coming from that:)

Stay tuned! My little lady gets her 1st haircut tomorrow:( I'll definitely have pictures!

blessed to GIVE.

2011-12-04T12:32:00.001-08:00

Is it December already? Crazy how fast this past month flew, but I am READY for the Holidays. I absolutely love December and the start of the advent month to remind us what Christmas is all about.

A couple weeks ago my church handed out paper ornaments with names/ages of kids to buy a gift for them, and pray for that child as that ornament is put on our tree. I went up to the table and selected a 3 year old boy named Sebastian. I figured that was an easy place to start since I have a 3 yr old boy myself, and know what boys like!

So written on the back of this ornament were 4 things that Sebastian wanted for Christmas.

1. Snowboots-size 8

2. Comforter

3. Movies

4. Toys

I don't know why...but I immediately looked at "comforter" and felt a big place in my heart to get just that for Sebastian for Christmas. If any of my kids needed a comforter to keep them warm at night, you better believe I'm not going to let this little guy go without one too. Things we take for granted.

So last Friday evening I took the day to get my Christmas shopping done and stopped at JoAnn's to find the best fleece blanket to make. I love making tie-blankets, and thought any 3 yr old boy would love a Superman blanket right?:)

I am blessed beyond words to gift this to Sebastian, and wish I could see the look on his face when he gets his comforter for Christmas. I'm blessed I could be put in a position to give to another human being on the best time of the year, and give him something to keep him warm at night.

Why do our own kids need more things? I encourage all of you to take the time to give to a stranger, or a family in need you don't know....just because. I'm promising myself to teach my own kids to do this too...instead of counting each present they get each year.

Remember the reason for the season....and bless someone this Christmas:)

Merry Christmas Sebastian!

newfound anxieties.

2011-11-15T21:26:00.001-08:00

Can't sleep...so I'm working on getting my thoughts outta my brain onto here. It's gonna be deep...but let's see how it goes....

I watched my show Parenthood tonight. Absolutely love it. I make myself stay up for it since it's on from 10-11 at night. Kinda stretchin' it for me to be functional the next day, but tonight is a different story. After watching this particular episode, my mind just would not rest. I discovered a couple newfound anxieties that I haven't acknowledged much until now.

Parenting a teen.....and bullying.

The boy, Max, suffers from Aspberger's, which is a high-functioning form of Autism. The parents decided to mainstream him in a public school this particular grade. He's a junior-higher I believe. Having Aspberger's, he's an absolute genius at math, however has some odd habits and is awkward socially. So, of course, he is made fun of by his so-called friends. Max is oblivious to the fact that this is happening, but the parents see it happening after school right in front of them. So, the mom decides to do something about it and approaches the bully herself. As parents, they feel better about confronting the situation, and the episode goes on from there.

It really got to me. I'm going to be a parent dealing with this situation someday. And I keep asking myself how I will handle it. I can completely picture myself being that "Mama bear" and taking control of it right then and there. I tell ya, it gets my blood boiling just thinking about it.

My problem is, why are there so many darn kids that do it? Why aren't we teaching them as parents to not be mean and not bully others? Why aren't we teaching them why some kids are different than they are?

Just the other week I had to answer questions from a child about Isaac. The conversation simply went like this:

child: "Is Isaac mean at school?"

me: "Why are you asking me that?"

child: "Because he doesn't know how to talk and share."

Me: "Well, that is why he is going to a special school to help him learn how to do those things."

Short and simple conversation with this young child, yet SO MUCH I felt was underlying in these questions. Why do you think Isaac is mean? Do you think kids that don't know how to talk are mean? Do you know my son? Obviously not. And WHY aren't your parents talking to you about this child that you're around so much, yet know so little about his "differences"?

If you're a parent....do me a favor. TEACH them differences. TEACH them that not every kid is like them. Take their blinders off at an EARLY age so they don't hurt another kid by asking them what's wrong with them. TEACH them that not every one is perfect like they think they, themselves are.

Help them to not be that bully. It only takes a couple words.

So as I'm awake tonight I also looked up my devotion for the day to see how it would speak to me...and here's what it said:

The title was "Labels" (how appropriate, right?:))

here's a small excert from it....

Jesus did not create us to wear the labels of this world, even the ones we place on ourselves. Instead, He created us as His “dearly loved children” (Eph. 5:1 NIV).

Labels get in the way of this. They keep us tagged with unhealthy stigmas, emotions and pieces from our past that weigh on us and stifle His intention for our life.

And now I'm speechless. God works in the ways only we can understand, because that says it all right there.

TIIIIIMBERRRRR!!!!!!!

2011-10-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

Nothing like havin' some big 'ole trees chopped down to provide some free entertainment around here!

The lot next door to us is squeezing in a home built by Habitat. So they started the process yesterday by taking these guys down. Not so sure we're going to be thrilled about our new view in a few months when we'll be looking at a wall of another house instead of this=/ Hopefully it's not too bad.

But here's what Kahler got to watch all yesterday morning:)....

1st 2 trees on the left taken away.....

Those 2 on the left also had some branches right over our house so I'm thankful they'll be gone, however they also provided our yard with much-needed shade=/

WHOAH!

Kahler kept looking out and saying "aw mess!!"

It did look like a big mess...but they did a very good job keeping it out of our yard!

and the new view after.

Every time I look out the window now, Kahler thinks another tree is going down! ha!

Knollbrook Farm Outing

2011-10-16T10:01:00.000-07:00

Finally had the opportunity (with everyone being HEALTHY for once) to do a little outing with the corn maze/fall fun thing with the kids. Normally we go to Fashion Farm in Ligonier as a tradition, but missed out on that last weekend. However, Kahler still got to go with Papa, Grandma and the Wogoman cousins....so he got his fill of the fun there!

This year we tried out Knollbrook Farm which is right down the road from us. It's a super fun, spread out area that's kid (and parent) friendly! We had our friends, the Clarks, go along with their 2 kids and had a great time! Weather was definitely feelin fall-ish with the wind, otherwise it would have been perfect!

Isaac on the tractor-bike

Kahler getting his turn on the GIANT slide!

Jenny and Lilly down the slide....Isaac close behind

Tractor-bike Round 2: Brock and Isaac.....VS.....

Graham and Lincoln!!

Me and May in the corn maze!

Hayride time....family pic opportunity:)

The whole crew! Had so much fun with you, Clarks!

and I guess I'll mention that this was our "pretend hayride". We waited...and waited and waited after getting on at 7pm for our ride and no driver showed up...until we were literally deboarding the wagon! But we sat on there and enjoyed it...just no movin'! ha!

Fun little Saturday....glad our kids had a good time:)

It's time for a facelift!.....

2011-10-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

.....on my flower bed:)

FINALLY got around to it and bought myself some cheap-o mums on Monday. And from Walmart out of all places and was super happy with how they looked.

Like the before and after affect??

I'll give it to ya, k?

Here's BEFORE.......

wait for it.......

wait for it........

Ok ya ready??:)

And AFTER!

Ended up mixing things up and did a variety of colors then....

See Mr. Special Ed mum on the lower right? Decided to keep him around and see how I like him next year:)

Got 3 baby ones into 2 pots. Each were $1 so I was happy with that.

Don't you just love a makeover?!:)

Now I just need my cornstalks and pumpkins and we're all set!!

HAPPY FALL!! What a beautiful week for it right?!

Wedding makeup continued....

2011-10-05T06:01:00.000-07:00

Leah's professional pictures by To the Roof Photography are finished! Wanted to share these after seeing just the candid makeup pictures from the first post of her wedding. Thought these photos really captured how beautiful Leah and her ladies looked!

Thanks Leah, for making me so proud of what I love doing! You looked stunning and "showcased" the makeup beautifully!

More of a candid shot, but Leah was still a blushing bride even towards the end of her night!

The Birthday "Surprise"

2011-10-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, I feel like a big disappointer for those just counting down the minutes until our departure to our mystery destination last weekend! I know you were all at the edge of your seats in anticipation!!.....

;)

yes....I know you all are not a bunch of losers either....(most of you!) ha!

As you might have noticed....the cat was out of the bag on Thursday night. Brock was having issues with the overnight arrangements to stay on Saturday as well. He didn't feel comfortable making the call on who we should stay with, so that's when he decided he needed my input.

And spoil his surprise:( boo.

So the big scavenger guessing mystery whatever-you-wanna-call-it wasn't such a big mystery anymore, however he had one very excited wife!

We ended up venturing to the Noblesville area to visit lotsa friends with Kahler and Maylin in tow. Isaac got to stay with the grandparents, so he had a fun-filled weekend as well!

Anyways, we have 5 couples down in that area that live within 15 minutes of each other that we're good friends with. It's crazy how many people we get to see within a short couple days!

Friday night we stayed with Brock's cousin Davie and Jen, then Saturday we spent the day going to my gal pal Andrea's, then my cousin Brandi's, then hit up Josh & Angie's new crib on their moving weekend. That was exciting! Then our last stop was at the Loy's for supper, football, and the first Loy/Maust sleepover! Our boys had a great time together!

On Sunday we headed out the the Children's Museum, which was a great way to top off the weekend for Kahler! Maylin had her share of fun there too:)

Kahler and his new pal, Brayden....playing with the dinosaurs!!

Riding the racecar

BIG choo choo train!!

The kid-zone room....specifically designed for kids 5 and under....it was awesome!

Kahler playing with boats in the water

They even had a little area for kids 2 and under...so Maylin enjoyed that...she's loving herself in the mirror! what a girl:)

My cutie:)

Brock DID manage to get away with one surprise out of the entire weekend. To have me curious he asked me a few days before to "pick a color". He was probably thinking I'd choose something super basic or whatever, but I said "lime green". Yep...that threw him off. His response: "hmm,..that does make this a little more difficult" :)

So.....as we were scrambling around to leave the house on Friday we jumped in the car and what do I find on my seat?!?

A LIME GREEN I-pod shuffle!!

I'm pretty excited. I had yet to own anything with "I-" in front of it....so I'm pumped! Especially the fact that I've wanted one of these to be my new "running buddy" for a long time now! Now it's the fact that I haven't ran in 2 weeks that will be a tad tough to get back into the groove due to Brock's pneumonia episode, followed up by me being sick. We've both come to the conclusion that we both got sick a lot easier when we stopped working out super faithfully ever since our work out buds moved away! (Yes, Angie, if you're reading this I'm blaming YOU!) ha ha! U know I still love ya:)

So yes...beautiful weather ahead this week.... so back into the running game I go!! Now I need some new running tunes...suggestions??:)

One day away.....

2011-09-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Thursday!

First off, wanted to give you all a Maylin update from her lab results, since some are asking.

Both tests came back clear...so no pin worms...nothing yucky goin' on in her insides. That's good!

Her typical late morning post-breakfast place to fall asleep:)

So our next move? I will feel more at ease once we take a little trip to FW to her surgeon. He performed her umbilical surgery when she was 2 weeks old in the NICU. Underneath her cutie belly button is her incision site, and a gathering of cartilage in between. Part of me thinks it could be pulling at her skin, so maybe that's why she does what she does? And another part of me thinks she just does it for a simple soothing sensation. But I do not think she is showing us an Autistic trait. As a baby, she is completely different from Isaac and a lot more "with it"...so we aren't leaning towards that. Which is a great thing!!

Anybody watch the show Parenthood? It's become a new favorite show of mine. I'm intrigued with the family with the boy that has Asperger's. The mother of the boy is pregnant with another baby, and they just had an ultrasound on the last show and decided to know the sex. She was terrified at the thought of having another boy, knowing the chances of having another child with Autism disorder is a lot higher in siblings and boys. When they told her it was a baby girl...the relief on her face was incredible! Pretty sure that hit the spot and watching that moment gave me a piece of mind too. Hey if it's from a TV show...that's ok with me:)

So that's where we're at with that. Thanks to all those that have prayed about Maylin and what we would find out!

And tomorrow.... is the big day for my Mystery Belated Birthday Date/Getaway! I'm very ready! Still no clue as to where we're going...but I'll keep you all clued in as much as I will be on facebook:)

The only things I know? We're taking Kahler and Maylin along...and it's 2 nights instead of 1 night. So I'm clueless! Oh and he said to bring swimsuits....so I'm guessing a hotel room somewhere now. But that's it! How do I pack for something like this?!:) I know we're not going "out out" with having both kids...so that kinda helps.

Sooo....make sure you help me make my random decisions as we're going on facebook tomorrow!

Adios people!

1st Wedding Makeup Post!!

2011-09-24T14:26:00.000-07:00

Lately, my big passion is doing makeup on women for their special occasions: weddings, proms, special dates, etc. I absolutely love it! I've been an Independent Mary Kay consultant for 6 years. I used to be really big into doing all of the parties and all that before kids. Now I just don't have the time to do what I used to. However, I love meeting with women one on one and getting the chance to personally do a look for them, especially for fun occasions.

So last weekend I had the honor of doing my friend, Leah's makeup for her big day...along with all of her bridesmaids including one of my besties:) It was a ton of fun "transforming" these girls into a great look for the day. As they got their hair done I worked on the girls inbetween so we were able to get a couple before and after shots...my favorite!

Here's one of the bridesmaids (and my amazing friend:)), Angie, getting her hair done...and a before picture....

And after! Minus her lip liner....(I got on her for that!:)) She looks awesome!

Working on bridesmaid, Amanda.....

and Amanda after...she wears dark lipstick really great....loved how it turned out!

And onto the bride!! Before....

And after!

All of the ladies....I wish I had pics of her sister (far right) but we didn't get them=/ They all looked great!

And the beautiful bride....you looked amazing, Leah! Thank you for the opportunity to trust me with your look on your wedding day!

Hopefully we'll see some formal wedding shots of Leah in the near future to show off more of her makeup, and see the bridemaids in their chocolate brown dresses. I'll be sure to post them when they do:)

And as always, remember me for your next special occasion! (referrals are great!) I would love to be doing this a lot more often!

Happy Fall??

2011-09-23T13:06:00.000-07:00

Yes....that's what my title is...with a question mark.

Even today on facebook my status is:

"HAPPY 1st DAY OF FALL!"

Really...what's my deal?!

I can't seem to make up my mind right now because I really do LOVE fall! September especially is my favorite month for a few reasons:

1. It's my b-day month:) Hooray!

2. I love football season....just not all the take-away-my-husband time that comes with it.

3. Boots...scarves....sweaters....love fall clothes!

4. Campfires

5. The colors! and it gave me a chance to add some of those pretty colors to my site to vamp it up a little bit for the season....you like?:)

5. The start-up of MOTTT's (Moms of Tots to Teens). A group I finally get to attend EVERY Thursday morning and see some amazing mommies each week. Another plus to being a SAHM too:)

6. Mums! so very perdy.

Ok...so what the heck is my problem, you ask?

Well...the fall season thus far has not been very kind to our family lately. It's officially the first day today and we've already been hit with the sickies. Just a couple weeks ago I was touched with a 24 hr flu bug, then this entire past week the hubs had a small case of the flu, followed up by a good case of pneumonia.

He was home for an entire week. This never happens. And it's football season!

So into our basement he went, cooped up down there like he was in a dungeon. The doc gave him a script to help him out so finally today he's been fever-free for 24 hrs. and things are looking much better for him. Thank the Lord.

Now also today, little Miss Maylin woke up from her nap with a nice little fever goin' on. Lovely. Pretty sure it's not a teething fever with all the germies running around in our house. So I hope this girl doesn't get anything too serious.

My 2 sickies.....

She's so sweet...even when she's not feeling good:(

She does make the cutest little sick person you've ever seen though, right?:)

Due to all the sickness factors, my birthday, which was yesterday, was not a whole lotta fun. This entire week I've been running my hiney off non-stop taking care of not 3, but 4 kids (Brock!) and literally doing EVERYTHING around the house. I definitely started feeling a little run down yesterday with all of that. A couple bright sides of the the day was that I was able to go to MOTTT's in the morning and had my short "me-time" there. Then in the evening one of the football coaches treated us to an humungo pizza for supper. What a life-saver! Then my mom and dad picked up the kiddos in the evening so that Brock and I could just rest and sleep. An entire uninterrupted night of sleep was super nice!

So.... I'm not too bummed out, because I only turned the big 2-9....so not like it was a big milestone. Just the last year in my 20's...so not trying to get too depressed about that fact;)

What I'm REALLY ready for...is next weekend! Wanna know why?? I'm going to include all of you in my Mystery Belated Birthday Date/Getaway! It's gonna be fun...and I have NO idea where we're going! Brock's got something up his sleeve...and even has me making random decisions on this little adventure. You'll be able to catch me on facebook with my random decisions...and can help me vote! Fun right?! so stay tuned for that!

And since this post is dedicated to my love/hate relationship for fall right now....here's my next thing on my to-do/birthday to myself item:

MUMS!

Isn't it so very pretty? I have a little problem tho....this is my ONLY mum that is this big and bloomin' right now. It's kinda my "special ed" mum because he doesn't know what the heck is going on:) So either I need to add more to his little family or do something with him....what should I do? ideas?

Also....need to fill in my bed with some color too. Thought some little mums would do good in towards the front there....and a couple up top next to another itty bitty one. Thoughts on colors? We have a light yellow house so didn't know if the orange like above looked best? Do a variety? Not sure. Input would be lovely!

I'll leave you with an entertaining pic of the week. The boys are kinda in a regressing stage with their potty-training of doing #2 here lately....so I'm constantly swapping one boy for another to sit on the john. It's super fun. Be jealous. But Kahler manages to keep the potty scene interesting! =)

And welcome blog follower #40! Was stuck at 39 for a while there....so 40 is a nice round number...thanks:) let's get this baby up to more round numbers....how bout it?! Just click the "Join this site" button and you can see the new posts when they roll it...and maybe this can get bumped up to 50...maybe 60 followers soon??!:)

Have a great friday all...and a HAPPY FALL! right???

An amazing gift....from an amazing friend.

2011-09-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

Most of you have heard of Scentsy right? They're pretty amazing. Non-burning scented warmers with amazing designs and all sizes and yummy scents to smell up your home...in a good way. Love 'em.

Well this past summer I was looking through a spring/summer catalog and came across this special warmer that was from their Scentsy Family Foundation that contributes to certain causes.

I wanted this one so bad right when I saw it, and what do you know, my dear friend Andrea bought one for me and gifted it to me as an early birthday present!

Love. it.

It's from Autism Speaks and the warmer is called "Piece by Piece". The puzzle piece is used as a universal symbol for Autism. So I absolutely love this warmer!

Here it is when it's glowing and smelling up my house with a Honey Pear Cider scent for fall. Yum!

Isn't it pretty??:)

Thank you Andrea, for your friendship and gifting me with something so amazing and thoughtful to our family! Love you!!

What's on the box:

*Scentsy is dedicated to making a difference in every community it serves by broadening our mission to warm the heart, enliven the senses, and inspire the soul. We created the Scentsy Family Foundation to offer philanthropic support througha combination of scholarships, charitable cause products, and direct donations toward individualefforts and community-based causes.

Twice a year, Scentsy features a special warmer to raise funds for a designated cause or organization. All profits from sales of this warmer will go directly to the beneficiary.

How cool is that?!?

Doctor's orders.....

2011-09-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

This morning I took Kahler and Maylin to their yearly check ups. It was Kahler's 3 year and Maylin's "1 year" (technically 14 months). They had their well-visits where we weighed them and made sure everything's working right...all that good stuff:)

And today my facebook status read:

"Random fact even one year later.....the smell of the foamy hand soap at the doc's/hospitals (since they use the same kind) STILL haunts me to this day. So weird."

And so true. Every since Maylin was in the hospital I cannot stand that smell to this day. I have a sensitive "memory nose" too. I smell something familiar and it takes me back to that time. So I got to endure that lovely scent today when washing my hands to take K-bub potty at the doc's office. =P

Anyways, Kahler weighed a whopping 39 lbs. That boy is my beefcake:)

Miss May weighed 18.8 lbs. She's 10% on the normal weight charts! Her height puts her at 58% on the height charts....so she's my tall skinny string bean!

So everything looked great with both of them, however, I had to address an issue going on with Maylin for quite a few months now. Most of you that have seen her recently know about her "pushing" issues. Whenever she sits on the ground or gets held she arches her back and does this pushing motion over and over. That part has been going on for a while. Then a few weeks ago she broke out down there in what looked like a typical diaper rash. However it didn't subside in a couple days after treated and she was doing her pushing motion even more. So I finally took her into the doc to be seen. Her regular doc was out so she saw the other one in the practice. He ruled out a UTI and thought it was more an allergic reaction. This sort of made sense to me considering I had recently switched her to store-brand diapers instead of Huggies. (Trying to save a buck here!) So ok...an allergic reaction, we went ahead and treated her with steroids and anti-itch cream. Got rid of the itching, and rash going on, but she STILL was doing her pushing motion.

So...fast forward to today and I addressed the issue with her doctor that she always sees. After I told him the ongoing occurrences, he wanted to say two things:

1. "Well, want I almost want it to be are pin-worms."

(*sidenote: this will be a little TMI to explain and kinda groddie....if you want to skip this reading material...go ahead;)

Ok...so my quick education session on pin worms is that they come out at night only. Where do they come out? Well basically out the tail end. Lovely, I know. They are caused by kids that like to play in dirt....sand boxes....mud pits....or just dirty farm kids.

Ok so really Maylin didn't really do any of the above this summer. However, they can be transferred as easily as her hand touching the ground and it going in her mouth. Yuck. So how do we know it's pin worms?

Doc told me to try a little procedure tonight. With scotch tape. Yep.

I am supposed to open up her diaper (it has to be night time when I do this. Which I'm thinking...it's always dark in a diaper, so does it really matter??) Anyways....when I open her diaper I'm supposed to take this piece of scotch tape to her rectal area. Once it's applied I'm to remove it like a bandaid. She's gonna looove that. =/

THEN...after you do that and calm down your baby from a bloody screaming session from ripping the tape from her behind....I need to examine the tape under a light and check for lint-like particles on the tape. THOSE, my friends, are supposed to be pin worms.

Ok, so that's scenario #1. Honestly I'm hoping for scenario #1 since it can easily be treated and rid of. Hoping that the scooting/pushing discomfort will go away.

Scenario #2

Doc says, "Well, we have to keep in the back of our heads that since she has an older brother with Autism that this could be a characteristic/habit linked to that."

Um.....ok. After the hit-with-a-ton-of-bricks feeling, I understood what he was talking about.

Apparently kids with siblings with Autism, also have an increased chance of having it too. Not a lovely statistic either, but it's something all families face when they have another child, once having one already with the disorder. What Maylin has going for her is that she's a girl, and luckily it's less-likely to occur in females...so that's a plus.

However, if it's a habit she's showing us already, I'm praying for pin worms. Probably the strangest thing I've ever prayed for in my life. Definitely an abrupt change of mood in this post....but with a realization from having 1 child, to 2 children with Autism, would be a never-ending nightmare.

So please....pray for pinworms or something else besides the latter!

3 Years.....

2011-09-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

This has seemed to become a tradition for me to do a photo timeline for my kids when they turn, once again, another year older. I actually love doing these posts. It's so fun for me to look back on how much they've changed....and how they keep their "look" about them, even as a newborn.

So here's my middle bebe....in 3 short years.

Newborn.....

The day we became a family of 4!

1 day old (of course with the Skins gear thanks to Daddy:))

1 Week Old

6 Weeks Old

3 Months Old....that boy had his tongue out ALL the time!

Kahler's 1st Christmas

6 Months Old

9 Months Old (I LOVED these pictures!)

1 Year Old....my handsome blue-eyed boy:)

A family pic....always one of my favorites!

15 Months Old

18 Months Old

2 Years Old....We knew we were in trouble here!;)

another 2 yr.....

And 3 Years Old! What a handsome little man you've become K-bub!

Happy 3 years to you!!

Kahler's 3rd Birthday!

2011-09-11T12:46:00.001-07:00

We had a great day this year for Kahler's big day. Kept things simple and threw a little party in the back yard with the family. Even with just the family, our get-togethers are anything BUT small! But it was a great time and everybody enjoyed the cooled off weather and played with tons of balls! That was Kahler's favorite part:)

Everybody came sporting their favorite team too!

Ready to party....gotta play my game of Angry Birds first:)

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"Presents! I got a football!!!"

The bebes of the fam having a bonding time together...Maylin, Bryce & Whit

I love the next 3 pictures....they sum up the fun the kids and parents had at this party! Maylin and Grandma havin' a gigglin' good time:)

We gave the kids bubble wands for their party gift and they went crazy!!

"Haaaappy Birthday to You!!!" Blowin' out his candle....and the bubbles too:)

Happy 3rd Birthday K-bub! We cannot believe you're 3 already! Love you!

Hello weekend!!......

2011-09-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

It's Friday!! It's Friday!!

I think this is the first Friday since football started that I am actually excited for the weekend!

I get to pack my little monsters up this afternoon, take them to my mom-in-laws for the night, then Brock gets them when he's done with the game tonight.

I, on the other hand, get to head south to my favorite getaway spot with my favorite ladies at Purdue! Gonna be a fun night! After this week at home....it's just what I need:)

I wish I would have kept a final tally of how many times I did this throughout the week:

*changed a diaper

*wiped a bottom

*changed underwear

*washed the dirty underwear

*broke up a wrestling match

*hung up clothes on the line (I'm being diligent about this people....trying to save $$ on that dryer not running allll the time!)

*washed the dishes and bottles

*Poured juice or milk into cups (my boys drink juice like a camel does water....A LOT) It's a good thing we dilute it to half juice/half water or we would be buying 8 jugs of juice instead of 4 every 2 weeks. I wish I were kidding!!

*refilled a bowl of cheerios

*Said "do you need to go potty?"

*Said "Close the fridge!!"

*Or "Close the door!!" (Pretty sure my boys were born in the barn)

*Said "May May, get out of my make-up!" The little stink is startin' early....getting into everything in my bathroom drawers. Lovely.

OH there's so many more:)

But I wouldn't trade it for the bazzillion smooches and hugs and giggles I get every day. That (sort of!) makes me forget about all the rest=)

Have a happy Friday and a great weekend!

We're celebrating our middle monster turning the BIG 3 tomorrow!!

Stay tuned!

The nitty-gritty of Potty Training....

2011-09-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

I'd say this is definitely a continuation of the non-glamour part of staying at home with my kids.

Potty training.

I think I've dreaded these words for at least 4 years now.

When I decided to stay home with the kids this year, we knew there would have to be sacrifices made in our everyday household lifestyle. Diapering 3 kids is tremendously expensive and I highly do not recommend it! That was kind of an oops in the family plan;)

So, when school started and our second source of income slowly faded away, I decided to start nailing the potty training issue hard-core....not just with Isaac, but with Kahler too.

Potty training not 1, but TWO kids.

And they're boys.

Not. easy.

Luckily, Isaac caught on really well with needing to go #1. Summer time helped too, as he was found most of the time streaking all over our house, then training him how to go potty that way.

He is currently staying dry all the time, through the night and naps, riding to and from places, and going to preschool and Sunday school. Super happy about that!

Our issue with Isaac is the #2 part. This is an ongoing problem anyways with Isaac as he struggled with it even when he wasn't potty training. So now it's extra hard. He has the problem of clenching and holding it in all the time. So right now we are catching him in the act and making him sit and do it that way. I think he's starting to get the idea.

This is now not just the problem for him, but for his brother too.

How do 2 boys inherit the "I'm going to clench and hold my poop in pose"??

The John has recently become the most popluar room in our house lately. You'll find me in there with one of the boys...sometimes Maylin thinks she needs to join in the party too. Most of the time, after I catch on the the clenchers doing their "pose" I'll swipe them up, rush them to the potty, and I'll sit there with them and almost feel like I'm coaching labor! lol! After a minute or so they lose focus and just start making goofy faces at me and or anything else that entertains them while sitting on the john. Such a fun time! ;)

So now, I'm at the point, especially with Kahler,of wiping just little bits of poop here...making him sit.....catching him again....wiping more.....making him sit.

It's a vicious cycle!...and of course NOT a glamorous job!

And we all know what happens to kids that constantly have to be wiped. His hiney is now suffering a very painful blistering from the non-stop wiping.

It's a fight every single time....and I'm so ready to give up! I'm trying to stay positive and remember he's doing pretty good with going #1, but even that's not very consistent.

Another problem...Kahler is OBSESSED with wearing shorts. All the time. Diaper or no diaper he thinks he HAS to wear them. So not only does he have accidents, but his shorts are constantly being washed with whatever accident he has.

Any suggestions are welcome....especially how to care for a blistering hiney for my soon-to-be- 3 yr old!=/ The A&D and Balmex are not cutting it!

So there you have it....the non-glamour and nitty gritty of potty training.

Tell me something. If you were me? Would you take this job seriously??:)

Pray that I have a good update next time this topic up again!:)

"SAHM-isms"

2011-09-06T06:16:00.000-07:00

What's a SAHM? (pronounced "SAM" ....or you'll sound weird if you say "SA-HM", right?)

Welp....it's my new job title: a Stay-At-Home-Mom, of course:)

Thanks to some gal pals, this is a new quickie way I've learned to say what means a total ton of different occupations.

I'm going to touch up on a couple of topics that I've discovered these past couple weeks of being a full time SAHM. So stay tuned for more topics! While we're at it...tell me some of yours....would love to hear 'em.

Some of you may be thinking, "Linz...been there, done that!" But this is an all new "job world" to me so here we go:).....

Topic #1: It is NOT a glamorous job. At all.

Here's why:

Let's take last Friday for example. On that day, the last time I had done my hair, or my make-up for that matter had been that previous SUNDAY! Almost an entire week.
Those of you that know me?? This is NOT heard of!

Going from a 6 am routine of showering, washing my face, doing my make up, getting dressed in work clothes for the day, drying my hair, straightening my hair, brushing my teeth days are OVER!

My normal, typical look now is my crazy bed-head hair from being washed the night before, pulled up half-way cuz it's not long enough for a ponytail, teeth brushed (thank God!), and comfy shorts/t-shirt is my typical look for the day. Oh and a bare face (and hopefully a washed face.....my skin is probably mad at me=/) If you came to visit me during any hour of the day I look like I've just rolled outta bed probably:)

I know...lovely huh?

And my new showering at night? NEVER have done that before. I just get through the day then have been trying to run at night. So I figure...not going anywhere today? I'll just wait til after I get nasty n sweaty anyways...then I'll shower. Good theory.

I'm trying to look at the pro's of this whole new way-of-life by being "all-nat-ur-al" an entire week. So maybe, just maybe I'll see some benefits like:
*Saving $$ on the make up: If I'm only doing it like 2-3 days a week instead of 7 that's GOTTA help on the wallet right?
*Energy cost of the process of doing my hair everyday (hair dryer....flat iron??) energy savings!!

Maybe I'll have healthier hair from NOT damaging it every day.....maybe it'll grow easier? Then I can actually wear it up?! Then I wouldn't have to go get my hair cut or touched up every 8ish weeks...whoah. The possibilities:) ha!

Side note: I can't remember the last time I've had long hair (my wedding?) And it wasn't even that long. So I'm debating if it's time I try. I've had the same short bob-cut for a while, so maybe it is. We shall see.

*Gonna be talking about more of the non-glamour of a SAHM! I know...there's plenty!
*And let's talk about some money-saving tips u mommies have. I only have a couple....but I hope they're working!
*Potty training talk...oh boy oh boy. (another "been there done that" topic...but it's been quite a doozy in our house!)
*And of course, the PRO's of being a SAHM....also....many on my list!

See you soon:)

Back to School....

2011-08-31T12:05:00.000-07:00

2 Posts in 2 days...I believe this is a new record for a while, people!:)

Anyways, it's a new school year....and this is what I get to see every day at about 12:15 pm.

It makes me smile:)

That boy gets off that bus with a big 'ol grin on his face every time!

(I also check to make sure he has on the same shorts I put him in that day, to see that he had no accidents at school;) And yep...same shorts every time! woo hoo!)

He also waves at Patty his busdriver and says bye bye to her every time she drops him off, and watches the bus until it gets to the stop sign and pulls away.

I am SO glad Isaac is back in his preschool! This year he goes every day from 8:45-11:15. I load up the kiddos every morning at 8:30 to get him to his room on time, then we get home at 9 am and have 3 quiet hours at home. Even though it is awfully quiet for the morning now, I will say, it's pretty nice:) It's also nice I can give more attention to Kahler and Maylin while Isaac is being worked with too! He loves a routine, so this already has made a big difference in how he's been acting even at home in just a few short days.

He's also been potty training and going to school and back has been his first outtings with the training. He's done an awesome job adjusting, so I am thrilled!

Overall, we are happy with the whole back to school time of year, even though it means I am officially a Stay-at-home-momma now!

...which means you need to stay tuned for my new "SAHM-isms" :)

pArTy GIRL!

2011-08-31T07:47:00.000-07:00

I told ya I would get these pictures up;) finally got a hold of 'em.

So for this little lady's big day I chose to do a "Sweet Safari" theme. Turned out really cute!

This is the goodie table....

Instead of going the cake-route and having a crap ton leftover, I decided to venture into the new craze of the cake balls/pops. A girl named Brooke from "The Sweet Life" made them for me. I tell ya, I was NOT disappointed. They were a bit on the pricier side but oh so worth it! The pops in the back you can't see very well in the goodie table picture, but Brooke made a customized animal out of 4 of the pops...really adorable! I wish I could have been the crafty domestic mommy and make them myself, but it's just not my cup of tea...and I'm ok with that;)
We did have a couple leftover which I'm not gonna lie, were amazing when they were refrigerated;)

It was definitely a scorching day for the party, but we were blessed to have our big tree provide shade for the party-goers!

Love this one of daddy holding on tight to his baby girl:)

"Are those all for me?" Maylin was treated to several cute gifts and lotsa stylin' clothes:)

She loved the cards!

After we sang to her....she attempted a try at her birthday cake, then declined=/ My 12 month old....who's technically a 10 month old at this point had yet to venture into people food. So Momma was not surprised with this outcome!

Happy party May May! It was a great time celebrating your 1st year into the world!

Summer Wrap Up.....

2011-08-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

So I really can't believe how awful I am at keeping this thing up...especially during the summer! Who reads this thing anyway??!

Since we're in the back-to-school mode, thought I'd do a quickie summer wrap up of the main happenings in our summer. If you are friends with me on facebook, then you've probably seen these pictures already on my albums there. However, I feel like I need to keep this photo-journal going to look back on when things happened here too! If you haven't done it in a while, I encourage you bloggers to go back to your first blog posts, and read up to where you're at now. It's incredible how much has changed in so little of time!

Anyways, here's what the Maust's have been up to. I can truly say, a lot of this summer has been so fun! A lot different than last summer having to care for a new preemie babe and being cooped up for 3 weeks in the hospital majority of the good part of it!

We celebrated 1 year of Maylin being out the NICU at Parkview North Hospital's NICU reunion in June. This place will remain super special in our hearts. Had a great day revisiting her doctors and nurses. They had all kinds of fun free stuff for the NICU grads and their families for the day, so I'm glad we went!

After the 4th of July Festivities we took a mini-getaway to South Haven MI. the following weekend. Our stay also fell over our 6 year anniversary so that was a great way to celebrate! Only this year we didn't take our kiddos, but our good friends, the Shepards. What an amazing, relaxing time we had! It was so nice not to have a set schedule and just enjoy each other's company. Fun days at the beach all day and dinghy rides, going out to eat in the evenings, and plenty of Kilwin's waffle cones, right Tony?;) We will be doing this again!:)

Kari & I at Captain Lou's

End of July.....if you're from Elkhart County then you know the last week of that summer month revolves around THE FAIR! (well to me it did, and still does!) I should have asked Brock if he was a fair guy before I married him;) JK. He just doesn't share my passion for the fair like I did. It's just how I was raised....going from literally living at the fair the entire week, to only going a couple of evenings out is quite the transition for me!

Anyways, we did a couple nights out there, one being just a date night for Brock and I going to the Trace Adkins concert. LOVE him! He's always been a fav of mine....so I was pretty excited to see him again in concert!

We even slept in the camper one night:) Oh what fun!

For Kid's Day, K-bub and I had a date and I took him on kiddie rides with his cousins

My favorite pic of him and his cousin Brady on the motorcycle rides. He is like Brady's shadow, and probably listens better to him than his own mother!:)

My last fair outting was with my girl, Angie! We had a Ladies Night and went and saw The Band Perry....awesome!!

Beginning of August....my 10 Year Reunion!!

I can't believe I've been out of high school for ten years. wow. I'm sure everyone feels like that when their reunions come around too! I was a class officer so I was pretty much rounding up a committee to help head this thing up. We started meeting like in January and met once a month trying to track people down (thank God for facebook!) sent out invites, figured out a budget, and planned everything down to the last detail. It was a LOT of work! I was so glad when it finally came and when it was over it was like a huge weight off my shoulders.

It ended up being at my parent's pole barn (now my dad's shop), so it worked out perfect to have it there. Turned out to be a great night, but could have done without the hot night. AC was definitely needed!

Turned the work bench into a nice little set-up

We decorated the entire place for only $20. Yep. Used everyone's white Xmas lights, mason jars with tea lights everywhere, and some wildflowers for the tables. It looked great!

We also enjoyed a yummy dinner from Nelson's!

Our MC's for the night....buddies Ryan & Ryan. They were hilarious heading up the night with trivia and prizes for everyone:)

Old friends having a great time!

Love these girls to pieces! A couple missing from the crew here....but when we're all together it's just like it used to be! :)

So that's our summer in a nutshell! One major event missing from this post is baby girls 1st birthday party pictures! That's what I get for not having my own camera right now=/ They're all on my mom's so I need to get them uploaded!

Trying to decide if I want a new camera for my b-day or an I-pod shuffle for running??....hmm...decisions decisions:)

So stay tuned for her party pics!

Also coming up:

*A back to school edition dedicated to Isaac

*Stay-at-home-mommy stuff....what my new everyday life consists of! ;)

Dedicated to the Birthday Girl!

2011-07-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

Dear May May,

One year ago on this day, our family went through what was probably the scariest moment in our lifetime. At this point I had been in the hospital laboring on and off for 5 days starting at 30 weeks and 5 days along. You decided you wanted to see the world a lot earlier than expected. After 2 normal full-term pregnancies with your big bro's, this was definitely an unprepared moment for us. Take the fact that your daddy was at the time in North Carolina for a training conference, imagine the state of panic when I called him letting him know our baby girl was going to come any time now. God had definitely showed us He was in control with his timing and how everything worked out. I had arrived in Ft. Wayne by ambulance and your dad showed up not 10 minutes later into that very room. Amazing. Once labor was stopped a few times throughout the course of those days, it wasn't enough to keep you from doing what you wanted to do. Thank God I was in the hospital when my water broke at 5:00 pm on the dot because a short 17 minutes later....there you were.....

31 Weeks and 1 Day along....

All 3 pounds and 12 ounces of you:)

You were perfect.

I documented this daily journey here: http://www.blogger.com/www.maylinmaust.blogspot.com ,and so glad I did. When I re-read what you went through it all comes back raw with emotion all over again. I am continually amazed at how strong of a baby you were, and what you've become in just one short year.

In honor of your big day, here is a quick photo timeline of your first year.....enjoy:)

Here you are!

6 days old...

at home....almost 1 month old!

2 months....Newborn pics...

Mommy's girl:)

3 Months...

4 months...

5 Months....Your 1st Christmas

Happy Valentine's:)

7 months...

8 Months...

9 months...1st Easter

10 Months...

11 months...your 1st swim!

At the NICU Reunion

Almost 1 year old!

Some fun facts about Lady May at 1 year old.....

*I am guessing you are about 18-19 lbs. by now. At 10 months you were 17.3 lbs so we'll see!
*You are wear a wide-range of 6 month to 12 month clothes! Gestationally, you are a 10 month old, so I'm pretty darn amazed at how fast you caught up so quickly!

*You wear Size 2 in diapers
*You have 2 cute little bottom toofers:) At this point your bro's had a whole mouthful....so you're a late teether to me!
*You LOVE the water! Heck with the kiddie pool, you get ticked if you aren't in the big-kid pool!
*You are sleeping all through the nights for us about 11 hrs....we only hope that keeps going:)
*You nap normally twice a day
*You recently started using a sippy cup
*You are army crawling ALL over...and have learned how to go up to a sit from there.
*You go up on all 4's quite a bit, I think you'll be crawling on all 4's very soon!
*You can pull yourself up to a stand on occasion
*You love your car rides!
*You still love your paci and blankie to sleep with
*You say "da da" and "mum mum" a lot when you want us
*You started waving bye and clapping more
*You love your baby food still...and like everything we give you.
*You haven't had much people food yet, in fact, you weren't stoked about your b-day cake...which was kind of disappointing, but I wasn't surprised!
*You light up whenever Daddy or your brothers come into the room
*You giggle and laugh when they each give you a goodnight kiss before I lay you down in your crib for bed.
*You think Kahler is hilarious! You crack up/belly laugh whenever he makes goofy noises at you.
*You always want Isaac. You always grab at him and love pulling at his hair. He makes you smile:)
*You share a love for movies like your brothers already. You even like the same ones they do. (Like you have a choice?!:)) I think you prefer "Tangled" though!
*I would say you have the widest range of babysitters that really love you. We have trusted you in their care when I went back to work and I don't regret one bit of the people we chose. To this day, many of them love and miss you all the time!
*What we love most...you are the smiliest, happiest baby ever! We are extremely blessed you have been such an easy 3rd baby to complete our family! And that's how it's felt....complete.

So HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY to you, sweet girl! You stole our hearts and blessed our lives from day 1....I cannot wait to see what a beautiful little lady you will grow up to be one day:) We love you to the moon and back!

Love Mommy, Daddy, Isaac &K-bub

(Stay tuned for pics from the big Par-tay!!)

Time for the....SUMMER SWIMSUIT ISSUE!!

2011-05-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

brought to you by......

Our cutie-pa-tootie, Maylin!! =)

(What did you think you would see ME in a bathing suit on my blog?? Get real!)

So we are officially in swimsuit season, and today is Maylin's 1st pool adventure at Mamaw and Papa's!!

She wanted to show you all 3 of her cutie swimmies for the season....

Here we go!

Swimsuit #1:

Her itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini!!

(I'm a sucker for cutie babies in bikinis:)) I think she liked it too!
(And she liked the tags to chew on....we have a teether so we'll deal with it!)

Can't forget the backview! Love the ruffles!

Swimsuit #2

A fashionable floral one-piece with shoulder bows....

A 6-month garage sale buy that I'm hoping she can just wear first before she grows more=/
We will see....:)

And here's the back...super cute!

And last but not least,

Swim suit #3....the floral halter top!

This is a 6-12 month suit that she got last summer as a gift from the Holsopple's! I was hoping she would be big enough to wear it and I think she can!!
She was SO over the swim suite modeling by the time we got to #3...I don't think she has a future in being a swimwear model=/ ha!

...and I love the back!

Cast your vote NOW! Which is your fav?? #1, 2 or 3??=)

Happy swim season;)

Ch...ch...ch....ch...ch....CHANGES.

2011-05-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

So. Yesterday marked an official day of change for our family. After sharing the news with our principal and the kids' daycare teachers, I submitted my resignation letter to my high-up boss lady through the corporation I work for in the area for Emotional Disorders. I have worked 2 1/2 years as a Para at FHS and am looking at 7 more days of full time work in a school.

My new job?

A FULL TIME stay-at-home wife and mom:)

Why the change?

Ever since we have gotten Isaac's official diagnosis, I have been wracking my brain with knowledge on what we can do to make our son better. Through many different resources I hope to use it to my advantage and put Isaac on a gluten-free, casein-free diet (as many of you already know about). This in itself will be a whole new full time job to me! I am NOT a domestic mother (and I've come to accept and be ok with it! ha ha!), so this will also be a huge challenge and adjustment for all of us.

Most of all, my kids are growing up...way.too.fast. I don't want to miss any more fun moments with them. I love the fact that they were in daycares with other kids, and that Maylin had great caretakers while I was working too. I just don't want to miss anymore. Today Isaac celebrated his birthday at daycare and preschool. He came home with an adorable paper crown that he wore at his parties. I would have LOVED to have seen that! (I did get a picture of it at least...thanks Wendy!)

We are praying the expenses of me not working will fall in place. This will be tough. As much as this new diet will be a change, so will the cost of everything for it. We can do nothing but crack down even more to make it work. Like I said, it will be tough!

My Goals?

*Get some long awaited projects done around the house.

*Keep my house a little more manageable and *maybe* more caught up on laundry! ha!

*Cook some really kick-butt meals for my family.

*Start planting a garden

*Have play dates with mommy friends

*Not drive all over the county every day...save on gas $$

*Finally do a garage sale

*Get to attend Mottt's again

*Later down the road....I may even pick up some part time fun jobs when the opportunities present themselves. Like working at the vet, or at my mom's candy store....and even substitute teaching in both Goshen and Fairfield schools. I love being around high school kids, and don't want to miss those connections too.

....Just some things off the top of my head...there are so many more.

Bottom line: the pros are really starting to outweigh the cons. And we're excited:)

Wish us luck on our new journey!=)

4 Years....

2011-05-16T07:09:00.001-07:00

In honor of my 4 yr old, here is a mini photo timeline of our Isaac....

May 16th, 2007 I gave birth to a not-so-tiny baby boy:) After 11 hours of labor and 2 1/2 hours of pushing, our 9 lb. 3 0z. Isaac Anthony entered the world...

Pretty sure out of ALL the baby pictures we took of you, this has always been my favorite. Just napping on daddy's chest and you look like you're snuggled in a cloud:)

You were always a smiley happy baby!

3 months old...in your 1st pair of Nike's:)

Fast-forward to 11 months...I started falling in love with those pretty eyes....and that one brown stripe:)

1 year old!

15 months....

The day you became a big brother.....(16 months)

2 year birthday!

3 years old....

4 YEARS OLD!

And what a handsome boy you have turned out to be!

We love you to the moon and back! Happy 4th birthday Isaac Anthony!

Love Mommy, Daddy, K-bub and May May=)

Always Unique, Totally Interesting, Sometimes Mysterious

2011-05-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

These words sum up our oldest child, Isaac quite well these days. I especially love the ribbon with puzzle pieces incorportated into it. That's our Isaac. He is AMAZING at puzzles these days. Give him any puzzle and he'll stick to it until it's complete.

We had an awakening event occur the other day, but has been a topic in our brains for quite some time now. If you've kept up on Isaac the past couple years, or know him at all, you would know there's something different about our soon-to-be 4 year old.

On April 25th, we sat down with Isaac's special needs pre-school teacher, a speech therapist, and Occupational Therapist, and finally the Autistic consultant. Isaac was evaluated by these therapists and consultantants the previous month, along with a long list of questions filled out by Brock and myself. This was the day we were hearing the results of that evaluation.

After a 2 hr. long meeting, to make a long story short, we heard what we already knew, that Isaac has Autism Spectrum Disorder. (ASD)

As far as where on the spectrum, we do not know until he is a little older. What matters now is what steps we're going to take to be proactive and to help Isaac's needs as much as possible.

The good news: Isaac is eligible to attend his special needs preschool another year, only instead of going twice a week, he will be going 5 days a week. We feel it will help Isaac greatly, and hope we're making the right move. Since we know early it will be to his benefit.

The bad news: That word. Autism. It will follow our son on his paper work, his entire educational career. That's tough to swallow. I hate that our son is stuck with a label at such an early age for the rest of his life. I hate the fact that it will affect his social life.

Will people make fun of him because he's not quite right?

Will girls like him or think he's weird when he's in high school?

Will he be that "weird kid" in class?

Will teachers be annoyed or frustrated with him?

(Just a few of many questions that are now in my head when I think about Isaac's future)

What I'm thankful for: I'm so happy Isaac has a little brother so close to him in age. I think...no I know...that fact will get Isaac through tough times. I pray Kahler and Isaac are best friends and that Isaac can get through his obstacles ahead because he has Kahler there to help him through it.

I'm thankful that Brock and I are in education. I still question whether or not my position at school as an Autistic Para is a good thing....because I see first-hand every day how having an emotional disorder can affect the social life of a highschooler, and how that label affects who that person is as an individual. It's tough. But, Brock and I know what our kid will endure when he gets to those stages in his life.

What better thing to do than to start praying about it now?

Our next move, and big questionmark is whether or not to get him medically tested aside from his educational label. IF we do a medical test, he as an individual would be waivered for any medical needs (other bad part: there is a HUGE waiting list to be on this). At this point, I have no clue what medical benefits he will need at this point. Maybe just more therapy? Medications? (I hope not). We'll do what we have to though.

Bottom line: It's our son, we love him no matter what. WE were made to be his parents for reason. THAT is what is getting Brock and I through this. I'm thankful for my friends that reminded me of that very thing the day we found out. Thank you for loving our son!

We are in for a big journey ahead.

P.S. Just the following day after Isaac's meeting, he woke up the next day with a dry diaper! I took him to the potty, he sat on it, nothing happened. A few seconds later he got up, turned around, lifted the 2 toilet seats and started pottying! As he was doing it he just looked at me and smiled:) Silly boy. It's his personality--he'll do things on his OWN agenda! I should know this by now! ha!

2nd thing: Last weekend Mr. anti-eater of anything strange actually ate 2 pieces of pepparoni pizza! Little Ceasar's pizza out of all kinds! THEN the next day he ate a cheese and supreme pizza from another pizzeria! Crazy kid. Guess he's found a fondness for pizza and realized it's good stuff!

"Because".....

2011-03-15T06:47:00.000-07:00

My sweet husband sent me this email yesterday...and it totally made my day!

Linz,

I don’t have a lot of free time today, mainly because it is a Monday Schedule and we had meetings this morning until 8:40. I think the hour change has a lot to do with it also. I hate Monday’s. I am writing to take a second and tell you how much I love you.

1. I have been sick for over a week now
2. You have gone above and beyond on everything
3. Dishes
4. Laundry
5. Diaper changes
6. Trash Duty
7. Bills
8. Staying updated on Facebook (I thought it was funny he pointed this out:))
9. Getting me Medicine
10 Track Season is in Full Swing
11. You have never once complained (Really? he really must be sick!)
12. You support by asking questions and listening
13. You continue to remind me of things that need to be done because you know I won’t remember
14. You record our favorite shows so that at night we might have some small bonding time to watch tv together ( my favorite shows: Days of our Lives--my guilty pleasure!....American Idol...and the Bachelor!...funny---these are his favorite shows too?!? ;) )
15. You take care of my Little Girl as if she is the most important thing on the face of the Earth (she is) ...yep he's right about that one!

And through all of that (and I know I missed some things)… You Choose to LOVE me!

(Yep...I do! I'm one lucky girl!)

March Madness!!

2011-03-09T08:31:00.000-08:00

Let's start out with some pics that I have yet to share with you all...

My 2 sweet hearts on Valentine's Day (minus Kahler!)

My hunny and I on our way to our belated V-day Dinner @ Olive Garden....
"Hey, are these my new friends?" :)

Squeaky clean!

I couldn't wait til she could wear this onesie...it's a 3-6 month! She's my Surf Chick!!

Isaac being sweet on his baby sis...he's so good with her!

Kahler being sweet on his big bro! They love each other too:)

And now for your "Monthly Maust Update"....=) It's a long one...so sorry for the long post!

HELLO MARCH!...and HELLO spring!! SO excited for spring to officially be here! These couple of warm days are getting me way excited for spring to stay. For good! I'm so looking forward to going on walks while it's still light out, for my tulip bulbs in my flower bed to start sprouting for the first time....and for the kids to finally get to have their daily play outside! Most of all, we're looking forward to busting out the trampoline that the kids got for Christmas. It will make a nice addition to the backyard play! Ready for the windows to be open and for that winter stuffiness to escape! So bring it on!

Life is once again going non-stop, especially with track starting. I'm officially a track widow once again. Brock and the boys started their 1st official practice on Valentine's Day. Nothing like telling the wifey I love you more than his track boys shouting "Happy Valentine's day!!" over Brock's cell phone! (sheesh:)) He tries, right?:) He definitely showed it by sending me flowers to school that day...what a sweetie:)

So, now that that's in full swing, our after-school days consist of me going to get the boys after daycare and waiting for Brock to get home to greet us at 6 pm. It's gotten better, and he's trying to get out of practice no later than 5:30. So it's coming around! He has over 100 kids that tried out this year, so once the numbers dwindle down a little more, hopefully it gets into more of a consistent routine. They had their 1st indoor meet at the Culver Relays and won for the 5th year in a row....great job boys! I'm looking forward to going to a couple of their home meets this season!

As you could see from the above pic of Brock and I, we went on a belated Valentine's Date night to Olive Garden! Nothing like a meal with free gifts cards! (Thanks mom and dad!) I feel like we don't get out much on our own lately on the weekends, so this was a real treat and a nice break from our busy routine!

Winter brought on a couple of new side projects for myself....

Project #1. Trying to get in shape again! I'm really striving to drop a few pounds and just feel better about myself again. I feel like the 3rd baby pounds are not shedding near as fast as the 2nd! So I started a little bit of working out by going to boot camps in October and November, then took a break in Dec. and Jan (which was a no-no!) Then started back up taking Boot Camp again at the women's retreat. I love it when I get to go! I've been going once a week and really enjoy it! On my days off from that I try to fit in P90X Ab Ripper or Jillian's 30 day shred work out. It's just SO hard after school with 3 kids to work it in. I know I can do better! I just can't wait to get outside and start walking/running again when Brock gets home from his practices. I hope that works out in my favor, anyways:)

Project #2. Planning my 10 year class reunion! This is a lot of fun, although a lot of work! I've enjoyed getting in contact with old classmates and planning out our shin-dig, so I hope it's as fun as we're expecting! The meetings have been pretty fun anyways! What did you guys do for your reunions, if you had one? Any advice on what to do/not to do? I would love any unique ideas!!

Kids' Update:

I'll start with Mr. Isaac. He is showing wonderful progress still with pre-school. Even though his school year is coming to an end, he'll still continue to go a couple times this summer and will attend that class again next year. Like I mentioned in my last post, we have his evaluation coming up and yesterday I recieved a form to sign and fill out regarding his upcoming observation with his pre-school teacher, his OT, speech therapist and last the Autistic consultant. Brock and I will both be present at this evaluation, and basically it will overall decide whether Isaac has a "developmental delay" or if he falls on the Autism spectrum. The educational test is a lot like the medical test, so that's why we're choosing this route with the expenses and such.

Recently he's been doing very well with new things like finger painting...which he used to HATE...because of the funny texture. (I remember as a kid I never really enjoyed it either!) So he's shown progress with that. He's really back into liking his cars again, and he ALWAYS has to carry them with him. If I let him, all he would run is race his cars back and forth on my countertop the entire day. That's when we've been interrupting his play so he doesn't get in "the zone". He even tries to take the cars to bed with him at night. He's now undertanding that the cars have to go "night night" and I put them in his dresser drawer to sleep. Not 5 minutes after he wakes up in the morning does he go get his cars out of the drawer! They even go on the car ride to day care every morning, but he knows he has to leave them in the car to to go to day care and church. So it's an improvement:)

Isaac is also reciting his ABC's a lot more fluently. He's even knowing the sounds of all the letters now...which is awesome! I'll say "the A says ____" and he'll say "AH!" "The B says ____" "Buh".....and so on. It's like a little song for each letter's sound. He does it right on cue and is showing his true intelligence! It makes me excited!

Saying things on cue is happening a lot more frequently. We love hearing him sweetly say "Hi" to us when he first sees us, and "bye bye" and "c-ya" when we're leaving somewhere. He even repeated "I wuv you" to me a couple of nights ago. Melted my heart:)

Now for Sir Kahler....

The kid continues to crack us up! As a 2 year old, he's still the most up and down emotional character! He's very demanding with what he wants, yet can make us laugh a second later. He's really into showing off his muscles, growling at himself in the mirror and running around like a crazy man in circles all day long. I get really funny reports from his teacher, Kelsey at daycare. I think she laughs at him all day long! So I'm glad he's so entertaining:)

Our struggle with him has been his sleeping arrangements lately, like I also mentioned in my last post. He INSISTS on sleeping on the couch still. It drives me crazy. We constantly fight him on staying in his room with Isaac, but they keep each other up with Kahler throwing a fit if he has to stay in his firetruck bed. The ONLY solution we found a couple nights ago was to let Isaac and Kahler sleep together in Isaac's bed. Since it's a twin, it fits them both easily in it, and the past 2 nights, they sleep all night! I think they both just love to cuddle anyways, so it must help them sleep. Until we get the new mattresses and frames up for their beds, this will probably be his temporary sleeping situation from now on=/

And last but not least....Miss Maylin!

My little lady is going to be 8 months this month! Can you believe it?! As of right now, she's rolling over and loves to be sitting up (with support or assistance )and is holding her own bottle very well! She's 14.1 lbs, which put her on the weight charts a month ago at 3 %, so I'm hoping that made an increase this time!

I'm still nursing her when I can, but she's starting to get a lot of formula now since I can't fill her up. So we're starting the weining process. I can't believe that either. My last time:( It's a good thing though. I'll enjoy the freedom once it's here I think, but just the detachment itself will be a little sad for me.

Maylin continues to be the sweetest, happy baby ever! She's hardly ever upset unless she's hungry or just wants our undivided attention! Even when she was sick with pnemonia a couple of weeks ago, she was still happy. It was hard to know that she was seriously sick until it got to the point where we could see her having a hard time breathing. The chest x-rays confirmed that pnemonia settled in her lungs after her coughing for 2 weeks straights. Luckily we caught it early, so we just had to do a strong antibiotic to rid it. It worked and now she's happy as a clam!

I'm realizing now, and maybe a little too late, that I need to get her on a better sleeping routine. Especially at night. Since I was nursing her before bed, she was doing really well sleeping through the night. This was going very well until she had gotten sick, and hasn't slept through the night since. I started her on rice cereal finally since she was able to sit in the high chair well enough, thinking that would fill her up. But she still manages to wake up around 2 am every morning=/ So, I'm afraid I'm going to have to start putting her down on her own and maybe cry it out. Kinda scares me honestly, but I need to start somewhere and hope she can comfort herself to go back to sleep. So we'll see where that puts us with the sleeping situation! Wish me luck!

Stay tuned for her 8 month pictures with Darcy! I want to do some fun funky ideas for her, but I feel stumped! Any fun girlie ideas any of you have?

"Monthy Maust Update"....once again:)

2011-02-06T12:58:00.000-08:00

So this seems to be the new trend lately! Just not enough hours in the day to blog! Sorry! After the holidays were over (which was my last post...) we're back in our school routines and the kids being back in daycare. Since I pick up the boys every day now after school, I don't get home til later and have all 3 kids with me right away after school. It's a bit of a change with out that Mommy/Maylin time like we had before! But it's ok....we're making it work. I'm just feeling extra busy these days!

....Did I mention I'm planning my 10 year reunion this summer?? (As if that's not enough, right??) At least I have some awesome help putting this shin-dig together, so it's something to look forward to!

So let's see, what happened in January?? Well over MLK Day we did a mini road trip to Noblesville to stay at Brock's cousin's house. And we took Maylin with us while the g-parent's kept the boys. It was her 1st long car ride (aside from FW trips). But she did awesome! Slept the whole way there and back!

It was such a great time to hang with Brock's cousin, Davie and his wonderful wife, Jen! They are so sweet and such welcoming host's when we come stay with them. The last time we did this was right after we got married 5 years ago...so it was long overdue! They have 3 boys and they just LOVED on Maylin! It was so sweet!

Here's their youngest, Ben, spoiling Maylin. He's in Kindergarten and I cannot believe how much he's grown! Last we saw him he was sitting in a high chair:)

Ben and Max had a friend over too, so they gave her a TON of attention, as you can tell:) Here's Maylin chillin' with the oldest, Quinn. He's a senior this year and is one big guy! We just found out he's going to Ball State next year so that's pretty awesome. Brock's so proud:) Check out the size difference in their hands!!
That evening Jen offered to keep Maylin (for her baby fix:)) while we met up with our good friends the Loy's in Carmel to go out to dinner. We went to Mesh on Mass restaraunt and it was awesome! Had a great time and good conversation! Wish they lived closer!!

The next day we ventured out to many places around Noblesville. First we stopped at the Adams' household to meet their new little sweetie, Clair! She was only 5 days old! She's such a little beauty! Andrea (below) is one of my besties from high school and we were in each other's weddings, so I LOVE this girl to pieces and so excited to see her as a mommy:) She's one of MANY of my gal-pals that are preggers right now...so bring on the baby fever!

After that we stopped to visit Brandi and the VanPutten family! What a great time to see everyone that lived so close in that area! Maylin found out what it was like to be a social butterfly that weekend:)

Let's see...what else. Update on the kiddos: Maylin turned 6 months old on the 18th! 1/2 a year old already. My baby:( She's doing what a 4-5 mo. old babe would do right now, so she just started rolling over too. So crazy she's starting to do more things now! She's also enjoying sitting up like a big girl in her bumbo seat:) I'm horrible at documenting these things. (Guess it doesn't help that my camera took a crap and we only use our cell phone cameras!) Need to fix that!

She also made it on the weight charts this month too! She's 13.2 pounds which puts her at 3%! Yippee!! She's a whopping 49% on the height chart so she's got her bro's genes in her for sure! Volleyball/bball player in our future??:)

Sleeping-wise, she was doing awesome at sleeping through the night, however I just recently started putting her in her crib at night. Ever since that happened she wakes up around 1-2 AM and is WIDE awake! C'MON! So not really sure what to do there. Any suggestions?? I'm wondering if she's ready to start cereal to keep her fuller for longer so she'll sleep better? I dunno! Hope we fix that scenario soon!

The boys are doing great....they're each other's best friends as you can see.....:)

(Still fighting the sleeping situation=/) Dying to get them their mattresses so they'll like their beds more. Kahler really hates his. He ends up on the couch about every night. So I hope that helps!

They've really enjoyed their daycare once again. This time around they're in separate rooms during the day. I think this is good so they aren't constantly picking and beating each other up:) And I kind of think they like seeing each other at the end of the day, so it's a good move!

Isaac is still going to Pre-school twice a week. Still loves it too! I recently had his conference meeting with his teacher and she's recommending our next move is to get him tested for a classroom evaluation for "Developmental Delay" or Autism. It was a rough week and pretty hard to swallow, but once I told her we were thinking Autism might be what he's showing signs of, it pretty much broke the ice for her to show her concern to me with that too. So we'll be doing the "educational test" instead of the medical test. Good thing about this is it's free to see where he stands, but we'll have to decide after the results if we'll want it on paperwork for good or to wait. It's a tough subject but we're doing what we can to get him the help he needs. We also know now that he'll definitely be attending there next school year instead of a regular preschool, so that's a little sad too. But his help is the most important thing right now!

Back to some lighter sides of January.....:)

January also brought us a lot of SNOW!! Kahler LOVES going out and enjoying some sledding!

We also spent a fun evening at the Clarks! Love this pic of my good friend, Jenny and I ready to go spend Mommy time in the hot tub in the falling snow and hot chocolate! A.m.a.z.i.n.g.!! Totally recommend this for relaxation! (Don't forget your hat:))

Have a Happy February! Hope it's not too long til next time!!

Happy Holidays!!

2010-12-30T17:33:00.000-08:00

Time for the "monthly Maust update"....since that's the rate I seem to be going on here lately;)....lets start with the day after Thanksgiving......

This year we got right down to business and put up Christmas decorations. This year we splurged and tried out a real tree for the 1st time! It was fun....and really not to bad of an experience with it. Kind of dislike the falling pine needles, but other than that it wasn't so bad! Will love it when kids are old enough to go get one when they'd actually enjoy it. That'd be pretty fun!

Here's our tree-complete with a crooked trunk and all:) We loved it! It went perfectly in our front windows. (Don't mind the cards...it's Brock's "thing" when he gets Christmas cards to put them on the tree!) The tree now has extra ornaments thanks to the ED teacher I work with, "Shoe". She laughs at me cuz I always tease her about how many things go on her Christmas tree and how bare mine look compare to hers. Guess she wanted me to kick up the tree-decorating a notch by gettin me boxes of ornaments before break! Yay! I was excited:)

Some December happenings:

Maylin turned 5 months on Dec. 18th! Right now she looks like a 3 month old to me, compared to how the boys looked, and what they did. So she's on the right track. This month I didn't get to weigh her in yet (coming Monday). She has been doing awesome and still gaining lots of weight! I'm guessing about 13 lbs. or so by now. So we'll see:)

The boys are doing great. Isaac is continually improving talking and communicating with us and being super sweet. We're happy to enjoy our Christmas break spending more time with him, and are excited for him to start 2nd semester in his preschool again. He's lovin it!

Kahler is starting to go through what we *hope* is an awful phase. I can't explain it other than what a terrible 2 is. I think Isaac kind of skipped the normal "phase" and just was a different kind of "complication", however whatever this is, is just crazy! The kid will one moment be absolutely fine, then just lose it completely. He's super emotional and cries over the most ridiculous things. I've wanted to pull my hair out over this several times. I don't know how Brock does it, because he's up with Kahler pretty much every single night as he just bawls. I don't really know how he can act much worse, so we're praying it's over soon and it can only get better. Right?:) What gets me is he is super good at other places, and around other people...but the moment we get home and it's just us here at home with him, it's like my rotten child comes out! It's madness! Just lots of prayer for patience in our household to get through this!

Let's see, what else....well the Tuesday going into Christmas break we (I mean, Brock) had a procedure done so we no longer have more kids:)...eh hem...enough said! Let's just say there was some funny conversation as Brock was drugged up on Valium before the appointment. The conversations were quite humorous and some that we won't forget, I'm sure:)

Wednesday the 22nd FHS started their Christmas break...finally. It seemed like everyone was on break, except us. Because they were. It gave me exactly 1 day to finish up my Xmas shopping so it was a tad stressful. Before I knew it Christmas was here and gone and it feels like school is coming waaaay too soon.

I think Christmas flew by so fast this year because we went to 5 places (4 different Christmas's) within 3 days.

Christmas Eve morning was at my Grandma Kropf's (mom's side)

Christmas Eve night was at my parent's for our immediate side, with all 10 crazy grandkids together.

(Here's Maylin in her 1st Christmas PJ's!)

And me and my girl at Mom and Dad's on Christmas Eve
And the boys not able to wait up for Santa that night!;)

Christmas Day we went back to my parent's in the morning to open stockings and eat breakfast. Maylin wore her cute Christmas onsie that stated "Good things come in small packages"! In this case...so true:) We were certainly blessed that Maylin was able to make it to all the Christmas get-togethers and stay healthy! She got to finally meet family that she had yet to meet, so that was really special too!

We had a lot of fun on Christmas morning waking up as a family of 5 and opening Christmas presents in our house. The boys were more into opening gifts, so that was really enjoyable to watch. One thing we did that was pretty comical was re-wrap some of their favorite things so they'd get super excited when they opened them. In Isaac's case, his favorite Pediasure drink did the trick! ha ha!

Kahler hammed it up sporting his fire truck hat and opening presents. Don't u love the pj's this year? Thanks to Grandma Wogoman! Thought they all looked like elves this year:)

Kahler did a great job opening gifts too at Brock's parent's on Christmas day that evening.

Our last Christmas was on Sun. with Brock's extended Maust side. So that wrapped up the Christmas "trifecta"!

And I'll leave you with my favorite Christmas picture yet! I think this is a keeper for our annual ornament this year! This is the 1st picture I have ever taken of all 3 kids TOGETHER! It was a 1st that Isaac actually showed interest in holding his baby sister, and staying happy about it....so yep, a big breakthrough there=) What a great memory we'll have of that special day.

We are continually blessed by family and friends that helped make our Christmas this year so special. It has definitely been a year we'll never forget. I look back to last summer and cannot believe what a blur that was, and where we're at now. So whether it's been through hardships from Maylin's medical bills, to family struggles, to financial struggles, we're forever grateful and thankful for every day we get through because of the people that have prayed and helped us through tough times.

Here's to a Happy New Year in 2011, and may you be blessed!

50 Free Christmas Cards??!! Oh yeah!!

2010-12-01T14:42:00.000-08:00

So of course I love the holiday season....right? It's absolutely great! One thing I do honestly dread though is the amount of money we "have to" spend on certain things. Gifts....lights...trees....and oh yes, the annual family Christmas card!

Every year I try to find the card I love, and the best pictures of my kiddos and/or our family to put on it. This year is extra special for us, as it will be our first Christmas with our THREE kids! Woo hoo!! So of course, my ideal card had to be one with 4 pictures on it. (One of the fam, and 3 spots for a headshot of the kids.)

So, to ease my pain this year, Shutterfly is gifting 50 FREE Christmas cards to fellow bloggers that spread the word and share about what an amazing company they are! Sweet!....I'm in:)

In the past I've used Shutterfly to create all kinds of fun projects: photo albums, big picture orders, and also have used them for lots of our annual Christmas cards! They even have several other cards for all sorts of occasions: Birthdays, Father's Day, ANY holiday...you name it! There are SO many to choose from! My favorite this year is the "Merry Montage" card that I think will be my pick for the year. The Christmas tree on it matches our picture "theme" as our 2 boys ventured out to a tree farm this year for their individual pictures. So...it's perfect!

This is TOO good of a deal to pass up this season to get your free cards today!

Thank you, Shutterfly!!

Fall Wrap up!

2010-11-25T18:13:00.000-08:00

So the blog has been neglected yet again=/ Been quite the busy season this fall, mainly with battling some illnesses in the household...but of course, it's that time of year.

Here's what we've been up to lately...

Maylin turned 3 months old on Oct. 18th. To me, she didn't really change all that much from her newborn baby look, but weighed in at 8 lbs 11 ounces. (Still not reaching either of her big bros' birthweights!) Crazy!

Here's her 3 mo. pic taken in one of my favorite outfits of hers! LOVE this girl in her browns:)

Onto the end of October.....where we celebrated Halloween a bit differently this year. In past years we have dressed up Isaac one time for his 1st Halloween, taking him in and out of the car to see his g-parents. Also in past years we've passed out candy to trick-or treaters.

Well this year we were invited to a rather large party by our good friends, the Clarks, who were hosting along with 4 other couples. The party was downtown and of course....costume required. I was wracking my brain with an easy, yet clever and cheap idea and just wasn't having much luck. Plus it was hard enough with this whole idea being a stretch for Brock to dress up to:) It's funny because ever since we've been together, we've never dressed up for anything like this...so this was new territory for us!

Finally when I was looking online I came across the Scooby Doo cast costumes and started brainstorming with my friend Kari on places we should hit to get all we needed. After a goodwill and halloween outlet trip, we were pretty set! I must say out get-ups were pretty sweet!

So here's the gang! Too bad we didn't have the "mystery machine" to ride in:)
Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy!!

Yep, I went as Velma:) It was pretty fun not being recongized by people the whole night. I enjoyed it due to the fact I got to play a nerdy red-head:) This guy who was a bouncer for the place came up to me and said, "I always had a crush on Velma....even as a cartoon." Cracked me up!

So sweet costumes, good friends, plus a great band = an awesome time!!

Here's a couple pics of our cuties....
Cutie #3 with her silly smiles....lovin' her coos all the time now!

and Cuties 1 & 2 being cheese-heads. They're so entertaining these days:P

And then Nov. 18th Maylin turned 4 months old! Weighing in at a whopping 10 lbs! Woo hoo....double digits baby! Aside from her smiles and coos, she's doing awesome lifting her head up like a big girl:) Think she'll be catchin' up on those charts in no time!

Here's a couple of her beautiful 4 mo. pics taken by Darcy!

When was she allowed to start getting big behind my back?? Seriously, she's been my baby for so long this just doesn't seem right:(

Right now we are battling decisions with taking our baby girl out of the house. With the weather changing the way it has been and with all the sicknesses going around, it just isn't worth it. Just a couple weeks ago she developed her first cough that started out deep in her chest, which is now a bad rattle. Not good at all. I got to the point of paranoia of it turning into phemonia. But with a lot of TLC she's pulling through it well:) It's just been a rough and stressful point in our lives where one of us is always at the house with her, or someone else comes to watch her while we go somewhere. Some people just don't get the fact that it's risky taking her out the house, like it's a no-brainer. They just don't get it. For some perspective...think of a 4 month old in a 2 month old's body....with an immune system not near as "up to par" as a normal baby at that age. That's her.

I always wish for the moments that I could be the mom that has a normal baby that can freely take her wherever I please. Such as taking her and holding her in church, or grocery trips, or taking her to our parent's houses for get-togethers...anywhere. That's just not the case right now. I can't wait for the day when we can have the normalcy of taking her anywhere.

Anyways, today is Thanksgiving Day and we just put away our fall decorations and busted out the Christmas ones! Bring on the holidays! We have so much to be thankful for this year with so many blessings that have come our way.

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving as well:)

100th Post!

2010-10-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

My first blog post for "Just Another Day in Paradise" was on May 8th, 2008. Wow!

A lot has happened since then, especially when my OLDEST was just days away from turning a year old! Time has flown!!

Anywho...never really told how I decided to name the family blog what it is. Well...I love country music and this familiar song, so appropriately named, "Just Another Day in Paradise" by Phil Vassar, feels like it's describing exactly what my life feels like!

Lyrics go something like this:

The kids screaming, phone ringing
Dog barking at the mailman bringing
That stack of bills - overdue
Good morning baby, how are you?
Got a half hour, quick shower
Take a drink of milk but the milk's gone sour
My funny face makes you laugh
Twist the top on and I put it back
There goes the washing machine
Baby, don't kick it.
I promise I'll fix it
Long about a million other things

Well, it's ok. It's so nice
It's just another day in paradise
Well, there's no place that
I'd rather be
Well, it's two hearts
And one dream
I wouldn't trade it for anything
And I ask the lord every night
For just another day in paradise

Friday, you're late
Guess we'll never make our dinner date
At the restaurant you start to cry
Baby, we'll just improvise
Well, plan B looks like
Dominoes' pizza in the candle light
Then we'll tippy toe to our room
Make a little love that's overdue
But somebody had a bad dream
Mama and daddy
Can meand my teddy
Come in to sleep in between?

Yeah it's ok. It's so nice.
It's just another day in paradise.
Well, there's no place that
I'd rather be
Well, it's two hearts
And one dream
I wouldn't trade it for anything
And I ask the lord every night
For just another day in paradise

Well, it's ok. It's so nice.
It's just another day in paradise.
Well, there's no place that
I'd rather be
Two hearts
And one dream
I wouldn't trade it for anything
And I ask the lord every night
For just another day in paradise

For just another day in paradise
Well, it's the kids screaming. The phone ringing
Just another day
Well, it's Friday. You're late
Oh yeah, it's just another day in paradise

So that's our family theme song....no matter what we go through, it is what it is!

I'll leave with you with a couple October pics so far....I love this season!

Kahler and I had our annual trip to the pumpkin patch in Ligonier. Love that place! We pick out all of our pumpkins...do all the fun little mazes and have a great time! This year was the first time Brock didn't come, since he stayed home with Lady May and the no-napper of the day (Isaac). So next year we'll ALL get to go:)
Picking out his pumpkinHere he is with cousin, Kloie measuring how big they're getting!
Getting ready to run thru the corn maze! We had a great time!

Now for Isaac!
He is doing phenomenal at his pre-school! We are so happy it's going so well! We're already seeing a big improvement in him so that's just awesome. I feel like my frustrations with him have lessened, and are now targeted more towards my terrible 2 year old! (cough*Kahler!*cough) =)
But anyways, we're really proud of our Isaac and cannot wait to see him improve even more!

And last but not least...our baby girl is 12 weeks old on 10-10-10!! She is bright-eyed and healthy and doing great! I weighed her a week ago and she was 7.6 lbs. so I'm sure she's pushin' the 8's by now.
Nowadays she is eating during the day about every 2.5 hrs and eats about 3.5 ounces each time. She's getting to be quite the little piggy. What I'm super excited about is she'll go to bed about 10 and sleep til 2, 2:30 and even 3 am for me! I get so happy when that happens! So she's starting to get her day/nights in order...thank goodness!

Last Monday (the 4th) I officially went back to work so I had to leave my baby girl for my first full day. Talk about a rough morning! It's one thing when your 2 1/2 month old baby actually LOOKS like that size, however Maylin still is sporting the brand new baby look so it's just hard. She still is so little to me but almost 3 months. Just crazy. Luckily she has excellent care-givers coming to watch her at our house during the day so that's been awesome. We made it thru our first week really smoothly, and we're just feeling blessed with how much her babysitters love her already. It's a pretty great feeling=)
(Sorry about the small pic but it came from Brock's phone) but I thought it was cute!=)

Hope u all will stick it out with me thru the next 100 posts:) Happy 10.10.10!!

September Celebrations...

2010-09-24T16:39:00.000-07:00

Sunday Sept. 19th
Kahler's Birthday PARTY!
Had this one at Sunnyside Park on a great day! The weather was perfect!

Kahler had a Toy Story theme this year for b-day #2....

...and DQ ice cream cake= a classic favorite! Yum!

Love this picture of my birthday boy.
(Don't let that innocent face fool ya people!) =)

Thursday evening Papa brought over Kahler's birthday surprise that came in. They give all their grandkids a motorized toy for their 2nd b-days, so this year was Kahler's turn!

He scored a blue Harley motorcycle! He's lovin' it!

Saturday September 18th...we celebrated Maylin's "official" due date! She weighed in at 7 lbs. 2 oz. so I still would have had a smaller babe 3rd time around I think:)
Sunday September 19th she turned 9 weeks old...so that puts things in perspective for ya! She's still so tiny...but growing like a weed to me!

Wed Sept. 22nd I celebrated the big 2-8! I wish I could stay this age forever. 28 sounds pretty good to me:)

And can I just say I LOVE having my bday in September? I get the priveledge of now sharing this month with K-bub, but I've always loved this month with the start of fall and football! What a great month. Good stuff.

So what does a 28 year old do with a newborn babe on her b-day?
Welp, my mom came over in the morning and let me go run errands. I had a few things on my to-do list which included going to FHS to drop off cards, getting my oil changed in the traiblazer (I know...ridiculous!) then eventually making my way to Jules for the 1st time Ever! I thought I could try to find myself a new top of something to spoil myself:)

SO...the morning went fantastic, got in RIGHT away to get the oil changed, which never happens, then had enough time before meeting my mom and Maylin that I went and took some McD's to Brock for lunch. Yep I took HIM lunch on MY b-day. (I'm nice like that:)) And mr. sun DID come out too which made the day even better.

So after I met Mom at the hospital I weighed Maylin then took my little lady shopping with me to Jules. Thanks to a generous gift card from my mom I was able to get a couple fun tops. Super excited about that!

To top off the b-day celebration Brock took me out to Chubby Trout in Elkhart on Thursday night. We've always wanted to eat there so finally took the opportunity. Our friends, the Shepard's came along so it made for a fun evening out! My mom-in-law watched the kids so that was awesome!

Here we are on our way to eat! It was a great night of crab legs and conversation!... Good times=)

Happy September!!

Preschool + Pictures + Birthday + Dedication + Game day= A busy blog post!

2010-09-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

Get ready for some randomness! That's what happens when a lot is scrunched into a week!
Here goes....

PRESCHOOL!
A week ago we sent our big boy to Preschool! Isaac is attending PrarieView Elem. for his REACH preschool. He goes 2x a week so he gets a lot of fun time there:) We're super excited and hope it's the right place to get him ready for "community preschool" next year!

What was a big step for all of us was sending Isaac on a big yellow bus to his school!
He's 3!
I couldn't believe it was actually a big bus...made me sad:(
But at least he liked it! It made it a little easier...

Even still, the picture below makes me sad. Look at his little head in such a big bus!

He is the 1st one on in the mornings and last one off in the afternoons, so it makes for a long day of bus riding. Which is why I'm starting to take him in the mornings now. PICTURES!
Labor Day morning was spent getting alot of pictures taken, by Darcy!
We did some family of 5 pics, Kahler's 2 yr pics, and Maylin's "Newborn" pics. She is 7 weeks old in these so kind of a newborn...at least the size of one!

These are some of my faves...had a TON!

One of the other family pics...my favorite one (along with some others) is on the new Maust family picture spot on the blog:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAHLER!
We have a 2 year old! (Again:))
On Friday September 10th my baby boy turned 2!!
We celebrated his day with a yummy cake and some t-ball in the back yard! It was perfect:)

His party is on Sun. the 19th at the park so we're looking forward to some more fun:)

Thanks for being our silly entertainer of a kid, K-bub! We love u tons!

Flash forward in a couple short years and I'll be watching Isaac and Kahler playing t-ball and little league oh-too-soon! *sigh*

BABY DEDICATION!
Sunday, Sept. 12th

A very special day for our family. We dedicated our baby girl to the Lord at our church! Considering we can't really take Maylin "out", it was special that we took her to her 1st and last service for a while. How I love holding my little baby in church...I miss that!

Maylin, thank you for being a life-changer for our family, and for getting us through the hard times we faced. You are the strongest little fighter ever. May you grow up with Christ at the center of your life, and woman of God. We love you!

Last but not least: GAME DAY!

That's right, the season opener for our favorite team, the Colts!!
We had the cutest cheerleader dressed for the big game...:)

Who would have thought she could fit in a 16" baby doll outfit. For real.

...along with the 2 other big fans!

Here's to a great season, Colts!
GO HORSE!

Well there you have it! One busy random post! =)

To Yell or Not to Yell??

2010-09-02T16:36:00.000-07:00

Brock and I found ourselves in a 1st-time parenting predicament last night during bath time for the boys. Brock came out to talk to me, then went back into the bathroom, where Isaac proceeded to get himself out of the tub before he came back in.

No sooner Kahler came out himself too, sits his hiney down on the little potty (of course after tossing the ring and lid aside)...and pees a fountain onto our bathroom floor!

So....what do you do to the a kid with the "Am I in trouble?" face and yourself being in a "I don't know what the heck to do right now" situation??
Well we don't want him to have any bad vibes with the potty so of course we praised him for being a big boy when he sat on there himself:)

He proceeded to clap for himself once he knew that he did a "good thing", followed by getting up and prancing around in his own puddle of pee. nice.
Good job Kahler....next time we'll practice your aiming techniques!

(What you can't see in this pick is the massive puddle in front of him=/ Made for a nice clean up!)

He cracks me up.

2010-08-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

Not really sure where he got these dance moves.

Don't look at me! lol

I just love that he can make me laugh...like all the time!

Love you K-bub! Enjoy the video!

My hubby's the BIG 3-0!!

2010-07-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I drove on home from Ft. Wayne to spend the day with Brock and the boys. Brock celebrated turning 30 on July 28th!
Here's how we spent our day....

Started off with giving him his gifts. Spoiled him a little this year since I just happen to have easy access to the Ft. Wayne shopping area:) I got him all set for school with a couple of Old Navy shirts....and Season 1 & 2 of his favorite TV show "Lie to Me".
Poor guy has given up that show so I can watch Bachelorette this season since they're on at the same times! What a great husband:) I told him I would buy him those 2 seasons if he let me watched it...he said deal!

Here's him opening his cards from the boys and from me...

Sportin' one of the extra soft T's from O.N. -love those!

THEN...we headed out to his parent's pool with the boys. HE didn't know that I already arranged for friends of our to come swimming with us as kind of a little surprise.

I found it funny that apparently me and the boys weren't fun enough cuz he started to call people once we got there to the pool to invite them himself! HA!
Little did he know some of our friends were standing in the driveway already when he called them. The look on his face was hilarious! I got him good:)

Isaac was very chilled in the pool...:)

Kahler was....being Kahler! He thought the goggles were funny:)

Came in for some good lunch and DQ ice cream cake--YUM!

Good stuff:)...how do u like my son's hair:)

We ended the day getting around...took the boys back home to the sitters...then met up with a few friend at Wings Etc. for his b-day dinner. It was an awesome time! Fun conversation too of course:) I left straight from there to head back to the hospital:( So sad...but I missed my baby girl:( Overall it was an awesome day well spent!

Happy Birthday babe! Thank you for all you do for me and the kids these past couple of weeks. I am amazed at how you take such good care of the boys and still think of me and put me first during this time with Maylin. It's been a life change but you've helped me make it thru the adjustments. Love u so much!! Happy 30th + MANY more!! =)

So...it's been over a MONTH. Oops!!

2010-07-13T20:03:00.000-07:00

Summer has definitely gotten the best of me...but in a good way! I haven't blogged since mid-June so thought it was time for an update on how our summer's been going! It's just going to get crazier so didn't want to dig myself a hole here:) Although if you keep up on facebook with me, then you're not too much in the dark!

(And when your husband looks at your page and says..."you haven't done a post in a while. You need to keep this updated so we don't miss anything." Then yep...I better do it!)

Had just shy of 10 topics to talk about here...so here are the NINE things that have went on this past few weeks.

#1: LANDSCAPING: We finally started digging into our soon-to-be flower bed out front and started marking where we want to put flowers/plants and bushes. It's a lot of fun for me cuz I love flowers...just need more knowledge on the subject I guess.

So far I got my front porch going with a couple potted flowers, ferns and finishing touches. Notice the front where we started digging in....Then we got a call from Brock's cousin who had extra mulch and wanted to know if we wanted it. Um...yeah! Free mulch is good. So here is the bed after with mulch and a couple baby hostas put in. Since then I've had 3 more girls give us free perennials to plant wherever so we have starters! That was awesome!

#2: THUNDERSTORMS/TORNADO's: Ya know, you're typical weather day in Indiana. We had quite the streak of fear of losing power and taking boys down to the basement, trees in the road...trees on houses....it was a mess! Luckily for us our worst part of any of it was losing power from 7:30 pm to the middle of the night. Our neighbors had a mess of trees and everything but we got lucky.
Here's the boys enjoying popscicles in the dark with their flashlights:)

....and we resorted to Brock's laptop to watch movies on since my kids went batty when they couldn't watch a movie. Made for a cute picture though:)

#3 KIDDIE POOL...KIDDIE POOL...did I say KIDDIE POOL??! Besides our boys being little fishies in the big pools, we've used our kiddie pool a TON. SO glad I bought this thing. It's been a lifesaver to keep the boys...(and daddy)...cooled down:)

#4 TOY STORY 3: We took the boys to their 1st movie together... and saw Toy Story 3 of course! Their buddy, Jeni came along and we had a great time! And heck they did pretty okay considering the 20 min. previews...sheesh. #5 A FENCE!! We put in our backyard fence!! Woo hoo!! Definitely a day to celebrate! My life is a little more sane when I take the boys to the backyard now. No more chasing them to the neighbors yard and coralling them back to our property. Nice.

The help we had in one day to put this fence in was insane. So appreciated! We still have some staining, stretching and finishing touches to put on it, but right now, it serves its primary purpose of keeping my boys prisoners:) (See pic below! ha ha!)

#6 VACATION! We took our 1st EVER family vacation to South Haven, MI. L.O.V.E. this town. It's like a fancy Mayberry. If you need somewhere fun to go to where there's a beach and cutie town and cool shops...this is it. It only took us an hour and a half. We've been here a couple times before...but this was a first taking our boys!

Isaac's 1st experience with a beach! He loved the waves right away! He would crack up when the white caps would get to him:) So cute!

Kahler had a ball hurling himself into the water and flopping himself all over in the sand after. What a goof!Love this one. Got both of them in the water with the lighthouses and pirate ship in the background. Yeah, random pirate ships go by in South Haven. Pretty cool huh?

This particular place is pretty special. Not because of the pretty swing and gorgeous flowers, but because 6 years ago on July 16th, 2004...Brock proposed to me right here! It's in the flower garden of a bed and breakfast called Yelton Manor where we stayed back then. Here we are...6 years later...and I'd hafta say things a changed a little:)

At the lookout point with our boys! First (and last) getaway with just the 4 of us!

#7 THE 4th of JULY: After we arrived home from South Haven, we jumped right into celebrating the 4th of July weekend!
Here's all the Wogoman grandkids with their 4th gear on!
(And we're nuts...adding 2 more onto this gang by November!)

After my parent's we went up to Brock's Grandpa's cottage on Fish Lake.

1st boat ride of the summer...
...and 1st time tubing with Daddy!

#8 BABY SHOWER: Had a baby shower thrown by our "track girls"...meaning managers/babysitters. Chelsea, Brittany and their bf's are just awesome when it comes to our boys...so this was pretty special. It was so fun to have a fun evening with our track family:)

Did a lot of swimming!! I call them "rocket water babies" in this one:) lol.

#9 BABY BELLY! And last but not least...the Bell-ey! Yikes this girl is getting B.I.G. This is @ 30 weeks...so 7 1/2 months. 10 more weeks to go. Yep. Not so much more room to grow in there!

And it's pretty bad when your husband looks at you and says..."you're not big anywhere else but THERE! WOW!" He's definitely noticing how big I'm feeling lately.
Things like bending over are getting harder...and sleeping- getting more uncomfortable.
Already starting to see the midwives every 2 weeks now. At my appointment last week she was joking with me that the babies' weights might follow a trend and get smaller as I birth them:) Isaac was 9.3 lbs, Kahler was 8.13 lbs....wouldn't be so nice if she was a 7 pounder??! wow! I wouldn't mind that's for sure:)
My next worry is that I'll be 36 weeks going back to school to work in mid-August. I'm having reoccurring "nightmares" that my water is going to break at school or start labor in front of students or something. Definitely DO NOT want that to happen!

Anywho...will try harder to keep you updated on how the rest of our summer, and this pregnancy, flies by!

SUMMER VACATION!!

2010-06-10T19:46:00.001-07:00

So summer vacation is always a "busy vacation" for us...but when we do have fun time this is normally what we're doing to beat the heat! I love it that the boys love kiddie pools! Less worry for me, when it's just me and them! We finally got them one at our house and they love it.

Here's the boys playing in Grandma and Papa's pool with cousins Brady and Kylie

And a favorite thing of K-bub's...riding the Honda Cub with Daddy...or Papa...or whoever will give him a ride:)

1st time in Papaw and Mamaw's big pool!

All smiles! But still holding on tight to daddy:)

Our little fish:) Isaac is such a good swimmer!! Definitely something he finally excels in:)

Brock loving his boys poolin' it with him!

Memorial Day 2010

Baby bump @ 24 wks...6 months!

Coming up: Our summer project...fencing in our backyard! I'm SO excited! It'll make it so fun for me to feel at ease when I let the boys run loose outside. I'll show ya pics on how it turns out...stay tuned:)

Isaac's 3!!!

2010-05-17T13:26:00.001-07:00

Sun. May 16th, 2010...by baby boy (and oldest:)), Isaac turned THREE! Still can't believe I officially am the mommy of a 3 year old.
It has been a fun, adventurous, yet pretty tough 3 years at times with my boy. He is the most loving kid that's for sure. He's accomplished a lot with the struggles we've had as far as his speech and him catching up with other kids his age. The week before his 3rd bday was bittersweet because his speech and developmental therapists both had their last sessions with him in 1st steps. It was like he completed a year of having a teacher, considering his one therapist has been with him since he was about 14 months old. So it was nice thinking of how far he has come since he started the program, and where he's at now. We have a lot to be proud of right now!

For his big day we celebrated with both sides of the family at our neighborhood park- which is awesome! Between both sides of just family and 1 couple that is friends, there were 17 kids total! It was pure craziness but definitely a great place for the kids to run wild! We were also blessed with a gorgeous day outside considering the unpredictable May weather.

We did a Thomas Train theme. Here's the cake...with of course a new train from us on top:)

Isaac had a BLAST on his day and that was all that mattered!

Getting ready for him to open all his cool gifts....

Pretty sure this was his 1st gift opening occasion that he actually paid attention to what was in his gift bags! ha! If it was a train or car of any sort...he was all over it!

Yep, in the background of this pic is probably a very odd gift for a toddler, but it was mainly for me:) I've been wanting a juicer to make Isaac nutritious drinks since he REFUSES to eat any sort of fruit or vegetable. at all. It's frustrating! So being the mother of the world's pickiest eater, I think this will be a good solution:) I'm excited to get the hang of it! Thanks Mom!

A pic of the 3 of us. Doesn't seem that long ago when it was JUST 3! To think we'll have 2 more munchkins in our family pics soon just is crazy to me:) But a good-crazy!

Happy Birthday Isaac Anthony! We love you so!

"un....twooo....reeee..."

2010-04-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

"....oar...ive...(mm)....even....eigh....nine...TEN!"
These sweet words are from my very one and only....Mr. Isaac!
It's been a fun couple of weeks listening to this kid start his talking!...and counting! Even though his pronouncing isn't right on the money he is one smart cookie. It's like he's known how to say things all along and is just now realizing he can say them. Super exciting:)

We think a lot more progress is on the way. He's starting to just feel better with his "#2's" in better workings now, I guess I could say. It's made him a whole new kid. For about 2 months now he's been on Miralax and it's made him a lot more comfortable we think. So that is a great thing!

Isaac is also turning 3 next month...*sniff*. This means he will be all done with 1st Steps therapy and moving into the STARS speech class once a week starting this summer. We're excited to see how that works for him now too.

**A quick update on Sir Kahler!
He recently turned 19 months on the 10th. Today was his "18 mo." wellness and ear recheck. The poor kid has fought 3 double ear infections in the past few months, so we took him in again today to make sure his last one is completely gone. I'm sensing he's going to be the kid we put tubes in, so we'll see.
Anywho, at his appointment he got weighed and measured.
Let's see here: "Kahler's height is completely off the charts now", said Dr. B. "Being a little over 32 inches, he's pretty much the average height of a 2 1/2 year old". (Holy Moses.) One tall dude.
As for weight, he's now a whole 30 lbs and 14 oz. (92nd percentile). Look at this kid...NOT a porker...just solid! and TALL! ha. How do I get these big kids?! Scares me to think what this baby is going to be like!

**Speaking of:) Here's a little baby news for ya:
I am currently 18 weeks and 2 days. This is going so incredibly fast. But then again, I'm SO excited to find out what this one is! We get to find out on Mon. May 10th if the boys are going to have a baby brother or sister! What do you think??
I've felt exactly the way I felt with the boys so far. The only major difference is a feel like this one is sitting up higher and my belly is feeling harder above my belly button this time around. So hmm...definitely has me curious. I'm having myself convinced this is a girl, even though it freaks the heck out of me! So we'll see:)

**Ok and here's what we've been up to these past couple months!!
Spring is in full swing and so is track season!

The boys love going out to the track with Daddy at practice.
Isaac is getting the hang of the coaching part here:)
"keep going guys!" hee hee...

They thought ab workout was so funny...
Isaac is telling them that they can look like this as he pulls up his shirt to show off his abs:)

And my future coaches making sure none of the boys cheat! They're so good!

A big April happening....EASTER SUNDAY!
Kahler and I got to celebrate at church that morning while Brock and Isaac stayed home to keep the germs away. They were still recouping after a rough weekend unfortunately. They were almost back to normal by the time we headed to my brother's house for the Easter hunt and dinner that afternoon.
Isaac had lots of fun being outside again and getting his energy out!

Kahler really enjoyed the egg hunt! He got to find the yellow and football eggs. Except when he got to a football egg, well...duh you throw it! (What a smartie:))

The triplets being mischevious doing some table dancing for everybody:)

All the kids enjoying a nice meal together. What a great day to celebrate Easter!

Spring Break Week:
1st part of the weekend: not so fun. Especially when between your husband and 2 kids, they've puked a total of 16 times in 3 days:( Oh so sad and pathetic...I hate to rehash the memories of how miserable everyone was around here. SO incredibly thankful I didn't catch any of it!

So what did we do for fun? Well...yard work. Really, that and letting the boys play outside any chance they got while it stayed warm at the beginning of our vacation. Then it turned freeeezing on Thursday and Friday. Luckily I got to fill in at the vet's office for those 2 days. That was good for me but left me with some stir-crazy boys. So finally on Saturday we ventured to good 'ol Shipshewana to the mercantile building. Here the boys enjoyed their first carousel ride!
Isaac LOVED it! So fun to see him laugh like this!

Kahler liked it too...he kept going "ooohhh" when we went up and down. Man, they crack me up!

Finished off with some play time at the Thomas table. Love how this track stays permanetly nailed down...smart!

And no, didn't forget to leave without hitting up some Jo Jo's pretzels! The pregnant woman demanded it this time! ha! I think Kahler liked the balloons more:)

Last weekend we finished up all of our "Easter festivities" at Brock's parent's house for the annual Maust scavenger hunt.
Here we are...once again decked out in our husband/wife teams with our XL t-shirts. We're cool like that--ha!

I won't go into details about who won cuz it turned out to be a floozy of a hunt this year with lots of messed up clues. Brock and I won the actual "race" but got jipped one-short of a clue. Hope next year is more carefully planned:)
That's us after we "thought" we won! :-P What a crock! You can imagine my disappointment...here I am 4 1/2 months preggers busting my tail running all over the property, and we get (pardon) eh hem...screwed! Ok I'll let it go now!

And finished up the afternoon playing on the trampoline which my boys get a kick out of. Brock hanging with Izzi and talking about the hunt with his brother.

That's all for spring for now! Probably more baby news to come soon! Lots going on next month too!!

...and BABY makes FIVE!!

2010-03-22T07:44:00.001-07:00

*Wednesday, February 17th, 2010: Phone call from Brock on the way home, "Ok which tests do you want me to pick up from Walgreens?"

(Flashback to Sun. Feb. 14th-3 days earlier)
About 1-2 weeks prior to that evening I had been feeling completely yucky and tired in the evenings. Nothing sounded good for supper, and I could smell EVERYTHING!
I even vomited at my oh-so-favorite restaraunt, Hana Yori's, after I couldn't handle the soup, salad and veggies, and rice. Once the main course came, that was all it took! (Picture if you will- my main meal, chicken and lobster sitting there in full portions in front of me.) I tried a piece of lobster, seeing if I could manage to eat it. Then discreetly spitting it out in the napkin. If that wasn't enough, stupid me tried the chicken next! Then yep-that went in the napkin too! I had it and made my way to the bathroom discreetly fast! After that I felt much better and got the rest of my food to-go, because stupid me couldn't waste a meal @ Hana Yori's...ever!
To top it off, it was on Valentine's day on a couple's date with our friends, the Clark's. I was in total denial that we were once again pregnant....again! We continued to joke about it on the way home and I kept thinking how bizarre that would be if I was.

(Back to Wednesday evening:)
So Brock took the initiative to make me take a test...cuz he just wanted to know. I was too scared to know!
He gets home and I went and took the test instead of waiting til morning when it supposedly gets a more accurate reading. Well...didn't need any more accuracy than what I got. Within a minute 2 lines popped right up.
"Oh boy...here we go." I thought. No tears, nothing. I was in plain shock I think. Brock, on the other hand, was of course, happy. As always. Of course he's happy, he doesn't have to get blown up to a blimp for the 3rd time in 3 years! He gets to enjoy the end result so lucky him:-P

So our adventure with Baby #3 begins....

I had my 1st OB appointment on Wed. March 10th (which orginially was just a normal annual appt. in the 1st place that I had to change the status to). My midwife, Amy thought that was pretty funny! She checked me and guesstimated I was around 8-9 weeks, but wanted to do an ultrasound to make sure. We couldn't hear a heartbeat either so I thought that would have been about right. That would have put us around mid-October, which I was pretty ok with. By Brock and I's not-so-sure calculations before, we were guessing it'd be around Oct. or even November.

Convenientally, they had an opening for the next morning for the ultrasound. I was anxious to find out more of the due date, so I scheduled it. I went in once again and here is what I saw....

yeah....that baby is a lot bigger than a peanut!! As I'm noticing it's prominent limbs wiggling everywhere, the U.S. tech thought, "oh this baby looks to be about 12-13 weeks."
Say WHAT?! That was a little much to take in, I tell ya. As she did all the measurements to see where we were, the little baby got an accurate stretch reading at 12 weeks and 5 days.

"So your due date will be around Sept. 18th."
Ok....that's A LOT sooner than we anticipated! Less time to mentally prepare, less time to save up money, less time to potty-train our boys, less time til we're officially out-numbered...ok the pressure is on!! We're praying it all works out! Being through the 1st trimester in literally a flash explains why I've wanted to pig out like crazy, and why I haven't been near as tired as I was.
The funny part about the due date: Kahler's due date was 9-18 too and he arrived on the 10th. Huh...gonna have the exact pregnancy timing with this one too.
I'll keep you all posted on how the rest of the 26 weeks go! They're gonna fly is what I'm thinking!
Here are the rest of my favorite pictures....

The arm laying against the head...oh so sweet!

profile shot, head on left to legs on right sticking up in the air

Check out that leg!

Kahler's 18 mo./Brother pics!

2010-03-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

K-bub is 18 months old today! Sunday we had a very nice day outside so Darcy chased my kiddos around the Sunnyside Park playground snapping photos! It was a great idea! I liked how they came out!
He is doing so many funny things right now with him mimicking and imitating! Some of his popular words right now are:
"el-MO"(accentuated on the "MO" part:))
"papa"(and every time I say papa to him he immediately looks outside in our driveway for his truck with his lights!)
"cow"
"moo"
"hi",
"apple"
"choo choo"
"jewoose" (juice)
(I'm sure I'm forgetting some but those are what I hear on a daily basis!)
He is definitely one happy kid!

my favorite blues:)

Is he handsome or what?:)

A typical Kahler pose...

This kid cracks me up!

So does Isaac! They thought sitting in a mini recliner in the middle of a wide open space outside was pretty funny or something:)

He's so big now! :( Can't believe he'll be 3 in 2 months! wow.

My boys....lovin' life

A great pic of them together!

cool.

6 things in twenty-ten...so far.

2010-01-18T13:52:00.000-08:00

We started the New 2010 in full swing! Here's what we've been up to the past couple weeks....

#1
Kahler got to enjoy his first outing in the snow! Isaac wanted nothing to do with the tight bundling up and boots...so maybe next time!
But our little babe could hardly move in all his clothing! So funny!
He had a fun time smiling behind the paci while we did some sledding!

K-bub and Daddy ready to go downhill!

...and Papa too!

Getting pulled by the tractor with cousin, Brady

off they go! So fun!

#2
Trying to keep the boys entertained with indoor activities like Play-doh...after a thorough lesson for Kahler on how to not EAT the Play-doh:) what a goof!

#3
The boys have been enjoying some new movies together, like "Up", "Dawn of the Dinosaurs", and "Potty Time with Elmo" together on the chair. They're so funny...as soon as I put in a DVD they'll scramble up there to cuddle....too cute:)

#4
We welcomed our new neice, Lyla Judith on Jan. 4th! She is Brandon & Brooke's 2nd baby girl:)

Her big sis, Izzi loves her!

#5
Said good-bye to friends Luke & Shelly's 3 mo. old baby boy, Graham, as he went to sleep for a nap on Jan. 6th and woke up in the arms of Jesus. Definitely one of the hardest things we've ever witnessed. Ever. We learned an important lesson to love on our boys every second. Every moment is precious.

#6
And last but not least, we're rooting on our Colts as they're on their way to another Superbowl win in 2010!! Playoffs are off to a good start!! =)

Holidays '09

2010-01-13T15:05:00.001-08:00

I know it's been a LONG time since I've done any bloggin'! Holidays had us crazy busy but it was an enjoyable vacation! We are back in the swing of things and back into our daily busy routines again:) I'll start catching you all up!

Here are some pics of our Holiday season with the boys. We attended 4 Christmases total in that weekend. Aside from that, we relaxed and watched all of our favorite holiday movies while we decorated our new house for the first time...that was pretty great:)

Isaac is still continuing his therapy and is doing great! He got to make Christmas cookies with his therapist...and he did such a good job!

All finished! They were yummy!

Christmas #1
Christmas Eve with my family

K-bub enjoying his Christmas Eve dinner with Great Grandma Wogoman

Happy kid...he's got food!
Miss Kloie and Isaac enjoying some quality time together:)
Grandma rounding up her grand-kids to read the Christmas story
...and to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus!
Opening gifts....
Family pic
PJ time!....(I love X-mas pj's:))...and look at that face!
brothers....
Christmas morning @ our house....ahhh so nice:)
The boys opening a couple giftsWhat it is K-bub?
More stuff for their Black & Decker tool set! Oh boy! Dress up time!
Back to my parents for breakfast & stockings
The boys with their Xmas shirts on for the day

Christmas #2

Spent Christmas Day @ Brock's parents
Isaac & Papaw chillin. (& rubbing ears of course)
Ready to go home....one last family pic (sorry for the bluryness!)
The boys ending the night playing in their new pop-up Elmo tent!

Christmas #3

Saturday night....Kropf Christmas

My cousin Rob with his nephew Elijah...and Brock and Kahler enjoying a game of "pool":)
Me & Brandi....our annual (or whenever we get together) cousin picture:)
The triplets (Kloie, Smitty & Kahler) playing on the stairs
Kahler and one of the twin kids....so cute:)

Christmas #4

Ended our Christmas filled weekend on Sunday evening with the Maust/Graber side. Didn't get many pics taken but Kahler & Izzi had a great time playing in the mini-house and kitchen!

We were glad that our own "Four Christmases" came to a close! It was an eventful and enjoyable holiday weekend!

K-bub's 15 month Pics

2009-12-04T14:26:00.001-08:00

Pictures taken once again by Darcy! =) Thanks dear!

Nashville

2009-11-29T17:04:00.001-08:00

Destination: Nashville, TN
Purpose: Business trip for Brock to speak @ a Paxton Patterson Convention
(code for wined and dined at an all-expense paid trip! woo hoo!)
Where we stayed: The Gaylord Opryland Hotel
All decked out for Christmas with 2 million + Christmas lights everywhere! So beautiful!

Nativity Scene...amazing.

The Xmas tree outside of the Convention Center-pretty:)

We're here! so tired too!

The Cascades lobby...this was where we stayed. I could not get over how much was under one roof....10 acres in one hotel! It was incredible! There were at least 4 big lobbies like ours and a "mini city" in another part, along with the convention center. And
I never got sick of looking at all these beautiful lights!! So awesome!

Delta Lobby...also decorated for Christmas

Huge Christmas stockings....very cool

Our room! So nice!

Brock chillin'

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The Country Music Hall of Fame!
Architecture of this building is made to look like a record spinning at the left, the windows are supposed to look like piano keys, and the far right (not pictured) is like the front of a cadillac. very cool!
Onto the tour....

Brock and Johnny....buds.

The scribble lyrics to "Days Go By" written by Monty Powell & Keith Urban or course!

The suit...of Trace Adkins...the guy is amazing...and huge!

Brock's floating head:)

Hall of Fame Circle....George Strait...another big fave

Sayin' bye to my man, Tim:) (Brock thought he was staring him down! ha ha!)

**********************
Night life strip....Broadway in Music City!

"The Stage"...one of many places around that had live band entertainment all the time...so awesome!

Brock thought it was funny to put his "G" hat all over....like it was traveling...yeah u get the picture:)

I want this sign! Love it!

Visited our good friend Doug @ work! It was SO good to see him! Funny that he was a high school friend of mine and a college friend of Brock's....coincidence! He's working on his music break like most people there are. He's got a great website up for himself....www.thedougrileyband.com-check it out!

************************
Next stop: "The Wildhorse Saloon"....and Brock was being funny again:)

Huge place with line dancing lessons, more live music and good food! We ate dinner there and sat and watched all the fun!

****************************
The reason why we were here: Brock's on the agenda!!

I forget how awesome of a speaker he is...did such a good job!

stud. :)

After the convention...

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Celebrated our last evening @ Wasabi's...bring on the sushi!! yum!

Last night out....so much fun in Nashville!!