Isaac's 3!!!

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..."

"....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!!

*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!

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.

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!! =)