Now There Is 5: March 2016

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Food Post!

1. How do you feel about golden oreos? They are amazing!! I could eat an entire package in 1 day!

2. What is your favorite dessert topping? I don't like pie, so no topping there. I only want frosting on my cake. No topping on my brownie. Now that I am thinking about it, I don't like as much sweets as I thought I did.

3. What is your favorite flavor/brand of bubble gum? I like any kind I can blow big bubbles. If I am chewing to get rid of a bad taste or make my mouth smell better than I pick Trident.

4. Favorite cheese? Velveeta. I am not one to eat crackers, meat and cheese. I only like baked items to contain cheese.

5. Favorite Lunch Meat? chicken or turkey

6. Favorite ice cream flavor? Vanilla

7. Best looking food? Steak! I love the way steak looks.

8. Best food to put cheese on? Bake with it only for me.

9. Best sexual food? NONE!

10. Best tasting drink in the summer? mommy drinks of course

11. Best tasting drink in winter? Hot chocolate

12. Best food for a night out with friends? Pizza, quick and easy

13. Best foods to eat with a roll? I LOVE rolls! I would eat them with every meal! Coltons Steakhouse in Kirksville has the BEST rolls EVER!!!

14. Messiest food, in your opinion? Funnel cake!

15. Easist food to prepare? frozen pizza

16. Cheapest food you ever ate? Party Pizza for $1

17. Most expensive food you ever ate? I have no idea...but I am sure I have paid $20 for a hamburger and fries or chicken strips and fries.

18. Stinkiest food you ever ate? I don't eat food that smells.

19. Favorite dipping sauce? That is a loaded question. Could be ketchup, bbq sauce, frosting...who knows.

20. Best pizza topping? cheese!

21. Favorite potato chip flavor? plain dipped in ketchup

22. Most toxic substance you ever ate? what does this mean??? Who in their right mind would eat a toxic substance?!?!

23. Most calories you ate in one meal? When I used fitness pal I realized several meals had over 1,000 calories. But probably 1,200

24. Favorite soda? First off, its called POP!! Mt Dew is my weakness

25. Favorite flavor of juice? Apple

26. Favorite Vegetable? hahaha! I only eat green beans (if I am in the right mood) and peas but they have to be crème peas!

27. Favorite fruit? don't like any

28. Worst canned food? Due to me being so picky....I only eat certain canned food so I really don't even know what all kinds of canned foods there are.

29. Best side dish? that is tough, either homemade mac n cheese, party potatoes or scalloped potatoes. I bet I shocked a few of you with those choices didn't I?

30. Worst fast food restuarant? McDonalds! I really can't believe I let my kids have it. But when you are busy you do what you have to do.

31. Best restaurant? Oh my!

32. Best smelling food? Roast cooking in the crock pot

33. Favorite appetizer? Chips from Applebee's dipped in ketchup! (don't judge me!)

34. Favorite cookie flavor? Oh my...I love cookies! Almost all flavors that don't have nuts.

35. Favorite cake flavor? Strawberry!

36. Favorite pie flavor? I don't like pie ( I know completely Un-American, right?!)

37. Chocolate or rainbow sprinkles? Rainbow.

38. Ketchup or Mustard? Ketchup! As you can tell in all my responses. LOL

39. Best food to have on a date? I have 3 kids, what is a date?!

40. Most share-able food? I don't share food, I don't like people eating after me or vice versa. I bet you aren't surprised by that, are you?

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Easter 2016

This was our first year we spent the entire day at home. We were able to sleep till 8. For a Holiday morning that is late. The kids had so much fun hunting for eggs as always. Kanon was even able to join in and he picked up a few on the floor. The kids then checked out their goodies left by E.B. This year he did good of not going overboard. The girls are crazy in love with dresses right now so they each got a new one with flip flops. Kanon got a Mickey Mouse sports plate set and travel bowls. Our cabinets are filled with pink and purple that boy items need to be added. After all the eggs were opened and money and candy sorted we all watched Hop. Nic, Kanon and I were even able to sneak in a morning nap. Nic spent about 3 hours preparing our Easter meal. He fixed ham balls, pasta salad, scalloped potatoes, creme peas, green beans. It was awesome. The day and evening went by fast which is always sad. Then you starting thinking of all the things you didn't get to do.

I love social media on Holiday's. I love reading about everyone's day, their traditions and seeing photos of how happy they are. I love seeing the variety of how everyone does the egg hunts. Some stay inside and some go outside. We have always done ours inside. My parents do a huge egg hunt outside at their house, which we had done the weekend before. The girls also went to Hy-Vee for their egg hunt. They scored big time there! They had so much more than candy.

Here are a few photos from our day at home.

They spent most the day in their new dresses from Gypsy Quarter.

Kenly and Kaydee showing off the dresses the bunny brought them.

I love his facial expression.

Kanon finding his eggs

We have to put them high for her. :)

She had to work for that one!

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Co-Sleeping with your kiddos...

Can we just not judge each other on this subject?! How does it affect YOU how someone handles sleeping situations with THEIR child? I just don't understand why people have to say mean things to other parents that allow it or don't allow. If someone does not allow it, that is fine, it is their kid, their decision. If someone wants to allow it, then fine. Who cares!

With that all being said, I was that first time parent that swore I would never let my child sleep in my bed. Mainly because all those books you read tell you not to do it. Well I allowed it...early with Kenly.   Kenly slept in our bed when she was sick or if she woke up in the middle of the night. When we moved her to her toddler bed and she would get out and come to our room, I helped her up in our bed even. It was either no sleep for anyone or sleep for everyone. We then started allowing her to fall asleep in our bed by watching TV, then we would carry her to her bed. When she was 2 1/2 we found out we were expecting again. At that moment I knew before baby #2 came that I wanted her in her bed all night. We managed to get her broke of it in just a few short weeks...oh I mean months. Haha. That is right. It took a few months but we did it. She fell asleep in her bed and stayed there. Many times I was ready to pull my hair out and give up. At the time I thought how stressful is this and I would never allow this again. (That did not happen! LOL)

When Kaydee came along she had acid reflux and was very colicky. Yep...she slept in our bed from birth to a year old.   She was very easy to break of it since we started at a year old. Once she went to a toddler bed it changed and she did the same as Kenly and would get in our bed. We allowed it for a long time. Once Kenly discovered that Kaydee was doing it, we would wake up many mornings to both girls in our bed. A queen bed does not hold 2 adults and 2 kids. We were all losing sleep. After several attempts we finally were able to break Kenly of it at age 7. We tried several times with Kaydee and it took a little while but a huge thanks to the sticker chart we did it! I went to Pinterest and found a sticker chart and printed it off and bought shiny animal stickers. She would get so excited to put a sticker on for sleeping in her bed all night.

About a month after Kaydee was fully broke we found out we were expecting baby #3. I really enjoyed those 7 months of no kids in our bed. I was able to go to bed and read, watch TV and just relax till I fell asleep. Kanon came along and I said again, I will not allow him in our bed. Haha! He did sleep in a bassinet next to our bed for several months. On occasion I would put him in our bed. By the time he outgrew the bassinet I just put him in our bed. I loved him snuggling close to me. His little head would have to touch mine. Being our last baby (we think...lol) I felt the need that I need to enjoy every moment possible with him.  When he turned 6 months we started working with him on sleeping in his bed. He is now almost 8 months and goes to bed in his bed and sleeps in there almost all night, every night. He just got done with a terrible ear infection so for about a week he slept with us a lot but now that he is healthy again he is back to his bed all night.

There were many times with the girls I would get so frustrated that they were in our bed. However, now looking back, I wish I would of enjoyed it and not been so caught up in the "they need to be in their own beds." Time goes by so fast as it is and we need to slow down and enjoy the little things. I have found with Kanon that I really do enjoy the little things more and I took for granted a lot of time with the girls. Every once in a while I will ask the girls to go to bed with me and watch a movie. I enjoy that time and need to do it more. I will say it was much harder on me breaking the kids than it was on them.

How cute is he?! I love when they sleep with their butts in the air.

One of my Sleeping Beauties!

My other Sleeping Beauty!

One of my favorite photos! How precious are they?!

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Reason for my blog name...

My first post is to explain the name of my blog. Most people that are close family and friends know our story of becoming a family of 5. I am sure several have heard if through the grapevine. For those that don't know I will tell it here.

My husband had a vasectomy in September of 2013. It was a tough decision for me because I kept going back and forth if I wanted more. Then we finally agreed we were happy and blessed with 2 girls. I had come to terms with it and accepted it. We had a huge garage sale and sold everything "baby" we had. So it was official (so we thought). When the Dr. says you need to come back in for a check-up so we can see if it worked, he really means it. Nic did not follow the Dr. orders and go back in for his check-up. SURPRISE Baby #3! :)

In November of 2014 I had some health issues. I was having major stomach pains. I also had been dealing with cold/sinus sickness that I just could not get over. I had went to see my Dr and she had diagnosed me with mono. I missed several days of work and slept quite a bit. About 2 weeks later I still wasn't feeling well. I went back to the Dr and she ordered me to have an ultrasound. She thought maybe my gallbladder was the cause. On Monday, December 15th, 2014 I had to be at Mercy at 8 am. The day that forever changed our lives. The technician had been doing the ultrasound for about 5 minutes. He then said "how far along are you?" I quickly replied with "oh, I'm not pregnant. " I also chuckled with that comment. He then said "yes, you are." I said "um, no I am not." He said "yes, about 8 weeks." I broke down bawling. He left the room so I could gather my thoughts. He came back in and I told him I needed to leave. I had sent Nic a message to not leave the shop and I needed to see him. I bawled the short car ride to his work. He got inside my car and I told him the news. I was still frantically bawling. He was calm and made me feel better about it. I kept thinking that I should be crying tears of joy. I had so many thoughts going through my mind at that moment. I was sad, surprised, shocked, happy, confused, mad, worried and scared. Nic did the best he could by trying to calm me down. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I went to work and my sister met me and sat in my car with me. She of course was very excited. She kept saying "another baby, how exciting." I just couldn't get excited. I was not one of those women that had that "glow" or felt great during pregnancy. I had to go see my Dr. and she said I needed to go back out to have a full ultrasound to make sure the baby was okay. I was able to "see" our baby very clear. He told me I was about 8 weeks and I was able to get a few photos of our little babe.

That day we told some family members, co-workers and a few friends. I thought we would wait to tell the girls for awhile. However, Nic had other plans. He wanted to tell them that night. I can still remember that moment like it was yesterday. We had them sit on the couch and I was video taping them. We said "we have something to show you." I handed them the ultrasound photos. The expressions on their little faces while they were trying to make out what the photo was, I will forever remember. It was so funny seeing them turn the pictures every which way. We asked them what they thought it was a picture of. Kaydee's response was a beehive. Kenly guessed inside my stomach. Nic said "what would they be taking a picture of inside mommy's tummy?" They still were not getting it. I said "it is something that will be here July 30th." It instantly clicked with Kenly and she looked up and said "you are having a baby?" They jumped up and down on the couch screaming and cheering and laughing. It was exactly what I needed. That moment will forever be one I will remember my entire lifetime.

My lesson learned was "God doesn't give you what you can't handle, he gives you what you can handle."

Kanon was the biggest, best and most awesome surprise we have been given. I know God has a reason for blessing us to be his parents. I am so thankful for that little boy. He really is a blessing along with his 2 older sisters. The bond the 3 of them have is incredible. I love watching Kenly and Kaydee "mother" him. They are so good with him. It fills my heart with so much love watching them play together.