Happy 35th Birthday Jer!

Today is Jeremy's 35th Birthday!  Since it's Monday, we didn't do anything to exciting.  Actually, nothing exciting at all, but I think he was ok with that.

We celebrated a little more last night.  After supper, I was wrapping Jeremy's birthday present when Landon came in.  After Landon asked what I was doing, I told him, but told him not to tell Daddy.  Of course, he went and told Daddy, and then insisted Daddy open his present. 

Landon and I got Jeremy a cross necklace.

And then it was time for cake!  Why three candles you ask?  Well, 35 are not going to fit on the cake, so I did one for each decade!  Jeremy was about sick of having his picture taken by now.

And then it was Landon's turn.

Happy Birthday Jer!  We love you!!

Prayer Request - updated

Please pray for my Mom this morning as she goes in for a partial knee replacement surgery.  Please pray that all goes smoothly and she has a quick and pain free (as possible) recovery.  Please pray for the Dr. and the medical staff that they have the knowledge and guidance to complete this surgery to the best of their abilities.  You are in good hands, we love you Mom!

UPDATE:  Mom is in recovery and doing great!

Crazy weather = no power

What a beautiful sight!

So, I mentioned how we lost our power on Sunday.  Well, we, or maybe I, thought we were in the clear, and I put the flashlights away on Monday morning.  Big mistake. 

On Monday night, Jeremy and Landon were downstairs and I went to let Elke out.  I noticed a bright light in one of the trees in the front yard.  I poked my head out the door and noticed the branches on a tree were on fire.  I quickly yelled for Jer to come upstairs and look at the tree on fire.  We watched in amazement for a few seconds before a burst of bright light, followed by a loud puff.  There went our power.  Poor Landon downstairs was terrified and I quickly rushed down to him!

Landon was so cute as I was putting him to bed on Monday night.  He turned on his aquarium as he always does, and says "Look Mom, we have power again."  Too cute! 

Well, the power was completely restored by 6 pm on Tuesday.  We are fortunate to have a generator which got us some showers and breakfast on Tuesday morning, so we were definately not effected like most people were.  I hear the power is back for most everyone who was effected by outages, which is a very good thing.

He's back + crazy weather!

Last week, when I told Landon we were meeting Grandma Debbie for supper, he asked if he was spending the night at her house.  That was not in the plan for that night, but Grandma Debbie was gracious enough to invite Landon over for the night on Saturday night.  What, a weekend alone for Jer and I?  I was a little afraid for myself, but managed to keep myself busy!

Jeremy and I had a nice dinner out on Saturday night, and then met up with some friends.  You thought I would have slept in on Sunday morning, and I did, until 6 am.  It was weird actually being able to watch the news instead of Mikey Mouse Clubhouse.  

The weather was a little crazy today.  The morning the temps hugged 32 degrees, leaving the precip to come down as rain, but icicles to form.

Jeremy and I were actually enjoying a movie, when our power went out.  Luckily, there was enough natural light downstairs that we could work on staining some doors and clean up a bit.  The power came back about two hours later.

Well, Landon is now back, and we missed him terribly!  We are so grateful he had a little bonding time with his Grandma and even had fun attending Brooklyn's Birthday party.  Thankfully, he didn't give Grandma too hard of a time!

We are now all snuggled in and watching the rest of the movie we started this morning.  The rain is coming down, the wind is howling and our flashlights are ready.  The lights have been flickering for about an hour, so we'll see what happens!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  I wasn't sure I was going to make it through the day today, as I was so excited to get home and spend the night with my boys, sorry Elke, you too!  We celebrated Valentine's Day a little each day this weekend, as well as today.  On Saturday, Landon got a special piece of mail from his Grandma and Grandpa.  He was so excited to get his own letter in the mail and couldn't wait to open it.

On Sunday we were completely in over our heads hearts!  While preparing all of our Valentine goodies, we made ourselves a little fruit punch cocktail.  Of course, it wouldn't be complete without the snow man cup.

We made some Valentine cookies as well as some strawberry jello jigglers, prepared Landon's Valentine treats for friends and family and got our cards ready for Daddy.  

In the evening, we met up with Grandma Debbie, Mike, Becca and Brooklyn at Grandma Debbie's church.  The kids were serving a Valentine's dinner and it was awesome!  The food was delicious and the company was excellent.  I wish I would have remembered my camera!

While at daycare today, Landon got a balloon delivered from his Auntie Jo Jo.  He was so excited when I picked him up.  We headed straight home and got to work on supper.  Well, supper has been consumed and all of us are laying low watching Landon's new movie, "How To Train Your Dragon."  Landon loves this movie and it is what we got him for Valentine's Day.  Here is a picture of all the love that we have received this Valentine's Day!

Jeremy surprised me by bringing home roses as well as a large outdoor thermometer.  Don't laugh, we've been talking about getting one, and I was super pumped.  The flowers are beautiful as well, and totally unexpected!

Well, there's a little left of this evening, and I'm going to enjoy it watching a movie with my Valentine's.  It doesn't get any better than this!

It's puzzle time!

Landon is obsessed with any kind of puzzle he can get his hands on right now.  So, I recently introduced him to a new kind of puzzle, one that's on the computer.  He only gets to do a couple a night as a reward.  When he puts his dinner dishes away, or some other type of good behavior.  Click on the video below to watch Landon put a puzzle together.

20 weeks

I am 20 weeks and a few days pregnant.  The first half of this pregnancy has flown by.  Let's hope the second half goes by just as fast!  Today I had a Dr. appointment and all was well.  Not much happened at this appointment.  We reviewed any further questions I had about the ultrasound and she helped put my mind at ease.  It's such a blessing to be able to hear the baby's heartbeat.  It was going strong at 150 beats per minute.  I feel like I have grown so much in the last few weeks!  Still wearing regular jeans and a belt, although it is not my original size, and I change into elastic waist as soon as I walk in the door at night!

And, because I was in the bathroom taking pregnancy photos, I took a photo of the canvas I just hung up in the bathroom.  This was taken by Rose at Infinite Image Design when Landon was 6 months old.  She had this hanging in her office for the past two years and decided it was time to part with it.  Don't worry, she replaced it with an even bigger canvas of Landon!  Because Rose was taking it down, it got moved to my house!

Burpies

I don't know if it's the pregnancy hormones, the fact that it's been a long winter, or boredom, but I have really had the itch to sew lately.  What else to sew other than something for a baby.  I've seen these on a few other blogs, and followed the instructions over at www.prudentbaby.com.  It was so super easy.  Instead of using a towel on the back, I used chenille, because it is so soft!  Not sure if I'm ready for quilting, but I hope you're proud Grandma!

We hosted super bowl at our house on Sunday and some friends who just had their fourth child came over.  I gave these to them as part of their baby gift. 

3 year check

This morning, I took Landon in for his three year check up (we are a little behind).  Landon is developing right on track and the Dr. said he seems to be a perfectly healthy three year old.  At three years old, they stop measuring head circumfrance and start monitoring blood pressure.  Landon's was 88 over something.  The nurse said as long as it is under 100 it is good.   Landon weighed in at 30 pounds and is 36 inches tall.  He is right in between the 10th and 25th percentile.

On a side note, Landon has had a cold all week, but I didn't think anything of it.  She informed me that Landon had a nasty ear infection in his left ear.  I tell you, this child and his high pain tolerance....

3 going on 3 months...

Last night, Landon and I dug out his old jumperoo.  We are going to pass it on to baby Derek for a while as he is getting so big!  After cleaning it off, I went to put the rag away in the laundry room and came back to find Landon in the jumperoo giving it a test jump. 

 Of course when I walked in the room, Landon said, "Mom, take my picture."

This was one of Landon't favorite toys when he was little.  Let's hope Derek likes it!

Baby #2 update

After posting the pics of the ultrasound, finding out we are having another boy, and saying everything looked great, we had a little bit of a scare.

My ultrasound was last week Monday.  The following Thursday night, my Dr. called me and said they had some concerns.  There was a bright spot over the baby's bowel which is called an echogenic bowel.  We were scared to death and immediately started researching and praying.  Echogenic bowel can be nothing at all, or it can lead to some very serious things such as Cystic Fibrosis, Down Syndrome or blockage in the bowel.  

Today we met with the neonatologist in LaCrosse and he confirmed that everything looked GREAT!!  They were so thorough and explained things so well during the ultrasound that I have no doubts.  All the praying that everyone did (including people we don't even know), paid off.  Dr. Pecks (the neonatologist) said it could have been an operator error or just some very unclear pictures during the initial ultrasound that indicated complications.  I did mention that on the day of the first ultrasound, the baby wasn't exactly cooperating.

It doesn't matter, because today we saw a very healthy baby boy!  Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers.  They mean so, so much to us!  And Thank You Jesus for continuing to be present and answering our prayers.