Exciting News!

I had hoped to post an update a bit sooner, but life has been so crazy lately. As many of you may know..we've been trying to sell our home for about 1 1/2 years. It's been a long road...but through it all we have continued to pray and trust that God has the perfect plan for us. We knew the day would come that we'd sell our home...but had no idea it would all happen so quickly. God is good!

Over the years we've had lots and lots of showings (most people seeing the house 3-4 times), and even several offers, but nothing really ever came of any of them. Then...a couple of weeks ago we had a showing...THE showing! Someone walked into our home once and decided she wanted to make an offer two days later. Not just that, but unlike past offers...this was one we felt we could work with. After a couple of days we worked out a deal and our house was under contract. This week she had her inspection and everything went great. We are now on our way to closing (hopefully by the end of August)!! YAY!!

Of course, along with selling a house, comes buying a house. With Scott working in Iowa we knew we needed to find something that was convenient for him. In looking at the smaller towns around the area, we decided on one that seemed to have the most to offer. We ended up finding a home we both fell in love with, and yesterday...came to terms on that one as well!! By the end of August we should be all moved out of our house and moving into our new house. We couldn't be more excited!! I am really looking forward to the move, and couldn't be happier that it will all be happening before Baby #3 arrives. We should be all settled in by that point which will be great.

Anyways...that's what has been keeping us so busy these days. I will try to update again soon...and will hopefully have pics to share too!

Lots to share....

Wow, it sure has been a while! I have to tell you that over the past year I've had every intention of sitting down and writing a post to update you on our life. In fact, I've started several times, only to have about 10 drafted posts that I never got around to publishing.

Over the past year (actually it's been longer than that) much has changed. I now have a 3 1/2 year old and 1 1/2 year old. Where does the time go? Kaelyn is as active and talkitive as ever. She is not yet in school, but loved going to Awana on Wednesday nights at church this past year and enjoys Sunday school immensely. Her teachers always comment on how grown up she is and that she's very entertaining and fun. As someone who is more quiet and shy myself, I know she got her Daddy's outgoing personality which is great! She loves making new friends and is comfortable in almost any situation she's put in. She also still has the sweetest, most tender and caring heart as well. I love that about her! She loves to learn and anytime we do activities here at home, she's very eager. She enjoys working on writing her letters/name and is currently working on number recognition and correspondence.



Kaden has grown and changed so much too! Just a year ago he was a little baby...now he is our big boy! He's walking/running around and loves to play with his big sister. They adore each other and it's so neat to watch them interact. I love it! He is more quiet, and also has a very sweet side. He loves to cuddle, and these days is becoming more of a daddy's boy than a mommy's boy. He began walking around 11 months and since that time has been climbing on everything. He is so brave and definitely all boy! He still uses sign language some, but is starting to say more words which is fun too. The common ones we hear are mama, dada, kk (for Kaelyn), baby, baybay (what he and Kaelyn call their blankeys), eat, more, papa, uh oh, up, hi, and bye. He's a very content little guy and is still an amazing sleeper!

We are so blessed to call these two little ones our children! They are such a joy!

We are sure enjoying our summer! The nice weather and warm temps have given us plenty of time to spend outdoors running around, enjoying picnics, playing at the pool and taking walks to the park!


One of the nicest weekends so far was July 4th. It wasn't too hot and wasn't too cold...absolutely perfect! The kids had a blast at the parade as well as the zoo with Scott and I as well as my parents.


I am still a stay at home mom and love being able to spend every day with my kids. There haven't been too many times I've been away from them, so this past February when Scott and I took a trip to Jamaica together...it was quite different for me. We had a great time, but after the 5 days was up, we were definitely ready to get back and see our babies. They did great (thanks to my wonderful parents who watched them!).



In March, Scott took a new job...one he has dreamed up since getting into the agronomy field. He now works for Bayer CropScience. I didn't even know Bayer had a division other than medications, so that is neat. He's loving the job as a sales rep, especially his more flexible schedule. He now works from home which means we see him a lot more too. No more working weekends or extremely long days which is nice too.

Our house is still for sale. We took it off the market when Kaden was born and put it back on last June. We've had lots of interest, but are still waiting for the right buyer. We are excited to move back to Northern Iowa and be closer to family when the time is right.

We also have some very exciting news which many of you may have already read on Facebook already! We are expecting baby #3, due to arrive in November! That makes all three of our kids November babies which is a lot of fun. I'm almost 21 weeks along and feeling great. We had our 20 week ultrasound today and baby looked healthy and is growing right on track. We are thrilled about our growing family and feel incredibly blessed! We decided not to find out the sex of this baby (we didn't with Kaelyn or Kaden either)...so come November we are looking forward to one of life's greatest surprises! We figure there are very few real surprises in life, and this is one we wanted to have with all of our pregnancies. Either way we will be thrilled to have a new daughter or son and can't wait for Kaelyn and Kaden to meet him/her. Getting to see him/her on ultrasound today was amazing.

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Although I'm sure I've missed many things that have happened over the past year, these are the big things I wanted to update on. I will do my best to update more regularly!

My kiddos are growing soooo fast

So I was just talking in the last post about what a big boy my little guy is getting to be. Little did I know that the very next day he would get his first tooth. And then last Friday...his second tooth! Wow...he really is growing up fast!



I can't believe how fast the time goes the second time around. I just love watching all of the milestones he and Kaelyn both go through. Other than the teeth, Kaden has been loving rolling around the floor and playing with his toys more. He adores his big sister and loves spending time with her whenever he can.

Kaelyn loves doing art activities. The other day she was painting and absolutely loved it! I really enjoy seeing the proud look on her face every time she creates a 'masterpiece'. She has been smiling from ear to ear ever since we hung it in her playroom. :)

I love these two kids more than words can say. I feel truly blessed to be their mom!

It's been WAY too long!

My has it been a LOOONNNGGGG time since I posted here last! Life continues to get more and more busy and I struggle to find the time to fit everything in. I'd like to be better about posting more frequently though, as I really think it will be fun to look back on all of the memories one day.

Both kids continue to grow like crazy! Kaelyn is doing great without her pacifier and is of course, talking up a storm. I can't believe the intellectual conversations we're able to have with our 2 1/2 year old...it truly amazes me sometimes. I love watching her little mind work as she asked me questions about the world around her. Lately, her favorite thing to do is pretend. She'll come up to us with a pad and paper and say 'what would you like to eat sir?' like a waitress. It's too cute!




She has also started to go through that 'let me do everything on my own' stage. She is getting dressed completely on her own now...and even likes to pick out her own clothes (she LOVES dresses!). She enjoys trying to match them together. She's such a big helper.


Kaden is growing so fast! I can't believe he will be 5 months old this week already. Where does the time go?! WOW! He's such a happy baby...smiling all the time. Last month he started wanted to sit up more and more on his own. We still put plenty of pillows around him in case of an accidental tumble, but he's getting stronger and better at it with each day that passes.



He also loves the sound of his voice and will coo and 'talk' to us all the time. I just love seeing him smile and listening to his sweet little voice and laughs. It's the absolute best. He's definitely a Mommy's boy and enjoys any time we get to spend together. He's still sleeping like a champ and actually getting on to the same sleep routine as Kaelyn pretty much (with a couple more naps of course) which has been really nice!









He's rolling over both ways now...so needless to say, he's not in one spot for very long now. He's always grabbing at toys and wanting to chew on everything. I'm pretty sure one of his bottom front teeth is getting close to coming in, so I'm guessing that's the reason for all the chewing.

The other day I was reminiscing and was almost sad thinking about how fast the time has gone. I cannot believe my little girl is 2 1/2 and my baby is already 5 months. Each stage is so much fun though. We feel truly blessed to be the parents of these two wonderful kids!


As summer nears we're looking forward to warmer weather and more time spent outdoors. I can't wait as we've been couped up for far too long between winter and all the rain we've been getting.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Spring so far!

It's Official: No More Pacifier!

For a while now, we've been wanting to get rid of Kaelyn's pacifier. She only had her pacifier at night time, but was still very attached to it. There were some major changes between potty training, moving to her big girl bed, and a new little brother...which put off the 'weaning' process until just recently. Being two years old, I knew it was time, but wasn't quite sure the best way to go about it. Thanks to some input from others, we decided 'cold turkey' was our best bet!

Kaelyn around 4 months old

We wanted to be sure that when we took it, she had something meaningful to have with her at night (a stuffed animal or something) to take its place. We weren't sure what to do, and then someone gave us a great idea...Build-A-Bear! Why didn't I think of that?! We took Kaelyn to Build-A-Bear yesterday and let her pick out and make her very own animal (she picked a monkey). When it came time to stuff the monkey, she grabbed her pacifiers and stuck them inside. It was such a proud moment for me to watch!

Making her 'Build-A-Bear' monkey

Putting one of her pacifiers in the monkey

She picked out some pajamas for her (since the idea was to have something for bedtime in place of the pacifier) and named her Boppy since she always called her pacifiers 'bops'.

Meet Boppy :)

Everything was going great...she didn't fuss once about putting her 'bops' in the monkey. But, the true test was not whether she could part with them for the day...it was night time that we were really wondering about. Bedtime came and as she crawled into bed she asked where her pacifiers were. We reminded her where they were and that now she had a new special friend to sleep with at night. That was it...not another word was said about her pacifiers. She laid her monkey by her, we read a story and she said 'Night Mommy'. I was floored...was it really going to be that easy?! We thought she may wake up in the night crying, but again, nothing. She handled it like such a big girl!

I am so glad that someone gave us the idea of the Build-A-Bear. I think it was a great way to make her a part of the whole process so she understood what was going on each step of the way. It allowed for us to take her bops cold turkey while still giving her the comfort of knowing that they're always with her, and best of all...she now has something special to take its place

Other than that we haven't been up to much. Kaelyn, myself and Kaden all have had bad colds for about a week now. We're beginning to feel better which is such a relief! It felt great to get out of the house yesterday, that's for sure! I've taken quite a few pics since the last time I posted...I will try to post them soon. :)

We're still here...

It's been quite some time since I've posted here....I apologize for that. Life seems to get busier and busier. Things are wonderful though! The kids are continuing to grow SO fast...especially Kaden! He will be 3 months old tomorrow and is already in 6-9 month clothes. Those 'little baby' stages go WAY too fast!

Kaden is an extremely smiley baby. He loves to coo and even gives us a little giggle here and there. He loves his big sister and 'talks' and smiles most with her. :) He's sleeping through the night and is so content during the day....such a joy!

Kaelyn continues to amaze us with her vocabulary. Her newest thing is pointing out signs as we drive. We have no clue where she learned it...but she'll say "Mom, stop sign" or "Dad, a turn sign". She's our little backseat driver...hehe. The other day she said "Daddy, be careful...there's cars coming!". :)

There's been a lot going on since I posted last. A couple of weeks ago Scott and I decided to take the kids to an indoor waterpark a couple of hours from where we live. We're all getting tired of being cooped up in the house this winter, so we thought this would be a fun little getaway...especially for Kaelyn! We were right...she (and the rest of us) had a BLAST! This was the first time Kaelyn (and Kaden for that matter) had stayed in a motel...so that was pretty special as well.

Kaden enjoyed taking everything in, and sleeping :)

Always making friends :)

There's our brave little Kaelyn going down the waterslide all by herself

This past weekend was very busy. First, Scott and I went on our first date since Kaden was born. My parents were kind enough to come up and watch the kids for a couple hours while we went out to eat. It was so nice. I love having my family close enough to do things like this...and the kids just love spending time with Grammy and Grampa!

We also had some professional pics taken this weekend. They were for Kaden's 3 month pics...but we also got a family one and a few of the kids together. Both kids did great! :)












A couple more random pics...



I guess this post should have been titled "Picture Overload" :) I guess that is what happens when I go so long between posts...I'll try to be better about that.:)