Easter Bunny's gone fishen

Today, Jared comes home from the grocery store. He left at 6:45 this morning when everyone was still asleep so that I wouldn't have to take care of the kids. He gets home and says to the kids that he ran into someone at the store. He said, "He's not Santa, or the tooth fairy, but someone like him. " The girls still didn't know until Jared said, "he fills baskets with goodies and candies. " Mackenzie quickly jumps in with "oh, oh, it's the Easter Bunny." Jared confirms her guess. Alexis asked what color he was and Jared said, "White!" Kenzie said, "I thought he was blue." And then Alexis said, "I thought he was purple and pink." Jared quickly set them right by stating that the Easter bunny can change colors.

Anyways, as Jared was talking with the Easter bunny, Jared found out that the Easter bunny was really busy getting ready for Easter next week. Jared told the Easter bunny that if he wanted drop by the house today and unload some of the goodies that he was going to give next week, we wouldn't mind. Well, the Easter bunny thought that was a great idea, so Jared came home and told the girls the good news. "But..." Jared said, "The Easter bunny can't come if the basement is dirty." So the girls ran downstairs to clean up their toys.

Then, we heard a knock at the door and Jared went and opened it. Zoom..... the Easter bunny ran inside and Jared, Mackenzie, Alexis, and Eli ran all through the house trying to catch the Easter bunny. He sure was fast. The last glimpse we saw was when Jared saw him go out the back door and run across the yard into the wheat field and disappear.

Jared told the girls that the Easter Bunny must have hidden their stuff somewhere in the house. We searched around until we found their stuff in their room.


Interestingly enough, Jared was hoping that the Easter bunny would leave fishing rods for the girls so that he could take them out today. Good thing he did!
The Easter bunny hid these shiny red fishing rods in their beds.
Jared eagerly brought the girls out to test their skills. Surprisingly, they picked up casting fairly quickly.

They didn't catch anything but they sure did have a lot of fun.

Mackenzie and Alexis are going to become great fisherwomen! They would make their Uncle Jamie proud!!

Prego Pixs at 29 weeks

My sister, Sharon, and I are pregnant at the same time for the second time in a row. She is 8 weeks ahead of me, though I'll have my baby probably 4 weeks or so after her. She is having a little boy this time and I am having a little girl. We are excited. We took similar pictures last time we were pregnant and thought it would be good to do it again.

This is how we feel.
This is how we act like we feel!

We were at Sharon's baby shower when we took these pictures. There was a girl there who asked if we were related. We said we were sisters and then asked who was older. I don't know why but Sharon always gets guessed as the older sister even though I am 5 years older. Jared thinks that most associate height with age. I need to wear taller shoes. :)

Tummy to tummy. Oh, and I got my shirt for 3 bucks at Ross. I like orange. Sharon also got her sweater wrap at Ross.

We could have a poll as to when I will go into labor. Again, my thought was somewhere between the 9-15 of May but now that will most likely be earlier. Plus, do you think baby girl #3 will be a red head again? Make your guess'. Oh, and do you have any name idea's? We are having a stupor of thought on what our princess' name is going to be.

Cyst or Bed rest: The Trade-off

Two days ago I got a call from my doctor. Well...going back farther...last week, I had an appointment with my OBGYN and she asked if I ever had an ultrasound done yet. I did have one done when I was 20 weeks through the research study that I am a part of.

(That is a side story but long story short...I get a progesterone shot once a week to help prevent early dilation and get paid for it because it is not FDA approved and they want to get it approved so that insurance companies will start paying for it. So, I joined the study since I was going to be getting the shot anyways, due to my history of having my kids all early...now I get them for free and will hopefully help future women get it covered through their insurance. I hope that makes sense!)

I asked the research people to send a copy over to my doctor so that I wouldn't have to pay for two ultrasounds. They said that would not be a problem. I guess it never made it over. So my doc requested a copy and got it a couple days ago. Then I get this call from her saying that she was reviewing my ultrasound and found something. There was a cyst in the baby's brain. (Scary!) I was very scared! She said that there was no reason to be alarmed because this happens quite often and the cyst usually dissolves after six to eight weeks. (How could you not be alarmed by news like that?) They asked if I could come in the next day to have it checked out. (I'm 28 1/2 weeks and so it was kind of convenient that we didn't have to stress and wait the 6-8 weeks to find out if the cyst had dissolved, I could come in the very next day to know for sure.) Again, they said that most of these cysts dissolve but Jared and I have some family history of cysts. We have a sweet niece who was born just after Eli who had a massive cyst removed just after she was born.

We thought that it must be something more genetic with us, so we prepared ourselves for the worst. We were optimistic but realistic. Everything would be okay, but okay has many different meanings. Jared and I went to our ultrasound and the technician was great. She was thorough and found nothing. The cyst had completely dissolved. (A great flood of relief!!!)

The people running the study also wanted to have an ultrasound check of my cervix to make sure all was well there too. At my 20 week check up, I measured at a 4.99 cm. You are suppose to be between 5-7 cm. So I was good. As the ultrasound tech checked me, I have thinned down to 1 cm. The tech informed my doctor who was greatly surprised, as was I, since I am totally being so good. I make sure to not over due anything, lift heavy things, lie down when I feel tired or feel any kind of contractions, anything! So, I have a check-up next Tuesday to verify for sure everything. If I am really thinned out that much, then I will have to go on bed rest. (Stink!) I thought I was going to be okay and not have to do bed rest like with Eli, but apparently, I cannot keep little girls in!

The trade-off: I am so willing to be on bed rest as opposed to what we thought we were going to have to deal with...a baby with a cyst connected to her brain. I really do feel so blessed and know that even though bed rest is horrible, there are way worse things that I could be dealing with or that the baby could be dealing with. Jared said that he thinks maybe we had the cyst scare so that we could find out about my thinning cervix, thus putting me on bed rest and stopping an early labor that could have been really harmful to our baby. The Lord works in mysterious ways. I am so grateful that our baby is healthy! I will dutifully go on bed rest in order to protect my baby from other health issues. That is a trade-off I am willing to make!

So...my dear friends and family. You may get a call from me to come babysit me. Each of you can take a day of the week and you will get to wait on me . Even though I feel perfectly healthy, every time I get up I could contract, thin out more, and start dilating,, so I have to stay down. Jared and I figured that we would have this baby the second or third week of May but now we are hoping to make it through April.

That is my news. How about you?

Basketball Season

As you all know, this is a busy time of year for us. Jared is very busy with basketball. He has practices every day after school except for Tuesdays and Thursdays when he has games. If there is an away game, then the parents of the players usually provide a sack lunch or snack for the boys and the coaches and the bus driver.
One day, Jared comes home with this gigantic rice crispy treat in the shape of a basketball. Jared had fun snacking on that treat for a couple of days. He loves rice crispy treats.
But we weren't just busy with Jared's basketball schedule, Mackenzie had a schedule of her own too! Every Monday she would have basketball practice. They were run ladders, dribble, practice passing the ball, and shooting the ball. This is her team. The team was made up of kindergartners through Second graders. She was the only girl kindergartner, and the little blond boy in the front row, far right was the other kindergartner. His name was Beau.
Now I am going to tell you that at first Mackenzie hated basketball. I was hesitant to start her in basketball so early because I didn't want to push her into it. Jared was insistent that she started. He figured that we could start her and if she liked it, then she had an early lead, if she didn't, then we could give her a few years break and start her again. So he signed her up. She hated it, saying, "girls don't play basketball!" (We had been going to the high school basketball games for the boys. She would watch the boys play ball, and the girls dance teams perform during the half times or the cheerleaders cheer on the sidelines. In her mind, she was right, girls didn't play ball.) We quickly remedied that by attending the girls basketball games. She was in awe! After going to a girls game, I asked if she like basketball now, and she happily replied that she loved basketball! (Phew!!!)
So I will tell about the pictures below, and I will add what I think Mackenzie is thinking in parentheses.


("I am so glad coach benched me! This is my favorite position to play!) In truth, I really do think she liked to be benched, she would trot up and down the court, but the minute coach said she could sit, she would run like the wind to the bench. :) Funny!

The coaches would line the kids up and then put on matching colored bracelets on the kids so they knew who they were suppose to guard.

("I like it when I get the purple bracelet...la de da...guard who? I don't know what guard means!")

("I love my hair in pony tales! I love to twist my hair around. What! Huh? I hear dad saying to turn around and guard my person...what?")

The refs for the games are just the local basketball players from the high school or Jr. High. They were really good about making sure that every one had a chance to touch the ball either by passing it in, dribbling it, or shooting it. The refs would back the other kids away so that everyone had a chance with the ball.

Out of all the skills needed to play the game of basketball, Mackenzie is actually very good at dribbling. Most kids just run the ball up the court with one or two dribbles, but Mackenzie was diligent in dribbling the whole way up. It took like a full minute to do this...but she was super cute doing it!

("I love to dribble...la de da....dribble, dribble, dribble. Ooops, it got away from me. Start over...la de da!)

Mackenzie would normally just stand in the back and stare back at us longingly, like she really wanted to go. If the ball came near her, she would flinch and duck!

And most times, she was the last one down the court. She sure did love to trist her hair. I sometimes wouldn't put her hair up to see if she would stop playing with it, but the alternative was worse, she would constantly pick her nose and then eat whatever she found.

("Hey, where is everyone going? Huh, oh, everyone is down there on the other side of the court. I am a butterfly, skip, hop, trot, trot, trot!)

In the second to last game, Mackenzie finally made her first basket! The whole gym cheered for her. By that point in the season, the parents of the other kids could see that she was...humm, how do I put this delicately....really bad at the game. :) Mackenzie was so excited, I was excited, Jared was excited. She talked about it for a week afterwards of how she made a basket during her game. It was so so so cute! Jared had worked at it with her during her Monday practice and she was having such a hard time getting the ball high enough to even go over the rim. But finally, they did it! Mackenzie made another basket during her last game too. We are super proud of her! We're super proud of her even if she didn't make a basket. She was really fun to watch!



("I'm suppose to get this heavy ball all the way up there? You've got to be kidding me! Well, I'll just throw it up and then skip over to the other line...la de da....")

Jared and I think it was a fun season for her, she ended up liking basketball, and Lexi is anxious for her chance to start basketball next year.

Sledding Fun

Jared has been wanting to take the kids sledding for a long time. We got these sleds from Grandma and Grandpa Weber at Christmas and have been waiting for a good snow to come so we could take the kids out. But...it has been a pretty light winter (thank goodness!) Finally it snowed enough that we could go. The girls absolutely loved IT!


The girls are waving to Grandma and Grandpa as they come to the end of the hill. Thanks for the sleds! They work great!
Wahooooooooooo!

Climbing back up the hill is always the worst part about sledding!

They would have kept on going if nature hadn't called! You know how annoying it is to get all dressed up, then have to take everything off to go potty, just to put everything back on again. (Although, it is easier than when you are going swimming and you have to go to the bathroom. You peel off the wet one piece swimming suite, go potty, and then pull up the cold swimming suite that rolls as it goes. Making it more difficult! Total tangent, but we all know what I am talking about!)