Aunt Candy dress

Katya looked SO adorable in her beautiful dress made by Aunty Candace. She was the most styling kid in church on Sunday!

Katya continues to be very demanding, wanting our constant attention and wanting to be held a ton. I guess it is good that I am getting use to this change in her now because it is only going to get worse when new baby arrives. A couple more Katya things that I think are so cute: First she learned to blow her nose with the tail end of the head cold she had. When we put a tissue to her nose and tell her to blow she does. Second, she is really enjoying her baby doll from the Smith's. She likes feeding the baby a bottle (Grandma T got her 2 play bottles) and giving her her binky ("bink") which sticks magnetically to the dolls mouth. I showed her how to burp her baby and she does this, complete with sound effects for the burp!

An extra special Easter season

I was marking dates on my 2009 calander this morning and I realized that baby Reagan is due on Easter Sunday! She has lots of great days she could be born on with Holy week just before her due date and Easter week just after. What an extra special Easter blessing!

Merry Christmas!

Santa made it to the Faulkner residence and you can see from the mound of presents under the tree. Katya sure had fun opening presents and has lots of great new toys to play with. Her play kitchen is proving a great storage spot for toys! We drove home yesterday and are enjoying be back in our own beds. I slept 12 hours last night which I really needed.

The snow is melting fast here since temperatures have been well above freezing and it has been raining. The residential roads were a mess yesterday but have gotten a lot better over night. Our grass is peeking through in the front yard and with more rain on the way I am sure the snow will be completely gone very soon.

Katya learned several new words over the weekend. She is saying "spoon," "Daisy" (Doug and Sharon's dog), "Addi" and "Baba" in reference to the Grandpa's. She also says "baba" as bottle but started pointing to Doug and saying "Baba" too. When she saw Grandpa T's picture she also pointed and said "Baba." I was impressed that she has made that connection on her own because it was not something I have worked a ton with her on. She also started saying "Addi" without much prompting. She is so smart! She got a fork, spoon and bowl set for Christmas and is learning to use the spoon. The bowl suctions to her high chair tray and the spoon has a nice big grip. She is doing pretty well at scoping but usually turns the spoon upside down by the time she gets it to her mouth. I am sure she will have it down in no time. Love, Brenda

Merry Christmas Eve

It is truley a winter wonderland here in Duvall, WA. They have about 19 inches and have gotten about an inch more today. We are praying for the safe travels of Allen, Eryn, Addison and Grandma and Grandpa as they drive up from Portland. It is snowing pretty much all down the I-5 coridor and so it will be slow going for them. We are glad we were able to drive up on Monday when conditions were better.

We are heading over to Don and Joan's later today which is about 30 minutes away. Tomorrow the festivities are here which will be nice. We are going to 9am Mass and then will work on the mound of presents accumulating under the tree. Katya has slept well since we have been here and is in good sorts. She is still a bit snotty but seems to be getting over her cold.

Love, Brenda

Early Chirstmas Present!

We gave Katya her awesome Christmas present from Grandma Dana and Baba this morning. Craig and I set it up last night and this morning I covered it with a sheet and let her pull it off. She LOVES it! I love it too, it is the cutest play kitchen ever. She is going to be able to enjoy this toy for years to come (Reagan will too). She loves putting things in the doors and turning the oven dials. She discovered quickly that you can remove the sink and she likes to pull it out and put things into the space beneath. This was definitely too big to transport to Duvall so we gave it to her early. We could have brought it disassembled but it is the type of thing you put together once and leave together. It took us about a hour and a half and it went well with the two of us working on it. The kitchen is wood and is really nice quality. I like it so much better then the plastic kitchens, which are fun but adults tend to get tired of looking at after a while:0) Katya is still to short to reach the microwave and sink but I put my exercises step in front of it for a stool. This is working great.

Merry Christmas to all! Love, Brenda

Last Sunday of Advent

Today we attended the shortest Mass I think I have ever been too. We went to 8am Mass because Katya woke up early (we usually go to 10am) and we got there about 5-10mins late (we forgot we had to switch the car seat from the Saturn back to the Jeep). Father John was finishing up the Gospel reading when we arrived! Oops. There were about 8 other people, then a couple more showed up after us. Father John did a solo service (no helpers, not even a person to serve the wine) and it was a total of 30mins long. We noticed when we left that the only people who came all arrived in 4-wheel drive vehicles. We ran to Fred Myer after church to get bread and milk since we were already out. The Jeep did great with cautious driving; it was fun getting to really use our vehicles capabilities. Craig drove on the way there and I drove home to share the fun:0)

We got 8 inches of snow yesterday! That is a lot for us here and it sure is pretty. A layer of snow did freeze on top last night but it was pretty easy to break through. There was a little bit of freezing rain this morning and possibly more on the way. It looks like our drive to Seattle is going to be a bit treacherous. Keep us in your prayers! Craig got called off his lunch shift today as well and there is a chance he won't work tomorrow night either. We are tempted to leave tomorrow for Seattle if that is the case but we shall see. Craig does have some work to do at the lab before we leave town. More about an early Christmas present for Katya later today...

Snow Day!

Craig got called off his lunch shift today because of the weather. Yeah! We are enjoying a snow day and took Katya out a little bit ago. She LOVED it and did not want to come back in. We have gotten almost 2inches here and it is super dry snow. What a treat for us!

Sick baby = tired mama

Katya has had a cold this week but seems to be feeling a bit better today. Between the cold, the teething and just a stage she is going through she has been SUPER needy. She wants full attention at all times, wants to be held a ton and does not like it when one of us leaves the room. She had a really bad night sleep on Tuesday but has slept good the last few nights. On Wed she took two naps for a total of almost 4hrs which was great. I am still trying to recover from the poor sleep and I am very tired today. I hope to get caught up before we leave for Duvall. The weather continues to be bad and I have been home for the last few days so Craig could drive the safer vehicle. I did pull the car seat out today so I can go out in the Saturn if the roads look good. This weekend is suppose to bring another big storm so today might be my last chance to finishing shopping before we leave on Tuesday.

I have been feeling fine since recovering from Monday's morning sickness. It seems to be totally random and although it may last through out the pregnancy, I am thankful that it is so infrequent now. Baby Reagan has days were she is really quite and I get nervous not feeling her much but then she will have a few days of lots of kicks. Those are my favorite days! The kicks are not strong enough yet to be painful or annoying although I am sure they will be in the end:0)

Diapers: Disposible vs. Cloth

So I had a bright idea last week when I was shopping for a plastic diaper cover for Katya. She soaks through her diapers almost every night so I am trying a cover to keep it in; it is working some nights and not others. Anyways, my bright idea was to consider cloth diapers for baby Reagan to save money. I started to get excited about the idea and felt good about the creating less garbage side of it too (it is crazy the amount of diapers one kid goes through and thinking about those sitting in landfills for eons is a little disturbing). Then I started to do some research....
DAMN! It is really not cheaper!

I got some great tips and info from Anige including which brand of cloth diapers works best for them. The Fuzzi Bunz brand she likes sounds awesome and I really do feel that if I go cloth, I am going to want what works best and not just want is cheap. They are 17-18$ a pop! There are 3 sizes and you want about 3 dozen at a time so that equals 900$ just to buy the darn things. Then you have to factor in having disposables on hand for vacations and for night time when they are older (cloth just does not hold a kid who sleeps through the night) and the extra money it costs in water and electricity or gas to launder them. I figured out by switching Katya to cloth (which then Reagan would use when she is that size) and Reagan in cloth would be about the same expense, if not a little more than disposables. And this is with laudering myself, no diaper service.

There are other brands, including one that is suppose to grow with baby therefore you end up buying less (they are still about 17$/diaper). Angie has not had great luck with these (lots of leaks, not that good of a fit) so I am hesitant to try them. They would be more like 400$ to buy which would mean we would save a few hundred bucks over the few years K and R are in diapers. Of course, if we have a thrid baby we would already have the diapers so that would save 900-1200$ over the 2.5-3yrs that baby is diapered no matter what. I hope to have 3 kids but we are not positive we will.

I am bummed! My whole idea was to save money, which I might or might not. But once I got the idea in my head I started liking the enviornmental benefits more and more. There are arguments against this, (extra energy usage and chemicals used to wash) but I think that it is still probablly better then pilling up the plastics in landfills (plus there are chemicals in disposables to help them absorb more). I am going to try out a few types that Anige has and maybe I will find a cheaper option that works for me.

We shall see...

Let it Snow!

Yesterday it snowed off and on for most of the day. We got a good layer on the ground at our place and the flakes were so pretty! Katya was fascinated by it and Craig taught her "snow" which sounds an awful lot like "no." We made it to church, which is so close by, in our trusty Jeep but stayed in the rest of the day. We had babysat Addison overnight so Allen and Eryn had to venture over the west hills to pick her up. It was a slow drive but they made it safely. Chains or traction devices were required on all major highways yesterday (4 wheel drive okay) and of course there were tons of little accidents.

It is clear and sunny today but COOLED! There is still snow on the ground and the roads are icy but not too bad. The expected high is about 26 and the wind chill is bringing the temp down even further. What is this Montana? It is quite a dry snow for Portland too and is expected to stay very cold all week. We might get more snow on Wed. Craig heard from a colleague that they have shut his office down before, being it is a non-essential part of the Legacy Hospital organization but no such luck yet. He took the Jeep to work to be safe and so Katya and I are holed up today without transportation (her car seat is in there). Oh well. I was very sick this morning anyways so not really in the mood to venture out. I am feeling a little better, keeping fluids down finally which is good. Katya is napping and I think I will join her:0)

How blessed we are to have a warm home! ~ Brenda

Katya 16 months

Katya is such a joy and we feel so blessed to have her in our lives. She cracks us up daily and is so sweet with her hugs and kisses. She is saying "mom" a lot more often and I can't get enough of hearing it! Some of her new words
are 'home,' 'stuck,''go,' 'potty,' 'doll' and 'Katy.' Every baby picture she sees now is "Katy" or "baby Katy." She is up to around 30+ words (it is getting hard to keep track) and she says several 2 word sentences. She says "daddy home" and "mom home" which is so cute. She is really good about signing 'please' when she wants something and she signs 'help please' a lot when she can't do something herself. I think this is so great because so many kids her age would just scream and throw a fit instead of asking for help.

She has not been hitting much lately which is nice; she does occasionally when she is mad but does not say 'no' and hit me 10x a day anymore. This is great and means she gets WAY less time outs. Our consistency has paid off. She still gets time outs for playing in the dog bowls, especially when they are trying to eat. She managed to chop down a few morsels of dog food before I got to her one time and I really have to watch her. It is a little tricky because Craig taught her how to put the bowls away after the dogs are done eating. She just needs to learn to wait until they are done! She carries them to the pantry and when we open it for her drops the bowls in (she also says 'bowl').

She still does her funny scrunch face, especially while walking around in a drunken pattern. She also does what I call 'old peg leg.' She picks one leg up, straight legged, and then stomps it down while walking. She still loves being chased and riding on her lion. We had our second playgroup at church this week and it went really well. It was just her and Levi, the 22 month old and they played really well together.

I can't believe how smart she is and I love seeing her learning. When Craig asks her to bring or show me something she does it. This seems so small but the first time she did it I was so impressed! We are excited to take her out to see Christmas lights at some of the 'hot spots' around Portland. On our walk a few days ago there were some blow up decorations (yes, on during the day) in someones yard and she was totally enthralled.

She got two of her upper molars in a few weeks ago without us even realizing it. Our Pediatrician warned us that the canines will be the worst for her and could come any time. Sure enough after a fussy afternoon we had a night from hell this past Tuesday. She woke up screaming around midnight and would not settle back down. I brought her to bed with me and Craig went to Reagan's room to try and sleep. She would not go to sleep so I put her back in her crib and then ended getting her again later. She finally fell asleep with me at 5am and slept until 8:30. We left for Olympia Wed and I was so tired but she was doing better. I have given her Motrin twice for the pain and she has been doing fairly well since.

Well that is all here! Love, Brenda

22 week update

Today was another prenatal check up. Every thing is progressing fine. My belly is growing appropriately and I gained 4lbs since my last check up 4 weeks ago. That is right on track with 1lb a week; I was worried that I had been gaining too much weight so I am glad to know that I am not. Baby's heart beat was in the 150s, a little faster than last time; hummmm, maybe it was the cup of coffee I had this morning! I have started drinking one cup of coffee a day, or two cups of half regular/ half decaf. It is well within the allowed amount of caffeine and it makes my morning so what the heck. Next appointment will be the beginning of my third trimester! Crazy.

I have been doing the prenatal yoga video that Candace lent me a few days a week. I really like it and wish I could find time to do it everyday. If I could get my butt out of bed before Katya wakes up but sleep is SO nice! I love how the yoga helps my posture and helps remind me to work on my posture through out the day. As Candace's physical therapist told her, resisting the natural tendency to compensate for the growing belly with poor posture is very important. It helps alleviate back pain and that is extra important since I lug a 23lb kid around all day. I have been walking a lot too and feeling so much better with regular exercises. I have not been doing any cardio which I really should add in.

I am having the round ligament pains that accompany the growing uterus and occasional cramps/bladder spasms that I got near the end of my pregnancy with Katya. They are not as terribly painful as they were with Katya, yet anyhow, but I did not get them this early with her. I am not looking forward to the discomforts of the third trimester and I have already felt myself slow down in my movements. Oh well, it is part of the deal.

I will be posting a Katya update later in the week. ~ Brenda

New pictures

November's photo album has been added! ~ Brenda

Baby Reagan

We are pretty sure we are going to name our little one Reagan. It has grown on Craig and he currently likes it better than Greta. We still like Greta and are keeping our minds open but I doubt it will change. I have been calling her Reagan lately to get use to the name and really try it out. It seems kind of funny to be calling her by name already but it took me so long to attach Katya to her name that I feel using Reagan's name will help avoid that. We are still not set on a middle name but are leaning towards Ames.

Craig got to feel her move this week which is very exciting. I have felt her move on my hand a few times too. She still does not seem super active to me but she definitely lets me know shes in there, especially at night. My belly has grown leaps and bounds in the last 3 weeks which is great because it means she is growing!

Play group

Last week in the church bulletin there was a note about a toddler play group. I called the gal yesterday and today was the first meeting. It was just 3 moms (including me) with 1 kid each but it is so nice to get Katya in a play group. We met at the parish center and brought some toys for the kids to share. The two other little boys are 11 months and 22 months so Katya fits well in the middle. I think she had fun but she got tired quickly and was going over to her stroller and saying "bye" about 30 mins in. It is nice to get to know some young moms in my parish and for Katya to socialize. I am going to try to start taking her to the library reading time for toddlers on Fridays. Another good opportunity to meet moms and for her to be with other kids.

Oh Christmas Tree!

I love this picture of Craig and Katya! Here we are in Banks Oregon picking out and cutting down our Christmas tree. The place we went to was some property owned by a very nice retired couple. They had lots of tree to chose from and they were very reasonably priced. They only have Nobles and charge 30$ for a tree up to 7.5ft (which we got) and 40$ for anything bigger. Katya loved being out there and had her first cup of hot coco. Yummy!