Minivan shopping

The dreaded minivan shopping actually began quite some time ago, when we knew that we wanted a 3rd child.  Even though I knew then that it was a ways off, I wanted to make a really good decision when the time came so I started doing my research.  I did lots of on-line research, including looking at all the non-minivan options that have 3rd row seating.  This is becoming more and more common in the SUV class.  But really, it is just like adding extra seating behind our second row in the Jeep and so is very cramped on space.  The bigger options, like the Chevy Suburban and the Toyota Sequoia are just too gassy guzzling for my economy conscious taste.  So that leads us back to the lame-parent labeling minivan!:-) 

I don't care so much about the minivan stigma now that I have gotten use to the idea.  They are so darn practical and I am looking forward to having the additional space (if I could count the number of times I have bonked my poor kid's heads getting them in their car seats in the Jeep...).  Plus some are much better looking than they use to be and are available with nice interior trim options (leather please!!).  As far as looks go, I prefer the Honda Odyssey to the competition.  Craig likes the Toyota Sienna (and the Odyssey) and we both don't mind the look of the VW Routan (which is a Chrysler Town & Country masquerading with VW upgrade touches.  The Dodge Caravan is also a Chrysler base product).  The Odyssey wins out in all the reviews and holds it's value the best; you could have probably guessed this based on the number of those things on the road, they are everywhere!  But reviewers also really like the Sienna.  After extensive on-line research I think we have decided to bypass the Chrysler/Dodge/VW minivans as well as the Kia Sedona, and go straight for the class leaders.  The problem with the class leaders of course, is they are damn expensive.  We will not buy new but just to give you an idea, a loaded 2011 Odyssey is somewhere around 43,000$ while the Sienna is slightly cheaper, closer to 40,000$. 

I c&p some pictures of the 2008 models since these will be more like what we are looking at (both vans have new 2011 body styles).



Sienna:
 

We had planned on going out tomorrow to look at a 2003 VW Eurovan, but decided not too.  That is the last year that VW sold the Eurovan in the states and so is the newest you can find.  The Eurovan is a VW product, not Chrysler, and I hear that people love them but after more research I decided to check it off our list.  The Eurovan is kind of a hip van, despite it's ugly appearance, and it has TONS of interior space.  But those things aside, it gets about the same gas mileage as the Jeep (we are hoping for a little better) and it drives like a full size van.  While it would be awesome for vacations, 95% of its use would be day to day, around town driving.

Craig talked to a 'car guy' at our wonderful Pacific Northwest Federal Credit Union and it sounds like we will be able to get a darn good deal going through him.  It is kind of like a personal shopper for cars.  He finds the best trade in value for our Jeep and finds us the van we want for under retail value.  It is all done through the credit union financing (we already have our Jeep loan with them) so we get the loan paper work set up and then the car guy goes out and finds us a van.  So what we have to do is go out and test drive and tell our car guy as specifically as we can what we want.  He is going to set up a couple of test drives for us soon so we can decide which van we like best.  I guess he calls us when he has something that fits our wish list and we say yeah or neigh.  We don't get to look at the actual van we buy before we buy it which is weird but it does take a lot of the stress out of buying a car.  And the Credit Union backs up the transaction the way any dealership would.  All we do is say what we want and fill out the paper work.  No haggling, no endless searching and test driving.  It will be nice to work with someone who feels more 'on our side' then a dealership salesman. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Katya and Reagan

I love these outfits that my mom got the girls for Christmas! I had to snap a few pictures of them looking so cute.  The headbands were a gift from Aunt Cee-cee.

The girls are doing really well sharing a room. A few nights this past weekend they were talking and playing too much but they were out by 9:30, which could have been worse.  Mostly they fall asleep by 8pm after talking for a little while.  Naps continue to be a challenge and we are working on ironing it out.  I started putting Reagan down in the baby's room this week but it is not working too well because they are talking to each other through the wall.  Today we caught Katya going into the baby's room during nap time to see Reagan.  She told Craig, "But I miss her!"  We can tell they are both really enjoying each others company which is fun.  Of course it can lead to trouble.  Katya likes to turn the hall light on and open her door half way so they can look at books.  This has happened a few times now and we have to go up and break up the party:) 

I know I have said it before, but Katya sure is a caring big sister. She is always concerned when Reagan cries and asks "What she is sad about?"  They really have a great bond forming and get along better than I could have hoped for.  At least for now!  Reagan is starting to hit the 'terrible toddler' age but is not too bad yet.  When she gets mad or upset she lays on her belly and cries and whines.  Craig and I have to stifle our laughs because it is so funny!  She still has the best manners of any 21 month old I've ever met!  Constantly saying "please" (she often clasps her hands together as she says it, accentuating her desire) and "thank you mommy."  She is increasingly attached to her favorite stuffed animals, bunny and bear. She loves pushing them around in her stroller and putting them 'to bed.'  She is talking to them and pretend playing with them more and more.  She is really attached to both of them as a pair and often refers to them as "Bunnybear."  She also likes to call Craig, "Daddymommy" which is pretty funny.  She calls me that sometimes too, when Craig is around.  It is fairly fitting; to her he is the 'daddy' version of mommy.

Katya's imagination is really taking off.  I love hearing her make up stories and play with her little princess dolls.  She uses this really funny high voice when she is pretending with them.  She likes to fix them tea with her tea set and make them 'food.'  Today she made me some pretend cookies but told me, "You have to eat your fruit first!"   We had a very yummy snack yesterday of yogurt sprinkled with All Bran, blueberries and diced peaches and Katya started calling it, "ice cream with sprinkles."  The other day she asked to play with the party hats left over from her last birthday.  She had so much fun setting up a 'party' with her tea set.  We all sung Happy Birthday too her and then she puts toy in a bag and pretended to open the present.  Silly girl!  Once in a while it is mommy, daddy or Reagan's birthday but mostly Katya's:-)  Hope everyone is having a good weekend!  Love, Brenda

16 weeks

I had another midwifery check up on Monday.  Just a routine visit so nothing too exciting to report.  It was fun to hear baby's heartbeat again; Katya was very interested in that.  I gained about a pound and a half since my last weigh in which was a little less than I expected.  I am sure I will start gaining more soon so I am trying not to worry about it.  I have been throwing up about once a week which is annoying but I guess it could be worse.  I just hate throwing up and wish it would stop!  Overall I am still feeling okay and have been eating a pretty good diet and exercising.  It feels incredibly good to be working out again and I hope I can keep it up.  I do step aerobics (old school, I know) for cardio and lower and upper body weight bearing, usually my Kathy Smith tapes.  I am working on getting more yoga into my routine and to learn more abdominal exercise that is safe to do with an expanding belly. 

One exciting thing, our 20 week ultrasound is scheduled!  I had to resist the temptation to ask for the ultrasound early (they can do this routine ultrasound as early as 17 wks though they can see more closer to 20 wks).  I decided that Feb 14th would be a perfect day for it, being Valentine's Day, and I will be 19 wks and 5 days.  Really, it is just around the corner.  We are excited to find out our baby's gender, hopefully the little rascal behaves him/her self.  I am hoping for a boy and Craig and Katya both want a girl.  We have both a girl and boy name picked out, which is always the hardest part; either way we will be thrilled.  I am a big believer in 'you get what you get and you don't get upset!'  I get annoyed with people who have more children just to 'try for a certain gender'.  Craig gets annoyed with the "you have to have a boy to carry on the family name" attitude.  We are passing on the things that are important to us in our girls just as we would a boy.  I also get really annoyed with people who seem to forget that the purpose of the 20 week ultrasound is to asses your baby's health and anatomy, not find out the sex.  Opinionated?  Who me?  No way:-)!  Until next time....

New Arrivals!

They are here!  The much anticipated birth of our friends twin boys, whom I have been writing about the past few months.  I am happy to announce that Benjamin Daniel and Grayson Laurence arrived safe and sound via cesarean delivery today!  Little Benjamin, affectionately known as 'baby A,' was 3lbs 10oz and is doing quite well.  Grayson Laurence was 5lbs and is also doing fine.  Grayson's lungs were a bit under developed, somewhat unexpected since his brother was the one causing concern, but he is after all a preemie.  He required some steroid therapy to help develop his lungs and some supplemental oxygen.  Shannan is recovering fine, though she is really itchy from some of the medications give to her for the surgery; yuck!  They are truly gifts from God and an answer to prayers.  To think the doctors were giving Benjamin a predicted little to no chance of survival some 12 weeks ago.  Thank you so much to all who have been praying for them.  I will keep my readers updated on the twins progress.  Love, Brenda

More outtings with the girls

Last week we went to Posies coffee shop three days in a row. They have fun stuff for kids almost everyday during the week. Monday was suppose to be "Mr Ben" music but he was not there; I heard from some other moms that his wife was in labor. I guess that's a good excuse! We still had a fun time playing in the kid toy room. The next day we made it for Mo Phillips music which is always great and on Wednesday we attended a shadow puppet theater show for the first time. It was a little hookie but Katya loved it! When we got home we made our own 'shadow' puppets out of construction paper and Popsicle sticks (though we did not do the shadow part, just played with them as is). We had so much fun making up stories for our puppets. Katya is really into preforming arts and I am hoping to take her to see "Go Dog Go" put on by the Children's Theater this spring.

Here are some pictures of the girls at the Children's Museum. We sure have fun together! I am such a lucky mom to get to enjoy all these wonderful moments with my kids!

Snack time:

Face painting:

Playing with clay

Katya at the "vet" office.  She loves typing on the computer and calling pet owners,

Recipe share

I was going to e-mail this recipe to some of my family but I decided why not share it on my blog.  It is a brown rice curry salad that I got from a Shape magazine some 7 years ago.  I lost the original recipe about 5 years ago but I have made it a few times since then and I think I have the gist of it.  Start by making the rice and then add the 'crunchies' to your liking.  The recipe may have had red onion in it but I am not a fan of raw onion so I leave it out.  You can edit this recipe and mix it up.....add chicken for a more protein, feta cheese for a zip or use a red wine vinaigrette dressing to make it lower in calories. 

Salad:


Brown rice cooked, cooled (1 cup uncooked)
grn apples cubed
celery, chopped
red bell pepper, chopped
sunflower seeds
dried cranberries

Dressing:

1/2 c plain yogurt
1.5 T mayo
1 T lemon juice
curry
salt                                                          > spices to taste
dash of paprika or chili powder

Toss salad with dressing, serve chilled. 

I was disappointed that the kids wouldn't touch it.  The craisins and grn apple make it so sweet and crunchy, I thought they might go for it.  But that is the life of feeding toddlers.  They are so picky!  It can be frustrating to get a healthy diet into these kids.  I just always try to remember the "parent says what, kid says how much if any" rule.  It is tempting to want to give them something else if they won't eat what I am offering but not a good precedent.  It is also easy find yourself not offering veggies (particularly green veggies) just because they won't eat it.  I got into that trap a little when Katya started to get picky but quickly caught myself.  I continued to put peas, broccoli, salad, ect on their plates and sometimes, low and behold, they eat it.  Kids will never eat learn to eat their veggies it if they arn't offered!  Plus it gives me the amo to say, "sure you can have more honeydew after you eat a peice of broccoli."  And of course, one of the most important rules to follow is to make sure my own plate has greens on it... and eat them!  This was tough when I was in the throws of severe morning sickness but easier now.  Teaching by example is my absolute favorite motto:-)

Carousel outting

A few cute pictures of a recent trip to Jantzen Beach carousel.

Katya loves it!

Reagan likes riding on the chariot with a parent. She is not a fan of ridding a horse. She says, "No. No! Don't like it!"

Reagan in her hand knit 'ladybug' hat made by Aunt Eryn! Super cute and she will actually leave it on for a while...since she loves ladybugs!

Another view of the hat.

A Ross twin update: The cesarean has been scheduled for January 21st! Shannan will be one day shy of 35 weeks! Amazing. While baby A is still much smaller than his brother, they are both over 3lbs which is great. I guess a doctor thought that baby A's heart looked a little enlarged on the last ultrasound. That coupled with his slow growth is the reason they went ahead and scheduled the surgery. It makes sense though, that they go ahead and deliver soon with all the complications they have had. It is a true answer to prayers that the babies have stayed in so long. I am praying for a safe transition to outside life for both boys, strong lungs and strong suck reflexes. Thanks so much for the continued prayers!

The Girl's Room

Katya was so excited for her sister to move into her room that I went ahead and did it on Monday, even though Reagan was still a little sick. The first night was a bit rough because R had been getting up twice a night with her illness. She was not too sure about the switch of rooms but now, 5 days later she is settling in just fine. The thing Miss Reagan is most attached too is being rocked before bedtime so I moved the rocking chair into their room for now. I guess she is going to get weaned of that over the next 6 months, as my belly grows bigger and bigger the harder it will be to rock her (she lays belly to belly on my lap).

It reminds me that I never posted pictures of Katya's room with her big girl bed, though most people have seen it by now. Their room looks so cute!

The second night was easy because Katya needed to go down at 7pm (no nap) and Reagan stayed up til 8pm. I snuck Reagan in while Katya was sleeping and there were no issues. The next night they were due to go down at the same time and they talked quietly for about 30-40mins before falling asleep; success! The fourth night they went down together again and we forgot to turn the monitor on so not sure how long they were up but we never heard anything. I am so pleased!

Naps have been a bit harder. I was planning on putting Reagan in the pack and play in the baby's room for naps but after the first night when she was showing concern for the change I decided it would be better for her to consistently go down in her new room. The first nap day, Katya wanted to go down at 1pm with her sister. They talked for an hour and I went in and found about 30 books in Reagan's crib. I had a talking to Katya about that, let her get up and put Reagan back to bed (she then slept for a couple hours). The next day worked perfect, R went down at 1pm and I snuck K in at 2pm, they both slept. R woke up at 3:30 and I ran in and took her out before she could wake up her sister. K then slept until almost 5pm (which is what she does when she naps).  The problem is that Katya rarely naps.  I tried to talk her into going down in the guest bed but she wants to be in her own room.  The next nap rolled around and this time when I snuck Katya in she started reading books out loud and woke up Reagan (even after she had been warned not to do so).  I pulled her out and put her int he guest bed as punishment for not following directions and she screamed and cried for the next hour.  Reagan, fortunately, fell back to sleep after a little rocking/snuggle time.

I am excited to set up Reagan's big kid bed.  It will go were her crib is now, until Katya is 5 when we can set it up as a bunk bed.  It will be a little more crowded but I think it will look so cute.  She will be using the the top bunk bed until we set it up as a bunk, which has railings on 3/4 of the bed so it seems like we can transition her sooner than later.   We will wait until she is at least two and will play it by ear to determine the right time.  I hope she doesn't become really attached to the crib like some kids do.  But of course the baby can use the pack and play until the crib is freed up.  Katya already refers to R's old room as the baby's room.  She is so excited for another sibling!

Open gym

Here are a few pictures from our trip to 'open gym' (at our local community center) right before Christmas.  It turned to be a great day to go because it was super slow.  It gets to be a bit much for me when it's too crowded.  As some people know, I am not always the biggest fan of other people's kids....especially when their parents aren't paying attention to how bratty they are being:-)

Katya on a tricycle:



In a little car:

Sisters on rocking 'horses'

Reagan riding backwards:

This is what I found before we left for open gym...I had to run back into the house to grap my water bottle and found them in their camp chairs when I returned.  So cute I had to go back for my camera!  It was just icing on the cake that K was wearing her witch hat and R was wearing a fireman hat. 

Expecting!!!!!

Most readers have by now heard our news....baby number 3 is on the way, due July 5th!  We are very excited, though a bit nervous about having three kids ages 4 and under!  This baby is coming a little earlier then we had originally planned but we are very happy with the spacing of the three kids.  They will each be 2 years apart, Katya and Reagan being a little less and Reagan and new baby a little more.  We really love how close in age the first two are so I think it is perfect to not have the last one too far back.  We plan on stopping with three children so hopefully there are not twins in there!!

I am 14 weeks today, just beginning the second trimester.  I am still nauseated off and on through the day but overall feeling much better than a few weeks ago.  I have been quite sick, sicker than my first two pregnancies but not as bad as with Reagan.  I had very bad nausea and vomiting with Reagan until week 20 so I am very grateful that I am feeling better already.  My food aversions were pretty bad but not as horrible as with my girls (I was surprised to find that I lost 5lbs with this one, more than with Reagan since I felt like I was sicker with R).  The nausea was not all day, everyday as it was with the girls.  It came and went and I was thankful to get some breaks from it.  The vomiting horrible.  On a good day I would only throw up once or twice, on a bad day it was all day long.  I could barely function on these days and they often fell on a day that Craig was working his doubles.  Vomiting is the most exhausting, dehydrating, draining experience.  It really took a lot out of me.  I was more exhausted then with my girls (something I had not thought possible!) and had achy, flu like symptoms.  I felt like I was walking through mud all day, barely putting one foot in front of the other and I would have to sit down often.  I have never let my house get so dirty for such an extended period of time! 

It if fun to talk openly about our pregnancy now; Craig and I have known since Oct 25th and it was hard to keep the secret!  I have had 2 midwife appointments and heard our babies heart both times.  I was so excited and relieved to hear the heartbeat via Doppler at only 9 weeks and 5 days.  We did not hear K or R's that early, in fact we did not hear R's even a week later (we got an ultrasound then to put our mind at ease).  Since I heard baby's heart beat we opted not to get a first trimester ultrasound so our first one will be the 20 week diagnostic ultrasound in mid to late February.  I am starting to get a baby bump, which I love, and hopefully I am starting to put back on the weight I lost during the first 3 months (though some days it is still a struggle to eat).

At 14 weeks, our little baby is fully formed, all major organs are in place.  He/she even has her unique fingerprints.  He/she is about 3.5 inches and weighs about 1.5 ounces.  The little one is moving around like crazy in there, though most moms won't feel it for several more weeks.  I swear I felt baby move at 10 weeks, and once or twice a week since but that seems crazy early.  It is pretty had to differentiate between baby and gas so I could be mistaken.  I do feel pretty certain that I felt this baby one night last week, at 13 weeks.  I felt Katya at 15 weeks (pretty early), but didn't feel Reagan until 17 weeks.

[I am adding in an addendum to this post which has been finished and scheduled for over a week]: 
On Monday I had a major relapse, and one of the worst days of vomiting yet.  I threw up every 20 minutes, for 5 hrs straight.  I then slept for about 2hrs on and off (while the girls were down).  I started throwing up again when I woke up at 2pm and it continued for a few hours until Craig got home and I crawled into bed.  About 3am in the morning I woke up without nausea for the first time and was able to take some Tylenol for the horrific headache I had had all day.  I threw up a lot of fluid all day but never felt as though I was dangerously dehydrated.  I am thankful that I did not end up in the ER needing an IV!  The next day I woke up achy and exhausted but not nauseated (not until the evening).   It makes me nervous that I will have more of these awful days.  Logically, I know I will get through it and I know it is worth it, but when I am having one of these awful days it is hard to truly convince myself.  It kind of reminded me of the second stage of labor, when all I could comprehend was ending the pain, my mind had no room to think about the outcome.      

Please pray for a healthy baby and a healthy pregnancy!  I am planning on never, ever doing this again!:-)  Love, Brenda   

Happy New Years!

Hope everyone had a great holiday season! I did not take very many pictures this Christmas. And I took them on 'auto' so the color/quality sucks but I'm sure that the only one it bugs is me:-) I uploaded them backwards and do not feel like trying to fix it so here we go, starting on Christmas at Doug and Sharon's:

Cousin Jena reading to Kayta and Addison:

Reagan with her daddy: (Super cute picture, if only the white balance didn't suck!)

Reagan on the hearth looking at Christmas cards:

Christmas morning at home: Katya opening princess shoes from Santa:

Katya with stockings:

Reagan with stockings:

Katya and Reagan after Christmas Mass on Christmas Eve:

We had a great Christmas!  It was so fun having our first Christmas morning at home since our kids were born.  Katya was very much into Santa/presents now that she is older and Reagan fed off of her sisters excitement.  Katya was a bit confused in the morning, thinking that Santa would be at our house, instead of having been and gone.   We had a lovely time in Duvall with the family and stopped in Olympia on the way home for a quick visit with Grandma Bev and Larry.  The drive home was pretty bad, poring rain practically the whole time but we made it safely. 

We had a quiet New Year Eve at home and spent the next morning at Melanie's with the Godfrey's, which was really fun.  Craig had Friday off and we really enjoyed the three day weekend.  He and I got some projects done around the house, including mounting our TV on the wall and getting Netfix hooked up.  So far we are really happy with getting rid of our cable and signing up for Netflix (we really only had cable because our old TV was analong).  The TV mount works great and allows are TV to be kiddi corner where it use to be, just a bit higher.  It feels more secure than having it on a TV stand with little ones running around and it even has a spot were we can padlock the TV to the mount.  We plan on doing that soon...anything to slow down a crook:-)  We have an antenna mounted behind the TV and we get all the network channels fine, and don't have to pay extra for those that broadcast in HD!  

Another big project I did was organize clothes and get Katya's room ready to move Reagan in.  I moved K's dresser into the closet and organized the drawers so they each have two.  It was nice to go through kid clothes and box up ones that are too small, going to the Smith's, to Goodwill, save for Reagan, ect.  I have been needing to do that for a while.  I still have some work to do in R's closet but all her clothes are moved and ready for her in K's room.  We are just waiting for her to get over a nasty cold/flu before we move her crib in.  Our poor baby has been really sick, running a fever every time she falls asleep.  It has made for some rough nights.  

Well that's it for now, I will try to be better about blogging once I am feeling better but no promises:-)  I have to prioritize and being so tired now, somethings are going to suffer.