We said good-bye to a good friend today.

It's been a while since I have posted (we don't have internet at home).

But today was a sad day as we said good-bye to our dog, Lincoln.

We're not exactly sure what was wrong with him. A few weeks back we found a lump on his nose. We took him to the vet to get it checked out and they thought he might of had a broken nose.

We left him with the neighbors while we went away on vacation. We were managing his pain with pain meds. Well he got worse so they took him to the vet to have X-rays done. It turned out that the lump was tears, his tear duct was plugged because the bone of his nose was deteriorating. We're not exactly sure from what...the pathology report was due back at the beginning of next week. There was two possibilities.
1) bone cancer - which is somewhat uncommon in young dogs (Lincoln was only 5.5 years old). -or-
2) blasto (a fungal infection) - Thinking back on it we think this may of been it (all the sneezing and hyperventilating type noises). We think that he might of had this (which we thought was just allergies and so did the vet). There really is no way of knowing whether your dog has it without a pathology report.

Well today we got a call that Lincoln was in a lot of pain and not moving or responding much. We talked about it and decided to have him put down.

He will be missed, he was a great dog!

The Last 13 Days!

Wondering what we've been up to?!

Well I'll tell you all about it! :)

As you have heard Miss Kendra Mae joined our family on August 1st. Miss Kendra and I came home on August 2nd. I was going to post some pictures from the hospital, but realized they are all on David's computer.

I was very glad to come home. However it was short lived. ;) David and I stopped at the house so that he could show me the new carpet (they labored over my carpet the same time I was in labor)! ;) We were looking down the basement stairs and noticed that they didn't lay carpet at the base (which we were a bit bummed about). Than I noticed some water (not really thinking about it I said, good thing they didn't lay carpet down there, there is water down there. To which David said, "What's the water from?" Good point I never thought of that.

So down we went....and the basement was full of water and the window was out of the sill. We have NO idea at this point what happened (thankfully the window was not broken). So we went to the neighbor's house to pick up the other two kids. Boy were they excited to be home....they were bouncing off the walls and SUPER hyper. Which normally if daddy was here wouldn't of been a problem, but daddy needed to figure out what happen to the window.

Daddy later called a man in our church who must of known something that was going on. Well we found answers. The man was not there at the time, but told us basically what happened. You see it rained TONS while I was in the hospital (Tuesday, the day I was getting out). David had gone home Monday night and stayed with the kids and I stayed at the hospital on my own. Well that morning David went into town to run a few errands (we had had some awful wind and storms earlier that morning, in fact David said there were trees down everywhere in town).

On to what happened at the house. I'll just start (and finish) by asking a few questions.... ;)
1) Do you know how much water a window well can hold? Like how many gallons?
2) Do you know what happens with LOTS of water and water pressure?
3) Especially up against a window?
4) Guess where all the water went when the window popped out of the sill?
5) Guess who had to spend all evening trying to figure out what to do and fix the problem so we didn't get toads or other animals in there to ruin our new carpet?
6) Guess who was home alone with a newborn (just 24 hours old) a 4 year old and a 2 year old (who were bouncing off the walls)? ;)

Yep that pretty much sums it up!

Other than that...we're doing good! We're still trying to figure out how to fix the problem, sounds like gutters on the back of the house might be our best bet!

Back to what's going on here:

A few fun quotes from when the Annika and Van met Kendra.

Donovan- (Saw her for the first time) "Hi, Sweetie." Now he always asks me to put her down so "I can hold you." or "Can we snuggle." He      was doing really good with her, but I think he's starting to get a bit more jealous.

Annika- Walked into the room (not a "hi mom") this is the conversation I have with her...
Annika: "What's her name?"
Me: "Kendra"
Annika: "Couldn't you pick a prettier name than Kendra? Something like Anna?"
That child! :) She likes the name now and has named one of her baby dolls Kendra and has given the name Anna to her puppy! :)

Oh and if you're wondering...Kendra is a pretty good baby! She sleeps great! Goes to bed around 10:30 pm wakes up around 3:30-4 am to eat than back to sleep until 7 am!

Here's a slide show to show you what we've been up to (not much)! ;) But I'm going to bed! Enjoy!

Yep they are related! :)

All these pictures are within 2 days home from the hospital! 

Annika (7lbs 15oz - 21 inches long)

Donovan (7lbs 15oz - 20 inches long)

 Kendra (7lbs 3oz - 19.5 in long)

Bundle of Cuteness!

 

Look what bundle of cuteness now lives at our house!!!

Meet

Kendra Mae Stertz

Born Monday, August 1, 2011 (2 weeks early)

She weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long

I've been a bad blogger!

Wow, I've not done to well on keeping up have I??

Things have gone from busy to busier! ;) But I think they may start slowing down!

A couple of weeks ago David took 5 teens from our church to camp at Northland, so it was me and the kiddos for the week. We spent all our time at home (since the breaks went out on the car on my way into town on Monday, no one was hurt we were on a back road when they went out so nothing to horrible happened). But we did spend time helping Grandma Gabi with Vacation Bible School decorations!

Just this past Sunday-Thursday we finished our Vacation Bible School.

So an update on us:

We are all doing well, keeping busy (as "seen" read above).

The kiddos have been enjoying the warm weather and playing outside a lot!

I'm doing well, ready to be done with this pregnancy...hard to believe I only have about 2 weeks (give or take a week both ways). I had a doctor's appt. last week and my midwife wasn't sure I'd hold on through out this week, but I did...although I guess I have a few hours left in the week). ;) I have another appt. on Monday we shall see how I have progressed at that one. I've been getting contractions on a pretty regular basis now (especially when in a car).

On a side note while talking about babies: between David's family and mine we were blessed with many pregnancies and births. My cousin (Ashley) had her first baby in June (a girl), David's cousin (Joelle) and her husband had their first baby (a boy) in July (in fact a few days ago), I'm due in August (as you know), my sister (Sheila) and her husband are expecting their first baby (a girl) in September, and David's sister (Elizabeth) and her husband are expecting their first baby (a boy) in October! That's a lot of babies in a short time and I can't wait to meet them all!

As for the house...we are getting VERY close to finishing! The trim is all done!! All that is left is:
1) Sheet rocking the garage ceilings (hoping to get this done this week also).
2) Finishing the duct work for the heating system (this is happening this week).
3) Getting the carpet in the bedrooms and down the basement stairs (this should happen on Monday).
4) Finish up the siding on the garage (not a whole bunch left).
5) We have lots of dusting, vacuuming, and sweeping to do also.

Other than that I think we're ready to go. We locked in our interest rates today and have 45 days to close on the house (which means it looks like we will for sure be moved in to our house in 45 days...although we'd like to be in sooner, which is a huge possibility). I've been packing little by little (but we don't have much storage space for boxes).

I think I'll close this post up now (w/ no pictures)...I'll come back and add some tomorrow if I have time. For now I think you got enough information from me! Although you'd probably rather see the pictures than read the posts! :)

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!

Donovan Turns 2!!

Although if you ask him, he tells everyone he's going to be 5! :) Not sure where he got that from.

You can see more pictures from his party here

Looking back on last years Birthday post of where he was at and to where he is now...wow! It's amazing what a little person can learn in a year!

Over the last year he has learned:

 * to walk! :)

*to recognize the alphabet (capital letters he's got down, we are working on lower case letters now, he misses a little under 1/2). We were rather surprised that he knew these, I haven't worked with him at all on the alphabet.

*shapes (the names to the shapes on the tupperwear shape ball, even the difference between a pentagon and hexagon).

*colors (these took him a bit longer, but he's got them down for the most part)

*Alphabet Sounds (he and Annika have been learning these together).

* He talks in full sentences and sometimes too much! Annika told us the other day that he must be a girl because he talks so much (she than said she was just teasing).

*He has also learned numerous songs which he sings when he's in his crib.

*I'm sure I'm missing some!


His Likes:
*slides (playgrounds in general, but loves slides)
*coloring with markers
*legos
*pizza
*tacos
*chocolate cereal w/ marshmallows (we ran out and he's been asking for it since)
*Thomas the Train (I think he might be moving out of the princess stage)
*hide and seek
*singing...he LOVES music
* throwing stuff down the stairs (much to the dismay of his parents)
*freeze-y pops
*pop (he's definitely his daddy's son). If I ask him what he wants to drink he says, "how about pop?"



His Dislikes:
*bed time
*nap time
*potatoes
*when daddy leaves (this makes him very sad)


Fun Facts:
*he's wearing last years summer clothes this summer (size 12 months)
*he loves playing with Annika's blue princess (Cinderella)
*when I asked him what he'd like to drink, milk or water he would answer, "how about some pop?"
*is new question is (since he's moved out of the "how about...'fill in blank' stage), "Should we...(fill in the blank)?" Like "should we have some cake, mom?"
*he ends every sentence with the name of the person who he is talking to (see above "should we..." question.
*he sleeps with a knit (or crocheted) blanket, it doesn't matter what color or whose it is.
*if he even sees a knit (or crocheted) blanket and he's tired his fingers (pointer and middle finger) will automatically go into his mouth (indicating that he's tired or wants a blanket).

Birthday Photos: (I didn't post the one of him sleeping at the top b/c I thought you'd like to see his smiling face).

June 26, 2009 - 12:35 a.m.

June 26, 2010 - 12: 35 a.m.

June 26th, 2011 - 12:35 a.m.