Cara's Debut & The Circus

Busy, busy, busy

I can't believe it has been 12 days since I last posted. Time just seems to fly by.

Thursdaythe 17th, my women's bible study had our Thanksgiving luncheon. It was a great time of fellowship and Caleb got to go to the nursery for the first time. He did great and the workers didn't want to give him back. That always makes you feel good. Cara had her musical debut when the 3yr old class performed for their moms. She was hilarious. She is a born performer. She was loud and knew the motions and sang all the words even if she was behind or ahead of everyone else. She was so CUTE!!

Friday the 18th, we went to the Shrine's circus. Kirk's parents came up and went with us. It was a lot of fun. Cara loved the lion and tigers. Her mouth literally fell open when they came out. Then when the dancers and trepezers came out she said "I want to learn to do that." Kylie, Caleb, Debbie and I left at the intermission. I didn't realize the circus was so long. Karissa and Cara rode ponies at the intermission and stayed til 10pm when the circus ended.


Saturday, we went to Grapevine Mills. Just a quick mommy moment...Kirk made a comment I didn't like and I discretely flipped him off so he says "hey mom and dad Jen just shot me the bird." We laugh and keep walking into the mall. On the way ,we notice Cara looking all around and ask her what she is looking at. She says I am looking for the "bird that was shot." We ate at Rain Forest Cafe, shopped a little and the girls got to see Santa. Kylie saw Santa but had no desire to get near him. Karissa went back with Kirk's parents since she is out of school all week.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Caleb had his two month check-up. He is 13 lbs. 4 oz. and 23 1\4 inches. He had to get his shots but he did great. He barely even cried. Kimberly watched the girls so I could take him to the doctor. When we got back the girls still wanted to play so we had lunch and hung out for a bit. Then I went to the doctor thinking I had a sinus infection. No such luck! I was just really dried out and there was no quick fix for it. From the doctor I came home and packed and headed for Wichita Falls. Kirk was coming on Wednesday after work.

Wednesday night, Cara was very fussy and complaining of a sore throat. I get a flashlight out and convince her to let me look. Ahhh it looks like cottage cheese. So we head to now care and get a prescription for strep. She runs fever all night and vomits. What a Thanksgiving. Luckily, Kirk's mom watched her through lunch and Thursday night so we wouldn't expose even more people. ( By Friday night the antibiotics had kicked in and she was feeling great).

Thursday, we had a wonderful lunch with my parents and brothers and sisters. After lunch all the guys (young and old) played street football. It was a blast to watch. Kirk is still sore today. Then we went to Kirk's parents after and watched part of the game and visited. Thanksgiving night we watched Polar Express with my parents and brother and his family.

Friday, my mom and my sister in law and I shopped a little. We didn't get up and dawn and we only shopped to get out of the house for awhile. Then we met my dad and step mom for a late lunch. We ended up at my aunts and had a great visit with some of my dads family that we don't see very often. W went back to my moms and put all the kids to bed at their regular bedtime(finally). Then Kirk went to the movies with his dad and brother and I was just going to read and go to bed early, to get ready for picture day. Instead ,my dad and I sat up and talked about everything under the moon. I don't think I have ever talked to my dad for so long about so much. At one point we saw headlights in the window and it was Kirk coming home from the movies. So he joined in. About midnight, I crashed and dad and Kirk kept on talking for awhile. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this holiday and visit home.

Saturday, we met Kay at Martins Circle to take family pictures. The pictures turned out great. Kylie didn't cooperate but we still got some good shots. Then Kay offered to take some of Caleb at her house so we played with him for awhile. Then Kirk and I did some shopping for the girls and we finally headed home around 4pm.

Today, we all woke up stuffy and coughy. There is something about the trip to WF that does us in. I am dried out again and Kylie even had to have a breathing treatment tonight. It doesn't help that there are 45mph winds outside and the temp is dropping from 70ish today to upper 30's tonight.

Hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Congrats to our friends, the Turners, on the arrival of Londyn, their beautiful baby girl!!

Update

I tried to post Saturday night but I lost it and didn't hae the energy to rewrite it. So here is the run down of my last 6 days.

Thursday: Karissa's friend Raven came to play and we watched Apprentice, Survivor, and ER. I think Thursday is my favorite night of television.

Friday: Both of our parents came to visit, Kirk's for the day and mine overnight. Kirk is so lucky...my mom was here to help him out while I had my girls night out. It was so wonderful. After getting completely lost and having Kirk guide me to where I was going via cell phone, I arrived 45 minutes late. We had a wonderful mexican dinner and then proceeded to talk for the next 5 hours. There were six of us there and we all shared our testomonies to include our life stories. Talk about immediate bonding!! I made it home just fine and Caleb did great taking a bottle.

Saturday: We went to the Botanical gardens with my parents. The girls had fun exploring and running around. The fall is probably not the best time to go but there were some beautiful colors . The girls loved the tree that they could fit inside. Cara was brave first and reluctantly Karissa followed her into the tree. My Dad said it was hollow all most all the way up. We took several "fall" pictures of Karissa hoping to get one to go with the other kids to go on my wall. Then Kylie wanted to pose and have her picture taken, too. Then we came home and napped. We spent the evening relaxing with Kirk's Aunt, Uncle and cousin.

Sunday: We actually made it to church. The youth staff were conducting the service. There are like 15 of them. I missed most of the service with Caleb. Next week he can go in the nursery...Yeah!! Sunday School was great. One of the men in our class is teaching Deut. It is very interseting. We miss Tom and Lance terrible. The style of our pastor is just different but we are adjusting. We watched football and slept on the couch all afternoon. Sunday night we had a celebration dinner with our small group. It was great fun and the food was delicious.

Monday: Catch up from the weekend day. My first MOMS group. I met 13 new woman(some I had met before). We are going through a book called Mom After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George. It looks really good. We spent most of our time sharing prayer requests and praying for each other. I had to share a birth experience since it was my first time. I am looking forward to the next one in December. They are also haveing a Gingerbread house making party. These girls know how to socialize and get time for themselves. I love it.

Tuesday: Today I met a friend at Ridgmar Mall and we had a picnic lunch and the kids played at the indoor playground. It was a lot of fun. Kylie and Ellie are only a month apart in age. Cara played with all the other kids threre and thought Brendan was there. She met a boy who looked like Brendan but he kept telling her that wasn't his name. Oh yeah, Santa Clause showed up as we were leaving and I didn't think I was going to get Cara to leave. I had to promise we would come back so she can talk to him.

I guess that is all thet is going on for now. I wish I could make it as interesting as Amy. I feel so blessed to have found Christ Chapel and to have fit in so easily. All the girls are so friendly. Kirk had lunch last week with one of the guys from small group and he is having lunch today with a different one. He is enjoying making new friends, too.

Land of the Living

I am so excited. I feel like we are part of the living now. For so long we have been waiting. Either on a job, house, church, baby etc. Now we are settled and plugged in. I have a girls night out Friday (and I don't have to take Caleb), then Sunday we have a small group fellowship and Tuesday we have a play date and I start a new moms group and Thursday we have bible study and Cara's class is going to sing. Friday we have box seats for the whole family to the circus. A really nice lady at Kirk's work gave the tickets to us. We will have an entire box to ourselves!! How cool is that?
Yesterday, Karissa's friend Ravin came to play after school. They have been wanting to play since school started but I didn't know how to set it up. We went to Ravin's after school and met her mom and Ravin was allowed to come home with us. They had a blast! I have a new parenting dilema, though. Ravin is very sweet but her home life is not. We do not want Karissa to play at her house. Any suggestions on how to diplomatically handle this??

Caleb is smiling more and more. We had his pictures made yesterday. He would not smile for anything. I think we got a smirk. Then we got in the car and I was buckling him in and he burst into a huge grin. That figures!!

The pictures are just a hodge podge. I have always loved the baby body part pictures. I think his foot turned out really cute. Thanks to Kelly and Alicia for the stripped blanket he is wrapped in. ( I can't remember if I thanked you guys for the gowns and blanket. If I didn't mark it up to lost memory due to child birth and please accept my thanks now). Caleb is quickly catching Kylie in size. He already seems to weigh more since he is so compact.

Rainbow Cookies

Thanks, Grandma Helen for the rainbow cookie dough. The girls had fun making them this afternoon. They had fun eating them, too. Then we discovered they turn your mouth the color that they are. Karissa's tongue is still blue, Cara's isn't bad since her dough was yellow and Kylie's pink just blends in.
We had a boring day otherwise. I spent the whole morning cleaning out the girls room. I am trying to prepare for Christmas. The girls have birthdays and Christmas all within three months!! Then Cara decided at rest time to sneak into Kylie's room and try to play with her. I cannot keep her in her room. I try to rest while they rest but she sneaks into my room or Kylie's room. Cara doesn't need to nap but Kylie NEEDS to nap. Kylie is in the full blown terrible two's and she whines ALL THE TIME. Yeah...I think she may be the worst one yet. She is definately strong willed. I guess God thoght I needed two of them!

Race Weekend

We had a very busy weekend. Friday, Kirk got off work early to go to the races with his uncle. He got home around 11:30. While he was gone Kylie got sick. She was running fever and very whinny. My very favorite thing to do is be a nurse. Just kidding. I am awful at the nursing aspect of being a mom. Anyway, this is the first time I have been alone with a sick child and a baby. Kylie just wanted me to hold her and Caleb just wanted to eat. I felt torn in two and in the end didn't seem to make either of them happy. Karissa and Cara were good and we had a movie night. Karissa and I watched Cheaper by the Dozen and Cara watched a princess movie in a tent in her room.
Luckily, Kirk stayed home Saturday from the races. It was a long day and night. I was ready to get out of the house today. After throwing up at 4am, Kylie seems to be much better. She ate a huge breakfast and slept 3 hours. She hasn't had fever in 24 hours. I hated missing church again! Kirk had to leave for the big race at 10 this morning so we couldn't make it home from church before he needed to leave. He had a great time. His guy Carl Edwards won !!! He came home tired and sun burned ready to watch the Green Bay Pittsburg game. Unfortunately, Green Bay lost again.
The girls and I had a good day, too. We had lunch with Aunt Linda and Paige at McDonalds. Yeah! I got to leave the house for the first time since Friday. Then, Aunt Linda took Karissa and Cara to see Chicken Little. They liked it except for one scary part. Kylie, Caleb and I had a much needed nap. Then we ate pizza with Linda and came home. We don't have anything going on this week so we should be able to recover.
Caleb is growing everyday. I need to get his pictures made before he looks like a one year old. I am sad that he is going to have to move into his own room. The crib is getting too small for him to be comfotable. I like him being in our room. I don't think any of the girls stayed in our room this long. I don't want to get up three times a night and walk to his room to feed him and I don't want him to wake up the girls. I told Kirk we could just put Caleb's crib in our room and he said NO WAY.

Halloween

I wish I was like Amy and could find the time to post everyday!! We took the kids trick or treating last night. They had a good time but it sure was cold. The girls were excited about how much candy they had after the first two houses. Karissa went as Kim Possible. I made her a mask and she didn't want to wear it so she said I'm just a spy. By the end of the night she was a ninja with her turtle neck pulled up over her chin!! Cara went as Belle with a red robe. Kylie was a cute pixie Tinker Bell. She looked so much like Cara when she was Tinker Bell. Caleb was our fourth "sweet pea." All our costumes have gotten lots of use.

On another exciting note...we went down the street and played with our neighbors today. The kids did great and I met another stay at home mom. We had a great time talking. We also had a playdate last week with Kimberley. She looks great. They only live about 15 minutes from us. I am finally starting to feel settled in.

Health Update: Kylie's face rash (??) is spreading to her neck but she is keeping band aids on better. Cara is still taking her antibiotic but feeling great.

Mommy moments: Caleb laughed out loud when I put him in his tub tonight. He also went to sleep by himself in his cradle.