Kristiana 3 months

Kristiana is now 3 months old and such a sweet little baby! This last month she has become a lot more interactive with us; she is always smiling and "cooing" at us. Just tell her what a beeeaaauuutiful baby she is and you'll receive the biggest, brightest smiles! She has recently started reaching out for the toys that hang on her entertainment center or, the rings on her car seat. Kristiana is also sleeping quite a bit better at night. She usually goes to bed around 8 p.m. and wakes up around 2 or 3 a.m. to eat and then, again around 5 or 6 a.m. It's nice that she'll sleep a good 6 or 7 hours in the beginning :) She weighs 14.3 lbs and still has a love for eating! Trenton has nicknamed her K'nana since he can't pronounce her full name.

Salt Lake City

On Sunday we headed to SLC for Kristiana's appointment at Primary Children's hospital. We arrived to Uncle Don and Aunt Arlene's house just in time to go to the Cracker Barrel for dinner and enjoy an evening of visiting with them! Kristiana's appt. was Monday morning at 10 and it went really well. We liked the pediatric dermatologist and she was very helpful in dealing with K's skin issue. She prescribed us some different medications that are supposed to work better than the ones she's on now and hope that if I can keep it maintained for now, this particular case will eventually go away. She diagnosed K as having intertrigo... which is basically chronic eczema. We are thankful for her good appointment! Taking a break at the salt flats

Casey has high hopes for our boy's future! (this is their new way of waiting nicely and safely by the car while we get the other kids unloaded...)

Kristiana hanging out with Uncle Don

After K's doctor's appt we stopped by the SLC airport on our way home to see my parents. They were flying home from Iowa and just so happened to be there on a 2 hour layover... the timing was perfect!

Bathtime

Kristiana loves her bathtime!

Homework

Now that she's in kindergarten, Katie has entered the world of homework. Every Monday she comes home with 3 or 4 pages and it's expected to be back to her teacher on Thurs. There isn't much and she usually sits down in one evening and gets it all done. It's mainly practicing writing the letter of the week (this week is P) and a math page. Sometimes she needs a little help and thats where her daddy comes in :)

Monster Trucks

Before I had boys I couldn't tell you the first thing about Monster Trucks or, the world of Monster Jam. My boys have enlightened me on the different kinds of Monster trucks and I've learned their names (and even a few names of their drivers!) Casey's new RC Grave Digger has taken monster trucks to a whole new level for the boys. They love to spend the evenings chasing it around while Casey has his own fun with it....doing jumps and other tricks. When they're not running Grave Digger, the boys like to line up their monster trucks - big and small - and do comparisons or "zoom" them around the house. Tys and Trent with Little Grave Digger and Big Grave Digger

Katie playing soccer

Soccer

Katie began soccer last week and is loving it! She is learning the skills of the game and enjoying meeting new friends. She has practices every Thurs at 4:30 and games on Saturday mornings at 8:30. Yes, those are early games for us! After last weeks game I soon realized that its a challenge to get all four kids out the door by 8:15.... but, its only through October so I'm sure we can survive :) And it recently dawned on me that I'm officially considered a "soccer mom" now.. hee hee

Katie and Taylor are happy to be on the same team!

BSU kids

Kristiana and Tys are ready for tonight's BSU vs. Toledo game!

Tys' first day of Preschool

Yesterday afternoon Tys began his first day of school at our local Christ Luthern Preschool. I can't believe my little buddy is already in school! He was very excited for school and took no time in getting settled at his table and getting down to business! When I left him he was making circles from Play-Do... I know Tys is going to love this upcoming school year but, I also get the feeling he's going to be their "class clown" :)

Katie's 1st day of Kindergarten

Katie began Kindergarten on Aug 29th and loves it! She is meeting new friends and comes home everyday telling me about the new things they're doing (ie. going to music and the library) Her teacher this year is Mrs. Lane. One thing that surprised me is that she comes home with homework every Monday and works on it throughout the week... then it's returned back to her teacher on Thursday. Guess I didn't think we'd have to be doing homework quite yet...

In her classroom... ready to learn and have fun!

Kristiana's Hospital Stay

As many of you already may know, Kristiana was admitted to the Elko hospital last Wednesday night for a bad skin infection that had turned to cellulitis and an infection in her blood.

A little heat rash began in the crevis of her neck, under her chin, while we were in Idaho about 3 weeks ago. She is a healthy baby with lots of rolls and no neck! So, we had a hard time getting that little heat rash to heal. It soon turned to a yeast rash and the bacteria took over. I had taken her to our local clinic when we got home but the medicine just wasn't working. It was continuing to grow, have open blister-like wounds and just looked horrible! I was going to take her back to the doctor (this time her pediatrician) but when she began running a high fever we rushed her to the Emergency Room instead. She was immediately given IV antibiotics and had labs drawn. She was then admitted to the 2nd floor for 3 days of IV medications and various creams on her neck.
As much as I didn't want to be admitted I was happy to be in the hospital where she was being taken care of and where things were getting done that I obviously couldn't do. I sat for 2 1/2 days in the that hospital bed holding her! We talked, smiled at each other and watched LOTS of t.v.!! We got to know the hospital staff and loved them... they fell in love with Kristiana and took great care of her. Many of them were newer nurses and had never really taken care of a baby before so, Kristiana was also a learning experience for them. Her fiery red rash soon began to heal and the infection level in her blood was down so, we were discharged home on Saturday afternoon with 2 oral meds and 2 creams that are to be applied each 3 times a day. I also came home with an antibiotic because while in the hospital I came down with strep throat, again, and spent those 2 days fighting a fever and sore throat... I figured being in the hospital was a good place to be sick!
We are so thankful to all of our friends and family who helped us out while the baby and I were in the hospital! Casey took a few days of work to take care of the kids and go to Elko to see us. Also, my dad was down from ID and helped out alot. Along with our good friends, Dena, Ambur and Judy. So many people helped out with our kids and feeding them :)

The hardest part was about our baby in the hospital was all of the poking and prodding that she got. We got very little rest due to everybody coming in and out (nurses, lab techs, doctors, housekeeping etc)

All smiles and ready to go home!! We arrived home just in time to watch BSU beat Georgia and, our friends Becky & Tony made us a yummy brisket dinner.... which, was WAY better than hospital food!!