Let's Make Some Noise - Sarah Style!

PLEASE PRAY FOR STELLAN!

It's gone from bad to worse. Stellan and his Mommy need our prayers. The MckFamily needs anything and everything for their little boy right now.

Finally some new pages on the website!

Hooray! I got some done. I still have a TON to go, though.

Enjoy

Dear Daddy,

Hi, Daddy, this is your Sarah Bear. I wanted to write you a little note since I missed you. There are so many things that you get to see soon! I have been a busy little girl. Pictures don't do justice to what I have been doing.

Grandpa Kent taught me how to tilt my head to the side and look sooooo cute! I think you are going to be even more tightly wrapped around my finger. Trust me, you won't be able to tell me no.

I have such a crooked grin and crinkly nose when I get happy. You'll want to pinch my cheeks all day. But, please, not too hard!

I can clap my hands and I have started to do it when Mommy says 'yay'. I have started to wave at people, too. Mommy has to help me a little, though, since I don't have that great of coordination.

Bath time is one of my favorite parts of the day. I love to splash in the water and grab at the floaty toys. Grandma Nancy loves to help me clean all those cracks you love!!!!

I can help play peek-a-boo. I take the blanket off my head, or yours, and then I can lift it up to try and hide you again. Mommy thinks it's so funny and gets so happy when I do it.

When you dress me I can help put my arms through the holes. But my thumbs always get stuck since I don't know that I have to put my hands in a fist!

I LOVE FOOD! I even say 'mmm' like Mommy does when it tastes good. I have gotten so much better at feeding myself and have started to eat some table foods. I really like bananas and bread. I'm still eating pureed baby food but I am working my way up to the good stuff. Only having two teeth doesn't give me much to work with.

When I get to play in a walker/saucer I get so giddy. I bounce and scream. I love being able to sit up and look around at everything. I also can sit up fairly well on my own on the floor. Sometimes I go a little to far to the side and fall over. But I'm working on it.

I like the puppies that I get to see. Especially that small one they call Callie.

I'm not crawling yet. I just scoot myself backwards and in circles. I don't think my hips are well enough yet. I can stand a bit better but still need LOTS of help with it.

Grandpa Kent says I'm a typical woman. He thinks I'm very vocal and have an opinion. In the car I will talk and talk and talk. Then pass out. But I have lots to say even though nobody seems to know what I'm talking about.

Daddy, I can't wait to show you all these new things I have been working on. Mommy tries to get lots of pictures and videos for you. She says you love me all the time and that you miss me. I haven't forgotten about you! I can't wait to see you soon, Daddy. I love you.

Your Sarah Bear

'Tude With Food

I wholeheartedly believe that depriving my child of (most) food for one day is NOT abuse! I'm sure that sounds absolutely deplorable but let me explain myself...

Saturday we, as in Sarah, Christian, and myself, spent the day with Matt's parents and sister. We went downtown, saw Grandma and Grandpa M, played in the backyard, took naps, Anne and I went to a movie, and we visited with Great Aunt Cheryl and her husband Bob, and Great Grandma Wava that evening.

Now you see there wasn't that much eating described above. This is because a certain little boy with no name IT WAS CHRISTIAN!!!! felt that he didn't need to eat much of anything that day. Breakfast was at the diner downtown. He wanted nothing to do with the blueberries I gave him and didn't even eat a whole slice of french toast. While Anne and I went to a movie, Nancy fed Christian lunch and she said he had one BITE of a hotdog and ONE blueberry...nothing else. Then for dinner we had Cheryl, Bob, and Wava over to Matt's parent's house for chicken enchiladas. Christian decided that he wanted to just eat chips. I let him have about three and told him no more until he ate the chicken. A little fit was thrown and he shoved his plate away, tried to take other people's (ie. Wava's) food, and wanted down.

The mean Mommy I am decided that I would make him sit there until we were all done with our dinner. I repeatedly asked him to eat his chicken and he refused. So then I was even more mean and figured he could sit there and watch us eat cupcakes and ice cream cake. Yep, I said it. I made that poor little boy watch us eat cupcakes!! And they.were.good. Alright, they were downright sinful chocolate-y deliciousness!!

My poor little Christian bawled as we all got to eat dessert and I told him absolutely no cupcakes until he ate his chicken. He still refused. So he was done and he was denied all food for the rest of the evening. I even told Grandma Linda when we got home later that night that she was to not give him a single snack before bed. He went to bed hungry.

I'm sure all you Grandma's and Aunties felt bad for Christian and wanted to let him eat but he has done this too many times since being in Sioux Falls. Poor kid is going to need to eat Flintstones vitamins pretty soon if he keeps this up.

Sunday morning came and I was hoping that it would be a new day. And it was! He got a banana and a small bowl of dry cereal before church and ate it all but one tiny piece of the banana. We were going to IHOP (but it ended up being Denny's because IHOP was SUPER busy as it just opened) for breakfast after church was done and didn't want to fill him up beforehand. There was no need to worry though, the kid shoveled food into his mouth like he was starving! Oh, silly me, he was starving!

I ordered him a sampler off the kids menu. Three chicken nuggets, three mozzarella sticks, and a bowl of fruit. Grandma Linda was also going to share some of her pancakes with him if he wanted them. Christian ate all three nuggets, two of the cheese sticks, a little bite of fruit and at least one of the pancakes. He hardly stopped to talk, let alone take a few breaths. Just one bite after the other.

Since breakfast at Denny's was a late one we didn't do anything for lunch. He had some chips about 2:30pm and that was it. Dinner was tacos. Now he usually eats these but as with everything else I was for certain he would eat, and didn't, I was skeptical about him even picking one up and taking a bite. But almost two entire tacos later he was full and didn't want any more. HOORAY! "Depriving" him of food the day before worked. He was hungry enough to not pass up some good breakfast or dinner goodness.

Now let's hope he loses this 'tude with food while we are here. He is skinny enough the way it is!

Our last few weeks in a quick photo recap!!

I'm still working on the bagillion pictures to get on the website so I wanted to give a teaser.

Fourth of July was spent at the Heffele house in Lake Benton, MN. Christian had his first taste of the lake...literally. I told him to go in and he started walking, tripped, got up, tripped, repeat about six times by the time I was able to grab his arm and help him back to the shore. haha!
It was a really nice day there. Sort of overcast most of the day (as it rained almost all day the day before) and the sun finally came out around 4pm just in time for the pontoon ride.
Here is Christian and his crack!


We didn't do much during the week. Everyone was back at work and we stayed with the dogs. Christian likes to walk them but I believe they are not too fond of it.


The next weekend was a good one as well. Christian went to Grandma and Grandpa Keefer's for the day. Sarah and I were left to our own womanly devices so we did what most women do! We grabbed Grandma Linda and went shopping! We headed up to Brookings for their annual craft festival on a mission to find something for the kids' rooms. I scored for both of them!

Sarah got an absolutely adorable table and chairs and Christian got a HUGE teepee tent for his room!



Today we went to the zoo! Christian even rode the carousel again. :) The first picture is from many moons ago when Matt was in Korea and I went back to South Dakota while he was gone. Look how little Christian was!!!! The second is from today. I tried to put him on the same animal but he didn't want to be on it so I moved him up next to Sarah.



It was a perfect day for the zoo and I'm so glad we went. Sarah did FANTASTIC and Christian loved looking at all the animals. He was even able to name a few! :)

Oh, and here is a family picture at the zoo. We were even all looking!!
*Note: I am NOT pregnant! It was very windy and made my shirt under the sweater puff up!


That's all I have for you today. I'll continue to work on the editing and get some pages up!

Pictures are coming

I'm slowly getting some pictures resized so that I can add them to the website. I also have some videos that I need to get uploaded today if I can. I haven't forgotten about all of you who read the blog and look forward to the pictures!! :-)

It's been a great few weeks and I'm blessed that my husband loves me and the kids so much that he let us go to Sioux Falls without him!! :-) Stay tuned!

A fun few days!

It has been a tiring but fun few days. After getting in Wednesday morning we drove to my parents house to rest, unpack a few things, and then SLEEP!!!!! We all managed to get a few hours in. Christian and I got up about 2:30 that afternoon. We needed some grocery and baby essentials so we first headed to the grocery store. Saw somebody we knew from church and stopped to say hello. Then a nice Amish woman stopped to talk with Sarah and asked her name. When I told her she said, 'Ahh, a Biblical name!' I grinned and said yep! Then I told her I had Christian as well. She just smiled and kept on her way. :)

The Sunshine grocery store over by our house now has a Pizza Ranch where the old flower shop used to be. So we decided that we would have supper there. It.was.good!!!! I loved it and will be going back. haha Christian did okay. He was still out of sorts from the whole ordeal the night before so we just went with the flow. After dinner we went to Walmart to get some baby essentials for the kids then we went back home.

The night went FAR BETTER than we expected. Both kids were asleep by 9pm. Sarah got up once at 1am and then at 5am. I wasn't able to get her back to sleep so Grandma Linda took her for a few hours so I could go back to sleep. I got up about 7:30am to Sarah whining so I took her and got her down for a nap. Christian was still sleeping and we thought we better get him up...at 9am!!! That boy was tired. And he wasn't all that thrilled to get up but we managed to get him to come around.

The next day (Thursday) went well. We hung out at home for a bit and then Sarah went down for her morning nap. After she got up I needed to make a stop at a store in town that sells cloth diapers. I got Sarah some since she was running out of ones that fit her. None for the boy...he needs to be potty trained! After the diaper run we went to see Grandma and Grandpa Petersen. We hung out for a bit before Sarah got fussy and needed to go down for a nap. Christian was tired as well. He was nodding his head on the way home so we knew he was tired. Each slept a few hours.

After naps we had to make another Walmart run. We seemed to keep forgetting abuot the things we needed. After that trip it was time to take the kids over to see Grandma and Grandpa Keefer. We were going to have spaghetti dinner over there. Great Grandma Wava and Great Grandma and Grandpa Moseson stopped by to say hello. Wava brought Chrisitain a dump truck and Sarah her first baby doll. They both loved them. Sarah giggled at the doll and Christian drove that truck all over the floor. Fun had by all. It was getting late, though, and Sarah was getting really upset. (She is also having #2 issues...poor girl).

We headed home and it was time for bed. Sarah went down without a fight. Christian wasn't going to let go that easy. From about 9:45 to almost 10:30pm he bawled. He was just NOT happy to be in bed. In and out, screaming at me, throwing his blankets. He finally bite the dust and let himself just go to sleep. He woke up about 6:30am the next morning and walked right upstairs. I didn't hear him and had no clue he was up. He is in his own room and Sarah and I are in the other. Us girls got up at 7:30am to the sounds of the boy jumping on the floor above us.

It was a good day today. The kids and I went out to lunch with Auntie Anne and then Grandma Linda took the kids so that Anne and I could go shopping. I was in DESPERATE need of clothes that were non-maternity and cute. I have felt like a frumpy mom for the last year or so, so I wanted some cute clothes. Mission accomplished. With what I bought I made about 4-5 different outfits. I even bought two pairs of new strappy sandals! I was very happy and now I want to go shopping some more. :)

Tonight we managed to get the kids fed and bathed by 6:00pm. Sarah made it to bed by 6:30 and Christian was headed there soon after. It was tough, though. From about 7:20-8pm he fought it. We were in and out of there and then just let him cry again. He'll eventually get back into a schedule. Just might take a while. Poor kid is just upside down about it all.

All in all, a very good few days. Tomorrow is Fourth of July and we are headed to Aunt Carol's in MN. Almost all of my Mom's side of the family is getting together with the little cousins for some fun. We are bringing our swimsuits!! :-)

It will die down once everyone goes back to work on Monday. Then the kids and I will be alone during the day with the dogs while everyone is at work. Back to the ho-hum of things. We'll take the dogs for walks, go the the park, and maybe hit up the new waterpark.

But for now, it is goodnight.

We are in Sioux Falls!!!!!

*warning, this is long*

Well, we made it. Barely.

I'm pretty sure this was THE most horrific, longest, most miserable, and absolutely tiring nights of my life. I'm thankful that I will never have to make that flight, with two childre, by myself!, for the rest of my life!!! EVER! I say this because I'm fairly certain I will not be returning to Hawaii, therefore not taking an overnight flight back to the Mainland, until long after my children are grown and have left the house. :-) It will strictly be a vacation with Matt, and most likely to Maui!

At any rate, we made it, and I have lived to tell you all about it.

We left for the airport a few hours early. I had four suitcases, a double stroller, two carseats, and three bodies to get there and checked in. We parked the car and Matt helped me get it all out onto the sidewalk area. Then there was nobody there for NWA to even help me. Matt had to go all the way into the airport and talked to about four people before finally getting somebody with a flatbed cart to help. You get tips, people, so I would be on the ball and help as many people as I could! Anyways, this guy finally came and took my bags to get cleared/screened and brought them to the counter to wait for me to get through the line.

I got checked in and went to stand in line for the security checkpoint. That was sure fun!! Christian was wearing his backpack with the leash but he wanted to play with those divider things and run away from me. Sarah is strapped to my front, my backpack on my back, holding the stroller with two huge carseats piled on top and trying to keep Christian from running off. Nobody was helpful. Finally an agent that watches you step through the metal detector came through to help me at least get the carseats onto the conveyor belt. The stroller wouldn't fit so they checked that elsewhere. Then they just piled it all at the end and didn't take another look at me. I had to get our stuff out of buckets, our shoes back on, the stroller packed back up and then find our gate. Sarah probably was cursing at me. Poor girl was getting jostled around so much in the front carrier. It's a wonder her head is still attached!!!!

We found our gate and I waited in line to see about MAYBE getting the bulkhead seats. I didn't even get my question out and the lady cut me off and said a sharp 'No'. Then I asked if it was possible if she could ask whoever was in the bulkhead if they wouldn't mind switching. She said she couldn't give me the names of the people sitting there. I said that is fine but was wondering if it was even possible. She goes off on a tirade about how the plane is completely full and that there is no room to move people around. I wanted to tell her that she was being quite rude about it all but I bit my tongue.

I went and found a seat and Christian wanted nothing to do with it. So we went and got a bottled water and then came back to our seats filled with other people. We found a spot on the floor, drank some water, had a snack, pointed at some couple as Christian proclaimed loudly that the man was a Daddy (as he does with most people he sees, calling them each a Mommy and a Daddy), and pointed at another man's sandals that had shapes on the bottom; one was a plane. Finally we got in line to preboard. Christian said Bye to anybody he could but I had to keep telling him that EVERYBODY in there was coming with us! haha He still wanted to wave at them. In line I asked if I would be getting any help getting the carseats onto the plane. She said she would go ask and make sure. I saw her walking to the rude lady I spoke to earlier and thought 'Great, she is going to tell her to tell me that they are fresh out of helpful flight attendants and I'll have to do it by myself', but she came back and asked me if I even had seats for the kids. I said 'Yes, I have purchased three seats'. Should have seen the smile that she slapped across her face.

This is where things changed. Now all of a sudden I'm getting a red carpet treatment! Three flight attendants, possibly four, were helping me get the kids and both carseats onto the plane. They even helped buckle them into the seats. then the two main flight attendants for our section of the plane said to let them know if I needed help with the kids. Hooray, some service! We all made it into the seats and I breathed a sigh of relief thinking it was going to be easy-peasy from here. Boy was I wrong....

Let's just say that Sarah maybe used her carseat for no more than an hour. If Christian wasn't in his he was on the floor or in my seat while I hovered a buttcheek over the edge. Sarah was either on my lap, nursing, or sitting in Christian's carseat if I was in the bathroom changing diapers. THANK GOD for the in-the-headrest tv screens and cartoons. THANK GOD for the snacks I brought. Without those two things the flight would have been even worse. I brought one of Christian's binkies that he hasn't used for months in hopes that it would help him sleep. Nope. He chewed on it for about 20 minutes then randomly chucked it three rows up and it was lost forever. I was hoping the cabin lights would just turn off and they would pass out but the flight attendants had to do drinks, which is always a million step process - give drinks, come back for garbage, come back for refills. Then it was the dinner trays; same thing - hand them out, garbage, refills of drinks. I didn't think I would ever be able to get the kids to sleep!!

But in a way, it was a blessing. It made the first few hours go by a bit quicker.

Once all that commotion was done I thought I might have a chance to get them sleeping. No go. Sarah woke up as soon as I got he sleeping. There was a man in front of us with his two kids but he was talking SO loud that it was just annoying. Chrisitan didn't want to sleep sitting up. He would thrash in the seat, want out, kick the chair in front of him (thankfully occupied by the son of the man in front of us), scream, cry, whip his blanket around. I resorted to letting Sarah fuss in his seat a bit while I held him. That didn't go well because he couldn't sit still. He wanted to push all the buttons, play with the tilt of the tv screen, want to walk around.

When I was able to get Christian in his chair for a bit I had to deal with Sarah. She was fussy and didn't want to sleep. She made herself known with some loud conversation. I brought some food on the plane to feed her but I never got a chance so she just nursed a lot.

It was a lot of in and out, up and down, back and forth with both kids. I didn't get my dinner tray because I never had a free minute, or hand, to even feed myself. I resorted to taking some of Christian's teddy grahams and water. They had a breakfast snack tray with a muffin and yogurt about two hours before the flight was to land. That was nice because it helped to break up another hour of the flight. This was at 3am local Minneaoplis time and about 5+ hours into the flight. Still no sleep from the children. Christian was in my seat eating part of the muffin and pushing me out of the way so he could see my tv screen. Sarah was in his seat munching on my yogurt spoon. I managed to get a bite of the muffin that Christian didn't want and to steal the spoon from Sarah to get a bite of yogurt. We passed it back and forth until they came to pick up the garbage.

I tried to get them to sleep again but it didn't work. I finally had enough and told Christian to get on the floor. This is not allowed as you are supposed to wear the seatblet at all times. When the flight attendants came around to check on people they asked where he was. I said 'On the floor' and I think they felt bad and didn't tell me to put him back into his seat. It had been a really smooth flight with absolutely no turbulance so they cut me some slack. It was about 5am and the pilot and flight attendant came over the speakers to inform us all that we would be landing in about 30 minutes. I put each of the kids into their seats and start packing up all our stuff. I give Christian his backpack with puppy, give Sarah her blanket and butterfly and pick up my bag. AND GUESS WHAT HAPPENS???

They both fell alseep in a matter of minutes. To be quite honest, I was a little ticked! I tried for the entire flight to get them to rest and they thought nothing of it. :( So now I know it's going to be a chore getting Christian to wake up and get off the plane.

As they were sleeping and I actually had a moment of peace with no child in my arms I had a chance to talk to the attendant for my half of the plane. He was an older man and he said that I handled myself very well. He said I didn't seem flustered or like I was going to break down. He even said that he has seen a parent flying solo with only one kid break down and cry. So he said that he was very impressed with how I handled the flight. He even gave me back the $2 I paid for the headphones I bought! I didn't even get to open the plastic they were in. He said I won't be flying for a very long time and I said 'You are precisely right!!' He also gave me two mini bottles of water so I didn't have to go buy more if I needed it. When it was time to land and get off the plane he said he and another attendant would get the carseats off the plane for me. :-) Wish I could have hugged this man. I should really send a thank you card to that NWA flight!

Well, the time had come to wake up the sleeping beast, er, I mean boy. He was NOT happy about it. When I managed to get him up and in the aisle he bawled. Matter of fact, he bawled from the deboarding of that plane to the boarding of the other! Well, I take that back. We got to ride on the golf cart things and he enjoyed holding on and having the wind in our faces. I even got him to say 'weeeee'. :-) We got to the gate of the conecting flight and there happen to be escalators RIGHT there. Matt and Christian take the escalators whenever they can so he wanted very badly to get on it. I wasn't allowed to just leave the carseats and stroller so I had to resort to making him walk on the shapes in the carpet. He didn't like that so he screamed and bawled. I'm sure the folks waiting to get on my plane were excited!!

But once we were on and seated he was fine. I checked the carseats and let him sit by the window and look out. (I have a picture of this as well as when they passed out on the other plane that I have to get uploaded). It was a 45-minute flight and we were HOME! A nice man and woman helped me get the carseats and stroller up a flight of stairs (we were in a Saab and had to go down their fold-out steps to outside rather than the walkway they put to the door) and to the awaiting Grandpa! He was lucky enough (aka has some perks that come along with being a police officer!) to get through security to come down and help. We walk to the awaiting family members and I am finally able to announce.

"I'M HOOOOOOOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I'm sorry this was so long! I'll have pictures and some more blogs to add about our first night and day back in Sioux Falls. :-) I'm super glad we are here but I'm missing Matt. He misses us. But we'll webcam and Christian will get to see Daddy. :)

Until next time, America.