good influences

Chad and I got to experience a great moment on Sunday at church. When we got to 8:30 church we saw my parents there with the triplets. This of course made Carter *very* happy! He loves his cousins and wants to be with them a lot. I was a little nervous because church has been a little trying these days. Mainly because Camden does not want to sit still and because he wants to talk and be loud. So I thought adding 3 more kids to the mix might lead to disaster but much to our surprise it was nice. That's right, the kids were all good (except Camden). Not that I expected the triplets to be naughty but Carter can influence them to talk more and mess around. I actually looked over at one point and Carter was sitting between Xander and Grace and they were all drawing in their childrens bulletin. Both Xander and Grace were coloring within the lines and taking their time. When I looked at Carter he was doing the same thing! He was actually recognizing that their were different objects on the page and that you color them separately. Now I realize that he didn't do the best job, but if you have ever seen his other drawings he usually just scribbles all over and disregards the design on the paper. But he was content watching what they were doing and copying their behavior. We just love seeing Carter copying good behavior. It gives us hope that he will do well in preschool.

18 months

My baby turned 18 months last week! We just had his doctor appointment yesterday so I thought I would share his stats. Weight- 22lbs 9oz which puts him in the 9th percentile. At least he is staying consistent. We talked to the doctor about his eating habits and he gave us a few pointers. His length was 32 1/4 inches which puts him in the 55 percentile. His head is 18 3/4 which puts him in the 44th percentile. He got a clean bill of health overall and the doctor thinks he is doing well. He is continuing to talk more and more which makes us happy. He is now saying -door, please, grandma, grandpa, baby, nase, tatze and his old words ball, mama, dada, cracker and blankie. He is starting to parrot a lot more of what we do and what we say. He will copy almost anything that Carter does. He is hitting that stage of defiance and his ornery personality is really coming out. He likes to run away when you want him to come and he will test you every time you say no. And he does it with a big huge grin! I never thought it could be worse than Carter but I think he might be trying. He is also into that yelling out and whining to get attention. Not my favorite part of toddler hood but hopefully it won't last long. He loves to be outside and is very fond of his "blankies." He has two little ones and one was suppose to be a back up but he insists on having them both. He likes to read but prefers looking at them on his own. We are trying to extend his attention span so we can have more family reading time. He still gets crabby if he doesn't eat right when he is hungry, but overall he is a happy go lucky kid with lots of grins to show. He also got 2 more bottom teeth this last month. He got the two teeth next to front two. I am happy his mouth is filling out so he can eat more foods without us cutting them up. He is doing well with the bunk bed transition now. It took about 4 days of major "super nanny" help and the whole process took about 2 weeks. It is not perfect but they don't get out of bed anymore and most days it takes 15-30 minutes to fall asleep. They occasionally need us to tell them to be quiet or lay down but we are so happy it is not complete torture anymore. I will be interested to see how he acts when the new baby arrives but I hope it is a smooth transition.

31 Weeks

Well another week down, only 9 more to go! I will say things are crazy around here trying to tie up last minute things with the baby. It would help if my body allowed me to do more than one or two things in a row without needing a break but we are hanging in there. We want this baby to stay in as long as possible. I have another ultrasound with the perinatologist this week to check on the heartbeat so I will post more on that later.

30 weeks

in all it's glory!

Carter likes to be a part of the photo shoots now

showing off his baby bump

Here are my 30 week photos. The pregnancy is trucking along. I am starting to feel the effects of third trimester pretty hard right now but I am trying to focus on the good. The swelling is pretty much a common occurrence and I have resorted to wearing ted hose at night to keep it at bay. I don't like the way the puffiness makes me feel that I would rather wear hot socks to decrease it. I am peeing like crazy these days. I get up at least twice a night now. Luckily my pelvis is holding up a bit better than it did with Camden. I have my moments where it hurts but it is not near as bad as it was with Cam. I have a really weird thing going on where my stomach feels numb/tingly/on fire for most of the day. It comes and goes and is worse when I sit forward, but seems to be getting worse the further along I get. I don't know if it is a body part of the baby's that is pushing against it or if the baby is sitting on a nerve but it is such a weird feeling. I feel like I get tired pretty easy these days, but I am trying to enjoy the last little bit of pregnancy. I have to say that this baby is the most active of any of my children. He moves constantly. he is still head down but is facing towards my belly button. So I feel all the punches and kicks. The baby still has an irregular heart beat so I will see the specialist again next week to make sure all is ok. I just can't believe that we will have a new family member in less than 9 weeks! craziness!

31st birthday

Yesterday was my 31st birthday and was a pretty good day. I had a fun weekend celebrating with family and friends. I got to eat out, go to a movie and eat a big cookie. My mom and I went shopping on my actual birthday and then I went out to dinner with some friends. It was a nice day and a break away from the usual day. I put this video together just for fun. enjoy!

Adventure Land

Xander, Carter, Will and Grace

covered wagon ride

I think the train is always a hit with Carter

the boat ride

Carter's favorite ride - The Frog

Carter got to have a special treat this year and went with Grandma and Grandpa Niebuhr and his cousins to Adventure land. They spent the whole day there, stayed in a hotel and then the next day went to a spray park and a playground. Carter had a blast and he loved being with his cousins. He still randomly talks about the rides he went on. My mom said he was always serious when he was on the ride but afterwords was all smiles. He was able to keep up with the older kids and he was not happy when the fun ended. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Happy 4th of July!

The kids watching smoke bombs

me and the boys

our star pancake breakfast

not the best picture

here they are in all their glory

brothers

messing around

silly bean

Mr. monkey see monkey do

swimming

playing with daddy

he loved this frisbee

getting out of the water

Driving the boat

on the paddle boat with grandma (Camden is on it too)

he almost fell asleep on the ride

We started our Fourth of July festivities on the third. We went out to Randy and Judy Bailey's cabin in South Bend Nebraska. We have been going for the last few years and every year the kids have more and more fun. The kids swim in the lake and play in the sand. Carter particularly loved the boat ride this year. He got to drive for awhile which made him so happy. Camden didn't seem to mind one way or the other. He was too busy hamming it up for all the passengers. Neither of the boys *loved* being in the lake but they did spend sometime there. They both really liked the sand and Carter spent most of his time there. They also had some games with prizes for the kids and Carter liked that a lot too. They played on the swing set and ate yummy food. Then around 10 we watched a fireworks show that was fun. Carter was funny during it. He didn't really care one way or the other in the beginning of the show but when the finale hit he was really excited about the fireworks. Camden was sleeping so he didn't get to enjoy the show. We didn't get home till after 11pm. They boys were wiped and slept well. We even got to sleep in until 8:30! That never happens. I then made a star pancake breakfast with whipped cream, strawberries and blueberries. The boys thought it was pretty cool and I only wasted half the batter trying to figure out what the easiest way was to make them. We lounged around during the day because it was rainy all day. We watched the movie "Up" which Chad and I enjoyed more than the kids but was still a good time. Then we went to Al and Karen's for a 4th of July celebration at their house. Carter loved watching all the people light of fireworks and I had a heart attack watching him. We had another late night that ended by Carter asking for his pajamas and asking to go home because he was tired. What a sweet boy! All in all it was a great weekend full of family and friends and the kids had a blast! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

(make sure you check out all the posts I did below, I think their are 4 others)

29 weeks

My 29 week photo. Not the best but I am just happy I remembered to do it. Sorry third baby.

Bunk Beds

The *Before*

Helping Grandpa
he had is own drill and enjoyed helping. he stayed the whole time they put it together. he felt pretty important and thought he was contributing. it was pretty cute how excited he was.

Camden *helped* a little too

getting close to finishing

all done and tucked in

ready for his big boy bed

pure joy!

At the end of June we finally got our bunk beds we ordered. Carter has been waiting for this day for a long time. He talks non stop about how he gets to sleep on top and that he is going to climb up the ladder and be careful. We have been anticipating this day, and although it was exciting we knew we were going to have another uphill battle with all the change. We were going to do it slowly but then we decided not to torture ourselves and just do it cold turkey. That meant we Carter was going to sleep on the top and we were not going to ease him in. It also meant that Camden when from crib to bed in one night at 17 months old. We got pretty lucky in the beginning and the kids did pretty well with the change. The first night was a lot of talking, giggling and shenanigans but they both fell asleep around 9:15- 9:30 (normal bed time is 7:30) unfortunately Camden woke up early at 6am so he was pretty crabby, and he woke his brother up. Then for nap time they were both tired so they went down pretty easy that day. Since then Camden has realized he can climb in and out of bed and he LOVES his new found freedom. Not one nap time or bed time has been complete without him getting out of bed at least once. The worst part is he thinks it is funny, and he keeps Carter awake. This also eggs Carter on to be naughty or to tell Camden to do the naughty stuff. Carter is realizing that getting out of bed usually ends bad for him so he has rarely gotten out lately but he will try if things seem worth it. He tries to give us the excuse that Camden does it but we try and give him the power and control by telling him he is the big brother and he has to teach Camden how to stay in bed and be quiet. He likes the responsibility for about 1 minute and then it seems more exciting to get into trouble. All in all we are sticking to it even though it is tough right now. We just hope once the baby gets here they will be settled and things will be routine again.

Strawberry Patch

all the kids together Carter, Maddi and Ethan

running to the fields

Taking off

The steps of picking - Step one- find the right strawberry

Step two- pick the strawberry

Step three- show mom for approval

Step four- put it in the box

everyone picking

one of many berries he ate

more berries

a mouth full

all done

our loot

I am sad to say that this post is pretty late. But in mid June I thought it might be fun to take Carter to Roca Berry Farm to pick strawberries. It is a super short picking season so we needed to get out their. Our plans were to have grandma watch Camden (thanks grandma Ellen) so we could have some one on one time. We also went with my good friend Rene and her kids Ethan and Maddi. It was a pretty nice morning and not very busy which made it really nice. It did take a toll on my pregnant body. I forgot how much bending over and standing up you do. It was very worth it though. Carter had a blast and even did an ok job picking out strawberries. I had to give him a quick lesson on which ones were good and which ones were bad. He did help me a little but he loved following Ethan and Maddi and just playing around the fields. There are always dogs out there which Carter also enjoyed. We ended up with a decent amount of strawberries and one very messy and full kid.