Spring Break Pizza Night

Let me just start by saying that we have the best friends ever (not all of whom were present tonight)!  I love these families and I love these kids.  The kids play so well together.  Caden can not wait to play with his friends and he never ever wants them to go home.  It is always a relaxing time (in the midst of relative chaos) and my awesome friends leave my house looking better than when they came.  We are so blessed!  This afternoon we had a rather impromptu pizza and movie night.  Well the kids were having so much fun in the yard we never put the movie in.  It was such a beautiful day and why not leave the mess outside

We started by making our own pizzas.  The kids made their own personal pizzas which went more smoothly than I expected.  Cooper is the only one cooperating with my photo taking.  If you look closely you can see a foot sticking up.  That is Caden who literally dove out of the way as soon as the camera came out!

All seven kids did a great job and really made very little mess!

Kaley made a pizza that looked like her Dad’s face  LOL

Caden and Brendan’s pizzas!

Kennedy and Reese discovered they could be friends tonight.  Kennedy is very mobile now (and tall) and is talking pretty well lessening the almost year between them.  They chased each other around the island screaming in delight as they found each other.  It was incredibly noisy but really cute to watch at the same time.  

Caden was heart broken that the movie wasn’t happening so Stephanie and Brendan stayed and we let the boys watch 20 minutes of Cars.  Kennedy wants to be wherever they are doing whatever they are doing.  She is definitely the tag along little sister.

We looked over and found the boys in this position watching the movie.  They are such sweet little friends.  And you should hear their conversations

It was a great night with great friends.

Fun at the Zoo

These photos are from the very beginning of February.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day in Houston.  It was mid 70′s, not too humid and perfectly clear skies. We decided we had to spend the day outside along with 5 million other Houstonians.  You have to love the first beautiful day after our 3 weeks of rainy “cold” winter  We meet our friends Josh and Lesley and their clan, Jaden, Ainsley and Lucy at the zoo for a fun afternoon.

We parked literally a mile away and walked.  Adam might be a little impatient when it comes to looking for a parking spot

Caden and Ainsley are so cute together!

The little girls shared a stroller

The daddies with their baby girls

The Butcher children cooperated, mine not so much

Kennedy has a doll wagon she pulls everywhere.  She was obsessed with pulling our big wagon with the big kids in it.  Of course she only weighs 23 lbs so it wasn’t even budging but when we picked her up or tried to help her she pitched a fit!  She has most definitely entered the independent toddler phase.

Finally we gave in and let her pull the empty wagon.  She wore us down

I think Caden was trying to join the monkeys! He’d fit right in…

We ended the day with dinner in Hermann Park and the kids burning off their remaining energy reserves.

A Family Update

I realize I haven’t blogged in a long time.  I literally have a dozen posts on my to do list.  For the last 9 months I have been having several to many migraines a week which has thrown a big wrench in my life.  I am seeing a good doctor and they are improving but I’m still hoping for much more relief.  That being said I am struggling to keep up with my daily duties with the kids, the house and business so most things on my “want to do list” are untouched.  Other than my migraines everyone is doing well.  Adam staying very busy with the business.  2013 is shaping up to be a great year for the business and we are so thankful after a relatively slow 2012.  Our lives pretty much consist of work, playing with the kids, spending time with family and friends, and church.  This is an exhausting and busy season but full of sweet and silly moments with the kids.

Caden is 3 1/2 and according to him a big boy.  Every time I say some thing about my little boy he always interrupts and reminds me that he is big now.  And he is big in a lot of ways.  Every morning he wakes up and gets dressed all by himself (in a Dynamo or firetruck shirt with shorts).  Last night was the first night he slept in underwear with no accidents!  He has been bravely going to mothers day out and having fun 2 days a week.  He spends most of his day being either a fireman or a duck.  I have no idea where the duck came from but he has been insisting he is a duck for over a month now.  He is constantly going on rescue missions.  When he gets bored of rescuing toys he tries to create emergencies by trapping Kennedy in a laundry basket or closet so he can rescue her.  She isn’t very enthusiastic about this game.  Caden is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to topics he is interested in.  He can lay out detailed plans about how to respond in every type of emergency.  He is also fascinated with volcanos after getting a magic school bus volcano kit for Christmas.  He can talk for at least 15 min straight about volcanos.  The same with dinosaurs and construction sites.  He is a great conversationalist.  He can talk, talk, talk all day long rarely even stopping for breaths.  He has an imaginary house where he has everything cool he has ever seen: cars, planes, rockets, motorhomes, beaches, hot tubs, giant playrooms, and at different times some or all of his friends live there and they play all day.  His house moves location often.  Sometimes it is really far away, sometimes he is my neighbor, and sometimes he lives next door to one of his grandparents.  I love his creativity and storytelling ability.  He is all boy when it comes to energy.  There is lots of running, jumping, and yelling involved when Caden plays.  I’m constantly telling him to use his inside voice which he does for one sentence and then switches to his loud voice or his siren sound.  Some days, especially when I have a headache, I think I may lose it before Adam gets home to roughhouse with him and let me sit in silence for a few minutes.  Caden is fun, but crazy

Kennedy is 16 months and changing fast!  My sweet baby girl has turned toddler.  She is running all over and exploring everything.  Her vocabulary is quickly expanding!  She can say please, thank you, food, milk, bottle and drink.  She says shoe, baby, book, ball, diaper, banana, stinky, stick, dog, woof, sunglasses, car and many other words I can’t think of.  She asks “What is this?” and says “It is…”  She knows all her facial features and a lot of body parts and articles of clothing.  Every day now she is learning a new word.  She usually only says the first syllable which can make her hard to understand but she is definitely communicating past her age.  All day long she walks around telling me what everything is.  One of her favorites is eye and then she sticks her finger in my eye.  There is also a lot we don’t quite understand but she very clearly is telling us something important.  A few days ago after dinner she sat down on the kitchen floor, took off her pants and diaper, walked into the bathroom and pointed to the potty.  I picked her up and let her sit on it.  Then she told me take a bath and led the way to the bathroom.  She then proceeded to poop in the tub with Caden and Adam in it.  That was Adam’s first and last bath with the kids  She loves her dolls.  She carries them around giving them bottles and burping them.  The other day I strapped her into her car seat and gave her a doll and she adamantly told me we needed a baby bottle.  She is learning to imitate us and Caden.  This morning she put Caden’s lunch box on her arm, walked over to me gave me a quick kiss, said bye bye, and then walked to the back door like she was leaving no doubt imitating Adam’s morning routine.  She dances and sings and anything can become a necklace.  She loves getting dressed up except she isn’t a fan of bows.  Kennedy has lots of opinions and when she doesn’t get her way she has started either turning into a deadweight or getting straight as a board, whichever makes it more difficult for me. She is getting into a testing phase which I’m sure will only get worse in coming months.  At least this time around I know it is all just a phase and it will indeed pass.  Overall though Kennedy is a really sweet little girl.  She is super friendly and freely gives kisses and love.  She adores her brother and loves his attention.  And nothing is better than her little smile and giggle.  I just can’t get over how fast she is growing up.

We took the kids out last weekend and got some pics of them.  As always I had a hard time narrowing them down

Kennedy has discovered her belly button.  She loves to look at it and find other people’s so beware

 

This sums up the kids so perfectly right now!

What a handsome dude! (I know I am biased )

They actually enjoy walking holding hands.  It is really sweet.

Until Caden starts running and doesn’t let go of her hand…

By this point Kennedy decided she had reached her smile limit for the day

No photo shoot is complete with out Caden jumping off something!

And then of course Kennedy wanted to jump off the steps too!  

Thanks for reading!

Spring Break on the Water

Adam here! Here’s a quick post from our weekend hanging out with our best friends over spring break!

 

Captain Clint

Caden takes the wheel

Not a bad family portrait

The Shuttlesworths

Introducing Kennedy Lynne Nyholt

Our sweet little girl made her appearance Monday September 26th at 6:31pm.  Despite being 4 weeks early she weighed 6 lbs 2 oz and was 19.5 inches long.  This post is a little late because apparently having babies isn’t simple for us.  As happened with Caden I got a serious case of Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension (PIH) on top of my already high blood pressure.  My doctors had been monitoring both me and Kennedy very closely particularly in my last trimester.  I had 4 ultrasounds in 3 weeks!  The Friday before she came my levels started looking off but I wasn’t quite 36 weeks so I was sent home for the weekend with the plan to deliver on Tuesday.  Luckily being the planner I am, and knowing I was getting worse quickly, Adam and I left for my doctors appointment on Monday morning prepared to deliver the baby that day which is exactly what happened.  Because of the complications I had another cesarian but I was able to avoid taking the dreaded Magnesium Sulfate I took last time.  Mostly I begged and pleaded to only give it to me as a last resort so I could remember the delivery (the first 24 hours of Caden’s birth are a complete fog).  Thankfully my body cooperated the last few hours while we were waiting for surgery and I remember holding my baby girl for the first time

Adam’s sister, Liz, came in on her day off to be our L&D nurse.  She delivered Caden also!

See, no Mag!

Caden came in before they took me back.  He wasn’t so sure about me in the hospital but he enjoyed exploring.

Such a sweetie!

Here she is!  Our little alien!

Her apgar scores were 9!

My moment I wanted

I LOVE this picture of Caden with all three Grandmas blowing Kennedy a kiss!!!

And here she is!

We got to hold her for a few minutes while I was in recovery but she was grunting which is bad so the nurses took her on to the nursery for evaluation.  The general nursery then sent her to the NICU.  The concern was that her breathing was labored and her lungs may not be fully developed.  This is very normal for 36 week old babies and having a c-section increases the risk more.  It wasn’t until late the next morning that they got me unhooked enough for us to go hold her in the NICU.  She had a feeding tube in for 2 days so I wasn’t able to breast feed her, but towards the end Adam and I took turns giving her bottles.

Adam spent a lot of time holding her in the NICU since I could only sit for short amounts of time without my blood pressure acting terrible.  I love this picture of them!  She is so alert and staring straight into her Daddy’s eyes!

She was also having a difficult time maintaining her body temperature.  Luckily we had little fleece sleepers and warm blankets to wrap her up with.  Plus she just looks cute

Finally after 2 days I get to nurse her.  She did well!

On the third evening she was released to the general nursery and we kept her in our room as much as they would allow.  Caden came up to visit with his new sister!

Isn’t she sweet?

Her going home outfit!  She was very fussy so the paci was necessary!  She only looked this cute for the wheelchair ride to the car.  Once we got in the car we had to bundle her back up so she wouldn’t get too cold.  They made her pass a car seat test where she sat for an hour and a half and maintained her own temperature before they would release her!

Here she is the next day at home.  She is 5 days in this pic.

It was an adventure but we feel so blessed to have this precious new life God has entrusted to us!  She just couldn’t be anymore perfect!

 

Kid’s Rooms + Kennedy is almost here!

Hey, it’s Adam! First a little update. On Friday we visited Kacie’s doctor and she did not like what she saw. She decided to try to make it through the weekend, and then plan on delivering on Monday or Tuesday. Well Monday is here, and the doctor didn’t see any reason to put it off so we are delivering in just a few hours! We expected this so before we left home this morning we had bags packed for ourselves and Caden. Now Kacie is sleeping and while I wait I thought I’d blog some of the pictures I took of Caden’s room and Kennedy’s nursery. Kacie (with a lot of help from our moms) worked hard on these, and I think they’re pretty awesome.

 

First, Kennedy’s Room. We repainted Caden’s nursery furniture pink, and went with an own theme in the room. Kacie hand-made the curtains, crib-skirt, and quilt.

Kacie made these letters by hand!

This cradle is one that my dad made for my little brother many years ago. It’s similar to the he made for me as a baby, but somehow it didn’t survive….

And Caden’s room (or the “Jungle Suite”).

He and his friends LOVE the fort-bed.

Kacie hand-painted all of these leaves on every wall of the room!

And of course Caden loves the tent. He sleeps in it sometimes, but oddly he also really enjoys sleeping on the floor in front of his door.

Have a great day! Next time I post it will be with photos of baby Kennedy!