Kensley's Blessing

Last weekend we were able to bless Kensley. We had lots of family come into town and we loved being able to have them here with us.  We had a great weekend and Matthew gave a very sweet blessing to our little girl. 

Saturday night we enjoyed BBQ by the pool and Austin loved playing in the water with Pa.

A family friend back home in Texas made Kensley's blessing dress. She thought of everything from the headband to the little booties.  I absolutely loved it!  I choose to have yellow accents in her dress. It fit Kensley so perfectly and I think she looked so beautiful in it! 

Family from left to right:  Matthew's brother Brian and his wife, my little sister and parents, Matthew's little brother and sister and then Matthew's parents.

We had such a good time with family and are so glad they were able to make it for Kensley's special day!

One Month Old

Our little Kensley is one month old!  Here are her stats:
 weight: 8 lbs 6 oz   (25th percentile)
 height: 21.5 in   ( 75th percentile)
 head: 14.3 in ( 60th percentile)

She is very long and thin.  At one month old she is still in newborn diapers and clothes.  I have put her in some 0-3 month clothes but they are pretty big on her still.  We had some concerns about her not eating well and gaining weight but for the last week she has gained a good ounce every day and has finally gotten the hang of eating instead of just snacking for a minute and then falling asleep.  We are very happy about that. She eats about every two hours during the day and every 3 hours at night.  As far as sleeping, she loves to sleep anywhere except her bed.  So we are working on that.  We have good nights and bad nights but Austin still takes a nap and I can usually get a nap in the afternoon.

It's so fun to see her be so much more alert now.  She loves being able to look around, loves her swing ( thanks Aubrey!), and of course prefers to be held and snuggled.  Austin is still so good with her.  He has never tried to pick her up, drag her, or hit her.  Maybe that phase is still coming but Austin has had a great adjustment with her so far. However, I am still not comfortable to leave them alone together, not yet.  His favorite thing is when I lay her down next to him in his bed to sing songs as he is going to bed.  He always asks me if she can stay in bed with him.

Used my carrier for the first time when going on a walk with Austin.  It was great!  I never had one with Austin but now with two I see myself using it a lot.  However, it did feel a little like being pregnant all over again! 

All dressed for going to church for the first time.  She clearly does not enjoy playing dress up as much as I do!

Austin loves giving Kensley hugs and kisses. He is very gentle and sweet with her.

Laying in bed together and singing songs before nap time.

Sweet little girl sleeping

The Past Two Weeks

Our little Kensley is now 2 1/2 weeks old! Sometimes I feel like she has been here longer than that but she just fits right in with our little family. I have felt very spoiled and blessed the last two weeks with all the help I received with having my mother in law come visit and then my mom. I had meals cooked for me, the house cleaned, Austin entertained and naps every day.
Now that my mom has left real life with two kids has started.  So far, it's going well and we are adjusting great.  Matthew has final exams all of next week which means lots of  intense study hours for him but then we will have a week of Spring Break which we are all looking forward to.  Kensley is a great baby and we all, especially Austin, love to give her hugs and kisses.  She has not a great eater and therefore has had some issues gaining weight but she is doing better and hopefully will continue to eat and grow!  Here are a few more pictures from this past week:

While my mom was still here we made our first real outing beside the doctor's office  We all walked to the park to enjoy the fabulous weather.  It was so nice to get outside for a while as we have been mostly home-bound the last couple of weeks.  Austin loves playing outside and Matthew was able to join us too! Kensley was an angel and slept the whole time.

Shanna is Amazing

I am the luckiest man alive and I want people to know it. It amazes me that even five and a half years into our marriage I am still learning how incredible and close to perfect my sweet little wife is. Of course I thought she was incredible and perfect when we first met and got married, but that's supposed to fade right? Well, maybe I am her refiners fire because it seems to me that the longer we are together the more sincere, committed, strong and righteous my wife becomes. Don't misunderstand me, it has nothing to do with me and is more realistically in spite of what I do. How many women are extremely beautiful, gifted and talented and at the same time humble, teachable and unaware of their beauty. I know only one.

Shanna brightens my every day and makes the worst life has to offer bearable. We were truly unprepared for how difficult medical school was going to be, but with faith and hope we decide life needed to be a little more stressful and so we brought a beautiful little girl in to top it off. I never doubt for a moment that Shanna will be able to handle the stress of raising two children as a "single" parent. She would never even think to complain because everything is so perfectly black and white in her mind. When you have certain responsibilities you just do them without question and without looking for a reward. If I make the bed in the morning I expect a special dinner that night!

I am truly blessed and hope others can see the incredible strength and amazing beauty that I see in my sweet wife. Shanna I love you more than words can express. You bring joy to my life and peace when I think there is none to be found. Thank you for choosing me.

With love and affection,
Matthew

Kensley's Arrival

I can't believe Kensley is over a week old and I am just getting around to posting her story.  We just love her to pieces!
Last Saturday Matthew's mom came into town.  She knew I wasn't due for another week but with Matthew being almost non-existent as this semester of classes is very intense,  it was a great comfort to know that she was here if anything were to happen. Well the very next day, Sunday, I woke up and went about my day while having contractions.  I had been having real contractions for the last couple of weeks so these were nothing new but I was having having them more often than any other day before.  But I didn't think too much of it.  We had a great morning breakfast and then got ready to go to church. Right as we were getting ready to leave I started timing my contractions since I was having so many. They were about 15 minutes apart and a little stronger then I had ever had.  But the doctor said not to come in unless they were about 5 minutes apart so I decided to go to church anyway.  During the meetings, I realized that they were getting stronger and stronger but still about 15 minutes apart.  It was then that I realized that this little girl was probably on her way. We debated about leaving church and going to the hospital but I didn't want to be turned away for false labor since they were still 15 minutes apart so we stayed at church.  But by staying, I was really pacing the hallways, drinking water and having to stop every time I had a contraction.  Then we came home, had dinner (I made sure to eat since they never let you eat anything in the hospital while in labor!) and then Matthew and I packed up and headed for the hospital.  I am so glad my mother in law was already here and ready to take care of Austin. It was such perfect timing!

At the hospital, they told me I was already dilated to a 7! I was shocked.  I'm so glad those contraction were doing something!  I was admitted and very soon after given a blessed epidural.  Then I labored for a few hours until I was ready to push.  The nurse had me do a practice push but then said "Ok, stop! She's coming!"  The doctor came and in literally three pushes my sweet little girl had arrived.  The whole process was very smooth and calm compared to Austin.  With him, my water broke at home with little contractions, I was so shakey and nauseous the whole time and had some pre-eclampsia. With Kensley's I was very calm and collected and enjoyed the process a whole lot more!

First family picture of 4!

Coming home

She is so perfect! She weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and has a little bit of light hair.  Matthew's mom stayed in town for a week and took such good care of Austin while I was still in the hospital and even took night shifts with Kensley when we got home.  I am so glad she came when she did and so appreciate everything she did for us!

Austin is so sweet with her. He constantly loves to shower her with hugs and kisses.  Since I was in the hospital for a couple days with this tiny newborn, I felt like when I came home Austin had grown so much.  He just seems so big to me!  I guess you just forget how tiny newborns really are and how fast they grow.  Austin loves to help with anything involving Kensley and even loves to share his tiny cars with her!

Here are a few more pictures from Kensley's first week of life:

 

Kensley Dawn Graff

Kensley Dawn was born at 10 pm today Jan 29, 2012. 7lbs 9oz's, 19inches long, blondish hair. Here are a couple pics until Shanna can post the whole story.

Pinterest and Projects

So yes, I have been sucked into pinterest and sometimes spend too much time there but I love having a place to keep all my ideas and projects together online.  I say "my" ideas but lets be honest, I get most of my ideas from other people's projects, pictures and creativity.  I especially love getting ideas for recipes, preschool things to do at home, and home decor projects.
During the Christmas break we didn't travel at all and I was in nesting mode.  It was perfect since Matthew could be home to help with projects.  It ended up being a fabulous and very productive holiday break.  We got so much done in preparation for little baby girl to come.  I really kept Matthew busy with moving furniture, redoing all our bedroom furniture hardware, moving and putting up pictures and things on walls and helping me find and dig out all our newborn stuff.  So I just wanted to post a few of the projects we were able to get done.

Table and Chairs
I have been wanted to get Austin his own table and chair set for a long time.  He finally got a set for Christmas from Matthew's parents.  It's perfect except it didn't really match our house so we stained the wood and covered the chairs with fabric.  I love how it turned out!

before

After

Growth Chart

I "pinned" this project awhile ago and loved the idea.  It's looks like a giant ruler on a piece of wood that you can use at a growth chart but then as we are still moving around and not settled, we can take it with us.  I got the idea here. This is their picture:

Recipes
These are all the recipes I have recently pinned, made and loved!
-Cheesy Veggie Chowder
-Healthy Breakfast Smoothie
-Shrimp with Avocado-Mango Salsa
-Poppy Seed Chicken  
- Pizza Balls
-Creamy Parmesan Orzo
-BLT Pasta Salad

Outside Porch
We have a back porch that up until now has mostly been used for storage, garbage and collecting dust. But with this great weather we have been having I really wanted the space to be useful.  Matthew cleaned up and dusted the whole porch, turned a spare piece of wood into a table, and got a play rug for the ground and now we have a whole new play area for Austin. He loves being outside and loves to drive his cars on something other than the ground so this was so perfect!

Matthew also sanded these blocks we got from Austin's great grandpa.  We have a ton of them and Austin loves building with them. In the picture he is making houses for his cars.

Little Girl Things
And of course I have been working on some things for our little girl coming soon! I pinned and followed this tutorial to make some felt flowers for headbands. I also made some girly burp cloths for those not so girly spit up messes.

Two And a Half

Austin is now almost closer to three than two! Whoa!  He is in such a fun phase right now. However, I feel like I say that through all the different phases he has gone through. But at this point he is really growing up into this little boy that we just love so much. Here are some updates for him:
-He communicates and talks so much now.  I can understand pretty much anything he says and his little sentence combinations are just so cute.
-He favorite thing right now are cars, trucks and trains. He loves to drive them on tracks, the couch or on the bed.  He also loves to play with matching sets or pairs of cars. (His mama is a little into matching sets so maybe that's where he gets it from!)
-He is just over 3 feet tall (60th percentile) and weighs 33 pounds (80th percentile)
-One of the biggest changes is that he is now in a toddler bed and has been for about 2 weeks. The transition have been great!  He loves his bed and will stay in bed when he goes down for naps and bedtime.  The only down side is that my wake-up call is now quite early.  But it was time and it's been a very smooth transition.  I know this picture is extremely dark but we snuck in the first night he slept in it to get a picture.

-I have been surprised at how much he can do by himself now.  Things that I would always do for him and now I forget that he really can do them himself. Like drinking out of a cup with no lid (only water and only at the table though!), opening the fridge to get his own milk cup, using a glue stick for art projects, obeying little instructions like cleaning up toys or going to get something out of his room and peeling and eating a whole clementine.  I know those are just little things but developmentally they are a big deal! 

-He has absolutely no interest in potty training.  Anytime I bring up the idea of going to sit on the potty he says "No! No!"  So I have not pushed the issue because I don't want it to be a negative thing. However he is getting older and should be showing interest so I'm kind of unsure of what to do and if I should push the issue.  Lots of his friends are potty trained but that doesn't seem to motivate him to want to jump on the bandwagon. I am thinking that this is going to be a hard transition. 

- We have definitely entered the terrible twos and have had meltdowns and tantrums over the smallest of events but I guess that is to be expected. 

-He loves to spend time with Matthew and tries to imitate things he does like shave, put on deodorant or fix things.  It's pretty cute to watch.  He also loves wrestling with Matthew and gets so intense! 

- Austin loves to help in the kitchen.  It seems like he has always loved this and I have so many pictures of him helping me stir, mix and pour things.  In this picture I think he was helping me mix up a salad.  His face is distraught because the camera is out and he hates the camera.  However he is wearing his cute little apron that my sister Jenna made him for Christmas! 

- Austin is very creative and whenever he eats things like toast or sandwiches.  They always become things like trucks or airplanes or even sometimes animals based on what it looks like as he takes bites.  And when he tells me what they are I can totally see exactly what he means.  This also leads to very long lunches as he plays with his food. 

These are just some of the things I want to remember about Austin at this age!

36 weeks

 I have just under 4 weeks left to go!  We have definitely been getting ready for baby girl to come.  We have the bassinet set up, newborn clothes are washed and folded in her newly cleaned out drawer, car seat cover is washed, but no, she still doesn't have a name yet. We are working on that!
I am definitely in the very uncomfortable stage and don't sleep very well.  It gets really hard to play trains with Austin on the floor and that is all he seems to want to do these days.  However besides that I have been feeling great and feeling very excited for her arrival. Austin loves to touch my belly and to give baby girl hugs.  I keep hoping that this will be a smooth transition for him.  Obviously there will be an adjustment period and I know there will be some issues with giving attention so we will see how this goes.
Matthew has been so great during this last phase in pregnancy including doing things for me that are getting hard like giving Austin baths, doing house chores and telling me I look pretty. That's like the best thing to hear when you feel huge and anything but pretty.  So time is winding down and we are getting ready!