Kolton at 18 and 19 Weeks of Cooking:

Ok, I've been slacking again. Sorry. Since we are almost at 19 weeks I will include both the 18 and 19 weeks development of Kolton on this blog. Can you believe we're almost half way there?! As tired as I am (yes still) and with the wonderful "morning sickness" (yes still).. I'm ready for May! ;-D

Week 18:
Mother (and Mother's comments italicized):
Sleeping may be increasingly difficult now (to say the least), as your body grows (it's HUGE just how much bigger can one person get?). Try propping yourself with pillows to help you find a more comfortable sleeping position (Daddy is NOT happy with the gazillion pillows we have now). You might also try doing pelvic tilts before bed (so much easier said than done), and always urinate before laying down (and then again every 5-10 minutes after you lay down).
If you haven't started yet, try playing around with baby names! (Yep, that is checked off the list) Look through your family history, read books, look at combinations for girls and boys. Remember to ensure that the initials don't spell something rude (awe, where's the fun in humiliating your kid in that?), and never give your kids the same initials! (oops....we didn't read that...too late, both boys are KCK- will the same initial gods come swoop down on us and spank us now?!)

Baby (and Mother's comments italicized):
At 20.5 cms or 8.1 inches total length (there's NO way..have you seen how big I am?), your baby is growing rapidly (now that's more like it). He weighs about 7 ounces (198 grams) - (not buying it). The bones are continuing the ossification process. The pads of the fingers and toes are formed and the fingerprints are developing as well (well that makes sense because he's already left fingerprints on my heart...and footprints in my belly!).

*** I haven't been adding the Dad/Partner portion cause they've been really silly.. BUT this one needed my intake.
Dad (and Mother's comments italicized):
When I asked my husband what a good tip for dads would be at week eighteen (really, she had to ask for input here? I could come up with ALL sorts of "advise" for Dads right now!), he said "Don't tell your wife she's starting to look fat, because that's about when you really start poofing out." Take that for what it's worth, from the father of seven. (Oh, it's a very good thing I haven't heard that comment! Instead, I hear, look at my lil man growing! He's going to be tall like Daddy and big brudder. That is taken oh so much better and well accepted)
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Week 19
Mother (and Mother's comments italicized):
If you have not looked into childbirth classes, now is the time to do so (we're skipping those, although I remember the instructor made the Dad's give us massages...maybe I'll rethink that even though we know this will be a c-section and schedule us! ;-D).

Baby (and Mother's comments italicized):
This is an impressive week for growth (oh goody..where do you expect me to put the belly again?)! The baby will increase in weight to 8 ounces (227 grams)! If you are having a girl (sorry Daddy and Gramma, it's a BOY (ah-hem, I mean Brudder)), her ovaries now contain primitive egg cells. Lanugo appears all over the baby's body (and apparently Mommy's too. I'm getting hair and itching all over myself). This fine hair will remain until birth draws nearer. Sometimes you can still see some on the baby's face and ears after birth (with big brudder, we called these "feathers" cause he was covered in them and squawked like a little bird).
Permanent teeth buds are forming behind the already formed milk teeth buds (oh yeah, as if kicking and punching me wasn't enough, now Kolton will be able to bite me HA!).

~~~Mother's comments are all in fun (no complaints -even with the never ending morning sickness). It's all worth it and exciting stuff!

Christmas Boat Parade

Kowboy Kyler got some boots the other day and that is all he wants to wear. Whew ~ money well spent! He thinks he is ALL that now that he matches his Papa Pat. Chris and I had the hardest time getting them off his feet. The second night of having them on.. right after bath time, he came running out of the bedroom in his PJs carrying his boots wanting them on. So I was able to coax him into standing in front of the Christmas tree for a picture... yes, PJs; blankey, sippy cup, bear and.. boots!

True boy.. Elmo hat; John Deere Tractor Shirt and his "Papa Pat boots":

Chris, Kyler and I met up with my Mom and Grandma Sunday night to watch the Punta Gorda's Christmas Boat Parade. I have to miss out on our family get together next week due to working and wanted to have some Christmas spirit. So we found out about this and decided to meet in the middle.

Chris and I first went to Fisherman's Village to check things out there. It was PACKED. This is where the beginning of the boat parade was to launch. Mom and Grandma were going to look at a end of the parade and there was plenty of room, so on our way out to meet up with them, we found Santa's Sleigh and stopped for a photo op. This group wanted their picture taken so we agreed to take each other's pictures. I think it would have been better had it been a tad bit darker out.

A close up:

We met up and our first stop was for a little bite to eat.

Somebody had to sit next to his "Momma" and watch the fire (they had tall heaters going) and the boats on the water:

"Great", Mommy (with Kolton) and Daddy:

As we were walking downstairs, we decided to stop for some more photo ops by the Christmas.

(Can you believe that big belly is only 4 months?!...man he's gonna be huge!):

Our group: Mommy (with Kolton); "Momma" (as Kyler is now calling her); "Great"; Kyler and Daddy:

After our bite, we made our way down to the water where we thought we had the perfect view.. HA! The boats didn't even make it down as far as we were so we hurried up and went to the dock. This was the group waiting on the parade to start. Kyler got a Lightsaver and loves it...(that's what he's playing with in the background - it has many different settings):

When we learned the boats weren't coming to where we were, he moved to the wall overlooking the water where the boat slips are. There was a band playing right behind us and the breeze was nice. It was a good time.

We got a hand carved specially made for us kitchen table for Christmas. And Kyler has taken up claim to this table. He can move the chairs and the benches with no problem and he loves that. He can climb right into them and now every time I turn around, he is playing with some type of truck, car or train at the table. He loves this seat without his highchair boosted in it and he seems to fit in it just fine without it. So sadly, Mommy just might let him grow up a tad bit and remove the highchair and save it for little brudder.

I love his little pursed lips saying "choo-choo":

My added touch of Christmas decorations to the table:

A bigger view of the full table:

I love this table too! Not only did the carpenter do a great job...but it holds more than 4 people and really looks nice in our house.

Blessings Answered

Today our blessings were answered. Chris received a call last night by his old company asking if he was looking for a job still. They offered him to come in for an interview at 3 today and when he left he was offered his job back. He just has to pass his drug test tomorrow, which there is no problem there and wait for the company to get the results back usually 24-48 hours and then he can start. So we're looking at possibly Monday!

90000 lbs lifted off my shoulders.

No More Baby "K"....

This morning we had our 18 week check up and learned that Kyler is going to be a big brother to......

A Baby "Bruddur" (as he says)!!

Introducing.... Kolton Chase.... or as Kyler calls him "Tolton":


The picture is blurry but that is because Mr. Kolton is a Very Active lil one already! Uh-oh, yes, I have my work cut out for me!

Both my boys will have KC as their initials!!

This one is a little tough to see, but to the bottom left of the picture you'll see feet, then going up towards the middle you'll see a LONG leg bone and off to the right his thigh. Yes, both my boys will have Daddy's long legs (whew, thankfully):


Wowza what a foot!:


I said no wonder I'm so big now... I have to have enough room to put all those legs and arms in. HA!

And just because we had to add his own special touch to our house. We picked up Kolton's first Christmas stocking:


Kyler's is blue on the right and Kolton's is green on the left. Kyler already had his or I would have gotten him a red one since he is a Ruby Birthstone and Kolton will be an Emerald. If all goes as planned my boys will be Christmas colors!

Per our doctor, Kolton is perfect with all aspects at this time. Please let that continue!

A Busch Gardens Birthday

~~~~ ok, sorry, there is a HUGE gap from the first paragraph to the rest of the story and no matter how many times I've tried to correct it, I can't .. so please just keep scrolling down ~~

This past week I had a birthday! Yeah, 21.. again. HA! OK OK I really hit 34. Instead of spending my birthday fighting crowds for Black Friday and spending money we don't have...we loaded up and headed north.

Now.. before I go any further .. due to the last post and yes us not having any extra money....let me start by saying.... we didn't pay for it. A HUGE Thanks to my mom who purchased Chris and me along with my brother and sister-in-law tickets for Christmas last year. It was a combo pack for Sea World and Busch Gardens. We all went to Sea World in April earlier this year.. and well since our tickets were to expire the beginning of December this year and the fact that Chris and I needed to get out of the house for some fun time; we loaded up and headed to Busch Gardens. We stopped by my Mom's and picked her and my Grandma up and then met up with my brother and his family there.

It started off a little crazy with taking us over an hour to get in due the lady who was checking our bags and stroller in telling us we needed to go get our "paper tickets" exchanged for real tickets and directed us to a kiosk where it would not read our ticket number. So we ended up in the ticket information line with 100 other people experiencing the same problem. We had a manager walk us through and once scanned we were in and off to a go!

Our first stop...to EAT (and we had the all day dinning arm bands to eat / drink free all day), we were all famished by the time we made it through the ticket issues and then we were on the go and non-stop. My brother and his family left earlier than us but the remaining 5 of us pretty much closed the park down. It was an Awesome birthday and just an over all great day! The weather was beautiful and the company was great!! (Thank you guys)

Just outside of the eatery. Gramma has been trying to get all 3 kiddos to take a picture with her and leave it to mine to want to be engrossed in the boats rather than taking the picture. Can you imagine how it will be in a few months with kiddo #4? HA!:

After lunch, our next stop was at the Kanagroo exhibit. The boys weren't permitted to go into the petting portion as they were too small and could fit in the slots of the cage; so we waited for the "grown ups" on the bridge and watched them from a distance. Or as the conversation that took place went like this: Cagen: "Mom, why can't we go in there?" ; Tamara : "Because I'm not big enough"; Cagen: "But I am!" it was too cute!!:

One of the kangaroos:

The handsome boys waiting for the gang to catch up to us on the bridge:

Our next stop was to see the Animal Show! It is amazing to watch how these animals were trained and they mostly were all adopted from a shelter. They had cats / dogs / birds galore of all sorts / mice / pigs / kangaroos. Mine and Chris' favorite was the guy would toss up the Parrot and played with him like he was a football and the bird tucked himself down and everything. It was pretty neat.

Part of the gang:

The whole gang minus me taking the picture:

Gramma and Ky waiting on the show to start:

Gramma and Kyler into the show:

Mr. Cool Cagen with some handsome shades:

After the show we got to pet the animals. Charleigh wanted her picture with the owl:

Aunt Tamara's arms is in the way.. (lol) but you can see Kyler's hand petting the owl:

The kiddos (and the bigger kiddos) wanted to ride the rollercoaster:

The group of "permitted" kiddos allowed to go in:

I was SO proud of Kyler. He was going to ride the rollercoaster and was even excited to stand in line with Gramma, Uncle Tim, Aunt Tamara and Charleigh. On the outside line, he was measured and passed the height requirement, however they came over and told them he was still too short to go on. He was seated and ready to go ;-( But he was good and got off (still wanting to ride) and then watched his cousin ride it.

I think the "saving grace" from the rollercoaster was that Big Bird was at the exit and Kyler took off to a run! He didn't want to leave from Big Bird then.

We found a ride that Kyler was able to go on! Daddy and Kyler waiting in line for the ride:

Daddy and Kyler on the ride!:

Charleigh trying to get her airplane to go up. It was giving her a hard time:
Aunt Tamara and Cagen on their plane:

Three little monkeys sitting on an elephant:

Shortly after this my brother and his family left and we continued exploring. Our next stop was to see the gorillas.

This one we named Kyler cause it sleeps just like Kyler does:

After walking down a little further we found a .......

And one VERY EXCITED little boy SO badly wanted to ride it!

Kyler, Gramma and Daddy:

Daddy, "Great" and Mommy:

He sat on the outside so he could get a great view of the critters.

We saw:

Giraffes (and they were so close to us)

A gaggle of Gazelles:

Did you know you can always spot the Momma Rhino very easily? She's the one with the sharpest horn..as she does this to protect her while pregnant or her baby just after birth:

One of three of the new baby zebras:

Kyler dubbed these as Papa Pat's cows:

Our first "Christmas" picture in the sleigh. However Mr. Kyler was SO into the Choo-Choo train he wouldn't look at the camera:

Look Mom.. elephants!:

We cruised around some more and found the Hippo tank. Kyler loved the large amount of FISH!:

So Kyler was watching the Hippos and was engrossed in them when one of them came right up to the window face to face with him. He was standing on the rock ledge looking in and my mom was standing right behind him. He was bailing off that ledge practically climbing her legs to get away from that monster getting him.

We went and grabbed some dinner and on our way back to ride the train again, we found Mr. Big Kitty who was not there earlier. He was foul at something and kept pacing back and forth.

Waiting for the Choo-Choo to return to pick us up:

All Aboard!!! Gramma, Kyler and Great loading up for a night ride:

I love this picture of the three of them:

And off we go.. wind blowing:

Mr. Big Stuff was SO Excited!!:

We couldn't see any animals this time, but he didn't care.

Daddy and Mommy:

Mr. Big Stuff didn't make it very far into the 2nd ride and he was OUT! Which was good as we thought it was going to take an army just to get him off the train. He went right into the stroller and kept sleeping even as we moved him from stroller to shoulder during the tram ride to our car. He woke up once at the car as we had to change him, but once in his car seat he was out for the long haul.

The next morning Kyler and Gramma took off on a bicycle ride. The next thing I knew they were calling me to come join them at the park.

Race you... my van vs your bike!:

Later that afternoon, we headed to my SIL's and BIL's house to collect our critters. We ended up staying for dinner and letting all the kids play. The older kids were climbing the tree and Mr. Monkey See Monkey Do had to join in. He was crying cause he couldn't do it so Daddy was off to the rescue.

The older kids left the tree and Kyler still wanted his turn:

Here he was in the dark --the only light was from my flash on the camera -- trying to climb the tree by himself. Oh be still my heart.

Then Uncle Kevin put on a fire and my Pyromaniac was off to catch front row seat:

We shortly later loaded up and headed home. We had ONE VERY HAPPY BOY to have his puppy back with him. He would NOT let Daddy put Kasey in the kennel. He HAD to hold him the ride home. I love the smirk on his face here:

And just in case you couldn't tell he was a happy boy.. check out those cheeks:

Once home, the critters crashed! Kady and Kasey had SO much fun playing with Chloe, Cody and the kids, there zonked out and didn't even care to eat dinner when we got home.

Look Kyler, here's this years Christmas present to you.. oh wait, you've already opened it. HA!:

We decided it was time to take Kyler to see Santa. He was checking out Frosty while waiting in line, but would NOT go near him!:

Here he is checking out Santa and Santa's Elfs:

But DO NOT!! I REPEAT DO NOT PUT ME IN THE MAN'S LAP!!!!:

So if that wasn't funny enough. I tried to come to the rescue and we ended up with this shot. I'm thinking of making this our Christmas card for this year.....

...I know, I'm a bad Mommy for laughing.