In case you need somewhere to go for Valentine's Day...

15 months

Actually, Bridget is 16 months (and 3 days) now, but her 15 month appt was yesterday. Carter had been running a fever for about 24 hours the day prior, so I called and added an appt for him at the same time. Big mistake. The appt was at 10, and 2.5 hours, 2 VERY tired and hungry kids, and one slightly frazzled mother later, we finally walked out. Carter was ok, by the way...no ear infection and no spots in his throat. Just a virus I guess.

Anyway, Bridget tipped the scales at a whopping 24 pounds 4oz, and 31.75 inches long. No idea what percentile she's in. If the Dr told me, I probably couldn't hear her over the sound of a screaming baby.

So...at 16 months, what does Bridget do?

-LOVES her baby. She rocks it, sings to it, bounces it (hilarious to watch, by the way), changes it's diaper, and wraps it in the blanket.

-asks to watch a "moonie" (aka: movie) several times a day. Those Praise Baby dvd's are getting a work out! (this is what she's doing in the pic above)

-won't eat a single vegetable. No matter how hard you try to hide some in her food, she'll find it and spit it out. Loves her some grapes, peaches, mandarin oranges and strawberries though.

-says pretty everything. Her favorite words are more, up, baby, and puppy/doggie

-speaking of dogs, she's totally obsessed with them. And not just in theory. She has no fear of dogs, big or small. Any time we step foot outdoors (which sadly isn't very often) she heads right over to the neighbors to try and peak under their privacy fence for just the smallest glimpse of their dog.

-Still doesn't regularly sleep through the night. Yes, I was the mom that pre-child was all about baby wise and said my child was going to sleep through the night at 8 weeks. However, aprox 64 weeks later, she still wakes up more often than not.

Exciting Day!

It was an exciting day for this little guy! At nearly 4 months of age, he got to go to the grocery store for the first time!

Yeah, we don't get out much. :)

Eeek...3 whole months??

Sooo....it has been 3 months since I last updated...time flies. I will try and do better and not let my blog die. Seriously though, our life isn't too interesting. We don't go too many places, or do much. Mostly just stay home and be entertained by our kids. :)

Here are some "catch-up" pictures!

Carter's first bath...he's grown a little since then. :) He loves his bath, and just kicks and smiles the whole time.

Bridget loves to help Luke make "pop pop" (popcorn) and she loves to eat it too...just like her dad!

at first Bridget always wanted to "hold" Carter. Thankfully she's moved on from that...

our darling little bumble bee on Halloween

Potluck...everyone was supposed to pick out a Goodwill outfit for their spouse. We didn't exactly get around to doing that so we came dressed as ourselves to the extreme. Luke was a nerd with his pants hiked up real high, lots of gadgets on his belt, and his hair parted to the side. I was a mom...in my pj's and robe, messed up, a breast pump hanging from my neck. And to top it off, I had the screaming baby. :)

Bridget is very helpful and wants to be involved in everything we do. She even helps empty the dishwasher!

Christmas morning...Bridget was a sad case, and Carter was his very happy smiley self.

Bridget's chair from my mom and dad. She loves little chairs so she got her own and loves to sit in it and read books.

Bed head....but nobody could look cuter with it!

Our sweet, smiley, happy boy.

Bridget's first time out in the snow. By the time I got her all dressed and FINALLY got the boots on her feet, she was pretty much done.

Finally getting some rolls!!

Bridget loves her baby and hauls it everywhere...I don't think it's going to be much longer before the head falls off.

And there you have it...that's pretty much the happenings of late. Wendi came over today and brought Culver's for lunch. :) She said she was proud of me for finally updating.

Changes...

First of all, our little dolly turned one. Oh my...are we really parents to a one year old??

We had a small party for her on her birthday...just grandparents, my siblings, and Paul and Elise. She pretty much glowed getting to be in the spotlight for the evening. :)

She was pretty thrilled with her cupcake. At first she looked at us like "really, this is for me?" Then she dug in, and as she finished the last bite, rubbed her hands through her hair. And then it was off to the bathtub. She loved her gifts, esp a doll from Grandpa and Grandma Knapp. She hauls it around and pats it's back. :) So cute!

(thanks to Wendi for the pics...I took mostly video)

And then...

Bridget became a big sister!

Carter Lucas arrived on Oct 17 at 10:18pm. I had gotten up about 7 that morning, and noticed some blood...just like when I was in labor with Bridget, but this time I had no contractions. So we went ahead with our plans for the day: going to Rader Farms with our Bible study girls. (super fun place by the way..highly recommend it!) Bridget and I spent the morning there, and while eating lunch, I started having hard contractions, just a couple minutes apart. I hurried Bridget through her hot dog and took off for home. Only by the time I got on the interstate, the contractions had stopped. We went home, took naps, and proceeded through the rest of the afternoon and early evening with maybe 2 or 3 contractions.

Earlier that afternoon Elise had called and wondered if we wanted to come for supper that night. Since nothing was happening, I agreed, and we got to their house about 5:30, just as contractions started up again, only they were about every 10 min or so. By the time we got around to eating at a little after 6, I was having them every 2 min or less, and at one point, as I gripped the kitchen table breathing through a contraction, Paul asked if I was going to deliver the baby in their kitchen. :) At that point we decided we'd better head home and call Luke's mom, who was going to stay with Bridget. We got home and got our stuff ready to go, all the while stopping every 2 min or less to breath through a contraction. I had Luke call his mom wanting to know how soon she was going get to our house...I was starting to get nervous.

His mom showed up about 7:30....and contractions slowed WAY down. So we sat around and chilled for about an hour. Finally at 8:30, my contractions were slowed down, but when I had one it was very painful, so we headed for the hospital.

We got there, got put in a triage room, I changed into my gown and went to the bathroom. 2 steps out of the bathroom and my water broke all over the floor. I was dilated to a 5, so they put me in a labor room, started an IV, drew blood and got everything going. My mom and Wendi showed up soon after, and I was already feeling nauseous and asked for some iv pain medication. The nurse checked me, and I think I was at like 7 or something. She said she was going to call the Dr. Since I was pretty much having one 45 min long contraction I didn't say anything but in my head I was thinking "why are you calling the Dr already? Bridget wasn't born for hours after I was dilated to a 7."

The nurse came back with the pain medication, and was just getting it ready to go in when the Dr got there. She checked me and told me she thought I could push if I wanted to. One push dilated me all the way, a 2nd got his head out, and he was born on the 3rd. :)

It was so great to be able to hold him right away and see him be pink and crying. Since Bridget had meconium stained fluid, she was taken to the nursery right away for oxygen. And, there was also an emergency c-section going on at the same time he was born, so there were no med students or residents in the room. Just my nurse, a nurse for Carter, a tech and my Dr. A nice change from the almost 10 "medical people" in the room when Bridget was born!

So...things have been going wonderfully since we came home...Carter is a great baby...pretty much sleeps and eats. I'll post some more recent pictures later, but he is def Luke's look-a -like!

House pics...before

Someday I'll get around to taking "after" pictures, but for right now the before ones will have to do. :)

This is the upstairs bathroom....very small.

Pretty much the same picture :)

Upstairs bedroom #1. There aren't any pictures on them, but off to the left of this picture, the right of the next, and in the upstairs hallway are HUGE closets. 2 in each room and one in the hall. I joked that if we have more kids than we plan, we can always make the hall closet into an extra bedroom. :)

Bridget's room...with lovely mauve trim and LOTS of wallpaper.

Stairs. :) Can't tell by the pictures, but they're pretty dinged up from animal claws.

Our bedroom

Carter's room

Main floor bathroom.

Living room

Kitchen

One thing the pictures just don't show is the massive amount of dirt, grime, and pet hair found on EVERY surface...yep, even in the freezer that came with the house. Seriously....we should have taken close ups, but it just didn't cross my mind to take pictures of it. :)

We're getting there...

There are still boxes everywhere, and I feel like I still need to re-scrub every inch of the house, but we're getting there. No pics yet, but I thought you'd all enjoy knowing about Bridget's new tricks/words. :)

So far she says daddy, hi (her favorite word), ackk, eyeye (how do you spell that?), and best of all: Heidi. Yes, she calls me by my first name.

She also knows how the dog and cow go, where your nose is, and where her feet are.

We think she's pretty talented. :)