Rowan, You're Such a Big Girl!

Today I went digging through the storage shed and found Kadence's old potty chair. Rowan has been hinting that she's ready to start potty training, so I thought we'd at least introduce the potty. (we've tried sitting her on the big potty with one of those kid's potty chair attachments to no avail)

As soon as she saw it she immediately wanted her diaper off. She'd sit on it, then get up and walk around, then come back and sit on it some more. After about 20 minutes and still no pee, I went into the kitchen to get sippy cups for everyone. Just as I entered the kitchen, Kadence started yelling something about Rowan and peeing.

I figured she had peed on the floor, but as I entered the living room, I saw a little bit of pee on the potty chair lid, and upon opening, saw some inside too. I guess she decided she had to go NOW, and didn't have time to get the lid up!

But she went pee pee in the potty! (or on, haha! Either way she hit the potty darnit)

We're going to get her some big girl panties tomorrow. Fingers crossed!


Here's a video of Rowan right after she peed in the potty. I had just given her a malted milk ball (a Whopper, it was the only chocolate we had in the house, LOL) so that's why she keeps going back to the cupboard. And try your best to ignore Elijah screaming. Even in the best moments in our house, someone is throwing a tantrum somewhere.

Picture Catch-up

It's been a loooong time since I've shared pics of the babies! So I went through my files and came up with these total random photos to share with you. :)


Remember a month or so ago when the kids were all sick? This is the 4 of them all snuggling together on the floor watching a movie. How sweet is that? Rowan and Eli of course are sucking their thumbs.


Rowan was sleepy- you can tell because she starts sniffing her blanky.



Joey on the left, Eli on the right


Joey driving his car. :)


The 4 amigos. Joey looks kinda goofy in this pic, but the other 3 were smiley and cute so I had to share it. That and it's just plain rare to get a group shot of them.



That's all for now! Must go clean some more! Or take a nap..can't decide. ;o)

Pregnancy Week 10

Week 10 Facts and Symptoms

- The baby has moved past the embryonic stage, and into the all important fetal period! A woman's risk of miscarriage drops significantly at week 10. It's always a relief to make it to this stage!

- The baby is measuring about 1 1/2 inches now from the top of it's head to it's rump, and is about the size of a lemon.

- My uterus, which started out as the size of a small pear, is now the size of a grapefruit.

- My belly is definitely starting to round out a bit, which I'm sure is a combination of my uterus growing and just being bloated in general (which is very common in early pregnancy) I in fact have my very first belly shot to share with you! I actually "feel" pregnant at this point. Up until my belly starts sticking out I just don't feel pregnant- but now I definitely do.

(please excuse my "smile"...it was the best belly shot of the bunch. Plus it was late. Lol.)



- My main symptom is fatigue, can't wait to get past that.

- Still dealing with nausea as well. I actually threw up for the first time in ANY of my pregnancies last Friday. I was loading up the van for our weekend trip, and it just hit me. I turned around as quickly as I could and threw up right there in the front yard. EW. If you knew how much I HATE throwing up...



So I guess that's it for week 10! OH, I'm also getting very panicky that I only have 28 weeks to go. That just sounds scary. 6 1/2 months and this little peanut will be here. So funny how with my prior pregnancies I couldn't wait to get to the end and meet our new little person. Time seemed to stand still! And this time, while I'm still super excited to meet him/her, I'm also ok with the next 28 weeks going by verrry slowly. :) Remind me of this when I'm 35 weeks pregnant and miserable, ok?

Weddings, and Iowa

Kadence and I made it home safe and sound from our trip to Iowa this weekend. Sorry it took so long to update!

The wedding went great! The bride was beautiful, the wedding went well (aside from the scorching heat, but we survived), and my maid of honor speech was a hit- I got teary eyed during it, and I made Stephanie (the bride) cry. One of the few moments in life where it's absolutely acceptable to make your best friend cry. ;o)

Kadence had lots of fun hanging out with her cousin Logan and her Aunt Missy(my sister). Saturday they spent 4 1/2 hours at the pool- Kadence was in heaven. (Remember this is the child who enjoyed the hotel pool in Florida better than anything at Disney World.) Saturday evening Missy dropped her off at the reception so she could hang out with me for a bit and say hello to Stephanie and Jason.

Unfortunately I forgot my memory card, so I have absolutely NO PICTURES of the wedding. What was I thinking??? Hmm...apparently I wasn't. So as people get them uploaded to Facebook and what not, I'll steal them and share them with you. :)


For now, I found this one on one of my friends pages and had to share it. I LOVE this picture of me and Kay Kay!! Vickie, if you're reading this, thank you so much for snapping this pic of us!

Pregnancy Week 9

So I saw this on another blog and thought it was a cute idea. I thought what the hey. This may be my 3rd pregnancy, but I can still be excited and post little details like this if I want to. ;o) It's always fun to look back on it later.

No belly shots just yet. Though my belly is definitely swollen, I think I just look like I really need to go poo. :p No one would guess that I'm pregnant at this point. Just that I look bloated. So perhaps in a few weeks when I actually do look pregnant, I'll start posting some belly shots. ;o)


Week 9 Facts and Symptoms

- The baby is an inch long this week!

- It no longer has a tail!

- My 3 main pregnancy symptoms (which haven't changed much over the past 4 weeks) are fatigue, nausea, and headaches. Still taking daily naps (when I can) and even when I do, I am still so tired all day. The nausea has let up some over the last couple of days (knock on wood) but the headaches aren't giving up just yet.

- Remember when I was pregnant with the triplets and Kadence thought she was pregnant too? Well, now when I ask Rowan where the baby is, she lifts up her shirt and points at her belly. :)

And I'm totally procrastinating...it's 10:00pm and I haven't even started packing for our weekend trip to Iowa. Did I mention we're leaving here at 8:00am? I really don't like packing.

Sigh.

All right already. I'm getting up...I promise.

Yawns.

Heat Advisory

Is it hot where you're at today? Like, REALLY hot? It is here. Currently at 4:35 p.m. the temperature is 89 degrees...but with the heat index it feels like 98 degrees. Y.U.C.K.

So needless to say we're staying indoors this afternoon. Which let me tell ya, makes for a very looong afternoon for Mommy.


Kadence and I are getting out of town for the weekend! (sorry Davey) My best friend is getting married, and I'm the maid of honor! Kadence is coming along for the drive (to keep me company!) and she gets to see her Aunt Missy and her cousin Logan. She's so excited. ^_^ So today I've been getting the house cleaned up, getting Kadence's laundry done, and then I have to pack tonight sometime.


Oh, and for those of you who were wondering what new animals we added to the farm..








2 baby sheep! There names are Sheep and Goat. Davey is constantly calling them goats (his family had goats growing up, no sheep), so that name just sort of stuck. And Kadence named the other one Sheep. LOL. We're so original aren't we?


Have a great weekend!

Jesus Froggy Land

Today while I was mowing, I found 2 baby frogs. Kadence just adores frogs. I caught them for her, and she put them in a plastic coke bottle so she could play with them for the afternoon. Her intentions were to let them before supper, but right at dark, she remembered that she still hadn't released them. She took a flashlight and ran out to the garden- she always let's her froggy's go in the garden. She thinks that a frog would really love living in the garden. A few moments later, she came back in the house just heartbroken- one of the baby froggies had died. This is the letter she had me write to her dear little froggy friend. (who just so happened to be a toad..)



Dear Froggy,

I'm sorry that you died. I forgot about you. I'm really sorry for you. I hope you have a fun time hopping around in Jesus Froggy Land. We had such a great time today until you died. Your brother is having fun in the garden. I hope Jesus Froggy feeds you good and gives you lots of flies. It's a fun time in Froggy Jesus Land I bet.

We miss you a lot.

Love,

Kadence



I have no idea how or where she came up with Froggy Jesus Land, but Davey and I sure got a kick out of it. ^_^

I wish that I had a photo of Kadence with her froggy's, but this photo of her with her kittens will just have to do. ;o)

Pregnancy Woes

I'm not much of a complainer. I'm really not.

But whoa is this pregnancy kicking my butt.


First, the nausea is the worst I've ever had during any of my pregnancies. Leave it to the last one to really do me in. Lol. And I'm not just nauseous in the morning...oh no. ALL DAY. For a while there all I could stomach was cereal and toast. Now I go back and forth between not being able to eat, to STARVING. But even when I'm starving, nothing sounds good, and so that makes me nauseous all over again. Sigh.


Then there's the fatigue. O.M.G. I swear it feels like I have an awful case of mono. By mid-afternoon naptime for the trio, I'm exhausted. I think I've taken a nap every day this week while they've napped. And not because I want to..but because I have to. I literally can't go anymore. And I'm typically a night owl, staying up until midnight or 1 a.m. Not anymore! I've been going to bed at 10:30-11:00.


I keep reminding myself that the first trimester will be over in a month, and I'll start to feel better then. At least...I'm hoping. Lol.


Other than the nausea and fatigue, I'm really enjoying this pregnancy! So different than a high-risk pregnancy. I was so worried the whole time with the trio. This time is just so different. I can actually breathe during this pregnancy.


The kiddos are all doing well. It rained quite a bit this week, so we've been stuck in the house for the most part, which makes for some very cranky 2-year-olds. It rained this morning, but hopefully will clear up by the time their nap is over. I'll try to get some new pics uploaded this weekend!


Oh, and 2 new animals have found their way to the McDowell Farm. Any guesses as to what they might be?

The Sweetest Little Heartbeat

(I told Davey I think it's waving at us. "Hi Mom and Dad! :))


I had my first appointment today with the doctor (last visit was just with the nurse) and we had another ultrasound. The best part was we got to see it's heartbeat this time. ^_^ (158 beats/minute by the way, let the gender guessing begin) I LOVE seeing that little heartbeat for the first time- it's so amazing. I'm totally in love with this little baby. The u/s 2 weeks ago we just saw the yolk sac and no heartbeat, but this time we saw it's little head and hands and legs (well, stubs of arms and legs, haha) and we saw it's heartbeat, and that just did me in. I'm hooked. :)


The doctor told me that this will just be a run of the mill, normal pregnancy. Which is SUCH a huge relief to me. After a high-risk pregnancy last time, from the moment we found out we were pregnant, and then delivering at 26 weeks, it's so nice to just have a normal pregnancy.

He did tell me that because I was cut vertically with my section with the triplets (also called a "classic" cut, which they no longer do. My fellow triplet moms...which way were you cut?), that I have a higher risk of rupturing later on in my pregnancy. He said that I will not go to 40 weeks because of this, and that I will be delivering at 38 weeks with a planned section. Which is FINE with me! (Kadence was also born at 38 weeks due to pre-eclampsia) He told me that if I feel any pain to call or head to the hospital right away. That kind of freaks me out, but I'm not going to worry about it.

So my official due date is January 23, but since I'll go at 38 weeks, that puts me at January 9. Which would be SO COOL, because that would mean ALL of my kids would have birthdays on the 9th! Kadence is October 9, the triplets are April 9! But January 9 falls on a Saturday, so I'm guessing he may deliver me on the 8th. But maybe I can talk him into coming in on a Saturday. ;o)

Looong Night...

Having 4 sick kids at once is a lot of work- especially during the night. I swear I was up 20 times throughout the night...going from Eli, to Joey, to Rowan, back to Joey, back to bed, back up again and back into Rowan's room...going back to bed...all night long. They all spiked fevers at some point during the night, poor little things. This morning they've been playing and acting fine (though I'm having to chase them all around with a kleenex and cold medicine), but I'm sure as the day wears on fevers will spike again.

Kadence and I are supposed to go to Iowa on Saturday to visit family and friends, so pray that we get all better before then! I'm feeling much better today, and I'm hoping the next couple of days the kids all get over it too.


Side note: I'm 7 weeks along today! Always so exciting when you get to that next week. I always jump online and see how much the baby grew, and what's new this week with the baby. Davey gets such a kick out of it. I'll say, "Sweetie, this week the baby's eyelids are forming!" He doesn't understand how I get so excited about all this stuff when I've been through it twice before. I told him when he's growing a human inside of him, then we can talk. Lol. It's weird, and crazy, and fascinating- no matter how many times you've been through it before. ;o) I mean, don't you think it's fascinating that from last week to this week the baby doubled in size? And is now the size of a blueberry? And it already has an appendix and a functioning liver? Cuh-ray-zee!!


Ok, I must go clean my kitchen. My poor house has been neglected since I've been sick. Big shout-out to my little sister who did ALL of the laundry in our house!! For the record...I don't know the last time ALL of the laundry was done in our house. Thank you so much Ashley!

House Full of Sickies

It's true, our little home is full of...well, snot. It all started with me about a week ago, and somehow the rest of the family managed to stay healthy up until yesterday. Now we've got fevers, sore throats and runny noses all around. Oh, and lots of fussiness, especially when the fevers hit. Eli and Kadence came down with it yesterday, and Joey came down with it today. Rowan has avoided the plague the virus thus far, but I see fevers and fussiness in her near future.

I'm so hoping it doesn't last as long for them as it has for me. I shouldn't complain...this is the first time they've been sick since March 2008!


There is one good thing that comes out of a house full of sick kids- they're all so snuggly and sweet. ^_^