Thursday, December 20, 2012

Take your Kenna to work day


In anticipation of a huge blizzard (which turned out to be mostly rain..) Makenna's school closed today so she got to come to work with Mommy for a few hours...



She loves riding the elevator and insists on pushing the button for the 2nd floor when we get on.  She knows we are about to see daddy so she is VERY excited!

Thank you Ipad for entertaining/teaching Makenna while I got a little work done:) 
 
 
Watching for daddy to come home in the snow...
 



Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Cutie Booties!

 
Seriously, how cute is this?? She refused to take them off and walked around in them for about a 1/2 hour while she played.  Too cute!


Tuesday, December 18, 2012

First snowfall!

There is just something about the excitement on this little girl's face every time she sees these GIANT snowflakes fall from the sky.....



Pure JOY!! 
 
I love you my little snowflake baby - and yes, you are as beautiful as each of these tiny snowflakes falling from heaven. 
 
Muah!

Snowflake baby #2 prep cycle day 1....this snow has GOT to be a good sign right?

Monday, December 17, 2012

Jesus is coming!

After school today, we caught part of Elmbrooks Christmas rehearsal in the church.  We walked in and I was pointing out the huge Christmas star.  Makenna kept telling me"Jesus is coming mama! Jesus is coming mama!"  I love this age and the cute things they say.  I love that her teachers spent all day today celebrating Jesus' birthday and sharing the Christmas story with them over and over again.  Merry Christmas, baby girl.  May you always remember that Yes, Jesus is coming and that He loves you very much. 

1st annual Country Springs Christmas

This year we decided to check out the Country Springs Christmas lights.  To our delight, it turned out to be $10 Monday so we saved $5 on the deal, too:) 
 
 Makenna didn't quite love the outside lights..... We kept yelling - look at the penguin or look at the snowflake and she would yell back - "I don't see a penguin!" and "I want to go in the castle!" when she saw the a castle all lit up.
She did however LOVE the tunnel of lights.  Here she is "holding up" the tunnel as we drive through it.  Growing up I think we held up every tunnel we ever went through on our Janssen family vacations and I am happy to pass on this tradition:)  Who doesn't love these little chubby fingers?  So precious.

Long story on this one, but we even managed to find a Christmas Dragon and as anticipated Makenna cried that she was scared of the dragon. 
 
 
After the outside lights, there are 2 inside areas to walk through.  Love that you can actually see Makenna saying baby Jesus in this one.  She had a party for Baby Jesus at school today and she has been talking about him non-stop.  I love it. 


Here she asked me - "mommy, is Jesus wearing a diaper?" followed up with "Did Jesus poop in his diaper?"  Ha! Ha!

I would say that she is pondering the magic of Christmas and the Jesus story judging by the look on her face in this one but after the above conversation with her, I'm not sure that is the case...
 
The next area had trains set up and she LOVED watching this!

Here she is watching for the Nemo train with Daddy

She could have sat here all night


 

Ok, I will pose for one picture...

Maybe 2...

But now I wanna go back by the trains!! 
 
 

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Saturday fun!

Enjoying my morning smoothie in my "Brewer Game" dress

Cutie piggies!
Arts & Craft time
Such concentration!
Look at my band aid mommy, just like yours!
So very proud of her new creation - bead bracelets!!
 
And now on to Gingerbread Castle Time!!

Need more frosting right here daddy!

Decorating her castle

Looking good!
 

Sneaking the gum drops off the castle... yum!

The finished product!  Beautiful!!!
 

Friday, December 14, 2012

Surgery update and lots of THANKS!

Well, my surgery on Wednesday went well.  It's done anyway and we are all thankful for that.  The doctor ended up removing a cyst from my right ovary and did find a mild case of endometreosis so he cleaned that up too.  Praise God that I ended up having to have this laporoscopy because this is really the only way you can be certain you have endometreosis.  I have had a few symptoms, but not enough that I would have had a laporoscopy to check for sure.  I am thankful to be all "cleaned out" and ready for our next transfer!  More than anything I want to make sure my body is as ready as it can be for baby.  I wouldn't want to be left wondering if it didn't work if there was something else I could have done.  I have a follow up with the doctor next week and then we'll figure out a transfer schedule from there - we are hoping for a February or March transfer. 
 
We are so very thankful to all the help we've had the last few days!!!  I am still pretty sore and I'm not able to care for Makenna alone.  I still can't really lift her, though I'm figuring out ways to shimmy her out of her crib/onto and off the toilet and into her high chair. 
 
Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for babysitting while I was in surgery.  Thank you for the yummy dinner & the tasty lemon bars, too!!
 
Thanks to my sister Amy for coming with me and Brad to the hospital and for entertaining Makenna on Wednesday night and helping Brad care for her. 
 
 
Makenna helped me put princess band aids on each of my incisions and insisted she get one on her tummy too.  She keeps checking on me and asking me to see my belly.  She tells me which princess is on each of my band aids and then asks me "does it hurt mama?  will you be ok mama?" 
 
A very special thank you to my parents who came down Thursday night and helped us with our first ever puking episode on Thursday night.  Yuck!!!  I thought I heard strange coughing over the baby monitor and I called for Brad to run in and check on Makenna only to find her covered in vomit.  Ewwww.  If you know Brad, he is NOT a bodily function guy.  Bless his heart he proceeded to clean it out of her hair and calm her down while I sat there pretty helpless.  I had to pound on mom and dad's door to wake them up.  My mom HATES vomit so she quickly sent dad in to help Brad out and she and I put Makenna in the tub to wash the chunks out of her hair.  Ick! 
Makenna was pretty upset until we busted out the princess band aids.  Apparently princess band aids even make a pukey belly feel better. 
 
Thank you Daddy for taking such good care of me.

Thank you Oma for teaching me how to puke in a bucket and for snuggling with me and watching Princess Sophia and Toy Story with me until the wee hours of the night:)
 
Friday Makenna and I got to spend some good snuggle time together:) She was feeling better and we're thinking the vomit episode must have been due to a little too much watermelon with dinner on Thursday night.  I guess that's what you get for buying a watermelon in December...
 
Thank you Great Auntie Sharon for the YUMMY lasgna!!!!  I'm pretty sure it is the best lasagna I've ever eaten & the pan will last us all week!!
 
 
And finally, thanks to Daddy for taking care of us this week! Thank you for making Mommy laugh so hard before her surgery with all your funny antics that she wasn't even scared going under.  Thank you for praying with her before her surgery, reminding her that God would take care of her.  Thank you for taking such good care of Makenna and loving her, playing with her and snuggling her to make up for this time that mommy just can't.  Thank you for cleaning up all that yucky puke and not even complaining once about it.  Thank you for waiting on mommy when she couldn't move around so well.  Thank you, daddy!  We love you!
 
 
 


 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Diaper bandit strikes again...

and this would be why I always check on her before I go to bed.... Sassy girl

Sunday, December 2, 2012

2 1/2

Baby girl, you are 2 1/2 already - can you believe it?  I must say I miss updating this blog with your monthly updates and celebrating every month - it seems that went by slower that this does.  I think I could probably write something about you every single day on this blog, if only there was the time.  You are constantly making us laugh at your silly personality.  You have such a vocabulary for a 2 1/2 year old and the things that come out of your mouth make us laugh all day long.  Just now you were playing with your Little People nativity scene downstairs and you took the angel and brought her to Mary and kept saying over and over again "don't be afraid Mary, don't be afraid".  Apparently you are listening to the Christmas books I have been reading to you and to your teachers in school.  Ha! 

You are such a sweetheart and you really are a joy to just about everyone you meet.  Mommy likes to call you a show stopper because there are so many people that will stop us when we are out & about - especially at church and tell you how beautiful you are.  You will very politely say "thank you" when you are complimented and then you will often start to act silly knowing that you have a complete stranger's attention.  Often I will tell you to say hi to someone and you will repeat after me "hi to ___".  You like to leave the "to" in there.  It makes me laugh every time.  I definitely think your name fits you perfectly - you really are a "gift of happiness" to everyone you meet. 

Potty training is welll..... kind of on hold.  You do not want to go on the potty and refuse to tell me when you have to go.  So, we are taking a little break.  I put you on every few hours, but don't force you when you don't want to do it.  You get it, but really are pretty adamant about not doing it yet.  In time, in time....

The silly things you say that are "Kenna-ism's"
    -"her-she" - instead of saying "she did this" you say "her-she did this"
    - "just" - you use the word "just" all the time - as in what are you doing Makenna "Oh, I'm just pooping"
    -"I'm all better" - I have to post the video I took of this the other day.  We are doing a little "Love and Logic" parenting and it is all about using a key phrase when your child is doing something wrong or throwing a temper tantrum which leads to a consequence (we usually put you in your crib 'for a minute').  Ours is "Uh-Oh!"  Any time I say it you can be crying your eyes out and you instantly stop and say the fakest "I'm all better!", usually still with tears running down your cheeks followed by "I don't need a minute". 
    -Your v's sound like b's so I love you is "I lub you"
I'm sure there are a million more, too....

We had your first parent-teacher conference a few weeks ago and your teacher had nothing but very nice things to say about you.  They really love having you in class and when I pick you up after school your after school teachers get a kick out of your sweet and silly personality.  You had a bit of a rough stretch a few months ago in school when you learned to push other kids but I think we are (hopefully) growing out of that stage.  We even got a call from the teacher one night to let us know that you were a little bully.  Thankfully we haven't gotten another call since.  I do know that you still push from time to time because every time you do it, you feel the need to tell me right before bed.  "Mama, I push Jianna today".  You know it is naughty and you have been working hard on "gentle hands" but yet you keep telling me when you do it.  You are learning so much in school - you know the letters to most of the kids in your class' name and if I draw an M you will sing "M for Makenna Mmm, mmm, mmm" and then proceed to do that with all the other kids when I draw the first letter of their name.  Your teacher tells us that you love art and music and we can certainly see that as well.

Our house is all decorated for Christmas and you were so very excited to see the Christmas tree all lit up and decorated.  Mommy decorated it while you were sleeping and when you woke up you saw it and said "it's beautiful mommy!"  We are very excited to celebrate Christmas with you this year.  I love this time of year & I think daddy is getting to be less of a grinch now that we have you in our lives.  He is already listening to Christmas music with us:) 

Mommy put together a book to share your "special" story with you and you are really enjoying reading it.  Although I will admit the first 3 times I sat down to read it to you you wanted nothing to do with it.  Your story talks about how mommy and daddy wanted to start a family but couldn't and were very sad and then they prayed and God brought you to us from some very nice people in Texas as a snowflake baby.  Then it goes on to tell about you being in Mommy's belly and us seeing you on ultrasound and mommy's belly growing and then us meeting you.  Your favorite part is when I tell you that we went to the doctor's office to see a video of you in mommy's belly - you keep asking me if we can go to the doctor to watch the movie of mommy's belly.  Ha! 

You are a DADDY'S girl!!  Big time!!  Whenever you get hurt or are sad, you want daddy and you want him now.  Today we were at the Pirate Park and you tried to jump on a swing and you flipped over it and landed on your belly and you SCREAMED "I just want my daddy!"  We finally had to call him at home to give you a kiss over the phone to get you to stop crying.  The other night he worked late and when we got in the car you kept telling me you just wanted to go and pick him up from work.  Daddy of course eats this up:) 

We love you Makenna Lee!! Happy 1/2 birthday!!

Muah!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Daddy's influence...

Ok, so Daddy's FAVORITE thing to get Makenna to say is "Brewer Game" - anytime she sees a Brewer logo, she says "Brewer Game" - not just "Brewers" but "Brewer Game".  And the way she says it is always funny because she puts the emphasis on "Game!".  Today, we headed to Miller Park for their annual Brewers Clubhouse sale. 
 
Love her reaction when she sees Miller Park:
 
 
Ah, 2 very happy campers!



 
 

Love the look on her face in this one
 
Aaaand, apparently she really thought we were going to see a "Brewer Game" and didn't want to leave.  Yes, I am that bad mom for taping this and laughing at it, but it honestly was really pretty funny and I couldn't resist:) 
 
To cheer her up, we took Uncle Derek with us to grab breakfast and bum around Tosa
She does love her Uncle Derek!

Holding Uncle Derek's hand so tight while we went through the car wash
 
Don't worry Makenna, pitchers and catchers report in just a few short months.... if only we could go to spring training this year.  Darn tax season!