It’s another…

In November I took a road trip to San Diego to visit my new niece Kate.  We had a great visit with Julie, Troy and the kids. A few nights after we returned, I must have babies on my mind because I had a dream that Kelly was pregnant.  We had gone to find out what she was having and as told that it was a girl.  Kelly was surprised and was yelling at the lady saying that she was wrong and that it was really a boy.  The dream continued and was very weird and although I can’t remember all the details now, I will never forget the look on Kelly’s face when I told her about it. She just stared at me.  She then said that’s weird because I am pregnant! Yes, I was in shock but also very excited.  I was sworn to secrecy and I must say I did very well. 

We were all pretty confident that this one was going to be a boy but when we went in February to find out we were all shocked to find out we would be having another

 

GIRL!!!

Thomas was disappointed for a little while but after a few minutes of time to let it soak in he was back to being excited about having another sister.  I can’t say I blame him.  He will now have 5 sisters.  That’s a lot of sisters!!! He is such a good big brother that I’m sure he will do just fine with another one to watch over.  

I cannot wait to become an Auntie again!!!  I’m not sure how I will do with keeping 4 kids during the week and 3 on the weekend but I felt the same way when Karly was born and I think I’ve done pretty well, if I do say so myself. I’m sure it will be an adventure and a challenge but I’m always up for a challenge. 

Now the real hard part comes… a name.  I pretty sure I can say that Kelly had in her mind from the beginning the names for all the kids, this one isn’t coming as easy.  I love playing the name game and as of today we are still playing.

Welcome to the family…. Baby Kate

Troy, Julie and Tyler welcomed Kate Lynn to the family on October 14th.  We are also so happy to have another little baby girl in the family. 

Baby Graves’ Scrapbook

When Kelly got pregnant with Thomas I thought a perfect gift for her would be a scrapbook that was already put together and all she would need to do is put the pictures in it. Then came Noelle, Tyler, Karly and now baby Katie(?).  Once you make one you got make one for each of them. 

Each book has pages for the first 12 months of “birthdays”, all of the “firsts” (sitting up, crawling, eating, rolling over, etc), all of the family members (grandma’s, grandpa’s, aunts, uncles, cousins), all of the first holidays, and the first vacations, park days, road trips, zoo trips and camping.

Thomas definitely has the smallest book since he was the first baby in the family and with each additional member came more pages.  Baby Katie’s (?) is 86 total pages.  Here are a few of my favorites.

I cant wait to show Julie and Troy next week when we see them.  Baby Katie(?) will be here in 4 short weeks!!

Baby Karly

I can’t believe  that baby Karly is here.  She’s only 12 days old but already she has had an eventful life.  As many of you know she wasn’t due until June 28th however Karly couldn’t wait to join us and came exactly a month early on May 28th.  I’m going to save all of the labor details to Kelly to describe because it was pretty technical and I don’t know all of the medical terms and things that they were doing but after 16 hours at the hospital  Baby Karly Ann Mertz was born weighing 5lbs 2 ozs and 18 3/4 inches long. 

You can check out Kelly’s blog at http://daveandkellysfam.blogspot.com She has posted the story there.

When Karly was born the cord was wrapped around her neck and she wasn’t breathing.  They did a full code on her and rushed her to the NICU where she still is today.  Again, I’m going to leave all the details for Kelly to share on her blog because I don’t know all of the terms to use and I think she could give a much more detailed and thoughtful message. 

Since Karly has been born my family has felt the overwhelming sense of support and love.  We have been blessed by all the prayers and continue to be in awe of the power of prayer.  We have appreciated all the gestures of support, food that has been prepared, and acts of kindness that have been done for us. 

Karly is making a little progress each day but she still has a long way to go.  She still needs all of your prayers!!!

Here are just a few pictures of her.  I’m sharing the videos of Thomas and Noelle holding her for the first time mainly for family (because they are kind of long) but feel free to view them.  Thank You again for all of your love and support we truly feel it.

    
 

Karly’s scrapbook- pictures included

I posted something about Karly’s scrapbook on my facebook page the other day and got a bunch of messages with people wanting to see it and wanted to know where I found my stuff.  So here’s the story behind it and some pictures of the final product.

Little did I know when I decided to make Kelly a scrapbook for Thomas when he was born that it would be followed by five more.  When Kelly first got pregnant with Thomas we spent a lot of time looking through our baby books that my Mom had done for us.  We were impressed by the way that she documented everything.  At the time my good friend, Christina, was doing a lot of scrapbooking and she often tried to get me to scrapbook with her.  I don’t find myself as being very creative however I am one that likes things done just perfect.  So, I didn’t think that scrapbooking would be for me.  It took a lot of time and attention to detail.  But one day I got a bright I idea that I could make Kelly a really simple scrapbook that would have simple pages for the first 12 month “birthdays” where she could put his weight and length on it, one for each family member, one for each of the major milestones, one for each first holiday and one for our annual camping trip.  In my mind it sounded really simple.  However, at that point I had never shopped for scrapbooking supplies and never would’ve thought how overwhelming it could be.  I was completely overwhelmed at the scrapbook stores so I started shopping online.  I found some great cardboard stickers at Doodlebug design that had perfect themes and made it look do able.  Although they didn’t make everything I needed, they had the majority.  Christina then helped me find the rest of what I needed.  The scrapbook turned out perfect and I had it done just in time for her baby shower. Everyone loved it and was going to be perfect for Kelly because all she was going to need to do is take the picture, glue it to the page and journal.  It was the perfect gift!!  Then she became pregnant with Noelle and said that Noelle would feel left out if she didn’t have a book like Thomas’.  So I made Noelle’s but the online store that I had purchased the Doodlebug Design stuff from was no longer in business.  So, Noelle’s was a little more difficult but turned out just as cute if not cuter than Thomas’.  Then Julie got pregnant with Tyler.  I didn’t think I could leave Tyler out so he got one to.  Then Kelly’s 30th birthday came around and I thought putting a scrapbook together with her first 30 years would be fantastic.  I think the book came out to be over 75 pages (it ended up being 2 books).  After that I thought I was done.  Then I found out I was going to be blessed with one more niece.  So, baby Karly was going to need a book to. 

This time when I searched the internet I found this great store   http://www.scrapbookingmom.com.  She had the biggest selection of Doodlebug Design stuff that I have found anywhere with great prices!!  The shipping was super quick so I was in business within a couple of days.  My plan was to have the scrapbook done by the time she came in June but with all of the Doodlebug stuff that I found and the quick shipping I was able to get it done a month ahead of schedule.  I’ve had a lot of people ask to see pictures so here a a few of my favorites.

                       

 

 

So you can see, it’s not frilly with bows and ribbons just basic.  I think it came out really well and it's something that is already done for Kelly so there are no excuses as to why things are not documented for the kids.  Thomas’ book is the smallest since there weren’t as many family members.  I think at last count Karly’s book turned out to be 73 pages!!!

While I was doing this one I started getting a little jealous that I don’t have one so I am thinking about putting one together just for me!!!

Playtime with the kids

A few weekends ago Wanda, Cassandra and I decided to have a play date at my house with the kids.  Noelle loves Baby William and Baby Evan and she was really excited that they were coming to play.  It was nice to see them all playing and really nice to get sometime to chat with Wanda and Cassandra away from work. 

Play date

Sunday afternoon I met Wanda and Cassandra along with William and Evan for a play date at the park.

The weather was great and Noelle needed to get out and get some fresh air. 

Noelle’s tell it all. She still wasn’t feeling all that well but the fever was gone and we needed some fresh air!  It was a short afternoon at the park but she enjoyed running around on the grass for awhile.  And of course, she loved seeing William and Evan.

I can’t believe that William will be a year old this Friday!  He is way too cute!

 

Baby Evan is also way cute.  He has the most perfect skin and the cutest smile.

Thanks ladies for hanging out with me at the park.

I learned about child development in college but watching it happen before my own eyes is amazing

It amazes me how different Thomas and Noelle are.  Thomas is ALL boy.  Everything from sound effects when he's playing, his "make believe" games with good guys and bad guys, his love of sports, bugs, trucks, Army men, tools, and cars.  Noelle on the other hand is ALL girl.  She loves her babies, cooking, books, blankets, and bears.  Don't get me wrong, she can play pretty hard and often times is the one sitting on top of Thomas, pulling on his clothes, and biting BUT 95% of the time she is caring and loving. 

The other day I caught her lining up her babies like an assembly line, feeding, changing and putting them all to bed.  All along she is talking to them and loving them.  What makes this funny to me is she and Thomas have watched the same shows, were treated the same way and have grown up together but they act so different.  Nobody taught Thomas to make truck noises, or sound effects while he is playing Army men, or how to find bugs in the dirt. Nobody told him about "good guys" and "bad guys". It just came natural.  Just like nobody taught Noelle to rock her babies, feed them, cook food for them and bath them.  Kids are amazing!  I have loved watching Thomas and Noelle develop their own unique personality's. 

When I was in college I took several child development classes and in my line of work I have watched little kids develop so I have learned all of the theories but actually seeing it develop over time with Thomas and Noelle has been an eye opening experience.