Halloween at the Kaspy House

The pictures above are the best shots Randy could get of our little Renaissance princess in her Halloween costume (sans crown). My hopes for a front-door picture each Halloween were shattered as soon as Quinn saw our candy bowl. :-) The girl LOVES suckers. She had maybe had three or four in her whole life before last night, but she had at least that many before trick-or-treating, whilst out trick-or-treating, and home. It was funny: Randy and Quinn had come home and Wes and I were upstairs (we just left the candy bowl outside for kids to take from). Randy heard the front door open, and Quinn had just let herself outside to get more suckers from our bowl, ignoring all of the great candy she had in her pumpkin! Needless to say, she was a sticky little gal by bedtime.

Before trick-or-treating, our neighborhood had a block party. I have been sick, so Randy (a.k.a. Super Daddy) took both kids down to it. Wes didn't wear a costume, but he sported his snowsuit with bear ears, so he was kind of a polar bear cub!

For a cold, windy night, Quinn did great with her dad. Her "trick-or-treat" might have been a little garbled, but we were still proud of her. We are looking forward to taking her out again next year!

Happy Halloween!

Wordless Wednesday

Watch me grow: 1 month

Football Fun

Yesterday Randy, the kids and I made a quick trip to Norwalk to see my nephew, Tanner, play football. He is in 3rd grade and plays for the Gilbert Eagles team. He is the quarterback and is turning out to be such a good athlete! We sat with my sister and her girls and my parents. It was a beautiful day - probably the last no-coat day we will have this year. Quinn was such a good girl playing with her older cousins; she is turning into such a big kid herself! We went out for a quick dinner in WDM afterward. All in all it was a nice, relaxing Sunday afternoon!

Go Tanner!

Snuggle time with Ava

 

 

Daddy and Wes

Cell phone pic of Ava and Quinn out to eat

The two littlest girls! :-)

Wordless Wednesday

19 months and counting

This past week, with little fanfare, Miss Quinn turned 19 months. I am a little bit sad that as she nears the end of her second year of life, the monthly milestones aren't quite as exciting. While she continues to amaze me every day, I know she is all "toddler" and no "baby" anymore. However, just in case this is the last monthly milestone this momma remembers to celebrate, I want to jot down 9 things to remember about 19 months.

To the beautiful Miss Q, I want to remember...

1. The way your little butt and legs look in leggings. I love to see you run!
2. Your wispy, blonde curls.
3. How much you love eating "nanas" every morning. You have had a banana almost every day since you were 7 months old! You are such a good eater.
4. How you go down the stairs like a big girl, holding on to the railing or onto an adult's hand.
5. The way you randomly "count." "One, freeeeee, seven, twooooooooo...."
6. Looking at books with you every day. You have to be in charge of turning the pages, but that's ok. We'll let you. :-)
7. Picking your magnetic numbers off the floor several times a day. You also like to sneak them into the little gap in the dishwasher so that whenever someone opens it, all of the letters spill out into the floor or into the dishwasher itself. Hilarious!
8. Your LAUGHS. You giggle, cackle, chuckle...you have the best laugh and it is completely infectious!
9. How sweet you are to your little brother. You love to give him kisses, blow on his belly, point out all of his body parts, bring him his pacifier or blanket or diaper, and offer him a drink from your cup. You are going to be such a good big sister, and I can't wait to see all of the adventures you two have together. It is so special that you are born so close together; I hope that you will be very good friends.

Helping me with Wes!

Great weekend!

Randy, the kids, and I had a great weekend back home! We are blessed that our parents live quite close to each other so we can usually see both sets in a weekend. We were also lucky enough to see tons of great friends this weekend, too!

We set off for home early Saturday morning so that we could spend some time at Randy's parents' farm. Randy wanted to check on his miscanthus grass plot. If you are interested in agriculture, check out his grass blog. We then went to Denison for our nephew Taylor's 8th birthday party.

Pizza makes us thirsty!

Quinn wanting in on the action

What a stinker!

After we left Denison, we went to Westside to my parents'. The idea was that Quinn would nap at their house, but she snoozed in the car and was ready to play! My parents cooked an amazing turkey dinner for us Saturday night and we all got to relax and enjoy the kids. This was our first time traveling with both kids, and they did great sleeping overnight at my parents'!

On Sunday, we ventured down to Aspinwall for our dear friend Tina's first annual Halloween/Harvest party! She has four grandbabies under 2, so Quinn fit right in. We are good friends with all of her sons and their wives, so it was nice to be able to visit with them and with Tina, our friends Katie, Luke, and their son Landon. We decorate pumpkins, ate tons of food, and went on a hayride! It was a perfect fall afternoon.

Our family :-)

Quinn dancing in her kitty tutu costume after the car ride home

Happy Halloween!

Thankful Thursday

So I didn't get to post yesterday because of the lightning strike, but I have been feeling so thankful lately! My husband commented on how "sweet" I was acting last night. If you know Randy and me well, you will know that while we are very much in love and have a great relationship, we are certainly not a romantic, lovey-dovey couple. We pick on each other, fight like teenagers, roll our eyes at each other constantly...somehow, it all works.

Here is what I am especially thankful for this week:

Living in an area with great amenities but a small-town feel. Wes had a bad cough this week (and still has it), so I took him into our clinic yesterday. It is literally across the street from our day care, down the street from Walgreens, and up the road from work. It is so convenient, and we LOVE our pediatrician. I am so glad I don't have to drive a half hour to go to the doctor, get a prescription filled, etc.

Food. I am ravenously hungry and thirsty all the time and have been eating nonstop. I am also thankful for the excuse "I just had a baby!" and the fact that I am on maternity leave so there is nothing wrong with yoga pants everyday. For now.

Stuff to do in the middle of the night while I am feeding my baby. I love bonding with him and having that "us" time, but it gets pretty boring the third (or fourth or fifth) time I am up each night. I have been very into apps on my Nook, especially word games. Maybe this will give me an edge on party games this holiday season. ;-)

Going out to lunch with my husband. Loved Pizza Hut buffet yesterday; looking forward to more grown-up time (with Wes in tow, of course).

Speaking of my husband....I love that he is an amazing baby-swaddler, that he can carry around a baby (or 30 pound toddler) for hours if needed, that he rarely gets frazzled, that he will eat expired yogurt (or anything) if I ask him to, and that he is just such an amazing daddy in general. All three of us are lucky to have him! He has been great about putting Wes to sleep each night. I'd prefer if he'd stay up and chat with me while Wes is eating, but I'll take what I can get. :-)

For what are you thankful this week?

back online!

this isn't really an update...just wanted to share that we are back online and connected to the "world" again! Lightning struck our house on Tuesday so we have been without internet since then. Other things have malfunctioned, too: our television, garage doors, etc. Randy is slowly getting everything back to normal. I have a lot of catching up to do!

First trip home this weekend!!

2 weeks old!

This past Saturday, our little man turned 2 weeks old!

Today we had his 2-week checkup. He weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs 3 oz. (60th percentile), over a pound heavier than his birth weight of 8 lbs 2 oz. Holy cow! I was relieved to see that he is so healthy and growing so well. He is also 21 3/4" long (85th percentile), and his head is 14 1/2" (45th percentile).

Wes is continuing to eat every 2 hours except for a single 4-hour stretch overnight. Once in a while we will get a second longer stretch of 3 or 3 1/2 hours overnight, but he is usually growly for milk every 2 hours like clockwork. In the waiting room today I was seated next to a mother of a 2-week-old girl; this mother was talking to a friend about how her baby was sleeping 11:00-5:00 each night. Yes, I am seething with jealousy, but I know that Wes will start sleeping longer soon. Quinn's first 5-hour stretch was at 5 weeks old, and she was sleeping 6 hours at a time at 6 weeks old. Meanwhile, we are hanging in there. Coffee and Diet Mountain Dew are our best friends right now. :-)

Handsome man in his fall clothes. Who needs sock(s)?

No-pants crew exhibiting a rare moment of quietude.

Fashionable Friday

Sitting in an empty car seat in the garage...eating a graham cracker...singing her heart out...I love this kid!

I wish Quinn would sit still for pictures so you could see how long and pretty her hair is getting! It is so curly in the back. It looks very mullet-like if it is not parted to one side and pulled back, so I always keep a clip or bow in there. I am excited for all of our hair adventures to come!

{Dress from Old Navy, shoes and socks from Target, bow from Wal-Mart}

Pajama day?

So anyone who knows me knows that I am very particular about how I dress my children. Quinn goes out in public in her pajamas for two reasons: 1) she is having major surgery very early in the morning - been there; and 2) it is pajama day at day care. They do that on dreary Fridays during the winter and it is actually really cute.

However, there is just something about this little man in his pajama sleepers that I cannot resist! I let him hang out in a one-piece sleeper all day, and he is happy as a clam. I love gowns on babies at night (so easy for diaper changes!). During our outings, Wes has been rocking his little sweatsuits and soft fleece outfits. Once the jeans and flannel shirts fit, watch out! But for now, I think Wes will stay cozied up in his Carter's, Momma will wear the old Cyclones t-shirts and VS Pink pants, we'll pretend like it's 58 degrees and not 85, and read books and sing songs and just love being together.

I think this funny face might have been in response to his sister's singing...

Wes's Birth Story

As many of you know, Wes's due date was September 26th, 2011. Our little punkin decided to grace us with his presence two days early, just in time to share his daddy's birthday!

I had gone to the doctor the Wednesday before Wes was born, and he was ready to schedule me for an induction when I came back on my due date. I didn't mind being induced with Quinn; it was easy, allowed me to plan and organize ahead of time, and there were no surprises. However, I've always said that I wanted to go into labor on my own at least once in my life, and this was my chance!

After leaving the doctor on Wednesday, I had unbearable back pain each night for the rest of the week. Thursday night I didn't sleep much at all, and I had a sneaking suspicion that Baby might be making his arrival soon. I sat through a long meeting in relative discomfort all day Friday with continued back pain and mild nausea. I switched into high gear Friday night, picking up as much as I could around the house, getting stuff organized, getting the car seat base installed (well, that was Randy) and more.

On Saturday morning, I got up to get Quinn fed and dressed, and I noticed that my water broke! It was not nearly as dramatic as they make it look on t.v. :-) We decided to take our time getting ready because I wasn't having any contractions yet. Quinn's baby-sitter, Chrissy, came to pick up Quinn for the day. I threw in some laundry and we left for downtown about 8:30. We somehow managed to forget the baby's diaper bag, but knew that we had lots of time. I got admitted to the hospital, and they had us just hang out until noon while monitoring the baby and me. It turned out I was having contractions all along and probably had been since Wednesday, when my back pain really started to escalate. At about 1:00 they decided to start me on a Pitocin drip to make my contractions closer together. I napped until about 3:30, until the contractions were so bad I couldn't sleep through them. I got an epidural....which didn't work. I started having really bad anxiety and stress at this point, so I got some different pain meds while I waited for epidural #2. The anesthesiologist was swamped for some reason, so he didn't come back my way for what seemed like forever. Finally, though, I got my second epidural and life was good again. We relaxed for a little while longer, and then it was time to push. Wesley Randall Kasparbauer was born at 5:45 p.m.! My regular doctors weren't on call that weekend, so I had a different doctor, but he was amazing and made the whole experience great. There was a car accident right outside of Mercy that afternoon, so he had to get out of his car and ask to have some cars moved. I am so glad he was able to make it in time!

Both Randy's and my parents made it to town that same day (Saturday). We had nonstop visitors all day Sunday, and went home Monday. What a crazy, amazing weekend!

Last moments as a momma of one! Bye-bye belly and hello baby!

Hi, Handsome!!

big yawns

I'm here!

"Hi, baby!" My mom being an amazing grandma.

He is so long! 

 

Birthday buddies!