March Recap

Happy 2nd Birthday Alexa!!!

Makenna at her swim lessons.

So as I have entered the 3rd trimester of this pregnancy, I have felt my energy diminish, and I am still not sleeping well due to pregnancy insomnia, and NUMEROUS bathroom breaks during the night. I have also been told by the doctor to stop exercising. I was enrolled in a really fun prenatal water aerobics class, but noticed lately that I was getting braxton hicks everytime I exercised. And when I am standing or active for too long, I start to get them. Braxton Hicks are a new thing to me. I never had early contractions with other pregnancies. I am also feeling a lot of pressure which I didn't start feeling till after 36 weeks with Alexa. So a lot of things going on very early with this pregnancy. I have 8 1/2 more weeks to go. Hopefully it will fly.

Makenna continues to participate in Awana which she has REALLY enjoyed!! Thankfully we are almost done and our Wednesday night's will be open again. Also she is still in swimming lessons and doing very well. Brett and I are amazed at how much she has improved with swimming and feeling comfortable in the water. No more arm floaties for her. Alexa is the one we have to watch out for now. She is not scared of the water at all. Makenna is going through this phase where she is asking a lot of questions about heaven and death. She comprehends what death is and it terrifies her. Makenna's personality is very sensitive and fearful so the whole "death" thing has overwhelmed her to where she cries and says, "I don't want to die!" And with all this she started really attaching herself to me again. She gets concerned when I leave the room or she it not sure where I am. So please pray for her. Brett and I are praying for wisdom in how to handle and deal with this as well as prayers for Makenna that God would give her peace about it all.

Alexa celebrated her 2nd Birthday!!! We've had a few parties for her. One in Peoria with my family, and one with just our family on her actual birthday. Alexa remains in the 75% for height, 50% for weight. She is still a picky eater. She loves songs, being outside, books, swimming, puzzles, animals, bubbles, shoes, and playing with her sister. She is still our very curious and outgoing child who likes to get into everything. I can't count on my hands how many times a day I am saying, "NO ALEXA!" She loves to be naked. She is always asking us to take off her clothes.

Her vocabulary has taken off as well. We pretty much can understand everything she is saying now. She tells me when she goes pee and poop in her diaper. No plans of potty training though. I will wait a few months until after the baby is born. The sooner we do it, the better though. She loves to take off her diapers.

February Review

February is one of those months we would like to forget. We had SO MUCH snow! And it seems like sickness was EVERYWHERE. Both girl's had ear infections. We had bumps on the head, graffiti on the walls, swimming, two year molars misery, and a momma who is dealing with sleep deprevation due to pregnancy. Spring seems so close, and we can't wait to get outside and play.


The snow finally melted and the girl's
are so excited to play out in their backyard.
Alexa's art work on the wall. We can't leave a pen,
pencil, or crayon out or she will find it and it will end
up on the wall.

This is the wall that could have caused a

ER visit for Alexa. Makenna and Alexa were running

and ran into each other. Alexa hit this corner of the wall

with the back of her head. It is a MIRACLE that her head

was not cut open. There was no blood shed, but just a nasty

bump on the back of her head.

February also brought both girl's ear infections. Makenna's came shortly after our trip to the Dells which I think was a little swimmers ear from all the swimming we did, but she did complain about it a lot and so we took her in and she got on some antibiotics. Makenna doesn't have a high pain tolerance so when she was a baby I would take her to the doctor ALL the time thinking she had ear infections, but she never did. Now with Alexa being my second born, I am a little more relaxed, and plus, she's very easy going and tough. Well I noticed she was starting to whine and complain a lot and it was getting pretty bad. She had no fever so I thought it was from her 2 year molars that she was teething. I kept thinking she was turning into this evil almost 2 year old.
When one day we were out at the mall and I was going to get the girl's some spring pictures taken, Alexa just became out of control and started pulling on her ear. So pictures ended up not happening, I called the Doc office from the mall and they were able to get me in as the last appointment of the day. I have never seen Alexa is so much pain. Of course I was at the mall and so unprepared. I had no tylenol or pacifier to give her. So sure enough the Doc said she had a double ear infection. My poor baby girl. I wonder how long she had been dealing with that pain and I just neglected it. But ever since she was put in antibiotics, she has been an angel. That terrible two year is no more, well....for right now at least.

Makenna is doing really well with her swimming lessons. She is starting to get really comfortable with swimming under water. Both girl's love swimming and we are thankful for our YMCA membership which allows us to swim indoors during the winter months.

Our Little Swimmer

Alexa is our fearless little girl. She is 23 months and thinks she can swim on her own. She wants to do everything her big sister can but doesn't realize she can't.

Our 2011 Dells Trip

Well another Dells trip has come and gone. This is our 3rd year of making this a winter tradition. Each year we have so many new and exciting memories to share. I keep telling Brett how I can't wait to go and enjoy the Dells when I am not pregnant or nursing a baby. That has been my pattern the last 3 years. And maybe I will even get to go skiing with him which is one of Brett's favorite things to do in the Dells. This year we brought both my mom and dad. And this year a couple new things took place: normally there are 3 indoor waterparks open and usually they keep only two open during the week, and all three open on the weekends. We usually only stay during the week so we are always missing out on one extra waterpark. The last two years we have only been to the same two waterparks: #1 The Klondike Cavern: a pretty big kids play area, lazy river and several adult water slides. #2 Waterdome: has a full size indoor wave pool with small kids play area. This year they closed down the #2 Waterdome during the week and opened the #3 Wild Wild West which up until this year we have never got to experience. The Wild Wild West was AWESOME!! Way better than Klondike Cavern. It has a HUGE kids play area, and more adult slides. We did however miss the Waterdome which had the wave pool.

Klondike Cavern Kids Play Area

Alexa trying to copy her big sister. We learned on this trip that Alexa wanted to do A LOT of the things that her bigger sister could do, but she couldn't, like: WATER SLIDES.

Makenna's first little mini waterslide. She had to conquer her fears and work her way up to the bigger slides. By day 2 1/2 she finally tried the bigger slides.

Look at those ears!!

Lazy River

Timberland Playhouse: The most amazing indoor play place for kids. You could get lost in this thing. Brett and the girl's had a blast playing here every night.

Gpa Dan and Gma Polly surpised all of us and spent one night at the Wilderness. It was so nice to see them and my parents were excited to see them and catch up.

The Wild Wild West Kids Play Area. It was Enormous. It had more slides for kids. ANd more adult slides which Brett enjoyed.

I even got to go down a kids slide with Alexa.

LOVE this picture!!

Makenna enjoyed the RAFT slide. It was long and dark, but surprsingly she enjoyed going down with Daddy, Gpa Lee, and even Gma Pat.

More lazy river!

THE PURPLE SLIDE!! Makenna feared this slide since last year. WE pretty much forced her to go down last year ONE time and it was traumatic enough for her that she's feared it ever since. Well this year it took her 2 1/2 days into the trip to convince her to try it, and.....SHE LOVED IT!! It's all she wanted to do!! So proud of her!!

We were lucky to miss out on the Chicago Blizzard, but that doesn't mean we didn't get any snow up in the Dells. We got our fair share of snow too. In fact, Brett could not go skiing because of the weather and freezing cold temps. We always say we pick the perfect week to go the Dells because NO ONE is there, as this year it was true again because most people had to stay away because of the BAD WEATHER.

Alexa are little fishy! She has NO fear of the water. And was very disappointed and couldn't understand why she couldn't go on the BIG slides with her older sister.

Well this year at the Dells the kids avoided getting sick. Last year on the last night Makenna got sick and threw up ALL NIGHT LONG. The worst I have ever seen. We thought it was because she had drank too much chlorine water and it upset her stomach. It was NOT FUN!! This year we managed to keep the girl's healthy, but I came down with a sinus infection on the last day and pretty much stuck in the bed the last evening of FUN!! I only got more sick and miserable the next day. I felt so much pain and pressure in my face. It was like having a migrane with allergies in the winter. As soon as we got home on Thursday I headed off to the doctor for antibiotics. What a relief I am getting now that I am medicated. That is some of the worst pain I have ever been in. Funny story though, turns out the last time I had been to the doctor was exactly almost two years ago to the day in February(pregnant with Alexa), and was treated for a sinus infection. There something about being pregnant, and getting sinus infections in the month of Febuary that my body just can't shake.

Overall, we had another fantastic trip to the Dells.