Christmas Craziness

Reagan on Christmas Morning. She was such an angel!


Our Living Room on Christmas Morning.



Santa's letter to the kids.


Mason and Melissa - Christmas Eve. Grandma and Grandpa Klein gave Mason his first Tricycle and he loves it!


Reagan and Kevin on Christmas Eve..right before Reagan fell asleep!

Merry Christmas!

From the four of us Frieling's, I wish all of our families and friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

We have way to many places to go over Christmas and it seems like everything will be rushed. I hope that we are able to slow down and enjoy each other during this holiday season. I just need to remember to keep our kids on their schedule and things should be fine, even if it means missing out on some gatherings. It is important to me that we get time at home with just the four of us and enjoy our kids opening and playing with their gifts from us and Santa.

Mason, Reagan and I are getting over colds. I have had a small cold and nothing compaired to what Mason had. He has been a trooper through it all though. Even Reagan, with her not feeling well, always had a smile on her face. Thankfully all of us are on the mend now.

We are planning on going to look at Christmas lights tonight if the weather holds out. It is a tradition that we are carrying on from my childhood. I love seeing Mason's excitement when he sees the beautiful lights!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Mason's birthday early this past Sunday. He had a great time opening all his presents. He loves his drums from Grandma and Grandpa Klein, and his forklift from Grandpa and Grandma Frieling!


The birthday boy yesterday on his actual birthday!! Hard to believe he is 3!!!



I couldn't resist putting in a picture of Reagan and I! It is so rare to have any pictures of me with my kids since I am always the one taking the pictures!


Happy Thanksgiving to our friends and family!! What a wonderful year that we are thankful for! We are so blessed to finally have our family of four. The addition of Reagan to our family has been something to truly be thankful for. I am thankful that we are all happy and healthy. I am thankful that I have such a wonderful husband and wonderful son and daughter.

Christmas shopping is DONE!

Dare I say, that I believe I am officially done with Christmas shopping??!! All I technically have left to do is stocking stuffers for Kevin. I am so excited about going shopping on Black Friday. My Mom wants me to pick up a gift for someone and I can't wait to go with all the masses!

Mason's birthday is this coming Tuesday. We are not having a birthday party for him, we will just keep it small with us, our parents and aunts and uncles if we decide to do anything. He is really getting big. He is hard to carry now because he is so tall.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I love the smell of turkey baking on Thankgiving morning. I also love the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I love getting miserably stuffed! I love Pat's cheesecake. Ohh...I can hardly wait!

Happy Veteran's Day and Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 32nd birthday. Yep, you heard that right, 3-2. Kevin and I celebrated Saturday night by going and having dinner at Red Lobster. I am getting old. You know how I know? Friday night at La Hacienda a margarita gave me heartburn. Saturday night, yep you guessed it, a Lobsterita also gave me heartburn! What the heck is up with that????? The only time I have ever had heartburn was during pregnancy. I know I am not pregnant this time!

Today is also Veteran's Day. My cousin Raymond is on his second tour of Iraq and I want to thank him for his sacrifice and service to serve our country. His wife and two daughters won't get to see him until September 2009. God Bless Raymond and God Bless America. Thank you to all our friends and family who served and continue to serve our country. Because of them, we are able to live free!

Mason is really taking off in his speech. Even though it is still only one word at a time, he is really making progress. He is saying chair, milk, please, no, up, etc. We are able to understand him a bit more then we have been. I really hope this is the beginning of something big. Speaking of big, his 3rd birthday is coming up in several weeks! Can you all believe that? He has sure come a long way in 3 years. It is so hard to believe he is no longer a baby!

Here is some video of Reagan a couple of weeks ago figuring out how to roll over! She was not happy at all in this video. Can you all believe she is getting so big???? She loves to scoot on her back along the floor too, I am going to have to keep a close eye on her because she already moves more than Mason did at this age!

Last night for the first time, Reagan slept in her own room. Kevin finally got enough stuff moved out to his office to where we have half of the room ready for Reagan! It was so sad for me to put her in her own room but it is about time! She needs her own space and a bigger place to sleep in other than in our room in the cosleeper. She does seem to like her crib, even though she was up several times last night.

I have began Christmas shopping. I have my family, Glenn and Donna and Kevin left! I am pretty pleased with myself! I love this time of year! Reagan and Mason's shopping is done and so are my brother in law and his family! I went over to Columbia this morning to do some shopping and forgot my Sam's card and a few other things, so Reagan and I will venture out while Mason spends some time with Grandma and Grandpa Frieling this afternoon when they go pick up Haley and Bronson for the weekend. Mason LOVES his cousins and should have a great time!

Random pictures

Here is our little NASCAR Princess! She had to honor Carl Edwards since he won the race at Texas yesterday!!





Reagan - Friday night at Grandma and Grandpa Klein's - our first stop Trick or Treating! She had to get some snuggle time in with Grandpa before beginning her evening of fun!



Poor Mason did not like his "bag of corn costume", so we ended up putting him in his NASCAR driver outfit. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of that!

Happy Halloween!!!

My girl and me!

Finally, here is a picture of me with Reagan, thanks to Christy. I have no pictures of me with Reagan except what was taken in the hospital. I also don't have any of me with Mason recently. Reagan is growing so fast. I am sad knowing she will be our last one. Or the last one we planned at least! I want to keep her a baby forever. Time goes way too fast. Mason is proof. He will be three next month! We are not having a party for him, just a small get together with us as a family of 4. Our house is way too small to handle a lot of people, and Mason does not like crowds.

I mentioned to Kevin that we should take the kids to Branson so they could enjoy a couple of shows. Mason loves music so much and I think he would really enjoy the shows. Reagan seems to like music too.

Trailer Move In Day!

Today Kevin and I were able to start moving some stuff into his new office trailer. Here are some pictures:


The trailer and new steps!



The main office area.


The doorway to Kevin's office (the steps are outside.)

The storage part of Kevin's trailer.


Doorways of Kevin's office (to outside and to storage).

Reagan at 3 months old!

Here is Reagan on Thursday. She is 3 months old now. She discovered her feet last week. She is now kicking at everything! She even tried laughing at me yesterday! I am so proud of her and how she is developing!

Here is Grandpa and his girl. I am so glad that Dad seems to adore Reagan as much as I do.


Grandma and Mason - Mason is Mom's "special boy". She is so fond of him. They had a great time at Red Lobster on Saturday drinking their tea and chocolate milk.

I am not a coffee drinker. However, once in a great while, I like coffee that has chocolate creamer in it, etc. I went through McDonald's yesterday and decided to try a Mocha. OMG! I found another favorite drink!! I could drink this stuff all the time. Although I noticed that it makes me more high strung than normal! HAHA! I will definately have to remember to get one Friday morning after Thanksgiving when we I go shopping for Christmas!

Harvest Time = Potty time!

Kevin and Mason spent this afternoon combining beans. Kevin was in one combine with Mason, Donna was in the other, Glenn was hauling beans to the elevator. Reagan and I just chilled out here at home. We also went into town and picked up pizza for supper for everyone too.

Mason is spending tonight with Grandma and Grandpa. Today was a great potty training day. He stayed dry all day and went to the bathroom every time we asked. Hopefully tomorrow, since he doesn't have speech therapy, we will put him in big boy underwear and see where that takes us.

Reagan was a joy to be with today. Just me and her. It was nice to spend time alone with her and concentrate on her needs. She is so precious!

Yesterday was my first day of work. I really think I am going to like it a lot. I got so much done already in the time I was there. I am excited to share all my ideas with Theresea. I was excited to get home to the kids though! I missed them in the several hours I was gone! I was able to have lunch alone with my Dad. It was nice not having to worry about keeping Mason in the booth next to me. I was able to relax and chill out for awhile and have a conversation with my father!

Little Drummer Boy!

Mason had a blast at the barbeque on Sunday to celebrate Matt's cancer free diagnosis. He LOVED Chuck's drums and all the other instruments that was there. Kevin and I believe he will need a drum set for Christmas! No matter how loud it maybe, we want to encourage him to play music! I am so pleased that he loves music so much, since the talent obviously skipped our generation!

I start part time work tomorrow (one day a week) as a QMRP (Qualified Mental Retardation Specialist) at a group home in Pilot Grove. It is 33 hours a month. I still get to be home with the kids but get out of the house once in awhile. I will be ensuring all paperwork is up to date, the clients needs are being met, the house is safe for them, and providing some training for the staff. I am looking forward to it.

I am sure the little money will help out also for Christmas! I am so excited about shopping for the kids this year! April and I plan on being some of the crazies out there the day after Thanksgiving before the crack of dawn! I always love the holiday "rush". This year is especially special since we now have Reagan!

Speaking of Reagan, she will be three months old on Thursday! Where does the time go? She is growing so fast...and eating so much!!!!!

Kevin will be busy next week smoking pork and beef for a wedding that has an attendance of 500 people. He is a little overwhelmed at the thought, but is looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Kevin and I painted the inside of his office trailer this weekend. Linolium will be laid this Wednesday and we hope to start moving stuff in it this weekend or sometime next week! I am excited so I can start working on Reagans room!

I have also been working on scanning pictures of Mom and Dad's into the computer and saving them to disc. I have from 1971 (the year they were married) up to 1980 already done, with so much more to go! I am having a great time doing it though and have such good memories of the pictures when I go through them!

November Election

Is it just me, or is anyone else getting excited about the November election? I was very apprehensive in the beginning because I wasn't thrilled with either candidate. However, being a conservative, I have really grown to respect and like McCain and I LOVE Sarah Palin! I really think that together they could make a great President and Vice President! Even if Obama gets elected, it will be a history making election. We will either have the first African American President or the first woman Vice President.....EXCITING stuff!!

Jeff and Annie's Wedding!

Jeff and Candi (brother and sister) dancing at Jeff's wedding

My two good looking cousins, Matt and Jeff!

Me and my cousin Matt. Matt is a cancer survivor!

My cousin Jeff was married this Saturday to Annie. I have yet to introduce myself to Annie, but she seems like such a sweetheart! We had such a great time at the wedding. I never got a picture of the bride and groom together, but I got several other worth while snap shots!

We are looking foward to celebrating this Sunday with our family. We are celebrating Matt being cancer free! He was diagnosed with testicular cancer at the beginning of the year. My aunt and uncle are beyond thrilled and can't wait to celebrate!

Grandpa and Me....

Here is a picture of Grandpa and "his girl". Dad is quite taken with little Reagan, and she seems to love him just as much!

Mason's Easy Chair

Here is Mason in his "new" recliner that we inherited from Derek and April. He really likes it and as you can see, it seems to be pretty comfortable.

Tis the season for.....colds!

Here is Kevin looking, oh, so sexy, preparing the meat to put on the smoker for Glenn and Donna's anniversary party! :) He told me this picture would come back to haunt him...and it did!

Yep. We all have colds, except for Reagan. Mason got it first and then decided to be nice enough to share it with Mom and Dad. Bless his little heart! I am not feeling too bad, just really tired. It makes chasing after a toddler and taking care of a newborn, very challenging!

Kevin is busy this week pounding the pavement and burning up the road starting his new sales season! He will be busy now until December. This weekend he is having a booth at the Festival of the Leaves in Boonville. He will be smoking pulled pork and selling sandwiches, chips, and soda!

Happy 40th Annivesary Glenn and Donna!

This weekend was Glenn and Donna's 40th wedding anniversary. We (Kevin, me, Derek and April) gave them a party at their house. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed over 100 guests!

Slideshow

September Activities

This month has been full of activity. More than usual for us! We are normally very dull and boring people, but this month we have been busy! We have been busy preparing for Glenn and Donna's wedding anniversary party, along with Derek and April. In addition to that, Kevin has decided to enter the Festival of the Leaves with his smoker and providing food. He is going to be serving pulled pork sandwiches, chips, dill pickles, soda, and bottled water. He is already doing all the meat for Glenn and Donna's party, the meat for the Festival, the meat for a friend's wedding, and as soon as there is a break in the rain today, he is going to be smoking meat. We have our neighbors now bringing down meat for Kevin to do. Kevin is really getting into the "catering" and having fun with it all!

As far as me, I have been busy being Mom and wife. My cousin, Jeff, is getting married on September 27, which is also my cousin Kim's birthday. This is the day Kevin will be at the Festival of the Leaves, so that leaves me taking the kids to the wedding with me. However, my parents will also be there to help me, so that is nice. I am also in the mist of looking at a possible part time job opportunity. The hours couldn't be better and would still allow me more than enough time to be home with the kids, so that is exciting to think about. However, I am extremely anxious/nervous about thinking about being away from the kids since I have been home with them ever since they have been born.

Mason is still fighting his cold and is getting a little bit better. He has been having a lot of problems going to sleep at night in his own bed. Something is scaring him, like nightmares, because he is afraid to go to sleep and will hold on to me or Kevin for dear life. Once he gets to sleep, he will sleep for 3-4 hours and then he wakes up crying and will come get in bed with us; and he will fight us when we try putting him back in his own bed. This has gone on for almost two weeks now. We wish he would talk and tell us what the matter is so we could help him. However, since he can't tell us quite yet, we are doing the best we can to help him out. He is now telling us "up" when he wants to be picked up and he will tell us "kack kack" for what a duck says. It is pretty cute! Speech therapy is really helping him out. He has so much fun playing with the letters of the alphabet and singing songs. He loves it when we sing "The Wheels on the Bus" to him.

Reagan continues to be her loveable and smiley self. She always has a smile first thing in the morning when I pick her up. She loves to be held and is awfully spoiled already! I love holding her and cuddling her, just like I did with Mason. I try not to take it for granted since I know she is going to be our last baby. I don't want her to grow up too fast, but it seems to be going too fast anyway!

Reagan - 2 months old

Our little princess is 2 months old! At her well baby visit she weighed 10 lbs 4 oz and was 22.5 inches long. To compare her with Mason, he was 11 lbs 2 oz, and 23.75 inches long at his two month visit. Reagan had her first round of shots and was pretty cranky yesterday and sore, but today she is back to her smiling self!

Things are going very well here in the Frieling household!

Reagan is growing by leaps and bounds. She is smiling and cooing at me now, and it is the most precious thing to see! I love this age. Our little piggy eats so much now, between 4-6 oz a feeding. A feeding is usually every 2-3 hours! She is a good sleeper and wakes about once a night. Last night she slept from about 10:00 to 5:30 this morning and ate a bottle and went back to sleep until 8:45 a.m!

Mason continues to be the doting big brother and will kiss her ALL THE TIME! He is still working hard on his speech and gets frusterated so easily. He is over his virus from last week. It lasted about 4 days. He couldn't seem to get enough sleep and was so tired all the time, even if he slept 12 hours a night and had naps during the day. He is back to himself now and is constantly on the go!

Kevin is done with settlements for NC+ and is looking forward to getting to work on his trailer to make it into his office! I can't wait for him to do that so that I can decorate Reagan's room (which is now his office).

Christy is on vacation next week, so we are taking Reagan with us to the Lake to go outlet mall shopping! YAY!! I love the outlet mall! I hope to find Mason some clothes for this fall and next summer! I am all over the Children's Place Outlet and Gymboree, Carters, and Osh Kosh! If anyone has anything they want while we are down there, let me know!

Kevin, me, Derek and April are busy planning Glenn and Donna's 40th wedding anniversary party. We are having it September 20 at their shop! We are keeping it casual. Kevin is fixing all the meat! (I am looking forward to that!)

Reagan's First Trip

We took Reagan with us to Omaha, NE last week to Kevin's NC+ meetings. She did so wonderful! She even went on her first boat ride. We took a dinner cruise along the Missouri River on one of the riverboats. Reagan even had her first shopping excursion. She went to the mall with me and two friends. We were there for over four hours and she didn't complain once! I even had the chance to make her a Build-A-Bear just like I did for Mason!

Mason is sick with a virus. He has a high temperature that keeps coming and going since yesterday morning. The fever has been back three times now and goes away when he takes Motrin. Poor baby. He was so hot yesterday after his nap, I gave him Motrin and put him in a cool bath. He didn't even want to sit down in the water, he just shook. He woke up early this morning with another fever, but after the Motrin, he seems to be fine. I have a call in to his pediatrician just in case I should bring him in.

Baptism Weekend

Reagan was baptized this past Sunday. She was baptized in my Mom's baptismal gown that my Grandma Vollrath had made for her when she was baptized. We had a nice crowd over to our house following the baptism for smoked pulled pork and beef. We all sat outside under our shade trees and we had a nice breeze, so it didn’t feel to terribly hot! Mason enjoyed playing with all his cousins, but got really hot. Luckily, when Mom and Dad left to go home, they took Mason with them so he could cool off. Mom said he ended up taking an hour and a half nap after having a nice cool bath!

We were extremely touched to receive a porcelain angel from Juanita’s collection, a gift from Glen and Elke, for Reagan. It is an honor to have this gift given to her in honor of Juanita. I told Kevin I need to clean out my curio cabinet to make more room for Reagan and Mason’s keepsakes! Or, a brand new one would be nice too! We still have all her other gifts to open, but we have been too tired the last couple of nights to do so. We plan on opening them tonight if everything goes well.

Kevin and I are so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family. It was so nice to have everyone gathered at our place Sunday. Even though our house is small, we have enough room outside, thank goodness! We enjoy entertaining and plan on doing a lot more this summer and fall.

Kevin’s smoked pork and beef were EXCELLENT! We got a lot of comments on it, all good! Even though, I only made the tea and lemonade, I would have to say it was good too! J Thank you to all of our family and friends that brought side dishes too!

Melissa's random babbling....

It has been a busy week getting ready for Reagan’s baptism. Monday I steam vacuumed half of the living room carpet. Yesterday, Donna came over and finished it all for me. It looks 100 times better! We are expecting about 40 people (give or take) to the baptism/barbeque on Sunday. We are looking forward to spending time with our family and friends and having them get to know Reagan.

Reagan is doing well. She weighs 6lbs 13 oz. now. She even grew an inch in length to 20.5 inches, however, I think that is pushing it. The nurse at the pediatrician’s office is kind of “different”. Reagan continues to be a joy to her big brother. Mason will bend over backwards to kiss her. I was brave on Tuesday and took the kids to Wal-Mart by myself. Mason was so good and didn’t try to get out of the cart like he normally does. He distracted himself by focusing on Reagan.

Mason’s speech therapy is still going very slowly. I would love to see more progress, but I will take what I can get. The therapist seems to think putting him in a day care or preschool setting would really help him. I am sure it would, but I don’t want to incur the cost of day care when I stay home with the kids. Mason has mastered blowing into harmonica’s and some toys that require blowing. This is a huge step since he is so used to blowing out of his nose. HA! He is saying a little more though and that is good. I have been trying to go outside with Mason in the evenings when Kevin is done working so that Mason and I can have some time together since nursing a newborn has tied up a lot of my time lately.

Kevin was able to go to St. Joseph on Wednesday with Kenny to pick up his “new” office trailer. He is going to do some renovating to it and then will move in to it in a couple of weeks. He has set the trailer between the chicken house and our propane tank. It fits nicely there and isn’t an eye sore. Mason loves going into it and playing around. He is busy settling up accounts for this sales year and working on his business plan for the next year. This is not going to stop Kevin from smoking meat tomorrow for Reagan’s baptism. Kevin is smoking pork shoulder, beef and some beef club steaks. He is really good at mastering the smoker!

I have been doing more than I should have 2 weeks after a c-section. My body likes to remind me at night when I am the most sore. I feel great during the day and try to get as much done as possible, thus causing irritation to my healing at the end of the night. Poor Mason tried to get my attention yesterday and came right at my stomach with his head. It caused me to double over in pain, and he certainly did get my attention! I have adjusted well to having and taking care of two kids. I love them more than anything in the world. I told Kevin that I feel like our family is now complete with the addition of Reagan and I am very content and happy!

Reagan, Mason and Baptism

Reagan is adjusting well to her new surroundings. She is a great eater and sleeper. She is very pleasant and loves to be held! Mason is doing so well adjusting to his sister. He loves to give and take her pacifier! Reagan has another doctor's appointment tomorrow, for a two week check up. At her appointment last Monday she had gained back 5 oz. of her birth weight!!

We are having Reagan baptized this weekend and are having a barbeque at our place following the church service. Kevin and I went to Sam's yesterday to shop for stuff we needed. We walked out of there with more stuff than was on our list. However, it is hard not to do that after walking through Sam's!

Reagan Juanita Frieling is here!

She's here....and she is beautiful!

Reagan was born 7/9/08 at 12:24 p.m. weighing 6lbs 10 oz. She is 19.5 inches long. She is named after Kevin's aunt Juanita who passed away in 2006.

It's about that time!

This will probably be my last post until after Reagan comes! We will have a busy couple of days finishing up some lose ends before she gets here.

This weekend we set up Mason's twin bed in his room. He did really well sleeping on it last night and seems to really enjoy truly being a "big boy!"

Friday night we enjoyed a barbeque at Mom and Dad's with Christy, Jim, Joey, Jessica and Shelley. Jim's kids sure have grown in the past year since we seen them last! Jessica was so sweet and asked me if she could see the baby before she goes home to New York. I told her she will have plenty of time to see her this summer before they have to go back.

Today the three of us enjoyed going to church and then having a lazy day here at home lounging. Then we went to visit my parents and Glenn and Donna. Today is Donna's birthday! Happy Birthday Donna!

Two more days until Reagan's scheduled arrival. At my appointment last Wednesday, I was told to go to Labor and Delivery for monitoring because Reagan had been moving less. Everything was fine. Her heartrate was in the 150's and she has just ran out of room to move! Everything is prepared for her arrival. All I have to do is show up at the Labor and Delivery floor at 10:00 on Wednesday morning. Surgery is scheduled for noon. Please say a prayer that Dr. Wilson's hands are guided by our Lord and Reagan's arrival is safe. Pray that Mason does well adjusting to a new sibling and that we all stay healthy! We are excited about adding Reagan to our family and look forward to a long and happy life with her!

Thank You Aunt Shelley!

I just want to take this time to say Thank You to my sister, Shelley, for watching Mason for us tomorrow while we are at my doctor's appointment. I know Mason is going to love having her here at his house and to show her his swing set and his cat!

Mason loves all his aunts and uncles and has so much fun playing with them. He is quite the little attention getter from all his relatives, but seems to love his Aunt Shelley and Aunt Crippy's constant attention.

Aunt Christy has taught him a lot of things, such as yelling, covering his ears when he doesn't want to listen, and how to go through the closets at Grandma and Grandpa Klein's.

9 Days....

9 Days to go! We are now in the single digits to go until Reagan's arrival. I am so ready. I am sore, I am tired, and I am sick with a sinus cold! Poor Mason has it also. I cancelled his speech therapy appointment today because he has such a runny nose and has been coughing. We go next Monday at 10:00. All his speech appointments for the rest of the year is at 10 on Monday's so that is nice to know!

Kevin and Mason have been combining wheat over the weekend for Glenn and Donna. Kevin took today off to do it also, so right now Mason and Daddy are having some bonding time in the combine. Kevin straps Mason's car seat into the buddy seat of the combine and off they go!! I am resting here at home watching TV and enjoying the peace and quiet, because I know it won't last that long!

We have no plans for the 4th of July holiday. I think we are just going to stay in the nice cold air conditioning and get everything ready for Reagan's arrival. My aunt and uncle gave us a twin bed for Mason, so he will be transitioning to that from his toddler bed later this week! There are so many changes to come in the next several weeks for the Frieling Family.....stay tuned!!

No Change...

I had my 37 week doctor's appointment today. Still no change to report. Reagan will be here two weeks from today! I have everything ready and I am so excited to be holding her soon! I also find myself wanting to hold on to Mason more and more also. :( I just hope he adjusts well to a little sister.

Mason and I are suffering from allergies and are really tired tonight so we are going to hit the hay early!!

Getting closer and closer....

We are approximately 16 days away from Reagan's arrival and I couldn't be more excited! Time has flown by with this pregnancy, especially when I already have Mason to take care of. Reagan has been very active and still lets me know she is here. She loves to move a lot! That is the part I am going to miss the most about being pregnant, is feeling her move.

Kevin just bought an office trailer to sit outside here at the house to use for his NC+ office so we can have more room here. Reagan will not have to share a room with Mason! After Kevin gets the trailer here, we will reconstruct part of it and then move all his stuff from the extra room here in to it. It will be nice for Kevin to still be at home, but be able to have peace and quiet without interruption from the kids and myself. I am already trying to think of colors for us to paint Reagan's room and what type of light fixtures to get!

Mason had speech therapy today with his new therapist. Her name is Chesney. Mason made BIG progress today, by actually blowing into a harmonica and some musical toys through his mouth. We have tried and tried over the last several weeks to get him to blow out of his mouth instead of his nose. When we got home he had to show off his new skills to his Daddy and Grandpa Glenn, who were very proud of him!

This weekend I also gave Mase a doll to play with to get him used to the idea of a baby sister. He loves the baby! He will feed her and put her "night-night" and he also shows her his feet and talks to her about it! So cute! Mason has slept with the baby the last two nights also! It should be interesting to see how he does with a real baby!

My next doctor's appointment is this Wednesday. I will be going every week now that this week is my 37th week of pregnancy! I can't believe it!!

I hope you all are having a terrific summer and successful planting (ha-ha) season!!

35 weeks.....only 4 weeks to go!!!

I had my 35 week OB appointment this morning. Everything is looking great. Reagan’s heartbeat is in the 150’s and she is very active. Dr. Wilson asked me if she was active, and as she asked, Reagan kicked several times. “I guess you weren’t lying when you said she was active” she said! Dr. Wilson asked me if I thought I would make it to my c-section date and I told her with as active as Reagan is and with all the Braxton Hicks contractions I have been having, that I highly doubt it. She seems to give me the impression that she doesn’t think she will wait either! She seemed a little concerned that Kevin will be out of town in a couple of weeks because of how late I am getting in my pregnancy. I am measuring right at 35.5 weeks. I am so ready to meet this little girl, but lets hope she waits so her Daddy will be there too!

Mason started with a new speech therapist this past Monday at Boone. She is going to be really great! Mason already loves her. He is growing up so fast and is doing so well with potty training. I believe he is training us! He is fantastic about going every time we put him on the toilet. He is also figuring out that he does not like to be wet or dirty and will run to the bathroom when he has to go!

Kevin finally got his corn planted a couple weeks ago on Friday. The corn is popping up nicely in rows. He is just thrilled to get it in the ground! The next day after planting there was 0.8 inches of rain that fell! Kevin is getting ready for 3 days of meetings in Oklahoma City on June 25, 26, 27. It never fails that he is gone over his birthday! (He will be 32 on the 27th)

This past weekend, Kevin was able to finally put up Mason’s wooden swingset and slide. Mason has had so much fun going down the slide and taking his shoes off and throwing them down the slide! He also still is in love with the mud puddles! I had to give him a bath on Saturday morning after he decided to go “muddin’”.

Nervous moments

Kevin is out of town at meetings until Thursday evening. Last night Mason and I went to bed and I woke up at 12:45, to use the bathroom as usual because it feels as though this child has made her home on my bladder. I noticed that I was having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions. They were uncomfortable, but not too unbearable. I was awake still at 2:30, when Mason comes in the room and climbs in bed with me, with him tossing and turning and my contractions, I didn't get back to sleep until 4:00 a.m. I then wake up at 6:45 a.m. because Mason was stirring and was ready to get up. I could have slept all day!

I had a scheduled doctor's appointment this morning, so I called Donna and asked if she could drive me over to Columbia, because I didn't feel that great still. I got to the doctor's office and she checked me and said everything still looked fine, but just to be sure, she did a test that would tell if I was at risk for preterm labor. Thankfully, that came back negative. I guess my body is just preparing for Reagan's arrival. Dr. Wilson told me to take it easy. (Yeah, right! I have a very active 2.5 year old who proves otherwise). I go back in two weeks unless I have some other problems. I am thankful that I had my appointment today, because I would have been going crazy wondering what was wrong. With Mason, I didn't have the Braxton Hicks contractions this much. But, all pregnancies are different.

I am looking forward to Kevin coming home so that I can get some real sleep and relax while he and Mason play. Mason loves his Daddy so much and loves rough housing with him. It brings me such joy to see the two men in my life have so much fun together. Kevin is a terrific father and husband. I am very lucky to have him in my life. He keeps me sane and shows me unconditional love. He is my best friend and I love him so much! I can't believe we are going to be parents of two beautiful children in 5 short weeks! We have been together for 15 years and will celebrate 9 years of marriage on July 17. He is a very hardworker and is always willing to help others out. He provides so well for our family and he makes me feel so secure and loved. Everyone should be lucky enough to have someone like Kevin in their lives. I am so lucky that God (and Clint) brought us together.

Memorial Day...How fun was yours??

Mason discovered mud puddles at our farm on Memorial Day. Here is several pictures of his fun!!

We spent Saturday and Sunday in Savannah visiting Derek, April, Haley and Bronson, but other than that, our weekend was really quiet and relaxing.

Today Kevin is heading to Iowa for several days of meetings, so I will be a single mom! UGH! Mason is so active, I just hope I can keep up with out tiring out too much!

Our handsome farm boy!

Announcing the arrival of Acorn!!!

Mason is the proud new owner of a cat named Acorn.

Why the name Acorn, you ask? Well, she fell out of the oak tree in our front yard, almost two weeks ago and has continued to hang around despite being "treed" for two days thanks to Ramsey. (Thanks for the brilliant name, Kevin!)

She is a very loveable cat and is not fully grown. The best part is, is that she adores Mason and Mason adores her. She lets Mason carry her around like a bale of hay and she doesn't seem to mind too much. I have to remind Mason to be gentle with kitty. She follows him everywhere outside. If Mason looks back and runs, she will run after him. She loves to sit on his lap when he plays in Uncle Jim's dune buggy. Acorn seems happy here, even with the three dogs. She can hold her own and loves her new home in the chicken house!

Kevin and I have been talking a lot about getting Mason a swing set for outside that he could play and climb on. Luckily, Donna called in to Party Line last Saturday and we got one call back. This one call was the swing set we were looking for. Wooden, with a slide and a couple of swings. We went to look at it and bought it on the spot. We still have to put it together here at the house, but we know Mason is going to have so much fun on it. We are going to spruce it up with new swings and chains.

Mason continues to go to speech therapy. He is talking more and more, but still babbling. He has said, "baseball", "bike", and "bath" all in the last week, so we feel this is a huge improvement! He also signed "eat" to me yesterday morning when he was outside and I asked him if he wanted to have some breakfast.

Yesterday I took Mason into Harley Park to play in the Tot Lot. He had so much fun climbing the ladders and going down the slides. He seems to like going up the slide the wrong way also! I promised him that we would make some more trips in to the park before the baby gets here and the weather gets too hot. Luckily, if it gets too hot, we can stop in and cool off at Aunt Shelley's house!

Kevin just started planting corn today on the land he rents from Dad. He has been very anxious lately, but seems to be at peace knowing that it is finally going to be done. He is very proud of his work on the land and is looking forward to reaping the benefits of this year's corn crop.

I am continuing to go to my doctor every two weeks for my prenatal appointments. Reagan is head down and causing me to be uncomfortable more and more, but I don't mind. I am just happy knowing that she is happy and healthy inside for several more weeks. Everything is still on schedule for July 9! Time is going by so fast! We are anxious for her arrival, but also know that it is going to be a big change, not only for Kevin and I as parents, but for Mason!

Until time....:) Enjoy!