The first few days

Noelle has now been home for three days, what a whirl-wind. In many ways it seems normal.
We were blessed to have Mom and Dan watch the kids while in the hospital. They stayed to watch the game with us and then headed home. Since I am mostly an introvert, I love these moments to myself, but I am grateful she is coming back this week. We are really cared through our church family and I have meals coming throughout the month. My plan is to sleep as much as possible while she is here, to store up a good nap-bank. Rob unfortunately has to head back to work sooner than he would like, I am thankful that he is not off to Germany, like his boss had requested. Having him back at the house by 5:30 is better than nothing.

Emily is adjusting rather well. She seems really tired, she doesn't take an afternoon nap much at all these days. Today she fell asleep on the the 3 minute ride home from Fareway, and I saw her nodding off the other day while she was sitting on the couch playing with Grandma. She loves to hold Noelle or "baby", she forgets her name sometimes. Emily really wants to dress her, we had a couple of fits about that, and how she could pick out the outfit, but I would be the one to put things over her head and such.

Dallas seems to be taking things a little harder. He doesn't seem to care about Noelle much, but he has become super clingy to Rob. He is a rockstar at throwing fits when Rob leaves, or he doesn't get to go outside, or he has to sit at the table, or he can't have the toy Em has, or he has to stop hitting one of us.... I know we are just entering that almost two stage, which is a big adjustment, Emily gave us a run for our money about 22 months as well. I try to give him individual attention, and Emily lots of praise for being a great big sister.

Noelle spends her days eating and sleeping. She left the hospital weighing 7lb 3 oz and today weighed 7lb 8 oz. The Dr. told me I do not have to wake her up to fed her, she sometimes sleeps longer than 3 hours at a time. She does cross her eyes a little more than Emily or Dallas did, but this is common and they figure out they don't have to see things double by about one month of age and stop doing it.

Noelle Rose Kibbe

Noelle Rose joined the Kibbe family at 7:40 on Thursday, Sept 9th, 7:40 am. She weighs in at 7lbs 14 oz, and is 20 inches long, with a head size of 13 cm. She came quickly, I am not quite sure I really even pushed... Thanks for all the prayers. I was quite thankful to get to attend my Grandfathers funeral earlier this week without labor interruptions, and I know all this is possible only with God!

What's in a name

Anybody want to put in their two cents on a possible baby name. No prizes. Everything we thought we liked doesn't cut the mustard anymore. Leave a comment!

FYI

Superman ice cream (I still don't know what flavor it really is) gives your kids turquoise poop!

Labor Day Weekend

We have had a very relaxing Labor Day weekend.
Thursday night Grandpa D, Em, Robert and I headed to the ISU game. We tailgated with some friends and had a great time, we also won, it is great to be 1-0.
Friday night we decided to head to Newton to try out the Valle-Hi Drive In. I was a little worried about Dallas, as he doesn't watch TV, but I knew he would enjoy the popcorn and running around the van. The double feature was Despicable Me and Toy Story 3. We popped some popcorn at home, Rob tried making a cinnamon-sugar version too, stopped by Walmart for some Twizlers, and drove to the show. It was fairly reasonable, they charge for adults, but the kids were free. Dallas fell asleep around 9:00 pm, and Emily stayed up through both movies, and the ride home! She was a tired kid on Saturday, after spending Thursday night with us at the ISU game, and then being out again on Friday until 11:30 pm! It was really quaint, and I would definitely like to make it a tradition to try once a summer, especially when they have a kiddo double feature. I don't think we could ever count on Emily falling asleep, in time for the second movie that is usually not G or PG rated.
Saturday, Rob took the kids to run some lawn related errands. I cleaned up the house and enjoyed my hour "alone". We they returned we headed down to Main Street. Taste of Ames was going on, featuring a little car show on Main Street, plus lots of BBQ stands competing for prizes. I took Dallas to get his first pair of tennis shoes. He was wearing Pediped, soft-learn to walk shoes this spring, and we switched to barefoot or sandals all summer, so this was his first pair, I like to get the kids fitted, even if I don't end up buying really spendy shoes. I am glad we went, the Owner of Lazy M, helped us out and I was way off on what I had guessed his size was. Dallas also has "thick" feet, as in wide and tall! We walked out with a nice, on sale pair of Stride Rites. Did you know that Saucony brand owns Stride Rites? I love my Saucony running shoes!
Saturday afternoon, Rob did some lawn chores, the kids and I made a Chocolate pie to go with our dinner. My dad and Barb stopped through for dinner on their way back from MN. I am very thankful as they dropped off a bed I had them pick up for us from IKEA. Whenever we get around to setting it up and deciding it is time for another bed transition, the kids will have low loft bunk beds!

Sunday we went to church. It was a combined one service Sunday, that means they only have childcare for age 3 and under, so this was the first time Emily sat through the whole service with us. She loves Sunday School and seeing her friends, so she was really sad when we were explaining that to her this morning, but she did quite well and hardly made a peep during the service. After church we went to Madrid for the Labor Day celebration Car show. We ate, looked at lots of neat cars, had some great ice cream and looked at more cars.

Tomorrow, Labor Day we will head out to my Grandpa Johnson's visitation in Kalona. I think we are going to drive back Monday night, and do it all again on Tuesday for the funeral. Rob is certain I will start labor at the worst possible moment, so he thinks sleeping in our own bed Monday night will be great.

Clear Lake Kick-Off

Most of our kids, assembled for bed time story, missing Dallas and two other families worth. Some couldn't join us until Saturday.

We went to Clear Lake with our growth group from church. The idea was a last romp for the summer, get us all in gear for the new school year, and plus we just like hanging out together! We all shared great food, bed-time stories and fun times in the water. I didn't take many pictures. Emily gathered some confidence in the water this weekend. She really likes to keep up with the older kids in the group, so she tackled wearing the life jacket like everyone else, by Sunday she was jumping in off the dock and swimming from person to person in water well over her head. Rob tried skiing for the first time. He liked it a lot but ended up tweaking his ankle, he took Emily on a couple of jet-ski rides as well. Dallas loved the beach. The beach had a playground, and lots of beach toys. I swam with the kids, wished I could have skied too, but I guess that is not a great option for a women 37 wks pregnant that hasn't skied in 15 years!