where did my newborn go?

Monday Noelle had a two week check up, which she was really 18 days old. She weighed in at a whooping 8 lb 11oz, and stretched out to 21.25 inches. This was a gain of 1lb and 7 oz from the day we left the hospital! She must like her milk, feeding on demand is going well!

A couple of her newborn sized outfits are getting hard to snap, I am glad we wore them a lot the first few weeks, even though all the pictures will look like they were taken the same day. She has received lots of cute outfits and most are 3 mo, so it will be nice to start wearing those too. She is sleeping as well as I expect her too, and loves to be cuddled. She has smiled a couple of times, but I am still not convinced it has been on purpose. Noelle also has a really strong neck, she lifts her head and even holds it up for a while when laying on her tummy. Her umbilical stump came off on day 15 of her life.
Life is still going great and has been such a blessing.

nature walk

all pictures taken by Emily (except the ones she is in, I took those)
She told me she was taking a picture of the squirrel, he is running to the left- back, by the electric thingys

She gave me these leaves to hold and had me move them around until it was just right and then she snapped the picture

Our nature walked swung by the playground

That afternoon when we were doing "school" we talked about all the things she collected, and then Emily glued them to a piece of paper to save her collection

some fall randomness

1. I think I might have a bladder infection, with no internet it has been hard to do the self diagnosis I love to do. Also do to schedule crappiness and not wanting to take three kids to probably pee in a cup during nap time, I am waiting until evening and hopefully will get an appointment during Urgent Care hours
2. I now hate those little black bugs, that seem to pinch. Seems we instantly switched from mosquito's to those.
3. The internet dude gave us a five hour window to show up today... can you say sucky, and today it is working.
4. We need a babysitter for Dallas and possible Noelle for this Sat. so we can go to the Football game
5. We went on a nature walk this morning. I let Em take pictures of anything she wanted and we collected lots of naturey stuff
6. I am still figuring out the Moby wrap, any pointers??? I feel like it is not tight enough, and Noelle ends up lower at the end of a wear.
7. We need to finish painting our house
8. I have been enjoying not cooking, and getting meals from all of my friends every couple of days
9. Our new fridge rocks. The ice cream is frozen, like really frozen, I haven't had truly hard ice cream in over a year (from our freezer)
10. The sickness might not have been all fridge, still some random churning happening with Rob and I

Photoshopped! Thanks Destri

A big shout out to my friend Destri, I don't know how she found the time with her two busy kiddos, but she merged the pictures! Ultra talented, way to go.

no perfect picture, need photoshop

A good one of Dallas
A better one of Emily

They love sitting on the shoe rack bench in the closet, hiding behind the coats

And delicious Noelle!

Bathroom update... this one is for Dana!

This is what our main bath looked like when we bought the place. Rob removed the shower doors a year or so later in a fit of rage, they never stayed on the tracks! There was significant drywall damage to the left of the toilet, probably from the shower, but Rob always teased me that it was from the previous owners missing the target!
This is our current bathroom! New vinyl, same vanity cabinet, I spray painted it a chocolate brown, I spray painted the hardware Nickel, and bought new handles. The toilet is new, but only because the other one cracked when it was removed to lay the flooring. The sink top is new with new faucet.

The big deal was getting a new shower surround and the dry wall fixed. The wall that the sink and toilet are on was completely stripped down to the studs and new board (the special bathroom kind) was put in place. Same shower curtain, I trimmed it out with some decorator fabric, we needed more length as we mounted the curtain rod much higher than before. We also used a curved rod, it makes the bath seem much more spacious!

New lights, the over head light is actually a fan/light combo. It replaced the existing fan, this new combo fixture moves a ton more air, so basically you can remove stink and moist air quickly.

We replaced the inset mirror medicine cabinet and light. I copied an idea out of Better Homes and Gardens small bathroom feature. They placed a big mirror and centered a light fixture over the sink and toilet, to expand the prep area. It gives much more room to get ready in the morning and also creates more light. I was worried I wouldn't like it since I do like this rather symmetrical, but I love the outcome. Much better than the 13 inch mirror that was centered above the sink before. I also bought little brushed nickel hooks to use for hanging towels.

We splurged and had the drywall, flooring and shower surround installed. I painted, and Rob hung fixtures and mirrors. I think a big difference was made by the shower surround since we went from dingy cream to bright white, and the flooring made a huge difference as well. We didn't buy anything to extravagant. The curved shower rod is about $15 more than a straight rod, flooring was $1.99 a sq ft but Lowes makes you buy a minimum of 12 ft, which was way more than we needed so that was a tad more of an expense. Painting the cabinet and hardware saved us some $$$ too. The fan/light combo was also a splurge, but much better than the piece of plastic that was the fan before. We scored on the mirror, finding one the right size seemed difficult, I was looking into having one made, which wasn't as cheap as I hoped, and then low and behold I found this one at World Market, $69.99 and 20% off! I love the overall look and am glad it is finished!

(it is way better looking in person, hard to photograph and add/edit lighting on such a small space, it really is bright white and pretty!)

We ordered a new fridge today. Hopefully this will help with all of the "sickness" issues we have had the past year. I have had a thermometer in the fridge for a couple of days, and it is indeed running 5- 10 degrees warmer than it should be. The repair guy that came out today, confirmed this by checking the freon level which was 3/4 empty. The repair for this is ship your fridge off to the shop for 2-3 days and the cost for this is a touch less than a new fridge, so new fridge it is!

I am once again super thankful that we have that old fridge in the garage, it has been a lifesaver many a time! We are one appliance closer to replacing the whole house!!!!

the last few days

We tried to get into our new routine this week, but yet another fast acting "sickness" over took Rob and I Sunday night and Monday. I am much better, maybe because I have to be, but Rob came home early from work today to sleep and down a couple of packets of TheraFlu.

Noelle is still sleeping pretty well, although she gets pretty ticked off when she can't burp. She has completely mastered pooping out of every outfit. How quickly you forget the need to soak everything in OxyClean. Her cord stump has not fallen off yet, and seems to have developed some oozy-ness today. I am trying to keep it clean and hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

Emily is really enjoying her big sister role. We had planned to start some pre-school curriculum at home this week, but it looks like recovering from the illness is taking priority. We have new neighbors across the street and she has a new friend who is four years old as well. They had a playdate last Friday and she talks all the time about "her friend that lives in the house across the street". This is week four of Awana, which means she has memorized four scriptures thus far. She really likes going and hanging out with her friend Max, we are also headed back to Bible Study Fellowship this week, assuming everyone feels great tomorrow.

Dallas spends his days trying on shoes and playing. I brought up a hand-me-down Thomas the Train set from the basement last week, he loves playing with it, and can build the track pretty well. It occupies him fairly well if I have to attend to Noelle. He really seems to do best (have the least amount of fits) when we have a routine day.
Today we almost had three napping kids at the same time!

some pictures

Bring Noelle home for the first time, Emily was insistant that we go through the garage, and Dallas wanted to be held too!
Emily holding Noelle, and Dallas today

New configuration in the van, Em sitting in the back, and Dallas sitting closer to Noelle

The Chevelle waiting to take Noelle home from the hospital

Noelle at the hospital right before we left, we have a picture like this of Dallas and Emily as well, both of us holding their hands

Southern Dallas

Sometimes when Dallas talks, and says his little phrases he sounds a little Southern. He has tons of words and can use them in 3-5 word sentences. One of my favorite things he says in his little accident is "I spilled", we hear this a lot! The other night, Rob took Em to Awanna, Mom was hanging out with Noelle, so I took Bo and Dallas around the block. Dallas was riding the trike behind Bo and I. Bo stopped to pee on the neighbors fence, and what do I hear... "Bo spilled"

Tuesday we made it out of the house to pay a visit to Dallas's ENT. Yes I took three kids to the Dr's by myself, but thank goodness Rob met us there from work. I don't know what it is about the ENT, but each time we get called back to the patient room promptly, and then wait at least 45 minutes. Needless to say, it takes at least two parents to feed a newborn, read to a four year old and keep the 21 month year old from opening up each door and drawer and raising and lowering each stool!
My mom came up Tuesday afternoon and stayed through Thursday afternoon. So nice, I slept or tried to each afternoon. She helped me take the kids to Play Pals this morning. It was nice to blow off some steam in a mosquito free environment. After nap we headed to get some pictures taken, it was kind of a bust, but I guess that saves me some money in the long run.

Things are going pretty well. I have my first full day by myself tomorrow. The mornings are the long part. In our pre-Noelle sched. we went to the gym almost everyday or had a playdate or Bible study, so just staying home seems to make the morning drag by. I would love to spend some time outside but the bugs are so bad, even the spray doesn't keep us from getting bitten, and I can't imagine putting chemicals on Noelle so young.
Dallas is really taking up a lot of my attention. He seems to be having a hard time adjusting, and or he just entered the terrible twos on Saturday. He wants to be held all the time, and or throwing fits, or hitting or screaming no, or screaming owie. His new trick is pulling on my arm saying "stand up" then when I get up he asks to be held, and not rocked or cuddled while sitting down, he only wants to be held while standing... lets pray for this stage not to last the next year, and for me to not have too much mommy guilt bringing home this new little one

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!