9 Months and Father's Day

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Looks Comfy Right?!

My Father

Summer if flying by! I am enjoyed my time home with Kamdyn everyday. We have been keeping busy. Troy turned the big 32 last Tuesday. We went out for supper at That Place with some of his family. Last Thursday-Sunday we went camping at Lake Red Rock for Troy's birthday and Father's Day. We recently bought a camper and are loving it! It will be fun as Kamdyn grows up. Troy's parents and Ashley, Rob, and Maddie also went with their campers. We had a great time. The weather was great and enjoyed being outside. We were at Howell Statation Campground. Kamdyn and I went on many walks by the river. She loved watching everyone. We also went up by the dam and watched people fish. They were catching so many. It was fun to watch. Troy had a great first father's day while camping. He thinks the world of his little girl. This was a special camping trip :)

Yesterday I had to go to the dr and I took Kamdyn along to see Dr. Onuigbo and all the nurses. They couldn't believe how big she has gotten and were fighting over while I met with the dr. Kamdyn was loving every minute of it and talked their ears off. They kept saying over and over, "thank you so much for bringing her in!" I thought that was special. I am so thankful a friend referred me to that clinic.

These are some pictures from the past couple weeks and also a photo of my dad. I miss him so much. Whoever said that it will get better obviously hasn't ever lost someone. It's especially hard when I have big events going on in my life. He would think the WORLD of Kamdyn. She would do no wrong to him. He was the best father and could count on him for anything. Dad taught me to never give up! He proved this in his own life when he went through treatement after treatment; he was always positive and would light up when he would see my mom, brother and I. He taught us that family is the most important thing in our lives. My father was such a great role model and I hope I can follow in his footsteps. Someday we will all see him again and he will get to meet our little angel :)

Summer Time

Swimming and loving it!

So it begins....Dad you're getting to close to me :)

Kamdyn ready to go swimming!

My Friends Luke and Logan..which one do I choose? :)

Anyone see something wrong with this picture? :)

Love that face!

My Friend Drew and I

Summer is FINALLY here! I am loving being home with Kamdyn everyday. We have been on summer vacation for 4 days and loving it! Already we have been super busy! We made a trip to Williamsburg and found some wonderful deals. I was super excited to find that Under Armour has an outlet store:) One day we went to visit Judy, she worked in my classroom and retired last yr and miss her like crazy. Darcy and her little boy Cael were also there. He is about 6 weeks younger than Kamdyn so it was fun to see them interact. Another day we went swimming at Guthrie's pool, some friends of ours. It was a perfect day being 95 degrees out. Kamdyn loved it! She is going to be a little fish I think:) There are some pictures above from this day with their boys Drew, Luke, and Logan. It was a great day!

Last weekend was Black Dirt Days in Conrad. This is the town celebration. Kamdyn had a lot of firsts. Her and I completed her 1st 5K. She was a trooper and loved watching everyone. She fell asleep by the end :) Then she went to her first parade! She loved it and didn't even mind the sirens. After that we had to go get some ice cream. She was a HUGE fan :) We had a great day!

Yesterday Kamdyn turned 9 months. Oh where has the time gone? It has definitely been the best 9 months of Troy and I's lives. We often say, "what did we do before we had her?" Each day she amazes us with something new. She now has 2 teeth on the bottom and is cutting her top 2. She's been drooling like crazy lately so I don't think it will be long. The other night she was sitting on the living room floor with her legs crossed and Troy and I walked in the room. She looked at us and waved her hand and said, "hi!" It was hilarious! Her sounds are starting to sound more like words sometimes. Kamdyn loves walking around the kitchen in her walker and opening and closing drawers. Troy had to put safety locks on them so she isn't a fan of that. She is also developing a little personality with some red head in her :)

I hope that everybody is having a wonderful summer! Until next time.......

8 Months and So Much to Catch Up On

Wow, I have been bad about updating the blog. It's amazing how your life changes when having a child. When you get home at night you want to spend every possible minute with her and then when she goes to bed, we go to bed because we are exhausted. This has been the best 8 months of our lives:) On Wednesday, Kamdyn will be 8 months already! She changes more and more every day. She is now sitting up on her own and leaning forward wanting to crawl so bad. It's only a matter of days. She has developed such a personality and we often see the red head in it :)
I love it! She has been sleeping through the nights for some time which is wonderful. Mommy and Daddy are appreciative of that. There's nothing better than going to get her out of bed in the AM when she sees us for the first time. It melts my heart each morning. She is also eating stage 2 food and loving it! She now thinks it's fun to motoboat spit when she's eating so she gets me all dirty. Feedings are quite entertaining :) Each day she seems to learn something new. She is becoming more and more vocal and such a happy baby. We are truely blessed! This was a wonderful 1st Mother's Day :)

This past weekend we went to stay with my brother in Pella for Tulip Time. It was such a beautiful weekend. Kamdyn was such a trooper and lasted the whole time. She loves being outside and watching people...kind of like her mama! She is also a great shopper which makes her mama VERY happy :)

We recently bought a camper and we can't wait to get it out! It will be so fun to do as a family as Kamdyn grows up. We have a few dates booked already. She loves to go out and play in it as we work inside. She has her own little bunk :)

Troy and I were very fortunate to have a getaway to Cancun with some great friends over Spring Break. We are thankful for our parents, brother and Judy for watching Kamdyn while we were gone. I don't think Kamdyn even knew we were gone :) We stayed at the Riu Caribbe and it was absolutely beautiful. Troy and I had previously stayed at the Riu in Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta. It is a great all inclusive resort! We had originally planned to go somewhere for my 30th which would have been September 17th...which ended being 6 days after Kamdyn was born. So we decided to go over spring break instead. It was a great vacation but we missed her like crazy!

We are so blessed to have Kamdyn in our lives. She is our miracle baby:) Each day gets better and better. She is such a joy in our lives. I hope you have a great week and will update this blog soon :)

4 Months

It's hard believe that Kamdyn will be 4 months on Tuesday. She is growing so fast! Lately, she has definitely grown a little personality:) She is so much fun! The past couple weeks she has discovered her voice and LOVES to talk. This past weekend we stayed at my aunt's house and she was telling my mom a story. Kamdyn thought it would be fun to talk louder during Jean's conversation. She was trying to keep up!

We had a great holiday season as we celebrated Kamdyn's First Christmas. The holidays are so much more fun with a little one:) She made bank on gifts this year and will be set for about 3 yrs;) We went to Troy's parent's house on Christmas Eve and celebrated with Sonya's side. It's a tradition to go to Christmas Eve service with the whole family. Then we were able to be home on Christmas day which was wonderful. We want that to be our family tradition every year so Santa can come and open gifts as a family. My mom, Justin, aunt Jean, and counsin Dan came for lunch and spent the day with us. It was nice to lounge and enjoy the day. On New Year's Eve we went to Ankeny and stayed at my aunt's house. My cousins, mom, aunt, Troy and I played games all night. It was a fun night!

I got about a week and a half off from school that was much needed. It was great spending so much time with Kamdyn and hard to take her back to daycare and return to school. During break, she had the opportunity to have her pictures take again. Steph messaged me that she got new props for babies and wanted to try them out on Kamdyn and of course I agreed:) She was such a trooper and I think deep down she loves getting her picture taken. AND I know she loves wearing headbands and hats.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and we wish you the best in 2011!

Kamdyn Michelle

Wow! Have 3 months already gone by since the last post!? I am happy to announce the birth of our little angel, Kamdyn Michelle. She is 2 and half months already. Time has flown by. Let's rewind a little back to September 10th:) We were scheduled to be induced Friday morning at 8:00. Well we got the call the night before that the floor was almost full and only a few beds were left. She said that if someone came in during the night, they would get my room and to call in the AM to see if they had room. So at 6:00 I called and sure enough, all the rooms were full! She said to call back around 11:00 because they were discharging 8 people that day. They called me around then and said to be up there by 12:30. By the time I got up there, my room was taken again by a lady that came in and the head was coming out....ok I'll give her the room :) So we were put in a triage room for awhile. I got in a room around 2:00 and started getting pitocin about 3:30. I was only about 1 cm dialated and stayed that way for many hrs. I started having bad contractions and felt awful. So i got an epidural and it was heavenly! Thank goodness for that! I ended up getting sick to my stomach but overall, the labor wasn't bad at all. I was about 3-4 cm around 9:00. The nurse told us usually people only increase a centimeter an hr. So I told Troy he should go back to the hotel and get some rest because at this rate it would be tomorrow morning. So he did and I fell asleep. I woke up to the nurse saying she needed to check me because the baby's heartrate was dropping everytime I had a contraction. Ummm let's just say I was at a 9! She said, "you better call your husband and tell him to get here ASAP!" Troy made it and I was pushing. I pushed for only about an hr then the Dr. came in and I pushed about 3 times and she was out. He put her on my chest and I was instantly in love! She is our miracle baby:) They weighed and did her measurements. She was 8 lb 9.6 oz and was 20 and half inches long. She was perfect! We were so happy. There are no words to describe how Troy and I feel about her. We can't imagien what our lives were like before her.

We were in the hospital until Monday morning. The nurses and staff were amazing! We were sad to leave them but excited to finally go home. It was great to get to use all the things we received from showers and I couldn't wait to play dress up with her:) After getting home in the next few days we realized she was developing jaundice. Her level was 18 and probably should have been admitted into the hospital but the dr knew us and knew we would take care of it. She was put on a billy blanket-NOT fun! She was hooked up to a machine for a week and everyday had to take her in to have her blood drawn. I think that was worse on Troy and I. We went in on the last day and waited for the results. The dr said we could take the blanket back...I don't think I have returned anything so fast in my life! It was such a blessing to be done with that and having Kamdyn healthy.

Everyday seems to amaze us. She is growing like crazy and does something new everyday. Kamdyn is already fitting into 6 month clothes because she is so long. She is smiling and cooing like crazy. There is nothing better than going to get her out of her crib each morning and her seeing me. She smiles like crazy! It melts my heart. She is such a great baby! We have been very fortunate to find such wonderful daycare. Megan has also has 3 little girls and they are so adorable. Each morning they can't wait to take the carseat cover off to see if she is awake. If she is, they all scream! It's so funny! The transition back to work was not easy. I cried for many days. It is such a blessing for us knowing she is being cared for such a loving family.

Troy and I are doing great! During this time, I had the dreaded birthday of turning 30! It was tough but I made it! It helped having Kamdyn here to help us celebrate:) My mom came to babysit and Troy and I got our first date night. We went out for supper and then came home. It was hard to be away from her.

Kamdyn celebrated her first Thanksgiving with a fun filled day. We went to Pella to my brother's house to celebrate with my family for lunch. Then for supper we went to Troy's parents. It was great spending the day with our loving families. Kamdyn experienced her first Black Friday! I had to break her in early:) My mom, her and I went to Des Moines and got a lot done. We had a great day! Now we are anxiously awaiting Christmas. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. God is wonderful and we couldn't be happier. She is growing each day and love to see what new things she is going to do each day. From our family to yours, we hope for a wonderful holiday with your family and friends.

Love, Troy, Lacie and Kamdyn

Week 38

The countdown begins.......we are at week 38. Time is going very fast right now! I go the to dr weekly and this week's appointment went very well. The heartrate wouldn't stay at one number...imagine that :) It was anywhere from 130-140. I am not dialated at all yet either so hopefully by this coming week, we see some progress there. I feel that the baby has dropped and is permanently sitting on my bladder. We are so excited and anxious to meet our new addition to our family!

I have been back to school for 2 weeks. The kids started last Tuesday. Every night I am exhausted!!! Troy has been wonderful and made supper every night for me. I try to lay low and keep my feet up at night so I don't get swollen. So far, I haven't gotten too swollen throughout the day. The air conditioning was not working in my room for a few days last week so that was not fun at all. My students have been wonderful and very helpful! They are so curious about the baby and are dying to know what it is. I told them last week that I was going to the dr and the next morning one of my girls said, "where's your baby? I want to see your baby." She doesn't quite understand that when the baby arrives I won't be at school for many weeks. I've been prepping them that I will be gone for awhile and that their schedule will still remain the same. I don't want their structure to change much at all because they rely on that.

The past couple weekends we have layed low so that has been very helpful. This weekend we went to the Marshalltown football game. It was beautiful weather! Then Saturday we didn't do much of anything. Today we went to a couple's wedding shower for friends of ours, James and Allie. They get married in October and I am her personal attendant. I am very honored and can't wait for their special day. I have to say that Troy and I were the official bags game champions! We brought home the title. I pulled through and had to carry Troy :) We had a great time.

I hope everyone has a great week and I will update after my dr appt this week. I pray for good news!

Week 36

4 more weeks, hopefully........although I wouldn't mind going a couple weeks early :) I need at least a week or 2 of school to set routines and expectations and then I will feel more comfortable. Teachers are back to school tomorrow :( What a fast summer! It went WAY too fast. I've been in my classroom here and there getting things ready just incase I go early. I'm excited to meet my new class. Starting school gets me even more excited to meet our new little one because I know it could be anytime. I had a dr appt today and now continue to go every week. He did an exam and said that the head is down, which is great news. The dr. also said, the head is very low, which is even greater news :) He said it is probably sitting on my bladder and I totally agree because I feel like I'm going to the bathroom all the time. The heartrate was at 126 today. I had a morning appt so she wanted to make sure that it wasn't my heartrate because it wasn't as active. She pushed my stomach around-not comfortable at all- and woke the baby up. Then it shot up to 150 which it should have. After that, she wanted to make sure it went back down and it did right to 126. She was impressed because it did exactly what she wanted it to. This appt was very real for me and helped me realize that this could be any day! He told me since we live about 45 mins away I need to make sure that I call when contractions are every 7 mins for an hr. While your pregnant you constantly think ahead of when your in labor and the baby arrives but this was very real. It made me so excited!

I started having Braxton Hicks contractions last week and my stomach gets rock hard. Troy strongly suggested that I get my bag packed. I think he was getting nervous:) So I got my bag and the baby's bag packed and put everything we need inside the crib so it will be very easy for Troy to get us loaded in the car because I'm sure my mind will be elsewhere. I put the car seat in the car already so that's one less thing to remember. I packed a boy and girl outfit....ok outfits:) After the baby is born, a photographer comes in the room and takes professional pictures for you. So I wanted to be prepared:) This is the reason for the baby bag and my bag separate. I first had them in one bag but I just didn't have enough room :) We are set now!

I am very happy to say that we have officially found a daycare provider. This has been very stressful. We thought we had this all figured out back in February but things changed and we had to search. I called about 4 different people and had no luck. Then I happen to ask a lady that lives in Conrad if she would be willing to do it because she stays home with her 3 girls. She graciously said yes. We were so relieved! Troy and I are very glad too that we will not have to travel to Marshalltown each day with the baby in the winter. There are so many positives about this decision. We are very blessed!

Below are some pictures of the nursery. I am happy to say it is done! Some of the pictures didn't turn out as well but you can get an idea of how it looks. I have really enjoyed decorating:)

The past few weeks have been VERY hot! So I've tried to lay low and stay in the AC as much as possible. This week has been so much better! We did make a trip to the State Fair on Saturday. It was very hot and humid. We lasted a few hrs. I can't believe how much the heat effects me now. Usually I have no problems but I was miserable. Troy was a trooper and always made sure I was feeling ok. He could tell I was getting too hot, so we left. I got my cheesecurds so the mission was accomplished :) Well better get my things ready for school. It's a school night! Have a great week!