Happy 6.5 months!

GORGEOUS green eyes!

Our little peanut is 6.5 months old. We had her six month wellness visit on December 19th. We drove to the pediatrician with high hopes that Kara had grown to at least 14 lbs. She was eating like a champ and she seemed "bigger" to us, but our hopes were quickly crushed when I placed her on the scale. Instead the scale read 12.3 lbs. A gain of only 4 ounces (she was 11.15 at 4 months old). I couldn't keep my emotions in as I walked back to the room. Chris took one look at my face and knew it wasn't good. The nurse confirmed it with the dreaded words, "her weight is off the curve." She walked out the room and I broke down in tears. How is this possible? I feed her ALL the time! Chris got me somewhat calmed down by the time the doctor came in, but there was no hiding the fact that I was upset and the doctor could tell as soon as she sat down. I again broke down into tears and she quickly read the chart.

She looked up, smiled and said. "Don't worry, mom. Kara is fine. She grew over an inch in length and her head circumference grew as well. She is just petite." But how is it possible to only gain 4 ounces when I feed her every 2 to 3 hours all day long? The doctor explained that some babies are just built smaller then others. We need to stop comparing. Which is something I think we are all guilty of doing from time to time. With Kara being our second child, we often compare her to what Ryan was doing at her age. For example, he was 16 lbs at six months old. I also feel pressure from family members concerning Kara's feeding schedule. It frustrates me that I get questioned as to why she eats so many times during the day, why is she so small, why haven't you started her on solids yet, you should have started cereal by now, when are going to give her a bottle already, etc., etc. I don't need the extra stress and sadly the constant questions add that stress. Anyone who has nursed their children will tell you that nursing the second time around is stressful enough. I am doing the best that I can and feel my child is getting the best nutrition by being breastfed exclusively for now. Thankfully the doctor agreed with me.

The doctor then proceeded to do the exam and told us that Kara was in perfect health. She is sitting in a tri-pod stance, she rolls, she babbles, she grabs objects and bangs them together. All in all, she is doing what she should be developmentally at this age. Kara was also in a great mood so the doctor got to see her "happy side". We agreed that starting Kara on cereal (which we had always intended to do at six months...there are many reasons why you should wait...allergies being the main reason to wait until after 6 months old) would be a good thing to start now and maybe it will help her put on a little more weight. She told us to keep trying the bottle, that eventually Kara will accept it. This baby is VERY stubborn! I wonder where she gets that trait from? :) Just to ease our minds, we go back for weight check in mid January.

Stats for six months are:

Weight: 12.3 lbs (gained 4 oz.)

Height: 25 1/4 (grew over an inch in length)

As far as the shots, I took Ryan to the bathroom and missed the crying. Chris said she screamed at first but calmed down even faster then last time. Good Job Kara!

We decided to wait until after the holidays to start a new routine that included cereal. Chris is home all this week so I was happy to have him there to help document her first cereal feeding. Yesterday (12.29), was the big day! We mixed some rice cereal and sat her in her bumbo. Snapped on the cute "K" for Kara bib that my aunt Geneva got her and....

She HATED it!

She took the first bite or two just fine....but then she started to freak out! She was seriously spitting it out as fast I was trying to get it in her mouth. Ugh. Well after a few spoonfuls of cereal that ended up either on her chin or bib, we gave up and decided to wait a day or two before trying again.


Kara has the craziest HAIR! Pictures do not do it justice. You need to see it in person to understand the color and thickness...or lack there of. It comes up like a dark brown or even reddish color in pictures but when you take a closer look at it, there is a combination of brown, red and blond?! She has very FINE hair but it is long. Just check out this photo of her "tail"....

Kara showing off her "sitting up" skills!

(and yes those are 6 month jammies that are still too big on her!)

Kara just being Kara...silly!

She may be petite but she has a BIG personality!

Christmas 2008 post coming tomorrow!

Ryan's 3rd Birthday...finally!

Ryan's Birthday Memories ~ take two

Ryan's 3rd Birthday

As promised, here are a ton of photos documenting Ryan's special day! I still can't believe my little guy is 3 years old! Where has the time gone?

Can you guess the theme?
Once again, my talented husband created an awesome cake! For those who are not familiar with the "new" Mickey Mouse on cable tv these days, this is TOODLES from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show. When Mickey and the gang need help, they yell "OH TOODLES!" It is hilarious to hear Ryan yell this while watching the show!

Each year, I try to come up with a fun craft for the children to do together. This year, we had them decorate their party hats with letters and numbers stickies. Even the older kids thought this was a fun activity. I think the hats turned out great!

Ryan was just happy to have juice! We don't allow him to drink much juice during the year so he goes crazy at parties. Oh what a sugar high he was on that day.

Our piano is the designated area for gift bags, pinata storage, music corner (Mickey Mouse Music...of course!) and presents! Do you see those cute Mickey/Minnie ears? *someone accidentally walked out with Kara's Minnie ears...so if you happen to find them in your house, could you please return them..pretty please!*

The gift bags were decorated by Ryan and my cousin, Sahira came over to help color the dots on them. I think they turned out so cute. Simple and inexpensive.

Kara enjoying Ryan's new Curious George counting book. We are proud to say that this monkey has helped Ryan learn to count to 30...well and having to count after serving time outs too! haha. Either way, he is learning...


Our birthday boy!

This is when everyone was leaving and he didn't want his guests to leave!

The following pictures were taken by Ryan with his new camera he got from us for his birthday. He was very excited to use it and took almost 200 pictures by the end of the night!

This is a close up shot of our custom made "thank you" gift bags!

What is Ryan taking a picture of?...

The best party decorations of course! This is the ceiling in our living room/play room (more a playroom then formal living room!). You too can have this wonderful display of festive fun...all you need is 4 adults, a ladder, scotch tape, several streamer colors and 3 hours of non-stop twirling! We need to thank my aunt Geneva and cousin Sahira for helping us create this masterpiece! *and yes it is still up!*

Then he had to take a picture of me taking a picture of him.

Ryan also received plenty of this....

Here's Nanie Delp (great-grandma!) posing with cake...yum!

3! - such an artistic shot

Someone putting Ryan's shoe on...

...so he could run outside and take pictures of his cousins.

Pop-Pop Delp.

another artistic shot of "Mickey in a sea of color!"

and finally one of Kara. She can't wait for her 1st Birthday now!

Sorry it took so long to get this blog posted...November and December are always crazy busy! Ryan turned 3 on November 19th but we celebrated his party early this year (November 2nd). We decided to combine Kara's baptism and Ryan's 3rd birthday and it turned out better than we could have ever imagined. A huge THANK YOU to all our family and friends that were able to make the event. We loved seeing everyone and hope you had a great time celebrating with us!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Ryan!

Merry Christmas

From Our Family....To Yours!

(if you live out of state, your card will arrive soon...)

oh my....

Has a week gone by already? I have TONS of posts to create and I promise lots of fun-filled family updates soon. We are only a few days away from Christmas and I am still finishing up shopping, baking and decorating! Stress beyond belief but then I came across this poem...

The Night Before Christmas for Moms

It was the night before Christmas, when all thru the abode
Only one creature was stirring, and she was cleaning the commode.
The children were finally sleeping, all snug in their beds,
While visions of Nintendo 64 and Barbie, flipped through their heads.

The dad was snoring in front of the TV,
With a half-constructed bicycle on his knee.
So only the mom heard the reindeer hooves clatter,
Which made her sigh, "Now what's the matter?"

With toilet bowl brush still clutched in her hand,
She descended the stairs, and saw the old man.
He was covered with ashes and soot, which fell with a shrug.
"Oh great," muttered the mom, "Now I have to clean the rug."

"Ho-ho-ho!" cried Santa, "I'm glad you're awake."
"Your gift was especially difficult to make."
"Thanks, Santa, but all I want is some time alone."
"Exactly!" he chuckled, "I've made you a clone."

"A clone?" she asked, "What good is that?
Run along, Santa, I've no time for chit-chat.
"The mother's twin. Same hair, same eyes,
Same double chin.

"She'll cook, she'll dust," She'll mop every mess.
You'll relax, take it easy, Watch The Young & the Restless."
"Fantastic!" the mom cheered. "My dream come true!"
I'll shop. I'll read., I'll sleep a whole night through! "

From the room above, the youngest began to fret.
"Mommy?! I scared... and I am wet.
"The clone replied, "I'm coming, sweetheart."
"Hey," the mom smiled, "She knows her part."

The clone changed the small one, and hummed a tune,
as she bundled the child, in a blanket cocoon.
"You the best mommy ever. " I really love you."
The clone smiled and sighed, "I love you, too."

The mom frowned and said, "Sorry, Santa, no deal."
"That's my child's love, she's trying to steal."
Smiling wisely Santa said, "To me it is clear,
"Only one loving mother, is needed here."

The mom kissed her child, and tucked her into bed.
"Thank you, Santa, for clearing my head.
I sometimes forget, it won't be very long,
When they'll be too old, for my cradle-song."

The clock on the mantle began to chime.
Santa whispered to the clone, "It works every time.
"With the clone by his side Santa said,
"Goodnight. Merry Christmas, Mom, You'll be all right."
-Author Unknown


That's my Christmas gift to all my wonderful "mommy friends"...I love you all! Now go hug those adorable children and may your holiday be filled with the love and laughter!

Bowling and our Snow Bunny

We went bowling for the first time on Saturday. I say "first time" because it seriously was the first time ever that Chris and I went bowling together! That means I haven't been in a bowling alley in over 8 years?! Speaking of places we haven't visited together, we have never been to an amusement park together either. Wait a second...the more I think about this...wow...there are so many amusement parks near us (Dorney Park, Knobels, Hershey Park, Sesame Place and Six Flags) and we've never been to one? We definitely need to have a practice run with one of these smaller parks before taking a trip down to Disney in a few years. I think Sesame Place will be a good start this summer. Now convincing Chris to go is another story!

So Saturday (12.13.08) after the kids had napped, we headed over to the local bowling alley (which is maybe a mile from our house) for some Glo' & Bowl Fun! We belong to our Community Association (CTCA) and participate in several of their events throughout the year. They mainly focus on family events so it's fun to attend or volunteer for them. As usual, we were late (due to naps and Kara's feeding schedule) so we missed Santa, but Santa must have known Ryan was going to be late because he left a huge goodie bag for him. We had LUCKY number 7 lane all to ourselves and after putting on our lovely "haven't changed the style in 50 years" bowling shoes, we searched for a ball for Ryan. I was sad to find that there weren't any balls less than 6 lbs, but he managed quite well for that weight. And just for the record, if I had realized that wearing white or any light color for that matter was going to result in a full blown GLOW, I would have dressed all of us in it! I guess maybe I should known from the title Glo' and Bowl, huh?

Look even our shoe threads GLOWED! Funny how Chris didn't even put his shoes on, he had some excuse about having to hold the baby so he couldn't bowl.

And who glowed the most? Check out Glo Baby!

Ryan insisted on carrying the ball to the line each time. Only dropped it once or twice...and not on our toes, so not bad!

Ryan couldn't get enough speed with the bowling ball to make it down the alley. There were bumpers up so he didn't have gutter balls but his ball would actually get stuck in the middle of the alley. Then I had to come to rescue and throw another ball down to hit his ball....this was fun for like the first two times and then it became such a pain until....

....a woman (who must bring her kids bowling all the time!) told us about a kiddie ramp Ryan could use. We quickly found one in a corner and I (because Chris was holding Kara!) dragged it back to our lane and set it up. It was PERFECT. The ramp caused the bowling ball to pick up speed thus making the ball roll faster down the alley. I truly do not remember having a ramp to use when I was a child...but again, I don't think I bowled much then either.



It turned out to be a lot of fun and I think we are going to take Ryan again some day....and Chris WILL wear those lovely bowling shoes and I WILL get a picture of him in them. :)

On Sunday, our sweet but cranky Kara turned 6 months old!

Here is our cute Snow Bunny....

wait for it....wait for it....she just might...

smile? or is she just being cranky again?
nah! She is happy and cute as a "bunny"!

Kara has her 6 month wellness visit on Friday. Look for an update then...

and yet another one....

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY, MIKE!!

Welcome to the 30 club you stud muffin you!

(Mike is on the right wearing the oh so stylish glasses!)

Oh and ladies....the last I heard, this handsome fella (the one sitting in the middle!) was still on the market! Interested? Email me...I will see what I can do! :)

Thanks for being available (most of the time) to help us when we need you and for being the best Godfather to our beautiful children! They think you are pretty neato!

Hope you had one heck of a birthday weekend, Mikey! We love you!

~Flashback Friday~

I know you are all waiting soooo very patiently for Ryan's 3rd birthday update with pictures. I mean geez...it's been over a month since the party and almost a month since his birthday! Well, I hate to make you wait longer but I had to post about his first two birthdays first so here is my first installment of

Flashback Friday!

(wow...I used the word "first" way too many times in that last sentence!)

Ryan's Birthday Memories ~ take one

Ryan 1st Birthday....can you guess the theme?

Chris and I LOVE LOVE LOVE to throw parties! We also love having theme parties and look forward to celebrating Ryan's birthday every year....soon we will have two parties to plan each year. Thank goodness they are almost 6 months apart or we would probably go a little crazy.

Ryan was pretty much obsessed with Elmo and Sesame Street at age one so that theme wasn't hard to decide. Chris is very creative with making signs so we put together this one on the front door for the guests to see as they entered....

As pictured above, we made cupcakes instead of buying Ryan a 1st Birthday Cake. We are not fans of store bought cakes and actually make (well Chris is the master cake maker...more on that later) the birthday cakes each year. We decided on cupcakes because it was the perfect size for a toddler to smash and eat. This was Ryan's first taste of chocolate!!! Let's just say...he loved every last bite of his birthday cupcake!

Oh those LIPS...those big kissable lips! Eat your heart out Angelina Jolie!

...and those cheekies! I miss pinching those cute, chubby cheeks!

We had all our family and friends leave a message on this sign before they left. I have it in a safe place all wrapped up for him to enjoy when he is older. Now I know what you're thinking...boy aren't they creative with putting R for RYAN and number 1 for his age, huh? Yea, we surprise even ourselves with the things we can come up with!

Ryan was not only lucky to have one birthday bash....but TWO that year! We also celebrated his 1st birthday at Thanksgiving with Chris' extended family! Grandma High got him this cute cake...which he enjoyed tasting as well.

Did you notice that lovely black and blue mark on his right cheek? Well, that happened the day of his first party. He was playing with his cousins Maddie and Billy on a chair and fell off. It was actually quite comical because when we rushed over, the two older cousins both had their hands up and said, "I didn't do it....we don't know how he fell!"...such a kid response! This was his second big boo-boo...the first one happened the night of my brother's wedding where he got a good goose egg on his forehead from falling off a step. There have been many a boo-boo since...

Come here and give me a KISS!

As I looked back at the pictures of Ryan's first birthday, the biggest memory I have is all the love Ryan received from our family and friends! Sure there were gifts galore (tons of Elmo items!) but the best gift was having everyone together to oooo and ahhh over this sweet precious baby boy!

He is very much loved....

Ryan's 2nd Birthday....this theme is a little harder to guess if you aren't familiar with Eric Carle. The Very Hungry Caterpillar was Ryan's favorite book at age two.

Now here is where I get to show off my husband's secret talent! He made both these cakes from scratch! I didn't even know he could do this until he whipped these babies together the night before the party! I am in complete amazement with the things Chris can do sometimes. Isn't that caterpillar a spittin' image of the one on the book and look at that beautiful butterfly! Ok, so I have to give myself a pat on the back because I did help him mix up the greens so they were the matching shades from the book AND I came up with the crumbled "dirt" that the caterpillar is sitting on. It's chocolate filled oreos! Plus the caterpiller wouldn't have had feet if I hadn't thought about using hershey kisses...BUT Chris was and still is the master cake decorator.

To go along with our theme, our guests enjoyed a yummy feast that included ALL the food that the caterpillar ate in the book! If you haven't read the book, you won't understand...so maybe you should head over to your local library and read it...I can assure you won't be disappointed. :)
This is a picture of my sister Bambi and her husband Drew enjoying our picnic spread. She is almost 8 months pregnant with my nephew Owen.

Here's Ryan hanging out with his girls!! They can't get enough of him! haha

Speaking of being pregnant...so was I! We had found out a month before his party that we were going to have a second bundle of joy. We decided to surprise our family at his party. We had him take in a sign he had created that said "Mommy is going to have a BABY!" to show to all our family and friends. It was great to see the shock and joy on their faces!! I wish we would have gotten a picture of my mom's reaction but we do have it on video. Here is Ryan and Mommy...we are opening gifts. He is one lucky boy each year!

Once again, we celebrated Ryan's birthday at Thanksgiving as well. Grandma High got him two mini cakes in the shape of a kitty and a puppy! He loved them.

Chris' family, including Grandma and Pop-Pop High weren't able to make his first birthday party so they did not know about our exciting news. We decided to surprise them in a different way. This time we had him wear a shirt that said "Best Big Brother" on the front. We put a sweater over it and had planned to surprise everyone after dinner. But it was unseasonably warm last year and Grandma High kept telling me to take the sweater off the poor child so we went to plan B and surprised them all before dinner. I took his sweater off and had him go into the kitchen where Grandma High was so he could show her his shirt. As he was walking in, I told her that he got a new shirt for his birthday and she needed to read it. Well...she didn't get it at first! hahaha...she seriously read it like 5 times before she yelled OH.MY.GOSH! Her reaction was even better than Mom-Mom Delp's. Again, we didn't get it a picture BUT it's on video and watching every one's reactions is priceless. Now of course the birthday boy didn't really understand what the big deal was all about....he was just happy to get more cake!

Ryan's 3rd Birthday...look for a post COMING SOON!