Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Updates and Molly turns 4 months old!















Happy Father's Day, Dan, Gaylord, and Dave!


















Hello all....


I was checking out a friend's blog tonight that I hadn't read in a while and saw her list of blogs she follows and mine was one of them. Mine said the last post was one month ago....oops!!! Life is even more crazy with three kids now and I can't seem to keep up with anything, at least well. I know that is okay and I am slowly coming to terms with it, but my normal inclination is to want things close to perfect and nothing can be that right now! I wanted to slowly get caught up from my last post (her birth 4 MONTHS ago!!), but I may just skip until the present and go back if I have time eventually.



Here are some updates on the Strahan Clan and some new pics of Miss Molly, who turned 4 months today!!




About a month ago, on Mother's Day to be exact, I had a terrible pain in my sternum and feelings like I was having a heart attack, with shortness of breath, pain that radiated outward and through my back. So I went to the ER and found that my gallbladder was full of gallstones and needed to come out. They didn't think that I had an infection so my surgery was scheduled 5 days later. So I had the surgery and everything went well. When the dr came to tell Dan I was in recovery he showed him the pictures of my gall bladder and it was not a pretty site. I had a terrible infection, it was very inflamed, and definitely was full of gall stones. He could not believe that I had not had more problems and that I wasn't in more pain. Thank you God for that protection!! The recovery was bad at first but I felt pretty much back to normal in a week or two.




Jacob finished up preschool the last week of May and I registered him for kindergarten a couple of weeks ago. He's growing up so quickly!! He will have full day kindergarten in the fall, which I have mixed feelings about. On one hand it will be a nice break, but on the other hand a full day is soooo long for a 5 year old and I will miss him, too. I signed up Zach for preschool, too. He will go 2 days a week to the same preschool that Jacob attended. He is sooo excited. When Jacob started last fall Zach cried every day we dropped him off for a month because he wanted to go to school, too. Now he'll finally get his chance.





I am a co-coordinator of our MOPS group (Mothers of Preschoolers) at our church and we had a wonderful year. It's such a great program and such an honor to help lead. We had our planning retreat for next year a couple weekends ago and it went really well. We planned all our speakers and creative activities for the year and it should be another awesome year! I am so blessed to be involved with such a great organization.



The boys are enjoying the start of the summer, which finally seems to have arrived. We had a rough spring of a lot of cool, rainy days, but the warmth and sun may stay now! I'm intentionally not planning a whole lot this summer, to leave room to do things on a whim and survive with 3 at home! We have Great America passes, we swim at Dan's parents pool, we go to kids concerts in the park, MOPS park days, play dates, etc. When I am feeling more adventerous to go out with 3 kids we'll head to the Milwaukee Zoo and maybe even downtown for some fun. :)



Molly is doing really well! She is a very smiley, happy girl most of the time. Just don't let the girl get hungry or she will show you her temper for sure! :) She's sleeping pretty well at night, with only getting up once, which lately has been around 5 am (nice!!). My only complaint is that she doesn't sleep well during the day yet and just takes little 20-30 minute cat naps. This is hard, especially when the boys aren't napping anymore. I'm hoping this will improve soon! She's starting to really grab for toys and get some hand eye coordination. She rolled over once in her crib from her belly to her back but hasn't done it since. She loves watching her brothers and Abby, our dog. They are great entertainment! Jacob loves playing with her and getting her to laugh! She loves her momma, which I love! But she's also a daddy's girl, too. They love to snuggle together at night. She's getting so much bigger. I think she's 16 pounds now but I'll know officially next week when we go in for her 4 mo. appt. She has the same chubby cheeks that the boys had and some cute leg rolls, too! Her belly laps over her pants, too, which makes me laugh. She had her first sick appt last week because she had the same cold for about 3 weeks and she ended up having an ear infection. Hopefully not the first of many, like her brothers had.



Here are some pictures from the last couple of days. Most are from Father's Day and then today at a kids concert and at home. I am still figuring out this blogging thing. I can't figure out how to move the pictures around, so unfortunately they are at the beginning instead of the end as planned. Oh well!



Hopefully my next blog won't be in another month!! :)

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Molly Jane Strahan (yes, I'm FINALLY posting something!)

I'm back after quite a hiatus! Life has been pretty hectic, as you can imagine, since Molly's birth! Molly was born February 21st at 8:01 pm. She was 8 pounds 2 ounces, 20 inches long. Everything went very well, except for my epidural (which they did twice after hitting a vein causing an out of body experience, but I'm ok!!). We feel so blessed to have this sweet little girl in our family. The boys love her and are very proud of her. Zach is always telling people that she is his little sister. She's been such a good baby since the start! Here are some pictures of our hospital stay. They are backwards in order, so they actually start with the day we left the hospital. (It's too tough to change!) :)




































Friday, February 18, 2011

The end is in sight!

Quick Molly update! I went to my ob today for the last time before Miss Molly arrives! Today I'm 39 weeks and a few days and my actual due date is Monday. What a long road this has been! I was sick for half of the pregnancy (like sick, sick), then I had about 10 weeks that were pretty good, then the bedrest started and now she doesn't want to come out without being prodded at least! :) I know it will all be worth it in the end, though. So speaking of the end...if she doesn't arrive this weekend, I will be induced early Monday morning. We're looking forward to finally meeting our little Molly! I feel like we've been in this holding pattern for so long now, that it's just nice to have an end in sight. Hopefully we have this weekend to tie up some last few things, but overall I think we're ready!

My friend, Kelly, made a good point the other day which I'll try not to think about for the next 21 years.... Her daughter, Tessa, was born January 21st, and if Molly is born February 21st (Monday) they will both celebrate their golden birthdays on their 21st birthdays....dangerous!! :)

Here are a couple prego pics...yes, 2 different days and the same sweater. It's cute, comfortable and covers my belly! :)

Valentine's Day--39 weeks!

Jacob's birthday party, January 29th--almost 37 weeks

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Happy 5th Birthday, Jacob!

Our sweet Jacob turned 5 on January 24th. It's so hard to believe what this year will bring for him...and I'm not ready for it! He'll go to kindergarten, start T-ball, lose his first teeth, ride a big boy bike, be a big brother to 2 siblings, get even taller, and so many other things I'm sure! Jacob has grown to be a sensitive, loving, friendly, empathetic boy who has many friends. For the most part he gets along very well with his brother, too, which is great! They could play for hours together imagining different scenarios with their toys. He's also become quite the story teller this year, which is so fun to watch develop and see his imagination emerge. Here are some pics of his family birthday party-- pirate themed, of course!!
More pirate booty!
His big boy bike and Batman helmet!

Poppy plays with Zach and we actually capture a good smile! :)

Happy Birthday to Jacob!

Grandma Wendy and Jakey!

Lovin' Oven is the best! What an awesome pirate cake!

Poppy Gaylord and Jacob share the same birthday!

Poppy Dave and Jacob


Helmet heads!

Grandma Marilyn and Poppy with the birthday boy!

The birthday boys enjoy a moment together!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Sledding Fun! (before the bedrest began...)

A few days before Christmas we had a nice snowfall, so I took the boys out across the street from our house where there is a smaller hill, which is just the right size for preschoolers. :) I fell a few times trying to help Zach up the hill, so I'm hoping that didn't start my preterm labor a few days later!! :) (I can't figure out how to remove the underline! Sorry!)

I love this picture of them! :)


Jacob was helping Zach up the hill...nice brother!


There was a layer of ice on top of the snow, which didn't make for good snow angels!



Yes, that snowball hit me!!


One of my favorite Jakey pictures!