Bauer's 1st day of Preschool

Bauer started a Co-Op/Joy School Preschool this past week.  There are 5 kids and the mom's all take turns teaching at our houses.  On his 1st day, I wanted to take his picture. What I thought would happen is that we would go outside, he would smile and I would get a good picture of him smiling. What I got instead was pictures of his personality.  I wasn't too excited about it when it happened, but looking at the pictures later that day I LOVE the pictures I got instead because they really show off his crazy personality.

 This picture is definitely my favorite one.

Blessing Weekend

We blessed Zora on Sunday.  It all started with my brother, Alma and his family coming up on Friday.  We got lucky with Andrew having a light load, so he actually got into town a few hours earlier on Saturday then we were thinking.  We decided that we needed to go to Krispy Kreme for doughnuts followed by playing at the park.  When we first got there, we were all sad to see that they weren't currently making doughnuts, but while we were eating our doughnuts, they stated making doughnut holes.  It was fun to see them doing that and the kids loved watching those little balls be made, cooked, iced etc.  

Bauer being a goofball. 

Zora chilling with her cousin that was born 2 1/2 months before here. 

My parents got into town early Saturday afternoon.  We decided to have dinner at a Chinese Buffet restaurant followed by swimming in the pool at my parents hotel. 

When I found out I was having a girl I was thrilled to finally be able to have ruffles and bows and girly things.  So true to that, I had to have an extra ruffly blessing dress for her.  I found the idea for this dress and the rosette fabric and then my Mom sewed it up.  My neighbor, Jen, took some material from the dress to make the headband.  I am absolutely in love with how it all turned out. 

Our little family. 

I had the idea for this picture of the boys holding Zora laying in their arms that morning and I couldn't wait to try taking it.  The picture turned out exactly how I wanted.  We might have to try to recreate this picture on important dates as they all grow.  

This and That

Here are a much of random pictures and the stories behind them.

My oldest sister, Vera, is an amazing aunt!  She does so much for our family.  One of her traditions is to send a stuffed animal to each of her nieces and nephews when they are born.  We always take a picture of them with their stuffed animal when they get it and the kids love to see how little they were by looking t those pictures.  Here is a picture I decided to take one day of my kids with their stuffed animals. 

I saw a picture similar to this one a while ago and I wanted to recreate it for my family.  So after church a few weeks ago, we did it.  In case you can't tell by Deker and Bauer's faces, they all though it was pretty cool. 

Then when I wanted to take this one, they fight over who gets to hold Zora, so we take turns with each boy in the middle and holder her and I pick my favorite. 

A couple of weeks ago, Andrew ran a different route so we had the rare treat to have him home all day Saturday.  So we took the opportunity and went to the zoo.  Our Zoo has recently added dinosaurs that make noise.  Here is the boys looking at one of them. 

And a picture to prove that Zora was in fact there, even though she slept the entire time.

Another weekend, our good friends Dan and Angela called and they were in town and invited us to go swimming with them in the pool at their hotel.  It has been a really long time since Andrew has been swimming with Andrew and they LOVED it.  This picture below was a common scene.  Andrew also got them all to jump into the pool to him. 

Zora turned 1 month old on August 23.  So here is with her bear at 1 month. 

One day I was holding Zora and Deker came up and started talking to her and she really focused in on him for a while.  I love seeing how much each of the boys love and adore their sister, but Deker shows it the most.  He is constantly kissing her head and he loves holding her. 

Newborn Pictures

Andrew and I purchased a nicer camera for us and we wanted to play around with taking some newborn pictures for fun.  We also had our good friend, Brogan, come over and take more in case ours didn't turn out very well.  We got some good ones, but Brogan got some even better ones.

Here are two of the pictures that Andrew and I took. 

 Here are the pictures Brogan took.

I saw the idea for this picture a few months ago and couldn't wait to try to recreate it.

1st day of School

 Keagan and Deker started school on August 6 (when Zora was exactly 2 weeks old).  I was really nervous about how it would go with getting the boys fed, dressed, hair done all while having a newborn and when she would want to eat.  I was so grateful to have my parents here for the first two day of school in case I needed help.  It all went well, but I am very thankful that Keagan is old enough and loves to help.  There are days when the boys get everything out by themselves and he pours his and his brother's cereal and milk.  I love hearing him do that for them and he loves the responsibility. 

I can't believe that I have a 2nd grader and a Kindergartener.  True to Deker's personality he loves school and says he doesn't miss us while he is gone, but when he gets out of school, he always runs to me and gives me a very big hug.  Then he will usually tell me bits of things he did throughout the rest of the day.  

Keagan loves school and true to his personality, he doesn't offer up very many details about his day.

 Deker and his giant back to school cookie.  I love how excited he was for every aspect of school. 

Keagan with his back to school cookie. 

Zora is Here!!!

Since all three of my boys were born 3 weeks or more before their due date, I had expected to have this little girl at the beginning of July, even though my due date wasn't until July 30.  Well, our little girl had other ideas in mind and kept us waiting.  I was starting to think that I was never going to go into labor on my own and would be induced which scared me just a little.

On Tuesday, July 23, which was exactly one week before my due date, I was scheduled for an Ultrasound followed by an appointment with my doctor.  Everything went well and they scheduled me to be induced on Thursday.  My appointment with my doctor was at 12:00 and during my appointment, I was 3 cm dilated (about the same as I had been for the past couple of weeks) and was not having any contractions. As soon as I walked out of the office, I called my Mom to let her know what was going on because she was getting on an airplane to fly to Wisconsin.

Me and the boys then walked out to the van where I tried calling Andrew.  While trying to get a hold of Andrew, I felt what I thought was some cramping from the exam, this was at 12:30.  I then started driving home.  On the way home, I noticed that the "cramping" was hurting pretty bad and coming every two minutes.  I got home, made the boys some lunch and then sat down to rest to see if it would go away.  A lady from Labor and Delivery called to do the registration for my induction just as I was getting another contraction and I couldn't talk to her through it.  She told me I needed to go to the hospital and I argued with her saying, what if it was just cramping from the exam.  She said since this was my fourth I could either have a baby at home or come in.  I reluctantly agreed but I still wasn't sure it was real labor, probably because I am always afraid it will be a false alarm.  This was at about 1:30

Since Andrew was at work, I called my neighbor, Jenn, and the kids went over to her house with her kids and she drove me to the hospital.  As we were driving, Jenn called Andrew to find out where he was that is when we found out he had to go to the warehouse to drop off the truck and then would meet us there.  I was scared because I thought he would be waiting for me at the hospital when I got there.

When I got to the hospital, I was 7 cm dilated, they rushed me to a room and started getting everything ready for delivery. Five minutes later, they checked me again and I was already completely dilated.  Now it was time to wait for Andrew (hopefully) and my doctor.  Soon after that, Andrew walked in the room, then about a minute or two later my doctor walked in the room then less 10 minutes later, Zora was born.

So basically from the time of my first contraction to Zora being born was just 2 hours.  It was such a crazy fast experience, but we are so thrilled that she is here.  She weighed in at 8 pounds 2 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long.  We named her Zora Brenda Picanco. 

After Zora was born, a lady different lady from Labor and Delivery came in and said "are you the one that was arguing with me on the phone?"  I said yes, I was and we joked around about it and that I was so glad that I decided to listen to her.  


Now for the picture explosion.

The boys were so excited to meet Zora and love her already.  Andrew and I made those "Big Brother" bags for the boys.  In each bag was a notebook, stickers, crayons, a treat, etc. 

The boys in their Big Brother shirts.

Quite a few months ago, I saw an idea to cut out scraps of fabric out and sew them together to make a garland to decorate the bassinet in the hospital, so one day I decided to go ahead a do it.  We got A TON of compliments on it. 

Zora and I ready to go home on Thursday.

Bauer drew a picture for Andrew and then asked Andrew to draw a picture for him.  He then showed off his drawing to Zora. 

It sure is fun getting a chance to dress a girl and we are all thrilled to have this little girl in our home. 

Keagan's Lost Tooth

On Wednesday, July 17, Keagan lost his very first tooth.  He had been watching and wiggling this tooth for a long time, then on Wednesday at dinner it came very loose and just barely hanging in there when he bit on a chip.  After the fear of pulling it the rest of the way was over, he was very excited about it.  He was even more excited the next morning when we saw that the tooth fairy came at night and brought him two quarters for it.