Avery has glasses

Ooops! I think I forgot to post but I'm sure you've noticed that Avery wears glasses now. I meant to post but she got them around the time she got sick with strep and I guess I forgot to post. She has complained off and on of headaches for a while and although she passed her vision screening at school, I wanted to have her eyes checked. She is farsighted and the eye doctor thinks she may grow out of it. Evan has great vision and was jealous that he doesn't get glasses. After we went through the whole process and ordered them, I learned our insurance doesn't cover glasses. It makes no sense to me since they are necessary. I keep reminding her how important it is to take care of them. Glasses are NOT cheap. It took her about a week to get used to them but now she is great about wearing them. She is adorable in them but I think they make her look older and it makes me sad.
The day we picked them up

Grandparents' gifts

A&E have been opening gifts for days. They are very blessed to have so many grandparents so we have been opening a gift each day from them.
First was from their great grandparents

Then gifts from Grandpa Wayne and Cheryl

Sleeping bags from Grammy and Pappy Joel

and this morning was gifts from Pappy Jay


This has worked out great because they play with their new things all day. Maybe I should save a Christmas gift for each day until they go back to school....

Class Christmas Party

I volunteered to be the photographer at A&E's Christmas Party last week. I was only there an hour and I was exhausted. I don't remember how I made it through a whole day teaching while I was pregnant with A&E.
They were so excited to dress up for their Christmas party!

Antlers!

Party time!

Avery the crazy eyed reindeer

Basketball and Cheer

Evan has to wear his uniform to basketball practice (don't ask me why because it really doesn't make sense) so Avery wears her uniform as well (it is optional for her). They were so excited about practice this week.

Ummm can I tell you how excited I am about this? VEEERRRRYYY! Although it drives me nuts at practice because the "coaches" are high school girls who are obviously not cheerleaders. Yes I am "that mom". Avery has been practicing her motions at home. :)

Evan came up with this pose on his own. Love it!

Weeks 26 & 27

I am having the worst time with editing pics and saving. I'm not sure if our destop is going or it's the external hard drive. Hopefully my technician will be home soon to figure it out. I don't have the energy to deal with it. That is why there are so many phone pics lately. Much easier!
Here I am at 26 weeks! Sprout is REALLY growing now.


27 weeks this week


I am feeling large and uncomfortable. I'm having a lot of pain and went to the chiropractor the past couple of weeks and had acupuncture (it would be so nice if insurance covered it). I've been trying to do stretches but it's hard with this belly. I've been having more braxton hicks contractions. This is the last week of the 2nd trimester. This trimester was supposed to be the best. I'm a bit scared what the 3rd will bring since I haven't felt well yet.
I've still been craving soda. I bought some for when my family comes to visit and it is just calling to me in the fridge. I was also craving pumpkin bread (but I crave that even not pregnant) so we have been eating that for breakfast this week. I haven't had as much of an appetite but sprout doesn't seem to care. S/he gets what is needed.
Avery finally felt kicks. She was excited. Evan was quick to point out he has felt the baby 9 times. Everything is a competition around here. The movements are getting stronger and I can feel body parts when I push on my stomach. There has been a leg or arm up high for a few days. You can also see the movements when the baby really gets going. Evan was cracking up watching my stomach the other day.

Advent Activities

We've been doing more advent activities. I am really enjoying the addition of doing things for others.

Wednesday night we drove around to look at Christmas lights.


Yesterday our activity was to donate allowance money. We went in search of a Salvation Army bell ringer but apparently they are only out in the evening. We ended up putting it in this thing for the local children's hospital.

Squadron Party

We went to the Squadron kids' party on Friday evening. A&E had a great time. I wasn't feeling well so it wasn't as fun for me. :p I remembered my camera and forgot the memory card. I am suffering from major pregnancy brain this past week.

Avery drawing a pic for Santa

Evan getting some temporary tattoos

Decorating cookies

Santa showed up for a visit and came with gifts for all the kids

Christmas Program

A&E had their Christmas program this past Tuesday night. It was such a big thing that it was held at a local church. That was a crazy evening. It was also Evan's first basketball practice and Avery's first cheer practice. I was exhausted by the time we got to the program (we were lucky they were at the same church but everything was in different areas). Our video camera isn't working so I had to use our big camera to do video. I had a hard time getting pics and video. Evan was directly in front of the music teacher and Avery was at the end and up a few rows. It's hard enough getting down to take the pics with this belly. Anyway not the best quality but something to remember the program.



Thankfully they were together at the finale!


I could get Evan's attention to pose for the camera

Avery was too distracted

After the loooong program

Tis the Season

We're getting in the holiday spirit at the Kline house. We've been watching Christmas shows (seriously I don't like Rudolph and how mean Santa is in that movie), our elf, Bob is back and reports back to Santa each night, the tree is up, and we even have some gifts under the tree.

A&E watched their videos from Santa to see if he got their letter and if they made the naughty or nice list. They were both excited to be on the nice list (as of now).


Friday after school, they came home to a package from Daddy. He had some decorations in there for them!


We have also started our advent activities. I haven't taken pics of everything this year. This year has been more about doing things for others with some fun family things thrown in as well. So far we have donated toys and coats, held the door open for people, given out hugs, written a letter to a friend, let someone in front of us in line, danced to Christmas music, and last night we had a picnic dinner in front of the Christmas tree!

Weeks 24 & 25

With all the sickness and appointments, I forgot to post last week. I am now 25 weeks pregnant. I feel more relieved each week that I am doing well and having no issues. At 24 weeks, a fetus is viable outside the womb. It was such a huge milestone when I was pregnant and in the hospital with A&E.

Sprout is really active in there now. I can see movements from outside when s/he really gets going! I may have a kickboxer in there. My lower back muscles are so tight and sore most of the time. I went to the chiropractor this week and she couldn't even pop my lower back on one side because the muscles were so tight. I had a prenatal massage today to help with it. I'm still nauseous. I just had my 3rd round of acupuncture this week (and no freaking out). I'm still struggling with not having an appetite. I'm tired but able to do more when I'm not as nauseous. I keep waiting for that magic day when I wake up and feel good. My craving this week has been ice cream sandwiches. Yum!

24 weeks


25 weeks

Sick kids

Tomorrow will be the first day in a week that A&E have both gone to school (please don't let me jinx myself by saying that). It started on Tuesday and I thought Avery had a virus because her fever went away. It ended up coming back. It would go away then come back again. It's nearly impossible to be seen by the base docs unless you have a yearly appointment already set up so we went to urgent care on Thursday after getting a referral. We found out she has strep. She was given a shot (which was traumatic for both of us and took 3 of us to hold her down) and is on antibiotics. Her throat never hurt so I never even considered strep. She was tired, ran a fever, had no appetite, and was nauseous.

Friday after we picked Evan up from school, he wasn't acting like his normal hyper self. I took his temp and he had a fever. Called the nurse line Saturday morning and after an 11 minute lecture/grilling and her recommendation that I just wait and see what happens, I finally got a referral to take him to urgent care. I expected strep for him too. It's going around so even if I kept him away from Avery as much as possible, he was around kids at school. No strep. It is an ear infection. I totally didn't see that one coming either. His ear still hasn't hurt at all. He was also put on antibiotics. This is the child who hates medicine. He threw up every time I tried to get the amoxicillin in him. I know everyone says it tastes good and blah, blah, blah but he hates it. Hates it enough to actually throw up. Nothing like being 6 months pregnant and cleaning up the floor after that. I called the pharmacist, nurse, and finally talked to the on call doc and we got him some capsules. Amazingly enough, he takes them fine. They are kinda big so I was pleasantly surprised. He has felt totally fine unless his fever gets up. It got up to 104 at one point. He was still running a fever last night so I kept him home from school today. He was so bored and kept asking when Avery would be home. I hope it was at least a life lesson that staying home from school isn't fun.

I'm allergic to all things 'cillin so I have been keeping a close eye on them. Avery now has a rash on her back so I will be on the phone again with a nurse tomorrow. I could really use a break from sick kids and medicine drama. I'm exhausted. I've been getting up a couple times a night to check temperatures and give meds as needed. This is really a two person job.

Red nose reindeer

Avery is very creative. One night she made a red nose and tail, taped them on herself, and decided she would be a reindeer. She asked me to make her some antlers to wear. She was a reindeer for days. It was so much fun that Evan decided to do it too. He isn't as into pretending as her but she must have been convincing.

Cute kids

We went this past week to get A&E hair cuts. We hadn't been since before Andy left and Evan was complaining that his hair was long (ummm he's brainwashed into thinking he needs a military cut). It did need cleaned up around the edges so I agreed. I left it longer than Andy does though. Avery needed a trim too. They love to get their hair cut. Evan requested spikes when she was done. These were my cute dates for lunch afterward.