Family Sledding Fun

Cristy called us on Saturday the 5th of February and asked if we wanted to go sledding with them at the Sand Dunes in St. Anthony. We said yes, but needed to wait until Jessica was done with a birthday party at 2 pm. So plans were made to meet at there house a little after 2 pm. Things just never work out well when you have a baby. Since it was to cold for Aleeya to be outside for that long, we dropped her off at Grandma and Grandpa Erikson's house. We were to drop her off at 1:45 so we could be out to the Fat Cat to pick Jessie up at 2 pm. Well we were late dropping her off,  and late picking up Jessie. Then Delwyn realizes that the Tahoe is out of gas. Back to the gas station were all the pumps are being used. We figured we could make it to St. Anthony before it was completely empty, which we did. We also wanted to pick up are snowmobile that was fixed while in St. Anthony, but we had to pick it up before 5pm, which meant we needed to pick it up before heading to Cristy's house.  Long story short, we were an hour late getting to Cristy's. But Better late then never.
We picked up Katy from Robin's and headed to the Sand Dunes. The kids were all excited to try out there sleds on a real hill, and not just on the manure pill out back. It was a lot of fun for young and old. The kids did find that our green sleds were really fast and fun. It was a great time spending time together.

Jessie holding up the tube, Quincy running back up pulling the sled.

Delwyn and Kylynn

Justine, you are supposed to ride the sled to the end, not slide on you butt.

 Before heading for home the most of the kids wanted to go down the really steep hill. Tom led the way over the top of the hills to the spot. Then the kids each took turns going down, some on a sled or tube, others preferred to come down on there bottoms. Either way they came down, no one got hurt. Jessie and Quincy were the last to go and they hit a jump at the bottom, Jessie fell off and immediately grabbed her arm, but thank goodness it was not broken.

Walking to the all exciting "Steep Hill"

Katy

Hunter and Justine

Justine

Tom and Ky coming down.

Tom and Ky at the bottom

A love of books

Matthew loves to have stories read to him. His favorite book is titled "Easy Street" by Rita Gray. I have read it to him so many times that we both have it memorized. The other day I caught him climbing up in the chair  next to Aleeya with the book and he began to "Read" it to her.  It was one of those priceless memories. I sure hope that this love continues throughout his life. Aleeya was so cute just looking at the pictures and even tried to help turn the pages. Matt was very patient with her and no pages got torn.

Make a street, make a street workers in a row. Make a street for things that go. Smooth out the dirt with a big metal blade, pack it down, before its paved. Roll it, roll it, wheel so fat. Roll it down to make it flat.  Use big rocks. Chop, chop,chop!  Fill a dump truck to the top. Spread the gravel, rough and tough. Spread until you have enough. Roll it, roll it wheel so fat. Roll it down to make it flat.

Asphalt, Asphalt, cooked with heat. Pouring out a slice of street. Stick street, soft to spread. Squeeze it out like jam on bread. Roll it, roll it wheel so fat. Roll it down to make it flat. One more layer, shiny black. Then a roller comes right back. Roll it, roll it wheels so fat. Roll it down to make it flat. Bring a truck to paint long lines. Don't forget to post some signs. A job well done! Call it a day. Get your wheels and drive away on Easy Street. Beep! Beep!

Give Me FOOD!

The new recommendation for feeding infants solids is 6 months old. I have never waited that long to feed my other children but I decided that I would give it a try. Well I did try but only made  it til Aleeya was about 5 months old. She was so ready to eat. How could you deny her food when she gets big eyes and just stares at the food and looks at you as if to say "Please Mom give me some". At first I just gave her a little rice cereal at bedtime. When it was all gone she would start to cry as if to say she wanted more. There were many times you couldn't get the food in her mouth fast enough. Unlike my other children she loves to eat.

Yummy

Well just the other day we were having pizza for dinner, and she just started to get excited and get that look on her face again when she saw the pizza. Well she not ready for pizza yet, so I feed her some rice cereal and carrots, she ate it all gone. Then I decided  to see what would happen if I showed her a slice of the pizza. She tried to sit up in the bouncy chair and reach as far as she could to reach it. It was awesome, and definitely a picture moment. I know it was mean to tease, but that picture was worth it and maybe next time we have pizza I will give her a pizza bone to suck on.

That looks really good!

Give my that Pizza NOW!

I just took Aleeya in for her 6 month check up and she is healthy and growing well. She weighed 14# 6.5 oz and was 25 1/2 inches long. Dr Smith asked me if she was "perfect", my response was "Of course she is, she is mine." Dr Smith asked if I was giving her cereal, I didn't lie like I had planned to, but told him Yes, and that she loves food. He wasn't even upset at me.  We all love her and are glad that she is part of the family, even if she eats us out of house and home.

Christmas 2010

This was an interesting Christmas for the Klingler family. I (Wendy) had to work from 7 am to 1 pm and didn't want to miss the kids opening there Christmas presents, nor did we want to celebrate it on the 24th, so to solve the problem we held off opening the gifts until I (Wendy) could get home around 2 pm. Great plan until the nurse that was to replace me didn't know she was working at 1 pm and was late to work. I talked the other nurse Matthew into staying so I could go home.
I was so proud of the kids, not one gift had been opened that morning and all the presents were in the same spot that Santa had left them the night before. What great kids. When I asked them if it was hard to wait, my favorite comment came from Jessie who said "Mom, I could have waited another couple of hours", what a trooper.

Aleeya and her Santa gift

Jessica and her barbies Santa brought her. She gets to play baby nurse and a rock star.

Ky with her Princess Castle and Princess paper dolls

All Matt wanted was "Tools" and that is what Santa brought him, lots of tools.

 After opening our Christmas at home, we left to go see Grandma and Grandpa Messick and open gifts there. The kids were all excited to get the new PJ's from them, it has become a tradition and they look forward to it each year. After leaving there house we went to my parents house to open Christmas and have dinner. It was strange having it in the afternoon because we have always celebrated and opened gifts in the morning, but since I was working they were nice and waited until I could be there too. The Kids all got a new outfit from Grandpa and Grandma Erikson, they all liked them. Delwyn and I got 2  heaters to help heat the basement and other cold spots in our home, along with flour and sugar, which is always useful.

First SNOW of the season

                        FUN IN THE SNOW

Shoveling the deck

Snow angels

Matt and Ky

Ky and Jessie

 When the first snow fell on November 8, my kids were so excited to get to play in the snow. Kylynn and Matthew were outside as soon as lunch was over. They were excited to get all bundled up in there snow cloths, even Matt who didn't have his own boots, didn't care he just put on big sisters Jessie and went out and had a blast. Ky tried to teach him how to make snow angels on the deck. They didn't stay out to long but as soon as Jessica got home from school and her homework was done, they were back at it. It is so fun to see how much fun they all had just running and jumping in the snow.

Jess teaching Ky to make a angel

It amazes me how kids don't notice or mind the cold while outside playing in the snow. They just seem to love it. But as soon as you tell them it is time to come in, they start to complain that they are so cold. The first thing my kids asked for when they came it was "hot chocolate", thank goodness I had some in the cupboard.

Ky making a snow angel

Jessie and Ky the doggy's

 Jessie and Ky were excited to go out and wait for the bus on school days, just so they could play in the snow some more. There favorite game to play in the snow is what they call "Doggy's". All they do is crawl around in the snow making dog noises and crawl after each other. Some times they forget they  are to be watching for the bus.

Ky the dog

Learning to ride a 2 wheeler

Jessica has been trying to get her Dad to take off the training wheels off her bike all summer long. He was going to do it on his vacation in the middle of July but due to the basement flooding he never got it done. Jessica was really upset, but he promised that while he was off  when  the baby was born, he would take her to the church parking lot and teach her to ride a 2 wheeler bike. He was busy with so many other projects with the basement that it almost didn't happen again. On August 6th he finally got time to take her, Jessie was so excited. We thought we could just teach Ky at the same time but she wanted nothing to do with it, but Matt said he would learn, he is definitely not ready for that.
When they got the the church, we noticed that Jessica was to big for her bike and that she had a hard time trying to move the handlebars due to her knees hitting them. It only took her a couple of tries before she was mostly riding on her own, she even figured out how to start out on her own, she was so proud of herself, she had to tell everyone.
Ky and Matt had a blast just riding there bikes in a big open space, not just the little deck at home. Matt really learned to peddle fast and tried to crash a couple of times going down the sidewalk. Thank goodness Dad was watching and could stop him.
Everyone had a great time together getting some exercise and enjoying 90 degree heat on the blacktop.

Matthew the crazy bike rider

Look at me go

Ky, just full of smiles

Jessica starting out on her own

Introducing Aleeya Gracie Klingler

Aleeya Gracie Klingler
9 days old

July 26, 2010 was the day I was scheduled to be induced into labor, because once again I developed pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH). I was at home taking it easy the last 2 weeks to get me to 38 weeks.

 We had to be to the hospital by 7 am.  When they hooked me up to the heart monitor, the first thing that Marie, the nurse, said was "sounds like a GIRL". Delwyn told her no it was a boy. She made a point the rest of the day calling the baby a her and smiling at Delwyn, just to tease him.  They got my iv going and the pitocin started by around 8:30. I new it was going to be a long labor, but hoped it wouldn't be 20 1/2 hours like Matthew.  Labor progressed slowly just as I feared, by1:30 in the afternoon I was only dilated to 3 cm, and the baby was already having some slowing of the heart rate with contraction. This really worried  poor Daddy.

When Dr Christensen came into check me around 5:30, I was dilated to 8 cm. He commented that he thought we would have a baby by the time he finished assisting with a c-section. My thought was I don't think so. The nurse started to get everything ready and told me to tell her when I started to feel pressure.
At 6 pm I felt a little pressure so I told Marie, she checked me and said I was just about dilated completely and that I should be ready by the time the c-section was done, and she went to tell Dr C. When she came back into the room, I was having a lot of pressure and was ready to deliver. She went and pulled Dr C. out of the c-section to deliver the baby. After about 5 pushes the head was out and sure enough the cord was wrapped around her neck so tight that Dr C had to cut it to get it off. They layed the baby on my abdomen and I saw  it was a beautiful baby girl, not the little boy everyone had wanted, but it didn't matter she was healthy.  Marie just said told you it was a girl.

Aleeya Gracie Klingler was born at 1818 or 6:18 pm on July 26, 2010. She weighed in a a big 6# 10 oz, and was 20 inches long.  She looked just like all the other kids.

Aleeya 2 hours old, my first picture.