The little man is getting so big. He is no longer on a bottle and he is off his formula. He is sleeping through the night. Kiki is sleeping in her panties (instead of pull ups) through the night. This is the 3rd night in a row that she has waken up dry. She also wears her panties during naps and has been dry for the last 4 naps. She is so proud of herself, the first night she wore panties to bed she woke up dry. We went to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate to show her how proud we were and to give her an incentive to keep working on her goal. In two weeks we will find out if we are having a boy or a girl. My brother's girlfriend is due the exact same day as me and they found out on Thursday that they are having a boy. We do have a boy and a girl name picked out.

The kids are getting so big and growing up so fast. Kiki is in the phase where she is really independent and has to do everything herself. She has to go potty by herself, we are not even allowed in the bathroom. She has to take off her pants, get on her stool, and get on the potty by herself. She gets her self dressed. She brushes her teeth all by her self. I can't believe how fast she is growing up. She is going to be 3 in November but she seems like she is going on 5. I miss being able to help her into bed or that time we have together to get dressed. She makes her own bed and helps clean up her room. I guess this is good because I don't want the kids to grow up and be dependent on me. I want them to experience their own mistakes and learn life lessons.

The little man is getting so big. He is getting his own personality. He makes the funniest faces. I don't know where he got it but he will point his finger at you and make a "mad" face. I have tried to get a picture of it but he just smiles at the camera, so it is hard to get that pose. We recently got a swing set put in our back yard. Both kids love it.

The little man turns 1 on September 9th. We are planning on having a party at the park for him. Hopefully the weather cooperates with us. We are getting his 1 year pictures and family pictures done some time this week.

We had our first Dr.'s visit to hear the heartbeat. The Dr. couldn't find the heartbeat so we did an ultrasound and everything is okay. The baby was just further in my back than it should have been, it was hiding from us.

The little man's first birthday is coming up. We are planning his party. I am really excited to be planning his party. We are just planning on having it at a park or the house depending on how the weather is. The party is in September so you never know how the weather is going to be in Nebraska.

I just hope the little man's 1st birthday party goes better than Kiki's. I was SO disappointed with the turn out of her 1st birthday party. Her birthday party was in November at a local indoor play area. The night before it had snowed and iced pretty good, but it had stopped by the morning of the party so it was sunny and nice that day. I had a couple people that were supposed to come in from Grand Island that I didn't really expect because it was worse there than it was here, so I understood. I had a lot of family that lived here in Lincoln that just did not show up. I felt so bad for Kiki and I hope the little man's birthday is far better!!

The hubby was kind of hesitant on planning the little man's birthday party because he doesn't want to be disappointed again...it just comes to show you who your real family and friends are when something important happens in your kids' lives. Regardless of who is there this year for the little man he will know who celebrated his first birthday with him.

The hubby and I found out that we are expecting our 3rd child March 15th. Kiki was one day over due and the little man was over 2 weeks early so we don't really know what to expect with this one. It was definitely a shock, but we are still excited! We only have a 3 bedroom but we have almost 3,000 square feet, so we are thinking about turning one of the downstairs rooms into our bedroom.

We found out on a Tuesday and we wanted to tell all the grandparents first. The sis-in-law was coming for a visit from Kentucky that Thursday so we were going to wait and tell the grandparents (in laws) and sis all together. Well, we go over Thursday night and we are getting a little caught up with everyone before we decide to make the "big announcement." The hubby gets a text from his sister (who is sitting right beside us) of a positive pregnancy test. Well, my husband about has a heart attack because he doesn't understand how she could have gotten a picture of my pregnancy test (because it was the same brand that I used). Come to find out she is also expecting, her due date is March 8th. So that is how the grandparents found out we were pregnant, by saying "oh you are too." So we didn't really get much of a "big announcement."

We have a boy and a girl name picked out already with middle names even (that's just how I am). Everyone keeps asking us which one we want, (boy or girl), it doesn't matter to me. I would like to have a boy just because he and the little man would be close together in age (18 months). On the other hand, I would want another girl, but I would be afraid of how they would get along being that far apart in age (3 years). I should just have twins, a boy and a girl and then I can get what I want :).

I just graduated from college with my Bachelor's of science for psychology and just started a part time job in May. I work Mon.-Fri. 2:30-5:30 and only take the kids to day care 3 days a week. The hubby and I were talking about just staying home with the kids again because it is almost not worth me working. What I make during the week goes right to day care and it is not even worth leaving my kids for 15 hours a week when I could be home with them. We talked about me staying home again and going back to school for my Master's and by the time I get done with that (hopefully 5 years) all the kids will be in school and I can start to work on my career as a therapist.

The little man's 9 month check up was June 17th. He weighs 19 lbs. He is right on schedule with all his milestones and then some. He is doing really good, he is pulling him self up on stuff and falling a lot, of course. We are starting to get him to eat more "people" food. Kiki can play with him a lot more now since he is mobile.

Well, recently I was diagnosed with Strep. Not fun at all!! It started with a migraine for a couple days then went into a sore throat. I was fine until Thursday night and all of a sudden it hit me, I could not stand up or walk for more than 2 minutes without feeling like I was going to get sick or just pass out right there. Of course, that was my volleyball night so I had to ask the hubby to sub for me. About 6:30 that night I got a fever of 102.6. After that it was hell. I started getting really weird symptoms that are not usually affected with strep. I got sick (threw up) 3 times that night, I lost my appetite and didn't want to eat (even taco bell), I had really bad chest pains- when I would breath in or out it would burn. I figured it was just a 24 hour thing and it would go away. It was so much worse on Friday. I decided to go to the dr.s office and get checked out. I told him all my symptoms and he went straight to a culture (strep test). After he gave me my prescription he told me to take them right away and he said "if u still cannot swallow your own spit go to the ER." Well, that scared me a little. By the time I got home it was after 8 p.m, so I didn't take my last medication until 9:35 p.m. I didn't know how long it would take to take affect so I just waited until Saturday.

Saturday wasn't any better. I was a little worried about this whole ER thing so I went to a second Dr. for a second opinion. Well this Dr. said the reason why the other Dr. wanted me to go to the ER was because if my medication isn't helping then little air pockets will form in my throat causing an abscess in my throat which means they have to go in and drain fluid from my throat. Kind of sounds like little cists. The second Dr. gave me a shot and said "if your sore throat does not dissapear by tonight you should go to the ER." For two Dr.s telling me to go to the ER it really sounds worse than it is. It still hurts today but I can eat and drink. I am just going to wait until I can get an appointment with my regular Dr. on a weekday.

The hubby, kids and I went to Colorado Springs and Denver for vacation for about 4 days. It was a very awesome trip!!!! The kids were fantastic!! Not just in the car driving, they were awesome every where we went! The little man got a little restless a couple of times when he couldn't get down and run around in the restaurants or other places that we went. I am a very impatient person and I get stressed out easily so when I say the kids were fantastic, I mean it!

It took us about 9 hours to get there, we stopped a couple times to stretch, potty, and feed the little man. When the little man wasn't sleeping in the car him and Kiki were laughing at/with each other and talking. We brought Kiki a portable DVD player that she only watched maybe 3 hours of the 9 hour trip. The hubby and I didn't know what to expect on the road trip there, but we knew they would do good because that's just the kind of kids they are. This is our 3rd time going to Colorado Springs to visit family. The time before this one we had Kiki and I was pregnant with the little man. Every time we have made this trip it has been raining or storming.

We got to Colorado Springs about 5:30 p.m Friday evening (6:30 Nebraska time). It was raining and storming pretty good on the way there. We got about a 1/2 hour away from Colorado Springs and it started hailing (golf ball size), it sounded like it was going to go right through the windshield *of course, I was freaking out*. There were cars pulled over on the side of the road. When you looked in the rear view mirror it looked like it just snowed a couple of inches.

We actually went up for the hubbys' uncle's 50th surprise birthday party and decided to make a vacation out of it. We were supposed to have a surprise party at a park, but his wife decided to tell him about the park early, so we decided to surprise him with family members each day. Friday he got surprised with us, and one of his brothers (Wayne) and his mother, Saturday he got surprised with another brother (Dale and family) and niece (Christy, sp?).

We stayed with some family for 2 days (Friday and Saturday). The kids were very good there and slept really well. We decided to get a hotel the 3rd night (Sunday). We thought the hotel would be hectic since there would not be a separate room for the little man to sleep in incase he woke up in the middle of the night and woke up Kiki, but it turned out fantastic again!!!

We did some site seeing (Kiki calls them the "red mountains") on Sunday before we went to the room, we said we were all going to go swimming when we got back to the room but the little man fell asleep, so Kiki and daddy went swimming. When daddy got done swimming it was mommy and the little man's turn so we went for a little bit, but the water was too cold for the little man so we went back to the room. When I got back to the room Kiki was laying down in her bed ready for bed, (it was 10 p.m by that time) the hubby decided that I should go to the hot tub and relax, so I took him up on the offer and relaxed for about 15 minutes. When I got back it was the hubby's turn to relax for a little bit. When I got back to the room both the little man and Kiki were out!! The hubby said it only took them both about 5 minutes to fall asleep. They both slept all night and everyone slept very well.

We went to the Denver Zoo on Monday with some friends that the hubby knew and decided to start driving back that afternoon. We left the zoo about 3 p.m (because it was raining, *imagine that*) and stopped in North Platte where there was a tornado warning, ate supper at Applebee's and stayed in another hotel (this was already planned we didn't just stop because of the tornado warning). By this time we only had a 3 hour drive left to go home on Tuesday. Oh I forgot to mention, it was raining and storming every single day we were there, even at the zoo!

It was good seeing the family again!! I hope they can come back this way some time and we can return the favor and they can stay with us for a couple of days. Now we are looking forward to other family members coming to see us next month. The sister- in- law and nephew are coming out for a couple weeks in July. We always look forward to see family we don't normally get to see.

Kiki had her 2 1/2 year check up this last week. Her height is 34 3/4 in and she is in the 25-50%, and her weight is 26 lbs she is in the 10-25%. She has only gained 1/2 a pound in 6 months. She did not have any shots this time *yay*. Kiki's doctor was pretty impressed with everything she knows and can do, the doctor asked us, "Are you sure she is not 4?" That made me feel really good because she is not only where she is supposed to be at her age level but she is way passed other 2 1/2 year olds.

The little man is doing really good. He is trying to sit on his butt from his stomach, he can't quit push up that far yet. He is talking alot, he can say "daddy", "ba ba" (for bottle). The hubby and I have heard him say his name a couple times and I have heard him say Kiki a couple times. When he sees his bottle or wants his bottle he says ba ba. I am working on getting him off the bottle and on a sippy cup because he can hold up his sippy cup up pretty good. He has been eating a lot more "people" food. Probably won't get on a schedule of eating people food until he is about 11 months.

Okay, so May is a very busy month for us. Graduation was May 9th, Mother's Day was May 10th, my birthday was May 16th, and we have our 7th year anniversary on May 25th. Mother's Day kind of got put on the back burner this year because of graduation, so we didn't really celebrate Mother's Day all that much.

My birthday was a very good day. It started off by the hubby letting me sleep in until about 10:30 then Kiki sang "Happy Birthday" to me. We had a couple graduation parties to go to that day, but we went out that night to celebrate my birthday. We started off by doing some shopping *which Kiki loves to do* I wonder where she got that from? :) Then we went to Carlos O Kelly's as a family, (Kiki, the little man, me and the hubby). The kids were awesome!! It was a blast to sit and eat with them. Kiki sat in her booster seat and the little man sat in a high chair. Kiki colored and sang "Happy Birthday" to me while we waited for our food. She ate half of her kids burrito and ate all of her jello, of course. That was the best that I have seen her eat in a long time ( I mean the eating part not the being good part, she is always good when we go out to eat). The little man was a big gentleman. Me and Kiki ate our fried ice cream dessert and we all went shopping again.

Later that night we laid the kids down for bed and watched a couple movies we had DVRed and ate some popcorn, it was a very good night with just me and the hubby.