Who's Who?

Can you tell which one is Logan and which one is Katie? Post your answers in a comment... but no cheating!!

Riley Park

Seeing as how today is Logan's 2nd birthday, we decided to take Logan to do one of his favorite activities.... SWIMMING! After supper Mom and I took Logan to Riley Park. (Mark is still at work -> what a long day for him). Logan had the time of his life! He dove right into the pool. He swam nonstop until he was blue and couldn't stop trembling. (Although it was still 27 degrees outside and the pool was decently warm!) Logan has no fear of water. He layed right down in it, rolled around in it, stuck his face/head right under and even attempted the breast stroke (although he was too shallow, so his belly kept him anchored to the bottom of the pool). The only thing that would have made tonight more fun for him would be a couple of friends to play with - and daddy and grandpa. We will definately be making this a frequent outing this summer!!

Mt. Kidd

This weekend was our annual camping/golf trip out in Kananaskis. We went to Mt. Kidd with a bunch of family and friends like we've been doing for the past 9-10 years. And again, as usual, we had an EXCELLENT time. The weather was nice and warm. The guys got in two rounds of golf (Mark shot a 98 and then a 97) the kids swam in the pool and played at the park and I got to start and finish an entire book! (Haven't had the time to do that in a while!!) It was nice to visit with everyone and Logan had a blast playing outside and with all the little blonde children running around. We also celebrated Logan's 2nd birthday a few days early (his birthday is on the 21st). I had made cupcakes so we had them after supper with Big Grandpa, Big Grandma and the Mol Family. We had such a great time it sucked having to pack up and come home. I told Mark that next year we're staying for an entire week!

(The inside of our trailer for those of you who haven't seen it... I forgot to take a picture of the outside.)

(Playing at the park... the mountains in the background are just so breathtaking... its sad that my camera doesn't do it justice!)

(Logan's ride... Mark can't wait to get him a real one)

(Swimming in the pool)

Happy 2nd Birthday Logan!

Earning his keep

One Month

Wow! The past month has just flown by! I can't believe Katie is already one month old! Our lives have really changed since having Katie. I never expected life to be so much more work with two kids than it was with one (Karen, you made it look so easy!!!!) It is so much harder to get up and go places. I change twice as many diapers a day. I have two screaming children. And have you ever tried grocery shopping with a soon-to-be two year old who doesn't listen worth a whoot and tries to run away at every chance he gets and a tiny baby??? It's not so much fun!! But.... its all definately worth it.

Katie, although you are quite high maintenance at the moment, we love you so much. And don't worry, despite all my threats, we won't ever return you, give you away to Auntie Kelly or sell you on ebay.

In the last week Katie has started smiling (although these are still very rare at this point... I've tried catching them on film and have had no success.) And today she started "talking". I can see already that we're going to have to invest in a better phone plan when this one's older.

Logan loves his little sister now... although there are times when he still drags Katie's car seat to me, points to it and says "Katie go!" But, more often than not he's busy giving her kisses and trying to shove her soother in her mouth for her.

Katelyn Joy

Poor forgotten Katie..... she's three weeks old already and I haven't posted a single picture of her yet. We really do love you Katie!!

I guess the best place to start would be at the beginning....

Monday afternoon (May 25th) I started feeling pretty sick. I had bad heartburn, a headache, a fever and a stiff neck. But, I toughed it out through my entire shift at work. (I also made Mark FINALLY take a pregnant picture of me that afternoon... I blame the picture for the following events!!) Tuesday morning I wasn't feeling any better - in fact I felt much worse and wasn't feeling the baby kick very much. I got a little panicky and called my family doctor who told me to head over to the Foothills hospital to get checked out.

Mom took me to the hospital and we got to triage around 3:30pm - where they hooked me up to some monitors. Their first impressions was that yes, I was sick. I was running a high fever and the baby's heart rate was sky high - I must have some sort of flu (in fact they made me wear a mask for the first hour or so because they were worried it was H1N1.) They said they were going to hook me up to an IV, give me some fluids, and then I could probably go home and go to work (I still had 4 shifts left at work.) However, even after being pumped full of fluids my fever and the baby's heart rate would not come down. It was consistently beating around the high 180's. Which really concerned the doctors and they started thinking maybe it wasn't the flu, but an infection in the amniotic fluid. They gave me more fluids, but it still didn't help - which made them then decide to induce me.

I was admitted around 5:30pm and given my own labor room around 6:30pm. As soon as we were in the labor and delivery room they went ahead and broke my water. I started having mild contractions immediately. Mom went home around this time and Mark showed up shortly after. The doctor said they would check my progress within an hour of breaking my water - and if the contractions hadn't intensified by then they would start me on oxytocin or pitocin to get things rolling. I had these drugs when in labor with Logan and just remember that they brought such horribly strong contractions with little or no breaks in between. There was no way I wanted those again! So Mark and I walked around the room and tried to make contractions come on naturally - and BAM!! Within minutes we were having strong contraction after strong contraction. (So no oxytocin or pitocin for me, yay!)

At the end of the hour I was dilated 5cm. At this time I wimped out and asked for some drugs and was given fentenol - which literally did NOTHING for me. I started begging for an epidural shortly after but was repeatedly ignored by the nurse and doctor. I was getting quite angry and frustrated and started insisting louder and louder that I NEEDED my FREAKING epidural! They kept sweeping it aside and told me second babies come a lot faster than first babies. When they next checked me (probably about an hour later) I was fully dilated and the doctor wanted me to start pushing. But again I kept insisting - NO! I NEED my epidural!! But, there wasn't time, the baby was ready to come. And after only a handful of pushes - maybe 3 minutes or so, Katelyn Joy Wiens was born at 9:48pm at 8 pounds 12 ounces. (With no epidural).

(This is the ONLY picture we took the night Katelyn was born... our camera battery died after this one and only shot).

After a rough first week, (I was super sick - so my milk wouldn't come in and Katie was wasting away to nothing) Katie is now doing extremely well. She was weighed yesterday and she is FINALLY back up to her birth weight. She just now weighs 9 pounds. She is feeding well and sleeping lots! (In fact we still have to wake her up for her night time feedings.) Logan is slowly starting to realize there is a baby in the house - he is becoming more and more enamoured with Katie. He tries to help lots, but usually just ends up making Katie cry and cry.

Thankfully labor was really easy on me. I didn't even feel like I had a baby. That part has been amazing. No stitches to worry about, no pain, no swelling. However, having said that, I still felt like CRAP for about a week and a half! That heartburn that started that Monday did not go away, but only intensified. I wasn't able to eat or drink for a week without having enormous pain. The doctors ran all sorts of tests (bloodwork, chest xrays, ultrasounds, UGI...) and finally found the issue. I have a small hernia in my esophagaus which was causing awful reflux. So they gave me a couple different prescriptions and after having lost over 40 pounds in six days - things are finally back to normal. So thats good.

So sorry it took me sooooooo long to post pictures of our little Katelyn. Hopefully now I will remain on top of things!!

Yogurt Hair Mask

"If you are like many women, you have tried just about every hair care product on the market to get soft, beautiful hair. The beauty section of your local supermarket is full of products with fanciful promises and high price tags, particularly those natural conditioners. But now you can make your own yogurt hair conditioner. It's fast, easy and fun and less expensive than anything you can buy in a bottle. "

FUN?! Fun for who?! Logan must have heard that yogurt can do wonders for your hair because this is how I found him 5 minutes after giving him his breakfast...

Riding Duke

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Update on Baby #2

I feel like I've been neglecting my blog.... it's been a while since I've posted anything, and even LONGER since I've given any baby updates.

I am now 27 weeks along. For those of you who don't know, my due date was moved up to June 1st. Although all 4 of my ultrasounds agree with that new date..... I still believe that baby #2 will wait until at least June 11th to make his/her apperance. (But that could just be my pestimistic side speaking). I plan on working at Westjet right up until June 1st, if not later.... we'll see how I feel by the beginning of May.

Overall I am feeling GREAT! I'm not near as sick as I was with Logan or near as tired. I am about as big as a condo already (I say condo because I want to keep the "house" status for when I'm 8-9 months pregnant.... although, I probably could be considered a small 800 square foot bungalow by now.) Sleeping is becoming more and more difficult - its just so hard to find a comfortable posistion. (The past couple of nights have been REALLY tough as Mark has been terribly sick... he has some sort of cold/flu and has been coughing/puking and blowing his nose every 10 seconds.) But thankfully Logan still has a good 2 hour nap every afternoon, so I find the time to rest.

Baby has been kicking lots - we've got an active little one. I don't remember Logan ever getting the hiccups, but this baby gets the hiccups almost every night. At the last doctor's appointment it's heart rate was at 142 (because its so high a lot of people have been telling me its a girl... but Logan's was that high all the time). I really have no incling whether or not its a boy or girl. I have no idea. With Logan I was 98% sure he was a girl... maybe being so wrong is making me too nervous to settle on a sex this time. Either way, boy or girl, I'm fine with it. At this point I don't really have a preference.

I feel like I've been slacking off and neglecting this baby. By this point in my pregnancy with Logan we had the nursery all set up and about 100 "belly" shots taken. I haven't taken a SINGLE pregnancy photo yet (I'll be sure to take some in Cuba and post them when we get back) and the nursery... well, its still the office. We've decided to leave Logan where he is. I just dont think he is NEAR ready to be in a "big boy bed". The little stinker still gets into too much trouble in his crib as it is. So we are borrowing a crib from my Auntie Laura and setting the baby up in what is now our office. My mom and I went out last week and bought some really cute crib bedding - it's light minty green with brown elephants. I'm super excited about it and have made Mark promise me that by the end of March the nursery is all set up (pictures to come at that time).

And so I end this update... pretty boring I know, not a single picture. But, I'm sure there will be lots of pictures in two weeks time when we're back from Cuba!!

Los Angeles + Las Vegas

Last Sunday we (Mark, dad, mom, Logan and I) left for a week's vacation to LA. Logan was awesome on the flight down there. He sat happily in the car seat and watched Tree House the entire time.
It rained the first day we were there. So we drove down to Hollywood/Sunset Boulevards to see the "sights". It was pretty foggy and cloudy so the Holleywood sign was pretty hard to see. We saw the Kodak theater and the stars. Grauman's Chinese theatre was closed as they were busy setting up for the movie premier of Friday the 13th, so we didn't get to see the hand prints in the cement. Afterwards we went for lunch to the cheesecake factory in Marina del Rey where we sat next to Carlos Boozer from the Utah Jazz.

The next day Mark and dad woke everybody up at 6am so they could go golfing. Mom, Logan and I decided to spend the day at Disney. You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, I think the first picture below is a pretty accurate description of how our day went. Bringing a one and a haf year old to Disney wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done.

Logan was PETRIFIED of all the Disney characters and most of the rides. He did like the rides that were outside (like Dumbo and the teacups). But he hated all the rides that were inside in the dark with any loud music. And he did not understand the concept of waiting in line. Logan was the happiest when he was in his stroller walking around people watching, or when he was playing in the playground. His favorite "ride" had to have been the slide at Goofy's house. He went down 11 times in a row before wandering off to explore everything else. I think the day may have gone a little better if he wasn't awake so early and if he had a decent nap. The only time he slept was for 5 minutes while we were changing his diaper.

Wednesday night we all went to the Honda Center to watch the Flames take on the Anaheim Ducks. Logan was in awe. He kept saying "WOW!" and "GO! GO! GO!" He sat so nicely the entire game. The only time he got upset was when the Duck's mascot was anywhere nearby. He did NOT like that duck at all. Sadly the Flames lost in overtime. The next night Dad, Mark and I went to the Staples Center in LA to watch the Flames beat the Kings 2-0. Mom and Logan stayed behind at the hotel to swim and go to bed on time.

Initally we had planned on flying out of LAX on Saturday night. However while we were there the flights got a whole lot busier and we didn't think we'd make it on any of the flights that weeked. So on Friday morning we packed up our stuff and made the drive over to Las Vegas. We got there around 5pm, and after checking into our hotel we drove down the strip and had dinner at Caesar's Palace.

The next morning we went down and walked the strip. We checked out the Luxor, MGM, Excaliber, Bellagio, New York New York (where Mark and dad rode the rollar coaster) the Paris and pretty much everything else on the south end of the strip. (We actually didn't do any gambling there at all. It wasn't until we were at the airport that night waiting for our flight that we sat down at the slot machines. I lost $1 and Mark came out ahead by $2. Big spenders, I know!) After lunch we checked out of our hotel and found an outlet mall. I found a lot of cute, new maternity clothes.

We left Vegas that night at 7:30. We had no problem making the flight. Mark watched the Flames game for the entire flight. I was hoping Logan would fall asleep and sleep the whole flight home... but he was too busy watching the game as well and yelling "GO! GO! GO!" Finally after the second period I turned off his TV (and mine cause he's too smart for me) and he finally fell asleep.

The trip was a lot of fun - but not quite the relaxing vacation most people would hope for. I love you Logan, but next time you're staying home.