It's a........

GIRL!!! Well it's 85%-90% positive we're having a girl. The ultrasound tech did tell us they never give 100% on the gender but that we should be safe in buying and announcing so we went for it! I do have proof, as in a photo, but for some reason blogger won't upload it! Sorry!

We're really excited to be having a girl. It'll be something new for both of our families since there is an abundance of nephews. We'll have to teach her how to hold her own with her boy cousins.

We've been able to buy her bedding, which I LOVE, and we're slowing putting up decals in her nursery. Everything seems to be falling into place. Now we just need her to finish cooking and then make her grand entrance into the world. So exciting!!

I'm starting to feel her move around more and more. She is a very active little girl! The ultrasound tech told us she was having problems getting good pictures because she kept moving around. At one point when the tech was checking her legs it looked like she was trying to ride a bicycle.

Hopefully she keeps the moving up so that Jared will be able to feel her soon.

Below are just a few pictures we received from our ultrasound appointment. Next week we'll go back to the doctor for our monthly checkup and see what she has to say about our little girl.

Enjoy!!

-AKL

Quick Update

I know it's been a while but I haven't had much to blog about. Sorry!

Today we went in for another check up appointment and listened to the heartbeat again. Baby bean's heartbeat sounds perfect! We met with our doctors midwife and was thrilled when she spent some extra time with us letting us listen longer and explaining all the different noises we were hearing. The heartbeat does sound like a galloping horse now. We learned that the opening and closing of the valves in the heart make that "galloping" noise. We also learned that the "swooshing" noise is the blood flow through the umbilical cord or the arteries to our baby. She also pointed out when the baby was moving around. We've got quite the little mover on our hands!! All in all she was very pleased with how everything is progressing.

We were finally able to make our 20 week ultrasound appointment to find out the sex of the baby! Let's pray for NO snow that day!! This waiting has been slowly eating away at Jared and I think he's about to go crazy! Officially we only have 13 more days to wait which I think it doable but don't ask Jared that because he'll give you a total different answer.

We also found out the crib and changing table have arrived so it should be delivered the end of next week. Jared is beyond excited to start putting everything together. I'm excited to start shopping for baby clothes and nursery themes!!

Every day I'm feeling better and better. I'm able to eat a wider variety of foods now, but still no chicken unless it's fried. Baby bean loves all things dairy, except for pomegranate greek yogurt, and enjoys all things protein. Not too big on sugar unless it's ice cream or skittles. Veggies are a little difficult but I've found that baby bean is a fan of edamame. Fruit is hit or miss but grapes are good....the green ones!

That's all for now!
Enjoy!
-AKL

Heartbeat

Today we went in for our second appointment and to hear baby beans heartbeat. After waiting for what seemed like hours, oh wait it was over an hour wait, the doctor came into our room. She asked how the past month had been and how I was feeling. Then it was right down to business. She warned us that sometimes it takes her a minute or so to get the heartbeat so not to worry. Of course it took her about 30 seconds, but I swear those 30 seconds felt like 15 minutes. At one point I just looked at Jared and he gave me a confirming look that everything was OK. Just after that we heard baby beans heartbeat for the very first time! AMAZING!! I think this pregnancy has finally become real to me. There is something about hearing the heartbeat that confirms it all. Jared was able to record the heartbeat on his phone so we could play it for our parents. I've found myself listening to it over and over and over....it's comforting! According to the doctor baby beans heartbeat is perfect and everything is progressing like it should.

I'm excited to get started on more baby stuff. We still haven't settled on a nursery theme. We thought we had but then I started thinking about waiting until we find out what we are having so I can be more gender specific. At least we've gone out and looked so we have some ideas for when we find out what we're having. December is so far away!! We may not have a theme but we have settled on a crib and dresser/changing table. Now we're just waiting to keep a coupon before anything is purchased.

I've been able to go maternity shopping with both my mom and mother-in-law so I've got some clothes that should get me through a majority of this pregnancy. I will admit that I was a little freaked out when I went to motherhood maternity and had to put on the belly pillow....really??? Come on!! Oh well...it made for some good laughs.

I also purchased a baby memory book and I'm looking forward to getting started on the pre-baby part. At first I didn't know if I'd do one, but then I remembered how fun it was to go back with my mom and read through the one she did for me.

That's all for now! Stay tuned!
-AKL

First Trimester

I'm ending my first trimester....Phew!! Not gonna lie....it hasn't been fun. I had my fair share of mini breakdowns thinking there is no way I can handle pregnancy. Many days I just wanted to re-do this whole thing because I couldn't get out of bed due to morning sickness ALL DAY LONG!!! Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful I've been sick since that means baby bean is growing strong, but man I'm ready to start feeling like my old self again.

I've found that baby bean doesn't like plain chicken of any sort. The chicken has to be breaded like a chicken nugget. Lots of flavor and spice can be checked at the door...plain Jane is best. Baby bean prefers cold food vs. hot food. For example, when eating pizza baby bean prefers it to be cold rather than hot. Don't ask me why because I don't know! Haven't really craved fruit or veggies, however the occasional grape sure does taste good. I'm thinking baby bean is somewhat a fan of peanut butter and celery but we're only on day two of trying. The biggest craving for baby bean is all things dairy!! Must be because I've never really been a dairy person. I swear I could live off of cereal and ice cream for the duration of this pregnancy. I found a yogurt that baby bean really likes so that's helpful in the mornings or afternoons.

Hormones....seriously....out of whack people! Not in an angry way but an emotional way. I'm not a big crier but I'm pretty sure almost every day tears are shed. Most commercials or movies can do it to me or if someone looks at me wrong! It's not a big deal for me to go from laughing to full out sobbing in a matter of seconds. Don't belive me, just ask Jared.

Speaking of Jared, kuddos to him for stepping up and taking really good care of me. Like I said this first trimester hasn't been a walk in the park but Jared sure has been great. He's dealt with everything from A-Z and he's done it like a champ.

Next week we go in to hear baby beans heart beat. We're both so excited. It was unreal to see baby bean in our first ultrasound and to watch the heart beat that I can only imagine what it'll be like to hear the heart beat!

Until next time!
-AKL

Chandler

Chandler...our little man is bouncing back from an extremely scary episode. Chan has always been a routine dog. He likes the family to be together, he doesn't like the house out of place, and he doesn't like his schedule messed with. If his routine gets disturbed he'll start to act out a little. Typically he gets depressed, won't eat, and usually gets an upset stomach. Needless to say we didn't really think to much about him being distant when he started acting up while I was house sitting for my mom.

We had decided the best thing would be for Jared to stay at our house with Shy and Chan and I would go down to my mom's and stay with her dog Tokyo while she was out of town for 10 days. The first couple of days seemed to be fine then Jared started noticing Chan becoming distant. He shrugged it off a bit because he figured since I was gone and he had the house destroyed (preparing for a nursery)that Chan was just being Chan.

Jared called me on a Friday and said Chan wasn't eating and had thrown up and pooped in the bed. I thought that was odd but agreed that it was probably because he was depressed about me being gone and the house being a mess. Saturday rolled around and Jared came to get me so we could go look at nursery themes. We talked about Chan and Jared suggested I come to the house to spend some time with him to see if that would help. So after lunch we headed up to our house to check on Chan. Jared went downstairs to go get the dogs out of their kennels and I waited upstairs in the kitchen. Chan could hardly walk up the stairs. He continually fell up the stairs and when he saw me he tried to walk over and just laid down. I told Jared that wasn't normal but since he hadn't been eating we thought maybe he was weak. I tried to hand feed Chan some food but he was not interested. Jared did give him some cookies and he ate those. We then tried some white bread and he seemed happy to eat come of that. We were thinking it had to do with us all not being together. So we decided to hang out for a while and just relax.

We ended up leaving and Jared took me back to my mom's house and he headed home. Throughout the afternoon and early evening he said Chan didn't look good, had thrown up more and refused to eat anything. At that point I suggested that they come down to my mom's house and we see if that helps. So Jared packed up the dogs and came down.

When Chan got to my mom's house he ran around, jumped up on her couch and just seemed to be perfectly happy. We're thinking this is all he needed. Chan hung out with me on the couch while we watched some TV before bed. I took Chan to bed with me and he wouldn't relax. So I went and got Shy and he seemed to calm down. Throughout the night he threw up 4 different times. I knew this wasn't normal and that we'd have to get him into the vet on Monday. At about 6 in the morning I heard Chan whimper and then I smelled something. He was laying on the bed completely out of it and had pooped on himself and didn't care.....NOT normal for him! I quickly got up, tried to clean him up and took him outside. When I picked him up he was just a rag doll. He wouldn't lift his head or anything. I walked him outside and tried to put him on the patio. He collapsed, he couldn't stand. So picked him up again and tried him in the grass....he tried to walk but just fell over and rolled down my mom's lawn. I FREAKED OUT!!!! I went and picked up him, told Jared to get up and take him to the ER right away! I put Chan in the bathtub in case he had to potty again. He never moved.

I got on the phone to the closest animal ER and explained what was going on and that Jared would be right up with Chan. We wrapped Chan in some blankets and off Jared went. I stayed back and took care of the other dogs and then headed in to the ER to meet up with Jared. It took forever!! When I got there Jared still didn't know what was happening, they had told him 30 minutes, and that they were taking blood work and trying to find out what was happening. We were told he was blind, we were told they thought he might be in toxic shock from eating a mushroom in our backyard, so we had no idea where things were going to lead.

After a few minutes one of the gals came and brought Chan into the room we were waiting in. I took Chan and he just laid in my arms like a baby. He didn't move, didn't whimper, didn't bark....nothing. 3o minutes passed and no one was coming to talk to us. An hour passed and still no one came.....almost an hour and a half later Chan got restless and started to whimper. Next thing I know he was peeing on me. I told Jared to get someone now and Chan went limp. I put him on the table and one of the doctors came, felt for a pulse and decided to take him back and put him on fluids. I thought we were losing him at that point. We waiting for a few minutes and the doctor came in and said she had to give him a steroid shot and he sat up like nothing was wrong.

A second doctor came in and we were told that Chan was in Addisonian Crisis. They explained that his body was shutting down because his adrenal glands had stopped working and his body wasn't getting the needed steroids he needed to function. Hence the reason when they gave him the steroid shot he sat up. The doctor continued to go into details about how once he was out of the crisis stage he'd be considered an Addison dog. What that would mean is daily medication and a monthly steroid shot for the rest of his life, but not to be discouraged because Addison dogs live full lives.

We had to leave Chan at the ER all Sunday and Sunday night for him to be on IV's, heart monitors, oxygen, heat bed and hourly blood draws. Then on Monday we'd have to transfer him up to our vet for them to do more tests, monitoring, and make the final decision if he'd be able to come home on Monday night.

Chan continued to improve throughout the day on Sunday and the blood work continued to get better and better. Monday morning we went and picked up him up and transferred him to our vet. He stayed all day Monday in their care for more IV's and blood work and to take the official Addisons test. We went up to the vet Monday evening to talk with the doctor and she felt like he could come home if we felt OK with watching him. We brought him home with all his meds and new food and waiting until his blood work came back to see if he was really Addisons.

Two days later we got 100% confirmation that he has Addisons disease. He is doing much better on his medication and is gaining some weight and acting more and more like himself. We do have to keep on eye on his stress level as that is a key contributor to them crashing.

He is happy to be home with all of us and enjoys picking on Shy whenever he can. It was extremely scary going through this but we are so thankful that we still have him and that he is on the mend. We'll be taking him to the vet this week for his 10 day check up and then in November we'll go back in to start our monthly steroid injections.

Update

It's amazing how fast time flies. Kuddos to all those that keep their blogs updated daily....not sure how you do it! Hopefully I'll be able to do a better job of keeping this blog up to date.

We've had a crazy couple of months here in the Leffler household. The major crazy is that we found out we're expecting! That's right...baby bean is growing stronger and stronger every day. I've been pretty sick during my first trimester and have spent a lot of time in bed. It's crazy how someone so small can make you so sick. We're super excited to go down this journey and see what the Lord has for our little bean.

It's been so hard not telling everyone our good news but we wanted to make sure all was well with baby bean before we went public. We weren't able to keep it from family and close friends though. We had a lot of fun creating t-shirts for our mothers and nephews to announce the news. Needless to say everyone has been shocked......as were we.

I'll never forgot seeing those double pink lines and how our lives changed in an instant. I hadn't been feeling well for a few days but I was chalking it up to a bug that was going around. I knew I was late, but figured that's happened before and I've been under a lot of stress so no big deal. On a wim I decided to take a pregnancy test on Friday, September 9th. I wasn't planning on telling Jared that I took a test because I was fully expecting it to come back negative. It didn't even take 3 mintues before those double pink lines showed up. I froze....not sure what to do. I couldn't believe the test came back positive. I walked into the bedroom and stood by Jared's bedside. He slowly woke up, said hello, and I lost it. I told him I was pregnant. He shot out of bed and grabbed the test to see for himself. We just stood there crying and hugging each other.

After the first test we decided it was only be natural to go to the store and purchase another test that was a different brand and see if that one came back positive as well. Sure enough it did. I ended up taking one more a few days later just to make sure.

We had our first appointment today and I'm officially 9 weeks and 2 days. Our expected due day is May 1st. Baby bean is doing great and has a strong heartbeat. Our little bean kept wiggling around during the entire ultrasound. Looks like we're going to have a little mover on our hands. Below is our first picture!

Stay tuned for more updates!!


AKL

Soccer

My nephew Jake has started soccer. I'm so proud of him! These are some photos of his first soccer game. He continues to get better and better as he continues to play. I love his excitement for sports and how he hasn't event finished soccer and he's telling me about t-ball. I have a feeling I'm going to be a very busy aunt going to all his different games!

Warming up before the big game

The next set of photos shows his first goal....and the first goal of the first game!

Takes the ball away



Heading towards the goal for the shot

High-five from the coach

So proud of himself

Getting ready to kick the ball to start the next half

It's great that he gets right in the middle of the action

Finished

High-five from his dad

Love this kid!

Enjoy!

-AKL

Greener Grass

You know the saying, "The grass is always greener on the other side", well there are days I'd like to know if that's really true.

I've lived in Colorado, Colorado Springs actually, my whole life. Yes, I've been able to travel a little and see different places, but I've never lived anywhere besides Colorado Springs.

I find myself wishing I lived in Arizona when it's cold and snowy. When the weather is nice I daydream about living in a small town, having a family, watching my children play outside, and catch fireflies at night. To have a slower pace to life and to be lulled to sleep by the frogs and insects singing in the distance. I'm relaxed just thinking about my country cottage!

How different would my life be if I lived in Arizona or a small country town in the Midwest where everyone knew each other? Would the grass really be greener, or would I feel the exact way I feel now about wanting to move?

-AKL

Today I remember....

A man who loved the Lord and his church

A man who loved his family and would do anything for them

A man who worked hard so his family could have what they needed

A man who loved deeply

A man that lived life to the fullest

A man that would drop whatever he was doing to help a friend in need

A man who loved to tell stories and jokes

A man who loved to cook

A man who had high standards for himself and his family

A humble man

A man of character

A man who loved to sing at the top of his lungs and didn't care if he was off key

A man who encouraged those around him

A man who was taken from this earth way to soon in my opinion

A man I'd give anything to spend another day with

Today I remember my dad

I'll never forget this date and how it forever changed my life and who I am today

Dad, I miss you more than words can express. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about you and miss you.

I love you forever and always!

Your baby girl,
Abby

Nephews

Well it's been forever since I've posted anything! Time goes by way too fast and honestly there isn't too much exciting going on in the Leffler household!

I broke out the camera this morning because it looked to peaceful outside.

I was sitting at the kitchen table working and realized how quiet it is before the neighborhood starts to stir, the dogs start chasing each other, the birds start chirping, and Jared and I start discussing what our days hold for us. It really is blissful to just sit and enjoy quiet!

This morning there was a small dusting of snow that covered the grass and in the quietness of everything it looked picture perfect to me. I think I could have stayed in that moment for an unknown amount of time. All I needed was a good cup of coffee in hand and it would have been total perfection. However, I didn't have the cup of coffee because the noise of the Tassimo would have disrupted the stillness and caused everyone else in my house to wake up. Oh well....maybe that cup of coffee will brew later.

After taking a couple snap shots of this morning's dusting of snow I decided to see what other photos were on the camera. I had completely forgot about the pictures I took the evening we had our 3 nephews over. We had a busy night with Jake, Carter, Jaxon, Chelsey, Jamie, Jared, both dogs and both birds together. Not sure I can accurately describe the nosie level that night, but if you have kids, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about! Seriously though, it was a fun evening and the boys did great playing together. It was nice to see the three of them share, play with cars and army men, while Jared and Jamie talked electronics, of course!!, and Chelsey and I caught up on "girl" talk. Memories were made and that's what is most important.

Jake before everyone arrived

I think Jaxon might have an addiction to gushers

Oh boy, the craziness is about the begin

What a goofball

Jake makes me laugh

Smile

Jake was so good at showing Jaxon how his toys worked

A few too many gushers

It's so cute how boys just know how to make car noises and what they need to do to play with them, even at a young age

Vroom

Break time

Jaxon watches so intently

Such concentration

Sharing the motorcycle

Jaxon loved the motorcycle

Whoo hoo, Carter has arrived

Jaxon's face cracks me up

So lucky they all got along

Say cheese, Carter

Just a little noisy but so much fun

How can you not smile at that face??

Oh No! The wheel popped off, good thing Uncle Jamie was there to fix it!

Smile and Enjoy your day!

-AKL

A Quick Update

It's been a random couple of months for us at the Leffler household. Here is a quick update:

November:
We were able to watch our nephew Jaxon one night for Jordan and Micaela while they both worked. He sure is a ham when the camera comes out!

Chandler makes a nice pillow

Look at those teeth

Shy sure has come a LONG way with kiddos

Isn't he cute

Also in November we celebrated my 29th birthday and had Thanksgiving with my brother Robb and sister-in-law Sheri. Of course I don't have photos of either of those events but they were a lot of fun.....at least Thanksgiving was! I wasn't too thrilled with celebrating my 29th birthday....I shouldn't be that old!

December:

We had my family up to our house for Christmas Eve dinner. I cooked Christmas Shepherd's pie which turned out really nice.

We had Jake open his gift from us to him since we wouldn't see them Christmas morning. Jake was pretty excited when he opened his "moe-key-choke" car from Uncle Jared and Aunt Abby.

His "moe-key-choke" car...love how he said remote control

He was more than happy to move my gifts so he could drive his car

Such concentration when learning how it worked

We went over to the Leffler's house Christmas morning and enjoyed a quiet day with Rick and Karen. A little after lunch we decided to head home and do Christmas with just the two of us. It was so nice to spend time with each other and start some new Christmas traditions!

Jared took a brief nap with Shy and Chan

January:

It's been pretty low key 2011 so far. We rang in the new year together and toasted to what's to come in 2011....whatever that may be.

We are staying busy with work and enjoying spending time with both families. Shy and Chan are doing well and enjoyed the week of vacation we took between Christmas and New Years.

I'm looking forward to cooking even more meals this year and trying different things out. Keep an eye out for some delicious, and healthy, recipes coming your way.

Enjoy!

-AKL