Keeping Up With the Lantzs

Spoken Too Soon

2012-01-24T15:45:00.000-05:00

Do you remember my words from yesterday's post regarding Reagan, "Whatever seems to be ailing her is gone today"? You think that I would know as a mother by this point to never speak so soon. I was even just telling Sarah in the hours before we discovered Reagan's fever that it's been a month since she's been sick. Well, as I was getting Reagan out of the car yesterday from a shopping trip, I noticed that she has "grown" hundreds of little red pin pricks all over her arms and legs. I thought to myself, "We've seen this before."

I was pretty sure it was hand, foot, & mouth disease. I took her to the pediatrician just in case though. The doctor confirmed that I was right (may I have a co-pay refund, please?) and sent us on our merry way. There is nothing we can do. It's hard to tell from the picture below, but she is pretty spotty. Not nearly as spotty as Hannah was. Although, Reagan has developed some blisters on her hands and feet. They look like little fire ant bites. They don't seem to bother her and she has been pretty happy today. She isn't even contagious, but I've kept her home from the gym because I don't think I would like to see my children playing with a spotty baby.

Here's to hoping we don't have anything else too exciting to post about this week!

Three Little Lantzs

2012-01-23T10:26:00.004-05:00

Reagan celebrated being 9 months old yesterday with her first fever. She was crabby all day and only consoled by the arms of her mama (of course). She took 3 solid naps and even an extra bottle or two. Whatever was ailing her seems to be gone today. So on with life we go...

Most of my posts have been about Reagan lately, but there hasn't been too much going on with Hannah and Kate. They did go to their first dentist appointment last week and were fantastic patients. The dentist didn't see a need for an actual cleaning, but did just scrape a little bit of plaque off their teeth. That's all for now!

Driving Miss Reagan

2012-01-21T09:39:00.001-05:00

My little peanut is growing up so quickly. She will be 9 months old tomorrow. Ugh...how did this happen? Good thing we will be adding a newborn to the family in a few short hours! Too bad that he will live states away.

George has gone fishing for the entire day so it is just the girls and I. I am trying to have a relaxing morning. Sarah convinced George and I to run a 5K (3.1 miles) with her and Matt and my dad. I have run twice this week and my foot is hurting a bit so I'm trying to rest it so I can get back to the gym. I have successfully run just over 3.1 miles! That is a miracle for me because my body was not built to run and I have went from running a .5 mile to 3.1 miles in less than two weeks! I think that all of my working out has really built my endurance. I am so excited because I feel like I have accomplished something that I never thought I'd be able to do. Now that I know I can run the distance, I just need to work on getting my time down. I have until March so I think I can definitely meet my goals!

I think with my increased working out and Reagan just getting older, my milk supply went way down so I decided to wean her. It is a little sad, but making it just shy of 9 months breastfeeding is another accomplishment I am proud of. I have 3 months of frozen milk to work through from the deep freeze and then a closet full of free formula. Here's to hoping that I don't have to pay anything or very little for formula. While it is a little sad to know that we are done with nursing, it's also nice to have a little more personal freedom and my body will finally be all mine after over a year and a half of growing a baby and then working to meet her nutritional needs. Now it's time to lose some weight and tone up the baby blubber!

Big sissies pushing little sissy around...in a good way.

Another piece of baby equipment put away...the swing. Reagan will sit and watch her Baby Einstein without any restraint.

Putting the Brakes on Life

2012-01-12T13:46:00.004-05:00

Ahhhh...I feel like I can at least breathe a little more after all of the holiday craziness. We have actually gotten to go out and do some things that are "fun" things. Here is some of that!

Hannah & Kate were sharing a smartie lollipop

We went to the park last Sunday. We went later in the afternoon so the weather was perfect. Reagan really enjoyed swinging. The reason she is looking sideways in most of the pictures is because she was watching the kid in the swing next to her.

And these next 3 are for you, Grammie & Grandpa Kelso. We managed to wrangle all 3 for a picture in their pajamas.

I LOVE these next two pictures. She is just one gorgeous, chunky baby! Look closely and you can see her two bottom teeth.

She loves to pull up on everything now. She has already started pulling her sisters' toys off the couch. The aggravating begins. Hannah and Kate are very good with her though.

I thought this picture was cute because she just wants to be on the couch with her sissies.

We start our NICU support group tonight! Please pray that God would just use us an encouragement to others and that we might be given the opportunity to share real hope with them. I'll let you know how it goes!

Sweet Girl

2012-01-06T15:23:00.000-05:00

Reagan has changed so much in the last month...from crawling to teeth to babbling to squealing to screaming at the top of her lungs to pulling up on her knees to feeding herself puffs/cheerios to pulling herself to her feet. That's a long list! And the best part of it all is that she has been healthy for the last month!!!! Woohoo! I have been able to get to the gym 3-4 times a week with kids in tow. The ladies at the gym love her! And we have been able to go to church together. Hopefully she got all of the season's colds out of the way already.

There really isn't anything too exciting going on. Our New Year's was relatively quiet until a pipe in our kitchen/garage area started to backup. We tried Drano several times and every attempt failed. George's next step was to call in his reinforcements and begin to dig around the septic tank, cut out our wall in multiple places, and then tear up the carpet. All of this to only end up calling a plumber the next day (wink wink...guess which choice was on the top of my list). The plumber fixed it and after a $300+ bill, I am happily using my dishwasher and kitchen sink again! From snake bites to clogged pipes, we sure do know how to start off the year with a bang!

I found Reagan standing in her crib after naptime this morning and I tried my best to catch her in action later on. Here are my attempts.

I love this little face. She loves to scrunch up her nose, close her eyes, puff out her chin & cheeks, and give me a huge smile!

She also enjoys getting into the dog dish. Kate and Hannah have actually been really good about putting it up out of her reach on top of Bella's kennel. That hiding place won't last too much longer when she starts pulling up.

Christmas

2011-12-28T15:56:00.002-05:00

On Christmas Eve, we did the usual minus church. Our church was having a 4:00 service and that was still during naptime so we decided to skip that and planned to go to church on Sunday morning. Those plans got nixed since we weren't able to put Hannah and Kate in class due to runny noses and coughs. Are my kids the only ones who catch a bug as soon as they get over another one? Frustrating.

George & his cello making its annual appearance

Our Christmas tree (which has already taken residence up outside)

George hid my present in the tree. Little did we know, that we each got each other Bibles for Christmas. I got George a brand new bible to replace the one he lost a couple of years ago. He recovered mine with leather and stitched it by hand.

On Christmas morning, we woke up and opened up presents with just the five of us.

Daddy reading the Christmas story

Reagan's gift from her sisters. She got a lot of toys but when placed in the middle of them, she goes for the one thing in the room that is not hers.

Daddy reading a story to Kate

Reagan got what she wanted for Christmas: her two front (bottom) teeth!

We spent lunch and the afternoon at the Schaefer house. It was extremely crazy with 3 preschoolers and a baby opening gifts and trying to teach them to wait their turn!

We hosted the Lantz side for dinner at our house. George fried up some delicious chicken sandwiches. And round #2 of craziness took place.

On Monday, we went out to the park in Lakeland again. My grandmother and her friend were leaving on Tuesday so we wanted to spend some time with them. It was much cooler than forecasted but we made the best of it anyway.

Now that all the Christmas decorations are taken down, I'm hoping to get back to some normalcy. These past several months have just been SO busy for us. I'm going to do my best to get us back on a not so hectic schedule so that we can hang out with some of the people we haven't seen in a while.

Happy New Year!!

Using the Weak

2011-12-27T10:41:00.000-05:00

We made our 4th (can you believe it?) annual trip to the NICU to bring the babies and their families a Christmas gift. This year there was a whopping 16 babies so my work was cut out for me. This is probably the thing that I get most excited about at Christmas time. It's great shopping for our families, but I love being able to give gifts to these precious families who have no idea it's coming. And since we are celebrating Jesus's birthday, it's only fitting that we give Him a gift. It says in Matthew 25:34-40 that when we clothe, feed, and care for the least of his brothers, we do it for Him. I hope that it is something that Hannah, Kate, and Reagan use to remember that Christmas is really about Jesus.

This year, each family received a stocking decorated with foam craft stickers, some preemie clothing, a letter from us, a New Testament, a Babies R Us gift card,a little Christmas ornament, and a NICU support group flyer. Yes, you heard me right. I am starting a NICU support group! The butterflies are turning in my stomach as I type. The idea was planted in my mind many months ago and I feel like God has been cultivating that seed. Through much watering by the Holy Spirit, I am taking the final steps of obedience. I have no idea what to expect, but I just know that the need is there and people need to hear the hope of Jesus Christ! Our first meeting will be in a couple of weeks so I have a lot to get done.

I also did not want to leave out the wonderful NICU staff who graciously cares for these precious babies. I made a gift card wreath. Each card had $5 and they got to pick from Dunkin Donuts, Publix, or Chick-fil-a. It's not much, but hopefully they know how much they are appreciated!

P.S. Thank you so much to those who generously supported me in this giving. I won't name them publicly, but we received a very generous donation a couple of months ago and someone else who faithfully gives clothing every month! Although, George and I set aside money every month so that we can do this, your generosity has blessed us and more importantly is blessing others who receive these gifts.

Christmas Lane

2011-12-22T09:04:00.000-05:00

I am on a roll with these posts. It may be deceiving because it seems like I have a lot of downtime, but that is quite contrary to reality. I know that if I get behind on blogging, that's one more thing I will have looming over my head.

These couple of pictures were of yesterday morning. She was wearing her Minnie Mouse pajamas. I just thought it was cute that she was snuggled around her lovey. I lowered her crib mattress and took off the bumper pads. Sniff sniff. She can sit up by herself now and was starting to pull on the pads so I figured now would be a good time to take them off. She's getting so big!

We also made our annual trip to Christmas Lane in Dover. It was much more crowded this year as we usually go a little earlier in December, but our vacation kind of got in the middle of that. We still had fun and they even got to see Santa. We missed our annual trip to the mall since my mom is working at home. We usually would go out to lunch with her at the mall by her work and then go see Santa. This Santa line was much quicker though!

Waiting in line for the train

The back of Kate

Rachel

Hannah

Rachel attempting to jump off the train

Hannah

Reagan & Nanny

Rachel & Kate catching "snowflakes"

Reagan & Grampie

Next stop on the Lantz Christmas train...NICU gifts!

Lazy Day

2011-12-21T08:57:00.002-05:00

On the last day of our vacation, we went to the hotel's playground. Hannah and Kate had tons of fun playing in the sand making washing machines. I'm not sure where they got that idea from, but they were just making mounds of sand and calling them washing machines. "Hey, kid, whatever keeps you happy!" We decided to head back on Thursday night. Check out was on Friday morning, but we decided that sleeping in our own beds and having a full day at home sounded more appealing. That was kinda the nice thing about being so close to home, you can leave whenever you want.

This was our first family vacation just with our immediate family. All of the other ones we have been on have been with grandparents, etc. It was fun, but George and I discussed how it is much different being on the planning-parent side of the vacation vs. the kid/teen side of just going with the flow of everything. We truly enjoyed seeing Hannah and Kate have so much fun, but the rest that we were anticipating was not quite what we hoped for. Such is life...now full steam ahead towards Christmas!!!!

Magic Kingdom

2011-12-20T15:15:00.000-05:00

Some of George's family just happened to be in town during our vacation and they have a 4 year old girl who also happens to love Disney so we met up with his entire family for Magic Kingdom. It's always more fun doing theme parks with family and especially ones that don't mind watching the younger ones while we big kids did our rides! :)

The lines at Magic Kingdom were awesome! We walked on most rides and the longest wait we had was to see Rapunzel. We picked the perfect week to go!

Snow White's ride

This little bug did great considering her lack of sleep and that she was growing her first tooth! I left her alone for two days and she decides to go and grow a tooth.

First time meeting Alice in Wonderland

RAPUNZEL!!!!

Stitch from "Lilo & Stitch"

Daddy (& Grampie) takes his Buzz Lightyear ride very seriously

Reagan's first ride!

Lovely Lantz ladies

Meeting Jesse & Woody was extra special. One of the perks of our hotel room was cable (3 Disney channels-woohoo!) and they had just seen their first "Toy Story" movie at the hotel.

The night parade

We stayed until the park closed and we were exhausted and we still had a lot left to do. Luckily, we bought 3 day passes so we will be going back sometime in the near future to use up our last day and hit all the stuff we missed this time! One more vacation post coming tomorrow...

Our Magical Vacation

2011-12-15T10:12:00.001-05:00

George and I spent Friday night in Orlando and we left the 3 girls with my parents. We returned home Saturday night for Reagan's dedication at church on Sunday morning. Because all 3 girls were sick, we left church as soon as Reagan was dedicated. We intended leave shortly after that with Hannah and Kate to head back to Orlando, but Regean was wheezing so I thought it would be best to take her to the walk-in clinic. Everything was fine. She just needed some breathing treatments.

We dropped Reagan off with Aunt Sarah, Uncle Matt, and cousin Rachel. We ended up getting to Orlando about dinner time and ate at a Mexican restaurant. On Monday, we went to the outlet mall to buy Hannah and Kate some snazzy new sneakers. My, have their feet grown since last year. They love their new shoes though. We then went over to Downtown Disney and walked around. We shared some ice cream. We spent the rest of the day around our "villa" (really the size of a 2 bedroom apartment...really nice).

Somehow Mommy misplaced one of their princess t-shirts so we just "had" to buy new ones at Wal-Mart. They were outgrowing their old ones anyways. You can't beat $8 Disney shirts and they each got to pick their own.

On Tuesday, we went to Animal Kingdom. That was the first time that 3 out of the 4 of us had been there. We had a good time, but left a little disappointed. The Lion King show and the Nemo show was really neat. Hannah and Kate were only able to ride 2 rides. We even ate lunch in the car. We left the park with time to spare because we were simply done. We did get some really good pictures with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto. The lines were short so that was nice because at Magic Kingdom the lines are much worse.

More to come on the Magic Kingdom tomorrow (hopefully)...

She's a Creepin'

2011-12-09T10:56:00.001-05:00

These videos showcase Reagan's new tricks. She's a babbling, crawling, and head-shakin' cute 7.5 month old!

A Little of This, A Little of That

2011-12-08T09:28:00.001-05:00

Reagan has been doing some new things this week. Daddy posed her for these pictures, but she pull herself to her knees at Sarah's house in the crib.

She has also started crawling. It's a bit awkward, but she can move. And her favorite new thing to do is shake her head back and forth. She cracks herself up! I remember Hannah having a ball with that, too, when she first learned how to do it.

I have never spent almost an entire week decorating a Christmas tree, but I just can't seem to put on the finishing touches. My goal is to finish today! Hannah and Kate helped me put on ornaments for about 2 minutes until my patience level dropped with every ornament they dropped. So we decorated a little tree in their room instead.

Hannah, Kate and Reagan have all passed around a cold. It starts as a nasty cough and then turns into all out sneezing and snot. Therefore, we have been doing a lot of that:

Hannah's wheezing has pretty much stopped, but we are definitely cooped up trying to keep our germs to ourselves. So far George and I have managed to avoid the sickness. We are headed to the most magical place on the planet next week so we want to be healthy!

That's all I got for now!

Couple More Pics

2011-11-30T14:50:00.001-05:00

Just a couple of more pictures to share from our trip.

Reagan with Uncle Michael

I wanted to at least get one picture of her on her first trip. This was on the way home, but she was a happy little flier.

Our Thanksgiving

2011-11-27T10:43:00.001-05:00

I am already starting out my holiday season behind on blogging. Here's a picture summary of the last 10 days or so.

Reagan has started sleeping with a lovey and it's so cute. Luckily, we have an abudance of them handed down from her big sisters. She is on her 3rd cold in the last 6 weeks, but she is sweet as can be. When we were in Chicago, I had several relatives and others who spent time with us ask if she was always this happy and well-behaved. Yes, yes, and yes! I think God knew that after having twins I needed an easy-going smiley baby.

George had the day off before I left so we headed over to the park that Matt and Sarah visited with Rachel. The morning started out rainy, but by the time we finished our picnic lunch the sun was out. Hannah and Kate had wet bottoms from going down all of the wet slides, but that's what a change of clothes is for, right?

My parents graciously paid for Sarah and I to go with them to Chicago to visit my brother and sister-in-law. My sister-in-law, Amy, planned one of her baby showers on a date when we could be there so we were able to see family from St. Louis and join in the baby festivities. It was a quick and whirlwind weekend, but so much fun. Hannah and Kate stayed at home with Daddy, who was secretly busy working on our bathroom vanity cabinet. These are some pictures from the baby shower.

Since it was chilly in Chicago, we got to break out our cold weather clothes! She was such a snuggle bunny.

My sister-in-law is a veterinarian. They have one dog and four cats. I'm not a huge cat person, but these cats are very sociable and not mean. They grew on me. I thought this was a sweet picture of Maddie and Dexter snuggling with each other. By the end of the weekend Maddie found herself being very protective of Reagan. Anytime Reagan would cry, she would go look for her and just kind of follow her. She'll be a good big sister to baby William.

We had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the day at George's parents' house. My parents were on another mini-vacation. George and I then went to see the latest Twilight movie to give us something to do until the shopping madness started. We braved Wal-Mart for a couple of things and then attempted Target at midnight, but saw the line stretched out to the main road and decided to go home. I went back at 6 a.m. and got everything that was on my list to get at midnight. I shopped at a couple other places, too. Now, we are gearing up for Christmas!

A Fix

2011-11-15T09:57:00.001-05:00

Dizziness, chills, fever, sweating, nausea, fatigue...any of those symptoms ring a bell? If they do, then you just might be a Hannah, Kate, and Reagan addict. For those of you experiencing withdrawal, allow me to kindly put you at ease with our latest cuteness.

The following set of pictures is what happens when Mommy, Hannah, and Kate go to Busch Gardens and leave Daddy home with Reagan. He assures me that she actually fell asleep in his arms and he just put her on the floor to take some pictures. He says that he had a lot of fun with her.

And this is as close as Reagan has come to crawling. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. I'm really hoping she puts off the new skill until after our trip this weekend. I was looking forward to a "relaxing" trip of not having to chase around children and not having to fly with a baby who wants to get down and roam the airplane. You can see how far she scoots herself away from her toys though.

And these are pictures from this morning.

Thr proud big sister on the right is potty trained. For those of you who are on facebook, you know this already, but I haven't shared it with my blog audience. She just told me one day that she had to poop so we ran to the potty and have had only one accident in the last 2 weeks! Woohoo! Now I am only buying diapers for one big girl butt.

George has been on this cooking/grilling kick in which he has been experimenting with stuff he has seen on some grill show on PBS. Yes, my husband is a PBS junkie. A couple of weeks ago he made this Philly Cheesesteak on the grill. It was delicious. He has also made quesadillas on the grill and they were yummy. (It's a shame that all of my time at the gym is spent just working off one meal.) On Sunday he went fishing and caught one huge grouper, a medium sized grouper, and a small mackrel. He fried up the grouper last night for fish and chips. It was so good. He even made his own tartar sauce and the french fries were made from potatoes. Can't say that it was the healthiest meal, but it was well worth it!

And a cute video from Kate playing peekaboo with Reagan this morning. Reagan is not a giggly baby so any time we can get her to laugh more than one syllable, we try to get as much as we can out of her.

Hope that satisfies your craving until probably next week.

Halloween Pictures

2011-11-01T14:14:00.000-04:00

We went to our church's Trunk-or-Treat last night for a couple of hours. We had lots of fun! I'm sure the pictures will tell it all!

Is this not the cutest ballerina you have ever seen? She might be the chunkiest, too!

Tinkerbell was abuzz the entire night

Well, I think we got one good (decent) family picture!

George's parents borrowed his truck to hand out candy.

Happy November! And so begins the downward (in a good way) spiral of holiday festivities! 3, 2, 1...go!

Princess Pumpkin Party

2011-10-31T10:42:00.003-04:00

We were invited to a pumpkin carving party yesterday and had so much fun! Did our pumpkins finally get carved? NO!!! Oh, well...maybe next year! There was no theme to the party, but what do you think happens when you get 5 three and four year old girls together? Can you guess the theme of the costumes? Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Belle, Mulan (all Disney princesses), and Jesse (from Disney's Toy Story) all showed up! They had fun going on a little pre-Halloween parade showing off their costumes. By the time tonight rolls around, I think these dresses are going to need a good washing!

Reagan had her 6 month appointment today and she checked out perfectly! She weighs 16 lbs. 9 oz. and is 25.5 inches long. She is in the 75th percentile for weight and 50th for height! She is chunking right along. More pictures to come of our church's trunk-or-treat tonight. Hannah and Kate are super excited for Halloween and the chance to don their dresses once more to get some candy this time! (Mom and Dad might be a little excited, too...for the candy that is)

Monkey Butt

2011-10-29T21:28:00.000-04:00

Hannah, Kate, Reagan, and I did a lot of hanging around the house this week. The three of them had colds so we were limited in going to the gym (although, my wonderful hubby did watch them so I could go to some night classes) and had to miss bible study, too.

This little bug likes to back up into something and then use whatever she is up against to get up onto her hands and knees and start rocking. I'm sure we will have a crawler soon.

I bought these pj's for our trip to Chicago, but we broke them out early because she needed some warm 9 month pajamas. I love the monkey on the butt. George was holding her the other day and she was standing up bouncing in his lap. I commented to Kate, "Look at her monkey bounce." Kate's reply to us was to get up on the couch, stick her butt up in the air, and say, "Look at my monkey bounce." George and I cracked up!

We got to go to the NICU reunion today! The kids were encouraged to wear costumes so guess what Hannah and Kate went as...yeah, I'm sure you guessed correctly. We got to see some of their nurses and one of their doctors. We also caught up with two of the families that we have given gifts, too. That was pretty neat!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-27T09:50:00.001-04:00

We took Hannah, Kate, and Reagan to pick out their Halloween pumpkins this past Sunday. I can't say that there was an abundance of good ones to pick from and the ones that were large enough to carve were $20...ouch. So we opted for some miniature pumpkins that Hannah and Kate could carry around the house with them.

Trying to get a picture, but the sun was in their eyes.

We have yet to do anything with the pumpkins. Hannah colored on hers and Bella chewed up the stem of one of them. I think we might just carve their initial in it. Simple enough, right?

Eternal Interior Decorating

2011-10-25T14:54:00.000-04:00

I will start off being very honest with you. I often go to other people's homes and wind up feeling very jealous that mine doesn't look as nicely decorated as theirs. I definitely wouldn't claim to have the best taste in decorating. Sure I could hire someone to do it, but most of the reason my house isn't decked out to begin with is because we don't have the money. Actually, let me retract that last statement. We do have the money. We just don't choose to budget all of it towards things that will soon be sold at a garage sale because they've gone out of style or things that my children will donate to Goodwill after we have passed away.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." ~Matthew 6:19-21

God has been working SO much on my heart lately and giving me eyes to see things with an eternal perspective. I am not at all saying that it is wrong to decorate your house or to make it look nice. Ultimately, however you spend your money is between you and the Lord. And I am even shopping for some shelves and various other home accessories this week. I'm just writing to testify to His joy being made complete in my heart because of our obedience to Him (John 15:11) through giving these past several months & even years. And I am not referring to traditional tithing. I am referring to giving above and beyond because we want people to know the love of Jesus Christ.

I was reading in Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening devotional about how often the people who neglect to give to God's work are the same people that end up struggling to provide for themselves. It just got me thinking about how my own sin of jealousy or coveting has me placing more value on things that will one day collect dust and be destroyed. God placed a thought in my head. "Lauren, what is your heavenly home going to look like one day? Will it be decorated with pictures of people who you shared the gospel with, people who accepted Christ because of your testimony, or people who received a love offering that you poured out to me on their behalf? So who cares so much what your earthly home looks like because it is your heavenly home that you will live in for eternity?"

God has been pouring out opporunities to minister to NICU families. We have been doing our monthly gifts as usual and one of the families wrote us an e-mail in return. They thanked us for our generosity and wrote that in all of their years of volunteering and community service they had never seen such a kind gesture, especially coming from a stranger. It may have come from a human stranger, but Jesus Christ intimately knows their needs and we are simply being His hands and feet. Not for our glory, but His.  We have also had the precious opportunities to give gifts to two other families that are complete strangers. They are precious friends of people in our bible fellowship class. Do you know how excited I get when I get the opportunity to go drop a large chunk of money on people I don't even know?!? George and I give without expecting anything in return from these families and we love it! We are even looking at starting a NICU support group in the Brandon area to continue our ministry to these families. It's scary with a capital S, but I cannot tell you the excitement (really it's the Holy Spirit) that wells up inside of me when I think about the chance to share the love and hope of Jesus Christ with these families.

Those are the kinds of treasures that I want to decorate my eternal home with. And if you are reading this and you aren't sure if you even have an eternal home...you do. It's in one of two places: heaven or hell. We all deserve hell because "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).  "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." The only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. (John 14:6)    For those who "...confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

And if you are wondering whether giving your life to Christ is really worth it. Let me tell you from 10+years of experience that it is. Better is one day in His courts than a thousand elsewhere. (Psalm 84:10)

Nora Update

2011-10-21T14:02:00.001-04:00

She is out of surgery and doing good! Praise God! Thank you all for praying.

Praying for Nora

2011-10-20T21:08:00.003-04:00

Hey guys. Just wanted to ask for your prayers again for Nora. This is what her mom posted on Facebook:

Nora's intestines are still moving very slowly, so the doctors are unable to give her the medicine they usually use to close her PDA (a valve in the heart that closes when newborns cry, but usually fails to close by itself in preemies).

Tomorrow morning they are performing surgery to close the valve. The doctors call it "minor surgery" but it still sounds scary! Thankfully it will help clear up her lungs, too, so we are looking forward to the positive after effects. Please keep Nora in your thoughts and prayers for tomorrow's surgery. ♥

You guys are awesome prayers! Thanks so much!

Reagan's Room

2011-10-20T15:18:00.001-04:00

I know this post is quite a bit late (like say 5 months), but better late than never. Most of you have already seen her room anyway, but I thought for those who haven't I'd post it. I have been waiting on George to hang the two pictures above the glider for a couple of months now. I'd remind him and he'd forget and then I'd forget to remind him again. Not a big deal, but I just wanted to have the finishing touches done before I posted pictures. It still is not totally complete. I have a tiny bit of touch up painting to do on the ceiling and I would like to hang some curtains on the window with blinds. The best advice I can give first time parents (or really anyone expecting a child) is to get the nursery DONE before the baby gets here. It's a good thing babies don't know the difference.

Giggles & Bush Gardens

2011-10-15T10:03:00.000-04:00

Sarah and I, along with our 4 girl circus, finally made it out to Busch Gardens about a month and a half after our planned, but failed trip. It was crowded. We got there 10 minutes after the park opened and there was no stroller parking so we made the trek from the parking lot to the entrance pushing two double strollers. We felt it made up for our missing the gym. The lines to get in were long. The only reason we could gather as to why the park was so crowded was that there were a lot of Europeans on vacation. Either way, we hit the kid area early enough to ride one ride and catch the Sesame Street show. We also saw some animals and played in the water. We finally made it out of the park around 2:15.

It was all decorated for Halloween so we got to sneak in one good fall photo.

No luck finding a baby-sitter for my little bug so she tagged along and was such a delight the whole time!

Hannah, Kate, and Rachel were finally tall enough to try a new ride. It's a little log flume thing and they seemed to enjoy it.

"Mommy forgot to pack a spoon to go with my mashed bananas, but I was a big girl and ate off an adult sized plastic spoon. Mommy says I am growing up way too fast, especially after she saw me on my hands and knees the other day. I say that I just want to hang with the big girls!"

"I love me some Aunt Sarah."

Kate

The only time I have heard Reagan laugh was at Rachel. We got little laughs out of her here.

My Sweets

2011-10-13T14:46:00.000-04:00

Here are some recent pictures of my sweets:

Amy went on a mission trip to China a couple of years ago and brought back these little dresses. I forgot that I had put them under the bed, but I found them the other day so we pulled them out and I knew the girls would love them.

And this sweet little pumpkin has started sleeping on her belly the last couple of days. And she is finally back to 2+ hour naps!!! Woohoo! I've also found her sucking on her thumb lately and I just think it's so sweet. She never did take to a pacifier so I am so thankful that she is learning how to soothe herself.

We have been rolling right along with the solids. She has tried squash, avocado (pictured below), bananas, pears, and sweet potatoes. I was able to find some really good deals on baby food so I have a lot. I kind of miss making some baby food, but I know that I really don't have the time anyway. She was doing the funniest thing yesterday where she would do a closed mouth smile and scrunch her nose. It would cause her already very chubby and kissable cheeks to puff up like a squirrel with bunch of nuts stuffed in its cheeks. I tried to catch it but she wouldn't do it when I had the camera out. The 2nd and 3rd picture are the closest I came to catching it.

We have been keeping very busy at home, but having a lot of fun. I try to make it to the gym at least 3 times a week and am still doing my 2 bible studies along with all of the other errands I run. I'm hoping to slow down a little soon, but who am I kidding with the holiday season coming up!

Plus, I have an exciting NICU ministry opportunity that is in the works. I will give you some more details when things get more planned.

Answer to Prayer

2011-10-12T12:05:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to let you all know that Nora pooped so surgery is on hold for right now! As her mommy told me, "Thank you for your poopy prayers!" Glory to God! She still needs our prayers though as she has a very long road to growing and coming home. Thank you all!

Calling All Prayer Warriors

2011-10-11T21:23:00.003-04:00

Hey guys! Some friends of ours in our bible fellowship class are friends with a couple who just had a baby girl, Nora, at 26.5 weeks. She weighed 1 lb. 8 oz. (sound familiar). The mom just wrote me today and told me that Nora is having surgery tomorrow due to what they think is an obstruction in her bowel (sound familiar again). I can easily recount my fear at being told that my 1 lb. 8 oz. baby could possibly be having surgery. I can't imagine the fear and uncertainty they have right now. PLEASE pray for Nora! Thank you! I will let you know how it goes.

3 Strikes & Yer Out

2011-10-05T12:40:00.004-04:00

For all of you baseball fans, you will appreciate my sports analogy. Hang with me while I explain. I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and thought maybe it was just because we slept with the windows open. I just finished my antibiotics for strep throat on Monday morning. As the day wore on, I began to feel worse. I barely slept last night so I called the doctor this morning.

Strike #1: The doctor's hours are from 9-4. Really? And they take an hour lunch. How does that leave you time to see patients and to treat people who are sick? At first, they couldn't get me in until 2:30. Then they called back and said they could get me in at 9:45. I said that was fine, but I would have to bring my children with me. There is a sign in the lobby that says, NO children under the age of 12 will be allowed in the exam room or the lobby because of health concerns for both children and adults. The receptionist said it would be okay.

Strike #2: The doctor walks in the room asks me how I am doing and says, "Oh, I see you brought your babies. It really is dangerous to bring children to doctors' offices, the hospital, or nursing homes. You might want to rethink that next time." I guess we shouldn't tell him that I take them to the hospital (gasp...even the NICU with sick babies) to show the love of Jesus. Okay...have a little compassion, doc. Let me tell you what was not on the top of my list of things to do today. Wake up feeling like crap after barely sleeping last night, wake up a sleeping baby, drag 3 children with me to a doctor's office where I know I am going to be glared at, and then listen to you chastise me about how it's not safe for me to bring my children with me so I can start feeling better so I can better care for my children. Maybe that's not how he meant it, but it sure did come out condescending and belittling. I'm so sorry that I can't afford to have a baby-sitter in my back pocket. Did you forget to take your compassion medicine this morning?

Strike #3: This is the 3rd time I have seen him since July and every time I come in, he asks why I am on a certain medicine that I take to prevent UTIs. Shouldn't you write that in your chart somewhere so I don't feel like you are as incompetent as you sound? I know he sees many patients and I don't at all expect him to remember me and my medications, but at least write it down to remind you.

Strike #4: You think I'm a baseball idiot, don't ya? I know baseball only has 3 strikes, but I'm not done complaining. I at least got my medicine. He didn't think it was strep, but gave me a z-pack in case. But as soon as he recommended the medicine, he asked if I was breastfeeding. When I said yes, he gave me this, "Well, that stinks look," because now I have to figure out something else. Problem solved though. I have a deep freezer literally full of breast milk and some is set to go bad in the next couple of weeks so I can just use that milk and pump and dump.

So I am thinking that it is time to change doctors yet again. I am grateful that I have family & friends in town that can help me in a bind, but ultimately my children are my responsibility and if they are not welcome at your doctor's office, than I think I will take us somewhere else.

On a bright note, I was going through old posts recently and found this picture of Kate. Today when I went to put Reagan (2nd picture) down for her morning nap, she had fallen asleep on the floor, wearing the exact same outfit Kate had on in her picture. Right now, Hannah and Kate are at Sarah's (THANK YOU) house and Reagan is napping in her crib. Time for me to catch some sleep, too.

What Do They Call You?

2011-10-03T15:03:00.001-04:00

Hannah and Kate finally got to use their princess umbrellas. We bought these with some of their birthday money and they just couldn't wait for it to rain.

They have been in the habit the last couple of days of going into our closet and pulling down some of my shirts and wearing them. I thought this picture was cute because they were in the same pose watching TV.

Reagan finally mastered rolling both ways this past week, which has led to some major napping disruptions and the complete dropping of the swaddler. She is also slowly getting past her cold. I almost think she might have a tooth coming in, too, because her daytime sleep has been horrible lately. She's as sweet as can be though!

And this is what happens when Reagan is left home with Daddy. She ends up "riding" Bella.

On a positive note...ta da!!! Yes, it's about 85 % of the way there, but all of the tile is in the shower now. It still has to be sealed, grouted, and, oh yes, the hole for the shower head needs to be cut (minor details, right). I know that George is excited to have it almost done and I am, too! His next project is to make the vanity.

Ever since Hannah and Kate were babies (like a couple of months old), I would hold them over my head, sing a little song, and wiggle them to make them dance. It usually generated smiles so it's stuck around. The song is just, "They call her Kate Elizabeth, Kate Kate Elizabeth." or "They call her Hannah Grace, Hahannah Grace." Well, we have now opened it up to all sorts of other people and variations. I'm not sure when the girls actually learned to sing it themselves, but I got it on video the other day. At the weekly Sunday Lantz lunch we were singing it and Hannah and Kate were inserting everyone's names in there to the right tune. I was impressed!

Big & Strong

2011-09-25T10:59:00.000-04:00

Our house has been hit with sickness this week. Hannah had a slight fever a week and a half ago, but it went away in 24 hours and she has been showing little symptoms of sickness since then, but has been her normal self otherwise. I finally took her to the doctor on Thursday when she developed a really red diaper rash. Apparently, I am one of the few that know that you can get peri-rectal strep (strep in the butt). I think the doctor mentioned it to me, but everyone else I have told has never heard of it. So...consider yourselves educated now. Either way, she was also positive for strep throat. On Thursday afternoon, I started feeling a little yucky. By Friday morning, I was horribly sick. I headed to the walk-in clinic and surprise (not really)...I had strep, too. Since having my tonsils out 17 years ago, I have yet to contract strep. Leave it to a sweet child to remind me of how awful it feels. Needless to say, with a high fever, chills, nausea, and sore throat, I was in no shape to take care of my children. For some reason, I just didn't have the same bouncing off the walls behavior Hannah did as she secretly hid her strep throat for a week. Does this mean I'm getting old?!? Anyway, George took a sick day and I was/am one grateful wife/mother!

Kate feeling left out of the picture taking

Hannah feeling left out as a baby? Who knows...

This little cutie pie started sneezing a lot yesterday and blowing snot out with each sneeze. She also wasn't eating well so I decided to take her to the walk-in clinic. I think I had some major mommy guilt over letting Hannah go an entire week not knowing she had strep throat. The doctor who saw her walked in and immediately called her a chunky monkey. She said, "You must just sit around and pinch her rolls all day." She is also a strong one. She required three people to hold her down to have her throat looked at and a strep test done. Atta girl, Reagan! She was negative for strep, but she does have an inflamed throat, a cold, and a slight fever. I had to rock her to sleep this morning. You can just tell she doesn't feel good.

Here are some pictures of her "sitting" by herself. She needs some support, but is pretty good at holding her own. She weighed just under 16 lbs. at the clinic yesterday. We are going to Chicago in the middle of November so I had to buy her some winter clothes and I am glad I got nine month clothing. It starts at 16.5 lbs. I love my chunker!

Hopefully, we will all be on the mend this week!

Yummm

2011-09-20T18:55:00.002-04:00

I am trying to kill time until dinner gets home. I had planned on making some yummy chicken parmigiana, but George is in the process of fixing our dripping shower (yes, the semi-working one) and has turned off the water. I decided that handling raw chicken and eggs without being able to thoroughly wash my hands just wasn't the best idea. So we decided on some Chick-fil-a instead. I took a couple of pictures of Reagan eating her rice cereal in her high chair. She is growing so fast! She will be five months in two days.

On another note, my sister has finally convinced me to join the gym and Matt has finally convinced George to join the gym, too. They are different gyms, but it is really nice having someone to work out with. I actually went by myself last night, but met up with another friend. The kid's club workers did have to pull me out of class because Reagan was crying for longer than 10 minutes. Unfortunately, in order to get to class on time, I had to wake her up from her nap and feed her early. I think she was tired and hungry. They asked if she had a pacifier. Yea, she has plenty of pacifiers...she just won't take them! So we will see how much I am able to go to the gym with her. Fingers crossed though!

New Post

2011-09-19T08:35:00.002-04:00

What an original title, right? I posted a new post (September Sweetness...) today, but since I started the draft a couple of days before my Confessions post, it is posted below it. Just wanted to let you know so you didn't miss some cute pictures!

Confessions of a Stinky Sponge & Childlike Feaster

2011-09-14T22:10:00.002-04:00

I started one Bible study three weeks ago on the book of John and another one I started tonight. I just want to share with you the exciting things God has been teaching me!

1) I am a stinky sponge and I need to be wrung out! Weird, huh? Keep reading and I will explain. In John 4, Jesus confronts the woman at the well. If you aren't familiar with the story, go get your Bible and read it! After the woman is confronted with believing that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, she runs back to her town to tell everyone. Our teacher gave a great analogy. Have you ever used a sponge to clean something and then forgot to wring it out? The longer it sits there full of water, the more bacteria grows in it and it stinks! We can totally relate in our household because George is constantly complaining about how our dish sponge stinks. Anyway, we (I) as Christians, like to fill ourselves with Bible study after Bible study. We fill ourselves with the knowledge of God, but forget to wring ourselves out into the world. What good will I be if I just sit and soak up all of this knowledge and never go out and tell a dying world who Jesus is? God has been working on this conviction in my life for a while now. Lord, wring me out!

2) I have been eating at the kid's table. Jesus is the Bread of Life. John 6:35 says, "Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." He is the new testament manna from heaven. Think about a Thanksgiving feast. Growing up in my family, you have the kid's table and the adult table. The kid's table plates have minimal portions of food and they rush through eating as if it is a duty. They eat the food so they can get back to what they were doing before dinner. At the adult table, there is some major feasting going on. Plates are piled high with food and the eating is enjoyed. I know that being a mother with young children is difficult and tiring, but I don't want to view my time with God as a duty. I want to feast at His table with the Bread of Life. I want to walk away from His table, feeling satisfyingly stuffed. For it is only when I am stuffed with Him, that I can then overflow into others' lives.

God is doing good stuff! Exciting stuff for His glory! I feel the Lord wanting to wring more of me out into expanding our NICU ministry. I am ready to be used by Him. I'll have more Bible study goodies for you next week!

September Sweetness, Silliness, & Snuggles

2011-09-14T06:57:00.011-04:00

Just some more pictures...

Eating their snack at their cool new Princess patio table

Stuffing the face

Snuggling with Daddy

When I get the chance, I like to read the newspaper when I eat breakfast. This particular morning, Hannah and Kate decided to read the newspaper, too. I thought it was cute!

We are done, done, done with the lawn care business (minus one lawn). It has been about 3.5 years and it is so nice to be free. Praise God! I am looking forward to having a finished bathroom soon, a more relaxed & not so stressed out hubby, and the opportunity to make more family memories. That's it for now.

My Little Sunshine

2011-09-13T15:42:00.008-04:00

This little girl is the sunshine in my crazy days. While I love my 3 year olds, we all know that 3 year olds can have little smart mouths and are very good at displaying their independent and stubborn qualities. So Reagan is a breeze right now and she gives me smiles on demand and just reminds me that ripping my hair out really isn't a great idea!

We still do bathtime in the kitchen sink because I am waiting on a certain bathtub to be finished...ahem.

Reagan has been so talkative the last two days. It's so sweet. We haven't gotten a full laugh from her yet, but you can tell she wants to. She just isn't sure quite how to. These are just two short videos of her talking.

I have many more pictures to post of Hannah & Kate so look for those in the next couple of days!

Whoa...Where Did the Time Go?

2011-09-08T16:19:00.005-04:00

**I'm not sure why it did this, but my post on Reagan went beneath my party post. Just didn't want you to miss it!**

One minute they were 3 year old princesses and the next they are 16 year old drivers? Not really, but they are driving...sort of. I guess it's a family tradition to own a Jeep in the Lantz family. George's parents have owned more than one, George owned one, I owned one, Amy owned one, and now Hannah and Kate are the proud owners of their very own Barbie Jeep. They have already been off roading. Grammie and Grandpa Kelso (George's mom and husband) bought them it for their birthday. Kate has been the only driver thus far. Hannah is perfectly content to be the passenger. We asked her if she wanted to drive, but she said no. They actually took it for a "drive to Walgreens" (around the backyard) on Monday. It's funny because I used to go to Walgreens every week, but have not been in a couple of months. I was surprised when that was where they decided they were going. I'm a little disappointed it wasn't Publix! Kate is still working on steering, but they have a blast.

We spent most of Labor Day just hanging around the house, recovering from our whirlwind princess weekend.

On Wednesday, my princesses went to see our favorite pediatrician for their 3 year well visit. Hannah weighs 28 lbs. (25th%) and is 36.25 inches (25th%). She is finally on the growth charts all by herself...woohoo!!! Kate weighs 33 lbs. (75th%) and is 37.5 inches (50th%). They both thought getting to wear little papers gowns was the coolest. When it was time to leave I had to talk them into taking them off and putting their real clothes back on. They got their flu shots and it was kind of sad that they both said "Owww!" when the needle went in. Long gone are the days when they are ignorant to shots. It took us fifteen minutes to put pee in cups, but we managed to do it without spilling and without mommy losing her cool (although, I will admit that I muttered shut up under my breath...I know it was a bad mommy moment). I really wanted to make it out of that bathroom without spilling two cups of urine all over the place and we did. The second we got home and in the door (literally...ask Sarah), Hannah started stripping off her clothes so she could put her paper gown back on...hilarious. Kate eventually did the same and got out her stethoscope and played doctor.

We are very much looking forward to having George home for a 3 day weekend and hopefully getting our shower completely tiled (fingers crossed)! Have I mentioned that in just 8 days, we are officially DONE with our lawn care business! It takes away too much time from our family and we have paid off the mower so we are DONE! Both of us are ecstatic!

Princess Party

2011-09-05T05:39:00.008-04:00

If Hannah and Kate had been doing more of this (these pictures are actually taken on their birthday at naptime)

then there would have been less temper tantrum throwing, but overall the party was a HUGE success! Thank you to everyone who helped set up or watched them overnight so I could run around like a mad woman cleaning my house. Thank you also to everyone who came! The girls have been anticipating their princess party for months (I am not exaggerating) now and loved every minute of it! Here are some of the pictures from the party. If you want to see all of them, you can look on facebook.

The super, fabulous birthday cakes made by their super, fabulous aunties!

We obviously had tons of cake leftover.

Princess Kate

Princess Hannah

Kate was picking up all of the blocks in her mouth and placing them on the side of the pool...similar to a retriever. Not sure where she got that from, but it was hilarious!

Reagan & Auntie Erin

My uncle & my newest cousin

Reagan-4 months

2011-09-04T07:14:00.004-04:00

So much hustle and bustle going on around here...and in the midst of it all, Reagan had her 4 month well visit with the doctor. Everything looks good! She weighs 14 lbs. 11 oz. and is in the 75th percentile for weight. She is 24 inches long and in the 50th percentile for length. She took her shots like a champ! The doctor gave me the green light to start on solids, but I've been putting it off because we have been so busy. However, she woke me up in the middle of the night a couple of nights ago to take a full feeding and has also not been sleeping as well. I figured it might be due to her needing more nourishment. So, I gave in and we have begun the growing up process. Here are a couple of pictures from her first solids encounter:

These following pictures are from Hannah and Kate's birthday party. Amy was nice enough to take some pictures of me with Reagan.

I'm not sure why this picture posted sideways...hmm.

I thought this picture was cute because she loves watching her sisters play.

I picked her up from the nursery today after bible study and she was in the exersaucer. I commented that that was her first time in one and the ladies told me that she was in it last week. I thought to myself, "I missed one of her firsts and I didn't even know it." It's really not a big deal, but being a stay at home mom allows me the privilege of being there for all of her first experiences. I missed this one. Oh, well! Needless to say, I got out her exersaucer this afternoon so she can start playing in it.

Tomorrow, it's back to the doctor for Hannah and Kate's 3rd year well visit.

Happy Birthday, Princesses!

2011-09-01T12:20:00.004-04:00

My dear sweet princesses:

Hannah,

Sometimes it is easy to forget how much of a miracle every birthday is for you. You are truly the picture of God using the weak to reveal His power. You are a healthy strong-willed 3 year old who loves princesses. You share your father's fun-loving spirit and your excitement for life is contagious. You are such a good big sister to Reagan. You are always concerned about whether or not she's cold or if she has enough toys to play with.

Birth Day
1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

Kate,

You are my talkative (with a capital T) little princess. You come up with the funniest sayings. You run the whole spectrum of sweetness to stubborness. You remind mommy on hard days that God still loves me. You have always been strong and ready to achieve. You are afraid to walk into dark rooms, but quickly learned how to use a stool to turn on the lights.

Birth Day

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

I pray that as you grow older, the work that Jesus began in you 3 years ago would shine through your lives. You started your lives as an example of His goodness and I pray that you continue to choose walk in that way. While you may be the most beautiful princesses in your dresses, it's our desire that your beauty not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. We pray that it is your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, that wins souls to Jesus Christ. Mommy and Daddy love you and are truly honored to be your king and queen!

What Better Way...

2011-08-28T21:17:00.003-04:00

to start off your work week than with this sweet smiling 4 month old.

So serious
Building up to a smile...

There it is!

I have a crazy schedule this week. I have Reagan's 4 month well visit, a dentist appointment, cleaning my parents' house, starting a new bible study, picking up the in-laws from the airport, Busch Gardens, and planning and doing the most awesome princess party! Whew!

Have a great week!

Sleepy Sisters

2011-08-25T09:00:00.002-04:00

The other day, Sarah and I along with all 4 girls traveled up to see my mom at her work and then took her out for a very belated birthday lunch. Hannah and Kate both fell asleep on the way home, which means that I did not get my usual afternoon break. They had fun "play" sleeping though in their house.

George was reading to the girls before bed the other night and I thought their configuration on the bed was cute so I snapped some pictures. The girls will surely remember that they have a father from all of the pictures they have with him, but if I want a picture with my children, I have to hire a professional photographer. Hmmm.....

And this little cutie likes to play with the toys on her activity gym now. She loves the little purple bear that also has a rattle on it. Notice the bib...it seems we have another "happy" spitter. Within the last two weeks, I have pretty much had to keep a bib on her all the time. I am thinking that maybe it might be that she is trying to sit up by herself and crunches her ab muscles. Who knows? At least I have a happy, healthy baby!

Shower Snorkeling Sisters

2011-08-23T15:15:00.003-04:00

George bought Hannah and Kate snorkels for their birthday. Of course, he isn't one of those people who can wait to give gifts so he gave it to them early. After replacing parts of our pool filter, balancing the chemicals, and buying a nice, new vacuum, our pool is officially ready to be swam in again. It is crystal clear! It is kind of sad that we haven't really been able to use it all summer. However, it's ready for the birthday party in a couple of weeks! A couple of days ago, we let the girls try their snorkels out in the shower.

And no blog post would be complete without the cutest 4 month old in the whole wide world!

It's Been Loved

2011-08-15T15:59:00.004-04:00

Another one of my faithful, yet demanding (just kidding) blog readers informed me that my blog needed some lovin'. Well, it's officially being loved right now. Here is a list of some of the things that I have been busy with lately: trying to make our pool swimmable, laundry, dishes, cleaning my house, touch-up painting (still so much left to do), doctors appointments out the wazoo (more on that later), being a "single" mommy for 6 days, planning a 3rd birthday party, mowing the lawn twice a week, etc.

In addition, I switched Reagan to a 3.5 hour schedule and eliminated her dream feed. She only eats 5 times a day now. It's nice to lengthen the time in between feedings, but that makes it to where I no longer have any free time in my day anymore. I put Hannah and Kate down for a nap at 2, which is when Reagan wakes up to eat. She's usually awake for about 1.5 hours and I either get a half hour to myself or like today, Hannah and Kate were awake just as I was putting Reagan down for another nap. Hence, no me time until about 8:30 at night. George has been gone a lot lately due to his vacationing (yes, his 2nd this summer...more on this), working crazy hours at Verizon, and lawn care.

We have also started potty training and sometimes I want to rip my hair out. You think you have it bad potty training one...try two. Neither of them will tell me before they have to go. They usually tell me afterwards. So far I have mainly kept them in pull-ups and just stayed on them about going to the potty. Kate is better than Hannah about holding it longer. Hannah will do little pees about every hour. Today, they are wearing Minnie panties with plastic covers over them. I remember a very experienced mother telling us not to push potty training, especially when you have a new baby and are nursing. So, we are going with it right now, but I'm not a potty dictator yet.

Hannah
Reagan

My little heffalump (it's a name from one of the Pooh movies) ate a 7 oz. bottle last night and then proceeded to poop on our way to Busch Gardens. Luckily, we were still at my parent's house and I thought I should check to make sure the toots were nothing more than toots, but in the time it took for me to walk to her side of the car, she had managed to create a pool of poop in her carseat.

She is just starting to play with her toys on her bouncy seat, she really likes to watch TV (no, I don't plant her in front of the TV...I think she has only watched one Baby Einstein while I was folding laundry), and she tries to sit up on her own. She had her follow-up appointment with her gastroenterologist last week and she was given a clean bill of health.

George went on his 3rd annual Florida Keys trip with a group of guys. He was gone for 6 days. He brought back about 20 lobsters, grouper, and hogfish. Saturday night, we cooked up some salmon (my favorite fish), hogfish, and lobster. It was yummy! He cooked the fish on cedar. We watch Master Chef on Fox and I told George that Chef Ramsey would be so proud of him. For Sunday lunch, he did even better. He made a seafood chowder with lobster, hogfish, scallops, potatoes, corn, and some other ingredients. It was delicious! Unfortunately, most of our seafood loving family wasn't able to make it. You guys really missed out! I always tell George that if he could ever trade me for another woman it would be one that cooked.

Between myself and 3 children, I feel like we have been at so many doctors' appointments lately. When I was at one recently just being established as a patient, the doctor pointed out that I have an enlarged thyroid. Just to be on the safe side, he sent me for bloodwork and an ultrasound. The bloodwork came back completely normal. However, the ultrasound showed that my thyroid is enlarged and I do have a cyst on my left lobe. He doesn't think it's anything serious, but because I am breastfeeding and plan to be for many more months, he is sending me to an ENT. I have that appointment this week so I will let you know how that turns out.

I feel like I just wrote you all a novel. Hope you have a great week!

But What If...?

2011-08-07T21:26:00.003-04:00

There are few moments in my current stage of life where I get some absolute silence and time to myself with no one around (well, almost...the only one around is the 4-legged and 2-legged loves that can't talk yet). Those calm, quiet times are when I feel the Lord's presence the most. I was actually driving in my car tonight and heard a song on the radio that I've only heard a couple of times before. It's called, "Blessings" by Laura Story. You can check out the lyrics here. The basic message of the song is what if all of the disappointments in life are actually God's answers to our prayers that end up allowing us to intimately know Him. Read the lyrics or try and listen to it somewhere online. I was inspired to think about my own list of the lessons God has taught me by not answering my prayer the way I wanted Him to.

But What If...

*The heartache of a breakup of a dating relationship was meant to show me that God's plans for me are far beyond my plans. ("Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us...~Ephesians 3:20)

*The loneliness of leaving friends behind and moving to a place where I knew no one was meant to show me that He had good plans for me. ("For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11)

*The years of singleness was meant to show me that my beauty and worth came not from the man standing next to me, but my Creator who lives within me. (Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. ~1 Peter 3:6-5)

*The painful mistakes & imperfections (not going into specifics here) of my husband were meant to show me the beauty of the Lord's forgiveness towards me. (Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows...But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. ~Isaiah 54:4-5)

*The pain of waiting for months to get pregnant was meant to teach me that He is trustworthy, faithful, and will not fail me. (I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him...~Lamentations 3:19-25)

*The fear of wondering how I would ever be able to move beyond the uncertainty of infertility and then losing my long-awaited baby. (When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;...since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you...~Isaiah 43:2-4)

*The agony of miscarrying a child was meant to show me that He is loving and compassionate. (Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. ~Lamentations 3:32)

*The feelings of helplessness as I watched my two precious preemies fight for their lives was meant to show me that He is an Almighty God. ("My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." ~2 Corinthians 12:9)

What are your but what ifs?

Restless Readers, Raspberries, & a Roller

2011-08-03T08:54:00.004-04:00

One faithful, restless reader informed me that my lack of posting was causing her productivity to go up at work. Well, we can't have that, can we? Here's to unproductivity:

Hannah and Kate were having a picnic the other day and I thought Reagan should be allowed to join in the fun and food!

I had George snap a picture of me and my baby. I have hardly any pictures of her and me because I'm always the one doing the picture taking. It's not a great picture, but something is better than nothing.

And finally, Reagan came back from the church nursery two Sundays ago with a newly acquired skill: blowing raspberries. She loves it and will imitate you. She also rolled over for the first time on Monday. I haven't caught that on video yet.

Have I also mentioned that we finally got new garage doors! I can park in my garage. Woohoo for no more jumping in scorching cars and worrying about rain!

Reagan

2011-07-29T09:18:00.002-04:00

I'm too tired and frustrated right now to come up with some cutesy title for this post. But enjoy the pictures...

I Never Go Beach

2011-07-23T18:15:00.002-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Hannah and Kate watched a Dora episode where they were at the beach. Later that evening, Kate asked if we could go to the beach. I told her not today. She replied with, "I never go beach." Later this came along with crossed arms and a pouty face. That was the day I realized I was already living with teenagers. She was right. She never gets to go to the beach. Well, since that day, she has gone twice. Today we went with my family (minus the youngest Lantz). These pictures may not be great because the sun was so bright and it was hard to tell what exactly I was taking a picture of.

One of my comments to George today was, "We should do this again without the kids." I love seeing the girls have fun, but a day at the beach with kids is no day at the beach. There was sand EVERYWHERE! I guess that's the nature of the beach though. We had some much needed family fun time.

Sisters

2011-07-21T20:57:00.002-04:00

We have been super busy with VBS this week at church, so my post will be short. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

My Dancing Diva & Her Doll

2011-07-16T12:06:00.002-04:00

Hannah loves to dance to her Snow White and Cinderella CDs. They play about 4 songs from the movies and then re-tell the story. Here she was kind enough to dance with her baby doll. Notice the real live baby laying on the floor nearby. Don't worry, there was no real baby harmed in the taking of these dance pictures. Hannah and Kate are very careful to dance around Reagan.

I've actually gotten to enjoy this little peanut all to myself this morning. Hannah and Kate had a sleepover at Nanny and Grampie's house and then went to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie. It's their first theater movie. I'm a little jealous (in a good way...I hate missing out on firsts) that I didn't get to take them, but I'm so excited for them. I can't wait until they get home so I can hear all about it! Daddy is off doing one of two scuba dives this weekend. He has been in scuba school these past two weeks getting certified. He is off on his annual trip to the Keys in a couple of weeks and he's very excited!

So while they were all out playing, I was doing some playing of my own. A couple of weekends ago, I painted our playroom. I decided to do an aqua color on three of the walls and a chocolate brown on the wall facing the front door. I thought the brown would blend a little better with the neutral family room. I got the colors from the curtains I already had. I love the colors and ordered some wall stickers to go with them. I'm not really sure why, but I love the owl decor that has come out in the past couple of years. It's so cute. I found these stickers online and knew they'd go perfectly. It took me about an hour to place them this morning. I think that I am also going to stencil above it, "Remember whoooose you are." I'm trying to find the Bible verse that coincides with that, but I thought it'd be cute given that owls say whoo-whoo. And I know you know what owls say, but my mom wasn't quite catching on to the theme when I texted her and she reminded me to spell whose correctly.

Shower Silliness

2011-07-11T09:56:00.003-04:00

Here's a picture of the playset George is still working on. This is an old one, but someone asked to see a picture of it.

The girls like to wear my shower cap. They remind me of Strawberry Shortcake or Little Miss Muffett when they have it on.

Independence Day Pictures

2011-07-06T07:27:00.003-04:00

As the kids get older, I'd love to participate in more activities on July 4th, but we laid kinda low until our dinner party. I painted the playroom and George mowed lawns. We then headed over to our friends' house. The girls were decked out in their "special alie" (how they pronounced it) shirts that I got on clearance last year. The shirts had been sitting under their bed for so long that I almost forgot to pull them out.

Hannah

Our friends rented a bouncy house and it was a HUGE hit with the kids. The girls are the ones in the white shirts and jean skirts.

Kate is on the left and Hannah on the right

Kate

The guys set off some fireworks and the girls loved them. Kate just laid back in the grass and watched them.

Pre-Independence Day Cuteness

2011-07-04T15:21:00.002-04:00

The girls and I headed to church yesterday afternoon to participate in some Independence Day activities. There were not the children's activities there that I thought were going to be there, but we made the best out it! And a big thank you to Nanny and Grampie for sticking out the heat and helping me! Hannah and Kate got to enjoy some red sno cones and a bag of popcorn. They also got a red, white, and blue butterfly painted on their cheek. Since the sno cones left them sticky we had to head to the showers as soon as we got home and the butterflies were lost in the water. However, I managed to snap a couple of pictures before they were washed away because I knew the girls would be very disappointed.

Hannah

Kate

And these pictures were from before church yesterday. I just thought Reagan looked too cute to pass up a picture opportunity!

Already learning how to pray

A Second Set of Firsts

2011-06-30T17:53:00.002-04:00

Poor Reagan has already succumbed to the second (well, really third) child syndrome. There are far fewer pictures of her at this point than there are of Hannah and Kate. Such is life. Reagan has great neck and head control so I figured I'd give the bumbo a try.

I love that chubby cheek smile! When I go in to wake her up in the morning, she gives me a weird look as she tries to focus in on my face and then she gives me the biggest smile! It makes my morning!

Smiley

2011-06-25T10:13:00.002-04:00

You always read me write about how happy my little Reagan is and here are a couple of pictures to prove it!

Here are my other usually happy girls bearing not so happy faces. I told Kate to say cheese, but her smile looks a little scary.

George is finally home. You may have picked up on some of my references to how busy we were last week. He went on his 3rd annual mission trip to Kentucky with some others in our bible fellowship class to help build a church. I didn't want to come right out and say he was gone for safety reasons. I more than survived my week. We stayed busy going to the park, Busch Gardens, and having a dinner with some of the other moms from our class who had husbands gone. Now it's time to get back to our regular busy life of working around the house. Today's project is to clean out our garage. Ever since we moved into our house, I've wanted new, working garage doors. It's not fun getting caught out in the FL rain showers trying to get 3 kiddos into the house and getting into a HOT car. We are also have our electric company come out and inspect our attic for insulation so that we can get a money credit in order to put some insulation in the attic. Our electric bills are climbing and it's ridiculous. George said there's no insulation in most of our house. While cleaning out a garage doesn't sound like much fun, I'm super excited. Call me crazy, but I guess that's just the organizational neat freak in me!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2011-06-23T13:58:00.004-04:00

Kate has been one rambling woman lately. I was instructing her to pick up her blocks yesterday afternoon and she was doing everything she could to distract me from enforcing my instruction. That wasn't too difficult because I was nursing Reagan. She was just jabbering away. My exact words to her were, "If you would exercise your arms and your feet as much as you are exercising your mouth, then you would be done cleaning up a lot quicker!" She didn't seem to understand what I was saying. Sometimes I wish I had a mute button. The following videos are from breakfast this morning. I taught them the "You got it dude!" saying from Full House. Nanny Lantz (I think) taught them the "My name is chubby" (just in case you were wondering what they were saying) thing.

Reagan had her 2 month doctor visit yesterday. She's healthy and growing. She's 12.5 lbs and 22.25 inches long. We decided to up her dose of the stool softener because it just doesn't seem to be working. She also has put her on some special baby wash because of her sensitive skin. Just normal baby stuff. She took her shots like a champ and gave me the best gift of all last night...she slept from 10:30 until 6:30! Not sure if she was worn out from her shots and all of our activities this week or she's going to make a habit out of sleeping through the night...let's hope so!

Elmo's World

2011-06-21T15:12:00.002-04:00

Also affectionately known as Busch Gardens. We headed out there with Sarah, Rachel, and a friend from our bible fellowship class and her two boys. Although it was sweltering and we were sweating, a great time was had by all, even the littlest of the bunch. Here are a couple of pictures:

Mama & Reagan-isn't she precious in her bathing suit. I put her feet in the water to cool her off a little bit.

Using her fist to occupy herself. She's such a happy baby! If she cries, she stops the second you pick her up. She's pretty easy to read, at least for me. She is still having some pooping issues, but we go for her 2 month well baby visit tomorrow morning, so I'm going to address it with the doctor then.

Have a great week!

At Your Own Risk

2011-06-17T14:20:00.002-04:00

So you all know that George has been working on this playset for the girls. Well, it's not exactly the way I would've pictured it and there is still some work to be done. I don't think as he was building it he realized how steep it was, especially for 2 year olds...so if you bring your kids over to play at our house, just know that they will be playing on the playset at their own risk. And if you would rather them be a little older to play on it (for safety's sake), I won't blame you. I'll let the slide speak for itself.

Making Her Mama Proud

2011-06-14T14:59:00.002-04:00

My one month old going on 6 months old. I put her on her tummy on the couch last night and she immediately pushed up on her elbows and lifted her head straight up for a good minute. Way to go, little Reagan. We hardly do tummy time, but this girl has managed to build her neck muscles some other way! I am so proud of her! She must have really wanted to see the Stanley Cup finals game that Daddy was watching.

Princess Picture Post

2011-06-13T14:43:00.005-04:00

Today's mission was to clean the house. I have two rooms left, but it's time for a nap first. I'm tired. Reagan is sick and constipated, which amounts to her eating for about 5-10 minutes at a time and then waking up early to eat again. She just has a cold, but her appetite is not what is usually is. I think we are on the downhill part of it though.

Since the Hannah and Kate's room was clean, I thought I'd take a couple of pictures to show you their princess room. I still have some minor decorating to do, i.e. pictures and maybe some wall decorations. We have already had one mishap of pulling off their wallpaper border. George and I were not happy! Now that I have all of Reagan's newborn pictures, my goal is to go through our house room by room and work on the little stuff that needs to be finished, like hanging pictures and touch-up painting.

Kate
Hannah

You can see the torn wallpaper to the left of the dresser

Yay-an almost finished closet! Notice George's cedar shelves.

Simply Sweet

2011-06-08T15:55:00.001-04:00

Isn't this chunky girl just the sweetest thing you've seen? She fell asleep in her bouncy seat waiting for me to finish blow drying my hair. I picked her up though and we got some snuggle time before I officially put her down for a nap.

When Life Hands you Lemons...

2011-06-04T09:18:00.004-04:00

make lemonade, right? Or at least take photos to make for some good blog posts! That's what Sarah and I decided to do when Kate pulled her stool up to the kitchen window and accidentally pulled down some of George's plants sitting on the window sill. Oops! How can you not laugh when your daughter is covered in dirt and is yelling for me to get it out of her mouth?!

We also had George's mom and her husband in from Canada over the Memorial Day weekend. It was a lot of fun! We mostly hung out at our house and swam in the pool. On Friday we went down to eat at the Old Salty Dog restaurant and then headed over to a "beach" by St. Armand's circle. Ummm...yeah, we'll have to stick to the normal beaches in Sarasota. You will see why in a couple of pictures.

Reagan & Grammy Kelso

Hannah's Lemonade Story:

The beach we went to was really nothing but shards of shell and this rock stuff. Hannah managed to fall after being there for five minutes and cut up her entire leg. It was bleeding fairly profusely so we headed for a walk-in clinic anticipating stitches. Luckily, the clinic did not take our insurance and by that time the bleeding had stopped so we opted to go to CVS instead and did all of the wound care ourselves. Dr. Mommy to the rescue! Hannah was a great sport and all she cared about the entire time was going swimming.

George & Erin kayaking

Reagan and I hung out on the little piece of grass that was there

Hanging out in the pool

Reagan also had her follow-up with the pediatric GI this week. He said that her intestines still look puffy, but that her stomach was soft. We are going to keep her on the stool softener and re-check her again in 2 months. My little chunky monkey is 11 pounds already! She is still as sweet as can be! I guess that is it for now. Enjoy your weekend! We have a busy one.

Reagan-Photo Shoot

2011-05-28T21:40:00.025-04:00

Our favorite photographer came over a couple of weeks ago when Reagan was 2 weeks old and did a newborn shoot for us. Unfortunately Daddy was at work, but we were able to get some good pictures of the rest of us. The star of the pictures though is Reagan. They turned out great! I can't wait to plaster the walls with our latest bundle of joy! I just love her so much! Enjoy!!

Pictures

2011-05-25T06:46:00.002-04:00

I apologize for the lack of pictures/posts. I have been non-stop busy these past 3-4 days with organizing and cleaning. The girls' (its funny that when I say the girls I refer to Hannah and Kate even though Reagan is a girl too) closet is 90% finished. It just needs doors. Reagan's room is almost finished, also. I just need to hang some pictures and other things on the wall! No more clutter!!! And if you've been to our house recently during all of the home renovations, you knew how messy our office was, too. That is cleaned up. There are still boxes due to a lack of storage space in the house but at least they are organized and not there to trip over. I also spent the good majority of the day yesterday hosing down and cleaning off our lanai and pool. That was covered in sawdust from George working on various projects. His newest project is building a playground in the back yard. The bathroom has been on hold until this is done, but it feels good to have some things completed. We barely have any family time and I am pretty much the sole caregiver to our children because he's so busy. I'm really looking forward to all of this being over. Bedtime is way too hectic around here because nursing falls right around that time and Hannah and Kate take advantage of me being tied up with Reagan. It's not the way that I like to end my day.

Kate seeing her princess room for the first time a couple of weeks ago

Naming all of the princesses on the wall

Kate loves wearing her tutu and trying on shoes...does she remind you of anyone here?

How about Ace Ventura when he was in the mental hospital?

Reagan loves her tummy time so much so that she falls asleep.

Doing tummy time last night & sucking on her thumb

Such a perfect baby! She's started sleeping for 5-6 hour stretches at night! Yay!

I'll do another post of all that has been done around the house soon!

St. Petersburg, Here We Come!

2011-05-19T20:26:00.004-04:00

Reagan had another pediatrician appointment on Wednesday morning. She said that things are looking better and that she can actually feel her kidneys now, whereas last week she could not. I'm sure you medically inclined people out there probably understand the importance of that. She actually called the GI doctor and had them schedule us for that afternoon because our appointment was still a week away. So we headed out to St. Pete (for the 3rd time in a week, at least one of the trips was for a Rays baseball game though). When I say we, I mean all four of us. My baby-sitter is down and out for a while so Hannah and Kate have been trucking with me to all of Reagan's doctor's appointments.

The GI doctor said that she probably has a redundant colon or large intestine. Sorry, I can't remember what part it was, but he did draw a couple of nice pictures of what he thinks it looks like and what he's glad it doesn't look like. Since her anatomy is normal, he thinks that the constipation is probably a hereditary thing. That would make sense because I still have to give the girls a stool softener almost daily to make sure that they stay regular. I won't point fingers about which side of the family it comes through, but I'll just say that it's not me!

So we go back for another x-ray in a week and then follow-up with the doctor again in 2 weeks. Whew! There is a lot going on right now and a lot I feel is piling up on my chest and I can't do anything about it. I'm tired. My house is finally clean, all at once, in over a month. However, there are still boxes and numerous piles of things sitting around as projects continue to sit waiting to be completed. Can I just say that sometimes I wish I knew how to use a drill and put shelves in the wall? I hate stumbling through the house over all of the clutter.

I'm grateful for His love though because it never disappoints and He's always always there!

Reagan Update

2011-05-14T10:19:00.002-04:00

Reagan had her barium enema yesterday at All Children's Hospital in St. Pete. She was a perfect patient. The unofficial diagnosis is that she has some extra length to her colon. I'll let you know what we hear from the doctor and where we go from here. Thanks for your prayers!

P.S. Sarah had her surgery yesterday to remove the cyst, which had actually caused significant damage to a fallopian tube. She had to have it removed. She will be in the hospital for a couple of more days.

Praying for Poop...Again

2011-05-11T21:24:00.000-04:00

I know this prayer request is reminiscent of two years ago, but we are back to praying for poop. Reagan had her pediatrician appointment this morning. She weighed 9 lbs. 1 oz. and was 20 inches long. She gained a whopping two pounds in two weeks and jumped from the 50th percentile to 75th in weight. With that said...her weight gain could be that she's stopped up with some poop. The doctor thought that her stomach looked rather full and was hard. She checked her rectum and that was fine so she ordered an x-ray.

The x-ray came back with some abnormal results. Her intestines looked swollen. After consulting with a pediatric gastroenterologist, she ordered a barium enema. It will either happen on Friday afternoon or Monday. We will also follow up with the specialist on May 25th and the pediatrician again in a week.

So what does all of this mean? Reagan could either be constipated or she could have a spot in her intestines that are narrow, which would require surgery. The doctor said that she's checked this before in babies and never found anything requiring surgery. I will let you know as soon as we find anything out. In the meantime, she is on a stool softener.

Chaos

2011-05-10T14:37:00.002-04:00

Things are crazy around the Lantz household. You can probably tell since I usually post once a week! Reagan is still the sweet little girl that she has been this whole time. She is a great sleeper at night. She still wakes up to eat about 1-2 times, but she rarely fusses after I put her back down, which allows me to go right back to sleep! She sleeps great during the day and really doesn't cry unless she's hungry and I'm not getting to her fast enough. We go for a doctor's appointment tomorrow just for a little checkup. These pictures were taken about a week ago. And Miss Reagan has finally moved into her crib in the nursery! The nursery is still a work in progress but it's coming.

The girls have warmed up a little bit more to Reagan and ask to hold her sometimes. They love talking about her.

These little princesses finally got to move into their almost complete princess room. We have the majority of the wallpaper border up, new furniture, and princess decor! I'll post pictures when it's actually completed.

I feel so behind right now. With cleaning, trying to rearrange the girls' rooms, sleep, making a grocery list, spending time with George, doing my quiet time (or not doing one-I'm so ashamed to admit I've probably done about 5 since Reagan has been born-praise the Lord salvation isn't based on my faithfulness or works), and trying to run other errands, I feel like I'm falling into this pit and trying to claw my way out. George is still super busy with house projects. However, I'm at least able to look at everything and know that it's not the end of the world if the boxes sit there for one more day...or I don't get a blog post up once a week. I know you guys still love me and will forgive me! Off to get a little bit of rest now.

We're Still Here

2011-04-30T08:58:00.003-04:00

We were able to make it home from the hospital just in time for Easter dinner with my family. It is amazing the difference in the recovery from my C-section to a vaginal birth. I so appreciate all of your prayers as we hoped for a VBAC. I'm so happy with the whole experience. I have to admit that I entertained thoughts of just asking for a section as the labor grew more intense and the waiting for the epidural drug on, but I'm so glad I stuck it out and had such a great support team!

We were very fortunate to end up in the antepartum section of TGH so we had two beds instead of just a reclining chair for George to sleep in.

Day 2

Going home

For now she is sleeping in the pack n' play in our room as we finish up the girls' new bedroom

First bath

Hannah and Kate were able to meet her in the hospital the day after she was born. They have been warming up to her. They ask about her and talk about her but are generally content to let her be, unlike her baby-loving cousin, Rachel. Rachel just loves babies right now and it's funny to hear her talk about Reagan.

Reagan had her first doctor's appointment on Wednesday. She weighed in at a whopping 7 lbs. 3 oz. I say whopping because most babies are still under their birth weight within the first week and she lost weight, gained it back, and then surpassed it. All of this despite having some minor nursing issues. I was able to see the lactation specialist at TGH and they helped get us back on track. They predicted she'd be quite the chunker with my milk supply and her quick weight gain. She also was a bit jaundice, but nothing the pediatrician was concerned about.

She's been sleeping great this past week. George is almost getting a full night's sleep except for when I get in and out of bed from feeding her. She's eating about every 3 hours. I'm tired but I have to say that nursing/feeding one baby is SO much easier than two. Maybe it's because I have my mom to help me during the day and George has had some time off, but I have not had the same exhausted feeling yet that I had with the girls.

Here's some video of her. It's nothing special but I thought the family out of town might appreciate it!

Reagan Olivia Lantz

2011-04-23T10:18:00.009-04:00

Here's the birth story. I started having contractions 2 a.m. on Friday morning. We went to the hospital at 9:30 and after walking around for two hours and only being 1 cm dilated, they sent us home. Well, my contractions weren't letting up so we went back to the hospital at 5:30 and I had progressed to 4 cm. And my pain was progressing as well. I immediately asked for an epidural once they admitted me. However, I had to wait about two hours before I was on the top of the list. Whoo...those were not a fun two hours nor was the epidural process fun. Apparently I had a tight back with very little fat so I had to be poked several times. It was well worth it. I felt nothing after that! It's easy having a baby when you don't feel anything.

Can you tell this picture was before the epidural and without my consent

After the epidural and very happy!

The epidural did not slow my labor down. I progressed to 10 cm in about 2 hours and was ready to push! I pushed for about 20 minutes and out she popped at 11:48 (I think-I still need to confirm that). She weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz and was 19.5 inches long. George was an awesome support to me. He watched the whole thing and even cut her cord!

We're having a baby

2011-04-22T21:29:00.001-04:00

We've been at the hospital for a while now and are awaiting our baby girl! Epidurals are wonderful! Pictures will probably come in the morning.

39 Week Update

2011-04-21T13:43:00.003-04:00

I'm still prego. I was pretty content with this until I saw a midwife today who started mentioning C-section. She said that some doctors in the practice were a little more cooperative with encouraging labor (mild induction) and others would rather just schedule a C-section. Well, the whole reason I switched to this practice was to do a VBAC so I came away feeling a little discouraged. Granted, I still haven't even reached my due date yet, but my hopes are still very high for a VBAC. When you are talking to a very hormonal, exhausted pregnant woman, it's just disappointing to hear something like that.

They still haven't done any internal exams so I'm not sure if I'm effaced or dilated at all. I'll know for sure next week. Please pray that my body evicts this precious baby girl on her own. I'm still fairly comfortable. I tossed and turned last night and have been having extremely weird dreams the last couple of nights. And I get winded reading the girls books. I'll let you know if anything happens.

Have an Sunday celebrating our risen Savior!

Spring Pictures

2011-04-20T08:26:00.010-04:00

These are the pictures (some of them) from the Spring/Easter mini photo session we had with our favorite phtographer, Ms. Abbey. She is now associated with the bunnies. As always, she did an amazing job! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves! Enjoy!