First Bath with GiGi

GiGi (Jerimiah's mom) was again in Alaska when Carlie was born, as she was when Cohen was born. She had planned on taking five weeks off and came home the week after Carlie was born. Had I had gone to my due date, she would have been here. But again, it just happened to be that she was there at the time of their arrival. This time though, we had Skype and it was only a week before she came back in and will be here until February. She likes to give the grandkids their first baths, so of course we waited for her to give Carlie a real bath. Let's just say Carlie was not a big fan of it!! Too cold for her liking, she was better after she was all dressed and done. She, as her brother, needed her binkie in the tub. Silly kids! Then to calm her down during the lotion time and getting jammies on, she needed her bottle also.

Carlie Ann Kindrick

Okay, sorry people who actually read this, I hopefully will be back at this better. I know I have said that before, but really, I'm going to try my best to do it. Being off of work will hopefully help and I have two darlings that I could blog so much about now.

Miss Carlie Ann joined us last Thursday, January 6. She is an angel. She is really a good baby so far, which we are so thankful for. I was induced at 38 weeks simply because I was ready to be done and the dr. agreed! I had been dilated since 35 weeks and it was so close anyway. When I had an ultrasound the week of Christmas, she was measuring almost 7 pounds already so the my dr. told me she would not stop labor any time after 37 weeks. I went exactly the same amount as Cohen and she was born the same day of the week also. My water br0ke with Cohen and he was born exactly at 38 weeks also. She weighed in at 7 pounds 15 ounces and 20.5 inches long. She was a pound bigger and 2 inches longer then her brother. I believe she has alot of traits of my mom, so obviously looks like me a little I guess :) She for sure has my mom's hands and feet which come from the Schuler side. Her hair is a brownish reddish and has beautiful blue eyes just like her brothers.

I will be off of work until February 14 and am excited to spend it with her. Also, I will get to make a trip to Iowa with her and see all my Bensema side family as my grandparents will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on February 12. My sister will be coming home also and we will be able to visit our family in North Dakota as well. I'll end with some pictures and I promise people, I will be back soon!

Catch up on Life

Sorry, sorry....I know I said I was going to be better at this and it just hasn't happened yet. But thanks to two good faithful readers I feel the need that I better catch up on our lives.

Cohen celebrated his first birthday on April 30. We had his birthday party though the weekend before because it worked for my dad to squeeze in some days here. He had been in Vegas all week and flew here for a couple of days on his way back to Iowa. The theme of the party was "Under Construction" and turned out cute and fun. Jerimiah's sister April made some awesome chocolate cake and cupcakes for us and we had burgers, hot dogs, potato salad and chips to go along with it. Cohen got lots of awesome toys and was very blessed to have so many close friends and family join in the fun.

His actual birthday Jerimiah and I both took off to spend with him. In the morning he went on a donut run with Poppy (Jerimiah's dad) and was on a sugar high. We planned to bring him to lunch, but we were the only one's who enjoyed as Cohen fell asleep in the car on the way there. That night we went out to eat though again and then he spent the night with GiGi and Poppy so we could go to a game night with our Sunday School class friends.

Other then chasing Cohen around as he tries to run everywhere, things have been pretty routine with going to school, making lunches, etc. I am very excited for the end of the year. Only 6 and half days left! YAHOO!!! Maybe then I can finally stay caught up with this. We have taken lots of pictures since the last post so I will try my best and choose a few. If you are friends with me on facebook, that is the best way to stay up-to-date with pictures.

Sara, Jerimiah and Cohen

Thankfulness

Today as I was rocking my sweet baby boy to sleep, I realized I have so much to be thankful for in my life. God has truly blessed me and sometimes I forgot how lucky I am to have what I have. I have so so many things to be thankful for, my health, my husband, my son, my dad, my sister, my step-mom, Jerimiah's parents, sister and brother, our wonderful babysitter, my school, my co-workers, my students and the list could go on and on. In today's society, a job is a lucky thing to come by it seems. I am so blessed each day as I get to spend it with 19 wild and awesome 6 year olds. They may drive me nuts somedays, but I really can't imagine doing anything else. I have always wanted to be a teacher, basically since I was five, and God has truely shown me that it is my calling and passion in my life. I take for granted somedays my health. I guess it hit me tonight as I have been praying and thinking of my friend Katrina who is encountering her third round of chemo this week. Not just her, but so many it seems are dealing with the word I have grown up with and have a deep dislike for, cancer. The last couple of months have changed my attitude in life. I may struggle with things and think something is so bad, but really, what they face each day is much more worse then me. All these friends and family members inspire me to live life to the fullest and change my attitude to better. As someone who grew up with someone who dealt with this, attitude is something that goes a long ways. It is my true belief that my mom's attitude towards all she faced helped her fight her cancer for so many years. I guess after 5 years I didn't really forget that, but now dealing with it with others again so close has reminded me to buck up and take life as it is given to us.

A boy and his dog...

Everynight at the dog's supper time, we go through this process. Cohen is so interested in their food for some reason. Most of the time, he just sits and watches Goliath eat. But once in a while, we see Goliath being the nice dog that he is and allowing Cohen into his food. We have fished dog food out only once though, so he does okay I guess. But everynight is the same. Just sits and watches as they eat.

I swear...

I am making a promise now, to try and update this thing more often. I know I have said it before, but I truly am going to try. I love reading others and keeping up with people that way and so I guess I should return the favor and keep ours up to date also.

Maybe with my new toy I bought today, it will be easier. We decided to take Cohen to the bluebonnet fields northwest of us to take some pictures. We borrowed Jerimiah's parents camera. They bought an SLR after the boys were born. It took great pictures. I have always dreamed of one and since we still had some tax refund money left, Jerimiah allowed me to get my very own. I'm super excited and will make taking pictures of Cohen so much fun!

His birthday party is next week and we are so excited! Grandpa Bensema is flying in on his way home from Vegas and I know I am excited to have him here for it. Cohen is walking so much! He tries first to walk to something, when he falls he just crawls the rest of the way. He is getting so big! I can't believe he will be a year in 2 weeks. This year has really gone fast! But I love seeing all the changes of a baby and see them grow and develop new skills everyday. Here are some pictures from today. If you don't see a new post soon, please send me an email and yell at me!

Mr. 10 Month Old

Cohen officially did not get his 10 month birthday in February since there are only 28 days and now he is already just about 10 and a half. He is becoming such a little ham. His personality is so funny and he is learning and growing so much right now. His new favorite thing to do is lift his one arm up and he says "Yeah!" It is very cute. I hope to capture it on video someday soon.

A few weeks ago Cohen had his first ear infection. It was just in one ear and the amoxicillian cleared him right up. He got a little fussy with it, but not too bad. The poor boy is still teething also, so that doesn't help any matters. He has three in on the bottom and finally the top ones are starting to appear. There are three on top he is working on. One you can see now and the other two you can just feel them but I haven't been able to actually see them.

We took Cohen to the zoo about 2 weeks ago and we had a beautiful day there. He loved riding in the stroller. We brought him to the petting zoo and he got to touch the bull. It was cute.

Next weekend we leave for a visit to Iowa for our Spring Break. We are super excited! Hopefully he can play in some snow! We don't have too much planned while we are there besides visited with our relatives and friends. Here are a few updated pictures of the little bug.

On another note, keep praying for my friend Katrina. She is awaiting to finish her first cycle of chemo. If you would like to follow her blog that her family has, here it is. You will also see it on the side of our page where the picture is of Praying for Katrina.

http://prayingforkatrina.blogspot.com

Love,

Sara, Jerimiah and Cohen