Hairy photos

Check out this sweet Saturday-morning bed-head photo of Kyah and me (from March). Abby snapped this fantastic photo as I was walking out into the garage to chop my mop. My best guess is that I went about 11 months without cutting my hair. Yeah, that's definitely the longest I've ever gone without a haircut. I finally woke up one morning with the itch to cut it. 

And while we're talking about hair, I just have to share this story and these photos of Kyah. Abby wanted to change the decorations in Kyah's room from pink and brown polka dots to a giant tree with flowers and animals. It took us an hour or so to get the tree stuck to the wall, but we did it, and it looked pretty good, too. 

Kyah loves the tree; when she wakes in the morning, she usually points to the tree and says something that sounds similar to "owl, owl, owl." 

Something strange started to happen shortly after we finished putting it up though. Some of the leaves and pieces of the tree started to, uhm, unpeel from the wall. No biggie, we just pressed them a little harder to the wall to help them stick a little better. Problem solved. Or so we thought.

Now, part of the tree sticks to the wall above Kyah's crib, and, well, the next morning (after putting up the tree) Abby found leaves stuck in Kyah's hair. The leaves had fallen off the wall overnight and  into the crib and Kyah's hair.

I chuckle just thinking about Kyah waking up in her crib with leaves stuck in her hair. I'm so glad Abby took pictures. 

We have since written the company who makes the wall decorations and they are mailing us a new set. Apparently, the batch we got had problems sticking to certain types of paint, as we found out. It at least made for a good story.  

Goooaaaaaalllll!!!!!!!!

Kyah has this shirt that's fairly stretchy, and somehow she figured out how to pull it up over her head. Kind of like how you see soccer players pull their jersey over their face to celebrate a goal.

Believe me, I did not teach her this. Like I want my little girl running around with her shirt up. We just have to be selective now when we put this shirt on her - twice she's worn it and twice she's pulled it over her head. We probably won't send her to daycare with this shirt on. Can you imagine her running around the playground with her shirt pulled up like she's just scored a goal? Hilarious!

It really is pretty cute and funny.

Her smile brightens the room

Kyah and the lady bug

We wanted to get a few pictures of Kyah in her pretty Easter dress, so we went out into our front yard to take a few photos.

After we got a few fun pictures, we started to tromp through the grass back to the house. That's when Abby found a lady bug in the yard and picked it up to show Kyah. Normally, we only get to see pictures of them in books, so this was a fun treat to find one outside.

 Kyah was very fascinated with the lady bug. She was pointing and saying "booog, booog, boooog". Of course, Abby taught her to say that.

Never having seen one in person, Kyah was ready to get a firsthand experience. She even went so far as to touch the lady bug. But then something amazing happened, the lady bug crawled onto her finger. (If you look closely, you can see the lady bug on her index finger.)

At this point, Kyah wasn't sure what to think. She was sort of in shock over it. Maybe she got a little more than she bargained for out of this deal. Once the bug was on her finger, she just sort of stood still and stared at it.

Everything was going fine, right up until the lady bug started crawling down her finger. That's when she realized she wanted nothing to do with it anymore. She was done. She was, as they say, freaking out.

If I had snapped the next picture instead of helping Kyah, you would have seen tears.

We've found several more lady bugs in the front yard since then, but Kyah does not want to touch or hold them. She'll look, point and say booog, but there's no touching.

Meet our new baby girl

I'd like you to meet our newest baby girl, Sadie Jane Terpening. She was born at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, April, 12. She weighed in at 8 pounds and measured 19.5 inches long. And the best part was that Abby gave birth to her naturally. She did the whole thing without drugs! How amazing is that? Abby was a real champ - I can't say enough amazing things about her.

Wow, what an experience. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything so incredible. The miracle of birth is just mind blowing, and I loved every minute of it. I'll remember this for the rest of my life.

Look at that brown hair. We were very anxious to find out what color hair she had, considering Kyah had red hair. I wasn't expecting brown; I was kind of thinking we'd get red or even blonde this time. Abby said that Sadie looked exactly like she imagined. 

When they found out Abby was going into labor, Grammy Marion and Auntie Jenn raced from Tacoma to Bellingham to meet us at the hospital. They made it to our room shortly after midnight, and they jumped into action immediately. We all worked to help keep Abby comfortable as the contractions continually got stronger and closer. I tell you what, they were awesome, and I don't think Abby or I can imagine having gone through this without them. They were right there to encourage, comfort and help Abby into the wee hours of the night.

Kyah is catching on to the fact that sister is no longer in Mommy's tummy. She just loves pointing at Sadie and saying, "Baby!" Kyah has been really great about being gentle around her, and any chance she can get she gives her a hug and a kiss. It's pretty cute.

One night of laboring and one night of sleeping in the hospital was enough for us. We were packed and headed home by Friday. Hospitals are great, but the comfort of our own bed is even better.

We just want to give a great big thank you to everyone who was praying for us these last several months. God heard and answered your prayers. Abby and Sadie are both healthy, and the the pregnancy and delivery went smoothly. We are doing well at home. We have had a lot of help from family to help make the transition to two kids go smoothly. We are blessed.

Becoming quite the Momma's girl

As of late, our sweet, innocent, happy, little girl has become quite the Momma's girl. She LOVES her Mommy any chance she can get. That's not to say that she doesn't love her Daddy, but if she has a choice between the two of us, she's definitely going with Mommy.

This works to my advantage in certain situations. For instance, when her diaper is stinky, I just ask her if she wants Mommy to change it and she says yes. Yet, somehow I still end up changing them. Not quite sure how that works? Some kind of Mommy magic, I think. (Abby wanted me to note that "sometimes" I change them. Details.)

Hypothesis: Maybe she loves her Mommy so much right now because Mommy is carrying sister? Kyah is quite infatuated with her sister. She always wants to touch, hug, kiss and play with her. It's really pretty cute.
 

Gone country

In case you can't tell by the title and the picture, we got our "country" on this last weekend.

We got decked out in our country gear and headed to a Brad Paisley concert in the Tacoma Dome. While I'm not a huge fan of concerts, I did have a great time at this one. We went with Abby's sister, Jenn, and her husband, Dave.

Abby loves country music, and she likes concerts, so I got her Brad Paisley tickets for Christmas. I did my best to put a smile on and enjoy the concert for her.

Dave actually scored us amazing seats. We were in the front row of the stands, only about 30 feet from the side of the stage. When the artists - Scotty McCreey, The Band Perry, and Brad Paisley - came to our side of the stage, it was almost like we could reach out and touch them. They were so close. It was pretty amazing, really.

Oh, and in case you didn't notice Abby's baby bump, she's almost 31 weeks along now. April is coming quickly.