Just a Swingin'

Lance and I were working around the house and in the garage over the weekend. The girls were playing with a piece of chain. I saw them take it and proceeded to quietly watch their minds at work. 

Jenna took the chain and went over to the pine tree. I could just see the little gears turning. She put each clevis on a limb of the tree and tried to sit in it. BOOM she ended up on the ground. She had two issues with her first attempt at a tree swing. First, she is only 3 foot tall and was trying to do it herself. Second, she was using a drooping pine tree limb.  Nevertheless, I let her keep going to see what else her little mind would create. 

That chain kept them occupied for a good 30 minutes, before I stepped in to help them. I asked Jenna if she wanted help and her face lit up!  We took the chain over to the magnolia tree and mommy made a swing for the girls with the chain they were using. 

 

The had lots of fun with it. Daddy tried to 1-up mom's chain swing with a 2x4 and rope, but the battery for the saw didn't have enough charge to notch it out.  

No worries, the kids have a swing set.  It is just located on the other side of the house.  Regardless, it is very neat to watch their little minds at work!  

Toby Two Month Well Child

Toby turned two months old on 9/20/13.  I took pictures of him on the 20th but wanted to wait and post them until he had his well child visit yesterday.  Toby has been cooing like crazy and is starting to have "conversations."  He has started smiling though I haven't done real well capturing it on camera yet.

We are blessed that he has been sleeping 7-9 hours of a night.  He is a pretty happy baby most of the time and he definately lights up when he sees his big sisters.

We didn't exactly have a "well-child" to take to the well child visit.  In fact they discussed not giving him his shots as he has the respiratory crud that has been going around and has been rather wheezy.  They were worried that the shots might cause him a fever which would make the respiratory crud turn into something more.  I convinced them that this was my last week off work and if he was going to get sick, it would be best to do it while mommy was not working and could watch out for the symptoms.  I also had them look at his big toe.  Turns out he has an ingrown toe nail.  Poor guy!

Mr. Toby now weighs 14 pounds 7 ounces and is 25 1/4 inches long.  That means that he has grown 5 pounds and 3 1/4 inches in two months!  He is off the charts on height and he is in the 95 percentile for weight!  He is definately my BIG little man.  However, he is still wearing his 0-3 month clothes.  He has jumped into 3-6 month pants only because I didn't buy him any 0-3 month pants because I was expecting the weather to turn about the time he outgrew his 0-3 month clothes. 

Projects

I have been working on other projects while on maternity leave. These have been to decorate the house and to make it more of a home. 

I finally got all of the adults stuff out of the kids bathroom. I also got all of the stuff in the master bathroom organized and where I want it. It took a little while to figure out where we wanted things and where they made sense to be placed. 

I purchased this table and lettering with an idea. It took getting family pictures done to really get it started. I need to update some pictures and get some printed. 

I even started making holes in the walls to decorate some more. 

Sorry the picture isn't great. They are on the wall next to a window and I was setting a glare. 

I have some more decorating to do, but one step at a time. I want to like what I do and not redo it in 6 months. 

Family Photos

I have wanted to get family pictures taken since we have added three children to our family since we last had family pictures taken in February 2006 (for the church directory).   We went to Portrait Innovations in Terre Haute.

 

 

I love this picture of us. 

I love these pictures of the girls together! 

Our photographer didn't seem like he really knew what to do with Toby.  These are the best pictures of the three kids together. 

 

Miss Jenna May Hofmann, age 4 1/2 years 

 

Miss Shelby Leigh Hofmann, age 3. 

There were no solo picutres of Toby, as we just did all his pictures as a newborn and we will get some done again at 3 months.

8 week postpartum appointment

Well, today was the big day.  I went back to see my OB/GYN doctor to get my release to go back to work and to get the okay that I have done the majority of my healing.  It's hard to believe it has been almost 8 weeks!

When I learned I was pregnant with Toby, I told Lance I really didn't want to gain any more than 15 pounds.  I am a hefty gal to start with and didn't need/want to gain any more weight than that.  Therefore, I was public with my weigh gain during pregnacy on my blog posts.  I wanted to keep myself accountable. 

So the story goes, I lost 2 pounds the first trimester, gained 17 pounds during the second and third trimesters, and lost 2 pounds the last two weeks.  -2+17-2=13.  I was pretty proud of myself for gaining a net of 13 pounds, especially when Toby ended up being 9 pounds 8 ounces of the weight. 

Today, when I stepped on the scales, I was shocked.  I had lost 28 pounds since the last time I weighed in at the doctor's office on 7/19/13.  That means as of today, I am 15 pounds lighter than when I became pregnant in the Fall of 2012.

My postpartum appointment with the Jenna pregnancy (March 2009) I was my exact starting weight from pre-pregnancy in June 2008.  My postpartum appointment with Shelby (July 2010) I was at -2 which put me back to my exact starting weight from June 2008.  However, I am sad to admit that at my postpartum appointment with Toby (today) that I am still not back where I started in June 2008 pre-baby.

Regardless, today, I am happy to be 15 pounds lighter, especially since I wasn't trying! 

Pinterest Halloween Project

Saturday we sat down and did a crafty project as a family. Toby was even able to participate!  

I don't know why I love the hand and feet print ideas so much, I just do. I think our little ghosts turned out cute!

Toby's First Bottle

Monday 9/9/13 there was a meeting on my work calendar.  It said FCMA CAE @ MCL.  Needless to say, I work for an organization that loves their abbreviations!  Farm Credit Mid-America (FCMA) is my employer, we are a member-owned cooperative.  We are required to have an annual stock-holder's meeting, which we call our Customer Appreciation Event (CAE).  The venue this year was at the Meadows Banquet Center and catered by MCL Cafeteria.

I have not officially gone back to work, but was expected to be at this meeting, as there were approximately 100 customers from my office in attendance and it's a pretty big deal to our organization.

The meeting kicked off at 6pm which means two things.  Lance was left at home, responsible for all three kids, by himself, for the first time.  This also meant that Toby got his first ever bottle. 

He took it like a champ!  Lance said  he seemed content with his bottle and didn't pose any problems.  I was happy that he made the switch without issue. 

This was something we needed to try out as I am planning on heading back to work on October 1. 

Happy Grandparents Day

 Today is Grandparents day.  Happy Grandparents day to our parents whom love their grandkids.

 

(I don't have a picture of Lance's mom anywhere...) 

 

Happy Grandparents day to my Grandma

and to my Grandpa. 



More Canning

I left my parents with tomatoes and fruit juice concentrate.  The tomatoes I canned into spaghetti sauce on Monday.  I decided to make jelly out of the juice concentrate from Grandma Gumbel. Tuesday I made two batches just to see if I could follow directions and actually get it to "jell".  The original recipe I looked at said "if directions are not followed exactly, failure will result."  Geesh, thanks for the test!  I had tried jelly in 2006 and ended up having no flavor or jell so it was pitched.

I ended up making 2 batches of blackberry jelly on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and another 4 batches Thursday and Friday. This was a total of 7 batches of jelly!  I figure if. Y kids are anything like me, they will take pb&j sandwich for lunch when they start school.  I wouldn't have survived school if it weren't for pb&j!

So, I have added 30 quarts of spaghetti sauce, 16 jars of grape juice, 35 jars of jelly, 21 quarts of green beans to my canning shelves so far this summer.  I have also added 49 packages of sweet corn to the freezer.  I am feeling pretty accomplished and grateful for the help of my parents for the produce that has been put away!