Visit to Utah

So I know its been almost a month since we went home to utah but you know Im slacker on updating this thing. While Cody was in Iraq we decided that we would head home for a week around Halloween. This was the first time Cody has been home in over 2 years and the first time the Knaus family would get to meet Kalab. I was a bit leery about the plane ride since I had never flew with a baby before but I figured since I had Cody with me it wouldn't be so bad and it wasn't until the end. We had 45 mins to get from one end of the airport to next while in Atlanta. We made it in plenty of time but believe me I was hauling it just to make sure we did. We were lucky enough to get a large body jet from Atlanta to Utah and man the little T.V's in the headrest was a huge bonus. As we got closer to Utah we hit some delays 3 to be exact due to the snow. I thought Cody was going to go crazy being on that flight with a fussy baby and a 3 yr old that was really tired of sitting. As we made it in Utah we passed off the kids to my family :) We decided to stay with my family the first night then head to see ma and pa knaus along with all of the other parts of the Knaus clan. it was a great vacation which was nice since Cody and I had worried about making sure all of the families got to see the kids and us. The sunday before we left we had Kalab blessed by my father in law Frank. It was a wonderful experience, I even saw something that very rarely happens . my father in law crying which of course made me cry. I will always remember one thing he said during the blessing.... You will be the man over the house while your dad goes off to fight in the war.... at this point I lost it. I was so excited to have all the Knause family together again. I don't think I have even bonded as much with ma and pa Knaus then I did on this trip. I got to see my grandma and aunt as well. I haven't seen my grandma since my wedding 4 yrs ago. We all really enjoyed this trip. I wish it could have been longer but they wanted Cody back to work....... I will make sure to post some pictures as soon as I figure how to do that on my Laptop.

HE'S HOME!!

I finally our family is complete.... it has been a LONG 6 1/2 months but we made it to the end

Cody came home last night..... It was a very eventful night I have never felt so much emotion. One minute so excited I think I am going to pee myself the next irritated that its taking so long for the white buses to pull up to the hangar and unload Marines. From the time they landed to the time he walked off that bus it was almost 3 hours, but watching those buses pull in front of the hangar hearing Maddie scream "DADDY!" and watching jump in his arms, having Cody meet Kalab for the first time and to my surprize Kalab smiling and happy to see his daddy. I will admit I cried when I hugged him. It was like relief just washed over me and I cried tears of happiness ( which I have never done before) knowing that he was finally back.

My dear sweet neighbor and friend took pictures for me since I knew would be an emotional basketcase to do it myself.

so I guess I should update

yup Im slacker... but hey at least I will admit it. Not alot has been going on in the Knaus household not much excitement without Cody here.

Maddie is loving preschool. Her teacher told me that Maddie was able to take a test that they give to children about to go to Kindergarten ( sad isn't it you have to take a test to show you are ready for Kindergarten.) and she aced it. The test consisted of upper and lower case letter, numbers and spelling. I am so proud of our little genius she got Cody's smarts and of course his good looks. With her smarts she can help mom and auntie amber pay for grandpa's pool side room at the Hooter's breast home.

Kalab is growing like a weed. I can't believe he is 4 months old already. He has his 4 month check up he weigh in at 13lbs 12 oz and 26 inches long ( yup he is going to be tall like his daddy) The doctor said he is beefy. He was excited and active while the doctor was checking him out. He is a happy baby most of the time until he gets hungry and they he will go from happy to pissed in 2.5 seconds. Him and Kane are best buds. Kalab thinks Kane is just so funny and Kane just wants to lick him. Maddie is such a big help..... she loves being a big sister. She is very protective of her brother. Im sure that will fade as they get older and she will tell me she hates him blah blah blah.

We are getting closer and closer to Cody coming home and I couldn't be more excited, freaked out, relieved, nervous. I can't believe it has been 6 months since he left. I can't wait for him to meet his son and see how big maddie has got, I know maddie has been missing him like crazy. SO has the dog :) I guess I have too .... who am I kidding I have been missing him even his pain the butt moments. A few weeks after Cody gets home we will be heading out to Utah for a week. We are all excited to go see family and have a vacation. I am hoping that it will be a smooth trip with flying and all.

Well I will try more to update but its a wee bit hard when nothing really excited has been happening..... but as you wait here are some pictures of the rugrats

Grandma came to visit

So I have been a bit lazy on updating this thing but I am lucky enough to remember to get myself dressed most days so cut me some slack. My mom came back out to visit us last week. Maddie was so excited to have grandma come visit. Kalab was happy to see another face that he knew and Kane was so thrilled to have someone else to torment for a whole week. I was happy to have some extra arms so I could take a shower without maddie under my feet or having to worry that Kalab was awake in his crib and I couldn't hear him. Of course the kids got spoiled but I don't expect much else from grandma. As in spolied I don't just mean gifts I mean a whole lot of grandma time which was a real treat for them I'm sure after staring at my mug for the last 5 months :) Of course the week went by WAY too fast and I wish she could have stayed longer and brought out the rest of the family since when they did come out we barely did anything. We still didn't do alot but it was alot of fun.... I knew once my mom left it would mean we would be one week closer to Cody being home. I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel... its a flickering light but damn it I see it :) Here are some pictures of the week with grandma

Thank you

So Maddie, Kalab and I took a trip to walmart a few days ago ( yes walmart is my second home right now... I need a intervention.) Now trips to Walmart aren't all that bad taking both kids it just gets to be too much with Maddie asking every 5 mins "Mom can I have that.... Mom....hey mom.... look mom.... OK lets go, I'm done." After what seemed like a 3 hr trip to make sure we got everything for Cody's package we got in line. Now Maddie has decided she wants to place everything on the moving belt for me even if it is too heavy for her. I was already over my limit of patience at Walmart, which seems to get shorter and shorter due to little sleep. Maddie had asked for a bag of Cheetos so being the wonderful mom I am and picking my battles I got her a bag of Cheetos. She placed them on the moving belt the cashier scanned them and handed them to Maddie. ( Maddie had made sure to let the lady know over and over again that those were her Cheetos.) Maddie told her thank you. The cashier looked at me and told me she was the first little kid that had said thank you all day, granted it was about 6pm when we were checking out. She said that Maddie has renewed her faith in polite little kids. After all was said and done I was a little proud that we have raised a polite little girl..... It looks like daddy has taught her something good other then " SILENCE! I kill you." (Jeff Dunham)

We make beautiful kids

My awesome neighbor took some pictures of the kiddos. She is in school for Photography so Maddie and Kalab got to be her little models. Anything in the name of education :)

Pictures of our little peanut

I thought I would post some pictures of Peanut.....

This is one of the first pictures my mom got of Kalab since she didn't get to see me deliver.

Maddie meeting her brother for the first time.... she has a thing with poking him all the time

Freedom calls.... Cody got to see Kalab for the first time via the sandbox. I started to cry when I walking in the room and saw Cody I think he even teared up a bit.

Grandma soaking up some baby time before the rest of the family got here

Maddie loves to hold her brother for about 2 seconds then she is done

Gotta represent daddy and uncle Randy's favorite band... this is the day we went home

Grandpa's new buddy. The first grandson.... he was really enjoying the testosterone

My little muscle man..... This was his first bath and he HATED it!

I love this onesie :)

Auntie amber took this picture

He has Cody's and Maddie's appetite

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the swing I love it!

I love visits from my family

I had the joy of having my family come visit the 3 ( or 4 if you count the dog)of us this last week. My mom had been out here since the 13th of May to help with Maddie and drive me to the hospital as I screams profanities and peed myself lol.

My dad, sister and niece showed up on the 23rd to entertain the dog who is now known as Kane the dog and Maddie while Kalab got all the snuggling and loves he could ever dream of. Maddie was so excited to have Kee-Kee here to play with becuase you know mom is just not as fun as kee-kee. I enjoyed having the company. I forgot how much I miss having a busy house ( 7 people and a dog in my house) It was nice to wake up and hear more then just silence.

We didn't do a whole lot for the week due to I was suppose to be resting ( ha me rest good one) We did take the girls to the aquarium and the ocean. Kee-kee ( who is also known as Kaydence lol) loved the water, if we could have stayed there all day she would have been perfectly content. Maddie wasn't so sure about the water and had to hold grandma or grandpas hand most of the time. I sat back on the beach with Kalab and watched them play. It was so peaceful. See even auntie amer and grandma had fun.......

Amber and Kaydence got their first taste of a North Carolina rain storm. Grandma and the girls decided it would be fun to go play in it since the rain was so warm and it was still over 75 degrees.

It was like pulling teeth to get them to come back inside once the rain stopped.

Kalab spend most of his time on grandpa and his warm chest. My dad was so exctied to finally have a grandson since its been all girls. It was like for once testosterone was around him instead of all the estrogen.Kane the dog just loved having someone to torment. He liked to herd Maddie and Kaydence around the house and annoy grandma to no end, but thats what he does best.

The week went by way too fast and I was very sad to see them go. I wish they could have stayed longer. Maddie thinks that they are going to come back anytime now and its hard to explain to her that grandma grandpa and auntie amer had to go home. I know Kalab is missing all the cuddling and snuggling, but in a few short months we will be out to Utah to visit the families.

Kalab is here!

Kalab Frank Knaus

May 20, 2008

6lbs 14 oz

22 inches

This is a story I will never forget and never thought that would happen....... the story of Kalab's birth something other then the orginal water broke, go to the hospital have the baby, get some popcorn sit back and enjoy.....
On Wednesday, I woke up with some pains not thinking much of it since I had been having some pains on and off all week. After getting Maddie to school I told my mom that we should go to the hospital just to be on the safe side. I got admitted and all that jazz, we sat there for 2 hrs to see if thepains ( which later would be contractions) would get any stronger, of course they didn't until the nurse told me that all my pains were bractions hicks contractions and to come back if the contractions got stronger ( as the nurse said the kind that makes you double over in pain and takes your breath away) and where about 5 mins apart for longer then a hour.( I gave her the WTF look but she never caught it lol) Once we walked about the the hospital the contractions got stronger but I figured it wasn't labor yet. We came home and the contractions got stronger so I took a bath ( hey thats what the nurse told me to try so hell why not) The contractions got even stronger. I told my mom we had to go we got maddie to Heathers and back to the hospital. Well the entire way to the hospital I am using every swear word know to man and I don't doubt made up a few of my own. My sweet mom just laughed at me ( to keep from freaking out like I was) I even told my mom to pull over a few times so I could pee but she never did, good thing too. We got to the ER and she asked me if I needed a wheelchair but the car didn't even stop and I was out and hurrying in screaming I was in labor, the ER nurses looked at me in shock , you would think they would have dealt with a woman in labor before.They got me on a bed and a ER doctor checked me to see if I was in labor, yup I know what you are thinking well no shit she is in labor. They wheeled me up to Labor and delivery triage room, at that point I had to push ( i had been asking to push since i got to the ER.) The doctor had just got off call and the next doctor which was my doctor was paged. They decided to wheel me over to a labor room. Within 5 mins of being in there Kalab was born all NATURAL! now for all that decided that all natural is the way to go more props to you. It was something I never thought I would do but Kalab decided different for me. I became the talk of the Maternity floor, all the nurses asked me about his birth. :)

Maddie loves being a big sister! She wants to hold him all the time and is so helpful

I did it!!!

Well I made it through 8 weeks of pure hell I mean school and I didn't have to tie up Maddie or Kane even thought I had thought about it a few times. It has been 3 years since I had been in college and I completely forgot all the busy work that goes into school. My grades you ask..... I got a A and a B. For all that know me thats AMAZING! You would have thought that I would have learned the last time I was in school that going to school and being pregnant does not work all too well but I guess I didn't learn the first time :)
I must say I am proud of my myself for make it throught the term, I thought it would be so easy everyone told me " hey it will help keep your mind of Cody being gone." It did that, but it didn't help add to the stress of being overly pregnant, trying to divide my attention between Maddie and Kane and still having some sorts of social life and to think I get to start all over again on the first of June but take away one class and add a newborn.... Yes I know I am crazy but it's one step closer to being Cody's sugar momma or so he thinks........

even more adventures of the belly

33 weeks..... We went to cody's unit easter party and the ladies there talked me into painting my belly.

35 weeks.... Im ready for this is be over

I will make sure to add more before I pop

Welcome to the house of sickness

I am starting to wonder if anyone in this house will ever get 100% better from sickness. It hit all 3 of us about a week before Cody left, but had been plaguing Maddie and I for over 2 months before that. It went from allergies and bronchitis to the lovely stomach bug in a few short days. I tired so hard to get better before Cody left but no such luck. Once he left it went all down hill from there. My allergies turned into a sinus infection which I am still taking medication for and being pregnant there is little medication they can give me and believe me I asked and asked. I wondering when Urgent Care is going to get me my own chair since in the last 2 months I have been there so much.
Maddie was still suffering from "allergies" and then got a fever for a few days and the last diagnosis was she now has pink eye. I am finally after almost 3 months getting over a cough, not that it hasn't made my sides feel like I have done a million crunches and a voice of a 14 yr old boy going through puberty. Maddie is slowly getting better but you would never know she is sick since she acts like her normal self.
Hey at least the dog is healthy right?!?

hippy hoppy easter is on its way.......

So yesterday was Cody's unit easter party. I was a little aprehensive to go since I didn't really know anyone, but I figure what the hell Ill go and see how it is and I knew Maddie would have fun. Well I was right she had alot of fun and I met some cool ladies. One of the ladies took picture of the event so that they could be sent over to the guys in the "sandbox" to help show them that their wives and family were doing well and not just sitting in our houses all depressed.

Here the pictures that she got of Maddie and I......

Maddie and the easter bunny she chased him down

Maddie would only sit by the easter bunny if I was sitting next to her so we both got our picture taken with the big bunny ( I actually like this picture which is completely rare for me to like a picture of myself)

The ladies talked me into painting my belly..... the paint was cold as you can tell by my face :)

Maddie made off like a bandit and of course all the eggs had candy in them.... lucky me!

She keeps asking me if we can go on another egg hunt.... good thing she has one for school comming up this week.

one of my favorite pictures

I had to post this picture since its one of my favorite right now. Maddie is such a daddies girl!

The countdown has began for us!

More adventures in the belly

Here are more picture of my every growing belly.......

27 weeks and 4 days

30 weeks 2 days

The dreaded "D" word

Now when you hear the "D" word most people would think divorce but not to a military wife that dreaded "D" word is deployment. The "D" word as hit our household within the last week or so ( it added to the horrible cough that is plaguing this house as well.)
Cody will be leaving to play in the sandbox soon, We know somewhat of a date but I will not post it or even tell people due to OPSEC ( its basically the hush hush rule in the miltary.) All I will say is around the end of the month there will be one less person in this house for 6 to 7 months. I am sad that Cody won't be here for Kalab's birth but as we decided I would rather have him miss the younger part of his life then when he is learning all the milestones which if he didn't go now he would miss during a later deployment. My family will be comming to help me ( and that means Amber too if I have to tell my parents to pack her in a suitcase and sent her she will be comming I miss my niece and I guess I miss my sister too but just a little bit :D )with the birth and a few weeks after. Cody might even be able to watch the whole birth via webcam lucky him huh.
Now I have had many people ask me how I am feeling about this and as for right now I am doing ok , it hasn't really hit me all together as of yet but give me a few weeks and I know it will. I know I am going to miss him like crazy even the times when he drives me nuts to the point I want to scream and pull out my hair. Cody explained to Maddie that he is leaving for a while but I don't she quite understands right now which is ok Im not sure how much she will really understand of it but I am going to make sure she knows what is going on and daddy will be home in a short time. Kane on the other hand, I told Cody he is going with him I will even go buy him a flack jacket. Kane would have all those guys to play with it would be like heaven for him. Cody thought I was joking when I told him but he will realize otherwise when he gets a HUGE package that says live animal on it LOL.( Im kidding he is staying here with me, he is the protector of the family well he thinks he is.)
I am hoping with school, Maddie , Kalab and Kane I will stay busy and this deployment will fly by. Im just not looking forward to be begining.

Maddie's first day of school

The day we all have been waiting for ( ok I know Maddie and I have been waiting for it.) The first day of school for Maddie. I wanted to make sure I was up around 630 so that everything was ready but between the alarm clock and the dog I was up long before.

Maddie was up around the time cody was getting ready to leave for work so she made sure to let daddy know that she was going to school today, then she proceeded to everyone in the house which at the time was me and the dog, knew that it was the day for school. We got ready and walked to school, its not too far from the house so I figured it walk would do me some good and I knew she wouldn't have a problem with it. Of course it had rained all weekend so Maddie decided on the walk she would find all the puddle she could to jump in not matter if mom told her to stop or not. Once we made it in the school building she darted off to her classroom ripped her back pack and coat off and headed right to the toys. Her teacher came over and spoke with me about the class and all the fun school stuff she would be doing. I got ready to leave and told Maddie I was going and she could have cared less she was dancing. I finally got her to come over and give me a hug a half sided "ok mom you can leave now" hug and she was back to dancing.

I got to go out with some other moms for coffee while maddie was in school which was nice, it seemed so strange not to have her with me, but I could get use to it :)

A few hours later I went to pick her up from school....... He teacher let me know that while playing outside maddie found the slide with the puddle at the bottom and decided that was the slide she wanted so she slid down it and right into the puddle, I was glad they told me to pack extra clothes for her. Maddie didn't really want to leave but I told she would come back again on wednesday so she seemed to be ok with leaving after that. We got home and she told me about class and they called grandma and grandpa Groves to tell them along with auntie amer. As I was talking to my mom on the phone I looked over to see this..........

I guess it was a busy day for her.