Jared - Solid Foods

Well, it is time.  Time for solid food for this little guy. Here are snapshots of his first exposure to something other than milk.  Overall he didn't do to bad. He didn't gag but most of it came back out.  

I think he will catch on pretty quick though. 

Big sister and brother think it is great!

One Hit Wonders On Ice

February brings about Gracie's Ice Skating Show.

The first performance was in Redwood Falls and the second show was in Sleepy Eye.

This is Gracie's second year in ice skating. She has improved quite a bit and she seems to enjoy it.

The theme for this years show was:

ONE HIT WONDERS ON ICE

She is the little one in all these pictures.

She had a solo with 3 other girls her age.

They were adorable.

The ice skating group.

We ordered a video too, so if you are visiting be sure to ask to watch it! Gracie will be thrilled to show you!

Now on to next year!

Happy Valentine's Day!

My Sweetheart and I had a date night last Friday. It was a Valentine's Banquet that some friend's of ours invited us to at their church. We got a babysitter for the kids and off we went. It was a lot of fun. We don't get out much alone (without kids) so it was a treat. We had a great meal, played some fun games, and then got to listen to some wonderful songs by a great singer.

To top it off... we got our picture taken!

12 years together with this guy, 8 1/2 years married.

 Seems like it was yesterday we a group of college kids

at some small-town bar playing an old PacMan video game....

Who knew 12 years and 3 kids later we would still be together???

Happy Valentine's Day!

Mamma's Milk

This is what I have to do on my Guard weekends. 

I have what I call my "baby in a backpack". 

See I have the Medela Backpack Breastpump.  

I pump for 2-3 days straight. I tell you it is a lot of fun.

Then I come and neatly put it in little bags and off to the freezer it goes.

The kids call it "Momma's Milk".

2 guard weekends down (Dec and Jan) 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 to go

 (depending on how long I can keep feeding this time around!)

My Farmer Kids

For Christmas Santa brought 'bibs'.  

The kids think they are great and thought it was a hoot that Jared had some too.

Their 'silly' picture.... not sure why they insisted I take a picture of their backside... 

but they persisted so I did.

My sweet Jared. He is growing so fast!

Ice Skating

The two older kids and I have a new hobby this winter - ice skating.  

Well we did it a one or two times last year but this year I think we are on maybe 4 or 5.

Usually it is a Sunday evening "open skate" event. Me and my Gracie and Zachy.

Jared stays home with Daddy.

Gracie takes lessons on Monday nights, so Zach thinks it is a great treat when he gets to come to "open skate."

In lessons they don't get to use these blue metal things, but when we go on Sundays then they do.

They have gotten pretty good and I have gotten a little better myself.

Gracie and her baby brother

Gracie has sure taken a liking to her little baby brother.

She is always eager to give him his nuk and often asks to hold him. 

So I usually set her up on the couch. 

 Generally it is about 5 minutes and then she gets a little bored, and then asks for me to come get him.  

Jared Rolling Over

My little boy has started rolling over. He has done it a few random times starting around 3 1/2 months, but now at 4 months he know how to do it for sure.

I am not to sure he likes it when he gets over, as he usually starts to cry... but it sure is cute.

Sick Jared

Poor little guy has had a cough for a couple of months. It has been getting a little worse, but I kept thinking it was just a bad cold.  You can't give infants any cold medicine, so we were just trying to be troopers and hang in there until it subsides.

Well over the Christmas weekend the cough got worse. It was more "croupy" sounding. His eyes got all matty too.  Amazingly no fever came about and little Jared kept is spirits ups. He continued to eat good, sleep good, and do his gorgeous smiles.

To daycare he went on Tuesday.  Well he looked miserable all day so I thought it best we take him in to get checked out. I was thinking bronchitis with an antibiotic for the treatment, but I was wrong.

The doctor said we better check for RSV.

So off to the Lab Jared and I went. He had blood drawn and nasal swabs put in both his nostrils. Poor guy, he cried and cried. Then his Mommy cried and cried, but it wasn't over he needed a chest x-ray too.

That was another torturous event... more tears from both Mom and Jared.

In the end lungs were clear, but RSV was present in the nose.

Treatment is nebulizer treatments, liquid prednisone, and eye drops.

Now about a week later his is doing pretty good.

I can't believe he didn't run a fever. What a strong little tiger we have!

Christmas Morning - Santa Came!

We are usually traveling home from my Mom and Dad's Christmas morning, but since we celebrated a week  earlier with the Sohre's we could do Christmas morning at our house. It turned out wonderfully!

It went something like this:

Christmas Eve we left out cookies, milk, and carrots for Santa and Rudolph.

Christmas morning this is what was left.

This is how Christmas morning went:

(I hope I never forget this)

6:40am - everyone is sound to sleep in their beds, it is pitch black outside

6:45am - mine and Marty's bedroom suddenly gets turned on

6:45 and 30 seconds -Marty and I sit up startled and thinking "What the heck is going on??"

6:46am - Gracie yells "SANTA WAS HERE!"

Zach yells "THERE IS PRESENTS UNDER THE TREE"

Gracie "HE ATE THE COOKIES, BUT NOT ALL OF THEM!"

Both kids:  "MOM AND DAD GET UP NOW!!!!"

Marty "I NEED FIVE MORE MINUTES!"

(ya, right Dad, you are really going to get the kids to agree to that one!)

Those little voices were priceless and something to be cherished FOREVER!

For some reason I can't get this pictures to arrange in the order I want, so they are in reverse, which is a little cofusing, but you'll get the idea.

When we were done with the gift opening we feasted on a pan of freshly baked rolls.

It was a good morning.

After the kids opened their presents then it was Marty and I's turn.

I got bubble gum and batteries...

AAhh, don't feel to bad for me... the week earlier I got a gift at my Mom and Dad's that was from both my parents and Marty and the kids... it was a remote car starter for my vehicle.

I will very much enjoy that.

Marty got a new electric razor... top of the line. 

He liked it a lot and now his face is as smooth as Jared's bottom. Ha!

The disaster after the gifts are opened.

Zach with his new tractor and wagon.

Gracie with dollhouse furniture.

The family (Jared was still sleeping at this point)

The two excited kids before tearing into the gifts. 

It was a GREAT morning. 

Malecek Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was spent at the Malecek house.

We have some additions for this house this year too.

Marty's brother, Kevin, has a girlfriend this year, Jana.

With her comes her two wonderful kids Makayla and Taylor.

This picture above is Makayla, Rochelle, Zach, and Gracie.

Below we have the adorable Kailani.

I don't think she could get any cutier.

It has been a long time since a family photo was taken of this troop so we managed to get one this year.

We have Lisa, Kevin, Denise, Marty, and Debbie.

Then since there was a little arguing going on earlier in the evening we thought we would capture how everyone really feels about each other.

And below the entire clan with Mom and Dad.

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids.

Grandkids again, showing off their presents.

A beautiful ending to Christmas day was this absolutely beautiful sunset.

This picture really doesn't do it justice.

It is a great example to show what the true meaning of Christmas is:

The miracle of Jesus Christ and our salvation within Him.

Thank you Jesus for being born to save us from ourselves!