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!

Sohre Christmas 2011

We did Christmas a little different at the Sohre household this year. 

We did it the weekend before Christmas. You see in my entire 32 years of life we have always done it on Christmas Eve.  It is kinda a thing. We get spiffed up, go to church, then come home and celebrate with good food, good company, and of course gift giving and opening presents. 

This year in order to have the entire family around we did it the weekend before. This allowed Darrin to bring Mandy (his girlfriend of over a year).  All-in-all this worked out great.

We started with a holiday noonish meal of ham and all the fixings. Then some socialization and naps for the youngsters, then a course of snackies and more gathering and then gift exchanging and opening presents. 

It didn't end there though, someone got the idea that the entire family should stay over night. See 4 of the 6 families live in the area, so they certainly could go home (they usually do). Having everyone stay over night allowed us to socialize some more and spend more quality time together and to have Dad make us breakfast in the AM... banana pancakes (they are the best!).

Staying overnight meant 12 adults, 12 kids, and 3 dogs sleeping in a 4 bedroom/3 bath house.

Amazingly it worked and was lots of fun.

As you can see Santa (AKA my Mom) went with a theme this year of giving us all 

"Property of the SOHRE family" t-shirts.

I have to say I kinda like them and we had a blast modeling them.

I think the in-laws did too. They got the treat of fleece PJ pants too.

Jared taking a cat nap in the middle of all the excitement with his new toys.

Me and my Sweetie.

The new addition to our Christmas this year was Mandy. This is Darrin's girlfriend. The tradition is the potential in-law gets a stocking... but kind of a homemade, previously used kind.

When she makes the cut and joins officially then she gets a real stocking that matches everyone else!

Gracie trying out her sleeping bag that she got from Grandma and Grandpa. 

Zach opening his sleeping bag.

Great Grandma and Jared.

My happy little Jared.

Great Grandma and Grandpa come over for a visit too.

It was nice they joined us.

Gracie with her mermaid barbie doll.

Boys:  Joe, Jesse, and Zach.

Some of the grand kids surrounding Grandma waiting patiently for presents!

Gracie and Great Grandma Sohre.

A bunch of the kids.

Some girl cousins: Kate, Paige, Maesee, and Maddy.

And the wonderful lady who runs the show and makes this all possible: 

 My Dear Mother.

Thanks Mom. Love You.