Week in Review

Madisyn frontal view with chubby cheeks

Kenzie's beautiful creation with sidewalk chaulk

Messy girl after making her creation. She is a MESS!

Oops, it appears I forgot to post a new blog earlier this week. Well it has been a busy week! We decided not to put Kenzie in preschool due to potty training issues, but instead wait until next school year. She is still going to daycare a couple of days a week to get the interaction of other children her age. My doctor appt went well and this week I started my biweekly NST's. How exciting! LOL. That pretty much covers last weeks events.

This week I have had two NST's, an ultrasound, and a doctor's appointment. The doctor appointment was uneventful and in fact, they are very impressed with my blood pressures. I have cut my blood pressure medication dose in half due to low blood pressure and my pressures continue to be in the low 120's/60's. Today's NST was a little eventful and ended up lasting 1 hour and 20 minutes. I was contracting pretty regularly, but the contractions never intensified in strength so they went ahead and released me. Later today we found out through ultrasound that, PRAISE GOD, Madisyn has decided to cooperate and is head down position facing my spine. It was difficult to get any good pictures of her due to her rear facing position. We did however get one face shot. It appears that the little girl has some chubby cheeks. Also, something I never saw with McKenzie and it is amazing to me that you can see on ultrasound was hair. You can see the fuzz which is Madisyn's hair and boy does she have lots of it. I am hoping that she is going to be my beautiful brown haired, brown eyed little girl! I have NST's and fluid level watch (an ultrasound to check amnio fluid) next week and then return to the doctor on April 6.

We will be celebrating Easter this year in our new home. Yes, we signed the papers today for our new house on post. It is not exactly what we were looking for, but it will do and it will get us in a house before Madisyn arrives! There is no garage, but there is a decent carport and storage area. It is a three bedroom, 2.5 bath duplex, upstairs and downstairs. There is a dining room, kitchen, and large living room as well as a HUGE pantry/laundry room (big enough for AC, water heater, washer/dryer, and our big deep freeze). The back yard is not real impressive, but it will be summer soon and Emma will be inside a lot due to heat. Otherwise, we will just have to start taking family walks, which will be healthy for all of us!

On the lines of Easter, we will be celebrating Easter on Palm Sunday at our house. Easter has become too commercialized and due to the true and meaningful meaning of Easter Sunday we want to keep it holy. We will be doing Easter egg hunt with Joe's battlion on Saturday and then doing our hunt and easter baskets with her on Sunday morning that way we can teach her the true meaning and symbolism of the next week starting with Good Friday and ending with resurrection Sunday. We ask that if any of you are going to send Easter stuff for the girls that you send this week or wait until after the 12th.

Joe has been on permissive TDY this week (basically leave allowing him to look for a house). He gets 10 days paid vacation that does not count toward his yearly allotment of leave. He goes back to work starting in the middle of the week next week, but will probably get a day or two off at the end of the week to supervise the delivery of our household goods which should be down here by the 3rd.

I think that about sums it up for us. Our new address is 15430-B West Street Fort Polk, LA 71459.

Well it has rained for the last four days dropping the temperature from the nice and warm 85 degrees that we had last weekend to a mild 60. Still not bad, but the constant rain has made it pretty miserable for McKenzie and me since we don't have a car during the day and we can't play outside the apartment. The quarters which aren't to bad in reality seem quite cramped when you have a cooped up 3 year old!!

Other than that we are doing well. Her pony collection is expanding and she loves playing with them. It is such a blessing watching her play and act out life situations through her ponies. She has such an imagination! She is getting very excited about her little sister and just this week said, Madisyn is getting bigger mommy, she can come out soon! I imagine the excitement might be short lived after Madisyn actually arrives!

Joe has joined up with his new unit. They seem very strict and he has found himself to be in the minority, but he says that so far it has not been to bad. He starts PT tomorrow morning, so I am sure for the next couple of weeks he is going to be hurting! This unit just got back from Iraq in the fall so they should be around for a little while, hopefully 24 months! We will just pray for a long stay right here stateside.

Madisyn is still a very active girl, however, I think she is still in the breech position. We have an appointment in the OB/GYN clinic tomorrow here on base. That is where I will also deliver as long as everything goes as planned and she arrives on schedule. We are getting very anxious for her arrival as I get more uncomfortable with each passing day. Sleeping at night is nearly impossible. I guess I will be ready for those every 2-3 hour feedings once she gets here, lol.

Joe and I have decided to put McKenzie in preschool here. She will probably be starting next week, although we are registering her tomorrow. I think the interaction with other children will be good for her and give her someone her own age to play with. It will also give me time to work in the mornings or afternoons, whenever she goes, as well as give me some one on one time with Madisyn so she gets the attention and "education" that McKenzie got at an early age being an only child.

I will update you all tomorrow after the baby appointment. Until then, we love you all and miss you dearly! Above are a couple of pictures of McKenzie playing at the park last week. She is quite the monkey!

We're Here

Well as most of you know, we are here and starting to settle into the hot humid weather of Fort Polk, LA. We are in temporary lodging which is essentially an apartment where we will live until a more permanent house becomes available on post. It is fairly spacious and is almost an exact replica of the layout of our house in Kansas. Kenzie seems to enjoy her new living conditions for the time being, although I am not sure if the reality of the move has really sunk in yet. The houseing waiting list is 1-2 months and so far we have been on the list for 15 days, hopefully we are half way there!! There are 4 families that need 3 bedrooms on the list in front of us and there are a couple of units deploying so hopefully the turn around is quick. I really have not had a chance to meet anyone around here yet, but Joe says that all the people that he has encountered in his in processing have been exceptionally nice and very hospitable. The base, what we have seen of it, appears to be fairly small and there does not appear to be much just outside the base to do, but we are only about 1 hour away from Lake Charles and 45 minutes away from Alexandria. Joe has been told that there is a really nice zoo in Alexandria, which we may check out before Madi comes. There is also a big festival next weekend in Alexandria with BBQ ect and Joe would really like to go try that out!

We had a little scare this weekend with Madisyn, but everything seems to be okay according to the doctors here. I just had a little uterine irritation from dehydration from traveling and was contracting, but they were not strong enough to start anything. They said to take it easy and they got me into the clinic on Monday March 16th for my first appt.

The pollen here is unbelievable and Miss McKenzie and myself have had to resume our allergy medication, but I think once that kicks in, we will be ready to go for walks and trips to the park! There is a nice little playground outside our apartment.

We miss you all dearly and will keep you up to date as often as possible. It is my goal to update each Sunday, but this one kind of slipped by...

Love you all!!