Could she get any cuter???????

Corey got a couple adorable pics of Adelyn today while I was sleeping. Eventually I'll get around to posting about her birth however right now all my spare time is spent sleeping.

So sweet

Our Christmas Gift

INTRODUCING....

Adelyn Jewel Kugle

Born:12/24/2011 at 8:47 am

Weight: 6lb 14 oz

Length: 20 1/2 in

Just Perfect!!!

We thank God for a beautiful and healthy baby girl --what an awesome Christmas gift!!!!

22 months

Oh lets see...where do I even begin except to say Micah is definitely keeping us on our toes these days. He is so much fun and has such an out-going/fun-loving and sweet personality but he is definitely a handful (as I'm sure most almost 2 year olds are). Micah continues to love trucks/cars (or pretty much anything that is a mode of transportation)....and when I say love I mean it is usually the last thing he is talking about before bed and the first thing he talks about in the morning. He loves to play with all his trucks, read books about trucks, watch for the trucks to drive by our house, and point out all the trucks/cars/vans/semis, etc he sees when we are driving. Trains are another favorite...we can hear the train from our house and he always is so excited when he hears it. He will ususally put his finger to his lip and say "shhhhh" when he hears the train and then we will listen to the train drive by. We recently went to a steam train museum where we got to ride a train. Micah of course had lots of fun. Micah also loves to play train with Corey. Corey will often not even be in the door from work when Micah is asking him to be a choo-choo (which means Micah rides on Corey's back).

Micah is talking up a storm these days. He is putting words/sentences together and is starting to copy a lot of what we say. He has started saying things like cool, wow, I did it, awesome (and then he'll even say dada awesome, etc). He knows most all of the names of his cousins/aunts/uncles, etc. It is fun to be able to communicate with him. We are working with him on trying to use words when he needs something or needs help instead of just whinning/crying. He is starting to do better...for example he will say "up please mama" when he wants me to hold him. Micah is also good about knowing most of his colors and most of his letters too. He can recognize most of his letters and tell you what they are for (ex: d is for dada, p is for papa, g is for grandpa). Even when we read he will point out the letters that he sees. Actually last night when we having dinner there was a mushroom that was in the shape of a P on his plate and it took us a few minutes to figure out why he kept saying "P for Papa". Haha....he is one smart cookie! He also loves to sing his ABCs and has most of the song down pretty well. It is so cute...just before his nap today we sang ABC's and then after he was down he said "Yeah I did it". He was so proud of himself. But speaking of singing I will also say that he is very particular about what song he wants sung to him. If we start singing him a song he doesn't like he will wave his hand and say no no no until we find one he wants.

Micah has so much energy. What I wouldn't give for just a quarter of it. From the moment he wakes up he is just ready to go. I can always tell when he got a good night sleep/good nap b/c he wakes up so happy. Like yesterday he woke up in the am and starting saying very loudly "hello, hello, hello". And then this morning he was jumping up and down like a wild man when I went to get him. It is always nice to have a happy baby though. He did a gymnastics class (and by gymnastics I mainly mean he ran around in a gym and played with some equipment/toys) at the Y the past few months. It was mainly just for something to do now that we can't be outside. I'd say he had fun and if nothing else got to expend some energy.

And you'll notice from the below pics that after we got home he apparently thought he was still at gymnastics and was climbing on everything.
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About 2 months ago we got Micah out of the crib and into a big bed. I wanted to do it in plenty of time to have him sleeping well before the baby arrived. Well...it was a good idea, but thats not exactly how it worked. I'd say for the first month it went awesome. He was sleeping great (after a couple nights anyways) and never got out of his bed. And then it was like something clicked and he realized that he could get out and play and it was all over after that. I put the pack and play up and would give him one or two warnings and then he had to sleep in there. However, after a few nights in the pack and play he learned to climb out of that and being 9 months pregnant it required more energy than I had so we decided to put Micah back in his crib in the baby's nursery. And now hes back to sleeping great. I'm not too concerned as the baby will be with us for a while and then once she is sleeping better we can work on getting Micah in his big bed. I just can't deal with 2 kids not sleeping so it's fine by me for now.

Micah continues to love people and love playing with other kids! One of the nursery workers at church says that Micah is the nursery greeter as he always says hi and bye as the kids come and go. It is nice that we are able to leave Micah and not worry that he is upset...usually he doesn't even notice that we are gone. He has a great personality and it is so fun to watch him interact with others.

We are still trying or starting to figure out what works with Micah for discipline. We are still having issues with him biting and hitting. He pretty much just bites and hits Corey and I...though he did hit someone in nursery the other Sunday when they wouldn't give him the car/truck he wanted. He has gotten lots better about biting but now he hits when he is mad (which this is usually when we go to change his diaper and he doesn't want to have it changed or doesn't get what he wants). We have been doing time-out I'm just not sure it is overly effective for him...either that or we just need to continue to be persistent. Obviously we know he is only 2 and expect this type of behavior we just want to be diligent about working to correct it. So, we'll see I know that the battle is just beginning! :)

So, that's a quick update...I could write pages and pages more but thats a quick picture of Micah at 22 months.

38 weeks pregnant (almost)

Well, I've done a horrible job at keeping updated on this pregnancy so I decided I'd do one more post before the baby arrives. I will be 38 weeks on Sunday so really any day now we are expecting this little girl to arrive. Yes, I do know it could be a couple more weeks however since Micah was early (he was born at 38 weeks) I keep thinking she'll be early too...though that doesn't mean she will. I had my check-up today and all continues to be well. I was not dilated at all but the baby had dropped and the NP could feel her head. I am also strep B+ again which just means I need to get to the hospital early enough to get a dose of IV Penicillin in. She said that they want me to have atleast one dose 4 hours prior to delivery so that I shouldn't wait too long at home. About 3 weeks ago I started having some extreme back pain....I thought it was a pinched sciatic nerve. I expect to be uncomfortable and ache at the end of pregnancy but this was horrible and I had a hard time even moving or functioning. During a bad time I'd be on all 4 crawling!!! That was miserable especially trying to care for Micah (so thankful for our family around here who was able to help me out!!) Anyways, I started physical therapy about 1 week ago and have been doing MUCH better. It turns out that it is my SI (sacroiliac) joint that was not working right and so with some exercises and a belt to wear that keeps the joint in place I'm back in action (well, kinda...) now. I am still sleeping horribly (like if I wake up during the night it will take hours to fall back asleep) however am I'm able to sleep a little better now that I am not in so much pain.

Anyways, I haven't really taken any pictures of myself this time around so I quick snapped one. Most people tell me I look really small for being 9 months pregnant. I have however gained plenty of weight and unfortunately it has just all distributed itself mostly to my lower half!!!! Ugggh...guess I'll worry about losing it later!! :)

So..that's pretty much a quick update on my pregnancy and baby girl. I'm going to try and get another update on Micah in before baby girl arrives as I'm sure life will be a little crazy for a while!!!! I'll keep you posted!

What do you think?????

Think he enjoyed helping me make brownies?? I thought so too!!!!

Fall 2011

If there was one season that I missed while we were in Phoenix it was fall. Now, by fall I don't mean the rainy cold fall days I mean the sunny 65 degree days where the leaves are changing and it's nice enough to be outside all day and then cuddle up with a starbucks latte in front of the fireplace with a blanket and good book (haha....trying to think of the last time I did that!:) Anyways, I also realize that in MI with the coming of fall that also means that winter is just around the corner. And if there was one season I didn't miss while we were in Phoenix it was winter.

Anyways, enough rambling about the weather. Here are a few pics of Micah from the fun we've been having this fall.

Below are pics of the pumpkin patch in our neighborhood. They have a little spot where there is a train and tractor which of course Micah just loves. We have walked there several times for him to play and everytime we drive by he has to say hi to the train/tractor. We also went one time and picked out pumpkins. Micah thought it was fun to show his strength and try and load our wagon full of pumpkins. We carved them in the evening and gave Micah a paintbrush to paint his. We put them on the front porch and checked on them the next day. Of course the carved pumpkin had lots of bugs in it so now everytime Micah sees it he says "bug".

I wasn't necessarily planning on taking Micah trick-or-treating primarily b/c he really doesn't know the difference and I really am not a huge Halloween fan. However, my sisters were going and wanted to take Micah. So, last minute I ran the the local consignment shop and got the only costume that was somewhat boyish and in his size--a dog. He had a lot of fun going from house to house with McKenna and getting his treats. He was even good about saying thank you to everyone afterwards. He was awfully cute!!

St. Charles, IL

Corey and I decided to get a night away and we had a great time. Actually the previous weekend we had a conference for church so Micah stayed with my dad and Jamie and then when we went to St. Charles he stayed with Corey's parents (and his sister even came up from Chicago to hang out with the little guy). So, not only did we have a good time but Micah did as well. I originally wanted to do a real babymoon and go to Aruba (or somewhere like that) however that just wasn't quit in the budget this time around. So, we ended up heading to Chicago and staying in a little town about an hour west of the city called St. Charles. On our way down we stopped in a few suburbs and did some shopping/eating. That evening we arrived at our hotel and pretty much just checked it out/relaxed. Out time away was low-key...shopping, eating, hanging out. We stayed at an old hotel that has been restored it was a really cool place as you can see from the below pics. The room was modest (though I'm sure the penthouse with the rooftop hot tub overlooking the river was not!) but it was a great place with lots of character. The town was nice too....lots of great little local restaurants and shops. It is also right on the Fox River so during the on-seasoon you can rent bikes and do the big paddle boats down the river. We walked along the river and were thankful that we had chilly yet great weather. Corey and I were thankful for some extended time away (though we did of course miss Micah) and are already wondering when we will be able to do it again!!

(haha---had to end with this infamous pose!)