Preschool Graduation!!

On May 29th, Austin graduated from preschool!  It was a wonderful little program.  The entire class sang songs and then received their artwork (which they had signed) as a sort of diploma.  Below Austin was just given his 'diploma' and you can see he is able to write his name very well!

 Here is a picture of Austin with some of his friends.

 Granny Annie was staying with us for the week so she was able to go to the graduation ceremony as well!  Annie, Colton, Gavin and I enjoyed the performance and then enjoyed a snack afterwards.

Gavin Lenox Kliegl

 We proudly welcomed to our family, Gavin Lenox Kliegl, on May 22nd, 2013.  He arrived at 9:37 am.  He weighed 8 pounds, 10 ounces and was 20 1/4" long.  He gave us quite the scare as he had some fluid in his lungs and had to go to the NICU.  Brian and I were new to the NICU so everything seemed scary to us.  It was an emotional few days in the hospital.  Brian held him in the operating room but I wasn't able to hold him until 10pm which was a long time to wait.  He was under a 'hood', which was giving him 100% oxygen.  He had to be under this hood until he could breathe the same air as us, which is 26% oxygen.  Brian and I learned a lot while Gavin was there.  The day he was born we all got to hold his hand and touch his little body.  Austin and Colton were excited to meet him and loved being able to hold him the following afternoon.  They were very proud big brothers, as you can see in the photo above. 

We checked out of the hospital on May 25th around 1pm.  Brian and I were very anxious to get home to our own beds and we were so happy that Gavin was going home with us!  Grandma and Grandpa Kliegl were staying with the big brothers at home, so we had a nice welcome home party for Gavin when we arrived.

When we checked out of the hospital Gavin weight 8 lbs and 4 oz.  When we had his 2 day check-up on May 28th, he was already at 8lbs and 6 oz.  This was a great sign and meant that he was eating and growing!

On June 5th, Gavin had his two week check up and was weighing in at 9 lbs and 11 oz.  He is growing so fast and definitely drinking his milk!  At this same appointment Colton did a follow up ear exam and he weighed in at 32 pounds.  Austin stood on the scale to show Colton how it was done and he weighed in at 44 pounds.  So, all three of our boys are growing at a good rate!

We are enjoying being at home.  Austin and Colton have been amazing big brothers.  They love to help out when I ask them to do things.  They are also very quick to talk to Gavin and give him hugs and kisses when he starts to cry.  Gavin is a wonderful addition to our family!!

8 days to go until Baby Day!

I had a Dr. appointment this morning and the baby heart rate was 154.  Everything looked great for next week's delivery!  It's hard to believe it is only one week away!  The baby is moving around all the time and the Dr. commented this morning that my belly is 'all baby'.  I'm hoping to get some good nights of rest over the next week so I'll be ready to go after the baby is born. 

Rinke wedding weekend!

This weekend I was in Cassie and Jeremy's wedding!  It was a blast.  We all had so much fun spending time with our friends from Colorado.  I definitely got emotional seeing everyone.  We have such great friends and I enjoyed every minute of the three days we had to spend together.  The boys loved all the excitement, the dancing, the cupcakes & cookies, and the photo booth.  I think Austin was in there about 5 or 6 times!  We were all really tired and wiped out yesterday.  All three of my boys took great naps!  :)  And I fell asleep early last night!  There was a lot of talk this weekend about the new baby!  It was fun to share the excitement.  Everyone was placing bets on whether it is a boy or a girl.  So, far most of the guesses were girl . . . even people at the wedding that I didn't know were coming up to talk to me about how far along I was and what the sex was.  It was fun to hear everyone's guesses and their reasoning behind their guess!  As of this morning, we are into the single digits until the baby arrives!  I told the boys this morning, "only 9 more sleeps until the day we get to meet this new little baby!".

Happy Friday!

This is a picture of Austin yesterday morning before preschool. 

We have had a wonderful weather week here!  The boys have gotten to spend part of every day outside and we have all gotten to spend our evenings outdoors.  The boys love eating outside so they have been dining on the deck at their folding table or spreading out a blanket and having a picnic.  Colton seems to be very happy these last couple of days so I'm thinking the medicine is definitely kicking in for him!  I also forgot to mention that Colton is 2 feet, 11 inches tall!  They measured him Monday at the Dr. and he also weighs 31 pounds.  Almost a 3-footer!  This is a picture of Austin yesterday morning before preschool.  We are looking forward to the good weather this weekend, as our good friends Cassie and Jeremy are getting married and we will be at the wedding on Saturday.  Have a great weekend!!

Quick update . . .

A few weeks back Colton said, "Mine ear hurts mama" so we took him to the Dr and sure enough he had a very bad ear infection in his left ear.  Then the Dr. had us schedule a three week follow up to make sure that the antibiotic cleared it up.  Well, his three week check up was just this past Monday and since he has been acting like his happy little self lately, we thought everything was going to be fine.  So, turns out he currently has ear infections in both ears.  She could see infectious water sitting in the 'middle ear' in both ears.  So, this made me feel bad because Colton apparently thinks that this pain is his norm.  When the Dr. shined the little light in his left ear, he hugged close to me and said, "oww, oww, oww, that hurts".  She told us that his infected ears are going to be very sensitive to wind and bright lights.  (Just that tiny little bit of light shining in his ear caused him pain)  So, Monday we started a stronger dose of anitibiotic.  Needless to say, this medicine also doesn't taste as good as the first one so as soon as he takes it, he starts trying to wipe off his tongue and wants to drink more milk.  We are thankful he is at least taking it and not spitting it out!  So, hopefully this clears it up and at our next follow up appointment both ears will be looking better. 

Austin told me Monday that Zoey is his girlfriend.  Then he tells me this morning that Tatum is his girlfriend and that he is married to Sophie.  So, this got a little conversation going about how he should probably only have one girlfriend at a time.  Plus, he thinks that everytime Brian kisses me that we are getting married again.  Which, means that he has kissed Sophie at daycare/preschool at some point.  (which he confirms and we then talked about how he should not be kissing people at daycare/preschool.)  Then he told me his boyfriends name was Eli.  Colton's girlfriends name is Charlee and so on.  So, obviously if you are his friend and you are a boy then you qualify as boyfriend and if you are a girl, you are a girlfriend.  So, the topic changed to something else, when

Austin asks, "Do you know who my favorite girlfriend is?" 
Me, "No, you have quite a list" 
Austin, "My mommy is my favorite girlfriend and the baby in your belly is my best girlfriend." 

Super adorable and I told him that he should keep it that way for a long time to come. 

Art Show!

On Wednesday evening Austin's school had an art show.  The kids worked hard on creating their masterpieces and then they were on display for all of us to come and see.  Austin was very excited that mommy, daddy, and Colton were all going to be able to make it to the art show.  He talked non-stop about his painting at home . . . how he got to mix the colors and make all new colors, how he got to use tiny little plungers to make circles and move the paint around on the paper.  So we were all anxious to see what he had created. 

 

 Here is the end result!

Once we arrived at the art show Austin was more interested in talking to all his friends, having snacks, and signing up for the door prizes!  It was nice to meet some of his friends and put some little faces to the names that Austin talks about all the time.  Austin was also really impressed that I knew some of the other mommies at the art show.  It was a fun little outing, which Colton also enjoyed.  They had a cheese,cracker and meat tray that Colton thought was pretty cool.  It was just at his level so he built himself a little plate of snacks to carry around with him while we looked at all the artwork.