It's Been Awhile...

Good Afternoon!

The month of May has flown by here at the Carlson house. We have been busy with end of the school year activities, work, karate, and life in general. It has been great, but we are so glad it's SUMMER!

May got off to an exciting start for our family as we shared Caden's Cubs with the children at our church, North Star. The children collect an offering each month for a ministry of some kind, and they asked us if they could collect for Caden's Cubs for the months of May and June. We were honored and humbled to be asked, and of course, said "yes!". We were recently blessed to have a logo created for Caden's Cubs through a woman that works with Alexandra's House (see below), so it was fun to debut that in addition to sharing our mission with the youth of the church. Connor and Kylee shared Sparkles and Carl, and we set up the children's altar using some of our Build-A-Bear creations. So far, the children have already collected enough money for one bear. It is so exciting!

A little bit about the logo. You will see a bear (our symbol for Caden) sitting on an alphabet block. It was important to us that we incorporated all of our children into the logo, so you see the first letter for all of their names on the block. "C" for Connor, "K" for Kylee, and "H" for our newest addition, whom we've decided to name Hadley. Hadley Louise (my middle name). It is wonderful for us to have a symbol for our ministry that includes all four of our little ones.

Speaking of Miss Hadley, she is right on target with her growth, and they are now saying I am due around July 28th. We will most likely schedule an induction about a week before that, so we will be meeting our baby girl in just over 2 months. We are beginning to wash up clothes, and I almost cry each and every time I smell the sweet aroma of the baby detergent. I bought our first pack of diapers a couple weeks ago and almost had a meltdown of joy right there in Target. It's the little things that make me realize how truly blessed we are and we continue to pray, daily, for Hadley's health and continued development.

Now, back to activities of the children outside my womb....

We had our annual family night at Worlds of Fun courtesy of Brandon's company, DST. It was interesting this year because Connor is certainly outgrowing Camp Snoopy as you can tell by his sheer enthusiasm for the train in the picture below. He did, however, venture out and try bumper cars and some other rides that were considerably more fun for him.

The month of May also held a walk to the park for Kylee's preschool class:

Connor's class took a trip to Kaleidoscope at Crown Center here in Kansas City. Brandon had his name drawn out of the hat and was chosen to go along as a sponsor on the trip. Here's Connor playing:

Kylee and I were able to join Brandon and Connor's class for a picnic lunch at Penguin Park after the morning's festivities. It was a fun day!

In the middle of the month, Brandon travelled to Springfield, Illinois for a weekend to test for his black belt in karate. He was successful in achieving his goal, so he is now a certifiable member of an elite club that I know little about, but do have a great deal of respect for all the same. He trained for months to go and demonstrate his abilities, and it's impressive to watch him do his thing. The kids and I stayed at home as there wasn't much for non-karate folks to do on this particular trip, and we were excited to greet him when he returned home as an official first-degree black belt. Connor also tested here at his school and was successful in obtaining his yellow belt, so we've had all sorts of good things to celebrate on that front.

Speaking of accomplishments, Connor decided last weekend that he wanted to learn to ride his bike without training wheels. I think he got tired of our neighbor girls whizzing around him on their bikes when they all ride together. So, he and Daddy made a trip down to a nearby empty parking lot to give it a try (a cul-de-sac is tricky to navigate when one is just starting out!), and Connor took to riding sans training wheels immediately. He felt so proud and is now easily lapping all of us on evening walks as he rides and we make a (very sorry) attempt to keep up.

Caden's garden is in full bloom, so I am hopeful that I can get out there and take some pictures to share with you all. It is so wonderful to look out the kitchen window and see it each and every day.

We hope you all are enjoying your Memorial Day weekend. Stay tuned for more pictures...come back soon!

Spring is Here!

We are so happy to be seeing the sunshine, albeit occasionally, around here! The kids are getting to play outside more often, which is good for everyone's soul. :)

Spring has brought with it a flurry of activity. As the school year draws to a close, I am busy up at Jewell, and both of the kids have had several fun field trips and activities with their schools. The pace has picked up at work for Brandon, too, so we're all on our toes!

I worked all week last week, and we were fortunate to have Grandpa Carlson come and stay with us for a few days to help with the kiddos while I was away. He got to go with Kylee's class on their field trip to the firestation. One of Kylee's teachers, Miss Chris, snapped this picture of the class (our girl can be found in the middle of the back row in a purple dress):

We also attended Connor's first Kindergarten music program together. Some of the McKinney delegation drove down to join us:

Here's our big man, singing his tunes and doing the motions (front row, fifth from right):

The program was centered around going to the Zoo, so there were several great songs about different animals and the kids were supposed to dress as they would for a day at the Zoo. It was really fun to watch and Connor did a great job!

In baby news, I am now 27 weeks along. Time is moving quickly! I had an appointment this week where we did another sonogram just to make sure everything looks okay. I was thrilled to see that our baby girl is weighing in at about 2.5 lbs, is moving lots, and is developing cheeks that bear a strong resemblance to those of her siblings. My fluid levels are appropriate, and the very patient sonographer was willing to show me both of her kidneys and her bladder. Hooray!

Walking out of the appointment, I allowed myself, for one of the first times, to relax and experience true joy. Seeing that things are okay with our little girl at this point in the game gave me a sort of permission to actually envision getting to bring her home with us. It was an amazing, and overwhelming, feeling. I am dreaming of holding her, smelling her (the baby lotion type, not necessarily the poopy diaper part, although it is amazing how excited I am even about that!), listening to her quiet grunts, and feeling her precious little breath on my cheek.

I was talking to Kylee this morning, who is often in despair these days about not being a "big kid." She wants to go to Kindergarten next year in the worst way. So, we talked about how important it was going to be for her to be home with me to help with the baby. I asked her how she thought she might help. Here are her ideas:

1.) Feed her.

2.) Play with her.

3.) Make sure she's healthy.

4.) Help her eat healthy snacks.

5.) Bathe her in the sink.

6.) Dress her.

I love it that our older children now recognize the blessing that health is. What important lessons our journey with Caden has taught us!

We can't believe she'll be here in just over two months...baby girl, you are SO LOVED ALREADY!