Family Pics

We had family pictures taken a few weeks ago. I don't think we've had family pics taken for quite some time. Just wanted to share a few with you. Just a quick work update: I'm loving the NICU!! There is SO MUCH that I need to learn but I suppose it'll all come in time. My news today is that I "caught" my 1st baby today. The NICU nurses are at all the deliveries and as soon as the baby is born (or shortly thereafter) we are the ones that are handed the baby (or as we say "lets go catch a baby") and then dried off, stimulated, give oxygen, suction, etc to get them breathing well and make sure that they are okay. It was a c-section baby and the 2 things that I worried about the most was: 1st opening the sterile blanket and getting it places in my arms without 'breaking the sterile field' and 2 making sure that when I was handed the baby that I didn't drop him/her, pass out, etc. Well, I did it without doing any of the things I was worried about. :)

Kaden's 3rd Birthday

Kaden turned 3 today!! Wow! I can't believe it's been 3 years since he was born. He knew his birthday was coming up and it was so cute, yesterday I would ask him "is it your birthday tomorrow?" and he'd say, "No 2 more days" I sent Mark on some errands today with the boys because I had to clean. I knew I wouldn't get anywhere if they stayed in the house too! haha Mark picked up Kaden's cake. A friend of ours has made MANY cakes for us and she does such a wonderful job!! Kaden had a Thomas the train cake and he absolutelyl loved it!! It came in a big carrying tote and he just stood at the table and 'gazed' at it. :)

We had a small little get together at our house for his birthday. Kaden got soo many great gifts. I was a little surprised that he wasn't more into opening the gifts. I sensed a little shyness from him tonight. MY Dennis!! (Dennis the Menace) I know hard to believe. We had Thomas balloons and decor :)


Thomas cake!!







Kaden and Grandparents!

After everyone had left, Kaden kept saying "I want party" Awww Too cute!
Happy Birthday Buddy!! We love you so much!

1st Day of School

Kendra and Mikayla started school today. Kendra started 10th grade at BHS and Mikayla 4th at Solheim. They both had a good day. Mikayla has a couple good friends in her class so that is nice. Kendra usually HATES getting up in the morning and when Mark went downstairs at 7:00 this morning, Kendra was already up and getting ready!! Wow!!! She was nervous and I wondered all day how it was going for her. I sent her a text right after school and asked how her day was...her reply "Awesome, I love high school!" :)
I could tell Kaden missed his sisters. He cried this morning when Mikayla left and said he also wanted to go to school. He walked around all day saying "what to do what to do" Too cute!! Here are the girls' 1st day school pics...

Good, Good Day

Just had to write about my day today. The boys and I started out the day with going down to visit Bonnie (our daycare provider we've had since Mikayla was born up until this last June). Kaden had only seen her once since June and Kristian hadn't seen her at all. Kaden occasionally says that he wants to go to Bonnie's house. While I was visiting with Bonnie, I received a phone call from Medcenter's HR. :) I applied to our OB and NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) floors back in June. I finally had an interview last week for the NICU. WELL....they called me this morning to tell me that I had gotten the job!!! Yahoo! I start in 4 weeks and am so super excited. Working with babies is why I had wanted to go into nursing, so I've been patiently waiting as to the right time to apply. Well, I figured that there is NEVER going to be a "perfect" time so might as well do it! (like waiting til the perfect time to have kids...there is none) haha The only thing I'm not looking forward to is going back to rotating days and nights. I will be doing 3 weeks days/3 weeks nights. But, they NEVER do straight days or straight nights. I knew I didn't want that to be the reason as to never working on that floor, it'll work out.




Kaden got his haircut today. Kristian is very soon needing his 1st haircut but I just did Kaden's today. He majorly needed one!!

Kendra is in Jamestown today and tomorrow for a golf tournament. There was a sophmore orientation tonight at BHS so I went for her. I can't believe she is going into high school!! I felt like I was going back to school. I got her schedule with her locker assignment on it, so I had to go check out where her locker is. Then I bought her some BHS stuff (shirt, etc). Then I proceeded to buy her a planner, parking pass, activity pass and put money into her lunch account. Whew, that was a quick $100.00. I am so excited for Kendra but it was weird being in BHS and knowing I am going to have to cheer for a DEMON!! (sorry demons, I'm a patriot!) :)

Zoo Fun

We decided to buy a family membership to the zoo. With a family of 6, by our 3rd visit, the membership will have paid for itself. :) This was one of Kristian's first visits to the zoo. He practically wanted to get in there with the animals. He wasn't very afraid of them at all.

Kaden did so well. I thought "this will be interesting". Kaden is a very busy boy and I was a little nervous that he wouldn't want to ride in the stroller. I was even more nervous that he was going to run wild being out of the stroller. He amazed me. He walked so nice all around. He enjoyed seeing all the animals. At the pond I asked Kaden... "Kaden, are those ducks?" He replied "No, they're quack quacks" haha too cute!

Mikayla had fun checking out all the animals and showing her brothers around the zoo. She especially enjoyed feeding the animals. She really wanted to feed the Llama's but they were smart and were hiding in the shade.

Every time the train would go by Kaden would cover up his ears. He would just walk around with them covered. And of course, we had to end our trip with a train ride. What a fun, yet hot, day. :)

Here's my belly button!
Mine too! :)
Mikayla & Kaden

Vegas Baby!!

It turned out that the day Mark started his new job was also the day that I left for Vegas. I went with my best friend since 5th grade, Jen McPhail. A few months ago we were talking about getting together and how wouldn't it be nice to go to Vegas?? :) Well, we actually did it!! We called it our "Mommy's Retreat". We were trying to figure out the last time we saw each other and were thinking it had to of been at least 7 yrs. She lives in Ennis, Montana so we met each other down there. We stayed Friday thru bright and early Monday morning. Our first stop was Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville....:)


Our 'to do' list ended up being too long, because we didn't accomplish everything that we wanted to do/see. The things that we did do were: 3 hour stay at a spa



We saw the Lion King!! What a wonderful show!! I would highly recommend everyone to see this. It was amazing. We went to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, checked out Coyote Ugly in New York New York
and even ventured out to Hoover Dam!! The only word that came to mind at the Hoover Dam was "majestic"!! Wow! What a view!



Sunday night we ate supper at the Top of the World restaurant at the Stratosphere. Again what a view!!
This trip went way to fast but it was so nice seeing Jenny again. We decided to make this an annual thing....maybe next year we'll let the hubby's come...haha!!

Officer Otterness

Well it's been a while since I've written. We were without a computer for about 6 weeks. I couldn't take not having internet anymore, so we decided to buy a laptop. Love it!!! I'm needing to post some updates, so here is update #1... Mark was hired by the Bismarck Police Department the end of March. He started his first day with them on Friday, April 16th. Yahoo!! We were both so happy to find out the he had gotten hired. Not sure what Mark was more excited about...starting with the PD or FINALLY leaving Aetna. haha He has been doing training Mon thru Fri 8-5 and will continue to do this until the end of May. Then he starts his 12 hour field training rotations. He will be working 2 week of days and then switching to 2 weeks of nights. This should be very interesting how this is going to work out. I also work 12 hour shifts, thankfully I don't do nights anymore though. (I eventually want to work in OB and will have to go back to working nights...we'll see) Mark will start the academy the end of August thru the first part of December, which I guess is back to the Monday thru Friday 8-5. Wow!! Got all that??? I don't so I'm just going to take things 1 week at a time. haha
Mark was hired along with 2 other guys and sounds like they get along pretty well, so that's good. They were sworn in on Tuesday, April 27.

Sickness update

Well..it's been an adventure and hopefully this ride will end soon. :) We started the new week with Mark getting the stomach flu and was out from work for 2 days. Kendra started throwing up Tuesday night and finally went back to school this afternoon. The boys are still at home with me and will be tomorrow also. Kaden had thrown up every day since last Friday. He doesn't have the stomach flu anymore but both him and Kristian have this adenovirus (which is what Mikayla had). Kristian also had/has a touch of the stomach flu since everytime I try to feed him baby food, he throws up. He is now just on bottle feedings since yesterday and probably thru tomorrow but he was running a temp this morning. Kaden is doing better but not quite back to his old self. Mikayla started running a temp again this morning SO I took her and both boys into the walk-in clinic this morning. Turns out Mikayla now has strept throat. Mikayla and Kaden were both put on antibiotics. I suppose Kaden to prevent his virus from turning into strept throat. Kristian put on an anti-nausea med (rubbed on his wrists). Kristian wasn't put on an antibiotic because I guess he (babies) don't have the receptors to contract/produce strept throat. Interesting tid-bit!
Mark is back to work and feeling fine. He found out today that he has moved up to #4 (from #7) on the hiring list at the Bismarck PD. Keep your fingers crossed.
Hope everyone is staying warm...AND HEALTHY!!

Sick Kids

I think Mikayla is finally on the tail end of being sick. It was a week yesterday that she started not feeling well. She had temps up to 104. I took her in to the walk-in and the Dr said she had a UTI. Turns out after talking to her dr 2 days later that she didn't have a UTI and to stop the meds she got. The next day (friday) her temp that afternoon was still getting up to 102, so I had Mark take her in to the pediatrician walk-in. (I was at work). They thought maybe she had strept but the rapid came back negative. They were supposed to call us yesterday with the final but they never did call. The Dr said it is some sort of Adenovirus and to just treat with tylenol/motrin. She hasn't had any tylenol or motrin for at least 12 hours and her temp hasn't been over 99.5 We'll see how she does and hopefully she can go back to school tomorrow. It was so cute because one of her friends left a messgae asking about her and told her that everyone missed her. So nice! We picked up her homework so she'll be busy with that today if she feels up to it.

Friday night Mark went to Mandan with Kendra to pick up Bekah to sleep over. Mark called me on the way home and said that Kaden had puked about 4 times in the car. He continued to puke Friday night and a couple times yesterday. So far today he is doing a little bit better. He is our 'wild man' so when he lays down to take a nap on his own...you know he doesn't feel well. He also had been saying that his tummy hurts. Sounds like one of the kids at daycare was sick on friday too (starting throwing up towards the end of the day). I sure hope Kristian and Kendra don't get anything. He is sleeping at the moment, doesn't seem to have a temp, so that is good. He also hasn't thrown up today, so hope he's at the tail end of what he had too.

New Hobby

So, in November I was invited with a group of girls to go scrapbooking for the weekend. There were 10 of us and we rented a little home in New Salem for a weekend. This home was bought and set up just for scrapbookers.

I loved this house. It's an older home and decorated so nicely. This was my first time ever scrapbooking. I decided to do something specific so I made (almost finished) a scrapbook from when I went to Guatemala a couple summers ago with the God's Child project.


My favorite thing was the cricket machine. I was fortunate to receive one for my birthday. I love it! It is so handy. We are going scrapbooking again in February and I can't wait. I tried once to scrapbook at home but by the time I get everything laid out and started, it's time to put it away. I have no real good place to keep everything. We also did have a little fun besides doing the scrapbooking. :)

Mikayla is showing off her "new" vanity. My grandma passed away last March and this furniture piece was hers. My mom completely redid this piece along with a dresser. She also decorated the lamps to match the same fabric on the cushion. They were given to Mikayla to put in her bedroom. Turned out pretty nice. :)

Happy New Year!

Let's see if I remember how to do this. It's been a while since I've written. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year.
Mark is finally done with school. He finished the semester with a 3.75 GPA. Yahoo! He interviewed with the Bismarck police dept back in November. He is on their hiring list (yah) but sounds like it takes forever to be moved up. He is currently #7 on the list. It sounds as if it may take until June for him to get hired, but we are hoping that it doesn't take that long.
The girls are doing well. Back at school after their Christmas break. They got a Wii for Christmas, so they are enjoying playing that.
Kendra celebrated her 15th birthday this last week. On Friday, her and a group of girls went bowling and then stayed overnight at our house. Sounds like they were up most of the night and had a good time.
I took the boys into the walkin clinic a couple days ago and Kaden had an ear infection on the right and pneumonia! and Kristian had a double ear infection. Both are on antibiotics. :( They both are doing good and hasn't seemed to slow either of them down.
My sister and her husband (Melissa and Ryan) had a baby girl on 1-8-10. They named her Hadley Evelyn. 6 lbs 11 oz and 20.5 inches long. From the pics she looks like a little peanut!! I can't wait to meet her! Big brother Payton had a smile from ear to ear while holding her. So cute!
It was a different Christmas. I had tonsil/nose surgery on Dec 17th so still wasn't feeling the greatest come Christmas. (I would not recommend anyone to ever have that surgery done...so painful!!!) Melissa and Ryan weren't able to celebrate with us as she was so close to her due date and didn't want to travel. My sister, Marni, was able to be with us, so that was nice. We weren't able to be with Mark's family either, as we switch every other year between Casselton and Bismarck. We ended up getting snowed in in Casselton too which prevented us from going to Fargo to celebrate Christmas with the Solberg.
Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm!