Stories Of Everyday Life At The Steendahl’s

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Momma’s Sick

Filed under: Daily Life — Christine at 4:52 pm on Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Well, the kids & Matt’s virus finally caught up with me. I don’t remember the last time I had a real good fever like this one, no fun and if history repeats itself it lasts a good week! Yuck.

Other than that things are going pretty well. Nothing too exciting is happening. The boys are doing good although they all still have their coughs. Matt is working with them to get all the outside toys put away this afternoon as we saw snowflakes the other day. Winter is coming!

Thanksgiving we will have with the same family we have had it with every year, but this year it is in our new church parish hall instead of at the boy’s school - so even closer! Next week I get to escape for a couple hours to get my hair done too, my first big outing away from baby. I can’t wait mainly because I really need my hair done!

Well, I better go help with homework and figure out what is for dinner.
C-

My Goodness

Filed under: Daily Life — Christine at 12:02 pm on Friday, November 14, 2008

My goodness, things have just been busy - doing what I’m not sure besides taking care of sick kids and baby. That about sums up my last couple weeks.

Things are going pretty good. Annika had a check-up and was 21 1/2″ (grew an inch and a half) and was back to her birth weight 8 lb 10 oz. She’s a skinny tall little thing. She is currently napping in her crib all by herself! YEA! That is the 2nd time she has done that for me. She had a really crabby day yesterday, but seems to be doing good today.

The boys had a 5 day weekend, so it is strange to be Friday already - they just went back to school Wed!

We are forecasted to get our first snow (that won’t stay around) Sat. night! The kids are excited about that.

Here are some new pictures: http://www.pastorsfamily.com/Halloween/

I am really behind on many things so I am going to run while she is sleeping!
C-

SHHH Baby Sleeping

Filed under: Daily Life — Christine at 12:13 pm on Friday, November 7, 2008

I haven’t got much done the last few days - Annika has really wanted to be held but this morning… right now…. I laid her on the floor on her tummy for some tummy time and low and behold, she fell asleep, without crying, all by herself. Seems like she likes her tummy. Bummer since they technically aren’t supposed to sleep on their tummies!

So now that I have 10 min what to do?
-Take a much needed shower
- Run to Wal-Mart
- Try to get the melted crayon out from my entire load of laundry that went through the dryer
- Fold Laundry
- Make Bake Sale stuff for school
- Work on my business
- OR…. so much to do!
Obviously I chose blogging at the moment - shower probably next if I still have time…

We were thinking that with Annika’s birth we wouldn’t have a middle child anymore! So far… Christian is still proving to be the middle child. He is going on and on at the moment about life not being fair - poor little guy!

We had parent teach conferences last night. R, C & and A went to my friend Holly’s house (Annika’s first time away from us) and Dane came with since he STILL has a fever - we’re on day 7 now… Christian needs to work on reading and they recommended a book for us to use. Apparently he is not the only one stuggling with it at the moment though. Dane has proven to be a follower, not leader in school and apparently could identify all colors except pink and purple. I thought that was funny - bet he’ll get better at that now! He can count to 10 with no problems as well as identify most shapes - he’s going great. Ryan had high reviews as well. He likes to help other classmates with their work when he is done with his and seems to have lots of energy, but uses it appropriately.

Dane & Matt have been struggling with this yucky cold virus. I am surprised how long it lingers around.

The boys are playing nicely with play-doh. (they have a 5 day weekend).

Maybe I’ll actually get my shower in - going to run!

C-

It Took Us One Shopping Trip…

Filed under: Daily Life — Christine at 10:03 pm on Friday, October 31, 2008

First off, Happy Halloween! I hope everyone had a really fun day. The boys couldn’t even wear anything festive because they had picture retakes at school. Did I talk about that? The picture company lost our entire school’s pictures! I made Matt wait to cut (I mean butcher)the boy’s hair until after picture day. That night he shaved their heads, and then two days later I found out that they all had to have re-takes on Halloween - go figure! So they all have short hair in their pics. Hey, at least I have a girl now - I’m pretty sure he won’t be giving her buzz cuts. (At least he better not!)

So we took all FOUR kids out shopping last night. We needed a few things at Sam’s Club, and decided to do some returns at Target from the baby shower and take a quick trip to the mall as well. Now that we have 4 kids, we have to have the back seat up all the time which means - no room in the back and kids climbing over seats to get to the back. We loaded up our stroller only to discover it only fits in diagonally - and barely - there is no room for anything else! So…. all it took was one shopping trip out with the family and today, we went and bought a new car. A Suburban. It is white and NICE! Those things are a pretty penny - ouch, but we now have room and double seats in the middle so the kids don’t have to climb over seats to get seated. They are getting their 2009’s in 4 days, so we ended up at $1000 below invoice and 0% financing for 72 months and we figured that was about as good as we were going o get. So we traded in the Sequoia and came home with a Suburban. I’m not looking forward to the car payments again, after not having them for several years, but the space will be nice! It has MANY bells and whistles. My favorite is the back liftgate that lifts with the touch of a button on my key fob. The boys favorite - the DVD player in the backseat of course.

So that’s the big news around here. Annika is crying, so gotta run!
C-

Baby Video

Filed under: Daily Life — Christine at 4:11 pm on Saturday, October 25, 2008

Here is a short video of Annika’s first bath at home and a bit of swinging time.

This is Ridiculous!

Filed under: Daily Life — Christine at 9:24 pm on Friday, October 24, 2008

I have a lot to say tonight, but I have to start it off with my evening conversation with Dane. Me: “Dane you have to finish your dinner if you want a snack tonight.” Dane: (sits down in front of his plate, takes a bite and says) “This is ridiculous!” I about died laughing. I don’t really use the word “ridiculous” but Matt does once in awhile - guess he picked it up. Too funny! I was impressed he used it in the correct manner. He’s going to be like Christian maybe with a big vocabulary.

Anyway… we are continuing to enjoy Annika’s sweetness. I can just hold her in my arms for hours and soak her in. The smell, the softness, the little coos. AWWWW….. She is just priceless.

My soreness is getting closer to being gone - still there at times, but much better. I can go without Ibuprofen most days now. The emotional stuff still catches up with me periodically, but I am finding myself feeling “normal” more often each day it seems, so that is good! Things just catch me by surprise - all of the sudden I am sad that she is going to grow up so quickly, or a fear that something might happen to Matt and I would have these 4 kids etc. which leads to a big crying episode. Of course these are all things I can’t control and need to just turn over to God. I don’t remember having the emotional side of things so much with the boys, but I’m hoping that this too will pass - they say to give it 6 weeks, so we’ll see! We went to the Dr. Thursday and she asked how are you both doing and Matt responded “They cry a lot - both of them!” LOL

Speaking of the Doctor - Annika checked out good. She weighed in at 7lb 15oz, so she has lost a bit, but the Dr. didn’t seem too concerned as she was alert and happy and she said she wouldn’t be like that if she was starving. She did give me a prescription for Reglan, which is actually a gastro-intestinal drug, but it has the added side effect of helping people produce more breastmilk. You take it for about 2 weeks in hopes that it will help your body get a jump start and then take over by itself in the milk production department. We’ll see how it goes. We have been supplementing with about 3-4 oz. of formula a day, but the goal is to not have to supplement at all. We had asked with the boys everytime if there was a drug to help with milk production and the midwives always said no - just herbs - which we tried to no avail, so we were shocked (and grateful) to hear that there is actually something available to try. We love this Dr.! Annika goes back on the 5th for another check-up.

I still sleep on the couch with her most nights, but one night she did make it all night in our bed. She slept in 3 hour shifts, ate and went back to sleep - that was awesome! The last few nights she has slept even longer like 4-5 hour shifts, but on top of me in the couch. She does seem to be getting less gassy at night, so that is good. The Dr. said often times they will get over that in a couple weeks - YEA! I’m hoping that is the case. She is also starting to have more awake time - staying awake for about an hour a couple times a day - that is fun!

I took her to pick up the boys from school for the first time today. Matt was out doing errands, so I didn’t have a choice. It went fine though, she slept through the whole thing and all my friends at school were so excited to see her!

We pulled out the Halloween costumes after school - the boys were so excited! We have Trunk-O-Treat at church on Sunday evening, so we had to make sure we had everything ready to go. I got a cute little caterpillar costume for Annika, which I’m guessing she’ll wear for about 1/2 an hour and then I’ll have to bring her in. It is supposed to be cold and windy, and then we will have a bonfire and I don’t want her out there breathing in all that smoke. But it is always a fun time for everyone who comes!

We had a big thunderstorm here tonight. The poor farmers have had too much rain the last couple days. They are trying to harvest, so that hasn’t been the best for them.

Ryan had an all-day field trip to a state park today. It sounds like he had a great time - the hiked, went to a conservatory etc. He also was able to take care of a boy-scout badge by asking questions to the conservationist.

My good friend, Holly, has set-up meals for us from Mom’s Bible Study / School friends for 2 1/2 weeks - M, W, F - so that has been awesome! So far we have had Chicken Enchilladas, Green Bean Tator Tot Casserole, and tonight - Chicken Pot Pie, Homemade Applesauce, French Bread, and Choc. Chip/PB Muffins - YUM!

C-

Annika Pictures

Filed under: Daily Life — Christine at 4:21 pm on Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Here you go! http://www.pastorsfamily.com/AnnikaRose/

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