Pumpkin Farm

The last few days have been packed  full and I finally have a chance to post while the babies are asleep. I say babies because today I started a babysitting job caring for a 6 month old boy in addition to my own two. He is such a sweet little guy and so far our day has been a breeze!

 We headed out to the pumpkin farm on Saturday morning ! It was a bit warm which made getting through the corn maze a bit challenging but ultimately we had an awesome time! Ben loved the pumpkins! He tried to pick them up, roll them, and then just used them for a seat.

 

So excited!

She is mine...but I think she is the cutest!

The best picture I could get of both of them

Hayride to the corn maze!

It wasn't long before his legs got tired

The end!

Trying to find a pumpkin small enough for Ben to pick up proved impossible.

Pumpkin seat

Eating lunch

Tired out!

 

 

And just a random Sunday picture of Felicity on her way home from Church. She looked so cute in her bonnet!

 

Well the babies are stirring!



TGIF!

Yay! It is Friday! I have been looking forward to this coming weekend for awhile. We are headed to the pumpkin farm tomorrow for our annual trip. It is always  a lot of fun! Sadly, the weather is supposed to be more like summer then fall but the leaves are still changing and it should be a great day.

The past few days have been slow in the Menkhaus house. I had a cold and I think Felicity has a touch of it too. Thankfully Ben is well so far! He will be going to the ear doctor Novemeber 1st to see if he can get tubes in his ears and I am hoping we can stay infection free until then!

Also, a friend of mine told me about someone she knew who kept a blog and then printed it out into a book at the end of each year. I thought that was a great idea! Now, I have a plan with what to do withal these pictures and posts!

 And so here are some pics from the past few days.

Ben with his buddy. Excuse the messy cage! I was trying to clean it out when Ben came along.

Feeding the bunny is his favorite "chore".

Trying on her new hair bow that we bought at the flea market.

Ben found a rosary and decided to wear it around his neck all evening.

 

Felicity in her usual cranky pose with daddy at night.

 

 

 

 



Monday

It has been a beautiful Fall day today. It has barely hit 60 degrees but the sun is shining. Our day was pretty uneventful. We followed are usual routine and just got back from a walk to the local park. We try to go there every day when the weather is nice, at least for a short visit. Ben used to love the slides, but after watching the other kids throw mulch everywhere...his interests have changed.

Breakfast

She already had her breakfast :)

Walking to the park

Oh, how I wish he had never learned to think mulch is fun.

Always willing to smile for the camera

Time to go...actually he is really good about going home. He enjoys the walk.

 

Our day isn't over yet. But the evening are always soo full getting dinner ready, eating, giving baths, and getting the babies to sleep that I never have time to get on here. So it is an early post for the day. Hope everyone has a beautiful week!

Rainy Sunday

It's a rainy Sunday afternoon and I love it! The babies are napping and Matt is watching the football game. It is almost time to start dinner but I wanted to share some more pictures from the past few weeks.

We have zoo passes compliments of Grandmother and PawPaw so we frequently go there to walk around. Ben loves looking at the animals and riding the train.

Ben in his preferred mode of transportation at the zoo.

Riding the train with daddy.

Riding the carousel with Mommy.

Waiting for her brother to get off the carousel.

My favorite the naked mole rats.

The Menkhaus Family has a new pet. He is a Netherland dwarf rabbit. We got him a few weeks ago and he has warmed right up to life in our crazy house. He still doesn't have a name because we can't seem to find one that fits. Ben loves to feed him every morning and every night.

 

Belly time :)

He is a curious little bunny.

 Hanging out in her pack n play at the Flea Market yesterday.

Epic Laundry!

Okay, so I don't have pictures but just believe me when I say it was EPIC! Yesterday I went through the house and collected 4 months worth of laundry...and probably more. Kind of embarrassing I know, but I have decided to just own up to it. It over took me. I wouldn't say having two babies to take care of is a good excuse for the massive pile of dirty stuff we had but it is my excuse.It was basically all the laundry from before I had Felicity ( you know those final weeks of pregnancy when you don't feel like moving let alone carrying laundry up and down the stairs) and everything after. There was a whole wardrobe of maternity clothes, sheets from a houseful of guests that had come to Felicity's baptism, blankets, tablecloths, towels, stuffed animals, rags, and all our current clothes. There was not a lot of baby clothes, so I must have been doing a pretty good job keeping the kids in clean clothes. Now I know what is in that load I wash everyday. Anyway, it was beyond overwhelming!

So, I texted Matt and told him we were going to the Laundromat. I was defeated by the amount of laundry and it had to be done all at once or I would never catch up. I thought maybe a few big washers and we would have it all done in an hour. Knock it out! Tame the wild beast! Defeat the Enemy! I was really excited!  HA! We loaded an 80lb capacity washer, two 65lb capacity washers, a 45lb capacity washer, and a 25 lb capacity washer stuffed full of laundry! That's 280lbs of laundry! I was shocked! I see a trip to Goodwill in our very near future! Who knew we had so much stuff! That would have taken me weeks to wash! And of course, after it was washed in these mega washers we had to put them in mega dryers ...over and over again. Lets just say this was not the quick and inexpensive trip to the Laundromat I planned! Our one hour trip turned into a four hour trip. But honestly, I didn't care. I was happy as could be sitting there watching all of it wash...Matt said he hadn't seen me that happy in awhile! Funny how we moms get excited about such " little" things.

The moral of this story...I will never ever put off doing laundry again! I don't care if I am pregnant with triplets after birthing sextuplets a year prior! I will find a way! Our washer will be running at least once a day! .

And so I will end this post because, although we washed all the laundry last night, it is still sitting in my room waiting to be sorted, folded and put away. Happily Lord, happily!

Blog Changes and Updates

Alright, I am revamping again! I decided I needed to redo and shift focus to a more personal page updating family and friends on life in the Menkhaus life. I know everyone wants to know all about that ;)

To start let me share some pictures from our vacation to Gatlinburg this past month. We had a great time!

Ben enjoying the flying squirrel

Trying out the 3D glasses in the mirror maze

Playing in the stream

He loved it!

Felicity and Daddy wading

Felicity was not happy about sitting on a rock

Spending time with Grammy

 

 

Big Fish

 

Having breakfast on our last day

 

 

 

I will try my best to update frequently!

Benedict's Birth

It has been a long time since I posted! As many know, our baby was born on April 29th at 10:58 pm. It was a very long ( 21 hours) and difficult birth and I wanted to post the story for those I promised to share with and never have had the time.

On April 29th at 12:45 am I woke up and felt my water break. It is funny because I really thought I would just go into labor with contractions and not the water breaking, but I guess God had other plans. I woke up my husband and we prepared to go to the hospital. I took my time and showered because I had heard that there really is no reason to rush, especially with the first baby. We got to the hospital at 1:30am and they confirmed I was in labor at 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced.

We waited several hours for something to happen but the contractions were very slow in coming and I was not making any progress. We walked for awhile up and down the halls and finally I gave in and allowed them to start a very small dose of pitocen to move things along. Looking back I am hoping I will be able to avoid that with my next baby. Anyway, the contractions began to pick up soon after. I tried very hard to breath through them, but I just could not mentally handle the pain enough to relax and let them come and go. After several hours and at 5cms dilated I asked for an epidural. It was amazing...I am all for natural birth, but I do not regret my epidural for a moment, especially because I would have ended up with one anyway given he circumstance of the delivery.

  I progressed very quickly after the epidural but then stopped dilating at 9cms. For whatever reason I could not get past that last little bit and it took hours before I was ready to push. I tried for 3hrs to push him out but he would not budge. The doctor seemed to be getting nervous and finally he offered me the option of a c-section or forceps. My mind was in such a fog from all the pushing and sheer exhaustion and it was a difficult decision to make. We decided to try the forceps ( despite the urging of a very opinionated nurse who wanted me to do a c-section) to avoid the scarring and long term damage caused by a c-section. I had no idea how difficult the delivery would be with forceps..

 The actual delivery seemed to take hours. Several nurses and the doctor came into the room and warned us that the baby may have to be resuscitated after he was delivered and not to worry. I don't know why they thought that would make me less worried, but I guess they have to warn you. I was so dazed that everything seemed unreal to me at that time.I just laid there praying and listening to my baby's heartbeat on the monitor. I think this was probably one of the scariest moment's of my life. His heartbeat was slow and every few minutes it would come to almost a complete stopped. I just laid there praying I would not have to hear it stop completely. As it slowed the doctor would stop and reach in to rub his back and stimulate him until his heart rate rose again. It seemed like hours but finally they told me to push and he was born. They placed him on my chest and he started to cry. I was so relieved to hear him crying and to just have him out and alive!

 It took the doctors almost 3hrs to stitch me up and I had been given a large dose of medicine's for the pain. Benedict was 6 pounds 12 ounces and perfect to me :) The doctor said his head had been turned in the birth canal and that was why he would not come out on his own. He had several bruises from the birth and a large bruise on the back of his head which healed quickly but did cause some problems with jaundice.

'Thankfully he is now a normal little baby, and aside from a stay in the NICU for jaundice and some nursing problems, he is healthy and growing. It is amazing how much a baby changes your life and brings so much love and joy.