A Change

I have been working on a new blog for a couple of weeks now.

This August will mark 5 years that I have had this blog up and running... can you believe it?  I laugh every time I read my first post here.  :P  I had no idea what to do with a blog really at that point. 

I've just been ready for a change and have grown tired of Blogger.  So change your bookmark or update your RSS feeds!  I will be posting at my new blog location from here on out!

Meghan's View 

Let me know if anything is wonky or just doesn't work right... I'm trying to figure it all out, but there will definitely be a little bit of a learning curve!

The Evolution of Me.

I was looking at my photobooth pics with the kids the other day and I noticed that you can see how much I've changed in the last almost 7 months just from those.  Seems like the only time I'm really in front of the camera is when my kids want to play with that.  They love it.   I'm kind of glad because now I have a record of this journey I've taken too!

So, I grabbed 3 shots to share since I've been working so hard.

The first shot is my 9 month pregnant self.  Just 9 days shy of D-day with Kelan in August.

This next shot is of my post pregnant self and Kelan at 5 days old.  Yikes!  Did they forget another baby in there???  ;)  My kids certainly wondered!

This last shot is from today.  I started working out around Halloween because I went to the doctor at 10 weeks postpartum and stood on the scale and wanted to die. haha!  It was the most I had ever weighed not being pregnant.  ;)  I am now currently down 22 lbs from that point.  Kelan is almost 7 months old now.  

I'm still working on some other goals... not necessarily to lose more weight, but lower my body fat percentage a bit more, put a little more "junk in the trunk" as my trainer says, etc.  

It's really amazing what losing weight can do for your energy and how much more aware it makes you be about what you put into your body.  I eat way differently now, but it doesn't seem like work anymore and I don't even have to think about it.

Now, to keep it off... especially once I'm finished nursing the little babe.  :)

Football

Can't say that I'm sad to see the season come to an end... As fun as it is hosting football party after football party, I'm ready to celebrate something other than football. I'm also ready to be done making wings and various dips. ;) Steve was sad that his Bears didn't make it to the Superbowl... but they were close and there's always next year, right?

Here is Steve and Kelan on the day that the Bears played the Packers. Decked out in Bears stuff.

Kelan is a pretty cute football fan!

Here's a snapshot I found on my iPhone... must have been one of the kids. But, it's proof that I was a good supportive wife and had my one and only Bears shirt on as well.

Kanyon was sporting his Cutler jersey too, although I failed to get a picture of him. Scarlett and Cohen were the only none supporting members of the house. I'm sure now that Steve knows this, that situation will be remedied by next season. ;)

With football over now, I'm happily reminded that we are one step closer to Spring!! Now, that is something to celebrate.

It's in the air...

We decorated for Christmas a little early this year... but we've been enjoying it. The kids are especially enjoying reading Christmas books before bed together. Cohen has been missing out on the story time because it's MUCH harder to do with him awake. ;) Poor guy will be invited to join us eventually, but for now he just gets his special singing time in the rocking chair with me before bed.

On another note, the kids went to their cousin, Aliyah's, birthday party on Saturday and got their faces painted while there. They love this... especially Kanyon. He just gets into character. He was made up like a shark and Scarlett chose a butterfly.


Notice Scarlett's black eye. She fell off her bed and hit her face on her baby's cradle. Awesome. Totally ruined my plans to take the kids pictures for our Christmas card that still has yet to be created. Hope it heals up soon enough or at least enough for photoshop to help me out. ;) To make it even worse... the next day, Kanyon pulled on his stocking a little too hard and his stocking holder fell and hit him just under his eye as well. Cohen has had the croup this last week and a constant crusty nose as well. Something is telling me the pictures aren't going to happen. :/ I'm not going to give up just yet though!!

But, if something happens to Kelan next then I cannot promise you anything! :P

Sis in town...

My sister came in town on Friday night all by herself (usually it's with her 4 children and hubby). We have been talking about when she could get up here to meet Kelan and this most recent weekend was the winner. It was so nice to be able to hang out. She took me out for lunch as a late birthday present on Saturday and then we did a little shopping. We spent some time with the rest of the family as well and then I took her back to the airport Sunday night. Short, but definitely sweet.

Now the countdown to Thanksgiving begins when she'll return with the rest of her family! Can't wait! :)

two-nine

No pictures of me on my 29th this year... that's okay, we'll just save all the pictures for next year's big one. ;)

It was a nice birthday though... I woke up and opened some gifts from my hubby and kids, then I went to lunch with 2 of my favorite girls in the world, and then we went out as a family to Tepanyaki for dinner and Red Mango for dessert. Yum!

I took some pictures of Cohen that morning though because he was just too cute trying on all sorts of shoes. First it was Kanyon's old cowboy boots. I swear he rolled his ankles like 10 times walking around his room.

Rocking in his room... I tried ordering standouts (the 3 pictures on the wall) for the first time for Cohen's room and really love them. His room is not finished, otherwise I would show you the rest. ;)

Poor kid... Not sure what I did to make him mad... probably told him that he had to put on pants.

My little lumberjack sporting his new boots for the winter. He loves them and is the cutest tromping around in those with his little bull-legged legs. :)


I was noticing a theme to my birthday gifts from Steve... tons of new workout clothes to go with the personal training sessions he just paid for that week, itunes gift card, new water bottle and arm strap for my ipod, $$ in my account to go shopping once I lost the baby weight, and then that night he put a candle in an apple for me since we weren't doing cake until Sunday. Hmmm. ;) I had to joke with him about it.

Steve and I went out on Saturday night since we couldn't get a sitter for Friday. Steve took me to La Caille. I love that place... the food is SO good. Kelan tagged along since I'm still nursing and even though we hoped he would sleep through dinner, he didn't. He was actually awake the entire time. Figures! He was a good little guy for the most part though and we had a good time.

On Sunday, it was the Primary Program at church and Kanyon was singing a verse from "Follow the Prophets" with 2 other little boys. So, my parents and grandparents and 2 little brothers came to support and watch him. He was so nervous when he saw everyone starting to arrive in the chapel that he was crying and didn't want to leave where Steve and I were sitting. After a pep-talk and a promise of a special surprise he decided that he would still do it. I think he probably sang the loudest out of the 3 and did awesome! We were so proud of him!

After church everyone came over to have dinner and cake and ice cream for my birthday. I made my own birthday cake, but at least it was good. ;)

Three little vultures waiting anxiously for me to cut into it. ;)


It was fun to have everyone over. Steve claims that this birthday had to be lame (although it really wasn't) so that he could easily out-do it for my 30th. He'll really have to try hard since this was a great one!

Bangs

Without much thought, I had a hair appointment and wanted to do something different. So, I had Hailee give me some bangs. Short bangs... and no swooping to the side kind of bangs either that I've done in the past.

I'm still not sure about them and they are taking some getting used to, but so far I don't hate them. ;)

Cohen had such a reaction to them the next morning when he saw me that I was beginning to second guess them. He just stopped in his tracks and stared at me. He even dropped whatever was in his hands and hardly noticed. It lasted about a minute before he ran to my arms and touched them. haha! I didn't get that much of a reaction from my other kids when I went brunette 2 years ago, and I thought that was a much bigger change!

One Month Old

Kelan is 1 month old today! I can't believe it. He is changing so fast and I already feel like he's getting so big.

- He looks like a bald babe from the front... but he's got a dark mullet in the back.
- He's sleeping okay. On a good night he doesn't go to bed until 11pm - ish and usually wakes around 3am to eat and then is up at 7:30 or 8am. I won't talk about the bad nights. ;)
- He loves his baths that Steve and I give him at night once all the other kids are asleep...
- He loves to be snuggled with all. the. time. Even when I really need to get some things done!
- He's beginning to really make eye contact and we are patiently awaiting a cute little smile soon.
- He still reminds us so much of Scarlett (physically) as a baby...

Kanyon asked to take a picture with my "big camera" today, so I agreed.


I realized that I don't have any pictures with Kelan since the hospital, so I'm glad Kanyon asked! He's a natural photographer. I didn't even have to crop these! :)

I need to get back to taking self-portraits again... I am so glad that I did that last year and have so many shots with me in them. I just don't think to hand the camera over to Steve on a regular basis, although I really should. :/

Tuesday, August 17th 2010

***There has been some question as to how you pronounce Kelan's name. It's pretty simple. Most often, you might see it spelled "Kellen". It rhymes with Helen, Melon, etc. Not to be confused with Kee-lan. Steve wasn't into the double L because he felt it was kind of feminine... Hope that clears it up! :) ***

Kelan Dean Sonnenberg arrived weighing in at 8 pounds even and 19 inches long! He beat Kanyon and Scarlett's weight by an ounce, so he is officially my biggest baby.

I was scheduled for an elective induction after my appointment with the doctor on Monday. I was already dialated to 3cm and still 75% effaced and I just decided that I was ready to get this baby out. I went to the hospital Tuesday morning at 6:30am and was admitted and started on Pitocin finally by 8am. My doctor broke my water shortly after. I waited on the epidural until the contractions were pretty uncomfortable and I couldn't sit still anymore during them. I was at 4+cm then and it was just about 11am.

After the epidural (which was really uncomfortable to get this time around), I just relaxed and tried to sleep. Tried is the key word... I never can seem to actually fall asleep when I'm in labor. It must be the adrenaline/nerves or something. It could also have been Steve walking in and out of my room to the nourishment room across the hall and bringing back soda and cookies... crackers and pudding, etc and eating it all right in front of me. :P Oh well... luckily Orem Community Hospital added a new option for laboring moms and that was the flavor that you could put into your ice... like lime, watermelon, and cherry. It was kind of like eating a sno-cone. :)

I steadily progressed and felt the need to push at about 1:30pm. But my nurse was in delivering with her other patient at the time and my doctor wasn't right there yet. So, I was told to not push and just wait. That is really hard to do! Finally everyone got in and got setup for delivery and I pushed through 2 contractions... one for his head and then one more for his shoulders and he was out. It was really an easy delivery.

Because he came out so fast and because his head was turned just slightly in the birth canal... he had some pretty bad bruising on his face and head. He actually cried that first day for a couple hours whenever you moved his head. The nurses finally took him to the nursery to give him another thorough exam and make sure there was nothing broken or out of place that they might have missed the first time. They didn't find anything though, which we were glad. He was just in some pain and we figured it was a headache. He would just wimper as you rocked him and it was hard to get him to nurse or anything that first day. :( Luckily by the next morning he was good as new and a happy little baby.

The kids came to visit him that night, but because he had been in so much pain that day, we didn't get him out of the little crib and just let them look. That was hard for Scarlett and she was just giddy looking at him and how little everything was. Cohen didn't pay much attention to Kelan and was more interested in making as big of a mess as possible in the shortest amount of time in my hospital room. ;) Kanyon just had a lot of questions about the whole process which was kind of interesting to try and explain without getting into too much detail.

Here are a few pictures of the minutes after Kelan was born...

This guy is the respiratory therapist and he has been the one to work on each of my 4 kids once they were born. I think that's kind of fun.

My favorite nurse from this baby was Andra... pictured on the left. She was awesome through labor and delivery and I even got her back on the day that I was leaving the hospital. That was really nice.


Kelan - fresh out of the oven and using his lungs.

My first moments with Kelan after he got cleaned up and I was taken care of.

My hospital room... huge, right? It was awesome.

Here are a couple pictures from the next day once Kelan was bathed and he and I were just hanging out.



I'll have lots more pictures to post... I just need time to get them off my camera!

Ninety-one years old...

... and Grandmother Cahoon looks great!

We were so grateful to be able to spend a few evenings with Grandmother while she was here in town this last month... and one of those was for her birthday.

We decided that we needed a picture of her and Cohen together because we didn't have one. Cohen, being the busy stinker that he is, would hardly hold still long enough for me to snap this one. We'll take what we can get out of him! ;)
And, the last picture I've taken of this pregnancy thus far... I think this was at 35 weeks. You know you look large when you hear the last 2 weeks at church that one - "you could do damage with that thing!" and two - "if I saw you in a movie, I would totally think that belly was fake!"

Yes, I have run into people with the belly and I'm sure it could cause a little damage... but I promise you it is very real! :P
I'm hoping to get in one more photo in before I officially serve this little man his eviction notice.

I have been saying all along that I don't want to be induced this time, but it is looking nicer and nicer as time passes. It's been a hard pregnancy for me and I'm ready for it to be over. An induction could mean just 2 more weeks of this... I hope I can handle even that much more!

'Mark' is here...

...and I'm in love!

He sounds different and feels a little different, but he's so close to my 5D that my fingers already know just what buttons to push. I see a very smooth transition happening over here. My awesome 5D will now be shipped to Cali hopefully for a short trip to be cleaned and fixed up a bit. Then he'll be right back here to serve as my back-up. He's given me a great almost 3 years and deserves a little TLC and a rest. ;)

A couple test photos before I had to juice up the new battery a bit more for when I really see all that 'Mark' can do...


Don't you love how cooperative my two older ones were? Nice faces.
They'll really be sick of me tomorrow when my new lens arrives and I'll be wanting to play. ;)

Finally a name at 34 weeks

Sometimes mac photobooth is just the easiest way... but not the best photo. Convenience wins today. ;)
Here is the belly, with just 6 short weeks left, holding our wiggly baby boy...
...whom we are naming Kelan Dean Sonnenberg.

A gorgeous summer evening...

It was so nice outside one night last week and Kanyon was asking to go on a walk because he wanted to show his dad how good on his bike he is becoming. Scarlett decided to ride her bike too and I couldn't believe how similar in size they looked riding their bikes together and how cute too. I wish I would've taken my camera on the walk and taken a picture of them riding up ahead of us. I'll have to do that another time.

After our walk, Kanyon and Steve played basketball while Scarlett rode Kanyon's F150. She's finally getting the hang of steering and backing up, but still needs to be reminded to watch out for Cohen. Cohen walked around throwing basketballs and rocks while I laid on the grass because I was in pain. I must have overdone it that day because I took a long walk with the kids in the morning too and it's a fast paced walk trying to keep up with Kanyon on his bike while pushing the other 2 in the jogging stroller. Then on our walk that evening, I got caught talking with a friend and had to run (yes, really run - I'm sorry for any neighbors that had to witness it) to catch up with my family. That gave me a major side ache and instant contractions. I learned that even though I can physically still run, I probably shouldn't. haha!

A few funny dunk shots of Steve on the hoop set at 7 ft. for Kanyon to shoot on...


Kanyon shooting hoops. He's really getting good and we've seen so many improvements in him over the last couple of months since we got this hoop put in. He can make it easy now and is dribbling and catching passes... while when we first got the hoop he was too afraid to even catch the basketball. Steve couldn't be prouder.






Looking forward to many more summer nights like this one... minus the pain for me! ;) I'd like to participate more next time instead of being literally stuck laying in the grass. Just 8ish weeks to go before it'll be our family of 6 playing outside instead of 5. :)