Kelly's art desk

Kelly has always loved coloring and any arts and crafts project. My brother Brian and his wife Katie found this art desk for Kelly at a garage sale. Kelly ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT! She sits at it multiple times a day.....colors, draws, plays with stickers, etc. (Benjamin has a desk just like it, and when Kelly was in MN visiting....she loved sitting at it and playing too!) I finally took a couple pictures of her with her "new" desk today. THANKS MULGREW FAMILY!

10 more weeks!

I am 30 weeks along in my pregnancy today! Only 10 more weeks to go!!! I am getting to that uncomfortable stage right now :( I'm not sleeping well at nights. (I think I woke up 17 times last night, and I'm not exagerrating at all!) I thought it was hard working full time during my last pregnancy, but being pregnant with a two year old that has A LOT of energy can be trying at times too! Coaching is going well...swim meets are very tiring tough. We are in the championship portion of our season now, so the season is going to go by quickly now...which means the pregnancy will go by quickly too. (At least that is what I am hoping.) The state swimming and diving meet is November 7 & 8....and I am due one month later!

Pillow fight with Daddy!

Daddies and daughters have a special bond! Kelly and Brian were having pillow fights for a LONG TIME this morning. Kelly loved it! She kept saying "again Daddy" when he would stop!

Future photographer???

Kelly LOVES Mommy's camera! For about the last month, everytime I get out my camera, Kelly has to take a picture (or two, or three, or more) too! I got my camera out this morning to put some pictures on the blog, and Kelly took her fare share of pictures too! (Good thing for digital cameras...where I can delete a lot of pictures). Normally, Kelly gets a picture of your toes, or the floor. Today, she actually got Daddy in a picture and then she got Mommy in a picture too! I guess practice makes perfect! She loves seeing the pictures on the camera screen after she takes them....she just giggles! Maybe she has a future in photography...you be the judge!

Dress-up fun with Ana

Kelly and I spent Thursday afternoon at my friend Jen's house. We brought Jen, Myles (her new baby boy...born Sept.11) and Ana lunch. (Madison was at school) Kelly and Ana played really well together....and Jen and I got to talk while I held Myles.....he fell asleep on my chest. (I love that feeling of a newborn baby all snuggled in and comfy laying on you). Kelly had fun playing with all of Madison & Ana's toys! She especially enjoyed playing dress-up with Ana!!!

Baby Snyder # 2

Yesterday I had my 28 week doctors appointment....even though I am 29 weeks today! I had my glucose test to see if I was gestational diabetic. I was really nervous about this test the second time around. I had had a lot of friends that were fine with there first baby and had gestational diabetes with there second baby. Needless to say.....all went well!!! Your glocose level had to be under 151 after drinking the nasty orange drink they give you. Mine was at 120!!! My iron level had to be above 11, and mine was 16!!! YEAH! I also asked my doctor (which happens to be one of my swimmers dads!!!) to do an ultrasound to see if we could find out if we were having a BOY OR A GIRL!!! I really wanted to know this time around....mostly for selfish reasons, I know! Well......Baby Snyder # 2 is a .........

GIRL!!!

Kelly is going to have a SISTER!!!

We are all happy...everything looks like the baby is HEALTHY....which is the MOST IMPORTANT THING!!!

Meet Jaxon PARTY!!!

We went to an open house/shower for my cousin Kari and her husband Nate today. Kelly said it was a "meet Jaxon party". Kelly has grown to LOVE parties these days! We told her before her nap that when she woke up, she was going to get to go to meet baby Jaxon because he was having a party! We also told her she was going to get to play with Eli too (my other cousin Jenni's son). Kelly doesn't forget a thing.....she woke up from her nap and said: Jaxon party and play with Eli!!! She had a fun time! She slept the entire way home and is already in bed for the night!!!

My cousin Kari and Nate adopted Jaxon....they brought him home from the hospital in the end of July, but the adoption was just finalized this past Tuesday. Jaxon is 8 weeks old now. They weren't able to travel with him until everything was finalized. He is a perfect little boy! Kari and Nate went through a lot of hard, stressful times before Jaxon came into there lives....but he was worth the wait!!!

Jaxon Connor Ranallo....8 weeks old

Born: July 22, 2008

Kelly giving Jaxon a kiss on the cheek while he was sleeping!

(She will be such a GREAT BIG SISTER!)

Holding Jaxon...he was sound asleep!

Gettting ready for my life in less than 3 months!!! Kelly AND a new baby!

Mommy's helper for the day!

Kelly came to practice with me yesterday. She had a lot of fun! She didn't know what to think of my team at first, but she really warmed up to them by the end of practice. We started off in the weightroom, headed to the pool for stretching and "wetland" and then the girls had there workout. After they were finished with the workout, a bunch of the girls played with Kelly for a little while.....yep, Kelly is spoiled!

When the girls were doing "wetland" in the diving well....Kelly was supervising....and they were playing with a noodle at the same time!

When I was writing the workout on the chalkboard....Kelly had to help!

Kelly laying on the pool deck while the girls are swimming!

Ali throwing Kelly into the pool to Claire....Kelly loved being thrown high in the air!

Kelly jumping into the pool with Emily.

Grandpa Mike's birthday!

Tonight we celebrated Papa Mike's birthday (his birthday was yesterday 9/13). Kelly was a little confused this week with two of her Papa's having a birthday! She kept saying happy birthday to everyone all week....it was a week long birthday celebration. Here is Papa with all the grandkids that are in DBQ.....to help blow out the candles.

Helena, Peyton, Brice, Kelly, Racquel, and Isabella
DOUBLE TROUBLE! Helena and Kelly!!!

Kelly and Helena were REALLY QUIET....so I went to check on them. They were in Grandma and Grandpa's room...IN THE PACK AND PLAY...filled with all of Grandma and Papa's clean clothes....like I said....DOUBLE TROUBLE!

Kelly's 1st nap in her big girl bed

This afternoon was Kelly's first nap in her big girl room! She was a little hesitant at first, but ended up sleeping really well....for 3 hours! I went into check on her after 3 hours and this is how I found her....still asleep with her butt in the air! She then moved a couple minutes later and the second picture shows her laying down. She looks so little compared to the big girl daybed!

Kelly's BIG GIRL ROOM!!!

We moved Kelly into her big girl room tonight!!! Brian painted the room a couple weeks ago...."pretty purple" acoording to Kelly. She also got a ceiling fan in her room too! Today my mom came and brought Kelly her quilt, valences, and pillows that she made! They look perfect in the room! It really looks like a little girls room now! I love it!!! Brian and I bought Kelly a Hello Kitty CD player this week too. Kelly still loves her music at night! She still had her mobile on her crib, and she turned two in June. If we didn't turn her mobile on, she would stand up and turn the music on herself. That was one of the biggest things I thought she would miss leaving the nursery, so we bought her a boombox and a lullaby CD to play at night. She really liked that and played with the CD player all afternoon. Below are some pictures of her new room....next project....fix the nursery (since Kelly tore down the fish wallpaper border).

Kelly's BIG GIRL room! Her daybed (the guard rail is hanging down), rug, shelf, dresser, valences, and table and chairs that she got for Christmas! KELLY's name above her closet with her growth chart on the wall. Her dresser is bare right now...I still need to find a lamp for it. You can see part of her rug too.

Another angle of Kelly's new room...with her toybox, another dresser, shelf, and Kelly frame of her first year on the wall. (You can see her Hello Kitty boombox on top of the dresser too!)

Kelly's BIG GIRL twin daybed with the quilt and pillows Grandma Peggy made for her.

Iowa game with Daddy!

Brian enjoys watching the Iowa football games on Saturdays with Kelly! The last two weeks I have had a swim meet or practice so I haven't been home with them on Saturdays at 11am to watch the game. Today, I put Kelly in her Iowa cheerleader outfit and got an adorable picture with Brian and Kelly. To make it even better IOWA BEAT IOWA STATE 17-5 today! Iowa is now 3-0 to start the season! Although Kelly still says "Go Cubs" sometimes during the game....she'll soon realize that she can cheer for the Cubs AND the Hawkeyes! (Mommy is a die-hard Cubs fan!)

Grandpa Tom's birthday

We celebrated Grandpa Tom's birthday last night (his birthday was Monday 9/8). We went to Happy Joe's for pizza and ice cream and then came back to our house for cupcakes that Kelly and I made. Kelly loves baking! She especially loves putting sprinkles and M&M's on top of the cupcakes. Kelly is helping Papa blow out his candles!!!

Dragonboat!!!

Yesterday, my swimming and diving team competed in the Dubuque Dragonboat Races. Normally, we race on Saturday and Sunday....but this year we had a swim meet on Saturday so we only raced on Sunday. We got 2nd place in our division.....behind the Hempstad Gold team. (Hempstead has two teams because they have 62 girls!!!) It was a beautiful day. Brian brought Kelly down to the races in the afternoon. She got to see mommy in two races! It sounds like she liked to watch, but she enjoyed playing in the dirt even more!!! (Notice how DIRTY her hands are in the picture of Kelly playing with a caterpillar.)

My dragonboat team

(I had 6 girls that are on my swimming & diving team that didn't participate this year....but we still had to sit out 4 girls per race, since only 18 girls paddle at a time!)
Kelly with the caterpillar crawling up her arm!!!

One of our races.....against Senior! We beat them on the inside and outside lanes!!!