www.swagbucks.com/refer/carriezeldenrust

Search & Win

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Update

I made Ryan bring the computer to the hospital so I could update this site and check out the pics that were posted :o)

All is going well. Victor is such a wonderful baby. He's so calm, and usually sleeping. He's a pretty good eater, as far as I can tell. I'll have him weighed just to see what he's at.

I'm doing well. I was able to get up and move around this morning and throughout the entire day, which is WONDERFUL! Yesterday I was pretty itching from the spinal, so I had to have benedryl, which made me so incredibly tired that I didn't want to do much except sleep. But how can you sleep when something exciting happens?! Only "bad" thing is that my blood pressure won't go down. I had some extra tests done to make sure my liver is working well and other stuff, didn't hear anything, so it must be ok. So I'll probably head off to take a nap here and rest up to see if that will help at all. Most readings after I've been sleeping/resting did not go down :o(

Well, stay tuned for more pics. I'll try to get them up tomorrow!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Welcome to the world Victor!


Baby Victor....






The baby's here!!!

Hi everybody! This is Raelene, a friend of Carrie and Ryan's. I just helped them bring their BABY into the world this morning and now I get the honor of introducing HIM to you!!

It's a BOY!!
Victor Lee Zeldenrust was born at 8:25 this morning.
He weighed 8 lbs and 1 oz (TINY!)
He was 21 inches long with a 14 inch head!

He's strong and healthy and Carrie did a great job! Both are doing well and are ready for visitors any day before supper time. She'd like the evenings off to be alone with Ryan and their new son. She'll be in the hospital until Thursday. :)

Congrats to Ryan and Carrie!!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas Update


Eve excited about her new Mini Ponies. Derrick staring at his new Batman.


Kids making "Christmas Fishies" - dipping Goldfish Pretzel crackers in almond bark. Mmm!






Oh man did the kids have a great Christmas! And to be honest, so did I! This was the best Christmas yet - gift wise :o) I didn't ask for much, but I got it all! And then some that I didn't want to ask for bcuz I thought it was too much.
The only downside to Christmas was that I swelled up pretty good. I tried to stay hydrated and keep my feet up, but come the day after Christmas, the swelling in my feet never went away, even after sleeping. But I can't complain too much, this happened with Derrick when I was about 6 1/2 months pregnant, so for this to happen in just my last few days, I'm ok with. I just wish I would have "nested" earlier so I could actually get things accomplished! I can't stand too long before my feet start throbbing.

Derrick's favorite Christmas presents - anything Superhero related - he has new Batmans and Spidermans, Marvel calendar, coloring books, sword, stickers. Eve's favorite Christmas presents - hands down it is the 18 My Little Ponies she got!

Derrick got a hold of a pair of scissors and cute one of the ponies hair. No big deal. Until I found a very nice chunk of brown curly hair! He cut Eve's hair! I kept it for his scrapbook, but not after a nice scolding. And at least it wasn't her bangs!

Enjoy the few pics. And stay tuned, Baby Z #3 will be here shortly!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Christmas Time!

I can't believe it's almost Christmas! The kids are getting excited. Derrick has learned subtraction - we've had a countdown as to how many days there are left until they get to open their presents. He'll say how many days there are, then say then after one more sleep there will be this many days left and so on. Here's what they are doing to get excited or to prepare for the holiday to come...

They love playing Santa. Since Santa will put toys in their stockings, they take their socks and fill them with toys and give them to each other to open.

They keep asking who's gift is for who. Derrick is pretty good about noticing which first letter goes to who's name (except for his own, he knows all the letters). Eve just keeps grabbing presents and asking me who they are for. And is all proud of herself for knowing that "Carrie" is "Mommy" to her :o)

They practice going to sleep on the floor so Santa can come. I told them Santa will only come when they are sleeping. I have to say, at nighttime, it's been easier to get them to sleep :o) What am I going to do after Christmas?!

They love to turn on the lights on the "Christmas table" - where my town scene is. And turning on the lights around their Christmas stockings.

Looking at Christmas lights I think is their favorite (at least until they get to open their presents!). They like to look out the truck window and find the lights on homes - "Oh! Dirkie's side!" or "On Evie's side!" they'll yell as they find lights on their sides of the road.

Stay tuned for pics. I work tomorrow morning, will try to pick up a shift on Wednesday morning after we open our presents and before we leave for home. So it might be after Christmas before you get Christmas presents.

AND stay tuned for another bundle to arrive shortly after Christmas!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

10,000th Visitor!

Who's it gonna be? Sign the guestbook please! You'll win a fantastic prize of spending a whole month with my kids! Ok, maybe not. But seriously, be proud of your timing and let us know who you are! Even if you are just a random person clicking on blogs :o)



We went and saw Santa yesterday...Again. Slowly trying to get Eve to go near him. She is way shy around him and didn't want anything to do with him once she saw him. We've told her that she doesn't get any presents from Santa unless she tells him what she wants. So Derrick jumps right up there and rattles off all these things he wants. And tells Santa what Eve would like, what a nice big brother. So we start leaving and Eve starts whimpering again. I asked her what was wrong - and she said, "I want to get presents" in this little shy, whiny voice. She knew she had to talk to Santa or else there were no presents for her. And just an hour or so beforehand, she had found THE Christmas present Santa had to get her - miniature My Little Ponies - a pack of three! She freaked out when she saw them! So I slowly walked up to Santa with her. She hid like usual and told me to tell Santa for her. But I said I wouldn't (need to help her get over her fears you know!). And Santa remembered what Derrick had said she wanted, so he asked her if she wanted a Pony. And a few seconds later she looked up, and said, "A Purple pony. Little, tiny pony." And then hid again! It was so cute! Here's two pics. The one of Eve was as close as she'd go to Santa until she realized she wouldn't get any presents. :o)

Monday, December 15, 2008

Pics and Videos Finally!

Here's a couple of pics on our way to D's Christmas program.







PLUS - I broke down and got a new camera! So there will be even more pics to see here! Aren't you excited? :o) No more just reading, you'll actually get to see the kids!

We also are making sugar cookies. The kids are having fun rolling the dough into balls, then squishing them and using the tiny cookie cutters we got them for Christmas, but I figured we needed to use them before then :o) I think Eve likes to eat the cookie dough more. We'll be frosting them too, and I'm sure that will get messy, so I'll have my camera ready!

8 years ago tonight Ryan proposed, during a blizzard. How ironic that we have had nasty weather the day or so. Where has the time gone?

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Christmas Decorating

Alright. I love Christmas decorations. But not putting them up! Or at least not when I'm way preggo :o)

I still can't get Eve's little voice saying, "It's Christmas in my home" out of my head. She said it so soft, but so in awe. So I broke down and decorated some more.

I'm anal when it comes to Christmas stockings. I want them all to match, so I won't get any until we are done having kids. So this year, we had some fun. D and E made their own stockings. It was really fun! I cut out the stocking shapes from paper bags, punched holes all along the sides of them, and had the kids decorate them with a big letter "D" and "E" on each of theirs. They had fun with all the winter and Christmas stickers. Then I had them tie the front and back of the stockings together by weaving red yarn thru the holes. They did so well, I thought I'd have issues getting them to understand how to weave, but they did it without any help after me showing them how to do it in the beginning. Derrick then asked where the stockings go - and pointed out that we didn't have a fireplace to put them on. He thought that's the only place they can go. Downstairs next to the TV there are two hooks in the wall from who knows what, and I hung them up there. Derrick asked if Santa was allowed to go downstairs :o)

We also took the kids Christmas shopping for each other. We gave them each $5 and headed off to the dollar store. Man those kids have fun. I took D, and Ryan took E. It's fun watching them buy stuff for each other - especially when the REALLY found something they want, and they say the other one wants it. Derrick was set that Eve really wanted a bug set. I'm like, Yah I don't think so kid. :o) I guess Eve did the same thing with Ryan. But only once, so that's good.

I had my doc appt on Thursday. Baby is still really high. No dilation :o( And that's the only time she'll check. Unless I have contractions. I'm winding down at work. I get some funny stares from people - geez, you're still working. Yes I am. I would go NUTS sitting at home waiting for baby to come. But I do not close any more. That's too much for me. My last scheduled day is this Monday, and I'll just pick up shifts each day I feel like working.

I've also had some heart arrhythmias. So I am hooked up to a monitor at night. Doesn't bother me to do this, except that the monitor patches ITCH like a son of a gun! I wake up itching at it. Hopefully all is well with that, I do not want to be put on bedrest. So I try to keep hydrated, eat enough (I've been a pig the last few days!), and rest enough (easier said than done this late in pregnancy!), and hopefully that's enough to steer it away. I'm incredibly swollen now tho. But I cannot complain too much, I was this swollen with D and E during my second trimesters, so the last 2 weeks I can handle!

Well, speaking of rest, I should head to bed. Again, I've been trying to get that new digital camera, but I keep getting more and more obstacles in my way. So we'll see. And I'm still waiting on Ryan to get the pics and videos off his phone so I can upload them for you to see of D's Christmas program. I haven't forgotten!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Creative Kids

On Wednesday, Derrick has his first Christmas Sunday School program. It was very cute! My friend, Amy, loaned me her camera so I could video tape it. However, I can't seem to get it off the card and onto the computer so I can upload it for you all to watch :o( So I'll have to figure that out shortly.

The kids are really into their projects. They really like to paint - of course, it's the one thing that makes the biggest mess. But they do really well.

I started decorating today with the kids for Christmas. I put two strings of ribbon down our side window in the living room. One green, one red. We're hanging all our Christmas cards from it. Eve was SO EXCITED - she told me "It looks like Christmas in my house!" So we'll do some more here tomorrow and the next few days.

We bought Derrick a calendar (full of all the super heroes he's into) for Christmas. He's always asking what day is it today and what we are going to do and "Who's going to babysitter us today." :o) Babysitter us. He's too cute. Anyways, so I printed off a calendar for December. We went thru and put stickers on certain days - like a snowman on the first day of winter, the letter "B" stickers went on the days they go to Mrs. Barbosa's house - they LOVE it there! And Christmas Eve and Day we have Christmas type stickers on them. I asked Derrick what day (24th) this was and he said Christmas. I said, this is actually Christmas Eve, the day before...And he said, "Christmas Dirk!" Haha! He thought one day was a Christmas for Evie, and the other was a Christmas day for him! Not sure how I'm going to explain that one just yet.

The kids also are so into their colored pencils. Nate watched them for us the other weekend and bought them some eraseable colored pencils and two pencil sharpeners. Man these kids have been on cloud 9 since then! I still haven't been able to get Derrick to hold a pencil normal, he doesn't seem to care. But he colors so nicely now. Eve, does pretty good, and holds a pencil perfectly.

That's about it for now. Just over 3 weeks to go! I'm starting to get excited now. I think I've been so busy the last 8 months that I just didn't have a whole lot of time to really think about it - it seemed so far off! But now it's getting closer. The kids are sure it's a girl baby. And they know the girl's name I like and am trying to get Ryan to agree to :o) And Eve still says that the boy baby's name is "Doctor." So if this little one is a boy, he's got a lot to live up to :o)

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Less than a Month to go!

Alrighty. We are down to the last few weeks here. So, for starters - any of you want me to text you right after the baby is born - I need your #! Send an email to me (carriezeldenrust@yahoo.com) or text me (507-317-9338) and let me know! I have quite the list going, but I'm sure my mommy brain missed a few of you. Otherwise check here - I'll have my doula update this site when I allow her to leave the hospital :o)

Kids are doing well. We are into "projects" right now. We made some for Christmas gifts, so I can't tell you what they are yet :o) But they did turn out pretty stinking cute! We went to the wallpaper store and got the outdated/discontinued books so we can use them to practice cutting, gluing, etc. They had Spider-man wallpaper and Dora wallpaper. The kids were pretty excited.

I will try ordering my digital camera again :o( It wouldn't give me free shipping the last times I tried, and now it went up in price - bummer! So I will check again today. I really want one that takes nice pics (not that the one mom loaned me doesn't!) but I want the video part to take longer than 15 second videos. I want to get Derrick to say the Lord's Prayer on it and stuff like that. Tomorrow my friend Amy is loaning me her camera for D's Christmas program at church. I'm so excited to see him "sing" - I'm sure he'll be like any other 4 year old up there and just looking around waving at people :o) So, stay tuned tomorrow night - I'll post the video if I can get it to upload!