Precious....

Here is Maggie wearing an adorable hat knit by my friend Pam. Believe it or not, it was Pam who introduced Casey and I, and now eleven years later she is living in Oregon with her husband and dog, knitting hats and running her own accounting firm....Thanks Pam!

Some Christmas Cheer!

A little early, but super funny.....

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/mnWJSZrlpJ9sNAlkgoLL

Leaves

We have got leaves and leaves and leaves.... We are literally swimming in them. They are not hard to rake but we aren't sure what to do with them once we rake them. Anyway, the kids had some ideas, as you can see here.

When the Saints go Marching In....

I know that I am guilty of recycling blog post titles, but I don't have time to be creative.... Anyway,the second graders at the kid's school celebrate All Saint's Day by doing a book report on a Saint of their choosing and then dressing up like them and giving a short presentation to the parents after Mass. Here is Jackson dressed up as St. Joseph and a few shots of his whole class.

Halloween

We had lots of Halloween fun this year. It kicked off with the neighborhood Halloween parade which happened to be the same weekend as Maggie's Baptism, so we were able to enjoy it with cousins Kevin and Mya and Mama ReRe and Paka, Aunt Lee and Bill, Aunt Sarah, Erin-Kate, Ryan and Rachel. We took tons of picture all weekend, all without the memory card in our camera.... (including at the Baptism) so if someone could send some, that would be much appreciated.

On Halloween night, we went out trick or treating with my cousin and Jackson's Godmother Caitlin, who recently moved to the area. She was a good sport and went out as Princess Beatrice (think crazy hat) and you can see what the kids were. They brought home tons of candy including 50 packages of fun dip, that I am still finding in the most unexpected places....

One Month

Here is Miss Maggie at approximately one month. When I took her in for her 4 week visit, they told me she still had significant Jaundice and they needed to figure out why. It turns out that often there is a protein in the mother's milk that can cause some baby's intestines to keep reabsorbing the Billirubin instead of expelling it. Some babies are just particularly sensitive to it. The good news is it is self limiting, so there is no cause for concern, because the Billirubrn levels stay at a pretty moderate level and then eventually go down. The bad news is, the only way to verify that it is breast milk jaundice is to do a heel prick then stop nursing for three days and repeat the test to see if her levels dropped. We began this process at 6 am on her 1 month birthday, so she spent the majority of the day crying for food and refusing the bottle.... Luckily, that is all it was and she was able to resume nursing without any other concerns. Amazingly, the Jaundice never really came back even when she returned to breast milk.

4 Little Pumpkins

This Columbus Day, the kids had the day off and it was Casey's first day at a new job. (more on that later) Anyway, I was feeling fallish and decided to take the kids apple picking. So we drove about an hour out of town to an orchard and attempted to do some harvesting. As it turns out we were a little late and most of the apples were on the ground, but we had fun dodging yellow jackets and sorting through them. Then we went down to the pumpkin patch and picked out some pumpkins. I tried to get some photos, but by this point the kids were so grumpy it was hard to get a good shot. On the way out we got the world's best carmel apples and a gallon of cider and headed home.

Sugar and Spice

I couldn't resist posting a couple from this week.

All things pink....

Maggie Grace is almost two weeks old now and she has been busy introducing us to the wonderful world of girls. She is just sweet as can be and a joy to have in the house. She eats well and sleeps well and rarely cries. She has let us dress her up like a little doll, complete with tights and headbands. I am not sure how big she is now, but I would guess about 9lbs. She had dropped down to 8 the day we came home from the hospital, but she had already started gaining it back by the next morning. She sleeps a lot but when she is up, she is very alert, taking everything in. Her brothers adore her (Nicholas has even warmed up to her) and will sit and look at them one at time while they hold her.

Here are some pictures of her first couple of weeks.

MVP

At Jackson's baseball game last Saturday against none other than the Red Sox, he turned a double play and as aresult was named Player of the Game and given the game ball! He has been watching the pros on tv make that play all summer, so you can imagine his excitement when he was able to execute it himself in the the first game of the season. Here is a picture of him with the game ball and one with his little sister.

After

Her room isn't totally done, but I don't want to keep you waiting forever. Here is it so far:


Click here for the befores http://thekhankids.blogspot.com/2011/07/let-transformation-begin.html

She is here: Margaret Grace

Margaret Grace Khan made her debut today, September 14th at 3:39pm. Maggie Grace, as we have been calling her, weighed in at 8lbs 7oz and measured 21 inches. She was just one once less than her largest brother, Nicholas.

She is doing really well, feisty and alert and passing all of her baby tests. She has lots of dark hair, most of it in the back, which is not good news for barrettes, but she will look great in headbands.

Labor and delivery went well, perfectly planned with no complications. Not at all what I am used to.... She even came out facing the right direction!

The boys have already been down to see her and seem to like having a sister. They also liked the TV in my room. Nicholas was a little confused by the whole thing, but at least appeared interested in her. It should be interesting to see his reaction when we bring her home on Friday.

Soccer

The boys are both happy to be back to school and have enjoyed their first couple of days. Most of the students are not back into their classrooms yet, but they are making the best of the space they have and it does make things a bit more exciting. The Kindergarten classroom was unaffected, but Jackson's class is meeting in the gym. Tonight was the first practice for both Francis's soccer team and Jackson's baseball team. I didn't make it over to the baseball practice, but Jackson seemed to enjoy it. Francis loves soccer and is taking the sport very seriously. Here are some shots of him in action and Nicky on the playground.

Back to School

Here are some pictures of the big guys as they headed back to school. Don't they look great in uniforms? I love them mismatched and dirty, but for some reason, seeing them look sharp and clean is refreshing to my soul......

Big Week!

How often does one family get to start school (Monday), start baseball and soccer (Tuesday), celebrate a tenth wedding anniversary (Wednesday), and have a new baby (also scheduled for Wednesday) all in the same week? Probably not often and probably for good reason.... Things are a little hectic here to say the least. The good news is, we have help. My Mom and Peter have been here since Thursday helping with the kids and my cousin moved into the area last week, so we have reinforcements! I will try to keep up with the blogging and put up those first baby pictures ASAP. In the meantime, please remember us in your prayers particularly Wednesday morning, when I go in for the induction.

Hurricane 2011

Luckily, we were spared the worst of Hurricane Irene. Since we are not near the shore my main concern was going into labor in the middle of it and being without power for a week, but obviously neither come to fruition. We were well prepared with flashlights, batteries, canned goods and even a cooler of dry ice. The worst of the winds and rain came our way about 1 am Sunday and we lost power for about an hour an a half, but it was back on before we needed to dip into any of our supplies. We had a few branches down, but our biggest loss was a few hours sleep. We were fearful of trees coming down in the wind so we all camped out on the family room floor. Here are some pictures of the boys riding out the storm.

Does this baby make me look fat?

I saw that on a maternity shirt once and thought it was funny. Anyway, here is what I hope will be one of the last shots of the baby INSIDE of my stomach. (be kind, this photo was taken after a very long day) Yes, I am huge, nothing I own will even cover my belly, but I know it won't be much longer. Believe it or not, I have only gained 29lbs, it just all appears to have gone to one place. The price of motherhood.... Here is a link to pictures taken just before Nicholas was born as a comparison. http://thekhankids.blogspot.com/2008/12/baby-update.html

The baby seems to be doing well. She is very active and reponds to the kids touching my stomach, especially to Nicholas who is usually crawling all over me. My next appointment is the 6th and if she hasn't been born yet, they will schedule me for an induction at that appointment. My labors have been fast, but the deliveries have not been easy, so they would like to have a little more control over this one to ensure she isn't born in the car during rush hour. Either way, she should be here in the next two weeks, which is pretty exciting. I was expecting Nicholas and I would have a week or so of quiet time with the big guys at school before she was born, but with school delayed due to earthquake damage, it is looking more and more likely they will all be home to welcome her.

Earthquake 2011

We had an exciting day Tuesday when we all experienced our first earthquake. If you asked me, I would have said the entire thing lasted about 90 seconds but on the news they are saying less, so maybe it just seemed longer. It began with a rumbling noise and slight shaking that was like standing next to an out of balance washing machine. I decided it must be a tornado hovering over the house and made the kids run to the basement. (I have a completely irrational fear of tornadoes...) It soon stopped and we came back upstairs to call Casey and couldn't get through. At that point, I noticed some of our neighbors outside, so I went out to find out what had happened. Finally, someone mentioned earthquake and I realized that must be what it was. We were pretty panicked, not knowing if it was going to start up again and not being able to get through to anyone on the phone, but eventually texts started coming in and Casey was able to call and say he was okay. As you can see from the pictures, the damage at our house was extensive (kidding), but in all seriousness the kid's school just 1 mile away did have enough structural damage to delay the start of school by 2 weeks!

Now to prepare for our second natural disaster of the week.... The hurricane! I must admit this is not the nesting I expected to be doing in anticipation of the arrival of our daughter.

Teeth

Well, we had another bike accident and Jackson's front teeth were once again the casualties. Those of you who have know us for a long time may remember that the day I brought Francis home from the hospital, Jackson fell into a slide at the playground and severely damaged his front teeth. They eventually died and turned color and had to be removed when he was about three and a half. Shortly after that he tripped again at a playground and knocked out a third front tooth, so we are used to seeing him with a gap there.

Last October, just as his adult teeth had started coming in, he fell off his bike and did a lot of damage to his upper gum, but in the end it looked like the teeth had been spared. They finished coming in around February and were looking good.... Until a couple of weeks ago. He feel off the bike again, right in front of the house and this time the front teeth took the full impact of the fall. After our last trip to the ER I learned that if you are going to need a specialist on a Friday night call them first. I used our dentist's emergency pager and he met us over at the office to push Jackson's teeth back into the gum and splint them in place. Then Casey took him over to the ER to get the wounds on his hand and face cleaned up.

He is not out of the woods yet, but they removed the braces the other day and we are hoping that the root will re-attach. If not, he is going to have to become a professional hockey player! Here are some very graphic before and after photos. (the last one was after, with the braces)