Christmas Program

What a joy it is to see our girls singing about Jesus' birth! We had our Christmas program this past week at church and both Makenna and Maryn were able to participate. Maryn was an angel with the little kiddos and Makenna got to sing with the older kids. Both of them did a phenomenal job :)


Makenna and Maryn all dressed up and ready for the program! Maryn kept asking all day if it was time to put on her princess dress yet :) She came walking down the stairs after her nap holding her dress and when she asked again I could finally tell her yes!


Aren't they beautiful!?


Maryn's 2nd year of being an angel in the program... she actually looks angelic here.


And this pictures seems to capture her true personality coming out :) The angel costume can't mask everything!


Makenna and Maryn


Maryn got so excited when Makenna went up on stage! She kept yelling "Makenna! Hi Makenna" and over and over again! It was pretty sweet!


Maryn on stage


Makenna on stage

My Baby's Getting So Big!

My baby sure isn't acting much like a baby anymore. She is fully on the move! She pulls herself up on anything and everything, moves from object to object, and has even started cruising! Today she made 3 full trips up the stairs all by herself (with mommy very close behind!). It's hard to believe sometimes that she isn't even 10 months old yet!

And Maya and her eating... another way in which she seems so big! She has decided that she is too cool for bottles and only prefers a sippy cup. I didn't even realize this was happening until all of a sudden I realized I hadn't given her milk in a bottle for a few days (because I didn't have any to wash). I still nurse her at least 4 times a day, but the other times she wants to drink she has her sippy cup. I'm both excited and sad about this. And she has also decided she doesn't care for baby food... She likes the real stuff! She eats whatever we're eating, just chopped up into itty-bitty pieces and she LOVES it! She devours our food and turns her nose up to anything "babyish". This past week she ate homemade turkey and veggie soup, sloppy joe's, pork stirfry, sub sandwiches and many other foods. She has a fondness for green foods and I can almost guarantee you that any green vegetable you feed her will be missing from her tray first (peas, zucchini, cucumber, green pepper). She does amazingly well considering she really only has two full chompers on the bottom to work with (the upper two aren't thru enough to do much work). Every night at dinner now we just pull out the big chopping board and knife and dice up whatever we're having for Miss Maya :) Looks like she is continuing the trend of non-picky Budke eaters.

A few cute notes about Maya... she LOVES when we pray. When we all fold our hands and bow our heads to pray she lights up. Some nights she will even fold her hands with us. I'm glad that at such a young age she already enjoys this family tradition. And Maya is an absolute ham. She loves to smile and laugh. I can't tell you how much we hear about her beautiful smile and how happy she is! Oh and she is finally saying "Mama". It took a few weeks after "Dada" but she now says it regularly :)

And another story... Maya was getting in the habit (while she was sick) of having Mommy get her too much at night. So I decided that she was going to have to cry it out one night. She cried for probably a half hour and then after she got quiet I snuck in her room to make sure she was okay. She was sitting upright with her legs criss-crossed and her face planted straight down in her lap! Poor baby! I felt horrible! But at least she went back to sleep.

Maya and her big blue eyes!


Maya and Nenny... she is even starting to try and say "Nenny"


And I had to include this picture because I thought Maya looks so grown-up in it!


Miss Maya

Christmas Party

TrueNorth put on a family Christmas party this year. We had so much fun! The best part was when we pulled in the parking lot and sitting there was a LIVE reindeer and Mrs. Claus with an elf!! I was so giddy you would've thought I was the kid! I've never seen a real reindeer! The girls were so glad they got to meet Vixen! Then they each sat on Santa's lap and got to pick two toys from the Toy Shop. Maryn ran right up to Santa (cutting off all the other kids in her path), Makenna was a little more reserved but did well as always, and Maya was on the verge of screaming and she was only on his lap for 30 seconds while we snapped a picture! Maya didn't want Daddy to be more than 2 feet away from her. We then decorated some Christmas cookies and enjoyed the wonderful food provided by TrueNorth. Josh and I were just thrilled we didn't have to waste hours of our weekend standing in line at the mall to see Santa! On the way home we asked the girls what they asked Santa for. Maryn said toys and Dora and Makenna told us a chalkboard. Surprised by Makenna's answer (as she has been asking for an Easy Bake Oven for months now) I asked her why she didn't ask for the Easy Bake Oven. Things were quiet for awhile and all of a sudden we hear sobs from the back of the van. She was so upset that she forgot to tell Santa that she really wanted an Easy Bake Oven. We mailed an emergency letter to Santa that night so he would know what she really wanted :)

Later that same day we finally finished decorating our tree. It's weird having older kids now... I put on the lights and ribbon and they do the rest. Maryn and Makenna did a wonderful job! I loved that the tree was fully decorated four feet and down! I don't know if they noticed that the ornaments were slowly being rearranged over the next few days ;)


The girls with Santa! These pictures are pretty bad b/c I was trying to steer clear of the professional photographer and what he was doing. TrueNorth bought us the professional pictures so at least I have some good shots to keep!




Me and my girls!!


Maryn and Makenna with our decorated Christmas tree. There is a very funny story to what Maryn is doing in this picture... she is biting her fingers because she got superglue on her fingers. Josh was trying to fix an angel that she broke (accidentally) and she went back to check on it and ended up getting super glue all over her fingers. Josh tried to get it all off, but obviously as you can tell by this picture he wasn't successful. It was absolutely driving her crazy. She finally held up her fingers and said "I ask Santa Claus to fix this!"

TEETH!

Teeth! Teeth! Teeth! It's a hot topic at our house lately! Maya got her very first tooth on 11/21 and got her second one just a few days later! Fast forward only 3 weeks and she is now getting her top two teeth! Four teeth in less than a month!! Add this to the cold turned into a bacterial infection she had for a week and a half and she has been just plain miserable! It took her forever to get that first tooth, but they sure came fast once she got that first one!

And right around that same week Maya got her first tooth Makenna chipped her upper front tooth (we're not sure how) and one of her lower teeth is now loose! It was very exciting when she first discovered that the tooth was loose. Now that it's weeks later and the tooth is still there it's not as exciting. Now it's just annoying :) Poor kiddo just wants the tooth fairy to visit!

Maryn Update

We seem to have gotten in to a pretty good rhythm with Maryn lately. Or maybe I should say we've gained a greater understanding of her and how to deal with her effectively. Being the strong-willed child that she is, sometimes we have power struggles with her that can be quite frustrating for mommy and daddy. Well the first thing we figured out that she is still desperately in need of a nap everyday. We were getting to the point where we thought maybe she was weaning from her nap, but it is now clear that she isn't. If she doesn't nap, I will guarantee you that we will have at least one meltdown in the evening and most likely a few instances of not being able to cope as well and a much sassier child. Thus we are liking Maryn's newer sleep schedule... she gets up a little earlier than she used to (around 7:00), takes a nap in the afternoon for about 2 hours, and then lays in bed a little longer at night until she falls asleep. The beautiful thing is that she still goes to bed at her regular time, now she just lays there and reads books and very rarely even comes out :)

Maryn has really made remarkable strides with her behavior and we are very proud of how much she seems to have matured lately. In addition to realizing how much a nap impacts her behavior, I think the extra one-on-one time with mommy while Makenna's at school has helped as well as all of the classes she has been taking. She now attends Flyers at church on Wednesdays nights and took a music class and swimming lessons this fall and loved them both! She told us that she wants to be Miss Paula (her music teacher) when she grows up and tonight she thanked God for Miss LuAnn (her swimming teacher) in her prayers. She does so well in instructional settings and the teachers thoroughly enjoy her. And I love watching her. She always has a huge smile on her face!

And on to the big topic... Maryn's voiding dysfunction. We had an appointment at UIHC in November that went very well. We gained a lot of insight into what's going on with her and made the appropriate changes. We were told her bowels were playing a significant role in her bladder problems so we needed to solve her "constipation" issue (which we were shocked to find out she was constipated... if you knew how much this kid goes, you wouldn't think so either). We made all the appropriate dietary changes, but it only worked for a few days and then went back to "normal". We were prepared to take the next step when Maryn decided she was tired of diapers and wanted to use the potty again. Not knowing how difficult it would be for her given her voiding dysfunction issues, I was a little tentative (afraid she would fail and get frustrated). But I supported her and we went about like she was a typical kid potty training. Thank God for the blizzard we got last week... seriously! We were trapped in the house for 3 days straight and I think that helped the situation! I am happy to report that Maryn only had five accidents all week long and most of those were instances where she started to go and caught herself and finished in the potty. She is so proud of herself and I must say I am to! It is honestly an answer to my prayers that somehow the dripping issue seems to have disappeared. I'm going to pray that it stays this way, but we have a back-up plan if it doesn't. The big thing to celebrate right now is that she is potty-trained again and loving it!

And of course with it being Maryn, there has to be a hilarious story to share. She was in the bathroom finishing up her business and I walked by to check on her. She had her pants up and was walking out but then suddenly turned around. Went over and pulled some toilet paper off the role, pulled her pants open in the front, stuck the toilet paper down the front of her pants, wiped, put it in the potty and walked out again. She remembered all the steps, she just needed a refresher course for what order they go in!


Now that Maryn's on a more regular nap schedule again, I'm not too picky about where she naps. As long as she is in her room and quiet, she can pick the spot. These are a few of the places I've found her in the past few weeks. One day I also found her sitting upright in her laundry hamper. Luckly she wasn't sleeping yet so I could move her!

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a nice Thanksgiving in Cedar Falls with my family. The girls had fun with their cousin Eden. I think the highlight of the weekend was frosting Christmas cookies on Friday morning!

The quote of the weekend came from Makenna... I was tucking her in bed on Thanksgiving night and I asked her what her favorite part of the meal was. She very quickly answered "the dessert!" That wasn't a surprise since my mom's pumpkin pie is one of her favorites so I probed for more info... "What was your favorite food out of the other food?" Makenna - "Uhhhhh.. the chicken!" :) I didn't have the heart to tell her it was turkey!


Happy 1st Thanksgiving Maya!


Maya enjoying a little turkey dinner on her 1st Thanksgiving!




Okay so this had to be one of the funniest moments of the weekend. Maya was sitting on my mom's lap at the end of Thanksgiving dinner and she reached for my mom's wine glass... and she wouldn't let go! She was intently trying to get that thing in her mouth and wouldn't let go! Everyone started laughing at her so then of course she started hamming it up and putting on a show! She was even sucking on the side of the glass for awhile :)


More being silly!


Maryn making Christmas cookies. She did really well this year and only ate one (plus some sprinkles and M&Ms)!


Makenna making Christmas cookies... she was quite the cookie artist this year!


Jeanne, Eden and Maryn all hard at work on their cookies!


Daddy and Makenna finishing up some cookies.


Eden taking a milk break! You've gotta wash down all that frosting and sprinkles!


Makenna with the finished products!


The girls and all their cookies! They were so proud! That is a LOT of cookies!!!

Maya - 9 Months Old

All About Maya Grace at 9 months old....



Nicknames: Gracie, My My, Maya Baya
Weight & Height: SO BIG! She is extremely long! She's been wearing size 12 months since she was 7 1/2 months old and is now comfortably wearing size 12-18 months! Today she weighed in at just over 19 lbs (58%) and 29 1/2 inches long (97%). And surprise surprise... her BMI continues to be low (12%). Never thought I'd have a bunch of tall and skinny kids!
Hair: Not a whole lot of hair, but what she does have is not as fuzzy anymore. It actually lays flat now :) AND I think I might finally have a true brown haired child!!!
Favorite foods: Maya loves to eat! Some meals she'll put down almost as much food as Maryn! She'll eat any fruit or veggie from a baby food jar. She likes them all. I mix those with a wide variety of cereals and she'll eat any of those as well. She also started eating Cheerios and puffs around 8 months old and in the past few weeks has moved on to real solid foods! She LOVES them! So far she has had bananas, kiwi, melon, peas, whole grain pasta, waffles, pancakes, chicken, pizza, cheese, tater tot casserole, and I'm sure there are a few others that I'm missing.
Favorite Drink: She started drinking water from a sippy cup at about 7 1/2 months and she took to it immediately. She loves drinking from a sippy! She continues to get most of her nutrients from nursing and every once in awhile I have to supplement with a pumped bottle or a if I'm out of pumped milk, a little bit of formula. I ran out of my unbelievable frozen milk supply around 6 1/2 months :( I thought 60 bags of milk would last me forever, but I didn't realize what the 6 month growth spurt would do to it!
Favorite toys: LeapFrog table, balls, rings, plastic bottles, tupperware, teethers... basically anything she can put in her mouth. Unfortunately some of her favorite things to chew on (that's her idea of playing) are things she's not suppose to have... the lid on the baby Tylenol bottle and the bulb syringe. Go figure.
Favorite books: Out of all of our kiddos, she likes books the least :( I try reading to her just like I did the other two, and she just tries to shut the book or suck on it. I'll keep trying though!
Favorite Game: Tag You're It with her older sisters!
Favorite stuffed animal: Teddy! She has a favorite just like her sisters!
Favorite Person: Ooooh... probably a toss up between Mommy and Daddy. She gets excited for both of us.
Bedtime: Some time between 6:30 and 7:00 depending on how well and how late she napped that day.
Wake-up time: She's usually up between 7:00 - 7:30, sometimes a little later. She does typically still get up around 3:30 for about 10 minutes to eat and goes right back to sleep.
Naps: She still takes 2 naps a day and definitely loves her naps. She goes down for her morning nap around 9:00 and sleeps for approximately 1 1/2 hours. Then takes her afternoon nap at 1:00 and sleeps anywhere from 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours.
What she's saying: Maya babbled by saying "baba" for the longest time. Then recently I was gone for a day and Josh taught her how to say "dada." Now she says "dada", but only when Josh is around! All in all, she LOVES to jabber and make noise! She fits right in at our house ;)
Latest Accomplishment: Oh my goodness, there's so much at this age! Drinking from a sippy cup, eating real people food, crawling (7 months), pulling herself to a standing position (7 months), getting to a sitting position on her own, waving, climbing up the stairs.
Likes: baths, chewing/sucking on things, giggling, when Daddy comes home from work
Dislikes: getting her diaper changed (she wiggles any way she can to get out of it), when she pulls herself up in her crib and can't get back down (even worse when Mommy comes to lay her back down and I don't get her out of her crib... that usually provokes a good scream).
What gets said about Maya most often: That she looks just like Maryn and Josh... which is hilarious since Maryn looks like me :) Guess she's a good combination!
Best known for: Her big gummy smiles! I've never met a baby that smiles as easily as she does!
Health: We are so blessed! Maya has been extremely healthy. In mid-October she caught the same virus that the older two girls had but had a much milder form for a much shorter time (thank you breastmilk!). That was the first time she's been sick.
How she's like Daddy: She's goofy and has a great sense of humor already :) You can already tell she's a jokester!
How she's like Mommy: She's a happy, content baby just like I was.
Interesting Tidbits: She JUST got her 1st tooth on 11/21! It took so long for that little thing to come in! I've been telling people she's been teething for 4 months now!

Life At Our House...

I love this picture because it is the norm for our house right now... the couch cushions are on the floor scattered about in some kind of game or pretend play, Maryn has her eyes closed (it's impossible to get her picture with her eyes open anymore!), and there's a big pile of clean laundry sitting in the family room waiting to be folded! That's our life and I LOVE it!

Miss Maya

Oh my Maya how you're growing! She will be 9 months old in two days! It's so hard to believe! And things change so fast at this age. It seems likes she's trying something new everyday!

This past weekend I took Makenna and Maryn with me to Huxley to visit our newest nephew/cousin Breken so Josh got to hang out with Maya all day. When we got home that night they had a surprise for me... Josh taught Maya how to say "Dada" in one day! And she knows what it means because she'll only say it to Josh or when he's around :) For weeks before she only babbled "Baba" but has now added "Dada" to the list.

Maya is also pulling herself into a standing position on everything. Sometimes she has no fear and just lets go and falls straight down. But for some reason in her crib she will stand there and scream ("Dada Dada!") until someone comes and helps her down! Silly kid! That has made for some drawn out naptimes this week.

Maya has also taken to solid foods very quickly. She's been eating baby food since 6months and around 8 months we started giving her Cheerios and puffs. Well just a few weeks ago we started giving her bites of fruits and soft veggies and she loved them. So slowly but surely we'd give her bites of whatever we were having that would be soft enough for her to chew (since she still has NO teeth!). Well this past week she has had our dinner with us three nights... pizza, chicken and pasta (Italian Chicken) and tater tot casserole! She just chows it all down! And this is after I already fed her baby food for dinner!

And here you can see why Daddy's nickname "Cheeks" is so appropriate for Maya!


Climbing and playing with Makenna and Maryn on the couch


One of her favorite places to play... by the stairs. I concocted these nifty little safety things to protect her from the hard corners on the stairs and she found them within minutes and pulled them off and started sucking on them. Ugh.


Drooly grin :)

Voiding Dysfunction

Maryn was diagnosed with voiding dysfunction back in September. Maryn had been having uncontrollable dripping urine starting back in mid-August. After numerous trips to various doctors, lots of UAs and an ultrasound, we headed down to UIHC last week to see a Pediatric Urologist. It was a long 2 hour appointment but proved to be very insightful. Apparently much of what we had been told by our pediatrician's office (re: behavior modification methods, what's going on with her, etc) was all false. This is what we took away from our appointment - her ultrasound looked great. Nothing is physically or anatomically wrong with her. Praise God! The doctor had a lot to say but the main idea was that her bowels are pushing against her bladder, thus causing the uncontrollable dripping of urine. Maryn doesn't seem to be emptying her bowels enough or regularly enough to prevent this from happening. The doctor also said that once this started happening a lot, then her internal signals from her bladder to her brain and back most likely got all mixed up and caused even more internal confusion. So our plan of action is to adjust her diet so that she has "milkshake" bowel movements for 6 months. You read that correctly, I'm basically giving my kid diarrhea for 6 months. But if it's going to help her, I'll do anything. High fiber diet here we come!

The doctor also told us we can go right back in to trying to potty train her for peeing again (since she's still potty trained for bowel movements). We were told this was not a good idea by other doctors. So on to potty training Maryn... for the second time! There should be some law against having to potty train one child twice. Oh well. All in all, we are blessed that it has turned out to be such a minor issue when it could have been so much worse. Now we'll just work with her for a few months and hopefully get some progress!

Makenna's Conferences

I'm a little, okay a lot, behind on blogging. I just can't seem to find the time lately, so I guess I'm going to be playing catch up for awhile.

All the way back to the beginning of October and Makenna's first conferences (for my own records)...

Makenna's conferences were outstanding! The first thing the teacher said when we sat down was "Well, Makenna is just a pleasure to have in class!". Her Linn Mar test scores were impressive (like 50 points above the average kid in class) and Mrs. Agnew told us that she is at the top of the class. She is one of the very few kids in kindergarten (out of all 90 some kids) to already to be taken out of class to work with a reading teacher. She is reading at level 6. The four kindergarten classes have also now been divided out into 4 sections for math class based on ability. She was placed in the top section. Makenna is absolutely thriving in this environment just like all her preschool teachers told us she would. She continues to prove all those people wrong who told us she shouldn't go to kindergarten because she has a summer birthday :) Behaviorally Mrs. Agnew said she has absolutely no issues with Makenna whatsoever and doesn't expect any... she is a good helper, stays on task, talks on turn, gets along with everyone, likes to participate in class, and even helps out the other kids when she gets done with her work early :) We're so proud of how well she's doing. Makenna really does enjoy kindergarten and we have enjoyed watching her grow so much! She seems to have grown up overnight.

Maya Standing & Sitting

Just wanted to make a few notes for myself... Maya started being able to get from laying down to sitting up all on her own right around 8 months old and was pulling herself to a standing position as well. She has been trying to eat cheerios and puffs lately but doesn't seem to care for them. She typically gags and they come right back out. But she loves using her pincher grasp to try and pick them up and put them in her mouth! Too bad 95% of them end up on the floor or the front of her shirt!

I love this picture!! She is so proud whenever she accomplishes something new! This is one of the 1st times she pulled herself up on her own!

Halloween 2009

Maya's 1st Halloween and she got to wear the traditional bunny costume that the other two girls wore. She was probably only in her costume 10 minutes (long enough to take these pictures) and then she was off to bed. She slept through most of the festivities!




Makenna as Mary Poppins! Makenna decided early last spring after she saw the movie Mary Poppins for the first time that this is what she was going to be for Halloween this year. It's her favorite movie!


Thanks to Poppy and Peepie for making her costume! I know they put a lot of time and effort into this and I can't thank you enough! It meant a LOT to Makenna! And everyone loved it!


Maryn the Bumblebee! She practiced her "bzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz" for weeks! She was really cute! This pic was actually a week ago when we tried on costumes. Most of the pics of her from Halloween night she has her eyes shut.


And for some reason 95% of the pictures I took that night she has her eyes closed :( I finally turned the flash off so she wouldn't blink... thus the darker image.


Mommy with her baby bunny. Maya looks very much like Makenna in this picture!


No use being a bumblebee if you don't have a stinger!!!


The serious bunny with chunky cheeks and big blue eyes. Isn't she a doll?!


Makenna and Maya all dressed up. Maryn is missing from this picture because she was still sitting at the dinner table. She wouldn't eat her dinner that night (we've been struggling with this for weeks now) so we told her she couldn't put on her costume and go trick or treating until she ate her dinner. She didn't think we were serious until Josh and Makenna left without her. Then she shoveled her food down and quick got in her costume and waited patiently by the door for probably 20 minutes for them to come back and get her. Towards the end I found her sitting on the stairs with tears rolling down her cheeks, trying to wipe them away, because she was afraid she wasn't going to get to go trick or treating :( I felt so bad. I ran outside to find Josh and she got to leave soon after that. She ended up only going to about 7 houses because she got cold, but she was thrilled to see the candy in her pumpkin! All she wanted to do was warm up on the couch and eat her red sucker! Maybe she'll learn to eat her dinner from now on and realize that mom and dad aren't kidding!