Well that's one way...

Before Joe went back to work I asked him if would please sweep and mop the kitchen floor. Because he's such a great and helpful husband, he agreed. The next thing I knew he was bringing in his shop vac from the garage to get the job done. I couldn't help laughing at his style, but it worked really well! There is certainly a difference in how men do things compared to women. Because it worked so well, this might just be Joe's new chore! Joe's Notes: In my defense, there was a lot of dropped food on the floor from Ant Feeder #1 and #2 (Blake and Kalli) and some spilled pancake mix in the pantry. Sweeping just wasn't an option.

We're Streaking

Our family has quite the streak going with dates.

Lexie - born the 13th of March

Our Anniversary - the 14th of August

Blake - born the 15th of July

Kalli - born the 16th of October

Now Kristen and my birthdays don't fall anywhere near this nice little run, but if we decide to try for #4 it better!

Introducing sweet baby Lexie Claire Norby

We had our sweet little baby girl, Lexie Claire, on March 13, 2011 at 9:55 am. We were scheduled for an induction for March 12 but I had a feeling it wasn't going to work out. We got to the hospital at 7:30 and were informed they were slammed and had no room for us. They decided to monitor me for a little bit but while I was being monitored two more women came in that were in labor, so I was bumped. It wasn't looking good for us to have a baby that day. Luckily my doctor was on call that night and they said they'd do their best to get me in so he could deliver my baby. We tried to keep busy all day and by 5:30 they had called and told us to come on in. When we got there it was pretty quiet and we think they felt bad for sending us away because they gave us their best room with the best view (like I even cared).

We got settled in and I started getting some medicine that I needed. I needed to get one whole dose before we could start anything, just in case my labor was super fast. But at 10 pm my contractions started by themselves and were pretty consistent and painful. An hour and a half later they started me on pitocin because the doctor had ordered it for my induction, but because I went into labor on my own, my nurse was very stingy with how much she gave me. By 1:30 am my doctor came in to break my water. Apparently Lexie's bag of waters were "bullet proof" (doctor's words not mine), he couldn't get them to break. He left me to do my thing. Because it was daylight savings time starting that morning, I lost one hour of having my doctor there to help. At 7:30 he came in to break my water again, and finally got it to break by using a small needle. Things progressed pretty quick by this point. At 9:55, after 7 minutes of pushing, Lexie Claire was born. The on-call midwife delivered her and man is there a world of difference between how a midwife delivers a baby and a doctor. I am all for my doctor but it was pretty interesting what Joe and I noticed about how different this delivery was. I am quite obsessed with this picture. Seriously, love pouty faces! I had an ultrasound at 36 weeks that told me she was already 7 lbs and 19.5 inches long. I was told she was in the 85%, so we knew the likelihood of her being big was a good chance. Joe guessed she would be 8 lbs. 3 oz and he was so close! But she was only 19 inches, so the ultrasound was wrong on that. She is our shortest and fastest baby so far. Recovery has been really different with this one, mostly because I had an emergency after I had her that I'm not going to go into here. But she really is a sweet baby (everyone says that and I'm pretty sure there is no such thing as a non-sweet baby). Blake is really in love with her and Kalli couldn't really care less. One of the things that was really cool about this birth was the food at the hospital. They don't do meals at certain times, it's all room service. The nurses give you a menu and you order whenever you want all day. It was so fun! Because I knew I wouldn't be there for long, I made sure I ordered all the little extras I could, like strawberry shortcake and cookies and milk. I told my nurse that I was being quite gluttonous and she told me I deserved to be and I agreed with her and ordered another cookie.

It feels good to be home amongst my crazy children and sleepless nights.

Blake's not so fun Tuesday afternoon

On Tuesday afternoon I got a call from Blake's school saying that he had gotten hurt on the playground. She told me he was bleeding pretty good and we'd need to take him to the dentist. I quickly woke Kalli up, called the dentist to warn them we were coming and went and got Blake. He was sitting fine on his teacher's lap in the nurse's office until he saw me and then he just started crying. There was blood all over his mouth and his clothes. The nurse said he was playing hide and seek with some friends and as he was running up the steps of the playground equipment he fell resulting in a gash in his lip and bleeding gums. I quickly took him to the dentist where he didn't cry once (shocking!). He let them take x-rays with no problem. We were so lucky he didn't break a tooth. He didn't have to have any stitches or anything. We have to go back in a week to check on his teeth, but I think everything will be fine. It was quite a close call.

There are his bleeding gums and you can see a bit of his cut lip. There's the lip again. This shows that he was a bit bloody. I think he was more traumatized seeing the blood and he jumped for joy when I got the blood out of his clothes. He's a bit anal about having his clothes clean. This was taken three days later. you can see that the bruising has really gone away and it doesn't look bad at all anymore. Smiling! His lip is healing well. I think it looks worse today than it did three days ago, but just because it's healing. Surprisingly I kept asking him if he was in pain that whole day and the next and he kept telling me no. I had him on tylenol that whole day but he didn't need it the next day. I'm just hoping this will be the last time I get that call from the nurse, but I wouldn't bet on it!

Painting accomplished (mostly)

This last weekend we decided to tackle the kids' rooms with paint. Now it may have been a little crazy to try to do two, it also may have been a bit nuts to think I could do this while being 9 months pregnant. We survived apparently, but just barely.

Joe got to pick what we did with Blake's room. The original plan was to do all the walls this blue color with a silver stripe on top. Luckily he changed his mind when we couldn't find the right silver. Once we started on Blake's room we quickly discovered that the color we picked needed three coats to look good. To say we were exhausted is an understatement. I think it turned out wonderful! Plus, Blake loves it! Kalli's room is only half finished. We decided to only tackle the top half this weekend and then will be working on it again on President's Day since Joe has that day off. The bottom half will be pink and white stripes. Eventually we will also put up a chair rail. I love the green that we picked out, it just feels like spring every time I walk in her room. When Kalli's room gets finished in one week there will only be one room left in our house that we want to paint, and that is the living room. We're kind of dreading that one. So it may be put off awhile longer.

A couple weeks ago we got to see our little girl again. We were checking her head out to see if she may have the same condition as Kalli had. While looking around the tech commented that she already has hair. This is quite significant to me seeing as my two others had no hair at birth. Although it doesn't look like a lot, I'm hoping that when she's born she'll resemble me more than her dad and siblings. It's only fair right. I have attached some pictures of all of us at birth. The odds are not in my favor but a girl can hope right?

Baby girl's "hair" Blake at birth. Looks like he has some hair, but not really Kalli at birth. She had more hair than Blake but nothing too significant. Joe as a bald little baby. And then you have me. I have a mohawk of hair! Somehow my genes must somehow become stronger than my husband's so that I can have at least one baby that resembles me! Come on genes, you can do it!

We usually try to go to the library once every other week to pick up some new books for the kids (and me). Lately Kalli has been sitting much better for longer books so I have been trying to find good girl books for her. I don't mind getting regular books for her but I also want her to have some girly girl books that she'll enjoy (Blake has his construction and bug books). We've found Olivia, Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious. Now we are on the search for more. Do you have suggestions for some fun girly girl books?