Baby Lane

I had an AWESOME baby appointment today! I had a glucose test which I completely expected to fail. I had Gestational Diabetes when I was pregnant with Ryan. I have been monitoring my glucose levels and trying to eat low carb for the most part. My numbers have been high most of the time, but for some reason this morning they were very low. What this means since I passed is that I still need to be careful and keep track myself, but the doctors are not going to be hounding me about it. Today baby was a little over 2 pounds and in the 43rd percentile for his age. This means that my glucose levels to this point are not affecting him negatively. One of the effects of the higher glucose levels is that the baby will get really big. So far not an issue.

I also had a complete placenta previa with Ryan, which means that my placenta was on the wrong side of the baby. In my case it was across my old incision and made the C-Section very challenging because they had to make sure not to cut the placenta when they were trying to get the baby out. Anyway, this is why Ryan was born 4 weeks early. SO, my placenta was low lying at my 20 week ultra sound, but not in as bad of a place as with Ryan. Today it was exactly where it was supposed to be! Praise God!

I feel so much better this pregnancy than I did the last one that I can't even begin to describe it! I am very excited that unless something new crops up I should be able to carry this baby full term or within a few days. My due date is March 8th and it sounds like March 1st or 2nd we will have a new baby.

Below is a picture of the baby. It is amazing to me how you can tell what they are going to look like. We think he looks a lot like Ryan, right down to the cleft in his chin.

New Owners of Locker Room

New owners of Locker Room run business out of home



By Jan RahnManaging EditorJosh and Carla Taylor, new own ers of Locker Room, are eager to see the business grow and are already filling orders for former clients of the business. The Taylors purchased Locker Room from Connie and Tim Pofahl, finalizing paperwork Oct. 1, and bringing it into their home to begin Oct. 19. Now located at 536 Washington, the specialty of the business is screen printing, however, they will still have trophies, medals, Plainsmen gear and a small selection of sporting goods.Carla said they are also working with a company that does embroidery so they will be able to offer that as well. “At some point we would like to expand a little more, but that is going to take us a few years,” she said. Plunging in with no background or experience, the couple is excited to get fully trained and expand on the business. “Connie is still very much in the process of training us,” said Carla. “We have a lot to learn, but she is willing to help, so things are rolling along.”

Carla Taylor along with her husband Josh recently became new owners of Locker Room in Grant and moved the business into their home at 536 Washington. (Photo by Jan Rahn)The Taylors will try to do everything themselves, but with a new baby due in February or early March, they may need a little help. The busy parents also have twin boys, Nate and Cliff, in the fourth grade and 21-month-old Ryan—in addition to having full time jobs. Josh, who grew up in Washington state and graduated in Wyoming, moved to Champion where his parents continue to farm. Carla is a Dundy County High School graduate. They moved to Grant in June 2007. Josh works for NKC RailNet and Carla works in the grain department of Mid America Agri Products (ethanol plant) at Madrid. They have both greatly enjoyed getting to know people in the community of Grant and look forward to meeting even more people as their business grows.For now they will concentrate on running their new business and building up clientele. With the business relocated to their garage and basement, by the first of the year they hope to be more accessible and have some set hours.For the time being, customers may call them at 308-352-6501 to arrange a convenient time to get together.“While I have a lot to learn about screen printing and retail, I am very excited to improve and grow this business,” said Carla. “My goal is to some day be able to move it back to a main street location.”

Baby Update

Here is a 4D picture of our new baby boy, LJ. He should be arriving around the end of February. The doctor said that everything looks great and he weighed about 13 ounces when we were there on Friday. Even though it has been suggested that we try again for a girl, this will be the last child that I carry in my womb. Three C-Sections are enough for this Mommy. Someday in the future if we really feel that we need to bring a little girl into our chaos then we will consider adoption. For now, I am pretty sure I will have enough to keep me busy!


For those of you who are not sure what you are looking at, this is a picture of his face. He has his arm over his head and you can see his hand on top of his head.

Locker Room

It is official that we have purchased the local t-shirt screen printing shop. The equipment is in our garage and we made our first shirts with a lot of guidance from Connie last Friday. We are hoping to get that rolling really well in the next few weeks.

We can also take orders for embroidery. At this time we work with a lady in Ogallala on that. We do her screen printing and she does our embroidery.

Holy Cow he is getting big!

I still haven't found the charger for my camera, so I don't have any pictures to post, but I had Ryan to the doctor on Saturday and he weighed 30.8 pound! He is getting so big. He wants to be big also. He wants to use the toilet like a big boy and is getting the hang of that. I don't push it to much because he is still pretty young, but if you ask him he usually will go. Ryan doesn't understand that he can not do everything that his brothers do. If they would let him he would follow them everywhere. He even "helped" set up for the pack meeting for scouts the other night. He also doesn't really seem to understand that his brothers are bigger than him and really could hurt him if they wanted to. He just pushes his way in and fights for what he wants. The last two weeks when I get tired of brothers it is usually Ryan and some one not just the twins among themselves. That is a switch for sure.

So far we have avoided the dreaded H1N1, but it has been all around us. I am not overly scared of it from a health stand point, but I am not very excited about the financial aspect of missing work to take care of kids. Oh well, if it catches us I guess we will take things as they come.

Nate and Cliff played soccer this fall and just finished flag football last night. Scouts are taking up a lot of time right now also. Popcorn selling season is at its peak. I am hoping things settle down a little bit now.

Josh is at my parents house helping with corn harvest. They picked all day yesterday and are hoping to get a lot done today. They are also hoping that the big storm will go North and miss them so they can keep going.

Much needed update!

So sorry it has been so long since my last post. We lost the charger for our camera battery when we moved, so we have not been taking as many pictures. The pictures we have been taking have been on the 35 mm camera which means I need to get film developed.

I am 17 weeks pregnant now. We have our ultrasound to find out the sex of our baby on October 23. Things with the baby are going fine.

God has blessed us, making it possible for me to be a stay at home Mommy for the first time ever. I will continue to work up to Christmas at least, but after that I will be home. We are purchasing a T-Shirt screen printing business in Grant and moving it to our garage, so I will still be working, but I will be able to have the kids with me.

Josh is still working for the rail road and still really likes it. He works a day shift that is Sunday through Thursday. This means that he rarely gets to go to church with us, but we do get to have him home with us in the evening. He also is a Seed Advisor for Garst now. He is just getting started with that, but basically he is a seed sales person. His other new venture is the Volunteer Fire Department in Grant. He hasn't gotten to go on a call yet, and as busy as he is with everything else, it may not work out, but he is excited about it and gets to hang out with a great group of guys. He and my dad are also remodeling our kitchen so that we can get the kitchen cabinets out of the garage to get the screen printing equipment in. They took out our chimney last weekend. That will give me an extra 24 inches of counter top and cabinet space. Josh also took a 30 leave of absence to help my dad with corn harvest. He will be gone from October 15 to November 15.

Nate and Cliff are in 4th grade. They had a rocky start, but are settling in pretty good. It is fall soccer season, which means our Saturdays morning are busy with games. Our Scouting activities have also started for the year. Cliff has a lizard in an aquarium in his room and Nate has a Chinchilla named "Scott" living in his room.

Ryan is 20 months old he is starting to actually say things that we can understand. "Hi, Bye, and Ok" are the clearest with Ma, Da, and some other words for Nate and Cliff. He is also starting slowly at Potty Training. He will go in the toilet if you ask him to. He doesn't usually tell us when he needs to go yet, but he is still pretty little, so we are taking this very slow. He loves his new babysitter and tells me bye before we ever get to the door in the mornings. Ryan also has grown quite attached to his Grandma Ferguson recently. If she is around, no one else will do.

Well, that is all I have for now. Hopefully I will get more pictures up soon!

Nate Cub Scout Day Camp

Here is Nate at Cub Scout Day Camp.
Nate and his buddy Johnathan eating lunch.
Nate shooting BB Guns

Cliff at Cub Scout Day Camp

The first Saturday in June was spent at Cub Scout Day Camp at Lake Maloney South of North Platte. Here is Cliff with his buddy Nathan.
Cliff shooting Archery. This was a little frustrating for him after shooting Compound Bows at 4-H, but he did finally catch on.
BB gun shooting.

They also had a scavenger hunt where they walked around the camp and tried to find something from nature starting with every letter of the alphabet. Z anyone? We don't have Zebras in Nebraska. They had a really great day!

Archery

Nate and Cliff are participating in Archery 4-H this year. I haven't actually gotten pictures of Nate at 4-H yet, but here he is at scout camp getting ready to shoot.

Cliff pulling his arrows out at 4-H
Cliff shooting under Pat's watchful eye

Ryan's First Hair Cut

Josh and I both got off work early today and decided that today was the day for Ryan to get his first hair cut. His beautiful curls have been getting pretty long and have started getting pretty tangled, so now he looks like a big boy! Thanks Doug!!

Squeaky in a bucket!

Ryan in the mop bucket. Silly little boy, likes to climb in everything. I let him have the bucket because it has a hole in it.

Give me a ride please!

Ryan's brothers are often putting him in laundry baskets or boxes so that they can push him around the house. This spring before we moved he got a ride in a Tonka truck. He thought it was great!

Boys in a tree

Before we moved Nate and Cliff were spending lots of time out in the windbreak making forts. Here are some pictures that my mom snapped of them hanging out in the trees.

Oh No!

This happened quite a while ago, but it was pretty funny at the time. The boys had been out riding their bikes when Cliff came running inside and wanted me to come out side immediately because Nate got his pants caught in his bike chain. I was worried that he was hurt, but he was fine. We tried to pull his pants out, but they wouldn't budge, so we tried to pry the chain up, and that didn't work either. Finally we had to pull Nate out of his jeans and push the pedal the rest of the way around until his pants were free. Thank goodness we were still living in the country or he would have been mortified! We did have to stop the rescue mission briefly when a tractor was driving by on the road and Nate didn't want to be in his underwear in the front yard where the tractor driver could see him. Below is the pants without Nate in them stuck in the chain.


Nate peeking out of the door without his pants.

Nate safely back in his pants after the rescue.

And then there were TWO!

Saturday Cliff bought these two pop bottles plus a third one. The Dr. Pepper ones are very old. While carrying them into the house one of the Dr. Pepper bottles slid out of his arms and landed on the driveway. It exploded and then there were TWO...........

and FOUR stitches is what it took to close up the cuts. He is kind of particular about keeping the band aids on, but there is one stitch under the band aid on his heel and 3 under the band aid on hid ankle. Wow can he scream loud! He informed Josh that he was not as funny as he thought when we got home from the ER. (That naughty daddy was laughing while poor Cliff was screaming his head off in pain!) Another Daddy first for Josh!

Horsey Time

The boys got to spend some time with the Taylor side of the family on Sunday afternoon riding. It was a first for them and they were pretty excited. We didn't know that riding was going to be a part of their day when they got dressed for church though, so they had to ride in their shorts and flip flops. Thank you to Jason and Jake for helping them and providing the horses. Thank you to Stephanie for providing the pictures.

Nate, Jason, and Cliff

Nate and Jake

Cliff, my boy who would love to be cowboy all of the time.

Nate and Socks

Cliff again

The two together

Memorial Day

I will spare you the pictures of us moving, actually I didn't have time to take pictures of that, but Nate and Cliff got to go spend some time with Derek and his little buddy Nate M. They spent some time at Cody Park and playing in the water. They had a great time! Thanks Derek!

God is Good!

Okay, I am feeling like I am under spiritual attack today, so I am writing a blog about how good God has been to us.



Three years ago God introduced me to a website that ultimately led me to Josh. Josh is the man that God had been keeping for me. He is the most awesome Dad to my kids and the best husband! He has provided stability for the twins that has made it possible for them to relax and feel safe.



God found Josh a job in Perkins County so that we would move here and be able to have our kids in an great school where they have excelled more than they had anywhere else. He also found Josh a new job that he loves and it provides retirement, insurance and vacation time.



In our move to Perkins County we also found group of Cub Scouts and leaders that are helping our boys become responsible MEN. Teaching them Godly applicable life lessons. God is good!



God allowed Greg to feel comfortable giving up his parental rights so that Josh could adopt Nate and Cliff. He also gave Josh the personality to befriend Greg and for them to be able to do things together with the boys.



God gave us a healthy baby boy after a somewhat high risk pregnancy. He was born with great lungs and could latch on perfectly.



God has provided a beautiful young lady to stay with us this summer to take care of our special little boys. I pray that we can have a positive impact on her and that she can have a positive impact on our children.



God has provided us with a home in the country for the last year and a half where our boys have expanded their imaginations and we have had peace and rest. He has allowed us to finish the school year in that house.



God found a buyer for our house in Palisade.



And finally.......God has provided a down payment for a house in Grant that we can own. He has provided a house that we can afford and that has enough space for our family.



I know there is more, but that is what I can think of now in the middle of my crazy world.



Thank you Jesus for all that you have done for us! Satan, leave us alone because God is going to take care of us whether you like it or not!

Housing update

So I have been taking some heat because I have not updated this much lately. I have material, but no patients to post it.

We are scheduled to close on this house on Friday. It is a 2 story home with a basement and a two car garage in the back. The lot is small, so we are thinking that the kids may feel a little cramped, but it is 2 blocks from the park so that will help. The school is also just a few blocks away. We have a few repairs and some updating to get done, but we plan to be all moved in by Memorial Day. We have found some used kitchen cabinets that we plan on using in our kitchen remodel, and there are enough to put some in the utility room and probably even in the garage. There is a neat outdoor fireplace in the back yard as well. AND......the most exciting part (especially after the scuffle this morning) is that there are 3 count them 3 bathrooms. (No need to try to push your brother off of the throne anymore!) We are going to have high speed Internet once we get moved, so maybe posting pictures to this blog will not be so tedious!

A place to call home

We have found a house in Grant that we like and we think is big enough for our family. We have turned in our loan application and it all looks promising. Hopefully we will have a place to call home in the next 30 days or so.

We are moving!

We have been renting a house that is for sale, and the owners officially have a contract on it, so we have until May 18 to find a new place to live. We have found a house in town that we think will work for us to buy. We are now praying that we get the financing that we need to make it happen. The boys like the house which is a plus, we have lived in enough places they judge "creepy" almost immediately. The back yard is very small, so we are a little concerned about them being content to play there without roaming. We proabably won't be able to close on it before we have to move, so we may stay with Josh's parents while we are in limbo. God will provide!

Gross!

I got a text from daycare today with the following picture. Do you know what it is?

I didn't either. Vicki found it in Ryan's poop today! It is some sort of battery. He puts everything in his mouth right now and apparently this one went clear through and came back out. She said her first thought was Eew! What did you have for supper last night, but then realized that it was not food. So, another disgusting blog, but I had to share!

Ryan

I did some cleaning and rearranging after I woke up from a nap in the chair to find that Ryan had destroyed a flower arrangement from our wedding and ate a flower pettal that had been spray painted! I tried to fish it out of his mouth, but I wasn't fast enough. The bench in the pictures below is one that my brother Nathan made. It replaces the flower arrangement. Ryan was very excited to see a little bench his size and was laughing and squealing. He crawled right up on it and stood straight up. (This is not really what I had in mind when I put it there.)

My camera wasn't fast enough to catch him completely upright.

He was trying to sit down, but he can't quite get it yet.

This is how Mommy wants him to sit on the bench, but he can only do it with help so far.

He was playing with his bear from "Grandpa Clyde" this afternoon.

More Sock Monkeys

I never posted pictures of the sock monkeys that I made for my kids for Christmas. Cliff really wasn't wanting his picture taken when we did this, so you can only see his monkey and not his cranky face.

Nate and Ryan were a little more cooperative. Nate is holding his favorite monkey. It was my test monkey and then I made him a different one for Christmas, but he likes the striped one the best.

My old apron

My mom has been doing some reducing in her closets and found an apron that was mine when I was a kid. It says "CARLA little kitchen helper." Cliff and Josh both had to try it on. Aren't they cute?