One more month

I cannot believe we're already to this point. I am 35 weeks 3 days, Leighton will be born in 4 weeks and a day! Its crazy to think that, this pregnancy has gone by so fast but we are so ready to welcome our daughter into our family. I went to the dr. last on Tuesday. She said everything was perfect with me and little Miss Leighton. She is measuring only a week ahead now so we're thinking maybe she won't be as big as her brother. Nothing really to report because everything is going so well. Leighton is doing a lot of nudging and adjusting, and has the hiccups a lot. I am feeling pretty good. I am getting to that stage where sleeping is hard, being comfortable is hard, my feet swell like balloons especially with this heat...but that is all I can complain about and that is good with me! We have mostly everything finished for her. All I need to do is wash clothes and pack our bags but I think I will wait a few weeks for that. I've been nesting like a crazy woman and Michael is loving it...Caden is hating it. I can't seem to get the house clean enough and with 6 kids in and out its a never ending project...one I can't seem to get good enough. I didn't do this with Garrett so its kind of fun. I hope it lasts for the next 4 weeks though and I don't get so worn out!
We're staying busy trying to focus on the day to days and weeks at hand and I think thats where the time has gone. The boys generally have games about 3-4 days between them and practices several times a week as well. They defnitely keep us busy.
Last weekend, Caden competed in the Little League Pitch, hit, and Run competition. He actually tied for 1st place and will advance to Sectional finals in Midland over Memorial day. Unfortunately I won't be allowed to go watch him....since that is the weekend before Leighton's arrival. If he were to win that he would then go to Ranger's stadium for the state competition from there he would go to the All Star MLB game in St.Louis! Its a huge deal and we're really proud of him. He's been doing so well with baseball this year! I can't believe there are 21 days of elementary school left for Caden. It seems like yesterday that I was leaving him at Kindergarten bawling my eyes out...he's growing up pretty fast! We're pretty proud of the kid he has become! It occurred to me this week that when Leighton goes to Kindergarten Caden will be driving!!! SCARY!
Garrett is doing well...he is REALLY excited for his sister to be here. He asks me a lot how many days do we have left. This week I had told him 30 and he said OH I can even count to that! Even he realized its coming quick! He loves to kiss my belly and talk to his sister--via my belly button which apparently not only is a microphone but he is convinced if he sticks his finger in there he can touch her ;) He's doing well with Tball, enjoying every minute of it and looking forward to starting swimming lessons this summer. He's really REALLY looking forward to Caden being out of school and home with him! Daddy has told him he'd take them fishing and to the golf course and he's pretty excited. He's growing up too fast too!!!
28 more days and our little family will be complete! We can't wait!

Leighton's best friends

An amazing thing happened this week. My best friends, Kaci and Kodi Scott had their twin babies. Laney Kayte and Mason William were born on 4-6-09 at 4:54 and 4:56 respectively. Of course I went up to see them as soon as I could on Monday evening. I got to hold Mason first, all 6lbs 2oz of him. He is absolutely adorable, he has the sweetest little face and makes the funniest expressions. He also makes all kind of funny sounds. Even as early as Monday he would look around and smile...sure they say its gas but he sure does it at the right time! Next, I got to hold Laney, all 6lbs 3oz of her! She is a beautiful baby girl! Something about her reminds me of her big sister.She has slept every time I have held her. Last night I even got to feed Laney!!! It was so wonderful. Holding them has made me realize just how much fun the 4 of us are going to have soon...and how blessed I am to be able to watch the 3 of them grow up together.
Last night I was holding Mason and Leighton got to really moving and kicking. I thought it was so funny. Mason just laid there sleeping like ya ya I've been through this before. Later I held Laney and Leighton just starting kicking like wild again. She would kick so hard Laney would kind of bounce a little. Then Laney would stretch her little legs out as though to kick back. Haha! It was really quite amusing to me...We just had to have a little conversation with Leighton last night about her staying put for at least 6 more weeks...just because her friends are born doesn't mean its time for her to come just yet!
We are all so happy for Kodi and Kaci and SO glad to have Laney and Mason here. They weren't born on my birthday but they sure got to go home healthy, happy and perfect on my birthday which is pretty special!

Baseball

Well Garrett had his very first REAL tball game Saturday. Its quite precious. They don't keep score, everyone gets to bat until they hit the ball, no one gets out, they go through each team's entire line up and switch twice. Garrett says he won the game 80-70! He is VERY proud. He hit on the first try every time. He played 1st base and 2nd base and he did WONDERFULLY! Its fun to watch him being such a big boy now...but kind of sad at the same time!!!! Caden is doing phenomenal on his new team. He's pretty regularly the pitcher unless he gets "burned" which means he goes over his max pitch count. He's been batting well and playing the best he has ever! We couldn't be more proud of our boys!!!

30 week ultrasound

Well this morning Michael, Garrett, and I got to get another glimpse at our precious baby girl. She looked great. They looked at her brain and head, her heart, her abdomen,her kidneys and other organs, her legs, arms...and everything. They said everything was text book perfect and they saw no potential problems or concerns. They showed me again that she is in fact a girl...this time not even I can doubt it...it was pretty plain as day. So its official OFFICIAL, we're having a girl! They did the measurments of the different parts to get an idea of her weight. They said she was 4lbs 9oz. The doctor said that was pretty big...but he wasn't surprised. In fact, it puts her ahead in growth by about 3 weeks. Of course that doesn't change anything but just means she is following in her brother's footsteps as he measure consistently 4 weeks ahead from this point on. We got to see her in 3D which was cool but quick. Garrett asked if she was a baby pig because her nose was pushed up against the uterine wall and she did have a little pig nose but she quickly moved and we could see her cute little round nose and chubby cheeks.
Its hard to believe there are only 8 weeks left. I got some great pictures but I will have to put them up in a few days when I get them scanned. We'll keep you updated but so far everything is going very well. My blood pressure is good, I haven't had any complications, weight gain is good. Seems everything is on track for a precious new addition to our family in 2 months!!!

28 weeks!

Just another uneventful dr. appt today. Nothing too exciting to report. Leighton is measuring right at 28 weeks, which scared me at first since Garrett averaged 4-6 weeks ahead the whole pregnancy....but she just might not be as big as he was. Her heart rate was a steady 140, a little lower than it had been but she was sleeping. Everything looked good. My anemia is only slight now. Just another 10 1/2 weeks! Everything looks good with both of us!

Super Glue

Sometimes as a parent its fun to sit back and watch your child play. Today I was watching Garrett play with his new favorite toy...Legos. Kodi and Kaci bought him a starfighter and ObiWan lego set for Christmas and he throughly enjoyed watching Kodi and Daddy put it together and absolutely LOVED playing with it. I would have to say it is his favorite thing. He has now been saving his money to buy more sets. He loves them....but he gets VERY frustrated when he is playing and the pieces fall apart...and sometimes they get lost and it breaks his heart when Daddy can't put the ship back together because of the missing parts. Well the little ships all come with little guys. He has a set with clone troopers and the helmets come off much to Garrett's annoyance. SO I bought some super glue and we glued the heads on so they wouldn't pop off. Today, as I sat at watched him play getting irritated with the constant need to go ask Daddy for help I watched his little face register something and off he ran to my room. I heard him rumaging through something and a few minutes later he comes in and asks Michael if he would just super glue the whole ship together...glue all the pieces on so they wouldn't come off again he instructed. I laughed and said Garrett the point of legos is to build and if you super glue them you cannot take the pieces off so you won't be able to build again. He looked at me like I was completely unaware of his brilliance and said "Um Mommy thats the whole point I was making". He sat and helped Michael glue all the pieces on and then went and got the other sets. They were finished and they looked at eachother and at the same time said "What else can we glue". I had to laugh so hard. Sometimes looking at them together amazes me...Garrett is his Daddy's clone. Whenever we say that he insists he has my eyes and nose and Caden's chin...whatever, he's a spitting image of his Daddy.

Whats new with the Kacals

Well its official my kids are growing up. Can you believe Caden will go to Middle School next year? It just seems like yesterday he was running through the house in underwear and cowboy boots with Spiderman googles on...or jumping off the top of the playground at daycare because he knew he could fly. He's just signed up to play baseball out at Cooper this year. He wants to play with his classmates and I think it will be great for him to meet kids from the other two feeder schools as well as play with the kids he'll play with in high school...if he so chooses.
That other little boy of mine, the one who use to be so tiny and quiet just outgrew his size 12 shoes! I mean tiny shouldn't be used to describe Garrett at any stage of his life but believe it or not he use to be little. He once was chubby and now he is skinny. He seriously grew an inch this month and has been eating CONSTANTLY. He's just growing up and up...and not so much out. Its funny to see that. We signed him up for Tball and next week I sign him up for Preschool! He's also no longer a quiet little, innocent baby...he's always ALWAYS talking and always on the move. He loves to play football and his new hobby is legos. He writes his name SO well...well it may take up the whole page but he does so well. I look at these boys and think WOW where did the time go? It doesn't seem like long ago that Caden was perfecting his name writing skills.
Today I went to the doctor for my 24 week check up. Little Leighton was doing great, her heartrate was a steady 160, she's been moving so much. Its crazy to think we only have 15 more weeks until our baby girl is here...so much to do before she comes! Everything looks great with her. My blood pressure was a little high but they accidently told me to drink the Glucola and that combined with some worry over a friend I am sure is to blame for that. It went down before I left...still higher than normal but surely it showed them it was just circumstances. I go back in a month and then every two weeks after that. I can't believe I have 2 more weeks of my second trimester. In some ways it feels like that day we found out back in September was years ago and in other ways I see my babies growing up TOO fast and know she'll be here in no time.
With Caden in baseball it seems our times flies by, we have practices 3-4 times a week, games 2-3 times a week...What were we thinking putting Garrett in Tball and in another league...he will play out at Frenship. Something tells me I am going to blink and it will be May.
We sure are excited, enjoying buying pink and hairbows...and shoes!
The boys and I just went to visit my sister and her family for my nephew Connor's 4th birthday. Watching Garrett and Connor play together is so funny. They were once babies just happy to smile and poke eachother...now they're running through the house yelling and hitting eachother with Lightsabers. Cole, my youngest nephew is 9months and Caden loves him...and he loves Caden. He had Cole just laughing outloud. I can't wait to see him with his sister. He's sure a sweet boy.