Happy Christmas & Hanukkah Season

I was just finishing up putting together our Christmas cards complete with pictures of the kids and the address of our blog when it occurred to me....I need to update the blog. If I had put the cards in the mail the day I put them together and you would have come to visit our page you would have found palm trees, info about our summer and promises that I would write soon....Lucky for you I'm a procrastinator and the cards still haven't gotten to the mail ;0)

We are doing well. All settled into our new home, mostly unpacked and decorated for Christmas.

Kevin had a successful G-20 event at the DLCC in the fall and much to our excitement was promoted shortly after. He is now the Security Manager and enjoying his job. I'm slowly crossing things off my to do lists and will be happy to start vacation Dec. 22nd. Since Kevin is no longer in retail we were able to work things out so that we will both be off most of the week before Christmas and the week between the holiday and New Years. That's not happened for us before so we are very excited to be spending time with each other and we might get a chance to visit Kevin's family in Ephrata, PA.

Mackenzie and Morgan are doing well!

I'm happy to report that MOST of the time they get along ok. Now that Morgan is mobile we have some issues with toy sharing but since Mackenzie is 3 that's pretty normal.

Kenzie has been managing her Asthma well. I feel a little apprehensive when I look at the calendar, it was this time last year we were living in a hospital room wondering whether we'd be able to spend Christmas at home. Luckily we have managed to keep colds to a minimum and when she does have a flare up we've been able to manage it with maintenance and rescue medicines. She is still using a breathing treatment and taking an allergy pill once a day, but I'd much rather deal with that then a stay in the hospital. She's also become quite comical. She loves to sing and dance and play pretend. We've been working a lot on her creative abilities, her new favorite things are making cards and helping me cook.

Morgan is into EVERYTHING. Crawling, climbing, pulling up on things, pulling things over. I swear they are out to give me a heart attack. Earlier this week I put her in the highchair secured her straps and started to clean up the kitchen. I left the room to put something in the living room (not a far walk) and when I came back in she was standing up in the highchair smiling away. She looked at me like I was the insane one when I snatched her up and explained that you cannot stand in a highchair because you could fall out and crack your head open. As if she understood any of that.

Abby is still in our home and our hearts. We had thought about giving her away but when you have an animal for 8 years, that is easier said than done. It's so hard because she deserves so much more love and attention than we have time for but she can be such a sweet and loving companion that it's hard to part with that.

As challenging as it is to have two very small children, a full-time job, a pet, and a hubby when I think of all the memories we are creating I can't help but feel lucky to be a mommy and a wife. I hope all of you find that same kind of joy in your lives.

Wishing you a Happy Christmas, a festive Hanukkah and sending hope that you will find Peace, Love and Happiness throughout 2010.... (HOLY CRAP ....2010!!!!!)

Hugs and Kisses,

Karla, Kevin, Mackenzie, Morgan and Abby

Christmas is forever, not for just one day, for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf. The good you do for others is good you do yourself...~Norman Wesley Brooks, "Let Every Day Be Christmas," 1976

HOLY COW!

When I started this blog post it was the end of july, today is August 14th so that gives you and idea of how much extra blog time I have :) I've missed writing and I have so much to catch up on. What have I been doing with my time??? Oh yes, I have children, a job and we moved. That's right. It's all been a blur. I know some of you feel a little left out of the loop so let me see if I can fill you in on the K. Fonner Family.

New House

well because a calm non-adventurous life has never been for us we decided it was time to put our house up for sale. We've moved just 6 miles into a more residential area and very close to some good friends. The new house is another ranch house, three bedrooms and a nice big kitchen. We are mostly unpacked, at least in the first floor living space. The family room downstairs is still filled with boxes. But we'll get to it.

This is our back yard. Nice and big, I miss the fense but it's given me a chance to walk abby and forces me to get outside and see morning before I hop in the car to work. We've got blue berries, and raspberries, pretty flowers and a ground hog. It's a very nice place to be. Our house has been on the market for 3 weeks or so. Some lookers but no offers. it's a wonderful lesson in patience. We will be celebrating much when it sells.

Kevin and the G-20

Kevin's job is still going well. A little while back it was announced that the World G-20 Summit would take place in Pittsburgh PA, USA.....at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Super exciting times for Kevin and a lot of prep work for the DLCC but what an opportunity. Kevin's learning a lot about what it means to have a HUGE event in your building and he's getting to meet a lot of exciting people. Here's Kev with Obama...sorta :)

it's really a cardboard cut out that I keep trying to get him to bring home :)

Miss Morgan

I sometimes think Morgan is the best baby ever. Mackenzie was a good baby and at the time my complaints were common...she didn't sleep, and required much attention. Morgan, is simple as a sunny Sunday in summer. Never fusses unless there's something wrong, sleeps most nights from 9p to 5 or 6a, and is happy to just sit and "play" with her toys. She is rolling over, "talking", trying so hard to sit up, and has started cereal. She is in awe of Mackenzie, she gets the biggest toothless grin when she sees her.

And Mackenzie

she loves her "baby sister" too. she very rarely will call Morgan by her name. a few weeks ago she and I were sitting outside and Morgan and Kevin were in the livingroom but the windows were open and we could hear Morgan babbling. Kenz says to me "mommy why do she make that noise?" I explained that she was talking and that's how she learns. Mackenzie's reply..."she's such a pain in the ass". She said it so matter-a-factly and it was so funny I could not really respond. Gotta love it. She's growing up so quickly it amazes me. She's very animated, helpful and happy. I am getting anxious about flu season this year. We've been warned that because of her asthma this could be a particularly tricky year for us. it was suggested that we take her out of daycare to minimize her interaction with other children. Luckily, by chance we found a great babysitter who I've known for years to watch both girls. It's a wonderful arrangement and such a relief. In keeping with our new Hannah Montana madness Mackenzie thinks shes a rockstar. a few weeks ago I was cooking dinner and she was taking all the pots and pans out of the kitchen and putting them in the living room. when i went in to check on her she was sitting in the chair with a frying pan on her lap holding it just like a guitar singing one of Hannah Montana's songs. It was so super cute and she was so totally convinced she was in a band. She has the best imagination. You can imagine her excitement when she got to play RockBand at my sisters house one evening after dinner.

She cracks us up!!

and I'm ok too.

it's a busy time at SRU, school starts very soon and I feel like I've been catching up ever since I came back from maternity leave. I'll be so excited to get the playroom/office finished at the new house and my favorite time of the year is rapidly approaching (fall/christmas time). At the begining of summer I fell on campus and hurt my elbow. After weeks waiting for xrays, specialists and MRI's the verdict is that I had a very severe internal bone bruise. I couldn't hold Morgan unless someone handed her to me and I sat still and it was very hard to pack and move - i wasn't allowed to lift, pull push and really I couldn't do any of that stuff. I couldn't straighten my arm or bend it enough to touch my shoulder. I learned to do a lot one handed for several weeks. It's finally starting to feel better, sometimes if I over use it or move it too much it hurts but I can do most everything i used to do. It's amazing how much you take your body for granted.

All in all our busy life is a good life. I hope you enjoyed seeing pictures, I'll try to write more often.

Hugs,

K

Mackenzie is 3!!!!!!!

I can not believe Mackenzie celebrated her 3rd birthday a few weeks ago. These last couple of years just seem like a blur, but a happy blur full of fun memories.

things like coloring Easter eggs seem to get more fun each year!

LET'S GO PENS!!!! It's not unusual to hear "I want to watch hockey" in our house,mostly from Kenz...mostly..... Especially during playoffs. I love Disney. If we aren't watching Hockey or Noggin we are watching the Disney Channel. For her third Birthday, even though she isn't really into the Princess movies, Kenzie wanted a "Princess Cake". It was all she talked about. I did NOT want a cake with the princesses on it - that's just too much...so I talked her into her very own castle because of course, she IS a princess :) This is my amature attempt at a castle cake, thank goodness for cake pans. It might not look like much but it was YUMMY and a big hit with Kenzie.

by the way...birtday party day was the same day as a hockey game...hense the abundance of Pens outfits....

She loves the new slide Munga bought her (munga is what mackenzie calls my mom, she couldn't say grandma when she first started to talk, it would come out gamunga, so now she's munga)


Nana and Kevin are playing with Mackenzie in her new toy thingy, I have no idea what this is really called but it's a lot of fun to play with.

She was exhausted from the Birthday fun but also REALLY wanted to paint her finger and toe nails. She fell asleep waiting for them to dry.

Mackenzie is shy. It's no surprise really. Kevin is shy and quite honestly so am I in most situations. It's once we warm up that you all are in trouble. In the above picture we were at Day Care Days at the Mall. Mackenzie was supposed to be on this little stage singing with her daycare friends. She loves to perform at home but NOT at the Mall so she and I sat on the stairs beside her friends while they sang. She sang the whole way home in the car.

This is just trouble! yes that thing she is climbing through is her sisters bouncy chair.

Aunt Kate is Mackenzie's favorite person in the world...except for maybe Max, who is her imaginary friend. This is Kenzie with Kate before Prom.

Kenze is doing great. she had some issues adjusting to Morgan but what big sister doesn't? She's started preschool at daycare where she will be working on counting, colors, shapes, and computer???? yes computer! that amazes me. Her asthma seems to be under control for the most part. We are struggling with the allergies though. This time of year seems to be rough for a lot of folks. We know she has cat allergies and we had to send Misty off to my mom's house. I tend to think she has some allergies to Abby's dander too but I am choosing to live in denial. I can't imagine parting with the dog. She's 8. I keep hoping if we keep her cut short and wipe her down everyday it won't be so bad....we'll see. At least every time she gets the sniffles we don't end up in the ER so that's a plus. It is hard to keep her out door activity limited because she doesn't understand why she can't spend a long time outside. We were thinking about a visit to the zoo but I think we need to wait until after she sees the dr. in June.

Hugs!

Karla, Kevin and the Girls

Morgan's Home

Morgan came home April 4th

Kenzie is having some adjustment issues. She LOVES Morgan and is very helpful, careful and loving with her. BUT when we are feeding, bathing, changing, rocking Morgan, Mackenzie suddenly becomes very needy, whiney, and clingy. She's getting better day by day, it will take time I'm sure, but it won't be long before I hear "MOM! Morgan is playing with my stuff!"

Morgan's first bath. She wasn't a happy camper but she seems to love the water now.

Yes, these are my two babies in the same crib. Kenzie spends more time in there now than she did when she was supposed to be sleeping in it.

Morgan is just a month old now and it's amazing how much our lives have changed. I'm so excited to have two little girls. How much longer until I get some sleep???? :)

Morgans First Pictures

Hello World!

Another baby girl for daddy..."Sleeping" babies! Kenzie wanted to lay in the hospital bed by her baby sister so we told her to pretend she was sleeping just like Morgan. She couldn't stop smiling.... Kisses from big sister...

Morgan's First Video, well actually I guess since I posted the sonogram stuff this is actually Morgan's second video! :

Finally

Hello!!!

So it's hard to believe a month ago I had another baby girl. We are all doing very well, aside from being sleep deprived and a little stir crazy (i'm not used to being at home!). I started back to work today so I will have access to the blog, email, facebook, etc but I have so much to catch up on that my responses will be limited, I did want to send out some pictures of Morgan so if you haven't seen her you can get a glimpse of what we've put on film. I'll continue to travel back in time and update you on Mackenzie's 3rd Birthday, Easter, Preschool, Morgan Movies, etc as I get time. Hope you are well!

hugs,

Karla, Kevin, Mackenzie and Morgan....

Morgan Alexis

She's finally here! On April 2nd at 9:55 AM we had another beautiful baby girl. I can't upload my pictures from this location so you'll have to just trust me - she's precious! I expected her to look more like Kenzie than she does but this girl looks like her daddy.

They had to induce my labor again, those of you who had hard long labors skip to the next paragraph...I went in to get p-gel at 7:30 AM at 8:30 AM since the p-gel wasn't working the doctor agreed to break my water and start a pitosin drip. After that things moved so fast the staydol i wanted didn't really kick in until AFTER she was born. She was born about 90 minutes later.

She's perfectly healthy, weighed 6lbs 11 oz and was 20 inches long, scored a perfect 10 on the APGAR scale.

Despite the fast delivery I'm very sore but no stitches! I had a suspected blood clot in my left leg that I had to have a sonogram for but it turns out I probably just pulled something. No clot and no infection - thank goodness!!!

Mackenzie loves her sister. She always refers to her as "my baby". Where's my daddy and my baby? What's my baby doing? Can I kiss my baby? it's very cute. She's easy and loving with the baby but the first two days home were rough adjusting, she was outright defiant totally on purpose which was very strange for us because Kenzie is usually very good at following directions.

Once I figure out how to upload the photos I'll post them! Thanks everyone for the well wishes!!
Hugs,
Karla, Kevin, Mackenzie and Morgan.

It's Baby Time!!!

Only a few more days left!!!! Fingers crossed anyway. My last day at work is this friday and I think we might actually be ready for Morgan to come into our lives. Well, physically anyway. I'm out of belly room and her bedroom is ready for her to come home. Mentally..... probably a whole different story. I added some pictures of her room below. It's kinda plain but the last couple things I want to add will have to come after I know SHE is really MORGAN and not a yet to be determined baby boy name. Hopefully the next pictures you see will be from her birthday.

other updates in our family...Mackenzie's asthma maintenance plan seems to be working. It's all still trial and error but we've been out of the hospital for a month and seem to be doing ok. I have received word that I will be getting my offical letter from the university that I'm an actual permenant full-time employee - whew what a process. Kevin and I both have signed up for Facebook. Not normally something I'd do, or recommend that he do but surprisingly it seems to be not so bad. As long as we are careful about what goes on the pages. And sadly, at the end of this week, I'll be 30! I can hardly believe that at all. I know to some of you reading this will think - that's nothing. To me, it's unbelieveable, I'll have to take a second and think about how to spend my next 30 years. Enjoy the next post with pictures of Mackenzie.
hugs,

Karla

Fun and Games with Mackenzie

We went to the home show and Mackenzie's favorite part was this little activity thing with a ball pit, climbing rope, suspension bridge and slide. "Uncle Buck" (My best friend's husband) took her through this thing the first time while daddy was talking with a vendor and then daddy got to go through. She had a blast. Make up and hair do's - that's what Kenzie does while I'm getting ready to go places. She uses whatever she can find in my make up box (and surprisingly she's very careful not to mess anything up - she's kinda anal that way...wonder where she gets that?!?!) and looks at herself in a little make up mirror to put her "make ups" on. Luckily so far she also lets us wipe her face before we leave the house.

ok so this priceless. One day it will be GREAT blackmail!!! I can't believe she is almost 3!!!!

Hosptial Trip take 2 Yields Some Answers

Hello!
Last week we spent yet another 4 days in the hospital. 21 hours in the ER and another 2 nights in the Maxicare Unit of Pediatrics. This time we left with a diagnosis that actually makes sense to me - not the like the last one (we don't really know what's wrong with her, could be blah blah blah virus). Mackenzie has Asthma and probably Allergies, they go hand in hand for most kids. When she gets a regular head cold, it triggers an Asthma attack and because we didn't know what it was we weren't treating her properly. Infact we may have been doing additional damage by not removing normal Asthma/Allergy triggors (dust, dander, cold air, smoke, vapors, etc). She is getting better each day. For this week she is on a steroid - to decrease inflamation in the lungs, albuterol nebulizer treatments - to open airways, singular - to reduce allergies, ear drops - to avoid draining build up in the ear canal. When the week is over she will continue her singular and begin doing her nebulizer treatments with Pulmacort - would be like using a daily inhaler. Both of those are for prevention & she'll take them everyday until we know for sure she doesn't need them anymore. So now that I know whats happening (or at least we have a REALLY good guess), we have been learning all we can about Asthma. There are so many things I didn't realize and the more I read the more I feel like this is a good diagnosis.

In other news - THERE ARE 40 DAYS UNTIL MORGAN IS BORN!!!!!!! AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!! I can't believe how fast it went this time, and I'm feeling a little guilty that I have been super preoccupied with Mackenzie's illness that all we have ready for little Morgan is a painted room with border. We'll get it though. I can't wait for her to be here. Things seem to be progressing well. I can feel her moving around and her fetal heart tones are always as they should be when we see the dr. I am a little concerned about the amount of stress i have been under and how that might affect her and my delivery. that will be the first question I ask at my appointment on Thursday.

i hope you all are well!
hugs,
Karla

Christmas Clean Up Madness

So I thought since we had a lot of snow this weekend that it would be a good time to stay inside and put away our Christmas decorations. I love, love, love that Mackenzie is such a helper but I've made an executive decision that next year the Christmas decorating and clean up will be done while she and baby Morgan are at Daycare or spending quality time with a relative.

I was a nervous wreck the whole time. Between being worried about her throwing all the breakables in a tote randomly at the same time and dropping some hand me down from my grandmothers on the floor I thought I'd go mad. Needless to say my nervous tendancies and being 7 months pregnant wasn't helping the bad mood that was quickly brewing.

Now, call it what you will but karma has a way of giving me just what I've got coming. I was taking the soap dish and tooth brush holders from the bath room and she was behind me fussing about wanting to hold them. I explained that mommy had to do it because I didn't want her to get hurt, went into the kitchen to put the stuff in a tote. And, well i get side tracked easily so I noticed something else that needed picked up so I'm just going about my business putting things away and Kevin is carrying the totes back down to the laundry room . All of the sudden I realized I was missing my pint sized shadow and it was strangely quiet. So I call her, nothing. I call again, and hear "yeah?" I ask "where are you?" she says "in the bat-room" Bathroom. I go in the bathroom and she's got all of our toothbrushes rubbing the floor behind the toilet. NICE.

So the moral of the story is if you don't watch your temper your two year old will clean behind the toilet with your toothbrush. Good thing she didn't put it back on the sink :)

Snow Days

The snow this past week couldn't have hit at a better time for us - Friday night into Saturday. We didn't have to go anywhere which means no need to shovel this snow and ice madness right away. Here's some pictures of Mackenzie playing in the snow. At the very bottom there's a video of her making snow angels.

I just thought it was kinda neat that we could scrape the snow out from under the ice so that there was this shell around my car with nothing but air in between...

Trip Back In Time

I need to catch up with what’s been going on at our house but it requires you to travel back in time to November of this year(this is a long post)….

My last blog post was about the baby and the sonogram we had around Nov. 25. But before that great news I got to go to a Pens game with my mom and sister (Kate) to celebrate Kaitlyn’s 18th birthday! Yep 18!!! OMG! She’s going to finish high school this year and was accepted to SRU – YAY! She’ll start in the fall studying secondary English (she thinks). Here are some pix from the game….

The Blimp at the Game

Let's go Pens!

My other pictures came out funky.

Then there was the sonogram and news of another baby girl. (See previous post if you missed it)

Thanksgiving came and went; it was a nice relaxing day at home. Kevin (for the first time in his life), Mackenzie and I watched the entire Macy’s Parade and we made a huge deal out of Santa’s arrival in Herald Square. Mackenzie was so pumped for Christmas way back in July so to finally see Santa on TV was magical. I of course met my sister at Kohl’s at almost 4 AM on Black Friday Morning. The morning was pretty successful except for the 2 hour long checkout line at Toys r Us. The things you do for your kids. I did manage to snag some great buys though and completed most of my shopping that day.

Good thing too because December was a blur. Because of another bought with ear infections on the 4th Mackenzie had a second round of ear tubes put in each ear. The surgery went well; I can’t believe it only takes the ENT specialist 15 minutes to do that. He was a little concerned because there was a lot of infection in both ears. He explained that we may see a lot more drainage this time. To our surprise she seemed to recover very well and there wasn’t much draining. Mackenzie and I went to the annual Christmas party at Daycare. Last year she had a blast with her friends and liked visiting the different craft stations but would have NOTHING to do with Santa. This year she was still a little leery of sitting on his lap until one of her little friends, Ava, ran over and got her picture taken with Santa. Ava came back to Mackenzie took her hand and said “I go with you”. It was so cute. Ava walked over with her, Kenzie climbed up on Santa’s lap and smiled for a picture. I don’t have that one to include just yet. She told Santa she would like to have presents, toys and a baby doll. She’s pretty easy to please. The very next day life became chaos for us. Mackenzie got a cold. Everyone at daycare had a cold, runny/stuffy nose, cough, slight fever. I didn’t even bother with the Pediatrician at this point because I knew what they’d say. It’s viral. Because she has had an ongoing infection with her ears and then the cold she randomly throws up, assumingly from all the draining that she can’t blow out her nose or cough up. I hate seeing her sick and I have been convinced for some time now that she has allergies or some sinus condition and I began to get concerned that perhaps that draining we were supposed to see from her ears didn’t come out the tubes like it should have but was somewhere in her sinus cavities. We called Dr. Uncle Mike (Kevin’s Uncle). He was very reassuring and reminded us that it’s ok to be an advocate for our child (sometimes you just assume dr’s know best). He encouraged us to call the Peds if we needed to but also to ask about sinus problems when we see the ENT in a couple of days. That was Saturday.

Sunday she threw up again and her fever got higher, but not too crazy. Monday I called the Pediatrician and was able to get a same day sick appt. The best they could tell Monday morning Mackenzie had a virus, it had been going around. But her oxygen count was low so they gave us a steroid to open her lungs and sent us to the local hospital for chest x-rays. By the afternoon we were told her lungs were clear, we just had to wait it out. Tuesday Kevin left for work and turned right back around when I called and said Mackenzie’s cough seems worse and she just threw up everywhere. At this point none of us had really slept in 2 days. She seemed to do ok during the day Tuesday but the night was awful. Her cough was constant, breathing was hard, I had done EVERYTHING I knew to do to open her airways and help her rest. 11 that night I called the emergency line for peds. Again they reminded me that she has a virus. Most kids get worse before they get better, there really isn’t much they could do, I could take her to the ER if I was concerned.

At this point I started to feel like that mom that calls the office and the nurses all roll their eyes and say it’s THAT mom. You know the crazy one who calls every time her kid sneezes. Almost like they kept minimizing how serious I felt things were. So I waited it out she made it through the night. On Wednesday Kevin went to work and my sister came over to watch Mack so I could nap. Day 3 with no sleep - & I’m growing a baby! I couldn’t fall asleep. All I could hear was her coughing and whining and calling for mommy. I went to sit with her and she started gagging and threw up again. I put her in the bath and noticed a wheezing coming from her chest. Something is NOT right. Yep, again I called the Peds office at 9 AM, she told me I could come over at 3PM and the dr. would see Mackenzie. I was frustrated and explained that I thought she was getting worse despite the steroid we had received three days ago. So she said we could bring her over right away.

Luckily we saw the same dr. as we did on Monday so he knew what was going on and confirmed what I had thought….she was much worse. It was validating to know I wasn’t crazy mom but so scary when he said, I think she needs to go to the hospital for a couple of days. Her oxygen count was much lower than they like to see and she wasn’t responding to the breathing treatment they gave her in the office. She was admitted on Wednesday and went for x-rays and testing. There was something in her lungs but they didn’t know what. She had tested negative for RSV, the virus they orginally thought she had. It maybe brocholitis or pneumonia regardless she would have to be on oxygen, given antibiotic injections and kept the maxicare unit which is critical care for children.

The next three days were the longest days of my entire life. I think it’s the most difficult thing ever to see your helpless little baby on monitors, oxygen and out of it. She wasn’t at all the little girl we were used to. Luckily she had made enough progress to come home but she had to have a nebulizer, a steroid and an antibiotic. And I was a nervous wreck.

When we arrived home we found that one of my cats had suffered a heart attack or something while we were away. She had to be put to sleep. I was sure I would lose my mind at this point.

We did get to have a little uplifting moment in this whole mess by celebrating Christmas with Kevin’s family. Paul, Angie and the kids were in from VA and they came to our house for dinner with Kevin’s Parents. Luckily Kevin’s mom premade everything so I didn’t have to do a thing. It was nice to see everyone and to enjoy each other at a time when you need family most.

By Monday, three days before Christmas we had taken Mackenzie to the Pediatrician for a checkup and she was better but not recovering as quickly as they had expected so we had to do the breathing treatments more frequently. We celebrated Christmas eve with my dad and his girlfriend. For the past two years they’ve come to our house dressed as Santa and Ms. Claus. It’s very cute and gave Mackenzie a chance to visit more with Santa but now she thinks Santa is Pap-Pap Bud. By Christmas morning she was up and opening gifts and playing just like our little girl. My mom and sisters came over for Christmas Breakfast and to watch her open gifts and we had a lazy and relaxing day full of crock pot meals, playing and napping. It wasn’t the typical Christmas Chaos but it was the HOLIDAY we needed. We still do breathing treatments occasionally if we feel she needs them. The doctors said it would take a little while for her to heal.

Luckily Santa and his helper managed to get most things done by Christmas day and I’d like those of you reading to know we wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year, even if you didn’t get a letter or pictures from us. I stuffed envelopes half out of my mind in the hospital. Today she is much better and life is getting back to normal. Whatever that is.

In the meantime baby Fonner continues to grow and grow. We are very excited to be having another girl and I’m happy that we’ll get to use all Mackenzie’s clothes again, she had such cute stuff! After much debate Kevin and I have settled on a name….I think….Morgan Alexis. This past week my mom, sisters, Kenzie and I went shopping for nursery stuff. I forgot how much fun it was to look at that kind of stuff. We picked the “my first ABC” theme from Kids Line at Babies R Us (http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2953447&fromRegistryNumber=99114614&product_skn=851348). It’s cute and not too girly…just in case we get a surprise on baby’s birthday !

We are counting down the days….81 to go! I’ve been feeling pretty good. The normal 7 months prego stuff. At my last visit she explained how she was surprised to see that I haven’t gained much weight (I am in fact 15lbs less than I was when I got pregnant) but my belly is growing great so she’s not worried about the baby – wish my metabolism worked like this when I’m not pregnant!!! My glucose levels are a little lower than they like to see but she explained that it’s better than them being high – no diabetes. I just might tire more easily, and get dizzy so I have to be careful and try to eat more proteins. I have the last of my monthly appointments on the 19th of Jan and then I start with my every two week visits. I can’t believe how quickly it seems to have gone this time. I’m getting very excited to meet her. And so is Mackenzie. She will tell you now that her baby sister’s name is Morgan and she can tell you what things in the house belong to Morgan. She talks about holding baby sister and helping with baby sister.

So that’s life for us. I’ll try to be in contact more often and not have such long posts! Enjoy the pictures of our Christmas below!!!

Making Christmas Cookies! Mackenzie LOVES to help in the kitchen so I seperated all the ingrediants so she could just dump and stir.

Posing for the camera with Daddy

Doing facials with mommy

Mackenzie and the Christmas Tree

Santa visits our house before traveling to visit other children on Christmas Eve

I'm so proud of this little girl. Not only did she leave milk and cookies for Santa and food for the Reindeer but she wanted to give Santa a Christmas Card too. So she "wrote" one for him, I bet it will turn up one Christmas when she gets older ;)

HUGS!