six months.

oh that's right. you read correctly. SIX months. we went from 10.5 weeks to six months. it's time for a much needed synopsis of our lives as five grebes under one roof, and that will come, but for today, i wanted to post the rolls that are my daughter. i LOVE having a chunky monkey. she's our first. the others were a little runty but still precious.

ten point five weeks..

miss macey is 11 weeks old today. i can't wait to post a pic of aislyn at this age, they look so much alike. but alas, those pics are on a computer that hasn't been turned on in quite a while..

father daughter camping

aislyn and kenny are on their first camping trip together, and he has sent me a few pics and videos i wanted to post. i can't believe i let m 4 year old sleep in the mountains for three days (even though i LOVE it myself)! but at least she is in good hands, her daddy is the best. :) i don't even have details on these pics to narrate yet, but i love the fishing ones. i guess kenny took pictures of her pants to show me the insanity. even though it will be me who gets to do laundry when they come home. i'll get a great look at them then.

three.

our baby boy is three today. windblown crazy hair, forehead bruises, eyelid scratches and all. this morning as we were having birthday waffles, aislyn said "mommy let's pray about grayson. dear Lord, we thank you for grayson. we pray that you will just help him. help him... dear Lord... Lord... God.. help him to be obedient. and make him better." hard not to laugh during that prayer, coming from my strong willed defiant 4 year old.

grayson's favorite things as of now consist of cars (he has to have the entire line of cars from the movie "cars" in his bed at night- this includes but not limited to: mater, boost, wingo, dj, and 'bad car'- all three lightning mcqueens have been misplaced presently), batman and spiderman and "fansformers" (he told me originally that he wanted a "batman beats princess birthday party", that would have been fun), fire trucks, nascars, and any sports he can find to play. he insists on picking out his own clothes including a HIDEOUS (sorry lyssa but i know you hate it too) hand me down from liam which he calls "the spiderman shirt has wings on it". WOW. its bad people. it's polyester and his belly button shows when he wears it. so bad. he has been known to throw a fit or two when he doesn't get his way. which is much of the time lately. we turned his crib in to a big boy bed this weekend and his sleeping has been less than adequate. just a phase we hope... he loves his sisters but tries to terrorize the eldest on a regular basis by taking something he knows she loves, waving it at her and then running full speed ahead. he is not interested in the potty. at. all. i have been trying daily for months. bribes do nothing. and i'm not interested in holding him down on the toilet while he kicks and screams. pretty sure that's not the answer, even as nasty as 3 year old poo is... he cries and cowers under the table at the chic fil a cow, and my mother and i have decided that this is a fabulous tactic to use with him when he runs away in stores, parking lots, wherever. "GRAYSON! you better come back because the chic fil a cow is over there!", or "Grayson, sorry honey we can't play in the McDonalds play place cuz the chic fil a cow is in there today". so mean. but so effective. :) his favorite food is chips. he is addicted to them like a bad drug. he wants them with every meal, and will stack his meat and veggies on them and use them as spoons. he still detests fruit but yesterday he actually ate an apple for the first time since we were at National Jewish a year ago next week! (he eats grapes once every six weeks. he suddenly decides "hey! i like grapes!", but he hates them again the next day). he is still on the elecare formula for extra calories, but we're hoping to wean off soon. he doesn't quite eat enough of the good stuff. he's got about 15 or so foods now and we couldn't ask for more. well, we could, but we're doing great with the ones we have. just being patient for milk and wheat. it will be a few years or more, by the time he PRAYERFULLY grows out of it. he calls aislyn "seester" and it makes us laugh every time. it reminds me of my grandma klein and her siblings, they called her and my aunt nez "sister" too. i'm not sure they actually knew each other's real names. :) he's got eyelashes forever and knows how to work his momma. he's my only boy and i kinda like it that way. ;) he is brave, he is precious and he takes his meds and nebulizer and lotions like a champ EVERY day. and even lets mom and dad put wet socks on his hands and feet in the middle of the night if he is itchy. in his sleep. wow.

we love you lil bubba and we're SO proud of you!! happy third birthday to our little spiderman!

my boys.

happy 80th great grandma katie!

...macey and great grandma at her SURPRISE birthday party last week! great grandma katie LOVES her some babies!!! and we LOVE great grandma! (sidenote: that's where the "kate" in macey kate comes from. :) kenny's grandpa called his grandma kate as a nickname and i have ALWAYS adored the name kate. second sidenote: all three kids have been named after their great grandmas. aislyn joy is for my paternal grandmother alice joy, and grayson klein is for my maternal grandma, norma jean klein. kinda cool right?)



happy birthday grandma katie! we love you!

shhhhhhhhh.....

macey was crying incessantly and grayson heard her over the monitor. he got off the couch, picked up the monitor and went "shh shh shh shh" like he does when he's trying to calm her. hilarious little boy.

three.

the next group picture will be around christmas. if we're lucky.

married.

today was a big day for supergirl and batman. while i was nursing macey the kids put together this train. on each chair was one pink girl stuffed animal, and one boy stuffed animal. when i asked what this was about, aislyn informed me that she and batman were taking all these kids to get married so they could kiss and get a ring. ya know, whatever keeps ya entertained...

tags.

wanted to remember this, even though it is a sideways phone pic. when grayson gets tired or upset, he grabs his "snugger" and rubs the tag on his face. at night when he sleeps, he sleeps with the tag near/on his face. when he thinks i am tired or sad, he sits on my lap and rubs the tag on my face. i was cleaning the kitchen the other day and i went back into the livingroom and grayson had covered macey up with his very own snugger and made sure that the tag was, where else, her sweet face. i totally teared up. i mean, how sweet is that? he's two for heaven's sake. i need to keep this picture in mind when i want to punch holes in the wall because he won't listen. :)

introducing miss macey kate

3 weeks and 1 day late, but here is our newest little girl. she was born april 6th, 7lbs 10oz with a perfectly shaped heart stork bite in between her eyes.

the transition has been rough. but we're makin' it. i hear the six week mark after your 2nd c section is when you start to feel fairly normal again. i can't wait.

my dear friend sherri took this picture. (and has done 13897219 other things for me.) thank you sweet sherri for capturing her.. um, fifth day, seventh day (oh wait we didn't get anything that day), and tenth day. :) that's right, it took three full days to get pictures of this munchkin. she was not super cooperative for the camera. don't worry. i'll train her.

we have been so blessed by family and friends, who have helped IMMENSELY the last few weeks. (i still haven't left the house by myself. and only twice WITH other people.)

anyhoo, i'll get my camera out someday and post some more. but just this one for now. OH and some hospital ones that ellen took that i need to figure out how to load... will do soon....

happy heart day

hope it was FULL of candy... and attitude.

the update #2 AND a forgotten u/s pic :)

baby grebe #3 (#5 if we're being technical) at 28 weeks gestation (two or three weeks ago)....

totally forgot to post this ultrasound picture, proving that yet again, we will have another kenny clone. :) check out the darling little nose! love it.

when i was updating on grayson, i forgot to mention something i wanted documented. in december, actually the week of christmas, he was diagnosed with asthma basically. we had gone into the doc late afternoon, because his cough was so so bad and his breathing just sounded short and weird to me. his o2 level was low, so they did a nebulizer treatment right there in the dr's office, like a rescue neb, and his o2 went back up to normal immediately after the 20 minute treatment. this was a red flag for the dr that it is likely asthma. that, and the fact that it was his third terrible awful cough since november. he would get a runny nose, and it would turn into a nonstop all night long all day long mind numbing cough. so because of that, they were leaning more to the asthma dx. he is now on a preventive nebulizer treatment twice a day (only 7 minutes each thank you LORD!) and he does really well with it. he hasn't coughed since christmas eve when he started it which is a christmas miracle. :) i can put the mask on him and walk away and trust him to MOSTLY hold it on his face and not move while he watches a program, or i will sit and read a book with him. his favorite thing lately though is having a skittle in his mouth while he does it. which of course, we allow. ONE skittle mind you. :) aislyn loves to sit with him and hates it when grayson does his "mask" without her. kinda weird, but it's sweet that she likes to be with him. we have to do this preventive nebulizer through the cold and flu season, so until march 31st. which is perfect and divine since the baby is coming the first week of april and it will be one less thing to do. he is also off of his nighttime antihistamine officially, and weaning off his bottles this week and taking his formula (sort of) in a sippy cup. kids don't really like elemental formula in a sippy cup for good reason, so we have always bought the munchkin sippy "bottles" for him, but i am ALL done with bottles. especially since we will have an actual baby around here in april. we've got a few more milestones for him to pass and then he will be de-baby'd. which is kind of sad. potty training, toddler bed and the paci. which i'm almost dreading breaking the paci habit more than potty training. that kid loves his paci.

ok i'm done.

the update

i promised i would update, though i can't guarantee that there is anything interesting to report that i haven't already mentioned!

our pregnancy is going great, we have 9 weeks from tomorrow until our scheduled c section date, april 6th. we are undecided as to whether or not that's what we will do, but it's on the calendar. aislyn was an emergency c and grayson was a very hard labor, and if this baby is any bigger than he was, i would likely end up with a c anyway. i'm feeling good, just big and hindered in movement. aislyn told me i wouldn't be able to reach the pedals soon. and she is right. this one feels like its gonna be the biggest yet. we'll see. we still have not found out the sex of the baby, nor have we picked a name for it. it will really just all be one giant surprise. we are praying for wisdom and safety during delivery, as i have to be honest, i'm a little nervous. i'm sure that the anxiety will soon be replaced with "get this baby out of me however you see fit" in the near future. :)

grayson is doing really well. his skin continues to look creamy white almost all over, which just a couple trouble spots here and there that we stay on top of. we cut down on his antihistamines, he no longer needs them to sleep which is also huge. we have added green beans to his diet and when sauteed in his special "butter" the boy will eat a whole can. fresh green beans, however, he does not care for. not sure why. so canned it is. we have gotten several emails from the wall street journal article. what i mean by that, is that the editor at wsj has gotten several, and emails them to me for me to reply to the parents. some of them are moms who have kids who sound like grayson and i am willing to help in anyway possible, so i am trying to write all of them back. he still gets a bath (soak) a day in plain water, and then lotion all over. we haven't done any wet wraps in a LONG time and i rarely have to use the steroid ointments on him ever anymore. we are still trying to introduce new foods to him that were on his "trial" list, but he doesn't seem interested. i even got him a soy hot chocolate (dairy free of course) at starbucks and while he LOVED the idea of it and carried around forever (in his hands AND on his shirt) he really didn't drink much of it. i might have ruined his taste for chocolate since he hasn't really had it. so all in all, he is great. happy. sleeping 12 to 13 hours at night without scratching. (he finally started doing that in october i believe and we could not be happier about it.)

aislyn is doing really well too and developing new attitudes daily. there isn't much to report on her since she has never had any health issues. she loves kids express and brings home countless projects twice a week for me to guilt strickenly throw away. ;) she wears at least 4 outfits a day, one is usually a princess dress. i do two extra loads of laundry a week because of it. she is preparing her room for the baby and has put an extra blanket in her doll cradle, right beside her bed, so that the baby can sleep there... probably NOT where the baby will be sleeping. but we have decided to put it in her room nonetheless i think. i don't really trust my son with a baby in his room. not sure what he would try to do with it. it's likely it would wake up with cars in its diaper and on its head, and vaseline all over it's face. because sweet grayson thinks that's what you do to babies. you grease 'em up! anyway, all that to say, aislyn is so excited that there are only 9 weeks until the baby comes. she tells me frequently with a frown, "mom, this baby is taking TOO. LONG. all the other babies in the world are coming out but NOT YOURS. why will your baby not come out mom?" oh the patience of a 4 year old. it resembles the patience of this 33 year old actually.

that's about all i got. i think i will attach our christmas card and letter in this post somehow... and then that will OFFICIALLY be all i got. :)




our 2009 christmas letter update

Christmas 2009
Dearest Friends and Family who we are so blessed to have in our lives,
What’s this? A Christmas letter? After a few years of no words, we decided it was time!
We have nothing bad to report, we are all doing well! This Christmas finds us just a few months away from welcoming a third little Grebe baby to the family! We have chosen to kick it old school and be surprised with the sex of this one, which makes Amy a little crazy, but also keeps her from buying endless amounts of gender specific things we probably don’t need. We have also decided to keep the name a secret until the big reveal. This should work out just fine, since this baby will likely not have a name until it’s a few months old.
Aislyn is four years old, and sports an attitude much like her mother’s at that age (or now). She is beautiful, very imaginative and cannot wait for mommy’s baby to come out. She insists that it is taking far too long. We had one ER visit with her this year (we try to go once a year), just a few weeks ago, which will leave her with a nice little scar on her forehead! When she is older, I think she will wish there were a better story to tell in regards to the scar. Because it goes like this: Aislyn was walking in the driveway, trying to take her coat off, tripped on her own feet and fell forward on her head. That’s it. Perhaps we should make something else up. Aislyn did ballet this year and LOVED it, and danced in a recital in which Madagascar was the theme. She also started a preschool at Hoffmantown Kids Express this year, just two mornings a week and has made lots of friends there and adores her teachers. She even got to meet Santa Claus (her biggest fear) who told her all about baby Jesus last week. She loves all things princess and has a great princess tomboy balance going on. Listening to her have conversations with her dolls is one of our favorite things to do. She is so nurturing with them, yet not afraid to discipline. It’s hysterical.
Grayson is two and a half, unbelievable. This has been a BIG year for him. Before June, his diet consisted of chicken, rice and sweet potatoes because of his allergy blood and skin tests. As many of you remember, we took him to National Jewish Hospital in June, a week after his second birthday. His stay there was two weeks long. They cleared his severe eczema within four days and began food challenges with him to determine real allergies. We added nine foods to his diet and learned how to manage his eczema so that Lord willing it will never be out of control again. We are SO thankful to God for his orchestration of our entire visit. The things that lined up for us to be able to go were completely divine. National Jewish’s Annual Report even includes a story on Grayson! He does not LOVE all of his foods yet. We are being creative in our introduction of them. He doesn’t yet eat enough to be off of his calorie providing hypoallergenic formula, but we are hoping this will be soon. He is VERY into Batman and Spiderman, even though he has never once watched an episode of either on TV. And if it has wheels, it’s his best friend. As we drive along the roads, Grayson labels every car he sees. “Bug car momma! Blue truck momma!” His vocabulary is coming along nicely and it’s so entertaining to have a conversation with him!
Amy is taking a break from photography until after the baby is born (but will gladly take newborns until then…you don’t have to chase them around!). She is loving being at home with the kids, dreaming of being a minimalist and never quite knowing how to pull it off. Maybe this year? She is also doing the books for our landscaping company in between diapers and snacks.
Kenny is enjoying running Red Shovel and even had a news story done on him this year, involving the Christmas Décor part of our business! It is posted on our blog if you’d like to watch it! The kids adore their daddy and so does their momma (and yes, Amy wrote that part. ☺) He is so excited to be surprised about our mystery baby, which makes it more fun for all of us! Minimalist Kenny hopes to rub off on Not Minimalist Amy this year.
We hope this letter finds you resting in God’s peace, understanding His sovereignty and learning how to delight in Him and only Him through this upcoming year. This is our goal for the year, so that we may teach our children more and more about God’s love for us.
We love you all and Merry Christmas 2009,
Kenny, Amy, Aislyn, Grayson & Baby Grebe
(keep up with us at www.grebefam.blogspot.com)

litte miss aislyn's 4 year session

4 months late? yes, but that's how i roll.

aislyn and i went out yesterday, just the two of us, with a bag of hats, a couple chairs, a giant white poster board and a camera (cramera is how she says it.) we stood out in the cold trying to perfect our shots for a good 40 minutes, and then went to have an ice cream cone at mcd's because she was so good. little did she know, i needed to take her BACK out to practice my backlit shots. luckily she was a sport and we got some fun stuff. she was quite proud of herself actually for being so good. i wonder how grayson's shoot will go...

here are some from our session. some of them are glistening with beautiful sunset light and some are lit by dark clouds. it was fun to work with all kinds of situations. :)

grayson and the wall street journal

a few days ago, national jewish contacted us and asked if the wall street journal could interview us for an article on food challenges. she noticed my email said amy grebe photography, and asked if i had photos. of course i had photos. so in the article they even did a little slideshow. the actual article will be in the actual paper tomorrow, but here is the link to the online article with slideshow. anything to spread the word about false positives to allergy blood testing!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703808904575025013194645130.html

(i have five more days to do an update, you know, so that it's in january. ha.)

spring fever.

i'm gettin' it pretty bad.

and yes i'm due for an update. christmas, aislyn and grayson stuff, baby stuff, i know. maybe this month. :)