6 Months Old

On Friday, May 19^th, McKenna turned 6 months old. It is very hard to believe that our little girl is that old already. It seems like just last week she was born, just yesterday since we brought her home from the hospital and now, we’ve been home almost as long as she was in the hospital. It is true what they say! Time does fly when you’re having fun. In that respect, Suzanne and I are having a blast. We couldn’t dream of having such a good baby. McKenna is very well behaved and we usually don’t hear a peep out of her unless she’s hungry. She is starting to “gibber jabber” a lot more now as well as show us her new trick of blowing bubbles. The bubbles are only fun when she has a mouth full of milk and then tries it. She had another eye appointment on Thursday with a very good report from her doctor. He says that her eyes are pretty close to what a “normal” newborn’s would be. He also said that he would be very surprised if she would have to have the laser surgery. Of course we are very happy about that. She also saw her Pediatrician, Dr. Nau. She was very happy to see him until he started messing with her ear. She does NOT like that even a little bit. Otherwise, he is very happy with her progress. She weighed a whopping 10lbs. 2oz. and was 23 ½ inches long. He told us that with her corrected age, she is right on track for development and maybe a little ahead of schedule with the rolling over.

So, enough about McKenna, I would like to announce the birth of Sophia Marie Klostermann. She was born Saturday evening at Mercy Hospital in Dubuque. She weighed 7lbs. 5oz. Mom and baby are doing great. Sophia is very cute and I will post pictures of her as soon as I can. Congratulations Dawn and Jim, we are so happy for you guys. It will be fun for McKenna to have another girl cousin so close in age. I am happy to release “the smallest member of the family” award to your beautiful little girl. Congrats again!! When I get the portrait ID for the hospital picture I will post that so you can see my precious little niece. Take care and love to all.

Happy Mother’s Day

I know it’s a couple days late, but I wanted to post something on here to wish all the mothers out there a Happy Mother’s Day. We (Suzanne, McKenna, the dog, and myself) traveled up to Dyersville Friday night. We spent the night there with Mom & Dad. My sister and her family came in so that we could all have supper together. Speaking of my sister, her and Jim will be adding a new member to the family pretty soon. We wish her all the best and can’t wait to hear the news when the stork arrives. Good luck Dawn, we will keep you and ‘little one’ in our prayers. Saturday we had Rachel & Jason’s wedding. What a beautiful service! We had a great time at the reception. It was the first time we were away from McKenna and needless to say, it was very difficult to go out and have fun and leave her with Grandpa & Grandma. Sunday we celebrated Mother’s day a couple times. We hit both the Felton side and the Ries side and we didn’t go hungry. Before we headed back to Cedar Rapids, we stopped at the cemetery to visit our little Ian. It was very difficult to be there, but at the same time we know that he helped take care of his mommy and his little sister in their time of need.

Most of all I would like to thank a couple of the very special moms out there.

Suzanne – You are my best friend, a wonderful wife, and a GREAT mother. I know that Ian is looking down on you and very proud of his mommy and McKenna couldn’t have been more blessed than to be born into your loving arms.

My mom – You are a great role model to what a parent should be to their child. Even though I am “all grown up” now, you still mean the world to all of us and I look forward to McKenna growing and having a wonderful relationship with her Grandma Glady.

Cindi – Also a great parent role model. I can not put into words how thankful I am to be part of your family and how much you mean to Suzanne and I. Thank you for all of your support and I think your strength is an inspiration to all of us. After raising 3 wonderful daughters of your own, I can’t imagine how good you are going to be at spoiling our little girl.

All of our Grandma’s – Either with us or on the other side of Heaven, we thank you all for the love that you’ve shared with Suzanne, Ian, McKenna, and myself. Also thank you for giving us our parents. We love you all.

To all the other mothers, Happy Mother’s Day. I will be adding new pictures soon. We are still being kind of selfish and not seeing all the fun moments through the view finder of the camera. But let me tell you, every time that little girl smiles, it is the most beautiful thing. We received a shirt for her the other day that said, ‘My finger might be small, but I have my daddy wrapped around it.’ How true!! Love to all and take care.

Take A Look

I have yet again added more pictures to McKenna Volume 3. I know I'm probably not doing it fast enough for some of you, but hey, it's better than not doing it at all. You will see that she is growing quite rapidly. She has changed so much lately. Smiling all the time, a giggle here and there, rolling over, and all the other good stuff babies do. You will see a couple pictures of her with Cael. Cael is obviously (by the big #1 on his cake) turning 1 already. Happy birthday Cael. Needless to say, he needed a bath after he called it quits on his cake. He had frosting all over the place. It's hard to believe that in just over 6 months, our little pumpkin will be celebrating her first birthday. Take care everyone and have a great rest of your week.

Thank You!!

Suzanne and I would like to thank all of you that donated to WalkAmerica 2006. Even the really wet weather couldn't slow them down. Suzanne and McKenna, along with some other brave souls, walked a better part of a 8.5 mile walk. McKenna stayed warm and dry while that was not the case for Suzanne.

We would also like to thank those who have volunteered to watch McKenna through the month of May. We ended up filling up all the days. This really means a lot to Suzanne and I and it's hard to put into words. Thank you all very much!!

Last, I would like for all of you that read this to say a prayer for my uncle Rodney who lives down in Kentucky. Rodney is battling cancer and needs all the prayers he can get. It seems that they have yet found more in his body. I can't say enough about the kind of guy he is. No one deserves to go through this and especially not him. Rodney, Suzanne and I wish you all the best and we love you!! Get well soon.