Yes, we are alive

Well, hello again! To be honest, I'd honestly forgotten that I was going to try and keep this thing up. Oops! Well, the pregnancy is over and we have a wonderful son now, Grant Alexander Kubala. He's growing every day and while I've become slightly frustrated that he hasn't quite gotten the hang on how nighttime should go as easily as Melanie did at this age, he's a really good baby. I keep reminding myself that they are not the same person and are different. He's 7 weeks old yesterday and by this time she was already sleeping through the night. He was, until he got congested. So we're getting through that. Here are some pictures we had taken a couple of weeks ago of the kids. Enjoy!

And we have a heartbeat!

As most of you already know we found out we are pregnant again on Memorial day (my mom's birthday). Today, we went to the doctor for our first check up. Now, prior to this if I haven't told you in person I had been thinking and having dreams that I was pregnant with twins! Also, Jane (Chris' mom) had a dream that we were having quadruplets! So needless to say, we were anxious to find out how many heartbeats we would see. While yes, twins would be crazy hectic part of me thought for about a few seconds "that could be fun once we got the hang of it!" It didn't take me long to snap out of that thought and back to reality and then freak out about the possibilities all over again. But, we got in there and thankfully there was only one heartbeat. Dr. Blair had a hard time finding the baby because apparently I had a rather full bladder much to my dismay and MANY trips to the restroom today! My projected due date is February 6th, but since we had complications last time which lead to a c-section this time will be a scheduled one and most likely the last week of January. If you're wondering if I'm disappointed about this the answer is, sort of. I definitely don't want to go through all of that only to end up in the OR again. But, it would be nice to have the possibility of a "normal" birth experience. I guess normal for me will be c-section. Oh well. So hopefully more updates to come if I can remember to get on here and keep it up. :)
On another note, we are currently trying to figure out the best way to transition Melanie to a "big girl" bed. She isn't showing any signs of wanting to climb out of her crib, but we are wanting to use it for the baby when he/she arrives. Her crib converts to a toddler bed and then to a full. So the plan is to bypass the toddler bed stage and go to her own full, give the baby the current furniture and when he/she is about her age if there isn't another Kubala in the making we will use the nursery furniture as a full size bed in the guest bedroom. Make sense? If you have any tips please let us know. We are also dabbling with when to start potty training too. HELP!!! LOL

We're going to try this again!

Well its been a while, almost a year. It's hard to remember to update this thing when I'm on Facebook so much and I forget that I have this thing! For those of you that check it, I truly am sorry.
So, a lot has happened since the last posting and because I'm using the computer I am I do not have pictures to post. Hopefully I will be able to do that soon (when Melanie is napping). She turned 1 this past November and we had a huge party for her complete with a Very Hungry Caterpillar cake and all! Since then of course we had Thanksgiving and Christmas where Melanie had tons of fun handing out presents and helping people open theirs and then not wanting them to have their own presents. Quite comical!
With the new year brought all kinds of things like my brother proposing to Kayla (it's about time) and Emily getting engaged as well (again, it's about time). With those two happenings come weddings this month and in December of which either all three of us or Melanie and I are in.
Scooting on down to May brought my decision and opportunity to switch grade levels and teach 3rd grade. I've been wanting a change for some time now and am truly excited about the opportunity. With that one small change came another HUGE change for our family. I found out the first week of June that I am pregnant again! I go to the doctor on the 29th so be looking for another post with all of those details. Since there will be two of them, maybe I will work harder at updating this! We can hope anyway.
Melanie is growing and changing and getting into her 2's I believe. She now throws fits, pouts, and is trying to feed herself as well. She jabbers up a storm (wonder where she gets that from?) and we are sure will just start talking in full sentences any day now! She's been camping twice with my parents and LOVES being "sigh!", Melanie's word for outside. She's discovered water and decided that she likes it as well. But we've learned that she DOES NOT want to be in her float thank you very much, she wants floaties on her arms so she can bob up and down like a bouie. Well, that's about all I have for right now. Hopefully this won't be the only one for as many months as the last. We love you all! Thanks for keeping up with us!

I know...

Ok, don't hurt me. I know it's been WAY too long. And I don't even have pictures to post this time either! I can't seem to find time to update this thing, spend time with my daughter and husband AND have a job. Its just too much. So forgive me for waiting what seems like a million years since I've posted anything.
What's happened since the last post...lets see. Well... our little girl is fast approaching her first birthday. Can you believe it?!?!? I can't! She's eating some 3rd foods now, but not all and has learned a great new trick. She has learned how to spit things out of her mouth. Yep, not liking this new trick, but she's also learning that momma just puts it back in her mouth and tells her "no ma'am." :) She likes eating the meat sticks and diced up carrots. Once this box of formula is out she's switching to milk, so we'll see what happens with that. They do that now at one year anyway. She is a complete chatterbox (dunno where she gets that from since neither her daddy or I talk much) and tells us all kinds of things. She hasn't really said a "word" yet but makes noises that sound really close to actual words. "Da da" and "Ma ma" are about the only things that she really says and means and even those are sporadic at best. She waves now when you leave and of course it's a whole arm and body wave. She's got 4 teeth; two on top and two on bottom. She still likes to put her two middle fingers in her mouth and suck. It looks like she's either saying "I love you" in sign language or she's telling us already that she wants to be a Longhorn. I know for you Aggie fans out there you won't like that, but her Daddy and I don't mind.
The biggest thing going on right now is her walking. She's doing it more and more each day and for longer periods of time too. Yesterday she was walking so much I thought she was just going to take off and that would be that. It literally is any day now that she just makes up her mind that she's going to do it and does. She gets just a little unsure of herself and plops down mid walk. She's gotten up to about 12 steps or so, so far.
Sunday we took her to our friends Rob and Gwen Sawyers with Be True Photography and got her pictures taken in the pumpkin patch in her ladybug costume. We don't have the CD with those pictures on it yet to post, but as soon as we get it you can rest assured that you will see some of them. We are also going back to them right before her birthday to get her one year pictures taken and then right after that I'm sure we will be back for Santa pictures like last year. Chris seems to think that Santa may be a no go for her this year since she's decided to be picky about who she goes to at times. We'll see. Every family has the crying Santa picture I'm sure at one point or another.
Thats about it for now until Halloween comes and the pictures get here. I'll post those things as soon as I can. Be patient. I haven't completely forgotten about this blog, it's just not a high priority most days. :) We love you all. Take care.
Love and hugs-
The Kubala's

It's Been Waaay Too Long, yet again! Sorry!

Well... it's been waaay too long! I know I've been HORRIBLE about updating this thing. I just can't manage to balance my time and get on the computer for a length of time that will allow me time to do this. :) The pictures attached were taken yesterday. That's her Aunt Misty holding her up for the photo opp.
So, I think I told you last time that I would add baptism pictures and that never happened. Well, to be honest they are still on Chris' computer and not this one. So maybe I can talk him into doing that tonight. *crosses fingers* Since then we have started eating baby food. So far we've been through all of the stage 1 fruits and we LOVE Peaches! The fruits included in stage one fruits are bananas, apples, prunes, and peaches. Now we've moved on to vegetables and have tried sweet potatoes and peas so far. The others left to try are green beans, carrots, and squash.
We are trying our very best to crawl. She gets up on all fours and rocks and will even take like half a step. Then she decides that she needs to have her middle two fingers in her mouth. That's right ladies and gentlemen, we make the Hook 'Em sign with our fingers when we suck on them. Yes, we are finger suckers, not thumb suckers. So, when she decides to do this our venture to crawl stops and then we scoot on our head to get around. The sitter asked if we could try and find a walker for her to move around in. We found one and Niki (the sitter) said that she LOVES it and will follow her around in it. Of course she started out going backwards, but now goes forward. She loves to stand and likes to grab at everything and put everything in her mouth. She's currently trying to cut one of her top teeth. Its so funny to watch; Chris will stand her in his lap and she'll grab his glasses and take them off, grab his ears and then start sucking on his nose. It's hysterical to watch! And chatter... oh wow this girl can talk! I can't imagine who she gets that from! She giggles and will occasionally do a full belly laugh. But she doesn't do it with the same thing twice of course!
Well... other than trying to avoid the Swine Flu not much else is going on. I'm counting down the days till the last day of school, which is the 29th of May. I don't have a bad class, I just need to end this year and regroup.
Well, we're going to Houston this weekend for my birthday. I hit the 29th year on Saturday. I'm just thankful for one more year and a VERY blessed life.
We love you all very much!
Love and hugs-
Stef, Chris, and Melanie

It's been too long... I know

The title says it all. This may prove to be a little harder to keep up with, with my working and all than I originally thought. Yes, I'm back to work. Ugh! It's really not that bad. The kids have been pretty good so far. I went to work for 3 weeks and now I'm on Spring Break. Not too bad huh? :)
As I would guess is normal Melanie had a MUCH easier time adjusting to the new schedule than I did. The first couple of days were really rough for me, but they got better. I don't suppose it will ever get easy, but it does get better. So much has happened since the last post! I'm going to try and remember it all.
For starters Melanie was baptized on March 7th here at our church in New Braunfels. We invited family only just because we knew it was a drive for most and knew it would be a total zoo if we included everyone. Chris has those pictures on his computer at work, so I'll do my best to get those posted this week while I have a chance. I have one of my cousin Cody holding her posted this time.
She's getting so big! I can't remember if I told everyone that she went on her first camping trip towards the end of February. We met my parents at Stephen F. Austin State Park in Sealy just outside of Katy. Of course she couldn't do much. But we took her on a walk in her stroller and she slept while Mommy and Daddy got some exercise.
She learned how to roll over this past weekend and does that on a regular basis now when she's on the floor. She pretty much grins at most anything these days and is just too cute for words. She's cutting a tooth on the bottom as well. Chris cut his first tooth at 3 months, and the doctor says it's hereditary. So we'll see how long it takes for it to come in.
The BIG news is that she giggled/laughed for the first time last night. Her Uncle Philip covered his eyes and then uncovered them while holding her and said "Boo!" and she just giggled. At first Chris and I were like "what was that?" and then we listened again and it was all I could do to keep from laughing myself. I LOVE watching her learn and grow!
Some other things she is doing now are... she wants to try and turn over in her swing (picture shown), and she also is wanting to scoot down into her covers and hide when she's asleep (picture shown).
We go to the doctor for her 4 month well baby check-up so I will have more information then. I know that we will be told to start cereal out of a spoon, and fruits and veggies. I'm so excited to try those with her!
Some big news for some friends of ours... Kim and Matt Huckaby had their baby, Taylor Ann last Wednesday. There were some major complications with Kim's pregnancy and we are just thrilled to death that everything went as it should have. What a blessing! Kim and I can't wait for Melanie and Taylor to play together. It's really kind of fun, because there are 3 of us that have had babies within 3-4 months of each other. So they will all go to school together. Melanie and Taylor will be at the same sitter come August. Congratulations Huckabys! We couldn't be happier for you!
Also on that same note, one of my best friends Amber Lausch is expecting again as well! So that means that Melanie and baby Lausch will be in the same grade as well! We don't know what Amber is having just yet, but we're pretty sure it's a girl again! So I, get to be an Aunt again! We couldn't be more excited for the two of you for the second time!
It's so cool that so many of our friends now have babies. We were sort of at the rear end of things with my friends back home and now all of our friends here in NB are catching up. I'm an "Aunt" to 3 kiddos of friends from home and it's just so much fun. My hope is that all of our kids, whether from here or there, that they are able to be friends with each other and have as much fun as we have and are having. Cheers to friendships past, present and future!
That's about it for today. I'll be back later this week with more information and pictures hopefully.