New baby update :)

I had my first doctor appointment, and had SLIGHTLY disappointing news. They pushed my due date back a week :( Nothing worse than finding out you actually have LONGER to go!

My dad is of course ecstatic because that puts me due on Dec. 11, instead of Dec 6. Closer to his birthday on the 13th!

Fortunately that was only 'bad' news we got. Baby is looking healthy, well as healthy as they can look at 7 wks! Little heart was beating away at 144 bpm. And yes there is only 1. :)

hmm...any readers??

SOOO I just thought I'd check to see if I still have readers on here...


I'm going to post some AWESOME news, that I am not sharing on facebook yet, so if someone IS reading this, please keep it off facebook.




I'M PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baby #4 is not due until Dec. 6th (Papa Gary wants Dec 13th, I wonder why! :D) So I am really early into the pregnancy, hence why I'm keeping it off FB and such. Charlie is excited and just wants to know if it's a boy or girl. Kinzie is really looking forward to having a little sister, and Nick refuses to accept the news! Mike and I are both pleased to be rounding out our family, as this will be it for us!

Anyway, if anyone's out there, be happy you were one of the 1st to know!

Life...it's been awhile :)

Hello faithful readers, if there are any left out there! I realize it has literally been MONTHS since the last post about the crazy Munson children, and unfortunately this one will be all written and no visual. :(
Just wanted to do some updating on things going on in our world.

Mike: health-wise Mike has been doing great, still on blood pressure meds for his low blood pressure, but things seem to be going well. He's still being monitored, but it's kept up with the medicine. He has finished his auto cad class, he started taking Aug. 2009. It was really just a refresher course of the one he took at MATC but it was with the updated AutoCad system. He is now on to studying for the Tech Sergeant test. He will test for Tech next Thursday, rarely does anyone actually make TSgt on their 1st attempt, so expectations are low, but I think he has it in him!

Charlie: Charlie is LOVING school, he is excelling in Math, just like his Momma! He received the highest score in Math on the state testing tests, for all 3 Kindergarten classes at his school! I was so proud of him! It's so fun to hear him reading and to see him writing.
It was decided this year, that he would go ahead and have surgery on his 'bad' eye, to help correct the turning. We started patching in October, and playing around with his lenses in his glasses, and unfortunately none of it helped completely. So April 12 he will be in Billings having surgery. He is pretty terrified at the thought, and I'm having problems reassuring him, as I am just as scared.

Kinzie: The princess might FINALLY be potty trained!!!!!! She still has the occasional accident, but I *think* it's looking pretty good! She is doing EXCELLENT health-wise!! (at least 1 of us is!) and is really looking forward to starting school this fall! She recently got her ears pierced a SECOND time, so 2 holes per ear. She was thrilled to get to pick out her own earrings! She's taking after her older brother, and is really getting into her video games. It's fun to see that she is able to actually play them now, and to see how lippy she gets at the tv when it doesn't go her way!

Nick: Nick is struggling a bit in the health department, and we aren't quite sure why. He's had a lingering cough/runny nose for about a month now, we're trying out some things and hopefully something will work. He's become quite the helper for me, always wanting to do laundry and putting things away for me! I really love it!

Me: I have been having my own health issues, I had an upper gi endoscopy and discovered that the little flap that is supposed to keep the food and acid in my stomach, is standing wide open, so I have to have surgery to repair that. The same dr also wants me to have an ultrasound on my liver and gall bladder. I guess just to check and make sure it's all ok :)

Family news: WE GOT A NEW (to us) HOUSE ON BASE!!! It's a 3 bdrm, 2.5 bath, 2 stories WITH a partially finished basement!!! It's so exciting, but unfortunately we have less than a week to move out of this house!

I think that about sums it all up for us for now, check back in another couple months, maybe I'll have posted again! :D

Fall Fun :)

Charlie officially loves school. I am so happy that he is thriving, (at least for now) I can only hope it lasts! He excels in math like his Mama, and LOVES science. Mike and I both have a chance to volunteer in his class, and it's so nice to be able to talk to his teacher on a weekly basis! We've been through a parent teacher conference, a book fair, and a trip to the fire station already! I offered to help chaperone, and had to take Kinzie and Nick with me. Kinzie LOVED it as much as Charlie did, but Nick was terrified the whole time we were there!This was Nick's expression the whole, when he wasn't crying :(

On a medical front, his 'lazy eye' is getting worse, and we've had to start patching the good eye for 8 hours a day in order to make the bad eye start working again. We also have a consultation in December with a surgeon in Missoula to decide if surgery will be a better/final option. He's doing pretty well with the patch, much better than I thought he would!

The eye patch :)

We let the kids choose their own costumes for Halloween again this year. Kinzie was stoked to be a dragon, and Charlie chose a cheeseburger, which in turn made Nick choose a cheeseburger as well. The morning of the 31st Charlie had a change of heart, and was worried kids would laugh at him for being a sandwich, but it seemed like in general, kids (and parents) were pretty excited about the cheeseburgers!

We also had a chance (and a nice enough day) to take the kids to a Corn MAiZE about 30 minutes from Great Falls, we spent the afternoon there and we all had a blast. Went through the maze, and played in corn, and hay, and had a little train ride. Will definitely be a tradition for us!Jumping in the hay.

Covering Amber with corn in the corn box, instead of sand box.

Mike taking Nick through the corn tunnel.

I can't believe it's November already! This year is flying by! Hopefully I will update more this month than the last 2!

End of summer...

The Munson babies had a pretty uneventful summer, until August rolled around!

We started our August out with a quick trip to Utah so I could see my doctor down there. We managed to get a full day in at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. We rode the train, and the carousel, saw the baby elephant, ate lunch there AND had icees! The kids had so much fun, and so did Mike and I! We will make this trip again next August, it's a great little end of summer vacation!In the car, on the way to Salt Lake City.
In front of the Hogle Zoo.
Riding the train at the zoo.
Playing on the playground at the zoo.

A few weeks after that, my parents and niece Hannah came to Montana to visit for 5 days. We drove along the Missouri River to see the falls, went to the Paris Gibson museum, the Lewis and Clark interpretive center, had a picnic in the park, went to the fish hatchery, the outdoor plane museum, and played lots of cards! The visit was way too short, and went way too fast. But we were sure glad they made the trip! The Munson babies in front of the Missouri River.

Hannah and Charlie in front of the buffalo at the
Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.

Nana and Papa with the grandkids at the
outdoor plane museum on base.
Everybody feeding the fish at the hatchery.
Papa and the Munson babies sitting by the river.

A week after they left, Charlie officially became a full time student! He started Kindergarten on August 25, and he LOVES it! Mike and I really like his teacher, he has a class size of about 20, and one of my good friends here, her daughter is in his class! He has PE, and Art. Music, Computer time, and Library. Plus I was nervous about him eating school lunch, and planned on sending a sack lunch everyday, but he's actually tried a few hot lunches and surprisingly liked them! Kinzie, Nicholas, and myself definitely feel his lack of presence at home though. We're all 3 so excited to see him after school!All ready for his 1st day of school!

August also brought us Mike's 28th birthday! We were lucky enough to actually get to go out and celebrate, just the 2 of us! Our friends' anniversary was the 28th, so we switched baby-sitting and each enjoyed a much needed night out, KIDLESS! Mike and I hadn't been on a date alone since we left Germany, 15 months ago! We were going to go to dinner and a movie, but neither of us were hungry, (or hungry enough to be able to eat supper AND pig out on movie theater snacks!) so we went to Old Navy, to get Charlie some new jeans, walked the aisles of Office Max, and spent some time in Barnes and Noble. We went and saw The Expendables, which I must confess I wasn't looking forward to, but that's what Mike wanted to see. I ended up really enjoying it!

Doctors, Doctors, Doctors

Wednesday 21 July, Kinzie and Nicholas both had well child check-ups. Both are completely healthy, and right on track developmentally. Kinzie had her vision tested, and as of now, doesn't need glasses (yay!)
Nicholas was 27 lbs, 33.5 in and 60% in height to weight ratio.
Kinzie was 29.2 lbs, and 38 in, with a 20% height to weight ratio.

Thursday 22 July, I had a follow up endocrinology appointment. My thyroid level, which is supposed to be between .03 and 3.4, was .47 (yay, last time it was 42!) At 1st the physicians assistant that I see, thought my medicine level might be TOO high, they don't want me to become HYPERthyroid (having no thyroid makes me hypothyroid). So she said I need to have labs redone the 1st week of September with a follow up visit the last week of October. After I left the clinic she called the house about an hour later, to say she is now wanting my my levels to be even LOWER than 0.47, so I had to go back and get labs done that day, in case they want to up my dosage! Other than that, everything is looking good, I even lost some weight! Woo-hoo!

Friday 23 July, Charlie had an appointment to check his hearing and vision before Kindergarten. His hearing was perfect, but his 'lazy' (for lack of the PROPER word) eye, was very apparent, and the dr referred us to an optometrist. He hasn't seen an ophthalmologist since before we left Germany, so I was almost expecting it. He weighed 36.4 lbs, and was 42 in tall. I didn't take him, so I don't know what percent that is, but he still looks tiny to me!

Future appointments: I have to go to back to Utah the 1st week of August for my 6 month post surgery follow up. I can't believe it's been 6 months already!
Mike has to go to the dentist to get a special mouth guard because we found out he has sleep apnea, if the mouth guard doesn't work, he will most likely have to have surgery.
Charlie goes to the optometrist the day after school starts! I will be praying that we only have to patch his eye. They told us back when we 1st noticed it, that if we couldn't control it with glasses and patching, he would have to have surgery on it.
I think that's about it for now! This has definitely been an interesting medical year for us! And expensive, if not for military insurance!

And the baby turns 2!

Nicholas John Munson was born on July 16, 2008 at 10:52 am.
He weighed 8 lbs 12 oz and was 21 in long! He was my biggest
baby. Today he turned 2, and is STILL my biggest kid!

At his 1st birthday party, he had to share the day with his sister McKinzie, and his cousin Mayah. Unfortunately he fell asleep right before all the fun,
so he got to have his own little celebration later that day.
(he DID have to share his cake with Aunt Jenni, because she wanted white cake, but only a sliver, and he demolished the rest!)

Today, he is 2, and all day has definitely acted the part!
He's my little sweetheart, and I wouldn't change a thing!

He was very determined while opening his gifts!
He loved having all of us sing to him!
He worked SO hard to blow out his 2 candles!

I had to add Kinzie's cake from her party, I hadn't
taken the picture when I did her blog!

A video of us singing happy birthday to Kinzie and
Nick opening up one of his presents!