Problem with my Computer

So, I woke up Wednesday morning to a computer that would not start. I have NO IDEA what happened. I didn't drop it, spill anything on it, yell at it, etc... All it did was sit on the desk overnight and for some reason decided not to start the next day. To say that I am sad would not do justice. I almost had a panic attack. I back up my files, but I am a few months behind and the thought of loosing thousands, yes thousands of photo's was more than I could handle. I am thankful to say that our wonderful IT guy at Church is going to work on my computer, save all my documents and my music files and then get my computer back in working order. I am going to be without my 'normal' computer for a few days so please be patient as I wait for things to get better. I am, as always, taking pictures of each new adventure and will post them as soon as I am able. I may try to upload some pictures onto my work computer to let everyone know what new adventures the Dalbey Trio is experiencing. I can say that we will be heading to Kansas City tomorrow for Megan Dalbey's wedding. You can be sure that I will post photo's as soon as possible. For now, be well and enjoy your weekend. Love, Katrina

Dalbey Family Birthday Party

Tonight we had a Dalbey Family Birthday Party for Preston and his cousin Natalie. Preston's official Birthday is next Tuesday, but we wanted to celebrate while we could all be together. The party was a hit with a yummy dinner (thank you Kristen), a Birthday cake (thank you Kristen), and gifts for the little ones (thank you everyone). Preston's first experience eating cake also went very well. I wasn't really nervous, but was hopeful that it would get smashed everywhere and that is exactly what happened. Here are some photo's from the party with some brief descriptions. Oh yes, I can't believe Preston is almost one year old. I really cannot imagine my life without him and I am so thankful that he is a happy and healthy baby. I also want to give a big shout out to my wonderful husband, Steven. Thank you for being not only supportive the past year but helpful, loving and compassionate. I love you very much.

The Birthday cake!

Preston is excited about his cake!

He is telling Papa that the cake is yummy!

Still eating and getting smashed everywhere :)

After all that cake - some milk to wash it down!

He ate all his cake...well, daddy helped. Oh yes, this is his special Birthday plate that mommy made him.

Aunt Kristen and family gave Preston some trucks!

Grammie and Papa gave Preston a lightning McQueen car! I am so excited to watch Preston ride this around on the driveway in the backyard!

Here is a video clip of the Birthday boy eating his cake!

Mr. Frog

This is a picture of 'Mr. Frog'. He is a Carter's Just One Year frog that someone gave Preston at one of his baby showers. Preston LOVES Mr. Frog! He cannot go to sleep or take a nap without him. I have been trying to find Mr. Frog for a while and have been having some trouble. I believe he was originally purchased at Target but they do not carry him anymore - at least I cannot find him and have looked at several Targets and in multiple states! I tried looking online but I am NOT going to pay $60 bucks for him. So, I have finally decided to send out a plea to see if anyone can help. If you find him at Target or anywhere else, would you please buy him and I will gladly buy him from you. If you have a Mr. Frog and your child is not seriously attached to him, would you consider donated him or selling him to little Preston? I am thankful for any help.

The Cousins

The Dalbey Trio is so excited to have Aunt Kristen, Uncle John and Cousins Natalie & Jack in town for a couple weeks. We miss them and are so thankful for this time we can spend together. Yesterday we spent the afternoon and evening at Grammie and Papa's house complete with some yummy Halibut that Uncle Eric caught in Alaska and some pool time in the backyard. Preston loves playing with his cousins and we enjoyed being together. I am sure I will have more photo's to post from our visit as time goes on. Here are a few sweet photos from our visit yesterday.

Friends

Last night I spent some time with my dear friends Emily, Leah and Megan. (We missed you Carolyn and Christi) We are all friends from Mizzou that have met together on a regular basis for the past 10 years! I am so thankful for our friendship and how each one has been a great source of encouragement and love to me over the years. The reason for this particular gathering was to celebrate Megan who will be moving to TN in a few weeks. We are all very excited for them to start this new adventure but we will miss them very much. Thank you for being such a wonderful friend Megan.

I miss Cape Town

My dear friend Wendy send me this photo of Cape Town this morning:

Wow - isn't Cape Town beautiful! To think, I used to live there! I lived in the most beautiful place on earth and I dearly miss it from time to time. My friend Wendy is smart because she knows that if I see this photo it will make me want to visit. Mission succesful. I allready have plans to talk with Steven about putting money is a 'visit South Africa' fund. Whenver this visit takes place, it will be a wonderful trip and seeing old friends will be such a sweet thing. I love you Cape Town and I hope to see you soon.

uh-oh

Ok, the title of this post is 'uh-oh' not because anything is wrong but because Preston learned to say 'uh oh' the other day. I have posted the video to show how he loves to say this new phrase because I think it is so sweet. Preston now also says hi, ball, ooh, mom, dada, papa and cup. We enjoy talking with Preston and helping him learn new words each day.

I also wanted to let everyone know that my back is feeling much better. I was very sore last Saturday and Sunday, but I feel back to 'normal' now. I really hope this does not happen again and I will do my best to stretch and strengthen my lower back muscles.

Early

Ok, sometimes Steven and I get a little too excited about purchasing something special for one another when its a birthday, anniversary, Christmas, etc... (Does anyone else do this?) One year, Steven gave me my anniversary gift a month early. While I am always happy to give or receive a gift early, that may mean that there is nothing to give or receive on the actual day. Well, now that Preston is a part of our family we have another reason to go and get something special, even if that means it is a little early. Preston's birthday is on August 4th but Steven wanted to give him a special gift, you guessed it, early. It is a super cool Tonka Trunk that we thought he would enjoy. Since highway 40 has been under construction right by our house, Preston has always enjoyed going to the bridge and looking down at the huge dump trucks carrying a lot of dirt and concrete. A perfect gift for our little boy. Here is a video of Preston playing with his truck. Oh yes, we do plan on getting him something else for his Birthday - and we are going to wait till the actual day :)

The Nicest Wedding

Last night Steven and I went to the nicest wedding we had ever been to! Our friend Steve Baldwin, who was one of our youth volunteer leaders, married another friend from Covenant Seminary, Jennifer Baker. The wedding was beautiful! There were dozens of flower boquets, a carriage ride from the wedding ceremony to the rehearsal, appetizers, drinks, an amazing dinner and more. It would have been nice to take photo's of the big event but my camera battery died - bummer! I did get these photo's from the event to document that I WAS there. I admit, I found myself feeling a bit out of place. I wore a nice dress and Steven had on a suit, but when you are at a high end country club with other guests wearing designer outfits, and some head guy of AB was there its hard not to feel a bit odd. Even though I felt this way, I had a wonderful time catching up with some dear friends and was so thankful to have been invited. We are so excited for Steve and Jennifer and pray for the beginning of their lives together.

Camp & Canoe Trip

Steven and I went on a camp and canoe trip down the Current River in Southern Missouri the past couple days with some students from Youth Group. We had an awesome time hanging out at the campsite, playing ultimate frisbee, sleeping in tents and paddling our way down the river. Overall, we could not have asked for better weather and for such a great group of students. As you can see by the photo's, we all had a great time and Steven and I enjoyed some time together away from the 'normal' routine of work and home. The only 'bummer' part of the trip is that I (Katrina) did something to my back while playing football with some students. I was running down the field and felt my back give out. I am in quite a bit of pain right now and really hope it gets better soon. This is the second time this has happened in the past 3 months so I am starting to wonder if I need to have this checked out. I will keep you updated on any improvement. Enjoy a few photo's from our adventure.

Real Simple

I just received the August 2009 edition of 'Real Simple' Magazine in the mail. I am so excited! As soon as I post, I am going to dig into each page and discover many new and exciting things. I started reading 'Real Simple' Magazine back in, I think, 2005 when my sister in law, Kristen, gave me a year long subscription for Christmas. Well, I have renewed my subscription every year and I just can't see myself not reading this magazine. Thank you Kristen and thank you 'Real Simple'. I love your magazine.

Photo's from visit to PA

A few weeks ago Steven took Preston to Pittburgh, PA to visit Aunt Kristen, Uncle John and Cousin Natalie and Jack. I have just now uploaded the pictures that Grammie and Papa Dalbey took from the trip and wanted to post a few before they became too outdated. Enjoy

Steven holding all three little ones!

Preston and Jack became instant buddies!

They even took a nice nap together in the double stroller.

Natalie loves her new cousin!

Time for everyone to get in the pool!

Saturday

Today was a nice day for the Dalbey Trio. Here are some photo's from our 'exciting' adventures. Well, we pretty much just stayed home, hung out, did some house cleaning and took a couple long naps. As you can see by the photo's we had fun playing in the pool in the backyard. Preston looks more like a little boy each day!

If you look closely in this last photo you can see a wasp that tried to invade our swimming area. Thankfully no one was stung and the photo is quite amazing.

Graduation Party

Tonight the Dalbey Trio headed out to attend a Graduation Party. This party was very special to us because it was for our good friend Jordan. Jordan was one of the first students Steven and I met when we came to Central in December, 2003. Through the years, Steven has spent a lot of time with Jordan and he has become a wonderful leader to our Middle school group, even though he was in the Senior High group. Jordan is also going to the best school in the world this fall for college - MIZZOU! We had a great time at the party hanging out with his family and close friends. We look forward to seeing where he will go in the years ahead. Here are a couple photo's from the party.

Here is Jordan outside playing volleyball.

Here is Steven and Preston hanging out outside. Notice the stare on Preston's face. It was about 8pm and time for us to head home so the little man could go to bed.

Feeding Follow Up

Attention readers: This post it is geared for a female audience. Gentlemen, if you would like to read about Breast milk, pumping and feeding schedules then read on. If not, just wait until my next post when I am sure I will talk about Preston's latest achievement, house updates or something more 'general'.

OK, as many of you know I used a different method to feed Preston the past year. I talked about this in a post back in August, but basically about 3 weeks after Preston was born I decided to stop the traditional nursing method and begin pumping my milk and then feeding it to him in a bottle. Many of you were VERY curious about this decision and many had A LOT of doubts and questions. The purpose, then, for this post is to first update everyone on how things went, second to share my 'secrets' about this method and third give some brief reflections and encouragement for anyone who is interested. Here we go!

1. How did things go?

The pumping method went extremely well. I always had enough milk to feed Preston and plenty of milk to freeze and store in the deep freezer. I never had to use formula. I am thankful to say that we completely filled the deep freezer at one point. I think I had around 300 bags of milk. This means that the 'concern' some people had about my milk supply going down was not valid. I believe that pumping my milk not only sustained my milk supply but increased it due to the constant and predictable schedule I introduced to my body. On a more personal note, I found that my 10 minute pumping sessions were a great time for me to have some quality time alone. I spent most of that time either thinking about my day, what I was learning/experiencing, things I wanted/needed to do, or in prayer for family and friends. I also found that getting my body on a schedule was extremely helpful in making some part of my life normal when everything around me had changed. Overall, things worked out great!

2. What are the secrets to this method?

First, I discovered early on that feeding Preston when he was hungry was the best way to make him not only healthy but happy. The kid would down 3-4 oz of milk in less than 5 minutes, let out a huge burp, and then be ready to look around, play or interact with the world. I think trying to have him attached to my boob for 10-15 minutes or longer on each side would have been very challenging for both of us. I realized quickly that the time it took to pump and feed my child was significantly less than if I was nursing in the traditional way. Basically this meant more time to play, hang out with my little baby or sleep. Oh yes, at one point I pumped 16 oz of milk. Yes, that is 1lb of milk in one 10 minute pumping session. Do you think a 1 month old child is going to drink a pound of milk at one feeding? No way! That meant that I could feed him 4-5 oz and have plenty for later!

Second, the pumping schedule is VERY important. My body needed to know when and how it could release all that it has been making (and I was pretty much a milk making machine). For anyone who would like to know how I did it, here ya go:

First 3 months of Preston's life (August - October) I pumped every 3-4 hours or about 7-8 times a day. Yes, that means I would pump in the middle of the night. Preston would either wake me up to eat and then I would pump or I would set an alarm for 3am and pump. When Preston started sleeping through the night (7pm to 7am) I would still get up at 3am to pump so that I could use that to freeze and store.
The next 4 months of Preston's life (November - February) I pumped about 6 times a day or every 4 hours. (I would go about 6 hours at night so that I could sleep). At this point I went back to work and learning to pump was a non issue because I already had it down!
The next 2 months of Preston's life (March and April) I pumped 4-5 times a day or every 5-6 hours. (I would go about 7 hours at night). Everything was still going very well and there was no need to dip into my deep freezer supply.
The next month (May) I pumped 2-3 times a day or every 7-8 hours. at this point I knew that I wanted to stop because I had a backpacking trip in June that I wanted to attend and it would not be possible to bring my pump. I started dipping into my freezer supply a little but Preston was also eating baby food and finger food so it was minimal.
The next month (June) I pumped 1-2 times a day or every 12 hours. I stopped pumping the last week in June and was using my freezer supply to feed Preston.
Now we are in July and I am happy to say that I have officially stopped using my pump and are back to 'normal'. I continue to use my freezer milk and with the approval of my pediatrician I started Preston on Whole Milk during the day and give him breast milk in the morning and at bedtime. (I only started using Whole Milk when Preston turned 11 months old).

3. Reflections and Encouragement:

I have often asked myself if I will do the 'pumping' method again with more children and I honestly believe that I will. I think the benefits of this method for our family are obvious. First, I believe Steven and I have both intimately bonded with Preston because we shared the joy in feeding him. Steven is a very hands on and emotionally engaged father. He LOVED being able to sit, rock and feed Preston his milk and I am thankful that I could give him this opportunity. Some people were very concerned and believed that I would 'miss out' on the nursing experience. Well, I don't think so! I think the 'pumping' method only enhanced the love and compassion I developed for my child. Second, because I went back to work part time the transition to giving Preston a bottle was simple. Preston also learned quickly to drink and enjoy milk cold. I could pull that milk out of the fridge and he would gulp it down! This also came in handy as I began to give Preston Whole Milk and guess what - it was cold! Third, using the pumping method helped me to loose ALL my baby weight! I think someone told me that you burn around 300 calories a day when you nurse and my guess is that I burned around 500 with all the milk I was producing. The point: I feel healthy and have a positive view of my body for the first time in my life! It was exciting to open my closet and wear clothes I hadn't thought about in over a year.

Why am I sharing this information with the reading world? If you are a new mom and considering this method then I hope you are encouraged. Here is another option outside of traditional nursing method or using formula. You are not weird for considering this method and if it helps you emotionally feel better then go for it! If you are an older mom (with grown children) then be encouraged that technology has advanced and that there are pumps out there better than what was available when you were raising children. Pumping is easy and painless. If you are a mom using the traditional nursing method then I am so happy that it is working for you. I hope you will not look down on those of us trying something different. If pumping or nursing doesn't work for you then I am so happy for the option of formula and how that may benefit your family.

Thank you!

Fireworks

Last night the Dalbey Trio went to see the Fireworks at Kirkwood Park. Steven and I were very interested in seeing how Preston would handle them and thankfully he did very well. He did want to be held close to mom and dad but overall we think he liked the bright colors and had a good first experience. Here was my (Katrina) first attempt to photograph the fireworks. I had to read through my manual to figure out the right setting and I think I did just ok. I think I had the wrong lens on and was a bit to close to the actuion but I will try my hand at this again next year. In the meantime I will stick with people and flowers :)

11 Months Old

Preston turned 11 months old today - WOW! He is such a sweet boy and we enjoy watching him play and explore. He is 'walking' with a little help and loves to be around people. These photo's were taken today when we were at Grandma and Grandad Denton's house.

laughing at the dogs

Christmas in July

This outfit was sent to Preston by his Great Grandmother (Katrina's Grandmother). It is a 12 month outfit but Preston allready fits into the thing. Hey, I like the idea of Christmas in July and I think Preston likes his new sleeper outfit.