Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Brad had the day off and we were planning a quiet meal at home. My how plans can change. Around 10am Thanksgiving day some church friends of ours (who happen to live in our development) invited us over to their house for dinner. Luckily I had not started our meal yet. I did however make bread so we had to wait for that to be done and then we rushed over there. The meal and company were wonderful. Benny had a great time playing with their girls. Especially when they brought out their Thomas Trains. It was nice to be among friends for the holiday. It was especially nice because Brad took the next 3 days off and we did some wonderful things as a family.

Baby Update

Our sweet "Little H"!

I had a follow-up ultrasound a few weeks ago followed by my Ob/Gyn visit. The ultrasound technician saw nothing out of the ordinary. There is still a bright spot on the heart, but it is fading. They left it up to Dr. Lanza as to whether I need another ultrasound. He said probably later on, but I have none scheduled so far. That may change when I see him on Friday.



I had my glucose test back and according to Dr. Lanza, no news is good news. So far, I have not heard anything from them so I guess my bloodsugar is okay.



I have decided to stop work at the end of December instead of January like I had originally planned. This pregnancy is really taking its toll on me. I am having trouble sleeping at night and therefore I am tired during the day. Plus, keeping up with an almost 2 1/2 year old requires a lot of energy too. Another reason I want to stop working is so that we (Brad, Benny and myself) can spend some good quality family time before this baby makes his entrance. Right now Brad watches Benny on his days off while I work. We don't get much quality time as a family and Brad and I don't get much time to ourselves either. Hopefully, me staying home will help. I plan to stay home after this little guy is born and not have to go back to work at all.

Benny Says Hi

I came across this video and thought I should post it. It was taken last month. Enjoy!

Baby Update

Well, I have made it through 25 weeks. Only 15 weeks to go. The baby sure likes to kick. My next ultrasound is scheduled for November 17th and my next ob/gyn appointment is November 20th. I get to do my glucose testing. Oh what fun! (NOT!). Hopefully I will have more information then. So far, everything seems to be going okay. I am taking iron supplements and seem to have more energy.

Halloween 2009

Here is our little Benny. As you can see he went dressed as a cow this year. He did pretty well considering he didn't want to take a nap that day. He wasn't too thrilled to have the cow hat on. I tried to get him to say "trick or treat" but all he said was "treat".

He had a bit of his candy before we got home. He found out that he likes Hershey's chocolate bars. Here is our chocolate cow.

Benny's two favorite things from Halloween night. His big "pop" and his glow stick.

I think he had fun. We visited our friends in the neighborhood. He didn't want to go to any house he didn't know which was okay by me. Once we got back home, he helped me hand out candy. He got so excited when anyone knocked on the door or rang the doorbell.

Pudding Painting

Last week, Benny had the opportunity to finger paint for the first time. I just took vanilla pudding and put food color in it. He didn't really seemed interested in getting his hands wet. He liked using spoons instead. He really enjoyed eating the paint.

Silly Pictures of Benny

Here are a few miscellaneous picture of our silly boy. I was trying to get him to lay on top of the train blanket (which he absolutely loves grandma) but he just wanted to be covered up. Where's Benny? Look at that sweet smile!

Just a little boy in his "hat" walking his duck.

Benny trying to fill Daddy's shoes.

This picture was from the end of summer. Benny had just come in from "helping" Daddy was the car so he was wet from head to toe. I took off his clothes and before he dressed he found his Thomas the Tank Engine stickers and we had fun putting them on his tummy. We were finding those stickers weeks later (on our socks). He liked putting them on, but taking them off was another story.

Aunts and Uncle

Benny had a lot of fun with his Aunt Jenny, Aunt Jill, Aunt Leslie and Uncle Steve when they cam to visit the first part of October. We went to Mt. St. Helens and stopped at one of the observation centers that had a great play area for kids. This picture is of Benny trying to shovel the rocks. He was not quite big enough but he wanted to try anyway. He actually wore his sunglasses most of the time that day. Here is the playground that he liked to climb on. He wouldn't go down the slide. I don't think he liked the fact that it was like a tunnel.

We also took a day and went to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma. Brad and I are members and were able to take 3 guests. They were nice enough to let us bring 4. Anytime Benny couldn't see, he would say "Please, Steve."

Here is Benny and Aunt Leslie standing by some big shark's teeth.

Benny really had a lot of fun with his Aunts and Uncle. He liked having more people to play with. At the beginning of their visit we went to Portland for a Professional Bull riding event. It was the first time Benny and I went to such an event. It was loud and entertaining. Benny liked the big cows and learned a new word "ye-haw".

Pumpkin Patch

While my sisters and brother-in-law came to visit, we took them to our local farm for pumpkins. This is the gift shop where you can buy all kinds of neat stuff.

One thing we did different this year was go on a tour of the farm. We road this little wagon around the farm, picked out a small pumpkin (we now have 7 little pumpkins on our porch), and go through a corn maze.

Silly pumpkin heads!

Benny has a fascination with spiders. He always looks for them when he is outside, so this big spider was right up his alley.

We all had fun. The weather was nice, cold, but nice. Benny didn't want to leave. He wanted to play with the "duckies".

Pumpkin Patch 2

This year Benny had the privilege of going to our local pumpkin patch with his Aunts and Uncle. The weather was nice and we all had a good time. Here is Benny next to a giant paper pumpkin (he is the one with the orange shirt). Here is Benny's favorite thing at the farm. The duckie races!
Here is Benny and Daddy racing their "horses".

Aunt Jenny and Aunt Jill traveling "old" style.

Mommy and Benny in the pumpkin house.

It's a ....

We had another ultrasound done very early this morning. The reason we had this one was because I didn't pass my Quad screening in the area of downs syndrome. The blood test showed pretty much the same risk as my age (about a 1 in 92 chance). The ultrasound was done to try and lower my chances. Well, that didn't really happen. They saw a bright spot in the right ventricle of the heart. It is called an "Intracardiac echogenic focus (EIF)" which means a spot in the fetal heart that is as bright as bone or brighter on ultrasound. An EIF is usually a normal variant of the developing heart. The heart is expected to continue developing and functioning normally. It is seen in about 25% of normal pregnancies. Most pregnancies with an EIF will not have a genetic disorder. However, occasionally the EIF is caused by the baby having Down syndrome or another chromosome anomaly. Since I am at such a high risk, they will be doing a follow-up ultrasound in November. Other than that, this little one was quite active. It did not want to show much. It did however give us a "thumbs up" sign. I am taking this a a positive sign. It wasn't until the very end of the session that this little one decided to open his legs and give us a pretty good look at his boy part. You might be able to make out his hand that just happens to be in that area. The ultrasound technician and I got a good laugh at this one. So as you can see, we are most likely having a boy!

"Poop"

I just had to share this. When I came home from work last night and logged onto facebook this is what I found.

"Brad Heilenman tried introducing sloppy joe to his 2 yr old son. Not only did he not like it, he kept pointing and saying "poop, poop!" (It was so hard not to laugh...okay, to not laugh uncontrollably.)"

Needless to say, I had to ask Brad about this. We spent a good 10 minutes laughing our heads off.

We have one funny and entertaining little boy.

Baby Update/Benny Update

Hello everybody,

l know it has been a while since I updated this blog. A lot has been going on. The baby is doing fine. We had another ultrasound a few weeks ago and I have a doctor's appointment on Friday the 25th. According to the ultrasound measurements, my due date is anywhere between Feb 17th and Feb 20th. The earlier the better for me but not to early.

Benny has been making great strides over the past month. Just recently we had to get him new shoes for two reasons. The first reason was because his other shoes were actually worn out. The second reason was because he had almost grown out of this size 6 shoes. He is now in 6 1/2 size shoes. He has had a vocabulary explosion over the last few weeks. Words you wouldn't think he knows just rolls of his tongue. He is also pronouncing words a little more clearly. Just the other day, he was riding his bike in the street in front of our house. He looked at me as said "car come" and proceeded to "ride" his bike over to our yard. He can say "please", "thank you", and "you are welcome" correctly on a somewhat more regular basis. "Sorry" is a new word to his vocabulary since he is more involved with other children (at the YMCA).

Not only has his vocabulary increased, but his appetite has as well. The past few days he has been surprising us by the amount of food he eats. At first I wasn't sure if it was just a growth spurt (which I think he had) but his appetite has been increasing a little more every week. Yeah! Hopefully he will get a little more meat on his bones before our cold rainy season starts.

I had mentioned the YMCA. Benny has gym class on Monday and Wednesdays and swim class on Tuesday and Thursday for the next two weeks (until Oct. 2nd). He is very excited about going. Once this session is over, I think I will limit him to just swim class. He favorite thing is jumping into the pool which for him is actually falling into the pool. I want to keep going as long as he is interested.

Silly Thomas

Benny quickly found out that his motorized Thomas the Tank Engine does not just run on the tracks. Thomas now makes tracks all over the living room. By accident, Benny found that Thomas can push this squirrel. Now he asks to have Thomas do it almost every day. It is a cute video. Enjoy!

Benny's 2nd Birthday

For Benny's 2nd Birthday we had a Thomas the Tank Engine theme because of his love of trains. Here he is playing with his Thomas train set. It is motorized and has quickly become his favorite toy. We did a cupcake "cake" this year and it worked out great. As you can see, Benny ate more of the icing than cupcake. No surprise there!

We also let the kids have icecream cones. This is Benny's first time with a cone. He has had ice crean but only in a bowl. He ate as much of the ice cream he could reach. He was not that interested in eating the cone.

He had a lot of fun openning up his presents. He did very well at ripping off the paper. Here he is with his friend from church. He is looking at the big book of trucks that she gave him.

Last but not least is the cupcake "cake". As you can see, it was very cute. The Thomas toy can actually be played with. In fact, I think it is in his bed.

Overall, I think he had fun at his party. Not too many people were there and that was okay by me. Benny had friends from church come as well as some of mommy and daddy's friends. Benny really liked all of his gifts.

Grandma and Grandpa's Visit part 2

Here is a great picture of my parents and Benny. They just couldn't get enough of him and would have taken him with them if they could. We are lucky to have a fire station just up the hill from our house. Pop-pa took Benny up there because Benny loves fire trucks. He was actually able to sit in one.

Pop-pa liked to sit next to Benny whenever he could as we were driving around. I don't know who was sillier, Benny or Pop-pa. They sure had a lot of fun though.

Benny loves to have books read to him. He even managed to persuade Pop-pa into reading a book to him as Grandma watches.

Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's Visit

Some of the beautiful wild flowers up on Mt. Rainier. There was still mounds of snow at the picnic area at Paradise. Here is Benny and Pop-pa standing on one. Here is one of the sculptures from the Sculpture Park. This was Benny's favorite because it is a train.

Benny and Pop-pa at the Sculpture Park.

Benny had a great time with his Grandma and Grandpa (who he calls pop-pa). Of course my parents would visit during the really hot days we had in July. On the hottest days we went up and around Mt. Rainier. We had a picnic at Paradise and they had the chance to finally see Sunrise. We drove through a thunderstorm, but that was okay because it dropped the temperature from the 90's to the 70's. We stopped at a sculpture park on the way to Mt. Rainier. Benny had fun running around.

Baby Update!

Little "H" is doing fine. On the 14th of August, I had an Ob/Gyn appointment which I thought was at 1pm. It turned out it was scheduled for 11am. (Can anyone say "placenta brain"?) Anyway, I was not able to see the doctor, but his nurse took me back for a quick ultrasound. We were thankful for that because we had been going every week to the Gyft Clinic for an ultrasound and this time we had to wait 2 1/2 weeks. When you have a high risk pregnancy, that amount of time seems extra long.

Anyway, here is one of the pictures. Even though we were not able to hear the heartbeat (due to the equipment used) the baby measured in at where it should be and was moving around. Our next appointment is this Friday, October 4th. Don't worry, Brad wrote down the time in his dayplanner so we wouldn't forget.

Philly here we come!

Most of you might already know this, but Brad received a phone call on Monday from the Philadelphia center. He was accepted in this latest round of bidding. His release date as of now is January 2011. Philly here we come! We have been living in Washington since 2003 and are anxious to get back East to be with family and friends. We have just over a year to get ready for the move. It will be one busy year. We are having a baby and need to sell our house (hopefully not at the same time). Thanks to all who were praying for us. Keep praying that the move goes smoothly.

Another Update!

Just wanted to let you all know what is happening in the Heilenman household. Brad and I have decided to get out of debt and are using Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover to do it. It is based on biblical teachings and many of our friends are doing it or have done it.

Because of this, we are trying to sell our van as well as some other stuff we aren't using. We have made a budget based solely on Brad's paycheck. Anything I bring in goes straight to the debt. If everything works the way we want it to, we should be debt free (except the 1st mortgage) within two years. That is wiping out around $74,000 in 24 months. It will not be easy. We are making a lot of sacrifices (like no cable, no vacations, and such) but it is for the greater good.

Also, no word from Philly, but the arbitration went through and it turns out that for the next 3 years, Brad will receive a 3% raise on his base salary and a one time 8% raise next June. We hope this will just get us out of debt sooner.

Benny's Checkup

Benny had his 2 year check up last Friday. He didn't have to get any shots, but he didn't really want the doctor to examine him. He is just a little over 34 inches tall (which is average for his age), but only weighs 24 lbs. We have a tall and skinny kid. The doctor recommended that we cut Benny's juice intake to only 6 oz a day and make sure he gets three "sit down" meals a day. The hardest part has been limiting his juice. He now drinks more milk ( twice a day instead of just for dinner), but only at mealtimes. His appetite hasn't really changed yet, but I am hoping that he will get the idea of being hungry and want to eat more. His next check up is not until he is three, but we will hopefully be seeing the doctor some time in February with the new baby.

Little "H"

When my parents were in town last week, they were able to go with us to the doctor's office. Benny and Pop-pa stayed out in the lobby, but Brad and my mom were in the room with me when the ultra sound was done. My mother was just amazed at being able to see her newest grandchild. This little one was very active. It kept trying to move away or turn it's back to us and moon us. The heart rate was good (173 bpm). It measured 33mm long. We have had another ultrasound since this one and the baby had the hiccups, measured 54mm long and the heart rate was (160bpm). All is looking good. Now we have to wait until August 21st when I go and see my ob/gyn. As of Saturday, I will have made it through my first trimester. What a relief.

Sad News

At our last ultrasound (Tuesday July 21st) we found out that we lost baby B. There was no growth and we could not detect a heartbeat. The doctor reassured us that this should have no effect on baby A who happens to be very active and had a strong heartbeat. As of today I am 10 weeks along. If we make it through the next 2 weeks with no problems, then the chances of going full term greatly increase. Another ultrasound is scheduled for this Tuesday (the 28th). My parents will be in town so hopefully they will be able to see their next grandchild.

Our little Bike Rider

Benny is so close to riding his bike. He is about an inch away from working the pedals. He does like to scoot around with it and chase the older kids who ride bigger bikes.

4th of July Fun

Even though I was very tired, Benny kept pestering me to go outside, so we did. It was a nice sunny and hot day and Benny had fun in his pool. He likes to dump the boat on his head. He really likes to eat ice.
Here he is trying to blow bubbles. He actually tries to eat them. He keeps practicing and a few days ago, he actually blew some bubble on his own.

The first thing he does when he goes outside to play, is to ask for his chalk. He likes to draw pictures. Everytime I ask him what he is drawing, he says it is daddy.

Happy 4th of July

Hello All,
Just wanted to wish our family and friends a Happy 4th of July. We hope you celebrate in a safe but fun way.

Brad has to work today :(. Benny and I were going to our Church's picnic, but I am just too tired. I have no energy or desire to leave the house.

Here is why! We are expecting twins! Yep, you read this right, TWINS! Below is the ultrasound picture. The two oval shapes on the left side contain each contain a little fetus. The big oval thing on the right is actually one of my ovaries. This is the one and only picture we have because they ran out of paper, but we go back on Tuesday the 7th for another ultrasound to make sure there are only two and not more. I am 7 weeks along and my due date is around February 20th 2010, but I don't expect to make that since twins are known to come early. Please keep us in your prayers.

Philly Transfer

While visiting in PA, Brad was able to go to work with our friend Tim who works at the Philadelphia Airport Tower. The reason he went is because he put in for a transfer for there. We won't know anything definite until sometime in September, but we do know that he has been placed on the selection list.

Just keep us in you prayers as we try to make our way back East.

Another Update!

Sorry I have not updated this in awhile, but a lot has been going on. We were fortunate to travel to Pennsylvania for our friends Scott and Laura's wedding. However, Benny and I were not able to attend because Benny came down with a really bad sore throat. Brad did however make it to the reception and was able to have a good time with his friends. Benny was able to visit with his grandparents (Moomie and PopPop) in Delaware. Unfortunately that was when he was getting sick. By the end of our time there, he was feeling much like his old self, so we took him to the Philadelphia Zoo. I think we all enjoyed it. I hadn't been there in over 10 years. Our flight back was a disaster (i.e. Benny threw up on me), but we made it home safely. We are looking forward to having family and friends come and visit us next month.

Sad News!

As some of you may already know, Brenda Cowger (age 40) lost her fight with cancer Saturday, June 6th, 2009. This news makes me very sad. She was my childhood friend. We knew each other since kindergarten. Although we drifted apart after high school, I always considered her one of my closest friends. She always had a positive outlook on life. A lot of my childhood memories are of her and I riding our bikes, playing games and visiting with her Grandmother. She was like another sister to me (I already have 3). I knew one day the Lord would take her home. I just didn't expect it to be so soon. I will miss her smile and her encouraging emails. I know that I will see her again someday, but somehow that doesn't do much for the pain in my heart.

I know that time will heal my pain. Brenda may be gone, but she is not forgotten.

Booster Seat and Banana

We bought Benny a more permanent booster seat. He seems to like it. He sits up high enough to see his food.

Here is a video of Benny eating his banana which he calls "ba". Enjoy!

Benny and the birds!

Here is a video of Benny feeding the birds.

For the Birds!

Last week Brad took Benny to feed some birds (mostly Canada geese). There is this pond close by us where people stop and feed the birds. Benny had a great time chasing the birds. Brad said that one goose came up and took the piece of bread right from Benny's hand.