January Updates

Well the beginning of the month was quite busy for Dr. appointments for us in the Krelle house. On Monday the 5th I had a midwife appointment. I am happy to report that things are going well for baby Krelle. Heartbeat is going strong. Baby Krelle is however head up and I am hoping that this is not a preferred position. I am psycho and really want to go through natural childbirth again.

I did decide to do the blood glucose screening test, which I failed. After doing the test again on Thursday the 9th, and four blood draws later, I passed it. False positives are totally why I was going to pass, but I am happy that I fell into the false positive statistic.

Tatum had her one year eye check up on Tuesday the 6th. What a difference a year makes. I remember how upset I was upon hearing that she would need glasses. I now look back at that time and I am disappointed in my own vanity.

There have been times this year when I wanted to pull my hair out because she had been so naughty with her glasses. Especially chewing the nose pieces off whenever she got the chance. Even to the point that I was in tears one day because of two back to back visits to fix them in one day. < ---Thanks so much to the good friends who listened to all my frustrations.

Tatum has gotten so much better with wearing her glasses and I have gotten so much wiser to avoid letting her wear them in the car. I am now so thankful that our pediatrician saw that Tatum needed those glasses. Had she not caught this when she did Tatum might have had permanent eye damage. We are forever grateful for her being so thorough.

I am so happy to report that Tatum's good eye is still good and needs no correction. I am even more happy to report that her eye that has the correction needed less correction this time around. We were able to use her same frames this year and just replaced the lenses. We did put the glare proof on these ones so I am excited to see how they turn out in pictures.

Tatum has a new room!

As you can see Tatum is very happy about her big girl room! Eric has been working very hard on this room project. We decided to get new windows in both Tatum's room and the baby room. Tatum also got new carpet, new wood trim in the whole room and a closet makeover, along with a fresh new color...lemon parfait. It is truly a girly room. It was so much fun to work on finding all the right stuff.

She seems to go to sleep better in this bed than she had been in her crib, which is nice. So I would say the transition has been smooth. She doesn't get out of bed until we ask her to. I am waiting to see if the novelty wears off. Naps are a bit more sporadic, but they had been for quite awhile anyway.

On her first night in her big bed we heard a "thud" followed by a cry at about 4am. Tatum had fallen out :( We did go get a bed rail that hides away during the day. She is pretty happy about that and likes to show it to people when they come to see her new room. It's funny about what excites her. But hey, I guess if I was falling out of bed, I'd be pretty happy about it too!

New Years Eve 2009

This New Years Eve we had a great time celebrating with one of Omaha's singles ministries called GAME. It stands for Great Adventure Ministries. Check them out at www.greatadventureomaha.com. My girlfriend Lynnae was in town for one night only and her plans were to go to GAME and celebrate. Eric and I were fortunate enough to get to tag along. We checked the web-site out and saw that you could come as you are or come as your favorite 80's or 90's Rocker. Well Eric and I wouldn't miss an opportunity to "theme it out" so we hopped right on it. Eric decided to be Bono and I decided to be Gwen Stefani. After all Bono is my fave and Gwen is a rocker, who's been pretty rockin' while pregnant.

Well we got downtown and found "Rock Star" parking. Opened the door and noticed that people were dressed "normal"...couldn't a big hole appear and swallow us up now! Please :) It seems that the theme didn't really catch on this year. Oh well Eric and I had fun. We stayed in costume for about half and hour and then changed into normal attire. It was nice to catch up with old friends, some who I hadn't seen in years.

The whole place they have down there is quite impressive, not to mention the people involved in ministry there are so friendly. There is a coffee bar, two pool tables, a fooze ball table, a main room where the dance floor and stage were at (during the week used as praise and worship room), 4-5 break out rooms done up as living rooms and used as bible study rooms. What a great place for singles in Omaha to gather together and learn about God. They had a live band playing, Big Bo and the Biscuit Eaters. At midnight we did a sparkling apple juice toast and then got to sing praise and worship songs. They ended the night with pancakes for all.

It was a fun way to bring in the new year!

Christmas Letter 2008

Hello and Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends. We hope this letter finds you all doing well this Christmas season. Once again it’s the time of year when we look back and thank God for the many blessings that he has given us this past year. This year we thought we would give you a glimpse of our year in numbers... so here it goes.

• 14 The number of weeks left in Tracy’s pregnancy. Baby Krelle is due in mid-March.

• 25 How old in months Tatum was when she became a “Big Girl” and started using the potty full time.

• 9 The number of years that Eric has been with Oriental Trading Company.

• 6 How many hours it took to put a new roof on the house this summer.

• 18 How old in months Tatum was when she got her glasses this year.

• 1,400 How many miles Eric traveled to Orlando, Florida for work this July. He got to go to Universal Studios and saw Kirk Cameron in his hotel lobby.

• 16 How many hours Tracy typically works a week for the MSR Group.

• 68 The number of projects Tracy has completed for Oriental Trading Company during the 3rd Quarter.

• 480 About how much we saved on gas this past year by having Eric carpool with his co- worker Gery Nible.

• 48 How many weeks Eric has been attending a men’s group through Vineyard Church.
  

• 12 The average number of times a day that Tatum tells us she will do something all by herself.

• 8 The number of blankies Tatum insists on sleeping with each night.

• 6 How much we save each time Tracy grooms Normandy at home instead of taking her to the dog groomers. Tracy likes doing it and Normandy loves it as well.

• 2 The number of butterflies we hatched this summer. Tatum loved watching them.

• 110 The record number of visitors to our 5th Annual Krelle Halloween Spook House.

• 90 How much Eric’s Pee Wee Herman costume from two years ago sold for on eBay.

Countless - The number of times we found ourselves being thankful for both our families for their generosity in watching Tatum for us while we work or have date nights together. We are truly blessed by having them.

In closing, we hope that God’s blessings find you this next year and that the gift of Jesus Christ is present in your hearts the whole year through.

All Our Love, Eric, Tracy and Tatum

Ultrasound Update...and it's a...

Totally healthy active baby. We went in for our ultrasound a few weeks back, November 17th to be exact. I was 23 weeks at the time. Everything looks just as it should. We saw baby Krelle moving his/her arms and legs. The heartbeat was going good and we got to see so much up on the screen. They even did one of those newer 4D ultra sounds, which was just so neat. We got to see such a good view of baby Krelle's face. We were able to spend extra time just looking up on the screen while a Med Student played around/practiced getting pictures of our baby. This was so nice as we have only had one other ultrasound with this baby compared to the numerous ones we had with Tatum.

God totally answered prayers for no placenta previa during this pregnancy. I can also add that the nausea has subsided. Yeah! And I have started to gain weight instead of loosing.

On a funny note we asked Tatum the other day if the baby is a boy or a girl and she responded "boy", which she does quite often. When we asked what the baby's name should be she said "baby girl tummy". So there you go folks...Tatum thinks baby girl tummy makes an excellent name. :)

Fall Follies...a tad bit late!

October was a jam packed month for us in the Krelle household. The bright beautiful colors of fall, the cooling down of the weather and upcoming holidays bring so much excitement. Some of the things that have kept us busy are: Oriental Trading Company's Hay rack Ride for Product Design Team, Fontnell Forest, Pooley's Pumpkin Patch, Nebraska City, Our Halloween Spook House, and Bill's (Eric's Dad) Birthday.

Some highlights from those trips include:

• At Fontnell Forest Tatum and her friends had fun seeing furry caterpillars and screaming "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" over and over again from a hut. They thought they were quite funny.
  

• At Pooley's "Tatum got her face painted, petted some cute baby chicks and rode a pony for the first time. Thankfully she hasn't asked Mommy and Daddy to buy her one!
  

• Nebraska City is our annual fall trip with the Krelle's. We had a picknick, walked on many tree trails and collected leaves, and we went to Arbor Lodge, where Eric and I got married at.
  

• Halloween was also quite a day in itself. Tatum and I went up to Eric's work to see all the costumes. Eric participated in the company wide costume contest with his department. They put on an "infomercial" called "The Songs in Barry Gibbs Head". Eric was Barry Gibb and some of the others were Kid Rock, Cindi Lauper, The Andrew's Sisters and MC Hammer. They won 2nd place!
  

• Tatum Dressed up as a butterfly and Grandma Sherman took her trick-or-treating while Eric and I manned our annual Spook House. We had a record turn out of 110 this year, which is great.
  

• The 2nd leg of the night included getting ready for a Halloween Party at one of Eric's co-workers house. Our house was a buzz with Alisa, Brian and some friends getting ready to go out here in Omaha, so it was crazy and festive. I was a pregnant Geisha Girl and Eric was a Marine. We had a great time at the party.

• Eric, Tatum and I rounded out the "fall fun" by attending Vinyard Church's Annual Fall Festival. It was lots of fun to go out and be part of the fun. Eric has been attending a mens group there for a good part of the year. We got to play in the bounce house, sit by a warm bonfire, and go on many hay rack rides. Tatum really liked swinging in a hammock there.
  

I have included many pictures...I hope it's not an overload but it has been such fun!

Pregnancy Update

I am pleased to let you all know that my pregnancy is going well. I am 18 weeks now for those keeping track. I am still experiencing the nausea/vomiting. I had about 5 days in a row with no incidences and I was hoping I was done, but then it hit me again. I was hoping that I was done, but that's ok...I am tough so I can take it :)

I have continued to loose wight, due to the nausea, so at my last appointment I asked some questions about that. They assured me that if there was a need to worry they would let me know. To ease my mind the Midwife felt my tummy to see how the baby is growing. She exclaimed "This baby is having no problems growing...I think it's just one baby though...for now". I let her know "oh we had an ultrasound already, so we know it's just one". In the back of my mind I was thinking oh great, this is going to be a behemoth baby to push out!

After sitting on the thought for awhile I decided to google early ultrasound twin pregnancy. I was quite surprised at the amount of message boards that talked about not seeing a second baby until a later ultrasound. While I do think that the odds of me carrying twins is quite unlikely...wouldn't that be a crazy blessing! So many things would have to change for our family. Eric and I both know that God is in control and would help make any necessary provisions for our family as He has done time and time before.

Our next ultrasound is on November 17th, so we'll keep you posted. Pray for a healthy baby... or two, and no placenta previa.