New Year's Eve

Last night we had our annual New Year's Eve party at our house. Izabel went and had a sleep over with my mom and we had about a total of 30 people in and out throughout the night. We had a really nice time. There was lots of food and drinks. We played beer pong in the garage and several of the boys (my husband included) had way too much way too early but it was fun and it is always a great way to ring in the New Year! We're very excited for all of the exciting things coming this year and we hope you and your family are very blessed in 2009!

Izabel is all ready to go to Grandma's House!

At least one of us got to have a few drinks!

Me and Kim

Brian and Elizabeth

Andy, Ann and Humaira

Noah and Ryan playing beer pong!

Ketchledge Family Year In Review

I always love the Christmas letters that come in the mail and tell us all about what has been going on with our friends and family all year. I will hopefully find time to do this one day, but for now I figure the blog is pretty much the same thing!

2008 has certainly been life changing. We knew our life had changed completely in 2007 when Izabel was born but we had no idea how wonderful it could be. We kicked off the New Year with a party over here and Izabel had a sleepover at Grandma's (an event we are repeating tonight!) I was back to work full time and working like crazy trying to get my students ready for State and National DECA Competition.

In February we celebrated Noah's 25th birthday with a trip to Atlantic City. Jackie, J.K., J.K.'s sister Sarah and Riley went with us. It was certainly an exciting trip and we all had a great time. Izabel also celebrated her first Valentine's Day!



In March I celebrated my 24th birthday by having a girl's night. Several of my girlfriends and me went out to P.F. Chang's for dinner and drinks and we had a great time. It was definitely the break I needed! I also took about a dozen students to State DECA Competition and had several students make it on stage and one first place winner! Izabel celebrated her 1st St. Patrick's day and started eating solid foods!



In April I took several students and two friends on a fashion trip to New York. It really ended up being more of a shopping trip because of the small size of our group and we had a great time. Also in April Noah and I headed to Atlanta, GA with four of my students for National DECA Competition. We went to Six Flags, the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca Cola and more and we all had fun. Izabel celebrated her 1st Easter and got lots of great surprises in her Easter basket!




In May we took Izabel for her first camping trip over Memorial Day weekend. This is something we do every year and always enjoy. Izabel enjoyed it too!


In June school was finally out and I was able to be home and spend lots of time with Izabel.


In July we took Izabel to Vermont to visit with Noah's family and celebrate Papa Bear's 50th Birthday. We arrived the day of his big party and we had a great time despite a few illnesses and falls! Izabel had a great time meeting and visiting with that side of the family and was able to meet pretty much everyone while we were there! When we got home Izabel started walking!

In August I was back to work 4 days a week. Noah got some not so great news at work and things became a little difficult for him there. Needless to say he is still looking for a new job but in today's economy who knows what he'll be able to find. At least he still has a job! I had struggles at work as well. Because of budget cuts we weren't sure how much job security I had left. I managed to hold on to this year's position but next year is still up in the air! We did get some good news this month --- we found out I was pregnant with our 2nd child! This is something we planned and we were very excited that the timing worked out so perfectly. Noah and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary by heading to Atlantic City (where else would we go?) and it was great to get away just the two of us.


In September school started up again and I was back in the swing of things with lots of morning sickness and exhaustion. The "what was I thinking" line was in the back of my head all the time because this pregnancy was much harder than with Izabel. For starters, there is no coming home and taking a nap when you have a 1 year old!

In October we celebrated Izabel's 1st birthday with a big party! She finally got to have some cake and she loved it! Everyone had a great time and she got lots of great gifts. She is such a lucky girl to have so many people who love her so much! Noah's sister Theresa moved in with us in the middle of October. She needed somewhere to stay until she could get into the dorms at ODU and were happy to have her. Izabel loves following her around and watching her get ready. We celebrated Halloween at church and then we went Trick-or-Treating with our little Ladybug. She was so cute and really got into the candy thing. She loved when people put candy in her basket but not so much when one of us tried to take some out!

In November Mimi and Papa came to visit for Thanksgiving. This year Izabel actually got to eat with us and I think she likes turkey! Izabel got her first haircut and I also took a group of students to Nashville for a conference and had a very stressful time! Traveling with students while pregnant is probably not the best idea!



In December we found out that we were having a baby boy. His name is Tanner Wayne and he will be here towards the beginning of April. We celebrated Christmas with Izabel and I got two whole weeks at home with Izzy. We had a fantastic Christmas with lots of friends and family and even Mimi and Papa got to come back down for a visit.


Even with the ups and downs we are very blessed. We have more than we could ask for and we have a wonderful little girl who makes us smile and laugh and sometimes cry. It's the best thing in the world and thankful doesn't even begin to describe it! I hope everyone had a wonderful 2008 and we are looking forward to lots of new adventures and blessings in 2009!

Playdate

Today Izabel had a play date with her friend RJ. RJ is only a couple weeks older than Izabel and it's funny to watch them play together. They spent a lot of time together this summer but since I've been back at work it's been hard to get together. It took RJ a while to warm up but then they started playing. Izabel wasn't too sure about sharing her toys and I think they were both a little tired but it went pretty well. Hopefully they'll like playing together because they'll be doing it more! RJ is going to have a little sister who will be just a couple weeks older than Tanner! This summer will be fun with me and Rebecca trying to have play dates with 4 kids!

What A Mess!

We just got back from seeing Dr. Scott and he says that Izabel's rash is viral and it got so bad because of how high her fever was. It is evidently common for children to get a rash after the fever breaks from a viral infection. I knew this, but I had never seen something so bad and since her eyes and lips were swollen the nurse we talked to Sunday told us we better take her in to be seen. Dr. Scott is confident that she is not allergic to amoxocilan and that the steroids and benedryll are probably making her more fussy than the ear infection did. He told us to stop those two things and put her back on the amoxocilan to clear up the ear infection that is still there. I don't know what to think after getting two different explanations in two days! I'm happy she's probably not allergic to amoxocilan, but I'm afraid to give it to her again. I guess we'll see what happens! Either way it will be nice when this all clears up and she is her normal self again. It will also be nice to stop spending so much money that we don't have on doctors, hospitals and prescriptions!

Update on Tanner

Well with the holidays and everything all of the posts have been about Izabel so I decided to give everyone an update on the pregnancy and little Tanner. This week will make me 24 weeks pregnant. That means there are only about 14 weeks left until our anticipated delivery day (since I have to have a scheduled c-section). I am feeling much better than earlier on but I am still exhausted. I guess being pregnant with a 1 year old running around at the same time would be hard on anyone. It has been really nice being home for a little while though and I still have this week to do a little more relaxing.

Tanner has been moving around a lot lately. Noah felt him for the first time Christmas night. Yay for my kids moving for him on special days! He felt Izabel for the first time on Father's day and now Tanner on Christmas so they will both be special memories. Last night we actually saw Tanner moving. It is still really weird to see something moving around beneath your skin! Hopefully he will be good to me for the next 14 weeks and maybe take it easy on the kicking in the middle of the night (but I won't hold my breath!)

Allergic Reaction

Izabel has been on Amoxocilan for her ear infection since Monday. She's been a little fussy but with all of the holiday excitement we did think much of it. Yesterday her face seemed kind of broken out and when we went to put her to bed she had a little rash on her tummy. Well this morning she had a huge rash all over her body! She slept late but when we got her up this is what we saw!

We called the doctor and they said it could be a reaction to the amoxocilan so we had to take her to the ER to be evaluated. Her eyes and lips were swollen which wasn't a good sign. We took her to Chesapeake General to avoid waiting all day at CHKD and they were great. We were only there a total of about an hour and a half. They were almost positive it was an allergic reaction so they told us to stop the amoxocilan and they put her on a steroid and benedryll. She has to go see Dr. Scott tomorrow to figure out what to do about the ear infection now but the rash should clear up with the medicine. Now Izabel is officially allergic to Amoxocilan and I don't get to say no when they ask if there are any known drug allergies! I still can't believe it but I'm glad we know!!!

The pictures don't do it any justice but they were the best we could get with a very fussy little girl!