Why "Kallen"?

Remember this post? It was what I wrote when Caleb was born regarding why we choose the names we do for our children:
For the most part, people pick a name for their child for one of couple reasons, they like the name, its meaning and/or a family significance. So it was no surprise that many people have asked us, "How did you guys come up with the name, Caleb?" In fact, I can remember them asking us the same thing with Elyse, and I had the exact same response. We chose the name because of the reasons above. We love the name, they can not be shortened, for instance, Samuel to Sam, but more importantly, we love the meaning.

Elyse Irene: (Elyse) God is my oath, (Irene) peaceful
Caleb William: (Caleb) faithful and devoted to the Lord, (William) will to desire and protect

Now onto our newest blessing:
Kallen Samuel: (Kallen) Blessed, Holy and Pure, (Samuel) God heard or Requested of God

Therefore, when we discovered the meanings and how uncommon Kallen was we did not hesitate that it was perfect for him.

Kallen's Birth Story

I never imagined that I would be posting a blog post on one of my child's birth stories. I have been asked by a few mothers to share Kallen's story and I couldn't be more excited and willing to do it!

As I have previously stated, I loved being pregnant. My pregnancy was super easy and I did not take anything for granted. Therefore, when the time came where Kallen would make his appearance into the world I was not trying to rush him. He not only made it to his due date he was over by three days. Kallen's birth began on the end of day two. Nate and I just settled ourselves into bed at 10:20 PM and that is when I felt a major kick throughout my entire stomach. About two seconds later my water broke. I looked at Nate, told him and ran into the bathroom. We then called my mother who returned home that afternoon since I had not one contraction. While Nate loaded our bags, continued to get things ready and wait for my mom, I began having contractions. At about 11:10, we timed them, one minute durations every three minutes apart. We then knew we really needed to go. We checked in at the hospital at 11:58 PM. When we got into our room they checked me at being a four to five. Kallen's heart beat was low so they wanted me to remain on the bed for monitoring. They then checked me again about 30 minutes and I was at a six. My midwife said I was able to go relax in the bath at this time. I was in for about an hour and my contractions were very intense. Nate actually said he saw Kallen move down in my stomach. My midwife checked me again, I was now at a ten and ready to push. Thanks to my amazing husband, midwife and nurse, I pushed for just under an hour. I clearly remember Nate looking at me and telling me I was so close and just one more. I opened my eyes to see our son's face appearing from below. He was perfect! After Kallen's head and shoulders were successfully out, Nate finished pulling him out and placing him on my chest. I just remember crying tears of joys. I was very blessed to have a quick, successful and memorable labor. I give all the praise to God who has had this planned from day one.

Today Kallen turned one week old. I can not believe I gave birth a week ago and that my baby boy is already a week old. I am so thankful for the last nine months and just like I did with my other precious babies, I am treasuring every minute with Kallen.

Life As a Family of Five So Far

Kallen has been home for two days now and so far things are going really well. Elyse can not get enough of him! She constantly wants to hold, sing or be next to him.

Caleb on the other hand prefers to just play with all Kallen's baby stuff :)

Lastly a picture of our newest family member, Kallen, three days old

Arrival of Our Third Beautiful Blessing

~ Kallen Samuel Klauser ~
Born March 19, 2012 at 3:42 AM
Weighing 8 lbs, 6 oz and 20.75 inches long

Baby and Mom are doing wonderful. Will post birth story and reason for choosing the name, Kallen later this week or next. As for now, some pictures to enjoy.

Brother and Sister Love

First off as you can tell, no arrival of baby boy yet. He has not even given me a tease of making an appearance. I feel fine and don't even feel over 40 weeks pregnant, but would not mind his arrival sometime soon so he won't get too big.

Anyway, back to the purpose of this post...Nate took out the eighth seat in our van and then rearranged the other ones yesterday. This resulted in Elyse and Caleb being right next to each other. I thought they were going to drive each other crazy, but instead they decided to ride to church holding hands. It was so adorable!!! I apologize the picture is blurry, I quickly captured it with my phone, but you get the idea.

Due Date

Tomorrow marks my official due date and boy is it scary and exciting at the same time.

Scary because...
-giving birth is scary
-nothing is in my control (and if you know me, you know I hate that)
-the pain I plan on experiencing
-of all the unknowns

Exciting because...
-we will soon become a family of five
-we finally get to meet our second son
-everything is done, my mom is already up here, and Nate's job has calmed down dramatically
-the weather is perfect, no chance of a snow storm here :)

Well I have no idea if baby boy is going to arrive tonight, tomorrow, or even be late (which is really funny to me), but until then we are just continuing to pray for a smooth, quick and safe delivery. We also would appreciate prayer from you. We will keep you posted, but hopefully the next blog post will be us introducing our newest little man.

Is It Really March?

This entire week is suppose to be sunny with temperatures in the 60-70's. Therefore, we can't help but go outside and enjoy this amazing weather. Today we decided to join some friends and play for just about two hours at our favorite park in Coon Rapids. The slides were a little wet still from yesterday and last night, but that did not stop the kids from climbing, running and having a wonderful time. So in awe of the weather this year, it's been perfect, just hope it continues!

Apologize for the bad photos, kids were too busy to want to take a good picture, plus I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone.

A Walk of Faith

So my mom came up again this weekend just in case baby boy decided to make an appearance. We were sad to see her go, but happy to still be a human incubator. Anyway, when she comes up she brings her west highland terrier, Sophie. It's great since the kids are around a dog, but then the dog goes home. Elyse and Sophie have grown up together and really do have a special bond. Elyse loves helping take care of Sophie, especially on walks. Today's walk however is one that needs to be shared, it went something like this...

Elyse is holding the leash, Sophie sees a squirrel and goes after it. Elyse does not let go of the leash, and instead begins slipping on ice. As she is slipping she says out loud, "God save me" while continuing to be pulled across the ice by Sophie. Melts our hearts and makes us laugh at the same time. We sure do love our little princess and her faith in Christ!!!

55 and Sunny

Today hit 55 with sun, and boy was it beautiful. So it's no surprise that after naps and snacks we had to go outside and enjoy it for a little while. Unfortunately there still was snow, so that prevented us from playing in the yard, plus the toys and bikes are still packed away from the fall. Overall, we were able to still enjoy our time playing with an umbrella, mower, bubbles and going for a small walk. Looking forward to more of these days!!!
Caleb wouldn't look up to smile for anything, he was on a mission!

Any Day Now

So today marks 38 weeks and according to my midwife I could seriously go any minute. I am now dilated to a 3, just about 90% effaced and super thin. I know that maybe too much information, but it really does put it into perspective for me that I will be giving birth and we will soon be a family of five.

Side note, Nate has had a lot of stuff going on with work right now, so we are really in no hurry for baby boy's arrival, and if you could take sometime to pray that he would decide to stay in the womb a little longer we would really appreciate it. All we can do now is pray and as always trust on God's perfect timing and plan.

38 week belly shot