Merry Christmas

We want to wish you a very Merry Christmas!!!

He's here!!

Jaxson Daryl Herchenbach entered the world on Friday night, November 4th at 11:36 pm.  He weighed 7 lbs 3 ozs and was 20" long. 

 The boys meeting Jaxson for the first time.  They are pretty proud big brothers.

Kellen with Jaxson.  He keeps saying 'he's a nice baby'.

 Tyson & Jaxson.   He sure is helpful with Jaxson.

Cooper & Jaxson.  Cooper's excited to be a big brother.

A rare sight...Jaxson doesn't have his eyes open much yet.

This is usually what he's doing.

At a doctor's appointment on Wednesday,  I found out that Jaxson had flipped around and was head up.  Not the news I was expecting.  So I started mentally preparing for a c-section and actually scheduled one for next week.  My doctor told me about some things I could try to get him to flip back around, but that she had only seen it work once.  You place your hips higher than your head and place ice at the top of your stomach and music/warmth at the bottom of your stomach.  You can do this two times a day for 20 minutes. Well I thought it was worth trying, but was pretty skeptical.  I tried it twice on Thursday, and I didn't sleep well that night so I didn't do it on Friday.  Well later Friday afternoon I thought I might be feeling contractions but I didn't know for sure.  Well by about 6 I thought I'd better call the hospital since I knew I would need a c-section if I was actually in labor and they said to head on over.  We got to the hospital by about 8pm, and found out i was in fact in labor and was already dilated to about a 7.  He had also flipped again and was head down now.  I got an epidural that actually worked this time.  I pushed for about an hour and then he decided to finally come out. 

We came home on Sunday afternoon and have just been readjusting to life after baby since then.  The boys are all really good helpers and are always wanting to hold him.  Today Sue took Kellen & Cooper (& Tyson after school) so I could get some rest and get some things done.  I was surprised how much I could get done with everyone gone.

Highlights of the Last Part of October

Halie and her girls were home for a couple days last weekend, so we went over to my parent's house to see them.  The kids had a lot of fun playing and getting to hold their new cousin Whitney.  I wish we all lived closer so we could see each other more often.

Tyson & Whitney

Kellen & Whitney

Kellen got to go to the pumpkin patch one day with his class.  They ended up going on the coldest day that week.  Sounds like they still had a great time though.  He is on the far right side.  I borrowed the picture from the school website.

On Sunday, October 23rd we celebrated Ali's 6th birthday and Caden's 4th birthday at their house. 

 On Sunday, we went to 'trick or trunk' at school before we went 'trick or treating'.  We sure got a lot of comments about having our own football team.  Ha!  The boys had a lot of fun and got lots of candy. 

We went 'trick or treating' with Ali, Caden & Logan.  When we were finished going around town, Kevin's Grandma had made a nice supper for everyone. 

On Halloween night we went over to my parent's house and to my Grandma's house.  We did end up 'trick or treating' with Dusty and his girls for awhile.

Kevin and his Dad finished the 2011 harvest on Halloween night as well. 

I've been trying to get a few projects done around the house before this baby comes...and now that harvest is done...that would be alright with me if he would come anytime. 

Harvest time

The guys started harvesting beans the last week of September.  They finished up on Sunday, it rained on Monday and they started on corn on Tuesday.  We haven't seen much of Kevin lately.  The boys like to go with him any chance they can.  Cooper practically begs every morning to go "work with" Kevin.  The last few days he's gone with Kevin, he wants to come home after a couple of hours and wants to play farm.  One Sunday the boys and I went out with Kevin for a few hours. 

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Kellen's preschool class and teacher....he is in the back row on the far left.  He looks forward to and enjoys going to school.  They went to the pumpkin patch yesterday. 

Tyson with his classmates...he is kneeling in front.  He still enjoys going to school, but he likes his days off too.  I don't blame him!

On September 29th, my sister Halie and her husband Kyle welcomed a third daughter, Whitney

Faith to their family.  She is sure a cutie.

Mom and I went out to see Halie and Whitney the next morning after she was born and Lacey and Riley met us at the hospital.

On Saturday, October 1st we went to my cousin Trevor's birthday party.  

L to R:  Ellie, Kellen, Trevor, Tyson, Brooke, Cooper & Allyx

Cooper was watching Kevin shave one night and wanted to be like his dad and try shaving too

He did a pretty good job...FYI there is not a blade in the shaver.

1st half of September

I know, I know...I've taken a huge leave of absence from this blog, but I plan to get all caught up.  It may take me awhile ~ I thought it would be easiest to work backward and forward at the same time.  That way if you don't want to read the 'out-of-date' stuff you won't have to, but I want to put as much as I can remember on here since this is our family's scrapbook.  I'm sure I will forget somethings, especially if I didn't take pictures or didn't have the event marked on my calendar. 

If you're wondering why the extended furlough...I have no real answer, only excuses.  To sum it up... the first part of April we lost a friend in a tragic accident, and I guess I felt guilty writing about all the good things that were happening in our family when I knew so many were suffering.  He left behind a pregnant wife and two young children, so I guess you could say it hit close to home.  Then I had to deal with the tiredness, etc. of being pregnant.  Those first couple of months it took all I had just to take care of my family.  Luckily by about month four, I started feeling a little more energized, but then summer hit, and it was hectic.  Looking back I don't really know where it went.  We packed a lot into July and August.  And now it's just been a matter of feeling a bit overwhelmed with about 500 pictures to go through and figuring out which ones to add to the blog.

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Last night we went to the Mid-States Rodeo Finals in Madison.  It was a cold night.  My brother, Dusty and brother-in-law, Kyle both were in the rodeo.  It was fun watching them. 

Allyx, Jenae, Tyson, Brooke, Aubree, Cooper and Kellen all bundled up watching the rodeo

On Tuesday, Kevin and I celebrated our 8th anniversary, by going out to dinner and to a movie.  We saw "The Change Up", it was good, it was funny and had a good message.

On Sept. 7th, Kellen started preschool.  He has been waiting for his turn to start school and it was finally here.  He goes M-W-F afternoons and loves school.  He actually gets upset on days when he does have school.

Kellen's first day of school

Kellen wanted his picture taken with Tyson new bow-n-arrow.  I had to oblige.

The Sunday of Labor Day weekend we went to Kevin's aunt & uncle's house.  It was a lot of fun.  The kids had a blast swimming, boating and playing in the sand.  Tyson was a fish, he was in the pool practically all day. 

Tyson jumping in the pool

It was kind of cold for kids when they got out of the pool, but that didn't stop Tyson

Cooper wasn't really interested in the pool or the boat, but I did get him to stick his feet in the water

Ali and Kellen

One day after dinner, Cooper pulled the stool up to the sink and just started doing dishes...he did a good job.  I think he had more fun playing in the water than anything though.

Meet Midnight, Star & Nemo

As I mentioned before, the boys each got a calf a couple of weeks ago.  Tyson and Kellen's came on March 15th and Cooper's came a week later on the 22nd.  The idea is to teach the boys some responsibility by taking care of these calves.  Tyson is probably the only one that actually does help with the chores at this point, but it is still a learning experience for the other boys. They all do really well with their calves - they're not afraid to get right in the pen with them.

Lately, the weather has not been nice, so Kevin or myself usually end up  doing the chores without the boys.  It is supposed to start getting a little nicer this weekend, so hopefully they will be able to spend more time out with their calves. 
 

Tyson with his calf Midnight

Kellen and his calf Star

And Cooper with Nemo

Kellen was trying to give his calf a kiss

Our Deadwood trip

So we went to Deadwood again this year.  It seems to be a trend with us, if we like somewhere we tend to keep going back.  We left on Saturday, February 26th about 2 pm.  Our friends Josh and Melissa went with us.  We haven't taken a trip with them before - they were sure a lot of fun. We stopped in Gordon at the Italian Inn for supper.  We decided to head further down the road when we were finished eating.  We drove to Hot Springs, SD and stayed the night there.  It was nice to get up in the morning knowing we didn't have too much further to go.  We stopped by Mt. Rushmore again.  This time we were actually able to get out and go get a closer look. 

 Kevin and I at Mt. Rushmore

That evening Kevin's cousin Troy met us in Deadwood.  We went downtown and looked around and we ate supper at the Gem that night.  The following morning we went out snowmobiling.  With the exception of stopping for dinner, we snowmobiled from 9 til 4:30.  It was a long day, but a ton of fun.

 Kevin, Troy and Josh

 Melissa, Josh, Troy and Kevin

 Sometimes the guys would venture off the trail a little ways.  Melissa and I got braver as the day went on, but we were not near as daring as the guys were.

That night Troy headed back to Gillette, WY and we just hung out at the casino that we were staying at, Cadillac Jacks.  On Tuesday, we had lunch at Kevin Costner's restaurant, and did more gambling.  Most of the time we were there we were gambling.  Unfortunately, we didn't have much luck.  That evening we ate at the Social Club and gambled some more.  Wednesday morning we loaded up and headed for home.  We couldn't go by Wall Drug and not stop.  We had to stock up on their famous donuts and fudge.  We got home about 9 pm that evening.  Overall we had a great time, and look forward to going back again.

Spring's here!!

So thankful Spring is finally here.  I am looking forward to a lot of nice days....in a row!  I just hope the wind stays calm. 

So last Saturday, Halie, her girls and me and the boys went to see our Grandmas.  We had really nice visits - we really need to try to get to see them more often.  We dropped Halie and her girls off at my parent's house, and just after Aubree got out of the vehicle she threw up.  Well we headed home, hoping she was just car sick or had eaten to much junk.  Well when I talked to Halie on Sunday morning, she told me it was in fact a stomach bug.  So they wouldn't be coming to Cooper's birthday party.  And once Lacey found out that we had been exposed as well, they didn't want to take the chance and expose Riley, so they wouldn't be coming to the party either.  My Grandma was planning on coming too, but thought she'd better stay home too.  So we were finally able to have a party, but it was pretty small.  It was still fun though and I don't think Cooper even noticed the smaller party.  That darn stomach bug always has to show up at the worst times.  I wish it would just disappear forever.  ha ha   Luckily, the boys didn't catch it this time!

On Tuesday night, two of the boys' bottle calves arrived.  We didn't get Cooper's yet, but it should be coming any time.  Tyson named his Midnight and Kellen named his calf Star.  They came to our house a little sick, so we spent some time last week doctoring them back to health.  By the end of the week they were doing a lot better.  We have to feed them in the morning and then again in the evening.  And it just so happened that Kevin was gone trucking most of last week, so I was in charge of calf chores.  It is kind of time consuming, but they have been a lot of fun so far. 

Yesterday, I went with my Grandma, Mom, Sister, Aunts and Cousins to Omaha for our annual shopping trip.  It was a big day, but a lot of fun.  We don't get the chance that often just to spend some time together.  Cooper went with us so that Kevin wouldn't have to haul around 3 boys and he did so well all day.  We were both pretty tired last night.  It's alumni weekend so Kevin went out last night, I decided I wouldn't be much fun since I was gone all day, so I stayed home.

 The kids table at Cooper's party minus Allyx who was sitting at the big table.

 Cooper opening presents

 Kellen, Cooper, Tyson, Allyx and Brooke

 Cooper loved his dump truck cake

 He was pretty excited to dump the dirt out of the truck

 The boys playing outside on a nice day.  They wanted to pose for pictures - so I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

 Kellen and Cooper fight over who gets to wear the overalls.  I don't blame them, they both look pretty darn cute in them.

 On our shopping trip yesterday.  Everyone was getting a kick out of how Cooper gets every last drop of his ice cream.