Pictures and Video!

Cowboy Austin and Cousin Amanda

Evan and Cousin Amanda

Evan is a Raspberry Blowing fool!

Now, how cute is that!
Aunt Michelle and cousin Amanda came over for dinner on Saturday. Amanda was sweet enough to share her Popsicle with Evan. Oh, he really liked that!
Austin and I preferred the Orange Dreamsicles.

The boys get along so well. I am really proud of them.
OK, gotta go, enjoy!

Milestones

Teething, rolling over, giggling and blowing raspberries.

These are some of the things my brilliant little man has learned to do in the past couple of weeks.

The teething is still more of round the clock drooling and finger sucking/chewing.  But teeth are on their way.  We have become very familiar with Teething tablets and baby Anbesol.

Rolling over for the first time was on May 1st and now the boy does it all the time.  But let me tell you, as soon as he does it he's ticked off to find himself face down.  Next will be learning to roll from tummy to back, then he'll be happy.

With a little goochie-goochie here and a tickle there, he's giggling like crazy.  I just love that look in his eyes when he is that happy.

He started blowing raspberries all by himself, but if I do it first, he starts right up.  Yup, I know, he's brilliant! Harvard, Yale, you'll have to fight for him!

I have some news of my own too.  I have started my own home based business.  I am a Fashion Director for Park Lane Jewelry.  I love it!  I give home shows for this line of jewelry.  It is beautiful stuff.  The company has a good product, great compensation plan and I have the flexibility to work when I want to.  

It is so much fun to get a bunch of girls together and try on beautiful jewelry and get lots of it free.  The special offers for both customers and the lucky ladies that host the party are amazing.  For my first party I got $340 in free jewelry, plus a commission check!

This is my new job and I am serious about it. Now, since I am just starting out I really need your help.  I need you gals to host a party.  It's easy, you just give me a list of who you would like to invite and on the given day I will come over with all the beautiful jewelry pieces I have and do a little fashion show.  The buying plan is great because you can get lots of valuable pieces for only $12 each.  And, the hostess of the party gets even more ways to get half price and even free stuff.

Please don't be skeptical, just call me and I can talk to you about it.  Maybe you'll be interested???

It's easy, it's fun and I really need your help!

I have not abandoned you!!!

I just needed a month off apparently... sorry!
Evan is just amazing. He is still growing like a weed. He really knows what his hands are for now. To chew on. The drooling is so bad I'm afraid he's going to get dehydrated. I can only imagine that the teeth are coming.
He is almost on a regular sleeping schedule now. 10 to 12 hours at night (seriously, I am the luckiest mom I know!) and 2-3 good 2 hour naps. Now some days, like today, it's more like 6 half hour naps and he wants to be held the whole time he is awake. Not that I'm not interested! He is smiling all the time and every day he giggles a little bit more.

Austin is doing so great too. School is good. He has his last school performance on May 4th. After that he will stay home with me for a couple of months and then...Kindergarten!
He did get to experience a rite of passage last week. On Friday the school called, which is never for a good reason, to let me know he had fallen on the playground and had a pretty good bump on his face. "Don't worry, he's fine" she says. When I got there, the bump over his right eye was big enough to sit on. He had ice and was being entertained in the office. He thought the whole thing was really impressive. No concussion, no headache and no eye problems. Just a really nice shade of purple that looks like eye shadow. All this when we had plans for family pictures to be taken last Sunday. That is put off until next Sunday now.

I actually have a big event planned on Saturday. I'm having a party and if you are reading this you have probably been invited. If not...oops, I meant to. The party is two fold. On one hand, I have not seen so many of my girlfriends since I quit working and I miss them so much. Also, I have decided to start my own in home business. Jewels by Park Lane. I will coordinate parties for ladies and get to sell some beautiful jewelry. It's funny because I never saw myself doing this but the pieces are so beautiful and the company is very well run. I'll get so much out of it. I will be the master of my own destiny. I will get to meet lots of people. That is one of the things I kinda miss about working, getting to talk to people. Well, people that don't want to play Transformers or need a diaper changed. I'm Excited!
Please wish me luck and if you ever have any interest in it or questions, call me!

Darryl is rocking the dog thing. Tio has been doing such a great job. They have been able to apprehend several suspects lately. It is good for Tio's training to be successful.
He's also getting to ride his bike again regularly. I love that he has something healthy to do and he really enjoys it.

We have decided that we don't need two vehicles now. We were going to sell the van and keep driving the Expedition but after a little logic is applied to the situation we realized that we can get substantially more for the truck than the van and I really miss driving the van. It is easer to get kids in and out. Easier to grocery shop. Uses less gas. Costs less to insure... Duh!
Once it is detailed, I'm putting the ad in the Auto Trader.
Wish us luck on that too!
OK. This had turned into a book and I have to pump and go to sleep.
Like I said, don't give up on me here. I may take some breaks but I come back strong.
Love you!

Mini Me

Do you want to see how much Evan really looks like me? I found a picture of Mom and Me when I was 2 months old, this is how old Evan is now. Look at how similar we are!






OK, this isn't the best example but Mom has all the pictures that really look like I did.

Austin's School Pictures ~ Spring 2008

I just love that the school uses this photographer. They always turn out so amazing!
And it helps that my child is such a ham. Mimi did a good job preparing him for cameras.

Two Month Check-up

As of Monday March 23rd:
12 lbs, 7 oz.
24 Inches long.

I guess he's getting enough to eat.

He he he, I can't believe how big he is getting. He's outgrowing his clothes fast. Good thing I have so many left over from Austin!

He is such a happy baby all the time, so it was a little worrisome yesterday when he started crying which turned into screaming for over an hour. It must have been a gas bubble somewhere.
I patted the heck out of him but never got anything good out. Eventually he passed out and when he woke up he was fine. I HATE not being able to make him feel better.
Austin is doing really well too. He has been getting good reports at school and his teacher has a new classroom assistant, Mrs. Bri. I really like her and Austin seems to be responding well to her. He's starting to have "homework" now. It's exciting for him and he feels good about getting it done and turning it in.
Everything is good with Darryl and work. There is a K9 test for a new position at work so on Monday there will be a "Family Night". This is where the families that have K9's all come in to talk about what it is like with the families of the officers that are testing. I remember when I went to this before Darryl got Tio. It was informative but a little scary. Some of those other dogs were scary. Tio is nothing like that. At home, he's just a dog.
I am suffering greatly from allergies but other than that, life is great!

Got Austin's school pictures today. As soon as I get them scanned, I will post them here.

Oh my Gosh! Is this not the cutes picture!!!
Evan, 9 weeks old. Holding his Easter Bunny and dreaming sweet dreams.

And with the Duckie from Grandma... So sweet!!



And here is Big Brother Austin with his Easter Flower. What a loving boy!

Last week was full of fun

Click Here for some pics of our activities last week.
And Here is a video. Park and play.
I am seriously sleep deprived right now so I will catch you up tomorrow.
Love to all,
Michelle

Ostrich Festival

We had a great time on Friday afternoon at the Chandler Ostrich Festival. In all my years living here, I had never been. Darryl hadn't either. So we packed up the kiddos and headed south. It was a great time. I had never seen an ostrich so close, those things are huge and scary!
Austin just loved it. We spent most of the time in the Kiddie area. As you will be able to see in the pictures, he rode all the best rides.

CLICK HERE!

As for Evan, he is growing unbelievably fat. Two weeks ago at his last checkup, he was 10lb, 2.5oz. He must be at least 10.5lb by now. He is wasting nothing. Doctor is happy.
He is also smiling and cooing all the time now. He loves to play. I talk to him, make faces and silly noises. He will just stare at me and smile. He'll be a talker soon!
Sometimes when I look at him all I see is me. One minute he will look just like Austin, the next he will look nothing like him. It is amazing. We are doing 150% better with the breastfeeding. I don't even need to pump more than once a day. That is a relief. I hated doing that all the time.
Now that we have our fabulous Hooter Hider, we can feed anywhere, even at the Ostrich Festival.
I am enjoying being with my family every day. Darryl goes back to work on Monday so until then, we are living up every second.

I am looking forward to seeing my Progressive friends next week, Happy Birthday Rachael!!

Fun at the Renaissance Festival

Oh the Food! That is really the best part of the Renaissance Festival. Steak on a Steak, Roasted corn on the cob, Turkey leggs, Chocolate covered strawberries, Jerky...you name it.
And the weather was PERFECT. I even got a little pink on my shoulders.
Austin got the thrill of riding an elephant. Darryl took him on that one. I went on the "Flying Boat" ride with him.
And of course, he got a sword. That kid is totally enthralled with swords.
CLICK HERE to see the pictures we took.
It was Darryl, Austin, Papa, Uncle Rod, Carrie and I. Mimi stayed home with Evan. I was not inclined to bring him into the dust.
We really have to enjoy the weather while it is this good.

Carrie S., thank you for your note. I will miss working with you too. Please keep in touch.

Farewell Progressive!

Today was my last day at Progressive. It was a bittersweet day. While I am thrilled with our decision for me to stay at home with the boys, I will genuinely miss both the people and the job.
After seven years I have learned so much and made some great friends. For those of you that I did not get to say goodbye to personally, please know that I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to get to know you.

I promise that I will put great effort into keeping this blog updated with pictures regularly. If I go a week or so without an update, please forgive me. I haven't slept more than 4 hours at a stretch in at least 6 weeks.

I would also love to hear from you. You can see my Email address at the top right corner of the page or you can leave a comment on any post.

Please don't forget me, I will be back once my boys are both in school.

Michelle

Fun Events

On Sunday we celebrated Gigi's 75th birthday with a wonderful party. The food was great and the company was wonderful. I only got a couple of pictures myself, mostly of the kids playing outside. If anyone has more from the actual party, I would love to put them up.
There are also some of Evan's first bath at home and Austin.
Enjoy!
Click Here

Learning new things!

Today I learned how to use Picasa Web Album. It is Awesome! Instead of trying to upload all my pictures individually on this page, I can put them all as albums on Picasa and link out to them.
I will still put some pics on here but when I have a lot, I will use Picasa.
Here is the first Album, click here: "Evan's first few days"

Here is a video of Evan the day he was born. I just could not get enough of looking at him.




And, Happy Birthday to Gigi. We'll see you at the party this afternoon!

So, would you like to see the little guy?

I didn't realize until today that I had not gotten any pictures up online yet.  Shame on me!

Here are some of my favorites:

Bear Ears gets his diaper changed

Proud big brother Austin!

Now he's really happy!! (And Evan looks scared)

It's a little out of focus but my favorite!

He is growing like crazy!!  He had a Doctor appointment on Thursday and he weighed in at 8lb .5oz.  He has gained 2lb. 4oz.  And that was only 3 weeks and 2 days after he was born!  

We are still in contract negotiations on the sleeping schedule.   But I have been known to get up to 4 hour stretches at night.  

OK, that is all the time I have to sit in front of the computer.  More soon.

p.s.  Please feel free to leave comments.  It makes me happy to get notes from the outside world.

New routines

We are getting settled and working out new routines. We have had lots of visitors and enjoyed every one.
I can tell you that I won't be as diligent as I'd like with keeping updated. As you can see, it is almost 2 am and I haven't been to sleep yet.
Evan is doing wonderfully but the pediatrician prescribed an Apnea monitor to track his heart and respiration for a while to see if she can find any reason for his episodes from when he was in the hospital. I hate it. It is programmed to alarm if his heart rate drops below 80 bpm or above 200 bpm. It goes off all the time for the over 200 pbm, any time he's mad and crying hard. It's ridiculous, I'll have to ask the doctor to change the threshold. It has not alarmed once for a low heart rate or respiration.
Ok, gotta go to sleep now.

We are HOME!

Home, home, home.  A word never sounded sweeter!

I will elaborate tomorrow, but we are home together as a family tonight.

Thank you all  for your prayers and thoughts.  It helped us through this week.

NICU...Day 4

I decided to enlist the assistance of Evan's pediatrician today.  The on call doctor was in the hospital and came to see me.  I explained what was happening and asked her to see what she could find out.

Half an hour later she came back and said that she had talked to the cardiologist and he was ready and willing to look at the report, if it were available to him.

Long story short, there is some black hole that the test results slip into between the time they take the monitor off him and when there is something that the doctor can look at.  He explained that the office that handles this transaction is not open on the weekends, there is no one to call. This seems to be a known issue and he said that they are hoping it will be resolved.  That is where I come in.  I will be addressing personally, once my son is home.

In the mean time, we stay another night.  

I came home at 6:30 to have dinner with Darryl and Austin.  Then, Darryl went in to spend some time with Evan.  He will be able to feed him for the first time since I was able to pump today.

I'm going in early tomorrow so I can try to be there for rounds.  I want to see the pediatrician myself.

We will update once we have any news.

Also, I spend most of my day in the NICU and since I can't make phone calls from there, I don't have a lot of time to call and update people.  I will try to put something on here every night and my Mom is always updated.  Please forgive us if we don't get to call everyone.  We love you and appreciate all the prayers and support you have given to us.  I don't know where we would be without you.

Still waiting

I spent all day at the hospital with Evan today. 9:30am to 11:00 pm. Momma was with me and Darryl got to come in for a while too. It's really been hard on Austin. I am missing him so much.
The Cardiologist ordered the repeat test to run for the entire 24 hours. By the time it was done there was no one available to interpret the results. IF a pediatric cardiologist is available tomorrow, we can get the results. If not, then Monday. Keeping in mind that Monday is a holiday. I have been warned that it could be as late as Tuesday.

I may have to break him out, Alcatraz style.

We are proud to introduce...

Mr. Evan Michael McKinney.
Born at 2:51 am on Tuesday, January 15th. Weighing in at 5 pounds and 12 ounces and 19 inches long. He is PERFECT!!
I promise to go into great detail on the events of that day but right now, I am tired.
It is bittersweet because Evan is still at the hospital. Due to some mysterious random heart rate and oxygen decelerations, the doctors thought it was best to keep him for observation on Thursday night. There was a monitor that he had to wear for about 14 hours. When it was done they found that there was an electrical problem with one of the leads and the results were not conclusive. So, he ordered the test be repeated to day. Again, I had to go home without him. I spent most of today at the hospital and he is doing marvelously. It's just red tape keeping him there. Part of my brain understands, the other part is angry, sad and broken.
Please keep us in your prayers that everything goes well tomorrow and we get to bring him home.
In the mean time... here are some of my favorite pictures.

Who does this little guy look like?

Daddy's little man

A very proud Big Brother!

Evan's first Smile

At last! Mimi gets her new man.

Eyes, bikes and football fun

So, things are not going as well as we hoped with Darryl's eye surgery. The doctor said that it appears that his eyes are reverting back to their previous ailment. Not anywhere as severely but enough that he can't see clearly without correction. His vision diopter pre surgery was about -7. Now it is -.75. The prognosis is that we will have to wait up to 4 months to be sure that the eyes are healed and are not going to change further before we will know if he can have a corrective surgery. If he doesn't have enough cornea left he cannot have further surgery. In the mean time, we had to fill another glasses prescription so that he can go back to work. He's been out since the surgery. This has been a little disappointing for him to find that in this instance, we are in the minority for Lasik results. Please say a prayer that we will have a good final outcome and he doesn't need to continue to wear glasses forever.

Switching gears. We took Austin to the park with Mimi and Papa on Thursday to practice riding his bike without training wheels. Daddy really got involved.  Austin really is doing great at it and soon he will be riding his new Christmas bike without the training wheels too.

They also practiced a little football punting.

Enjoy...