Almost 5 months since my last post?!??!!

So, Hancock Standard time is proving to be a very prevailing force - I can't believe it's been almost 5 months since I've updated our goings and doings - it's pretty simple - wake/eat/drive/school/work/eat/drive/eat/bath/sleep. Really, that's been the routine for the last 5 months so that's why I haven't been compelled to share much. The weekends and small windows of time together at night are where we do our 'living'. Unfortunate reality of our world w/ 2 full time working parents :-(

April Update -

Nathan is 6 months old now w/ 6 teeth (!) and is *so* close to crawling. He has been getting up on all fours and rocking for about 3 weeks now, but hasn't figured that his arms have much to do with the crawling - he has his back legs and bottom all over, but his arms never move! This weekend he's started lunging a bit from his 'launch position', but nothing official in the crawling department. He enjoys his time at preschool and is called 'nosey Nate' because he spends his time watching intently what his friends are doing instead of other baby things, like sleeping! In the 8-9 hours he's at school he'll sleep just 1-2 naps, totalling 2 hours, maybe...He started cereal a few weeks ago and is rotating through the fruits and veggies without remark - he's so ho-hum about the flavors. We did get a little rise out of him with the sweet potatoes, but not much else...and bananas got a full on turn of the head 'no thank you'. He just really wants what Kenner is eating and usually grabs for his fork.

Kenner is almost 3 and fully potty trained! The first week of March his teachers and I planned a 'cold turkey' week, and after only 1 day of accidents and a weekend full of stickers, tatoos and especially CHOCOLATE, we're there. This means that he can now officially be promoted to the 3 year old room, which may happen closer to mid-April since they have a big group of older 2's that they'll transition in a few groups. Kenner talks a TON and I love hearing his takes on things - a few of his favorite things to say "Last morning (fill in the blank" - anything that happened more than 2 minutes ago happened last morning, and "aahh, I love you too" - he says it first :-) He also proclaimed that he "likes to eat cracked up eggs" and is very into telling the dogs what they should and shouldn't be doing - the other morning our attention starved brown dog was staring lovingly at Kenner hoping for a pat on the head, but instead was reprimanded with a "No Baja, don't eat THAT - those are MY Spiderman undies", jeesh

The best laugh we had came this week when big brother Jordan was over for the weekend and used his handiness and need for speed to create the following joy ride for Kenner -take a look!

Enjoy your week and I'll come back with more pictures/stories soon :-)

My boys in action

We don't take nearly enough video of the boys - here they are on Tuesday, Nov 11th doing their thing - enjoy!

October has come and gone!

October was a monumentous month - we welcomed baby Nate and spent the rest of the days adjusting to our new family member and hanging around the house together. Neal took a week and a half off of work to be with us and Kenner took the month off from preschool. It was a refreshing, but sometimes challenging, time for all of us. We took the boys for fall pictures when Nate was a week old, as well as to a pumpkin patch later in the month. Following are some of my favorite pics from the month.

Welcome Nathan Neal!

Hi all,

We are so happy to let you know that baby Nate has arrived! Born on Thursday, October 2nd at 1:32pm weighing 8 pounds, 13.3 ounces and 21 inches long.

He was a week overdue and was scheduled to be induced on Friday morning, 10/3, but both him and I were not too fond of that plan! Thankfully, about 9:30 am on Thursday I felt my first contraction. I thought we were in for a long leisurly labor, but Nate had his own timing! About 10:30 I called Neal and let him know to start making his way back home, but he was on his was on his way from Phx back to Casa Grande in the SRP welding truck and would need to get back to the plant down there to pick up his own truck and come back this way - I let him know to take his time - we'd be fine! About 11am I call my sister to come over to the house to watch Kenner and said that Neal should be home to pick me up around noon, so to take her time...11:15 I call her back - OUCH - "maybe you should come now...." Thankfully, her intuition was already ahead of us and she was down the street! I finsihed packing up, we loaded Kenner in the car and she drove us the long 25+ miles from home to Scottsdale Osborn. On the way it was clear that Neal would not be able to be there with me in time to check-in, etc so I called my dear friend Michelle, who works in Corporate at the Hospital to meet me at the curb and be with me until Neal arrived. Check-in - 12:30pm. I get changed, into a bed and the nurse checks my progress - "Where is your husband?" she asks - I say, "on his way - how far am I dilated?", "How close?" she demands "You're at 8!" - At this point I feel like an All Star and turn to Michelle, who has a beautiful daughter of her own and has been through the process - "I'm awesome" - flash forward 2 minutes - I am disolved to cowardly tears, "What, but I NEED an epidural - no time and my blood pressure is too high? Check it again, I''m better now..." I guess I'm not very convincing. And after pleading with the nurses for that little something "to take the edge off", I learned that there is no such thing either - don't believe what anyone says - they couldn't give me anything that wouldn't affect the baby's first breathes...Damn. After about 20 minutes of trying to find a vein for my IV (the worst part of Kenner's labor and delivery story as well), I'm plumbed (for no good reason) and wheeled into the delivery room at 1pm - and Neal arrives (thank God!) along with the urge to push (thank God - let's wrap this show up!) and my Doctor (thank God - he missed my first delivery due to vacation). So many rules when it comes to pushing a baby out - who knew - it took me a bit to get it 'right' and at one point the Dr, who appeared to be annoyed with my lack of technique and huge waste of his time, demanded my hand, pressed my fingers to Nate's gynormous head not yet delivered and sternly advised "that's your baby, now PUSH him out!" Okay, okay, I get it! ONE huge (and technicaly PERFECT) push later, ALL of baby Nate was born - How was that Dr? Hhhmmmmph! We all feel very good and the recovery from the natural delivery has been suprisingly easy and quick - I can not tell you how good it felt to stand up after delivering Nate and not having all the tubes, sensors, etc tied up to me. Now I can say I've delivered naturally!

Nathan was born so strong, alert and content and we are so happy to have him out with us so we can continue to get to know him! He loves being held, sleeping, looking around, riding his bike (that pumping and kicking thing) and chirping (his version of cooing). Kenner is doing fantastic and is a super attentive and gentle big brother - we couldn't ask for a better transition!

Thanks for all your love and support as we enter this next eventful chapter of our lives - life with 2 boys - I can't wait to watch them grow and learn together!

Typical timing...

Jeez, I thought it had been like a month since my last post - not over 2 months! I've been meaning to share the pictures and details of our Mexican Riviera cruise - it was a wonderfully easy and relaxing vacation! I'd highly recommend to anyone. It was much easier than I thought to cruise w/ a toddler, and unfortunately, a lot harder than I thought to cruise w/ teenagers - they were 'too cool' for all the organized teen activiites, so hung out in their cabin driving eachother absolutely batty - oh well...

We left from LA on a Sunday, got to Puerto Vallarta on a Wednesday and organized a private independant tour of the city, then a trip up into the mountains to a family owned tequila distiller and then a jungle canopy zip-line adventure for Neal and the kids - we LOVE PV and will return - here are a couple of pics from there:

From PV we cruised overnight to Mazatlan, which is a bigger and more industrial city. Not the same charm or attraction, but it was neat to see. We took a bus tour of the city offered by the cruise line and it was so-so...we're not really intersted in going back to Mazatlan. Here are a couple of pics from there:

Finally, we stopped in Cabo San Lucas for a day on Friday. We had never been there and I was excited to see what 'it' was all about. Thank goodness it was the ONLY sunny day on our entire 7 day trip - perfect for chilling at the beach, which is all we did. I am bummed the water was so cold, but I guess that's just the way the Pacific is down there. Oh, and the water taxi's are not a gimmick - we got dropped off in the middle of this industrial-ish port and were bombarded with offers for a water taxi ride to the beach - we thought it'd be a short walk that we could manage - about an hour later, 2 cranky teens, a 35lb toddler who was done walking and had to be held and us ringleaders arrived at the beach - take the water taxi! We enjoyed our downtime immensley though - here are a couple of my fav pics:

We arrived back in LA on Sunday and drove home to the sweltering 115 degree heat - home sweet home! It was a nice 'BIG' vacation that I hope will be a wonderful memory for all in years to come...

2 years ago today...

Our little man made his early appearance 2 years ago today and we've been madly in love and laughing every day since! Here is he was...

And here is his recently in his new big boy bed and cruising the dirt pile in the backyard. What a miraculous and transforming experience it is to see yourself and the love of your life come together in a new and beautiful person! I love you Kenner!

State Champs - Basha High Winter Drumline

Last weekend Ronnie and the Basha Winter Drumline competed in the State competition and took first - we are so proud and they've worked so hard to earn this distinction. Attached is the picture (with gold medals too!). Ronnie is on the bottom row, 4th from the right wearing the blue pajamas. The theme of their show is The Nutcracker and it's very captivating. I am trying to find another parent who has their show on video so I can share it here (our camera was out of juice of course, the time we remembered to bring it to a competition).

Oh, just found a link to their show on youtube - it's 7 minutes, but very entertaining. Ronnie plays the steel drums and synthesizer and you can see her on the bottom right of the screen as they are setting up - enjoy if you have the time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQztPnVkxbs