First off, sorry for not keeping the site up to date recently. Life has been extremely busy for all of us. I’ll start with an update on the website.. As you can see, there is a new design. What you may not notice is that I have changed the software the runs the photo gallery. You will hopefully notice some improvement on the loading speed of the images in the new gallery.

Paige

Paige continues to improve on her communication skills every day. She holds very mature conversations with others and loves to talk on the phone. She likes to tell her Mommy that “When I am a Mommy I will…” and then say whatever it is that Mommy does that she doesn’t get to do or like to do. (When I am a Mommy I will like my vegetables, or I will be able to drive) Hope told Paige on day that Paige was “pushing her buttons.” Paige looked at Hope very confused and said “Mommy I’m not pushing any buttons.” Some things are still lost on her, however it ends up being quite funny anyway. Paige is learning her days of the week by associating what happens on each day. Tuesday is trash day, Wednesday is water day (at school) Friday is candy day (at the end of the school day, each child gets a piece of candy).

Peyton

Peyton has grown beyond all belief. It is hard to believe that he is only 16 months old with as big as he is. He will pass his sister in size before too much longer. He is now running everywhere and full of energy. He is able to jump, and has a pretty good vocabulary for someone of his age. He will always let you know when he is hungry, or if something is “mine!”

Hope & Chris

Hope is branching out with her skills at work. During the month of May, instead of working on the burn service she worked on the trauma service at ORMC and this month she is working on the ICU team. This will make her a more rounded provider, which is never a bad thing.

I have transfered stations, and now no longer work on the same shift. I now work on the east side of town, which is a little bit of a drive for me, but only having to do it twice a week, it isn’t too bad. I am also now a Paramedic with the fire department.

Today is Hope’s long awaited hernia surgery. Both Paige and Peyton know that something is going on, but neither of them understand what. I took tomorrow off to stay home and take care of Hope and the kids. I’ll do another update after the surgery.

Sorry for the lack of posts or pictures from me, but I have added the pictures from February to the photo gallery!

On the 23rd of February, I gave Peyton his first bottle, which he seemed to actually be ok with. He wasn’t satisfied with only one bottle, so his sister gave him his second bottle. Pictures are in the gallery.

We have also moved our website to a different web host once again. This time it is to a much more powerful server that we can upgrade later on if we need to. I have already noticed that our website responds much quicker on the new server and hope that you will to. If you notice any problems with the site, please let us know and we will fix it.

Well…it has been a busy first week. Christopher Peyton is doing well. He is gaining weight like he is supposed to and just an overall joy. Chris is an excellent father. He loves having his ‘bubby’ and holds him frequently. Even with school keeping him busy, he makes lots of time to bond with Peyton.

Peyton had his first bath last night. He did not enjoy it at all. Near the end he decided to show us how to make a urine fountain. We were all impressed. He is the typical happy healthy newborn. Eats often…really often. Loves to be held and the warmth of other people. As you can see from his pictures he has lots of hair.

While Paige looks a lot like Chris, Peyton seems to have more Zachman in him. Brown hair, no dimples…but he definitely has daddy’s toes! He is already changing so much! His face has fattened up a bit and he doesn’t make the adorable noises he made at birth. He still has cute noises but they are different now.

Peyton has had many visitors. Both sets of grandparents have visited as well as many family friends.

Mommy is feeling better overall. Nothing like dropping 20 pounds in a week to improve your self esteem. I am very tearful as the excess hormones leave my body. Nana is here helping mommy with Paige, Peyton, and Chloe and making sure everybody gets fed. She makes me feel like a superstar. The house still has some contractors coming and going but that should get a lot better this week. The Ford Edge is in the shop now to have the bumper fixed from the car wreck. Mommy isn’t too sore any more, but the abdominal hernia hurts by the end of the day.

Paige has been attention seeking a bit since Peyton’s arrival but loves holding and kissing the baby. She even tried to help mommy by breast feeding Peyton. So sweet and observant!

Well, that’s about all the fun this week..I’ll keep you updated.

Well, this last two weeks have been very busy around our house.

Paige was diagnosed with pnemonia two weeks ago, however last Monday, Dec. 3, she had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic that she was given. We ended up spending the night at Arnold Palmer Hospital in the ER. Tuesday, Hope’s truck broke again. The truck would not turn off, again. Even with the key out of the ignition, you could still put the truck in reverse and start driving. One problem though, the steering wheel was locked because the key was out of the ignition. Hope took the truck to the dealership, and got yet another rental car.

The tenant at the rental house decided that December would be a good month to not pay rent since they somehow had a $600 water bill and a $580 power bill. The water last month was $37, and there are no leaks in the system. They seem to think that this is my problem. So, on Monday we decided to begin the eviction process with them. They have one month to be out of th house. This Wednesday, Dec. 12 we went for an OB appointment. Our appointment was at 9am. At almost 10am, the Doctor had just gotten to the office and started seeing patients, we were the third in line. We had to leave because Hope had to go to work. As of today, we have 39 days until Peyton is expected.

While all of this was going on, I was studying for my final exams for the first semester of Paramedic school, as well as A&P.

Last night we went to get family pictures done, and we should have them before Christmas, so I will try to post them on the website as soon as possible.

Today is Paige’s 2nd Birthday Party. It is “Elmo Party” as she refers to it, complete with an Elmo cake.

So far I have spent more than $15,000 on the rental house, and I am still not done, but I do have it rented out again. The new tenants moved in on October the first, which makes our life a lot less stressful without having to pay the extra mortgage and other bills associated with the extra house. I took some pictures of the house now that it has been made livable again.

We are proud to announce that we are having a baby. Check back later to see if the baby is a boy or a girl!

As if I don’t have enough stress going on between school, the family, the rental house, and anything else that I am trying to block out of my mind, something else goes wrong.

I was driving my fire truck on Wednesday, and a lady decided to slam into the back of my truck. Me and my partner were fine, and the truck has mostly only cosmetic damage, but her truck got messed up. And the kicker of all of this… My LIGHTS & SIREN WERE ON!!! She had almost run me off the road about 2 minutes prior also. Now my only question is, “What’s Next?”

So far I spent $2,900 to repaint the house, $6,000 on tile, when the tile is done I’ll pay $3500 for the labor, and I really need to replace the fence, which will be another $4,600. Hopefully the tile will be done this week. Once that is done, I could technically rent the house again. I still haven’t decided if the fence is something that I am going to do quite yet. Oh ya, and the dishwasher and microwave was taken too.. It’s that just sweet. We are accepting donations to assist in fixing this up.

A couple of days ago I found out that I got accepted to Paramedic School in August at Valencia Community College. One step closer to my ultimate goal.