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.

The doctor said surgery went well. We should be headed home soon.

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.

It’s been a while since I have posted, so I figured I’d say something. Peyton is doing wonderful. He is growing very fast. He loves smiling and just spending time with his family. Paige is doing great. Now that she is back in school her vocabulary is expanding extremely quickly. I picked the kids up from school yesterday and got to spend a little bit of time with them, which I really enjoyed.

I have been extremely busy with school, which has been really stressing me out. Yesterday was the only time I got to spend with Paige all week since she goes to bed so early. Peyton on the other hand, I can spend time with after class since he seems to be up until about 9 right now. Between classes, clinicals and work, I feel like I don’t have any time to study, and then trying to spend time with Hope, it is all quickly becoming too much.

Today I added 26 new pictures to the photo gallery. That’s all that I have for now.

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.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but things have been quite hectic for us. Last Tuesday Hope was involved in another auto accident.. #2 this pregnancy. After being transported to the hospital with neck and back pain, as well as having contractions, she had all sorts of tests run, and both she and Peyton were doing well. The only injury Hope seems to have gotten was an umbilical hernia. We finally got released from the hospital at about 10 PM.

Wednesday we were able to move, even after the events from the previous evening. The move went well enough. We are of course still trying to finish unpacking.. Since we moved we haven’t had a single day, except for the weekend in which we haven’t had contractors of some sort working on the house… As of this afternoon, we have all of the interior work done that we wanted to get done. We still have work to do on the outside.. The pool pump needs to be rebuilt, and we still need to get the retaining wall in the back yard fixed. Those will come in time though.

I’m sitting in class right now while Hope and Paige are at home trying to get as much work done as they can before Peyton is born. Hope has to be at the hospital at 8 PM tonight to begin the induction and I will join her as soon as I get out of class. Tomorrow is my parents anniversary, and from what I have heard Nana is going around telling everyone that she is getting a grandson for her anniversary. Paige gets to spend the next couple of nights with Nana and Grandpa while Mommy, Daddy, and Peyton are all in the hospital.

Today is Paige’s Aunt Sarah’s birthday. Happy birthday Aunt Sarah!

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.

No one has posted in a while, so I thought that I should just give an update. I have 2 weeks left in my first semester of Paramedic school. My clinicals are done, so I have free time now, and I don’t really know what to do with it.

We didn’t do anything for Thanksgiving since I was at work and my parents were out of town. I ended up working Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Hope was on call at the hospital all weekend. Hope and Paige made a few trips to Lake Eola to feed the birds and play on the playground while I was at work. They both seemed to enjoy the time that they spent together.

Paige is growing by leaps and bounds. She can put together small sentences now. She sings “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” and of course she still loves Elmo!

We went to the OB last Wednesday, and everything is looking good. According to the countdown, we are down to 57 days until Peyton’s due date.

I added about 25 pictures to the photo gallery.

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!

Well, we weren’t going to tell anyone for a while, but here it is anyway. Hope, Paige and I are expecting another baby. The due date is January 25, 2008. We have affectionatly named the new baby “Version 2.0″ for the time being since it will be our second baby.

 On July 11 Hope was in an auto accident and was having abdominal cramping, so we decided she needed to go to the hospital and get checked out. I have posted the ultrasound pictures in Paige’s gallery for all to see. You can also see the pictures from the accident.