Luke's birth, Luke's Baptism, one month....we're lazy

Okay, so we are REALLY behind on updating the blog. Life with two kids (especially a newborn) allows for very little spare time so please forgive us for not updating this sooner.

CHILD 2 of 2.3

This yarn hat makes Luke look like he could audition as a mushroom baby on one of those silly Anne Geddes albums

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PICTURE IS GRAPHIC IN NATURE

If any of you were wondering why there were not liberal with distributing pictures of Luke during his first few hours of life, this is why. It looked as though the doctor and birth canal acted like a bouncer at a club on the little guy. One of the nurses even commented that such bruising would definitely result in jaundice. Kristie's OBGYN was later rumored to have said that Luke won the award for most battered at birth that she had ever seen.

Sure enough, we found ourselves back in the hospital for 2 special nights. The little man had to live under some special lights to fight the jaundice he faced.

Jaundice, also known as icterus (attributive adjective: icteric), is a yellowish discoloration of the skin, the conjunctival membranes over thesclerae (whites of the eyes), and other mucous membranes caused by hyperbilirubinemia (increased levels of bilirubin in the blood). This hyperbilirubinemia subsequently causes increased levels of bilirubin in the extracellular fluids.

(In case you were wondering)

The happy new family of 4. The verdict was still out on Kyla's happiness, but she started warming up quickly to her little brother. Kyla is probably bent that her blog appearances will be dramatically reduced (by percentage) now that Luke is here.

Opa and Oma had a much shorter journey to see their grandson than they did their granddaughter. Opa is pleased that his sur name has made its way to another generation.

Nana and Grandpa George also came to town to welcome Luke. Nana stayed for about 3 weeks. Kyla seemed convinced that she had become a permanent fixture in the house and was disappointed when she left.

Mimi and Grandpa Jack holding Luke on his big Baptism day.

Papa and Cici also on hand...

Everybody's here....yay! I am somewhat frustrated right now as Luke is boiling here next to me....it makes wrting on the blog somewhat difficult. Btw, the couple with us are Luke's Godparents, his Uncle Ricky and Aunt Karena.

It took some big legs to cover that up.

"I'm so glad that I am projected at #2 in the nation for my iaugural football season". (At least one of my teams is.....)

"Why is there so much pink crap in my life again"?

I have this picture of Luke in my car by all the gauges under the dash board. The heat is already starting to make it curl so I am constantly rotating it and hiding it in the console to see how long I can keep him colorful.

Welcome to your new bed, where there will be no funny-business taking place. Go ahead, practice that air guitar....it's your new home and your new life. We have so much to do together!

Talking, Talking and More Talking

I just had to share some of the new things Kyla is saying these days.

She talks non-stop!  Some of her new phrases are:  (about the ball) "kick it" and "bounce it". 

She loves to sit at her little table and color none other than Mickey Mouse (of course) but while she is sitting there she wants someone to be sitting next to her, be it, Mommy, Daddy, Melissa, or her baby doll.  To request this she says, "Mommy sit chair" as she so adorably pats the other chair.  

Another favorite phrase of mine is when she is hungry.  She says, "eat food".  You'd have to hear it yourself to understand how cute it really is.  She tends to say this anytime we drive past an establishment that remotely resembles a restaurant.

She can count all the way to 10 now!  

One of her favorite words to say is "fork".  Unfortunately, about 90% of the time it comes out sounding more like fu**.  This isn't embarrassing at all when you are in Walmart with her and she sees some forks and starts yelling out what sounds to be an obscenity!

That's all for now. 

Covert Blog Posting - Luke's Life

This is the first time I have ever ventured onto this blog on my own to post anything without the urging of the wife.  I put the over/under on her discovering this at 3.5 hours.  

Prior to giving birth, some people don't choose names for their babies.  Some don't learn their sex. Some don't even decorate their newborn's rooms.  Not only do we know Luke's birthday (assuming he doesn't go beyond 38 weeks), but his baptism date is set, his room is completely decorated, he has a specific outfit purchased for a photo shoot in AUGUST, and I have already got him enrolled in Little League for 2016.

At this moment, I am not 100% certain that I know what I am going to be doing in 5 minutes and this kid has the next 22 years already etched in stone.  Here is a rundown of Luke's life in brief as it's already been figured out:

Welcome to the world Luke!!  You are so adorable! Once mommy explains everything to me, I will love you like you are my own.

This is the time that you are going to take crayons to the wall (yes, wallpaper will be popular again soon).  More than likely, this will just be some obscure cry for help as the second child.  

I did this fancy thing where the words are to the right of the picture and not above it.  So I am really just trying to take up space within the next several lines to make things look a little better.

I hope I do not get into any sort of trouble by scouring the internet for pictures of little children.

This is the window that you are going to break when you are practicing your golf swing in the backyard on October 11, 2015.  Your mom is going to be pissed that I wasn't making you use plastic golf balls in the back yard.  Do you think Tiger Woods used plastic golf balls?  I didn't think so....

Haha!  We are going to remember the time that you are going to take Mommy's car out for a joy ride....oh that's going to be a fun phone call for you.  My advice is that you at least pretend to be shaken up or mildly injured.  There is a fine line between concern and "going apeshit" for parents in situations like this.

Oh well, that's all I've got for now.  I guess the point of all this was really to tell you that we've got everything ready for our new addition.  We can't wait!  (as demonstrated by the bottle of formula already mixed and ready to go in the fridge)

All we need is a baby.....

We cut it kind of close to complete Luke's nursery....upon completion of his room, he was a scant 8 weeks from being born.




Here's how these blogs work. Kristie takes the pictures. They sit on our camera for 2-4 weeks. Kristie posts a quick sampling of the pictures on this blog. Kristie then tells me daily for 8-12 days that I need to update the blog with captions. I finally add captions after a glass or 3 of wine. Repeat. Every now and then she will get tired of me not adding text and she will post the pictures with her own words. I usually read it and get fed up so it motivates me.




But the problem is that I get to pictures like this and don't know what I can say. Okay, here is a dresser in Luke's room that doubles as a changing table. It looks good. I had nothing to do with color selection. The walls are light blue. Kristie actually made the liners for those baskets on the right....she's crafty. On the wall is a painted map thing of the U.S. I noticed the other day that only two states are true rectangles....neither of which rhyme with "Dakota".



The site of many future slumber parties involving a parent, a newborn, a bottle and possibly some vomit/poopie.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Brought to you in part by a blog that seldom has pictures of people over the age of 2.

Not sure why this picture made the cut for our Easter blog. It is basically just Kyla facing off with a child proof gate at Mimi's house.


What's this??? A different toddler girl made the blog? Brooke, Abby and John joined us for Easter lunch. Friends and family mix; world's collide on Easter!


Our little girl has long fingers = She's going to be a pianist

Out little boy will have longer fingers = Um....yeah


You may ask what happened since the Valentine's cookie episode that made Kyla so calm and compliant during the Easter cookie making. I ask, "when did we start baking cookies for Valentine's Day and Easter"?

Another holiday, another grownup in a costume to frighten our daughter. I think we qualify for "Parent of the Year" award for actually putting her back on Mr. Bunny's lap so we could get a better picture of Kyla's joy.

Cute Picture #1 that I can't think of anything clever to describe it with

Cute Picture #2 that I can't think of anything clever to describe it with

Kyla and her two good friends, Celia and Brooke

Luke: 28 weeks gestation

Below are the first pictures of Luke. Dude was not very cooperative on our initial visit to the 3D ultrasound place, so he required a second non-invasive imaging procedure (free of charge).

Kyla is our "little princess"...that name just came naturally. Luke's nickname hasn't yet come to me yet. And the nominees are....

a) Slugger
b) Champ
c) Pimp
d) Dude
e) Sport
f) Tri-pod

The winner will be announced some time in June, 2009.

(note the backward "hook 'em" gesture in the first picture)

Kyla is 18 months old

Okay, so I am back on the blog wagon (or is it OFF the blog wagon?)....whichever one means that I am going to end my streak of not updating the blogs with cliche and often corny comments. I heard that a few of you that I may or may not know have been asking about me not adding my two cents to our blog posts....FINE, you win!


Anyhow, as you can see, Kyla is slowling growing a respectable amount of hair. We've had to trim her mullet a time or two to make it look a little more cute. She now officially has more hair than I do, but of course that doesn't mean she has reached the goal yet.


Here is the part of the blog where you can see Kyla's second visit to the zoo. Below is a picture of:

a) Kyla gazing in amazement at the Southern American Human exhibit
b) a view from inside the petting zoo which after 3 minutes lost Kyla's attention to playground equipment similar to what she plays on every other day.

(answer: b)

Another popular animal exhibit for Kyla, in fact her favorite, was a member of the strapus strollerius family.


Back to the petting zoo....Kyla was given a brush to groom the "tranquil" goats. If Kyla's treatment of the goat is any indication of how children interact with them every day, I am not convinced they are happy in this environment. This goat actually slipped me a note asking for me to notify the authorities of their intolarable conditions. I'm convinced they are better off in the hands of small children than they are in fields where they can fall prey to coyotes or stray dogs. I threw away the note.

Every Chick-Fil-A restaurant has ponies sitting outside for customers to ride right? The one near our house did which brought Kyla's interaction with animals count to 2 for the week. I was waiting for Kyla to reach up and squeeze the pony's ear so it would make fake hoof noises like the one in our living room does.

Kyla and her Mimi were posing with grown men in cow costumes inside Chick-Fil-A. Kyla is not fooled by people pretending to be animals and as you can see, she won't stand for it.


The video below falls into the "extremely funny, yet cruely traumatic in retrospect" category.

Kyla counting

Our wonderful babysitter, Melissa, has started teaching Kyla to count. Here's a preview. Hopefully, she'll add more numbers soon!

As most of you know, Michael took away my blogging rights. I have to admit that his blogs are much more entertaining than mine but I can't get him to keep up with it so this is what you get for now. At least you'll be informed.

For those of you who don't know, we are expecting baby number 2 in early June. We recently found out that we are having a boy! It will be exciting to have things be a little different this time around. Michael is overjoyed at the thought of all the father/son things he will get to do with Luke.

This is one of Kyla's favorite Christmas presents. We bought her this hoping that it will help her get used to the idea of having a baby around. Well, she chooses not to push her babies around in the stroller, but Mickey Mouse. She is so obsessed with Mickey these days.

Kyla has two new obsessions....shoes and her cell phone (it's really my old cell phone but she sure thinks it is real). She loves all shoes (hers, mine, and her daddy's) even if she doesn't always choose to but them on her feet where they belong.

This is Kyla in the wagon that her Opa and Oma got for her to play with when she is at their house. She is so spoiled that she has a ton of toys at each grandparent's house even if they live a 4 hour drive or 4 hour flight away.

Trip to Kentucky

We went to Kentucky to visit Kyla's Great-Grandma Tackett, her Aunt Tammy, and cousins, Collin and Clay. She had a great time meeting her cousins for the first time.


Here is Kyla with her Aunt Tammy. The matching outfits were not planned, promise!


Here is Kyla with her cousin, Allison. She kept crawling over to her and laying her head on her chest wanting to snuggle with her.


Allison, Lexie, and Kyla (cousins)


Kyla with her Great Grandmother... Memaw went on and on about how smart all of her great-grandchildren are. I'm certain she isn't partial at all and they are all "above average".