Bathtub Presents

So in my 7 years of having kids, this has never happened to me!! I put Talon in the bathtub as I get ready in the morning. This morning, I was putting on my make-up when I started to smell a strong, but all to familiar smell. I turn around and see this...

Thank you, Talon!! The joys of being a mother!! Sorry for the graphic picture, but I just couldn't help but sharing.

Until next time...

Dallas, How Dare You!!!

In about the last month, I have lost 2 friends to Dallas... Why is Dallas so much better than Lubbock? Ok I guess I understand when it is for better job opportunities and family. Dallas, I guess I can forgive you! Now I have an 2 excuses for a girl's trip to Dallas.
Thursday night, we said goodbye to Tiffany! Tiffany and I both became a NICU nurse at the same time and we have been through so much together. She was going to be doing transports with me, but I am all alone now. I guess I will survive. I have many more friends in the NICU and I just hope that they aren't taken away from me anytime soon! I don't think I could handle it!!Cynthia, Allyson, me, Mia, Angie, Rebecca, and Tiffany out at Louie Louie's to say goodbye.

Until next time...

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

We finally got our tree up Wednesday. With the help of the boys, we got it decorated. I decided to not put up as many ornaments as I normally do, since we have a 14 month terror running around the house. Talon doesn't break things, he just brings things to you. Before you know it, you have a pile of his "treasures" sitting beside you. He is doing really good so far. The first night, we told him "no" about a million times, and he really hasn't touched it since. I just catch him every once and a while over admiring the tree. Now I just have to start my Christmas shopping to fill under the tree. I think we are going to Toys-R-Us tonight.

On another note, Rylan is going to spend the night at his friend Cole's house tonight. That is why we are going to sneak in a trip to the toy store while he is gone. :) It will be his first time to spend the night with someone other than family. I hope he does good and has a great time!

Until next time...

Las Vegas

This past weekend Ky and I went with all my family to Las Vegas to celebrate my brother, Chase's 21st birthday!! My Mom does the Cowboy Christmas show during the National Final Rodeo for 2 weeks, so we decided to join her. It was a blast! Not because we were in Las Vegas, but because my whole family was there and we got to spend time together!

Ky and I were so excited to leave. We decided only about a week before that we wanted to go, so my Mom and Dad were able to arrange it and we stayed with Marsha and Daryl in their room at Harrah's. (Thanks for letting us have a slumber party with you guys!!) Ky and I were originally supposed to leave Lubbock and change planes in Dallas and touchdown in Phoenix then get to Vegas. Needless to say, it was going to take over 6 hours of travel time. Thursday, we checked the flights and the nonstop flight had seats open. Ky called and they only had 3 left so we changed our flights and were so excited! We got to the Lubbock airport Friday an hour early and our plane ended up being delayed 2 1/2 hours due to the snow in Houston. Darn the luck!!

Anyway, we got to Vegas and Ky went to the Rodeo with everyone and Mom, Marsha and I went to a jewelry show and we had our first In-N-Out Burger experience. It was really good, but we looked really stupid when we went through the drive thru and they asked us if we wanted to eat in the car and we said "what??". Did we have another option? Weren't you supposed to eat in your car from the drive thru. They told us that if we didn't want to, they would put it in sacks, and if we did, they would just leave it all unwrapped for us! So we had a good laugh and decided to eat in the car.

Saturday, Marsha and I shopped the Cowboy Christmas shows looking for Christmas gifts and only ended up buying me my first pair of cowboy boots and a new pair of jeans. That night, the whole family ate at a little dive named Ellis Island that is off the strip and it was really good. After eating, everyone except for Dad, Chase, Ky and I went to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra. Ky and I have seen them twice already, so we opted not too and Dad and Chase just weren't interested. They all ended up leaving early because they hated it. Apparently they changed the show this year. Ky and I loved the old one and are curious about the new show now, but don't know if we want to waste our money to see it. Ky and I ended up going back to the room to watch some football and Marsha and Daryl joined us shortly after.

Sunday, we got up and watched the end of the marathon that was going on the strip, then went to gamble a little. Marsha and I just played a couple of slot machines. Daryl played Texas Hold'Em Bonus and Ky played Craps. The whole entire time we were there, Mom was the only one winning anything. Just that morning she hit $700 on a slot machine! And that was her 3rd time to hit a big jackpot!! She called us and told us that she was going to give each of us kids $100 to play on a specific Wheel of Fortune machine in the Mandalay Bay. We had to load it, which was $2 a pull, and pull it 50 times and whatever was left we could have. Chase went when we weren't there and lost all the money. All of us girls went together. I went first and ended up with $63. Marsha went and won more than I did, then Jamie went and she also won more than I did. Sorry I can't specifically remember how much. Jamie and I then decided to put our money together and go again. We took turns pulling and thanks to her good touch at spinning the wheel, we won $300. We split it and walked away with $150. Marsha went again and ended up walking away with $94!! It was fun and the best way to gamble, with money that is not yours!! We then walked around for the remainder of the time and then it was time to leave. Jamie was on our flight home and we got back to Lubbock at 10:30 Sunday night.

The boys stayed with Ky's parent while we were gone. A big thanks to them!! That was my first time without Talon and it wasn't so bad. I guess it is easier when it is your second that you are leaving. It was a fast and furious trip, but so much fun! For some strange reason, I only took 2 pictures while we were there. I don't know what I was thinking!! Anyway, here they are...

Ky and I Saturday morning before leaving the Hotel.
On the bus on the way to the Mandalay Bay. Look at how cute Marsha and Daryl look!!

Until next time...

Christmas Cards

We had our annual family pictures taken a couple of weeks ago. Talon was deathly afraid of the male photographer, he isn't big into guys right now! All things considered, we got some pretty great shots. Here are a few...

Until next time....

A Few Reasons I Love My Job....

-the little 1 pound miracles I get to see
-the big 12 pound miracles I get to see
-all the miracles in between 1 and 12 pounds
-the families. I love getting to know these people!
-God. Knowing there truly is a God in witnessing all these miracles!!
-knowledge. I learn something everyday.
-skills. I get to practice my nursing skills and get to learn new ones.
-sharing. Getting to share my knowledge and skills with other coworkers.
-teamwork. All of my great coworkers.
-me time. I know it sounds funny, but one of the only times I am without my boys.
-girl time. The only 2 days a week I am no out numbered by my boys!
-FRIENDS!! I love getting to work with my best friends in the whole world!! I love those girls!!

I am so blessed and so lucky to have a wonderful and rewarding job! Until you have been in and witnessed a miracle for yourself in the NICU, you will never understand how deep my love runs for that place! I love every single one of those babies and they will always hold a special place in my heart.

Funfetti Fun

Friday night I decided I wanted to do something fun with Rylan after we ate supper. He has been begging me to make this box of Funfetti cake mix that I have had sitting in the pantry, so I decided to let him help. I decided I wanted to make cupcakes instead of a whole cake. Rylan read all of the directions and added all of the ingredients by himself!! He was so proud of himself, and I was also proud of him! As soon as we turned the mixer on, Talon came running into the kitchen to see what was happening.

I always remember the best part of my Mom baking anything was licking the beaters!! Growing up in my house, you had to hang around the mixer to be sure you got one since there were four kids! Good thing I only have two!!

Since I was unable to lick a beater, I decided I should lick the bowl! So I did!! I'm soooo sorry that there was not a picture taken of that!! I did it in secrecy so Ky couldn't catch me in the act!! :)

It was so much fun to watch Rylan do most of the work by himself! He turned on the oven and watched the cupcakes the entire 20 minutes they baked!! When they were done cooling, I frosted them and Rylan put the "fetti" on them. Our end results....

Okay, the real end result was two very happy boys!!

Okay, the very real end result was 3 happy boys and 1 happy mommy!! Until next time...

Halloween

Since I had to work on Halloween, we dressed up and went to a party at one of my friend's house on Friday night. Here are some pictures of my spooks on Halloween Eve!!

Rylan is a spooky werewolf!!

Isn't Talon the cutest monkey you have ever seen??

Here is our best attempt to get all the kids together for a picture at the party. This is only about half of the kids too!!

Here we are at the party. That was about how excited Rylan was to be around all of those little kids!!

Some of my friends and I dressed up at work for Halloween! It was hilarious!! When I got home I decided to take Rylan trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. It was fun and I was even mistaken for a 10 year old girl!! Here is why....(go ahead and laugh).....

On another note, we had our last football game of the season last night! We were ranked 3rd and we played the 2nd ranked team. We had already played them twice, and they had absolutely killed us both times we played!! It was really bittersweet. Rylan has worked so hard and is so competitive for his team. Not to be a bragging mom, but he has practically carried his team through the season. Last night we were down by 7 and there were 25 seconds left and we had the ball at the 45. In flag football they start at the 45. Another kid on our team ran the ball for a gain of about 5 yards, but was also able to run almost all of the time off the clock. So, with seconds left, our team hands off the ball to Rylan and he takes of running and juking through the defense. He had just broken out for the end zone when he started to stumble and his legs just gave out! He hadn't sat out all game! He stumbled over his own feet and fell. :( He knew right away what had happened and immediately started crying. So was Mom!! Fortunately one of our coaches who knows how competitive Rylan is and how much he understands the game, ran out on the field and scooped Rylan up telling him how good he did and how proud he was of him! Ky was able to get to Rylan first, and said that Rylan was crying and the coach had tears in his eyes!! It is amazing how proud of Rylan Ky and I are. Ky can't even tell Rylan how proud of him he is without getting tears in his eyes and a cracking in his voice. It is amazing what our kids bring out in Ky! It only makes me realize how lucky our little family and I are to have him in our lives!! It also makes me love him more everyday! Until next time....

Prepping for Halloween

Friday, we had a very productive day. We went grocery shopping, costume shopping and delivered some cookie dough! Rylan had said that he wanted to be something scary this year, but he said that last year and when we went to the scary costumes, he covered his eyes the entire time!! Before we left to the costume store, we were eating supper and Rylan said he wanted to be a werewolf. To our surprise, the costume store had a werewolf costume that Rylan was so excited about. After we purchased the costume, we went to Ky parent's house, Chelle and Morris, to deliver their cookie dough. We pulled into their drive way and the garage door opened and we could just see Chelle turning around to go back into the house. I immediately told Ky that we scarred her, but he said maybe she just forgot something. About 15 seconds later here comes Morris into the garage with Chelle and they are both laughing. Chelle proceeded to tell us that she didn't know who's tires those were and she went to get Morris while leaving the garage open the whole time. I would like to think I would stop the door or put it down if I got scared!! Anyway, while we were there, Chelle ran to Wal-Green's to pick up a few things. In the meantime Rylan had proceeded to try on his new costume, to show it off. We let him scare the dogs and Talon a couple of times, just because Talon's reaction was so cute. Then we got this idea to scare Chelle when she got back and video tape it!! So mean I know, but so funny!! Rylan and I were out in the garage hiding at the front of Morris's car and we had the video camera on a shelf, ready to go!! Chelle pulls in, gets out of the car, and gets scarred to death by a werewolf!! So funny, but I had shut the camera and it did not record. :( So much for showing the rest of the family! Still funny though! Needless to say, Rylan is ready for Halloween!!

Hair

I have had long hair for most of my life and my hair was long when Ky and I got married. After I had Rylan, I got the ever so popular, much easier to maintain, way short, "mommy haircut" and I pretty much have had shoulder length or shorter hair ever since. I have been growing my hair out for almost a year now, and I am just bored. I love to change my hair all the time. I go from blonde to brown to blonde again and again. I have always been a blonde, but since having my kids, I just can't help but notice how dark my roots are. Well, I have the problem most girls who love to mess with their hair have, I have no idea what my natural color looks like anymore. My mom is blonde and my dad is or was at one point black headed, now more of a silvery color. My two sisters have brown hair and my brother's is a really dirty blonde/brown color. Maybe my hair is supposed to be a brownish color. Anyway, I am bored with my hair. A couple of weeks ago, I got brave and chopped me some bangs for the fall, hoping this would ease my boredom. Then it came time for my hair appointment and instead of cutting my hair off, I just changed the color. It is a semi-permanent color, meaning it will fade with time and washing. Hopefully this change will get me through this boredom stage in my life. And yes Kade, Ky likes it just the same!!

Before:

After:

Firsts

So I just wanted to share some of the cool things that I have been doing for the first time!! Wednesday night, I noticed that I had missed a call from work. I knew that they were probably calling me to see if I wanted to go on a transport. The call was from 5 minutes before, Ky and I were putting away "baby things" in the attic, so I knew that they might have left without me. I called work and they hadn't left so I hurried up, threw on my scrubs while Ky made me a hotpocket, stuffed my face on the way up to the hospital and made it in time! I was so excited, we got to go to the big ol' town of Seminole, about a 80 miles southwest of Lubbock. It was my first transport ever!! My very first time to be on an ambulance, or within 20 feet of one for that matter!! Needless to say, I was very excited. We got back to UMC at about 12:30ish and I was able to go home at 1 that morning! It was an awesome experience and one that I will never forget, and to make it better, I got to go with one of my friends from work, Poly! It was a pretty routine transport, with not much going on, so it was a good "first" to just get my feet wet! I was kind of worried that my car sickness would kick in, but it didn't at all!! Thank goodness!! I'll try and keep you updated as my training continues!! Later...

Talon's Birthday

On Friday, Talon turned 1 year old! It's hard to believe that time has gone by so fast! We were able to spend his birthday with Chelle and Morris, Ky's mom and dad, Kade, Ky's brother, and his wife Lacey, and Ky's sister Sierra. Also attending our get together were my sister Marsha, her husband Daryl, and their twin boys, Cameron and Lincoln. My brother Chase was also able to come and eat with us. We ate at one of my most favorite place's to eat on earth, the El Camino in Tulia. Sierra and her husband Kyle live in Panhandle and Kyle also helps coach there and the Panthers were playing the Tulia Hornets, so we decided to make our way up I-27 to watch some high school football. Talon was able to chow down on some birthday cake and open one present. The rest of the presents stayed home. This year he got a lot of ball things for his birthday, so we have balls all over the house right now. He loves to throw them and bang them together and even just hold them. He loves balls!

Today, we went for our 1 year check-up with the doctor. Talon is 22.5 pounds and is 30 1/4 inches long. He is in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height! Everything is looking good and we are transitioning to drinking cow's milk now!! Yea!! No more formula! I then had to help hold my poor baby down while he got 4 shots!! :( The worst part about being a mommy! Talon screamed, then cried, then screamed some more, and then he was just fine. He is fine now that we are home and he is full of Tylenol. He got his first MMR which sometimes can make them sick, so we will have to see how he handles it. We never hand any problems with Rylan and his shots, so we will just have to see.

On another note, Rylan's football team won their first game Tuesday!! Go Cooper Pirate Red Team!! The score was 43 to 40!! We finally figured out that a two running back set works for us! Rylan plays running back mostly now and occasionally quarterback. Rylan had 6 touchdowns and 4 extra points we think. He also chased down and pulled lots of flags. I guess all that practice with his dad has paid off! Rylan even threw a completed pass. Before the game, Ky told him to just relax and make a good pass because they can't tackle the quarterback when he is throwing. So, when he threw the most beautiful spiral pass that you have ever seen, he looked up in the stands to Ky with a huge smile on his face and waved at him like "did you see that"! It was so cute!! We are so proud of him and he was so excited. We video taped the game and Rylan already watched it twice when we got home last night. I guess he is pretty proud of himself too!! Until next time...

One year ago...

One year ago, God blessed us with something that we could never repay him for!!

A healthy, 7 pounds 12 ounces, 19 inches, beautiful baby boy.

So today we sing "Happy Birthday Talon Drake"!! My how time flies!!

:( Sick...

So this weekend, we had some kind of bug going around. I was sick ALL night Friday night, so I had to call-in to work on Saturday, which I hate doing. I was hoping that maybe I had food poisoning, which would have been horrible since I cooked Frito Pie for supper Friday! Low and behold at about 11 on Saturday Rylan started saying that his stomach hurt! By 3, he was REALLY sick!! I think we have traced it back to Tuesday night when Talon got sick. Ky and I were up with him most of the night and he had to have 3 baths in about 4 hours and 3 sheet changes! Poor baby! We are much better now and Ky got out of this one. Good thing, because I hate cleaning up after him!! He is a horrible sickly person!! But I love him anyway.

Sunday, I returned to work as normal, just a little drained. Rylan had his very first flag football game! They ended up loosing by 3, but Rylan still had fun. I sent the camera with Ky instructing him to get me some "good" pictures, and this is what I got...

He said it was too hard with Talon to take pictures, so I forgave him! Rylan is holding the football if you can't tell. Rylan plays quarterback most of the time and scored 2 touchdowns and a 2 point conversion! Ky was so proud of him.

Tuesday, Rylan had his second game. They ended up losing really bad and never even got to score a touchdown!! They were told by the refs this game that the quarterback could not run. Our coach is really good about letting every kid play every position at least once. It's good for the kids, but not so good for Ky and I. We are so super competitive, we can't stand to lose and it is frustrating. We get to talk about it in the stands and when we see Rylan after the game, we just put on our happy faces and tell him how great he did and what things he can do better next time!! He is so proud when he has a battle wound from the game, it's too cute!

Rylan is the quarterback here with the ball.

I'll leave you with a couple of cute pictures and some funny stories! Monday a cold front came through and it got really cold. All Talon ever wears are onesies, ever!! Monday night, after his bath, it was cold and I knew it was just going to get colder!! I decided to put him in some pajamas with arms and legs in them. He looked at me like I was crazy. He was crawling funny and would wave his arms like a maniac trying to get the long sleeves to go away!! It was so funny! Doesn't he look cute with long sleeves and pants on too??

This is how Rylan and Ky practice football in our backyard, with trash bags as flags!! Creative!

Whenever I want to take a picture with Ky, this is what I normally get!

I am thinking that the picture is going to be so cute, then I turn the camera around and he is just laughing so hard. So frustrating!! I figured if I put it on here for everyone to see, maybe he will get embarrassed enough to quit. Probably not!! Until next time...

Here we go....

OK, here we go... Since I have officially proclaimed myself as a "blog stalker", I thought I should start one myself. Besides being fun to do, I thought it would be a great way for friends and family to keep up with our busy lives! So bear with me as I figure this out and it should be a lot of fun!

Lately at our house, fall has kicked in full swing. Rylan just started 1st grade and is loving every minute of it! He is learning how to read more things and is just starting with math. His favorite thing so far is when he gets to check out a book from the library. He also just celebrated is 7th birthday on the 9th! We celebrated with family and let him take a friend with him to the Lubbock Cooper football game and even spend the night after. Let me just tell, even though everything went well, it will be a while before we do that again!! Two first grade rowdy boys is a lot to handle! I don't know how school teachers do it! Rylan is also getting to play flag football for the first time this year. His first game will be Sunday. He is super excited and so are we! Hopefully we can get a picture or two to show off.

Talon is just growing like crazy these days! He will be 1 on the 25th of this month! Crazy, I know. He just began walking about a week ago and it is the cutest thing that you have ever seen. He still crawls more than he walks. Walking just isn't fast enough for him to keep up with Ry yet! He currently has has 8 teeth. His four top and four bottom. This week he is getting some back teeth in. Today he ran a low grade fever and is slobbering like crazy! When you look in his mouth his gums are all swollen and red and you can see white starting to peek through. He is such a tough little boy! Every once and a while he will just want to cuddle, which he never wants to do, but he is still going like crazy and getting into everything!!

Ky is still at City Bank working in the accounting department. No complaints from him. He still dreams of starting his own company. Doing what? Your guess is as good as mine. He is going to have a busy next couple of days because he is helping out with a big customer appreciation golf tournament for the bank. He will get to meet some new people. As you know he is just THRILLED about it! Hopefully he will survive and have some new friends after it is all said and done with.

I'm still working in the NICU and loving every minute of it! When school started I went part-time so I could stay home with the boys! I only have to work 2 days a week, so I end up working every weekend. When there are school holidays and the summer, Ky's mom is able to help us out with the kids. So I won't always have to work every single weekend. It ends up working out great! I love being home with my boys and feeling like a stay at home mom. My most recent undertaking at work is that I am training to do transports. I will be going to pick up babies from outlying facilities that need a hospital capable of taking better care of their babies. I am so excited and scared at the same time. I will have to be able to intubate, put central lines in the umbilical cord, and make decisions on my own without a doctor! Hopefully my years of experience will pay off. This is why I love the NICU, there are always opportunities to stretch my knowledge and skill level!! I have already helped but lines in once this week. I will keep you updated as my training progresses!!

Well I'm going to apologize for such a lengthy post!! Hopefully this blogging thing will work out and I can keep everyone updated about our lives! Time to go to bed!