Kacy's favorite position to be held when awake or asleep is just like this. She is our little cuddle bug!

All dressed and ready for church.

Dathan never liked this swing when he was a baby, now it is hard to keep him out of it.

Dathan working in the garage with Daddy. He loves to be in the garage with Chad.
This past weekend there was a balloon festival in Alamogordo. Dathan loved the balloons and would say "Hot Balloon!" whenever he spotted one in the sky.

Fall is in the air!

I love this time of year. The air is cooler and days are shorter... all which mean that winter (my favorite season) is getting closer. We have been spending the past few Saturdays in Ruidoso working on our new cabin. We have been enjoying getting it ready for our family. We have not felt adventuresome enough to stay the night yet, as sleep is very precious with a newborn.

Dathan LOVES Thomas the train and James with his coal car. Today I made a very simple bridge out of cardboard for the trains to go over and Dathan played with it for nearly 2 hours!

Kacy at 1 month.
Our little cabin in the mountains.
Dathan playing on a "Choo Choo" in Cloudcroft. He continues to be enthralled with trains, tractors, trucks, firetrucks, etc. He calls Kacy's bottle "Baby Bobble" and has learned the unfortunate word "My...". Often when Dathan is playing with his tractors he will do something to them, place a sock on one of them, have one attacking the other, or anything unusual, and he will say "What's tractor doin'?". He is full of spunk and has a great sense of humor. He tries to use his big blue eyes and cute smile to persuade me to take him to the park, for candy or whatever he may want at the moment. Dathan also loves to scream and has been enjoying this vocal experiment for the past couple of weeks. Chad and I feel as though we have lost a bit of our hearing from this high pitched high volume scream. We will not miss this stage of his development!

Where does the time go???

Loaded up for our nightly walk

Regression??? The other day Dathan got ahold of Kacy's pacifier and crawled in the infant car seat. Pretty cute!
Kacy's first football Sunday with Dad.
Tummy time wears me out!

It is so hard for me to believe that Kacy will be 1 month old in just a few days. The month has gone by so very fast! We are so blessed to have 2 beautiful children that are healthy and happy (most of the time!...Dathan, nearing the 2 year old mark, has his moments of "melt downs"). We are fortunate to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep at night... Dathan is up still once a night and Kacy is like clockwork waking up every 2 hours.





Dathan is learning how to be gentle with his little sister, but still has his moments of pulling, pushing, and even hitting her. She will be a tough little girl! Dathan loves to introduce her to everyone that we come across telling them her name. He seems to be proud of her, in a 2 year old kind of way. Dathan's funny moment for the month happened last night. We were outside and he began to pull down his pants and take his diaper off. He told me "Dathan pee pee", so I told him ok and helped him take the diaper off. I got distracted and when I came back to him a few moments/minutes later I realized he had pooped and is was all over him and his clothes. He was just standing there and appeared to not know what to do. I had to laugh as I put him in the bath! I guess he has seen our dog go to the bathroom a few too many times!!! Ha ha

Kacy Josephine

Kacy Josephine

7lbs 8oz

8-17-08

Dathan loves to hold Kacy and sing "Rock a baby". He also likes to give her kisses. We have to keep a close eye on him as he can be too rough at times. He is doing pretty good, but definitely senses the change and sift in attention that he used to get.

Thankfully we do not see this side of Kacy very often. She is a sweet baby and has been very content so far. She seems so tiny to us since she was almost 2 lbs less than Dathan.

We were surprised to be welcoming Kacy into this world nearly 3 weeks early this past Sunday. We had had a normal weekend with an added hike on Saturday afternoon. I'm guessing the extra exercise helped move things along??? We ended up at the hospital Sunday morning because my water broke and had Kacy by 1:48pm by c-section. Kacy and I spent until Wed. in the hospital and have enjoyed the rest of the week at home with the family and my parents here helping us.

Road trip

Chad, Mady and Dathan playing in the rain.
Our poor backyard during the rain storm. It got worse than this! Luckily the house stayed dry inside.
Before the flood... Mady and Dathan having fun in the backyard. Water is always fun...well when you have control over how much and where!!!

Supervising Great Grandma while she finishes up the quilt for our new baby.

One of Dathan's last night with the "Paci". We cut the tip off last weekend and told him it was "broken". He has had a bit more trouble falling asleep, but has done amazingly well. I think it was harder on me to make the commitment than for him=)
First time using scissors.
Playing at the White Sands with Grammy and Grandpa.
Dathan playing in his new car with Grandma, PaPa and Great Grandma watching.

What a busy month we have had! Chad's parents made the approx. 23 hour road trip (straight through) to visit and bring us bunk beds for Dathan's room. After their visit Dathan and I began our road trip to Kansas for the 4th of July then on to Colorado for his (hopefully last) tear duct surgery. Dathan enjoyed all of the attention and spoiling that all of his Grandparents gave!

Dathan seems to be changing so much these days. He talks nonstop and is able to be understood by most people. He puts 3 words together easily these days. He loves to sit on his potty chair and will ask to do so, but so far no luck with actually producing anything. He is officially done with the pacifier and will hopefully transition to his new bed as easily.

It is so hard to believe we are down to the last month before our little girl is due. We should have the c-section date set this coming Friday for the end of August, so we will keep everyone posted.

black eye, skinned knees, bruised finger....All BOY!!!

Kind of hard to see in this pictures, but Dathan had his first official black eye from falling into the edge of our tiled tub.
Working hard in the backyard
Daddy got me a cool pair of binoculars.
Play-doh is so much fun!





Mr. Potato Head hat fits just right!
New playground in our backyard.

We are happy to say the backyard is complete! Chad unloaded the last ton of rock last weekend and we are enjoying the completed project. Dathan has had his fair share of bumps and bruises this past month. He smashed his finger in a door and then another one in a drawer, he fell into the edge of the tub leaving himself with a black eye and skinned knees from falling. We know that there are many more bumps, scrapes, cuts, and bruises to come with our active boy.

Playing with others...

Digging in the sand with my friend Sophia from Carlsbad.
Fun with family.
It actually rained in Alamogordo!
Daddy made me a great play area to dig in the backyard.
24 weeks pregnant and expecting a GIRL!!!

We have enjoyed a month full of friends and family visiting. Outside of entertaining and referring kids playing we have been able to get lots of work done in the backyard. We are excited to lay sod this coming weekend and get the yard completed. Dathan is very verbal and loves to talk from the time he gets up in the morning until the time he goes to bed. Yesterday morning he asked "Where's Daddy" when he got up and realized that Chad was not here, but at work. He loves to push trucks, cars, and trains around the house and make the motor noises as he pushes them. Everyday he amazes us with something new! What a joy!!!

1 1/2 years old

Chad and I were able to get away for a 4 night vacation to San Antonio this past week. My parents were here and took great care of Dathan. We had a great time, but missed Dathan a bunch!

Mommy 21 weeks pregnant. Dathan has no idea that he is going to have a little sister to contend with in a few months!
One of Dathan's favorite places to play is in a bucket of water.
I have heard that a childs language "explodes" around the 18th month and boy is that true with Dathan. His vocabulary to too big to count and he is putting two or more words together. Up until a week ago he was still calling a train a "choo choo", but now he calls it a "train". I have to admit it was a sad moment for me when he said "train" because it shows just how fast he is growing up! Highlights of his day include: playing outside, feeding Moose, taking walks, eating ice (yes, he gets this from me!), reading books and more books, getting into everything he can, and just about anything else active. We are getting excited about having a little girl around in a few months.

Trucks, Tractors and Trains

Great Grandma came to visit.
Look at my hospital gown.
1st time playing at the White Sands
Easter Sunday with Mady





Hello from Alamogordo! I know it has been awhile since we've posted a blog, but life has been busy! We moved in early Feb. and then Dathan and I had to make a trip to CO for a couple of weeks. While in CO Dathan had surgery on his tear ducts, which unfortunately it looks like it only helped one eye and we will return for another procedure soon. We are settled into our new home and slowly meeting new people. I have enjoyed going to a local MOPS group and meeting other women. Chad finds his job challenging, but enjoys it so far.



Dathan is 17 months old and doing great! It has been an adjustment for me to be a "stay at home mom", but I'm learning and finding more and more joy in it. Dathan keeps me busy between playing outside, reading books, playing in any water he can find, climbing, and just being busy in general. He repeats almost everything we say (SCARY!!!) and surprises us with new words all the time. He loves to talk about and point out trucks, tractors and trains whenever he has the chance. He is beginning to put two words together, but still has his own language for the other million words a day that he says.