So we're havin' a baby

EDWARD UPDATES

2009-02-15T22:07:00.001-07:00

For updates on baby Edward go to:

www.littlebabyedward.blogspot.com

Baby Edward

2009-02-11T15:11:00.000-07:00

The proud parents!

Baby Edward

2009-02-11T15:04:00.003-07:00

Baby Edward Andrew Menken born 2/10/09 at 24 weeks. One pound 0 ounces. 11 1/4 inches long

His foot - only about one inch long

His face is covered by the blue "shades" and blue hat. He also has in a yellow ventilator tube.

Sweet Sisters!

2008-10-17T12:41:00.001-06:00

Baby Sophia is Here!

2008-10-17T12:25:00.003-06:00

put me back!
Daddy's little girl.

Lily kissing her baby sister! They will make quite the pair.

Don't Mess with Christy!

2008-06-19T11:59:00.004-06:00

Not that this has anything to do with babies, the main theme of our blog, but Greg thinks this is the coolest thing. Two weeks ago Greg and I went with another couple from church and went shooting at a shooting range. Our friends that we went with own quite a few guns and I was given the opportunity to shoot them all. I shot a couple .22 pistols, a .22 rifle, an AR-15 (the civilians version of the M-16), a .410 shotgun, a .44 pistol, plus Greg's .357. Considering I hadn't even touched a gun since I was ten, when I went on another shooting trip with an uncle, I thought I did pretty well and I actually enjoyed shooting. I even hit a huge total of three clay pigeons with the shotgun! I certainly wouldn't ever want to be forced to shot at someone or something to save my life, but a trip to the range was pretty great! Here's a video of me shooting the AR-15 and a few pictures with other guns.

I Give Up!

2008-02-20T16:18:00.007-07:00

After looking through all of my posts of the past year, my keen deductive mind has noticed a theme! Can you guess what it is? I'll give you a hint... it has to do with being too busy and/or too lazy. Give up? We'll that's what exactly how I feel. I give up on trying to keep this blog up to date with the daily grind of Lily. I tried for a while, I really did. But life got in the way. You'd think that after doing daily data entry for my mom, providing childcare for a neighbor for 30 hours each week, subbing one day each week, oh yeah, and caring for a child of my own, I'd at least have an hour or so each week to update this window into to the Swackhamer family happenings. But alas, it has not been so easy! So instead of continually posting apology after apology and giving excuse after excuse as to why I haven't posted in months, I give up and am here to inform you of my new policy. As of today, I am no longer fretting over writing the perfect, slightly funny yet informative, discourse. It all boils down to this: I'm not promising anything. I may find time to write each month, I may not. It might be a lengthy entry telling you all about the latest milestone, it might just be a sentence or two with some pictures. Don't give up on me, I will update the blog from time to time, but I cannot guarantee that it'll be in any regular sort of time frame.

That being said, here's a brief description of what Lily is up to. As of the past few months, everything is all about Elmo! As soon as she wakes up, it's the first thing out of her mouth. It actually comes out sounding more like Eh-mama. If we go anywhere near a television (in our house or someone else's), she points and says that magic, but somewhat annoying word. If we are shopping and the store dares to have anything resembling the little red monster, she does crazy repeating Eh-mama over and over! What is it about this little character? EVERY toddler I know either is currently in love with Elmo, or has been in the recent past. I don't get it. But the 20 minutes of "Elmo's World" on Sesame Street everyday makes her so happy! In addition to Elmo, Lily is enjoying her new found world of running. She runs all over the place, and though due to excess speed, she falls more often than not, she continues none the less.

What else can I tell you? Right now she's working at gaining her independence and it's driving Greg and I nuts! Everything from diaper changes, to getting into p.j.'s, to eating dinner has become the battle of wills. I know that every child goes through this, and given that most kids are not killed by their parents during this stage, I have faith that we will make it through this, but Greg's not so sure. Her new search for individuality has not been helped by the incoming teeth that seem to put her in a grumpy mood half the day. We call her "Grumpy Pants" for a reason! She currently has twelve teeth and has two more trying to push their way through. While I will admit that we've had it pretty easy up till now, I understand why parents want to drug their kids during the teething years.

However, even with all the changes and new things, we are LOVING watching her grow. It seems that each day Greg and I agree that she's more fun today than last week! We give you our love. If Lily could see you, she'd send you a licked palm (a.k.a blowing you kisses)! I'm sure as soon as I publish this, many things will change, but this has been a short snippet into the exciting life of Lily, complete with a montage of random pictures ranging from our visit to Arkansas this past November, to sledding at Christmas, to her latest goofiness. So enjoy!

Falling Behind

2007-07-21T11:06:00.000-06:00

That seems to be the theme for the past few months, I'm falling behind. Whether it's dishes, house cleaning, laundry, calling my brother or in-laws, or just simply getting those 40 winks, I seem to be falling behind on it all! Again, I deeply apologize that I have not been better at keeping up with this blog. It seems to come in waves. Some times I'm so good at keeping it updated that I run out of things to update, and then before you know it, almost four months have gone by and I haven't updated it at all. But here's the latest and greatest about Lily and the fam.

As of the last posting, I have finished school. Those last few days of each school year are always killer. That kid that's been pushing your buttons all year is just about to make you snap. Those parents who disagree with the grades you gave their child, because even though their child can't do basic addition and subtraction, they have always thought of their child as a straight A student. The principal that is asking you to fill out a million and one forms, plus get all of your testing finished, plus get your room packed and cleaned out, plus not remind the kids that schools ending by actually doing some fun end of year activities. Yes, it's those last few weeks that are the real reason that you need two and a half months off afterward. But this year was especially hard, given that it was my last school year for a while. I'm now onto the great adventure of being a stay-at-home mom!

Lily has been changing in leaps and bounds as well. We can no longer call her the "toothless wonder." She now has six teeth. Four on the bottom and her two front teeth on top (with two more almost in, right beside them) She has learned to crawl extremely proficiently, which has added all sorts of fun and interesting twists to our days. She's been pulling up on everything and has now even learned to stand without anything holding her up. She can manage it for a longer and longer period, but eventually comes crashing down again. She amazes us with how much she changes even just day to day. Greg is positive that she's going to walk in just a matter of days. I don't know about a matter of days, but most likely by her first birthday. Can you believe she's almost a year old already? We can't!

At the end of June, Lily, my mom, myself, and several other family members all trekked out to lovely Lubbock, TX for my cousins wedding. From there Lily, mom, and I went on to Little Rock to visit Mike, Sarah, and Eden. We were able to stay for a week with them. It was great to see them. We even made it up to Searcy, where we saw my grandmother and walked around Harding's ever-changing campus. But after a week we said a'du to Little Rock and drove the 16 hours back home. Lily was a great traveler, much better than we were even hoping she'd do. But I think by the end of it, she didn't want to see her car seat or another car again! Since then we've just been hanging around the house, going to lunch with friends, etc. It's been great to be home and I look forward to many more days of it!

As of a week ago, the school year started without me. While all my teacher friends were scrambling to get all their last minute vacations in, I spend the days on play dates. When all of my teacher friends were getting their rooms (and their patience) ready for another year, I was walking down 16th Street Mall. It felt so weird not to have that last minute rush. But so far, I am enjoying being home with Lily a thousand times more than I ever liked teaching. But just to keep my teaching teammates happy (and to give myself that teaching fix I know I'll need at some point this year) I have agreed to substitute this year. It should be fairly easy, as I've restricted myself to only fifth and sixth grade at Deane. I figure that in sixth grade, I know the kids, and in fifth grade I know the curriculum, so it will be fun. But keep me in your prayers, as I know how my students treated substitutes!

Now that you've been given the quick update, enjoy the latest pictures of Lily.

Side Effects Include...

2007-05-02T21:34:00.000-06:00

Have you ever noticed on those commericals for obscure medications that sometimes the side effects are worse than the illness the medication is supposed to be treating? You know the ones... "Have seasonal allergies? Take Xarcom. Side effects include vomiting, weeks of diarrhea, extreme muscle weakness, facial ticks, rapid facial hair growth, halitosis, fallen arches, and the desire to listen to Michael Bolton music ad nauseum." Well the Swackhamer family seemed to have all taken Xarcom this past week. OK, OK, so we didn't take some strange purple pill; but we did all have sicknesses that made you want to get into the fetal position and cry for your mommy. (And fortuantely, we didn't have EVERY side effect listed. There was absolutely no Michael Bolton in our house.) Lucky for Lily, hers was actually around! On Thursday of this past week I managed to get some stomach flu type virus and the cycle began. First, you're dog sick, feeling like you've never have been and never will be that sick again. In fact, death sounds a little better than how you currently feel. You have this for about 24 hours. Then the next day while you feel better, you are so weak and dehydrated from the day before that you look like you're about to die. Then by day three you seem to be well enough to go back to work and by day four, you're completely fine, like you were never sick in the first place. Well this cycle started with me on Thursday night. I then passed it onto Lily on Saturday afternoon. She cycled through and gave it to Greg on Sunday night. By Tuesday my mom and our baby sitter's daughter both had it. We were contemplating quarantining the Swackhamer family. We're hoping that we don't give it to anyone else, or get it back from anyone! So to help cheer us up and give everyone else a laugh, after all laughter is the best medicine, I've included a few pictures that always make us laugh. Here's to your good health.

Aren't We a Beautiful Family?

2007-04-17T17:34:00.000-06:00

These pictures were taken on Easter in my cousin's backyard as the rest of the family was preparing the yearly Easter feast. (Notice I got out of helping by "needing" to have family pictures taken!!) Yes, that is snow on the ground. And while that was a tad chilly for Lily's sleeveless Easter dress, I wanted to show her off. We received a total of about an inch of snow on that Sunday. It made for a nice backdrop for some pictures, though.

Who Needs Recycling?

2007-04-11T12:16:00.000-06:00

Most children have certain foods that they don't all together enjoy having to eat. I'm not a big fan of kidney beans or collard greens (nor apparently anything that rhymes with "eens"). My brother, Mike, has never enjoyed the taste of broccoli or sweet potatoes in his mouth. The Ripperton boys don't seem to like anything! But I assumed that with Lily, things might be a bit different. Perhaps because Greg seems to like pretty much everything, perhaps because she's a baby and has a very limited diet as it is. But I assumed that Lily would eat whatever I put in front of her. While in a certain way that's true, at least everything I put in front of her does end up in her mouth at some point, she has come to greatly dislike anything resembling baby food. Give her pureed carrots or sweet potatoes, a grimace appears on her face and the food is immediately spit back out. Give her guacamole or mashed potatoes, she can't get enough. But clearly this isn't exactly hurting her, as she weighed in at just over 17 pounds and was 28 inches tall at yesterdays check up.

But lately, the food of choice is paper, any paper. If she can get her hands on paper, she eats it like a starving Ethiopian that's been given a doughnut. So we've decided that in our house recycling is no longer needed. If you need to shred some junk mail, give it to Lily. If you no longer need those pesky bills, give them to Lily. If you need to find some place to dispose of your old phone books, give them to Lily. While I joke about actually giving her all this paper, my guess is that she would attempt to eat it, if only given the chance. So a word to the wise, if Lily is going to be at your house, hide any paper that might one day be of value to you!

What's up Waskally- Wabbit?

Isn't she beautiful?

Snowmen at the end of March?!?

2007-03-29T13:24:00.000-06:00

There we were, preparing ourselves for another spring break full of sunny walks along the trail, nice spring breezes to cool down the house, sunglasses, short sleeved shirts and shorts, and what happens? A brief reminder that we still live in Colorado, not Hawaii!

We woke up this morning to a few inches of snow on the deck and snow flakes drifting down to join their buddies already landed.

But hey, it's one more excuse to get Lily into her snow suit and hat and go romping through the snow. She seems to have enjoyed it a bit better than the last time we put her in snow, but she's still not so sure about this cold white stuff.

It's That Time of Year Again

2007-03-23T15:21:00.000-06:00

The days are getting longer, the sun is getting brighter, the temperature is getting warmer. It clearly is that time again. It's nap time! My spring break started with a bang, as Lily and I took naps throughout the day and generally enjoyed not having to be in school. Even the dogs joined in today (not that they don't sleep 23 hours out of each day normally).

The plan is that I won't spend every day in a state of continual sleep, but today just called for it. I have big plans of taking walks, going to the park, getting together with my fellow teacher friends, and rubbing it in the face of every other poor working fool that I have the next week off! Have I mentioned that the breaks are one of the many great things about teaching? Here's to a week of fun, sleeping in, and enjoying our changing weather.

Roll Over, Schmoll-Over!

2007-03-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

It seems like just about the time we finish taking all the pictures and telling everyone about the amazing new thing Lily can do, she does something else to send us into a picture frenzy! The latest is the trick of rolling over. Just a week ago, she hated being on her stomach and there wasn't even a hint that she might start to roll over. Then what do you know? Spend a few minutes on your stomach, get made fun of by your cousin Bryce who can already roll over, and the will power kicks in. It seemed like it was literally one minute she was struggling just to keep her head up, and the next minute she was rolling over like she'd been doing it for eons! Now we've entered into the wonderful world of having to make sure she can't roll off of whatever we put her on. We can no longer just lay her on the couch or bed and assume she'll be in the same spot when we come back. So far she hasn't rolled off of anything, but she definitely moves around!

Before we know it she'll be crawling around on the floor and pulling things out of cabinets! We can't wait!

Does Anyone Have a Better Tasting Bottle?

2007-03-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

Since starting back to work in December, we have had to leave Lily with a friend from church during the day. While she does great at Honey's house, she has decided that she doesn't like bottles. It doesn't matter what's in it, or what kind of nipple we use, she won't even look at it without erupting into tears. Our crazy girl has started herself on the starvation diet! She frequently will go 10-11 hours without eating. We're not sure if it's protest for having to be away from home and me for 8 hours a day, or if we over did the prune juice early on and now she associates bottles with the ever so appetising taste of prunes. But her stubbornness has certainly come out! I think she gets that from her father, as I am never stubborn! So after asking every possible person we could think of for advice, we tried to start her on rice cereal. She dislikes that even more than bottles. We tried a sippy cup, and that just made a mess. We tried putting a bit of sugar in the cereal, and that just made it worse. We even tried cherry juice in the cereal at the suggestion of a friend, and all that did was turn her white bib wonderfully pink! So we were at a loss. The doctor was no help, he just shrugged and said she wouldn't let herself starve! So God took over. I had about three days where my milk wouldn't let down. So for three days, if she didn't eat from a bottle, she didn't eat at all. That was all it took. She finally decided that if she wanted something in her stomach, she was going to have to take a bottle. For a week now, she's gone great guns with bottles! And wouldn't you know it, as soon as she started doing well with a bottle, my milk came back in! So right now she eats like a professional burger eater at a contest, at least from a bottle. We still haven't figured out the cereal or baby food thing. I guess she'll come around on her own good time!

See You After School, Mom!

2007-03-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

While I fully expect Lily to have mastered Calculus, Advanced Cellular Biology, and World Literature within the next year, she's not the one going to school. Starting on December 18th, I had to leave my precious girl and return to the hallowed halls of learning at Deane Elementary. My return started with a bang, as we got to have two snow days due to our outrageous amount of snow, and then we started winter break. But after the New Year, I went back full force. I jumped in feet first, actually ready and somewhat glad to be back in the beginning. But, unfortunately, that excitement has worn off and now I'm counting down the days, hours, and minutes until schools out, just like my students! I've had to learn the delicate balancing act of grading, planning, and preparing only during the eight hours I'm actually at school, so that when I'm home, my attention is solely on Greg and Lily. No more 12 hour days for me. I frequently get asked if I miss her during the day. The answer is always yes, but I am so busy that I really don't have too much time to dwell on it. But I'm making it through, without too much Lily withdrawal. And think, only three more months until blessed freedom! As of right now, the plan is that I won't be returning to Deane next year. The idea from the beginning was always that I would be a stay-at-home mom once we had kids, and with the exception of this short five month sidestep, God has blessed us so that staying home is a possibility. Lily and I are both very grateful for all the hard work that Greg has been putting in and will continue to put in.

Oops! We blinked!

2007-03-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well here we are again... Three months have gone by since my last posting and I have yet to update all of Lily's adoring fans on how she is. I deeply apologize; to me it feels like I've only blinked and the past three months flew by. So much has happened in the past few months that it's hard to keep track of it all. But here goes...
On the 5th of December Lily got her two month vaccines (only a few days late), and we were praying that she didn't react to them as her cousin, Eden, did. She seemed to get through them alright, with only a few hours of crying. Since the 5th was also my birthday, we got to celebrate that by going to bed early! Lily also decided that her present to me would be one of those rare sleep-all-night nights that I dream of one day having every night. I couldn't have asked for a better gift. Starting on the 19th, Denver received about fifteen tons of snow. School and work were cancelled all over the city and we got to dig out our cars to go anywhere, not that there was anywhere worth going in 15 tons of snow! But Lily and I got to spend some fun days with Grandma, as she was off of work too. Then came all the excitement and festivities of Christmas. This year was the year for almost all the grandchildren (and therefore almost all the great-grandchildren) to come out to Colorado. Uncle Mike, Aunt Sarah, and cousin Eden came out, as well as Emilie and Jim, with Lexi and Anna. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with Grandma, Mike, Sarah, Eden, and Sarah's mom and grandmother in a cabin in Estes Park. It was so great! We played games, ate a bunch of food, went shopping in Estes, and just generally laughed at the two little girls. That Eden is quite a hoot! Then for the afternoon we joined the rest of the extended family at Aunt Karen's house.
Since people had a few days off for the holidays, we went and did a number of things. We got to take Eden and Lily to the Children's Museum. Then Lily went with Bryce, Lexi, and Anna to the Zoo. The zoo was great fun, as we got to see a number of exotic animals that looked just as frozen as we were in the 30 degree weather. But the giraffe took advantage of the cold and found himself an icicle to lick. All in all, December was a great month!

Go Bucks!

2006-11-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

Well with the excitement of Thanksgiving over with, Lily and I finally have time to sit down and reminisce about our trip to Ohio. Two weeks ago Lily and I were able to go out to Ohio so the rest of the Swackhamer family could finally meet this charming daughter of ours. While I was a bit nervous about the two and 1/2 hour plane trip, Lily was a trooper. She amazed all sitting around us with how well she traveled. Sleeping two of the 2 and 1/2 hours makes anyone a great traveler, I guess. We were put up in the always wonderful Casa de Jordan and had a marvelous time. Lily got to meet her many cousins, aunts, and uncles, not to mention Grandpa. We got to spend time with Grandma and Kristi again as well.

Many hours of playing cards were logged in and I don't think Lily was put down once! We also were able to be in Ohio for the much anticipated Ohio State vs. Michigan football game. What a crazy time! But Lily cheered the Bucks on to victory and (Daddy is hoping) on to the national title championship game. While it was an extremely busy time for all Swackhamer's, what with surgeries, family gatherings, Rook tournaments, etc., we had a fantastic time!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

2006-11-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is my dad's birthday. So in honor of his big day, Greg, Lily, my mom, and I had dinner at mom's house tonight. The meal was delicious, we took a walk down memory lane looking at old pictures, and I think the grandparents just enjoyed being around Lily.

As my dad creeps towards the big 5-6, I am reminded of all the things that are lost as you grow older. First the hair goes. I think the quizzical look on Dad's face was simply him asking the question, "Does Lily have more hair than I do?"

Then the eyesight goes. Hey Dad, when you try your "smoky cheese oolong" you'll have to let me know how the smoked cheese hits you! :)

Then the mind goes. Not that this is the case with my dad, but there were a few "senior moments" that gave us all a chuckle.

And finally all you want to do at the end of the day is sleep like a baby! Lily's got you covered on that one.

We love you and Happy Birthday!

She'll be plaing basketball soon enough!

2006-11-07T16:05:00.000-07:00

I am amazed every day about how much she's grown and changed in such a short amount of time. When she was born, she was so small and tiny at 6.3 lbs. Now she is a hefty 11.4! Sumo wrestling here she comes! She's starting to catch up to her cousin, Eden, meanwhile leaving her other cousin, Bryce, in the dust! She now has no neck to speak of and is getting more chins than a Chinese phone book! Her head is extremely round and pudgy, plus she has the old man hair ring going for her! But who can resist a nice bald head? I look forward to what the coming days/weeks/months will bring for her.

Our Very Own Holstein!

2006-11-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

As this was Lily's first Halloween, we felt that she had to be in costume. Ok, in reality I wanted to take her trick-or-treating and eat all of her candy; and what better tool to get fistfulls of candy than a cute baby? But she was adorable and got to spend the Saturday before Halloween showing off her lung power at a party at a friend's house and the day after entertaining Grandma and Grandpa at lunch.

You've heard of the "Laughing Cow" cheese? Well we have the "Screaming Cow" that probably wouldn't sell too much cheese.

Thanks Grandma and Aunt Kristi!

2006-11-07T15:03:00.000-07:00

I realize that I am behind in getting these postings made, and really only have laziness to blame. So I deeply apologize to all those who have been waiting with baited breath to see

what she looks like and what we've been doing. So here goes getting caught up... Back in the beginning of October we were blessed to have both Nancy (grandma) and Kristi (Greg's sister) come out and spend a week a piece taking care of little Lily. It was so great that they could come and help out. We definately put them to work, even forcing Nancy to clean our very dirty windows.

My house has never been so clean as when my mom, Greg's mom, and Kristi were here. I need them to come back!! I haven't quite managed the whole feeding, cleaning, napping thing. It seems that napping and feeding take priority and the cleaning gets put off. Oh well, just make sure you call before dropping by!! As per Greg, the other great thing about having them out is that we are now fully stocked in Ohio State paraphernalia. Lily is decked out for the next two years in OSU outfits to wear every weekend on game day.

Family is Great!

2006-10-03T13:42:00.000-06:00

Only a week after coming into this world and having the blessings of Grandma Lair watching over me for the week, I finally got to meet some other members of my family. Yeah, sure I'd already met my great grandparents, a few aunts and uncles, even a cousin or two. But the best family member of all, the one I couldn't wait to see and share my high chair with, the one who would laugh with me (or at least she would laugh, I'd just sit and stare), cry with me, share her toys with me, is my cousin Eden. She and her mom came out this past weekend and what a visit is was! We had it all: shared diaper changes, feeding on demand, and sympathy crying (everytime I would cry, Eden would start to get upset too. Once I stopped, Eden would again have a huge grin). It was so much fun, but no visit is complete without pictures.

We lined up on the couch and attempted to get our pictures taken. I think I was just upset that Eden could sit upright and I needed some help. How embarassing! But my second cousin, Bryce, couldn't sit up either! I know that she's looking at me thinking, "What's wrong with you kid?" I can't wait for her to be out here at Christmas and I can really show her what I can do!

Even my mom enjoyed her time with Eden.

I'm too cute! At least that's what Daddy says!

2006-09-26T20:34:00.000-06:00

Hey, don't bother me I'm comfy! So, we've been
home for a couple of hours, when is daddy going
to take this wrist band off?

Is it cold in here or is it just me?

Grandma and Grandpa

2006-09-26T20:12:00.000-06:00

A visit the day after I came into this world.
Grandma's a pro.

Grandpa Loves me.

It's Our Little Buckeye!

2006-09-26T20:01:00.000-06:00

She had the right Idea from the begining

Go Bucks!

Mama and baby!

2006-09-25T14:54:00.000-06:00

SHE'S HERE!

2006-09-25T12:53:00.000-06:00

Announcing:

Lily Ann Swackhamer

Lily Ann Swackhamer arrived kicking and screaming on Thursday September 21st at 8:05p.m. Lily was very comfy inside of mom and held on for a long time. Lily held on for a total of 3 1/2 hours once mom decided to push her out. Boy was she tired! Here is a picture of Christy and the room before the birth with her parents.

More pictures and info to come. - Papa Swack

Sometimes even reading the directions doesn't help!

2006-09-15T16:55:00.000-06:00

As we attempt to get ready for Lily, I decided to take it upon myself to become handy and put together her new swing. I was going along swimmingly, until Greg noticed a small problem. Can you find what it is?

I promise that I was not trying to kill our child.

Three Days and Counting!

2006-09-15T16:20:00.000-06:00

As we get closer and closer to my due date, and as my belly gets larger and larger, we are reminded of how excited and yet cautious we are for Lily's grand entrance. It is odd to be off work with no expectation of going back until after Christmas. Just like my brother, I too have stopped looking at things as a matter of 'x' weeks to go. We now look at possibly the next time we have Wednesday night Bible study we'll have her here. Or the next time we get milk delivered she might possibly be here. The next Ohio State football game that Greg says he can't miss, she might be here. The list goes on and on as to how our thinking is changing. But with hope and lots of prayer she soon will be joining us. We can't wait!

Devil Dog!

2006-09-15T16:12:00.000-06:00

Christy 7/23/06

2006-09-15T15:48:00.000-06:00

Christy said she was going to put some posts up and take over for my defective writing skilz, but as she says, she is a slacker. Here are some pictures we took in July.

Pictures 6/7/06

2006-06-07T22:16:00.000-06:00

We have some current pictures of my two girls. These were taken tonight. Christy leaves for Ohio tomorrow to visit my family. Schedules will not permit me to attend, which is a bummer. I go to tropical Tempe, Arizona to coninue my training with Edward Jones starting this Saturday...I'll let you know how the golf courses play. Christy will be in Ohio until Tuesday. I'm a little jealuous. She is going to Bob Evans, the best breakfast place ever, outside of Oscar's in Durango. If you have time for lunch at Oscar's, do the chicken breast sandwich smothered in green chilies. Talk about heaven. Anyway, Bob Evans is number two. Enjoy the pictures and leave a post if you would like. Please don't comment on my writing skills. I know they're bad.

Starting to show

2006-06-07T10:46:00.000-06:00

This was taken on 5/27. A little luau party with friends from church. This shirt does not show it well, but Christy is starting to show that baby girl.

My Bro

2006-05-26T11:01:00.000-06:00

Last October my brother got to come out to Colorado and check out Denver beating up on the New England Patriots.

We waited around after the game for a couple of autographs and got lucky. This is Mike Anderson just after he signed my jersey.

And Jake Plummer

My first kick!

2006-05-25T23:18:00.000-06:00

This is the day after we found out we were going to be proud parents. Notice the proud Buckeye mom! Keep in mind, images in this blog may be closer than they appear. Funny jacket prank, huh? I was told that we must tell our child that Toni and Rusty were the first to know. So Gomee, there is your 15 minutes and we will be sure to pass it on to our little bundle of poo waiting to come.
Even after 23 weeks Christy is just now starting to look like she's packin'. It's all those green olives, I swear. Actually, no cravings yet, but I keep my running shoes on just in case.
And now to the real reason I am spending time on this site at 11:45 in the evening...wait I knew there was something. Silverware, light bulbs, yogurt, Montey Python, oh yeah (a gasp from the audience and a little rabble, rabble), Holy Toledo Batman! My little girl kicked me tonight for the first time. Probably cause I smelled really bad after playing Basketball. And because I busted my ankle with no health insurance- although it does start on the first- I guess I limp til then. Anyway my little girl (as long as the doctor is correct) kicked me. I won't tell you it made my eyes well up because it didn't, or maybe it did...You'll never know so don't ask and I won't have to lie.

First Contact

2006-05-25T11:24:00.000-06:00

Our first Utrasound at 8 weeks when we found out Christy was actually 10 weeks along.

A Colorado sunset!

2006-05-24T11:55:00.000-06:00

Isn't Colrado grand!

The pot at the end of the rainbow

2006-05-24T11:29:00.000-06:00

So I hear there is a pot at the end of the rainbow. 40 weeks and then...A change in life, love, and happiness, and smelly diapers. The moment has come for us to add to the Swackhamer Clan. Mom and dad are you ready for grandchild number 14? Yeah, neither am I. All the things do. We have a crib set up, some clothes are ready and that's about it. I guess we have some work to do. So for all of the nervousness that comes with caring for a new life, I'm told we will be great parents. I can only hope that is the case. This picture was taken from our balcony in a recent Colorado storm. If you look close you will notice the double rainbow.