Friday, December 26, 2008

His First Month


I'm a few days behind, but Colin is a month old! I can't believe how fast it's going by. It's a little sad really, I feel like the holiday's have made it go faster than normal. Colin is a great little guy, and we have really enjoyed him in our family. He has learned how to use his lungs a little more than when he was first born, but he still isn't very noisy. He loves taking a bath, except for the couple of seconds between the cups of water being poured on him. I think he would be happier to be directly under the faucet the whole time as to have the warm water running on him continuously. He's a very sweet, cuddly baby and every now and then we catch a smile which always brightens any mood. He is chunking out very nicely. I have no idea how much he weighs right now, I just know it's a lot more than than where he started. I am beginning to think that he might be a morning person. He sleeps really well starting at about 6 o'clock. Well enough that I have to wake him to eat. I don't really know what happens in the middle of the night. Jared moved his alarm clock, so I never have any idea what time it is when I wake up in the middle of the night. All I know is that by about 7 o'clock in the morning, Colin's wide awake, and I'm still really tired.
He's turning out to be quite the cutie. In the beginning we thought that Colin looked just like Jackson, but that has changed a little now. I think that Colin has Jared's eyes, and my ears, and Jackson is just the opposite. I am excited to see the resemblances and differences in the two of them.

Jackson is adjusting to all the changes pretty well. He loves Colin, he just doesn't like that almost all of my energy goes into taking care of Colin and not him. I haven't quite found the balance yet. I definitely feel like Jackson has been put on the back burner, and that makes me sad. It seems like the few minutes I have are spent being upset with Jackson because he's doing something he's not supposed to be doing to get attention. Hopefully we'll get the hang of it soon. I do have to say that having a baby in the winter is a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. I am a whole lot more paranoid to leave the house than I was with Jackson. I am a little ready for it warm up, and if you know me, that's way out of the norm. I normally love the cold and am usually wanting about a foot of snow about now, but not this year. We've all been sick at least once since Colin has been home, all of us except for him. Thank Goodness! Anyway, it's been a great first month for our family, and I wish we could be in Utah visiting with everyone, but hopefully we can get together again soon.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Christmas Activities

I have decided that this week I would have a Christmas activity for Jackson to do everyday. The weather has been too bad for him to go out, so I thought I could come up with some fun things for him to do to help keep him entertained. When I was little we had these christmas ornaments, and decorations that my mom had made. They were kits that she had bought, and made and had I always liked them. They are made of plastic, but when they're done, they look like stained glass. I did a little searching this year, because I thought that something like that would be fun for me and Jackson to do together. I found some on ebay, but they seemed really expensive. So, the other day I was shopping with my mom at Garden Ridge, and found some for just a few bucks. I was going to do them yesterday to start off the week, but we didn't get to them until today. So, here they are.

Here is what they start off looking like. They're just small metal frames.
Here's Jackson, filling in the frames. You get these little bags of tiny plastic pellets that melt into the frames when you bake them.


Now they're read to go into the oven!


And these are the finished product! The snowman is Jacksons, he did most of it by himself. I was actually suprised at how well he did. I thought for sure there would be a giant mess, but he did great.
And here's a really cute picture of Colin just because.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Colin's Baby Showers

I wanted to do a quick post to Thank everyone who was so nice to through showers for Colin. We had two wonderful showers this week. The first was Saturday at my Sis-in-law's house. It was so nice to have the family together, and to get almost all the new babies together.

My cousin's daughter, Stormie, is holding her new baby sister Braylee. My Sister-in-law is in the middle holding J.W., my other cousin's baby boy. He was born eight days before Colin.
This is Colin and J.W. together for the first time.

This is Ma-maw, my Grandmother, with Colin.


And this is Sharia napping with J.W. Too Cute!

We had a good time and got lots of nice stuff, but mostly just enjoyed the time together talking. Thank you Sharia for such a nice shower.

Then the following Monday several ladies from church had planned a shower for Colin too.


There was quite a good turn out, and the food was great. As usual.
Jackson was supposed to be helping me, but he was too busy eating. Oh well.


Sis. Whitehead got to be the first to hold Colin.
This is the adorable cake Hollie made for the shower.
Thank you Sis. Yanda, Sis. Saline, Sis. Albright, and Sis. Brazell for everything you guys did, the shower was so great, and I had a really good time.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Pictures of Colin

I am so far behind on posting. Skipped Halloween, Heidi's trip down here, and somemore I'm sure. However I wanted to post some pictures of Colin, he's changing so fast already. He's put on almost a pound in one week! I was being brave by slipping one in of myself, just notice the cute family, not so much me. Anyway, I am so proud of Colin, he is an awesome baby and we are glad he has finally made it here. We hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we do.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Colin is Here

Warning: Cookies are known to cause happiness, stomach aches and early labor.

Who knew cookies could be so powerful?

Friday Jamie made "labor cookies" from a recipe she found online. She's been wanting to try anything to kick start her labor in hopes she wouldn't have another 9 lb baby to birth at her due date, especially since she was going into this thing as a VBAC. Well, we all tried one of the cayenne peppered ginger snap - like treats that night, but turns out Jamie had three to ensure their promised effectiveness. I woke the next morning and looked over at Jamie. She had a smile on her face and said "well, the cookies worked." She had started having some contractions that morning and we were pretty sure Colin was probably on his way.

By about 7:00 Saturday evening, Jamie was having very consistent and pretty intense contractions (she also had a couple more cookies to ensure progress) so we made the decision to go ahead and hit the hospital. We got there around 8:30 pm and after a long night of anxiousness, pain, soreness and exhaustion (Jamie had a pretty rough time too) Colin popped out and is about as perfect as they come. Just like his brother was. He was born at 9:40 am and was 7 lbs 8 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long.

We were so proud of Jamie for having the determination to deliver naturally this time after having the C-section with Jackson. She was amazing. She fought through the pain before her epidural so well as she wanted to make sure she did everything she could do to help progress the baby before any drugs. All the nurses and her doctor were so impressed with her focus and ability to deliver naturally especially as they are very hesitant and cautionary about VBACs. Right after she delivered Colin, I looked at her doctor and said - "Jamie, you VBACe'd the crap out of that baby" as a snub to his doubt he's had with her to do it.

Anyways, everything went perfectly and we're thankful for all the friends and families congratulations and support. We'll post some better pictures soon, but here's a look at Colin Jordan (yes, we changed it at the very last minute) Abraham.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The Joys of Parenthood!

The last couple of days have been pretty relaxed. Jackson woke up yesterday morning with a slight fever and claiming, with tears in his eyes, that he "lost his yawn". Which, translated means that his throat was sore.

We stayed inside all day yesterday, so today I thought it would be fun to carve our pumpkin outside on the porch. I got him changed out of his PJ's, and found us a pattern online that I thought wouldn't be too difficult to carve. The carving kit I bought consisted of a small saw, and a scoop. He claimed the scoop, and told me that I would use the saw. As soon as I cut the top off of the pumpkin, he was out. He didn't want anything to do with mess inside. He wouldn't even come close to it, so he decided that he was going to go to the backyard and play.

Not two minutes after hearing the backdoor shut, I hear him screaming. I, still on the front porch, run through the house and out the door to find him under the trampoline with a can of bug spray (strong stuff, with a lot of deet), covering his eyes. He wouldn't come out, and I couldn't reach him without crawling under the trampoline. Usually that wouldn't be a problem, but right now that's not a very easy task. We run to the bathtub, and I start trying to rinse off his face, and his eyes with a washcloth and water. He's still crying. Then I found one of the medicine syringes that you use for babies. I put some water in it to try to drop it into his eyes.

Now, Jackson is not very trusting when it comes to any medical intervention. He doesn't like it when I try to clean his boo boos, he is scared of neosporine, peroxide, band aids, most anything like that. He doesn't mind taking medicine and vitamins though, because they make them taste so good he thinks it's candy.

With that, I knew it wasn't going to be easy to put drops in his eyes. I ended up having to pin him down in my bed to do it. He was crying the whole time, (which made it even more difficult because his tears made his eyes harder to hold open) and saying that he wanted to go "love his babies"(his many stuffed animals). I know this makes me sound like the worst mom, and I'm sure it was quite traumatizing for him, but I was really worried he was going to go blind or something, and I had no idea how much spray actually got in his eyes to begin with.

It's is so frustrating when you are trying to do something for your child to help them and all they do it fight you on it, and I am well aware that this is a conflict that all parents have with all of their children until they're not children anymore. It's just under different circumstances throughout the different stages of the child's development. Still annoying!

So, after all of the drama, I left him in the house and told him not to go back outside until I finished with the pumpkin (yes I still wanted to finish my Jack-o-lantern). When I came back in, I found him asleep in his bed with all of his babies. So, I think I'm done for the day. Just think, all I wanted was a fun pumpkin carving activity for me and Jackson to do.
I am really starting to worry about the thought of two boys. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait for Colin to be here and for Jackson to meet his little brother. Jackson has just been really good lately at stressing me out and I know how multiple boys together can be. Granted, I know the joys that come from being a parent, and I know they will be two fold with two babies. I also know that there is no greater learning experience in life than raising a child, and no greater trial. I know that there is no greater blessing in life than to be a parent of one of God's children. However, will I be able to remember that when I'm trying to clean bug spray out of two, fighting boys eye's? Let's hope so!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Grapevine Pulling

Today was the Zufelt's annual Grapevine Pulling Party. It's not really a big deal, this is only the second year in a row that we've done it. But it's pretty fun! This year was a little bit more difficult for me than last year, but I still worked hard. So, we get a group of sister's together and go out to this specific super thorny tree somewhere on their, I don't know, 30 something acres and pull grapevine out of it for Tony to decorate her horse pins for The Fall Fest. This year the lucky bunch was Tony, Jenni, Linda, and myself. Jackson had fun running around, dragging vines for us, and playing with all of the animals.


So, I probably did more standing around than anything, but still I was exhausted! After we finished pulling, Jackson got a tour of the farm animals. He got to see the horses, the chickens, the rabbits, the kitten, and, of course, Skip the dog. Skip would chase anything, and Jackson was highly amused. Jackson could through a clump of dirt and Skip would run and pick it up and on occasion eat it. However, I think his favorite was the kitten. He could pick him up and carry him around and the poor thing didn't seem to mind. He had a lot of fun, and ended up worn out, yea!


Thank you Tony for such a fun time! We're definitely looking forward to Fall Fest!

Bug's Life

I just wanted to do a quick post about this cool catterpiller that we found outside. I found one last year too. I don't think this one is as big as the last one, but it's equally impressive. I think it's called a Luna Moth Catterpiller. It's not the best picture, but you get the idea.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Ahh, the Fall!

I am so excited that's finally starting to feel like fall here. Jared left this morning wearing a sweater. I love sweaters! It made me a little happy. I decided yesterday to update the blog with something to celebrate Fall. Then I got a call from Grandma Abraham saying that there was a pumpkin patch up at her school, and to bring Jackson. It worked out perfectly. I gave Jackson a haircut, and got him looking all cute and told him we were going to go take a lot of pictures with all the pumpkins. We don't get too many opportunities to get really cute pictures, so I had to take advantage of it while I could. I hope you all enjoy the pictures!

Jackson picking out his pumpkins.

The sun was a little too bright for Jackson, or the pumpkin was too heavy.

Jackson and Me in the pumpkins. Jackson and Grandma trying to decide.

Superman trying to pick up the big pumpkins.
After experiencing the Pumpkin Patch, we decided to have Jared meet up with us after he got off work and go to the park. The park has a couple of reeally nice walking trails, and Jackson loves going for walks.

Jackson riding his race car, and 3 yr old Jackson doing the monkey bars with just a little help from Grandma.

Jackson was trying to show us how your supposed to workout on that piece of equipment.

We had a really fun evening, and Jackson passed out in the car before we could get home(Yea!)

We are excited for the cooler weather and the chance to get outside more without overheating. On top of that, I've been telling myself this entire pregnancy that when it starts getting cold and we start seeing all of the holiday stuff on all the shelves at the store, it would almost be time for Colin to be here, so bring on the Holidays!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Oh, Jared!

Okay, so, I think everyone is aware of Jared's knee surgery by now. If not you can refer back a couple of blogs. His knee is looking great! He's having some trouble getting it to straighten out completely, so he's sort of getting in trouble from his physical therapist.
Well, this is the new situation. When Jared got home from work on Wednesday, he was changing out of his work clothes, he started to take off his knee brace that he wears everyday, and I noticed a red spot (kind of like a whelp) on his leg about five inches above his knee and a little to the right. He hadn't felt anything and it didn't seem like a big deal. We thought maybe it was just from his brace. The next morning when I looked at it, it had doubled in size and had a bluish color in center of it, and he said he was feeling lightheaded and anxious. Now I was getting worried! 8:30, I called the doctors office. I was told that they would pull his chart and give us a call when the assistant (Bonnie) got there. Our first thought was blood clot, probably superficial, but still. He went to work, and I spent the whole day trying to get in touch with his surgeon. Well, Thursdays are the doctor's surgery days, so he and his assistant were out all day. At some point I called back and was able to set an appointment for 3:30 the next day, and I was told later that I probably wouldn't hear anything from the Dr. until after 4:00 because that's when he usually finishes with the surgeries. Finally, I get a call back from the nurse in the office saying that Bonnie thought it was just swelling from the surgery and that she would see us tomorrow. We'll I knew that wasn't right, but I thought "Fine, they are just going to be surprised when they see his leg tomorrow." So, Jared comes home that night, his leg looking about the same (he had worn his brace all day). I drew some lines around it so that we could tell if the redness was spreading, and we went to bed. The next morning, Friday, he took a bath and it looked as though it had spread about a quarter of an inch around. I called the Dr's office and moved his appointment up to 1:15, and he took off work for the morning. We get there, they call us back, and we wait. Bonnie comes in first to access the situation, and was completely caught off guard by what she saw. She said "I have no idea, I have never seen anything like that". She said she was going to get Dr. Bothwell to come and look at it. She leaves and a couple minutes later we hear a knock on the door. Three nurses were curious and wanted to come in and look at this strange spot on Jared's leg. A few minutes later Dr. Bothwell comes in. He's a really nice guy. He's a tall guy with a fun personality, kind of like a big kid. So, the first thing he says is " What the heck is that!" We all laugh, but with a concerned look, he starts to look over Jared's leg. He's not sure what it is, but does determine that it's not from the surgery. He advises us to go to the Emergency Room to have it looked at so we can start treating it. So, we're off! Just down the street to the Harris Emergency Room. We pick up lunch on the way, and then we go get admitted. And might I add, that Emergency Room's gross me out! I was totally paranoid the whole time think that Jackson was going to contract some strange illness. Thank Goodness for those hand sanitizer pumps that they place on all the walls in there. So after being there for a couple of hour's, getting a room, and Jared changing into one of those lovely gowns, we finally see a doctor. He comes in with his two interns, and diagnosis Jared with none other than a Brown Recluse bite. Only one of the worst kinds of spider bites you can get. And I will also add that I didn't really like that doctor. Anyway, so he writes Jared a prescription for a couple different antibiotics, and about another hour later, we get to leave.
What an adventure! The next day Jared worked on my car and then went to help is friend work on putting siding on a shed. So, by the end of Saturday, that nice blue spot was black. He took it easy all day Sunday, so it hasn't changed much more, but it still looks pretty gross. He got online and looked up other cases of Brown Recluse bites, and got a little freaked out. They can get really bad, but I think that his will heal okay. I bet there will be a scar though, and it will probably be worse than any of the one's he got from surgery! These picts were taken on the same day, but you can tell how much more black it turned within a couple of hours. Yikes!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Well, we hope not......


I found this website that will let you upload pictures of yourself and your partner, and it supposed to determine what your baby will look like. Apparently we're having and multi racial baby who's gender is a little ambiguous! Anyways, thought it was super funny and thought I should pass it along. Nicole & Nathan, we would love to see what your little one will look like.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Getting Ready for Colin!

I don't think that I am the best about finding fun things for Jackson to do to keep him occupied, but yesterday while we were at Hobby Lobby getting a few things for YW I decided to buy Colin's wall letters. I had a really cool idea how to incorporate Jackson's letters and Colin's letters together, but I couldn't find the same kinds of letters. So that idea wasn't going to work. Instead I decided to let them have their own different letters. Today, I started a project for Jackson to help me with. We started painting Colin's name to hang on the wall above his crib. Jackson's letters are blue, so I let him decide what color to paint Colin's letters. You'll have to excuse him in his underwear, that's usually what he wears around the house. He had a real fun time painting, and even said "I love to paint!" I guess I'll have to find some more painting projects for him.









I just thought I would include a picture of some homemade snickerdoodles I made for Jared to help make his knee feel better ;) He said that they were "Perfect!" I guess I'll have to make them again.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

The New Blog....

So, we switched our blog. I wanted to have a blog that was a little more customized, I guess. Anyway, so here I am again saying that "I know it been a while since we've posted or updated, but we will be posting more shortly. We have had quite a bit going on, so at least we will have stuff to put up. For Labor Day, we (Jared, Jackson, Christy, Sydney and myself) piled into the car and drove to Athens, Texas to go the Fish Hatchery. Micheal and Sydney went a few years back and have been wanting for us to go, so we thought it would be a good time to. It's about a two hour drive I think, so it was a nice little road trip. We arrived to find out that it was closed though, but that wasn't going to stop us from having a good time. We ended up at Purvis Creek State Park for a day of fishing. We had been telling Jackson that we were going fishing all day because you can fish at the Hatchery. We could tell that he was going to be really disappointed if we didn't keep our promise, that's why we ended up at the park. It was a rough time fishing though. The boat rental attendant insisted that we could all fit on one paddle boat, even though we originally asked for two. So, if you can imagine what a sight we were with not only ourselves, but all our fishing gear, our bait (bucket of live minnows), and our lunches on one paddle boat. Hysterical!

We were so squished that I couldn't get any of Jared in the picture at all. Jackson was required to wear a life jacket, but as you can see, it was a little too big. He couldn't turn his head, and I think for a moment he fell asleep that way. For some reason, the two heaviest people (Jared and I) sat on the same side, so our boat was slightly tilted. Poor Christy had to do most of the paddeling by herself because she was sharing that job with tired, pregnant me, and at some point someone on the back of boat spilled some of our minnows. Even though we didn't catch a single fish (or get a single bite for that matter), it ended up being a really great trip. We all had a lot of fun!



We've got some good pictures of Jared's lovely knee that I'm sure everyone wants to see.
He's doing well, he returned to work yesterday all by himself. He hasn't had anymore sick spells, Thank Goodness!, and his pain has been minimal. We are so very thankful for the progress he is making, and just hope that he can return to his normal self soon. He has to start physical therapy next week, so hopefully that will make the recovery process even more quick, and the doctor said that the clinic he will be going to is one of the best around. He'll be playing volleyball in no time!!!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Today was the Day!

So, today was the day to find out what this baby would be. Our appointment was at 8:30 this morning in Hulen. Even though we went to bed early, I still only managed about 4 and a half hours of sleep. I didn't think it would affect me so much, but my mind was racing all night. I was up before anyone else, at 5:30, trying to eat sugary things. Hoping to ensure that this normally docile baby might be bouncing around enough to see what we were look for by the time we made it to the doctor's office.
I, however, have known for a while now what this baby would be. Jared and Jackson have been telling me for a long time that it was a boy, but I knew it was a girl. This morning actually, when I was trying to wake Jackson up by telling him that "we were going to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl", he told me "It's a boy mom!" But everything has been so different this time around, and I just had that feeling. I even went as far to find some really cute girl bedding online that I wanted, but I felt I should wait till we had the ultrasound done.
We made it to the doctor's office, and met my mom there who had already been there for probably fifteen minutes or so. We hadn't been waiting long when they called us back. The tech was taking all the normal measurments, and I noticed that the baby seemed to be measuring pretty much on time. Not like before where it had measured a little bigger. So, I was a little relieved about that. Then finally she said, "I guess you want to know what it is." We of course said yes, and she started searching. It seemed to be hard to find, as the baby's legs were closed with one hand stuck between them, and it wasn't wanting to move. So much for the sugar theory! She pushed and bounced my stomach around trying to get some results when finally there appeared BOY parts. So yes, we are having another boy! We are super excited to think about another baby boy, and Jackson having a brother to grow up with. It did make me a little sad to know that I didn't have an excuse to go buy cute, girly things, but I love little boy's! I know how much fun it has been having Jackson in our lives, so I can't wait to meet this new baby boy. Now, we just have to come up with a name....