February in a nutshell

 We celebrated Valentine's day with a surprise delivery from dad all the way from Brooklyn, NY!  Surprises are so fun!

 The flowers were so beautiful and lasted until past my birthday.

 We celebrated Porter's 5th month of life.  I need time to slow down to enjoy this baby!  He loves tummy time especially when Lana and Tanner are around to entertain him.  He loves eating solid foods, unfortunately his intestines think otherwise.  He either gets blocked up or (tmi warning) too runny.  His sleep habits are all over the place, maybe if we weren't running here and there during different times of every day maybe he would get into a routine but he is at least sleeping 7 hour blocks at night. (about 8pm to 4am)  He loves his blue blankie in the picture and he likes the paci, but I don't think he's addicted to it. 

 Our friend Roscoe had a Glo-Golf birthday part which the kids loved.  Unfortunately Tanner wore all dark clothes and wasn't glowing at all.

 Paul came home for a quick weekend visit right before my birthday.  He found this roll of white paper and traced the kids.  They had a ton of fun making life size portraits of themselves.

 Miss Lana is finally allowed to carry Porter around the house.  She is a wonderful big sister and loves to take care of Porter, but I wanted to make sure he was sturdy enough to endure it.  :)

 Another surprise delivery from Brooklyn, NY (well, made here locally).  It was a delicious chocolate cake, I even saved half of it so we could share some of it's deliciousness with Paul when he came home for good.  Celebrating #31 without Paul was a little on the sad side.  My first birthday in 12 years that we haven't celebrated it together.  But thanks to my friend Rachel, I wasn't alone.  She came, brought her kids, pizza and my favorite chocolate dipped oreos and we celebrated together.  So thankful for great friends!

NYC, a house, and a whole bunch of cute baby pics

Some of you may know that Paul has been in NYC for 4 weeks working on the Rapid Repairs program which helps people get back in to their homes by restoring power, heat and water.  I am so thankful that he has been a part of this program.  I know he is blessing the lives of these people who have been essentially homeless since Hurricane Sandy.  It hasn't been an easy situation for any of us, Paul works 15 hours a day/7 days a week, while I patiently work on my counting and deep breathing.  It's a shame this program wasn't during the summer, otherwise I would've taken off to Hawaii and bummed around on the beach for 8 weeks.  However, the Texas school system kind of frowns on that sort of thing, so for now we sit at home trying to find things to keep us busy.

Like teach Porter how to crawl!

We closed on our McAllen house last Thursday.  With Paul in New York, I had to sign the closing papers.  I went in at 10am but it was prepared incorrectly and so the attorney had me come back at 11am.  Sure, no problem.  I only have small kids with me.  That's not an inconvenience at all.  When we finally returned, the packet was 2 inches thick, I kid you not.  It took me 90 minutes to sign them all.  Then they called me back that afternoon and needed me to sign 10 more pages the title company forgot to include in the packet.  Then on Friday I got another call that 2 of the pages were missing initials.  Monday I had to email another missing page back to them.  I've never dealt with so many idiots before in my life.  But I digress.  I'm just thankful that it's done and over with.

Some days we all feel like doing this.

Occasionally we are all happy

Other times I just like to take random pictures of Porter because he's so cute.

Brothers!  I love this picture!

Porter and his eyebrows.

When will Paul be home?  Whenever they finish the houses they are given.  And even after that he may have to fly back for a week here and there to help tie up loose ends.

When are we moving to McAllen?  Whenever the construction down there begins.  It could be April, it could be June.  Who knows?  We are currently getting the sheetrock replaced, the whole house painted and the carpet replaced.

I am hoping to finish the school year out here in Houston.  I would rather not transfer Lana so late, especially since she is doing so well here.  Plus they have uniforms down there which what fun would it be to purchase uniforms that Lana would grow out of by next August anyway!?  However, we'll just have to play it by ear and see what happens.

One day soon we will find "the place" and we will stop moving and build our forever house.  One day.

Porter–3 months

 

Have 3 months flown by already??  It’s truly hard to believe.  At this stage of the game, Porter is weighing in at 12 1/2 lbs.  He is full of smiles for everyone, but smiles more for Lana.  She seems to be the favorite so far, I think because she is the one he sees the most.  Lana loves to play babysitter while I take a shower or clean the house.  Tanner is a wonderful helper, willing to do any jobs I ask.  He is a fast runner when Porter catches me unaware and I don’t have a burp rag at hand.  He even takes the dirty diapers to the outside garbage for me.  Porter is still a finicky little boy.  He will nap great for a week in one location and suddenly he will refuse to sleep there and I have to find him a new place.  Sometimes the bouncy seat, the swing, our bed, his bed, you just never know!  He has this almost constant expression on his face that when he looks at you, like he thinks you’re crazy.  Eyebrows up and creased.  I will try and see if I have a picture of the expression.  It’s pretty funny.  He is having a few days here and there where he is sleeping through the night (9pm-6am).  I am hoping he will make it a permanent thing soon, but really I am just thankful to be catching some uninterrupted sleep for more than 3 hours at a time!  Christmas Break has been lovely so far.  I am happy to not have walk to the bus stop in the chilly weather and to lounge around in our pj’s all day if we want.  We have been doing a number of crafts during the day, thanks Grandma!  The kids have loved doing them.

Well Visits

Today both Tanner and Porter had their well visits.  Tanner, bless his heart, had 4 shots in his arms.  He was so brave and a few times his eyes watered and I knew he was trying so hard to hold it in to be brave.  He did so awesome, I am so proud of my big guy (literally, check out his height!).

Tanner Stats
Age 5
Weight: 45 lbs (75th percentile)
Height 45 3/4 (97th percentile)

This was Porter's first round of shots.  I think it traumatized Tanner more than it did Porter.  Good thing we had Tanner's shots first!  He's actually been more smiley today than he was yesterday before the shots. 

Porter Stats
Age 2 months
Weight: 10.5 lbs (25th percentile)
Height: 22.0 (10th percentile)
Head Circumference: 35 1/2 cm (25th percentile)

T-ball

 When we first moved here I was excited to find out our city offers sports programs for reasonable prices so I asked Tanner what he wanted to do this year and his choice was T-ball.

 I was super happy because they only practice 1 hour during the week and then have a 1 hour game on Saturday mornings.

 He has absolutely loved it and he's not too bad at it either.  Tanner fun fact: he is 3 inches taller than any of his team mates.

It is bitter sweet that the season ends on Saturday but I'm looking forward to enjoying the holidays soon!

Halloween

The kids were super excited for Halloween this year and had a great time at all of our various Halloween activities.  Some neighbors made a haunted house in their garage and Paul put on his Gorilla suit and had a great time scaring all the kids! 

Porter - 1 Month

Holy cow, an entire month has just flown by and here I am looking back at it feeling a little windblown.  Adding Porter into our lives has been as easy as though he's been here the whole time.  My only complaint is I need more hours in the day.  Mostly to catch up on my sleep!

As of one month Porter weighed in at 7.6 lbs which is Lana's birth weight.  I have no doubt that this little guy will not be so little much longer.  He seems to be playing the catch up game quickly.  He is finally sleeping in longer stretches at night (last night he slept a 6 hour and 4 hour stretch, it was fantastic!).  His one downfall is he is still not nursing well.  He seems to make himself comfortable and falls asleep within a minute which makes the whole process long and frustrating for me.  However, when the bottle comes out he is alert, awake and downs it quickly so for now we are supplementing which is fine by me.  He is also a gassy little goober which the kids find absolutely hilarious.

We are looking forward to seeing Grandpa Jerry and Grandma and Grandpa for Porter's blessing soon.  It will be nice to have some company!

A girls day

For my friend Sara's birthday, she wanted to get a manicure so we took our girls with us and made a day of it.  It was Lana's first time and she LOVED it!  She picked a metallic sparkly blue color which kind of surprised me since she is all about the pink and purple.  We will have to do it again soon!

Tutu

 Our 3 weeks with Tutu flew by way to quickly!  It was so nice to have some help with the kids for a bit.  The kids enjoyed having her here and ask when she will come back often!  Thanks Tutu!  We love you and miss you!

Porter Kekoa

Porter decided he had other plans and came into the world when he was good and ready. I was scheduled to be induced on Wednesday.  The Saturday before I was having contractions but they were not consistent at all.  Very frustrating but at the same time I wanted to be able to play the piano for our Primary Program on Sunday.  Some friends of ours had wagers on if my water would break during the program, more specifically during the song "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man".  Thankfully that was not the case.  I ended up staying at church the whole 3 hours still having contractions and all.

5 lbs 10 oz, 18 inches long, 4:18pm

Once we got home, the contractions once again slowed down.  So frustrating!  About 3 am the contractions started to pick up again but nothing consistent.  I decided I would just wait until 8:30 to call the Dr.'s office and see what she wanted me to do.  They told me to go to the Assessment Center at the Hospital, so we went there and they checked me and I was only at a 1.  They would only be willing to admit me if I made any progress while I was there.  After the nurse checked me, the contractions started coming fast and regular (and painful).  90 minutes later I was a 3 and transferred to L&D.  I made sure the nurses knew I wanted my epidural as soon as I could get it.  My anesthesiologist was worth every penny.  He was there as soon as I was ready, he had the needle in my back in two minutes and I was resting comfortably in 5.  After the epi, I was a 6.  The Dr. came and broke my water.  About 90 minutes later and 1 1/2 pushes, out came Porter.  I was so shocked at how small he was but so happy he was here and healthy.

He is such a sweet boy.  We all cannot get enough of him.  The kids love to hold him and even just sit and watch him sleep.  Lana even pulled up a chair and read to him for her reading homework.  I am surprised at how well Tanner has taken to Porter.  He is always telling him how much he loves him.  He loves to feel his soft hair.  He loves to hold him as well, but only for about 25 seconds and then he tells me he's done.  They are both being really great helpers so far.

It's been a bit of a learning curve going back to the newborn stage, but it is so worth it.  It's been a long road and Porter was worth the wait.

Bayou Wildlife Park - Labor Day

 As a last hurrah to summer and probably the last outing we will be taking for a while with the baby coming, we decided to take the kids to the Bayou Wildlife Park in Alvin.  Which interestingly enough is in our backyard.  It's about 2-3 miles south of our house as the crow flies, however there is no straight road there and you have to go around which takes about 25 minutes.

 The kids had a great time.  They got to do pony rides for the first time and thought it was really cool.

 Then we hopped on the first tram of the morning and drove around the park feeding the animals and getting devoured by mosquitoes.  I'm convinced that I had contracted West Nile by the time we were done.  And sadly I had even brought bug spray.  They just kept coming and even were biting through our clothes!

 Imagine getting gored by those gigantic horns!

 The guide told us this guys horns weighed 60 lbs. each.  It gives me a headache just thinking about it.

 This camel was lonely.  She had lost a baby and her mate about 2 months previous.

 It was funny to watch this bison feed out of the small container.  Paul was struggling to hang on to the container.

There were these cute little deer who were wandering around the waiting area.  They were so soft and always willing to take a nibble out of containers.

Loved going to this place and the kids keep asking to go back.  A little heavy on the pocket book, but totally worth it!