McKay, Denene, Carter & Sylvie

2010-10-14T22:49:00.006-06:00

Well we never update so here are some pictures from our fun filled summer and early fall.

We are doing great by the way! :)

Camping in Central Oregon

Kids and their Cozy Car:

Carter helping McKay:

Sylvie just being cute:

Carter on his 2nd birthday:

More Cozy Car fun:

Kids at the duck pond by BYU:

Early morning photo shoot:

McKay and I 4-wheeling in American Fork Canyon. So pretty up there in the fall!!!:

2010-05-18T15:43:00.004-06:00

So I am really just not much of a blogger as you can see. Well we have been busy the past few months with Sylvie and Carter. Both are growing like weeds, changing weekly and getting cuter as the days go on. We have been sick a bit which gets old really fast and seems to always hit when McKay is at work. We were lucky enough to take a couple of trips in May. First we flew to Portland for the weekend. I wished it could have been longer but at least we got to go. We had a great time with the fam while we were there. We were able to see one of my nieces in her play, she was Toto in the Wizard of Oz. Then the next day we were able to go to my other nieces baptism. It was awesome Rachelle's two older girls gave the talks and Josie, the youngest, sang a special number. It was so fun to see them all in action!

We flew home from Portland on Sunday night, were home Monday and then left Tuesday morning for Tucson. McKay's sister lives down there. We were able to see an old friend of McKay's in Phoenix and I was able to shop at H&M in Scottsdale. We went to his nephews baptism that weekend and spent some time with the Wadley clan. It was fun. Then we headed off just our little family of 4 to San Diego. I love that city! We actually stayed in Sonora Beach which is a great little town on the 101. We went to the San Diego Zoo one day and toured the USS Midway another day. We ate at some delicious places that we looked up online under Diners Drive in's and Dives. It is a great way to find places to eat while traveling and while at home. It was a fun trip and the kids traveled amazingly well! Anyway below are pictures from the zoo and maybe some day I'll add some from the past couple of months as well as the rest of our trip. :)

Just some pics I have taken over the past week...

2010-02-13T12:00:00.004-07:00

An update on the Wads...we are all doing pretty well. McKay and I are a little bit sleep deprived, but I try to get a nap in every day even if it is a short one. And McKay usually can get a good night sleep at work. Funny you'd think he'd get less sleep at work being a Firefighter, but the station he is at right now doesn't get many calls at night. Lucky him! Carter is still doing great with Sylvie and as you can see by the pictures below, he loves to hold and kiss her at least a few times a day. It is really sweet.

One morning last week Carter was watching cartoons and wanted Sylvie to sit next to him on our bed.

Carter riding his horse with his awesome cowboy hat.

Sleepy Sylvie

Some cute cowboy hat pictures.

Carter being a sweet big brother.

Proud big brother

Wide eyed Sylvie in her brown fluffy dress. :)

Our latest addition

2010-01-27T14:02:00.002-07:00

We were so blessed to welcome our little Sylvia Claire Wadley on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010. We were a little nervous and really didn't feel ready for baby number two, especially since Carter is just 17 months old today. Now that she is here I am wondering what all those nerves were about. We couldn't be happier to have her here. She is already loved so much!
We were lucky my sister was able to come down and help out with Carter while we were in the hospital. Unfortunately we were sick right before Sylvie was born which lingered longer than we hoped and my sister got a little sick while she was here. Now my parents are here to help out for a week and they too picked up our virus. I am glad we got through it before I had Sylvie but feel really bad that we have infected our help! We are still so grateful for all the help that we have had! It has made the transition much easier on us and especially Carter.
Speaking of Carter he has been doing amazing. There hasn't been any jealousy issues and he has been doing pretty well. He only got really upset when he realized that mom hadn't been picking him up lately. Even with that he has adjusted and is okay with others helping him out. When he gets up in the morning and from naps he points to my bedroom, first thing he wants to do is go see the baby. He is giving her kisses and holds her every now and then. We are really loving having Sylvie here with us.
So far the healing process has gone well. I am still a little sore and tired here and there, but I feel like this one was a little better than the last c-section. I feel like I have been able to get around a bit better which has been so nice!
Onto the pictures and Sylvia's stats. She was born at 3:56pm, weighed in at 8 lbs 1 Oz and is 20 and 3/4 inches long. She is a lot bigger than Carter, if you don't remember he was just 6 lbs. She is a good, healthy baby! Below are some of the pics we took at the hospital.

Just arrived

Cleaned up a little

We compared Carter to a $1.00 bill so we thought we'd do the same for Sylvia

Carter checking out Sylvia's toes

Holding his new little sis

The introduction and holding Sylvie for the first time

Scrunched up face

The fam

Sylvie and I

McKay with his little girl :)

If you hadn't noticed I got back and forth calling her Sylvia (which is her given name) and Sylvie. I do that at home all the time too. I like both and may call her by both names her whole life, I don't really know yet. So we aren't particular you can call her Sylvie or Sylvia either one works for us.

2010-01-19T22:43:00.001-07:00

Baby will be here tomorrow...really freakin out in my head. :|

Halloween a little late...

2009-12-10T21:54:00.002-07:00

For some reason I thought I posted Carters Halloween pics on here, but I guess I didn't. Carter was a turtle this year and really liked wearing his costume. I thought he would hate the hood as we can rarely keep a hat on him, but he loved it. We didn't do any trick or treating since Carter doesn't eat candy what is the point right? Maybe next year we'll take him around the block or something. Anyway we stayed home all evening and handed out candy to the neighbor kids, I always love to see them all dressed up.

Here is our little turtle:

Checking out what is inside the pumpkin making it glow so pretty.

Listening to mom telling him to put the lid back on and obeying.

Happy Halloween!

I loved the tail in the back of the turtle vest, I think it is my favorite part!

Carter with a couple of the pumpkins.

Since Halloween we have been to Portland for Thanksgiving. We had a great trip, Carter and I flew up and McKay drove up with the dogs a day later. Then we all drove home together, which we did all in one day. I thought we were going to regret doing that but it wasn't bad at all. Carter was a champ and hardly complained much at all. It took 14 hours because we stopped for a lot longer than usual so Carter could walk around and so I wouldn't get too swollen.

I got to spend a lot of time with my siblings, their families and my parents which I always love! I made it to a Blazer game...they lost pretty bad, but it was still nice to go to one game this season! I also made it to the Montage to eat dinner one night, it was great! I haven't been there in years so I was so happy to make a trip down there with McKay. He had never been and really liked it. My sisters threw a baby shower for me too, which was great. Thanks to all those that came! It was so good to see and visit with everyone! And we really appreciate the gifts, it has already helped us a ton in preparing for the baby girl!!

If you hadn't noticed there are no pictures from our Portland trip, that is because I forgot the camera...oops. Well we hope that everyone is doing well and that you are enjoying your holiday season!

2009-11-04T08:24:00.003-07:00

So I finally got some of the pictures from our trip to upload, so this will have to do for now. We took a three day trip about a month ago through Central Utah. We caught the end of some of the leaves changing down there, it was so pretty! We had a great time seeing the sites, hiking and driving around. I hadn't been to this part of Utah before, it was really pretty...just as much to see there as going to Zion National Park but you can drive and hike without the restrictions of the national park.

We did a 6 mile hike (round trip) to a water fall, this is where Carter got a break from the back pack...he ended up being a great hiker!

Here we are at the waterfall.

Carter pointing at the waterfall.

So we did struggle a little with Carter in the car because he doesn't sleep well in his car seat...so we were SO happy that he seemed to sleep just fine in the pack on McKay's back. It would have been a LONG 6 mile hike if he hadn't slept for almost half of it!

Just some nice pics

On the hike

Carter playing with his toys on the drive down.

This was in a really pretty canyon we drove through...I had more pics but they aren't uploading.

Same as above.

Maybe I'll post more pictures when I can...I don't have the patience when it keeps erroring out though!

October...

2009-11-02T10:12:00.002-07:00

Well we actually did a lot this past month! I have been trying to update with pictures but blogger keeps telling me there is an error. We went on a little three day trip, McKay went hunting and got his first deer. We did the Pumpkin Patch with Carter and then of course Halloween. One day when I can get pictures to upload you'll be able to see all the fun we've had for yourselves!! :) Good day.

Carters 1st Birthday

2009-09-28T09:41:00.004-06:00

Well Carter turned 1 year old a month ago yesterday so I thought I should finally post the pics. We were lucky enough to be in Portland for the special day. It was a lot of fun to share his first Birthday with the family up there. My sisters and their families came over and we all had a lot of fun!

Carter is pretty excited about all his presents!

I was surprised that he actually opened each gift. I thought he'd be too distracted but he did great!

So happy about all his awesome presents. He is clapping in this picture and you can be sure that there were about 15 other people on the other side of this camera clapping back at him, which he thought was pretty awesome.

Of course the boxes were a lot of fun too.

It is time for cake can you tell this one is excited!

First taste.

Now he is into it pretty good!

Mmmmm more Cake.

And a happy little 1 Year old to finish off the post!

Everything else with us is going well! Carter still isn't walking on his own. He loves to walk all around as long as he has one of his little walkers, furniture or a hand to hang onto. Other than that he is your typical 1 year old, finding attitude, getting into everything, trying to figure out a new nap routine and emptying out drawers though out the house.

The pregnancy is going well, we had our ultra sound last week and everything looked great. If you haven't heard we are having a girl, and even though we were hoping for another little boy we are excited about having a girl. :) It has made everything all the more real as I now have to actually think about names and what we need for her. I have a few names in mind but McKay hasn't given me any thoughts on them. I changed my mind so much with Carter, that I doubt we'll decide on a name any time soon. It took us until Carter was two days old to finally decide on his.

So that is about it for us. September was busy and I can't believe it is almost over. McKay has been working a lot again and also has had a few other things going on so we haven't seen a whole lot of him lately. We are taking a little three day trip in October so that will be nice to have that time with him around. Then he gets to go hunting for a week which he is pretty happy about. It sounds like I am going to get a few visitors during October too, which always brightens my world!! Well we hope all is well with you all! Take care.

Alyssa's wedding

2009-09-11T15:46:00.004-06:00

Well I thought I would finally update with at least my little sisters wedding pics. Things have been going well around here. August was a quick month. I left for Portland on the 15th of August so I could help out with anything that my mom and sister may have needed the week before the wedding. I didn't come back to Utah until September 1st. It was so nice to be able to spend so much time with my family. I just wish I could have had some time to see some friends but that didn't happen on this trip.
The day after the wedding McKay and I went to my sister Rachelle's and watched her 4 girls the rest of the time we were there. Turns out entertaining 5 total kids and me being prego ended up in not much extra time. We had a lot of fun with the girls while we were there but I was too tired to do anything once the evening hit. But it was all worth it. The wedding was perfect and I had a lot of fun the whole time I was in town!!

On to the pics. I don't have very many as I was more distracted with what was going on that day.

Alyssa and her bridesmaids, her friend Karen and then our nieces Macey, Olivia and Ashlyn.

All the girls in the wedding party. The three little ones are my other three nieces, they were all three flower girls. Alyssa was sweet enough to have all 6 nieces in the wedding and each of them just LOVED it!!

Dad, Mom and Sys

Ashlyn, Macey and Olivia

Miss Josie...so cute and so funny!

Dad and the girls

Mr. Carter head waiting for the festivities to start

Fred and Alyssa's first dance

Macey and my grandpa is in the red tie to her right

Me and Sys

Fred chatting with Carter

Carter and Sys...oh how cute!

As I mentioned the wedding was perfect. Alyssa was beautiful and the day went great! She got married outside at the same place McKay and I had our reception. It was a really pretty spot, we got married in December so I never looked at the grounds, it was dark, plus it was December and cold. Anyway we are so happy for Alyssa and Fred, they are a great couple and we love them both!

Water falls and a Big brother?????

2009-07-28T13:50:00.005-06:00

A couple of weeks ago we headed up to Wasatch National Forrest and went to the Provo River Falls. It is really pretty up there and on this particular day it was 100+ in Provo, so it was nice to head to the mountains where it was about 80...much better than 100 for sure!

One section of the falls. McKay liked that small water fall in the back ground.

Carter LOVES water. This water was super cold but if we'd have let him he would have gone straight in.

Carter and McKay in front of one of the falls.

Carter lovin' the outdoors!

Carter and I above the lower falls.

Now does this kid look old enough to be a big brother...yeah I don't think so either. Good thing he has 6 months to grow before he will officially hold that title. YIKES!

Just because he is so cute!

2009-07-15T14:24:00.003-06:00

Finally...I know I know!

2009-07-09T14:54:00.003-06:00

We are here and alive! :) I know I don't update this, but our computer went on the fritz and then when we got it fixed I couldn't find the camera until yesterday. So I have been at home full time now for just over 2 months. So far it is going great! McKay was pretty busy and not around very much the first month and a half or so. But things have calmed for him lately and we have been able to do a lot of hanging out. A Firefighters life really is great...well I guess if you can handle the lower income, which has actually be very easy to adjust to. We love the spare time he has for us to do things together!

Carter update...he now has 6 teeth and is working on a couple more as we speak. He is growing a lot and finally started crawling on Fathers Day. He already pulled himself up and walked along furniture but just didn't crawl...I don't think walking is too far off, maybe just another month or two. He is tons of fun right now but definitely starting to develop his own ideas on what he wants to do, not what mom wants him to do. It is fun to watch him grow and to be able to be home with him so that I don't miss a thing! We all LOVE it!

So I took a couple of pics of Carter this afternoon outside and shirtless so we could post something that was actually up to date of him.

Last month we decided to go hike the "Y", if you don't know what that is it is a huge letter Y on the mountain behind BYU. Anyway I have lived here for 7 years and I had never done it. It is pretty steep but not too horrible of a hike. Here are a couple of pictures from the top.

We are looking forward to hopefully doing some more fun things throughout the summer and we are especially looking forward to my little sisters wedding at the end of the summer! We hope all is well and maybe now that I found the camera I'll start taking more pics and posting more often!

I thought I would finally update...

2009-05-11T08:27:00.004-06:00

It has been such a long time since I have updated our blog. It was just too hard with work, life and crappy internet to get this together. We just switched internet providers so it is a lot faster to upload and post. So maybe I'll do a little better at keeping this up to date. I am going to start back in March when we went to California with the Wad Squad aka the Wadleys. We had a great time at Disneyland, Laguna Beach and California Adventure. Below are pictures from the trip in no particular order.

Carter hanging under his umbrella on Laguna Beach.

The whole Stan and Debbie Wadley family with Grandpa Baldwin as well.

McKay showing off his muscles while building a sand castle. :)

Carter and Me back at the hotel pool, this is Carter's first swim. I think he might like it!

This is the three of us on Dumbo at Disneyland. We were actually surprised at how many rides we could take Carter on. It was a lot of fun, not that he'll ever remember.

Carter and McKay taking themselves a nap on the beach...Carter is under that umbrella if you couldn't see him.

Carter and I on the beach.

Carter is checking out the waves.

Check out that nice gut!

This is Carter after a long day at Disneyland, he was a champ! He did so great all day and this was bed time and he laid right down and didn't take long to fall asleep and then go back to the hotel with his grandma and grandpa so that McKay and I could have some fun on the bigger rides before the park closed.

Here we are at Toontown, it is kind of hard to tell but we are sitting on a fire engine.

So the trip was so much fun! And at the end of the trip Carter and I last minute flew to Portand for my mom's 60th birthday. It was a surprise and SO much fun. The only people that knew we were coming were Joe, Rachelle and my dad. We got to surprise everyone else, which is always great! We had a big surprise party that saturday and got my mom again. She had NO clue it was great. I didn't take good pics of the party so I didn't post any of them. Maybe later today I'll get the rest of this up to date since I am headed to Portland tomorrow for a week I wanted to get caught up before then.

March...already

2009-03-06T20:20:00.003-07:00

Here we are already into March by a week! I feel like the next month or two is already over. We have a few events coming up which always makes the time fly by! We were lucky enough to have my sister Rachelle and her husband Joe down last weekend. It was a lot of fun to be able to spend time with them! So Thank YOU both for coming down!!! My old roomie and good friend Lora and her little fam are coming to town in a week and a half! I haven't seen her in a year and a half so we are excited to see her, meet her new little boy Parker and see how big Ellie has gotten! Then the week after that we are off to California with McKay's family, we are so excited for a little Vacation time together. Then it is end of year at work for me which is always super busy. Then my parents are coming in mid April.

It should be pretty crazy but it is all fun things coming up so I am pretty excited! Plus we've had our first taste of Spring around here and that always gets me excited for what's to come. I can even handle the snow and cold we have blow through between the nice days. It is just wonderful to have a few nice days here and there around this time of year!

As always we have a few pics of Carter and none of us! :) Maybe we'll actually get in front of the camera while in Cali. Carter is doing well. He had his 6 month check up this week and came out pretty well. He grew an inch so he is now 27 inches but only gained 1/2lb. which means he is only 14.4 lbs. We are stuffing him full of food so he can put on a little weight...although the doc said it wasn't a big deal. He took his shots like a man and slept if off through out the day.

McKay is doing great. He is excited for our upcoming trip and people that are coming in and out of town as well. He is also doing a 100 mile bike ride with some of his Fire buddies the first Saturday in April in Moab. He is always looking for something to challenge himself with physically...I need to get a little more of that going on with myself! He is doing great with the part time stay at home dad gig. He is SO great with Carter! I am one lucky girl!

Oh yeah onto our pics for the month....

Carter fresh out of the bath all wrapped up in the Lion towl that The Evans got for him. I love these hooded theme towls, they are too cute!

McKay took these shots the other day while I was at work. We have been trying to get Carter to spend more time on his belly...he is actually enjoying it for a few minutes for once! :)

What a cutie!

And here he is just being a sweetheart! He really is such a joy! Lately he has been sleeping better...or wait maybe I am just sleeping harder. McKay says he got up with him a few times last night, and I didn't hear a thing....Oops...more sleep isn't bad at all! Go McKay.

The days are just flying by!

2009-02-18T16:28:00.004-07:00

So I cannot beleive that there are just 10 days left in February!! And just 9 more days until our little Carter is already 6 months old! Where does the time go?

We are doing great, just busy working away. We had a busy but nice Valentines/Presidents Day weekend. We celebrated Valentines Day with dinner and a special treat, the Monster Truck Jam. Yep you read that correctly, what a wonderful Red Neck celebration of Love! :) It was actually a lot of fun and of course great people watching!! I told McKay if I am ever feeling down about myself he just needs to bring me to another Monster Truck show, or equally as good red neck event, and I'll feel a whole LOT better! On Presidents Day we made it to a movie as well, I know out twice in one weekend!!! That is a first in a long, long time. It was really nice!

So Carter is doing great! He just keeps growing, he is just about out of all of his 3-6 month clothes, but his 6-9 month clothes that fit him in length don't fit around him that well. He needs to pack on a little more weight! Those two teeth of his are all the way in and looking pretty nice, too bad I don't have a single picture where you can actually see them sticking up. But here are a bunch that I took a little over a week ago. I made him sit through a short photo session with me and our not even close to professional camera, but they'll work for now. And yes I am officially one of those moms that just can't post enough pictures of my kid. Sorry if you think there are too many...I guess you don't have to keep scrolling if that is the case! :) Much Love denene

Just a cute pic...not a part of the official photo shoot! :)

Yes that is a Blazer T-Shirt he has on!

2009-02-04T22:00:00.001-07:00

Nothing new to report here...just a few pictures of Carter for your enjoyment. Oh and these were all taken on different days. For some reason it seems I only pull out the camera when he is wearing this stripped shirt.

Here is Carter showing off his new love for sitting up.

Hey Dad how about you get that finger out of my mouth! :)

The cool kid.

This is Carter playing in his Christmas present, his exersaucer.

And for a different view.

Playing Catch up...Christmas pics

2009-01-26T20:24:00.008-07:00

I know, I know...most people haven't even had a chance to read my below post and here I am with some pictures already/finally. Anyway not much write since I updated earlier today. These pics are all from Christmas in Portland. I know it was a month ago but at least I am finally getting around to it!!

Here is Carter in his AWESOME cowboy hat that my sister Erika got for him! Can't wait to show it off at the Strawberry Days Rodeo this year!!!

My sister Erika and her family got 2 dogs in October. They are the same bread as Griffin and Miles, so now between the two of us we have every type of Cavalier Kings Charles Spaniel. Hers are too cute! Finn (black) and Fiona (Ruby), they are brother and sister.

For those of you that don't know my little sister Alyssa is engaged, here is a picture of her with her fiance Fred. They are a cute couple and Fred is a great guy, we already love him like family!

While in Portland it was Elle's 5th birthday and for that Erika made enough ginger bread for us to make houses. I have never done a house, except for the ones out the box where I just copy the picture. This was a lot more fun to actually be a little creative. We all had a great time making these! Thanks tah tah.

This is my nephew Jace holding Carter. He was so cute, he wanted to make sure he got to hold him everytime we all hung out.

Here is Carter with my Grandma, his Great Grandma Tolman

And here he is with his Great Grandpa Tolman. It was great to be able to visit with my grandparents while we were there. We always make sure we stop by to see them.

This is an awesome pic! This is my dad with Carter. One minute I looked over and my dad was holding Carter and Carter had just fallin asleep, the next time I look over and see that my dad has joined Carter for a little snooze as well.

Not the best pic but the only one I had with my parents in it as well. Here we are, these are my sisters and my parents...these pictures never feel quite right. All the pictures I have that we took that night, I keep looking at them thinking we were missing someone and we are and always will be. You'd just think over time that the feeling would be somewhat less but it isn't. We will always be missing Adam.

Here is a picture of all the kids. Man it is hard to get a decent picture when you have 11 kids in the same photo. They are in order of age, from top to bottom, left to right we have Riley, Austin, Macey, Olivia, Ashlyn, Jace, Ethan, Taylor, Josie, Elle and baby Carter.

I have more to come...I am really going to try to get this totally caught up so I can disappear for another month! :)

A whole lot of Firsts...

2009-01-26T17:10:00.003-07:00

Okay wow I suck at blogging I know!!

And here I am and not a single picture to show. You have to understand I'll get on the computer at home and I'll start uploading pics and then walk a way. When I come back to the computer they aren't uploaded so I get frustrated and find something else to occupy my time, like some Mario Brothers 3! :) We are loving the old school Nitendo games at our house lately...I know what a complete waste of the few short hours I have at home each day!

Well this month has been a month of firsts around our house! It has been a lot of fun. We started out the month with Carter's first real laugh (not sure exactly what I mean by real:))

Then he his 4 month check up (a first because he has never had a 4 month check up before) and blew us away with his growth he is 26 inches long and weighed in at 14lbs.

Then we move onto his first really big chuckle, not just a small laugh but many laughs in a row, that was awesome! It is hard to get it out of him sometimes but well worth the effort once he lets go!

He had his first solid food (a piece of avacado) and then his first bowl of cereal came shortly after that.

We are rounding out the month with him being able to sit up on his own (no rolling yet, which I am so okay with!)

AND last but certainly not least are his first TEETH! (No not tooth, there are two of them). This one I am not ready for...I am just not looking forward to that FIRST BITE, if you know what I mean.

Yeah so the doctor told us a few weeks ago that his bottom 2 teeth were starting to bud, meaning they'll be coming in the next month or so. So I don't know why I was surprised when I looked in his mouth on my lunch break (because he was being abnormally fussy) and found that his two lower middle teeth had made a special appearance. I know people nurse through this and hopefully there won't be too much of an issue there, my goal is to make it another 3 or 4 months before we move to formula...but that could be a lot sooner if it becomes unpleasant for me!!

Anyway I will try to update some pictures on here soon because I really have a ton of cute ones, you maybe on over load once I start posting them!

Oh and yes there was also a first for me...or 31st that is... :)

Christmas and The New Year

2009-01-02T11:42:00.006-07:00

Well I haven't updated since Thanksgiving...once again no time!! We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We were able to drive to Portland and spend the whole time with my family. I hope they all didn't get too sick of hanging out so often! :) We had a great time so thanks to my parents, siblings and their families for making so much time to spend with us while we were there.

We started the trip with an amazing Blazer Game thanks to Joe and Rachelle for letting us go with them to the game and sit in their awesome seats! Carter went with us as well and did great; he even slept with all that noise. The Blazers played Phoenix, it was a close game and the Blazers won...man it was so good to be back in that arena. I hardly get the chance to even see the Blazers play on TV these days, let alone in person! Afterwards we all met up with Wes at El Gaucho’s in the Benson hotel downtown. That place was great! And it happened to be that it was mine and McKay’s 4th anniversary and the Benson is where we went after the reception, so it was funny we just happened to end up there that night. Thanks again to J and R for treating us to yummy crab cocktails and bananas foster....even though mine was a bit strong! Here is Carter at his first Blazer game. I will be doing my best to insure that he is a Blazer fan NOT a Jazz fan!!

The weather in Portland was absolutely crazy, for Portland anyway. We still got around pretty good but didn't have much time to do a whole lot extra besides hang with the fam. For those reading this wondering why I wasn't able to see you while I was in town, sorry we really were just too busy! We did the Blazer game, and then went wedding dress shopping the next night for Alyssa. She found a dress, it is beautiful! I would post a pic but people will just have to wait for the actual wedding to see her in it!!! The next day was Grants B-day, then Elle's. Then we actually wanted to just relax the next day and stayed out in St. Helen's at my parents, instead of going into Portland. We were able to meet up with Lauren and Rick the next night and it was good to catch up with them. Then it was basically Christmas activities and more hanging out at Joe and Rachelle's and Grant and Erika's. Anyway the whole trip was great! I wish the weather had been a little better so that getting from point A to B wouldn't have taken so long. I may have been able to see a few more people that way. I will work on getting the pictures uploaded to share with you all, hopefully soon. Here are a few of the snow.McKay couldn't believe that nobody cleared their driveways or sidewalks. I was like you have to understand, this just doesn't happen here. Nobody has snow shovels and when it does randomly snow here and there it just melts the next day anyway, so there is no need. So here is McKay clearing all the snow at my parent's house...he did this every day we were there! Thanks McKay!!

I have many more pictures but they aren't uploaded yet. I will hopefully get those posted over the next week or so. For New Years Emily and Travis came over and we played some games and ate some food. It was good fun! They left around 10:00 because Travis had to work early. McKay also had to work early but we stayed up for a while, I think we fell asleep around 11:45 and then woke up just after midnight, laughed, turned off the TV and went right back to sleep. I think once we have kids old enough I'll get back into the whole New Years thing but for now I'll take 10 more minutes of sleep!!! :) Well hopefully I'll post again really soon!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Oh and PS...I did not have time to do Christmas Cards this year, I am so sorry!! But thank you to those that sent them our way! I promise to get them out next year, so please don't take me off your list!!! :)

Thanksgiving

2008-12-03T21:24:00.003-07:00

So we haven't updated in a little while. I am still just a little too busy for this blogging thing. Work is going well. I actually enjoy being back at work, I really thought that I would hate it after having Carter. But I actually think that I like it even more, I know weird! I don't love leaving Carter but it seems to be working out really well leaving him with Emily a few times a week. McKay still has him a couple of times a week as well.

Last week I came home at lunch and Carter was outside in his carseat while his dad was working in the back yard. He looked so cute with his little brown beanie hat and cute shirt....then I took off the blanket and saw that McKay then proceeded to dress him in green plaid pants and green socks. I said, "what is this McKay?? This does not match at ALL." Usually McKay dresses him just fine but he just said "what? What's wrong with what he has on? The pants have blue in them and so does the shirt." I just thought to myself he can't be serious. Then after I gave him some crap he finally admitted that he saw the pants and saw that they were from Pottery Barn for kids and figured they cost way too much money. So he put them on Carter so they got at least one more use because they are getting too small. It is always about money...I was like seriously??? I paid like $6.00 for those. That is why I got them. Anyway as you can see in the below picture, Carter also wasn't pleased with the choice of wardrobe his dad picked that day! :)

Carter sporting a sweet outfit thanks to his dad!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had a good one. We had a first, McKay worked at the Fire Station that day. So Carter and I got in the car and drove up to Park City to spend our Thanksgiving with McKay and his crew. It was really good. We had all the basic Thanksgiving foods and that was good enough for me. We were the only family that showed up, the other crew members families already had plans. So it was just me eating with McKay and his crew. It was fun though. It was nice to be able to just relax and spend time with McKay. Of course since we were at the fire station we took a couple of pics of Carter around the place.

Carter driving the Engine like his dad. Their Engineer was gone so McKay was driving that day.

Big shoes to fill!!! Here is Carter in McKay's boots.

McKay loves to balance Carter on his hand... I was a little nervous at first, but have gotten used to it. I tried it myself and realized that he is pretty sturdy.

Here's our little family by the engine Thanksgiving Day.

We were able to spend the next day with McKay's family, his sister was in town with her family so we all had dinner together. It was so good to spend time with all of them. After we ate, all the girls went and saw Twillight. It was pretty good, I didn't go in with any expectations, and I thought they followed the book pretty well. I am not one of those that really gets over the top about books and movies, so I wasn't even sure I was going to see this one. But now I am glad I saw it.

So things with us are good. McKay is busy trying to build up his side business. He is currently working on a remodel for some people in our ward and sounds like he's got a couple of other jobs lined up. He manages to do this as well as have Carter a couple of days a week, Fire and still does his glass installation job when they need help. Also did I mention he cooks dinner almost every night??? Seriously what a guy!! I really can't complain!

We are looking forward to spending the Christmas Holiday with my family in Portland! We are excited for Carter to meet the rest of his Uncles, Aunt, cousins and Great Grandparents!!! We are driving up, so I am hoping the decent weather we have had so far this winter will continue! I have never driven home at this time of year because of weather, but with Carter, all his stuff and 2 dogs, the decision was made to just drive. That way we don't have to dump the dogs on people when they already have to much going on for the holidays. And with the gas prices dropping so much, we are pretty happy that we made the choice to drive!!! We were paying $3.00 more a gallon when we took our trip this summer...that is just crazy!

Anyway we hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday!

One Word Game

2008-11-24T09:32:00.002-07:00

"One Word Game".

Where is your mobile phone? Purse
Where is your significant other? Home
Your hair color? Blonde
Your mother? Alike
Your father? Kind
Your favorite thing? Vacationing
Your dream last night? Nothing
Your dream goal? Jeans
The room you're in? Work
Your hobby? Shopping
Your fear? Heights
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Caribbean
Where were you last night? Home
What you're not? Fake
One of your wish-list items? Coat
Where did you grow up? Portland
The last thing you did? Phone
What are you wearing? clothes
Your TV? DVR
Your pets? Dogs
Your computer? Mac
Your mood? balanced
Missing someone? Adam
Your car? Grey
Something you're not wearing? Earings
Favourite shop? Nordstrom
Your summer? Prego
Love someone? McKay
Your favorite color? Green
When is the last time you laughed? Today
When is the last time you cried? Blessing

To all of you who want to , play along and add this on your blog, but fill in your own answers (obviously)

The big weigh in...

2008-11-04T20:05:00.002-07:00

I was planning on updating this last week, but now that I am back to work that didn't happen. I am tired at night and usually have a lot more to do than update the blog. Tonight I thought I would take the opportunity between bath time and bed time to get this updated. So far going back to work has been okay. I hate leaving Carter every day but I am so thankful that I can leave him with Emily when McKay can't stay home with him! There is nothing like being able to leave your baby with one of your best friends, who you know is a wonderful mother to her own little girl. It deffinetly helps put me at ease while I am at work. McKay is able to be home with him 2 - 3 days a week, I am also so thankful for that. I think I would have a harder time if one person got to spend more time with Carter than I do! :) It is nice to be able to split it between the two of them! McKay has been great with the whole thing. Today I came home and dinner was ready, he worked one of his side jobs but got home just before Carter and I. Then he cleaned everything up so that I could just spend time with Carter. He really is a great husband, how did I get so lucky???

Anyway onto the weigh in. We took Carter to the doctor last Wednesday and here are the results.

Birth: 6lbs and 18 Inches

2 Months: 10 lbs 4 Oz and 22.5 Inches

The doctor said he looks great. He had his shots that day and did great. He slept the rest of the day, it was McKay's first day home with him and he didn't even want to wake up to eat. So it ended up being a pretty easy first day.

Here are a couple of pics that Erika took while she was here. She always captures great photo's with her nice camera. It so makes me wish I had a nicer one!

I love this one of my mom, Carter and McKay, it just captures McKay's constant goofiness.

Happy Halloween...

We didn't get Carter an official costume this year. Since he has no idea what is going on. We did find this great little owl hat though, so he wore that all day. This is just before bed time so he is wearing his Halloween PJ's that his cousin Jace picked out for him! Thanks Jace, Livie and Sonja for the cute PJ's. :)

2 months old today!

2008-10-27T19:35:00.002-06:00

I thought I would post some pics I took this past week. Carter is getting so big. We go in this Wednesday for his 2 month appointment so we'll update his stats later this week. In the mean time here he is in his car seat sleeping, his favorite thing to do in his car seat.

His feet really aren't this giant, it is the picture!

Here is Carter giving a pretty good smile for me.

Carter hanging with Griffin.

Here he is kicking back on MIles and Griffin.

One last picture of the boys hanging out.

I can't believe how fast the grow!! Carter is 2 months old today...I go back to work Wednesday...I just realized that maybe I should have left him more often to get myself used to this transitition. Oh well to late now. I just realized today that I have only left him with McKay and only for a hour or two at a time to run some errands so this will be a hard week for me. :( Anyway we'll update on life as we go.

2008-10-14T09:25:00.003-06:00

It has been a few weeks since I have updated the blog so I thought I would go a head and throw a few pics on here. Carter is getting bigger every day, I can't believe how fast they grow!! He is still small according to lots of people but he is over 8 lbs now so to us his parents, we feel like he is getting really big! :) We are still enjoying every moment with him, especially since I am going back to work in a week and a half or so...Yikes. I am very hesitant on leaving him for so much time. I actually hate the idea but we are still going to do it and see how it all goes. The first week I'll go back I'll go on a Wednesday and McKay will be home. For some reason I feel like it'll be easier to not have to drop him off anywhere the first week or so.

Anyway here are some pics from the past few weeks as well as from his blessing day.

Here is one I took of Carter and I because nobody ever takes pictures of Carter and I together I had to just take one for us. I am usually the one behind the camera.

Carter about 5 weeks old here.

2 weeks ago I took Carter on his frist trip to the Fire Station to visit McKay:

McKay and Carter in front of the Ladder Truck

Carter laying on McKay's Fire Jacket

For those that don't know McKay is the Tiller which means he drives the back of the ladder truck. Here he is in the back cab.

We blessed Carter this past Sunday. It was great and McKay gave Carter a very special blessing. We had a lot of people over after for food, my parents and one of my sisters and her family were able to make it. It was nice to have them here for the weekend and so wonderful to have a little of my family at the blessing along with McKay's and some of our friends! Thanks to everyone that came to share the day with us, we really appreciate it!!

I wish I had my camera so we had more pics of everyone. Below are a few pictures that McKay's dad took thank goodness! Thanks Stan!

McKay, Carter and I.

McKay and Carter

My mom, Carter and I

Carter with his Great Grandma holding him

And just another sweet picture of our little guy! I will post more pictures from the blessing day as I get them from Stan and Debbie as well as from my sister Erika.

3 Weeks in...

2008-09-17T11:57:00.005-06:00

So we are officially three weeks into parenthood today. So far things are pretty good. Carter has a night every once in a while where he doesn't sleep quite as well but those have been survivable. The past week he has been sleeping pretty good, he is getting up every three hours to eat still. So mom still gets a little tired here and there. It is nice to have so much time off of work, there is noway I am ready to be anywhere by 8:00am. I have a hard time getting out of the house by Noon right now. I am sure that once Carter starts sleeping longer at night that I figure out how exactly to get myself and a baby out the door by a certain time. For now I am taking advantage and trying to just sleep as long as he does in the morning.

We took Carter in for his 2 week appointment last week and he weighed in at 6 lbs 6 Oz and at 20 inches long. We asked the nurse, you mean he grew 2 inches in two weeks, she said no, that the hospital doesn't usually get the best of measurements right after they are born. So he was probably closer to 20 inches instead of the 18 they measured at birth. They were happy with his progress since he is back over his birth weight but still pretty tiny! He is slowly looking like he is putting meat on his bones. It is hard to tell when you see him all day every day though. Below are a few of the pictures we have taken over the past couple of weeks.

After bath time...if you think he is asleep he is not, I just put in his bink and when he is really upset and crying this is what he looks like once that bink is in place.

McKay has discovered that he'll latch onto his nose if he is really hungry.

I guess he is still pretty skinny by the looks of this picture. You can see Grif at the top of this picture smelling him. The dogs still like to smell him a couple of times a day, or whenever someone comes over and holds him.

McKays Fire Captain and his wife came down last week on their Harley's, they thought Carter was so small he could fit in one of their saddle bags so we tried it out and he fit perfect.

He seemed pretty content once inside too. No worries they didn't drive anywhere with him in there. This is his Captain's wife's Harley, it was pretty nice. It actually made me think twice about not wanting McKay to have one. It would be fun to have, it may even be fun to learn to ride one myself!! Maybe when I am a little older....oh and we have the money to get some sort of bike.

Well things really are going well! I just had my first 2 days without McKay or my parents around, he went to work this week. It went really well actually. By the second day it was routine just like before I had a kid. Now I have the company of Carter, Griffin and Miles while McKay is away. It isn't so bad. :)

The home coming

2008-09-04T15:09:00.002-06:00

I didn't add these to the last post because it takes to long to upload pictures, so I'll slowly add them as time and alertness allows. So we made through week 1 pretty well. So far Carter just eats, sleeps and poops. Not so bad. I have been really tired the last day or two. I thought I was feeling up to some closet cleaning and a walk to Ripples which is just one block away yesterday but it did me in. I am still extra tired today, I guess I didn't realize how much the whole c-section, lack of sleep, caring for a new little one can take out of you! I can't wait to at least be past the effects of the c-section so I can at least get out for walks in the nice weather we are having right now. Anyway below are some pictures of Carters home coming and meet and greet with Griffin and Miles.

When we got home I came inside first since I had been gone for 4 days I thought it would be better if I came in and gave the dogs a little attention before McKay brought Carter in.

We just set him down and let them sniff things out. It is really amazing how dogs can be different when a baby is around. They would sniff him all over, and still do, but they never try to lick him. If anyone knows Griffin they know that he tries to lick anyone that will let him. I have been impressed with the fact that he has not once done that with Carter.

Time for the full evalution.

Of course Miles being Miles lost interest faster than Grif...I am sure there was some fly sworm he had to attend to. They still have to sniff Carter out once or twice a day.

Just another sweet picture of our little boy. I just can't get enough of him, as tiring as this whole thing is, it is the best thing ever! Thankfully my parents are still here helping out, McKay went back to work yesterday, so it has been nice to still have some help!!

Speaking of that little boy he just yelled out for me, so back to the grind.

New Edition to the Wadsquad: Carter Adam

2008-09-01T19:21:00.004-06:00

On August 27th at 2:38 a.m. we were blessed with the arrival of Carter Adam: all 6 lbs., 18 inches of him. He looked all gooey and gross at first and daddy wanted to throw him back because he was such a small one. However, the nurses quickly cleaned him off and under all that afterbirth was love at first sight. Like a butterfly emerging from a cacoon, a cute little boy emerged from something so alienesque. Denene and I are in for a grand adventure. Mommy's doing great so far, but daddy has a hard time with the diapers. When it's time for changing, every time without fail, daddy removes the old diaper just in time for Carter to switch on the pump and UH OH! FULL ALERT!pepe everywhere! I think he's going to be a fireman like daddy. Come to find out, sometimes the small fish are keepers! Carter Adam welcome to the family!

McKay wrote the above so I am just going to add in some pictures. We are so happy to have Carter here with us. He is so cute and so sweet, we just can't get enough of him. He is worth the sleepless nights. For those that don't know I ended up having to have a C-Section because of some blood pressure issues that came up last week and then Carter's heart rate started to drop with each contraction I had. Thank goodness I have a great doctor that wanted to ensure that Carter got here as healthy as possible and he decided a c-section was the best way to achieve that. It is a lot to recover from but so worth a healthy, happy little guy.

Below are various we have taken over the past week

The dogs are doing great with the whole transition...they are just a little sleep deprived like us.

Dad and Carter...my two handsome guys!

This is to give everyone an idea of how little our little guy is.

Naked Carter...my sister Erika took a lot of these pictures while she was here and they turned out so good!!! Thanks Erika!

Side profile

Hi everyone I am so happy to be here with my mom and dad!!!

Carter right after they got him breathing...he scared us for the first few moments.

Everyone wanted a prego picture of me...well thank goodness I had McKay take one last weekend or I wouldn't have had one to share. This is me three days before Carter arrived.

I love this pic he looks like a frog!

Carter is looking a little grey, the nurses took him from us at this point to get him more oxygen. This is our first family picture with me still getting worked on, on the operating table.

Final picture for now...Carter one day old.

Thanks for everyone that has been so kind to help us on our little adventure. We are excited to keep you up to date with the going ons of the Wadley family. We are truely blessed. I have been so lucky to have 3 of my 4 sisters come this week as well as my parents. With the c-section it has been so nice to have them here helping with laundry, baby, meals and advise.

Progress...

2008-08-19T11:47:00.002-06:00

Hi all...I know some people maybe checking this for updated pictures but as usual McKay and I don't really ever take pictures and to be honest I HATE all pictures of myself right now. I am sure most of you that have been this pregnant before can understand. For those of you that didn't really put on much weight, you may feel different and good for you for having some level of self control. I haven't turned down a sweet in months so you can imagine. :)
Anyway we are a little over two weeks away at this point. I am having weekly appointments now but this week they didn't "check" me so I don't really have anything to report as far as if I am dilated and all that. I don't really care to be checked for that sort of thing so if they don't ask me, I don't ask them. It is a great set up! Some people may want to know every week about their progress, but I have known people that go in and their doc says nothing is really going on and they end up having their baby that week. Then I know people that walked around dilated to a 3 for weeks and still don't have their baby until after their due date. So for me I am not so concerned. At this point if I could bet on it I would bet on going over. My two sisters that had boys first were over due by 2 weeks, well one was actually 18 days...YIKES! Good thing my doc won't let it go past a week over...the bad thing he won't induce any earlier either. :( So if this little guy doesn't come on his own, we'll have him around the 11th or 12th of Sept. I still like to go with the 4th in my head though, I haven't given up on that yet.
We still have no name...not even an official top three. I have always been a procrastinator, but I always thought that we would have something figured out by now. Oh well. Hopefully we can come up with something before we leave the hospital.
Well maybe if you are lucky I'll just take a picture of the belly progress with out my chubby face and post it. If not I'll post a pic of me in 6 months hopefully back to my regular self. :) J/k

McKay's Triathlon

2008-07-29T09:40:00.002-06:00

So McKay competed in his first Triathlon over this past weekend in Burley, Idaho. It is called the Spudman. It was a lot of fun to go up there with him and watch him participate. He did really well, especially for his first one. He finished in 2 hours and 22 minutes and I think he came in 27th in his age group, or something close to that, out of just under 200 people, so not too shabby I'd say. I don't know how he did over all, there were just under 2000 people who raced. McKay had so much fun he thinks he'll do another in a couple of weeks up in Ogden. So for those that don't know I believe there are 3 levels a Triathlons, the full, Olympic and Sprint. This one was the Olympic, so he swam 1 mile, then biked 24 miles and ran 6 miles. Most people know how great McKay and I are at always forgetting to bring our camera with us. Well when we were in Portland we did buy a new camera and I have recommitted myself to remember to take it with us. So we did not forget but when I pulled the camera out at McKay's first transition area and tried to take a picture I discovered that our battery was dead. Doesn't it figure??? I guess we assumed it was charged up well enough since we have hardly used it since we got it. So we have no pictures of this great event to share, it is a little disappointing. All in all the weekend was good...we camped while we were up there. Some people might think what camping with less than 6 weeks left in your pregnancy?? It really isn't so bad. We had a good time so any sleep I lost was totally worth it. They did have an incident at this Triathlon; they lost someone in the swimming portion. I had already been down and watched McKay transition from the water to the bike so I knew where he was so I wasn't worried. But unfortunately there was a 60 year old man that went down and they didn't find him for 30 minutes, needless to say he did not make it. I saw them pull him out of the water, it was kind of disturbing and I'll be interested to see if they report how he died. The people that did see him go down say that he waved his hands in the air, yelled help once, and went under. Some are thinking it may have been a heart attack because he just went straight down. The water was so murky from the all the swimmers they couldn't find him even though they had people in the water looking for him with in 10 seconds of him going down. It was pretty sad and all of us sitting there watching them search and then find him were pretty sad. They never had anything like this happen before in the 22 years of this Triathlon.Well I have been tagged by a couple different people so I may try to log on a little later and get to those. I hope this post makes since I am so tired today I am not sure it does. Other than being tired today I really have been feeling pretty good...ready to be done with this whole pregnancy thing, but not quite ready for baby so I guess I'll take the discomfort for now.

Much love denene

July 16th...another year has passed

2008-07-16T18:34:00.005-06:00

July 16th….to some people it will just be another day in their lives. To me it will always be the day that I said goodbye to my only brother Adam Karl Hansen. It was three years ago today that we lost Adam to Cancer. A lot has happened in three years but not a day goes by that I don’t wish he were still here. I miss him so much but usually try not to dwell too much on his passing. I try more to remember all the good times that we had. I feel so blessed to have made the choice to move to Utah over 6 years ago, one major reason is of course I met McKay here and the other is that I was able to spend so much time with Adam the last three years of his life. Really I don’t know if I could have made the move had he not already lived here. The transition was a lot easier knowing that one of my siblings was just going to be living a few miles away.

This year I decided that instead of sitting at work on my computer looking at pictures and reading Adam’s Eulogy (yes I have it on my computer at work) getting all depressed, that I would do something a little better. So McKay had the day off and we went fishing all day. Last year we did this the weekend before the 16th, but I worked the 16th and it totally sucked. Anyway below are some fond memories of good times we had together and with the family.

Adam, Emily and I at good Ol' Bingham Copper Mine, who knew a mine could be so fun!

The last picture of the Hansen family all together was at my wedding.

This is Adam, McKay, Joe and William, with Olivia on the right. We were having a great day up Spanish Fork Canyon sledding with the fam!!

One of our favorite pass times watching BYU Football!!! Go Cougars!

So I just want to say that if they have blogs in heaven, I love you Adam and I miss you more than anything. You were a great brother and wonderful friend. Thank you for always being a great example to me, and everyone, of how important the gospel is to you and also how important it is to live it each day. I will continue to hold your testimony close in my heart because it still helps strengthen me today.

I know Adam hated country but the below song always makes me think of him and it does really state how I feel. This song hits me the hardest when McKay is gone all weekend I am out walking on a Sunny Sunday afternoon thinking, I really should be at my brothers house in Lehi visiting with him and his family.... It is called Who you'd be today by Kenny Chesney:

Who You’d Be Today – Kenny Chesney

Sunny days seem to hurt the most,
I wear the pain like a heavy coat,
I feel you everywhere I go.
I see your smile, I see your face,
I hear you laughing in the rain,
I still can’t believe you’re gone.

Chorus:
It ain’t fair you died too young,
Like the story that had just begun,
But death tore the pages all away.
God knows how I miss you,
All the hell that I’ve been through,
Just knowing no one could take your place.
Sometimes I wonder who you’d be today.

Would you see the world,
Would you chase your dreams,
Settle down with a family,
I wonder what you would name your babies.
Some days the sky’s so blue,
I feel I can talk to you
And I know it might sound crazy.

Chorus:
It ain’t fair you died too young,
Like the story that had just begun,
But death tore the pages all away.
God knows how I miss you,
All the hell that I’ve been through,
Just knowing no one could take your place.
Sometimes I wonder who you’d be today.

Today, today, todaaaaaaaayyyyyy.
Today, today, todaaaaaaaayyyyyy.

Sunny days seem to hurt the most
Wear the pain like a heavy coat
The only thing that gives me hope
Is I know, I’ll see you again some day.

Some day…some daaaaaayyyyyyy……

The last of our trip

2008-07-15T11:00:00.006-06:00

So I probably could have finished this the other day because now that I look back I didn't take very many pictures while in Portland. One of the days we were there we went to Multnomah Falls and hiked to the top with Erika, Grant, Ethan and Elle. It was a lot of fun and I only think I stopped twice on the way up. I thought that wasn't bad for a prego. Here are some of our pics from the trip:

McKay and Grant at the top of the Falls

Ethan and Elle at the top

The dogs and us at the top

McKay at the top

Griffin hanging out in the back of the car with Ethan.

The dogs wanted in on the action when we stopped at Crown Point, but they got to stay in the car on this stop. Erika took some good shots from the Falls and Crown Point with a real camera, we'll have to post those when she sends them to me some day. :)

McKay at Waterfront Park in front of the Hawthorne Bridge. One of the days we were in town McKay and I went downtown together. I love downtown Portland so it was so nice just to walk around my city! I miss it!

Just some ducks swimming down the Willamette River

The last from our trip right now. The dogs hanging out at my parents house watching McKay pack up the car I think. Miles looks like he maybe howling but no worries he is just about to catch some mean flies....got to love that Fly Catchers Syndrome of his! :)

___

Utah to Cali to Oregon

2008-07-11T08:27:00.011-06:00

So I am finally getting around to posting some of the pictures from our trip to the Redwoods and up the Oregon Coast. I believe I mentioned in my prior post that we had to use disposable cameras because we left our digital at home, so the quality of some of the pictures is not the best but better than nothing! We'll start with the Redwoods:

So the first night we drove to Winnemucca, NV and stayed in this really nice hotel that I booked for us.... oh wait no it wasn't nice and McKay said to me "maybe next time don't book the cheapest hotel you can find." I thought that I was being smart and thrifty, oh well we survived. The next morning we got up and drove all the way to the Redwoods. It took us the whole day. We camped at one of the camp grounds inside the Redwoods. It was so nice and each camp area is secluded because of the tree's and brush. We loved it! The next morning we got up took down our camp and did some exploring. Below are some of the pics from our day.

McKay Hugging one of those big tree's in the Redwoods

I don't know how we'll this one will post. Me and the dogs hanging out of the sunroof.

McKay on a big stump.

McKay and the dogs by a steam in the Redwoods, it was really pretty down there.

Just one of the dogs...Miles looks so thrilled in this picture! :)

So after our day at the Redwoods we started up the Oregon Coast. It was so beautiful and I didn't realize how much of the coast line you do get to see while you are driving. We stayed right on the Ocean for quite a while. That night we camped at Beverly Beach which is between Depot Bay and Newport if I remember right. The camp ground was not as good as the Redwoods, but it worked out for us. We enjoyed a nice windy walk on the beach that night and a great sunset!!

Shadows of us...this is the type of picture I like of myself these days. The rest you can see how fat my face is getting. :(

Even the dogs enjoyed the Ocean view.

It got pretty windy...just look at Griffin's face in the second picture; he really was ready to go. He kept making his little whining noise at this point until we left. And Miles just looks so cute! :)

Windy but don't you just love the Oregon Coast. It is so pretty!

A couple of other views. Me and the dogs and then if you look above you can see McKay on the other side of the weeds....I wonder what he was doing?? :)

Just another view.

Here we are our little family at Haystack Rock. I can handle that these pics aren't too large; it makes me feel a little better about posting ones with me in them.

So this is going to have to do it for this post. I'll post some of the other pictures I have just from being in Portland later. This already took way too long. But hey at least I am getting this caught up and up to date. The above pics are taken of us up above Manzanita Beach. I love this little look out it is so pretty!! Until next time....

New Home for our blog

2008-06-30T08:56:00.002-06:00

So I really think I am the last person I know to switch over to blogger. I am finally giving into the pressure from others! :) I haven't updated our old blog in a while. I think my last post was over a month ago and I couldn't even get my pictures to load right. Anyway so since that post, things have been continuing along well. I now have less than 10 weeks until my due date, which I cannot believe. I am afraid of these next 2 months going by a little too quickly. We have so much to do and after working all day I rarely feel like going home and getting any of these things done. I am hoping this three day weekend coming up will provide me with more time to get a few things organized around the house.
McKay and I headed out of town for about 10 days mid June. We drove out to California to go to the Redwoods and then drive up the Oregon Coast to Portland. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the leisurely scenic drive. We had the dogs with us too, they are great travelers and we love to take them with us when we are able to. We arrived in Portland on Fathers Day and got to spend the afternoon and evening with my whole family at Joe and Rachelle's for a Father's Day BBQ. It was great timing and so nice to see everyone as soon as we got into town. And it was great to actually be in town on Fathers Day, since we miss all holidays with my side of the family except Christmas and Thanksgiving every other year.
We stayed at my parents in St. Helen's and were able to make it to each of my sibling’s homes this time while we were in town. It was nice to be able to spend time with each of them and their families.
My sisters and my mom threw me my first baby shower which was great! Everyone was so generous and thoughtful with their gifts, it was a ton of help in getting us started with this whole baby thing, since up to that point we really had almost nothing. I just want to thank all my friends and family that showed up to the shower. It was so good to see everyone and get to visit with everyone. I miss living close to all of you and I miss the better friendships we had when I did live in town. I love when I come home, and I am able to see you, that it seems like no time has gone by since we last spoke. We are able to just pick up from where we last left off. Those are special friendships to me! So thank you! I don’t have our few pictures from the trip uploaded at this point. McKay and I left the camera at home and ended up buying some disposable cameras on our trip. I felt like I was back in middle school using those things. And no worries even if you buy the highest speed of film, the prints still suck when you get them developed. We had a few that turned out okay so when I get them uploaded to our computer I’ll post them.
Well I hope we (I) can keep up this blog a little better than my last one. You can thank Lora for this post since she called me out in her post as being the worst at updating everyone! :) Pictures to come soon!

Much Love,
denene