Maternity Photography

I keep forgetting to post these. Vanessa suggested that I do so since they turned out to be so beautiful.

I am very proud of these and so happy that we had them done. This was Cary's idea and a little token of our impending parenthood. What a gift it was, I hope someday McKinley will look back and realize how eagerly we anticipated his arrival and enjoyed being a pregnant couple. There were many other shots we did, but for some reason I cannot find them on the disk from the photographer. I'm seriously calling him tomorrow-we were promised all the pictures and the main one isn't even on there! HELLO?

In this picture, we were holding my belly and McKinley kept kicking where our hands were! Little stinker! Anyway, we got to giggling and the photographer shot the picture. We love it. My Dad would have really enjoyed this picture, he loved impromptu stuff...wish he were here with us. He is always here in spirit.

This day was so much fun for Cary and I. The perfect way to really reflect on the whole process we had been through and look forward to what lied ahead in just two weeks! We will definitely do this again next pregnancy!

Thanks for looking!

Lynn

Family Activities

Wow, we have had a busy month!
McKinley, Mom and I threw a surprise 30th birthday party for Cary on September 8th. What a success! Cary was so surprised and we had such a great time. His parents and brother and sister-in-law and nephews all came, as well as dear friends of ours and their children and a friend or two from the USPS. We had a great turn out and a lot of fun. Cary played like he was a kid with all those little boys running around-it was great to see.

That following Monday, McKinley had his very first shots. OMG, I thought I'd lose it. All along I have thought I would be okay with this whole shot thing, I knew I'd be a little upset, but I'd handle it. WRONG. Let's just say that the minute I realized that someone was intentionally inflicting pain on my son, albeit for good reason, I was in tears and the fangs came out. LOL. I controlled myself and my Mom was a huge help, especially since Cary was not able to take that day off. Whew.
McKinley recovered quickly and we had much fun afterward visiting my former co-workers at the hospital. He was such a good sport!

Let's see, that week we also lunched with Diane, Joan and Mom, went shopping with 'Aunt Sara' and did lots of laps down Ohio Blvd. We had a great week. Cary and I took advantage of Mom offering to watch McKinley for a few hours while we went to dinner and out to the Oktoberfest for a short time. Hey, hey, Mommy even had a Margarita!!! It was nice to get out for a bit and see Jodi and Jill, but it was also so nice to get home and be with my boys.

This weekend was packed as well...McKinley and I spent Saturday helping Mom cook for the Meng's 40th anniversary party Saturday night (McKinley is quite the cook...ha ha!). Cary, McKinley and I attended the party and had a great time. Mom, again offered to give us a little time to run around the party to visit with some of the guests, she watched McKinley along with several of her sorority sisters while we toured Dennis' new cottage.
On Sunday, we got brave. Seeing how McKinley is past his colic (THANK YOU, GOD), we decided to venture to church for 11 o'clock mass. For the entire hour McKinley was an angel (I knew he was!) and didn't make a peep! That's our boy! Afterward we went to lunch and did some shopping together.
Speaking of church, I am happy to report that McKinley's baptism is scheduled for Sunday, October 7th following 11 o'clock mass. We are very excited for this occasion and look forward to the start of McKinley's religious life.

Oh! Forgot the best part of these past few weeks since I last posted: McKinley's smile has gotten so big! And he laughs at us now! Its this precious gurgle that will melt your heart. He's all gums and so proud of it.

More fun activities planned for this week! Updates soon...as well as surprise party pictures.
Lynn

Little Getaways

Well, I'm happy to report that the Vernon Family has survived TWO weekend getaways! The second weekend we did it without help!

Two weeks ago Cary and I made our annual trek to Noblesville to see Dave Matthews Band in concert. This is a very special trip that we have shared together since we began dating in 1999, this year was no exception, we knew despite recently giving birth that it was important to us to attend as usual. Thankfully, Mom offered to come with us and stay with McKinley while we lived it up at Deer Creek (I just can't call it Verizon Wireless Music Center-it loses the personal touch). We booked a beautiful hotel suite and headed off!

The evening was great, the concert was one of our top 5, for sure and Nonna (Italian for Grandmother) and McKinley had a wonderful evening of bonding. We even did a little shopping the following day while in Indianapolis-at Babies R Us, of course!

That went so well that Cary and I decided to take full advantage of the 3-day Labor Day weekend and got outta Dodge. We stayed in Columbus for the weekend and shopped our heads off at Edinburgh Outlets (one of our favorite destinations!). We were both a little apprehensive about going overnight, in a hotel by ourselves, but our little monkey was an angel. Well...almost an angel. He did decide to try to stay awake until almost 3a.m., God forbid he miss anything! He'd fall asleep and then wake himself back up and repeat the process until he gave up-THEN he slept like a little, tiny log. It was funny.

I'm so glad that we took the opportunity and got away for a weekend. This new parenting stuff is a 24/7 job! LOL, duh...we knew that. Cary and I are so used to spontaneously going on an adventure and we don't want to lose that quality in our relationship, I'm so proud that we actually did the whole overnight thing already! Not to even mention the crazy shopping!!!! We cleaned out Carter's!!!

Oh, yeah...and now Cary's THIRTY!!!! Have I mentioned that? Just teasing, I just cannot believe we are there already. Here is a pic of Daddy and McKinley on Daddy's special day!

Until next time...

Lynn