Jam Session...Preschool Style

A sweet treat arrived in my inbox last night...some adorable photos of McKinley from Miss Kymberli and a little message telling us how he totally lights up at music time!

I think Cary and I both take credit for this wonderful love of music...this kid has been listening to everything from Justin Timberlake, John Mayer and Dave Matthews to Smetana, Bach and Tchaikovski from the time he was in the womb! We even throw in some curve balls like Lady Gaga & Snoop Dogg (clean versions, of course...). Ha! I remember being pregnant (really pregnant) and being in church while our church singer, Kathy would grace us with her gorgeous voice. McKinley would kick the beegeezus out me! He LOVED it even then!

Anyway, it means so much to us that McKinley's teachers take the time to capture what each of their children are doing during the week and send photos out to the parents. Since this is McKinley's very first experience away from us for a scheduled length of time through the week, it is so important to us that we still get to see what's going on. It is wonderful to know that McKinley is so happy where he is...I know from experience that this is half the battle in successful education.

Lynn

Preschool pics!

I'm so excited!
I just checked my email and discovered a fun little treat from Miss Kymberli, McKinley's preschool teacher in my inbox. She and Miss Lori captured some very sweet moments of McKinley's first day of school. When I saw them tears came to my eyes. It means so much for us to be able to SEE and hear so much about what McKinley does everyday, and these little updates via email are precious and treasured.

Can't wait to see what else is to come!

Lynn

Lynn

Weekend in Btown

This weekend we hit Btown for a wedding and a photo shoot!

Cary's cousin Melissa got married on Saturday, so we came down for the wedding and reception. It was a beautiful ceremony and always a good time at a Vernon reception! My favorite part of the reception was when the entire Vernon Family (the siblings and Grandma V) boogied on the dance floor to Wooly Bully. Grandma always tells us that their home life was so hard that she always tried to lighten the mood and make her children smile and good old fashioned dancing was the way she did it! I love watching all the 'kids' get up there and dance with their Mom - who is now in her 80's and can still cut a mean, mean rug!

After our fun evening, we headed back to Mammy & Grandpa's house for the night. Cary had a tee time and McKinley had a date with Wendi from In Bloom Photography. I know Cary had a good time, but McKinley and I had a BLAST! It was so fun to watch McKinley & Wendi interact and 'play' in front of the camera. I saw, first hand, some of the shots as they were being taken and I literally do not think I can wait for the proofs. And little did McKinley know that his buddy Wendi had a great, old, junky fire truck waiting for him to oooh and ahhh over! How COOL is that?

SO FUN!

Thank you Wendi for an awesome morning!

Great trip to Btown!

Lynn

Lots of Snow...and being sick

On Wednesday night we were officially 'hit' with our first snow storm of '10. It's GORGEOUS!!!!! However, it's slick, there's a LOT of it and we are all sick. Again.

It seems despite our constant, usually effective efforts to ward off germs we have again lost the battle. We lysol the house, clean with vinegar and water, use anywhere spray on handles, phones, etc, handwash like crazies, and back it up with occasional anti-bac lotion. Yet still, I personally have been sick - NONSTOP - since the end of November and McKinley & Cary have already been sick TWICE in less than a month. WHAT IS UP? Grrrrrr.

Trying hard to not focus on that and just enjoy being home with my two favorite men, but I'm so tired of doing it with a nasty cough, shortness of breath and a clogged up nose! ENOUGH ALREADY!

In the meantime, I have managed to take some super cute pics lately...it's hard to believe in a few short days McKinley will officially be 2 and a HALF!

Here's hoping this junk we all have melts with the snow...

Lynn

McKinley's first baby-friend, Lila!

Here are the pictures from the much-anticipated "McKinley meets Lila" day. We had so much fun watching them interact. Neither had ever seen another baby before!








1)Vanessa, Lila, Me & McKinley
2)The initial 'paci stealing' incident-funny!!!
3)McKinley sucks on his shirt so that his new friend, Lila can enjoy his paci





4) McKinley gives us a look like, 'Really? This is just SO exciting!!!!"





5)"Look, Ma! I made a friend!"

A Week of Madness and LOTS of pics!

WOW, I am so relieved that last week and weekend are O-V-E-R.

Sufice to say, its amazing that we all made it through.
On our way home from a golf tournament in Bloomington last Wednesday, Cary came down with the flu. Oh my, what a flu bug it was. Poor guy. I felt so bad for him. The good news was that his team tied for first in the tourney, but I don't think Cary got to revel in the glory for long. He remained weak and in bed through Saturday evening, when he finally felt like getting up for a while. I'm happy to say he has made a full recovery and would also like to HIGHLY encourage everyone I know to get their flu shots this year-you don't want this stuff, trust us.

McKinley and I did manage to go along with some of our plans for Saturday since Cary was at least past the worst of his sickness. We headed to Race for the Cure with Mom and had a SUPER time! I'm very proud to announce that my son has made his television debut as well. While we were walking along (McKinley in my arms) the Race path a camera crew from one of our local news stations caught us in his camera sights! We were on there for but a brief moment, but so sweet!

The Race is always a special day that gives me many goosebumps. This year was no exception, and to share that with my little boy was so awesome. Next year he can WALK!!!! That'll be so fun!

We decided not to go to the wedding that followed Race. We were too tired from all the chaos that went on in our home, so we headed home and Mommy, Daddy and McKinley took MUCH needed naps before heading off to Mom's to prepare all the food for Sunday's celebration brunch.

Speaking of Sunday, what a success it was! We had a beautiful day, so sunny and bright. However, it was pretty miserable...I think it hit 90 degrees. St. Ben's is NOT air conditioned, so yuck...it was pretty sticky in there.

McKinley looked so sweet in his little white short suit. I know he was boiling hot, but he was the perfect angel and didn't make a peep. We had a beautiful ceremony, with the exception that Father Joel was certainly in a hurry. We were really disappointed in the manner in which he conducted things, but there is nothing we can do about it now! He didn't even stop long enough to take a picture with us. What a disappointment. We did express to the Religious education director how we felt about the ceremony. She agreed, so we felt better about complaining.

There were lots of people there to wish McKinley the best in the beginning of his religious life, it meant so much for us to have everyone there. We have named McKinley's godparents, who will guide him through this journey in his Catholic faith. Cary's brother, Michael agreed to be godfather, and my dear friend Vanessa agreed to be godmother (see picture to the left). Though Michael and his family could not make it due to previous plans with other family members, my Father-in-law, Mike stood in as proxy. We appreciate ALL of them for what they have done! Vanessa and her husband, Aaron and 7 month old, Lila were able to make the trip from Crown Point. It meant the world to us that they made the 2 1/2 hour drive to be here for McKinley's baptism.

After the ceremony we all went back to my Mom's house for a lovely brunch. It was so nice to see everyone kind of meld together, and all for this sweet little boy. It was certainly his day!

The CUTEST part of the whole thing was when McKinley made his very first baby-friend (see pics on new post). We sat him and Lila on the couch and they started interacting with grunts and squeals and rapid hand movements. So CUTE! I loved it when Lila leaned right into McKinley's face and yanked his pacifier and paci-clip right out from under his nose! She didn't want the paci, she only wanted to whirl it around like a lasso. McKinley seriously had this look on his face as if to say, "Women." but he was quite the gentleman and sat quietly watching his paci swing around and instead sucked on the collar of his shirt. Hilarious!

What a great weekend.

Today is Tuesday, Cary's and my 3rd wedding anniversary! I just can't believe how quickly 3 years have gone by. This year is extra special because we have our beautiful baby boy to celebrate with us. We are going to dinner tonight at a special restaurant and will exchange gifts and cards later. Happy Anniversary to US! Hee hee hee!

Here we are, on our wedding day and now the three of us at three years!

I have many pictures to post, ENJOY!!!!!

Lynn

October already?

Ohmigosh, I just cannot believe its October! Where the heck has 2007 gone? I'm SO not ready for the holiday season but this one is sure to be really good, no matter how fast it is coming. This is always one of the Vernon's most busy months out of the entire year and 2007 is proving to be no exception.

So far, this weekend alone brings 3 very big events; Race for the Cure, of which McKinley will be participating in for the very first time, a wedding of a family friend, again a first for McKinley, and finally McKinley's baptism on Sunday! We are really looking forward to this day as a new family and can hardly wait to share it with our extended family and friends. We even tried on his crisp white baptismal outfit tonight-SO CUTE!!! We have planned a brunch after mass and the baptism to be held at Mom's house. She and I will be cooking up a storm on Saturday in preparation. Lots of fun!

Other events this month include our 3rd anniversary on October 9th (THREE YEARS ALREADY!!! Time flies when you're havin' fun! Note: this is also Vanessa & Aaron's 3 year anniversary!), Covered Bridge Festival, shopping trip to Michigan City, McKinley's 3 month b-day and 3 month professional pictures, a family portrait booking and our very favorite, Halloween! On top of all of these things I will be balancing TWO online classes that will enable me to complete my core studies for my degree in management. I will be so glad when these classes are over...I am having a hard time picturing McKinley being time management oriented at 3 months of age...we'll see what happens.


Took a few new pictures of McKinley while he was napping over the weekend. It is so sweet to watch a baby sleep so peacefully.








McKinley has now begun really playing with a few toys that he is enjoying. He loves his cell phone (go figure-so does his Mommy) and his peacock, but most of all he loves to play with his Mommy & Daddy best. He gets SO excited and makes these precious cooing noises and we could SWEAR he's saying, 'HEY!' and 'La La La' and 'Oh!' and then he follows it all up with a big screech while taking a breath. He is also a very good story teller and particularly likes telling his exciting stories, complete with wide eyes and big hand gestures, on the changing table. He gets so excited, in fact, that his legs pump like he's doing a very fast country line dance and he gets himself so worked up in the story that he spits up a little! It is so funny!!!!! Now he is getting louder and more responsive to us and will give us that HUGE smile when we talk to him. I'm sure this is not the last time I will be saying this but he is SERIOUSLY so much fun! He cracks me up! I haven't laughed this much since before Dad died-it feels good to enjoy life so much again!

Happy October-my very favorite month!!!

Lynn

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 Pics!

Here they are...

Our first family portrait, I love it. Next, McKinley and Cary-this is by far my favorite picture. And finally, me and McKinley-which is so cute because it looks like we are talking.

Changes!

Wow, I just can't believe how quickly McKinley is changing already! Yesterday he smiled in recognition of my face for the first time. I'm sure glad he didn't cry when he saw my face! LOL. What a beautiful thing to witness! It brought tears to my eyes when I saw that he could recognize me and smile at me.

I also noticed today that when we talk to him, he tries to respond with the sweetest, Ahhh's and Ehhhh's. Its so sweet to hear what his voice will soon sound like.

I'm happy to report that McKinley has finally adjusted (crossing my fingers) to a formula. I never really believed he was 'colicky'...I always thought he had just been having a rough day or two and that perhaps our doctor jumped the gun in switching formulas in effort to help all three of us out. It turns out that formula was the worst yet for McKinley and he is very happy on the original stuff!

No worries though...our little monkey is thriving! According to our home scale he weighs in at almost ELEVEN pounds! He's not really chunky, but filling out nicely and is getting noticably longer.

Next week we will have our beautiful first professional portraits of McKinley Shane. Can't wait to share! In the meantime, here is the most recent photos. With his fussiness last week there was little time to take pictures, I promised myself we'd be better this week. Lots of great photo ops to come!

Lynn