Pumpkin Patch

Well, our favorite pumpkin-getting locale is not open this year. We are so upset, we've gone there for years! Instead, this year we were forced to travel a little further down the highway to get our 'punkin's. While we were there we did a small photo shoot of our sweet little boy and his first trip to the patch. We got some really precious pictures...and then we got some whoppers. Bless his heart, he was sleepy, but a real trooper!

Beautiful poem

I just got this in an email. Its beautiful and is EXACTLY what has been going through my head since McKinley came into our lives!

Before I was a Mom I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. I never thought about immunizations. Before I was a Mom -

I had never been puked on. Pooped on. Chewed on. Peed on. I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. I slept all night. Before I was a Mom I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. Or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep. Before I was a Mom I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put him down.

I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt. I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom. Before I was a Mom - I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.

I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.

I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy. Before I was a Mom - I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom. I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.

Kind of sad...won't make this a habit

Shortly after my Dad, died a friend who had also lost her Dad at an early age told me that at random moments for the rest of my life, I would have that awful pang of pain and loss come rushing back to surprise me at the most inopportune times. Such was the case tonight.

For our wedding anniversary, my Mom gave us a gift certificate to Red Lobster (thank you, Mom!). We decided to make it a family outing this evening...ends up this was a real task. McKinley was being particularly persnickety by fighting sleep like the trooper he is (that boy just does not want to miss a thing!), we were both forced to leave the table to console him and woo him back to sleep. This is the first time we've had a situation like this to deal with while out in public. I kept thinking, "Mmmm, cold shrimp!"

Well, that's just not the stuff that matters, moments like this one matter; during my turn to leave the table, I took McKinley outside to get him away from the chaos in the restaurant. I stood outside and swayed back and forth with him, whispering in his ear and kissing him to comfort him. A man stood outside also, smoking a cigarette (don't worry, he was far enough away we couldn't even smell the smoke). Well, I didn't think a thing of being out there, doing my new-mommy thing. When the man was finished with his cigarette, he slowly walked toward me, stopped and said, 'Ma'am?' By the way, guess I'm officially a ma'am now, not a Miss, huh? 'Ma'am? I mean no offense by this, nothing other than...I just wanted you to know that you two make a beautiful picture. There is nothing like seeing a new mom and her baby. Its beautiful to see.'

I thanked him and he went back inside.

Well, until now I didn't give it much thought. Then, as I'm rocking McKinley tonight I started to think about Dad (as I usually do at this time, for some reason-guess its the quiet within those moments?), the man popped into my head. It hit me that my Dad won't ever witness the moment that this random man at Red Lobster witnessed with me and my son tonight. I mean, I know he's there in spirit with me ALL the time, I believe that, but he's not HERE. He does not have the luxury to see his daughter hold his grandson! That is something I hope I don't have to miss some day.

There are some stressful things going on in my life right now, things and issues that have really been working on me, who doesn't have that, right? Well, it made those two online classes and that list that didn't get done today and that phone call that I never received seem so trivial. It isn't those things that matter. What matters most is the people around us that we love and how good we choose to make our lives. Life is just too short to sit and worry about these little things that aren't going to matter in three or four weeks time, or better yet...when we're 90. Its the stuff like the moment I had that make our lives so special! Like thinking about my late Dad while holding my beautiful little boy, knowing he won't get to do what I am doing, but being so grateful for the people I still have in my life that make it so good.

So, if you're one of those people, THANK YOU!!!! ;-)

Sorry to get sappy...it just made me think. Made me think about all those stupid things I need to just forget! Made me think of what Cary and I created and what we love with all our hearts!!!!!

Lynn

Silly fun pics of our boy

We have taken lots of pictures of McKinley and his new faces and tricks over the last week or two. So fun!

1) Chillin' on Mommy & Daddy's bed while watching us fold laundry...exciting, huh?

2) & 3) Playing on the activity mat, lots and lots of fun! Look at that laugh!

4)Awaiting a change on the changing table, its his favorite time to talk.

5)Cat napping with Daddy

6)'Talking' to Mommy while leaning on the Boppy

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 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

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.

7 Weeks ago today...

Its so hard to believe that McKinley is already 7 weeks old! OMG! He is growing so much and so quickly and it just breaks my heart! This is the sweet smiling face I was greeted with this morning, on his 7 week b-day.

We've had a busy week with many new things happening! He is very much recognizing people, he has been for a while, but now he's starting to react to us. He will raise his eyebrows to us and widen his eyes, I even got a SMILE the other day! It is so exciting.

During 'tummy time' McKinley has begun to reach out for the toys on his playmat as opposed to just lying there. He will even reach out to us now when we hold him, feed him or change his diaper.

AHHHH, but this is by far the biggest accomplishment; McKinley is finally enjoying his bath!!! Cary and I could do backflips we are so happy to have the 'happy boy' during bath time. It is so cute-he absolutely loves the spray hose at the kitchen sink and when we spray him with it while bathing him in his little tub, he is practically giddy.

Fun news for Cary and I: we finally got our first family portraits back! We also finally got the beautiful maternity photography that Cary had set up for us. I'm so happy to have these to display now, I'm sharing some of them here. The one of Cary and McKinley makes me cry, its so touching. Those are my boys!

Also, today is Cary's last day as a twenty-something. He turns the BIG

3-0 tomorrow and I think this will be his best birthday yet because he'll be sharing it with his son. Just for clarification purposes, I still have a whopping nine months until my final walk in the twenty-something sun...

Lynn

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

McKinley's first feeding, courtesy of Daddy! Mommy was totally out of it-still heavily sedated.