BIG BOY CLOTHES

This past weekend, Dennis has had a couple of occasions to dress up in real outfits not just pj's. The first one is his first day going to church... he wasn't so happy that we left early. This second picture was right before his "Welcome to the World Party". He is totally decked out right down to his shoes.

Dennis and I are going to Florida tomorrow...We will miss you, daddy!

Obama

With the elections coming soon, I have been doing some research on the candidates (very much inspired by Andrew Marshall) and found this interesting article that I thought I would share with all of you. I have a hard time gathering all of the information and forming my own opinion so I think this article sums it up as good as I ever could. I also have a tendency to not talk about politics with people mostly because I generally lean left and most people I interact with lean right. I am not a good debater and lots of times I am unable to support what I think with those around me, but this rarely changes my views. One of my biggest pet pieves is when people vote party and not person- its like saying, "I'm catholic because I was born catholic" or "I'm mormon because I was born mormon".

http://thinkinginamarrowbone.wordpress.com/2008/02/08/why-mormons-should-consider-backing-obama/

With this article in explanation, hopefully I will not hear any responses like I have in the past when talking of politics, "are you mormon? and you lean left?" Yes, and I am not the only one. Like Andrew, I totally respect you and your views as long as you have done your own research and picked the best candidate for you.

hungry much? or is it pure butter?

So, Dennis went to the doctor today for his 2nd Hep B shot and I asked them to weigh him just for fun. With his clothes and dirty diaper on, he weighed 8 lbs 8 oz!!!!! On average he is gaining almost 2 oz a day! He definately was going through a growth spirt yesterday. I didn't get a single thing done because Dennis didn't sleep. eat, burp, eat, burp... I was surprised that I was still producing... I wonder if I am turning into a cow. I could win at the state fair.

I tried to capture him dreaming of eating but I never could get it on film. Here is a video of his peaceful sleep (thank heavens he slept today- we needed groceries!)

"1 day old"

Yesterday was supposed to be when Dennis was born. We were so busy that we forgot to take pictures yesterday so I took some today. First, here is what Dennis looked like the first time that we saw him (not in the OR). Here he is the following morning when we woke up.
Here he is today...

I feel very blessed to have had an extra 7 weeks with my newborn baby.

Our sweet setup: So that I don't go insane, Ryan and I have set up a routine where I go to bed around 8:00 and sleep through Dennis's 12:00 feeding and wakeup to Dennis's cries after that. Some nights I sleep until 4:00! That's 8 hours of sleep. Some nights however, I don't go to sleep until 10:00 or 11:00 and then have to get up at 1:30 like this morning. That's only 3 hours. It's very flexible, and I am sooooo grateful for those 8 hour nights. Hopefully, we will be able to get Dennis to sleep through the night before I go back to work. Here are a couple of pictures of

Ryan's daddy time with Dennis.

This one was taken in the day but this would not be unusual for the middle of the night. Ryan plans to wake up to Dennis by sleeping right next to him in a different room, closing the doors in between. But, I will always wake up before Ryan if he falls asleep.

We didn't manage to get a picure of pappa and Dennis in the last blog-Aren't they handsome!

The Funks

We had Ryan's mom, dad and sister come out to visit these past few days and boy did we have fun. Dennis had lots and lots of lovins... and so did Buster.

Here is a picture of Kristen getting some quality time in with her new nephew, who is sporting the cute outfit that she picked out.

The first day we went to the zoo. This is my favorite part- the hippos.
Kevin, Maree and Kristen went up in the arch...
...while Dennis and I waved from below.
We found the best spot to take pictures infront of the arch. I have spent hours and hours hanging out on the river front watching people attempting to find the best picture taking spot of the arch... not because I was a river bum, but because I used to drive the horse carriages. For all of those that will be going to the arch, have the people stand on the bench accross the street and the camera man crouched down. You too can have such a marvelous picture as this.
We ran into all of my carriage buddies... and Jeff gave us a wonderful ride around downtown with Larry. Dennis's favorite spot was the climatron in the Botanical gardens. Dennis was wide eyed and hanging around.
Ryan loved feeding the huge carp in the Japanese gardens. While watching the fish for quite a while, a group of kids came up and I heard one say, "holy carp". I had to laugh. Thank you for such a wonderful visit, Nonnie & Pappa!

Emily Southerland Photography

Our amazing friend is a great photographer. On our first week of being home from the NICU Emily came over and took some great pictures of Dennis. She said to pick a time of day when Dennis is usually sleepy. Well, at that point it was different everyday. We obviously didn't pick the right time... but they turned out well anyways. Near the end of the photo shoot, Dennis started to get cold (he didn't have much fat at that point) so I fed him and wrapped him up after some "kangaroo care" (skin to skin contact) and then he fell asleep.

To see more of Emily's work, you can go to her website.

She does any kind of setting not just babies.

General Conference

A few images from the Saturday & Sunday sessions

Happy 1 month!

Dennis went to his doctor's appointment today. He now weighs 5lbs 14.5oz. He gained almost a pound in the past week! IMPRESSIVE. When we got home, Dennis took a snooze on the couch proud of his accomplishment. "Soon they won't call me tiny", says Dennis. This was the best Birthday present ever. I read in my gardening book early this summer how to grow red peppers. All the books that I read in said that it was nearly impossible to harvest good red peppers- that they were really finicky plants. We planted some with hopes to find a good experience... maybe some ideas for a better crop in future years. Mostly with the travel that we did and our frequent medical visits our gardens were ignored. Were we ever surprised when we found that ignoring them was the best thing we could have done! We have had 3 good red peppers so far with hopes of more to come. On the other hand, our squash plants turned into squat because of our neglect. And, tomatoes always turn out OK.