As promised...

We have had some packages arrive in the mail recently and I have used that as an opportunity to let Griff make some art projects. Really more like getting the kitchen covered in packing peanuts, but he did have fun painting and gluing them to a piece of paper, until he realized that throwing them in the air was much more enjoyable.

His final product is being proudly displayed on the fridge.

The other project that we worked on was also painting, he calls it a garbage truck, but as you can see we have his monster truck of many colors hanging in the window.

Oh, how fun cooking is...

With the persuasion of me, (to keep him occupied long enough so he doesn't want to "hug" McKenna all the time, which means to lay on top of...) and due to the fact that is just too hot here to go out, I have enlisted the assistance of Chef Griffin in helping me around the kitchen. He has helped me with unloading the dish washer, making banana bread, pancakes and most recently fruit salad. For the fruit salad he was in charge of taking the grapes off the vine and putting them in the bowl. It was a 1 to 3 ratio. For every one that got in the bowl, 3 went in his mouth. I couldn't put the rest of the fruit in the bowl fast enough as he took as much out and I put in, it was fun afternoon. He keeps asking to put lettuce in it...

As you can see some of the grapes made it into the final product.

We have been working on some very cool art projects as well to help the days go by, we will be introducing our masterpieces in the next installment...

Family Picture

We had our picture taken over the weekend at Tim's Edward Jones event. I hope that you love it as much as I do. Enjoy...

Our weekend

This weekend we were at the summer regional event held every year by Edward Jones. We were able to stay at the Westin Kierland Resort on Edward Jones. Tim was in meetings in the morning, and then we got to hang out in our nice room, the pool and with Grandma and Grandpa Carroll. Joe and Julie came in for the weekend to meet McKenna and spent time with us. They took both kids Saturday night so Tim and I could attend the final night dinner which is the award ceremony and sit down dinner. Most importantly for me, it is adults only. Yeah, real conversation, not that I don't enjoy all my talks with Griffin but it is nice to sit down and engage in full and comprehensive thoughts.

Griffin had a great time at the pool, splashing and jumping off the side and playing in the fountains. There was also tons of sand, so he was busy getting dirty in that. We had a hard time getting him out.

And of course I can't forget about my babies first appearance at the pool, Diane this is for you :)

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time we remembered what a Saturday used to feel like. After a long week of work and craziness, Saturday would come around. Saturday used to be a day when we would look at the clock around the time we would normally get up Monday through Friday, realize it was Saturday and roll over and sleep until 9, 10 and sometimes even 11. It was like a small way to reward ourselves for making it through the week.

Now Saturdays have become just another day. Our children do not yet realize the power that Saturdays hold. When McKenna wakes up at 5:45 because she is hungry, and then Griffin wakes up at 6:15 because it's "bright light out, Mama." So that means that we are up for the day. It is like God's way of rewarding us for making through Monday through Friday without killing our children, He gives us a few extra hours to spend with them, bright and early on a Saturday morning. Thanks God, we appreciate it.

On a different note, McKenna is four weeks old now. She is beautiful and she knows it.

Art Class

Today Griffin and I ventured into the world of sidewalk chalk. He had an absolute blast, well I think that it was more fun for him to break all the pieces of chalk, but he is my little artist. We started at 7:30 in the morning and he wanted to go out and color just about every 1/2 hour for the rest of the day. Yeah for me... At least it was only about 99 degrees out today.

Sharing...

Every day I more surprised by the personality that is emerging from Griffin. He has this very goofy and comedian like side, where we can sit for hours and he makes both Tim and I laugh. On the other hand, he has this very caring and soft side. Every time that McKenna cries he runs up to her and tells her "Its okay, McKemma (as he usually calls her), its okay." The other thing that he wants to do is share everything with her. The funny thing is that he always asked permission to share toys.

One day I was in the kitchen and McKenna was in her swing and Griffin came into the kitchen and asked if he could share his car with her. He was holding this little blue match box car. I told him yes, but when I walked around the corner to check on them both because it was quiet, I realized that he wanted to share ALL his cars with her. How thoughtful...

A few days later it was blocks...

I know that deep down she really appreciated it.

Now the fun begins

After a very stressful few weeks leading up to the birth of McKenna the drama just seemed to get better. Griffin was hospitalized for the second time this year with pneumonia and asthma problems. His stays was a full seven days this time, two weeks prior to my due date. All the doctors and nurses were trying to get us out because the hospital we were at didn't deliver babies. He was released on April 30 so thankfully I had to time to tie up loose ends and get him to all his follow-up appointments. He is doing great now, we had him allergy tested, which had been a culprit to his problems as he seems to be allergic to everything. Cats, dogs, nuts, grass, dust mites, to name a few. He is also seeing a pulmonologist, but is doing a lot better.

After being 4 days past my due date, I was done being pregnant, so we made to decision to get induced. We checked into hospital on Thursday, May 10, and at 11:00 am the doctor came in to break my water. The medicine started at 11:05, my first contraction was at 11:12 and then the drama began. All of a sudden the nurse called for help and the strapped an oxygen mask on me and 5 other nurses came running in. Then they paged for my doctor "stat". All of this was going on when Tim left the room to go get something to drink. After a few minutes and not understanding what was going on, one of the nurses explained that the babies heart rate had drastically dropped during my contraction and they couldn't get it back up. The doctor came in and she was still in distress. Tim finally made his way back in the room when he saw my doctor run down the hall and go into my room. They took us back to the operating room for an emergency c-section and McKenna Gwyneth Carroll was born at 11:37 am. Everything happened so fast, I didn't really even have time to breathe. But all that to say she is fantastic and I am doing great. She was 7 lbs. 12 oz. and 21 in. long. Griffin is loving being a big brother and wants to hold and kiss her all the time.