Logan & Kaylei Pictures

Pictures of Logan & Kalyei from today's photo session:

Grammy in Heaven

Ignore the fact that I never look good without makeup, a straightener, and lots of photo editing...aren't those babies perfect!!!!

This picture was taken last weekend when we had our family photo session done. I was lucky enough to get to sleep with both the babies and it was wonderful! I haven't seen the pics yet, but Michael has seen a few previews while the wonderful Miss Amanda works on them. Check out her site if you get the chance...I'll post a picture or two as soon as I get them. She did an awesome job with the kids and everything else.

http://www.truelovememoriesphotography.com/

Yesterday, Rachel came over to visit with the kids. Michael made his famous signature homemade brownies, and I made my lasagna.

Logan enjoying Papa's brownie batter...he still had it in his eyebrow when I took him home!

Tomorrow, Logan comes for holiday visitation. I'll be picking up Chad, Jennifer, & Kaylei right after getting Logan tomorrow afternoon. I'm looking forward to having them all together again for awhile! I'm trying to look forward to the time with Logan and not focus on the fact that it's only until the end of December, but it's hard! So for now, one day at a time, with lots of pictures!!!

Logan!!!

Logan & Papa on the stairs. Logan loves the stairs, so we spend a lot of time sitting at the bottom to play with him & keep him from going up.

Logan & Grammy eating oreos on the stairs. This was the last day that he was here before leaving for Kentucky with his Daddy. Since the day Logan could take an oreo apart, he & I have sneaked off to eat only the centers of the entire package, then leave the "cookies" in the package like nothing ever happened. Of course, I'd NEVER let my kids do this, but he's my grand-baby! Nobody knew who was doing it but Logan & me (and I suspect that super sleuth Papa had an idea of who the culprit was). Well, this day, we outed ourselves and ate them on the stairs, sharing with No One! And I wonder where this giant boo-heiny comes from? Such a mystery...

In my previous post I mentioned that we were supposed to be leaving for Kentucky to get Logan on November 19 for his holiday visitation with Jennifer. Because her visits continue to be supervised, we were going to go get him for her. The greatest thing happened this week though! Rachel came home to visit her mom for a couple of weeks, so Logan is here NOW and we will be picking him up tomorrow and keeping him until Sunday evening!

Chad & Jennifer were going to come over Sunday afternoon to get Kaylei’s newborn portraits. Michael works with a nurse at the hospital that also does professional photography. She was going to come over Sunday to do Kaylei’s before she gets too big, then again in a few weeks to get the entire family all together and in different groups. Well, Micheala is coming home for a visit this weekend for the first time in a while, and Jennifer & Chad are coming for pictures, and Logan will now be here, so that only left Erica & the boys. Instead of doing two sets, we’ll instead now be doing one large session all at once! Jennifer, Chad, & Kaylei are coming tomorrow night to spend the night for some extra time with Logan. It will be the first time that we’ve had ALL of our kids & ALL of our grand-kids together at the same time! I can’t wait to see the amazing work that Amanda will be doing working with our family! Thanks, Amanda! We really appreciate it! These pictures have been almost 3 years in the making! I guess that’s what happens when your family grows this big. *sigh* I can’t wait! Can’t you tell with my much OVERUSED use of the exclamation point!!!!!! Yippee!!

This holiday season should be awesome!!!!!!!!

So Not Ready for the Move!!!

Kaylei w/ Papa's thumb

I wish I could say that the reason for my lack of blogging has been getting ready for the move and being oh-so-busy getting our other house ready to move to. I wish I could say that I’ve been filling my time with worthwhile activities that will further myself or my family in some way. Alas, no. The plain truth is that I’m LAZY!!! Oh, and I spent a few days in the hospital and just got home yesterday, but mostly, just sheer laziness.

So we're supposed to be moving back to NRH here in a couple of weeks. And then right away we're supposed to be leaving on the 19th to Kentucky to get little Mr. Logan! You know I’m so giddy I can hardly contain myself! I want everything to be done so that I can spend those 5 blissful weeks playing with him and all the new Melmo (Logan’s version of Elmo!) toys that I haven’t been able to keep myself from buying every time that I see them since he’s left. I want to just snuggle him all up and soak it up before he leaves again and we won’t see him until summer break. However, if I don’t get off of my giganti-sized boo-heiny soon and get started, well, this move won’t be over by itself! That in itself should be motivation enough! Can’t wait to introduce Logan to his sweet new baby sister Kaylei.

But here it is, just past noon, and I’m still in Michael’s t-shirt, snuggled up under the covers, watching him sleep. I could say that I’m still recovering from my stay in the hospital. I mean, I just got home yesterday. However, I’m feeling much better and could at least be working on that mountain of laundry out there or packing the boxes that I’ve come to realize are NOT self-packing, as I ordered them. Don’t have time to return them as defective, so I’d better get right on that. Right after the other 14 million pages of to do list in my notebook. Seriously, what is wrong with me? I know if I don’t get started, I won’t do it while Logan is here either. We’ll just play around all that mess, but who wants to go through the holidays that way. **Sigh** No matter how cute and snuggly my honey is, I guess watching him sleep will just have to wait.

Updates on the last week… We did see Kaylei the weekend before Halloween. Oh, and of course Jennifer & Chad, too. She’s so stinking cute! This coming weekend we’ll be getting her newborn pictures done. She had some done at the hospital also. You can see them at http://www.growingfamily.org/. Choose “Visit WebNursery,” then search by her info. She was born Oct 15 in Texas. First three letter of mom’s last name are Erv. YES she wanted people to be able to see her and to post the info. The dress is one that I bought for her a couple of months before. I can’t believe it fit at well as it did. Logan is going to be so excited to meet his sister. At least I hope! He does get fairly jealous when I hold other kids! He tells them that I’m HIS Grammy!

Halloween was good. Michael dressed up as McGruff the Crime Dog for the hospital. We went up there for a bit and got some pictures of the kids with him, and him with his fellow officers and such. Then took the kids trick or treating. Only Nikiya dressed up - as a demon baby. Leave it to her.

Other than that, things have been uneventful. I better get up off of here and go GET SOME WORK DONE!!!

Nikiya & Michael...I mean, demon baby and McGruff!

I'm So 'Cited!!!

I'm heading over to pick up Chad, Jennifer, & yittle Miss Kaylei!!! This will be the first time that she will meet the rest of her crazy aunts & uncles. Of course, they'll be lucky if they can get her away from Grammy long enough touch her...they'll have to settle for LOOKING!!! Looking at me being deliriously HAPPY that is!

But who wouldn't be? Sweet little slice of baby heaven...

So Much for the Frequent Blog!!!

Why is it that I find getting online for just about anything EXCEPT the things that I need to easy, but everything else is so hard? I have blogs that I check frequently, and after a few days, I think, why haven't they updated already? I guess for me, I feel that my life while busy, is actually pretty boring. However, as I read over the blog entries that I've posted on various blogs (yes, plural, as in: more than one!), I find little snippets of information about my life and the things that my children say, do, etc, that I've already forgotten! I was reading the blog that I really enjoy, when she said something to the effect that she felt bad that she was spending too much time on the computer, and not enough time scrapbooking to keep the memories of her children alive. Then she realized, that was EXACTLY what she was doing by blogging the everyday life events, whether others like them or not! It's a record of all of the little things that make life enjoyable, and I'm going to try to do what I can to make a record of such for my amazingly wonderful family. I'd like to somehow find a way to link all of my blogs together, so that when I post to one, they all update. We'll see what I can come up with.

The most exciting recent news:

We have an absolutely BEAUTIFUL new grandaughter!!!

And Jennifer & Chad got married!!!

Kaylei Dawn Peyton Ervin was born October 15, 2007, just a few days before big brother Logan's second birthday! Chad and Jennifer can't be prouder of this sweet little thing. Neither can Grammy & Papa or any of her other grandparents! We've visited her a few times and have to say that Jennifer has been wonderfully lucky! So far, she's had two awesome babies! She hardly cries and is just the sweetest thing. Hopefully, we'll get to see them this weekend.

Nikiya was home from school with me today. She had a severe headache and has been getting them more and more frequently. Right now we're waiting for an appointment with Cook Children's Neurology clinic. She's having some teeth worked on and hopefully that will be the end of the problem.

Michael had gastric bypass surgery Sept 18. So far he's lost almost 50 lbs! He looks awesome and I can't believe the change already. He had some issues with hydration/protein intake in the beginning, but seems to be getting a better handle on it.

Cody is very active in JROTC and has events or practice most days after school. He's on the physical training team and it seems to keep him in pretty good shape. He runs most everyday and usually walks the few miles home from school after practice.

I have my second appointment with pain management tomorrow. This will be the third clinic I've worked with. This one is a comprehensive clinic though which was recommended by the last clinic I went to. The bone degeneration at this point is getting to be too much to handle in a regular pain clinic. I had my initial "team evaluation" 2 weeks ago. Tomorrow I'm supposed to find out what plan they have developed for me. Hoping for encouraging news...

Logan will be here November 19 for 5 weeks. I miss him so much! I can hardly wait until he gets here! We call to talk to him, but he's still not real talkative on the phone. It' a few sentences and he's done. I enjoy it though. We've picked up a few things for him for when he gets here. Cinnamon picked a ball dart game for him. It's like darts, only with lightweight velcro balls. It has Elmo on it, and we all know that he just loves his "Melmo!" I also got him some Mickey footie jammies at the Disney store when we got Cinnamon's birthday present there. I need to do some more work on his pictures and videos so that I can get them posted. Rachel sent me a text message a few weeks ago warning me that Logan wanted to call his Grammy, but didn't think he needed help with the phone, so to beware of strange calls from the little ham!

My husband seems to be finally stirring after being up for the last 36 hours, then taking a 3 hour nap, so I'm going to go curl up for some quality time with him before we hit the sack for the night. Have a great night everyone!

March 10, 2006.

Things seem to be calming down a little, or at least a little less hard. I went back to work full time yesterday. It feels like it's been forever since I've been there. So much has changed in our lives in the last few months that it's hard to get back into the swing of things.

The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy hectic awful. On Sunday February 5, I went to the ER for a rash that had spread all over my body. I had been feeling bad on Saturday, with pain in the lower right quadrant of my abdomen. It had been hurting off and on for several months, and a few months ago I had a scan that showed enlarged lymph nodes in the area. This time, they could see my appendix, but thought that it looked normal. However, the lymph nodes were still very swollen. Apparently, the rash was called a stress rash from the amount of pain that I've been in. While I was on morphine, the rash would subside. When I wasn't, it would come right back. Thursday, February 9, they took my appendix out and most of the problem has subsided. The remaining pain may just be from the surgery itself. Only time will tell. I got out of the hospital on Friday the 10th, and Dad also left the hospital to go to a rehabilitation facility for 2 weeks for physical therapy on his knee.

He went to Mimosa Manor in Keller, TX. He didn't really like it there, stating that it wasn't really home and that he missed his family, but that they treated him alright and the food was ok, though he had to eat the same things each day. There was one person that he complained of hurting him, but otherwise seemed to get along ok. He was looking forward to coming home and being with his family again. On Sunday the 12, the kids made 200 Valentine's cards and we took them up to pass them out at the Assisted Living Center where Dad was getting his therapy. Everything still seemed to be going ok.

That night, Michael went to the ER at Harris HEB. He had been feeling really bad and had bronchitis, but hadn't had the opportunity to really take care of himself. He went to the ER that night with fever of almost 104, shaking uncontrollably, and in a lot of pain. He had pneumonia, but refused admission. Instead, they ran antibiotics and gave him ibuprofen for the pain, and then sent him home on antibiotics as well.

I was going to go back to work yesterday afternoon. Michael was going to drive me because I haven't actually been released to drive yet. As we were getting ready to leave, the Center called and said that they were sending Dad to the hospital via ambulance. We went to North Hills, and it turned out that he had double pneumomia, and he died this morning at 1:00.

He's at Mount Olivet funeral home. Sunday afternoon we're having visitation from 2-4, and the funeral on Monday at 1:30.

The strangest thing is that when we were at the funderal home making arrangements today, we realized that he and mom both died on Thursday, had their viewing on Sunday from 2-4, and their funeral on Monday at 1:30. Saturday would have been their 51st wedding anniversary, and yesterday, he kept saying that he couldn't think of a better gift to give her than to be with her. We were caught totally unprepared because he seemed to be getting better and was looking forward to coming home in a few more days.

Dad's Knee Replacement #1

This morning Dad has his right knee replaced. Overall, it went smoothly. There's always some anxiety surrounding a procedure like that on someone his age (87), though we were told that it should go smoothly. This man amazes me. He's 87 years old, and takes only medication for Parkinson's Disease, and a temporary one for UTI. He always has a great attitude and is friendly. If only our kids today were as polite and had such high morals! Well, if only the last several generations did... Anywho, he's been looking forward to this surgery for so long. I can't imagine what it would be like to have such independence, and derive so much dignity from that; then to suddenly, or not so suddenly as the case may be, loose that independence. I'm sure he's looking forward to getting around again and doing some of the things that he enjoys doing. Last night he was sorry that he couldn't hold Logan because of how much his knees hurt even to sit up anymore. I'm sure that he's looking forward to doing that again! Who wouldn't want to snuggle up with that little bundle of sweetness!

Mom's Birthday

Today is Michael's Mom's birthday. She died in November and it's been rough since. We'll be taking her some flowers as soon as I get home from work today. She's never far from our thoughts, but today, she's closer than ever. Mom, know that we're thinking of you today, wishing you were here. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! We love you!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Mom. She couldn't wait to get her hands on this little guy! She loved on him every chance that she got. Don't worry mom! I'll gladly carry that part on!