New pictures

Nothing too exciting going on in our household. It has been terribly hot so we have spent most of the past few weeks couped up in our little house with the AC blasting and the fans on so that nobody overheats! Reagan is still a bit fussy but has gotten much better since I cut all dairy out of my diet- guess lactose intolerance runs in the family! Lincoln is bored out of his mind but has loved the occasional visits from good friends who take pity on my lack of a car and drive to our place to play for a few hours.

We may be buying a new truck for Nathan since his scooter died and the place that sold it to us (and the only place that can fix it) went out of business. He has been using my car to get to work and school, leaving me without a car all day- not an ideal situation! So w'll keep you all posted on the truck if it happens... I swear Nathan prays every night that he will get his truck, even big boys love there toys!

We were so lucky to get to spend time with my cousin Lacey and her family when they were in town a couple weeks ago. Lacey and I haven't seen each other in nearly 20 years but we somehow both married boys from the Fresno area so we got to intrude upon her family vacation for a day and catch up on life.

Nathan started school this week and is slowly getting back into the routine of reading and writing papers. It gets a little tedious but I keep reminding him that he only has four more classes and then he will have his Masters degree!!

I had a wonderful birthday, Nathan got me tickets to see Rascal Flatts (again) when they come back to Fresno in October and he also got me their new CD. We had some close friends and family over for cake and ice cream and I got to eat as much cake as I wanted without feeling guilty. All in all, a great day.

That's about it, our internet is still slow so here is the newest photo collage of the kids...

The many faces of Reagan

So far, Reagan has been a great baby with the exception of some pretty bad gas pains that can make her rather fussy. We are all having a fun time getting acquainted with Reagan, all except Lincoln who doesn't even acknowledge that she exists. In the process of taking pictures for her birth announcement, we got some pretty funny faces out of our daughter that I wanted to share with you all...


Gas??
Don't you just want to kiss this face??

What you talking about mama??

She looks just like her dad when she wakes up...

Reagan Elizabeth Devlin

Reagan Elizabeth Devlin

11:55pm July 10th 2009. 8lbs. 12 oz. 20 inches long

She's healthy. She has a ton of dark thick hair. She's so adorable.
I thought I would post some pictures so everyone can get a little glimpse of baby Reagan.
Michele is doing well and is enjoying having her mother around to help her out.
(This is Aunt Heather blogging ,What a proud Aunt I am!)

The Cakes

Note to self- when your husband says, "Hey honey, do you want to bake four individual birthday cakes for my family when you are 37 weeks pregnant??" JUST SAY NO!
The cakes did turn out pretty good, but I won't take credit for Kim's shoe cake since she made the whole thing by herself. We had a ton of cake left over but everyone enjoyed their special cakes on their special days.

While Mommy's away, the boys will play...

With school out for the summer we have enjoyed having Nathan home much more often but I am learning that with the extra set of hands comes a lot more mischief. In the past month I have come home to find the following going on at my house (except the sand- we took Lincoln to the beach and I was a willing participant in the mess making). I have often told Nathan that he has an uncanny knack for making my job harder...

The ongoing baby saga...

It has been a while since I have blogged but I have a very good reason- this baby has decided to make things interesting in her last trimester. It all started at one of my routine office visits about three weeks ago. The doctor informed me that my past two urine samples (sorry for the gross details) had come back with elevated protein levels and that I needed to go home, get my bag packed, and go to the hospital! I came home crying. We left Lincoln at the Stokes and drove to the hospital within the hour. They proceeded to pump me full of steroids and antibiotics in case I suddenly lapsed into preeclampsia and they had to deliver the baby. After 24 hours of observation they discovered that while I do have elevated protein levels I do not have any other symptoms of preeclampsia and should be able to carry this baby to full term. But not before a very abrupt doctor walked in,told me my elevated protein levels were probably due to kidney disease, asked if I had any questions, and walked out (so much for bedside manner). Not much we can do about that until after I give birth, at which point I am sure I am in for quite a lot of tests. So we went back home with new orders from the doctor. I now have to go for stress testing twice a week, one ultrasound a week, and my regular weekly appointment with my OBGYN. Needless to say, I feel like I just bounce from one appointment to the next. Luckily, Nathan and his family have been absolutely wonderful about watching Lincoln so I haven't had to take him to many appointments with me.
Part 2 of this ordeal actually began at the beginning of my pregnancy when I explained to my doctor that Lincoln had weighed 9lbs at birth and I really didn't want to go through that again. My doctor agreed and said he would most likely schedule an induction a couple weeks before my due date. So the past few visits I have been looking forward to picking an induction date. I went in this past Tuesday, thinking the doctor would call the hospital and schedule me right away for next week sometime. Unfortunately, I have not really dialated at all and her head is still WAY up inside me so the dr will not induce me until she drops down farther. I am totally bummed but I have an appointment next Tuesday and I am determined to get this baby to drop before then so we can schedule an induction later on next week. Leave it to my daughter to be too stubborn to drop down and come out when Nate's whole family is in town!
Bottom line- I am sick of being pregnant and I want this baby out NOW!! If anyone has any good suggestions I would love to hear them. Hopefully the next time I blog it will be to share the good news of our new baby girl!

The last couple months

Well our dial-up internet has been nice on our budget but not so great for downloading pictures to my blog. I tried to download one picture of Lincoln and it took 35 minutes (not even kidding). So my only option is to make a collage of all our pictures of Lincoln from the last two months and post that. Alright, so now the update on our family.

Lincoln and I took a trip to Chicago to visit my parents and other the nightmarish airplane ride in which I got more than a few dirty looks from passengers, who did not appreciate my son's screaming, the trip was very successful. My parents got to spoil Lincoln like crazy (Mom made sure he ate whatever and whenever he wanted- resulting in a string of very diry diapers). We went to the Milwaukee County Zoo, which I highly recommend, and saw some cool animals up close and personal. I don't know who enjoyed it more, Lincoln or my parents who loved watching Lincoln's reaction to every single animal! I, of course, did not prepare adequately for the weather (it was 90deg in CA that same week) so when it snowed we were stuck with no jacket, no hat or mittens, and no real shoes!! Luckily my mother's very kind neighbor saw our predicament and dropped off some of her son's snow clothes for Lincoln to use. He is definately his father's son- he played in the snow for about 5minutes and then turned right back around to go inside the house- he was not going to just hang out in the cold!

Easter was a lot of fun this year as Lincoln got into dying eggs. We put him in an old t-shirt, set him up at the table with his cousins, and let him go to town (well, not really- I'm still a control freak...baby steps). But with a little help he dyed about 10 eggs and seemed really proud of himself. We got him all dressed for Easter Sunday and of course I forgot to take pictures. Make that two years in a row now that I have bought him a special outfit for easter and told Nate we would take cute spring pictures and not a single picture has been taken. He didn't even make it across the street to church without messing up his outfit. Nate insisted that he open his basket before church and somehow the little bugger snuck a chocolate egg when we weren't looking and proceeded to eat it while walking to church. When we got to the chapel and sat down I looked at Lincoln and there he was with a face and shirt covered in chocolate!! At least he enjoyed himself. That afternoon Lincoln got to participate in his first Easter Egg hunt with the Berrett girls, thanks to there very kind Grandma and Grandpa who invited us to their family's annual Easter brunch. We had such a great time and Lincoln actually understood that he was supposed to search for eggs and put them in his bag. It was rather fun to watch.
In not so great news, we learned this month that the class Nathan was supposed to take this summer has been blocked because of budget cuts at the university (gotta love CA's budget crisis!) and that puts him one class shy of graduating in Decemeber so it looks like we will be staying here in Fresno until next May. We were initially a little bummed about the change in plans but we are starting to see how this might work out better for us. Nathan will be home a lot more this summer and with a new baby on the way I'm excited that he will be home to help.

Nothing too exciting in baby news, I just keep getting bigger and bigger. McKinley is a mover and shaker- compared to Lincoln (who never moved) this girl is crazy!! We have definately decided on the name McKinley but are still going back and forth on the middle name, hopefully we will have it figured out before she comes into the world. We haven't done much to prepare for her arrival- mostly because I am exhausted. I have bought quite a few clothes and Mom and Dad enjoyed buying many new baby things while we were visiting. Right now I'm just trying to master chasing after my big boy while suffering through really strong Braxton Hicks contractions. My doctor said I can't lift anything over 20lbs, unfortunately he doesn't know that my son weighs 30lbs and I can't really go a day without lifting him at leasthalf a dozen times!

Ok- so that's it from us for the last couple months, I'm sure I left out a number of very important moments but it's late and I can't think of them right now. Now that I have figured out pictures I will post again soon!

WE'RE BACK!!!

It has been a harrowing two months in the Devlin household- no internet! I never realized how many things we do on the internet until it was gone. I couldn't check email, blogs, facebook, our bank account, or even the daily news. We were pretty close to losing it but our phone line was fixed today and our internet server was downloaded so we are back in action! So, let me update you on the family:

Nate...
- started another semester of school! Since he has decided to speed up his program and graduate in December, he has a very full class load which I know is stressing him out but we just keep thinking how happy we will be when he is all done.
- says he hasn't done anything else in the last two months so I don't need to spend anymore time talking about him (his words- not mine)

Michele...
- has spent the last two months getting bigger and bigger, thinking this might be another 9lb baby (or maybe just hoping so that I can justify all my weight gain!)
- had a little pregnancy scare when I went to take Lincoln out of the tub and accidentally slipped and fell on my stomach. We spent the rest of the day in the doctor's office (everything is fine) and ended our day with a fun trip to get an ultrasound where we found out that WE ARE HAVING A GIRL!!
- is terrified about having a girl!

Lincoln... (disclaimer- I am bragging about my child, skip down if you don't want to hear what an amazing, gifted, and talented child he is!)
- got a very bad haircut from mom. Let's just say he ended up with a very short buzz cut (I will post pictures later)
- can now say 9 words- mama, dada, papa, no, cracker, shoes, Haylee, ball, and hot. As well as saying "one, two, three" and then jumping off the couch or bed or whatever he can climb on.
- can now use a fork and spoon like a pro. He can finish a meal without half of it ending up all over himself.
- is learning new things everyday, it has been so fun to watch him figure things out and gain new skills.
- has only four more weeks until he starts Nursery at church! We cannot wait to enjoy church once again!

So it has been a busy couple of months for us but life is good in our home. I will try to post cute pictures soon. I'll blog again soon!!

My lack of blogging...

We have now been without the internet in our home for four weeks, so I have not abandoned blogging forever, I'm just waiting for the new phone line and internet to show up... I promise to update soon!!