No TV

As we were eating tonight we were talking about the future of our TV from the bedroom after we get a new one for the living room. Josie was almost in tears when we said, "No Josie, you can't have a TV in your room. I didn't have one in my room until I was out of high school," I said. Her response, "Yeah, but that was like in the olden days."

Is it Luck?

Wow, time has gone by like you wouldn't believe and with it have quite a few events. We had a garage sale on the 3rd and ended up selling quite a bit of stuff. It's really amazing how much "stuff" everyone has in the U.S. Just look at all the people giving to Good Will on weekends (after garage sales).

Around the same time period, Jayden and Josie got pink-eye and then gave me the pleasure of experiencing it too. Needless to say Josie ended up getting it twice and Jayden three times before it was all said and done.

Kim's Mom had surgery back on the 19th so I watched the kids (I took last week and this next week off from work) while Kim went and waited with the rest of her family. We took the kids to see Grandma Pat that afternoon and then went back again that night to help Kim's Dad get back to our place to stay the night.

This memorial weekend was rather interesting to say the least. On Friday Kim came back from shopping with a friend and said that she had some interesting news for me. As soon as she said it was about her Dad, my heart sank as his health has been questionable as of late. The good news is no health problems that he currently has was the issue. The bad news was that he had been struck by lightning while sleeping Friday morning. Dale was sleeping when he felt the lightning bolt start up his feet and continued up through his spine and ending at his head. He especially felt it when it hit his back as he has metal rods in his spine from previous back surgeries. He told Pat that he thought his legs had blown off when it initially happened. It's odd that he even drove himself to breakfast that morning as he was pretty incoherent later that morning. The lightning knocked the picture off the wall and left a mark on the white paint (see larger image from link above).

So we decided we'd head down to Creston on Saturday after attending a couple of graduation parties. It's always an eery feeling going somewhere when you're not sure what to expect. Yesterday Dale feel asleep a lot (he fell asleep with his breakfast in his lap). He also slept through Dinner. Fortunately he was doing a lot better today. He even drove himself to the restaurant for breakfast this morning.

It's amazing that more damage hadn't occurred and I consider it a miracle that Dale even survived. So all in all, quite an eventful month.
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Single Parenting

This past Friday and weekend Kim and her Mom, Sister, and Niece took a shopping trip to Minneapolis, MN. That means I got to take care of the kids for the weekend. I did have planned to go to Humboldt to help my Brother and buddy, Scott, put in some cabinets that Scott had ordered from my Brother's business. But, Tasha, one of our friends that was going to take care of the kids while I was gone ended up getting the flu. I wasn't quite sure if I should even attempt to take the kids for an hour and a half drive by my self. I ended up taking them and managed to stay sane. Josie cried for at least a half an hour on the way up and both of them had their moments on the way back, but I managed.

How does a single parent manage to handle two kids? All I can say is I don't know how. Take the simple thing as having Jayden needing to go to the bathroom. We stopped near Ft. Dodge on the way back and had some McDonalds (I know, I usually dislike eating there, but it's quick and the kids usually eat something there). Well, about half way through our lunch, Jayden needed to go use the bathroom. Not a big deal if Kim and I were both there. Obviously, I took Josie (with chicken nugget in hand) in with Jayden and I. Everything worked out okay, but still, it's not fun having to deal with both of them at the same time...making sure Josie doesn't touch something she shouldn't and keeping her chicken nugget off the floor.

All in all, the kids were pretty good for the whole weekend. But, it sure is nice having Kim back home. :)

Having Some Fun

Well, we're in the new year. Christmas was great and we all got lots of goods from everyone. The kids are finally over their colds/flu and all that jazz so we're moving along with some fun times. Josie is getting more teeth in all the time so that makes her a little crabby at times to say the least. Today Josie even told us potty when she went in her diaper and walked into the bathroom...so who knows, maybe she'll be potty trained before Spring. :) One could only hope. Jayden's been playing full time with his toys and loves to play with his train sets on his train table in the basement.

Josie started making some funny tongue noises the other day so I thought I'd share them with you. Enjoy the video.


Funny Tongue Noises from Kevin Minnis on Vimeo.

Till next time...

Sick Kids

Well, it happened last week with Josie. She threw up twice and had well...let's just say problems at the other end too. Wouldn't you know a week later and now Jayden has it. :( Sucky! At least he can use the pot. He hasn't had any regurgitation out of his mouth so hopefully he can bypass that part. So, that means another weekend at home not able to go out. As it was last weekend, Kim and I took turns getting out of the house so we didn't go crazy. At least the weather won't be a part of the frustration this weekend. When Jayden is healthy, he's been up to playing more with his teddy bear and using his imagination quite a bit. Everything has been about sharing with his Teddy and Teddy wanting to do something. He's also coming up with some memorable phrases. Last week Kim gave him a snack down in the living room. He tends to make a mess as most kids do when they're his age while eating it so Kim told him to be careful and not make a mess. His response, "It's okay Mom (he doesn't say Mommy any more), you can clean it up."

On a brighter note, Josie's all better now and constantly grazes the cereal boxes whenever she can. She's also trying to talk more. You can kind of understand somethings that she says. She'll make the sound a cow, sheep, monkey and horse make. And she's also said tractor. She does play with Jayden's toys quite a bit.

Only 9 days till Christmas!

Mastering the smallest things

Well, the time is finally here. Jayden has mastered potty training and only wears his pull-up at night and when taking a nap, otherwise, he wants his "scibbies" and won't let us put on a pull-up. It's something how we grown-ups can think of it as a small thing to use the bathroom. In Jayden's case, it's like a horse and water. Jayden did it on his own time. You can't just force a kid to use it no matter how hard you want them to. At any rate, we're extremely happy that he is using it.

Yesterday we took our annual trip to Howell's Tree Farm to get the kids their pumpkins and to have some fun playing with all the stuff they have setup. While there we also saw Amy and Zach Larson so that was cool. It had rained the night before and it was pretty muddy, but we had a good time anyway and washed our shoes when we got home.

More pictures can be seen at the Halloween 2007 Picture Set.

Such a Fruit Cake

"Josie, you're such a fruit cake." Those are the words coming out of Jayden's mouth as we were eating supper one night. A lot has happened since my last blog entry. Sorry, life got busy so I didn't have time to get this updated. As you can see from the picture to the left, Jayden turned three in August.

Karrie, my sister, made a surprise visit to my Parent's home and it happened to fall on the same weekend that we had Jayden's B-Day party so she was able to make it too.

Jayden wasn't the only one to have fun during his birthday weekend. Josie likes wearing his hat and does a pretty good job modeling it. :)

They also both had fun with shaving cream in the bath tub. If you're ever looking for something fun for the kids during bath time, shaving cream is another option.

And of course after a long day's work, you just gotta take a rest from it all. Jayden feel asleep on his pillow in the living room during the middle of the day. :)

We made the trek north to my Parent's home the first week of September and had a great time. My Aunt and Uncle, Iris and Gary Baxter had their 40th Wedding Anniversary party so we went and helped them celebrate.

It was a great weekend to go up as the weather was perfect. Jayden and Josie got to go outside and checkout the farm. Jayden helped Grandpa feed the calves and Josie got to play on the trampoline and other toys.

We also got to play with Great Grandpa's four wheeler.

And Jayden got to ride on Uncle Kelly's forklift with Brianna and Madison.

More recently, Jayden has started riding his bike. It's getting different going on walks now as he'd rather ride his bike over riding in the wagon with Josie. The next thing we need to work on with him is using his brakes. Instead of pushing back on the peddles, he puts his feet down only and his toes touch the ground. He's also trying to use the potty more. We're gaining ground which is good. Josie has been trying to say more words, "Belbo" for Elmo, baby, and "Daday" for Jayden, "Belba" for belly button and bubbles. She's cruising like none other and would climb up on anything if she were allowed. She got another tooth on her left side so she now has 6. We're hoping she'll get some more on her right side. :) We've also concluded that she's a Daddy's Girl. The minute I get home from work she's at my feet if she isn't eating.

More pictures of can be found under Jayden's Birthday and at our trip up north links.

Lots of Little Things

Okay, so the title may be a little misleading. There have been a lot of "little" things happening the past month or so.

Jayden now asks for a Dewski whenever Kim goes into Quicktrip or Kum & Go to get her fountain Dew. I'd say that's a pretty good accomplishment. :) He's almost there with using the peddles on his trike and bike. If only he were there with potty training. We're hoping that a switch will flip and he'll want to finally use his "big-boy scibbies". He talks about everyone else using the potty, but still no go. He still has the occasional melt down, but, knock on wood, they don't seem as frequent as before. He's also looking forward to his birthday and now asks for things for it.

Josie has started to walk on her own. She does mostly walking now instead of crawling. It's fun to watch her make her tiny steps. She's kind of wobbly at times, but is doing a pretty good job so far. She's also good at getting into trouble. It won't be uncommon to turn your back for a second and find her standing on top of the kid's picnic table. She is learning a lot fast. She's also good at being a Daddy's girl.

House painting is done for the most part. I painted the back last week so the "normal" areas to paint are done. I'll probably try and get the garage door and the concrete part of the foundation done sometime before it snows. I also have to make a cover for the sandbox. I'm tired of looking at the blue tarp that covers it now.

Busy as Can Be

Man, talk about a busy time. Where to start. I've been busy painting the house the past three weeks or so. Kim and I are both glad that it's almost done. It's been a challenge for Kim to take care of the kids while I'm out trying to get the painting done. We're almost done as we only have the back deck area to paint.

A lot has been going on with Josie too. Josie got baptized on May 27th with her Grandpa and Grandma's and Aunt Chris and Kacie watching along. She had surgery on a blocked tear duct on June 6th. It went very well and by the next day we could tell a difference already. It was nerve racking none-the-less, but everything turned out okay. Josie now has 3 teeth and is working on her fourth. They haven't been too difficult which is nice.

Yesterday Josie turned one. I took the day off of work so that I could be with her and Jayden and Kim. We went to the Jordan Creek area to get Josie's 1 year photos and then went and hung out at the Jordan Creek Mall for a bit. The kids played in the play area and Josie got to make a teddy bear. After coming home we went to Big Creek State Park to play in the water and beach.

We've had fun building a sandbox for the kids. I think Josie was more interested in it at first, but now, they both seem to like it. It helps when Jayden's friends come over and play in it too.

 Oh, and we reverted back to a minivan. We were so cramped in our Pontiac Vibe so we traded for a Chrysler Town & Country.

So, all in all we've had a very busy month. Hopefully the summer will get a little quieter, which I'm sure it will once the house is done being painted.

Informatica World 2007

Wow, almost a month since the last update! Last week I was in Florida for almost a week to attend the Informatica World 2007 conference. I learned a lot and had a good time hanging out with Broox and Kevi. Broox was down there for and RFID conference so the timing was perfect. The weather was perfect too. It would have been fun if Kim would have gone with too, but that will have to wait till the next trip.

Back at the home ranch...the kids are doing pretty well. Josie is working on getting some teeth now so Sunday night was a tiring night as she didn't want to sleep much. It amazes me how growing teeth can be so painful. Josie's also crawling all over the place including going up any and all stairs she can find. Of course she can't come back down yet, so we have to run up and get her.

Jayden has been keeping his end of the deal up being an almost 3 year old; the almost daily melt down and his big brother attitude. He is as curious as ever and loves to "do things on his own". In his words, "I will do it!".

Kim was very busy taking care of the kids last week, as well as, organizing a garage sale (Jayden's pile and Josie's Pile). It went over pretty well and we got rid of quite a bit of stuff. It amazes me how much stuff one accumulates having kids.

It's good to be back in the groove now, but the Florida trip was fun. See more pictures in the Informatica Set

Crawling, American Idol, and Easter

What a busy month. This month has started out with Josie learning to crawl. She loves try and get into the entertainment center now and gets mad when we tell her she can't. She's also started to pull herself to stand next to furniture and even climbed her first step today. She loves watching Jayden and I'm sure is learning a great deal from him. It's been exciting to see her advancing.

Jayden's been learning his ABCs and numbers, as well as, preparing for the next American Idol. One day last week he was standing on the stairs and singing away. Then he said I sing like American Idol. haha. Speaking of which, American Idol and Ford have done an excellent job marketing. Everytime Jayden sees a Ford symbol he now associates it with American Idol. Sad isnt' it. :)

Yesterday we had fun watching the kids with their Easter stuff. The night before we told Jayden that the Easter bunny was coming and we needed to make sure things were picked up. In no time, he was running around cleaning up his toys and putting away shoes to make sure the place was clean for the Easter bunny. Talk about motivation!

Kim's been doing the best she can to not get too bored during this last spell of cold weather. I think she has everything ready for the garage sale that will be the first Friday of May (and maybe Saturday). So be sure to mark your calendars and come out and buy some good stuff. haha.

Work for me has been very busy. But, that keeps the time flying by. I keep thinking someday I'll get caught up, but I don't know about it now.

Check out Jayen and Josie's Easter Videos: , Video 1, Video 2, Video 3

Blizzard 1 and 2

Blizzards 1 and 2...

Well, we survived the blizzards 1 and 2. We didn't even lose power over the whole deal (first blizzard), but some of our friends and family did. Our trees that were really low to the ground after the ice storm even came out of it without a trace of damage. My parents were without power for about 40 hours because of the ice buildup and breaking of the electrical poles. Luckily both my Grandparents and my Parents have generators.

The second blizzard was something to see too. We got out of work early on Thursday and then on Friday Pioneer was closed. I'm sure glad I didn't have to go anywhere as the roads were full of snow and visibility was very poor. We did manage to make it up to Ames Saturday evening for some Hickory Park with Dave and Laura Ekhart and Tasha and Tony Vorm and all the kids (6 of them). Traffic wasn't too bad, but you could definitely see the aftermath of the storm.

A look back...

In some ways I'm glad that we got as much snow as we did as it, to me, makes things seem like normal. Growing up I can remember huge drifts being as tall as the honey suckle trees in our grove on the farm. In fact the drifts would be so hard, the cattle could even walk on them. The gravel road next to our place would also have been packed with snow. I can remember sitting at the top of the snow and roll huge chunks of snow down the bank after the road grader opened the road. My brother and I would always watch in anticipation, as someone came down the road, to see if they'd run over the snow chunks. Doing chores was the worst part about getting huge storms as you'd have to trudge through a ton of snow carrying straw bales to bed the pigs and calves. You'd also have to scoop out all the troughs so you could feed the animals. It was hard work, but we survived and have the memories, good and bad. I think chores also took longer just because we'd play around more just to enjoy the vast landscape the wind and snow created. You can't have all the snow without making a fort.

In other news...

Jayden and Josie have been growing quite a bit. Jayden's I think has been trying to grow emotionally as he's truly showing his 2 year old attitudes. He's having at least one melt-down a day and is a "joy" to take shopping. He's still a relatively good boy, but has his moments. We had to upgrade his play shoes to size 7 1/2 now so he's growing despite his weird interests in food (he'd choose a salad over a hot dog any day).

Josie on the other hand, even though she hasn't had a single tooth come in yet, will eat anything you put in front of her. She's beginning to question baby food and would rather have "real food" (small cut-up pieces of green beans, carrots or fruit). She's really getting a personality now and always has a big smile on her face, well, at least when she's not mad or crying. She hasn't crawled yet, but is really close. She does tend to migrate in reverse instead of going forward when trying to crawl.

Last weekend we walked for Amber in the JDRF in the Des Moines Sky walk system. I should say, Josie slept and Kim, Jayden and I walked. Jayden had fun in the inflatable games and I'm glad JDRF chose to get the games instead of forking over big bucks for a breakfast.

My Grandpa Minnis had knee surgery this last Tuesday. Everything went really well. But, I guess today/last night he'd been whacked out on meds or something as he pulled all his IVs out last night and then had my Grandma stop the machine that bends his knee every so often. Hopefully he straightens up so he doesn't get into more trouble. :)

Sick Kids

Let's see...where to start. We've been pretty busy despite the coldness outside. Kim's with Josie at the Doctor's office as I write this. Jayden fell asleep on the couch while watching Sesame Street. It all started last Wednesday. Jayden came down with a fever and then it turned into coughing. We called the doctor's office and they said to bring him in on Friday if his fever didn't go down. It did go away on Friday, but then it came back yesterday. His coughing has been getting somewhat better, but he still looks like he's going to cough a lung up when he coughs. So, I think Josie got the same thing as Jayden. I'll find out when Kim gets back. She coughs like a dog and has a high fever (103.3). Nothing like having Josie rip your heart out when she can hardly breath. :( Luckily she could get an appointment this morning. Jayden goes in for his appointment at 1:00 today as he's still running a fever. That's one of the annoying things of having sick kids on the weekend. You can't visit the doctor's office.

Aside from the kids being sick, we painted our living room a couple of weeks ago. We were sick of the poorly painted yellow that the old owners had. Funny it took us about 4 years to get it painted. :)

Update: Well, it appears that Josie has croup and Jayden has ear infection. At least Jayden already had it once so now we know what to do with Josie. Josie seems to be doing better after they gave her a steroid shot. Jayden's at least eating some cereal now.

Mini Projects

Finally, we're done painting the front of the house. I, with the help of Tony and Martin, got both windows replaced. What a relief to have the job done. The windows work really well in sealing the cold out and keeping the sun from baking the bedrooms. I still have to do the trim work on the inside, but at least I don't have to worry about getting another warm day to get the job done. The staging is all put a way so I don't have to look at it any more. Sad to think that the staging was up in some form in front of our house since July.

Jayden has been busy being a big brother. He does pretty good with Josie, but at his age, just doesn't grasp being gentle. :) He's also showing his being 2 a bit more. He knows what he wants and can have the occasional meltdown if he doesn't get his way. He LOVES the new Car's movie that just came out on DVD. He sat through the whole thing watching it when we got it and now wants to watch it all the time. I think Thomas the Tank Engine is getting jealous as he's starting to fade in the background. But, he still loves trains so Thomas shouldn't feel too bad.

Josie's been having fun in her bouncy seat. She just loves it. She's also started to roll over on her own from her stomach to her back. It's amazing to see how much different she is from Jayden. She's way ahead of Jayden. She likes to try different foods and usually drinks her whole 6 oz. of milk within 15 minutes. She also has found her voice and likes to "talk". I hope it's not a sign of the future when she gets a cell phone. :)

Kim has been keeping herself busy (most of the time...but she gets bored staying at home) being Mom. She does a great job keeping everything ship-shape in spite of Jayden's use of the living room as the play area. At least Jayden likes to organize his cars. He usually has them all lined up all straight and tidy. Kim's also getting everything ready (shopping) for Christmas which helps keep her mind occupied. She continues to read lots of books. I think she reads one a week. Too bad I didn't have more time to read. Oh well, maybe when I retire.

About three weeks ago I was driving our Focus in a parking lot and heard a weird noise coming from the front. Hmm. Brakes? Sure enough, the brakes were getting bad. I only heard the noise about 2 times and didn't think they were that bad, but as you can see from the picture, they were almost metal against metal. So, Zach found me a good place to order them online and because he'd just replaced his brakes in his Focus, helped change my brakes this week. What a difference that can make. They are a lot better and shouldn't make my wheels dirty as I ordered the ceramic pads. w00t!

Jjjaaaaaaayyyydddeeennnn

The title of this entry reflects one of Jayden's books. We changed the name of the child the book was talking about to Jayden and go through the whole thing about why Jayyydddeeen, likes mud and mud likes him. It's been fun. He giggles all the time. Jayden has been getting smarter about lots of things. It's amazing how much he's been picking up. If you're not careful, he'll repeat stuff you don't want him to repeat. :) He now knows how to get out of his room and apparently yesterday morning when I opened the garage door, Jayden heard it and went down and watched me leave. Kim was sleeping yet, so when Kim came down, Jayden was playing with his cars. Yesterday he also found a screw in the computer desk drawers and went to another drawer where he knew a screw driver was and started playing with that. So, he knows about nuts and bolts and tools.

Josie's also been growing a lot too. She's starting to coo and is fascinated by her voice. She also has found her hands. She's been "eating" them like mad lately (No, she wasn't eating popcorn as seen in the picture :) ). We're not sure if it's just that she found them or if she's already getting teeth. She has a runny nose today so hopefully she isn't getting too sick. She loves to sit up and watch everything that's going on. It makes feeding her fun sometimes as she turns her head where ever Jayden is or to watch TV. Yes, I'm afraid she's already glued to the TV.

We went up to visit Tasha and Tony up in Nevada on Saturday to see their new little girl, Mataya. It's so cool to see them finally get another one adopted. They've been waiting for a long time. Notice how much bigger Josie is. She's already that much bigger. :)

Last night we carved Jayden's Pumpkin. Jayden thought it was fun this year and wasn't sad like he was last year. Wow, looking back on the pics, I can't believe how much Jayden has grown.

Kim also had fun trying to clean out the pumpkin as seen in the video below. hehe. :)

Painting with No Kids

This last weekend was a little different than most (finally, something different than usual) :). Kim and I took the kids and met up with their Grandpa and Grandma Wagner on Friday evening so that G'pa and G'ma could watch them for us. We then had the whole weekend to paint and clean. What a difference it makes in getting things done when you don't have a 2 year old at your legs or a 2 month old to hold on to. :) We managed to get all that we could get painted without having to move the staging on Saturday. Thanks to Kim's Mom and Dad for taking care of the kids and thanks to my Mom and Dad for coming down Labor Day weekend to help paint and watch the kids.

Sunday, we decided it was time to clean the carpets so we rented a Rug Doctor from Wal-mart. Man, what a difference it made. Looking at the dirty water wasn't a pleasant feeling as it was much less than clean! I'm almost ashamed we let the kids lay/play on it. haha

It was nice to be able to be just a couple again for a short time. Kim and I went to Jordan Creek Mall to do some walking around and I ended up getting a ton of shirts for cheap at Dillard's on Saturday. First time I've actually even gone in the store. Unfortunately, Kim didn't find anything that she liked. :( Then we went to Merle Hay Mall on Sunday.

The Big 2

Well, it finally happened. Jayden turned 2 on Tuesday. Boy how time has flown. He thinks he's such a big boy now! Over the weekend we had Jayden's birthday party. He had a good time and was wore out by the days end. He was spoiled rotten with toys, toys and more toys. Because Jayden is always so excited about play kitchens, we decided to get him one of his own. Along with it, he received a lot of play food and accessories. He loves it to pieces and is ready to cook you up a meal when you come over. He doesn't know yet that metal can't go in the microwave! I think he takes after his dad because his mom is no Betty Crocker.

We decided to have something different for his birthday party this weekend. Most parents would probably get a clown or go some place cool, but we decided to have some fun with Pop and candy. You can watch the Mentos and Diet Coke video on YouTube. I think Jayden had more fun with that than he would have with a clown. haha (Or maybe it's his parents and family that had more fun). Here are some pictures as well of the Mentos & Diet Coke fun.

On Jayden's B-day, we took him to the Blank Park Zoo (Pictures). Although, it's not quite like the Omaha Zoo, we still had a good time. He got to feed the goats and watch his dad get attacked by them. Probably his favorite thing was riding the train. He LOVES trains right now. Especially Thomas the Tank Engine.

We took the plunge and got Jayden and Josie's pictures taken last Friday. It was a challenge but we managed to get a few cute poses. Some of you will be receiving copies in the mail, but you can look at them on line soon. We've started the fun process of painting the outside of the house. We are leaving it white but changing the trim to a reddish/burgundy/cranberry color. Right now it's a little bright. We hope it darkens a bit when we put another coat on. We are at least getting the front done, and then we'll worry about the rest next spring/summer.

Josie is growing like a weed and changes everyday I swear. Jayden has started to pester her a bit more, but really could care less about her. Hopefully someday he'll stick up for her!

Hot Hot Hot!

Man, has it been hot. This weekend we decided to go to Creston to visit Kim's family. They were all camping out at Green Valley State Park. It was hot as anywhere else in the state. We were able to go to Kim's parents place to sleep at night so that made it a little more bearable. Thankfully there was a slight breeze on Sunday to help us out. It's hard to imagine what it would have been like 50+ years ago without any air conditioning.

Josie's growing everyday and eats non-stop. I don't remember Jayden ever eating that much, but I'm sure he did. Depending on the light you can see more blondish tint to Josie's hair. She seems to be more active than Jayden was as she likes to lift her head when you rest her on your shoulder and she also enjoys tummy time more. Who knows maybe we'll have a crawler at 9 months instead of the 18 with Jayden. :)

Jayden's loving life and we're enjoying watching him. Yes, he does on the occasion have a "terrible two" moment, but for the most part he's (we're) handling it pretty well. He's starting to get clearer on saying certain words. His favorite is probably peeezzzz (please). Hopefully he'll continue to be well mannered. hehe

Back to Work

Well, it's sure been nice having off a week after Josie was born, but I had to go back to work today. Jayden was pretty sad about the whole thing. In fact, he even had to call his Dad at work to say hi and tell me that he missed me. Or, at least I think that's what he was talking about. haha.

Josie is getting along nicely in her big new world. She actually is sleeping through most of the night and gets up around 4:30-5:00 in the morning to get her bottle. I sure hope she continues to do that as it's better for her Mom and Dad. :) It's amazing to see how fast they grow. After a week, she's already starting to fill out in her face.

Pleased to meet you, Josie Marie

Josie Marie Minnis was born on June 21, 2006 at 6:05 PM after nine hours of labor. She was 6 lbs. 8oz and 19 1/2 inches long. Her birth was quite a different experience than with Jayden as she didn't have any issues with meconium. Kim also had an easier time with Josie. She only had to push two times (one time was only to see if she was ready). This morning we changed Josie's first diaper. Man, talk about a load. haha. We had to change everything. :) Kim and I tried to sleep last night, but the bed she had and the "chair" bed that I had were not the same as a real bed. Hopefully we can get some naps today and sleep tonight. Both Mom and Josie are doing great and are hopefully sleeping right now. I'm going to sleep now. What a wonderful birthday it has been (except for spending it in the hospital)! :)

Pictures can be seen in the photo set, Birth and Prebirth.