Swim School Picture!

It took 4 seconds to take this picture. One second to get him on the raft, 2 seconds to tell him to cheese and have the lady take the picture, and 1 more second to get him back off. :) Seriously, he loves the pool. We even did submersions today and he did GREAT! He was the first to go and I am very proud of him. He'll be trying to go off on his own in no time. EEK!

Wordless Wednesday (On Thursday...oops!)

I wasn't on our computer yesterday, so I'll post this today. No one really cares, right? :)

Almost exactly 2 years ago today. 24 weeks pregnant, and I had no idea just how BIG I would get. :)

A Lot of Firsts

The last week and a half or so Brenden has had many firsts. The easiest way for me to tell you about them? A list!

1. Brenden's First Pet! - Yes, I know we already have 2 dogs and 2 cats and those are technically also Brenden's pets. Still, since Romeo and Riley were around before Brenden they don't really count as HIS first pets. We've been thinking about getting him a fish for awhile now. It's easy, it's colorful, and it doesn't take up much room. So that is how Pete (after OSU's Pistol Pete...yep, he's orange) came into our living room and became one of Brenden's favorite things to watch and say. "Pete! Peeeeete!" he'll squeal. He helps me feed him loves trying to get his attention.

Hi, Pete!

2. Brenden's First Dance Class! - Working at the dance studio has a lot of perks, one of which is getting to have Brenden in a summer class. There are only 2 of them in the class, Ava is 3 and ADORABLE, which is working out great. There aren't too many kids to distract him, and now that Shelly's son is able to help Brenden is really catching on. They are learning tumbling, like walking like a crab and bear walks, stretching, very simple ballet and end up running around like crazy. It's great for getting some of his pent up, WAY too hot to be outside for too long, energy out of his system.

Shelly showing Brenden how to stretch.

3. Brenden's First Soccer Class! - Organized sports for kids under 2? Let's just say that "organized" is used loosely. There are about 10 kids, both boys and girls, all between the age of 18-24 months. The coach was a little confused on what to expect from them and started by trying to ask them questions to get to know them better. The parents all looked at her like she had lost her mind. You expect my 21 month old son to be able to tell you his favorite color? How about you just ask him to point to his dad. After that awkward start we had a blast. We played Red Light/Green Light (Brenden's "yellow" walk is hilarious!), built a cone tower, played with bubbles, had fun with a parachute, and of course kicked around soccer balls. A big thank you to Grandma Connie for Brenden's "soccer uniform." :)

So excited!

Where are the rest of the pictures? Right HERE! :)

Happy Father's Day! (a little late)

To all the wonderful father's we are blessed to have in our lives, thank you for your love, support and for all the happy memories. Especially to Tim, the greatest daddy ever! We love you!

Prayers, Thoughts...Anything will do.

This week has been bad, very bad. My aunt is in the hospital and has been since Sunday with dehydration and exhaustion. Her husband, my uncle, was life flighted to Wichita with a gun shot wound yesterday afternoon. Some stupid reporter decided to incorrectly report on their online version of the paper that he had died. He's still in critical condition, although he's not expected to make it. Karen is just now headed to the ER for her appendix

Prayers, thoughts, even just good, healing vibes sent their way...any of that would be appreciated.

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Update: Not 5 minutes after I posted this my mom called. My uncle is awake!!! Absolutely, totally a miracle. He has some swelling in his brain, may suffer from some vision loss, but other than that they think he may be released in a day or two. Wow! God is good. :)

Wordless Wednesday

AKA: Way Back Whens-day, which I am stealing from some of my favorite bloggers, Heather and Melissa.

One year ago...boy time flies.
And my boys are still as handsome as ever! :)

100th Blog!!! Whoa! (Brenden's Birth)

Oh my goodness, it's our 100th blog. I still cannot believe I have typed 100 long, mostly boring stories, usually about Brenden. Ok...Tim typed maybe 2. :) Still! We've kept it up! And I'm so glad we have. It's nice to look back and remember what happened. It's nice to have a journal of the things I don't want to forget. And it's nice to have people coming along on the journey with us. So, thank you!

For our 100th blog I decided it was time to share the story of how we became "The Kelly Family", which did not happen when Tim and I exchanged rings. Nope, Tim made sure I knew that we were not "a family" until we had children. Oh Tim...so silly. But we would definitely not be complete without our Brenden, and we absolutely wouldn't have a blog without him to give me things to write about. So this is how he came into our lives. (Thank you, AGAIN, to Heather G. I will continue to steal your good ideas as long as you have them...so for a long time!)

The first time we saw Brenden. April 30th, 2007.

39 weeks...ready to be done!

Our first trip to the hospital happened when I was 8 days shy of my due date, at roughly 3 am on a Sunday morning. I started having contractions and they were within 5 minutes of each other. They had said, several times, in our baby classes that for first time moms you had to wait until the contractions were at least 3 to 5 minutes apart. I was there! So we called and the lady asked if I could still breath/talk through them. Um...yeah. So? Unfortunately that was their test for when I could actually come to the hospital. Darnit! They said to take a shower and if they labor didn't subside to come in. Off to the shower I went to sit and see if the hot water would relax me. When the contractions didn't stop (I was willing them to keep going...I was done with being pregnant!) we headed in. We didn't take my suitcase in, just in case they sent us home and I'm so glad we didn't! It would have been awful to have to take it back out with no baby to carry with it. After hooking me up to the monitor and making me chug a ton of water they told me I was indeed in pre-labor and would probably go into real labor in the next few days. Back home we trudged, with orders to drink lots of water and WALK. We call that our "trial run" now.

I thought for sure we'd head back the next day, but unfortunately nothing really happened. My contractions were sporadic and even if they hurt they didn't last long enough. I went to my next scheduled appointment on Wednesday and I still remember the receptionists staring at me strangely. I finally asked if something was wrong and they told me they were watching my stomach contract. Every time it did you could see the outline of Brenden's back, butt and legs. Not to where you could tell what they were, but enough to where it made my stomach look very strange, almost square. When I finally saw my OBGYN she told me I was 2 centimeters dilated and that she didn't expect to see me the next week and wouldn't be surprised if I was back at the hospital that night. Stupid lady...giving me false hope.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday rolled around with no change. We walked, a lot, and I was felling really cruddy on Saturday, but nothing new. Then, at almost exactly 3 am, I woke up to go to the bathroom for the 153rd time and my water broke. At least, I was pretty sure it broke. I had never been through labor so who knows what else it could have been. I woke up Tim, who didn't wait very long to jump out of bed, get dressed and pack us in the car. My parents had come to stay with us a few days before so he woke them up so that they could come with us. Then the texting and calling commenced. I think we had at least 40 people to contact. Next time, look for information on facebook or twitter. HAHA!

On our way to the hospital we realized we had forgotten a book that the staff requested we bring. It was some random book of information that we NEVER used but they wanted us to have it so we went back to get it. Our trip to the hospital, that should have taken roughly 20 minutes, ended up taking at least 40 min, so we made it there around 4 am. Then the contractions really set in.

We had no problems getting through the gate at Ft. Carson. They don't hold people up when they know you are in labor. I was whisked into a birthing room and instantly hooked to all sorts of things. They verified that my water had broken and asked if I wanted any medicine. At that point I was fine, but they were concerned with my blood pressure. Throughout my entire pregnancy I was okay. I never had problems with blood pressure, blood sugar, severe swelling...nothing at all. They were so concerned that they started taking blood, which left me with a nasty bruise on my arm for 2 weeks. (Blood pressure cuffs going off every 3 minutes + blood being drawn = BAD) At about 7 am they checked me again. I was still only 2 centimeters dilated, the same as I had been a week before, and I started begging for an epidural.

I'm not sure if it was the fact that I begged enough, or that my blood pressure was so high, or that I didn't dilate, but they gave me the OK to get the epidural. By 7:30 am I very calmly (or so I thought) told Tim to find the anesthesiologist and get him in there RIGHT NOW. When he went to the door he found him right outside and I danced a jig in my head. That guy was fabulous. In about 10 minutes I was resting comfortably and telling him I would name my next child after him. (His name was Craig...not sure if we'll use it. hehe) Tim almost made it through the procedure but about halfway through, right before they were going to put the needle in, he had to sit down and look away. I'd make fun of him for it but he did great the rest of the time.

The doctors double checked to make sure the epidural was working and then told me to get some rest. Between the adrenaline rushing through my system and the iv in my arm that was burning due to the antibiotics I had to have (I'm group B strep positive...and no, I don't know exactly what it is) there was no way I could sleep. Tim did nap a bit and I texted a bunch of friends. Around 10:30 am the nurse checked up on me. My mom was in the room when the nurse announced that I was ready to start pushing. Um...WHAT?!? 3 1/2 hours ago I hadn't changed at all. All hail the power of a good epidural!

I didn't end up pushing until 11:30 am. The lady next door to me was having her 4th child and the midwife didn't think she could wait. I wasn't in any pain and had no urges to push so I told her I was fine. When I finally did get started it wasn't as hard as I expected. I think the fact that my epidural was still so present in my system made it feel kind of surreal. The only thing I clearly remember is one of the nurses asking me if I wanted to feel the head. I did, and then she asked if I could see it. Yeah, no lady, I'm not a contortionist. I think she forgot that the mirror they were going to bring in was broken so I didn't have anything to look with. It was funny to me, though!

At 11:47 am, almost 9 hours after my water broke, Brenden Michael David was born and we were "officially" a family. Tim, who I thought would pass out at at the mere thought of cutting the cord, performed like a pro. Brenden received his first bath and began the process of meeting our family.

7 lbs, 9 oz, 20 inches long

The Kelly Family

A little over a year later this blog was born. And if you made it this far through the story I have to say THANK YOU! Thank you for reading our stories and sharing in our happiness and frustrations. We hope to keep sharing for a long time. :) 200th blog here we come!

I take it back...at least most of it.

Remember the day that I happily posted about finding renters for our house? Do you remember how excited I was and how I thought it was the best thing that had happened to us since we put the house on the market? Yeah...I take it back. Ok, just most of it. I'm glad we had someone to help pay our mortgage payment from November up until May. As of June 1st, I've regretted every moment.

We had a lovely call from our property manager on June 9th. Up until now she hasn't exactly been wonderful. Actually, I'd call her terrible. We never knew what was going on with the house. When we called she was always in meetings. She decided to turn our sprinklers on without asking us and then charged us for it when we had our own sprinkler guy. (AKA: Rick...hehe) Eventually she said she'd refund us but I'm not sure that ever happened. Ok, I got off topic. SORRY! People who promise so much and then don't back it up make me angry. If you're not going to do something then don't say you will! OK...really, I'm done.

So the call on June 9th, right. I guess she got a letter in the mail from our renters saying they would be out of the house on June 11th. They apparently can't do math because they are supposed to give us 30 days notice if they are going to vacate any time before the lease is up. So anyway, now that they think 2 equals 30, they also decided not to pay for June. They didn't ask to be prorated, they just didn't pay. Why our property manager didn't notice that they hadn't paid until the 9th, when it clearly states that rent is late on the 4th of every month, I don't know. Again...she's awful.

Anyway, so she's trying to contact the renters with no luck. She's left messages letting them know that they breached the contract and that June rent is due. They never even set up a time to do a final walk through or to give us the keys back. They just left. I have been told, by a very trusted source, that some people like to use their security deposit as last month's rent. Would I have been OK with that if they had done the walk through, the house was in perfect condition, given us our keys back, AND asked if that was acceptable? I don't see why not. Unfortunately it's very clearly stated in the rental contract that the security deposit may not be used as last month's rent. EVER. And again, they didn't ask! Where are our keys?!? Our garage door openers?!? The carpet cleaning they are required to have done or pay for?!? We've got nothing...

On Friday the property manager (I'm just going to start calling her the PM) called again and left a notice on the door stating we would begin legal proceedings to sue them to get the last month's rent plus all other monies we are due in 3 days. That day is today and we haven't heard a peep. The PM is supposed to go in there today to make sure that the house isn't trashed and she's been trying to reach the renter's CO. (Commanding Officer...he's in the Army at Ft. Carson and you're allowed to go to their boss if they screw up on their bills.) It seems like Ft. Carson had a training holiday and everyone was off work on Friday and today so she won't be able to get in contact with anyone until tomorrow. URGH.

AND THEN...yep, there's an AND THEN. (This is going to be never ending and I will end up bald, curled up in the corner, crying my eyes out.) I called today to get our utilities changed back to us at the 1st of July. Their contract is through June 30th so there is NO WAY I'm paying their bills, not even the $12 in water that would accumulate between now and the end of the month. I mean, I know. But seriously people, you should have gone about this the right way. Now I'm going to be evil. Wow...I really am going to have to keep on subject. Sorry! So I called Colorado Springs Utilities for our electricity and gas and had no problems switching it over on the 1st. I asked if they were still turned on at the house and the guy informed me they were. I said that we had been having problems and he said, "I can see that." Uh oh...

My next call was to Security Water, which takes care of our water...duh. :) The lady was super sweet and explained to me that she would have no problems switching over the service to us as soon as the account was current. Um...what? Apparently the water bill stays with the house, not the person on the account. If we left it unpaid it would keep accruing late fees and we would either end up paying it or the next owner (if we ever sell it!) would end up paying it. The amount...$133.88. DANG! That's at least 3 months of non-payment. I'm amazed the water is still on.

I called our PM and she agreed to take a check to them today. That money came out of the security deposit so now, even if they say that we kept the deposit and that should cover the rent, they will still owe us. I did call back Colorado Springs Utilities to make sure that the bill that was unpaid with them wouldn't come back to haunt us. The lady, who kept saying "Good gravy!" (HAHAHAHAHA!) informed me we were fine and that it wouldn't negatively impact our account, ever. Whew!

Furious does not even begin to cover how I feel. Yes, they are in the military and we will eventually get repaid, either through garnishing his check or withholding bonuses. Still, they screwed us over - BIG TIME - and now we are not going to be lenient. We will have the locks changed, which is coming out of their security deposit. Who knows how many random keys they made. If there is anything at all that isn't cleaned, like the stove or fridge, we will hire a professional cleaning crew, which will also come out of the security deposit. They forfeited the right to disagree when they skipped the final inspection. We'll have pictures to back us up. The cost to clean the carpets, also coming out of that security deposit.

Usually we're nice, agreeable people. When you mess with us, our property and our money, we are not nice. This just proves to me that we are definitely not meant to have renters in that house. Now to go back to keeping our fingers crossed that it sells someday.

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Update: We called the PM to see if she had a chance to stop by and she informed us that THE KEY DIDN'T WORK!!!! Those jerks changed our locks and never told us!!! So yeah, locksmith is coming tomorrow and now I'm terrified. What else did they do to our house??? :( What did we do to them to deserve this crap? And why did our PM not call us immediately??? GEEZ!!! :(

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UPDATE, update: They didn't leave the garage door openers either. The PM has someone coming over to reprogram those. The house wasn't trashed, no damage, but it does need to be cleaned and the carpets are dirty. All of this is going on the list of things they will pay us for, including rent, late fees, and attorney fees. We're getting the paper work done to put it back on the market ASAP when the work is done, which will hopefully be done next week. Thank you to everyone who has backed me up and supported me. Just hearing that I'm not crazy (well...completely) and that this IS wrong really helps.

Ahh...the weekend.

I'm not even going to TRY to make this weekend into a coherent story. (Yes, I realize that most of my weekend stories don't "flow". hehe) So here's the rundown:

- Went on a date night. Had some fabulous bread pudding. Wow...we were stuffed. Thanks to Mike and Connie for watching Brenden! And for giving us the gift card that made the date night possible! :)

- Moved furniture. Our air conditioner started leaking into our power strip...the power strip that we had ALL of our expensive electronics plugged into. (ex: the TV, the DVR, the Wii, the computer, the DVD player) Thankfully it only shorted out one of the plugs and all the electronics are fine. WHEW! I think the new set up will work well. We just have to figure out how to keep Brenden from standing so close to the TV.

- I got my camera back!!!! And it works perfectly!!! YAY!!!!! :) :) :)

- Had a great time at Tim's company picnic. The park is only a few miles from our house (not that Tulsa is big but this is close) and has one of those cool water features that Brenden can run through. We had all the normal cookout food and some snow cones and watched Brenden run from one person to the next, including the most adorable little girl I've ever seen.

He just wanted to step on them...which was hilarious!

He's a natural! Or he plays to much Wii. Either way... :)

- Went out on "Brenden's Boat" to celebrate Ginny's (Gi-Gi) birthday. We stopped and had cheese, crackers and wine and made it to the restaurant on time. Of course, they had our reservation wrong so we had to wait and when we finally sat down we did not get very good service. Everyone was happy and we eventually made it home by 10:30 pm. Brenden was up late, plus he had a very small nap, so I thought he might sleep in a bit. WRONG! He was up at 6:45 am.

Happy Birthday, Ginny! (She's in the pink)

- We're going to our friend Brandi's stepmom's funeral today. She had been sick for a very long time but was getting better so it came as a surprise. We are all thinking of Brandi and her family. We love you!

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Update: We never made it to Brandi's mom's funeral. :( Our first problem was that Tim couldn't remember exactly where the church was. He thought it was at 79th and Yale. Eventually he remembered the name and we found it using our GPS on our phone. (THANK GOODNESS! I love our Navigation!) It was at 99th and Yale and we made it with 3 minutes to spare. Of course, when we walked in and saw everyone in their Sunday finest we realized something was up. The funeral was the day before, on Saturday. Tim was devastated and I was upset. We ended up talking to Brandi, who was about to board a plane back to New Orleans, and she understood. She actually thought it was funny! Anything to make her laugh. I thought for sure Tim had read it wrong but when we got home we checked his phone and it said Sunday at 11 am at 79th and Yale. Darn...now I can't make fun of him. I guess I still have the blunder in Stillwater I can bug him about. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Wow! A post WITHOUT pictures of Brenden! :) (beware...there are still a TON of pictures)

Our Beautiful Backyard

Flowers

Wildlife

Trees

The tree outside our backdoor...in winter.

The same tree...in summer.

Happy 3rd Birthday Jackson and Dillon!

This past weekend I smushed myself into the back of my parents Tahoe and hugged my grandma's walker for 2 hours to head to Oklahoma City for the twin's birthday party. Brenden and grandma Halter watched Cars and I tried to keep them both happy with crackers and juice while my mom drove. Everything went pretty well until about 20 minutes before we got to the house, which is when Brenden started freaking out and grabbing at the buckle for his carseat. He was DONE! (I didn't blame him!) Thankfully a few rounds of "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" distracted him.

The entire weekend Brenden followed the twins like a little puppy. He wanted to do what they were doing, play with what they were playing with, eat and drink what they had. I don't think they were too keen on this, but they tolerated him to an extent. They all loved the bubble blowers my dad bought them, even though only one of the three worked, and they spent Saturday evening scrambling all over the backyard to pop them.

Sunday morning, after helping my uncle put together a huge, dome climbing thing and getting Brenden to take a nap, we headed to the PlayZone where the party was being held. It's a really cool place with inflatable jumping toys and slides. The twins go there every once in awhile so they were pros and thankfully Brenden had jumped around in one at Tim's Reunion so he knew what to do.

Jackson showing us how it's done!

He LOVED it! :)

WHEE!

Eventually, after crawling in, out, around and down everything a million times we headed into the side room to have cake and ice cream and watch the boys open their presents. Brenden thought everyone was singing to him so he really enjoyed the cake part and he kept himself entertained for about 2 seconds with the content of his gift bag. My mom did end up taking him outside to jump around so he didn't scream to open the presents himself.

Adorable cake!

Somehow we got the room cleaned up and all the presents packed in the car and headed back to the house. Rick had set up the boys' pool before we left so that the water could warm up and Delayna brought over a few of the news toys. The bubble blower the boys got is soooo cool. It makes huge bubbles with little bubbles inside them, which I was totally jealous of. :) Brenden and the twins had a great time chasing bubbles and splashing in the pool. Brenden even showed his grandma how he learned to blow bubbles in the water!

Can you see the bubbles in the bubble? Cool, huh!? :)

SPLASH!!!

I'm not sure how we got any of them to bed that night with all the sugar in their systems and the bubbles in the backyard, but we did! You would think that Brenden would be exhausted and sleep like a champ...yeah right! He was up at 6:30 am, just like any other day. I'm not sure who reset his internal alarm over the last month but I need to take him back for an adjustment!

We squeezed back into the car to head home relatively early in the day. During the ride home Brenden somehow ended up eating crackers, french fries, a piece of hamburger, animal crackers and his favorite, donut holes. When he passed out (only 15 minutes from home...Joy!) he was covered in sugar and I thought for sure I was in for a nasty afternoon. SOMEHOW he stayed asleep from the car to his bed and took a decent nap, waking up 2 hours later, still sticky, but very happy.

I'm so glad we got to go celebrate and have fun with the twins. I hope they had a great time as well!

Brenden, totally jealous of their vSmile. :) But he did OK watching!

Happy Birthday Jackson and Dillon!

For more pictures, click HERE!