the extraordinary life and times of kyle & erin

Catch-up: Busy Summer Days!

2011-07-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

This summer has been a crazy one, to say the least. We have either been going somewhere or had someone coming here every week! But it was great being able to spend time with those we love, even if it gets a bit frazzling after a while! After taking stock of how many pictures I want to post, I'm gonna break this up into smaller posts. (Otherwise you would all be REALLY overwhelmed). So here is the first catch-up post:

My parents came up to do some kayaking and hang out with their favorite (only) granddaughter. We hit up the little Spokane River which is perfect for just relaxing and floating. My mom is going to hate this picture, but I love it and it is my blog so I can do what I want. :P

This was Charlie's maiden voyage and as you can see, she did just fine.

She loves the water, just like her Momma. :)

And of course, no visit from Grandma and Grandpa would be complete without a new outfit for Charlie! Yay!

Unfortunately, we have had a lot more of this around here... Seems like my perfect baby has now been replaced by a fiesty baby who throws mini fits and likes to head-butt unsuspecting people in the face when she is feeling cantankerous. It doesn't really help that she is finally starting to get more teeth (the two top ones are trying to come through now...). Luckily her sweet smiles make up for her orneriness. Hey, it always worked for me as a kid. ;)

See what I mean? You'd let her head-butt you too!

Thanks for coming up mom and dad! We loved having you here, and Charlie loves being with her grandparents! Hopefully we will see you up here again soon for some more kayaking adventures... and hopefully those trees stay out of your way grandma. ;)

Love, Erin Lynn

Ps. I know, two consecutive posts! What is this world coming to?! Let's hope I can keep this pace going.

A New Post GASP

2011-07-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

Oh hello blogging world (and by world I mean immediate family and friends...) The Shannon family is alive and well. I have a lot of catching up to do but I thought I would start with this past week. One of our bestest friends Rex came into town with his wonderful fiancee, Trish. We had a blast just hanging out and being ridiculous. Of course, a visit from Rex wouldn't be complete without Kyle talking us into doing something a little outlandish. So. We packed up the kayak, borrowed a canoe and loaded up a TON of stuff, and headed up north to Priest Lake, Idaho. We took the boats (after a 4 hour drive that was supposed to take 2) and paddled for about 2 hours in the near dark. It made for some pretty pictures (Exhibit A) but was also a little disconcerting since we had to find a campground in the dark. Kyle claimed he knew where we were going... but he always claims to know that. Love you Kyle... :) Alas, we made it!

Exhibit A

Charlie chillaxin' while we set up camp... She was such a trooper throughout the whole experience! She loves the water, even when it is FREEZING cold! She kept leaning all the way over just to drag her hands in the water. Luckily, Trish kept a hold of her and also entertained her during the seemingly never ending rowing.

Fortunately for me, and much to my chagrin, Kyle's adventures usually turn out to be amazing. This is the view from our campsite in the morning. It was beautiful and so peaceful. You can only access this part of the lake by boat or foot so we were pretty alone up there. Which also freaked me out a little... Pretty sure I heard a large mammal outside my tent at night which could have been a bear, moose, deer or psychopathic murderer. Luckily it/he decided to leave us alone.

Charlie after waking up. She slept excellent in the tent and was her normal cheerful self in the morning. She is up and walking around now constantly but there were a lot of falls on the uneven ground. She was filthy by the end of the trip, which was only one night! I can't imagine how much dirtier she would have gotten. And you all know me, I like my baby clean and smelling good!

Group Photo. There always has to be at least one of these. As much as I hate them, which I do, I appreciate the documentation of a wonderful trip.

And this is just a wonderful shot of right before we found our campsite. I think I should blow this one up and hang it on my wall.

It was an amazing experience and I am glad to have such an adventurous husband who pushes me to do crazy things I wouldn't normally do.
Thanks to Rex and Trish for gracing us with their presence! You two make an adorable couple and we can't wait for the wedding!

Stay tuned for some catch-up posts... hopefully. :)

Love, Erin

Seattle with the Parkers!

2011-02-01T15:22:00.001-08:00

Recently, I had the joyous pleasure to spend the weekend with the delightful Parker family in Seattle! It was so much fun seeing Charlie and Blake (my nephew who is 5 days younger than Charlie) crawl ALLLL over each other. It was also entertaining to watch Cole, my 3 year old nephew, mess around with the babies. It's hard to tell him to stop doing something when I am laughing hysterically. Needless to say, I'm sure Charlie was thinking to herself "WTH mom, get this giant off of me!". Sorry Charlie. I had a blast with them and miss my sissy terribly. No amount of bribery has persuaded her husband to move to Spokane so maybe I will just secretly apply to the UW law school for Kyle... Muhahahhaha. Oh, and update for those of you who don't know, Kyle has switched to Law. FYI. In case you cared. :P ANYWAYS, here's some pics from the trip that my sister took with her amazing new camera! Also, Charlie was a champ on the flight! Did I expect anything else? Of course not. :)

A great picture of the nose-wrinkling grin! You have to love it... even if it looks a little bit scary this close-up. haha.

Example of the crawling issues. There was a lot of accidental eye-poking, face-kicking, all around body-slamming. They also shared bottles cause one would throw it down and the other would crawl over and start drinking. It was good insight on how life would be with twins. I think I could manage it....as long as I had my sister with me at all times! Two crawling babies would be hard, it was tough with two of us! So needless to say, my fantasy of having twins is forever banished.

Cute picture of the babies in the tub. I love Blake's BIG smile!

Prime example of Cole's ornery-cuteness. Yes, he is letting go of her hands so that she falls, but look at that smile! I mean, come on! Its adorable! Plus, I figure it's toughening her up for the "real world". :)

Blake and Charlie in their matching kitty hats from Grandma Morgan!

I like the look Charlie is giving Blake... My mom said it looks like she is thinking "What the heck are you smiling about!?"

This is Charlie's new tongue "thing". She sucks on her upper lip all the time. Its adorable and I am so glad we finally have documentation of it. Reminds me of a certain Grandma (wink wink...) :) You will also notice how red her knees are... All that crawling!

This is my favorite picture. She is just such a grinner! I love her joy and her overall happiness. Once again, its borderline frightening this close up, but if you know Charlie and her personality, you love it.

Ps. Disclaimer: Although my baby seems like the happiest in the whole world, I am told she can be quite cranky when I am not around. Someone is turning out to be a mama's girl... uh oh. Thanks to Nick for watching the babies so that we could have some "sister" time!

catching up on charlie pics!

2011-01-16T23:25:00.000-08:00

a lot of these are iPhone pics, so sorry for the low quality...

-k

missing charlie and erin...

2011-01-15T00:16:00.000-08:00

Erin's in Seattle visiting Jamie, and she took my baby with her! Homesickness never hits me, but i'm definitely baby-sick. and wife-sick :)

can you blame me?

Beware: an onslaught of pictures!

2010-06-17T22:33:00.001-07:00

Sometimes the only camera I have on hand is my iPhone, which is unfortunately not the iPhone 4 with a 5 mp camera. So. The picture quality isn't the best on these but in this case its not about quality, its about quantity! Enjoy.

Sooo...

2010-06-17T21:27:00.001-07:00

So yeah... Kyle has officially put me in charge of the blog (especially after I told him his humor was sometimes tasteless and all the time corny...hah oops.) But our computer is a poor sport about uploading images in a decent amount of time so this is just a preliminary post to get you all off my back begging for pictures of my awesome child. New pics will be up shortly! I promise! Until then, let these "old" pics hold you off for a wee bit longer.

Pic #1 She seems to be saying "WTH did you dress me in mom!?" Oh Charlie, just you wait until high school...muhahaha

Pic #2 She looks like a balding old man. Luckily I like bald men. ;)

Pic #3 This is a classic Charlie and dad moment... he gets a lot of snuggle time. Especially when he falls asleep on his lunch break and gets into trouble. Oops.

are you smarter than a new parent...

2010-06-01T01:08:00.000-07:00

Can you guess what this is? Choose A, B, or C

A. a raisin
B. a rabbit pellet
C. an armadillo
and the answer....

None of the above! For those of you who chose any of the above, especially C, you failed. Its Charlie's belly button stump! Hooray!

cutest baby ehhh-ver

2010-06-01T00:42:00.000-07:00

Tummy time!

2010-06-01T00:37:00.000-07:00

Chuck is lifting her head now (a little). We like to think she's extra strong for her age. You know, 'above average' already. What with parents such as ourselves, who would expect anything less! ;)

poop, baby, poop!

2010-05-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

Some friends of ours (and my mom) said when your infant fusses and squirms after being fed you can hover them over a toilet and they'll poop. I totally scoffed at the idea, until I tried it today. Charlie wouldn't stop crying and squirming AND i was really bored, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I've never been so proud of her little dookie before! It worked like a charm! I think I'm going to try Marley & Biel next.

please go to bed?

2010-05-21T00:35:00.000-07:00

its 12:35 in the morning. we didn't want to stay up this late. i was planning on going to class tomorrow morning, before I had to go back to work.

but NOOOOOOOOO, charlie just wants to cry. what gives? she was the perfect little angel the past week in the hospital. erin davis says she's probably just adjusting to her new environment. yeah, that must be it.

...you want another bottle? no?

...you want more play time with marley & biel? no?

...you want a lullaby? yeah that's it! wait, nope.

...you want to be bounced and held all night by erin & kyle? yep! :)

bye bye, hospital bed!

2010-05-21T00:24:00.000-07:00

hasta la vista, NICU! This was Charlie's bed for the last 7 days. Heart monitors, an oxygen sensor and an IV accompanied every minute of her stay.

Doctors gave her a clean bill of health and she was officially discharged this afternoon. Wanna know the best part? As it turned out she never even had an infection. Go figure.

csection: ~ $10K
a full week in NICU: ~ $10K
good health insurance: priceless

dogs, meet Charlie. Charlie, meet dogs

2010-05-21T00:11:00.000-07:00

This was pretty hilarious... Erin was totally convinced Biel was gonna chomp on Charlie's face. Yeah, RIGHT. My dogs are Charlie's body guards now. You should have seen their faces the first time Charlie cried! Now every time Charlie so much as moves a muscle, Biel whines a little and does this soldier crawl to get closer to her and investigate. Pretty freaking adorable.

erin & charlie

2010-05-21T00:09:00.001-07:00

little girl loves mommy already

Charlie's first car ride

2010-05-21T00:02:00.000-07:00

It was pretty exciting, let me tell you.

(i thought Erin was a backseat driver before... nope, NOW she's a backseat driver)

Erin picked out this outfit for the affair. Her favorite elephant sleeper

diapers.

2010-05-20T23:55:00.000-07:00

we brought baby home at 1:30 pm today.

...ten diapers later, its 11:30 pm.

We're thinking about changing the word 'hour' to diaper as a means to tell time. You know, like 'babe you'd better hurry up and get ready, church starts in 2 1/2 diapers'... or 'last night's yankees game was 9 diapers long and set a new american league record'
ugh.

my little girl

2010-05-18T09:56:00.001-07:00

Now its my turn (this might get a little sappy).

I thought I knew what love was, until Erin and I saw our little baby for the first time. This little thing is absolutely perfect. Not perfect without physical blemish (but come on.. pretty much!), but sinless, spotless and pure. I can't get enough of her.

We sit for hours just holding her and doing nothing else. Whether she's looking at us, sleeping, eating, pooping, it doesn't matter. She absolutely, completely, unequivocally has my heart. I'm in love!

Momma and Charlie

2010-05-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

I've heard c-sections suck. In fact, I saw with my own eyes how much stuff they take out of your belly, the number of stitches you get, and just how far the doctor's arm goes into your abdomen. Needless to say, Erin is still moving pretty slow and taking oxys round the clock.

HOWEVER... when you put baby in Erin's arms, its like the pain disappears. I've never seen anything like it. Yeah Erin is tough, but I know she's hurting. But put her little baby in her arms and Erin is a different person. She's obsessed, its official.

How to bribe a Neonatalogist

2010-05-18T09:39:00.000-07:00

Dr Egger is our Neonatalogist at Sacred Heart. He's the one who told us that if Charlie's blood samples came back negative we could take Charlie home as soon as today (Tuesday). Yesterday, a different doctor called Erin to give her an update and told her we'd get Charlie on Thursday or Friday, best case scenario. um... can we go with the first opinion, doc?

So we asked all the nurses if Egger had any vices. Pepsi. So here's a package of the 'baby' Pepsi cans with a note for Dr Egger. The note says:

Can we PLEASE take Charlie home today? Pretty please?! love, the Shannons

...on the side of the case we wrote, 'baby cans for baby doctors'

:)

The many sides of Sir Charles

2010-05-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

Charlie at 3 days old

2010-05-16T23:28:00.000-07:00

We visited Charlie twice today. She's still downtown at Sacred Heart in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), so we visit as often as possible. However, her situation sounds way scarier than it is. Based on her original high respiratory rates, low O2 saturation in her blood and her abnormally high white blood cell count, they thought she may have some kind of infection.

While the doctors admit its most likely the Meconium ultimately causing everything, her symptoms were enough to warrant a trip to the NICU. We've learned that with this sort of thing they always err on the side of caution. But with prayer, fasting and a priesthood blessing we're pretty sure she's covered. :)

Lots of good pics from today, enjoy!

first video

2010-05-16T23:24:00.001-07:00

Charlie at 3 days old:

A Special Birthday Message from Charlie...

2010-05-15T22:38:00.000-07:00

Recipe for a perfect baby...

2010-05-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

two buff forearmsa few nicely toned triceps
one perfectly dimpled chin
throw in adorable nostrils (not too skinny!)
add one perfect tongue
(softly) stir in one beautiful singing voice
check for steller profile shot
10 little fingers and toes (please taste test first!)
place one stylish hat on head (horizontal stripes preferred)
and you get...

CHARLIE!

More pretty flowers!

2010-05-14T14:41:00.001-07:00

My sister Erin Davis is pretty freaking awesome. Not only did Erin (Shannon) love the flowers, but a polka dot vase complete with an elephant?! That's pretty much a homerun. Thanks! :)

"Don't you wish your g-friend was hot like mine..."

2010-05-14T14:38:00.001-07:00

Erin's up and walking! Before our sojourn she tried to fix her hair, and I was trying to help. Here was my solution:

Charlie's in good hands!

2010-05-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

9:40 am

Imagine a normal stretcher you'd see in the back of an ambulance. Now put a speck of that magic rock that turns normal objects into full blown machines (remember Transformers II, Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox and the crazy little boom box?)

That's what happened to the stretcher they took Charlie away in. This thing was bigger than a full adult stretcher, and looked more complicated than a 747 cockpit. They rolled her into our hospital room to say good bye before taking her downtown to the NICU. They said it weighed more than 300 lbs, and later the nurse said she thinks she was FLOWN downtown. We've never even been in a helicopter, Charlie! Geez! Next thing you know she's gonna want her own horse and trips to Italy. I guess it all starts now...

the Late Night show

2010-05-13T22:27:00.000-07:00

10:45 pm

Here's how MOM and DAD are doing... (disclaimer: Erin did not approve ANY pictures of her!)

...and here's how baby Charlie is doing!

Its tricky to get good pictures at this point, because she's inside a little oxygen chamber and the nurses won't let us take her out yet! She's healthy and alert, but a few indicators of respiratory complications remain, the foremost being a very rapid breathing rate.

When she was born our doctor had to remove quite a bit of Meconium from her nose and mouth (stool in the amniotic fluid). We learned this is not uncommon for babies who go full term or past their due date (Charlie is 3 days past hers), so everyone is being cautious with our new baby. They want to make sure there is no additional infection and they want any remaining Meconium to make its way out of her lungs.

more baby! (iPhone camera)

2010-05-13T17:57:00.000-07:00

1st baby pics

2010-05-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

Charlotte Louise Shannon
born 2:51 pm
May 13th, 2010
8 lbs 4 oz, 20 inches long

still in belly

2010-05-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

2:30 pm

...panic level up!

Baby's heart beat went for a dive again, hovering around 60 bpm for about 5 minutes. The nurses started freaking out and called for help while asking where our doctor was. They unplugged Erin's bed and started wheeling her toward the door when Dr Havin showed up. He immediately said, 'what are we doing?' and took charge and tried to calm the situation so he could have a look at Erin.

...panic level down!

They got her readjusted and the heart beat started climbing and everyone settled down. At this point Dr Havin started talking calmly to Erin, explaining that the baby was 'in distress' and that they hoped the heart beat didn't go down again. Before he could finish, though, the heart beat went down again. Havin looked at Erin and told us he was going to make the decision to do a ceasarian.

...panic level back up!

They threw me some scrubs and said to hurry and put them on, and we all wheeled into the operating room together. I held Erin's hand, and

blah blah blah

blah blah blah

2:51 pm

then WHAM! Beautiful baby girl comes out, cries for the first time and mommy and daddy get to hold her. The rest is history! Pics to follow

Sunflowers!

2010-05-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

Sunflowers are Erin's favorite flower. Behold:

12:30 pm

Nurse checked Erin, she's at 6.5 cm.
(I guess I can understand how they get good at judging centimeters, but HALF centimeters? Really? That's pretty impressive, Sue. I'm not so sure I believe you're THAT good)

A little scare... baby's heartbeat got down to 60 bpm for a few moments! Nurse called in some backup and they prodded Erin and moved her until baby decided to beat normal again. Not to worry, Charlie's just messin with us. I bet she's just as anxious to meet us as we are to meet her! That's just her way of saying, 'Get me outta here!'

um.. progress?

2010-05-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

11:00 am

Erin's still at 5 cm. We were hoping she'd progress a little faster, but it ain't happenin'. But not to worry, baby and Erin are still healthy and happy. Mostly.

Grandma & Grandpa Morgan arrived!

2010-05-13T10:28:00.001-07:00

9:00 am

Darla & Jim arrive from Kennewick...
Everyone is in good spirits and having a good time (if you can call an IV drip, petocin, oxygen and an epidural a good time!)

Finally, some pics!

2010-05-13T07:49:00.002-07:00

this is where its all gonna go down!

Erin updating her facebook status...

This is my table (minus pink puke bucket)
Poptarts, check. fruit snacks, check. cliff bars, laptop, hat, journal, check.

erin + drugs = happy wife!

2010-05-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

6:30 am

BETH the uh-nest-uh-tist came in and poked this huge needle in Erin's lower spine. Erin held onto Steph the nurse while I pulled a chair up behind Beth to watch!

Almost immediately the pain from the contractions went away, and now Erin's muy feliz. Other than a little nausea an hour later, Erin said, 'why would anyone do this withOUT an epidural!'

7:30 am

Now things are smooth sailin'... matt costa is singing softly in the background, and sleep is coming quickly to Erin. Not for me, though, adrenaline is keeping any fatigue at bay.

Baby's coming...

2010-05-13T05:39:00.000-07:00

3:20 am

Erin's doing laundry downstairs, water breaks...
Comes upstairs and flips on the light in the bedroom and says loudly, 'time to go'...
Kyle (thinking she's talking about school) says, 'not yet!'
Erin clarifies...

3:30 am

Erin calls hospital, they ask if she's sure her water broke...
Erin says 'if this is urine there's something definitely wrong with me!'
Hospital says take your time to come in

3:45 am

Dishes are done, beds made...
Dogs are locked in basement downstairs...
White flag is hanging from mailbox (Margie across the street came up with this code; she insisted)

4:30 am

Arrive at Holy Family, plop Erin in wheel chair and nurse escorts us to second floor
Nurse checks Erin first thing, she's at 4 cm! Hooray! (after wicked bad contractions for a day and half and only barely past 1 cm, this is great news)

Go Yankees!

2009-10-25T21:09:00.001-07:00

In honor of the Yankees winning the pennant about 15 minutes ago, here's one of my favorite pics from Yankee Stadium last year (Rex and Danielle must have left their Yankees gear at home, please forgive them).
-k

uh oh...

2009-10-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

So Erin and I went to her first doctor's appt, and we are happy to announce that we are growing a happy, healthy, twitching alien! However, we're not so thrilled to share with the entire world that he/she looks like Conan O'Brien. See for yourself.
-k

TIME OUT!

2009-09-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

I know, I know...for all of our many readers (you three know who you are!) who demand pictures I say: What do you want a picture of!? I guess I could try to throw in a picture of Kyle refinishing our hardwood floors but the expletives are flowing out of my wonderful husband's mouth at a rate inconsistent with our beliefs that I fear a camera flash might induce a full-on temper tantrum. Or perhaps you want a queasy picture of myself, green at the gills, glaring in my typical WTH-do-you-want manner. No. Thank. You. So, suffice to say, until I find a picture worthy to post, you will have to read. It will not hurt you.

Ok, onto the real purpose of this post: Time Out. (I personally like to use the hand signal used by referees when I say this)

Number 1: Since when does kyle like blogs?! Just last week, as I finished my rounds of delightful blog reading, he went on a tirade about how much he dislikes blogs and facebook and everything our society thrives on, blah, blah, blah! And then I find out I'm pregnant: WHAM! He is an official blogger. And is offering bribes (new computer?!) for me to become a blogger also. Weird. I will never understand his brain.

Number 2: Remember how ever since I got married (a whole 9 months ago) I would go on and on about how much I want a baby and how much I wish I was pregnant. I'm sure many of you got sick of hearing it, cause I know my husband did. And now that I actually am pregnant, I desperately wish I was not and my husband is waaaay more thrilled than I am (this may be partially due to the fact I feel terrible and he does not). It's all quite unfortunate because this isn't something that I really have a say in. Soooo I guess I am allowing all of you to point and laugh at the irony of the situation....But maybe not until I'm done with all this first trimester garbage, cause you might make me cry. :(

That's for now...until next time!
Love, Erin

TAX breaks 101

2009-09-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

tax break #1

Get married. I discovered filing jointly garners a larger return. Who knew...

tax break #2

Buy a house. As much as compound interest sucks, and seeing the amortization schedule of our house payments over the next 30 years and realizing that our home is actually costing us an exorbitant amount more than sticker price, the concept of 'tax deductible mortgage interest' is but small consolation.

tax break #3

We're only 34 weeks and 3 days away from this one (according to my iPhone pregnancy tracker). If its a boy, i like Simon, but Erin likes Theodore. Theodore?! I refuse to give my son a name that invariably turns out shortened, revised, and changed to 'TED'. No way.
-k

the not so immaculate conception

2009-09-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

sometime in the middle of august, erin's birth control decided to stop its primary job of 'controlling'. about 4 weeks later, she woke me up at 6:30 in the morning with her signature mischievous grin saying she had something to tell me. three days after that brings us to today, with the only proof of the news lingering on the bathroom counter still displaying not one but TWO pink lines, resting contentedly on a folded paper towel. gross. n-e-ways, needless to say, erin got her most coveted wish and she is officially prego. we made a baby!
-k