Way Past Due

I look back over the last 6 months and am blown away that Thanksgiving is next week and Christmas will only be a month away. Along with the holidays, it blows my mind that Greyson is now 9 months old and we have been home for 7 months. And Ashlynn is now 8..YES 8. I have an 8 year old. Oh and we have made two house payments already, are all settled in but still have not painted. OMG!!! All these thoughts rambling in my mind could go on forever!! So much as gone on since I last blog backed in JULY! Gosh back then it was hot, we were so digging our central air and now...we woke up this morning to our first SNow and the heater is on all the time!! I guess I need to sit back and tell myself that it is not good for the soul and my readers that I throw so much out at one time because who knows is all this rambling is or going to make since by time I am done!!

First Topic of Business: House

We are loving our new house. We are pretty much settled in and are grateful to have a place that is ours. We were lucky that there wasn't a huge list of to do's with the place, but like all women, we have our own no matter what. Painting has been at the top of my list, but hasn't gotten done yet. I think I know what colors I want. I so want the job to be done, but not looking forward to the mess and hassle of getting it done. I would so love for someone to show up on my door step and get it done for me. It wouldn't be so bad, if the colors on some of the walls weren't ready for Christmas.(I will try to post a picture)

Topic Two: Ashlynn Paige

Who turned 8 years old on the first of November. I can so rem' the evening before my water broke the next morning. We lived in American Falls, Idaho, Jay was out on duty (we were in law enforcement in Idaho and Jay worked for the county as a road deputy...crazy law enforcement to mining!!) It was Halloween night, every foggy and cold as I was home alone watching TV thinking, so I am so glad that my little one will not be born on Halloween and that her birthday will be a few weeks at least from a holiday. My due date was Nov. 9th, but you always hear that your first baby is late. The next morning Jay is in bed and about 6 am I really had to go pee. I so got up and went and went and went and went.....crawled back in bed. Gosh, must not of gotten up 10 times that night like I normally did. By 6:30am I had to go again and I rem' thinking gosh Jimi....as I step the to the foot of our bed....GUSSSSSSHHHHHHH!! My water broke. I'm try shake Jay to get his attention as he is out hard core from a busy night at work. All in all, we got to the hospital about 9 am.....it was so foggy and the frost on the jeep was not in our favor, so we couldn't just get in and go. I hopped in the shower....Jay was freaking out..what if..what if!! I figured if I had to wait around I might as well be clean and since I wasn't feeling like I had to push I was good!! :)
8 years later we are so blessed to have our daughter in our lives. She is such a SUPER big sister. I could go on and on as I did about how she came into our world, but I am thankful that we have put a bigger grin on her face with a little brother. She adores him and most of all he ADORES her even more!! She is going AWesoMe in 2nd grade and working so hard. She had perfect attendance up until her birthday, which she missed her first day (and the next day) of school because of being sick. Not the best way to spend your birthday, but we were glad to all be home with her on her special day!

Business Matter Number 3: Sir Greyson

Mister Greyson Sir....there is so much to say about him. Amazing how much he changes week to week little lone month to month. It blows my mind that he is where he is today. At 9 months old, I would say he is close to 21 maybe 22 lbs and about 30 inches long. (I am buying at least 18 month old bottoms/one pieces to make sure they are long enough for him) Those are my guesses, whether I am on or off, all I know he that he is grow way to fast. I miss those days of just holding him and watching him sleep whether is was in his crib at the hospital or the ride home from SLC. Our roller coaster ride back in Feb. seems sooooo long ago and I wonder to myself if it even happened.
Greyson is starting to get very busy and if you blink your eye he is not in the same spot anymore. He has been rolling all over the place for the past few months and just the last week or two you see him doing the army crawl. He loves to be on the floor with is toys or banging on the kitchen floor. He will pretty much eat anything you give him, but seems to love mashed potatoes. He is so cute when he picks up a snack and puts it to his mouth, but misses!! So darn cute!! He loves to slash in the bath and is getting to be a wiggle worm when trying to change him. He is not sitting up on his own yet....but getting better in just the last few days. He would much rather be on his belly where he knows he can move faster. He is full of smiles and laughter!!
He is attached to his bottle when it is time to go to sleep and such a good sleeper he is. I can't even rem' those first months of being home and having to get up and feed him a few times during the night. He is on a schedule that I can't complain about at all. He is usually up at 6:30 am, down for a nap no later then 9 am for at least 30 minutes, down again by 12pm for up to 3 to 4 hours somedays, then ready for a power nap around 4 and in bed by 7pm, maybe 8pm the LATEST!! By all means he loves to snuggle, but most of the time he is ready for his bottle and blanket in his crib.

Next Order of Business: Jay and I

Jay has been busy at work and gearing up for the cold. Winter is never fun because he has to drive 40 miles one way to catch the van, then another 45 minutes out to the mine site. I am always worried about him with the weather getting bad even more then I do on good days. I am thankful to have such a hard working husband. On his days off, it seems like I have that to do list ready for him. It seems never ending and that time always seems to run out to get everything done.
I am busy with every day life of being a mom and wife. Now that to do list is truly never ending!! I am also working part time at the schools, on top of picking up a few sub days here and there. My job is only 16 hours a week, but seems to take more out of me, but I love it!!

Last Order of Business: Our family

We are gearing up for the holiday season. We will be having Thanksgiving with my parents at our place this year. What a wonderful memory it will be! Jay and I started to get the lights and decorations up outside last week while the weather was still warm and dry, but nothing seemed to go our way, so we only got a start. Ashlynn came home from school so excited to see decorations up, but wasn't happy when I told her the lights couldn't come on until December. We look kinda funny with pumpkins on the porch still but then Christmas decorations hung!! LOL I pretty much have all the Christmas shopping done and blessed that we will have Greyson's first Christmas in our house. I can hardly wait for Christmas morning!!

In closing:
I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving next week and are as blessed as we are.

Family Memories

We had our first family photos taken on Friday by Lexi Sandru, a girly who I grew up with. She now lives in Canada with her husband and five kids. She made a trip home (1000 miles) to see her parents and while home took on photo sessions. She did an awesome job. This is just a seek peek of what is to come! She took about 500 pictures of the four of us along with my brother's family. We drove out to a canyon about 30 minutes from town that had old builds from years past! It was such a beautiful night!! We are excited to see what other memories she saved for us!!

Holy Cow Batman

Wow...is it already the end of July or close enough?? This summer is flying by and that is not a good thing. I am enjoying having Ashlynn home, even thought some days I'm going a little crazy trying to keep her entertained. Hardest part is keeping that little brain going with reading and doing work pages.....we have time I guess!! I say that then before I know it school will be starting up and we'll be looking back! Oh well, at least I can say that I have all of her school shopping done besides school supplies. I did an awesome job this summer catching sales on and off line. She found a very cute bag, lunch box and lets not forget a water bottle that all match. She is way excited to use them and of course wear her new outfits that I have had sitting in her closets with a don't touch sign on them!! LOL :)
It has been busy summer with very hot days!! We have been home pretty much since we went to Idaho last month, which is a good thing with all else going on. We have decided to purchase a house..YEAH!! We have been house hunting for awhile now both here in BM or in Winnemucca which is about a 45 min. drive from here. It is a little bigger, but has a Walmart and a few other name brand places such as fast food, auto part stores, motels, ect. It would be closer to Jay's work which would have been nice. We really debated on BM or Winn, BM or Winn, BM or Winn. Each location had their good and their bad, but somehow we decided that BM was it and we found a house we are so excited to move into. We had a very long list of "must haves" and this places has more then we thought we would have in a house of our own. It is a little smaller then we would have liked, but there is room to add on if needed down the road. It was built in 2007, but looks brand spanken new! We should be closing on or before the 20th of August, but were told we could probably close before the 13th which is even more exciting. It has been a long time coming for us, but we are excited to have a place of our own!!
I am so slacking on post pictures from our trip to Idaho and just fun ones I have taken of the kids. I promise I will get some up........

Amazing......

We got a new camera, well I did as an early birthday present, but I will share with Jay!! Anyways, we gave Ashlynn our old camera but before we did we make sure there were no pictures that needed to be downloaded and this was one of three pictures on the camera still. It brought back so many memories, feelings, emotions and wonder! Greyson was only 3 days old....my handsome little man who made me realize there are miracles and that things happen for a reason in my life. It took Jay and I 7 years to decided to have another baby and it wasn't an easy choice to say the least, but I know we were meant to bring this baby, who we named Greyson James, into the world to make us smile, make our hearts warm and most of all complete our family...now a family of 4!
Even though I don't think about our roller coaster ride we went on almost 4 months ago every day I am still very thankful for everyone who made our NICU/SLC stay great! I keep in touch with Greyson's primary nurse, Rebecca and one of this other nurses Rachel on Facebook, which is just awesome. They are very special people who I hope we never loose touch with.
We meet so many families who were on a roller coaster ride just like us, some might of been spinning more or less then ours, but we were all on the NICU ride. We met the cuties couple, Sklar and Katie who were blessed with twin boys, Falcon and Pheniox, who became Greyson's roommates in Room 6. Twins did not run on either side of the family. They discovered they were having twins at their 20 week appointment to find out the sex of what they thought was only 1 baby!! We found each other on facebook and it has been great to see the boys grow just like Greyson!! We also met a set of TRIPLETS, Gabe, Christian and Sunshine who were born in January. I read their blog for the first time the other night and WOW!! Their parents Kara and her husband have done an amazing job keeping up with 3 babies!! Some days I think it is overwhelming taking care of a 4 month old and 7 year old, but triples....oh my! One person who I would of not been able to finish the roller coaster ride without is my new friend Tina, another NICU mama! Not only is she a NICU mama, she is a very strong willed experienced NICU mama. Her son Noah River...aka, Greyson's NICU cuz...was born on December 17th at 25 weeks and spent almost 4 months in the NICU going though so much more then we did AND it was her second preemie baby. She is a stay at home mom to her 3 boys, married to a hard working man by the name of Chase who runs their family business in Idaho...why couldn't we have know each other when we lived a lot closer!! LOL I admire her strength, knowledge and milk supply....sorry Tina...the picture of the bags full of milk cups came to mind!! :) Not only did we get to know each other in a short amount of time, but we also made time to laugh, smile, cry, shop, eat (Ohhhh Red Loster) and reassure each other it was okay to have another Starbucks!! I wish we lived closer but thank heavens for texting!!

Gone for a week.....

So I ran away with the kids for the first time this past week. We hitched a ride with a friend who is from BM, but now lives in Bend, OR, which is where Jay's mom lives. We arrived on Monday night and stayed until Friday, where then we rode with Grandma Kathy to Weiser, Idaho/Ontario, Oregon area where we met up with Jay for the weekend. We had already planned to met Grandma Kathy in Idaho for the weekend anyways so it worked out great. Jay had to work all week so it was a great week to escape from dishes, laundry, mopping...housework in general and Nevada HEAT!!Our plan for the weekend was to visit Jay's dad, grandparents and other family and friends so we could introduce them to Greyson for the first time and for them to see Ashlynn once again. We usually only get that way once or twice a year so when we do it is great to see everyone.(Great Grandma and Grandpa Newkirk with Ashlynn and Greyson)

Greyson is the 4th generation of Newkirk men and will be the last one on our side of the Newkirk family to carry on the name. When Greyson was born I thought that he looked like his Great Grandpa Newkirk, and after seeing them together I can see it even more!

(Jay, Great Grandpa Newkirk, Greyson and Ken)

I have more pictures to post of the kids with Great Grandparents but they are on Jay's phone, so I will get those upload here in the next couple of days.

4 months....

I took Greyson in yesterday for his 4 month old check-up and shots. He is now up to 13lbs 6oz and 24 inches long. We can try feeding him rice cereal, which blows my mind at 4 months old! We are also able put him on regular formula because he is gaining and maintaining weight as a full term baby would be...which will be nice money wise. The formula he has been on cost $16 a can, which doesn't even last a full week. Since we have been home, March 20th, we have gone through about 24 cans.
He is such a happy little guy!! In the last week he has started "talking" and within the last 2 weeks he makes cooing sounds and hands out wonderful heart warming smiles!! Sad to think that he is out growing 0-3month old clothing and that a size 2 diaper fits much better!! He is such a great baby!! By 11am he is ready for his nap which could last anywhere from 2 to 4hours. Then by 7pm he is ready for about an hour or two nap. Then depending on our night he is back to sleep about 9pm and wakes up roughly about 1:30am and 5am for a feeding. I remember a year ago or even the past 7 years since we had Ashlynn trying to decided if we wanted to have another baby I had a hard time thinking of what life would be like! Even being pregnant I was like oh my Jimi, what are you going to do??!! But now I know our family is complete!

Start of Summer

June has shown to be a busy month already. School is out and the weather is getting hot. I am glad to not have to get up and get Ashlynn to school, but not looking forward to "What can I do!" There is plenty to do around here, but not exactly what she might have in mind!! :)
Jay and I celebrated out 11th anniversary on the 12th. He had to work, so it was just another day for the most part. Greyson also turned 4 months old on the 12th and is such a happy happy little man! He loves to smile, wiggle and starting to giggle!! He mainly hands out lots of smiles and love to his daddy and sister! He lights up listening to Ashlynn...she could read the phone book and he would smile ear to ear. She is the best big sister. As I type, he is having boppy time on the floor in her room while she is cleaning it(her idea to clean, not mine!! LOL) She is not so into changing diapers or feeding..she is more then happy to get them started, but then passes the buck!!
We plan on making a few trips this summer and the rest will happen as it comes. Our first trip is to Idaho here in a couple of weeks to see Jay's side of the family. It will be their first time meeting Gresyon, which will be great to have memories of the great grandparents holding him for the first time. Then we are thinking about going to Sea World in San Diego, which Ashlynn is way excited for!! Me too, I have to say!!
This past weekend my cousin and his wife from Salt Lake City came down for a visit and..............this is the results of our weekend. I have thought about getting a tattoo before but never knew what I wanted or where to put it. I knew I wanted the kids one way or another part of it. My first one on my right foot has an A and G in it for the kids. Can you find the A and G? Then about 30 minutes after I got my first one done, I said now the left look looks too bare!! So the next day I got my left foot done. Can you find the J in it? I am still surprised that I did it, not only on the feet but BOTH!! Some parts where tender, but it must not have been that bad to make me thinking I needed one on the other foot. People say the feet can be a very sore place to get a tattoo and my cousin who has them all over, says he will never finish the one he has started on this foot due to it being too much for him.
We kept my cousin busy, my dad got one on each arm, my sister in law got a a dragonfly on each of her shoulder blades, then my friend Heather and her husband came over and got zodiac signs of their kids. Jay was not new at the tattoo world...he got his first one about 4 years ago and has wanted another one for a few years now. The cross was his art work from this weekend. We only live once!



Right Foot..1st Tattoo Left Foot...2nd Tattoo Jay's 2nd Tattoo
Can you see the A and G? Can you see the J?