Vote for Chloe Pretty Please?

Remember this post awhile back?

http://finleypotamus.blogspot.com/2008/09/kieran-and-chloe.html

Well the Kieran and Chloe shot is in a contest!

Please vote... it's really easy, just send an email to PetEntry@gmail.com with the subject of Chloe 20. You can vote twice a day per e-mail address up until Oct. 3... Here's the full info!

http://www.coloradocountycitizen.com/content/current/display_ads/ad168.pdf

Chloe can win some great furbaby goodies!

Silent Sunday

You Again, The Lady With The Camera?!

Action Shot!

Finley on the Farm

On Saturday, Sept. 20 we celebrated my mom's 60th birthday in Eagle Lake at my sister Aimie's house. It was lots of fun getting together with family. Mom really enjoyed it and so did the kids! It was originally set for the weekend before at our house but Hurricane Ike put the kibosh on that.

Here is the cake I made. I was proud of myself since I'm not a baker. It was chocolate wth chocolate frosting and strawberry filling.


Finley LOVED the farm and playing with the dogs and in the dirt. I made a slideshow.

Short, Bald, and Toothless?

Hey, people!


Look at the cute outfit Grandmo got me! It says Short, Bald, and Toothless... As if!!! I TOTALLY have hair! (just peach fuzz but still!) and I'm working daily on sprouting some toofers. Just gimme time, y'all!


Ok, enough pics mom! Time for sleep...

Also, look at my new and fabulous crocheted blankie Grandmo made me with her own hands. Isn't it cool? Well, gotta go... Mom is mumbling something about "her turn to blog"...

Smooches,
Kieran Avery!

Our Hurricane Experience in Pictures...

I have been trying to put together this post for days, so finally here it is...

The days before Hurriane Ike hit were spent preparing. We had to take some breaks though. Here is Kieran chilling out in his high chair, watching Mommy cook.

This was taken Friday night, Sept. 12 before Ike came in... We were watching the news and he decided he just couldn't watch...

This is what was on the TV screen for days on end before the storm. This was Friday night as we were trying to figure out exactly where Hurricane Ike was going to make landfall.

About 2ish Saturday morning, we lost power. It was sooo silent in our house that I lay under my covers listening to the wind whip outside all night. We were very blessed and had no damage to our home and, most importantly, we were all safe. The next day was spent figuring out what to eat with no electricy and how to entertain the kids with no electricity and not being able to go outside. We went over to Grandmommy and Papa Ted's and ate our good steaks before they went bad with no electricity.

Finley found all sorts of ways to entertain himself (and us)...

First he did his exercises...

Random Kieran shot!

Then he played with Kieran's bouncer attachment...

Then he cleaned up his books and toys. He "cleans" by throwing things behind his head.

Then he performed his famous under the table crawl!

Open the drawers, close the drawers, open the drawers, close the drawers...

What do we have here?

Time for more exercises! I see you taking photos, Mommy! Why are you upside down?

"What, Mom? Honest, I didn't touch him!" (He is really hot and sweaty here since electricity had been out for a good while by then) Grandmommy and Papa got electricity back Saturday night and ours came back Sunday.

Oh, but it WOULD be fun to play with his toes!

Okay, I'll just play with these awesome shoes! He looooves shoes (not wearing them, but playing with them!)...

We interrupt Finley's adventures for another random Kieran photo from earlier in the week...

I bet Mommy isn't watching now, I can play with Kierbear's feetsies! What fun!

More random Kierbear shots! What a smile!

Oh cabinet doors are fun too! Open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close...

More shoes! Woohoo!!!
Our backyard after Hurricane Ike came through early Saturday morning...

And, here are a couple of cute videos... The first is of Kieran "talking" to Mommy. The second is Finley playing ball (practicing to be the next Craig Biggio) with Grandmommy. What a natural, right? :)

Wordless Wednesday...

Home Sweet Home...

It's great to be back in my bed...

...watching my favorite show with my favorite friend...

...Curious George!

Finley is in a fun new stage where he imitates things (like Curious George). He "burps" his invisible baby when I burp Kieran and he rubs his temple when he has a "headache" while watching me rub my headache away (it's been a stressful few days, what can I say? lol)

We are back home. We still don't have cell phone service at all and only spotty regular phone service. Please continue to pray for those the hardest hit. We are truly blessed. Praise God! Watching the news today I saw entire subdivisions COMPLETELY washed away and ENTIRE homes on freeways. Andrew went to help his grandparents who had damage and said it's really bad in many places there as well.

Finley and Kieran want to thank Grandmommy and Papa Ted (Pabba to Finley) for taking us in...

Ike's No Friend of Ours!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to update quickly and let you all know that we are all fine. We are truly blessed. Our electricity went out around 2ish Saturday morning. Saturday was a very hot day for us but we had no damage to our home. Our yard is full of leaves that were formerly attached to our trees and we lost some of the food in our freezers and refrigerator (although we were able to save a lot of it). Some of our neighbors lost fences and had trees fall on their homes. We were headed to Eagle Lake to stay with my sister Aimie, fighting terrible traffic in the dark with no traffic lights, when we found out that electricity was restored at Andrew's parents' home in Cypress last night. We turned around and have been here since. Our electricity was restored earlier today so we went home and scrubbed out our refrigerator and freezer and will go home tomorrow. Please pray for all of those who were badly affected in Galveston, Boliver Peninsula (afraid the situation may be really bad there as no media or anyone has been allowed in) and vicinity. Please pray that electricity is restored soon to the millions without it. Please pray that everyone will remember to be kind to others. I will post some pics of what the boys were doing during our "roughing it" weekend when I can.

Love you all,
Shannon

Ike, Ike, Take a Hike!

Preparing for Ike is exhausting...

Yesterday we fought the crowds and got some water and other necessities and found that impending hurricanes bring out the worst in some people. A "lady" actually rammed my cart at HEB because I was in the way of the milk (and, yes, I had my two babies in the cart... Rrrrr!)

Luckily, it brings out the best in some people too. We have wonderful neighbors (thank you Chris for storing our yard toys in your garage!).

We are praying for everyone near the coast! God bless!

Flashback to Finley's First Days...

One thing I wish is that I knew about blogging long ago... like when I was on bedrest pregnant with Finley. I would've inundated y'all with posts on how bored I was lol. I decided it would be great to go back and do a review so that I can document some great times in our life that happened BB (before blogging). Here is the first in a series...

I decided I would go through pictures month by month and tell y'all a little about what was going on at that time. When I started looking through photos I saw photos I didn't realize were taken! Some of these I hesitated to post, because I look, um, lovely lol but they tell the real story so I decided to post them anyway.

I am a chronic hypertensive so that makes me automatically high risk. Add to that the fact that I was "dangerously" close to 35 with both of my pregnancies and that makes the risk higher. With my first pregnancy, we had a wonderful doctor, Dr. Jacobs in the Medical Center. Throughout most of my pregnancy with Finley we drove to the Medical Center through terrible traffic 1-2 times a week to see Dr. Jacobs and our perinatologist. It was an adventure for sure. I ended up on bedrest for the last 7 weeks. Totally worth it, though!

Finley Andrew was born Wednesday, April 25, 2007 at 9:16 p.m. at The Woman's Hospital of Texas. He weighed 6 lbs., 13.1 ozs. and was 18.75 inches long. I was tentatively scheduled for an induction that day but when I first called they were full. They then called me a couple hours later and said they had a bed for me. It was a rainy morning and we fought the elements all the way to the hospital (I was worried they'd give my bed away since they were almost full). I was induced that morning but Finley didn't really want to come out quite yet. I ended up with a c-section that night. We hadn't announced his name beforehand so everyone was anxious to find out what we had chosen for him. We had decided on Finley not too long before he was born but had no clue on a middle name. We finally decided when he was a day old! Andrew is, of course, after his daddy.

I must say that I am so glad that Andrew and other family members and close friends thought to take so many photos because I was so medicated those first few days that it was all a blur. Going through these photos brought back so many memories. I even saw photos of things I didn't realize happened.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from when Finley was born. It sure was hard to narrow them down!

Daddy, Mommy and Finley not long after bringing him home. Do we look sleep deprived or what?

Mommy and Finley. Finley says, "No more pictures!" (Little did he know... He's a master "cheeser" now!)

The first time we unwrapped him. Look at that Baby Lojack! No one was running off with our baby!

Our last photo as a couple with no kids!

Daddy's first photo with Finley...

Finley Andrew sleeping like a sweetie in his Daddy's arms for the first time...

First photo with Mommy... (It was like 1:30 or 2 in the morning before we met so we were both tired! There were sooo many babies born that day that there was a line waiting for rooms so I was stuck in recovery for 4 hours and he couldn't come in there to meet me)

Dad all scrubbed up and ready for the c-section...


Getting his first stats done in the nursery (with family and friends looking on)...

Hello world!

Daddy kisses!

Opening his eyes finally!

Finley's first video....



I could post a thousand... It's a good thing we are in the digital age or I'd have to invest in film stock!

To be continued... (Next up, Finley's first month!)

Kieran and Chloe...

Kieran is growing up so fast! Time flies, new Mamas, so believe it when people tell you this.

When we lay him down on on a pillow or his boppy or flat on his back he always wants to try and sit up (even in his carseat!) and he's only 4 months, 1 week and 6 days old (but who's counting)!


And now when I sit him up he'll stay sitting up like this for several minutes... He's quite proud of himself too!


And, I just thought this one was cute...

Chloe says, "Let me tell you a secret, kid!"