HALLOWEEN

This is Evan taking a nap before his first Halloween Party. There were more people there in costume but the pics didn't all turn out that great so I only provided a few. Evan loved the party so much that he stayed awake the whole 5 hours that we were there just bouncing on daddy's knee, looking at all the funny people and listening as we laughed, joked, and played games. To say the least, he slept good that night. 10 hours!!

My Dad the Bum!
Our Friend Damon was a little two faced for Halloween

• This is my mom. Is she a cat? Is she a mouse? I don't know but she's cute.
  
  These are the little ones. We have a Barbie, a Clone Wars Clone and Batman. Wow!
  

  Our family dressed in theme. Evan was a tomato, Kendall the Farmer and I was the vine. It was a little too deep for most in attendance but we thought it was clever.
  

  This is our little tomato in true tomato fashion, mad as can be and red from head to toe.
  

  How cute is he?
  

  This is his "Baby's 1st Halloween" outfit provided to him with love from Grandma Elkins. Thanks Grandma!!

Family Date Day...

Kendall and I decided to go on a "Family Date" and take the baby to some spots around Pueblo that we had never been to with him yet. It was a fun filled day for everyone.

We started off at the El Pueblo museum. We learned a lot about local culture and history. We spent a long time examining artifacts and checking out the gallery that displayed art by local artists.

The museum is built on the original sight of El Pueblo Fort. El Pueblo was the fort that separated Mexico from the United States once upon a time. On the spot where the fort once stood they now have this replica of what they think a section of the fort might have looked like then. This is Evan climbing the latter to go check on the garden that they might have had growing on the roof tops.
The walls and, roof and furniture were all made in the traditional style with mud and dirt packed tightly around clay bricks. It was fun exploring all the different rooms.

This is a view of the El Pueblo Fort from the outside. If you can't really see much its because I put Kendall in charge of going back to take the picture and he obviously didn't want to walk "all the way" back up there so, you get what you get.
This is Kendall and Evan on the bridge at the end of the Pueblo River Walk. Pueblo has been working for over 10 years now to really improve the down town area near Union Avenue back to it's old glory. The Arkansas River runs right through town and they have built a section of walking paths and bridges for locals and tourists alike to come and explore. This is the area of the trail that they have left more natural but further up there is a section that is all concrete and stucco with beautifully manicured lawns where they run a couple of little fairy boats up and down the river way.

Evan still sleeps through almost everything that we do.

This is Evan and Daddy playing pool. He seemed to like the loud noise of the balls hitting together but his hand-eye coordination was not good enough to sink any shots. Hahaha!

After the museum, a picnic (no pictures), the river walk, and the pool hall, we went to Do Drop Inn for Pizza. They were voted the best Pizza in town by the chamber of commerce. They have a sweet thick crust that Kendall likened to a donut. It's good...but it's not for everyone.

We had to eat in shifts because the baby decided to cry and I had to go out and feed him. By the time I got back Kendall was nearly finished but then he got to hold the baby while I ate so it all worked out. There is no going back, we're parents now. And loving every minute!

Evan's first CHILI FESTIVAL

This is a trip we took from before the baby got sick but when all of that happened I got behind on posting the latest goings on, so here is a little of what we like to do for fun in Southern Colorado.

Pueblo Colorado is famous for its chili's. Every year near the harvest the town throws a huge chili festival and people come from all around to buy there green chili's and stock up on other produce as well as checking out all the local rides and vendors.
Beautiful chili's hanging in the sun. Ummm! I love this time of year.

This is one of hundreds of chili roasters that line the roads filling the air with the aroma of roasted chili's. The smell is wonderful.

Kendall and Evan boy enjoying the wonderful weather and exciting sights and sounds of the festival.

How cute is he!!!!!

Say hi to the camera baby Evan.

The rides at the festival are a big hit with the kids.

Look at God's beautiful rainbow. Fall is such a magical time of year.

Local canned goods are always fun to buy. Suppot local farms..

My mom Sylvia enjoying the Chili Festival too.

The GREEN chili's is what everyone comes for. Southern Colorado is famous for a chili made with these delicious Pueblo Hot Chili's, pork, garlic and other seasonings. It's to die for and everyone claims that they make or know the person who makes the best Green Chili in town. Truth be told, I actually know the person who makes the best Green Chili and that is my dear old Dad. I can't wait until he makes up another batch.

This is Kendall going into the Irish Pub as we wind down the day with some delicious Irish Nachos. They are made with thick slices of potato cheese and other toppings and they are oh-so-good. Yes, Yes, I know, we are those people who take their baby to a bar, but actually, it's a very nice place.

October 25, 2009- Evan at 2 months

This will be the last day he will wear these overalls. I can't believe how big he is getting!
This isn't my mom's favorite picture because the camera is looking right up his nose; but look at those beautiful blue eyes, who couldn't love this little boy??

This is his doe eyed look. He's gonna' get all the girls with this one.

This is Evan at two months already playing the air guitar. We think he's going to have a musical gene. We have high hopes for starting a family band. Kendall and I should start today learning our instruments. Kendall on the ukulele, me on the microphone and Evan on the air guitar We'll rock the show!

My Sick Little Baby Boy!

H1N1 has been ravaging the community lately and we have been very careful to wash hands and take every precaution. I work at the school so I have been especially careful to take a shower after work, use hand sanitizer and the like.

Despite all of our best efforts, Kendall woke up Monday morning with that little tickle in his throat. It soon progressed to the full blown flu and he spent 3 days in complete isolation from the baby. No holding, hugging, nothing.

Three days passed without anyone else in the house feeling sick, then Thursday morning, the worst happened. Little Evan felt HOT! I had been taking his temp ever since daddy got sick and nothing, but this morning I took it and it was 101.6. This picture was taken between tears. I kept thinking, "How could I have let this happen."

We called the doc and they wanted to get him in that day to be seen. We went in to our 2:30 appointment. The doctor recommended that we take Evan to the hospital for a full work up. He got chest x-rays, urine analysis, blood tests and antibiotics.

We had to take him through the E.R. which was particularly frightening. One can't help but feel that if he wasn't already really sick then he could be after this. When they got the results back from the x-ray it showed a possible infiltrate in his left lung (pneumonia.) That is the reason for the antibiotics. Finally after many terrible things had happened to our precious little boy, they diagnosed him with bacterial pneumonia and possible flu and finally let us go home around 7:30 pm.

I couldn't sleep all night. I kept getting up to make sure that Evan was still breathing. He had a restless nights sleep as well and got up many times in the night to eat and then go back to bed. By the morning I was exhausted and they had us coming back in for a 9:30 appointment for another antibiotic shot. We went in, got the shot and talked to the doctor again about how things were going. We were watching Evan for elevated temperature and giving him baby Tylenol just in case. His temp had been down since midnight and I was just praying that it would stay that way.

We live far from town and on that particular day they were having a flu shot clinic at our doctors office so Kendall and I decided to go get our flu shots so we wouldn't risk exposing him to another possible flu strain. There were probably 200 plus people waiting to be seen for the shot, it was insane. After over an hour of waiting it was now past 2:00 in the afternoon and we finally got our shot.

As I was in the exam room I heard some of the nurses talking about me in the hallway saying that my baby's doctor wanted to talk to me. A few minutes later the doctor came in and gave me the bad news that Evan's blood culture draw came back positive for a Staph Infection! He let me know that we would need to go right over to the hospital as soon as he could get it worked out and admit Evan to the Pediatric ward for IV meds and monitoring. I was so upset. How could this happen?

I won't go into details but over two hours later we finally got to go to the hospital. At the hospital things just got worse. They stuck him a total of 5 times trying to get an IV going. The whole time he was bright eyed and appeared fine. He wasn't eating as well and had lost some weight but for the most part he did not look like a little baby that needed to be in the hospital. We saw three different nurses and 5 different doctors, all with a different plan. In the end he got more x-rays, more blood draws and they never were able to start that IV. About midnight the doctors decided to forget about the IV and continue to monitor him. Because he was showing none of the signs of Staph and had no likely way of getting such a thing they ruled it as a contamination in the lab and continued on course to treat the flu and pneumonia. Finally in the afternoon on Saturday we were allowed to take Evan home.

We have him on an antibiotic and a medication for the flu. We are still watching him closely and hoping that anyone reading this will send up a little prayer for our little man. He is a trooper. It hurts my heart to see all the things that he has had to go through in the last couple of days and I hope nothing like this happens for some time to come.

We didn't have our camera at the hospital because we didn't know when we left the house on Friday morning that we wouldn't be coming home until Saturday night. This is Evan's little foot with his hospital tag just after we got home from the hospital.

This is Evan on his blanket from the hospital. There is a project called the "Linus Project" and it's a group of women who make blankets and give toys to little boys and girls that end up in the hospital. The generosity and thoughtfulness of this brought tears to our eyes and we will cherish these mementos for some time to come.

Some good came during our time of trial. Evan smiled at me for the first time. He's given small smiles before but this was an all out full hearted "I love you mama" smile. It filled my heart and I will never forget it.

Chicken Butchering Day

Here are two unlucky birds awaiting their fate at the door of the chicken coup.

We decided that along with 25 layers we would get 25 roasters as well when we ordered our chickens for the year from McMurry's Hatchery. All 50 of them came in this tiny little box in the mail and have now grown to be full sized birds ready for the ax in just under 12 weeks.

By the end of the 12 weeks our count of 25 roasters was down to 19 due to mysterious disappearance. We think either a neighborhood dog was coming over and picking them off or a very brave fox was venturing out in the daytime and snatching himself a fine meal.

This is the first unlucky soul to lose his head. Kendall thought it was funny to pretend he was talking with the chickens beak that was still moving just after being butchered.

Poor guy, he got too crazy and lost his head.

This is Evan's first exposure to the brutalities of farm life. Like many of his first experiences, he slept right through it.Draining the blood. Aren't they big??? We decided to skin all the chickens rather than boiling and plucking them. Wow, is that the way to go!! It is so easy. You can do a whole bird from butcher to pan in probably less than 10 minutes when you get really good. Plus with these Organic beauties, the taste is so good that you don't really need the skin and you save on fat which is the best of both worlds.

This is Evan enjoying the shade offered by his little tent. It was such a beautiful day that it was great to get him outside. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Elkins.

We couldn't have picked a nicer spot to do the job. The mountain was beautiful and the air was crisp. Mom, Dad and Kendall are busy working while I get the easy job of caring for the baby and taking pics. How sweet is life!

September 25th, Evan at one month old. Such a cutie pie.

Evan and Daddy in matching camo. Where did they go??
Evan is a water boy just like daddy. He loves his bath time!!

One month old and already looking like a big boy.

Evan weighed 11 lbs at one month. He's a growing boy.

Kendall and I are loving being parents to our little man. He is growing and changing every day. He's starting to smile and make adorable little noises. He's looking around and learning new things all the time. Things were kind of difficult for a while with breast feeding. He was having a hard time latching on, then I got mastitis, ouch!!!! But now things are much better and we are both enjoying the experience. I'm so glad that I stuck it out. It seems like life with a new born is all about sleeping, eating, changing diapers and changing clothes. I think that between Evan and I, we make about one and a half to two loads of laundry every day with the spit ups, accidents and the like. It's strange, I feel like a big milk machine. I think if I could I would take about 5 showers a day. Being a mom is the most challenging thing that I have ever done, but also the most rewarding. I love my little boy so much it's amazing!!!