Christopher's Guide to DC

1. Don't forget to pack for every occasion (i.e. spit up or diaper malfunction)

2. Take in the local fare. Yummy!

3. Make sure you get back to your car in time or risk a hefty ticket.
(We started the day past 7 hours and barely made it back before the time ran out!)4. Humor your parents when they use you for entertainment.

5. Sun protection is a must and fashionable too!

6. See the sights. At the Lincoln memorial with the Reflecting pool and Washington's monument in the background.
7. Don't complain when you have to keep taking pictures with the same thing in the background.8. Rest when you can. Even when your mother drags you to various museums and tourist traps. Though it is obscured by my mom's head, we are in front of the White House.
9. I repeat, rest.10. Finally, when your parents don't listen, don't be afraid to take it all the way to the top dog!

Simpsonized

So it's no secret that we are major Simpson fans and so when I found this site, I just had a blast turning us in to the Simpsons!
Try it yourself! Just remember if you export your Simpson add a .jpeg or .png when you save it or you won't be able to open it! Have fun!

PS. We got back from DC this past weekend. Working on getting pics up. Colton is coming home this Saturday!!! We have a ton of work in the basement! Aahh!

Trying to beat the heat!

So these pictures were taken a few weeks ago, but someone has been busy with other things so she is getting a little behind on the uploading of photos!

These were taken when, for a couple of weeks, the temperatures rose over 100* and didn't cool off at night. Which we count on, so opening the windows at night gave us very little relief. We resorted to pulling our mattress off of our bed and bringing it into the living room, taxing our little window air conditioner. The "ghetto" camping was kind of fun for a little bit, but, thankfully it began to cool off again at night and we moved back to our room! I seriously don't know how pioneer people could do it! No air, all those clothes, I am glad I exist at this time! (I do realize how whiny I am sounding!)

Christopher is not impressed with heat!

Finger-licking good!

I put this one on for Jackie.
Christophers' two finger suck is reminiscent of my little friend Shae!

Lazy, Hazy, CRAZY days of Summer!

Connie with Christopher

Thank you to all of you that are still checking to see if I have blogged! You haven't given up on me!
Well, Christopher and I flew to the Midwest so that him and his cousin could finally meet and surprise my mom and sister, Carrie! My other nephew, Evan, turned 2, and Connie turned 30! My family got together and gave me funds to purchase another camera (replacing one that was recently stolen/lost) for my birthday! I love you all! Hmm... what else? Jesse is going to Washington DC in a couple weeks, so Christopher and I are going to tag along and check out our nations' capital! I am so stoked! I can barely keep up, let alone blog about everything that is going on! Here are some pics from our trip to the midwest! Hopefully I will blog before we go to DC, but with all the construction still going on, and Colton coming home soon (YEA!), I don't know if I will be able to! Any-hoooo I hope you all are having a great summer!

Blake and Christopher checking each other out
Me with Christopher, Amy(cousin) with Emma, Connie with Blake
3Generations
Evan and BlakeCheck out more under my pics section

I call him Chubsy

Chubsy, Squishy, Elephant boy (due to the sound he makes while pooping-Jackie), Stinker, Little Mister...
whatever you may call him, I call him cute!
More pics on the left, click on 2007

Wondering where I've been?

Hello everyone! Um, so I really don't have any good excuses left, but Christopher and I have been quite the little travellers. To Colorado and back to take Colton to his dad's, on a train to Spokane to visit Jackie and the girls for a week and a half and then soon I will be visiting my family in the midwest! Not to mention we may or may not tag along with Jesse to Dallas for his work! Amidst the travelling we have ongoing work in the basement, spent Father's Day weekend laying sod in the backyard and had a bed and couch delivered to our house. And then finally turning one year closer to 30! Sooooo with all that I hope you can excuse my delinquency of blogging! Love you all and hope that your summer and just to smooth things over with you, here are two cute pictures of Christopher!

Miss Misplacement

In high school at the end of the year, my journalism teacher would hand out personal awards, reflecting a characteristic of you. Guess what I recieved, yup, Miss Misplacement. It was funny, but now I finally know how true it is.

Between juggling a 5 year old and a newborn and all the items required to fly said children to our home and back (and leaving one behind-sadness), I somehow misplaced my camera. Yes, my beautiful camera. That I have had less than 6 months. The one that Jesse let me have instead of treating himself to an XBOX360 (which was the same price). Sadness has come over our household. Christopher will make a cute face and I will reach for a camera that isn't there. moment of silence please............................

Seriously I am just sick over this. Of all the things out of the back pack I was carrying that I could've lost, why oh why did I have to lose this? I have one last phone number to call, to be put on a list next to my lost item, that they will probably never really check. I am just praying(and have been since I realized that it was missing) that whoever found it would have the conscience to take it to the lost and found. I really don't deserve (and we really can't afford) another camera if this doesn't turn up. But we have to document Colton and Christophers childhoods, so for me it is really unthinkable to go without a camera. I just feel incredibly guilty and just mad at myself over this.

Sorry it has been a couple weeks since I have blogged (my goal is to blog at a minimum once a week), it has just been hard since I have no new pictures to post and it reminds me of my camera stress! Ug.
Hope your weeks are going better!

Just more pics!

So I've had t re-learn how to do everything one-handed again, including typing, so forgive my errors! Not much happening this week except a little spring rain with puddles that Colton and I thought needed to be jumped in, giving Christopher a baby faux-hawk (cause with all that hair, why not!?), and Colton doing his impression of "the Thing". Sorry I don't have time to come up with a really clever blog. I'm getting ready (emotionally and physically) to take Colton to his dad's for the summer this weekend. Colton, Christopher and I are flying. We have a 2 1/2 hour lay-over in Salt Lake. um, please pray for sanity! Hope everyone is doing well. As always, there are more pictures of us if you click on 2007 on the left side!

Check ups and a booster

Yesterday Colton and Christopher had their checkups and I am proud to say that both of my children have been fed well and are growing at a positive rate according to the National Center for Health Statistics. But the big news of the day was Colton getting his kindergarten booster shots. He was really nervous and took it pretty well. I think it was harder for me to hold him down while having flashbacks of him and his first shots as an infant! After a few tears and big hug, he bucked up and happily munched on his gummies he chose from the Candy Masterpiece! And afterwards, he told just about every person we ran into about how he got "TWO IN EACH ARM" (said in a deep, menacing voice). He also said how the shots pumped up his muscles (hence the muscleman poses in the pictures below)! He's my brave boy and now he's allowed in the public school system!

Christopher's Stats:
Length- 21 1/2 inches (1/2 inch growth)
Weight- 8 lbs 6 oz (1 lb 2 oz gained)

Colton's Stats:
Height- 43.5 inches (56.61%)
Weight- 42 lbs (56.02%)

Christopher working on his neck muscles

More pictures posted

I don't have the time or mental capacity to blog anything clever these days, but I did add about 30 more pictures to our family website. Click on "2007" under "pictures of us" on the left to check them out. Here is a preview:

Great weather and Grandpa Doug

Christopher

Making smores in the backyardChristopher's DedicationBlue soap in, on, and all over the bathtub

Welcome Christopher James!

Welcome to the world Christopher James Atchley!

Born: April 22, 2007 10:37 am
Weight: 7 lbs 4 oz
Length: 21 inches

Proud Mama

Happy Birthday!

Christopher's Spa treatment

Proud Big Brother

For more pictures go to our Family Website or his first photo from the hospital.

Jackie and the Girls

So no baby yet. Grumble. If I don't go by Tuesday, my midwife is going to get things going for me. I like to say it is because we birth large babies in our family (which is true, 9 and 10 pounders), but it really comes down to my patience!

So on another note, I never posted anything about when Jackie and the girls came down for their Spring Break. It whirlwind of Big Sky Bagel, lounging in our pj's all day, giggling and the children's museum just before they zipped back home! It went way too fast (like it always does) and I pray this baby makes his debut soon so that it work for Jackie to visit me again! I am spoiled! It was too much fun! I didn't pick up the camera like I should have, so I only have pictures of the Children's Museum! Enjoy!

Our cheesy attempt at taking a picture of ourselves!

Ms. Banker ShelbyShae

Ahhhhhhh!Colton

37 weeks and a Big Brother

Here is a picture of me at 37 weeks. Ug. That's all I have to say!

Colton had his big brother class on Tuesday. It was pretty cute and he was excited. He says that he is ready for the baby to be here now.... hmmm, so am I!

Listening to a story about being a big brotherPutting a diaper on a baby. He says that he will change all the poopy diapers. Hmmm... we'll see!

Clean, warm baby
Showing him all of the buttons on the bed. Why do I feel that this was something they could've done without!

Graduation to big brotherhood. I think he's ready!

Don't blame me

I have spent at least an hour trying to get stupid pictures on this site and I am now giving up! I will try again tomorrow, unless I am in the hospital having a child (yeeeeee haaaaaaaw!) For some reason it just won't put the pictures up. I'll try making them smaller and post then. Good night!!!

Anticipation

So if you check back here and are wondering if we have welcomed our little guy yet, I'm sorry! I apologize for slacking for so long. We have been remodeling the basement (a never-ending project), Jackie and her girls visited us for their spring break, and just daily craziness has prevented me from keeping up with my blog! Last week I posed for some local artists to include Sharie Babb and jess Messer-King. It was a lot of fun and I got some great, artistic pictures of my pregnancy! Here are a few pictures from that.
Baby update: We went in at 1:30 a.m until 4:30 a.m. last thursday (thank you Rachel M. for watching Colton!) with contractions every 3-5 minutes! Unfortunately they weren't going anywhere and they sent us home dilated at only 1 cm. I am definitely ready for this baby to join us out here, but Jesse's family doesn't get here until Wednesday, so I guess we'll wait 'til then!