Get Your Books Here!

Hey this must be a new record, I posted twice in a row. Well I am writing to inform all of my adoring fans of Meg's new career endeavor. She is officially selling USBORNE Books. Usborne books are as Meg says, "High quality, educational children's books." She is really excited, but a little overwhelmed by the wealth of information that she is trying to understand so that she can be a well informed consultant (sounds official doesn't it). She already has three, possibly four, parties booked so keep her in your prayers. Well guys take care.

Man I really stink at keeping this updated. It has once again been too many weeks since I have updated this blog. My apologies to my loyal fans out there. Well to recap the previous two months. Cade is now consistently sleeping through the night, smiling, cooing, and sitting in his"bumbo" (Yeah I don't know why they called it that either). Zane and Zoey have begun using more words. Zoey's language skills have especially grown. She now calls me dad instead of dada and that makes me sad. One day Meghan was cooking cinnamon rolls for the kids and she turned the oven light on so they could see. Zoey said "Yum Yum" then turned around to Meg, pointed at them and clearly said, "get out." Zane, my strong willed child does not talk so much but he communicates well. He tells you in no uncertain terms what he wants. Both of them are really beginning to enjoy having Cade around. Zoey thinks that she is the mother at times and wants to help Cade whenever she can. Her help, while always appreciated, often does more damage than good such as shoving the pacifier in his mouth or trying to force feed him pumpkin seeds. (side note: babies don't like pumpkin seeds!) Meg and I are doing well, we have gotten used to the idea of being perpetually tired no matter how much sleep we get at night. Currently we are also battling several different coughs and runny noses. Zane and Zoey both had to go to the doctor's office for antibiotics for their sicknesses. They are doing better now, but every time the kids have a fever now, Meg and I get a little uptight because of Zane having a feberal seizure. He and Meg got to ride in the ambulance to the emergency room. He is perfectly alright and the doctors assure us it is fairly normal and safe. After this incident, though, we value spending time with the kids so much more so don't judge us for a messy house please.



It has been quite an adventure these past few months, but I have really enjoyed it. I do feel sorry for Meg though. She gets the full brunt of the kids and I thank God for a job outside of the home!
Well I have several different pics for you. The first is of Zane asleep on the couch, he was just tuckered out. Another is Cade in that bumbo thingy. I have one of the kids carving pumpkins (don't worry Meg and I used the knives) Then the final three are of the kids trick or treating. Zane and Zoey are Pebbles and Bam Bam and Cade is the saber toothed tiger. We had a blast. Well take care all and I will write again... sometime!

Bringing home Baby

Hey all, I have been an awful blogger this summer but I have a good excuse, I have twin toddlers and HAD a pregnant wife. This does not allow much in the way of free time. Well, the rumors are true, Cade was born on Monday the 13th (the day after our anniversary) at 759 am via C-section. Let me tell you C-sections look cool. He was 8 lbs 2oz. and 21 and 1/2 inches long. He is very healthy. Everyone asks who he looks like. We think he looks like Meg's family. In fact my brother told me that he didn't think I contributed to Cade at all. He may very well be right. It has been an exciting week for us. Zane and Zoey stayed with Meg's mom and dad while we were in the hospital and they would bring the twins up to see us. On Monday night, we had a lot of visitors which was great, but it became apparent very quickly that Zane did not want to be there. He ignored his baby brother all together. Zoey looked at him a couple of times but appeared to prefer performing for the crowd. The next night, there were fewer visitors so we thought we would try again with the twins. Well, it was exciting to say the least, Zane was avoiding his mother all night and only wanted to be near his grammy (Meg's mom). Then when Debbie picked up Cade, Zane had a meltdown. He threw himself on the floor in a perfect tantrum. I ended up taking him for a walk and he did fine until we returned to the room, then the meltdown returned. Meg and I talked and decided I needed to be home with them before Cade returned. During all of this, Meg was having difficulty breast feeding so we decided to bottle feed but then lo and behold, her milk began to come in. So now we are trying to find out what works best for us. Cade came home on thursday and he began to get hazed into the courtney family (trial by fire). Zane and Zoey now both are becoming adjusted to Cade and Cade couldn't give a flying rip about them as long as they don't step on him. We seem to be making but we look forward to nap time let me tell you. I did want to say a hearty thank you to all of the friends and family that have done so much for us during this pregnancy and now delivery.



Now I know the real reason you wanted to look at this was for the pics so I will give you what you asked for, calm down.


Thanks for the prayers so far, but please don't stop. We need all of the prayers we can get.


Love 5 Courtneys

Wow, a month gone by!

Man, either I am not a devoted blogger or my life has been too busy for my own good. I go with the second one. Well, in the past month, my wife turned 28 (I'm still a pup at 27), my sister-in-law graduated high school. Zane learned the word "no" and hasn't stopped using. Zoey learned to kiss (this will be the death of me yet). Zoey also learned "uh oh" and "baby" but every parent knows that their children never perform when you want them to, alas my kids are no different.

Well I guess I should update cute at 1, disturbing at 15.

1. Girls kissing boys (Like any good father this scares me)

2. Eating baby powder

3. Skinny dipping with the opposite sex (That one goes out to Aiden)

4. Still eating rocks

5. fascinated by watching adults use the restroom

6. putting hands into other people's mouth

7. Peeing in the pool (everyone out, it just got warm

Well I will keep them coming. Here are some pics of the kids in their new pool and at the park with their best friend Aiden. Enjoy and have a great week. See ya!

Rubber Ducky you're the one...

Bath time is going to be the death of me I think. Let me tell you about my misadventures last night surrounding bath time. I bathe the twins every other evening by myself because of Meg's bedrest. I really don't mind doing it, I usually enjoy it in fact but last night was far from enjoyable. It started with Zane whining after dinner so I went to start the bath and like moths to a flame the twins came to me. I was going to just strip them down and drop them in the bath when I caught a whiff of a very odorous diaper from Zoey. This changed the plans. I had to usher the children out of the bathroom, making them feel robbed of their fun so they screamed and cried at me. I then had to capture a crying Zoey and change her diaper. She calmed down and was stripped to the skin. I turned to get her brother, who was still whiny, and grabbed him. I now begin to take his clothes off when I hear an odd sound of water being poured on the carpet. I look up and see Zoey laughing, (hey it beats the whining at least) and seeing her peeing all over the carpet. I now have to get some wipes and move her off of the pee spot on the floor with a whining Zane in my lap. The messed is cleaned up and the kids are ready for bath time. I put them in the tub and let them splash (me) around a little bit and then begin washing their hair and bodies. I had just finished bathing both of them and was giving them a few more minutes of fun when I noticed several pecular objects floating in the tub. Yep, one of them decided that their bowels were relaxed enough to use the tub as a large diaper and left daddy with a real problem. I now had to remove both kids and place them on the floor. Meghan is laughing from a safe distance at this point but I call for her assistance in corraling the kids. So I am draining the tub, removing toys, and trying to keep the kids out of the toy, when I hear that darn running water again this time falling on tile. Sure enough Zane decided to pee on the bathroom floor. So Meg gets some toilet paper and begins to clean up that mess while trying to keep 2 pairs of feet out of it, while I am removing fecal matter from the tub. After we both clean up the messes and sprayed cleaner in the tub and floor, I put the kids back in the tub to be washed all over again, luckily this time it was uneventful. I think next time I need to bathe them I am just going to take them out back and hose them off in the yard.

See ya!

Baby photographers must be the most patient people next to Saints

Hey guys,

Well I know that it has been a while since my last post and I apologize but it has been a little busy. First of all, I would like to say that through the grace of God and the MO House of Representatives, I will still have a job on August 1st. The Senate and House gave us the minimum amount needed to continue keeping clinicians in the school system. In fact the Department of Mental Health is considering expanding to more school districts in the near future. So I am quite ecstatic about that.

Now, I would like to talk about infant photo-shoots. I don't ever remebering getting the brilliant idea to pray for patience because I understand that God has a sense of humor, so somebody must have asked for me. Let me back up a moment and explain why I came to this conclusion. We have some goofy traditions for childrearing and one of those goofy traditions are one year pictures. Since Meg is on bedrest I was nominated to take the twins for their photos (almost 2 months late). Meg made us an appoinment at Sears because we had some luck there before. We decided to make it in the afternoon, after nap time, unfortunately the kids got to sleep late because they sat up and "talked" to each other. So we (Debbie, Meg's mom and I) wake the twins up and grab some toys and head out. We assume (never assume where children and photographers are involved) that we would be in and out and back before dinner. We arrive for our 4 o'clock appointment and we sit around and wait, and wait, and wait. The twins begin to become restless and their smiles begin to take a sour turn. Finally, we are allowed to get our photos taken. These are the times where having only one child would be so much simpler. Zoey, my performer, immediately began taking good pictures with pretty smiles and took no time at all. The problem started with Zane, he never once cracked a smile and more often then not was crying incessantly. I will admit that my frustration level is slowly climbing but what could I do. I tried every trick i could come up with to get Zane to smile at the appropriate time. The only thing that worked was when the photographer placed Zane in the cheeziest egg chair I ever saw. The one rule I was told by Meg wa no stupid props, oops. Anyway the egg chair quickly lost its appeal to Zane so we gave up and rescheduled. Oh yeah the real reason Zane was so mad was he missed snack. AHHHHH!

Well Meg was not happy with the report that her mother gave her about the lack of a good backdrops and the stupid yellow egg so we look and look for another photographer that may give us some better photos. Enter, Kiddie Kandids Photography at the mall. They supposedly specialize in infant photography so we figure why not. Med decided that she would come along on this one and boy was I glad. We hear that the place is by the food court at the mall, so this time we schedule the appointment right after lunch and before nap time. We load up and head to the mall. Meg and I were a little surprised when we got to the "studio" because it was a kiosk at the food court. Meg was a little hesitant but I did not want to do this a third time so we stayed. I must say that I was quite surprised with the patience of the photographer. She worked herself into a sweat getting us a collection of really good photos that you can see here. Meg and I would sit on the side and try to manipulte our children for a good shot but Meg, being on bedrest tired out pretty easily so the asst. manager stepped in and worked with Zane. Zoey, of course, did great, I am a little worried that she is going to become a prima donna or something. Zane on the other hand felt he should be held the whole time. We did eventually get several pictures with him smiling as you can see which is a first in photo history. I thanked the staff and told them they must have great patience and the asst. manager replied that one hard to get smile makes it all worth it. Well, it was worth it. So I wanted to share that hard work for all my friends and family out there. Enjoy them because these are the last professional photos I will be a part of (until Meg reads this and tells me differently at least).

See ya.

Shaun

It's cute at 1...

On here are a few cute pictures that Meg and I took of the twins. Zoey has found that she enjoys sitting in the cabinet for some reason. Zane apparently is like his Uncle Jason and wants to accessorize. Zane and Zoey enjoyed playing with their bubble maker (look at their eyes!) and they also enjoyed running into the street repeatedly.

Now I am going to be starting a new topic on this blog called "It's cute at 1... but not at 15". I will be making a list of things that you can't help but ooohhh and aaahhh about to a toddler but would call a psychiatrist if it was a teenager. These are all things that Meg or I have observed.

1) Attempt to put your fingers in poop and then eat it. (Funny as a one year old, but there are psychological diagnosis for this as a teenager.)

2) Turn the TV on and off repeatedly. (Actually this is annoying even if they are a one year old)

3) Drool all over your shirt, pants, furniture, floor, parents, bedding....

4) Run around the house naked. (okay I admit this may be fun but not with company around)

5) Eat dirt off the floor. (that was Zoey, hey it looked like Chocolate)

6) Steal from others. (This becomes a felony later on in life)

7) Eat baby lotion. (Helps clean the colon)

8) Bite others!

9) Bang your head against the wall repeatedly and laugh.

10) Drink bath water. (yum, mineral water!)

And the best one yet

11) Attempt to touch your siblings peepee! (We have almost put a stop to this one thankfully)

We will continue to add "It's cute at 1..." every once in a while. For those of you that have children, please feel free to let me know any things that you witness.

Well take care all.

P.S. Adam, great ideas. I pray that I never make an enemy out of you!

The Great Prank War of '07

Well, the great prank war has began thanks to Andy, my dear friend. He fired off the first salvo when he decided to mow a W and zig zags into my yard. I must say some good came out of his prank because a) it made me get the drive to mow my yard and b) he started my mower for the first time this year. Now I said Andy started the war but I am finishing it. I went to his house while he was away in KC and teepee'd his 6 baby trees that he is attempting to grow on his front porch. They look like little tissue paper snowmen. I can't wait to see how Andy responds! If you have any great ideas for future pranks please share with me so I can use them on Andy!

PS: Hey Adam, I love the ideas for the eggs. I think that we ought to wrap the eggs in foil for the paranoid schizophrenic rodents that fear mind control!

Now what do I do with all of these plastic eggs?

Well I told my family in my first post that I would be placing photos of the children, and my mother so graciously reminded me of this fact. I must say I am lousy at remembering to take pictures. I always seem to forget to capture the moment on digital bytes and then regret missing the moment later on. Then when I do remember to grab the camera, the kids stop performing. It is like a child conspiracy or something. Well here are a few pictures that I felt were worth showing.

This first picture is of Zoey trying on her Easter dress. I know I am biased but she does look like a beautiful little princess.

Next Zoey and Zane enjoyed a lovely Easter Egg Hunt with the Parents as Teachers in Republic. Zane loved finding the eggs, Zoey loved finding other children's eggs more. (It is easier to let someone else do all of the work after all)

Finally, the kids got to meet the Easter Bunny and I must say I was quite surprised neither one of them made a single sound.

Now I am going to talk about my Easter experience becuase it is my blog and I can do whatever I feel like.

We all were able to enjoy Easter as a family since Meg recieved a good report from the doctor. We were able to visit my family in Joplin on Saturday and spend time with my grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was a nice time together. We then were able to go to church as a family. I can't tell you how nice it is to get to go to church with my wife again. It had been several months since we went to church together becuase of the twins 2 month bout with RSV and then Meg's bed rest because of the pregnancy. One thing I will say though, the children will have to go to the nursery. I refuse to cave in again and let them sit with us. Meg tells me how nice it will be to sit as a family (which it was for 35 minutes) until both Zane and Zoey decided they were tired of Jerry's (our Pastor) sermon. It wasn't Jerry's fault, it just is difficult to keep a 15 month';s attention for long. Finally we ended our Easter celebration by spending time with Meg's family. I always enjoy this time, but it was extra special because Greg, Meghan's cousin and I had a very good discussion with Bud, Megs grandfather, about Christ's love and God's grace. We discussed the sermon we heard and how it really applies to our lives right now. I felt very glad to be a part of it.

I only have one question about Easter that is bothering me, What in the world do I do with all of these darn plastic eggs? If you have any suggestions please share them with me!

Well that is about all I have to say for now. Keep the comments coming because as Adam said it is my crack cocaine and I am in need of a good fix!

See ya later

Simple things Excite me!

Wow my first comments. This is truly a momentous occasion. I feel empowered, like superman, faster then a Pentium processor, stronger then a titanium case, and able to post blogs in a single nap time. Comments are like winning an Oscar. "You love me, you really love me!" Comments are my drug of choice, it only took 2 and it has me hooked. Okay enough with the melodrama , thank you guys.

Take care!

P.S.
Adam, I guess I will have to gain that proof of friendship by having you place my link on your page!

Amanda, I probably won't be obessessively writing entries because of the twins of the apocalypse but I will try my best!

You found us!

Well, I guess it was inevitable that I would eventually join the millions of people that have turned to recording their thoughts and life on little electronic bytes. So I bring you the thoughts from a road less traveled. Meg and I have often seen our life as a series of less traveled paths. Meg blames it on my choice to be a counselor. She says that God wants me to be able to experience every possible crazy situation so I can empathize with people and not just sympathize with them. I must say her logic can be quite convincing at times when looking at the evidence. This journal will be a chance for us to share our growth: physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, and most importantly spiritually. It will also be a chance for me to just tell random stuff about my family's life.

P.S. This also will keep my relatives from hounding me all the time to email them pictures of the twins and Cade (when hecomes also).